So I kinda messed with the timeline by having the Watchdogs as established villains before season 3, but I didn't feel like thinking up a different group.
At this point in the timeline, she hasn't decided between going by the name her parents gave her or the one she chose, so she goes back and forth between thinking of herself as Skye and calling herself Daisy.
I hope I've kept them in character, and I challenge anyone to watch Steve watching Peggy ordering men around and think he's not at least a bit of a sub.
First anything-beginning-to-approach-smut scene I've written. It's a very different way of writing (I don't think I've even stayed in a character's head for a kiss before, I just switched to narration) so I hope it works.
A Watchdog ran out from the building, joining the others as he pulled out a grenade launcher. "Fall back!" Coulson yelled out, and the team began gathering behind Skye, knowing she could change the weapon's trajectory. After days of following chatter about a possible Watchdog attack on a Hammer Industries facility, they'd finally decided to hit it. She held up her hand, warning the anti-Inhuman creeps who knew damn well who she was that if they launched, she would send it back toward them—or at least in their general direction (her powers were still fairly new after all).
The idiots fired anyway.
She felt the blast travel through her arm until it shot out her palm, changing the course of the explosive in midair before it landed behind the senders. Watchdogs went flying just as a man with giant metal wings swooped out of the sky to land next to her. She squeaked in surprise even as May started breaking out the zip ties for the now much more subdued Watchdogs. What was the Falcon doing here?
"Nice work," he said with approval. "No fatalities." He turned to Coulson. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Oh, shit.
If Captain America's bestie was here...
Steve Rogers jogged up to the group and did a double-take when he saw Coulson alive and well. Everyone, Coulson and Watchdogs included, gaped at the superhero (and just truly remarkable specimen of Man—and yes, that deserved a capital M). "We're gonna have a long talk about this later, but right now, we've got a weapons facility to storm," he said in a wonderfully deep voice full of the kind of authority that had always made her want to turn the tables. She might be considering going by the name her parents intended for her, but a part of her would always be the rebellious little eight-year-old who'd decided to hell with Mary-Sue, she was going to name herself.
The whole siege took all of twenty minutes. For a weapons facility, Hammer Industries had truly crap security. SHIELD and Cap's team had entered from opposite sides, corralling the remaining Watchdogs in the middle, and didn't speak to each other until the fight ended, at which point, Steve Rogers ordered Coulson and the team onto the Quinjet so he could tell the Avengers himself.
The journey back to New York was tense and mostly silent apart from Sam's questions about the young woman's powers. As glad as he was that Coulson was alive, Steve was fuming at both him and Fury over being kept in the dark and he knew the others would be too. So he saved what he had to say for when they could confront the not-dead man together.
He had questions of his own for the young woman who had been taking on Watchdogs without any weapons and sending them flying but now was not the time, not when he was letting Coulson stew. Steve had seen her courage in the field and was impressed in a way he hadn't been since '45. And she was one seriously beautiful dame. She fought like it was an art form, a dance that left the bad guys bleeding on the floor.
Too young for him, of course, but who wasn't?
Still, one day, he'd meet his soulmate—because those were a thing now, as surprising to him as the whole wifi thing—and it wouldn't do to be seeing someone else at the time, especially since his soulmate seemed quite deliciously possessive.
After a quick outfit change while the group gathered, he and Coulson made the big reveal. Nat and Clint were pissed, Thor and Banner were happy, and Tony ran the whole gamut of emotions before declaring it a party and pouring champagne.
After Steve subjected Agent Coulson to a suitable amount of disappointment for being kept in the dark, they made up and made merry. He even approved of Coulson starting up SHIELD again, the right way. Then he saw the young brunette standing on her own, limned in gold as she looked out the skyscraper's windows, Golden Hour bathing the city in orange light. He made his excuses to the others.
"You did good out there, kid."
He wasn't quite sure what he'd been expecting, but it certainly wasn't for a fine mist of champagne to come spraying out her mouth as she spluttered and coughed. He picked up cloth napkins from the coffee table and handed them to her as she coughed. "Are you okay, ma'am?"
Skye looked at him, wide-eyed, then turned and searched the room with desperation, absent-mindedly shooting the super-soldier a thumbs-up. "Coulson!" she choked out while making a hopefully-not-insulting shooing motion as Coulson headed their way.
"Are you okay, Skye?" he asked in a fatherly tone as Captain America finally started to walk away, albeit reluctantly.
As soon as the altogether perfect super-soldier was out of earshot, she choked out, "He said my words!"
Coulson looked back and forth between her a Steve a few times before beaming at her like she'd just hung the stars.
"Oh god," she said, mortified, "Turn around. You're being really obvious." They both turned to the windows as she tried to cool off her blushing cheeks with the back of her hand. She probably should have stopped after the second glass of champagne. She was starting to feel its effects. But when else would she have access to thousand-dollar champers?
"He's the only person who could ever deserve you, sweetheart." Daisy looked at him, trying to blink back the tears in her eyes. It was no secret what Phil Coulson thought about the First Avenger. "Did you say anything to him?"
"No." She'd just done a literal spit-take and coughed up half a lung in front of the guy, then shooed him away for trying to help.
"Okay, so it's not completely guaranteed. Did he say something unique?"
"It's nothing anyone's said as an introduction before."
"Well, you should make your words count," he said with a gleeful smile. "He's not the tattoo type, so they will be the only words ever written on the skin of Captain Am-"
"Property of Daisy Johnson!" she yelled suddenly across the room, eyes on the back of one dark-blonde head.
Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, making an audible smack as Steve's champagne flute slipped through his fingers and shattered on the floor. Oh god. She'd just yelled that, apropos of nothing, in front of all the Avengers. "That was impulsive," she murmured into her hand, wishing the floor would open up. How had May reined in so much of her impulsivity only for it to come out now?
Then she saw the look in Steve's eyes and just knew. He had her words too.
Looking at her softly as her soulmate headed their way, Coulson said, "So you've decided then."
"Yeah," she laughed, "It might take a bit to get used to, but I guess I'll have to stick with it now." He squeezed her hand reassuringly as he gave the soulmates space.
"I thought your name was Skye," said Steve, more nonplused than accusatory. The young woman that had been blasting the enemy with her hands had definitely been referred to by her team as Skye. "I looked for you when I came out of the ice."
But with a hundred thousand Daisys in the United States and well over two million Johnsons, there were slightly less than a thousand Daisy Johnsons. It was far too many to risk violating anyone's privacy, no matter how much he wanted to find the woman to whom he belonged—especially when the words could have been about anything, not necessarily him.
"It's my birth name," she replied quietly, still in shock that this man, this hero, was hers. And that her outburst was forever written on his skin.
And where was it exactly?
"I was taken by Hydra as a baby and only recently discovered it. I've been playing around with the idea of using it for a few months." She shrugged lamely, still looking at him in disbelief.
"Well, I certainly hope you've decided now," he said gamely, the corner of his mouth pulling into a smile.
Daisy nodded, assessing him closely. She pulled off her gauntlet to show him the red cursive words on the inside of her forearm. "I always hoped the 'kid' was more 'Here's looking at you, kid,' than a diminutive." Her eyes widened in shock. "Though I suppose it could be literal..." She pulled a face.
"It was definitely 'Here's looking at you, kid.'"
"Good." She smiled up at him. Skye—Daisy now—caught the way Steve blushed looking at her mark and adjusting his waistband and leaned in so only he could hear her whisper, "I take it yours is somewhere more private?"
"It is." He glanced behind them at the rapt audience wanting to know how Mr. Stars, Stripes, and 1940s Propriety reacted to finding the woman to whom he was Soulbound. "Maybe we could get coffee?"
She looked at him quizzically for a second. After all, there was a reason they'd come to the Tower on their Quinjet. Avengers Tower was always surrounded by reporters and fans. Still, she nodded, smiling at the earnest hope in his eyes. He probably wanted to 'show her the town' or something, which, considering this was New York City and he probably could get in anywhere didn't seem like the worst idea in the world.
She laughed good-naturedly as Steve offered his arm to escort her to the elevator, accepting it with a smile. To him, it was probably just the polite thing to do, but it made her feel like a queen.
They walked to the elevator, ignoring the stares of both their teams. The second the doors closed, she turned to him and asked, "Is it on your ass?" Her eyes volleying between Steve's, clearly eager to know the answer, a wide grin her face.
He huffed out an awkward breath, blushing. "It is not."
For a second, he thought he heard her whisper, "Damn!"
Quickly changing the subject, he said, "My floor, Friday," in that authoritative voice, making her head whip around to look at him in surprise. Not that she was against it, but was Steve Rogers really inviting her back to his room? The guy moved faster than she would have thought.
Steve backtracked, flustered. "Not that- I mean-" He blushed. "I have a machine in my kitchen. If we go out for coffee, there's always paparazzi outside the Tower and fans wanting pictures. I didn't mean to make you think-"
To his surprise, she just laughed, her brown eyes twinkling. "I was wondering what you planned on doing about them. I came to New York about six months after the Incident," she coughed, "and was maybe one of the girls hanging out outside, hoping for pics." She blushed, her face and neck turning an adorable shade of pink and making him wonder just how far that blush spread. "I may have been wearing a slightly spangled outfit."
Now it was his turn to blush (again), wondering in the back of his mind if she still had it. He'd seen the outfits some of the fans wore, usually inspired by the ones worn by his old USO crew. He'd always thought them a bit
ridiculous, not to mention wondered how on Earth they weren't cold standing outside in a New York winter, but on her... Steve bit back a smile. He might like to see that.
They left the elevator on the floor he had all to himself, walking into a well-appointed living room with floor-to-ceiling windows offering a beautiful view of the city. It was all more to Tony's modern taste than his own, but he was glad of it when she looked impressed.
"Nice digs! Stark really doesn't skimp on his guests, does he?"
He laughed as he ushered her to sit on the couch while he went to busy himself in the kitchen. "You have no idea," he called. "I had to fight him just to get a coffee maker instead of an espresso machine with a hundred knobs I didn't know how to use."
Back from the kitchen as he waited for the coffee to brew, he sat by her side on the couch and they watched the sunset over the city as they talked about their teams and their non-existent lives outside of them. Then he brought up something she mentioned earlier that had bothered him. "Feel free not to answer, but you said you were taken by Hydra as a baby?"
When she didn't say anything at first, he worried he might have stepped over some kind of boundary. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
"No, it's okay. If anyone has a right to know, it's my soulmate, right? Besides, I'd expect less pity from someone they messed with too." She went on to tell him about her parents and what they became after she was taken, how she ended up in the arms of the Hydra double-agents' SHIELD backup, and her time in orphanages and foster care, her brief stint with homelessness before finding SHIELD once again.
When she was done, he said the only thing he could. "Sounds like Hydra stole both of the lives we should have had."
"Yeah," she said wistfully, smiling at the beautiful, caring man who could actually understand. "Doesn't mean the ones we have are all that bad, though."
She tangled her fist in the front of his shirt, pulling ever so gently as she leaned in and touched her lips to his, city lights glittering like a never-ending ocean beneath them. Here, he was nothing like the firm commander he was in the field, soft against her lips, demanding nothing from her that she didn't readily give, though his lips followed her when she pulled back. He made a soft noise at the loss, and she saw his eyes had drifted closed. Daisy smiled and trailed a touch along his stubbled jaw. If he needed her to take charge, that was exactly what she would do.
In one move, she straddled him, grinning at his surprise before she kissed him again. She could already tell she'd be having a lot of fun shocking her super-soldier. When her tongue traced the seam of his lips, he opened for her with a groan. She explored him hungrily and he reacted, kissing her back like a parched man getting his first drink of water in days, still holding her so carefully like something precious he was afraid to break. When she eventually had to come up for air, her breath jagged and his slightly labored, she smiled, resting her forehead on his.
"You never did tell me where your mark is," she said slyly and watched his cheeks turn pink.
Careful not to jostle her, Steve pulled up his shirt on the right side. Daisy had to pull back a bit to see. All that was visible above his jeans was the word 'Proper.' It was just inside the hipbone, along that hot-guy V muscle. If it kept going in a straight line, it would be pointing right to...
"Does that lead where I think it does?" He nodded, his face beet-red. After a moment or three of stunned silence, a giggle welled up in her throat. "Does it actually go on-?"
"No," Steve cleared his throat, his face red as a raspberry. "It, um, stops just before."
The laughter burst out of her and she tumbled off him, landing on her side on the couch. Wracked with breathless laughter that that was where his mark was, and with what it said! Captain America! She convulsed in giggles again. When she finally came up for air, she managed to eke out, "I'm so sorry," between choked sobs of laughter.
"Why?" he asked, entirely genuine.
Gradually, she stilled. Still a bit breathless, a pleasant burn in her abdomen from the laughter, she met his eyes. He couldn't mean he didn't mind it at all. Given not just location, but what she'd said, it must have been a total cock-blocker since he'd woken up.
Now she was breathless for a different reason. If he really didn't mind... What if he liked it? She'd never known any guy to be entirely gung-ho about letting her explore what she wanted, and honestly, she hadn't trusted most of them enough to ask.
"You know," she said, pushing herself back up, "people always talk about the compatibility of soulmates." She slipped back onto his lap and trailed her fingers along where the mark sat beneath his clothing. "Do you like that I staked my claim?" She leaned forward, letting her chest brush his ever so lightly as she whispered in his ear, "Marked your body as mine?" On 'mine' she gripped the rather impressive bulge her words led to.
He groaned, trying not to thrust into her grip as her fingers tangled in his hair, nails just raking his scalp. "There's never been anyone else."
It felt a bit awkward to admit when he knew the expectations of the modern era were so different, but before the serum, he'd mostly been ignored. And after, well, he'd only had eyes for Peg. It had been strange waking up from that life only to find himself in a world where soulmates were a tangible thing one could wait for. But he had always wanted to wait for the right partner. These days, it was just easier to know who that was.
"You waited for me?" Her small, impish smile slowly spread, as she gazed affectionately down at him. She could tell he'd been expecting a bit of apprehension, but honestly, to be this man's one and only felt really special, even if it meant she might have to slow down. "I'm honored." She tucked back a loose tendril of hair falling into his eyes, aware of the responsibility she'd been given in this wonderful man. "How slow do you want to take this? Don't feel press-"
"Fast," he said, so quickly she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
Steve smiled shyly. "I've, um, waited a long time for you. I want whatever you're willing to give."
She grinned, coming in for another soul-claiming kiss, winding her arms around his neck. "Bedroom." She trailed kissed along his jaw then bit his earlobe. "Now."
By the time either of them remembered the coffee, it had long since gone cold.
I'm considering writing a smutty sequel to this. LokiQuake is next and might be my last one. It's at least the last one I've been working on. If I have any more ship ideas I'm sure I'll come back to it.