"You know, when Coulson offered me the chance to join S.H.I.E.L.D for fancy missions on a 'state of the art' plane, I thought I'd be at least be able to at least, I don't know, do my laundry in it."
Skye heard the others groan behind her and smirked dryly as she put more quarters into the washer. She had been shocked the first time they'd made their bi-weekly laundry stop at some backwoods town in Missouri all those months ago, because seriously how does a plane with equipment designed with a holograph table sensitive enough to dissect a blood cell NOT have a washer and dryer, and had made sure to bring it up at least once during every laundry stop. After the first few times Coulson created laundry 'shifts' with everyone taking turns doing their laundry with Skye while the others stayed back on the bus, claiming safety precautions.
Skye called bullshit. She knew he just didn't want to listen to anymore of her laundry rants. Just as well, she knew it was only a matter of time before she bugged the rest of her team into demanding Coulson get a washer and dryer if for no other reason than to shut her up. And judging by the twitch in Mays jaw that was going to be sooner rather than later.
"And I mean, it would be safer than having these stupid laundry shifts. Then we could do our stuff while we were in the air, where nobody could touch us. Rather than suck here, grounded, for who knows how many hours, completely vulnerable."
"The only one stuck here will be you if I hear you mention one more word about the damn thing."
May narrowed her eyes. Skye rolled hers before looking through the magazines sitting on the table. Of course none of them would be from after 2007. She huffed and sat back in her chair, resigning herself to count the ceiling tiles. Again.
She barely made it past 50 before she was pushing herself up again. If she was going to be stuck here for who knew how many hours she was going to explore.
"I'm going for a walk. Comm me when my clothes are dry."
May rolled her eyes but nodded. Skye pushed open the door and stepped out in the brisk October weather. She shivered, wishing her jacket wasn't in the wash. They were stopped somewhere in Tennessee so at least the view was nice. She caught Jemma on her way back from getting quarters at a cornerstone and let her know she was going to explore a bit before turning onto the Main Street.
It was a small town so it didn't take long for Skye to see everything there was to see. Tourist shops on Main, apparently there was a famous ball of string hiding somewhere, followed by a post office, general store and bank. The laundromat and corner store were on a street off of Main, with a building that looked like it could be the jail on the next street over. She got excited when she found a comic book store and run down arcade another street over from there, but remembered she had spent all of her quarters on laundry and the excitement was quickly replaced by a scowl.
She turned back on Main Street to head back towards the laundromat when the alarms from the bank began to wail. Skye started to make her way over, pressing her comm.
"Guys? Something's happening at the bank."
"We know, May heard the alarm and is on her way. Get back to the laundromat with Simmons." Coulson's voice responded.
"What? No, Coulson I'm already here, I can help!"
"That's an order Skye, May can handle it."
Skye opened her mouth to respond when a man cam crashing through the banks front window. She went to help him up but the man was already scrambling away, running like he'd seen a ghost. She turned around and dove to duck behind a car as a man made of flames stepped through the broken glass. Not a ghost then.
"Seriously!?" She pressed her comm. "Yeah Coulson, about that..."
By the time the team stumbled back onto the Bus it was nearing midnight. The local police showed up as Skye radioed in about the pyroman and all hell broke loose. The resulting fight took them through most of the town, damaging everything in its path. It didn't stop until some moron accidentally hit a fire hydrant and May was somehow able to send the guy through the water. But of course, not until after the laundromat was already on fire.
"I've already called headquarters and debriefed them of the situation. There weren't any casualties so the damages to the town are-"
"No casualties?"
Coulson sighed. "Skye."
Skye glared at him. "Seriously Couslon, no casualties!? What about all of our clothes!"
"I think we can all agree that it's more important that nobody was hurt-"
"Yeah, nobody was hurt or killed or maimed, great. That's awesome. Now I don't feel bad about being pissed at the fact that literally half of not only my clothes, but Jemma's and May's too! Literally half of our clothes are gone because some stupid pyrohead couldn't keep his cool and the fact that the stupid plane doesn't have a washer or dryer of its own."
"Skye, we would have had to deal with this situation regardless of if we had stopped for laundry. We were the closest team to the area."
"But we would still have half of our clothes! I know that doesn't seem like a big deal for the guy who wears suits everyday, but for normal people, that's kind of a problem."
Coulson opened his mouth to argue but Jemma cut him off before he could.
"Actually sir, Skye does have a point. I'm not sure about what they were washing, but I lost nearly all my shirts."
"Define nearly."
"Erm, everything I'm not either currently wearing or hanging up in my closet."
Coulson frowned. Skye spoke up again. "Yeah, dude, she procrastinates hard on laundry. That's basically only like, four shirts that aren't sleeping shirts left."
Coulson sighed before turning to the only other person affected that hadn't spoken up yet. "May?"
"Sleep wear and casual clothing, save a handful of things like Simmons."
Skye couldn't help her look of surprise and Coulson gave a weak smile. "She procrastinates too."
"Uh huh."
Coulson turned back to the table to do...something. Skye caught Jemma's eye and rolled her own, lifting her hands to mimic thwarting Coulson. Jemma laughed quietly before mouthing 'be nice'.
"This is nice." She mouthed back to her girlfriend but lowered her hands anyway and returned the smile. She noticed May watching them, the older agent rolling her eyes when their eyes met before shifting back to Coulson as he turned back around.
"I messaged headquarters to update them on the, um, situation-"
"And?"
"And they've agreed to reimburse costs for new clothes once we arrive at the Hub in a few days after dropping our new friend off at the Fridge."
Reimbursements. Skye could work with that.
"What are we suppose to do in the mean time?"
Coulson shrugged, giving her what shed dubbed his 'sassy-so-done' smile. "Figure something out."
'Figure something out' meant looking through the clothes that were left and figuring out who could wear what. Skye, despite her girlfriends protests, had never been one to sort her clothes so she lost roughly half of everything. She was still pissed about losing her favorite jacket, but was pleased enough when Jemma gave her one that smelled just like her. She ended up having to borrow some of May's things when they were called into the field a few days later, but other than that the damage to her own wardrobe wasn't as bad as she had initially thought.
The same couldn't be said for Jemma however. Being left with only her pants and handful of clean shirts, she ended up pulling more from the 'pile' as they dubbed it than the others. Meaning she wore more of Skye's shirts and May's leather jacket since none of her cardigans 'matched the look'. As Skye found her eyes wandering over her girlfriend in her new 'look' more over the next few days she wasn't going to complain either.
The changes to May's wardrobe were the most drastic. Even though she and Skye were more similar in their heights and body types, because she had lost her sleeping and casual clothes she ended up borrowing more of Jemma's clothes. They were both more comfortable in the 'pants and shirts' attire whereas Skye liked her short shorts and spaghetti tops.
Overall the arrangement was working out pretty easily. They dropped the prisoner off at the Fridge, set a course for the Hub, and everything was normal. Then, the night before they were meant arrive Jemma and Skye were awoken by a loud crash in the common area. They jumped out of bed to see what was going on but were stopped by Coulson as he was making his way back down the hall.
"Everything's fine. Tripp just, uh, startled May when she was getting some water."
He smiled weakly and behind him Skye could see May in the pair of blue pajama pants and pug face T-shirt she had borrowed from Jemma the night before. She was glaring murderously at the back of his head. Nodding, Jemma and Skye bid them goodnight before turning to go back to their pod. They could hear May muttering something about 'teaching him to laugh at her' as she was going by their door. They realized what must have happened and looked at each other before bursting into giggles of their own.
The next morning Tripp refused to meet anyone's eyes while May alternated between glaring at him and Coulson. When Coulson announced that they would be getting a washer and dryer installed on the bus while at the Hub, Skye didn't say a word. Just smirked when she caught Mays eyes, and laughed at her smirk in return.