Drabble 37: A Little Fun

A/N: Hey guys! This prompt was given to me by Spitfire303. I loved the response the last chapter got! Keep it up! It really motivates me to see that people are liking this story. All of the ideas you've given me are in the works, I promise, and if you have more please let me know! Thanks again for all your support, and enjoy this drabble!

Fitz sat on the edge of Jemma's bed, looking at her. "You almost ready to study?" he asked.

"Just a minute." She replied. She was kneeling on the floor, rifling through the bottom drawer of her dresser. "I can't find the syllabus."

"You mean you misplaced something? That's got to be a first."

She fake laughed and looked at him. "I just want to make sure we study everything we learned. You know how hard his tests can be."

Fitz stood and walked over next to her. "Let me help you look."

She took out a binder from the drawer and moved over, making room for him to kneel beside her. He noticed with a smirk that the drawer was perfectly organized. She'd had a free drawer after she put her clothes in the top and in the closet, so she used her bottom drawer to store classwork she didn't need every day. He pulled a folder out from the back and she took it from him, opening it and triumphantly pulling out the syllabus.

"I'd forgotten about this folder." She said. "It has all of my class descriptions in it, so I'll never forget something I've taken at the Academy."

Fitz heard her but was staring at the spot the folder had been in. "What do we have here?" he asked, reaching his hand in and pulling out the medal.

Jemma set down her folder and inspected the circular medal Fitz held in his hand. "It's one of my old swimming medals."

"I thought you never did sports?"

"I didn't really."

"This medal tells a different story."

She sighed and stood up, walking over to sit on her bed, syllabus forgotten on the floor. "You know I'm not really a 'sporty' person. My parents always knew that I liked academics more than sports, and supported me every way they could. But they wanted me to have a way to make more friends, and made me choose an activity to join. I thought swimming could be fun, so that's what I did."

"How long did you do it?" Fitz asked, his head turned to look at her.

"I started it in eighth grade and stopped in tenth. I started taking more accelerated courses then, and with swimming my days were completely filled. My parents realized how important my grades were to me, so they let me quit swimming."

"But you were good at it."

"You could say I wasn't bad."

"You said you had medals. As in more than one. That means you were good at it."

She studied him for a minute. "Fitz, why are you so upset about this?"

He turned to fully face her from his position on the floor. "I don't know." He said quietly. "I guess it just makes me feel like I don't know you as well as I think."

"But what does that fact that I used to swim have to do with that?"

"Well I don't know!" he said. He seemed to realize how silly he was being and laughed.

"So what if I won a few medals for swimming competitions? Like I said, I wasn't bad, but I was by no means the best." She said, just to reassure him.

"It wouldn't matter if you were the best." He said after a moment. "I was being stupid before. I thought we were so close because we came from similar situations, and the idea that you were a star athlete… it just made me think maybe we weren't so similar." He glanced down at his lap for a second, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Like I said, I was being stupid."

"Yes, you were." Jemma said.

"Well, now that we're agreed on that."

"Fitz!" she smiled, jokingly. "We're friends because we have a lot in common. But if we had everything in common, we wouldn't be able to have very interesting conversations, would we?"

"That's true." He said. "But between the two of us we'd ace every exam we ever took."

She laughed. "Oh, and you might like to know this. Those swimming competitions I won: want to know how I did it?"

"You mean you didn't just 'take to the water', like a mermaid or something?"

"No. In fact, the first time I tried swimming I panicked and thought I was done for. And I hadn't even left the shallow section! Granted I was six, but still."

He laughed.

"No, I succeeded because I studied the proper techniques other swimmers used. I memorized the movements of their bodies and trained mine to respond in a similar way."

"So even in a sport, you only succeeded because of science."

"I wouldn't say science was the only reason, but… well, never mind."

They were quiet for a minute. "We really do get along well." Fitz said.

She smiled at him and nodded. "We really do."

Fitz stood and walked over to Jemma, taking the medal from her hand and placing it over her head.

She smiled but shook her head a bit, taking off the medal. "This isn't me anymore. I'm completely focused on the Academy."

"But you've got to have a little fun." He said.

"I've got you for that."

His ears reddened as she handed him the medal, which he placed back in the drawer he had found it in. He was secretly glad she wasn't into swimming anymore. It left them more time to be together.