The Movies

...

Michael "Other Asian" Chang was a man, and that was one thing he was sure of. Tangled was just... A good movie, and it would have been odd for him not to believe it, it was probably more odd however, for him to have seen the movie roughly six times. Admittedly, Tina coerced him into seeing it the first time, and at that point he was smitten. The characters were unbelievably endearing, even the haughty Flynn Rider and his reluctant steed. Although during his first viewing he hadn't neglected to talk through the entire movie (maybe it was some attempt to grasp his fleeting masculinity), watching it with no fear of being judged was utterly stimulating.

He situated himself near the front, almost to the point of having to sling his head back to see the screen. But it was worth it. He munched gleefully on a bag of Skittles and prayed to whatever God there was, that no other football players would show up. He could only imagine the slushy facials he would suffer. The commercials commenced despite a nagging feeling in his gut, and told him to politely shut off his phone, and although he was one of four in the entire theatre, and his phone was on silent, he powered it down with a small smile.

Rachel had really wanted to see Tangled with Finn, but even he drew the line somewhere. She had thought about calling one of the girls from Glee, but the Unholy Trinity was out of the question and Tina, Mercedes, and Lauren weren't exactly her biggest fans. So Rachel settled for going alone. Scanning around the theater, she only saw four people, and she thought she recognised one...
Creeping to the front of the theater, Rachel slid down the row and sat down next to the asian. "Mike?" she whispered in surprise.

His initial response was to jump in his seat and suppress the nearly uncontrollable urge to curse in his native language. He gripped his bag of candy and panted out a breath of distress once he saw Rachel. He liked the girl actually, she had her own style, and God did she wear it, much to the dismay of the selfish jocks who slushied her. He believed that if he were to tell anyone about his hidden love for animated romactions, she would be the one to understand it, but considering how she snitched on the whole Quinn-preggers-with-Puck's-bastard-child thing, he decided it would be best to cover it up gracefully.

"Rachel, hello." He breathed softly and continued, his tone riddled with nervousness run on sentences. "Tina uh, asked me to watch this with her but she came down with a cold and I already bought the ticket so I decided not to waste the money because that's bad."

He breathed safely and attempted to swallow the gathering lump in his throat. "What're you doing here?" He inquired, averting her eyes for the slightest moment.

Rachel raised an eyebrow but didn't question his motives. So he didn't want to waste his money. No big deal. She thought Finn could take a leaf out of Mike's book though. Mike didn't have any issues with seeing a "chick flick" with his girlfriend. "I wanted to see the movie too. No one would come with me though, so I came on my own."

The eyebrow raise was temporarily unnerving, but he relaxed back into his chair nontheless. He turned around with brows furrowed curiously over his dark eyes. "What? Why not? Was Finn busy?" He felt obligated to add a casual, 'I would've gone with you', but it hung precariously in the air instead. He honestly would have gone with her, but he may have had to reassure Tina that he wasn't cheating on her. After the whole overacting of Brittany and him sharing some chapstick, he wasn't sure what to think.

Rachel pursed her lips. "No. I think he was afraid it would ruin his image. I couldn't exactly ask many people in the glee club and since no one else likes me I came to see it." She settled down in her seat next to Mike. "Tina's going to be okay soon, right?" she asked.

Her words should have seemed funny really, but the tinge of sadness he felt made him think otherwise. Mike elbowed her lightly. "Well don't say that, I kinda like you." He teased, the ghost of a smile cursing his lips. Then, at those words his stomach dropped and he scratched the back of his head before grinning slyly. "See, that's why I don't believe people don't like you. You just told me something sad, but you care about someone else anyway." He crooned, supressing a boyish chuckle. Mike paused and added a rushed, "she'll be fine, just needs a little rest." The boy hoped to Grilled Cheezus that she wouldn't ask Tina how she was feeling.

"Tina's one of my only friends, of course I'm worried about her," Rachel said, smiling as well. "Kinda, huh? That's very reassuring," she teased. "I was talking about outside of glee club, but it's still nice to hear. I sorta like you too," she said. "I mean, you're one of the only guys I know who would see a Disney movie with his girlfriend outside of the relative safety of his or her homes. It's a rather refreshing change."

Mike nodded his response, cracking a grin at her reaction to his light teasing. It was a pleasurable feeling really, to make a sad (or at least she seemed so to him) girl smile. He exhaled through his nose deeply as an attempt to stifle the sigh he wished to release. Sometimes he wished he could do something to stop all this bullying. Telling the teachers; nothing, standing up for them; nada, fighting back; black eyes and bruised lips. Nothing seemed to help, and that only angered him further, just as well when the girl beside him was egged by an entirely different school. Mike had an urge to bash Jesse St. Douche in the face for all the trouble he caused, but the backlash would be undeniably worse.

"You have Jacob." He cooed, a smirk on his lips as he struck a ninja pose, fully prepared to be smacked. "Alright well, I sorta like Disney movies, probably more than Tina. Ha, maybe if Finn and Tina get sick of us, we could uh, watch some together." It couldn't be that bad to be honest about his penchant for animation, could it?

Rachel did indeed smack Mike lightly on the shoulder. "Shut up! Jacob only wants to get in my pants. He doesn't actually like me he just thinks I'm hot. And we could totally hang and watch Disney sometime. Even if Tina and Finn aren't sick of us. Maybe we could all watch together!"

She accepted it with no inquires, causing him to fiddle with his thumbs enthusiastically. Her light smack made him snicker for the first time that day and he gazed back at her. Jacob was a perv, everyone in McKinley knew that, and it came as no surprise that he wanted in Rachel's pants, he probably wanted in everyone's pants actually. Mike had never believed in that whole, 'this person is pretty I like them now', he was always attracted to personalities he guessed, the looks were just a pleasant coincidence. He stuck his tongue out at the thought of Jacob and folded his arms across his chest.

"I'm sure they'd love that. Soon enough." He nodded to reassure himself, then turned to her and laughed. "Oh! What song did you get for the Glee assignment?" He questioned, hoping to keep this healthy conversation going.

"I got Pinocchio, so I'm going to sing When You Wish Upon a Star," Rachel told him. "You weren't there when we were assigned. Did you ask Mr. Schue for a movie?"

Mike pursed his lips. That seemed like a suitable song for Rachel, or at least one she'd like to sing. Plus there was that whole gold star obsession that made the song even better. He looked forward to seeing (or hearing, whatever) how she was going to do it.

"Ah, no not yet." He was silent for a moment, until he realized she would probably still be awaiting an answer. "Uh, I heard about it from the guys, I still need to ask him what mine is though. Is it weird to be nervous already?" He murmured the last question, eyebrows knitting together in curious thought.

"No it's not weird at all," Rachel answered sincerely. "Nerves almost always betters a preformance. Being nervous pushes you to try harder which usually makes you better. Though sometimes you could end up out of tune or trip over your own feet," she muses. "Not that you would! I'm sure you'll do terrific!" she adds hastily.

He expected her to laugh, really. He expected her to laugh and he would laugh with her just to do it, just so he could laugh at himself like he did when he received a report card or caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. But Rachel was different, it seemed, and he liked that about her. It seemed weird to say that, that he liked what made her so different, while slushy toting jocks hated her for it. He wondered for a brief moment, if jealousy was at play, because if so, he would buy Karofsky the damn argyle sweater himself if he would leave New Directions alone.

"Gee thanks Rach," he purred, chuckling kindly at her, a strange thing for him. Far from the mocking one he would have laughed, had she initiated it on his behalf. The nickname slipped from his tongue before he had noticed, and even when he had, he didn't opt to omit it. "I'm uh, not the strongest singer, you guys know that. Maybe you could help me out?" His first time singing in Glee (although admittedly worse than he normally sung), had made him feel more proud than when his mom caught him singing in the shower and clapped, making his face flush so suddenly he almost tipped over.

Rachel blinked at Mike in surprise. Only Finn and Kurt had ever asked her for help with singing, so she was slightly shocked when Mike asked. "As long as you're sure Tina won't mind," she said. "I'd love to help."

Mike had to suppress the need to clasp his hands together in unbridled joy, he was a football player, and he was cool. He had to be, right? He grinned at her for probably the tenth time that day and bounced excitably in his seat. He wanted to be a good singer, and although it would serve to help his bouts of self-hate, he also had the need to show the club that he wasn't just a stupid dancer.

Speaking of dancing however, "I can help you too if you want, if you'd like to dance or something." At the remembrance of his girlfriend, he nodded his head. "I'll ask her and make sure, but I'm sure she'll be alright with it." He pursed his lips in thought before nodding to himself. His friends may have been right, he might be a little whipped.

It's not whipped. It's just being a caring considerate boyfriend.
Rachel smiled. She liked being able to make someone happy like that. It gave her a nice warm feeling inside. Rachel smirked at the dance offer. "I don't need dance lessons. My dads had me in ballet lessons since before I could speak. But it would be fun to just hang and 'jam out' sometime."

Mike felt glad to see her smile, anything but that seemingly arrogant look she wore when she was correcting Mr. Schue, or something of the sort. Her smirk made his own smile falter for a moment, until he heard her retort. He snickered childishly. "Ah yes," he murmured, stroking an imaginary beard on his chin. "But can you pop and lock with the best of us?" He grinned with a faux sort of cockiness, he never knew much about ballet, and the only sort of dancing he knew was hip hop.

He grasped her friendship offer with a fiery vengeance by replying far too eagerly, "I'd love to hang one day!" With an incorrigible crooked grin. He recalled only having Brittany and Tina as friends of the opposite gender. But he'd known Brittany forever, and Tina was actually his girlfriend now, so he doubted they counted at the moment. In a quick instant he missed Matt and their manly friendship of manly things. Like sports, and stuff.

Rachel bit her lip. "Well, maybe not with the best," she admitted with difficulty. Rachel had this urge to be perfect at everything, so it pained her to admit that she might not be good at something, even if it was only to herself. "Alright. Singing lessons in exchange for pop, lock, and dropping lessons. Deal?"

He watched her worry her lip between her teeth sullenly, and frowned. Had he already made his newest friend sad? How lame could he be? His ears nearly perked as she spoke again though, and while crumpling his empty candy bag in his hand, he extended the open one toward her with a sly smile. When she would take his hand he would simply nod a, "deal."

"I'm sure you'll do great." He added happily.

[So I just realized I forgot about the movie completely, we could do a time skip type of thing to after it, or just end the RP whenever you feel like it. x3]

[Oh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
UM.
I can't believe we forgot the movie. *facepalm*]

Rachel shook his hand. Suddenly, the lights began to brighten and she looked up at the screen in mild confusion. "Oops," she giggled. "We forgot the movie." She shook her head in disbelief. "Our bad?"

[SIMPLE MISTAKE SIMPLE MISTAKE. xD]

Mike's nose wrinkled lightly, eyes squinting to adjust to the change in lighting on the screen. What the he'll was- But his thoughts stopped then, because he seemed to remember where he was and his mouth formed an 'o' of surprise. "I- Wow that is the least cool I've been all day, our bad is right." He smiled sadly, a twinkle of humor lingering in his dark eyes.

"Everyone makes mistakes, I guess," Rachel laughed, shrugging. She stood and made her way out of the row, hoping Mike was following. "Let me know when you want to start the singing lessons, alright?"