A/N: This piece was written for a shuffle ficlet challenge on tumblr - and it got away from me. :) Think of it as a missing scene from The First Time, if you'd like. Songs are the Lea/Darren "Tonight" duet from West Side Story and "Tonight" by Visitors. Thanks for reading, and I'd love you forever if you let me know what you think and review!

"It all began tonight - I saw you and the world went away."

"Just so you don't have any doubt in your mind, I'm ready for whatever happens here tonight."

Blaine isn't sure when it starts exactly. He thinks it might have been that day in the coffee shop, but maybe it wasn't so long ago, maybe it's only when they start practicing for West Side Story. Maybe it's when Artie is barking at him to hold her closer, to connect with her, to feel her, and suddenly he can't hear Artie anymore. Everything is big chocolate doe eyes and sumptuous lips and a voice reverberating above Artie's with a warmth and richness that makes Blaine forget that there is a world outside it. He is Tony, seeing his Maria for the first time.

And it scares the hell out of him.

The worst part is that he thinks Rachel felt it, too. He saw the way her breath hitched a little, adding a flicker of uncertainty to her performance that caused Coach Beiste to let out a broken sob somewhere in the distant background, and he felt the way her little hands suddenly tightened on his, just for a second, but long enough to make him wonder if this was just another example of her incredible acting skills, or if her heart was stuttering as much as his.

Then Artie is making uncomfortable comments about virginity and Blaine is shifting nervously and thinking about Kurt and trying really hard to worry about things other than the small, dark diva standing beside him.

The weeks leading up to the play don't help. They're together all the time, costuming, choreography, line readings, singing. Blaine is quickly discovering why Kurt and Rachel are such good friends. She's a lot like his boyfriend, but with all the cynical sarcasm replaced by an extra load of ambition, and surprisingly funny. They bond over songwriting and baking and a healthy appreciation for the magic that happens whenever they open their mouths.

Kurt tells him one day that she spent years as an outcast even among the glee club – where Kurt himself was so quickly accepted – and it breaks Blaine's heart a little. Kurt swears it was all because Rachel was selfish and arrogant, but Blaine quietly disagrees. He knows what it feels like to be ostracized because people are jealous of your talent, and the memory of his first years at Dalton is enough to make him want to hug Rachel and never let go.

And somewhere along the way, when Rachel arranges for Wes, David, Nick, and Jeff to show up at McKinley and surprise him, Blaine realizes that he's gotten a friend for life out of this thing, a friend he'll still be cooking dinner for every week in the apartment he shares with Kurt when they're in their forties.

The only thing that makes their friendship any less than perfect is that sometimes, when he closes his eyes, it's Rachel he's sharing the future apartment with.

It's terrifying.

Then one night on the way home from rehearsal, Rachel stops his heart.

"I just really think we should at least try a few things. Our vocals on "One Hand, One Heart" are flawless as always but I'm not certain I can deliver realism when the only time we've ever even kissed we were wasted." Her brow furrows and her voice drops. "Not to mention Finn's barely touched me since I tried to get him to sleep with me…"

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Blaine tugs vainly at his collar as Rachel inches closer, batting her eyelashes and nibbling on the side of her lip. "Rachel, we both have boyfriends –"

"Loving, understanding boyfriends who do nothing but encourage our burgeoning careers in show business! They would understand a little "fooling around" for the sake of the stage!" Blaine bites back a chuckle at her use of finger quotes. "It's just making out. It's not like it would mean anything. We're just friends and colleagues embracing our roles – you're gay, for heavens' sake –"

Something twinges a little in Blaine's chest. Not in a good way. But he doesn't feel it for long because in the next second, he makes the decision to go along with Rachel's crazy little plan. "OK. But I have two conditions."

Rachel lights up. "Name 'em, Tony."

"One, we don't tell Kurt and Finn about this until the play's over. I don't need any more stress in my life."

"Done."

"Two, you go antiquing with me Sunday, after which we go to your house and I teach you how to bake the most incredible vegan cheesecake you never knew existed."

"That is romance," Rachel beams.

"Well, I'm not some floozy."

Blaine's cheeks flare up when Rachel hugs him. "I know I said it before but I am so glad you are my Tony, Blaine Anderson," she effuses into his neck.

Blaine just drops his chin to her shoulder and smiles.

He's sweating.

Blaine's one of those guys who sweats rivers when he's working out or performing, but he's never been a nervous sweater, and now all of a sudden his whole body is clammy even though all he's doing is standing and breathing outside Rachel Berry's door. He's been over dozens of times before, but usually with Kurt or an armful of audition pieces, and this time is different. This time there won't be a musical theatre repertoire or a protective boyfriend or her two gay dads having a heart-to-heart between them. It will just be Rachel. The thought is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.

He's two seconds (really) from ringing the doorbell when the door swings open and there she is, dressed all in white with her hair in a loose ponytail. "Hi," she says, all shy and demure and quiet and where the hell is his loud, energetic Rachel when he needs her? He half falls through the door, feeling a flush go from his toes to the tip of his head when she looks up at him and touches his jacket with a soft "can I take this?"

Blaine arches out of the jacket and hands it to her. She disappears around the corner, her white skirt fluttering for a second behind her, and Blaine takes a moment to breathe. Then she's back, still smiling softly. She is weirdly ethereal in all that virginal white, and it hits Blaine that she's wearing it so she can be in character. The reminder that this is all for the sake of acting, and that he's just Tony, not Blaine, makes it a lot easier to breathe. He works up the courage to grin and say, "Maria?"

"Tony," Rachel replies, complete with Puerto Rican accent. She pauses for dramatic effect, letting a dreamy smile drift across her face.

Then she bursts out laughing and bounds across the distance between them to grab his hand. "Come on, we've got to get this making out done so we can go over "Somewhere" again before you leave!"

"I can't imagine how Finn resisted this kind of romance," he mutters.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

She leads him into her bedroom and shoves him toward the bed, closing the door behind them. Blaine leans back into the bright bedspread and looks around. He's been in here before, but it still makes him smile - it's so Rachel. And then the bed creaks and she's climbing toward him, grinning. "My dads are out of town, so we don't have to worry about any intrusions," she says, and Blaine doesn't know why that sounds so sexy, but it does and all at once his breath hitches a little as Rachel closes the little remaining distance between them and leans her forehead against his. "You're sure you're OK with this, right? For the sake of the play?"

The anticipation of being nose to nose with her makes Blaine's breathing embarrassingly ragged. "I'm sure."

And then she's twisting her head to press a chaste, close-mouthed kiss to his lips, and then another, this time sliding a hand up and into the side of his hair, and then a third. It takes Blaine that long to remember that this isn't a dream and he should be participating, too, and he moves with her into the fourth kiss. His hands search for purchase, coming to rest on the back of her neck and her side, his thumb grazing over a rib through her frothy dress. It's not like kissing Kurt, it's different, but it's no less pleasurable. There's something about these kisses, so tight-lipped and demure, that makes them achingly hot. They're a slow build to better things, and Blaine enjoys them until he feels like he'll explode if they don't move on, and makes the kiss open.

Rachel makes a noise that has Blaine's hands tightening and follows suit, moving with him as his lips drag wet and hot across hers. Then she pulls back, gasping for breath. "This is still OK, right?" she manages. She looks positively dizzy with kissing, and instead of answering Blaine just pulls her back to him and goes back to work.

He gasps when she pulls his bottom lip into her mouth and dances across it with her tongue, her teeth, then kisses him even more enthusiastically than before. Without thinking, he pulls her toward him, closer, and suddenly her hand brushes across his thigh –

The intake of breath this time occurs while their mouths are still sealed, and Blaine winces and quickly releases her when he realizes that he's just sucked the air out of her lungs. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I-" he mutters incoherently.

"Do that again," she answers hazily. Blaine looks up at her in shock, and sees her big warm chocolate eyes nearly blotted out by her dilated pupils.

"You want me to –"

"Yes." It comes out more as a moan than a word and Blaine can't argue, he's pressing his mouth against hers again and breathing deep, feeling light-headed as the extra air fills his lungs. Rachel whines and rubs her fingers deep into the muscle of his shoulders. Blaine stops the pull of breath again, worried that she's protesting, but she punches him in the shoulder and he breathes, feeling her pleasure in the action with every dig of her fingertips against his skin.

He has to stop when he feels like passing out from all the unexpected oxygen, damning her superior lung capacity, and she reels, gasping in the air around her. "Oh my goodness," she mutters.

"You like it that much?" Blaine manages to ask, still panting.

"I didn't even know until just now and oh my goodness – I'm so sorry, making out with your castmate is so not the time to discover you're a sexual deviant but –"

Blaine can't help giggling. "It's OK."

"You're sure?" she asks, still breathing raggedly as she looks up at him.

"Yeah." He pulls her toward him again and just hugs her. "Um, actually – if it feels so good – do you think I could try –"

He doesn't even finish the sentence before Rachel's pressing him down into the bed, changing the game entirely, and dragging the air out of his lungs at breakneck speed. It feels like nothing Blaine's ever felt before, the helplessness of it, the cold rush as the air leaves his lungs faster than he thought possible, the slight sense of panic as she empties them entirely, the tugging feeling of the need for breath like being underwater for too long. It's a fog of pleasure he would never have imagined, and he wonders what it says about him that he enjoys it. He tangles his fingers up into her hair, discarding the rubber band to let the dark waves slide over her shoulders and his hands as he fights the need to breathe in.

When the world goes hazy for a second, he twists his head away, desperate for breath and watching the room spin as his lungs fill with air again. "Shit, that feels -"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, it just feels so good on this side, too, are you OK-"

"I'm perfect," he growls.

"Oh."

There's a soft thunk as Rachel collapses beside him on her bed, and it's quiet except for their labored breathing. "That was –"

"Yeah."

After a few minutes, he rolls onto his side to look over at her. Her lips are red and her hair is mussed and Blaine knows that's supposed to be what makes him want to ravish her, but it doesn't. What makes him want to ravish her is the blissful look she has on her face, the little smile that makes his chest twinge.

"Do you feel like your delivery of Tony will be satisfactory now?" she says, her eyes finally focusing to look at him.

"I don't know… how do you feel about your performance of Maria?"

She giggles. "Well, I think it will be much improved… but one can always be better." "I agree. We want to be as realistic as possible, right? A little more practice couldn't possibly hurt." Blaine rolls over until he's hovering above her, eyes dark.

"Practice makes perfect," Rachel chimes.