Penny For Your Thoughts - Part 1 - Mike
Title: Penny For Your Thoughts (all 4 parts of a 4 part fic)
Author: alonemirage2see
Pairing: Tina/Mike (mentions of Tina/Artie but not much)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Dream On with references to Ballad
Word Count: 2,793
Disclaimer: Obviously the characters are not mine and I mean no harm. I just have an over active imagination sometimes and the idea of Tina and Mike together is too good to pass up.
Summery: A journey of Tina and Mike's inner thoughts during the last 5 minutes or so of Dream On.
A/N: I started this about 4 months ago, and finally managed to finish it. It sticks very closely to the events of the episodes, but is slightly A/U in the sense that I filled in some of the blanks in events and things we didn't see. Also, please don't judge me by the cheese factor of some of it. Sometimes I can't help myself. I LOVE CHEESE (this is why I'm not a vegan)
Part 2 - Tina
Part 3 - Mike
Part 4 - Tina
"Will you at least sing the song?" He heard a small crack in her voice as she spoke the words, something most wouldn't notice. Only those who knew her well enough would be able to hear it and know it was just slightly off from her normal pattern of speech. It killed him, he'd grown to care about her so much, he hated hearing the pain she was obviously feeling at being let down that way. There wasn't exactly anything he could do though, he shouldn't have been listening in on their conversation in the first place, but Mike didn't mean to eavesdrop, it was an honest accident. He had been in the music room, minding his own business, just throwing a football around with the guys, when Puck's toss bounced off his fingertips and landed near the door. He had run over to grab it, and that was when he could hear the subdued voices of Artie and Tina out in the hall. He didn't intend on stopping, despite the fact that he worried about her, especially when it came to Artie, but having been the only one outside the two of them who knew what she had been up to that week, a few choice words caught his attention and then he found himself to be a secret third party to their conversation. It wasn’t sounding good, he knew how hard she was working, and how excited she had been, but when he caught a quick glimpse of her face through the window, before ducking out of sight, he noticed that light was gone from her face.
Mike could still remember the day when he realized that Tina Cohen-Chang was special, when he first saw something more in her than that weird, quiet, goth girl who spoke a stutter. Before joining the Glee Club, he never even knew her name, let alone anything about her, aside from the fact that she was the one always hanging out with that nerd in the wheelchair. That was the funny thing about fate, it worked in ways that no one could understand, and somehow, in the grand cosmic universe, it pulled him in her direction, and caused her to pull his name out of the hat that day. Sure they had a small chance to hang out with each other before, when Sue had tried to split up the group, that was when he first took notice of her smile, and that was the first time he realized her laughter was a pleasant sound to his ears, something he gradually started wishing he could hear more of. That week was also the first time they had ended up as dance partners while they worked on one of their group numbers, and as soon as he had taken her hand for the first time, he knew that he liked the way it felt in his. The week they worked on ballads was different though, he hadn’t truly gotten a chance to get to know the girl before then, and by that point, she was starting to make him curious.
There had only been a couple weeks between then and the first time she made his heart jump, but so much had changed in just that short time. It wasn't any secret to the club, what had happened between her and Artie the week prior, and while some seemed confused to find out the truth about her characteristic stutter, others just found it weird to hear her speak without it while she slowly slipped out of the habit of using it as a safety blanket, now that the truth was out there. Mike, on the other hand, became curious. It hadn’t taken long for the word to spread and he heard the reasons, but he didn’t understand. She was different than most, yes, she definitely had her own unique style, and while shyness was something he understood, the thing he couldn’t figure out is why she’d want to completely hide herself from everyone, because from what he could tell, there was nothing about her she should feel ashamed of. There were a lot of looks and whispering in the days that followed, people filling in the blanks in the story on their own, something that would die off in a few days, as most high school gossip did, but through it all, and despite the fact that she had lost the person she cared most about, she managed to rise above it, and keep her head held high. Even through the pained expression she sported, she was taking the high road, and choose not to address it, ignoring it almost completely instead. It was very admirable of her and, in its own way, a very attractive quality.
It was at this point when Mike started feeling a sense of protectiveness about her, and while he always thought Artie was a pretty cool guy, the way he was treating Tina left much to be desired. A girl like her, she deserved more respect than that. Granted, he didn't know what it was like to be in Artie’s shoes, but he knew he wasn’t the only one who felt bad for her. They all knew she had always been there for him, and then, when she had found the nerve to open up to him about something so personal and exposing, he just turned his back on her. It had taken Mike a while before realizing why felt this way about her though. The pieces were all there, but they were hard to put together, and like most puzzles, the answer was the one thing you don’t consider.
Tina was sitting by herself that day, but she wasn’t so far removed that Artie was out of her sight. It was obvious to Mike, as he took his seat, that she was still upset. There was a longing in her eyes when she looked his way, and it seemed like she was still secretly hoping that Artie would start talking to her again, but instead he seemed to avoid her at all cost.
Class had been a blur to Mike, once she pulled the slip of paper with his name on it out of the hat. He hadn’t been blind to the disappointment on her face when Artie announced that he drew Quinn, and he couldn’t blame her. If he had been in her place, he would have taken it as the perfect opportunity to try and work things out, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy with the outcome in the end, even if she seemed a little less than thrilled. He tried not to take that personally.
The idea of spending the week with her excited him, but he wasn’t sure exactly why. Maybe it was because he would be able to lend a hand and cheer her up a little, she needed some kind of pick me up, that was for sure. Were there any ballads like that out there? There had to be. “What’s your schedule like? I mean, when are you free?” The question cut into his thoughts when class was over, and he looked around, realizing that the room was slowly emptying out after Rachel and Mr. Schue finished their duet, which had been making him more than a little uncomfortable. It was just another reason to let his mind wander.
“What?” She caught him off guard, and he responded before fully dissecting what she meant. “Oh yeah. Right. Um…” He quickly corrected himself before she had a chance to say anything else, but crap, now she was staring at him like he had not only a second, but a third head growing off his shoulders. Come on Chang, get it together. “Today,” Not too eager, remember to breath. “I…I’m free today, and tomorrow, for starters. I don’t know how long we’ll need...” He let his sentence trail off, suddenly aware that it probably wouldn’t be the best idea if he let her catch on to the fact that he had already been thinking about this more than the rest of them probably were. Well aside from Rachel, but that hardly counted, she was in a league of her own.
“Are you ok?” She was making a face now, her eyebrows knitted together in a look of semi confusion and concern. So much for being smooth, not that he was known for that, but he liked to think he wasn’t a total spaz.
“No, I mean yeah. I mean…” Stop. Think before you speak. “I’m fine, I just kind of zoned out,” He pointed aimlessly toward the now vacant piano in the middle of the room. “Rachel, Mr. Schue, that was…yeah.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” To his surprise, she was laughing, an unexpected, but very welcome response to his frazzled state. “She was…intense.” A pause while he raised a brow at her, earning him another laugh. “Ok, yeah, she’s always intense, but you know what I mean, this was on a whole new level. A new, creepy level.”
They fell quiet for a moment, and he glanced over at her, trying to read her body language. Was she upset they were paired up? Why would she be happy about it? After all he was one of those jock football players who always made life hell for the kids like her. Not that he was ever too keen on acting like a Neanderthal, but he’d be lying if he said he never gave in to the peer pressure. He’d done and said some things he wasn’t proud of, but as cheesy as it might have sounded, being in Glee Club was opening up his eyes, and he was starting to see it wasn’t worth it, which was why he hadn’t had a problem choosing them over the team when given the ultimatum. “Are you sure you’re ok? Rachel’s gone now, it’s safe, I promise.” Crap, he was flat out staring now and she had caught him.
“Yeah, yeah sorry.” He shook his head in a physical attempt to ‘shake it off’ as one might put it, and then smiled at her. “How about we go to my house after school, we can start working on it then?” She nodded in agreement; it wasn’t as though she had much in the way of plans these days anyway.
Once they had made it to his house, Mike lead her into the living room and she found a place to drop her bag, then opted for a seat on the floor. “So, did you have any ideas about what you wanted to sing?” She shook her head. She’d been quite since they met in the parking lot after school, and he worried that he had done something wrong. Swallowing hard, he felt his nerves building up, something he wasn’t all together familiar with. Not that it never happened, but it wasn’t often. This was not going well at all.
“I don’t, I mean…expressing my inner most feelings hasn’t exactly worked out well for me lately.” He froze when she spoke up, it hadn’t been at all what he was expecting to hear, but at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling a small sense of pride that she had felt comfortable enough to be so candid with him.
“Well…” He nodded, wanting her to know that he understood what she meant. “Hey, what about, I heard you humming something the other day, what was it? Would that work?” There was an instant blush that rose up in her cheeks, and he couldn’t help thinking that it was cute.
“Oh, that…Mercedes gave me this Beyonce song. She said it would help with…you know.” Her shoulders shrugged quickly. “I guess it would kind of work, but” She shook her head quickly. “I…I can’t sing like her.” The small stutter seemed to be one of genuine fear.
“You don’t have to sing like Beyonce,” He offered her a friendly smile, sliding off of the couch and onto the floor next to her. “This is about you.” Without thinking, he reached out and placed his hand on hers. There it was again, that feeling, that undeniable feeling that it belonged there. “Sing it like Tina.” He watched as she looked down to their hands, and then up at him, and to his surprise, after a moment’s hesitation, she smiled back. He was flying by the seat of his pants right now, but somehow it seemed to work, because a few seconds later, she opened her mouth again.
“If I were a boy, I think I could understand, how it feels to love a girl, I swear I'd be a better man.” It was shaky at first, but he didn’t care. He had never really heard her sing before, but her voice caught his attention, and it was hard to focus on what he was supposed to. “I'd listen to her, cause I know how it hurts when you lose the one you wanted cause he's taking you for granted, and everything you had got destroyed.” As she continued, he fought against closing his eyes, they were supposed to keep eye contact, convey the emotion, and convey it she did. He had been right, she was still hurting and it showed. “It's a little too late for you to come back, say it's just a mistake. Think I'd forgive you like that? If you thought I would wait for you, you thought wrong, but you're just a boy. You don't understand, and you don't understand, oh how it feels to love a girl. Someday you wish you were a better man.” He knew the song, he had heard it a hundred times before, and like most men, he had taken some kind of offense to it, seen it as a personal attack, but this time? This time was different. He was hearing the song in a whole new way, and everything about the way she sang it was getting to him. The anger and the hurt, the pain and frustration, he just wanted to make it better. “You don't listen to her, you don't care how it hurts,” He was losing track of the song at this point; her voice was only a distant sound, because the pieces were finally finding their way into the right spots. He liked her. He, Mike Chang, had a crush on Tina. “Until you lose the one you wanted, cause you're taking her for granted, and everything you had got destroyed…but you're just a boy.” By the time she hit the last note, which was beautifully drawn out before it ended, his attention had found its way back to where it should be…mostly. It was safe to say that ignoring his new found realization was quite impossible at the moment, especially when he was now thinking about things like wanting to kiss her, something that obviously wasn’t a good idea. Well it was a good idea, he had decided, but just not right now.
“Hey, Chang! Did you get lost over there or something?” Mike looked back behind him to see Puck standing in the middle of the room tapping his foot impatiently. “I got it!” He called out, holding the football up to show the guys. Before heading back to the game, he turned back around to take one last look at Tina and Artie…ok, mostly Tina, through the small window in the door, but they were already gone.
A few seconds later, as he was tossing the football in Finn’s direction, he heard the door open, and looked back toward it once again, hearing a dull thud, and confused “Ow!” coming from the general direction in which he had thrown the ball. Oops. He shot Tina a concerned look when she and Artie started across the room to their seats, she was missing the pretty glow she’d been wearing recently, the one he liked so much, but she never saw him, her eyes never left the floor.
It was only moments later that he heard Mr. Schue clap his hands together in the all too familiar signal that said it was time to get down to business. Usually Mike didn’t mind when it was time for class to start, when it came to Glee at least, but today? Today he wanted nothing more than to pull Tina aside to find out exactly what happened, and if she needed a friend. That was going to have to wait til after however, and in the mean time, he couldn’t stop himself from frequently looking in her direction after he had remembered what today was. What was she going to do now that it had seemed she lost her dance partner?
Author: alonemirage2see
Pairing: Tina/Mike (mentions of Tina/Artie but not much)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Dream On with references to Ballad
Word Count: 2,793
Disclaimer: Obviously the characters are not mine and I mean no harm. I just have an over active imagination sometimes and the idea of Tina and Mike together is too good to pass up.
Summery: A journey of Tina and Mike's inner thoughts during the last 5 minutes or so of Dream On.
A/N: I started this about 4 months ago, and finally managed to finish it. It sticks very closely to the events of the episodes, but is slightly A/U in the sense that I filled in some of the blanks in events and things we didn't see. Also, please don't judge me by the cheese factor of some of it. Sometimes I can't help myself. I LOVE CHEESE (this is why I'm not a vegan)
Part 2 - Tina
Part 3 - Mike
Part 4 - Tina
"Will you at least sing the song?" He heard a small crack in her voice as she spoke the words, something most wouldn't notice. Only those who knew her well enough would be able to hear it and know it was just slightly off from her normal pattern of speech. It killed him, he'd grown to care about her so much, he hated hearing the pain she was obviously feeling at being let down that way. There wasn't exactly anything he could do though, he shouldn't have been listening in on their conversation in the first place, but Mike didn't mean to eavesdrop, it was an honest accident. He had been in the music room, minding his own business, just throwing a football around with the guys, when Puck's toss bounced off his fingertips and landed near the door. He had run over to grab it, and that was when he could hear the subdued voices of Artie and Tina out in the hall. He didn't intend on stopping, despite the fact that he worried about her, especially when it came to Artie, but having been the only one outside the two of them who knew what she had been up to that week, a few choice words caught his attention and then he found himself to be a secret third party to their conversation. It wasn’t sounding good, he knew how hard she was working, and how excited she had been, but when he caught a quick glimpse of her face through the window, before ducking out of sight, he noticed that light was gone from her face.
Mike could still remember the day when he realized that Tina Cohen-Chang was special, when he first saw something more in her than that weird, quiet, goth girl who spoke a stutter. Before joining the Glee Club, he never even knew her name, let alone anything about her, aside from the fact that she was the one always hanging out with that nerd in the wheelchair. That was the funny thing about fate, it worked in ways that no one could understand, and somehow, in the grand cosmic universe, it pulled him in her direction, and caused her to pull his name out of the hat that day. Sure they had a small chance to hang out with each other before, when Sue had tried to split up the group, that was when he first took notice of her smile, and that was the first time he realized her laughter was a pleasant sound to his ears, something he gradually started wishing he could hear more of. That week was also the first time they had ended up as dance partners while they worked on one of their group numbers, and as soon as he had taken her hand for the first time, he knew that he liked the way it felt in his. The week they worked on ballads was different though, he hadn’t truly gotten a chance to get to know the girl before then, and by that point, she was starting to make him curious.
There had only been a couple weeks between then and the first time she made his heart jump, but so much had changed in just that short time. It wasn't any secret to the club, what had happened between her and Artie the week prior, and while some seemed confused to find out the truth about her characteristic stutter, others just found it weird to hear her speak without it while she slowly slipped out of the habit of using it as a safety blanket, now that the truth was out there. Mike, on the other hand, became curious. It hadn’t taken long for the word to spread and he heard the reasons, but he didn’t understand. She was different than most, yes, she definitely had her own unique style, and while shyness was something he understood, the thing he couldn’t figure out is why she’d want to completely hide herself from everyone, because from what he could tell, there was nothing about her she should feel ashamed of. There were a lot of looks and whispering in the days that followed, people filling in the blanks in the story on their own, something that would die off in a few days, as most high school gossip did, but through it all, and despite the fact that she had lost the person she cared most about, she managed to rise above it, and keep her head held high. Even through the pained expression she sported, she was taking the high road, and choose not to address it, ignoring it almost completely instead. It was very admirable of her and, in its own way, a very attractive quality.
It was at this point when Mike started feeling a sense of protectiveness about her, and while he always thought Artie was a pretty cool guy, the way he was treating Tina left much to be desired. A girl like her, she deserved more respect than that. Granted, he didn't know what it was like to be in Artie’s shoes, but he knew he wasn’t the only one who felt bad for her. They all knew she had always been there for him, and then, when she had found the nerve to open up to him about something so personal and exposing, he just turned his back on her. It had taken Mike a while before realizing why felt this way about her though. The pieces were all there, but they were hard to put together, and like most puzzles, the answer was the one thing you don’t consider.
Tina was sitting by herself that day, but she wasn’t so far removed that Artie was out of her sight. It was obvious to Mike, as he took his seat, that she was still upset. There was a longing in her eyes when she looked his way, and it seemed like she was still secretly hoping that Artie would start talking to her again, but instead he seemed to avoid her at all cost.
Class had been a blur to Mike, once she pulled the slip of paper with his name on it out of the hat. He hadn’t been blind to the disappointment on her face when Artie announced that he drew Quinn, and he couldn’t blame her. If he had been in her place, he would have taken it as the perfect opportunity to try and work things out, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy with the outcome in the end, even if she seemed a little less than thrilled. He tried not to take that personally.
The idea of spending the week with her excited him, but he wasn’t sure exactly why. Maybe it was because he would be able to lend a hand and cheer her up a little, she needed some kind of pick me up, that was for sure. Were there any ballads like that out there? There had to be. “What’s your schedule like? I mean, when are you free?” The question cut into his thoughts when class was over, and he looked around, realizing that the room was slowly emptying out after Rachel and Mr. Schue finished their duet, which had been making him more than a little uncomfortable. It was just another reason to let his mind wander.
“What?” She caught him off guard, and he responded before fully dissecting what she meant. “Oh yeah. Right. Um…” He quickly corrected himself before she had a chance to say anything else, but crap, now she was staring at him like he had not only a second, but a third head growing off his shoulders. Come on Chang, get it together. “Today,” Not too eager, remember to breath. “I…I’m free today, and tomorrow, for starters. I don’t know how long we’ll need...” He let his sentence trail off, suddenly aware that it probably wouldn’t be the best idea if he let her catch on to the fact that he had already been thinking about this more than the rest of them probably were. Well aside from Rachel, but that hardly counted, she was in a league of her own.
“Are you ok?” She was making a face now, her eyebrows knitted together in a look of semi confusion and concern. So much for being smooth, not that he was known for that, but he liked to think he wasn’t a total spaz.
“No, I mean yeah. I mean…” Stop. Think before you speak. “I’m fine, I just kind of zoned out,” He pointed aimlessly toward the now vacant piano in the middle of the room. “Rachel, Mr. Schue, that was…yeah.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” To his surprise, she was laughing, an unexpected, but very welcome response to his frazzled state. “She was…intense.” A pause while he raised a brow at her, earning him another laugh. “Ok, yeah, she’s always intense, but you know what I mean, this was on a whole new level. A new, creepy level.”
They fell quiet for a moment, and he glanced over at her, trying to read her body language. Was she upset they were paired up? Why would she be happy about it? After all he was one of those jock football players who always made life hell for the kids like her. Not that he was ever too keen on acting like a Neanderthal, but he’d be lying if he said he never gave in to the peer pressure. He’d done and said some things he wasn’t proud of, but as cheesy as it might have sounded, being in Glee Club was opening up his eyes, and he was starting to see it wasn’t worth it, which was why he hadn’t had a problem choosing them over the team when given the ultimatum. “Are you sure you’re ok? Rachel’s gone now, it’s safe, I promise.” Crap, he was flat out staring now and she had caught him.
“Yeah, yeah sorry.” He shook his head in a physical attempt to ‘shake it off’ as one might put it, and then smiled at her. “How about we go to my house after school, we can start working on it then?” She nodded in agreement; it wasn’t as though she had much in the way of plans these days anyway.
Once they had made it to his house, Mike lead her into the living room and she found a place to drop her bag, then opted for a seat on the floor. “So, did you have any ideas about what you wanted to sing?” She shook her head. She’d been quite since they met in the parking lot after school, and he worried that he had done something wrong. Swallowing hard, he felt his nerves building up, something he wasn’t all together familiar with. Not that it never happened, but it wasn’t often. This was not going well at all.
“I don’t, I mean…expressing my inner most feelings hasn’t exactly worked out well for me lately.” He froze when she spoke up, it hadn’t been at all what he was expecting to hear, but at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling a small sense of pride that she had felt comfortable enough to be so candid with him.
“Well…” He nodded, wanting her to know that he understood what she meant. “Hey, what about, I heard you humming something the other day, what was it? Would that work?” There was an instant blush that rose up in her cheeks, and he couldn’t help thinking that it was cute.
“Oh, that…Mercedes gave me this Beyonce song. She said it would help with…you know.” Her shoulders shrugged quickly. “I guess it would kind of work, but” She shook her head quickly. “I…I can’t sing like her.” The small stutter seemed to be one of genuine fear.
“You don’t have to sing like Beyonce,” He offered her a friendly smile, sliding off of the couch and onto the floor next to her. “This is about you.” Without thinking, he reached out and placed his hand on hers. There it was again, that feeling, that undeniable feeling that it belonged there. “Sing it like Tina.” He watched as she looked down to their hands, and then up at him, and to his surprise, after a moment’s hesitation, she smiled back. He was flying by the seat of his pants right now, but somehow it seemed to work, because a few seconds later, she opened her mouth again.
“If I were a boy, I think I could understand, how it feels to love a girl, I swear I'd be a better man.” It was shaky at first, but he didn’t care. He had never really heard her sing before, but her voice caught his attention, and it was hard to focus on what he was supposed to. “I'd listen to her, cause I know how it hurts when you lose the one you wanted cause he's taking you for granted, and everything you had got destroyed.” As she continued, he fought against closing his eyes, they were supposed to keep eye contact, convey the emotion, and convey it she did. He had been right, she was still hurting and it showed. “It's a little too late for you to come back, say it's just a mistake. Think I'd forgive you like that? If you thought I would wait for you, you thought wrong, but you're just a boy. You don't understand, and you don't understand, oh how it feels to love a girl. Someday you wish you were a better man.” He knew the song, he had heard it a hundred times before, and like most men, he had taken some kind of offense to it, seen it as a personal attack, but this time? This time was different. He was hearing the song in a whole new way, and everything about the way she sang it was getting to him. The anger and the hurt, the pain and frustration, he just wanted to make it better. “You don't listen to her, you don't care how it hurts,” He was losing track of the song at this point; her voice was only a distant sound, because the pieces were finally finding their way into the right spots. He liked her. He, Mike Chang, had a crush on Tina. “Until you lose the one you wanted, cause you're taking her for granted, and everything you had got destroyed…but you're just a boy.” By the time she hit the last note, which was beautifully drawn out before it ended, his attention had found its way back to where it should be…mostly. It was safe to say that ignoring his new found realization was quite impossible at the moment, especially when he was now thinking about things like wanting to kiss her, something that obviously wasn’t a good idea. Well it was a good idea, he had decided, but just not right now.
“Hey, Chang! Did you get lost over there or something?” Mike looked back behind him to see Puck standing in the middle of the room tapping his foot impatiently. “I got it!” He called out, holding the football up to show the guys. Before heading back to the game, he turned back around to take one last look at Tina and Artie…ok, mostly Tina, through the small window in the door, but they were already gone.
A few seconds later, as he was tossing the football in Finn’s direction, he heard the door open, and looked back toward it once again, hearing a dull thud, and confused “Ow!” coming from the general direction in which he had thrown the ball. Oops. He shot Tina a concerned look when she and Artie started across the room to their seats, she was missing the pretty glow she’d been wearing recently, the one he liked so much, but she never saw him, her eyes never left the floor.
It was only moments later that he heard Mr. Schue clap his hands together in the all too familiar signal that said it was time to get down to business. Usually Mike didn’t mind when it was time for class to start, when it came to Glee at least, but today? Today he wanted nothing more than to pull Tina aside to find out exactly what happened, and if she needed a friend. That was going to have to wait til after however, and in the mean time, he couldn’t stop himself from frequently looking in her direction after he had remembered what today was. What was she going to do now that it had seemed she lost her dance partner?