Title: From A Seed
Author: wildpeace
Fandom: Glee
Pairings: Tina/Mike, Brittany/Santana (mild, can be read as friendship), other canon pairings.
Summary: Mike's in the 3rd grade when he first proposes to Tina
A/N: My current obsession, just wanted to give it a bash and see how it goes. Harry Shum Jr just makes me happy when I look at him, and I think the show has some fantastic characters. I hope people enjoy.
XxX
Kindergarten is hard.
After moving from San Francisco, away from all of his friends, away from YeYe and NaiNai, from his house and his garden and everything he knows, he's deposited at the door with a perfunctory kiss to the top of the head and the request, " At least try and answer the role-call, okay Mikey?" Then he is handed his knapsack and given a tiny push in the back, and finds himself in a strange new world.
No one speaks Chinese in Ohio and everything is big and loud, and all the other children scream and run around. A girl with a long brown ponytail and red boots kicks one of the boys in the leg and pulls his backpack out of the cubbyhole he has just claimed. " Can't put your crummy stuff in there," she tells him, throwing his snack box across the room, making raisons scatter everywhere. " Britbrit's 'aposed to be next to me!"
The little boy starts crying and the teacher cuddles him while simultaneously scolding, " Santana!" but the girl just pouts her lips and throws his juice box in the same direction as his snack.
She has to sit in time-out for five whole minutes, but when the blonde girl with pigtails and the 'Little Mermaid' lunchbox skips through the door with a happy giggle and places her rainbow downy jacket in the now-empty space, the brunette smiles triumphantly. " Told you so," she whispers to the still-sniffling boy when she is finally released from her sanction. " Baby."
" Santana, stop being unkind to Noah," the teacher admonishes, but Santana just throws out an entirely insincere, " Sorry Noah," before grasping hands with the other girl and darting off in the direction of the art table.
Mike thinks the other boy might start crying again worser and louder, but then another boy comes in the door – super tall and wearing a flannel shirt with sleeves rolled up to free his hands – and the tears stop immediately. The two of them say hi and the tall boy doesn't even bother finding a cubby – he just drops his things in the middle of the floor – before they dart off towards the play mat that's scattered with toy trucks and cars.
He's frozen, still, because there's just so much noise and so many peopleand so much new, and he's clutching his bag to his chest and he thinks maybe he might start crying too because he can feel tears are creeping up his throat into his nose and eyes, when the front door opens again and he suddenly feels it – relief. The girl at the door says goodbye to her mother and pulls the green hood from off of her head, and he's met with a familiar sight: black, straight hair framing a pale face, and comforting almond eyes.
She has to walk past him to get to her cubby, and when she does he starts talking – a release of words in a flurry because even the ten minutes he's been there means his head hurts from having to think in English all the time – but she just raises her eyebrows and looks at him.
Then, very slowly, she turns around, unhinges her jaw and – " MISSSSS!" she screams, stamping her gumboot-clad foot on the ground. " This boy's making fun of me!"
So it is that Mike Chang finds himself on time-out for the first time ever. All thanks to Tina Cohen-Chang.
XxX
In the first grade, Mike usually remembers to speak to the other kids in English, but he gets in trouble for being able to do taking away. His teacher gets a cross face and says he shouldn't know how to do that until he's in second grade, and Mike can feel his face get all warm and tingly and red. He's not really sure how he's supposed to un-know something.
When he stays quiet, he can hear someone whispering answers under their breath. Tina writes her numbers neatly in the boxes and always remembers to put her name at the top of her work. Her letters are curvy and careful, and she dots the 'i' with a little sunshine. She's three questions ahead of the rest of the class.
From then on, Mike stops putting his hand up to answer. He just does the work at his own pace and dots the 'i' of his own name with a thunder cloud.
XxX
It's February and Mike's in the 3rd grade when he first proposes to Tina. Santana wants to play wedding so he's sent to find an earthworm in the bushes. When he pulls one from under the winter-frosted leaves it's kind of cold and wet and gross but Noah and Finn think it's 'cool!' so he catches Tina by the back of her sweater as she runs across the playground, and winds the pink string of flesh around her icy-cold finger. " Wannamarryme?" he asks in a mumbled rush, but instead of saying yes, she squeaks and screams and shakes her hand hard so the worm goes flying across the asphalt, and Brittany starts to cry.
Tina spins on her heel and glares at him. " Look what you did!"
Brittany scoops up the worm from the ground and prods him, great fat tears rolling down her cheeks and falling like raindrops onto her chubby upturned palm. Santana crouches by her, stroking her hair.
Without warning, Tina's hands fly up and push him in the chest – hard. He goes tumbling backwards and lands in a muddy, cold puddle. He's so surprised that all he can do is stare up at her as the freezing water seeps through his jeans.
" I'll never ever marry you Michael Chang! Not in a million billion years even if I live to be 100!"
She runs across the playground towards the swings, her banner of jet-black hair flying behind her.
On the monkey bars, Noah Puckerman hangs upside down and laughs.
XxX
By the time Mike's in 5th grade he likes Ohio. He likes school and he likes his teacher (it's okay now to be able to add up and take away, and well, it seems to be really okay that he knows all his multiplication tables too), and he sits next to Tina in class because his name starts with 'c-h' and her name starts with 'c-o'. They moved all their seats around when they learned about alphabetising.
Tina's Korean, which is why she didn't understand him back in Kindergarten before he knew about speaking English at school, but people still get muddled up and think maybe she's his sister. Especially Mrs Batt the music teacher who doesn't understand why Tina can sing along with the piano and sound real pretty in choir, but he just mumbles and blushes when she tells him to sing up.
Mainly he likes playing kickball with Finn and Noah at recess (Finn can kick it further, but he's fastest when he's running) or practicing kissing with Brittany and Santana behind the cafeteria. Brittany always tastes like cherry pop and it makes him want to lick his lips after. They take turns and for one recess Santana even lets him say he's her boyfriend, but then Brittany says she's going to make Noah her boyfriend, so Santana tells him they're through and the two girls spend the rest of the afternoon practicing cartwheels and handstands in the outfield.
He has to kiss Tina once, for the school play, but it's on the cheek and in front of the whole 5th grade, and everyone laughs and afterwards Noah and Finn make faces at him and call him 'gay'.
He vows never ever to kiss Tina Cohen-Chang, ever, ever again.
XxX
In the 6th grade they start Middle School, and Mike isn't in class with all his old friends any more. The only person he knows in homeroom is Brittany, who grew over the summer and now stands head-and-shoulders taller then him and sounds different when she giggles.
Middle school is also where he first meets Rachel Berry. They are in the same English class and she gives her presentations using multi-coloured index cards with gold star stickers pasted on the back. Her voice is loud and gives Mike a headache and he lays it down on his folded arms as she reads from her cards about Anne Frank and how she was all sad and tragic and how Rachel is really just like Anne Frank because they're both Jews and destined to be super-famous.
Noah Puckerman lands a spitball in the middle of Rachel's hair and makes her shriek, and Mike thinks it might be the most sensible thing he's ever done.
Mike's doodling on his notepad while Rachel screams and hollers and eventually flounces back to her seat, and then lifts his eyes when the next person gets up to speak.
Tina's hands shake as she holds her sheaves of paper, and her long, loose hair falls in front of her face.
" A-anne…uh…A-anne F-frank was a young D-dutch g-girl - "
A spitball goes sailing to the front of the classroom, narrowly avoiding Tina's cheek.
" Stutterfly!"
" Noah Puckerman! To the Principal's office, NOW!"
Noah stomps off with a scraping of chair legs and some obscene muttering, and the rest of the class smothers laughter beneath fingers and palms. Mike laughs with the rest of them until he looks again at the front of the class. Silent tears stream down Tina's cheeks and drip onto her notes, and he can see the carefully penned words smudge and smear.
Their teacher tries to make Tina continue her speech, but after a long pause, staring at the ocean of her peers, she drops her notes like scattering leaves and flees the classroom.
It's three years before Mike hears her speak without sounding terrified.
XxX
He's 13 when his growth spurt finally hits and he's tall enough to look girls in the eye. Some of his friends – like Finn and Noah and Matt from his Biology class – have already had a whole heap of girlfriends. They hold hands in the halls and kiss before homeroom and Noah swears that Santana even let him touch her boob in the middle of gym class. While Mike finds all of this interesting, it's all pretty alien to him too, because whenever he thinks a girl is pretty he gets all tongue-tied and his hands and feet seem to grow six sizes bigger, making him clumsy and awkward.
So instead of thinking about girls he thinks about State capitals and geometry and synonyms for 'shy', and to blow off steam he cranks up the music in his bedroom and watches videos on MTV.
When he's dancing, he can almost stop reciting – Albany, Annapolis, Atlanta, Augusta – and just let himself be.
XxX
In 8th grade everything changes when Quinn Fabray transfers to their school. Brittany and Santana adopt her – all three of them long-legged, wide-eyed and generally deemed the-hottest-of-the-hot – and Mike watches as two of his oldest friends fall head-over-heels.
Finn and Quinn are practically inseparable from the moment they meet and Mike realises pretty quickly that love seems to make guys blind. Finn doesn't even seem to notice the way Puck stares after his girl.
Silently, Mike does.
XxX
In 9th grade they go to High School, and it's almost as scary as Kindergarten all over again. The sea of cliques and clubs and expectations has a fierce, strong tide and for a few weeks he desperately just tries to keep his head above water until Matt drags him along to a football tryout. Mike's kind of skinny and Coach Tanaka eyes him warily, but his eye is good and when he gets the ball he's the fastest one on the field. He finds himself crowned – a prince among the mere mortals of high school – with a letter jacket and a place in the starting line-up.
The winter passes with him sprinting up and down the field as Finn throws, Matt stands his solid ground and the freshly-mohawked Noah ("from now on it's just 'Puck', dude, okay?") enjoys breaking heads with amnesty. From the sidelines the girls wave their pompoms and cheer and when he catches her eye Brittany gives him a wink and blows a kiss. She's a flirt, but Mike still sees her as the six-year-old who got frustrated with the ABCs, so he just waves back and spends his Thursday nights helping her study remedial Algebra.
It's a Friday night and practice is over and his Dad has a flat tire. The rain starts falling as he stands in the parking lot, so he retreats into the empty halls for shelter. Wandering, he starts momentarily when he hears music begin to play, but he follows it until he reaches the ajar door of the choir room.
A voice flows out – warm and pure - and crashes over him like a wave. He finds his foot tapping in time with the music, his fingers wiggling and playing the tempo against the rough material of his jeans. He shifts, and the door creaks.
The music stops.
Tina stares up at him from the piano, her skin creeping crimson from the low neckline of her black t-shirt to the apples of her cheeks. Her fingers still rest on the piano keys.
" Sorry," he finds himself saying, and meaning it. He wishes she would carry on, let her voice pick up the melody and fill the space between them.
It's been a long time since they've really spoken. In Asian community gatherings, vague friendly nods and waved hellos have sufficed in deference to the usual crowds of chatter and acquaintances and mix of languages. At school, their social circles are so different it's almost like she's on another planet – and he knows she has her own friends. He sees her all the time walking down the hall with the disabled guy – Archie? – or the girl with the big hair and the even bigger attitude.
Since the 6th grade she's gotten taller (he's hardly surprised), but is still shorter then him, and where she used to be flat planes and all skinny elbows and wrists, she's softened into gentle curves. He's a bit taken-aback to think of her as pretty.
" J-just practice," she says, pulling her hands back and dropping them into her lap, although she'd been doing something wrong. " F-for G-glee. D-do you need someth-thing?"
He shakes his head and feels terrible, as though by brute force he'd just knocked a fragile bird from its perch. Her dark gaze locks onto his from across the room.
When he gets home that night he puts in his earphones and dances until he no longer sees the burning in her eyes.
XxX
He's 15 when he first busts a move at a party. It's been a really long week; the team got crushed in their latest game and he's fairly certain he's failed his Spanish quiz. To blow of steam he's had a few beers, and so when MJ comes on the stereo he can't help himself – his body starts moving of its own volition. At first no one really notices, but then Brittany jumps up from where she's been necking one of the Seniors on the couch and joins in. Their bodies twist and move together, and they both laugh as he spins her around and then catches her again, his arms starting a wave that finishes with hers.
When they finish, they are both grinning and flushed and his heart beats hard in his chest. Santana golf-claps from the corner, unimpressed.
As he goes to grab another beer he runs – almost literally - into Puck. " Nice moves."
Twisting the top he takes a long drink. " Thanks." He's not exactly known for his verbosity.
There's a pause, and for a long moment Puck says nothing, his eyes fixed on a point just over Mike's shoulder. Turning, Mike sees Quinn and Finn just re-entering the party from one of the spare rooms. It's been a weird sort of few weeks – Finn shocked them all by joining the Glee club of all things, and the Cheerios, for some reason, had followed. Mike hadn't quite worked out all the motives, but then, he hadn't really given it a great deal of thought until Kurt Hummel had joined the football team and brought singing, dancing, and of all things – Beyonce – to the field.
Eyes hardening, Puck turns back to him. " So, what do you think about this whole 'joining the Glee club' thing?"
The look on one particular face when they walk into the room makes the whole thing worth it.
XxX
Glee is nothing but drama, but with the combination of Quinn Fabray, Noah Puckerman and Rachel Berry, he's hardly surprised. Add into that the cutting observations of Kurt Hummel and the burning sass of Mercedes Jones, and he's surprised anyone makes it out unscathed. And that's without even mentioning Santana.
So, for the first few months he's quite content to just keep his head down and hum along in the background, and hopes he'll have the chance to get his dance on at some point. He's not really expecting it to get to him as much as it does, but somewhere between babygate and babydaddygate and marijuana laced cupcakes and Vitamin D highs, it's pulled him in. When Coach Tanaka – sweating and veiny and as angry as Mike's seen him – forces them to choose between football and Glee, he barely gives it a second thought.
Time seems to race. His head is a rush of lyrics and choreography, and he finds himself falling asleep on his homework and his grades slip a whole letter before his parents start threatening to make him prioritize, at which point he promises to work harder.
Lunchtimes more often then not find him sequestered in the library, books around him, and with very familiar company. The first time Tina had dropped her bag down across from him and hugged her books to her chest. " I got a B- in my Chem test," she said by way of explanation, and they're twenty minutes through their silent shared study time before he even realised that she didn't stammer – in fact he hasn't heard her stammer for a while.
He watches her study – like he watches her sing, or dance, or talk and laugh with her friends – and wonders how she, of all people, has managed to get under his skin. She's dating Artie, he's pretty sure, because she smiles more when he's around. It lights her up and he wish he didn't notice.
But the thing is, he does notice. Like he notices when she sings, she's beautiful. And when she asks him to dance with her – not with the whole group, just with her – as part of their ballads assignment, he can't help but notice the way her body moves, and her grace. He dips her, looks her in the eyes and
WHAM.
He's gone.
XxX