Thanks a lot to everyone who wrote a review for that story, I'm so glad you like it 3 Hope you'll like this new chapter :)
When there was a knock on his door at 7:15 three weeks later, Fitz wasn't surprised by the big smile that immediately tucked at his lips. In the last three weeks, he'd gotten used to Simmons coming to knock on his door exactly 50 minutes before class every week day to help him get dressed. Then they would go get breakfast and walk to class together since there only was a few classes they didn't share and none of those first thing in the morning. At first he was quite grumpy about it because it meant he had to be at least showered and partially clothed an insanely long amount of time before class, but since he couldn't ask anyone else for help, he didn't really have a choice. But then, he started noticing that he slept better at night and that he no longer felt sleepy or hungry for junk food by mid-morning. And he had to admit it was probably due to Simmons' forcing him to wake up early and have a boring but healthy breakfast at the cafeteria. And by the time they hit the third week, the (sleepy) smile he gave her when he opened the door for her every morning had become sincere.
And that morning, she was five minutes late so when he went to open the door, he was prepared to tease her for missing her alarm but she spoke before he had the time to say anything.
"Happy taking your cast off day!" She cried out in a way that was way too cheerful so early in the morning (he didn't even remember anyone wishing him happy birthday in such a cheerful way) but one of the few things he'd noticed since they started this little morning ritual and were no longer arguing and getting on each other's nerves all the time, was that her genuine smiles were incredibly contagious.
"Thanks Simmons!" He grinned before letting her in.
"Here" She said, handing him a cardboard cup and a small paper bag, which he took with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry I'm late, I didn't think there would be such a line at the cafeteria this time of day!" She added and he couldn't help chuckling once more. He didn't even consider someone to be late until at least ten minutes after the agreed upon time and they never even agreed upon a specific time for her to come in the first place but somehow, her still apologizing about it didn't even surprise him anymore.
"That's alright. So what's … OH MY GOD SUGAR!" He cut himself off when he saw she'd actually bought him a donut for breakfast. In the past three weeks, he's had to start sneaking in to the cafeteria between classes they didn't share to get his sugar fix and now she was getting him a donut for breakfast. "Simmons are you sick?" He insisted and she rolled her eyes in amusement.
"Well you'll finally be able to get dressed on your own, I thought this called for a celebration!" She answered brightly.
"Yeah I guess …" He chuckled.
But as she came closer to start buttoning his shirt up while he used his good hand to tame his still wet curls just like she'd taught him in what seemed like a well rehearsed choreography, his mind started to wander. At first it felt like having Simmons on his back all the time was going to suffocate him. He was used to being alone all the time and even though he'd always craved more human interaction in his life, it suddenly felt like a lot in very little time. Between their morning ritual and the projects they were working on and her helping him carry his stuff between classes, his only moments of free time were during the week-ends and that was only when they didn't have to work on an assignment together, which happened less and less often with time because obviously, all the professors had taken the fact that Simmons was helping him for a sign that they should make them spend even more time together. But as weeks passed and as they both started to make a conscious effort not to get on each other's nerves, they realized what they had refused to acknowledge before: they worked even better together than on their own. And with the prospect of even more fascinating science experiments and interesting conversations in the mix, he'd started to realize that it wasn't completely awful spending time with her, even when it wasn't work related.
But if she wanted to celebrate not having to help him get dressed and walk him to class every day, did that mean she'd be glad to be rid of him? He supposed he could understand that. It didn't go unnoticed that she was much less socially awkward than he was and smiled easily when he was always such a grump. It made sense that she'd probably want to spend the time she'd been using to help him these past weeks, to socialize a bit more with the other students. Still, it kind of stung because it felt like they had good moments and at times, he almost forgot she did all of that because his mum asked her to.
"Fitz? Fitz are you even listening to me?" She asked, her voice louder than usual and her tone slightly exasperated and he realized he must have been too lost in his thoughts to hear her.
"Yeah yeah hu … no sorry …" He said sheepishly. "Lost in thoughts … what did you say?" He asked and she rolled her eyes but he noticed that now, more often than not, it came with an almost fond shake of her head.
"I was asking if you wanted to go outside on the quad to eat that. We still have time before the start of class, the weather's nice and it's been ages since I've seen a sunrise from somewhere other than a classroom window." She said with a soft smile and he couldn't help looking at her with wide eyes.
That sounded really nice actually but really quite … romantic …
"Fitz?" She insisted with a worried expression when he didn't answer immediately.
"Yeah hu … yeah yeah good idea." He finally answered, smiling. "Let me just grab a jacket and we can go."
"Alright!" She replied with a pleased and somehow relieved smile he decided not to analyze any further.
-0-0-0-
"So …" She started, once they were settled on one of the small benches in front of the swimming pool building. He'd been there a few times since the start of year. Swimming wasn't exactly his forte but he still liked it better than all the other sports he could practice here and since sports was mandatory, he'd had to chose something. But anyway, the one thing he'd noticed about the place was that it gave them the high ground and a completely open horizon towards the east, which seemed like the perfect conditions to watch the sunrise. "I've looked up the file your doctor gave you concerning rehab for your arm and your leg …"
"What file?" He cut her off. His injuries weren't that bad, at least not the one on his arm and he didn't think he needed rehab.
"The one you probably threw away the moment you were out of the hospital and which I fortunately kept when the doctors gave it to me while you were sleeping!" She replied and he rolled his eyes. She kept referring to the four days it took for him to wake up after his surgery as "sleeping" like he'd just been too lazy to wake up. But for once, curiosity got the best of him so he let it slide.
"So what about those files?" He asked.
"Well I've read them and as soon as the cast is off, you're going to need to do daily exercises to strengthen the muscles and tendons that you didn't use while the cast was on, to avoid hurting yourself again. And also you should be careful in using your hand for at least a week or you might sprain your wrist. So I was thinking since you'll be able to get dressed on your own …" She stopped to grin at him for a moment before carrying on. "… we could use this time in the morning to do your exercise and I'll probably have time for fifteen more minutes most eve … what?"
She must finally have noticed the way he was looking at her. He didn't know how that must have looked like to her but he knew it was a mix of surprise and disbelief. Surely she couldn't feel like she owed that much to his mother, she'd really done more than enough already. Unless it was all still out of guilt for saying those words and in this case, she really was a better person than he was if just a few simple words said when she was angry made her think it warranted her taking care of him that way!
"It's just you don't have to … why do you … what-why would you do that?"
She smiled as she patiently waited for him to get an intelligible sentence out and then she chuckled a little nervously.
"Well because I'm pretty sure you'll never do the exercises if I'm not here to watch you and then you'll get yourself injured again and I'll feel guilty about it and we'll be stuck in an infinite loop!" She explained and he couldn't help chuckling himself, even though he found it a little unsettling that she seemed to know him so well already.
"Yeah you're … you're probably right but hum …"
"Also, I need my lab partner to be in full possession of his abilities! I've always been top of class since I was four years old, I'm not going to let it change now!" She cut him off with an expression that was determined but somehow also a little uncertain.
She knew just as well as he did that they'd finished their latest lab assignment for professor Callahan two weeks ago and that he hadn't requested they keep working together. But if he was being honest, he'd started to like working with her and he hoped that maybe, despite her saying that he was just her best option, she might feel the same. It was also kind of nice having someone watch over him. The number of persons who'd ever had taken such an interest in him since he was a child could all easily fit in a small car, and there would still be room for him in it. So he decided not to call her out on the real reasons she was doing all these things for him and just decided to be grateful.
"Alright then … that's really nice of you, more than nice even … thank you Jem-Simmons" He declared in a soft voice, only looking at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Jemma's fine …"
"Hu?" He let out, turning around to look her fully in the eyes and she smiled but again, there a little nervousness in it.
"I've noticed you almost calling me Jemma several times recently and hu … you can … call me that. If you want. It's just … I miss hearing my given name sometimes." She trailed off, not fully looking at him like he did a minute ago. He supposed that was one more thing they had in common: feeling vulnerable when they wanted to express their feelings.
"Okay … Jemma." He simply answered and her smile widened. "Just please don't ever call me Leo or Leopold, I really don't miss anyone calling me that!"
She looked at him questioningly but just when he thought she was going to ask him why, she just shook her head and nodded and he couldn't have been more grateful about it. Turning back to look at the horizon where the sun was finally starting to rise, they stayed in silence for a moment. The light was slowly changing from a faint pink glow to a warm orange light and creating long shadows behind the tall trees forming some sort of natural barrier around the Academy campus and with the light reflecting in the wide artificial pool, he had to admit it was a pretty sight, one worth getting up ridiculously early to see it.
"It really is a nice spot to watch the sunrise Fitz …" She said, breaking the silence and mirroring his own thoughts. "I mean it's not like seeing it from the top of the green hills of Perthshire but … it's still pretty."
"Perthshire?" He grinned. "That's in Scotland!"
"I know where it is Fitz!" She answered, rolling her eyes softly. "Been there on a family holiday once, it was so pretty and green and peaceful, I often think about it …"
"An' ye dinna have trouble understanding the locals while ye were there?" He asked, exaggerating his accent to the point he barely could understand himself.
"You know I know when you exaggerate your accent to annoy me right?" She replied with a raised eyebrow. "And I mean not just right now …"
"Yeah … and you know I know you only pretend not to understand me right?" He retorted, trying to raise his eyebrows even higher until they simultaneously grinned at each other and she shook her head in defeat.
"Okay I suppose we've both been a little childish …" She conceded before looking at her watch. "I think it's time to go if we want the good seats."
Standing up, she took both their empty cups to throw them away in the nearest bin and went back to offer her hand to help him up. He took it with a small smile and pushed himself up from the bench. As they started walking down the small hill and towards the main building, Fitz was tempted to tell her that since they were headed to their SHIELD history class, her idea of a good seat was probably quite different from his but it was so nice to have, for once, someone to sit next to rather than just sit as father away as possible from the most annoying students that he didn't say anything and just followed her lead. And as he listened, he tried his best to look bored and not let the fond smile tugging at his lips show as she went on about how fascinating she'd found their latest class about Peggy Carter.
-0-0-0-
"Okay now squeeze for thirty more seconds and then you can stretch!" Jemma said, offering her hand once more for Fitz to take.
"You know sometimes I think you're inventing these exercises just so you can leech away all my body heat through your icy fingers!" He let out with an amused grin as he pretended to recoil from her touch, like he did pretty much all the time. "I mean we've been inside for two hours, how can your hands still be so cold?" He insisted and she chuckled.
"It's just biology Fitz, women's thermo receptors work faster than men's and send all the blood towards internal organs to keep a potential foetus warm and safe when it senses cold. And then it gets much longer for the extremities to get warm again. It's annoying really, it's like nature doesn't care if we're uncomfortable or miserable as long as a non-existing foetus is safe …" She trailed off, letting out a loud annoyed sigh and couldn't help grinning at Fitz's sheepish expression.
"Hu … sorry …" He said with an actual apologetic look.
"That's alright, I'm pretty sure it's not your fault Fitz …" She grinned. "Now squeeze!"
They'd been doing this for almost two weeks, twice a day every day and by now, she thought she would have gotten used to it but she hadn't, not completely. Knowing that it was just a biological thing didn't make it any less pleasing when he enveloped her usually cold hand with his always warm one. She was glad it was almost winter and she was always wearing long sleeves now or he might have seen how it never failed to send a trail of goosebump up her arm. But on top of the nice warm feeling, helping with those exercises had given her ample time to look at his hands and she wondered how, for someone as observant as she was, it took her so long to notice how really nice they were. They were actually quite possibly the nicest hands she'd ever seen on a man: palms large and wide enough to make them strong and able to envelop her own tiny ones entirely but with ridiculously long and elegant fingers that probably had to do with him being so naturally precise when tinkering with fine machinery. That would probably make him a good pianist as well. Maybe he was already. He never mentioned it but it wasn't like they had so many personal conversations, even since they started being more civil to each other.
"Hu Jemma can I stop squeezing now?"
"What? Oh yes of course … sorry … lost in thoughts …" She apologized, feeling herself blush. It wasn't the first time she let her mind wander when they were in that situation but she supposed she couldn't really be blamed. She might be the smartest person here, she was still sixteen and when a not completely unattractive boy touched her with his objectively nice hands, it was bound to make her feel … something.
Fitz was smirking and she could see he was about to tease her some way or another but someone decided to beat him to it.
"Hey FitzSimmons, what's this? Are you arm wrestling? You know this is not Operations right?" Milton said, looking mighty pleased with himself, voice loud enough for a few other cadets hanging out in the common room to laugh at his joke and Jemma rolled her eyes.
"We're not armwrestling Milton, I'm just helping him getting some strength back into his arm and hand now that the cast is off!"
"Oh I'm sure little Fitzy here could find ways to get some way to exercise his wrist on his own …" He replied. "Although it's always better with a pretty girl, right Fitzy?" He added, turning to Fitz with a sly grin.
"I swear if you call me Fitzy one more …" Fitz started and Jemma noticed he was still holding on to her and squeezing even harder now, probably in annoyance and apparently a little bit of anger. She'd already noticed he could have quite the temper over the smallest things sometimes, even if she had to admit Milton usually was particularly annoying.
"i'm confused Milton, are you trying to flirt with me or Fitz here? Because I'm pretty sure neither of us is interested anyway!"
"WHAT? No! No no no … obviously I was …" He started, putting his hands in front of him in a defensive way. She knew that even vaguely mentioning homosexuality in the presence of such a ridiculous alpha male type was the best way to get rid of him but that didn't stop her from finding it profoundly stupid every time.
"Did you need something else Milton? 'Cause we're kind of busy here!" She cut him off with what she hoped was a convincing glare.
Apparently it was because, he mumbled something about someone needing him and left. Jemma turned to Fitz with an amused grin, feeling quite proud of herself but Fitz was looking at her with wide eyes and she wondered if maybe she said something wrong. Could Fitz actually be interested in Milton that way? No, he kept saying mean (but quite amusing) things about the size of his head and she thought she'd noticed several pointed looks when he thought she wasn't looking that made it pretty clear Fitz was interested in women so …
"Mmmh Well he was suggesting that you … you know and I thought it was rude so I …"
"No Jemma I know what he was suggesting, I'm young, not completely oblivious! No I mean why did he call us FitzSimmons?"
"Oh …" Jemma let out, blushing slightly. "Yeah uh … people have started calling us that. I supposed we've been spending quite a lot of time together lately … Is it the first time you've heard it?"
"Of course it is! Why would I be surprised if it wasn't?" He cried out and she couldn't quite decipher the expression on his face. He was surprised obviously but there was something else as well …
"Does that hum … does that bother you?" She asked shyly. She'd found it ridiculous at first but the more she heard it, the more she thought it kind of had a nice ring to it.
"I don't know" He shrugged. "Never really thought about it before you know but hum … I suppose I've been called worse." He said with a small chuckled and she relaxed a bit. "And hu … I guess there are worse people i could be associated with …" He added and a small smiled tucked at her lips. "… I mean not a lot but …" He added with a teasing grin but she cut her off by swatting his hand. She liked that they kept this teasing bantering part of their relationship but without the part that usually made her want to strangle him.
"Okay now stretch." She said, doing the movements herself for him to follow her lead and she tried to focus on making sure he was doing them right and not on how graceful his hands were when he was stretching his fingers like that.
"FitzSimmons …" He repeated after a while. "There's quite a nice ring to it I guess …"
