AN: Okay, I'm officially starting to enter the stage where I want to give Mercedes a story with all of the Glee guys. I don't know… I guess I got a little tired of seeing how little love our chocolate diva was getting and decided to take matters into my own hands. I hope you enjoy this rare pairing! I've been rolling with the project storylines and I guess they're working so…Why stop now? Don't forget to review and I apologize ahead of time for any spelling errors.
1
It was about a few weeks after the incident at Nationals. As usual people were still hung up on Finn and Rachel's kiss, blaming them for the loss. Honestly, Mike thought that it wasn't entirely their fault. Well yeah, New Directions lost and didn't even place at all, leaving New York with only memories instead of a trophy.
But you can't help who you love.
It if were up to them, Mike could bet that they wouldn't have done anything different. They had both come to terms with their relationship and were in a dating but not dating stage right now. He guesses that's the way they wanted it to be.
"Can you believe them?" Santana hissed scowling at the couple holding hands in the chairs below . Everyone was in Glee Club right now. Mike had taken his usual spot next to Tina and Santana, making room so that the two girls could exchange looks of disgust. Even though him and Tina had broken up shortly after coming back from New York, they would still hang out together.
They weren't like the other Glee couples that broke up with their exes and dated someone else, just to make their ex jealous. The break up sort of helped them gain a life outside of our relationship, Tina can go out shopping with the girls and Mike can chill a lot more often with the guys.
It was great actually.
"I know" Tina replied with a shake of her head, pulling her long black t-shirt sleeves over her knuckles. Mike sighed trying to refocus on who stood at the front of the class.
As usual, he wore a worn brown vest over a dark green shirt. He cast a glance around the room, his curly hair falling into his eyes as he surveyed everyone with an excited smile. The only reason would have that smile on his face would have to be because he thought of a new idea for an upcoming project. Sometimes it would be a dance number that everyone would have to perform together, other times it would be a song but whatever the reason, that smile always filled Mike with a sense of dread.
Everyone knows that Mike wasn't the best singer; sometimes he felt that he wouldn't be able to sing to save his own life. He crossed his fingers on his lap, praying that he wouldn't have to stand up in front of the other Glee Clubbers and embarrass himself.
"Alright everyone!" clapped his hands enthusiastically, "This weeks project is a little different"
Everyone seemed to sit up a little straighter. Rachel tossed her hair over one shoulder, giving everyone a rueful smile as if she automatically knew what the project would be. "We're going to have everyone pair up and perform a musical number" walked up to the piano producing a long black hat. He shook it and the muffled sounds of paper rang in the silent room.
"Now this song has to be something that has the word 'move' in the song title" he balanced the hat in the palm of one of his hands. "Its not exactly the best project ever but it'll give me some time to come up with next weeks bigger and better projects"
Mike gulped exchanging a look with Tina who also looked a little terrified. She was the only Mike really felt comfortable working with. Whenever he thought that he couldn't do something, she helped him pull through. But now Mike knew for certain that he might end up working with someone else, and he knew that it was time to face his insecurities.
pulled a name out of the hat; he squinted for a moment before searching the anxious faces of the class.
"Sam, come and pick your partners name from the hat" he called. The tall blonde boy stood up from his seat beside Artie and walked over to the hat. He rubbed his hands together nervously before closing his eyes and placing one hand timidly into the hat.
At that moment everyone seemed to take in a collective gasp. Sam pulled out a flimsy piece of notebook paper and held it in between two fingers.
"Rachel" he said. The tiny smile that was once on his face disappeared as Rachel sauntered over to him and hooked her arm through his. ", if you don't mind I think that Sam and I should get a head start on the project" she glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the class, "We will be out in the hallway".
She tugged on Sam's arm and they disappeared over the threshold. shook his head as he pulled another name out of the hat. "Quinn" he called. The small girl slid out of her seat and picked out a name. "Puck" she swallowed as Puck came up, a smirk playing on his features.
It went on like this for a while. Lauren chose Tina, Finn got Brittany, Santana picked Artie etc etc. Almost everyone seemed comfortable with their choices and immediately began working, but Mike was a little nervous when he realized that he would be working with Mercedes.
He had nothing against her but she was just so…confident. "Alright Asian Spice, do you have any ideas?" she asked taking Tina's vacated seat and staring at him curiously. He turned in his seat to look at her. The first thing he saw was just how nice her eyes were. It was sad if you spent half your high school years without noticing at least something good about your fellow classmates. But now that Mike was taking notice to Mercedes he was finding a lot of things that were nice on her. Like her lips for example, they were coated in a thin layer of lip-gloss. He didn't really feel any shame in noticing them either.
Her eyes were a really deep brown, glimmering as the fluorescent light above shined on them just right. She brushed a few curly strands of her hair out of her face and offered him a kind smile.
Mike glanced away, feeling his cheeks heat up, before shrugging.
"I don't know," he mumbled ringing his hands together nervously.
"I was thinking that maybe we could do a song and dance," she suggested noting his uneasiness. He glanced up at her.
"Maybe I could sing and you could do the dancing part" she began to rummage through her black book bag. Mike let out a sigh of relief. He was half expecting Mercedes to boss him around and tell him what he had to do; he didn't expect her to understand his issues with the whole singing part.
He glanced over at Sam and Rachel who were hunkered in a corner, Rachel stood with a hand on her hip, eyes brimming with frustration as Sam tried to sing the male lines of their duet.
"Do you want to do this right or what?" she hissed at him, tapping her feet as Sam tried repeatedly to get the words just right. From the looks of it, Rachel had chosen yet another Broadway musical duet to sing probably hoping to blow everyone else away with her performance.
"Here it is" she pulled out a hot pink Ipod from an open flap of her book bag and held it up. Mike leaned back in his chair as she pressed the button to turn it on. "We could look through here and find a song, that we'd both like" she untangled a pair of white headphones, sticking the left one in her ear and holding out the other one to Mike.
He picked it from her hands, ignoring the spasm that overtook his fingers as his hand brushed against her palm.
There was a long silence around them as they waited through the opening numbers of the first song. Soft jazz like sounds flowed through Mike's ears, he closed his eyes unaware that he was leaning up against something. He was too focused on choreographing a dance number to the song to notice.
"I don't know if this song will work" Mercedes voice interrupted his train of thought. He nodded keeping his eyes closed as he awaited the next song. As it came on he noted the slightly up-tempo beat, feeling his heart keep time with the rhythm as if he were already dancing to the music.
"What song is this?" he asked, eyes still closed. Mercedes cleared her throat before replying, "Moves like Jagger by Maroon 5"
Mike opened his eyes and smiled.
"I think we've found our song"