This story takes place in a maybe, distantish future AU. In it Donnie survived being shot and he's doing a lot better (because I'm a softie, so when I write, people are magically OK). Simmons helped free the brainwashed Gifteds (and Not-Gifteds) and has come back to the team but she and Fitz are still kinda weird with each other.

Also Donnie joined an all Gifteds basketball league supported by SHIELD. Yay Donnie.

/-/-/

Not so long ago, it wouldn't have felt so strange sitting beside Simmons, away from the rest of the team, at an event where their aim was to enjoy themselves.

Enjoy themselves, and cheer on their friend. Which, truthfully, was the reason they'd both agreed to go, together.

Fitz supposed watching a basketball game in the gym of a secret underground facility, played by two teams of Gifteds, people with what could only be described as super powers, should feel strange too, and it did. It just didn't feel off the way sitting beside his old friend did.

They were too ridged, too polite, it was unnerving even if it was meant as a feeble attempt to put the both of them at ease.

'Would you like that seat?'

'Oh no, you can have it.'

'Did you want a pretzel?'

'I'm fine thank you.'

It felt as if he were speaking with a long lost childhood friend or an estranged relative, someone who was suppose to feel familiar, but didn't.

"Hey, you made it!" Dave, a gifted sometimes nicknamed Whirlwind, greeted cheerfully in his red uniform. They had seats right next to the court so there was no need for him to hop over anyone to get them. "You too Fitz? Donnie's going to be ecstatic. He'll probably want to talk about that whatz-it super gadget you made." He shook his head. "Just make sure he actually plays, OK? I don't want you two talking shop the whole time. He's on our team and he's gonna dribble that ball even if he ends up bouncing it off his toe." He leaned in, whispering now. "He might actually do that, so don't laugh OK, it took me forever to convince him to join the team. He's about as shy as a baby rabbit."

"Rabbit kits really are skittish," Simmons agreed pleasantly. "They can actually be frightened to death, their hearts give out."

"Er... good to know Simmons," Dave answered uneasily before his grin returned. "Anyway, it's good to see you again."

"I'm not sure Donnie wants to talk to me about the... the...," Fitz took a breath. Not now, not now... he'd been so good lately. "The High Frequency Voice Generator." To his relief, he found the words.

"Yeah, the thing that makes your voice unhearable except for when you use the special ear buds," Dave nodded, not taking notice of the brief struggle for the name. Fitz supposed 'whatz-it super gadget' had been good enough for him anyway.

"It's not that great," Fitz admitted, it was far from his best work. Honestly he'd just been happy to finish something.

"Dude, don't do that," Dave kidded, grinning mischievously at him. "You're making me feel incompetent, I can't even set the time on my microwave some days. It's impressive. Man, you sound just like Donnie."

Fitz fidgeted, unsure what to say to that without sounding rude. The praise felt good, and he tried to feel as if he deserved it. The device was useful after all, even if he hadn't gotten all the bugs out yet. However he wasn't like Donnie, not anymore. Maybe someday.

He caught Simmons' saddened expression out of the corner of his eye and he knew that he was making her uncomfortable. It seemed as if he did that a lot lately.

Both of them were grateful when Donnie appeared out of the changeroom, looking down at his uniform as if he wasn't entirely sure he'd put it on properly, even though all it was was shorts and a tank top. He smiled when he saw them and waved, strolling towards them before Dave intercepted him.

"Uh uh," he scolded lightly. "You can talk to your friends after, we've got a team meeting to go to," he insisted, leading away an uncertain looking Donnie.

"No, you're playing," they heard Dave insist loudly. "... I don't care, Geez Wires, this isn't the NBA."

"Wires?" Fitz asked, turning to Simmons, grateful to have something to break the uncomfortable silence.

"It's a nickname," she explained, grasping on to the distraction. "The others call him Blizzard, but Donnie doesn't really like it so Dave made up another name for him. He says that wires are his super power as well as freezing things."

"That's... cute," Fitz commented.

"It's adorable," Simmons smiled. "It's wonderful that he's found someone who understands him. I tried, I really did, and I think he at least trusts me now-"

"And he likes you," Fitz told her. "He wanted you to come after all, didn't he?"

She nodded, still smiling. "He's a good kid, he was just lost for a little while. And scared."

"But you helped him," Fitz said, wanting her to know that, whatever was going on between them, he was proud of her. "You helped a lot of the Gifteds here get free from Hydra," he motioned to the teams, now lining up to play. "That's why they're all so happy to see you."

"It wasn't only me-" she objected modestly.

"Don't do that, you're making me feel incompetent," he joked, sending her a smile and inviting her to return it.

She seemed startled for a moment, by what he'd said, and he worried she didn't know that he was copying Dave's earlier statement- or that she did and it made her unhappy to think about it. Then, slowly, her mouth twitched up, and, to his relief, she chuckled.

"You really shouldn't sell yourself short either Fitz," she said, turning serious. "You designed and built the High Frequency Voice Generator all on your own, it makes sense that it would take you longer than..." She bit her lip, leaving the last part of her statement hanging between them. 'than if we'd worked on it together.' "We should pay attention," she declared, turning away from him and pointing ahead, "the game's about to begin."

Fitz looked back to see the referee holding the familiar black-striped orange ball above his head, a player from each team (one red and one blue, Donnie and Dave's team in red) ready to fight for it on either side of him.

The whistle blew and they were off, the blue team first in possession of the ball, player 32, a Gifted named Nick who Donnie had told them was a reverse empath and could make people feel his emotions when he wanted to, running down the court before passing it to his teammate, a short woman who, to Fitz's surprise, jumped five feet straight up to land the ball in the net.

A point appeared on the scoreboard for the blue team and one of the red players cursed loudly.

"That isn't fair, she used her abilities!" He exclaimed.

"And what? Being freakishly tall isn't an ability?" She countered playfully.

"The point stands," the referee decided and she stuck out her tongue at the other player who rolled his eyes but let it go.

"She does have a point," Simmons agreed quietly, leaning towards Fitz for a moment before jerkily pulling away. "... I mean.. uh..." she fumbled.

"She's about four foot nothing," Fitz put in cheerfully, hoping to ease the tension.

"Maybe a bit more than that," Simmons clarified, smiling at him. "But yes."

How he'd missed that smile, the one made of sunshine, even if he'd been seeing it as a figment of his imagination for longer than he cared to admit.

"You sure you don't want a pretzel?" He offered, holding out the bag. "I know you like them."

She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Why not?" She took one and bit it in half.

Fitz watched her chew before he realized he was staring and turned back to the game. The last thing he wanted to do was remind her of his feelings for her, feelings they were both well aware of, which he still felt sometimes like tiny sparks across his chest.

He didn't want to push her away, not now that they could finally talk to each other again (even if their conversations were a little jittery), so he shoved dirt on the sparks because, once, they'd had a good thing- a great thing- and he wanted to hold onto whatever was left of that.

The red team had the ball now, Dave was scrambling around a blue player, trying to open himself up for a pass while Donnie wandered close by, seemingly unsure what to do. Neither team paid him much attention, likely not seeing him as a threat or an asset.

"Hey, Donnie's open," Dave told his teammate, but if the other player heard, she didn't let on, and instead passed the ball to a different red team member, one who had three people from the blue team surrounding him, and the ball was stolen.

"That was poor strategy," Fitz criticized in a hushed voice. "I would have passed it to Dave at least, he had fewer people blocking him."

"When do you play basketball?" Simmons wondered teasingly, raising her eyebrows.

"On the X-Box," he told her. He'd recently began playing Mack's sports pack which included baseball, tennis and basketball. He couldn't beat Mack yet, but he could win against the computer most times.

"Oh," she replied, frowning slightly. "I didn't know..."

Fitz wondered why that bothered her so much. She seemed almost... guilty. Which was stupid, there were plenty of things he didn't know about her, especially now.

Dave had stolen the ball back from the other team and was running down the court.

"Fitz... I..." she started to say, but their attention was drawn back to the game when Dave shouted at Donnie.

"Hey, Wires, you're up!" He called good naturedly.

Donnie caught the ball and froze like a deer trapped in the headlights for a split second before he began an ungraceful dribble down the court. He was only a few feet from the net but he seemed hesitant to shoot at it.

"C'mon, you can do it!" Dave cheered.

"Go Donnie!" Simmons exclaimed brightly.

"You show that net!" Fitz called out, realizing too late that what he'd said was ridiculous. Show that net? What, was it a person now?

Simmons chortled and nudged him, amused, and he suddenly didn't care what it had sounded like.

Her shining eyes fell on him for an instant before turning back to the game, and in the brief time she was looking at him he felt that warm, familiar sense of companionship he'd been without for so long; the special kind that only they had. He'd almost forgotten how beautiful it was.

Encouraged, Donnie took the shot, hurling the ball forward only to have it bounce off the backboard and back into play.

Disappointment darkened his face but no one else seemed to mind, especially not Dave who was beaming at him.

In a tornado of wind, he zoomed over to his friend to slap him on the back, mumbling something that made Donnie smile shyly back at him before he rejoined the game.

"That was a good try," Simmons told him, clapping her hands and he smiled at her too, waving towards them as he chased the ball.

After that, Donnie's confidence grew. He didn't gain his team any points directly, but he did manage to grab the ball a few times and one pass resulted in a score on the net, which Dave, Simmons and Fitz cheered loudly for.

"Can I have another pretzel?" Simmons asked, setting her sparkling eyes on Fitz again, clearly enjoying herself as much as he was.

"Have a few," he answered happily, passing her the bag.

"You mean take the remaining two?" She giggled, peering inside and shaking her head in mock disapproval.

He blushed. "Er... yeah..."

She chuckled again before taking a bite and Fitz thought that, just maybe, there was more of that wondrous thing they'd had left over than he'd thought.

/-/-/

At half time Donnie jogged over to them, Dave close behind.

"Having fun?" Simmons inquired brightly.

"Yeah," Donnie replied, slightly out of breath. "Hey Fitz," he greeted, raising a hand to wave. Fitz waved back, smiling. "I was wondering if... well um..." he seemed suddenly shy.

"He wants to know if you'll look over his blueprints," Dave finished, rolling his eyes. "It's all he's been talking about since we found out you were coming."

"Together?" They asked, exchanging a glance.

Donnie shrugged, blushing and looking away. "If you aren't too busy... I get it if you need to go after. I'm sure you have important stuff to do..."

"I wouldn't mind staying," Simmons replied. "It'll be fun to see what you've been up to. What about you Fitz?"

He too was intrigued find out what Donnie had been working on. The other scientist was full of brilliant ideas and, like Fitz, he'd come a long way to get to the point where he could work on them again. Perhaps they were more alike than he'd thought.

"OK," he agreed and Donnie beamed at him.

"Cool," he answered, rolling his eyes as Dave smirked at him. "That wasn't an ice joke Dave," he protested, but he was laughing. "And you need to stop passing me the ball, I suck at this game, it's probably losing us points."

"Whatever," Dave dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I'm not passing it to you for anyone but you, so you just have fun with it when you get it. Hell, if you wanted to turn it into a snowball-"

"That's against the rules," Donnie told him, amused.

"Oh right, I forgot, only short bouncy people get to use their powers," Dave laughed.

"A snowball wouldn't really be helpful anyway," Donnie pointed out reasonably.

"It'd be pretty funny though," Dave grinned and Donnie, Simmons and Fitz chuckled at him.

Fitz wished things could always be this way, easy, happy, Simmons laughing beside him.

Perhaps, at least sometimes, it could be. He could invite her to another game, or another event, one they didn't have to go to, and maybe she'd come because she wanted to, because, even after everything, she wanted to salvage what they'd lost, build something up from it.

He was scared though, frightened that she'd say no and it'd break his heart all over again, so he didn't say anything, but he enjoyed the rest of the game and the time he did have with her.

He even bought another bag of pretzels, to share this time.

/-/-/

Simmons appeared that evening, in the lab as he was fixing up the High Frequency Voice Generator, and slowly glided over to stand beside him, tugging at her thumb and appearing distraught.

"Today was fun, wasn't it," she began, tight but optimistic.

"It was," Fitz agreed, bracing for a 'but'. 'But it's still too weird, but I still don't think we can be friends after what you said to me in the pod, but I'm not sure we're the same people anymore.' "It was the best time I've had in a while," he added. He almost finished with 'I've missed you,' but he didn't want to say anything that would make her uncomfortable, make her leave.

Her face fell. "I'm sorry," she murmured, staring at her feet. "For what happened to you, for how hard things have been. I'm sorry that you were hurt so badly... that I...," her lip trembled and her eyes grew bright. "I'm sorry Fitz."

He frowned. "You don't need to apologize Simmons," he told her. "This isn't your fault."

"If I hadn't been down there with you, if you'd been alone-" she began quietly.

"I'd be dead," he asserted. "Do you really think I could have thought my way out on my own? Made it all the way to the surface with a broken arm?"

She let out a shaky sigh, eyes bright and miserable. "It... it just doesn't seem fair-"

"I've learned not to expect life to be fair," Fitz informed her simply, hoping it didn't make him sound too bitter.

"Yeah but-"

"No, stop, just... stop apologizing, it's stupid," he asserted loudly, getting to his feet. She flinched at his tone and he softened, searching for a way to explain. He thought of Dave, what he'd said to Donnie on the court, and had an idea. "I gave you the ball," he told her, waiting until she met his gaze to continue. "Because I wanted you to keep playing, not so you could score for me. And I would do it again, if I had to. It doesn't matter if what happened next made me happy or let us win, or even if you stayed on the same team as me. It was my choice to give it to you, but once you had it, it was yours, your choice, your life to live. I have no regrets and neither should you. This is where we ended up, this is how the game played out."

She stared back at him, unreadable except that, whatever emotion she was feeling, it was a strong one. It reminded him of the way she looked, down in the pod, just before he'd given her oxygen tank, and his heart twinged, worried he'd hurt her, that he'd said something wrong.

"You really don't regret it?" She asked quietly. "Not even a little? You aren't... you don't feel cheated that I'm fine and you're not?"

Fitz shook his head as she spoke. Of course he felt cheated, angry, but not because Simmons had come out unscathed, not because he'd given their one breath to her. "All I wanted was to give you a chance, for you to be alright. You're alive and you're safe and that will never make me feel cheated." he asserted. "Do I like the way things turned out? Not really," he admitted. "Do I wish none of it had ever happened? Definitely. But it did happen, and I think that I made the best of it, we both did. I'd like to think I've been doing pretty well, all things considered." He didn't know how he was able to be so positive, not so long ago he wasn't sure he would have told anyone he was doing well, but then and there it was the truth.

She smiled at him. "You have been." There was a pause while she stared down at his blueprints before looking back up at him. "I was playing for your team though," she whispered. "Leaving you, all of you, was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but you needed it."

He frowned. "What-"

She held up a hand and he fell silent. "You needed the time, to figure yourself out. I tried to fix it, I tried to comfort you, let you know it was alright, that you could do it, to help you when you were stuck, but in the end all I was doing was coddling you, I was holding you back." She smiled sadly. "It turns out, I'm no good at letting you fall."

He shook his head, processing what she was telling him. He wasn't sure he understood, not entirely, but he knew that she'd believed she was helping him. He did understand that she'd gone through a great deal of heartache and loneliness because she thought it was what was best for him. "So... you didn't... you didn't want to-"

"No, I didn't," she told him. "Our team is my home, you're..." she blew out a breath, chewing on her lip for a moment before continuing. "I'm not saying it wasn't difficult, that it wasn't hard to see you that way, watching you struggle and being unable to do anything about it but... I could handle it, most days. And when I couldn't, I wasn't alone. I left for you, so you could have a turn with the ball, so you could dribble, even if it bounced off your toes sometimes," she asserted before smiling proudly. "And you've done wonderfully, you should be proud of yourself."

Fitz grinned, baking like a potato into soft yummy goodness under her warmth. She'd wanted to stay, he hadn't pushed her away. "For me, and to kick Hydra's butt," he added.

"Pftt, of course," she chuckled.

He allowed himself to chuckle with her, a flash of peace, before giving voice to his lingering concern.

"Then, it isn't weird... what I told you...," he began hesitantly. "You aren't uncomfortable around me now that, you know I... you know..."

'Told you I was in love with you,' he thought, but he couldn't say it. He hadn't even said it back then, not with words.

"You can't help how you feel," she answered vaguely. "And it certainly doesn't change how I feel about you... I... I mean I..." She swallowed. "Can... can we be friends again?" She asked softly.

She seemed exposed suddenly, fearful and hopeful at the same time, a snail creeping out of it's shell, squishy and fragile. Fitz found he felt the same way, but it was good. A shell could be stuffy and lonely even if it was safer.

"We'll always be friends," he told her, smiling warmly.

She smiled back, tentatively opening her arms, inviting but not expecting.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward and embraced her, eyes watering as she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tightly, filling him with peace and a sense of belonging.

They held each other silently, a comfortable silence, one they didn't need a distraction from.

After a minute, Simmons spoke, her voice high and watery but filled with joy.

"Good."

/-/-/

So I added a bonus ending (even though this is already a super long oneshot XD) because Notapepper's comment about names in their review was very accurate and it made me sad too that Fitz hadn't given the device a silly name.

Bonus Ending

"I think we need a better name for this," Simmons commented, examining the High Frequency Voice Generator.

Fitz shrugged. "The name sounds accurate to me."

"Yeah, but it's not really... catchy, is it?" Simmons pressed, a playful smile tugging up the corners of her mouth and Fitz suddenly understood.

"No, not really," he agreed, smiling back. "It doesn't have my usual ring to it."

"We could call it a... um... what about a Hush Hush Messenger?" Simmons suggested.

Fitz raised his eyebrows at her, tilting his head to the side and shaking it slowly.

"No?" She guessed, laughing. "Well what would you call it? It is your device after all."

He thought about it for a minute, taking into account what it did, what it's purpose was.

"The Bat Signal," he decided.

Simmons shook her head but she was giggling at him. "As in, from Batman?" she teased. "Is this because bats produce high frequency sounds?"

"And because it's for communication, to signal to people what to do, information, and so on," Fitz added.

Simmons looked back down at the device. "The Bat Signal," she murmured, testing it out. She lifted her head, smiling warmly at him. "I like it."

Fitz smiled back, happy and toasy inside. "Me too."

/-/-/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Midorima Kazunari!

That rabbit thing is true. My friend's mom tells a story of one time when she volunteered to take care of orphaned rabbit babies for a wildlife center and most of them died due to loud noises. (They didn't tell her that was going to happen and she was very sad, but then she switched to raccoons who are way hardier.)

Fringe Reference: Nick the reverse empath is a reference to the science fiction sereis Fringe, in which the character Nick Lane can/ accidentally does without wanting to make other people feel his emotions (unfortunately poor Nick is severely depressed).

Donnie is in this story thanks to a great suggestion by Mrs. Cipriano :D

The nickname Blizzard is Donnie Gill's superhero (or villain?) name. Whirlwind (or David Cannon) is the name of a friend of his. Wiress (with a double s) is a character from the Hunger Games, but I forgot about that until after I put the nickname in haha.

I hope this OK for the challenge. I know part of it takes place outside the game, but their conversation was inspired by what happened in the game.

I don't know anything about basketball except what I remember from playing in High School haha, so there may be game related mistakes.

Also, why can you put Absorption Man as a charcter, but not Donnie? Am I missing something?