Every Agent Tries to Stop: Where You Can('t) See
Tenth in the 'Every Agent Tries to Stop' series. 15 days, 15 mistletoe kisses, 15 different pairings.
21st December
It was evening, and five members of the team were in the lounge. Agent May had left earlier, without a word, and most of the other agents had hardly noticed, and thought nothing of it. Not Agent Fitz though. He'd noticed over the past few weeks that this was something May did frequently. Whenever the whole team were together in a casual capacity, just chatting and enjoying each other's company rather than working together on a mission, after a while she would leave, most of the time looking quite stressed. No one else really seemed to notice, but Fitz was worried that they were inadvertently doing something to make her uncomfortable.
He'd been debating whether or not to go and see where she was for a while, and finally decided it was time to actually act on his concern, rather than sitting their contemplating it. He excused himself, saying goodnight to the rest of his teammates, then began his search around the bus. She didn't answer when he knocked on her door, and as he walked around the bus throughout the corridors he began to run out of places to look for her, and considered the fact that she may have been in her room, and either been asleep, or simply not in the mood to talk to him. Just as he was about to give up and go to bed, he remembered that he hadn't checked the cockpit yet.
May was sat in the cockpit, relaxing and allowing her mind to wander the way it needed to every so often, when she suddenly heard the door behind her. Phil was the only person who knew she sometimes came here to think, so as she turned around to greet him, it was a shock to her to find Agent Fitz smiling at her from the doorway.
"Hi, Agent May. What are you doing in here? The bus isn't moving?"
"Thank you, for that keen observation, Agent Fitz. I can see why you're considered on of the smart ones. I just came in here to think."
"Do you mind if I sit with you for a bit?"
"I suppose not."
Fitz took a seat beside May, as she waited for him to continue the conversation. As he sat down, however, he realised he hadn't thought about what he was actually going to say to May once he found her. He'd just wanted to ask if she was okay, and why she sometimes left when the group were all together, but he wasn't sure how to phrase the question anymore, and was nervous about messing up somehow, so he kept quiet for a while. Eventually, Melinda stopped waiting for him to speak, and allowed herself to get lost in her thoughts again, and Fitz followed her lead and let his mind wander as well. It was rather peaceful, sat quietly in that little room, and Fitz began to appreciate the appeal of sitting in here alone for a while. Well, not alone in his case he supposed, but in silence at least. Eventually, May decided she wanted to know what had made Leo come to the cockpit in the first place.
"So, what brought you here anyway? I thought everyone was in the lounge?"
As she spoke, Fitz was pulled from his thoughts and remembered why it was he came here in the first place.
"Oh... I just wanted to... I was wondering why you were here? I mean, why do leave the rest of the group? I think that came out harsher than I expected, I just meant that I noticed you sometimes leave the room looking uncomfortable when we're all together, and I wondered why that was. Is there something we're doing?"
"Nobody's making me uncomfortable. I just like sometime to myself every so often, I can't concentrate when I'm surrounded by people."
"What is there to concentrate on? It's nearly Christmas, we should all be relaxing and having fun together!"
"That's been part of the problem recently, why spending time with the rest of the team is so frustrating. We're relaxing to much, letting our guard down. It might be Christmas, but we're a team of agents, not elves, we need to start taking our jobs more seriously. If we were given a mission right now, no one would be able to concentrate on it, everyone's far too distracted. Aside from all of that though, I do understand what you mean about relaxing, and I do spend time with the rest of the team, but I can only relax so much when I'm surrounded by people, I need some time to myself to relax properly."
May paused for a while, allowing Fitz to take in everything she'd just said, and giving herself time to think about how much more she wanted to admit in his presence, before continuing.
"I used to be able to relate to other people easily, but things change, and people grow up. The last few weeks have been odd, everyone has been so much more relaxed that usual, and I'm not used to dealing with most of the member's of the team on a casual basis, especially when they're acting so much like family, and I feel as though I hardly know them. I need some time to recharge on my own every once in a while."
Fitz assumed that May was referring to the mission that earnt her the unwanted nickname 'the cavalry' when she mentioned growing up, and finding it more difficult to relate to the rest of the team. He knew she found Coulson easier to talk to than the rest of the team, and he presumed that was because he was more experienced, had seen more than the rest of them just like May had, and could understand the kind of things she's been through during her years with S.H.I.E.L.D. He contemplated whether he might be pushing things too far before asking his next question, but decided that if Agent May didn't want to answer it, then she definitely wouldn't fail to let him know it, so it couldn't hurt too much to at least ask.
"May, if you don't mind me asking, what happened? What was it that-"
"I don't want to talk about it, Fitz. Go back to the lounge, enjoy yourself. I might even join you again in a bit."
He was about to get up and leave, when he looked at Melinda's face. She was trying to hide the hurt in her eyes, but the expression on her face and the unshed tears in her eyes supported the assumption that she was currently reliving painful memories. She was reliving them because of Fitz, and there was nothing he could do to help.
He debated just sticking to what he was going to do before he noticed the look on her face, and leave, but the longer he looked into her eyes, the more he wanted to comfort her. He knew realistically that what he was about to do was highly unlikely to help. In fact, he considered, it was more likely that Agent May would turn away from him, and tell him to get lost, but at that moment it seemed as though the risk was worth taking. He rested a hand on her cheek, and she turned around and met his eyes with hers, looking at him puzzled. He moved his head towards hers slowly, giving her a chance to push him away or tell him to stop, but instead she leaned in to meet his lips with hers, resting one hand on his neck, the other in his hair, feeling the curls run through her fingers as the two of them pressed their lips together.
Their lips only touched softly, but both of them felt as though they were being hit by something far more powerful as they moved their lips slowly, memorising the feel of each other and making the most of what they were both sure would be a short, sweet experience. After only a few seconds, they pulled apart.
"What was that about, Agent Fitz?"
Fitz cleared his throat, and smiled at her before responding,
"Mistletoe." He kept his eyes fixed on her, as she glanced up at the ceiling, and then back down quickly in confusion,
"but there isn't any-"
"There is," Fitz interjected, "after all, I was the one who put mistletoe up all around the bus. I'd know where I put it, right?"
Agent May looked back up to double check the mistletoe-less ceiling, before rolling her eyes and standing up,
"Hmm, okay then. I suppose you must be right. Mistletoe. Anyway, I think I'm going to go back to the lounge now. Are you coming?"
Fitz stood up and went to follow her, stumbling as he reached the doorway as she stopped in front of him and turned around. She quickly pressed another kiss to his lips, before turning back around and walking down the corridor, yelling behind her to a bewildered Fitz.
"Mistletoe."
He looked up, to see nothing but the doorway above him. He smiled to himself, before heading off down the corridor, back towards the lounge.
A/N - wow this one was cheesy. I mean, I wrote it, and I'm still shocked by how cheesy it is. I know the rest of them are as well, but I think this one wins, haha. Hope you enjoyed it, I'm always more worried about what people will think about the less conventional ships, but I'm trying to keep them all as open ended as possible, so that you can see each relationship potentially going somewhere, but nothing is dead set and clear, or else it would ruin the other ships involving those characters.