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 48th cycle. Now cycle 49!

"Don't Just See It, Live It"
Puck/Rachel
Project No Day But Today series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

While he'd waited for her, he had walked back around to the front of the house, letting his legs settle after his climb and his drop, before he went to sit on her doorstep. He had very little hope of not coming off as some creeper outside her house at this hour, so he hoped she'd hurry.

When she finally stepped out, nudging him up with her foot, they got into the car and drove off. She had made a quick turnaround, for a girl who had been in pyjamas and possibly asleep or attempting to sleep when he showed up, but from her he had expected no less. Still she didn't look in a talking mood, so he just got her to where they had to be, which was his cousin's back store. How he'd convinced him to let him use the space was another thing, but it didn't matter here. He had needed a place to work, out of sight, so…

The way her eyes darted about, he knew the location was worrying her as they arrived, so he decided against any sort of blindfold scenario. He got her up to the door, taking a brief moment before opening it. When they walked in, it was still pitch black almost, so she couldn't see.

"What are we…" He found the light switch, flipped it, and she was silenced. She walked forward, in awe.

It was a set, a very detailed and attentively crafted and arranged set, one she would easily recognize as being for their show.

"You… you did all this?" she asked.

"Yeah," he confirmed, pleased to see how enthralled she had grown.

"I thought you and the set team…" she looked back to him.

"I just told them to wait on that one. I wanted to make that one myself."

"For me?" she still sounded surprised.

"Who else?" he moved past her to stand amid his handiwork, turning back to her so she'd join him. She smiled, genuinely at last, and she rushed up to hug him. He just managed to catch her, smiling back. He hadn't expected to miss this nearness so much, but now she was back in his arms and he felt relief fill him. "Hey…" he pulled back to look into her eyes. "Are we okay?"

"We're okay," she promised. "In the future, we might need to work out some sort of signal so I know not to flip out on you when you do something like this," she smirked.

"I think we can work something out," he nodded, leaning in to kiss her. They held for a beat. "You want to go check it out?" he guessed.

"Please?" she smirked.

He let her go, watched as she snailed her way along, looking at everything with so much focus, he couldn't help but feel pride in what he had accomplished. He wouldn't have imagined himself here not long ago, but this was all kind of perfect. He doubted he'd ever been this… happy.

"It's so… I can't believe you did all this by yourself," she ended up sitting on the ground in the middle of it all, looking about like a kid in Wonderland. He came over and sat with her. "It's better than… anything I could have imagined… Thank you," she told him.

"You know what this needs?" he started, and she shook her head. He stretched to reach inside one of the drawers on the set and pulled out something, which he presented to her: a short white candle. She took it, her giddiness hardly hidden.

"Matches?" she asked him and he smirked, reaching in his pocket. He paused, frowning, reaching in his other pockets one after the other, coming empty, then he sighed.

"Think they fell out when I climbed your tree."

"Further reason to never do that… Ever… Again," she nodded, tapping his knee with the candle.

"Fine, but what now?" he asked her.

"You wanted to try it?" she smirked.

"Well we're here, aren't we?" he gestured around the set.

"We are… It's also after one in the morning…"

"You're already out, what's a little while longer?"

"It's not that, it's about my voice," she explained.

"Oh, right…" he paused. "Want me to take you home?" She breathed, looking around, smiling.

"In a little while," she told him, sitting there with her legs crossed, candle still in hand. Then she blinked. "You know what we should do?"

"Not too tired for that?" he teased and got candle smacked for it.

"Once we resume with practices, we should do run-throughs, and we could film it. That will give us a chance to review how we are doing, what needs work…"

"We can do that," he nodded. "For now though, I should probably get you home," he tilted his head toward her.

"Yes, that might be best," she had to agree, though her eyes continued to go around. "It's going to be so good… and no one has any idea yet," she marvelled with something between mischief and excitement.

"Wait until they do," he told her, and she quivered with a nervous thrill. "Okay, come on, need to get you home," he got up, helping her to her feet.

He drove her home, watched her very quietly go up and into her house, and once he could see the light in her bedroom window, he drove off.

Later he'd find she'd been busted by her dads, who promptly grounded her. She didn't care; it was worth it.

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!