Chapter 1
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Fitz-Fitz-Fitz-Fitz-Fitz
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{You know you are always the best part of my day, turbo}
Fitz stared at Mack’s last text. They had been talking and texting for the last two weeks, ever since that first meeting, on what had turned from one of the worse, to quite possibly the best, day of his life.
Meeting Mack had been absolutely amazing. Not only was he, insanely, gorgeous; he was also incredibly sweet, funny and smart too. How was that even possible? It almost didn’t seem fair. No one should be that perfect. It just set a rather unreasonable standard for kind of average, somewhat boring, but very intelligent, if slightly awkward guys out there. It also leads to unfortunate, certainly one sided, absolutely hopeless, crushes in said average, intelligent, awkward guys.
Especially when said crush kept saying things like that.
After that first meeting, Fitz had just been flying. He just couldn’t believe how great this guy was, how much they had in common. He’d kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, to see something to diminish how wonderful this guy seemed, but everything he’d learned about Mack had just made him like him more. He had to have a flaw, right? He couldn’t be that perfect.
Now, looking, once again, at his phone and rereading the text one more - he’d stopped counting somewhere around twenty- time, he thinks he has it figured out. He has found Mack’s flaw: he is a total, complete, irrepressible, flirt.
“I’m telling you Jem; that has to be it. There’s simply no other explanation.”
“Or, you know, maybe he just actually likes you and is showing you that he’s interested.”
Fits scoffs, “Yeah, no way that’s it.”
“Why not? You’re a great guy, he’d be lucky to have you”
“Jem, you don’t know, you haven’t seen this guy! He is, literally, the best looking person I have ever seen, like ever, anywhere. He is really tall and strong, and, god, his smile…”
Fitz sighs a bit, then continues
“And if it was just that, it probably wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, yeah, attractive is nice, but it’s easy enough to adjust to that after a bit. But Mack? Not only is he, mind numbingly, hot, but he is smart, and funny and was so sweet and caring. No one should be allowed to be that perfect, it’s just not fair to the rest of us” he finished, pouting slightly
Jemma rolled her eyes, “Fitz, so are you.”
He rolled his eyes back, shaking his head slightly,
“Not really, I mea-”
Jemma Cuts him off
“Yes, Fitz, you are. You are smart and funny and cute. Plus, you are absolutely the sweetest guy I know. You are amazing and an absolute catch; any guy would be lucky to have you. No one is too good for you or out of your league. I don’t care if he seems like the most perfect guy in the world, which, obviously, you think he is, but even then. You are more than good enough for him, and if for some reason he doesn’t see that, then he is nowhere near as intelligent as you say.”
“Jem, thanks but I rea-”
She cuts him off again
“No, Fitz, no arguments on this. You are my best friend, No one is allowed to insult you, not even you” She finishes pointedly.
He forfeits the point; he can’t really argue with her when she gets like this.
Besides, this is an argument he is kind of okay losing; especially since, if he were to win it, it would kind of prove that he was a loser.
He shook his head, trying to clear that confusing thought.
“It probably isn’t even relevant; I mean, he is probably like this with everyone. He was really friendly; it’s probably just part of his personality or something. He probably isn’t even interested in guys.” Fitz tried, changing the subject slightly
Jemma shrugs, she still thinks she’s right, but now that Fitz has at least stopped insulting himself, she’ll at least stop pushing so hard at it. She read the texts though; he has to be interested in Fitz. Even if he is the friendliest guy on the planet, and, once again, to listen to Fitz, he is, she really doubts he talks like that with everyone. It wasn’t anything overt, but really, every other word had a flirty little twist to it, that couldn’t just be coincidence.
Plus, he’d given Fitz a nickname. She supposed, Fitz could be right that he may not be interested in guys, but she kind of doubted that as well: no completely straight guy constantly complimented another guy or told them that they were the best part of their day.
They were distracted from their conversation when Shields head of security, Melinda May, came striding up. She was amazing; She was strong, cool and always collected. She had a bit of a temper, but she was great at keeping it in check. She usually seemed very serious, but she had a really great, dry, deadpan kind of humor that Jemma just found hilarious. Not only that, but she was really smart, and seemed to be able to do just about anything; She taught a self defense class, she had a motorcycle; she even had her pilots license!
Jemma kind of had had a bit of a crush on her ever since she had first started here. Unfortunately, she just didn’t really seem to see Jemma that way. Jemma tried to keep her little crush in check, but it didn’t always work.
“Hi, May!” she said, way too enthusiastically, then blushed
May raised an eyebrow at that, but smiled a bit
“Simmons, Fitz” She said, nodding to both of them
“How is it going on your guy’s project?”
“Oh, well, we had a bit of a rough patch, but it seems to all be working out. It should be up and running by the end of next week” Jemma chirped
“Good to hear, that’s even ahead of schedule, keep up the good work. You two are the best team we have.” She nodded
Jemma preened a bit
“Th-thank you May” Jemma said, shyly
She seemed to think a bit, then
“So, are you two busy tomorrow?”
“No, not at all, well, I might be, but Jemma is free I think” Fitz offered, trying to help
“Okay, well, I’ve kind of been seeing someone and she asked if she could meet some of my friends and, well, quite frankly, you two are about the only ones around here that don’t annoy the hell out of me. Would you guys come? It would really help me out.” She finished
Jemmas’ face fell
“Oh, uh, you know, I think we both actually are busy. Remember, Jem? That thing, with, with the thing, at, uh, at the thing? I think that’s tomorrow. Sorry” He tried, apologetically
“No, it’s okay Fitz. I, I think that’s next week.” Jemma said, softly then, to May
“Yes, we’ll go with you. It would be lovely to meet her.” She said, putting on her best approximation of a smile
May, seemingly oblivious to Jemma’s disappointment, or too kind to point it out, nodded
“Okay, thanks, guys. I owe you, I’ll meet you there tomorrow at 10, I’ll send you directions. Thanks again, this will help me out a lot; I really like this girl.”
With that she turned and left.
Jemma sat down on one of the chairs in the lab. Fitz came over to her and put his arm around her
“Hey, Jem, I am SO sorry; I know you really liked her.”
She sighed a bit, looking down at the ground
“It’s okay Fitz, I kind of knew she wasn’t really interested, if she was she would of said something by now, it just hurts a bit, you know?”
“We don’t have to go, you know? We could still get out of it, if you want”
She gave a kind of sad laugh, shaking her head
“What, that thing, with the thing, at the thing actually istomorrow?”
Fitz laughed a bit
“Hey I tried okay!”
“God, you are the worse liar ever.”
“That is not my fault, she is terrifying! I should get credit for even trying to lie to her.”
Jemma laughed, a bit happier this time
“Yes, yes you do. Thank you for trying, no matter how bad of an attempt it really was”
“Anytime” he said with a reassuring smile
Jemma thought for a minute
“It would be nice for her to be happy.”
“You deserve to be happy too” Fitz countered
Jemma nodded
“Yes, and I will be, eventually, but, if she really likes this girl, and if the girl really seems good enough for her, this might actually be a good thing. I knew she wasn’t interested, but, you know, I just couldn’t give up on it. I think, part of me just really wants her to be happy; she just always seems so alone. I think part of the reason I was so hung up on her is that I thought maybe I could help that, make it better for her. If this girl can do that, then it’s okay; it really is.” She finished softly
“Okay, but if she upsets you again, I’ll get her.
Well, you know, I won’t like fight her or anything, cause I’d never actually physically fight a woman, plus I’m pretty sure she could kill me in a second, but I could, like, hide her coffee in the morning and upload a virus to her computer or something.”
Jemma laughed
“Okay, thanks for looking out for me, Fitz”
“Anytime Jem”