Prompt One: Stargazing

The cool evening breeze brushed his cheeks and he closed his eyes, revelling in the quiet surrounding him. He shifted to a more comfortable position, his legs straight in front of him as he sat on the cargo ramp of the Bus, and leaned back on his arms.

Sometimes he needed these moments, periods of quiet where he could allow his busy mind to settle and not have to battle with a thousand and one competing strands of information. It was harder to do that now, since the med-pod, but he tried not to complain. He wouldn't want her to realise how difficult the simplest things still were sometimes, although he thought she knew anyway. She always knew.

Fitz turned his head as he heard a sound behind him; the tell-tale shuffle of someone trying not to create a disturbance.

"It's ok Jemma, you can come sit."

He smiled as the biochemist quietly came and settled herself beside him, shuffling so there were mere millimetres between them.

"What are you up to?" her honey voice was soft and soothing. It fit with the relaxed quiet of the gathering dusk surrounding them.

"Not much," he tapped at her foot playfully with his own.

A few minutes passed as they sat in companionable silence, before Jemma let out a contented sigh as she cast her gaze across the expanse of green wilderness in front of them. "It's so beautiful here. I wish we could stay. It's like we're the only people in the world."

Fitz let out an amused chuckle. "Us, and a Bus load of other people. You can see there's a town over there too." He pointed to an orange glow on the horizon.

"There are six of us on the Bus Fitz, which hardly constitutes a metropolis." She raised her eyes to the heavens. "You can see all the stars from here. It reminds me of home."

"Sheffield?"

"Mmm," she nodded. "I grew up in a village outside of town, so there wasn't so much light pollution. I used to look up at the stars through my telescope and map them."

"I used to do that too," Fitz grinned. "My dad got me a telescope for my fourth birthday."

Jemma looked across and took his hand gently. He wasn't upset at the thought of his father, she knew he had few memories of him and liked to reminisce. He moved his head and their eyes met briefly before he looked up at the night sky once more.

"What was your favourite constellation when you were little?" Jemma continued to study his face as he thought.

"I always liked Orion, I think because it was easy to spot. I liked Leo... because well..." he gestured towards himself. "And the Plough. I liked the idea that I could find my way home just by knowing where the North Star was."

"That's nice," she squeezed his hand. "It's nice to have an anchor like that." She paused for a few moments before looking across at him again. "You're mine you know."

"What do you mean?" Fitz looked at her, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

"My anchor. As long as I know where you are I know I am home."