Chapter Text
Three quick, sharp raps sounded on Fitz’s door. Brow furrowed, he put down the box of cheap Chinese food and went to check who it was.
“Skye? Can you let me in? I kind of… ran away again. Mum’s being all crazy and Dad… you know. I know it’s the third time this week but…” asked a quiet, feminine voice. As he stared out the peephole, all he could see was a pair of brown eyes and golden-brown hair flecked with icy white flakes. Even more confused than before, Leo opened the door, keeping the latch on for safety.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” he asked, looking down at the wisp of a girl in front of him. She couldn’t have been too much younger than he was, but she was still about a half foot shorter and had run away from her parents. Definitely younger. Her shoulders were dusted with snow and she seemed to be rather inadequately dressed for the weather, only wearing a collared shirt under a sweater. Immediately, she paled, then flushed bright red.
“I- I’m so sorry, I must have gotten the wrong building, I’m so sorry, I-”
“It’s fine,” he interjected, trying to stop her frantic stuttering. “You said you know Skye?” The girl nodded. “She’s my friend, and you missed her building by two streets.” Immediately, her eyes widened. “Give me a second to open the door.” With that, he closed the door and reached for the chain. Then he paused. What exactly was he doing? Shrugging to himself, he unbolted the door and opened it fully. “Sorry about that. M’ name’s Fitz.”
“Oh, you’re Fitz,” she said, recognizing the name immediately, “the engineer. Skye’s always telling me I should meet you. I’m Simmons, Jemma Simmons.” Leo blinked once.
“You should really meet her, you know. You guys have so much in common! Child prodigies, incredible geeks, English and almost-English,” (he threw a cookie at her for that,) “friends with the most amazing programmer in the world…” Leo threw another cookie followed by a pillow at the bubbly hacker and she laughed. “What? You two would totally hit it off.”
“You’re Simmons! Biochemistry, right?” Simmons nodded, a light smile on her face. “Well, wasn’t really expecting company, but would you like to come in?” Immediately, the smile dropped, and for some reason, his gut dropped with it.
“I- I should get going to Skye’s. It’s… complicated,” she sighed, rubbing her arm. Fitz’s brow pinched again, watching her shiver as the ice began to dampen more of the sweater.
“Y ou’re wearing nothing but a jumper, it’s dark, and it’s snowing like mad outside. Skye’ll never let me hear the end of it if I let you go like that. Please, come in.” Her brow furrowed as well, but she sighed and nodded a bit. He stepped to the side to let her in, closing the door behind her and immediately rushing to clean up various pieces of clothing and trash littered around the floor. When it was semi-presentable, he glanced up to see Simmons smiling at him a bit, an edge of laughter on her lips. “What? I’m a messy guy,” he said with a grin and a hand on the back of his neck. “Make yourself comfortable,” he said, walking to the kitchen and pouring a glass of steaming water into a mug. “Tea?”
“Yes, please,” she said, settling on the couch, pulling her knees up to her chest. “Milk and a touch of sugar?” He nodded and scooped in a tiny spoonful of the white granules into her cup, then a few generous spoonfuls into his own. Mugs in hand, he turned to see a horrified expression peeking over the edge of the couch.
“What?” he snapped out, not aggressively, but defensively. Her face looked as though he had committed some kind of sin and it only faded off her face when he handed her the steaming beverage.
“Would you like some tea with that sugar?” she quipped in reply, gratefully wrapping her hands around the warmth of the mug and smiling as he joined her. “Thank you, though.”
“No problem. A friend of Skye’s is a friend of mine.” Simmons gave a gentle smile at that, raising the rim to her lips and taking a small sip. “How’d you meet her?” Immediately, the girl seemed to pep up, words bubbling out of her.
“Oh, Skye and I have known each other since we were kids. She was adopted by Mr. Coulson when she was five, and my family moved right next door about the same time, so we’ve hung out ever since. She used to let me do experiments on her, as long as she could pay me back with atrocious day-long makeovers. Still do, in fact.” Leo grinned at that, remembering the day Skye had shown up to work with various splotches on her arms, desperately covered up with sloppy foundation. “What about you?”
“We met through work. We both work for the same company- I just work the engineering bit, and she the programming.” Simmons nodded politely and took another sip.
“Oh, are those your designs?” she asked, nodding towards a small pile of blueprint scrolls in the corner. He affirmed the thought and brought over an armful, and together they went over the designs. As they reached the modified gun, he saw her flinch.
“Oh, no, it’s not a gun. I call it the pickachu,” he said, unrolling a design for the bullets. “I can’t figure out the source for the electricity, though. I made an internal source and charge, it’s just not large enough-”
“-to take out someone,” she finished for him. Her brow furrowed. “What if you didn’t use electricity?”
“What?”
“Well, it’s just a concept, but I’ve been reading up on the dendrotoxins of jellyfish and-” with that, she began to ramble, and soon the two were swapping ideas and finishing each other’s sentences with the ease of longtime partners. Finally, as all the ideas concluded, they looked at each other and Fitz found himself struggling to find something to say. What do you say to someone you just clicked with? Quietly, he rolled up the scrolls again, his hands simply needing the movement. Slowly, the silence became awkward and Leo scrambled through his brain looking for a conversation piece.
“Your mum-” he stuttered out, causing the girl to jerk her head up in alarm. “I mean, what happened? You said you ran away from your mum?” Her eyes were immediately downcast and a little bit of nervous shifting made springs creak. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“No, no, it’s okay. I’m crashing your place, after all, I believe you deserve to know why.” She took a deep breath. “I was, well, according to Skye, like you. Child prodigy, and my mum… My parents always pushed me. And recently, it’s been a bit… too hard. She’s pushing and pushing, and even though I have a part-time job and I’m still in school and working and everything, they keep pushing me, telling me I’m not doing enough, even though it’s winter break, and, well, here I am. Running.” She took another long breath and seemed to hide behind her mug of tea.
“Oh. Okay,” he said, not sure where to go from there. His tongue was caught by the images running in his own head, of being “the freaky genius kid” to his classmates and brother, of running from the verbal atrocities thrown at him while his mother’s back was turned, of disappearing into the nearby park for the days and only spending the nights hiding in his sheets. “I- I kind of understand. The running thing.” Slowly, he explained his own situation. He watched as her cup lowered and tentative eyes grew softer.
“Yeah,” she murmured as he concluded. Red flushing his cheeks, he looked into his tea. He felt a gentle hand on his knee, and they sat there in a more comfortable quiet, connected by their experiences.
“So it’s dark outside. Do you want to crash here?” he asked after a while.
“Is it okay?”
“Where else could you go, Simmons?”
“Jemma.”
“What?”
“You can call me Jemma,” she said quietly. “If you want to, of course.” He nodded.
“Okay, Jemma,” he said, tasting the name on his lips, “I guess you call me Leo, then.” She smiled back at him.
“Sounds lovely. And a good point, Leo.” She beamed at him as she used his name. Then, there was a pause. “Can I borrow something to sleep in tonight?” He nodded and went to his room, gesturing for her to follow. After digging through his drawers, he pulled out a pair of pajama pants and an old t-shirt, tossing them across the room to her.
“Bathroom’s adjacent to here if you want to change there, or I can step out and you can change in here. Whatever’s best.” She nodded and headed towards the bathroom, and Leo slipped back into the living room area, throwing blankets on the couch. When she emerged in the too-big clothing, a few slightly blue-black splotches on her arms caught his eye. “What happened?” he asked, indicating the marks. She paused, sucked in a breath, and he watched as her eyes darted around as though looking for a reason.
“I, um…” Her breathing was becoming slightly faster, just barely choked, and suddenly everything clicked together in Leo’s head.
“Oh my god, did your mum…?” A tiny shake of her head. “…Dad?” There was a pause, and then she inclined her head just the smallest bit.
“It’s just…” she whispered, her voice trailing off a bit.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain,” he told her, walking to where she was and leaning slightly on the doorframe. “If you want… well, you can stay as long as you like.” She nodded, then reached forward to pull him into a hug. He tightened his arms around her a moment, then let go as she stepped back.
“Thanks.” Her voice was a whisper, warding off tears.
“No problem. You can have the bed,” he said, making for the couch. Immediately, her face scrunched up.
“What? No, it’s your flat, you get the bed.” Her voice was still cracked along the edges, but was slowly strengthening as he took the topic away. He shook his head and their eyes locked. The corner of Simmons’s mouth twitched up. Then suddenly they were both rushing for the couch, Leo trying to push her off and Jemma whacking him over the head with a pillow.
“I’ll take the couch! My couch!”
“You’ll take that, you chivalrous Scot!”
Whump.
“Oof! You want to play that game? Down with England!”
“Oh don’t you-” With that, he tackled her onto the mess of puffy blankets he had gathered and covered her up to her neck in the heavy comforter. As she tried to claw her way out, laughter bubbling from her lips, there was the sound of pounding on the door.
“You kids shut up in there! Some of us reasonable people are trying to sleep!” snapped the growling old man from 229 C in a thick Bulgarian accent. Leo sighed and sat back, letting Jemma pull herself from the snare of blankets.
“Sorry, Mr. Khidra,” Leo called back. “We’re going to bed, we swear.” A lough hrumph came from outside and Fitz rolled his eyes.
“You better be! And no canoodling! These walls are paper thin!” With that, the sounds of the irritated neighbor slowly faded and Jemma broke out in laughter.
“Is he always like that?”
“You should see him when I accidentally blow something up,” laughed the engineer in response. The two broke down in fits of laughter.
“Aaaand,” Simmons said, beaming at her new friend, “I won. You even tucked me in,” she said, gesturing to where the sheets wrapped around her lower half. An exasperated sigh escaped Fitz and he sagged in defeat.
“Fine, you win for now.” Lifting himself up off the couch he headed to his room, flicking off the light switch as he went. “Goodnight, Jemma,” he said, pausing by his door.
“Goodnight, Leo,” she sighed with a light yawn, snuggling into the blankets.
With a smile, Fitz slipped into his own bed and flicked out the lights, feeling a bubble of warm contentedness as he drifted off to sleep.