A/N: Again, another scene where I thought Mike was being unreasonable to Tina but didn't get called out on it, from "Props". Also, because I think Tina deserves a standing O on her own, not as Rachel Berry in her head. AU where body swap doesn't happen. AND before you call me out on it, I can't find Tina's speech to Rachel anywhere, so I know it's not exactly what she said, but the summary will have to do for now until I do find it and update it.
Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Glee, but I have taken the liberty of using lines from "Props", which I felt was a good episode on the whole. I don't own the song I used either—which you will find out in due course.
Artie was only a few lockers away when he heard Rachel's supercilious tone. He was only taken aback for a second; granted, he hadn't heard her use that tone in a while, but he still remembered the days when it was normal to just tune her out.
What surprised him was Tina's raised voice.
"I'm being selfish? When is it going to be my turn? I am one of the original Glee club members. I have sat in the back for three years. And all I want is to shine like you get the chance to, every day!"
He watched as she turned briskly on her heel and stormed down the hallway, leaving a stunned Rachel behind.
He also saw that her steps faltered a little, as if she knew she was supposed to storm away but hadn't quite managed to work up enough anger to pull it off.
He hadn't seen it in years, but he knew what that meant.
He had been in Rachel's shoes once, watching her back disappear down the hallway helplessly.
Before he knew it, he had rolled up to Rachel's side.
"That was a feeble excuse and you know it, because deep down you know she's right," Artie said, pushing his glasses up his nose with one hand.
Rachel blinked and looked down at him, automatically opening her mouth to argue.
He held up a gloved hand.
"Cut the self-righteous crap, Rachel. I know you guys aren't the best of friends but you should know her well enough that she wouldn't say anything unless it was really important to her."
Artie gave her a sideways glance.
"I just thought you were over the I'm-better-than-everyone spiel by now."
Rachel's cheeks colored.
It didn't take long for Artie to find Tina sitting on the stage of the auditorium, her legs dangling off the edge.
"If you were planning to pull a Rachel Berry, you'd be standing in the center of the stage already, belting out 'I'm Not That Girl'."
Tina's head shot up at Artie's wry words.
She gave him a watery smile.
"Rachel's not blonde."
He shrugged.
"And it's too perfect right now, it would feel weird," she said softly, and he felt as if he had been punched, seeing her sorrowful expression.
"You could still sing something. I'd jam with you on the guitar if you want me to back you up," Artie offered, rolling onto the stage.
He hesitated.
"You know, like we used to."
The words hovered in the silence of the empty auditorium.
Tina stared down at her hands, spread out in her lap, for such a long time that he could swear he could hear the clock ticking.
He thought about taking back his offer but something held him back.
"Okay."
It was so quiet that he almost missed it.
"Okay," he echoed her as she hauled herself up gracefully, her hair swinging. He turned to grab a guitar sitting on a stand in the wings.
Tina stopped just shy of the center of the stage, her eyes nervously flitting to him as he arranged the guitar comfortably in his lap.
He motioned her to go ahead. He wasn't that good at playing—Puck and Sam were better players than he was—but somehow he knew with certainty in that moment that whatever song she chose, he would be able to follow along.
They had never needed many words to understand each other.
She closed her eyes.
"When the rain is blowing in your face,
And the whole world is on your case,
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love."
Artie felt his breath shudder out of him the second she started singing.
Of course she would choose this song.
"When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love."
He had never forgotten the first time he had managed to hear her singing. It had been several months after they had begun hanging out, a year before they had joined Glee; they had swapped music almost immediately after they had met, but she had clammed up every single time he had casually mentioned singing together that he hadn't pushed it.
He still didn't know what had made her do it.
They were listening to the radio one rainy afternoon as they did their homework, the steady scratching of pencils across paper comforting in the brief silence between songs, when Adele's latest cover started playing. Artie hadn't noticed Tina humming along at first, but when she started singing under her breath, he tried to carry on working, not wanting to scare her.
When he finally dared to look up from his worksheet, his breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. She looked so brittle in the darkening light, tragedy written across her face as she tilted her head to the side, her hair a dark splash across her skin.
He had never seen her look so vulnerable that he felt he was intruding on an intensely private moment, but he couldn't look away.
She suddenly turned to him, and Artie felt the instinctive urge to shrink from her clear, scrutinizing gaze, knowing he had been caught staring. He didn't want her to close herself off from him, or worse, feel embarrassed, but he didn't break their gaze.
He didn't know why, but he knew she hadn't wanted him to listen to her sing for a reason.
It shocked him when Tina's eyes had softened instead.
She nodded slightly, almost as if to herself, before she raised her voice.
It made Artie's head spin.
Artie blinked, gently starting to strum along as Tina's voice swelled. It had been a long time ago, but somehow the past and the present seemed blurred together in his mind.
"I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong.
I've known it from the moment that we met,
No doubt in my mind where you belong."
As Tina's voice dropped back down, Artie felt the awe rush through him as he had that winter afternoon. When Tina sang, every single word was full of meaning; the raw honesty in every inflection still felt like a privilege to him, a brief interval of time when she let all of her guard drop. Time hadn't changed anything.
"I'd go hungry; I'd go black and blue,
I'd go crawling down the avenue.
No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love."
Tina swayed to the music, staring out at the empty seats in front of her as she braced herself to belt out the next stanza, one hand raised in the air.
"The storms are raging on the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret.
Though winds of change are blowing wild and free,
You ain't seen nothing like me yet."
She too remembered that afternoon when she had felt compelled to sing not just the song, but for him, quietly working beside her—for the warm patience that had filled the room.
She had never been more nervous in her life when she realized he was listening to her sing, but she had never been more determined to try. In that split second, she had realized she had never needed to fight to be heard with him. He had always just listened.
She felt a rush of bitterness course through her, followed by the sting of hollow loss.
"I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn't do.
Go to the ends of the Earth for you,
To make you feel my love"
Her voice dropped down to a whisper.
"To make you feel my love."
The last chord faded away, and Artie hovered, not wanting to break the thickening silence. He settled for carefully setting the guitar down gently on top of the piano stool next to him.
He was considering whether he ought to leave Tina to her thoughts, when she abruptly spoke, her voice ragged.
"Do you think I'm being unreasonable?"
It was a quiet question, but it rang with uncertainty.
His response was immediate.
"No."
Her eyes flew to his, glittering with unshed tears in the dark of the auditorium.
"For what it's worth, I notice you."
She suppressed the urge to sob.
It was so cruel that Artie was here now, when he hadn't always been in the past, saying all the things she wanted to hear but didn't want to say she needed.
In a perverse way, she felt as if she wouldn't want to hear them anymore if she had to ask to hear them.
Why did he have to know her so well?
She thought briefly of her cell phone, shoved back into the depths of her bag after seeing the rapid series of texts Mike had sent her, chastising her like a petulant child bawling for sweets.
He didn't get that it wasn't that she just wanted attention, that it was so much bigger than that. In a fundamental way, Mike would never truly get her. She had accepted that. He had always belonged somewhere. She hadn't.
"You know, your timing was always off."
Artie's voice broke into her thoughts, and she bristled.
"It's not that you're wrong, your instincts are usually right. I know you thought you were done fighting."
To belong. It went unspoken, but they both knew it.
Who would have thought that shy, happy-go-lucky Tina would end up having to fight for her place in Glee club, of all places?
"I'm not telling you to lie down and take it. It's just, Tina," he watched as she fidgeted in front of him, her shoulders hunched.
"It's Nationals, it's our shot at what we've worked for, all these years. It sucks to hear, but you can't afford to pull a Rachel sulk. We can't afford it. And it's not really your style."
She scoffed, but Artie plowed on bravely.
"You have to make them see what you need, right now, without skirting around the issue. Like you already did. Like you always do."
Tina didn't move.
"Just think about it," Artie said quietly.
As he left the auditorium, he thought he saw a glimpse of that tragic beauty he had seen on Tina's face that afternoon once more.
Only this time, he could've sworn she was smiling through her tears.
When Tina walked into the choir room the next day, she was met with a barrage of questions.
When she ignored them all and requested firmly to sing, Artie smiled.
When she blasted out that same song, accompanied this time on the piano, he couldn't keep his eyes off her.
And when everyone stood up to applaud her afterwards, he couldn't have felt prouder.
All I ever wanted was a song.