"Look, it's okay. You can just stay here until you find a place to stay. It's not like you're going to be any trouble, Em."

She smiled shyly and her cheeks flushed. She was sitting in Will's kitchen at ten o'clock at night, in her ugly nightgown, and he wasn't fazed in the slightest. In fact, he appeared hesitantly hopeful, as Emma predicted he would as he waited for the judges to announce the winner of sectionals. And regionals. And nationals. She already fell like she had missed out on too much. Moments wasted they could never relive.

Her dainty fingers curled around the empty mug in her hand. If only she could read the tea leaves left at the bottom, to see her future and find a way to make it happen sooner rather than later.

She looked up at Will, feasting on his second muffin. He looked tired, jetlagged. Yet, he had only flown for less than two hours. Was it the flight, or something else weighing on his mind? Either way, his jaw worked mechanically as he consumed her muffin as though he hadn't eaten in days. He looked starved. For what, though?

"So did you win?" Emma questioned, her eyes wide and optimistic.

"Huh?" he responded, reaching for a cookie before he could swallow the last mouthful of muffin. Emma felt a blush of pride flush her skin. He liked her baking. She wondered what other hunger Emma could satisfy. It was there, and starving for attention. If only she had the experience to hand the desire what it craved. She'd hand it over on a silver platter.

"Nationals. Did you win Nationals?"

Will sighed deeply and then drew in another breath. "No. Rachel kissed Finn on stage."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "The judges didn't like that?"

Will chuckled. "I don't think anyone really liked it except Finn and Rachel."

"I'm sorry, Will." Emma rested a hand on Will's clothed forearm, her thumb tracing circles into the white material before she realised what she was doing and slowly retracted her delicate fingers without Will noticing. "You worked so hard."

Will picked at the tiny chocolate chips of his cookie with tired fingers and raised his eyes to meet Emma's. "Hey, at least we got to see New York." The sweet smile that accompanied his words included his own New York City romance that he knew wasn't even comparable to his Lima love gazing at him bashfully, her eyelids hooded with an emotion he couldn't quite place his finger on. It was a hint.

Emma was about to ask the question that had been weighing on her mind, threatening to escape from her lips, Why aren't you on Broadway, Will, but Will jumped in first.

"Where's all your stuff?"Will mumbled with his mouth full, and before she could cringe, Emma noticed the cookie crumbs resting on his bottom lip. Emma's inner slut ached to lick them off, while inner artist admired his perfectly sculpted flesh.

"It's umm...most of it is at Carl's." It wasn't a lie. He still had some of her boxes. Just not most of them.

"He's minding it for you?"

"Uhuh." Will raised his eyebrows at Emma's response as her gaze fixated on tracing the rim of her tea cup. Her tea cup from home, which she'd also brought along.

"I only moved back into my condo a few weeks ago, after the annulment," Emma explained truthfully. At least part of the whole story wasn't a lie. "So I've only taken a few things home." Emma looked up at Will, her eyes clouded over with embarrassment. Here was a man who had so much experience. He was smooth and sexy and confident, and he was well aware of the fact that she hadn't had sex with her dentist husband. She'd never had sex, period. "We aren't really on speaking terms for me to just go over and pick everything up."

The truth was, when Emma had moved back into her condo, that very day she had a moving truck pick up all of her things, to spare her the trouble of seeing Carl again. For a week she had spent lonely nights in tears and that had inevitably resulted in bright red air bags under her eyes that persisted for the week. Carl couldn't see her like that. He'd examine the puffiness beneath her makeup. He was a doctor with an accurate eye for these things. Well, not a real doctor. Still, she wouldn't let him see her tears of confusion to add to her list of failures.

Will was quick to shake his head in puzzlement, his eyes squinting as he tried to piece everything together. "Wait, you moved back to your condo? When did you move out?"

Emma appeared aged as she recounted the story, remembered herself in a happier time with Carl when she had been swept up by romance and blinded to the fact that inside, she was desperately confused and in love with another man who she would gladly share her bed with. "We umm...I moved in with him after Vegas. Into his house."

Will's face paled in devastation. "You never said anything." Perhaps a home life with Emma was better than sex with Emma. Concealed by his graphic late night fantasies of Officer Pillsbury, French maid Emma and Doctor Pillsbury, was the image of Emma brushing her teeth by at his basin, removing her makeup as she lectured about the local bed bugs 'epidemic', and sipping tea at his kitchen table as his bare foot tickled hers.

"You never asked." Emma's comment wasn't vindictive, but Will instantly felt cruel. He had been selfish, barely enquired about her life when it was too hard. She had suffered the same pain when he was married. She was stronger. Perhaps she had experienced more than Will perceived.

Yet, there was a ray of hope as the questioned popped into Will's mind. "You kept your condo, though?"

The moonlight complimented Will's spark of optimism as it glowed through Will's kitchen window and upon Emma's red hair.

"Carl wanted me to sell it; he figured that somehow it was holding me back. But its home." Emma shrugged. Then she coughed, saving her own skin. "Well, until yesterday."

Will nodded.

"Do you want me to go and pick the rest of your stuff up from Carl's?"

Emma's eyes widened in terror. "No, no! I mean, thank you. But no. I can do it myself."

Will smiled warmly, without pity, and purely the greatest amount of understanding that he could muster. "Okay, just let me know if you change your mind, Em."

Emma returned his smile and bashfully retraced her wide-eyed stare of gratitude from his. "It's late, you're probably really tired."

Will sighed again, and taking a look at his exhausted features, Emma decided it was best to not ask Will why he was home so early.

"I'll just go and get my clothes from your room, and I'll take the couch."

Will gulped at the thought Emma Pillsbury had undressed in his house. In his room. Had she used his shower? Oh God.

"No, no, Em." She turned around and blinked at Will curiously.

"You take the bed and I'll take the couch..."

Emma shook her head wildly, blushing at her own stupidity. Eight blocks over, her own bed was empty and waiting for her.

"Emma, please. I'm not going to have you sleeping on the couch. You take the bed."

Emma smiled softly, accepting Will's kindness and looking forward to resting between his sheets and inhaling his scent without the pressure of his naked body beside hers. "Okay."

"Oh, Em?"

Emma turned back to Will, her eyebrows raised slightly and her pools of brown radiating glee.

"Do you think that we could carpool to school tomorrow morning?"

Emma assured Will that carpooling was the least she could do. She would do so much more for him, as he would for her.

Shutting the bedroom door behind her, switching off the lights and climbing into Will's bed made Emma feel absolutely ridiculous. She'd have to tell Will at some point.

In the morning. She'd tell him in the morning.

Emma was making Will's bed the next day before they both left for school, preparing herself with a mental prep talk. She'd just come right out and say it. He wouldn't judge her. He'd probably laugh it off. It would all be okay.

"Knock, knock." Will pushed the door open slightly to find Emma fluffing the pillow.

"I heard you bustling about in here and I was wondering if it would be okay if I could unpack quickly before we leave?" Will asked politely, flashing a lopsided grin at Emma, standing there with her already perfect hair and a bright outfit. The pink skirt and orange floral blouse was a change from the nightgown she had been wearing the night before. For a lonely moment on the couch the night before, Will had imagined what it would have been like to rip it off her.

He wanted to unpack, Emma reiterated to herself while her heart soared. Ahhh, a man who could really take care of himself.

"Of course you can, Will. It's your home."

Will winked at Emma as he placed the suitcase on the neatly made bed, making Emma cringe slightly.

She was straightening the edges of the duvet when Will spoke up.

"I got you something in New York."

When his fingers brushed against her neck as he clasped the necklace, Emma shivered. A silver chain held a witches hat, the size of Emma's finger nail, against her sternum.

"There. Now you're a little bit 'Wicked'." Emma's face flashed the colour of her hair and inner slut pointed out that she always had been. His whisper in her ear was warm, and she wanted it all over her skin.

He was so good to her.

She had to tell him before this went too far. She couldn't handle dishonesty.

"Will, I-

His hands were subtly hiding material under a towel in his bag. Dark material. Navy polyester that felt amazing on Emma's skin. Almost as good as Will's sweet hands would, inner romantic added. Not nearly as good as his wet tongue, inner slut suggested.

"Is that my cardigan?"

Will appeared to be caught red handed, his eyes lighting up as he swallowed deeply.

"What?"

"My cardigan. The one you just shoved under your towel."

"Oh, so it is!" Will was beet red. "I didn't even notice."

"You must have accidentally taken it to New York with you," Emma prompted, craning her neck slightly to see his expression, hidden partially in his unpacked bag.

Will scoffed with a laugh, looking down to hide his embarrassment at the obviousness of the situation.

"Yep, must have."

He was keeping something from Emma, too. He'd stolen her cardigan along with her heart, and now she was bared to him.

What she was doing wasn't technically wrong. If she left now and went back to her apartment, they'd settle into their old routine, watching each other from a distance at school and never working through their problems. Lust. Desire. Love.

In the confined space of a Will's apartment, they'd be forced to test the waters. At some point, anyway.

No, she'd give them some more time.

"I noticed that you stocked the fridge..." Will commented as he poured himself a coffee.

While Will had unpacked, Emma had made breakfast. It was nice to cook for somebody else, to share a meal with someone. As she flipped the pancake in the fry pan, she looked down to admire the tiny silver hat against her freckled skin.

"No...I didn't, I just...It was just food I had in my cupboards. And my fridge..."

Emma placed a plate of pancakes down on the table for Will.

"Aren't you having any?"

Emma nodded her head and looked at the time. They still had an hour before school started. "I have soy milk, so I can't cook them in the same pan or they'll be contaminated by dairy."

Will nodded, glancing at the clock and appreciating the fact that they had more time to spend together. "I guess it worked out pretty well then that I came home to find you here! I would have gone hungry!"

Emma smiled to herself as she flipped her own pancake in the pan.

"Mmm, Emma." She flushed at the dramatic sounds he made as he devoured her pancakes. "These taste amazing."

She grinned again and a comfortable silence fell upon them.

"I have to make a presentation after school today at the meeting," Will told Emma, flicking through the paper he had picked up before he boarded the plane the night before. He hadn't had a chance to read it while chaperoning twelve glee clubbers.

"Really? I thought it was just an ordinary head of faculty meeting when I saw it on the notice board with your name," Emma mused as she sat down across from Will to eat her breakfast. "You know, ordinary. Figgins introduces Sue, Sue introduces her plans to cut the glee club's budget and restore it to her own because she wasted hers on an industrial strength vacuum cleaner."

"Why did she buy an industrial strength vacuum cleaner?"Will asked, leaning across to take one of Emma's pancakes. He couldn't even taste the soy milk. They were pretty good. He could get used to this.

"Last week when you were away she claimed there were bed bugs in her office."

Will's faced scrunched up in confusion, allowing Emma to adore the dimple in his chin.

"How would bed bugs get in her office?"

Emma appeared contemplative, her gaze resting on the tree outside the window.

"They found Jacob Ben Israel in there alone after hours..."

"In that case, I don't blame Sue."

Emma giggled. "So your presentation?"

"Right- the other Glee coaches from Western Ohio are visiting. I've been asked as the representative of the winning team of the district to introduce the new guidelines for travelling interstate with a Glee Club. Not that they will need any guidelines for Nationals next year. Rachel's already got a killer set list planned."

When they were finished breakfast and had cleaned the kitchen together, Will took his plate to the sink where Emma was finishing clearing up. She didn't see it coming, but when his lips fell on her soft cheek in a quick kiss of gratitude, her breath hitched. It was as if they did this every morning.

"Thanks Em."

Will grabbed two raspberry muffins and a cookie before he left to start Emma's car.

"Long day?"

Emma stepped into Will's classroom after five-thirty. She had waited for the other glee coaches to leave before she made her presence known, interrupting Will as he pried his choking away from his throat. A loose knot and an undone button. Perfect.

Will looked up at Emma from his chair and stopped shuffling through the folders on his desk.

"Em, you shouldn't have waited for me...I could have walked home."

Emma shook her head softly, a sweet smile forming on her pink lips. "It's no trouble, Will. I was listening to your presentation, anyway. It was great. You made them all jealous."

Will looked concerned, his intention to frighten them away from the high stake competition apparent in his fallen features.

Emma was quick to take back her words. "Very boring, though. I'm sure no teacher in their right mind wants to take a glee club to a big city now anyway. You scarred them off. They were jealous of your well behaved kids. Not the chance to see the big apple. I mean..."

Emma trailed off at Will's grin and they both laughed shyly. Emma straightened the phone on his desk, estimating an equal border of wood between the top and side of the receiver.

Will's features contorted in a smirk, which Emma examined when she quickly looked up to meet his gaze before it fell back to the phone on the desk. She was doing it again, being obsessive. And Will was watching her, the way her eyes brightened as the result of such a small accomplishment. The way her pink tongue slowly peeked out in concentration. The twitch of the corner of her lips in tiredness of caring.

"I'm getting better," Emma whispered, her gaze focused on the receiver, as though she were having a private conversation to the person on the other end of the phone line. "It's just that sometimes, I like to...indulge. My therapist says it's normal."

Will craned his neck to catch her gaze, and after a moment of thought and consideration of her own words, she gave him her attention.

"No, I wasn't smiling about that," Will assured Emma, the smile fading as truth sunk into his words. "I would never joke about your OCD."

Emma's eyes focused completely on Will's, utterly grateful for his sugar-laced words.

Will's stare was so intense that Emma struggled to find her thoughts, place her feet back on the ground of the same room she had danced for him in, her sweet voice belting out the risqué lyrics of a cult classic.

"Why were you smiling?" she demanded innocently.

"Nothing, it's just...Never mind."

"No, now you have me curious. What is it?"

Will licked his lips. "Well, last time we were alone in here, you certainly weren't worried about the angle of the phone on the desk. Well, you were, but you were more interested in ridding the table of all objects that made angles."

Emma swallowed harshly. She could feel her limbs lose feeling slightly and she knew, just knew, that the freckles on her cheeks were dusted upon a bright red canvas.

She began to stutter. "M-My therapist says that when I relax and focus on other things my OCD tends to, how would you say," Emma gestured to the air as she refused to settle her gaze on Will's, "...evaporate."

Will raised an eyebrow, making her sweat, and leant against his desk, the muscles of his now folded arms flexing.

"Does your therapist recommend that you focus on these distractions that relax you more frequently?"

"Yes."

Emma drew in a deep breath, a spark low in her abdomen lighting as Will watched her carefully. That feeling, a certain pressure in her belly, had been bothering her tremendously the last few weeks. Especially around Will. Or thinking about Will. It must be anxiety induced, Emma mused. She'd have to speak to her therapist about that.

"Maybe we should have you join the glee club then." Will smiled, packing his folders into his bag and dropping the conversation as he cleared up the desk.

Emma mentally weighed up her singing ability, comparing it to Rachel Berry's. She'd need years of practice to ever sing well enough to be of the standard Will taught.

"I think I'd need private lessons."

Will spun around, his eyes wide, and Emma realised how her innocent response had been taken to be of another meaning.

The intense stare bore into Emma's heated flesh once more, and she felt her chest heave with want and confusion.

"I think you would, too."

Emma's heart was pounding and her head screamed to tell him that wasn't what she meant. But god, he was looking at her with the look that scared her. Her entire body flushed, from hairline to her toes.

"Will..."she whispered in what sounded like a pant. And that's all he could think about- her panting in his ear as they writhed upon his bed sheets. Fast. Hard.

"Yeah?" his voice was husky.

"We should probably go now."

"Right."

He turned out the lights and Emma stopped in the door way as he fished for his keys in his messenger bag.

"It was the same cardigan..."she muttered quietly in thought.

"Huh?"

"The cardigan you took with you to New York. I was wearing the same cardigan that night...when we sang together. When I sang." Emma paused, and Will stepped beside her and leant against the doorframe. She was going to say something, her eyes glazed over in passion.

Her whisper was soft. "I thought about it all night."

He peered into her wide brown orbs as they stood between the doorway. His tired eyes delivered his entire side of the conversation. I've thought about it, too. I've thought about it too much. I've thought about your finger nails pressing tightly against my nipple. The soft hair at the nape of your neck on my fingertips. The shape of your calves when you pulled yourself up to sit along the bench. The heat of your body as your belly against my splayed fingers when the chair swivelled. And that's just the beginning of the infatuation. What haunts me is the sweetness of your breath mixing with mine as we panted. The way your back arched as you squirmed upon my desk, as though your tiny chest was offering itself to the heavens. Emma, I want to touch you. I want to put my hands on you and make you whimper.

"I'm talking about the cardigan," Emma informed, her eyes slowly lightening as Will snapped out of his daze that fixed his attention on Emma. It was always Emma. In his dreams, in his nightmares. In reality.

"I mean, it was just lying there all night at the front of the classroom. And you know what? The janitor never vacuums the front of the classroom, because he believes that teachers don't get spit balls pegged anywhere near their desks, which by the way, is a poor assumption."

Will laughed and placed his hand on the small of her back, his fingertips warm on the wool of her green pea coat. But she couldn't feel the texture, only the pressure.

Emma grinned. "You said you'd never laugh about my OCD."

"Trust me, I'm not."

AN: Thank you to everyone who reviews. I'm so glad that those who reviewed last week are enjoying this story. It's quite fluffy in comparison to other fics I've written, so it is very refreshing to write. Have a great weekend!