Author´s note: so I just realized, that I´ve uploaded this on AO3, but not here, so thought you should get the enjoyment too. I am slowly getting in a festive mood, which is why this is winter themed naturally. It should be noted that this is my first Agents of Shield fanfic, and also that it is set post an eventual redemption arc for Ward.

I don´t own Agents of Shield, if that was not already very obvious.

"Thank god for hot chocolate," Skye exclaims, once Ward enters the small kitchen at the Playground, which when he thinks about it has nothing to do with him. She freezes briefly when she sees him come around the corner, but then smiles carefully at him. "Hey Ward."

"Hey," he replies, just as carefully. He has been back for almost a month now, and while things are better, they still aren´t great. They´ll never be, and some of that is his fault and some of it is the team´s, but that doesn´t matter now. He looks up at Skye on the kitchen counter, where she is sitting. Her hair is loose, and she has a practically gigantic mug with a Star Wars logo in both her hands. He only looks at her for a few seconds, before he opens the fridge to grab the protein drink he came for.

"Please tell me, you´re not going to drink that," Skye muttered, probably hoping he wouldn´t catch that, unfortunately for her he did. He closed the fridge door again, crossed his arms and looked at her.

"Why wouldn´t I?" He knew Skye´s general opinion was, that he took everything too seriously, even though she too had grown up and matured a lot, since he had met her. However, he would still like to hear her reasoning.

"Because the power is out in half the building," Skye retorted louder this time. "It´s cold, drink something warm!" She gestures towards the pot of hot water standing beside her, almost spilling some of the hot chocolate. He puts down the bottle on the counter; he could say it´s not that cold, pretty easy option actually, but instead he decides to admit defeat.

"Fine," he replied with a small sigh, and her victorious grin was worth it.

"I do amazing hot chocolate," Skye informed him, putting her own cup down and sliding down from the counter. "You´ll soon forget everything about your love affair with that carrot and potato juice." That was not really what it was, but she was too cute for Ward to inform her she was wrong. She found the cocoa powder, and a bag of marshmallows from a cabinet, she had apparently put it in, and grabbed it. Working various magic, Skye ended up having the hot drink prepared for him a couple of minutes later in a mug with a grumpy cat on it. If he wasn´t wrong it was an internet thing, but Ward didn´t exactly spend a lot of time there, and certainly not a fraction of the time Skye did.

"It´s Coulson´s mug," she said with a small grin, as an answer to his lifted eyebrow. She was still guarded, but slightly warmer around him. At least he thought so. That was all he could ask for. "At least I think so."

"I doubt it," he replied, and took the mug. He found out that his hands were cold, once they wrapped around the warm mug. Skye smirked and hopped back onto the counter picking up her own mug again. Ward however didn´t move, and just brought the mug up to his lips. "You were right," he said once he had swallowed his first mouthful of chocolate goodness.

"Told you," Skye said. Ward took another mouthful, and then another one, and Skye seemed to just be watching him over the edge of her own mug. After a minute or so of that, Ward put the mug down and raised an eyebrow. Skye figured out, she had been made and swallowed hard. "Look there is something, which I need to talk with you about. Something I should probably have talked to you about a while ago."

"Okay," he said, and briefly considered moving out the place. But instead he just stood still.

"I´m sorry," she said, and practically stared into his eyes. "And I don´t know if that´s the right thing to say, because you killed Victoria Hand, Eric Koenig and god knows how many more, but I´m still saying it. I´m sorry I stopped believing your story about your brother, because you lied about everything else. And I know you´re being better now, and I´m just-"

Ward took a step forward, and put both of his hands on her shoulders. Skye looked at him, and her eyes practically shimmered. This hit him like a train, because this meant something. Coulson had given him a more official apology, once they let him into SHIELD, but that had been stiff, professional and not with much emotion. Because Coulson didn´t feel bad for what they had done, or at least not that bad. Coulson had done what he believed necessary.

But Skye, wonderful amazing Skye, who he wasn´t going to stop being in love with any time soon, felt sorry. She wasn´t forgiving him of course, he had not expected her to, but the fact that she felt sorry, actually sorry for trying to send him back to his brother hit something. "You are not playing me?" It was supposed to be a statement, but it ended up sounding more like a question.

"No," she assured him. "Not doing that again." Then, suddenly he noticed that she had wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. He didn´t dare move, afraid that she would let go of him. She was resting her head against his shoulder.

"It´s going to be okay," Ward said, and stroke a hand through her hair. She shuttered slightly, but didn´t move. "It´s better now."

"Yeah," Skye said, and unwrapped herself from him. "It´s better now." Ward took his mug, and sat down on the counter beside her. To his surprise Skye didn´t move, or slipped back behind her walls again. She did not say anything else though, and neither did he. Instead it was a comfortable silence, surprisingly comfortable, and Ward believed his own words. It was going to be better.