Cuddles for the Soul

Skye is lying in bed, her tablet in hand, her gaze trained on the screen, but she raises her head the moment the door opens; he walks in, head hung low, limbs heavy – it's easy to see how exhausted he is.

"Hey, babe," she greets him, trying to sound as cheery as she can. "How did your session go?"

All the verbal answer she gets is a tired grunt, and then he is falling into the bed and crawling across the mattress until he reaches her, then, sneaking his arms around her waist, he buries his head in her abdomen.

"That bad, huh?" she asks, putting her tablet down and slipping her fingers into his hair. He's been attending therapy – Coulson's orders – ever since they have been relocated to the Playground, and it's been… hard on him. It helped, mostly, but the therapy still brought up painful issues that he has had buried for nearly two decades. It drained him, most of the time.

"Just the usual," he mumbles into her stomach, one hand gripping her shirt. He doesn't like to talk about it. "Just… Hold me, please?"

"Of course," she says, gently caressing his scalp, and soon she feels his body relax. "As long as you need."


A/N: Sorry, it's gonna be long.

Anon1: Thank you! Unfortunately, I have no plans on continuing Brother Dearest – that was just a one-shot, I didn't really have any idea for a follow up (I leave it to your imagination). As for Double-Edged Sword… yeah, I should delete that note. Truth is I never got around writing that – I have a full timeline and (I think) a full chapter-by-chapter outline for the story, but that's it. Actually, I have been thinking about giving those notes to another fic writer – should there be anybody interested –, so they can write it, because I don't have the capacity to write it.

As for reaching out to me: I'm on AO3, Tumblr, Twitter, I even have a FaceBook page set up for my fics, all under this same nick. I'm on AO3 and Tumblr every day, and both sites allow anon messages (in the comment section on AO3, and through asks on Tumblr); I think even my e-mail address is out there on AO3. My Twitter and FB page are mostly abandoned, but if you write there, I'll get a notification and I'll answer.

Anon2: Pages Torn from the Book of Love is the next on my agenda!