A/N: So I've had this little fic idea taking up a bunch of space in my brain for months now, this particular chapter sitting on the notepad of my iPhone for just as long. It's basically about Emma doing a bunch of things she's never done before with Will during their summer break. I've had the first and last chapters of this story written for a while, but was hesitant to post it because I'm super notorious for being terrible about updating chapter stories.
But with all these squee-worthy Wemma promos showing up left and right, I felt like I needed to (at least) post the first chapter of this before the premiere. Just warning you now, updates will take me a while, but I do intend on getting to that last chapter at some point.
Alright, alright, enough with the rambling, onto the Wemma! Happy reading! -Natalie
"Will, we're going to get caught," she whispered nervously.
He turned to face her with an encouraging smile. "Come on, Emma, it'll be fun."
Emma bit her lip and glanced around before sighing.
"Okay, fine, just hurry up. I feel like a hoodlum."
"Em, it's not like we're breaking in, we work here," Will said with a chuckle, pushing open the front door of McKinley and stepping aside to let the fidgeting redhead through.
"It still feels like trespassing."
He shut the door behind him and grasped her hand. "I want to show you something."
Emma stared at him curiously, his childish grin reassuring her. She glanced down at their entwined hands with a smile and nodded shyly, allowing him to tug her in and out of the hallways of their workplace.
Will stopped abruptly, Emma nearly crashing into him, in front of what looked like an unused custodial closet.
Her eyes widened, mental images from the stories she used to overhear her brother telling his friends in their adolescence of cutting class to make out with girls in janitors' closets flashing through her mind at a mile a minute.
Sure, she and Will had been spending much more time together now that it was summer – a stark contrast to last year's break, where she hadn't seen him once, as she had spent nearly every day with Carl – but she wasn't ready for anything like that.
Too much, too fast. Too much, too fast.
"Emma?"
She blinked several times, brought out of her reverie, and looked up at him. "Oh…what?"
"I was just saying that I know it's a little gross in there, but it'll be worth it in the end," Will said with a bright smile.
Emma's doe eyes widened even more. "W-what?"
He turned back to the door, pulling out a set of keys. "Don't be nervous, I come here pretty often."
At this, Emma shook her head and grasped his shoulder.
"Will, wait!"
He pushed open the door then faced her.
"I…" she whispered, staring down at the floor. "I just don't think it's a good idea for us to be rushing into anything again."
She closed her eyes, waiting for Will to storm away or to yell or just to say anything.
"Em…I just wanted to take you up onto the roof."
She opened her eyes, her cheeks a shade of red rivaling that of her hair.
"Oh."
Will's brow furrowed as he stepped aside to let her into the room. "What did you think we were going to—"
"Nothing!"
Realization hit him as his hand found the small of her back, and he was grateful for the darkness of the small stairway that shielded his embarrassed smirk from Emma.
Swallowing back the lump in his throat, Will led her up the staircase.
He brushed past her carefully to unlock the door to the roof, his breath hitching slightly when he felt her chest pres up against his.
"Uh…sorry."
Emma cleared her throat and followed Will out onto the roof, and the tension between the two seemed to melt away.
"Oh, Will…"
He couldn't hold back his grin as he watched her marvel at the view of their tiny city illuminated by streetlamps and a few visible stars.
"Do you like it?"
"This is beautiful," she said quietly, with a nod. "How did you find this?"
He laughed softly before answering. "Once, back in high school, me and a couple friends got a little," he paused, running a hand through his hair, "uh…well a lot drunk, actually."
"Oh, you were one of those guys?" Emma teased with a slight smirk.
Will walked over to the edge of the roof and sat down, laughing. "One of what guys?"
"You know, one of the hotshot jocks who was kind of a jerk sometimes," she quipped with a grin, taking a seat beside him, and imagining a young Will Schuester in a McKinley letterman jacket. "Basically a Finn Hudson type with a Noah Puckerman edge."
Will leaned back on his elbows and looked over at Emma, amused. "Not quite. I was more like the nerdy glee club kid until I got my braces off and went through my growth spurt."
"I don't believe it," Emma said, her head thrown back in laughter. "Will Schuester with braces?"
"Oh, believe it. I wasn't anywhere near Finn popularity until I started dating Terri."
He smiled as he watched the redhead shake her head gently. "What I wouldn't give to see a teenaged you."
"I could say the same about you," Will said with a little chuckle. "I have a feeling that red hair of yours was even brighter then than it is now."
Emma inhaled a breath as she watched Will's fingers reach over and tuck a lock of her fiery hair behind her ear, in what seemed like slow motion.
The pair froze for a moment, each lost in the other's gaze.
If there was ever a chance to kiss her, now's it, Schuester.
Will leaned forward, shifting his hand so he was cupping Emma's cheek.
She inhaled another sharp breath, the sensation of Will's skin upon hers, even in the most innocent of ways, making her skin light afire.
Maybe this isn't what she wants, idiot. You've only just recently mended your friendship with her.
Will blinked suddenly and dropped his hand from her cheek as if burned, not catching the look of hurt that had flashed across Emma's face.
"So anyway…"
Emma stared down at their feet dangling over the side of the building and sighed.
"I've never done this before."
Will looked over at her, slightly confused by her statement, mildly worried she wanted to discuss the almost-kiss from moments before.
"I've never been this high up," she clarified softly, mesmerized by all the lights twinkling gently beneath them.
"You never had a treehouse?" he asked with a smirk, hoping to break the slight awkwardness surrounding them.
She turned to look at him and laughed softly. "I did, actually. My dad had built me one right after the dairy farm accident, hoping it would get me out of my funk. I don't think I've ever once been in it."
Emma shook her head, eyes closed in nostalgia. I think the closest I've ever been to being up this high is when Jimmy Draper from next door asked me to go watch the sunrise with him when I was seventeen. I was excited until I met up with him and he was expecting me to climb a tree to get a better view."
Will laughed softly. "I'm guessing you didn't climb the tree?"
"Not exactly," Emma said with a sad smile. "He was begging me to go up and I kept refusing. Eventually, I started crying because I was so frustrated that I couldn't do such a simple thing for the guy I liked."
Will stared at her, his mouth slightly agape at her revelation. "Did he know you had…problems with messy stuff?"
He cringed slightly at her bitter laughter.
"Of course he did, everyone did, he was just the first person who I thought didn't care about it."
Emma clenched and unclenched her jaw several times. "But it always gets too hard to deal with… I get too hard to deal with, and they leave."
Unsure of what to say, and mildly sickened by the idea that Emma was referring to multiple people – including him – who had left her when things got complicated, Will leaned over and pulled her into his arms for a hug.
He heard her gasp briefly and just as he was about to loosen his grip and let her go, worried that he had frightened her, she clutched onto him tightly.
Neither of the two were sure how long they sat together embracing, but when they finally pulled apart, Emma sighed.
"It's funny, my biggest regret isn't that I hurt Jimmy or that I never got a real shot with him, it's mostly just that I wish I had climbed that tree and seen the sunrise for myself."
Will watched Emma silently, an idea popping into his head.
"Come on, let's get out of here. It's getting pretty dark," he said, standing and offering a hand to her.
She took it with a smile, allowing him to pull her up before placing a soft kiss on his cheek.
As she walked past him back to the door of the roof, Will smiled to himself, suddenly having a feeling that this summer was going to be far better than the last.