
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/1038223.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M, M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Glee
  Relationship:
      Artie_Abrams/Tina_Cohen-Chang, Mike_Chang/Tina_Cohen-Chang, Artie_Abrams/
      Mike_Chang, Artie_Abrams/Mike_Chang/Tina_Cohen-Chang, Finn_Hudson/Kurt
      Hummel/Noah_Puckerman
  Character:
      Artie_Abrams, Artie's_Mother_(Glee), Tina_Cohen-Chang, Tina's_Mother_
      (Glee), Mike_Chang, Finn_Hudson, Noah_Puckerman, Kurt_Hummel, Matt
      Rutherford, Original_Male_Character(s), Mercedes_Jones
  Additional Tags:
      Polyamory, Polyamory_Big_Bang, First_Time, High_School, Marijuana, Teen
      Angst, Canon_Disabled_Character, Polyamory_Negotiations
  Series:
      Part 2 of Eyes-verse
  Stats:
      Published: 2013-11-10 Chapters: 14/14 Words: 32518
****** Two Perfect Waves in the Night ******
by gala_apples, nubianamy
Summary
     Mike’s spent his life trying to avoid disappointing parental figures.
     That’s why, when Finn comes clean about dating Kurt and Puck, and Mr
     Schuester gets mad at him, Mike’s first instinct is to say he’s
     dating two people too. If he can spread out the disapproval, it’ll be
     less painful for Finn, who idolizes Mr Schue.
     What he’s not expecting is for his fake boyfriend Artie to take him
     on a date, outside of school hours. What he’s not expecting is for
     his fake girlfriend Tina to think the three of them should have sex
     together. What he’s not expecting is for his fake relationship to
     turn out to be one of the most significant things he’s ever done.
     From there it’s a matter of instinct. Tell Puck, who has a hundred
     and one ideas about what to do in bed. Don’t tell his best friend,
     who thinks sex is the price you pay for a spouse and kids. Drink a
     smoothie with Artie’s mom. Throw himself out of a window before his
     mom can ask him if he’s still single. Because if there’s one thing
     Mike’s learned in his time in Glee club, it’s that even if everyone
     has an opinion, only a select few really matter.
Notes
     Gala and I had so much fun writing this story. That's pretty much all
     we wanted to say. Oh, and there'll be a sequel eventually, because
     there's definitely more story to tell.
     -amy
     This idea has sat in the back of our minds since we finished Eyes,
     but it was the fifth round of Polybigbang that inspired us to
     actually get the words on the page. But Amy's right, there's so much
     more to write.
     -gala
***** Excerpt from We Might As Well Close Our Eyes *****
[Title graphic by nubianamy]
(This excerpt from We_Might_As_Well_Close_Our_Eyes explains the background for
this story. -amy)
"We'll do it," Mike said abruptly.
Puck shook his head as if that would make Mike's few words make more sense.
When things didn't suddenly become clear he asked, "What?"
"I'll tell Mr Schue that I'm dating one of the couples. Artie and Tina, or Matt
and Santana. Or I guess since Santana's not really monogamous and it won't have
as much impact, maybe Matt and some random Cheerio? And I'll ask him if he
believes certain passages of The Ethical Slut would work in our situation, and
read them out loud. Obviously he won't at first, but he'll have to think about
why he doesn't. Hopefully he'll realise that his arguments are baseless."
Matt shook his head. "Man, sometimes I forget you're in debate club and on the
Brainiacs."
"What the shit is a Brainiac?"
Brittany rested her head on Santana's shoulder. "You know. One of them is a
genius, the other is insane."
"Brainiacs, not Animaniacs. Me and Artie and Liz Schneider are all on the team.
We've talked about it like ten times, how do you keep forgetting?"
Finn tilted his head. "Wouldn't you feel bad lying for us? It's, like, as bad
as my I'm not in love with two people thing?"
Mike shrugged eloquently. "There's what, a month and a half of school left? If
Tina and Artie don't care that I'm pretending to date them, then I don't care
about not actually dating for that long. I'll be busy choreographing us for
Nationals anyway, as soon as we win Regionals. We'll 'break up' over the
summer."
Tina shrugged and dropped her hand on Artie's shoulder. "I don't mind if you
don't."
"I've always felt that points are best made with examples. Hence my trying to
find films. No kissing on the mouth, Chang."
Puck had no words for several long moments. He shook his head. "You guys would
do that for us?"
"Glee's family, dumbass." Santana snapped.
"Except when it's not," Matt added. "Because otherwise we're highly
incestuous."
***** Mike *****
"Can you believe my mom packed shrimp shumai in my lunch today?" Jordan rolled
his eyes, leaning against the locker next to Mike's. "I keep telling her just
to buy Gogurts and I'll make my own sandwiches, but it's not working. It's like
she's committed to being the Super Asian mom. Anyway, I hate shrimp; you're
going to have to trade with me."
"Sorry," said Mike, shaking his head. "Can't have lunch with you today."
"Super secret emergency Regionals thing? You know your Brainiacs thing takes up
way less time, and doesn't piss off your parents. Next year you should ditch
Glee and just do Brainiacs."
Mike sighed. "There are, like, fifteen things wrong with that statement,
starting with Glee would only piss off my parents if they were aware I was
wasting my time with it. What they don't know doesn't hurt them. And don't jinx
us with no club next year. If we don't move on to Nationals, the New Directions
is disbanded."
Jordan wrinkled his nose. "What kind of shit teacher threatens his kids like
that?"
"Delightful psychopaths who go by the name of Sue Sylvester," Mike replied,
tacking on a huge fake grin. Her madness was the reason he'd refrained from
dancing in public until Puck recruited him to Glee. He would never risk trying
out for the Cheerios; it would mean having to deal with her personally. "She
hasn't pushed anyone down the stairs in a few days."
Jordan snorted. "Pretty high bar we set for teachers."
"Anyway, the 'super secret Regionals meeting' is at Mr Schue's house later. I
think we're getting pizza too. Lunch is about eating with Artie and Tina."
Jordan laughed, because Jordan was the kind of guy who always found humour in
other people trying their earnest best. A classic example was when his sister
forced him to watch Ms America; it was fifty percent hot women in bathing
suits, and fifty percent cracking up at all the 'If I ruled I'd irrigate crops
in places for food' bullshit. He'd had a complete meltdown at finding out that
Mike had promised to pretend to date two freshmen at once to get Mr Schue off
Puck and Kurt and Finn's backs.
Mike gave him a weary glare. "Shut up, man."
"Sorry, sorry. It's just great." Jordan stifled his snickering. "Are you going
to carry Artie's books next?"
"Look, I don't have a choice. Mr Schue's the lunch monitor. I have to eat with
them in case he does a scan for his favourite students to make sure we're not
being slushied or whatever."
Jordan leered at him. "I'll give you twenty bucks if you hand-feed Tina."
Mike shoved him lightly. "You're a fuckin' freak, dude. At least I have someone
I could hand-feed. She'd totally let me, if I wanted to."
Jordan's voice turned a bit more serious. "Maybe she would. Doesn't mean her
actual boyfriend would like that. One thing you don't need to do is think this
is more serious than it is. It's an act, remember? First day of summer break,
you're off the hook."
Mike knew that. He wasn't stupid. He'd made the offer to help his friends, and
Artie and Tina had signed on to help in just the same way. He wasn't really
anything to them. Even if Tina actually did let him touch her sometimes, it was
just more evidence that she was an affectionate person.
"Do you think Tina would want my shumai?" Jordan asked.
Mike glared at him. "I think three is enough in one relationship, don't you?"
"Just an idea," he said easily. "How do you even know that Schue's the lunch
teacher today? Are you monitoring his every movement? Do you like, have
surveillance set up?"
"No."
"Did you pay Zizes to do it?" Jordan steamrolled on, ignoring Mike's
irritation. "Because I bet she would, for like, five bags of Canadian ketchup
chips, or something else ridiculously hard to get. You know when Boyd was
trying to see if Candace was getting better marks than him because she was
taking Ritalin, Zizes charged him two trays of nanaimo bars?"
"That was a stupid deal. Candace gets a hundred percent in every class. She's
clearly on Ritalin."
"Or maybe she's just super Asian," Jordan laughed. "But seriously, it's like
I'm just randomly talking to you and all of a sudden you're halfway down the
hall, with your hands around Artie's wheelchair handles all suggestively, like
you're a zipper away from a handjob, and I look in the other direction and
there's Schuester. How do you do it?"
Mike rolled his eyes. "I get more than three hours of sleep a night, so I
actually notice the things that are happening around me? Whatever. It's
important. Since we started, Schue's had to split his sideeyeing over two triad
couples instead of concentrating on them. Finn's the New Directions captain.
You weren't there the whole time the three of them were trying to get their
shit together; it was awful, for all of us. We can't afford for Finn to get
depressed just because Schue's not open-minded. We need him. Even if you don't
give two shits about the three of them, consider it payment towards keeping New
Directions alive."
"Yeah, yeah," Jordan said. "I know you'll pout like a bitch if you can't be in
Glee club next year. Not my thing, but I wouldn't want you to be pouting your
way through junior year." He gave a little half-wave. "See you after school.
I'll save my shumai for you."
Tina and Artie were sitting at the end of the table where Kurt and Mercedes
usually ate with them, but today they were alone. Artie gave Mike a brave smile
as he set his lunch tray across from Tina.
"Schue's talking to Finn. You're off the hook for now. Tina, can I get a ride
with your mom tonight to the meeting? My mom has tennis until six-thirty."
Tina's smile for Mike was brief and warm. She reached an intentional hand
across the table and touched his knuckles with her fingertips. Mike glanced at
Artie before taking her hand and holding it loosely. He still wasn't sure how
really okay this whole thing was, or how far to take it in front of everybody.
Britt had always been the one to initiate PDA, when they'd been kind-of dating,
and he'd gone along with it as long as nobody seemed to mind, but this was
different.
Not to mention there was another hand to hold. Mike rested his, palm-up, on the
table. It was close enough to Artie that Artie could take it if he wanted to,
but if he chose not to, it wouldn't look weird.
It felt a little strange to be playing this game with Tina and Artie, in
particular because they didn't have all the information. Mike suspected they
both assumed they were pretend-dating friendly, straight-but-not-narrow Mike
Chang. Whereas in reality, holding another guy's hand had layers of meaning
that Mike wasn't sure he was ready to reveal to two people who were only his
pretend-boyfriend and pretend-girlfriend. Holding hands with a guy might mean
something a lot more to him, someday. The fact that this one was nothing but a
practice setup didn't change the fact that Mike actually wanted to hold another
guy's hand - and to do a lot more than that.
But Artie did take his hand, anyway, in time for Schue to turn around and see
them do it, and it wasn't too weird.
"How are you getting to Schue's?" Artie asked him.
Mike shrugged. "Bike, like always. Unless I can weasel a ride out of Matt?"
"That would be hard?"
"He's kind of super sensitive about being used for rides. Apparently there's
some huge family rift about the uncle that only talks to his dad when he needs
help moving his start up businesses."
Artie looked hopeful. "You think I could play the poor-disabled-kid card?
Otherwise I'll have to call the city bus for a ride, and it smells like wet
feet."
Mike grinned. "We haul your ass down the April Rhodes stairs multiple times a
week. The disabled kid card's a pretty good play."
Artie's eyes got scary-big behind his glasses, like an anime Oliver Twist, and
he put on a pleading little pout that had Tina snorting into her milk. Then he
squeezed Mike's hand once before letting it go, and smiled. "Worth a try."
***** Tina *****
Chapter Notes
     Warning for recreational pot smoking.
Tina had entered the Regionals song selection meeting with low hopes. She'd
known that thanks to Sylvester being one of the judges they'd be fucked
regardless of what songs they'd pick. She'd just hoped that maybe they'd make
it out still friends. Before Glee she'd only had two friends on Facebook (her
parents). Even the rest of Lima's Asian community had turned down her requests,
or maybe they'd just been too suspicious of social networking to take the
plunge.
And now... now she actually had something to lose, if Glee got cancelled. And
apparently, she was going to lose it, because when Mercedes shot down Finn's
optimism like an arrow through a blimp, Puck had seconded her. There was no
more firmer proof that the jocks and nerds would cleave back into two groups if
they lost Glee. It was enough to make her want to cry.
She wasn't scared to burst into tears in front of them. She knew her boyfriend,
at least, would stick by her. But it was Mike's hand she felt on her back,
comforting her, and that was more than a little surprising. Mike had never been
particularly touchy-feely.
"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her eyes on the heel of her hand. Artie passed
her his handkerchief.
"Don't worry about it, baby," he reassured her. "We can go, if you want to."
She blew her nose. "No, no... I want to stay." But by the time the meeting was
over, Tina was still struggling to deal with the feelings left behind.
Mike crouched down next to her, looking concerned. "You want to go somewhere?
We can, I don't know, talk. Whatever." He looked over at Artie. "Someplace
accessible?"
"I'd be up for that," Artie agreed.
They split into the typical groupings outside Schue's apartment. Mercedes and
Quinn went back to Mercedes' house; Finn and Kurt returned to their shared
basement. Rachel went home alone, both her dads in the car, probably ready to
spoil her back into happiness. The only surprise was Puck, who followed Matt
and Santana and Brittany instead of his boyfriends. Tina guessed they were
going to drink themselves stupid somewhere, and ever since that time with
April, Kurt didn't really drink. Frankly, Tina would have been happy to drown
her sorrows, too, but she already keenly felt the divide between their relative
popularity and her utter lack of it. Starting next week, and maybe for the rest
of high school, she was going to have to deal with that; she didn't need to
start prematurely.
Matt agreed to drop them off at Schoonover Park before following Santana and
Britt. "Call me if you need a ride home," he said, but Artie waved him on.
"My mom said she can come get me. Thanks."
Mike wheeled Artie's chair along the sidewalk to the far side of the lake,
where the ducks were congregating along the shore. They found a quiet bench
near the shore and sat together, Tina in the center.
"Do you want...?" Artie trailed off, but waved something that looked a lot like
a joint. Mike's eyes widened.
"Is that - ?"
"Yeah. There's this amputee at my physical therapy group, he gets it medically.
Or illegally, I dunno, but it's for the pain. He's my source. I usually smoke
it when I'm having director's block, but this is a special occasion."
Mike stared at the thin white object. "And by special you mean miserable?"
"Look, you don't have to have any. I'm just saying right now the world sucks
almost as hard as it does when I can't envision my next scene, and I want
some."
"I do, too," Tina added, surprising Mike. She was a little surprised at
herself, actually, but her resolve hardened when she saw his incredulous
expression. "Come on. It'll help."
"Uh. Okay, I guess." He wrinkled his nose. "I've never smoked anything before,
though, so you're going to have to show me what to do."
"Have you smoked a cigarette before?" Artie asked.
Tina knew the answer would be no before Mike started to explain himself. "It's
not like I'm one of those straight-edge assholes that goes around with squirt
guns putting out smokers' cigarettes. It's just there would be hell to pay if I
ever smelled like it."
Artie didn't say anything rude. He simply pulled a lighter out of the same
place that he'd gotten the joint from. "So you want to just pinch the edge of
the joint between your lips. The further you go the more slobber there is. It's
not so much that it's gross, it's that it makes it harder to keep smoking when
it gets shorter, if it's wet." Artie demonstrated, and lit the end of the joint
on fire. Tina watched his cheeks. She could see him inhaling for about fifteen
seconds, and then his chest stilling as he held it in. He exhaled and continued
his instructions. "It's not like cigs, where you just want to roll the taste
around in your mouth. The point of smoking pot is to get it in your lungs. So
suck in your mouthful, as much as you think you can hold, and then hold it.
You'll want to cough. Hell, you will cough. Just put it off as long as
possible, for the best effect."
Artie leaned far to the side to pass the joint to Mike, who took it gingerly.
He inhaled less, and a lot harder, his cheeks getting artificial dimples. Sure
enough, he exhaled with a cough about five seconds later.
"That tasted less like grass than I thought it would," he said after he
regained control of his lungs, "and a lot more like dirt."
Artie grinned. "You get to liking it. Different variances have different
tastes. Smells too. That's actually why I think Cillian might not be smoking
medically. If it was medical he'd be on the same strain the whole time, but I
usually get different kinds every month."
Tina took the joint next, glad to get a turn. She'd only tried it a few times
before, thanks to a cool older cousin on her dad's side of the family, but she
knew enough to know she liked it. Actually, Shannon had been her first access
to non-age appropriate video games and porn too, and Tina was pretty sure that
went for everyone in the family. Shannon got off on being the black sheep, in a
way that Tina couldn't quite emulate. She wanted to be herself, but she still
wanted people to like her, while Shannon just didn't give a shit one way or the
other. Shannon wouldn't have cared if her main social group was about to be
shut down, she would have just popped in Anal Sluts 4 and gone about her day.
The smoke filled her mouth nicely. She held the joint out to Artie before she
was done to not waste the burning pot, the way they both had. Artie gave her a
head nod in appreciation of manners for it.
A few more rounds of passes and the world was already feeling a bit better. She
had people to smoke with, didn't she? A year ago, if she'd begged Shannon for a
gram bag of her very own, she would have sat in her bedroom to smoke, listening
to Nightwish and laughing at the way manga was laid out backwards. Now she was
sitting in a public park with two cute boys. And so what if Santana and
Brittany and Puck and Matt faded away until they couldn't look at each other in
the hallways? She'd still have Kurt and Mercedes to walk with between classes.
And, frankly Kurt's scathing opinions of the general population of McKinley
was, and always would be, more funny than Matt's. Matt was a great guy, but his
sense of sarcasm was broken.
Tina twisted on the bench and leaned to kiss Artie's cheek. "You're a cute
boy."
"Thanks?"
Tina twisted the other direction to kiss Mike's neck. "You're a cute boy too."
Mike swallowed hard and Tina started giggling.
"Your laugh is ridiculous," Mike proclaimed.
"You should hear me drunk." There was cell phone video somewhere of that.
Possibly no longer in Ohio, since Tina didn't keep in contact with summer camp
friends during the year, not even on Facebook, so for all she knew Cho and
Lisse and Melanie had moved from Akron to Detroit. It wasn't the sort of thing
that would ruin her if it got out to potential employers, so it didn't bother
her too much that it was circulating out of her control.
"Oh yeah? What's your best drunk story?"
"No, I want to hear Mike's first. He's on the football team, I'm sure he's got
good house party happenings."
Mike began to tell a great story about jousting with loaves of bread. Tina
laughed at least three times before he turned the floor over to her for a
summer camp story. From there the conversation meandered, a symptom of being
high that only got worse once Artie pulled out a second joint for them to work
through. It tasted a bit different from the first, which she had to figure was
because of the striped rolling paper. It was definitely flavoured as something,
though she couldn't tell what.
Mike twisted and pointed toward the parking lot on the opposite side of the
pond. "Wait. Guys, are those cops?"
"Paranoia: the first sign of a stoner," Artie replied calmly.
"Maybe, but I think the police do patrol this area at night." One of her uncles
was on the city counsel, Tina had listened to him bragging about making Lima
safer more than once.
"It's night already?" Artie shook his head and looked up stunned, like he'd
only just noticed the moon. "Okay, yeah, maybe we should book it home."
Mike looked way too anxious for the amount of pot he'd consumed. "Can I shower
at your place before I go home? Because I'm pretty sure my mom will hit me with
a belt if she smells it on me."
Artie looked a bit horrified by the idea, but Tina understood Mike's parents'
train of thought. Pot smoking led to stupidity led to failure. From what she
knew, Mike's parents were super stereotypically Asian. They'd see smoking pot
as the beginning of the end. She nudged Artie, and he shrugged.
"Yeah, for sure."
Tina leered. "Mike just wants to be in your bedroom naked."
"Hey hey hey. I said shower in the bathroom, not jerk off on his bed. Totally
different outcomes."
"Both would result in a damp bed," Artie volunteered solemnly.
Tina giggled, then thought about that. "But that's just what you said, not what
you were thinking about? Were you thinking about... are you a horny stoner,
Mike Chang?"
She was pretty sure he was blushing, but it was hard to tell in the cloudy
moonlight. "Uh. I plead second amendment."
Artie tilted his head. "You want the right to bear arms?"
"Fuck, which one is the one about not incriminating yourself?"
"I'd laugh at how faily you are at civics, but I'd really rather think about
how you're basically agreeing that you are incriminating yourself, which means
yes, you are a horny stoner." Tina grinned. Artie and Mike: it could
practically be yaoi. If only they were actually into it, not just doing it for
Kurt and Finn's sake.
***** Artie *****
Nobody was happy after they lost regionals, but Artie thought maybe Tina was
particularly upset about it. Upset wasn't the right level of magnitude for what
she was feeling, but he was too busy watching her sniffling and wiping the
eyeliner off her eyes to think of a better word.
She buckled him into the back seat of Matt's van, then walked around to the
other side and climbed in next to him. Her bouffant 'do had fallen from its
hairpins and was trailing tendrils around her face. Artie thought it looked
artfully beautiful. He wished he had his camera with him.
"Please don't cry," he whispered, as she reached for her sixth tissue. "It's
kind of freaking me out."
She shot a dirty look at him. That seemed a lot more like the Tina he knew and
loved, which made him relax a little. "You don't say that to your girlfriend
when she's in the middle of a crisis."
"Well, I don't know what else to do," he protested.
She sniffed. "You put your arm around me and say it'll be okay and you'll feel
better tomorrow and stuff like that."
Artie wasn't sure those things were true, but he decided if Tina told him that
he needed to do this, she was probably right. "Can you scoot over into the
middle seat? I don't think I can reach you from here."
She nestled up against his side under his arm, resting her head on the space
between his neck and his shoulder. He could smell her perfume and girl-smell,
and thought it was a pretty nice thing to be doing, even if she didn't feel
bad.
"It'll be okay," he murmured, giving her shoulder a tentative squeeze. "You'll
feel better tomorrow."
"Yeah, like that." She cried a little harder, which seemed counterintuitive to
Artie.
"I thought this was supposed to be making you feel better."
"It is!" she sobbed.
He grimaced, trying to think of what else he could say instead of repeating the
lines she'd already given him, but nothing came to mind. "Matt," he hissed.
"Tina, you need anything else?" Matt called from the front.
"No." She clung to Artie, feeling soft and warm and delicious. He wondered if
it was okay that he was getting turned on by comforting her, or if a girl would
think that was completely awful and obnoxious, and decided not to say anything.
Matt gave Artie a sympathetic look. "I think you're doing everything you can
do."
Artie didn't like that answer. He was pretty sure he couldn't do anything else,
but he guessed somebody else could - somebody who was better with girls, or
other people in general. "How about I call Mike?"
Her breath hitched in a sob, and after a moment, she nodded. Artie breathed a
sigh of relief. He'd done something right. Without moving the arm that was
around her shoulder, he fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed Mike's
number.
"Um - hi?"
"Change of plans. You think your parents would let you come over to my house?
Tina's -" He didn't want to say freaking out, not with her right there. "-
really sad," he finished.
"Oh. Let me ask." He heard muffled discussion and waited, his arm around Tina,
holding her, and feeling completely inadequate. A few minutes later, Mike was
back. "I can come over for an hour, but my dad's going to come pick me up after
that. Are you guys there already?"
"No, we're still on our way." He held the phone out within Tina's line of
sight. "Do you want to talk to him?" She shook her head, buried under her hair.
"I guess we'll see you there?"
"I'll be there as quickly as I can," Mike promised.
It hadn't been easy, sitting in the waiting room at the hospital while Quinn
was in labor. Mike had sat with Tina and walked with her and looked concerned
about Tina the whole time, whereas Artie was more appropriately worried
about Quinn. After all, she was the one who was practically being split open by
this creature, making its intrepid way through a space that, as far as he could
tell, was much, much too small for its body to fit through. But Mike been a
good boyfriend, which Artie sometimes wondered if he would ever master. Artie
had just stayed out of the way as best as he could, reading a magazine.
It would have been easier to stay out of Tina's way now, to suggest she go be
by herself until she could return to the world of the sane and rational.
He hated seeing her unhappy. Instead, he circled her uncomfortably after Matt
helped him back into his chair, making minute arcs around her, but never really
getting close enough to touch.
"I'm just going to get some water," he said, and Tina nodded, making a beeline
for his den. Artie hid out in the kitchen for a while, ignoring his mom's
pointed glares. When the doorbell finally rang, he felt nothing but
relieved. Mike's here. He'll handle it.
Mike stood awkwardly on the front porch, shifting from foot to foot, but when
Artie smiled at him, he relaxed and came inside.
"I can't fix it," Artie said, like an apology. I can't fix her, he might have
said, but that sounded like blaming language, and Tina had trained him out of
using that, at least.
"I don't really know if I can do any better," Mike said.
Artie scoffed, following Mike into the den, where Tina sat in a sodden lump,
surrounded by discarded tissues. "Of course you can."
Artie's certainty seemed to surprise Mike, but he followed the idea readily
enough, crouching down in front of Tina, tentatively wiping her eyes with a
fresh tissue. "Hey."
"I probably look like shit."
"No way." Mike's smile was gentle. His thumb brushed against her cheekbone, and
Artie watched her look up at him in surprise, and smile. What did I tell
you, he wanted to say, but he wasn't going to interrupt their little scene. It
felt a little strange, watching them together, but he wasn't going to get upset
about it when he'd been the one to invite Mike over in the first place.
"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I don't mean to be such a complete -" She laughed
unhappily. "I can't think of anything to call myself that isn't sexist."
"Don't call yourself anything at all." Mike knelt in closer, watching her for
permission, and hugged her. Artie breathed along with them as she relaxed
against Mike's shoulder. "This okay?"
"So good," she whispered, ignoring the fresh tears on her cheeks. "Thank you
for coming over, Mike."
Artie wasn't stupid. He could tell the way Mike was hugging Tina was helping,
in the same way his own half-embrace had helped in Matt's van. He didn't really
understand why crying was better than sniffling, but she seemed to think it
was. He'd be willing to bet more touching would be better, too. He reached out
and rested a hand on Mike's back as he held her.
"Kiss her," he murmured, and felt Mike flinch, his muscles twisting under
Artie's touch. Mike's back muscles were fascinating. Artie knew his own were
more defined than the average nerd's, considering he used his upper body to do
everything most people required their entire musculature to do, but Mike's -
Mike was a fine specimen of humanity by anybody's definition, gay, straight or
whatever. He decided not to move his hand as Tina's lips met Mike's, and to
concentrate on doing whatever he could do right.
Then it hit him. Of course! He didn't have the words to make her feel better,
but he had the music. Artie rummaged through his memory until he found a
suitable song, and while his girlfriend kissed his boyfriend, he crooned
quietly:
When your day is long
 And the night, the night is yours alone
 When you're sure you've had enough
 Of this life, well hang on
 Don't let yourself go
 'Cause everybody cries
 And everybody hurts sometimes
Sometimes everything is wrong
 Now it's time to sing along
 When your day is night alone
 If you feel like letting go
 If you think you've had too much
 Of this life, well hang on
 Everybody hurts
 Take comfort in your friends
 Everybody hurts
"Mike," she breathed as his mouth moved lower on her neck to her collarbone.
Now her tears just made her radiant. There wasn't anything to be jealous of
here. Artie touched her hand, clutching Mike's back, and it was almost as
though Mike's hand was an extension of himself, doing the work he couldn't do
alone.
Mike turned his flushed face toward Artie, looking somewhat bewildered, but no
worse for wear. "That was awesome."
"Well." Artie shrugged, grinning. "It wasn't rap."
Tina and Mike both giggled, more than the stupid comment probably warranted,
but Artie was happy to provide a release of tension. Only - he considered that
for a moment, and decided yeah, he'd probably provide that kind of release of
tension too, if Tina decided she wanted it.
Tina put out her arms. "C'mere. You're too far away."
Artie shifted out of his chair, using the grab bars his parents had installed
on the side of the couch, and flanked Tina on one side while Mike moved to sit
beside her on the other. He was pretty sure his interest in the state of Mike's
erection wasn't entirely academic, but he wasn't about to put a hand over to
investigate, and bringing it up would definitely skew the mood toward something
he wasn't ready to deal with. So he just dug out the remote control and cued up
his ten-disk changer to play the musical episode of Buffy from season 6. Mike
didn't even blink when Tina sang along to all the songs. There were
consequences to being Artie Abrams' girlfriend, after all, and comfort-watching
Buffy was one of them. Mike even laughed at the David Fury interlude about the
mustard.
"This is really nice," he said, slinging an arm around Tina. Mike's hand ended
up on the back of Artie's head, stroking his hair, and that felt pretty nice,
too.
An insistent honk of a horn, three sharp beeps, from the driveway caused Mike
to sit up straight, withdrawing his arms. "That's my dad," he said. Artie
reached out and grabbed his arm, causing him to pause in confusion.
"Thanks." Artie had no idea what the appropriate etiquette was for a situation
like this, but the moment he held out his hand for a handshake, he was certain
that wasn't it. At least Tina didn't laugh at him.
Mike didn't laugh either. He smiled, then leaned in and kissed Artie's cheek.
"No problem. What are boyfriends for?"
Tina called her mom to come pick her up as soon as Mike's dad's car had
disappeared into the night. It gave Artie a few minutes alone with her, and
they held hands and did a crossword while they waited.
"So." He nudged her knee. "Is he a good kisser?"
Tina considered this with what purported to be a mysterious smile, but it
wasn't actually very mysterious at all. Artie knew the answer already. He just
wanted to see her looking smug and satisfied.
"I think you'll have to kiss him and find out," she said.
His mom appeared at his shoulder within moments of Tina's departure. "Come make
me tea, Artie."
This meant You're in deep shit and I'm not letting you go anywhere. Artie
preceded his mom into the kitchen, wondering exactly which of the things he'd
done she would have considered heinous. But she didn't say anything more until
the tea was brewed and they were seated across from one another at the table.
"I suppose I should be happy you didn't hide in the kitchen the entire time
your girlfriend crying," his mom said dryly.
"It wasn't - she was -"
"Yes, I know. Feelings are hard. Doesn't mean you had to be a shit about it."
Artie crossed his arms. Her sarcasm was understandable, but her name calling
wasn't accurate. "I wasn't being a shit. I was waiting for Mike in a place
where I couldn't make things worse."
"Is that what you call that?"
"Well, like you said, feelings are hard. For me. Mike's good at them, though.
Let's be real: Mike basically saved my ass."
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "You owe him a thank you, then."
It wasn't like Artie didn't know that. There just didn't seem to be many ways
to actually do that, without using the phrase thank you for making Tina stop
being a girl. That wasn't fair to Tina, and Mike probably wouldn't like hearing
it either. He wasn't like Felix from film club, who thought girl jokes were the
height of humour.
"Well, it's not like I can ask him out to dinner. We're walking a thin line
already." His mom already knew about the fake relationship, had taken it
relatively calmly, except for the occasional burst of sarcasm. She'd have to
understand that Breadstix was an actual date.
"Maybe you should try crossing that line."
"Um. What?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't give me that. Your legs are busted, not your ears.
Maybe you should take Mike out on a date."
Artie frowned. He wasn't sure when their wires had gotten crossed, but it
should be easy enough to straighten her out. "Weren't you listening when I told
you about the plan? We're only doing stuff at school. It only has to be in
front of Schue."
"Oh. Now I understand! Schue was hiding in Mr Patterson's shrubbery, taking
pictures of you three with a long lens. That's why you wanted Mike to help you
soothe your girlfriend!"
"Maybe I'll just buy him a CD," he muttered.
She reached across the table and took his hand. "No. You're going to buy Tina
something worth at least ten bucks from Hot Topic, to apologize for being a
shit. And then you're going to use actual words with Mike. And right now you're
gonna have a smoothie and think about why exactly you've assumed this is
something you can only do at school."
Artie grasped onto the only thing that he could. "You made smoothies?"
"Not the point, boychild."
Artie moved to the cupboard beside the sink. In it were all the novelty cups,
the ones he was on strict orders to never let Grandma see. He pulled out one of
the Flintstones ones. It was about the size of his forearm. At least half the
pitcher fit inside it. But he'd been ordered to think it out with a smoothie,
so might as well capitalize on that.
He put it on the table, put the straw in his mouth, propped his head on his
fist, and started thinking.
It wasn't until he had his thoughts in order that he stopped drinking. At some
point his mom had left, and at some point in the next hour he'd have to pee for
a solid minute - but he had a plan, a solid act two for his and Tina's and
Mike's rom-com. That was more than worth temporarily zoning out.
***** Mike *****
Artie approached Mike in the hallway outside the auditorium, wearing a
determined expression. Mike still felt a little strange interacting with Artie
alone, away from the buffer of Tina, but he smiled, pausing as Artie wheeled up
in front of him. Jordan paused a few steps away.
"Thanks," said Artie. "For helping Tina when I was freaking out. You were
really cool."
"Uh... thanks?" Mike smiled tentatively.
"I wanted to... my mom said I should... I mean, it doesn't have to be
a real date, but -" Artie broke off, shaking his head irritably. "Forget that.
You want to go out on Friday?"
"Yeah, sure," said Mike. "Tina wanted to see Monsters University."
"No, I mean just you and me."
Mike took a little step back, trying to maintain his balance, dodging a girl
digging something out of her backpack. He saw Jordan smirking a little behind
his books, and decided no matter how weird it was, he wasn't going to lose his
composure. It was only Artie, after all.
"Sure," he said. That hadn't been so hard. He smiled, watching Artie smile back
in relief. "That sounds like fun." What, had Artie thought he was going to
say no?
"Great." Artie nodded briefly, nodding. When he rolled away, it was Jordan who
hit him on the shoulder, and Mike realized he was holding his breath.
"What - just happened there?" asked Mike. Usually reality wasn't something that
made him quite so faint. Jordan pushed his shoulder harder, knocking him into
the path of some oncoming freshmen.
"You're going out with your boyfriend. Sounds like a pretty ordinary sort of
thing to do to me."
"But Artie doesn't date guys," Mike hissed. Then he paused. "Does he?"
"Who cares?" Jordan said impatiently. "Isn't this a good thing? He asked, you
said yes."
"But why? This supposed to be a showmance, but first he's cool with me kissing
Tina and now he wants to take it outside of school?" He stared at his hands,
wondering if they were going to go transparent or something in this alternate
universe they were suddenly in. "I don't get it. What are we supposed to do?
Did he even say? Did I black out?"
"No, stupid. You're going to have to text him for details. Or make it up
yourself. Hell, invite him over for a picnic dinner. On your bed. Once he sees
your dick you'll know whether or not he'll date guys."
Mike glared at him. "You know what? I'm going to get date advice from someone
who actually goes on dates."
"Oh, burn," cackled the girl with the backpack.
"I date!" Jordan protested.
She smirked. "He doesn't think you do, and you're beffies, right?"
Mike left Jordan pleading his case to the brunette with more than a little
satisfaction. It was stuff like that that made him believe in cosmic justice,
if not in any particular God.
With Glee over for the year, Mike was pretty confident that he knew where the
person he wanted to talk to would be. Matt was a sports guy through and
through. Mike didn't doubt that the heartfelt statement Matt had given at their
final song dedicated to Schue was true; he surely was glad that Glee had made
him more than just another football player. But there was a difference between
being proud of having diversified interests, and completely shunning old
interests. Matt had rejoined the baseball and soccer teams when they'd opened,
and Mike knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he'd see Matt, along with Finn
and Puck, at the early football practices in August. At the moment, even
without an official practice, Matt would be outside, playing pick-up something
with someone.
He wasn't wrong. Today it was basketball, with Puck and two other guys from the
baseball team. Mike had never considered joining the baseball team because
baseball bored the shit out of him, but socially speaking it probably would
have been a safer option than football. Baseball players weren't half as
hostile to others as the Titans were, and they weren't interested in jockeying
for supremacy, like the hockey players were.
"Be done in five minutes," Puck shouted out when he saw him, then elbowed past
the Hispanic player in the WM hat. Mike sat on the grass to wait. The guys
passed the ball back and forth, alternately shouting encouragement and jeers,
and used a lot more elbow than would have been legal in a real game. Eventually
they got tired of making baskets and high-fived each other before breaking up.
Puck and Matt walked over to him. "What's up, dude?"
"I, um. Advice?"
"Okay, long conversation then. Settling in," Puck replied with a congenial
smirk. He threw himself to the grass, knees bent, arms loosely curled around
his calves. Matt didn't say anything, but followed, laying out fully and
staring at the sky, still breathing hard.
"Okay. So I've been invited on a date. But I don't really have any info about
it. It's like, a hypothesis of a date."
"You've been on a date before," Matt said.
"But this one is different. When it's two guys... I don't know what to do."
"Bring a condom," Puck replied instantly.
"What? No!" Mike shook his head. It wasn't as though he didn't want to; he'd
had jerk off sessions about both Artie and Tina. He just didn't imagine it as
an option for a long time, if ever. "That's totally not necessary. It's only a
first date."
Puck shrugged. "I've never dated anyone who didn't put out on the first date.
Hell, me and Kurt were having sex long before we were even dating."
Matt reached out an arm and awkwardly punched him in the hip. "Not everyone is
you. Don't make him feel shitty for not being a slut."
Puck retaliated, slapping him in the forehead. "It's not being a slut, it's
being sex positive, fucknut. If you're safe, and totally not getting anyone
pregnant, and you have safewords worked out if it's that sort of thing,
why not bone on the first date?"
Mike shook his head, trying not to die from the blushing. "It's not going to
happen. I mean, it kind of came out of nowhere. I don't even know how gay he
really is."
"It's not a sliding scale, man. I was straight until I decided I wanted Kurt,
and then Finn and I worked it out. If this guy, whoever, is into you enough for
'hypothetical dating' -" He made air quotes. "- then he's into you enough to
bang you. Or get banged, whatever floats his boat."
Mike tried to get the conversation back on the rails. "Fine. Maybe it'll work
out, someday. But that's not what I need the advice about. I don't know how
to do a date with a guy. Like, guys pay the bill and provide transportation and
open doors. If it's two guys, who does what? I mean, I don't even know what
we're doing. Normally that's the guy's job, to make the plans. But who..."
"Okay," Matt interrupted, peeling his sticky with sweat t-shirt off his stomach
and flapping it. "I get that you might not want to out him, or whatever. But
can you vaguely describe who it is? Because if we know what he's like, then we
could probably guess roles."
"Oh! Yeah, uh, it's just... it's Artie."
Puck snorted. "Dude, what are you even worrying about then? You could just play
video games, and talk it up in front of Schue. Hell, you don't even have
to actually do anything at all. Just bullshit."
Mike shook his head again, not quite ready to make eye contact. "No, um...
we're trying a real date?"
"Not to stretch anyone's boundaries?" Matt clarified. "For real?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome. Threesome sex is the best sex." Puck held his hand out for a high
five.
Mike left him hanging. "I don't. Uh. I think Tina's a virgin, still."
"So? Kurt was. And Finn had never been with a guy. Besides, a threesome's a
whole new frontier. You're actually only adding two hands, but if you do it
right it's like adding five hundred."
Matt grinned. "That's great, Puck, but I think Mike's still more caught up in
the idea of how to actually accomplish this date, not what to do for dessert."
Mike was grateful for Matt. Matt was sane, and not ruled entirely by his dick.
He let Matt put a sweaty hand on his shoulder as he sighed and cradled his head
in his hands.
"Look, it's Artie, right? He's not gonna appreciate being babied. People
already do that shit enough. So go dutch on anything you buy, and ask before
you wheel him places. Tina pushes him, but she's nurturing by nature. He might
not want that from a boyfriend. There's a reason he wants someone of either
gender, right?"
"And just text him about where and what," Puck added. "Suggestions, not orders.
Like "if we're seeing a movie lets see something Disney because I secretly
enjoy watching children cry at dead animals,' or 'If we wanna get a meal we
should go to La Charreada because I love tostitos, and after eight o'clock the
waiters mutate into giant gorillas that fling poo everywhere'."
Mike laughed. It was a great mental image. No wonder high-strung Kurt was
dating him, if Puck could make him laugh like that.
***** Artie *****
Artie decided he wasn't going to ask his mom for advice about the date. Not
because he didn't trust her, because when it came to cool plus understanding,
his mom was aces. But if he was going to be as much a failure of a boyfriend to
Mike as he was to Tina, he was going to do it all by himself.
Man of Steel won out over Monsters University, partly because Artie knew Tina
would be annoyed if she didn't get to see the latter with him - they'd
watched Monsters, Inc. more than once together during quiet make-out nights in
his family room - but mostly because Artie kind of liked the idea of seeing a
superhero movie with someone other than Andrew from A.V. club for a change. He
and Andrew would probably watch it together eventually. The point was, for
Artie, there wasn't anything he'd rather do than talk Marvel vs. DC. Mike
deserved to see what he was getting into by dating him.
The whole idea of dating a guy was still a little confusing. He knew what his
goals were when it came to dating a girl, specifically Tina, and at least some
of them involved snuggling and kissing. But he wasn't sure what snuggling and
kissing might be like with a guy. Sure, Mike had an amazing body, and Artie
admired him a lot, but he didn't flirt the way Tina did, or give him specific
directions to know what to do with his hands. Artie wasn't sure what to do with
Mike's blushing and stammering. He was either going to have to figure out how
to take the lead, or ask a lot of questions.
Dates with Tina had always involved food, but Mike had weird food restrictions
and he didn't know what to do with that. He thought Mike might like going out
for ice cream after the movie. His mom would do what she normally did, drive
them and then hang out in the corner of whatever place they were in, letting
him and Tina be alone. After that, if they didn't go back to his house, his mom
usually took her home. He thought that sounded like a pretty reasonable date.
He showered and made a stab at picking out some nice clothes before his mom
poked her head in. "You ready for pants?"
Tina had asked him once if he ever got embarrassed when his mom helped him put
on his underwear. He pointed out that she'd been doing that since he was an
infant, and had only stopped for a brief period between toddlerhood and the car
accident at age 8. It would be like being embarrassed about his mom driving him
to school or making him breakfast: it was just something she did. But having
his mom ask him about his upcoming date, that was a little embarrassing.
"You're not going to ask him all kinds of questions, are you?" Artie wanted to
know as she pulled up his socks. "He's not super social like Tina is. I'd say
he's more shy than introverted."
"I promise I'll stay in the background," she said, smiling. "Are you guys going
out somewhere after the movie, or should we pick up snacks to have at the
house?"
"Could we go to the Creamery in Delphos? I don't think Mike's a turtle sundae
kind of guy, but he could get a fat-free-no-sugar thing. He's kind of obsessive
about his body."
"Dancers are like that sometimes." She passed him the blue striped tie and the
one with the paramecia on it, and he passed the striped one back to her before
looping it around his collar, making a face.
"Tina's a dancer and she's not like that. I love that she's not all worried
about being stick-thin. She works out to put on muscle, not to look like Kate
Moss. But I think Mike's more self-conscious, which is totally weird,
considering he's, like, Adonis."
His mom's smile spread. "I've never heard you talk about a guy like that
before."
"I'm not. I mean, he's a guy. I don't really even know if I like guys that way.
But - he's my boyfriend, right? I'm doing boyfriend things. If he hates it, I
guess I'll find out?"
She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "If I were Mike, I'd be charmed. But
I would have been the kind of girl that would have been thrilled to have been
asked to the science fiction movies. Make sure you let him talk about himself."
"Mom," Artie said, rolling his eyes as he followed her down the hall, "I
promised myself I wouldn't ask you for date advice."
"Who's asking?" she said. "I'm offering. Ignore me at your peril."
===============================================================================
Artie didn't realize the degree to which he'd failed at this date until Mike
leaned over halfway through the movie and whispered, "So... Superman's really
an alien?"
"Get out," Artie whispered back, staring at Mike. But no, he didn't appear to
be making a joke. He was seriously asking.
"I've never really read Superman comics or anything," he said apologetically.
"But you saw the Christopher Reeve movies, right?" Mike shook his head, and
Artie put a hand to his chest. "God. What kind of a deprived childhood did
you have? Never mind, don't answer that. Tell me over ice cream."
Artie couldn't quite wait until they got to The Creamery to ask Mike for
details. Mike seemed so embarrassed, Artie had to stop and tell him, "You know
I don't really think you're deprived, right? I'm just teasing."
"No, I get it," Mike said. "I really kind of was. My parents didn't let me
watch most American movies; they thought they were all bad for me. They've
loosened up a little, but mostly I played sports. They wouldn't even let me
have a skateboard because it would turn me into a hoodlum."
"Yeah, my mom wouldn't let me have a skateboard either," Artie agreed. "What a
bitch."
"I resemble that remark," his mom commented from the front seat, as Mike's face
went scarlet.
He dropped his voice to a whisper. "If I said that word in front of my mom, I
think I'd get grounded for a week."
"Skateboard? Wow, they really are hard-core." That made Mike laugh, at last,
and Artie felt a little better.
He surprised Artie again when he ordered an Almond Joy avalanche at the
Creamery counter. "Coconut's my weakness," he said, handing the woman a five.
"Oh, now I get what people mean when they say kryptonite."
"Hey." Artie nudged Mike's leg. "I thought I was the one who asked you out on
this date. Who said you could pay for ice cream?"
There went Mike's blush again. "I just - I figured, you paid for the movie, I'd
pay for ice cream. If that's okay. I really don't know what I'm doing here."
"That makes two of us. But if you want to buy me ice cream, that'd be cool." He
grinned up at Mike, watching him as he smiled back. "And you can wheel me over
to the table, so I don't spill caramel all over my good jeans. You'll learn
what a slob I am eventually, but I'm trying to put my best metaphorical foot
forward here."
Mike's smile went shy. It was pretty cute, actually. "The effort's
appreciated."
Artie wasn't sure why, but after that, it felt more like a real date. He made
more of an effort to respond as though it was, figuring Mike deserved that.
When Mike would make a comment about dancing, Artie followed it up with a
compliment about his skill or a light jibe about how fit he was, and Mike would
blush harder.
Maybe it was the fact that Mike was sucking his avalanche through a straw big
enough to fit a pencil, but Artie realized he was getting kind of turned on by
flirting with Mike. He stared at his lips, wondering what it might be like to
kiss him. He wasn't really worried what it meant about him, wanting to kiss a
guy, since this was experimentation for both of them, but he felt excited and
nervous and a little bit hard, and all of that was enough to inspire him to ask
the next question.
"So," he said, scraping the last of the caramel out of his styrofoam cup, "you
ready to call it a night? Or do you want to come over to my house for a while?"
Mike stammered and hesitated and did all the things Artie expected him to do,
but eventually, he responded with, "Your house would be cool."
Artie smiled, holding his gaze. "I'll reiterate that I have no idea what I'm
doing."
Mike shook his head. "You're doing great. Really, it's... this has been the
best date I've been on in a long time."
"Yeah, well, if you're feeling obligated to do other stuff just because I asked
you out, I'm letting you off the hook now. I wouldn't be offended if you just
wanted to go home."
"Is that what you want?" Mike asked softly.
"I don't know," Artie answered honestly. "I'm kind of willing to find out,
though. If you think you're still willing to hear no at some point."
"Really?" Mike looked a little stunned. "You - I didn't know you liked guys."
"I don't. Not as a rule. But it'd be kind of stupid to say I don't like you.
I'm just trying to listen to whatever signals my body's giving me. My brain,
whatever. Paying attention."
"Paying attention," Mike echoed. He leaned forward across the table, dropping
his voice. "I can totally hear no, but... I'm interested." He closed his eyes.
"God, I can't believe I just said that."
"Mike, after Puck and Finn came out, I really wouldn't be surprised to hear
that any of my friends were curious about guys." He reached out and touched
Mike's hand, watching Mike's eyes fly open in surprise. "You won't freak me
out, okay? Even if I decide I'm not into it, you don't have to worry about
that. I'd like to think we're kind of friends by now."
"Yeah," Mike nodded, "yeah, of course." He stared at Artie's hand on his. "I
just never thought this would be anything other than a pretend relationship."
Artie shrugged. "Seems like a waste of all that time spent together." He looked
over at his mom, sitting reading a book in the corner, and gave her a little
wave. She nodded, dog-earing the page and pushing her chair out before coming
over to their table. "Mom... we're going to come back to the house for a
while."
"No problem," she said easily. "Mike, do you have a curfew?"
"I should be home by eleven," he said. "I can call me dad to pick me up."
"Either way. I'm happy to drive you." She didn't offer to push Artie's chair,
and after a brief awkward moment, Mike stepped in to grasp the handles, giving
her a stiff nod. She walked ahead of them, fielding the doors and opening the
van.
Artie considered trying to hold Mike's hand on the ride home, but decided that
might feel like too much pressure, reaching across the captain's chairs right
in front of his mom. Once they got into the house, though, his mom disappeared
with a vague, "I'll be in my bedroom," leaving them alone in the family room.
Artie shifted himself out of his chair onto the couch, grinning expectantly up
at Mike. It was a good feeling to be the one calling the shots, to have a sense
that Mike was waiting for him to say what was okay to do next. He beckoned him
with one hand, patting the couch beside him with the other. "C'mon. Sit."
Mike moved in to occupy the cushion next to him, starting off with a healthy
gap between their thighs. Artie rested his arm around the back of the couch,
letting Mike decide if he wanted to move closer.
"So when did you know you liked guys?" he asked.
Mike shrugged, looking down at his hands. Then he laughed. "No, actually, I
know the exact date. It was at my fourth-grade birthday party. Graham Newton
lived four doors down from me. He bought me this present that my parents were,
like, no, we're going to return it - I can't even remember what it was, some
media tie-in I didn't even recognize - but I begged them to let me keep it
because Graham Newton had given it to me." He shook his head. "I was completely
devastated when he moved away in fifth grade."
"Obviously it wasn't about sex at that point," said Artie. "But somewhere you
figured out you wanted to do stuff with guys, right? I'm just wondering."
"No, it's fine." Mike was fidgeting, setting his hands on his knees, then
crossing them in front of him. "I don't think there was a specific guy when it
came to that. I just..."
"But you think about them," he prodded. "When you masturbate."
"God," Mike muttered, squirming.
Artie raised both eyebrows. "You do masturbate. Tina made a comment about it
and you didn't deny it. And, seriously, any guy who denies it is lying, I
think."
"Yeah, but I don't talk about it." He shrugged again, looking mortified.
"Okay, that's fine. I'm not pushing you." Artie wasn't going to stare at his
crotch or anything. He reached out and put a hand on Mike's knee, letting him
get used to his touch. "I'm pretty sure I never thought about guys before, but
there's nothing wrong with it. Tina and I talk about masturbating. It's hot."
"Can you stop saying that word?" Mike glanced over at Artie, then away. He was
seriously tensing up. Artie squeezed his knee, making him jump.
"Do you want me to stop this?" Artie asked.
"I don't know. No." Mike looked at him again, breathing unevenly. "No."
Artie shifted closer. "Do you want me to kiss you?"
"You said no kissing on the mouth."
"A guy can change his mind. Do you?"
Mike's eyes were fixed on Artie's lips. "Yes," he whispered.
His arm around Mike's shoulder came in handy now, pulling Mike in close enough
that he didn't have to fall on top of him in order to reach his mouth. Mike's
lips felt a lot less soft than Tina's, but there was no lipstick, which was a
nice change. Artie breathed in coconut and chocolate ice cream, and when he
opened his mouth, Mike's tongue was right there, grazing Artie's top lip. Artie
made a little involuntary noise.
"Sorry," Mike said immediately.
"No, no," Artie assured him, "it's - it's good. It's good." Gently, he pressed
in for another kiss, and Mike responded, his body relaxing under Artie's arm.
It was good, surprisingly good, and before Artie thought about it, he brought
his hands around to touch Mike's chest. It was strange for there not to be
breasts, but Mike's shivering response was familiar as he brushed against his
nipples.
"Not saying no?" asked Mike. He sounded nervous, like asking was going to make
Artie decide he wanted to stop or something. Artie almost made a joke about it:
 Jesus, what? I'm making out with a guy!? But he was pretty sure that would
freak Mike out more than it would relax him, and he really didn't want to break
the tension between them. The tension was kind of awesome. So he just shook his
head and kept kissing him, letting him know with his noises and his hand around
the back of Mike's head that he liked the tongue, yes, he liked that.
Eventually Mike's hands fluttered between them, moving to Artie's ribs, his
shoulders, his face, tentatively touching. Artie thought he knew what Mike was
thinking, because it did feel different, really different. But different wasn't
bad, and he guessed Mike didn't think so either. Kissing and touching Mike was
having pretty much the same effect on him that kissing and touching Tina did.
"You can touch my leg," he said. Mike paused, looking down at Artie's lap, then
away. His face was already flushed, so whatever embarrassment he might feel if
he noticed Artie's erection was covered.
"Can you feel anything?" Mike asked. He rested a hand on Artie's knee.
"Not that far down." He picked up Mike's hand and tucked it against his hip.
"Here, yes."
Mike nodded. Then he moved his fingers slowly, until his thumb brushed against
the inside of Artie's thigh. Artie's cock twitched - there was no way Mike
couldn't have noticed that. "How... how about that?"
"I feel that," he breathed, "yeah, I feel that."
Mike's eyes were dark and huge. "Still not saying no?"
"No." He wasn't going to grab Mike's hand and put it on his cock, the way he
might have if this had been Tina, but he sure as hell wanted to. "You can touch
me anywhere you want."
"Wow." Mike looked suddenly overwhelmed. He sat back a little, watching Artie.
"Really? I'm not... I mean, I kind of feel like I'm getting away with something
here."
Artie laughed, causing Mike to pull back, but he pulled him back in, kissing
him again. "Trust me, I'll be sure to say something if I don't like it. Really.
It's hot, isn't it? This is turning you on?"
Mike just nodded, apparently beyond words. It felt like a hell of a compliment,
knowing his kisses were having that kind of an effect on another guy. He
touched Mike's neck, looking at the way the tendons moved along the collar of
his shirt, and watched his body yearn toward Artie's hand, saw his breathing
stutter and pause. He traced a line down the center of Mike's chest, resting a
hand on his impossibly tight abs.
"Okay for me to touch, too?" he asked.
Mike chewed on the corner of his lip and nodded. When Artie curved his fingers
around his thigh and squeezed, he made a noise that was a cross between a gasp
and a moan. Yeah, that was hot, Artie decided. That was really hot. He traced
those fingers under the seam of Mike's jeans, and watched Mike's eyes close as
his head dropped back.
"Oh god," he gasped.
"I really can stop any time."
That was a little tease, maybe, but Mike took it seriously, shaking his head
emphatically. "No no no, don't stop."
He moved his thumb to press on Mike's zipper, making him buck forward into
Artie's hand. Artie leaned in, kissing him while he ran his thumb along the
hard length, feeling it pulse under his touch. Really hot, he thought again,
reaching for Mike's zipper.
"Artie," Mike protested. "Your mom is in the other room."
"She's not going to come out," he promised. "Not until it's time for you to go.
That's why she asked about your curfew. Trust me, we do this all the time,
right here on this couch."
"Oh god," he moaned again. "That's an image I really don't need right now."
"Me and Tina," Artie said, grinning. "That does something for you?"
"Something. Yeah." Mike lay there, breathing hard, and when Artie moved his
hand away, he made a sweet little disappointed noise that made Artie want to do
all kinds of things. But Artie waited for Mike to pick up his head and look at
him. "Sorry."
"Nah." He made a forget-it motion, leaning back. "Just, I liked that. Kind of a
lot more than I thought I would. So... if you want me to, I'll keep going."
Mike stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. "Maybe I should have
listened to Puck," he murmured.
"What's that?"
"Never mind. I want you to, yeah. It's not too much?"
"Apparently not," said Artie. He smiled. "I've got one of those, too, you
know."
"I, uh, noticed." This time when Mike shifted his gaze to Artie's lap, he
didn't look away. "It's really okay?"
"Mike, I told you, I like it. I want you to touch me wherever you want. It
feels great. Come on."
Mike glanced over the back of the couch at the hallway once more, then ran his
hand up Artie's leg, pausing just south of the bulge in his jeans. Artie gave
up trying not to be obvious, and bumped his hips, encouraging him. Mike
responded by catching his breath, then cupping his whole hand over Artie's
cock. When it throbbed, they both made a noise.
"You can unzip me," Artie offered. Mike paused, looking overwhelmed again, and
Artie wished he hadn't said anything. "Come here and kiss me again."
That didn't seem to pose any problems for Mike, at least. They kissed until
Mike was squirming in his seat, trying for any kind of friction he could get.
This time when Artie touched him, he didn't object when Mike tugged his button
open and worked his zipper down. Mike's briefs were very brief, barely
containing his erection; Artie felt a moment of unease at his own very ordinary
pair of underwear, wondering if Mike would laugh at them. But he hadn't
expected he'd be doing anything like this on this particular date.
"Tina's trained me to take direction pretty well," he said, palming Mike's
cock. "I can do right-left-harder-slower or whatever. I'm also going to stop if
you say stop."
Mike groaned as Artie's fist wrapped around him. "What if I don't say stop?"
He grinned. "Then you'll be making a trip into the kitchen for paper towels at
some point."
***** Tina *****
They were four episodes into an Angel marathon when Mercedes poked her with a
freshly painted toe. "Spill, girl."
"What?" Tina asked.
"Don't even try. Something's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong." She could honestly say that.
"Something's up, then. On screen are James Marsters, David Boreanaz, Alex
Denisof and J. August Richards. Some of the finest men of our time. And you're
not even double-taking at the bare chest scenes."
She shrugged defensively. "I might have something on my mind. It's no big deal,
honestly. Come on, unpause it. I want to get to the episode where we find out
that Lindsey's sleeping with Eve."
Kurt sniffed. "And I want Finn to start caring about his choice of footwear. We
can't always get what we want, Tina."
"You guys, it's really-"
Mercedes interrupted. "If it's nothin,' you best be tellin' us now. We'll get
bored in three seconds, and then back to Angel being hot as hell."
She sighed. The problem with having great friends was that her great friends
were huge divas. The more she tried to say it was no big deal, the more they'd
blow it out of proportion.
"Basically, I'm just thinking about -" Fuck, Mercedes was staring at her. Tina
knew without a doubt that the expression would increase tenfold as soon as she
explained. Maybe if she gave it one last shot? "I invited you guys over so you
could distract me, not so I could talk about stuff. This isn't a venting night,
this is a look-at-the-shiny-pretty-thing-over-there night."
"Wesley is both shiny and pretty, not to mention brilliantly tragic. If he
doesn't distract you, nothing will."
"Well, him and Angel," Mercedes amended.
Tina had to laugh. Her friends definitely had types. Kurt liked the well
groomed, well educated, exceptionally dramatic type, and Mercedes liked the
strong guy that could fade into the background to allow other people to shine.
Of course, the same could be said for her, and her favourite of Spike.
Sarcastic, rude, with a nice dark streak. Interesting that none of them were
currently dating their perfect man. Or men, technically.
"I'm just trying to figure out my own brain. Because I think I'm jealous, but
not for the 'normal' reasons. And I don't know if I should listen to logic
brain or emotional brain."
"Logic brain." "Emotion brain."
Tina made a face at their simultaneous votes. "Oh, thanks. Glad we've got a
unilateral decision."
"Well, maybe if you told us what the actual problem is," Mercedes sniped back,
rolling her eyes, "we could give more informed opinions."
"You can keep any secrets you want," Kurt said, putting a hand on her leg. Tina
raised her eyebrow and waited for the punchline. "Just know we'll get them out
of you eventually."
"Fine!" she snapped. "Fine. But after spill and gush time is over, we can go
back to Angel, right?"
"As far as we can get before ten o'clock. Puck and Finn and I have a date."
"That's kinda late for a date. Don't you have a curfew?"
Kurt smirked. "Yes. I have to be in my bedroom by eleven. That's why I have a
date."
She sighed, giving in. "So it starts with the fact that Artie and I aren't
snuggling and watching the Underworld series right now because Artie and Mike
are on a date."
Kurt's smirk spread into a smile. "For the thousandth time, the three of us say
thank you. I really think by next year you won't have to bother. Mr Schuester
isn't the quickest learner, but when it's bombarding him on all sides..."
Tina shook her head. "No. That's the thing. It started off that way, just
helping you. But they're on an actual date now. I mean, I don't know how much
fun they're having, or if it's already dissolved into friendship, but Artie
told me he was going in with intent."
Mercedes stared at her. "Awww, hell no! That's how he's gonna do you?
Boyfriend's got another thing coming!"
"Mercedes, it's okay. I'm not mad." Tina smoothed the hem of her lace gloves.
"That's the whole problem. I thought I would be fine. That with as much as I
liked Mike, I could understand Artie liking Mike. That it would turn into this
fun thing where some nights I date Mike and some nights I date Artie, and some
nights Artie dates Mike."
"But it's not fun?" Kurt gave her the sweetest sympathetic look, then scooped
her into a hug. Tina went with it. She was a natural born clinger, and even if
Kurt was wrong about her needing a hug, she'd never really faced an opportunity
where she didn't enjoy one.
"No, that's not it either," she continued when he finally let go. "It's like...
when I thought about it, I figured I wouldn't be jealous at all, because it
would be fun. I'm an open minded girl, right? It would be great to have two bi
boyfriends. When Artie told me he was taking him out, I was like damn, I am so
down for this, when is my date with Mike? But I am jealous. But not because
they're not with me. Because I'm not with them."
Mercedes cocked her head. "You just said the exact same thing in a different
way."
Tina glared the vampire death glare that had worked so well on Figgins.
Unfortunately, Mercedes was made out of stronger stuff, diamondy glittery
diva'y stuff, and didn't cower. "Well, I didn't mean the same thing. Excuse me
for not having a vast vocabulary when it comes to threesomes."
Kurt offered her the bag of dill chips. "Take a handful, cram your mouth, and
take the minute to think about how to reword. 'Cause trust me, that's the
number one rule about threesomes: expressing yourself."
Tina chewed slowly, enjoying the tangy flavour. "I'm not jealous because I feel
like I'm being cheated on, even though we specifically talked about it. It's
not that they're not with me. I'm jealous because I want to be there. For all I
know Artie's dick is halfway down Mike's throat. That's hot, and awesome, and I
got off to imagining it last night -"
"Woah, T.M.I. -"
"And I'm here, like a chump, missing it. So logic brain says leave them alone,
if Artie wanted to have a trio date he would have invited you. He wants to try
an ab, ac, bc thing, and I agreed that's best, hottest. And emotion brain says
fuck that shit super hard, run on the leaves of the wind, Pocahontas-style, to
wherever they are. You get in on whatever they're doing because watching paint
dry would be fun with the both of them."
Mercedes' eyebrows were halfway up her forehead. "Well, damn, girl, then why
are you here with our sorry asses?"
Tina looked over at Kurt, who nodded, making a shooing motion. "I'm the one who
said emotion brain. You don't even have to wait for my answer."
She stood up, brushing chip crumbs off her velour leggings. "If I hurry, I can
get to Artie's by the time their movie's over. Assuming they didn't call it a
night after that."
***** Mike *****
It was more difficult than he'd expected it would be, giving a mutual handjob.
After a few strokes he stopped, stilling his hand on Artie without removing it.
"Can we take turns?"
Artie smiled. "Having a hard time focusing? Yeah. That's fine. I'll do you
first?"
"I promise I won't fall asleep afterwards." Mike had heard of the stereotype,
but he never understood it. Orgasms didn't have that effect on him. He got a
bolt of energy from his; they made him want to get up and move. Dance a little,
maybe.
Artie's hand resumed its strokes, and Mike covered his mouth with tightly
cupped fingers. Ms Abrams hearing him might qualify as the worst thing in the
world. He wouldn't be able to come back here ever again. Thankfully he was well
versed in keeping quiet. When Brittany had come over, for the few weeks they'd
dated, his parents had had an open door policy, a policy which hadn't stopped
her from pulling her Cheerios skirt up. The anticipatory terror of getting
caught had added a bit to the experience then, and it was doing the same now.
It seemed to be the case for Artie as well; he was focused and steady, but his
hand on Mike was trembling a little, and he looked a little glassy-eyed.
"Feel okay?" Artie asked.
Mike just nodded, spreading his legs a little wider and scooting down on the
couch as Artie picked up the pace. It wasn't going to be long now. A guy's
giving me a hand job, he thought, and that was enough to drive a desperate
noise out from between his teeth.
Then the sound of the doorbell made them both freeze, listening with impatient
anticipation as Artie's mom made her way down the hall to answer it.
"Is she going to come in here?" Mike whispered. Artie shook his head.
"I think we're cool," he said, "but we could stop, if you want to."
Mike really, really didn't, but he also wasn't sure he could handle the
consequences of being caught with his pants down.
"Tina," they heard Ms. Abrams say, sounding surprised.
"Hello, Ms. Abrams," came Tina's voice. "I'm looking for Artie and Mike. Are
they here?"
"Oh my god," Mike hissed. He shoved at Artie, trying to get the boy to sit up.
He didn't want to shove him to the floor, that would be fucked up considering
how difficult it would be for Artie to get back in his chair by himself. But he
needed Artie off, so he could tug his underwear up and find his pants. Why they
fuck had he even taken them off? A serious lapse of judgement considering that
he'd been fooling around in a public space.
"I don't know if they - " Ms. Abrams said slowly. For a moment, Mike thought
they might be saved.
"I'm sure they won't mind me joining them." Tina's tone was firm. Next to
Rachel Berry, there was nobody like Tina for getting what she wanted.
The footsteps coming closer and closer hardly penetrated his inner babbler. But
then there was a shadow looming over the back of the couch, and it was
officially too late to appear respectable.
"Aw, only half naked?"
Mike winced at Tina's condemnation. "I'm so, so sorry. If you - could you pass
me my jeans? And then I'll just - I'll walk home, it's not that far..."
"Why would I pass you your jeans?" Tina asked, peering at him.
"I guess I just thought you were less vindictive than Santana. But I guess
embarrassment is fair." He wouldn't fight it, as long as he got to pick them up
before he left. He just wasn't about to do the walk of shame in nothing but
navy cotton-spandex briefs.
Tina stared more closely. "Uh, I'm confused. I think our lines got crossed
somewhere. I'm not vindictive, and I don't want to embarrass you. I just want
you to keep your pants off. And to take your underwear off too. The stretched
fabric is nice, like a sexy preview, but I'd rather see the whole thing, not
just the outline." By the end of her explanation, her stare had transformed
into a leer. It made her look remarkably Puck-like, except much more glittery.
Artie frowned. He was sitting upright, about a thousand years too late in
Mike's book. He'd pulled up his underwear too, and he had a pillow, by virtue
of being closer to the end of the couch. "I told you about my date with Mike,
right? Like, I know I'm shitty with telling people about plans, but I'm sure I
told you at lunch. Because I couldn't tell you what movie exactly we'd decided
on because I couldn't check my phone because it was pizza day and my hands were
swimming in grease."
"No, you told me. I had a night out too, I just biked from Mercedes' house."
She smiled at Artie. "And you can move that pillow anytime, baby."
"Then...why are you...here?" Artie asked slowly, pausing like it was a
dangerous question. Mike understood the inclination. She wasn't angry, she
didn't appear to be a girlfriend bomb about to go off, but there was very
little of this situation that Mike understood.
"Well, I was sitting there, and Mercedes was watching Angel kick ass, and Kurt
was watching Wesley do research, and instead of watching incorporeal Spike
snark, I was imagining what you two might be doing. So I figured I'd attain
better accuracy if I came over to see for myself." She smiled apologetically.
"Yeah, I get that it's your date, and that we were trying an ab, ac, bc thing.
And if you guys still want to do that for individual dates, that's okay, I
guess. I'm sure there's nerdy stuff that me and Artie will want to do that you
won't, and you two can... I don't know, build mud forts, or whatever it is
manly boys do. But I really think sexy stuff, intimate stuff, should be the
three of us."
By this time Artie had appeared to have recovered, though Mike felt like he was
still trailing behind. When Artie reached out and took Mike's hand, he held it
nervously, desperately aware of Tina watching them. Any minute now, she's going
to tell me to get out of here. Any minute now, this is going to be - He
blinked. "What?"
"You want to join us?" Artie said. Tina nodded, her eyes on Mike's neck. Mike
put his other hand to the spot, wondering if there was some kind of bite mark
or hickey or something incriminating. Artie squeezed his hand. "How's that
sound?"
It took Mike a moment to realize Artie was asking him. "Uh," he said, trying to
keep his breathing slow. "Good? Okay?"
"Good," Tina echoed, looking relieved. "Well - you guys can pick up where you
left off, if you want to. I don't mind watching. Really." She did seem to be
calm, looking back and forth between the two of them with anticipation.
Artie stroked his fingers up Mike's leg, from knee to the edge of his
underwear. It was a light touch, enough to make his skin break out into
goosebumps. He did it a second time, then a third, and smiled as Mike sucked in
a breath.
"Do you want me to kiss you?" he asked, like it was twenty minutes ago and
nothing had changed. It felt different, though, thinking about doing it in
front of Tina. Mike wasn't sure how to handle that.
"Yes?" he tried.
Tina giggled, leaning in. "Me first." She pressed her lips against Mike,
sucking on his lower lip, which was already a little swollen from all the
kissing he and Artie had done earlier. It wasn't the first time she'd ever
kissed him, but he'd never been this turned on before when she'd done it. Mike
heard Artie's murmured, "Oh," and felt his arousal spiral upward, sudden and
intense. He gasped into Tina's mouth.
"Yeah," she said, sounding satisfied already. "That's amazing. You ready for
Artie now?"
"Stay right there," Artie suggested. Mike felt Artie's hand on Mike's thigh
move to cup his balls, already tight and tense against his body. Tina's hand
picked up Mike's and placed it over her breast, leaning into his palm. Each new
sensation added another layer onto the experience, until he was quivering,
trying desperately not to thrust into Artie's grip.
"God, he's hot. Isn't he hot, Artie?" Tina's hand mirrored hers, touching his
chest. "So pretty... his body turns me on so much."
"Tina," Mike whined, and felt Artie's hand tighten on his dick, slick and
impossibly hard. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Artie's other hand
fisting his own erection, squeezing and stroking both of them at the same time.
Apparently Artie had no trouble with mutual masturbation. It was like watching
porn, except so much better, because he could hear every tense hitch of Artie's
breath, and feel the soft touch of Tina's mouth on his cheek, right by his ear.
"You're gonna come, aren't you?" she whispered. "Come on, Mike. Come right in
Artie's hand."
"Shit, shit, shit," Artie chanted, his eyes focused on Mike. His jerks became
more erratic, and another moment later, Artie was spilling, thick and white,
over the curve of his own thumb and fingers.
Mike held his breath and leaned hard on Tina as his orgasm rushed through him
like a steam engine. He was so grateful for Artie's hand, and Tina's mouth,
kissing him again and again, that he didn't even think to worry about the fact
that they were doing this in the middle of Artie's living room.
Mike waited for two or three uncertain seconds while Artie recovered his
equilibrium, but even before he saw Artie's dazed smile, he was pretty sure
everything was going to be okay. The words Tina had said, they'd made him glow
inside, and watching Artie get off to him - to him - had been overwhelming
evidence that this might work. Was going to work. He smiled back in relief.
"Wow," he croaked. Tina touched his chin, resting briefly against his shoulder,
then sat back, straightening his shirt.
"Two out of three ain't bad," she agreed. She patted Artie's shoulder as he
turned an outraged expression on her. "Hey, that wasn't sarcastic. I mean it.
You know me, but Mike doesn't. I don't want him to feel rushed or pressured to
figure me out. It's a little less obvious how girls want to get off. And
besides..." Her eyes flashed humor. "I'll collect from both of you on the next
date, one at a time."
Artie produced a box of tissues from the end of the couch, and they both
cleaned up as efficiently as they could. They exchanged more than one amused
glance as they wiggled and squirmed back into their clothes, and by the end,
they were all giggling.
"Hey," said Artie. He put his hand on Mike's leg. "Thanks. That was way more
hot than I expected it to be. We're definitely doing that again, okay?"
Mike nodded, feeling a little breathless. "Um, maybe next time, you'd let me
help."
"Yeah." Artie's smile broadened. "In any way you want."
That was vague and encouraging. Mike found himself lost in a sea of
possibilities. It made him wonder how he could walk away from an orgasm like
that and still feel this turned on.
Then they were blinking in the light of the hallway, Ms. Abrams standing there
beside them.
"Time's about up, Artie," she said. "I need to take Mike home in ten minutes.
Mike, you're welcome over any time I'm here, just as Tina is. Artie, would you
open the garage? Tina, why don't I throw your bike into the van and drop you
off at your house?"
"Thanks, mom." Artie smiled awkwardly at his mom. "For the, uh, privacy."
"I know I can count on you to be safe," she called over her shoulder. "You
deserve it."
They both gave Tina quick kisses goodnight when they got to her house. She
climbed out of the van, lifting her bike out the back and wheeling it up the
driveway to her garage, and waved.
The ride to Mike's house was surprisingly placid, with no questions or
discussion. Even holding hands felt almost ordinary, and when they pulled up to
Mike's house, he decided they were far enough away from the front door that he
could safely give Artie a kiss good night.
"See you tomorrow," Artie said softly, touching his hair with one hand. Mike
just smiled helplessly back.
It wasn't until he was standing in his own hallway, hearing his own mother ask,
"Did you have a nice evening?" that Mike started to freak out. Because there
was no way he would ever tell her about what had just happened: that he had
walked into Artie Abrams' house a guy-virgin and walked out - something else.
Mike rested his head against the door to his room for about fifteen seconds,
trying not to hyperventilate, before clasping his phone in both hands and
calling Matt. He considered calling Puck, but rejected it. He didn't want to be
applauded for sex on the first date; he wanted someone a bit more mature.
"Dude, I need you to come over and tell me everything's the same as it was five
hours ago," he demanded. "Right fucking now."
Matt didn't hesitate to say yes, or even bother to ask for details. They both
knew exactly how long it would take Matt to run from his back door across the
Patterson's yard to Greenbriar Street, go half a block more and arrive on
Mike's porch, down to the second. Mike was there waiting for him when he
arrived.
"You look the same," Matt assured him. "Any other measurements I should be
taking?"
Mike tried to take deep, calming breaths. Rationally, he could see that it
wasn't a big deal, that nothing was really different. He wasn't any more or
less into guys than he'd already known he was.
"It's just," he tried, letting Matt's arm hold him up, "once you do something,
you can't do it over again for the first time. This is it. From now on, I'm
always going to have done - that thing."
Matt looked anxious. "It was that bad?"
"It wasn't bad. It was actually really - I think I want this. For real. No," he
corrected, dragging at the skin of his temples. "I know I want this, for real."
"Well, that's good then, right?" said Matt, leading him into the kitchen. "To
know you were right?"
"I guess. It's just... what the crap? Like, who honestly just does the things I
just did?" If it wasn't for the parents on the other side of the window, Mike
would probably have been shouting. As it was, he was keeping it down to a
dramatic hiss.
Matt raised his eyebrows. "Well, Finn and Puck and Kurt, for starters. And
sometimes Santana and Brittany and me, or them and some other random boy they
want to show off for. And it's not like you don't know that polyamory is a
thing. You were the first one to pipe up about that book, when Schue was being
a tool before Regionals."
Mike had to agree. Matt pulled up a chair beside him at the table, watching him
with a curious expression.
"So you and Artie? You had - sex?"
The images were as fresh and clear in his memory as the steps in his routine
for Regionals. "I hate to say Puck was right, but..."
"Did you have a condom then?" Matt went on. "Because you kind of ignored Puck.
I mean, I guess technically you didn't need it, you can't get Artie pregnant.
But you should get used to them, in case you ever date someone where you don't
know who they've been with."
"It wasn't that kind of sex. But it still counts! It was still a guy, and, uh.
You know. We both..." Mike began to make an illustrative gesture, and stopped
abruptly, feeling his face heat up.
"You both what?" Matt sounded amused. "You ever heard the phrase, if you can't
talk about it, you shouldn't do it? I suppose that's condescending, or
controlling. Not sex-positive enough. But seriously, I shouldn't have to finish
your sentences."
"Sometimes it's really easy to tell you're Puck's best friend." Mike snapped.
"That's not an insult, you know. You're just pissy because you, what, touched
Artie's dick, and now you're freaking out." Matt grinned. "Don't make me call
him right now."
That wasn't exactly a terrifying idea, but Mike closed his mouth and glared at
the tabletop for a few minutes.
"So you think this isn't a big deal?" he said finally.
Matt reached out and bumped his fist, gently. "No, it's the biggest. But you
can handle it. I'm glad it was Artie, you know, and not some asshole from the
Joffrey Ballet who'd pop your cherry and break your heart."
He nodded. "Do you think... would it be totally stupid to want to do it again?"
Matt shook his head. "I'm about the fifth person that should be asked that.
First you gotta ask yourself, and then Artie, and then Tina, to make sure she's
still fine with everything. Then the owner of the place you're doing it at -
and in that case I suggest not here, because your parents will put you in a
monastery. But do I, personally, think it's stupid to have sex with someone you
like, and think you'll have fun with? Nope."
Again, Mike already knew the answer, but hearing Matt say it out loud, with
such matter-of-factness, was a huge relief. "Thanks for helping me talk it out,
man."
"It's not so different from that time in second grade when you climbed too high
in the spruce tree in your side yard," Matt pointed out, hugging him. "You
would have gotten down eventually on your own. I just made it a little easier."
***** Tina/Artie/Mike *****
Artie's mom had barely rounded the corner before Tina was walking right out the
door of her family room, back into the garage, picking up her bike and coasting
down the road toward Mercedes' again. She was far too awake and alive with
questions to be able to sleep right now. Chances were good that Mercedes would
still be awake.
She was, although Kurt had gone home. She didn't seem all that surprised to see
Tina on her porch, either.
"What's the verdict?" she asked, holding open the screen door. "Anybody going
to be mad at anybody else Monday morning at school?"
"I think Quinn will hate the universe just a little bit more, if her reaction
to Kurt and Puck and Finn is the standard." Tina sank into one of Mercedes'
overstuffed chairs, relaxing back and gazing up at the ceiling.
"And you?" Mercedes prompted.
"I'm about one part squealing fangirl, two parts awed witness to a miracle. Not
to mention unsatisfied." She smirked to see Mercedes' frantic hand-flailing.
"TMI, TMI, please."
"This is going to be unbelievable," Tina whispered. "I don't even know how to
tell you how hot it was. The two of them together, and kissing in front of
them. And everything. I'm never going to look at that shirt Mike was wearing
the same way again." She touched her own hand to her chest. "I wasn't just
getting something I wanted. I was getting that thing that made
everything awesome, and I didn't even know I wanted it."
Mercedes looked wearily resigned. "You're going to be like a born-again
Christian. I can already tell you're going to proselytize to me all summer
about the virtues of polyamory, just like Kurt did."
"Not all summer."
"No? You gonna calm down in August when Mike's busy and away all day doing
football training?"
For a second the mental image of Mike, glistening with perspiration, his hair
matted from his helmet and those impossibly long legs in tight white cloth, was
as easy to see as the painting over Mercedes' fireplace. "Oh god, I forgot
about that. Wow. No, I can pretty much guarantee you desperate flailing at that
point. I meant in July. Me and Mike are signed up to be counselors at Asian
camp. Can't preach at you if I'm not in town."
"Thank God for small miracles." Mercedes actually looked concerned for a
moment. "You and Mike, alone, without Artie? You really think that's going to
be okay with him?"
"I know. I mean, I don't know. None of this was in the plan, okay? An actual
relationship, with actual hand jobs -"
"TMI!"
"- so I guess we'll just have to negotiate that?" Tina sat with that reality
for a long moment, feeling suddenly tired. "I think I'd better go home. It's
late."
Mercedes stood at the door and watched Tina ride away. It was a good thing she
lived so close, and there weren't any major streets between their
neighborhoods. By the time she parked her bike for the second time, she was
stumbling. Even so, she managed to type out one little group text to both Artie
and Mike as she was brushing her teeth: Hope you guys are doing okay. Thinking
of both of you. There was no answer, but she knew they'd see it eventually, and
she could bet it would make them both smile.
===============================================================================
"So. That happened," Artie said when he and his mom were safely back in the
kitchen with no real distractions.
"Yeah, it did. You want to use a few more words? Show off your script writing
ability?"
"Uh." It wasn't that he didn't. He just had to figure out how to start. His mom
watched him calmly, not pressuring him.
"You don't have to, Artie. I think you should think about it, and I am willing
to listen if you need to talk it through. But you're sixteen, and I won't force
you to talk."
"Can I have a smoothie?"
She smiled, getting up again. "Oh, it's like that, is it? I made a batch of
pear banana after work. I'm pretty sure there's some left. It would be a sad
day in the Abrams universe if we ever ran out."
"Pear banana? Is that the kind with the hidden spinach?"
"Honey, about half of them have hidden spinach."
"I didn't need my illusions shattered like that, ma."
"Can you taste it? No? Then shut up and drink it." She plunked the cup down in
front of him. It was a normal sized glass, not a novelty one.
Artie chewed on the tip of the straw. As always, the coolness sliding down his
throat somehow aligned his brain with his words. He wasn't even half done
before he was ready to talk. "I think I'm kinda thrown by it all. Like, I
didn't think I'd be as gay as I am?"
"Honey, do we need to talk about how that statement's sort of messed up? Or
have you already unpacked that?"
"Hey, come on. Don't gimme that. I was one of Kurt's first friends. Like within
days of joining Glee, when it was only the five of us. I know at least five bi
people now, and at least three solidly gay people. And VilePresent93 from XBox
Live asks us to use neutral pronouns like they or zie, so I'm pretty sure
something's up with them." He shrugged. "I wouldn't have cared if I was gay, I
just never figured I was. But I guess I am. Or bi, I suppose."
"Okay, granted." She smiled fondly at him. "Implication of intolerance
withdrawn. I just had to check."
Artie grinned back. "I'll take that as an apology."
"So is that all this is? And I don't mean all as a belittling word. But is that
your main thought? How much you have to reorient yourself with this new
knowledge, or if you do at all?"
He thought about that. "It's part of it," he decided finally. "I don't know
about main. I mean, I don't want this to turn into some Avril Lavigne to-your-
own-body-be-true thing, but I'm kinda surprised I gave it up? Don't get me
wrong, it wasn't everything. But I started off like a picky eater dutifully
tasting artichokes. Like, 'I don't think this will work, but I appreciate the
effort, and I will try it just to prove that I accept that you like it'. But
then... it was good. It was really, surprisingly good. And all of a sudden I
was chowing down, when the plan had been two bites and then politely spit the
rest into the napkin. Then Tina showed up, which was great, like adding melted
butter to every bite. But it turns out I wouldn't have needed that to mask the
experience. I was enjoying Mike just fine by himself, and it all went really
fast. I could have easily eaten another whole artichoke." He coughed. "Melted
butter not being any kind of a metaphor for anything."
His mom didn't bother to hide her grin. "I've got multiple replies to that.
Starting with one: is it weird that I know exactly what Avril Lavigne song
you're referring to? I really didn't think I listened to that much popular
radio at work, but I guess I do. Two: artichokes are proof that God exists, and
that He has excellent taste. Three: it's always, always okay to say stop. Or
slow down. If you're with someone who doesn't get that, chuck them out the
nearest window. I thought you knew that."
"I do," Artie insisted. "But it was the surprise of it. I didn't think to
program a stopping point, because I'd assumed that I'd want to stop after an
uninspired kiss. It wasn't like Tina. I've already got Tina's boundaries fixed
in my head."
"I'm going to give you some particularly obvious advice. Think about it now.
Talk to Mike about how far he's genuinely ready to go, even if it's awkward.
But before you do, you think about how far you're willing to go. When you're
sober, level headed, do you want him to penetrate you? Do you want to do that
to him? You don't have to tell me, but I'm willing to hear it. I'm not
embarrassed by some graphic stuff, you know that."
"Yes," Artie had to admit, "you are spectacularly embarrassment-proof."
"So you don't have to let me know - although you can - but you have to know it
yourself. And once you do, you probably won't find yourself pulling off a
condom going, 'How did that happen?' Because that, my son, is a terrible
feeling, even if it was fun at the time." She paused, then patted his shoulder.
"Need a refill?"
===============================================================================
"You're seriously going on a second date?"
"Yeah," Mike nodded in case the word mumbled around his mouthful of rice wasn't
clear enough.
Jordan put down his pork gyoza. Mike didn't think much of the action, as Jordan
had been eating it reluctantly anyway. But then he pushed Mike's lunchbox
aside.
"When is this going to stop?"
"What?"
"This whole thing. When is it going to stop?" Jordan shook his head. "It's
messed up."
Mike reached for his lunchbox with matching irritation. "No, it's not. Pass me
my lunch back."
"No. I don't need you distracted by your funky sauce when you need to listen to
me. It is messed up, dude. Everyone is using you. Hudson and Hummel and
Puckerman are using your personality to manipulate you to fighting their
battles for them. Tina's using you for some live action Yaoi. Artie's using you
as a test."
"Shut up." It wasn't true. Mike had thought those things once or twice, but
they weren't true. They were the kind of things his dad would attack with, if
Mike would ever be stupid enough to tell him about his life. "You sound like my
dad."
"Fuck you," Jordan replied, taking it for the insult it was. "I'm not trying to
bring you down. You're my friend. Just... it was funny before, you being so
sweet and earnest and shit. It's not funny anymore. You went in with a clear
head, knowing this was an act. Then you had sex, and now you think it's true
love? It's a classic virgin mistake."
"Well, there's your disproof," said Mike, trying to look confident as he tossed
out the lie. "Who's a virgin? Brittany, August. Same as half the Titans,
probably."
"Nope. Still counts: first time with a guy. Look, I'm not saying I care if you
bang dudes. I don't. I don't even care if you keep on helping Artie cheat on
Tina since she didn't seem to care anyway. Just..." He folded the rest of his
lunch primly and fastened it shut. "Wisen up. These dates are putting blinders
on you."
Mike's first instinct was to shout that maybe he wanted to be blind. But that
wasn't right. That would be agreeing with Jordan, just saying he didn't care.
Mike didn't agree with Jordan, not at all. Pretending he did to not make waves
would be self-sabotage. Over the last eight months Glee had taught him it was
better to fight. He glared at Jordan.
"I thought you were my friend, but I guess you're just an asshole." Mike
slammed the lid of his lunch box closed, not giving a shit that the containers
inside it were still open and probably slopping everywhere. He wasn't going to
stick around one moment longer, listening to this I-know-better-than-you-
son poison.
***** Tina *****
Tina could tell something had gone wrong by the way Mike stormed up to her in
the lunch line. She touched him lightly, not knowing yet whether Mike was the
kind of guy who wanted someone to throw their arms around him or to leave him
alone when he was mad. "Hey."
He was scowling, huffing through his nose. "I can't believe some people."
"Yep," she agreed. "That's pretty much life, right there."
"Just, why do they have to be so stupid? And judgmental, and mean, and..." He
zeroed in on Artie across the room, watching him talk to Puck. "The three of us
need to go out together. Tonight." He glanced back at Tina. "Are you busy?"
"Uh," she said, thinking fast, "well, it's a school night, so I couldn't be out
too late, but... if I did my homework right after school, I think my parents
might let me go."
"Great." Mike kissed her cheek, like a punctuation mark. Then he strode
determinedly across the lunchroom toward Artie and slide into a seat across
from him. He seemed completely focused on what he was doing, not self-conscious
at all of the way Artie's hand reached over to grasp his. Artie smiled,
nodding, and Mike smiled back, before leaning over to kiss Artie's cheek just
the way he had Tina's. It made her smile even more.
When Tina joined them at the table, carrying her tray, Artie reached over and
stole his usual tater tot with an anticipatory grin. "You already asked her,
right?"
"Of course," said Mike. "Now we need a plan. Dinner and ice cream?"
"Board games at my house?" Artie countered.
Tina smiled at both her boyfriends. "Mike, you have a license. I say we borrow
Artie's van and go park it somewhere."
Artie's smile froze on his face, like someone had thrown a slushie on him.
"Uh..."
"And... look up at the stars?" Mike ventured tentatively.
"I was thinking more like take off as many clothes as we can get away with."
Puck clapped slowly. "You are a woman with a plan I can get behind."
Tina was shocked for a moment by Puck's response; in the midst of the
conversation with Artie and Mike, she'd forgotten there were other people at
the end of the table. "Thanks. Not that it's any of your business, but...
thanks."
"Well, actually. Speaking from experience, cart-walkers don't like when you
fuck someone in the middle of a parking lot. So I recommend against Kroger."
Artie chuckled. "Good advice. I'm sure we can find a back lane or something.
Since we're apparently not stargazing, or otherwise enjoying the outdoors..."
"Hey, there is zero need for having public sex, unless you get off on that. You
guys can just go to my dad's old place." Puck made an expansive throwaway
gesture, like his dad somehow owned the northern third of Ohio. "There's nobody
there. Trust me, it's romantic as all fuck. Me and Kurt, we lost our mutual
virginity there, and it was awesome."
"Your romanticism astounds me. And what about Finn? Don't tell me you were able
to convince him to have semi-public outdoor sex."
"Yep. On every picnic table in Lima." Puck flashed a wicked grin as Mike paled.
"Park there or don't. Whatever. I'm just trying to help."
"It sounds perfect," Tina broke in. "Text me directions." She smiled at Mike
and Artie with satisfaction. "Now we just need wheels."
Artie's mom took some convincing, but when Mike sat down with her and earnestly
described his spotless driving record, as well as the time last summer when he
drove his family's car for a hundred and thirty miles on their summer trip to
the Grand Tetons, she finally nodded and handed him the keys.
"I promise, not a scratch," Mike told her for the thirty-seventh time. "Back by
eleven. Thank you, Ms. Abrams."
Tina would have accused anyone else of laying it on a little thick, but she
knew that was actually the way Mike had been conditioned to behave around
adults. And even though she was sure Ms. Abrams could tell Mike was fawning a
little, she also knew that grown-ups ate that stuff up when it was directed at
them by trustworthy, upstanding kids.
As soon as Mike rounded the corner and was alone with her in the hallway, she
grabbed him for a seriously raunchy kiss. It made him squeak a little, then
lose most of his muscle tone, and finally kiss her back with just as much
enthusiasm.
"You're amazing, you know that?" Tina told him breathlessly.
Mike laughed, looking overwhelmed. "Yeah?"
She rolled her eyes, grabbing his hand and tugging him into Artie's room, where
they found him changing his shirt. "Artie," she announced, "Mike doesn't know
how amazing he is."
"Oh, yeah," Artie nodded, "I could have told you that."
Mike sat on the edge of Artie's bed, looking more pink than taupe. "I don't
really know how to react to that."
Artie wheeled around so he was in front of Mike, reaching out to touch his
knee. He didn't exactly have abs like Mike, or biceps like Puck, but Tina
thought he looked pretty hot without his shirt on. "Mike's one of those guys
who feels really ordinary, even though he can do a zillion things that other
people can't, and he's really good at lots of them. He's convinced he's never
going to make his parents happy, and so he's certain he's failed at being a
good kid - even though the object of being a kid isn't actually to make your
parents happy."
Now Mike looked confused, and a little anxious. "You don't think so?"
"Nope," Artie said. "You get to grow up and move out and make your own
decisions eventually, and all the ones your parents don't agree with, they
won't have any way to tell you differently."
Mike shook his head. "Not in the Asian community. I'm pretty sure my mom's mom
will still be telling her what to do when she's dead."
It was kind of true, but Tina wasn't going to leave Artie to deliver this
impromptu speech on his own. She sat on the bed beside Mike, taking his hand.
"I think what he means is, you're not actually all that ordinary. You're
amazing. Which was my original point, so." She leaned over and kissed him. "You
ready for this date?"
"I think so." He looked so tentative, so vulnerable, which Tina knew wasn't
actually what Mike was like most of the time. The idea that Mike might be
willing to be that way around her and Artie, that he might trust them that
much, made her feel a little like crying and a little like climbing on top of
him.
"You can totally say no to anything," Artie told him, squeezing his knee. Mike
touched his hand, grinning.
"I don't think I'm the one likely to say no."
"Whatever. Any of us. I think we'd all be okay with slow down, or yuck, or not
right now."
Speak for yourself, Tina almost said. Watching the two of them make shy-boy
eyes at each other was totally turning her on. She helped Mike off Artie's bed,
then chose a slightly too small t-shirt for Artie to wear. Mike didn't look
away from Artie the whole time as he pulled it on over his head, smoothing it
over his ribs, and they smiled at each other for a little too long.
"Come on." She tugged on both their hands. "We've got to get out of here now,
or else we're never going to leave this room."
The address Puck texted her was about fifteen minutes north of Lima, kind of in
the middle of nowhere. Mike didn't seem to have any anxiety about navigating
the big van across town, in any case, so Tina gave him the directions as they
drove.
She hadn't brought up the condoms in her pocket, nor the lube, nor the wet
wipes, but she figured they'd be there at which time they felt necessary. She
and Artie hadn't used them, but they hadn't yet had the kind of sex that
involved his penis inside her, other than her mouth - and they'd decided pretty
much first thing that neither of them wanted to use condoms for that. Now that
it was the three of them, though, Tina didn't want to assume anything.
She waited until they were about halfway there to ask the next question. "Mike,
have you been tested for STI's?"
"Uh -" He blinked, looking over at her like he was shocked. She sighed.
"Don't give me that. This is responsible dating. You're the one who's had other
partners; I don't even know who they all were. I'm not asking, either. I just
want to make sure we're all safe."
He nodded. "Yeah... of course. You're right. I was just... I mean, I've done
stuff, but I haven't had - sex? Not like that, where I might have caught
something."
"Really?" Artie sounded surprised. "I thought I heard that you and Brit..."
Mike hunched over the steering wheel, his face obviously red even in the
darkness of the van. "I... might have told a couple people that. But, uh, I
didn't. I didn't want to. I like Brit, you know, but... she wasn't the right
person."
"Turn here," Tina pointed, and Mike put his blinkers on even though there was
nobody on the dirt road. They rounded a corner and slowed in front of what
looked like an empty field.
"Is this it?" Mike asked doubtfully, inching forward. "He said there was a
pond. Do you see a pond? Oh, yeah, there." He shrugged. "I guess we go in?"
There was no house, just an open clearing beside the pond, with a picnic table
and some old rusted-out tractors, overgrown with weeds. The frogs were
seriously having a party already. Tina helped Artie back into his chair and
used the lift to let him out onto the grass.
"This is nice," he said, wheeling around. "You're going to have to help me over
this tall patch, and then I think I can make it on my own."
"I never mind pushing your chair," Mike said. Artie smiled up at him.
"I just like showing off my arm muscles, pushing myself."
"Oh, kiss him, for god's sake," Tina muttered, and Mike cracked up. Artie
raised his eyebrows at Mike and opened his arms.
"Come sit in my lap?" he offered.
Mike's eyes went wide, and his laugh was abruptly cut off, but he settled
himself carefully onto Artie's legs. "I feel like I'm going to hurt you."
"Give it up, Mike. You're not that heavy. The worst thing you can do by sitting
on top of me is give me a hard-on."
Tina opened up the back doors of the van, snickering as she leaned in to fold
the seats into the floor. "That wouldn't be such a bad thing either."
"Not bad at all," Artie agreed. When Tina turned around again, the boys were
kissing, Mike's hands cupping Artie's face. Artie had taken his glasses off.
She took her time spreading the heavy camping blanket over the floor of the
van, giving them an opportunity to have a little time together. She wasn't
going to let them have much of that later; not this time. She'd been patient
enough.
When Artie leaned back from the kiss, she was right there behind him, guiding
Mike's head up to hers. His surprised-happy noises were seriously delicious.
"Why'd you lie about having sex with Brit?" she asked.
The way Artie was stroking Mike's leg, dipping into the long, lean curve of his
knee and back out again, Mike appeared almost too glassy-eyed to focus on the
question, but he managed to formulate a response. "That was the summer before
sophomore year, before Glee. Before I let myself dance in front of anybody,
other than Matt. I mostly wanted to fit in." He shook his head, looking
bemused. "I... think I've come a long way since then. Even if I still just want
people not to notice me sometimes."
"Yeah, you definitely have," Artie agreed. He ran his hands up Mike's torso,
looking entirely too pleased at Mike's reaction. "I think you've got two people
right here who are all about noticing you. If that's okay."
"It's okay," Mike said. He touched his forehead to Tina's. "I don't feel like I
have to lie to you. Either of you. I can just be myself, be honest about what I
am, what I want."
She tipped her face up to his, kissing him gently at first, then more
fervently. "We all get to say what we want. I bet we could come up with
something that would be amazing for all of us. So, any requests?"
Mike looked from Tina to Artie and back again, biting his lip. "Tina. I - I
want you to show me what you like. How to make you come."
"That sounds like a perfect idea," she agreed, smiling broadly. Judging from
Artie's impatient squirming, she guessed he thought so, too.
"Fuck, yeah," Artie muttered. "Watching you go down on Tina... talk about
giving me a hard-on."
"Yeah, um, speaking of that..." Mike leaned on Artie's shoulder, picking at the
snap on his jeans. "I'd really like to... go down on you, too. If you wanted
that."
Artie hesitated, but he was smiling. "Would that be in a blowjobby kind of way
or a tongue-in-my-ass kind of way?"
"The first one," Mike replied quickly, hiding behind his hand. "God. I hadn't
even thought of the other one."
"No?" Artie grinned bigger. "Never?"
"Well, I have now."
Tina smoothed her fingers through Mike's silky hair. "Don't get all freaked
out. It's just more stuff to try. You don't have to want to do it all. I'm
pretty sure I don't want anybody's tongue in my ass."
"But maybe other places?" Artie said, nudging her.
"Oh, definitely other places. And this blowjob, Mike? That I want to see."
She knew it was easier to get Artie's jeans off him when he was lying down, but
the idea of Mike kneeling in front of his chair was something she couldn't pass
up. Mike let Artie circle his arms around his neck and lift himself up while
she stripped Artie's jeans down his legs. Artie's arms were definitely his best
feature, if she was going to objectify him. Or possibly his eyes, which
currently were blinking and wide, focused on Mike settling down between his
thighs.
Mike ran his hands up Artie's hips, looking for that sweet spot where sensation
began and ended. Sometimes it was unpleasant for Artie to be touched in those
in-between places, but Artie didn't look uncomfortable now. His cock stirred
when Mike leaned against his knee, and Mike glanced up in surprise. "You can
feel that?"
"No," Artie said softly, gazing at Mike. "Just... watching you, there. That's
turning me on."
Mike colored, a stupid smile crossing his face. Tina guessed she wore
essentially the same expression. "Yeah, me too. I've been thinking about this a
lot."
Me too, Tina thought, but she wasn't going to interrupt their moment, not yet.
Artie sucked in a breath as Mike leaned in and kissed the sparse hair of his
inner thigh. He leaned back, scooting down to allow Mike better access. "Okay,
I can feel that."
"Good." Mike gave him a tentative smile, then returned to making progress up
his leg, until he was landing shallow breaths on Artie's cock. "You sure this
is -?"
"Yeah," said Artie, his voice tense with want, "yeah, come on, Mike, your
mouth."
Mike paused for just one more moment before letting his tongue dart out, taking
a careful lick, and Artie murmured approval. Tina wanted to intervene, to take
Artie in one hand and feed him into Mike's mouth with the other. The idea of it
was enough to accelerate herself toward orgasm number one. Sitting in the back
of the van, her legs swinging free, she could both touch Artie's neck with one
hand and reach the other hand under her skirt.
"Mike," she said, seeing him hesitate again.
"Yeah?"
"Just do it. You're not going to hurt him. Suck his dick."
Mike and Artie let out simultaneous moans, and Tina smiled, gripping Artie's
shoulder. She loved that they wanted it, loved that they were going for it,
even without her encouragement - but that they liked her encouragement made it
so much hotter. She rocked against her hand, letting a finger slip just barely
inside.
Mike was definitely taking her advice, using his hand to wrap around the base
of Artie's cock, then guiding it to his mouth and letting his lips close around
the head. He made his own surprised-pleased noises, and with each bob forward
took a little more of Artie into his mouth, until in a surprisingly short
amount of time he'd swallowed all of him. Tina could feel Artie's shoulders
tense under her hand.
"Oh my god," he muttered, "oh my god, Mike, oh my god."
Mike backed off, looking up at him. "Is that okay? Too much?"
"No," he said emphatically. "You're deep-throating me and you're asking me if
it's okay? How do you do that?"
"Um... I don't know?" Mike let out a nervous giggle, leaning back in. "I have a
big mouth? So can I...?"
He didn't wait for Artie's reply, settling his mouth back over his cock with a
contented hum. Artie's eyes slipped closed. His responses became increasingly
louder, but there in the middle of Puck's dad's vacant lot, it didn't much
matter. Tina rocked harder against her hand as she watched Artie, watching Mike
as he swallowed Artie down with growing confidence and enthusiasm.
"Mike loves this," she said, because there was no doubt that Mike did, and also
because she knew Artie wanted to hear her say it. Artie reached forward and
touched Mike's head, gently, not at all demanding, but with reverence.
"I have no idea how I came to deserve this," Artie said, his voice shaky, "but
I'm so grateful. And you're going to make me come in about three seconds."
Mike's only response was to take Artie deeper down his throat, and Artie must
either have read that as permission or given up trying to resist because he
threw his head back and groaned. Mike didn't hesitate once, making little gulps
amid quiet moans, swallowing as best as he could. Just listening was almost
pornographic. It gave Tina a tremendous charge. She considered finishing
herself off, but she backed off at the last minute, dropping her hand to her
thigh with a pleased sigh.
"That was the hottest thing," she said, reaching around to take Mike's hands
and tug him to his feet. When she put her arms around him to hold him close,
she could feel how hard he was, every shudder of his body as he pressed against
her. She tasted the familiar tang of Artie on his tongue when she kissed him.
"I think you thought so, too."
"Yeah, wow." Mike blinked down at Artie, still sprawled, half-comatose, in his
chair. He brushed his fingers against Artie's bare thigh. "That was... amazing.
I can't even explain it."
"Words, not important. Baby, you ready to move into the van?" She saw Artie's
vague nod, and she and Mike each took one side of Artie and lifted him in. Tina
didn't bother to suggest he put his pants back on. She ditched her skirt before
climbing in after him and knelt over Artie, kissing him hard, enjoying the
sensation of skin against skin. "So that was pretty good for you, huh?"
"Pretty good," he agreed, red-faced and grinning. "If by that you mean oh my
god."
"Is it funny that I don't feel at all threatened by Mike giving better blowjobs
than I do?" she asked. "Because all I feel is kind of smug."
They both turned to watch Mike crawling in beside them. He settled against the
wall of the van, arms propped on his knees, flushed and grinning shyly.
"Dude," said Artie, sounding offended. "You have way too many pants on."
They descended on his legs, each of them tugging on one cuff, hauling them down
to his ankles and finally tossing them out the back of the van entirely to land
in a pile on the grass. Tina only got to admire Mike's bikini briefs for a
moment before Artie got rid of those, too.
"Now it's my turn to watch." Artie manually rearranged his own legs so they
were crossed, and leaned back against the opposite wall of the van from Mike,
smiling at the two of them.
Tina sat close to Mike, wondering how fast she could go for his cock without
seeming completely desperate. With Artie, she knew it could have been
immediately, even without any conversation at all, but Mike might need more
confidence-building before he was ready to -
"Your turn," he breathed, pushing her down onto the blanket.
Well, that answered that question. She welcomed him on top of her, the feel of
his muscled back, his firm abs, the pulse of his cock against her leg before he
slid down to kneel between her thighs. He looked as eager to proceed as he had
with Artie. It made her dizzy and breathless.
"Any tips?"
It took Tina a moment to realize Mike was talking to Artie. She was about to
retort herself, but then Mike's mouth descended on her and his tongue was - oh
- and she had no words, that was just so -
"Soft and steady," Artie told him, "and if you're going to stop in the middle,
don't forget exactly where you left off." He sounded somewhat breathless
himself, and when she looked over she could see he was half-hard again, holding
himself in his hand and giving himself occasional squeezes.
"Just like that," she whispered hoarsely, "like that, oh, please, Mike, your
fingers."
She wasn't being very specific, but Mike seemed to understand what she was
saying anyway. His tentative touches took her very quickly from that feels so
good to god more now. She grabbed his hand, trapping it against her, and thrust
harder against him, making him feel how much she wanted it.
"More," she insisted.
"That means add another finger and do her harder," Artie suggested. He was
fully erect now, stroking himself as he watched them intently. "God, that's
hot. But don't stop with your tongue."
It wasn't exactly silent in the van, not with the little noises of three
people's inhalations and exhalations, and the wet sounds of Mike's mouth on
her, and Artie's hand stroking faster, and the occasional exclamation. Tina's
own sounds were coming more frequently, her hips tipping up against each stroke
of Mike's gentle tongue.
"So good," Artie murmured. His hand reached out and rested on her stomach,
moving up to brush the side of her breast. She waited about five seconds before
taking the hand and putting it directly on her nipple, and he chuckled,
twisting and tugging the way she liked just before she was about to come.
"Oh, Mike - don't stop, don't stop, oh my god -" She reached out with both
hands, clutching at each of them, and didn't bother to restrain the bucking of
her hips as she ground up against Mike's waiting mouth. He stayed with her,
taking Artie's advice literally: don't stop with your tongue.
A+ for Mike, she thought, panting.
"Well done, man," Artie said with a soft smile. "You're a natural."
Mike sat back on his heels, smiling back, wiping his mouth on the edge of his
discarded shirt, and touched Tina's thigh. "That was okay?"
"Oh, yeah," she sighed happily. "Come here?"
He figured out that she meant for him to lie down on top of her, which he did
gingerly at first, then finally settled down with a shaky breath. "Wow, that
feels - maybe a little too good. I'm trying not to do anything unsafe here."
"As long as you don't actually come inside me, you're good. Anyway, I'm not
ovulating right now. I'm not Finn; I know my facts about conception." She
squirmed around a little, appreciating Mike's groans. "And you get whatever you
want, but I was kind of thinking I should return the blowjob favor, since
you've been so generous with your amazing mouth."
Mike's breathing hitched as his cock dragged over the wet skin of her thighs.
"Okay, yes, that sounds fantastic."
"Or you guys could do that intercrural thing." Artie hadn't really stopped
jerking off since moving into the van, but he hadn't been very goal-oriented,
stroking himself in a relaxed and lazy way. Now he'd started to pick up the
tempo again, to become more focused with his actions. "Mike on top, or behind
you."
"That wouldn't feel unfair?" Mike paused, shifting over so he was lying between
Artie and Tina. The van wasn't really long enough for him to stretch out, but
Mike didn't seem to mind that his legs stuck out the end of the hitch. He
leaned over to kiss Artie for a while, his hand coming down so they were both
jacking off in tandem. Tina wasn't sure what to keep her eyes on; it was all
so, so hot.
"You guys can do this anytime you want," she promised. "And why would the
intercrural be unfair? Because Artie can't do it? Isn't that just one thing on
a kind of long list of things?"
"I'm trying to be sensitive," Mike protested. Artie claimed his mouth again,
harder this time - and Tina was suddenly ready to go, more than ready. She
reached over and hauled Mike back on top of her, crossing her ankles.
"Here's where you get to be grateful for my dancer's thighs," she said. She
reached down and slipped his cock between them, pointing it down, away from any
parts that might be compromised by condomless friction. The expression on his
face was priceless. She giggled. "Feel good?"
"So good," he assured her, sounding overwhelmed again, "oh, yeah, good...
Tina..."
She thrust harder and tucked a hand into the slick channel of her own thighs,
the sound of Mike's gasps driving her closer to the edge, and pressed her mouth
to his ear. "Just imagine how good it would feel if you were actually inside
me."
That was pretty much the end for all three of them. It didn't matter who
actually came first (or second, in the case of Artie and Tina), but three
minutes later, they were all snuggled up close in a sticky, sweaty heap, and
Mike was holding Artie's hand, and Tina was still giggling.
"You guys make sex fun," she said. "And I don't mean that in a goofy,
lighthearted way. I mean that in a that's-the-way-it-should-be way."
"I resemble that goofy lighthearted remark," Artie pointed out.
Mike smiled, leaning over to kiss him. "Neither goofy nor lighthearted are
things I ever learned how to pull off. I kind of admire you for both of them."
They used Tina's wet wipes to clean up a little before throwing on essential
clothes and settling outside on a blanket on the grass to do some actual
stargazing. She knew they only had a little time before the mosquitoes would
eat them alive, but she couldn't bear not taking the opportunity to be outside
after having sex with her boyfriends. Not to mention Mike knew an awful lot
about constellations.
"I'm still having aftershocks," she informed them. Artie groaned.
"Don't turn me on again," he pleaded. "I don't think I can handle it. I'm
usually a come-once-and-done guy. I'm already going to be chafed in the
morning."
"Poor baby." She tilted her head to kiss the closest available skin on him,
which happened to be his forearm. "Tomorrow at my house for dinner, right?"
Mike sighed, resting his head on Tina's stomach. "Guys, eventually my parents
are going to catch on to this business of the three of us together, and that's
going to be bad news for us."
"So we'll get somebody to cover you. Finn, probably? You can have dinner at his
house, can't you?"
"I don't know. My parents keep blacklisting the guys I can spend time with. All
my friends are turning out to be kind of gay."
Tina stroked the side of his neck. "Like you, maybe?"
"Yeah," Mike said softly. "Kind of."
"Me too." Artie wiggled Mike's clasped hand. "Maybe everybody is, kind of."
"Well, speaking on behalf of the only not-kind-of-gay member of our triad,"
said Tina, "I'm very grateful you guys haven't completely defected to the XY
team."
"Oh, come on," Artie said. "Don't tell me you've never thought about girls?
Girls are amazing. And you really shouldn't rule it out. I didn't know I
wanted this until I had it, either."
"Thought about it, yes. I think I'd have to actually be in the situation before
I really knew if I wanted it or not." She let all her breath out in a contented
sigh. "Trust me, I'm perfectly happy with what we have, right here."
***** Mike *****
Mike was willing to be the last in line as Artie and Tina picked what they
wanted from the concession. He needed an extra minute or two to figure out what
he wanted. At the normal theatre it was easy: a small popcorn shared with
Jordan, who'd insist on paying a quarter for extra butter topping. But this was
a indie theatre. They didn't have normal concession foods. Twizzlers were far
too mainstream. Everything was vegan this and wheatless that.
Mike hadn't even known Lima had an indie theatre until Artie had demanded to
take them both to a double feature showing of The Addams Family and Addams
Family Values. Tina had been over the moon at the idea, and stunned that Mike
had never seen something so integral to her childhood. Mike went willingly. If
they both wanted something, he was up for it. But from the kids in suspenders
who pushed their way in the building first, to all the art hanging instead of
movie posters, to the ticket seller having a goddamn typewriter instead of a
book or phone to kill time with, it had become clear he wasn't nearly cool
enough to hang out in this place.
"I'll have some of that watermelon taffy?" Tina requested.
"The coal-fire-cooked, hand-pulled taffy?" the cashier retorted smugly.
"Um, yeah? I guess. That one," Tina pointed at the small tub of green and pink
wrappers. "Five bucks worth."
The cashier turned and began scooping the candy into a cellophane bag. He
twisted the bag and wrapped a ribbon around the tightened material before
plunking it onto the mosaic tiled counter. Tina began to open her black leather
clutch and the cashier reached out and touched her wrist.
"No no no. Make your boyfriend be a gentleman," he said, gesturing to Mike.
"I can pay if you want," Mike said quickly. The cashier had a point, after all.
It was just mannerly to cover a date's expenses.
"No, it's fine," Tina said. "I got it."
She handed over a bill, then stood to the side as Artie bought a bag of locally
sourced potato shaving chip things. Mike looked at the shelves of choices and
went the easy way; a bag of the same chips Artie had, and some coconut taffy.
That way, even if the four hours of movie didn't thrill him the same way it
obviously did both of them, he'd at least have the snacks to talk about.
They were halfway down the aisle when Tina shook her head. "Mike, can you help
Artie park? I have to go do a thing."
"Seeing if you can get a refund, to switch out watermelon for something
actually tasty?" Artie asked.
Tina stopped a few steps away to answer him. "You have a watermelon hate?"
"It's the flavour my dentist always uses for fluoride. Freaking gross."
"No, it's not that. I'm happy with what I bought. I'm just not happy with who
sold it to me." With that explanation she resumed her walk back up the aisle.
Mike kicked down one of the break flippers so he could walk around and look
Artie in the face. "She's gonna make a scene, isn't she."
"Hey, she can handle a scene. I'm pretty sure Figgins still thinks she's a
vampire."
He glanced up the aisle uneasily. "Should we leave her to it?"
"Hey, I don't know about you, but I want to watch. This theatre doesn't have a
pre-trailer show."
Mike toed the flipper back up and swung Artie's chair around. It wasn't the
easiest manuever, it was against gravity, and the slope was covered with a
plush carpeting runner, but Mike managed it. And if he jogged Artie up the
aisle, so what? None of the hipster patrons were watching them anyway.
Back in the concession area, Mike had to wonder if it still counted as being
proven right when the statement he'd made was super obvious. There Tina was,
practically shouting at the cashier.
"Let's not even get started on the fact that, when I'm clustered around two
guys in line, you assume I'm dating the other Asian one. I don't even care
about the race thing right now. Let's focus on how sexist you are, saying that
I can't acquire my own resources. Let's focus on how classist it is to assume
that you can only be a good man if you pay for your partner's things. Let's
focus on how monogamous-minded it is to say that, in a group of one girl and
two boys, the relationship configuration is automatically one girl dating one
boy." Tina tapped his chest with the corner of her leather clutch. "You have
anything to say for yourself?"
The cashier hadn't put down his attitude. "Just that I'm not sure what crawled
up your social justice warrior fag hag butt, but since you've already bought
your ticket, why don't you go sit down and watch Addams Family and shut up?"
Mike wanted to facepalm, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. He
suddenly understood the reason some people standing on the edge of a parking
lot brawl took out their phones to record it. That level of passionate
destruction deserved to be commemorated. Shit was about to get real, and he'd
bet anything that most of the rest of the theater patrons were watching too.
"If by social justice warrior you mean a person who knows the difference
between intelligence and ignorance, well, no shit, Sherlock." She smacked him
with the clutch again. "I am a strong independent woman. I need no man to hold
my hand and pay my way. And that includes both my boyfriends."
"Both?" He sneered. "Kind of a slut, aren't -"
He stopped because Tina was half over the counter, nose inches from his own.
"You don't want to finish that sentence. I might have razors in my hair. What
you do want to do is show me and my two lovers a bit of respect. And consider
having respect for future patrons." Refusing to let the employee have the last
word, Tina strode back across the lobby to where Mike was waiting.
"You're kind of terrifying, oh girlfriend who doesn't need me in any way shape
or form," Artie commented blithely.
"Thank you," Tina reached out and took both of their hands, holding them tight.
"And shut up. I may not need you, but I want you, which should matter even
more."
It did, at least in Mike's book. His family and community and culture needed
him. Artie and Tina wanted him. That was way better.
***** Tina *****
"I want to sleep with you," Tina murmured, nuzzling Mike's neck. She pulled
Artie's hand over the pile of theirs. "Both of you."
Artie tipped his head back, smiling lazily at them. "That's a pretty forward
proposition."
"I really just meant sleep. As in a bed, together. It won't be happening at
Mike's house, so that leaves yours or mine, and my bed's a single. So..." She
raised hopeful eyebrows. When Artie sighed, she furrowed them. "I mean, hey,
don't make me drag you into anything you don't want to do."
"No! You know that's not what I think." Artie gave her an impatient, amused
glare. "I'm all about the sleeping together. I just know my mom's going to want
to give me another extended talk about responsibility and - okay, I love my
mom, and she's really cool, but there's only so many times I can hear her
talking about how to take a condom off the right way?"
Mike was blushing, but he snickered. "I don't know what I'd do if my mom tried
to talk to me about that. Die of embarrassment, I think. But she never would,
so I think I'm safe."
"Where did you get your information about sex, if not from your parents?" asked
Tina.
"Mostly from friends. One time I forged my mom's signature for the in-class sex
ed. But she found out later and freaked out, so I never dared again. I didn't
even learn anything dangerous, just 'these are the seminal vesicles' and 'this
felt sack is really a uterus and the baby attaches with velcro here for nine
months.' It was really biology class, not sex ed."
She snorted. "Yeah, I definitely never learned anything in sex ed that I didn't
already know. Nothing about feelings or masturbation or anything useful. Like,
they really need a step-by-step training course to go from learning your own
body, then figuring out how to translate that into learning somebody else's."
Mike stared at her. "That would be... completely terrifying."
"Yeah, but better than trying to figure it out on your own? Seems like nobody
wanted to tell me anything. I went to find it myself." She watched Artie's hand
move from Mike's leg to hers. "So... you willing to take a hit for the team? Go
through a little uncomfortable with your mom to get to... way more
comfortable?"
Artie grimaced. "I'd rather just spring for a hotel."
"Aw, come on." She leaned in to wrap her arms around his neck, giving him her
best pout. "This might be our only chance to do this before the end of the
summer. Mike and I are going to be gone for four weeks working as counselors at
Asian camp, and then we only have a little longer before school starts again."
Artie shrugged, not meeting her eyes. She glanced at Mike for support, but he
just looked unhappy.
"Please?" she tried again. "For me?"
"Yeah, okay," Artie relented. Tina showered him with kisses, and he shielded
himself from her assault, but he was laughing. "Okay, okay! You know I'm going
to need a lot of sympathy after my mom's done with me. Ice cream, video
games, and a David Mamet video marathon."
"I think we can handle that," Mike said. He shifted over until his shoulder
brushed Artie's, then kissed him - with less vigor than Tina had, but no less
passion. "It's going to be hard, being away from you."
"Come on, guys. We can handle four weeks."
Artie sounded so reasonable, but when Tina thought about spending those four
weeks apart, she wasn't excited about Asian camp anymore. All she felt was
anxious and depressed. She slid her arms around Artie's chest and hung on
tight, feeling his hand stroking her back, Mike's cheek against her back.
"We've got a few more days," he murmured. "We can do whatever you want until
then."
That comment from Mike was the main reason she felt confident saying "yes,
definitely!" when Kurt invited the three of them over to the Hudmel house for
dinner. He looked surprised at her response.
"Shouldn't you check with Artie and Mike first?"
"I think I can persuade them," she said.
But it was her turn to be surprised when Mike was enthusiastic about the idea.
Artie was more skeptical.
"What, you mean, like, a... triple date?"
"Or like six friends hanging out with free food," she suggested. That put him a
better mood. Okay, maybe Kurt had mentioned something about a date with our
only other triad friends, which made her feel all warm inside, but if Artie
would rather focus on the grub, it was all the same to her.
The three of them had taken to spending most of their time at Artie's house,
but sometimes they ended up at Tina's. That evening, after Artie's mother came
to pick him up, Mike stayed for a few minutes before heading home on his bike.
The way he hugged her seemed particularly desperate, and they clung to each
other for a long time before he spoke.
"Do you think Artie's okay?"
"I think so," she said. Mike sighed, and she kissed him, petting his chest.
"I don't like the idea of leaving him either," he said, looking uneasy. "Is
that totally weird? I mean, I get to be with you for four weeks. That should be
good enough, right?"
"Would it be good enough if you stayed home to be with Artie while I went to
camp?" She waited for his response, but she knew what it would be. He shook his
head. "It's not weird, Mike."
"Maybe it'll be good for us, to be together, just the two of us?" Mike sounded
more hopeful than certain. She smiled at him, then kissed him again, and
pressed him away firmly.
"Come to Artie's tomorrow when you get up," she said. "We've got a date with a
pint of Ben & Jerry's and all the Mamet we can cram into one day."
When Mike had gone and Tina turned back around, her mother was standing there
in the hallway, watching her. She gestured for Tina to follow her into the
kitchen.
"Am I in trouble or something?" Tina asked. "You don't look particularly happy
with me."
"No, honey. I'm not mad. I'm just... a little concerned about what you and
your... Artie and Mike are doing."
She glared at her mother. "They're my boyfriends."
"Okay, yes. Your boyfriends. Believe me, if it were just you and Artie spending
this much time together, or just you and Mike, I'd be having the same talk with
you." Her mom glared back. It was familiar, and not worrisome to Tina; her mom
was a strong, powerful woman, too, and she wasn't afraid of that. "You do
understand the scariest thing I can think of happening to you is you getting
pregnant in high school?"
Tina couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Worse than me getting shot, or injecting
myself with drugs, or -"
"Worse than anything that's likely to happen to you. Tina, I trust you, you
know that. And this has nothing to do with how much I trust you. It has to do
with how much I trust a form of birth control that only has an 85%
effectiveness rating." She reached out and took Tina's hand. "Are the three of
you having sex?"
"You really mean, are they putting their penises inside my -"
"Yes," her mother interjected, looking weary. "Yes, that's what I mean."
"Not yet. But I want to, and I think they do too. I'm hoping I can talk them
into it."
Her mother sighed. "Okay. Then I think we're going to make an appointment to
see Dr. Jennings to look at additional forms of birth control. For my own peace
of mind, as well as your own." The glare returned. "But that does not mean you
stop using condoms, young lady."
"Mom, neither Artie nor Mike have had intercourse with anybody else. And I
trust them to tell me the truth." But she stopped arguing long enough to hug
her mom. "Thank you. Does that mean I could invite Mike and Artie to spend the
night?"
She laughed. "Ohh, don't push your luck. Your father would never go along with
that, not under his roof. As it is, I'm going to ask you not to tell him about
whatever kind of sex you're having already until I get a chance to tell him
about whatever additional birth control you choose."
"Me, talk to Daddy about sex?" Tina made a face. "Yeah, like that's going to
happen."
***** Dinner at the Hudson-Hummels *****
Mike was the first one in the door when they arrived at the Hudmel's, handing
Kurt the bag of gourmet potato chips. He smiled, hoping he didn't look too
anxious. "Thanks for having us over, Kurt."
"It's just the six of us tonight," Kurt said, hugging him. "My father and
Carole took an evening for themselves." He helped Tina bring Artie's chair over
the front step into the foyer. "Puck's out back, ready to put the steaks on the
grill. Salmon for me and Tina, red meat for the rest of you Neanderthals.
Except Neanderthals were omnivorous and primarily gathered plant foods, so I
probably should stop using that remark."
Finn had already made room in front of the television for Artie's chair, and
Tina was talking to Kurt, so Mike didn't feel too bad mumbling something about
helping Puck with the grilling and slipping out the back door.
Puck waved his tongs at Mike as he approached, poking through the coals and
setting the squeaky-clean grill back in place. "Mike, my man. Come appreciate
my efforts to satisfy both my need for actual fire while grilling and Kurt's
expectations for a spotless cooking surface. I spent forty-five freaking
minutes scrubbing this thing."
Mike watched Puck arrange the meat on the grill for a good thirty seconds
before blurting, "I need some advice."
Puck raised an eyebrow. "You dissed the one I gave you about bringing a condom
on your first date with Artie. I'm assuming it ain't about that."
"Uh... no." He avoided Puck's curious gaze. "I think I have that covered now.
This is more relationshippy than that."
"Yeah?" Puck smiled at him. "You guys getting serious?"
Mike shrugged. "It feels serious. This whole summer feels like a big deal, for
a lot of reasons. And now Tina and I are going away to Asian camp, and leaving
Artie at home, and it..." He sagged onto the edge of the deck. "It's a lot
harder than I expected."
Puck turned the pieces of steak over with the tongs. "Spending a summer away
from Kurt would totally suck."
"But I thought, since Kurt and Finn are living together, and you're at your
house, I thought you might get it? Like, how do you handle one person being
away without them feeling abandoned?" He gritted his teeth. "I hate the idea of
Artie dealing with that, all by himself."
Puck sat beside him, looking unusually placid in his wifebeater and apron.
"You're thinking like it's all bad, being apart. But that absence-makes-the-
heart-grow whatever business, that's totally true. Finn and Kurt, they get
their cuddle time, and then I show up and the party gets started all over
again."
Mike nodded. "I get that. I'm just thinking about what it's like, here, in
town, when two of us are together. It's okay, but..." He looked at Puck,
feeling helpless.
"Okay, look. You're all going to be all by yourself at some point. Yes, when
I've maxxed out my sleepover allowance, it sucks. But next year Kurt's going to
be alone on cheerleading excursions, and me and Finn will have each other. And
I can't think of an example, but I'm sure Finn's got some alone times too.
Right now you're thinking about poor Artie, he's not gonna have you two for all
of July. But unless you're dropping the Titans, practice is pretty much daily
in August. I heard we're getting a new coach, a ballbuster, not completely
useless like Tanaka. So if you fuck off home because your blisters are
bleeding, Artie and Tina probably aren't going to just pine for you. They'll
hang out together and bang. You can't think in terms of 'oh, the poor lonely
one.' You gotta think that life happens."
Mike watched Puck lift the steaks off the grill, dripping with juices, onto the
paper towel-covered plate, and replace the spaces over the coals with salmon
steaks. "Won't he be jealous?"
"Artie? Jealous?" Puck considered that. "I guess he could be. What about you?
Would you be jealous if Artie -"
"No." Mike closed his eyes, resting his head on his arms. "No. I'd be fine with
it."
"Come on, Chang," Puck encouraged gently. "This is relationship 101 stuff. Call
him when you have a spare five minutes. Tell him about how much camp food sucks
dick, and you'd rather be having, I dunno, whatever the fuck you've eaten with
him on a date. Send him a card signed by all of your little kids, and say that
they're witnesses to your hair-pulling, clothes-rending pining. For fucksakes,
send him dick pics and cunt pics on your phone." He grinned. "I'm sure Finn and
Kurt have totally awesome sex without me, but even they wouldn't forget about
me while they're doing it. I get as full a report as I want, later."
Mike imagined Tina describing, in detail, what Artie was doing to her, and
shivered. He wasn't sure if he could handle it.
Puck hauled himself to his feet, setting the tongs down and picking up the
plate of meat. He gave Mike an encouraging thump on the shoulder.
"Just figure out whether or not he hates chat speak before you start. Nothing
kills it more than someone grammar-policing your dirty texts."
===============================================================================
Tina looked out the window to where Puck and Mike were just barely visible. She
was nearly positive they were discussing the summer camp situation. It was on
Mike's mind just as much as it was on hers. She shifted in her seat for the
next section of the game, then stood up at the commercial.
"Kurt, I bought these crystals. They're for manicures, but I was thinking of
making myself a pair of shoes like you had for Gaga week. Did you keep those?
I'd love to take an inspirational look."
Kurt looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Of course I kept them. They're
classic pieces. One day I'll be concluding my fifth Broadway show and some
museum will beg me for a historical piece of Hummelism."
"I'm sure that will totally happen, dude," Finn said, smiling earnestly. It
made Tina smile. Divas like Kurt and Mercedes and Rachel needed guys like Finn,
guys who'd believe they could do anything. Mike had a little of that, she
thought.
"Could you come with me? Show me where they are?"
"My wardrobe is hardly unorganised, darling. But sure. I'd love to see that
look in your eye when my fashion expertise hits and leaves it's mark on your
soul."
"You can be my muse, not my God," Tina retorted. That Kurt had an impeccable
look wasn't up for debate. He just didn't wear half as much black as he could.
Kurt waited until they were mostly down the stairs to his and Finn's shared
suite to stop and turn halfway to look at her. "Tina Cohen-Chang, what exactly
is this about? Because I know it's not about my Gaga shoes, you know as well as
I do how much of a pain in the ass those stupid shoes were. No one would ever
want to replicate the agony those caused me. Do we even need to be down here?"
"If you'd rather have a talk upstairs in the bathroom, fine. But Mike and Puck
took outside, and there are only so many rooms in your house."
"Okay? Are the three of you having problems already? Well, that's fine.
Relationships are difficult. It took Puck and me months to figure out what we
were doing, and that was without factoring in Finn."
She sighed. "It's not so much a problem, it's more -" She cut herself off to
gesture at the room's sole bed. Apparently Mr Hummel and Ms Hudson weren't even
pretending to believe their sons weren't humping all night long. "Are there any
wet spots I should know about before I sit down?"
Kurt scoffed. "As if I wouldn't demand clean sheets. Puck's mom and sister even
got Finn a set for his birthday."
Tina accepted this anecdote as truth and sat on the bed. "It's not a problem,
really. Well, sort of. Basically Mike and I both made a commitment to be Asian
camp counsellors before we had any idea we would have summer plans. Like, I
accepted the reinvite before I was even dating Artie. We can't drop out now,
but... that means we're leaving Artie alone. For all of July, practically. We
don't know what to do."
"Have you talked about it?"
She ran her hand over his bedspread, feeling discouraged. "We've tried. Artie
won't talk about it. I think he's too upset to. Like, he's trying to be stoic,
but he knows if he says too much he's break down, freak out."
"Yeah, Puck can get like that sometimes." Kurt shrugged. "To be fair, so can I.
But I don't think Puck and Finn's methods for me will work for Artie."
Tina gave a short laugh. "We haven't even fourth base fucked yet. I don't think
blindfolds and handcuffs are in the cards quite yet."
"I know that. I just said that." Kurt rolled his eyes.
"So what do you do? When it's Puck having a problem that he doesn't want to
talk about?"
"I know this isn't what you'll want to hear, but honestly? Leaving him alone
tends to do wonders. He gets into these responsibility funks, where it's like,
if he doesn't have control of the situation, the world is going to end.
Sometimes he just needs time to stew in not taking care of me or Finn or
Brittany or Santana or Matt or his sister."
"So you think I should just leave Artie alone?"
"Well, I'm not saying he and Puck are the same person."
"They're really not," Tina agreed. "Not that one's better than the other."
"Actually, Puck is," Kurt smiled, momentarily dreamy.
"Unless Artie is," Tina fought back playfully.
"Look, didn't you tell me that Artie and his mom do this whole wise yenta
routine? So maybe just because he's not talking out his impending loneliness
with you or Mike doesn't mean he's not talking about it. Maybe it's easier with
her, since she won't get defensive like you two might."
He did have a point. "Okay, fine, I won't nag him."
"Hey, don't do it on my account," Kurt protested, but she shook her head.
"No, no, you're probably right. Artie's great, but he kind of plans the way he
shows his feelings and gestures, rather than following instincts. He's probably
talking this out with someone who will put a drink in his hand and make him
shut up and think it out."
"Yes. I'm sure everything will work out." Kurt smiled, but TIna still
hesitated.
"Just do me a favour?"
"If I can. What?"
"While I'm gone...could you check up on him a few times? Like, I don't know,
invite him out glove shopping or something?"
Kurt gathered up her hands. "I solemnly swear on my couture purchasing savings
account - and trust me, that's a lot more emotionally binding than swearing on
a bible - that I will see your lonesome boyfriend at least once a week while
you're out teaching eight year olds how to macrame and canoe. Or is Asian camp
not like multicultural camp?"
"Most of the kids have cellphones with Python developer apps? But other than
that, it's basically normal, I think."
"Do you want me to actually do your nails, so we can appear to have been gone
for a reason other than gossiping."
She hugged him hard. "Yeah. I mean God knows Mike wasn't subtle. We could at
least attempt to fool them."
===============================================================================
Artie glanced over his shoulder at the empty room behind them. "We've been
ditched, man."
"Not such a bad thing when you're the one left with the tv." Finn thumbed the
remote, turning the volume down on the Cleveland Indians scoring their third
run, and faced Artie. "What's going on?"
"Hell if I know." But that wasn't quite true, and Artie figured Finn deserved a
more honest answer than that. After a healthy pause, he added, "Mike and Tina
are heading off next week for Asian camp."
Finn nodded. "I heard Mike talking about that. You okay?"
"You know, that's the thing. I'm not sure why they're making such a big deal
about it." He scooped up a handful of chips from the bowl sitting beside them
on the couch. "Why can't they chill out? It's only a month. I'm not going off
to war or anything."
Finn thought about it. "Maybe they think you feel that way now, but that you'll
get sadder once they leave? And then they're gone, so they're setting up
contingencies or whatever now?"
Artie nodded, thinking. "Okay. I can see that. Mike's sort of a silent worrier.
But still, worst case scenario is that I get lonely. We're not living during
the eighties classic camp genre. There are cellphones. I could just call."
"Sounds reasonable."
"Yeah, and honestly, I could use a little break. Being in a relationship is a
lot of work, and being in two... I mean, don't you guys sometimes just want to
chill out with Left 4 Dead and a can of Coke and not talk to each other for a
few hours?"
"I don't think Kurt ever feels that way, exactly," Finn said. "But he knows me
and Puck like to do stuff he doesn't, and he's okay with that. But I know what
you mean; summer's a pretty intense time to be doing nothing but hanging out
with your girlfriend and her boyfriend."
"He's my boyfriend, too," Artie said automatically. "If there was any
competition, which there isn't, I'd say me and Mike are in the running for
hottest couple among the three of us."
"Yeah? That's cool." Finn grinned. "And there's really no comparison when it
comes to us. Puck and Kurt are the hottest for sure."
It made Artie grin, too, but he thought about what Finn had said, and what he
hadn't said.
"You're really in love with them?" he asked at last. Finn nodded, and Artie
nodded back. "I don't think I am. In love with Tina or Mike, I mean. They're
both awesome, and the sex is great, and I'm happy to see them together. But it
isn't... what I see with the three of you guys."
Finn was watching Mike and Puck out the back window, approaching with the plate
of steaks. His face had softened into a soft smile. "To tell you the truth,
Artie? I don't think anybody has what the three of us have. But that doesn't
mean that what you have isn't worth it. Only you can decide that."
Mike slid the back door open while Puck paraded ahead of him, bearing the
steaming platter. "Come on, Hummel," he shouted. "You'd better come eat my meat
while it's hot."
Tina was laughing, more at Kurt's expression than at Puck's comment, as they
walked up the basement stairs. "Really," Kurt said, glaring at Puck. Puck
waggled his eyebrows at him, completely uncowed. Finn brought out bottles of
root beer from the kitchen, obviously trying to run interference, but it wasn't
cutting the tension between Puck and Kurt.
"Come on, guys," Artie said mildly, shaking his head. "At this rate, we're
going to have to leave early just to clear the space for you to do the nasty."
The steak was excellent, and Tina and Kurt both seemed to be enjoying their
salmon. Mike looked more pensive than usual, but when Artie nudged him with his
elbow, he touched Artie's sleeve with one hand, and after that seemed more
calm.
"So," said TIna brightly, spearing a piece of cauliflower au gratin, "tell me
this, from the point of view of one who's experienced in the ways of triads:
when you're trying something new, how do you pick who gets to do what to whom
first?"
The movement at the table paused for several heartbeats. Artie looked back and
forth between Kurt and Mike, who were blushing, and Finn, who was grinning, and
Puck, who was taking another bite of steak and ignoring Tina.
"Maybe I'm not the one to ask, since I followed later in the relationship,"
Finn said. "But I'm pretty sure it was luck. As in, whoever happened to be
touching me. And we've got the whole other dynamic that, um... I don't think
you guys have?"
Artie was pretty sure that dynamic was we do what Puck says and we like it, but
he wasn't going to ask for clarification. "Yeah, I don't think that's quite the
same for us," he agreed.
Tina was being completely casual about the whole thing, which both bemused and
endeared Artie. "I'm definitely not holding this experience up as the end-all
or be-all of sex," she said. "Or trying to minimize what we've already done.
What we're already doing. Because it's fantastic. Just, in this case, I'm the
only one with a vagina, so I feel a little unfair being the one to pick who
goes first."
Puck's eyebrows went up. "And who says having one of those means you're the
only one who gets to be fucked?" he drawled.
Artie felt a rush of sudden heat as he watched Tina pause, stricken. "Oh - I
didn't - I mean, I guess I thought -" She looked over at Mike, who was blushing
even more furiously than Artie suspected he was. "Um... maybe we should be
having this conversation in private?"
"Seriously," Puck went on, waving his fork, "Tina could just as easily be the
one doing the fucking."
"Whoa." Mike's reaction sounded like it had slipped out. He didn't sound
scared, more startled and awed. "I really hadn't thought about that."
"Toys are kind of handy," Finn added. "And awesome."
Once dinner had run its course, it was clear that all three of them had things
to talk about. When Tina suggested to Kurt that it was time for them to head
home, neither Puck nor Finn nor Kurt looked particularly broken up about that.
"You weren't kidding about the three of them going to bed early," Mike
murmured, helping Artie down the porch steps to the van. "I'm surprised they
even let us get to the door before starting to make out."
"Can we go to Puck's dad's place and just talk?" Tina suggested, and Artie and
Mike both nodded.
It was silent in the van on the way there. Mike didn't need a navigator this
time. When he reached across to the passenger seat and held Tina's hand, she
smiled at him before reaching back to take Artie's in her other hand.
"I'm kind of surprised at myself," she said quietly. "Like, I consider myself
to be pretty feminist and egalitarian and politically aware and all that,
and... I still didn't even think about intercourse with you guys in the same
way that I thought about intercourse with me."
"Well, to be fair, it is your body," Artie pointed out. "You get to decide if
it's as big a deal. And you might be as interested in having, um, anal sex as
any of the two of us."
"Okay, sure," she said. "But I think I figured that, because I could maybe get
pregnant doing it, it was a whole different ballgame? Everything else falls
into the you-can't-get-pregnant category of sex."
"That sounds reasonable to me," Mike said. "Don't blame yourself for not
thinking about everything in advance. I didn't even expect to -" He broke off.
Tina turned to him. "To what?"
"Um." He laughed shakily. "To - want that."
"Oh. Oh." She bit her lip. "But you do?"
"Yeah? Maybe? I mean... it's hot. I think it is, anyway. You don't have to
think it is." He turned off the pavement onto the gravel, switching on the
van's high beams as they edged their way along the road to the turnoff. When
they reached the threshold of Puck's dad's empty lot, Artie thought Mike looked
more than a little anxious.
"I think," Artie said, "for me, anal sex is like... the way being with a guy
was, before I did it? I don't know if I'll like it, but I'm open to trying it
and finding out. But seriously, Mike, how many things have we tried that I
didn't like?"
Mike grinned. The way he looked back over his shoulder at Artie, so gratefully,
so hopefully, was a total turn-on, even if he didn't mean for it to be. "None,
I think?"
"Exactly. So I think if I were in the moment, I'd be up for trying something
you wanted. Because... it's you, and because you deserve a good first
experience, whoever it's with. If you wanted Tina to do you, or me, either one
has the potential to be really amazing."
"I love that idea," Tina breathed, smiling. "Of me getting to..." She smiled
wickedly at Mike. "To pop your cherry."
"Oh." Mike sounded a little breathless himself. "Yeah. I like that too."
"Well, there you go," Artie said. "You figured it out."
Mike turned far enough around in the driver's seat to be able to reach back and
take Artie's other hand. Now they all were holding hands, the three of them,
and it was maybe a little awkward, but awkward had turned out not to matter
much. "You wouldn't be upset that I got to do that with Tina, first, instead of
you?"
"Weren't you listening to Finn? It just makes sense. I mean, she gets to be
inside you, you get to be inside her, we all get to be inside whomever wants
that. Who cares who's first? It's not about that at all."
"The man's making way too much sense," Tina said. "I think we need to get him
horizontal PDQ, before I start having spontaneous orgasms or something."
They threw the blanket down in the back and helped Artie in first, then flanked
him, stretching out diagonally so they could almost fit without their legs
hanging out the back. Mike put his top leg over Artie and Tina snuggled him
from behind, close enough so that they could have kissed over him if they'd
wanted to. But they didn't. It was enough, being this way together, and hearing
Tina's voice in his mind, calling him a man.
"This is so amazing," Tina whispered.
Mike stroked her arm, nodding. "So... you really want to do that with me?"
Artie rested his lips on Mike's collarbone. "Are you asking me or Tina?"
"Um - Tina, I think? But really, I should ask both of you, because... " He took
a breath. "Because I'd want both of you inside me."
Tina made a little strangled noise. "Okay, that's really hot."
Artie guessed they could both tell he agreed, without him having to say
anything. He squirmed a little, not really looking to set up any kind of a
rhythm, just feeling the pressure of his half-hard cock against Mike's thigh,
thinking about Tina fucking Mike, about Mike riding him. He sighed.
"I think I want to? But, Mike, I don't know if that's enough for you to want to
do it with me. I'm kind of a poor excuse for a gay guy."
"Hey." Mike gave him a little push on his shoulder. "Forget that. You don't
have to say you're gay, or anything else. You get to want what you want."
"Good advice," Artie said, nudging him back playfully. "You might think about
taking it."
Tina chuckled. "I think we can all get what we want. Now we just need the
space. Because, forgive me, but I'm not all that enthusiastic about trying to
figure out penetration in the back of a van."
Getting the space was Artie's job, he knew. He'd said he would do it, and he
was willing to talk to his mom about most things. It wasn't as though she was
likely to be upset at him for asking about it. But he was anxious all the same,
all the way home, even after Mike and Tina converged on him in the back seat
and kissed him until he was useless.
His mom met them at the door, smiling, and helped him into the house.
"How was dinner?" she asked.
"Fine."
A one-word answer was suspicious enough, apparently, for her to wheel him
directly into the kitchen and set the blender down in front of him. He sighed.
"I'm full."
She handed him an overripe mango and a knife, then crossed her arms and
regarded him sourly. "You just have to make the damn thing; you don't have to
drink it."
She left him alone for another five minutes while he wrestled with cutting the
mango into chunk-sized bits, squeezing every bit of pulp off of the skin and
dumping it into the blender, along with a healthy serving of orange juice. His
mom stood at the counter, chopping greens into a bowl.
"So are you going to tell me, or do I need to wheedle it out of you?"
He nibbled on the edge of the mango pit, avoiding her eyes. "This might be one
of those don't-kill-the-messenger moments."
"And who are you messenging from?"
"Is that even a word?"
"Artie."
He threw the pit onto the table. "Mom, my boyfriend and my girlfriend and I
want to sleep in the same bed together so we can have complicated three-person
intercourse. Is that clear enough for you?"
His mom sat down across from him, directly in his line of sight. There was no
avoiding her when she did that. "Artie, are you listening to yourself? This
doesn't sound like a boy who's happy with the choices he's making."
Tina called me a man, he thought, looking at the morass in the blender. Not a
boy. But he shrugged reluctantly and said, "I guess not."
"So, imagine how a mother might feel when her son comes to her and asks to have
some privacy for intimate time, but he doesn't sound completely enthusiastic
about it?" She stared pointedly at him as he fiddled with his wheels. "I give
you the space to make your own decisions. It's up to you to make them good
ones. So tell me why this one isn't making you happy as a clam?"
"Because." He stopped, started again. "Because they're going away for four
weeks."
Her eyes softened. "And that's getting to you?"
"No! That's the problem. It's not." He threw up his hands. "I mean, is there
something wrong with me because I'm not freaking out about them being gone for
a whole month?"
"Everybody needs a little freedom. Some of us more than others. There's more
than one reason why I never remarried." She shook her head, dumping the greens
into the blender, adding the chopped ginger and putting a firm hand on top
while she switched it on. "Don't feel bad for needing what you need."
It was close enough to what Mike had said to make him pause and struggle to
maintain control.
"God, Mom," he whispered. "I don't even know what I need."
She didn't hug him, because they didn't really do that, but she put a hand on
his shoulder and waited for him to calm down.
"On the contrary, I think you know that pretty well," she said. "But I can also
hear you asking for support. So here's my executive decision, and you can blame
it on me, or you can talk to them about how you really feel, or whatever feels
best. I'm going to give the three of you carte blanche to spend the night here
- after Tina and Mike get back from camp. Until then, I'm requiring you take a
little space for yourself. Because you're enough like me that I think I can
play the mother-knows-best card."
Artie accepted the glass of smoothie without complaint, and drank the whole
thing, even having seen the green things that had gone into it. She watched him
do it, looking a little impatient.
"You have anything to say to that?"
He shrugged again. "I guess... sometimes mother really does."
Her smile was almost better than a hug. She pushed her chair away from the
table and walked away, leaving him to clean up the blender. "Get to bed, okay?"
"Don't push it," he called after her.
***** Mike *****
Chapter Notes
     There's more to the story, but we were reaching our deadline, so
     consider this to be part one. We'll work on part two someday. Thanks
     so much for reading! -amy
Mike woke up the next morning hard. This wasn't unusual, considering he was
seventeen. Neither were the fantasies in his mind, which covered ground ranging
across most of the Kinsey scale and highlighting several embarrassing points
along the way. What was unusual was the first thought in his mind when he woke,
which was: I'm going to lose my virginity tonight.
It wasn't scary, exactly, but it felt like a lot, maybe more than he could
handle on his own. He wondered if it would feel different if he were going to
be doing it with one other person instead of two. That would almost be more
stressful, to be the only focal point.
Mike reached for his phone, sending a group text to Artie and Tina. Freaking
out a little.
Come over, Artie sent back immediately, followed by Tina's I'll meet you at
your house.
He showered quickly and made himself a sandwich. If anything, he was a stress
non-eater, but Mike knew if he didn't have something in his stomach, he'd end
up feeling sick later. He waited on the porch, his legs too long to dangle off
the edge, taking reluctant bites until Tina arrived on her bike.
She hopped off, approaching him with concern, but she didn't ask any questions;
she just sat down beside him, slid her arms around his waist and hugged him
tight, resting her head on his chest.
"You're not worried about being seen with me?" he asked.
She gave him a squeeze. "Why would I be? I've never been afraid of that before.
We've gone out enough times, the three of us."
"Yeah, the three of us. Not you and me." He sighed, knowing he sounded more
unhappy than he had a right to be, with Tina in his arms. "People are going to
talk. They're going to say we're cheating on Artie with each other."
"And they'd be wrong," she insisted. She pulled back to stare at him. "Do you
care so much what other people think?"
He huffed, feeling his anxiety spike. "Well... yeah, I do! I mean, not about
us, about the three of us, but... I don't want anybody to think I'm being
dishonorable. The two of you were together first."
"What does that matter? Jesus, Mike, what's going on?" She put her hands on his
shoulders. "Is this about what we talked about last night?"
"I don't know. I don't know." He let himself fall back into her arms, Tina
doing all the holding this time. When she kissed his cheek, he felt his throat
tighten. "I just... I can't talk about this here. Please, can we go over to
Artie's?"
He followed her on his bike, the route now as familiar as the one he used to
take to school every morning. A month without him, he thought, and had to scrub
his eyes with his forearm to be able to keep pedaling. Without the three of us.
Artie's mom met them at the door, but as usual, her presence there remained
quietly in the background, staying just long enough to tell them to help
themselves to the blueberries in the refrigerator. They stopped in the kitchen
- because, well, blueberries - then converged on the family room, where Artie
was seated on the couch. He gave them both a little smile.
"You taught me well enough about relationships for me to know I'm supposed to
snuggle you now," he said to Mike.
That was it for Mike. He just sank down on the couch, giving up trying to be
strong or to understand what was happening, and started to cry.
Tina sat down with him, as close as she could be, putting her arms around him
from behind while Artie held him from the front. He felt himself shaking, and
sniffed, reaching for the box of tissues on the coffee table.
"I have no idea what to say," he said. "I feel so stupid."
"Zero words about being stupid, Mr. 2200-on-the-SAT," Tina told him, running a
hand over his hair.
He had to grin. "That's only because I messed up on the verbal."
"Perfectionist," Artie said. "And by that I mean I hate you, and by that I mean
I don't hate you at all, because you're amazing."
"You're amazing," Mike said, and he meant it. How had he come to mean that so
much in one summer? He pulled Artie against him again, kissing him this time,
trying to communicate with his actions if not his words that he meant it. Artie
was patient and solid and calm where Mike was losing his shit, but he didn't
feel judged. He just felt - loved.
"I don't deserve this," Mike tried, but that wasn't quite what he meant either.
Being with the two of them, it felt too good for that. He buried his head
deeper in Artie's arms and concentrated on the rise and fall of Tina's chest
along his back.
"You get to have what you want," said Tina. Her hands on his shoulders felt
comforting enough that he could be a little whiny.
"No, I don't. I don't get to have that, because - because we're leaving."
"For a month," Artie said. "A month isn't going to kill you."
That was true, of course, and the fact that it didn't feel like nothing was
irrelevant. Mike rested his cheek on Artie's shoulder, turning words over and
over in his mind until he'd gathered the courage to say them out loud.
"I think I'm freaking out because I really want this. This, three people
together, I never... before Puck and Kurt and Finn did it, it seemed like,
okay, it's a little weird, but whatever, Puck's never followed anybody else's
rules before. And I know this was supposed to be just pretend, but when it...
wasn't anymore, I realized how much I don't want this to be over in the fall."
"It doesn't have to be." Tina assured him.
Artie put his hand on Mike's head. "Nobody gave us any shit in the spring when
we were supposedly together. I think it'd be fine."
"Yeah, you really think it looks the same, now? Even Finn still thought you and
me were still hanging out together with our mutual girlfriend. But it's not
like that. I'm not a badass like Puck. People are going to -" He broke off,
shaking his head.
"Because of you and me?" Artie asked. "Because I'm a guy? I hope you know by
now I don't care about that. I mean, apparently that matters a lot less than I
thought it did."
Mike stayed quiet, although what Artie was saying was somewhat reassuring.
Finally Artie sat back, looking soberly at both of them.
"Look. This summer thing, I think you're taking it way too hard, but who am I
to tell you what to feel, so all I can say is let's plan on a lot of phone
calls and texts? You guys will be together, and that's fine."
Tina nodded, and Mike nodded too. Artie sighed and looked away.
"I talked to my mom. She said we can't spend the night together until you guys
get back from camp. But, honestly? I don't think I'm ready anyway."
"Oh," Tina said. She glanced at Mike uneasily, then back to Artie. "You don't
want to?"
"It's not that. I do want to. But I think part of me's still not sure if it's a
good idea. And I think I should be really, really into this before I say yeah,
let's do it? Mike, you know what I mean?"
Mike took a deep breath, shook by the simultaneous relief and disappointment he
felt, and sat back on the couch. "I think I do."
Tina's pout was damn cute, though Mike had enough self-preservation not to say
anything about it. "Well, that sucks, but... okay, it makes sense. Why didn't
you say something before?"
"I don't think I knew what I was thinking. I still don't. It's complicated."
Artie reached over and took Tina's hand. "I do know I don't regret any of this.
Whether we helped Kurt and Puck and Finn or not, this summer has been so
incredible." He smiled shyly. "Not just the sex."
"No," Tina agreed. "Although can I just say, I was really looking forward to
that?"
"I know. I'm sorry. I knew this was going to disappoint you."
That made her reach out and take his hand. "Baby, no. If you're not ready, it
wouldn't feel right anyway. Three people deciding anything together, that's
going to take some time. So maybe it'll be good for us to have a month apart to
think about it."
"Maybe," said Mike, then coughed, his cheeks burning. "Maybe it'll give me
enough time to get ready for you guys to fuck me."
Tina groaned quietly, leaning in to hug them both. "Trust me, I'll be spending
plenty of time thinking about that when I'm alone."
They spent the rest of the morning on the couch, and a good part of the
afternoon, swapping out DVDs and playing video game and making out. When Tina
unzipped him and tucked her hand in his jeans, Mike didn't object in the least,
and when Artie's hand joined her, he helped both of them tug his jeans down
past his knees so he could spread his legs wider.
"You're damned flexible, Chang," Artie whispered, licking his ear while he
jerked him slowly.
"You're going to be so beautiful, spread out underneath me," Tina continued on
his other side. Her fingers drifted down to hold his balls, then to brush
against his perineum. Mike suppressed his whimpers, pulling his knees up
higher, and she caught her breath. "Oh - wow. Do you want me to...?"
"Just - a little," he begged, "careful, I don't know if - oh god."
He watched Tina lick her fingers, getting them wet with her spit, before
returning them to press gently against his hole. All he could do was muffle his
noises and try to relax as she slid inside him.
Artie watched him curiously. "You like that?"
The pressure felt a little uncomfortable, but as Artie stroked him faster, he
could feel the potential there for it to be incredible. He hesitated, then
whispered, "Fuck me."
"Oh," said Tina, and watched, eyes wide, as she made a brief, rapid in-out-in
motion with her finger. Mike tensed, he couldn't help it, and she grimaced.
"Does that -?"
"Again," he breathed, and this time when she did it, he pushed back against her
fingers, encouraging the thrust to go deeper, faster. "Yes - yes oh yes yes - "
"Hot," Artie muttered, his hand switching to a light, three-fingered grip along
the shaft of Mike's cock. Mike liked that at the end, just before he came, and
that made Mike feel so good, that Artie knew that about him, had paid attention
and had figured it out without Mike saying one word about it, he felt like he
might cry.
Instead, he lost himself to the sensations of Tina's fingers and Artie's hand,
and came in rapid pulses, as silently as he could manage. Artie's breath
accelerated, watching Mike spill over his fist, but he stayed with it until
Mike was limp and comatose on the couch.
"Wow," Tina said, looking delighted. "That was awesome." Then she hesitated,
reaching for a tissue. "I should probably go wash my hands. I'll bring a
washcloth."
Mike struggled back into his jeans while Tina was in the bathroom, running an
idle thumb along Artie's erection through his pants. "You thought that was
hot?"
"Not so different from giving Tina my fingers, or you doing that to her," he
said. "So, yeah. Hot. I have no objections to doing you that way, when we're
all ready for it." He strained against Mike's hand, closing his eyes. "You know
I don't have any problem with the two of you being alone together, while you're
gone."
"Yeah?" The thought was a little upsetting, but Mike tried to take it in the
spirit it was offered. "That's not what Tina said she wanted, back at the
beginning of the summer. I think it's possible we might get desperate enough to
go for that, but... it wouldn't be the same."
"You'd have one too few dicks, for one." Artie was smiling, but his face looked
a little sad. "You think you'd be happier if you didn't go to camp at all?"
Mike shook his head. "I can't do that. It'd be letting down my parents. I'm
just going to have to live with it. You're right, I know, it's not the end of
the world." He laughed unhappily, avoiding Artie's gaze. "Sorry, man. This
isn't exactly the sexiest conversation."
"Hey. No. You know I was never looking for fake anything from you, Mike."
Artie's eyes were way too kind. "Even when it was a pretend relationship."
"It's not that anymore, is it?" Mike felt a little silly, begging like that,
but Artie just took his hand and pressed his palm over his hard cock.
"Does this feel pretend to you?"
Mike glanced over the edge of the couch, but Artie's mom had so far never
interrupted them. He kissed Artie, giving him plenty of tongue, and when
Artie's noises became rhythmic and urgent, he whispered into his ear, "I want
to suck you."
"God, yeah," Artie whimpered. Mike slithered down to kneel between his legs,
pressing his mouth to Artie's crotch. The way Artie fumbled impatiently with
his fly, his breathing raspy, was such a turn-on: knowing that Artie
wanted his mouth, his hands like that.
"You know," came Tina's voice, "this might be a little TMI, but my fingers were
actually pretty clean - oh, hello." She paused by the arm of the couch,
sounding amused and anticipatory. "Wow. I thought what we'd just done was the
hottest thing yet, but I think this might actually exceed that."
"I didn't ask him, I swear," Artie gasped, "he just offered, and I - god, Mike,
your mouth." Mike felt Artie's hands tighten in the fabric of his shirt, making
fists on his shoulders.
"Baby, I don't think you need to apologize for wanting him to give you an
awesome blowjob. This one'll have to last you for a month."
She moved around to sit beside Artie on the couch, her hands busy on his body.
Mike couldn't see all the details of what she was doing, but Artie sounded like
he was appreciating all of them.
He warned Mike with a muttered, "Gonna come," but Mike wasn't interested in
stopping in the middle of things. It made him sort of proud to be able to
elicit that amazed, grateful sound from Artie.
When Artie had come down from his orgasm, Mike laid his cheek on Artie's knee
and breathed in the feeling for several long moments. Tina leaned her head on
Artie's shoulder, resting her hand on Mike's head. "Watching the two of you
together... not just the sexy parts - although I'll miss that plenty, don't get
me wrong - but it just feels so good, knowing you want each other like that."
"Definitely want," Artie agreed, his eyes closed.
"Definitely the sexy parts," Mike added, and they both cracked up.
Tina rolled her eyes. "Okay, boys, who's the only one here who hasn't had a
spectacular orgasm tonight? You've got fifteen minutes."
Artie gave Mike a wicked grin. "I bet we can do it in ten."
===============================================================================
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMsPtgt8DSE
The birds and the bees they are wise to the lies
 So they took to the trees and took to the skies
 On top of the chain and safe from the rain
 Whatcha' know about the ways of the underside?
 What do you know?
Bought a hot shot gat from a north end guinea
 Cause they're hip to the bull and hip to the lies
 Ante up with your ass cause you ain't got a penny
 Whatcha' know about the ways on the underside?
 What do you know?
Bought a hot shot gat from a north end guinea
 Ante up with your ass cause you ain't got a penny
 Droppin bombs from above cut ya all down to size
 Cause they're hip to the bull and they're hip to the lies
 What do you know?
Yeah, the streets rose in two perfect waves in the night
 Crashes on my left, and one on my right
 It's all fire and brimstone baby, so let's go outside
 It's all fire and brimstone baby, I got my brand new pistol baby
 What do you know?
Bought a hot shot gat from a north end guinea
 Ante up with your ass cause you ain't got a penny
 Droppin bombs from above cut you all down to size
 Cause they're hip to the bull and they're hip to the lies
 And they're hip to the lies
Our turn to decide, who lives and who dies
 Right in front of your eyes, it's time to get up
 Our turn to decide, who lives and who dies
 Now answer the lies it's time to get up
Our turn to decide, who lives and who dies
 Whatcha' know about the ways on the underside?
 What do you know?
- Puscifer, "The Mission"
Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed
their work!
