So this is completely off the top of my head; I was bored and had feels and this is the result. Also, completely unedited, but I'm truly sorry for any spelling or grammar errors.
Set in the latest episode (The Bridge) - a fill-in, I suppose. Since I'm still in denial about what happened in the end of that episode, let's just ignore it and focus on the FitzSimmons.
Anyway, enjoy!
"I can't believe we're actually doing this!" Jemma said, practically bouncing up and down in excitement. Skye watched her in amusement, arms crossed and a raised eyebrow. Leo, running around the lab and balancing a laptop on his arm while typing furiously with one hand, didn't look up as the newest S.H.I.E.L.D.-agent asked:
"Big deal, huh? Making a super-suit?"
"Not only a super-suit." Leo said, still not raising his head. "More like a high-functioning, wearable defense-device."
He couldn't help the way his voice almost quivered with excitement.
Coulson smiled, looking like he tried hard not to chuckle, but nodded seriously. Skye glanced at him disbelievingly.
"It's true. A superhero must have a fitting, good suit – it's not only iconic, but also a good weapon. Look at Iron Man." He suggested.
Skye shrugged with one shoulder. Ward, standing in the corner with his hands in his pockets, watching them stoically, huffed in agreement.
"They're also intimidating to the enemies, and can hide the person's identity if so wished." Jemma continued, her gestures getting a little wild as they often did when she was enthusiastic. Leo glanced at her, trying to hide a smile, but before he could return to typing, his gaze caught on Skye, who was grinning and watching him closely. Cheeks reddening, he quickly looked back at the laptop, his heart sinking at the knowledge that the damage was already done.
"It's just clothes, but if you say so, Science-Twins." Skye said sarcastically, widening her eyes mockingly and pursing her lips.
Jemma and Leo froze at the same time, staring daggers at her in a way that made her retreat a pair of steps. Coulson let out a snort very close to laughter at the word "Science-Twins", but quickly wiped his face blank when the two friends turned to him.
"It's a very important feature in the image of a superhero, actually." Ward kicked in, glancing amusedly at Skye. "If everybody knew who, for example, Iron Man was, it-" He stopped as he realized his mistake. Coulson shot a look at him, eyes sparkling with laughter.
"If someone doesn't want all the attention Mr. Stark is getting, the suit is quite important." He said with an impish smile. "You can imagine how unfortunate it would be for Dr. Banner if everybody knew he was the Hulk. It's a great way to avoid unnecessary attention – good and bad. Of course, some people – like Mr. Stark – are ready to give up the secret identity."
"And, of course-" Leo started, but he was interrupted before he could even finish the sentence.
"Okay, okay, I get it!" Skye cried, raising her hands in surrender. "I get it; super-suits equals good. Pointing out they're only clothes equals mad science-geeks." She shot Jemma and Leo a pointed look, to which Jemma rolled her eyes.
"Now, let's clear out of here so Fitz-Simmons can get to work." Coulson said, smiling at them.
The nickname for the two of them had caught on early – already in university, actually, since they used to work together so well. Leo remembered his parents and other friends teasing him for it, but it wasn't anything he'd really thought too much about. But lately, it had started to make his lips twitch in to a smile and warmth unfurl in his stomach. He refused to think about it, but he couldn't help the way a blush spread on his cheeks as Jemma shot him a fond look.
"Yeah, I gotta check on Mike anyways – bet he's getting bored in that cell. S.H.I.E.L.D. should totally have a better guest room." Skye said, glaring pointedly at Coulson, who ducked his head and smiled. "Have fun working, guys." She added, yawning. She shot Leo a sly, playful look over her shoulder as she left, leaving him blushing again.
Ward and Coulson followed her silently, the older agent saying something about needing to talk to May about something. As the door slid shut behind them, Jemma said enthusiastically:
"So, where do we start?"
"I've made some calculations from your previous measurements." He put some emphasis on the last word, trying to keep the slight bitterness out of his voice, but saw in the corner of his eye how Jemma's gaze flickered to him.
"Great." She said lightly, apparently deciding to ignore his tone. "What about fabric? Material, elasticity, thickness, colour, flexibility…"
"All here." Leo brushed past her to the big, lit up, screened desk, putting down his laptop and excitedly tapping and adjusting the surface so that everything popped up on the wall. Neat calculations and 3D models of Mike Peterson's body in blueprint appeared.
"So, basically, since we don't really know what stabilized him, we want to keep track of his systolic pressures and heart rate at all times."
"Don't forget glucose levels." His friend inflicted quickly.
Leo glanced at her briefly, nodded and continued:
"The material must have the ability to adjust to his body when he uses his powers; slimming, tight around his muscles when they're flexing but not limiting or uncomfortable in any way."
"Right." Jemma said, snatching a notepad and a pen from another desk and starting to write. It made Leo smile a little, because in spite of all the electronic and technical devices they had to avoid such things as writing by hand, she preferred having her information on handwritten pieces of paper. She labeled bottles and test tubes with colorful post-it notes instead of using their effective label-maker, her letters scribbled down so squiggly that only someone who had worked with her for a long while could read them. It was just one of the things she did (like how Leo only would talk about and make references to his favorite show Doctor Who when the two of them were alone, because he simply thought it would be very unfortunate if Ward or Skye got to know he was in to something else than science) and he'd never questioned it, because it was just regular and familiar and so incredibly Jemma.
"The fabric should be water- and fireproof, just in case. Must be tolerant, of course, and have incredible durability, or it'll disunite when he's reaching supernatural speed. In spite of the fact that his injuries can heal at impressively inhuman rate, we should make the suit bulletproof, or at least resistant to hard blows." Jemma ranted excitedly, taking notes while speaking.
Leo swiftly made a sweeping motion with his hand, making the blueprint-model of the suited body start to spin around slowly.
"Camouflage-coloured?" He asked curiously.
"I would say darker; some kind of navy." Jemma said, eyes twitching between the screen and the notepad as she wrote furiously. "And black. Blends in to darkness better, and they're not outside, so the classical, greenish colours of the camouflage won't be necessary."
She was smiling as she wrote, cheeks slightly rosy out of excitement and brown eyes sparkling. Leo shared her enthusiasm to the fullest; they were making a suit, for an actual superhero. He felt himself getting worked up, enveloped in to the work they were doing, and other thoughts started to fade away (like the unfortunate "Soup Incident" the night before, when Skye found it appropriate to tell them all that she once in her youth had tricked a bully in to eating dog excrement, and Jemma had laughed so hard she had spit out her mouthful of soup all over Leo) as his mind slowly occupied with calculations and measurements for the suit. They could make it exactly however they wanted; they could put metal bracelets that could shoot fire along the edges of the sleeves; use the amazing colour-shifting fabric that S.H.I.E.L.D. only reserved for extremely special occasions; maybe even create a special logo and put it on the chest. The possibilities were so many, and it was only up to them – as long as the suit would work, it would be a success, and they were free to tinker with it and add new functions.
"D'you reckon we should make him a weapon too?" Leo asked, almost bouncing on his heels. "Like a super-gun that could shoot fire-bullets, or some kind of jetpack so he could fly…"
Jemma rolled her eyes fondly, scolding him:
"Fitz, he already has his powers. He doesn't need any weapon. It would only weigh him down."
"Captain America has his super-strength and his shield, and he's doing just fine." He argued half-heartedly. His friend shot him a part amused, part unappreciative look.
"Well, Mr Peterson's no Captain America." Jemma said lightly, returning to her notepad. "Not yet, anyway."
"This suit will make him just as great, though." Leo added. He saw the biochemist scoff in the corner of his eye, but it melted in to a small smile as she shook her head slightly and wrote down something new.
"What about dimensions? It should cover his entire body upper and lower body, I assume, but there is the option of making an appurtenant mask. Of course, if the mask is by any means unfitting, it would only be a burden to Mr. Peterson, and we would need to take new measurements of his head and-"
"No mask." Leo said immediately, having tensed at the words "new measurements". As he sensed his friend staring at him, he quickly added: "They already know who he is. It would be unnecessary to hide his face."
Jemma didn't respond, only kept reading on her notepad.
"What about gloves?"
"Easily dropped, could be revealing if found on the ground by the enemy." He said curtly. "Very unnecessary since it doesn't matter if he'll be leaving fingerprints."
"I guess you're right." She said, shrugging. "We should inform Agent Coulson about what we need."
Leo nodded, and then made the mistake of looking at her. She was eyeing the screen, eyes twitching as she read the calculations next to Mr. Peterson's spinning body-model, her face so wonderfully expressive. His heart seemed to do a funny jolt in his chest.
"Brilliant, everything seems to be in order." She clutched her notepad to her chest, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear before turning around and flashing him a smile.
"Brilliant." He echoed, mouth oddly dry.
He followed Jemma out of the lab in silence, trying to get his thoughts back to the suit, but suddenly finding it much harder than before.
The rest of the day went on in a blur.
They didn't leave the lab; not even to eat. When Leo noticed the faint rumbling of Jemma's stomach (while she was too busy working to notice it herself), he knocked on the glass door to get someone's attention. Skye involuntarily went and got them some sandwiches (Leo, who hadn't forgotten the "Soup Incident"-story and sensed her bad mood, asked her reluctantly if she had made them herself. She only grinned and left, so he decided to take a little time off work to check if there was any strange substance hidden in the food), on which they feasted on while developing the super-suit.
At one point, Ward came to see how it was going. He didn't snatch up much information; as they tended to do when they were particularly passionate about their work, both Leo and Jemma spoke way too quickly and used far more complicated scientific terms for the agent to understand anything.
Apparently Ward had told the rest of the team, because they had no visitors after that. Once, Coulson stopped outside the glass doors and watched them for a while. When Leo and Jemma noticed, he raised an eyebrow curiously, as if asking if everything was all right. Leo made thumbs up and Jemma grinned, just as there was a small explosion on the desk next to them. Coulson looked quite alarmed, pointing at the fire, and it took a minute before Jemma noticed, wincing and quickly putting it out. Leo smiled a nervous, apologetic smile at the older agent as the biochemist busied herself with waving away the smoke, but Coulson only grinned and left.
It was midnight when they suddenly heard someone knocking. They had sunk in to comfortable silence, working casually side by side. Leo loved these moments, when they were working like this. It was the exact opposite of before, when they had been bouncing around excitedly and talking uncontrollably. This was silent, serious work, when the excitement had not necessarily faded but just calmed down. It wasn't awkward either; their hands brushed when handing each other tools, and their shoulders were pressed against each other as they bent over the table, examining various items – those small things that made Leo blush and feel strangely warm inside wasn't as important, his feelings being pushed to the background as he paid all of his attention to the suit they were creating. They didn't need to look at each other or even talk if they needed anything; the other one knew instantly what to hand his/her friend.
The uneven, harsh sound of a fist repeatedly tapping the glass doors made the scientists raise their heads in synchronization. They saw Skye standing outside, watching them coolly.
Jemma opened the doors, letting her inside before quickly returning to the desk where Leo now had stopped working.
"Is anything wrong?" He asked warily, eyeing her with caution.
Skye jabbed a thumb toward her back.
"Coulson sent me here to tell you to wrap it up. I expected you to be done by now." She said, looking mildly confused. "Aren't you finished?"
"We only have a few more things to deal with, since the suit clearly has to be as consummate as possible before Mr. Peterson will have to use it, and we would really appreciate if you could tell Coulson that we will finish when we think it's time and he will just have to trust us until then." Jemma said carefully without looking at her, still focusing on her moving hands. Her voice was strained, as if holding back the urge to let the polite mask slip and tell Skye to shut up and leave.
"Have you guys eaten anything today?" Skye asked, frowning slightly.
"We are perfectly capable of handling our own food-ingesting habits." Leo said curtly. "We're not hungry at the moment. The sandwiches you brought us a while ago were very satisfying, thank you."
She watched them disbelievingly.
"You guys know that was, like, eight hours ago?" She said, smiling half-heartedly. "You're actually telling me you haven't eaten anything at all since three o'clock? It's ten PM!"
Leo scowled.
"It can't be. We haven't been working for that long." He said. He and Jemma turned to look at each other, exchanging a confused frown before staring down at their busy hands.
"Maybe she's right. We won't have time to finish tonight anyway, and we should prepare ourselves for tomorrow with a good night's sleep." The biochemist muttered. She carefully put away the poisonous, corrosive extract she was trying on the fabric.
Nodding, Leo pulled off his gloves and looked back at Skye, who was tapping her foot against the floor impatiently.
"Tell Coulson we'll be done by tomorrow afternoon." He told her.
Skye pursed her lips, eyes travelling around the lab curiously.
"So, where is it?" She asked. As the scientist looked at her uncomprehendingly, she added: "The super-suit."
Leo stared at her in confusion, smiling a little and shaking his head.
"We haven't assembled the pieces yet, obviously. We've been testing the limits of the fabric and developing it further to make sure we can provide the bearer of the suit with absolute protection."
The newest agent widened her eyes mockingly and nodded slowly.
"Duh – obviously."
Jemma and Leo watched her, frowning, but she just rolled her eyes and turned to leave, throwing a careless "good night!" over her shoulder before closing the doors behind her.
After exchanging a slightly puzzled look, they started cleaning up the worst of the mess they had made (without noticing). Still, they left the things they knew they would need the next day (and weren't dangerous if left out) on the desks as they were. After making sure everything poisonous or with predisposition of exploding was tucked away neatly, they turned off the lights and slid the glass doors shut carefully.
They quietly made their way through the Bus, dimly lit up even in spite of the fact that it was night. Not that it was that late; they found Ward casually flicking through some files with a glass of scotch in his hands.
"How did it go with the suit?" He asked coolly. But as Jemma's face lit up and she opened her mouth to speak, he quickly changed his mind and said: "You know what, I don't wanna know. I can sense you're still in non-English mode."
Jemma sighed and Leo rolled his eyes. Ward shot them an amused look as they left.
They separated as they reached their individual huts, parting with a tight smile and a short "good night".
Leo hurried to change in to pajamas (a blue button-down shirt and trousers in the same color, the edges lined with red) and scrambled in to bed. He glanced at the bobbing TARDIS model on the shelf, and then gave the rest of the room a sweeping look, trying to find his computer.
A few minutes later, while he was sitting cross-legged on his bed with his computer in his lap and trying to find a good link to use to watch Doctor Who, the door creaked, opening slowly.
He clumsily pushed himself back against the wall, folding his legs and hurriedly trying to close the computer as he stared at the door in horror (because god forbid anyone saw him being alone in his room, illegally downloading an episode of a British, sci-fi family-show – he shuddered to imagine the team finding out). He fumbled so much that the laptop almost slipped out of his hands.
Leo stopped struggling as Jemma peeked inside.
"It's just you." He breathed out in relief, trying to straighten his back and put down the computer next to him on the bed. "I mean, um, what are you doing here?"
He noticed she was still wearing her regular clothes; a plain, light-green shirt and jeans. He quickly glanced down at his own pajamas, feeling embarrassed.
"All my nightshirts are being washed, so I wondered if I could borrow one from you?" She asked, smiling hesitantly.
"Oh. Um, of course, I just… Of course." Leo stammered, clumsily getting up from the bed and stepping to his drawer. He could feel Jemma gazing at his back, and hurried to rummage through his shirts.
"Just a regular t-shirt will do." His friend added quickly.
Leo found a plain, grey t-shirt that was slightly too big for him. He pulled it out and handed it to her.
"Thank you." She said, flashing a smile.
"You're welcome." He told her.
Jemma turned around to open the door again, grasping the t-shirt in one of hand. Leo stood awkwardly, watching her leave slowly, and before he could stop himself, he had blurted:
"Doctor Who!"
The biochemist turned around and stared at him uncomprehendingly.
"What?"
"I was, um, going to watch it." Leo explained embarrassedly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Doctor Who, I mean. Do you… Would you join me?"
They stared at each other for a moment in silence. But then Jemma's eyes lit up slightly, and her lips curved in to a smile.
"Sure." She said happily, and Leo exhaled slowly. "Let me just change. I'll be back in a second."
He nodded, waiting for her to leave before quickly straightening the sheets of his bed. She was back quickly, pulling the door open, now wearing white-and-red-striped trousers and his t-shirt, her hair in a loose ponytail. Leo tried to ignore the warmth unfurling inside his chest and gestured for her to sit down on the bed.
When they both had settled down, sides pressed together tightly and the laptop placed on top of their out-straightened legs, Leo quickly managed the episode to start playing, lowering the sound a bit so that no one could hear outside the room.
"What episode is it?" Jemma asked curiously, leaning forward towards the screen slightly.
"Um… Second episode of season two." Leo said, checking quickly.
"Tenth Doctor, then?"
"Yeah."
He felt slightly surprised, glancing at Jemma. He had forgotten that she had been a fan of the show herself in her youth – he remembered her walking in on him once at university, drinking hot chocolate out of a TARDIS cup, and told him she liked it too. Except for his family, she was the only one who knew and shared his interest for the show. They had watched episodes together a couple of times, but not since they joined the team – they had found themselves far too busy, and Leo hadn't found the courage to actually bring it up when they were free from work. Lately, it had been hard to bring up doing anything together with Jemma.
The familiar sound of the theme filled the air. Jemma suddenly shifted slightly, settling down more comfortably, and then put her head on his shoulder.
Leo stopped breathing, tensing immediately. His friend didn't seem to notice; her eyes were fixed on the screen. He stole a quick glance at her, hoping she didn't feel how his skin was burning where they were touching.
"I love this part." Jemma said quietly, smiling and shifting a little. Her breath tickled his neck for a second. He swallowed, his throat flexing, trying pointedly not to look at her.
"Me too."