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Fifteen minutes later, Jemma found herself in a small nearby neighborhood. The quaint light yellow house in front of her had a small fence around the yard and Jemma could hear peals of laughter coming from a park down the street. Before she could lose her nerve she marched up the front steps.

Jemma raised her hand and knocked firmly on the door.

A few moments later a pair of blue eyes were squinting out at her through the crack of the door, but they weren't they eyes she was expecting.

"Can I help you?" the boy (college aged if Jemma had to guess) asked her.

"Uh, is Fi-uh-Leo here?" she stuttered.

He opened the door wider and then shouted over his shoulder, "Hey nerd! Someone is looking for you. It's a girrrrrrl!"

"Stop it Jason," a flustered looking Fitz appeared behind Jason. "Jemma, uh, what are you doing here?"

"Well, as much as I would like to observe the nerd attempting to flirt in his native habitat, I have to get to class. Later loser," Jason stuck his hand into Fitz's curls and roughed them up as he shouldered past Fitz in the door.

Jemma's mouth dropped open at the older boys rudeness.

"Sorry," Fitz flushed, trying to fix his hair. "That's my brother, he's kind of a-"

"An asshole," Jemma finished for him.

He smiled, "Yeah."

"Sorry for just showing up. I was just worried when you canceled last minute. Is everything ok?"

"Oh yeah, sorry," he began to rub at the back on his neck. Something Jemma noticed he tended to do when he was nervous.

"Leooooo, where'd you go? You were 'posta find us!" his explanation was cut off by the arrival of two pint sized girls.

Jemma found herself being peered up at by twin sets of familiar blue eyes.

"Leo, who dat?" one of them tugged on Fitz's jeans to get his attention, while the other shyly stuck her thumb in her mouth.

Fitz crouched down to be level with the girls, "Molly, Lizzie this is my friend Jemma. Jemma, these are my sisters Molly and Lizzie." He finished introductions and gently pulled Lizzie's thumb from her mouth.

Jemma followed his lead and crouched down in the doorway, "Hi, it's nice to meet you guys. I love your dress Molly, and Lizzie, that is such a cute bracelet," she smiled and gently ran her finger over the rubber silly band.

"Thank you," Lizzie whispered.

"She's pretty Leo," Molly grinned at her big brother.

Fitz ignored his sisters comment and turned to Jemma apologetically, "My mum had to go back to work and the sitter canceled last minute."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Jemma brushed off his apology.

"Leo, can Jemma stay and play with us?" Molly whispered loudly.

"Mols, I'm sure she has better stuff-"

"I would love to Molly!" Jemma cut Leo off. "What are you guys playing?"

"Hide n seek!" Molly exclaimed. "And it's my turn to do the seekin."

"Well then, lets get hiding!" Jemma grinned as Molly grabbed her hand and pulled her in the house.

"I'm gonna go in the kitchen and count to a hundred!" Molly let go of Jemma's hand and skipped off to the kitchen to begin loudly counting.

Fitz and Jemma began looking around for places to hide Lizzie when she tugged at Fitz's hand and pointed to a cabinet in the living room.

"Good idea Lizzie," Jemma walked over to it and opened the door for her to scoot in.

Lizzie shook her head and pointed at Jemma, "You too."

Jemma smiled and crawled into the large cabinet, Lizzie followed suit and settled onto her lap. Fitz closed the door behind them and hearing Molly get close to one hundred, darted off to find his own hiding spot.

"99 - 100! Ready or not here I come!" Molly bellowed from the kitchen.

Jemma heard her small footsteps run past her and Lizzie's hiding spot, and she felt Lizzie's tiny body shake with laughter. The house was quiet for a while and Jemma thought that they may have to make a bit of noise to give Molly a hint to their hiding place when suddenly their small dark enclosure was flooded with light when the door popped open.

"Found you!" Molly exclaimed gleefully.

Jemma helped Lizzie climb out before unfolding herself, "Good job Molly. Now lets find your brother."

The two girls crept around the house with Jemma searching Fitz when Jemma noticed the toes of a pair of converse sneakers sticking out from under a curtain. She gently nudged the girls and pointed it out to them. She put her finger to her lips and quickly scooped Lizzie up as they crept closer. She motioned for Molly to get his feet and on the count of three, deposited Lizzie onto his side in a surprise tickle attack on their brother. The twins shrieked with delight as Fitz tried to avoid their tiny fingers digging into his ribs and calves and Jemma sank to the floor silently consumed by laughter.

"Uncle! Uncle!" Fitz cried in defeat, carefully dropping to the floor.

The girls relented in their attack and flopped to the floor next to him. "Can I seek next?" Lizzie asked.

"Of course Lizzie," Fitz dragged himself up off the floor and offered a hand to Jemma to help her up.

An hour of hide and seek, and a set of exhausted twins later, Fitz was finally able to get the girls tucked into their beds.

"Thanks for playing with them, you didn't have to do that," Fitz told her, quietly shutting the twins door.

"It's no trouble. They're sweet," Jemma shrugged as she trailed him down the hall.

"You play?" Jemma nodded her head in the direction of a few guitars leaning up against the wall in his room.

"Much to everyones displeasure when I first started," he grimaced.

Jemma smiled as she plucked at a few strings, "My parents were none to pleased with my learning curve either."

"I didn't know you played," his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"There's a lot you don't know about me Fitzy."

Fitz's eyes light up as an idea hit him, "How do you feel about country music?"

"It's my total guilty pleasure," she grinned.

Fitz hurried over to his guitars and handed his acoustic one to Jemma before grabbing his electric one for himself.

Jemma glanced nervously down the hall in the direction of the sleeping twins. "It won't wake them?"

"Nah," Fitz shrugged, "They learned to sleep through in a long time ago. As long as I don't plug in the amp."

Jemma perched on the edge of Fitz's bed opposite him and tried to ignore the swoop in her belly when his eyes met hers. He began to play the first few chords of a song and waited to see if she recognized them. She could tell the exact moment that he knew she did because his eyes crinkled up at the corners when he smiled. She followed his lead and they were soon playing in unison. Jemma felt her heart speed up when he began to softly sing. His voice seemed deeper, sexier even and in her distraction she accidentally played a wrong note. She felt her face heat up and she glanced up at him, praying he hadn't noticed. Her mouth went dry when she noticed the way he was looking at her, eyes fixed on her, soft smile on his face. If she didn't know any better, she would have felt like the most adored person in the world in that minute. Tearing her eyes away from him and trying to rid her mind of confusing thoughts, she began to softly sing along with him.

"That was amazing," she couldn't help but breathe out when they finished.

"It was, should we do it for our duet?"

"Yeah, absolutely!" Jemma glanced at her phone display which had lit up with a text from Skye, "Shoot, it's getting late. I should probably go."

"It's late, you shouldn't walk alone. My mom should be home soon and I'll walk with you."

"Fitz, it's," Jemma tried to argue before he cut her off.

"Jemma, you won't win this," he teased.

"Fine," she rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face betrayed her. "Hey can I ask you something?" she suddenly felt nervous.

"Of course," he nudged her foot playfully. "No guarantee I'll answer it though."

"Ha ha ha," she deadpanned.

"No, seriously though, what's up?"

"How come, I mean I know I'm not the easiest, but I always got the feeling," she rambled nervously, feeling her face heat up she brought her hands up to cup her neck.

"Jemma, breathe," Fitz cut her off.

She took a deep breath in and then another.

"Better?"

She nodded and then blurted out, "How come you hate me?"

"Huh?" Fitz was taken aback, mouth hanging open in surprise.

"I know I'm not the easiest person to get to know, but…" she trailed off, unsure how to continue and suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

"You think I hate you?"

"Or hated me, maybe," she mumbled, wishing for nothing more than a giant hole to open up in the floor and swallow her whole. Or an astroid strike. She wasn't feeling very picky in the moment.

"Can I ask why you thought that?"

Jemma noticed that he couldn't meet her eyes anymore, he was staring down at his shoes and she knew she messed up. "You know what, nevermind. I'll just walk home now, it's ok," she bolted upright but before she could move warm fingers encased her wrist and gently tugged her back.

"Jemma, why do you think that?" he repeated softly.

She sighed and sank back down on the bed next to him, avoiding his gaze. "We've been in a bunch of the same classes for what three years?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"It's just that, you would never talk to me. And whenever I tried to talk to you, you'd just mumble something and run off. And it felt like you were always glaring at me so after a while I just gave up trying."

"Oh," Fitz dug his toes into his carpet, feeling his face heat up.

"I mean it's fine. Not everyone has to be friends."

"No, it's not that. Shit Jemma, what we've got here is failure to communicate," he risked cracking a grin in her direction.

Jemma cocked her head to the side confused.

"Look at you and look at me…"

"I don't understand."

"Jemma, you're one of the most popular girls in school. You intimidated the hell out of me. Still kinda do," he admitted.

Her eyebrows rose skyward at his admission, "Aw, Fitz…you can't possibly still find me intimidating after finding me hiding in your dryer."

"Yeah ok, a few more rounds of hide and seek and the level would be all but nonexistent," he laughed.

Hearing the front door open and close Fitz got to his feet and offered Jemma a hand, tugging her up, "That's my mom, come on, I'll walk you home."

Fifteen minutes later they were standing under the floodlight on Jemma's front porch. "Thanks for walking me home, that was really sweet of you, you didn't have to."

Fitz shrugged, trying to downplay himself, "My mom would never let me hear the end of it if she found out I let you walk home alone."

Jemma smiled, "Well goodnight then, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night,"

Then, acting on impulse, Jemma stood up on her tiptoes and landed a gentle kiss on Fitz's cheek before hurrying inside.

Fitz stood frozen in shock after Jemma had gone. As he turned around, a goofy smile overtook his features, and he raised his hand to gently touch his cheek where Jemma's lips had left a burning imprint.