A/N: Mashup of the very end of S6 (or at least that's the first time I noticed her new earrings (or noticed her earrings at all, really, tbh)), into S1 on the BUS, with a little change to the floor plan of the BUS — all in the name of romance for our science babies, of course.
"Notice anything different?"
"Um…you're naked?" answered Fitz, staring at the completely nude Simmons sitting in front of him on her bed, after she'd texted him to come over to her bunk.
"No, silly! — I'm wearing four earrings instead of the normal two I've worn every day since before I met you," laughed Simmons. At Fitz's raised eyebrow at her definitely bare breasts he was staring at, she added, "I mean, yes, if we're looking at technicalities then I am in fact naked, and that is different from how you normally see me, but that's not what I was talking about."
"Kind of hard to see that your earrings are different when I'm too busy staring at your breasts," muttered Fitz under his breath before looking up at her ears for the first time since he'd entered her bunk and saw that she was naked.
"Yes, well, I suppose given the fact that my ears aren't anywhere near my boobs, that could be a small problem," Simmons replied with smile to herself, as she watched Fitz look at her earrings.
"Your earrings always look good," said Fitz after a second. "There's also a rectangular one and a bar one, and none of them are the normal round ones you almost always wear — and none of them are matching, like your old ones always did."
"Like them?" Simmons asked shyly. "And I didn't realize you knew my earrings were always round."
"You have a Monday, Wednesday, Friday pair; a Tuesday, Thursday pair; and a weekend pair — unless we were working in the lab on the weekend, in which case Saturday was the Tuesday, Thursday pair, and Sunday could be either of the workday pairs," answered Fitz without having to even think about it. "And yes, of course I like them. But why are you naked?"
At hearing Fitz rattle off what earrings she wore on what days like he would rattle off the elements of the periodic table and their properties, Simmons blushed slightly, and slightly more at him saying that of course he liked them. But she focused on his question to avoid having to think about why she blushed so much at such compliments.
Except the reason she was naked was exactly what she was trying to avoid thinking about.
"Um…I was trying to get you used to seeing me naked?" she answered shyly.
Fitz's eyebrows furrowed, not following in the least. "And why are you trying to get me used to seeing you naked? Also, isn't 'getting used to' usually done slowly, and not all at once?"
"The first, because I want to take the dual bunk on this plane with you, and the second, this is just you seeing me naked once, not actually being comfortable consistently being around me naked — hence, getting used to."
"You sleep naked?" asked Fitz in surprise.
"No, silly, but I do have to change from my normal clothes into what I do sleep in, and then back into normal clothes again," answered Simmons. "And yes, half the time that is in the bathroom after I shower, but that's only half the time. The rest is in my bunk, or our bunk if we take the dual."
Fitz just looked at her for several seconds, processing everything she had said, until finally going back to Simmons' first answer and asking, "You want to share a bunk with me?"
"Yes, Fitz," answered Simmons, hoping he would leave it alone and knowing that he wouldn't.
She certainly knew that she wouldn't if she was in his place, even if obviously no guy could ever get by with telling their best female friend that they wanted to start sharing a bunk with them. Sure, Fitz had been the one to suggest they find a flat together for Sci-Ops, but that was after she'd already started spending half of her nights sleeping in his dorm and inviting him to sleep the other half in her dorm, depending on who's dorm they were already studying in that night.
"Why? I mean, I'm obviously not saying no, but — why?" asked Fitz.
"Because I want to, and I'm confident in saying that you wouldn't mind, and I haven't been sleeping the best since coming onto this plane and into danger every other day and it's my medical opinion that I might sleep better with a warm body holding me tight, and it would give us more room since we could store a lot of our non-clothes stuff still in these two bunks we currently have since we don't have any more team members at the moment at least, and I thought about it for a long time at our flat at Sci-Ops but we decided to try the field before I worked up the courage to actually suggest it, and I think I like you, and we wouldn't have to listen to Skye's adorable but annoying-when-it's-at-two-o'clock-and-we're-trying-to-sleep snoring."
She snuck the next to last reason in there not last in the hopes that he might not notice it, which meant that he of course did.
"You like me?" he asked in confusion, like it was impossible she could have romantic feelings for her adorably cute Scottish best friend of ten years that she without either of them having ever actually said it out loud planned on spending the rest of her life with, first in a flat or maybe eventually a house at Sci-Ops working side by side in their lab, and eventually when Shield forced them to retire, in a quaint little cottage in Perthshire from her childhood that she had yet to tell him she dreamed about one day moving into with him.
Yeah, she liked him — hence all the blushing and questions she was trying to avoid.
So she brushed it off as indifferently as she could with, "You're not terrible for a Scot. Anyway, seems like you might not mind me, either — just friends don't drop their eight year non-mobile lab to follow a girl on a field duty plane they really don't want to get on, all because she batted her eyelashes and asked nicely. Also, they don't tend to have ten uninterrupted years of lab partnership and flatmating to begin with."
"You told me we were going into the field, and then drug me kicking, screaming, and grumbling like a proper Scot onto this plane — not exactly batting your eyelashes or asking at all," replied Fitz, rolling his eyes. "And of course I like you — what guy in their right mind wouldn't? That doesn't mean there's any reason for you to like me."
Once again, Simmons blushed lightly at his compliments of her. But all she said was, "So you'll move into the double bunk with me? Tonight?"
"If you're actually crazy enough to want to," shrugged Fitz. "But don't do it because you think I want you to."
"Right...because all of your never having once mentioned the idea of moving into the double bunk together would make me think you've been wanting to move in with me," replied Simmons sarcastically, rolling her eyes at her idiot. "This is all me, bitch. And I'll 'bat my eyelashes and ask nicely' again if I have to."
"No, no, that won't be necessary this time — I don't think I could handle your 'feminine wiles' again, anyway," answered Fitz, the slightest hint of a smirk playing across his lips. "I think I still have bruises from you whooping my arse getting me onto this plane. But what will Coulson say?"
"Either 'don't screw up', 'about time', or probably both," answered Simmons. "Now go, I really do need to change so we can start our day, since four earrings does not appropriate lab clothing make."
"I'm not allowed to see you put clothes on?" asked Fitz with a raised eyebrow as he reached for the bunk door to leave.
"Oh, shut up and go," retorted Simmons.
"See you in the lab," replied Fitz with a smirk, before slipping out.