A/N: Yeah, so, first published SHIELD fic. It was kinda a spur of the moment, have-to-write-this-now type of thing, so if it seems rushed or has errors, I apologize. Probably (most definitely) they're out of character, but hey. I tried.
"Why can't we play battleships?"
She's so close to whining that he almost smirks.
Instead he sighs patiently. "This will improve your memory, critical thinking, coordination, and-"
"Woah, wait." Skye interrupts, falling back in her seat. "Coordination? What, so finishing this will help me to not fall down the stairs?"
"Hand-eye coordination, Rookie."
She grumbles. "My hand-eye coordination is perfect, thanks."
Grant rolls his eyes. "Your training says otherwise."
She drags her feet onto the chair with a huff.
"Stop pouting," His gaze flicks to her briefly before dropping back to the table. "Or you train double time tomorrow."
"I'm analyzing the situation."
"Liar."
Ever the mature one, she sticks her tongue out in response.
"You know," He's successful on the first try in fitting a piece into place. "For a girl who loves puzzles, you have absolutely no skill at working them."
And this baffles Grant, because she was so passionate in that little spiel of hers that he figured she wasn't just being metaphorical.
"It was a metaphor," She proves him wrong seconds later, snatching a piece off the table at random.
Both are silent then. Or rather, Ward is silent while Skye becomes increasingly frustrated and starts growling.
Maybe this should surprise him, but it doesn't.
Even so, he continues on, never taking more than two tries to connect a piece. The puzzle has a thousand pieces total, but with the border done and a minor portion of the inner coming along, he figures his progress is going steadily well.
Skye, on the other hand, has yet to attach a thing in the near forty minutes they'd been working.
Examining the spread before him, he treads carefully. "Have you ever worked a puzzle?"
Her mouth is quick to snap open, but then she sighs. "Any puzzles we had lying around didn't exactly have all the pieces."
He nods slowly. "Look at the design on a specific piece." He ignores it when she restrains herself from a snarky response. "It helps to look at the shape as well."
"The shape?" Her eyebrow raises but he can hear that she toned down the scorn.
Grant reaches across the table, picking up a piece near her tapping finger. "See how this one has a bigger knob?"
Her eyes roll. "Yeah, but-"
"So if you look at the pattern as well as the shape, you might find the placement quicker."
She shook her head. "But this is so slow. I can't focus. Not to mention you just had to pick the most annoying puzzle in the history of ever."
"Would you be happier with the two thousand one?"
"Yes," And she sounds so indignant he wonders why he didn't guess that himself. "I've seen it, it's colorful and I can focus on the patterns cause there's stripe-y candy and gumdrops and this? It's pissing me off more than the four AM wakeup call yesterday."
Ward sighs. "Calm down. You'll never do anything with a puzzle while frustrated." He leaves her to this while still working methodically. When he figures she's looked out the window for long enough, he draws her attention back to him.
"Look," He gestures to the box. "What sticks out most on the picture?"
Skye's response is almost immediate. "The red."
He thinks for a moment. "Grab all the pieces with red on them. Clear a space in front of you and spread them out."
The table is small, but not as tiny as the one they usual play games on. He had purposefully left the red area alone, partly because the section it fit into was on her side of the table but also because he enjoyed working the harder parts first - the backdrop that tended to hold the majority of the picture and was typically one color.
Still, Skye had stared down at the slowly growing puzzle before reaching for pieces, and none ever fit into place. She'd even attempted the red portion, however unsuccessfully.
He finds it rather odd that she's struggling so much. Puzzles could be challenging, of course, but she'd barely scraped together the border with him. And Skye had proven to be clever with picking out patterns, but she just couldn't pick this up.
"Pick a piece." Ward instructed her when she looked at him expectantly. She did so and he continued. "See how that has a line going through the middle?"
Skye looked back at the piece for a moment, then nodded.
"Find the piece that has the line passing through at the connecting point."
Her eyes narrow at him critically, then she starts searching.
Instead of working in the silence, he speaks. This seems to baffle Skye, for she looks at him in mild surprise before focusing at his pointed gaze. He talks about working puzzles with Gramsie during each visit and how every holiday had a special puzzle to correspond with. He mentions the time the dog ate three pieces and when he'd spilled orange juice all over a recently finished masterpiece that took three weeks to complete.
She giggles at times, throwing in witty comments and generally teasing him. He lets her, because in between these moments she's squealing at each piece she connects.
The red section is small, but when she picks it up to snap into place within the rest of the puzzle, some of it crumbles. Her sigh is exasperated but she's quick to fitting everything back into place, much to his surprise.
When she finishes, she tilts her head, gaze flicking between the pieces before her and the picture on the box. There's not much to chose from, as the puzzle was rather bland and has the same general color scheme. But then her hand darts forward and she's staring intently for several long minutes.
With narrowed eyes, Skye set her piece down. It snaps in and she gives herself a cheer.
Ward finds himself grinning at her enthusiasm.
"Is that another smile, Agent Ward?" She's beaming at him now, concentration vanishing.
"No." He's quick to deny, yet only grins wider.
She blinks at him, because that's rather uncharacteristic. But then she shrugs, because she likes this side of him. "This is gonna take forever to finish."
"Only if you keep complaining and getting distracted."
Her jaw drops. "You can't tell me distractions aren't easy with this puzzle. Seriously, why is a tree landscape worthy of our time?"
And they're right back to the start.
Three hours later, when both have sore necks and burning eyes, he pushes away from the table. The puzzle isn't done, but if Skye hadn't been productive before, she definitely isn't now. One fits rubs her eyes periodically and she's tried the same piece-combo four times.
In fact, she was attempting it again when he tugged her up.
"But it's not done," Again, she's close to whining. He's amused that it's for the complete opposite reason as it had been previously.
"It'll still be here in the morning." Grant assures, steering her towards her bunk.
Skye all but stumbles into her bed, somehow managing to swiftly curl under a mound of blankets despite her fatigue. "Don't work without me,"
"I wouldn't dare." He promised, turning to go.
Her tired murmur catches him before he leaves. "Hey Robot?"
"Go to bed, Rookie."
"Thanks for teaching me how to do a stupid puzzle."
He smiles.