Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 30th cycle. Now cycle 31!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

TWO IMPORTANT THINGS, PLEASE READ!
1. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, having been asked repeatedly
about songs I use in these stories, and now the SONGBOOK is going up at last!
Check the gleekathon twitter shortly for the link!

2. This whole week of stories, from July 28th to August 3rd is dedicated to
the magnificent Lindsey Ann, whose birthday it is today! Big hugs, dear! :D
For more on that, again, check gleekathon twitter for a VIDEO!

Now the story... ;)

"Double Casting"
Puck/Rachel
Project No Day But Today #5 (sequel to "Finding Collins & Angel")

They had come to a standstill. Neither of them had really discussed the project since the afternoon they'd gone to Dalton to recruit Kurt and Blaine, and that was three weeks before. Even not talking about it though, there was something different in the air, an unspoken understanding that they knew there was something bugging them.

But maybe, just maybe, it would become that this time off, those three weeks, would be just the reflection they needed to really come to terms with everything that was spinning in their heads, so that when they finally set the time to pull out the pictures and the charts again they weren't so much confused as they were mildly evasive.

They were starting to get some looks from their cast members, who probably wondered where they were progressing to. It was a miracle really that no one had said a word. But either way, the urgings had made it just about necessary that they stop beating around the bush and carry on preparing. It was one glance from opposite ends of the Glee room and Rachel knew he'd be on her doorstep that afternoon after school.

She'd just finished pulling out everything, setting up as they always did, when she heard the knock at her door. She stood back up, moved to answer, and so began the give-and-take dance they would share.

"Hey, come on in," Rachel greeted him and he did as told, head kept low as he passed the threshold. They moved to the living room, and they wasted no time to get started. There were five pictures laid out on the table, of the five people they still had to cast.

"Okay, so…do your thing," he let her go ahead and start, sensing she probably had some general idea of what she wanted for these. So she stood, and she picked up one picture immediately.

"Well, we already agreed Mike needs to double Mark with Artie, for the tango and all." Puck gave a nod of approval at that, so the picture was posted. Here she paused, and it didn't take him more than a second or two to understand why; it was math.

"Three on the board, three on the table," he dictated, and she looked at him.

"I know," she insisted, but it was no use.

"You're going to have to share her," he went on stating the obvious, and it still didn't sit well with her.

"Maybe we could convince one of them to double…" she started, and she stood there, quietly thinking. He just watched her, with no choice but to smirk, seeing how desperately she was trying to cling to this. He kept on smirking, which only frustrated her into submission, at least to stop seeking another option; she wasn't ready for the rest yet. "I don't see what's so funny…"

"It's not that, just…" Now it was him stretching into silence; he didn't have an answer either. Instead he offered a compromise when it came to him. "How about… you double up, and so will I," he stood.

"What?" she asked, and he picked up Sam's picture, the only guy left.

"I'll make him a double Roger, but you have to pick a double Mimi." She stared at him for a while. It may not have seemed like much, but to her it qualified as a grand gesture, and the crazier idea was that maybe he knew that. So slowly she looked to the pictures, looking beyond the initial protective barrier she'd placed around the role of Mimi, and she actually considered the candidates. She took one look over her shoulder, finding Puck already fixing the picture of Sam next to his own… She didn't know what was happening, but her heart was bracing for somersaults again. She looked back to the three pictures, just missing his eyes turning back to her. She'd known from the start, even before today, who it could only be, to potentially share Mimi with her… It was only now that she acknowledged it, picking up the picture.

"There," she moved up, placing Quinn's picture next to hers. "At least they're a couple; they'll have that going for them." She looked to the pictures of Sam and Quinn, sandwiched between hers and Puck's. He paused, looking at her.

"What about us?" he asked, and it was a moment before she looked at him. "We'll be good… even better than them… we'll be great," he insisted.

"Is that right?" she tempted a smile, and he nodded. "But… we've done this before," she reminded him, thinking of the brief period when they'd been together the year before.

"Have we? Really?" he asked, taking his first step into honesty. "I don't know about you, but last year didn't feel… anything like this," he shook his head. She felt her breath struggle.

"And what does …this… feel like?" she tempted, and he contemplated the question. The longer it took, the harder it was for her to know where to look.

"Like it's not… a game… You know what I mean?" he asked, and her cheeks felt strained in the effort to keep her smile not too explosive.

"I think I do," she told him, and there was some more silence… She wasn't speaking, maybe because her mind was busy elsewhere. She was realizing her trajectory, or at least she could say that she was seeing the last couple of months back, and she saw… They'd been getting closer, closer, and she hadn't seen it… not until now… No wonder she'd been so confused… She almost laughed to herself, which he didn't notice, taking her silence for lack of response to his words.

"So double Maureen and double Joanne…" he picked up the last two pictures, just as she turned to him, so that when he turned back to the board, he instead found himself face to face with her, eye to eye… She saw it in his, and she hoped he saw it in hers.

"Tina, Mercedes, respectively," she answered, following through immediately. "This…" she picked up on the comparison, "It scares me; last year it didn't."

"I scare you?" he asked, almost wounded, and she quickly shook her head.

"No, not you scaring me, this…" she indicated them both, "It scares me the way I get scared that… I'll lose something… someone…" She had stopped seeking the words, and so they had just come right out.

"Not going to happen," he responded right back, and the smile ran free. She'd never seen him like this, not completely. She'd seen splashes of it, sometimes, but now he was giving her all of it…

"Let me, uh… I'll put those up…" she reached for the pictures in his hand and stuck them in their spots with a breath… had to catch it…

The moment she turned again, his lips found hers, her arms just missed his as they wrapped around each other… She wouldn't stop smiling.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!