Skyfall

-A Skyward AU-

Summary: Daisy/Skye is an Avenger - Ward is a civillian whom she saves.

The sky was exploding or at least it seemed that way to Grant Ward as he dove to the floor while the room he was in began to fall apart around him. He should have expected something like this to happen when he had decided to move as far away from home as he could get and live in New York city – also known as the city where the superhero team 'the Avengers' could be regularly found fighting some crazy new villain of the week. Grant rolled to the side as the ceiling light came crashing down beside him in the small but classy restaurant that he owned and managed. All around him his customers were running out of the building as fast as they could get, some getting knocked down and injured in the rush. To his left, he spotted a heavily pregnant woman lying on the floor with a bruising face.

"Miss, are you okay? I'm going to get you out of here", he frowned and his eyes widened as he realised that the ceiling was beginning to crumble. He had to act fast if he wanted to save the woman and her unborn baby. Ignoring the possibility of getting injured himself, he ran to the woman's side and was quick to use as much upper body strength as possible to lift her into his arms and carry her out of the building. Grant was just a few feet outside of the restaurant when it blew up and sent him and the woman flying to the ground. "Are you okay?" He asked the woman with concern and she gave him a shaky smile, her eyes tearing up.

"You saved my life, thank you".

He smiled at her and looked up to see if he could find someone, anyone to help her. What he saw seemed to be like something straight out of an action film with large metal robots marching around and breathing fire as the avengers tried to destroy as many as quickly as possible. He squinted and was relieved when he saw a man running towards them. "Diane, that's my wife Diane!" he yelled dropping beside them.

"Bryan", the woman – Diane – smiled in relief. "I'm fine, I'm alive thanks to this man".

"Thank you, sir", her partner told him gratefully before he helped his wife up and wrapped her arm around his neck, helping to carry her off to safety. Grant watched them go, relieved that the woman was okay and looked around to find somewhere safe for himself to hide out until the robots were gone. He looked across the street and saw a bookshop full of people that were huddling inside for safety and decided that would be his best bet.

However he didn't get more than a few feet forwards before his head was almost taken off by a robot. He yelped and ducked to one side but it carried on towards him as he lay helplessly on the ground, intent on killing its newly acquired target. However its attack came to a sudden halt when the floor began to shake below its feet and the ground suddenly opened up and swallowed the robot whole. Grant glanced up to see who his saviour was and his heart skipped a beat when he saw a beautiful Asian woman in a black and white tactical outfit with jaw length black hair and two guns strapped into a holster on either side of her hip. It took a moment but he recognised her from the TV and news reports. She was Quake.

"You alright there, dude? You look a little shaken up, no pun intended", Quake smirked at her own joke but her eyes gazed at him with genuine concern. Grant swallowed and pushed his thick framed glasses back up his nose – not that there was much point since one of the lenses was cracked thanks to the whole murderous robots causing chaos thing. "It didn't hurt you did it?"

"No…no, I'm fine thanks to you", he answered finally finding his voice and inwardly berating himself for being such a dork around this superheroine. "Thanks again".

"It's nothing. I saw what you did for that woman and that was brave. Not many people would have stopped to help someone else like that".

"I had to", he frowned. "Err…shouldn't you be trying to destroy more of the robots?"

Quake looked around and Grant followed her gaze before promptly blushing. It seemed within the last few moments the last of the bots had been completely eradicated. He supposed it helped that their team consisted of someone with Earthquake abilities, a flying robotic suit, a few super soldiers, a couple of master spies, a man with spider-like abilities, three people who could fly and a woman with chaotic magical powers. "Looks like the job's done already. I guess that means I better be heading back to base".

"Well it was nice meeting you…Quake. I'm…I'm a huge fan of your work and the Avengers" Grant spluttered out, feeling embarrassed about his lack of smoothness when it came to talking to a beautiful woman who'd just saved his skin. He supposed if he had grown up with better brothers and a better father then maybe he might know a thing or two about talking to females that he liked. "And thanks for saving my life again".

"The name's Daisy", the woman grinned and held a hand out for him which he took and helped him back onto his feet. "But don't go spreading it around".

"I'm Grant".

"I know who you are. You own that really nice café over there", she nodded to the building that was formerly his café and he glanced at her in surprise. "I used to go there all the time before I was an avenger" she explained and shrugged. "It's a long story".

"Have we met before?"

"Not officially, I was just a teenager".

"Wait a minute- Skye?" Grant's eyes widened startled, as an image of a girl with long black hair and bright pink streaks wearing fish nets entered his mind. He had only been twenty at the time and the café had only just begun to take off. He was no longer speaking to his family but there was this girl who couldn't have been older than fourteen at the time and who looked like she had the whole world resting on her shoulders. He'd asked if she was okay and she'd told him she was an orphan and had run away from her latest foster home. He'd offered her free pie. He hadn't recognised her when she came out as Daisy, the avenger.

"It's good to see you again. What you did for me that day really meant a lot. It give me faith that someone out there cared".

"I can't believe you're the same Skye", he gaped. "How long have you been like this?"

"Like I said it's a long story. Maybe I can tell you over coffee sometime?"

"Well it won't be at my café", he sighed, gesturing to the ruins of his business.

"Well somewhere else then until you can reopen somewhere. And then I will tell you everything you want to know within reason" she smiled.

"I would like that" he agreed, his stomach swooping at the happy gleam in her dark eyes.

"HEY DAISY-CHAIN, hurry up!"

Daisy frowned at the sound of Tony Stark's obnoxiously loud voice coming from the sky above them. "I better go but I'll be in touch".

"How?"

The dark haired woman turned and gave him a sly smile as she began to walk away. "I have my ways".