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Fitz loved his boss, but boy did he hate his job. It wasn’t a bad job, really, but standing on a roof in the blistering summer heat made fixing roofs feel twice as hard as it should. His coworker, Hunter, had beat him at rock paper scissors for the spot on the ground (and thus in the shade) and so it was Fitz’s job to stand up there with Coulson, sweat through his t-shirt, and pray to God that the sunscreen on his neck and face did its job.
“Hey, Fitz,” Coulson shouted from the peak of the roof.
Fitz wiped the beads of sweat out of his eyes. “Yeah, sir?”
“Hand me more of those tiles over there will ya.”
“Of course.”
“And be careful over there by the gutters! It’s steeper than it looks.”
It took everything in Fitz not to roll his eyes. He had been up on that roof as long as Coulson and he wasn’t stupid. He was an engineering major for crying out loud.
But engineering classes don’t stop a man from getting distracted.
From out of the corner of his eye, Fitz spotted a car pull up to the house next door. The immaculately clean sedan sparkled in the sun, casting a bit of a glare his way. The sun beam hitting his eye was not the main distraction, however. What truly caught his eye was the girl who stepped out of the driver’s side door.
She was beautiful in the classic sense, chestnut hair cascading around her face in lovely waves, ivory skin speckled with freckles. And she was wearing the sweetest sundress that just happened to be his favorite shade of blue. His hand hovering over the box of tiles, Fitz was so busy taking the woman in that he didn’t notice that his feet were slipping just a bit closer to the gutter. At least not until he lost his balance completely and went ass over teakettle into the bushes below. Thank fuck it wasn’t a very tall house and that the owners really loved dense shrubbery.
Groaning, Fitz tried to dislodge himself from his position among the leaves. He was sure he was going to be sore tomorrow, but right now the only thing wounded was his pride.
He heard the sounds of quick footsteps and looked up to find Hunter sprinting over to him and, to his horror, the woman from next door not far behind him.
“Fuckin’ hell, Fitzy,” he said, extending out his hand, “are you alright?”
He accepted his friend’s hand and, with his help, finally removed himself from the bushes.
“Yeah yeah yeah, I’m fine.”
Hunter cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “You sure, mate. You just fell off a roof.”
“I’m fine, Hunter! Really. These bushes broke my fall.”
“Yeah, almost feel kind of bad about calling them ugly when we got here. Glad they saved your life and all.”
“Fitz!” came Coulson’s voice from up above, “are you hurt?”
Fitz looked up, blocking his eyes from the sun and squinting slightly. “I’m seriously fine! Just have a--” He noticed the girl had arrived and trailed off into a slightly quieter voice, “just have a bruised ego.”
“Hi,” she said, coming to stand right next to Hunter (who startled slightly and moved about an inch to the left to make room for her in their odd huddle).
“Hi,” Fitz said. God, he really wished his face wasn’t so red… and that he hadn’t just fallen off a roof.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and gave him a nervous smile.
“Are you alright? I just saw you fall from that roof and wanted to make sure you were okay.”
If it were somehow possible, his blush deepened. “Oh, er, you saw that?”
“Of course she saw it mate, you screamed on the way down.”
Fitz shot daggers at Hunter. “I didn’t scream.”
“Sure you did. All high pitched and everything.”
The woman looked at her shoes, most likely holding back a smile, and Fitz rounded on Hunter again.
“Thank you for that. Now can you get back to work or something?”
“I finished my part of the job,” he said.
“Well can you go help Coulson?”
“That’s your job.”
“Well I just fell off the bloody roof, so can you spot me half an hour please?”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but then he caught Fitz’s gaze flick quickly to the woman and caught on to something Fitz wasn’t even meaning to imply.
“Ah, I see. Yeah. Yeah, I can go help Coulson. Up there on the roof. Away .”
“Wha--no. Hunter. Hunter ! I--” And suddenly he was alone with the very pretty woman he had just fallen off a roof for.
“Hi,” he breathed. Why did he insist on being so bloody awkward?
The woman must not have noticed his awkwardness for she simply smiled at him brightly and adjusted her purse on her shoulder.
“Hi again.”
“Oh right! We already, uh, covered hi, didn’t we?”
“We did.”
He kicked himself internally and externally scratched the back of his ear. “Yeah. We did.”
“We didn’t cover names, though.” She extended her hand. “I’m Jemma.”
“Fitz,” he said, shaking her hand. “Leo Fitz. But just Fitz is fine.”
“Well, just Fitz, I’m really glad you’re alright.”
The blush returned to his cheeks and he dipped his head to hide it.
“Thank you. I’m also glad I’m alright.”
She laughed, making his heart swoop in a very pleasant sort of way and making him chuckle lightly as well.
“So,” he said, wishing to keep the conversation going, “you live next door?”
Jemma looked over her shoulder as if she had completely forgotten about the house behind her.
“Oh, no. It’s my sister’s house. I’m just here to watch my niece and nephews for the night.”
“Oh! That sounds fun.”
She laughed. “The amount of fun varies between stages of crankiness, but yes, quite fun. We’re making cookies.”
“Ah, now that sounds like my kind of fun.”
Again, she laughed and his heart did another little swoop. Every laugh he earned from her felt like he had just received an Olympic medal. Sure he was red cheeked, sweating through his white t-shirt, and had just fallen off a roof, but he had made her laugh and so that was his day made.
“So it sounds like you have a busy night ahead of you,” he said.
She shrugged. “Yeah, pretty busy. But I am free tomorrow night.”
His brows knitted together, going low on his forehead in confusion.
“You’re free tomorrow…”
“Tomorrow night, yes.”
“Oh.”
She pushed her head forward slightly as if she were waiting for him to finish a sentence she hadn’t started.
“Are… are you free tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m free tomorrow. Why?” Then it hit him. “Oh! You’re wondering if I’m free tomorrow! You’re asking me out! Wait, you’re really asking me out?”
“Yes, I’m asking you out,” she said, laughing.
He stared at her for a moment before saying, “Even after I just embarrassingly fell off that roof.”
That got her to laugh even more. “Even after that. It was quite the impression. Dramatic entrance and all.” Her expression went soft. “And you are incredibly cute.”
“You think I’m cute.”
She smiled as if the answer was obvious. “Of course! You’re, ehem, very handsome.” Had her eyes just flicked down to his chest? Was she checking him out? Bloody hell, she was! Her eyes had definitely lingered on where his shirt was sticking tightly to his skin. He grinned so wide his face hurt.
“Well, I think you’re stunning and, ehem, beautiful,” he said. He decided to leave off the fact that it was seeing her that made him fall off the roof. That felt like a story for later when it was slightly less embarrassing. But his compliment was true, so true it hurt, really.
A pink blush crawled across her cheeks as a smile pulled up the corners of her mouth.
“Well thank you,” she said. She tucked her hair behind her ear once more. “So, dinner tomorrow night at seven?”
“Yes! Sounds perfect.”
“Great! Well I’ll see you then.”
She gave him one last smile and then turned on her heel and skipped back up the stairs of the house next door.
He took back what he said before. This was his day made.