*Author's Note*

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He Must Really Like You

Gem POV:

It's been a couple of days since I saw Brock and I was spending my afternoon sunbathing on the upper back deck of my friend Tiffany's house. Our other friend Izzy was with us too. Sprawling on deck chairs, lathering up with a mixture of baby oil and iodine, and gossiping in the sun was a tradition we'd been doing ever since we were girls in middle school. Now, we were high school graduates; I was moving away to college next week while they were staying in the neighborhood and would most likely end up moving in with their mobbed-up boyfriends. Boyfriends who were friends with my ex Geno might I add.

Tiffany grabbed the bottle with her baby oil/iodine concoction in it from off the deck and started to lather herself up, for the millionth time, with it while tell me the town scoop of, "Word 'round the neighborhood's that Crossbones kicked Geno outta the gym when he came 'round looking for ya, Gem."

"Yea, so?" I retorted while adjusting the oversized sunglasses that were starting to slide down my nose due to sweat.

"So?" Izzy parroted before turning to me and adding in, "So, we wanna know what that was all about?"

"Yea, Cossbones isn't known for his kindness. In fact, he's known for fighting and threatening anybody that even breathes in his direction." Tiffany said in a tone that oozed out disdain and disapproval for Brock, my new friend.

"Brock's not that bad. In fact, he's pretty nice." I told my friends, defending the tattooed macho man that showed a softer side to me the other night.

"Brock? You're calling him by his name now?" Tiffany asked, her brow arched in disbelief.

"Yea. We're friends." I simply answered Tiffany, who's eyes bugged out of her head as a result.

"Say what?!" Both Tiffany and Izzy exclaimed, nearly falling out of their lounge chairs in shock.

"You heard me, we're friends." I chewed on my bottom lip before adding in, "Actually, we're friends with benefits since I lost my virginity to him."

"What? You lost your virginity to him?!" Izzy exclaimed while at the same time Tiffany asked, "How was it? Was it rough since he's, you know, a former fighter and a service man?"

"Yea, I lost it to him." I confirmed Izzy's question. Turning to Tiffany, I explained, "It was good. Brock wasn't rough at all, despite his demeanor." Looking at both of my friends, I added in, "He was very sweet and thoughtful with me. Did a lot of foreplay so I was more then ready for him and he's experienced so he knew how to make my first time feel good. He even ordered us Chinese takeout too afterwards."

"Shit, your first time makes me jealous. Mine with Lyle sucked." Tiffany told me in a jealous tone.

"Agreed." Izzy nodded. "Mine with Danny was pretty bad too."

Chewing on my bottom lip, something that Brock told me drove him crazy, I hesitantly told my friends, "Um…we did it twice."

"What?" Izzy asked, her jaw dropping to the floor.

"Really? Twice in one day?" Tiffany asked, her voice tinged with shock.

"Yea." I nodded before going on to explain, "We went to Johnny Dannaro's fight in Atlantic City and helped Arlo as trainers on the sideline. On our way back home, we stopped somewhere for food and ended up fooling around in the back of his Jeep."

"Damn girl. You sure had one helluva first time." Tiffany whistled.

"Yea, too bad you'll never see him again tho." Izzy added in.

"Actually, he wants to hang out again; even once I move since he lives nearby Culver." I told me friends, leaving them utterly speechless and wide eyed.

Suddenly, my phone started to ring. Reaching my hand down, I picked it up off the deck. Seeing Brock's name flashing on the caller ID screen, I smirked, "And talk about the devil.", while quickly showing my friends my phone by waving it in the air.

"Oh my god, he's calling you!" Tiffany exclaimed while Izzy just stared at my phone wide-eyed.

"Hi, Brock." I answered my phone cheerfully."

"Hey, baby, what ya doing?" Brock asked, his deep voice having a slightly tired tint to it.

"I'm sunbathing with my friends Izzy and Tiffany and Tiffany's house. Why?"

"I was thinking we could hang out."

"Now?"

"Yea, now, unless you have something better to do."

"I don't have anything better to do. I'll meet you at the gym." I cheerfully told him since I really did want to see him again.

"I'm not at the gym. I'm home, nursing a fucking hangover." He sardonically told me as Tiffany and Izzy watched me curiously.

"Oh."

"Yea." He chuckled into the phone. "Where's your friend's place? I'll come get ya."

"It's on 83rd Street, but I fine with walking to Arlo's place since you're hungover. Just tell me-" I told Brock only to be cut off mid-way by his warm and deep tone firmly saying, "Like fucking hell I'm letting you walk 9-fucking-blocks to my Pops' place. Now tell me where you're at, Gem."

"1660 83rd Street. Just go down the alley to get to the back parking since I'm on the back deck, okay?"

"A'ight. See ya soon, baby." Brock told me before the line went dead.

"Oh my god. He's really gonna come here and picky ya up; hungover too?" Tiffany asked in a stunned voice.

"Yea, looks like it." I answered my childhood friend.

"Hell, my man'd never do that for me. I don't know why Arlo Rumlow's son, Crossbones, would do that for you." Tiffany remarked as she lathered some more lotion onto her skin. She sounded jealous to me.

"I dunno, maybe cause we're friends and he doesn't want me walking 9-blocks to his Pops' house." I retorted in a slightly snappy tone.

"Oh…so he doesn't want you tired out before ya hookup." Izzy snickered.

Narrowing my brown eyes at my friend, I snapped, "Shut up, Izzy. Just cause we're hanging out don't mean we're gonna fool around."

"Oh my god, are you even using his old man slang now too? Like who really says 'fooling around' anymore." Tiffany snickered, setting her bottle of iodine infusion baby oil back onto the deck.

Rolling my eyes, I dryly huffed, "He's not an old man, he's only like 34."

"Yea…he's totally not an old man…no, he's just older than you's all." Izzy sarcastically sniggered.

"Shut up." I gritted out thru my teeth as my friends just let out tiny giggles.

A few minutes later Brock and pulled into the alley parking space for Tiffany's house and I was scurrying down the back-deck stairs. As he got out of his Jeep, I made a mad dash of a beeline towards him. "Damn, baby girl, where's the fucking fire?" Brock asked in a chuckle as I reached his car; flinging open the door.

"My friends are giving me shit about our friends with benefits thing." I told him, climbing into the Jeep. "Let's just go, okay." I quickly added in while slamming my door shut.

"Ya fucking puttanas shouldn't be busting Gem's balls over me just cause you're jealous your fuckhead boyfriends don't treat ya right!" I heard Brock yell at my friends, causing them to look like they were readying to stroke out and fall off the second story sundeck, before getting back into his Jeep.

"Did ya have to yell at my friends?" I asked Brock as he cranked on the engine.

"Yea, I did." He told me, pulling out of the alleyway. "I ain't gonna let your friends fuck with you cause we're hanging out. Shit, I got a hangover and don't got time for bullshit bitch drama." Brock gruffly remarked while driving down the road in the direction that 72nd was in.

Narrowing my brown eyes at him, I snipped, "You know now they're prolly gonna ignore me til I move next week or something."

"You're moving next week so you shouldn't be giving a shit if they ignore you or not."

"Yea…" I trailed off. "So, you're a bit brash and blunt when you're hungover, huh?" I asked, picking at his personality in order to get to know him a bit better.

"Gem, I'm always brash and blunt." He told me, stopping at a traffic light. Rubbing his temple with his fingers, he sighed, "I just got a headache where I feel like a jackhammer's pounding into my skull cause I drank under the table with my buddies last night."

"Your drunken fun worth the splitting hangover headache today?" I asked, giving the man next to me in aviators an arched brow look.

Nodding, he pressed the gas as the light turned green. "My buddy's expecting his first child with his second wife so guess my drinking was worth the hangover. We were celebrating."

"Oh…"

"Yea. My old buddies up here in the neighborhood all have wives and kids. I'm the only single as fuck one." He explained as an Eagles song flittered onto the radio.

"Why?" Curiously flew out of my mind before I could think better of it.

"Dating, settling down, and having a family's hard in my line of work. Most women don't like it when you cancel a birthday, anniversary, family, or holiday dinner cause you're off to the middle of bumfuck nowhere for a last-minute mission to put down some terrorists."

"Oh…but isn't putting down some terrorists more important than a dinner? Couldn't a dinner be rescheduled tho?"

"Yea, well, not everyone thinks like you do, baby. If they did, well, I wouldn't be a single work-a-holic gym rat." Brock pointed out as we got closer to 72nd Street. The way his tone way felt like he was implying that I was something special, but I didn't feel like it. I mean I couldn't be the only girl to understand how important his job was; that working as a STRIKE commander for SHIELD meant that he'd have to do things impromptu in order to keep the country and the world safe.

"You grew up in a gym, Brock. Nothing could keep you from being a gym rat."

It's been hours since Brock picked me up from Tiffany's and we were just curled up on his couch, watching some fights that were DVR'd. I wasn't sure who DVR'd them (either Brock or Arlo), but I didn't mind watching them with Brock. In fact, he seemed very entertained and invested in every fight we watched. It was clear that he was passionate about fighting; grew up around it too by how absorbed he was in any and every fight he took in.

"Fuck, what's he doing? He could've gotten a shot in if he didn't strut around like a goddamn peacock, taunting the other fucker."

Peering up into Brock's hazel eyes, I suggested, "Maybe the peacock taunting's a way to wear down his opponent?"

"Hope not cause it ain't working; he's getting his ass beat." Brock dryly said.

Before I could reply, the front door opened and in walked Arlo. His age worn face looked tired as he trudged over to the easy chair adjacent to the couch. "So, Brock, you gonna invite her to stay for dinner or just take her to your room to mess around and order pizza?"

"Shut up, Pops." Brock dryly scoffed. Turning to me, he said, "Come on baby, we better go upstairs and leave Pops be. He's being an orney old bastard right now." I didn't say a word, just nodded and let Brock help me up off the couch. "Oh, Pops, I'll take her to Lenny's for pizza instead of ordering in. Ya know we're not just gonna be fooling around, we'll go out to eat like normal fucking people too." He sharply remarked before leading us away from the couch and over to the living room.

"Oh, Gem, he must really like you. He never brings a lady back here let alone take one out for pizza at Lenny's." Arlo called out to me while Brock took me upstairs.

"Do you like me?" I asked my friend as we walked down the hall on the second story towards his childhood bedroom.

"What'd ya think?" He countered me with a dry and slightly sarcastic question. Opening up his door and ushering me inside of childhood room, which had classic rock band posters all over it along with some boxing posters, Brock told me, "Look, I do like you, but I'm not asking you to be my girl. I just think we can hangout and if we fool around then we fool around."

"Okay." I nodded, not expecting him to want to date me anyways, and made my way over to his bed.

"Uh, you wanna finish watching the fight up here?" Brock asked, joining me on the bed.

"Sure." I nodded, causing Brock to grab the remote off of his bedside table and turn on the tv.

A few moments later the fight resumed on his small corner tv while we lounged next to each other.

Turns out that finishing up the fight in Brock's old room really did lead to us fooling around. I don't even know how it happened, to tell the truth. One minute we were watching a DVR'd UFC match and the next I was on my back with Brock pounding me into his mattress.

Currently, we were cleaned up and having pizza at Lenny's. Since Brock had a strict diet, we were eating a paleo friendly pizza. "You know you could've gotten a slice of real pizza, baby." Brock reminded me, grabbing a slice of our gluten free crust, red sauce, and chicken with mushrooms only pizza from the large metal platter it was on in the middle of our table.

Taking a bite out of my diet pizza, I told him, "I know, but since you have to order a special pizza, I didn't mind sharing it with you. One day without cheese on my pizza won't kill me."

"Ya think you'd wanna share a paleo pizza with me in Willowdale or Norfolk when we get back?"

"Yea, I guess. I mean we're friends and friends do pizza nights, right?"

"Right, we're definitely the type of friends that'll be doing pizza nights. We'll be doing other things at night too, Gem."

"Oh my god. Really, Brock?" I scoffed, lightly kicking him under the table. Brock let out a loud chuckle as I shook my head and reprimanded him with, "You can't just say that out loud. Shit, what if somebody heard you?"

"Then they'd think I hit the jackpot cause I get to fool around with such a hot young thing like you." Brock shamelessly chuckled.

Picking up my glass of pop and taking a sip of it, I asked in a slight groan, "Oh god, this is going to be such an interesting friendship full of fooling around, eating pizza, and watching fights isn't it?"

"Yea, baby, it is." Brock confirmed in a chuckle, finishing up his slice of pizza. Reaching for his glass of water, he added in, "Don't worry, we'll have fun. Plus, it's not like you'll be seeing me all the time since you'll be stranded at Culver."

Quirking a brow, I asked, "What'd you mean by that?"

Setting his glass down and grabbing another slice of pizza, Brock explained, "College freshman can't have cars on campus, or at least that's how it was the last I knew."

"Oh…yea…I forgot about that." I sheepishly admitted around a mouthful of diet pizza. Pizza that wasn't so bad either.

"Mhm…" Brock hummed, taking a bite out of his pizza slice. "I like you and all, but I do got a job so I'll see ya when I can. Plus, you'll be busy with classes too."

Looking between the slice of pizza in my hand and Brock, I asked, "Um, would wanna hang out with me if I called and asked?"

"Sure, but don't think I'm taking you to some kegger or some shit cause I'm not." Brock answered in a cool and nonchalant way.

"Okay." I simply said. I had no intentions of ever calling him for a ride to a kegger either so…

"Don't worry, we'll make time for our friendship once we're back in Virginia. Just eat your pizza so we can get going?"

"Are you gonna take me home?"

"If you want or we could go to the gym and train."

"You're such a gym rat." I playfully rolled my eyes.

"Yea, I know." Brock shamelessly said with a proud twinkle in his hazel eyes. "So, gym after this?"

"Sure. Gym's better then dealing with my cousin's crazy kids right now."

Leaning in to close the distance between us, he asked with a smirk, "Ever fooled around on gym mat before?"

"No…why?..." I slowly answered, my brows furrowed.

"No reason." Brock quickly answered me.

Hell, I have a funny feeling I'm gonna even up fooling around with Brock on a gym mat before we leave the gym. God, how did I end up in this friends with benefits thing with him again? I mean things like this doesn't happen to me, or at least they didn't before I met him at the gym the other day.

AN:

This is a tiny filler, but hope you guys like it. Next up Brock helps Gem move into her dorm at Culver. They'll also be meeting Gem's roommate and her Marine boyfriend. Wonder who they could be…