It had been almost three weeks since Skye's birthday party where her and Bobbi learned they were platonic mates. Their relationship had been a lot better since then. They had both put everything behind them and started over.
And her confirming once and for all that she wanted to become an agent, and starting to train with Natasha. She learned a lot from Natasha, and Natasha was surprisingly a really good teacher, tough yes, but good. After two weeks with Natasha, she had told her that they would start sparring, Skye had of course gulped at the time, and she had been so sore after, that she could barely move.
There had also been a lot of Christmas baking, movie watching, and other activities with the pack, Skye had also eaten dinner or lunch with Tony and Pepper a couple times a week.
Skye was genuinely happy for the first time as far as she could remember. There was just one thing that was bothering her, Maria and Sharon. She had started to sleep in their room, more and more, but there were still no kisses, or anything. Skye had pretty much figured out that they would be romantic soulmates, she felt a strong attraction towards them, and she had caught them more than once, staring at her, like she was something they could devour. It sent shivers down her spine every time, just thinking about it.
Deciding to wait a little longer to do anything about it, she got ready to go out with Pepper and Peggy to buy Christmas presents for the people she had drawn. Turned out that the packs did Secret Santa, she had drawn Jemma and Izzy.
She also had to find something to Maria and Sharon, since each pack decided between them, who and if they wanted to give gifts. They had decided that they wanted to, or Maria and Sharon had insisted that they should do it. She had also talked to Tony and Pepper about gifts, they agreed in the end to only give small gifts. She would also like to give Peggy something, she had been there for her like no one had ever been. Sure, she hadn't been around as much, or acted like Skye had thought a guardian would, but Skye knew that if she called Peggy for help, she would be there, and then there was the wolf thing, so Peggy couldn't take Skye with her since she had to be close to Maria and Sharon as pack mates to establish the pack bond.
A few hours later Skye had a gift for Jemma, a nice cardigan, and for Izzy, the first Harry Potter book. They had been speaking a few days before she drew Izzy's names when the subject of Harry Potter came up, and Izzy said she had only watched the movies, but hadn't read the books yet. For Pepper and Tony, she had made a gift basket with some of her favorite snacks; it was a way for Pepper and Tony to get to know her in a different way. While Peggy distracted Pepper, so Skye could gather what she needed for Pepper and Tony's gift, Skye had found some stuffed wolves, that funny enough resembled a few of the pack members, more precisely the three alphas, Natasha's red, Victoria's dark brown and black, and of course Sharon's white.
She met Peggy and Pepper out front of a restaurant for lunch.
"Do either of you know or have an idea for what I can give to Maria and Sharon?" Skye asked, while they were eating.
"You don't have any ideas yourself, or do you have too many ideas?" Peggy asked.
"I have none, I mean I have spent so much time with them, so I should have an idea, but I don't," Skye said.
"I might have an idea," Pepper said.
"What?" Skye asked in a mix of excitement and desperation.
"A getaway weekend," Pepper said, Skye's face fell.
"I can't afford that," Skye said.
"Of course you can, have you forgotten the account Tony and I opened for you?" Pepper asked.
"Yeah," Skye said, ducking her head.
Pepper reached over to rub her shoulder. "That's fine, so a weekend getaway, do you know where you want to take them?" Pepper said.
"I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, so maybe there, or Paris, or even London," Skye said in thought.
"Well, we could get a hold of a few travel magazines, and wrap them in a box. That way the three of you can plan together," Peggy said.
"Yeah, I like that, but where do you even get travel magazines?" Skye asked.
It was the morning of the 24th, and Skye, Maria, and Sharon had decided to eat breakfast alone, for the first time since, well, they couldn't remember, "So what was the plan again, for today and tomorrow?" Skye asked, Maria chuckled.
"We need to work on your ability to remember things," Sharon said.
"Hey, my memory is fine, thank you very much," Skye said.
"Yeah when it's about coding or computer stuff," Maria teased, Skye threw her napkin at her, missing completely.
"And maybe we also need to work on your aim," Sharon said, laughing, Skye huffed.
"It's not funny, can one of you not just answer my question?" Skye grumbled.
"Well we eat dinner with the pack, Pepper, and Tony. After, the three of us, along with Peggy, will go up to Pepper and Tony's floor, and just spend some time up there. In the morning, we will open some of the presents with Pepper and Tony, and then we will meet up with the pack, and open the rest," Sharon said.
"Thank you, Sharon," Skye said
"Don't you need to get ready to train with Nat?" Maria asked, around ten minutes later.
"Yeah I do," Skye answered, before she went to her room to get changed. "See you guys later," Skye said when she emerged from her room.
"See you Skye," Maria said.
"Good luck, I heard Natasha had something special planned for today," Sharon yelled towards Skye, who had just stepped into the elevator.
"What?" Skye asked, right as the doors closed.
Natasha had planned something special, some one on one wolf capture the flag. Natasha had set up obstacles in the gym, some were tunnels, both long and short, that they could crawl in or under, some they could hide behind, some they could jump over, and in each end were a flag. Natasha had claimed the red, which left Skye with a blue one.
"Okay Skye, first round you will try to take the red flag and bring it back to your end, we will both be in wolf form. If you manage to take the flag, and I stop you before you reach your end, I have to get it back to my end, to get a point. So once a flag has left home base, it has to end up in one of our home bases, to get a point, you ready?" Natasha asked.
"Um one thing, we have to be in our wolf form all the time, and if a flag leaves the home base, we have to fight for it?" Skye asked a little nervous, argh who was she kidding she was incredibly nervous.
"Yes, don't worry, it is a training exercise, not actual combat, look at it as a game, which it is, nothing too rough," Natasha said, trying to make Skye relax.
Skye nodded, "Okay, I think I'm ready," Skye said.
"Great," Natasha said, clapping her hands together before shifting to her red wolf, Skye followed in shifting. Natasha gave Skye a nod before trotting over to the other end of the gym to wait for Skye to come and steal the flag.
Skye crawled forward slowly, she found a small, long tunnel, which she just barely fit in, when she came out from the other side, she crouched down and followed the obstacle that was in front of her. She could see the flag now, but no Natasha, and there were no more obstacles between the spot she was hiding at and the flag. Deciding to take a chance, she leaped forward, got a hold on the flag with her teeth, and she turned around to race back to her home base, but as she turned there was a low growl, that sounded awfully playful.
Skye looked around to find Natasha but couldn't see her. Shaking her head she remembered she still had the flag. She leaped onward, she was about halfway when a weight was on her back pressing her down, Natasha's four paws were strategically placed so Skye couldn't move left, right, back or forward. "Drop the flag, pup," Natasha's smug voice rang in Skye's head. Skye playfully growled in return and started to see if she could wiggle out from under Natasha.
Natasha let her slip out from under her, and Skye took four steps forward before dropping the flag and turning to face Natasha for a "fight" as Natasha had explained the rules, Skye lunged at Natasha.
Three hours later Skye's wolf form collapsed on the mats, "You did good," Natasha said in her human form, with a water bottle in hand. Skye's low growl was the only response Natasha got. "Are you going to change back anytime soon?" Natasha asked, again Natasha didn't get a verbal reply, but Skye rolled over on her other side curling into a ball. Natasha tried not to laugh, walking over to Skye, still with water bottle in hand, "Skye you need to get up," Natasha said, poking the half-asleep wolf with her foot, there was a grumbling sound, "Oh well, I tried," Natasha said, before dumping the rest of her water, on top of Skye's head.
Skye jumped up with a yelp when she was hit with something wet and cold. Shaking off the water, she turned to Natasha who was smirking at her, growling at the women before making a quick play bow, and pouncing on the red-haired alpha.
Natasha was fast to shift, it quickly became a game of catch. Skye managed to push Natasha on her side and lay on top of her, before Natasha pushed her off, just as Maria came into the gym.
"Whoa, you seem to be having fun," Maria said, Skye's head shot up from behind Natasha, as Natasha was closest to the door.
Skye scrambled over Natasha, who huffed at getting stepped on. Skye went over to Maria and nuzzled her stomach, "Hi Skye, are you coming up, to relax a little before we have to get ready?" Maria asked with the mind link, Skye yawned and leaned closer into Maria. "I'll take that as a yes," Maria said out loud. "Why are you wet?" Maria asked when she stroked Skye's fur.
"What did you do Nat?" Maria asked with narrowed eyes when Natasha laughed.
"She was about to fall asleep," Natasha said, highly amused. Maria shook her head.
"Come on Skye," Maria said, while pushing Skye's wolf form out of the door and to the elevator with a laughing Natasha following.
"No, you can take the stairs," Maria said to Natasha, who looked startled by what Maria had just said.
"Why?" Natasha asked, Maria just smirked at Natasha when the doors closed.
When Skye and Maria arrived at their floor, Skye walked right up to the couch, jumping up on it and she went right to sleep.
Sharon had been in the kitchen area watching, "She seems tired, what did Nat do with her?" Sharon asked.
"I think it was some sort of a spinoff of capture the flag," Maria answered.
"Ahh, fun," Sharon said.
When Skye woke up again there was a hand stroking her head, and one stroking her hip, wait, what? Oh yeah, she was still in her wolf form, so it must be Maria and Sharon who are stroking her, or so she hoped. Reaching out with her sense of smell, she could only smell Maria and Sharon. Yawning and stretching her whole body, she shifted back and moved to a sitting position between Sharon and Maria.
"Hi, what time is it?" Skye asked.
"Hi, it's 3:12 pm, so there is still some time until we have to meet up with everyone else," Sharon said, pulling Skye closer into her body.
"I think I need a shower," Skye said, allowing Sharon to pull her into her body.
"Hmm," was Sharon's answer.
"So, are you gonna let me go?" Skye teased.
"In a minute," Sharon said, Maria just looked on with a smile on her face.
When Sharon had finally let go of Skye, she went to take a shower and get ready for the Christmas dinner.
The dinner was amazing, there was good food, and they joked with each other. After dinner they split up, with Skye, Sharon, Maria, Peggy, Pepper, and Tony going upstairs.
That ended with Skye, Sharon, and Maria falling asleep on the couch. They were woken up by Peggy in the morning. They ate their breakfast and opened presents. Tony and Pepper loved her gift to them and had even given her the same kind of gift just with their favorite snacks instead. Peggy had to laugh at her gift and gave Skye a new pair of shoes. Maria and Sharon had hugged her, and given her a makeshift coupon booklet, with a free massage, dinner, movie, and many more; they had said they couldn't decide what to give her, so they went the cheesy way, but Skye loved it.
They said goodbye and see you later to Tony and Pepper and went downstairs to join the rest of the packs. Jemma thanked her for the cardigan and Victoria had laughed at Izzy's excitement of the Harry Potter book and joked that now there was no excuse.
She had talked with Bobbi about if they should exchange gifts, and they agreed to a small thing. Skye gave Bobbi an entire case of cactus cola, which made everyone laugh, and Bobbi gave Skye a new watch.
The ones who had drawn Skye's name were Natasha and Rick, Natasha gave her a box of different things and Rick gave her a board game.
The rest of the day was just spent relaxing, before they split up. Jemma and Leo were going home to see their families, so were Samantha and Jonathan. Victoria and Izzy had plans, so had Natasha and Melinda, and Rick also had plans somewhere. Clint said he had plans with Steve, and Kara had plans with an old friend to go camping. Bobbi didn't have plans other than to relax, as was the same with Skye, Maria, and Sharon. Peggy had business somewhere else, but that was normal. Skye did not know what she was doing but didn't ask.
AN: And thanks to Fun_size_Tasha for beating.