Author's Note: I am a huge huge fan of the Mike/Quinn relationship. I just love it so much, so I have attempted to start writing this fanfiction about it. If anyone has anything to say, I wouldn't mind hearing your opinions. And I will try to update regularly. But for now, enjoy chapter one.
She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. From her brilliant blonde hair, to the way her eyes lit up when she sang. Even if she wore her Cheerios uniform most days, he always remembered the few times he saw her with her hair down in something that wholly represented her. It was difficult not to be distracted on the field, in the choir room, or even in the hallways at school. Maybe it was a bad idea, joining the Glee club not just because Finn had asked, but because he knew that she would be there, that he would be able to see her every day. Just to be closer to her. She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. But she belonged to someone else entirely.
The room was empty, save for him, and the silence was resounding in the clear space. It wasn't a rare occurrence that Mike would find himself in the practice room, pouring over the stereo like it was magic. He had put on his favorite cd, flipping it to an appropriate song. Sometimes it just helped him to think, to clear his head a little. That was the best way to get the stress away, all of it. The stress of always having good grades, having to be the smartest. To be a good football player and always push his team to victory. To focus on the future, on the goals set for him even before he was born by parents who only wanted what was best for him, but often overlooked what he wanted. Through dance he could escape, and often that is what he achieved. At least for a little while.
His feet carried him flawlessly, the brand of bravery etched into his very soul and pushing him to the music that constantly flowed through his veins. The effort to push his body to the limits in time to the rhythm that echoed in his ears alongside his heart beat gave off an endorphin rush unlike anything else. With every turn and jump, with every successfully landed move whether created on the spot or practiced to the second, Mike felt infinite. It was this that gave him confidence. Not being a football player, being tall and well built, and not even the brain he was graced with by numerous hours of studying. No. Dancing was him, it was every bit of him out on the floor for everyone to see if they only took the time to watch. It was his well kept secret.
He was the most graceful creature she had ever seen. They were 16 and stupid, high school was a rough place, and she'd never taken the time to notice him before now. Sure, he was on the football team, and he wasn't bad, but something about the way he looked at her when he walked into that choir room the first day made her feel brand new. No one had ever looked at her like that before. It was from there that she's kept her eyes on him, from the way he seemed so shy about the fact that glee club was about singing, and he never opened his mouth, quietly keeping himself in the back of the group, to the small moves he broke out during their numbers that people seemed to so hardly notice. He was the most graceful creature she had ever seen. But she belonged to someone else entirely.
Cheerios practice was an art form, a lifestyle. If you were a Cheerio, that was what defined you for the rest of your high school career. Not just any girl bore the red and white uniform, or the high pony that set them all apart. As cheerleaders went, Quinn could possibly have been the best McKinley High School had ever seen. When they threw her into the air, it felt like she could really fly, and while her body did, her heart never seemed to soar along with it. No. That only seemed to happen in the most unusual of circumstances. Glee club wasn't something she had planned on joining at any point in the four years she had to go through high school. She knew all too well how it was to be teased for being different. Why would she put herself through that again? And yet, there she was, sitting in the choir room day after day with the most rag tag group of people she had ever dared to know.
And she loved it.
Every time her feet hit the floor and she was given the chance to showcase her voice, it was like another world completely. All eyes on her, smiling with the encouragement she never got from the other people in her life. They made her feel part of something, and she adored that with every fiber of her being. But that just wasn't who she was. The Cheerios were her being, her life, and there was no getting away from that. Every day she pushed her body to the limits to prove that she was the best, that she would always be the best, and no one could take that away from her. It put her not only at the top of the popularity chain, but the top of the world. What could be better?
They had never crossed paths outside of extracurricular activities, and that would have been the same outcome of today if Quinn hadn't forgotten a book in her locker that she needed for her homework. Practice was over, school was out, but not everyone had gone home, it would seem. From somewhere down a distant hallway, there was music playing, she could hear it very clearly. It was only common curiosity that brought her toward it, wondering who could be playing music right now in the school, when everyone else had gone home. As she drew closer to the practice room, it began to make a little more sense. Someone must have been practicing on their own after hours, just getting a little more time in. That was certainly admirable. The tiniest peak took down her guard, and with one look at him, she was mesmerized.
Mike had his eyes closed, letting himself feel the way the music pushed and pulled at the pieces of him to make him move. Left, right, up, down, spin, jump, kick, over and over again. It wasn't a practiced routine or anything he'd decided on, simply the things that he felt being laid across the floor in nonsensical patterns by his feet. He had no way of knowing he was being watched, as deeply entranced as he was by his own movements. The music had a way of enhancing his senses, and he could feel it almost as if it was playing through his veins, but the simple notion that someone had their eyes on him was lost in the mix of grace and beauty that turned inside of his head. Though, in good time the song had to come to an end, and Mike stopped along with it, only just noticing the soft sound of a slow clap that started from the doorway.
"That was beautiful." Quinn told him now that his brown eyes were on her, the Cheerio's slender frame propped against the door frame. "Why don't you dance like that in glee club?" If she didn't know better, she would say that Mike looked fairly embarrassed, but there was no telling why he would be. What she had just witnessed had touched her, much like the feeling she got when she was allowed to sing. It was obvious that he had a knack and possibly even a love for dancing.
"I just... well, I never had the chance." Mike was very much embarrassed that someone had seen that, and he brushed his fingers back through his damp black hair before looking at the ground. Not only had someone been watching him, but Quinn had been watching him. That only made him all the more shy. When he looked up at her again, she had started walking into the room with him, closing the distance between them.
"I think you should show them what you can do." She tilted her head at him a little as she came closer, examining him, trying to figure out why she hadn't tried to figure him out before. Her eyes came back to his, and the way he was looking at her was a bit of a shock. Why did he look at her like she was the only girl in the entire world? And why did she like it so much?
"I don't know..." At first it seemed like an answer to her inward questions, but it was just him being as shy as he was. Mike pulled at his tank top nervously, his anxiety growing the closer she got. This was their first real conversation, and in these circumstances, he almost wanted to disappear. Instead he kept his brown gaze locked to her, hoping that she would keep him grounded.
"What are you thinking?" Her words were out of the blue, even she wasn't sure where they had come from, but she didn't take them back. Her teeth tugged at her bottom lip, and she stood in front of him with a raise of one thin eyebrow. Mike was staring at her, all nerves and apprehension. She wanted so badly to soothe it all.
"You're beautiful." The words were out before he could stop them, and there was a significant blush beneath the flush that had already claimed his cheeks. Why had he just said that? "I've always thought you were..." Oh god, why couldn't he stop? Mike scratched the back of his neck, his eyes amazingly still keeping contact with Quinn's. Maybe he didn't look as much of a wreck as he felt.
"Do you want to kiss me?" Quinn's voice had lowered, nearly to a whisper. Even she wasn't sure where her words were appearing from, but they were already out. There wasn't any taking it back now. Just the way that he'd said that to her, not even Finn sounded so convicted when he said that he found her beautiful, as rarely as he did. For some reason she felt that Mike meant it, that he really thought that she was beautiful. And for once in her sixteen years of life, she truly felt it. "Well?"
"More than anything." Mike blurted out, though it didn't feel blurted, it felt agonizingly slow and redundant, as he'd said it so many times in his mind. There was a line somewhere, but he was fairly sure that he'd crossed it. Quinn was dating Finn, who was more or less like one of his best friends. They were on the same team, playing game after game together on the field, and they were in glee club together. And this was his girlfriend. That should have mattered, that should have come as a thought to Mike Chang in that moment, and he should have walked away. Instead he was standing there less than a foot of space between the two of them, and walking away was the last thing on his mind. There was no telling if this chance would ever come again.
Perhaps it was a moment of weakness, a need to feel wanted and beautiful. Despite all of the reasons she should have said no, Quinn was on her toes and she'd pressed her lips against Mike's with the eagerness of a young girl being given her very first kiss. At first there was the thought that it was a mistake. She was someone's girlfriend, and she loved Finn so very much, but sometimes that wasn't enough. Sometimes she didn't feel like he was as invested, that he didn't love her like he said he did. He looked at that Berry girl more than he looked at her, and it hurt, and maybe that made this even more wrong. She could have been using Mike and his affection and the way it felt when he wrapped those arms around her and kissed her back like it was the only thing that could keep him alive. That passion was unlike anything Finn had shown her a long time, the sparks that ignited in her brain kept her close, with her arms around his neck, her body pressed flush against his. He wanted her, and she wanted to feel wanted.
His heart was racing a million beats a minute, at least, and it could have given out for all he cared. This was so wrong, but it felt so right. His arms held her up against him, both wrapped firmly around her waist as she held onto his neck. Every thought of Finn, of football, of glee, and even of dancing were ushered out of his mind as it was set alight with the knowing that this was actually happening. After so long of admiring from afar, of resigning himself to a life on the sidelines when it came to someone so enchanting, he was being given all that he ever wanted. Mike kissed her lovingly, passionately. He kissed her in so many ways, and she could feel that. Their lips didn't disconnect even as he hooked her thighs, she simply obliged and wrapped her legs around his waist. She was taken, but he wanted her. She was a virgin, but he wanted her. He was Mike... but she wanted him. She wanted everything that he could give to her.
Quinn's back settled against the wooden floor of the practice room, a soft sound of delighted pleasure brushing past her lips as Mike kissed her neck so carefully, like he was terrified of leaving a mark on her. Hands wandered, and since getting his shirt off of him, she couldn't stop admiring the physique he'd been hiding from them all. Reckless abandon was the name of the game, and she was all in. Mike still seemed hesitant.
"Are you sure?" He whispered to her, hovering just above her so that he could brush his lips against her already stained red ones whenever he got the urge. They were both unfamiliar with this, but it seemed that they both wanted the same thing.
"I'm sure." She told him, brushing her fingers through his hair to soothe his worries.
"But what about..."
"Don't worry about him." Quinn cut him off with the fear that hearing his name would retract everything that had already happened. She could deal with the guilt later, if any was present. "Mike..." She whispered, lifting her head and kissing him softly, drawing him into her with the knowledge that she represented everything he never thought he would have. It was so easy, and he made her feel so good about herself. As wrong as it could have been, she didn't care. She wanted to feel this way forever.
"I'm sure."