"Ugh!" Skye's frustrated groan reverberated through the hangar as she descended the spiral staircase towards the lab.
Simmons set down a gadget with which she'd been fiddling and met Skye at the door to the lab. "Are you okay?"
"It's this stupid tie!" Skye pulled a black tie from her collar and threw it to the ground with a petulant stomp. "I have to wear a stupid uniform if I'm going to be a stupid caterer for this stupid mission but I can't tie the stupid tie!"
Simmons picked up the tie with a roll of her eyes. "Have you considered that the problem may not lie with the tie?"
"I know the problem is that I don't know how to tie it, but just let me take my frustrations out on the tie okay? I'll just find a clip-on when we land." Skye adjusted her black vest self-consciously.
"Oh, no no no," Simmons admonished. "Clip-ons are for children. You're wearing a real tie. Here, let me show you how to tie it."
Simmons handed the black tie to Skye and untucked her own plaid tie from her sweater and untied it. Skye rolled her eyes but lifted her collar back up and placed the tie around her neck.
"Okay, first you pull that down to around there. Then you cross this over that. Then you pull this up under through there and then down through that. Then you tug on that and there you go! Got it?"
Simmons' smile faded as she looked up at Skye for the first time since she began the demonstration to see the sorry knot that hung around Skye's neck.
"No, I don't got it. 'This up through there and then down through that'? Really? What does that even mean?" Skye crossed her arms in a huff.
"Okay, so I'm not the best at explaining things. Not without being terribly vague, anyway. I'm sorry, maybe if I…"
Skye muttered a surprised "Oh!" as Simmons spin her around and wrapped her arms around her. She watched, hyper-aware of their proximity, as Simmons reached from behind to untie her disaster and then guided Skye's own hands to grasp each side of the tie.
"Okay first this big side goes over the small side, okay? Then we just…"
With Simmons guiding her hands Skye managed to finally tie the tie in a simple knot despite being somewhat distracted by the warmth pressing into her back and the faint, pleasant scent of the perfume that Simmons had formulated herself, tailoring it to be optimized by her body chemistry. It was light, vaguely floral with a hint of… mint? She stepped out of Simmons' embrace as she spun around, adjusting the tie.
"Wow, we did it. Thanks!" Skye rewarded Simmons with a lazy grin.
She inhaled sharply in astonishment as Simmons suddenly grabbed the tie at the knot and removed it in one fluid motion, startling Skye and removing her abruptly from the warm fuzzy headspace.
"Hey, I need that! What did you do that for?"
Simmons handed the tie back to Skye with a smirk. "Now do it yourself."
"Fine." Skye put the tie back around her neck and began to try to tie it. Simmons watched with amusement as the tip of Skye's tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.
"There!" Skye tightened the tie with a triumphant expression, which fell as Simmons began to laugh. "What?"
"Well I suppose you've done the knot right but you've managed to put it on both inside out and backwards. The big part is supposed to be in front of the little part, and the seam isn't supposed to be facing out."
"Whatever, I give up!" Skye pouted. "Can you pleeeeease just do it for me? With a cherry on top?"
"Fine, spin." Skye turned her back to Simmons and stuck her hands in her pockets as the other woman wrapped her arms around her to untie and re-tie the tie.
When Simmons finished tying the tie she spun Skye back around and adjusted the knot to sit perfectly at Skye's throat. She tucked the end of Skye's tie into her vest and then patted her on the chest, smoothing the tie. "There you go." She said with a smile, looking up at Skye from an inch away. "You look positively dashing."
Skye patted Simmons on the shoulder as she gave her a lopsided grin. "Thanks, I owe you one." Then, much to Jemma's surprise, Skye gave Simmons a quick peck on the tip of her nose before striding out of the lab saying something about checking in with Coulson.
Jemma watched her go with a smile, her fingertips lingering millimeters from her nose.