A/N: I'm alive! It's been so long since I've written something on here that it kills me. Gotta work on that. This is my Artinathon piece (happy anniversary of Artina's first kiss, guys. Cries) and I have to thank Steph (doodleswriter357) for this prompt because it was so much fun to play with. Oh, and just so you know, I've been working on my multi-chapter fics again :) Enjoy!
It was a ray of sunshine that glimmered through the curtains, crawled across the floor, and climbed up to the crowded surface of Artie Abram's twin bed, that woke up Tina Cohen-Chang. His parents, overly confident in the responsibility of their only child, had left Artie alone for the weekend on account of a business affair – and that was plenty of time for the young 'love birds; buy one, get one free special' couple. Tina slowly opened her eyes, ready for the sun to burn her retinas, but instead she found herself face to face with a camera lens. Her hands jumped to pull the covers tighter around her torso, and her swift movements caused the camcorder to refocus.
"What are you doing?" she muttered, reaching out to grasp the wrist behind the bulky recording device to pull both down to the bed.
"Filming you, teapot," he replied, peeling away Tina's hand while continuing to look through the viewfinder at her.
"Artieee," she whined, pulling the plaid comforter that had formed around her breasts over her head.
"Okay, okay," he chuckled.
"You're done? Tina asked from behind the blanket.
"Yeah, I'm done," he fibbed – continuing to hold up the camera.
"Good because," she started as she uncovered her face. "You liar!"
As Artie snickered from behind the eyepiece, Tina sat up to his level – keeping one hand over the middle of her chest to keep the blanket up. With more force than before, she ripped the camera from his hand and let it roll off her fingertips onto an open spot on the bed.
"Don't hurt the camera, it belongs to the school," Artie pleaded.
"Oh, I'm not out for the camera," Tina said, pulling herself more blanket. "Just the man."
While keeping the blanket push-pinned to her chest for decency, Tina crawled up the pair of pale and thin legs that rested parallel to the length of the bed. She then split her legs over his cotton-covered lap before pushing his torso to the bed and plopping down onto his chest. Her force caused the air in his lungs to exit in the form of a light cough, and he almost lost his oxygen supply again once she slipped the paid covering out from between their bodies.
"You're in trouble," she playfully scorned while searching for his hands under her body.
"Oh?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Big trouble," she emphasized while clutching his wrists and pinning them by his ears as she looked him dead in the eye.
Artie's lips formed a slight smile and with a light chuckle, he stretched his neck up to brush his lips against hers. The lightness of his voice and his tender touch made her heart melt and guard shatter to pieces, making her give into his gesture. Slowly, she uncurled her fingers from around his wrists and slid her hands into his. Their kisses started out slow, tender, and romantic, but they gradually grew to a heat comparable to the ones from the night before. Eventually, her hands trailed down the bed and slipped under the elastic of the boxers Artie had put on upon waking up. Despite the distraction of Tina's hands, he heard the camcorder at the edge of the bed refocus. He snapped his head in the direction of the freckle of a noise to see a consistently flashing red light.
"W-wait," Artie said, reaching out to fumble with the camera controls until the red light turned off. He then took a hold of the camera and placed it on the safety of the floor. "Okay, Carry on."
...
Although It was a beautiful autumn day, all Artie could see was black. This was because, as he soon realized, that the protective cap was still on the fragile lends of his camcorder. With one hand, he screwed off the cap and let it fall into the crevasse of his khaki covered thighs. Finally, he saw the overcast sky, the red and yellow trees, the brown crunchy leaves on the slightly over grown grass, and Tina twisting back and forth on a swing. The gentle breeze made strands of her blue and black hair wisp away from her head and become caught in the old metal chains that kept her off the ground. Tina was wearing one of Artie's sweaters that day over a pair of black leggings. The loose sleeves crumpled at her forearms as she held on the chains. As she swung, she looked down at the ground and watched the patterns that her boots created in the sand below.
When Tina finally looked up, the first thing she saw was Artie, but instead of his charming face, she saw silver plastic, reflective glass, and a blinking red light. She smiled shyly and bit her lip as she looked up at lends through her eyelashes.
"Say something," he requested, zooming in and out on her face. "What are you feeling?"
Tina looked up, Tina looked left, looked right, and then looked down before opening her mouth, "I'm…happy," she smiled, tilting her head to the side.
"Why?"
"Will this be used against me someday?"
"Please, Tina," he asked, taking the camera away from his face for a second. "For me?"
"Fine."
Artie smiled and brought the camera back up to his face just in time to watch Tina let go of the swing, shake her sleeves down, and reestablish her hold on the metal chains with fabric over her hands.
"So?" He asked. "Why are you so happy?"
"I'm happy because...it's Friday and…I'm here in the park during my favorite season with the handsomest gentleman in Lima."
"You're cornier than I am," Artie chuckled.
"Hey, if you don't like my answers, put down the camera…swing with me instead," Tina said, spinning around like before and twisting the chains together.
"I don't swing, Tina."
"Come on," she said, holding out her arms.
"Tina."
"Please, please, please?"
He sighed, "fine."
Tina smiled and squeaked of excitement before standing up off the swing. For Artie, however, this was a new territory. He didn't like to try new things, or more specifically, new things as a paraplegic because more often than not, he would fail at them. But it was for Tina and she wasn't going to let it go. Placing the camera down on Tina's backpack, he met her at the swing set.
"I'll hold it steady for you," Tina said, crouching down and holding the hard plastic seat with two hands.
"I don't know about this, Tina," Artie said, playing with the Velcro on his faded yellow gloves.
"Trust me," she firmly said, looking up into his eyes.
Artie nodded before positioning himself closer to the swing set. He observed the mechanics of the structure before coming up with a plan to pull himself onto the swing. It was not going to be like transferring onto a couch or bed where there is plenty hand space and leisure room. Holding onto the chains tightly, Artie pulled himself onto the swing with little effort. Once he was secure, Tina let go of the swing and slowly stood up. Artie looked back at her with a smile and she bend down to kiss the top of his head.
"Want me to push you?" Tina asked.
"Well…maybe a little," he confessed – his confidence slowly rising. "But be careful."
"Of course, Artie," she sweetly assured as she got behind him.
Pressing into his back would set him off balance and the chains were his only means of grip, so Tina used the edges of the swing seat to sway him forward and back. She didn't dare push him high or fast...his legs were too long. The toes of his loafers dragged in the sand and his knees flexed with the movements of the swing. However, it was good enough for him; the smile on his face said it all.
From above his shoulders, Tina saw that the camera was still blinking and positioned towards the swing set in a way that it was obvious to her that it wasn't on accident. He had become obsessed with his camera, in Tina's humble opinion…particularly in the act of shooting it at her. In fact, that afternoon he had shot their study session in the Library. Tina thought it was definitely peculiar, and she didn't necessarily like it because it made her feel self-conscious about mundane things, but she knew his love of film, so she learned to hold her tongue tightly whenever the camera came out.
...
As if someone flipped a switch, Artie went from wanting to see Tina all of the time to film her to only texting her when she initiated, it in the same week. It made Tina miserable, mostly because she couldn't understand what was going on with her boyfriend, and in the back of her mind, she was afraid of losing him again like the summer before sophomore year. She had just about enough of his inconsistency, but then she received a note on her locker two weeks after the start of his madness, 'Come to the CAD lab during your study hall for my video class – Artie'. Tina snagged the sticky-note off her locker, read it twice, and suddenly everything made sense…kind of.
Tina waited impatiently through gym, history, and art until her study hall, where she signed out of the cafeteria almost immediately. . Really, she should have been working on her English book, but she was too intrigued by Artie's cryptic ways. After walking across the school, Tina came across the CAD lab. Probably the only reason why she knew where to go was that she and Artie had made out on numerous occasions in the dark and rarely occupied room full of computers. Once at her destination, Tina peeked her head into the room before the rest of her body followed. She accidently let the door slap behind her and the whole room looked at her.
"She's here, Mr. Oust," Tina heard Artie say.
"I suppose you'd want to go first then?' the young looking teacher asked, flipping backwards though a binder.
Artie nodded and rolled to the front of the classroom and next to the projector. Tina on the other hand, folded her arms and raised her eyebrows as she stayed in the back of the room. After handing a flash drive to the teacher, Artie swiftly turned around to face Tina and he flashed her a smile. She nervously smiled back, and that was his cue to give Mr. Oust the okay to start his project on the main computer.
A staccato piano and smooth string driven melody came on the speakers. The screen stayed black for a few seconds before, in white vintage style lettering, the title of Artie Abram's first quarter film faded in from the darkness; My Favorite Cup of Tee.