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An Artie/Tina fic

Chapter Three.

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Disclaimer: Nope. Still haven't miraculously woken up as Ryan Murphy. Damn…

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A/N: Wow… You guys are great. Thank you all for your offers to be my Beta. I really appreciate it! I did actually decide on someone. Thank you to doxthextimexwarp for all the fantastic help!!

Now, I know that a lot of you are tired of Artie's little tantrum. I know I was too. But I think you'll enjoy the turn he takes this chapter. Now Tina… I can't quite be sure.

PLEASE REVIEW! And enjoy!


The drone of the alarm filled the room, and a groan could be heard from under the massive mound beneath the duvet. With a frustrated sigh, a tousled head of ebony and cerulean hair popped out, looking up at the clock face with a ferocity rivaled by lions. Tina didn't like mornings. At all. With a swing of her arm, she dropped her hand atop the clock, silencing its demands for her to wake up, and slid to the edge if the bed, slowly standing on her feet. She shuffled to the door to her bathroom, the only fabric covering her torso being an over sized t-shirt that halted mid thigh. As she cranked the water on in the shower, she sat against the counter, looking over her shoulder at her reflection. Her hair was a mess, slightly frizzy and bordering the line between bed head and sex hair. Pouting her lips, she placed one hand to the side of her head and arched her eyebrows, lowering her eyelids in a manner that screamed 'come and get me'. She giggled at herself and her sex-me-up face, turning around again to see steam curling out of the top of the shower curtain. Taking it as a sign that her shower was ready, she shimmied out of her pajamas, stepping behind the curtain. As the warm water poured over her body, she breathed in deeply, letting the steam rouse her bring into full functionality.

To say Artie's night had been restless would be an understatement. As he lifted himself, fully-clothed and ready for the on-coming day, he caught his reflection in the mirror, He looked much like he did every day, and most people would think nothing was wrong, but he saw the darkness beneath his glasses and knew that anyone else who knew him well would notice them as well, picking up on the fact that he had gotten little to no sleep. There was hardly anything he could do, though, so he simply wheeled himself into the kitchen for breakfast.

Artie got through breakfast without too many questions about last night. He wasn't exactly ready to divulge into what happened. He wasn't even sure he wanted to think about it. But he should have known that his mother wouldn't let him get off without explaining the bags under her eyes.

"Arthur, sweetie, are you alright?" Her voice was nurturing as she handed him his lunch. "You look like you barely slept last night."

"I'm fine mom. Just had a bad dream." The answer was short and it wasn't a lie. He began wheeling himself out of the house, but his actions were halted as his mother leaned over him.

"Alrighty sweetheart." She cooed, leaning over and pressing a doting kiss to his forehead in her very June Cleaver-esque way. Cringing Artie sighed.

"Mo-om…" He protested. From behind him, he heard his brother, Chuck, laugh, but soon their mother directed her affections in the younger boy's direction, and he, too, retreated, making a sound that depicted his overly apparent dismay.

"Mom! We're not babies." The eighth grader mumbled, pushing his brother out the front door and down the driveway.

"Bye Arthur! Bye Charles!" She called after them before closing the door. The duo simply rolled their eyes, exchanging knowing looks. Artie lifted his hand to point at a smudge of lipstick over his brother's brow, and the younger boy wiped it away with a frown. They both chuckled and they headed down the street together until reaching the stop sign where they parted ways. Chuck stopped and waited for the bus to pick him up while Artie continued on to school on foot (well, on wheels).

As he was rolling towards McKinley High, a familiar figure turned a corner, walking down the sidewalk before him. It was obvious Tina was listening to her iPod, because her voice wafted back to Artie as she sang to herself. She wore red checkered pants that were torn off at the knee, pockets lined with studs and safety pins, a black shirt that was merely scraps and a white tank top underneath it. On her arms were black studded arm warmers, and she wore her favorite boots. Artie couldn't help but admire the girl's outfit. She had very eccentric tastes, but she always managed to pull it off. And she looked good at the same time.

He thought about calling out to her, but decided he wasn't ready to talk to her just yet. So- he followed a bit behind her until they reached the school. Mercedes and Kurt were on the front steps, practicing their 'la's when they saw them.

"Hey Tina. Hey Artie." Tina waved at her name, but when Artie's name was mentioned, she looked at the diva, confused. Then she turned around, looking at him. The look on her face made her thoughts clear; she was wondering how long he'd been behind her.

Artie smiled at the trio politely, wheeling past them. "Hey, I have to meet with Mr. Shue before class, so I gotta go. See you guys later." He said, his tone blank, exposing no emotion whatsoever. He tried to avoid looking at Tina directly, but he knew she saw his face as he wheeled by, and by the tentative step she took behind him, he knew she noticed how tired he looked. But she said nothing, so he simply kept going.

Artie actually didn't have to talk to Mr. Shue. He just couldn't handle talking to Tina. He knew he was being a baby, but he felt very fragile at the moment, the combination of the confusion about what to do next and the sleep deprivation was causing a heavy fog to wrap itself around his brain. He really just wanted to be left alone today to just float through the day peacefully and then head home for a nice nap. Smiling to himself as he fished the books from his locker, he knew it was going to be a long day. He had only gotten to school a few minutes ago and he was already thinking about a nap. He grabbed his Thursday books before closing his locker, turning to wheel off to some secluded place no one would come to find him. But when he looked ahead, he jumped. There in front of him was Tina, blocking his way.

"Um, excuse me. I have to-"

"Don't tell me you have to meet with Mr. Shue, Artie." She said softly, but her tone biting. He looked up to her face to see if she was angry, but what he saw he couldn't quite read. "It's Thursday. He doesn't have a first period on Thursdays so he comes in late." Of course Tina would know that. Artie knew he should come up with an excuse, but he couldn't, so he just didn't say anything. The silence stretched for a few moments, and he shifted uncomfortably under his companion's unwavering stare.

"So are you back to hating me again?" Her voice finally broke the silence. He looked up at her, surprised at her words. "Are we going to forget that anything happened last night? Because I sure the hell wouldn't mind forgetting about you… finding out." The words sounded as if she should be angry, but her voice held no quiver of emotion. Artie opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say, but she forged ahead.

"If you don't want to forgive me just yet, I can understand that. No, actually, I can't." He couldn't look at her while she spoke. "I don't know what you want me to do, Artie. I thought it best you know: I wanted you to know the truth. I thought you'd understand. And last night I was pretty sure you did. But now, I'm not so sure. I mean how long were you following me? And lying? Really?" She shook her head at him, and he watched her feet shift, taking a step backwards. He looked up at her once more as she turned to walk away.

There was nothing he could say. He could only watch her walk away. Just as he was about to walk away himself, she turned around once more.

"I just… I thought I was more than just a girl with a stutter to you. I thought there was more to our friendship." Finally, the emotion filled her voice, and he saw the pain in her face. He suddenly realized that he'd hurt her in his anger. As she walked the rest of the way to class, he could only seem to sit there and watch.

His classes passed in a daze. And before he knew it, it was three thirty, and Artie was in the Glee room. He hadn't said anything to Tina, but not because he was angry, but because he didn't know what to say. As his peers around him chattered and gossiped, Artie stared at his hands, thinking.

Why did it matter whether or not Tina had a stutter? It's not as if he really ever even noticed. Maybe at first, but after a while, he noticed other things about her, like how she pouted when she was figuring out a really hard question, or how her laugh got quieter the funnier she thought something was. How she wore shoes that looked incredibly heavy but never tripped, or how she made funny faces in a mirror when she thought no one was looking. After seeing all the little things, the stutter was just not important.

So why was he so angry she didn't have one? Yeah, sure, part of it was the fact that she lied. But he wasn't the angry type, or the type to hold grudges. And if he was honest, he'd long forgiven her for the lie. But what bothered him the most was that now she was normal, while he was still the cripple.

He thought about the chair, how it pushed people away. How it forced people to actually try to get to know him. Would he prefer to be normal? To be out of the chair? Of course, but more for the ease of things then for the opportunity to be popular. More because if he wasn't in a wheelchair, his mother wouldn't feel guilty and the Glee kids wouldn't have to put on a bake sale to get a special bus. Not be popular for the sake of having a whole lot of friends. Because he liked his friends. He liked having Kurt and Mercedes and the rest of Glee. But most of all, he liked…no, loved having Tina.

But if she didn't have a stutter, didn't have something that had exiled her in the first place, they wouldn't be friends. She was beautiful, smart, and really funny. If people hadn't judged her the second they heard her talk, then she would more than likely have become popular, thus never giving Artie the opportunity to be her friend. Now that she was normal, would she forget about him? Would she realize she didn't need to be friends with the cripple because he was the only one who would talk to her?

Suddenly it became clear to him. He realized the clawing feeling at the base of his stomach when he'd heard Tina talk so flawlessly wasn't anger or betrayal. It was fear. He was scared of losing her.

Artie looked up, his eyes snapping almost instinctively to where Tina sat off to the side. There was a beautiful smile on her face, one she'd graced him with so many times before. But she wasn't smiling at him. She was smiling at Mike. The football goon was clearly saying something funny, and as they both began to laugh, a gut-wrenching wave of jealousy washed over him.

Suddenly, he realized that he could have had her. Before the kiss and before the confession. He realized that from the beginning he could have been more than friends with Tina. He thought back to freshman year, a few months into their budding friendship.

Artie sat motionless in the cafeteria, purple, sticky slush dripping from his face and pooling in his lap. His eyes were shut tight, and he could hear the cheers andhigh-fives as the football jock rejoined his friends. He also heard a gasp off to his left, surely from Tina, who was talking about one of her classes before they were so rudely interupted.

"Hey, Stutterfly." One of the bafoons called over his shoulder. Artie didn't move, but he felt Tina tense beside him at the use of her knew, uninventive nickname. "Why don't you get yourself a real man. You know, one with fully functionng parts?" The pack hooted with laughter, knowing that both Tina and Artie would know that this was a joust at him and not her. It was far more insulting in their mind that they thought he didn't even deserve a girl that was as much of a social leper as he was. And the jab did hurt, but not because he wanted to do better than Tina, but because what if she realized they were right? Who would he have if she left.

He heard her turn away for a moment, and he was pretty sure he'd followed them. But when he finally opened his eyes slowly, there she was, crouching before him.

"Y-you ok-kay?" she asked, a concerned smile on her face. He grinned, happily, nodding, and she shifted, showing the paper towels she must have fetched from her locker. As she pressed them to his face, sopping the sticky mess off of his face, he couldn't miss the pounding in his chest.

It was the first time he realized he actually liked Tina as more than just friends. But he convinced himself that she couldn't reciprocate the feelings, that she wuldn't like him back, and he decided he'd rather be a friend to her and keep his feelings silent than to speak up and lose her completely. But now, because he refused to say anything, he had lost her like he always feared.

What was that song again, by Sting?

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone.


End of chapter one.

I love this pairing *sigh*

Yeah... I went there. I put the Asians together!

More tomorrow!

Hope it's tolerable! If not enjoyable!!

Like I said before, reviews are appreciated, positive or negative.

Until next time ...!