AN: Super fluff and friendship bracelets. Set after 1x07. Enjoy!
After everyone got back from the hub, they all need to wind down. Opting for a bit of food to calm and cheer them, they met in the kitchen area and it was silently agreed for all of them to stay there for a while, taking comfort in being around each other once again and just being home. Ward was slouched in one of the chairs; three beers down already and he'd forgotten his usual defensive, upright posture. Skye was digging right into the supply of chocolate and occasionally taking sips of Ward's beer when she thought he wasn't looking. Fitz and Simmons were half way through their shared tub of ice cream. Jemma had her head on his shoulder and every now and then they would feed each other ice cream; which usually would've sent Skye into giggles and mockery about how adorable they were, but right now she was just content to watch them be happy and not get involved.
"Leeeooo?" Jemma asked slowly, looking up at him with pleading eyes, "wouldn't mind grabbin' the chocolate sauce, would you?". He replied with a roll of his eyes, but complied anyway with a silly smile. He reached up to the top cabinet, having to stand on the tips of his toes slightly. As he reached his arm up his sleeve slipped down to his elbow, revealing his wrist to the group and earning a surprised gasp from Skye before he had the chance to pull his sleeve back.
"Is that…?" Skye started in shock.
"Dude is that a friendship bracelet!" Ward finished.
Fitz whipped his head round to look at Simmons silently asking 'what do I do now?'. Chuckling slightly to herself, she lifted the sleeve of her fluffy dressing gown up to reveal a matching friendship bracelet. Able to look at it closely now, without dealing with an embarrassed Fitz, Skye realised that they even have the word 'Fitzsimmons' on them.
"Simmons, are you serious! You got him to wear a freakin' friendship bracelet! I can't tell if you're really needy or like, a god or something!" Simmons blushed opening her mouth to correct Skye, when Ward interrupted her.
"You're so whipped man." He laughed at Fitz.
"Actually I was the one who made them." Fitz stated confidently. The room went silent and Fitz started looking less confident.
"Don't look at him like that, okay." Jemma laughed standing up and walking over to Leo. "And don't act like it's a bad thing either."
Jemma took a deep breathe and looked over to Leo. He gave her a small nod and she started to explain.
"My parents weren't exactly the most supportive people in the world when it came to my career choice. When I told them I wanted to go into biochem and study it at university they laughed at me. Like really laughed. I went to uni anyway and I was so excited but it didn't really last long. Not only was Fitz was my only friend, but other people could be a little cruel; on top of that my parents were constantly calling and mailing me, begging me to give it up and come home…" Simmon's voice wavered slightly on the last word and so Fitz continued.
"I heard her on the phone yelling to her parents about it and saw her crying. We managed to get you cheered up" Fitz threw a quick grin over at Simmons, "but I decided I still needed to do something special for her, so somehow I ended up making them. She came up to me a week later in tears saying that she couldn't cope with it anymore."
"It was so perfect, oh my god. I remember saying it to him and then watching him pull them out of his pocket and I just, yeah. We've been bestest friends ever since." Simmons chimed in.
Skye and Ward sat there speechless. Skye looked like she could either cry or jump up and hug them, whereas Ward looked completely shocked.
"We usually don't wear them because otherwise you'll see them, but I had to go away on the mission so we thought we would just this once." Fitz said, trying to break the silence, but to no avail. After a long pause Jemma finally spoke up.
"It's actually really funny you should bring this up because I actually… follow me." Jemma grabbed Leo's hand and dragged him off to her room.
"Wait what… Oh no you don't, get back here and finish your goddamn sentence… What's happening? Guys tell me!" Skye scrabbled up from the table quickly and hurried off down the hall to Jemma's room, finding the door already locked, she pressed her ear to the door.
Inside her room, Jemma sat Fitz down on her bed and took his hands in hers. "You know when you gave me this you promised you'd always be my friend?"
"Of course I remember. I think I did pretty well keeping that promise as well."
"Well I'm thinking instead… I don't know how to put this." She inhaled deeply, calming herself before looking right into Leo's eyes. "These past few weeks have been amazing, but I just feel… I almost died Leo and it just made me think; and then you went on that mission and I wasn't sure if you were coming back, we were so worried and…" her voice trails off not quite knowing what to say. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out two new bracelets and hands one to Leo. They have 'Leo + Jemma' woven onto the front. "Skye said I needed a distraction to stop me thinking about all the danger you were in, so I made these while you were away." She tied one round his wrist and he helped her with hers.
Fitz face was one of pure happiness, he reminded her of a giddy little puppy, "You made us friendship bracelets!"
"No, see this is what I was talking about, I've just been thinking lately… not quite friendship bracelets more like…" she sighed and shook her head silently cursing her inability to articulate her feelings towards him. "I meant more like this." She placed her hand on his cheek and slowly pressed her lips to his. She pulled back, waiting for him to react, but when she looked up he still had his eyes closed and his lips slightly parted. His eyes fluttered open and a grin spread across his face in realisation.
"You made us relationship bracelets," he beamed at her, making her blush "c'mere you." He whispered, pulling her into another longer kiss, wrapping his arms around her tightly.