#4 Dress to impress... somehow
"Daisy!" Jemma knocked for the third time at her friend's door.
"What?" It finally opened.
"I need the most smoking hot dress you have. For this evening." Jemma barged in, looking around and unable to fight a smug smile after she saw Daisy's surprised face. For once it was Double Doctor that was impulsive and taking charge.
Daisy had lots of nice clothes, but unfortunately, there were some size differences. Seeing how her plan could crash she was determined to somehow salvage it.
Jemma Simmons had an above average fashion sense, this was a proven thesis. She was beyond all lies of marketing trying to convince women that beauty, true beauty, had anything to do with the tag stuck to the material or a designer name, she knew that it was all smoke and mirrors, trying to fulfill shallow desires with lies. She was beyond paying horrendous amount of money for something, just because it had a symbol of some famous producer on it. She was an intelligent woman who didn't need a tag on a piece of material to feel good and pretty.
Jemma Simmons was also on a free loop and what nobody can't remember can't hurt, she thought walking through undercover wardrobe and looking around. There was no time for a trip to Milan, but she didn't have much trouble convincing Coulson that special clothes were absolutely necessary.
A while later the scientist smiled at herself looking at her reflection in the mirror, Versace dress, Prada heels, Chanel bag. Not only were they fashionable, they were also hugging all the right places, highlighting all her assets, making her look absolutely astonishing, to the point that she would ask herself out on a date if she could. But then she would have to decline herself, because she would still prefer to go out with Fitz.
Designer clothes may be overrated, but she for once she could just enjoy them simply because she wanted to. They were not of much use hanging sadly in this dusty room anyway. They would be of much more use displayed on her not-a-real-date-just-a-pre-date supper.
#5 Jardin Botânic, bring + 1
This part of her list made her absolutely proud: convince Coulson to send her and Fitz to Brazil for a mission. That required only the two of them. Living in a luxury apartment in Rio de Janeiro, just a nice walk away from Jardim Botânico, one of the best botanical gardens in the world, that she dreamed of seeing for years now. Fitz even agreed to go with her, baited by the promise of a cake after. He was getting more and more energetic when they were walking down the streets, shopping on the stalls for groceries she would use to prepare their supper, not knowing the language and trying to compensate for it with Fitz's expressive waving that made her smile so bright that she couldn't really focus on bargains.
The evening dress was definitely too much, she decided later, when they were back in their apartment. Fitz was clearly having trouble focusing and was doing his best to not look at her exposed skin, unfortunately deciding that not looking at her at all would be the best solution. Apparently the "smoking hot" style was not the one Fitz would prefer for their first date and to say the truth she was not really surprised, more like flattered that he was fighting so hard to not let himself stare (too much). Next time she could check how he liked this pastel plain dress she caught a sight of in the undercover missions closet. She would also have to remember not to cook and proceed with Fitz's initial plan of going out.
It was a good thing she tried cooking in the loop first. She was a master of sandwiches, a goddess of choosing the right organic snacks, a true queen of making salads. Still, her and meat just couldn't get an understanding of any sorts, especially when she didn't really have any way to prepare it. She knew all Fitz's favourites and she destroyed them all, burning, drying, over-salting. Fortunately, her fruit salad was a champion aiming straight for gold so here they were, eating some take out and fruits with a freshly baked cake and drinking the best wine that they found, her in her fancy dress, him in a shirt and dress shoes, laughing while trying to figure out what was happening on the telly, doing impressions when actors were speaking foreign sentences.
As much as Jemma wanted to not let any negative thought ruin her vacation, she couldn't help but notice Fitz tensing when their movie had a commercial break and they had to stop their fun with language, sitting in silence with atmosphere getting heavier with each second. Something was clearly bothering him.
"What's wrong, Fitz?" she decided to ask, because she really didn't have anything to loose and lots to gain.
"You wanted to do this," he motioned at them "because you know it will be erased? So if it won't work well you can just go back and say no?"
"What?" she choked surprised by this absurdity. "No, of course no! I wanted to do this, because I'm done with wasting time. How much longer can I wait Fitz? 70 loops where instead of our dinner all I had was calculations and saving the world... I wanted to have at least one, when we can simply enjoy ourselves. Like it should be. Besides I don't know if I will remember any of this when I will be out of the loop," she admitted. "Plus, you know me, I'm always overthinking and I was… afraid that something would go wrong. So I wanted to… you know. Make sure I won't do anything stupid. Like this dress," she waved at her clothes.
"You look stunning in that dress," Fitz smiled with shyness.
"I noticed," she answered with the same smile. "But I'd rather have you functional than stunned."
They sat there for a moment, the mood changing from uncomfortable to cozy, filled with their gentle glances and smiles.
"We could have this forever," she told him when the realisation hit her. "This moment, over and over, forever. No interruption or obstacles. If something would go wrong, I could just fix it in the next loop. We could see the whole world, each time something new," she added dreamily.
Fitz was silent, looking ahead and furrowing his brows slightly.
"But that wouldn't be us," he pointed out after a moment. "Not really. I mean, each time the loop starts, it all gets erased. I wouldn't remember, so it technically would be just you. And while safer, it wouldn't be actually real, yeah? I mean, it's not like I could wake up one day after a week of us being together, or prepare a monthly anniversary-"
"You would?" she interrupted him.
"Of course I would, it's a monthly anniversary." Fitz shook his head like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What I mean to say is that we would be stuck at first date. Forever. When there's so much more waiting ahead."
"You're right," she nodded, because she knew she couldn't do that, not really. Ignore what was happening just for selfish yearning for peace and stability, was just not her. She wouldn't resign from their future for a shadow of a real relationship that they could have if she break free from this loop. When. When she breaks out of this loop. "But for now, I have a loop off, so let's just enjoy it. Just this once."
He smiled and she smiled right back, stealing a kiss from him and immediately hiding behind a show of watching the movie that resumed a moment ago. Soon this moment would be just a beautiful dream she had once, something that wasn't really true and only she would be able to recall, but for now she was going to just live her dream.
There were no tomorrows to worry about, all that was was them, here, together as they always should be.