#raina doesn’t care but does like holding hands

[empurpliing]

[jamiedc-they-them]

Being the SHIELD ladies’ best friend would include:

DAISY

You meet her when she is named Skye.

There is, almost, an innocence to her. One that you want to help keep for as long as you can. So, you play the better cop, not being too aggressive to her. Your kind.

She looks at you without the hardened, protective gaze. It almost softens a little at you.

Seems the term fast friends just got an upgrade

As you go on the mission to get Mike, you go with her to the van. Sadly, to be knocked out.

As Mike orders her to drive, she asks him, “Y/N is ok, right?”

Mike is perplexed but assures her you’re ok.

When you find her at the station, you are quick to intervene and protect her.

When the whole situation is delt with, you go with her and Coulson to make sure Ace is ok.

She then pulls you aside when you arrive to the hanger: “Can you…can you help me unpack the van?”

You accept. Wanting to make her entrance to this crazy, crazy world of SHIELD as seamless as possible.

You give her a sad smile when she calls the van ‘home’.

Fitzsimmons get her to her room, but you visit her, making sure she is ok.

As you go on about more and more missions, you both just seem to act like you’ve been best friends for years.

You can tell by the how attached to you she gets, that she’s always wanted a best friend.

So, you’re damn sure you’re going to make sure you’re the best one she can ask for.

It’s small gestures from both sides that make it unique; checking up on each other after training, sitting on the sofa in the living area together, not even talking, just in each others company; if one of you has a bad day, the other will check up on them.

She’s just as committed to the friendship as you are.

You get hurt on a mission one time, and she sits by you, pretty much blowing off training to stay by your side as you recover.

Ward, in any other situation, would be pissed, but he lets it slide.

She gets you anything you need for recovery, even doing extra training to make sure it doesn’t happen to you again.

“Y/N wouldn’t of been hurt if I had been there to have their back.”

“Skye, it wasn’t your –”

“I know, Ward. It just – it sucks. Seeing someone you care about get hurt like that. I’m done with that.”

So, she pushes herself more and more.

You do get better. And the first thing she does is tackle you in a hug (like, as strong as the one she gave Jemma when she nearly died).

Then you find out why she joined SHIELD, to find more about her family.

You don’t say anything when she leaves Coulson’s office, just sit with her.

She holds your hand for support, and you just give it a squeeze. A silent “I’m here.”

After that day, she trusts you completely. With everything she’s got.

She makes a decision then and there, that you the sibling she’s never had.

Before you ever go off on a mission, she’s always there to see you off. She hugs you tight, just asking for you to be careful and make it back safe.

And when you do return, she hugs you just as tightly. In fact, she’s most likely waiting for you.

Then she gets hurt. She’s near death thanks to Ian Quinn.

The whole time, you don’t really register anything. You are almost on autopilot.

You don’t really remember anything; just finding her and then being in the room with Quinn and beating him senseless.

You go on the raid to save her, to find what can save her, and you’re ruthless.

When you get it and she’s deemed safe, by Jemma, you are sat by her side.

The tables are reversed, and you are covered in blood that isn’t your own, but you don’t care.

Coulson, however, does make you clean yourself up. If not for yourself, than for Skye.

When she wakes, you’re asleep by her side.

She smiles, both at your adorably, vulnerable state, and about how you stayed with her.

She grabs your hand that is on the railing, knowing that you are tactile. With hugs, and what not.

It wakes you up, but you calm down once you see it’s her.

You sit for hours, talking and catching up. You smile so big; your best friend is back alive.

You see how she throws herself into training more and more now.

You both seem to; both out of a general want to be better as an agent, but also to fight better together when it comes to that time.

It just so happens, that she is able to beat you in one of your fights. And you are so damn proud of her.

When Skye gets her badge, you hang back, waiting until it is just the two of you.

You hug her. It’s silent, but there are no words needed.

Then SHIELD collapses.

You’re separated from her when it happens; she goes with Ward, you go with Coulson and the others.

You get a bit banged up in the fight, but make it out.

She approaches you, worry in her eyes as to what is going on and how you are handling it.

After all, you’re whole world has just gone up in flames.

You are tearful in this moment, and she wraps her arms around you, just holding you tight.

The roles are almost flipped at this point.

Now, she is the one who keeps an extra eye on you.

She see’s that you’re repressing some of this, taking out other parts of it on the team and HYDRA.

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” She tells you when she takes your badge.

“It’s not your fault, Skye.”

“I know. But, we’re gonna fix it.” She assures you. And there is a firmness in her tone. One that you so desperately want to believe.

As the others go out on the mission to find the escape convicts, you stay with Skye.

Actually, it’s more by her own insistence.

“Y/N is one of my best agents, Skye.” Coulson says.

“I understand that, sir. But…they need a break.” She argues.

Coulson admits the point she has, and so orders you to stay.

That, however, gets you stabbed by Grant Ward.

He leaves you for dead, but does tell you he has left you with a chance.

When Skye finds Eric, her next thought is you. Especially after seeing the message Fitz leaves behind.

However, before she can get to you, she sees Ward.

“W-Where’s Y/N?” She asks, trying to stop the tremor in her voice.

“They’re fine. They said they’d hold down the fort while we go.” Ward says.

She goes to say more, but knows that it’ll raise suspicion.

She leaves with him, but her worry for you only continues as they take off and leave.

Ward then comes clean, in a slip up.

“And Y/N?”

“I gave them a chance, Skye! What they do with it is up to them!” He roars, but then realises his mistake.

“—What?” She asks, shocked.

“I—I did what I had to do. But, I gave them a chance. Me and them? We’re survivors. It’s what we do.” He’s saying it to make himself believe it.

When she gets away and goes to the motel, Jemma tells her where you are.

She goes to your room, seeing you sat on your bed.

She doesn’t know whether to run and hug you, or just sit next to you.

She sits next to you, looking at the wound he has left behind.

If you were spiraling before, this would be the climax of that.

She sees how shattered you are. How much this has worn you out.

So, she does the only thing she can, she grabs your hand and stays with you.

You know you are on your own know with taking HYDRA down. But, you have each other.

When it comes to the endgame, you are with her. And you both confront Ward, together.

“Y/N, I mean it when I say this, it’s good to see you.” Ward says, with some scincerity in his voice.

“You don’t get to say that to them. You just look at me, Ward.” Skye spits, putting herself in front of you more as a shield (ha).

Ward is almost impressed. But, you knew she would make a good agent.

Now you were together, SHIELD partners.

You both get Ace out together.

As time goes in, Skye see’s a difference in you.

You’ve become more determined. You’ve almost become a shell of who you were.

You throw yourself into work more. You don’t talk as much. You’re almost dead serious now.

Skye, knowing that confronting you won’t work, does other things to show her support for you:

Be that leaving food outside your room, staying up late to make sure you’re ok, radioing you when available for a talk (or sometimes so she can vent about something and just have you listen).

She starts to get you out of that shell a bit, with going on missions with you and keeping an eye on you.

Then she meets her father, and now she has a choice: SHIELD or her father.

When She confronts Raina, you run into the tomb with Tripp.

It becomes his. But you’re lucky.

She has the player to push away with her Quaking, you pull things towards yourself.

You both get taken to the home in the middle of nowhere.

It gives you time to both get used to your powers and also get your friendship back to where it was.

And it works. It’s peaceful.

That is, until Gordan others you a place to be. And SHIELD come after for you both.

You both fight a different agent, but you’re in sync like no others. You both slam the bodies of your opponents against each other.

When the bullet goes off and she Quakes it away, she puts herself in front of you to do it, making sure it doesn’t effect you.

When she meets her mother, she swears you to secrecy and lets you know.

You promise to keep it between yourself and her.

It’s on this day that a special event occurs in your friendship.

She takes you to see her parents. At first, they think it might be a dating scenario. But she’s quick to shoot it down:

“This is Y/N…They’re pretty much my sibling.”

You get teary eyed at the admission

However, her parents (while at first, taken aback) seem to welcome you in just fine.

Now, it’s not just her caught between these people who are like the two of you, and those at home that you love.

Her parents make extra effort with you, putting in the work to get to know you.

And, in telling you Skye’s true name of Daisy, it seems the trust has been successfully found with them.

She’s ecstatic when she hears about it.

Then you go to get Lincoln back, someone who has become a friend to you.

And, like clockwork, you’re both in sync, now with your powers in the mix. You’re an unstoppable force.

However, like a rhyme, your world comes crashing down again. This time, apprantly from those you loved back at home.

It’s a mess, with certain agents wanting to take you down, and others wanting to take you in with ICERS.

Daisy Quake’s a bullet back to a agent, not even caring if it’s a kill shot.

When it comes to May, it’s a team up. And, while the woman holds her own, you both take her down.

When you’re taken in and her mother reveals her true plan, Daisy and you know you have to stop it.

So, you team up against the clones; you split them up.

As May pushes Daisy to go for her mother, you give her the nod that tells her to go.

After it’s all done, you embrace her, knowing she has now lost her two parents.

However, she shows you the plan Coulson has for the team of Inhumans:

“I want you as my second in command. Just in case something happens to me. I need you by my side, Y/N. You’re my sibling, not by blood, but by choice, and that means something to me.”

“It means a hell of a lot to me too, Dais. You need me there, I’ll be there. All the way.”

And so, you gain a third SHIELD partner of Mack, who plays big brother to you both.

It’s nice; having this family unit.

Of course, you and Daisy are as efficient as ever. If not more.

You’ve both now had time to hone your abilities and so you both kick more arse with them.

Mack swears you two have telepathy or something. With the way you both seem to know what the other will do without any verbal need to express them before hand.

However, he loves that you both have that gift, and does find it extremely useful in the field.

As Daisy holds the portal open for Fitz, when he jumps into it, you use your power to hold everything else in place.

It nearly kills you both, something Coulson scolds you for. But, it means getting Jemma out.

You both, when being questioned by Coulson, try to comfort him.

As much as he is war mode, he makes a note of the similarities that are eery with you both.

Again, when it comes to the portal, despite how you might actually die this time, you both stay.

You’re partners, to the end.

Of course, you all get out.

It’s not long before that team you’ve been working towards is activated.

Despite some slip ups, you all get through it. With Daisy going one way, you another.

As the rest of the team leaves, Daisy pulls you aside:

“Good team, huh?”

“Gotta admit, they aren’t bad.”

“I’m proud of you, Y/N. And, thanks for having my back.”

“Of course, Daisy. Where you go, I go, right?” She nods.

“Where you go, I go.”

….Then, Hive happens.

You feel the shakes, quickly darting out of your room.

However, it’s Mack who stops you, proclaiming that you’d only get yourself killed.

You, like Coulson, are desperate for anything that can get her back.

When out, chasing a lead, you run into her.

It’s a grizzly fight. It’s not SHIELD approved at all. It’s almost like a street fight with the moves.

It’s not clean. It’s filled with emotion; hate, love, worry.

In the end, she pins you down:

“Stay out of this, Y/N. I’ve told him to leave you alone for now. But, don’t push it. I’m only trying to help you!”

“By pinning me to the ground?”

“By keeping you alive. I’m not losing you, Y/N.”

When she hurts Mack, you desperately try to make yourself not be mad at her.

Hell, even Jemma talks to you about it.

“It’s ok if you are angry, Y/N. She’s my friend too, but…It’s ok to be hurt by this.”

And so, you let yourself be.

You let yourself feel the pain of losing your best friend; your sister in all but blood.

Then she’s back and it’s…different.

She’s drained. It’s almost like seeing how you were after SHIELD fell.

You know that seeing her would do no good for her, so you keep your distance.

You show your support mainly through bringing food.

It’s the small gestures that count.

When it comes to the final fight, you have to hold her back when she goes to stop Lincoln.

She fights against you, but finally tires herself out and instead runs for the radio.

You can only watch as your best friend breaks down completely.

You do, later, in private. At all you’ve been through in the short few years after meeting her.

However, if leaving her to her own devices caused this, you are going to fix that.

So, when she goes to get into her van, she pauses when she see’s you in the driver’s seat:

“What the hell?” She’s angry.

“You really think I’d let you do this alone?”

“I’m not letting you get hurt by another one of my mistakes –”

“I already am hurt by all this, Daisy. I shouldn’t have let you alone.”

So, you both become two majorly depressed, borderline suicidal friends that either ignore your pain or use it to fuel yourself.

You both hurt from one majorly similar thing, and a different thing;

For you, it’s not blame for not doing enough; for Daisy, the team, and Lincoln.

For Daisy, it’s causing you and the rest that pain.

There’s an unwritten rule; don’t talk about it.

There’s not a lot of chatter, unless it’s about whatever “op” you’re running.

Most of the time, one of you ends up with some bad scrape.

But, you both keep pushing.

You need to stop the watch dogs, and yourselves.

When Jemma finds you both bleeding in her new house, she’s both shocked and hurt:

“Six months of nothing, and this is our hello?”

One thing she can clearly see is that you both are not in good headspaces, at all.

She told you to let yourself be hurt and feel it; she just wasn’t aware of how much hurt there truly was.

However, she has a sneaking suspicion that Daisy does know.

She teams up with you, despite knowing the damage you two are willing to put yourselves in.

When you get outed, you and Daisy share a look. You then look to Jemma, who gets ready.

As Daisy slams her hand into the floor, pushing them away, you hold out your hand and slam a few into the ground.

That is your signature move, in a way.

As you are both forced back to SHIELD, you both still only really fully trust each other. Or, rather, let yourself be around the other.

You both still push away help, despite advising the other not to do that. Ironic.

You both share a room now. Both seem to be only interested in wallowing in your darkness together.

However, as time goes on, things start to look up for you and your best friend:

You get reinstated, you get to argue your case, and you go back into the fold again.

You both also, kind of, starting asking for help when it’s desperately needed.

Granted, it’s normally motivated by one or the other being in that type of need, but still.

It’s progress

Then you, her, and Jemma all get plugged into the framework.

It’s a whole other ball game.

You died in this life, like Jemma.

In fact, that’s how Daisy finds you both, having both been in the same grave.

Her heart stopped when she saw you both were dead.

Two siblings to her, both gone, apparently.

But, you were both alive and well and came together as your own trio.

When she used to with you well on your missions for SHIELD, you do the same when she goes undercover at HYDRA.

It’s odd, as Jemma later tells you, how you both seem to constantly flip between who does things like that in your friendship.

You see that Ward is back, and this time a genuine one.

This one even apologises for what the real him did. So, that’s a bonus.

She forces him to know, but this is before she see’s he’s a good guy. It’s actually one of the things that helps her realise it

Then comes space. Jesus, space.

Kasius uses you, like Jemma, as motivation for Daisy.

And it works like a charm.

She fights, putting herself through hell just for the chance of you both making it out alive.

When it comes to the escape, you use your power to drag her opponent away from her so you can deliver a blow to the woman.

You take over for Daisy in the fight.

However, when you’re knocked down, Daisy Quakes her away.

No one fucks with her family.

When she finds out what happened to the earth, she gets told something that makes her freeze:

“Y/N Johnson was never there.”

She keeps this from you, giving you glances whenever you aren’t looking.

It’s one of the reasons she tries to give herself up.

Back on earth, she’s more cautious, yet overly protective of you.

She tries to keep you back at base as much as she can.

She always tries to play it off as needing your help with the tech (which she does fine useful), but you can tell something else is going on.

You confront on it the day before the event:

“Daisy, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, keeping me here all the time, cooped up?”

“I—I’m not.”

“You know this whole, ‘read you like a book’ thing goes two ways, right?”

You’ve got her there, “…I….” She tears up, just thinking about it.

“Just say it.” You prod, your own eyes welling up as a reaction.

She takes a moment to gulp, to prepare herself, “…I destroy the world…and no one hears from you…no one hears from you before it, or after.”

There, it’s out now.

Your breath leaves you; both at the weight of it, but also how she kept it from you.

“Y/N, I’m sorry –” She goes out to try and comfort you, but you push the hand away in anger.

“You don’t get to do that, Daisy! You don’t get to chose what I should know, and what I shouldn’t!”

“I had to protect you!” She exclaims, desperate for your to see her side of things.

“You’ve done the complete opposite.” You sneer, walking away. Your tears start dropping, as do hers.

Then, the big one occurs.

While Daisy is tortured by Fitz, you are confronted by a darker version of your best friend.

“You know she just gave you that name because she feels sorry for you. You know that, right?”

You shake your head, “That’s not true.”

“Let me guess, ‘That’s not true, that’s impossible?’ Oh, it is very possible, Y/N.”

After the encounter you have (it ends in you having to put her down), there’s a shift.

Daisy becomes more of a hard-ass leader. And you fold into yourself. Your insecurities getting to you.

It leads to you and Daisy butting heads more and more.

It never gets physical, it just gets loud.

The team have to watch as you both pretty much just yell and – at some points – tear each other to shreds.

You’re both angry; you’re both scared; you’re both tired.

However, as you all get ready to confront Talbot, she knocks on your door:

“I know this won’t make up for everything, but I am so, so, so sorry for the things I said…I know I should’ve – I should’ve done something. Especially with what bitch-me said.”

“We both said shit we want to take back. You’re right, it ain’t gonna fix it. But…I’m willing to try if you are.”

Her answer is a hug, one that seems to be the tightest and longest one you’ve shared.

After that, you both start to get to where you were.

In space, there are things that pull you back together. Be that:

Sitting together and looking at the universe,

Getting hurt on a mission and helping the other recover,

Just talking for the sake of it and for comfort.

You slowly get back to being the very tight nit friends you were.

However, despite the small gap there is at this time, one thing is for certain;

She will always have your back, just as you have her’s.

You maybe not be where your dynamic was, but you still love and care for each other.

That was never on the card for either of you: quitting the friendship.

You’ve been through too much shit to let some words pull you apart.

You take the puffs, just like herself and Jemma.

You all…well, you all cause anarchy.

When the guards appear, you and Daisy – surprisingly – do a not too bad job.

Even if she tries to warn you right as you get it (it’s the thought that counts)

You are both confronted with someone that used to be a father figure to you both. And it throws you both for a loop.

Daisy walks out, and you are quick to follow; A) to check on her; and B) Because it freaks you out too.

You both try to avoid the elephant in the room, but you both soon find yourself on the truck together with May.

It’s not idea, but you’d rather go through this weird ass shit together than be apart for it.

After May’s ‘demise’ you now have that to deal with. Along with Coulson coming back.

It’s like you have swapped one parental figure for another.

You both help each other in picking out period specific clothing before exploring said period.

You both end up in the time loop, with you being tested on as well.

It’s a …weird time.

But, it leads to a lot of moments of you looking at each other in exasperation while trying to save the rest of your friends – family.

Then Kora comes around, and it’s a shock to you both.

But, you let Daisy rant as she see’s her mother and now sister for the first time.

She appreciates it hugely.

In the final battle with Malick, it’s Daisy vs Him. It’s something she has to beg to let you do.

“Daisy –”

“Y/N, I need you to trust me here. I need to do this, alright? No, keep Danny boy alive for me, alright?”

Oh, you bet your ass you teased her for her crush on Danny.

You even gave him the “don’t hurt my bestie” speech.

He did take it seriously, comically so.

Even did a scouts honour type thing.

Daisy gets tossed around a bit by him, with your power.

“Being killed by your best friend, must suck, huh?” He taunts her as she gets up.

When he has her where he wanted her, he leaned in close:

“After I’m done with you, I’m gonna make sure Y/N gets a taste of their own medicine. And, I want you to die, knowing that your ability is going to be the thing that kills your best friend.”

“Not…If…I…Have…Anything…To…Say…About it.” She says, before she releasing all the energy she has in one massive shock wave.

When Kora saves Daisy, it gets her in your good books.

You stay with Daisy, becoming a family unit with the three.

You wouldn’t have it any other way.

And neither would she.

 JEMMA

You meet Jemma when you are both young, in Primary school.

You become friends quite quick.

She’s the scientist, you’re the creative one whose more…let’s say aggressive.

You’re protective of her (not that she isn’t of you, as she is), but you’re more of the physical kind.

If someone even looks at her wrong, you’re there.

“Problem?” You’d ask them.

As the time goes on, that does get you in trouble.

She, however, waits for you whenever it lands you in that trouble.

“For goodness sake, Y/N, you’re going to get expelled at this point.” She chastises you as you leave the detention.

“Let them.”

“I’m not going to bloody let them do this. You deserve this chance, Y/N. Just…use it. For me, please.”

You are protective physically, she is in a more emotional sense.

After that day, you do try.

You both join SHIELD, just in different places; her with Science, you with the SHIELD Ops.

However, you both make sure to not lose communication. You call whenever you can.

When Coulson is recruiting for the team, he goes to you first, and that is how he just knows that Fitzsimmons will fit right in.

Oh, you know Fitz. You’ve both heard of him to no end, and also met the guy. You like him.

“Agent Y/N is one of the most promising agents, they talked highly of you, agent Simmons.” He tells her when they meet with Coulson.

“Oh, well, if it was the other way around –” She says bashfully.

“You would’ve done it too. They said that.”

It’s how you both reunite fully.

It’s a long hug, one of pure joy.

“Isn’t this exciting, Y/N? We get to be together again. You, me, and Fitz!” She’s giddy. And you can’t help but go with it.

She’s infectious.

When Skye joins, she comes to you, feeling that you are the most “normal” out of the trio.

“So, what’s their deal?”

“What do you mean?” You ask her.

“Like…are they a thing, or…?”

“As far as I know, not a thing.”

“You don’t think they should be?”

“I think Simmons will do what she thinks best for herself. I get it, though. But…I’m not gonna force her.”

“You’re a good friend.”

“She taught me how to be a good one.” Your words are honest.

Jemma always tries to keep you around when she can; be that by playing board games with you; long chats in the evening (normally with beer); or just keeping you in the lab.

She just likes having you around. It’s a comforting presence, like Fitz.

It’s normal, to her. The one thing that is in a world filled with things that aren’t normal.

With you being a field agent, you go out on the jobs.

She always worries about you.

“Please be careful?” She asks, handing you a bag with a sandwich in.

Yours isn’t as special as Fitz’s, but she still makes sure to make sure it is perfect.

You always appreciate her innocence. It’s something you want to protect.

She’s always able to see the good. You the more darker side.

It’s a balance.

You are almost in tears when she is dying from the Chitari helmet.

As everyone leaves, you stay.

“Y/N –”

“I’m not leaving.” You declare.

“Y/N, please. I don’t want the last thing you see of me being –”

“I’m not leaving, Jem.” You place your hand on the glass.

She does the same action.

When she comes back from the fall, you hug her, tightly.

“I’m here. I’m ok.” She assures you, softly whispering it in your ear.

As said, she was always better at dealing with emotional needs for other than you are.

If you do get hurt, she patches you up, but does barrate you, like she used to do in school.

“I was slow, Jem.”

“I’m not blaming you for getting hurt, I’m just saddened that you did.”

“I know, but I’m going to be. But…you’ll always be here to patch me up, right?”

She stops what she’s doing, and meets your eyes, “Always.” She promises you.

Being friends for so long and being through so much, Jemma can read you like a book.

And she can always tell when your insecurities are getting to you. Or you are anxious about a situation.

She’s sutble with her gestures:

A hand squeeze, or a hand on a knee if you’re sat at a table,

An excuse to get you out.

That sort of thing.

She loves you dearly, and just wants you to be ok.

She knows that, with the mental things, she can’t fix it.

And, she’d never tell you, but it frustrates her that she can’t.

However, she still stands by you.

You lash out at her when in an episode? She can take it. Hurt? A little, but she knows you don’t mean it.

You stay in all day? She alerts Coulson (Who takes this stuff seriously) and normally tries to spend as much time as she can with you.

She wants you to know that she’s there and that she loves you.

When the fall of SHIELD occurs, she pulls you and Fitz into a bear hug.

She see’s you’ve been hit in defending Fitz, and worries constantly about you.

“Let me look, Y/N.” She tries, but she knows how you are.

“I’m fine, Jemma.” You insist.

“Y/N, I’m serious.”

“So am I, Jemma. I’m ok, seriously. We need to clear the –”

“Y/N,” Her tone is firm, “I’m going to take you to the lab, and we’re going to look at your wound, do you understand?”

It’s the first time she’d been that firm with you.

It’s the first time you notice just how far you’re best friend has come and how much she has changed.

She’s found a confidence, but also lost a part of that innocence.

So, you let her look.

As she fixes it, she’s as gentle as always, but you can tell she’s holding a lot in.

But, she’s putting on a brave face for you.

When she’s done, you put your hands on her shoulders:

“It’s ok to cry, Jem. It’s been a long day.”

And, so, she does.

You embrace her as she does so. Letting out all this pain and confusion.

One thing she knows for sure, though, she has you. Her best friend that she’s known for – pretty much – her whole life.

And she doesn’t know what she’d do without you.

When Ward dumps them in the ocean and you’re left behind, you are fighting him in desperation.

She screams out your name as the pod goes.

It’s those agonising hours of not knowing if you’re alive or not.

When she reunites with the team, she has to deliver the news.

“Where’s Y/N?” Skye asks, not noticing your presence.

Jemma’s speech trembles, “…We don’t know.”

It’s one of the things and reasons she goes to HYDRA undercover. To find you.

And, she gets lucky. It takes a while, but she is able to find you.

You’re being held as a prisoner.

When Bobbi breaks her out, she makes sure to tell Bobbi about you.

“We need to find, Y/N!” She insists.

“I know. We will.” Bobbi assures her.

When they find you, though, you’re almost a husk at this point.

You have been drained. You look like a corpse.

“Can you shoulder them?” Bobbi asks, taking point.

Jemma helps you up, “I do.”

She encourages you the whole way, trying to coax you awake, and to stop her own worry.

She had found her best friend, in anything but a good state.

When you return, she gets you to medical.

Nothing else matters to her in this moment, just making sure your ok.

It is a long process, but they find what HYDRA have done to you.

It is gruesome, and it makes her want to vomit a few times.

It hurts her, knowing that you have been through so much and she had no power to stop it.

She, like with Fitz, has to…well, kind of adapt.

Your more jumpy now.

Whenever you do, she’s always there to help bring you back:

“It was just a door, Y/N, it’s ok.”

She makes damn sure this time to keep you in her eyes sight.

Is it a bit over protective? Yes. But, she means well.

She’s been away for so long, and everything isn’t how she left it, and so she wants to make up for lost time.

She requests to Coulson that you stay at base more, helping in the lab.

Coulson does agree to send you on missions less frequently, but does want you to see a therapist.

However, during this time, there is like zero possibility for it.

At least, until Andrew arrives.

Now, you are a bit hurt by Skye not telling you about the powers, but you do understand.

And, in one particular nasty moment, yourself and Jemma end up in a heated argument with Skye watching the whole thing.

She watches as you both just get more and more upset with the other, how you both don’t go for each other on a personal level, but with the intensity of the words you say and how you both are with being near breaking point, it comes close.

When Andrew comes in, she asks for him to help you.

He agrees, of course.

“Y/N, I’m Andrew. I know I was brought in for Skye. But, Jemma’s told me that you could use a session, too?” He says as he approaches you.

“Do I, like, have to pay for it?” It’s not meant as a joke. But, he does chuckle and shake his head.

“Not at all.”

So, you have a sitdown with him a private place, and you start to open up (it takes a few attempts from him, but he gets there).

He makes his notes, but you just vent.

You let it all out.

Jemma sits outside the room, keeping herself occupied while she waits.

When you leave, she’s there.

“Hi.” She greets, almost a bit nervous.

You give her a timid smile. And she see’s that you have been crying.

As much as she doesn’t like the look of pain you have. She is glad you’ve opened up to someone.

When “Real SHIELD” approach, some believe you have been compromised.

Jemma, in an instant, gets involved:

“Don’t you dare insist that Y/N is one of them. They’re one of the most loyal people I know. They wouldn’t just turn tail and run unlike some of you, people. Abandoning Coulson while he tries to rebuild SHIELD for…whatever your sick version is.”

She makes sure to keep you extra close when this whole thing is going down.

Anyone gives you a look, she just glares at them until they look away.

Part of her knows that you both have swapped; now she’s the physical one with protectiveness.

Slowly, as she helps ground you and assures you that you are the real SHIELD here, she see’s you start to come back, little by little.

You smile a bit more sometimes when around her or one of the team you guys can trust; you talk more.

She’s proud. So, very proud of you.

She smiles so big. It’s almost like old times with her bright smile.

By the time everything has reached it’s end point with the Inhumans in Afterlife, you go out on the field more.

But now you are in regular therapy sessions (unlike her, despite her needing it too)

However, one key event is always brought up in the session; her disappearance.

You, like Fitz, are desperate to find her.

So, you chase every lead with him.

It’s reckless, but it’s needed to get her back.

You both don’t give up. You can’t. Jemma didn’t on you when she was in HYDRA.

And, anyways, she’s your best friend. You aren’t exactly going to just walk away from this when she could be alive.

That could be keeps you going.

When you do find her, you make sure to stay with her when you can.

When she wakes from a nightmare, she see’s Fitz sat next to her, and you at the end of the bed, laid out.

Two of her favourite people in the world, staying with her.

Just as Fitz does, you listen to the voice recordings she made for you both.

Now, it’s your turn to ground her. And you do your upmost to do it.

If she jumps, your there to assure her it is nothing dangerous.

Then, Ward gets the three (You, Jemma, and Fitz) and holds you hostage.

Instead of Jemma being tortured, it is you.

Ward knows that it will break Jemma and help him get the information he wants.

She does, in the end, almost brought to tears by the fear for you and hate for Ward.

She, however, does threaten him plenty of times; just as many times as Fitz does.

When they get you back, they make sure to keep you behind them.

You and Jemma are held in the tent as Fitz is sent to the planet.

You both sneak out, with you taking point.

Both of you decide to let Lash out. Knowing you’re out of options.

When Hive takes Daisy, you all want her back.

But Jemma see’s a determined look with you. And she’s scared.

She knows how you can be when it comes to people you love.

She’s proven right when you go over board in your attempt to get back Daisy.

It nearly. Very nearly ends in your demise.

It would’ve, had Lincoln not been there to help.

Having an actual doctor on sight helped with her saving your life.

She makes sure to thank him, a lot of times, after.

Unfortunately, you are out of action for the rest of it. Recovering.

She’s quick to make you get back in bed if she catches you even lifting a leg out.

“No, back in bed!” She says as she knocks on the glass.

“But, Jemma –-“

“But nothing, Y/N. Back in bed. Now.”

“As long as you and Fitz don’t make out constantly.”

Oh yeah, they are a thing now.

Your happy for your best friends, and don’t do the shovel talk. You just hug them both.

Jemma does agree to your terms.

When the Swayed Inhumans attack, her first instinct is to get you out of the labs.

So, she takes a deep breath, and goes in. She fires at them, being able to drive them back (with Mack coming in as support) enough so she can get to you and get you out of bed.

“So, cleared for duty?” You ask as she and Mack carry you back to their hideout in the base.

She rolls her eyes, “Not bloody likely.”

It is likely, however.

They need all hands on deck, and you’re one of the best agents they have.

“As long as –”

“As long as I stay near you. I know, Jemma. Those are always the rules when it comes to this.”

“How long have these rules been in place for?” Mack asks out of curiosity.

“Since primary.” You say in sync, “Middle school.” You correct – again, in sync – when he looks confused.

At the end of this event, you have a scar of the time you almost died.

It’s out of sight, but she can tell you are constantly reminded of it in your own mind.

Jemma, however, does her best to keep your thoughts either away from the scar, or tries to give some positive spin on it.

And you appreciate your best friend for it. But, you both know it won’t do anything.

You are promoted, just as she is. However, she is now technically your boss.

It’s a job she takes seriously. So, she’s strict.

But she is still your friend. So, she does her duty, but also does cut you some slack every now and then.

It even comes to a head with Director Mace one time when you slip up.

She, however, does hate that you always go out with Coulson and Mack to find Daisy.

She knows she can’t keep it a secret forever.

You both are there when Daisy reappears in your lives, dragging you into her vendetta.

When she finds out about AIDA, she tells you about it. And it does disturb you a bit too.

That being said, you do train Jemma. Sort of becoming an SO – unofficially, but still.

She wants you to hold nothing back. And, so you don’t.

It ends with one of you needing a plaster or two. But she apricates it.

Is she as good a fighter as you? No, but she’s a good one.

She’s always had that fight in her. You are just helping it have another expression.

When the attack of the LMDs occur, she finds you in the area she – eventually – finds.

She finds you, shit scared. And she is covered in Fi- Robot Fitz’s blood. And she too, is shit scared.

You both point blades at each other, demanding the other stay back. When Daisy joins the room, it escalates.

It’s not until Daisy brings you both into a hug that you know the two of you aren’t Inhumans.

Daisy and you both give Simmons a boost and some hope, before going together to fight the LMDs.

Like her, you are almost killed, but you are both able to hold them off.

Jemma gets you both to the cart, helping you both up the ramp of the Zephier.

You are a teacher in the Framework. And you are the first to make contact with Coulson.

When you see her, despite how she looks, you hug each other.

You had no idea if the other was alive.

When she see’s Fitz kill, you have to drag her away.

You try and comfort her, but you aren’t exactly sure on what to say.

When she kills Fitz’s father, it’s in protection of you. As he attacks you when you try to get the phone off of him.

When she gets taken to Space, you are left behind with Fitz.

She finds items of yours, rusted and almost non-existent.

She fears the worst.

You allow Fitz to see her first, as you know your friend needs some time alone with her.

However, you both do reunite, and hug the tightest you have yet.

She never thought she’d see you again. And you were willing to do anything to get there.

She lets herself have this moment with you. Her best friend is back, and – as long as she has something to say about it – you aren’t going anywhere.

With Deke, you act as another parental/mentor figure to him.

He’s heard stories of you too.

When it comes to the marriage, Jemma asks you to be her best person.

Of course, you agree. You help her with her dress and everything.

You’re just so happy for two of your best friends in the whole world

Sadly, with your past pains, they catch up in the fear dimension.

Fitz has psychotic split and hurts Daisy.

You have a manifestation of your shadow self, and get into a fight with yourself.

You lose, and Jemma finds you a mess.

First, her husband does this to one of her best friends, now one of her other ones has been left in this state.

She, of course, patches you up. But, you can see that she too is shaken by this.

She’s more affectionate this time around; hand grabbing, running a hand through your hair as you go in and out of being asleep.

She just wants you to rest, and to be ok.

Although, she knows that you (that anyone on this team, for that matter) is anything but.

Tragically, you do pass. You do get better, but you sacrifice yourself when saving someone.

She has no choice but to watch. She can’t even scream out your name, she just watches as you drop dead.

Then she gets the news of Fitz.

She’s heartbroken. Shattered. But then hopeful. There’s a younger version of you.

So, she takes a crew to space.

Daisy, being another of your best friends (along with Jemma’s best friend, too) knows that you would want her to make sure Jemma doesn’t drive herself insane.

So, she does. She warns Jemma about the amount of close calls yourself and Fitz had while looking for her.

However, it has the opposite effect, and sends her further in her search.

Daisy, still being the loyal best friend to you both, still reigns Jemma in.

Jemma is reunited with the two of you in the mind prison thing.

It’s a trip, to say the least.

You all go back to different memories of each other. And also see the things that haunt you all.

She’s forced to relive your difficult childhood trauma.

But, she’s with you. At least, until you’re all stuck with your own demons.

When you are all stuck in the containment module, it’s a row where you aren’t even sure on what is being said.

However, the three of you…work through your issues and become the trio you always were.

Even if two of the trio are in a relationship.

She makes sure to help you readjust to the time you guys lost.

You aren’t with her when she changes her timeline with Enoch and Fitz.

So, when you see her again, you can definitely tell that something has changed.

She still acts as your best friend, but there are gaps.

She can’t remember everything.

She instantly knows what outfits to have you wear, depending on the period.

You and Jemma – as Daisy later tells you – were forced to watch each other die a lot of times during the time she had in the loop.

You go with Daisy to get Jemma back when she’s kidnapped.

As Daisy says her speech about Jemma being the sister she’d save, Sousa looks to you.

“I don’t have a speech, just a sister to save.” You say, sitting next to Daisy. The woman gives you a smile.

You’re saddened when Jemma can’t remember anything, but hide it.

For the rest of the time, you stay with Jemma, slowly watching as she gets her memory back.

When it all ends, you both retire from SHIELD.

You become a writer.

Alya Fitzsimmons has also heard a lot about you. She loves you instantly.

Just as you do with her.

You visit your best friends whenever you can.

It’s peaceful.

And you have the best friend in the world who will always have your back and best interests at heart.

 MAY

Being best friends with Melinda May is an odd thing. There’s a before and after for her.

Before Bahrain:

She’s bubbly.

She’s a really happy person.

Supports you with all your interests and hobbies (might even try one or two of them with you.)

You know Andrew, and get a long with him well.

You also know Coulson well, as the three of you are agents.

Post Bahrain:

She’s closed off.

You and Coulson agonize over how to help her, but neither of you are sure on how.

You are forced to watch as her and Andrew slowly fall out of love and it ends.

It hurts, but you know you will always have her back.

You know, deep down, that she will also have yours.

She calls you whenever you’re on a mission, just checking in.

She worries about you.

She tells you about her day in the more boring, office parts of SHIELD.

But, you understand her reasons for not wanting back in.

You don’t force her back in.

When Coulson gets you onto his team, he floats the idea about May.

“Phil…”

“I know, Y/N. I get it, I do. It’s just…and, no offense intended, she’s the best pilot here.”

“Ok, offense only slightly taken. But…ask her.” He smiles, appreciating the blessing.

He uses the fact you’re on the team as a way to get her to consider.

“Y/N will be there.”

“How the hell did you get them to join?”

“I’m their friend too, May.”

“I know. It’s just, I’m surprised they didn’t kick your ass when you wanted me on board.”

“Oh, they nearly did when I said about the pilot thing.”

“You didn’t…?” She’s smiling.

“Oh, I did.” She even laughs.

It’s a short reunion, just a nod with a smile.

But, you’re back together, and Coulson can see if makes you both happy.

The three of you become parental figures to the younger ones.

Especially Daisy.

If she can’t go to Coulson or May, she goes to you.

Your softer than May is. And Daisy appreciates that about you.

With yourself and May, it’s a quiet friendship; filled with silent smiles and times with you sat in the BUS cockpit with her.

As she starts to get back into the field, it’s you and her; partners.

It’s like nothing has changed with yourself and her in the dynamic in the field.

When Andrew comes back, after she goes on the break, you (like him) don’t give up her location.

With yourself and Andrew, it’s a good friendship, just like yourself and Coulson.

When Andrew dies, you instantly try to comfort May, but you see she is trying to hold it all in.

She does, however, appreciate your words of comfort.

When she dies, you’re with her just like with Daisy, holding May’s hand until she goes limp.

With her new ability with her emotions, you always make sure to hug her so she feels the love you have for her.

You help her with them, helping her embrace them and use them.

And she appreciates you like no one else.

 BOBBI

She meets you at the Ops.

She takes you under her wing.

She see’s potential in you, and helps you fulfil it.

Through this, you two bond and become friends.

It’s a light hearted friendship, filled with lots of in jokes and laughter.

You train together.

It takes some time, but you end up winning a few.

She’s so damn proud when you do

You’re like a younger sibling to her.

She tells you about Hunter, and you even meet him during one of their many attempts to reconcile their relationship.

Despite everything Bobbi has said, you get along quite well with Hunter.

Mack too.

Bobbi goes undercover to HYDRA, while you go the SHIELD.

Meaning you meet the rest of the team.

You reunite with Mack and he gets you to meet everyone else.

You grow on them quite quick.

You become an older sibling to the BUS trio.

Whenever anyone (namely Daisy) asks you how you’re so good at this, your answer is always the same;

“Bobbi.”

When Bobbi is injured, you try not to leave her side as much as you can.

But, she also pushes you to keep fighting for SHIELD.

Yourself and Hunter do what you can for her.

You even play matchmaker between the two

When it comes time for her and Hunter to leave, you’re the last to leave the bar.

You and Bobbi share one last, sad, smile.

You are then forced to leave your best friend behind, seemingly for good.

You look out for the team both as your other best friends, but also for her too.

When all this ends, you track them down.

You look hardly like how you did when she last saw you.

But she knows it’s you.

She hugs you so tight.

You just sigh and hug back.

It was a long journey, but you made it.

You were home.

 ELENA

It’s a snarky friendship.

And, with Mack as a big brother to you, it’s (mainly through her influence) about him.

She speeds around to get you anything you need. Anything at all;

Water? Done

Tissues? She’s gone and back within a second.

Medical supplies? Same thing.

She cares about you so much.

She’s very open about how much she cares about you;

Hugs, kisses on the cheek, smiles that are beeming.

She has your back, always.

If you disagree, though, jesus, mind out.

It gets heated very quickly.

Mack normally plays mediator between you.

Either that, or someone else on the team.

They know how you both can be.

However, at the end of the day, you’re always there for the other;

Through her hands being chopped off, helping her adjust to her new ones;

Helping her with her confidence when she loses her powers;

Being overjoyed for her when she gets them back.

She loves you like a sibling.

And she’ll always have your back. Always.

[egumal]

Best Birthday Ever

Daisy knocked on the door to the apartment, trying to suppress the nerves in her stomach at having to see Lincoln again. She hadn’t seen him since their adventure on the Iliad and she didn’t know how he thought about her. True, he had saved her from Alisha, she had confided in him about her mother trying to kill her, and they had traded phone numbers and contact information, but she hadn’t seen him in-person since. 

The door to the apartment opened and Daisy was greeted with seeing her Inhuman transitioner for the first time in almost a month.

“Hey!” she said. “Long time, no see!”

“Skye?” Lincoln looked startled to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“No, hi? No, it’s good to see you? No how have you been doing these last few weeks?” Daisy asked, smiling teasingly at him.

Lincoln gave her a faint smile. “Hi,” he amended his statement. “How are you?”

“Been better,” Daisy admitted. “I need your help.”

Lincoln rubbed his forehead. “Skye, I -”

“Actually, it’s Daisy now,” Daisy corrected. “I, uh...well, I kinda came to terms about my parents. Or at least...as much as I’m going to. And because I know who I am...well, I figured accepting my birth name is part of accepting who I really am.”

Lincoln sighed. “That’s...great. I just want to get away from who I am. Away from Afterlife, away from our powers, away from….” He paused. “Wait, why are you here?”

“What do you mean?” Daisy asked, a little confused. “I’m here to see you? And to ask for your help?”

“On your birthday?” Lincoln asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Daisy stopped in mid-sentence. “Wait...today is July 2nd?”

Lincoln smiled at her, but it was just a faint reminder of all the happy, genuine grins that he had previously given her in Afterlife. 

“Okay, Daisy,” he said, still smiling. “Accepting who you are means that you have to accept that today is your birthday as well, you know. And you...shouldn’t be working on your birthday.”

“It’s about Jemma,” Daisy protested. “She got swallowed by the Monolith, the Monolith that Raina saw in her vision. Do you...do you know anything about that? Fitz has been going out of his mind with worry and I honestly don’t blame him because I’m really worried too and -”

“Whoa, Sk-Daisy,” Lincoln said, raising his hands in an attempt to prevent her from rambling. “Calm down. You’re going to burst a blood vessel.”

“Is that the med student in you telling you that?” Daisy teased.

“Actually, I graduated,” Lincoln said, giving her a rueful smile. 

“Wait, you graduated?” Daisy asked. “Lincoln, that’s amazing! We need to celebrate!”

“Today is your birthday and you want to celebrate my med school graduation?” Lincoln asked. “If we’re celebrating anything today, we’re celebrating your birthday.”

Daisy paused. “I have...never celebrated my birthday before.”

“Well, it usually involves cake,” Lincoln said teasingly. “Cake, candles, friends...don’t your friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. know that today is your birthday?”

Daisy shrugged. “I mean, I forgot about it, so….”

“Friends remember friends’ birthdays,” Lincoln said. “Come on. Let’s celebrate your birthday.”

Daisy and Lincoln wandered the streets of Cincinnati, chatting about anything and everything, and it felt like old times, back when they had been at Afterlife, when everything had been easy. No S.H.I.E.L.D., no wars, nothing. Easy. Simple.  

“Do you have a favourite cake place?” Daisy asked as they walked past a bakery.

“There’s this one around the corner that my sister and I always got birthday cakes from,” Lincoln said. “I don’t think I ever told you about her. She’s not Inhuman...doesn’t know anything about that side of me. But she’s...she’s all I’ve got.”

Daisy gave him a rueful smile. “Family is complicated.”

That was probably the understatement of the year.

“What’s her name?” Daisy asked.

“Amanda,” Lincoln replied. “She’s the lucky one in the family...the Inhuman gene didn’t manifest in her.”

“Wait, so you know how to...monitor that in Inhumans?” Daisy asked, turning to face him, deliberately ignoring the fact that he had called Amanda lucky for not inheriting Inhuman powers.

“Yeah,” Lincoln said, shrugging, his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been studying it. In addition to med school, I mean. I’ve been studying how it affects us, changes us...trying to see if scientifically, that change is reversible.”

“Wait, why?” Daisy asked, holding up a hand to stop him from talking. “Why are you trying to do that?” He of all people shouldn’t be against Inhumans going through the Mist. She paused. “Did you hear about the...start of the Inhuman Outbreak? The fish oil pills?” That was the only reason she could think of that might explain why he was suddenly against Terrigenesis. After all, he was one of the most kind and compassionate people she knew; his concern for the suddenly transforming Inhumans was the only reason she could think of that might explain his sudden reversal of opinions on Terrigenesis.

“Yeah,” Lincoln repeated. “I figured...these people don’t have a choice in what’s happening to them. They don’t know about Inhumans; it’s got to be absolutely crazy for them. Suddenly developing powers, no transitioners, nothing to explain why they’re suddenly biologically and fundamentally different? Plus, I don’t trust anything we were told in Afterlife anymore. If Jiaying told us that Terrigenesis is irreversible, well, I’m not sure if I believe that anymore.” 

“Lincoln….,” Daisy began, not even sure of what to say.

Lincoln caught her concerned look. “Hey, let’s not talk about it okay? Let’s just get cake and celebrate your birthday in style. It’s not every day you turn 27.”

Daisy laughed. He was right and she had never celebrated her birthday before. It made perfect sense that she would celebrate her birthday with the one person she still trusted who had been around when she had first found out about her parents, about her birthday, about her Inhuman powers. 

“Okay,” she said. “But one last thing before we drop the subject...you should join us at S.H.I.E.L.D.. We could really use you as a doctor, as a transitioner for Inhumans, as a powered person…. Coulson gave me the green light for an Inhuman team and you’re the first person I’d want on that team. I trust you. Even though you say I’m not a very trusting person.”

Lincoln couldn’t help smiling as she referred to one of the first things they had talked about on that first day in Afterlife. He had surmised that she wasn’t a very trusting person and now...well, he knew how much it meant when she said that she trusted him. 

Lincoln caught her gaze. “I trust you too, Daisy,” he said. “It’s S.H.I.E.L.D. I don’t trust.” He paused. “Let’s talk about it another time.” He gestured to the bakery just ahead of them. “Cake shop awaits.”

Daisy grinned. “Okay. Your med school graduation cake is on me.”

“And your birthday cake is on me,” Lincoln countered, making her laugh.

The night went...amazingly well. They bought two slices of cake and shared them, eating at a table in the street. When they finished their cake, they wandered around downtown Cincinnati, with Lincoln pointing out places that had been influential in his youth. Talking came as easily as breathing; it was like they were in Afterlife again, bonding, enjoying time together, having someone ‘normal’ to talk to. 

All too soon, Daisy’s S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued phone was vibrating; it was Mack, asking why she was still not back at the Playground and if she still needed a lift back.

“Does S.H.I.E.L.D. not know that you’re here?” Lincoln asked as they walked back towards his apartment.

Daisy shrugged. “Mack wanted to come, but I figured you’d trust me more if I came alone. Plus...the last time you met Mack, he clobbered you on the head, so I figured now would not be a good time for re-introductions.”

Lincoln laughed. “Yeah, well, he was protecting you. I can’t fault him for doing that.”

Daisy looked at him, a warmth seemingly spreading through her veins. It had been a while since she’d felt that; she hadn’t even realized at first that she had been developing...feelings for Lincoln. It had felt so instinctual, so natural...and now she was only just realizing it. But if he didn’t want to be a part of S.H.IE.L.D., didn’t want to be a part of that world...she couldn’t just drag him back into it. It would be selfish of her, as much as she wanted him there.

“Thank you,” Daisy said.

“What for?” Lincoln asked. His voice sounded playful when he next spoke. “Showing you the Seven Wonders of Cincinnati?”

Daisy laughed. “No...well, yes. But also, for saving my life. From Hydra, from Alisha...even back in Afterlife. Thank you.” 

Lincoln smiled faintly. “You saved me too,” he reminded her. “Back with Hydra and you enlightened me to Jiaying and Gordon….”

“We saved each other,” Daisy corrected him. 

Both of them looked at each other; Daisy thought she felt...something sparking between them. And she didn’t just mean his powers. It was something else entirely.

“Lincoln, I -”

At that moment, someone called, “Daisy!”

Both of them turned. Mack was standing in the street, his massive arms crossed over his chest. 

“Coulson asked me to come,” he said. “He was worried about you...he said you shouldn’t be alone.”

“Mack, it’s Lincoln,” Daisy said, raising her arms defensively. “He saved my life countless times; Coulson has nothing to worry about.”

“Don’t worry,” Lincoln said, waving her off. “Coulson cares about you, that’s why he’s worried.”

She glanced at him as he spoke; their eyes met. For a split second, it felt like Mack wasn’t there and they were the only ones in the streets of Cincinnati. Daisy bit her bottom lip before she realized what she was doing; her gaze had drifted down to his mouth as well.

“Lincoln...you should come with us,” Daisy urged. “S.H.I.E.L.D. would be happy to have you -”

Lincoln cut her off. “No. Thank you...but no. But you should come out again. It was...fun tonight.”

Daisy smiled. He really didn’t have anything against her; it was just his fear about S.H.I.E.L.D.. And she didn’t blame him, when he had first met S.H.I.E.L.D., they had seemed a lot like Hydra to him. And Hydra had cut him up, sliced him open and experimented on him, just like they had with Jiaying. She was just incredibly grateful that he didn’t hate humans the way her mother had. Lincoln’s attitude towards humans after his Hydra experimentation had reinvigorated her faith in both humans and Inhumans; her mother’s reaction to torture didn’t have to be everyone’s. 

“Yeah. It was really fun. I had fun,” Daisy said, looking up to meet his gaze. 

She wanted to touch him, to hug him or something to signal the end of their night, but it felt strange doing that in front of Mack. It felt like much more than a Bobbi-Mack hug or a her-Fitz hug…. It felt like...something. 

“Oh, and Daisy?” Lincoln called after her as she reluctantly turned away.

“Yeah?” Daisy asked, turning back to look at him.

“I’m really sorry I don’t know anything about the Monolith,” he said. “And I’m sorry about your friend. And...happy birthday.”

Daisy smiled. “Happy graduation.”

They shared a smile, eyes locked on one another. It was only when Mack made a slight movement to Daisy’s right that she remembered that he was there. Reluctantly, she turned to leave; Mack followed suit. Once they were out of earshot, Mack looked at her quizzically.

“Today’s your birthday?” he asked.

Daisy was pretty sure she blushed. “Yeah.”

“And you told Sparkplug about it and not the rest of us?” he asked. 

He didn’t sound hurt by her admission, but still...they were partners. Daisy felt a twinge of guilt all the same. But it wasn’t like that...or at least she hadn’t intended for it to be like that. She hadn’t meant it to seem like she had chosen Lincoln’s company above the rest of her S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Although she certainly felt differently towards Lincoln than she did towards everyone else on her S.H.I.E.L.D. team. 

Daisy shook her head. “It’s not like that,” she said. “He was with me when I found out about it, so there was nothing to tell. He just remembered, that’s all.”

“Right…,” Mack said, nodding his head. “So...date night, huh?”

“Mack!” Daisy protested.

Mack held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not judging. Or saying or doing anything. If anyone deserves a night off, it’s on their birthday. And if that’s how you want to spend our birthday, that’s cool with me.” 

Daisy was pretty sure her blush got even deeper. But she couldn’t help smiling at the thought of her night out with Lincoln. As she and Mack walked away, she glanced over her shoulder at where she had last seen Lincoln. Ironically, at that moment, he looked over his shoulder at her and their eyes met. Each smiled sheepishly at the other and then turned away. Mack raised an eyebrow at her; she bumped him with her shoulder.

“Don’t make a big deal of it,” she warned.

“He’s not Grant Ward,” Mack replied matter-of-factly. “And that makes me like him.”

Daisy laughed. “He’s definitely 100% not Grant Ward. He’s...so much more.”

“Hmm.”

As Daisy and Mack walked into the Quinjet, heading back to the Playground, Daisy couldn’t help smiling. Best birthday ever. 

P.S.

@daisylincs Hey, Lily, not sure if I’m tagging you right, but either way, I love you, miss you, and cannot thank you enough for listening to my endless ramble and constant verbal spam!!! 😍😍😍 I hope you like your Secret Santa gift!!! 😍😍😍

@agentsofchallenges

[crqstalite]

You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

What does your character think about their future? Are they more optimistic or pessimistic about the future? What would their ideal future be?

Every character of mine lands on a sliding scale from optimism to pessimism and I genuinely think it’s interesting. Wonder if it’s a stroke of genius or means nothing.

It got long because it’s *every* character in my current ME continuity, so under a cut :D

Kodelyn is pretty optimistic. She tends to see the better side of things and people, often enough so that it can come off as toxic positivity to the people around her or naivety at worst. It’s not intentional, but it’s one of the few ways she thinks she has control over a situation. It means she knows what the real goal is, and will always strive for that goal with the least damage done to the people around her. Her ideal future would be finding a home -- somewhere. Home was (and will always be) people for her, as a spacer kid she didn’t really have solid ground under her feet. Maybe not Earth, but somewhere where she isn’t moving as often anymore, somewhere permanent to put down roots with Kaidan.

Lyssa is relatively optimistic. Andromeda? Huge! New opportunities are popping up everywhere, and this is a new home she barely knows anything about. Her excitement towards it all is nearly physical to the point of being stifling, but she thinks it looks relatively bright. Her ideal future is really up in the air right now considering where she’s been left off, but it’s whenever she can keep adventuring and keep pushing towards a happier existence in a new galaxy. That, and wherever she can keep adventuring with the crew of the Tempest.

Danny is usually looking on the brighter side of things. He takes a lot in stride, maybe a little too much, but he’s usually pretty happy regardless of what happens. Probably because he always has a way out of situations, or at least is consistently thinking on his feet. He doesn’t think too much beyond the here and now because that’s all he has control over, but his ideal future is finding a new home. Raina has been one of the few constants in his life since Mindoir, so finding somewhere close to live by her would be ideal.

Annika is relatively neutral on her thoughts about the future. On one hand, she’s excited to see what’s next for her. What lays beyond the events of the war and where life will sweep her next. She’s still alive, and she’s still capable of changing the world. There are new people that care about her, and more that remain by her side. On the other, she’s lost family, friends, and Ash in the end. It’s been a constant revolving door of people in her life, and she doesn’t know if she can keep taking it year after year, person after person. Her ideal future is to return to Mindoir, and while she knows it isn’t the same, it still pleases her to be on planet.

Anders is similar to Annika, but he just doesn’t know what’s coming next. He likes being in Andromeda, he doesn’t have to be around people that side eye him all the time anymore, and he’s far happier with new friends and a new purpose. However, he left a lot behind in the Milky Way, and their arrival only marked the loss of Alec. Did he mean a lot to the twins? Maybe not. It still hurt to hear he was dead when he woke up though. His ideal future is rather fuzzy these days. There is no ideal because he doesn’t know what could happen, and that scares a part of him. It means he doesn’t have a grasp on those changes, and it means he can’t do anything about what’s coming.

Nia is the first on the sliding scale into pessimistic. There isn’t a whole lot for him to lose other than his reputation after Elysium. He knows what it’s like to not have anything at all after growing up on Earth, and he knows he could probably end up just like that all over again. It doesn’t quite scare him, but he does his best to avoid it. That usually means going in thinking the worst, but he tends to try and plan around it. Does it always work? No, but at least he’s prepared for failure. His ideal future is to live somewhere quiet, and hopefully spend the rest of his days with Ashley and Kaidan.

Citlali is pessimistic only for the sole reason that she doesn’t want to start sliding backwards into the same scared, broken girl that she was only a few years ago. She can not go back to being like that, and that means going into most situations thinking the worst. If she does, that means her expectations are on the floor and she literally could not actually fail those expectations unless everything goes to shit. A pretty win-win situation, helps with morale. Her ideal future is to get involved somewhere she can do what she pleases and help out whenever needed. Jeff might be in there somewhere, who knows.

AJ is pessimistic because she was always told ‘do you want to fail?’ and things that are pretty similar to ‘you won’t amount to anything’. She carries those words around like tattoos sometimes, and it puts a perpetual rain cloud over her head because of it. A lot of her worth was consistently tied to Hannah and her opinion of her daughter, and even twenty years after their last bad spat, she still falls back on those lines whenever she’s planning or trying to do something. It’s unfortunate, because it holds her back unless he’s able to press forward beyond that. Her ideal future is getting up to a healthy amount of trouble, and whisking Miranda away somewhere where they can both be free of their parents’ influences.

Brione is by far the worst on the list because her pessimism also stems from a similar place as Nia’s. She grew up on Earth, and was pretty sure she was going to end up dead in a ditch by twenty and be in the Reds for most of that time. Ending up with the Alliance gave her a new purpose, but it didn’t change her mindset. If anything it made her more withdrawn and more likely to do the ‘whatever necessary’ option. Her goals have shifted more towards staying alive though, which, as a sniper, only means that she often has to scope out an entire situation before going in and doing anything. That unfortunately goes for social situations as well, and she will always think the worst of both so that she has some sort of a bubble wrap against bad situations. A good future would be living through tomorrow, and if they get that far, she can start thinking about living off the royalty vids with Garrus.

[songtoyou]

Chapter Four: Mission Hills - Part 1

Would You Call That Love

Pairing: Chris Evans x Raina Morrison (OC)

Rating: PG to PG-13 (Might be 18+ for some chapters)

Description: There was always that one person Chris Evans tended to turn to when he was not in a committed relationship, Raina Morrison. He could confide in her about things going on in his life that he did not feel comfortable talking to his family or close friends about. Chris and Raina were able to establish a way to openly communicate with one another, but also being respectful of the other’s time and needs. It was the only constant “relationship” he had, but without all the nonsense of trying to build a life together. A “friends with benefits” situation. However, what happens when Chris starts rethinking his “relationship” with Raina and if either are willing to pursue something more?

Chapter Rating: PG-13 

Warnings: Swearing and some sexual content.

Word Count: 3,400

Author’s Note: This chapter is a flashback to Chris’s 33rd birthday. It dives deeper into Chris and Raina’s friendship and how it became sexual. 

Feedback is always welcomed. If you want to be tagged, please let me know.

Sadly, I do not know Chris Evans or anyone in his family and this is just a fictional take on his life. I do not permit this fic to be reposted on other platforms.  

Again, thanks to @southerngracela​ for the support.

Updated for grammar and punctuation edits.

Press Release – June 10, 2014

SUPERSTARS TO ATTEND THE MISSION HILLS WORLD CELEBRITY PRO-AM TOURNAMENT IN CHINA

Sporting legends and golfing greats are not the only ones heading to China for the annual Mission Hills World Celebrity Pro-Am tournament. An abundance of Hollywood superstars will also be making appearances. The eagerly awaited week-long event not only highlights golf but glamour and socializing with the Who’s Who of show business and elite sporting personalities. 

While the tournament does not officially begin until October 24 with a red carpet and cocktail reception to celebrate the opening ceremony, followed by a gala dinner, the festivities will begin early on October 23, where celebrities will be able to partake in a football-golf challenge. 

Oscar Winners Morgan Freemen and Nicole Kidman are expected to make appearances, and Captain America actor Chris Evans and stunning actress/entrepreneur Jessica will also participate in the event. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, Raina, will also be in attendance and is slated to perform at the opening ceremony celebration.

June 13, 2014 

“Why are you making that face?” Chris asked Raina when he saw the irate look on her face.

“I’m not making a face,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders and sipping her drink as they watched their friends laugh and enjoy themselves.

“You are too,” Chris pointed out and added, “What, are you upset that I was talking to those girls over there?”

Raina scoffed and rolled her eyes, “I don’t care who you talk to. You’re a grown man. You can talk to whomever you like. It’s your birthday, so you can dick down every girl that you come into contact with tonight. You’re no longer with Minka, so you are a free man. Soak it all up, Evans! Cheers to you! You big ol’ slut!”

“You’re drunk. How about you go sit this one out and relax. Get some food in you,” Chris instructed with a condescending tone. 

“Fuck you! Don’t you fucking patronize me, Evans. I may be a lightweight when it comes to drinking, but I’m not drunk. Dickhead!” Raina shouted over the loud music.

“You’re weird!” Chris shouted as well. 

“You’re weird!” Raina retorted lamely. 

She hated fighting with Chris over stupid things. Normally, she did not care if he flirted with girls as she had seen do it many times over the years. Recently, however, Raina started to look at Chris in a whole new light. It was getting to a point where she could no longer deny her attraction towards her friend. 

To Raina, Chris was not only handsome but kind and generous towards everyone he met. There were just so many attractive qualities about Chris that Raina could not help but find him desirable. He was always there when she needed him, especially after the death of her mother. In fact, the entire Evans clan showed Raina support and extended invitations to her for family gatherings and festivities. Lisa ended up becoming a second mom to Raina, which the younger woman really welcomed. That is why Raina knew that she could not act on her developing feelings for Chris as she could end up losing more than just a friendship, but a family. 

“Hey, what’s going on over here. I swear you could cut the sexual tension with a knife,” Scott walked over to intervene. He slid an arm around Raina and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek to help take the edge off and resumed with, “Come on now, there is no need for you two to be fighting. It is a time for celebration. Raina, it’s your turn. We are losing, by the way. If you get the ball in, then we are on our way to catching up.”

For his birthday, Chris and his friends all headed to Las Vegas. It was a nice break for Chris, who was currently filming Avengers: Age of Ultron. While the time off would be short, Chris definitely needed it. Getting the chance to hang out with his family and friends from Sudbury was the time Chris cherished most deeply. While he had friends in the entertainment industry, they were not exactly a part of his close inner circle. 

He tended to keep his “Hollywood” friends separate from his “real” friends, so to speak. However, there was only one person who was able to infiltrate both circles. Raina. She was different. She was able to fit comfortably within his world. Not only did she get along with his family, but his friends adored the singer as well. Raina could definitely hold her own amongst the rambunctious Bay Staters. So, it was no surprise that Raina joined in the birthday festivities.

The gang was currently hanging out at the MGM Grand’s top nightlife hotspots, Level Up, which could be considered a tech-savvy adult Chucky Cheese. From pool tables to traditional arcade games with a 21st-century twist, and of course, slot machines, Leve Up was a great start to Chris’s birthday celebration. Currently, a game of beer pong was in play. Scott, Raina, her cousin Mercedes, and Tara were on one team. While Chris, Adam, Brett, and JD were on another.

“Let’s go, Rai! You’re up!” Tara shouted while JD, Sean, Adam, and Brett began to heckle playfully.

Mercedes stepped aside and handed her a ping pong ball. Getting into position, Raina lightly tossed the ball and landed in one of the other team’s red cups with ease. 

“Drink up, boys!” Raina cheered alongside Tara and Mercedes. 

“Woohoo! That’s my boo!” Scott praised joyfully.

“Evans, you better get your ass over here and drink up!” Tara yelled out.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going to. Don’t worry about me,” he replied.

As the game continued with his team losing, Chris stepped away to get something else to drink from the bar. Scott excused himself to follow his brother.

 “Chris, I know it is your birthday, but maybe for tonight, you cool it with the flirting with random girls, especially around Raina. Or try to be at least more subtle about it,” he reprimanded. 

“I don’t get why she cares. She never has before,” said Chris as he took a swig of his whiskey.

Scott just gave his brother a look and said, “You really are clueless.”

“What the Hell is that supposed to mean? Why am I clueless?”

Scott turned his back and walked away from Chris and replied simply with, “Clueless.”

Meanwhile, Raina was in a side conversation with Mercedes. “He doesn’t have any standards when it comes to flirting with girls. It’s like, if you have pair of tits and a nice ass, then you are fair game,” she ranted on.

Mercedes just laughed and asked, “Why do you care?”

“I don’t. It’s just…he needs to be more careful with who he associates himself with. More than likely, those girls posted all over Twitter about meeting Chris and how he flirted with them. His fans see those tweets and the pics those girls posted, and they all get in a tizzy about him being in Vegas for his birthday. They’re probably wondering who he is with, and it just turns into a clusterfuck.”

Mercedes continued to laugh at her cousin’s temper tantrum, “You’re really cute, Rai. I forget how innocent and naïve you tend to be.”

“Bitch, please! What are you talking about? I’m not naïve. Naïve about what?” she asked. 

“You like Chris. It’s okay. I mean, what is there not to like about him. He’s gorgeous, charming, and a total sweetheart. I saw how he was there for you and Uncle George when Aunt Marie died. Chris is an all-around good person. So, it is no surprise if you developed stronger feelings towards him. No one could blame you,” explained Mercedes and left her cousin alone to mull things over.

Later that night, as the group went to dinner at Crush, Chris and Raina barely spoke or looked at one another. It was putting Chris in a shitty mood. He hated when Raina was upset with him.

“What’s going on with Rai? Is she alright?” Tara, who was sitting next to Chris at the table in the private room, asked.

“Ask her,” Chris merely replied sullenly. 

Tara slid an arm around Chris and kissed him on the cheek. “Buck up. She’ll get over whatever it is that’s bothering her. She loves you too much just to let you go,” she told him.

“Thanks, Tara. I know she will. She needs time to cool off. She’s got a lot of stress going on with getting the tour ready and everything. It always causes her stress and worries,” Chris explained as he stole a glance or two at Raina, who was sitting between his brother and her cousin.

Tara merely smiled at Chris and patted him on the back, “You’re incredibly soft on her. She is lucky to have you as a friend. We all are. We love you, Christopher, even though you can be a shithead sometimes.”

Chris barked out a laugh which drew Raina’s attention to him. She could not help but smile and feel at ease whenever she saw Chris happy. It was irresistible and infectious. 

“You know what else you two should try? Sex. Like, get it out of your systems and move along with being friends,” Mercedes piped in unexpectedly. Luckily, she spoke low, so no one could hear what she suggested, except for Scott, who was sitting right next to her. 

“I agree,” said Scott and added, “Sometimes a good fuck can really help.”

Raina was shocked at how coarse the two were being.

“Will you two stop it. You’re very…inappropriate. Mercedes, I expected a little more from you. I can’t believe you, of all people, would ever suggest that I sleep with Chris,” Raina whispered. “Scott, you better wipe that shit-eating grin off your face. Both of you better stop and concentrate on what you are going to get to eat.” 

“What sounds good to you, Rai?” Chris asked, speaking loudly enough so she could hear him over the chatter.

Looking over at him, Raina answered in an even tone, “The cheesesteak dumplings on the starter section of the menu. What’s caught your eye?”

“Uh…either the New York sirloin or filet mignon.”

“Ooh, those sound good. I’ll probably do the cheesesteak dumplings and side of fries.”

“You’ll give me taste right,” Chris asked with his lips pouted and made sure to put on the puppy dog eyes.

The annoyance Raina had for Chris earlier had now melted away when she looked at his sweet face. 

“Anything for the birthday boy,” She replied happily with a smile.

After dinner, the gang headed straight to Hakkasan, the main nightclub at the MGM Grand. The oversized VIP booth surrounded the dance floor, allowing participants to be right in the center of all the action. The atmosphere of the club was high-energy. One of the VIP waitresses took everyone’s drink order, with JD ordering a round of shots for everyone to toast Chris.

“To our boy, Chris. One of the most loyal, genuine, and kind-hearted people I know. I think everyone would agree with me on that assumption. You haven’t allowed Hollywood or anyone to change you. You are still that same scrawny kid from Sudbury. We love you, brother,” JD professed to the group.

Everyone cheered and knocked down their shot glasses. Chris gave JD a strong pat on the back and engulfed him in a big hug. “Thanks for that, man. Means a lot.”

“It’s nothing but the truth,” JD replied.

With the drinks flowing, everyone was feeling good. Whatever drama Chris and Raina had her was long forgotten as she sat next to him on one of the couches in their VIP area. The two were laughing and having a fun time, like always.

“Are we still up for golf practice tomorrow at Top Golf?” she asked him.

“Yeah, sure. You still want to go, right?”

“Yeah, I want to go. I need all of the practice I can get. I don’t want to embarrass myself at Mission Hills completely. I can’t believe we are both going to that event,” Raina said as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“It should be fun. I know we’ll have a good time,” Chris told her as he placed a hand on Raina’s leg. He began using his thumb to make circular motions on her inner thigh. 

Raina noticed Chris’s hand position was beginning to make her think of all kinds of dirty thoughts. Like, if he moved his hand up higher and began rubbing her clit. It was dark enough that no one would notice them. Then Raina imagined him slipping a finger in her pussy. She wondered how many fingers he could get in. It has been a long while since Raina had sex. Here she was fantasizing about her best friend fingering her while in the accompaniment of their friends. 

“Everything okay?” Chris asked when he saw Raina breathing a little heavier. 

“Yeah, it’s just… it’s sweltering in here all of a sudden.”

“Do you feel an anxiety attack coming along?” Chris questioned.

Raina could hear the genuine concern in his voice. “No, it isn’t that at all. It’s just…” Raina began to say but got lost in Chris’s blue eyes. She looked at his plump lips. Letting all of her inhibitions go, Raina moved her head closer to Chris and placed her lips on his. 

There was a battle of voices inside her head as she kissed Chris. One voice was yelling at her that she was an idiot and to pull away. In contrast, the other voice cheered Raina on for having the guts to take the initiative. Thankfully, the battle ceased when Chris proceeded to kiss her back. Chris took it one step further when he slowly slipped his tongue in Raina’s mouth. He moved one of his hands in her hair and gave it a soft tug while his other hand made its way down her back. Soon, Raina felt that hand slide up under her shirt. She pulled back.

“I think…I think need to get…I need some air,” Raina said as she tried to catch her breath.

“I’ll go with you,” Chris replied and stood up. He helped Raina up as well and began to lead her out of the club. Chris made sure to let Scott know that he and Raina were leaving.

“Everything okay?” Scott asked, concerned.

“Yeah, everything is fine. We need some air, that’s all. Thanks for everything. It was a great birthday,” Chris said and hugged his brother goodnight.

As they made their way out of the club, Chris wrapped in arm around Raina’s waist, which she reciprocated by doing the same. It was not uncommon for the two to be affectionate with one another; however, neither have taken it to the point where kissing was involved. Walking silently side-by-side, the two walked through the casino and towards the elevators.

“Did you have a nice birthday?” Raina asked to break the silence between the two.

“One of the bests. Thank you for coming. I know you are busy as well, but I really appreciate you coming along.”

“Of course. There’s no other place that I would rather be than…than here with you,” revealed Raina.

Chris just stared at Raina. There was nothing but love and adoration in her eyes. It was almost too much for him to handle. He slowly leaned in and captured her lips against his. This kiss was softer and sweeter. Neither felt that they had to rush or worry about being caught. They were in their own world. 

When the elevator finally reached Raina’s floor, both broke away from one another and breathed a sigh of relief. Raina walked out first with Chris behind her. She shared a two-bedroom Skyloft with Mercedes and Tara while Chris was in the three-bedroom Skyloft with the guys. 

When Raina stepped in front of her door, she turned back to Chris and asked, “Do you want to come in?”

Chris nodded his head.

Once inside the loft, Chris excused himself to the bathroom. He splashed water on his face to help relax.

“What are you doing? She is one of your best friends. You going to fuck it all up if you take this any further,” Chris quietly scolded himself. However, a part of him wanted to succumb to his desires. Chris would not deny that he thought Raina was stunning. She was also funny, charming, and self-deprecating. One of the things Chris loved about Raina was that she had no problem busting his balls. That is partly why she fits so well with his crew. She kept him grounded and on his toes.

Realizing he was spending too much time in the bathroom, Chris wiped his face with a towel and took deep breaths before remerging in the living area. 

Raina was already seated on the couch, shoes off, and a beer resting on her lap. 

“Everything alright?” she asked while flipping through the TV channels.

“Yeah, all good,” Chris responded with a chuckle.

Coming to terms that he did not want to leave, Chris kicked off his shoes and grabbed a beer from the bar’s mini-fridge. He made his way over to the couch and plopped right next to Raina. 

Comfortable silence filled the room until Raina spoke up.

“I’m sorry I was a bitch to you earlier. I should not have said what I said,” she apologized.

Chris shrugged, “It’s okay.”

“No, it isn’t. It is not okay for me to talk to you like that, especially on your birthday. Of all days for me to be a total bitch, it had to be on your birthday.”

“Raina, I know you didn’t mean any of it,” Chris said to her.

“I’m…I tend to get very protective of you. I don’t want to see you hurt or taken advantage of, okay. I’m always going to look out for you, just like I know you’d do the same for me. I don’t want anything to come between our friendship,” Raina confessed and continued with, “That kiss at the club and elevator…well…I don’t want those incidents to make it weird between us. You’re one of the very few people with who I am comfortable around. I don’t have to be something or someone I am not. I don’t have to be ‘on’ while I am around you. You know what I’m saying?”

“I do. Nothing is going to come between us, Rai. I promise. Those kisses…they were nice. Great even. I don’t regret them. Hell, don’t be surprised if I kiss you again tonight,” He admitted flirtatiously.  

“So, you wouldn’t stop me if I straddled your lap and began trailing kisses from your neck to your ear?” Raina asked sincerely. 

When she saw no refusals from Chris, Raina placed her beer on the coffee table and got up to straddle Chris’s lap. He set his own beer on the side table and placed his hands on her hips. Chris groaned when Raina readjusted herself on his lap to get more comfortable. 

“Oh, you like that, Evans? You want me to do that again?” Raina asked seductively as she began to grind herself against Chris’s bulge, which was starting to get hard.

“Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop,” he begged. 

“I like hearing you beg.”

Chris ran his hands under Raina’s shirt and proceeded to pull it up over her head. When he saw her lacy black bra, Chris could not help himself and buried his head in her breasts. He cupped her left breast, squeezing it, and released its nipple from its contraption. Chris flicked his tongue on Raina’s freed nipple, to which she responded with a moan. She pulled back a little to unclasp her bra and toss it aside. 

“Now you can have as much as you want, Christopher,” Raina purred in his ear. 

Chris could not take it anymore. He was so close to spilling his load in his pants that he did not want to spoil the rest of the night.

He grabbed Raina roughly by the hair and kissed her deeply on the lips. Biting and sucking on her bottom lip, Chris finally let go when both needed to breathe and rested his forehead against Raina’s.

“Bedroom. Now!” He ordered with a slap to her ass, which Raina was more than happy to oblige.

[spacebrick3]

The Prophet and the Submariner (Part 1)

Alright, here it is: the first set of prompts for @ratracechronicler​‘s Writeblr Hunger Games! In which we meet our characters, and—maybe—get a glimpse of what’s in store for them…

My future didn’t look good.

That’s the problem with being a prophet. I can see the future, sure, but that doesn’t mean I can change it—and sometimes, it’s better not to know, to have a few hours more to enjoy life going on as normal. Ignorance is bliss, they say, and while it’s usually better not to take advice from the let’s-remain-willfully-ignorant crowd, in this particular case I found myself agreeing with them.

The announcer stood on stage, practicing his high notes. He seemed surprised when I walked up to him, although I couldn’t tell if it was regular shock or a flash of anger that the Peacekeepers flanking the steps hadn’t grabbed me. “Young lady, I appreciate your patriotism, but the Reaping doesn’t begin for another hour.” Pause. Neither of us moved. “What I’m saying is, clear off. I’m busy.” Another silence. I decided it was better to let him work it out. “I don’t want to call the guards-“

“Then don’t,” I said. “I’m volunteering.”

“You’re not one to tell me wh-“ He spluttered to a halt with the verbal equivalent of a backed-up engine, eyes going wide behind their square spectacles. “I’m sorry, you what? Why?”

“Do you care? I’m volunteering,” I repeated. “No one volunteers from District 7 most of the time. You should think you’re lucky.”

A suspicious glare is all I get for my troubles—he has the absolute audacity to pop his collar and sneer down at me, trying to regain his air of aloofness and arrogance. “That’s exactly why I’m suspicious,” he spits. “You planning something? Think you’re smart with a bag of tricks up your sleeve? We get plenty of disruptors thinking they can make a statement, stand up to the Capitol—and they all die in the end. Get out of here, kid.”

Just my luck to get the one announcer who didn’t want volunteers. “There’s no point,” I said flatly. “You’ll pick my name out of your…uh, bowl-orb container anyways. I’m trying to make this easier for all of us.”

“Hah. Good one.”

“I’m serious,” I snapped. “You want why, this is your answer: I get visions of the future, and I’ve seen them for long enough that I know they turn out to be true. And right now, I know that the first name you pull from that container, the first name who’s heading to the godforsaken Hunger Games, is my own.” I glared at him, knowing that he didn’t believe me. “Want to test it? Pick a name.”

He rolled his eyes. “This is a breach of protocol, you understand. I’m only doing it so you’ll leave me alone.” He reached in a hand, very deliberately shuffled around the papers inside, then grabbed one. “Isabel Keel.”

“That’s me,” I said, holding up my ID.

He paled. Good. “…coincidence,” he managed. “You just…got lucky. Seen this trick before.”

Really? He thinks getting chosen for the Games is lucky? Has he ever watched them? “Pick again,” I said calmly, knowing the result. “I said I wanted to make this easier.” He reached in again, much less flippant, and pulled out another slip. The way his eyes widened, and the fact he tore it half, told me everything I needed to know.

“Welcome…welcome to the Games, Miss Keel,” he said. “I would wish that the odds favored you, but clearly they already do.”

***

I’d hoped that by volunteering, I wouldn’t have to sit through the Reaping. To make it easier on myself, at least—I didn’t care what I put the Capitol through, let the bureaucratic bastards suffer—because God, I wanted nothing more than to get up and run as far as I could, hope that I could find a hiding spot before the Peacekeepers descended upon me. A fantasy, sure, but an appealing one.

Volunteering was the high point of my courage that day, a feeling which slowly ebbed away as I watched the announcer prattle on, as I watched the crowd’s gaze sweep back and forth between me and him. Some of them looked at me with pity, knowing I was being sent away to the Games, others simple confusion: why had I volunteered? Who was I? (I certainly didn’t know everybody in the district, and they didn’t know me either). I didn’t have much of an answer for them.

Course, there was still the matter of the other tribute. I think the announcer doubled his flourish, throwing in everything he hadn’t gotten to use for me as he pulled out another slip of paper. “Raina Strider!” he bellowed, scanning the crowd with the glare of a predator. “Well? Come on now, come and claim your honor!”

A girl in slacks and a navy-blue military jacket—probably from a parent, probably a dead parent if it had been sent back in that kind of a condition—was shoved to the front of the crowd, looking bewildered. “…I, uh…” she said, shooting a glance behind her. I’m pretty sure she went through all five stages of grief in that half-second, a grim resignation settling into her eyes. “Since…no one’s apparently willing to volunteer for me,” she added with a laugh, “I guess I’m here. Raina Strider.”

I dimly recognized her—spent all her time by the docks, even though we had less than one ship a year come by. Shorter than me, but she had muscles under that jacket: I’d already guessed at Navy parentage, and suspected that Strider kept up a training regimen as well. Following in their footsteps, except now that path had been cut off.

I offered her a hand up the stairs, designed for someone with far longer legs than the both of us. But clearly, today was not my day: the moment our fingertips brushed, visions flashed before my eyes.

Hands—not mine—wrapping a bandage. They’re gentle, oh so gentle, but it doesn’t matter because it’s not my arms that hurt, it’s my back, like a railroad spike through my spine. I stumble forwards, throwing out my hands to catch myself. They’re bloody. Covered in warm, dripping scarlet bloody, and I can’t tell if it’s mine or another’s, and I fall-

My hands don’t hit ground. I fall through, and I’m holding a stone…but I am no longer Isabel Keel, I am Raina Strider, squinting through the sun as Isabel nearly falls down the steps in front of me-

I caught myself, foot trembling at the edge of the stage. “Are you okay?” Strider asked, looking concerned. “Is something wrong?”

But I couldn’t meet her eyes, and I turned away, letting her clamber up the steps by herself. I held up my hands in front of my face, as if expecting to see them still streaked with red, heart pounding in my ears. What does it mean? I demanded of whatever deity cursed me to see the future and not be able to change it, to see the future and hardly ever understand it-

For perhaps the first time, I was truly scared of the Games. Strider was the reason for those visions, I knew it. Whatever I saw, whatever it means, she had something to do with it. With bloody hands and bandages…

I don’t know what it means, I reminded myself. I don’t understand it. I’m probably wrong—I hope I’m wrong… But I could think of only one likely explanation, as both of us were sent off to a competition with only one survivor: that, in the end, one of us would kill the other. 

[oofcori]

CORI ACCOLA. anyone who knew her was aware of what she was like; she didn’t hide it. she was energetic, talkative, enthusiastic — maybe often too much of each. she was persistent, supportive, she liked to immerse herself with people at all times and she liked being liked so it was no surprise that she had a perfectly cultivated personality for every single person she met. they didn’t stray too far from one another, mostly sticking true to who she was, but her mannerisms, her tone of voice, the way she’d hold conversations or drop them in an instant — it all depended on who she was talking to.

on days like her birthday she found herself talking to everyone. even people she barely spoke to aside from the occasional check up or glance in the hallway were celebrating with her, and she knew it was down to the party as a whole, but still ! she’d accept any kind of attention, no matter what. 

it was strange how birthdays were both mutually the best and worst days of her life, no matter the year. they always started positive, like she’d just been birthed the very second she awoke and she was bursting with immense energy. she thrived from the birthday celebrations, the attention, all the gifts ! 

eventually things would calm down as does she and she’s left with a desire to get back to that happy place — she’s been familiar with all kinds of things in her years, often just getting trashed with whatever alcohol she can find but it’s not like she’s a stranger to narcotics. she doesn’t remember several birthdays because of this and she genuinely prefers it this way. she doesn’t know what exactly happened but she knows her twelve, fifteenth and sixteenth were her worst ones. 

it wasn’t that she was a bad kid, she was just a handful. and when she wasn’t even related to the people who had taken the role of her parents it was easy to decide she didn’t have to listen to them. so there were multiple times police had to be called, several times she’d end up needing her stomach pumped in hospital and eventually thousands of dollars were spent on therapy she refused to take seriously. 

there were obvious whispers from her godparents’ friends and family, always discussing how they didn’t NEED to take her in, how they didn’t owe carla and tobias anything even after their murders — corrine was too much to handle and not what they signed up for ! except her godparents were GOOD people, they were her parents best and closest friends, most trusted contacts and they knew corrine deserved some stability in her life, despite her being anything but. 

when her parents died she was seven and she only remembers one or two birthdays with them but even that’s enough to know how much they loved her and how much she loved them. she remembers opening up her princess annika barbie doll, her first nintendo ds ( then another a week later when she dropped it from the balcony ), and she remembers how they’d wake her up with a candle in a cupcake softly singing ‘ happy birthday ’ while she twiddled her feet and swayed along, trying her best to be patient and not blow out the candle too quick. 

and then she remembers her eighth birthday. the first one without them, how she dreamt of them the night before and how they weren’t there when she opened her eyes in the morning. she kept falling back asleep, maybe if she tried again they would be. she didn’t cry once, she didn’t eat any of her cake, didn’t open any presents, didn’t talk to anyone. 

her ninth was a bit better, she actually had some cake. tenth she had a party, though it ended up with everyone being sent home after she decided to see if she could set georgina wood on fire with one of the candles. turns out she could.

once she got to fourteen cori was well aware of how to seem normal. no setting people on fire, no fires in general ( twelfth birthday was a disaster, she’d now claim it was lit  ), no replacing her own cake’s sugar with salt, making sure she was actually contributing to conversations. it was a long list. so she was starting to act HAPPIER which was good, she was getting friends at school which was good — it was only really on her birthdays that she’d let go of that control and fall into old routines.

so with her twenty-first it was no different. 

perhaps it was the perfect night. she almost feels bad for stealing part of the attention away from it being the end of year party considering she got her own surprise mini-performance with faith jumping out from the cake. she was with all her friends. milena, sage, grey, jas, raina, claire, scott, lou, levi, maia, cyrus, maddox... honestly she had too many friends.  she loved seeing them all dressed up, loved dancing with them and drinking far too much together. she remembers how she was sad about the whole date situation, she’d told ella to ask grey and regretted it immediately, found out milena asked maddox and felt completely lost with who to ask herself, so many of her friends were DATING so they were automatically out... everyone was taken up quickly and the people she was depending on to go with were suddenly unavailable. faith had been a literal life saver because if she had to turn up alone on her BIRTHDAY she would rather have died. but the night was everything she could have wanted and she wouldn’t have changed it for anything. 

but as it gets later she’s feeling more and more drained, she’s stumbling around from the alcohol and she’s already ingested a bit more than advised of the edible cookie cyrus gave her. she’s fine, she just can’t stop thinking about things she definitely doesn’t want to think about. she keeps getting urges to do SOMETHING... but she doesn’t know what, she knows it’ll probably be bad, though — and it’s fine when you’re thirteen and your biggest issue is why henry malkovich would rather sit next to yasmin greene than you in english class but here, at gallagher, when you’re friends with EVERYONE... they can’t see you like that. 

she’s already losing her breath, feeling like her hearts going to burst from her chest if it doesn’t slow down and she’s making her way outside as subtly as possible because there’s nothing worse than someone coming to check on you when you’re freaking out and you don’t want them to know.

she’s outside, trying to figure out where she can go to think and just be anywhere but around other people. her heels are quickly discarded and then she’s running. she hadn’t decided where she was off to but she ends up somewhere in the forest, surrounded by the trees and it’s so DARK but the moon looks beautiful from what she can see through the branches above — there’s a comfort in how still everything is, especially when her body feels like it’s involuntarily spinning round and round. so she decides to sit. her hands playing with anything that’s on the ground beside her — twirling grass around her fingers, digging little holes then burying them back up with a solid pat, peeling off little chunks of bark from the tree and trying to engrave her name into it. anything to occupy herself with, a distraction while her mind calms down, something to DO. 

she’d been messaging some friends, all none the wiser except grey — only because she’d told him she was feeling sad, though it was something she regretted as soon as she did. she shouldn’t have told him she was outside, alone, and clearly too intoxicated to make wise decisions. he was always looking after her even when she didn’t want it, and tonight she REALLY didn’t want it and she hoped he was joking when he said he was coming to find her. it only frustrates her and makes her anxious, which just sends her thoughts spiralling. 

there’s no warning before she’s sobbing, a split second vision of her dad rushing for a hug — his laugh echoing in her head. she can hear her mother singing to her, cradled together in bed while there’s thunderstorms outside. and once she starts she can’t stop. she was emotional, sensitive, weak and it was something she didn’t like people knowing. but it’s never just about her parents deaths. it’s how she’ll never see them again, how she won’t have her father walking her down the aisle or that they never got to see her grow up and know just how much she looks like both of them. how she literally can’t look in the mirror ( which is something she loves doing ) without being reminded of them one way or another. she wished she had a sibling just so she could TALK about it — someone who could understand her and tell her that she’s not crazy for having a breakdown after she notices herself humming lullabies her mother would sing or how when she really laughs she has a squeak in her throat like her dad and that breaks her heart.

it’s about how she will never know if she’s good enough or if she turned out okay, how she despises herself for not making every day count and that she KNOWS they’d be disappointed in her today. how she’s sick to her stomach with the thought that they were better off without her, even though she felt non-existent without them. 

so she just stayed against the tree, determined tears refusing to stop as she wipes them away again and again and again. and she’s sure she looks a whole MESS right now but there’s not a single care in her being as her palms swipe at her eyes, leaving her mascara all over her hands. she bites down on the side of her palm, just below her thumb, in hopes to calm her breathing, to stop panicking quite so much and just relax.

after a while of forcing herself silent, she’s struggling to keep her eyes open, fluttering slowly but often as she lets her body sink and she’s drifting to sleep. 

[spookyboywhump]

Previous

 This was shorter than I wanted it to be but ya know sometimes it’s just the right time to end a part. Things will pick up from here.

TW: Nail whump! Nail trauma! It’s bad! (probably not that bad but as someone who doesn’t like nail whump it’s Bad)

***

 Alexei didn’t come home that night.

 Reasonably, Leon knew this was a possibility. He knew he might not see him till sometime the next day, in the back of his mind he knew he might not see him again at all, but that didn’t stop him from anxiously waiting up all night, waiting for the sound of the door opening.

 When Alexei was chosen for this assignment, he had begged to go with him. He insisted it was too dangerous, insisted someone should be there in case things went wrong, even if it wasn’t him, he was more anxious than usual about this but his boss had told him it was Alexei’s job, and he was more than capable of handling it on his own. Leon knew this, he had full faith in his partner’s abilities, but things happen, accidents happen, even the best of them go missing sometimes and he didn’t want Alexei to be one of them. 

 “Please, please be careful, Lexi…” he had said softly before he left, eyes focused on tying his tie. Alexei had insisted he could do it, he did it every day after all, but sometimes Leon just wanted to take care of him, do small things for him, he couldn’t help it. 

 “I always am.” He assured him, a confident smile on his face. 

 “I know, but… you know what this guy does, what he has done, and I don’t want you to get hurt. I mean, it’s like they said, you’re just his type, you’re at such a risk and I just don’t trust this, I don’t think you should be going alone, I don’t think any of this is a good idea, I-“

 “Hey.” A cold hand rested on his cheek, he finally looked into his eyes. Once upon a time, Alexei had been cold, cold towards everybody and everything, but these days he could Leon the most loving and kind look, it still made him weak two years into their relationship. “I’ll be okay.” He said softly.

 “Promise?”

 “I promise.”

 The sun was beginning to rise, and Alexei hadn’t come home.

 ***

 “Raina, I don’t think this is working.” The brunette said, watching them with crossed arms. She seemed a lot more laid back than the blonde, Raina, but somehow that just made Alexei even more irritated. He had been shocked several times with that cane of hers by now, but they didn’t seem to be getting the reaction they wanted. 

 “What do you suggest then?” She asked, stepping back from him and leaning on the cane. He had quickly picked up that she actually depended on it, while she seemed to stand just fine walking seemed to be an issue for her. 

 “Something a little more… bloody, I think.” She smiled, and he thought he might have seen the slightest hint of a smile cross the other woman’s face as well.

 “You always say that, but by all means, have a go at him. The boss said not to hold back.” While the other girl stepped away from them, Alexei kept his eyes focused straight ahead of him, staring intently at a crack in the cement wall. He hadn’t said a word since all this started, hadn't even given in and screamed. 

 His training told him the best way to not let information slip was to not say anything at all, his own coping habits told him the best way to drown it out was to focus on a set point and silently count backwards from a thousand. He had made it to nine hundred and forty three before they gave up with the electric shocks. They didn’t seem particularly discouraged, just ready to try something new. He wondered how much longer this would go on. While the other girl looked for her new torture method, Raina pushed the tip of the cane against the underside of his chin, tilting his head up and forcing him to look at her.

 “You should just spit it out, you know. It’ll be easier than whatever María chooses to do to you.” She warned him. He just silently glared at her, eyes narrowed as he refused to give in. She just sighed though. “I suppose we’ll just have to keep going.” 

 “Let’s see if this gets him to talk.” María came back, holding a pair of pliers in her hand. His first thought was to grit his teeth together, jaw clenched as he thought she would try to rip a tooth out. He knew someone that had happened to, and he wasn’t exactly looking for the same treatment. Instead, she knelt down in front of him, taking one hand in hers and looking his fingers over. “What a waste… you have such nice nails.” She sighed.

 His eyes widened just slightly when she brought the pliers near his fingers, he tried to jerk his hand away but the leather strap held him in place. She started with his little finger, he hissed through his teeth when she started to slide the pliers beneath the nail, screwing his eyes shut as she just dug deeper and deeper before closing the tool over the nail, one quick yank ripped the nail free. He still wouldn’t scream, all they got from him was a sharp whine as he clenched his other hand into a fist. Nine hundred and forty two.

 “What is your real name?” Raina asked. He finally spoke up, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

 “I told him my name, that is my real name, I don’t know why you won’t believe me.” He said through gritted teeth.

 “We aren’t as stupid as you think we are.” She said bluntly. “Next nail.” She ordered María, who happily obliged. The process was repeated, the nail from his ring finger torn off next. Nine hundred and forty one.

 “Weird, normally they’re screaming by now.” María sighed, but Raina told her to just keep going. The nail from his middle finger went next, even though it was only his fingers being affected he swore he felt the pain all the way up his arm. Nine hundred and forty.

 “If you would just answer my questions, we wouldn’t have to do this.” Raina told him. “It’s your own fault this has to happen.” As she spoke María started to rip the next nail off, only succeeding in breaking it in half though, causing him to jerk against his restraints once again. Nine hundred and thirty nine.

 “Shit… now this is going to hurt.” María warned him, having to press against the exposed nail bed to tear free the rest of the nail. He gasped from the pain, refusing to give them anymore than that though, even if it did hurt like hell. Nine hundred and thirty eight. All that remained was his thumb nail. He gritted his teeth when a hand tangled in his hair, Raina jerking his head up to face her.

 “Who. Do you. Work for?” She asked, glaring at him. He silently glared back though, a few missing nails was nowhere near enough to get him to talk. When she realized she wasn’t getting anywhere, she sighed, letting go of him and telling María to continue. The pliers dug under his thumb nail, he squeezed his eyes shut in preparation for it. 

 Nine hundred and thirty seven.

[remedial-wit]

28/02/19

Femslash February Day 28! - Skimmons (Bioquake)

5 + 1 - The five times they almost got together and the one time they did.

Skye’s never had a family, really. The orphanage, crappy foster homes, and a few, short-lived, nice ones certainly don’t count.

But she’s on the Bus, which is a stupid name for their home in the sky but that’s part of the charm, with Coulson, May, Ward, Fitz and Simmons. They’re playing scrabble, which is totally unfair since Fitz and Jemma have, like, triple their IQ, and the other three agents know like seven languages. Skye has the dictionary app on her phone, but she doesn’t dare use it with three spies in the room.  

“It is so a real word,” splutters Jemma, outraged — she’s currently winning, of course.

“Sure,” says Coulson. “If you say so.”

“It is.”

They’ve all got mugs of hot chocolate, even May, each personalized to their own tastes. Skye has whipped cream and marshmallows and cinnamon and basically all anything sweet that can be found in the kitchen. Her hands are closed around the warmth of it, a classic comfort. And everything is good.

Jemma falls back into the couch in frustration, suddenly resting her head on Skye’s shoulder, burying her face into the crook of her neck. Soft brown hair tickles her skin and Jemma complains lightly about “bloody Americans and Scots taking revenge on the English.” She smells faintly of peaches and some floral perfume scent and the hot chocolate on her breath.

Like an idiot, Skye immediately freezes up.

The mug falls from her fingers, and hot milk immediately seeps through her clothes to her skin.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Jemma exclaims, instantly jumping up from her position, frantic, blue paper towel from nowhere already in her hand to clean up.

“No! It’s fine, Simmons.” Skye replies quickly, shaking her head adamantly. “Don’t worry about it.”

From the opposite couch, she sees May eying the two of them warily, scrutinizing them. Skye swallows and says nothing and hopes her blush isn’t as prominent as it feels.

If Skye didn’t know better, she’d think Jemma’s cheeks are glowing a little red as well, helping her clean the hot chocolate and cream and everything else off her shirt, and she’s so close. Skye could almost kiss her.

But she won’t, obviously. And Jemma probably isn’t blushing, it’s just the lighting, and the rest of the team are literally sitting around them, Fitz is right beside them.

And Skye’s never had a proper family before. Anything more would ruin that.

    2. It’s in the aftermath of her fall, after Ward jumped out of the quinjet and rescued her and the antidote worked, that Skye is finally able to breathe. Her arms fall automatically around her, fitting, holding her close and tight.

Jemma is alright.

Jemma is alive.

Jemma trembles in her embrace, slightly, quietly shaky. And neither of them let go.

Honestly, neither of them have known each other for that long a time, a few months, really, but Skye already knows she doesn’t know what she would do if she lost Jemma — if she lost any of this newfound family, really. But especially Jemma.

How could you do this? She wants to say. How could you jump and think that it wouldn’t destroy us? How could you be so callous with your own life, that you would jump to save us?

Don’t you know that I already —

She doesn’t say it, though. Of course, she doesn’t. How can she? Not when she already knows the answer. That the same reason Skye can’t wait as someone goes out to catch her again is the same reason Jemma would do it again, and again, if presented with the same situation.

It’s almost funny how these things work. It’s part of the reason why Skye cares so much — because Jemma cares so much. And she’s so afraid to lose that.

Skye squeezes her a little, and presses a kiss into Jemma’s hair, breathing her in, and this moment and how she’s here and okay.

Don’t you know that I already can’t lose you? Don’t you know what that means? She wants to say, but she doesn’t.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she says instead.

    3. “Jems,” says Skye weakly, once she comes back out of that morphine haze. “C’mon, I need to tell you something.”

She’s lying in the med-pod on the Bus, finally conscious and no longer dying. She is much too weak to move the blankets to exam her stomach or the bullet wound, but she suspects Quinn really did a number on her, because, geez. She’s mostly numb but she still feels like shit.

The room is too bright and small and closed in. And the only things in it are the bed and all the machines and chemicals, monitoring and stabilizing her vitals. And the only source of noise in the room is the heart monitor, beeping steadily.

They could have at least given her a laptop with Netflix, or some damn hospital jelly.

“Simmons,” she says again, wincing at the way her voice croaks.

Jemma is standing at the door of the room, busying herself with prepping another syringe to either inject Skye with something else or take another blood sample. She looks up.

Finally.

Because Skye really does have something to tell her. Something important and not the usual blood-taking-vampire jokes. She’s figured, between now and the last time Doctor Jemma was here, with her almost dying and all, there’s no time like the present.

“Skye,” tuts Jemma, frowning cutely. “You really shouldn’t waste your energy like that trying to speak. You aren’t in pain are you?”

“No, but — “

“Oh good. I know you’re stable now, and you aren’t about to die, but you really mustn’t push yourself,” she continues, light but scolding, before Skye feels the needle poke into her arm, and whatever drug it is that Skye can’t pronounce, flows into her blood.

“I just wanted to tell you that I like you,” says Skye in one breath, pouting a little now.

Jemma tosses her head back and laughs. “Oh, I like you too Skye. Very much.”

“No, I mean I like-like you. Like —” and Skye has never been the most eloquent, but her tongue feels like it’s truly struggling to find the words right now. “Romantic stylez.”

Jemma hums, and shakes her head lightly, almost to herself, looking fond as she walks back to the door.

“Now, that’s just the morphine talking,” she says, before the door slides shut.

Skye suppresses a groan.

    4. SHIELD is gone.

SHIELD is gone. SHIELD is gone. SHIELD is gone.

And Skye feels like she is an agent of Nothing. Her family is separated. Ward, her mentor, was a traitor.

They are silent on the way there. Tired, exhausted, from everything. Trip takes to pacing the grounds, May stays in her pilot’s seat, Coulson just lies down and closes his eyes, but he’s not really sleeping, she thinks.

Skye sits in her bunk. Months, almost a whole years worth, of memories here. Outside in the common area, there’s so much broken glass and splintered wood and burnt parts, but in her bunk, it’s untouched. It could almost be like nothing has changed.

Except it’s too quiet outside. There’s no sound of Coulson’s cheesy music, or Fitzsimmons science-ing, or May and Ward sparring.

When they arrive, finally, at the coordinates, wherever it is Nick Fury has sent them, they all stand at the door. Tired, but ready for anything. They have to be.

The first thing she sees, standing there, is Jemma.

Her feet move before her brain even catches up, body moving on instinct, her arms finding Jemma and holding on tight and adamant that she won’t let go. Ever. And Jemma relaxes into her and grips on just as strong, just as fiercely, and knows Jemma won’t let her go either.

Almost everything is broken, but they’re okay.

Oh, she could really kiss her.

But Jemma holds herself small in her arms, and even though she seems freshly washed, she looks about ready to collapse, and there is something so delicately held about her expression. As though she’s clinging onto Skye because she might be the only thing left.

“Where’s Fitz?” Skye asks, dread welling up in her stomach, glancing over Jemma’s shoulder to the empty space behind her.

And Jemma releases a breath, heavy and shuddering and too shallow. “Alive,” she says finally. “He’s… alive.”

Jemma pulls away, but not completely, and Skye holds her hand firmly, both shaking, and says nothing.

Right now, this is enough.

     5. She doesn’t quite know what to do when Simmons comes back from HYDRA. She’s different.

Though, they all are.

And there’s no time to really do anything except hope that they make it out alive

Because suddenly, they’ve been thrust into this world where HYDRA is still at large, where it’s not aliens and a few obscure people on an Index with powers now. It’s one of them, it’s a whole community, it’s how Skye has been searching for her past, her origin for so long and in the space of a few weeks she’s met her father and mother, and lost them both too. It’s that an enemy became an ally, Raina and all her manipulations and her sacrifice, and family became the enemy. It’s that her father was mad, sick with it, but ultimately good, and that Skye’s name is really Daisy — though, she still can’t get used to it.

When Simmons comes back from HYDRA, there’s so much chaos it seems almost minute. And there’s no time to discuss anything. If it was up to Simmons, she’s sure, there would be nothing much to discuss at all.

Skye knocks on the glass before she enters the lab. It still feels a little odd, in this big open lab and this actually secret base of operations, instead of the Bus, but the air isn’t as…stilted as before. It’s less uncomfortable.

Fitzsimmons are beginning to sync back up to each other now, though, there are still some things unsaid, she can tell.

“Skye,” says Simmons, looking up with a smile that’s getting easier and easier these past few days. It still does something soft and flutter, after all this time. “Your here. I have new gauntlets for you to try out.”

“That’s great, Simmons. Thanks,” she replies, tucking her hair back behind her ear. She swallows.

Behind them, she hears Fitz slip silently out of the room, and somehow she sees Jemma breathe, and the unresolved tension in the room fall away. It’s not perfect, and Skye misses the effortless comfort that came with the Bus, back before once more. They’ve all been through so much, though, multiple perils in every variation, they’ll be okay. She has to believe it.

Jemma turns, busying herself with adjusting the gauntlets before helping to fasten them on. They fit flawlessly. Of course they do.

“Now,” says Jemma, releasing a shaky breath, fidgeting. “Do you— How would you like to test them out?”

They set it up simply, just as Jiaying showed her. There’s a glass of water on the table, and that’s all. No more no less. Jemma attaches some biomonitors to her, with her permission, and watches, fascinated, and without fear, every so often reaching up to adjust their positions.

Jemma is standing close to her, watching every part of the process intently. Skye closes her eyes and she can feel Jemma, the scholar, observing her expression, watching for any sign of pain. She’s hyperaware of the way her hand opens, stretching towards the table, shivering with the careful release of control. Jemma stands there, muttering softly to her about the vibrations of every molecule of water, the bonds within them and between them, and how Skye is affecting them and it’s incredible.

When Skye opens her eyes, exhales finally, she meets Jemma’s eyes. Neither of them are saying anything, but it feels right. It just feels right. That it’s them, that Jemma is helping her through it, this time, looking on in awe and wonder and pride. And it feels like they trust each other again.

Her eyes flicker to Jemma’s lips, kind and brave and which remind Skye of the family she hasn’t lost yet.

She’s not sure if she wants to say it now. Her throat catches the words before they pass her lips, held there for the longest while now, because she’s not sure if it’ll seal the moment or if it will shatter it.

There’s the sound of Coulson calling everyone back to the common room, and Jemma pulls her gaze away and steps back.

Skye takes a breath, looks back to the glass still there on the table, the water turned to ice, and melts it back down again. She turns and follows Jemma back out the door.

    +1. They’re sitting on the couches — Jemma bundled into a too-big hoodie with the sleeves stretched over her hands, knees pulled up to her chin, leaning gently into Daisy’s side, and Daisy has her arm tucked behind Jemma’s back and is resting her head on hers — in the common area, in the long unused shell of the Bus.

It’s been a while.

Daisy has her old, trusty laptop, from before even her SHIELD ‘consultant’ days, back from when she was with the Rising Tide, playing music softly. A playlist of hits from 2012, which was an era ago, it seems.

They’ve been coming back here more often now, just the two of them, after she’d had another sleepless night and wandered down here and found Jemma having one as well. And Jemma had told her everything. About the planet, six months alone, always running because there were creatures — monsters — and someone else, a half feral man, stranded there for fourteen years, Will Daniel, who lived amongst the corpses of his friends. She talked about HYDRA and why she left, and how Fitz loved her and she loved him but she just couldn’t…not in the way he wanted her to love him. That they’re better now, and comfortable and still best friends, of course they are, but things can’t ever be the same. And that she was sorry, sorry because she’d been afraid when Skye — Daisy — had chained and acted fearful when she should have tried to learn.

And Daisy had listened and listened and then Jemma said she wanted to listen too, and they’d stayed up all night.

That was three months ago.

There’s a hot mug of English breakfast tea on the coffee table, the steam rises gently into the air, ghostly against the dim lighting, only the blue glow of Daisy’s laptop. They’re sharing it.

The room is cold, which is partly why they’re curled around each other, a blanket over the both of them, legs tangled. The heating no longer works, or at least that’s what they presume, neither of them have actually tried it, and the lights are switched off.

“Daisy,” says Jemma, the name finally sitting comfortably on her tongue. Daisy feels her hesitate, tense up against her on the couch, and rubs little soothing circles into her back unthinkingly.

“Hmm?” she hums, closing her eyes.

Jemma sits up, just a little, and fiddles with little loose threads of the blanket. “Daisy I have something to tell you.”

Daisy pops one eye open and smiles at her, softly, serenely, because its moments like this which matter in the crazy, stupid world of theirs (and it is theirs, saving it multiple times has certain entitlements, she thinks.)

“What’s up, Jems?”

“Daisy, I like you,” and then Jemma swallows and frowns and shakes her head. “No,” and she lets out a laugh, sounding both nervous and relieved somehow. Like she’s letting something off her chest, finally. “No. I’m in love with you.”

[lolainblue]

Presque Vu -- Chapter 32

   “Good morning, beautiful. Whatcha doing?” Shannon asked as he slipped his arms around Raina's waist and snuggled himself into her back.

   “Just making some toast. That qualifies as cooking, right?” she asked with a laugh. “Do you want some?”

   “Nah, but I'll take some coffee.”

   Raina bit her lower lip. “I think there might be some instant in the back of the cupboard....”

   “What?” Shannon looked frantically around the small kitchen. “Raina, where is your coffee maker?”

   “I don't have one. I'm more of a tea person. I just use the electric kettle. On the rare occasion I want coffee, I just stop at Starbucks and get one.” She took his Shannon's horrified stare. “Why are you looking at me like I just kicked a puppy?”

    Shannon grumbled and started putting his shoes on. “This is not going to do at all. I'll go get us some coffee, but later I'm buying you a coffee maker. A good one.”

   “Look, I know you love your coffee, but I don't see why you can't just...” she watched as Shannon picked his keys up from the counter where he had left them the previous night and then set them back down again with an air of disgust. “What?”

   “Our cars are still at Cassie's.”

   “Looks like it's instant city, sweetheart.”

   “Oh no. I'll just have tea thanks.”

   With a chuckle, Raina got another mug down from the cupboard and set it down in front of Shannon along with several varieties of tea. “So when you do have to be at Jared's today?”

   “When I feel like it,” Shannon with a growl.

   “Okay. Sorry I asked.” She watched him silently as she waited for the kettle to finish heating. “Did something happen between the two of you?” She finally ventured as she poured the water into his mug.

   “What do you want to do today?” Shannon asked, rapidly changing the subject. “Seeing as how you have an unexpected day off and all. We could go pick up our cars and grab some coffee and then maybe....”  

   “Seeing as how I have an unexpected day off. I. Not you. You have people expecting you Shannon.”

   “I can have a day off if I want a day off.”

   Raina frowned. “Are you avoiding Jared?”

   “Do we have to keep talking about Jared?”

   “We haven't talked about Jared at all actually. What the hell is going on Shannon?”

   “Nothing. I just wanted to spend the day with you.”

   Raina circled around the small island so that she could nestle herself in Shannon's arms. “That's really sweet. But I'm going to be okay. And you have responsibilities. I don't want to be a bad influence.”

   Shannon laughed a bit too loudly. “Now that's funny. You being a bad influence on me.” He looked at the tea in front of him again. “Come on. Let's call a cab and go get our cars so we can have some proper coffee. And something besides toast for breakfast.”

   Raina pulled back and looked him up and down. There was something still off about his mood this morning but she couldn't put her finger on it and he seemed to be done opening up to her. “Fine. But then you go to work and I guess I'll start with my job hunt.”

   Shannon sighed in defeat. “Fine. I don't want to argue about it. Spoils the mood anyway. Let's go get some caffeine.”

      They had settled in at a patio table, enjoying the pleasantly sunny late morning as they lingered over waffles when Raina's  phone began ringing. She let it go to voicemail the first time – she was in the middle of dissecting the finer plot points of a series she had just started binge watching – but when the ringing started again not even a minute later she fished her phone back out of her purse and answered it.

   “Raina, hey,” Jared's voice greeted her. “is my brother with you by any chance?”

   “Uh, yeah, he's sitting across from me, eating a sweet potato waffle,” she confirmed. Shannon groaned and let his head fall back. She directed her next remark at him. “Shannon, where is your phone?”

   “I suspect it's turned off or he's lost it again. I'm going straight to voicemail,” Jared said.

   Shannon fished the phone out of his pocket and wordlessly set it face down on the table in front of him.

   “I'm going to go with “he turned it off”. It's on the table in front of me. I've been sitting right here with him for an hour now and I haven't heard it so much as buzz.”

   Jared and Shannon sighed almost in unison and Raina had to hold back a little giggle. “Do you think you could maybe herd him my way? After the waffles and all,” Jared added.

   “I'll see what I can do,” Raina offered.

   “Thanks. Oh and hey, you aren't too busy today are you?”

   “I was going to start my job search this afternoon but I don't have anything firm planned out.”

   “Why don't you come over with Shannon and I can make those introductions I keep mentioning. It's a slow day around here and I can make sure it's just a few core people.”

    Raina looked at Shannon, who was scowling and picking at his waffle. “I don't know. I probably should be at least trying to salvage my internship.”

   “I can see about helping you with that too.”

   “I don't know if that's such a good idea....”

   “Well come on over and we can argue about it in person. Please?”

   Raina sighed. She could see him pouting and making eyes at her in her head. And since she was sure Shannon was going to fight her every step of the way, it was probably easier just to go over with him. “Fine. We'll see you in a bit.” She hung her phone up and placed it on the table.

   “Do I need to get a to-go box?” Shannon asked sarcastically.

   “No. Finish your breakfast. But they are waiting for you. Why are you being like this today? Why did you turn your phone off?”

   “You wouldn't understand. You're an only child.”

   Raina wasn't entirely sure that was what this was about, but he had hit a sore spot. “Yeah. I am well aware,” she said flatly.

   Shannon looked up suddenly, realizing what he had said. “Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't mean....” He regarded her intently. “Why didn't your mother remarry? She must have been pretty young when she lost your father.”

   “I don't know really. She always said nothing could compare to my dad. But they weren't together that long so I don't know... I do know that her students were her life. She was very dedicated to them, and of course to me and her parents. She was a bit of an introvert outside the classroom, so I guess we were all enough for her.” Raina had spent many years when she was younger wishing her mother would meet someone nice and then she could have a father and siblings like her friends did.

   “Yeah well, stepfathers aren't always a great deal either.” Shannon pointed out. “You had a good and stable childhood. It's more than a lot of people get.”

   “I'm sorry, I didn't mean...”

   “No, I didn't mean it like that.” He set his fork down and motioned for the waitress. “Maybe we should get out of here. We both keep putting our feet in our mouths.”

   Raina was startled by her phone ringing again and frowned when she saw it was another call from Jared. “We're leaving now,” she informed him as soon as the call connected.

   “Uhm, okay but are you still there? Because.... “ he paused for a second and Raina gave Shannon's questioning look a shrug. “Those sweet potato waffles, are they vegan?”

   An hour later they were at Jared's, take-out container in hand. Shannon had reassured Raina multiple times on the way over that meeting people would be no big deal, he was sure they would all love her, but she found that the sight of the unfamiliar cars in Jared's drive immediately made her heart race. Shannon slipped his arm protectively around her waist before guiding her inside.

   She expected that they would be working in the lab, but she was surprised to find everyone gathered around the sofa, and she had to smile when she remembered the adventure she had there last weekend. Jared got up immediately as soon as they came into the room and took the bag of food from her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

   “Hello baby girl, I am so glad you're here,” Jared said as he slipped his arm around her shoulders and turned to face the group. Raina felt herself immediately relaxing at his touch and something tickled at the back of her mind, but she had no time to examine it before Jared was enthusiastically making introductions. Apparently, he had already explained who she was and the situation before she got there, so the awkward discussion she was fearing simply turned into casual pleasantries as she was greeted by the small group. There were only four of them, Jamie and Stevie, and Emma and Shayla, but they made her feel welcome.

   “Where's Tomo?” Shannon questioned as he twirled his keys around his thumb.

   “He's got the flu,” Jared explained.

   “So you really could have done without me then today.” Shannon rolled his eyes and looked over at Raina as if he were expecting some sort of reaction. Raina didn't know what he wanted exactly so she gave him a slight shrug.

   “No, we still have things to do and you still haven't gotten that last bit for the mashup...”

   “The way I did it before I left yesterday was fine.”

   “No, it wasn't. It was uneven and...”

   “Oh for fuck's sake, are we going to do this again?" Shannon grumbled. "Why the hell don't you just play everything yourself, that way it will all be exactly the way you like it and I won't have to listen to you complain.”

   Raina chewed awkwardly at her lower lip as they groused at each other. Emma took the waffles from Jared and then took Raina's hand and pulled her aside. “Come into the kitchen with me and we can get some tea and talk about those tour dates.”

   As she looked at the itinerary Emma had provided and sipped at her peppermint tea Raina could hear Jared and Shannon continuing to argue in the other room. “Does this happen a lot?”

   Emma chuckled. “More than I would like, yeah. But it's just how they are. Shannon gives Jared a lot of shit for being bossy and controlling but Shannon is just as bad as he is. He's just more subtle about it. If he wasn't so controlling himself he wouldn't care so much. And they're both so stubborn....”

   Raina laughed. “I knew that about Jared right away but I'm just now figuring that out about Shannon. You can't get him to do a thing he doesn't already want to do.”

   “Yeah, you're catching on,” Emma laughed in return. “It's best just to get out of the way when they get like this and let them work it out themselves. And they always do. Some of their disagreements go on longer than others but they always sort it out.”

   “Oh don't worry, I'm not about to get in the middle of that.”

   They went back to perusing the intermarry and Raina's head was swimming with the possibilities as she looked over the list of cities. “The UK stop is for a few days so that might be a nice one, and Norway has a little break too,” Emma suggested. “If you don't mind a lot of time on the bus and a more frantic pace, the central European dates could be fun.”

   The longer she looked at the list the less her head filled with possible adventures and the clearer she began to focus on the dates in front of her. Jared had already told her how long and intense this tour was going to be, but seeing it laid out like this it finally sank in just how much and how long she was going to be without both of them. It seemed so unfair, to lose them just when she had found them, to go back to near solitude when she had finally realized that wasn't what she needed anymore. It was her eyes that began to swim instead of her head now, tears attempting to push the enthusiasm away. She quickly wiped them, hoping Emma wouldn't notice, and turned her thoughts back to fjords and northern lights. There were so many cities she wanted to see on that list, but she knew there wouldn't be a lot of time for sightseeing. This was work for them.

   “So any idea where you want to go?” Jared asked as he appeared in front of her, rustling around for a fork before popping open the to-go container she had brought him. She watched him as he took the first bite, closing his eyes and making that purring noise that she loved so much. “Fuck, these are amazing.”

   “Yeah, I'm in love with that little cafe,” she agreed. “And no, I'm not sure where I'll want to go. I guess it all depends on what happens with work and my internship. If I can even salvage that.”

   “I have some ideas on that, actually.. I know a few people I could talk to...” Jared began but Raina cut him off.

   “Oh no. I don't want to get a job just because I know you. I want a reputation based on what I've done, not who I'm seeing.”

   Jared took another bite of the waffle and chuckled. “This is L.A. sweetheart. Who you know is as important as what you can do. I know you think it's cheating somehow to attach my name to your job search, but that's how the game is played here.” Raina started to protest but Jared continued. “Why do you think Val gave you that list of names and his personal information? You need to start networking with these people and get your name out there.”

   “It just seems... “

   “Unsavory. I know. But you get used to it. And I was thinking....” He looked over at Emma who was gathering up the paperwork she had laid out for Raina. “That presentation you did. The one about brand recognition continuity or whatever you called it? Could you give it to Emma? I think a project like that might be a great fit for Wonderland, and maybe we could work with your school to meet your internship requirements.”

   “I'd love to hear it,” Emma said.

   Raina bit her bottom lip. “I guess so. But only if you sincerely promise that you're taking this seriously and not just finding me something to do because you feel sorry for me.”

   “Honestly? I was really impressed with that project and I'm excited that we might have an opportunity here to implement it,” Jared told her.

   “I promise I will treat you like anyone else,” Emma said. “I know it's supposed to be a learning experience for you and I wouldn't want to cheat you out of that.”

   Raina had to admit it would be nice to be working for them and would make a large portion of her life so much easier. “When would you like me to present to you?”

   “I need to get a few other people together. But soon. Let me get back to you?” Emma asked. Raina nodded.

   As soon as Emma left the kitchen Jared slipped in behind Raina, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back against him. “I'm sorry I wasn't there for you last night baby girl. How are you holding up? Did you like the flowers?”

   Raina turned around and slipped her own arms around Jared's neck. “I'm sorry. Yes, they were lovely. I liked them very much. Thank you.” She gave him a gentle kiss, content to just be in his arms again. “And I'm doing better today. Shannon and I had quite a long talk yesterday and it felt good to get some things off my chest.”

   Jared pouted a little bit. “What was this talk about?”

,   “What, do we have to report everything we do back to you now?” Shannon asked as slunk into the kitchen.

   “No,” Jared replied, stepping out of Raina's reach and turning to his brother. “I just thought if this talk helped her so much it might be nice to find out why.”

   Shannon didn't say anything else but he stepped into the space that Jared had vacated, wrapping himself around Raina and clutching her tightly. “She was upset. We had a good evening together and good conversation. It was handled.”

   Raina put one arm around Shannon's waist and held her other hand out to Jared. Once he took it and stepped forward again she said, “It's all right, Shannon. I don't mind going over it again. Jared's already heard a lot of it.”

   Shannon frowned and Raina could feel his sour mood turn towards her. “Wait, you already told Jared those things?”

   “I had a panic attack a while ago and I tried to explain myself...”

   “I thought... I mean... I thought that we...” he trailed off, looking between her and Jared.

   “That we what Shannon?” Raina took in his hurt and confusion and added in his behavior today. “Shannon, I'm starting to think that you and I had did not have the same conversation last night.”

   Shannon stepped back and threw his hands up. “Of course. I should have known better. It's still whatever Jared wants, however he wants it. You finally opened up to me so I opened up to you too but now I find out Jared went there first too.”

   “What the hell is going on?” Jared asked.

   “Does he know about the girl you're seeing?” Raina asked Shannon. “Are you going to break up with her?”

   “I don't know now...” Shannon grumbled. “Looks like maybe I was right about how this is going to go all along.”

   “Oh my god,” Raina said, feeling her blood boil. “Here comes the jealousy and pettiness. I knew this was crazy. I knew this wouldn't work.” She looked around the small kitchen trying to locate her purse while Shannon scowled and Jared looked on in bewilderment. “You guys were so sure this was a good idea, so I listened to you. “Oh this is fine, we like it this way, we've done it before, it will be great,” you said,” her voice an irritated singsong. Jared tried to protest but she wasn't done. “I don't think we've been on the same page since the beginning of this. No one is being honest about what they want. This was a fucking mistake.”

   Raina could feel her chest tightening and a lump starting to form in her throat but she knew this wasn't a panic attack. This was hurt. This was regular old fear. She realized that things were already falling apart and she was in danger of losing one or both of them. She had never been involved in a poly relationship before … and she had to be honest with herself, that's what this was... but it felt like, in this moment, she was the only one that had any grip at all on what they should be doing. Which certainly wasn't what they were currently doing.

   “I don't know what's going on between you two, but it's bleeding over into everything else. You need to straighten yourselves out,” Raina added as a parting shot before grabbing her things and walking out the front door. She stood in the driveway for a minute, trying to calm down and figure out how she was going to get home. She didn't want to think about what a cab all the way back to her place would cost. She was thumbing her phone and thinking about calling Cassie when Jared walked outside.

   “Do you mind?” she said in irritation. “I'm trying to dramatically storm off here.”

   Jared gave her a soft smile. “It works better if you can actually leave on your own.” Raina shook her head and sighed. “So is anyone going to tell me what the hell happened?”

   “I don't know. Really. Like I said, we had a long talk, about me, my family, the things I had been through. Then Shannon made some confessions too, and I thought we had a great night. We bonded, I felt better about losing my job, I felt better about letting people into my life again... and then today.. I don't know. I mean for starters, I think he's really jealous, and he probably does have a point. But I think there's more to it than that.”

   “He and I but heads sometimes. Especially when we're working. I did kind of piss him off yesterday,” Jared confessed.

   “I thought this was going so well. And you guys assured me that you knew what you were doing, this was no big deal, the three of us in a relationship. But look at what a mess it is in one day!” Raina was trying not to start crying, but she was so afraid of losing the few people she had in her life that this little spat was starting to feel like the end of the world.

   Jared stepped forward and put his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. “Shhh, princess. Please don't panic. This is normal. A poly relationship is like any other. It's easy in the beginning, especially when it's all that thrilling newness and hot sex,” he laughed. Raina grinned a little bit but the smile didn't quite reach her anxious heart. “But eventually the honeymoon period ends and you have to figure out how this is all going to work and how to add these other people to your life. And it does take work. Any good relationship does. But we'll figure it out. Don't give up on us.”

   He stood there in the driveway, holding her while she calmed down again. She hoped what he was saying was true. It did make sense. The three of them were all stubborn and passionate people. It was probably going to be a bit of a bumpy ride getting things to run smoothly. “I am really concerned about where Shannon's head is right now,” Raina confessed. “He almost seemed like he didn't want to be doing this anymore and I don't think he really believes that I can be crazy about him while I'm crazy about you. Which is pretty fundamental to making this all work.”

   “And what is this about another woman?” Jared asked. Raina shrugged and sighed. “The three of us need to have a long talk. There are things I need to confess too I'm sure. Please come back inside and when we've finished up I promise we'll sort things out. There are more things I want to talk to you about anyway.”

   Raina hesitated but then remembered she was trying to deal with her problems head on now. No runnign away or giving in when the going got even slightly difficult. With a nod, she followed Jared back inside.

@msroxyblog @nikkitasevoli @maliciousalishious @meghan12151977@fyeahproudglambert @pheenixpeterson  @snewsome756

[ilosttrackofthings]

winsome + biospecialist

A fic that has nothing at all to do with tonight’s episode.

Jemma’s fatherwarned her about fairies. A young girl with a gift (simpleintelligence, she always reminded him; it’s not as though she canmove objects like Skye or talk life into machines like Fitz) growingup on the edge of the woods, it was important she learn early how toprotect herself from the beautiful predators hiding in the shadows.

Those lessons serveher well in SHIELD. She knows not to trust the flicker of aflashlight when what’s left of Tobias Ford is stalking through the Bus. She resists theurge to smell the beautiful, unique flowers they find every time theyjust miss catching Raina and instead uses her iron-tipped tongs todrop them in evidence bags. And no matter how relieved she is comeevery reunion in the days following the uprising, she stops herselfbefore rushing to embrace her friends.

“It’s okay,”Skye says when she hesitates halfway through a worried order that Ward take off his shirt so she can see what he’s managed to do inaddition to the facial injuries. “I already asked him how manytimes I beat him at Battleship.”

The look on Ward’sface is as good a confirmation as the correct answer would be. No oneelse could look quite so annoyed and yet charmed.

The test is thestandard whenever there’s the chance someone’s been replaced byor is under the control of something unholy. Jemma herself forcedFitz to confirm his identity after their reunion at the Hub and then returned the favor despitehis protests there was no need that she prove herself. With the revelation that an ancient death cult has beenslumbering in SHIELD for decades, one can’t be too careful.

“Right,” shesays, “let’s see the damage.”

Ward obliginglysits on the stool she’s already brought out for him, just asCoulson and May enter from the back. It’s a lucky thing as hissudden interest in them means his back is to her when he finally doesremove his shirt. She feels suddenly sick. There are bruisesaplenty as well as the telltale burn of magic along his ribs.Something powerful attacked him—and it doesn’t take someone ofher intellect to guess who that was.

“Garrett?”Coulson asks, his voice heavy with sympathy.

Ward confirms itwith a nod and then offers Trip the consolation of second-handrevenge. “I put two bullets in his skull. Cold iron. One for you,one for me. If that doesn’t keep an old necromancer down…”

A shiver ofchildish fear runs up Jemma’s spine and she hurries to begin theexamination. It’s silly. They’ve encountered wraiths and vampiresand an honest to goodness goddess in the last year, but there’ssomething about the Clairvoyant, a man who’s given himself overfreely to the darkness her father used to warn her away from, that’salways struck her as unnerving. Knowing his identity—and that he’sdead—does little to mitigate her unease.

She’s stillfeeling it later when Ward finds her at Providence’s border. Onthis side, it’s a pleasant winter day. Beyond the wards,however, the air is biting, the cold so thick it was like wearingweights trudging through it in their search for this place. Justlooking at the trees sends sharp daggers into Jemma’s lungs. Whichis why Ward’s approach takes her by surprise: her eyes were closed.

“You took thatinvitation to explore and ran with it, huh?” he asks by way ofhello. Of course he catches the way she snatches her hand back fromthe open air. Of course he realizes it was just hovering there previously, doing nothing at all. “There’s no shame in that, youknow,” he says, his voice gentle the way it is after brushes withdanger and only when there’sno one else nearby to hear him. She’s sure he uses the same tone on theothers as well—on Fitz and certainly on Skye—but it gives her afaint thrill all the same.

“No shame inwhat?” she asks, her hand beginning to sweat in the pocket of herthick jacket.

He gestures to theopen air between them and the forest. It’s not really open though.There’s a wall there. Invisible. Intangible. The others all sensedit earlier when they passed through. Jemma didn’t.

Ward smiles. It’smore wry than embarrassed, more sharp than sheepish. What he musthave seen out there. “Loads of people have no magical sense.”

When she tries toshrug off the words he adds, “I don’t.”

She knew that ofcourse. She and Ward alone on the team have no magical abilitywhatsoever. It’s what makes him such a good specialist. For all hisphysical strength, most people still read him as harmless.

And it’s whatmakes her a liability.

She eyes the air asif expecting to see something new.

Ward’s hand landsheavy on her shoulder. He’s angled his neck down—he reallyshouldn’t, his spine is damaged same as the rest of him—to bettermeet her eyes. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Not before andnot- hell. Especially notnow.”

That’san odd way of putting it. She’d think that now, given all that’shappened, it would be even more necessary.

Hismouth quirks up on one side and with one motion he spins her aroundto face the trees, bringing her back to his chest in the process. Thefabric of their jackets crinkle against each other in the stillness.His arms wrap around her waist, his hands lacing to keep her inplace, and his chin lands on the top of her head. She has the absurdthought that at least it’s a better position for his back.

“Whenwe were kids, our parents told us to beware the woods,” he says,his voice low like a wintry breeze. “Don’t follow the lights.Don’t listen to voices in the trees. Don’t go off the path.”

“Advicethat’s saved all our lives.”

Shecan feel his smile in the tightening of his arms. The fabric scrapesagain, the sound hiding her gasp. Ward’s held her before, but neverlike this. Letting her cry herself out on his shoulder or comfortingher after scares, this isn’t that. Hishold is more intimate, less awkward. And there’s something else…

Shecould laugh. It’s the smell of him. He must have showered inProvidence instead of the Bus. The soap has left him with a rich,flowery scent. It’s very unlike him and she has to bite down hergiggles.

“Ithas,” he says. “But magical ability isn’t everything.”

It’san old speech, one Jemma’s been hearing all her life. She closesher eyes against it and wishes she could close her ears and justenjoy Ward’s closeness, pretend that maybe there might be more toit than there can be.

“Mostpeople out there—people who aren’t SHIELD—they don’t haveany. Course, that’s mostly because SHIELD tried to grab all themost powerful people.”

She’salways known SHIELD prefers those gifted in magic, it shouldn’thurt. But it does. And yet she doesn’t flinch the way she used towhen the subject was brought up. She only feels tired, toocomfortable in Ward’s arms to be moved by the old hurt. Maybe she’sgrowing.

Ormaybe she’s just too exhausted by recent events tobother with old emotional scars.

Eitherway. Ward is quite a nice wall to lean against. Stable and warm,keeps the winter chill at bay. She just might fall asleep. That’swhy his next words take so long to reach her.

“Hydradoesn’t care.”

Shockhelps her open her eyes but it’s a struggle to keep them that way. Hishold on her keeps her upright but her head falls forward, her neck tooweak to support it. The whole world is whites and blacks. Dark treesand dark clothes against the white snow. The bright red flowercrushed in Ward’s gloves looks like blood.

Raina,she thinks. And she must say the name because Ward says, “Yeah.”He sounds almost apologetic. His hold on her shifts and she feelsherself fall to one side, slowed by his arms. “Don’tworry,” he says while he lays her on the cold ground. “Hydra willtreat you well, better than SHIELD did, and I’ll be there to lookout for you. Promise.”

Theshadowy woods are growing dark in her vision and she can’t evenattempt to move. She tried so hard to heed her father’s warnings.She was so busy watching for beautiful fairies, she forgot it could hide evil in humans as well.

[pizza-is-my-buziness]

When you sent me this prompt, I’m sure what you had in mind was a 5,000 word AU set in WWII, right?

Oh...it wasn’t...? Well...I saw an opportunity to write about the ATA and I took it. Thanks anon!

The first time Daisy finds herself in the infirmary, it’s completely not her fault. And it’s ridiculous too, because it’s just a scratch, nothing serious. There’s not even any blood. But her group leader is a hard-ass, not that Daisy would ever say that to May’s face, and there’s no escaping an order once it’s been given.

So Daisy makes it a grand total of six days and twelve hours before she finds herself in the infirmary on base.

“You’re lucky,” one of the nurses tells her as she leads her over to a cot, plunking Daisy down onto the canvas. “We actually have a staff this week. They haven’t shipped out yet.”

Daisy frowns, looking down at her arm -a little charred and bruised thanks to the idiocy of one of the girls in her group- and sighs. “Yeah,” she grumbles. “Lucky.”

If the place was a little more short-staffed then maybe she would be able to go back to the field and get back into her Tiger Moth and get back to running drills. The war waits for no woman, after all. Even one sitting on a cot in the infirmary.

And then another nurse walks over to her cot and Daisy starts to think that maybe she is lucky after all.

“What seems to be the problem, hmm?” The nurse asks, her accent clipped and rich in the ways that Daisy has come to expect from most of the people she spends her time around. Several of the girls in the ATA are American, like her, but the majority of the staff on the base are British and seemingly as unflappable as the country Daisy has spent the past week in. The nurse doesn’t even look at her as she asks this question, simply flipping open a chart and preparing to take notes on whatever her patient has to tell her.

Daisy swallows, momentarily grateful for the sting in her arm. It makes it easier to concentrate on the moment at hand rather than the fact that this nurse is completely gorgeous and she’s definitely in trouble. “Um,” she says eloquently, “my arm.”

The nurse looks up and Daisy holds up her arm, the bruised and burned skin that came from one of the other girls loosening a bolt where she should have tightened it and the loose plate causing Daisy to slip and catch herself on the still cooling engine.

“I see,” the nurse says and that’s when Daisy realizes that she’s been saying all of this out loud, her mouth running without her mind’s permission. Probably because her mind is still too busy cataloging the nurse and her freckles. “Shouldn’t be too difficult to get you sorted.”

She leaves, and Daisy bites her tongue to protest her sudden departure. Nurse, she thinks about saying, I think I might have a few more bruises, somewhere…might need to spend more time here…May would be disappointed to learn how quickly she had forgotten the Tiger Moth.

But the pretty nurse returns and Daisy sits up a little straighter, trying to display her ATA uniform a little more obviously, as though the nurse might somehow been unaware of what she does. Girls are into that sort of thing, right?

“Just a little bit of salve to take away the sting,” the nurse tells her, kneeling in front of Daisy and unscrewing the lid on a cannister. “And then I’ll bandage you up and you can get back to training.”

Daisy winces as the nurse rubs the salve across her skin but she hopes that the other girl doesn’t notice. “So,” she says with a swallow, “are you from around here? What’s your name?”

“Am I supposed to answer both of those questions at once?” The nurse questions, setting the jar aside. “Yes, and Simmons.”

“Interesting name,” Daisy remarks as she watches the nurse start to wrap gauze around her arm.

“My first name is Jemma,” is the reply that Daisy gets and she decides that she’s never heard a more perfect name in her life. Jemma lifts her eyes to study Daisy’s face. “And you are clearly not from here. Come all this way to fly a few planes?”

Daisy shrugs. “Well they don’t let girls do that sort of thing back home,” she tells Jemma. “Though I came all this way to actually fly them in important missions, not just in circles over the tarmac.”

Jemma smiles, tying off the ends of the gauze and standing once more. “I’m sure you’ll get your chance, assuming you can manage to stay out of trouble, Miss-”

“Daisy,” she says because it seems better than giving her father’s last name.

Another smile, one that nearly makes Daisy’s heart fall right out of her chest. “That’s a pretty name.”

And with that, Jemma is gone, no doubt heading off to tend to some other lucky patient. Daisy takes herself out of the infirmary, heading back to the tarmac and the planes waiting, trying not to glance over her shoulder as she goes.

It’s probably a good idea that Elena and Piper are already in the air doing training maneuvers when Daisy gets back. She isn’t sure she has enough space left in her mind to focus on anything other than Jemma at the moment.

~~~

The second time Daisy finds herself in the infirmary, it is her fault. Mostly. She was being careless, talking to Mack, one of the senior officers at the base, while trying to tinker with the engine of one of the planes and she’d slipped and, well, the last thing May had said to her while ushering her in the direction of the infirmary was “don’t bleed on my planes.”

And so, as Daisy sits, cradling her bleeding palm in her unscathed hand, she can’t help but hope that Jemma is one of the nurses on duty.

It seems like fate, like destiny, like kismet when Jemma walks up the cot, folder in hand, a business-like and blank expression on her face. “So, what seems-” She stops when her eyes flick upward and she notices Daisy. “You again.”

Daisy salutes with her non-bleeding hand. “Me again,” she confirms. “I just couldn’t stay away.”

“So it would seem,” Jemma says and her brow knits in concern when she notices the blood on Daisy’s skin and the splotches staining her uniform. “What happened this time?”

Daisy relays the story while Jemma studies the gash and Daisy tries not to focus too much on the way Jemma’s hands feel -warm and soft- or how nice it is to have her this close. Jemma clucks her tongue, shaking her head. “At this rate you’ll never make it off the base.”

As Jemma cleans the wound, Daisy takes the opportunity to study her: the slope of the back of her neck, the way a few strands of hair escape the ponytail that she has it pulled back in. “This is nothing,” Daisy assures her, “just a scratch.”

Jemma humphs. “Quite the scratch,” she remarks. “Did they know you were so accident prone when they accepted you into the ATA?”

Daisy decides not to answer that particular question. Rather, she counters with one of her own, “How did you end up here? Of all the places to be stationed.”

“This isn’t my first posting,” Jemma tells her. “For a while I was in the city, working at one of the hospitals there. Aside from a certain someone, it’s much quieter here. For now.”

Daisy wiggles her fingers once Jemma finishes tying off the bandage. “For now,” she agrees quietly. “Sounds dangerous.”

Jemma gives her a sad, tired sort of smile. “Much like being around these planes, hmm?” She says, her tone slightly teasing. “Do be careful, Daisy. Queen and country need good pilots in the sky.”

“And how do you know I’m a good pilot?” Daisy asks, mostly to keep the conversation going. She is a good pilot, if she does say so herself. Made for the skies.

“A hunch,” Jemma says with a shrug. “Perhaps you can take me flying sometime so I can see for myself.”

Daisy perks up. “Is that a real suggestion, because I’m not doing anything right now…”

Jemma laughs and it sounds like music. “I think I’ll keep my feet on the ground for now,” Jemma tells her. “But maybe sometime.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Daisy says and Jemma smiles before she walks away and while she walks back to her quarters, Daisy replays the conversation in her mind, trying to figure out how it could have gone better.

Or how she could have at least ended up with the pretty nurse riding in one of her planes.

~~~

The third time she finds herself being sent off to the infirmary, it has nothing to do with planes. Daisy thinks she’s going to throttle Raina for being a careless idiot and for leaving her without even a good story to tell as she slinks through the doors into the medical building and plops herself down on one of the cots.

A few nurses glance her way but it’s Jemma who finally arrives, this time without a folder in her hands. “We have to stop meeting like this,” Jemma remarks as she looks at Daisy. “I’m starting to worry about you being in charge of a plane.”

“In the air I’m great,” Daisy assures her. “I’m starting to think that it’s being on the ground that’s the problem.”

“So what happened this time?” Jemma asks, her eyes settling on the growing knot on Daisy’s forehead.

“Idiot bunkmate,” Daisy grumbles. “May says I can’t get back in the air without a clean bill of health since I hit my head.”

Jemma nods, brushing her fingers against the knot. It almost doesn’t hurt when she touches it, though Daisy can’t help but wince. “Let’s get you checked out.”

Daisy dutifully follow’s the nurse’s orders for the next several minutes, relieved when Jemma seems content in the belief that there’s nothing worried about. “You should be ready for flying in no time,” she assures Daisy.

“I’m still waiting for you to come up with me,” Daisy reminds her. “It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”

Jemma smiles, faint and hardly sincere. “You’ll be waiting a while longer, I’m afraid. I’m shipping out tomorrow.”

Daisy swallows, trying to ignore the way her heart plummets downward, filling her with the icy feeling of disappointment. “Where?”

“Kingston,” Jemma tells her. “Nurses are in short supply there, it seems.”

What she doesn’t say is that it isn’t so much the lack of nurses but the influx of patients that is requiring the transfer.

“Aside from the occasional patient,” Jemma says, smiling fondly at her, “we don’t see much action here, I’m afraid. We’re needed elsewhere.”

Daisy nods, trying not to think about Jemma elsewhere -in a city that has seen heavy fire since the Blitz started a year before. They are, after all, in the middle of a war. It’s not like she expects them all to stay safe and sound and hanging around the base forever.

It’s not what she’s been training for, after all.

“Well,” Daisy says, getting to her feet, “when you get back, I’ll take you up.”

Jemma nods. “I look forward to it.”

~~~

May finally declares her training over and puts her in a Spitfire and Daisy thinks about little else for the next several months. There’s not much room in her brain after she memorizes mission dossiers and routes and flight patterns. They have her transporting goods, though most of the time she’s transporting men and women, flying them to other locations, other Allied cities. Sometimes dropping them into enemy territory, though she never knows too much about missions like that. It’s not her job to know the details beyond where to fly and how not to get shot down by the enemy.

Thankfully, for all her mishaps during training, Daisy proves to be particularly adept in the air, well skilled in avoiding enemy fire and detection, carrying out her missions with an ease that she’s sure seems effortless to those left on the ground. Not that she complains, especially not as the war grows closer, more serious, more dire. Not when she can help in some small way.

Her time spent on the ground is mostly occupied with eating, sleeping, and briefings. Daisy can’t decide which of the former she wants to do first as she stumbles out of the captain’s office after a particularly long briefing, her eyes blurry and her head swimming with names of countries and people. It’s raining, which makes Daisy want to skip dinner all together and hide in her bunk until morning.

As she hesitates under the awning of the officers’ building, Daisy glances across the tarmac and spots an olive green Jeep with a fading red cross painted on the side. It’s been months since she’s seen Jemma or most of the nurses that used to be stationed at the base but still it takes just a split second of hesitation before Daisy is hurrying through the rain in the direction of the medical building.

The place is buzzing with quiet activity, the sound of voices and the rustle of activity. Among the quiet murmur of voices and the shuffling of supplies being unpacked and restocked, is Jemma and Daisy is certain that she looks even more beautiful now than she did the last time she saw her. Maybe it has something to do with that whole absence makes the heart grow fonder thing.

Daisy steps closer and when Jemma glances in her direction, Daisy can see how exhausted and weary she looks. Even still, Jemma’s eyes seem to brighten at the sight of her. “Why am I not surprised to see you here?”

“I’m just visiting this time, I promise.” Daisy holds up her hands in her defense. “I wanted to see if you were back.”

Jemma nods, looking tired all over again. “Yes,” she says quietly, “for now.”

Daisy tries not to think about what that for now might mean. Tries not to think about how those two words could sum up the war as a whole and their efforts to keep from being destroyed by the German forces.

Instead, she focuses on the fact that Jemma is back and she’s suddenly feeling more cheerier than she was moments ago. “Let me get you a cup of coffee. Or, tea, I guess,” Daisy says, making a face. “And you can tell me what you’ve been up to since I last saw you.”

Jemma hesitates for only a moment and Daisy tries not to take it personally. “All right,” she says finally. “I could use some tea.”

They run together through the thundering rain, toward the mess building, which is mostly deserted. It’s quiet and dry inside, the rain pounding steadily on the roof above. When Daisy smells the food, as unappetizing as it often is, her stomach rumbles and she’s suddenly certain there’s nowhere else she would rather be -here, in this building, with Jemma.

“So, Kingston,” Daisy says once they sit down with their tea and plates. “How was it?”

Jemma sighs, shaking her head. “I would rather not talk about it,” she tells Daisy, wrapping her fingers around the metal mug. “I would rather here about you.” She adds this almost as an afterthought, an attempt at making the atmosphere more jovial.

“Well, you’ll be relieved to hear that I have been accident free for seven months,” Daisy tells her with a smirk. “And I’ve been flying, actually flying. I feel like I’ve been all over Europe, literally.”

Jemma smiles, reaching a hand across the table. “That’s wonderful, Daisy.”

It seems effortless, this sudden touching, like they’ve known each other forever. Maybe it’s just the war, Daisy thinks; it makes every day seem like ten.

As they eat, they talk and Daisy realizes that this is the first time that she’s truly talked to Jemma. All this time the girl had been in the back of her mind, a tiny presence taking space in a tiny corner of her mind, a wisp of an idea and nothing more. With each passing second, Daisy can feel that presence growing stronger, becoming more solid. No longer an idea but a person, one that she can feel herself becoming more and more drawn to with each word.

Their conversation is easy, light and simple. It reminds Daisy of hopscotch, which some of the little girls had played at the orphanage she’d grown up in: throw the rock, hop daintily onto the necessary squares, deftly avoiding the squares that shouldn’t be landed on. The both of them avoiding any talk of the war and the things they’ve seen over the past several months, talking instead about things that don’t matter, not anymore.

But still, the conversation is easy, it’s nice, and it’s with Jemma. Daisy isn’t about to complain about the company.

Her only complaint comes when they’re finally out of tea and food to push around their plates and the people on mess duty start giving them pointed glares. Daisy watches as Jemma pulls on her coat, fixing her hat back over the tight knot of her hair. “I had hoped the rain might have stopped by the time we were finished,” Jemma says regretfully as they step toward the door.

The rain is still coming down in sheets, the tarmac glistening black with water and grease and oil from the planes. Everything is still and quiet, the war feeling like it’s been momentarily put on hold because of the weather. A cease-fire caused by a bit of rain. It makes Daisy wish that the rain would never stop, though she knows it wouldn’t hold off the Germans for long.

“Come on,” Daisy says, taking Jemma’s elbow and pulling her out into the rain. “No time like the present.”

They both laugh as they rush through the downpour, though Jemma seems momentarily confused when Daisy steers them toward the hanger rather than the personnel bunks. Once they’re under cover, Jemma quickly sheds her coat, shaking water from the fabric. “What are we doing in here?”

“I seem to remember you promising that you’d fly with me when you get back,” Daisy says, unbuttoning her own jacket and draping it across the wing of a nearby Tiger Moth. May would kill her if she knew but what May doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Right?

Jemma’s eyes go wide, which makes Daisy smirk. “Now?” She asks, glancing toward the open hanger door. “In this?”

Daisy bumps her with her elbow. “Kidding,” she says. “I guess our flight will have to wait. But I thought I could give you a tour anyway.”

And so she does, affectionately laying her palms against the noses of the planes that they pass: the Tiger Moths, the Hurricanes, the Swordfish. “I fly this one most of the time,” Daisy tells her when the reach the Spitfire that she’s come to known more intimately than she’s ever truly known someone else. “She’s ready to get back in the air.”

Jemma ducks underneath the wing, running her tips of her fingers against the sides of the plane. “What made you want to be a pilot?”

“I was stuck of always being in one place,” Daisy tells her, watching as Jemma studies the tail of the plane. “I lived in an orphanage for most of my life and there weren’t really a lot of options for kids like that.”

Jemma glances back in her direction. “I’m sorry, Daisy,” she says quietly, sincerely. “What happened to your parents?”

Daisy shrugs. “My dad left during the Depression to find work but I never saw him again. My mom got sick pretty soon after that and I was stuck in St. Agnes until I heard that the ATA was taking female pilots and,” she sweeps her arms out to encompass the hanger and everything in it, “here I am.

“What about you?” Daisy asks, ducking under the wing as well so that she can join Jemma toward the tail-end of the plane. “How did you become a nurse?”

Jemma leans against the plane. “I wanted to be a doctor,” she says, “but this seemed as good a place as any to start. I didn’t know…” She trails off, her face and eyes clouding over, closing off. “I didn’t realize what it would be like.”

“I mostly fly at night but I can still see some of the cities and towns,” Daisy tells her. “The places where they’ve dropped the bombs and it looks…” She isn’t sure how to describe the things that she’s seen. “It’s…”

Jemma lifts her head. “War looks different up close,” she says quietly.

Daisy kisses her then because it doesn’t seem like there’s anything else she possibly could do. It doesn’t take long before Jemma’s hand fits around the curve of her neck, pulling her closer, pressing their bodies flush together. Daisy can feel the Spitfire against Jemma’s back, can feel the heat of Jemma’s body against her own, and she closes her eyes and thinks of nothing but Jemma and the way that it feels right now, to be kissing her in this moment.

~~~

Jemma stays, with most of the other nurses, at the base. They are seeing more traffic now that the war effort is picking up, more soldiers and pilots and people are coming and going, and the nurses, much like everyone else, have plenty to keep them busy.

Daisy doesn’t mind, not one bit. Not when she has someone waiting for her when she lands, not when she can walk into the infirmary or the mess hall and find Jemma’s smile there to great her.

Jemma sleeps fitfully, for the most part, curled like a comma against Daisy’s side in their small, government issue bunks. Daisy has grown accustomed, over the past several weeks, to drowsily reaching for Jemma when she starts tossing and turning, wrapping her arms around her and holding her close. It helps them get a few more hours of sleep, even if Daisy can still feel Jemma twitching in her sleep, her expression knitted, brow furrowed.

“What keeps you up at night?” Daisy asks one morning, when the sky is still grey, the sun only just beginning its ascent. She cards her fingers through Jemma’s hair, holding her close, unwilling to let her go even for a second.

“Nightmares,” Jemma tells her and Daisy doesn’t ask her to expand on her statement, doesn’t want to be the reason that she has to remember the thoughts that plague her at night.

Instead, Daisy just kisses her forehead and Jemma lifts her head, smiling slightly. Daisy can feel a fire burning inside her, low and hot, making her skin heat up and her heart race. It’s been only a few months since Jemma’s return, since that first kiss in the hanger, since they started sharing a bed every night, but still Daisy says, “I love you” because she knows it’s true. And because now, in the midst of war on all sides, a few months feels like years and it feels impossible to imagine the next day, or week, or month.

Jemma smiles, lacing their fingers together. She rests her head against the crook of Daisy’s shoulder, her breath tickling the hollow of her throat and the warmth continues to spread through Daisy, pooling in every corner of her body, making her heavy and lazy and languid. “My nightmares are usually about you,” Jemma says softly, her words whispering across Daisy’s skin.

Daisy’s fingers still in Jemma’s hair, her body tensing slightly. But Jemma only moves closer, holding her tighter. “About losing you.”

Daisy reaches her hand against Jemma’s cheek, rubbing her thumb along the curve of her face. “You don’t have to worry about losing me,” she says softly, a weighty promise especially now. “I promise.”

~~~

In the end, it’s Jemma that Daisy loses.

Three weeks later, she comes to Daisy with a piece of paper in her hands and the news that she’s leaving again, going to the front, to France, to be where nurses are needed most.

Jemma holds Daisy tight, pressing her face to her chest. “I love you,” she says softly. “I’m sorry.”

But she doesn’t clarify what she’s sorry about.

~~~

Daisy waits. For missions, for flight clearance, for the war to end, for Jemma to come back.

She never was very good at waiting, which is part of how she found herself in here in the first place. Though it’s starting to seem like even being in the air can’t keep her from that feeling of waiting.

The radio keeps up with the steady hum of news, most of it bad but presented so pragmatically that it seems like an inevitability rather than something that is happening to the world. The bombs continue, it all continues. One night, the find themselves facing the ruined rubble of the mess hall and one of the supply sheds, both thankfully unoccupied when the bomb fell. The planes are safe, untouched, and Daisy figures that she should be grateful for that at least. But Bobbi only shakes her head, her shoulders suddenly sloped and weary. “This war is never going to end.”

No one does anything to correct her. No one tells her to keep calm and carry on. No one says anything at all and Daisy can’t help but think that she’s right.

This war never is going to end. And Jemma is never going to come back to her. She’s never going to do anything but wait.

At night, she thinks about Jemma and where she is and what she’s doing. There’s been no time for letter writing, no one to deliver them. So she has only her imagination and the radio reports to fill in the missing gaps. She thinks about what Jemma had said months before, when they used to share this bed: all my nightmares are about you, about losing you. Daisy can relate to that now.

The news starts to turn: Germans beaten back by the Allies in Belgium. Allies cross the Rhine, Russians approaching from the East. President Roosevelt, dead. And then, weeks later, the leader of the German forces follows suit and his troops surrender.

The war, it seems, is over after all.

Later, when Bobbi clinks her champagne glass to Daisy’s, she says, “I’ve never been happier to be wrong.”

Daisy’s head is spinning and she doubts it’s just the champagne. “So what happens now?”

Bobbi grins, shrugs. “Whatever we want.”

In the days that follow, that head-spinning sensation doesn’t disappear. If anything, it gets worse. She finds herself spending a lot of time in the hanger, working on her Spitfire, trying to wrap her head around the sudden changes. Ironically, the person she sees the most of is May, who seems to understand her need to be away from the noise and in the hanger with the planes.

“It’s hard to believe,” Daisy says finally, after a few days of working beside May in silence, “that all of this is going to just be gone soon.”

The planes are being reclaimed by the RAF and, from there, who knows where they’ll go. The pilots, of course, are not being absorbed into the forces.

May only shakes her head. “Life is funny that way,” she says in a dry tone that doesn’t seem amused at all. “You’ll be all right, Daisy.”

Daisy is slightly envious of the certainty in May’s tone.

May leaves a while later and Daisy works in silence, ensuring that the Spitfire is in perfect working condition when the RAF comes to collect her. She can’t have those male pilots thinking that she didn’t know how to take care of her plane.

The sound of footsteps echoes through the hanger and Daisy turns around, expecting to see May. What she isn’t expecting to see is Jemma standing in the mouth of the hanger, her nurses uniform perfectly pressed, her hair neatly pulled away from her face. There’s a bag in her hand and a hesitant smile on her face.

“Hello, Daisy,” Jemma says softly, swallowing. “I was hoping I would find you here.”

“Jemma.” It seems to be the only thing that Daisy can say.

Jemma’s smile grows wider, more certain. “You know, I think I was promised a ride in one of these things. I know it’s been a while, but I was wondering if the offer was still good.”

“Later,” Daisy assures her, crossing the distance between them and putting her arms around Jemma. “Later.”

For now, the most important thing she can think to do is kiss Jemma. So that’s exactly what she does.        

[spacebrick3]

Friday Night Fight(s)

A small story, featuring the main two of Midnight Salvage, for Friday Night Fights by @promptsforthestrugglingauthor !

“Come on,” Raina insists, trying to pull her into the cornfield. “It’s going to be fun!” Fun is one word for it, at least, along with ‘tiring’ and ‘legally-required-team-building-exercise’.

Irene raises an eyebrow, plucking a leaf from a cornstalk and tearing it into two. “I don’t understand what can be fun about being trapped in a field of corn,” she says, in a voice so flat that it better replicates Kansas than the cornfield itself. “At least…we won’t starve to death, I guess? Can we eat this?”

The yellowed, sun-dried husks rising in walls around them certainly don’t look appetizing, especially not in the harsh red light of the sunset. “…I don’t know,” she says, “but it’s getting dark and we still have to find our way through.”

“We don’t have to,” she points out. “The car is right there-“

“Irene.”

She rolls her eyes, pushing past her and into the maze. “Fucking fine.” Her boots, designed for steel gantries and salt-encrusted hulls, crunch on the sand and dirt. “So, captain, my captain, which way do we go? Right or left?”

Right or left? This is what the team-building part is, isn’t it? She has to make decisions—the same decisions she’ll have to make as captain, standing on deck and calling the shots. Not right or left then, no. Not decisions that will cost them only time as soon as they find a dead end, but decisions that could be life or death, and…she’s overthinking this, isn’t she?

“Left,” she says, pointing down the path that looks identical to its counterparts. “The maze is designed as the Submarine insignia - left should take us to the edge, and then we can wrap towards the middle…”

She doesn’t move, brushing a hand through the stalks and prying them apart. “It’s corn, Strider. Not metal. Plants that bend and break and most importantly-“ She steps off the trail, crushing one of the stalks beneath her feet with a crackle- “let us through.”

It can’t be that easy—it’s the oldest game, breaking through the corn maze. “We…shouldn’t.”

“Come on,” Irene growls, forcing another step into the wall. “Of course we’re not supposed to. But who’s going to goddamn care? You think—ouch—you think Rickover was in the right when he put dead fucking mice above the NR-1 just to shout at the inspectors? Course not,” she answers, cutting Raina off, “but here we are talking about it.”

Well. Captains are supposed to find innovative solutions, aren’t they? This is one of them. (One hell of a justificative stretch, she’s aware, but screw it—what are they going to do, court-martial her over a corn maze? Oh God they might-) “You cut through it, though.”

She grins, pulling a Swiss Army knife from her pocket. “It’s lucky I came prepared, then.”

It’s a slow path, but maybe that’s just because she can feel every cornstalk as it brushes past, sometimes catching in the fabric of her shirt and forcing her to pluck it off. Still, it’s faster than the maze, than the badge she turns over in her hand, tracing the intricate lines that wrap around the metal.

A few birds wheel overhead, their cries intermingling with the snik of the knife.

Until something rustles in the corn.

“What was that?” she asks, checking behind her. Nothing there but the cut stalks of corn—a clear track, leading right to them. “I heard….I don’t know…”

“No, I heard it too.” She lowers the knife, leaving a plant half sawn-through. “But it could be anything, couldn’t it? Lots of things like eating corn. Lots of things would come into a cornfield…at night…in a fenced-off area…that will have been controlled for animals…” Only as her voice trails off does Raina notice how dark it’s gotten, how the clouds above block out the stars.

The bright light of a flashlight—rated for 50 meters underwater, but it won’t help them—shines on nothing. “Not good. It’s not good.”

“So what do we do? We could turn back, or keep going and hope it doesn’t come this way.” No snappy retorts, no bitter invoking of the word captain. Just hands that, though she tries to hide it, shake as they hold the knife. 

Their assignment is to get to the center of the maze, and get there first. To find whatever’s there, whatever will cement their—her—reputation in the fleet.

Her job is to keep her crew alive. “Go back,” she says, letting the beam of light reach back, along their footsteps and the debris that will give anything out there near-signposted directions. Her belt feels too light, now, missing the one (1) pistol allowed on a submarine and handed to the captain at the start of every mission.

“I don’t like this,” Irene mutters behind her, making her wince every time the crack of a corn husk echoes around them. “Not going to say ‘I told you so’, Strider, but…if we get out of this fucking maze-“

Another snap, ringing through the night like a gunshot and she can’t take it anymore. “Stop!” she whispers, flashlight dancing around Irene’s face. “I don’t—please, can you try and walk a little quieter? Please?”

She shakes her head slowly. “That wasn’t me.”

They freeze, expressions mirroring each other—eyes wide, scanning to either side, searching, looking for the creature they know is out there but hope desperately not to find. A distant, rhythmic sound ripples through the cornstalks, the dun-DUN, dun-DUN, shot through and surrounded by the snap of corn, of something loping towards them.

Words take too long. They run, losing all pretense of stealth as they push out onto the path again, flashlight dancing crazily between the sky and the ground. On the path again, but it won’t stop, it doesn’t stop, the crackling replaced with the scratch of metal on cement, scraping away the dirt laid there.

“What the fuck is that?” Irene shouts, risking a glance behind her. ���That’s not—that can’t-“

She doesn’t know, and she doesn’t look—it’s faster than them, but they don’t need to outrun it forever, they just need to get to the car first and they’re safe, it can’t break through the steel-

Irene stumbles to a stop, panting for breath, as the road forks in front of them. One way leads back to the parking lot, back to safety. The other—she never even noticed the other, never noticed that there were two directions. “Which - which way do we go?” she asks, looking frantically between them.

One way to safety. Two ways to go. “Where do we go?” she repeats, voice rising to a fever pitch. “Right or left?”

Right or left?

[lentils-writes]

Day 9: Camp Half Blood AU

(this is, of course, based on Percy Jackson & the Olympians. I got a little overzealous and assigned parents to a ton of characters that don’t actually show up in this fic, but I was having fun. Basically: Melinda, Bobbi, Maria, and Bruce (Athena); Kara (Ares); Phil (Hebe); Fitz and Mack (Hephaestus); Jemma (Apollo); Daisy and Lincoln (Poseidon); Elena and Ward (Hermes); Trip (Nemesis); Raina (Demeter); Robbie (Hades); Hunter (Tyche); and Lorelei (Aphrodite). Oh, and I haven’t read any of the books in a few years so if I got something really wrong, please let me know.)

“So, are you ask Kara out this year?” Bobbi asks Melinda as they’re both unpacking.

Melinda grimaces. “What?”

“Kara,” repeats Bobbi, smirking at her half-sister. “You know, from Cabin Five. The one you keep staring at whenever she does anything.”

“I don’t do that,” scoffs Melinda.

“Actually, you do,” chimes in Maria, the head counselor.

Melinda rolls her eyes. “I’m not talking about this with you two.”

“C’mon,” coaxes Bobbi. “You like her. You should ask her out before somebody else does. If you don’t, Grant Ward might.”

Bruce, who made a beeline for the science books the instant he arrived and is now happily reading, groans. “I was hoping he wouldn’t be back this year.”

“I think we all were,” says Bobbi quietly.

Maria coughs. “He might not be nice, but you shouldn’t wish death on him.”

“Hey! I wasn’t!” protests Bobbi. “I hoped maybe he would decide he was too old, that’s all.”

Snorting, Maria shakes her head. “Come on, let’s go to the welcome lunch. Please try not to get us all in trouble by being jerks.”

“I bet nobody in Cabin Eleven is reminding Grant to not be a jerk,” Bobbi mutters to Melinda as they head outside.

While Mr. D. gives his usual welcoming speech at lunch, Melinda tunes it out (she’s sixteen, how much impact can it really make a fourth time?) and looks around to see who’s here. She spots most of her friends: Phil from Cabin Eighteen, Mack from Cabin Nine, Elena from Cabin Eleven (and, unfortunately, Grant sitting at the same table), Trip from Cabin Sixteen, Raina from Cabin Four, Robbie from Cabin Thirteen, Hunter from Cabin Nineteen, Lincoln from Cabin Two, and Lorelei from Cabin Ten. Lincoln is sitting next to a new girl, probably about twelve, with short hair and big eyes. Mack has a little shadow too, a scrawny-looking pale boy with curly brown hair.

And then there’s Kara.

Kara’s fifteen and doesn’t say a whole lot, but she always looks like she’s sizing everyone else up for a fight. Melinda’s never seen her go out of her way to get in a fight, but she has a feeling that anyone unlucky enough to fight Kara would regret it. She’s usually nice, but she’s a daughter of Ares and Melinda’s seen her in sword class and during capture the flag. She wouldn’t want to get on Kara’s bad side. That makes her respect Kara.

(And Kara’s pretty, but that’s not relevant at all.)

They’ve gotten their schedules already, so after lunch is over Melinda heads to monster assault techniques class. She’s pleased to see that Elena is also in this class, and she sits down to chat with her for a few minutes before Kara also comes in.

Elena must notice the look on Melinda’s face, because she smirks and says, “You should go talk to her.”

Melinda sighs. “Why is everyone obsessed with me talking to Kara?”

“Well, for once, Grant wouldn’t stop talking about how he was going to convince Kara to go out with him this year,” says Elena. “He said he had a plan to ‘wear her down,’ or something like that. He might be my half-brother, but I think he is an asshole and she deserves better than him.”

Melinda’s lips twitch. “And that’s me?”

“Yes.” Elena nods. “You are a much better person than him. Also, she has talked to you before without looking as if she wanted to punch you in the teeth. I’ve never seen her talk to him without making that sort of face.”

Melinda’s about to respond, but then, as if she’s heard what they’re talking about, Kara starts walking toward them. Elena nudges Melinda again and Melinda doesn’t have time to respond before Kara says, “Hi,” and offers Melinda a smile.

“Hi,” Melinda says, trying to seem normal. “Wanna sit with us?”

“Please.” Kara sits down on Melinda’s other side. “I was worried Grant would have this class. I think if he could switch all of his classes to match mine, he would.”

Melinda wrinkles her nose. “Ugh.”

“Yeah, ugh,” agrees Kara. “He hung around me a lot last summer, and I think it’ll only get worse this year. I wanna punch him, but I’d probably get in trouble for it.”

“Please, hit him for me!” says Elena. “I cannot, my counselor would raise hell, but if you could make it look like self-defense…”

“Sorry he’s so irritating,” Melinda says.

“Thanks,” sighs Kara. “I told him I’m a lesbian a bunch of times, but he told me I’m too young to know that for sure. I’m fifteen, but he’s sixteen, it’s not like he’s got more life experience than me!”

“Yeah,” says Melinda, although her heart is beating faster. She hadn’t known for sure if Kara liked girls, and now that she does…

But before she can figure out what else to say, the teacher calls them to attention, and soon she’s too busy trying to absorb new fighting moves to think about what to do about Kara.

---

Melinda waits, unsure of how exactly to make her move, until one day during free time when she’s taking a walk and she hears yelling from nearby.

“I told you to leave me alone, Grant!”

Melinda heads toward the voice, walking a little faster. She finds a tree to duck behind, but she can clearly see Kara coming this way and Grant following her. “I’m not interested!” Kara’s saying, turning around to face him. “How many times do I have to say it?”

“Why are you getting so angry?” Grant asks, sounding pretty pissed-off himself. “I was just asking if you wanted to hang out until dinner.”

“You’ve been bugging me since last year,” Kara says. “And I keep telling you, no. I’m gay, Grant, I don’t want to date you!”

“C’mon,” Grant coaxes. “I thought you said you were still figuring that stuff out. Can’t you make an exception?”

“No,” says Kara, “and especially not for you.”

Grant reaches forward to grab her arm, and Melinda almost steps out to help, but of course, Kara’s more than capable of taking care of herself. Her fist darts forward to punch Grant square in the nose, sending him reeling back. “Don’t touch me ever again!” yells Kara. “Or next time my fist is going up your ass!”

Grant, doubled over and his his hands over his nose, groans, “I’m gonna get you in so much trouble with Mr. D. and Chiron-”

At this point Melinda steps out and calls, “No you won’t. I saw what happened. It was self-defense.”

Grant, seeing that they’re not as alone as he thought, flees, still holding his nose. Kara, smirking, turns to look at Melinda. “Thanks,” she says. “I mean, I had it under control, but I appreciate you having my back.”

Melinda nods. “Of course. That guy’s an asshole.”

“I don’t know why he’s so obsessed with me,” says Kara, shaking her head. “I said I was gay so many times...last summer I said it and I wasn’t even sure I was, I just wanted him to stop talking to me.” She clenches her fist.

“Well, at least he finally listened to something,” Melinda says. “I’m pretty sure not even Mr. D. likes him that much, anyway.”

Kara grins, eyes gleaming. “I bet he doesn’t. What are you doing out here?”

Melinda shrugs and replies “Walking” in what she hopes is a nonchalant tone.

“Can I join you?” Kara asks. “It’ll feel, I dunno, safer to be with someone else in case he decides to tell people I just hit him out of nowhere.”

“I’ll definitely make sure they know the truth.”

“Thanks.”

Their walk is nice, but mostly silent, and Melinda’s not entirely sure if Kara even likes her as a person (let alonee the other way) until that Friday’s game of capture the flag. Melinda is running through opponent’s territory, looking for the flag, when she spots Kara. Kara sees her too, looks around to make sure no one is looking, then nods at Melinda and runs by her without even trying to tag her out.

Interesting. Melinda’s never seen her not be ridiculously competitive.

When she mentions this to Bobbi later, Bobbi says, “Okay, but now you have to ask her out. She pretty much told you she likes you in the most Ares way possible.”

Melinda sighs, but when she asks Kara if she wants to go for a walk the next day, Kara beams and nods. They end up playing around and shadowboxing a little, and Kara kicks her ass but not embarrassingly so. On the way back to camp Kara grabs Melinda’s hand and holds it. She doesn’t say make a big deal about it, so Melinda doesn’t either, but it’s nice.

[lolainblue]

Presque Vu   Chapter 21

   As Raina lay there trying to recover, her breathing changed from ragged pants to deep gulps and then suddenly she was sobbing, so deeply that her whole body shook.  It was a strange feeling, not like a normal cry, where the sadness seemed to be creeping in until it became overwhelming, but completely the opposite, like a release valve had been turned and all the negative things she had been holding were being washed away.  She knew there was no stopping it but she didn't want to stop it.  It felt cleansing and wonderful.  

   Of course, the guys were all over her immediately, removing all the remaining playthings and wrapping her in a big soft blanket. Shannon lifted her into his lap, stroked her hair and murmured reassurances while Jared went to fetch her a glass of juice.  

   “I knew this was going to happen with her,” Shannon said when Jared returned.  “She keeps herself wound way too tight.”

   Jared kissed her forehead and handed her the glass.  “You need to try to drink that,” he told her, still sounding as authoritative as he had a few minutes ago.  When she took it and began to drink his voice softened.  “Do you understand what's happening to you? Are you okay?”

   Raina nodded weakly and hoped that would be enough.  There was no way she could verbalize everything that was going through her head at that moment. She had spent years with Dan secretly searching out other people's adventures on the internet, reading about all the things she was convinced were never going to happen to her, but that she had desperately wanted.  She was glad now that she had, her intense reaction would have felt overwhelming and confusing otherwise. She got about half the glass down before she had to hand it back to Jared, her hand shaking as the sobs continued to wind their way out of her.  He just sat the drink aside,  rubbing her back and telling her she was going to be just fine, just let it out.  Then he got up and started to run a bath.

   As intense as her tears had been they dried up much more quickly than Raina would have thought.  By the time Shannon scooped her up and carried her to Jared where he was waiting in the bathtub she at least had dispensed with the outright sobs and graduated into sniffles and the occasional ragged breath.  She still didn't feel capable of conversation, but Jared seemed to understand that and just wrapped himself protectively around her.  He let the warm water of the bath help do the work of relaxing her, pouring it over her body and into her hair while he hummed softly behind her.  She could hear Shannon in the shower, and even though the three of them were too much for the tub it was reassuring to know he was still close.  When Jared began to lather up her hair she thought she might be ready to talk again.

   “I'm okay.” It came out as much a question as a statement.  Jared kissed her cheek and rubbed the fruity smelling shampoo into her scalp.  

   “Yes, princess, you are okay.  You did so well.  I am so proud of you.” He worked his fingers through her long curls, detangling them as he went.  “It takes a while to come back down afterward for some. We'll talk about it all when you're ready. Just let me take care of you now.”

   Such a simple request would have been so difficult for her just a month ago. Hell, even last week she had bristled after too much attention and caring from Jared. Now she felt all the remaining tension leaving her as he gently rinsed the shampoo away and graduated to conditioner.  By the time he had finished with her hair and carefully washed her aching limbs she was a relaxed, pleasant puddle. Shannon eventually reappeared next to the tub with the biggest, fluffiest bath sheet Raina had ever seen, beckoning her to get out and get dried off.

   “I know you brought a bag but I have something for you,” Jared said as he got out of the tub and began to dry himself off.  “I bet you brought one of those little nighties to wear to bed tonight right?” Raina nodded.  “As much as I love those things, I think something snuggly is more in order.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.  “Trust me.”

   He knotted the towel around his waist before retrieving a bag from the closet which he handed to her with a smile.  Once she unveiled its contents Raina had to laugh. It was a soft pink hooded onesie and a pair of pink and purple striped socks that looked like they could have come from Jared's own drawer.  

   “Come on, put it on,” insisted Shannon, who had already slipped into his own gray and black striped outfit. She looked at Jared, who was slipping into a pair of soft black pajama pants.

   “Thank you,” she said, her voice starting to return to normal. Raina dressed while the pair of them fussed over getting the bed back in order and building what looked like a giant nest of pillows and blankets.

   “What on earth are you two doing?” she asked.  “Are we having a slumber party?”

   “Come on Porcupine,” Shannon beckoned from where he had begun bouncing in the middle of the bed.  “Don't shut me out now.  Let me cuddle you!” He shouted the last part dramatically as he threw his arms open.  Raina surprised herself by crawling eagerly into them.

   Jared disappeared for a few minutes then reappeared with an armload full of food – fruit and cheese and oddly enough, popcorn, and some bottled water.  He settled in on the other side of her, pressing one of the bottles into her hand before wrapping his arm tightly around her. She let herself curl into his chest while Shannon turned on the television, surfing through the channels as he drank his own water. Jared kissed the top of her head and ran his fingers through her damp hair.  “How are we doing baby girl?” he asked softly.

   “I'm...” Raina tried to find the right word and then shrugged.  She felt relaxed and happy, and she knew that her brain was still settling down from the flood of chemicals she had unleashed.  There was a sort of peacefulness that was settling in on her, and a profound need to snuggle into him, to be touched and held.  He seemed to feel it too, only breaking contact with her to attend to necessary things like the bath and the food, but now that they were settled in he seemed determined to hold onto her.  At least for this part of the process, it felt like whatever was happening was happening more between her and Jared than with Shannon.  She wasn't sure why that was.  He had cradled her when the tears started, dried her off after the bath and been the one to pull her into bed to begin with.  But it was Jared's touch she craved right now.  Shannon didn't seem to be bothered by it all, snuggling up next to them while he munched on the little cheese squares and flipped through the TV channels.  

   “You need to eat,” Jared insisted, pulling the bowl of goodies closer to her.  She grabbed a few chunks of pineapple and a piece of pale yellow cheese without even thinking to argue.  He grabbed a few pieces of fruit too, popping them into his mouth as he rested his head on hers and sighed against her.  Their little session seemed to have had quite a calming effect on him as well.  

   Shannon eventually settled on a nature documentary and three of them passed the time quietly, letting themselves recharge while the television cast flickering shadows around the bedroom.  Raina could feel the last of the adrenaline leave her body and drowsiness began to overtake her.  Jared noticed the change in her too and rubbed her hand to rouse her a bit.

   “Before you go drifting off to sleep, I want to check in with you a bit, if you feel like you can talk now,”  he said.  

   “I can,” she replied.  Shannon turned off the television and kissed her shoulder.

   “So now that you've had time to come down a bit, are you still okay?”

   “I'm great,” she smiled.  “Really, I promise.”

   “You didn't use your safe words at all, not even yellow.”

   “I didn't need to.”

   “Are you sure? Because you've never done any of this before, and we have no idea where your limits are.  I was sort of expecting to have to back down at least once but you just kept going.”

   Raina did a quiet review of their previous session. “I did almost quit when Shannon was down my throat, and the lack of air was getting to be too much.  But then he finished and I didn't need to.”

   Shannon pulled her hand over to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss on her palm.  “It doesn't bother you when I call you a slut or tease you does it?”

   Raina shook her head.  “No. I know you don't mean it a nasty way.  I kind of like it, I like it that Jared is one way with me and you're another.”

   “So it wasn't too much for you?” Jared asked.  “I kind of feel like that was the first time, the first time for real, and we pushed it a bit.  It's okay if you want to slow down.”

   “Are you kidding?” Raina said, a little laugh creeping in.  “Don't you understand how much I have wanted something just like this? You're making my fantasies come true.  Slowing down is the last thing I want.”

   Jared made a growling noise.  “Hmmm, baby girl.  You're going to have to tell us all about those fantasies sometime soon.  But for now, you have work tomorrow and we have rehearsals and since everyone is good, I think we should all get some sleep.”

   Raina left work early again on Friday for her follow-up with Dr. Minchin. She submitted a new blood draw and then sat endlessly in the waiting room until her turn was finally up.  The doctor wanted to check the bruises on her back again and Raina was thankful there weren't any new ones to have to explain.  Once she had examined her, Dr. Minchin pulled out her folder.

   “Well Ms. Gallo, all your tests came back normal so there don't seem to be any underlying issues we need to be concerned about.  Your numbers from the draw today look much better as well.  You probably just inherited a predisposition to anemia and you'll need to be more conscientious in the future. The Vitamin K deficiency was probably brought on by the several doses of Keflex for that stubborn respiratory infection you had a few months ago and your diet was insufficient to properly restore your reserves.  This also can be avoided in the future easily enough by taking proper care of yourself.” Dr. Minchin gave Raina a firm stare at that point. Raina tried not to smile, thinking of her own hovering busybody who would probably gloat over the reinforcement of his hypothesis.  “But as I said, your numbers look much better today and I think we can forgo the second injection and just stick with the prescriptions that I gave you on Monday.”  

   Raina left the office with a profound sense of relief.  She had been reassured by Monday's visit but until those tests came back she hadn't known for sure she was out of the woods.  Now she wanted to celebrate and even though she found herself suddenly with a surplus of boyfriends she knew they were both too busy right now for anything that wasn't an emergency.  And Cassie was long overdue for an update. She swung by the bakery and picked up Cassie's favorite treat, chocolate eclairs, and headed off for a little girl time.

   As soon as Cassidy realized Raina had a lot to dish they chased Aaron off, sending him out for a drink with a buddy.  It hadn't been hard at all to convince him to go, and Raina got the feeling that Cassie had probably been riding him a bit too hard lately.  As the size of her stomach had increased so had her anxiety and demands, and though it was just an annoyance at work, at home it was probably something that Aaron was happy to get a break from.  Raina felt a twinge of guilt, she hadn't been there much for Cassie since the brothers had come into her life.  She resolved to do better moving forward.

   Rather than start in on her own revelations, she listened while Cassie cataloged her latest aches and pains and showed her pictures of the nursery furniture she had ordered.  It all felt incredibly normal and reassuring.  Raina found herself unexpectedly throwing her arms around Cassie for a hug.

   “Hey, what the hell was that about?” Cassie asked with a laugh.  

   “You're a good friend and I want you to know how grateful I am for you,” Raina told her.  “I know I'm not an easy person to be friends with. But you mean the world to me, Cassidy.  I just wanted you to know that.”

   Cassie started to tear up.  “Dammit Raina, look what you did, went and set off my pregnancy hormones.  I haven't cried in at least six hours,” she joked.  “You know I love you too.  But seriously though, what's gotten into you?”

   Raina told her everything.  Well, mostly everything.  She, of course, skipped over the actual details of the previous night but made sure Cassie got a general impression.  “This is all just between us though, okay?”

   Cassie scoffed.  “Like I would tell.  Are you sure this is what you want though Raina? You never mentioned anything like this before...”

   “Well, how in the hell would that conversation have looked?” Raina took another eclair and tore it in half, scooping some of the filling out with her finger.  “Hey I really liked last night's Game of Thrones episode and oh, by the way, I really want a guy to tie me up and and tell me what a slut I am.”

   “Well not like that obviously,” Cassie said with a roll of her eyes as she took another eclair herself.  “But we've talked about sex stuff before.  You could have mentioned it.  I wouldn't have judged.” She got a conspiratorial smile on her face.  “I have a pair of handcuffs.  I love when Aaron lets me cuff him to the headboard and ride him like the mechanical bull at that country bar with all the sawdust on the floor.”

   Raina blinked at Cassie for a minute.  Cassie was tan and blonde and leggy and relentlessly optimistic and perky.  She had always reminded Raina of the tour guide Barbie in the Toy Story movie.  And tall, good looking and muscular Aaron was her perfect Ken doll like counterpart. The thought of them doing anything even the least bit kinky had never even occurred to Raina, and the mental picture she had now made her burst into laughter.  Cassie immediately joined in the revelry, and they laughed together until they had tears running down their faces.  

   “Clearly we need to talk more often,” Raina said when she regained her breath.  As she watched Cassie finishing off her pastry she wondered how much she had cheated herself over the last few years, not just in her relationship with Cassie, but in her relationships in general, making assumptions, not asking questions and leaving herself walled in.  She felt like a new person today.  And she liked herself more than she had in a long time.  She could only hope it would last.

@nikkitasevoli @msroxyblog @maliciousalishious @meghan12151977 @fyeahproudglambert @snewsome756 @

[ilosttrackofthings]

all lit up (a gordon/raina drabble)

for @agentsphilinda for being awesome

ao3 link

It’s instinct. Or perhaps it’s habit; she has made a career out of carefully choreographed encounters. Whatever it is, the end result is her hand moving from the blanket-covered stone beneath her to the larger hand only inches away.

“Sorry,” she says, pulling instantly back.

He’s so damn fast though and catches her fingertips. “Does it hurt?” His voice is all concern, no anger at all. That’s not new—like she said, choreographed relationships were her bread and butter, she knows how to keep a man off his guard—but the way it cuts across her heart is.

“Not me.” Her hands are one of the few parts of her body where the thorns are only on the outside.

His loose hold on her grows firm. “Okay then.” He rests their hands on the blanket like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Like he’s just another in a long string of men she’s shared romantic moments with. Like it isn’t hurting him just to touch her.

But it isn’t. Natural. Nothing about this is. The moment might be—and that’s a first for her—but everything else? Him? Her? She could laugh if it wouldn’t tear up her throat and looks back to the horizon—just in time too—to get some stability back.

“What’s it look like?” he asks, voice soft and reverent after long seconds.

Grassy fields and hills stretch out before them, a river of gold pooling at their end. The sky’s gone purple, then red, then pink, and now a glossy white where the sun’s just beginning to crest the black hills.

“You really can’t see it? Not even…” She’s not sure yet how to ask about his powers—the ones that aren’t teleportation and blindness because those are kind of obvious.

“I can,” he admits, a wry twist to his voice. She hates when he talks like that, hates it more than when he’s all calm and patient and begging her to let nature—as if nature has anything to do with this—take its course. “But not like you. The good part for me was about an hour ago, when the stars started going out. I remember they just sort of fade into the sky as it gets lighter-”

There’s a question mark hanging in the middle of that sentence so she hums an affirmative.

“-but for me it’s not like that at all. They kind of pop. Their essences sizzle and explode like popcorn in a pan.” He tips his head back far, his spine arching so he’s turned towards the opposite end of the sky. “They fill up the dome of the world, one by one, and when it’s over, it’s day.” He jerks upright again just when she’s starting to wonder if it’d be better to cut his back open on her arm or to let him crack his head on the rocks behind them. He grins at her. “Warmth. Light. Life. All that good stuff.”

“And you can sense it?”

He shrugs. “I can sense the quantum energies. And with practice…”

She focuses on the sunrise again. “You can tell the difference between them all.” She’s tired of his speeches about practice and patience and perseverance.

In typical fashion, he ignores her fuck off tone. “Works with people too. At first it was just big stuff—the elders I could tell from children, humans from Inhumans, men from women.”

She stares hard at the horizon, letting her eyes water but refusing to blink or look away. It burns but it’s better than listening to his damn preaching about the “beauty of terrigenesis” or whatever.

“After a while I could tell individuals apart. I can tell Jiaying apart from Skye apart from you.”

“Well I hope so.” She doesn’t mean to engage, really, but her sharp tongue was the only part of the old Raina that still fit with this new body she’s got.

“It’s deeper than looks.”

Oh, god. This is gonna be one of those lectures again. Did he really bring her halfway around the world for this?

His hand tightens around hers and she knows it’s gotta be hurting him. She can feel him bending close, that big forehead of his brushing the tips of her quills. “I can’t tell when the sun really rises because it doesn’t make a difference to me. It’s so big, you know? All that energy hits me way before it actually gets here. But I knew when it started this time.”

She’s so busy trying not to listen that it takes a few seconds for his words to reach her. When they do, she pulls back, ensuring she doesn’t scratch him when she turns to face him. (Idiot’s so close she’d blind him if he wasn’t already.)

“How?” she asks, genuinely curious what’s so different about now.

“It made you happy.” He smiles in that way that makes the thorns inside her go all soft. “And when you’re happy, you’re the prettiest thing in my whole world. Prettier than stars even.”

Her body’s all brand new, nothing human left about it, so it doesn’t mean a thing that her heart stutters in her chest or her mouth goes dry.

“You’re an idiot,” she says, facing the sunrise again and not caring at all if she cuts him.

“And you’re beautiful,” he says. Again. He called her that the day they met and it-

It doesn’t matter what it made her feel because it’s already been established that this body doesn’t work the way her old one did. She probably just had indigestion or something. Probably does again now thanks to all that terrible Afterlife food.

So the smile she can’t seem to wipe away no matter how hard she tries, that doesn’t mean anything either. It’s certainly not because of him.