AN: As always, big thanks to my one and only Beta MegaDiary123. Thank you for reading and supporting this story, hope you enjoy this chapter!

All rights go to Marvel


Skye's POV

It has been a week since my night encounter with Grant and he had yet to tell anyone about it. I was pleasantly surprised by it, but I guess my threat scared him off. Good… I didn't want anyone looking into my personal life.

"So, what are you doing tonight?", I asked Simmons who was laying on her bed the same way I was in mine. From the corner of my eye I could see her titling her head at my direction and raise an eyebrow.

But nonetheless she didn't question me, at least not yet. "Well, let me check" she answered and got up to take a look at her planner.

"Why even bother keeping a planner? Or checking it out? For starters you don't have that many stuff that you do every day. Also, I am a hundred percent sure that you have memorised all your activities for the next month!" Sometimes it was very hard for me to understand what was going on in that head of hers.

"Well, Skye, just because some of us…" her eyes pointed at me before getting back at reading her daily activities, "…don't see the worth of a planner, it doesn't mean that none of us do". She mockingly faked being hurt by my words. "And you may or may not be right about me knowing my daily schedule for some weeks in advance, but there is nothing wrong with that or with double checking. What if I forgot something, anything? Oh, what if I forgot a lecture?" Her eyes grew a bit larger at the thought.

I couldn't suppress the laugh that escaped my lips. Her eyes instantly narrowed and she grimaced at me. "Don't you dare laugh at me! This is important, how do you expect me to keep up with my Academy without a proper plan? I'm sure that in your Academy things are more lenient. Not so strict a schedule as ours and such" she dismissed with her hand. "Besides I'm a perfectionist and you know it. It's in my nature to want everything planned" she finished and got back at looking her little notebook.

"Well Simmons what happened, is the Academy rivalry finally getting in your head? Come on you know that we aren't that bad, and you have no idea how strict our lessons and attendance are" I replied truthfully. Well, almost saying the whole truth. I did know that our rules were stricter than theirs, I had hacked in both systems by now and knew the rules for both Academies. If I hadn't done as much I would be disappointed with myself.

"Well not all of you are" she said smiling at me. "But so far you're the only one that I know of that isn't that bad." I opened my mouth to say something back but she raised her hand to silence me and spoke before I had a chance to even form a word. "And you can't say that I am not right because you hang with us all the time. I haven't even seen you once associate with people from your group".

Well, I couldn't really deny that. Hill had said that we were supposed to be a family. From what I had learned, family meant not lying to each other, being there in case one needs help and to support one another. At least I thought I knew what that term meant. I wasn't so sure about that anymore.

"Do you have anything to do tonight?" I asked once more tired of our conversation and the turn it took.

Simmons closed the planner hard and sat back on her bed. "Nope, why? What do you have in mind?", excitement was written all over her face.

"I was thinking that, oh I don't know, we could sneak down the boiler and then go through the door that is supposed to lead to maintenance" I smiled broadly waiting for her reaction. I wasn't disappointed.

She gasped and then started mouthing words without actually making any sound. "How do you even know about this?" She finally managed to say coherent enough for me to understand. My smile getting even boarder was enough of an answer for her to translate. "You hacked into our systems, didn't you?".

"Oh, come on. It wasn't really that hard to learn about it. You seemed to forget that I always listen to what others around us say. It wasn't really hard to put two and two together once I had heard a couple of people talking about an underground bar. Plus, your main problem is people from Ops finding out about it. Who would I even tell?"

Finally reason seemed to make its way to her and she relaxed once again. But then reality, or more logic in our case, hit her hard and her demeanour took a 180.

"No! Absolutely not! I've never been there and you won't do such thing either, at least not until you are an adult" she said firmly.

"Is that a challenge?" I wanted to play a little bit with her. But I know that she knew as well that if she didn't come along, my chances of actually going there were extremely low.

"No, it's not. It's a rule that I'm setting here and now. It is illegal. I'm not going to be part of your bad girl shenanigans!" Now that was the most British thing I had heard her say, and I had heard a lot, and the accent didn't help in the slightest.

"What's illegal is drinking. We won't do that, we're just gonna relax outside of the room for a change. Plus, you said it yourself. You've never been down there and I can see that you want to. Your curiosity gets the best of you a lot of times and this is no different"

She took a couple of breaths to compose herself. "Fine, we'll go" she said and thought about it for a while. Then turned to me and asked, "Why do you even ask? This is the first time I've heard of you asking to go out" with a big question mark written all over her face.

I thought about my answer for a while, not sure how much to say.

"Let's just say that I need to get my mind off things" and thankfully she didn't question it any further.


I was sitting in one of the large, leather couches that the underground bar had. As promised I had not taken any alcoholic beverage and had ended up with plain old water.

Even if she didn't want to admit it, Simmons was excited that she came down. She had even invited her best friend with her, one guy named Fitz. He was actually a rocket scientist, how cool was that?

He was a really quiet guy and only opened himself when Simmons was there. I could relate. Simmons had that aura that made you wanna be friends with her.

No matter what my relationship with Simmons was, it was easy to see how close her and Fitz had come. They started at the Academy around the same time, Fitz only arriving at the Academy a few weeks after Simmons and I did. They had this instant bond because they were talking the same language. All that gibberish from Simmons somehow made sense to him. He was also a very often topic in the conversations I had with her, since they spend a lot of time together.

I watched as they talked at the bar and soon came over to where I was.

"So, you both know each other only by name and it is time to actually meet. Skye, this is Leopold Fitz. Fitz, this is Skye" I got up and shook the hand that Fitz extended my way.

"You've talked about me?" We both asked almost simultaneously, something that made Simmons laugh.

"But seriously. Leopold? Do I have to call you that?" I asked.

"Oh, please don't. You can call me Leo or Fitz, whatever you prefer" he said while rubbing the back of his neck. "Is there a surname that I should know of, Skye?".

"Nope" was my quick reply and I could see how Simmons wasn't expecting a reply but would be very happy to have one. My attention was soon turned back to Fitz

I had seen him around with Simmons once or twice in the past, I just didn't know that he was the one named Fitz. And as I paid attention to his accent, it was quite strange. Definitely not American, but not English as Simmons' was. "You're Scottish?" I made a wild guess and was glad that my speculation was verified when he nodded.

"But seriously, what have you told him about me?" This time I turned to my roommate who was trying to look innocent.

"Yeah, what she said" Fitz moved and stood next to me and crossing his hands over his chest. I had to say, seeing Fitz trying to be intimidating was hilarious.

"Don't be like that" Simmons said as she moved behind and in between us. She wrapped her hands around both of our shoulders and peeked between our faces. As I observed the scene play out, I caught Fitz blush a little when Simmons' hand touched his shoulder but said nothing of it. "You two are my best friends, I have nothing bad to say about either of you".

I had gotten used to Simmons touching my hand or shoulder and made nothing of it. I had even stopped flinching out of instinct. But her words made me step away from her and look into her eyes. The sincerity in them made me start tear up and the concern that replaced her happiness didn't help.

"Excuse me for a minute" I said to them and quickly moved out of the bar and out in the open in desperate need for the cold wind to hit my face. I could hear Simmons saying, as loudly as her manners allowed her, my name but I just needed some time for myself. Soon I found myself in the woods, running a bit and after some time I found the spot that I was looking for. So, I sat on the ground with my back on a big rock that could as well have my name on it considering how many times I had been there in the past, just to clear my head.

I had more or less only four people in my life that I would consider friends or something more. But I was never sure if they actually wanted to be my friends or were just acting that way because they were the ones to find me. And just as I was in a good place with our relationship I had to find out about that damn redacted file which made me reconsider our whole relationship.

But with Simmons, sure I had thought about the possibility of being friends with her. And I had to admit that we had gotten closer through the last half year that we shared a room but I was never sure where she stood.

Sure, we talked more than we did at the beginning and we each knew a lot of things about the other. Or, to be more precise, I knew a lot of things about her. She didn't really have any knowledge about my past. And I could tell that she wanted to know because her eyes glinted with curiosity every time a similar subject would come up. But she never pushed and was always very caring.

But that word… friend, was never said and I was starting to believe that she was just spending time with me because of pity. Because I didn't have anyone else.

Tears were running down my face when I heard footsteps getting closer. I quickly cleared my eyes of any signs of crying and got up to leave before I stumbled upon Ward again. I was about to head off when a voice stopped me.

"Skye" I turned around to find Simmons stopping a good distance away from me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked and couldn't help as my gaze scanned around for Fitz.

She must have seen my eyes darting around. "He is not here. It's just me" she said and her hands had risen as if to show me that she meant no harm. But she stayed still. "I wanted to see if you're okay…" she tried as I didn't say anything back after her first reply.

"I'm fine. How did you even know about this place?" I had never come here with anyone and the only guy that knew about me coming to the woods was Grant.

"I know more things about you than you know Skye" I stiffened a bit at that and she picked up on it. "What I mean, is… I know that you wake up and train every morning at five in the morning when everyone else is asleep. I know that you come here to be alone and that this is the place where you let yourself be free of that mask that you wear the rest of the day" she said and had started moving closer to me. "And I know for a fact that you are not fine".

"How do you–"

"Know all that?" She finished my sentence. She was now standing only a few feet away from me. "Because I observe. My whole career is based on observation and problem-solving. And I know you do the same to everyone, always there in the sidelines, listening" she was now right in front of me.

All this time, I was giving her less credit than she deserved. "But why?" I needed to hear it.

"Because I'm your friend and I care about you. And it's ok if you still don't see me that way, but I do. And I want you to know that I'll be there for you if you need me and you can tell me anything and I won't say it to anyone else. You can trust me and I'll never betray that trust" her hands now wrapped around me in a soft embrace.

The way that her words sounded so similar to what Natasha had told me some days ago and so many times in the past made me break. All the feelings that I had kept bottled up came crashing down.

She didn't seem to mind when a wet spot started growing on her jacket, or when my hands mimicked hers and I pressed myself against her chest.

"Thank you".