A/N: This fic is made possible by contributions from readers like you.
Skye still thought SHIELD was the jackbooted fist of a despotic international hegemony, but they gave great hours. After two nonstop, touch and go months in Kiev trying to keep anyone from exploding things that were better off not exploding, they were finally being given a couple weeks of R&R. The moment the Bus was parked, the men were off along with Jemma, duffel bags packed and headed for parts unknown.
Skye stayed behind while May powered down the aircraft and gave it a walk-around. Skye knew May would check it again before she powered it back up, and woe betide any changes that had been made without being cleared by her first. Skye didn't approach her then. She waited onboard, going over her speech again and again, and almost missed May finally leaving. She ran down the stairs, narrowly missing the maintenance crews coming onboard, and wore her heels toward nubs on the tarmac, running after May.
"Hey! Hey, May, wait up!" she called, and May turned, looking perfectly cool even wearing black leather in Colorado, mid-summer. It was the aviator sunglasses, had to be. "So hey, what're you doing this weekend?"
"It's classified."
Skye laughed. "Good one!"
"Not a joke."
Skye coughed. "'Course. But hey, after that, how about a girls' night out—"
"What do you want?" May asked, the intonation of a robot in a fifties B-movie.
"Well, it's like this. I was going through a list of all the foster homes I was placed in, and it turns out that in one of them, in Florida of course, there was some weird stuff reported at the same time. I got shipped out, like, twice as fast as usual—"
"Imagine that," May muttered.
"So I'm thinking, what if it was one of the original agents? What if one of them came to check up on me when they heard and personally got me out of there? This could be her, May, this could be my mother, or at least a clue, you never know."
"And therefore you want me to take you all the way to Florida, and during my time off, get into the usual half-baked shenanigans with you."
"I don't plan on there being shenanigans," Skye said, eyes wide. "Plus, it'll be a great chance for us to spend some time together! We never spend any time together—van girl and plane woman."
May crossed her arms as she slithered closer, regarding Skye like some not particularly interesting new species of bug. "No."
"No?" Skye cried. "Why not?"
"Are you asking or just whining?"
"I want to know!" Skye protested. "Coulson would do it."
"I'm not Coulson. I don't give a shit about your hackneyed backstory, your inane hijinks, or your puppy dog eyes. The fact is, it offends me that all
you
care about is how to resolve your mommy issues, rather than this organization's mandate."
"Hey, I care about SHIELD. I want to be the best SHIELD agent I can be! You guys are like a family to me."
"And you're a parasite." May craned her head, her lips sinking into Skye's vision. "You clown around, pretending to be useful with your 'social media skills', but all you really do is wonder about your past, as if it could make up for what a waste you've turned out to be now. You have no place in SHIELD, no interest or understanding in our agency, and if I were Coulson, I would've kicked you off my plane a long time ago."
"Don't say that!" Skye cried, vitally ashamed as she felt tears rushing to her eyes like blood from a wound. "How can you say that?"
"You're incompetent and unmotivated. You've had enough chances to prove your worth, and I'm still left waiting to be impressed. Right now, the best thing you could do for this team is tender a resignation so we can give your room to someone who pulls their weight."
"I just—
I'm sorry, alright?
" The tears flowed free, like a levee had broken. As Skye became aware of their heat spreading across her face, she turned and ran.
May watched her go. In a moment, she followed after.
***
May didn't mean to be so rude. She liked the kid, to a point. It was just that Skye made her downright irritable. She seemed like she was a flavor of fucked up that May wasn't familiar with, and that put her on edge. Always trying to make Coulson happy, and it came so easy. All she had to do was breathe and daddy Phil was proud. And then trying to make May happy, but never succeeding.
It ignored May, how ingratiating Skye could be. She should've been satisfied with Coulson's praise. He was team leader, after all. It was his job to gladhand the troops, not May's.
And May wasn't immune to Skye's charms. Half the time Skye was just this little puppy, running around with her tongue out for attention, yapping about anything and everything, and May found her enthusiasm as entertaining as the next agent. But she could also be an entitled little brat, getting on May's nerves with her constant disregard for rules and regulations, thinking she was the first person in SHIELD's seventy-year history to have a brain. And the clothes she wore...
The tight T-shirts, the belly-baring tops, the painted on jeans. So the Bus was her home and they were all one big happy family. She should still be aware of how she affected group morale, walking around in jean cut-offs that let her legs go up forever. May was still surprised one of the boys hadn't fucked her yet.
Still, it wasn't Skye's fault that Coulson was spoiling her rotten. Five minutes at the Academy would've been enough to break her in, but because of her free ride, she was left thinking that field agents were supposed to be uppity bitches like her. May felt for her. Someday, she'd be part of a real team, not Coulson's barbershop quarter, and she'd have to face front like all the rest. But that rude awakening could be put off.