Over the next few weeks, Fitz walked into the coffee shop almost every morning and every evening feeling like it was Christmas morning. After those first few exchanges, it became a regular thing. Sometimes they would seek help over a work related problem (From the kind of things she seemed to be working on and her knowledge of very gross things, Fitz had gathered that she was most likely studying biology or chemistry or maybe both?), share a funny anecdote about something that happened during the day or talk about anything really, from book or movie recommendations to a very documented debate about which one was better between the classic chocolate chip muffin or the more daring strawberry and cream one which had just given Fitz another excuse to stay until closing time and discreetly fist pump when those were by chance the only ones remaining and Daisy gave them to him. (But not without reminding him that he should not only eat that and also eat vegetables. Honestly, it was starting to be a little vexing how much she saw him as an adopted stray and not at all like a man!)

The whole thing felt really nice and he supposed it was what his mother meant when she said she missed having people write actual real letters to her and that there just wasn't the same excitement about receiving an email than there was when you went to get the mail and saw that someone had written to you. He never really understood it until now because even though he was still convinced that the important thing was what it said and the words used, someone's handwriting also said something about them. And Jemma's was always perfectly neat and elegant but it was also very regular with just the right amount of space between lines to make it agreeable to read, not to mention the terribly badly drawn stick figures she sometimes used to explain a theory or situation and that he'd come to find quite endearing.

In almost every message he'd left for her, he'd managed to include a drawing of an animal with all kinds of robot part. She seemed to like it more and more every time. In his latest message, he'd drawn an owl with robotic wings he thought might be his best work to date. Snow White seemed to agree and brought it to his attention that it would probably be what Hedwig would look like if Harry Potter was set in some kind of dystopic future where Voldemort won and all the non pure blood were forced to go into hiding in some underground magic bunkers. Fitz thought it to be a bit dark but he would definitely read that anyway. Also, she said she liked it so much she was going to frame it and asked him to draw robot parts for her. His first reaction was to wonder if it was her subtle way of saying "Draw me like one of your dystopic future creatures" and snorted into his coffee at his own bad pun.

After that, his first instinct was to tear a piece of paper from his notebook and start drawing what he thought could be a really bad ass Snow White. But as his pen started flying over the paper, he started wondering what she actually looked like. Of course he knew that for Snow White to be recognizable, she needed to have black hair and creamy white skin and since the version people knew better was Disney's, he'd need to give her a vaguely medieval looking dress with blue top and yellow bottom. But this Snow White was supposed to be his mystery pen friend and he didn't want to offend her. Like drawing her too curvy if she was in fact quite skinny or just the opposite. He thought they had a nice thing going there, the last thing he wanted was to ruin it by waking up potential insecurities in her.

In the end, he decided to do a version of Snow White that was the closest he could remember to the Disney one and added one robotic arm and a half mask on her face and under it, he wrote:

"Here's bad ass dystopic future Snow White for you! I will gladly make a more accurate version of what you ask if you tell me what you look like and which parts of you you're willing to let go to have cool robotic parts!" (It's only later that he realized that for all he knew, she might already be missing an arm or a leg and prayed that it wasn't the case or that could really appear awfully insensitive of him)

He knew that asking her to describe herself could actually sound like a slightly more gentlemanly (or maybe just pre-technology era) way of texting "send nudes" but the truth was he'd been thinking of asking her to meet and maybe even ask her out on a date if things went well. After all, recently, and maybe he was imagining it, but it felt like their exchanges had taken a bit of a flirty edge once or twice. Like when she told him how embarrassed she was when she fell asleep in class and he answered that her being Snow White, he wasn't surprised and then she asked if he knew of a prince charming that could wake her up with a kiss in case it happened again. Of course that could have been for the sake of the pun but he kind of liked the idea that she may be flirting.

But still, he couldn't find the courage to flat out ask her to meet. Of course there was still the possibility that she was in fact a 50 years old man but it really didn't feel like it and it was her mind he was interested in the most anyway. She was incredibly smart, funny, had really good tastes in movies and if she was willing to correct a stranger's equation like that, she was obviously pretty generous. he didn't really care what she looked like but he just wanted a chance to meet her and hear her voice and see the delight she managed to express on paper play out on her face when she'd discover his latest drawing. And even though he really enjoyed those exchanges, there were a lot of things about his work that he wanted to talk to her about that he couldn't possibly explain on paper and leave in a very public place.

For a week after their five or six first messages, whenever he didn't have to be in class or at the library, he came to Mockingbird's to work and see if maybe he could happen upon her but he had no luck. The only people who got close to the message board was one of those huge asshole frat guys and he was incredibly relieved when he saw that the guy only put up a flyer for a Christmas party at their house where it was mentioned that the dress code was beach party (Ah! Nothing said Christmas like a bunch of idiots in bermudas and bikinis in a (most likely) overheated house). Anyway, he still found answers to his messages during the week but it looked like she was only ever coming here when he was in class and, if he believed in those things, maybe he'd think it was a sign the universe didn't want them to meet.

Looking at his watch, Fitz realized he didn't have much time left before having to go back to class. It happened a lot when he was "talking" to her, he noticed. So he quickly wrote a few more words about how things were going with his dwarves since she asked and then asked her if she'd finally found the tech solution that's been evading her for weeks in regards to that mystery substance she was working on. Then re-reading everything quickly (he had a feeling she was the kind of person who appreciated a perfect use of grammar and vocabulary), he gathered his stuff, put it all back hastily inside his messenger bag and went to pin the piece of paper on the message board before giving Daisy a small smile and a hand wave and walking out the door.

-0-0-0-

"So have they met yet?"

"Who?"

"Who do think I'm talking about? Fitz and Hermione over there, you've been watching her for fifteen minutes, you're not exactly discreet about it!"

"Her name's Jemma!" Daisy huffed with a roll of her eyes. "And I'm being perfectly inconspicuous, I'm cleaning the counter!"

"You've been doing it for fifteen minutes. Is there an health inspector coming that I'm not aware of?" He smirked, turning around to look at the girl in question and try to understand what was so special about her. She was pretty enough he supposed. And as always, surrounded by books with her head down, writing something on her notebook. Probably re-writing her notes and color coding them or something. She looked to be that type. And now, he supposed, Fitz's type as well.

"Oh shut up!" Daisy let out and moved away to start cleaning the coffee machine, which still gave her a good enough view of what Jemma was doing.

"Hey you can't tell me to shut up I'm your boss!"

"Yeah, right! Bobbi's my boss … and yours as well … Lance ..." She singsonged.

"Oh just … isn't your shift supposed to be over?" He glared at her and that only made her grin wider.

"In twenty minutes. And to answer your question, no they haven't met yet, they never seem to come at the same time … it's infuriating. The other day Fitz came in just two minutes after she left, two fucking minutes, they might even have crossed paths in the street!"

"Well why don't you …"

"Hey wait" She cut him off. "I thought you didn't care about the customers past the fact that they gave you money in exchange for coffee!" Daisy finished with a truly terrible impression of Hunter's English accent.

"Ugh please don't ever do that again …" He said with actual disgust on his face. "And I usually don't but Fitz is nice, fixed the coffee machine in no time in exchange for coffee, do you know how much time and money that saved me?"

"Ah of course, he appealed to the most sensitive side of you … your wallet … Oww!"

Daisy cried out with an exaggeratedly pained expression when Hunter pinched her arm and she poked his ribs in retaliation. Which made him do the same and it lasted for another long moment until it earned them death glares from a few customers since most of them were reading or working on their computer. When had this place had turned into a library, he wondered. Of course he knew that settling nearby a prestigious university would mean that most of his customers would be students but he hoped it would be like in the TV shows: only rich students spending half their time at a coffee shop table, talking philosophy, drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of pastries. Not people sitting on their own, working at the same table everyday while nursing the same coffee cup for hours and giving them death glares because they had the audacity to speak.

"Anyway Fitz is a bit of a weirdo but he's the only person I can speak football with in this bloody town. I mean he likes all the wrong teams but at least it's the right kind of football."

"Awwww!" Daisy let out, making him roll his eyes to the back of his head as he continued.

"And he hasn't been paying anything for weeks so technically he's not even a customer. Anyway he's cool and I decided to take a moderate interest in his love life."

"Awwww you do have a heart af-"

"Also kid's really tense he could use a good shag or you know ... twenty!"

"And now you're gross again!" Daisy groaned, sending the wet cloth she'd been using, at him, missing his face by an inch.

"What? Do you think they're pure little flowers?"

"No I'm not saying that just ..."

"She looks all prim and proper but I bet she likes it dirty, bet she'd like to tie him up or even …."

"Hunter NO NO NO NO NO!"

"And who knows what kind of disgusting porn little Fitz is wat …"

"AAAAHHH LA LA LA LA LA CAN'T HEAR YOU"

Daisy had her hands over her ears and singsonging from the top of her lungs and Hunter supposed he could see Bobbi's point when she said she didn't want to have kids yet because she already had two anyway.

"I'm not saying they're angels" She said, lowering her voice once Hunter had decided that it was useless to keep teasing her. To be honest he did find them quite cute and innocent but appearances could be deceiving and he wasn't going to say that in front of Daisy anyway when he could instead plant disturbing images in her head. "But look how she's smiling when she's reading his letter, it's … awwww …" Daisy sighed. "They've got this really cute thing going. Communicating through letters with a mysterious stranger for weeks without even knowing what they look like. It's very 90' romcom and I love it!"

"Then why don't you do something to make it happen? I don't know just show him a picture of her and I'm sure he'll find a way to come when she does … and by coming when she does, I actually mean …"

"I know what you mean!" She groaned. "But no, I'm like a … an angel! Yeah that's it, I'm a guardian angel watching over them, I cannot intervene Hunter!"

"Hu when was the last time you read the Bible? Because from how little I can remember, they do a shitload of intervening so really you should …"

"No no no, that's really romantic, the whole falling in love with each other's minds. It needs to be fate when they meet not because I lured Fitz in with a picture or the promise of free muffins or whatever!"

"That's ridiculous! What if someone else asks her out first? Like that big stupid cabbage head over there? And what if she says yes? She might miss the chance to meet the love of her life because you couldn't be bothered to arrange something for them … Not cool Daisy!" He said shaking his head in faux disappointment.

"No, cabbage head's obviously not her type. Her type is nerdy and adorable with a side of could become really hot with new shirts, a haircut and a bit of facial hair."

"Well that sounds quite specific. Do you think she could ever find someone like that?" He retorted sarcastically.

"Oh just ... anyway I'm telling you it's fate it'll happen someday! Mark my words!"

"Ugh … do as you like I don't care …" Hunter mumbled under his breath before going back to watch football on his phone. Man U had to win so he could finally rub it in Fitz's face for once. Those Scots and their big mouth!

-0-0-0-

"To Robot Monkey,

Was that your subtle way to tell me you want a picture of me? Or for us to meet up? But then again, I did kind of ask you to draw me like one of your dystopic future robotic animals so I can't really blame you."

God, she was perfect!

"And actually I've been thinking that it'd be nice to meet you and talk face to face after all this time. Also, since you asked, I've hit a snag on my project and I could really use the help of a (competent) engineer so if you could solve that equation for me, then we could talk about it."

So she actually wants to meet me, Fitz thought, grinning as he read Snow White's latest message. I'm finally going to get to see her and talk to her and … oh god I'm going to meet her, perfect genius fairy tale princess and she's going to see me, ridiculous monkey boy. Oh god!

Fitz was panicking now, the excitement and nice fluttering in his stomach slowly turning to blinding fear. What if they had nothing to talk about once they actually meet, what if she saw him and just walked away. He wasn't exactly the prince charming type she might expect after all, with his skinny body and mop of blond curls that made him look even younger than he was. Because of course there was the matter of his age. Even if she was in her first year as well (which was unlikely considering everything she already knew about chemistry) she was probably at the very least nineteen or twenty and what twenty years old girl would date a boy that wasn't even old enough to vote and looked like he wasn't even old enough to drive. It was most likely too late to let his beard grow enough to be convincing but maybe he'd have time to go to the hairdresser's and go shopping for new clothes, even though if he knew what kind of clothes would make him look older, he'd have bought them by now. And anyway, maybe none of those mattered because for all he knew, "she" could still be professor Vaughn or that weird bearded guy from the bus stop.

Not to mention that she didn't actually give him a way to contact her. Or was she there, somewhere, spying on him and trying to decide if she wanted to talk to him or not. And why did she give him such a ridiculously easy equation to solve? She couldn't possibly need help with that. Or was it a test of some kind? Looking up, he turned around and scanned the room. The place was rather empty, as it always was on a Friday night, most students having either gone home for the week-end or out in a bar drinking alcohol rather than coffee. Two girls seemed to fit what he thought would be his mystery girl's age but they were deep in conversation with one another and clearly didn't care about him. Looking behind him, he met Daisy's gaze behind the counter and she gave him what he thought was an encouraging smile. He suspected she'd been reading all their exchanges for weeks now and he couldn't really blame her, a message board wasn't exactly the most private place but it still felt a little bit weird and he quickly averted his gaze.

Well, there wasn't much he could do right now and at least doing maths always helped get his mind off things, even when they were as simple as this. So he took a pen out of his bag and started writing.

Just as planned, it barely took him two minutes and now he was left with a really large number and still no way to contact her. It was all really weird, their messages had grown quite long over the weeks to the point where they had to write extra small to make it all fit on just one sheet of paper and this time, she only wrote him a few sentences along with that useless equation that she somehow presented as essential in order to …

"Oooooh …" Fitz let out quietly, realization finally dawning on him. It was so obvious it made him wonder if his mum was right and girls did make even the smartest boys completely dumb. It wasn't a big number, it was a phone number. It made sense obviously, she wasn't going to leave it on the message board for everyone to see. It was really quite smart although he would have to tease her about not putting more effort into creating a more complicated equation. Which, as easy as it was, didn't stop him from checking it all again three times before he decided to enter the phone number in his contact list.

Taking a deep breath, Fitz tried to calm his nerves, push all his fears and insecurities and focusing on the fact that a girl who was, at least on paper, absolutely amazing, had given him her phone number, he pressed the call button. He had a feeling that if he didn't do it now, he'd never find the courage to do it and then he'd have missed his window and she'd think he wasn't even interested in meeting her.

He just had the time to take another deep breath before the call connected and a nice, feminine voice answered.

"Hum hi is this hu … god I hope I'm not mistaking or this is gonna sound really weird but hu … is this Snow White?" He asked tentatively and heard a soft watery laugh on the other end of the line.

"Yes!" She chirped enthusiastically. "Robot Monkey, you're Scottish!" She added, sounding delighted about it and he let out a relieved sigh.

"Yeah yeah I am. And you're English! What are the odds, right?"

"Well between the two of us we could probably find out …"

It was his turn to laugh. She sounded just as sweet and funny than she had on paper and her voice was definitely feminine, quite young he thought, and English. Yay!

"Well it's nice to hear your voice after all this time"

"Yeah yours too …" She answered with a warm tone in her voice that made him trust that she meant it and didn't say it just as a courtesy because he said it first. "Oh and by the way, sorry for all the mystery with the equation. It wasn't a test or anything, I just thought it wasn't safe to leave my number on the message board. My friend put an add there for danse lessons, she got two genuine phone calls for the danse lessons and dozens of calls from perverts and stupid frat boys. At some point, it became so bothering that she had to change her number and then … but hum I'm rambling sorry!" She cut herself off and he couldn't help chuckling. He liked the way she talked like her mouth couldn't quite keep up with how fast her brain worked. It happened to him too sometimes.

"No no it's alright. Makes perfect sense, it was quite smart really and it only took me a minute to solve it anyway."

"Yeah thought you would." She said with an appreciative tone. "So hum do you have time to meet up someday? I mean if you … if you want to of course?"

"Yeah yeah of course I want to!" He cried out rather enthusiastically, maybe too enthusiastically, then cleared his voice to sound a little more detached. "I wouldn't have called if I didn't want to … I'm hu-I'm actually free for the rest of the day if you hum … if you like. I was planning to work at Mockingbird's until closing time but there's nothing too urgent."

"Oh! Are you at Mockingbird's right now?"

"Yeah yeah! Called you as soon as I got your message!" He answered. Again too enthusiastically. Well, it wasn't like he had such a good poker face and would be able to look less than nervous, excited and most likely delighted when he finally meets her anyway.

"Eager" She said and he could hear the laughter in her voice as he started blushing. "Okay then can you hold on a minute?"

"Yeah … sure."

He supposed she was checking her agenda. Fitz had one of those too except he marked things in it but never looked at it again because he had an almost perfect memory anyway. Not to mention he had zero social life so other than his classes and assignment deadline, there wasn't much to remember anyway.

Keeping the phone close to his ear, Fitz started rummaging through his bag on the floor to pick up his laptop. He might have exaggerated the non urgent character of some of the assignments he was supposed to be working on this afternoon and if she was indeed willing to see him at some point, he might as well get to it immediately and get as much of it done by the time they'd decide to meet up.

"Hi again!" She chirped and her voice sounded strangely clear and loud compared to what it'd been just a minute ago. Which made complete sense because she was in fact right in front of him, giving him the most blindingly beautiful smile he's ever seen. Had he, in fact, been corresponding with the actual Snow White all this time? Because she really was the fairest of them all.

"Wow. That was the cheesiest, more ridiculous pick up line ever" He thought. "Thank god I didn't say it out loud."

"Hi!" He said instead, smiling back. And apparently, she didn't miss the way he looked at her because she looked down with an adorable blush coloring her cheeks and he would have worried about embarrassing her if it wasn't for the pleased little smile that tucked at her lips for a moment.

"I was just on my way here when you called so I thought I'd surprise you … Hope you don't mind?" She said with a slight grin that clearly meant that she knew perfectly well that he didn't mind at all.

"No no no. Of course I don't mind."

"Great! Cause I've been dying to talk to you and see if you're really quite as good as you seem to be … you know with maths and … other stuff …" She added a bit sheepishly when she noticed how he raised his eyebrows and smiled in amusement. He liked the way she seemed just as bad as he was at controlling what came out of her mouth. It was reassuring to know he could trust her to tell the truth, it was refreshing and took quite a lot of his stress away.

"I'm Jemma by the way. Jemma Simmons …" She added, extending her hand for him to shake.

"It's really nice to finally know your name Jemma" He grinned. "I got so used to calling you Snow White, I was kind of expecting you to walk in with a bunch of woodland creatures following you." He added and she gave him another one of those soft watery laughs and it sounded even nicer in person than on the phone. "And hu ... I'm Fitz. Leo Fitz but please call me Fitz."

"Really nice to meet you Fitz." She replied as she took her jacket off and pulled the chair opposite him to sit down, her bright smile not even leaving her face for a second.