Fic: What You Need, for crackedaglet
Title: What You Need
Author: jakia
Recipient: crackedaglet
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 2024
Warnings: none
Summary: Seven mini-stories about how Mike Chang is the glue that holds New Directions together, even when they don’t realize it.
Author's Note: A million thanks to my speedy, awesome beta! You are the best!
1.
He writes to Matt once a month.
It's hard, sometimes, because Matt is so far away, and they don't have much in common anymore, and despite what anyone else might've thought, they were never really that close.
He makes the effort, though, because he is Mike Chang and he cares about people.
After sending Matt a postcard from New York City, while they're at for Nationals, Matt writes back to him I'm glad you found your place there. When I was there, we were never anything more than background noise. I'm glad you grew up and found your voice.
It's that, more than anything else, that sends him to Tina's door that summer, to ask her to teach him how to sing. Because he's a part of the New Directions, and he's their dancer and choreographer, but he'll never be a part of them--not really--until he learns how to sing.
(He takes a deep breath before he walks onto the stage, ready to audition.
Just play it cool, boy. Real cool. )
2.
He comments on every single one of Rachel's Youtube videos.
It's not hard. Almost as soon as he joined the Glee Club, Rachel Berry friended him on Facebook. He accepted her request mostly because he feels sorry for her--her Facebook wall is filled only with the things she's posted herself. So he accepts her friend request and finds himself subjected to the Rachel Berry show--she posts herself singing every day on Youtube, and then she links it to her Facebook.
At first, he's just doing it to be polite. It's not like she's hurting anyone, and, well, she really is a fantastic singer. So he writes little encouraging comments--small ones, mostly just to be polite--but she eats up the comments like candy. He feels a little bad, sometimes, stroking her ego like he does, especially because she can be so mean to Mercedes and Kurt as far as solos go, but at the same time he knows he has brightened her entire day with every comment he posts.
When she gets her first Tony, she sends him a bouquet of pink roses.
To Mike Chang, who never stopped believing in me.
3.
Mike has never felt more guilt in his life than during those months when Kurt was away at Dalton.
It's not his fault, not really, but in the months that Kurt is gone, Mike is quieter than usual. Lauren's a sweet girl, but she's sitting in a seat that should belong to someone else. He and Kurt were never super close, that's true, but the young gay male has a special place in Mike's heart. After all, it was Kurt--not Puck, not Matt, not anyone--who convinced Mike to join Glee club, to dance outside his room. Kurt, who was bullied and teased and hurt, but still had the courage to teach the entire football team the dance to Single Ladies. Kurt, who had so much more to lose, had the courage to dance while Mike did not. It was the least Mike could do to tell Karofsky off--fat load of good that did, though. He wonders, over and over again, if there wasn't anything more he could have done, if he had just noticed faster, if he had just said the right thing…
It's just not the same Glee club without him.
"He won't be gone forever, you know," Tina tells him, as he's staring at Kurt's empty seat. "Even McKinley at its worst can't keep Kurt away for too long. He'll be back. I bet you anything he'll be here before the school year ends. "
He hopes she's right. He misses him.
4.
At the end of it all, he's the one who takes Quinn to see a therapist.
It feels a bit like overstepping, because really, someone else, anyone else, should be doing this, should be helping her out instead. But no one, not a single damn person who claims to love Quinn, has done anything to help her. Not even the adults, people who are supposed to notice these things, seem to care about her. And if someone doesn't get her help, soon, she's going to ruin everything about herself, her entire life exploded into ruin because no one will get her help.
It's bad enough now that even she can see that she has a problem. When he confronts her about it, tells her she needs help, she agrees with him. He even offers to drive her to every single one of her appointments, just so she can get better.
It takes a while, and it eats up more of his time that he'd like, but it's worth it to see her smile now, and know she means it.
5.
He's not entirely sure how it happens. One minute he and Santana are dutifully ignoring each other as best they can, like they have been for the past three years, and the next minute they are roommates in New York City.
Actually, that's a lie. He knows exactly how it happens.
He is sitting in the Lima Bean, doing his Chemistry homework and enjoying his mocha, when Santana sits down across from him.
"So here's the deal, Other Asian. I'm going to New York for college and stuff. Rumor has it you're going to New York as well. " He nods, because while he's applied to several different dance schools, New York is sort of the one he's set his mind on. If he gets in, at least. "Right. Well, I don't want to live in a dorm, and rent is hella expensive in NYC. I need a roommate, and I am not living with my favorite ladyboy Hummel and his merry hag Berry the dwarf, much as I love them. You in?"
It's a terrible idea. Everyone he talks to thinks so. He and Santana have little in common, she's horribly mean, he's unfortunately nice, and together this can only end in disaster. But he doesn't want to live in the dorms, and, no offense, doesn't really want to live with Kurt and Rachel either. Everyone says this is the worst choice he could possibly make, and he's going to be miserable.
Only, he's not. Maybe it's because they are so different, but they actually get along fairly decently as roommates. For the most part, he keeps to his tiny one foot room and she keeps to her tiny one foot room, and their shared one foot living room/kitchen area is kept pretty neat and tidy, but not obsessively so. They share the rent and they share the chores, and when he brings nice girls (and, occasionally, a nice boy) home for a cup of coffee after a date she hits on them only teasingly, and when she brings home floozies he makes them breakfast in the morning.
They live together for four years, and the only time they ever fight is when Blaine asks if he can move in with them, after he and Kurt break up and Mike and Santana are the only other people he knows in all of New York City.
It's hard, arguing with Santana over this. Mike's default may be kindness, but Santana's most certainly isn't, and when she decides to attack she goes for the jugular. Santana argues that they don't have enough space as it is and they don't owe Blaine anything, but Mike can't do it, it can't send Blaine away knowing he has no place to go. They scream a lot of awful things at one another, ranging from you don't care about anyone other than yourself to why do you think Tina left you?It's bloody and vicious, and he did not even know he could be so mean. He goes to bed exhausted and sick of arguing, and he decides that first thing that he'll call Blaine and apologize, tell him he can't move in with them, and then working on earning Santana's forgiveness.
Only, when he wakes up, Blaine is in the process of moving in, adding even more stuff to their already crowded apartment. Santana follows behind him with another box of stuff, and tells him it's about time he got up, they could use another set of hands moving the hobbit in.
It's the closest thing he will ever get to an apology from her. He accepts it humbly, and then jogs down four flights of stairs to grab another box of Blaine's stuff. It's odd, his friendship with Santana, but he wouldn't trade it for the world.
(Years later, when he gets married, Santana is his only female groomsman. She likes it that way. )
6.
Mike goes to every single one of Lauren's wrestling matches.
At first, it's just because he's Mike and he's a nice guy. While he's known Lauren Zizes since middle school, she's never really been in any of the same social groups as him before. And now she is, and New Directions can be…well, they can be a handful, especially if you aren't used to them.
(That, and he really doesn't want anyone to scare her away. At least, not before Regionals. )
So he goes to her wrestling matches, even though he doesn't really know anything about wrestling, and he cheers for her because support is always a good thing. He sits in the stands beside Puck, who looks at him like he's torn between thanking him for showing up, or threatening him to stay away from his girl.
The difference between Puck and Mike, however, is that Mike still goes to her matches even after she quits Glee club. She doesn't notice, or maybe, quite frankly, she just doesn't care, but he still comes, anyway. He considers her a friend, a part of their makeshift little family, and you should always support your family.
7.
Here is the thing: Mike Chang is everyone's friend. No one has ever really tried to be Mike's friend, but because Mike is a nice guy and he cares about people, he tends to make friends somehow anyway. Most of Mike's friendships revolve around Mike doing something selfless for somebody else, and then having the friendship grow from there.
That's not how it works with Blaine, however.
Mike's been a bit busy since school has started (applying for schools, working on his grades, trying to keep up with Glee club, the Brainiacs, the football team. He means to talk to him at some point, at least welcome him into the group like he would anyone else, but he never really gets around to it.
Until, suddenly, he does. He's playing Riff and Blaine is playing Tony, so they have to rehearse together a lot.
And Blaine? Is actually awesome. Mike's pretty quiet and pretty shy, so it's hard for him to just talk to people, but Blaine makes it easy. They have so much in common that their friendship just blossoms naturally. Blaine is the first of Mike's male friends who loves to dance, which is so awesome because he can't think of a single guy who likes to dance as much as he does. It's the easiest friendship Mike's ever had, and suddenly he and Blaine are spending all of their time together. They sit next to each other in class, they throw paper at each other, they dance with each other in Glee, they harmonize together in the background while Puck sings an inappropriate song about wanting to have sex with a teacher... it's just awesome. He's never had a best friend, and before now he wouldn't have understood the difference if someone asked him, but man, having a best friend?Is one of the greatest things ever. Everyone needs a best friend, especially one like Blaine.
When he and Tina break up, when he gets a rejection letter from one of the dance schools he's applied to, when his Dad is disappointed in him, when his wife miscarries and they lose their first child, it's Blaine who shows up, who holds him when he cries, and who is simply there for him, which is all he's ever needed.
Author: jakia
Recipient: crackedaglet
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 2024
Warnings: none
Summary: Seven mini-stories about how Mike Chang is the glue that holds New Directions together, even when they don’t realize it.
Author's Note: A million thanks to my speedy, awesome beta! You are the best!
1.
He writes to Matt once a month.
It's hard, sometimes, because Matt is so far away, and they don't have much in common anymore, and despite what anyone else might've thought, they were never really that close.
He makes the effort, though, because he is Mike Chang and he cares about people.
After sending Matt a postcard from New York City, while they're at for Nationals, Matt writes back to him I'm glad you found your place there. When I was there, we were never anything more than background noise. I'm glad you grew up and found your voice.
It's that, more than anything else, that sends him to Tina's door that summer, to ask her to teach him how to sing. Because he's a part of the New Directions, and he's their dancer and choreographer, but he'll never be a part of them--not really--until he learns how to sing.
(He takes a deep breath before he walks onto the stage, ready to audition.
Just play it cool, boy. Real cool. )
2.
He comments on every single one of Rachel's Youtube videos.
It's not hard. Almost as soon as he joined the Glee Club, Rachel Berry friended him on Facebook. He accepted her request mostly because he feels sorry for her--her Facebook wall is filled only with the things she's posted herself. So he accepts her friend request and finds himself subjected to the Rachel Berry show--she posts herself singing every day on Youtube, and then she links it to her Facebook.
At first, he's just doing it to be polite. It's not like she's hurting anyone, and, well, she really is a fantastic singer. So he writes little encouraging comments--small ones, mostly just to be polite--but she eats up the comments like candy. He feels a little bad, sometimes, stroking her ego like he does, especially because she can be so mean to Mercedes and Kurt as far as solos go, but at the same time he knows he has brightened her entire day with every comment he posts.
When she gets her first Tony, she sends him a bouquet of pink roses.
To Mike Chang, who never stopped believing in me.
3.
Mike has never felt more guilt in his life than during those months when Kurt was away at Dalton.
It's not his fault, not really, but in the months that Kurt is gone, Mike is quieter than usual. Lauren's a sweet girl, but she's sitting in a seat that should belong to someone else. He and Kurt were never super close, that's true, but the young gay male has a special place in Mike's heart. After all, it was Kurt--not Puck, not Matt, not anyone--who convinced Mike to join Glee club, to dance outside his room. Kurt, who was bullied and teased and hurt, but still had the courage to teach the entire football team the dance to Single Ladies. Kurt, who had so much more to lose, had the courage to dance while Mike did not. It was the least Mike could do to tell Karofsky off--fat load of good that did, though. He wonders, over and over again, if there wasn't anything more he could have done, if he had just noticed faster, if he had just said the right thing…
It's just not the same Glee club without him.
"He won't be gone forever, you know," Tina tells him, as he's staring at Kurt's empty seat. "Even McKinley at its worst can't keep Kurt away for too long. He'll be back. I bet you anything he'll be here before the school year ends. "
He hopes she's right. He misses him.
4.
At the end of it all, he's the one who takes Quinn to see a therapist.
It feels a bit like overstepping, because really, someone else, anyone else, should be doing this, should be helping her out instead. But no one, not a single damn person who claims to love Quinn, has done anything to help her. Not even the adults, people who are supposed to notice these things, seem to care about her. And if someone doesn't get her help, soon, she's going to ruin everything about herself, her entire life exploded into ruin because no one will get her help.
It's bad enough now that even she can see that she has a problem. When he confronts her about it, tells her she needs help, she agrees with him. He even offers to drive her to every single one of her appointments, just so she can get better.
It takes a while, and it eats up more of his time that he'd like, but it's worth it to see her smile now, and know she means it.
5.
He's not entirely sure how it happens. One minute he and Santana are dutifully ignoring each other as best they can, like they have been for the past three years, and the next minute they are roommates in New York City.
Actually, that's a lie. He knows exactly how it happens.
He is sitting in the Lima Bean, doing his Chemistry homework and enjoying his mocha, when Santana sits down across from him.
"So here's the deal, Other Asian. I'm going to New York for college and stuff. Rumor has it you're going to New York as well. " He nods, because while he's applied to several different dance schools, New York is sort of the one he's set his mind on. If he gets in, at least. "Right. Well, I don't want to live in a dorm, and rent is hella expensive in NYC. I need a roommate, and I am not living with my favorite ladyboy Hummel and his merry hag Berry the dwarf, much as I love them. You in?"
It's a terrible idea. Everyone he talks to thinks so. He and Santana have little in common, she's horribly mean, he's unfortunately nice, and together this can only end in disaster. But he doesn't want to live in the dorms, and, no offense, doesn't really want to live with Kurt and Rachel either. Everyone says this is the worst choice he could possibly make, and he's going to be miserable.
Only, he's not. Maybe it's because they are so different, but they actually get along fairly decently as roommates. For the most part, he keeps to his tiny one foot room and she keeps to her tiny one foot room, and their shared one foot living room/kitchen area is kept pretty neat and tidy, but not obsessively so. They share the rent and they share the chores, and when he brings nice girls (and, occasionally, a nice boy) home for a cup of coffee after a date she hits on them only teasingly, and when she brings home floozies he makes them breakfast in the morning.
They live together for four years, and the only time they ever fight is when Blaine asks if he can move in with them, after he and Kurt break up and Mike and Santana are the only other people he knows in all of New York City.
It's hard, arguing with Santana over this. Mike's default may be kindness, but Santana's most certainly isn't, and when she decides to attack she goes for the jugular. Santana argues that they don't have enough space as it is and they don't owe Blaine anything, but Mike can't do it, it can't send Blaine away knowing he has no place to go. They scream a lot of awful things at one another, ranging from you don't care about anyone other than yourself to why do you think Tina left you?It's bloody and vicious, and he did not even know he could be so mean. He goes to bed exhausted and sick of arguing, and he decides that first thing that he'll call Blaine and apologize, tell him he can't move in with them, and then working on earning Santana's forgiveness.
Only, when he wakes up, Blaine is in the process of moving in, adding even more stuff to their already crowded apartment. Santana follows behind him with another box of stuff, and tells him it's about time he got up, they could use another set of hands moving the hobbit in.
It's the closest thing he will ever get to an apology from her. He accepts it humbly, and then jogs down four flights of stairs to grab another box of Blaine's stuff. It's odd, his friendship with Santana, but he wouldn't trade it for the world.
(Years later, when he gets married, Santana is his only female groomsman. She likes it that way. )
6.
Mike goes to every single one of Lauren's wrestling matches.
At first, it's just because he's Mike and he's a nice guy. While he's known Lauren Zizes since middle school, she's never really been in any of the same social groups as him before. And now she is, and New Directions can be…well, they can be a handful, especially if you aren't used to them.
(That, and he really doesn't want anyone to scare her away. At least, not before Regionals. )
So he goes to her wrestling matches, even though he doesn't really know anything about wrestling, and he cheers for her because support is always a good thing. He sits in the stands beside Puck, who looks at him like he's torn between thanking him for showing up, or threatening him to stay away from his girl.
The difference between Puck and Mike, however, is that Mike still goes to her matches even after she quits Glee club. She doesn't notice, or maybe, quite frankly, she just doesn't care, but he still comes, anyway. He considers her a friend, a part of their makeshift little family, and you should always support your family.
7.
Here is the thing: Mike Chang is everyone's friend. No one has ever really tried to be Mike's friend, but because Mike is a nice guy and he cares about people, he tends to make friends somehow anyway. Most of Mike's friendships revolve around Mike doing something selfless for somebody else, and then having the friendship grow from there.
That's not how it works with Blaine, however.
Mike's been a bit busy since school has started (applying for schools, working on his grades, trying to keep up with Glee club, the Brainiacs, the football team. He means to talk to him at some point, at least welcome him into the group like he would anyone else, but he never really gets around to it.
Until, suddenly, he does. He's playing Riff and Blaine is playing Tony, so they have to rehearse together a lot.
And Blaine? Is actually awesome. Mike's pretty quiet and pretty shy, so it's hard for him to just talk to people, but Blaine makes it easy. They have so much in common that their friendship just blossoms naturally. Blaine is the first of Mike's male friends who loves to dance, which is so awesome because he can't think of a single guy who likes to dance as much as he does. It's the easiest friendship Mike's ever had, and suddenly he and Blaine are spending all of their time together. They sit next to each other in class, they throw paper at each other, they dance with each other in Glee, they harmonize together in the background while Puck sings an inappropriate song about wanting to have sex with a teacher... it's just awesome. He's never had a best friend, and before now he wouldn't have understood the difference if someone asked him, but man, having a best friend?Is one of the greatest things ever. Everyone needs a best friend, especially one like Blaine.
When he and Tina break up, when he gets a rejection letter from one of the dance schools he's applied to, when his Dad is disappointed in him, when his wife miscarries and they lose their first child, it's Blaine who shows up, who holds him when he cries, and who is simply there for him, which is all he's ever needed.