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 52nd cycle. Now cycle 53!

THIRD ANNIVERSARY CYCLE: It's late October again, and within this cycle I will be completing my third year of daily gleekathon stories and commencing a fourth! As in previous years, this means special things happening. I've selected my favorite stories from throughout the year, and I'll be treating them to something special. In previous years this included Prequel, Sequel, and POV Swap, and then Additional Scenes and Alternate Endings. This year I'm adding two new treatments: Genre Swap (I think that's pretty straightforward) and Element Change (I change one thing in the story, see how it affects the rest). Note that in both these cases and some of the others, there may excerpts directly transferred from the story it references. Also, since this year saw the addition of 'shift days', and since I suck at picking, I have selected 42 stories, to be treated two per day! So here we go!

This story is a Sequel to Drummer Boy & Burger Girl, a Familiar Strangers series story, originally posted on July 20 2012.

This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: Think of All the Stars.

"Kiss Me In The Morning"
Finn/Elsie (OC-ish)
Familiar Strangers series extra
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

It hadn't been her intention to take him home like this, not after the second date. Only they'd been sitting there, her at the drums and him behind her, and when she'd looked back at him, she'd thought about the last few months, who they had been to each other in that time. They weren't strangers to begin with, even if he didn't remember just where he knew her from, and after that they had become bonded in such a way far beyond any old flirtation. This may have been their second official date, but really they went back so much further. Maybe she was just trying to give herself a reason not to feel guilty for what she was feeling, or maybe this was just where they were, and she was ready to step things up. The truth was she knew from experience, from what they'd already been through together, that he wouldn't have gone through with it just for the physicality of it, and that just made it worth it.

Now here they were… morning, and when she woke up, her eyes opened to find him sleeping at her side. She was huddled into her pillow, lying on her stomach and arms pulled in, and she smiled, letting out a breath as memories of the night before flooded back over her like a rush of heat, then goose bumps. In a way it was probably a good thing that she would wake up first, to give her time to get past those thoughts that would come to her before long.

As much as she wouldn't want to think about it that way, she hadn't been with anyone since Alex… hadn't been with anyone but Alex. It was impossible for her not to think about it. After she'd lost him, she never wanted to think that she could move on, but she had. Whatever would come next for her and Finn, she knew she really liked him, maybe even loved him, as scary a thought as that could be right now. Alex wouldn't have wanted her to spend the rest of her life mourning in solitude, he would have wanted… this, her being happy. And she was happy, so, so happy, hadn't felt this way since the day of the accident.

She'd been lying there, eyes closed as she pondered this turn of events, unaware that the one at her side was waking up, and looking at her he would think she was still asleep. She wouldn't see how he would look to her, with that same sort of smile she'd had, remembering. He was seeing her now like he'd never seen her before, which went without saying as this was the one and only time they had slept together, but… He could only look on and be amazed by her. He had been surprised to see the tattoo on her back, if it counted as one. There were eight circles, lined to her spine and starting just below her shoulders. He was sure he'd seen the top of the first one peeking out from under her shirt once or twice, but he hadn't really thought about it. Each circle was shaded differently, one completely filled in black, one only an outline, the others… He reached out, fingers lightly tracing the circles as he tried to figure…

"It's the moon…" Elsie hummed with a smile before opening her eyes. His hand stilled, realizing she was awake.

"I didn't wake you up, did I?" he asked.

"No, I was already awake," she promised. His eyes returned to her back. Now he understood what the tattoo was about, and he thought it suited her.

"Got any others?" he wondered.

"No, just the one," she told him. "I got it done… after…" She didn't need to say it, he knew: after Alex had died. He leaned in, kissing her shoulder, and she closed her eyes again. "Morning," she told him, officially.

"Good morning," he told her, staring into her eyes as she opened them again before taking the kiss to her lips. "Sleep okay?" he asked and she hummed.

"The best," she promised. "You?" she asked.

"No complaints," he assured, and she laughed.

"Hungry?" He seemed to remember his stomach now, but also that he was not at home, so he wasn't sure how to proceed. She chuckled, nudging for him to lie back. "Give me a few minutes. Stay here," she told him before slipping out of bed. His eyes couldn't help but follow her as she went and slipped on a robe, closing it as she moved to open the door and was immediately greeted with the dogs, Mimi and Leo, barking at her heels. "Morning, you two. Yes, yes, going to feed you now, too," she hushed as they followed her.

She would return, as promised, a few minutes later, sneaking up with a tray as she hurried to close the door again, so the dogs wouldn't follow when they were done eating. He hadn't been sure what to do as to his own clothes, though he'd slipped his boxers back on. This looked to amuse her, setting the tray on the bed with them as she sat by him.

"When the waitress becomes the chef… I make no promises," she told him.

"Looks good to me," he shook his head, pointing to ask if he could dig in.

"Go ahead," she told him and he grabbed a piece of toast. Neither of them looked too sure about what they were supposed to say or do next, which became evident as the food started to quietly disappear. Eventually they had looked to one another and, understanding this, they had smirked. "So we're not the smoothest pair, are we?" she asked him, and he shook his head. "But this is nice, I like it…" she told him, and here he needed. "Then we just call them as they come?" she asked, and got a second nod. "Well, this is interesting…" she thought, stretching out her legs, reaching for the last of what her breakfast tray had to offer, bringing her legs back in as she focused her orange. After a while, she had gotten it peeled, and she looked over, seeing Finn looking back at her. "What?" she asked, and he laughed. "What's this, what's happening?" she asked, pointing at his face with her free hand.

"Nothing, just looking," he told her.

"What, I like fruit," she mock defended herself. "It's good for you," she split the orange in half and offered one half to him.

"Right," he obliged, tearing the pieces apart to eat them.

"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, Finn Hudson," she gave a wicked grin.

"Bring it," he played right back.

"You sure about that?" she asked, presenting her orange juice sticky hand. He flinched, and she laughed. "See?" she told him. "Your move," she offered. He looked at her, to the orange slice left in his hand, then he stood, offering the fruit back to her before moving to the door. "Where are you going?" she asked, putting her own orange slices down and following after him. He had disappeared, and it wasn't until she heard the distinct sound of the shower running that she turned and saw him standing just outside the bathroom door. He tilted his head to her: he was playing his move. "Oh…" she had the slightest of blushes, moving toward him. "Maybe you do have… some… idea."

"Full of surprises," he pointed to himself.

"Yeah," she sidestepped by him to enter the bathroom. "We'll see."

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!