You’re Different Now || FitzSimmons
Fitz woke up at 6:30 in the morning every day. He started his day day running around the neighbourhood. It made him feel like a normal guy, just having a job around his house. The next segment was in the Playground beating the shit out of a punching bag. After that was combat training with either Skye, May, or Mack. It was usually Hunter these days, though, and today it was.
Hunter lay on the ground in a headlock, Fitz breathing hard while he was hardly breathing. Fitz let him go and Hunter rolled on the mat, coughing his lungs out. “Sorry, think I held you for too long that time,” he said sheepishly.
“You think?” Hunter snapped. He chuckled. “Damn, kid. You’re getting good.”
Fitz smiled. “I’ve been practicing.”
“I know. Ever since Jem-”
“Come on, another round?” Fitz interrupted, hopping up and holding out a hand for Hunter to get up. Hunter shook his head.
“You can’t ignore it forever, you know,” he said as he got up. He had done the same with Bobbi a couple times, and the she-devil always came back.
“Well, I have some time before forever is up,” Fitz said stubbornly. He threw the first punch.
The two had a couple more rounds before Skye walked in. “Hey, boys,” she said, leaning on a nearby post. “Having fun?”
“I kicked his ass,” Fitz said with a big smile as he got up off the mat where the two had been laying down resting.
“I kicked his too,” Hunter said, defending his honour. “Twice.”
“I got you four times, so,” Fitz countered.
“You’re both amazing,” Skye said sarcastically, “and Coulson wants you in for debriefing. Undercovers got back with Hydra info.”
Fitz took his hoodie off the hook and threw it over his bare chest, but he didn’t bother zipping it. It was too hot. Hunter followed him, pulling a t-shirt over his head and they headed to the debrief room. “Did you know we had undercovers in the field?” Hunter asked. Fitz shook his head. “How can we be debriefed about something we were never briefed on.”
“To hell if I know,” Fitz said with a smile, taking a swig of water. “That Coulson is getting bloody... Ah, crap. Bloody...”
“Secretive?” Hunter finished for him.
“Exactly, that one,” Fitz agreed.
When Jemma left, he had completely stopped trying. He didn’t speak to anyone, didn’t try to understand any knew projects, and hardly left his bunk. Two weeks after she left May came in his room and basically threw him in bed. He would never forget what she said or the face she wore when she said it.
“Listen to me, Leopold Fitz,” she had said. “I’m not your S.O. and you know me well enough to know that I’m not your friend, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back and watch you waste yourself. In this business, you lose people. That’s what happens. Jemma left for whatever, tough love. Thing is, you’ve now got a choice if you’re gonna leave us too or if you’re gonna become the best you can.”
“I can’t even speak,” he had replied, defeated. “My brain is broken. How am I supposed to be a bloody Scientist?”
“Then find another way to be useful.”
The next day he had got off his ass, and now he was great at ops and Hunter was his honorary, that to say unofficial, S.O. He still helped Mack with engineering every now and again, but it was usually just spoken about when they were in combat training.
Hunter and Fitz walked into the debrief room laughing together at a memory of the first time Fitz tried to throw a punch, when the both of them froze.
“Well, I’ll be,” Hunter said. Fitz was just stunned, staring at a familiar girl with shorter hair than he remembered. “Turns you forever ain’t as long.”
Fitz couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Please for the love of God tell me you did not just quote Iggy Azalea,” he whispered back to his S.O.
“Send the love of God my formal apology,” Hunter replied.
Fitz laughed, but he felt a pair of eyes on him. He ignored it as best he could and showed indifference like he’d been taught, but that was hard to do. She was different now and so was he, it was just up to them to decide what to do with it.
Hunter and Fitz took two seats in the back and listened closely to what Coulson said about the mission Bobbi, who was the ex Hunter affectionately called a she-devil of a demon’s spawn, and Jemma had been on.  After the debrief was over, Hunter when forward and talked to Bobbi while Fitz snuck out to the kitchen and went to make himself some coffee or something of the like. Most people stayed behind and congratulated Jemma, but somehow he couldn’t stomach it.
He ended up with a protein shake and back in the training room, using his emotions to his gain. That was the one thing May taught him, and right now it felt damn useful as he punched the hell out of a sand bag. He had music in his ears, and he didn’t even hear as the door opened.