This is the second and last chapter of this short story. Enjoy!
Getting out of that tiny bed without waking Skye up was supposed to be a challenge, but she'd always been a heavy sleeper, so he managed that quite easily. He didn't waste any time considering the possibility of waking her up or even setting an alarm; not after she'd silently let him throw her to the ground repeatedly and still refused to tell him the truth only to prove she would be a good agent; not after she'd spent five nights awake because of what he'd said to her last Friday. He felt a bit guilty. And to think he'd accused her of ignoring everything… The best he could do after being a clueless moron for the past five days was allowing her to oversleep in his own bed.
When she did wake up, it was like she was finally a hundred percent awake after so many wasted nights, but she was also slightly hungover, causing her an annoying headache. Added to that, the last time she'd eaten had been hours before she'd settled at the bar last night, so she felt weak and in desperate need of nutrients.
It took Skye about three seconds to remember every single thing she'd done last night and she almost ripped her hair out when burying her head in her hands. Waking up in Ward's bunk should've been enough to prove something, but she simply couldn't believe she'd actually asked him to sleep with her.
It could've been worse, though—that's what she told herself. She mentally thanked him for stopping her from drinking more. Anyway, she still felt like her entire face was about to combust.
Turning around to slip out of the bed, Skye noticed she was wearing her Captain America T-shirt as pajamas and literally face-palmed. Another awful, clothing-related detail she noticed in the scenery: the clock next to the bed was covered by the sweatpants and white T-shirt Ward had been wearing last night. The thought of him possibly being about to return from his morning shower made her choke on a dozen of cursing words, but the one she spit out before slapping her own mouth in disbelief was, "fuck!".
She urgently elbowed the door open and stumbled out of his bunk, not knowing exactly where she was heading to, but anywhere was fine as long she was out of there. Another bad idea (guess she was having a bunch of those lately), she found out when she spotted Ward walking through the living area.
Changing her path ridiculously late after staring him dead in the eye with the embarrassment crystal clear in her expression, she quickly paced until she entered her own bunk and then slammed the door behind her like a 12-year-old hiding from her crush. Absolutely pathetic, but she wouldn't be able to compose herself for long enough to look him in the eyes without blushing until her cheeks burned.
Walking in circles—more like walking back and forth in a line, due to the lack of space not occupied by the bed—, she waited for the inevitable. Less than a minute later, she heard a couple of light knocks on her door and shrieked.
During the pause between hearing the noise and opening the door, she considered remaining silent until he gave up and went away.
"Good morning, weirdo," he said before she could finish sliding the door completely open.
He looked fresh and cute in dark blue sports pants and one of his hundreds of identical white T-shirts. Unable to form a sentence that could work as an answer, and aware that slightly punching him in the shoulder, saying "what up" and running away would only make it worse, she only stared at his feet and entangled her fingers in her messed up hair.
"I'm hungry," she blurted out. "Guess I should, uh, get some breakfast now."
She tried moving past him to get out of the bunk, but stopped once she saw the look on his face. He was about to laugh and she didn't know the reason. "Breakfast? You sure?" He pointed at the analog clock she had next to her bed and waited while she took longer than usual to read it.
She exhaled loudly in disbelief. "Holy crap!" It was around 2PM already.
His smirk widened a bit. "We're landing in two hours. Budapest. Mission briefing in ten." His eyes moved a bit lower. "You might want to change your clothes, despite how hilarious would it be if you showed up in the control room in that T-shirt."
"Very funny, Agent Ward," she replied. "For your information, this was a gift from Jemma on my last birthday. She's such a fangirl, what can I do?"
"Yeah, tell me about it," he said sarcastically.
"So, what's this mission about?" She was desperate to change the subject before it could get any more awkward.
"If I knew, we wouldn't need to be at the briefing."
Damn. Wasn't she the receiving end of all that unusual sarcasm, she'd have been a pleased viewer during this rare demonstration that he could use his sense of humor.
"See you in ten," he said, preparing to walk away.
He didn't expect to have his arm grasped by her hesitating hand as she stopped him. "No, wait-"
It had slipped out of her mouth before she could plan what to say next. She needed to say something, though. "I just wanted to, um, thank you. So, yeah, thanks…" Skye had always had her way with words, therefore stuttering like this made her feel entirely foolish. "Also, I may have kicked you. A lot. And I'm very sorry about that."
She had, in fact, kicked him a couple of times, but nothing really disturbing, so he preferred not to confirm nor deny it. "You're welcome."
"So, how did the mission go?"
"I think we did well."
Jemma held Skye's wrist with one of her hands and used the fingertips of the other one to apply pressure to different parts of her forearm. "I told you, it's nothing-" Skye's complaint was cut when the biochemist touched a certain place that made her whine in pain.
"It doesn't appear to be nothing," Jemma made her point.
Skye had just returned from her "first" mission with Ward, May and Coulson—whilst going in a mission as a consultant had felt like hanging out with the cool kids, as an agent it was like actually being a part of the cool kids, except way more dangerous and secretive. The mission was level 7, and she was practically a newborn with her level 1 clearance, therefore the cool kids had told her almost nothing. She did only what she was supposed to and heard their talk during the operation through her earpiece, but what difference did it make since they used codenames for everything involved?! The result was, she didn't know if the mission had been completely successful.
"Lucky for you, it's just a mild wrist sprain," Jemma finally announced, forcing Skye to resurface after losing herself in thoughts. "May I ask you something?"
"Remember what we talked about not asking for my permission before asking me a question?" Skye reprimanded. "Of course you may ask me something!"
Jemma squinted. "Right. So, what happened to you yesterday? You disappeared all morning and then showed up at the briefing as if out of thin air! Agent Ward said you weren't feeling well, but I checked your bunk and it was empty."
Skye chuckled. Not understanding something always made Jemma annoyed, and Skye could see she had been dying to ask her that, but they hadn't been together for more than five minutes since that mission briefing. She looked above Jemma's shoulder to check if Fitz really wasn't there in the lab and confessed, "That's because I was in his bunk."
Jemma's reaction was priceless. Her chin dropped and she glared at Skye like the new agent had just confessed a felony. "Did you two-" Jemma started and then covered her own mouth with her hands, taking them out a few seconds later, still quite shocked, but also a bit… content? Perhaps she was just glad for being the only one who spotted Ward's lie about Skye being sick. "Bloody hell. I knew he was hiding something!"
"No, calm down, that's not-"
"Don't worry, Skye," Jemma interrupted sympathetically with a grin on her face, clearly amused like she had just figured out everything. Unbelievably, she was using that cute voice she used whenever Fitz was afraid of something. "I won't tell anyone. You know you can always trust me to keep your secrets, so tell me the whole truth, how-"
"That's what I'm trying to do, Sherlock Holmes," Skye joked, trying not to laugh at the irony behind what Jemma had just stated, considering how terrible of a liar she was. "I didn't sleep with Ward. We just… slept together. Get it?"
"Actually, I don't," Jemma responded, bemused. "Do you mind making yourself more specific?"
"I've been having trouble sleeping… Last night I kind of tried to drink away my problems, and Ward caught me, so we talked and… Long story short, stupid-and-drunk me asked to sleep with him. Ridiculous, I know. We just slept, nothing more than sleeping in the most literal sense of that word."
Jemma stared at her in pure disbelief for a second, and then burst out in laughter. "Also," Skye added, "I was wearing that Captain America T-shirt you gave me."
Jemma laughed even harder. "Is there a possibility of this story getting better?"
"Oh, believe me," Skye begun, but stopped when her friend's smile faded away in a heartbeat, looking at something behind her.
Turning around to see what caught Jemma's attention, however fairly certain that her guess—based on the look in the biochemist's face—would be confirmed, Skye watched as Ward walked into the lab. He was still in his dirty combat uniform, and his eyesight was locked on her entire figure before moving on to her hand specifically.
"Everything alright?" He asked nonchalantly, stopping next to the chair she was sitting on.
Skye pretended she wasn't noticing Jemma discreetly moving away with a childish smirk on her face and answered, "I'm fine."
He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah? Last time I got that as an answer, you weren't."
"Fair point, but now I really am fine besides this, thank you," she raised her sprained wrist, trying to contain a smile. A year and a half later, the fact that he was constantly worried about everyone in the team still hit her when she wasn't expecting. In an awful British accent, she added, "Just a mild wrist sprain!" And then laughed at herself. "Got anything below Level 7 clearance to tell me?"
For quite some time now, Skye had been putting effort into an attempt to sound less like an annoyed-teenager when the subject was the clearance levels. As much as it was disappointing not being cleared to know lots of things, she knew she had to respect the system, and Coulson would always do his best to inform the team everything he could. So, instead of "got anything below level 7 to tell me since I put myself in the line of fire for something I don't even get to know what is and therefore deserve to get some goddamn answers about that", she effectively tried to sound more like, got anything below level 7 to tell me? Or don't, whatever." Even if it wasn't fully honest.
"Excuse me," Jemma interrupted, making her way out of the lab rather quickly. "I will find you a wrist splint and some ice for that," she said, pointing at Skye's hand before storming out.
"Actually, I do," he surprised Skye, who was definitely expecting an answer like "nope, sorry."
"Are you serious?" She jumped out of her seat (partially because staring him from him below made her feel tiny). Her eyes glowed, but not sure if the information he was about to give would be good or bad to hear. God, she hoped it was good.
"The mission was a success, Skye," he said, noticing how insanely anxious she was, and excited to inform her that her first mission hadn't been a complete fiasco. One small detail had gone wrong, but a) she didn't have the clearance to know these details, b) she'd certainly think it had been her fault, and c) it really wasn't that big of a deal.
"W-what?" A bright smile spread across her face. "What do you mean?"
"Remember what you heard through the comms before you and Coulson busted the compound?"
She did, in fact, remember perfectly what she heard. Right before Coulson gave her the orders, she'd heard Ward's voice in her earpiece, but it hadn't made much sense to her back then. "Yeah. 'ST and SM are secure. Ready for extraction'," she repeated. "Were those, like, really important packages or what?"
"No, not packages." His lips quirked upwards into a half-smile as he announced. "ST and SM stand for Sara Trevino, 6-year-old, and Sam McCarty, 9-year-old."
She blinked, once, twice, three times while her chin dropped to the ground as she realized what that meant. "Are you saying-" Her voice faltered. "Sorry, will you tell me exactly what the mission was about?"
He took a deep breath. "We took down an illegal lab that was experimenting with Chitauri substances found in-"
"Yeah, that's the only part I was told about," she interrupted gently, but impatiently. "How are two kids involved? Were they- Oh my god, were those psychos doing tests with Chitauri stuff in children?!"
Ward looked down and nodded before setting his eyes on her again. "Not for long before we stopped them. The kids were flown to the Hub and will be examined and sent back to their homes."
Skye ran her good hand through her hair, processing what he had just informed her. "But what about-"
"Classified," he said before she could ask any more questions. "This is all I'm allowed to tell you, Skye. Sorry. But you did help save two abducted children."
Hearing that last sentence, Skye couldn't help but giggle. Helping save children? She could totally get used to how amazing that felt.
Ward was smiling too. A successful mission like this was exactly what Skye needed to restore her faith in herself; plus, the last time he'd seen her so happy had been a long time ago, and he really enjoyed that.
Seeing his face lit up with that adorable smile, Skye stopped looking at him straight away. That goddamn smile triggered things she'd rather have left buried away as long as possible—partly because being attracted to her supervising officer (and now fellow SHIELD agent) had tiny chances of ending well, partly due to the lack of signs that he ever felt the same way. Ignoring whatever she felt was just easier than confronting it.
It was different now, though. Who knew spending a night sharing a single bed would change things so quickly?! Turned out it kind of did. Trying not to look back up in his eyes, Skye realized she'd never even hugged him. They had saved each other's lives more than once, but had never really hugged, and she wanted to. That's not weird at all, right? Wanting to know how was it like to be embraced by his firm arms? Friends hug, fellow agents hug. Hell, it's normal.
So she quit thinking about it and jumped forwards, throwing her arms around his neck. It took him a few seconds to react properly after being caught by surprise once again by her, but when he did wrap his arms around her waist, it felt so good. Her sprained wrist hurt a little due to the sudden movement, and she couldn't care less. Damn, he was so much taller than her and everyone else in the team, and she felt even smaller being held by him like that, but the height difference made it oddly more comfortable. She fit into his arms like their bodies were two puzzle pieces, her face buried in his chest, his chin resting on her shoulder, allowing themselves to enjoy the warmth that spread through their bodies. When he softly ran his hand through her hair and caressed her back, suddenly she wished they had spent the entire night like that two days ago. (Such a waste.)
Eventually, they separated, though neither of them wanted to—first because it would be slightly awkward after, and second… Well, just because staying like that would be nice, really. But Skye didn't let go so fast. Instead, she slowly raised her good hand to his face, cupping his cheek and praying he wouldn't notice that she was lightly shaking. She had no idea of what was happening at all.
She moved gradually, giving him time to back away if that was what he wanted, although she secretly hoped so much it wasn't. And she had no idea he was quietly expecting her to make a move, because for some reason he didn't want to pass the wrong impression, he didn't want to ruin everything before it even happened, or maybe he was just too frozen to be the first to show what he wanted.
But she did. They could only stare into each other's eyes for so long; Skye carefully put her good hand in his shoulder and stood on her tiptoes in order to reduce their height difference before pulling him close enough to press a tender kiss on his lips. And then the whole "take it slow" thing was over. His hands moved along her body while hers went from his face and shoulder to the back of his neck and entangled themselves in his soft hair. She couldn't help but curve the corners of her lips into a smile when the touch of her thumb in that ticklish spot behind his ear sent a quiver down his spine. She may or may not have touched that spot on purpose.
When their lips separated, they still kept their foreheads against each other's until Skye opened her eyes and saw the look of both bewilderment and delight in his face. He seemed so surprised she literally started giggling.
"Remember what you told me about trying to stop overthinking?" She asked, because the temptation of being sarcastic instead of serious was crushing her. "Took the advice. Thanks, man."
Honestly, I'm just a sucker for happy endings. :)
Special thanks to my friend Be (aka lovegkp on Twitter aka that friend that still hasn't gotten an account here) for some ideas and a lot of motivation. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!