A/N: I wanted this to be up yesterday, but then I was working on my Secret Santa piece till two in the morning, so… Anyway, I told you the picture drabbles will be resurrected! This one is of Skye and Grant's first Christmas in the Haylie/Ada/Ellie storyline (so Christmas of 2013, not long after the HYDRA reveal), and expect the next year tomorrow :) Merry Christmas!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Skye was nowhere to be found.

Which, in itself, wasn't that much of a strange occurrence – she had always liked to have some alone time, and when the need for that arose (which happened more and more often these days, in the aftermath of the HYDRA uprising), she liked to hide somewhere, out of sight. And it wasn't even as if it was impossible to find her – one just had to know where to look.

Thankfully, Grant knew exactly where she liked to hide.

He could hear the notes of one of those Christmas songs malls like to play to death around Christmastime the moment he opened the door leading from the cargo bay to the main lounge area of the Bus. The room still bore the marks of the gunfight at the Hub – the glass panels of the command center still hadn't been replaced, and there were stray bullet holes here and there, but right now the place was… strangely inviting.

And in the middle of it, there was Skye.

She was sitting cross legged on the floor, in front of a six-foot-tall plastic Christmas tree (he had no idea where she got that from), facing away from the door, hanging colorful ornaments (again, no clue where they came from) on the lower branches of the tree. All around her, the floor was littered with opened cardboard boxes, stray ornaments, and a string of Christmas lights, plugged in, but laying tangled on the carpet.

"Skye…?" he started carefully, slowly approaching her and her lopsided winter wonderland.

She turned towards him right away, a small, bittersweet smile on her lips.

"Oh, hi," she said, blinking at him, and acting like there was nothing strange about the scene. "Help me out a little?"

He knew her well enough not to ask; she would talk, with time, anyway.

"Yeah, sure," he said instead, crouching down next to her. "What do you want me to do?"

She pushed a box of glass baubles into his hands, and told him where to hang them. He got to work without a word, keeping silent as she softly hummed White Christmas under her breath, waiting for her explanation.

He didn't have to wait for long.

"I was looking forward to it, you know?" she said after a short while, keeping her eyes on the ornament right in front of her. "Christmas, with the team, I mean. Because for the first time… ever, I felt like I had a family. But now? Now it feels kinda wrong to celebrate. And yet, here I am," she shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal, "decorating a tree. Because damn it, I want Christmas. I want to sing carols way off key and drink too much eggnog, and have the team sit around a big table and have a ridiculous Christmas dinner. I want… so many silly things, and I know it's childish, but…" she sniffed, wiping a single tear from her cheek. "I want that."

Grant swallowed; he was not good with words, let alone with crying girls. But still, he just couldn't stand seeing her so distressed, so he sat down next to her and pulled her close until her face was nuzzled against his chest.

"It's not childish," he told her, kissing the top of her head. "Actually it's kind of… endearing. That you can think of these things even now. The world needs people like you – and we need some holiday cheer, if you ask me." He pushed her gently away, so he could give her a quick kiss on the lips. "And Skye, nothing would make me happier than to celebrate Christmas with you this year."

She let out a teary, little chuckle.

"Wow," she said, a tentative grin forming on her lips, "I never would have guessed that you'd be one to advocate the 'holiday cheer.' I have kinda pegged you as a Grinch."

It was Grant's turn to smile.

"Well, yeah, I've already bought your gift, and forgoing Christmas would mean wasting that, so…"

Her eyes widened right away.

"What? And what did you get me? Grant! What did you get me?"

He chuckled at her excitement and kissed her again.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not Christmas day yet. And anyways, shouldn't we finish the tree first?" he teased.

"Oh, I hate you right now," was all her retort, but she delivered it grinning, already turning back towards the tree, the next ornament in hand.

(He woke her early, cruelly early on Christmas morning, saying that it was time to open the presents. She didn't get it first, sleep-addled as she was, but then he led her to the Bus's lounge, where the whole team – wearing PJs and robes – was waiting for them, and then she understood it. He gave her what she really wanted – a real Christmas, spent with her family.)