Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 60th cycle. Now cycle 61!

This is a shift day. There are two updates today.

"The Friends You Earn"
16yo Mike/Tina, Quinn
Chang Squared Series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

With the drama of Quinn's secret making its way through Glee Club and the impending explosion that would be the rest of the school finding out, there was nothing Tina wanted more than to just do something as normal as work on an assignment for Mr. Schuester and, as luck would have it, she had been paired with Mike. Luck, in this case, was named Mike Chang. The way he had it, he had given Schuester such a pointed look in hopes of telegraphing that he wanted to be her partner, and it had worked.

Meeting to work in their old dance studio, it had felt like they hadn't done this in forever. It was hard not to remember so many times standing here, dancing here… This was where she had shown him how to sing. "How about… eighties power ballad?" she offered with a smirk, and he laughed.

"Sure, why not? Maybe we can something for the choreography, like…" he tugged her into his arms, and she smiled on, feeling him spin her in and spin her out again.

"I don't know what song would fit that, but I'm sure we can find something." As they looked for a potential song, she could feel him looking at her. "What is it?"

"Just wondering how Quinn's doing," he explained. "If you can't talk about it, I'll understand, but…" he shrugged. He was concerned, and she tapped his shoulder.

"Freaked out about her parents ever finding out, though I don't see how she's going to hide from them once she really starts to show. Then there's the rest of the school, and Cheerios, and… I think she just needs people she can trust right now."

"If I can help, too, you should tell her she can call me," he offered, and Tina smiled.

"I'll tell her that," she promised. "She yells at me less now."

"Yeah?" Mike chuckled.

"It's weird. I mean, just a few weeks ago, all I wanted was to see her… fall down, or get a Slushie thrown in her face, something. Now I'm driving her to doctor's appointments, helping her hide from Coach Sylvester, fixing her clothes with her so they'll still hide her stomach as long as she can…"

"She's your friend," he translated.

"And that's weird," she nodded.

"I don't think it is."

"You don't?" she looked up to him.

"I mean I know what she can be like, and you two haven't really gotten along before, but that was because of this captain thing. If not for that, you might have made friends."

"I don't think so, not with the way she and Santana go around McKinley. You should hear some of what Brittany's told me."

"Okay, there's that, but that's just it. I think she needed someone like you, to be a different influence on her. I think you might be good for each other."

Mike's words had stayed with her throughout the day. Looking at Quinn some days, she would be reminded she couldn't have started the way she was now, that she had gotten to this point. And now she was where she was, sixteen and pregnant and… terrified. As mean as she had been to so many of them, including to Tina herself, she couldn't deny that there could be more to her than what she had shown them, what she had chosen to make visible of who she was, leaving other things invisible.

Quinn's parents were starting to know her, from the amount of times she had shown up at their house in the days before and after her session with Mike in the studio. The first of their encounters had been made awkward by Mr. Fabray inquiring about her combination of family names, but Quinn had pulled her out of there.

Now on this day, when she'd shown up, Quinn had made her follow up to her room before shutting and locking the door. "What are you doing?" Tina asked. Quinn looked uneasily around the room before picking up the bottom of her shirt and pulling it up. "Woah…" Quinn had been preparing, but there hadn't been anything to hide, not yet, as far as Tina figured, only now there it was. There wasn't much, but it was enough to be able to tell the difference.

"Freaks me out," she breathed, letting her shirt back down.

"Your Cheerios uniform should be good to hide it, so that's that."

"I can't walk around in my uniform all day every day," Quinn shook her head.

"But that's why you have the other clothes," Tina reminded her.

"I know, and I guess I have you to thank for that." There was something missing in that sentence, and Tina knew what it was.

"What do Santana and Brittany have to say about this?"

"Brittany does what Santana says, and Santana… Sometimes I think she wants to help me, sometimes I think she wants to help herself. I'd look out if I were you. She'll be coming after that Captain spot before long."

"I can take her," Tina shrugged.

"You think I was bad? Wait until you've got her coming at you," Quinn gave her a look, and Tina felt like if she didn't have a headache in the near future it would be a miracle.

"Great…"

"I'll try and deal with her. Don't tell anyone I told you this, but I think you need to keep being Captain," Quinn told her, and Tina tried not to look too surprised.

"You do?"

"I didn't want to see it at first, but you're good for the squad," Quinn gave this assessment with a smile, and it reflected on Tina's face.

"Thanks." She paused, needing to address something. "You know once Sylvester finds out, she's not going to let you stick around."

"I don't know… she might," Quinn wanted to believe it.

"Yeah. Maybe," Tina went along with it. They both knew what was going to come, but Quinn wanted to pretend she didn't, so Tina did the same.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!