This Is Us

Untitled Part 1

"Do tell."

Jemma stood there with her eyebrows raised and her arms crossed. She didn't know whether to be amused or disappointed.

"It was Daisy's idea."

"No, Fitz, don't go blaming Daisy. She's-"

"It's true!" Fitz insisted.

"She's not here, Fitz! How could it possibly-"

"She came up with the idea shortly before the whole Maveth thing!" Fitz cut in again. "But I couldn't find one until recently."

"But why couldn't you have waited until she came back to get it?"

"I made a promise, okay?" Fitz rubbed his brow. "I promised her I'd get this model."

"Okay, but I still don't understand-"

"It's rare, Jemma." Fitz emphasised his words with a hand gesture. "If I'd waited, there's no guarantee I'd have been able to get it.

Jemma nodded slowly in understanding. She uncoiled her arms and delicately ran her fingers over the machine cautiously.

"You do realise this is highly immature, right?" Fitz chomped down on his bottom lip to keep from giggling like a twelve-year-old.

"It's Daisy," he said instead, with a relatively straight face. "What do you expect?"

"True," Jemma chuckled. Just then, it let out a loud fart sound, causing Jemma to jump back and wrinkle her nose up in disgust. Fitz, however, threw back his head and laughed.

"Fitz!" Jemma whined.

"Jemma!" Fitz imitated her tone in between bouts of laughter, eliciting a small smile from her. She ducked her head as she pushed him playfully backwards.

"I hate you, Fitz."

"Nah, you don't." His laughter died down when Jemma suddenly went eerily quiet. "Jemma?"

"How long do you think it'll be?"

"I don't know."

Both of them stood in silence, heads down for a moment until Jemma spoke up again.

"Do you think she'll ever-"

"Yes." Fitz had no doubt about it in his mind. He knew she'd come back, someday. She had to. "And when she does, this'll be waiting for her."

He smiled weakly at the fart machine sitting on the desk. Jemma didn't miss the way he said "when" instead of "if". It made her feel warm. Hopeful. Neither one of them knew what happened, but the next thing they knew, they found themselves in each other's arms, sharing a comforting kiss.

Jemma pulled away first after a long moment.

"In that case, let's put that somewhere safe."

"Agreed."

As they walked off with the machine together, it let out another noise, drawing laughs from both of them this time.