Hey guys! Here's the new chapter. I hope you all like it :)
Thank you so much for reading and let me know what you guys think! As always, I own nothing (I wish I did) and all mistakes are my own xx
May was in the same spot that she had been the last time Skye had talked to Jay. She stood up when Skye walked towards her and smiled. Skye let go of Jay's hand and grabbed onto May's, "We colored."
May brushed her bangs out of her eyes, "Well, that sounds like fun sweetie."
She tugged on May's hand, "Do you want to see? I did really good, Jay said so."
She watched May glance over to Jay. Jay nodded and May followed her when she pulled her towards her room. She led them over to her desk and pointed to her wall.
She studied May as the older woman looked at her pictures. She hoped that May liked them. She felt her hope falling away when May stayed silent. She worriedly glanced back at her pictures, maybe she had hung up the wrong ones? No, her happy picture and her house were hanging up above her desk, somewhat askew, but there where she left them.
She started fidgeting a little bit, "You don't like them."
May jerked her heads towards her and Skye saw that her eyes were all watery. Oh god, her pictures were so bad that she made May want to cry. Why did Jay lie to her and tell her that they were good? She looked at her feet and grabbed her moon pendant.
She felt a hand on her chin that gently forced her to look up and into May's dark eyes, "No Skye, I love them. I love them so much, they're beautiful."
She started feeling better, "Really?"
May nodded and leaned in to kiss the top of her head, "Really."
Skye watched as May took a step closer to study the drawings. She put her hands on the desk to lean in and slipped on one of Skye's other pictures. She moved her hands and looked at it. Skye moved closer to see which one it was and saw that it was her 'sad' picture.
She helpfully pointed to it, "That's my 'sad' picture."
She pointed out her other ones, "That's my 'nervous' picture, that's my 'excited' picture, and that's my 'scared' picture." She motioned to her 'scared' picture really quickly and then tried to get May's attention back onto her 'excited' picture. It kind of worked.
She saw May stare at the 'scared' drawing for a couple of seconds before giving Jay a look and moving back to studying her 'happy' picture. May put a hand on her shoulder, "These are all great baby. Phil is almost done with dinner. Are you hungry? You didn't eat much at lunch."
She had pretty much given up on trying eating. For the past couple days, she hadn't been able to do it and she wasn't really sure why. When she thought about food she felt hungry but when she went to eat, her tummy wouldn't let her. It was very frustrating and Skye was sick of it.
She shrugged and saw the concerned look that May and Jay gave her. Jay stepped towards her, "Skye, I have a little assignment for you, okay?"
Skye gave her a skeptical look, "Like homework?"
Jay chuckled, "Kind of, but not as hard. Actually, I think you might enjoy it."
"Okay, I guess."
"When you have a particularly strong emotion, like when you're super happy or very angry, sit down and draw it out okay?"
Skye scrunched up her nose, "So… my homework is to just…draw?"
Jay smiled, "Yes, that's it. There's one other thing too."
Skye liked the idea of drawing pictures for homework. She knew that there had to be a catch, "What is it?"
Jay looked over to May and then back to her, "You need to eat your meals Skye." She held up a hand when she saw Skye start to protest, "I know your tummy feels like it doesn't want to eat, but you need to okay? You don't have to eat all of it but you need to eat a portion of every meal. If you do, it'll start conditioning your tummy to start eating again until we deal with your stress, which we will work on the next time I see you, okay?"
She looked over and saw May nodding along. Jay's request wasn't that bad. She didn't have to eat her whole meal, just some of it, so she nodded. May started smiling real big and reached forward to pull Skye closer to her, "Let's go see if Phil needs any help sweetie."
They walked Jay back downstairs and said goodbye before making their way into the kitchen. Phil and Wanda were in there and everyone else was in the living room. Natasha was working on homework while Trip and Pietro were arguing over the remote. May walked up to Phil and she let go of her hand to grab onto his leg. May kissed his cheek, "It smells good babe."
Skye nodded in agreement and Phil bent down to smooth his hand over her head, "Thanks guys, just finishing up the mashed potatoes. The steak's already done."
May moved over to see what Wanda was doing and she stayed with Phil. He kept a hand on the top of her head, "How was talking with Jay?"
"It was good, I got to color."
"That sounds fun sweetie. Maybe you could show me what you drew after dinner."
Skye nodded and hugged herself closer to his leg. She waited patiently as he stirred the boiling potatoes. She looked over and saw Wanda laughing at something that May said and she smiled a little bit.
Phil gently tapped the top of her head, "Gotta head over to the sink sweetie."
She nodded and closely followed him over to the sink. As he strained the potatoes, she walked in a close circle around him, dragging her hand across his knees. He finished at the sink and made to move back to the stovetop when she put her feet on top of his. He looked down at her and wrapped an arm around her back so that she wouldn't fall before he moved back to the countertop.
She circled around him again until he was done making the mashed potatoes and then hopped back onto his feet as he brought everything over to the table. It was fun to try and keep her balance while he walked.
"Alright alright little girl, ride's over." He picked her up and set her on her chair at the table. Everyone else came and sat at the table and grabbed some plates. May pushed a plate her way and helped her cut up her steak.
She stared at her plate and remembered what Jay had said. She scooped up some mashed potatoes and put them in her mouth. She swallowed it even though her tummy wasn't really happy about it.
She ate some more of her mashed potatoes, two forkfuls of steak and half of her salad before setting her fork down and pushing her plate away. She wondered if she ate enough and looked over to May to find out. The older woman nodded at her and smiled before looking back over to Wanda to finish their conversation.
She felt proud of herself for doing the assignment that Jay had given her, even if she did feel a little queasy. May looked back over to her, "Skye, I got a phone call today from Grant's foster parents today. They wanted to know if tomorrow would be a good day for them to bring Grant over after school. What do you think about that?"
Skye straightened up at the mention of Ward. She really wanted to see him and make sure that he was okay, "Yeah, tomorrow's good."
May nodded, "Alright, I'll call them back after dinner. He gets out of school around 2:30 though, so they won't be over until the afternoon."
Skye nodded and looked back to her half-full plate. She felt nervous. Really nervous. She wanted to see Ward but she also didn't at the same time. She didn't know how that was possible but that's how she felt.
She listened to her family talk at the table and then sat on the kitchen counter while they did the dishes and helped by drying some of them off. She still felt pretty nervous about seeing Ward tomorrow and remembered the other part of her assignment from Jay, "Mommy, can I go color?"
May put the last plate away and turned to her, "Sure sweetie. Just for a half hour though alright? Then it's shower time and then bed."
Skye nodded and started to shuffle towards the edge of the counter so that she could jump down but Pietro grabbed her and set her down before she could. She looked up at him and he winked at her, "I love coloring."
Wanda walked up behind him, "Me too."
She looked back to May and the older woman waved them out of the kitchen. Pietro grabbed her hand and they made their way upstairs and into her room. She pulled out some construction paper and markers and handed them to the twins. They all sat down and started drawing on their own respective papers.
She drew out her 'nervous' picture and when she was done, she carefully set it on her desk. It made her feel a little better once she drew out her feelings so she didn't pick up a piece of paper and sat next to Pietro instead. He looked like he was drawing a cartoon, "That looks like the comics in the newspaper that daddy gives me."
Pietro glanced at her, "Thanks, I used to draw comics for my high school's paper."
She pointed at the cartoon puppy on his paper. It was really cute and its tongue was hanging out of his mouth, "I like your doggy."
"You can have it when I'm done, little one. Let me color everything in."
She nodded and eagerly watched him color in his picture with colored pencils rather than markers. How come everyone in this family was good at drawing? She didn't know, but she made a mental note to ask Nattie or Pietro to teach her later.
He finished the picture and handed it to her. She admired the cartoon before grabbing some of her tape and hanging it up above her headboard.
She had been nervous all day. She had woken up earlier than she usually did and had stared at Phil until he woke up and brought her downstairs to help make breakfast. She had said goodbye to Trip and Nattie before they went to school, played with her dolls with Wanda, made lunch with May, and watched Spongebob with Phil. Now she was sitting on the front porch with May and Phil while the twins had taken the car to go see some friends for a little bit. She was playing with Alice and Mara and anxiously waited for Ward to show up.
She kept jiggling her foot and May kept smoothing a hand over head to help calm her down. It worked a little bit but she still felt nervous.
Finally, a car pulled into their driveway and Skye hastily stood up and grabbed onto May's hand. A nice looking lady got out of the driver's seat and opened up the backdoor. She saw Grant hop out and lean back in. She wondered what he was doing until she saw a smaller boy slide out of the car. He looked like he was a little younger than she was and he had a smile on his face. May started making her way to the group and Skye gripped her hand and walked a little behind her.
The nice looking lady smiled at them, "Mel! It's so great to see you!"
She leaned in and gave May a quick hug before May said, "It's nice to see you too Jane." She leaned down and held out a hand, "You must be Grant." Ward stared at her hand for a couple of seconds before shaking it and then she turned to the younger boy, "and you must be Thomas."
The little boy enthusiastically shook her hand. She kept her gave averted from Ward's. She felt butterflies in her tummy and she was kind of scared to see his expression when looked at her.
The older woman, Jane, bent down in front of her, "Hello Skye, it's great to meet you."
She tightened her hold on May's hand and waved at Jane with her other one, "Hi."
May gently tugged on her hand, "Well, let's head inside. We've got a really fun playroom that you three can go in."
Thomas started jumping up and down, "Do you have Lego's? I love Lego's."
May nodded and smiled at the little boy, "We sure do."
Thomas started pulling Jane inside and they all went into the house and the grown-ups left them in the playroom. She sat down on the floor and Thomas sat down next to her, "Can I play with your Lego's?"
Skye nodded and pulled the plastic bin over towards him, "Yeah, they're really fun. You should make a really big castle."
Thomas nodded seriously and put his whole focus on the little plastic bricks.
She took a deep breath and finally looked up to see Ward standing by the doorway and staring at her. She couldn't tell what he was feeling because his face was neutral. At lease he wasn't yelling at her. She slowly stood up and made her way over to him, "Hi."
He stared at her for a couple of seconds and Skye fidgeted from foot to foot, "You broke your promise."
Skye sucked in a breath and looked away. She did break her promise but May had said that it was okay to break a promise when someone was being hurt. Even if May was right, she still felt guilty for doing it.
She grabbed onto her moon pendant, "Yeah, I did. I'm really sorry Ward, I-"
He cut her off by holding up a hand. She swallowed thickly and stopped talking. Ward glanced over to Thomas and she followed his gaze. The little boy was smiling and building a tall tower.
She heard Ward say, "It's okay. I should actually thank you, I think."
She jerked back and looked at him. She didn't think that she heard him right, "Um what?"
He turned to her, "Look at my little brother. He's happy and he doesn't have any bruises. We don't have to make our own dinner and we don't get ignored anymore. I don't have to hide him when my older brother is around and we don't have to lie to our teachers. We're both together and safe."
She processed everything that he said. It didn't sound like he was mad but she had to make sure, "So…you aren't mad at me?"
He gave her a tiny smile, "I was at first. I was really mad at you." She swallowed thickly but he continued, "But then Tommy and I got to live together and this family is really nice to us. I guess I just realized that…it was good that you told."
Skye breathed out. It felt like a giant weight lifted off of her shoulders and she could finally breathe properly again, "So, we can still be friends?"
Ward laughed a little, "Yeah, we can be friends."
Skye smiled real big. Ward wasn't mad at her and he still wanted to be friends. She had been nervous over nothing! "Good, because I like playing with you."
He gently pushed her, "Yeah, you're pretty cool too."
She was about to say something when Thomas interrupted them, "Do you guys want to help with the castle? I'm thinking about adding some blocks to make it bigger."
Grant walked over and sat down by Thomas. He motioned for her to join them and she grinned before sitting by him, "We have blocks over there. Let's see how tall we can make a tower before it falls over."
Grant smiled at her before grabbing some blocks and handing them to her.
What'd you guys think? Leave a review and let me know! If you have a prompt you'd like to see in the one-shot collection, you can send it to me here or on my tumblr page :)
Thank you so much for reading! You guys are the bomb dot com. xx -Ariel