A/N: hello! so i really wish we were seeing each other again in different circumstances but alas, after seven years since glee has ended, i have unfortunately regressed back into my gleek phase! i did a full rewatch a couple months ago and it turns out i still haven't moved on from how dirty tina & mike were done on glee. and while i wish that i wasn't an adult thinking and writing about glee in the year 2022, i don't think i'll be able to rest until i get these all out to the world. so here are a bunch of scenes and plot lines that i've convinced myself happened throughout the show and in between seasons! and before you think about leaving a comment going "actually there's no way that happened" or "[this other episode/scene/line] proves that this couldn't have happened" just know that i honestly don't really care that much. sorry! (but please do leave comments & reviews, i do appreciate them all!)
this will be tina and mike centric but there are also some sprinklings of other ships & friendships throughout. i don't think there will be something from every episode especially when we get to the last three seasons but then again my love for tike is based 75% on my own imagination so there will still be quite a lot. and so without further ado here's basically all of my tina and mike headcanons! hope you enjoy but even if you don't, that's okay, because i did this for my own peace of mind, so that i can hopefully start to heal! anyways, starting off with scenes from pre-pilot - pilot!
and disclaimer: I don't own Glee - I would never do what they did to Tina and Mike.
2002. The bright sun illuminates the warm, summer morning and shines down on the large group of Asian children gathering with their parents as they prepare to load the bus that will bring them to summer camp. Despite the early hour, the children are all bursting with energy and excitement in anticipation of spending this next month away from home. For some children, this would be their first time spending summer at camp, while for most of them, this is an annual tradition that they look forward to every year.
Judi Cohen-Chang guides her 7-year-old daughter, Tina, out of their car and helps her take out her overnight bag. She reaches for Tina's hand and leads her towards the other children but stops when she feels her daughter tugging on her arm.
"Mommy, I'm scared." Tina squeezes her mother's hand and looks at her with wide eyes. "What if the other kids don't like me and I don't make any friends?"
Judi crouches down to look her daughter in the eye. "You have nothing to worry about, okay." Judi cups Tina's cheek and gives her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you'll have no trouble making new friends."
"You don't know that," Tina mumbles with a pout as she looks down, kicking the dirt beneath her feet.
"Yes, I do. Oh, look over there, I see the Changs waving at us." Judi waves at them before taking Tina's hand and approaching 8-year-old Mike Chang and his mother, Julia. "Tina, you remember Mike and Dr. Chang? Say 'hi'."
"Hi Dr. Chang, Hi Mike," Tina says with a shy smile.
Mike shines a bright grin in return. "Hi, Tina! Hi Mrs. Double-C!"
"Is Melissa not going to be a counsellor again this year?" Julia asks Judi.
"No, not this year. She's entering her senior year in the fall and she wants to focus more on preparing her college applications." Judi explains before lightly patting Tina's shoulders. "That's why Tina here is extra nervous about going to camp for the first time, knowing her big sister won't be there with her."
"Don't worry, I've got her, Mrs. Double-C! Don't be nervous, Tina – we're gonna have so much fun at camp! We're gonna go swimming in the lake, and make smores, and do arts & crafts, and so many more fun things."
"Thank you, Mike," Judi says with a chuckle. "See, Tina, you're gonna have a great time this summer with Mike."
"Come on, you can sit beside me on the bus!" Mike holds out his hand and Tina grabs it excitedly.
As the two children barrel their way towards the bus, Tina quickly calls over her shoulder, "Bye, Mom! Love you!"
Mike stops in his tracks, his hand still clutching Tina's, and turns back to his mother as well. "Bye Mom! See you in four weeks!" He waves to her with his unoccupied hand before continuing their path inside the bus.
Tina and Mike's mothers laugh at the sight before them, shaking their heads. "Should we be worried about those two?" Judi asks Julia.
"I think it's cute." Julia shrugs with a bright smile.
A few days after returning from camp, Mike is enjoying the last days of summer vacation at the local park with his friends, Matt Rutherford, Brittany S. Pierce and Santana Lopez. As their parents work together as doctors, Mike and Santana have known each other for their entire lives, while they met Brittany and Matt in kindergarten. Since then, the four have become the closest of friends.
The children are running around playing tag when Mike sees Tina approaching the park with her mother and stops in his tracks. While their families have always been well acquainted, the month they spent together at summer camp has only brought them closer together.
"TINA!" Mike calls, running towards her.
"HI MIKE!" Tina yells back, running to meet him halfway and giving him a hug when she does.
When they pull away, Mike grabs Tina's hand, leading her towards his friends. "Guys, this is Tina. She's my friend from camp." Tina offers them a friendly wave.
"Ohhhh… this is Tina," Matt says as he shares a look with Brittany and Santana, all three nodding and giggling in realization. Tina tilts her head and looks at Mike in confusion.
"Hi, Tina! Mikey has a crush on you." Brittany smiles brightly as Tina's eyes widen and her cheeks flush.
Mike's head drops down and he groans. "Briiiiiiiiiitt, why would you say that?"
Brittany furrows her eyebrows and pouts at Santana, not knowing what she did wrong. Santana shakes her head in response before waving her hand in dismissal. "Hi, Tina... I wants to play House, are you in?"
"Sure," Tina says with a shrug.
"Okay, great," Santana taps her finger against her lips in thought and smirks before pointing at Tina and Mike, "you two can be the mommy and daddy." They slowly nod in agreement.
"Ooh, can I be the dog?" Brittany asks enthusiastically.
"Sure Britt-Britt. Matt and I will be the kids." Santana declares.
The five children spend the rest of the afternoon in the park, doing their best impressions of what they believe to be a typical family. "Hold on, hold on." Santana pauses their game with a dramatic flail of arms and a sigh. She looks at Tina and Mike pointedly with her arms crossed and her eyebrow raised. "You know mommies and daddies kiss, right?"
"W-what?" Tina stammers.
"She's right." Matt acknowledges while Brittany nods her head in agreement. Mike widens his eyes towards Matt causing him to raise his arms in defence, "My mom and dad kiss all the time."
"Okay, fine." Mike turns towards Tina with his eyes bugging out, silently asking for permission. Tina nods her head in response before Mike leans in and quickly pecks her lips. Santana, Brittany and Matt giggle in the background as the two pull away, their faces both red as tomatoes.
They keep their eyes on the ground, too shy to look at each other again before they hear all their parents calling them to head home.
There aren't very many Asian people living in Lima or even Ohio in general. As a result, the five Asian families in Lima along with other families in adjacent towns have formed a tight-knit community. They often gathered together for various events, parties and occasions. That is why the following weekend, the Changs and Cohen-Changs are at the local Asian community centre celebrating their annual labour day barbeque.
Michael and Julia Chang are currently sitting together with Brad Cohen and Judi Cohen-Chang at a picnic table and catching up with one another. Since their parents are engrossed in their current conversation, Mike takes the opportunity to approach Tina who is currently blowing bubbles. He holds out a cherry-flavoured Ring Pop in front of her, "Tee, will you marry me?"
"Huh?" Tina scrunches her eyebrows at him.
"My mom said that when two people love each other they get married. And when people are married they kiss and we kissed so I think we should get married."
Tina shakes her head at him. "But, Mikey, we're still kids. My daddy said kids aren't supposed to get married yet. That's why I can't marry Li Shang from Mulan."
"Oh," Mike pouts. "Then when can we get married?"
"I don't know," Tina shrugs. "When we're old, maybe, like when we can drink coffee and have jobs and we have to pay taxes, whatever that is."
"That's so long from now," Mike groans.
"How about this, Mikey?" Tina takes the Ring Pop from Mike's hand and places it on her ring finger before holding up her other hand and sticking her pinky out at him. "I promise to marry you when we're old like our parents."
Mike links his pinky with Tina's and they giggle. "I can't wait to get old."
When they unlink their pinkies, their attention is suddenly caught by Tina's older sister Melissa and a few other teenagers who are currently singing karaoke very loudly, very enthusiastically, and very poorly. Tina turns back to Mike and tilts her head in their direction, "Let's go join them."
"I don't really like singing."
"That's okay, we don't have to sing. We can dance instead." Tina holds out her hand in front of Mike and he takes it, allowing her to lead him in the direction of the singing children.
They start jumping and dancing around together as the older kids continue to wail Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" on the karaoke machine that the community centre had set up for the barbeque. And it's the first time Mike Chang realizes that dancing is really fun – especially when it's with Tina Cohen-Chang.
Since growing closer that summer, the two became inseparable. Despite being in different grades, they spent every recess playing together and often visited each other's houses after school or on the weekends. Every summer would be spent together at camp. They were best friends.
While both children are quiet in nature, Tina was an extremely shy kid growing up but she always knew that everything would be alright with Mike by her side. Anytime Tina needed support or reassurance, Mike was always there. Until he wasn't.
Whenever Tina had a project or presentation to give at school, Mike would tell her she would do great. Somehow, he always found a way to walk past her classroom when it was her time for her to present and give her a reassuring thumbs-up through the door. However, when Mike entered the 7th grade, he had to go to a different school. So, when she stood in front of her 6th-grade class to give a presentation on the Missouri Compromise and glanced towards the door, she knew there would be no one there to give her that reassuring thumbs-up. She took a deep breath and as she spoke her first sentence, she stuttered.
2007. The local Asian community centre is hosting its annual Fourth of July barbeque. A 13-year-old Mike Chang approaches Judi Cohen-Chang. "Hey, Mrs. Double-C, is Tina not coming tonight?" As he waits for a response, he quickly glances around his surroundings, hoping he just missed her.
Judi shakes her head with her lips pursed. "No, I'm sorry Mike, she decided to stay at home instead."
"Oh, okay, that's cool... I was just wondering." Mike nods, his voice laced with disappointment.
Judi gives him an apologetic smile. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, I know you like to hang out with her at these things... but I think I see your friend Brittany over there."
Mike turns to where Judi is pointing and sees Brittany sitting alone, looking quite out of place. "Oh yeah, I wonder why she's here?"
"They finally let Pierce Pierce come to these things again," They both glance at Pierce Pierce who bumps into someone causing them to drop the tray of food they were holding while his wife, Whitney, looks around and smiles apologetically. Judi shakes her head and sighs. "I wonder how long until they ban him again."
"Well, uh, I'm gonna go hang out with Britt then, thanks Mrs. Double-C."
"No problem, Mike... I'll try to convince Tina to come to the next event."
"I mean, you don't need to force her if she doesn't want to... but it would be really nice too. We don't really see each other much anymore." Mike says sheepishly before approaching Brittany.
When Mike entered middle school, he made some new friends named Finn Hudson and Noah Puckerman. His new friends, along with Brittany, Matt and Santana, demanded most of his time and attention and being an impressionable kid, he gave it to them. They were helping him to be cool and who doesn't want that?
This meant, however, that he had less free time to spend with Tina outside of school which hurt her very much. After stuttering through her presentation on the Missouri Compromise, other kids thought she was weird which made it difficult for her to make any new friends. She felt completely alone.
The next year, even though Tina and Mike were attending the same school again, everything had changed. Mike had established himself as one of the popular kids and was very well-liked by everyone. Tina, on the other hand, befriended the goth kids at school which only solidified her status as a social outcast. Not wanting their difference in popularity to drive a wedge between them, Mike constantly tried to chat with her. However, Mike's friends often bullied Tina and her friends causing tension between the two.
Tina thought it was best to push him away. In fact, she pushed everyone away which she realized was very easy to do when faking a stutter. Mike, not wanting to force her into friendship, decided it was best to keep his distance.
Tina and Mike seldom saw each other. They stopped communicating in and out of school, Tina attended events held by the Asian community less frequently and stopped going to camp in the summer.
For those few years, Tina Cohen-Chang and Mike Chang lived two separate lives.
2009. The day before Mike begins his sophomore year of high school, he once again attends the labour day barbeque held by Lima's Asian community.
Mike approaches Judi who is currently helping to distribute the food and holds out an empty plate in front of her. "Hey, Mrs. Double-C, how are you?"
"I'm great, Mike, thank you for asking. How are you?"
"I'm good, thanks."
"Are you excited for school to start again?"
"Not really, I mean, it's school."
Judi chuckles. "Well, Tina is starting at McKinley this year," Judi starts as she places a burger on Mike's plate, "I know you're not that close anymore but can you please do me a favour and just keep an eye out on her. Don't tell her I said this but, I'm not really the biggest fan of her current friends, with their wolf tails and what not."
"Yeah, no problem. I've got her, Mrs. Double-C." Mike gives her a reassuring smile.
Mike is standing at his locker with Puck when he notices Tina pushing the kid in a wheelchair, Artie Abrams, down the hallway. As they make their way closer to Mike's locker, Puck threateningly stomps his foot down in front of Artie's wheelchair causing the two to stop and cower.
Mike taps Puck on the arm. "Hey, come on man, lay off them. We're gonna be late for class."
Puck rolls his eyes in return. "Fine. Catch you around, losers."
Mike offers Tina an apologetic glance before closing his locker and walking with Puck towards their next class. As they walk away from each other, Mike glances over his shoulder and watches her.
He sees Tina and Artie stop in front of the bulletin boards and sign up for the glee club. Mike furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head in concern. Oh, Tina, that is such a terrible idea.
The following weekend, Tina finally attends an event at the Asian community center again. When Mike sees her walk in, he smiles widely and approaches her. "Hey, haven't seen you around here much."
"I couldn't get out of it today," she shrugs. "My sister came back in town to announce her engagement and she wanted me to come for moral support."
"Oh wow, Mel is engaged? That's great!"
"Yeah, I'm really happy for her. Even if that means I have to drag myself out here."
"Well, I mean, it's always nice to have you here."
"Thanks," Tina says sheepishly, giving him a shy smile.
The two look around the room, uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact. Mike shuffles his feet while Tina plays with one of the blue strands in her hair.
Not being able to handle the awkward silence any longer but also not wanting to leave her, Mike shoves his hands in his pockets and clears his throat. "Um, so... I saw you try out for glee club... why would you do that?"
Tina can't hold back the smile that breaks out on her face upon seeing the genuine concern on Mike's expression. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, it's glee club... aren't you worried about getting slushied every day?"
"My friends dared me to join," she explains nonchalantly.
"Ah, I see," he nods his head in understanding. "But, I mean, is a dare really worth it?"
"Glee club's been kinda fun, actually."
Mike raises his eyebrows in surprise at her statement and begins to open his mouth to respond when Brittany approaches them, her attention focused solely on Mike. "Hey Mike, do you wanna come hang out at Puck's place? Santana's gonna come by to pick us up right now."
Mike gives Tina a worried glance, not wanting to leave her alone. Brittany's eyes follow Mike's focus and she finally notices Tina standing there, looking down at her feet. "Oh... hey... cool hair."
"T-t-thanks," Tina stutters which causes Mike to scrunch his eyebrows in confusion.
Brittany redirects her attention back to Mike, ignoring Tina again. "So… Puck's place?"
Mike looks at Tina with wide eyes, conflicted and unsure. She gives him a tight smile and nods, silently telling him it was alright for him to go ahead. Mike slowly redirects his gaze at Brittany, "Uh... yeah... I'll just go tell my mom really quick... Tee, I'll, uh, see you around school, I guess."
Tina nods. "Y-yeah, I'll s-see you around."
As Brittany and Mike walk away, she leans in and whispers to him, "She goes to our school?"
"Yes, you've met her before."
"What? When?"
Tina rolls her eyes as she overhears their whispered conversation and takes a seat beside her sister. "How's the engagement announcement going?"
"It's going great. I'm pretty sure everyone has already planned my wedding for me and I didn't even have to lift a finger." Melissa raises her left hand which is currently adorned with a beautiful diamond ring. "Well, except this one to show off my wonderful ring."
Tina chuckles. "You had to know that coming here to announce your engagement is just inviting every Auntie to give their opinions on how your wedding should be."
"I know, I know… Hey, was that Mike you were just talking to?"
"Yeah, it was. But he just left to go hang out with his friends."
"Do you still have a crush on him?" Melissa probes.
Tina glares at her sister and shakes her head. "No. Sure, I had a crush on him when were kids but we're not kids anymore and that crush is long gone… Besides, we don't really run in the same circles now."
"You know, just because you run in different circles, doesn't mean he doesn't still care about you."
"I know and I still care about him too. But he cares about his friends more and I'm also making new friends that I care about more."
"Right. You joined the glee club and immediately became best friends with some other outcasts and now you've got a crush on the kid in a wheelchair—"
"There's more to him than that." Tina interrupts with an exasperated eye roll.
"But you're not denying the 'you've got a crush' part." Melissa teases.
Tina blushes before grumbling, "Fine, maybe, I like Artie."
"Is that why it's so easy for you to forget about Mike?"
Tina sighs. "Mike is a popular football player and I'm the loser goth chick in glee club. We're just too different. It's just safer to stay away."
