Chapter Text
Christmas cards whether you buy them in bulk with pictures of wintery landscapes or have specially made were fun to send out, even more to receive.
Skye’s seen them before lined up neatly on fireplaces, pinned to walls, held in place by fridge magnets. But her favourite were the personalized ones. A family gathered in horribly ugly sweaters with Christmas colours, smiling up at the recipient.
She remembers the Sawyers’. How Heather and Liam had dreaded having to spend an hour after school to take the family photo that would go on the card. Skye had watched from the stairs, half there and the other daydreaming of when her parents would find her.
Then she’d be just like them, complaining about how unnecessary it all was. But smiling either way when the camera flashes because she’d have a family.
It didn’t happen that way. And ironically, she was the one to suggest the card. Kind of. It was more an offhanded comment meant to pass off as a joke.
(They were practically a family of spies, with no attachments aside from each other. Phil had no family left. There was no one to send it to, at least not without possibly risking them.)
She really was joking. Something to do just because it seemed like fun. A parody of sorts.
They gathered on the living room couch with the camera (Skye’s disposable one with film) decked in their most festive-coloured clothes. A green plaid shirt for Grant, a red and white striped t-shirt for Skye with a Santa hat she’d insisted on buying and Phil in his crisp white shirt and black tie.
Their first card wasn’t much, just a photo of the three of them. Skye squished between Grant and Phil with her arms around their necks, all wearing huge grins. It was slightly tilted from being held out by Grant, affording a view of the window with snow gathering on its ledge and the haphazardly decorated Christmas tree in one corner.
On the back, the words “Happy Holidays from” in Phil’s hand with black ink and their signatures. Skye does hers in glittery violet ink with a sketch of a reindeer, red nose and all. Grant adds on a sleigh along with his name signed in his sensible scrawl.
Nick Fury and Melinda May were the very first recipients of the Coulson family holiday card. Somewhere along the road, it became tradition. The pictures were candid at best but that’s what she loved most about it.
She manages to pull Melinda into the shot (the four of them bundled up for warmth against the backdrop of an actual pine forest).
They drag Gram in soon after, despite her protests. (Skye and Grant flanked her on both sides).
And then, Buddy with antlers on his head came bounding onto their laps (knocking the wind out of Phil in the process).
Fury continues to receive one every year – and if he smiles upon seeing them, he’ll tell you you’ve lost your damn mind – up until Phil’s death.