"Ward, I don't see the point. I don't have the physical strength for this. There's a reason why I'm not a field agent, like you, and I'm always in a lab," Fitz said as he rubbed his neck, where the scalpel had been pressed against the skin a few days ago.

"Fitz. You were almost killed," Ward said, his face was tense as he looked down at the young scientist. "We're doing this that way you can at least defend yourself more properly."

"But—"

"May is doing the same thing for Simmons so you're not getting out of this."

An exasperated sigh Fitz before nodding slowly. Using physical strength obviously wasn't his strong suit and it had terrified him when he'd been held at a scalpel's end, completely unable to do anything. He knew that Coulson had put Ward up to this for there was no way that the agent would otherwise willingly be in the same room as he was. The Scottish man simply didn't think he belonged in the field despite Simmons telling him that he was ready.

"Good. Now tell me. How did the guy grab you?" Ward asked as he crossed his arms, gaze unwavering.

Fitz fidgeted under the dark haired man's gaze before answering softly. "He…my shirt…"

"What?"

"I said that he grabbed the front of my shirt!" Like one of those school bullies when they've got you cornered.

An unreadable look appeared in Ward's eyes, Fitz couldn't identify it but if he had to take guess it was almost like he heard the unsaid words. But that was ridiculous, so it was probably just that Ward had the same thought process. 'I really shouldn't be reading too much into this,' Fitz thought as ran his fingers through the short light brown hair.

"I'm going to teach you how to get out of that simple hold first and then we'll move on afterwards," He informed the shorter man before he tapped his own chest. "Grab my shirt."

"What?" Fitz blanched a little.

"Grab. My shirt. I'm going to show you first and then you're going to do it," Ward arched a brow at him before he tapped his chest again.

Well…there was definitely no getting out of this one. Fitz hesitated for a moment before he raised his hand and grabbed Ward's shirt. He tried very hard not to think of the hard muscles he'd felt or the faint feeling of the other's heartbeat and just looked up at Ward, waiting for further instructions. He was not blushing!

"Okay, there are a few different ways to get out of this hold. Say the guy had his fist up—" He grabbed Fitz's other wrist and raised it up making the rocket scientist let out a small squeak at the sudden contact. The agent moved his arm so it wouldn't look so awkward and made Fitz form a fist but it didn't really make it stop from looking awkward. "— the most effective way is to slam the heel of your palm as hard as you can to their nose."

"But won't that hurt me as well?" Fitz interrupted after Ward had demostrated what he would do.

"Your hand will hurt but it's worth it if it'll give you a chance to get away from danger since their reaction would be to let go and get in a defensive position," He continued and tapped the other's hand to get him to let go of his shirt. "Your turn now."

"I really should go back to the lab and—"

"Fitz." A stern look came with that hard tone.

Swallowing hard he nodded and took a deep breath. It didn't stop him from flinching when Ward grabbed his shirt and that unreadable look went through the taller man's eyes again. But he didn't have time to think about it right now.

"Okay, now you're going to do what I just showed and use the heel of your palm—"

THWACK!

"Motherfuck—!" He let go of Fitz's shirt to cup his nose and, was that blood he was feeling, yes it was.

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so, so sorry! You said to do what you did! And, and…"

"You didn't let me finish! You actually made me bleed!" Ward stared down at the young brunet who looked like a sad puppy. "I was going to tell you to do it slowly and not to actually hit me."

After having stopped the Ward's nose from bleeding anymore and going through a couple more basic defensive lessons Fitz immersed himself in tinkering with a little side project he'd started a while back. He still felt awful for hitting Ward and making him bleed a bit…though it took a couple of minutes to get the bleeding to stop but the point was that he still felt bad. Other than that though he'd learned a few things from Ward today and it was nice to get along with the other man for once instead of arguing and being told to speak 'English' every few seconds.

"Ah, Fitz, just the person I was looking for," Simmon's voice came floating in and the brunet glanced over his shoulder, smiling at her.

"Simmons! How did your self-defense class with Agent May go?" He asked, wondering if she had had better luck than he did and that she didn't accidentally do something like what he did with Ward.

"My what?" His smile dropped into a frown at that response.

"Agent May didn't give you any lessons for some basic self-defense because of what happened?"

Simmons just watched Fitz for a moment before slowly shaking her head. "No, I was with Skye talking about her hacking skills all afternoon."

"Wait, then…" A confused look crossed his features before a thought hit him.

'He cares…' A slow smile started forming on the young man's lips that had Simmons asking if he was alright.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this. I posted this on tumblr first for a prompt that was given to me. :)