This is the result of my brain putting together five other small ideas that didn't work out as a single story. Also, I've been very obsessed with writing stories of Skye and Ward in the future, so this is set about a year and a half after the last episode. Hope you enjoy it!

Ward was quite surprised at what was expecting him when he walked into the makeshift gym where the team trained. Usually the place was empty in the morning, and he'd start laying down the mats while waiting for Skye to arrive; today, she was already there.

"Good morning," he greeted her in a more cheerful tone than usual. It was a special day, after all. "So, does this mean you'll be arriving earlier than me now that you're an agent?"

"Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it." She smiled at him. However, she didn't seem nearly as enthusiastic as he'd imagined she would be. There was something else going on in her mind. Noticing the way he was staring at her, Skye explained in advance: "I just woke up early today and decided to start the day sooner instead of going back to bed."

That was unusual coming from her, but he didn't question the veracity of her statement. She had been in a weird mood lately and would probably just snap at him and tell him to mind his own business or something.

"Ready to start your first training session as an agent?"

He'd thought she'd have a sassy answer, something along the lines of "I was I was born ready" (she'd actually said that twice before). Instead, she glared at him suspiciously as if he was doubting her, and said, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be ready?"

"Alright then," he replied, taken by surprise by her unexpectedly cagey behavior.

For the first time since the team had been put together, Ward wouldn't train Skye. They would train together. He wouldn't give her a number of push-ups to do, or hold the punching bag for her and remind her of always keeping her hands up, he wouldn't tell her what to do or not when they were "fighting". That day, they went directly to the mats and begun fighting for real—as real as possible for a good training session.

After their year and a half of daily, intense training, Ward didn't suspect Skye would have trouble with that at all. The problem was, in that specific day, she had.

Ward obviously wasn't attacking her as hard as he would with someone with the same time of experience he had, but he definitely wasn't taking it easy on her either. Skye fought back as hard as she could at the moment, but her skills weren't nearly as sharp as he'd seen previously. Something was wrong. For some reason, though, he was sure pointing that out wouldn't be a good idea.

He dropped her to the ground twice, and she got angrier in each one. For the first one, he ducked out of her blow to his face and kicked her feet out from under her, sending her on her back. She sighed and got back up promptly. In the second time, though, it took her a little bit more of motivation to get back to her feet after he brought her crashing to the mat.

When the third win happened, Ward knew that something was unquestionably wrong and it would be better to end that training session earlier than usual. He pinned her arms to the mat, and they were so close he could feel her deep, ragged breaths fanning across his face. He usually thought it was kind of funny when she was annoyed for losing, but not this time. Now she was pissed. He moved away and offered his hand to help her, but she ignored it, pulling herself up on her own.

"Okay, what's wrong?" He asked, planting his hands in his hips like he always did when he was irritated and/or confused.

"Nothing wrong, I'm just not lucky today."

He exhaled impatiently. "You should know by now that I'm not stupid. You're clearly exhausted. What happened?"

"I'm not exhausted, I just woke up a bit early, I told you. I needed some time to warm up. That's all."

"That's the lie I heard before, so I'm asking for the truth now. Did something happen to you last night? Because it looks like you didn't get any sleep at all."

Skye sighed and denied him a straight answer again. "It doesn't matter! I'm fine. Can we continue now?"

"Are you sure?" He asked and quickly regretted that decision.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She retorted in such an annoyed tone that he immediately knew he shouldn't argue with her right now.

"I mean, maybe we should stop for now." Too late to back off. "Go get some sleep, and we can continue in the afternoon."

"Stop?!" Her tone indicated how much anger he had unleashed. "If you want to train with someone more qualified than me, suit yourself. I'm not stopping so soon."

She turned around and marched her way to the punching bag.

"Where did that come from?" He demanded. "I never had a problem with our training!"

"Then why are you taking it easy on me? Is it because I'm an agent now? If you don't want to train with me anymore because I'm too easily defeated, I'm okay with that. Really."

"What the hell, Skye? I'm taking it easy on you because you're half-asleep! Are you alright?" Her attempt to make it sound like she didn't care was so pathetic it didn't even manage to make him mad. He was just worried. Whatever was going on, she really didn't want to tell him, and that's what annoyed him the most.

"Damn, Ward, I'm fine!"

She decided it wasn't worth it staying there and arguing with him, so she quickly grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off her forehead and stomped away. Still, she could hear the last thing he said: "I know you're lying!"

That didn't stop her. No matter how hard she tried, he always knew.

He was sure she wouldn't be asleep, but he didn't expect to find her in the living area—more specifically, by the bar—nor drunk, let alone wearing a blue T-shirt with Captain America's shield on it. His initial plan was to walk past her on the way to his bunk, but he changed his mind after seeing the bottle she was holding as she refilled her empty glass. He needed to intervene.

At first, she didn't notice him when he silently walked toward her, but when she did, her reaction was as unexpected as everything she'd done that day.

"Oh, thank god you're here!" She smiled widely at him, although the guilt was clear in her eyes. "I wanted to speak with you."

"Well, then maybe you shouldn't have avoided me all day."

She didn't seem to have anything to answer immediately, taking her time to think. He took a seat next to her by the bar and stole the glass from her hands, placing it and the bottle in the other end of the bar where she couldn't reach them. She simply sighed dramatically at him, but didn't complain. He was so predictable.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, that!" She said as if he'd reminded her of something she had completely forgotten in a period of seconds. "I'm sorry. Honestly, I'm so sorry, Ward. I was such a bitch with you this morning… for nothing. And I lied. Twice, I think."

The thought of making fun of her T-shirt escaped his mind as instantly as it had appeared. "Okay, I already know you didn't just decide to start the day sooner," he mocked the poor lie she'd given him earlier.

She wrinkled her nose like they were in a quiz and he'd given a very wrong answer. "I lied about that too. I didn't want to tell you…" She hesitated.

"Whatever it is, you know you can be honest with me."

She was drunk, but not the oh-my-god-I-can't-walk drunk (not yet); more like the oh-my-god-why-am-I-so-sincere type of drunk. Long ago, Ward had found out that alcohol was quite effective at destroying the filters that prevented everything she was thinking from slipping out of her mouth.

"I haven't been sleeping much," she confessed, letting out a heavy breath. Somehow he knew he was the first one she told about that, and she sounded like it was great to finally tell someone. "Actually, that's a euphemism. I haven't been sleeping, period. Yesterday wasn't the first time. I've been spending pretty much the entire night awake since… Remember what we were talking about last Friday?"

Not sure if she just wanted him to bring up the topic or if she really didn't remember, he searched his mind for the memory of that conversation, and didn't take long to find it. "We weren't exactly talking, I was lecturing you about the responsibilities of being a SHIELD agent and you were, well, ignoring me." The obvious realization didn't take long to kick in either. "Wait, you haven't slept properly since last Friday? That's five nights, Skye!"

"First of all, I wasn't ignoring you. I never am," she guaranteed as a matter of fact. "I didn't say anything because I was too busy overthinking like hell everything you said." He didn't say a word, waiting for her to comment on the second part of what he'd said. "And I know very well how many nights it is, thank you."

"So why? Nightmares?" He tried.

"Nah, I haven't been able to keep my eyes closed for long enough to produce nightmares." That wasn't as good as an answer as he deserved. After all, he'd put up with her ridiculous breakdown during the training session, and he wasn't mad at her. For that, the least she owed him was the truth in its entirety. "I don't know, man. I can't turn off my mind. When I lie in bed I'm agitated as if I've consumed an entire Starbucks, and I can't make myself calm down and fall asleep." She looked down as if she was embarrassed. "It got worse with the agent thing yesterday. I literally didn't sleep at all. I'm so tired, I must be about to black out like a cell phone with low battery."

He suddenly felt so stupid for not having noticed her sleeplessness. That explained the horrible mood she had been in the last few days, but he'd figured she was just stressed out over the whole "becoming an agent" process. To be fair, she'd done a pretty good job at hiding how tired she was, until this morning. And that would explain the unusual amount of times he'd seen her drinking coffee, which makes him even more idiotic for not putting two and two together.

"Goddamn it, Skye, you should've told me that days ago," he complained. "I-"

"Shhh, I'm not finished yet," she interrupted him, rubbing her eyes. It was getting harder to keep them open. "That was only the first lie."

"Let me guess what the second one was." He cleared his throat and she already knew what was coming. In the worst imitation of her voice ever (and maybe too many hand motions), he said: "You can stop training with me if you want! I'm okay with that!" When she thought he was finally done, he added the finale: "Suit yourself!" She rolled her eyes at him. "Correct?"

"The guess was okay but you need to work on those imitations. Or just stop doing them. At all." She laughed in an attempt to lighten up the mood, but he maintained his apathetic expression. "You know I didn't mean it."

"I do." He truly did. It was amazing how she could lie perfectly during missions and, at the same time, be such a poor liar when it came to him. "What I don't know is why you said that."

She could just say she had been too tired to think about what was coming of her mouth, but she really didn't feel like lying again. Also, the alcohol wouldn't let her. "I think I'm a bit paranoid over being a field agent," she admitted. "I don't- I just don't want to be a disappointment. Mostly because SHIELD won't hesitate to kick me out if I mess up."

"You mean, Victoria Hand won't hesitate," he said, given that Skye had unbelievably managed to upset the superior officer every single time they'd encountered in the past 18 months. "Coulson would maybe think about it," he tried to joke, but she didn't laugh—Ward was only funny when he was not trying to be. His rare attempts always failed miserably.

"I'm serious, Grant," she said exasperatedly, making Ward realize how much thought she'd given to the possibility of being kicked out. He'd never taken Skye for the paranoid type, due to her always confident behavior, so that confession was definitely shocking. "I want to be a good agent, but I can't do that if I don't sleep, and I can't sleep exactly because of that. I also might be going insane."

He didn't know how to react. Her confession had taken him by surprise, which forced him to improvise a way to comfort her.

"Look, you have to stop thinking that much about your responsibilities," he said and immediately regretted it.

"Whoa, plot twist!" She chuckled. That sentence was a recurring thing, whenever he said something minimally shocking, and she knew he hated it.

"I mean, always be aware of them, but you don't have to worry about it to the point of not being able to sleep," he corrected himself. "If we didn't think you could be a good agent, Skye, you'd have been kicked out long ago."

"Good to know," she replied sarcastically.

"I mean it. You'll do just fine." He curved the sides of his lips into a small, almost invisible smile. "But you do need to sleep first."

"Yeah, I know…" She blinked multiple times, almost unable to delay the moment in which her eyes would eventually close against her will. "At this point, sleeping is the hardest part."

Giving up, she left her seat, being careful not to trip and fall to the ground, and slowly walked to her bunk. Nonetheless, he followed her footsteps.

It took her longer than it should have to notice he was behind her, but when she did, an idea filled her mind. So, instead of heading a few more steps forward in order to enter her bunk, she stopped in front of Ward's. It was a stupid idea, but she was mildly drunk and too tired to ignore anything that could possibly help her get at least some hours of sleep.

When she slid the door open, she heard Ward and knew he was smirking while he said, "Skye, this is my bunk."

"Yeah… I know," she repeated, lower than before. Turning to face him, she said, "Can I ask you a favor?"

He stared at her in disbelief for a second, and then it hit him. Once again, she'd managed to surprise him—it was a gift, honestly.

"Are you seriously asking to-" He started, but cut himself halfway through the sentence. He couldn't do that. Not when she was desperately tired to the point of asking him to share his bunk for a night. In addition, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to fall asleep knowing she'd be awake in the bunk next to his, staring at the ceiling. "Alright," he said, and she rewarded him with a relieved smile he hadn't seen in quite a long time.

He was the first one to occupy the ridiculously small bed, and as soon as she laid beside him with her back to his chest, her brain started screaming that she had just had the worst idea ever. She was utterly, embarrassingly aware of everything. Chills crept up her spine as their legs touched, and she cursed herself for being in pajama shorts instead of sweatpants like he was. Every single muscle in her body tensed, and she shrunk her arms and legs as much as possible when he pulled the blanket over both of them.

She couldn't even close her eyes, and Ward didn't seem all that relaxed either. They were secretly avoiding letting their bodies touch, which was an impossible task considering the size of the bed. Ward was already too big for it, let alone when there was someone else with him.

Skye wondered if the clock placed beside Ward's bed was somehow broken, since the time didn't seem to pass and it was driving her crazy. At some point, she lost hope of sleeping that night. No matter how tired she was, her brain was way more active than necessary. She had already gotten used to spending the nights awake, but trying to remain perfectly still in the middle of the night sharing a bed with Ward was a whole different thing. Once he'd fallen asleep, he'd started unconsciously sliding closer to her, which didn't make it any easier.

Around 2AM, she considered leaving his bunk and trying to sleep in her own, but he was a light sleeper so she'd certainly wake him up and it would be even more embarrassing to explain that his presence was making her more agitated instead of helping in any way.

Not knowing what to do, she tried to take her brain out of whatever she was thinking about, and it took her a couple of hours, but the sleeplessness from five nights of insomnia eventually hit her.

The last time she checked the clock that night, the glowing red numbers said it was 2:19AM, and then she slept like a baby. It turned out that, when she wasn't overthinking it, Grant Ward's warmth, ironically, made it pretty comfortable to share a bed.

Thank you for reading! This is a two-part story and I will post the second chapter tomorrow :)