Leo pushed into the flooded halls, outstepping his ambling classmates as he powered towards the cafeteria. He'd missed breakfast after having fallen asleep at his desk in the early hours of the morning – a habit since picking up Project Ajax – and he was currently in the furthest block from the cafeteria.

It appeared no level of haste or discourtesy to fellow students could get Leo there before a line had built up around the room, and his shoulders slumped as he joined the dismally long queue.

With his tray finally piled to his content, Leo surveyed the room to see there wasn't a completely vacant table as far as the eye could see. Taking unsure steps among them, he spotted one with only two taken seats and made straight for it before taking a sharp turn left as he recognised the tight, auburn ponytail of one of its occupants. He felt Jemma's gaze wash over him as he averted his eyes as if he'd never seen her, but he could see in his peripheral vision that her brow dipped with suspicion.

He sat himself down at the next available seat he could find and dropped out of her line of sight, only then looking up to see he was surrounded by a table of third years he had never met. They all paused as he filled the empty seat, but to his immense relief seemed to think nothing of it and went back to their own conversation as Leo dug gratefully into his food.

It had been two weeks since Jemma had left Leo alone in the student lab, and they hadn't exchanged a word since. In the classes they shared they would sit apart where possible, or otherwise shift their stools as far apart as the table would allow and keep their eyes directly ahead for the duration of the class. By the time the bell rang one of them was always already packed and on their way – usually Jemma, as Leo found himself fumbling under the pressure to speed up. He didn't mind terribly; once she was gone he could take his time leaving – in fact, the more time the better, to widen the distance between them.

It wasn't like he missed her after all – Leo had practically lived his whole life without the need to associate with others, and he was quite happy to go back to that. It was familiar. Comfortable. In fact, he preferred it; no need to play nice or find a medium between two ideas. He was quite capable of achieving his very best without the assistance of anyone else – he was better off. He told himself all these things, and he told himself he believed them.

Leo looked at his afternoon schedule with dismay; despite his best efforts to avoid Jemma at lunch, Thermodynamics was the one class in which he couldn't move to an alternative seat, given that there weren't any.

With a full belly, he returned his tray and made for C Block. He slowed outside the classroom, sidling towards the door until he could peek inside, where he saw both his seat and the one beside it empty: he was here first. He puffed out the breath swelling his lungs and took his place, pulling out his tablet. Leo liked to arrive first because when Jemma beat him here, she would always look up at him as he sat down, resulting in an almost unbearable moment of eye contact, or worse, she would watch him and he would resist looking back, feeling her frown. He, on the other hand, had mastered the art of non-reaction, so when Jemma took her place a moment later he kept his eyes trained down on his tablet, giving no indication he'd even heard her arrive.

Professor Reid thankfully didn't ask for any group discussions during the lesson, allowing Leo to keep his eyes focused ahead and his mind on the follow-up briefing with Agent Walters scheduled at the end of class. For the first time he was packed and ready to go when the bell rang, slipping from his seat and out the door before Jemma.

Unlike their last briefing in the auditorium, today's meet was to be held in one of the student labs as the numbers involved with Project Ajax had narrowed to about two dozen. Last week they had been gathered for a Q&A, and Leo attended, although he didn't ask anything – merely listened in on what other students raised. He didn't feel it necessary to check in, but wanted to be present in case any further details of the project were given. To his surprise, Agent Walters had announced that they would need to submit their progress the following day for review, and sure enough when Leo returned to his dorm he found a new folder on his PC for him to add his work. There had also been a second meeting earlier this week in which the announcement detailed it as an opportunity to collaborate with other students working on the project. Leo had not attended that one, and spent the night working alone in his dorm.

Leo assumed there would be some sort of feedback this afternoon, or at least an indication of whether their work was valuable. The student lab had been set up with the correct amount of tables and chairs, and there was a projector up the front with the familiar schematic lit across the front wall. Agent Walters was shuffling papers within a manila folder as he and a few other students drifted inside, and within ten minutes of his arrival all the seats were full.

"Right," Agent Walters began, crossing the lab to close the door. The command in her voice showed in the silence that instantly fell over the room.

"I know many of you have begun to collaborate in your own time, which is wonderful, and I encourage you to continue over the next hour. This is a formal space where you may continue your work and I will be present to give any guidance required."

Leo's mouth and spine fell slack – more collaboration? The announcement hadn't suggested anything of the sort, and if it had he wouldn't have bothered.

"SHIELD has also reviewed the progress reports you submitted last week, and I will be coming around to have a word with some of you."

That was more like it. He straightened slightly, fingers gripping the edges of his tablet as he waited with his peers for further instructions. There didn't seem to be any, and the other students shifted their seats to form groups, twos and threes collecting with their heads bent towards each other as Agent Walters lightly paced the room. Leo made no more towards anyone, keeping his place instead and opening up the modified schematic on his tablet. It included all the rearrangements and notes he'd made on the holotable; if he was going to be here for the next hour, he would at least put it to use.

It was half an hour before Agent Walters' heels clicked towards him and he felt a slight pressure on the back of his chair as she leaned over his shoulder. His head whipped to the side, taking in her all-too-close face, glasses halfway down her nose as she squinted at his tablet.

"Mr. Fitz."

"Yes?"

"You're quite alone over here."

"Mmm."

A pause.

"I was intrigued by your redesign of the schematic." She lifted her hand from his chair and moved around so she was sitting on the edge of the table. She twisted to look at him, and her suit jacket creased but she made no move to undo the buttons.

Leo didn't respond, waiting for her to go on, which she did.

"Did you redraw the components?"

"Used the holotable – just—pulled it apart, put it back together. No big deal."

He retained eye contact for the first few words but dropped his gaze with a shrug, trying to seem nonchalant.

"How did the idea occur to you?"

"Just did, really."

She nodded pensively.

"And what about these pieces here." Her finger indicated the components still sitting on the sidelines of the schematic. "What do you plan to do with these?"

"Well I'm… I'm not exactly sure yet. I'm moving things around but they don't all have a place – need to match up the internal wiring, see where they fit." He double-tapped the screen and zoomed in on one particular component. "Can't be too different from the original formation though, can it? Doesn't make sense for it to take such a different shape."

He wasn't exactly speaking to Agent Walters as he mused on the design logic, but she didn't respond anyway, standing up off the desk and moving on. He looked up as she leaned by another group of students, unaware that their little chat had already come to an end. Was that a good or bad sign? Did she think he was above the need for guidance or below the hope of help? With narrow eyes he looked around at the other students, noticing fewer of his own peers were still involved. Celeste had been at the last briefing, but not this one. He recognised one or two of the third years he had actually sat with at lunch. Other than that, they were all strangers.

Leo remained focused on his own tablet until Agent Walters was thanking them all for their work and ushering them off to dinner.

"SHIELD would like to thank you for your work so far. Many of you are showing promising work, and all of you have proved you will be valuable to SHIELD one day. We will have another session next week, but until then continue collaborating and please add any developments to the submission folders on your PCs. If any of you are still working with students outside of this little gathering, we would appreciate it if you kept your work to yourselves from this point on. We are tipping into classified territory with some of your developments, and as per the agreements you have signed, need to be careful what you share."

Leo spared a quick thought for the fact that he wasn't sharing anything with anyone.

"Thank you again for all your hard work."

There were scattered "thankyous" in response before students began filing towards the door to leave. Leo shuffled towards the queue, but felt a soft hand on his shoulder, making him jump.

"Mr Fitz." Agent Walters' voice was low. "Could you please remain a moment. I'd like to speak with you about your methods."

"Uh—okay."

He stepped back, deeper into the room, just enough that he was out of reach of her hand, which fell away. They waited for the last few students to trickle out before Agent Walters turned to him, arms crossed, a sly smirk playing lightly on her lips.

"Quite astute, rearranging the schematic, especially for a cadet."

She paused as if to give him a chance for thanks, but he just stared, waiting for the purpose of this additional chat to come to light.

"The team of scientists involved in Project Ajax, myself included, are extremely impressed with your progress and have begun to employ your methodology ourselves. I daresay you're well on your way to discovering what the device's purpose is."

Leo wasn't sure what made him say it – whether it was a divine force controlling his tongue or his tongue taking control of itself, pushing out the first thought that filled his mind. What he did know was that he was thinking of teamwork and of Jemma and their argument and before he could stop himself the words tumbled out.

"A weapon of some kind."

The expression that passed over Agent Walters' face was one Leo had only ever seen on film. He had watched many movies about secret government organisations – movies that did not bear any likeness to the truth. Movies that completely misrepresented everything Leo had learned since joining the Academy. But in that moment Leo saw the one thing that all those movies had gotten precisely right: the expression on an agent's face when they heard the truth, without the authority to confirm it.

Agent Walters' face flickered briefly with recognition, before immediately shrinking back and assuming a deliberate and trained blank expression instead. Instantly Leo knew Jemma had been right.

"The director of Project Ajax has expressed interest in recruiting you to the Sandbox," Agent Walters said, pressing on Leo's thoughts. "You show great aptitude, and you may find yourself receiving an offer even before graduation."

Leo nodded absently, feeling a fuzzy weight in his chest.

"For now, however, I have an additional report for this project that I will be sending you. Now this one is irrefutably classified," she leaned in, glasses low, "and must be kept completely to yourself."

Leo gulped, nodding again.

"I have another confidentiality agreement for you to sign, specifically for this report, as it includes details we hoped to reserve only for the most competent volunteers of Project Ajax."

Turning back to the desk at the front of the room, Agent Walters pulled a slip of paper from the folder she had been handling earlier, and then a pen from her lapel. She placed the contract down beside Leo, clicking the pen to reveal the nib, and looked up at him expectantly.

Leo would later consider whether he should've taken the pen at all, but in the moment was in something of a daze over the entire conversation, and took the pen, bending down to sign the agreement without much thought at all. He handed the pen back to her, his eyes slightly glazed over as she slipped the contract back into the folder and a second smirk whispering on her lips.

"I am aware that you're currently being fast-tracked through Sci-Tech. Play your cards right and you could be on the fast track for your entire career."

Agent Walters held out her hand and he shook it with some delay before realising the exchange was over. She indicated the door and he obeyed, heading for the cafeteria without even a thought for how late he was.

Back in his dorm that night, Leo didn't work on Project Ajax. The additional report had not appeared on his hard drive, and he had allowed for an unhealthy build-up of homework over the past couple of weeks – it was starting to form an ominous pile – so Leo decided he had better pay it some attention. There was also the fact that Agent Walters had all but confirmed that the device was some sort of weapon, but Leo was trying not to think about that. No, definitely don't think about it; he had a quiz for Advanced Robotics the next morning – he could think about that instead.

With a few hours of study under his belt, Leo retired to bed and fell asleep with a pillow beneath his head for the first time that week.

The following morning a quick check revealed there was still no new report available, but it was not even breakfast so perhaps, Leo thought, it was outside SHIELD office hours. He spared a thought to ponder whether SHIELD actually had office hours. Was there an etiquette to secret spy business hours, or did anything go? Regardless, Leo had not yet had breakfast so that was his first priority.

Despite his tendency to miss breakfast after oversleeping, it was the busiest meal at Sci-Tech. His fellow cadets did not seem to suffer the early morning lethargy he was well-acquainted with, but rather filled the cafeteria with a morning buzz he did not reciprocate. Jemma was always uncomfortably peppy at breakfast; he'd told her so numerous times, only to earn a headshake he found too endearing to stomach.

Thinking about Jemma formed a nauseous pit in his stomach, so he focused instead on the bowl of porridge between his hands. He was feeling confident about his upcoming quiz; he'd never really been one to fret come exam time. A nervous energy had settled over the campus during the last few weeks of his first semester as students began preparing for their exams. Leo felt an even greater disconnect from his peers than he normally felt during that time, with his level head and even nerves. In fact, it had been something he and Jemma had in common – although she in fact looked forward to exams, which he did think was unreasonable. The few times they'd studied together she'd gone on and on about how great a 'learning opportunity' they provided and how it was a 'real chance for them to evaluate their progress.'

And there was Jemma again, present in mind if not in body. If he was honest with himself, he'd been fighting off thoughts of her since last night and it was beginning to become a source of frustration. He really needed to make more friends.

The quiz was easy enough, and Leo even exchanged a confident wink with Bates as they left the class. There was still another half hour running on the clock for students to complete their own quizzes, but Leo had been done ten minutes prior to that, so he'd left at the first chance he got. This meant he had a small patch of time before lunch, and settled himself down on a picnic table on an open lawn by the cafeteria – quick access once the food was being served.

Pulling his tablet out of his bag, Leo swiped through until he noticed a new document sitting on his hard drive. It was titled "Project Ajax: Supplementary Report," and it wasn't very large so Leo gave the screen a double tap, deciding to give it a quick read before lunch.

The report detailed an energy scan of the device and the various readings recorded. Leo had read a few case studies describing common SHIELD technology in his robotics class and was familiar with the energy readings of such machines. He did not see any of them in the report, but he did see a few that recalled memories of other case studies he'd read over – cases regarding extra-terrestrial technology.

Leo felt that same fuzzy weight in his chest from the precious afternoon with Agent Walters, and set his tablet down. It did make sense, if he thought it through, that the only technology SHIELD would need help understanding was technology that it didn't recognise, but he was beginning to feel the weight of what he had his hands in.

This wasn't a suspicion anymore – this was a proven weapon, and Leo was helping them understand it. She slipped into his mind for the third time that day, and Leo knew, with some guilt, this had been what Jemma had warned him of, and that he'd refused her point. But he couldn't refuse it anymore, and the excitement this project stirred in him very rapidly dissipated into an uneasy undercurrent of responsibility he wasn't ready to claim.

His conversation with Agent Walters the previous day floated through his mind, and he wondered then if her poor poker face in response to his mention of a weapon was not as poor as he thought. If perhaps, she'd hoped he would go down this path – all the better to solve the device.

Leo switched off his tablet, his hands fidgeting with each other, and he didn't even notice the streams of students beginning to file into cafeteria.

His desire to be part of science – to be part of invention, and innovation, and work with the resources SHIELD had to offer him – burned brightly in his chest. Sometimes he thought it was the only thing that burned brightly for him. But this didn't feel bright. This felt like he'd almost undone progress somehow, as if he'd found the loose string of science and pulled until the ball unravelled, and all the threads of advancement he'd looped together were undone once more.

Leo knew he was brilliant – he knew he was and could be an asset to science, and he wanted to have a foothold in the monumental scientific discoveries of his time, to be one of SHIELD's best scientists. He wanted to use that gift to improve and progress and evolve – not to do this.

Jemma's voice echoed in his mind and he suddenly felt very small and vain. He felt guilt, which he had a particular distaste for, but he'd let ambition deter him from the only likeminded person he'd met here, and it was a cloud over his heart.

The pull of the discoveries to be made in understanding this device were sputtering out, replaced instead by the pull towards the only friend – and she was a friend – he'd made here. The social efforts required for a friend had always been a deterrent for Leo, but perhaps Jemma was the exception was because there was so little effort required.

And like it or not, her opinion had developed a value to him – her disappointment had become a burden.