Pesto Aioli

"Fitz, I need to talk to you."

He raised his head from where he was busy cleaning and calibrating his little hoverbots, to see Simmons looking at him, uncertain, apologetic, but determined.

He never could resist her.

"Right, lemme just finish up with this little guy and get 'im back in his box," he answered, and a moment later all the robots were stowed, and he followed her back to her bunk where they sat on her bed, and he watched Jemma as she steeled herself to say whatever it was.

"You remember when you came back from the mission with Ward, and I asked you how it went, and you told me about the exciting bits?"

"Yeah?" Fitz was a bit lost, having no idea where she was heading with this.

"Well, I know you didn't tell me everything."

"I don't know what you mean," he said, although now he had an inkling.

"Something else happened," she said, "and you don't want me to know about it. I could tell. But whatever it is, I want you to know I'm completely accepting. You can tell me anything."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, don't do that! Now I'm worried that it's something worse than I've been imagining! Yes, I'm certain, I want to know everything that happens in your life that's at all important!"

"Okay," Fitz said, taking a breath. "Well, you know that sandwich you made for me?"

Simmons's jaw went slack, and her lip wobbled. "It did have too much pesto aioli, didn't it?"

"I don't know," Fitz said, anguish filling his voice. "Ward, the bastard, threw it out! Just because there were dogs after us! The perfect sandwich and he just tossed it off into the void!" Once he'd finished his rant, he looked at Jemma.

If she'd looked sorrowful before, she looked devastated now. She glared at him, all narrowed eyes and barely suppressed emotion.

"He was right," she said. "It wasn't worth the risk. Oh, why didn't I think of that, sending something like that with you on a covert mission was a terrible idea!"

Fitz sighed. "Not your fault. I didn't realize either. I just... the poor sandwich! I didn't want to tell you."

"You should have."

"Was that worse or better than what you were imagining, though?"

"Worse, Fitz, what do you think? I just found out I almost got you killed!"

Fitz winced. "Oh, I knew I shouldn't have told you."

"You have to tell me! You have to tell me the things that are important, like that, like what I can do when you go out in the field to help make sure you come back! You've got to know I'd do anything, Fitz, I shot Agent Sitwell in the chest to help get you back safe. You have to tell me. Fitz, you have to tell me."

Tears were welling in her eyes, and she was hovering near him without touching him the way she sometimes did, when she wasn't sure how much of what she felt she was allowed to express in her actions.

Fitz's face crumpled as he saw, and he pulled her head onto his shoulder where it properly belonged when she was crying, and he wiped away a fallen tear with his thumb, and he took a long breath, prepared to wait out the storm.

"I can do that," he told her, petting her hair and considering the middle distance with the grim, almost pouting frown he had when he was forced to face unpleasant facts. "I'll tell you anything you want to know." Then, as Jemma settled against his side, breath calming, Fitz's frown turned puzzled. "But if you knew I was lying, why didn't you ask me before?"

"I wasn't going to push because I thought it wasn't anything really important. I thought you'd tell me if it was." She sniffed. "I thought... you and Ward seemed so much closer after you got back, something happened to change how you thought about each other. Which is your business, by the way. Whether you slept with him or not."

Fitz spluttered incoherently for a few seconds before getting his mouth to work. "GRANT WARD? You thought I'd slept with Grant Ward? I may be getting to work better with him, but he's an ass, Jemma."

Simmons smiled damply in response. "A rather nice one, actually."

"Okay, maybe I've noticed. But I don't want to sleep with him, Jem." He made a face. "Ward, really? I'd prefer someone with at least an ounce of personality."

She smirked a bit sadly at him. "Who do you want? Because you can have them, you know that, right?"

"Nobody but you." Fitz hugged her tight. "You've been next to me this whole time. You're the most important thing in my world, Jemma. I would never do anything to jeopardize that. I dunno what I'd do without you."

"Fitz," she said, running gentle fingers over his hand where it rested on her shoulder. "You know I'd be here with you, whatever happens, don't you? I want you to have everything, I really do."

"You're a bit of an idiot sometimes, you know that?" he said softly, not letting go of her. "I know you'd be here. You always have been. But it'd make you sad. Don't deny it. I know you too well."

She clicked her tongue lightly in reluctant agreement before speaking again. "Oh, Fitz, do you ever wonder if this is all a bit too strange? If things are meant to work this way?"

"Never," he said loyally, kissing her on the temple and snuggling her tighter. "Aliens came down to Earth, Jem. Portals to other worlds popped up all over London. The Hulk breaks the Law of Conservation of Mass! 'Strange' is not exactly a thing we're gonna be able to get away from." He closed his eyes for a moment, just feeling her weight in his arms. "And I don't want to. This is us, Love. This is our lives. And I never spend a moment's time wondering whether things would be better without you by my side. Because I know they wouldn't."

She sighed, and melted further into his side. "You are ridiculously perfect," she told him. She caught his eye. "And yes, that conservation of mass thing has always bothered me. Why can't the world just make a little more sense sometimes?"

"Because then, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting," he answered. "And you know it."

"Oh, all right, then. I do." Her smile was turning content and lazy.

They lay like that for twenty more minutes, Jemma dozing after the emptying nature of the crying she'd done, and Fitz just soaking in her presence, everything about her that was right for him, everything about her that made her his darling.

He really did wonder sometimes why he was born gay when the love of his life was a woman like Jemma.