TITLE: On the Inside
AUTHOR: littlestclouds
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: This all belongs to Ryan Murphy and FOX. I'm not making money off this and it's just for fun! Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?
SUMMARY: Mike loves finding out how things work- machines, mostly, like cars, computers, watches.
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Mike Chang; minor Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang, with appearances by Dave Karofsky, Artie Abrams and a few others
WARNINGS/SPOILERS: Let's just say all of S2 to be safe. Some of the dialogue in one of the scenes comes from the lockerroom confrontation in 2x08.
NOTES: Written for a prompt at the glee_angst_meme. I guess the Mike in this fic is kind of a combo of my favorite fictional sociopaths (Sylar of Heroes, obviously, and a character in an RPG I was involved in). And, um, the story just declared itself done and I'm not one to argue, so.
On the Inside
Mike loves finding out how things work- machines, mostly, like cars, computers, watches. His granddad on his mom's side had been a watch repairman before arthritis forced him into retirement, and when Mike was little, he used to join Granddad at his shop on the weekends. Granddad would carefully take apart a beautiful watch with his tools and lay out the tiny inner workings for Mike to see. Mike looked forward to these visits with his granddad the way he looked forward to attending Indians and Cavs games with his dad and musicals with his mom.
"There's nothing more exciting," Granddad had told him, "than getting to the heart of something, finding out how it works. How it ticks." Granddad had given Mike an almost secretive wink as he brandished a watch winder that struck Mike as more beautiful, more interesting than the watch itself.
All these years later, Mike still remembers and he understands now, understands better than he ever did when he was a little boy. Granddad's right; there really is nothing more exciting than finding out how things work, how they tick.
Though he appreciated- and still appreciates- his granddad's intricate, skilled work with watches, Mike often finds himself wondering how other machines work.
People, for instance.
He wanders off mentally in glee one day (while Mr. Schuester is going on and on and on about a Journey song no one really cares about and boring them all to death) and starts wondering about Artie Abrams. He doesn't think about anything in particular, really. He finds himself wondering about Artie's legs and why they don't work anymore.
No, that's not entirely true. He knows why; Tina told him about the accident when they first started going out, and he acted appropriately shocked and horrified at the story. He feigned the right amount of sadness upon hearing of Artie's loss.
He wonders about signals from the brain, about interconnecting wires and electrical impulses that short out before they can reach the intended target. He wonders what it would be like to take Artie apart and figure out exactly why those signals don't quite make it from Artie's brain to his legs.
The thought of blood, though, makes him queasy so he just starts thinking about something else.
Tina tells him about Dave Karofsky. Mike knows who he is; Karofsky's the dumb-as-a-stump, possibly 'roided up right guard who seems kind of pre-occupied these days, like his head isn't in the game.
Then Tina tells him Karofsky's taken an interest in Kurt Hummel, McKinley High's token out gay, and Mike starts wondering why.
What would possess somebody like Karofsky, who's always been (as far as Mike can tell, anyway) an All-American skirt-chasing, milk-and-apple-pie dude, to go after someone like Hummel? The two of them are practically each other's antithesis; Mike can't really even comprehend thinking of about them in the same sentence without major cognitive dissonance.
A couple days later, Mike gets Artie, Sam Evans and Noah Puckerman to confront Karofsky with him in the lockerroom after practice one afternoon. It's not that he particularly cares about Hummel, even though he puts on a good show for Karofsky and the other guys by the lockers. It's not that he even he cares about Tina, though he's grown kind of attached to her since they started seeing one another.
He wants to see what Karofsky will do, if it'll give him an insight into what's going on in the guy's obviously fucked up (he has to be fucked up for him to go after Hummel so blatantly, Mike thinks) head.
Artie rolls up to Karofsky in the lockerroom and says, in his most intimidating voice (which isn't very intimidating at all, but Mike manages to keep a straight face): "Stop picking on Kurt."
"You mind? I'm changing." Karofsky postures and tugs on the front of his jacket, shooting Artie a nasty scowl.
Mike gets aggressive, gets up in Karofsky's face ("We're serious. This is a warning," and it takes everything in him not to burst out laughing at how clichéd the words are, how insincere he probably sounds) and slams the open locker door shut.
He takes note (and pleasure) in how Karofsky tilts his head back and laughs disbelievingly. He raises his eyebrows, just the barest twitch of movement, when Mike breaches that invisible barrier between them. The guy obviously doesn't like when people get into his personal space, Mike surmises. Then again, really, who does?
This seems different though, seems like an excessive reaction given the situation. Mike hasn't struck him (yet) or even threatened to. Like he said, it was just a warning.
It irks him a bit too, tugs at the back of his mind that he can't just snap his fingers and immediately know why Karofsky is so threatened by him.
"From now on, you're gonna leave Kurt alone," Artie continues, entirely without heat. He's doing this all wrong, Mike thinks, standing by the locker. No wonder Tina dumped him.
"Look, if he wants to be a homo, that's up to him," Karofsky says with a deep, ugly sneer, "but don't rub it in my face."
That's when the proverbial lightbulb goes off and the mystery unravels with an almost disappointing ease.
Karofsky wants him, he wants Kurt, Mike thinks. His mouth twitches, but he doesn't allow himself to break character, doesn't allow himself a victorious smirk at having gotten to the heart of it so effortlessly. He figured it out all by himself and he didn't even need Artie, Puck, or Evans (who just stands there watching them, a dumbshit expression on his pretty, vacant face) to do it.
"We're not asking you," Artie says, rolling his wheelchair even closer. He's still not intimidating at all and if Mike weren't playing his part, he'd be laughing at how not scary Artie is.
"Yeah, we're done talking about this." Mike steps up, knowing that Karofsky will lash out physically. He's really just a big, dumb animal at heart, doesn't know how to react to any type of threat, whether it's against his sexuality or his safety, except with violence. "Just back off, all right?"
"You back off!" Karofsky does shove Mike, as he expected, and he flies back, landing on Artie and overturning his wheelchair.
The rest is a blur of motion and two bodies slamming solidly into red lockers, while Mike picks himself up off the dirty, grungy tile and Puck helps right Artie and get him back into his chair. Mike looks over at Karofsky and Evans, at the tangle of limbs and flurry of punches. Each gets at least one good lick in before Beiste barrels in and separates them, pushing Karofsky against a stall with one big, meaty hand.
Mike feels a tingle of electricity run down his spine, an electricity he never feels when he's necking with Tina. There's just something about being responsible for this (it feels like plucking marionettes on strings, making them dance and dangle off the ends of his fingers) that makes his blood hum excitedly.
Objectively, he can say that Tina is beautiful and she's kind of funny, in a morbid sort of way; Mike is the one person who'll always laugh at Tina's tasteless dead baby jokes, no matter how inappropriate. He likes her style and her odd, off-center sense of humor because they suit her, and she suits him in a strange way. He appreciates what having Tina as his girlfriend can do for him; Mike shifts seamlessly between the world of Jock and Gleek easily with Tina at his side.
He doesn't love her, though. He's pretty certain of this. When he looks at Tina, he feels about as much emotion as he does when he looks at a head of lettuce in the produce department at the grocery store. Then again, he's always felt this way toward the people in his life he knows he should love: Tina, Mom and Dad, even Granddad.
He knows how to fake it well enough ("Fake it 'til you make it.") and it's worked so far. Tina seems absolutely smitten and he almost feels bad for using her affections the way he does, the way he has since they first got together. He doesn't feel bad enough to end things, to cut her loose though.
Anyway, if he did dump her, he'd probably lose half the glee club to Tina's side and he likes having them as friends, even if he finds their sob stories to be kind of trivial and annoying most of the time.
"I heard you stood up to Karofsky," Tina says, while they wait together in the choir room for the other kids to show up. She strokes her hand slowly down Mike's aching shoulder, down his arm and back up. "I'm so proud of you."
Mike beams at her and basks in her praise. This is why he did it, this is why he confronted Karofsky. He didn't do it for Hummel, didn't do it for anyone else Karofsky's bullied or harassed. He didn't even do it for Karofsky, to help him realize the error of his ways or whatever. He did it for the way it makes him feel when Tina praises him.
He feels everything he should be feeling when they're alone together, making out or perfecting some dance moves. He feels that stab of electricity in his spine, that sense of accomplishment.
"Just did what I had to," Mike says, slouching back a bit in his chair and hooking his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans. "Karofsky won't give Kurt anymore crap if he knows what's good for him."
Tina squeezes him on the arm, still grinning, her eyes brimming with admiration. "I love you."
The words fall out of his mouth easily. "Love you too, Tina." Mike tilts his head back and a lock of her hair brushes across his jawline, feather-light. "Asian kiss?"
Tina dips her head down and kisses him gently. "Asian kiss."