Chapped Lips, Dancing and Misunderstandings
Title: Chapped Lips, Dancing and Misunderstandings
Pairing: Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang
Rating: PG
Spoilers: 2.9- Special Education
Summary: Tina knows this conversation with Mike was inevitable; too bad that doesn't make it less embarrassing.
For psykonaut07, who I owed a drabble. You mentioning "What tipped Tina off to make her all paranoid in Special Education?" spawned this.
She’s digging her homework out of her locker when she hears him come up behind her; the squeak of his dress shoes is unmistakable. Grabbing her English book and shoving it onto her book bag, she sighs as his lanky frame comes into her peripheral vision, leaning against the green lockers to the left.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
The hallways are otherwise deserted and the sound their voices make as they echo doesn’t exactly make her comfortable, shifting her weight in the stiletto heels she still hasn’t taken off from Regionals. The bus had dropped them off a while ago, but Tina had left all her stuff at McKinley so she had split off from the group to collect her homework; it was also a convenient way to avoid questions about how she was getting home and what was going on between her and Mike when Artie and Brittany had obviously made up. Obviously her plan of avoidance hadn’t been so well thought out. Although really, who was she kidding? She knew he’d hunt her down because that’s just the kind of guy he was. Dating upstanding guys did have its downsides when she just wanted to hide away for the rest of the weekend and wallow in her embarrassment alone.
“So… do you want to tell me what’s going on or do I need to read your mind?”
“It’s nothing,” she mumbles, shutting her locker.
“The definition of nothing generally doesn’t include you avoiding me, calling me a jerk, and giving me this weird ‘I-love-you-but-I-hate-you’ vibe all week while wearing some zombie cheerleader outfit that only Michael Jackson in the Thriller video would appreciate.”
“Sarcasm not appreciated, Mike.”
“I don’t read minds, Tina,” he sighs, “What’s going on? I can’t fix it if I don’t know.”
She’s turned to face him now, bag sliding from her arm to clunk against the floor noisily- stupid physics textbook. The way Mike’s looking at her makes Tina uncomfortable; he wants so damn badly to figure this out because shit, he feels like he screwed up when Tina knows she overreacted and jumped to conclusions about a boy she knows, knows, would never do that to her. Yeah, she’s that girl who kissed him before breaking up with Artie, but he’s not that guy who would hook up with his dance partner. She can see that now.
“Give it to me.”
“Pardon?”
“Your lip chap. Give it to me.”
He’s looking at her warily; eyebrows furrowed in confusion as one hand reaches into the pocket of his slacks and slowly extracts a small tube, holding it out. Tina’s hand grasps it quickly, holding it up to take in the pink container with sparkled label.
“Lipsmackers!”
“Um…yeah…” Mike smiles nervously.
“Why the hell do you have lipsmackers, Mike?”
“It tastes good?”
“Seriously?” She wants to face palm right now, but resists.
“Brit…” he pauses for a second before continuing, “Brit let me use hers when we were rehearsing one day…the morning after you and I sort of got carried away in my car and my lips were dry, so she let me borrow hers and it was bubble gum and I know you like bubble gum so I thought maybe if I used it you’d like it and… uh…. Why are you looking at me like that?”
She really, really wants to face palm right now because how can one human being be so damn considerate and sweet and ridiculously dorky?
“I thought you were cheating on me with Brit.”
“What?”
If she weren’t invested in this relationship, Tina would have turned and ran away at that moment because the look Mike’s giving her is worse than anything else. Ever. His hand is running back through his hair and, she hopes subconsciously, he’s shuffled a step away from her, shoulders hunched slightly. But she is invested. She’s in love with Mike Chang even if she’s not very good at saying it to him all the time, and the idea of him being with anyone else reduced her to being someone Tina swore she’d never be. She’s not catty and jealous and she sure as hell isn’t some submissive female who would rather change who they are to avoid a confrontation. So much for the righteous blade of equality.
“You…. You tasted like lipsmackers when I kissed you after you had morning rehearsal with Brit. And I know Brit uses lipsmackers. And you canceled a bunch of dates with me, and you didn’t return my calls and…. She’s a cheerleader, you know?”
“She’s also using Artie as a beard for whatever she and Santana have going on. I so would never want to get involved in that. I’m pretty sure Santana’s going to poison Artie one of these days.”
“I can’t believe you just called Artie Brit’s beard.”
“Call a spade a spade? And yeah, Brit’s cool and she’s a great dancer but… you’re you, right? I’d rather have spent the time with you, but Schue picked Brit and I didn’t want to let Glee down….”
“And I accused the most honorable guy ever of cheating just because of my gut feeling and his tastes in chapstick. I am the worst human being ever.”
“Tee, I’m not gonna say that I’m not hurt hearing that you thought Brit and I were… you know, but… you have to start believing I’m with you because I want to be. You’re awesome and I love you and that’s it. Sure, I’ve been kind of shitty with my time management the last little while but I’m really not looking to get poisoned by Santana or have you go all righteous feminist on me. I just… got caught up in dancing because I wanted it to be good.”
“You were amazing.”
She’s cut him off because seeing the doubt flash across his eyes as he talks about dancing makes Tina want to shake him over and over until he believes, deep down, that he’s amazing. What he did tonight was incredible and regardless of her feelings at the time left Tina absolutely breathless and sort of turned on because the way his body moved across the stage was so fluid and effortlessly sexy- all lean muscle and power. She’s sort of getting breathless just thinking about it again.
“You were amazing, Mike. You both were. I can’t imagine how you put that together.”
“And you’re amazing. Whatever doubts you have about us, just… don’t, okay?”
“On the condition that you have more faith in your dancing,” Tina tosses back.
“On the condition that you talk to me before jumping to conclusions.”
“On the condition that you don’t use lipsmackers ever again.”
“On the condition you find me some different lip chap because it’s making out with you that made me use them in the first place,” he grins, bending his head towards hers.
“On the condition that you let me make out with you in the car on the way home.”
“Deal.”
Pairing: Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang
Rating: PG
Spoilers: 2.9- Special Education
Summary: Tina knows this conversation with Mike was inevitable; too bad that doesn't make it less embarrassing.
For psykonaut07, who I owed a drabble. You mentioning "What tipped Tina off to make her all paranoid in Special Education?" spawned this.
She’s digging her homework out of her locker when she hears him come up behind her; the squeak of his dress shoes is unmistakable. Grabbing her English book and shoving it onto her book bag, she sighs as his lanky frame comes into her peripheral vision, leaning against the green lockers to the left.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
The hallways are otherwise deserted and the sound their voices make as they echo doesn’t exactly make her comfortable, shifting her weight in the stiletto heels she still hasn’t taken off from Regionals. The bus had dropped them off a while ago, but Tina had left all her stuff at McKinley so she had split off from the group to collect her homework; it was also a convenient way to avoid questions about how she was getting home and what was going on between her and Mike when Artie and Brittany had obviously made up. Obviously her plan of avoidance hadn’t been so well thought out. Although really, who was she kidding? She knew he’d hunt her down because that’s just the kind of guy he was. Dating upstanding guys did have its downsides when she just wanted to hide away for the rest of the weekend and wallow in her embarrassment alone.
“So… do you want to tell me what’s going on or do I need to read your mind?”
“It’s nothing,” she mumbles, shutting her locker.
“The definition of nothing generally doesn’t include you avoiding me, calling me a jerk, and giving me this weird ‘I-love-you-but-I-hate-you’ vibe all week while wearing some zombie cheerleader outfit that only Michael Jackson in the Thriller video would appreciate.”
“Sarcasm not appreciated, Mike.”
“I don’t read minds, Tina,” he sighs, “What’s going on? I can’t fix it if I don’t know.”
She’s turned to face him now, bag sliding from her arm to clunk against the floor noisily- stupid physics textbook. The way Mike’s looking at her makes Tina uncomfortable; he wants so damn badly to figure this out because shit, he feels like he screwed up when Tina knows she overreacted and jumped to conclusions about a boy she knows, knows, would never do that to her. Yeah, she’s that girl who kissed him before breaking up with Artie, but he’s not that guy who would hook up with his dance partner. She can see that now.
“Give it to me.”
“Pardon?”
“Your lip chap. Give it to me.”
He’s looking at her warily; eyebrows furrowed in confusion as one hand reaches into the pocket of his slacks and slowly extracts a small tube, holding it out. Tina’s hand grasps it quickly, holding it up to take in the pink container with sparkled label.
“Lipsmackers!”
“Um…yeah…” Mike smiles nervously.
“Why the hell do you have lipsmackers, Mike?”
“It tastes good?”
“Seriously?” She wants to face palm right now, but resists.
“Brit…” he pauses for a second before continuing, “Brit let me use hers when we were rehearsing one day…the morning after you and I sort of got carried away in my car and my lips were dry, so she let me borrow hers and it was bubble gum and I know you like bubble gum so I thought maybe if I used it you’d like it and… uh…. Why are you looking at me like that?”
She really, really wants to face palm right now because how can one human being be so damn considerate and sweet and ridiculously dorky?
“I thought you were cheating on me with Brit.”
“What?”
If she weren’t invested in this relationship, Tina would have turned and ran away at that moment because the look Mike’s giving her is worse than anything else. Ever. His hand is running back through his hair and, she hopes subconsciously, he’s shuffled a step away from her, shoulders hunched slightly. But she is invested. She’s in love with Mike Chang even if she’s not very good at saying it to him all the time, and the idea of him being with anyone else reduced her to being someone Tina swore she’d never be. She’s not catty and jealous and she sure as hell isn’t some submissive female who would rather change who they are to avoid a confrontation. So much for the righteous blade of equality.
“You…. You tasted like lipsmackers when I kissed you after you had morning rehearsal with Brit. And I know Brit uses lipsmackers. And you canceled a bunch of dates with me, and you didn’t return my calls and…. She’s a cheerleader, you know?”
“She’s also using Artie as a beard for whatever she and Santana have going on. I so would never want to get involved in that. I’m pretty sure Santana’s going to poison Artie one of these days.”
“I can’t believe you just called Artie Brit’s beard.”
“Call a spade a spade? And yeah, Brit’s cool and she’s a great dancer but… you’re you, right? I’d rather have spent the time with you, but Schue picked Brit and I didn’t want to let Glee down….”
“And I accused the most honorable guy ever of cheating just because of my gut feeling and his tastes in chapstick. I am the worst human being ever.”
“Tee, I’m not gonna say that I’m not hurt hearing that you thought Brit and I were… you know, but… you have to start believing I’m with you because I want to be. You’re awesome and I love you and that’s it. Sure, I’ve been kind of shitty with my time management the last little while but I’m really not looking to get poisoned by Santana or have you go all righteous feminist on me. I just… got caught up in dancing because I wanted it to be good.”
“You were amazing.”
She’s cut him off because seeing the doubt flash across his eyes as he talks about dancing makes Tina want to shake him over and over until he believes, deep down, that he’s amazing. What he did tonight was incredible and regardless of her feelings at the time left Tina absolutely breathless and sort of turned on because the way his body moved across the stage was so fluid and effortlessly sexy- all lean muscle and power. She’s sort of getting breathless just thinking about it again.
“You were amazing, Mike. You both were. I can’t imagine how you put that together.”
“And you’re amazing. Whatever doubts you have about us, just… don’t, okay?”
“On the condition that you have more faith in your dancing,” Tina tosses back.
“On the condition that you talk to me before jumping to conclusions.”
“On the condition that you don’t use lipsmackers ever again.”
“On the condition you find me some different lip chap because it’s making out with you that made me use them in the first place,” he grins, bending his head towards hers.
“On the condition that you let me make out with you in the car on the way home.”
“Deal.”