You know, when she told me of your obvious infatuation with me, I thought she was joking. Not because I couldn't see your subtle flirting, or never caught your sideways glances, but because she was always so blind. Blind to her own feelings, even. Or perhaps she was only in denial, not wanting to admit how much she cared for him. And maybe that's my problem, too. However, the difference is this:

She's in denial because she doesn't want to lose her best friend. I'm in denial because I don't want to be considered an accomplice the day you get court-martialed.

Come on, let's face it – you're a loose cannon. One of these days, you're going to hack the S.H.I.E.L.D. mainframe and not save anybody's life. And you're going to get caught. And court-martialed. You'll beg me to save you, and I'll shrug my shoulders and facetiously apologize (even if it hurts), saying, "I told you so." Because I did tell you so – multiple times. You never listen to me, but I like to feel like I've at least tried to keep you out of a high-security prison.

So you go ahead and betray S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything we stand for; go ahead and toss your friends under (or, in our case, out of) the bus, and expect us to cover for you, and expect us to still love you, and expect us to keep accepting you back every time you make the same stupid mistakes, and I promise I won't be the one to tell you to take a hike when the time comes – maybe I'll even be really nice and bite back my "I told you so." After all, salt in a wound like that can be mentally damaging, I hear.

Oh, no, I promise, we'll miss you. Of course we will. Even I'll miss you a little. Course, I'll look back and think of you as the traitor that twisted us all around your fingers and, just when we least expected it, ripped us inside out. He'll probably see his old flame suddenly being snuffed out as you walk away. She'll probably see one of her greatest friends turning away from her and walking out of her life a criminal.

No, you're right, I don't just see you in that light. Maybe there is a small part of me that likes you. As a friend... maybe something more. But note that part is very, very small, and will not swoop in to rescue you if something bad happens due to your own negligence. I am not your knight in shining armor – I'm not even your nerd in tin foil. Got it? If you get yourself into a situation you can't get out of, it's going to be pretty obvious what's going to happen: You're not going to get out of it. End of story. In fact, the story is so over with that I destroyed the computer and threw the printer's ink cartridge into the sea. Nobody will get a chance to add so much as an extra punctuation mark to the end of the tale.

So go ahead and continue your flirting, your sideways glances, your fretting over my safety. Go ahead and try to get – and stay – on my good side. Go ahead, put your lips close to mine. Hug me. Kiss me.

But don't ever expect me to kiss you back.

A/N: I would just like to get one thing straight before people start screaming at me in reviews: I AM NOT AGAINST SKYWARD!

Quite the contrary, it's tied for my second favorite pairing with Ward/Simmons. (My favorite pairing is Fitz/Skye - why, I don't think I'll ever know. It's just cute, I guess.) The reason I wrote this is because I feel that the inevitable romance between Ward and Skye just came into the series a bit too early. After all, didn't it come in during the second or third episode? And he hated her during the first one. So what changed in the course of one episode?

So, long rant short, I wrote this story in this format for two reasons. One was me expressing my dislike at how quickly the series thrust us into this pairing without laying any foundational ground for the lovely couple to stand on. (At least Fitz and Simmons already knew each other.) The other one was my being unable to resist pointing out Ward's ambivalence on the subject of whether or not he actually likes Skye - I don't know if you've ever noticed how he kind of switches back and forth between letting her in and shoving her out, but I did, which is why he bounces back and forth in my drabble as well.

I hope I didn't get Ward OOC in any parts, but I'd like to go ahead and apologize in case I did. I'm not very good at writing the strong, silent types, usually, but I gave it my best effort.

Also, even though I think I made it relatively clear who's in the story, I'll clarify: "You" is Skye, "she" is Simmons, "he" is Fitz, and "I" is Ward.

Anyway... Yeah. That's my tale. Hope you enjoyed it! :D

RRS