Drabble 59: A Spark

A/N: This was requested by OTPGIRL. SwifteForeverAndAlways, your prompt is next! And then Spitfire! Keep the ideas coming, guys!

Fitz walked out of the room, feeling extremely awkward. Had he just arranged a date with Jemma?

He paused just outside the door, thinking. It seemed like he had. She had said she'd be along in a few minutes. He needed to find a restaurant.

But something didn't feel right. He needed to make sure he wasn't getting his hopes up for nothing.

So he turned and started to open the door, looking through the window. Jemma had her back to him. He pushed it open.

"Jemma."

She turned and looked at him, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Hey."

"I, uh, wanted to check something with you."

She waited.

He moistened his lips, suddenly nervous. "Are we going on a date?"

"Well, I guess you could say that." She said, a bit hesitantly.

He studied her face. "Do you say that?"

"I don't know. The only thing I'm sure of is that we need to talk."

He felt a wall close between them. "So you don't want things to change."

"I never said that! Of course things between us have to change."

"But you don't know how much you want them to."

"Like I said, we need to talk." She said, her tone weary.

"I'll choose a place." He said, stalking out of the room. He let the door close behind him, not looking back. Why had he asked? It only lengthened his pain, not knowing how far she wanted to go.

Fitz shook his head forcefully to clear the imagined conversation from his head. Jemma wouldn't act like that, he was sure of it. She was the one to bring up their relationship. Of course she wanted it to change.

Still, he did want to talk to her before he found a place. He needed a hint as to how nice a restaurant to pick. Slightly formal, or completely casual? Quiet or bustling? She'd seemed surprised when he'd asked her to go out with him, so he wasn't sure how nice a place to pick.

So he opened the door (for real this time) and walked inside. Jemma had her back to him, and she was walking towards the table in the center of the room.

"Jemma." He said gently, trying not to startle her.

She turned around. "What's up?"

"So, I was just about to look up a nice place for dinner when I realized I don't know what type of place you wanted to go to."

"Oh." She looked at him, her eyes calm and considerate. "I'd prefer somewhere… a bit on the quiet side, I think. As long as that's alright with you."

"That's fine!" he said quickly.

She smiled, and he saw the excitement behind her eyes. "Just let me put this away, and we can find a place together."

He waited as she placed her bag on the table and turned around, giving the room one more inspection. "What's this doing open?" she asked, looking at the Kree artifact's case. She started moving towards it.

Fitz didn't know why, couldn't begin to understand it, but something inside him screamed that he had to keep her from touching that case.

"Don't!" he cried.

But it wasn't that far away; she was already at the door, her hand touching it.

The stone moved with a giant lurch, liquefying and lunging against the door. It would have thrown it completely open too, if Fitz hadn't also lunged forward. It spilled onto the floor by their feet, sending Jemma off balance as it gripped her by the ankles.

"Fitz!"

Fitz put all his weight against the door, trying to push it closed. It was so heavy! Jemma recovered her balance enough to help him push against the door. The black liquid started climbing up her, trying to stop her. It even started creeping towards Fitz…

"Push!" he yelled.

With a great gasp Jemma fell to the floor, the liquid coating her up past her knees, pulling her closer to the case.

That did it. Fitz shoved with everything he had, all the force he could muster. That thing was not taking Jemma.

He wasn't a strong person, but he was full of adrenaline. He couldn't fail.

So he slammed the case shut. The liquid that had been attacking Jemma flattened and went back inside the case, and a second later the rock was solid again.

Fitz locked the case and stepped back from it, his heart racing. The blood was pounding so hard in his ears he couldn't hear anything. After staring at the case for a moment it died down, and he turned to face Jemma.

She was staring at the case, terror frozen on her face. She was still on the ground, one arm behind her as though pulling herself back.

"It's gone." He said. "We should get out of here."

She looked at him and nodded, pulling herself upright. He walked next to her, guiding her to the door of the room. He wanted to get out of there. Then he realized she was staring at him, and stopped. "What?" he asked.

She grabbed his head and kissed him on the mouth; strongly.

Had his heart slowed down? It sped right back up, hammering away.

She let him go and looked at him. "Let's go to dinner." She said quickly.

He swallowed. "Okay."

She raised an eyebrow when he didn't move.

"You kissed me." He said.

"You saved me." She said back.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then she smiled. "I guess we really need to talk now."

"Coulson first." He said, blushing a bit. "As much as I want to leave for dinner right now, we have to tell him about the rock."

"Okay." She said, serious but excited. Her fear was gone now.

But he smiled too as they closed the door behind them and headed towards Coulson's office. His hand brushed against Jemma's, and for once he didn't feel any tension in letting them touch. That kiss had felt good. It was more than the fact that he'd saved her. He remembered her kiss after the Chitauri virus, and absentmindedly touched his cheek. No, this had been a different kind of kiss, partly inspired by the heroics.

This kiss had a spark to it.

He definitely wanted to do it again.