A/N: The companion to A Side. Artie, as opposed to Tina. Hope you enjoy. :)
Artie stood- not, he didn't stand. He was more like parked- on one side of the circle that was Glee Club, and watched.
His eyes, so much sharper than his vacant smile, picked up on the movements of the group, and he wondered if he was really the only one here not in love with Finn Hudson.
Just because he was bad at acting on social cues didn't mean he was blind to them. Rachel was obviously pinning. Mercedes was evaluating with an out of character, cautious smile. Kurt was trying hard not to look, but without realizing it, he shifted his body even as Finn did. Like flowers, they faced towards their sun. And yes. They were better for it, that much was obvious.
But Artie's eyes were focused on someone else. Everyone had their own sun, after all.
Tina was smiling widely at something Kurt had said, and Artie felt his face stretch into something closer to real happiness. The fact that Tina also followed Finn with her eyes did not go unnoticed to the boy, but that was something he tried not to dwell upon.
As usual, when faced with evidence of this fact, he took the easy way out, and pretended he hadn't seen. The easy way was something he was all too familiar with, after all.
With everything made more difficult for him, he had never seen the point in trying to do anything more than the easiest thing. Can't play conventional sports? That's okay. He'll focus on his studies. Can't dance? He'll just sing.
And if his thoughts begin to slip into thoughts of before, he shuts them out with a wide smile and a readjusting of his glasses. Subtle. He wanted to laugh, but didn't. Yeah, right. Because no matter how hard he tried, subtlety was not one of his strong points. Big surprise from the boy in the wheelchair.
The Boy in the Wheelchair. Yep. That's who he was. Not seen as anything more, though usually as something less. He was used to it, and he was even pretty good at pretending it didn't bother him any more.
His goal was to be able to fool Tina one day, but so far, he'd had no luck. People called them an odd pair, only brought together by their disabilities- abilities, their teacher always told them. Their ability to overcome adversary- and having nothing else in common. But they were so alike, in the little ways that maybe only he could see. Like how they both rolled their eyes when the teacher began to go off on how special they were, how strong. How both of them made X-Men jokes under their breath after a particularly harsh jab. Inside jokes between the two of them had him as Quicksilver and her as Siryn. Stupid, but the nickname always brought a smile to his face.
They both loved music, and Artie remembered his surprise when he asked Tina about her favorite song, and she whispered, without any stutter at all, Mama Who Bore Me. A Broadway song.
This was the first piece of information that Artie found about Tina that surprised him. It made her three dimensional, more than just a stereotype that sat across from him in English class.
Sometimes, he worried, because he knew more about Tina that he knew even about himself. But on days like this, watching her watch someone else, a tiny part of him wished she was still the girl he rolled his eyes at in English class.
But people weren't allowed to choose their sun.
He was the other side of her coin. Artie and Tina, best friends. Nothing else, as much as he wished otherwise. That was okay. He was content with being the B Side to her soundtrack. Her backup.
He would watch Finn, however. If he hurt her, he was afraid he would stop liking the boy. He would watch Finn close.
So Artie watched Finn, like Rachel watched Finn, like Kurt and Quinn and Mercedes watched Finn. And across the circle, someone watched him.