Airborne (Secret Santa: for kristen)

[ooo]

Title: Airborne

Author: Me (Lizzie)

Fandom: Glee

Disclaimer: Sadly, no, not mine.

Spoilers: Not really?

Warnings: Nope.

Author Notes: Secret Santa for kristen, for the prompt: Will Schuester comes down with the flu or a cold and Emma Pillsbury has to run some paperwork from school to his house. When she finds him sick and all alone, she feels the need to take care of him, but also feels the urge to run away. She decides to stay and has to awkwardly try to take care of him all the while suffering from her hypochondria. Her devotion to helping him even though she's freaking out yields a deeper romantic connection!

I don't think I really got the deeper romantic connection in there, but there's room for imagination, at least? Hope this resembles what you were looking for Happy Christmas in...September?

***

It figures, somehow, that Will Schuester would be the kind of teacher who turns up to work until he's physically incapable. He's been looking peaky for days, so when on Wednesday morning he's not at the staff meeting, she volunteers to cover his classes and bring him the ever-mounting pile of marking that adorns a teacher's desk.

She spends the rest of the day regretting it, when eighteen visits from worried Glee-clubbers - most of them Rachel Berry - interrupt what would have otherwise been a relatively peaceful day.

'Yes,' she says, over and over. 'Mr. Schuester's fine; I'm sure it's just a cold. Yes, I'll let him know you're concerned. Yes, I'm sure he knows about Vitamin C. Yes, I'm sure he'll be back for this week's rehearsal.'

She's regretting it even more when she's standing outside Will's front door that evening, thinking about airborne contamination and why on earth she thought this had been a good idea.

She hasn't even knocked when he pulls open the door, pale face poking around through the gap. 'Oh! Emma, hi. I thought I heard a car pull up.'

He's looking at her expectantly. 'I - I took your Spanish class, today. For the - the test.' She can't stop watching his hands, his face; can't help thinking of all the germs crawling there, along his skin, transferred to everything he touches.

'Oh.' He smiles. 'Thanks, Emma. Uh, hang on.' He pulls the door closed, and she hears the sound of wet coughing behind the barrier. The sound stops, and he sniffles. She stares at the ground, not thinking of infection - not thinking of infection -

'Was it - the marking, you brought over?'

She starts. 'Oh! Yes. I - it's right here.'

He accepts the stack of papers. She notices the way his eyes linger for a minute on the perfectly aligned edges. 'Thanks.'

She stands awkwardly on the doorstep, afraid to move closer or to move away.

'I don't want to get you sick,' Will says, looking at her curiously.

'No,' she agrees, hesitantly.

He smiles, a tired quirk of his lips that still manages to reach his eyes. 'Thanks again for the, uh, papers.'

She nods. 'No problem.'

The door's nearly shut when she throws a hand out. 'Wait!'

His face appears in the opening. 'What's up?'

She pauses, takes a deep breath in. And another one. 'Can I come in?'

***

Sitting on the couch, his eyelids are fluttering. His head tips back, mouth falling open. 'hhHH - kk'TCSHSH!' He catches it in a hand, twisted sharply away from her, but she can't help but recoil slightly. 'Aw, geez. Emma, I'm sorry.'

She shakes her head, eyes wide. 'No, don't, it's - it's okay, it's -'

She's fidgeting on the seat, imagining the germs crawling over her hands, her face; imagining the air she's breathing full of contamination.

He smiles gently. 'It's okay, Emma. You can get up to wash your ha-aah...nds...hh...'

She's out of the room when she hears the second sneeze, harsh and forceful, muffled by a sleeve. 'hh'XXXRshshh!' He breathes out shakily, and she can just picture him rubbing a hand over his forehead, eyes closed. 'Damn it.'

'Bless you!' she calls out, and manages to almost keep her voice from wavering.

'Thagks.'

She hears the sound of thick nose-blowing and winces, breathes in deep through her nose. 'Okay,' she whispers to herself, and then jumps when she hears footsteps behind her.

'Oh! You scared me.'

He grins, joining her at the sink. 'Sorry. Thought it might help if I washed mine too,' he offers hesitantly.

She smiles, forces herself not to look at his hands, not to think of how he'd sneezed into them so wetly. 'Thanks, Will.'

The way he looks at her then almost makes her forget about the germs altogether. 'No problem. Thanks for staying.'

Touched, she busies herself finding a towel to dry her hands. 'You should really be in bed, you know. You're not going to get any better wandering around the house all day.'

'I'm going, I'm going.' Pausing at the sink, he grips tight at the counter, breathing slowly. He's pale, mouth tight.

'Will?'

He blows out a breath.

'Yeah.'

'You're really sick, aren't you?' She takes his hand between two of hers. 'Can you walk?'

He closes his eyes. 'Yeah. Just a bit dizzy.'

He takes his hands off the counter, grips tight on her arm to keep his balance.

'Hey, hey. You're okay.'

He's unsteady on his feet, but leaning a little weight on Emma's shoulder, Will makes it to his bed, where he gratefully collapses. He toes off his shoes and she tugs the covers up, smoothes them around his shoulders, ironing out the wrinkles.

'Okay. Okay, there we go.' She's not entirely sure whether she's talking to him or to herself. 'That's right.'

He looks so vulnerable, lying there, that Emma suddenly hates that she isn't like everyone else; that she can't stomach the thought of the most natural caring gestures in the world.

She presses a clean hand to her lips, plants a hand-kiss on his forehead. As he looks up, she panics at the awkwardness of the gesture, smoothes it into a gentle hand through his hair.

'Emma?'

'Shh. It's me.'

He sighs softly, head sinking into the pillow. 'Thangks.'

She smiles. 'I'll check in again tomorrow. Try to get some sleep.'

***

Three minutes under running water and wash twice with antibacterial soap. That's what all the experts are recommending this year. The entire outfit goes through three cycles with disinfectant laundry detergent before she's happy with it.

She's still not sorry she stayed.

***

[Evergreen]

ahhhh! thank you so much. that was amazing! i loved the hand kiss. it was adorable!

[lattelover09]

Wow! That was really great characterization. Hope to see more.

[Sawyer]

I LOVED THIS. They were both SO IN CHARACTER and Will's sneezes were so delicious and he was just fantastically miserable. The concept was fantastic, and you certainly did it justice. You're a fantastic writer!

[swann_ee_song]

This was so cute!

And you have Emma down to a T.

[tma]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

A Will/Emma fic. A sweet Will/Emma fic. A cutely caring and sweet and akward Emma. AND to top it all of sneezyWill!!!!!!!!!!!

My day is now made.

YAY!

[LOSTfreak]

That was beautiful! I can imagine everything so vividly in my head.

[Lady Blessington]

I read this right after watching 2.02, so the characters were super-fresh in my mind. You nailed them.

[obsessed]

RAWR. So well characterized, and so asdlfjksadf. Oh gosh that's lovely <3

[Jorm]

Aaaaaaw! This is so sweet! I'd love to see more

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Awwwww

I really like the awkward caretaking thing... awesome fic.

[27jj]

Mmmm, Mr. Shu with a cold Haven't seen any of that before, and I like it:) And I agree with everyone, you've got the characters down amazingly!! Great fic:)

[scarlett_ohara2]

EEEEP!! I've never even seen Glee, and I loved this! The hand-kiss was so adorable. Awwwww. And the fact that she stayed even though she was scared of the germs (I haven't seen the show, so is she slightly OCD?).

[djcatdj]

this is amazing