Work Text:
Skye’s always been kind of hesitant to put herself in a box – she gets the whole labels thing, she really does, but it’s not useful to her. Hacker – that’s all she wants to identify herself as. But her sexuality? She likes men sometimes, women sometimes, whatever, who cares. And she can appreciate someone physically way easier than she can emotionally. She likes Fitz well enough, sure, but if she’s going to have sex with him like she kinda wants to it sure as fuck isn’t going to be about feelings.
Still, laying naked in Jemma’s bed, she’s not sure of the best way to bring this up. If she can get what she wants on her own, great, but asking for things is really not her strong suit. And there’s no way to know how Jemma will react either. It’s not like she can just straight up ask how Jemma feels about the idea of a threesome with her work partner.
Maybe she should ease into it. “You doing okay?” she asks, petting Jemma’s hair. The other woman is snuggled up next to her, head pillowed on Skye’s shoulder. They hadn’t really gotten to pleasantries earlier in the evening; they’d been busy with…other things.
“As well as can be expected, I suppose,” murmurs Simmons. “Still a bit rattled. It’s not every day I’m called upon to perform optic surgery.” She chuckles. “Thank you for coming tonight, Skye. I feel…more at ease when you’re here.”
“Sure,” says Skye, shoving away the pang of guilt she feels. “I wasn’t gonna leave you alone after all that.”
They’re quiet for a minute, and then Skye decides to go for it. “Jem…”
“Hmm?” She sounds as if she’s dozing off.
“I saw Fitz naked earlier.”
Jemma giggles. “Oh dear, how’d that come about?”
“That fancy false eye cam. He finally got over walking in on us that once and asked me for help cheating at poker, and I wanted to get something out of it too.” She tries, and fails, to keep the smile out of her voice. “Wasn’t bad. You know. Don’t you?” She’s never really asked Jemma about what exactly her relationship with Fitz is. She figures they probably slept together at least once when they were students. Maybe it was a drunken mistake and they never talk about it, but odds are it happened. There’s never really been a good time to bring it up though.
“I suppose, in the way you might walk in on your brother showering. Being honest, the male form does very little for me.”
“Well, I didn’t think he was anything to sneeze at.” Skye waits a moment and then adds, “So I guess a threesome is out of the question then.”
Unexpectedly, there’s an explosion of noise from Jemma’s general area, and it takes her a second to realize Jemma’s laughing hysterically. She rolls away from Skye, covers her face with her hands, and whoops with laughter for a good minute while Skye sits up slightly, watching her in confusion. Finally Jemma calms down enough to gasp, “I-I’m so sorry, that was very rude of me. But I-I—” She starts giggling again.
Skye’s not really offended. Well, maybe a little. “I didn’t realize it would be that funny,” she says, and her voice only has a bit of an edge to it. “I mean, I know it’s a weird thing to ask, but…”
“Not—not really,” wheezes Simmons, wiping tears from her eyes. She coughs and sits up, begins to sound more composed. “There’s nothing wrong with the desire to experiment with another sexual partner along with your current one, it’s perfectly natural, but I’m sorry to tell you that not only am I not interested in that, neither is Fitz. He’s asexual, you see.”
Of all the possible reasons, that wasn’t one Skye expected to hear. “…Huh. You don’t say.”
Jemma nodded. “Yes. I mean he doesn’t talk about it much, so it’s not like he’d tell you offhand, and I was the one who found the name for it. It was sophomore year of grad school: we got pissed after finals were done to celebrate, and I asked him why he’d never come onto me. I thought perhaps he was gay, except he never showed interest in our male colleagues either. He told me he’d never really liked the idea of a relationship or sex and he didn’t find anyone in particular sexually attractive. I did some looking about on his behalf and found all sorts of fascinating information on the asexual community. Did you know some asexuals wear black rings on their middle fingers? He thought that was a bit much, but I rather like the idea.”
“Not into sex at all? Damn, I can’t imagine that. But whatever makes him happy, I guess.” Skye shrugs (no point in sulking) and smirks at Jemma. “I guess I’ll just have to make do with you.”
“Make do!” Jemma makes a face. “I seem to recall your being very satisfied with my performance earlier. Or do I need to remind you again?”
“I think you do.” Skye chuckles as Jemma pounces on top of her, kissing her fiercely. “Well damn,” she growls as Jemma starts kissing her shoulders, “if I’d known you woulda gotten this aggressive cause I insulted your skills in bed, I woulda done it sooner.”
Jemma snorts. “Hush, you,” she says, briefly stopping to kiss Skye on the lips again, and then returning her attention to Skye’s shoulders and continuing down her body. Skye sighs happily. Right now, she can’t be too disappointed that she won’t be getting her threesome. Jemma will more than make up for it.