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“Are you sure your mom doesn't mind me coming with you?” Skye asks a little nervously as she and FitzSimmons turn into the road Fitz's mother lives on.
“Are you kidding? You're another person she can feed and look after, she's thrilled you're coming too.” Fitz replies.
“She did invite the whole team but Coulson and May are off on some trip somewhere and Ward looked so terrified at the thought that Fitz thought he'd spare him the awkwardness.” Simmons laughs.
“Brace yourselves,” Fitz mutters, ringing the doorbell.
When the door opens Fitz is immediately pulled into a tight hug by his mother. In between her telling him he looks too skinny, greeting Jemma, and lamenting over how long it's been since she's seen them both, Fitz and Simmons manage to introduce Skye to Laura Fitz. Laura offers her a hug too and then ushers them all into the living room, firing questions at them as they go. Once she's satisfied that the agents are in good health and have had a decent meal recently she hurries off to the kitchen to make them tea.
“Sorry about that,” Fitz says to Skye. “I don't see her very often, she gets a bit over-excited when I do.”
“No, it's nice to see,” Skye smiles, “She seems great.”
“She is,” Simmons nods, “And if you ask her, she's got some fantastic stories about Fitz as a kid.”
“Oh, come on Jemma, don't encourage her,” Fitz groans.
“I'll be sure to ask her about baby Fitz,” Skye grins and Fitz stomps off to the kitchen to help Laura bring the tea in.
Skye takes a seat on the sofa next to Simmons and looks around. The room is small but cosy, with pictures of Fitz and his extended family dominating one wall. Various medals, trophies and certificates are displayed proudly on the shelves underneath. Skye thinks a little wistfully how nice it must be to have a family like the Fitzs. She'd loved her van but it could never be as homely as this and she'd never stayed with with any foster family long enough to consider them her own family.
Laura returns with a tray loaded with steaming mugs of tea, Fitz following behind with a stack of plates in one hand and a box of home-made flapjacks in the other.
“You've been baking!” Simmons cries delightedly. She turns to Skye, “Laura makes the best raspberry cheesecake I've ever tasted.”
“Yes, well I've made one of those specially for you, but I thought we'd wait and have it with dinner. Is there anything special you'd like me to make, Skye, dear?” Laura asks, the warmth in her question catching Skye off guard. No one's ever baked her anything before.
“Oh, um, that's very kind of you but I'm fine with you've already made. I don't want you to go to any trouble for me.”
“Don't deprive Mum of a chance to bake, Skye. Everyone who comes here for more than five minutes gets something. She won't be happy til she's made you something too. ”
“I'm not quite that bad, Leo.” Laura swats at her son gently. “But he's right, it's not any trouble and I'd be very happy to make you anything you like.”
Skye manages to say how much she enjoys chocolate muffins, looking desperately at Simmons, who comes to her rescue and changes the subject to how nice it is to be back in Scotland again. Skye breathes a sigh of relief. Families are exhausting.
It's not until later that Laura brings up the subject of Fitz's relationship with Simmons, as he knew she would. Fitz has known Simmons since they were teenagers and the youngest in their university. Laura had met Simmons the first time she came to visit her son there and the two of them got on well. Ever since then she's been dropping hints about the two of them getting married or having babies or some other nonsense that drives Fitz up the wall. Today is no exception.
“So then Leo, are you planning anything else nice for your time off?” Laura's trying to be casual but Fitz know's what she's getting at. It's quite a surprise that she's managed to wait long enough for them to eat dinner and be finishing their slices of cheesecake.
“Well, we've only got another day once we leave here so we're going to Edinburgh as Skye's never been there before and then we'll fly back to America the next morning.”
“Nothing special then?” She asks pointedly. “Nothing romantic?”
“No, Mum, I've told you before, me and Jemma are not dating.” Fitz groans in exasperation.
“Hhmmph.” Laura doesn't look convinced but before she can say more the phone rings and she heads off to the living room to answer it.
“Hey, Fitz, your pants are on fire,” Skye teases when she's gone.
“Whaaaat?!” Fitz jumps up in a panic, twisting round to see where the flames were.
“Relax, Fitz, she didn't mean literally,” Simmons reassures him.
“Well then why the hell did you tell me they were!” Fitz glares at Skye as he sits down again.
“Liar, liar, pants on fire!” Skye chants with a grin, “Did you not have that one at school?”
“Yeah, we did, but SOME of us have grown up since then,” Fitz retorts and Skye laughs.
“That's not what's important, what's important is I know that your mother's right. You two are inseparable and you obviously love each other, come on admit it.”
“It's not quite what you think,” Simmons says hesitantly. “Our relationship is platonic, queerplatonic really.”
“I'm asexual and aromantic and Jemma's grey-ace–” Fitz continues as Skye raises an eyebrow in confusion.
“And somewhere on the aro spectrum too,” Simmons adds.
“–so we love each other, it's just not romantic or sexual.”
“Oh, is that why you get all flustered when anyone flirts with you or sex is mentioned?” Skye asks.
“Sort of. I just don't like the idea of people misinterpreting what I mean. It gets old after a while.” Fitz says.
“We found out that we were both ace and aro when we were complaining about people expecting everyone to want sex all the time and get married and all that other stuff. It was nice knowing there was someone else like me. We've considered ourselves partners ever since.” Simmons explains.
“Cool.” Skye nods as she considers this new information. “And...uh...thanks for telling me. I shouldn't have just assumed like that.”
“We're used to it.” Simmons shrugs. “We know you didn't mean anything bad.”
“No, it was rude of me. And I should've known better. I mean, I know how irritating it is when people think you're something you're not...I've had a lot of that since I realised I was bisexual...”
“I'm glad you're telling us that too,” Simmons smiles at Skye.“It's nice having other queer people around.”
“Yeah, you can join our secret club of 'Orientations People Don't Believe Exist',” Fitz grins.
“Do we get jackets?” Skye asks.
“Don't be silly, we have invisibility cloaks.” Simmons says.
“Makes sense, I guess.”
“What's this about invisibility cloaks?” Laura asks, coming back into the room. “Are you still working on those, Leo?”
“When I get a bit of spare time, which isn't very often these days. They keep us very busy at the lab.”
“He was obsessed with the idea when he was a kid,” Laura tells Skye in a conspiratorial voice. “Read the first Harry Potter, then spent hours shut up in his room trying to find a way to make one. It was very sweet.”
“Mum.” Fitz complains, rolling his eyes.
“Don't be embarrassed, son, if any ten year old kid could've made one, it would've been you.”
“I wanted to fly when I was kid.” Skye tells them.
“I wanted x-ray vision.” Simmons adds.
“Always the biochemist.” Skye nudges her gently. “I bet you were a great mini scientist.”
“It was mainly so I could see inside animals without having to cut dead ones up. Mum and Dad weren't too pleased when they came home and found a dead mouse with its guts all over the kitchen table.” Simmons admits.
“Can't think why.” Fitz mutters.
“The things we parents have to go through,” Laura shakes her head in mock despair. “Do you remember that time you set fire to next door's shed, Leo?”
“Yeah, they never did speak to me again after that. How was I supposed to know they kept priceless old books in there? Who does that?”
“Wow, you two obviously haven't changed since you were kids,” Skye laughs.
“Neither have you. Didn't you say you infected your school's entire computer system with viruses?” Fitz retorts.
“Only once. I wanted to test if I was better with computers than my teacher, which of course I was. And I didn't get caught.”
The laughter and story-telling carries on until Laura decides it's time they all went to bed, at which point there's a debate over the sleeping arrangements. Skye says she's happy with the sofa but Fitz, determined not to give his mother any more fuel for her hopes of him and Jemma having kids together, insists that the girls share the guest room and he'll take the sofa.
Once Laura's gone to bed, Simmons sneaks back downstairs to where Fitz is sat reading on the sofa. He puts the book down and lifts up the duvet. She slides in next to him and leans her head on his shoulder. They sit in companionable silence, just appreciating each other's presence.
“I'm glad we told Skye about us,” Simmons says quietly after a while.
“Yeah, it's nice to have someone who gets it.” Fitz replies. “I just wish Mum could be the same if we told her. I hate feeling like I'm lying to her but you'd know she'd never believe that we could love each other without it being romantic.”
“My parents wouldn't either,” Simmons says sadly. “It would be nice if more people understood the idea of queerplatonic partners."
“Perhaps we should just call ourselves partners in crime?” Fitz suggests.
“No, we're supposed to be stopping crime, it's not quite right. How about 'partners in science'?”
“Partners in science it is then,” Fitz smiles. “Saving the world and being happily aromantic and asexual.”