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It’s the same story about 90% of the time. A night out with their friends, the flirting and innuendos escalating with each drink until they’ve had enough to murmur the softest of truths to one another as they tumble into bed.
—
If they rewind, their relationship begins with coffee. (It ends with coffee, too.)
When she drops her tea as she bustles through the lobby and toward the elevator bank, for some reason he finds himself offering up the extra cup of coffee he has in hand. (It’s supposed to be Sharon’s, and he only narrowly avoids hell by giving the blonde his coffee instead.)
The next morning, he finds a to-go cup on his desk with ‘Hope this makes your day like you made mine yesterday. JS’ written on it.
—
They do become friends first.
Skye and Fitz try and argue that statement, but as Trip points out with a shrug, you can’t be friends with benefits without the friends part.
So yeah, they’re friends first.
The benefits come later.
—
“Maybe we could actually go and get coffee together sometime soon.” She says one morning when she catches him leaving a cup with a bad coffee-related pick up line scribbled on the side of it on her desk.
The back of his neck heats up because he was supposed to be three floors above her office when she read the cup, but hey, he’s never had the best of luck. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.”
—
She’s supposed to be over at his apartment by this time, but she’s not there yet because she’s at Skye’s with a shot of cheap tequila in front of her.
Skye’s frowning, fingers tapping at the counter. “Jem, I know I’m not really the best person to be giving you this little spiel, but are you sure this is the kind of relationship you want to be in if you have to get drunk before you can go see him?”
“Not drunk. And sometimes it just helps when we talk about things.” She frowns back. “It’s called liquid courage, isn’t it?”
“You’re one of the most courageous people I have ever known, Jemma Simmons. And you don’t need to drink before you stay with this guy.”
Jemma rolls her eyes and then her shoulders, knocks the shot back and heads for the door. “I don’t need to be. It makes things easier.”
“I’m not sure that’s any better!” Skye calls after her.
—
It’s easier, she thinks, because it makes her brain just a bit fuzzier. Her thoughts a little more frazzled, her words a little looser. Her feelings a little clearer and her intent a little more obvious.
“I think I love you.” He whispers in the dark as he traces his fingers down her body.
“I know.” She replies against his skin, because she does know, she’s heard it already. She knows that when she wakes up in the morning, she’ll find her clothes and slip out of his apartment in bare feet, leaving freshly brewed coffee on the counter. She knows they’ll both pretend they didn’t say these words when they see each other again. “I think I love you too.”
He kisses her and she kisses him back, and she wonders why they can’t seem to handle this in a more normal fashion.
—
He brings her tea once, a few weeks after their first coffee date. He remembers that’s what she had that morning in the lobby, and she’s mentioned her love for it a couple of times.
She raises an eyebrow and one corner of her mouth does this spectacular lift and then drop that leaves her watching him with something of a pout.
“I thought you loved tea.” He says quickly.
Almost like she’s trying to hide it, her smile appears with a bite of her lip. “I do. I have it all the time. I only really ever have coffee with you, though.”
Oh. He can get behind that.
—
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” Says Fitz, says Skye, says Trip.
“I think you’re going to get hurt.” Says Eliot, says Amelia, says Sharon.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” They say to each other, when they both know they’re just hurting themselves.
It’s ridiculous, he thinks.
—
She wakes up in the morning and she can hear him in the shower. Usually he’s gone by now, but when she looks at the clock, she thinks he’s just avoiding going all the way back to his place before heading into work.
The water shuts off and the door opens with a billowing cloud of steam. He’s beautiful, hair still dripping and towel around his waist. She ducks her head down and pretends to be asleep, because suddenly looking at him this way seems too intimate.
Ridiculous.
—
“You know, S told me that he’s not seeing anyone else.” Trip tells her in the elevator on the way to lunch.
She’s not seeing anyone else either, but she doesn’t say that. She’s sure Trip can tell.
—
One morning, he wakes up to a cold bed and an empty coffee pot.
He wonders if she’s tired of him.
—
Three days later, on a Saturday morning, he stops her in the kitchen. “You should stay. For awhile. I mean, I’d like it if you stayed.”
She breathes quietly, and shakes her head. Her shoes are in her hand. “I have to go.”
A week after that, she digs her elbows into her mattress and props herself up to watch him turn his shirt right-side out. “Want to stay?”
He says no, out of spite, and he thinks she might tear up. He does too.
Stupid.
—
It takes nearly a month, but when she catches his warm hand in her chilled one and tugs him back toward the bed, she doesn’t even have to ask the question.
He nods his head and climbs beneath the covers with her and stays.
—
“Wait, are you living together?”
They don’t see each other for six days after that.
—
Fitz stops her with a hand on her wrist. “I can’t watch you keep doing this to yourself.”
“Oh, Leo.” She sighs, cupping his cheek with her free hand. “I know it doesn’t seem like it makes sense-”
“It doesn’t.” He says, his voice soft but his words sharp. “It doesn’t make sense, Jemma, and I’m worried about you. Why don’t you find someone who will commit to you?”
“He’s committed, Fitz. I promise. I am too. It’s just a bit complicated, that’s all. It’s hard.”
“Why?”
She feels a shiver creeping along her bones. “I don’t know. I don’t know why.”
—
It’s still dark, dawn seeping through the night sky and she can just barely see him in the inky light. He can see her. “I didn’t make coffee.”
She traces his face. “I don’t mind.”
“I’d like you to stay.”
“I will.”
“I think I’m in love with you.”
“I think I’m in love with you too.”