I honestly have no clue how this came out.

I hope you guys like it... and thanks for the reviews :)

Here's the prompt for Day 3: Fantasy

Thanks to my Beta StarryDreamer01 who helped me edit this. She writes awesome stories: go and read them! :)

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN AGENTS OF SHIELD.

3. Of Labs and Late Nights

Jemma rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, her gloved hands stained with the chemical components she was working with and sighed softly.

She was exhausted.

She didn't know what time it was but judging by the dark sky, it had to be really, really late. The kind of hour when it was too late to be night and too early to be morning.

All her body and mind is asking now was to sleep: she needed a few blissful hours of rest to recharge and start again.

She turned her head to her side and watched Leo working on a device that some SHIELD team in Asian had sent Director Coulson: he was meticulously taking the thing apart to verify its components.

They'd been working a lot lately. They were Director Coulson's scientists and that had unofficially given them the title of resident experts on any scientific aspect within SHIELD.

Perhaps, the fact that most of the scientists within SHIELD were either dead, kidnapped or Hydra spies had put them in this position.

Every agent or team that Coulson had screened and recruited would call them to identify unknown material or devices and ask for help in analysing and looking for advice.

It had been flattering at first. Now, it was just tiring.

Leo moved, twirling a screwdriver in his long fingers as he studied the scans taken by the DWARFs and compared them to what he was seeing in the device.

He had recovered well: his hands were not shaking anymore and his arm didn't hurt him when he lifted weights or strained himself. His memory was quite intact and the little things that slipped were minor ones.

He was all right: that was all she cared about.

Jemma stood there in silence, watching him work.

After a few moments, he put his tools down on the workbench and ran a hand through his hair, sending his curls flying in every direction; his blue eyes were focused and his mouth set in a firm line before he crouched down to dismantle the device with his own fingers. Something about the whole scene made her turn around, swallowing dryly.

She had become extremely aware of him.

She seemed to notice every little thing about him lately: from the way his hair would curl on his forehead to the little lines that would crease his face when he smiled; the way his eyes looked darker in the morning when he woke up to the roughness of his fingertips against her skin when they kissed in contrast to the softness of his lips.

She really should stop thinking about that now.

Jemma started to clear her workspace, trying to free her mind from the influx of thoughts but failing miserably.

Ever since he had woken up from his coma, they had gotten closer... if that was even possible. They spent every night together in one of their bunks, giving each other comfort because the nightmares had increased. Jemma couldn't close her eyes if his arms weren't around her and his steady breath lulled her to sleep. Leo had confessed that having her close to him at night was the only way to stop her screams from echoing in his head.

But as the nights went on and the nightmares slowly diminished, their closeness became more intimate. The kisses more frequent and heated, the touches more daring and lingering and they both yearned for more.

They didn't give in to their feelings though. They were aware that they lived on a plane and slept in tiny rooms with walls that weren't completely soundproof.

Their teammates might be ignoring the fact that she and Leo slipped into their bunks together every night and might even feign knowing that they were a couple but what would they say if they did more...?

Jemma didn't want to imagine how her teammates might react. Skye would be terrible about it: she was the only one that explicitly knew about her and Leo (Jemma had told her months ago) and the biochemist could imagine the endless teasing they would have to endure.

She imagined Coulson's reaction: he might have to tell them about Section 17. Or he might ignore it since SHIELD and its rules didn't really exist at the moment: he might let them be as long as they did their work well. However, the possibility that the anti-fraternization rule could still be there to separate them made her and Leo cautious not to expose their relationship.

Or he might call them to his office and give them some sort of talk which was not something she was looking forward to. Hell, she hadn't had that talk even with her parents. Something about being a genius biochemist that could explain the whole process from a biological point of view had saved her from that.

Jemma sighed, taking her gloves off and rubbing her eyes.

She was tired and that was the reason for all of these thoughts...

Or maybe it was her dreams that had shifted from horribly frightening to terribly suggestive.

Like the one where she and Leo were snogging mindlessly in the lab late at night and she was tugging onto his lab coat to get him closer to her.

Right…

Perhaps thinking about that while they were both in the lab, late at night and very unlikely to be interrupted was not a good idea.

Or maybe it was...

No. She had to get rid of these thoughts from her head.

"Jemma?"

She turned abruptly and found Leo standing in front of her.

He was smiling tiredly, blue eyes soft with sleep and hair mussed by his constant ruffling. He was wearing his lab coat over his shirt with his tie loose and hanging lopsided. There was a thin layer of scruff on his face, making him look more rugged than usual.

Jemma swallowed dryly when she realised that Leo looked as though he had just walked out of her dream and that was doing terrible things to her body and mind.

"Yes?" She squeaked.

"Let's call it a night, yeah?" He smiled crookedly and she almost melted on the spot. "I've been looking at that-" He waved a hand vaguely towards the device on his workbench. "-and my eyes are blurring over the blueprints."

"A-Alright," she stammered and turned around to order her workspace before he could say anything else. She expected him to walk over to his side to clear up and she almost sighed in relief when he did so.

It would give her time to clear her mind. There had to be some explanation to all this mess in her head.

It was all a biological reaction.

She was just reacting to his pheromones.

She had a logical explanation now: hormones

As Jemma put away the last things on her table, she realised that she was just kidding herself.

She was extremely attracted to Leo because she loved him.

Her few previous relationships didn't have the emotional baggage that she had with him. None had her yearning to get closer physically and emotionally.

She turned to him after she finished and switched off the lights from her side of the lab and found him staring at her with intense eyes.

If she knew Leo enough -and she did- he was probably struggling with conflicted feelings just as she did..

She approached him, feeling warm, loved and suddenly self-assured, and smiled softly. She gently reached for the lapels of his lab coat.

"Jem?" He looked down at her, confused, surprised and even a little hopeful. She smiled.

"The lights, Leo," she whispered and she saw him swallow dryly, Adam's apple bobbing in his neck as he turned the switch off.

The lab's video feed automatically stopped when they were flying and the lights were off. It was an unnecessary security measure and expense that Coulson had agreed to cut when they were fixing the Bus and upgrading it.

Jemma didn't think she'd be so happy to see the dim safety lights turn on by the lab's doors while they were shrouded in semi-darkness.

She looked up and caught a glimpse of Leo's eyes, the bright blue still clear despite the scarce light. Jemma didn't wait, seizing the chance and not allowing her quick and somewhat shy mind to take over. She pushed herself up on her toes and kissed him.

Leo didn't hesitate either and dipped down, melding their lips together and pushing her gently against the table, making her lean against it. Jemma's fingers curled in his lab coat's collar and pulled him closer to her, never breaking contact.

It was a slow and soft experiment for both.

Leo moved his hand behind her nape, fingers tangling in her hair while the other went past her coat and blouse and skimmed the skin of her waist. Jemma mewled softly when he started tracing patterns on her skin with his thumb.

She wasn't idle either: one hand wrapped around his neck while the other ran through his curls and gently scraped his scalp, making him groan in her mouth. The trickle of pride that went through her for his reaction made her smile and deepen the kiss.

At some point, their lab coats came off and it was just lips and teeth seeking warm, tender skin. His larger hands tenderly roamed over soft curves while delicate fingers undid shirt buttons and traced the outlines of smooth muscle.

They were in sync as always despite the novelty of the moment: soft gasps were swallowed by heated kisses (and if their teeth clashed slightly, she would giggle softly and he would chuckle embarrassedly before trying again). Breathy sighs were followed by little smiles and gentle pecks. Every now and then, Leo's eyes would flit to the lab's door, probably expecting someone to appear, the lights turned on and the two of them exposed.

Jemma felt a little trickle of nervousness whenever her voice came out a little more louder than expected or Leo's whispered words echoed in the lab.

There was a part of her that knew that it was unlikely for any of her teammates to walk into the lab or the cargo bay at this time.

And she also knew that they really shouldn't be doing this here. In the lab.

But there was also a little voice that told her to stop worrying and to just enjoy being with Leo.

As a couple.

They knew each other well enough to know when to stop so they launched into the exploration of each other as they did with their science: suggesting ideas and then waiting for the other to finish.

-:-

It was almost dawn when they walked up the staircase to their bunks. They were more than a little disheveled and pink in the face (Jemma was sure that they were both sporting some prominent marks on their necks as well and she thanked the stars for the chilly spring and high collared jumpers) but they couldn't stop beaming at each other.

They were halfway to Leo's bunk when May appeared in front of them: she must have just left the cockpit.

Jemma and Leo froze as the senior agent saw them. Thankfully, Leo seemed to gather his wits quickly enough to nod at her and smile.

"Good Night, May," he said softly and walked past her, gently grasping Jemma's wrist to bring her along with him.

May stared at them and Jemma wondered what she was thinking.

She must see them as two twenty-six year olds who were behaving like teenagers. Two of SHIELD's most brilliant minds who were forgetting their roles and thinking selfishly about themselves.

But May didn't say anything.

She just nodded at them and Jemma could almost swear that she saw a hint of a smile cross her face as she walked past her.

"The walls are thin: try to keep it down..."

Leo and Jemma froze again right in front of Fitz's door. They turned as one towards the older woman but she had already disappeared.

Once they entered his bunk, they looked at each with wide eyes.

"Did she just-?" Leo said, unable to finish the question.

"I think she did," Jemma confirmed, blushing slightly.

"May just said-"

"Yes."

They stared at each other.

"We should go to bed," they said in unison and prepared for the few hours of sleep that awaited them.

Best not to linger on the thought...

Please, leave a review... :)