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 38th cycle. Now cycle 39!

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"Rest and Relaxation"
Rachel/Puck
Project No Day But Today #12 (following 'Holiday Inn')

She loved the musical, loved what they had accomplished already and she knew what she had planned for after the holidays when they would reconvene would only make it greater, but then one morning she woke up and she realized something. Maybe it was the fact that they weren't actually working on it now, as much as she was still scribbling and sketching in preparation for their return to work, but it finally dawned on her she was still feeling it. She'd had this feeling almost right from the start, but she would associate it with the musical, with victories and development and excitement. Now she was seeing it a whole other way, that it was him, getting to know him the way she did as they worked together and fell for each other…

He'd been the spark to light her up. To know him, know his reputation, she wouldn't have seen this coming. She knew for sure though that part of her had understood, had seen right through him from the day he'd sat in her living room and watched all of Rent without so much as a complaint or an attempt to evade her. Surely some of it had to have been true, but she'd never seen it, he'd never been that way to her. He'd been kind, protective, supportive… so supportive… She didn't know that she could have done half of what she'd gotten done if it wasn't for him shouldering the effort with her.

Carried by that realization, she knew she wanted to hurry up and meet with him. He'd gotten a job to clean an indoor pool, asked if she wanted to tag along, maybe bring a bathing suit, the better to 'enjoy the results of his labor' once he was done; she'd just barely resisted the urge to go shopping for a new one… then Pop had asked her to come along to the mall the other day, and it was right there in the window… It was going to put a dent in her savings for that new microphone set, but she was willing to take the chance.

Once she'd eaten and gotten ready, it was time to go. Puck had given her the address, not wanting to rush her by having to pick her up. When she arrived to the building, she had to explain she was with the pool cleaner before they'd let her through. Walking down the hall nearing the pool, she could see him through the windows, already at work. She always thought he would work with his shirt off, but then there he was with that red shirt she liked. It was probably because it was winter, and they were indoors anyway, but… maybe he wasn't trying to attract passersby anymore… no one but her.

"Anything I can do to help?" she asked as she walked through the door… startling him and making him lose his balance… She gasped, and then… he regained his footing and smirked – he'd faked it. "You keep this up and I'll push you in next time," she frowned, faking anger as she walked around the pool to him.

"Not until later," he insisted, indicating he wasn't done cleaning it.

"Okay, well what should I do?"

"Hand me that?" he pointed and she looked back, hesitating. "There, the bottle on the end."

"Got it," she picked it up and handed it to him. This went on until it was done and then they sat against the wall. "Has anyone ever told you how serious you get while you work?" she teased.

"No, but then most of my clients are more interested in staring at my… work…" he redirected, realizing it might not be the best idea to go into the subject of his usual clientele. Judging by the look on her face she was already aware of it anyway, though she was just as interested in changing the subject as he was.

"Well… you do," she nodded. "You get this sort of… crease," she pointed between her eyes.

"Same thing happens when I play video games."

"And then you win," she smiled.

"Yes, I do." She took his arm in response. After a moment, he looked to her. "Since you're not going to say it even when I know you want to, when are we going back to work on the musical?"

"Next week," she declared in a heartbeat. "I'm excited, you know?" she shrugged. "But, we agreed we wouldn't get into that, so… it's off the table," she nodded decisively.

"Right," he got back on his feet, offering his hands. "Think this thing's ready for a test drive," he nodded back to the pool. She let him help her up. As he was pulling his shirt off, she reached to do the same, having worn the new suit under her clothes. She'd just put her clothes in a pile where they'd been sitting when she looked up and saw he was staring back at her. She could feel her cheeks get warm. This was definitely worth delaying on the new microphone set.

"So you said 'not until later,' right?" she approached him slowly and he frowned.

"What's that?" he asked. She placed her hand at his shoulder, he smiled, and then she pushed him in the pool. She bit back a laugh, watching him splash about until he resurfaced. "Okay… fine," he nodded slowly, looked back to her. "So you've got a choice here. I could trick you into letting me pull you in, which you'll see coming a mile away…"

"How'd you do it?" she quick-fired.

"Fake a cramp," he returned it. "You can cannonball…"

"Don't think your employer would like that," she pointed out.

"Right… that eliminates the running start too then…"

"So what does that leave?" she asked, curious.

"What you do best: dramatics…" he swam back, leaving her the way. She made to consider this, trailing along the edge of the pool. His eyes never left her, which only heightened her search for the perfect way to go about it. In the end, she decided to go with 'simple but elegant,' perching herself on the edge, lifting the back of her hand to her forehead like she was about to faint and allowed herself to tip over into the water. It shocked her system on contact – it was cold, so very cold – but she had to swim about for a moment before resurfacing with a gasp. "Yeah, I should have mentioned the heater's off right now," he told her as he swam over.

"How are you not shivering, look at my arm," she showed him the goose bumps.

"Takes more than cold water to get me shivering," he put his arms around her, hoping to warm her up.

"Really," she put her own arms around his neck. "What does get y…" she paused, laughing when she understood he meant her. "You've changed," she commented.

"Is that a good thing?" he asked.

"Definitely," she promised. "Only good things."

"Alright, just checking," he nodded. "Don't let go, okay?" he told her, letting his arms fall back to start swimming about, pulling her along.

"Never had a whole pool to myself," she smiled. "Well, to just us…"

"Just one of the perks of having a master pool cleaner as your boyfriend," he promised.

"And what are the others?"

"You'll see. I can't just go and tell you all my secrets at once."

"Right, how silly of me," she laughed as he put his arms back around her, kissed her… now he was shivering.

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!