Sam didn't know where to look. In front of him, Brittany was swaying her hips in a pair of impossibly tight white jeans, singing something that appeared to be about a cup of all things! And next to him on the end of the bed was Mercedes. Just her simple presence was driving him nuts. And the fact that they were sitting on a bed together was making him have all sorts of thoughts not related to the task in hand, the important thing they still hadn't done which was songwriting for Nationals.

There was no way of excusing himself when all he wanted to do was hurl himself out of the nearest window. Or, at the very least, take a long cold shower. Every time Mercedes moved on the bed he would catch a fresh whiff of her scent and completely lose focus on what was happening in the room.

He didn't know how they'd ended up sitting together on the bed but he knew that this had to stop. He resolved there and then to stay out of Mercedes' way for the rest of the trip. Much as he enjoyed her friendship and companionship she was becoming too much of a distraction to him. Why should he torment himself like this? Why torment himself the idea of something he couldn't have? Because it was torment. Delicious torment...

Avoiding Mercedes was far harder than Sam could possibly imagine. She kept being everywhere. And when she wasn't literally there she was still in his thoughts.

Sitting in the boy's room with his guitar trying to feel inspired, all he could think about was her.

At breakfast she'd sat right opposite him wearing a funky lime green top that showed a tempting amount of cleavage.

At their next brainstorming session where they'd finally come up with a song (Light Up The World) she'd been vocal and prolific with her lyric suggestions.

And at dinner she'd been seated directly behind him on the next table. So even though they were back to back, despite the food he could still smell her! And every time she laughed he wanted to know why and who it was that had made her laugh.

Even the choreography for their group dance had them next to each other as their starting positions.

Every time she passed he had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her.

And her smile - Stevie was right. It did make her eyes shine.

He sighed, folded his arms behind his head and tried to get some sleep.

Nationals was in two days. Surely he could get through this!

"This is your shot dude. If I was in love with a girl and wasn't homeless I'd totally go for it!"

Sam suddenly stopped chewing the potato chip that he'd just shoved into his mouth and actually thought about the nugget of wisdom that he had just imparted to Finn. It was a truth that scared him.

He was in love with a girl. And if he wasn't homeless he would totally go for it.

But this was no ordinary girl. She already knew that he was homeless and still accepted him for what he was. The real him that most at McKinley still had no idea about. She was a genius at finding things to do that cost little or no money. She was a girl who could be happy just to sit for hours being together talking nonsense and making their own entertainment. She was the girl who lights up his day and who brings a smile to his lips at the mere thought of her.

The one girl that made him feel better about himself and made him want to be a better person. Even Quinn hadn't done that.

It didn't matter to this girl that he was homeless. The only obstacle wasn't an obstacle at all!

So what exactly was he waiting for?

And what the hell had possessed him to think that avoiding her would be a good idea?

"Dude! Where are you going?" Finn was wearing his confused face again.

Without realizing, Sam had already leapt to his feet and thrown his book on the bed. Mike looked at him quizzically. He needed to think fast!

"I saw a store around the corner that sold souvenirs for a dollar. I thought I should get something for Stevie and Stacy. After all – if Finn's going to sneak out I don't see why I can't either!"

"Fair point." Mike had moved on from making paper planes to texting Tina on his phone.

"I suppose you're not interested in finishing these then-" Puck had already crossed the room onto the bed and had his hand was deep in the abandoned packet of chips. Sam's appetite had vanished and he wasn't bothered at all. Puck got comfortable on the bed and started looking for the TV remote.

As he pulled on his jacket and walked out the door Sam realized that he hadn't exactly thought this through. How exactly was he going to get to Mercedes without being obvious? She was stuck in a room with all the other girls and he couldn't exactly go in there and ask for her without raising suspicion.

Before he could think of start thinking of a legitimate excuse he heard her familiar laugh in the hallway. His heart leapt into his throat. Kurt and Mercedes were heading back to the room with a bucket of ice. They caught sight of him and he liked to think that Mercedes beamed even though they both seemed a little flustered. She was wearing a purple version of the top that he'd liked so much yesterday.

"What's all the noise I hear coming from your room?" He was careful to address the question to Kurt. If he looked directly at Mercedes his face might give too much away. It was a struggle to keep composed. The male diva laughed and replied "Oh, us girls are having a massive pillow fight. Cedes and I used the excuse of getting some ice to get away. There's so many feathers flying in there it looks like there's been a bird massacre!"

Mercedes picked a stray feather from Kurt's sleeve then turned her attention to him. "So where are you off to?"

"Just going to call the kids to say hi. I'm so used to being cooped up with them that I'm actually starting to miss them a bit." He suspected that his attempt at a casual smile probably looked more like a grimace.

She smiled and nodded in agreement before looking directly at him. His stomach instantly tied itself up in a million knots. "Well please send them my love and say hi from me too." Damn that smile!

"I will. I know they'll ask about you..." Then an idea came to him. "Or better still… you can come and tell them yourself!" Keep it cool Sam, Keep it cool…

She looked questioningly at Kurt who brushed a feather from her collar and said, "Honey, if one more feather lands in your weave I'm scared you might diva out on all of them. Things are that close to getting ugly. Go get some air, chat to the mini Evans' and let me handle everything the Hummel way!" Then he turned with a flourish and was gone before she had a chance to argue.

Mercedes smiled at him shyly and he offered his arm. "Shall we?" Arm in arm. Too much? Not too much? Ah well, too late to let go now!

They fell into easy conversation as they left the hotel. He'd let go of her arm in the elevator. It was just the two of them in there and it had suddenly felt weird and made him self-conscious. What he would have loved to do was to put his arm around her properly. Maybe one day...

The sun was blazing hot outside and they both wished that they'd remembered to bring sunglasses.

"Which way shall we go?" He looked at her squinting up at him in the bright sunlight and felt an unexplained happiness just by being with her and having her to himself. He didn't really care which way they went. As long as they were together and they didn't bump into any of the other Glee club members. Or worse still, Mr Schue himself! He touched her shoulder and gently led her to the right. "There seems to be more things happening this way."

Sam suddenly felt nervous. He'd spent hours in silly conversation with Mercedes before. Why was it so hard right now? It felt just like the afternoon they'd studied together after he had been sick. He knew he'd been nervous at the time because of his vivid dream. He had no idea why she should have been. They walked past a few phone booths and he ignored Mercedes' questioning looks before selecting one to make the call. He suddenly blushed as he remembered the contents of his last conversation with the kids and realized having Mercedes in on the call might not have been the smartest of plans after all! But it was the first thing that had popped out of his mouth and there was now no going back.

He was secretly relieved when the phone in the motel room wasn't answered and the coin dropped back out of the machine. Although he enjoyed the intimacy of being squished in the phone box with Mercedes he realized there wasn't real reason for them to actually stay in there. He jumped out, resosolved that this was all just too hard and he'd just have to keep his stupid mouth shut before any damage was done.

He looked around for a distraction before running across the road and shouted, "Orange, strawberry, lemon, lime or cherry?"

"Huh? Sam - don't make me jaywalk!" She hurriedly followed him across the street before suddenly seeing the sign for $1 snow cones.

"Sam I-" he shushed her and waved the five dollar note that he'd found in the back pocket of his jeans. A forgotten tip. Probably left there on purpose by his mom. "I never get to buy you anything so shut up and tell me what flavor."

"Okay. You choose. I'll have whatever you're having."

Sam decided this wasn't the occasion to fight it out and bought 2 cherry snow cones. It was a decision that was received favorably and they were soon sitting under a tree in the park laughing at each other's red tongues. Sam felt blissfully happy and knew despite his fluctuating resolutions over the last couple of days, if he didn't say something right now - at this very moment he would regret it.

I have to take a chance on this…

"What's wrong? Did I just upset you?" Mercedes was always so quick to notice a shift in his mood in a way that Quinn never was.

He paused briefly and took a deep breath. "Set fukawkrr..."

"What?" Her frown deepened.

Why did he always default to Na'vi when he was nervous? "Cedes, I have to be honest with you about something."

She looked instantly worried and he felt rotten. "I know that my timing is terrible but I really owe it to you to come clean about… my heart." The words were coming out all wrong. Why hadn't he thought to prepare a little speech in his head beforehand?

He could see that her eyes instantly welled up and her voice wobbled. "It's Quinn isn't it?" She'd hurriedly looked down towards the half eaten snow cone on her lap, "I saw you guys talking at the airport. You've taken her back despite everything!"

A surge of emotion rushed through his chest. Of all the reactions he'd imagined, this was not one. Rather than put him off it had quite the opposite effect. She sounded like she was jealous. If there were no feelings she would be happy at the thought of him reuniting with his ex. His brain told him she had to be feeling something. Otherwise why would she be so upset? His voice softened. "Cedes I need you to look at me."

She didn't move.

He used his forefinger on her chin to turn her head to face him. Her eyes were tightly shut as if she was determined that she did not want to hear what he was about to say. He used his thumb to wipe the escaped tear from her cheek. "I need you to know that I will never ever get back together with Quinn. She shattered my heart and I thought that it would never recover. But from out of nowhere somebody else came along, someone I didn't expect, someone I that stupidly and blindly hadn't really noticed before. And this girl fixed it. Not only did she fix my heart, she made it bigger than it was before." He could feel his own eyes stinging and welling up but he knew that he had to keep going. "She taught me a massive lesson about love and friendship and what it means to actually care about a person. She showed me the value of knowing and respecting yourself as well as others. She taught me that it's ok to be goofy. She actually recognizes it when I drop film references into speech and laughs with me not at me. She let me know it's ok to speak a made up language and to just want to sit and watch DVDs and eating grilled cheese hours as long as the company's good. She snuggled up and kept me warm when I was sick. Hell, she even taught me how to make balloon animals!"

Finally he'd elicited a smile. But her eyes still didn't open. Another tear escaped from the closed eye and this time, he was faster at wiping it away. Then he took her face in his hands and brought it closer, staring at the perfection of it.

"This girl taught me the difference between prettiness and beauty. A pretty girl looks good when she's made an effort but a beautiful girl is beautiful 24/7 because it radiates from inside her. Her heart is so big that it draws you in and it never lets you go. It's captured me and I never want it to let me go. Mercedes Jones… please never ever let me go."

Oh shut up and kiss her already!

The kiss that he placed on her lips was so gentle he wondered if he'd kissed her at all!

But he had. Because he felt her respond to the gently brush of lips on lips. And because it finally made her open her eyes.

And those big chocolate eyes staring back at him were glassy and filled with love.

'Set fukawkrr' translates as 'Now or never' in Na'Vi