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Fitz fakes a smile while Simmons spends the whole trip to the new monolith, talking about Will. It hurts him to hear her talk about someone else so passionately, and he remembers the way he felt when she was getting close with Tripp. Except, they were never romantically involved, like she says she was with Will. And it angers him that he doesn’t even know the guy that she loves so much.
When they get to the planet that Simmons calls Ego, because of the way that it has mood swings, she calls and calls for Will. Fitz takes in the surroundings while she looks for her space boyfriend. Tests the gravitational pull, takes notes of the terrain- things that Simmons certainly would’ve done when she had first arrived (he’s heard the recordings on her phone), but he doesn’t really want to get in the way of her and Will.
Minutes turn into hours, and Simmons grows more and more anxious by the second. She takes Fitz to where their shelter was, but finds nothing but more sand.
“It must’ve been covered by Death,” she explains, and she falls onto her hands and knees to start digging in the sand. He crouches down across from her, and they dig until their cuticles bleed, but find nothing.
“Is there a pattern to the way this Death thing strikes?” Fitz asks her, sitting back on his heels.
“No… Not particularly. There’s a place that Will mapped out, the no fly zone, and that’s where it strikes most frequently. It’s like a predator, if you’re out in the open, it’ll get to you,” she elaborates, even though her voice shakes, continuing to dig even though her hands are bleeding and her eyes are watering and he can see her hope diminishing. “We must have the wrong spot.”
“Is there anywhere else that it could be?” Fitz asks, and his heart is starting to sink.
“No- I remember it being exactly here, because of that rock over there,” she says, gesturing to it. He wants to take her hands, but they’re both bleeding and it would be all too easy to transmit disease, and even though he knows that they’re both healthy, he won’t risk it. It wouldn’t be appropriate anyways.
“Come on, let’s go find Will,” he suggests calmly. It’s a situation that he knows all too well- many months he spent hallucinating Simmons while she was working undercover for HYDRA. She gives him a watery smile, and gets onto her feet.
They walk for hours and hours, to no prevail. Finally, Simmons stops and turns to him.
“He isn’t here,” she says, choking back a sob. “After I left… Death must’ve gotten him.”
“Maybe,” he says, and he feels a sudden pang in his stomach. He starts to doubt that Will was ever here. “It’s okay, I think it’s normal to…”
“Yeah,” she agrees before he even finishes his sentence. “We should probably get back then, shouldn’t we? The team will probably open the portal again soon.”
“If that’s what you want.”
They walk back to where they came in, in complete silence. Occasionally, Fitz opens his mouth to say something supportive, but thinks better of it and keeps his mouth shut. When they get to the portal site, they sit cross-legged across from each other, waiting patiently for the portal to open.
“Why did you come all the way here with me, Fitz?” she asks finally.
“Why wouldn’t I? You’re my best friend,” he answers. The term “best friend” feels bitter on his tongue. It shouldn’t- it’s a very endearing term, but best friend doesn’t quite cover all that she is to him. And he’s made that clear to her on several occasions, but she hasn’t reciprocated. It’s time that he move on.
“Leo,” she says, her tone almost pleading. “You held onto our dinner reservation for six months, and I gave my heart to someone else, and you aren’t even a little upset about it?”
“Okay, I am a little upset,” he admits, avoiding her gaze. “But that’s not really fair of me- you didn’t think you were coming back, and you thought that he was the only other one there… I get it.”
She doesn’t say anything, but she reaches out and covers his hand with hers. There’s a nagging thought in the back of his mind about hepatitis but he ignores it, because despite the blood and the fact that they’re not even in their galaxy, he still appreciates the gesture. She opens her mouth to say something, but the portal opens, and they fall inside.
He gives her some space for the rest of the day, after debating with himself about whether or not she even needs space, since she had nothing but space for six months. There’s a pun in there somewhere, but his heart isn’t in the place to make jokes, no matter how lighthearted. If she really needed him, she would find him.
Sure enough, she did, because when he finally turns in for the night at some ungodly hour, he finds her curled up in the sheets of his bed. It’s a sight that he was familiar with at the Academy, when they’d spend long hours studying and laughing and having not a care in the world, and he had grown to miss it. He tucks the sheets in around her, and takes the loveseat on the other side of the room. The twin sized bed isn’t quite big enough for both of them, and he doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable.
In no time at all, he falls asleep to the sound of her breathing.