Fitzsimmons

Neighbors

Quick Note: AU inspired by a real-life relationship between two of my friends, TOMOLLY! (Only a few of my friends reading this will understand. Sorry Molly.)

---------------------------------------------

She was the girl next door. Yeah, Fitz knew how cliché that sounded. There had to be a dozen songs and movies about it. Fitz knew because he had watched them all on Netflix those days he had fallen into a yearning fantasy. But Jemma was incomparable to the actresses on screen. And Fitz daydreamed about the day he would finally tell her, followed by a kiss in the rain on her front porch.

In fact, he checked the weather daily to see what the forecast was for that night, among other planning. He fixed up and painted the front of her house while she would tend to the front yard plants. He had quickly learned the schedule in her household; her mum, a nurse, worked night shifts all week, and Jemma did no after-school activities except training for the decathlon a month a year and the occasional spontaneous walk in the park. Fitz, having been friends with Jemma since third grade when she moved next door, occupied most of Jemma's free time, watching movies and reading to each other and studying.

His single mum had teased them about their closeness since sixth grade, and was the first to know about Fitz's crush, even before Fitz knew.

"It's rainy this evening." she would inform him with a smirk when he headed out in the morning. Fitz would roll his eyes in response, then hug his mum goodbye before stopping at Jemma's house and waiting to walk with her to school, only a mile away.

"Hey Fitz." Jemma had greeted him this morning, a sleepy smile formed on her pale pink lips. Jemma would always stay up late reading or studying. He had tried to convince her that it was bad for her health, but he himself did the same thing. "How was your night? I mean, after you left my house."

"Good, I guess. I read some of To Kill a Mockingbird, then I went to bed. You?" Their conversation was so natural. Fitz had conceived the belief that it would stay that way when they became romantically involved.

"Same." she said with a small laugh. Fitz never got tired of her laugh. Other people's laughs became tedious and severely annoying, but Jemma's laugh always succeeded at making Fitz smile, especially knowing he caused it.

"Fitz," Jemma began, smile dropping the slightest. No one would notice the small change except Fitz. "Sorry, but you can't come over tonight. I'm having my friend Skye over. Tutoring her in biology."

Fitz's grin faltered for a moment, and he wondered if Jemma had noticed. He couldn't believe himself. He got jealous over the smallest things. "No, it's fine." he forced out, trying to sound fine. The truth was, Fitz was anything but fine right now. "I can just go to the library or something." But Fitz and Jemma both knew that Fitz wasn't going to the library. He was staying home. Reading young adult novels and updating his blog.

"So, do you think you'll do well on the American History test?" Jemma changed the subject, saving Fitz from his dangerous spiral of over-thinking and growing self doubt.

Fitz nodded, then said, "Yeah. It really helped that you linked the dates to dates different comics came out. I already had those memorized, so I just made mental links between them." Jemma nodded.

"History is my least favorite subject because-"

"It's all dates and places and people?" Fitz cut her off. He had heard this speech before a few times.

"Exactly. Except it doesn't feel like real stories. It feels like numbers and intangible quantities of person and place. Not physical, emotional people." She gauged Fitz's reaction.

"I get it." he told her, inspiring an appreciative smile. Fitz wanted nothing more than to see Jemma happy.

Jemma brushed a strand of hair across her shoulder, unconsciously opening up her face to him. Fitz no longer felt the need to stare in awe at her beauty. Even when he looked away, he knew she was beautiful.