Archive of Our Own ^beta

„You’re doing it again,“ said Mack, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Doing what?”, Fitz asked concentrated, as he adjusted some wires on his newest invention.

“You have those heart-eyes. You’re thinking about her, aren’t you?”

“Wha- no, no I am just- This isn’t…I’m not thinking about her” he stammered and put his arms on his hips. “Now where is the bloody wrench?”

“Sure, Turbo. How could I ever assume that?” Mack said sarcastically. “And what exactly do you need a wrench for? You do know you are handling wires right now, do you? That you wanted to put into a cable conduit just moments ago?”

Fitz’s answer was more of a grumpy gurgle than coherent words.

He was, of course, thinking about her. Ever since he had seen her, he hadn’t stopped imagining her smile, her laugh, those perfect, soft lips that were oh-so kissable. The dimples that formed when she laughed and the cute giggle she had let out when she’d read something on her phone.

“How about you ask her out? Or just try talking to her for a change. This dreaming won’t get you anywhere, Turbo.”  Mack tried again, much to Fitz’s dismay. Why couldn’t he just drop this topic for once? He had to put up with thinking about her constantly and now he even had to tell his best friend every day that no, he would never ask her out and no, he wouldn’t tell him why.

“You know I can’t do that. She’s … she is creating new species, Mack! And what am I doing? I am not getting this bloody thing of glass to work the way I want it to!” he said and gestured to the sphere he was working on.

Soon enough, hopefully, those Gyrospheres as he had to call them would safely transport people through the wilderness of the island. But right now, nothing seemed to work the way he had planned it out. When he had had the idea for them, everything looked pretty simple and great on the blueprint, but now he had major difficulties. And since the owner of the park agreed to only pay for the development process if they would have a say in naming his invention, he wasn’t even allowed to name them the way he wanted to.

Who wouldn’t want to travel through a herd of dinosaurs with a “Bubblecar”? That sounded much more fun than Gyrospheres, didn’t it?  

“And I am not really,.. you know… she probably is into much more manly kind of guys. With muscles and self-esteem. “ He continued, hoping that Mack would drop the topic for once and for all. Really, he had even tried to give him a few reasons by now. He should just let it go.

“Come on bro, don’t be too hard on yourself. You can’t know that for sure. Maybe she’s into smart boys. You’ll never find out if you don’t talk to her.”

Fitz sighed, but kept quiet. He wasn’t letting it go anytime soon it seemed, but Fitz wasn’t ready to tell him the real reason just yet. Maybe Mack would give up. He would just have to act as if he had lost his interest for a while.

Though that plan would be pretty hard to realize. He seemed to drift off every so often to think about her.

Stupid Jemma Simmons.

Why did he have to meet her?  Or, an even better question, why did he have to make such an utter fool of himself?

The first time he had seen her had been two weeks ago. And really, the only reason he was called to come down to her lab, was because all of the other technicians had the squits.

The tech-staff had decided to order food from the new Indian restaurant on the island to celebrate the birthday of one of them. Fitz actually had been looking forward to that meal, but since he had been caught in a meeting about the Gyrospheres with the managers of the park, he had arrived way too late. His colleagues had eaten up everything – they hadn’t even left him some dessert.

Served them just right to get diarrhea for not leaving him some food!, Fitz had thought the moment he had heard of their bitter fates.  Though, in this case, he was actually relieved that he missed dinner.

When he arrived at her lab, she was the first thing that caught his eyes. Leaning over some medical machine, she talked loudly with herself.

Fitz immediately grinned as he knocked slightly on the open door. Before he had worked with Mack, he had often talked loudly with himself. It had just helped to keep his head clear and his thoughts ordered. Now that his friend was helping him, the loud monologues had turned into quiet mumbles though.

“Need any help with that?” he asked, walking through the door.

She turned around, instantly smiling. “That would be great, yes. I’m trying to find out if all cables are plugged in, but this thing is pretty heavy. I can’t move it. Some more muscle mass would really help.”

“Okay, um… Let me take a look at it. I’m the tech-guy, Fitz”, he explained and held out his hand to her.

“Oh, thank god! I’ve been trying to reach someone from you guys all day long! I’m Jemma Simmons. Are Charlie and Gregg sick?” she asked, referring to the two technicians who’d normally handle cases like that. “Or are you new?“

“Oh, no. I am just the only one available today. Everybody else seems to be sick. Just let me tell you, that new Indian restaurant is not as good as it looks. They all got diarrhea!” he blurted out.

What the hell was wrong with him? He literally had talked shit in the first few sentences he had said to her!?

“Oh, well. Thanks for the…warning,… I guess. Do- Do you need any help?”  she asked, her face suddenly a bit flushed.

“Congratulations, Fitz. There goes another woman you’ve successfully scared away. “he thought while turning to the defect machine.

“No, no. I think I can handle that.”

“Alright”, she answered and turned away. “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be right here”, she called over her shoulder while taking a pile of paper into her hands.

“Alright, Dr. Fitz. Time to get started.” He thought and rubbed his hands together.

Now, what kind of device was he handling there?

It looked unfamiliar to him and unfortunately, he couldn’t find the brand name or the name of the device. There wasn’t even a product number?

What the hell was this thing?

Maybe he should have asked, but when he had wanted to, Jemma seemed to have left the room and nobody else was to be seen.  

He shrugged, telling himself that he was designing his own machines and that he could probably figure out what he was handling there on his own.

But he couldn’t. At least not in the ten minutes Simmons had been gone. And when she came back, she smiled so fondly at him that all of his thoughts seemed to have disappeared. He suddenly felt all warm and fluttery, and grinned widely back at her.

When she asked him how he was doing, his stupid brain couldn’t think about the thing he had wanted to talk about with her. The only things he noticed was her smile and how his heartbeat had increased once she had looked at him, the way her eyes had lit up and the loose button on her blouse that had revealed a black, lacy bra.

How could someone concentrate while being confronted with that?

So instead of confessing that he had no idea what he was handling, he had blurted out an “Everything’s fine! Will be as good as new in no time!”

Fitz sat there for two hours. He considered making a confession to her multiple times, but with every passing minute the outcome of this would get worse. He knew that she’d ask him what he had been doing for all this time and he literally had no plausible answer.

Because he had been watching her the whole damn time. Just whenever she seemed to look his way, he pretended to be working while tapping on the black display of the unknown device.

Fitz even made a picture and tried to google it with the google image search.  But no, not only that his engineer pride had been hurt, not even the –  in his opinion –   dummy version of solving problems, worked.  He was an engineer for god’s sake! He had studied on MIT and now even Google couldn’t help him out. What the heck?

His last possibility was trying to look behind it, like Jemma had done in the first place. Maybe she had been right and he would just have to plug in a cable. Or he could open it up with a screwdriver and look inside. Maybe he’d be able to find out what it was like that.

So he grabbed onto the machine and pulled.

And pulled. And pulled.

His head turned as red and sweaty as probably one of his colleagues looked right now on the toilet, but in comparison to them, he achieved nothing. That bloody thing wouldn’t move.

His heart started beating faster. He couldn’t just tell her the truth now, could he? What if she got angry? Or laughed at him? Or worse, reported him for doing nothing? He could lose his contract…

He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, took a deep breath and looked around. He seemed to be alone again. So he did the only thing he could think of.

He left.

Though, in his defense, he had written a post-it note and had put it onto the machine.

Should be working again just fine! I’m sorry but I was needed elsewhere!
– Fi  the tech guy

He had considered writing his name down, but decided otherwise last minute. She’d know for sure who he was once she knew how his name was written. The reporting part would have been a lot easier then…

Two weeks passed and he hadn’t set a foot down to her lab again. To his surprise though, nobody ever called to get the mysterious machine working again. And it seemed like he hadn’t even been reported.

Now he just had to avoid Jemma Simmons until his retirement in about 35 years. He was small and could hide easily. That could totally work, right?

Of course it didn’t.

The second time he met her was Mack’s fault. And Hunter’s. His friends had invited him to an innocent night out in a pub on the island, when he found himself face to face with Jemma bloody Simmons.

With a beer in her hand and that stupid adorable smile on her face, she greeted him as if he hadn’t spent two and a half hours ogling her at work while having been paid for doing nothing.

She must have noticed that the device didn’t work, right?

She had told him that she had needed it badly. Well the machine, not…you know.

“You are the tech-guy, aren’t you? “ she asked, her tone still friendly.

“Um- Yes.” He answered, scratching his neck.

”She’s one of Bobbi’s friends. I called in a favor- you owe me!”  Hunter whispered into his ear and suddenly disappeared in the crowd behind him. And then he was alone with her.

“Soo…” he started, knowing that sooner or later the conversation would drift to the defect device he was unable to handle. He might as well get it over with now, at least it gave them a topic. At this moment, they were both just staring at each other, his mouth slightly parted and hers upright, forming the hint of a smile.  “The machine working again?” he mumbled and hoped to god that a technological miracle had happened.

“Oh, oh the machine? Yes, you did wonders! Thanks by the way. You were gone so quickly that I couldn’t even say goodbye.” She said and Fitz looked at her in disbelief. Did she just lie to him?

She seemed a bit nervous, the way she was playing with her hair.

He played it cool.

“Well, it’s my job, so… no need to thank me. But well, it’s not my job anymore. I’m actually in the-“

“Development department, I know.” She said and blushed. “I – ehm … read about the Gyrospheres you are working on.” She added, smiling. “I think they will be really popular among the guests. It’d be fun to drive such an advanced piece of technology through the park. When do you think you’ll go in production?”

He couldn’t believe it. Jemma Simmons knew him. And his work. Plus, she seemed fascinated from his invention. Maybe Mack was right and she was into smart boys like him?

“Well, now that I’ve managed to overcome my difficulties with the control, I’d say three to five months.”

“That’s exciting!” she answered and he smiled at her.

“Yeah?... I mean, yes, yeah, it kinda is. But, um.. you know… there’s…My prototype is functioning already. I mean, he has to, otherwise they wouldn’t order it to production so soon… um.” He said, failing to find the right words. “But, you know, I could give you a driving lesson already. We could test it in the park in the grass, if you want?”

Her expression changed from confused to surprised in just a few seconds. She nodded slightly, but other than an astonished “Oh”, she didn’t say anything.

“Only if you want, that is?” he quickly added, suddenly feeling how hot he was. His hands were so sweaty he had to wipe them off in his jeans.  

“Yes, that- that’d be nice.” She answered and Fitz thought he just had a stroke. He had a date with Jemma bloody Simmons.

Jemma felt all giddy. Fitz had just asked her out on a date. Or well, it was a date, wasn’t it? He didn’t specify it, technically, but his face had been flushed and he had stuttered so adorably that he surely had been nervous.

And she had been too.

After first meeting him, she couldn’t really get his face out of her mind. She hadn’t gotten his name quite right, but that didn’t stop her from doing some research. She couldn’t ask him again then, could she? That would have been really impolite.

So she did what any woman in her situation would have done. She paid her hacker-friend Skye a visit in the IT department so that she could look for him in the personnel data base. She had already tried to find him herself, but without any luck. She didn’t have access to the entries of the engineering staff from her work account.

“Curly hair, quite pale and skinny?” Skye repeated. “What happened to symmetrical and low body fat percentage, aka your hots for muscular guys?”  

“For your information, he has a very symmetrical face and since he’s skinny, he does have a low body fat percentage. He’s just lacking some muscles, but …”

“Oh my god! You’ve just met this guy and you’re already defending him? Are you telling me that Jemma Simmons, the nubile, young prodigy is actually interested in another male, human being that doesn’t have abs as hard as stone?”

Jemma scoffed. “Please, would you shush already? I don’t have that much time. I’ve got work to do, unlike you, it seems.”

“Oh, I’m working. For your information, I’ve just reached the highest Pac-Man score of our department.”

Jemma raised an eyebrow at her, but didn’t comment on it. She still needed Skye to find that tech-guy as fast as possible. She hoped that when she returned, she’d still find him sitting on the ground, in front of the outdated, broken holographic-table.  

“Okay, I’m already on it, Jemma. Don’t give me that look. “

It took them a while to scroll through all the employees of the engineering department, but after she saw the picture of Leopold Fitz, she knew who the cute guy in her lab was. He was only 21 days older and just like Jemma, a genius with a high above average IQ. Though, he only had one PHD from MIT. But he was still impressive.

After returning to her lab, she decided that she had already been quite productive and started to google-stalk Leopold Fitz. Who, thankfully, was still there. With such an adorable concentrated expression on his face, his forehead crinkled, he bit down on his lower lip.  

Jemma couldn’t help but glance at him every now and again and she swore that sometimes he even looked back. She left the lab , not really wanting to risk him leaving, but she couldn’t really sit there and stalk him on the computer that he’d probably be able to see the screen of, could she? So she had sacrificed two minutes of Leo-time to get her phone charger.

Unfortunately, when she came back, all she found was a post-it note on the holotable, saying that he’d been needed elsewhere. At least he got the old, rotten thing working again.

Jemma still couldn’t understand why, for lord’s sake, a highly equipped lab used a holotable invented years ago. Yes, it had been built from some scientist that had worked there and back then, it had probably been very useful and had saved them a fortune but now… They lost a lot of time fooling around with it, just to get it to work again. For once, though, she would be able to use it without having to kick it. – Tomorrow. When she’d be finished with… gathering information about a specific engineer.

.

The next day, the rotten thing was history anyway. Jemma had just appeared through the door when she had seen her coworker Bobbie ‘accidentally’ spill her orange juice all over it.

Her best friend had greeted her with a cheesy smile and a loud “Ooops.”

“Bobbie!? What are you doing, I just got it repaired yesterday! For once it was actually working!”

She just shrugged her shoulders. “It would have broken down soon enough again anyway. Now we’ll get a new one.” Her friend told her. She was right of course, but… there was a reason why Jemma actually liked the idea of it crashing again.

“Don’t play the shocked girl, Jemma. I know you were close to doing the same thing. I’ll blame it on the intern that had gotten kicked out.”

“You can’t just run around blaming other people, Bobbie. And to be honest – I… I really got used to the old thing, you know? It was quite interesting and - … charming to use.”  

Charming? She really needed to improve her lying skills somehow. Of course Jemma hadn’t changed her mind about the stupid thing… But she had been looking forward to call a familiar engineer down to help her. She’d already planned out the conversation on how she was going to ask him in her head. And when somebody would ask why she wanted him specifically – well she would have told them that he’d been the only one to get it to work properly again and that he knew how to handle it. But now it seemed that she had wasted an hour the day before planning everything out…

Bobbie just raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh really? What the hell happened between this device and you, while I was off for one day?  Does it vibrate? Oh!” she shrieked. “By the way I have to tell you about the new thing Hunter and I tried – it’s amaz-“

“Please don’t go into detail this time, alright? I still need a therapy from the last time you told me about the stuff you and Hunter did.

“You can be such a prim sometimes, Jemma! I’m just providing you with a few tips, that’s all. For a security guard, he is pretty creative”  She answered and poured herself another glass of orange juice. “Now help me drink up all the evidence.”

Alright. Fitz was totally alright.  He was not hyperventilating and not sweating . He had certainly not changed two times already – once because the cream from his cupcake had suddenly turned very liquid, and then another time because his back had been sweaty. Wearing a long, sleeved shirt in the middle of summer wasn’t the greatest idea he had had either, it seemed.

It was still a mystery to him on how he was able to ask her out. It was more of a happy coincidence than anything else.

After she had agreed she had given him her phone number and he was very proud of himself that it had only taken him a day to write her. Though, he had to rewrite his message a few times.

They met at the nearest entrance to the building, where Fitz could easily drive the Gyrosphere outside. Jemma arrived on time with a big smile plastered on her face.

“Hey” she greeted him, making a halt about a meter in front of him.  

“H-Hi” he answered and wasn’t sure on how to proceed. Should he hug her? Kiss her cheek? Shake her hand?

Fortunately Jemma seemed to be as unsure as he was, so he thought it’d be better to skip the greeting entirely.  

“I – I thought that – I got us some Chinese takeaway. I thought that we might get hungry.” He said and pointed at a bag in the Gyrosphere. “Don’t worry, I asked Bobbie what you like to make sure it’s eatable.”

“Thank you. But you know…, you could have just asked me. You have my number, remember?”

“Um, oh. Sorry. Yes… Right- I ..I don’t know why I didn’t think of that“

“It’s nice though, I haven’t really gotten to eat much today anyway.”

They both got in the machine then, their conversation surprisingly flowing after a few minutes of awkward rambling – they talked a lot about work and their colleagues. They hadn’t gone far with the Gyrosphere, but they were still able to see a few herbivores, Apatosauruses to be exact, in their natural habitat.

When Jemma had shivered he had even wanted to put an arm around her , but since he had no idea how this could be possible sitting like that, he had kindly offered her his sweater. His arms weren’t that long and he couldn’t lean over the control stick, since it would poke into his side. He’d have to consider making a date-friendlier design later. Maybe he could rearrange the seats somehow?

Fitz had only just handed over the bag with food to Jemma, when she asked him if they could try to get a bit closer. To the dinosaurs, she had clarified a second later and Fitz tried his best not to show his disappointment and fear.

To be honest; he was a bit intimidated by the large creatures. It wasn’t like they were going to eat him. He knew they preferred the leaves a lot more than his flesh, but they looked so enormous compared to his slim form that he was afraid they would crush him. Which was also ridiculous, because he had made sure that the glass was able to withstand any dinosaur attack. May it be scratching, hitting or sitting on top of it.

He shook the feeling of unease off, when he tried to get the Gyrosphere to run again. The motor hummed quietly, and then they were sliding peacefully through the grass. Unfortunately, they didn’t get very far. The steering seemed blocked and he was unable to move any further. No left, no right, no back, no forth.  

“What’s wrong?” Jemma asked, while breaking her chopsticks into two. She seemed to have caught up on his frantic moves to unblock his invention.

“I… The steering… it’s not working.” He said and took a deep breath. It was definitely not the right time for a panic attack.  

“Did something like that happen before?” she asked, and he sensed a hint of worry in her voice.

“Yes – but I fixed it! And then I’ve tested it about a hundred times! That’s not supposed to happen.” He mumbled and stared down to the controller.

“It’s alright. Things like that happen all the time, Fitz. It’s just an unfortunate coincident, is all. We’ll find a way to get it to work again”, she said, trying to ease his nerves. And hers too, maybe.

They didn’t though. While Jemma had done her best to offer him a few possible solutions, nothing had worked in the end. Fitz was frustrated, to say the least.

It seemed that the universe only let him take Jemma on a date, just to humiliate him and to crush his self-esteem even more. What had he done wrong in his former life to deserve this?

“Okay, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. My phone’s got no battery…could you call someone to pick us up?” he asked and added a “Please”, when he noticed how impolite he had sounded.

“Yes, of course. Just… one moment. I’ve got it in my bag. Somewhere… Ah, here we –“ she said, but didn’t finish her sentence. “Oh no.”

“What’s the matter?” he asked, suddenly trying his best not to freak out.

“No service” she mumbled. He could clearly hear her breath hitch now. “Can’t you connect to the base with the touchpad?”.

He gulped. “Yeah, no – the software that will be used once this bloody thing works is not ready yet. And we are too far away – I can’t connect to the wifi…”

She inhaled a deep breath now. “We have to get out now, don’t we?” she asked and he nodded slightly.

This was not how he had planned out this date.

Not at all.

The sun was about to set when Fitz opened the Gyrosphere. It should have been perfect. Dinosaurs, a sunset, Chinese takeaway food and then the stars.

And to what had it all come?

A sprint back to the resort, so the carnivores wouldn’t catch a hint of their delicious fresh flesh.

“Try not to make much noise, but don’t slow down either”, Jemma had told him before they had gotten out. “We will just have to make a run for it, I suppose. And don’t give me that look, I know you didn’t plan this. It’s alright, once we’re out of here alive.”

He took her by the hand then, closing his fingers tightly around hers, when he was about to start running. And wouldn’t it be for the constricting feeling in his throat and the possibility of getting eaten by dinosaurs, he would probably even enjoy it.

She held onto him tightly, when their feet started moving, but something made her stop suddenly. He fell face down in the mud, taking her with him when he heard a load growl.

Fitz didn’t dare to move then. He couldn’t recall a time where his heart had ever beaten as heavily.

“Raptors” Jemma whispered. “They hunt in groups and like to surround their prey.”

“Fantastic”, he answered a bit too loudly because another growl followed soon after.

“What do we do?” she asked him, pressing his back down into the muddy floor. “Do you think they can smell us?”

“I don’t know, you are the biologist! I’m just an engineer, who had the best idea ever for a first date!”

She scowled at him, her voice getting louder. “I am a biochemist and would you stop that self-loathing already! I’ve told you before, that things like that can happen!”

“We both know it is my fault, and would you shush already, you’re only making things worse!”

“Oh, now I am the guilty one?!” She shrieked and he gave her a mean look.

“I told you, it was my fault in the first pla-“

Another loud growl echoed through the night, but this time it wasn’t followed by silence or banter. This time, it was followed by steps, that came closer and closer every passing second.  

“Run” he shouted and dragged her behind him, tightening his grip on her even more.  

“We are running in the wrong direction, Fitz!” she screamed back at him, now almost outrunning him.

“Do you want to get eaten?” he shouted back at her. “Because running back there …is how you get eaten.”

As far as he knew, two raptors were running after them – Meaning that they were at least a bit lucky. They weren’t fully surrounded.

It seemed to take forever till their reached the Gyrosphere – the only possible shelter in this goddam place- but eventually, they made it.

“Get in, Get in, Get in!” he urged and jumped after her. He only had a minute to close the lid, before their two attackers scratched at the glass.

“Now what?” Jemma asked, gripping his upper arm as one raptor let out a terrifying roar.

“We wait.” He answered and gripped her thigh.

“Perfect.”

“The glass should withstand their force. Not even the T-Rex was able to break it, so don’t worry.”

“I am not worrying at all.” She said, her voice still a little edgy. “Just… enjoying life.”

“Oh yeah?  Me too. Fully relaxed here” he pressed out between his tensed lips. “Just reconsidering my life choices. Working for an amusement park full of dinosaurs might not have been my best decision so far.”

She chuckled slightly, though he couldn’t really tell. Just like him, all of her muscles were strained and her lips were tightly pressed together.  

He tried to get the Gyrosphere to run again then, but to no avail. The steering was still stuck.

The raptors growled and scratched, but it seemed that at least he didn’t fail in choosing the right glass. They gave up eventually and ran away.

“We have to get out of here again, don’t we?” she asked, moving her hand down his upper arm to his fingers. “I’ve still got no service.”

“Do you think they are gone? I can’t hear them anymore..”

“Maybe we should wait a few more minutes.”

“No, I think they are gone. We shouldn’t risk anything now. What if a bigger one heard us and is heading our way?”

“I think we should wait.”

“Yeah, no I am not going to risk it. Come on.”

“Urgh, alright!” she said and tightened the grip on his hand.  Why was she so annoyed? He was only trying to save both of their skins, thank you very much.

“Why are you taking the takeaway food with you?” she whispered once they were outside. “You’re not going to eat that, are you?”

“No! I just thought that if one is after us, I could throw it and maybe he’d take the bait” he answered, when they were starting to run.

“You really think –“ she breathed out – “That they’d like that better than us? And why does it have to be a male?”

“It’s from Takeshi’s. Best restaurant of the isle and sorry, but in times like these I don’t speak genderwise correctly -” he countered, but let the bag fall once he heard a growl, somewhere behind him. “Oh god, it smelled the food”

“Run, you idiot!” she had shouted and pulled him behind.

Somehow, and by god, Fitz had no idea how, they had made it towards the gate. It was four raptors this time, but they had thankfully been too far away to catch them. Maybe they did get a taste of the food he had left them behind.  

“Are you alright?” he asked, trying to catch his breath.

She nodded while grabbing onto the wall for support. “Yeah” she breathed out. “You?”

“Yes.” He answered and suddenly he was at loss of words. What else could he say to her? Sorry that I thought that Chinese takeaway would be a good idea to bring on a trip through the dinosaur wilderness? Sorry that my invention didn’t work at all and that I almost killed you?

He didn’t bring out much anyway, instead he watched her intently while trying to bring up the courage to open his mouth.

“I’m sorry” he blurted out after a minute of uncomfortable silence. “If I had known that-“

“It’s okay” she cut him off. “But right now, I think I just want to shower and sleep.”

He couldn’t blame her. Both of them were covered in mud and sweat. He could use a shower and a perfect round of sleep himself. But he knew what she meant by it. She was way too nice to tell him to bugger off.

And he got it. Being chased by dinosaurs isn’t something that has ever been on his wish list of activities for a date. Hell, that shouldn’t be on anyone’s wish list.  

“Do- Shall I walk you?” he asked, thinking back to the time his mother had tried to teach him proper manners.

“No, it’s okay. It’s just a three minute walk to my building. You probably want to go home as soon as possible too.” She said and gave him his sweater back. “I think this is beyond repair, but here”

He took it, though she was right. It would probably be better to throw it into the next bin.

“Thanks…I’m – Good night.” He said and gave her a weak smile before turning his back to her. He didn’t dare to turn around.

Two weeks had passed since their catastrophic date. He couldn’t say he was happy to not get a second date, but at least they were both still alive…

The day after the incident, he had to call in a favor with his friend Trip, who worked as a ranger. It had taken Fitz ten minutes of embarrassment to describe him on how exactly his invention had ended up in the middle of the park. Thankfully, Trip had taken care of the problem and had brought him his Bubblecar back. It had a few scratch marks on the shell, but other than that it looked fine. Except for the broken steering, of course.

He was just peacefully eating his lunch when he was suddenly attacked.

“What the hell did you do?!” a female voice asked, while she smacked his head with some kind of magazine in her hand.  “She really liked you! “

It turned out to be Bobbie. Hunter had been right, she really could be a fury.

“Didn’t she tell you?” he asked, ducking before she could throw another hit at him.

Hunter then thankfully came to his help and stopped her, making her sit down beside him.

“Of course she told me! But you just left her there!”

“She said she didn’t want me to walk her! She clearly wanted nothing to do with me.”

“Uh, guys” Hunter interrupted. “I don’t mean to get into the middle of this, but people are starting to glance in our direction. If we want to keep this incident between us, then I think it’s best if we lower our voices.”

Fitz nodded, though Bobbie seemed to fully ignore her boyfriend – or whatever they were.

“I wouldn’t blame her. I mean, what the hell were you thinking?” she asked. Maybe she had listened to Hunter, at least her question had been a bit quieter. Still pissed as fuck, but quieter.

“Come on, honey. Don’t be so hard on him. He really wouldn’t have gone out there; if he hadn’t been sure it worked. He’s been driving himself mad ever since it happened.” Hunter tried to cut in, but it only earned him an evil look from her.

“You “, Bobbie started, pointing a finger at Fitz “Better fix this. If not, then I swear the next time you see me, I won’t be carrying a magazine to hit you with.”

“She knows Kung-fu stuff. You better listen to her, mate” Hunter cut in, patting him on his shoulder.  

Fitz gulped. His friend really had quite the taste in women.

“And what the hell shall I do?” he asked then. “I’ve already apologized.”

“Well how about you call her? “

What? “She..-She wants me to..call her?” he said in disbelief. That couldn’t be right.

“Yes, you idiot! It’s about time you realized that!”

“I…I thought she wouldn’t want to see me again…”

“Well maybe you should have asked her before jumping to conclusions. “ Bobbie nagged, but held herself back when Hunter put his hand on her shoulder. “You hurt her”, she said calmer now.

“You think she’d forgive me?” he asked, failing at trying to avoid getting his hopes up. He had really thought that after a date like that, she wouldn’t want anything to do with him anymore.

That night he found her in the lab, alone. He had thought about calling her – and tried even. Three times he had been close to hitting the call button, but then he had decided that a personal apology would probably be better.

“J-Jemma?” he asked , not wanting to startle her.

He did though. The second she heard his voice, she had jumped back from the microscope she had been looking in.

“What are you doing here?” she asked and obviously avoided to look at him. She was frantically writing something down – and a small part of him hoped that maybe, she just didn’t want to lose her train of thought.  

He looked around the room, trying to make her feel a bit more comfortable when he wasn’t looking at her directly. His eyes fell onto the new machine that seemed to replace the device he had been unable to repair. This time, he could make out the use of this device though. It seemed to be a holotable, according to the brand.

“You know, when you called me down there the first time we met, I actually had no idea what I should do. I didn’t know what the thing was you wanted me to repair. It was just a white, big box to me. No brand name, no product number. I wasn’t even strong enough to move it, like you wanted to. I just sat there, watching you for most of the time. And then I panicked and left.”

That had made her look up in confusion. “I thought you repaired it?” she asked then, meeting his gaze for the first time since he entered.

“God no. I had absolutely no idea how. But when I accidentally told you that I’d be able to fix it, I couldn’t really ask you an hour later on what I was repairing, could I?”

“ I guess not” she mumbled and turned around again. “I never actually had the chance to use it, after that. Bobbie ruined it the next day and we finally got a new one.”

“Ah”, he answered, while he tried to find the right words. “Look I-“

“It’s okay if you don’t want a second date, Fitz. I got the message – well I didn’t, but that told me that you-“ she rambled on and he couldn’t wait for her to finish.

“But I do want a second date! I thought you didn’t want one!”

That seemed to have caught her attention.  “What? Why?”

“Jemma, I almost killed both of us. Do I really have –“

“I assured you that sometimes technical problems –“ she interrupted him, but he kept talking.

“to explain that this isn’t supposed to happen on a date?”

“happen and that it’s not your fault.”

Then they both weren’t saying anything for a moment.

“So…” Fitz started carefully. “We both want a second date then?”

“I…guess” Jemma answered and looked up to him again. “Chinese? I never really got to finish my meal last time.” She answered and smiled up at him playfully.

“How about Italian? Giovanni’s is just around the corner. We could go now, if you’re not busy?”

And that was that. She had gotten rid of her rubber gloves and her lab coat and he had brought her down into the ristorante for a delicious spagbowl. They bickered and laughed and when he had brought her to her doorstep he didn’t even have time to think about leaning in to kiss her, because she had already grabbed his collar and pressed her lips to his. It was probably meant to be short, since it had started out slow and soft, but somehow his hands had found their way to her waist while hers were behind his neck, playing with his curls.  

At some point, he had her pressed against her door and was lost in the feel of her tongue against his. When they broke apart a few minutes after, they were both trying to catch their breaths.

“Seems like all of our dates are meant to end with us, breathless.” he smirked and she giggled.

“If that’s what you call out of breath, then wait for the third date…” Jemma suggested and he had to hold back a cough.

Bonus – One day after the Bubblecar incident:

Gregg hadn’t worked long as a security guard on the island. He was a man of his word and liked to play by the rules.

He had visited the park a few times by now, but never really connected with the gigantic creatures that lived on the island. Nevertheless, he liked his job and always offered the guests that had strolled past him a friendly smile and advice on what was worth visiting or how they could find their way back to the more frequented paths.  

He never really thought that one day, one of the creatures living behind the thick, iron gate would find its way to him from the woods. Somehow, it happened though.

One day, he had heard scratching sounds and growls from the other side and when he had checked the video screen, he saw a raptor with something in its mouth.

When Gregg zoomed in, he could clearly make out a plastic bag with the logo of Takeshi’s Chinese takeaway restaurant.

With no idea how the animal had gotten a taste of the food – he imagined that it must have been a young and inexperienced ranger who had probably thought it was a good idea to bring food on his mission through the park that had left his food behind – he shook his head and continued to observe the small dinosaur on the monitor.

The creature placed the bag carefully in front of the gate, scratched on the door again, but let go after a few attempts. It let out a loud growl in frustration and eventually ran back into the woods.

The raptor had visited him every day since then, always scratching on the door while letting out a loud roar.  Gregg didn’t know what the little creature wanted him to do – Was it hungry? Did it want to escape? Why would it bring the plastic bag, then?

Eventually, he found himself ordering takeaway. And even though he knew that it was forbidden to feed the dinosaurs, he just had to try to find out what his daily visitor wanted.  If it wouldn’t eat the food, he’d just blame a customer for throwing it over the iron fence.

He never had to go this far, though. The animal never let the food go to waste.   

And sometimes, it  even brought a friend.

The employees at Takeshi’s often wondered how a single man, who bought so much food every day, could look as healthy and fit as Gregg. Little did they know, that not only humans thought that their restaurant was the best in town.