Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two

Chapter Twentynine

Later that evening, Asia sat in the living space on one of the big, leather couches, tucked in tightly beside Leo, his arm wrapped over her shoulder. She had barely left his side since she had been let out of quarantine. She felt safe, tucked up against him once more. She was almost...scared to do so, at first, leave him. Scared that if she left, someone would find out her secret. That she would slip up, cause an ice storm in the bathroom, or just something stupid. It was hard, living your life as a literal lie. Lying to your best friends, to everyone. Just thinking about it made her stomach churn. She reached towards the hand that rested on her shoulder and laced her fingers through it quickly, giving Leo a gentle squeeze.

He looked down at her and gave her a small smile, once again kissing her forehead gently, when the others weren't looking. He was glad their relationship had gotten back on track, even if it had taken some darker turns to get there. And he was going to make sure she was safe. They would figure this all out, together.

The team had gathered in the living area, now that they were all officially there, and were sharing a beer and stories about Trip. It was a little sad, but all of the stories were good. Filled to the brim with happy times and laughs. "Remember the time during the Burnside raid when he tossed me a mag and I missed it? Went right down the sewer drain," Hunter chimed in, taking a swig from his beer. "Never let me live that one down, kept calling me 'Soccer Hands' for weeks." The whole room let out a chuckle.

"Once back in Ops School," Asia piped up, sitting up a little, "He and I were doing this parachuting exercise. We were really fresh to the whole jumping out of a plane thing, and to make matters worse, something went wrong with my chute. So we're plummeting down through the air and he shouts 'Monroe, just grab onto me, we'll be fine!' So I like...swim towards him? And wrap my legs around his side and he yanks his chute. His, of course, comes out just fine. But the force of the updraft shoved me down his legs, pants with me. So we're drifting down, me holding onto his ankles, pants and all. The whole world can see his Iron Man boxers, not to mention our class, who was waiting at the target area for us to land." She let out a laugh, the happy sound catching in her throat ever so slightly as she thought back to the moment. It was such a good, pure time. He had saved her, literally. And they had a laugh while doing it. God, she was going to miss him. She looked over at Jemma, who was studying the label of her beer incredibly closely, but still smiling. She couldn't imagine how hard this was hitting her. She didn't want to think of what she would do if Leo died....she would probably go on some sort of rampage. She tucked herself closer to him, pushing the thoughts away.

"Did he ever tell you about the time," Jemma began, looking up at her teammates and smiling softly, "That his Grandfather took him up to Grandfather Mountain?" She looked down at her bottle of beer once more, rubbing her thumb against the side before looking back up. "They pulled up to the gate and there was a group of teens there, getting ready to go on a hike. Trip was probably around five or six at the time. Well, he saw this group and he marched right up to them, hands on his hips, and started asking if they got permission from his Grandfather to go on the mountain." She laughed, shaking her head. "Naturally, they said no, and Trip, he started making a big fuss over it. His Grandfather had to pull him aside and explain that anyone could go on this mountain, it wasn't just his. And he says 'I'm sorry, grandpa. I thought you owned the whole mountain.'" The whole team laughed along with her, until Jemma let out a low sigh. "He would be so upset with me that I told you guys that story."

Asia reached over at rested her hand on Jemma's shoulder. "Trip was never upset with you, not for a thing." Jemma looked over at her and smiled thankfully.

"We're going to laugh a lot less, that's fore sure..." Skye said quietly, putting to sound what they were all thinking. No one knew what else they could possibly say. There was no way to make this situation any better.