Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eigth cycle, and ninth cycle.

Now comes the tenth cycle. And since that feels like it should be special, this is what I'm doing: Cycle 10 will feature my top 15 of some favorite things from Glee. Characters, ships, friends... It will be daily ficlets for numbers 15 down to 2, but number 1 will be a 7-chapter story :) Here we go!
Coming in at number twelve!

"Tabula Rasa"
Artie/Tina

It felt so great to be back on such good speaking terms again. It just hadn't felt right without each other. But they had fixed it all now, and they could get back not only to how things used to be, but even better, like the kiss they shared in the Glee room was the continuation of the one in the hall, weeks before… the stuff in between, it just hadn't happened.

In that spirit, Artie had made a suggestion. "We should start over," he told her as they sat there, still smiling from the kiss.

"Start over," she repeated, chuckling. He gave her a good nod. "How?"

"It'll be like… a blind date," he tried to be mysterious, which amused her. "What do you think?" he offered, waited. She stared at him for a while, then smiled.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'm free tonight," she suggested. "You can pick me up, right? 'They' told you where I live?"

"Yes, actually," he played along, making her laugh. "Tonight."

After the whole day was done, both of them had gone home, with one thing in mind: a date, a first real, prepared date. They'd gone out once before, informally so… the one that had gotten them to where they now were. That night would be different, they'd make sure of it… It didn't stop them being nervous in any way… They were excited.

Artie had put on his favorite suspenders… 'Lucky suspenders,' his mother would call them teasingly. He spent an amount of time notably longer than what he usually took fussing over his hair, cleaning his glasses… Finally, he was ready, so off he went to the Cohen-Chang home. He went up the path, finding Tina's makeshift ramp on to the doorstep. After ringing the bell, he made a quick last check, bending over to check his laces. He was still bent over, looking at his shoes, when the door opened… which granted him the chance to get the toe-to-head glance up.

She'd been preparing, too. Her whole outlook on the evening was that she could show him she could be more… fancy… while still being herself. She'd dipped into some of the money she'd been saving, to get a dress. She'd been eyeing it for a while, thinking she'd get it for… well, this… a date with Artie. But then there was the argument… and the dress was forgotten. Later she'd swear it was how it should be, because when she'd finally gotten it, the dress was on sale.

When his eyes had finally travelled up to meet hers, he blinked just a hint. "Not ogling, please don't yell." She chuckled, closing the door behind her.

"I won't. But you see now, I don't need to change a thing… do I?"

"No," he shook his head, still looking at, loving how her smile just added another layer of shine on her. "Wait, we're not supposed to know each other…" he pointed out.

"Oh… right…" she gasped and turned to get the door open again. "Take two," she nodded, shutting the door. Artie smirked, before wiping the look off his face, the better to put out the 'first meeting' impression. He rang the bell once more, and she answered once more. "Hi."

"Artie," he held out his hand. "Hello." She stifled a laugh, shook his hand.

"Tina. Shall we?" she shut the door and turned to him. They were driven by Artie's father, who took up his position in their 'start over' date seriously, only making them smirk.

When they got to the restaurant, the conversation quickly became a sort of quick fire session in 'getting to know you.' They covered a number of bases, from firsts to favorites. It ended on…

"Extracurriculars?" Tina asked.

"Glee Club," he nodded.

"Me too," she played, and he laughed. "First kiss?" she beamed, more so when he gave her a smile. "Me too," she spoke sweetly.

"Can we… pull back the curtain a bit?" he asked after a moment, and she nodded. "I'm really glad we did this," he told her, and she tried not to flush too much.

"I am, too. I don't like us not being friends, not being… you know," she spoke, holding on to her glass, looking at him.

"I think we're back on track now," he spoke confidently.

"I hope so," she agreed. There was a bit of mischief in her eyes after a minute, and he caught sight of it. She smirked. "You know what I wish we could do again?"

"I think I do… You're like a chair race addict." She burst out laughing. "We are due for a rematch."

THE END