Prompt from Anon (sentence meme): "Of all the people I could've gotten stuck in an elevator with and it just had to be you."

~Academy AU~

Skye twirled a french fry in her ketchup before stuffing it into her mouth as she stared at her laptop screen. Normally she wouldn't waste her eating time with work, but one of the younger cadets had paid her a lot of cash to hack into Professor Reynolds' account to access answers for an upcoming test and she sure wasn't going to waste such a large gratuity on her own laziness. Of course cheating was wrong, she knew, but money was money and she was particularly skilled in leaving no tracks behind. Morality never was a huge concern to her when it came to business matters.

Despite her intense concentration on the task at hand, she couldn't resist peeking over her screen at a blond, curly-haired boy sitting at a nearby table. His back faced her as he hunched over what appeared to be a tuna sandwich, but Skye was way more interested in the brief but frequent glances he kept shooting towards one of her friends across the cafeteria than whatever he was eating. Especially when said friend seemed to imitate those glances back at him every single day during lunch.

"Mack!" Skye hissed, elbowing her friend's shoulder, causing him to almost drop his drink. "Look at this!"

Mack, now in his second year of training for the Operations division, looked to where she was gesturing. Not seeing anything particularly interesting nor concerning, he frowned. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"That kid in the plaid shirt. Look at what he's doing!"

"You mean Turbo?" Skye gave him a puzzled look. "Oh, that's my friend Fitz," Mack clarified. "He's an engineer."

"And my friend Jemma is a biochemist. They would be perfect for each other!"

He had met Jemma before. Long, brown hair, unquestionably intelligent, and a distinct accent that was hard to forget. He didn't really know her that well though, only having met her at Skye's impromptu dorm parties once or twice in the past. "Okay…and what does that have to do with Fitz eating his sandwich?"

"So Jemma is sitting right over…there, at your two o'clock. Watch the two of them and…wait for it…"

Skye cheered in triumph as Fitz's head twisted slightly to the right, positioned glaringly in Jemma's direction before ducking down just as quickly. "Bam!"

Mack raised his eyebrows at her. "You're kidding, right? That proves nothing."

"It's something though!" She shut her laptop down and slid it to the empty seat next to her. Kaminsky's offer could wait; now it was her turn to prove a point. "Because now watch Jemma."

Curious and still baffled by Skye's assumption, he learned forward and narrowed his eyes, studying Jemma's mannerisms closely. She was talking to a girl with blonde hair, chattering and laughing amicably. But once the conversation ended, he saw what Skye was referring to. Jemma's eyes flickered across the room, and he thought nothing of it until her face fell, taking on an unreadable expression. She looked sort of…wistful, as if she was being ignored somehow.

"Okay, I can sort of see it," he admitted. "Why are you so obsessed with them though?"

It only took one look at Skye's determined face to tell that she was scheming. "Oh no," Mack groaned. "Please don't play matchmaker again. You've failed every time you've tried to set my friends up with someone."

"Where is this coming from?" Skye leaned back in her chair and bit into another french fry. "I can tell when people are made for each other."

"Bobbi and Hunter can't even get through a conversation without lunging at each others throats and they break up every other day!"

"But technically they're still together!" she challenged him. "I bet they're hooking up in the bathroom this very moment!"

Mack shook his head at her not-so-subtle wager. The last time he had engaged in one with her, he had ended up being her personal butler for a week and he did not want to go through that humiliation again. "And that Raina chick you set me up with on Valentine's Day last year," he argued, "she was bat-ass crazy!"

"How was I supposed to know that she would try to set your dorm on fire after you broke up with her?" Skye protested.

"The point is, I think you need to sit this one out, Tremors," Mack emphasized, using the nickname he had given her a while back after he had noticed that she couldn't sit still in one place and always had to be shaking a body part whenever she was excited. Watching her currently squirm in her seat and practically salivating at the mouth was no exception. "I've heard Fitz talk about Agent Simmons. They don't like each other. He always complains about her trying to one-up him all the time." He shrugged. "It's hard to turn hate into love in just one day, just saying."

Skye sighed and held her hands up in defeat. "Alright, alright, I'll let this one happen naturally."

"Good."

He clapped her on the shoulder as he stood up to throw out his trash, failing to see the devious glint that entered her eyes as he left. "Turns out I'm not very fond of nature," she uttered under her breath, grinning like a Cheshire cat at the two scientists who, she was convinced, were destined to be together.

"Seriously, Skye, why do you keep bringing him up?" Jemma complained as she and Skye waited for the elevator. "Leo Fitz is a nuisance, a thorn in my side, if you will, and I'd rather not talk about him."

"But he's cute!" Skye gushed as she adjusted her backpack. "And I've heard he's going for his second Ph.D. too."

Jemma scoffed. "Not every rumor you hear is true, Skye." She returned her attention to her phone, but something Skye had said struck a chord within her. "Wait a minute…" Jemma whipped her head around and stared at her. "You like him, don't you?"

"What?!" Skye spluttered. "How in the world could you think that?"

"You talk about him all the time and-"

"No, the only reason I do that is because-"

The ding! of the elevator signaled its arrival, interrupting their conversation. They made faces at each other as they entered and waited for the doors to close in front of them.

"Hold the elevator!" someone called in the distance, and none other than Jemma's rival came barreling through the sliding doors, almost crashing into them. He steadied himself, re-positioning the pile of books in his hands before he realized who was standing stoically beside him. "Agent Simmons," he muttered, not even daring to make eye contact with her.

"Agent Fitz."

Skye, who had been pushed to the back by the collision, observed as they stood silently side by side, and she hadn't predicted things being this awkward when she had brainstormed this plan in the first place. An aspiring agent can pick up a thing or two about a person's daily routine when spying on them for days at a time.

"Don't mind me," she said as she slid along the stainless steel walls towards the key pad, internally sighing with relief when they didn't acknowledge her existence. She moved her index finger to press a number but instead pressed the red STOP button.

Everyone jumped when the elevator suddenly screeched to a halt and Skye did her best to act casual. "Oh no, the elevator is stuck!"

"Great," Fitz groaned. "I'm going to be even later now than I was before."

"We're all going to be late now," Jemma pointed out. "Stupid bloody elevator…"

"Do you really have to be such a know-it-all sometimes?"

"Me?" Jemma exclaimed, turning to face him. "You're the one who's raising his hand all the time in class! You beat me to the answers every time!"

"Well, it's not my fault you're slow to think of them!"

Jemma gasped as a brilliant red flooded her cheeks. "That's because I actually want my answers to be correct. I'm sure you just throw yours out there and hope that at least one is right!"

"Oh yeah? Then how come I'm never wrong?"

"Because it's just dumb luck! Also, your answer for the atomic weight of iodine was off by three tenths."

"Seriously?" He clutched his books tightly to his chest and strode to stand right in front of her. "You're keeping track of my answers now? Of all the people I could've gotten stuck in an elevator with, it just had to be you."

Skye sank to the ground as they argued, biting her lip to keep the smile off of her face. This was totally worth missing class for.

"Oh boy." Fitz's face paled, causing Jemma to hold back her retort. "I think I'm going to faint."

"What's wrong?" Jemma asked. They had been going at it for ten straight minutes now; what could have brought him to admit possible defeat?

"I'm claustrophobic," he rasped, almost dropping his books as he strayed to the elevator wall. "I can't…tolerate…small spaces-"

"I know what claustrophobic means! Skye, take the books out of his hands and call for help while I calm him down."

Despite the situation, Skye snickered quietly. "Oh, so now I exist." She had expected to keep them in the elevator for longer, about a half hour or so, but of course plans could never be foolproof. The sneaky half smile lingered on her face as she logged onto her laptop and attempted to hack through the barriers of SHIELD's control system, only for it to fade away when the system rejected her password. And of course no other hacks she could use were coming to her mind at the moment.

Shit. They really were stuck now.

Reluctantly, Skye pulled out her cell phone and called for maintenance as Jemma knelt beside Fitz. "You need to breathe, Fitz," she instructed, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Slowly and deeply. And focus on a positive image. It'll distract you from your fear."

Nodding his head violently, he closed his eyes and gulped for air, and Jemma sighed in relief as his breathing gradually slowed down. "Wow," he commented, his arms shaking as he propped himself up. "I can't believe that worked. Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Probably because it's hard to think rationally when you're having a panic attack," Jemma replied sympathetically. "What did you think about?" Fitz blinked at her. "For the positive image, I mean."

He smiled. "My mum. I miss her a lot while I'm here."

"I understand. I miss my parents, too."

Jemma stood up and offered him a hand, which he accepted gratefully. "Well, if you find yourself having another panic attack anytime soon, Leo-"

"Fitz," he interrupted. "Just call me Fitz."

"Fitz. As I was saying, I have tea and biscuits in my room if you ever want the company."

"I-" He looked down at the ground shyly. "I would really like that, actually." Finding the sudden tranquility between them a bit awkward, he shuffled his feet on the floor. "To be honest, I thought you hated me."

Jemma's mouth dropped open. "Only because I thought you hated me!"

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you always gave me these annoyed glares and never talked to me!"

They continued to bicker while Skye watched, somehow withstanding the urge to intervene, as she usually did with these sorts of things. By the time maintenance got them out, Fitz and Simmons were chatting like they had been friends the entire time, and they had surely forgotten that Skye had been there the whole time. Although Skye liked to play matchmaker, she was perfectly fine with fading in the background this time around.

Skye smiled as they walked to class in front of her, immersed in a conversation that she couldn't quite comprehend. Maybe, just maybe, she'd let this one happen naturally.

FitzSimmons. That's what I'll call them from now on.

And once the name circulated around the Academy, it stuck.

Sooo I have no knowledge of hacking or elevator systems or how a SHIELD Academy is supposed to function, but I tried to make it sound realistic! Hope you enjoyed it!