Asian Kiss: Hey Baby (9/?)
Title: Hey Baby (9/?)
Pairing: Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang
Rating: PG
Summary: Mike knows Tina's the one, but being twenty, in college and exhausted pose a few problems. Not to mention their parents.
I'm sort of completely in love this chapter. I hope you are to.
Mike had always known he wanted to marry Tina. Well, maybe not always but long enough that he’s not entirely sure when it stopped being an option and just became so in his head. He thinks it probably happened sometime around the end of high school when there was the real possibility their life was going to become super complicated, al based on eight little sticks. That was the first time Mike realized how much he was in it with Tina for the long haul. The thought of anyone else in her place actually makes him queasy. Waking up to someone else in the morning? Not happening. Letting someone else have his kids? Not a possibility. Fighting and bickering and dancing with and loving someone else? Never. So, Mike’s known for a hell of a long time that Tina’s sort of it. Not sort of, is it.
And way back when before Glee and even during that first year in Glee, Mike knows he never would have even given Tina a second thought. Not just because she was a goth and with Artie, but how was he supposed to get to know someone as shy as he was? They didn’t actually have a conversation until Coach Sylvester picked them both for her odd group of misfit minorities, and then it was only to complain about how racist the ‘Asian’/’Other Asian’ names were. Figures that now it’s one of Mike’s favorite nicknames when it’s coming out of her mouth. Life is weird like that.
So, yeah. Mike’s going to spend the rest of his life with Tina. And while he never thought about the wedding itself or anything, because he’s not a girl, he always just assumed it’d be traditional. Everything would be traditional. He’d get down on one knee with a ring and propose, and then the planning would begin. And yeah, even though Mike doesn’t think anyone could call Tina’s mom ‘traditional’, he knows that Tina would be willing to go along with the expected customs simply because it’d be important to her parents and Tina's a great daughter like that; well, important to her Dad. So both their mothers would bicker over which elements should be Korean and which should be Chinese, and Tina would try to mediate and translate because her mother’s English still wasn’t great while Mike would be left to hang out with his Dad and Tina’s, the latter of whom still terrified him. Both their parents would insist on inviting every relative and friend they had ever known, and Tina would end up wearing several different traditional dresses, none of which she would probably like. And she’d probably have to get rid of the blue streaks in her hair for the wedding which would actually bother Mike too because he’s really come to think of them as part of Tina.
Okay, so maybe he’s given it a bit more thought than some other guys, but it’s always been sort of disconcerting knowing he won’t actually have any say over his own wedding. He doesn’t exactly mind that it’ll be cultural, because it’s sort of always been a given and Mike really does like being Chinese, but the older he’s gotten and the more he’s known that Tina was the one it’s made Mike realize that it’d be nice to actually be himself when it happens. He’s pretty sure Tina feels the same way even though they’ve never actually talked about marriage in the sort of way that most couples do. Mike figures it’s just a given- what else is supposed to come after living together? When Tina was a bit tipsy at a wedding they went to, a the daughter of a friend of Mike’s Dad, she had brought up how, even though she was resigned to it, she was not looking forward to putting on a poofy white dress and then changing a dozen times just to appease every relative she had. Mike’s starting to come around to the conclusion that when they do get married, at least Tina will be there, and in the end that’s all that’s really important, right? He cares more that she won’t have their day exactly as she wants it than about whatever minor concessions he’ll have to make. Her happiness is what matters, and yeah that makes him sound whipped like hell, but Mike stopped caring what Puck said about him years ago. It’s totally the reason why he and Tina have been together forever and Puck and Quinn are still doing some weird, awkward I-love-you-while-I-hate-you dance where they sort of live together and are sort of dating and are for sure sleeping together but still spend half their time yelling at each other. Something like that; Tina gets whatever it is way more than he does.
It’s not like he’s planning on getting married anytime soon, though. Firstly because both their parents would kill them for being so young, even though his own parents married right out of high school and Mike takes the opportunity to hold it over them when needed, which is usually when they don’t want to let him and Tina share a room when they’re visiting Lima, and secondly a wedding while they’re only halfway through their degrees would be insane. Like really, really insane. Financially they’re just okay with Tina’s job waitressing, and yeah, Mike learnt early on not to mention the cliché about being in college and waitressing after he slept on the couch for a week, and the odd internship she’s gotten that pays and Mike knows that teaching dance classes will never bring in the big bucks, but combined with what his grandparents left him they get by. They’re smart shoppers and Tina sews a lot more than Mike wishes she had to, but keeping warm by cuddling on the couch in the winter to save on heating costs isn’t the worst thing in the world. It’s actually kind of one of the best things in the world, except when a deep freeze hits the eastern seaboard and then they’re basically stuck putting on every piece of clothing they wear and things get sort of tense for a while. But Mike figures they haven’t killed each other over it yet, so it’s a minor issue really.
Besides, when would they actually have time to do the whole thing? Mike’s just about made it to their apartment building and he’s an hour late from helping choreograph the university production of Grease they’re doing in the spring and he’s still got at least two hours of studying to do before he can think about relaxing. Even though that’s basically all his body can think about because he’s so friggen tired. Their degrees are both fairly intensive, each in their own way, and Mike values the little sleep he does get, thank you very much, without it being taken over by wedding madness. Does he mind giving up sleep for hours in bed naked with Tina? Hell no. Would he mind giving up sleep for hours spent picking out flowers and looking at venues and junk like that? Hell yes. He heads up the stairs, because of course their building doesn’t have an elevator and they live on the third floor, and normally he doesn’t mind but tonight it sucks. There are a lot of times that things suck, but Mike promised Tina when they moved out here that they would make it work. Even when he feels like the only time he sees Tina is when they collapse into bed at the end of another day exhausted, he has to keep making it work because Mike damn well knows how hard she works at it too. He never realized how much effort it could take to make their ridiculous life together work. Hell, it takes a lot of effort to drag his ass out of bed some days, let alone be the kind of boyfriend he knows Tina deserves. If only their biggest problems were over how often they went with his mother for dim sum. Frig, he could totally go for some dim sum right now.
But when they do have time together, like when their shifts don’t overlap or the homework isn’t piling up for once, it’s awesome. It makes all the effort and crappy days and twenty-second-on-my-way-out-the-door conversations worth it when Tina puts on one of their old Glee songs from the compilation Mr. Schue gave them all for graduation, which was super corny but it was Mr. Schue, and drags him off the couch or wherever else he’s fallen asleep, and they dance it out. Like really dance it out. Tina sings and they both dance, and sometimes they try to remember the old choreography and other times it’s just four arms and four legs flailing around their tiny living room until they collapse on the floor in hysterics. It’s totally when he’s had a bad day that Mike really appreciates how awesome his girlfriend is; even if it’s at two in the morning when she’s finished a paper or gets home from work, Tina will put on True Colors and sing as they cuddle on the couch, or Dream a Little Dream of Me and they’ll slowly make their way through the dips and twirls, without tap shoes because that would piss the neighbors off, that all those years ago made Mike first really realize just how special Tina was. Special but supremely off limits, but hey, life obviously works out.
As he fumbles with the key to their apartment, he’s thinking that bed sounds really nice. Maybe just a little nap so he has the energy to study and maybe he can get something to eat then too. Although if he knows Tina, and yeah, Mike knows her in every way imaginable, and maybe a few that would shock their friends, she’s probably made him up a plate of something waiting to be heated in the microwave. She’s fantastic like that. Two things meet Mike as he opens the door- music and Tina. She’s bouncing around their living room in the black tights and long black sweater she had worn to school, hair flying in every direction. The music is up loud, and Mike wonders if she’s even able to hear the phone ringing with their neighbors’ complaints because they always call to complain. Maybe she’s purposely turned Valerie up so loudly to ignore the calls. It wouldn’t be the first time. It’s a good thing Mike actually lives there and isn’t intending to ransack the place or something, because she’s completely oblivious as he tosses his bag into the closet and toes off his sneakers. He leans against the closed door for a minute, arms crossed over his chest as Tina spins around with her arms outstretched until he moves forward, hand darting out to grab hers and pull her towards him.
“Mike!”
“Tee.”
“When did you get home?”
“Just now.”
She’s glowing. Mike loves the way her cheeks are painted crimson and her neck is flushed, and there’s the tiniest layer of perspiration dotting her skin. She’s glowing and Mike loves that it’s either dancing or him that makes her look like that- like she’s completely free and wild and alive. He can’t think of another time she looks more gorgeous. He can tell how wired up she is from the way she kisses back, balancing on her bare tip toes to snake her hands around his neck and into his hair. Tina’s an intoxicating buzz as far as Mike’s concerned.
“Do you fancy a dance, Mr. Chang?”
“I’d be honored, Ms. Cohen-Chang.”
Valerie was probably always going to be one of Mike’s favorite songs, just because it brought back such awesome memories. Being finally recognized in Glee for his dance skills, and then getting to show them off in front of hundreds at Sectionals was definitely one of the best moments of high school. And sure, there had been the little misunderstanding with Tina about him and Brittany, but Tina was the only girl he’d dance with to this song now. He couldn’t toss her around like he did Brittany at Sectionals because the neighbors would probably really try to have them kicked out, but it always amazed him how beautiful a dancer Tina was in her own right. Maybe they had just been together long enough but Tina seemed to know where he was going to move next when Mike wasn’t always sure, twisting her around him before pulling her back in the same motion.
She’s giggling as the song ends, and even though he really just wants to collapse onto the couch and take a breather, because he did just come from six hours of choreography, Mike remains standing as Finn’s voice comes over the speakers. They’ve danced to this song a hundred times before, not counting the actual wedding, and it feels like second nature to grab Tina’s hand and hip, spinning her around in a clumsy two-step that has him laughing almost as hard as she is. Mike loves just moving to the music with her because being sloppy and off beat a little doesn’t matter when it’s just the two of them. He’s humming along as they split and step around each other, his hands skimming her waist before pointing their fingers into guns as Sam and Quinn once did. They had ruthlessly teased the pair about their choice of move back then, and Sam had even gone so far as to wear a cowboy hat to practice one day. Neither Quinn nor Kurt had been impressed when he brought it to the wedding. That whole day had been a hazy mad rush of last-minute practices and stealing time with Tina in every closet, coatroom, and corner he could because that red dress was one of the best things he had ever experienced in his just barely seventeen years. Hell, it’s still one of the best things he’s ever experienced in his short lifetime.
The scarf Tina is forever tossing and forgetting on the couch, which seriously drove Mike insane for whatever stupid reason, is in her hand, twisting and curling into figure eights and spirals as she moves around their living room, skirting around the coffee table piled high with textbooks and fabric scraps. She was so jealous of the ribbons Brittany and Santana had gotten to use, and the look on her face when Mike had presented her one at the reception, conveniently stolen from Santana who left it unattended, was of that of a kid on Christmas. Mike had always known that Tina wasn’t a fan of giant declarations of adoration like Finn and Rachel seemed to bask in, but he had really learnt that evening how much she appreciated small gestures. The loose end of the scarf whips by his face and Mike lunges forward and wraps Tina in his arms, laughing as she shrieks.
They’re spinning around and around and Tina’s legs are flailing and they’re both getting dizzy and it’s like being on a rollercoaster but better. She’s pleading with him to put her down between shrieks and gasps of air, and Mike figures he probably should in case he overdoes it and she gets sick or something, because that would totally kill the mood they’ve got going. It’s not that Mike’s anticipating getting laid or anything, even though he basically is, it’s just that right now due dates and bills and grocery shopping don’t matter. Her back is pressed to his chest, and for the few seconds they stand still he leans down to nip the side of her neck, humming the song into her skin and counting the familiar beats in his head. Mike’s so glad it’s just them in the living room right now, because they probably look ridiculous with arms flying every which way in the air. The fact that he can do this with Tina for hours on end, both of them being as geeky and wild and dorky of dancers as they want, makes Mike realize that he wants to spend the rest of his life doing this with her. Like, he already knew that he wanted to be with her forever before, but as he jumps over Tina’s crouched form as they belt out the lyrics at the top of their lungs, Mike wants to be with her forever now. Sure, the neighbors were sure to call and complain about them, but watching Tina’s face light up with no stress or worry behind her eyes as he turns back to pick her up makes it totally worth it. He really doesn’t care about the neighbors anymore. She’s ready to jump and likely have him carry her all the way back to their room because that’s pretty much how they always end up after this point of the song, and Mike knows this isn’t rational because he’s a cautious person but Tina Cohen-Chang has obviously done something crazy to him with her dancing.
“Hey baby, I think I want to marry you.”
He loves her voice because it’s perfect and clear and he can hear her over the recording, but his voice is cracking, dropping to the carpet and reaching for her outstretched hand. And okay, he has no idea what he’s doing because he’s never done this before and he’s never actually given any thought to how he’d do this but he’s doing it. He’s picking now of all the crazy moments to do this and all Mike can think about is how yeah, the look in her eyes right now makes him want to marry her. Seriously, like now. As soon as possible. He wonders if they could get a justice to do it tonight.
“Who cares, baby, I think I want to marry you,” he pauses, “Just say I do.”
The song is still playing and Mike’s fairly certain this will go down as the most unromantic proposal ever because he doesn’t even have a damn ring on him, but Tina’s hand is in his and she’s not singing anymore, just looking at him like he’s grown a third head or something. Which may explain why he’s feeling really, really dizzy waiting for her to say something, preferably other than no. She might say no, though. He had never thought she might say no and what the hell is he doing?
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“You can’t go back on this, Mike. You have to mean it,” Tina whispers, the song fading out behind the sound of her voice and the rush of blood in his head.
“I do, Tee. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
“We’re in university. We’re twenty and we live in a tiny apartment and we barely see each other and what happens when you get an offer to tour and-”
“Who cares, Tee. Who cares? I want to marry you. So just say I do.”
She’s staring down at him and Mike’s got this really bad feeling because he did not think this out, obviously, and he should have known that something this crazy and unexpected would freak Tina out because she’s always been the slow and steady kind with their relationship once they both worked out that no, he wasn’t going to leave her because she was goth, and no, she wasn’t going to break up with him because he was too vanilla for her tastes, and-
“Tomorrow. Let’s go tomorrow. We’ll find a justice and…. I do, Mike. I do.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to get married tomorrow?”
“Why not? Let’s just… do it our way. The moment they find out it’ll be all about the dress and the tea ceremonies and the blessings and… let’s get married tomorrow and we can be us. I’ll make a dress tonight or something and you have a suit and… this is crazy, isn’t it?”
“Insane,” he laughs, stroking the palm of her hand, “We’ve both gone insane.”
“But insane is okay, right? Insane doesn’t mean we’re doing this on a whim, right?”
He laughs, and with a tug Tina lowers herself to the ground and crosses her legs across from him. So if Mike thought his life with Tina was ridiculous before, he figures it’s just surpassed that and moved into the upper limits of ‘clinically insane’. Because if Mike heard right, and there’s no problems with his ears as far as he knows, he just asked Tina to marry him and not only did she say yes, but she wants to do it tomorrow. As in less than 24 hours from now. As in no family, no friends, no Korean and Chinese traditions and outfits that neither of them were looking forward to anyways. Just them and a justice and Mike figures they’ll have to find some witnesses too. They’re insane.
“We are doing this on a whim, though. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”
“Okay,” Tina nods, biting her lip as she smiles at him, “We’re going to get married tomorrow.”
“Yeah, we are…”
“Our parents are going to kill us.”
Pairing: Mike Chang/Tina Cohen-Chang
Rating: PG
Summary: Mike knows Tina's the one, but being twenty, in college and exhausted pose a few problems. Not to mention their parents.
I'm sort of completely in love this chapter. I hope you are to.
Mike had always known he wanted to marry Tina. Well, maybe not always but long enough that he’s not entirely sure when it stopped being an option and just became so in his head. He thinks it probably happened sometime around the end of high school when there was the real possibility their life was going to become super complicated, al based on eight little sticks. That was the first time Mike realized how much he was in it with Tina for the long haul. The thought of anyone else in her place actually makes him queasy. Waking up to someone else in the morning? Not happening. Letting someone else have his kids? Not a possibility. Fighting and bickering and dancing with and loving someone else? Never. So, Mike’s known for a hell of a long time that Tina’s sort of it. Not sort of, is it.
And way back when before Glee and even during that first year in Glee, Mike knows he never would have even given Tina a second thought. Not just because she was a goth and with Artie, but how was he supposed to get to know someone as shy as he was? They didn’t actually have a conversation until Coach Sylvester picked them both for her odd group of misfit minorities, and then it was only to complain about how racist the ‘Asian’/’Other Asian’ names were. Figures that now it’s one of Mike’s favorite nicknames when it’s coming out of her mouth. Life is weird like that.
So, yeah. Mike’s going to spend the rest of his life with Tina. And while he never thought about the wedding itself or anything, because he’s not a girl, he always just assumed it’d be traditional. Everything would be traditional. He’d get down on one knee with a ring and propose, and then the planning would begin. And yeah, even though Mike doesn’t think anyone could call Tina’s mom ‘traditional’, he knows that Tina would be willing to go along with the expected customs simply because it’d be important to her parents and Tina's a great daughter like that; well, important to her Dad. So both their mothers would bicker over which elements should be Korean and which should be Chinese, and Tina would try to mediate and translate because her mother’s English still wasn’t great while Mike would be left to hang out with his Dad and Tina’s, the latter of whom still terrified him. Both their parents would insist on inviting every relative and friend they had ever known, and Tina would end up wearing several different traditional dresses, none of which she would probably like. And she’d probably have to get rid of the blue streaks in her hair for the wedding which would actually bother Mike too because he’s really come to think of them as part of Tina.
Okay, so maybe he’s given it a bit more thought than some other guys, but it’s always been sort of disconcerting knowing he won’t actually have any say over his own wedding. He doesn’t exactly mind that it’ll be cultural, because it’s sort of always been a given and Mike really does like being Chinese, but the older he’s gotten and the more he’s known that Tina was the one it’s made Mike realize that it’d be nice to actually be himself when it happens. He’s pretty sure Tina feels the same way even though they’ve never actually talked about marriage in the sort of way that most couples do. Mike figures it’s just a given- what else is supposed to come after living together? When Tina was a bit tipsy at a wedding they went to, a the daughter of a friend of Mike’s Dad, she had brought up how, even though she was resigned to it, she was not looking forward to putting on a poofy white dress and then changing a dozen times just to appease every relative she had. Mike’s starting to come around to the conclusion that when they do get married, at least Tina will be there, and in the end that’s all that’s really important, right? He cares more that she won’t have their day exactly as she wants it than about whatever minor concessions he’ll have to make. Her happiness is what matters, and yeah that makes him sound whipped like hell, but Mike stopped caring what Puck said about him years ago. It’s totally the reason why he and Tina have been together forever and Puck and Quinn are still doing some weird, awkward I-love-you-while-I-hate-you dance where they sort of live together and are sort of dating and are for sure sleeping together but still spend half their time yelling at each other. Something like that; Tina gets whatever it is way more than he does.
It’s not like he’s planning on getting married anytime soon, though. Firstly because both their parents would kill them for being so young, even though his own parents married right out of high school and Mike takes the opportunity to hold it over them when needed, which is usually when they don’t want to let him and Tina share a room when they’re visiting Lima, and secondly a wedding while they’re only halfway through their degrees would be insane. Like really, really insane. Financially they’re just okay with Tina’s job waitressing, and yeah, Mike learnt early on not to mention the cliché about being in college and waitressing after he slept on the couch for a week, and the odd internship she’s gotten that pays and Mike knows that teaching dance classes will never bring in the big bucks, but combined with what his grandparents left him they get by. They’re smart shoppers and Tina sews a lot more than Mike wishes she had to, but keeping warm by cuddling on the couch in the winter to save on heating costs isn’t the worst thing in the world. It’s actually kind of one of the best things in the world, except when a deep freeze hits the eastern seaboard and then they’re basically stuck putting on every piece of clothing they wear and things get sort of tense for a while. But Mike figures they haven’t killed each other over it yet, so it’s a minor issue really.
Besides, when would they actually have time to do the whole thing? Mike’s just about made it to their apartment building and he’s an hour late from helping choreograph the university production of Grease they’re doing in the spring and he’s still got at least two hours of studying to do before he can think about relaxing. Even though that’s basically all his body can think about because he’s so friggen tired. Their degrees are both fairly intensive, each in their own way, and Mike values the little sleep he does get, thank you very much, without it being taken over by wedding madness. Does he mind giving up sleep for hours in bed naked with Tina? Hell no. Would he mind giving up sleep for hours spent picking out flowers and looking at venues and junk like that? Hell yes. He heads up the stairs, because of course their building doesn’t have an elevator and they live on the third floor, and normally he doesn’t mind but tonight it sucks. There are a lot of times that things suck, but Mike promised Tina when they moved out here that they would make it work. Even when he feels like the only time he sees Tina is when they collapse into bed at the end of another day exhausted, he has to keep making it work because Mike damn well knows how hard she works at it too. He never realized how much effort it could take to make their ridiculous life together work. Hell, it takes a lot of effort to drag his ass out of bed some days, let alone be the kind of boyfriend he knows Tina deserves. If only their biggest problems were over how often they went with his mother for dim sum. Frig, he could totally go for some dim sum right now.
But when they do have time together, like when their shifts don’t overlap or the homework isn’t piling up for once, it’s awesome. It makes all the effort and crappy days and twenty-second-on-my-way-out-the-door conversations worth it when Tina puts on one of their old Glee songs from the compilation Mr. Schue gave them all for graduation, which was super corny but it was Mr. Schue, and drags him off the couch or wherever else he’s fallen asleep, and they dance it out. Like really dance it out. Tina sings and they both dance, and sometimes they try to remember the old choreography and other times it’s just four arms and four legs flailing around their tiny living room until they collapse on the floor in hysterics. It’s totally when he’s had a bad day that Mike really appreciates how awesome his girlfriend is; even if it’s at two in the morning when she’s finished a paper or gets home from work, Tina will put on True Colors and sing as they cuddle on the couch, or Dream a Little Dream of Me and they’ll slowly make their way through the dips and twirls, without tap shoes because that would piss the neighbors off, that all those years ago made Mike first really realize just how special Tina was. Special but supremely off limits, but hey, life obviously works out.
As he fumbles with the key to their apartment, he’s thinking that bed sounds really nice. Maybe just a little nap so he has the energy to study and maybe he can get something to eat then too. Although if he knows Tina, and yeah, Mike knows her in every way imaginable, and maybe a few that would shock their friends, she’s probably made him up a plate of something waiting to be heated in the microwave. She’s fantastic like that. Two things meet Mike as he opens the door- music and Tina. She’s bouncing around their living room in the black tights and long black sweater she had worn to school, hair flying in every direction. The music is up loud, and Mike wonders if she’s even able to hear the phone ringing with their neighbors’ complaints because they always call to complain. Maybe she’s purposely turned Valerie up so loudly to ignore the calls. It wouldn’t be the first time. It’s a good thing Mike actually lives there and isn’t intending to ransack the place or something, because she’s completely oblivious as he tosses his bag into the closet and toes off his sneakers. He leans against the closed door for a minute, arms crossed over his chest as Tina spins around with her arms outstretched until he moves forward, hand darting out to grab hers and pull her towards him.
“Mike!”
“Tee.”
“When did you get home?”
“Just now.”
She’s glowing. Mike loves the way her cheeks are painted crimson and her neck is flushed, and there’s the tiniest layer of perspiration dotting her skin. She’s glowing and Mike loves that it’s either dancing or him that makes her look like that- like she’s completely free and wild and alive. He can’t think of another time she looks more gorgeous. He can tell how wired up she is from the way she kisses back, balancing on her bare tip toes to snake her hands around his neck and into his hair. Tina’s an intoxicating buzz as far as Mike’s concerned.
“Do you fancy a dance, Mr. Chang?”
“I’d be honored, Ms. Cohen-Chang.”
Valerie was probably always going to be one of Mike’s favorite songs, just because it brought back such awesome memories. Being finally recognized in Glee for his dance skills, and then getting to show them off in front of hundreds at Sectionals was definitely one of the best moments of high school. And sure, there had been the little misunderstanding with Tina about him and Brittany, but Tina was the only girl he’d dance with to this song now. He couldn’t toss her around like he did Brittany at Sectionals because the neighbors would probably really try to have them kicked out, but it always amazed him how beautiful a dancer Tina was in her own right. Maybe they had just been together long enough but Tina seemed to know where he was going to move next when Mike wasn’t always sure, twisting her around him before pulling her back in the same motion.
She’s giggling as the song ends, and even though he really just wants to collapse onto the couch and take a breather, because he did just come from six hours of choreography, Mike remains standing as Finn’s voice comes over the speakers. They’ve danced to this song a hundred times before, not counting the actual wedding, and it feels like second nature to grab Tina’s hand and hip, spinning her around in a clumsy two-step that has him laughing almost as hard as she is. Mike loves just moving to the music with her because being sloppy and off beat a little doesn’t matter when it’s just the two of them. He’s humming along as they split and step around each other, his hands skimming her waist before pointing their fingers into guns as Sam and Quinn once did. They had ruthlessly teased the pair about their choice of move back then, and Sam had even gone so far as to wear a cowboy hat to practice one day. Neither Quinn nor Kurt had been impressed when he brought it to the wedding. That whole day had been a hazy mad rush of last-minute practices and stealing time with Tina in every closet, coatroom, and corner he could because that red dress was one of the best things he had ever experienced in his just barely seventeen years. Hell, it’s still one of the best things he’s ever experienced in his short lifetime.
The scarf Tina is forever tossing and forgetting on the couch, which seriously drove Mike insane for whatever stupid reason, is in her hand, twisting and curling into figure eights and spirals as she moves around their living room, skirting around the coffee table piled high with textbooks and fabric scraps. She was so jealous of the ribbons Brittany and Santana had gotten to use, and the look on her face when Mike had presented her one at the reception, conveniently stolen from Santana who left it unattended, was of that of a kid on Christmas. Mike had always known that Tina wasn’t a fan of giant declarations of adoration like Finn and Rachel seemed to bask in, but he had really learnt that evening how much she appreciated small gestures. The loose end of the scarf whips by his face and Mike lunges forward and wraps Tina in his arms, laughing as she shrieks.
They’re spinning around and around and Tina’s legs are flailing and they’re both getting dizzy and it’s like being on a rollercoaster but better. She’s pleading with him to put her down between shrieks and gasps of air, and Mike figures he probably should in case he overdoes it and she gets sick or something, because that would totally kill the mood they’ve got going. It’s not that Mike’s anticipating getting laid or anything, even though he basically is, it’s just that right now due dates and bills and grocery shopping don’t matter. Her back is pressed to his chest, and for the few seconds they stand still he leans down to nip the side of her neck, humming the song into her skin and counting the familiar beats in his head. Mike’s so glad it’s just them in the living room right now, because they probably look ridiculous with arms flying every which way in the air. The fact that he can do this with Tina for hours on end, both of them being as geeky and wild and dorky of dancers as they want, makes Mike realize that he wants to spend the rest of his life doing this with her. Like, he already knew that he wanted to be with her forever before, but as he jumps over Tina’s crouched form as they belt out the lyrics at the top of their lungs, Mike wants to be with her forever now. Sure, the neighbors were sure to call and complain about them, but watching Tina’s face light up with no stress or worry behind her eyes as he turns back to pick her up makes it totally worth it. He really doesn’t care about the neighbors anymore. She’s ready to jump and likely have him carry her all the way back to their room because that’s pretty much how they always end up after this point of the song, and Mike knows this isn’t rational because he’s a cautious person but Tina Cohen-Chang has obviously done something crazy to him with her dancing.
“Hey baby, I think I want to marry you.”
He loves her voice because it’s perfect and clear and he can hear her over the recording, but his voice is cracking, dropping to the carpet and reaching for her outstretched hand. And okay, he has no idea what he’s doing because he’s never done this before and he’s never actually given any thought to how he’d do this but he’s doing it. He’s picking now of all the crazy moments to do this and all Mike can think about is how yeah, the look in her eyes right now makes him want to marry her. Seriously, like now. As soon as possible. He wonders if they could get a justice to do it tonight.
“Who cares, baby, I think I want to marry you,” he pauses, “Just say I do.”
The song is still playing and Mike’s fairly certain this will go down as the most unromantic proposal ever because he doesn’t even have a damn ring on him, but Tina’s hand is in his and she’s not singing anymore, just looking at him like he’s grown a third head or something. Which may explain why he’s feeling really, really dizzy waiting for her to say something, preferably other than no. She might say no, though. He had never thought she might say no and what the hell is he doing?
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“You can’t go back on this, Mike. You have to mean it,” Tina whispers, the song fading out behind the sound of her voice and the rush of blood in his head.
“I do, Tee. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
“We’re in university. We’re twenty and we live in a tiny apartment and we barely see each other and what happens when you get an offer to tour and-”
“Who cares, Tee. Who cares? I want to marry you. So just say I do.”
She’s staring down at him and Mike’s got this really bad feeling because he did not think this out, obviously, and he should have known that something this crazy and unexpected would freak Tina out because she’s always been the slow and steady kind with their relationship once they both worked out that no, he wasn’t going to leave her because she was goth, and no, she wasn’t going to break up with him because he was too vanilla for her tastes, and-
“Tomorrow. Let’s go tomorrow. We’ll find a justice and…. I do, Mike. I do.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to get married tomorrow?”
“Why not? Let’s just… do it our way. The moment they find out it’ll be all about the dress and the tea ceremonies and the blessings and… let’s get married tomorrow and we can be us. I’ll make a dress tonight or something and you have a suit and… this is crazy, isn’t it?”
“Insane,” he laughs, stroking the palm of her hand, “We’ve both gone insane.”
“But insane is okay, right? Insane doesn’t mean we’re doing this on a whim, right?”
He laughs, and with a tug Tina lowers herself to the ground and crosses her legs across from him. So if Mike thought his life with Tina was ridiculous before, he figures it’s just surpassed that and moved into the upper limits of ‘clinically insane’. Because if Mike heard right, and there’s no problems with his ears as far as he knows, he just asked Tina to marry him and not only did she say yes, but she wants to do it tomorrow. As in less than 24 hours from now. As in no family, no friends, no Korean and Chinese traditions and outfits that neither of them were looking forward to anyways. Just them and a justice and Mike figures they’ll have to find some witnesses too. They’re insane.
“We are doing this on a whim, though. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”
“Okay,” Tina nods, biting her lip as she smiles at him, “We’re going to get married tomorrow.”
“Yeah, we are…”
“Our parents are going to kill us.”