A/N: Thank you for all the kind words. This is the first time I attempted a story like this and I'm glad you guys had such a positive reaction towards it.
I'm not a big fan of this chapter to be honest. It's a little odd, the ending's a bit rushed and I struggled a bit with tenses. But, I think, for the most part everything is in order. If it isn't please don't hesitate to tell me. And don't be afraid to tell me something you don't like about the story or my writing style, I'd love to hear it. I'm new at this so any sort of help is appreciated.
Tina's standing in front of the door to the Abrams' house thinking about how she should approach the situation. She can't just ring the doorbell and she had left her phone in the car. Looking around a bit for in hopes that something to spark an idea she realizes that Artie's room was on the first floor, which meant she could probably just knock on his window.
She walks around to the back of the house trying to make as little noise as possible and when she finds the room she's looking for she notices two things. His lights are on and he has his back towards the her.
She knocks on the window frame and he jumps in his chair clearly surprised by this. Tina lifts the window up (he seems to have this habit of keeping it unlocked) and smiles at him.
"Hey Tee." He greets rolling over. He's wearing a T-Shirt and Pajama bottoms, which is different from his usual attire. Tina knows he doesn't sleep in his suspenders and sweater vests but she supposes the thought has crossed her mind once or twice before.
"Hey Artie. Ready to go?" She whispers into the room.
"Yeah sure, but hey do me a favor and take my guitar." He whispers too, before twisting in his chair to grab his guitar from where it lay abandoned on his bed. He hands it to her before she even has a chance to answer.
It doesn't really matter though, she wouldn't have said no and he knew it.
She swings the guitar strap around her and Artie frowns a bit.
Tina's confused. She looks at the guitar on her back and wonders if she did something wrong.
"What?" She asks turing back to face him when she sees that everything is in order.
"Aren't you cold?" and then she realizes that his frown is actually just a frown of concern, and she feels something grow warm inside her at the thought.
She looks herself over and sees that she's also in her nightwear and that it's slightly chilly out, but she shrugs in response. She doesn't really want to drive all the way back home just to grab a jacket.
He's still frowning though. And then, without a word, he wheels over to one of his drawers and throws something at her.
It lands on her face and she has to pull it away before realizing it was a grey hoody.
"Well look at that. Artie Abrams owns a Hoody, who'd a thunk it?"
"Har Har." He responds and rolls away out of the room.
Tina laughs to herself before going back to the car. She opens the backdoor, carefully setting Artie's precious guitar inside before seeing Artie rolling out of the front door locking it behind him.
(She briefly wonders if she remembered to lock her doors.)
Artie pulls himself into his seat as Tina folds up his chair and stores in the trunk. They are both pros at this, they've done it a dozen times before.
It's only when she's settled inside the car that she tugs on Artie's hoody. It fits her quite snugly and it smells like him, even though she's sure she's never seen him in it before.
"How'd you get the car?" He asks as Tina starts the car.
"What my parents don't know won't hurt um." She answers.
"Well aren't you the little rebel."
"And don't you forget it"
Artie chuckles rolling his eyes, "so...where are we off to?"
Tina looks at the road and thinks for a second before answering "I have no idea."
"Well that's helpful." he remarks dryly
"Shut up." She laughs swatting him playfully.
He sticks his tongue out at her and she laughs even harder.
They drive out of the residential district and into the town singing along to a Beatles CD Artie brought with him. Artie points out a nice little 24 hour diner in the middle of "Hey Jude" and Tina stops the car as they go in.
The diner is completely unoccupied by customers because this is Lima for god sakes and not only that but this is Lima at 2 AM when no one's awake.
The waitress doesn't even try to hide her blatant stare as they seat themselves in a little corner table. She hands them the menu and gives Artie another curious glance before turning to Tina.
"Anything to drink?" She asks.
"Coffee?" Tina looks at Artie who shrugs. "Two coffees please."
"Alright, be back in a sec."
Artie raises an eyebrow at Tina "Coffee at 2 AM? That's an interesting choice."
"I'm not going to be sleeping anyway, no use being tired."
"Good point." He picks up the menu and skims it before responding, "I'm not all that hungry right now actually."
"Yeah me either." Tina answers, "The food doesn't look all that..."
"Yeah, I know." He interrupts,
Tina grins.
The coffee arrives then, interrupting their exchange. The woman huffs at them when they tell her they are fine with just the coffee and returns to her position behind the bar reading a magazine. The radio is turned up and John Mayer fills the small diner. Artie taps his fingers to the beat and Tina takes a generous gulp from the cup in her hands.
"Good?" He asks.
"Mmm Hmmm." She nods closing her eyes. "Absolutely yummy."
He takes a sip from his own cup and grimaces. "Egh, too bitter" he says reaching for a sugar packet.
"So..." Tina starts a few seconds later when he fixes his coffee to his liking, "How long have you been an insomniac?"
"Hmm?" He meets her eye a bit lazily, "Oh," He blinks at her twice before the question registers, "um, since I was eight."
Something immediately clicks in Tina's head, "But that was when-"
"The Accident yeah,"
Tina doesn't say anything so Artie continues on.
"After the accident I started having trouble sleeping, and sometimes when I did sleep I'd have nightmares. The nightmares went away after a while but I've been an insomniac since."
"And your doctors haven't said anything about it?" Tina's a little concerned.
"Well, no, I guess I should be more-" He pauses thinking it over for a second, "Okay, so I guess I'm not really an insomniac, I just -"
He pauses again, and shifts in his seat,
"It's not like I can't sleep, it's just that I don't sleep. You know?"
Tina nods, because she gets it. "It's just easier to call yourself an insomniac."
He smiles, "Yeah, that's exactly it. No explanation needed."
They lull into a nice silence both of them sipping their respective drinks until Artie interrupts.
"What about you? Why are you up tonight?"
Tina shrugs, not really sure herself, "Couldn't sleep"
"Okay..." He drags the two syllable word on longer than necessary "Any particular reason why?"
Tina shrugs again, "I don't know, I just didn't feel like sleeping tonight."
"Too many thoughts?"
"Maybe."
"Was I one of them?" He waggles his eyebrows.
Tina scoffs, "Pshh, no" yes.
He rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything, and Tina can't get over how nice this is. Everything feels so relaxed and comfortable with Artie and she never wants that to change. It just feels so right to be with him now, sharing a drink in the middle of the night.
They change the topic, talking about school, and glee club (mainly glee club). And how Finn seems to be less angry now than before and speculating where Quinn is living now.
Eventually, when the conversation slows down, Artie stretches a bit, rolling his neck around before reaching into his pocket, "We should go." He says
Tina chances a glance at the clock that read 3:05 and nods.
He pulls out some money but Tina stops him.
"Don't even think about it." She says pulling out her own money from the pocket of her sweatpants.
He shakes his head, "I got this."
"No, it's alright Artie, let me."
They bicker for a bit and then Artie offers a compromise. "Look, we'll do it this way, I'll pay for yours and you can pay for mine. Deal?"
Tina's smile is sweet as she agrees.
Artie replaces a chair he had tossed aside to make room for himself as Tina pushes hers in. The lady behind the bar throws them one last nasty glare as they leave and Tina is secretly glad they didn't tip her.
She looks over at Artie and sees that he feels the same way. They burst out laughing as the door closes behind them and Tina wonders what's going to happen next.