Of course, Sam couldn't coach four glee clubs full time. He technically wasn't even a teacher, he didn't have a degree, he only got the job because of his history with Principal Schuester. He was a bit surprised when a former Warbler applied for one of the coaching positions, until he was reminded that half of his current New Directions group were also former Warblers.

And for that first year, things were kind of a mess. Sam coached the New Directions, Nick coached the Junior Varsity team, and a revolving door of former students or colleagues of Will Schuester's would come to teach the girls of the Troubletones and the boys of Duly Noted one-off lessons while Sam and Nick were still technically their actual 'coaches'.

But once the first real year at the new McKinley High School for the Arts started, things took a shift for the pleasant. Knowing that Principal Schuester was planning on hiring proper coaches for all four glee clubs, Nick Duval put in his request to move from the Junior Varsity team to Duly Noted. After all, they were sort of the McKinley adjacent to the Warblers, and that was his wheelhouse. Will, of course, saw no problem with this change and agreed right away.

On that first Monday back to school, the two new faces in the teacher's lounge were difficult to miss. There had been buzz surrounding who Principal Schue had hired, especially since they weren't part of Will's usual bubble of 'glee club mentors'. Sam had done some of his own digging - Stevie Tanner was from Alaska and was of a fairly medium height and build, skin somewhat more tan than what Sam thought someone from Alaska's would be, brown hair tied in a low pony, hazel eyes fixated on the plastic spoon in the paper cup she was dumping more and more sugar into...not that Nick was paying attention.

No, Mr. Duval's attention was taken entirely by Charlotte Connors, who Sam knew had just graduated from University of Central Florida with a degree in musical theatre, but Nick just saw as the pretty redhead scrolling through her phone while taking half interested sips out of her coffee mug, lipstick staining the top of the mug a dark, almost burgundy red. The way her long, shiny, soft looking hair was curled and cascaded to perfectly frame her face made his heart race just a little, her navy blue dress and white blazer was both cute and professional...she was adorable, and he was smitten.

Laying a hand on the chair next to her, Nick didn't even realize he'd asked "Is this seat taken?" until it was already out of his mouth.

Peering up at him for the first time, Nick wasn't sure if the faint blush on her cheeks was real, wishful thinking, or makeup he hadn't noticed before, but nonetheless, she smiled "All yours." she waited for Nick to actually sit before introducing "Charlotte Connors, I'm the new coach of the Troubletones."

"Ah, the all girl group! I coach the opposite, Duly Noted, all boys." he waited, perhaps a beat too long, before extending his hand, "Nick Duval."

His hand was softer than Charlotte had been anticipating. It was a pleasant and welcome little surprise. "So I'm your distaff counterpart, it seems."

Nick nodded, pretending, for a few moments, that he was following, before letting the confused expression etch over his face "Huh?"

"It's a term for a trope in a fictional work. I'm the Minnie Mouse to your Mickey, the My Little Pony to your G.I. Joe. I'm your opposite gender spin-off." she tried to explain. "Your female equivalent, as it were."

"Don't tell me you're back on that gendered nerd shit." came a voice Nick didn't recognize. It was, in fact, Stevie, the other new show choir coach. "She was like this all orientation."

"No, no, it's fine, I was the one who ask-"

Nick was cut off by Stevie's continuing tirade as she slipped into the seat opposite Charlotte's "The sooner you get the fact that gender isn't real through that thick ginger skull of yours - the better. All girls and all boy clubs are bullshit, and by offering to coach them you're continuing this oppressive cis-bigender heternormative worldview!"

"But I'm bi-"

Stevie once again interrupted Nick, this time with cries of "You can't split glee clubs by gender because you're splitting it by something that doesn't exist! And if it did exist, there would be wayyyy more than two genders-"

"Well isn't that what the New Direction group is for?" Charlotte quirked an eyebrow at the brunette. "Female identifying and female aligned students are more than welcome to audition for the Troubletones should they so choose, but the option of New Directions is there even for cisfemale students who might not love the idea of an all girl club."

"All groups should be gender neutral." Stevie argued. "That's the point. Separating them by something imaginary is completely ridiculous."

"While I get where you're coming from, I spent my high school years in an all boys show choir and I wouldn't be the man I am today without those bonds of brotherhood. We really still are like a family. Plus when it's a group of cis guys we didn't have to worry about any pregnancy scares."

"Don't look at me," Sam half joked, sliding into the last remaining chair at the table "That was before I moved here."

Offering a halfhearted smile, Nick confessed "Kurt really tried to get us all caught up and up to date with the McKinley gossip, but there was always so much going on that it was a bit hard to keep straight." He paused, turning to the women, but mostly Charlotte if he was being honest with himself, explaining "Sam and I were in competing show choirs back in high school. Kurt mostly competed with McKinley, but he went to my school and competed with us one year."

"Just until you lost regionals." Sam reminded him, "then he came crawling back to us for Nationals."

"And then you stole Blaine from us to win your Nationals the next year."

"You threw a rock slushie in his eye!"

"That was Sebastian!"

What started as playful bickering but was slowly becoming more heated completely evaporated when Will Schuester's voice cut through "Oh good, you four were exactly who I wanted to see. Didn't expect to find you all in one place, but uh, would you mind coming into my office for a second?"

Will Schuester still felt a bit out of place in what he still considered Figgins' old office. Sure, he was the principal now, and McKinley was a shadow of what it was 10 years ago, and completely unrecognizable to what it was when Will himself was a student in the 90s...but in a lot of ways, he still felt like that high school teacher just a few years in, having convinced Figgins to let him run a club that had brought him so much joy. Sam across the desk from him still felt more like the former student, not a coworker, not the leader of New Directions. And Nick, and the two new directors...was he in over his head?

"As I'm sure the four of you were already discussing, you're bound to be spending a lot of time together as the directors for each of the show choirs. Obviously, you'll each be running your own lessons and putting together your own numbers, but you have each other as a network for collaboration and support." he tried to remain optimistic, but sighed as he had to break some less than ideal news "Now, unfortunately, we weren't able to remodel any of the building this year. So, on top of having to split the time in the auditorium, you'll also have to...share offices."

There was a silence, not that Will was expecting anything different. The first to break it was Charlotte "Will adequate storage space be provided?"

"Yes, of course." Will was talking out of his ass, but he could always get some more filing cabinets.

"And I guess we can try to work our office hours around when the other teams are in the auditorium…" Sam suggested, putting out a feeler. He was met with mumbling that generally seemed like they agreed.

Will let out a sigh of relief he didn't even realize he was holding. "I'm glad you're all so flexible with this. I figured it'd be best to pair Sam & Charlotte, and then Stevie with Nick to offset rehearsal times, if everyone's okay with that?"

Nick had a small grievance, but he figured that 'I'd actually rather share an office with Charlotte because I think she's hot' wasn't exactly appropriate, or about to change any minds. Besides, Stevie seemed friendly enough - even if she did really seem keen on destroying the gender binary.

And at first, things were going extremely well! Nick was surprisingly pleased with how well he and Stevie got along. She was really chill, respectful of his student's office time, and pretty much kept to herself. Sharing a work space with her almost reminded him of staying up with Jeff or Trent or any of the other Warblers studying for a test the next day. And maybe it was that similar vibe that caused him to start singing under his breath.

Nothing wild or loud, of course. Just vocalizing some acapella back up beats, like the good old days. Technically he was still working. He was working out the arrangement for what could be a great sectionals selection. And maybe he started tapping his foot. And drumming his pencil on the edge of his desk.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been doing it, probably at least 3 minutes, before Stevie's head shot up from her desk "Oh my god can you not?!"

Cheeks reddening from embarrassment, he muttered out a quick "s-sorry"

"Jesus fuck, I can't hear myself think."

Maybe he was a little stirred up about her reaction. Maybe he just felt like stirring the pot, but regardless, Nick found himself stirring up a fight. "Maybe watch the language? What if one of your students heard you talking like that?"

"I'm sure it's nothing they haven't heard before." she shrugged.

It was a good point, but he was still in a fighty mood "But that doesn't mean that we, as teachers, an-and role models, should encourage it!"

"God, didn't take you for such a fucking prude, Duval." Stevie rolled her eyes, moving to put her black converse-clad feet up on her desk. "Did they really coddle you that hard at Daddy's little prep school?"

He might've just been in a fighty mood before, but that would've made him angry even in the happiest of moods. Grabbing his notebooks in a huff, he stormed out the door.

Little did he know that similar tensions were rising down the hallway. Charlotte and Sam weren't yelling at each other, per se, but it was obvious that they were in an argument. Up until this point, Nick had only heard Charlotte's voice as sweet and kind, so her tirade of "...Schuester put you in charge of his most precious glee club expecting you to take Nationals and you can't do that if you…" had him a little thrown.

"Hey!" Sam countered "I was a part of that glee club back when it was still his! I think I know what he expects of me a little better than…" a pause, and then a friendly smile, as if the anger he was spewing at the redhead moments ago simply didn't exist "...oh hey Nick, what's up?"

"I, uh, was wondering if you guys wanted to talk about lesson plans." He was still a little uncomfortable given the quarrel he'd walked in on, so his voice, normally much louder and assured, seemed almost groggy. "Maybe brainstorm some themes…?"

"THANK YOU!" Charlotte's voice, it seemed, picked up the clear assuredness Nick's usually had but currently lacked. She wrapped her arm around Nick's waist, causing an eruption of butterflies in his stomach that he prayed his facial features didn't let on. " Someone agrees that preparing the weekly assignments in advance is a good thing."

"You don't know these kids the way I do!" Sam tried to argue. "Sometimes what you've prepared just won't match up with what's going on in their lives-"

"Planning nothing is not better!" Charlotte countered immediately.

Nick might've tried to mediate if he didn't like getting held by Charlotte so much. It was also in this moment he realized just how touch starved and/or horny he was, getting all flustered from what was really nothing more than an elongated awkward Christian side hug.

"Forget this, I don't have to deal with this!" Sam cried, it now being his turn to storm out angrily.

Quietly, Nick finally did offer a small "Probably best to let him cool down."

Charlotte sighed, dropping her arm around Nick in order to rub her temples in frustration. "I'm sorry you had to witness that."

"No, no, it's fine." he rushed to assure her, but in a cool chill, nonchalant way….he hoped. "I think it's officemate growing pains...I had a bit of a spat with Stevie today."

"Sorry to hear that." she mumbled, before clearing her throat and offering "Well, if you still wanted to go over lesson plans and do a small brain storming session…"

"Oh yeah, of course!" He nodded eagerly. "Did you want to maybe...grab a coffee? Before we get started?"

With a dejected sigh, Charlotte informed him "They're out in the teacher's lounge. I just checked about 20 minutes ago."

A mischievous twinkle in his eye, half smirking, he questioned "You ever been to the Lima Bean?"

Sipping on his own vanilla ice coffee, he waited with Charlotte as the barista prepared her peppermint mocha. "Sorry that this is probably going to be a little while, I always order froufrou drinks that take a hot minute."

Lightly nudging her elbow with his own, he smiled "Don't worry, I'm not in the business of drink shaming."

As the barista passed Charlotte her beverage, the two made their way to a side table. "Here's a potentially weird question for you," Charlotte posed "Is it awkward running ideas against Stevie since her kids aren't actually competing?"

"No, she's actually been pretty receptive." Nick admitted with a happy nod. "We don't exactly agree on a lot of our ideas, she wants to do a whole Papa Roach week-"

"Are you not a Papa Roach fan?" Charlotte teased, a giggle bubbling up behind a smirk as she moved to take a sip of her coffee.

A chuckle of his own escaping, Nick confessed "I'm less of Papa Roach and more of a…" he paused, searching for the right comparison "...Mamma Mia."

"Here you go again?" Charlotte playfully chided.

"My, my." he shook his head a little, laughing. "But to answer your original question, she takes her lesson planning and themes very seriously. Maybe tensions will rise when my guys get closer to Sectionals, but I'm cautiously optimistic."

Charlotte nodded, digesting both his words and her coffee. Pulling her thoughts together, she decided to ask "So earlier when Sam and I were having our little...disagreement...you mentioned a spat with Stevie. If it wasn't about lesson planning, what was it about? If you don't mind my prying."

"No, no, not at all." He assured her. And then he paused, momentarily, scratching the back of his head as he sheepishly admitted "I, uh, thought I was just kinda singing under my breath, but according to Stevie it was a lot louder...and a lot more distracting."

Charlotte was doing her best to not laugh as prodded "That's all? Was it the singing she didn't like, or just the song selection?"

"Likely both, if we're being honest." he chuckled. "I kinda feel bad about snapping at her, though. It felt frustrating at the time, but it's honestly such a small thing compared to what I walked in on you and Sam going on about-"

"Oh, ew" she scrunched her nose up in disgust. "Don't say you 'walked in on me and Sam', that makes it sound like we're... involved."

Well. If this swing in the conversation didn't perk his ears up. Trying (and likely miserably failing) not to seem too interested, he tried to seem nonchalant as he asked "Oh, not interested in Sam, hmm? Are you in a committed relationship, then? Or is he just not your type?"

"Not my type." she responded almost instantly, though not in a fun, excited, eager way. No, her tone was bored and flat. "Don't get me wrong, moving from the sunshine state to the climate of Ohio where I know no one does have me a little lonely, but Sam's not exactly the type of guy I'd go seeking that sort of comfort with."

"Type of guy, huh?" he quirked an eyebrow up.

"Uh, yeah?"

"So it's not because you're exclusively attracted to women, then. It's just Sam not doing it for you." he mused out loud.

One side of her mouth twitching upwards into a half smirk, her face etched with skepticism, Charlotte pondered "What exactly is your angle here, Mr. Duval?"

"I'm just trying to learn more about my lovely new coworker, that's all." he shrugged, grinning. "And please, call me Nick."

Not entirely sure she was buying it, Charlotte posed "So, Nick, did you invite me out for coffee to try and dissect my life, or did you actually want to try to brainstorm some themes for our glee clubs?"

"I promise it was about the glee clubs." he admitted earnestly. "I'm sorry, I got distracted. But if we can circle back to Mamma Mia for a moment-"

Nick knew it wasn't a date. It was work related. Nothing explicitly romantic transpired, and the closest things got to getting physical was when Charlotte moved to cross her legs under the table and Nick foolishly thought that it might had been an attempt at playing footsie. It wasn't. She was just crossing her legs under the table.

But that didn't stop him from feeling absolutely elated the next day. He felt like he'd been on a first date that went well. It wasn't unlike Nick to see an attractive person and immediately fall hard and fast for them, but he couldn't help himself from feeling so damn giddy. He felt like nothing could stop this feeling of elation - until he walked into his office, looking trashed. "What the hell happened in here?"

He saw the blue flannel on Stevie's back before he saw the woman herself. She was bent over, lifting a box up off the floor and onto her desk. "How do you mean?"

"Your stuff is...everywhere?!"

"Well yeah, I haven't quite had time to unpack everything from my old classroom in Alaska," she shrugged "and I needed something out of this specific box."

Eyes squinting as he pinched the bridge of his nose, he sighed "Yeah, okay, so what's with all the dirty paper cups?"

"I needed the coffee!" she cried, crossing her arms before adding "Not all of us can just fuck off with Charlotte for a quickie, some of us have work to do."

"First of all, language," he chastised "second of all, we went to get coffee and talk about potential assignments for our glee clubs. Nothing even remotely in the realm of 'a quickie'".

With a roll of her eyes, Stevie countered "Look, deny it all you want, but I'm just saying it'd be a lot easier for you to bump uglies with her if you...I don't know...maybe shared an office."

"Charlotte and I are not…" his over dramatic frustrated groan ended immediately, as he was suddenly filled with nothing but the purest confusion "...wait what?"

"I'm just saying," Stevie shrugged nonchalantly "You and I clearly have different work styles, and if you were to share an office with Charlotte instead, you'd have a lot more opportunities to…." she paused, before smiling knowingly "...sneak off on work-related coffee ventures."

As much as he loved that idea… "...why do you want me to switch offices so bad?"

"No offense, but we don't exactly vibe." Stevie started, but then immediately course corrected "as office roommates, I mean. We're already getting annoyed at small habits, like you and your singing and me and my sailor mouth."

"I guess you have a point." he conceded.

"I usually do." she smirked.

"So why me and Charlotte?" he asked, genuinely curious. "Why not you and Charlotte and me and Sam?"

"Because I've seen the way you behave around her. Undressing her with your eyes when she's not looking, and following her around like a lost puppy when she is." Stevie answered simply. "So the potential of being in such close proximity to her everyday was going to be the easier sell."

Nick nodded, following Stevie's logic, even if he was a little upset with how easy of a read he was. "So other than the hope that Sam doesn't sing under his breath, what's in it for you?"

Stevie stared at him like he'd grown a new head "Have you seen that man's abs?! You're not the only one hoping for a little office boinking."

"So why didn't you already tell Principal Schuester that you want to change office partners?"

"Oh no," Stevie shook her head "No no, you're gonna tell him."

"What?!" Nick gasped "Why me? It was your idea!"

"Exactly why I couldn't ask!" Stevie argued. "If I, a loose cannon cop who doesn't play by the rules, marched down there and demanded to switch he'd think I was crazy and probably have me fired. But if you go down there and explain we both think it's best if we swapped office buddies…"

With a dejected sigh, he surrendered "Alright, alright, I'll go talk to Schuester."

As he made his way to Schuester's office, he tried to conjure up his old acting skills from back when being in the Warblers made him think he had a shot at Broadway. The more genuinely hurt, upset, devastated he seemed, the more likely Mr. Schue buying his story was. Perhaps that's why he didn't notice right away, so in his own head, when he stormed into the office and declared "We need to swap these office sharing assignments. Stevie and I are simply too different in our work styles for either of us to feel productive. In order for us to both do our best to give these kids the best we can offer, I think we have no choice but to change who shares offices. And Stevie agrees."

At first, Mr. Schue looked confused, and then his face muscles relaxed, letting out a soft chuckle, as he informed Nick "That's, uh, exactly what Charlotte is here about."

Nick's eyes widened at the sudden realization that Charlotte had been seated in front of Will the whole time. He'd been so into his acting gig that he hadn't even noticed her luscious long ponytail peering over the back of the chair. And then he realized he'd never seen her with her hair pulled up. It was cute.

But enough hormonal distractions! Why was Charlotte here? "It is?"

"And if what both of you are saying is true, I really don't mind two of you swapping offices." Will explained with a genuine smile. "Whatever helps foster a healthier environment." Looking to Nick, he added "Now, Charlotte had specifically requested that she and Stevie be the ones to switch, if that's alright with you, Nick?"

Well. To say this was easier than he thought it would be would be a massive understatement. "Absolutely. From the little brainstorming sessions we've had, Charlotte and I do work well together."

Will smiled "Well then, if Charlotte and Stevie don't mind starting the process, I'll get to work on updating our directory."

It didn't take long to get most of Stevie's things out of the office they used to share and into her new one with Sam. And of course, shortly thereafter, all of Charlotte's items, boxed and sorted in a system that she swore was simple but made no sense to him, were tucked away in what was now their office.

After helping her place a particularly heavy box, he questioned "Can I ask you something?"

"Go on." she replied, only half paying attention, busy ensuring all of her files were correctly transplanted into the new filing cabinet.

"This is more a personal curiosity than anything, so feel free to not answer if you don't want to," he prefaced, before adding "you got to hear my big speech to Principal Schuester, but what exactly was your reason for requesting this switch?"

"You already know." she shrugged. "Sam and I have very different planning styles, and it was causing too much tension."

Nick thought about how there was definitely another, different type of tension between the two of them, but realizing it may have been one-sided, he decided it best to keep his mouth shut about it. For now. But it didn't stop him from pressing "If I recall correctly, Principal Schuester said you specifically requested me as your officemate…"

Turning from the filing cabinet, she nodded, affirming "Stevie has a lot of opinions on a lot of things that she's not afraid of sharing. I learned that during our orientation. And if the worst I'm going to get with you is the occasional singing under your breath, it seemed like the safest option."

"I suppose that checks out." He smiled, before adding "it still gave my ego a boost, so thank you for that."

"I'm sure your ego is nothing compared to mine on a bad day." she half-joked.

"Well then," he smirked, reaching out his hand for her to shake in a jokingly competitive move "I look forward to the day we find out."

His hand was as soft as Charlotte remembered it being.