Fitzsimmons

Twelve Days - Day 2

Fitz had the perfect plan for Christmas. He went to a craft store and bought some mistletoe, then taped it to the ceiling of the replaced lab in the basement. That way, whenever he and Jemma worked with each other, they would have to kiss. Because of the laws of holiday traditions.

His first problem happened when the plants kept falling down, so he ended up duct taping them to the ceiling. Then there was the times when May or Ward would come stand beside him and he had to act as though he didn't notice the two-foot wad of duct tape with a little plant sticking out of the end.

In fact, the first day he set it up, he didn't get any kisses from Jemma, because she was out on a mission. Then they were constantly in the garage modifying dwarves, or in the medical pod helping one agent or the other.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, they had the day off. The team was landed in a cozy Midwestern town and spent the day walking the snowy streets, looking at the nice decorations and window shopping antique stores. They stopped in the one church for a candle-light service late at night, then returned to the Bus for a small yet traditional Christmas dinner, made by Jemma.

"Lance, did you buy that?" Bobbi asked incredulously, staring at some point over Fitz's head.

He swiveled around to see Hunter holding a medium-sized Christmas tree, and looking around for an empty space to set it up.

"It was on sale," he grunted, then set the tree down next to the counter.

"If that thing sheds, you're cleaning it up," Coulson warned when some needles were shaken off.

"Yes sir," Lance replied absent-mindedly, then began finding makeshift decorations. The tree ended up with the girls' jewelry and some glow sticks hanging all over it.

"Fantastic," Mack commented at the finished product.

"What about the star on the top?" Skye pointed at the lack of a topper.

"There's some candles in the lab," Simmons suggested, then offered to go get them.

"I'll come with," Fitz added quickly, earning a suspicious look from everyone in the room.

"Sure," Simmons said with a smile that reached her eyes. "Come on."

They made their way down the spiral staircase before the loud chatter upstairs started. The team was gossiping. About them. Fitz looked at Simmons and rolled his eyes. When they opened the doors to the lab, Fitz flicked on the lights, illuminating the duct tape-y mass of mistletoe he had forgotten about.

"What is that?" Simmons asked.

"It's supposed to be mistletoe," Fitz said, embarrassed by the quality of the decoration.

"Viscum album? That doesn't look like viscum album. I think it's toxicodendron radicans."

"What's that?"

"Poison ivy," Simmons answered with a laugh as Fitz's eyes widened in horror.

"Relax, not everyone has a reaction to it. What gave you the idea that was mistletoe?"

"The nice lady at the craft store said it was..." He sounded utterly betrayed. "It cost me twenty dollars."

Simmons 'awwww-ed' her pouty boyfriend teasingly. Fitz shot her a hurt look.

"Hey, you tried," Simmons thanked him. "That's good enough to me."

Simmons reached for his face and pulled his lips to hers. Finally, a mistletoe kiss. Well, it was close enough.