This is the second installment. You have to read the first ("Demolishing Bridges") to understand.

Adjust Accordingly (Part Two of Academy Team AU)

Garrett was not happy with Grant the last time they spoke. Grant could see it in the subtle twist of his mouth and the narrowed eyes when he looked at him. He wanted more than anything to fix the problem, but he just did not know if his efforts were working.

"Part of being double agent is fitting in," Garrett said during one of their secret training sessions. They only had them every other month or so to ensure no one noticed.

But it was easy to get together considering Operations was near the Hub, where Garrett was currently stationed. Also, most Academy students had families and friends that they met with on weekends or holidays.

Grant did not.

Still, when he left, everyone assumed that was where he was going. Instead, Grant regrouped with Garrett for real training.

The Academy was simple so far. It was freshman year, so most of the students had little to no training. Many of them were former Army, Navy Seals or other intensive programs and some of them were SHIELD legacies, so those students had some foundation. It was not like Operations was easy anyway.

But nothing any of the other students had gone through compared to what Grant had survived.

As boring as it could have been, Grant found himself enjoying the exercises, assignments and routines. It was a thrill just to be considered so good for once. His abilities were constantly praised, and it was so strange for him that he did not know what to do with the attention.

"I've been downplaying my abilities like you told me to, sir," Grant said to his mentor.

Garrett frowned. "Yeah, yeah, kid, I know. You're doing a great job of it, too. Good enough to pave the way for future opportunities, and now when I show interest in as taking you under my wing, no one will be surprised. But you're also not so good that it's suspicious. That's not what I'm talking about."

"Then what-" Grant began confusedly before Garrett cut him off.

"You stick out like a sore thumb," Garrett said. "You're drawing attention to yourself with your strange behavior. Worse, you're isolated."

"You told me not to get attached," Grant argued. Then he realized that he was disagreeing with Garrett and quickly backed down. "I mean I'm trying to do what you asked."

Garrett analyzed him openly before leaning over and clasping a companionable hand on his shoulder. "I know you are, son."

He grinned at Grant, and Grant felt his lips quirk up in an answering smile.

"But you have to stop this friendless shtick," Garrett continued. "Make friends, but don't get attached. They need to get attached to you. They need to trust you. They'll never do that if you're always off on your own."

Grant nodded. That made sense, and he should have known that was what was expected of him. He cursed himself for letting Garrett down again.

"Good," Garrett said with an easy chuckle. "Now let's finish up here and get you back before anyone notices your absence."

Grant needed to make friends like Garrett asked. More importantly, he realized he had been looking at this all wrong. He had walked around knowing that he was surrounded by enemies and acted accordingly.

What he really needed to do was assimilate. He was reminded of the greatest lesson he had ever learned: if you know what the people in power expect from you, you can transform yourself to fit their needs. It had worked with Christian and his mother to an extent, and it was helpful with Garrett, too.

Grant just had to approach the Academy that way.

It had been five months since he arrived, and Garrett was right in thinking he needed to stop sticking out. It was bad for Grant and dangerous for Garrett's plans as well. They had too many secrets to invite an investigation into Grant's past.

He started simply- reminding himself to make eye contact, answer with words, even smile occasionally, all the things he had seemingly forgotten after years of living alone in the wilderness. He observed the others as they interacted and copied their mannerisms and behaviors effortlessly.

It worked. Most of his fellow students were quick to forget how "weird" he was when he arrived the second he began making an effort. What was previously perceived as strangeness was now seen as someone shy coming out of their shell.

Some people assumed arrogance as well was what held him back earlier, and Grant started to encourage that notion. It fit the image of someone outperforming their classmates and was easier to act out than openness.

The arrogant act also turned away people and made the friendlessness easier for people to swallow. As long no one was asking questions about him or thinking on him, Grant was fine. His goal was trusting colleagues after all. He did not even want friends because he could not afford attachments.

He felt like a snake shedding its skin, and Grant was satisfied he was able to become the person people expected once more.

There was a slight issue with his plan though, even as it worked flawlessly with his fellow Operations cadets. They were the easiest to manipulate because when they looked at him, most of them saw a mirror. He was whatever they believed a fellow Operations recruit should be.

For Sci-Tech and Comms, he spent too little time with the majority of them to trouble himself over what they thought. And when he did interact with them, the computer geeks and scientists' eyes passed over him without ever truly seeing him.

There were three terrible exceptions to that rule though.

"I'm bloody sick of waking up with shaving cream all over my face!" Fitz complained loudly as he munched on a bag of chips.

Skye reached over to steal some, but he drew the bag away from her defensively. However, when Simmons stole a couple, Fitz did not object, much to Skye's irritation.

"Pranking is a part of the Academy experience," Simmons explained primly. A smug little smile crept onto her face, "And really you're such an easy target."

"So says the one who screamed like a girl when Sally Webber tricked you into believing telekinesis existed," Fitz retorted petulantly.

Simmons leveled him a look and pursed her lips. "I am a girl, and you believed it, too!"

"We should get back to our assignment," Grant said.

He was unsurprised when no one listened to him.

"Sounds like Sci-Tech pranks are just as nerdy as you are," Skye teased. She once again made a grab for the chips and missed.

"Does that sound like jealousy from someone in the easiest program to get into, Fitz?" Simmons asked while ignoring Skye's gasp of outrage.

With a mouth full of chips, Fitz loudly agreed. "Sounds like jealousy to me."

"All your PHDs and you couldn't hack your way out of a paper bag," Skye argued.

"Well, at least Skye's talents use her head," Fitz said, and Grant knew where that was going before Fitz even turned his gaze towards him. "How is life at Operations, where the students have IQs in the double digits? Still stressing the importance of hitting stuff over having a brain?"

Right, the inter-academy rivalries everyone was so fond of. Grant sighed internally before deciding that if he wanted to blend in, he had to join them.

It was easier than he wanted to admit to tease them back.

Grant leaned back on the couch with a smirk. "Combat requires strategy, thinking on your feet and knowledge of military tactics and history. Espionage teaches the importance of multi-cultural customs, languages and dialects." Grant shrugged to himself. "But I suppose that's so easy for me that I don't have to use my brain at all. Tell me, how many languages can you speak?"

Fitz flushed as Simmons giggled to herself, but Grant could tell he made them happy by playing along. They were easy so please and so easy to fool.

Skye, however, was a different story. He could tell she was not buying his changes the way everyone else was. It was probably because he called her out on using a fake name when they first met. He doubted she had forgotten.

There was something up with her, too. When she introduced herself, it put Grant on edge at once. People get used to saying their own names. It flies off the tongue thoughtlessly after years and years of repetition. But there was a hesitance and awkwardness when Skye said her supposed last name. Grant was sure it was a recent change, which raised alarm bells for him. Why would a teenage hacker have had a name change before entering into the Academy?

His thoughts then had been on how it was terrible luck to have a teammate with something to hide like him. More variables was the last thing he wanted. His thoughts since them had dramatically shifted because Skye as his teammate was still terrible, but in a way he never imagined.

She was smart, funny, popular and beautiful. People flocked to her, and she was obviously the best in her year, if not all of Communications. Fitzsimmons had taken an immediate liking to her as well. Whenever Ward caught a glimpse of her, she was surrounded by people.

But he could also tell she was distant from them. She was friendly and personable but kept to herself at the same time. In the months he had known her, he had yet to learn anything concrete about her past, family or personal relations, even though he could give a detailed history on Fitz and Simmons by now. Skye managed to sidestep every topic that would give him any insight there while still appearing sociable and open. She had a talent for saying a lot without giving anything away.

It was defense mechanism if Grant ever saw one, and he knew a lot about those. Whatever made her so careful was also likely the cause of her maturity. She was a couple years younger than him and one of the youngest cadets to his knowledge, but there was a sense that she had seen more, experienced more, than her peers when Grant spoke with her. It was such a fascinating contrast to her seemingly carefree nature, but Grant thought it suited her. That contradiction of being so young but feeling so old in some ways was something Grant could relate to.

As he thought about it, those were some of the little things that they made him feel a connection with Skye that he did not have with anyone else in the Academy.

Grant did not outwardly react, but suddenly he felt like he was reeling from the realization he just made.

He and Skye were not friends, though maybe she would say they were as she was that kind of person, and Grant had not confided in her. He had not done anything explicitly wrong, but there was something dangerous about feeling connected to someone considering who he was.

He knew she was definitively not Hydra, so every time he met with Garrett and every time he tailored his attitudes and personality to make SHIELD trust him, he was betraying her.

And if Garrett thought he was growing attached to anyone and becoming weak…

Grant ruthlessly cut his thoughts off before the image of a dead dog hastily buried could manifest.

Skye was very clearly bad for him. He just did not know what to do about that.

Skye wandered around Operations with a group of fellow Communications cadets. They had been chosen to teach a class of Operations students on how to ensure a computer was secure.

It was awful. Skye was so bored the whole time. The Ops students were terrible to deal with. Fitzsimmons were not exaggerating about the low IQ thing. She must have explained the same thing seven different ways twenty times without them getting it! What a waste of her time.

She supposed she should feel flattered. She was selected as the only freshman cadet from Comms because of her skills. Everyone else with her were upperclassmen. On the one hand, it was nice to have her abilities appreciated. On the other, well, she already knew that she was awesome and did not need to be assigned a babysitting gig to reassure her of her value there.

There were three other Comms cadets with her, and all of them were almost ten years older than she was. She was super young to be a cadet in any of the programs- though, as Fitzsimmons liked to remind her, hers was the easiest.

The two men, Justin and Wallace, had mumbled and stuttered awkwardly throughout the entire thing, and the other woman, Alice, just hit on one of the students they were supposed to be teaching. The three of them were nice enough but so not her type of crowd.

Interestingly, that was the case with all of the Comms students. She figured that she would have more in common with her fellow hackers than she would any of the geeks at Sci-Tech or idiots at Ops. But she was wrong. She had clicked with a few people, but they were not Comms.

The truth was that despite her reservations, the inter-Academy team thing was the best thing to happen to her since she arrived. She could not imagine not having met Simmons or Fitz, they were fast becoming the best friends she had ever had. Of course, considering her history with friends, that really was not saying much.

And Ward… he was something else entirely.

She heard a commotion nearby and decided to check it out. She left the road leading them to their transport back to Comms without giving it any more thought.

"Skye," Wallace began hesitantly, "I don't think we should leave the path."

Skye scoffed and gave him a grin. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Lost in the fear of getting in trouble probably," Justin said drily.

Skye paid them no mind. She had come all the way to Operations, she may as well see if there was something actually interesting going on. The others followed her unsurely.

She strolled into an outdoors activity area of some kind. She could see it was set up with ropes and obstacle courses, but the focus was not on the cadets using those.

There was a field with a white paint lines denoting a boxed arena, and two cadets were inside sparring while spectators watched and cheered. A stern looking instructor observed the fight beside them with crossed arms.

From the distance, Skye had a hard time making out the features of the combatants, but she could see a few things. One of them was shorter and leaner with dark hair and pale skin. The smaller one also clearly had the upper hand. In fact, Skye thought it almost seemed like he was showing off as he let his opponent wear himself out trying to land a punch while refraining from attacking. Or maybe he was just holding back to draw out the fight for some other reason. It was difficult to tell.

As the taller cadet visibly slowed with exhaustion, the smaller cadet made his move. It was a brutal series of punches and kicks until the smaller one pinned him down with his arm yanked behind his back.

Skye missed what she was sure was a surrender as the onlookers cheered. The winner helped the loser up, and their classmates crowded around. More people flocked to the loser than the winner, but Skye noticed a bunch of cadets congratulated the smaller fighter. He turned to address one of them, and Skye finally got a good look at his face.

Unbidden, a smile stretched across her lips. She started forward to congratulate Ward herself but pulled up short when she saw someone new approach him. It was a female cadet. She was leaning into him with her hand on his arm.

Skye suddenly felt unsure. Would Ward want his dorky, Comms kid teammate to interrupt him? She bit her lip feeling stupid for coming out there. There was sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach as she watched them.

She shook off the worry of being unwanted. She had something she needed to ask Ward anyway.

"Ward!" She called as she used both of her hands to cup her mouth to carry the sound across the field better.

"What are you doing?" Wallace hissed. He looked around as if terrified someone was going to attack now that she had drawn attention to them.

"Skye-" Justin began with a hand reaching out to her shoulder. "We should just go."

Skye shook him off. "Hey, Ward! Over here!" She waved one of her hands

The clearing had gone quiet as they all stared at them now. She could sense the discomfort of her companions, even Alice seemed perturbed now, and she was hardly the scaredy-cat the other two were. Skye ignored them.

Ward was looking at her now. His focus was entirely on her as he distractedly detached himself from the girl he had just been speaking to and jogged over to them. Skye met him halfway.

Ward was covered in sweat, which made sense given his fight and how absurdly hot it was. Speaking of hot… he should really wear black tank tops more often. It was just unfair to deny the world (and her) a view of those arms.

"Nice job, Slugger," Skye said as she playfully gave him a couple punches. As soon as she did it, she wanted to hit herself. Ward did not like being touched more often than not, and she knew that. The tank top had clearly fried her brain.

But Ward just smiled lightly. "You were watching?"

"Yeah, I was in the area," Skye said casually with a shrug. "Wanted to see you get taken down a peg."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Ward deadpanned. "So what are you doing here?"

"The most boring assignment ever," Skye told him dramatically. "Sorry, but Fitzsimmons are right. Operations are a bunch of tools a few fries short of a Happy Meal."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically.

"So I have a favor to ask," Skye said quickly before she could lose her nerve. "And before you say no, I want you to remember that regardless you're going to spend the next few years on my team, and I can and will annoy you forever if you refuse."

Ward's brow furrowed. "That's not worrying at all."

Before Skye could reassure him- or confirm his fears- she noticed that Alice, Justin and Wallace had come up behind her.

"Who's your friend?" Alice asked with a light smile and her eyes only on Ward. It was the same flirty look she had on earlier when they were teaching the class.

Skye frowned. It had not bothered her before when Alice was hitting on the Ops cadets, but now she shifted in discomfort. The nauseous feeling returned. She stubbornly did not want to answer, but that was stupid.

Skye sucked it up and gave a lackluster introduction. "Ward, this is Alice, Justin and Wallace. Guys, this is Grant Ward." She gestured with her hands halfheartedly to point each person out.

Ward barely looked at them, and Skye would bet anything he was irritated that she was making him socialize.

It probably did not help that Justin's subtlety left a lot to be desired when he gaped in obvious recognition of the name. Wallace just seemed like he wanted to sink into the ground and escape the interaction.

Alice perked up, even more interested now, but luckily for Skye, Ward's instructor choose that moment to arrive.

The dour-faced ma looked them over and came to the obvious conclusion that they were not Operations. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Wallace stuttered out a reply explaining their assignment. "You can call Agent Littman. She'll confirm, I promise. I'm sorry."

Ward's instructor looked unimpressed. "Why are you interrupting my class?"

Wallace paled at that, and Justin was quick to put the blame on her. Alice remained quiet amidst it all. Traitors.

Skye forced herself not to scowl at them when the instructor turned his sour face towards her. She smiled haltingly.

"I don't take distractions during my class lightly, Cadet," he said.

Skye wanted to defend herself, but she froze under the weight of his disapproval. Irrationally, she worried that he would call Coulson or Nick Fury or someone and get her sent away. Coulson would be so disappointed, and Skye would know that SHIELD was yet another place that was not a good "fit" for her. Her mouth went dry, and she could not for the life of her think of anything to say.

Ward stepped in between them before the silence could become awkward. "Sorry, sir. This is my fault. Skye is my friend. I don't get to see her often because she's in Communications, and I wanted to ask her something when I had the chance." His delivery was solemn and serious without a hint of deception.

Skye could have kissed him.

The instructor's face softened. "A friend of yours, Ward? Okay, but make it quick."

That seemed way too easy. Skye considered it and quickly realized why. Even she had heard of Ward's lack of friends at Comms, so no doubt the Operations instructors found it weird and sad that he seemed alone more often than not.

So when Ward mentioned he had a friend he rarely saw, well, the instructor probably had a softer heart than he appeared to. Or maybe Ward was just a favorite of his.

But Skye's mind was on the other detail. She could not help the giddiness at the fact that Ward had just named her his friend.

"Thank you," Skye said sincerely as Ward nodded in silent gratitude.

Alice and the others wandered off to the path where she promised she would meet them in a couple minutes.

"So what's this favor that I'm going to hate?" Ward demanded impatiently. His rudeness would have bothered her if she were not just so happy that he saved her and called her his friend.

"I want you to teach me how to fight," Skye said.

"What?" Ward blurted out in clear surprise. "Why?"

"I want to be able to do your cool ninja moves," Skye said with a gesture to the field where he had fought. "Is that so wrong?"

"You're a Comms cadet," Ward pointed out.

"Yeah, and I have been there months without learning anything," Skye exclaimed. "I could do their assignments in my sleep. I want a challenge."

Ward looked at her strangely. "If that's true, why are you in Communications at all?"

"Long story," Skye said dismissively.

She did not want to get into her deal with Coulson and just why she had to make a deal in the first place. It was probably a bad idea to tell the hot boy you want to impress and do you a favor that you have something of a criminal record. Or, well, would have a criminal record if you had any record at all.

Ward frowned suspiciously, but that was nothing she had not seen before.

"So will you help me? We could just go once a week in the time we have free before Friday team meetings."

"Why don't you ask some other Operations cadet?" Ward wondered skeptically.

Skye scoffed. "Why would I want to learn from anyone else? You're the best, and I like spending time with you. I can't imagine learning from some other Operations tool."

Ward seemed oddly pleased to hear that but still hesitant.

"I don't know," he hedged. "I probably wouldn't be a good teacher."

"Well, I'm such a good student that I'll make up for your awfulness," Skye retorted.

Ward laughed quietly to himself, and Skye grinned pleased with herself. She had known him for months, and this was the first time she had ever seen him laugh. Even as his chuckling died down, the amusement still clung to his expression like he did not want to let it go just yet.

"So you'll do it?" Skye asked hopefully.

"Fine," he said resigned. "But if this starts to take away from my training, I'm done."

"Yes!" Skye cheered. "Thank you, thank you. I totally take back ever calling you a weirdo."

Ward was not amused. "You should go now."

"I'll see you Friday," she called out as she hurried back to her group. "Don't forget!"

Ward raised a hand in acknowledgement or just to say goodbye, she was not sure, and turned away to rejoin his classmates.

Written for Skyeward Month Day 2 for the prompts- and I tried to include as many as I could here- "SHIELD Academy" (obviously,) "jealousy", "fear", "traitor", "weakness", "bad for me", "realizations", and (sort of) "kisses".

Now that the prologue is done, you can see more interactions and plot in this one. I'm really trying to keep Ward and Skye as they were when they were younger and reflect their age and lack of experience in their POVs and interactions.

Re: Know Your Enemy, I've hit a mental block due to the show. (It's pretty much impossible for me to write Coulson, Bobbi, others sowing sympathy to Ward or Kara, and that's impeding my ability to write.) I hope to get an update sometime this week though but no promises.

Let me know what you think please :)