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“So…”
Skye bit her lip, grinning as she dropped onto the couch before Fitz.
“How are you and the new guy getting along? I heard you played some ‘video games’ yesterday…”
Fitz blinked, baffled more than anything by the fact that Skye was talking to him again. He felt a bit frozen up, struggling to find the words to reply, and the fact that his mind was suddenly preoccupied with playing a meaningless series of clips of Mack’s face was not helping.
“We did play video games,” he insisted, even as the blush crept up his cheeks.
“Okay, sure, okay,” Skye mused. She was not disheartened in the slightest, just a little awkward as she re-grouped. She had to be careful here, and not push him too far, but she was determined not to back out too early this time, either. She looked around at the setup Fitz had here in the lounge, and she had to say she believed him - there was no shortage of snacks and drinks and of course, games lying around. It warmed her heart that she could pick up a controller and offer Fitz one, and that he took it; such a simple act, but it had been so long since Fitz had willing engaged this way with anyone, for any half decent amount of time. Whoever this Mack guy was to Fitz, he was good for him, Skye was sure. All the same, she couldn’t help wondering…
“You, uh, got another video game night planned?”
“Movie night,” Fitz corrected, after a moment. “All the Terminators.”
“Oooh.” Skye flicked the controller through to her favourite racer, and teased, “You gonna cuddle up to him in all the scary parts?”
“Maybe.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Skye caught a mischievous little twinkle in Fitz’s eye. Caught red-handed, he grinned. Skye spluttered, losing concentration on the game and not even caring as she veered her car off the track two seconds in.
“Leopold James Fitz,” she gasped. “You sly dog.”
“He’s really into classic sci fi,” Fitz explained. “I thought it would make a good… a good, um…”
“First date?”
“Yeah.” For a moment, Fitz looked relieved - even a little proud - but then his brow creased deeply again, furrowed in concern. His fingers hesitated over the buttons and on the screen, his car began to drift. Voice a little strangled all of a sudden, he began to fret - “Do you think it’s a good idea? It’s not a very romantic movie.”
“Oh, no, it’s super macho,” Skye agreed, “but that doesn’t make it a bad date movie. In fact, that was a surprisingly smooth choice if you ask me - which, to be clear, you definitely shouldn’t. My track record is not as good as you might think it is, trust me.”
“At least you have one,” Fitz mumbled.
Skye snorted. “What are you saying, you’ve never been on a date before?”
“No. Not really.”
At this, Skye pressed the pause button and set her controller down, inviting Fitz to do the same. Blushing even more furiously now, he tried to shrug her off and stammered through parts of an explanation -
“I was young- younger than people at school, and I was busy, and Jemma - I mean - I haven’t not been on dates but it’s been like, for a coffee or a- a drink - not- not like-“
“Not like a real date where you actually have a connection and want to invest in something with your heart and soul?”
Fitz smiled as if by instinct at the very thought, and for a moment Skye could have squealed high and loud enough to shatter glass. Then she remembered she might actually be able to do that these days, and sobered a little. But only a little.
“You really like this guy, huh?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Fitz replied. “I mean…”
This time, Skye waited for him to find the words and eventually, he pushed on.
“It’s hard… to tell sometimes you know? If I’m just missing Jemma or I just like him cause he’s nice to me or… something. I don’t know.”
“But you asked him on a date. I’m assuming you made it clear that this is a date, right? And he accepted. And you’re sitting here trying to figure out why you like him,” Skye pointed out. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you like him. Plus, you blush every time I say his name.””
“I do not.”
“Mack.”
“Shut up!”
“Mack.”
“Skye-“
“Mackmackmackmackmackmackmackmack-“
“Yeah?”
Skye jumped. In the doorway of the lounge, behind the couch, there has appeared Mack’s smiling face. (And absolutely ripped arms that are somehow shining? How? Does he oil them up in the morning? And why is he carrying an entire wheel, tyre and all, around with him through the base this morning? In one hand?)
“I heard my name,” Mack explained, apparently oblivious to the machinations behind her stare. “Want some help? Sorry, I crashed pretty hard last night, wasn’t much use for cleaning up.”
Skye took a moment to raise her eyebrows at Fitz, for crushing on good southern gentleman who wanted to help with the cleaning up of all things. Truly the total package. Fitz was still cringing, and Skye imagined that if he still had the presence of mind to threaten her with a painful and elaborate death right about now he would have done so. Instead, she turned back around and beamed ever so innocently at Mack.
“Don’t even worry about it,” she said, and raised her controller to illustrate her story. “I was just about to kick Fitz off this thing and take it for myself actually. Do you mind keeping him out of my hair for a bit?”
“Oh… I… uh, sure.” Mack scratched the back of his neck with his free hand and Skye’s stomach flipped. She bit her lip to stop from laughing, and felt the controller in her hand shudder with excitement. Oh my god, there’s two of them. Mack looked down at the tyre in his hands and swung it a little, finding nowhere to hide against his own nerves and suddenly not sure what to do with his hands.
“I, uh, I was going to spend a couple hours on the bike, actually,” he suggested. “I don’t s’pose you’d want to join me, Turbo?”
“Yes,” Fitz said, so immediately it almost beat Mack’s last word out of his mouth, because nerves or no nerves, so help him he’d take every awkward-silent hot-sweaty-workroom bonding-over-a-shared-interest second of Mack’s company he could get.
That still didn’t stop him leaning into Skye’s ear as he doubled back behind the couch to get to the door, and hissing in her ear:
“I will kill you.”
“Take your best shot, lover-boy,” she replied, but would have been surprised if Fitz was listening: he was already enraptured by Mack’s story about the bike and his plans for it as they wandered off down the hall. Skye settled her back into the couch, claimed a nearby bag of pretzels as her own, and re-set the game for solo play. She smiled to herself. Things were really looking up after all.