Chapter Text
It was Saturday night, the sky was clear and starry and three girls sat watching trashy television instead of being outside. Bobbi and Daisy, experts at terrible television, were loudly commenting about the show to one another while Jemma typed away at her computer, blatantly ignoring her friends as she finished up the details of a work project. It was supposed to be a girl’s night in and work had been deemed off-limits, this was why Daisy and Bobbi had pointed at Jemma and yelled “cheater!” over and over again when she had pulled open her laptop. Jemma had assured them that the work would only take a second and that once it was completed she would participate in yelling at the television screen along with them.
“Oh, come on! He’s not even cute! Why in the hell would she give him a rose?” Daisy yelled, nearly knocking over Bobbi’s wine glass as she stood up from the couch.
“Because he’s problematic. Adds to the drama ,” Bobbi noted, rescuing her glass as Daisy plopped back down onto the couch.
“The longer he stays on the show the faker it feels.”
“What? Are you telling me this show is faked? I can’t believe it!” Bobbi exclaimed dramatically, slapping her hand onto Daisy’s shoulder for support.
“I’m just saying, it doesn’t help the show at all.”
The scenes of next week’s episode began to play, melodramatic music and all, before commercials took over the T.V. Daisy leaned back into the couch and looked over to see Jemma’s computer screen, groaning as she saw Jemma’s document hit page one-hundred and fifty.
“Are you anywhere close to being done with work, Jems? You missed the entire episode,” Daisy said, gesturing to the television that was currently showing an ad for car insurance.
Jemma waved her friend off, her face stuck in her laptop.
“I heard the whole thing,” she mumbled.
Daisy rolled her eyes, “You need a vacation.”
“I do not. I’m fine. Besides, I don’t have time for a vacation,” Jemma sighed, finally looking up at her friends.
“See, that sentence proves Daisy’s point,” Bobbi added pointedly, taking a sip of her wine.
“I’m very close to getting a promotion at the lab. The last thing on my mind is vacationing.”
Just as she was about to retort, Daisy became distracted by an advertisement on the television. The screen was alight with bright colors and happy families in mouse ears, strolling along with churros in their hands.
“I want a churro,” Daisy muttered, looking as though she were close to attempting to rip the cinnamon treat out from the T.V. child’s hand.
Bobbi displaced the couch cushion as her eyes widened with glee.
“That’s it! We should go to Disneyland!”
Daisy actually squealed, jumping up from the couch as well. “Bobbi, that’s perfect!”
Jemma chuckled incredulously but the looks on her friends’ faces remained.
“Seriously?” Jemma asked, looking between the two delighted faces.
“We could go tomorrow! It’s Sunday, so you wouldn’t be missing work. Come on Jemma, it’s only an hour away and it's a pretty damn good compromise.”
“Plus you owe us for ignoring us the entirety of Ladies’ Night.”
They had a point and she hadn’t been to Disneyland in ages. Plus those churros did sound like a delicious idea. Jemma sighed deeply, “Fine.”
The next morning was practically begging to be a Disney day. It was warm but not hot out and the sky was partly cloudy, the perfect weather for walking around a theme park. When they walked through the entrance and began their stroll down Main Street, Jemma couldn’t help but smile until her cheeks hurt.
“Alright,” Daisy started, her serious and authoritative tone clashing somewhat with the Minnie Mouse ears perched on her head, “let’s head over to Pirates.”
“I thought we were starting in Fantasyland?” Bobbi questioned as Jemma began looking up wait times on her phone.
Daisy scoffed as she adjusted her sunglasses, “The first ride should always be Pirates of the Caribbean. We go on that, then the rides around it, and then we can go to Fantasyland.”
“My family always starts with Peter Pan,” Jemma cut in, looking up from her phone as they began to migrate to New Orleans Square.
“That’s ridiculous. It’s an hour wait for a five-minute ride. Where’s the logic in that?” Daisy rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses but her tone was light like cotton candy, too excited about being in the park to spark any sort of heated debate. Heated debates about what rides to go on always came later when everyone was tired and hungry and had their feet turned into rocks by all the walking around.
It was still pretty early in the morning, Daisy having forced everyone into the car at the crack of dawn so they could get there when the park opened, so the lines for the big rides weren’t too long yet. Though they still had enough time to enjoy the wonderful smell of chlorine that they all associated with childish happiness, they pretty much just walked onto the ride. The only people in front of them were a family of four and a trio of men who were getting off the boat as they entered it.
Jemma appeared slightly distracted, falling more than stepping into the boat after being lightly pushed forward. As they sat down on the partly wet seats, Daisy, who was in the middle and the source of the pushing, started giggling incessantly.
“What are you laughing at?” Bobbi chuckled as the ride lurched forward, nearly causing the sniggering Daisy to hit her head on the metal handlebar.
“Jemma was checking out one of the guys that got out of the boat.”
“I was not!” Jemma whisper yelled, her reddening cheeks luckily hidden by the darkness of the ride.
“Yes, you were. The one that got out of the boat last.” Daisy assured, nodding her head. Daisy continued to chuckle as the pre-recorded crickets began to sound and a distant banjo played.
“I was waiting for him to get out of the boat so I could go.”
“And you had to make sure he was all the way at the exit before you could?”
As Jemma opened her mouth, Bobbi shushed them both with a little giggle sigh. The teasing was momentarily forgotten as they reached the skull and crossbones, the tittering replaced by screams of delight as they cascaded down the waterfall.
The small comical spark that had come from the first ride did not die, however. In fact, it burst into an even stronger flame only half an hour later on the Haunted Mansion when Daisy quickly noticed three particular guests who would be joining them on their haunted tour. As they were all being packed into the stretching room, she nudged her elbow into Bobbi’s rib.
Flames of pain and annoyance lit up Bobbi’s eyes as she hissed at the sharp jab in her ribs.
“Ow! Damnit, Daisy. What the hell was that for?”
“Sorry! Just look,” Daisy turned Bobbi forcefully as they stepped further into the room, subtly outstretching her finger to a point. As Bobbi followed the invisible line created by Daisy’s pointer finger, her eyes landed upon a man that stood towards the middle of the room. Her eyebrows climbed up her forehead as she took him in before they settled into a position of approval. She had to admit, he was handsome, with his short sandy curls and light stubble. His toned forearms being displayed by the rolled-up sleeves of his flannel didn’t hurt either. However, he was much more Jemma’s type than hers, especially when he was wearing a worn Doctor Who t-shirt under his black and blue plaid, so she didn’t understand why Daisy was elbowing h—
“Wait… is that Boat Boy?” she whispered, her whole face brightening as her mind caught up with Daisy’s. The elbower nodded emphatically as a cheshire grin slowly spread across her face.
“What are you two conspiring about?” Jemma asked, looking away from the portraits she had been studying intently to try and follow Bobbi’s line of sight. However, she was a good deal shorter than her amazonian of a friend and couldn’t see over the crowd of heads that moved in front of them, another group of people having excitedly entered the room.
“Oh, nothing,” Daisy chirped, her eyes agleam with an idea. Jemma’s own eyes narrowed at her friends as she tried to decipher the glyphs of mischief that were written on their faces.
As more people began to be ushered into the room, the occupants were told to move inward and away from the walls. At the shift in bodies, a clear path had been made to the middle and right at the center stood Boat Boy and Co. So, naturally, Daisy seized upon the opportunity that was so nicely placed in front of her and promptly pushed Jemma to the center of the room.
"Daisy! What the-- oh my goodness I’m so sorry!”
Jemma had been pushed directly into Boat Boy. He had been facing sideways to her, looking up at the painting of the young woman with a parasol, when she had fallen into him. Aided by instinct, he had caught her just before they could both topple over. Her face flushed crimson as she tried to right herself before finally finding steady ground. She nervously brushed invisible dirt off her clothes before willing herself to look up through her lashes at the man who she had nearly just toppled over. Her breath hitched as her eyes locked briefly with his before the blueness of them became too blinding. Suddenly, Daisy’s motives became as clear as crystal. Apparently in the pushing mood, her friend had decided to shove her right into the man she had been checking out earlier in the day. Fantastic.
“You alright?” he asked, quickly removing his hands from where they had landed on her upper arms.
“Yes, thank you. I’m so sorry. They said to move away from the walls and my friend decided that meant push Jemma as hard as one possibly can.” Jemma let out a little laugh, shyly biting her lip at the sweet look on the face of the man in front of her.
“Gotta love it when friends do that--” He was cut off by a loud voice reverberating off the walls of the room. As the room began to stretch, Jemma became too focused on the ride to return to her friends, looking up and around at the growing pictures rather than trying to make her way over to where they stood, doing what everyone else was doing, analyzing the confines of their surroundings. Having not been on the ride in absolutely ages, Jemma completely forgot about the jump scare at the end of the voice’s speech. This caused her to nearly separate from her skin when the room flashed with lightning and thunder rumbled around the walls. Forgetting she was no longer anywhere near her companions, she instinctively reached out for comfort from the shock, grabbing onto the flannel of Boat Boy. It took her a second to regain her wits and even longer to realize she was still grasping the man’s sleeve between the edge of her pointer finger and thumb. His eyes traveled down to where she held him and she quickly let go, embarrassment flooding into her bloodstream.
“Sorry,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear and trying to avoid his gaze.
He placed his hands in his pockets and the crowd began to move around them, the mass of people heading out the door to continue queuing for the rest of the ride. Jemma finally dared a glance upward and was surprised by the sheepish but sweet nature of the smile he was giving her, his own pale face tinted pink, obvious even in the soft glow of the room.
“You’re good,” he chuckled, the two of them turning in unison to follow the flow of people, “Scared the hell out of me too.”
She grinned back, grateful he wasn’t being weird about the whole flannel grabbing incident. “I was so focused on the walls I completely forgot about the thunder!”
“Me too! And I never noticed the body hanging from the ceiling before.”
“Oh no! I didn’t even look at the ceiling!” Jemma exclaimed, trying to look back up in the room, but the crowd pushed them on.
“Guess you’ll just have to ride it again,” he said, shaking his head but a grin dancing on his lips.
“I guess I’ll have to.”
They looked at one another quickly, their eyes meeting in a moment and leading both to turn away and smile at the walls. Jemma, surprised that she was actually flirting with a handsome stranger, was just about to ask him a little about himself, like his name and his wonderful Scottish accent, when there was a call from slightly up ahead.
“Fitz!”
Boat Boy turned at the name, holding his hand above the sea of people and waving in the direction of his friends.
“What are you lollygagging for? Hurry up!”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of his friends, the lean one with the stubbled jaw and grey jeans, grinning as he elbowed the taller friend. Fitz rolled his eyes before turning to her, smiling once more as he threw his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve got to go catch up with my friends. They’re not particularly patient when it comes to queuing. But it was really nice to meet you...”
“Jemma. It was very nice to meet you as well.”
She nodded her head slightly towards him, her nose scrunching and her eyes bright, and he nodded back before making his way over to his friends. Once again, Jemma couldn’t help but watch him go.
“Boo!”
For the second time that day, Jemma jumped out of her skin, gasping as a result of the shock. Daisy, peeling with laughter, grasped onto her shoulder for support while Bobbi pushed them both forward as the line lurched.
“What the hell, Daisy!”
“It was just such a perfect opportunity, I couldn’t help myself.”
“Perfect opportunity for what? Causing me to nearly pee myself in fright!”
“Yeah! You were so focused on Boat Boy that you didn’t even see me sneaking.” Daisy moved in front of Jemma, standing on her tiptoes to try and find Boat Boy and Co. further down in the line.
“His name is Fitz and I--”
“Ooh,” Bobbi teased, now standing right behind Jemma, “Boat Boy has got a name.”
“Does he also have a number?” Daisy giggled.
Jemma rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but perform the nervous gesture of tucking her hair behind her ear. “We didn’t exactly get to exchange information. All I managed to do was embarrass myself, apologize, and talk about the ride before his friends called for him. That’s how I learned his name, actually.”
“Well, they’re not that far ahead of us,” Daisy informed, standing on her tiptoes, “Maybe we could just call them over. Hey F--umbnf…” Jemma quickly muzzled Daisy’s embarrassing call, muffling her mouth with the palm of her hand.
“Daisy, please don’t,” Jemma huffed, glancing nervously up ahead before removing her hand, though she couldn’t help but giggle slightly as Bobbi pushed them onwards. They were now only a few dozen people behind where the ride loaded on guests.
“What if he’s the one, though?” Daisy pondered, crossing her arms against her chest and Bobbi nodded.
“That would be cute, Jems. Like Disney magic,” Bobbi added as she grasped Daisy’s upper arm and a childish look fell over both of them.
Jemma laughed but Bobbi and Daisy, behind the childish notion of the statement, almost appeared serious.
“That’s ridiculous. Hey, don’t look at me like I killed Tinker Bell! I’m just saying that I don’t even know his full name or if he even lives here, or what--Bobbi, move up-- exactly he does for a living. I mean, I find him very attractive and he has good taste in television, but other than that I barely know him.”
Daisy held her hands up in defense, “It would just be adorable is all.”
Jemma rolled her eyes but she was trying very hard not to smile at the idea. When they had finally made it onto the ride, Jemma tried her best to focus on enjoying it. It wasn’t that the ride wasn’t fun, it was incredibly so, it was just that she couldn’t stop thinking about Fitz and his smile and his arms and his eyes. Jemma had to shake her head and focus on the floating crystal ball to get his eyes out of her head. It didn’t work.
“Umm Earth to Jemma. Did you get possessed by one of the nine hundred and ninety-nine ghosts in that place?” Daisy asked later as they wandered around the store next to Splash Mountain. They had decided to look around and eat their ice cream before going on the ride but Jemma had ended up just standing with a melting frozen banana lost in thought.
“What, sorry?”
“I was asking you if you liked this Winnie the Pooh charm bracelet but you zoned out on me. You were thinking about Boat Boy, weren’t you!”
“Wha--pfft-no! I wasn't--I… okay, I was.”
There was no lying to Daisy.
“Ha! Knew it! You like him,” she teased loudly, earning her an eye roll from not only Jemma but Bobbi as well. She had a large smile on her face and Jemma thought she looked like she belonged in Wonderland.
“I admitted I found him attractive, but, as I said before, he probably lives in Britain or something and--”
“Sure, make excuses Jem. But I’m planning for the future.” Daisy, catching sight of an employee, waved her hand as to get the woman’s attention. “Hi! Excuse me, my friend here was wondering if you had an ‘I met my future nerd husband at Disneyland’ shirt somewhere in the park. If you do could you perhaps direct us to it.”
“I’m sorry, miss, we don’t.” The woman gave Daisy a tight smile as Jemma died from embarrassment. The poor employee did not get paid enough to deal with that.
“Oh, that’s okay. I’ll just make it myself. Thank you though!”
Behind Daisy, Bobbi snorted while next to her, Jemma hid her face in her hands. Honestly, why couldn’t Daisy just listen when she said that the odds were good that she never even saw Fitz again.
As it turns out, odds went the other way.
“No freaking way,” Daisy laughed as she saw the guys round the gloss-covered rope and walk buoyantly into line. At Daisy’s exclamation, Jemma and Bobbi turned around to spot the boys who were now coming to stand directly behind them. Jemma turned pink, quickly reaching to her ear in an attempt to tuck away a lock of hair that wasn’t there. Fitz was mid-discussion with his taller friend but their eyes locked when his head turned forward. Butterflies began to flutter in her stomach when she spotted a blush creeping up his cheeks, matching the one that had colored hers.
Perhaps it was just that they had similar ride plans, but after running into the group of men once again, it was starting to feel like maybe Daisy and Bobbi had a point. Perhaps it was destiny or fate or Disney magic, pushing her and Fitz together. It was a ridiculous notion but a romantic one nonetheless.
As Bobbi elbowed Jemma, Daisy continued to laugh, tucking her lips around her front teeth to stop the sound.
Fitz’s friend, the one who had shouted for him to hurry up, had a large grin on his face once he spotted them and he mirrored Bobbi by sending a pointed elbow into his friend’s ribs.
“Well well well, fancy seeing you lot here,” the man said, his London accent suave and sardonic as he strode towards them, leaning against the rope once he’d made it.
Bobbi gave him a little shrug of her shoulders. “I guess we have the same taste in rides.”
“Lucky us.” He shot Fitz another sideways glance that no one missed and the butterflies rose to beat with Jemma’s heart.
“I’m Hunter, that tall bloke over there is Mack and I know that you’ve already met Fitz.” He said the last bit while nodding at Jemma.
Jemma shot Fitz a quick smile and he returned it shyly, his cheeks still harboring a lingering pink. She, however, couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth so Daisy filled in the gap.
“Oh, we know Fitz,” she said, and Jemma suddenly wished the sun beaming down on them would set her aflame. It didn’t, however, and Daisy continued. “I’m Daisy,” she said, pointing to herself before shooting her finger at each of her friends. “Bobbi, and--”
“Jemma. Yeah, Fitz told us.”
There was a brief pause in the conversation as each set of friends turned to either Fitz or Jemma. The two were saved from any further embarrassment, however, as the line moved forward towards a set of stairs and they all focused on taking them a step at a time.
“So, where are you guys from?” Mack asked once they hit another stopping point in the line.
“L.A.,” Bobbi replied.
Mack nodded with a smile but Jemma caught Hunter giving Fitz another poke in the ribs with his elbow, the gesture causing Fitz to give the man a glare.
“Us as well.
The line moved again and Daisy quickly sidled over to stand by Jemma. “Disney magic,” she whispered and she made her way quickly over to stand by Bobbi, leaving Jemma next to Fitz.
“So,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets, “what brings you guys to Disneyland?”
Her fingers itching from the fluttering in her heart, Jemma tucked her hair behind her ear once more. “My friends up there wanted churros.”
“So you’re just here for the churros?” he chuckled, the sound making Jemma’s stomach do a flip.
“And I guess other things, but churros mostly. And you?”
He looked up towards his friends as the line moved forward again and nodded in their direction. “Hunter’s visiting from England so we decided to do all the touristy things and Disneyland was at the top of his list. He’s never been before. Mack got him a button and everything but the git won’t wear it.”
He rolled his eyes playfully and Jemma couldn’t help but breathe out a laugh. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted him grinning that shy grin of his at her and her hand reached back up to the same strand of hair she’d already tucked away. They had reached a staircase down and so for a few moments neither of them spoke, focusing on not falling down on the clear-coated wooden planks.
“I haven’t been here in a while, myself,” she finally said once the line stopped moving again. “One of my first trips to America with my family was to Disneyland. Now it’s just half an hour away and I never really go. Daisy and Bobbi had to drag me away from my work to get me here…” At the pause, she gave a little look to Fitz. “Now, I’m really glad they did.”
He looked at her carefully, his teeth dragging intoxicatingly across his bottom lip for a moment. “And why’s that?”
Jemma shrugged. “They have amazing churros.”
In the look that he gave her, Jemma could have swum in his eyes. The playful upturn of his lips, his sun-tinted cheeks, they were all filling her with a large amount of courage.
With the way the numbers worked out, they were all in the same log raft. It took Fitz, who Jemma learned was an engineer (Daisy had winked at her when he had mentioned it), all of two seconds to figure out the weight distribution that would get them the most soaked on the ride. Quickly becoming friends, they all had a great time taking each slight hill in the ride with far too much cheering. Daisy screamed even when they were going uphill at a few points in a way that left everyone in stitches.
The picture that was taken as they went down the massive drop was a work of art. Jemma was sticking out her tongue, Fitz had his eyes crossed, and while Mack was flexing his arms, Bobbi and Daisy were voguing. But the crown jewel of the photograph was Hunter who, unbeknownst to anyone else in the raft, had taken off his shirt before the picture was taken. They had all turned around to find Hunter shoving his head back through the neck of his t-shirt with a large mischievous grin on his face.
“I’m getting this framed,” Hunter said as they all walked towards the kiosk. Without anyone really saying anything, the two trios had combined together to form a small group and they had already planned the next few rides they all wanted to go on together.
Daisy, who was still laughing from the ride, jogged up to him so that they were walking together. “There’s no way in hell I’m leaving without a copy of that photo,” she laughed, doubling over as she walked from the fit of giggles.
As Daisy had promised, the group made their way over to Fantasyland, waiting in line for almost an hour to go on Peter Pan. Fitz and Jemma, who had naturally just found places in lines together, moved to stand against the chain side by side. It was because of this that they ended up sitting together on the ride, that and the fact that each flying ship could only fit two people. Neither of them seemed too upset by it. In fact, one of the highlights of Daisy’s day happened in a similar moment when Fitz and Jemma had been waiting in line and an old woman and said they were an adorable couple, her eyes all shiny with nostalgia. Jemma truly believed that she would never hear the last of that.
When the sky had turned from blue to purple to black, the group still remained a group and none of them really wanted to part ways. They walked down Main Street, admiring the lights and eating churros, cinnamon-scented magic lingering in the air.
“Well it was great meeting you,” Fitz said to Jemma as they headed for the exit. His eyes were somewhat downcast as he gave her a shy lingering look.
Jemma beamed. “You as well.”
Daisy and Bobbi were waiting at the green-painted gate, still talking to Mack and Hunter, but Fitz and Jemma remained by the tunnel that led into Main Street, almost in their own little Disney bubble.
“Um, Jemma,” Fitz started, his hands shoved nervously into the pockets of his jeans. “I know we all exchanged numbers and everything. But--um--I was--I was wondering if you--you and me--dinner--”
“Yes.” Jemma bit her lip with a blush, looking up through her lashes at him before meeting his eyes. “I would love to go to dinner with you, Fitz.”
“Well then, it’s a date! You meant it like a date, right, because I meant it as a date but if you didn’t then--”
“I meant it as a date, Fitz.”
“Okay good. I was really hoping you’d meant it that way.”
Jemma giggled sweetly and leaned across the space between him to land a kiss gently on his stubbled cheek.
The lights they had left in Main Street had nothing on the way Fitz looked at her then, the blue of his eyes truly where the Disney magic lay.