p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;"The alarm rang, its shrill sound echoing in the sixth year dormitory and eliciting annoyed groans from its occupants. Daisy Johnson opened her eyes with a yawn and slapped the alarm to shut it up, ignoring the various objects chucked in her direction as she stumbled towards the bathroom. A few minutes later, she emerged at the bottom of the dormitory steps, bleary-eyed and wearing her Quidditch robes backwards. The common room was empty, and the rising sun shone weakly through the large windows, seeming about as enthusiastic about getting up as Daisy was, which was to say not very. But thanks to the team captain, Bobbi, they were practicing at godawful hours now, even on days right before the match. For the umpteenth time, Daisy was immensely grateful she hadn't been picked by Professor May as the captain, if only because it would've required her to be on the end of the team's rage at the early morning start. Bobbi, however, was supremely unaffected when Daisy entered the changing room and threw a granola bar at her head. A cheerful "Morning!" was the only response, and Daisy threw her bag on the floor with a grunt, before setting about fixing her robes as the others began to trickle in. As the team got dressed, Bobbi set out setting up the field for practice, whistling cheerfully to herself as she flicked her wand about. As the team trudged out onto the field, the sun was still barely on the horizon. "Who the fuck wants to train at 8 fucking a.m.?" Hunter grumbled, his hair sticking up in various strange directions in a way that resembled a classic Weird Sisters look. Bobbi ignored his complaints, kissing him on the cheek before turning to face the group. "Right, team. I know this is an early practice, but we've got to be prepared for the match tomorrow. We're the best we've been all year, and we have to be at the top of our game. Slytherin's been acting smug for weeks, and I really need us to smash Ward into the ground. It'll be one step further to the cup, and I know we can beat those Hufflepuffs. So c'mon, it's time to get out there and practice our strategies." Hunter grinned at her, sticking out his tongue. "Rousing speech, that was." Bobbi's cheeks turned pink, but she kissed him quickly anyway as the rest of the team groaned in fake disgust. "All right, let's go!" With that, the team mounted their brooms and got a start. Daisy practiced her scoring techniques with Peter Parker and Wanda Maximoff, the other chasers, Hunter and Carol practiced fending off bludgers, Bobbi flew around the goal posts in preparation for the chasers' shots, and Pietro Maximoff chased the snitch around the field. By the time the sun was well in the sky, they were all exhausted and sweaty, and Bobbi agreed it was enough training for today. "Go to bed on time tonight everyone!" She called behind their retreating backs, as they headed to the changing rooms. "And make sure to get a good breakfast!" Daisy started to head back to the castle, but stopped as she saw a small figure running to meet her. "Daisy!" Jemma Simmons called, stopping in front of her with a smile. "I brought you breakfast, I thought you might like to eat by the lake?" Daisy smiled back as her stomach rumbled. "Thanks Jem, sounds great. Training was a bitch." Jemma hands her a basket containing toast, eggs, and a jug of pumpkin juice, the full works. "I'm sorry I didn't see much of it, only the tail end. I was doing homework in the library." Daisy grinned and rolled her eyes, taking a bite out of a piece of toast as they walked towards the lake. "Homework? What could you possibly have to do? It's the weekend! The match is tomorrow, the sun's in the sky, you ought to take some time off!" Jemma tsked, stopping to sit down at the water's edge. "There's plenty to do! I've done May's work but Coulson's assigned a new chapter on patronus charms and I haven't even started my apparition practice for next session!" Daisy laughed and sat down next to Jemma, digging into her breakfast. "Don't be crazy, Jem, there's time still to do all of that! Why don't we play some exploding snap? Or we could go hang out with Tony and Steve, they asked if we wanted to play chess." Jemma rolled her eyes, but her smile betrayed her. "All right, we can do something else for a bit, but we're studying tonight, Daisy! I mean it. You can't fail your exams in sixth year, that'd just be embarrassing." "Please." Daisy flashed her a charming smile. "I haven't failed yet! I'll study for real after this match, we just have to beat Ward. He's being insufferable lately." Jemma raised her eyebrows. "Isn't he always?" One of their favorite topics was of the various ways in which they could humiliate Grant Ward, a fellow sixth year Slytherin who had been a rival of theirs since second year. He'd been all right in first year, and Daisy had even been somewhat friendly with him, until he asked her out and then proceeded to spread nasty rumors about her when she turned him down. She spelled his belongings in revenge, making his books dance out of reach and his shoes scream when he touched them. It had escalated to the point of a wizard's duel, at which Daisy and Jemma had defeated him and Rumlow pretty badly. Ward was still covered in purple boils the next morning, meaning the professors then found out about the duel and gave all four of them detention. It was still possibly the most epic thing Daisy had ever done, and it made her a hero among the second years, since even some of the Slytherins disliked Ward. It was because of the duel that she'd become friends with Natasha Romanoff, in fact. Natasha had plenty of Slytherin pride, but she refused to allow Ward and his friends to get away with their prejudice and give the rest of the Slytherins a bad name. She had become a good friend of Daisy's, although there was plenty of house rivalry surrounding the Quidditch season, and Natasha didn't hide her emphatic support for the Slytherin team, sans Ward. Their friendship became very competitive around Quidditch season, but Nat didn't play Quidditch herself, so they were able to keep Quidditch rivalries outside of their friendship. Daisy sighed and lay on the grass, staring up at the sky. Tomorrow she would have to ignore Nat's pouting face if they lost, focus solely on the game. The game and nothing else. Jemma lay down beside her and squinted at the blue sky. "I wonder if this weather will hold. It'd be a shame if it started raining tomorrow." "Jem!" Daisy squawked, shoving her shoulder. "Don't jinx it! I really don't feel like trying to hold onto the quaffle in the rain, thanks. Remember third year? The match against Hufflepuff?" Jemma giggled and turned to look at Daisy, her eyes sparkling with glee. "You looked like a drowned puppy! And your broom kept turning you the wrong way round, Bobbi kept yelling at you to stop scoring on her." Daisy groaned as Jemma laughed, rolling her eyes. "Well I couldn't see shit! And plus I was using my old broom, that old thing never worked anyway. Thank Merlin I've got a new one." She smiled at Jemma's giggles, looking up at the blue sky. "Anyway, you better come tomorrow! I need my bestie there for moral support." Jemma's smile faded slightly, but brightened again as if nothing happened. "Right, bestie. I'll be there." She said, her voice soft. Daisy smiled back, and brushed her hand against Jemma's for a moment, feeling for a moment as if she might make a move. The moment passed, and Daisy sat up to head back to the castle, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "C'mon, let's go play chess." As they walked back to the castle, she found herself wondering if Jemma felt the charged atmosphere, the goosebumps on her arms, her racing heartbeat. 'No, she didn't, and you shouldn't', Daisy told herself sternly. 'She thinks of you as a friend, not even a best friend, I guess, and she's known you since first year. Grow up.' She tried to put it out of her mind, as she always did, and focused on hanging out with Jemma and their friends. Their chaotic friend group was usually enough to distract her from her lovesick pining anyway. One game of chess turned into a tournament, which turned into a wizard's duel to settle the winner, with the participants running around the Ravenclaw common room and hexing everything in sight to attack their opponents. It was a free-for-all, and right there in the middle of it was Jemma, her ponytail flying as she cursed and spelled everyone around her. For a moment Daisy stood still, distracted by the sight of Jemma creating such perfect destruction, until Tony hit her with a leg-locking curse, and she fell to the floor with a painful thud. Later, when they were eating lunch and Jemma was reading her book on ancient runes, Daisy tried to turn her thoughts to the upcoming match, rather than on her desperate crush on her best friend. But every time Jemma frowned at an interesting bit, or turned the page with a grin, or looked up and smiled, Daisy felt her heart race. She was such a goner. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;"…./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;"The day of the match arrived, with a sunny and clear sky that made Bobbi do little hops of happiness from the changing room as they studied the flying conditions. "Perfect weather today team!" She said, grinning from ear to ear. "We've got to leave it all out on the field, I want you to play like you've never played before! We can win this, I know we can." They all cheered, and Daisy felt hope rise in her chest as they walked out to the field with brooms in hand. As they mounted their brooms, Daisy ignored Ward's sneers and looked towards the stands, spotting Jemma among the Ravenclaws, wearing a blue scarf and a Gryffindor pin and cheering loudly. Daisy smiled and turned her attention to the game, waiting for the whistle. In the end, the game didn't seem to last very long. Gryffindor pulled ahead early, scoring several goals immediately with their tandem formation, and Hunter and Carol chucked bludgers at the Slytherins with such vigor that the other team was forced to nearly jump off their brooms to avoid them. The game seemed a guaranteed win for Gryffindor, and Daisy was full of elation as she threw the quaffle towards Slytherin's empty hoop. She saw nothing else but the goal posts, her focus on the ball flying towards them. However, this proved to be a mistake. As she watched the ball fly into the hoop, signaling a point for Gryffindor, she felt something hard smash into her from behind. Startled, Daisy lost her grip on the broom, and fell towards the ground, her vision blurring as the world rushed by. She tried to reach for her wand, but she was panicking and couldn't get to it. Just as she was squeezing her eyes shut, hoping for a soft landing, she felt something slow her descent. She hit the ground with a thud, her arm twisting painfully underneath her body, but at least someone seemed to have slowed her fall. She groaned in pain as the whistle blew overhead, Professor May flying towards her from her referee post. Daisy didn't really remember much of what happened after that, and she was told later that she fainted from the stress and the pain of the broken arm. When she woke up, she saw the lights of the Hospital Wing overhead as she blinked, trying to make sense of it all. "Oh! Daisy!" There was a blur, and suddenly Daisy felt someone hug her tightly, shaking as they buried their head in her shoulder. "Wha…" She managed to say before the person drew back and she realized it was Jemma. "Daisy! How are you feeling? You look terrible, I was so worried!" Jemma's words came out in a rush as she brushed away tears and squeezed Daisy's hand tightly. "Sorry Jem, this wasn't the plan. I didn't mean to make you worry." Jemma huffed, rolling her eyes. "Of course I'm going to worry! You fell from your broom! I could barely stop you before you hit the ground!" Daisy's eyes widened in surprise. "That was you?" "Well, yes." Jemma said, still clutching her hand tightly. "Oh Daisy! I thought you were hurt much worse! You need to be careful!" Daisy smiled reassuringly. "I will next time Jem, I promise." For a moment there was silence, nothing but their breathing as they held hands tightly and looked at each other. "Well," Jemma muttered finally, "I suppose I could forgive you." "Oh really?" Daisy said, grinning up at her. "I thought you'd be lecturing me and giving me the whole spiel about-" she was cut off as Jemma suddenly moved in closer and kissed her on the lips, a quick but unmistakable kiss. She drew back quickly and looked down nervously, missing Daisy's huge grin. "Jem, I-" "No don't worry, I shouldn't have, I mean, I won't again, I just, you could've died, Daisy!" Daisy rolled her eyes and pulled Jemma closer, smiling. "No, you idiot. I was going to say, I'd like it if you did that again." Jemma looked at her, assessing for a moment, before leaning down and kissing her again, longer this time. When she came up for air, Daisy winked and leaned back against her pillows. "I've been waiting a long time to do this." "Me too." Jemma breathed, leaning down to kiss her again. After a long minute, Daisy pulled away to take a long breath, her grin nearly splitting her face. "So, tell me, did we win the match?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;"…./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.119999885559082px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; caret-color: #2a2a2a; color: #2a2a2a;"The day of the match arrived, with a sunny and clear sky that made Bobbi do little hops of happiness from the changing room as they studied the flying conditions. "Perfect weather today team!" She said, grinning from ear to ear. "We've got to leave it all out on the field, I want you to play like you've never played before! We can win this, I know we can." They all cheered, and Daisy felt hope rise in her chest as they walked out to the field with brooms in hand. As they mounted their brooms, Daisy ignored Ward's sneers and looked towards the stands, spotting Jemma among the Ravenclaws, wearing a blue scarf and a Gryffindor pin and cheering loudly. Daisy smiled and turned her attention to the game, waiting for the whistle. In the end, the game didn't seem to last very long. Gryffindor pulled ahead early, scoring several goals immediately with their tandem formation, and Hunter and Carol chucked bludgers at the Slytherins with such vigor that the other team was forced to nearly jump off their brooms to avoid them. The game seemed a guaranteed win for Gryffindor, and Daisy was full of elation as she threw the quaffle towards Slytherin's empty hoop. She saw nothing else but the goal posts, her focus on the ball flying towards them. However, this proved to be a mistake. As she watched the ball fly into the hoop, signaling a point for Gryffindor, she felt something hard smash into her from behind. Startled, Daisy lost her grip on the broom, and fell towards the ground, her vision blurring as the world rushed by. She tried to reach for her wand, but she was panicking and couldn't get to it. Just as she was squeezing her eyes shut, hoping for a soft landing, she felt something slow her descent. She hit the ground with a thud, her arm twisting painfully underneath her body, but at least someone seemed to have slowed her fall. She groaned in pain as the whistle blew overhead, Professor May flying towards her from her referee post. Daisy didn't really remember much of what happened after that, and she was told later that she fainted from the stress and the pain of the broken arm. When she woke up, she saw the lights of the Hospital Wing overhead as she blinked, trying to make sense of it all. "Oh! Daisy!" There was a blur, and suddenly Daisy felt someone hug her tightly, shaking as they buried their head in her shoulder. "Wha…" She managed to say before the person drew back and she realized it was Jemma. "Daisy! How are you feeling? You look terrible, I was so worried!" Jemma's words came out in a rush as she brushed away tears and squeezed Daisy's hand tightly. "Sorry Jem, this wasn't the plan. I didn't mean to make you worry." Jemma huffed, rolling her eyes. "Of course I'm going to worry! You fell from your broom! I could barely stop you before you hit the ground!" Daisy's eyes widened in surprise. "That was you?" "Well, yes." Jemma said, still clutching her hand tightly. "Oh Daisy! I thought you were hurt much worse! You need to be careful!" Daisy smiled reassuringly. "I will next time Jem, I promise." For a moment there was silence, nothing but their breathing as they held hands tightly and looked at each other. "Well," Jemma muttered finally, "I suppose I could forgive you." "Oh really?" Daisy said, grinning up at her. "I thought you'd be lecturing me and giving me the whole spiel about-" she was cut off as Jemma suddenly moved in closer and kissed her on the lips, a quick but unmistakable kiss. She drew back quickly and looked down nervously, missing Daisy's huge grin. "Jem, I-" "No don't worry, I shouldn't have, I mean, I won't again, I just, you could've died, Daisy!" Daisy rolled her eyes and pulled Jemma closer, smiling. "No, you idiot. I was going to say, I'd like it if you did that again." Jemma looked at her, assessing for a moment, before leaning down and kissing her again, longer this time. When she came up for air, Daisy winked and leaned back against her pillows. "I've been waiting a long time to do this." "Me too." Jemma breathed, leaning down to kiss her again. After a long minute, Daisy pulled away to take a long breath, her grin nearly splitting her face. "So, tell me, did we win the match?"/p