[1] Take the Shot | Leo Fitz

20

Nina didn't hate her time as a cadet but she sure as hell didn't love it. At the academy, she was the youngest person in every room she walked into, even Tobias had a few months on her.

Although she graduated at 18, the 3 years she spent within the walls of SHIELD's most aggressive academy were the most taxing years of her life. She spent every waking moment proving she belonged. Knowing she had to work twice as hard to get half the respect everyone else had.

Even now at age 23 with all that she'd seen and done, Nina could confidently say she was the most stressed at age 16.

Maybe that's why Nina didn't mind tagging along with Fitz to go see Donnie. She related to him in a way considering he was the youngest at the Sci-Tech academy. She understood how difficult it was to make friends and allies with people years older than you, so she wanted to make sure the boy knew that someone who had been through the same thing had become somewhat successful.  

She had walked next to Fitz in silence as they travelled down the hallway towards Donnie's room. Nina wasn't sure what she'd done but somewhere between Donnie going up in ice and now, something had happened to cause Fitz to look anywhere but at her. Nina couldn't even get close enough to press a kiss to his cheek and she hadn't looked square in his eyes for hours.

She hated feeling this hurt over someone who technically wasn't hers but she had every intention to question him about his avoidance once the mission was over.

And if she possessed any ounce of restraint she would've, but she cared too much to wait.

"Did I do something?" She blurted out and Fitz froze. They stopped walking and just stood by each other, neither one of them looking at the other.

"I'm sorry?" Fitz asked innocently.

"You can't look me in the eye, you won't let me touch you and you haven't said a word the entire walk from the lecture hall to here," Nina told him, "so I ask again, did I do something?"

"No of course not, I've just been thinking."

"About what?"

"This," Fitz gestured between the pair awkwardly, "us."

"What, the fact that we clearly have feelings for one another but won't explicitly say it," Nina said, she was aware of how exasperated she sounded and knew that if Ward could hear her, he'd say she was acting out of character... she'd have to agree, "fine I'll be straightforward if that's what you need. I like you, Fitz. I have feelings for you, Leo."

Where Nina's words were very forward she didn't care, no one had ever accused Agent Nina Ramos of being timid.

Fitz felt his heart skip a beat at Nina's confession. He'd wanted nothing more than to know that she felt the same way as he did but at that moment he couldn't voice his joy only his apprehension.

"I am... terrified of you," Fitz said with a shudder and Nina exhaled. She had to admit, she was not expecting that, "you could kill me with a pencil if you wanted to yet I still find myself reading the same pages of 1984 because you highlighted a line. You're no-nonsense, Nina, practically an assassin who's killed more people than I've ever met but I want nothing more than to make you laugh. To hold your hand on a stupid walk down the beach-"

"I hate the beach and absolutely can't stand sand," Nina cut in feeling incredibly awkward at the admission of so much emotion. She felt the same way for him, of course, and wanted similar things but she hadn't ever expressed it the way he was doing now.

"A park then, hell I'd probably jump out a plane if that's more your thing. My feelings are so strong, frankly, it's illogical though I don't care."

"Then why are you distancing yourself from me?" Nina wanted to hurl herself out a window at how desperate she sounded.