2016

"Skye," Grant started almost too nonchalantly as he came out of the bathroom one night, just a couple of days before Christmas, "could you handle Haylie for a couple of hours on Thursday?"

She stopped for a moment as she was folding back the comforter, and looked at him, her head tilted slightly sideways. "Of course, no problem. But why?" She straightened up and put a hand on her hip. "Coulson's not calling you in, is he? He said he'd make sure we have the holidays free…"

"No, nothing like that," he assured her with a corner of his mouth pulling into a smile as he walked over to the bed. "It's just I thought I'd go out with the guys to get a tree."

She blinked, processing the information. "With the guys?"

"Yeah, you know," he shrugged, "Trip, Hunter, Fitz, Mack, if he can make it."

"To get a tree," she clarified. "You need four guys and a couple of hours to get a tree. Babe, you know there's a guy selling Christmas trees in the parking lot, like, two streets from here?" she asked, slightly amused.

Grant ran his hand through his hair before climbing into bed. "Yeah, I know. It's just we thought we'd go out of town, into the woods, to cut one ourselves. To make a day out of it."

Imagining the five of them out in the forest, knee-deep in snow, axes in their hands, Skye needed every ounce of her willpower not to laugh out loud.

"Isn't that kinda illegal?" she asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she soothed the covers over her legs.

"We'll take our badges. Say it's official S.H.I.E.L.D. business if anyone asks," he replied with complete seriousness, which, finally, made her laugh.

"Oh, Robot, don't tell me you're even ready to break the law over a tree!" she chuckled, playfully shoving at his shoulder.

"Just a little bit," he said, putting his thumb and forefinger together. "But really… If there's one thing I like to remember about my childhood Christmasses, it's the gigantic tree we had in the living every single year," he went on, not really meeting her eyes. "It just had a… feeling. A little bit of–don't laugh at me–Christmas magic. And it's our first Christmas in this house, our house, and I want to give you, you and Haylie, this bit of magic. So an old tree from the parking lot won't do. You deserve the best tree, and I'm determined to find it," he finished it, looking at her at last and taking her hand in his.

Skye couldn't decide what she wanted to do more, hug him close or kiss him. She knew how hard it still was for him to talk about his childhood, and that ever since the team left the Playground and everyone started living on their own four months ago, he'd been missing the guys, even if he didn't really show it. A guys' day out, doing "manly" things was the least he deserved.

"Okay," she said after a short pause, drawing circles into the top of his hand with her thumb. "Do it. Join the dark side and start a Christmas tree smuggling ring. But I have two conditions," she added with a grin.

"Name them."

"One, if you get caught and end up in jail, I'm not bailing you out. You guys are trained agents, you take care of it."

"Seems reasonable," he nodded, grinning as well. "And the second?"

"Don't go overboard–choose a tree that actually fits into the house."

He leaned closer and kissed her, cupping her face in his palm.

"I can promise you that."

(They went overboard.)