'Pay up.'

Sam pouted and turned his eyes to the laden Kraft services table.

'Could I not do it when there are fewer people around?' he asked in a voice that sounded dangerously close to a whine. Mercedes shook her head.

'Nope. A bet's a bet. Pay up, Hearthrob.'

Sam sighed and put down the bagel he'd just picked out for lunch to hold his hand out for Mercedes' iPod.

'Fine. Hand it over.'

Mercedes slapped the small, silver device into Sam's hand with a kind of sick glee, her eyes sparkling as she watched him scroll through its contents until he found something he liked.

'Ok.' he said after a minute, but instead of placing it back into her expectantly held out palm, Sam held the device close to his chest and went to go plug it into the large speaker system nearby that was rigged up to relay the director's instructions to the actors.

Mercedes raised an amused eyebrow as she watched him, and Sam smirked back at her.

'Do you want me to announce you or anything?' she asked him coyly, but Sam just shook his head.

'You just sit pretty, Little Star.' he told her primly, using the nickname she'd earned from the first read through on the movie set. It had started off as the less than friendly 'Little Screen Star', as Mercedes was primarily a TV actress making the crossover into mainstream movies by joining the established cast of a superhero movie. The rest of the cast had gently hazed her at the beginning, but now it was the last day of shooting and they'd all learned to treat Mercedes like one of the team.

Except for Sam. For some reason, her blond co-star was the only one that still seemed a little uncomfortable with Mercedes at times. He was generally fine once he warmed up to a conversation, but there were still moments when she'd talk to him and he'd just stare at her for a few seconds before he'd respond.

As they'd neared the end of the shoot, it had somehow gotten back to the cast that one of Mercedes' many past jobs had been as a professional sing-a-gram, and Sam had shyly suggested that she might serenade them all on the last day of filming. Hoping to get Sam out of his shell a little bit, Mercedes had proposed a bet instead. She'd told him that if he could prove himself a better shot than her during their firearms training, then she'd sing for the entire cast and crew, but if she beat him, then Sam would have to do it.

Sam had scoffed and in a rare moment of cockiness assured her that he would win, being as he was a 'traditional Southern man' and had already gone through the training once before for the previous movie. The look of open mouthed shock on his face when Mercedes' paper silhouette had come back with the four bullet holes clustered so tightly in the centre that they'd almost formed a single hole had kept a smile on Mercedes' face for two whole days. They'd all had their fun with her during the first few weeks of filming, and as far as she was concerned it was time for her to get a little payback.

Sam hit "play" on the iPod and the music started good and loud over the speakers as, one by one, various cast and crew members turned to look at what the cause of the commotion might be. Sam ignored them all, his eyes steady on Mercedes' as he started to sing the cheesy pop song.

'Oooh! Yeah-eh-eh-eh-eh- eyyyy! Wishin' on a fallin' sta-har…'

Mercedes' eyes widened momentarily at Sam's song choice, and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing outright when Sam affected his best Zoolander-style pout and threw himself into some pretty decent old school boyband moves.

'Never had to be on the movie screen, to be the leading lady in all my dreams!'

Sam had quite the audience now, but it was like he was performing purely for Mercedes benefit. He didn't even blink when Mike Chang, one of the stunt co-ordinators on the movie, jumped in and somehow knew the exact same choreography Sam was doing.

'Shooby-doo-wap and scooby snax!' Mike harmonised and Mercedes' hands came up automatically to clap out her delight.

'I met a fly girl and I can't re-lax, the only problem is she's a movie star!'

Sam lifted an arm to point at Mercedes as she practically squawked with laughter.

'Whoa… My friends,'

'They won't believe me!'

Mercedes definitely began to smell a rat when one of her co-stars, a guy name Noah Puckerman, skipped out from behind her and joined in on Sam's other side, perfectly in sync with the other two as he sang the next line. The three of them did a little bounce and step combo before sliding across the little triangle they'd formed to switch places.

'If they could only see me!'

Sam tipped a wink in Mercedes direction, and she threw back her head in laughter at the spectacle.

'At the risk of sounding cheesy,' Mike and Puck sang.

'I think I fell for the girl on TV!'

Cheers went up from the crowd when Kurt, the make-up guy, and even Finn, their sound man, jumped in for the next chorus, and whoops went up from the rest of the crew when all five of them nailed the choreography and harmonised perfectly.

Mercedes finally gave in to the full blown giggles that had been threatening from the first bars of the song when the movie's director, Artie Abrams, wheeled himself out from behind the camera and into the fray to take a surprisingly decent turn at the frankly horrific rap verse. Sam helped him out by adding helpful 'yeah,' and 'come on' adlibs in the background as the five of them continued dancing while Artie worked the crowd out in front.

The group did some more of their cheesy 90s boyband choreo as the song came to a close and quickly scooted back into the middle to fix their best soulful expressions into the middle distance as Sam sang the final line.

'Wishin', wishin' away…'

There was a huge roar of applause as the onlookers all clapped for the makeshift boyband and Mercedes cupped her hands to her mouth to amplify her whoops.

Artie tossed his fringe out of his eyes and gratefully accepted the megaphone he was handed by one of his assistants.

'That's a wrap on our heroes, Everybody!' Artie grinned at them all, as the crew applauded again. 'Thank y'all so much for your incredibly hard work, and I'll see you bitches at the wrap party!'

He handed the megaphone off to his assistant again and wheeled over to Sam, who was standing a little ways away, slightly out of breath with his eyes still on Mercedes.

'And you,' Artie added quietly, 'Just ask her out already, yo! I'm pretty sure the sexual tension that's been cracklin' between the two of you has made me pregnant.' Artie gave Sam a small shove of encouragement towards where Mercedes was standing, and the actor stumbled a little before he made his way over to her.

'So…' he said when he'd finally reached her, lifting a hand to rub nervously at the back of his neck. 'Um…'

'You'd make a pretty good boyband member.' Mercedes told Sam carefully, a bright smile lighting up her face as she looked up at him. 'I think you'd need better material though.'

Sam blushed and rubbed at his neck some more.

'The song seemed… apt.'

Mercedes head tipped to one side as she searched his face for any sign of teasing. 'You think you fell for the girl on tv?' she asked carefully, and Sam's blush crept even higher up his cheeks.

'We kind of all did.' he admitted with a shrug. 'The guys all heard I was going to serenade you and they all sort of… muscled their way in, uninvited.' Sam looked mildly peeved at that and Mercedes giggled at the put out expression on his face and poked gently at his firm chest.

'Well, I enjoyed it.'

Sam's face brightened considerably, 'You did? Well, um, I was actually going to ask you… uh… That is to say… seeing as we're finished with the shoot now…' Sam stammered out, his words getting jumbled as he tried to get his meaning across.

'Hey you guys!' Finn's large palm slapped cheerfully at Sam's back unannounced, stopping the blond's sentence dead in his tracks, but Finn didn't seem to notice. He'd turned his bright, enthusiastic eyes to Mercedes and a huge grin split his face as he began to shoot his questions at her.

'So, Sam finally asked you out, huh? He's been working up the nerve for weeks now, and all the guys have just been on him to ask you, but he just kept going on and on about keeping things "professional"'

Finn made the quote marks with his fingers as he turned to look briefly at Sam. He'd already turned back to Mercedes before he could catch Sam's silent plea to stop talking.

'I gotta say,' Finn went on happily, 'I'm not gonna miss all those conversations we had to have about you all the time. I swear, we barely talked about anything else!' Finn nudged one of his large elbows into Sam's ribs with a wink and tried to copy Sam's slight southern drawl, but it just ended up sounding like a cross between John Wayne and Dolly Parton.

'Mercedes is so beautiful.' Finn mimicked. 'Mercedes is so funny, and talented, and kind, and smart, and weirdly good with firearms… Do you think she'd be interested in me? Do you think she'd go out with me if I asked her?' Finn let out a short laugh. 'I guess we have our answer, huh?! Now that you've said yes, I mean.'

The tall brunette grinned down at them both, looking for all intents and purposes, like a large, dopey puppy. Sam sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead in exasperation as he carefully avoided the gaze Mercedes had trained on him.

'I actually hadn't asked her yet, man.'

Finn's face contorted into a completely ridiculous 'uh oh' face and he slowly began to pantomime tiptoeing away from the potential couple with the expression still frozen on his face.

'Carry on.' he whispered loudly when he was a few feet away. 'I was never here!'

He waved his hands in front of him as if that would somehow erase the past few minutes and his spectacular verbal diarrhoea before quickly disappearing off in the opposite direction.

Sam let out a deep sigh as he watched Finn's retreating back and turned back to Mercedes.

'So, um, I was wondering if…'

'I'd go out with you?' Mercedes supplied, the smile dancing in her eyes as Sam nodded shyly.

'Well, yeah…'

Mercedes grinned and leaned in to place a soft, gentle kiss on Sam's lips.

'Honey, I thought you'd never ask.'