Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Glee.

A/N: I haven't written for over a year, and I didn't intend on writing another Glee fic, but I started writing this after my Tartie feels exploded all over the last ever episodes of the show and it turned into a longer fic than I initially thought. I genuinely never expected they would end up as endgame, because the writers hadn't given me any hope in such a long time (I was happy just to get their duets!), but I've always been (and will be) a shipper, all the way! Sorry for all my readers who want to read my Grey's Anatomy fics…Artie/Tina was one of my first ships, guys.

To Artie, Tina was an enigma of contradictions. Maybe it was because the very first time he had met her, he had hesitated at introducing himself because of her screaming don't-talk-to-me clothing (the girl wore black studs and combat boots, in his defence), only to find that his "hi, I'm Artie" was met with a shy smile that erased all traces of the hard, indifferent look in her eyes. He learned quickly that, contrary to her school self, Tina was very opinionated, and liked to talk about anything and everything. But most importantly, he learned that Tina kicked up a big fuss over the smallest things – to his eternal amusement, she could easily start sulking after finding one math problem she couldn't solve by declaring herself "utterly incapable" of math – but she never seemed to make a big deal over the most important things.

It wasn't long after they became friends and started hanging out after school that Tina first laid her hand on his arm, and she never seemed to pick up on how rare a gesture it was, for him to get touched by anyone apart from his family. Once, he casually slipped it into a carefully constructed conversation, to gage her reaction, and she only responded with a puzzled frown and a simple "Why shouldn't I?" that floored him. He laughed it off then, but after she left his house that evening, he laid in bed going over and over the conversation, picking it apart in his mind. There had been no pity in her eyes, as he had feared, but only genuine puzzlement over why no one else touched him. She never brought it up afterwards, but a few mornings after, she draped her arm over his shoulder as she was pushing him down the hallway. He twisted to look up at her, his hands twitching in his lap, but she looked back at him as innocently as always, with an affectionate smile that was a touch wider than normal, and that was that.

There was also that time after Tina and Mike had just started going out, when Rachel went on a gender-equality rampage for a week, insisting on re-arranging "Dancing Through Life" from Wicked as a potential Sectionals number for the girls to take the lead on. Artie cringed upon receiving the sheet music that was thrust in his face by a Rachel with a manic gleam in her eyes as she yammered away about potentially flooring the judges with their determination to subvert the norm. Sure enough, once they gave up and started singing the song, the awkward glances that he had thought he'd finally banished with their "Proud Mary" number a year ago were back in the choir room as Quinn stumbled on Nessa's lines, eyes flitting nervously to him. He shrugged and tried to look like he didn't care as she quickly glossed over "It's because I'm in this chair and you felt sorry for me, isn't that right?", her cheeks turning red, but it was really Tina stealing the next line from Brittany without missing a beat – "It's because you are so beautiful!" – while miming swooning with one hand to her forehead and an arched look in his direction, risking a death glare from Santana, that made his smile genuine and his shoulders loosen. She had somehow always known exactly what to do to make him feel better without being told how, and that was one of the reasons why he decided to suck up his pride about getting dumped and suggested to her after practice that they should start their Tuesday lunches again.

Which was why, when Tina gathered him, Blaine, and Puck together before Santana and Brittany's wedding for permission from "her best boys" to elaborately announce her intention to propose to Mike, Artie wasn't worried. Much.

At least, that was what Artie kept telling himself to keep the nausea down as he got ready for the wedding he was supposed to be focusing 100% on as the wedding planner (what had Brittany been thinking anyway, giving him the job? The only saving grace was that he got to film the wedding, so his directing skills weren't entirely wasted). He straightened his bow tie one last time in the mirror and sighed, looking himself over in his tux.

What if she actually went through with her insane plan? And worse, what if Mike actually accepted?

"I have my concerns, but if this is what you really want, then of course I support you."

Even in his shock, he'd managed to choose his words so carefully, so much so that Puck had cornered him afterwards with a straightforward "I didn't know you were still into her, man", and a commiserating clap on the back that had, quite frankly, hurt, though perhaps less so than that bittersweet feeling of holding Tina in his arms just after giving her his blessing to marry another man. Hell, if Puck had noticed after five measly minutes in the same room as them, he had no idea why Tina was still oblivious to his feelings about her.

Artie had thought that she would finally notice that they were both single at the same time (he shuddered still at the disappointment of that chill-inducing moment in their senior year when he had realised she was singing her prom proposal song to Blaine, of all people, when he had hoped, just maybe...). But for all that she had been the first to notice him out of everyone in Glee, she sure had forgotten him completely now. Friend-zoned, he thought bitterly to himself.

For his part, he had never been able to shake her off completely. Sure, he'd tried to give things a proper go with Brittany before it all blew up in his face, and once it became evident that Tina was in it for the long haul with Mike, he had tried to move on, and to be a good boyfriend to Sugar and later to Kitty. But Artie couldn't deny that a small part of him had selfishly hoped, when Tina told him she had been waitlisted for Brown, that they would end up in New York together: maybe in the city of dreams, outside Lima, they would bridge the gap that had been growing between them for the last few years. Maybe he would finally have that elusive second chance at showing her that he could be a better, more attentive boyfriend now.

But he couldn't be unhappy for her, of course, when she told him that she had gotten in after all; couldn't begrudge the fantasy that had again been ripped from him when her happiness had shone so brightly. So he had helped her pack, and listened to her chattering about Providence, and waved her goodbye. All he could do was tell her feebly to visit him and that he would try to visit her as often as he could, and he wasn't sure if she had heard him in her excitement.

Then, every time she had visited, it had always been related to something important, something bigger than them – Rachel's opening night blues, Mercedes' record deal, Sam moving back to Ohio, Kurt breaking off the engagement, consoling Kurt and Blaine who were both wrecks, Blaine dropping out of NYADA. It had never felt like just them, and he loved his friends, but sometimes, he had just wanted to scream with how he just wanted one moment to bring up the question of them without anything to distract her.

And now they were here, where he was feeling too much too late, again.

There was a knock on the dressing room door, and he schooled his features, tacking on his trademark smile that only looked a shade fake.

"Come in," he called, checking that he had his video camera in his bag hanging behind his chair before turning to face the doorway, ready to leave.

The door opened, revealing Tina, and his breath left him with a whoosh.

She looked stunning.

He tried not to let his jaw drop, but he couldn't drag his eyes off her. Of course he had seen the dresses that the bridesmaids were going to wear – he thought vaguely that Brittany had even asked for his approval at some point, to which he had hummed a non-committal response – but even so, he was never prepared for how she always somehow managed to seem extra graceful dressed up for special occasions.

She was fidgeting a little, tugging at the hem of her pink dress, in a way that reminded him of another dress in a lighter shade of pink and a piano, many years ago.

"Ready for one last spot check before the guests arrive?" she asked him brightly, and he was brought back to the present.

"Yeah," he said, relieved that his voice hadn't cracked and betrayed how off-kilter he felt.

She stepped back, keeping the door open for him.

"I'm a bit worried about Brittany, she kept sending me these panicked messages until about twenty minutes ago and now, radio silence," he said lightly as they took the back route into the main hall of the barn, trying to bring his scattered thoughts together.

"Oh, that! At least you only got texts," Tina scoffed, rolling her eyes, "she dispatched Rachel, Mercedes and me to find her a lizard and a spider for good luck, so you know, you had the better end of the deal."

Artie raised his eyebrows at her, and she shrugged. "You know how she's been. I bet Santana's calming her down, we didn't bother telling Brittany that that their dressing rooms are only separated by a partition."

"I assume you all just gave up?" he asked, laughing.

"Yeah. We just figured we'd lay low for a bit and then go back to see if she's calmed down. She doesn't actually care if she gets all that stuff anyway, I'm sure she'll have more things to ask for even if we did manage to find them."

"Sensible," he nodded.

Tina opened the side door into the hall, and he rolled through, smiling at her in thanks. The barn really looks atmospheric with the flowers and twinkling lights in place, he thought approvingly, and he almost missed her next words.

"Plus, I gave her my underwear, so I think I've done my fair share of sacrifice for the bride."

He choked on air.

Did she just say…?

"I'm sorry, you what?" Artie asked, staring at her disbelievingly, and Tina blushed.

"She was having a freak-out about having nothing blue and borrowed to wear! No one else had anything blue, and it's more traditional than anything else she's been talking about doing for luck," she said defensively, crossing her arms. "You weren't there, she was really going all Bridezilla on us," she added darkly, and he grimaced in sympathy.

"But what are you wearing then?"

The words fell out before he could take them back, and he instantly wanted to dig a hole and die in is embarrassment. Classic, Abrams. Classic word-vomit.

She flushed.

"I'm, um, not wearing any?"

He was saved from coming up with an actual response by the arrival of the catering staff. As they were swept up in questions of when to come in to re-decorate the hall with tables for the reception, he tried to push the conversation to the back of his mind.

She's your best friend! Mind. Out. Of. The. Gutter.

It was ridiculously hard to keep reminding himself that.

Judging by how she kept throwing him looks across the hall where she was showing people to their seats and blushing, he wasn't the only one having a hard time forgetting their conversation, either.