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Author's Note: I loved Guardians of the Galaxy, and I adore the soundtrack. Since it's a Marvel movie and with the new movie's coming soon, I thought that some SkyeWard song fics were of order. I had this idea for a while, but I've been trying to figure out what to write for songs like 'OHH Child' and 'Cherry Bomb'. But hey, I'll think of something... Eventually... *nervous laugh*
[Teenage AU] [Friendship/Romance] [K]
...
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'When you hold me, in your arms so tight
You let me know, everything's all right,
I'm hooked on a feeling,
I'm high on believing,
That you're in love with me,'
~Blue Swede
...
Let's say it started around grade seven. Neither Grant nor Skye know how it came about, but they started to act affectionate, in a mock-couple way (emphasis on mock). Maybe it was because both of them didn't have significant others while some of their friends had an S.O. But no one honestly knows for sure.
But the true mystery was how Skye was able to get Grant to participate it these affection acts. Despite the fact that he has this one 'hate face' that sets up a two meter perimeter around him that everyone (but Skye) is too afraid to cross. But apparently he's a puppy only around his best friend, well, an anti social puppy nonetheless.
It started with the awkward 'yawn and reach over shoulder' thing, then it evolved to long hugs that are more like standing snuggles to holding hands when ever they're together. They've even gotten to platonic 'I love you's by their first year of high school. They've joked that they are 'more affectionate that real couples', and if they were together, they would be the (annoying yet loveable—no, scratch that, just annoying) PDA couple.
A lot of people were (and still are) convinced that they are a couple, heck, even their teachers ship them. But when anyone asked them, they would just laugh it off and denied the statement. This has lead to a lot bets and more than fifty bucks lost from Hunter who is convinced that the pair will get together (or he just like spending money). On the flip side, Bobbi has made over fifty bucks in bets, but it's because she like winning, not because she doesn't want Skye and Grant together.
...
It's the weekend just after their first set of grade ten exams, which was yet another gentle reminder that they're not in elementary school anymore. So what better way to celebrate another trip to Hell and back than a nice game of bowling (but 'nice' may be an overstatement, their games are highly competitive)?
...
The bus stops with a screech. Grant stands in front of the door until it slides open. He says a 'Thank you' to the bus driver before slipping his hands into his jacket pockets and stepping out onto the pavement.
They haven't gone bowling since the summer, and Grant's determined to win back his title of 'Bowling Champion' that was wrongfully taken by Skye. It was a high energy game that came down to the last roll of the ball and ended with a ridiculous victory dance from Skye. Okay, maybe seeing Skye's embarrassing victory dance was worth the loss, but that's not stopping him from wanting to win again.
Grant passes by several small shops, his eyes glance through the store windows as he walks. He continues to walk until he's in front of 'Split Lane Bowling Alley'. He slips his hand out of his pocket and pulls open the door and enters the dimly lit, glow-in-the-dark bowling alleys (Skye always insists on going to the glow-in-the-dark ones).
The door swings close behind him as he walks out into the floor. He looks out to the lanes, scanning to see if his friends have arrived yet.
"Grant! Over here!" He hears an unmistakeable voice call. He looks around, and then finally spots Skye, waving to him from one of the far lanes.
Grant smiles back with a wave. "Let me get my bowling shoes first!"
He then turns to the lady waiting at the counter, and steps up to rent bowling shoes.
...
He finishes paying and proceeds to walk down the aisle. There were only a handful of other groups occupying the other lanes, which wasn't surprising for noon on a lazy Sunday.
Skye, Kara, Bobbi and Hunter are already at the lane, tying their shoes and typing their ridiculous nicknames into the score screen. Skye looks up, jumps out from her seat when her eyes meets his. "I missed you!" Skye says, running up and attacking him with a hug.
"You saw him yesterday," Hunter chimes in as he ties his shoes.
"Twenty-four hours is a long time!" Skye protest, detaches herself from Grant.
Grant shakes his head with a smile. "It isn't a long time Skye and we hung out yesterday afternoon."
"Hey!" She gives him a light punch on the shoulder. "I thought you liked my affection! You're taking his side now, Hunter's side of all people!"
Grant shrugs. "There are no sides. I'm just saying that you don't have to say 'I missed you'every time you see me."
Skye crosses her arms. "Oh, so you're finally fighting back huh?" Grant swallows. From all their years of friendship, he knows this face; the 'Oh, it's on!' face. She suddenly smirks, "So prepared to get your butt kicked!"
See? Called it.
Grant snickers. "You wish!"
...
Grant smirks as the ball knocks down the remainder of the pins, which only furthers his lead. He takes a few steps back and looks at the screen. They only have a few frames left before their next game. And he's sure that this time, Skye is going to bit his dust.
"Kara, it's your bowl," Grant says as he steps off the wooden floor and onto the technocoloured carpet.
Kara looks up from the plate of overpriced fries. "Yeah, okay." She sticks another in her mouth before going up for her turn.
Grant takes a seat beside Skye. She instantly snuggles up against him.
Grant smiles smugly, "So I'm getting my butt kicked huh? I think our definitions of 'getting your butt kicked' are different."
"Oh shut up," Skye fires back as she absentmindedly traces swirls on the back of Grant's hand. "Maybe you're winning the battle, but not the war; the bowling war."
Grant laughs, wrapping his arm over her shoulder. "You can dream on hon."
Skye looks up at him with a smile. Grant gazes down at her with the same loving (platonic?) look.
Both are too distracted to register Bobbi and Hunter's words as they sit across from them. "Twenty five bucks says they get together by the end of the week," Hunter whispers to Bobbi. She rolls her eyes.
"Really? Twenty five buck?" Bobbi raises an eyebrow. "You're that faithful? Don't you say that you think they'll get together every week?"
Hunter shakes his head and nudges towards Skye curled in Grant's embrace. "Don't you see the way they're looking at each other? That ain't platonic. I'm that faithful that I will raise it to thirty five bucks," Hunter challenges.
"Huh," Bobbi says with an impressed look on her face. "You have yourself a deal." They shake hands before turning back to Skye and Grant.
Kara walks back to her seat as she says "Skye, it's your turn." pulling the two out of their trance.
"Okay." Skye slips under Grant's arm and goes to get her lucky bowling ball.
"So you aren't together yet, huh?" Kara asks, taking Skye's seat beside Grant.
He rolls his eyes in response. "I didn't realize that you're joining in on Hunter and Bobbi's bets."
"No, no, no. I'm actually responsible with my money. It just pains me to watch you being so unaware of the way you look at Skye." Kara smirks.
"I don't look at Skye a 'certain way'," Grant protest.
Kara snorts and gives his the 'you're joking, right?' look. "Have you seen the way you look at her? You're in love with her." She gives him a pat on the shoulder. Grant looks away, heat rising to his cheeks.
"Ha! You're blushing! You do like her!" Kara celebrates.
Grant turns back to Kara and insists, "I'm not blushing!"
"You're even oblivious to the fact that you're blushing! Face it, you're in denial." Kara crosses her arms across her chest. "Why else you do think you tolerate her affectionate acts? When I met you, would scowl every time someone touched you. You're hopelessly in love with her."
Grant is dumbstruck. He doesn't care to acknowledge it but he's thought of the possibility of him and Skye being an actual couple before. But he always pushed those thoughts aside, choosing to ignore them. Since you can't think of your best friend like that, can you?
Come to think of it, Kara's right; he's only affectionate towards to Skye to that extent. He's in love with his best friend isn't he? How long has he felt this way? Has it been like this since grade seven? He's a real moron isn't he?
Kara looks over when Skye lets out a loud "Yes!" after bowling a strike.
"Think about it," she says to Grant before moving out of Skye's spot.
He'll think about it for sure, it will be the only thing on his mind for the rest of the week.
...
It's a Friday during one of Skye spares. She finds herself in the library, typing away at an essay that she decided to get a head start on (despite what others say, Skye is responsible. Plus is banned at school).
She's too busy to notice the tap of approaching footsteps. "You idiot, you oblivious, oblivious idiot," Skye looks up to see Kara standing beside her table. Skye raises an eyebrow.
Kara's visit puzzles her. It's been a while since she talked to her. Kara is more of Grant's friend than hers and they only hangout when they're with him. The two don't talk that much otherwise, or go out of their way to spend time with each other. And she has never called Skye an idiot.
"What?"
Kara shakes her head with a smug grin in her face. "You're really in denial aren't you? I have no idea how you have been able to stay in denial for so long, it's like you objectively avoiding the truth."
"Kara what are you talking about?" Skye closes the lid of her laptop, giving her full attention to the other girl.
Kara snickers. "It's so funny because you're the one doing it."
"Stop speaking in freaking riddles! Get to the point already!" Skye is tired of Kara playing games.
"Hey, hey, I was getting to it." Kara puts her hands up innocently. "It's about time someone breaks the news to you; Grant is in love with you."
Skye just stares for a moment, then snickers, then it evolves into a full on laugh. There was nothing that funny about it, she doesn't really know why she's laughing. But here she is; eyes shut closed, letting out an embarrassingly loud laugh that echoes through the library. She looks back up at Kara, but her laughs fad away when she meets the deadpan look on Kara's face.
She stares at the other girl before speaking, "Are you sure that Grant's in—in love with me?"
Kara snorts and rolls her eyes. "Have you seen the way he looks at you when you guys hug? He's hopelessly in love with you. Was he denial? Sure, before I slapped some sense into him. But you were in so much more denial than he was." Kara places a hand on the table and leans her weight on it.
This new information hits Skye like a train. Grant Ward is a rather closed-off person, it almost feels impossible that he's hopelessly in love with her. Maybe that's why he has stuck by her side for so long, maybe that's why he's put up with all her affectionate acts for so long. Was she really that blind?
"Grant's class ends in say—four minutes. So you better haul you butt over to the other side of the school." Kara winks with a smug grin plastered on her face.
"Umm, yeah, thanks." Skye stutters as she tucks her laptop away in her bag.
"No problem, just tryin' to help true love," Kara replies. "And I'm just trying to help win Hunter some money that he desperately needs. So run for your dear life! You have four minutes!"
Skye looks at Kara, giving a quick smile before she beelines towards the door.
...
The bell rings as she turns the corner. Despite the sea of students flooding the hallway, she still fights her way towards Ms Nathan's music class.
Amongst an army worth's of students, she spots Grant's head in the crowd.
"Grant!" Skye calls, which he somehow hears avoid the other students.
He turns around, meeting her eyes. "Hey," he says, approaching her. "What are you doing here?"
"I had a spare and I wanted to talk to you," she says as they walk with the flow of traffic.
"I have lunch, so walk with me?" Skye nods as they turn down an emptier hallway.
They continue down the hallway before either of them says anything. Skye takes advantage of this time to try and think out a plan, since Kara didn't give her much time to prepare.
"I—" they say in unison. The look at each other and laugh it off.
Grant says, "You go first."
Skye nods then looks down the hallways. She feels her palm becoming increasingly sweater as anxiety creaks up from inside.
She swallows, "So Kara was talking to me during my spare, and I heard that she talked to you too."
Grant stops in his tracks. Taking a second before he looks down at her, "Skye I—"
"No," she interrupts, looking to meet his gaze. "Let me say it."
Skye takes a deep breath before continuing. "So Kara was talking to me, well she called me an idiot, but she made me realize something. Grant, will—will you hangout with me sometime, like a date?"
Grant simply stares.
Suddenly all that fear and anxiety spills out at once. Skye knew this was going to happen. Kara was probably recruited by Hunter to ask out Grant so he can win a few bets. This was only enviable. She has always been horrible at improv. This probably will ruin their friendship, this—"Of course."
Grant's words barely register amongst her racing thoughts, but it comes through.
Skye goes wide eyed. She heard him say it, she saw his lips move, but she's still doesn't believe it. "O—Okay," she manages to say, "Sounds good."
Grant gives her a loving smile (definitely not platonic this time), "I was meaning to ask you, but you beat me to it."
It takes all of Skye's will power not to kiss him right then and there, but for their first kiss she doesn't want an audience. Plus the school has a rule against PDA.
"So, we're going to the cafeteria?" he asks, breaking their daze.
"Yeah," Skye returns his smile. She laces their hands together and they continue down the hallway.
...
Skye and Grant walk hand in hand into Mr Coulson's English class the next day. Kara immediately approaches them once they stepped through the door.
"Sooo I hear that you guys are finally together," Kara smiles.
Skye and Grant move out of the way to allow students to pass. "Yeah, we are." Skye smiles, and looks up at her new boyfriend. Boyfriend, she's still not used to thinking of him that way.
"You're welcome. Now I have bragging rights for getting you to crazy kids together and now Hunter isn't totally broke." Kara says. "I better be the maid of honour!"
Mr Coulson stands up from desk. "Wait!" he chimes in. "You guys weren't a couple before?"
Skye laughs and says, "Yeah," with a nod.
"Huh, then I guess I owe Coach May twenty bucks," He sits back down on his spiny chair. "Everyone, get to your seat and take out the paper that was assigned on Wednesday."
"I guess teachers were betting on us too," Skye says to Grant and they walk to their desks near the back of the room.
"We should have joined in these bets too. We could have been making a lot of cash." Grant jokes as he pulls out his chair and takes a seat.
Skye smiles, "Since this was all enviable, I guess we could have."