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 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!

IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF GLEEKATHON! - Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!

This story is 'Do It With a Song' for Awake & Shine, a Sunshine Girls 2 series story originally posted on April 23rd 2014.

"You & I"
Nora (AU!Beth)/Grace (OC)
Sunshine Girls 2 series

They were going to have this conversation, at one time or another, and they'd collectively and wordlessly decided that whether they waited five days or fifty it would make no difference, except that the wait might drive them insane, or make it more awkward by the time they actually stopped to talk. So when Glee Club had ended that afternoon, they'd allowed the rest of them to vacate the choir room, taking their time to pick up their things, sneaking glances at each other, at the door… Nora hid a smile, and when Grace saw it, she felt her nerves settle just a little bit, right up until it really was just them, and they looked at each other… and neither of them knew where to start.

"Want to team up for that, uh, the assignment for this week?" Nora asked after a moment, turning to find her guitar, slipping the strap over her shoulder and ambling back to the piano.

"Sure," Grace followed and sat at the bench, just as Nora hoisted herself up to sit on piano, legs crossed and facing the redhead at the keys.

She strummed lightly at the strings, hoping she might strike on inspiration, matched by Grace until they were playing a melody with no direction. It had been something they did together for nearly as long as they'd known each other. Once they had gone on like this for over an hour, and Nora's stepmother had said the two of them should give composing a shot if they kept up, but that wasn't the appeal of these sessions for them.

"Nora?" Grace asked after a minute, fingers stilling. "Why didn't you just tell me?" Nora looked at her, kept playing, seeking the words.

"I didn't want to freak you out, I guess."

"What, like I wouldn't want to be your friend anymore?" Grace frowned, shaking her head. Nora stopped playing now, smiling meekly and picking up the stack of sheet music Mr. Schuester had left behind.

"I wasn't going to risk it," she explained, leafing through, sneaking a look at her when she heard the tinkling of the piano had started again. "You remember… when we did the talent show, your mom made our costumes?" Grace sat up.

"I… yeah… Oh…" she blinked when Nora tipped her head.

"Felt like my head exploded for a second. I already knew who I was, but I'd never felt it before, not like that…"

"I'm sorry you had to keep that to yourself." The blonde stopped perusing the papers and looked at her. "Nora, you can't just keep pretending like it's nothing. I only had months like this and it hurt, I mean…" she stood up, so their eyes were closer to level. It made Nora's breath catch for a beat.

"You… You shouldn't have had to go through that on your own."

"I wasn't, I had Emily."

"No, I know that, I just meant…" Her hands started browsing again, needing a distraction, to clear her thoughts. "You kept it in, to protect me and Francesca. If it hadn't been for that…"

"We don't need to stay stuck in the past, do we?" Grace told her, sitting back at the piano, and Nora smiled.

"We really don't," she agreed, and it was then that her eyes caught the heading of one song that made her chuckle. "Miss Mackenna, if you may," she handed the sheets over, closing the stack and grasping her guitar again. Grace smiled, too, and she set it before herself.

"You lead," she said, and Nora began to play, compensating for the missing drums by tapping her feet along where she could.

[Nora] "Ooh, you make me live / Whatever this world can give to me / It's you, you're all I see / Ooh, you make me live now honey / Ooh, you make me live

You're the best friend / That I ever had / I've been with you such a long time / You're my sunshine / And I want you to know / That my feelings are true / I really love you / You're my best friend

Ooh, you make me live

I've been wandering round / But I still come back to you / In rain or shine / You've stood by me girl / I'm happy at home (happy at home) / You're my best friend

Ooh, you make me live / Whenever this world is cruel to me / I got you to help me forgive / Ooh, you make me live now honey / Ooh, you make me live

You're the first one / When things turn out bad / You know I'll never be lonely / You're my only one / And I love the things / I really love the things that you do / You're my best friend

Ooh, you make me live

I'm happy, happy at home / You're my best friend / You're my best friend / Ooh, you make me live / You, you're my best friend"

Nora had been content singing the whole thing by herself, if only that she got to see how it made Grace smile, and laugh at times, especially when she'd pull a face. It had been a long time since they'd had something like this, seemingly so simple but at the same time leaving them warm at heart and giddy. When they were done, Grace had drawn out the song on the piano a bit more before her hands stopped, pulled back to her lap.

"Always liked that song," she breathed out, looking up to Nora with a smile. The tall blonde scooted over until she could step on to the seat, hop down, then sit next to her. "You know, I never told you about… when I... when I knew. The thing was, I heard… from someone. I knew you might have feelings for me and… It was the day Charlie hit me in the head with his ball," she pointed to her face, and Nora laughed, touching the spot, remembering.

"Right."

"You looked at me, and… suddenly it all made sense… and it was terrifying." 'Like right about now,' Grace would think, looking at her.

"Sounds about right," Nora noded.

"So… what do we do now? Not… not about the assignment, I mean…"

"I know what you mean," Nora promised her, but then with a sigh, "But… I don't know."

"I don't want you to think I'm trying to speed things up too fast."

"I never would. But yeah, I definitely need some time to be on my own before anything…" she leaned against her guitar, hunched over, though she turned her eyes to Grace, who was looking at her, too. Their feet were just nearly touching, under the piano.

"How are we supposed to do this exactly?"

"What, do you need me to signal you when it's time?"

"No, well I… I don't know…"

"We just need to let things happen," Nora sat up, running a hand through her hair. "When we're there, we'll know. Until then, we go on with our lives, as friends."

"I can do that," Grace agreed, turning back to the keys. "Should we keep the song, for the assignment? I… It feels a little… close to us."

"Close, yeah," Nora agreed, looking at her. There wasn't just a spark, more like an entire blaze.

"This won't be easy, will it?" Grace asked, breathing out as Nora forced herself to stand so they wouldn't be so close anymore.

"No, it really won't. Come on, we can find another song."

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!