Drabble 80: Pranked

A/N: Hey guys! How's October going? I'm keeping to my promise of updating more frequently, and I wanted to cover requests from before my unintentional break. So here's one of those! This was requested by fluffyheart13. Hope you like it!

Fitz zipped up his laptop case and grabbed his keys before walking out the door. He didn't pay much attention, as he did it every day when he left to go to his classes at the Academy, but in the corner of his vision he thought he saw something shimmer as the light caught it.

And suddenly he was wet.

He blinked and spluttered, confused. Yes, he was definitely wet. He had just showered half an hour ago, and now he was soaked on the top half of his body, the water not nearly as warm as his shower had been. It was quite cold, actually. His curly hair hung down on his forehead slightly, dripping into his face. The brown jacket he was wearing was soaked on the shoulders, and he knew a fair amount of the water had gotten to his shirt as well.

He looked up and saw a bucket above his door, now swinging upside down. And the thing that had caught his eye before? It was the string connecting the bucket to the door. Opening the door had caused it to spill.

He looked at it glaringly for a moment. Had he really just been pranked?

He was at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, where only the best and brightest were accepted. Had someone really just dumped a bucket of water on him? He hadn't even had that experience in high school. He'd never expected it here.

He hated pranks. They were mean. Now he had to go change again!

He was just turning around to go back inside when she walked up.

"Morning, Fitz! How are you – are you wet?"

Of course Jemma would see him like this. Then again, they walked to class together every day at this time, so he really shouldn't be too surprised to see her.

He watched as her eyes went from him to the bucket, and then she raised her hand up to her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh.

"Yes, I look stupid." He said. "I never thought you would find a prank funny."

"Oh, Fitz, come on! It is a little funny. Not that you're wet of course," she laughed, "but the look on your face."

"I'm glad you enjoy my misery."

She caught his arm as he started walking inside, sobering. "I know you don't like pranks. I don't like them much either. But sometimes they can make you smile."

"I'm not smiling." He pointed out.

"Because you have to change." She walked in with him and inspected him. "And I love that color on you."

She waited for him by the door while he went to his room and changed his shirt and jacket, and toweled his hair hastily, which really was sopping wet. Then he came back out, and they started walking to class.

"Why do you think I was pranked?" he asked.

"I have no idea." She said. "But we'll figure it out."

They didn't figure it out though; not that day at least. And the next morning, there was a new piece of evidence.

"Ahh!"

Jemma shrieked in surprise as water doused her on her way out of her room that morning. And she had been careful! She had looked before fully opening the door, just in case. As she looked up now, after it had spilled on her, she saw that her bucket had been placed higher, so there was no way to see the string without fully opening the door – and getting wet.

She brought out her phone, pushing a now dripping piece of hair off her face, and called Fitz.

"They got me." She said.

He was quiet for a second. "You mean you were pranked?"

"Yes, exactly the same way you were."

She heard his door close, and then the phone clicked off. She looked at it in minor confusion and put it away, turning to go inside and change, and then heard running feet. She turned back around and saw Fitz standing there, obviously having run from his increased breathing rate, but smiling widely.

"You're right, Jem." He said, chuckling. "It is kind of funny."

"When you're not the one who's wet." She said with a slight scowl.

He took out his phone and took a picture.

"No." she said, reaching for it. "Absolutely not."

He danced out of her range and slipped the phone in his pocket. "Just for us, for future reference."

She glared at him, but the face broke almost immediately. She couldn't be mad at him. "There won't be any of that."

"What there won't be any of is this." He said. "No more pranks on us. They targeted both of us, and from the simplicity of the prank, I bet it's one of the battle people."

"But who?"

Fitz looked around. "There's got to be something… there's no point in the prank if no one finds out it happened. And since no one was there -."

"You think they recorded it?"

Fitz looked at the bucket hanging above Jemma's door and nodded slowly. "I think that's exactly what they did."

The prank was better than he'd originally thought: there was a waterproof video camera inside the bucket, a small thing that Fitz himself had analyzed in class - when it was on loan from the battle school, who used it to train in espionage.

"Remember that camera?"

Recognition flared in her eyes. "It is battle school students."

He nodded.

"Let's teach them something about war, shall we?" she asked, turning to go and change. "Strategy leads to victory."

"We can prank better than this in our sleep." Fitz said.

They looked at the camera before closing the door. "You won't get away with this." Jemma said.

Then Fitz closed the door, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "That's what you choose to say? You won't get away with this?"

"It's a typical mystery line! And we don't know who's on the other side of that camera yet, so we're in a mystery!"

He shook his head but smiled. "I see your point Velma. Now go get changed. We've got lab in ten minutes."

Line Break

They deduced from all their clues that the people pranking them were Beaty and Harold Fent, the brothers at the top of their class at the battle school. And the ones who had presented the water-resistant camera to their class, a two weeks ago. And as they discussed it, they remembered making certain comments about its limitations, and how easy it would be to make it better, or make a completely new but better version. The battle school was proud to have made that camera. Specifically Beaty and Harold, who had the idea. The students there made it themselves, without the science department's help.

So Fitz and Jemma pretended everything was normal, and they had never been pranked, while they thought of something good. They didn't want to be cruel, but they wanted to show they could fight back.

At least, they didn't want to be cruel at first. Then, about three days after Jemma was doused, two videos appeared in everyone's email accounts, student and faculty: overhead shots of water pouring onto Fitz's and Jemma's heads, in slow motion.

After watching the video on her laptop, Jemma closed the lid forcefully and looked at Fitz, sitting across the table. "We need to act. Now."

His jaw was clenched as he looked at his own computer. "Yeah." He said. "It's time."

The rest of that day people kept pretending to lose control of their water bottles around them, laughing, but they didn't let it get to them. The only people that got under their skin were the two who had started it.

When they had set the prank up the next day, they looked at each other. "You know this will start a war, right?"

"Most likely."

"Brains vs. Brawn." Jemma said.

A determined look came into Fitz's eyes. "Let's do it."

Their electronic pulse detonator went off as soon as he pushed the button, and Jemma activated the spy-cam they had made and slipped under the door. Everything plugged into an outlet turned on at once, the TV at its optimum brightness, the radio blaring rock music, the microwave beeping, the lights flicking on, the coffee maker starting. Chaos. And Beaty, who had been asleep on the couch, jolted awake and sprang up, looking around in confusion. Jemma maneuvered their spy-cam to focus on him, making it fly by him before zooming out under the door.

They laughed, she stuffed the spy-cam in her pocket, and they ran as fast as they could out of the building, back to the safety of their hall. They had known they could make a better camera, and they had. This one was only a little bigger than a fly, and could actually hover for a few minutes.

They ran into Fitz's room, breathless from the running and laughing so hard. "He didn't know what to make of it!" Jemma said.

"I wish Harold had been there as well."

Fitz dropped his remote onto the table. "The pulse should be done by now. It's been over a minute."

They had pranked him, but they didn't want to be cruel. Well, not too cruel. Waking him up had been a bonus, which they didn't really have a problem with.

"What do we do with the video?" Jemma asked.

"I say we use it as leverage. Send a copy to him and Harold and threaten to share it if they retaliate."

"Can we really do that?"

He looked at her. "I don't see why not."

"But they're going to retaliate. It's practically the only thing they're taught over there."

"And we'll release the video."

"And if they do something again?"

He smiled impishly. "We said we could start a war. Let's see if we can finish one."

They did what they had discussed, and sent the video solely to Beaty and Harold. A week passed with no response. And then someone down the hall from them screamed in shock when she tripped out of her doorway and fell into a tin of whipped cream. Everyone gathered out there when they heard the noise, and Fitz met Jemma's eyes from across the hall, his expression serious but somewhat playful.

This was war.