...

An Artie/Tina fic

Chapter Four.

...

Disclaimer:Just a Gleek with nothing but the soundtrack and an addiction to the episode 'Wheels'

...

A/N: You guys are really great! I adore you all and I thank you for your reviews!

This week has gotten a bit rough and in consequence, chapter five is still under construction. It might be a day delayed. I am so sorry if it is. You know I'll be trying my best to get it done!!

Anyways, I hope you like this one.

PLEASE REVIEW! And enjoy!

She'd actually said it. All of it. Tina wasn't even sure what she was saying while she'd said it, but the words poured so effortlessly from her lips when he was before him that she didn't stop them. In fact, she hadn't really realized she was angry until then. Well, until she'd seen him outside on the ramp. She knew immediately that he was lying. First off, Mr. Shuester didn't come in on Thursday mornings. And second off, he was using his lying tone of voice. He thought he was so clever, watching his tone. But Tina knew him too well for that to work.

So she'd found him at her locker. She waited for him to notice her. And, when he did, in a very Rachel Berry fashion, she let him have it. Of course, her letting him have it never raised above a polite conversational octave, and she had a blank tone during almost the entire conversation. But what was most important were her words. And she knew he listened to the words.

The rest of the day, she saw him six times, but never once did he seem to notice her and she made no attempt at getting his attention. She would leave him to fume. She herself wasn't even sure if she'd be ready to talk to him if he approached her. She was actually a little angry with him. But she knew it would be short lived- she couldn't stay angry at anyone. And Artie was even more immune to her anger.

But now, as she sat in the Glee room off to the side by herself, she thought about it. Was she wrong in her anger? Did he deserve to hate her? She really needed a distraction, so she looked up to see none other than Mike approaching her. He was pretty quiet, for a football guy, and she'd actually enjoyed spending the small amount of time she'd spent with him working on the ballad. Now, as he walked towards her, he had an amicable smile and his hands were stuffed into his pockets awkwardly.

"Hey." He said, cheerily.

"Hey." Was the response. No stutter, but no staggering wit.

"You looked like you could use some company." He shifted awkwardly from side to side, looking at the chair beside her. Picking up the hint, she gestured for him to sit down, which he did. "Thanks."

"No problem. So…where's Brittany?" she asked more to make small talk than really wanting to know. She had thought they were an item of sorts, so she didn't think this question was too out of the ordinary.

"Um I think she went home. We broke up a few days ago so I haven't really talked to her…" He trailed off awkwardly looking at his hands.

"Oh. I'm sorry for bringing it up." She said, her tone soft and sincere. He shook his head, a smile spreading across his face.

"Nah, it's cool. It's not like we were to serious anyways. I mean, not that she isn't a nice girl, but half of the relationship was her rambling about Cheerios and the other half was me trying to help her with her homework, you know?" Tina nodded, a polite smile on her lips. She felt a little uncomfortable talking about Mike's dating life. Sure, they'd talked before, but they'd never really called each other friends, and now all of a sudden they were talking about his break up?

His eyes scanned her face and he chuckled dryly. "Sorry. You probably don't care much."

"No, I do!" she lied, straightening in her chair and looking at him a bit wide eyed. He looked at her knowingly, his eyebrow cocked and she sighed, laughing a bit. "Okay, no, I don't. But I guess I don't mind listening." He smiled at her again and she realized how attractive he actually is. He had a really nice smile.

A blush flooded her cheeks and she looked down again, her hair falling before her face, effectively hiding the pink. They sat in silence for a moment, but it wasn't terribly awkward. Then, out of no where, he delved into something she hadn't really expected.

"So, you seem to stutter a lot less lately…" The words hung in the air, and Tina looked at him, wondering if he'd actually said anything. The only hint was his expectant brown eyes, watching her, waiting for some sort of response.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Speech therapy, you know?" Mike just nodded. She knotted her fingers together awkwardly, as if she wasn't sure what to say. She looked up at him briefly, but when she saw him looking back at her, she immediately snapped her attention back to her lap, finding the frayed hem of her pants dreadfully fascinating. She heard him chuckle again and she ventured a look up to see him looking at Finn and Puck who were engaged in a rather rough and rowdy display of jock masculinity.

"No wonder everyone thinks us football players are meatheads." Mike commented, causing Tina to smile.

"Well you don't seem too meathead-ish to me." She said, and they looked at one another smiling.

"Yes, but I have the Asian genius to even it out, you see?" He said with a smirk. Tina laughed at that, like an actual, honest laugh. She knew all about people assuming that all Asians were freakishly smart. She loved Asian jokes, and it seemed Mike could appreciate them as well. When the laughter passed, she looked at him again to see him looking at her, but this time she didn't look away.

Their little conversation was halted by Mr. Shuester moving to the front of the class, clapping his hands together and looking at them for a moment.

"Okay, I think a run through of 'True Colors' would be a lot of help." He looked to Tina. "Do you think you're ready? I know I just assigned the song last week, but I'd like to see your progress."

Tina's face had gone very still and she felt oddly queasy. Stutter or no, she was still extremely nervous to do anything in front of people. As she stared blankly at her Glee teacher she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to Mike, who smiled reassuringly at her. Seeing his face, Tina suddenly felt more confident. She nodded, turning to look at Mr. Shue again. "Yeah."

The song sounded great, and the entire time she sang, Tina was smiling. She tried not to think of what words she was singing, or of who they reminded her of. Artie hadn't said anything her since this morning, and she was starting to expect that he wasn't going to. As she gathered the books she needed for tonight when she felt someone standing next to her. Mike stood there, smiling shyly. She smiled back, turning to face him silently.

"So, I hope this doesn't come off as too forward or whatever." He began rubbing the back of his neck nervously. She just nodded in encouragement. "But do you want to hang out together today? I was thinking we could study for that trig test together?"

Tina didn't know what to say. She'd actually already studied for that, but she didn't really care. She simply nodded, closing her locker softly and lifting her bag over her shoulder "Yeah. That sounds doable." She smiled at him again.

"Great! Do you want to study at yours or mine?" She wasn't sure what he meant for a moment, but she soon realized he meant houses. She laughed a bit, walking towards the front doors.

"Um, how about mine." She said confidently and he nodded in agreement. A they walked out the doors, he fished a set of keys from his pocket and singled out the key that was clearly to his car. She hadn't thought of the fact that he drove. Wordlessly, as if it was an unspoken assumption, he led her to his car, a pretty nice black sports crossover thing. He opened her door for her, smiling goofily.

"Your chariot, Madame?" He said in a phony accent with a sweeping gesture of his hand. It was corny, and Tina loved it. She blushed furiously and slid into the front seat of the car as he shut the door behind her. She laughed when he pumped his fist into the air when he thought she wasn't looking. She was really enjoying this.

After practice, Artie resolved to say something to Tina, to tell her what he'd realized. He wheeled himself off the stage, going the back way instead of the way the rest of the Glee clubbers went. He ran through exactly what he wanted to say to her as he rolled up the ramp, rounding the corner to see Mike walk up to her locker, smiling. He couldn't hear what was said, but he could sure as hell guess. After a few moments, the two walked out by themselves, and Artie didn't follow. Instead, he looked down at his lap, assuring himself that this was what was better for her.

End of chapter four.

OKay that's that one. Now I really must go finish chapter five and get it to my Beta!!

Hope it's tolerable! If not enjoyable!!

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

Until next time ...!