Work Text:
It's not where you come from
It's where you belong
Nothin I would trade
I wouldn't have it any other way
Skye looked at the ceiling while Melinda moved around the room, picking up their discarded clothing, trying to calm her OCD.
“I didn’t go to the academy.” Skye said after a moment.
“Thank you captain obvious.” Melinda responded.
“You could have anyone else here. Someone who could spar with you without it being a lesson every time. Someone with better discipline. Someone who understands what it’s like to go through something like Bahrain. Why me?”
Melinda paused before sitting back on the bed, shifting Skye so that her head rested in her crossed legs, looking up at her. “You’re right, I could have my pick of people, and I have had my pick of people. Maria, Natasha, Pepper, Clint, and a string of other people. Maria and I graduated the academy together, and I am chalking her and me up to her college experiment phase. Natasha, Clint, and I, that was born solely out of the need to have someone who understood what it was like to walk into death, say fuck you and walk out. Pepper, that woman makes me look undisciplined. So yea, I could have people that hit all those check marks that you think you don’t meet, but Skye, that you don’t meet them is what I like about you. I would never trade this you for one that did go through the academy.”
A few silent tears ran down the side of Skye’s face as she listened to Melinda talk. “You wouldn’t trade me for someone better?”
“No.” Melinda responded, careful fingers pushing the tears away.
“That’s weird for me.” Skye admitted once the tears stopped threatening to spill over.
“I wouldn’t have you any other way, Skye. I swear.” Melinda promised.
You're surrounded
By love and you're wanted
So never feel alone
You are home with me
Skye was sitting in the common room, watching some late night show without really seeing it when Melinda stumbled out of their room looking for her, grumbling about waking up with cold sheets when she wanted snuggles.
“Skye?” She yawned out, trying to wake up as she sat next to her girlfriend.
“Go back to bed, Mel.” Skye whispered.
“What’s wrong?”
“I know you said you wouldn’t trade me, but I don’t fit here.” Skye explained, silent tears running down her face. “I’m going to leave the next time we land.”
“You are not.” Melinda argued. “I’m not sitting through the lecture from Phil damn it. Jemma might ‘accidently’ drop acid on me if I let you leave. I don’t want to think about what Fitz would do to my plane. Not to mention how I would feel if you walked out on me.”
“I feel so alone even around all of you.”
Melinda wrapped her arms around Skye, tucking Skye’s head under her chin. “You are not alone. You are right where you belong, in my arms, surrounded by people who love you. Who would find creative ways to kill me if they thought I hurt you and that’s why you left.”
“They should know better, you would never hurt me.” Skye whispered into her chest.
“Well you leaving would hurt me. So please don’t do that. I want to wake up with you curled around me like ivy for the next very long while.”
“Is that why you woke up?”
Melinda nodded, rubbing small circles over Skye’s back. “You weren’t where you belonged, at 1:37 in the morning.”
Right where you belong