Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Marvel or any of the characters or locations mentioned in this work of fanfiction.
Prompt from MYWINTERFIREFLY4 on , hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!
Anuna hun, thank you so very much for beta-reading this fic! *hugs you madly*
Cap, thank you for the title! ;)
"Makin' my connection as I enter the room
Everybody's chillin' as I set up the groove
Pumpin' up the volume with this brand new beat
Everybody's dancin', and their dancin' for me
I'm your operator, you can call anytime
I'll be your connection to the party line" Shirley Bassey
It's been three weeks since Ward got back to the team and Skye is - for the lack of a better word - ignoring him entirely. Trip finds it hilarious because all she did until he came back was search for information about him. She was monitoring him such as where he was, how his therapy was going, had he visited his siblings. Her whole behavior was childish.
One of the things Skye discovered in the last two years was the extent of her powers, which she clearly loved. Trip still wasn't over that moment when he walked into the control room and found Skye, her back touching the table behind her, her hands folded in front of her torso staring intensely at the computer screen – literally bending its programs to do her will.
Skye is bored today. So far, she had annoyed the science babies until they both prohibited her from entering the lab until they told her so. She then asked to spar with Trip - which usually was a battle - since she trained with May in the morning, but there she was wasting energy with the second specialist. Ward would always be the first even if she were pissed with him. Later on, she went for a long shower. She dried and braided her hair. Now, she was laying down on her bed inside her bunker while FitzSimmons, Trip and Ward played monopoly in the lounge. She can hear their voices from where she is, but she closes her eyes and breathes deeply, trying to ignore the sounds. If they only knew she could poke inside their minds as well. Skye wishes she couldn't, because Ward's feelings are stronger then she had ever imagined.
"She is being ridiculous…" Complains Fitz.
"Let her be Fitz, you know she is just coping the best she can." Simmons says glancing at her best friend's bunker.
"If she's afraid she might hurt us with her mere presence, that's-." Ward muffles out shaking his head and putting another card on the table.
Suddenly they hear Coulson's footsteps as he enters the lounge. He is talking rapidly on the cellphone. All they manage to capture from the chat though is "Stark - I'm sure- she wouldn't dare-" Coulson looks at the four members of his team, sighs, turning to see May who happened to be coming from the cargo bay. He hangs up and rolling his eyes calls:
"Skye!" He is standing in front of her bunker door tapping his foot on the carpet floor a frown in his lips as he waits her to open up.
Skye jumps up from her bed and slides the door open. "Hey A.C, what's up?"
"Don't you 'what's up' me Skye. I honestly don't care if you are bored out of your mind!" He says in one breath.
Skye has the decency of looking puzzled, her mouth is agape for a second, then she blinks as to regain her composure and is about to say something but Coulson puts his hand up as a signal for her to remain quiet.
"How did you even do it?" His voice now doesn't carry a tone of annoyance, it's sheer incredibility.
"Okay, ain't you mad? Because I'm suddenly confused." Skye arches an eyebrow at him crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"I'm sorry, I had to fight with you for a second, but you know, trying to keep pretenses here…" Coulson laughs and Skye can see in it in his eyes that he had been playing her, which makes her snort a bit.
"Stark wants to meet you. So, who is up to spend the night in NY?" Coulson asks smiling at his team. Skye smirked. She was finally going to meet an avenger, and thus she could barely contain herself.
As soon as they land and entered the elevator, there is music playing. Coulson is confused, as he never bragged Stark as a music lover, at least not of the Diva's kind.
"Hi Jarvis!" Skye smirks as she listens to Shirley Bassey's voice greeting her.
"Hello Skye, darling! Welcome to Stark Technologies." Jarvis answers happily. "Mr. Stark is awfully unpleasant today. I can't seem to figure out why." The AI tells her.
"Wait a moment there; you've changed the Jarvis voice for Bassey's?" Trip questions amusement in his eyes as Skye simply nods.
Coulson bites his lip trying not to burst into laughter. Skye then answers. "How is that? Is it because I left my music list on repeat? Or because I found all of your classics and made you sing while answering to him?"
"I'm not quite sure to be honest. I have so much more personality right now."
"You sure do." Coulson thinks.
"Don't you think so too Director Phil?" JARVIS asks and Skye smiles trying not to poke in her bosses mind again.
Minutes later the elevator doors opens. Tony Stark shows up and then points a finger at Skye's direction says. "This. This girl of yours, Director, she has ended my creation! How did you do it?" There is delightfulness in his voice and Skye smiles broadly.
"I used my mind. But for your benefit, I can use my hands-" Skye says, shaking her fingers in the air and smiling playfully as she speaks "And show you what I did."
She turns to Trip and winks at him, she says. "So you can have your precious creation back."
"Damn girl!" Trip says and Ward laughs.
"You two seriously need to stop your reference competition, not everyone is a fan of Tolkien." Ward adds rolling his eyes.
"Just because you haven't read the books, doesn't mean the quote is not there Grant my friend!" Trip retorts him childishly showing him his tongue.
By now, Ward should be used to the quoting. It's Disney, Game of Thrones, Tolkien, and even Jane Austen, which he would never admit to recognizing. He still has problems understanding why Skye thinks that Game of Thrones is fascinating. Therefore, he chuckles to himself shaking his head at his friend's manners.
"Very funny, hacker girl. But I'm not Smeagol." He smiles as he paces.
"Of course you aren't, Sir." Jarvis answers.
"Jarvis was already a sneaky ass, how did you manage to improve the sassiness in him?" Naturally Stark is pacing while eating blueberries from a bag. He offers the fruit to Skye, who takes happily and puts into her mouth finding it slightly amusing. He opens the screens in front of her while she chews and watches her. Tony is curious but at the same time skeptic at this girl's skills. What if she breaks Jarvis even more?
"That's technically my brain speaking throughout Jarvis to annoy you, Mr. Stark." Skye tells him a smile on her face.
"Now, shall we fix my favorite toy?" Stark replies to her extremely annoyed that she managed to pass all his securities codes.
"Of course, please lead the way." Skye says as she stops behind the machine with him and a mischievous smile on her face as she starts to work.
Tony should be surprised, perhaps, even a tiny bit angry but he has heard enough about her from Capsicle, Clint, Bucky and the Other Bird, aka Sam. It was a new level of annoyance when those four got a new friend. Especially Metal Arm and Steve. The two men were difficult to deal in a normal day, on days they were mission - less? They gushed about anything and of course one of those times Skye had come into to picture.
It didn't help that the master assassins had come visit him one day after a mission with Coulson's new team and spoke so highly of Skye too. He was not jealous. Tony is a man of principles. There's no way he would be jealous of a bunch of kids. No way. Okay. Just a little.
Now this kid, okay agent. Is right in front of him practically making love with his computers. He is fascinated, but he won't admit it. It takes her another five or six changes and additions on his encryption before he leans into her and starts throwing out questions and suggestions. It's like watching FitzSimmons the first time they entered his lab and almost drove him to madness, except this dance is different, they're trading codes and scripts as they rebuild the program.
Thor has spoken to him about the science duo and the specialists, but impressively Skye is every Avenger's favorite person. The asgardian God spend half an hour talking about how Skye was a sweet person and a smart alien. In addition, Tony is almost bending himself to admit that he might fall into her charms too.
Well he is almost glad she hasn't met Bruce yet.
Bruce Banner enters the room quietly as usual. Pepper is chitchatting with Coulson and May in a corner, while the 'kids' - ahem agents - watch the hackers banter in front of them with grown fondness.
"When did Tony started to hire kids to work with us?" Bruce asks pointing a finger to the banter between Stark and Skye, both completely absorbed in each other.
Coulson laughs as he captures Bruce hand and shakes it fondly. "Is good to see you again Banner. And well, the kid is mine."
Bruce arches an eyebrow in complete astonishment.
"I mean, not mine as mine. She is my alien - slash - CS specialist. She works for me." Says Coulson smiling at him.
"And clearly her way of speaking has rubbed on you a little too much." May says nudging at his elbow, a small beam on her lips.
"Have I just been switched by a tiny girl?" Bruce asks standing next to Coulson amused.
"Hardly, Bruce. But they are certainly cozy there." Said Coulson watching the two hackers as they work. Skye is talking nonstop and Stark is nodding his head in agreement.
"They are acting like me and Simmons." Fitz complains with a slight tone of jealousy in his usual Scottish brag.
"Not really, he's old enough to be her father." Simmons chimes in resting her face in on his shoulder.
"Oh, it's not like we don't know our girl has her eyes only for one guy." Trip says nudging Ward's arm that glares back at him arching an eyebrow, his cheeks suddenly red.
"You know? Is not like I cannot hear you from here." Skye says as she presses a final keyboard key.
"Agent Trip does have a point you know." JARVIS says in his usual British tone to obviously the whole apartment. It seems the sass was going to stay untouched though.
"Yeah, I'm highly aware of that Jarvis, thank you." Skye hopes she hasn't gone fifty shades of red by now with everyone staring at her. Ward sits between Trip and FitzSimmons quietly, a grin on his lips.
"I don't wanna talk about it." She crosses her arms in front of her chest and bites her lip strong enough to leave a mark.
"Of course you don't." Stark said says putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey big guy! Bruce met Skye, Skye this is Bruce Banner"
"I'm extremely fond of how you turn into a giant green monster! It's incredible! I've read some of your work too, since well my brain gets all of it quite easily. Alien like." Skye blurts out as she shakes his hand.
"My pleasure, I and your team were just about to discuss dinner." Bruce tells them a smile on his face.
"Finally, I'm starving." Skye and Stark said say theatrically and laugh at the same time.
"Pizza?" Bruce suggests.
"We should call Clint, you know how much he loves pizza." Coulson says warmly. They're walking out of Tony's apartment when two more people join them. Clint is the first to speak "So what is this that I heard about pizza?"
Clint has an arm thrown over his partners' shoulders. Natasha watches him with a withdrawn expression in her eyes, without much ado she links their hands together.
Tony has never seen them do anything more than concerned looks and subtle brush of hands, and yet it's clear as a day they're banging each other like bunnies.
Skye is walking behind the team waiting the two specialists to reach and Ward seem to be discussing something pointless and she is really trying to ignore the public shame that happened minutes ago, but all she sees is Ward's brown eyes staring intensely at her as if she was is the most precious thing in the entire world.
"Come on ladies! Any day soon people are gonna think you're guys are dating each other." Skye calls turning her face to them.
"Jealous are we?" Says Trip running a bit to catch up with her. He throws his left arm around her shoulders and kisses her head, smiling and saying, "Relax girl." Ward shows up a minute later on her right side. She watches him out of the corner of her eye, before searching his hand and linking their fingers together.
"I'm not, its just that we have four Avengers in the same place with us. When do you both think we are going to get this chance again?" Ward presses their hands together and Skye is all smiles. Most of the time Ward and Trip are FitzSimmons buddies, but doesn't she love being the center of attention for a change.
