#fitzmackfic

“I came out,” he declared. “Well – I guess I didn’t, technically, come out ‘til just now. You’re the first person I’ve told. Joey knows, sort of, but-“

“As what?” Jemma interrupted.

“Hm?”

“Came out as what?” Her eyes glimmered with pride and excitement. She bit back her instinct to say I told you so, and grinned at him instead. “You never said.”

“Oh,” he said, and grinned, as the gears in his head stopped grinding; overthinking; qualifying. “I’m bi.”

Jemma squealed, jostling the popcorn dangerously close to falling out of the bowl.

“Tell me everything!” she begged. “How did you know? When did you know? Was it Mack? It was Mack wasn’t it. Or was it Hunter… He’s a little roguish, but he’s got that loner-with-a-heart-of-gold air working for him quite well, doesn’t he? I can see you falling for that.”

Fitz waved her off. “It was lots of things. Ever since the Academy. I just kept telling myself, it was nothing – you know, it was hormones or jealousy or whatever.”

“Life goals or wife goals,” Jemma added, nodding in understanding.

“- but every time I started to think about it, really think about it,” Fitz continued, “something would happen, and it would go away, or I’d spook myself and hide it. Joey saw through all that, and he sort of- he got me to reflect on all this stuff, the crushes and everything, and I realised that actually… I’ve known about this for a long time. I just wasn’t ready to accept it.”

Jemma nodded. Her own sexual awakening had come to her rather easily, but she knew a good number of people for whom it had not been so simple, or welcomed. Yet she couldn’t help but spare a moment of solemnity for the messy timing of all this. She found herself wanting to ask, so what does this mean for us?, but of course she already knew. The answer was probably, nothing. Just because Fitz now recognised another side to his romantic and sexual nature, it didn’t change his feelings for her, and it didn’t change the mess they were in. And it didn’t change the fact that he still trusted her enough to tell her first.

“How do you feel about it now?” she asked instead.

“Honestly, good,” Fitz replied, then qualified - “Most of the time. I still doubt myself sometimes, or I think, what would Mack say if he caught me staring, you know? Would it change things between us?”

Seeing that he was starting to fret, Jemma put an arm around Fitz’s shoulder and pulled him close. These were waters she knew well.

“That’s okay,” she promised. “These are all very normal feelings, and you don’t have to tell Mack – or anyone – if you don’t want to. But he’s a good man and he won’t hate you for it. And, you know, have you ever considered that it could change things in a good way? If you feel like you’re hiding something or lying to him now, coming out might help that. You’ll feel more secure. And… you might even get a date out of it. I don’t know Mack’s situation, of course, but if I were you I wouldn’t let those guns pass me by without letting him know I was on the table.”

“… That’s a very sexual image.”

“Yes it is.” Jemma bit her tongue. She was going to enjoy mocking Fitz relentlessly, he always got so flustered when it came to matters of the body, but she had to ease him into it first. “But it’s not just a matter of that, is it? You said you liked the way Mack treats you, with respect, with forwardness, with kindness. You enjoy doing things together. Same taste in cars, same taste in movies; that’s as good a place as any to start. It seems to me you two could build, if you’d pardon the pun, quite the life together – or at least show each other a good time.

“Or what about Hunter? Now, I know for a fact he likes people of the masculine persuasion. He’s got a nice beard, very rugged, and don’t think I haven’t seen you checking out that ass. From what I’ve heard, he’s also a great softie, underneath all that swagger. You two would get along quite well, I’d imagine. Although, the fights over football would be a problem. He barracks for a different team does he not?”

Fitz snorted, as if about to start on a rant at the very thought, but then something occurred to him and he smiled to himself. “We play together too, though. Football, I mean. He’s rather good at it.”

“See?” Jemma nudged him. Fitz laughed.

“Alright, so are you going to set me up with every guy in this place or what?” “Well, you don’t have many options left as regards the women,” Jemma pointed out. “Daisy’s somewhat taken, apparently; May, while gorgeous, is too old for you; and I’m sorry but Bobbi is just out of your league.”

“Oh, but right in yours is she?”

“What?” Now it was Jemma’s turn to blush.

“Don’t ‘what’ me,” Fitz scoffed, smugly taking another handful of popcorn. “You know full well what I’m talking about. You started at her legs when she walked into the lab the first time for a full minute. A full minute Jemma-“

“What about you!” Jemma retorted. “I saw you lick your lips when Mack walked out the other day with that tank top and the grease stain on his collarbone-“

“You started fake cursing like an old woman from the South the first time you saw Daisy without a top on-“

Verbal arguments failing her, Jemma shoved the bowl of popcorn at Fitz. He shoved it back, and she deflected it straight onto the floor, sending popcorn spilling out across the carpet. They paused for a moment in their bickering, and decided they’d best clean it up, so they slithered onto the floor together and crawled around on their hands and knees, dropping popcorn piece by piece back into the bowl. The fight was not over yet though, with Jemma taking this distraction as a chance to have the final word.  

“It’s not like you can talk, Mr ‘let me show you my equipment,’” she mumbled.

“What was that?” Fitz beckoned, and flicked a piece of popcorn at her. It bounced off her shoulder. “Did you have something you’d like to share with the class, Ms ‘well formed and symmetrical’?”

“Ugh, Fitz!” Jemma groaned, and threw a handful of kernels at him.

So now, all that he has to do was tell Mack how he felt. This wasn’t going to turn out well, he could already tell.

Fitz managed to work up the courage but the problem was, the men were never alone. There was no way he’d do this in front of people especially Hunter and Skye, who kept telling him to get it over with and put everyone out of their misery.

“Hey Turbo, got somethin’ on your mind?”

The engineer turned at the sudden noise.

“Um, yeah…actually, I have um, something to tell you.”

“Okay man, I’m listen’. Go ahead.”

The expectant look on Mack’s face as he crossed his arms and leaned against the table was distracting.

Only, when he went to speak, the words were stuck in his throat. Fitz thought that he looked like a fish.

“Um…well, look…..I can’t…I can’t do this right now.”

Then the engineer turned and fled from the garage.

Two

The pair was working on a project together; something straight forward but involving several parts made up of smaller parts so all hands on deck were needed.

Fitz looked up as he was going to say something but Mack was biting his lower lip and it was distracting.

Sensing the other man looking at him, Mack looked over and grinned.

“You know Turbo, a picture would last longer.”

Rolling his eyes, the Scotsman decided this would be a good time to try making his confession again.

However, the door to the garage opened with a bang.

The pair looked over and saw Bobbi approaching.

“Hey, you guys at a point where I can steal Mack away for a bit?”

Mack looked down at their project then at Fitz before turning to their friend and nodded.

“Sure. What’s up, Bobbi?”

The woman let out a sigh.

“Hunter’s being a super idiot again.”

The pair shared a look as the engineer tried to not let his jealousy and frustration get the better of him.

“I’ll be back later and we can finish this, Turbo.”

Fitz did the only thing he could, he nodded.

Three

It was one of those days when Fitz didn’t feel like dealing with anyone. So, instead of working in the lab with Mack and Simmons, he was working on a tablet in his room. The designs were good but not quite right. He looked up for a moment and realized he had spent several hours working without knowing it. Then his stomach decided to interrupt.

Fitz walked to the kitchen as he tried to figure out to make to eat when he heard Mack’s voice.

“Hey Turbo. Where’ve you been? I tried checking in the lab a few times today but they said you weren’t there.”

Seeing the worry on the face of the man he loves, Fitz knew he had to tell him.

“I was working on designs on my tablet in my room; quieter in there.”

The relief on the mechanic’s face made him want to tell him about how he felt.

“There you are, Fitz. I need you in the lab so we can move onto phase two of the tests. Oh hey, Mack.”

Simmons walked down the hallway briskly before looping her arm around Fitz’.

“I hope that I’m not interrupting something.”

Before either man could answer, his stomach spoke up.

“Fitz, when was the last time you ate? Come on, I’ll make you your favorite sandwich then we can get to work.”

The woman started dragging him away; Mack looked amused.

“We’ll catch up later, Turbo,” he shouted after them.

  Four and Five

The team was getting ready to check out the underground city. Bobbi and Coulson had just arrived as Fitz, Mack and Simmons were preparing the gear.

Fitz couldn’t get what Skye had said earlier about having a bad feeling that something was going to happen or at least, that’s what Simmons had said. Looking down into the cavern, he really hoped his favorite hacker was wrong.

“Alright Turbo, time to get this party started.”

Watching Mack go over the edge, Fitz opened his mouth to say something. But suddenly, things started happening faster than he could keep up and before he knows it, he has a gun pointed at Mack. Only one thought was going through his mind….he wished that he told Mack that he was in love with him.

Several hours later, Fitz is standing outside of Mack’s medical room and watching the other man sleep. This was the first time since the team made it back to the Bus that he came to see the man he loved. Earlier, he was needed to help Simmons run blood tests on Mack, Skye ad Trip but part of him, was hiding away. The regret of not telling Mack his feelings was eating at him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Fitz could see Skye gesturing for him to go into Mack’s room with her free hand as the clutches Trip’s tightly.

The engineer took a deep breath then entered the room. Immediately, he heads over to the chair next to the bed he was sure had been occupied by Bobbi for most of the night until Hunter made her leave to get some real sleep. As he sat down, he took in the sight of the sleeping Mack. He didn’t think that this was right.

“I hate this, Mack. I hate that I couldn’t tell you how I feel….I am in love with you.”

The mechanic slept on, snoring lightly and totally unaware of Fitz’ presence at his side.

And the one time that he did

Thirty-six hours after the visit to the underground city and Mack had been released to go back to his normal routine.

Fitz knew that this was his second chance and both of them deserved this.

Luckily, he managed to get Mack alone in the garage.

“Hey Turbo. You’ve got that look on your face like you’re trying to figure out a puzzle.”

Letting out a sigh, Fitz met his gaze.

“I’ve something to tell you but I don’t know how to tell you.”

“Is it the thing you’ve been trying to tell me the last few days? Seems kinda important. You know, I won’t judge you.”

Deciding to do it like he was taking off a band aid, Fitz took another deep breath.

“I love you…I’m in love with you, Mack.”

He bit his lip as he waited for the other man’s reaction.

Once Mack got over his shock, a familiar grin blossomed on his face.

“Wish you would of told the others to shove of earlier, so I could do this sooner.”

The taller man cupped his face with both hands and pulled him into a deep kiss.

“So, does this mean you feel the same?”