Chapter Text
Daisy snuggled closer to the warmth without opening her eyes, content for once to not take in the world immediately. Instead she let her memories of the night before filter back in through the fog of sleepiness.
Oh.
She opened her eyes.
Well, goodbye to any hope of getting rid of her hopeless crush. Fuck why did she have to be so easy for Jemma? It was just going to make watching her with Fitz harder. Why the hell couldn’t she have a stupid crush on someone who wasn’t her best friend?
Jemma’s arms were wrapped around her chest, their legs wrapped together. She couldn’t even get up. And when Jemma pulled her closer and nuzzled her face into the gap between Daisy’s head and shoulders, any thought of even trying to get up vanished.
Daisy had spent the entire day dreading lunch. The morning had been incredibly awkward once Jemma had woken up, and she’d spent the hours in between unable to stop her mind from bringing up all the worst ways Jemma might decide last night had changed things.
But when she actually sat down across from Jemma, the other woman just seemed distracted. Daisy didn’t have to try hard to keep the topic far away from anything to do with Fitz, last night, or relationships altogether. But it wasn’t easy to keep Jemma focused on one topic, every few minutes she’d get distracted by some thought and stare off into space. It really did not help Daisy that today apparently ‘into space’ meant right at Daisy.
“Alright, it must be something important to get you this distracted, what’s that big brain of yours working on when we’re supposed to be enjoying lunch?”
Jemma startled, and blushed, weirdly the flush of her cheeks was much brighter than it usually was when Daisy teased her about this kinda thing. “Oh it’s…” She licked her lips, which Daisy spent much willpower not following with her eyes and not nearly enough willpower to avoid remembering how amazing those lips felt. “It’s nothing.”
Daisy rolled her eyes, “Oh c’mon, you know how much I like hearing you talk about your projects, even when I only understand half the words.”
And there the blush flared back up again? “Don’t lie, maybe at the start you only understood half the words, I know you pay enough attention to have learned what they mean by now.”
Daisy shrugged, “Eh, you make it easy to learn.” Oh god why was she flirting. She wasn’t supposed to flirt with Jemma. God she had it bad.
“And,” Jemma smirked at her, “you’re more intelligent than you let on. Frankly if you’d had the formal education I had, you would probably be revolutionary in computer science.”
Daisy blinked and fought off the heat in her cheeks. Was that flirting? Was that something they did now? “Hopefully I’d be more remembered than other women in the field have been.” Wait, why was this the topic again? “Come on Jems, you still haven’t told me what has you so distracted.”
“It’s not exactly anything scientific I can just ramble on about,” she admitted, which was… new. It was usually something scientific when she was this distracted. “And it’s something I have to think about before I can really talk…”
“Jemma,” Fitz’s voice from behind her was like a bucket of cold water dumped over Daisy’s head, reminding her that she wasn't supposed to flirt with Jemma, or have memories of the night before play in her mind. “Hey, can we talk?”
Daisy hid her reaction to those words. So, they’d be back together by the time Daisy was finished eating. Which wasn’t great for her appetite. But she threw on a weak smile as Jemma hesitantly said yes (hesitant? Why was she hesitant? She was usually eager by now, it’d been a week?)
She felt more resigned than anything as she followed Fitz out into one of the lesser used hallways. Honestly as if stepping out of the base’s cafeteria would provide any actual privacy. Daisy’d said there were betting pools for it, everyone knew what was happening.
“So uh…” He was scratching at the back of his neck while he looked down. Usually she found the habit endearing, but right then she honestly just wanted to get back to her conversation with Daisy, and all the habit was doing was making that take longer.
“Just get on with it Fitz, we both know what you want to talk about.”
“Oh, well, that makes it simpler I guess, huh?” He grinned at her, and she didn't feel like sharing it, “We can get back together now, then?”
“I-” She scowled, “You haven’t even apologized!”
“Okay!” He threw his arms in the air, “I’m sorry I got upset about your promotion, okay?”
There was just… It wasn’t really a good apology. And she didn’t believe it. If Daisy’d done something that bad she’d have been so remorseful about it, hell probably much more than was necessary. Daisy tended to be a bit too invested in making sure her friendships stayed stable, it was nice to be on the receiving end of, but it did make her worry about her friend. She often had to wonder how Daisy managed to keep so much investment in making others happy, but of course the answer was always that Daisy overworked herself.
And, she needed to really get her thoughts off of Daisy before she let the way Daisy looked, bare and basked in pleasure under her, or the smug smile and awed eyes as she brought Jemma to-
“Jemma? Are we back together?” He was impatient, like he’d read the script and was waiting for her to say her line. She supposed she couldn’t really fault him all that much, this practically was a script at this point.
But then, scripts weren’t always followed. Because the way she couldn’t stop thinking about the ways she wished Fitz was like Daisy meant something, didn’t it? She finally shook herself out of her thoughts, “No.” And she didn’t bother explaining, she just walked back past him, back towards the doors to Daisy.
Daisy had been confused when Jemma came back to lunch without Fitz, and more confused when Fitz had come back in a few minutes after her, sulking and glaring. But that had been three days ago now, and the confusion hadn’t gone away exactly… It was just sorta buried under the warmth of Jemma going out of her way to be around her.
But today just brought it all back, because they were at a bar the same one they’d been in just before-, and Jemma was nervous. Not scared-nervous, just fidgety. Like, first date nervous…
Okay, she really needed to keep her mind away from the idea of first dates. “Okay, you’ve been kinda weird lately, what’s up?” thinking about Jemma instead of dates. Totally safe territory. She was an idiot.
Jemma straightened up, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Daisy raised an eyebrow, “You didn't get back with Fitz, you always get back with-” Actually, she frowned, “Wait did he hurt you or something? Is that why you didn’t get back together?” The teasing in her tone was dropped, if he had hurt Jemma she was gonna make his life hell.
“No!” Jemma’s eyes widened and she put her hand on Daisy’s shoulder, “It’s nothing like that, it’s just… I realized I didn’t want him anymore. I suppose our last breakup and some… other realizations broke the proverbial camel’s back.”
Daisy deflated. That was. She didn’t know how to process that. “Oh.”
“On that note,” Jemma’s cheeks were turning red. Like, really quickly. “Would you like to go out somewhere nice for dinner tomorrow?”
Her brain blanked, and she blinked, “How was that on the same note?”
Jemma wouldn’t meet her eyes, “Well I said I had come to some realizations.”
“I… Still don’t follow,” she admitted. She’d started down this conversation to try and get out of confusion but it was only getting her more lost.
A frustrated groan slipped past Jemma’s lips, “I’m trying to ask you on a date!”
Oh
OH
“Really?” Okay her voice did not have to be as small and desperate as she felt then.
Jemma rolled her eyes and leaned over the table to kiss Daisy.