A/N: Hello y'all! This is my first time writing for Agents of SHIELD so I'm a bit nervous about taking this big step, after exclusively writing for the same fandom since 2011, but I started watching this amazing show late January this year and I've not been able to stop watching - I'm even rewatching all the episodes for the second time. I don't have a life.
So because it's my first time writing these characters, I hope you'll cut me a little slack if they're not 100% in character. I wanted to toy around with them a little, find little things they could say and do, and that will take some practice. I just badly wanted to write some fluff. I hope I'll get it right eventually! And I know May and Daisy are sort of out of character because they're, well, cuddly together here, but that's all I want to see - some May/Daisy family love!
This story takes place at two moments in time - first part is probably somewhere in Season 1, the second part probably in one of the more recent episodes of Season 5. Like, their life is turning to shit but I don't think Daisy and May know yet that Coulson is dying in this story.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
'Bad Timing'
Birthdays weren't really her forte.
Oh sure, she had experienced many of them. 24 to be precise. But she had always felt like something was missing, like it was supposed to be more special.
She had never had a family. She had never had anyone who she was attached to, so it wasn't really a party that was worth it.
Today was her 25th. Nothing special planned, and she really hoped nobody of the team would do anything to commemorate it. She had specifically asked them not to get her anything. It would just be awkward.
Agent Melinda May walked in, that rare mischievous smile on her lips.
"Don't-"
"Happy birthday, Skye."
"I thought I told you guys not to give me anything."
"Who's saying I have a gift?"
"You don't?"
May smiled again, crossing her arms.
"Thought you didn't want presents."
Daisy saw her flawed response and sighed, smiling a little, too, albeit sheepishly.
"You can't tell us to forget your entire birthday. You may think we don't care about you, but we do."
May sat down next to Skye, handing her a small paper bag that she had been holding all this time but which Skye had looked at with disgust. May's words had served to calm her down, but she still wouldn't believe people cared about her now.
She opened the gift that was inside quickly, only looking at May briefly to find an amused look on said woman's features.
"A… stuffed animal?" She looked at May. "Why?"
"When I turned one," May started, "which is far too long ago, my parents gave me a stuffed animal. A bunny. It was my best friend throughout my entire childhood, and I even insisted in bringing it with me to the Academy. I knew it was stupid, but it was familiar."
She paused and looked at Skye, who was patiently awaiting her continuation.
"It's with my father now, he always wanted to save it for any grandchildren. I never succeeded in that. The point is, that bunny has been with me since my very first birthday, it always reminded me of my parents, my home… I know you haven't had a lot of birthdays… so let's just mark this as your first. So, that's why I'm giving you this little bunny. To commemorate your first birthday spent with friends and family."
Skye got tears in her eyes, instinctively, looking at the toy again. Her hands closed around it tightly.
"Thank you," she whispered, getting emotional, and soon felt May's hand on top of hers.
"You're welcome." May smiled. "Don't just sit there. Coulson brought cake."
"Can't say no to cake."
May left and Skye followed shortly, but not without putting the cute little stuffed animal on her pillow, even stupidly tucking it in.
"Should give you a name…," she mumbled, before following her SO.
~...~
She couldn't believe how much the world was in ruins. At least, her world was. Maybe for everybody else, nothing had changed, but for her, it had.
Despite everything that had happened, they still honored each other's birthdays. It was a way of instilling some normalcy into their permanently chaotic lives. Nothing was the same as it was before, but at least every other month, they had cake.
God, she didn't even remember how many of her own birthdays she had spent with them. Three, four? It was all kind of a blur, but she had loved every single one of them. And Mr. Evil had been by her side all that time, although she did cover up his existence a little bit, because she didn't want any bad people to know that Quake's weakness was an innocent blue stuffed animal.
Simmons smiled as she set the cake down. Whenever they did have cake, they could just forget what was happening all around them, and focus on each other, on this little family they had built. She wouldn't miss them for anything.
May's hand landed on Daisy's. It wasn't necessarily a secret that Daisy was basically May's favorite, but everybody liked to humor May and pretend they didn't see anything.
Daisy loved snuggling up to her, even if May was not even talking to her or perhaps acknowledging her presence. She just loved to feel May's familiar warmth close to her.
They retreated to all their favorite spots to wind down, May and Daisy close together.
"Did you have any birthday wishes this year?" May asked, pretending to be reading a book but she knew she wouldn't get to when Daisy had walked in. She liked to keep up appearances, though.
"For everything to go back to what it used to be. That Ward hadn't betrayed us, Fitzsimmons didn't nearly die, that you… didn't die. But that's pathetic. We can't change the past. Which is kind of a scary reminder of where we are right now."
Her eyes landed on Mack who would never snap out of his permanent worry for Yo-Yo. And he had all right to. She couldn't believe her hands had been chopped off like that and apparently she had taken it like a champ.
"I did have one wish, though, but it's sort of… irrelevant now."
"What is it?"
Daisy sighed and shook her head. For a while, May didn't expect her to continue, but then the young woman got up, left the room and came back with some papers in her hands.
"I… I got these after I realized… that my parents weren't who I had wanted them to be. I almost used them, but… it's nothing."
"It's not nothing if you can't even explain what it is. What is it, Daisy?"
Daisy handed the papers over to May, who frowned but read the contents anyway.
"Are you serious?" May asked after quite some minutes. She had barely let the information sink in, which worried Daisy.
"I don't know what you mean with that tone," Daisy replied honestly. She knew May like the back of her hand, but her standard monotone voice sometimes confused her of contexts.
"I mean, is this really what you want?"
"Yes. I mean, it wouldn't really change anything, it's just some legal BS, and it's not even under our own names because I remembered that we don't exist anymore, but it would sever all my existing ties to my biological parents, so I can officially put all that behind me. And… it opens a whole lot of opportunities for us, if you would accept. And… I also have one for Coulson but I wanted to run it by you, first."
"Why's that?" May could pretend to not be touched by this situation, but something about the back of a certain hand…
"Well, I knew he would say yes without thinking about it. I wanted to make sure that you were okay with, uh, co-parenting me. You know… 'cuz technically it would mean you have a daughter together."
May paused for a while, looking at the piece of paper in front of her. It wouldn't change her life, May knew. She had always regarded Daisy as a daughter, she had to on multiple occasions because sometimes the girl had a death wish. But she knew it would change Daisy's life, or at least, her place in this world. She had never had anyone to call her parents, even though her biological parents had personally introduced themselves to her. They hadn't been parents for her, not like… like May had been a parent for her, and, Coulson too.
She wanted to sign it. If it had been just her, the form would already be on its way to the authorities. But co-parenting Daisy Johnson with Phil Coulson… she knew she was supposed to be scared by the idea, but really it didn't. They had protected her from the moment they had met her, even though it was subconsciously at first. May admitted that after SHIELD had fallen and Ward had turned out to be Hydra, she cared even more for Daisy. After all, she hadn't had proper training at that time, only knew how to hold her gun.
"I'll have to discuss this with him, first, before we fill in any paperwork."
Daisy nodded. "Whatever you choose, I'll accept your decision. But I'll understand if you say no. We'll probably die soon."
"Don't get ahead of things. I'll talk to Coulson, okay?"
Daisy nodded. She was wearing her heart on her sleeve, the desperate need she'd had her entire life to be part of a family, to have parents who loved her and cared for her. May would be lying if she said that she didn't want to give Daisy that, even though it was decades too late.
May went immediately, not wanting to make Daisy wait for too long.
She walked past Simmons who was working on Yo-Yo's recovery, if that was even possible. Mack had honestly never strayed from her side, making sure she was comfortable, that Simmons did her absolute best to ensure Yo-Yo's wellbeing - which everybody knew, she already did.
It made something snap inside May's head. Thankfully, the young woman had survived her attack, but it could easily have been horribly different in outcome. It made May face the fact that they would not live forever, neither would, so what was she waiting for, honestly?
Coulson smiled when she approached him, but it was replaced with curiosity when she put the adoption papers on the table which served as a desk. He frowned, but started reading them, before showing what must be a similar reaction as she had shown.
"Is she serious?"
"Very. She has one for me, one for you. I wanted to run it past you before deciding anything."
He let the information sink in much like she had, but he didn't respond after it had sunk in. He just stared at the papers.
"It's a bit unconventional, isn't it? We're not even married and we'll have a kid." He looked up at her teasingly, and she knew in that moment he would say yes to adopting their troublesome team member. "What would your mother say?"
"My mother would say 'I told you so', then ask me why I didn't hook up with you sooner."
"She never really liked me," Coulson stated, at the same time confirming May's words but also refuting them.
"She does that, sometimes. Should have seen her when she met Andrew."
His face contorted into an expression she never liked to see on him, jealousy, and she shook her head, drifting away from that topic.
He shook his head, too, as though he was apologizing for responding like that. He had nothing to apologize for.
"Melinda?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
The words hung in the air for a while, and she was shell-shocked. Even though these were the words she had always wanted to hear him say, it still surprised her.
"Bad timing," he said, starting to take back his words, and he focused on the adoption papers, as though he hadn't just said those words.
He was right. Bad timing. About thirty years too late.
"I'll, uh, tell Daisy that we'll sign?"
He nodded, and they looked at each other for a little longer. She turned around to leave, but just before she lost her view on him, she saw something in those clear blue eyes of his, something she had seen often but never when she was concerned.
They had never had to worry about the other walking out on them, so they had known each other for decades and knew that they would always find their way back to each other. Like the universe wanted them to stay together, stay close.
Yet now, with this reality they were in, she couldn't possibly know what tomorrow would look like. She didn't know if he would be there. And judging by the look on his face, he was worried, too.
She made up her mind. She put the papers on the desk, stepped beside him, and he looked up at her from his position in the chair, and she only had to lower her face a little to link their lips.
His arms wrapped around her instantly, and neither had to adjust to this sudden course of action, because honestly it was a long time coming, and she should have done this thirty years ago. It would have saved both of them a lot of trouble.
He held onto her for far too long after they broke off their kiss, and to make it easier on her back, she slipped into his lap, both legs hanging off his left side.
"It's still awful timing," he whispered, putting his forehead against hers. His hands grabbed onto her a little tighter, and every time he did, she thought he couldn't hold on any tighter than he was, but he kept proving her wrong.
"Yeah. Thirty years late."
He smiled and one of his hands released his - quite honestly - murderous grip on her waist to brush her cheek.
"I'm sorry," he said after a while. "For everything I said. Everything I didn't say. Pushing you away like I have…"
"Hey. No. Stop. Too much has happened for either of us to act normally. But we should focus on the present now. Our past is fucked up, our future is probably even worse… but today, right here, I'm right where I should be."
He smiled and they kissed again, her hand weaving into his short hair, it had thinned considerably, she had remembered how he had looked when they had met. Young, innocent, a whole beautiful life still ahead of him. Too bad this job wasn't very forgiving, and even though he looked the same, his youthfulness had not been able to stand the test of time.
"It's difficult to say for me," she whispered. "I want to say it, but I can't. Not yet."
He shrugged. "I know how you feel. I don't need to hear the words."
They sat like that for a while more, looking at each other, kissing a little, until she realized that they probably should go back to work, whatever that was these days.
She got up, smiling a little, that specific smile she had reserved for him, Phil Coulson. His hand was still holding hers, and she watched as they parted, feeling herself wanting to hold him again, in whatever way possible.
"Hey. If we're going to be a family, we should at least do family stuff." She smiled at his words, collecting the papers, holding onto them tightly. They were basically her only hope for the future, Daisy Johnson as her daughter and Phil Coulson by their side. Hopefully, they would get out of the approaching flames unscathed, but they had avoided death too many times. "What do families do?"
She chuckled, realizing neither really knew what a functional, normal family was like - Coulson had lost his dad at a young age, May herself had never regarded her mother as being normal, and Daisy… she had never had a family. Ever.
The girl deserved it.
"I don't know. We could have dinner."
"Then that's a start."
As Coulson and May told Daisy the good news, the girl couldn't stop crying with joy, glad to finally be a part of a family, something she had always wanted.
A/N: There you go! I really like Coulson and May together, and I like where they're going, even though I have a bad feeling that they will never actually get together on the show. In any case, shipping Jisbon on The Mentalist since 2011, I've learned to see character's love in the little things, and I think I would survive them not being together in canon. Anyway, thanks so much for reading this story, and I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review it or add it to your favorites. I'm here to learn, so let me know!
