the academy ➢ fitzsimmons

➢15

One day, I had one day before Fitz's birthday and I have come up short with ideas. He was turning 26, not like a milestone or anything, but I still wanted it to be special. I sat in my last class on a Friday evening, chewing my yellow pencil with stress. Dinner, or a trip to the city, was way too familiar to us; I needed to do something different. It needed to be different because it was Fitz and I don't want to come anywhere close to disappointing him.

"The boiler room!" Aaron said from behind me, startling me.

"What did you say?" I asked looking back to him. He sat behind me but it still didn't make sense how he knew I was trying plan something.

"Sorry, I know that Fitz's birthday is coming up and I assume you're thinking of doing something special?" He said.

"Aaron, it's like you can read minds!" I said smiling with joy. The boiler room. Fitz and I have heard of the hangout spot in the underlying locations of the campus but we didn't dare go.

"I haven't heard that one before." He said smiling. After we broke up, we still talked like regular friends although not too often.

"Maybe I can give it a try, what's it like there?"

"It's hidden in the boiler room but there is a lot of space. They have a bar, pool tables, dance floor for Saturday nights, and bright lights with loud music." He explained, all I had retained was that the boiler room was a dance club. That's it.

"It wouldn't hurt to try something new!" I said with a smile and turned back to my work.

➢

"Fitz come to the lab with me!" I pleaded from outside his door because he wouldn't let me in.

"I want to eat my lunch in my room where nothing can infect it." He yelled back.

"Fitz I'm only dissecting a cat for blood and liver samples, you can sit on the other side of the room." There was silence, "I could really use your company otherwise I will start talking to myself."

The door swung open and Fitz stood holding his sandwich in one hand and his textbook in another.

"Fine but if you set the dead thing anywhere near me I'm leaving and probably never talking to you again." He pouted while taking a small bite of his prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and pesto aioli sandwich.

We started our walk to the lab, "I always make your sandwiches."

"Yes but Simmons, this doesn't even compare to your amazing sandwiches." He told me while taking another bite and walking down the steps. The labs were always opened on Fridays in the biology hall; Fitz and I haven't gone in weeks.

"So where's the cat?" He asked nervously.

"Relax, Fitz, it's already at the lab." He looked over at me, "I know you don't like dead animals so I transported it earlier today."

"Thanks for that."

➢

"I have to go use the restroom, I'll be right back," Fitz said getting up. I think the real reason he left was so that he can breath some fresh air, poor guy has such a weak stomach.

He surprisingly sat next to me; usually he sits way across the room to where our conversations are shared with everyone else here. Today no one else was in the lab so Fitz and I had helped our selves to the opportunity to have loud conversations and loud laughter. I had to dissect the liver for samples which meant cutting it out and then drawing the leftover blood. I made the incision and strung out the small organ to set it right next to me.

"It's quite disturbing, Simmons, that you even got possession of a dead ca–" he stopped while my eyes still focused on the blood samples through cloudy lab goggles.

"–really Simmons, one condition, I had one condition." He said furiously. I looked up to meet his fiery glare and then my eyes averted to the discolored cat liver just a few inches away from Fitz's sandwich.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry." I quickly removed the liver from the area, "I didn't even realize I set it there."

"You wasted a perfectly good sandwich!"

"Fitz, the liver didn't even touch your precious sandwich!"

"You know that I'm repulsed by dead animals let alone when they are * * this close from my food." He said making an inch with his fingers.

"I now that, but it didn't touch your food and I obviously would never do something like that." I breathed out taking off my gloves and goggles, "stop making such a fuss with this, it was an accident."

"Yeah well I could've been poisoned!"

"But it didn't touch your food, Fitz." I said inching closer to him with my arms folded, my eyes still displayed the anger in which I felt.

"You're a scientist, you should know where to not set down your little experiments, mostly when it's near a man's food!" He said coldly looking at me and his hands on his hips still trying to act like he is proving a point.

"Are you saying I'm not a good scientist, now?"

"That's not what I me–"

"No, Fitz, that's exactly what you meant!" I closed in on him, "I am a scientist, one of the smartest in this bloody school, and I'm being told by an engineer major how to do my experiments? No, I will set down that damn liver where ever I need it to be set down because I'm taking the cat's the samples. My plans weren't to set the main part of my project next to a pasty man's sandwich, so sorry; I'm doing the experiment, not you. " I yelled at him and as soon as I was done, I had to take a long breath because I was so tired of yelling at him. Why do I keep yelling at him? He looked at me, shocked. I realized what I did, just as shocked. His face was inches from mine, which was so close that I could see the awe in his eyes.

That's when it happened, that's when it all just happened. Fitz brought his hand up to pull my face to his. Now when I was centimeters from him, his lips pressed to mine. He slowly pushed me against the table behind us as he continued to kiss me. He stepped back quickly, saying nothing, his eyes glassed over. I walked one step closer to bring Fitz back into my embrace and kissed him again. My hands; on his neck. His hands; holding me by my back tightly. Our lips; moved together effortlessly. Now I was certain that my love for him was no longer one-sided.

We both parted our lips and rested our foreheads against each other. I didn't want to say anything, and knowing Fitz, he probably wanted to keep the words to himself, but he just keeps surprising me.

"You owe me a new sandwich."