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 33rd cycle. Now cycle 34!

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!

"Power Couple"
AU!Jesse/Quinn, AU!New Directions
(following 'Pocket Universe')
(but it's a sequel to 'Other New Directions',
the AU!characters in the AU!world...)

After coming so close to extinction just as they were coming into existence, the New Directions were ready to make their mark. Jesse was highly determined to make this opportunity work. It was the one and only time when he'd felt he actually had something that could hold, and he wasn't about to let it go. This didn't come without a few stumbles in these 'baby steps' the club was taking, and this was shown to be true when Mr. Schuester revealed his choice of song for them to do at the school assembly…

Disco… He wanted them – and thus, him – to do disco, in front of everyone…

He had tried to talk him out of it, presenting many much more viable options he could easily list off the top of his head, but he got nothing. He was about to present his next option, something like the 18th or 19th, when his voice was silenced… He saw her. He had just barely caught a glimpse of red and his eye had shifted to find it, and there with the red he saw white, and black, and then a ponytail of golden hair… and those eyes…

The moment she was spotted, he could see her freeze, consider what would be best for her to do. He had no idea what possessed him to do it, but while Schuester was talking to the rest of the group he moved up to the other door, slipping into the hall and sneaking up behind the girl. He tapped her shoulder and she spun around. "Hey…" his voice went tentatively – this was the first time he spoke to her, and he was pretty sure he had no control over it. She could have looked guilty – she was spying, after all, no matter what she'd say next – but that wasn't her style, and she quickly recovered.

"I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Finn is in there, and he's my boyfriend, so I'm just supporting him… Not that I need to explain myself."

"No, sure, you're right." He took a step forward. He didn't know where on earth this courage was coming from, but he was very scared of what would happen when it went away. "Why don't you come in then?" he asked. Her eyes briefly darted to the ground, like she was trying to decide what to say next.

"It… was going to be a surprise, but I guess there's no point to it now," she shrugged, staring up into his face for the first time… Okay, now he truly feared for his courage. He tried shifting around her, to stand behind her and hope she wouldn't catch on to this… also maybe if he couldn't see her face he would be better off at this point… But then from his point of view, he could breathe in the scent of her… that was almost as bad as looking into her eyes as far as knee stability…

"Is that what it was?" he asked, feeling his throat beg to shut.

"Yes, so now I'm just going to go. Bye, Jesse," she gave one nod and moved away… All he got out of that was the fact that she knew his name, and that he had spoken to her. Jesse stood there for a beat, waiting to shake off the effect she'd had on him, and then he moved to re-enter the room through the door she'd been standing at. When he did, he came up almost face to face with Mr. Schuester. The way he was staring back at him, Jesse could tell he must have seen if not heard what had happened between him and Quinn in the hall… For reasons Jesse wasn't aware of yet, the club director looked intrigued.

His reasons were presented the next day, when Schuester called him into his office. Jesse thought he'd finally come to his senses about not doing disco and, in a sense, he had. The director had an idea. They needed more members, and he explained to Jesse the concept that bringing in more popular kids might help in that. Jesse wasn't sure what that had to do with him, but then Schuester went on. He'd seen Jesse out in the hall the day before, with one of the cheerleaders – Quinn, Jesse provided the name – and according to Schuester it apparently looked very interesting. When Jesse connected the dots – that the teacher was looking to draw in the Cheerio, he had to laugh… It wasn't going to happen, least of all with disco. But then, finally, after so much bickering and refusal to go through with the idea, Schuester had agreed to substitute the song, but he was going to pick it. Jesse tried to retain the option to refuse this new choice and demand a new one, and Schuester had told him that he would consider it… maybe.

In the end, after some amount of debate and the demand for a vote, the new proposed song was agreed upon, and the club geared to present it to the school assembly. No one else had been informed of the particular stakes of this performance, in the spirit of maintaining a truth to their singing and dancing as opposed to going along, knowing they were trying to read someone in particular.

The performance, from what they got of the audience reaction, was a mixed bag as far as success went. For their target audience of one, seeing as even she had no idea this was meant for her, the results were left to be seen. Still Jesse couldn't help but cross his fingers every chance he'd get. It wasn't just about getting a duet partner who would allow him to stand at the top again, as the male lead, although that could definitely be said to be part of it. Beyond that though, there were his feelings for her, and with the passage of time, deep down he knew exactly why he was having issues about the whole thing… She was Finn's girlfriend, and although this was a very, very new situation, he and Finn had kind of become friends… He couldn't do that to him.

But then there was Quinn, and it was as though she was everywhere… He'd already known which classes they shared, but now she was always right there, and he couldn't take it. Three days after the assembly, he had ended up seated next to her in one class, and he couldn't help himself. "What did you think of our performance? The assembly?" he threw at her. She was writing in her notebook, but she looked over at the sound of his voice.

"It was alright, I guess," she told him with a shrug, looking to her notebook.

"Right, okay," he told her, too clearly disappointed. She paused, sighing, and she looked back to him.

"It was a good song, I'll give you that. Although it was very uneven," she went into further detail.

"We're trying to fix that," he spoke honestly. 'With you,' he thought. "We were hoping we'd get more people to join. Even Finn, he… well, he must have mentioned it to you."

"No, not really," she lied.

"He's going to need some help for sure… His dancing is kind of dramatic, and not in a good way," Jesse shook his head, almost distracted, but then the soft sound of laughter brought him back… Even her laughter could make him lose his senses.

After that, all he could think about was how great it could have been to have had her in Glee Club, at the same time how problematic it could have been – maybe it was better off if they didn't have any prolonged contact, or else what could that mean for his friendship with Finn?

But he didn't have delusions anymore… She wasn't going to join Glee Club.

"Hey, Jesse, can I show you something for a minute?" Mr. Schuester's voice had drawn his attention as he went down the hall.

"Sure," he moved to join him in the Glee Club room.

"I wanted your input on a new song for you guys to work on," he began to explain, laying his bag on the piano and opening it to retrieve the sheet music. Jesse approached, taking his own bag off from over his shoulder. When Schuester handed him the sheets, there was something in the teacher's eyes that Jesse couldn't quite figure out. And then he read the title – this was a duet, male and female.

"I'm guessing I have the male part?" he asked, trying to sound cool about it, and he got confirmation. "So who am I singing it with, Mercedes or Tina?" he asked, flipping through the pages.

"Neither," he explained, and there was this look on his face now, like triumph. Jesse blinked… no way… "I had some walk-in auditions this afternoon."

"Auditions?" Jesse emphasized the plural, and Schuester nodded.

"Cheerios, three of them," he pulled out his list, looking up the names. "Santana Lopez, Brittany S. Pierce, and your duet partner," he pointed at the sheets.

"Quinn…" Jesse answered for him, and Schuester nodded. He grasped the sheets. Now he was in trouble…

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!