Happy holidays to everyone! This one-shot is a surprise present for my friend and fellow lover of Huntingbird, daisiesinajar. Takes place right after 5x05 (so major spoilers for that ep...obviously).
Homecoming
Hunter was happy. Well, sad that he might—probably wouldn't—ever see Fitz again, but happy that he'd helped out a good friend. Satisfied, maybe that was a better word. Mission success. Fitz (hopefully) reunited with Simmons. If there were any two he would trust to stop whatever world-ending event was headed their way, it was those two.
He rummaged through first the left, then the right pocket of his jeans for the apartment keys, finding Rusty's now obsolete business card, a receipt from a gas station a few blocks away, and...was that an old, used tissue? No wonder Bobbi refused to do his laundry. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets instead, his fingers coming into contact with the keys he was searching for right as the door flew open, revealing an irate Bobbi on the other side. All thoughts of anything else flew out of his mind.
"What the hell, Hunter."
He managed a sheepish smile. "Hey, Bob."
She pulled him over the threshold roughly, hand tight around his bicep until he had stumbled all the way inside. The door slammed behind him. "Where have you been? I expected you home six days ago!"
"I, uh—"
"One argument, and you just disappear? Spill, Hunter. What have you been doing?"
"Well, one argument and a shattered bottle of two-hundred-quid Bourdeau and yet another restaurant we are now blacklisted from…" He caught the look in her eyes and promptly switched track. "Coulson & Co got kidnapped by people from the future and Fitz needed some help getting to them so you know, just your standard breaking him out of jail, making contact with an alien named Enoch who's been on Earth observing human evolution for a few thousand years, getting some fairly creepy drawings from a girl who can see the future, and sticking Fitz in a cryo chamber so that he can meet up with the team, oh, seventy-four years from now after the apocalypse."
She blinked. "You what?" Her eyebrows knit together. "Wait. Wait. Coulson's team needed help and you didn't think to call me?"
"Oops? Had it under control though, Bob. Well, me and Rusty, may he rest in peace."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do I even want to know…?" Bobbi took a deep breath. "All right, where is the team now?"
Hunter shook his head. "No clue."
"Okay, where's Fitz? Did he find them?"
"Also don't know. Oh but Fitz is frozen in space. I think. But yeah, he's safe, he's good. Gave him the Star Wars goodbye just in case, you know."
"The Star Wars goodbye? I-love-you-I-know? But that's our thing!" Bobbi glared at him.
"I thought our thing was don't die out there?"
"Yes, but after the ninjas crashed our almost-wedding…" She looked at him pointedly.
"Ah, right. Sorry, didn't know what was going to be a thing. I mean, the slave girl Leia outfit night was a really good—"
"Hunter!"
"I think I might've also told Hunter not to die out there? Sorry, love…" He wasn't expecting her to throw her arms around his neck at that one, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Thank you," Bobbi said from where her chin rested on his shoulder, "for helping out our friends."
"Always, Bob," he murmured back. Even the faint sirens in the distance couldn't dull this moment with her.
After a few long, sunlit seconds she pulled away. "Did you say apocalypse?"
"Hopefully the team will take care of that?" Hunter offered.
"And I don't suppose those sirens are for us?" Bobbi asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Might be. Yeah—probably," Hunter admitted. "Might've broken into a top secret military base. Twice. And stole the Zephyr from them. Under the eye of dozens of security cameras."
"Oh yes, you totally had everything under control," Bobbi rolled her eyes. "Grab your go-bag."
"Did you pack my Liverpool jersey?" Hunter checked.
"Not the wedding photos, not the Franny's keychain, you ask about the Liverpool jersey," Bobbi sighed. "Yes, it's in there."
"You're amazing, Bob."
She kissed him on the lips, quick and sweet. "Now come on, let's go deal with your little problem."
"Our little problem."
Her mouth twisted into a wry smile. "Unfortunately. Because for some God-unknown reason, I love you."
Hunter grinned. "I know."
Until next time!