Author:
imeldabrandt Title: Dancing Through Life
Rating: G/PG
Pairings/Characters: Rachel Berry and Mike Chang... Berang? We'll work on the pairing name.
Warnings: None! It's completely fluffy. That usually doesn't happen often.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. If I did, Kurt and Karofsky would be together and have lots of threesomes with Puck. Rachel would have been killed in a drive by and Finn would have committed suicide because of Rachel's death... Is it obvious that I don't own Glee?
Summary: Rachel had one more old friend on the list.
A/N: Not much of one this time...
It was sixteen years before I finally got around to Mike Chang. It was the year 2028 and he was the last person I had yet to see. Maybe I should explain. First, my name is Rachel Berry and this is my memoirs. I graduated from William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio in the year 2012. I was in our school's Glee Club (suffice to say that I was our star) and I kind of missed everyone once we went our separate ways.
After moving to New York and making it big on the Broadway scene, I wondered what my old co-stars were up to. I was still friends with everyone on Facebook so I knew where they were and things of that nature, but I wanted to see them. It was that moment when I was longing for the old days when I formulated a plan. Starting that year, I would visit one ex-Glee Club member a year so I could catch up with them. I started with the farthest away.
Artie had moved out to California and started his own special effects company and directed a few movies; Santana had ended up in Las Vegas as a showgirl and seemed happy with her life; Brittany lived in the next city over and didn't really have a job but she somehow managed to keep on living; Puck moved to Canada with David Karofsky after senior year and was now the coach of the Montreal Maple Leafs; Quinn tried to leave Ohio but got as far as Illinois before meeting the man of her dreams and settling down; Finn was still in Lima working in Burt Hummel's car shop and loving every minute of his life; Mercedes had gone down to Georgia and was somewhat of a celebrity in her town; Blaine was in Washington D.C. and doing a Shakespeare theatre there; Tina had gone to Boston and started her own bakery called Tina's Treats; and Kurt... Well, if I wanted to know about him, I just turned on the LOGO channel. He had stumbled upon some very interesting people in the Big Apple and ended up with his own show called 'Life in the Fast Lane: Love in the City.'
The only person left was Mike Chang. He had been living in New York for a few years now, but I had never gone to see him knowing that his time to see the amazing Rachel Berry would soon come. Well, today was the day. I packed my dance bag and headed for 4th and Madison knowing that his dance studio was there.
I headed in and saw him. He had not changed at all since high school. Sure, he had grown a little and his muscles looked even more defined than I remembered, but he still had that tiny dancer look to him. He was just finishing up teaching his toddler hip-hop class. I watched as the kids jumped and slide across the floor. Jump by Kris Kross was blasting from the speakers around the room.
The song ended and all of the kids collapsed in exhaustion. Mike's laughter could be heard from the lobby as the kids grabbed their stuff and headed out the door. I nervously entered the dance studio and knocked on the wall alerting him to my presence. His head swung up from his iPod and stared at me.
"Rachel Berry. I never expected you step foot into this dance studio." He smiled and held his arms out for a hug. I obliged and eagerly ran into them. He showed me to a changing room and quickly got my leotard and tights on.
"It's been so long! I never expected you to come to New York! I always thought you'd head towards California for your dance studio. What made you pick New York?" I asked as I stepped out in my dance clothes and ballet slippers.
"I decided that I wanted to do more than just teach dance. I wanted to still be able to dance. So I went to Tisch for college and I became a choreographer for some Broadway shows. Sometimes I've been the lead dancer in a show. I absolutely love it."
I stretched a little as our conversation continued. "I know what you mean. I ended up being a huge star on the stage and I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I would prefer it if some of the Glee Club members were closure, but I'll just be happy that you and Kurt are in the city with me." I finished stretching and held out my hand for assistance to my feet.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Wanna dance?"
Before I could answer, he began twirling me around the room. He lifted me in the air and brought me back down. We were a mess of arabesques, attitudes, and pirouettes. I laughed as he did a pas de chat and he applauded as I proceeded with a rond de jambe.
We ended in the second position and we stared at each other for a second before we were at it again. Mike hoisted me up and onto his shoulder and did fouette en tournant. I launched into a fish dive before we both went into a grand jete and tumbled into grand ecart.
We looked at each other as we landed and started laughing. It had been so long since I had a ballet partner who could keep up with me. It was great to come and work on my moves some more before having to return to the real world.
"I have a class at eleven, but it ends at noon. You wanna stick around and maybe we can get some lunch together?" Mike asked after our breathing had returned to normal.
"You read my mind." I answered before getting up and checking my phone. Our dance had lasted about a half hour and Mike had fifteen minutes to prepare for his next class. I helped him up and kissed his cheek before heading back to get changed into my street clothes.
That wasn't the last time I saw Mike. I made appointments for private session with the dancer every Saturday for the next year. It was after that year that we started dating. Ten years later, we're married and living in a penthouse in New York.
He still runs his studio and I'm still on Broadway. All of our old Glee Club members have come to visit at one point or another (Kurt has actually crashed at our place when he's been to drunk to remember where he lives) and we've all Mike and I though never join in on the dancing. We like to think about our duet dances in the dance studio.