Jemma happily skipped through the front door of May's Modelling right on time and headed upstairs to her desk. As she climbed the stairs, she slowed down; she could hear voices coming from May's office – loud, angry voices. One was definitely Melinda, but the other – while definitely male – she couldn't exactly pinpoint, yet there was a familiarity to it.

She unpacked her things at her desk and sat awkwardly through the muffled argument bellowing from the nearby office. Try as she might, she couldn't work out what was being said frequently enough to fathom what the heated debate was about. She'd never heard Melinda sound quite so angry before. It was terrifying to say the least.

The office door suddenly flew open. Panicked, Jemma hopped off her stool and hid behind her desk. She could only hear footsteps approaching the way out.

"You couldn't at least try and be reasonable?" The male voice accused.

"I'm the only one who ever was! Now get out and I swear to god if I ever see your face in my building again I will sue you for harassment!" Melinda roared as she exited her office but remained at her open door.

"…I don't care how much you threaten me, Melinda…this needs to be worked out. For both of our sakes! How about you give me a call when you want to act your age, since you love having the power so much."

With that, Jemma heard the man walk out and begin his descent down the steps towards the exit of the building. As the noise faded, Jemma remained frozen in place and unsure of what to do next. Was Melinda still there? Had she gone back in her office?

"You can come out now, Jemma."

Ah.

Jemma sheepishly stood up and smiled shyly at Melinda. "Good morning."

"Your stuff was laid out on your desk, guessed you were hiding. Sorry you had to hear that." Melinda said.

"…Who was that?" Jemma dared to ask.

Melinda let out a sigh. "Andrew Garner. The man who'd been phoning after me lately."

Jemma nodded understanding, now realising why she recognised his voice from somewhere. "Why was he here?"

"He was waiting for me this morning; said he was fed up of me blatantly ignoring him. Asshole."

"Well…you were ignoring him." Jemma shrugged.

"Yes, to avoid yet another fight that never solves anything like the one just then." Melinda explained.

"…Can I ask what it was all about?"

"Business stuff, mostly. We came into this industry together and he's trying to claw his way into my company." Melinda revealed.

"So…you two used to be close, then?" Jemma wondered.

Melinda smiled for a very, very brief moment and shrugged. "We used to be married."

…

Daisy chugged yet another cup of coffee as she caught up on her emails. She couldn't exactly say she'd missed sitting alone in her office at work over the last few days, especially considering what (well, who) she had been doing instead of working.

There was a knock on her glass door; she looked up to see the beaming face of her boss, Phil Coulson, smiling at her. As he entered, another familiar figure followed in behind him – Leo.

"There she is! I have a new nickname for you – Star Finder. Because YOU found this man right here, and this man is a STAR." Phil grinned, patting Leo on the back enthusiastically. "What do you think?"

"I think you should keep brainstorming." Daisy nodded with a smile.

"I'll come out with a good one eventually. I'll leave you both to it. Leo, I cannot thank you enough. The snaps all look AMAZING. AMAZING." Phil beamed, shaking Leo's hand.

"My pleasure." Leo nodded.

"Excellent! I can't wait to see the updated site! See you two bright sparks later!" Phil said with two thumbs up as he hurriedly walked out of the office.

"Well, Chris Traeger over there is certainly a joyful soul." Leo grinned.

Daisy laughed. "He can be a bit overbearing at times, but he's a sweet enough guy. All finished up then?"

"Yep. Just thought I'd pop in and said hello before I went. By the way, your portrait is by far my favourite." Leo said.

"Please tell me Phil didn't choose the one where I went cross-eyed." Daisy sighed.

"Of course not! I was allowed to choose yours, so technically I chose the one where you went cross-eyed." Leo chuckled.

"You suck."

"You sound like Lance." Leo said. "Just have the job with your boyfriend tomorrow now."

Daisy blushed. "…Excuse me?"

"You go for a meeting with Lincoln and practically vanish for a few days? We didn't exactly think you'd gone skiing." Leo smirked.

Daisy shrugged in defeat and smiled through her red cheeks. "Jemma's gonna badger me about this a hell of a lot, isn't she?"

"Well you did the same to her over me, so I'm gonna take a stab at the answer to that being a resounding 'yes'." Leo chuckled.

"Thought so. Crap." Daisy sighed playfully.

"Either way, I'm really happy for you. Jemma was kinda worried that you were lonely." Leo said.

"I was, but now…well, you know what they say; the stars shine brightest on the darkest nights." Daisy smiled. "Thank you."

"See you around. Can't wait to meet your lover boy." Leo chuckled as he walked out of the office.

"I'll throw my stapler at you, Leopold! Don't think I won't!"

…

That evening, Leo and Jemma went out for dinner at one of the few romantic restaurants they had yet to try. They had compiled a portfolio of each one they had visited and made notes and ratings on their experience for future reference.

"What're you thinking?" Leo asked as Jemma tried the yellowy soup in front of her.

"…Three, maybe three and a half stars." Jemma replied. "Anyway, how was work today? Did it all go well?"

"It's sweet that you're pretending to care when you just wanna know if I spoke to Daisy about Lincoln." Leo smiled sweetly.

Jemma grinned, taking Leo's hand across the table. "You know me far too well."

"And what a joy that is." Leo chuckled. "And, I'll just say that you'll want to be talking to her about it because there is love in the air."

"I knew it! Oh, this is so exciting! We could go on double dates!" Jemma exclaimed excitedly.

"Perhaps let them go on a proper date themselves first." Leo laughed.

"They haven't been on an official date yet? What have they been doing?" Jemma asked, then sighed in realisation as Leo held back laughter. "Never mind."

"You're adorable. Have I told you that before?" Leo smiled.

"Maybe once or twice." Jemma blushed. "How's the beer?"

"Honestly, it's absolute piss."

Jemma laughed out loud, spitting yellow soup onto the pure white tablecloth. Several nearby tables stared at her and Leo in horror. They looked at one another and tried their best not to burst out laughing in the otherwise pleasantly calm restaurant.

"Apologies." Jemma whispered to a horrified woman sat on the table next to them. The woman rolled her eyes and returned to her own food. Jemma groaned. "Blimey, lighten up my dear."

She looked back at Leo, who was laughing lightly and staring at her with wide, beautiful blue eyes. "What?"

Leo shrugged with a smile, eyes still fixed on her as he rested his chin on one hand. "Nothing. I just…nothing."

"No, go on…what?" Jemma chuckled.

"Nothing at all." Leo grinned, looking at the yellow stains of soup on the tablecloth. "Reminds me of those ink blots they show at the psychiatrists to see what you can see in the images."

"What do you see, then?" Jemma wondered.

"Laa-Laa got hit by a truck." Leo smirked and Jemma laughed. "You?"

Jemma inspected her mess for a moment, deep in thought. "An explosion in the Simpsons family home."

Leo laughed loudly again, attracting more glares from nearby customers eating at other tables. "Blimey, I don't think this lot know what it is to be happy."

"I am slightly concerned that I've stained the tablecloth."

"Don't be; they'll have loads to spare. Blame my incredible comedic skill." Leo smiled.

"Oh, I couldn't do that; they'll throw you in jail if they heard some of your awful jokes." Jemma teased.

"I'll have you know, Jemma Simmons, that I was called Class Clown at school!" Leo stated.

"Really?"

"Yeah! I wrote it on my school picture myself!" Leo joked and Jemma giggled again. "I'm about ninety percent sure I'm addicted to your laugh."

"Only ninety? I must do better then." Jemma grinned.

Leo returned to his previous state of resting his chin on his hand and smiling at her.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Jemma asked with a smile.

"Because you're beautiful." Leo smiled. "And you're gonna be a hell of a model one day."

"Maybe. One day…for now, I've got lots of admin and scheduling to deal with. Melinda's ex-husband came into work today. Wants some of the business for himself, according to her." Jemma explained.

"I didn't know she'd been married." Leo said.

"Neither did I! It was strange listening to her argue with him. She held her own and was clearly being strong as always, but I don't know…it's like she was on the verge of completely losing her cool, you know? Like she'd reached her limit. I'd never heard such a near loss of control in her voice before." Jemma explained.

Still staring, Leo raised his eyebrows. "Only listening? You didn't see her with him?"

Jemma looked down timidly. "I may have been hiding behind my desk."

Leo laughed again, his face lighting up like the birth of a beautiful new day. He stayed staring at her as he had been and was silent for a while. "…Jemma?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Jemma felt her breathing stop as she looked at Leo. He looked at her as if she were the last star that ever existed and was about to burn out; she only recognised that look because she knew that's how she looked at him. It was how she looked at him when she woke up in the middle of the night and watched him sleep for a little while. How she looked at him when he told an awful joke. How she looked at him when he burst into the room and fell flat on his face in front of her. How she looked at him no matter what he did. How she always planned on looking at him.

She'd heard the words before, of course. Hell, she'd said them to others before. But she had never felt like this upon hearing them; it was like she'd just heard them for the first time. Leo Fitz could make those three little words sound brand new.

"I love you too." She smiled. His face lit up like the hottest of flames.

"Well that's good then, because that could have been -"

"- Hang on a minute." Jemma interrupted, taking Leo's hands as tears stung the back of her eyes. "Just…just give me a minute. I want to take in everything about this moment. Because this is what perfection feels like, and looks like. Perfection looks like you."

Leo said nothing; he simply leant over the table and kissed the woman he loved with all he had. They forgot about the judgmental customers and the stained tablecloth. They even managed to forget about their work and the drama of their friends' loves lives for just those few precious moments. They were just a girl who was in love with a boy, and a boy who was in love with a girl. Beautifully simple and beautifully complex at the same time.

"…Leo?"

"Yeah?"

"Your tie is in my soup."

"Shit."

They laughed until they cried, and even the fiercest of glares from those around them couldn't even hope to pierce the happiness they felt.