A/N: lindewen asked: ""Are you a parking ticket? Cause you've got fine written all over you." - Ward x Simmons, please?"
"Are you a parking ticket? 'Cause you've got fine written all over you."
Jemma nearly chokes on her tea for laughing, leaving it to Skye to respond to Ward's bizarre question.
"How the heck did you just make a cheesy pick-up line sound like a threat?" she demands, incredulous.
"Practice," Ward deadpans, and passes Jemma a napkin. "You okay there, Simmons?"
"Fine," Jemma says, clearing her throat. "I just—was not expecting that." She gives him a sideways look. "Dare I ask what prompted it?"
"Skye thinks I need to practice picking women up," he says, in a tone which might be better suited to voicing the words Skye thinks grass is purple.
Jemma looks to Skye.
"What?" she asks defensively. "You saw what happened the last time he had to seduce someone for a mission!"
"Yes, I did," Jemma agrees slowly. "He smiled and she, essentially, said take me, I'm yours."
"Exactly!" Skye exclaims, jabbing a finger at her. "He didn't even have to try!"
"And that's a bad thing?" she asks uncertainly.
"It is when our mark this time is a literal supermodel," Skye says. "He needs to bring his A-game."
"I don't know what's more insulting," Ward muses, pushing away from the counter. "That you think I'm incapable or seducing a supermodel, or that you honestly think lame pick-up lines are my A-game."
"Do you even have an A-game?" Skye asks skeptically.
"Sure," Ward shrugs, rounding the counter and heading for the door. "Just ask Simmons." He drops a kiss on her cheek as he passes, adding to Skye, "Now she was a challenge."
Skye gapes. Jemma flushes.
"That is not how you keep a secret," she calls after him. He ignores her, and she sets down her tea, intending to give chase.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Skye says, catching her arm. "Not so fast! I have some serious questions for you, Jemma Simmons. And you are going to answer all of them."
Jemma scowls after Ward, reluctantly impressed by how smoothly he diverted Skye's attention away from his seduction skills (or the potential lack thereof). Her retaliation, she promises herself, will be just as swift and twice as brutal.
"Simmons."
Starting with sharing absolutely every detail of their encounter.
"Of course," she says, turning a pleasant smile on Skye. "What would you like to know?"