Chapter Text
"You're turn, Danny Boy ." Daisy told her partner in a teasing tone as she held the cards that were gripped firmly in her hands close to her.
Normally Daniel Sousa would tease back with a quip of his own that would most certainly end with a, "Quake. " Only this time he silently picked up a card from the deck in the middle of the motel's small table before looking at it with a blank face that definitely wasn't just a poker face.
"Sousa?" She questioned, waving her hand toward him to catch his attention.
"You know, waving your hands around won't distract me from playing my turn and beating you." This time he teased back, eyes focused on his hand. Only, he didn't seem to be into it as he usually was.
She wouldn't have guessed it from a straight laced square from the 50's, as she liked to call him, but their quick banter was one of her favorite things about their partnership and friendship. It made long missions like these, where it was just the two of them and not their SHIELD team on The Zephyr, extremely bearable. Well, of course it wasn't just their quick banter that she enjoyed or helped make them great partners. For a man that accidentally time traveled from the 50's to the 21st Century, he worked extremely well with someone like her who not only was a tech genius-or a computer nerd as Trip liked to call it- but had powers that had been unheard of back in his day. Or so she had thought, since the stories Sousa had told her about his SSR days were quite impressive for the 40's. Her old conspiracy self might've silently geeked out at that. Well, maybe not so silently since she remembered his amused smile he had given her the first time he told her his SSR stories. A smile that younger her would probably slightly melt over. Slightly .
But that wasn't the point.
The point was that Daisy and Sousa had actually made quite a team considering their differences. But as she had come to know him, rather quickly she might add, Daisy had started to realize that they surprisingly had more things in common than she would ever have thought for a man out of time and a tech genius superhero - Mack's words not hers. Both their differences and commonalities had helped them figure the other out surprisingly rather quickly. Which extremely helped their partnership run smoothly.
Like at times when something was wrong with one of them, the other could easily tell.
Like at this very moment.
"You're turn, Johnson." Sousa words broke her out of her thoughts as he stared at her expectantly.
Johnson? He only ever called her ‘Johnson’ or ‘Agent Johnson’ whenever they were in full mission mode, and even then he usually called her ‘Quake’ instead- and always with a hint of amusement even when he was fully focused on the current mission.
Instead of playing her turn, Daisy placed her cards on the table, before leaning back in her chair and folding her arms. "Alright. Spill it."
He gave her a faint version of his usual squint of confusion that often would be the only inclination of him being fazed by anything, but mostly of the 21st Century. As she had determined from her observations of being his SHIELD partner for the past year.
Only this time it was more of a ghost of it.
To an untrained eye, no one would notice, but Daisy could tell that his mind was preoccupied- even if he tried to hide it.
"Spill what? If I tell you what my cards are it kinda defeats the whole purpose of the game doesn't it?"
She eyed him. "Something's bothering you."
Sousa studied her for a small moment before shrugging. "Nothing's bothering me. I just have a lot on my mind."
"Care to share with the rest of the class?"
He shook his head. "It's nothing really. It's actually really silly."
"Doesn't seem like it since it's making you not into your favorite mission card game."
He stared at the cards that were still in his hand for a moment before saying, "It really is silly, trust me. Nothing to fret over."
Daisy studied him. "Well maybe I should," she put her hands in quotations, "'fret over it' if it'll affect the mission."
She was bluffing of course. Daniel Sousa was pretty damn great at his job, no matter what century he was in. And that meant he knew how to not let his personal stuff get in the way. Unless he strongly believed that the mission wasn't right, like she did sometimes, but that was different.
Daisy could tell that Sousa knew that she was bluffing, but it still made Sousa sigh, probably knowing that she wasn't going to leave this alone. He placed his cards on the table and leaned back in his chair and folded his arms as well, mirroring her. He then looked at her for a moment before saying, "You know, I'm usually the one that talks about jeopardizing the mission."
This made Daisy lean forward and laced her hands together before placing them on the small table. "And you are also stalling." She studied him for a moment, gauging for any reaction.
His face was completely blank, a well trained tactic if one were being interrogated. Except for the small amused glint in his eyes that was probably at their little impromptu interrogation. And then she saw it, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it tension in his jaw. Something really was bothering him, even if he deemed it silly. And now she was bothered. Not just because of the fact that his mind seemed to be elsewhere, which was a rarity for the legendary SHIELD agent since he was almost always in the present- no pun intended . But also because whenever something was bothering him, Daniel would usually talk to her. After all, their partnership very quickly turned into a friendship. Of course he didn’t have to tell her everything, and it really shouldn’t bother her at all. But Daisy had gotten used to him opening up to her and her to him. Which didn’t come easy to either one of them.
She then mentally shoved those bothered thoughts deep down, before lazily leaning back in her seat again.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it.” Daisy told him in her best fake nonchalant tone. “You are entitled to your own privacy, after all.”
A worried look immediately appeared on his face as he quickly moved forward and tried to reassure her. “It’s not that big of a deal I promise you.”
She gave him a quizzical look. “Then why are you being so dodgy about it? You’re never like this.”
“Because...I’m embarrassed okay?”
Well that took her off guard. “Embarrassed? Agent Daniel Sousa, legendary SHIELD agent, man out of time, is embarrassed?” She snorted. “How the hell does that happen? I’d like to know. You know, for research purposes.”
Sousa groaned while placing his hands on his face and then leaned all the way back against his chair that made his head face the ceiling. He mumbled something in his hands that she couldn’t quite make out.
“What was that, Danny Boy ?” She asked him, placing a hand on her ear.
He removed his hands ever so slightly from his mouth and reluctantly told her, “I told Peggy that I was seeing someone.”
“Oh.” Was all Daisy could say, processing the information, feeling bothered again for some odd reason. “Why would that be embarrassing? Besides the obvious awkwardness.”
He removed his hands and tilted his head back down to look at her. “Because, I’m not in fact seeing someone.”
“Oh. ” She repeated herself, feeling a strange sense of relief that she definitely did not want to think about. “Then why tell her that you are? Lying is so not the Daniel Sousa I know.” She teased him. “You know, except when we’re on an op or something.”
“I know!” He threw his arms on either side in exasperation. “I just couldn’t help it. I just sorta blurted it out.”
“Why? Are you…” Daisy paused, trying not to show her sudden uncomfortableness before clearing her throat, “are you still in love with her?”
“What? No.” It was his turn to clear his throat before he straightened in his seat. “I mean, of course I’ll always love Peggy and that strong bond will never go away. But I’m not in love with her anymore. Like I told you before, we were long broken up before we accidentally came here.”
She shook her head, feeling a small mixture of bewilderment and confusion. “Then why?”
Sousa looked at her for a moment again, unnerving her, before shaking his head and leaning comfortably in his seat again. “Remember how I told you about how she keeps trying to set me up every now and then?” Daisy nodded. “Well, with her and Steve’s upcoming wedding, they’ve been a tad more extra attentive and worried for my happiness then usual.”
“Ah. ” She nodded in understanding.
It all made sense now. He had told her many times about Peggy constantly worrying about him and tried to set him up a few times. She even recruited Romanoff, the Black Widow herself, to help since she had tried to do the same thing with Steve before Peggy, and Daniel, arrived at this time. Daisy even had the chance to talk to Peggy about Sousa a few times. She found it pretty cool to see two exes still be really close, and according to both of them, they had already been that way before they got zapped 70 years in the future by some Howard Stark device.
“Well I know that it’s hard to lie to your friends, your ex in particular, but I’d say just let it be for a little bit and then tell her you two broke up. After all, it would be your first relationship since arriving in this time. No one expects you to fall in love and marry the first girl you date.”
Sousa looked at her for a moment yet again before quickly down at the table. “You’re right.” He then put a hand on his forehead in exasperation. “I honestly don’t even know why I even lied in the first place. I guess I just wanted Peg to focus on her happy day and not worry about me for the millionth time. Honestly, I should just come clean and talk to her about it all like a grown ass man.”
Daisy studied him again. It took a lot for this man to lie to his friend, and even then he couldn’t keep it up for long. He really was such a square. In the best way possible. But, she could also tell how much Peggy worrying about his happiness got to him at times, so much so that Daniel Sousa of all people lied to Peggy Carter about dating someone. Even if he moved on from her and was still close friends with her and Steve Rogers, Daisy knew it’d still be awkward for him attending their wedding. It would be even more awkward with Peggy attentively worrying about him at her own wedding.
So all in all, Daisy completely understood why he’d lie in the first place. And also Daniel being Daniel, why he immediately regretted it and wanted to make it right. But didn’t he deserve to be a little selfish and ignore all the awkwardness even just for a little bit?
And that was when the thought occurred to her.
The horrible, terrible thought that would no doubt turn the awkwardness from him and Peggy to him and her.
Then again, they were friends and partners. They’ve done it several times on missions and were about to on this current op. And they remained professional every time. Of course this would be on a much larger scale with people who actually knew them, but they could do it again. Besides, Daisy really wanted to help Daniel, like he had helped her so many times. They were partners. That’s what they did.
And so, Daisy fully straightened in her seat, looked Daniel right in the eyes, and asked in the most professional tone as she could muster, “What if I was your girlfriend?”