The first couple dates had been a little awkward.

She loves music, singing, being with friends, and being sassy-sarcastic-dramatic.

He loves playing and watching football, going fishing, being at family meals, and being cocky-sarcastic-teasing.

But they agree on a few things: comedy films, being happy drunks, standing by the people they care about, saying "whatever; I do what I want" to the rest of the world, and thinking that New Orleans is somewhere they'd love to visit when they have the time and money when they're older.

Azimio is surprisingly amazing with girlfriends he has. To Mercedes, he acts like what one might expect a boyfriend to act like: he opens doors for her, he learns her order so she doesn't have to say it, he pays for her, he doesn't kiss her on the mouth until the third date, and even after over a month of dating (the month-anniversary of which he remembered and got her something), he doesn't pester her for sex, since he knows that she isn't easy.

In fact, she's never easy. Through all of this, she still tries to be independent. Mercedes is a strong young woman who can fight her own battles, and she doesn't need a man to be at her every beck and call, as nice as it is. And Az respects that.

So, sometimes, he lets her pay for some of her own things when she tells him she insists. He backs off when she beats him to the punch in opening a door. When she complains about something, he tries to fix it, or simply agrees with her about a situation he can't help and feels the same way about.

It's a back-and-forth, give-and-take relationship. Azimio coaxes Mercedes into appreciating sports just a little, and in return, she gets him to lay off of Glee Club, especially when she discovers about two months into the relationship that he loves R&B and jazz music.

They go to the same movies together, and start hanging out together.

And when Azimio joins Glee Club, Mercedes is shocked to find Karofsky in the room with them all, as if his fears of his friend disapproving of his love for Glee being his only reason for not joining permanently when Finn offered the first time. And Mercedes is shocked to find, too, that by dating Azimio, a footballer and friend of the biggest asshole in school (in her opinion, anyway), things begin to change.

The Glee Club gets less shit from the football team, even if the hockey team is still being a bunch of mullet-haired bitches. And, further still, Karofsky starts acting… nicer. He almost seems cool, and it's something that prompts Mercedes to talk to Kurt about coming back to McKinley if at least for next year if not this year (since it's getting closer to the end of the second semester).

It's a funny thing, too, when junior prom rolls around, an event between Regionals and Nationals. Azimio takes her, naturally, after leaving an extravagant method of asking in her locker one morning (confetti inside, streamers with a balloon taped to the front, and large letters that say, 'Will U Go 2 Prom Wit Me?').

It's a wonder that so much change in her life could happen simply because she dared going for a guy she didn't mean to dig on and who had a rough history with her and her friends. And yet it feels utterly right, something she can feel every time she kisses him or has his arms around her.

And, as if to add to all the playful, flirtatious teasing and bickering between them, as if to solidify their weird-but-functional relationship, Azimio mumbles embarrassedly into her ear while they slow-dance at the prom, "I love you, Mercedes Jones."

She doesn't even hesitate to say it right back.