Through Time and Space

Chapter 9

The guard cleared his throat awkwardly as he stared at the young couple, "You two aren't allowed to be back here."

They broke apart and Ward turned to look at him and smiled, "Oh, I'm sorry sir, we didn't know, we'll leave." Ward took Skye's hand and led her out of the hallway.

"Seriously Ward? We didn't know? That's like the most cliche line in all of movie history," Skye chuckled awkwardly, hoping to get rid of the sudden tension between them.

"Of course it is. You want to know why? Because it works."

"Yeah well it worked this once, I wouldn't count on it working again."

"You'd be surprised," Ward smirked as the Bus landed right in front of them. The cargo ramp was lowered and they stepped aboard.

"Wait how many times have you used that excuse?" Skye asked as she realized what he had just said. She never heard his reply, he was already walking up the spiral staircase to report to Coulson, as FitzSimmons and Rose bombarded her with questions.

"Oh Skye you look stunning! Doesn't she look stunning Fitz? I knew you would look great in this dress Skye," said Jemma, eager to talk to Skye and Rose alone so they could find out the details of the mission.

Skye chuckled, "thanks Jemma."

"So," Fitz started, "how was it?"

"Italy's beautiful, the food's amazing, the people are nice, and the scenery is breathtaking."

Fitz, seeming satisfied with this answer, left to go play with his dwarves.

"Ok Skye," said Rose, grabbing her hand, "tell us everything that happened in my bunk."

Skye let herself be dragged by her two best friends, it had only been about a day, but she still really missed having them around all the time. Jemma pushed her inside Rose's bunk and they locked the door behind them.

"Ok, now tell us what really happened."

"Well... We checked into the hotel as soon as you guys dropped us off and then we got hungry so we decided to go out for dinner."

Jemma interrupted her with a squeal, "He took you out to dinner? In Italy? That's so romantic!"

"Jemma, he kind of had to take me out to dinner, we had no other food at the hotel," Skye rolled her eyes.

"I know, but still..."

"Jemma just let her tell her story," said Rose.

"Thank you Rose," smiled Skye, "Now, as I was saying..."

***

"Where did you even find this place?" Skye asked Ward. He took her hand and pulled out her chair for her.

"I've been to Italy before."

"On a mission or with Simmons?" she inquired as he sat down across from her.

"Romanoff. We were best friends at the academy, did everything together while FitzSimmons were back in Europe. We got sent on a lot of missions together."

The waiter came up to their table and gave them their menus while they ordered a bottle of wine.

Skye leaned in closer to Ward, "are you meaning to tell me that you are best friends with THE Black Widow, who is an Avenger?"

"Pretty much," he said nonchalantly, not even looking up from his menu.

"That is so cool! What's she like?"

"Very strong, and loves to pull pranks on the newbies. So if you two ever meet, number one - I'd watch your back if I were you, and number two - I just really hope you don't meet, because it might just mean the end of us all."