A/N: Now with added StaticQuake because they're adorable.
"Jem-"
But his best friend ran off before Fitz could even finish saying her name.
Fitz stepped away from Daisy, running a hand through his hair as he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now.
"Hey Fitz?" Daisy's words were hesitant.
Fitz blinked back to reality. "Sorry Daisy," he said quickly, still not meeting his new friend's eyes. "I'll show you back to your room."
Neither of them spoke as they walked down the corridor.
"There you are," Fitz said finally as they arrived at her destination. He gestured to the doorway and began to walk away.
"Fitz, wait."
He turned back around.
Daisy looked concerned, but resolute. "I know I just met you guys, so it's not really my place to say, but even I can see that something's going on. Whatever it is, you can't let it ruin all these years that you guys have been best friends. Just know how lucky you both are to have that and don't sacrifice it for anything." Daisy's last words were almost a plea, a warning for Fitz to not take what he had for granted because not everyone was as fortunate as he was.
Fitz offered Daisy a small smile to let her know he understood, and then he turned and left.
Fitz walked slowly back to his room, deep in thought, but as he passed his father's study, a voice called out to him, and he ended up standing in front of the king who was writing something down hurriedly after offering Fitz a quick smile as he walked in.
"How was everything with Grant?" Fitz asked conversationally, not wanting to bother his father with worries about Jemma.
His father sighed and looked up at Fitz, shaking his head. "He'll be a decent neighbor as long as we don't do anything that he views as an attempt to seize his power, but I still don't know, Leo." He shook his head. "What I wouldn't give to be talking to Daisy instead of Grant."
Fitz laughed appreciatively.
The king smiled. "So you like Daisy then?"
"I don't know how anyone could not like Daisy, to be honest," Fitz replied. "Dame Isobel and the rest of them couldn't get enough of her. Even Jemma." Fitz stopped at his best friend's name.
His father didn't seem to notice. "That's wonderful, Leo. Daisy really needed that." The king stood up from his desk and walked around to Fitz, clearly attempting to look casual. "So any, uh, future plans with the princess?"
Fitz rolled his eyes at his father. The man had no subtlety. "No, Father. It's great to have another kid our age around the palace, and Daisy and I are already good friends, but it's nothing more than that."
The king deflated slightly.
"I'm sorry," Fitz added with a shrug.
"No, no," the king brushed away Fitz's apology, "don't worry about it. I was just hoping for an excuse to have Daisy around more often. But no matter. This is easier anyway; no curse to worry about for now," he joked.
Fitz frowned. He had barely been giving the curse any thought as he worried about Jemma, but his father's words brought back the fact that an evil sorcerer had literally cast a spell on him as a child… as if Fitz wasn't having a bad enough week.
The king, eyes now sad, sent Fitz off to get ready for the banquet, which Fitz was not looking forward to in any sense. It would just be an evening of Jemma ignoring him and the rest of their friends throwing looks between the two of them. Lovely.
Fitz's prediction turned out to be wrong, however, overshadowed by a development none of them had foreseen, one which was completely unrelated to Jemma and Fitz's quarrel and, subsequently, distracted their entire group from it.
While waiting for the hall to fill up, their group was talking and milling about, Jemma and Fitz engaged in separate conversations.
Lincoln arrived nearly late, having been out on the errand which had resulted in his missing tea at Mack and Lady Mackenzie's. Few squires were typically invited to banquets of this kind, but Lincoln's friendship with Fitz and the fact that he had recently saved an older knight from being attacked at the border put him highly in the king's favor and had garnered him an invitation.
"Lincoln!" Lady Mackenzie called, smiling, as the squire ran into the hall. "You're just in time!"
Fitz was standing a bit away talking with Daisy, Dame Isobel, and Bobbi, who had all looked up at Lady Mackenzie's announcement. Dame Isobel and Bobbi watched Lincoln's entrance, but Fitz watched Daisy.
Her eyes widened in shock, her mouth falling open slightly as it spread to become a beaming smile. She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes as she covertly swiped at a tear.
Fitz followed her gaze to Lincoln, who was greeting Lady Mackenzie, Mack, Lance, and Jemma until he turned to the rest of his friends, but the hand he raised in greeting to Fitz, Bobbi, and Dame Isobel fell at the sight of Daisy. He stared at her with a matching expression of surprise and confusion, but, more than anything, of happiness.
The pair moved through the crowd toward each other as though they were the only two who existed in the world. As they met in the middle of the hall, Daisy threw her arms around Lincoln, and he spun her around in a circle, both of them laughing, smiles wider than Fitz had ever seen on either of them.
"How do they know each other then?" Lance had migrated to join their group.
Bobbi shrugged, still watching Daisy and Lincoln. "Mack would know better than us."
"I've got no idea." Mack had apparently followed Lance over.
"Daisy never mentioned anything about Lincoln to me," Fitz threw in.
"Nor me."
Fitz turned his head sharply, momentarily forgetting the apparent reunion taking place thirty feet in front of them. Jemma's words were actually a response to his own, albeit spoken to the group rather than to him, but still; progress was progress.
Lincoln looked up from the embrace to see his friends all staring at him with varying expressions of confusion. He grinned bashfully and whispered something to Daisy who looked up at all of them as well. Her face was faintly pink, growing redder by the minute, but her wide smile remained.
The pair walked over to the group, Daisy almost skipping beside Lincoln as they grinned at each other.
"So I see you already know Princess Daisy," Mack said to Lincoln when the pair reached the group.
Lincoln's eyes went wide. "Princess? Daisy?" He turned to stare at Daisy.
Daisy's face went, if possible, redder, as she stared down at her feet. "Oops."
"You said you were the daughter of a knight who lives at the palace, but you're the princess?" Lincoln stepped back from her in disbelief.
"You were so sweet and funny and you treated me like a regular person," Daisy said, eyes still on the floor. "So it was easier for me to just be Skye, daughter of a knight, eventual lady-in-waiting, than Princess Daisy." She looked up at Lincoln. "Everything else was true. I promise."
Lincoln stared at her a moment before a smile finally returned to his face. "I just can't believe I found you again."
Daisy grinned. "Me either."
A bell sounded, the signal for dinner.
"We'll catch up later?" Daisy asked Lincoln, almost worried.
Lincoln beamed down at her. "Later."
They both separated to go find their seats, but the rest of the group exchanged glances.
"Um, what?" Lance asked, speaking for everyone, but Mack was smiling to himself.
"Now I know what's going on," he said quietly to the group. "When we were at Daisy's palace a year ago, Lincoln told me he met a wonderful girl named Skye who he had fallen in love with. 'She was so funny, Mack,'" Mack imitated his squire, "'and smart and beautiful, and I'm never going to see her ever again!'"
"Mystery girl!" Lance shouted, louder than necessary. "The kid told me about her too!"
"Well, mystery solved," Mack said, smiling at his squire and the princess, both now seated at different tables, sneaking glances at one another, both of them smiling enormously.
Fitz turned to see Jemma staring at him with a curious expression, but before Fitz could determine what it was, she had averted her gaze again.
Fitz took his seat at the high table between his father and Daisy, Grant seated beside his mother on the other side of the king. The rest of the knights, lords, ladies, and squires were seated around two much longer tables in front of them.
The king stood. "May I introduce our honored guests, King Grant Ward-" He paused for applause. "And Princess Daisy." The applause was even louder for Daisy, mostly due to the cheers from the group of Fitz's friends sitting down around Lincoln who was hiding his head, a wide smile on his face as Lance clapped him on the back. Daisy ducked her head beside Fitz, trying to hide her blush.
Ever oblivious, the king raised his hands, smiling. "Let the banquet begin!"
Trumpets sounded and servants began bringing out soup, serving the high table first.
Fitz turned to Daisy with his eyebrows raised.
She grinned sheepishly before leaning over to him. "You musn't tell anyone, none of you. Grant would never hear of my being attached to a squire, especially one from a different kingdom."
"Then what will you do?" Fitz asked Daisy, instantly worried. Lance was not a particularly good person to have informed of a secret relationship.
Daisy smiled to herself. "We'll wait until Lincoln becomes a knight. Grant may still object, but even if he does I can run away with Lincoln, and he'll be able to provide for me."
Fitz frowned slightly. "And you've both discussed all this?"
Daisy shrugged. "Sort of. We'll have to talk it over again now that he knows who I really am."
Fitz had to smile. "I can't believe he never suspected."
Daisy laughed. "Not even a bit. But I won't ever lie to him again." She looked up at Fitz earnestly. "I love him. I know I'm young and stubborn, and someone could accuse me of falling for him as an act of rebellion, but I really and truly love him." She stared out at the hall, clearly lost in her thoughts, a small smile on her face. "I'd just escaped from some sort of etiquette lesson when I literally ran into him. He was carrying a shield – I guess it was Mack's, though I didn't know until just now – and he dropped it in the dirt when I ran into him. I was so sorry, but he wouldn't hear a word of me helping him to polish it again, so I just followed along with him, and we talked and he asked my name, and I panicked and said Skye because it was the first thing I saw." Daisy laughed to herself. "We talked everyday that your father and his cavalry were there. And then just before they had to leave he confessed his love for me, and I for him." She turned back to Fitz. "I've often wondered since then if I was getting ahead of myself, if I was too young and too naïve to understand love, but seeing him here again has just affirmed everything. We're meant to be, he and I."
Fitz smiled, shaking his head. He had never heard anyone speak like that before. It sounded like something out of a story, something too romantic to ever really happen. But there was Daisy, her eyes on Lincoln, and Lincoln's eyes on her.
The rest of dinner passed quickly and enjoyably. Fitz missed Jemma's cheerful presence beside him, as his parents had often invited Jemma to sit at the high table beside Fitz if there were no other banquet guests, but he did find Jemma's eyes on him more than a handful of times throughout the course of the meal. The rest of their friends looked at them sadly from time to time, but, for the most part, they focused their attentions on Daisy and Lincoln trading glances from across their tables. Daisy played her part well, chatting happily with the king and queen between glances at Lincoln.
Five courses later, Fitz was full to bursting and wanted nothing more than his warm bed.
Their group briefly congregated by the entrance to the hall to make sure that everyone knew not to mention Daisy and Lincoln's attachment to anyone, particularly the king and queen and especially Grant.
"Fitz and Jemma, you must show me the lab tomorrow," Daisy intoned, causing the two friends to stare at each other. Fitz hadn't been down to the lab in a week.
"Then if Lincoln and I could have some time to talk," Daisy added, with a smile at the squire who was still grinning on the other side of the group.
Mack rolled his eyes and then suggested that everyone get to bed before Grant suspected anything.
"So, my room at ten?" Daisy asked, looking casually from Fitz to Jemma.
They both nodded hesitantly, and Fitz saw the adults of the group flash each other knowing smiles in response.
The party broke up, and Fitz headed back to his room, too tired to do much more than nod along to his parent's conversation, not even finding the energy to worry about spending time with Jemma the next day.
Fitz walked up to Daisy's door the next morning at the exact same time as Jemma, who unexpectedly greeted him with a small smile, a sign that maybe he could fix everything between them.
Daisy practically threw open the door at Fitz's knock, bounding out to hug he and Jemma together excitedly.
"Sleep well?" Jemma asked, her understatement making Fitz snort with laughter, allowing himself to forget for the moment that he and Jemma hadn't really been doing the joking around thing lately.
Jemma flashed him a quick smile in response, which left Fitz grinning wider than he had all week.
"Oh yes," Daisy answered, not paying attention to the glances between Fitz and Jemma. "I'm just so happy. And Grant doesn't suspect a thing! It's the perfect secret romance." Daisy sighed dramatically, making both Fitz and Jemma laugh this time. Daisy quickly joined in, closing the door behind her and linking arms with both of them. "On to the lab!"
Fitz smiled at Jemma without thinking, and she smiled back, but they both turned away from each other quickly.
Fitz could have sworn he saw Daisy roll her eyes.
Fitz and Jemma led their new friend down to the lab at which point they wordlessly decided to ignore the fact that they hadn't been speaking to each other for a week and instead began talking in a rapid, back and forth volley of information about what everything in the lab was used for, what they had done in past experiments, what they were working on currently (and why Fitz's work station was piled high with broken swords and daggers).
When they both stopped for breath, Daisy burst out laughing.
Fitz looked over at Jemma and found her just as confused as he was. They both turned back to their still-laughing friend.
"Sorry," Daisy apologized, wiping tears from her eyes. "It's just Bobbi and Lance told me this was exactly what you would do if I brought you down to the lab."
"They said what?" Fitz asked indignantly.
Daisy grinned. "Bobbi said you'd both start talking a mile a minute, going back and forth finishing each other's sentences, and Lance said I wouldn't have any idea what you guys were talking about. They both got it exactly right."
Fitz turned to stare at his feet sheepishly, but he couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face. He wasn't quite sure why, but he liked that he and Jemma were so predictable, that they had been able to so easily fall back into routine. That's what a lifetime of friendship meant, he supposed.
"Can we go find Lincoln?" Daisy asked after a moment.
"Oh yeah, of course," Fitz replied, shaking himself from his thoughts and leading his friends out of the lab.
Daisy was smiling to herself, presumably at the prospect of seeing Lincoln, but Jemma seemed to be lost in thought, following Daisy automatically.
"There you are!" Lincoln's voice greeted them as they stepped out into the corridor.
"Lincoln!" Daisy's smile grew even wider, and she ran into his open arms.
The pair began whispering together, and Fitz suddenly felt as though he was intruding. A glance over at Jemma told him she felt the same. Fitz was technically Daisy's chaperone, but he felt no guilt in leaving Daisy alone with Lincoln.
Fitz tilted his head at the door to the lab, and Jemma nodded, quickly disappearing back the way they had come, Fitz right behind her.
They ended up back in the lab, but Fitz was suddenly unsure if his suggestion of coming down here together was a good idea. Jemma had moved naturally over to her area, but once she got there she froze, clearly uncomfortable.
After a few moments, Fitz decided he couldn't take it anymore, and he looked up at his best friend pleadingly. "I'm sorry, Jemma, okay? Can we please be friends again? This is killing me."
Jemma kept her eyes on the lab table in front of her. "Yeah, I don't like it either." Her words were so quiet Fitz could barely hear them. Finally she looked up. "You're not trying to replace me with Daisy are you?"
Fitz scoffed, knowing that that was the most ludicrous idea he'd heard in a long time. "Of course not!" He stopped, thinking. "And you're not trying to replace me, right?"
Jemma shook her head, smiling slightly. "It is nice to have a friend that's a girl though, not that you and Lincoln aren't enough or anything," she amended hurriedly.
Fitz grinned. "No, I get it. We really do need more friends our age."
"Especially now that those two are…" Jemma trailed off, gesturing to the doorway, referring to Lincoln and Daisy whispering together a floor above them.
Fitz shook his head, still smiling. "You should have heard Daisy going on about him last night, like he was the most amazing thing in the world, and she couldn't imagine her life without him." Fitz was suddenly struck with a though, and he turned back to Jemma, narrowing his eyes. "How come you never liked Lincoln?"
"What?"
"You know," Fitz said, hinting heavily, "you never liked Lincoln. Why not? He's funny and handsome or whatever it is that girls like." Fitz instantly regretted his choice of conversation topic as he felt his ears turn red. "Just after Daisy was going on and on about him, I was wondering why you never did."
Jemma laughed. "Oh Fitz, me like Lincoln? I can't even imagine! I mean he's a wonderful friend, and, yes, I suppose he is rather handsome and an excellent soldier," Jemma said, frowning slightly, "but I would never even have considered. It just wouldn't have made sense for some reason." She paused for a moment, thinking. "We're too different, perhaps that's it," she finally said decisively.
Fitz nodded, not knowing what to say.
Jemma suddenly turned to him, a glint in her eyes that he knew only too well. "If you're asking me about Lincoln, then I suppose I can ask about Daisy."
Fitz raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. "My father was all for it, but it was never going to be anything. Too different, like you said." Fitz wasn't sure if that was quite the right reason, but it was the best he had for the moment.
A silence stretched between them, not awkward necessarily, but not totally comfortable. Words still remained unspoken between them.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you and for being so distant," Fitz said finally. "It's just my father told me something that day he sent for me from the lab, and he said I can't even tell you about it, so I just didn't know how to react." He stopped. "I'm sorry."
Jemma stared at him, her eyebrows raised slightly. "You could have just explained all that, you know? I mean I would have pressed you about it, but I do respect you and your father. You don't have to tell me, but I would have liked to at least know that you weren't being mean because of anything I did or… something like Daisy."
"Daisy?" Fitz asked, confused.
Jemma sighed, staring down at the table in front of her again. "I thought that maybe your father was trying to get you to be a normal prince. Learn how to rule! Fall in love with a princess! Not hang around in a lab with some knight's daughter."
Fitz was shocked and appalled that this was what Jemma had been thinking for the past week. He hadn't realized how much the difference between them still affected her. "That's crazy Jemma! Even if my dad did want me to do something like that – which he doesn't by the way, he actually told me to 'enjoy my carefree youth –'" Fitz quoted in an imitation of his father, "but, no matter what, I wouldn't abandon you. The lab's my favorite place in the world, and you're… I mean you're my best friend. Even if someday I have to learn about politics or whatever, I'm not trading in you and the lab for that or for anything." Fitz paused, staring at his best friend, needing her to understand that her worries were completely and totally unfounded. "I'm so sorry, Jemma," he said finally.
Jemma finally looked up at him, the worry and sadness gone from her eyes as she smiled at him. "Thanks. And I'm sorry for ignoring you."
"Yeah, in my defense, I did try to explain things to you days ago, but you wouldn't talk to me," Fitz said quickly, almost smirking at his friend.
Jemma laughed. "Okay, okay. Sorry." She grinned. "So we're friends again?"
"Best friends, Jemma," Fitz replied, grinning in return, "obviously."
"Good," Jemma said in response, "because I have some ideas about the weapons that I've been wanting to tell you about for over a week."
As she launched into her idea of using the compound for archers rather than swordsmen, Fitz realized there were some things eating away at the back of his mind that he hadn't really let himself think about. His unconscious smile at he and Jemma's predictable way of showing Daisy the lab. His relief at Jemma not liking Lincoln. The utter happiness he felt now as Jemma went over her ideas. And how he had almost told Jemma that she was his favorite person in the world. It was true, of course, but what did that mean?
Daisy's words from the night before echoed back to him. "We're meant to be, he and I."
Fitz shook his head as he followed Jemma off to find some arrows and hopefully a willing victim (Lance) to experiment on. He can't like Jemma. That would be crazy. She was his best friend. It would make no sense.
"You think Mack has any?" Jemma turned to Fitz expectantly.
Fitz shrugged. "Let's go find out."
Jemma grinned, and the pair hurried down the hall in search of their friend.
Fitz almost laughed to himself. It was just Daisy and Lincoln and the stupid curse making him think stuff like this. This was Jemma. He was just glad to have her back. Nothing more than that.
A/N: Any comments are very much appreciated!