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It wasn’t like if the fear was irrational.
When Jemma was seven, she’d accidentally fed the family dog mistletoe, because they looked like berries that someone could eat, and it made the dog sick, and he almost died. And well, after that Jemma just doesn’t like mistletoe.
She didn’t think it was something that she’d have to explain to people, especially not aboard the Bus.
But she obviously, didn’t take into account Skye and her motivations behind the hidden and well placed bundles of mistletoe that had somehow sprouted overnight.
Jemma walked into the lab and jumped up when Fitz appeared right next to her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Jemma looked at him suspiciously, and he pointed upwards. Jemma looked and sure enough there was mistletoe hanging from the door.
She shuddered and pushed pass Fitz, “Get that out of here.”
Fitz just followed her, “Oh come on. It’s all in good fun. And besides, they’re fake.”
Jemma just mumbled under her breath about how she was going to fake his death by mistletoe, and see how he felt about it then. Fitz just patted her on the shoulder, and went off.
He did take down the mistletoe, so Jemma didn’t plot out his early demise too much.
----
What she wasn’t expecting, of course, was that Skye had seen the little exchange and had decided to do something about it.
The thing was that Jemma had a sort of crush on Skye. Which wasn’t all that surprising. She and Fitz tended to crush on the same people, and Fitz’s crush on Skye could probably be seen from Asgard.
Even though, Skye didn’t really seem to be interested, Jemma knew that Fitz had a greater chance of his feelings being reciprocated. Since all of the evidence pointed to Skye being exclusively heterosexual.
What with the ex-boyfriend, and that flirty/working relationship she had going on with Ward.
Jemma wasn’t going to let a thing like an unrequited crush get in the way of her job, and besides, crushes aside, she and Skye were on their way to being good friends. And it’s been a while since she’s had a friend besides Fitz.
So really, it was a shocking surprise when she’d walked into the main living area to ask Ward to come down to the lab to try out the new armor she and Fitz had been working on, and Skye just grabbed her and gave her a kiss.
It was short and sweet and Jemma felt like if the bottom of her stomach had just dropped to her feet. She’s pretty sure that she gasped or made another equally embarrassing noise.
When Skye pulled back, Jemma was pretty sure that all of the blood in her body had rushed up to her face, because the tips of her fingers felt cold, but her cheeks felt blazing hot.
“Wh-what?” she managed to get out after several failed attempts.
Skye just smiled winningly and pointed to the ceiling above Jemma’s head. Jemma looked up and sighed loudly.
“Are they everywhere?”
Skye nodded smiling brightly, and Jemma just rolled her eyes and called to Ward.
Neither of them mentioned the fact that Jemma was still blushing on their way down to the lab.
----
The second time Skye kissed her because of mistletoe was about three hours after the first kiss.
Jemma was walking towards the bathroom, her toiletries bag and her robe in hand when she heard Skye calling her into the kitchen area.
Jemma walked over and smiled at May who was reading something on a tablet at the table. May smiled back just a little, but it was distracting enough that Jemma didn’t realize Skye was right next to her until the girl was tilting her head up and to the side and kissing her again.
Jemma closed her eyes clenching her fist around her robe and bag because she wanted to just reach out and grab on to Skye’s hair and tug her into a real kiss.
Skye pulled back smiling and biting her lip. She looked at Jemma her eyes bright with something that Jemma really didn’t understand.
“Sorry,” she said still smiling. “Couldn’t resist. You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”
Jemma sputtered indignantly because she wasn’t flustered, or cute. But Skye just turned to where May was looking at them from the table and said, “Whoa, didn’t see you there.”
Jemma flushed even harder and made her escape.
She could probably drown herself in the bathroom and escape all of this embarrassment.
----
Times three and four both happened one right after the other.
Though to be honest, Jemma isn’t even sure if the third kiss actually happened because she was half-asleep at the time.
She’d staggered into the kitchen right after Fitz and had held her hand out for her coffee mug, but instead of Skye just handing her the mug like she usually would, she got Skye stepping into her personal space and pressing their mouths together lightly before stepping back and giving Jemma her coffee mug.
Jemma hadn’t even realized that the kiss was a thing that had happened until she’d finished drinking about half of it.
She froze and looked at Fitz, who looked smug, and it was too early to deal with that.
She was walking away when she felt someone grab her around her elbow and she barely had time to say anything before Skye was tugging her in close and kissing her again.
“You should really watch where you’re walking,” Skye said as she pulled back and they both looked up to the mistletoe hanging there looking innocent, but Jemma knew it was far from innocent.
As she walked back towards her bunk, she wondered if she told Skye to stop with the kisses if she would or if she would just get worse.
She wondered which of those options she’d prefer, and had to stop thinking about it when she envisioned pushing Skye back on her mattress before leaning down to kiss her.
She blushed looking around hoping no one had seen her. She heard Ward getting out of his bunk and quickly ducked into her bunk closing the door behind her and sitting on the bed.
Well, December was just a month. She could only hope that Skye would get tired of whatever it was that she was trying to do before long.
----
Times five, eight and nine happened in front of Coulson, who didn’t say anything about it until he walked in on the eleventh time, and Skye had pressed Jemma against the wall and was licking insistently against her mouth.
“You do realize that you have bunks you can do that in right?”
Coulson looked amused, and Jemma just squeaked and ran away because well…
After the sixth time when Jemma had made a comment to Fitz about how they weren’t really kisses because she pecked him on the mouth all of the time, Skye had upped her game and instead of kisses she was now actively trying to make out with Jemma.
Ward had walked in on them during the seventh kiss, when Skye had finally convinced Jemma to open her mouth under hers, and it wasn’t like Jemma had been protesting much to begin with.
Jemma still didn’t know what it was that Skye was trying to prove, but she really wasn’t about to complain.
Ward cleared his throat, and Jemma needed a few seconds to get back to normal. Skye watched her with a smile on her face, and then sighed rolling her eyes, “Fine, I’ll be right there, slave driver.”
Jemma just looked at her a bit confused, because it seemed like if her brain wasn’t working properly. Skye’s smile widened and she tugged Jemma over before saying, “Oh look another mistletoe” and leaning down to press their lips together quickly before dashing away after Ward.
Jemma watched her walk away, a bit mesmerized by the sway of her hips before she realized what she was doing.
The tenth time didn’t even happen in the Bus, and Jemma wasn’t expecting it at all.
They were undercover at the mall discreetly following this girl who’d been exhibiting strange abilities. They’d been chosen because the girl had a distrust of all men, and May had broken her ankle.
Jemma had gotten distracted by the puppies in the window display of the pet store, so when Skye turned her around and pressed her against the glass, she thought at first that their cover had been blown.
But then Skye was stepping into her space, and Jemma had to tip her head back to keep eye contact. She saw the sprig of mistletoe somewhere above their heads before Skye was kissing her.
She started off slow, nipping against Jemma’s bottom lip until Jemma opened her mouth under hers. Skye made a groaning noise of approval and licked into her mouth.
Jemma isn’t exactly sure how long the kiss last, because usually there was someone around to interrupt them before the kiss turned into something that it wasn’t supposed to be turning into, which was what it was doing now.
Skye was doing a really bad job of proving that she was completely heterosexual. Jemma may have to look over her results again and rethink things. A lot of things.
When Skye pulled back, they were both out of breath, and she was looking at Jemma strangely. Jemma didn’t know what to call the look on her face, but it was thoughtful and her pupils were blown.
She did know what to do when Skye’s eyes dropped to her mouth.
Which was kiss her again, which she was about to do, when Fitz’s voice sounded in her ear.
“Um, guys? I think you’re losing the target.”
They both spring apart like if they were electrocuted and Skye says, “On it” before dashing off after the girl.
Jemma took a couple of seconds to compose herself before running after them, because she had a job to do, and well, feelings weren’t going to get in the middle of that.
----
By kiss fifteen, Jemma had taken to hiding in the labs.
One such instance found her and Fitz hiding underneath one of the tables drinking some sort of rum. Jemma didn’t know what it was, only that it was strong, and she was drunk.
“Why does she keep doing it?” Jemma demanded from Fitz after a couple of minutes of silence. Fitz blinked at her sleepily from where he was lying back in her lap. “What is she trying to prove?”
“If you’re talking about Skye,” Fitz slurred his accent even thicker than before. “She’s trying to seduce you.”
Jemma looked down at Fitz and tilted her head to the side considering that option before shaking her head. “No, that’s not it.”
Fitz made a rude noise, and Jemma made a face at him.
Fitz rolled his eyes, “You’re delusional. And I’m gonna be standing right there when she finally asks you out to tell you, I told you so.”
Jemma rolled her eyes right back and picked up the bottle from where it was a little less than half empty on the floor next to them. She took a swig, and pulled the bottle back making a face as she swallowed.
“There you are,” came Skye’s voice out of nowhere. Well not really nowhere. It couldn’t come out of nowhere, since it was Skye’s voice and it was attached to Skye’s person. Well, unless she stashed a communication device somewhere on their person.
But Fitz had moved and said, “Skye! We were just talking about you!”
Jemma looked at where he was looking and saw Skye squatting in front of them, her hands on the table above their heads.
“Oh yeah?” Skye said laughing and looking at them both and the bottle still in Jemma’s hand.
“Yes,” Fitz said. “Maybe you could answer a question for me.”
Skye shrugged, “I’ll answer anything if you share.”
Fitz took the bottle from Jemma and handed it over to Skye. Skye took a swig without making a face, and crawled under the table to sit down right next to Jemma.
“What’s the question?”
“Well, Jemma…” he started and Jemma knew where that was going so she slapped her hand over his mouth, and grinned manically at Skye.
“Ignore him, he’s drunk.”
Skye grinned at her, and took another longer drag of the rum.
“You both are,” Skye stated, and Jemma straightened up because she realized that she was leaning into Skye’s personal space.
“Sorry,” Jemma mumbled.
Skye just knocked their shoulders together, “I don’t mind.”
Jemma didn’t know what to say to that, but before she could Fitz licked her hand.
“Gross,” she told him before scrambling out from under him and the table.
She’d completely forgotten that she was actually trying to stop Fitz from saying something, and washed her hands vigorously.
She was drying her hands when she heard a yelp and the sound of feet scrambling on the floor.
She turned around and watched as Skye walked out of the lab, and Fitz shuffled his feet looking a bit awkward.
“What did you do?” Jemma demanded stalking forward.
Fitz opened his mouth probably to say something, but then Jemma saw his face turn pale, and she moved to the side just in time for him to rush forward and throw up in the sink.
Jemma gagged, and had to turn to join him by the sink.
After a shower and brushing her teeth about five times and washing out her mouth three more times with mouthwash, Jemma leaned against the door to her bunk her head aching, and wishing she could just find the bottle of alcohol so that the headache would go away, but she didn’t want to move.
She felt someone sit down next to her, and she lolled her head to the side and peeked from under her closed lids, to see Skye.
Skye smiled softly and reached out to touch the side of Jemma’s head. “You doing okay?” she whispered.
Jemma smiled at her in thanks, “Perfectly fine. My head just feels like it’s about to crack open.”
Skye massaged her temple slowly, and Jemma leaned into her touch.
“Hey,” Skye said moving closer. Jemma opened her eyes and looked at her. Skye leaned down and pressed their mouths together softly.
Jemma’s eyes fluttered closed again, and she pressed up into the kiss.
Skye pulled back and threaded her fingers through Jemma’s hair, massaging her scalp.
Jemma shuddered and opened her eyes to look first at Skye, and then at the ceiling above their heads, but there wasn’t anything there.
“No mistletoe,” Jemma stated just to make sure that she wasn’t imagining things.
Skye smiled, “No mistletoe. Fitz told me I had to be blunt with you. But I thought all of the kissing would’ve been clue enough. I want us to go out on dates, and do more of the kissing thing.”
Jemma looked at her uncomprehendingly, “What?”
Skye just sighed and leaned closer, “I like you. I mean, like like you.” She smiled a bit nervously, “Do you like me back? Check yes or no?”
“You like me,” Jemma reiterated to make sure that she had heard her correctly.
Skye rolled her eyes and went up on her knees towering over Jemma and leaned down and kissed her again. She pressed their foreheads together and whispered against her mouth, “I’ve been trying to seduce you.”
“Oh,” Jemma whispered back, and was glad that Fitz was passed out on top of his bed, and not around to tell her, I told you so.
“Yeah,” Skye said pulling back a little. “Oh.”
Jemma felt her lips twitch, and she smiled. “Okay.”
Skye raised her eyebrows, “Okay? Just okay?”
Jemma laughed and then winced as it made her head start pounding alarmingly. Skye frowned and threaded her fingers through Jemma’s hair again.
Jemma leaned into the touch sighing gratefully and looked at Skye, who was still frowning. Jemma reached out and pressed her fingers to Skye’s jaw.
“I thought you already knew,” Jemma said. “Fitz has a crush on you.”
Skye sighed, “I know that.”
Jemma shook her head, “That’s what I mean. Fitz and I, always crush on the same people. Ever since middle school.”
Skye started smiling. “So you’ve got a crush on me?”
Jemma nodded her head, “Kind of. It’s possible it’s turned into more than a crush, though. Just as a disclaimer.”
Skye laughed and leaned forward to kiss Jemma again.
She pulled back and rubbed their noses together muttering, “Good.”
Jemma closed her eyes and leaned into her and admitted to herself that maybe mistletoe wasn’t so bad.