Title – Dust Mites

Rating – PG

Pairing – Will/Emma

Spoilers – None if you've seen Showmance.

Disclaimer – I do not own Glee. If I did, this would have happened, and it didn't. Ipso Facto – I own naught.

Summary – One lingering moment could change everything and it could change nothing at all.

Emma Pilsbury loved Will Schuester. Simple as. Despite the fact that he was married and expecting his first child, it didn't stop Emma from casting lingering glances in his direction across the teacher's lounge, or waiting to bump into him in the corridor.

Will Schuester was all messed up in the head. He'd just found out that his wife was pregnant with their first child, had been told by his sister-in-law that there "was no way Terri was giving up the craft room" so they were getting a new house with all the trimmings, he was running a Glee Club that had a decent shot of getting to nationals if he could find enough members – which he couldn't – and he had a diva for a soloist. On top of that, he had a thing for Emma Pilsbury. Fantastic.

"Will?" Emma wandered into the classroom and called out his name. All she could see were two feet poking out from underneath a desk.

"Agh!" Will exclaimed, banging his head. He emerged from under the table, rubbing his head and looking confusedly at his delightfully pretty co-worker. She was stunning in her own way – a petite little lady with auburn hair framing her delicate face, and eyes so big and innocent that he couldn't help but stare into them. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I do ICT prep on Tuesday nights, are you... um... are you a janitor?" she asked, looking at him with a quizzical look. Even in a navy jumpsuit, she thought, he still looks hot. He took a seat on the desk he'd just been underneath, wiping his hands on a cloth.

"A ja...no..." he said, unconvincingly as he continued to wipe his hands and look sheepishly towards the floor. Emma looked at him for a moment, at the blond curls on his head and the slight lines from where his mouth curls up when he smiles and his eyes crease up when he laughs.

"Really? Cause you're dressed like a janitor and your shirt says 'Will'" she replied,

"Um...Terri and I are trying to buy a house and we're struggling to make ends meet and um... I'm really embarrassed... would you mind keeping this between us?" he asked her, a pleading look on his face.

"Yeah, oh yeah your secret's completely safe with me." she smiled.

"Thank you." He breathed a weary sigh of relief. Somehow he had not planned to be working two jobs at the same school to cover a house that he did not think he needed, now or ever. A moment of silence passed between the two – a comfortable silence, not awkward like the ones he shared with his wife or between he and Sue Sylvester when she offered him Iron tablets.

Emma broke the silence "D'you, um, D'you want a hand?"

"Oh, no, I'm good, really." He replied.

"Really? 'Cause I can see from here that you've used window cleaner to mop the floor, and that keyboard is crawling with E-Coli because I know for a fact that Mrs. Hoffmeyer doesn't wash her hands after doing number twos." She smiled a sweet smile at him, the one that no man could possibly say no to. He politely accepted her offer and she grabbed a brush and began to scrub the pencil sharpener.

The time passed, and the two worked together, out of normal context for the two to be together, but not finding it awkward. They enjoyed conversation, shared a few laughs and cleaned. There was no specific need for conversation, but it just seemed to flow naturally between Emma and Will.

Every now and then, Will would glance at Emma for a few seconds, and only once or twice was he caught out doing it, but each time they exchanged a smile.

A million thoughts were rushing through Emma's mind, all at the same time – Does he like me? Does he know I like him? No, he can't like me, I'm just being silly. Damn, he's a good singer... he looks awesome in a suit.

Every day she thought about what it would be like to tell him how she felt, and almost every time she had flashbacks to being sat in her car, alone and crying, singing along to the radio in the rain, and she decided against it every time.

Will couldn't help but think about her. They were in the same room for hours and he could smell her perfume wafting across the room as she scrubbed that pencil sharpener till it was gleaming. He always felt less complicated when he was around her – she helped him see the logical side to things and he liked her company. Sure, she was quirky and excessively clean, but that's part of what he liked about her. She had her issues like everyone else, but she was still a perfect little lady.

Emma was the first to break the amicable silence once more"I really admire you working so hard for something you want"

He smiled, stopped what he was doing and turned to her."Let's make a deal – you're helping me with my problem, how 'bout I take a stab at one of yours?" a sly grin crept across the side of his face.

Emma looked slightly perplexed, "I don't... I don't have a problem" she stammered, looking up into Schuester's eyes as a serious look invaded his face.

"You've been scrubbing at that pencil sharpener for an hour" he smiled at her.

She stopped scrubbing. "Well I mean I have a little trouble with messes, but it's not like it's a...problem... OK, when I was a little girl, it was my dream to work on a dairy farm" She smiled a small, shy smile at him, whilst he started chucking.

"Really?" he continued to chuckle as Emma nodded and continued her story.

"When I was eight, we finally visited one and after the tour in the yoghurt tasting my brother pushed me into the burn-off lagoon" She wrung her hands.

Will had stopped chuckling now and a look of disbelief crossed his face. "What?!"

She nodded again and finished her explanation. "And um, ever since then I've just... had a little trouble forgetting the smell" that small smile had returned to her face.

"Have you thought about, I dunno, seeing anyone about that?"

"Oh no it's completely manageable, y'know, I take lots of showers and I don't eat dairy..." she let the sentence trail off as Will had gotten up off the desk and started walking towards the chalkboard.

"I wanna try... a little experiment" he said whilst running his index finger through the chalk dust. He walked towards her, finger extended at approximately nose height.

"Oh no, I'm not really comfortable with... with... uhh" again, her sentence trailed off as his finget brushed a layer of chalk dust onto the tip of her nose.

To Emma, it all seemed to happen all at once and also in slow motion. She saw his finger extend towards her nose, the cheeky, sideways smile on his face as his finger gently caressed her nose. She felt his touch, warm and soft against her skin. They were closer than they had ever been before. She inhaled his smell and looked up into his eyes longingly.

Will didn't quite know what was going on. He knew he'd just chalked up Emma's nose. He knew their bodies were almost pressed together. He knew he was so close to her he could smell her hair and see her individual eyelashes as she looked up at him just as he looked down at her – with a look of longing in their eyes. He wanted more than anything to reach out and take her delicate face in his hands and kiss those soft lips of hers.

Somewhere in that moment, their imagination had drifted into reality, as his arm brushed the dust off her nose, his hand lingered at her cheek. He brushed his fingers alongside her jawbone and rested it at the base of her neck. He heard her draw in breath as she closed her eyes. They leaned into each other and their lips touched.

Emma felt a rush of blood to her cheeks as she breathed in his musky smell, his lips warm against hers, his hand firm on her neck. After a few seconds, they pulled apart and stared into each others' eyes. Will's hands dropped to his side and he smiled at her.

"There... ten seconds..." He said quietly, a note of triumph in his voice.

Emma breathed in sharply as the reality of the situation hit her. As much as she wanted to stay, she knew she had to leave. She looked up at him and smiled.

"New record... It's late... I should be going...." She quickly left the room, her shoes clicking on the tiled floor, the only sound in the school.

Will couldn't do anything but watch her go.