So I've started this a while ago when I rewatched a few episodes of Friends and thought that love triangle would be fun to see with Jemma and Fitz and another character whose name I won't spoil for you right now. So as I said, it's only kind of an AU because Jemma and Fitz are still scientists in this and the other characters are jobs that fit more their characters in AoS than the one they would be in Friends. But this still being a kind of Friends AU, I'll try to keep it light and funny, even when there'll obviously be some heavy pining. Of course, you'll find references to both Friends and AoS but hopefully, you'll find that I didn't make it too obvious. Also, I might have ended things differently for Fitz and Jemma than for Chandler and Kathy ...

Also, one last thing, for once I've been reasonable and waited for this whole thing to be written entirely to start posting it. So since the chapters are relatively short and I'll just have to proof read them, you can expect two or three chapters a week.

E rating will only be relevant for later chapters.

Anyway, hope you'll like it wether you're a fan of Friends or not!

"You know you have to enter a specific combination, not just random numbers right?"

It wasn't usually like Fitz to tease a stranger -or even just talk to one of his own initiative- but this one was a young woman who managed to make cursing sound pretty and with a British accent that reminded him of home, although not exactly home but close enough, and she seemed rather … oh no she was definitely the most beautiful thing he'd seen in a long time. With her wavy chocolate hair, full lips and soft caramel eyes that seemed to turn golden in the warm light of the sunset, she looked at the same time incredibly beautiful and strangely familiar. And most importantly, she wasn't scary, which shouldn't have been such an extraordinary feat except that, usually, most beautiful women scared him and turned him into a stuttering mess.

As the woman turned around from where she was seemingly trying out every combination possible on the keypad next to the entrance of the building, she scrunched up her nose adorably and actually let out a small chuckle as she smiled at him. Fitz couldn't help smiling back, both because she somehow didn't seem to mind being made fun of by a complete stranger and because her smile lit up her face and it was contagious and impossible to resist.

"I do know that!" She said, rolling her eyes gently. "But I seem to have been given the wrong one so I thought maybe …"

"You would try random combinations?" Fitz cut her off and winced as he remembered that most people didn't like that. "But even considering it can only be a four digits combination, there's always …"

"10 000 thousands possibilities I know!" She grinned. "But I wrote it pretty hastily so if there's only one wrong number that makes the possibilities fall to 40 which shouldn't take me more than a few minutes to try out ..." She added as she handed him the piece of paper with what he thought was, on the contrary, a rather well written four digits code.

"Ah well ... you could have been here for quite some time, that's the old one, they changed it a few days ago ..." He replied before entering the correct combination and reaching for the door to open it as a loud beep resounded. "And since I'm on a good day …" He grinned. Honestly he was on quite on an ordinary day of which she probably already was the highlight but he wasn't going to tell her that, he wasn't nearly confident enough for such obvious flirtation. "I'm going to trust you and let you in the building!" He finished as he opened wider and gestured for her to enter. For a moment, he wondered if this was the kind of chivalrous gesture she'd appreciate but her hands were quite occupied with her handbag, a bag that seemed to contain a laptop and a big cardboard box from the bakery around the corner he loved so much, so he supposed it was just common courtesy.

Giving him another one of those adorable nose scrunching expressions and a wide smile, she came in and they both walked towards the elevator.

"It's awfully trusting of you to let a stranger inside your building!" She let out with a teasing smile after a moment of silence. "How can you know I'm not some kind of burglar?" She asked and he chuckled.

"A burglar who has no other means of entering than trying to guess the correct key code, I'd say you're a pretty terrible burglar!" He grinned triumphantly.

"I suppose you have a point …"

"A very well mannered burglar though … Honestly if you bring anything from Cloud Cakes, you're welcome to break into my flat any time you want …" He added with a small nod towards the box she was carrying and she let out a soft watery laugh that might have been the prettiest sound he's heard in a long time and he smiled in satisfaction.

"Oh … so is it any good? I thought it certainly looked like it but …"

"Have you heard what I just said? I wouldn't mind you getting my all new flat screen TV in exchange for one of their cupcakes!" He exclaimed and she laughed once more. He'd be willing to tell her all his best jokes if she kept laughing at it like that. "And not only 'cause I'm too lazy to go there and wait twenty minutes to be served but because their cakes are the best thing I've ever eaten!" He finished and he realized he sounded a little too enthusiastic considering he was only talking about pastries but from the way she smiled almost fondly, he supposed she didn't really mind.

As they walked inside the elevator, he was positively surprised to discover that they were going to the same floor. It had to be a sign of the cosmos telling him to keep talking to her, maybe go as far as introducing himself and praying that she had just moved in or at least was visiting someone, ideally someone like the nice old lady in 4D and not their crazy downstairs neighbor who kept knocking with his broomstick every time they made the tiniest bit of noise, but really anyone she'd be visiting really often from now on. (because there was no way he would go as far as asking for her phone number after talking for two minutes, so he would need to stumble upon her at least another four or five times before he found the courage to do it.)

When they reached the fourth floor, Fitz was frantically raking his brains for something smart or funny to say other than a simple "good evening" or "goodbye and enjoy the cupcakes" but he found out that he didn't need to because she was going the same way, down the long corridor on the right and a mischievous smile tugged at his lips as a somewhat funny -some would say smart ass- thought finally crossed his mind.

"Are you actually visiting someone or are you like one of those cats that follow you home once you open the door for them?" He asked and she rolled her eyes but before she had the time for any kind of smart retort, she let out an amused "ooooh" of realization like she'd just finally understood a joke someone said hours earlier and he gave her a confused look.

"You must be Fitz right?" She asked, laughing at his eyes that probably looked like saucers at the moment.

"Hum … yeah … Do we-do we ... know each other? Cause I usually have quite a good memory and I …" He trailed off. And he would never have forgotten someone like her, he thought. And it was the truth but it sounded so much like a line that he refrained from saying it.

"No ... no we don't but I'm actually here to see Trip, we've been hum … seeing each other for the past two weeks" She said, sounding almost embarrassed for some reason.

Of course.

"Oh … And he talked to you about me?" Fitz asked, feeling a bit down but still a little curious about why his roommate and best friend would talk about him to the beautiful girl he's been dating for so little time.

"Yeah, told me you were Scottish, quite funny AND a really smart ass, should have made the connection sooner …"

"Hey!" He cried out in weak outrage, still smiling internally at the fact that she truly did find him funny and didn't laugh at his jokes out of politeness. Trip was apparently a better man than he was if he talked him up to pretty girls when he met them. Or maybe it just had to do with the fact that HE didn't have to feel threatened by his friend's ridiculously impressive physique and ability to be extra smooth with women.

"You're not how I pictured you though, Trip didn't mention you were ... but hum never mind …" she added with a small smile, pulling him out of his temporary reverie and he thought he caught her giving him a quick once over. But before he had the time to decide if this was a compliment or even a bit of flirting or just the complete opposite, she added a bit shyly: "But hum … didn't you … hear about me at all?"

"Hum … no …" He answered without really thinking about it as he was busy fumbling for his keys and her face fell. "Oh no but don't feel bad about it, with Trip's ambulance shifts and me working extra late almost every night, I've barely seen him these past few weeks!" Fitz said hurriedly to reassure her. "If I did, I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to shut up about you …" He added with a slightly teasing smile and her face relaxed into a softer expression.

"Oh … alright then. Well I'm Jemma … at least you know that about me now!" She answered as she kind of clumsily extended her less busy hand for him to shake, which he did with an amused smile.

"Nice to meet you Jemma"

"It's really nice to meet you too Fitz!" She answered with a warm wide smile as they both walked into the apartment.

God, she was beautiful.

Fitz felt his stomach twist in disappointment. The one time he was interested in a woman, enough to actually talk to her, and she was his best friend's girlfriend. Well at least, he should be comforted by the fact that even though she was beautiful and seemed nice and funny, they probably wouldn't have been compatible on an intellectual level. He loved his best friend and he was smart in his own way -although not genius smart like Fitz was- but the women he usually dated weren't exactly geniuses and he couldn't spend more than a few hours with most of them without being bored to death.

-0-0-0-

Three hours, several cupcakes and a passionate conversation about the latest article in Science Today later, Fitz was pretty sure that Jemma was perfection, or at least his idea of perfection. Even her supposed flaws made her seem more perfect to him. His first impression of her was right but on top of being gorgeous, nice and funny, she was also incredibly smart, a proper genius really. Actually, considering she got her two PHDs by seventeen, she was most likely even smarter than he was and just as passionate about her job as a biochemist as he was about engineering.

Obviously, making Jemma walk into his life was a sign of the cosmos: a sign that it hated him and wanted him to suffer.

Honestly he would have been fine ignoring the existence of the most amazing woman in the world rather than being in her presence and not being allowed to at least find out if something would have been possible between them. As he slammed the door and let out a loud sigh, Fitz realized he probably looked and sounded (at least internally) like a tv show cliché teenager. But he'd always been several years younger than all his classmates back in school and he never really had the opportunity to be heartbroken because girls just didn't look at the scrawny little genius that no one ever understood anyway, so he supposed he was just catching up on that.

As Fitz flopped down on his bed in his boxers -the clothes he wore that day scattered on the floor- and not even bothering to put on pyjama pants or a t-shirt despite how cold it was, he thought he couldn't feel any more bummed out. Of course that was without counting on the cosmos that seemed to be out to get him that night … or most likely on his best friend's stamina. At first, they were barely noticeable noises but soon it turned into breathy moans and whimpers. Obviously Trip didn't bother warning Jemma how thin the walls were in their apartment and even with their bedrooms being separated by the bathroom, he could hear her pleasured noises almost as clearly as if she was in the room.

As he grabbed a pillow and put it over his face, both to muffle the noises and his own frustrated scream, he considered pushing a bit more and smother himself to death with it to put an end to his misery. But that's when he started noticing that a certain part of his anatomy was reacting quite differently to hearing Jemma in the throes of ecstasy.

Usually when Trip brought a woman home and she was loud, Fitz mostly felt annoyed so he would either put on very loud music or, depending on the time of day and his own more or less foul mood, he would just scream at them to shut the hell up, which was usually quite effective and kind of satisfying when both Trip and the woman looked a little sheepish and embarrassed the next morning. But as he couldn't help picturing her naked and moving above him with every one of her moans, he was starting to get awfully turned on. Damn her and her tight jeans that gave more than enough fuel for his brain to imagine what was underneath! This really was the ultimate humiliation the cosmos had in store for him.

Come on Fitz, think! Aunt Marge and her moustache pressing loud sticky kisses to your cheeks, professor Vaughn speaking, that poor dead cat's liver, that weird green smoothie Trip's drinking in the morning … oh no no no … that ugly naked guy we can see from the living room, aunt Marge after she smoked a cigar … oh fuck!

As hard as he tried to picture the most horrifying things to make his embarrassing erection go away, Jemma's voice always covered his own thoughts.

Well, he thought. This one wasn't going to go away on its own anytime soon …

As he let his right hand descend over his stomach and push his boxers down for what would probably be the saddest most pathetic masturbation of his life, he thought that for once, he'd probably be the one feeling embarrassed the next morning and not at all for the right reasons.

So, I suppose I could have used the obvious Will-Jemma-Fitz love triangle but I absolutely hated it in the show and I honestly didn't feel like making Will an important character in this story. On the other hand, Trip was a much more likable character and we know he was interested in Jemma so that seemed like a plausible situation. Obviously, Trip isn't going to be as dumb as Joey so I adapted their interactions and hopefully it'll still be funny :)