Disclaimer: you know the drill

A/N: Well the hats have proclaimed it's time for me to return to my old stomping grounds: romance written in the third person, and who am I to defy the hats? Once again I thank you all for the lovely reviews, it always makes my day to open my email and see a review alert waiting for me. FYI these one shots are temporally challenged (that is, they may be considered A/U based on events I include or ignore) so yeah…just so you know =)

Test, romance, third person omniscient

Will was sitting at his desk overseeing the midterm test for his freshman Spanish class and doing his best not to fall asleep; test days were always so dull. He'd wandered around the room a few times already, just to keep an eye on everything and some of the answers he'd skimmed as he passed made him cringe; it was as if the kids paid no attention when he spoke. Will sighed and checked his watch, only ten minutes to the end of the day.

"Ten minutes everyone!" he warned, and there was the requisite flurry of papers shuffling and pens scribbling as the students hastened to write something, anything, down on their test papers before they ran out of time. Will prowled the classroom one more time, and by the time he'd finished his circuit, the bell was ringing. He returned to his desk and sat, just as thirty test papers began their unwieldy descent onto his desk.

"A pile would be nice guys," Will mumbled, more to himself than the students as the stragglers filed out of the classroom. Will sighed and began to neaten the papers into a single stack before shoving them into his briefcase. When he looked up from his task, Emma was standing at the door, leaning a shoulder on the doorframe, arms crossed with a small smile on her lips.

"Ready to go?" Emma asked, pushing herself off the doorframe and walking over to perch delicately on the edge of Will's desk as he rubbed the chalkboard clean. Will brushed his hands off and held them open to Emma, waiting for the squirt of hand sanitizer he knew she'd be waiting with. Emma obliged, and then Will took her left hand in his, twisting the two bands in place on her ring finger before brushing a kiss along her knuckles. Emma blushed and stood from the desk, cursing herself that she still blushed so easily with her now husband's easy displays of affection.

"Ready," he told her, anxious to get home. They had been married three months now, and each week Will had been introducing a novel piece of intimacy into their relationship. Each little gesture got a one week test-run, which seemed the perfect amount of time for Emma to grow comfortable with it, before Will moved it up a notch. Each Friday meant something new and exciting but Will was rapidly running out of ideas. The furthest they'd gotten so far was cuddling in the pitch dark of the bedroom wearing nothing but underwear. Will had considered a simple next step, just adding a little bit of light so they could actually see each other, but had decided that wasn't enough. What was enough, he still wasn't entirely sure.

A few weeks after the wedding Emma had come home late from SAT prep, a Victoria's Secret bag clutched nervously to her abdomen and Will had spent the last month and a half fantasizing about what was in that bag. He saw the tissue wrapped lingerie in Emma's dresser each time she collected her undergarments before going to shower but he had yet to see what was hidden inside that pink tissue. He'd been contemplating peeking for the last week but reasoned with himself that Emma would let him see in good time, and he realized he'd probably appreciate it more if whatever it was remained a surprise.

Emma was still trying to get up the courage to actually unwrap the package and try everything on, let alone show it to Will. The purchase had been at the recommendation of Dr. Shane who thought that perhaps if Emma could learn to see herself in a more sensual way, she would find it easier to display affection and be intimate with Will. So far, no luck. Emma was not good at the whole visualizing thing Dr. Shane was trying, and having the props at her fingertips hadn't changed that.

Emma was beginning to worry that Will was going to become frustrated with her lack of progress in the intimacy department and, while she knew he'd never leave like Carl had, she wanted to start making bigger improvements for herself. Naively Emma had hoped that having the wedding band around her finger would make it easier to take that final step in her relationship with Will, regardless of the fact that such a ring had had no such significance the first time she'd tried it. So they remained at an impasse until Emma found some courage or until Will's experiment came to it's inevitable conclusion.

As Emma showered to prepare for bed, Will moved around the bedroom, placing candles on every available surface and lighting them as he went. The drive home had done nothing to inspire his sense of carnal whimsy so after dinner Will had fallen back on Plan B – a little lighting for their evening cuddle.

Emma gasped when she exited the bathroom, clutching her robe a little tighter as she took in the sight before her. The room was bathed in the muted, flickering glow of what she estimated to be more than fifty candles, and Will was doing his best to look totally innocent in bed beneath the covers waiting for her.

"Um, Will?" Emma said, "What's with the candles?"

"Nothing really," he lied, fascinated by the shimmer of her copper hair in the candlelight. "Come to bed."

Emma swallowed hard, and moved slowly to the bedside. Almost hesitantly, she pulled on the tie at the waist of her robe, before allowing the robe to fall to the floor. In very un-Emma-like fashion, she left the robe in a heap and dove beneath the covers, causing Will to chuckle. She turned to face him,

"What?" she asked indignantly, a little insulted by the laugh but more embarrassed than anything else.

"You are too cute Emma Schuester," Will told her, enjoying the way her new name rolled of his tongue. Beneath the covers, his hands found her waist, pulling her towards him and settling her against his body. Emma rolled over to smile at him before craning her neck to press her lips to his, willing her body not to tense or tremble as Will's fingers skated along the bare skin of her back. Pulling away, Emma settled her head on Will's chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart and finding herself feeling oddly relaxed. The blankets had slipped down and now barely covered Emma to her waist and it surprised her to realize that she felt comfortable with Will being able to see more of her body.

"You know every now and then I get frustrated and I think I'm not making any progress," Emma said, pushing herself up to look into Will's eyes, "And then I find myself like this, and I realize how far I've come."

"You are certainly not the same woman who once asked me to, and I quote, "Do the nasty," and I'm really proud of you Em."

Emma blushed and buried her head in Will's chest as the memory of running out of Will's apartment barefoot came flooding back. Who would have thought she'd be where she was now?

"I'm really proud of you Emma," Will told her, placing a kiss on the crown of her head. Baby steps, Will reminded himself, "Now let's blow out these candles and go to sleep."

Emma slid nervously from the bed, studiously keeping her back to Will as she gathered her robe from the floor. Will sighed inwardly, and reminded himself that this was just day one of "lights and undies" and he couldn't expect too much, too fast. Then, much to his surprise, Emma straightened up and moved to the closet to hang up the robe. Silently, they moved about the room extinguishing candles. After she doused the final candle, Emma disappeared into the bathroom and returned in her usual pyjamas but not before Will got to appreciate her in nothing but a violet satin bra and panties.

Saturday found Will marking Spanish tests on the couch as Emma cleaned the apartment from top to bottom around him. It would have been a boring, lazy day if not for one little fact – the pink tissue wrapped package from Emma's drawer had been gone this morning when Will had peeked as she neatly put away her laundry and he hadn't been able to think of anything else since. Hundreds of potentialities ran through his mind as he laboured through the poorly answered Spanish tests but Emma acted no differently than usual as she scrubbed and cleaned.

At seven Will called it quits and asked Emma if she wanted to go out for dinner, biting his tongue to keep from asking about the Victoria's Secret package. Smiling sweetly, with just a hint of something unidentifiable in her eyes, Emma agreed and went to shower and change. Will sat on the couch, staring unseeingly at the television as he daydreamed.

Dinner at Breadstix was, well, dinner at Breadstix. The food was mediocre and the atmosphere left something to be desired but neither Will nor Emma noticed. Though they carried on conversation as usual, Emma and Will were distracted, and both for the very same reason. Will was continuing to imagine what had been in the package and when he was going to get a chance to see it while Emma was just focused on the fact that she'd found the courage to put it on.

Emma was trying very hard to act normal but she could feel her control slipping as she and Will sat curled together on the couch after dinner. Will was bursting with the need to ask, but so scared of frightening Emma away, he was holding out and waiting for her to be ready.

At eleven Will had resigned himself to not finding out what was in the package as they headed down the hallway to the bedroom. Emma had given no indication that anything was out of the ordinary and he was feeling a little deflated and depressed.

Emma, on the other hand, had only just cemented her resolve to try and find the sensual being Dr. Shane insisted Emma harboured somewhere deep (very deep) inside. When they entered the bedroom Will moved to go to the bathroom but Emma stopped him with a hand on his wrist. Will turned to face her, feeling cautiously optimistic once more.

Will could still see the uncertainty in Emma as she leaned in to kiss him but he quickly forgot as her lips slid across his. Will could taste her lipstick, and it's a taste he'd found himself craving. He'd never considered lipstick tasty or erotic until he'd kissed it off of Emma's perfect mouth and he could feel himself growing hard as his mind wandered to imagine her lips pressed in other places. Her hands fisting in his shirt, Emma walked backwards to the bed, guiding Will with her and falling to the bed with a giggle, pulling him down on top of her.

Emma moveed up the bed, manoeuvring Will along with her as though she's done this a thousand times and Will wonders where this confidence is coming from. Settled comfortably into the pillows, Emma attacks Will's mouth again before he gains enough breath or coherence to question her.

Bold and brassy was not generally Emma's style, but damned if she cared tonight. Meek and mild Emma had been checked at the door and it seemed like all that therapy and all those medications were culminating into this one particular moment. She has created this three-ring circus that is her life and their relationship so it is only fair that she be the ringmaster. Emma's tongue seeks entrance to Will's mouth, dancing along his lips, and Will gladly complies.

Sitting up, Emma's hands move to Will's shirt, sliding it over his head so that she can see his chest and she scrapes her nails lightly down the newly exposed skin. Moving back to her comfort zone, Emma leans in to kiss him again, tensing briefly as Will's warm hands slide up her thighs beneath her skirt. He reaches the top of her stockings and pulls away,

"Are you wearing a garter belt?" Will asks incredulously, his eyes widening in surprise. Emma bites her lip and nods as his fingers explore the novelty of thigh high silk stockings. Something deep inside him aches to see her without the skirt so he asks permission with his eyes as his fingers move to the zipper of the skirt. Bravely, Emma nods, her breath coming out in a whoosh as Will slides the skirt down her legs. Will groans. As he expected, the lacy black garter belt holding up sheer stockings is the sexiest thing he's ever seen. Will is so mesmerized by the sight before him, he barely notices when Emma shrugs out of her blouse.

"Thought you might like to see the whole picture," Emma whispers. It's all Will can do not to ravish her right then. Emma remains self-consciously still in the centre of the bed, unsure what to do next.

"Where did all this come from?" Will asks, sliding a finger under the strap of her black satin bra. Emma shrugs,

"Dr. Shane suggested I try some things that might make me feel sexy to help me feel more comfortable with intimacy. It's working," Emma tells him, and waits for the light in Will's eyes as he grasps her meaning.

"Really Em?" Will asks, still so gunshy.

"I'm ready to try," Emma says with all the confidence she can muster.

Will is slow, patient and gentle, as Emma always expected he would be but he's also hungry and it surprises her how much she likes that side of him. It takes him nearly twenty minutes to get her completely naked and it is only when he slides his jeans and boxers off that Emma starts to tremble.

"Damn it!" Emma curses her body's betrayal, and Will's eyes widen in shock. Rather than fully retreating as he once would have done, Will continues to take things slowly, his hands and mouth exploring Emma's body. The shaking increases in intensity as Will's lips brush up the inside of Emma's thighs but she becomes utterly still when she feels his tongue slide across her in the most intimate way possible. Pulling away Will checks in,

"Okay Em?"

Emma can only nod, her fingers tangling through Will's hair as he lowers his mouth to her again. Emma finds release quickly and is surprised to find her body wanting more. She tugs Will up and into a kiss, hesitating only slightly when she tastes herself on his lips.

"Please Will," she begs, at a loss for more eloquent phrasing. A technicolour kaleidoscope explodes behind her eyelids as Will satisfies her plea. It is over too quickly but they both know that big things will come of this night, and this is only the beginning of their explorations of each other.

"I love you Will."

"I love you too Em," Will says, "Remind me to send Dr. Shane flowers in the morning"

Emma laughs, "Goodnight Mr. Schuester."

"Goodnight Mrs. Schuester."

A/N: Well that was unexpectedly difficult. I wrote more than 2000 words, scrapped it, and started over and I'm still not entirely happy. Who'd have thought this chapter would be the most difficult so far? Hope you all enjoyed it!

Up next: Weapon, friendship, 3rd person (WTF am I going to do with that?)