Disclaimer: Characters belong to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

A successful move

It was late at night and Jemma Simmons went to bed four hours ago, but Leo Fitz got stuck with one of his latest projects that he called "the night night bomb" and completely lost track of time. He was about to finish. Just a few more minor details and it would be another perfect weapon created by Leo Fitz, but his yawning became more frequently so he decided to call it a night, before he would fall asleep above his equipment again.

He cursory cleaned the lab and hung up his cloak before he made his way upstairs. When Leo opened the door he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face. It was pitch-black inside the plane that everyone liked to call "the bus" and even though he tried to get to his bunk as quiet as possible and used his hands for orientation, he couldn't help but bump deafening against the room divider to his left.

Leo bit his lip to smother a cry of pain and held his shoulder instantly. "Always the left one." he thought to himself continuing his way to his bunk while rubbing his shoulder and hoping he didn't wake anyone up.

The closer Leo came to his bunk, the clearer he could see again. First he thought his eyes were simply adjusting to the darkness, but when he passed Grant Ward's bunk he noticed that there was still light inside and the slide door was half-open.

Leo was curious by nature. Forgotten was his fatigue and all he could think of was "Why would someone who stands up around 5:30am for his morning practice be awake at 4am, if there was no obvious reason like a life and death situation?". And because Leo knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he found out the answer to his question, he walked over to the door and sneaked a peek inside. What he saw let his eyes wide and jaw drop immediately.

Grant Ward was sitting on top of this bed with his legs crossed while reading one of Leo's favorite advanced science books. Next to Grant was also a scientific dictionary with a few Post-it notes looking out on the side, as well as a pen and a pile of unused Post-it notes.

Everyone saw Grant reading every once in a while, but normally he preferred books of lighter fare, out of his field like his S.O.'s, or books for language acquisition. Generally spoken: Books that contained what Ward considered English or whatever language he was learning.

Last thought let Leo roll his eyes. It wasn't really Ward's fault that Leo seemed annoyed with hearing Grant occasionally say: "Fitz. English, please." For the past years Leo was non-stop surrounded by other scientists and those who talked in technical terms all the time, and was therefore used to be understood the way he talked.

Leo had to admit it didn't really help that he kept being around Simmons. Sooner or later he had to leave the safe haven to adjust to explaining his expertise in words that people like Ward, Skye and sometimes even Coulson could understand without a dictionary at hand. Maybe Simmons was right when she said Fitz was ready to be in the field. The greatest difficulty for Leo wasn't overcoming his fear of dying it was that he wasn't ready to be around non-scientists.

The more Leo stared at the scene in front of him and let his thoughts wander, the more he was certain that the book Grant was reading was actually his own. The book cover had a slight dent and one of the corners looked like it got accidentally burned. Both results of Leo's less careful and scrupulously times that he still had strong memories of since this was his favorite book. Leo felt responsible, Grant had enough on his plate, he shouldn't be forced to stay up all night and learn scientific terms in order to understand what Leo said.

When the door slightly moved, Grant looked up from the book just in time to see Leo's eyes widening again when their eyes met, which resulted in Leo hitting his left shoulder when he tried to get a hold of the door before these fell open completely and exposed more than just Leo's head to the man on the bed.

Leo was so lost in his own thoughts that he accidentally leaned against the door and pushed it open. In an attempt to avoid having to explain himself, he panicked and forgot that it was a slide door, and accidentally bashed his shoulder once again this night before getting his hands on the door and these disappeared into the wall.

He heard Grant asking "Are you ok?" with his lowered voice and saw him standing up from the corner of his eyes, but for the second time tonight he was busy smothering a cry of pain and rubbing his shoulder. He wasn't normally that clumsy, but everyone had those days where everything seemed to go wrong right? Just like the day Ward put the 0-8-4 in the bag and on Leo's back, who hit his shoulder just like now when the group evacuated the temple by following Grant outside.

Ward turned Leo carefully in his direction, to take a look at Leo's shoulder, or at least palpate it, to make sure it wasn't fractured, since Leo's face reflected just as much pain as there were rocket ships on his tie.

"What are you doing?" Grant didn't even bother to look up when he heard Leo's question whispered in his ear and answered softly "Examining your shoulder if it's broken, which isn't really easy. How many layers do you wear? Three? Four?!" instead. When he pressed his thumb against Leo's shoulder Grant saw Leo 's body slightly flinch. He didn't think it was actually fractured, but Leo probably had a bruise.

"No, I mean what are you doing with my book?" Leo tried to look into Grant's eyes, he didn't mean to sound angry or anything he was just curious, but he couldn't even catch a glimpse of Grant's caught facial expression nor was he sure the man had heard him this time. All Grant did was turn around to grab the subject under discussion, avoiding Leo's eyes and pushing the book into Leo's hands while mumbling "Oh right. Sorry, I didn't ask you first. You can have it back.", therefore he must have heard him after all.

Leo continued trying to hold eye contact while clutching his book against his chest. "Ward." He started a little louder since they tried to keep their voices down as much as possible so far to not wake anyone up in the bunks next to them, but Grant went to the other side of his room and stored away the little scientific dictionary, that rested next to him on the bed.

"You should probably put some ice on your shoulder, but I'm sure it isn't broken. Just a bruise." Grant regained his composure when he turned around to finally face Leo again, who was standing there like a little school boy on his first day at a new school that asked for directions and got told the time instead.

It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Both men trying to figure the other one out until Leo decided this was laughable. They were never at a loss for words with each other why start now? Therefore he wet his lips and broke the silence again. "Ward listen, you can have the book. I just wanted to know what your motive, to read it in the first place was, since science isn't your usually go-to subject. That's all." He cracked a smile and looked expectant into Grant's eyes, but still clutching on to his book hoping the answer wouldn't be that Grant felt bad for always asking Leo to speak English.

"I... I am..." Grant wet his lips like Leo before and tried to sound as casual as possible when he found the right words to continue. "I'm trying to avoid asking you to repeat everything in English in the future. It isn't your fault that I don't speak science English and it's always good to learn something new, so I thought I don't have anything to lose and give it a try." Blush suffused Grant's cheeks when he admitted, what Leo feared to hear, and shrug his shoulders, but for the first time this night he held eye contact with Leo the entire time.

It wasn't fair that Grant took all the blame just because Leo was used to distinguish himself with his knowledge and intellect when it came to his field of expertise and Leo realized this more with every second he looked over to those brown eyes of Grant's, who remained standing at the other side of the room .

"No." Leo saw Grant's mien getting a bit confused and continued as fast as he could. "No, you shouldn't have to! I should learn that not everyone spent years studying all that stuff. That's why I'm on the team right? We all have our specializations and mine happens to be something you have no clue of. That's not your fault, it's mine for ignoring it and expecting of you to know what I'm talking about when I explain things again in what you seem to have interpreted as an annoyed tone."

Leo didn't even realize that he walked towards Grant during his flood of words, but now that he was standing right in front of him, seeing those brown eyes up close while his arms, that were still holding the book against his chest, touched with Grant's stomach, he noticed the little smile that formed around Grant's corner of the mouth and slightly reached his eyes. It relaxed Leo a nuance, but it also caught him off guard. He wasn't used to Grant smiling at him like this, but he was certain that he wasn't having one of his latest dreams either nor was he going mental.

Grant never came up with the idea that Leo might have his fair share on their communication issue, all that came to his own mind was that he himself must be one of those all brawn and no brains sort of guys. Something he fought his whole life and which was the reason for him to learn a bunch of languages. Yet the longer he spent time with FitzSimmons the more it was frustrating him once again. But now that he knew Leo's apprehension he understood that it wasn't for one of them to solve the point of contention on their own. "Don't beat yourself up, Fitz. I guess we both have to work on us." He gave Leo a genuine smile and saw the other man's face lit up again.

Seeing Leo happy again let Grant finally realize that they stood quite close together. Grant wouldn't say he was uncomfortable, but all those moments between the two of them, started with Leo having the upper hand on the situation and letting Grant left in a pondering and sometimes almost embarrassing state. It was like this from the beginning, somehow Leo Fitz started a game Grant seemed to be losing no matter how hard he tried to have control over it, but he decided it was finally the perfect time to turn the tables - unexpected just like Leo's first move on their first day that got it all started.

"How about you tutor me every day in everything science that you do and I get you a bit in shape in return." Grant finished with a smirk, slapped Leo's butt and winked at him. The sight that met his eyes was priceless.

On the one hand Leo looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights, but on the other his face went to such a dark shade of red that Grant thought he must have hit a nerve with choosing his words and actions as ambiguously as he did.

It's not like Grant hadn't noticed that Leo watched him whenever he thought no one was looking or paying attention. Grant had kept an eye on the man since their first encounter that ended with Leo slapping his buttocks out of nowhere. He just never thought it would actually mean something and was just a game of teasing or a much too early bonding attempt, so Grant waited for his turn to get back at Leo for it. According to the color of Leo's face there appeared to be more than meets the eye to Leo's behavior and if Grant would have been a bit more observant to himself he would have to admit his own wasn't as innocent either.

"I'm joking, Leo." Grant bent down to have their eyes leveled and put his hands on Leo's shoulders when he said it, but his smile never left his face. Slowly he realized that he liked Leo's reaction more than he probably should.

Leo swallowed hard and tried to find his countenance again before he whispered back with still surprise and almost shock in his voice. "Of course you are." While he was answering, it dawned on to him that Grant was messing with him, but he couldn't fail to notice that there was more than just satisfaction over the successful move on Grant's face for him to see. "

"Seems like I wasn't as subtle as I thought." Leo thought to himself nonetheless before he reminded himself that two can play this game at the same time and since he started it on their first day, he should know best. After all Leo had to admit that he had Grant's counterstroke coming and yet he would have never thought it would ever turn out like the beginning of one of his dreams.

Getting lost in his thoughts again and Grant being that close and actually holding body contact with him, Leo had a hard time keeping control to not turn this completely into one of his dreams that he had since the team moved in to the bus. He tried his best to ignore to remember that he found Grant attractive the second he turned around to see who let the bag fall to the ground the day they all met and that since then Leo developed a solid crush on Grant.

But since Grant just officially got to first-name basis Leo gathered all his courage and decided to make a bold move himself and use the fact that for once they were at the same height. He pressed the book against Grant's chest and brought his face up close so that their lips were almost touching. "Good idea the tutoring. In the end you learn something incorrectly and we don't want that, do we? But maybe we should schedule it during nighttime. Just in case you want to combine the tutoring with your part of the deal."

Leo couldn't believe it himself, but he actually winked at Grant to make it clear he knew exactly what Grant was implying before. Then he quickly turned around and walked a bit slower as normally towards the door to avoid giving the impression he was afraid of Grant's response. He never actually acted on his flirty side only imagined or dreamed about what he could and might should have said and done afterwards, but with Grant it happened so naturally that he couldn't resist.

Because Leo's curiosity got the best of him again, he couldn't leave the room without seeing the other man's reaction. When he was at the door sill he carefully turned around before he said "Good night, Grant.". Leo closed the door behind him after he stepped out on the floor again to finally go to bed. On his face was a grin from ear to ear and he was certain he would have a good night sleep and a very lovely dream.

Left behind was a Grant that only few people will ever see in their life. He was clutching the book to his chest and caressing it with his right hand's thumb while gazing after Leo with a shade of red now not only on his cheeks, but the rest of his face, as well as a smile that made it clear that he finally noticed that there was more behind his own behavior towards Leo than he admitted to himself so far. And because of his realization he was more than pleased with the outcome of the situation and made a mental note that he should have given science a chance earlier.