Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 62nd cycle. Now cycle 63!

"One Day I Didn't Know"
(14/13yo) Mike/Tina
Chang Squared series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Most people made fun of her for her stutter. Mike wasn't one of those. Those who made fun would just say their words and walk away, but he saw what happened after, saw the looks on her face. It was all fun and games to them, but not to her, and so not to him.

They had known each other for years, as anyone would, when you went to school over the same years. This did not mean they would spend that much time together, although there had been plenty of occasions over the years, moments that made her into something other than a stranger. When it came to the two of them, there was an added factor in how they were both Asian, and both had the last name Chang. A lot of people would think they were related, which he guessed he couldn't blame them on.

He guessed he didn't mind it so much, didn't mind being connected to her in some way. Every once in a while they would get a chance to talk, and they could laugh about it. He liked when she laughed. It made her whole face light up and sometimes he swore it made her stutter start to go away when she was happy.

He hadn't noticed it all so much, not until recently, it had to be. He could almost say exactly when it had been that he stopped and realized he thought she was kind of cute. It was more than a passing glance, he'd actually been fixed on staring at her at one point. He hadn't realized he was doing it. They were in class, and she must have just had gym before, because her hair was still wet and he caught the smell of her shampoo. It was kind of fruity and sweet and it fit her well. The scent had been the thing to draw his eye, but then he would notice the way her hair was splashed about her. He saw the strands twisted along her back, leaving spots of water along her shirt. He saw the ones sticking to her arm, standing out in contrast and curved like a spiral. He saw the hair pushed behind her ear, which made it stick out, and then he could see her face, calm and listening…

And then the teacher had called on him. He'd nearly fallen out of his chair from surprise. How Tina had not caught him or realized he'd been staring at her, he wasn't sure, but he'd tried to put the whole incident behind him.

Then a few days later, he was at the mall arcade. He was supposed to meet a friend, only his mother had come and pulled him out of there by the arm, going on about how his grades were too bad for him to get to play at the arcade. The whole thing had been embarrassing, more for his friend than anyone else. But that left Mike there on his own. It wasn't so bad, he could manage by himself, especially once he could get on the dance platform.

He'd still been waiting on his turn when he first spotted her. She had come into the arcade, looking around like she had just decided to come in and now she didn't know what she would do. She went and got some change, and then she'd gone to a game. He was watching her again, and it wasn't a teacher who had knocked him out of his daze this time but the sudden sound of a bell going off nearby. A few seconds later, it would be his turn to get on the platform and play, so he would try and put the incident aside, focusing on the game.

Even when she would show up there and they would talk, he would act like he hadn't known the exact moment she'd walked into the place. It wasn't any kind of ruse or anything of the sort, he just… hadn't figured it all out yet.

It would be weeks, months more like it, before he was able to come to the realization he had been slowly but surely falling for her all this time. And he'd had no idea. He'd never felt that way about another person before. He was only fourteen though, so that was normal, wasn't it? How was he supposed to know that any one person could do that to him, simply by existing in his vicinity?

But it had been her, all along there had only been her. Tina Cohen-Chang was the only real proper girl in his life he would think about the way he did when he thought about her, like she was so special, much more than anyone else. He would notice all these things about her where he was lucky if he could remember some other girls' names. He hadn't even done it on purpose, learning these things, it had just happened, and he wasn't aware he was doing it, he just kept all of it stored in his mind, like a stash of secret awesome facts about the girl who shared his last name and was most definitely not related to him… He was counting on that, especially now.

If that day in class where he'd caught himself staring at her would come to count as the start of something, it would only be paving the way, because the first and actual moment that would signal a change for them would not too long after, in that arcade, when he would choose to go after her. At that point, he was still kind of figuring things out for himself. He was aware of how she made him feel and he was trying to hold on to it, but even then he really had no idea. He didn't know how much she already did matter to him, or how much more she would matter to him with the weeks and years to come.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!