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Daisy was not one to leave a friend high and dry. No, she was the type of person to help a friend out no matter what. And as Fitz was her oldest and closest friend, she would do pretty much anything for him. Hence why she invited him to sleep on her couch for a week.
Fitz’s apartment was being fumigated and so he was in desperate need of somewhere to stay. When he had told Daisy he was just planning on booking a room at a hotel, she had refused to let him do so.
“No way in hell am I letting you pay for a hotel room when I have a perfectly good couch for you to sleep on,” she said over lunch and through a bite of sandwich.
“It’s alright Dais. It’s only for a week.”
“Exactly. There’s no use paying for a hotel if it’s only going to be a week. Come on, it’ll be fun. We can play games, eat junk food--”
“So, what we normally do.”
“Yes, but this time you’ll be staying over. Like a roommate.”
Fitz wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin, his eyebrows drawing together as a thought occurred to him. “Speaking of which. What about your roommate?”
“What about her?” Daisy asked, again timing her response mid-bite.
“Well, I don’t want to bother her.”
Daisy, in the process of swallowing her bite of sandwich, mimed no by shaking her hands and head all at once. When her mouth was clear she said, “you won’t be bothering her.”
“Have you asked her?”
“No, but I will. Jemma’s the sweetest so I’m sure she’ll say yes. Plus, you two will finally get to meet.”
Fitz smiled, “Yes, I’m excited to meet this new roommate you keep trying to set me up with.”
“Because you’re perfect for one another. And you introduced me to Daniel so it’s only fair.”
“You’ve only known her for like a month. How do you know we’re perfect for one another?”
A smile pulled up the corners of Daisy’s lips, but she merely shrugged and said, “You’ll just have to meet her and then you’ll see how I know.”
“I won’t meet her until you ask her if it’s okay that I stay.”
“I’ll do so right now.”
Just as Daisy thought she would, Jemma agreed that it was okay for Fitz to stay the week. For one thing, she was a naturally nice and giving person; for another, she was very curious to meet the friend Daisy hadn’t stopped raving about.
Jemma had never actually seen Fitz before, not even in pictures. As much as Daisy talked about him, showing what he looked like had never been a part of the conversation. The dialogue was often more along the lines of “oh my God, the two of you would get along great!” and other obvious hints that they should go out. So, despite knowing what he did for a living, his personality type, and his zodiac sign for some reason, Jemma would not have been able to pick out Fitz from a crowd of two; at least not without shouting, “who here is an Engineer born in August?”
That was why, upon arriving home from work Jemma was unsure who the attractive man sitting on her couch was. He was reading something on a tablet, brow furrowed in concentration and teeth biting into his bottom lip. Jemma stood in the hallway for a moment just looking at the man and taking him all in, dripping rainwater from outside onto the welcome mat.
At the sound of keys, the man on the couch startled and looked up from his tablet. His eyes went wide and neither of them said anything for much too long of a period.
Finally gaining some sense of what she was doing, Jemma said, “Hello.” To which the man replied with, “Hi.”
“Where’s Daisy?” Jemma asked.
“Her bedroom,” the man replied.
Jemma gave a quick thumbs up and then dashed over into Daisy’s room, finding her roommate finishing up some coding on her laptop.
“Oh hey, Jemma--”
“Who’s the cute boy on the couch?” she said in a low voice once the door was shut.
A Cheshire grin suddenly pulled at Daisy’s face and Jemma felt she knew the answer that was coming.
“That was Fitz wasn’t it.”
Daisy nodded and jumped up onto her knees. “I knew you’d think he’s cute! Did you talk to him?”
Jemma shook her head as her cheeks turned pink.
“Why not?”
She folded her arms. “I said hello.”
“And what did he say?”
“Hi.”
Daisy paused, open mouthed, before bursting into a giggles. She wiped her hand over her face trying to control her laughing fit. “Of course you guys did. Well, what are you waiting for? Go say more than hi.”
Feeling a bit silly, but excited, Jemma marched back into the living room. The moment she entered, Fitz stood up from the couch, his tablet falling off his lap and onto one of the cushions.
“I’m so sorry,” Jemma said, twisting her hands together and smiling, “I just had to ask Daisy a quick question.”
“Like who I was?” he said. He was smiling and his blue eyes were so very kind that Jemma suddenly felt much more at ease.
“Yes, actually. Which is silly because I should have just asked you.”
He put his hands in his pockets and rocked once on his heels. “That’s alright. We can--uh--start introductions over.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” She walked two steps closer to him and held out her hand. “I’m Jemma.”
He closed the gap between them a little more with another step and took her hand in his. “Fitz,” he said, and shook her hand. His hands were warm and after walking from the Subway in the rain, her own were like little ice buckets. For one wild moment she had the desire to just have him cradle her hands like he were a fire meant to warm her up.
She regained herself, however, and dropped her hands as was polite to do.
“So, what are you working on?” Jemma asked, pulling away to take off her rain jacket.
“Trying to find out why this device isn’t working,” he said, falling back onto the couch.
With her coat off, Jemma came and leaned over the couch and Fitz’s shoulder to see the design he was looking at. It appeared to be some sort of non-lethal weapon. Though she wasn’t sure of the calculations surrounding the mechanics, she was positive there was something off with the rounds meant to go into the chamber.
“There,” she said, tucking a strand of wet hair behind her ear before pointing to the corner of the design, “it’s the rounds.”
Fitz looked up at her and this close she could see all the shades of blues that made up the color of his irises.
“The rounds?” he said.
“If this is meant for humans, the amount of dendrotoxin being used isn’t enough to knock out the subject. I’m guessing it’s just making the person woozy.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Fitz said, a smile forming on his face again. “You’re a biochemist, right?”
Jemma nodded. “And you’re an engineer.”
“I see Daisy has given away both our files,” he said, making Jemma laugh.
“I guess she has.” Jemma pushed away from the back of the couch, coming to look Fitz face on instead while also moving to get in her comfy home clothes. “You know,” she said, “I’m not sure if I am allowed to help you in any way, but if I can I am more than willing to.”
“Uh, I might have to check with work on that one,” he said, “My lab partner, Bobbi, is in charge of the rounds, but I’m sure she would be more than willing to collaborate once we’ve jumped all the necessary hoops. We’ve been stuck on this for ages and our boss is pretty good about accepting the collaborative side of science.”
Jemma smiled. “Great. Just tell me when and I can help.”
“Yeah. Oh, and Jemma,” Fitz said, jumping when she turned to leave, “Daisy and I are watching a movie tonight. Would you like to join us?”
“I’d love to, Fitz,” she replied. And she nearly skipped back to her room in excitement.
It was the greatest week of Fitz’s life. After talking with Coulson, Jemma had been allowed access to the project and with her insight and new ideas they were speeding away like a bullet train. Meanwhile, back at home--well, Daisy’s--Fitz was really starting to like being the honorary third roommate. Sure, Daisy liked to tease him about how he and Jemma had started sitting closer and closer on the couch--she had been unbearable the morning after the two of them had fallen asleep there on accident--but that only brought a blush to his cheeks and made his heart hammer faster.
Daisy wasn’t wrong. He did have feelings for Jemma and, if he wasn’t mistaken, he was pretty sure they were feelings she returned. They had already been on four what could have been called dates if they had chosen to label them. They went for tea in the mornings together and often met up for lunch. They had had dinner alone together twice and Fitz had even cooked for her the second time. It was wonderful.
Because of how happy he was, Fitz was not ready for the week to end. On that last day he was there he was admittedly grumpy. Having cereal with Daisy--Jemma was out getting brunch with a friend--he brought up said grumpy mood.
“I’m kind of grumpy about it too, you know,” Daisy said, “I liked having you as a roommate. I would offer you a permanent spot on the couch, but I don’t think that’d be great for your back.”
Fitz laughed, the comment breaking the tension a bit. “Yeah, probably not.”
“Plus, given the direction you and Jemma are going, I’m betting you end up staying over most nights you visit anyway.”
“Ha ha,” Fitz said, but he couldn't deny the swooping feeling he felt in his stomach at Daisy’s insinuation.
“Speaking of which,” Daisy said, smacking her hands on the kitchen table, “will you two just make it official already! I was talking to Daniel last night and he thought the two of you were already dating. It was only when he said it that I realized you freaking weren’t.”
“I’m working on it,” Fitz said. Which was true. He had been planning on asking her to dinner when she got home, an official date kind of dinner.
Daisy was about to make another comment when the door swung open and Jemma walked into the room. As Jemma called a greeting into the apartment, Daisy kicked Fitz under the table and cocked her head in the direction of the front door three times before hissing, “go ask her now.”
“Right!” Fitz said, jumping up to his feet.
“Right what,” Jemma asked, walking into the kitchen.
Fitz’s mouth hung open for a second and when he turned to Daisy for help he found she had disappeared.
“Fitz?”
“Dinner,” he said, standing up from the table.
“I just had brunch,” Jemma laughed, her face quizzical but the corners of her lips upturned.
“No,” Fitz said, “you and me. Dinner. Restaurant. Someplace nice.”
“Like a date?” Jemma asked. Courage flooded Fitz’s system at the happy light he could see in her eyes.
“Yes. Like a date. To make things official.”
“I’d like that,” Jemma said, taking a few steps closer to him. She picked his hands up from his sides and moved them so they were warming up her own.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
As it turns out, Daisy was right. Less than a week later, she was sitting watching morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal when she heard the sound of a door sneakily being shut.
“Jemma?” she called, leaning over to get a better look down the hallway. When she caught sight of who it actually was, she burst into such a violent fit of giggles she had to put down her cereal bowl to keep it from spilling.
There in the hallway, hair ruffled, clothes creased, and five o’clock shadow on his face was Fitz.
“Don’t say it,” Fitz said, though he too was fighting off laughing. However, he was too happy to feign grumpiness.
“I won’t, I won’t, I won’t,” Daisy said, trying to catch her breath. “Nope, I’m sorry. I can’t. I told you so.”
Fitz, his face crimson, ducked his head, but smiled all the same.