Because I am Night Vale trash.

Jemma removed the headphones, hanging them around her neck, leaning back in her seat. She watched as the "On Air" flickered off. She sighed, today had been somewhat uneventful, well compared to a normal day, it could be deemed as uneventful (despite the fact that an intern had been lost, but that was not unusual for community radio. It was an occupational hazard).

Flicking her eyes to the clock, she decided that she had time to head to the shop where Trip worked before heading home. She was tired, having been up since the early hours of the morning and all she wanted to do was go home and sleep but she needed something to eat. She hadn't any food left in her apartment and she desperately needed food.

Leaving the station, she kept her head down, ignoring the black SUV, (where the agents from the vague yet menacing government organisation usually hung out), parked just at the edge of the parking lot and headed to the shop, making her way around it quickly, lifting on a few cans and throwing them on the counter. All she wanted to do was get home, have something to eat and sleep.

Trip looked up at her from the counter, smiling. She smiled back. "You okay?" he asked, sensing that something was wrong. She had seemed off in her radio show, distant even. It could be expected, another intern was lost. As much as she didn't show it, she did care for the interns. And over the years since she had taken over the radio show, she had lost a number of them.

"Mmmh," Jemma looked up at Trip, now longer scanning the tins of food. "Oh, yeah I'm fine." But there was a nervousness about her, something that made it seem as if she were lying.

"I'm sorry" Trip said, attempting to make conversation were it was so clear that conversation was not wanted.

Jemma cocked her head.

"About Donnie," Trip clarified, passing the bag over to Jemma. She smiled a sad smile and thanked him both for his condolences and the bag of food and then left, heading back to her apartment. No one else spoke to her on her walk home like they usually would, asking her about how her day had been, how she was, thanking her for warning them of the impending threats threatening Night Vale. But none of that occurred today, no one spoke to her. She knew why off course. Donnie's death. People had a tendency to avoid her when she lost an intern, wanting her to mourn in peace.

But she hated that. She hated that they avoided her, left her alone. She had been alone for so long, so very much of her life. She had friends, but they didn't understand her, no one really did. She was so very alone in this world (and the other one that she had been on).

Making her way to her apartment, she opened it, and once inside, she set the bag of cans on the ground. And when she turned around she screamed, he shouldn't have been sitting there. He should not have been sitting there, in the chair that was beside her bed.

"Hi," he said awkwardly, as she calmed down and she eyed him suspiciously, while self-consciously pulling her beanie down over her forehead.

She didn't answer, just continued to stare him down. Until he spoke again. "You spoke about me. On the radio."

Of course she had. He was new to Night Vale and everyone had wanted to know about him. And now everyone knew about him. Though not in the way they had expected. They knew about her thoughts on him. How she thought that he was perfect, and so incredibly handsome (and how that she was annoyed that he had gotten his perfect curls cut off (Curse you Ward, curse you)). She just didn't know that he had listened to the radio himself. He was an outsider. Why would he be interested in their strange little town? Why had he come here in the first place even?

"You heard?" was all that she could respond with, all of her confidence leaving her. She was also still very tired, and wanting to sleep, something that was no longer possible with the surprise of this unexpected (but not wholly unwanted guest).

He nodded, and said nothing else. There was an awkward tension in the air.

"How did you even get here?" she asked, deciding that he wasn't going to leave and making (awkward) conversation was the best way to approached the situation at hand.

He shrugged. "You have a lot of friends. And once I told them who I was, they were more than happy to help."

"Daisy?" Jemma asked, and Fitz nodded in response. Jemma closed her eyes, both in frustration and embarrassment.

"Do you really think I'm handsome?" he asked her, and she nodded, face burning red with embarrassment. "Jemma, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. You didn't do anything wrong." And he thought as an after thought, you are incredibly beautiful yourself. And so very intelligent if your shows are anything to go by.

"I didn't?" she opened one eye, cautiously.

When she saw him nodding, she opened the other, sighing in relief. He smiled at her, and in reply she returned the smile, and gave a slightly sad one back.

"Are you okay?" he asked, picking up on this.

She shrugged. "It's just… I don't know. I feel different." Different was the best way that she could describe the emotion. A more accurate picture would be a number of butterflies fluttering in her stomach and her heart pounding in her chest. She was feeling something similar to nervous excitement. But she couldn't find the words to speak this sensation aloud.

"You lost someone today. You lost that intern, Donnie. It's okay to feel weird about that."

She shook her head. No it wasn't that. "It's not that. He's not the first intern that I lost, and he won't be the last one."

Fitz look slightly horrified at this.

"Curse of the interns," Jemma explained, sitting down, cross legged on the bed. "Most interns suffer something horrible, myself included." Seeing Fitz's even more horrified look, she continued. "I was… I was trapped on another planet for… I don't know how long. But for so long. I didn't see the sun in all that time. It was only because Carlos managed to get me home."

"Carlos?"

"Cecil's boyfriend. The old radio host. They left Night Vale a while ago. I took over."

Fitz nodded, slowly unsure of what to say to this. "And now you're the host."

She nodded, the beanie flapping slightly.

"Are you not hot in that hat?"

She bit her lip anxiously. "There's something… There are things about me Fitz."

"Are you embarrassed?"

She shrugged, unsure of what to say. Because she did want Fitz to like her. She did want to see if there was any hope of a future together. Reaching up, slowly removed the beanie.

Once she did, Fitz gasped.

"Is that real?"

She nodded.

"Can I?"

She nodded again.

He leaned over, and allowed his for his fingers to trail over the mark that adorned her forehead. A purple eye. It seemed almost to be branded there.

"It allows me to see everything," she explained once he took away his fingers. "For me to be able to present the show."

He didn't seem to be phased by it. "Have you always had it?"

She shook her head. "I only got it after Cecil left. Showed that I was the one to take over. And I've been doing it ever since. Presenting the radio I mean."

He had no reply to it, just took time to absorb this information. Then, "You said things. You said there were things about you."

Biting her lip, she nodded. "I did and there are. Would you like to see?"

"If only you want to. Don't be doing things just because you have something to prove. Do them because you want to."

"I do want to do this, everyone in town knows anyway," she said as she started to unbutton her blouse.

"Um, Jemma?" Fitz asked but she laughed.

"I'm wearing a vest," she said as she shrugged the fabric of her, and watched Fitz.

He gave an audible gasp as he saw what else adorned her body. Tattoos covered her arms, purple and black. So many symbols. So much he couldn't make sense of.

They were hypnotizing.

They drew him in.

They were beautiful.

She smiled weakly at him. "This is me Fitz. The real me. Not just the voice on the radio that everyone seems to think I am. I am… I'm so much more than that but they never get to know that. Not really. And I'm scared that they never will…"

"Jemma," he breathed, stuttering slightly as if he were trying to find the best words to say. "I would love to get to know you more. The real you. The you that you want me to know."

"You would?" she asked, slightly surprised and her tone of voice made his heart slightly sore. It sounded as though she couldn't believe him. Slightly shocked that someone actually wanted to get to know just who she was.

He nodded. "Jemma Simmons, it would be a pleasure to get to know you." He stuck his hand out to her. "Leopold Fitz."

She took it in her own. "Jemma Simmons".

I have kinda fallen in love with this kinda hipster,femJemma!Cecil and I wanna adopt her right now. And I couldn't just write out one of my other OTPs, Cecilos, because I love those dorks. (Fem!Cecil is the dream cosplay atm...) many thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this adventure into the strange unknown. Title comes from Pretty Little Head by Eliza Rickman