AN: Not sure where the thought of this pairing came from but I kind of like it.

Prompt: Chloe Sullivan - "Wow. I can't believe you just delivered that line with a straight face." - 'Smallville'

I looked down at the CD that Mercedes had given me and thought about what it represented. It was a tough world that a lot of m friends and I were trying to get into. Fighting with questions about being true to ourselves or doing what we had to do to make it were inevitable. Did we stay true to ourselves or did we do what was expected of us? My own battle with my father last year was only a small taste of that. What Mercedes had just faced seemed so much more bigger.

"I'm proud of you," I told her, looking up from the CD. We were the only two left in the choir room of McKinley High School.

"Thanks," Mercedes replied giving me a sad smile. "It was a hard choice to make but in the end I decided I would rather being able to look in the mirror and not be ashamed of the person staring back at me."

"A very wise choice, my dear," I told her with a smile.

As her face broke out with a smile of her own, it hit me just how pretty she was. I don't know why I never noticed it before. Not to mention she was a genuinely good hearted person. The kind of person that I wouldn't mind spending every day with. As my heart skipped a beat, I wondered why I had never realized all this before.

"Did it hurt?"

"What?" Mercedes asked, giving me a confused look as I realized I had spoken out loud.

"Falling from heaven because you look like an angel to me."

"Wow!" Mercedes said, blushing slightly. "That's a line I'd expect from, Puck and yet you still managed to deliver it with a straight face."

I ducked my head. "Guess it's the natural high from realizing how pretty you really are. Not sure how I could've been so blind." I ventured to look up to find Mercedes looking at me, wearing a pleased though slightly perplexed look. "Would you like to go out to dinner?"

"Are you actually asking me out Mike Chang?"

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Then I would love to go out to dinner sometime."

"How about tonight?" I asked hopefully.

"Pick me up at six," she replied. "I need time to get ready."

Walking over to me she kissed my cheek and then was leaving the choir room. Even after she was out of sight I stood there looking at the door she had left through trying to process the fact that I had a date with Mercedes Jones.