Work Text:
Daniel Sousa was fidgeting like a kid on the first day of school. If that kid was strapped and had a shoulder holster to mess with. Weird analogy. Anyway, Daisy put a hand over his, stopping the nervous motions. "It's going to be fine," she reassured him, smiling as he turned his hand around to lace his fingers with hers.
"Of course it is, you know me, unfazed. By...aliens. And different solar systems."
"It's a friendly visit. Trading some knowledge, talking resources, making new friends. No biggie."
"No biggie," he repeated, only slightly mocking her. Daisy narrowed her eyes, but then he casually and thoughtlessly kissed the back of her hand and sue her, she was charmed. "Anything I should know before we split up?"
Daisy was going to meet with leadership while Daniel would be getting a tour with some members of the planet's military. The military branch of Astra was particularly small, but they had some unique defense strategies that Daisy was interested in learning more about. Kora would be shadowing Daisy, for some sisterly bonding and a chance to see Daisy flex her diplomacy muscles.
"Just be friendly, engaged, polite," she listed off. "All things you are very good at." She wasn't particularly worried about Daniel. He was clearly a pro fish out of water, and had better manners than anyone she'd ever met. "If something throws you off, just go with it. We're on a new planet, there's bound to be some shit we're not familiar with." She shrugged. "Just go with the flow."
That seemed to give Daniel pause, and before he had a chance to remark on his unfamiliarity with that particular colloquialism Daisy took the opportunity to grab him by the collar and press her mouth against his. Daniel moved into it immediately, pulling back just for a moment to ensure that they were in fact alone before relaxing into the kiss.
The much-reduced crew aboard the Zephyr 3 was one benefit of the team going their separate ways. Did she miss all of them deeply, in a way that brought a pang to her chest when she thought of them? Absolutely. Did she enjoy the ability to mack on her boyfriend without the risk of her friends and teammates walking in on them? Definitely.
They were taking it slow, perhaps slower than Daisy liked, but she knew it was a good thing. They were going to be out here for a long time, making dozens of interplanetary visits. They had time.
She had ideas about how she'd like to spend that time, of course. She was partial to messing up Daniel's neatly pressed collars, scraping her fingernails lightly through the short hair at the base of his skull. Those were great uses of her time.
Giving him one last peck, Daisy pulled back, letting Daniel adjust his aforementioned collar.
"What were we talking about?" She asked, and he shook his head at her.
"You know full well I don't remember now," he muttered, a small smile giving him away. He turned his faux-disgruntled look at the ground into a look at her suit, from the floor up.
Smooth, she thought, and would never admit that she was being only a little sarcastic. She was at least glad he couldn't see her toes curl in her boots at the scrutiny.
"So, you're wearing the superhero getup for this one?" He asked, smirking a bit. "No cape?"
Daisy scoffed. "Keep it up, really, I would love to make these regulation for all 'Astro Ambassadors,'"
("Quotation marks!" He exclaimed once, unexpectedly. Which is when Daisy learned that air quotes weren't really big in the 40s.)
"Not sure it would suit me as well," he said.
Daisy would emphatically disagree, with details, but didn't want to scandalize him too much right before a mission.
Speaking of which, the Astran representatives were now waiting at the bottom of the ramp for them, so Daisy patted Daniel on the shoulder. Friendly. Professional. "Enjoy the adventure," she told him, leaving to grab her sister.
***
The visit was going remarkably well, Daisy thought. There was little apprehension on either side upon introductions, and both Daisy and Kora were soaking in the different culture around them. The art displays they were shown in the capital building were impressive, and it didn't miss Daisy's notice that Kora seemed particularly moved. Turning a powerful ability into something beautiful definitely resonated with the two of them.
"And now I hope you'll join us!" One of their hosts, Modlyn, said, bringing a tray of glasses to the table. "You're welcome to come to the casino after this for more celebrations, we'll be meeting the rest of your teammates there."
Daisy leaned over to Kora. "The key to successful diplomacy is shots," she whispered. Daisy was still learning to be a sister to Kora, especially after all they had been through, but sometimes it was strangely easy.
"Bottoms up, boss," Kora said cheekily.
They each took the glasses handed to them, small clear cups with about an ounce of purple liquid in it. It smelled incredible, like edible flowers, and not the perfumey ones either. Remembering that they were, in fact, on an alien planet –which should be easier considering their hosts were all bald with sunshine yellow skin—Daisy paused and placed a hand on Kora's wrist as well.
"Thank you for including us, what is this exactly? It smells amazing." Of course she was establishing a trusting relationship with the Astrans, and had no reason to think they would bring her harm, but she had ingested alien substances before and the results were…undesirable. She was pretty sure they had seen Astrans on Kitson as well.
Seeming to recognize her attempt at asking without causing offense, Modlyn smiled. "Don't worry, it's just a tradition we do with all of our guests, nothing too strong."
Daisy smiled in relief, tapping her glass against Kora's. "Bottoms up," she repeated, and they followed their host's lead and tossed back the drink.
"Woo," Kora hissed, cringing slightly. "It doesn't taste like tequila, but it feels like tequila, right?" Daisy made a similar face, and nodded, her throat burning at the alcohol. The Astrans laughed at their reactions, and one of them patted them both on the arm.
"Should we move to the other celebrations?" She asked. "There will be more drinks there, if you're interested."
"We'll see," Daisy said skeptically, and the Astran woman laughed. Daisy smiled.
"Besides, you're all Inhumans, right? You'll barely feel a thing with just one."
Daisy paused, smile frozen slightly on her face.
"Sorry, did you say you do this with all of your guests?"
***
Daisy's eyes scanned the lounge area of the casino, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted a set of familiar hunched over shoulders in the corner. Considering what her experience with Simmons had been like, sitting in an actual chair was a good sign. Daisy nodded to a few of the other Astrans as she passed them, taking the empty chair at Daniel's low table. He faced the wall slightly, a tall glass of what looked like water in between his hands.
"Agent Sousa," she said, instinctively looking around to see if anyone else was in earshot. Old habits died hard, and it never hurt to be careful. Plus, if he is super high, he'll appreciate a smaller audience.
"Agent Johnson."
Daisy let out a little sigh of relief at the formal greeting. Bullet dodged? She leaned back in her chair more comfortably, ready to ask Sousa about his experience with his branch of the welcome committee, but frowned as he remained still, looking straight ahead. At the wall. He was very still, actually, sitting in a way that couldn't be comfortable with how stiff his arms and shoulders seemed to be. From her view of his profile, his lips seemed to be pressed tightly together.
"Agent Sousa."
"Mm-hmm?"
"Everything alright?"
He shook his head.
"Mm-mm."
Oh boy.
"Daisy," Daniel whispered. Well, he probably intended to whisper, but it might have actually been louder than his typical indoor voice. "I think there was something funny in that drink I had."
Daisy sighed. Of course he would be too polite to turn the drink down.
Go with the flow, she had said. Enjoy the adventure, she had told him.
Luckily the others around them seemed to be preoccupied with their own drinks and conversations, though she definitely spotted a couple of worried, guilty looks on her friendly hosts' faces across the room. Daisy gave them a smile and 'all good here' wave before turning back around. Daniel had shifted his gaze from the wall across from him to the table, drawing random shapes with a finger.
"Hey Sousa, can you look at me?"
He shook his head and continued with his shapes, his fingertip turning red as he pressed it against the table.
"Daniel, I'm gonna need you to look at me, okay buddy?" Daisy cringed, reminding herself that she was talking to a 40-year-old man, not a child. Alien LSD or no. "Where did your—" she almost said chaperones—"guides go?"
He pointed across the room without looking, and sure enough Daisy saw the group he had worked with standing by the bar. "We all took a shot and then one of them was like 'hey that guy doesn't look too great' and they asked if I was a human and I said yes and they asked if I wanted them to stay with me or leave me alone and I asked to be alone please so they moved me to my corner until I felt better," he said in a rush, gesturing to his surroundings.
"Do you feel sick?" Daisy asked, leaning in slightly to get a better look at him. It was a little difficult with him refusing to turn his head, but his color looked okay, if a little gray.
Daniel shook his head. "No, not sick, but things look…odd. I'm seeing some bonkers stuff, Daisy."
"Do you see Fitz dancing in a monkey suit?"
"What?" He turned to look at her, attention successfully captured. But the confusion dropped off his face in a second, and his eyes widened.
"Holy smokes."
It occurred to Daisy that somehow Daniel's already big brown eyes looked even larger, and he was staring at her with an expression she hadn't seen on him before. Not even that day he saw Daisy and YoYo use FaceTime.
"Ah, dammit," he said, shaking his head rapidly. "Sorry, apologies. Uh, my bad."
"I'm sorry did you just say my bad'?"
"I told myself I wasn't going to look, everything else around me looks—" He did some strange, floaty gesture with his hand – "And you already look, like--" Floaty gesture again. "All the time, and we're working, so right now I'm just—" He raised his eyebrows desperately at Daisy, who clearly wasn't picking up what he was putting down.
It wasn't funny. Really. Not at all. It would incredibly mean to find him cute when he was like this.
Daniel put his face in his hands and sighed. "Daisy, I'm really trying not to flip my wig here."
Feeling bad for the poor guy, Daisy put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which he immediately leaned into.
"That's nice," he sighed, "you're so nice."
"Okaaay, how about we get you someplace less…public so you can ride this out, huh?" He nodded at Daisy's suggestion and she stood. Sousa attempted to follow suit, but promptly sat back down. She assumed it was a dizzy spell, but even loopy he seemed to maintain perfect posture.
"That's not going to be happening I'm afraid."
"That's fine Agent, we can stay here," Daisy said as she sat back down and racked her brain for things she would appreciate when she got too high. She looked up to ask him if he wanted snacks, but stopped short. He had that face on again. That incredibly open, admiring, blatantly…swooning face? Was that what swooning looked like in real life?
Daniel Sousa was by no means stoic, Daisy knew. He said a lot with the movement of his brows, the tilt of his mouth, but there was always something in his expression that screamed 'calm, cool and collected,' even when he was admittedly baffled. Sometimes you could catch his eyes smiling, that wall of formality dropping a bit more. While Daisy had seen it in brief moments with the team, such as meeting FitzSimmons' kid for the first time or trading stories with Mack, she was fairly confident that she was the one who saw that look the most.
But even then there was always some form of barrier. A bashful duck of the head, a clearing of the throat and straightening of the shoulders.
Not anymore.
His chin was resting on his hand, dopey grin on his face as he just looked at her.
She wondered if he would be embarrassed that she saw him like this. 'We're working,' he had said, which was such a Sousa thing to worry about, even stoned. It had some merit, and she knew he would want to ensure no one saw him treating her with anything but respect and professionalism. But also she was a little taken with how starry-eyed he was just staring at her.
Moon-eyed? Moony-eyed? Is that a thing they used to say?
Maybe she needed to watch some more old movies, pick up more phrases he was familiar with. They had watched His Girl Friday once, but that just resulted in her asking for things in a hokey 40's voice, sounding less like Rosalind Russell and more like Bugs Bunny outwitting a couple of gangsters.
"What?" Daniel asked. "Is my face doing something?"
Daisy shook her head. "Nothing bad you just look…I don't think I've seen you this smiley before."
"Oh," he said. Sitting up a little straighter, Daniel drew his brows downward, pursing his mouth into an exaggerated frown. "Is this better?"
She couldn't help it. She snorted. "Sorry, sorry," Daisy said, laughing and waving him off. "You just—"
Daniel dropped the frown, "Yeah, yeah, get your kicks, Agent Johnson."
For some reason, this seemed to sober him up for a second. Then a nervous laugh. Daisy narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What now?"
"Nothing, nothing," he said, waving at her a little too enthusiastically. "Everything is fine. Johnson."
Oh my god is he making a dick joke?
He must have seen the comprehension dawn on her face, because she could practically hear his thoughts as his eyes darted around, scrambling for a subject change.
"So I—"
"Agent Sousa did you just make a dirty joke about my last name?"
He looked at her, aghast. "Absolutely not."
"I mean, don't worry about me being offended, honestly I'm almost impressed."
"No, no. That type of blue humor is—it's—I would never—"
"You basically giggled."
"Giggled?" Sousa scoffed. "As if."
Daisy was pretty sure her eyebrows shot up into her hairline, never to be seen again. "Okay, we need to pause the conversation right there," she said, turning her chair to face him more directly. "Did you say 'as if?' As in 'whatever,' as in 'get the picture, duh'?"
Daniel blinked. "I'm not sure I caught any of that."
"Don't worry about it. Who taught you 'as if' and 'my bad' because I'm pretty sure those weren't used back in your day, old man." She shoved at his shoulder lightly, noting how his eyes went to her hand for a few moments before getting himself together.
"Uh, that movie, the new one. What's it called?" He looked up at the ceiling, concentrating very hard before clapping his hands triumphantly. "Clueless!"
Daisy gave her head a light shake, trying to reconcile the idea of Agent Daniel Sousa watching Clueless. "Well, it's a classic, but not exactly new," Daisy said, only a little miffed that she had missed out on this viewing experience of his. She had a hunch who was to blame.
"Kora said it was from the future."
"I mean, yeah for her," Daisy admitted, knowing she'd have to give her sister a talk about sifting through her movie collection without her permission. The thought warmed her heart a little, as weird as that was. "So, how are you feeling? You still totally bugging?" His pupils still looked a little large, but he was looking better than before. She had to pat herself on the back a little bit for that one. He was on drugs, in the future, on an alien planet and he had still avoided having a bad trip? That had to be some kind of record.
As if to answer her question he stood. He stayed up this time, but had a little too much enthusiasm and pushed his chair back loudly. Clearing his throat, he gestured for Daisy to lead the way, and they walked through the room. At one point she felt him reach for her hand, letting her navigate him through the crowd. As a professional, she probably should have discouraged it. They were working, after all, even if their hosts were clearly letting loose. But he'd had a rough go of it, and she was the one who told him to embrace local customs, so she simply let it happen and kept walking.
Every few feet or so she felt a light squeeze on her hand and she returned it, just so he would know she was still there. Like morse code or something, but sappy as hell. They kept it up down the halls, all the way to the docked Zephyr, and he probably didn't need her to lead him any longer but she wasn't going to complain.
His good old-fashioned sense of propriety seemed to kick in when they reached the bunks, where he promptly let go of her hand and cleared his throat loudly about three times.
Oh so we can make out in front of our boss but this makes you nervous, she wanted to say, but definitely didn't want to embarrass him and discourage future making out. You know, when he wasn't hopped up on alien hooch.
"Feeling better?" She asked instead, and watched him run a hand through his hair. She had done so herself before, but made a note to do it more in the future. He had soft hair. Yeah, he's the moon-eyed one.
"Eh," he said looking unsure. "No longer fubar, but—" he looked up at her questioningly.
"Oh, we have that one too," Daisy replied, and he nodded.
"Right, well, pardon the language then, but, yeah, better than before." He sighed, leaning against the doorway to his bunk. "Not sure I'd be much use if you need backup, but it's not like you need me anyway."
Daisy tilted her head, smiling gently at him. "Sure I do."
His eyes softened, and Daisy let him lean in for just slightly too long before putting a hand on his chest. "You're being really cute and sweet but you're super duper high right now, so I'm gonna—" She gestured toward her own bunk with her thumb. "Go there now."
He nodded and she patted him on the chest before turning around to leave.
"Oh, wait, Daisy."
She stopped and turned back, raising an eyebrow.
"If I were to say you had a 'slamming bod'—"
Daisy put a hand up. "Time out, Danny Boy. What do you think that means?"
"…You're very strong and can throw people around, like—" he mimed slamming someone into a wall. "That."
"Course you do. Who told you that?"
Daniel's brows furrowed slightly. "That's not what it means, is it?"
"Nope."
"You're going to be mad at the person who told me that, aren't you?"
"I'm just going to have a chat with them," Daisy reassured him, deeply unconvincing.
He nodded dutifully, giving her a stiff wave and walking into his bunk. "Good night Agent Johnson."
"I'll find out eventually, you can't protect them forever!" She called cheerfully to his closed door.
And she would, but for now she was going to get some rest, strategize for the next day, and write up some official guidelines for partaking in alien substances.