Here's the prompt for Day 4: Satisfaction. Have some Academy FitzSimmons. ;)

I honestly have no clue where this came from...

Thanks to my Beta StarryDreamer01 who helped me edit this.


Little shenanigans in the making.

(Or how Jemma Simmons gets payback for Fitz in her unique way…)

Jemma was walking back to her dorm room after an evening spent with Fitz studying for their session of exams at the Academy.

She was tired and longed to take a shower before collapsing in bed and yet she couldn't stop the giddiness coursing through her. She and Fitz had the plan to graduate early: they'd carefully scheduled their lessons and lectures so that by the start of the new year they'd be starting their senior year classes.

It was a rather ambitious plan but she knew that they could do it. They had both realised that the first year classes were too easy for them: they had covered a good part of them during their doctorates.

They'd done some research, gone through all the years' syllabuses and checked all the rules: they could take as many exams as they wanted.

They'd start with the first year exams (the easiest) in the autumn session and put in a few of the second year as well. They had been reviewing after classes in the past few weeks and Jemma was sure that they'd do well. After studying and preparing for exams at MIT, she knew that they wouldn't fail.

The happiness she felt was mostly caused by the familiar routine. She and Fitz had drifted apart since they'd come to the Academy: the acknowledgement of having non -platonic feelings for each other and stepping back from them had cast an awkward tension to their interactions. And being put in two separate dorms hadn't helped either.

Jemma had gone through weeks of being by Fitz' side during classes and breaks but felt far away from him. Every word and accidental touch seemed to make him tense or move away and it made her heart ache because it looked as though their entire relationship was jeopardized.

Things were slightly better now: they had reached a sort of balance and they were slowly getting back to be what they were before.

Jemma sighed softly when she realised that nothing could ever bring back what they were before. It would mean forgetting about the kiss they had shared and the way they had looked at each other before stumbling away; it would mean ignoring the way her heart would skip a beat when Fitz touched her or looked at her.

She was trying to deal with these confused emotions, trying to see him as her best friend and nothing more but... it was not easy. She kept seeing Leo, the boy she grew up with in uni and that had become her first and best friend and that had slowly crept into her heart in ways that she couldn't imagine.

Now, she had to find a way to see him as Fitz, who was still the boy she grew up with and was her best friend... and nothing more.

It was hard but she was working on it. She couldn't think of losing him...

Jemma was almost at the corridor leading to her room when she caught movement in front of her. A few cadets were talking with their rooms' doors open and she recognised them as girls from the Advanced Molecular Biology class that she'd decided to stop following despite it being a second year class; she'd agreed with the professor to just do the exam since she'd covered most of the subject during her first doctorate.

She smiled politely as she walked past them.

"Hey, Simmons," they greeted her and she smiled in return.

Being here at the Academy was a bit odd really... Everyone was older than her -as always- but they accepted her being there. They all knew that she was intelligent and that they -both her and Fitz- were worthy to be there.

"Hey, sorry, I'm late!"

Jemma was entering her room when another person appeared in the corridor and something coiled in her stomach when she recognised the voice.

Amy Carver.

"Oh, hey, Simmons," the brunette said off-handedly as she saw her, and Jemma smiled and waved before closing the door behind her as quickly as she could.

Something hot was bubbling in the pit of her belly as she thought of the older cadet whom she could hear talking just outside of her door with her friends. Jemma stood with her back to the door and sighed.

There was nothing wrong with Amy, really... She was a twenty-three years old young woman with black hair, dark brown eyes and charming personality; a second year biology cadet who was quite bright and got decent grades.

A girl who'd taken an interest on Fitz, had asked Jemma countless questions about him and had asked him out.

They'd gone on a lunch date yesterday.

And Fitz hadn't told her anything about it. Not that she had asked anyway...

She hadn't mentioned anything to him about her coffee date with Tyron Wells a few days. It had been...awkward and she had talked too much but the older boy had been pleasant though slightly confused by her rambling. He had leant forward, when they were saying goodbye, and Jemma was sure that he was going to kiss her. She had stepped back quickly and waved before hurrying away.

Jemma tried to ignore the way her heart clenched in her chest when she thought about her best friend going out with some girl -any girl that wasn't her- and facing a similar situation.

He might kiss another girl, smile and laugh with her and do so much more. Jemma's mind conjured a rather vivid image of her doing all of those things with him and she had to push them to a corner of her mind.

There was also a rational voice in her head that was telling her that this was good; they'd realise that they were just friend it would make their relationship go back to normal.

Her heart didn't seem to concur though...

Shaking her head in an attempt to get rid of these very confused thoughts, Jemma moved forward only to realise that a bit of her bag's strap was stuck in the closed door. Sighing again, she opened the door slightly, just enough to pull the thin strip of leather when she heard a piece of dialogue.

"He's cute and has this sort of nice accent but... God, he just talked about...classes."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! I thought he just needed an icebreaker to relax -he was so nervous and I found it cute at first; he also brought me a small bouquet of flowers and was blushing all the time... but then-" Jemma heard the other girls giggle. "But then he just went on rambling about mechanics and stuff. And monkeys of all things..."

"God, what a nerd."

"I honestly wonder how Simmons deals with him everyday."

Jemma froze when her name was mentioned and didn't dare to move. The niggling suspicion that Carver and her friends were talking about Fitz solidified in her mind.

What did she even mean by how she dealt with him? Fitz was her best friend! He was the best person she knew. And the smartest and most interesting to boot.

How could she-?

Words trailed into her room stopping her stream of thoughts.

"So you won't see him again, will you?" Jemma plastered herself to the door and listened carefully as Amy's friend, Cynthia talked.

"No, don't think so," Amy drawled. "Cute and nice accent isn't enough to counterboring... Although... too bad, he did have some really nice hands."

The older girls laughed and Jemma bit her lip, knowing that there was more than a suggestive reason for that comment. And she didn't need that image in her head: it was hard enough to be around Fitz without further distractions.

Something coiled in her stomach as she heard more dismissive remarks about her best friend and the other girls laughed. For the first time in her life, Jemma felt raw anger in her: she hadn't felt like that even when she had been bullied at school.

She recalled how Fitz had looked slightly subdued when they had met for dinner yesterday. His smile was a little more strained and they had studied without any of his sudden quips and comments and he'd shrugged her concern, saying that he was tired. She suddenly realised that he had been embarrassed, probably confused and might have wanted to talk about it... but he hadn't.

Jemma slowly closed the door of her room, being careful not to make a sound and sighed, leaning against the wooden surface.

She hadn't said a word to Fitz about her own date because she didn't know how to talk to him about it. They were slowly falling back into their old dynamics and she really didn't want to disrupt it by talking about relationships.

It was too early for that.

She hoped that they'd come to a point in the future where they'd feel comfortable to talk about that but not now. Her heart was a messy place filled with confused feelings and she was sure that Fitz' was in the same state.

Another round of laughter reached her ears and a wave of anger coursed through her.

Despite everything, however, she wouldn't allow some older girl to be so dismissive of her best friend like that; he wouldn't allow her to talk about him as though he was some fool. He had tried to be attentive on his date and to be sweet and he didn't deserve to be ridiculed.

There was a small part of Jemma that wanted to march out door and give the girls a piece of her mind, but the more rational part stopped her.

She and Fitz were always together and, more than once, they'd been reprimanded for fraternization despite their protests. She could imagine what people would say if she shouted at Amy and what rumours would start to spread...

She couldn't help but see the irony that they were doing everything to not be that close to each other.

So lashing out was out of order.

Not that it would have been easy for her, giving her character, but they were talking like that about Fitz and-

Another hot wave of anger went through her.

Jemma walked to her desk and dropped her bag on it before sitting on her chair. What could she do?

She absentmindedly stared at the line of books on her shelf and her eyes fell on the heavy tome of Advanced Molecular Biology: it was slightly covered in dust.

She had stopped going to the class after she and Fitz had planned to graduate early and they'd started taking more advanced classes. She had talked with Professor Mason and he had agreed to allow her to take the exam without going to the lectures. She had been planning to revise on her notes alone, fully sure that they'd be enough.

A small idea popped in Jemma's mind and she got up to take the book, blowing the dust away.

Professor Mason usually liked to give a list of questions on his exams but didn't want an answer to all of them; an acceptable grade could be achieved by answering at a little more than half. Jemma had heard most of the class say that they'd study less on the exam and just answer the right amount of questions; the mere thought appalled Jemma but she had heard that no one had ever answered all of the exam's questions.

But she distinctly remembered Amy and her friends talking about that exam and calculating how many questions they'd need to get right to pass. She'd heard them complain about the enormous amount of things to study and the outrageous number of exams. It didn't seem that much to Jemma...

And Professor Mason graded on the Bell curve.

Jemma bit her lip, knowing that what she was planning was completely out of character for her but-

She heard laughter outside her door and her resolve hardened. Without further ado, she put the book on her table and retrieved her old notebooks from her drawer.

It was time for some payback for Fitz.

She just had to plan the whole operation in its detail...

-:-

A week later, the cadets at Sci-Tech were all busy with their exams and so were FitzSimmons.

The two studied together day and night and did exceedingly well in their written examinations; the name FitzSimmons was heard throughout the hallways more and more often, followed by an exclamation of awe or -sometimes- envy.

Jemma was leaving the room from where she'd just finished her Advanced Molecular Biology exam: she was the last to leave and she couldn't help but feel a bit jittery.

If things went as she'd planned...

"Hey, Simmons." She looked up and smiled when she saw Fitz standing by the door leading to the exit.

"Hi, Fitz," she replied and he smiled back. "How did Aerodynamics go?"

"Fine," He shrugged as though it wasn't much. "It wasn't hard."

"Is there any subject that you think is hard?"

He rolled his eyes at her teasing and she bumped his shoulder with hers. They walked in silence down the lane and Jemma glanced at him, surprised to find him staring.

"W-what?" She asked, self-consciously tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Nothing," he replied quickly, looking straight ahead of him. She saw him move his hands at his sides, fingers tapping on his thigh in a nervous trait she was quite accustomed to.

"Fitz..." she said slowly, looking at him intently and he stared at her, blue eyes uncertain. She had to ignore the way her heart skipped a beat.

"Hmm... Are you-I mean...Is-" He cleared his throat. "Is it still alright for you to watch a film in my room this evening and then eat something? You know, to relax a bit since we've already studied for tomorrow's exams." He looked at her with a small smile. "Like...we agreed yesterday?"

Jemma blinked.

Yesterday, after an afternoon in the library, Fitz had suggested the same thing and she had refused. He had looked a bit bewildered that she'd wanted to revise so in depth for an exam that she could probably do blindfolded. She'd come up with a valid reason for studying so late that wasn't her secret plan and she'd rambled on for a bit about being overly sure and getting lesser grades.

She remembered that he'd looked hurt for a moment before smiling and teasing about loving homework more than life itself.

Apparently, he'd taken her refusal more personally than she'd thought and she'd accidentally hurt him. Jemma had to make things right.

"Of course!" She exclaimed, making his eyes widen slightly. "I... I was just too worried about this exam and it wasn't really necessary to study so much." She heaved a sigh and looked at him wryly. "We might as well have spent the evening together: it would have been a lot better than going through my notes."

Fitz grinned, uncertainty gone from his eyes and she couldn't help but laugh and whack his arm in mock-anger when he teased her. The rush of happiness that went through her seeing him like his made her realise just how much she cared for him and how she didn't want to create any other rifts their relationship.

He was her best friend and she'd do anything to look out for him.

-:-

When the exam's results came out, there was a bit of an uproar.

Everyone knew about FitzSimmons: the two youngest students a Sci-Tech had quite a reputation but their brilliant results during their exams made their names known to everyone.

In particular, Jemma Simmons gained a name as being the first one to achieve an impossible 120% in Advanced Molecular Biology. She was the first cadet to get all the answers of the exam right. Professor Mason himself had congratulated her.

However, there were a few cadets who weren't as happy.

Jemma had to keep a straight face as she absently listened to Fitz' teasing when she saw Amy Carver and her friends stare at the results' sheet and complain about the fact that they had failed the exam because of Jemma's very high result.

The older cadets actually glared at her but she didn't feel disturbed by it. She'd be sharing a dorm with Fitz in a few months and she really didn't feel ashamed of what she'd done.

It was a very little payback for how she'd made Fitz feel.

"And you were seriously worried about that?" Fitz asked in disbelief as they went to lunch. "You're impossible."

"Well... what can I say?" Jemma smiled a little bit smugly. "I just get a lot of satisfaction at getting the best results."

She was quite sure that Carver heard her, judging by her appalled look.

It took all of her willpower not to laugh.

-:-

Years later she realised that she'd done that because she was jealous... although it took a while to admit it to herself.

She confessed her shenanigans to Leo later on when they'd already gotten together and he'd stared at her, utterly flabbergasted. Skye and Bobbi had crowed at her over their drinks' glasses, saying that they knew that she had it in her.

When they were alone in his room at the Playground, hours later, her best friend kissed her warmly.

"Thank you for having my back," he whispered against her lips, hands wandering down her sides. "Even though, I can't believe that you keep saying that I'm the jealous one."

"Oh hush..." She retorted, blushing at his words and ministrations. "She was being awful: talking about you like-"

"-a fool who was out on a date without a clue of what he was doing," he finished as they lied on his bed, side by side and he pressed kisses to her face. "A fool who was pretty much in love with his best friend and was trying to ignore it."

"Then it was two of us," she said, running a hand through his hair and admiring the loving look in his eyes. "And, yes, I was jealous. I admitted it: satisfied?"

He grinned devilishly.

"Not yet," he whispered against her ear. Jemma let out a giggle as he twisted them around, making her lay on the mattress with him on top of her.

They both soon made other noises while they concentrated on each other.

Yes... they certainly knew how to be satisfied with the best results.


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