A/N: This is just an idea I got last night as I was falling asleep. It's basically pure wemma fluff, but who doesn't love wemma fluff? I have a possible second part brewing, but I'll only post it if enough people want me to continue on with this. Each page break signifies a new streetlight. R&R is always loved. -Tayma
Streetlights
It was well past midnight and the party was still raging in the dormitory's common area. In the corner sat a timid young woman, twenty years of age. Her hair was red, and her wide eyes a honey brown. She sat, biting her lip and drumming her fingers against the side of the red Solo cup held in her hands, containing nothing but ice water. A sigh escaped her lips for what felt like the hundredth time that evening as her eyes scanned the group of people. Her roommate and best friend was still dancing the night away and drinking with a group of people she met on their floor.
Emma didn't even want to be at the party, but she'd been dragged with the argument that it was their junior year and she should let loose. If this was letting loose, Emma wanted to be uptight for the rest of her life. She had no urge to 'party hard' and let loose like this. Her idea of letting loose was leaving her toothbrush on the counter overnight or not closing her shampoo bottle after she used it, maybe leaving her pajamas on the floor until she felt like picking them up. That was letting loose, not getting drunk and letting guys grind their penis against her under the cover of 'dancing'.
She was deep in thought, wondering if she could sneak out without being noticed by her friend when a voice behind her startled her out of her thoughts, causing her to jump slightly.
"Partying not your scene?" The voice was gentle, curious, and the sentence was followed with a slight chuckle. Emma looked over just in time to see a young man sit next to her on the couch, also holding a cup of water in one hand. His hair was curly and brown and mussed as if his hand had run through it one time too many. He smiled a crooked smile at her, and his hazel eyes danced in the dim light.
"Not really, no. It's the second week of school and I've already got papers due. I'd much rather be working on that than sitting here." She looked over at him and smiled, bringing her water to her lips and taking a sip. "Partying not your scene? Or are you wondering why I've been sitting here alone for the past…" she glanced at her watch, "six hours?"
"A bit of both. Mostly, partying isn't my scene, but I'm wondering why such a beautiful girl has had to sit alone for the past six hours."
Emma's face tinged pink and she looked down at her lap, clearing her throat gently, unsure of what to say. She chewed her lower lip for a moment, looking back at Will and extending a hand gingerly.
"I'm Emma."
"Hello, Emma. I'm Will." He looked at her with another crooked smile and Emma smiled back, swallowing gently. "So, Emma. You still haven't explained yourself."
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Beautiful girl. Party. Alone. Why?"
Emma laughed a bit, shaking her head. He sounded so much like a caveman, speaking in such small sentences. God, it was adorable.
"Awkward girl. Doesn't like parties. Dragged here by best friend."
"I hear you on that one. It's not that I don't like people and parties, it's just that these parties are never really what you expect them to be. Not to be crude, but I don't exactly like the idea of grinding my penis against some random chick's ass because she's drunk out of her mind."
Emma perked up, her mouth falling open as she looked at him, her hand coming to rest in between them, palm up, "No, that's exactly it! That's not dancing, that's assault. If I wanted someone to do that to me, I'd just sleep with them. Which, I wouldn't, because that's serious stuff."
Will laughed at Emma, smiling widely. They fell silent again and each of them watched the others dance before Will looked back at Emma, clearing his throat. "Hey, so I know we just met, but would you like to go on a walk with me? I promise no assault will take place, dancing or otherwise. Unless you consider talking an assault. In which case, I can stay quiet."
"Uhm…" Emma bit her lip, thinking it over for a moment. The whole point of tonight was for her to attempt to let loose, wasn't it? This would be a way to let loose; at least Emma thought so. Looking over at Will, Emma nodded, smiling. "Sure, why not."
Will smiled and stood, extending his hand for her, which she took eagerly and stood, setting her water down and watching him do the same. They dropped each other's hand, walking out of the common area, Will's hand on Emma's lower back. Once outside in the cool night air, they took a turn down the main street leading down the center of town, starting to walk slowly, silence hanging over them for a few minutes.
"So I'm still not completely sure where talking stands on your scale of assault." Will said, glancing over at her with a small chuckle.
Emma laughed loudly, looking over at him. "It's at a zero. Talk all that you want to."
"Right, well. I'm Will and you're Emma…and we're walking…"
"Yes, I believe that has all been established." Goodness, he was so adorable. Generally speaking, Emma never met a guy and thought Now, you're someone that I want to date, I really hope you're single. But this guy? This guy had her thinking that almost every time he opened his mouth from the moment she first looked at him.
Will blushed a bit and looked down at his feet, smiling to himself. He got an idea and stopped walking, which caused Emma to stop and look at him. He looked up at her and grinned. "Let's play Streetlights."
"Streetlights?" Her eyebrows knit together in confusion and she shook her head. "I've never heard of that before."
"So each streetlight that we come to, we stop underneath it and tell each other something about ourselves. We'll do it to the end of the road, and then back again, and which point, we'll go back to the party and find our friends."
"Alright, so streetlights. Let's play it." Emma walked over to the first streetlight before them and stood in the center of light, looking at him. "I'm a Psychology major because I have OCD and nobody knows how to fix me. I'm hoping maybe I can fix myself."
Will raised his eyebrows and moved to stand next to her, looking at her. "Wow. Suddenly that makes my major choice much less impressive. I'm an Economics major because my dad said it's the smart thing to do."
"Econ's impressive. I could never deal with all the numbers and the concept of supply and demand has a tendency to confuse me."
They walked on to the next streetlight, this time Will going first.
"The Little Mermaid makes me cry at the end. I feel like it really must suck trading your tail for a pair of legs and never getting to see your best flounder friend or your father again." Will's cheeks tinged pink and Emma giggled.
"That is honestly so adorable. Uhm, I pretend to like superheroes because when I was younger I had a dream of being a really cool tomboy. Because of this, I am convinced that I truly like Batman because his mask has ears and Spiderman because he shoots things out of his wrists."
"No Wonder Woman? Don't most girls like her?"
"Yeah, but if I like her, then it's like I don't like the idea of being saved, and I do. I want someone to catch me when I fall once in a while." She shrugged a little and continued on to the next street light.
Will smiled after her and nodded. "Fair enough," he said to himself before following after her.
"I don't eat purple foods," Emma said, looking at him seriously. "Fake grape is the most disgusting flavor on the planet and every purple food makes me think of that flavor."
"I like to watch old movies because they make me think of my grandmother. She died when I was twelve, but she always used to watch them. They make me miss her less."
Emma smiled and Will sweetly and reached out, touching his shoulder gently. "That's so sweet. I'm sure she'd be glad to know you do that."
"Yeah, I hope so. I just know that if she were still here, we'd be doing it together. We were close."
Emma looked at him sadly, their eyes locking. She had no idea what to say to him after that and after a moment, he shook his head and gestured onward. "Next streetlight?"
She nodded, her hand falling back to her side.
"I love eighties music." Will confessed, smiling at her widely, laughing a little bit. "I have an obsession with Journey that I can't even explain. I don't know when or why it started, but I just love them with a passion that no man should own up to having."
Emma laughed and smiled. "I love eighties music, but I'm more of a Stevie Nicks girl. Fleetwood Mac is fantastic and I also have a soft spot for Toto. 99 is an amazing song. Favourite Journey song on three? One…two…three…"
"OPEN ARMS!" They both screamed the song title in unison, causing each of them to smile widely and start laughing.
"Okay, let's try this again, but with Fleetwood Mac. Ready?" Will asked, locking eyes with Emma seriously, each of them making a stance as if they were about to pounce on the other, getting ready to announce their favourite Fleetwood Mac song. "One…two…three…"
"RHIANNON!" Emma yelled, while Will yelled, "EVERYWHERE!"
Emma looked at Will and frowned. "So close. I was just starting to like you, too." She laughed and elbowed Will gently, heading to the next street light, noticing there were only three more to go.
Will turned to Emma underneath the yellow light of the streetlight, smiling a crooked smile at her. Her last comment about 'just starting to like' him made him smile wider than it probably should have.
"I like you, Emma. Even if my choice of Fleetwood Mac song makes you hesitate in returning that likeable feeling toward me. I like you probably more than I should after only a short time knowing you."
Emma blushed at his words and looked down at the ground, her face burning red. She bit her lip and started walking out from underneath the streetlight, heading towards the next one. She was almost out of the circle of light when Will grabbed her hand, looking confused.
"Wait, you didn't take your turn."
"Nothing I can say will top that, though."
Will chuckled, "Em, this isn't about topping each other. It's just a game to get to know each other."
She looked up at him, biting her lip still. Nobody had ever called her 'Em' before. It was usually 'Emmie' or 'Ems.' It made her smile a bit wider and she cleared her throat, looking at him.
"Nobody's ever called me Em before. It's usually Emmie or Ems or in my dad's case Emmabug. I like that you call me Em." She nodded and he released her hand, letting her go to the next streetlight, waiting a moment before following her.
"I only like green and brown M&Ms." Emma said, looking at Will under the light of the second to last streetlamp. "The brown ones because I rarely get brown M&Ms when I buy them, so they're like precious chocolate gems. The green ones because green is my favourite colour, and let's be honest. They just taste better." She giggled a little bit.
"Alright, hmm…" Will stroked an invisible beard, squinting at Emma and trying to think of something that he could tell her. She giggled again at his invisible beard strokage and he smiled widely. "I'm ticklish. Extremely so. All anybody needs to do is act like they are going to tickle my feet and I lose it."
Emma laughed. "You won't have to worry about that from me."
"Why's that?"
"I hate feet."
"Fair enough."
Emma glanced at Will as they stood together underneath the final streetlight before they had to turn around and head back home to their dorm. She bit her lip gently and saw that he was looking back at her. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat, turning to look at him.
"I like you, too. I've known you for one hour which usually I don't ever like people this much afterward. But I like you, too."
"I think you're beautiful." He said, smiling at her softly. "You're so gorgeous. That's really why I went to talk to you back at the party. I had to know you."
He extended his hand to hers nervously, knowing full well she could ignore it and head backward under the streetlights without taking his hand. His heart swelled when she reached out and grabbed it, squeezing it gently. He gestured back the way they went, smiling at her. "Shall we?"
"We shall." Smiling, Emma walked forward with Will, going back the way they came, stopping under the streetlight and looking at him.
"I never go anywhere with a stranger, especially not of the male orientation, and not alone at night. This is a first for me, but I'm definitely having fun." Emma smiled and looked at him, their hands still locked together.
"Well it was either this or assault you under the cover of dance, so…" Will chuckled and looked at her. "Alright, I'm glad you came with me. I rarely ever make the first move when it comes to girls I've just met."
"What made you make the first move with me?"
Will laughed a little and looked at her. "Is it weird to say that when I walked up behind you, I noticed you had water?"
Emma laughed, shaking her head. "No, not at all; that's sort of cute."
"And what made you trust me enough to come take a walk with me?"
"When you told me you didn't like the idea of grinding for dancing. Then when you promised no assault would take place, reassuring me by promising to stay quiet if it was considered assault in my mind. It was oddly refreshing."
"It was honest."
"Keep that up."
"Okay, here's something not so much personal, but more so you can know more about me. My last name is Schuester, I have a brother and I was in the Glee Club in high school." Will blushed a bit at his Glee Club confession. It wasn't that he was embarrassed about it, because he was extremely proud to be a Glee Club member. It was just that he'd never exactly been given much attention by beautiful girls after making that statement. He hoped Emma was different.
"Glee Club? Ugh, jealous! My school only had chorus and I wasn't ever given a solo. I may have been shy, but I have no problem singing for other people. That's extremely cool. Did you guys do any competitions?" Emma's eyes sparkled, staring at Will like he was the most amazing thing in the world. He became even cooler than she already thought he was.
"We won first place at Nationals my senior year."
"Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Was it amazing? I bet it was amazing."
Will laughed, nodding. "It was pretty amazing, yeah."
"Uhm…wow, that's awesome. Okay, well my last name is Pillsbury. Yes, like the doughboy, no I don't think that's adorable for a nickname. I have one brother, he's older than me and the reason I'm…how I am about messes, uhm, and I was captain of the mathletes."
"How you are about messes? What do you mean?"
"Ah," Emma shook her head. "Another story, another streetlight." She said, giggling.
"Well, then. Onward."
"So when I was eight, my family and I went to a dairy farm for my birthday. I wanted to be a dairy farmer when I grew up and we went by the run off lagoon on the tour. My, uhm, my brother walked me near the edge of it and scooped me up. He told me that swimming would be fun, that all dairy farmers did it, and then he threw me into the water. I, uhm…I started crying and when I got out I was…covered in the contents of the lagoon that uhm…and the smell was just…" Emma took a deep breath through her nose and shook her head, "I uhm, I have a hard time forgetting the smell and the f-feel of my skin crawling afterwards. After that, things changed, and I'm…" She swallowed, her head still shaking a little bit. She didn't really want to talk about it anymore and Will picked up on that, looking at her.
"Aw, Emma. I'm sorry. That's pretty rotten of your brother…" He nodded and watched her for a moment, trying to think of something that he could tell her to make her feel a bit better.
"My mom's an alcoholic." He said, nodding his head. "I don't really remember a lot that happened when I was younger, but I do know she wasn't always like this."
"Oh, that's terrible. I'm really sorry to hear that."
Will shrugged a little bit. "That's life, right? I get by and I've learned from it. That's what matters."
Emma nodded and they shared a smile, moving to the next streetlight.
"I don't like camels," Will said, making a face. "They have huge tongues and weird hooves, and that's probably not normal reasoning for disliking an animal, but that's mine."
Emma giggled at him, shaking her head. "Good thing I have a small tongue." She said, sticking her tongue out before blushing and pulling it back into her mouth, embarrassed that she'd made that thought audible.
Will smirked a little and Emma blinked, clearing her throat as her next tidbit about herself came to her mind. "I'm afraid of the dark. I sleep with a nightlight most nights. It's not so much that the dark itself is scary, but the idea that you never know what is lurking in the unknown."
"Oh, I completely understand. It's like time. It's frightening because you can't stop it or rewind. Whether you want it to or not, it keeps ticking away."
"Exactly. It's terrifying."
"Yeah, but if you find the right person to waste that time with, then it's worth the fear."
Emma smiled at him slowly, turning to walk to the second to last streetlight before they'd reach their dorm. He was something else, alright. She was actually upset that they were almost done with their time together. She was enjoying getting to know him and she wanted to know so much more.
"I didn't learn to color inside the lines until I was seven." Emma fidgeted with the sleeve of her sweater gently, her other hand still holding onto Will's. "I think I thought I expressed myself better by covering the page in colour, but looking back, the off-white colour of the paper bothered me greatly. It was more important to cover it with a better colour than to stay inside the lines."
"That's extremely cute." Will said, smiling at Emma as she spoke. "Do you still colour?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm the only twenty year old I know who has a whole drawer dedicated to her crayons, markers, coloured pencils and colouring books." Emma blushed a little bit, looking down at the ground.
"That's adorable, too. Uhm…okay, here's one. I like reading classic literature because it's not riddled with vampires, there are no cool wizards making me jealous because I didn't get a damn letter, and they just seem a bit more realistic."
Emma smiled at him widely. Classic literature was her favourite, too. "I agree with all of the above, but I need to say that I can't stand Jane Austen. She's –"
"Severely overrated."
"YES!" Emma laughed and shook her head. "Exactly that."
They smiled at each other for a moment before Will tugged her hand gently, gesturing to the final streetlight. Together, they took a step forward, walking to the last circle of light and standing beneath it, moving to face one another.
"I don't want to stop talking to you." Will looked at Emma beneath the warm yellow light, shaking his head slightly. "I know that's not really about me and it's more of a confession, but I've had a really nice time with you. Even if it's just been stating random facts about ourselves. It was fun and it made it easy to talk."
Emma nodded, agreeing with everything that he was saying. She bit her lip for a moment and smiled at him. "Alright, well here's a fact for you. My cell number is 555-2192."
Will pulled his hand from Emma's and took his phone out of his pocket, punching it in and saving the number. "I'll definitely call you." He said, pocketing his phone again, but not before noticing the time. "Two-thirty in the morning. Great way to pass the time."
Emma nodded, rubbing her hands over her arms gently. She hadn't realized how chilly it was outside. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun." She gave him a smile, biting her lower lip. She then turned with him, both of them heading back to their dorm building in silence, each reveling in the feelings of the past two hours of being with each other, neither wanting to confess they were sad it was over. As they reached the building, Will stopped, looking at Emma.
"C-can I kiss you?" He asked, blurting it out before fully realizing that he'd done so.
Emma released her lower lip, nodding gently. Her eyes closed as he leaned in, his warm lips pressing up against hers gently. It was warm and tender, lasting only a moment before he pulled away and smiled. Emma's eyes fluttered open and he moved to open the door to the building, holding it open for her. They could still hear the party raging in the common area and they both laughed a little, Emma's head shaking. She turned to the right, and he turned to the left, looking back over his shoulder.
"It was nice to meet you, Emma."
Emma glanced back and waved. "You, too, Will."
Both continued walking, looking forward, moving farther and farther apart with each step. As Emma turned down a corridor to get to her room, her phone started to buzz in her pocket and she looked at the screen, puzzled as it read a number she didn't recognize. She unlocked her door, clicking the answer button, holding the phone to her ear.
"H-hello?" She closed the door behind herself , moving to sit on her bed, glad her roommate wasn't back yet.
"Hi, so my name is Will. I just went on this amazing what I hope was a first date with this beautiful girl."
Emma giggled into the phone, amazed that someone could really be this adorable.
"Hi, Will. My name is Emma and it was…yeah, it was a first date."
"First date implies that she'd be interested in a second. Maybe dinner next Friday?" The smile in his voice was apparent and Emma nodded, though he couldn't see her.
"She's definitely interested. Is seven next Friday good for you?"
"It's perfect. I'll see you then. Goodnight, Emma."
Emma smiled widely, "Goodnight, Will," she said, hitting the end button and laying back on her bed with a wide smile.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Emma or Glee or Will or wemma. That is all RIB. I am just the creator of these stories, nothing more!
