Author's Note: This one was written for the glee_fluff_meme on LJ in response to the Tina and Finn bond over comic books prompt from a really long time ago. I put it on the back burner and started it up again after "Hell-O" aired because c'mon ;) Even though I ship Tartie hardcore this was superfun to write. I hope you enjoy it!
This takes place after "Sectionals" and before "Hell-O".
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything.
Being Bad Feels Pretty Good, Huh?
Tina was sitting on the bleachers overlooking the football field. It was early spring and the air still had a bit of a chill to it, but at least it was sunny.
She watched the freshman gym class, looking like little uniformed ants in their red shorts, do laps around the track. There were a few sullen stragglers walking the course. Tina smiled. She remembered being one of those stragglers. Gym was no fun when your best (and only) friend couldn't run the course with you.
She continued her idle doodling in her sketchbook. At the moment, she was working on hands. It felt like she would never get the hang of drawing hands, they all looked like mutated claws when she was done with them. But the one she was working on now was actually turning out okay. They were a familiar set of course, surprisingly muscular, gloved and strong. She added some shading, erased a bit of thumb and re-sketched it slowly. She got lost in the skritch, skritch, skritch of her pencil, the fresh air and the breeze that made strands of hair fly in her face.
"Hey."
She jumped a little, shocked out of her own little world. She turned towards the speaker, more surprised when she saw who it was.
"Hey, Finn," she managed.
"What're you doing out here? Don't you have class now?"
She gave him a tiny smile. "Don't you?"
He fiddled with the sleeve of his letterman's jacket before he sat down next to her, jeans clad legs sprawling. She sighed and closed her sketchbook.
"I have physics this period," she said. "Artie's in that class too," she added as if that explained everything.
"Oh," he answered. He leaned back on his elbows to the metal bleachers behind him, and tilted his face towards the sun, squinting.
"What about you?" she asked.
"I just felt like being outside for awhile."
An uncomfortable silence settled over them. She knew she should've hid out in the choir room instead. Restlessly, she opened up her sketchbook.
"What're you drawing?"
"Just some sketches..."
"Can I see?"
"O-Okay," she said as she handed over the little leatherbound book.
He flipped to the latest page.
"Hey, these are pretty good," he complimented her. "I can't draw. Well, dinosaurs I'm pretty good at, but anything else…"
She laughed. Of course he could only draw dinosaurs. She lowered her head to her sketchbook copying his pose.
He traced his finger over her latest drawing.
"So, ummm....what happened with you and Artie anyways?"
"I--We--"
"Sorry," he chuckled. "Word vomit"
"No. It's okay," she said. She took a deep breath, and turned her gaze towards the green football field. "We're friends again but....we never really talked about what happened. Honestly, if I start thinking about it I get mad at him. He's probably still mad at me, too. He's just too nice to say anything." She tugged at the hem of her black pleated skirt.
"Finn?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about what happened," she started. "I mean with Quinn and Puck." She mentally kicked herself. With Quinn and Puck? As if he needed to be reminded that his best friend knocked up his girlfriend. She could feel her face get a little warm.
"It's okay," he answered quickly when he saw she was uncomfortable. "Well, I mean...it's not okay. It actually sucks really damn hard. But they're the ones who messed up, y'know?"
She gave him a small smile. The students were starting to line up around the Mr. Boyd, the gym teacher. Which meant that class was almost over. Finn handed over her sketchbook and she flipped open the flap of her black messenger bag to put it in.
"Are those comic books?" Finn asked excitement in his voice.
"Yeah. You like comics too?"
"Hell yeah! What've you got?"
She took out some books, and went through them one by one.
"Um, let's see. Marvel Zombies, The Walking Dead, some Sandman..."
"Zombies are totally cool."
"Totally," she mimicked, grinning a little.
When he got up she took that as her cue to do the same. After placing the books back in her bag, she hoisted it onto her shoulder.
"I wanted to be Wolverine when I was little," Finn said, matching her stride. "But I'm nothing like that..."
She chuckles as they both make their way through the halls to glee practice, their last "class" of the day.
"It's okay. I wanted so badly to be Rogue…or Psylocke. I'm probably more like Jubilee, though," she adds.
"Really? You see yourself as Jubilee?"
"Well, yeah, unfortunately. Of course we look kind of alike but sometimes I --- she's this little mall rat who just tags along and stuff. And she has these super lame powers. Like, fireworks, are you kidding me? What the heck is that? "
"I bet everyone loves her on the fourth of July, though," Finn added helpfully.
Tina laughed and looked up (way up, due to Finn's height) into his friendly eyes.
They made their way down a crowded stairwell. In the back of her mind, Tina realized that this is the most they had ever spoken to each other. Before glee, well he was a jock and she was the weirdo stutterer and they had no reason to speak. And even during glee they pretty much stuck to their respective cliques.
"Sorry," Tina interjected, suddenly very aware that she was revealing herself to someone who was an acquaintance at best. "I ramble sometimes."
"It's okay," Finn said. "So anyways, I was thinking, if I'm Wolverine and you're Jubilee, who's everyone else?"
"—and then I'd be all snickt! snickt—," Finn accompanied his sound effects with mimed uppercuts as they walked through the choir room doors. "Then you would be all—"
"—Happy fourth of July?" Tina added.
They laughed. As they were also the last to get to class they took the two remaining seats near each other. Glee practice went as usual meaning Rachel demanded to know why Mr. Schue was intent upon ruining her career, Brittany was very confused, Kurt made thinly veiled but sassy insults and Rachel and Finn rehearsed their duet while everyone else sang backup and pretended not to care that they were relegated to singing backup.
"Great job, everyone! We'll meet again tomorrow," Mr. Schue said at the end of the day
Everyone packed up to leave. Tina, flanked by Mercedes and Kurt, passed Finn on her way out.
"Good job, Logan," she said, while adjusting her red beanie.
Finn smirked.
Tina thought that she might be a little buzzed. She never really went for the high school parties thing and therefore had never really went for the rebellious underage drinking thing either. But, judging from the whirly feelings in her head and how hilarious she found Kurt and Mercedes' debate about whether leggings were an ugly trend (Mercedes: No, Kurt: Hell, yes.). ….well, she would have to say she was buzzed. She was also half-listening to Artie make incredibly cheesy jokes that made her dissolve into fits of giggles. She errantly swiped a hand over the back of her warm neck, her hair sticking a bit to the nape.
It was hot in Rachel's house, the combined body heat from a huge group of teenagers (Rachel also invited everyone from her other student groups who invited their friends) and the first real heat of spring making the house feel more like a sauna.
"I'm gonna get another drink, do you guys want anything?" she asked standing up and straightening her purple and black dress.
Mercedes and Artie both declined. Kurt also said 'no' and mentioned that alcohol dried out the skin.
Tina nodded, and made her way towards the kitchen and the group of people crowded around the keg. She was waiting for a couple minutes, wondering whether there were any more red plastic cups or if she should just re-use when she felt a hand at her elbow.
"Gross. Are you seriously going to drink this swill?" asked Santana, looking a little glassy eyed herself.
"Um," Tina cleverly remarked.
Santana let out an exasperated sigh.
"Look, everyone knows that the good stuff is in a cabinet somewhere. If you be the lookout and promise not to tell, I'll get you something."
Tina thought of the warm Natty Light they'd been drinking the whole night.
"Ok."
A couple minutes later, Santana was loading up her arms with vodka and some fancy looking bottles of liquor.
"Mint or peach?" she asked.
"Huh?" Tina was still concentrating on making sure Rachel didn't come around the corner to find them pilfering her liquor.
"Schnapps. Mint or peach?"
"Oh, um. Peach?"
"Was that a question?" Santana rolled her eyes but handed over a bottle of Peach Schnapps anyways. "Thanks by the way," she said over her shoulder as she sashayed rather unsteadily towards a dancing Brittany.
God, does always wear her uniform?!
Tina took her newly acquired liquor and thought briefly of re-joining her friends on the couch. She went upstairs instead, combat boots clunking loudly on hardwood, and chose a bedroom randomly hoping that she wouldn't walk in on anyone.
Apparently, she chose Rachel's dads room judging by the beautiful oak four-poster and the artsy framed photos on the wall. She closed the door behind her, put her Schnapps on the bed and went straight for the window, opening it and sticking her head outside. The cooler air felt amazing on her heated skin.
"Hey."
She automatically jerked her head upwards, bumping it against the window. She recognized the voice immediately.
"Ow! Finn! You have to stop scaring me like that."
She wheeled around to face him, and found him grinning a little bit. She smiled back. His dimples are so cute... is this what being drunk feels like?
She went to sit on the bed, and he followed suit shoving his hands into his jeans pockets.
"Having fun?" he asked as he watched her take a sip of the Schnapps.
"Yeah...Thanks to Kurt and Mercedes I now know everything I ever need to about the demise of Christian Lacroix."
He chuckled.
"So how did you know I was up here?"
"How do you know I was looking for you?" he countered.
She felt more than knew that her face was turning crimson.
"I--No, sorry…"
He laughed when he saw her predicament.
"Puck said he saw you come up here. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I was out in the backyard and I think I saw Matt upchuck behind a garden gnome."
Tina laughed. "Gross. But, no, I'm okay. I've figured out that I really love peach Schnapps," she giggled as she dangled the bottle from her fingers.
He reached for the bottle, "Can I?"
"Sure."
Her eyes were transfixed on his bobbing Adam's apple as he took the drink. Pull it together, Tina!
She quickly turned her gaze towards her folded hands in her lap.
When he finished, he set the bottle on the nightstand. He turned towards her and she was confused by the strange look on his face. He reached forward and took a cobalt strand of her hair between his fingers and smiled.
"You know, I think you could be Rogue instead of lame ol' Jubilee if you wanted to. You both have dyed hair."
She laughed, glad to be talking about comics again. The look he had on his face before was confusing, inscrutable--but this she knew something about. She no longer felt like she was floundering for something to say.
"Rogue's hair isn't dyed!"
He smiled but didn't take his hand away. Instead, in a smooth, swift movement that was very alarming, he pulled Tina's face towards his. He kissed her gently, hand wandering in a totally distracting way into her hair. On his lips she could taste the sweet alcoholic fruit of his earlier drink. Before she could think it through, she kissed him back pressing her lips firmly against his warm ones.
Oh my god, what am I doing kissing Finn frakking Hudson?!?
Then she felt his warm tongue brush firmly against the seam of her closed lips and she stopped thinking and reciprocated as much as she could in her slightly buzzed state. Somehow, Finn ended up half lying down on a pile of pillows, while Tina leaned over him one hand under his striped shirt (My god, he has nice abs), her curtain of black hair shielding them both. She felt his hand wander down to the hem of her dress and tried not to moan as he softly brushed the tips of his fingers against her bare upper thigh. She concentrated on the amazing feeling of his tongue in her mouth and his other hand threading through her hair. She gasped loudly as he kissed his way to her throat and sucked hard on the skin of her neck beneath her ear. As she tried to shift herself onto him more fully he grunted and tried to assist by pulling her up onto him.
There was a muffled 'thunk' as his elbow hit the nightstand and the bottle of Schnapps fell to the carpeted floor.
The sound pulled them out of their haze and they both broke apart as if they'd been burned, Tina jumping off the bed entirely.
"I'm sorry, I—I—"
"No, it's okay, I shouldn't have—we—"
They both stammered out excuses at the same time. Tina pressed her fingers to her swollen lips unconsciously while Finn tried to look anywhere but her.
Tina sighed, straightening out her dress and combing fingers through her hair.
"Um, I'll go," she said.
"Wait!" Finn quickly strode towards her and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. "That was…fun."
Tina blushed. "Yeah…but…it shouldn't happen again."
"Right, you're right—"
"—I mean you like Rachel. I think. And Artie is—anyways, that was—surprising," Tina said.
"Surprising…and nice," Finn added, giving her the lopsided smile he had seemed to perfect.
"It was," Tina said softly. They smiled shyly at each other, as if they hadn't just been brazenly and furiously making out on a bed. Tina shook herself out of her haze. "But we can't—"
"It won't happen again," Finn assured her, smiling. Tina nodded once in response and bit her lip. When she chanced a look at Finn again, she saw that he was openly staring at her mouth. Once again, she blushed crimson.
Quickly turning on her heel before she could talk herself out of it, Tina left the room and quietly shut the door behind her.
The next few weeks weren't as awkward as she thought they would be, even though Finn started to date Rachel.
She smiled at their smiles because apparently a happy-in-love-Rachel meant a slightly less critical-in-glee-Rachel. Of course, neither she nor Finn told anyone else about what happened at the party. But, they talked a little more than they used to and Tina lent him some of her comic books and he doodled for her a little blue stegosaurus in her sketchbook during English class. In return, she sketched him a poorly drawn Wolverine on a draft of his term paper. She gave him a little speech bubble that said 'WORK ON YOUR THESIS STATEMENT!!!" in all caps, and watched as the corners of Finn's eyes crinkled as he laughed.
She concentrated on hanging out with Mercedes, Kurt, and Artie who thankfully started to become warmly friendly to her again instead of coolly civil.
One night, she got a text from Finn. She picked up her cell curiously and read that Mr. Schue was helping him with his "Hello" song for glee. When she asked him what it was, he texted back that it was a surprise, his message accompanied by a winking smiley. She stared at the smiley for a minute trying to divine its meaning until deciding to just go with it. She went to her closet and dug out her fluffiest tutu to wear to school the next day.
Tina liked surprises.
A/N Part II: The title comes from a line in The Breakfast Club. Read and review and you get peach Schnapps instead of gross Natty Lite!