A/N: Stuck on a plane with an idiot of a friend (who people believe to be my twin), finished my book so well this little thing came up. Sorry for the randomness of it all. Read on :p
Disclaimer: Don't own either The Avengers or Agents of Shield (wish I did though would totally make Stark and Fitz meet, then I would make them take over the world)
The sound of laughter coming from outside the BUS was odd in its own right. It was becoming increasingly rare for the BUS to be parked on the ground for long periods of time, with it being able to be filled for fuel in the air and supplies delivered, it was even rarer for it to be back at the main SHIELD headquarters located in New York. Or in other words the SHIELD base that used to be 'home' to May, Ward and himself. FitzSimmons called Washington DC home while in America and Skye had pointed out that home was the van she lived in to. But today was one of those rare moments of being back on American soil after 5 months of flying around Europe.
And he was glad to be back.
He'd gotten really tired of Ward and May being the only ones to understand half of what the locals said, yes he himself may have been fluent in some of the languages but not all of them. Another problem that had given him a headache was Fitz returning home for family problems for 1 months during those 5 months and then returning, not only had they lacked a weapons expert and their engineer and had problems getting him to and from, but when he did return, the month he'd spent back in Scotland had added to his already thick accent. Meaning no one could really understand him for about 3 weeks till it Americanized back again.
As he walked down the metal staircase towards the open hangar doors, he saw the form of their pilot sitting on the ramp, coffee in her hands, a thick red coat wrapped around her. As he moved further down the ramp to join her he felt the chill of the New York weather reach through his suit jacket and only when he stood next to her, he put together why she was wrapped up and it was so cold. The run ways not being used were covered in a thick layer of white snow, in fact the whole SHIELD air base was completely white, the grey buildings blurring into the white leaving very little colour to be seen.
But there was still colour there, through the snow mounds next to the runways he could make out the pink of Skye's snow jacket coupled with the purple of Simmons's. The green of Ward's was clearly seen through a snow mound and while the blue of Fitz's own jacket was missing from sight, he must be out there somewhere. Looking around he noticed the discarded scarfs and beanies on the ramp. Shaking his head he moved towards the hooks on the wall and grabbed his own black snow jacket, making sure to hang up the 4 beanies that Simmons's grandmother had made all the 'kids' up next to the two that already hung there. Grandma Simmons would have a heart attack if she knew that they'd been discarded on the on floor.
Tugging on his own jacket he moved to sit next to his pilot and nodded in thanks as she passed him a cup of coffee from the thermos next to her.
"What are they doing?" he asked, even though the white projectiles flying across the space between the two 'teams' was a dead give away.
"Training exercise" answered May with a smirk on her face.
"Training exercise, of course why didn't I think of that" he answered back dryly. "If its a training exercise why are they wearing coloured jackets instead of their camouflage snow gear"
May looked stumped for a moment before she answered "Well maybe it didn't start as a training exercise"
He raised an eyebrow waiting for her to continue. She held is haze for a moment before turning to watch their 'kids' play in the snow. At the moment Ward was attempting to put snow down Fitz's jacket after the younger agent had dumped a handful of snow on his head, though he wasn't having much luck. While Fitz was incredibly uncoordinated and clumsy, he was a good couple of inches shorter than Ward which made him good at slipping under his arms and getting away. Both Simmons and Skye were being of no help, instead opting for laughing so hard they were both on the ground.
May continued "It may have started with Skye attacking Fitz for saying something and I'm not telling you anything else"
Coulson turned back to their team, where Ward had given up going after Fitz and it looked like they had both decided to team up against the girls.
This wasn't going to end well.
May took another sip of her coffee, wrapping her hands around the mug to keep warm. Even Coulson had to admit that the December winds of New York were getting to him, even the jackets designed for sub arctic conditions weren't working. He was seriously considering finding their camouflage Arctic gear and putting that on. But May was one step ahead of him and his legs were covered by a warm blanket.
He looked down and smiled at the distinct patterns that meant a blanket from Grandma Simmons. "A care package arrive today?"
May nodded and Coulson grinned like a little boy on Christmas morning. Care packages from the monarch of the Simmons family were always looked forward to on the BUS, and by everyone looking forward to them, he meant everyone looked forward too them. They always included latest DVD and video games for entertainment, new gadgets and scientists things for the science babies, and of course food. Always home made cookies, brownies and cake, coupled with new boxes of coffee and tea bags amd other various food with popcorn for Fitz, assortment of gummy bears for Simmons, gum for Skye, health bars for Ward, special tea for May and she always sent him aspirins and a good bottle of scotch for 'putting up with both of her kids'. The care packages had started when Simmons had Skyped her grandmother and the other woman had decided that she was too skinny as was Fitz. The care packages had started a week later, starting with simply cookies and other home baked goods. Soon the care packages grew and they were no longer addressed to just Fitz and Simmons instead they were addressed to the everyone on the BUS and it was always a good laugh when reading the letters she sent because she admittedly refused to call anyone by their last names. It would always be addressed to Jemma, Leo, Skye, Melinda, Phillip and Grant. She did not believe that his name was Phil not Phillip and she refused to call Ward by his last name, even though he requested it every time.
But the packages also held knitted wear or just regular clothes. And every packaged held new ties for Fitz since he had a habit of either setting them on fire or getting them caught in things. When Simmons had admitted to them going to Europe the next care package that had arrived had beanies for each member of their team, all different colours matching their coats and their names stitched into them. The next package had held scarves for the team, and the one after had held pairs of gloves for them. Each member of the team now had a Grandma Simmons approved outfit for cold weather.
Simmons was mortified as the packages came, but as the rest of the team reassured her that it was fine she too looked forward to the each package. He himself had yet to work out how the older lady managed to get them onto a SHIELD base and then onto the supply plane but Agent Morris who was the pilot who resupplied them while they were on missions always had a bright smile on his face when he delivered the rather large package every month. Simmons revealing a little while later that her grandmother sent the pilot his own package every month with the bigger one.
He ran his hand over the red and black flower covered blanket in front of him stopping when he came across May's name stitched neatly in one corner. She smiled at his questioning look. "Nola decided that this month we would get blankets, you ones over there" she nodded to piles that the care package got sorted into every month when it arrived. The purple blanket topped with Doctor Who DVDs and gummy bears was Simmons's, the blue with monkeys and box of popcorn was for Fitz, pink blanket with the latest romantic chick flick movie, Skye, a green blanket and health bars for Ward and a blue blanket with a bag of the usual aspirin and whiskey sat at the far end for him.
Another three bags sat by the piles ready to head up to the kitchen, with one bag full of movies and games ready to go to the rec room.
"That woman spoils them" he said
"She spoils everyone" answered May as a two screams made their way back to them.
Focusing on the coloured jackets moving around the two agents struggled to stop their laughter as both Simmons and Skye chased after the boys, their hair soaking wet from an unexpected attack.
Coulson felt May move subconsciously closer to him as another gust of wind came through the hangars doors. "Why are we sitting in the cold?" he asked
"Because someone has to make sure that they don't kill each other out there"
Coulson watched as Skye jumped on Ward's back trying and failing to bring him down. Fitz was already on the ground, both him and Simmons struggling to get control over the other. A soft weight on his shoulder made him look down, May had rested her head on his shoulder and in a rare moment he began to see the woman she was before she became the Cavalry. She was slowly coming out of her shell more often now, often joining Fitz on pranking other members of the team or joining in team nights but she was still the far cry from the woman she used to be. He hoped being on this BUS with the younger members would bring her back and he watched in amazement as it started too work. There was a long way to go still though, she still wasn't the Melinda May that he'd known before but watching her with the 'kids' and being with her here brought hope that it could all change.
A soft cough came from their right caused May's head to shoot up and nearly hit him on the chin. Maria Hill stood a little to the right of them, a sheepish smile on her face and bundled up in her own snow jacket. Coulson rose to greet her, giving her a quick hug before kissing her on the cheek.
"Agent Coulson"
"Agent Hill"
Both of them smiled at their mock formalities before Hill moved to the greet May. Coulson smiled as more figures came forward into the somewhat warmer hangar. Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark all greeted their old handler before turning to watch the snow ball fight between his new team.
"You left us for them" said Tony with a smirk on his face "They're babies"
"Fitz could give you a run for you money Stark, so I'd watch out" said Barton turning "He graduated MIT at age 14, two years before you did"
Stark scowled causing everyone else to laugh. Their reunion was interrupted by a breathless Fitz making his way through the knee high snow towards them. "Ah sir, one of the SHIELD teams has challenged us to a snow ball fight, but according to Ward we need your permission before doing it"
Coulson raised an eyebrow "You didn't need my permission before"
Fitz pointed at May "She said we could" he pouted like a child before he finally looked around at the other people around him "We having a party sir?"
"FITZLY" exclaimed Clint making his way over to the smaller engineer and wrapping him in a huge hug.
Fitz looked downright scared and Natasha made her way through the snow to rescue the Scot from the arms of her partner. Clint pulled away and ruffled up his hair "Now where's your cuter half?"
"She's over there" he said with a scowl pointing towards his other team mates who now Coulson could see them were surrounded by 10 other SHIELD agents dressed in bright orange jackets. Fitz looked up at his handler "Can we sir?"
Coulson gave a mock defeated sign before nodding. Fitz moved to walk back when he was stopped by Clint. "Oh Maria can we go too?" he asked as he hugged the engineer again "We need to defend our mini-mes"
Fitz struggled to remove himself from the archer's hold. "Geez Barton, I love you too but please get off me"
"He usually doesn't like human contact" said May with a quick smile "I think this is the first time he's had a hug from someone other than Simmons for about 4 months"
"Well this is the first time that Clint's willingly hugged someone, so this moment should go in the history books" said Hill "And why are you asking me anyway, it's not like you listen to me"
"I thought I would be nice"
Hill just shook her head.
"Come on Fitzly we need to go defend our team mates" he pulled the engineer along with him as both Steve and Natasha followed him at a leisurely pace. Bruce opted to sit down next to May and nodded great fully as she handed him a cup of coffee.
Tony looked at Coulson for a moment "You replaced me with a Scottish kid, really Coulson?" he shook his head and followed after his team mates to go help the rest of Coulson's team defend themselves.
Coulson turned to May as he sat next to her on the ramp, Hill sitting next to him "You knew about this didn't you" he said
May turned to him "I believe it would be a good experience for the team to meet the Avengers"
"Skye's going to have a meltdown, Barton and Ward will get into a fight, and both Fitz and Stark may try and take over the world once they realize that they could work together and make their inventions, Simmons will want to dissect Banner for scientific experiments, or she'll join in the plans to take over the world"
"I'd appreciate if I wasn't dissected anytime soon" said Bruce from his position next to May
"Don't worry Doctor Banner she won't, she stop thinking about it after she meets you" said Coulson "I'm slightly worried about us switching members Hill." he turned to her "Make sure that you have the right members before you leave, I don't think Fury would approve of Stark and Fitz being partners though he may consider Simmons and Banner"
"That's if Fitz could even function without Simmons, she even does his ties every morning" said May
"Very true"
Coulson's phone rang and as he answered it, he put it on speaker "Yes Tony"
"Agent Coulson this is an automated message from Tony Stark, he would like to tell you that you can't have either Leo Fitz or Jemma Simmons back, he is taken them and in return you can have Captain America and Dr Bruce Banner" Hill nearly doubled over in silent laughter as May failed to hide a smirk.
"Stark you can't have either of them"
"Can I just have Fitz then?"
"They come as a packaged deal Stark, it's both or neither as since you can't have both, it's neither"
"Can I borrow them?"
"Maybe but your going to have supervision"
"I promise I won't damage them"
"It's not the damage to them I'm worried about" With that Coulson hung up and turned back to the smirking women seated on ever side of him and the worried looking scientists. "We probably should warn Ward that Stark is trying to take FitzSimmons"
"He would probably let him" said May
"You underestimate how much Ward likes them" he answered, May looked at him with a fixed look. "He may act like he doesn't like them, but they're growing on him I can tell" he looked over at the his two teams immersed in a snowball that had grown from 18 people to just over 30. "We probably should help them"
"Is the great Phil Coulson going to get his suit dirty and have a snowball fight or am I dreaming?" said Hill standing up
"Shut up Hill" said Coulson standing up himself and holding out a hand for May to take. Hauling up his pilot he threw her, her scarf and beanie before grabbing the 4 other beanies and scarves for the rest of his team. "Let's get these to the kids before they freeze to death or get sick"
Bruce reluctantly got up and followed Hill through the tracks left by the others toward the massive snowball fight currently happening on a abandoned runway. May slipped her hand in his as she took the girls beanies and scarves, pulling him along after the other two.
Walking fast to catch up with her he turned "There's no more surprises right, please tell me that Furys not going to join us is he?"
"No more surprises" she said nodding her head "Except..." she trailed off as a huge bolt of lighting flitted through the sky follows by a crack of thunder.
"SON OF COUL I HAVE COME TO HELP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST OTHER TEAMS WITH BALLS MADE OF SNOW"
"You brought Thor"
"Correction, they brought Thor" said May pointing to the Avengers as the approached the now ball fight.
"I was just getting over my headache you know"
May gently kissed his cheek before they reached their team "Did that make it better?" she asked as she moved to give Simmons and Skye their scarves and beanies.
"It made it a little better" said Coulson passing Fitz and Ward their gear
May moved back to him and kissed him gently on the lips "How about that?" she asked as two catcall broke through the shouting of the snowball fight.
"Much better" said Coulson before dumping a pile of snow on her head.
"Oh it's on" she said chasing after him.