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 57th cycle. Now cycle 58!

This is a shift day. There are two updates today.

"Directors' Retreat"
Rachel/Puck
Project No Day But Today series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

The last few weeks had been a whirlwind, with the unleashing of their video on the world causing enough of a stir that their secret musical had become very public all of a sudden. Instead of being their pet project with no certain outcome, they had school support, funding, and they were going to have to lock down a premiere date before long.

Rachel was starting to feel a shift in the pressure, and Puck could see it. So he took it upon himself to get her to relax some before things would get too crazy. If she kept up at this pace, she would lose it. He wasn't sure how exactly to get her to relax without getting her back to thinking about the musical. Anything that was remotely connected to that world was out of the picture. He could have taken her with him to clean some pools again, knowing the last time had ended in them taking a swim together and her being in that swimsuit…

This was harder than he had anticipated. But he had to find a way, for all their sakes. After a while he had thought about maybe bringing her to a hotel for a day, take her to a spa. He had never been to one, but he had to guess as far as relaxing went, that was the best thing. Now that they had the school funding, the money they had left over from their own funds, which had been provided by him in the first place, he could afford it. He didn't want her to think he had motivations more than the ones he actually had. He wanted her to be able to unwind, refocus herself. He wasn't personally looking forward to whatever they might do to him in there, but he was game for just about anything if it meant helping the people that mattered to him… and Rachel was right up there on that one.

When he had presented her with the idea, she was uncertain, claiming she had to keep working, but he told her he had already booked things, and it hadn't been easy, and he couldn't get a refund… Not all of it was exactly true, but it wasn't anything she had to worry herself about. Either way, it had worked.

It wasn't at all what he had expected, and as unsure as he'd been at first, he had started to get into it… right until the point where he was supposed to get massaged by a guy. He had his limits, and that one was just not going to work for him. He wasn't feeling himself too responsible with a girl either, so he had ended up forgoing the massage altogether. Rachel was still getting hers, so he sat by her so they could talk while the masseuse worked on her.

"Is this okay?" he asked her. "How are you feeling?"

"I think she's the one who's supposed to ask that," Rachel joked, her voice showing she was definitely becoming putty, after everything so far that day. "I know what you're doing, by the way," she went on.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?" he asked.

"Trying to get me not to think about the musical," she told him.

"That's where I saw them…" they could swear they heard the masseuse mutter under breath, though they pretended like they hadn't heard.

"We're all about to have to get busier than we've been so far, and it can't hurt if the directors are all relaxed and ready to concentrate on the job, right?" he pointed out.

"So why don't you get back on that table and let them do you, too?" she suggested, making a noise he'd never heard her make, when the masseuse hit a particular spot, and his eyes fluttered… 'That's why,' he thought to himself.

"I'm fine," he insisted. "I don't need it," he shrugged.

"Maybe later I'll give it a go," she offered.

"Now that I might have to consider," he nodded, and he heard her laugh.

After she was done with her massage, they had carried on to the room, to get changed. He had requested something with two beds, so she didn't think he was expecting anything. She had plopped down on her bed, while he sat on his, watching her. After a while, she looked back to him.

"A few months ago, I never would have thought that this was possible. You and me, and the musical, and the video, and… all of it… It was just one idea, and it kind of took over everything. I wouldn't change it though, not one thing," she vowed.

"Me neither," he assured her. There was a beat of silence, then, "So, if we're being realistic, how much time do you think we need before we can premiere?"

"I thought we weren't supposed to talk about the musical?" she smirked at him, and he crawled off his bed, coming to kneel on the ground in between and stare at her, touching the top of her head.

"It means as much to me as it does to you. I didn't think it would, but it does, for all of it, for what we've done with everyone else, but you…" he shook his head, and seeing the way he looked at her, it was giving her shivers.

"I know," she told him, moving up so she could take his hand in hers, clasp her fingers with his. She took a breath, thinking, then, "Think we could get away with making it at the end of the year? Sort of close things out that way?"

"If we do that, he gets more time to live his glory, but you know how these stories work, people will forget us," he pointed out.

"Then we'll just have to make sure they don't forget us," Rachel told him, confident.

"What does that mean?" he looked unsure.

"We can make more videos. We could make it more involved, like… what's it called, a vlog?"

"Sounds like a disease," he frowned.

"We could have like… behind the scenes stuff, interviews… Go big or go home, right?"

"How big do you want to go?" he asked, more than game, and she smirked.

"What do you think?"

THE END