Work Text:
“What is ‘Back To The Future’ exactly?” Daniel read out loud as he skimmed through the day’s newspaper, not knowing that he had an audience of one.
“Only the greatest sci-fi movie ever!” Daisy chimed in, a grin on her face as she paused her work on the Z1 computers, “Why do you ask?”
“They’re having a showing of it at the drive-in this evening.” He replied, pulling out a brightly colored pamphlet which had been included in the papers, advertising the movie’s details in bold white letters and the address to a drive-in theater which was surprisingly not too far away from their current location.
Due to an unexpected turn of events that no one seemed to have predicted, the Time Drive had once again malfunctioned on the team’s journey back home to the present. Their last stand, their last fight had been a resounding success; though they weren’t quite sure of what changes had set in with the timeline. Which, according to Fitz and Simmons, had been restored to its original state with a 93.4% certainty albeit with a few new elements, namely Daniel Sousa still being with them. He was perfectly calm about the idea of returning with Daisy and the others to ‘their’ time because, well, he knew that going back to his own time was out of the question. When asked, he simply smiled and told Fitz that he was where he needed to be and that was that. However, none of them had guessed that jumping from 1983 to 2020 wouldn’t be as smooth as the other jumps had been and before they knew it, the Zephyr landed in the early 90s - for the next week at the very least once all the calculations had been completed.
“Huh. Interesting.” Daisy turned off the laptop and walked over to stand behind Daniel’s shoulder, bending down to read the fine print.
“I take it you’ve seen it then.” Daniel said softly, posing it as a statement rather than a question, very much aware of the fact that her hair was close enough to tickle his cheek; but thankfully neither had Daisy noticed it herself nor could she see the smile playing across his lips.
“It’s been a hot minute but yeah, I’ve seen all three movies.” She said as she straightened up, “Never in a drive-in though…” Her last words trailed off as she realized she’d spoken it out loud.
Daniel frowned on hearing ‘hot minute’ for a second before he remembered what it meant and almost chuckled; he was still getting used to… what was it Deke had said? ‘Modern slang’ was the phrase to sum it up - even if it may have been around for a while, it wasn’t something he had heard used a lot, but thanks to well… Daisy… Daniel was starting to learn all of the 21st Century millennial speak. He figured he would also have to figure out what exactly ‘millennial’ meant, but for the moment, he was interested in something else that she had said.
“Would you want to go to see the movie tonight?” He asked her, hoping it sounded casual, which for all intents and purposes, was what it may have been; it wasn’t like he was asking Daisy out on a date… was he?
Time seemed to come to a standstill between the two of them at that moment; Daniel, still sitting on one of the cargo boxes in the hangar holding the newspaper in his hands, looking up at Daisy who was standing with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at him.
“… as in… a date ?” Was the first thing that slipped from her mouth and of course she knew that he saw the surprise in her eyes as she registered what she’d just said.
“Yes, like a date.” He started to say, rubbing the back of his neck, realizing how it sounded to the two of them, “I just figured… you haven’t been to a drive-in before, I haven’t seen this movie… we could… go together.”
“I’d like that.” Daisy said with a smile, hoping that it wasn’t awkward between them; after everything that the two of them had been through together… how hard was it to just go out for an evening?
“Alright, I’ll… I’ll uh meet you here at 6?” Daniel glanced at his watch for a second; they had about three hours until the movie started, which was plenty of time for him to get changed into something a bit more comfortable.
“Sure. I’ll see you at 6.” Nodding in agreement, Daisy bit her lip, this was actually happening; she couldn’t help but feel a sense of thrill at the thought of going to see a movie with Daniel. A real date.
And with that, they both parted ways, unbeknownst to them, that they actually had company; neither one had noticed when Coulson walked in, intent on asking Daisy how the repairs were coming along. He hadn’t heard the entire conversation but was there long enough to get the gist of things and as he watched them leave to go to their respective bunks, a grin on his face, Coulson had the beginnings of a wonderful idea.
“A perfect date needs a perfect ride.” He said to himself as he went in the direction Daniel had taken; it was the least he could do for the two of them, but hopefully, this evening was a chance for both Daisy and Daniel to move things along in their relationship.
At 5 minutes past six, Daisy walked back towards the hangar after having spent the better part of two hours trying to figure out what she should wear on her date with Daniel; wondering why she felt so… excited… how long had it been since she’d just had an evening off to do even the most mundane of things like going to see a movie? At a drive-in no less. Was she nervous? Of course not, what was there for her to be nervous about? It was just her and Daniel, going out… together. Alone. Luckily for her, Jemma had been more than ecstatic to hear about their plans and had helped Daisy pick out an outfit to wear.
“Keep it simple!” Was Jemma’s advice, “And maybe you don’t need to take a jacket with this outfit.”
“Why not?” Daisy had looked to her best friend in confusion.
“Because, it’ll give Daniel a chance to offer you his jacket should the need arise.” Jemma had replied with a knowing waggle of her eyebrows.
“That’s… that doesn’t even make sense. I don’t know that he’s going to wear a jacket!” She tried protesting but it made no difference whatsoever.
“Darling, he’s taking you to an outdoors theater, in a car I presume, which means that the evening breeze will definitely be chilly. He’s going to wear a jacket. Trust me.”
Knowing better than to argue with Jemma Fitz-Simmons, Daisy had relented eventually and gone along with black jeans and a red blouse, sleeveless of course because it was all part of Jemma’s mastermind plan. A touch of light makeup, pulling her hair into a half ponytail with a clip and slipping into comfortable shoes, Daisy had just made it on time to her meeting spot with Daniel when she saw him standing there, his back to her, hands in his pockets as he looked out at the twilight sky - and of course Jemma had been right. He was dressed in a black jacket and blue jeans… with a white t-shirt underneath, which she noticed when he turned around on hearing her approach.
“Hey.”
“Hi, sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you waiting...”
“Oh no, I just got here myself.” Daniel waved off her apology, “I uh… I was talking to Coulson.” He offered as an explanation, but that only made Daisy more curious.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah… umm… he gave me the keys to his car.”
“To Lola?”
Daisy couldn’t help widen her eyes at his words, this was a completely unexpected surprise, one that neither of them had seen coming - although… now that she thought about it… if Coulson knew and so did Jemma, which in turn meant Fitz knew as well… she was sure that meant everyone else on the team had been told. She suppressed her sigh and shook her head clear of all thoughts; right now none of that mattered, the two of them had a movie to get to.
“Did you… uh… want to drive?” Daniel asked Daisy as they walked towards the Corvette, keys in hand, glancing over at her.
“I think as long as you’re not planning to fly us over there, we should be fine.” Daisy said with a laugh, remembering the first time she’d sat in Lola all those years ago.
“ Fly us… there?” Stopping almost abruptly, he looked at her in confusion and wondered what the punchline was that he seemed to be missing.
“Coulson didn’t tell you?” For a second Daisy wondered why he was standing on the passenger side until he opened the door for her. “The car flies.” She said as a matter of fact.
“Of course it does. I will keep that in mind, but no, we’re not flying to the theater; I figure we should go for the old fashioned way.”
“Sounds good to me.” Daisy said with a smile as she got in; he was ever the gentleman after all and it was one of the things she liked about him.
Ever since he’d been a part of this team, if there was one thing Daniel Sousa knew for sure without a doubt, it was that there would always been something which would never cease to surprise or amaze him, probably even faze him to a certain extent… he was getting used to things being… unique.
The drive didn’t take more than a half hour and soon enough, Daisy and Daniel found themselves parked in a fairly decent spot once they arrived; it was all that she needed to know that he clearly had done this a few times for him to maneuver through the other cars and find an ideal viewing space. They weren’t too close nor too far and surprisingly enough, right in the center of the screen.
“Do you want to grab the snacks while I go get the tickets?” Daisy suggested once they were parked; it had been a lovely drive to the theater and she’d spent the time listening to Daniel talk about what drive-in theaters were like before.
“Sure. Is there anything special you want me to get for you?” Thanks to Deke, the team always had a fair amount of cash on hand for situations like this for each of them.
“Hmm… surprise me.” She knew that there were always the typical snacks and soda stands at these locations, but truth be told, she wanted to be surprised by him.
“Alright then, there should be a picnic blanket in the trunk, Coulson mentioned we were going to need it. I’ll meet you back here in 15.”
“Cool, I will set that up.”
Daniel strode off towards the concession stands, thinking about how it was something so simple and yet… Daisy trusted him enough to know what she liked or what she might like… and well, it was their first date after all. Not officially, not even really a date no. Daniel reminded himself of that fact as he stood in line, feeling a sense of… familiarity… even in a different decade… drive-ins were still more or less the same in any time.
When he got back to the car, Daisy had already arranged everything that they would need before the movie began… well. Almost everything. After he handed the two soda’s to her and set the food down on the picnic blanket, a complete variety of buttered popcorn and nachos with cheese and sweets too, Daniel shrugged off his jacket and wordlessly draped it around her shoulders before he sat down beside her.
“Don’t you need this?” Daisy asked when she felt his warm hands brushing against her shoulders, trying not to let her surprise show.
“I’ll be fine.” He smiled at her.
“Thanks.”
If there was more that either one of them could have said, it would have to wait until the movie ended, for almost immediately, things started to quiet down once the projector started playing. It was time. And as the two of them settled down in front of Lola, watching the movie together while sharing their snacks with each other as if it was an everyday thing for them, Daisy couldn’t help but start to relax… more than she already felt… for somewhere in between Marty McFly finding himself traveling to the past and Doc Brown cheering his success, she leaned in closer to Daniel’s chest while keeping her eyes on the screen in front of her. In response, Daniel lifted his arm and placed it around Daisy’s shoulder.
“I’m glad we decided to do this.” He said after a moment.
“Me too.” Daisy replied as she turned her head to look up to see him glance at her.
There barely an inch of space between them that they could have kissed, and almost instinctively, it seemed as if Daniel had come to the same realization too as he leaned down to close the distance and kissed her.
“That was nice.”
Daisy grinned at that, remembering the first time that she’d kissed him in one of many time loops, she had said the same thing; she had mentioned the kiss to Daniel after the fact, but not her exact words.
“It was yeah.”
Settling back into his arms, Daisy turned her attention back to the movie; this was simply… a perfect first date, and hopefully the start of many more dates to come.