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They were plotting.
He narrowed his eyes. This did not bode well. He could see them in the Mission Room, heads close together, chattering, fingers flicking over a tablet. Whatever they were up to, he needed to find out. And what were super stealth skills good for if not obtaining information on whether you were going to be dropped right in it.
He padded unseen to the edge of the doorway, careful to keep out of sight.
“He’ll never go for it, there’s no point even mentioning it!”
“He will, trust me. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”
“No. Stop it. He’ll just get all uptight and it will spoil the evening. We stick with the original plan.”
“Now who’s being all Rupert Giles?”
“What?”
“Y’know, stuffy and British, from that character on Buffy… Never mind. Look, it’ll work. It’ll be fun and Ward’ll—”
“Ward will what?” he interjected, stepping from around the doorway to confront the ladies.
Simmons squeaked and had the decency to look guilty at his sudden appearance. Skye tried to feign nonchalance as she turned and leaned against the table. “Geez, get a bell or something. You shouldn’t be sneaking around spying on your own colleagues!”
“When it comes to my safety, I find it’s better…” he paused but gamely carried on, “…safe than sorry.” Skye rolled her eyes. “Anyway, ‘Ward will’ what, exactly? Don’t make me use the truth serum.”
Simmons barely managed to stifle a snigger; Ward glared at the biochemist. She composed herself before cutting off Skye to respond. “Um, we're just planning something for Fitz since it’s his birthday next week—”
“It is?” he noted with a bit of surprise, his voice possibly entering a register slightly higher than he would have liked. Damn, he was going to have to find a present and quickly.
Skye quirked an eyebrow and smiled to herself.
Simmons carried on oblivious, “Yes, it is. And since we’ve got a spot of downtime coming up, we thought we’d have a bit of a party for him.” She went on to outline what they had planned.
And then Skye chimed in with the dealbreaker.
“No. No way. Not doing that. I’ll go along with the first part. And there’s no use pouting at me, either of you, you’re not going to change my mind.”
“Aww, come on. Don’t be such a sour puss. It’s for Fitz. We’re doing it, aren’t we Jemma?” She turned to give a pointed look to the scientist who looked like she was going to shake her head until a swift blow to the shin turned it into a nod. The hacker looked back at Ward and gave him her winningest smile. “It’ll be cute and adorable.”
“I don’t do ‘cute and adorable’,” he said turning and walking away.
“Well, not one of those at any rate,” he heard her mutter.
* * * *
The evening of the party came and they were getting ready for the old-fashioned slumber party and movie night the girls had planned. ‘They’ was the four of them, since Agents Coulson and May had politely declined, choosing to retire early after the lovely birthday dinner they had gone out for. Which was probably for the best since he didn’t want them to see him like this. He’d had to order it specially.
He stared at himself in the mirror of his cabin and let out a deep sigh. The deepest of sighs. He reminded himself that he was doing this to be nice to someone. Well, not just anyone. To Leo Fitz. To probably the cutest engineer ever to pass through the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. To the one person aboard the bus he actually had a crush on.
Which was stupid. A guy like him should be beyond the issues of crushes, shouldn’t he? He was Agent Grant Ward, he knew what his reputation was like – he’d had to shrug off enough taunts of being ‘James Bond’ whilst at the Ops Academy. His skills and… versatility meant that he’d had missions where he had to seduce both women and men.
And yet…
He pictured Fitz out in the lounge, making hot chocolate and waiting for the others to join him. If this was going to make his night, then he’d go along with it. As much as he’d insisted to the ladies that he wouldn’t, he was going to do this. He could do this. At least he wouldn’t be alone. And if it brought a smile to that gorgeous, pale, Scottish face, then it would all be worth it.
He stepped out of his bunk and made his way in the direction of the excited voices he could hear. As he rounded the corner of the Mission Room, he stopped in his tracks. The room fell silent as everyone else turned to look at him.
Skye, wearing a pair of shorts and a baggy grey T-shirt, was halfway to putting a handful of popcorn in her mouth. Simmons was handing out hot chocolate and marshmallows whilst Fitz was curled up in the centre of one of the soft, leather couches. Both were wearing plaid pyjamas in complementary colours. Very normal, comfortable pyjamas. Whereas he…
“Agent Ward, why are you wearing a monkey onesie?” The shocked voice of his commanding officer came from behind him.
…had obviously been set up.
Okay Grant you can do this. Lean into the curve…
Plastering a broad smile on his face, he relaxed and walked calmly over to the sofas as the rest of his team burst out into laughter. He couldn’t help but notice the very pleased smirk on Skye’s face as he sat down, right next to a suddenly surprised engineer and put his arm around his shoulders, before looking back towards Agent Coulson.
“Simple, sir. For Fitz and giggles, of course.”
He turned to the gorgeous – blushing – guy next to him and with a wink, placed the outfit’s tail in the Scot’s lap and made himself comfortable.