A/N: I am honestly not a big fan of this chapter. There's something off about it. It's also longer than I originally intended it to be, it was supposed to be two separate chapters but it's not long enough to be split up so I figured one long chapter is better than two short ones.
They decide to go back and get the car, Artie mumbles something about the waitress vandalizing it, Tina laughs at his little remark but picks up her pace...just in case.
Her dad would kill her if he ever found out she borrowed his car in the middle of the night and she would be completely obliterated if he ever found out she was out in the middle of the night with a boy.
She hadn't really thought about it before but now she wonders what would happen if her parents decide to just pop in her room, it occurs to her that she probably should have thought this through before they went out on their little excursion.
"Hey Artie,"
He twists his torso around to face her, "hmm?"
"Er, I was wondering...what would happen if you got caught?" She asks sheepishly.
"Got caught doing what?" And he looks genuinely confused.
She briefly wonders how a boy so smart can be so clueless.
"Got caught out with me, tonight. What if your parents go into your room and find out you're missing?"
"Oh, uh I dunno. Why?"
"Why?" She echoes him incredulously "Did you seriously just ask why?" She stops pushing him, completely flabbergasted.
"Um...yes?" He spins his chair around to face her and then adjusts his glasses like he did when they had shared their first kiss.
"Aren't you afraid you'd get in trouble or something?"
Now it's his turn to be shocked, "You're worrying about this now?"
"Well, I was just thinking about my parents and then...oh nevermind, what's done is done."
Artie shoots her an amused (and slightly confused) grin at her before Tina spins him around and begins pushing him again. She can hear him mumbling something about how weird she is but chooses not the comment.
They approach a 7-Eleven and Artie notices a large black truck parked across 4 parking spots.
"Isn't that...?" his voice trails off as he gestures towards the truck.
Tina stares at the truck for a minute before it clicks in her head, "Yeah..." She says, she's curious too.
There leaning against the wall beside the entrance was a lone mohawked man. "Should we...?" Artie doesn't finish the sentence, he doesn't have to.
"No." Tina says shaking her head, "Probably not."
Puck's holding something in his hand, drinking out of it occasionally, Tina deduces from his stance that their fellow glee clubber wanted to be be left alone.
Artie nods his head, seemingly reaching the same conclusion. Tina pulls Artie's hood over her head and glances down as she pushes him past. Artie seems to understand, she wants to pass by unnoticed.
It doesn't work.
"What are you dorks doing here?" Puck's voice calls out into the night. He's squinting in their direction, but there's no real malice in his voice.
"Just passing by." Artie calls back.
Tina suppresses the urge to thump him on the head.
She doesn't say anything. As nice as Puck was during glee club, (and even then he was kind of an asshole) she hadn't really interacted with him outside of the club.
Puck snorts from where he stands, "It's like four in the morning."
Tina wonders why everything seems louder at night, because even though Puck is speaking at a normal volume it still seems loud and it kind of scares her.
Artie takes control of his wheels and rolls over to Puck, Tina wants to protest but reexamines Puck instead.
Her eyes widen when she realizes she read his stance wrong. Puck actually seems more thoughtful than intimidating (well, for now at least.) She just doesn't know him well enough to tell the difference at first glance. With this thought in her head, Tina joins the boys.
Puck's in his letterman jacket, one hand in his pocket, the other holding onto a bottle of beer. She can't read the label because his large hand is covering it.
"We couldn't sleep" She hears Artie in the background and her head twists to meet his.
He seems relaxed, Tina notes.
Puck shrugs in response. He doesn't seem to really care. Tina's eyes meet his face and she notices something that she didn't notice before. Puck's eye is bruised and swollen, and his lip isn't any better.
She looks at Artie in surprise. He notices it too.
"What happened to your face?" They ask at the same time.
"Nothing." He grumbles.
They shoot Puck identical looks of disbelief.
"I'm not supposed to talk about it." He sighs in defeat.
Tina's gaze once again meets Artie's who looks curious. They both silently agree not to ask. It's none of their business anyway.
"It's really freaky when you two do that you know?" Puck remarks
"Do what?" They both ask confused.
"That!" He exclaims gesturing his free hand at them, "It's weird."
The three of them fall silent for a while. The only sound accompanying them is the occasional swish from the bottle Puck is holding.
The longer they stand there in silence, the more awkward Tina feels.
Puck downs the last of his bottle and tosses it aside. It shatters on the concrete.
Tina jumps a little at the sound.
"Sorry." Puck apologizes, before finally moving away from the wall. He unlocks his car and throws something at Artie, it lands on his lap. "See you guys losers later." He says as he starts his car, but once again there's no spite in his voice. Before he pulls away he tilts his chin towards Artie and nods slightly.
Tina thinks she's missed something.
Puck zooms out of the parking spots faster than anyone should and drives away.
Once he's out of sight Tina looks over at Artie.
"What was that all about?"
He shrugs and holds up the bag on his lap. "Gummy bear?" He offers.
Tina laughs and accepts, he pours a small handful into her hand.
They continue their walk to the car, Artie rolling beside her this time. They exchange their theories about Puck's face. Tina believes Puck must have gotten into a scuffle with his football buddies. Artie disagrees and suggests that Puck was jumped by a bunch of woodland creatures. Tina could only shake her head at him.
They approach the diner and the car. Tina sneaks a peak into the diner and notices the unfriendly waitress sleeping right on the counter. She points this out to Artie who snorts. Once they get settled into the car, Artie reaches over and honks the horn several times.
"ARTIE!" Tina shouts attempting to bat his hands away, "STOP!"
The waitress charges out of the diner.
"Shit!" Tina curses, fumbling with the keys. She ends up dropping them.
"Hurry Tee!" Artie says, but he doesn't sound as scared as she was. In fact Artie seems to be enjoying this.
The waitress is about a foot away from the car when she finally gets the key into the ignition. Tina punches the gas pedal in a way that would even impress Puck. Artie laughs as he lurches forward.
Thank god for seatbelts.
The waitress chases the car and Tina runs a redlight or two before the woman is out of sight. Tina sighs in relief and slows down, allowing her to smack Artie upside the head.
"Ow!" He complains, his hands flying to protect his head, "What was that for?"
"I hate you Abrams." She sends her best glare his way.
"Oh come on, you know you had fun."
She says nothing, still glaring.
"Consider it pay back for the shopping cart."
She rolls her eyes and focuses on the road once more.
He's laughs again.
"Okay Abrams, where to?"
"Are you going to call me that all night?"
"Maybe."
This time, he rolls his eyes at her instead of responding. He takes this time to glance around the car before noticing his guitar.
"Wanna go to the park?" He says finally addressing her question. "We can bring my guitar."
"Sure, sounds like a good idea." She pauses for a second, "Abrams."
He groans and playfully shoves her.
"Woah, Woah, Woah! No distracting the driver, do you want us to end in a ditch?"
"You're driving, we're going to end up in the ditch either way."
She smacks him again.
They fall silent for the rest of the ride, listening to where they left off at on the CD. Tina briefly glances at the clock and realizes that it was much later - or earlier if that's the way you want to look at it - than she thought. Puck was right when he had said it was around 4 in the morning, but she had no idea it was almost 4:30 in the morning. School starts in a little bit, and she needs to return the car before her parents woke up.
But they still have time.
Tina parks and exits the car, pulling Artie's wheelchair out of the trunk and setting it in front of him before retrieving the guitar. She locks the car, and then together, they wander into the park. They find a nice park bench, Artie hands her the gummy bears that she forgot about before transferring himself to the bench. When he's settled she hands him the guitar but keeps the gummy bears.
And then he strums a familiar tune and she nods her head to the beat whilst chewing on the candies.
"Come on, sing!" he says nudging her
She shakes her head pointing to her mouth.
He nods and sings in her place. His low voice soothing as the first verse of "True Colors" is sung.
She joins him in the chorus.
They do a rather bad rendition of it, to be honest, because they're too busy giggling and joking around to actually sing it well. They don't really care though, they're having fun and that's all that matters.
The two of them sing four or five of their glee songs together, and Tina thinks that if Rachel were listening to them right now they'd probably be scolded for not taking the songs seriously.
Artie's in the middle of singing Tina's audition song "I Kissed a Girl" and Tina's in the middle of laughing when she spots someone jogging towards them.
Artie continues to sing as Tina tries to identify the person.
The jogger sees them and abruptly stops pulling out her earbuds to listen to Artie's attempt at Katy Perry.
It's Santana, and her perfect eyebrow is arched in their direction. Artie doesn't notice, he's been singing with his eyes closed.
Tina motions for Santana to join them surprising the both of them, and she does, a bit cautiously but she does.
When Artie finishes singing he's shocked to find Santana standing by Tina.
"What are you singing?" She asks laughing.
Artie flushes beat red, he looks like a deer caught in the headlights.
Tina decides to spare him any further embarrassment by explaining "We're singing our audition songs."
"He auditioned with Katy Perry?" Santana says in disbelief.
"Nope, that would be me." Tina says before Artie can even respond.
Artie just nods, a little too enthusiastically.
"What are you two doing up so early?" Santana questions
Artie opens his mouth to respond but Santana stops him, holding up her hand, "Wait," She says, "What are you two doing up so early in your pajamas?"
"We couldn't sleep." Artie explains.
Tina feels like they've said that phrase a million times in the last couple of hours.
"What are you doing up?" Tina asks.
"Oh." Santana says, she shifts her weight leaning on her left side instead of her right. "I like to run before school."
"Isn't it kind of early for that? It's still kind of dark." Artie inquires
Santana shrugs, "Early Cheerios practice" is all she offers.
Tina and Artie accept this answer as an awkward silence settles in.
"So..."Tina starts, attempting to break it, "What was your audition song?"
"Oh, I uh, auditioned with Quinn and Brittany, we did 'Say a little Prayer'"
Artie brightens up and strums the first few chords to the song.
Tina shoots Santana an encouraging smile. She doesn't know the song, so she sits back as she listens to the other girl sing. She never realized how well Santana sung until now. The cheerio usually just blended in with the rest of the ensemble.
"You have a pretty voice" Tina compliments when the song is over.
"Thanks." And it sounds genuine,
"You should sing more" Artie pipes up
Santana smiles,
Artie offers her the handful of gummy bears he has in his hands. She declines, he shrugs, "More for me." He mumbles before proceeding to eat them. He doesn't eat the red ones though, instead he hands them over to Tina.
They're her favorites.
Santana watches the exchange curiously before glancing down at her watch. "I should go." She says, "See you at glee."
And just like that, she's gone.
"Well." Tina says, "That was,"
"Weird?"
"I was going to say awkward but yeah, weird works too."
"She wasn't as bitchy as usual."
"Yeah, she was surprisingly nice."
"That's why it was weird."
"I think you're right. Bitchy cheerio Santana I know how to deal with but nice Santana?"
"It's a whole different ball game."
"Yup."
The conversation dies and Artie absentmindedly plucks the strings on his guitar as he stares out into space. Tina wonders how he can play so well without even thinking about it. She watches him for a while, so unobservant of her surroundings that she doesn't even notice how the sun was starting to rise slowly and the darkness ebbing away.
"Tina," he's whispering.
"Hmm?"
"We should head back."
She looks around and notices how the night had undoubtedly turned into morning and agrees. The streetlights are still on and it was still kind of dark but she could see the sun peaking out dimly from the horizon.
They trudge (well she trudges, Artie just wheels) back to the car and start on their way home.
She doesn't really want it to end, and she can tell he doesn't either. She drives a little slower than she has to and a few cars actually join her on the road. She wants to delay the end as much as she can.
Artie doesn't complain.
It's almost six when she reaches Artie's house and the streetlights on his block flicker off as she walks him to the door. The whole world is waking up now.
"Tonight was fun." He says quietly in that cute dorky tone of his. He doesn't want to wake his parents
Tina leans down towards him, smiling. "Thanks for staying up with my Artie."
"Anytime." He breathes.
She hugs him and kisses him on the cheek, then turns around to leave.
Artie doesn't let her, he catches her wrist and pulls her back to him before capturing her lips in a kiss.
It's better than the first kiss. This one is longer and sweeter and Tina is completely surprised. She fully intended to just leave, too shy to initiate the kiss she wanted, but she can't lie to herself and say she didn't hope that this night would end in a kiss. It almost seemed wrong to end without one.
Apparently he feels the same way.
A/N: I didn't originally intend for Artie and Tina to kiss. But I couldn't let it go without a kiss, especially after that promo? I just had to do it.
There's one last chapter, an epilogue of sorts.
