Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! Got some down time today so I figured I'd update this wonderful story for you all. :)

Enjoy!


"You do know that you didn't actually have to walk me to work today, right?" Skye asks her boyfriend as they make their way, hand in hand, down the sidewalk towards her work.

Grant nods. "Yes I do. Your car is in the shop, Skye. And you won't be able to drive it again until next week after it's fixed."

"I could have just taken the bus," she tells him.

Grant shakes his head. "Trust me, there are a lot of things that can go wrong on the city bus. By me walking you to work I can make sure you're safe and that you actually make it to work on time."

"So this has absolutely nothing to do with you just wanting to spend more alone time with me?" she asks teasingly.

"That's definitely an added bonus," he says with a smile. "I really like spending time with you so I'm going to take every chance I can get and run with it."

"I like the sound of that."

"Me too." He leans down and presses a quick kiss to her lips. "There's no way you're going to get rid of me anytime soon."

"Wouldn't even dream of it," she replies. She leans into his side more as they continue to make their way down the sidewalk, keeping themselves occupied with idle conversation as they go.

"Here we are," Skye says once they reach the front entrance to SHIELD Industries.

Grant lets out a breath. "Wow, big place."

Skye shrugs. "Doesn't really seem that big once you're actually inside and occupied with work."

"I guess this is where we must say goodbye, then," he says, turning to face her.

Skye rolls her eyes. "Stop sounding so dramatic, Grant. I'll see you after I get off work. You're still coming over, right?"

Grant nods. "Mm-hmm. We're reading that one book about that wizard kid, right?"

Skye gapes at him with wide eyes. "Are you serious right now?"

"What?"

"You just called Harry Potter, one of the absolute greatest book series' off all time, 'that one book about that wizard kid'."

"That's what it is, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah. But it's also so much more than that."

"Like what?"

Skye smiles. "You're just going to have to wait until I get off work to find out."

"You do know I could always just find it at a library or book store and read it on my own, right?"

"True," Skye says with a small nod. "But reading it together will be so much more fun."

"I'm going to be reading it aloud to you, aren't I?" he says.

Skye smiles wide. "You know me so well."

"And I plan on getting to know you more and more as the days go by."

"Well I think that sounds like an excellent plan." She leans up and presses a lingering kiss to his lips. She pulls away a fraction of an inch and just smiles. "I'll miss you while I'm at work."

"I'll miss you too."

"Skye?"

Pulling away more and turning her head, Skye sees Fitz standing near her and Grant, a nervous smile on his face and his ID badge in hand.

She gives him a soft smile. "Hey, Fitz. How are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

Skye shrugs. "Doing alright. Car's broken and in the shop so I had to walk to work today."

"That's too bad."

"Yeah, it is." There's a brief pause before Skye speaks up again. "Are you upset with me too, Fitz? You know, about me dating Grant?"

Fitz shakes his head. "Oh, um, no, not really. It is a bit...odd and a little unnerving seeing you two together, though, but it's not really my place to judge who you decide to spend your time with. And we haven't known each for very long so it's not really my place to tell you how to live your life either. Even if we had known each other longer, it still wouldn't be my place. It's your life."

Skye smiles wide. "I'm really glad you see it that way, Fitz."

"Yeah. And uh, I saw you out here and I just wanted to come over here apologize for how Jemma's been acting towards you. She means well, though, she doesn't want to see you get hurt. She's very protective of the people she cares about."

Skye nods. "I know, and thank you, Fitz. I might have been a little harsh in my reaction to her thoughts, but I just wish she could lighten up at least a little bit and try to see things from my perspective and maybe even get to know Grant a little."

"That would be nice," Fitz agrees with a small nod. "I'm sure she'll come around eventually." He hesitates for a moment before turning his attention to Grant. "I'm Leo Fitz, by the way," he tells him. "Everyone just calls me Fitz. I work at SHIELD Industries with Skye. Different department, though."

"Which department?" Grant asks him.

"Research and Development."

"Wow, that's pretty impressive. You guys must get to work with some pretty cool toys there."

Fitz nods and gives a small smile. "Yeah, we do. Everything we have is state of the art."

"And are you on the research side or the development side of things?"

"Mostly development," Fitz answers. "But sometimes I help Jemma out with research. My degree is in engineering."

"Very cool. I don't have a degree in anything considering I never actually went to college, or even finished high school for that matter, but I think I would have liked to have done something in literature or history. Those two have always interested me."

"I think you should have gotten a degree for either of those, then gotten a Masters in teaching, and then become a college professor," Skye tells him.

Grant smiles down at her. "You just want to see me in a suit like most professors wear."

Skye smiles back up at him and nods. "You would look very handsome in one of those classic college professor tweed suits."

"I'll keep that in mind for future reference," he says back.

"Wow," Fitz says.

Grant and Skye both turn their heads to look back at him.

"What?" Skye asks him.

Fitz shakes his head. "Nothing. It's just, you're not at all what everyone always said you were like," he directs at Grant.

Grant gives him a small smile. "There's a lot more to me than just what everyone sees when I'm out doing stuff for Hydra, Fitz."

"And I get the privilege of getting to see those other wonderful things," Skye says with a smile.

"You're also the first one," Grant tells her. "Besides Andrew, of course. But even then, I still keep myself pretty locked down."

"Well I, for one, am glad that you're choosing to open up." Skye turns to Fitz. "Hey, um, I don't know if this'll be weird for you or anything, but do you maybe want to hang out with me and Grant this weekend? We could go out to dinner, or maybe go bowling or something."

"Um, that sounds fun, but I'm actually already busy this weekend. But maybe next weekend we could get together?" Fitz replies.

"That'd be great," Skye says with a smile. She looks up at her boyfriend. "Can you do next weekend?"

Grant nods. "Yeah, of course."

"Awesome." She looks back at Fitz. "I'll text you later so we can figure something out."

"Great. I uh, I guess I'll see you inside." He looks at Grant. "Um, it was, uh...I'll see you next weekend." He gives Grant a tight smile and then turns around and continues making his way towards the entrance of the office building.

Skye turns her full attention back to Grant and smiles up at him. "I'll see you tonight?"

Grant smiles and nods. "Yes." He leans down to press his lips to hers. "Have a good day at work."

"I'll try," she replies, reluctantly pulling away from him and walking towards the front doors of SHIELD Industries.


"Alright," Grant breathes out as he falls down onto Skye's couch, "where is this book I am supposed to finally read tonight?"

"On the book shelf," Skye replies from within the confines of her kitchen.

Grant lets out a breath and stands up from the couch again, moving across the room towards the bookshelf sitting below the TV.

He squats down in front of it, eyes running over the spines of the few books on Skye's shelf.

"There aren't that many books on here," Grant comments as he grabs the first Harry Potter book off the lowest shelf and moves back to sit on the couch.

Skye emerges from the kitchen carrying a couple of bowls and some sodas. "That's because I'm not really too much of a reader. But I absolutely love the Harry Potter series." She sets the bowls and glasses down on the coffee table and sits down next to Grant, pulling her legs up underneath of her. "My dad's a huge nerd too so we would read them together all the time. I completely fell in love with the series growing up. And then when they were made into movies, my dad and I went to as many of the premieres as we could together."

"There are movies?" Grant asks.

Skye nods. "Mm-hmm. I have all of them on DVD."

"Well then why don't we just watch those instead?" he asks. "It'll be much faster to just watch the movies instead of having to read the books."

Skye shakes her head. "No, absolutely not. In order to get the full wizarding world experience in all of its magnificent and magical glory, you must first read the books and then watch the films. Otherwise you don't get all the background information and other little pieces that aren't included in the movies. There's so much good stuff in the books that unfortunately never made it into the movies. So many things are explained throughout the books that they really didn't have time for or were just too lazy to do with the movies."

"You really want me to like these books, don't you?" Grant says with a smile.

"I don't want you to just like them, Grant, I want you to absolutely and completely love them. Just like I do."

Grant chuckles. "Alright, well, we'll just have to see what happens. Now what are those?" he asks, pointing to the bowls and glasses sitting on the coffee table in front of them.

"Provisions," she replies. "We are going to read as much of this book tonight as we possibly can. And in order to do so, we need snacks and drinks to keep our bellies full."

"You seem to have this all figured out," Grant says.

Skye nods. "Yes I do. I take Harry Potter and the wizarding very seriously."

Grant smiles. "I can tell."

"Just wanted to make sure you're aware."

"Well I am now, thank you."

She leans up to press a kiss to his cheek. "You're welcome." She sits back down and leans into Grant's side, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. "Now start reading." She breathes in deep with a smile on her face. "I'm so excited."

"You've already read this book, Skye. And I'm guessing more than just a couple of times. What could you possibly be excited for?"

She tilts her head back to smile up at him. "You to read it for the first time."

"I make no promises that I'm going to enjoy it," he tells her.

"See, you say that now, but I'm pretty sure that you're going to end up loving it."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see, then."

"Yes we will," she says with a smile, leaning further into his side and tucking her head back into the crook of his neck. "Now read."

Grant chuckles. "Alright, alright." He leans back into the couch, drapes an arm around Skye's shoulder, and holds the book in his lap. He opens the front cover and flips to the first page. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," he reads. "By J.K. Rowling. Chapter one, The Boy Who Lived." He takes a deep breath, adjusting the book slightly. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."

.

.

.

"One minute to go and he'd be eleven," Grant reads aloud from the open book in his hand. "Thirty seconds...twenty...ten...nine—maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him—three...two...one... BOOM. The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in."

Glancing down when he reaches the end of the chapter, Grant smiles when he sees Skye lying asleep in his lap, her lips parted slightly as she breathes softly. Unfolding the dust cover of the front of the book, he slides it into place inside the open pages and closes the book. Leaning forward slightly, being careful not to disturb Skye just yet, he sets the book down on the coffee table.

Shifting on the couch, he carefully lifts Skye's head off of his lap so he can stand up and stretch his legs out a bit after having sat on the couch for so long.

Stooping down, he slides one arm under Skye's legs and the other under her back, standing up and lifting her off of the couch. He pauses for a quick moment as Skye shifts in his arms, turning towards him and burying her face in his chest, her arms going around his upper torso.

He just smiles to himself as he moves through her apartment and down the hall towards her bedroom. He finds her bedroom door slightly ajar and pushes it open the rest of the way with his foot, moving inside and crossing the floor to her bed.

Standing next to her bed, he gently lies her down on it, pulling the blankets out from underneath of her and tucking them over and around her sleeping form.

He leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead. "Goodnight, Skye," he whispers and then stands up straight.

Turning around, he goes to make his way back out of the room when he feels a hand tugging at his shirt. He looks down and behind him to see Skye's hand wrapped loosely around the hem of his t-shirt, looking up at him through half-asleep eyes.

"Stay."

He turns fully towards her, her hand dropping from his shirt as he does so. "What?"

"Stay with me," she tells him.

"I need to go home so I can go to sleep."

"Sleep here," she replies, reaching behind her to pat the empty bed space next to her.

Grant sighs. "If I say yes will you go back to sleep?"

Skye smiles and nods. "Mm-hmm."

"Alright." He moves around to the other side of the bed and quickly tugs off his jeans, leaving them in a pile on the carpet. Pulling back the covers of the bed, he climbs underneath and lies on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

Next thing he knows, Skye is rolling over to face him and curling up against his side, resting her head on his chest and wrapping an arm around his torso.

"I like to cuddle," she tells him.

"Yeah, I can see that. Go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay," Skye mumbles, already falling back into her deep sleep.

Grant just smiles and drops a kiss to the top of her head as he wraps an arm around her waist to hold her close, closes his eyes, and lets sleep overtake him.


So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Now Grant and Fitz have met, and the three of them are planning on getting together. Who's excited for that? I am. :)

Also, still looking for some more questions to answer in my New Year's Q&A that I'm doing. If you want, you can give me any kind of question you'd like, just leave it in a review down below. Thanks!

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!