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 37th cycle. Now cycle 38!

PRE-CHRISTMAS NON-CHRISTMAS: It's already my third holiday season of Gleekathon, woo! So happy about that :D Anyhoo, just to explain what I'm doing for it this year: How it goes is I always have a set of stories with Christmas-y titles but non-Christmas-y plots, so to give an air of the season but not too much ;) First year was '12 Days of Christmas', last year was 'Reindeer'. This year's theme is "Christmas Movies" :) It'll run from December 8th to 19th, after which I have a slightly bigger undertaking to take us to Christmas Eve (stay tuned and find out, ha! ;)). So here we go!

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"Holiday Inn"
Puck/Rachel, Rent company
Project No Day But Today #11 (following 'Cast Rules')

It was odd, being around one another, like usual but without the rehearsals and the work on Rent. It was like they were halfway between what they'd been to one another before, and what the musical had made them. They didn't have much reason to hang out, at least where it came to those who weren't in Glee Club, but they did make a point of saying hello when they saw each other, if they ran into one another then they would chat, briefly. They'd all agreed on this whole taking a break from rehearsals until after the holidays, but the distance had made something so very clear.

"I miss them," Rachel frowned as she slumped back on the couch in Puck's living room. "And now with the holidays coming it's even worse! It's about… being together, you know?"

"So then do it," Puck shrugged. She frowned, confused.

"Do what?" she asked.

"Get them all together, one night only reunion during this Rent… eviction," he nicknamed it, which made her smile.

"So a party," she translated, and he nodded, smiling back. She thought about it, then sat up. "Get me my phone," she held out her hand.

The phone tree was activated, first time in a couple of weeks, and they could imagine it would come as something of a surprise. Now they had to wait for the message to trickle its way down the list, having to get through more than twenty people, and as Puck knew she would only get antsy. So he appealed to the party planner inside her and before long a list was being drafted. This was not going to be your run of the mill kind of thing, no, this was a cast party, a holiday party… it had to aim higher.

He was just managing to talk her out of an ice sculpture when his phone chirped, announcing the phone tree chain had looped all the way back down to him. Everyone had replied, and they were on. He showed his phone to her and she grinned. "Not even a little sculpture?"

The plans were made, no ice sculpture, and a few days later Rachel's basement had been transformed to welcome the group. Puck was sent out on a last minute run to the supermarket, which left the dutiful hostess to start welcoming the guests on her own. The first to arrive were all from Glee Club. Mercedes arrived, Sam not far behind, then Quinn, Finn, Santana… Then Gus and Lizzie and Craig and Ellie had all come together. Greg, Miranda, and Elliott arrived about at the same time, followed by Kurt and Blaine and Brittany and Artie. Then Alicia arrived, tagging along with her brother, Reid, who had travelled with the others from his Cabaret days, Annie, Taylor, and Ben. Tina and Mike came next, bringing their number to twenty-four and leaving only Puck missing.

No one had time to notice, really… there they all were, in that room… They had seen each other earlier at school, and seeing them right then you would have thought they hadn't seen each other in months. It was as Rachel had felt it though: without Rent rehearsals, the rest of it hadn't been the same. This felt like coming back from summer vacation. They caught up on how things were, had laughs over memories from before… this would surprise no one more than them.

Then Puck arrived, and like the missing piece in a puzzle he dropped in and the party could really begin. He would see, as the night wore on, the way most if not all of them, at one time or another, would go to Rachel and inquire about the state of the musical. And with each of those, while she played close to the vest on revealing anything she'd been scribbling in her notebook, he could see how happy she was getting. They cared about it, just as she did. He knew it hadn't been easy, for either of them, for any of them, but they had all grown so much closer than they'd anticipated. Maybe it was the way they had to live this whole thing like a massive secret that was all their own that made them come to rely on one another like this. Any other musical probably would have led to nothing but frustration and disaster, but no, not their musical under the cover of their phone tree had required a bit more reliance on one another… What else could they become but closer to the others in their group?

There was still the odd rough edge here and there, of course. They had grown closer but that didn't mean they'd stopped being who they were. Gus and Craig still had some hesitation, being around the guy who had previously shown such enjoyment at tossing them in a smelly and messy dumpster. But Puck had been nothing but civil to them since this had all started. They weren't going to just forgive and forget, but they could at the very least try and give each other the benefit of the doubt. For Gus this had of course led to the previously seemingly impossible relationship with Lizzie. The times were rare now that they couldn't be seen walking hand in hand down the halls at school.

Lizzie and her fellow Elizabeth, Ellie, the youngest of the group, still strived to be taken seriously by some of them. There were the three Cheerios, Miranda, Alicia, and Greg. They didn't know if they just had the fear of Sylvester put into them or something, but they still had that reflex of doubting any too big gestures, while at the same time showing themselves for the champions they were. The Cabaret kids would usually prefer to focus on the musical itself, and while they could see some of their group one day considering making the leap over to New Directions, those four were not looking likely. And then you had someone like Elliott, the only one who hadn't been recruited into this having a buddy, a partner. He was all about rolling with the punches at this point… what else was he going to do?

The night had progressed, the party getting more and more spirited. As the designated 'dance floor' welcomed the mass of them, Rachel tended to her hostess duties, moving to prepare the dessert she had gotten ready earlier. After a moment she found Puck standing behind her. "Need a hand?" he asked after she'd spotted him.

"Yeah, definitely," she nodded. "Everyone having fun?" she asked, and after a moment she could feel his hands on her shoulders, so he must have been right behind.

"Yes, everything's fine," he promised. "Relax," he suggested, reaching to take one of the desserts and getting his hand slapped away. "Hey…"

"Wait until I've served everyone," she insisted.

"So that relaxing thing's not going to work, is it?" he teased, and it helped release the tension. "We'll be right back to work soon, see? Everything's fine, we're all ready to go when you are."

"What if it doesn't work?" she asked. "What if we restart and it just… flops?"

"Not going to happen," he shook his head.

"What if we really get cancelled?"

"Not going to happen," he repeated.

"How can you be so sure?" she asked, and he got her to turn and face him.

"I'm saying this as my honest opinion, not just as your boyfriend, but… with you, they can't fail," he insisted, which made her grin.

"I hope you're right," she let him hold her.

"Of course I am, I always am," he insisted.

"Always?" she sounded as though she'd snorted.

"Most times at least," he defended himself. She laughed.

"I'll keep that in mind."

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!