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Fitz was fine. He was fine. It was fine. Everything was fine. Absolutely fine. Except he had said something he shouldn’t, he had know idea what it was that he shouldn’t have said, and Jemma had that look on her face like she was trying to summon the fire of a thousand suns through her smile to roast him like a Christmas ham.
“Can I talk to you for a second, Fitz?” she said, her top and bottom teeth barely separating as she spoke.
“Yeah,” he said, “‘course.”
What had he bloody said? What part had gone wrong? One minute they were chatting to Jemma’s favorite cousins, laughing about how fancy of a family reunion this whole thing was, catching up on life and what not, and then WHAM! Smile of a thousand suns burning straight between his eyes. Now here he was being oh-so-casually led to the guest room of doom.
The door wasn’t even fully shut before she rounded on him.
“I can’t believe you told them you were my fiancé!”
That wasn’t what he expected.
“But you are my fiancé. You are still my fiancé, right? I didn’t miss something on the drive over to your grandmother’s?”
“Of course you’re still my fiancé, Fitz.”
“Well, hmph , that’s a relief.”
That got her expression to soften a bit, but it quickly went back to an oddly anxious grimace. Seeing the nervousness on her face, he crossed the space between them and rubbed his hands down her arms.
“Fill me in on what I missed,” he said.
She walked in closer, putting her forehead on his chest.
“My family doesn’t know we’re engaged.”
He pulled her back out so she was an arm’s length away.
“Your family doesn’t--but I was there when you told your mum and dad.”
“Ugh, Fitz. Of course my mum and dad know! But my grandmother doesn’t know, nor my aunts and uncles, nor my cousins.”
A puzzled look fell over his face.
“Why don’t they know?”
“Because…” her voice went very small, her chin dipping to her chest, “becauseididn’twantthemtofreakyouout.”
“Jemma?”
She puffed her hair out of her face. “I didn’t want them to freak you out!”
Again, not the answer he expected.
“Why would they freak me out? And why only after they knew we were engaged?”
“Because when we were just friends they could sort of hide the crazy and when we were dating they could hide it a little less. You remember my Aunt Julie’s oddly invasive question about if you obeyed cooking safety or not?”
He shivered. “Yes. I remember Aunt Julie and her beans on toast story.”
“Well now they know you’re in it for the long haul--”
“As if there was any doubt,” he said, coming to wrap his arms around her waist.
“You’re cute, my love, but I’m not kidding. Now they know that you’re becoming a part of this family, they’re not going to hold back. No covering for my great Uncle Ed, no biting their tongues about how they feel about Man U--”
“Wait, how do they feel about Man U?”
“That’s what I’m saying Fitz! You don’t know my family! I haven’t even gotten to the horrible questions my grandmother is going to have about our sex life and when we’re going to want kids and all the reasons why the wedding should be in England and not the states and--”
“Hey hey hey. Jemma Jemma Jemma. It’s okay.” He cupped her face in his hands, swiping his thumb lightly across her cheekbone. “I can face all of their questions, every last one of them, because no matter what they ask, I’ll still be with the woman I love.”
“Every last question?”
“Every single one.”
She kissed his palm. “Even the weird sex ones from my grandmother?”
“Even those. Though God help us.”
That got her to laugh. Going on her tiptoes, she gave him a gentle kiss before falling back to the flood and wrapping her arms around him. He kissed her hair and placed his chin on the top of her head.
“But seriously how do they feel about Man U?”
“Yeah… just keep hugging me.”