a/n: warning - i am a klaine anti and i tried to hold back when writing this fic bc it's about tina and mike but i couldn't help myself — oops… oh and also, [jesse williams voice] i'm sorry for what's next

"i know that there is a limit to everything" — friends, ed sheeran

Two weeks later, after Valerie Dance Academy's first showcase, Tina and Mike are still continuing their torrid affair while Artie finishes filming his movie in London. They have somehow managed to keep their relationship away from the public's knowledge (with the exception of their closest friends).

Today, with both of them having the day off, they have spent the entire morning and afternoon in bed, their limbs entangled with each other. But the time has come for Tina to leave his apartment once again. Mike watches in agony as Tina hastily puts her clothes back on and adjusts her appearance, eliminating all evidence of their time together. But regardless of the anguish he feels at her leaving, he is still a gentleman and walks her to the door.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner? I could whip something up for us," Mike offers, trying his hardest not to sound like he's begging, even though he knows he kind of is.

"As much as I would love to stay for whatever it is you're making, Artie is coming back from London tonight because he has some alumni event at his alma mater this weekend," she explains regretfully. Noticing the way Mike completely deflates, she tries to lighten the mood by smiling sweetly at him and proposing, "But we could postpone that dinner for breakfast tomorrow before I go to set?"

Mike can't help but return her smile and wraps his arms tightly around her waist. "Sure, I'll make us pancakes."

Tina gasps and beams with excitement. "You make the best pancakes!" she raves and he chuckles at her compliment.

The thought that he could do something that can bring her this much delight makes his heart swell. She is smiling at him with so much brightness and joy that it takes his breath away. He would give anything to have her smiling at him like this for the rest of his life.

"I love you." The words slip easily out of his mouth before he can even catch them and his eyes widen at the realization of what he has just said.

The smile slips from Tina's face as she freezes in Mike's arms. "W-what did you just say?" she asks, stunned.

"N-nothing," he denies with a stammer, dropping his hands from her waist and taking a step back, trying to create as much distance between them as possible. "You should probably go. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Wait, no. We have to talk about this," she insists as she grabs his wrist, forcing him to look her in the eye. "Did you mean it?"

"Tina… what do you want me to say?" Mike asks exasperatedly and shakes her hand off of him. He shuts his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, silently cursing himself – he has probably just fucked everything up.

She watches him with her arms crossed over her chest and shrugs. "The truth?"

Mike takes a deep breath and stares at her for a moment, building up the courage to say, "If I tell you the truth, will it make you stay?"

She furrows her eyebrows at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"If I tell you that I'm in love with you, will you stay?"

"Mike—"

"No, you want the truth? Here's the truth," Mike interrupts her, impassioned. "I'm in love with you and I have never stopped."

Tears slowly start slipping down Tina's face as she stares at him in disbelief. "You are?"

"Yes. And every time you walk out that door and go back to Artie, I die inside," he reveals, taking a step closer to her. "I have been accepting whatever scraps you want to throw my way because I don't want to live a life without you in it but you have to know that it's killing me."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she questions, her voice as soft as a whisper.

"Because I knew the moment that I did, this—" Mike gestures between the two of them, "— whatever it is that we going on, would be over. And then you'd go back to him."

Tina stares at him, wide-eyed in shock, as she processes what he's saying. It feels like hours before she's shutting her eyes and shaking her head frantically as Mike watches her in concern. "No, no, no, no," she mutters, tears now streaming down her face.

"You can't be surprised that I'm still in love with you," he says with a slight scoff.

"Well, I am, Mike! Because your love is strange," Tina yells, filled with sudden frustration. "You can't keep coming in and out of my life whenever you feel like it, okay?" Mike opens his mouth to respond but she cuts him off and elaborates, "One second, we're best friends and we do everything together. Then, you're too cool to hang out with me. And then, you're in love with me and we're really happy together and suddenly you can't be with me but you want to stay friends and you tell me that you can't marry me but you also tell me that you wanted to and I just – I can't do it anymore. I have spent my entire life loving you, Mike. I have chosen you, time and time again, and it's always ended in heartbreak. I am tired of you constantly sucking me back in just for you to inevitably leave again."

Mike absorbs her words and they feel like a punch in the gut but he understands where she's coming from. He has always been so concerned about doing what he thinks is best for her, without realizing how much it hurts her in the process and now she no longer trusts him.

"Tina, I am all in," he promises, cupping her face and forcing her to see the sincerity in his eyes. His hands tremble in fear of losing her. "I want to be with you. And so long as you let me, I will never leave you again."

She just shakes her head in response and rips his hands off her face. "That's what you always say. I just can't buy into it anymore. I have a good thing going with Artie."

"Tina, please," Mike pleads. "Don't go back to him."

"I think it's for the best," she says, wiping the tears off her face, and Mike feels his stomach twist at the coldness in her voice. "It's been fun sneaking around with you these past couple of months and I think I needed to get you out of my system one last time but we're getting too old to keep playing these games. We both need to move on."

"I don't want to move on if it's not with you."

"Well, you're gonna have to," is the last thing she says before slamming the door shut behind her and walking out of his life and he has never hated himself more.

After rushing out of Mike's apartment, Tina quickly wipes away her tears and fixes her appearance in the elevator mirror before hailing a cab. The last thing she needs is to be caught having a breakdown in public and to end up on various gossip sites – or worse, being used as a reaction meme on social media.

She stares out of the taxi window as the city skyscrapers pass by, lost in thought and replaying the previous events in her mind. Having to walk away from Mike is the hardest thing she will ever have to do in her life but she knows it's for the best. They have been indulging in this affair for too long, ignoring their better judgement (and their friends' warnings), and now they are faced with the reality of it.

Deep down, she knew that it was true, but hearing him declare the words, "I'm still in love with you", felt like a bucket of cold water being dumped on her. He has said variations of those words to her so many times before and she believes him. But when he says it, it brings her on a constant rollercoaster and she doesn't know what to expect. Yet when Artie tells her that he loves her, it's a promise that he will stay.

There's a part of her that will always love Mike but she can't allow herself to attempt this whole thing over again just to lose him when he eventually changes his mind.

Besides, she loves Artie – she's sure of it. And he treats her well – definitely a lot better than he did in high school. They have grown a lot, together and apart. And she wants to marry him… At least that is what she tries to convince herself.

Shaking her thoughts from her head, she pays and thanks the cab driver before making her way up to her apartment. Tina unlocks her door and finds Artie seated in the middle of their living room.

"Hey, babe! I thought you were going to call me when you landed?" Tina says, trying her best to mask the ambivalence of emotions she currently feels, but Artie doesn't respond. Instead, he just stares at her, stone-faced and unmoving. "Is something wrong?"

"Just tell me it wasn't him," Artie finally manages to choke out. Tina furrows her eyebrows at him and she starts to open her mouth to voice her confusion but he interrupts her, elaborating, "Tell me you didn't cheat on me with the same guy that you cheated on me with all those years ago."

Tina's heart stops at the accusation and her jaw drops in surprise. She doesn't know what to say. The guilty expression that crosses her face is all the confirmation Artie needs. He shuts his eyes unable to look at her for a second longer as tears slowly slip down his face and his jaw ticks with rage.

"How did you find out?" Tina questions, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

"The doorman downstairs said he barely sees you around anymore and assumed you were back in LA. which I thought was odd considering you've been filming a movie here for two months," Artie reveals.

Tina hesitantly takes a seat on the couch in front of Artie, tears welling in her eyes. "I'm really sorry."

"You're never gonna choose me over him."

"That's not true!" Tina insists with a shake of her head.

"Tina, I can never compete with him," Artie recognizes, defeat laced in his voice. "He was basically your first everything… and there was even a point where you wanted him to be your last."

She goes silent for a moment because she can't deny that what he's saying is true. But then she laces their fingers together and promises, "It's over between me and Mike."

Artie shakes his head in denial. "It's never really over between you and Mike."

"No, it is, I swear," Tina pleads, forcing him to look her in the eyes, as she shakes with fear at the thought of losing both of them on the same day. "What happened between me and Mike was just a stupid mistake and it will never happen again. I'm really sorry for doing that to you. I love you so much."

Artie takes a moment to consider her words, looking deeply into her eyes. "It's over?"

Tina nods her head in confirmation. "I am choosing you."

"Good," Artie says with a small smile, wiping away Tina's tears with his hands. "Because I really want to marry you."

Tina returns his smile. "I want to marry you, too," she responds before kissing him deeply and she tries to convince herself that she means those words.

"Yo, Changster! Did you forget that you've got a class starting in five minutes?" Santana calls as she barges into his apartment the following morning. She finds Mike laying across his couch, staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes swollen and puffy. Santana takes a moment to take in his dishevelled appearance and the empty bottles of alcohol littered on his coffee table. "Is everything okay?"

"I don't think I can make it to dance class today, San," Mike manages to say, his voice coming out small and croaky.

Santana stares at him with concern and nods her head. "Um, okay, yeah, no problem… I'll just ask Britt to cover your class."

"Thanks," he mumbles, still unable to move from his spot.

Santana takes her phone out to quickly send her wife a text message about Mike's current state and how she will try to find out what is wrong. With a shaky breath, Santana takes a seat by his feet. "What happened with Tina?"

"How do you always know?" he asks, unable to hide the wonder in his tone, and Santana would find it amusing if he wasn't clearly miserable.

"Because, Tina's the only one that would ever have you feeling this much," Santana states simply.

"I've dated other people before," Mike tries to counter.

Santana can't stop herself from scoffing. "Please, I have known you for your entire life. I have known every girl you have ever liked, every girl you ever thought you loved, and the one girl that you ever did… And you know the exact same about me."

Mike attempts to smile at her but fails despite how grateful he truly is for their years of friendship. "I told her that I'm in love with her," he shares with a groan as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Like the idiot that you're always telling me that I am."

"I don't really mean it… most of the time," Santana jokes and normally it makes him chuckle even slightly but Mike just remains silent. "She didn't take it well?"

"She ended it and went back to Artie," Mike chokes and Santana's heart aches for him.

"I'm sorry, Mike. Speaking from experience, I know just how much that fucking sucks," Santana sighs as she recalls the time she told her now-wife that she was in love with her just for her to go back to Artie. "I wanted to die… And I wasn't even sure who I really was yet. I just knew that I was in love with her."

"I wanted to do it someday – propose. I know I turned her down six years ago but I thought that I would get the chance to do it one day when we were both settled into our careers and we didn't have all that distance wedging us apart," Mike reveals as he finally finds the energy to sit up properly. "But then, she got back together with Artie and he proposed before I could and now, they are going to spend the rest of their lives together."

She pulls him in her arms to hug him comfortingly and she is filled with inner turmoil. Santana protects her people. And Mike has been her person since they were in diapers. So, it kills her to see him hurting like this. But Artie's grown to be one of her people too, despite how much she believes that Mike and Tina belong together.

It's all become so convoluted and complicated and she has no idea what to do or say to make any of this better. So, instead, she pulls away from him and pours them another drink. He accepts it gratefully and they sit together in silence as Mike attempts to numb his pain with alcohol.

Meanwhile, that same day, Blaine visits Tina on the set of her movie for lunch. He brings over large bags of take-out from Chipotle and Tina suspects that something is troubling her best friend but she gratefully welcomes him inside her trailer because she has a feeling that this is exactly what she needs.

"We're really just trying to keep it together for little Hepburn but I don't know how much longer we can keep this up," Blaine rants before taking a large bite of his burrito, attempting to eat his feelings like he usually does when he's upset.

"I'm sorry, Blainey-days. I know you were hoping that Hepburn would fix everything," Tina sympathizes, reaching across her trailer's couch to place her hand on his wrist and rub it gently.

"I don't know why I thought it would," Blaine sighs and shrugs defeatedly. "But enough about me and my problems, how is everything going with you, Tee?"

Tina takes a long sip of her soda, pausing for a moment before revealing in a hushed tone, "I ended it with Mike."

Blaine stops chewing in shock and mumbles through a stuffed mouth, "You did?"

"Yeah, yesterday."

"What happened?" he inquires, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.

Tina takes a deep breath and pokes at her burrito bowl. "He told me he loves me."

"And that's what made you end it with him?" Blaine questions, not even trying to hide the judgment from his face. Tina just nods her head in response. "Well, Tee, of course, he's in love with you. Mike is a good person – he wouldn't have had a months-long affair with you if he wasn't."

"I don't doubt that he does," she retorts, rolling her eyes.

"Do you not feel the same way?" he asks, trying and failing to understand his best friend's perspective.

"I love Artie," she tries to explain, suddenly breaking down into hysterical sobs. "And he wants to marry me."

"But do you want to marry him?" The pointed question renders Tina speechless and she stares at her fidgeting hands. "There is only one guy that you proposed to," Blaine reminds her, placing his hand on her wrist and encouraging her to look at him.

"And he said 'no'. Besides he was right to," Tina justifies, shaking her head frantically. "I was being crazy then and I was being crazy now… Mike and I were never meant to be together forever."

"How could you say that?" Blaine wonders incredulously.

"You and Sam told me to choose one of them. And I've chosen. It's Artie," she declares, pulling her hands away from him and wiping her tears away.

Blaine just sighs at her and nods his heading knowing there's no point in arguing with her once she's decided. "Tee, I love you and I'll support you no matter what. And if it's Artie that you chose – then fine. But before you go ahead and commit yourself to him for the rest of your life, you have to be really certain that it's him that you love."

Tina gives him a tight-lipped smile in response and affirms, "I am."