#simmons sunburns easily (just like me)

[websurfshark]

guys do NOT take them to the beach worst mistake of my life

[theartofbeinganerd]

Oh please write a fic where fitz and deke go to the zoo ♥️

This is set post this fic, where Deke and pregnant Jemma go baby shopping; I wouldn’t say it’s completely necessary to read that one first, but it may help a bit with context.

Also, what the Fitz/Deke relationship is going to be like is kind of hard to get a read on, so I hope this came out alright!

(Also also, full disclosure, but I have never been to a zoo, so that’s why I kept this purposefully vague - I know generally what kinds of things they have there, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.)

(Ao3)

-

After Jemma’s promise to Deke the previous week that theywould take him to the zoo (Fitz didn’t know the full details of how this promise came about, but heimagined that it was Jemma’s idea more than Deke’s), Fitz found himselfstanding with Jemma near the exit of the Lighthouse, waiting on their grandson sothat they could go on their “family trip”, as Jemma kept calling it.

It’d been over six months now since they’d found out whattheir connection to Deke was, and Jemma had settled easily and almosteffortlessly into her role as a grandmother. Fitz, however, had had a slightlytougher time adjusting to it – especially since he and Deke hadn’t gotten offon the right foot in the first place.

But, Fitz had to admit that he was warming up to it and didn’tmind having Deke around as much, particularly because of how much Jemma lovedspending time with him. He was coming slowly but surely to the grudgingconclusion that Deke wasn’t all thatbad.

More than spending “family” time together, though, Fitz wassimply looking forward to go to the zoo, though he certainly wouldn’t admitthat to Deke. It had been quite some time since he’d been to a zoo – the lasttime had been with Jemma, about six months before they’d joined Coulson’s team,back before everything had changed. Fitz couldn’t help but marvel at what adifference a few years made; back then, they were best friends, partners, andwould’ve (and had many times before)denied to their last breath that there was nothing more between them.

And now, they were married, expecting their first child, and–

“You guys ready to go?” Deke called excitedly as heapproached them, a big grin on his face.

And, mostunbelievable of all, was their fully grown grandson from the future.

“Yes, we are,” Jemma replied with an answering smile,reaching over to pat the backpack sitting on Fitz’s shoulders, “I’ve packedsunscreen, bottles of water, and snacks, so we’re all set.”

“Let’s get going, then,” Fitz stated, turning to lead theway to the exit.

He paused, though, when he heard Coulson calling after them,“Fitzsimmons, wait a minute!”

Turning around to find him striding toward them, Fitz notedhis apologetic smile with a furrowed brow, asking curiously, “What is it?”

“Daisy and May finally managed to bring back some samples ofthat foreign substance that keeps appearing everywhere that those supposedalien attacks take place,” Coulson explained, adding, “I know you had plans fortoday, but this is going to have to take precedence.”

“Does this mean that we’re not going?” Deke asked, turningto Jemma and Fitz, disappointment clear in his tone.

Hiding his own disappointment, Fitz replied, “Seems like it.We can always try for next weekend, though.”

“Now wait a minute,” Jemma started thoughtfully, “I spentsome time with Deke last week when you had to work, so why don’t you two go tothe zoo together today? It’s only fair.”

Noticeably perking back up, but trying to play it off, Dekeglanced at Fitz, clearing his throat as he offered, “I’d…um, I’d be okay withthat. If you are too, that is.”

Fitz wasn’t so quick to agree, however, turning to Jemma andasking uneasily, “Are you sure? What if you need me in the lab?”

Jemma scoffed at that, questioning with a raised eyebrow, “Andwhen was the last time that youneeded me to complete a project inyour field of expertise?”

Despite her reply, Fitz stood firm, glancing pointedly downat her rounded stomach as he informed her, “That wasn’t what I meant, Jemma.”

With a soft smile, Jemma reached up to cup his cheek andinsisted gently, “I’ll be fine, Fitz; you know that I’ll be careful. You shouldjust go have fun at the zoo with Deke, alright?”

After a beat, Fitz finally agreed quietly, “Alright.”

Her smile grew before she pecked his lips, then she toldboth of them, “I’ll see you later, have fun!” Coulson gave them a nod, then heand Jemma began walking away, toward the lab, but they hadn’t gotten too farbefore she added over her shoulder, “And don’t forget to wear sunscreen! I don’tcare if it’s cloudy, wear it!”

Once they’d disappeared, there was a lengthy silence betweenFitz and Deke, but he finally broke it by clearing his throat and saying, “Well,alright; it’s just us, then.”

“Guess so,” Deke replied, offering him a small half-smileand a shrug.

After another moment, Fitz led the way out of the base, andto the parked car that he and Jemma had rented in anticipation of driving tothe nearest zoo, which they’d found was about a half an hour away. He got intothe driver’s side and started the car, but he couldn’t help but notice that itwas a long moment before Deke got into the passenger’s seat, glancing at thecar in fascinated confusion.

“What is this?” heasked, immediately reaching out to start pressing buttons, changing the radiostation a half dozen times before Fitz grasped his hand, shaking his headfirmly.

“It’s a car,” he answered, adding with a sigh, “Put on yourseatbelt, Deke.”

Deke glanced around in surprise, then laughed when hefinally found it, saying to himself, “Oh, thereit is,” as he buckled himself in. When Fitz pulled out onto the road, hequestioned, “Is a car like a ship? Does it fly?”

“No,” Fitz replied simply.

He was quiet for a few minutes, then commented under hisbreath, “It’d be a lot faster if it flew.”

Briefly, Fitz thought about mentioning Lola, but in the end,he didn’t want to encourage Deke’s idea that everyone should be getting aroundby flying car, so he kept it to himself. Instead, he turned up the radio a bit,though it didn’t quite stop the flow of questions coming from Deke for theentire drive there (road signs utterly baffledhim, as did speed limits, and Fitz could only hope that Deke never got the ideato try driving for himself).

Once they’d finally arrived and Fitz had pulled into a freeparking spot in the packed lot, he turned off the car and unbuckled his seatbelt.With a sigh, he reached for his backpack and took out the sunscreen, explainingseriously, “If we don’t use this, Jemma will know.”

Deke didn’t seem convinced, eyeing the bottle as he countered,“Will she?”

Clearly, Deke hadn’t spent enough time around hisgrandmother to be truly afraid of her yet. So, arching his eyebrows, Fitz toldhim shortly, “Yes, she will.”

Apparently believing him (or not wanting to risk it), Dekeheld his hand out, allowing Fitz to pour some of the lotion onto it. “Ugh, this smells horrible!” hecomplained, wrinkling his nose and leaning as far away from it as he could getin the confined space of the car. “What do you even do with this?”

“You rub it into your skin.” Fitz demonstrated for him, rubbinghis hands together and covering his face and neck with it. “It protects youfrom UV rays.”

Pulling an utterly disgusted face, Deke finally slatheredthe lotion onto his face (a bit dramatically, in his Fitz’s opinion), wonderingaloud, “Is this really worth it?”

Returning the sunscreen to the backpack, Fitz assured him, “Thecombination of sunburned skin and an upset Jemma Simmons is far worse, trustme.”

With that done, they climbed out of the car, and crossed theparking lot to the entrance of the zoo, where Fitz bought them tickets to getin and retrieved a map. Just inside, he immediately opened it, searchingstraight away for the monkey exhibit.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Deke pullingsomething out of his jacket pocket, and a moment later, he spoke up, “Hey, willany of the animals in my book be here? I’d love to see a real live hamster!”

Frowning, Fitz glanced up from the map, catching sight ofDeke flipping through the children’s book on animals that Jemma had bought Dekethe previous week. “Deke, those are domesticanimals – the kind that people keep as pets– and they aren’t in zoos.” Deke looked a bit disappointed, but nodded inunderstanding. However, when he still had the book out after a moment, Fitzadded in exasperation, “Put that away, will you?”

Finally spotting the monkeys on his map, fortunately relativelyclose to the entrance, Fitz quickly folded it back up and led the way there first.From his first glimpse of a capuchin on a tree branch, a grin began forming onhis lips.

“Wow!” Deke cried, stepping closer to the exhibit. “Real monkeys!”

Fitz was briefly impressed that he even knew what they werewhen he hadn’t even known what dogsand cats were, but then he realizedthat Jemma must’ve told Deke about them at some point. “Yeah, I’ve alwayswanted a monkey as a pet – I mean, just lookat them, with their little hands and their tails…”Not for the first time, he then began calculating the best way to get Jemma toagree to them having a monkey as a pet, but it was interrupted by Deke’s confusedvoice.

“I thought you couldn’t have zoo animals as pets?”

Making a face, Fitz clarified, “Ah, well, you’re not supposed to most of the time, but somepeople ignore those sorts of laws and keep wild animals as pets anyway.”

“Whoa, cool!” Deke commented, a grin ticking his lips up atthe corners.

Fitz had a sudden and horrifying image of Deke somehowbringing a tiger or an alligator into the Lighthouse as a “pet”, and then he would have to explain to Jemma andthe others where Deke had gotten the idea that that was okay. So, he clearedhis throat and corrected, “No, not cool, okay? That’s a bad thing, don’t everdo that.”

Deke was clearly confused again, but he ultimately agreed, “Okay,okay, sure.”

After finally managing to tear Fitz away from the monkeys,the two of them spent some time walking around amid the families with young childrenand the couples out on dates, the grandparents taking their grandkids out forthe weekend. To himself, Fitz couldn’t help but be entertained by the fact thatno one there would ever guess that he was a part of the latter group.

He spent quite a bit of the time having to constantlyexplain what things were to Deke, who was fascinated by everything, especially by animals that lived in different climatesfrom theirs, like penguins and panda bears. The animal that caught him bysurprise the most, though, had to be giraffes – Deke couldn’t seem to wrap hishead around just how tall they were.

Truthfully, though, he seemed most astounded by just how big most of the animals happened to be. “Imean, they’re bigger than me,” Deke pointed out when they were standing infront of the lion exhibit, his eyes wide and his eyebrows high on his forehead.Gesturing to the lion itself, he added, “That one could eat me!”

“Probably would if you got close enough,” Fitz agreed, butwhen Deke looked at him in horror, he winced and imagined him having nightmaresabout being eaten by a lion and telling Jemma that it was because of him, so he forced a smile and lied, “Justkidding.”

After a little while spent wandering around the zoo, theystopped at one of the vendors to get something to eat, despite the water andsnacks that Jemma had packed.

“What Jemma doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Fitz insisted toDeke as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket.

Deke was scanning the menu eagerly, but suddenly he gaspedand read aloud, “Lemonade? What is that?!”

Offering the vendor that was giving them a strange look aweak smile, Fitz explained to Deke in a hushed voice, “It’s a drink with lemonjuice mixed with sugar and water.”

“I want that,”Deke told the vendor, his eyes wide, as though it was something of greatimportance.

“Sure thing, buddy,” the man replied, glancing briefly overat Fitz, who simply shrugged as he passed him the proper amount of money forthe drink.

When the man handed Deke the cup of lemonade, he took itquickly, hurriedly taking a sip from the straw. “Whoa, this is amazing!”

“Yeah, good, glad to hear it,” Fitz replied absently,accepting the bag of popcorn that he’d ordered from the vendor and leading Dekeaway so that the people behind them in line could order.

“Hey, does lemonade work in the same way that lemons do?”Deke questioned suddenly.

Frowning, he glanced over at Deke, finding him waitingpatiently for an answer to a question that Fitz didn’t even understand. “Um…what?”

“You know,” Deke elaborated, as though Fitz was the ridiculous one, “if you give someone lemonade, do theyknow what it means?”

“I don’t even knowwhat it means,” Fitz responded dryly.

“So…you’ve never given Jemma lemonade?” Deke asked, lookingmore than a little surprised by this information.

Fitz was silent for a beat, then he asked, “Is this someweird future metaphor that I’m not getting? Because, let me remind you that youdefinitely don’t want to get intothat subject anymore than I do.”

“Huh?” When he seemed to understand, Deke pulled a disgustedface and cried, “What? No! I reallymean lemonade! You know, the whole leave a lemon in someone’s bunk to show themyou like them? Coulson and Mack told me that people do that here too!”

Snorting in amusement, Fitz clapped his free hand on Deke’sshoulder and told him, “Hate to break this to you, but they pulled one over onyou; there’s no such thing.”

“What? Are you…areyou serious?” Deke groaned, visibly embarrassed as he briefly closed his eyes,running his free hand over his face.

“Very,” Fitz assured him, “try flowers or chocolates orsomething instead – that’s what I’ve always heard works best.”

Deke grumbled something under his breath, but Fitz didn’tquite catch it. He wasn’t very talkative for a while after that, spending mostof the time petulantly sipping his lemonade in silence as they walked by theelephant and rhino exhibits.

But, out of the blue, Deke spoke up again, startling Fitz ashe asked loudly, “What are those?!”

Glancing around, Fitz finally pinpointed the object of Deke’senthrallment as balloons of allthings, tied to a nearby cart and in various shapes of animals featured in thezoo. “Those are balloons, Deke.”

“I don’t…how are they floating?” Deke took a step closer tothe cart, squinting up at the balloons as he clearly tried to figure out howthey worked. “Do they have Gravitonium inside of them?”

“What? No, it’s helium,” Fitz told him, adding in a mutter, “whichis about as limited as Gravitonium, really.”

“Helium,” Dekerepeated to himself, seemingly mesmerized by the floating animals, “whoa.”

And, though Fitz didn’t support helium balloons in the leastand thought that they were a waste of a limited resource, he caved with a sighand gestured to them, “Alright, pick one out before I change my mind.”

“Really?” Dekequestioned excitedly, grinning at Fitz before pointing to one shaped like apenguin (he’d thought it was hilarious the way that the flightless birdswaddled around in their exhibit, which had apparently left an impression).

The woman selling them handed Deke the balloon with a warmsmile, advising him, “Hold onto that, or else it’ll fly away.”

Once Fitz had paid for it, they continued on their waythrough the exhibits, Deke’s earlier embarrassment over the whole “lemons”thing apparently forgotten as he spent a good deal of time watching the balloonfloating above him, bobbing up and down with the gentle breeze.

And, well, though Fitz had never thought he’d be amused by agrown man excited about a balloon, when it was his grandson…he did have toadmit that there was a little smile tugging at his lips.

-

When they returned to the Lighthouse later that day, Fitzwas surprised to find that Jemma was waiting for them near the entrance to thebase, an eager smile on her face, no doubt impatient to hear about their daytogether.

However, when Deke stepped in after Fitz, he saw hereyebrows rise on her forehead, her lips pressing together to hide her obviousamusement.

“Not a word,” Fitztold her simply, narrowing his eyes and pointing a finger at her, twitchinglips, shining eyes and all.

She mimed zipping her lips, but she didn’t even really needto say a word, not when her obvious delight was written so clearly on her face.

“The zoo is so cool,”Deke stated with a big grin, now wearing a t-shirt with the zoo’s name printedon the front, his penguin balloon in one hand and a stuffed zebra in the other.

“So, you had fun, then?” Jemma asked, stepping closer toFitz to slip her arm through his and leaning up against his side.

“Yeah! I can’t believe there are so many animals and – did you know about lemonade?” Deke’s eyes were wide,clearly still amazed by the prospect now hours later.

Jemma laughed at that, nodding as she told him, “I did,actually. My sister and I used to make lemonade and sell it at a little standwhen we were young.”

“You know how to makeit?” He seemed shocked by the information – but only for a moment; hisfocus then shifted to something over their shoulders, and he grinned as hecalled, “Hey, Daisy, wait! Have you ever seen how big a giraffe is?” With that,he brushed past them to catch up with Daisy, calling over his shoulder to Fitz,“Thanks!”

Fitz lifted a hand in acknowledgment, then turned back toJemma, asking curiously, “How did the study on the samples go?”

She arched a knowing eyebrow at him. “Oh no, you can’tchange the subject that easily.” A grin making its way onto her lips, sheteased, “All those times that you insisted that being a grandfather when youweren’t even a father yet was weird…”She lifted a hand to cup his face, turning his head so that she could plant akiss on his cheek. “I knew you had itin you – even if you bought foodthere instead of eating the snacks that I packed.”

Mentally cursing (he should’ve known that she’d figure it out), heoffered her an apologetic smile and a shrug. “Ah, well, I’m still learning, Iguess.”