I do not own Glee! I have only watched one episode in it's entirety all season (Wonder-ful). Also Samcedes is/was my OTP but I can't deal with the fact there is still no explanation why or how they broke up. Meanwhile, Mikecedes is looking rather cozy so, yeah. Lemme know what you think.

Mike observed the rise and fall of Mercedes' chest as she lay in the crook of his arm and smiled to himself. He took in her smooth Godiva colored skin and marveled at how it slightly glowed, bearing evidence of their carnal activity and all the very adult things he had done with her. What he loved most was the observed contrast her smooth chocolate skin was next to his sun-kissed and perpetually tanned complexion. He found himself mentally moon-walking for having "put her to bed" before 9:00pm. He lay there fascinated with the way her eyelashes curled against the fullness of her round cheeks. Not a muscle in her face held any tension and there was just the faintest of smiles being made by her full lips. He removed a sweaty tendril of coily hair from where it lay plastered to her face and pulled it, watching it spring back before tucking it behind her ear. A gentle sigh escaped her as she cuddled deeper into his chest. He gently pressed his lips against her temple feeling his heart flutter as he did so. She was beautiful, but she still wasn't technically his.

In his 31 years of existence, Mercedes had been an active part of the past 26 and he still couldn't think of a proper title to give their relationship. Were they friends? Certainly. Were they lovers? It was difficult to argue the negative as their naked limbs were now entangled. It was also particularly hard to argue when they were actively co-parenting a rather precocious toddler in a home that functionally and legally belonged to both of them. Maybe it was because they never talked about it, never defining why or how they were so important to one another.

Ugh! How in the world had they ended up here in the first place?

Mike and Mercedes had been inseparable ever since that fateful day in kindergarten when Mike was doing his level best to cope with the idea of not having his father at home. Wherever one went, the other was right beside them. Mercedes would share half of her peanut butter and jelly with him and he would make sure she always had a turn on the swing. By the end of their first year of school together, they had already developed their own secret language (called Mirces) and would end up separated during nap time for giggling too loudly in the otherwise quiet classroom. The two never noticed the amused smile Ms. Spears, their teacher, would make at their antics as she told them quiet down; happy that the little chocolate girl could make the little boy smile again.

Michael Sr. returned home less than a month after he had left, looking somewhat haggard and more determined than ever to never be away from his wife and son again. Although Mike no longer needed Mercedes the way he did when their friendship began, her presence was nearly always requested. Their families were almost forced into a friendship as strong as their children's when they began to schedule regular play dates after school and on weekends to curtail the increased hyperactivity their children exhibited when their companion was not around.

The days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, the months into years and through it all; the two remained thick as thieves. Puberty, however, presented its own unique challenges. Mike was thirteen when he began to realize that his feelings for Mercedes were not as innocent as they'd been before.

Mike sat across from Mercedes at his kitchen table while each of them poured over their math textbooks preparing for a test the next day. He had looked up from his paper to see if she was ready to go over answers when he finally saw her. For the past few years, all the girls had started to subtly look more like women and Mercedes had been no exception. There were curves in places that made her look more like the women in his stashed away copy of Victoria's Secret than the preteen girl she had been just the year before. He was uncertain why he was even interested in those newly rounded parts of her but he couldn't keep his eyes away anytime he thought she wasn't looking. Immediately He shifted This was the first day he had been caught.

"Mike, why are you staring at me? It's weird," she asked although the tone not at all harsh and tinged in good humor.

"It's because you have boobs." he whispered shyly staring down at his hands. Any bit of dishonesty had long since been removed from their relationship and he knew that she would have read him had he tried.

"What did you just say?" a look of mixed confusion and amusement on her face.

"I think you should put on a jacket," he deflected as he got up from his seat and placed his jacket around her shoulders. "And maybe you should button it." He said reaching in and snapping all the buttons in place until there was no evidence of burgeoning breasts.

Mercedes stared at him blankly, "Are you serious right now?"

"As a heart attack, and maybe you should wear my jacket tomorrow too."

She rolled her eyes at him and went back to solving word problems, sure that whatever Mike's deal was would be resolved in time. Besides, she found overprotective Mike pretty funny.

Mike hadn't been the only one to take notice of Mercedes new curves, the guys at school had certainly begun to take notice. Mike wasn't so sure how he felt about that. He knew that she was a frequent subject among his friends on the football team at Lima Traditional Middle School, especially with Sam Evans,who had been persistently trying to get Mike to set him up with Mercedes for the better part of the school year.

Sam had inquired about Mercedes as recently as that day.

"Hey Mike!" Sam came running next to him, quickly falling into step beside him.

"Hey Sam. What's up?"

"Nothing much. You know the dance is coming up this Friday..." Mike paused in front of his locker giving Sam his signature side eye.

"Dude, you are not about to ask me out, are you?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Uh no. But I do want to ask Mercedes to the dance and I know you two always go to dances together. I don't want to cock block you man." Mike could feel his heart beat racing and the automatic tension in his shoulders and took a barely noticeable breath before answering Sam.

"I don't know dude. I mean, I'm fine with it," he lied, "but I'm not sure if Papa Jones would approve her going to the dance with a date. He's super old school." There crisis averted. No one would want to mess with Papa John's (who was actually a teddy bear but hid it behind a perpetually stoic expression).

"But he'd let her go with you, right?" Sam interrupted Mike's mental victory dance.

"Yeah."

"So it's easy. I ask Mercedes out, you pretend to be her date and voila. You can even be best man at our wedding." Sam grinned at Mike as though this was the best idea ever and Mike had to unclench his jaw in order to fake a smile. What eighth grade boy already planned his wedding anyway? "Will you just talk to her, please?"

"Yeah man."

Mike didn't like the idea of setting Mercedes up with anyone else but he couldn't quite articulate what was wrong with it. He had even planned on asking Tina Cohen-Chang to the dance in the first place, so it wasn't like he expected Mercedes to go to the dance alone. He told himself that he was just trying to protect her because they were close. He knew that was bullshit.

As an adult that lie wasn't going to hold up at all. Sure, he wanted to protect her but the reason was always a bit more complicated than the result of simple proximity. If he had been honest with himself, he would have acknowledged that he had probably been in love with her since kindergarten. There was no other tangible reason that he would risk a cootie outbreak to be around a girl, but he explained it away and was content to just be friends. That was before Sam. As planned Mike went ahead with the Sam's ridiculous plan and lied so that Sam could take Mercedes to the dance. From that day Sam had become a semi-permanent fixture in the Jones' home, first coming over to "study" with Mercedes and Mike and later on his own. When they got to tenth grade, Sam asked Papa Jones if he could have permission to date Mercedes (even though they had been "together" for years at that point) and Papa Jones (the traitor!) had agreed.

Mike couldn't stand it, but he was willing to endure anything to keep his position as Mercedes best friend so instead he learned excellent self-control. He learned to clench his jaw while being subject to double dates with the couple and the googly eyes they gave each other while at the table. He kept his eyes to himself when he saw Mercedes in her prom dress and even managed to pick up his jaw from the floor before his girlfriend saw him. When he caught Sam in bed with Brittney Pierce the summer after high school graduation, however, he took great pleasure in rearranging Sam's face even as the blond begged him not to tell Mercedes.

Mike had been looking for his coat at the house party hosted by Rachel Berry the summer after graduation. He really hadn't wanted to go, but Tina had insisted that it would be rude for them not to show up and at least say "hi." Tina had ended up having a little too much to drink and had asked if they could stay longer than originally intended. Completely sober and responsible, he had allowed his girlfriend her fun. But now that the party was coming to a close and with the exception of a few stragglers, nearly everyone had gone home. Trying to remember what room his and Tina's coats were in, Mike stumbled into a room with his best friend's boyfriend mid-coitus with Brittana.

Sam pulled the naked blonde from the seemingly unfazed couple and made quick work of rearranging his face. He was livid. He could not believe that Sam had the audacity to fool around on Mercedes. She loved him or at least she strongly liked him.

He didn't tell her. Sam explained how he had "conveniently" taken up boxing while Mercedes was out of the country on vacation with her parents and was able to explain away the lumps and bruises on his face. There was no way Mike could watch her face slowly melt into despair as she found out the boy she loved had cheated on her with the school garden tool. Instead he encouraged her accept the offer to Stanford and take a break from Sam. Eventually, she and Sam split ways realizing that the long distance would not be for them.

By the end of the summer he and Tina had split and by the spring of his first year Mike had transferred to UCLA excited about the increased commercial dance opportunities in LA and the opportunity to be closer to Mercedes. Fast forward to where he now lay with his best friend tucked safely in the crook of his arm and their daughter upstairs, he could not think of a place in the world he would rather be.

I have been working on this chapter forever, the next chapter has is already in the works and is from Mercedes point of view. There may be more sexy times. Lemme know what you think. :-)