Prompt from OTPPromtps: Person A has a favorite blanket that they like cuddling with. Person B thought it was adorable in the beginning but slowly becomes jealous of the blanket being cuddled instead of them. Person B then decides to hide the blanket so Person A can't default to it. After looking around for their blanket, Person A begins to sulk about not having their blanket to cuddle, so Person B volunteers to be their cuddle buddy until it's found. After that, Person A stops looking for the blanket and constantly goes to Person B for cuddles, much to Person B's happiness.
Blanky
Skye had that blanket since the orphanage. One of the nuns had given it to her when she was a little girl. Every day the other orphans saw the regular site of Skye clinging to the blanket like a lifeline. She wouldn't let it go and when the nuns got her to for a few minutes Skye would search like a rat to find the blanket.
Flash forward 20 years and the Team has to get used to the regular site of Skye clutching the blanket like her life depended. Even though in reality it was their lives that depended on it.
One time Skye actually lost the blanket for a week while they were on the BUS before the Fall and Coulson remembered Skye biting the heads off of anyone who asked her why she cared so much for a blanket.
After the Fall the Team thought they saw Skye say farewell to the blanket. She didn't, she just cuddled with it when she went to sleep. Skye wouldn't let them see her with it anymore. She didn't want them to think she was weak. Training with May helped her along the path of becoming a Specialist, a fighter.
The blanket sat under her pillow in her room now. She would clutch it tightly to her chest when she had the rare downtime that allowed her a night of uninterrupted sleep.
When Ward came back to the Team after taking down Whitehall, a fantastic thing in Skye's eyes, he learned about the blanket. He didn't mean to, he was just wandering the halls one night while sleep taunted him and he stumbled upon Skye walking back into her room with a bottle of water clutching the blanket in her hand.
"Skye, what're you holding?" Ward asked gently. They were on better terms than they used to be but where they stood exactly was an iffy subject at best.
"Don't worry about it." Was all Skye said on the matter and Ward resigned to leave her secret be until it almost complicated a mission.
They were on a simple supply run but Skye had to have her "cuddle time" or whatever the hell it was. Ward was with her and they were driving on the highway when a HYDRA kill squad tried to get a bead on them. Ward had to swerve through traffic and Skye felt her blanket leave her sleep addled clutch.
She pawed around frantically before her mind caught up with the world. Skye quickly pushed the worry she had for her blanket aside and started firing her pistol at the car trying to beat them off the road.
Ward managed to lose them and Skye was able to find her blanket in the backseat. She couldn't stop the dopey smile that spread across her face when she clutched the blanket desperately against her chest.
Ward understood why she needed the security the blanket brought. It was the same reason he slept with a loaded pistol under his pillow even in the PLAYGROUND. He just wished he could provide it instead. Their relationship was better than it used to be but it wasn't the best by any means. Skye would still throw some rather hurtful comments Ward's way during briefing when he start questioning the orders Coulson would give.
"So now you question your orders?" Sky scoffed in Coulson's office.
"And you suddenly follow them blindly?" Ward spat back.
They had been night and day since they met. Maybe that was why the attraction between them was as strong as it was.
The attraction could also be the reason why he wanted to kill Lance when the idiot thought that giving the blanket to a small child they met on a mission was a good idea. When Lance wouldn't get it back even after Skye beat the crap out of him Ward just resigned to the fact that Skye would be permanently in a bad mood now.
If he only knew...
Skye wasn't in a bad mood per se, she more so just sulked. The bags under her eyes showed how little sleep she was getting with the loss of her anchor and Ward never wanted to put a bullet in Lance more than the second he saw tears shimmering in her eyes when she just got up and her blanket wasn't there.
Skye put on the brave face. She didn't need nor want anyone's pity. Ward knew other reasons for the façade. She didn't want Coulson or May to worry about her. S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing well but it was still ridiculously small compared to what it used to be. Coulson needed every agent at their best and for better or worse Skye was in that fold. She wouldn't let Coulson or May know that she had this problem if it meant that the others would have to go on missions without her.
She was a better agent than Ward gave her credit for when he first got back. She could keep up with most of the regular foot soldiers HYDRA sent their way but he still saw the areas she needed to improve in. She still didn't have the strongest left side but he wouldn't call her out on it. It wasn't anything too important and it's not like she was going to lose her right side any time soon.
Ward was reading a book when she first came to him. He was surprised when she opened his door and padded quietly inside. He glanced at her from above the pages of his book and he would swear he saw the conflict battling in her eyes.
"I know it's late, but I-I can't sleep and I was hoping," Skye trailed off and stared at a spot in the floor like he held all the answers to her questions.
"You were hoping what?" Ward pushed.
"If I could stay with you?" The request came out so quickly Ward might've missed it if he wasn't as trained as he was.
"I know it's stupid but no one else gets what that blanket meant to me. I just need one decent night's sleep. I won't ask again and I know I don't deserve to be asking any favors of you but please?" Skye was near begging and Ward had to suppress a chuckle at the antics.
"Of course you can stay, Skye. You can stay for as long and as many nights as you want." Ward wouldn't deny her anything. If she needed him to he would put a bullet between Lance's legs for getting rid of her blanket.
Skye smiled sadly and walked over to the other side of the bed. She slipped in quietly and lied down in the bed. Ward finished reading his chapter and placed the bookmark in the spine of the book before turning the light off.
Skye was still awake and staring at Ward with an unfocused look in her eyes. He gave her time to form her words. He didn't need to push her to speak. She would do it on her own.
"Can you hold me, please?" There was that slight trembling in her lower lip that always made Ward want to give her the world if for anything to make the quivering stop. He opened his arms and Skye quickly shuffled over and buried herself into his chest.
Ward just wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest. Skye could hear his soft heartbeat in her ears and it made her mind empty. Sleep quickly claimed her and Skye finally made it through a whole night without waking up scrambling for something to hold onto. Ward kept his arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace the entire night.
When morning came Ward's clock automatically had him up at 5:30. A little lasting present Garrett left him but he didn't mind. The routines he had gave Ward a sense of normalcy that this life didn't provide. Right now though, Ward wanted the routines to kiss his ass because he had the love of his life currently sleeping like a log in his arms.
He tightened his arms around her and she responded by burrowing further into his chest. Ward laid his face softly in her hair and let sleep pull him back into her folds.
This became the new routine. Skye would walk in after everyone else had gone to bed and she would crawl into bed with him. It was perfectly innocent if they didn't discuss the small kiss they would sometimes share when they got up in the morning.
Skye found he was better than her blanket. The blanket gave her a sense of familiarity and comfort when the world constantly changed around her. Ward actually made her feel safe and loved. Something the blanket just couldn't do despite the nice nun that gave it to her when she was little. There was also the added bonus of his heartbeat. That soft, monotonous heartbeat that sent her to the best sleep she'd ever had.
When May found them one morning it was because Skye wasn't in her room before May came searching for her for training.
When Simmons found them she just had a soft smile on her face and didn't bother waking them.
When Fitz found them he just threw his hands in the air with a defeated "really? It was just a blanket." Leaving his mouth. Skye wasn't mad at him when she heard it. Ward was really the only one who understood why she needed that blanket.
The real problem was when Coulson found them. They had overslept and missed a briefing and the Director, after seeing that Skye was looking more rested and focused in the mornings now, decided to check on her.
When her room was empty he decided to ask Ward if he knew where she was. Ward always seemed to be able to keep tabs on everyone in the base, a skill that made him useful in the field for whoever wanted him.
When he opened Ward's door and saw Skye burrowed into Ward's chest he wasn't happy. He didn't say anything but he wasn't happy.
May came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. Coulson looked at her with a bewildered expression.
"She's been sleeping better and it lets us know where his loyalties lie. Leave them be." May wouldn't tell him the real reasons to leave them alone. May knew Skye needed an anchor and despite being her SO, May wasn't it. She could take care of Skye as best she could but Skye needed someone who made her feel like there was no one else in the world. Ward did that.
Skye came out of her sleep drowsily one morning and yawned against Ward's chest. She tried to blink the sleep away from her eyes but a quick glance at the clock on the dresser behind Ward told her there was no reason to get up yet. It was only 3 in the morning.
"You alright?" Ward asked sleepily as he ghosted a kiss across her forehead. A few months ago that gesture would've earned him a punch in the face. Now, Skye just released a content sigh and snuggled back into his chest.
"I'm fine. Go back to sleep." Skye mumbled into his chest and let his calm heartbeat lull her back to sleep.
Ward was definitely better than the blanket.