A/N: Hello all of you lovely fanfic readers. :D So I'm guessing that you guys have watched the season premiere of Glee and I have to ask .. – Did any of you flail as much as I did when Mike and Tina held hands and danced with each other? They're just as adorable as I thought they'd be! EEP, so excited to see more PDA from these two. :) Well, after watching it I just had to write something about them ofcourse. This is a one shot and my first one shot, like, ever, and there aren't really any spoilers in here other than the season premiere. But this is what I imagined would happen with the whole Mike, Tina, Artie triangle (oh, and the things I'd want to happen). I hope all of you really like it! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of the songs featured in this story.
The Good Boyfriend
"I thought .. I thought we were doing okay. I thought everything was okay," he weakly stammered, permitting all his fear to be exposed.
"Hey," she lightly muttered, lifting his sinking head with her fingers at attempt of reassurance. "We're doing great. I'm not breaking up with you Mike, it's just .. I have to talk to him. I owe him that much."
Though he didn't like the idea of his girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend alone together, he had to trust Tina. Mike hadn't been through many relationships (well, ones that mattered) but he was graced with the knowledge that trust was essential.
And he liked Tina. He really, really liked her. It was probably the only relationship he'd been in where making out wasn't the basis of the relationship, and even if he didn't mind the slightest when kissing her, he enjoyed spending time with her and learning more about her just as much. Which would rightfully explain why he didn't join football this season.
Well, never went to practice.
.. Or lied to his parents about being at football practice when actually, he was with Tina.
Oh, screw it - he was sprung. It wouldn't have made any difference if he shouted it to all of Lima, because it was apparent to him and everyone around him how into her he was. But to be honest, he didn't really mind at all.
Sighing in apprehension, he finally looked up to see her pretty smile earning her a genuine grin in return. So that's why.
"Sorry, I just get kind of paranoid. First love is kind of hard to compete with." He took the hand that was supporting his drooping head, separating each delicate finger kissing each one. "But I trust you. And I'll do anything to make this work out."
She loved how he did things like that so openly in public. Even with the vast majority of students shoving and pushing each other through the halls, he could've cared less about what they thought. Whenever Artie would be affectionate with her within the time they'd been going out, it seemed like he'd only do the sweet things when they were alone. However, when they were near anyone else, he'd put on this whole different façade as if they weren't together. With Mike, he was never ashamed to kiss or hold hands with her, nonetheless be around her.
"Are you gonna be okay though? Did you want me to stand outside the door and wait?"
She closed her locker shut so she could avert all her attention to him. "I'll be fine, I swear."
His face screamed concern, but that shortly disappeared as she went on her tippy-toes, compressing her eager lips to his own. Her bright red lipstick would always leave a predestined stain and although he never admitted it, she was pretty sure he didn't mind it. He'd just smile and slyly lick his lips.
"Well, if you ever want to talk about it you know I'll listen right? Even if I might want to .. punch him in the face I'll always be there for -"
Cutting him off was the loud sound of the obnoxious school bell. Not only was that bell unnecessarily deafening especially for the morning, but it also didn't do much for Mike or Tina. He'd always walk her to her class every morning which happened to be on the other side of his first period so nonetheless, he'd be late anyway.
In a whispery tone, she assured him, "I'll be fine. I promise."
He forced a slight grin while taking in her textbooks that could easily topple her over. Entwining her fingers into his he led her through the crowded hall, guilt somewhat growing inside of her. "If you don't want me to talk to him .."
Stopping dead in his tracks he gave her a stern look. "No, it's fine. I know how hard this has been on you and if it makes you feel better and makes me a better boyfriend for you, then it's cool. I trust you."
To say having a healthy relationship was foreign to Tina would've been a great understatement. She had sadly adapted to the means of an imbalanced relationship and to be quite frank, Mike's affection almost scared her.
"You're a great boyfriend." He smiled at her honest comment, squeezing her hand with a little more security.
They stood together right outside Tina's Algebra 2 class lingering on the moment they'd have together until he finally allowed his fingers to separate from hers.
The second bell abruptly rang proposing Mike late for his class once again. "I have to stop making you walk me to class every time. It's only been the first month of school and you've already been late eight times dropping me off to class?"
"Nine times," he corrected. "But do you even realize how tiny and weak you are, especially with all these books? Seriously, last thing I need is my girlfriend getting kidnapped."
She grinned retrieving her books from his grasp. "Thanks for walking me .. again. And don't get kidnapped either. It would be a shame having my boyfriend stolen from me."
"Yes ma'am!" kissing her cheek pleasingly before departing. "I'll see you later in Glee."
Finally capable of making his way to class, he smiled to himself. The trifling smile turned into a widened grin only to find himself laughing aimlessly. Him, Mike Chang, was a "great boyfriend."
Yay.
As everyone gathered around, sitting in the plastic, maroon chairs, Tina eyed the clock keenly just waiting for Glee to be over. She'd be a liar if she said she wasn't scared to talk to Artie again, and she'd be an even bigger liar if she said that she trusted herself. The realization ignited guilt into her.
She really, really liked Mike: He was sweet to her, took time to get to know her, listened to her, made her feel fluttery in more ways than one and so much more. For once it almost felt like it was a relationship that worked on both ends, maybe even him putting more into the relationship than her. The whole scenario sounded all too familiar.
"So I know we're still a little rusty since we just came back from summer, but this time around we need to work even harder guys. While we were all relaxing over summer, Vocal Adrenaline was working themselves to kill," Mr. Schuster announced persistently catching all the members' attention. "Your first assignment coming back was to pick a song that tells us what you did over summer. Who would like to go first?"
Tina would have expected Rachel to be rocketing high from her seat, ready to sing a tune about all the boyfriend-girlfriend things her and Finn had been doing, but to her surprise (as well as everyone else's) Mike had beat her to it.
"I have something Mr. Schu," he stated, urging Puck to ready himself with his acoustic guitar in front of the room. The astonished look everyone gave him was slightly intimidating, most likely due to the fact that he'd only stood as a background singer, but he had to hold his own. How could he not rave about his summer? He'd only gotten together with the coolest, prettiest girl so he firmly believed he had bragging rights.
"Mike? You're going to .. sing?" Mr. Schu asked, just as startled as the rest. "Well, thank you for starting us off. You can start whenever you're ready."
Just as he was about to walk up to the front of the room, Tina tugged at his hand. "Don't listen to them. You'll do great."
He knew summer with a girl like that would be easy to sing about.
As Puck strummed the first chord, Mike's voice chimed in at perfect timing. "I wanna make you smile, whenever you're sad, carry you around when your Arthritis is bad .."
Everyone let out a small chuckle as awe captivated the atmosphere. Now he was staring her straight in the eye and she blushed furiously, but the moment she caved in and he stole a glimpse from her, he felt comfort singing aloud.
"All I wanna do, is grow old with you." She was sure if her heart hadn't completely plopped on the dusty floor right then, nothing in the world made sense.
"I'll get you medicine when your tummy aches, build you a fire if the furnace breaks oh, it could be so nice growing old with you," rising from his wooden stool.
He slowly made his way to where she sat, blood rushing through her cheeks.
"I'll miss you, kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold .."
Suddenly, the rest of the club joined along singing in the background. It always astonished him how they managed to know the lyrics to every solo someone sang.
"Need you, feed you, even let you hold the remote control." Finally relaxed, she did a little playful wave as he occupied the seat right next to her.
"So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink, put you to bed when you've had too much to drink .."
Mike laced his fingers with hers, furtively looking at Artie who was the only one who hadn't been singing along. Although he was kind of over the whole Tina and Artie talking thing, he wanted to make sure he got the gist of it all. Tina might've been "his girl" in the beginning, but things were different now. She was his.
After kissing her cheek, he went back to the front of the room to finish his performance. "Oh, I could be the man who grows old with you .."
"I wanna grow old with you."
A roar of applause dominated the room as girls swooned and guys whistled. She even thought she saw Brittany shed a tear.
"And that's what happened over summer Mr. Schu. Plus more."
Laughing satisfyingly, Mr. Schuster replied, "Sounds like a good summer Mike. Well done."
So this is what it's supposed to be like, Tina thought. This is why people get into relationships. As much as she was touched by his performance, she couldn't help but have that little thought in the back of her mind reminding herself of him. That thought called Artie.
"So what'd you think of my summer, huh?" he curiously asked her, taking up the seat he once occupied.
"Hm, I don't know. Sounds kind of similar to mine," she retorted, persuasively pouting her bottom lip. "You did great. Plus more," she breathily murmured, being pulled from her seat into mid-air as he gently lifted her off the ground. Incoherent mumbles escaped her mouth but mainly consisted of continuous giggles. Once again, the awing and adoration for the newly-formed couple filled the room, primarily from the girls.
"Why don't you do that for me Finn?" Rachel coldly supposed to her boyfriend.
"I hate to agree with Rachel but she's right. I've only given birth to your child and you still haven't held me like that," came chiming in Quinn, running him a subtle death glare.
"Babe, you were like the size of 78 watermelons. I'm buff, not that buff," the football player answered earning him a well-justified slap to his guns. "Babe!"
Finn stared at Rachel unable to give a legitimate reason. At least anything he could say would not possibly be nearly as bad as that. "Well, you never ask me to .."
His girlfriend shot him an affronted gaze. "I wasn't aware that I participated in a relationship where I must ask to be .. to be adored, Finn."
Eyes frantically wandering through space, he grabbed her hand. "I can carry you now!"
The two watched as the couples bickered, feeling slightly remorseful for provoking the minor riot. Though, they couldn't help being a cute couple.
"You see what you make them do?" as he lowered her down to the ground.
"It's not my fault I'm a 'good boyfriend' right?" proudly raising his chin.
Through the course of their obvious affection, Tina caught Artie's tedious gaze from afar. By the looks of it, she was pretty sure he wanted to wheel over Mike a couple times. The guilt swelled inside of her not too shortly.
"That'll be it for today guys, good job." Mr. Schu waved his arms proposing Glee done for the day, which only meant one thing to both of them: Artie. And lots of talking.
By now, all the Glee kids had departed the room, leaving Tina, Artie and Mike alone in the empty music room. The awkward silence filled the bare space until Artie wheeled in between the two, leading Mike to faintly stumble. At that moment he breathed in a big gulp of air, irritation commencing. Kicking him wouldn't do any good for either of them so he contained himself.
"So I guess I'll go now. I'll call you later Tina." Instinctively walking around Artie, he gave his girlfriend a delicate peck on the cheek as fair warning. Before leaving, he gave the boy a formidable stare. Though Mike was never the type to be neither offensive nor defensive, he should know where his place was at.
As her boyfriend left the room, she gawkily stood still, feet paved to the filthy tiling. The piercing stares Artie continued to give her didn't help either. When he finally spoke she swore she heard the silence tear in half.
"Is it 'cause he can dance?" he bluntly questioned. She was more than a little offended.
"Why would you even think that?"
"Isn't it kind of obvious?"
"If you don't remember correctly I wanted you to dance with me, but you told me to dance with someone else who just so happened to be Mike. And that's where I got to know him more," taking two steps forward. "And it has nothing to do with the movement of his legs. I can't believe you'd think I was that .. shallow."
"I didn't really ask for your guys' love story. And how could you say it has nothing to do with the fact that he has legs? He can walk with you, twirl you around, dance with you. Of course it would have something to do with it."
"Have you not been listening? Do you remember why I broke up with you in the first place? You never paid attention to me and I was the only one putting .. putting anything into it. It was completely one-sided!"
And there it was. She could feel her eyes welt with moisture as she used everything in her power to stop them. Artie's facial expression softened as he looked up at her. "I'm sorry .. I didn't mean it like that. I know you're not shallow. But Tee, I just want a chance to make it up for you. I thought about what you said and I really think I can change."
"Artie, I have a boyfriend .. A boyfriend who likes me and treats me right. Did you see the way he looked at me when he sang?" she asked hopeful. A knowing smile went upon her lips, allowing the first full teardrop to stream down her face. Luckily this tear was a happy one. She was thinking about her boyfriend.
He'd noticed the apparent change in her as she spoke about Mike, leading him to swerve the conversation in a different direction. "Don't let this tear us apart Tina, please. I'm trying, really trying to make it up to you. And I will make it up to you, I swear," he thoughtfully proposed. "First love – who could beat that?"
This time she spoke in a softer tone but the pain in her voice never subsided. "Artie, it's the same thing. We do this all the time. You mess up, I get hurt, you say things like that, I forgive you and it happens again." Clearing her throat, she continued. "But I do still have feelings for you. It's kind of hard not to .."
Both of them detected her vulnerability as she spoke. He reached for her vacant hand, only leading her to jump a little inside. She'd be a liar if she said she absolutely hated the fact that he held her hand rather delicately.
There was a look in his eye that she knew too well, like he knew he was so utterly close to winning this war. "I'm sorry I hurt you. I shouldn't have done that. But like you said, you still have feelings for me so please don't let those feelings go. I can be a better boyfriend than Mike."
"Please, don't make this harder on me than it already is."
"Just let me prove it to you and I promise you won't regret it."
Realizing how long they'd been holding hands, she defiantly flicked his hand back. "I'm sorry Artie .. I can't do this anymore .."
As she hurtled from her seat wiping the tears that had so easily fallen, he sighed. "I just want to let you know I'm not gonna stop trying. I won't."
He smiled sheepishly as the discussion came to an end, making his way to the door. "Bye Tina."
Now alone in the hushed room, she sat back in her chair.
She cried. She cried, cried and cried for a good 15 minutes until she received a text message from her dad asking her where she'd been, finally deciding to leave. Chucking her backpack over her shoulder, she slowly made her way to the entrance looking back at the room just one last time. Their conversation replayed over in her head numerous times and she wished the distressing thoughts would stop.
Closing the door gently, she took a few strides forward on her way to the parking lot when she noticed long legs sprawled out on the floor. Curiously, she took a few more steps to see the unknown person's face in which the row of bright red lockers had been covering.
Almost reaching to the unidentified person, they immediately popped their head out so Tina could easily see who it was. It was Mike.
"Well, I know you told me not to wait for you and it's not that I didn't trust you, it's just I wanted to make sure you were okay after." Tina's swelling eyes easily alarmed him. He sprang up quickly making his way to her. "Are you okay Tina?"
His hands comfortably rubbed the sides of her arms as she avoided his worried stare. At an attempt of assurance, she smiled faintly and tried to speak. "I'm fine .."
Suddenly, she choked on the attempted words as the tears came gushing through her already swollen eyes. The whimpers were just as loud as they had been the first fifteen minutes she cried and her face scrunched up so unappealingly, she questioned how people from movies could ever cry so attractively.
Mike has never seen Tina cry. But he imagined it would just be as sucky as it was now, except this was probably worse. It made him hurt seeing her like this and trying to conceal the pain. He grabbed her up in his arms in a tight hug, softly whispering "it's okay" into her ear.
She took a step back from his securing embrace because honestly, she really didn't think she deserved it. After telling Artie she still had feelings for him she truly felt like a bad person. "I told him I still had feelings for him," she admitted. "I don't want to lie to you because you're just so good to me and I don't even deserve it and I just can't even .. I can't .. I'm not .."
Her confession was cut off by her inevitable crying as he pulled her into another hug. "It's okay," he sighed with sadness in his voice. Yeah, it hurt to hear that, but frankly he cared more about the tears that were falling than having to solely overreact about her honesty. "I mean, that kind of sucks to hear but I'm not mad. And don't say you don't deserve me."
She looked up at him, cries consistently slowing down. "I told him I couldn't do it. That I couldn't get back together with him, because I have a good boyfriend that likes me and treats me amazingly," letting out a breathy chuckle.
He grinned at her appreciatively. "That's all I needed to know."
As Mike wiped the stray teardrops from her discolored cheeks, she collected her breath. "This relationship .." she began. "This relationship isn't fair. I feel like you're putting more into it than I am, and I don't want that to happen to you. To us."
He listened attentively. "From now on this is going to be relationship that's 50/50, okay?"
"Okay," nodding supportively. "Do you think there's going to be anymore ex-boyfriend conversations I have to worry about in the future though?"
"You don't have to worry about that."
"Cool," tucking a section of her misplaced hair behind her ear.
"God, you're such a good boyfriend," she cried, digging her face into his white cotton V-neck. The tears were now fully dissolved and Mike was the one to thank for it all.
"You're not too bad yourself," chuckling lightly. He held her hand securely tangling his fingers with hers and asked, "So what did you wanna do now? Did you want to get dropped off home?"
"Or we can go to that video store you've been wanting to go to?"
He stared at her puzzled. "Haven't you been wanting to go to that music store a couple blocks from Edgewood though?"
"Yeah, but we can always go there next time. I wanna know more about you."
He adoringly smiled at her. "Well in that case, then sure. Thanks."
Mike grabbed his backpack off the ground and hurled it across his shoulder, wrapping his vacant arm around Tina's tiny waist. They were good.
So how'd you guys like it? (: It was a pleasure writing this! It's nice having to write something that's actually based off of something instead of just starting from complete scratch (which is also fun to do but still!). The song Mike sang to Tina is called Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler from the Wedding Singer. I really tried to add emphasis on Artie and Tina's relationship and how one-sided it was and how her new relationship with Mike had been the exact opposite. This still shows the beginning of their relationship so I wanted it to seem kind of fresh and not too extremely fluffy (but still, fluffy) especially with Artie still there. I hope you guys enjoy reading this! ^_^
Oh, by the way, I would love some suggestions for my next multi-chap fic for Mike and Tina. I was working on it but then now that season 2 has started I don't like my idea anymore so im starting from scratch. Seriously, PLEASE DON'T BE SHY, and I'll credit you for your ideas if I happen to use them. (: Thank you my lovelys! yourdorkalways