Penny For Your Thoughts - Part 3 - 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: 2,856
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 1 - Mike
Part 2 - Tina
Part 4 - Tina
“Mike Chang.” There was a wave of relief, happiness, surprise and several other unidentifiable emotions that swept through Mike’s body when he heard Tina’s voice utter his name. He hadn’t been sure, when she looked at him, if she was trying to tell him what he thought she was. Obviously, he had assumed she wanted his help, but then again, she didn’t know that he knew she’d just been dumped, more or less. Not exactly, of course, he could only hope. Not that he’d hope she’d get her heart broken, though it seemed to him like Artie was doing a pretty good job of that while still stringing her along, but that was neither here, nor there, and for the most part, it was the protective voice in his head taking over. He couldn’t help it, as much as he tried to ignore it and move on, he’d gotten too close, cared too much, and now, whether or not she was happy majorly impacted his life. Mike’s crush on Tina was unlike any other he ever had before, and learning to deal with it was proving to be near impossible. Maybe there was something wrong with him, Artie did, after all, get there first, he’d known her longer, and as well as Mike liked to think he knew her, Artie probably knew her just a little better. Even still, it tore him up to see another guy holding her hand, the hand he wanted to be holding, the one he just knew was made to be in his. Over and over, he tried to tell himself that all his anger was just because Artie didn’t deserve a girl like her, but there was more to it than that, he just hadn’t figured it out yet.
It took Mike a moment and a pat on the back from Finn before he pushed himself to his feet to join Tina at the front of the room, unable to hide the smile on his face. She really did want him to be her partner, it was real, and this was actually happening. Sure, he knew that no one else besides the three of them knew the routine, but that only mattered if she was still going to go through with it, and he wouldn’t have blamed her if her heart wasn’t in it any more. When he got close enough, he dipped down quickly to catch her eye line, passing on a look of reassurance before taking a spot next to her. Secretly, in the back of his mind, he was hoping he still remembered the moves he helped her come up with, it wasn’t his usual style at all, and at the same time, he’d been thinking within the confines of Artie’s wheelchair, but he trusted his natural ability enough to fake it til they made it, and most importantly, she trusted him. If they stuck with the basic plan of it, and she let him lead, he didn’t doubt it would come out great, maybe not perfectly, but perfect was overrated…just don’t tell Rachel he said that. Dropping his arms down to his sides, it took everything he had to not reach out and just take her hand like he wanted it. Even under the guise of reassurance, he knew it wasn’t a good idea while they were standing face to face with a room full of their friends, and while her boyfriend was looking at him that way…that way that actually kind of sort of scared him a little.
Thankfully, Mike wasn’t given time to dwell on the expression Artie was currently wearing, because just as quickly as he had noticed it, his attention was pulled away by the collective shuffling of feet as the group trudged across the floor of the choir room, making their way toward the auditorium. Sometimes, the small space just didn’t cut it, they needed more room, and this was no exception. If he had gotten a chance to dwell though, it probably would have ended with him convinced there was soon going to be a hit put out on him, because he was being too obvious and everyone knew he wanted Tina. Ok, so maybe this was Lima, Ohio, and not some mob run major city, but at least later part of his reasoning would have been plausible. In fact, it was something that scared him all the time. He’d told the guys, Matt, Puck and Finn, of course, and while Matt had been the only one helpful on the subject, he knew none of them would tell, but that didn’t mean any of the other kids wouldn’t figure it out on their own if he wasn’t careful. Hanging back while everyone made their way through the doors and down the hall, Mike tugged on Tina’s arm to get her to slow down and hang behind with him. She looked up at him curiously, but followed his lead. Once they were a safe enough distance behind the rest, he looked over at her, making sure to talk softly. “You ok?”
Tina looked slightly taken aback by his question, but the surprise quickly felt from her face and she nodded. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Of course he didn’t believe her, especially with the obviously forced smile she gave him.
“You know you don’t have to lie to me.” He said, shoving his hands into his pockets, debating quickly on whether or not he should tell her what he overheard.
“I know.” She said quietly, looking ahead of them, away from his face. He could see her bite her lip in thought and mentally kicked himself for finding it cute. He didn’t need that on top of everything else in his head right now, but damn it, he couldn’t help it, he loved everything she did.
“Promise not to get mad at me if I tell you something?” That’s right, Mike. That’s always a great way to start off something. Her head turned back in his direction, a questioning eyebrow raised. “It’s nothing bad, or it’s not that bad…it was an accident.” He was stammering now. Great. This was already going badly. Still, she didn’t say anything, just gave him that same look, which he took to mean ‘Go on.’ So he did. “It’s just, a few minutes ago, Puck and the football, I missed it.” Now she was looking at him confused, he knew this pattern, she was going to look at him like he was crazy next. Why couldn’t he ever stay cool for more than a minute when he was talking to her? “I went over to the door to get it, and I…well I heard you guys.”
“…Oh.” There was a look of realization that crossed her features as she turned away again, stopping short of the group that was slowly filtering in through the auditorium doors, presumably to keep their private conversation, you know, private. “You…you heard that?” She looked up at him again.
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “I didn’t mean to listen, it was an accident, I promise. It’s just that…” He sighed and looked down at the floor, a hand moving up the back of his neck. He hated feeling like such a spaz around her. “I heard your voice and you sounded upset, so I listened, because I was worried…still am.” He lifted his head up just enough so that he could see her, but not far enough that he couldn’t still duck his face out of sight should he need to for any reason.
To his surprise though, and to his delight too for that matter, she smiled. “I don’t think anyone’s ever looked out for me the way you do.” Everyone was inside now, and waiting on them, at least that’s what he assumed when he saw Mr. Schue’s head poke back through the door. Not wanting to lose this moment, Mike held up a finger, hoping to signal that they needed a second to strategize, and that seemed to do the trick, because as quickly as he showed up, Mr. Schue vanished back inside, and Tina continued. “That really means a lot to me, and I…” Her attention broke away from his. And she what? And she what!? She needed to finish that thought. “I mean,” It was almost like she could read his mind the way she started up again, or perhaps he started panicking too soon, and she was just trying to find the right words. He liked the former theory better. “I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. I believe you.” Well that was a slight let down, but it could have been far worse, so he’d take it.
“Never.” He took her hand, he couldn’t leave it lonely anymore, it was driving him crazy. “If I ever did anything that hurt you, I’d never forgive myself.” Crap, what was that look she was giving him? Was this getting too serious? Was she on to him? “I just…” He sighed. “It’s like you said, I wanna look out for you is all.” He let go of her hand, even though he didn’t want to, and shrugged his shoulders.
“Right, yeah” She nodded. “I know you do,” She smiled again, and then to his extreme surprise, he saw her hop up on her tip toes with both hands on his shoulders in order to push him down some, so that she could kiss his cheek. “and I love you for that.”
Mike’s knees damn near buckled, and it wasn’t from the weight of her pushing him down. She weighed next to nothing, it made her really easy to pick up when choreography called for that. Not to mention it was pretty adorable, how tiny she was, but that was neither here nor there, because her lips had just touched his cheek. The last thing he ever expected was a kiss, of any kind. He’d grow complacent with the hugs, and was just happy getting to hold her that way, whenever he could, so he never imagined in a million years, that her lips would ever come in contact with him in any way. Sure he’d thought about it, and ok, maybe he had one or two dreams about what it would be like, but as they were finding out, dreams didn’t always come true. “I, uh.” Was he blushing? That was definitely heat he felt rising to his cheeks. “I mean we better” He turned away and reached for the door handle. “get inside, they’re waiting. Just um,” He gave her a quick glance before cracking the door open a bit. “follow my lead, we’ll be fine.”
***
Mike sat nervously on his stool while he heard Artie singing out the first few lines of the song. He knew when they were supposed to come in, but he couldn’t stop himself from stealing glances over at Tina time and time again, and it was making him lose his concentration. She was looking at Artie, of course she was, and of course, it stung. He couldn’t quite read the look on her face, was it forgiveness? Was she already over the fact that he left her high and dry? Or was it guilt that she’d be dancing with someone else? He hoped it wasn’t the later. As much as he didn’t want her to forgive him so quickly, part of that was for purely selfish reasons, and on top of that, he wanted to make the most of this chance they were getting together, he didn’t want her to feel bad about it, he wanted her to have the fun he’d seen her have when he was helping her.
It was the end of the day, Mike was headed out to his car, ready to go home and tackle the homework he didn’t want to do, when he felt the vibration of his phone going off in his pocket. Flipping it open, he saw the incoming text message, smiling to himself when he noticed who it was from. Any time he heard from Tina, it was a good day. Upon opening the text however, he found that he was very confused by the words he saw. “Hey, can you meet me in the dance studio? I need your help on something.” Regardless of his confusion, he tapped out a very quick and simple “Yes. Be right there.” Realistically, he shouldn’t have gone, he had far too much to do, but it was Tina, he’d do anything for her.
When he found Tina, she was sitting on the floor, changing her shoes. When she looked up, the look on her face nearly knocked him off his feet. She was grinning from ear to ear, there was an excitement, an energy he wasn’t used to seeing from her. He liked it. Without a moment’s hesitation, she launched into an explanation on what she needed help with, and he wasn’t sure she took a single breath the whole time. It pained him slightly, when he realized this was all about Artie, it always was. He’d learned to live with it, to a certain extent, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Despite the hurt though, he couldn’t help himself, he had to help her, anything to keep that smile on her face, even if he could only enjoy it from afar.
They didn’t have much time to work, she needed a chance to work on it with Artie, and long enough to figure out how to translate moves for his wheelchair, but somehow, over the course of the afternoon, the two of them managed to put together a rough outline of a dance for them to do. He’d be the first to admit that his concentration wasn’t exactly where it should be though. He’d stumbled over his own two feet far more times than what was normal, watching her spinning around, and listening to the way she laughed out loud when she almost ran into the mirror. There was something about the way she was letting go, the way she never seemed to have a problem being herself around him. He felt like he got a view not many had seen. “So I have to ask.” He crossed his legs and lowered himself to the floor after they’d decided they were done. It wasn’t perfect, they had only been working on it a few hours, but it was good, and it would work. “Why’d you need help?”
Tina looked down at him, seemingly surprised by the question. “Because,” She shrugged her shoulders, and squatted down to sit and join him. “this is your area of experience, I don’t know what I’m doing.” She wasn’t looking up at him, instead, she seemed very interested in the laces on her tap shoes.
“I think you need to trust your instincts more.” He dipped his head down, trying to get a glimpse of her face.
“What do you mean?” She started to look up but stopped when she caught his eye, and cracked a smile, obviously trying not to laugh, before ducking her head back down again.
“You do realize you came up with pretty much all of this yourself right? I just did as you told me to.” He smirked at her, letting out a soft chuckle at the way she was hiding her face. It was almost like a little game she was playing. He had to wonder if she knew it was driving him crazy, probably not though.
“No!” Her head shot up to look at him finally. “It was your idea for the spiny twirly thing, and…and” Her nose scrunched up, making a hilarious face, while he just raised his brows in amusement. “Well, ok. Maybe I did, but you’re the one who kept saying it was good, how would I know it worked if you weren’t telling me? Huh?”
“Ok, ok, fair enough.” He laughed, stretching his legs out in front of him, and leaning back against his hands. “But you know, you’re a lot better than you think you are. Just don’t sell yourself short, ok?”
She looked down again, but not before he saw the blush creep up on her cheeks. He smiled at her, watching as she finally nodded in response, looking back up at him after a minute, smiling at him. “Ok.”
“Ah, so listen, I better go.” His eyes scanned up to the clock, realizing how late it was. “Just remember, follow your gut. You guys are gonna do great.” He pushed himself up off the floor, giving her a quick wink as he did.
There was a cue in the music that caught his ear, this was it, and he was nervous, but excited at the same time. Looking over, he caught her eye, and they both smiled at each other in a reassuring way. Getting up slowly, he took a step toward her, holding out his hand for hers. “May I have this dance?” It was just above a whisper, only loud enough for her to hear, and smiled up at him with a nod, reaching out to take his offered hand.
Author: alonemirage2see
Pairing: Tina/Mike (mentions of Tina/Artie but not much)
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Dream On with references to Ballad
Word Count: 2,856
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 1 - Mike
Part 2 - Tina
Part 4 - Tina
“Mike Chang.” There was a wave of relief, happiness, surprise and several other unidentifiable emotions that swept through Mike’s body when he heard Tina’s voice utter his name. He hadn’t been sure, when she looked at him, if she was trying to tell him what he thought she was. Obviously, he had assumed she wanted his help, but then again, she didn’t know that he knew she’d just been dumped, more or less. Not exactly, of course, he could only hope. Not that he’d hope she’d get her heart broken, though it seemed to him like Artie was doing a pretty good job of that while still stringing her along, but that was neither here, nor there, and for the most part, it was the protective voice in his head taking over. He couldn’t help it, as much as he tried to ignore it and move on, he’d gotten too close, cared too much, and now, whether or not she was happy majorly impacted his life. Mike’s crush on Tina was unlike any other he ever had before, and learning to deal with it was proving to be near impossible. Maybe there was something wrong with him, Artie did, after all, get there first, he’d known her longer, and as well as Mike liked to think he knew her, Artie probably knew her just a little better. Even still, it tore him up to see another guy holding her hand, the hand he wanted to be holding, the one he just knew was made to be in his. Over and over, he tried to tell himself that all his anger was just because Artie didn’t deserve a girl like her, but there was more to it than that, he just hadn’t figured it out yet.
It took Mike a moment and a pat on the back from Finn before he pushed himself to his feet to join Tina at the front of the room, unable to hide the smile on his face. She really did want him to be her partner, it was real, and this was actually happening. Sure, he knew that no one else besides the three of them knew the routine, but that only mattered if she was still going to go through with it, and he wouldn’t have blamed her if her heart wasn’t in it any more. When he got close enough, he dipped down quickly to catch her eye line, passing on a look of reassurance before taking a spot next to her. Secretly, in the back of his mind, he was hoping he still remembered the moves he helped her come up with, it wasn’t his usual style at all, and at the same time, he’d been thinking within the confines of Artie’s wheelchair, but he trusted his natural ability enough to fake it til they made it, and most importantly, she trusted him. If they stuck with the basic plan of it, and she let him lead, he didn’t doubt it would come out great, maybe not perfectly, but perfect was overrated…just don’t tell Rachel he said that. Dropping his arms down to his sides, it took everything he had to not reach out and just take her hand like he wanted it. Even under the guise of reassurance, he knew it wasn’t a good idea while they were standing face to face with a room full of their friends, and while her boyfriend was looking at him that way…that way that actually kind of sort of scared him a little.
Thankfully, Mike wasn’t given time to dwell on the expression Artie was currently wearing, because just as quickly as he had noticed it, his attention was pulled away by the collective shuffling of feet as the group trudged across the floor of the choir room, making their way toward the auditorium. Sometimes, the small space just didn’t cut it, they needed more room, and this was no exception. If he had gotten a chance to dwell though, it probably would have ended with him convinced there was soon going to be a hit put out on him, because he was being too obvious and everyone knew he wanted Tina. Ok, so maybe this was Lima, Ohio, and not some mob run major city, but at least later part of his reasoning would have been plausible. In fact, it was something that scared him all the time. He’d told the guys, Matt, Puck and Finn, of course, and while Matt had been the only one helpful on the subject, he knew none of them would tell, but that didn’t mean any of the other kids wouldn’t figure it out on their own if he wasn’t careful. Hanging back while everyone made their way through the doors and down the hall, Mike tugged on Tina’s arm to get her to slow down and hang behind with him. She looked up at him curiously, but followed his lead. Once they were a safe enough distance behind the rest, he looked over at her, making sure to talk softly. “You ok?”
Tina looked slightly taken aback by his question, but the surprise quickly felt from her face and she nodded. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Of course he didn’t believe her, especially with the obviously forced smile she gave him.
“You know you don’t have to lie to me.” He said, shoving his hands into his pockets, debating quickly on whether or not he should tell her what he overheard.
“I know.” She said quietly, looking ahead of them, away from his face. He could see her bite her lip in thought and mentally kicked himself for finding it cute. He didn’t need that on top of everything else in his head right now, but damn it, he couldn’t help it, he loved everything she did.
“Promise not to get mad at me if I tell you something?” That’s right, Mike. That’s always a great way to start off something. Her head turned back in his direction, a questioning eyebrow raised. “It’s nothing bad, or it’s not that bad…it was an accident.” He was stammering now. Great. This was already going badly. Still, she didn’t say anything, just gave him that same look, which he took to mean ‘Go on.’ So he did. “It’s just, a few minutes ago, Puck and the football, I missed it.” Now she was looking at him confused, he knew this pattern, she was going to look at him like he was crazy next. Why couldn’t he ever stay cool for more than a minute when he was talking to her? “I went over to the door to get it, and I…well I heard you guys.”
“…Oh.” There was a look of realization that crossed her features as she turned away again, stopping short of the group that was slowly filtering in through the auditorium doors, presumably to keep their private conversation, you know, private. “You…you heard that?” She looked up at him again.
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “I didn’t mean to listen, it was an accident, I promise. It’s just that…” He sighed and looked down at the floor, a hand moving up the back of his neck. He hated feeling like such a spaz around her. “I heard your voice and you sounded upset, so I listened, because I was worried…still am.” He lifted his head up just enough so that he could see her, but not far enough that he couldn’t still duck his face out of sight should he need to for any reason.
To his surprise though, and to his delight too for that matter, she smiled. “I don’t think anyone’s ever looked out for me the way you do.” Everyone was inside now, and waiting on them, at least that’s what he assumed when he saw Mr. Schue’s head poke back through the door. Not wanting to lose this moment, Mike held up a finger, hoping to signal that they needed a second to strategize, and that seemed to do the trick, because as quickly as he showed up, Mr. Schue vanished back inside, and Tina continued. “That really means a lot to me, and I…” Her attention broke away from his. And she what? And she what!? She needed to finish that thought. “I mean,” It was almost like she could read his mind the way she started up again, or perhaps he started panicking too soon, and she was just trying to find the right words. He liked the former theory better. “I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. I believe you.” Well that was a slight let down, but it could have been far worse, so he’d take it.
“Never.” He took her hand, he couldn’t leave it lonely anymore, it was driving him crazy. “If I ever did anything that hurt you, I’d never forgive myself.” Crap, what was that look she was giving him? Was this getting too serious? Was she on to him? “I just…” He sighed. “It’s like you said, I wanna look out for you is all.” He let go of her hand, even though he didn’t want to, and shrugged his shoulders.
“Right, yeah” She nodded. “I know you do,” She smiled again, and then to his extreme surprise, he saw her hop up on her tip toes with both hands on his shoulders in order to push him down some, so that she could kiss his cheek. “and I love you for that.”
Mike’s knees damn near buckled, and it wasn’t from the weight of her pushing him down. She weighed next to nothing, it made her really easy to pick up when choreography called for that. Not to mention it was pretty adorable, how tiny she was, but that was neither here nor there, because her lips had just touched his cheek. The last thing he ever expected was a kiss, of any kind. He’d grow complacent with the hugs, and was just happy getting to hold her that way, whenever he could, so he never imagined in a million years, that her lips would ever come in contact with him in any way. Sure he’d thought about it, and ok, maybe he had one or two dreams about what it would be like, but as they were finding out, dreams didn’t always come true. “I, uh.” Was he blushing? That was definitely heat he felt rising to his cheeks. “I mean we better” He turned away and reached for the door handle. “get inside, they’re waiting. Just um,” He gave her a quick glance before cracking the door open a bit. “follow my lead, we’ll be fine.”
***
Mike sat nervously on his stool while he heard Artie singing out the first few lines of the song. He knew when they were supposed to come in, but he couldn’t stop himself from stealing glances over at Tina time and time again, and it was making him lose his concentration. She was looking at Artie, of course she was, and of course, it stung. He couldn’t quite read the look on her face, was it forgiveness? Was she already over the fact that he left her high and dry? Or was it guilt that she’d be dancing with someone else? He hoped it wasn’t the later. As much as he didn’t want her to forgive him so quickly, part of that was for purely selfish reasons, and on top of that, he wanted to make the most of this chance they were getting together, he didn’t want her to feel bad about it, he wanted her to have the fun he’d seen her have when he was helping her.
It was the end of the day, Mike was headed out to his car, ready to go home and tackle the homework he didn’t want to do, when he felt the vibration of his phone going off in his pocket. Flipping it open, he saw the incoming text message, smiling to himself when he noticed who it was from. Any time he heard from Tina, it was a good day. Upon opening the text however, he found that he was very confused by the words he saw. “Hey, can you meet me in the dance studio? I need your help on something.” Regardless of his confusion, he tapped out a very quick and simple “Yes. Be right there.” Realistically, he shouldn’t have gone, he had far too much to do, but it was Tina, he’d do anything for her.
When he found Tina, she was sitting on the floor, changing her shoes. When she looked up, the look on her face nearly knocked him off his feet. She was grinning from ear to ear, there was an excitement, an energy he wasn’t used to seeing from her. He liked it. Without a moment’s hesitation, she launched into an explanation on what she needed help with, and he wasn’t sure she took a single breath the whole time. It pained him slightly, when he realized this was all about Artie, it always was. He’d learned to live with it, to a certain extent, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Despite the hurt though, he couldn’t help himself, he had to help her, anything to keep that smile on her face, even if he could only enjoy it from afar.
They didn’t have much time to work, she needed a chance to work on it with Artie, and long enough to figure out how to translate moves for his wheelchair, but somehow, over the course of the afternoon, the two of them managed to put together a rough outline of a dance for them to do. He’d be the first to admit that his concentration wasn’t exactly where it should be though. He’d stumbled over his own two feet far more times than what was normal, watching her spinning around, and listening to the way she laughed out loud when she almost ran into the mirror. There was something about the way she was letting go, the way she never seemed to have a problem being herself around him. He felt like he got a view not many had seen. “So I have to ask.” He crossed his legs and lowered himself to the floor after they’d decided they were done. It wasn’t perfect, they had only been working on it a few hours, but it was good, and it would work. “Why’d you need help?”
Tina looked down at him, seemingly surprised by the question. “Because,” She shrugged her shoulders, and squatted down to sit and join him. “this is your area of experience, I don’t know what I’m doing.” She wasn’t looking up at him, instead, she seemed very interested in the laces on her tap shoes.
“I think you need to trust your instincts more.” He dipped his head down, trying to get a glimpse of her face.
“What do you mean?” She started to look up but stopped when she caught his eye, and cracked a smile, obviously trying not to laugh, before ducking her head back down again.
“You do realize you came up with pretty much all of this yourself right? I just did as you told me to.” He smirked at her, letting out a soft chuckle at the way she was hiding her face. It was almost like a little game she was playing. He had to wonder if she knew it was driving him crazy, probably not though.
“No!” Her head shot up to look at him finally. “It was your idea for the spiny twirly thing, and…and” Her nose scrunched up, making a hilarious face, while he just raised his brows in amusement. “Well, ok. Maybe I did, but you’re the one who kept saying it was good, how would I know it worked if you weren’t telling me? Huh?”
“Ok, ok, fair enough.” He laughed, stretching his legs out in front of him, and leaning back against his hands. “But you know, you’re a lot better than you think you are. Just don’t sell yourself short, ok?”
She looked down again, but not before he saw the blush creep up on her cheeks. He smiled at her, watching as she finally nodded in response, looking back up at him after a minute, smiling at him. “Ok.”
“Ah, so listen, I better go.” His eyes scanned up to the clock, realizing how late it was. “Just remember, follow your gut. You guys are gonna do great.” He pushed himself up off the floor, giving her a quick wink as he did.
There was a cue in the music that caught his ear, this was it, and he was nervous, but excited at the same time. Looking over, he caught her eye, and they both smiled at each other in a reassuring way. Getting up slowly, he took a step toward her, holding out his hand for hers. “May I have this dance?” It was just above a whisper, only loud enough for her to hear, and smiled up at him with a nod, reaching out to take his offered hand.