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kitsuneoftheorganization · 2 years ago

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Vrains: Valentines Day

A/N: this is a week late shhhh... (pretend it was posted right on time) i just wanted to edit a few things and somehow added several paragraphs, and it's now nearing 4am... aha ;-;

(also forgive me for characters not being on here, i haven't gotten through the entire show yet and wanna do them justice :] )

characters: Ai, Playmaker, Skye, Varis

warnings: none!

• you best prepare for every cheesy pun he can possibly think of involving his name

• clingy clingy clingy (i mean, think back to his joke in duel links "love me touch me feed me hot dog sandwiches!") he's gonna be wrapping around you like a backpack so get used to not getting any alone time the entirety of the day, or not going out without an eldritch monster clung to your shoulders like a witch and their familiar

• when you finally convince him to stay in his smaller form to be less conspicuous, he'd substitute holding your hand by holding your fingers since he's stuck in the duel disk, and constantly asking you to log into vrains so he can "properly hold your hands".

• there's something comedic about a tiny ignis with his hands on his hips and an exasperated look pouting about holding your hands... you keep saying you're busy to tease him and this frustrates him greatly, but it's so cute you can't help it

• anytime you bring your wrist with the duel disk attached near your face, or check it for some reason, he'll reach over and (comically because he's so tiny) try to kiss you

• but even though his puns, cheesy jokes, and constant talking can get a bit annoying, how can you stay mad when he's giving you the sweetest looks ever and smiling like the adorable lil creacher he is? he'll look away whenever you catch him though, and insist he was looking at something else... very unconvincingly

• he also wants to make up for all the things he didn't get to express to you beforehand, what with everything that went down and being tracked by the hanoi, and today's holiday is a good ice breaker for that topic

• before he confessed to you, he'd look extremely squirmy and anxious all the beginning of the day especially when you ask Yusaku why he seems so awkward and tense

• you had been friends and allies for a long time, fighting alongside Yusaku and the others to protect his fellow ignis as best as you both could, so there was no reason you could think of for him to be nervous around you

• Yusaku would just sigh exasperatedly and give a glance to Ai, who would immediately try (and fail) to look natural, leaving you very confused

• little did you know, he'd been talking with Yusaku for weeks about how he'd go about telling you while simultaneously roasting him for being no help and having no experience... leaving Yusaku to question him why he was asking in the first place. if only you could overhear their banter...

• he'll hack into your duel disk later on to talk to you, and look as though he'd be sweating bullets if he could

• just... stares at you silently for a solid minute leaving you like ???

• finally after a second he sighs and unloads all of it on you at the speed of a commercial actor reading fine print

• once he slows down though, he gains his confidence and is actually very eloquent explaining his feelings. you can hear the sincerity in his voice and tell he's being completely serious

• when you told him you returned his feelings, the tone switches in an instant and oh boy his old self is back in a flash

• "hah, i knew you could never resist this hot bod!" and now he's posing dramatically on your duel disk... and you immediately wish you had the power to mute him

• afterwards, he'll try to catch you off guard by kissing your cheek every time your face is near the duel disk, or making heart eyes to fluster you

• it would be endearing and fluffy having this little creacher so head over heels for you but it's incredibly flustering when you remember he's also a six foot tall, incredibly attractive, peircing eyed, fancy-vampire-extravagently-dressed tumblr sexyman that towers over you and is very intimidating

• even though he jokes a lot, he's incredibly smart and does care deeply, so i can imagine him setting something up somehow, whether it's ordering something to your door, hacking some big screen in the city for a message that would confuse other citizens but that you'd recognize, or leading you to cyberse cards he created to put in your deck because to him it's both a gift and a way to always be present with you and remember him by, and shows you're his using his cards

• if he has access to a soltis body, he'll want to do things he didn't get to do much before, to just go out for a walk and see the city with you without the whole pretend-i'm-a-villain-to-save-the-future thing going on

• will grab your hand and kiss the back of it because he saw it in a drama and wanted to try it

• you end up seeing a video later from someone in the area that had seen you both holding hands...

• "who's vampire lookin ass boyfriend is this lmaooo"

• it's all you can do to stop him from angrily replying with 10 different accounts he made...

• after all that though, I think he'd want to make cookies together at your home, or just something fun and domestic, since originally when he was left at Yusaku's apartment he was always bound to the duel disk. will probably throw a little bit of dough at you when you aren't looking though (he'll swear it wasn't him despite you being the only two there)

• probably tries all the things he's seen in dramas that he watched with roboppi in Yusaku's apartment, and it's very obvious (let him have his male lead moment okay)

• at the end of the day, he actually becomes somewhat uncharacteristically shy for once when he asks if you'll watch tv and play games with him

• if he's in his soltis, he'll put you on his lap and wrap you both up in a blanket, his arms around you, with his head just in place to whisper in your ear...

• he leans in close, lips right next to your ear, his hair brushing against you, sharp amber eyed gaze firmly on you, breath on your skin and...

• "do you and Yusaku actually think hot dogs are sandwiches"

• you cut him the most deadpan look ever, even putting Yusaku to shame while he laughs in complete satisfaction, locking his arms around you when you tried to get up

• even if he isn't in a soltis, he'd be in his monster form with his arms completely engulfing you, and head laying on your chest as you both watch dramas he insisted on

• will pout unless you let him kiss you, even though that form has a mouth full of sharp jagged teeth

• he's actually really warm, and his closeness is comforting, the only issue is that he's so tangled around you getting up would be a monumental task

• eventually if you fell asleep, he'd stay with you the rest of the night, as close as he can possibly be while going into whatever sleep state it is that ignis are capable of

• he'd let you use one of his arms as a pillow, and if you tried to move or get out of bed to get water or anything, he'd tighten his grip and dramatically whine about you "leaving your poor ignis"

• tells you he loves you after he thinks you've fallen asleep :>

Skye/Aoi

• considering her brother has sheltered her to an extent all her life, I think she'd want to do fun things with you!

• especially on a day like valentines, she'll want to do something thrilling

• in real life, she's someone who doesn't always have the confidence to do what she really wants to, to say what she really means

• though you met each other through VRAINS, you had become a huge support to her in real life, and helped her in ways you weren't even aware of. she never told you, but when she'd log out of VRAINS and leave her persona, and the confidence that accompanied it behind, your words and encouragement stayed with her

• did she really deserve it? if you knew the real her, would you still say the same things? she didn't know, but she knew that she could at least log in and have your presence waiting for her each day, something to look forward to

• even though she was the duelist in the public eye, personally, she admired you highly, not only for your dueling skills but for who you were and what you stood for, and what you would say to her

• it may have been in passing for you, but it echoed in her mind for hours

• that she mattered, not only as Blue Angel, but that her life was inherently valuable and meaningful no matter who is behind the mask, that though you'd been through many things, at the end of the day no matter where we find ourselves there is always more than it appears to life, that you can choose your destiny, and that there is always light even if we can't see it at the moment

• sure, anyone could pass them off as cheesy and forget it, but when things got to her and she felt alone, like no one knew her truly, and like she'd be in the cage her brother's concern had made for her forever, on the lonely late nights when no one was home... they comforted her. she desperately wanted to believe she could choose her own destiny, considering her and her brother's lives had so far felt like leaves being blown in every direction by the wind of circumstance

• you were a friend who treated her like a person instead of a celebrity, and didn't try to use her for internet fame, and so she had begun to feel like she truly could trust you

• the free spirit in her envied the fact that you were someone who had no leash unlike her, fighting the hanoi, going wherever you pleased, holding your own against the threats to VRAINS

• the longer you remained friends though, she'd realized that she'd begun to develop feelings for you beyond friendship or idolization

• even when you both had finally met in person, she'd never had the guts to say anything, too afraid she wouldn't measure up or that upon seeing her real self you'd think less of her than as Blue Angel and never think of her in that way

• little did she know you had grown to care for her strongly as well

• when she'd finally gained the courage to confess to you, she'd texted you with a friendly invite to go grab a snack since you were both alone today, and you both occasionally would do things together (Akira felt she was protected with you, thankfully)

• at least that way, she could back out if she got too nervous and let things between you remain the same

• she messaged you to meet with her at a cafe in the city, somewhere she liked, to eat something tasty and unwind after the stress you'd all been through

• you'd thought nothing of it, since you were just friends after all... you supposed you were lucky to spend time with her, even if it wasn't under the circumstances you wished it was

• you had kept your feelings quiet, not wanting to place any more pressure on her, so if friendship was what she needed, so be it

• you'd notice there was something on her mind, but as you're both finishing your food, you'd see some spark of confidence rise in her eyes and she'd grab your hands that were sitting on the table, take a deep breath, and start to explain the real reason why she met with you there (surprise bitch, this is a date!!!!)

• it takes you a moment to take in her words, because THE Blue Angel wants to be with you, THE Skye, the Skye you've been friends with for so long... the fact that she saw you the way you saw her was enough to make your soul jump through the roof

• she's overjoyed when she learns the feeling is mutual, and a streak of excitement and energy comes over her, thinking of all the things she wants to do with you

• this was the real Skye, you felt, someone with energy and spirit and that spark of adventure in her eyes that was shining through in this moment

• you'd agree to go to an amusement park straight afterward, something she'd always wanted to do but had never been able to since her brother was always busy and would've never let her go alone

• somehow, you'd fit almost every ride into the few hours you were there, from rollercoasters to the ferris wheel overlooking the city, and you both tried all the out-of-the-ordinary foods they had at stands

• she holds your hand on every ride, and everywhere you walked through the park as if you'd melt away if she didn't feel you beside her <3

• if you're a bit nervous of rollercoasters, she'd sit beside you and let you hold onto her... definitely doesn't try to get you on one again for that specific reason

• after you rode a bunch of rides, i think she'd like to just walk with you and see the sights of the park, talking about everything that's happened so far, her hopes for the future, and about how she's determined to try and find aqua if there's a chance she may have also been revived, and how cute she thinks you look holding the cotton candy you'd both gotten and the sunset illuminating your features ;>

• later when you got home, she'd invite you to come over, and you'd both log into VRAINS and either sightsee on a board, or speed duel with each other, and then meet up with the others to talk and because she wants to tell everyone about your relationship

• no one is surprised, because you both complimented each other so well even before and they could sense your chemistry

• being basically a celebrity duelist, i think she'd like to announce that you're together by a duel, if she's gonna introduce you it has to be perfect

• everyone else agrees and cheers you both on, wondering who will win

• if you were anxious about all the publicity though, she'd understand and would keep it on the low until/if you want to or are ready :)

• if you do though, at the epic conclusion of your duel, she starts to speak up in front of the reporters who had caught on and started filming, and everyone in the crowd is watching with baited breath to see what she'll say

• she announces that you've not only been her friend and a great support to her, but that meeting and being with you has been a new freedom and adventure she thought she'd never get to have

• and then she kisses you, above the city lights of VRAINS, riding on the wind, with the cheers of everyone surrounding you

• after all that, when it's really late, you'd both have a bunch of late night snacks and make cookies together, occasionally checking people's posted reactions to you being together, or if you didn't anounce it, see people's speculations on the hot mystery person she dueled with ;] and then play video games until you both got sleepy

• overall, i feel like her love language would be experiencing freedom and fun with someone she loves, letting loose with no restrictions

• you'd both end up asleep on the couch leaning against each other, game controllers still beside you both

Playmaker/Yusaku

• yusaku is a man of very few words, but he's someone who you know means every word he says, and you'd always admired that about him

• he also is someone who expresses things through actions moreso than words

• i think Ai would push him to confess to you on a day like valentines, something Yusaku would never do by himself, but Ai would annoy him to no end about not acting on his feelings until somehow he finally got him to do it

• I think Yusaku is someone who on the inside would want to be physically close, but the walls he's put up keep him from giving in, and his focus has been on a singular goal for a very long time, so a lot of what he does is based on protecting himself

• you had piqued his interest initially due to you seeming to also posess something akin to link sense, always sensing situations that he could feel too, which was what led to you two crossing paths often

• since you respected his privacy and didn't try to fight his battles for him, he came to respect you

• you'd eventually offered to aid him, and despite your skills and similarities, he was firm in going about his business alone. as time went on though, all your small acts of kindness and silent way of being there for him in the background without prying or invading his boundaries started to chip away at those walls a bit

• he'd catch himself with a strange feeling of curiosity when you'd leave after mopping the floor with the hanoi, watching as your figure would dissappear, finding himself deep in thought.

• Ai had of course taken notice of this and teased him relentlessly for it, and though he denied it repeatedly at first, maybe there was some truth to his teasing...

• once he wasn't so single minded in his goals, and had more time to think about things, it really hit him just how much he did appreciate your company, and he found himself forming something of a friendship and bonds with you and the others

• outside of VRAINS, he'd catch himself absentmindedly wishing he would run into you, or wondering if he'd see you in person somewhere, hoping to find you somehow, but telling himself it was strictly because he wanted to know your motives and connection to the situation at hand. yes, you were friends now, but you both didn't fully know each other's motives, much less what your appearances were in real life

• when Ai couldn't take it anymore and knew he wouldn't make the first move himself, he came up with a plan, which Yusaku only begrudgingly agreed to after a long back-and-forth

• you'd received a message to meet Playmaker in a certain spot outside VRAINS, which came as a shock, but you were also excited to meet him in real life, if it was indeed not a trap set by the hanoi

• you'd showed up, cautious at first, but immediately recognized the hot dog stand you were familiar with, having visited it once, and though you didn't know it was him at that moment, Yusaku was sitting by the food truck, outwardly calm, but you could see he was a bit stiff, as though internally nervous. He was talking to the man grilling the hot dogs, and as you got closer you noticed just how handsome he was... that he had familiar green eyes, and finally the unmistakable aspect you could always identify him by: the yellow eye of the ignis on his duel disk.

• It was a bit awkward at first, but after you had approached the seats and spoken up, he introduced you to Kolter and himself formally now that you were all in person

• you both talked for a while, speaking about your goals, your hopes, and how you both had a shared interest in protecting Ai and the ignis from the hanoi

• eventually, Kolter had given him a knowing glance and made an excuse to go "run and grab something he needed from the shop close over"

• Yusaku seemed to mentally facepalm at the obviousness of his actions, but had nevertheless turned to face you after he left

• "There's something i've been wanting to, uh... ask you about." he'd said awkwardly, and it was almost strange to see someone so usually stoic and confident be as unsure as he was now

• He'd stated how he was wary of you in the beginning, but that he was glad the two of you were friends despite his initial coldness, that he trusted you now and could tell you had a good heart.

• by now your cross between flattery and confusion was growing, and as he continued to speak, jt seemed as though he was dancing around what he actually wanted to say

• after a shared look between himself and the ignis who was now standing on his duel disk and glancing between you both (in... anticipation? entertainment? you weren't sure) he sighed and looked you in the eye.

• "I... wanted to ask if you would... stay with me," he paused momentarily between words, seemingly flustered as he spoke. "And there are three reasons why".

"One, you're a good hearted and skilled duelist who adapts well, and have a connection to the network that proves a valuable aid. You're a very strong ally in this regard. "

"Two, you've been incredibly kind and respected me despite my being wholly dedicated to revenge and not exactly being friendly in return. You're understanding, and you've been there for me on multiple occasions, putting yourself in danger even when I assured you it wasn't necessary. I thank you for this."

"Three, because after some time, I can't help but find myself deep in thought every time we encounter each other. I can't help but catch myself wanting to stop you every time you leave, but never knowing exactly what I wanted to say, and I've found I... enjoy your company. So, I-"

• He was cut off by Ai, who by now had his arms crossed and an exasperated look on his face

• "what shakespeare here's trying to say is that he's got feelings for you and he appreciates that you put up with him and care about him, but he's too cool and grumpy to say that outright. Also, he thinks your dueling skills are hot, and he's been like a puppy secretly hoping to run into you everywhere we go. And he should be thanking me as his brilliant, intelligent wing man who helped him with getting this far because he was never gonna pull you by just staring at you all mysteriously and brooding all the time and never saying anythi-"

• Yusaku shot him a glare that could've fried the rest of the hot dogs in the stand were it pointed that way, and Ai dramatically fell over and ceased talking, though he had a satisfied, smug look across his face

• taking a sigh, he spoke up again. "I'm saying I want you to be with me." he was now directly looking into your eyes, piercing green filled with hope, and behind that it seemed, anxiousness

• when you replied that you felt the same way about him, he'd done something he's rarely ever done with anyone: hugged you. it was slow and sheepish (you knew he wasn't one much for talking, much less any physical contact, so you were flattered by the gesture), and you could feel a thousand emotions through it: relief, shyness, and his muscles relaxing against you after a moment, like it was something he'd long needed

• the whole time, Ai was cheering as though he was watching the moment in a drama

• the rest of the day, Yusaku wouldn't initiate much physical contact, but he would often have his eyes on you.

• it's something very new for him to have mutual feelings of this sort, as he's always focused on other goals, so it would take a long time for it all to sink in for him, and considering he's always on guard, keeping his eyes on you feels like his way of keeping you safe

• he'd want to do things that were usually soothing for him with you because it would feel as though it's sharing a part of himself with you. having dealt with the trauma of the Lost Incident, he's extremely guarded and private, and so to include you in the things that ease his worries is an incredibly huge gesture

• he doesn't exactly have much money. his apartment isn't the most comfortable, and he isn't always able to eat well either, much less go to restaurants, but the gift he later gives you is something far more meaningful and thoughtful than anything a store could offer on a day like today, something from his own knowledge and skill that he had made himself

• he had coded you a modification that would attach to your duel disk and would cover all your tracks in VRAINS, protect you from viruses, and keep your identity secret, similar to the programs he used with Playmaker, that he had started making a few months back for you and not mentioned

• he'd be extremely shy giving it to you and would deny any thanks or compliments with a blush

• he would want to spend the rest of the day calmly in your company, just able to enjoy the peace for once

Varis/Revolver

• like Yusaku, he's someone who's very guarded and honed in on his goals, and he has the world on his shoulders in his belief that he should also be responsible for the situation his father created

• though you had opposed his views on the ignis, you also understood his motivations, and that he was caught in the trap of his father's shadow, no matter how hard he insisted that it was purely his choices

• the fact that you two had somehow formed a bond despite being enemies was something neither of you could explain, nor something either of you would mention verbally. having investigated as many secrets of the hanoi as you possibly could had helped you gain a better understanding of why he did what he did, though, and discovering he was a pawn in his father's chess game had changed your view of him

• after a handful of encounters, though, you could tell by the way his eyes would soften when they landed on you, the way he almost seemed careful to never place you in danger, and the fact that you had noticed less and less members of the knights of hanoi trying to duel you unprovoked, almost as if they had been ordered to do so, meant something was going on

• while you were concerned that he was dedicating his life to someone else's cause, he was concerned that you were endangering yourself by associating too closely with the ignis

• every situation with him was tense, but not in a negative way. In fact, your run-ins with him whether his trying to get information out of you on Ai's whereabouts, or your challenging him to deter the hanoi, there was something unspoken in the air between you two

• it came to a head at one point during an intense duel, where the building you'd both been standing on in VRAINS had been engulfed by a stronger than usual data storm and crumbled beneath your feet

• you'd both scrambled to catch your boards in an attempt to avoid falling, but yours had slipped from your grasp at the last moment

• and then the next thing you knew you were being suspended in midair by Varis balancing precariously on his board, his arms having curled around you just in time while you were both whisked into the storm

• you'd met his eyes for a moment, and there seemed to be a million thoughts and emotions swirling, before he closed them and sighed as if resigning himself to something he'd been battling internally

• when he'd reopened them, the expression he gave you was uncharacteristically caring and concerned

• it was over as quickly as it happened though, as in the blink of an eye you'd been set down on a building nearby, and he was nowhere to be seen, leaving you to wonder what had just happened

• you'd not seen him for a while after that, leaving you confused and mulling over the situation, thinking you'd just overthought it or misinterpreted his actions

• a couple months later, though, you'd been stopped in your tracks by a knight of hanoi, but to your surprise, it wasn't to challenge you. it was extremely strange: they'd calmly handed you a message and monotonously informed you "this was to be delivered to you", and then disappeared without another word or trace

• you'd worried it may have been a trap, but cautiously opened it: a message straight from Varis himself, reading, "I need to speak with you. you likely know why. Meet me at..." followed by what seemed to be coordinates. he was asking to meet you in person.

• when you had gone to the specified location the next day, having had to find the directions by phone, it'd led you to what appeared to be docks

• there was a young man at the end of one pier, turned toward the ocean, hands in his pockets. he was tall, and the breeze was tousling his white hair gently

• once he heard your footsteps approaching, he'd turned to face you, and you immediately knew it was him, steel blue eyes softening as they fell on you

• you couldn't deny how handsome he was, and seeing the real him, without his avatar's outfit, without the mask, was almost like seeing him without chains: this was him as him, not a pawn of his father, not the leader of the hanoi, but-

• "Roken" he'd broken you out of your thoughts, his voice softer than the usual stern roughness he usually spoke with in VRAINS. his gaze was locked firmly onto you, flustering you slightly, and you'd told him your own name in return

• the conversation that followed was less awkward than you had expected, but you could tell after a few minutes of talking he had decided to face the inevitable and address what you both knew but had thus far left unaddressed

• he was calm and collected, but you couldn't help but feel your heart pounding since you'd both tiptoed around it for so long, being enemies. it was easy that way, always being able to hold that subject second to you and your friends' rivalry with him

• he'd bluntly asked you if you had feelings for him, and stated coolly that aside from your stances he respected you as a duelist and had come to care for you, that he'd wanted to meet you in the real world, to see the real you outside of the "fake world" of VRAINS

• upon hearing you returned his feelings, he'd stepped forward and wrapped you in a firm embrace. his head came to rest on your shoulder, and you could feel his heartbeat

• "I'm... speaking not as Varis when I say this, but I do want you to stay away from that ignis. I know you have noble intentions, but you're in real danger every moment you accompany it. I know you will not agree with me, but I'm asking you to focus on this... My heartbeat, my arms around you right now, my breath on your shoulder. We are real, this is what's real. This world matters. That world is a world of facades, and those ignis within it will only endanger this world. I'm not asking you to be on my side, but I'm asking you to at least protect yourself. I don't want to see you hurt because you chose to protect those A.I."

• His words had touched you, but you'd replied that not all the ignis were as dangerous as he believed, that their free will meant no simulation could ever predict how things would turn out, that they were not the enemies he perceived them as. You asserted you would not back down from your stance, and that you wished he would not remain a prisoner of his past and his father and open himself up to you and your friends' perspectives

• Though you both disagreed, there was no argument, instead he'd tightened his grip around you, and you both stayed silent for a moment

• "I just want you to be safe."

• for the rest of the day, you'd just be walking with him through the city, places he must frequent when spending the little time he has away from his position as the leader of the hanoi

• there's a mutual acknowledgment between you that you are enemies and the entire situation is complex, but that you do indeed mutually want each other's safety

• he'd not realize what day it was, because despite wanting to deep inside, he's never really paid too much attention to holidays. he feels too much responsibility to his father's wishes to pay too much attention to "frivolous" things like that, but in reality, i think he'd want that normalcy. he's just too caught up in everything that's been dumped onto him to enjoy things as he should be able to

• nonetheless, the rest of the day he would want to spend time with you, walking through the city and stopping to get food, a chance to be Roken, and to talk to you without your opposition in the way, if only for a while

• like Yusaku, I feel he'd be the protective type, one who keeps his eyes on you a lot, but respects your abilities, skill, and personal space at the same time. unlike Yusaku though, I feel he'd be more open to physical contact, and would hold your hand in public

• part of why he admires you, is because he doesn't see himself as a good person. he carries around a lot of guilt, and can be quite ruthless, but he views you as someone who very much is good hearted, just from his view on the wrong side of the ignis situation

• so i feel like he would feel as though he doesn't deserve you deep down, and that's part of why he maintained distance for so long. deep down, he seeks atonement, and doesn't want you swept up in the midst thought you've chosen to be

• even though he is still seemingly cold and gaurded on the exterior in person, it feels as though he lets you in in his own ways. he doesn't talk much, but he can communicate his feelings best through eye contact and the way he holds your hand, and his actions, the way he holds you against him like the words could flow through touch

• you'd part your ways at the end of the day, wondering what your next encounter would be like, the feeling of his hand still lingering in your thoughts

• when you got back home, you'd realize in addition to your keys, there was something else that had been added to your pocket: a small note and a duel monsters card: one from his deck.

• the note read, "This may serve you well should you find yourself in particular trouble... Don't let your guard down with that ignis. I trust you will do the right thing should the situation come. Until our paths cross again, - Roken."

• it was his way of extending an olive branch and simultaneously protecting you - expressing through action what he couldn't through words.

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bluskye-27 · 3 years ago

Note

"Hey, Skye! Can I please request for a spin on the wheel? With a fem s/o please! Thank you~"

Watching the Sunset with Sabo

S/O: Female

- You, Sabo, Koala and Hack recently docked at Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) (tell me if I did this wrong (⁠｡⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠)) for a new mission

- You guys need to stalk this snotty-nosed noble for information and it's probably the easiest shit you guys have ever been XD

- Seeing this opportunity for a date, Sabo insisted that you guys should pair up, you and him while Koala's with Hack.

- The ginger haired girl was skeptical at first but agreed nonetheless, knowing you were more responsible than your boyfriend XD

- Now that you guys split up, Sabo excitedly tugged you with him to explore the island. And you let him, he deserves to have a break after all <3

"Sabo! Where were you and Y/n!? We got the information while you guys were nowhere to be found!" Koala's angry voice yelled out from the den den mushi that you held, you and Sabo wincing at the shrill sound.

"Geez, calm down, Koala. And you already finished the mission? That's good!" Sabo cheekily smiled at you, his arm securely wrapped around your waist. You couldn't help but smile back at him.

But Koala didn't seem very pleased with the answer, her face scrunched up as she frowned harder than normal. "You didn't tell me where you two were going!" She cried out again.

"Well... Would you look at that! It's time for us to go, bye Koala!" And then Sabo hanged up, cutting off the scream of a certain ginger from the den den mushi. The blond then looked at you for approval but you just shook your head at him in disappointment, making him frown.

"What?" He asked.

"That was so rude, Sabo." You sighed, ignoring the man's whines as you walked off without him. "Wait up, love!" Sabo yelped and immediately walked after you, speeding up once you started running away.

"Hey! Come back here!" Yet you just laughed at him, breaking your angry facade.

The two of you ran out of the city, passing by buildings and small shops. The streets grew emptier the further you went until they were practically deserted as the sun slowly began to set. A cool breeze brushed across your face as you and Sabo continued running through fields.

You stopped running once you reached the cliff, overlooking the sea and the setting sun.

"Beautiful, right?" Sabo said behind you before he wrapped his arms around your waist. You hummed in agreement, leaning into him with a content smile. "I'd like to come here again someday," you whispered, closing your eyes.

"Me too." Unbeknownst to you, Sabo reached out to his pocket and took your hand, slipping something on your finger.

After sensing the cold touch, you opened your eyes to look at Sabo and then on your left hand, gasping at the luxurious sight.

"Sabo!" Your smile widened as you admired the platinum band that rested delicately on your finger, decorated with a simple diamond cut into the shape of a crescent moon. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe this happened!"

You jumped excitedly, wrapping your arms around his neck as you peppered kisses all over his face, successfully making him giggle.

"It did. I'm so happy I finally have you..." He chuckled as he leaned in for another kiss, pulling you closer as one hand tangled itself in your hair.

When you finally pulled away and looked at each other, Sabo cupped your cheeks softly, pressing his forehead against yours as he gazed into your beautiful eyes.

"So L/N Y/N, do you take me as your future husband?" He grinned, his cheeks brightening at your gorgeous smile.

"Hm.. I don't know?" You feigned, frowning fakely as you tried to keep your smirk from rising upon seeing Sabo's pout. His hands fell from your face and instead landed on your shoulders, shaking them playfully as he pushed your upper body away from his and placed both hands on either side of your face.

"Come now, Y/N~ Don't tease me like that!" You giggled at his dramatics and decided to peck his nose instead.

"Yes, I gladly accept you as my annoyingly dorky yet cute future husband, Chief of Staff Sabo." You nodded seriously, earning a laugh from the blonde before you felt his lips meet yours. He was warm, soft, and loving and even though it may seem impossible, he made everything worth it.

As the two of you kissed each other deeply, you failed to notice an angry shout from afar.

"SABO! Y/N! THERE YOU ARE!" Koala yelled from across the field, shaking her fist angrily. "You two better start running now or else..!"

Sabo pulled away from you, looked at the approaching ginger before grinning at you. "You heard the lady, run!" And then he promptly scooped you on his arms and proceeded to dash off, laughing with you as you guys run away from Koala.

Meanwhile, Hack was shaking his head in disappointment, his palms covering his face. "I don't get paid enough for this."

Hello, sis @kazenomegaminowanpisu !!! You got Sabo lol 😆 Thank you for participating, sis!

#skye's 100 followers event #skye's 100 event #wheel of dates!#sabo the revolutionary #sabo the revolutionary x reader #chief of staff sabo x reader #one piece sabo x reader

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music-of-melody · 4 years ago

Text

A Fanatic Heart

Author: @acotazriel

Word Count: 7k

Rating: T {canon-typical violence & language}

Relationships: Riven/Musa

Summary: What if all the Winx fairies were specialists and all the specialists were fairies? What if Riven doesn't realise how he feels for Musa before it's too late? What if he never has another chance again? May be continued into a series.

A/N: So this started out as a simple picture but ended up being an entire universe thanks to the amazing @acotazriel - Skye you have been honestly incredible throughout this all, especially given that I gave you like 3 sentences to work with so all the kudos to you! It has been a joy editing this and being a part of the creative process!

Riven hovered on the balls of his feet as he scanned the forest clearing. The woods were far too silent, with no noise in the way of birds, insects, or even a breeze among the treetops. The forest was waiting, like him. He scowled, feeling familiar eyes on his back but not turning around to face them. The Burned One had disappeared only thirty seconds ago; he knew it couldn’t have gotten far. He took the brief moment of respite to wipe the sweat from his brow as his eyes raked over the stand of shrubs, seeking any and all movement that might betray his quarry’s presence.

A twig cracked to his left and from the corner of his peripheral vision he caught sight of a charging, blackened figure. He whirled and dropped into a crouch just in time for the Burned One’s misshapen claw to swipe uselessly at the air above his head.

It fucking snuck up on him. How the fuck had it done that?

Riven didn’t waste time wondering; instead, he leapt backwards away from the swinging, venomous claws. The Burned One snarled and snapped but still Riven danced backward, drawing his opponent onto the offensive, forcing it to take the lead. After several seconds of distanced swipes, it took his bait and pounced forward—just as Riven anticipated. He timed his own leap to react to the Burned One and took the smashing blow right in the center of his reinforced chest plate.

He smirked even as he staggered two steps backward from the force of the blow. Right where he wanted.

The Burned One was strong, and in the following second Riven focused his mind on that kinetic energy it had imparted on his chest plate. He lifted his hands upward with his palms out and then let forth that same force in a wave of energy, blasting right at the Burned One’s approaching figure.

Riven grinned as the Burned One immediately tumbled backward, heels over scaly head, until it finally rolled to a stop forty feet away. “Thought you’d like that,” he taunted.

It slowly got to its feet, baring jagged fangs at Riven as it straightened to reach its full height. Riven sank into a crouch and raised his hands, palms outward again, and focused on the Cinder at its core.

It charged, screaming its demonic yowl, legs striding faster and faster over the uneven ground. It was thirty feet away and closing fast. Riven’s leg wobbled beneath him, still sore from the wild kick it had landed on him when it had first jumped them from above. At least it hadn’t broken his skin—he wasn’t Infected.

Yet. He reached out with his mind and felt the Cinder as it smoldered within the approaching Burned One—hot to the touch and full of dark energy, friction, and hatred.

Fifteen feet away now, screeching for all it was worth, reptilian feet pounding over the earth as it lunged. Riven drew a deep breath and visualized the Cinder bursting into smithereens.

Nothing.

The Cinder stayed intact and still the Burned One charged. Riven exhaled sharply in frustration and rolled to his right to dodge.

The Burned One spun on its heel to follow Riven’s progress, and he braced himself for the bite of its claws into his left shoulder—

Just as Musa leapt over his head and slashed her staff downward with both hands against its neck.

It screamed again, that horrific squall that chilled Riven to the bone (though he’d never admit it), Musa’s staff splitting into the three sections with which she fought as she charged the Burned One. She was a blur of forest green and ivory, her staff appearing as three pieces or as one when it suited her, leaving no place for her opponent to dodge or avoid the striking metal. Riven watched with satisfaction as she struck its head, its gut, its thigh, and its neck in quick succession. It slumped to its knees in agony, its maw gaping with an unheard scream of pain, and Riven raised his hands again and closed his eyes.

The Cinder beat like a defective heart, seething and bubbling with aimless rage. Riven clenched his fists as if squeezing the Cinder from the outside and Musa raised a forearm to cover her eyes. The Cinder exploded into a thousand fractals of light and energy that ricocheted outward through the forest and faded harmlessly into nothing.

When the reverberation deadened, Riven opened his eyes to see Musa bracing a booted foot against the Burned Ones’ corpse to roll it onto its back.

She jerked her staff upward in the snapping motion that folded the three pieces parallel to each other and lifted her gaze to him. “Thought you were going to take that one down by yourself?” she asked in a mock casual as she sheathed her staff into its quiver on her back.

“I had it under control,” Riven said with a grin as he straightened up. He scanned his body quickly, looking for any tears in his armor or breaks in his skin. Coming up empty, he cocked his head towards the unmoving corpse. “Just didn’t want you to get lazy.”

She huffed a laugh. “Right,” she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Yeah, I’d be a real couch potato if I didn’t have to jump up and save your sorry arse every five minutes.”

“I was fine. I could have taken it,” Riven said. One of these days he’d take one down all by himself and prove to Farah he didn’t need Specialist support. Prove to himself that he didn’t need anyone.

“Whatever. Toss me the sampling kit.” She knelt to the ground beside the Burned One while Riven unclipped the small leather pack at his belt. He tossed it to her and she caught it deftly, unzipped it, and withdrew Professor Harvey’s biosampling tackle.

He watched her scrape some of the Burned One’s scorched flesh into a vial and wished he’d paced out his cigs better. Now he was restless and directionless until they could return to camp. “Maybe I’ll just let it get you next time,” Musa said after a long beat. He arched an eyebrow at her. “Once it Infects you and I have to kill it, maybe you’ll see why Farah wants everyone to fight in teams.”

“Yeah, Farah’ll really go for that,” Riven scoffed.

“Farah says mutual trust—”

“It’s not a question of trust,” Riven cut her off. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against a tree trunk with his eyes narrowed. “It’s a question of you doing your job, and me knowing that you’re gonna do your job.”

He’d lost count of the number of times he’d had this conversation. He avoided her frustrated expression and uncrossed his arms to withdraw the small throwing knife he kept in his boot, running his thumb over the blade to test its sharpness. He checked that Musa was still busy with the sampling kit and made another notch in his leather chest cuirass. “That makes nine,” he announced.

She wrinkled her nose. “I thought it was eight?”

“No, I’m counting that one back in the moor for us.”

She huffed another laugh. “Sure, just don’t tell Silva that—I already saw him tally it up in his count.”

Riven shook his head and clucked his tongue. “He really lets getting chosen by a dragon get to his head, doesn’t he.”

Musa laughed, for real this time, her chestnut brown eyes glinting with glee. “You’re just saying that because he’s the only fairy to beat you in hand-to-hand combat.”

“That was a technicality—” Riven had just begun his retort when a loud shout echoed behind them. They both whirled, Musa already jumped up and her staff drawn and ready, studying the surrounding woods for the source of the noise.

“There,” Musa pointed out. In the far distance Riven could just make out a couple of trees that were swaying back and forth in an unnatural motion—not from the trunks, but from the roots. Another cry—this time a feminine scream.

They broke into a sprint at the same time. “I think it’s Flora,” Musa panted as they darted between trees and over shrubs.

“Nah, that’s Brandon’s style,” Riven refuted, thinking of the motion of the tree trunks. “Besides, I got way too good at recognizing Stella’s screams back when she was with Sky—”

Musa shot him a glare, but they both saved their breath as they ran through the woods. They reached the top of a ridge and paused when they caught sight of two Alfea uniforms—one Specialist, one fairy.

Brandon was down, lying on his side with one hand clutching his stomach and the other outstretched in front of him. Stella’s twin swords flashed in the sunlight as she hacked and parried the Burned One in front of her. The ground beneath their feet rippled and rolled like waves on a pond—every time the Burned One raised its arms, it stumbled on the erratic ground while the forest floor beneath Stella remained as steady as a rock.

But she was hurt, too—Riven could see from the way her left arm lagged behind her right, and sure enough, within a few seconds the Burned One managed to knock her left blade from her hand.

Musa and Riven didn’t wait another moment. They charged down the hill, Riven already reaching his palms outward, making sure to stay two steps behind Musa’s staff.

This one was bigger than the one they’d just killed - it towered over Musa’s compact form, although he knew this just played into her strength: speed. She was a flurry of flashing metal and darting green as she dodged the Burned Ones’ swipes and claws.

Riven reached Brandon and crouched on his haunches. “It got you?”

“Fuck me, yes,” Brandon hissed, and pulled his hand away from his stomach for long enough for Riven to see a smear of red blood and black Burned One bile webbing outward from the wound. “Got Stella too.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Riven promised. He rested a steadying hand on Brandon’s shoulder and turned to look back at their Specialists. Musa and Stella had already managed to bring it to its knees, and within a blink, Musa drew back with a powerful swing and leveled the Burned One with a furious strike to its neck. It keeled backward, and Stella raised her right sword with both hands and stabbed it downwards into its chest, pinning it to the ground.

Riven approached, palms outward again, and now—with little danger from the lifeless form—cradled the Cinder in his mind, then crushed it with minimal effort, squeezing his eyes shut as the energy rippling outward nearly surged through them.

Stella let out a slow, rattling breath as the Burned One’s life force drained away. She staggered back, catching her breath, and then immediately hurried to Brandon. In the span of seconds she reached his side, knelt, and rolled him onto his back. Riven and Musa approached as well, Riven drawing forth his first aid kit from the pack at his belt.

“I’ll be okay,” Brandon said thickly. His breath was ragged and both hands clutched at the wound in his stomach. His eyes never left Stella’s. “I’ll be okay.” Riven had the sense that his words were more of a plea than an assurance.

“Of course you’ll be okay,” Stella shushed him as she cradled his head in her lap. “It’s dead, we just have to get you fixed up.”

“And you’re okay, Stel?” Musa asked, running a questioning hand along Stella’s left arm.

“Fine,” Stella answered absently. “Just nicked my wrist, that’s all.” To justify her nonchalance, she extended her left hand out to show Musa and Riven. Her sleeve had torn and there was a line of blood where her forearm met her hand, but it didn’t appear serious.

Riven handed over gauze and healing potions. “Think you can walk?”

“I’ll be okay,” Brandon repeated. “Just give me a second.”

Musa took Riven’s forearm and pulled him backward to give Brandon and Stella space. They watched from behind Stella, handing her additional bandages and tinctures as she tended to her fairy. Within a few minutes, the color returned to Brandon’s face, although he couldn’t hide the pain that flicked over his features when he tried to stand. Riven offered an arm to help Brandon limp back to camp but the other fairy brushed him off. “I’m fine, I’ll just go slow,” Brandon said.

Stella looped Brandon’s arm over her shoulder so she could help him walk. “We’ll see you guys back at camp,” she said. “And thanks for the assist.”

“Yeah—thanks,” Brandon forced out before Stella led him forward.

Musa and Riven watched them walk away for a long beat before Musa collapsed her staff back into thirds, sheathed it, and then ran a hand through her hair. “That was a little scary.”

Riven shook his head dismissively. “I’ve been telling Brandon for weeks he leaves his core too exposed when he fights. And I’ve heard you yourself telling Stella she needs to tighten up her left side.”

She glared at him. “That’s harsh, Riv. People make mistakes—that doesn’t mean they deserve it.”

“I didn’t say they deserved it—and we don’t make mistakes,” he grinned. “We haven’t lost yet. Not with real ones, anyway.” The simulation Burned Ones that they’d faced back when they were still training didn’t count.

“Yeah, but…” Musa’s lips formed a thin line as she stared after Brandon and Stella’s receding forms. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re going to be saying that shit behind my back if I ever make a mistake.”

He hissed an exhale in frustration. “You think I wouldn’t have done the same for you? I’m doing my job, Musa, which means I’m not leaving you on the ground to die.”

“Even if I left my core too exposed or didn't tighten up my left side?”

She threw his words back at him, her tone mocking, and he stopped short and turned to face her. “Fine, you want me to say it? I do. I do care about you. You’re a fucking good fighter and I don’t want anyone else at my side.”

Her mouth curved into a mischievous grin. “So you do trust me.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“That’s what I heard.”

He huffed a sharp exhale through turned-up lips that ruffled his quiff. “Whatever. Let’s just keep patrolling.”

Before he followed her forward, he notched another mark on his cuirass.

===

They returned to camp a few hours later. The first thing they did was check on Brandon in the infirmary tent being tended to by Harvey, and then Musa went to wash up while Riven headed to the mess tent.

He loaded up his tray with as much food as he could fit before looking for Sky in the fairy tent.

“Heard you had a productive morning,” Sky asked from his cot, looking up from the throwing stars he was cleaning.

Riven nodded through a mouthful of stew and puffed out his chest to show the two new notches he’d made. “Told you we’re the best team,” he said with pride after chewing and swallowing. “What did you and Bloom do?”

“Killed three, actually.”

"Bullshit!" Riven exclaimed, but Sky just chuckled and shook his head.

“Ask Silva.” He stood up. “Actually, I’m heading that way, you should come with. He asked me and Bloom to try out his new idea—”

Riven's eyes narrowed, projecting his disappointment as irritation. "What about our debrief hike?"

Sky’s gaze dropped back to his hands and the pile of cleaned throwing stars at his feet. "Can't today—I already promised Bloom I would."

Scowling, Riven picked up his bread. "Right, can't compete with a shag now, can I?"

Sky frowned and glanced back up. "It's not a competition, Riv. I'm just moving our mates time, I'm not bailing so I can get laid."

"Right—you're just bailing and getting laid."

Sky rolled his eyes, set down his rag, and grabbed his cuirass from its hook over his bed and pulled it over his head. “You’ve got a letter, by the way,” he changed the subject and pointed at the desk against the far wall.

Riven lowered his head to his lunch and shrugged, ignoring the spike of inadequacy at its likely contents. "Don't care." Sky fastened the straps on his cuirass with a puzzled expression that made Riven's ears burn. He hated pity, and in his desperation to fill the silence with anything else he spoke again. "It's probably just Dad telling me not to come home next time we get leave."

"Riven..." Sky's tone was so full of unsolicited sympathy that it further frayed Riven's already irritated nerves.

"Read it, I don't care," he said through another bite. "Go on."

Sky finished tightening his chest harness, walked to the desk, and slit open the envelope. "'Dear Riven, you are most welcome at home in two weeks,'" he read, his voice rising hopefully. Riven raised a hand for him to read on, and Sky looked back down at the letter. "'...however your stepmother and I will be on holiday in Melody. You can let yourself in. Write soon.'" He finished, deflated, and dropped the letter back onto the table, at a loss for words.

Riven shrugged to prove to Sky that he didn't care. At least it was longer than his father's usual letters, he thought dryly.

"I'm sorry, Riv.” Had Riven been less peeved then he would have appreciated the sincere apology in Sky's voice. "Let's do our hike when I get back."

"Yeah, sure," he replied dully. "Enjoy spending time with your ball-and-chain."

"She's not my ball-and-chain, Riven," Sky sighed, exasperated as he laced his boots. "She's more than that... she's my lifeline."

Riven made a retching noise in the back of his throat, gagging at Sky's sentimentality, but after Musa’s comments this morning, the comment hit closer to home than he thought it would.

"Right, well, see you when we get back." He left the tent, leaving Riven to finish his meal in silence.

===

As soon as he was done Riven tossed his tray back into the mess tent and shoved his hands into the pockets of his uniform. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he couldn’t help but feel let down by Sky. Sky was the one who’d dragged Riven on these hikes at first, a way for them to have some time to themselves away from the girls, just the two of them like before. Riven had gone along begrudgingly at first but had in the last few months found himself looking forward to them—a chance to compartmentalize and destress with his best friend from the furor of battle and camp life.

And now, Sky had blown him off.

He set his jaw as he paced through camp. He knew that Sky didn’t mean anything by it, but it still niggled angrily in the back of Riven’s brain. He kicked a rock in the path, savoring the sweet agony in his toe because it distracted him from the nervous energy in his mind. He could have that relationship with Musa if he wanted—he just didn’t want to. They were soft, all of them, and if Riven knew one thing it was that the people you trusted always let you down in the end. If you gave them a piece of your heart, it was inevitable that they would crush it.

“What is it?” A voice in front of him spoke and Riven looked up, surprised to find himself in front of the infirmary. Musa looked up at him from where she knelt in Professor Harvey’s herb garden. “Does Dowling need us?”

“What? Oh, no,” Riven said quickly, silently cursing himself. He knew better than to connect the dots that thinking about Musa led to him finding himself arriving at one of her usual haunts. “I, uh— how’s Brandon?”

To his surprise, instead of a simple answer Musa glanced back into the tent, then stood up and brushed the dirt from the knees of her trousers. “Let’s talk out there,” she said quietly.

Riven nodded, falling into step beside her as they paced along the path and out through the temporary barrier erected around their campsite. “Huh, I didn’t know it was bad.”

“It hit his aorta,” Musa admitted, pushing aside the underbrush as they walked vaguely north. “He’s not Infected or anything, it’s just going to take him a lot longer to heal than they thought.”

“That sucks,” Riven agreed. Still sensitive about Sky’s comment, he chose not to offer any more opinions about Brandon’s form—in fact, he regretted his previous remarks. He thought back to his earlier conversation with Musa and cringed. “Stella must be pretty cut up.”

“She definitely feels guilty,” Musa admitted in a low voice.

Riven pressed his lips together, holding a branch out for Musa to walk beside him and not get whacked in the head. “She shouldn’t—it wasn’t her fault. The one they knocked heads with looked like a nasty bugger.”

Musa allowed a small smile up at Riven. “It was—and someone’s being generous,” she teased. “Did Riven grow a heart?”

“Wow, say something nice about a guy on death’s door, and suddenly you’re a saint,” Riven shot back. “Brandon’s a damn good fairy. We need him.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Musa said, her tone dropping from teasing to mocking. “He’s just doing a job.”

“That’s not what I meant—”

“That’s what I heard,” she said again. She drew up short and turned to face him. “Tell me, have you ever trusted anyone?”

He stopped as well, feeling a twist in his gut. He didn’t want to continue this age-old conversation, but for a different reason than usual—he was alarmed that she was upset. He didn’t want one more person to push him away. “Why does it matter to you?” he asked. “Why do you care so much about trust when we should be worried about Burned Ones and Rosalind and fucking psycho Beatrix—”

“Because if I’m just a job to you, Riven, then I can’t do this.”

His lips parted and he stared, dumbstruck.

“If you can’t trust me then I don’t want to do this. I’m going to ask Dowling to be paired with someone else.”

His brain sagged at her announcement, briefly flashing through his life if he didn’t have his Specialist next to him. Having to start over with someone new… someone likely less capable… someone worse. Someone that wasn’t her.

“Musa—”

“No, don’t, Riven—”

An otherworldly scream cleaved the air above their heads. Riven flinched and looked upward in time to see a Burned One drop from a tree above their heads.

Fuck.

He reacted instantly with his training and skittered backward, stumbling at first and then more skillfully as his training took over. The Burned One had missed them in its initial lurch, but it was already upright and snarling towards them as they hurried to overcome the surprise.

“Got a shot?” Riven shouted as he ducked beneath a swipe of its jagged claws. He rolled to his feet and glanced quickly at Musa—thankfully she had kept her staff with her, and it was already twirling in her hands, a blur of metal and ivory.

“Take it,” Musa yelled back, and Riven acknowledged with a quick “Aye!” She was asking him to use his energy absorption powers to take a blow and then reverse the energy back onto it. Riven straightened up and danced backward, taunting the Burned One to prowl forward and away from Musa while she got her bearings. “Come here, you little fuck,” Riven shouted, hoping to distract it.

It lunged and Riven leapt sideways to take the brunt of its force on his breastplate. It struck true and Riven almost laughed in delight as he focused that energy back through his palms, and blasted the Burned One twenty feet backward.

With some breathing room now between the pair and the Burned One Musa charged. Her staff was a spinning twirl of silver and white as she advanced and struck forward as the Burned One pushed itself to its feet. Her staff struck over and over at any exposed areas the Burned One left open, causing it to keel backwards in pain. Musa rained so many blows on the creature that it keeled backward, stunned by pain, and if it had been anything but a Burned One Riven would have felt sorry for it.

Riven advanced with palms out, his mind sharpening on the Cinder at its core. Musa struck out again and again on Burned One while he located that beating mass of rage and hatred. He closed his eyes and focused on it, imagining it bursting into smithereens.

“Now,” he called out, their sign for her to shield her vision, and the Cinder exploded in another blast of light and energy.

The silence that followed the Burned One’s destruction felt more weary than usual. Riven dropped to his knees, cowed by the surprise and viciousness of their sudden fight, and opened his eyes to see Musa shakily folding her staff by hand into thirds before glancing over at him.

“Fuck, they’re getting bolder,” she said, and he nodded.

“Got to be on guard.”

“Luckily we’re ‘the best,’ right?” Musa said with a jittery chuckle. Riven’s lips thinned—they’d been caught by surprise. Only their training had saved them.

“Yeah, the best.” He righted himself, dusting off his uniform where he’d rolled on the mossy forest floor. Despite himself, he couldn’t help replaying Musa’s earlier words from that morning in his head—so you do trust me.

He knew by any other metric that’d be true. Riven finally forced himself to admit it. If Bloom was Sky’s lifeline, then he knew Musa was his. He could call it whatever he wanted, but it was trust.

The thought of admitting it to Musa made his gut twist again. It went against almost everything he stood for, to admit that he was wrong—except for his number one principle: honesty. If that meant admitting to Musa that he trusted her, then that trumped everything.

He opened his mouth.

Musa cocked an eyebrow at him—waiting for his smarmy retort—but before he could speak the brush behind her solidified from thorny oleander to the shape of a Burned One.

His words died on his lips, replaced by a silent scream.

The Burned One struck out at Musa from behind—her staff lay limply in her hand and her eyes were fixed on Riven. On him. Instead of herself and her back and the slim body that he should be defending.

It was like she recognized what had happened before he did. Her chestnut eyes sought his as the Burned One’s claw sank into her back, and he felt her scream on every level—physically, mentally, psychologically—and even fucking deeper than that. He felt her scream in his very bones.

He watched her fall almost in slow motion, her arms raising first in reaction to the pain, the staff falling from her grip and clattering uselessly to the forest floor—then her legs as she pitched forward, knees buckling, and the rest of her body followed, a rag doll to the deep wound from the Burned One’s dagger-like claws.

And her face. Her fucking face. Warped in surprise, with pain glossing over her features in a slice that made Riven feel as much if not more pain than she. His Specialist, in pain—attacked.

She crumpled. The Burned One stood over her body, crowing victory in its nonverbal tongue and still slashing at her body, and Riven felt a fire that he’d never felt before alight in his veins. It spread from his heart to his gut to his extremities, carrying surprise and rage and a loss that he had never before felt in his life.

Musa. It had hurt Musa. It had hurt Musa to the point that she’d collapsed and he was still standing, and he ceased to be Riven—he became a pillar of furor and mania.

It had hurt the one person who had fought by his side the last six months.

It had hurt the one person who was always there when he needed her, conscious or not.

It had hurt the one person who knew him inside out and still chose to fight beside him.

It had hurt his Specialist. His Musa.

He screamed in guttural rage and it felt as though his voice ricocheted through the entire forest.

Suddenly, in the midst of his fury, pain exploded between his shoulder blades. It wrenched through him with enough violence to cut short his cry, and he staggered forward as if pushed by an invisible force. Beneath the anger and passion he felt something else—something kinetic and physical, something fundamentally different about himself.

He fell forward onto his knees and pressed his hands to the dirt, blinking back tears of pain as something huge—something massive erupted against his back, ripping his shirt in half at the back seam. He crawled forward on his hands and knees, seeking to escape the burden on his shoulders, to slither out from beneath whatever-the-fuck-it-was now weighing him down and pressing him against the earth. It had to be a Burned One—another had snuck up on them, and gotten Riven this time, and this was what it felt like to be Infected, to have the venom coursing through his body, paralyzing him—

He wouldn’t be able to help Musa.

The thought made his head fly up and face her, every atom in his body resisting that thought. He had to save her. He fucking had to.

He grit his teeth through the pain and dared a glance behind him. Another yell escaped his throat at the sight—this time from surprise. Indigo talons twice the size of an eagle’s hovered over his shoulders, almost dagger-like in shape, connected with a lighter purple webbing—

He choked as he connected the pain between his shoulder blades with the apparition in front of his eyes.

Wings. He had fucking wings.

Riven fought to regain his breath as he pulled himself to his feet, stumbling a little as he compensated for the additional weight on his back. His shirt and reinforced breast plate fell from his chest but he barely noticed. He had wings.

More than that, he realized—he had power.

He could feel it thrumming through him—where before his magic had been a murmur, now it was a roar. It vibrated against his bones and he could feel it crackling at his fingertips. Power.

He barely had to focus—the only thing in his mind was Musa, collapsed at the Burned One’s feet, and Riven simply raised his palms.

The Burned One took a step backward, daunted by the change in Riven’s appearance. He flexed muscles that sixty seconds ago he didn’t know he had and spread his wings as wide as possible to make himself appear larger and more intimidating.

It recovered from its fright and charged at him in a frantic frenzy, but Riven found his reaction times halved by his normal standards—each swipe of the Burned One he met with a slap of his own hands, swatting it away before it could puncture his skin. It yowled in frustration and tried to clap its hands together around Riven’s torso but he simply ducked, leaving it hugging itself in a bizzare embrace. He closed his eyes—almost lazily—and within milliseconds cradled that Cinder in his mind—He didn’t need to concentrate on his focus nearly as much as before.

He focused that rage and energy onto the Cinder and felt it explode into nothing, from boiling hatred to empty peace, and then he opened his eyes.

It was gone. The Burned One had disappeared but Musa still lay on the ground. He knew she wasn’t in danger of Infection, but like with Brandon’s injury there was no time to waste. He scooped her into his arms bridal-style, and when her head lolled against his chest he felt a plunge of something deep in his chest, near where his wings had taken root.

Musa. His Specialist. He needed her.

He didn’t even know how he knew to take flight, but he just knew. His wings carried him through the forest, low and darting as a dragonfly over the brush and through the trees. His shoulders ached with the exhaustion of muscles weak with lack of use, but Riven didn’t care. He forced himself forward, not stopping until he reached the barrier, and even then he pumped his wings forward until he reached the infirmary.

He landed awkwardly on his feet and barrelled inside, Musa still in his arms, knocking aside equipment and paraphernalia left and right with his wingspan. He didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was the seep of her blood onto his shirt and then the floor, and how he had to stop it.

He had to save his Specialist. The one he trusted with his life.

Professor Harvey straightened up from Brandon’s cot, his eyes as large as saucers as he took in the sight of a winged Riven holding Musa’s limp body. A healing fairy stood in the back of the tent behind him, her jaw agape, gaze locked on the violet daggers of Riven’s wingtips.

Riven lifted Musa towards Harvey as if presenting a macabre offering. They weren’t helping. They weren’t moving. They just fucking stared.

“Help!” he bellowed at Harvey. “Help her!”

Harvey blinked but the spell finally broke. He leapt forward to take Musa from Riven’s arms and the fairy behind him hurried over as well. Riven and Harvey lowered onto a cot, her back and the worst of her injuries facing upward. Riven sank onto his knees and ran his hands through Musa’s hair, then over her face as if he could stroke life back into her. Her face was paler than he’d ever seen—even her lips looked desaturated. Her eyes were closed and looked far too relaxed, as if she was asleep, but he couldn’t think that because that’s always what people said when they d-

He forcibly stopped that thought and clutched at her head. “Musa,” he choked. “Musa, wake up—”

“Riven, I need to get by you,” Harvey said above him. Riven felt a pressure on his right side somewhere unusual and realized that Harvey was trying to lean over Musa through his still-flexed wing. He shifted two steps to the left so he was at the head of the bed, but he felt a hand on his arm.

He looked up at Sky, concern written all over his blue eyes. “Riven, come with me—”

“No,” Riven said, clutching closer to the metal frame of Musa’s cot. “No, not without her—”

Sky’s hand closed more firmly around Riven’s arm. “Riv, you’re in the way—let the healers work.”

Maybe Sky was right—the healing fairy squeezed past his wingspan to reach the supplies above his head—but he couldn’t leave her. It was his fault she was hurt, they’d been arguing—he should have protected her.

But Sky wasn’t leaving him a choice. Silva appeared next to him, and between the two of them they grasped Riven’s upper arms and pulled him from the tent, his errant wings still knocking bottles from shelves and curtains from their rods. Riven’s vision stayed fixed on Musa, dread pooling inside him at how small and frail she looked on that cot.

He didn’t even realize they had dragged him into the strategy tent until he blinked and Silva was snapping his fingers in front of Riven’s eyes to rouse him.

“Riven,” Silva said. “What the hell happened?”

Riven stared at Silva, but he wasn’t really seeing him. He saw Musa, her face torqued in pain, the way her knees and elbows bent as she fell, her brown pigtails splayed out against the earth. His fault.

“Riven,” Sky reached out with a hand and turned his chin to force eye contact. “Riven, are you alright?”

He swallowed thickly and jerked his head downward out of Sky’s grip to stare at the ground. “Burned One came out of nowhere—we killed it, but then there was another—camouflaged somehow. It got M—” his voice caught and he stopped, unable to finish.

“But you killed it?” Sky prompted, and Riven managed a brusque nod. “Musa’s gonna be fine, Riven—she’s hurt but not Infected.”

He screwed his face up at that. Sure, she wasn’t Infected. She was just unconscious with pain and incapacitated for who the hell knew how long, and it was his fucking fault.

“Riven.” He wished they’d stop saying his name. He didn’t want any of them—he wanted to be alone. With her. With Musa.

He felt another hand on his arm and tried to pull it away, but the hand clenched harder, forcing him to look up. Silva stared down at him, expression full of something akin to sympathy. “I know you want to blame yourself, but it’s possible to make no mistakes and still lose. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad partner—it means you are alive. That’s life.”

Riven shook his head, but as he ran the fight back through his head, he found the smallest bit of solace in Silva’s words. He drew a shaky breath and gave Silva the barest hint of a nod.

Silva released his grip on Riven’s arm and nodded back. “Want to tell us how you got those?”

Pushing aside his guilt about Musa meant that the sensations of his body all came roaring back, and Riven grimaced in pain. His shoulders ached at the notch of his wings, his chest was sore from taking the Burned One’s blow, and he felt a general sense of exhaustion from his flight back to camp. “When the Burned One got her,” he said and lifted his gaze to observe the tendrils of purple reaching above his head. “It just happened. I was so angry—and then they just burst out of me. It hurt like hell.”

“Looks cool as hell,” Sky said with a grin, circling Riven to admire the wings from all angles.

“What else happened?” Silva asked, and Riven turned back to face him with a quizzical expression. Silva gestured to the wings. “Anything besides these?”

“Yeah,” Riven said slowly, recalling that thrum of energy that had surged through him. “Power. It was like my magic was twice as powerful and half as easy. I’ve never killed one so quickly. Not on my own.”

Sky wolf whistled in admiration and Riven allowed a small grin.

Then his grin vanished, replaced by a grimace of pain. He stumbled forward and grabbed Sky’s shoulder to keep himself upright as his back muscles wrenched and contorted. A keen of pain escaped his clenched teeth—it felt like his back was splitting open between his shoulder blades. He gasped and sank to his knees, pulling Sky down with him, his legs unable to support him in his agony.

As suddenly as it started, it stopped. Riven stayed on the ground, hands on his thighs, breathing away the memory of the pain. He felt lighter and somehow lesser—more muted. He looked up and confirmed what he’d suspected—his wings had vanished, receding inside him.

“Now that was cool,” Silva chuckled.

Riven grimaced again and used Sky’s shoulder to haul himself back upright. “Does this mean I can go back now?” he asked, looking from Silva to Sky. “I can stay out of the way.”

Silva and Sky exchanged a glance, at which Silva nodded. At the smallest motion Riven immediately turned for the tent flap and hurried forward.

Sky came with him, for which Riven was silently appreciative. Even though he didn’t want to talk, he didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts either, and Sky was his best friend. He would be a silent companion if that’s what Riven needed.

Harvey begrudgingly let Riven back inside and Sky left Riven in an out-of-the-way corner, an agitated but quiet spectator to Harvey’s ministrations. He returned a few minutes later with water and a clean shirt, both of which Riven accepted gratefully.

They waited long into the night, Riven’s gaze never leaving Musa. Sky’s head drooped against his shoulder and he reflected on what his friend had told him earlier, about his Specialist being his lifeline. Fuck, he’d been right.

===

Some color had returned to Musa’s cheeks, but she was still weak from loss of blood and the extent of the Burned One’s claws in her body. Riven only left her side to eat, which Harvey did not permit in the infirmary. The other teams came in at various times to wish her well and congratulate Riven on his transformation. He always hated when they brought that part up. As impressive as it was (so they said), it was without a doubt the worst twenty minutes of his life.

After a few days’ recovery she lay on her stomach with the white bandages still wrapped around her torso while Riven perched on a stool beside her cot, one foot up on her bedframe and the other tucked on the crossbar of his stool. “I’m still mad I’m the only one who never got to see them,” she sighed and rested on hand beneath her chin. “Stella says they wouldn’t have been out of place at a spring fashion show.”

“My wings were extremely masculine, thank you,” Riven said, and Musa laughed hard enough to grimace in pain and clutch at her ribs. They fell silent and Riven ran a thumb along the seam of his trousers, still unable to think back to that time without flinching. “Maybe I’ll learn to control them, but until then I honestly hope you never see them.”

She gave him a bracing smile, and he knew she understood without him having to say it—that if it took Musa getting mortally hurt for his wings to appear, he’d rather never transform again.

She reached her hand out and he took it, thumbing a wide arc over the back of her hand. His Specialist. His partner. His life.

#winx club #fate the winx saga #RivusaRevolution2021 #rivusa week #Day 6: AU #acotazerial #riven x musa #I am so honoured to be a part of this #thank you so much for helping me!!!#riven #musa #rivusa #fan art #my drawing #digital art #this will also be posted on ao3 #myart

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my-head-is-an-animal · 3 years ago

Text

The Linguist

Part 2

Chapter 1 - It Was Your Birthday

It was your birthday.

Your birthday and it could not have started any worse. You were stuck in a sewage tunnel with barbed wire sticking out of your legs, biting into them painfully with every step. Skye had been bitten by a patrol dog and couldn't stand so you had to carry her through the sewer around the secure compound.

It was the first mission Coulson had been the only one on comms since the Gregor Novak incident eight months ago. You hadn't really given each other the closure you needed. You hadn't kissed him, you hadn't really spoken to him other than for work purposes and you couldn't stop thinking about him.

You put Skye down at the edge of the tunnel and she took out her laptop to hack into the server from where you were sitting. ‘How long?’ You said quietly picking out the barbed wire from your legs and keeping an eye out for any more patrols.

‘Thirty minutes tops.’ She said trying to adjust to accommodate her leg, that was bleeding heavily. ‘Happy birthday by the way.’

You sniggered and said ‘thanks. Just what I wanted.’ Indicating the wires. You eventually finished picking it out and rummaged around in your jacket for more bandages for Skye.

She continued hacking in as you changed the bloodied bandages for clean dry ones, it took a while and it wasn't your best work but it was the dead of night and freezing cold, you couldn't stop shaking. ‘How's it coming Skye?’ You heard Phil over the comms ask.

‘I'm in, just downloading the data now, should be another three or four minutes before we can leave.’ She never took her eyes off of the screen as she typed away.

‘Good. You both okay?’ He asked with a touch more concern in his voice. You nodded to Skye.

‘Yeah, we’re both fine.’ She said rolling her eyes at you. ‘Just a few cuts and scrapes, nothing we can't handle.’ You were still on professional terms only with Phil and it was hard to talk to him like anything more than your handler without feeling your heart pull. You thought you heard a small sigh.

‘Good. Let us know when you're ready to leave and May will be on hand with your extraction transport.’ He said, his voice seemed incredibly cold and firm, like anger had gotten to him just a little. ‘Maintain radio silence until you're ready to contact her.’ You heard the familiar click of Phil tuning out of the mission. He was gone and you only had Skye and May to talk to.

‘You'll have to talk to him at some point you know.’ Skye said quietly, as the sound of a patrol passed by the tunnel’s opening. They soon moved along and you were able to respond.

‘I do talk to him.’ You defended.

‘You know what I'm talking about, don't avoid the question. When are you going to forgive him? He's like a lost puppy, wandering around awkwardly not knowing if he's allowed to speak in your presence.’ Skye shook her head and typed a little faster.

‘I don't know Skye.’ You said truthfully. ‘I'm just tired of being angry, but not tired enough to forgive him… I thought he'd left me.’

‘I know, I get it. But the fact is he didn't. He was there everyday while you were sleeping, I've never seen him look so helpless.’ She said, it was a conversation you'd had many times before and it always ended with the same four words.

‘I'll think about it.’ You said as Skye began packing up her laptop. You helped her up and gave her all the support you could, she still couldn't put pressure on her leg but she could at least limp. You were too cold and your legs were too exhausted to carry her for any length of time. You tuned into May’s comms and told her you were ready to be picked up, you both made it to the narrow road just off of the compound and got in the jeep to drive back to the bus. All in all the mission was a success.

You woke up a few hours later feeling the same ache you'd felt for months, the ache that told you you were still a SHIELD agent. You left your bunk and proceeded to start your day.

‘Happy birthday kid.’ Trip said bringing you some coffee while you were working. He gave you a peck on the cheek and hugged you in his usual fashion. You loved Trip he was like the big brother you never had, always looking out for you and always making sure you weren't driving yourself insane with work.

‘Thanks Trip!’ You sipped the steaming coffee. You could feel your legs twinge a little and put your hand down to soothe your thigh.

‘Still sore?’ He said settling in a chair behind you as you continued tapping away on the platform, sorting through photos the linguistics department sent you.

‘A little.’ You admitted.

‘I heard we were stopping off in Hawaii for the weekend.’

‘Really?’ You were surprised.

‘Yeah, the next assignment is there so we’re heading early to get a head start, but you know what that means?’ You frowned a little. ‘You get a birthday party, compliments to the Trip!’

You couldn't resist you just laughed at how proud he was that he'd planned to throw you a party. ‘You really think Coulson would let you do that?’

‘Well, it's not so much a party as it is the whole gang going to get some dinner and a few drinks, but it's a party mood that makes a party, right?’ Trip stood up and gave you another peck.

‘Thanks Trip. I appreciate it.’ You smiled up at him. He gave you a quick wink as he walked away and left you to continue working.

You thrust your hands into your hoodie pockets, you hadn't realised it at the time but the hoodie you had on was the same one that Phil had given you over a year ago when you were working in a bar in New York. It was cosy and you loved it, but recently it had stung slightly to wear it because it reminded you of the first time you and Phil had kissed.

‘Three hours.’ Phil said, making you jump a little.

‘I'm sorry?’

‘Three hours. The time it took for you and Skye to complete the mission last night.’ He said with a hint of impatience. ‘It took three hours and twenty minutes to complete a similar mission in Prague. You're getting better.’

‘Good. Thanks.’ You looked back down at the platform, feeling a hint of awkwardness. ‘I heard we’re stopping off in Hawaii tonight?’ You tried to make conversation and by the look on his face, it had taken him by surprise as well.

‘…yeah. Thought it'd be nice.’ He said stepping further into the room. ‘Contact doesn't arrive til Monday morning, but we could do with a couple of days to rest.’

‘Sounds like fun…’

You both stood for a little too long in awkward silence. ‘Look,’ you started, you weren't sure of where the sentence was going but anything seemed better than the silence. ‘I'm trying here.’

‘I know.’

‘I'm tired of being angry, but I'm struggling to move forward. Do you know what I mean?’

Phil nodded slowly as he took another step toward you. ‘I do. I understand. It was a hard thing to go through for everyone involved, not just us. But I don't know what to do. I'm working on your terms here and I don't even know what they are, I'm just trying to help ease the anger.’

You leaned back against the platform and nodded. ‘Yeah, I guess I'm not sure what my terms are either.’

‘Well, my door's open when you find out.’ He smiled, you could see him realising that you had his hoodie on. ‘Can we go to my office for a moment and talk?’ You could tell by his expression that it really was just to talk, so you nodded and followed him there, holding your coffee with both hands.

You sat down in the comfy chair opposite Phil and pulled your aching legs up to your chest. He smiled warmly at you and thought about what he wanted to say.

‘You can leave at any time you like.’ He started. ‘If you aren't ready to talk about us then that's fine, you can walk away and I won't follow you. I just want to talk for a while.’

A few times Phil had tried to talk to you, you really hadn't been ready and felt the need to walk away before you broke down. You took another sip of your coffee and nodded for him to continue.

‘Let me tell you what I want and you can yell at me, tell me I lost my chance or whatever it is you want to say afterwards.’ Phil loosened his tie and pushed his sleeves a little further up his arms, showing off his strong forearms. ‘I want to be with you… I want to make you happy again and I want you to be happy with me. I miss being able to kiss you and tell you how much I love you. I don't want to fight, I don't want to upset you. I want you to forgive me.’

You just looked at him, it was the most honest he had been with you since you'd woken up and he looked just as tired then. ‘How does that make you feel?’ He asked.

‘Honestly Phil, I don't know… I know I want the same things, I want to be with you.’ You let out a sigh. ‘But, I felt like I couldn't trust you anymore… These last few months have helped, you've been there on missions and when I get hurt you always ask if I'm okay and it's been nice. I don't know what's stopping me, but I do know that being angry with you is easier than loving you… What do I do with that?’ You shrugged and took another sip of your coffee and waited for his reaction.

‘If that's honestly how you feel then I can only say that it upsets me to know that I hurt enough to make you feel like that.’ You could see that pained expression again, the one you hated so much. ‘I can't keep telling you how sorry I am, I can't mean it anymore. I don't know how to fix anything anymore…’

‘Me neither… I think time is key here and a lot of patience.’ You chuckled. Phil half smiled as well.

‘Well, I've got time.’ He sat back in his chair watching you.

‘Me too.’ You smiled back. ‘So, why Hawaii?’ You challenged him.

‘Because we have an assignment there.’ He said, taking his tie off completely. ‘Absolutely no other reason.’ He was giving you that look he gave when it was obvious he had an ulterior motive, he gave you a small wink.

‘So, the fact that it's my birthday today and you were in such a rush to get last nights mission over and done with, has nothing to do with it.’ You finished the rest of your coffee.

‘What an amazing coincidence. But that sounds a little unprofessional.’ He said dryly. You put your coffee cup down on his desk.

‘Yes, and we both know that you're the shining example of professionalism. Never breaking laws, never bending the rules for your team… Never sleeping with women who are young enough to be your daughter.’ You tested the waters slightly with that last one. Phil gave you a darkened look that you recognised immediately.

‘That was a cheap shot even for you.’ He said with a smile. Progress had been made. ‘And its not exactly a hobby of mine, I never got that chance.’ He gave you another wink and felt your cheeks warm slightly.

‘I'd better get back to work.’ You said finally, you couldn't stop smiling at him. ‘I've missed these chats Phil.’ You picked up your coffee cup and went to leave.

‘Me too. Hey?’ You turned back to see him still grinning. ‘Nice sweat shirt.’

‘Thanks, this guy gave it to me just before we made out in his really nice car.’

‘Lucky guy.’

‘He thought so.’ You left Phil's office with a stupid grin on your face and got back to work on the translations. Maybe there was hope after all.

You had been working hard all day and even found the time to take a quick nap before you landed in Hawaii. Trip had pulled you away from the platform reluctantly, you couldn't be angry with him, so you just laughed and grabbed your overnight bag. You'd be staying in what Trip described as a luxury hotel, you'd be sharing a small ground floor apartment with Skye, May with Trip, Fitzsimmons and Phil had his own one. It was nice knowing you'd be there for the next two weeks on assignment, even if only two of those days could be spent relaxing.

‘Wonder how Coulson swung this?’ Skye said throwing her bag down on the furthest bed and going to open the doors that looked out towards the beach. She was still limping heavily, but it didn't seemed to bother her as much as it had done the night before.

You felt the cool evening breeze circle your body as you slumped down on your own bed, you tried not to close your eyes, you knew if you did that you would just fall asleep and your dreams of your mother would claim you before too long. You had been dreaming about her a lot recently and your father, sometimes they just stood in the garden of your old house and you watched them laughing with each other, others times they talked to you and sometimes a nightmare would creep in and you'd wake up with their screams still ringing in your ears.

A knock at the door snapped you back to reality, Skye was outside on the deck taking in the last of the sun, so you peeked through the peep hole and opened it for Trip and Fitzsimmons who had already gotten changed and ready to head out for dinner. Trip was wearing an obnoxious flowery shirt as was Fitz and Simmons looked gorgeous in her cream dress over leggings.

‘You're not even dressed yet?’ Fitz exclaimed.

‘Fitz!’ Simmons hit his arm, making him flinch.

‘You guys got fifteen minutes or I'll be coming back up to get you, dressed or not.’ Trip smiled. ‘We’ll be in the bar, with everyone else.’ He gave a wink and ushered the other two who were still bickering away from your room.

You just laughed and closed the door after them. ‘Skye, come on. Everyone's waiting to go out.’ You could see the sun slowly descending in the sky as you took out the only set of nice clothes you had. A mint green, silk strappy top and slim fitting jeans. Skye changed into something similar, a plum top with black leggings and both of you decided a hoodie would suffice for when it got cold. Fifteen minutes later and you were both fairly impressed that you were ready to leave.

‘Wait a sec.’ Skye said as she rummaged in her bag for something. She took out a small silver wrapped package and gave it to you. ‘Happy birthday.’ She said smiling. You rolled your eyes and began to carefully unwrap the gift.

‘You shouldn't have, I wasn't expecting anything.’ You said feeling a little shy.

‘Yeah, well I thought why not.’ She sat down resting her leg as you got the whole gift opened. ‘Oh and you should be prepared for what Trip got you, I heard he literally travelled the world to find it.’

You laughed and looked down. It was a black case and inside was a knife, but this knife was one you recognised from a mission. ‘Is this from Japan?’ You asked. Skye nodded and you felt yourself get a little giddy.

You remembered it was the first real mission you and Skye went on as fully trained SHIELD agents, it was in the heart of Tokyo and you had taken down a huge burly HYDRA agent who had this very knife on him. You found that the silver dragon engraved handle fit perfectly in your hand and had proceeded to keep it on you for the rest of the mission, forming a slight attachment to it before losing it during extraction. ‘Where did you find it?’

‘I asked the clean up team to keep an eye out for it, just in case.’ Skye shrugged. You hugged her and laughed.

‘Thanks.’

‘No problem, now let's go and get drunk!’ She said, as you helped her stand up. You put the knife away carefully in your bag, ensuring it was covered up with clothes and safe.

You both got down to the bar and Trip was waiting for you, looking at his watch. ‘You got lucky this time.’ He said hugging you tightly and letting Skye take his arm for support as he guided you both out to the restaurant where everyone was waiting for you to arrive. May had opted for the same black jeans and tight yellow top with a white shall and Phil had gone with a white linen shirt over black trousers. Everyone looked very relaxed and it was just the way you preferred it.

Everyone got up to hug you and wish you a happy birthday, until it came to Phil when they decided to immerse themselves in conversation.

‘Happy birthday, you look good.’ He said, he leaned down and gave you a quick kiss on your cheek, making you feel a little warm. Phil held a chair out for you, like the gentleman he was and waited until you were seated to sit down as well.

The night was just what you wanted it to be, filled with mission talk and lots of food and alcohol. Everyone had gotten you a gift, which were profoundly shy about; May had gotten you a book on meditation techniques that she said helped with nightmares, Fitzsimmons had built you a device to quickly assess your injuries in the field and show you how to deal with them, supplying you with a small amount of anaesthetic, bandages and small tools for removing objects from the wounds, you had to laugh hard, you were probably the most injury prone on the team and it was nice to know you could rely on them help you out in the field however they could.

Trip had given you a bottle of Cannabis vodka that he proudly stated came from the south of Spain and he had picked it up after you and him had a drinking night and found that you both held your alcohol quite well.

Everyone began getting up and dancing or were so into their conversations that they didn't notice Phil handing you a small square gift. ‘You honestly didn't have to.’ You told him.

‘I know. I just thought you might've wanted this.’ He smiled with a hint of something else as he looked down at his hands. ‘Open it.’ He nodded to you.

You carefully unwrapped the paper and saw that it was a picture frame. Your heart stopped for a moment as you realised who was in the foreground of the picture. It was your parents, looking very young, your mother was heavily pregnant, they stood in a group of people, Maria Hill laughing with Nick Fury which was an unusual sight and in the middle was Phil pouring wine with Jasper Sitwell, there were a few other people you didn't recognise there as well. It seemed to be at some kind of party in Fury’s office, everyone looked incredibly young and carefree; it was beautiful.

‘Nick had just been named deputy director that day, we all celebrated in his new office.’ Phil looked at the photo sadly remembering the night. ‘Not many of us left now.’

‘They look so happy.’ You said still focussed on your parents.

‘They were.’ Phil smiled. ‘You're probably the only real SHIELD born child still around.’ There was a sudden chill that ran down your spine at that.

‘What do mean?’ You asked.

‘I'll tell you tomorrow. Just enjoy your birthday.’ He said trying to seem happy, but you could see that that statement had a lot of weight resting on it. You decided to just leave it be for the time being.

‘Who else is in the picture?’ You asked frowning at the people you didn't recognise. Phil smiled and pointed out the rest of the party goers, you enjoyed his detailed descriptions of everyone and learning about their achievements. It just reminded you all the more what you had to live up to. Your parents were something special and as people kept telling you, that made you special as well.

The night played on and the vodka was soon broken into and shots were passed around the table. Soon May was making sure that Fitzsimmons went to bed, before they got too many ground breaking ideas. Skye was beginning to fall asleep along with Trip, they disappeared, Trip taking your birthday presents up to your room, giving you a kiss and a wink and very soon it was just you and Phil left sitting on the edge of the deck looking out at the pitch black ocean.

‘It looks terrifying.’ You chuckled.

‘It does.’

‘Like a huge black hole ready to swallow you up.’ You both sat listening to the waves crashing against each other in the distance.

‘Come on, let's get you to bed.’ Phil said, you looked over to him and he was a little more than tipsy but not quite drunk. He took your hand and helped you up, you laughed at… You weren't really sure to be honest, but it made Phil laugh as well and the two of you staggered back up the stairs towards your room. You had your arm around Phil’s waist and your head resting against that strong chest that you missed. You finally made it to your room and fished around for the keys in your pocket. ‘I hope you had a good birthday.’ He said, sincerely.

‘I did. Thank you for the gift, I only had one picture of my parents, it's nice to see them looking so happy.’ You leaned against the door, looking up at Phil, who had that dark look in his eyes again, you could see him fighting hard against it. You were pretty sure it was the alcohol talking, but you suddenly felt a rush of confidence. ‘Can I ask a question? I want an honest answer.’

Phil nodded slowly, he knew what was going through your mind.

‘If I asked you to kiss me, would you do it?’

Phil smiled and stepped toward you, there were only inches between you. ‘Do you want me to kiss you?’ his voice was quiet and silky and it melted your core.

‘I always want you to kiss me.’ The confidence was pouring out of you.

You could see Phil thinking very quickly, until finally he put his hands on your hips and ran his thumbs over the bone, making your breathing a little shallow. Phil leaned in and pressed a kiss to your cheek and a huge part of you was bitterly disappointed, but so glad for the contact he was giving you. ‘I'll probably regret saying this,’ he whispered against your ear, ‘but even though I want nothing more than to take you back to my room and make love to you all weekend… We've both had a few drinks, I don't want you to do anything you might regret later. We’re both too hurt for that.’

You could feel him about to pull away, but you couldn't let him leave just yet, so you held him tight against you, feeling his hands curl around your waist and wander up your back, drinking each other in. ‘I'm still in love with you Phil.’ You whispered, feeling a lump in your throat. You heard him let out a sigh of relief and his hold tightened just for a moment, as he kissed your shoulder and neck, before stopping and forcing himself to pull away.

He looked into your eyes and you could see that the fight he was putting up against what he really wanted just got harder. He cupped your face with one hand and continued to brush his thumb over your hipbone. ‘You know I love you so much, sweetheart. But I can't stay. If you wake up tomorrow and still feel like this, then you know where I am and we can talk, but I just can't afford to lose you again.’ The tears were forming in his eyes and again you saw it, you saw how broken he still was. You nodded anyway and kissed his cheek.

You quickly stepped into your room and leaned back against the door listening to him walk away, it was the worst sound you'd ever heard and it twisted your heart painfully in your chest.

Chapter List

#Phil Coulson x Reader

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reaction2whatever · 3 years ago

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Agents of SHIELD S2E01-S2E04 reaction

Season 2 here I come!

Agents of SHIELD S2E01

-SSR is the previous SHIELD, right?

-Skye sliding down is pretty cool

-hold up. When did Skye become a proper field agent?

-Like she's probably still training but damn she looks so good in that agents' outfits

-Skye apparently got bangs, got trained annnd had a wardrobe upgrade? The last time she dress up as an agent she was pretending to be "Agent Melinda May" lol and now she's a full agent?

-they are both so hot

-I love that agent Skye look so handsome

-But I still think of Skye like this...? like she was pretty soft in season 1?

-Now she dresses like May, which I guess makes her cooler?

-Poor Fitz, what's going on? He's got brain damage?

-I got worried that Skye is gonna go crazy with drawings too but I'm glad it's not happening...yet

-oh for fuck's sake why would they do this to Skye and send her to talk to Ward

-Why does it have to be Skye to talk to Ward

-He's trying to guilt trip Skye into giving him sympathy

-"You should have run faster" I'm proud of Skye lol

-The idea of Skye keeping on talking to Ward worries me

-Oh wow Skye is handing firearm well too?

-Look at her!!! with her badass-looking gun!!

-I feel like a proud parent watching my kid grow up lol

-Last season I was proud of her for taking down 2 policemen and now she's using badass things in the field taking on enhanced humans

-My girl is grown up now and I'm so UwU

-Talbot got played and I'm like lololol

-This season introduced quite a lot of new characters?

-Look at Skye go lol, a field agent and hacking

-Love her

-Oh fuck new girl was just introduced and now she's getting killed by a 084????

-Did I just see Skye shot and took down 2 us military guys

-I hope the new girl won't die

-Oh fuck are they really gonna be cutting her arm off

-That's a very small knife for cutting off an arm omfg

-Coulson put all of them in danger for a plane?

-Oh no Fitz was imagining Simmons

-I feel so bad for Fitz

-Where is Simmons? Why did she leave them?

- They cut off the new girl's arm just so that they can kill her seconds later huh writers are so cruel for what?

-The driver is also dead?

-What is that thing that can kill people by just touching it?

Agents of SHIELD S2E02

-Holy fuck we open with the new guy getting captured huh

-So they still have the bus it's just that it can't cloak.

-I maintain, Skye, in that field agent suit, is soooo hot

-That is a LOOK, ma'am

-I feel so bad for Fitz he breaks my heart

-Especially when he's struggling with words

-Coulson is so much more secretive in this season

-I know I said in last season Coulson didn't change and now he did change and now I don't like this change ugghh

-But I guess he is kinda losing him mind like Garrett so I guess he had reasons?

-Is Simmons just gonna exist in Fitz's imagination this season? where is she?

-New English guy Hunter is pretty likable

-He's a bit of an ass but has charm

-flower dress girl is back again and I never knew what she wants so I'm never interested

-She's just wondering about and being bad?

-New guy who's helping Fitz! At least Fitz's got a friend

-Did Hunter just shoot Skye and May and Trip?

-Hunter come on now, I just said that I like you

-I kinda understand him for wanting revenge for his friend, but still, he shouldn't have done that

-He's lucky that Coulson got there on time

-Who vouched for Hunter?

-So Coulson really is not okay huh. I wonder what he's carving

-Coulson is lucky he has May to be there for him

-Why can flower dress girl pick up the thing when other people can't

-Coulson really be bluffing with the only two planes he's got lol I feel bad for him

Agents of SHIELD S2E03

-Ahh creepy brainwashing scene. The poor actress's face is suffering some serious lift

-Simmons! Oh I've missed her

-I'm glad she's looking okay

-Is it just me or did Simmons get better clothing this season?

-oh shit why is she at Hydra? That is the Hydra symbol, right?

-And now Skye is shooting at Hydra symbol

-I love the training scene between May and Skye

-Awww Skye hasn't killed anyone

-Skye is like a baby agent and she's already grown so much since her early hacking days lol

-OMFG ice boy is a full-on murderer now I still remember him as a shy boy

-So Simmons is undercovering now

-That is just...

-What happened between season 1 to season 2???

-Every character is more or less different than the first season apart from May and Coulson

-Simmons is undercover and Fitz is brain-damaged and Skye is a field agent now

-Wasn't Simmons a terrible liar?

-I like the new translator guy for Fitz he's pretty cool

-Ugghh they are making Skye talk to Ward again

-wtf is Jemma in danger why is she being brought upstairs

-I'm so nervous for Simmons

-ice boy will certainly get a job at any ice skating rink lol

-Skye's first sky dive!! I'm so proud of her. in season 1 there is no way Skye would have just jumped out of a plane without hesitation lol

-I thought Ward will apologize and he didn't ugghh is it that hard for you to just apologize? not the whole I wanted to save you bullshit. just apologize ugghh

-I feel for Fitz when he said "I'm damaged"

-Simmons got hotter working for Hydra for some reason

-holy fuck no Hunter was going to shoot Simmons

-lol May shoot Hunter and got that revenge

-I feel bad for ice boy, he was brainwashed

-annnd Skye is a sniper now?

-annnd Donnie is Skye's first kill. I know Skye took the shot to save May and Hunter but still, like I feel like Donnie was brainwashed and he didn't want to join Hydra.

-I don't know why but the team is not like what it was before and I'm sad about it

-I mean I'm glad that Skye and FitzSimmons are growing up but the team is in pieces and idk I just feel sad

-I hope Simmons doesn't get brainwashed

-I don't trust Ward uggh even though he said he'll bring Skye to her dad I just can't seem to bring myself to trust Ward yet

Agents of SHIELD S2E04

-Why is Skye riding a tiny motorcycle so cute lol

-May smiling and in a glam dress that is a sight I never knew I'd see. She's so gorgeous in that dress

-they get so disturbed over May's laughing lmao

-tbh I was too

-Never knew I'd one day hear May laugh

-Is May and Coulson gonna be a thing?

-I'd ship the hell out of May and Coulson

-I don't want to get my hopes up but that dance mmmmmm

-I'm not used to May smiling lol why is she being talkative and laughing feels so unnatural

-I feel so bad for Fitz he's being left out in his own team I hate this

-Somebody please give Fitz a monkey like rn

-So Hydra can change faces now like what can't Hydra do

-Coulson busted fake May so quickly lol

-May fighting in underwear omfg she's so hot

-Underwear May fighting Glam dress May oh wow that is.... wow

-Yes Fitz with his genius brain I knew my boy's got this

-Good on May to fry that fake one's face!

-Yes to Hunter buying Fitz a beer

-Now Fitz won't feel left out yes yes yes and he gets to talk about his feelings for Simmons

-Skye and Trip mmmmm are they a ship? because feels like Skye and Trip could be a thing. They have a lot of scenes together in this season

-I feel like May and Coulson got closer in this season and I'm loving it

-flower dress girl is Raina I guess I have to remember her name huh she just won't go away

Four episodes are all I can binge today and I guess things are interesting. Now I just really want FitzSimmons to work things out and for Coulson to figure out his carving problems. Is this magical stone that turns everyone but Raina stone gonna help Coulson with his carving problem? I keep on having more questions and none of them are answered yet. I hope they eventually answer them lolol

#agents of shield #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.

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daisylincs · 4 years ago

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Soulmates aren’t romantic. They never were, and they were never supposed to be - whoever designs these things figured that each person should find their lover (or lovers) for themselves. Romantic love is something that varies so hugely between different people, and the whole point of it is to fall naturally in love, isn’t it?

But for all its beauty and joy, love can also go horribly wrong sometimes. Still, these are things each person has to find out for themselves, by themselves, without any cosmic guidance.

But people shouldn’t be forced to go through all the struggles, trials and tribulations of life and love entirely alone, right?

So what the universe decided to do was to grant each person someone else who they’d meet at some point in their life, and who’d be there to hug them through the toughest of the tough, and laugh through the brightest joy with them. Someone who’d be more than just a best friend - someone who would be a sibling, with an unconditional and eternal supportive love, bonded to their very soul.

Everyone would carry their soul-sibling with them at all times, in the form of a small tattoo on the inside of their wrists.

Skye’s soulmark is a cup of tea, of all things, with a curl of smoke hovering over it.

The curl of smoke, she’s always thought, looks a little bit like a heart. Or a smile.

Either way, it’s warm and comforting, and she can’t wait to meet the person it represents.

As time passes, though - tough, cruel times, times where she longed for someone to hold her and tell her it was going to be okay, times where she wished she knew anyone cared - she starts to resent her soulmark.

She starts to wonder if it even works, at all - because isn’t her soulmate supposed to be there to support her through her struggles?

Well, she’s struggling - many nights, she’s so cold that she has to fold herself double and tuck her toes under her, her crappy van’s equally crappy heating on full blast just so she doesn’t freeze. And though she smiles and agrees with the Rising Tide’s grand ideals of freedom, her heart is just as aching and lonely as she was as an orphan with more or less the same chill seeping into her bones.

Why isn’t her soulmate here? She wonders bitterly as she hacks her way through firewall after firewall, chasing something she’s never had but so desperately longs for.

She hates herself for it, but she starts to resent her soulmate, resents the way she keeps hoping she’ll meet them, that her life will make sense, and that she’ll finally have someone who’ll just be there.

Then, completely out of the blue, she does meet her soulmate.

Her name is Jemma Simmons, and she has the brightest, warmest smile that Skye has ever seen. She is welcoming and instantly compassionate when she greets Skye and helps her settle in on their Bus, and something deep inside her just thinks, yes. This is someone I can stay for.

But she isn’t quite ready to let herself believe it yet - what if she’s wrong? How much will that hurt?

So she stays with SHIELD, plays their game, and betrays them when she needs to - but despite herself, they (Jemma especially) have slipped in under her cracks.

The first time Skye’s resolve to deny it to herself begins to weaken is when Jemma forgives her almost immediately for her little dalliance with Miles. They have their Hub adventure next, and while Skye dies inside over just how terrible Simmons is at lying, there’s also something something also settles, comfortable and sure, in her heart.

She knows it for a fact when, after the boys are back and settled in, Jemma comes to knock on the door of her bunk - and she is holding a cup of tea.

It is, shape for shape, curl of steam for curl of steam, exactly the cup that Skye’s spent so long looking at on her wrist.

And when she takes it from Jemma, she cannot help beaming.

She doesn’t tell Jemma immediately - no, they chat and laugh over you certainly have a gorgeous... head, and tease the boys. They even watch a chick-flick once they’re sure May won’t pop in to scold them.

And it’s... everything, really. It’s everything she always wanted - and the longer she stays in Jemma’s presence, the more her resentment fades away, until it’s completely gone somewhere between their third late-night bout of hysterical laughter.

It’s impossible to resent Jemma, and impossible not to melt into the warm feeling of comfort and safety she brings with her.

It is, Skye thinks with a touch of amusement, exactly like the cups of tea Jemma has successfully gotten her to like - sweet, comforting, and with this indefinable sensation of home, warmth and love and home, the more you drank. Or, you know, talked, to finish the analogy.

She’s never been entirely sure what her corresponding mark on Jemma’s arm is - it’s only much later when she finds that one out, in one of the many nights she spent sleeping on the bunk above Jemma’s after her return from Maveth.

It’s a daisy - a daisy in the epicentre of a miniature earthquake, complete with cracked earth zigzagging in all directions about it.

Daisy’s first reaction is to apologise for it - but Jemma stops her with a smile that for the first time in days actually reaches her eyes. She explains what the mark represents to her: no matter how bad things get around you, you can still stand tall and get through it.

That’s what the mark has always represented to her, Jemma confides - from when she was six years old and recovering painstakingly from scoliosis, it has inspired her that she can get through it, whatever “it” is.

It’s one of the main things that kept her going on Maveth, she confesses.

Daisy doesn’t think she’s ever been more touched in her life, and once she’s holding Jemma in a very tight hue makes sure to tell her about how her warmth and caring is all Daisy’s ever wanted, and how she used to comfort herself with the knowledge that she’d find that someday.

And she thinks - that’s exactly what their bond is, what they keep representing to each other.

When she breaks and runs from SHIELD after Lincoln’s death, it’s Jemma’s warmth that first pulls her back. And when Jemma breaks two years later after Fitz’s death, it’s Daisy who helps her stand up and gather herself enough to search across the entire galaxy for him.

They will keep representing this for each other, too, she knows, no matter what happens - because they’re best friends. Soulmates. Sisters.

(Platonic Skimmons Soulmate AU headcanons for the @agentsofchallenges AoS March Madness challenge! <3)

#skimmons #platonic skimmons #platonic skimmons soulmate au #platonic soulmate au #because - yeah; romantic soulmates is one of the best things ever #but there's something so undeniably LOVELY about a platonic partner who'll be there for you forever #without any of the pressures and strains of romantic love; you know?#just... deep caring #and honestly I think that's what skimmons; canonically; *is*#💜💜💜#lily's headcanons-slash-bullet-point-fics #lily's march madness

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kirayun · 5 years ago

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The Journey Of Destiny (Eng. Version) - S1E01: Pilot

AO3 Link

Previous Chapter Tumblr: X

Summary: Skye and Jemma thought they had missed their chance and would never see each other again. But on the first day of work for Agent Coulson's new team, the two girls get a big surprise.

Jemma Simmons was excited for this new adventure, the opportunity to be on this chosen team alongside her best friend and investigate all that was mysterious and new. They had already started with something big: an explosion and an apparent new superhero out on the streets. Apparently they also had a lead on a hacker belonging to The Rising Tide that Agent Coulson and Agent Ward had gone to pick up, but she had been assigned with Fitz and Agent May to inspect the explosion site.

During the trip his mind went back to a certain brunette she had met in a diner during her leave. That day she had felt something special, a connection she had never felt before with someone she had just met, not even with Fitz with whom at the academy she had immediately bonded for their love of science.

For Jemma, the encounter with Skye had made her believe for the first time in something superior to science and the facts proven by it, as if some cosmic force wanted the two of them to be destined to meet, to be part of their own lives. Unfortunately, however, it had all happened so quickly that she had forgotten to find a way to stay in touch with the other girl and was now convinced that she would never see her again.

Skye was looking around inside this strange interrogation that she was sure was inside a plane. Officer T-1000 was dozing on his desk after their "interrogation". And even though she believed the soporific effect was true and she was actually sleeping, she wasn't entirely convinced that the truth serum story was truly legitimate and that they were just playing with her. But she didn't mind that. She liked Agent Coulson's style, and besides, she was playing her little game too. It was part of her plan that they track her down through the Mike Peterson footage and take her inside. She had spent months hacking into SHIELD in a desperate search to find answers about her parents, and all she got was a document censored by the organization that was now holding her. Skye was taking a lot of risks with this operation. Trying to infiltrate the world's largest intelligence agency could have her locked up forever, but what other choice did she have? Besides discovering her origins, she really didn't have any other goals in life, and the only time her mind thought of something different in life, she let the opportunity slip right under her nose…

"Billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal, and I beat you with a laptop that I won in a bet?"

Thinking back to the sentence that Skye had said to the two agents shortly before, it reminded her of the young scientist she met in that diner. Jemma…

For the first time she had felt a real connection with someone, the desire to have a person next to her and the possibility of building something with them. She already knew that Miles liked her and that he wanted something from their "relationship", but for her he was just a way to not feel alone and pretend that she really has someone by her side. Not that she liked using anyone like this, but she had tried to clear things up with Miles several times before, but he seemed to believe that one day things would change.

But with Jemma it had been different. A brief meeting one morning was enough to make her feel that something, that magnetism towards another person and the need to always have it in one's life. Destiny had been mocking, however, because as quickly as he had sent the English girl into her life, she was immediately taken away from her even before she had the chance to create something. And so, once she got her soul at peace, she plunged back into her mission.

Now Skye just had to find a way to get into Agent Coulson's good graces and be able to stay as long as possible…

Jemma had just gotten back on the bus when Agent Coulson approached her group.

"Everyone in the meeting room, we convinced our guest to tell us what she knows about our mystery hero." Coulson said.

Jemma followed her superior into the meeting room ready to work on whatever information this girl had to give, when her world suddenly froze. Because the hacker of The Rising Tide front of her was no stranger. It was the girl from the diner she had given away her previous laptop to during a bet: she was Skye. The girl she lost contact with was a hacker who had hacked her agency and was now working with them to investigate.

Immediately the same thing was happening to Skye, that while waiting for the rest of the team, the last person who expected to appear in front of her was Jemma.

Jemma who apparently worked for SHIELD. The same SHIELD she was infiltrating. This complicates everything. How did she use the agency for her own purposes and at the same time finally get the chance to meet the girl she couldn't stop thinking about? Looking at her she was immediately captured again by that innocent and joyful charm that the English girl emanated without even realizing it.

Coulson's voice roused the two girls from their quick thoughts that had gone unnoticed by the rest of those present. "Skye these are agents Fitz, Simmons and May." He then proceeded to quickly illustrate the duties of the aforementioned agents. Plus now Skye finally knew Jemma's last name.

During the quick introductions neither of the girls gave evidence that they had met before. It was as if through a single glance between them they had mutually agreed to keep this little secret, at least until they had a chance to talk privately face to face.

Everything else passed quickly enough. The team had Mike Peterson to handle and an explosion case to solve.

As a first mission Jemma certainly did not expect all this: a device that was a mix of all known sources of superpowers and unstable and dangerous enough to generate strong explosions, the sudden reappearance of Skye, Fitz acting strangely while he talked to her on speakerphone… and now they'll have to figure out a way to make the dendrotoxin rifle (she still refuses to call it a night-night gun) to make Mike Peterson helpless before Agent Ward is forced to kill him. And as their superior had said, that would have meant leaving a child orphaned of his father. She tried to calm Fitz by comparing the assignment to an exam, hoping that her best friend would be able to concentrate and together they would solve the problem as they always had.

But the worst part happened when Agent Coulson revealed that Peterson had taken Skye and was now standing right next to a human bomb ready to go off at any moment. Jemma was beginning to wonder if she'll ever really get the chance to have that real reunion with the young hacker, or if there will just be an eternal chance they never got to grab and try. She prayed with all her heart that everything would be fine and that no one else would lose their life today.

After they managed to stop Mike Peterson without killing him and handed him over to the SHIELD medical team, everyone could finally take a deep breath and recover from the last very grueling hours. They were all back on the bus and immediately divided for different purposes: Coulson and May were in his office debriefing, Ward was setting up the equipment in the armory, Fitz was in the laboratory, and Jemma was looking for their host so they could finally talk face to face.

After wandering around the bus, she finally found her outside, in front of the other girl's van after the latter had just changed into a red dress with boots. Apparently he would have accompanied Agent Coulson to deliver Ace, Peterson's son, to his aunt. Jemma took a breath and gathered all the courage to get closer and finally begin their long awaited chat.

Skye, hearing footsteps approaching, turned to find Jemma Simmons facing her. She had been waiting and at the same time dreading this meeting a lot and now the time had finally come.

"Hi…" Jemma began hesitantly.

"Hi." Skye replied in turn, without the confidence that had distinguished her during their previous meeting at the diner.

Neither of them knew where to start. Both seemed to be waiting for the other to move.

"So ... you're a The Rising Tide hacker." Jemma said first.

"And you are a SHIELD scientist." Skye retorted.

They were from two opposite worlds: one fought for freedom of information (and in secret to discover their origins) while the other was part of the most secretive and powerful intelligence agency on the planet. Yet in reality neither of them was frightened or worried by these factors. Inside they were just happy that they could meet again.

“You know, you still owe me breakfast. Last time you ran away without even giving me your number. A girl could almost think you did it on purpose. " Skye said with self-confidence again and started to look like the girl flirting with the scientist that famous morning ..

Jemma was blown away by Skye's newfound attitude. "N-no ... that morning I was in a hurry and I forgot ... I swear I didn't mean ..." She mumbled the sentences trying to say something that didn't suggest that she really had done it on purpose not to give her number to the other girl.

Skye's little laugh stopped Jemma from her babble. "I'm making fun of you. I too forgot to leave a contact that day. " The girl sat on the edge of the open compartment of her van and motioned for the scientist to sit with her.

Jemma joined her and the two were now sitting side by side looking into each other's eyes.

“After you left and I realized we hadn't even left a phone number or email, I was convinced I wouldn't see you again. I didn't even know your surname to try to find you. " Skye confessed.

"I don't know your surname either for that." Jemma pointed out to the other girl.

"But I don't have a surname, I'm just Skye." The hacker responded in turn.

“Only Skye huh? Somehow I doubt that you've never had a surname in your entire life ”Jemma reasoned smiling.

"Yeah, only Skye," she said smiling too. Technically because of the Sisters of St. Agnes Skye she had a surname, and another name as well, but she certainly had no intention of embarrassing herself in front of Jemma.

The two girls would have gladly sat there staring at each other and talking about anything forever, but unfortunately they were joined by Coulson who was walking down the ramp of the plane.

"Skye we are ready to go, Ace has finished medical checks and said goodbye to his father" The agent in charge of the team said in their direction.

Skye looked up in his direction "Yes I'm on my way, a minute" And as the agent walked over to Lola, her vintage car, she turned her eyes back on Jemma "This time I'm the one who has to go."

The young scientist was frightened at this, convinced that she would never see Skye again, again. "Already?! But…, ”she said, unable to put into words the wish for her to stay longer.

Skye smiled at this and stood up, walking past the other girl. “Don't worry, I'm not going to disappear. Something tells me we'll meet again soon. " She concluded the statement with a wink and then walked to the red car while Jemma sat there with her mouth slightly open staring at her and with a slight blush caused by Skye's latest action.

The hacker wasn't lying when she said she wasn't going to disappear, now she had two reasons to be able to try to stay around SHIELD. Now she just had to find a way to get inside…

And as if someone were listening to her prayers, Agent Coulson had words to say to Skye once she reached him in the car. "As we go, I have an offer that maybe you might be interested in."

Perfect, it was as if destiny wanted to give her a hand. Not only had her journey to truth come to a turning point, but a new one also seems to have begun. A journey that included a beautiful English scientist named Jemma Simmons.

#skimmons #bioquake #Daisy Johnson #jemma simmons #agents of shield

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stainedglassgardens · 5 years ago

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Favourite films watched in 2019

I arranged them into broad categories – other than that they’re in no particular order.

Indie

Skate Kitchen (Crystal Moselle, 2018) 6 Balloons (Marja-Lewis Ryan, 2018) The Party’s Just Beginning (Karen Gillan, 2018) Thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke, 2003) Baise-moi (Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000) Vazante (Daniela Thomas, 2017) Erasing Eden (Beth Dewey, 2016) The Seen and the Unseen (Sekala Niskala, Kamila Andini, 2017) Knock Down Ginger (Cleo Samoles-Little, 2016) The Garden (Sommerhaüser, Sonja Maria Kröner, 2017) Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (Marlina Si Pembunuh dalam Empat Babak, Mouly Surya, 2017) Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) Soldiers. Story From Ferentari (Soldații. Poveste din Ferentari, Ivana Mladenović, 2017)

Comedy

Dick (Andrew Fleming, 1999) The Breaker Upperers (Madeleine Sami and Jackie Van Beek, 2018) It Stains the Sands Red (Colin Minihan, 2016) Satanic Panic (Chelsea Stardust, 2019)

Classics

Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970) House of Wax (Andre DeToth, 1953) Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997) Germany Pale Mother (Deutschland bleiche Mutter, Helma Sanders-Brahms, 1980)

Horror

April and the Devil (Jake Hammond, 2018) Blackwood (Andrew Montague, 2019) The Crescent (Seth A Smith, 2017) Us (Jordan Peele, 2019) American Mary (Jen and Sylvia Soska, 2012) Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019) Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974) The Devil's Passenger (Dave Bundtzen, 2018)

Science fiction

Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983) Evolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015) In Full Bloom (Maegan Houang, 2019)

Action

Destroyer (Karyn Kusama, 2018) Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2018) Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000) Holiday (Isabella Eklöf, 2018)

Documentary

Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2005) Abducted in Plain Sight (Skye Borgman, 2017) Jane Fonda in Five Acts (Susan Lacy, 2018) Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012) The Decline of Western Civilization series (Penelope Spheeris, 1981, 1988 and 1998)

Full list of 273 films watched in 2018 under the cut!

January

Like Father (Lauren Miller Rogen, 2018)

Upgrade (Leigh Whannell, 2018)

Skate Kitchen (Crystal Moselle, 2018)

Never Been Kissed (Raja Gosnell, 1999)

Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, 2015)

Dick (Andrew Fleming, 1999)

The Black Balloon (Elissa Down, 2008)

Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2018)

6 Balloons (Marja-Lewis Ryan, 2018)

Rosy (Jess Bond, 2018)

The Party’s Just Beginning (Karen Gillan, 2018)

The Rider (Chloé Zhao, 2017)

Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)

Thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke, 2003)

Sadie (Megan Griffiths, 2018)

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Desiree Akhavan, 2018)

Frida (Julie Taymor, 2002)

Fyre: The Greatest Pary That Never Happened (Chris Smith, 2019)

Time Share (Tiempo Compartido, Sebastián Hofmann, 2018)

The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946)

Abducted in Plain Sight (Skye Borgman, 2017)

King of Thieves (James Marsh, 2018)

Malevolent (Olaf de Fleur, 2018)

Serena (Susanne Bier, 2014)

Baise-moi (Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000)

And Breathe Normally (Andið Eðlilega, Ísold Uggadóttir, 2018)

Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show Circuit (Aaron Hancox and Michael McNamara, 2018)

Santoalla (Andrew Becker and Daniel Mehrer, 2016)

Jane Fonda in Five Acts (Susan Lacy, 2018)

Mademoiselle Paradis (Licht, Barbara Albert, 2017)

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography (Errol Morris, 2016)

February

Matangi/Maya/M.I.A (Steve Loveridge, 2018)

Pride & Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005)T

The Brain Hack (Joseph White, 2014)

Vazante (Daniela Thomas, 2017)

Tanglewood (Jordan Prosser, 2016)

Outfall (Suzi Ewing, 2018)

Pigskin (Jake Hammond, 2015)

The Funspot (Jake Hammond, 2015)

April and the Devil (Jake Hammond, 2018)

Smithereens (Susan Seidelman, 1982)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller, 2018)

Bus Stop (Joshua Logan, 1956)

Pink Plastic Flamingos (Colin West, 2017)

The Breaker Upperers (Madeleine Sami and Jackie Van Beek, 2018)

Amanda Knox (Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn, 2016)

Holy Hell (Will Allen, 2016)

Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018)

Skin (Jordana Spiro, 2015)

A Night at the Garden (Marshall Curry, 2017)

Give Up the Ghost (Nathan Sam Long, 2018)

Last One Screaming (Matt Devino, 2017)

The Katy Universe (Patrick Muhlberger, 2018)

Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)

Did You Hear About the Morgans? (Marc Lawrence, 2009)

End Game (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 2018)

Behind the Curve (Daniel J. Clark, 2018)

Our Daily Bread (Unser täglich Brot, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, 2005)

92MARS (Ricardo Bernardini, 2018)

Construct (Kevin Margo, 2018)

Invaders (Daniel Prince, 2018)

March

Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle, 2018)

Dirty John: The Dirty Truth (Sara Mast, 2019)

Blackwood (Andrew Montague, 2019)

One (Luke Bradford, 2019)

God's Kingdom (Guy Soulsby, 2018)

Holiday (Isabella Eklöf, 2018)

Frigid (Joe Kicak, 2016)

Girl of the Sky (Ariel Martin, 2017)

Monitor (Matt Black and Ryan Polly, 2018)

Donoma (Evan Spencer Brace, 2018)

Perfect Blue (パーフェクトブル, Pāfekuto Burū, Satoshi Kon, 1997)

The Sermon (Dean Puckett, 2018)

Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, 2004)

Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010)

Generation Wealth (Lauren Greenfield, 2018)

The Rachel Divide (Laura Brownson, 2018)

The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance, 2012)

Burden (Timothy Marrinan and Richard Dewey, 2016)

What Will People Say (Hva vil folk si, Iram Haq, 2017)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (Kurt Kuenne, 2008)

Animal (Fabrice Le Nézet and Jules Janaud, 2017)

Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Karecki, 2003)

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Errol Morris, 2003)

April

Erasing Eden (Beth Dewey, 2016)

Destroyer (Karyn Kusama, 2018)

Unicorn Store (Brie Larson, 2019)

May the Devil Take You (Sebelum iblis menjemput, Timo Tjahjanto, 2018)

People in Cars (Daniel Lundh, 2017)

Presentation (Danielle Kampf, 2017)

Ink (Jamin Winans, 2009)

Hedgehog (Lindsey Copeland, 2016)

Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982)

Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)

The Silence (John R. Leonetti, 2019)

24 Davids (Céline Baril, 2017)

The Frame (Jamin Winans, 2014)

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999)

Baraka (Ron Fricke, 1992)

Wayne’s World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992)

Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)

Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)

Jesse’s Girl (M. Keegan Uhl, 2018)

I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

Mary Goes Round (Molly McGlynn, 2017)

The Green Fog (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, 2017)

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Someone Great (Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, 2019)

May

Ekaj (Cati Gonzalez, 2015)

Capernaum (Nadine Labaki, 2018)

Porcupine Lake (Ingrid Veninger, 2017)

The Decline of Western Civilization (Penelope Spheeris, 1981)

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (Penelope Spheeris, 1988)

The Decline of Western Civilization III (Penelope Spheeris, 1998)

Revolver (Guy Ritchie, 2005)

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019)

RocknRolla (Guy Ritchie, 2008)

Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie, 1998)

The Seen and the Unseen (Sekala Niskala, Kamila Andini, 2017)

Nkosi Coiffure (Frederike Migom, 2015)

Speak Your Truth (Kris Erickson, 2018)

Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)

A.I. Rising (Lazar Bodrosa, 2018)

The Crescent (Seth A Smith, 2017)

Ring (リング, Ringu, Hideo Nakata, 1998)

Absences (Carole Laganière, 2013)

The Uninvited (Lewis Allen, 1944)

In Color (José Andrés Cardona, 2019)

Winners (Dan Bulla, 2018)

Jess (Daniel Hurwitz, 2018)

My First Time (Asaf Livni, 2018)

Murmur (Aurora Fearnley, 2018)

Pulsar (Aurora Fearnley, 2017)

Struck (Aurora Fearnley, 2017)

Samira (Lainey Richardson, 2018)

Despite Everything (A pesar de todo, Gabriela Tagliavini, 2019)

It Stains the Sands Red (Colin Minihan, 2016)

Satain Said Dance (Szatan kazał tańczyć, Katarzyna Rosłaniec, 2016)

Knock Down Ginger (Cleo Samoles-Little, 2016)

Gold (Cleo Samoles-Little, 2015)

Jane's Life (Cleo Samoles-Little, 2012)

4/4 (Kyle Sawyer, 2016)

Sugar Land (Lorenzo Lanzillotti, 2018)

The Idea of North (Albert Choi, 2018)

A Quiet Place (John Krasinski, 2018)

Dark Water (仄暗い水の底から, Honogurai Mizu no soko kara, Hideo Nakata, 2002)

Sound of My Voice (Zal Batmanglij, 2011)

Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)

The Perfection (Richard Shepard, 2018)

House of Wax (Andre DeToth, 1953)

June

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Stacie Passon, 2018)

Always Be My Maybe (Nahnatchka Khan, 2019)

Gente que viene y bah (Patricia Font, 2019)

Period. End of Sentence. (Rayka Zehtabchi, 2018)

American Mary (Jen and Sylvia Soska, 2012)

The Boss (Ben Falcone, 2016)

Extremis (Dan Krauss, 2016)

E il cibo va (Food on the Go, Mercedes Cordova, 2017)

Last Night (Massy Tadjedin, 2010)

Murder Mystery (Kyle Newacheck, 2019)

Bead Game (Ishu Patel, 1977)

The Ceiling (Katto, Teppo Airaksinen, 2017)

Elisa & Marcela (Elisa y Marcela, Isabel Coixet, 2019)

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (Marlina Si Pembunuh dalam Empat Babak, Mouly Surya, 2017)

The Garden (Sommerhaüser, Sonja Maria Kröner, 2017)

Fast Color (Julia Hart, 2018)

The Tale of Iya (Iya Monogatari: Oku no Hito, Tetsuichiro Tsuta, 2013)

Chico and Rita (Chico y Rita, Tono Errando, Fernando Trueba and Javier

Mariscal, 2010)

Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu, 2018)

Floating! (Das Floß!, Julia C. Kaiser, 2015)

The Quiet American (Phillip Noyce, 2002)

July

Keepers of the Magic (Vic Sarin, 2016)

Evolution (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2015)

Mr. Holmes (Bill Condon, 2015)

The Long Dumb Road (Hannah Fidell, 2018)

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

Life Overtakes Me (John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson, 2019)

The Milk System (Andreas Pilcher, 2017)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)

The Texture of Falling (Maria Allred, 2019)

Family (Laura Steinel, 2018)

Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952)

Identity Thief (Seth Gordon, 2013)

August

Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)

In Full Bloom (Maegan Houang, 2019)

Blue Steel (Kathryn Bigelow, 1990)

The Eagles are a Country Music Band (Cody Wagner, 2018)

The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997)

Hobbs & Shaw (David Leitch, 2019)

Coco (Lee Unkrich, 2017)

Bubba Ho-Tep (Don Coscarelli, 2002)

John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)

Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997)

I Don’t Protest, I Just Dance In My Shadow (Jessica Ashman, 2017)

My Cousin Rachel (Henry Koster, 1952)

Lifeline (Harry Jackson, 2018)

FOMI (Fear of Missing In) (Norbert Fodor, 2019)

Body at Brighton Rock (Roxanne Benjamin, 2019)

Koreatown (Grant Hyun, 2018)

A Report of Connected Events (Mischa Rozema, 2018)

Sundays (Mischa Rozema, 2015)

A King's Betrayal (David Bornstein, 2014)

Perception (Ilana Rein, 2018)

Germany Pale Mother (Deutschland bleiche Mutter, Helma Sanders-Brahms, 1980)

Men in Black International (F. Gary Gray, 2019)

Captive State (Rupert Wyatt, 2019)

Little Forest (리틀 포레스트, Liteul Poleseuteu, Yim Soon-rye, 2018)

September

What Keeps You Alive (Colin Minihan, 2018)

Grave Encounters (The Vicious Brothers, 2011)

Terrified (Aterrados, Demián Rugna, 2017)

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)

Helen (Sandra Nettelbeck, 2009)

Colossal (Nacho Vigalondo, 2016)

Out of Blue (Carol Morley, 2018)

Taxi (تاکسی‎, Jafar Panahi, 2015)

Dear Ex (誰先愛上他的, Mag Hsu and Hsu Chih-yen, 2018)

Marguerite (Marianne Farley, 2019)

Birders (Otilia Portillo Padua, 2019)

Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)

Mansfield Park (Patricia Rozema, 1999)

Long Term Delivery (Jake Honig, 2018)

Game (Joy Webster, 2017)

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

Foxfire (Annette Haywood-Carter, 1996)

October

Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009)

Under the Shadow ( زیر سایه, Babak Anvari, 2015)

Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)

Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)

Ghostbusters (Paul Feig, 2016)

Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977)

Rabid (The Soska Sisters, 2019)

In the Shadow of the Moon (Jim Mickle, 2019)

Benny Loves Killing (Ben Woodiwiss, 2018)

The Golem (Yoav & Doron Paz, 2018)

Eli (Ciarán Foy, 2019)

The Adversary (L’Adversaire, Nicole Garcia, 2002)

Satanic Panic (Chelsea Stardust, 2019)

The Devil and Father Amorth (William Friedkin, 2017)

Wounds (Babak Anvari, 2019)

Silent Hill (Christophe Gans, 2006)

Sleeping Beauty (Julia Leigh, 2011)

Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974)

The Shift (Francesco Calabrese, 2014)

The Baby (Kamran Chahkar, Lei Jim, 2012)

Intrusion (Jack Michel, 2013)

The Devil's Passenger (Dave Bundtzen, 2018)

Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

November

A Hijacking (Kapringen, Tobias Lindholm, 2012)

The Kitchen (Andrea Berloff, 2019)

The Hole in the Ground (Lee Cronin, 2019)

Assassination Nation (Sam Levinson, 2018)

Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)

Tell Me Who I Am (Ed Perkins, 2019)

Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt, 1947)

Terminally Happy (Adina Istrate, 2015)

The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942)

LuTo (Katina Medina Mora, 2015)

The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (Eva Orner, 2019)

December

Soldiers. Story From Ferentari (Soldații. Poveste din Ferentari, Ivana Mladenović, 2017)

John and Michael (John et Michael, Shira Avni, 2004)

High Tension (Haute Tension, Alexandre Aja, 2003)

Little Joe (Jessica Hausner, 2019)

The Matrix (The Wachowskis, 1999)

Finders Keepers (Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel, 2015)

To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)

My Buddha is Punk (Andreas Hartmann, 2016)

Little Miss Sumo (Matt Kay, 2018)

#films #watched in 2019 #2019 in review

23 notes · View notes

ryder616 · 6 years ago

Text

AoS got some Unfinished Business...

(in order of disappearance)

The Rising Tide: The international hacktivist organization Skye belonged to carried the promise of double agency and divided loyalties for our plucky future superhero. For five episodes. After that, it was only referenced a couple of times, going from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s cyber nemesis in the pilot to Daisy’s “deep web contacts” that never really know or do anything anymore (odds are she's just been trolling 4chan on company time when she says she’s been searching those). Guess it’s obvious who was doing the heavy lifting and who was just in it for the LULZ, uh?

UB Score: 7/10

Miles Lydon: they left him in Hong Kong, with no money, his mad hacking skillz neutered and, presumably, a broken heart. The only Daisy’s on-screen LI who is still breathing. Probably.

UB Score: 5/10

Donnie Gill: the last time we saw him, he was turning into an icicle. And his body - or his ice cocoon - had yet to be found by the end of the episode. Did he pull a Captain America or is he really ice-cold-dead?

UB Score: 8/10

Raina’s prophecy: Your mother isn’t leading our people, she’s misleading them. It’s you who are destined to lead. Taking this quote fully in context, Daisy is destined to take up her mother’s mantle and lead the Inhumans. Unless we count the Secret Warriors - they were 4 people and lasted 5 minutes so, no - she has yet to do that. The broader interpretation - leading S.H.I.E.L.D. - has hit a few snags and isn’t fully realized yet either.

UB Score: 9/10

Anne Weaver: one of the two surviving members of Real S.H.I.E.L.D.’s council of hufflepuffs, assuming Agent Calderon Asshole didn’t die while “barely hanging on” after Skye accidentaly impaled him, the former Head of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Sci-Tech Academy completely disappeared after the S2 finale even though she was supposedly on the new Advisory Board to the Director. Rumor has it she left S.H.I.E.L.D. to practice medicine and reunite with her sparky ex-husband.

UB Score: 6/10

Felix Blake: the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who touched Lola and was later mangled by Deathlok (I don’t wanna say karma, but…), resurfaced in season 3 with a considerable axe to grind against powered people. Credited for turning the Watchdogs from a bunch of bigoted keyboard warriors into a (still very bigoted) full-blown paramilitary terrorist group, he was nowhere to be found when they went international on Ivanov’s dime. No honor gratitude among intolerant pricks?

UB Score: 8/10

Vijay Nadeer: Senator Nadeer’s cute Inhuman younger brother who she shot and dumped into the sea, the bitca. When we last saw him, his body was enclosed into a terrigenesis husk again, signifying a second transformation in progress and possibly hinting at his true power: reactive adaptation (*squeals*). Voted “Plot Leftover Most Desired to Be Fished Out of the Water”, 3 years running.

UB Score: 9/10

Alistair Fitz: his framework version was despicable but stuck around to raise an even more despicable son. The “Real” world version left when Fitz was 10 years old - survey says: he’s a douchebag as flesh and blood, too - and used to be Radcliffe’s buddy in school. Where is he now and do we care?

UB Score: 5/10

Robbie Reyes: after leaving permanent scorchmarks in the fabric of space-time with that exchange of looks with you-know-who, he travelled through a mystical portal into an unknown hellish dimension. Now that he’s getting his own show, it turns out that the hellish dimension was actually Texas. I’m not even joking (much).

UB Score: 10/10

Bobbi Morse & Lance Hunter: disavowed and banished to the Land of Unpicked TV Pilots, they’ve been spending their time fighting Ninjas at weddings and reading obscure football fanzines for coded messages from their friends. Bobbi’s recent undercover mission as first officer on the USS TNGLite might have left Hunter with too much time on his hands. Hijinks must ensue. Right?

UB Score: 10/10

Mike Peterson aka Deathlok: he showed up after two seasons to save the day when Coulson was having an existential crisis being cloned through space-time patching a dimensional rift and attend The Wedding(tm), then off he went again. Where? Doing what? Is Ace okay? Who’s maintaining his hardware? And is he still single? Asking for a friend my favorite character whose current romantic options really suck.

UB Score: 9/10

Taryan Kasius: Sassed and spurned by Daisy, the Master of the House of Kasius was last seen obliviously gloating right before his fiendish plans collapsed. And while (part of?) the Confederacy’s fleet has been commandeered by the Chronicoms, he's still out there with his armies, seething. If you were a megalomaniac Kree warlord with a God complex, Shatneresque enhunciation and a fancy for powerful Inhumans, would you give up on Quake that easily? Exactly.

UB Score: 8/10

72 notes · View notes

agl03 · 6 years ago

Note

Hi! Thanks for all the time you take to write everything and asnwer all the Fandom asks!! This is my prompt : Jemma realizes she is pregnant after she is already deep undercover in Hydra. Or Fzzt happens after fs are already in a relationship. Whatever inspires your muse, thanks anyways. Have a good weekend!

Hi Anon,

I went with Door Number 1....Hope you like it.

Unexpected

Jemma did her best not to run to her apartment for fear if she was being followed by her current “employers” it would bring unwanted attention to herself.

She’d been undercover in Hydra for a few weeks now and nearly every second of every day she regretted the decision to come. Regretted listening to the Doctors who said she was making Fitz worse. Regretted believing Coulson when he’d promised he’d keep her fully appraised of Fitz’s progress. Regretted that Fitz wouldn’t be at her side as she took what could be the most important test of her life.

She and Fitz were still a bit unsettled. The night they had been hiding at the motel they’d found comfort in each others arms. With her crawling into his bed for the comfort of his arms. His lips tentatively finding hers in the silence. Then they fell together, mind, body, and soul. She never regretted that night, if anything she regretted they hadn’t had another yet, but she did regret not being able to talk to him before the’d been abducted, before his coma, and before she left.

She finally reached her apartment and locked the door with a satisfying click. Finally allowing the tears to fall that had been threatening all day, the bag in her hand nearly pulling her to the floor with the implications within.

With a steadying breath she pulled the boxes out of the bags and went into the bathroom.. Within ten minutes she was starting at found pink plus signs and digital display reading “Pregnant” back at her.

“Oh Fitz,” she breathed.

-------------------------------------------------

Fitz sat on the floor of Coulson’s office, the Directors desk torn apart in a few hundred pieces as he worked the complicated system that would hide Fury’s Tool Box within, and scowled at his own design. It had seemed like a brilliant idea no two hours ago as it had come to him in a rare moment of clarity.. Now, in the middle of the night with his body and mind worn down it was all going to hell.

“You should get some rest, start fresh tomorrow, everything will but much clearer with a sleep and tea” a soft voice said with a hand on his shoulder offering a small bit of comfort.

Fitz closed his eyes and allowed himself to lean into the imaginary touch for a moment before he let out a sigh of defeat.

“I know,” he said already packing up his tools and trying to contain the chaos so Coulson could get a little work done on his desk in the morning.

As he put the last tool into his bag he heard a buzzing noise suddenly coming from the many tablets on top of Coulson’s desk. Fitz shuffled through the files and folders before he found where the noise is was coming from. His blood running cold at what he saw.

It was Coulson’s private and normally encrypted tablet, the one he practically carried everywhere. The screen was flashing bright red and a map flashing on a location.

Agent J. Simmons in need of immediate extraction. Followed by a list of coordinates.

“Jemma,” he breathed. Jemma was in danger and needed immediate extraction.

Fitz tapped at the device trying to get more information but realized quickly he didn’t have the right pass codes or the time to hack it.

Fitz didn’t hesitate what he did next. First he used his phone to take a picture of her location before he dropped the tablet back on Coulson’s desk still vibrating in it’s alert. Deep down he knew better than to do what he was about too, he knew he should go get someone, anyone, to go with him. But all the hurt and fear of the last few months came crashing back. How they didn’t know what to do with him and hid things from him.

He knew if he got someone they’d make him stay behind and he may lose his chance to see Jemma. She might not want to see him before he could apologize for being so horrible to her before they shipped her off again.

He grabbed a go bag from the locker room before he went to the garage. The adrenaline easily fueling his efforts to override the security in the garage and he got into the first SUV he could.

“Hold on Jemma, I’m coming.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

Jemma paced her small apartment with an Icer in hand as she waited for extract. Her other hand cradling her stomach that now when she inspected it had the slightest of bumps.. By her math she would be about twelve weeks along by now, her previous missed periods, weight gain, and sickness definitely not due to the stress of her mission as she’d previously thought.

She’d activated her panic button precisely 129 minutes ago. May had told her that a team would arrive for her in no less than 30 minutes after it was activated. Fear gripped her that something had happened to the others that were preventing them from getting to her. Or worse Hydra had intercepted the signal and was simply toying with her.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when there was a knock at her door. The knock wasn’t the coded one that Coulson or May would use when they stopped by, rather one that tore a sob from her chest, one that she’d longed to hear again, it was Fitz’s distinctive knock he’d had since their days at the academy.

Headless of the danger and numerous safety protocals she ran to the door and threw it open barreling right into Fitz’s chest.

“Fitz,” she sobbed clutching to him feeling more at home than she had in ages when she took in his familiar scent.

“Jemma?” he said his own voice thick with emotion.

Jemma had enough sense to pull him into her apartment and bolt the door once more, all while never leaving his arms.

Fitz went in with her easily and dropped his Icer and phone to pull her to him. The speech he had been going through in his head the entire drive there completely going out the window in favor of “I’m sorry,” whispered into her hair over and over.

Jemma savored being in his arms again unsure of why he was telling her he was sorry, she was the one who was sorry, she had left and unknowingly taken their unborn child into the bowls of Hydra as a result. It was that thought that broke the spell and Jemma pulled back just enough to meet his uncertain eyes. Those eyes she loved so much filled with fear and hope.

“Where is the rest of the team?” She asked “Are they holding Hydra off while you get me out?”

“Hydra?” Fitz asked stunned.

Jemma felt another wave of anger well, they hadn’t told him where she’d gone or what she was doing.

“Fitz, I’ve been undercover with Hydra,” Jemma said. “I was able to get into their science division, they’ve had me doing grunt work, a complete waste of my talents....”

“They sent you to Hydra!” Fitz said his voice shrill. “They thought you with Hydra was better than dealing with me?”

“Fitz no!” Jemma said and cupped his face. “The Doctors and the team said I was making you worse and after I heard it enough I’m sorry but I started to believe it. Then Coulson needed someone on the inside with Hydra and I felt it was the only option.”

Fitz was at a loss for words so instead he leaned forward and captured her lips pouring everything he couldn’t say into the the moment.

Jemma responded in kind and as usual in the end there were no words needed.

This time when they broke away with their foreheads against one another’s and just savored the moment.

“Missed you,” Fitz said as they finally pulled away.

“And I missed you,” Jemma said. “I really do hate to break the moment but where are the others, I would prefer to get out of here sooner rather than later and then you and I need to have a very serious discussion.”

Fitz tensed at the mention of a serious discussion but knew there would be there were more pressing matters like what had caused Jemma to ask for an immediate extract.

“There is no rest of the team, I kind of came on my own. I was working on something in Coulson’s office when the message came in,” Fitz confessed and braced himself for what he knew was coming.

“Leopold Fitz!” Jemma snapped exactly has he’d predicted she would “You came to extract me from Hydra by yourself? Have you been cleared to be back in the field even?”

“I didn’t know you were in Bloody Hydra,” Fitz countered but there was no bite to his words. He knew what he’d done was incredibly foolish and Jemma was one of many telling off’s he was about to face.

“Look you can finish telling me off later,” Fitz said picking up his phone and Icer again. “We need to get out of here before whatever you hit your panic button about gets here.”

It was Jemma’s turn to become quiet.

“While we do need to hurry we have some time before the reason I pushed the button gets here,” Jemma said her hand going back to her stomach again.

Fitz looked at her confused but before he could question further the door just feet away was kicked in and Melinda May lead in a heavily armed trio of agents consisting of Trip, Skye, and Hunter.

Fitzsimmons fell into each other, each one trying to protect the other from the threat.

“Fitz!” Hunter shouted and lowered his weapon.

“What are you doing here?” Skye demanded

“What does it look like I’m doing! Getting Simmons out of here!” Fitz snapped and clutched Jemma to him.

May ended anymore argument before it even began.

“Everyone load up, we made enough noise coming in here that someone was bound to notice,” she ordered.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fitz had been right about being told off multiple times more. Hunter, Skye and Trip had all had a turn a turn on the way back to base. Followed by Coulson in his office when they returned to the base, May standing behind him scowling the entire time. And finally Mack as Fitz walked back to his bunk so Jemma could do her debrief.

He had tried to stay but one last single terrifying look from May send him back to his room. He’d have a few minutes to regroup and them maybe get to finish the discussion he and Jemma had started earlier. While he was wary of it the fact Jemma had held his hand the entire way back to base and until the last moment before he was thrown out of the Director’s office offered him a fair amount of hope.

There was a soft knock at his door less than an hour later and Jemma slipped in. A happy sigh coming from her at the sight that waited for her. Fitz had settled into his bed half attempting to read an article on his tablet. He’d changed into his Pajamas and there was a small kettle steaming on the nightstand ready to pour two perfect cups of tea.

She couldn’t help herself as she ran across his bunk and practically leap onto his bed and into his arms again.

Fitz tossed his tablet aside to gather her into his arms. Thankful the awkwardness they had danced around after he woke up was gone.

“Missed you,” he said.

Jemma pulled back with a smile, the first real smile he’d seen from her since he’d woken up from his coma.

“I was only gone less than an hour,” she said happy with her decision not to go back to her bunk and change. Sure she wanted out of these clothes but a couple of Fitz’s extras sounded a lot better than her own pajamas.

Fitz just shrugged and pulled her close again.

“Now can you tell me what you were trying too earlier?” he asked.

Jemma shuffled around in his arms so her back was against his chest and she pulled his arms around her to rest on her stomach, her hands covering his own.

“Do you remember that night in the motel?” she started feeling him take a sharp breath. It was the first time either of them had spoken of it since it had happened.

“Best night of my life,” he whispered.

“Mine too,” Jemma said turning her head to meet his eyes, her hands pressed his ever so slightly into her stomach. “In more ways than one.”

It only took a few moments for the pieces to fall into place.

“You’re pregnant,” he said in awe as he gently rubbed her stomach.

“We’re pregnant,” she echoed.

Fitz leaned down and gently kissed her, never wanting to let her or their baby go ever again. “I am the luckiest man on this or any planet,” he whispered again before he captured her lips once more.

There was still more to discuss and work out, but for now they would find each other again as they had twelve weeks ago.

#aos fanfic #fitzsimmons #earth vs space #team space #prompt me

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drowsinginspace · 6 years ago

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Hello, beautiful people! I’m back on my #AOSrewatch, after quite a (not very kind) while. I don’t really know where we’re supposed to be on the rewatch right now, but I’ve been watching some episodes of season 2 today, and I might go on and finish it later. I hope you enjoy my short thoughts on them!

Agents of SHIELD 2x17 - Melinda

A beautiful episode. We’re finally shown what May went through in Bahrain, while Daisy is told by Jiaying a biased version of the same story. And give all the awards to Ming Na, please!

We already knew Melinda was a wonderful well-rounded character, but this episode shows that so well. She went through that trauma, detached herself from the field for a while, she couldn’t even be touched by her loved ones. Seven years later she’s still thinking about it daily, but she has accepted what she’s done and decides to move on. She even smiles when Jemma hugs her.

A female character doesn’t have to kick butt to be strong. Melinda May lets herself cry and be vulnerable, and I can argue that this was the strongest we’ve ever seen her. Kudos to the aos writers for showing us this side of an already awesome character!

Agents of SHIELD 2x18 - The frenemy of my enemy

This one has too much Hydra and Ward, but there were a few things I enjoyed. I loved seeing Fitz in the field again, Jemma’s sass with May and Bobbi, and Skye and Cal’s father-daughter bonding.

Skye found out her real complete name for the first time, while still trying to get in contact with SHIELD in secret.

Also, Jemma managed to hack into Deathlok’s eye-channel while Fitz was monitoring it, so that was both weird and cool!

⚡⚡⚡

As usual, please keep telling me your thoughts on these, and have a lovely day! Thank you for still reading my weird posts, even though I’m a little late on the schedule.

#aosrewatch #aosrewatchs2 #aosrwotm

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ambssssssssss · 6 years ago

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Someday

Part 1/2

Ship: Skimmons/BioQuake

Summary: A freak accident puts Skye on Shield's radar earlier than expected. With nowhere else to go and nothing to lose, Skye agrees to attend Shield Academy. There she finds friends and a purpose, and Jemma Simmons, her roommate that Skye finds herself falling for. By the end of her first year at Shield Academy, Skye finds herself wishing that someday would be today.

Also up on AO3

Skye shivered slightly in the borrowed clothes she wore, cupping the warm cup of coffee she had been given in both hands. She tries to keep herself from touching the cold metal of the table she sit at and instead chooses to hold her cup up closer near her chest. The position allows Skye to focus on the steam rising from the coffee rather than the flickering, too bright light that hands above her. She almost feels like laughing; her situation is so remarkably similar to the old cop shows her last foster family had been so fond of. When the door opens, Skye half expects a grey-haired man with a fedora and a half-smoked cigar hanging from his lips to walk in. Instead, a woman enters with long dark hair haunted, dark eyes.

The woman silently takes her place in the seat opposite Skye, her expression impassive and unreadable. Skye meets the woman’s eyes and quickly looks away, fidgeting with the towel wrapped around her shoulders that she had been using to keep her borrowed clothes dry since her wet hair had been dripping when she arrived there. Without anything else to do – and unable to hold eye contact with the stern looking woman – Skye raised her cup of coffee to her lips and took a long drink. The liquid is still hot enough to burn her tongue, but Skye does her best not to react and drains the cup. She places the now empty cup on the table and folded her hands together in her lap so the other woman can’t see them fidgeting.

“More coffee?” The woman asks after an uncomfortably long stretch of silence. Skye shakes her head and picks at her cuticles. “Do you know you’re here?’

“Under arrest, I guess,” Skye answers without looking up from her hands. “Isn’t that what normally happens in these situations?”

“How often do you think something like this happens?” There’s a hint of something in the woman’s voice, an underlying, almost teasing quality that makes her seem more human.

Skye thinks about how she ended up in this position. She remembers walking into the apartment building she lived in, doing her best to avoid the landlord since she was already three months behind on her rent. She remembers being in a sort of daze, thinking of the information she had uncovered. Skye had been itching to look into her past long before she aged out of the foster system and had finally been able to hack into her records, only to find them heavily redacted by a government agency she had never heard of. Skye didn’t learn anything that she hadn’t already known. She had been angry and confused with no idea how to move forward. Then the building started shaking around her. A few seconds later and the apartments had collapsed in a spectacular, muddy mess as the pipes burst and bricks crumpled. When the dust had cleared, Skye stood alone in the center of destruction completely unharmed except for a trickle of blood running from her nose. The other residents hadn’t been so lucky.

“Not very, I guess.” Skye tried to shake of the memory of her neighbors moaning in pain and focus back on the place she was then. The woman’s next question didn’t help that at all.

“You want to tell me what happened back there?”

“The building collapsed.” Skye mumbled. “I know you want to know how but I don’t know. Everything was fine one second and in pieces the next.”

“Except everything wasn’t fine, was it?” Skye doesn’t think she likes the knowing glint in the other woman’s eye. “Not when you’re behind on rent and highly emotional after learning some disturbing news.”

“I didn’t do this.” Skye says, an uncomfortable weight settling in her stomach at the veiled accusation.

“Maybe not on purpose,” the woman concedes lightly, “but how else would you be the only one uninjured?”

“Luck?”

“You don’t believe that, do you Skye?” The woman quirked one eyebrow, looking for a reaction from Skye at the use of her name.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Agent Melinda May. I work for the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Logistics Division.”

“Never heard of it.” Skye said. Agent May shook her head.

“You have, recently at that. Looking through encrypted files.” Agent May left no room for argument and Skye knew she was busted. Looks like her promised invisible backdoor had been visible after all.

“What do you want from me?”

“We want you to join us.” Agent May says simply.

“Right,” Skye drawls sarcastically, stretching out the last syllable.

“I’m serious, Skye.” Agent May remains completely straight faced as she continues speaking. “We need someone with your attributes.”

“What attributes? The ability to knock down a building?” Skye scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest with a disbelieving huff. May remains silent, watching Skye with a critical eye. A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed before Skye speaks again. “What do you want from me?”

“We want you to train up, but your skills to use.” Skye watches as Agent May leans forward in her seat, resting her forearms on the table. “I know you’re scared and confused. You want answers. We can help you get them, give you a home and purpose while we’re at it. What have you got to lose?”

Nothing. Skye didn’t have anything to lose. No family, no home, nothing but a beat-up backpack and a few sets of clothes. And here was the people she had been looking for answers from, willing to give them to her. For a price, sure, but Skye already had nothing to her name. There wasn’t anything else they could take from her.

“Okay,” Skye agrees after a few minutes of consideration during which Agent May had waited patiently. “I’ll come with you. I’ll train.” Agent May nods like she had expected no other answer. Rising from her seat, May pauses when Skye calls her name. “Why me?”

It’s easy enough for May to read between the lines of Skye’s question. Why choose and orphan with a less than stellar record? Why keep those files a secret? Why choose Skye when there were a million other more qualified people?

“You’ve got potential.” Is all May says before leaving the room with a promise to get Skye a place to sleep for the night. Skye feels lighter somehow, the smallest blossom of her rising in her chest.

Joining a government agency requires far more paperwork than Skye expected, which was really something as Skye had expected quite a bit of paperwork in the first place. By the time she finishes with the plethora of legal documents, disclosures and medical forms required, Skye would be happy to never see a pen again. They do have one slight hiccup when it comes to Skye’s name, the issue being that Skye isn’t her legal name. Since she refuses to go by anything other than Skye, another form is required to legally change her name. A little more paperwork later and Shield Academy of Operations gains another cadet by the name of Skye Johnson.

A week later, outfitted with a few new items of clothing and the standard issue supplies given to all first-year academy students, Skye begins the process of moving in to her new dorm. It doesn’t take long for Skye to unpack her meager belongings and she finishes long before the other new students, before her new roommate even arrives. Absent any bedding or toiletries, since all of hers had been destroyed when the building collapses, and with a little bit of money saved up from trying to get together several months’ worth of rent at once, Skye decides to catch a bus to the nearest town.

She picks up a couple of black and grey bedding sets, along with a few good pillows and soft plush blanket that had been too nice to resist before moving to the toiletry section and stocking up there as well. Skye also decides to get an alarm clock and a few other general school supplies, along with a set of luggage that comes with a large duffle bag and a good-sized backpack. Finally, after passing on a leather jacket and grabbing a simple hoodie instead, and a set of shower shoes and some good towels, Skye makes her way to the bus stop and heads back to the academy.

The halls are slightly less crowded when she returns. The parents had all left but the students are milling about in the halls, with most of the dorm room doors open. The door to Skye’s own room is one of the ones open so she makes her way there and steps inside, setting her bags down near her bed before going back and pushing the door closed. As she makes her way back to her bed to finish unpacking, Skye notices the new additions to the room that seem to be courtesy of her new roommate. They mostly consist of a few inspirational posters, a pastel bedspread, and a full periodic table hanging above the bed.

“Oh hello,” Skye turns towards the sound of the accented voice coming from the doorway to the bathroom. “I wondered where you had gone off to. For a moment, I worried that I wouldn’t have a roommate but then I noticed you had your desk set up to I thought you must have stepped out for a moment. I do hope you don’t mind the posters I’ve hung up. I always find their sayings so encouraging.”

“No, they’re fine,” Skye says when her new roomie pauses to take a breath after her babble. “I don’t mind them.”

“Oh wonderful,” the girls offers Skye a smile, one that Skye returns bemusedly.

“I’m Skye,” she says when it becomes apparent that the other girl isn’t going to begin introductions. “Skye Johnson.” She hopes the British girl doesn’t hear the awkward way her new last name falls from her lips.

“Jemma Simmons,” comes the reply as her roommate approaches Skye for a handshake. “I think this is going to be just fantastic, don’t you?”

Skye takes a moment to study Jemma, taking in her pressed cardigan and sensible shoes. She reminds Skye of one of the kids she had met in a foster home as a kid, a piano prodigy that Skye had thought was stuck up and spoiled when they met. Somehow, she didn’t think Jemma would be the same as that kid. Skye offers a half-smile, not quite sure what to make of the girl she’ll be living with for the next eight months. “I hope it is.”

Jemma smiles in return before letting go of Skye’s hand and heading back to finish whatever she had been doing in the bathroom before Skye arrived. She finishes the task quickly, hanging a new shower curtain apparently, and then helps Skye finish getting her bed set up. Jemma keeps up a running commentary as she and Skye fix up their room, talking about her flight from England and the classes she’s enrolled in, what she expects to get out of them. By the time they are done, Skye has learned that Jemma is enrolled of the Academy of Science and Technology, that Jemma already has two doctorates and that her favorite color is teal.

As they each settle into their own beds, Skye tries not to feel horribly outclassed when she admits that she never finished high school. There’s a slight pause in the conversation after the admission before Jemma moves right along with tangent about the merits and various meanings of the color purple, Skye’s favorite color. Finally, Skye reminds Jemma that they have an early start in the morning and they turn the lights off. The bed isn’t the most comfortable that Skye had ever slept on, but it wasn’t the worst either.

“I have a feeling we’re going to be great friends, you and I,” is the last thing Skye hears and she mumbled in agreement as her eyes fall closed.

The atmosphere at Shield Academy was unlike anything that Skye had ever known. The campus was filled with the greatest minds in her generation, doctors and engineers, chemists and biologist, and Jemma and Fitz who were somehow a combination of all four of those, plus the most athletic, strategic, and in some cases scariest people she’s ever met. The best part is, the majority of these people are like her, in that awkward stage between adolescence and adulthood in which the world expects them to have their life figured out and they barely know how to make toast. The result is an amusing mix of seriousness and light-heartedness, at least in the freshmen on campus, which lead to what was apparently a Shield tradition: prank wars. The prank war lasted for a full week and only ended after every new cadet had been pranked at least once. Jemma and Skye received one of the lighter pranks, Fitz and his roommate Mack snuck into their door and switched Jemma’s cardigans with t-shirts that had ridiculous sayings, and Skye’s flannels and jeans with horrendous Christmas sweaters. The girls retaliated by wrapping everything the boys owned in the brightest neon pink paper they could find. The four friends laughed about the incident, both Jemma and Skye keeping the new additions to their wardrobes.

Shield Academy’s hazing ritual over with, Skye settled into her first somewhat normal routine. She’d never had much of a routine to fall into, always bouncing from house to house, orphanage to orphanage. At St. Agnes, Skye had purposely rebelled against any sort of normalization the nuns tried to impose on her, enough so that they eventually left her to her own devices. At Shield, Skye had to adapt to the routine or perish, or fail out, both of which she refused to do. Her mornings started early with mandatory cardio and endurance training which translated to running laps until she puked and then running a few more after the fact. After that was time for a quick shower and breakfast, which she normally enjoyed with Jemma before they each separated for their own classes. The classes Skye took were vastly different from what her old high school counselor said they would be before Skye had dropped out of school. Instead of studying the core subjects, Skye learned the intricacies of espionage, everything from hand-to-hand combat to interrogation methods. Her morning classes focused on the type of information to gather and how to get it, from cameras, questioning, addressing security threats and learning how to fade into the background. After lunch, the classes shifted to the physical side of things with more intensity than the daily cardio and endurance training. This was when Skye studied any and all forms of hand-to-hand combat and weapons training, and how to move swiftly and silently while keeping her heart rate and emotions under control.

The last class Skye had each day was all about the technical side of espionage work, and after three weeks at the Academy, that was the only class Skye felt like she was making any real progress in. She did well physically, according to her trainers and Bobbi, the fourth year student assisting in Skye’s combat classes, but Skye didn’t think she had made any significant progress. Her morning classes were even worse. Skye went in to each lecture feeling lost and confused, a feeling that did change by the end of the lectures no matter how many notes she took.

One evening, while eating dinner with Jemma, Fitz, and Fitz’s roommate Mack, Jemma convinced Skye to admit her struggles in class. Skye tried every trick she could to get out of it, but Jemma wouldn’t let it go. Both girls looked over at Mack, confused, when he started to laugh.

“Okay, so I’m not the only one.” Mack said with another chuckle. “It’s those acronyms man. I can barely remember what SHIELD stands for.”

“See, I knew you wouldn’t be the only one struggling.” Jemma says with a smug smile. Skye had vehemently insisted that she was probably the only one in class trying to keep up that last time Jemma had gotten Skye to talk about it. Skye maturely stuck her tongue out at Jemma in response. “Study group time?”

“Please,” Mack nodded towards Skye. “I’ll email the rest of the class, see if anyone else wants to join.”

To Skye’s great surprise and Jemma’s smug satisfaction, several of Skye and Mack’s classmates were just as much trouble and thus began a new addition to Skye’s routine, spending a few hours a week in the library with her classmates going over lecture notes and making sure they all knew what they needed to. Sometimes, Skye’s group would meet up with Jemma’s and Ftiz’s study group and a round of good-natured teasing would begin. Apparently, it was strange for so many Operations and SciTech students to get along and they were on the receiving end of more than a few strange looks. It felt strange to Skye, to be surrounded by so much light energy while in the company of people who planned to dedicate their lives to working in the shadows. Then again, Skye had never had much experience with friends before. No one wanted to be friends with the orphan girl with a bad reputation. A few weeks at the Academy and Skye started to feel like maybe she really did belong with Shield. Her grades improved along with her physical abilities, to the point that her instructor had her working with Bobbi on advanced form in daily extra training sessions and she had a real friend group for the first time in her life.

She also had Jemma.

Maybe it was a product of living in the same room with Jemma. Afterall, they were bound to either hate or love one another as all roommates do, but Skye hadn’t expected this genuine fondness for Jemma to grow. She thinks it happened in their downtime, the small amount that they had since they were both on the fast track for graduation and that seemed more and more limited as time went on. As the semester progressed, Skye found herself looking forward to their Saturdays, the one day a week when they had any substantial time to relax, which she spent with Jemma watching the greatest science fiction show of all time. Skye could admit that Doctor Who was pretty cool, but she was looking forward to watching the newer runs rather than the older ones. Mostly, Skye enjoyed sitting in either her or Jemma’s bed with a laptop perched between them and listening to Jemma the actual theories behind the science The Doctor used. It was soothing somehow, listening to Jemma talk during these times. Half soothing and half amusing as Jemma spoke so fast she tripped over her words or mashed them together so badly, Skye couldn’t understand her at all.

Still, these times with Jemma were Skye’s favorite. She didn’t have to worry about her grades or form or strength. She didn’t have to wonder if she belonged at the academy or with Shield at all. With Jemma, Skye felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

Jemma finds that she immensely enjoys the routine she and Skye developed over their first eight weeks at the Academy and she is surprisingly disappointed when their first round of exams disrupts their days. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that Skye spends more time with the ever-changing roster of her study group, or working with her advanced combat instructor Bobbi (who Jemma hasn’t met but for some reason doesn't seem to be fond of) to make sure that she’s in top form for all her exams. Jemma herself increases the hours she spends in the lab with Fitz so it’s not like they could have spent that extra time together. Really, Jemma isn’t sure why not having Skye there at meal times is so upsetting to her. Fitz and Mack were in the same situation but neither of them seemed half as down as Jemma felt. In fact, Fitz seemed a bit more chipper than normal during their increased lab time.

Skye herself seemed tired and stressed but not as down as Jemma. She came into their room each night with a satisfied smile, greeting Jemma warmly before stepping on the bathroom for a quick shower. When she emerged, Skye would make her way over to Jemma’s side of the room they shared and take a seat on the edge of Jemma’s bed, careful to keep her wet hair from dripping onto Jemma’s blankets. Skye would smile down at Jemma, who usually sat at her desk reviewing notes, and tell her something that had happened that day, or a joke. Then, after making Jemma smile or laugh, Skye would ask about Jemma’s day and listen with a fond smile as her roommate began babbling about what she had been up to in the lab.

After a week of this, Jemma began to realize how different she felt around Skye. She had always felt a level of comfort around Skye, one that surprised her. She hadn’t felt so at ease with someone other than family, not even Fitz. With Fitz, there had been a period of adjustment, a time where they had to sort of feel one another out until they settled into their friendship. With Skye, it wasn’t that they clicked right away but that it simply felt different. Being around SKye made Jemma feel both calm and excited at the same time. Her aura was soothing and intoxicating all at once. Jemma enjoyed the evenings spent with Skye more than she thought she would, and finds herself looking forward to spending even more time with Skye.

Like they do every weekend, the Saturday after exams Skye and Jemma set up with some snacks and Skye’s ridiculously soft blanket to watch Doctor Who together. Skye, to sore to move much from her combat exam, groans as she opens her eyes when Jemma asks whose bed they should settle on.

“Jem, I don’t think I can move.” Skye hears Jemma’s laugh and turns her head to look at her. Jemma holds her laptop in one hand, looking at Skye with a fond sort of exasperation. “Just get over here.”

“Maybe we should just skip today,” Jemma says lightly. “I know you’re exhausted.”

“It’s tradition Jemma.” Skye rolls her eyes. “We both know you’re going to graduate early so we only have a year to enjoy this, less than that now.” Skye looks at her roommate through half-open eyes. A sliver of light catches the color of Jemma’s eyes and makes them seem sparkly. Or maybe Skye’s just really tired. “Just c’mere. We just need to lay down instead of sitting up.”

“Okay, okay, if you insist.” Jemma agrees, rolling her eyes at Skye’s vehement statement that she does, in fact, insist.

Jemma fights the blush that rises on her cheeks as she crawls into Skye’s bed after Skye scoots back towards the wall. The bed is far too small for the two of them to comfortably lay down this way, but Skye doesn’t seem to mind. They set the laptop across Skye’s legs and Jemma lays on her side with Skye’s shoulder acting as her pillow. Jemma tries to ignore the flutters in her stomach that rise suddenly and keep her normal running commentary of the show going. If that commentary is a little less energetic than normal Skye doesn’t notice, she’s far too busy snoozing the day away. It’s hard for her to not fall asleep, not only does she hurt in places she hadn’t since her first week at the Academy, she had Jemma right next to her. Jemma, who is warm and smells like earl grey and lavender and whose voice Skye had already found soothing even when she wasn’t exhausted. Once she notices that Skye had fallen back asleep, Jemma forgoes her normal commentary in favor of trying to keep herself perfectly still and calm. Skye shifts a bit in her sleep and her arm curls around Jemma’s shoulder, drawing them closer together. It’s when Jemma is trying to keep her heart from beating out of her chest that the realization hits her.

She isn’t sure how or when it happened, but she can’t deny that it has happened. Jemma, without realizing it had formed a crush on Skye.

And she has absolutely no idea how to deal with it.

A few weeks after mid semester exams, Skye notices Jemma acting a little differently. It's the little things that Skye picks up on, like Jemma sitting a little further away from Skye when they eat together, or Jemma not holding eye contact with Skye for longer than a few seconds. These things don’t strike Skye as odd, at least not enough to make her question it until she notices that Jemma only acts weird when they are around their friends. When it’s just the two of them alone in their dorm, Jemma seems to have no issue being close to Skye. They continue cuddling up together on weekends to watch movies together after Skye tires of watching the same thing every week. Jemma seems much more relaxed during those times, like she can breathe a little easier. Noticing this, Skye begins to discreetly observe Jemma during their interactions with their friends. A few days of watching Jemma tense up and listening to her increasing babbles, Skye connects each instance back to one common denominator. Or, rather, one common person.

Fitz.

Jemma must have a crush on Fitz.

The realization hits Skye in the middle of dinner and she stands abruptly.

“Skye?” Jemma asks in confusion as Skye begins to gather up her tray and step away from the table.

“Sorry, I have a question for Bobbi,” the hastily made up excuse rolls of her tongue. She can’t be near Jemma right then, not with the knowledge of Jemma’s crush fresh on her mind. She isn’t so sure why her realization feels like a stab to the heart. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Bye, Skye,” Fitz says with a cheery smile and a friendly wave. Skye pauses for half a second before smiling back at him and walking off. Her three friends watch as Skye dumps her tray in the receptacle near the door and walks out.

“That was weird.” Mack comments lightly, noticing that Fitz seems wholly unaffected by Skye’s abrupt departure. Jemma, on the other hand, sports a small frown and merely picks at her meal for a moment before leaving herself. Watching Jemma leave, Mack laughs lightly.

“They had no idea.” Mack says, mostly to himself but Fitz hears as well.

“You see it too?” There’s a sad lilt to Fitz’s voice.

“Yeah,” Mack pats his roommate on the shoulder. “Sorry, bud.”

“It’s okay.” Fitz mumbles, fully aware that Mack was talking about the crush Fitz himself had on Jemma. “I think they’ll be good together, if they ever figure it out.”

Mack agreed but didn’t vocalize it. He knew Fitz was putting on a brave face, but the Scottish man was devastated Jemma didn’t return his affections.

After that incident at dinner, Skye kept to herself for the last four weeks of her first semester at the Academy. Now that she was aware of Jemma’s feelings for Fitz, it became much easier to ignore her own growing feelings for her roommate. It helped that Skye had been approved to move ahead a year in the program since she had shown such promise as a field agent and her work load nearly tripled so Skye didn’t have much time to worry about anything other than her assignments. Jemma was spending less time in the dorm as well as finals approached, which made avoiding the situation that much easier. Skye was able to use studying for her increased tests as an excuse to cut their Saturday marathon sessions short, which helped her resist the urge to bring up Jemma’s crush, or do something really stupid like kiss Jemma herself and admit her own feelings.

The end of the semester approached rapidly and before either of them realized it was passing so fast, they were spending their last Saturday in their room together before the Christmas holidays. Skye would be spending the next two and half weeks alone in their dorm as one of the few students who’d elected to stay on campus for the holidays. Jemma would be travelling back to England in the morning to spend Christmas and New Year’s with her family.

There was an air of awkwardness around them as they curled up in Skye’s bed to watch The Grinch together in honor of the Christmas season. Things hadn’t felt quite right between them since that day in the cafeteria, Skye hoped that spending some time apart would help ease the tension a bit and maybe help her get over her crush or, at the very least, get her feelings under better control.

“You excited to see your family?” Skye asks after the movie ends, while Jemma busies herself with finishing packing for her trip. Skye pretends not to notice that Jemma had slipped one of the horrible Christmas sweaters that Fitz and Mack had pranked them with at the beginning of the semester into her bag along with a few of her other cardigans.

“Yes, of course,” Jemma smiled, “though I’m not looking forward to the flights. Horrible jetlag.”

“I’ll bet.” Skye laughed. Shuffling her feet nervously, Skye pulled a medium sized wrapped box from beneath her bed and held it with both hands. She suddenly felt nervous at the thought of presenting Jemma with the present, but she refused to back down. “Hey, Jem?”

“What is it? What’s that?” Jemma asked upon turning around and spotting the box in Skye’s hands.

“I got you something. It’s not much but, well, I thought since we aren’t going to see each other until after Christmas, you can have it now.” Skye explained, hating the unsure quality to her voice. Jemma looked at Skye with soft eyes, turning to rummage in her own des for a moment before facing Skye again with a smaller box in her own hands.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Jemma said and held out the box for Skye to take.

Presents exchanged, Skye gestured for Jemma to open hers first. Jemma did so and pulled out a soft, white blanket, identical to the one currently draped across the back of Skye’s desk chair on the other side of the room. Jemma smiles slightly and runs her fingers across the impossibly soft blanket.

“I noticed that you get cold easily.” Skye explains with a faint blush covering her cheeks. “And that you love to steal my blanket when we watch t.v. and stuff together. Now we’ll have one on both sides of the room.”

Jemma laughed quietly, placing the folded blanket in her travel bag before turning back Skye and pulling her into a hug. Jemma was surprised and touched that Skye had noticed such a small detail about her, and the simple gift warmed her heart. “Thank you Skye, I love it.”

“You’re welcome, Jem.” Skye tried to ignore how right it felt to hold Jemma in her arms and simply squeezed her around the waist once before letting go.

“Now you,” Jemma picked up the box containing her gift to Skye and pushed it into her hands. Skye pulled the wrapping paper off and opened the box. Inside, she found a silver chain with an embossed pendant that contained an image of a starry night sky.

“I remember what you said about the stars,” Jemma explained, taking the necklace out of the box and helping Skye put it on. “How you could see them through the window at St. Agnes and it helped you not feel so alone.”

Skye played with the pendant now hanging from her neck, remembering the night she had told Jemma about that. They had been walking from the library to the dorms with the stars shining brightly overhead. There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. The story about her childhood had fallen from Skye’s lips before she could stop it and she had waited for the pitying remark life had taught her to expect. It never came. Jemma had simply agreed on the beauty of the stars before they continued on their way. Now in their dorm, Skye turned back to Jemma who was wearing a nervous smile.

“Now you can see the stars all the time.” Jemma finishes the explanation and twists her fingers together as she waits for Skye’s reaction.

Skye wants to kiss her, every part of her feels as if she’s reaching for Jemma. She’s close enough that Skye could do it, could close the few inches between them. She’d barely have to move to do it. Skye glances down at Jemma’s lips and for a second she throws caution to the wind. She starts to lean in but then, she remembers Jemma’s crush on Fitz and at the last second changes the angle she’s moving at. Her lips land on Jemma’s cheek instead of her lips and Skye tries not to drown in the crushing weight of her own disappointment. Instead, Skye wraps her arms and Jemma again and acts as if she had never intended to do anything other than hug Jemma.

“Merry Christmas, Jem.”

“Merry Christmas, Skye.”

#skimmons #bioquake #my fics #college au #shield academy au #ambs writes #meant to post this last night #but i posted this on ao3 at like 1 am #whoops #sleep? i don't know her #long post

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ilosttrackofthings · 7 years ago

Note

No backsies. for biospecialist, please!

So. There is zero Jemma in this, though she does get discussed. I doubt you’ll mind though. <3

Hicks holds theoffice door open for Skye and she makes a point of stomping acrossGrant’s office (six months ago it was John’s office; the books onthe shelves are all his favorites with dog eared pages and there aredays just looking at them leaves Grant’s throat tight) beforeflopping into the empty chair in front of his desk.

“If your guarddog keeps looking at my ass,” she says, “I’m gonna kill him.”

Grant just smiles.“Hicks? Back off.”

He hesitates,looking between Grant and Skye. “Sir, Markham said-”

“I know whatMarkham said,” Grant says, letting his amusement sharpen his voice,“I’m telling you to getlost.”

Hickshesitates another second. Grant gets it. He does. His people areloyal and they’re not eager to leave him alone with a woman whojust twenty-four hours ago was firing a gun at them in general and him in particular. But that loyaltyalso means they follow his orders and after a moment’s moreconsideration, Hicks leaves.

“Sohow’s the team?” Grant asks.

“Theyhate you,” Skye says, putting her feet up on the desk.

Nota surprise—the casual move or their hatred. He burned a lot ofbridges with them in the days following the uprising. Not to mentionhe turned down Coulson’s offer to “become a better man” andinstead took up CyberTek’s reigns in John’s memory.

Asfor Skye’s invasion of his desk, she likes pushing the envelope onpropriety during these visits. Payback, he thinks, for all those months he spent runningher ragged with training. She likes to forget he tried to talk her out of it, told her to go the communications route, but noooo, she just had to take May’s bait and go the ops track. Admittedly, he maybe had a little too much fun making her suffer for that bad decision.

“Coulson’sholed up in his office most days—or he’s running all over theworld picking up stray agents.”

“Hego alone?”

She nods. “May runs things while he’s gone.”

If SHIELD’s transportation issued had improved, she would’ve said, that means Coulson’s flying commercial. Grantmakes a mental note to have Repin work something up for airportsurveillance. Coulson’s too good to use his real name but no way hecan avoid every camera in a place like that. Ifthey can get him alone, that could change everything.

“Andhow is May?” he asks, rubbing a hand over his throat. Itstill stings when heeats sometimes.

Skyescowls. “She’s training me. I miss you.”

“I’llbet you do.”

“Butshe’s also got a husband.”

Grantstares. “A what now?”

“Anex,” Skye explains like it should’ve been obvious. “I guessthings ended badly but not so badly he didn’t dropeverything the second she called.”

Interesting. “Whatis he? A specialist?” Grant knew May had an ex when he joined theteam but John was sure the only man who mattered in her life wasCoulson; Grant didn’t even bother cracking the guy’s file.

Skyelooks like she might laugh. “Nope. A shrink. He’s helping Fitz.”

He scoffs. “What does Fitz need a therapist for?”

Nowher expression darkens. “Well there’s the prosthetic leg‘cause some asshole put a bullet in his knee.”

Grantshrugs, unapologetic. “He knew what he was risking. He’s lucky Itook care of it quick before John could recover well enough to orderme to shoot him somewhere more permanent.”

Sherolls her eyes. “Yeah, well, on top of that he’s kinda lost it on account of his best friend was kidnapped by his worst enemy.”

Right.That. He smiles to himself, leaning back a little in his chair. He’seven less sorry for that than he is for the bullet.

“Bythe way, do you have to dothat?” she asks.

“Dowhat?”

She’sunamused by his innocent expression. “Say all that crap abouthurting her. Wouldn’t it hurt them just as bad to know she’s withyou willingly?”

He sighs. He’s gotta admit, some of his insinuations—and hell,forget insinuations, some of the stuff he’s outright said—aboutJemma are pretty foul. He’s not surprised it bugs Skye to hearand if anyone else said the things he does about her, he’d shootthem without hesitation, but is it his fault if the team’s expressions arehilarious?

“Theywant you dead,” Skye says. “Like, seriouslydead. Even the new guy, Hunter? He never met Jemma and he’s come upwith at least fiveplans to murder you slowly.”

“Ithink I can handle it,” Grant says, hiding another smile. Turns outit’s not just the members of his inner circle here on base who areprotective, his favorite spy is too. He’s almost touched.

“You’dbetter because Coulson says he’s got a plan-”

“Yeah,I know.” He slides her copies of the documents left waiting at hisdecoy base this morning. Her boots hit the floor hard and she snatches the file up. He can practically read he words on herexpression as she flips through.

The long and short of it is Coulsonwants Jemma back. Bad enough he’s willing to deal. Thatraid yesterday? Coulson’s offering Grant half the haul that SHIELDkept out of his reach. It’s the lamehalf—no weapons and everything alien in it is worthless—but it’sstill a big concession for one agent.

It’salso pretty definitely a trap.

“No!”Skye yells, slamming the file down and leaping to her feet. “Nobacksies, Grant Ward! You are nottrading Jemma back to SHIELD!”

Shelooms over him, fire in her eyes, the promise of violence in everyinch of her.

It’s kinda adorable.

“Stoplaughing!” she demands. “I mean it! I will kill you sodead!”

Hebraces himself on his desk, pulling himself back together. “No,it’s fine.” That’s mostly for Hicks, who’s reappeared in thedoorway. To Skye he says, “I’m not trading Jemma to anyone,least of all SHIELD.”

“Good!”Skye sits on the edge of her seat, back ram-rod straight while shelooks down her nose at him. “I spent monthsturning her for you-”

“Idid some work too, you know.” He is the one who got her to fall forhim back on the Bus.

“Yeah,and who’s the one who played her just rightafter you went and fucked up your cover so she’d feel sympathetic?While you were off building up Hydra and sowing chaos and kickingpuppies, I was the one making sure Jemma remembered how much sheloved you. She may have left SHIELDfor you, but I’m theone who showed her the door.”

“AndI appreciate that,” Grant says. More than words can say. He’sconfident he would have eventually won Jemma back over on his own,but the sacrifice Skye made maintaining her own cover after theuprising put Jemma back in his arms that much sooner. He owes her alot. It’s with that in mind he asks, “You wanna see her?”

Hopewipes all that bright anger away, but it’s quickly replaced by her usualmask. “No. I can’t come back yet and you know she won’t take it well-”

Jemmadoesn’t know about Skye’s manipulations because she has no ideashe’s a double agent. It was Skye’s idea to hold off on tellingher until she was made, pretend she just followed Jemma and notthat she’s always been a member of Centipede.Personally Grant thinks that’s a shit plan, sure to blow up in herface down the road, but he does owe her – enough he’s willing tostay out of their relationship if that’s what Skye wants.

“Isaid see her,” hesays gently. “She’ll never know you’re there.” Jemma’s labhas a false window on the east wall; Skye can watch her from thereand no one will be the wiser.

Skyehesitates another second but her expression says her answer beforeshe does. She’s missed Jemma and this is too good a possibility topass up.

“Yeah,”she says softly. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

AsGrant rounds the desk to join her—no reason he can’t look in onJemma too; maybe he’ll even steal her away from her work after—heasks, “How’s that looking? SHIELD still in the dark?”

Skyegives him a judgmental look. “The rest of Hydra might have beencaught with their pants down but there was never any way the RisingTide was gonna get exposed by a hack. Nothing showing any connectionto us was even in that data dump.”

“Good.”He holds the door open for her and gives Hicks a keep yourdistance look before he can fallinto step too closely behind them. “I’dhate to lose my favorite asset.”

“Yes,you would,” Skye agrees, marching on ahead like she’sthe one in charge.

Grantjust holds back a chuckle and follows. Despite how useful she is inSHIELD, he hopes she comes back permanently sooner rather than later.He misses her. And he knows it’ll make all the difference in theworld to Jemma to have her here.

#biospecialist #my fic #*td #ask fic #biospec fic #shineyma

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