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.
May went after her, wondering how she could apologize when she'd meant every word she'd said.
***
In the first empty room she could find, Skye struggled to get her breathing under control, stop the tears from flowing.
She was a strong, independent woman, a hacktivist, a SHIELD trainee. So why did she get so turned on when Melinda May talked down to her? She wasn't a masochist or anything. When other people insulted or dismissed her or called her names, she got mad, she stood up for herself. But with May, she had faulty wiring. Every disapproving glare made Skye want to prove herself to May, please her, and that was just her mind. Her body truly went off the rails.
All told, she must've spent several cumulative hours in the Bus's bathroom, splashing cold water on her face just to stay in control. Even then, she went through more than a few pairs of panties. And at night, lying alone in bed, she thought of May with her controlled rage and her dismissive attitude, and her body short-circuited. As much as she tried to resist, nine times out of ten she ended up relieving herself.
The next morning, May always seemed to know, looking at Skye like she'd become even more offensive. And even if Skye was just projecting, that simply humiliated her more, made her want to run back to her bed and hump the mattress until she came.
May was just so perfect, an ice sculpture, and her voice only gained any sharpness when she was talking down to Skye. Maybe it was that only Skye got that reaction—that
attention
—from the pilot.
God, she was such a freak. A pervert. A slut. If May knew, she'd hate her even more. She'd jam her finger into Skye's chest, right over her heart, and tell her she was an embarrassment to SHIELD, a complete fucking loser. Hot tears burned their way down Skye's face like lava from a volcano. Her hands mirrored them, running down her body over swollen nipples and tensing stomach, down under her skirt. If only it were May touching her.
***
It was easy to follow Skye. She'd stepped in a puddle and her footprints dappled the floor, pointing like an arrow to the hangar's supply closet. May went inside, shutting the door behind her. Skye was in the corner, nearly fetal, her back turned to May and heaving with sobs.
Wonderful, Melinda, you've made her cry.
May stepped closer, trying to announce herself with her echoing footprints, but Skye was lost in her own world of grief. She didn't notice May until the older woman put her hand on her shoulder. Then her head whipped around, looking up at Skye with a face so red and so heated it could've been on fire.
Christ, how bad did I traumatize her?
"I'm..." Skye stammered. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I wasn't—"
May didn't know what to say. She wasn't Coulson. She didn't care about touchy-feely bullshit. So she just coiled her hands on Skye's shoulders and rubbed insistently, soothingly. A fresh batch of tears dripped off Skye's face, but she relaxed into May's touch, finally dipping her head against May's hip.
***