Chapter Text
"Never have I ever." Skye declares, taking another sip of the beer Ward somehow procured.
Jemma scoffs.
"We're not fifteen, Skye, I'm sure we can find something more interesting to do." She looks pointedly in Fitz's' direction, as if the weight of her stare would conjure a decent suggestion.
He shrugs.
"Truth or dare?"
Jemma just looks frustrated, at this point, and glares at Ward, who just raises an eyebrow in response.
He's buzzed enough that the beer's taken the edge off of everything, especially the stress from finals clouding his every waking thought, but he's sober enough to make decent choices. He thinks. Whatever. It's a game for teenagers. What could go wrong?
"I don't mind."
Jemma sighs, runs her hand through her hair, and takes a swig of beer in begrudging agreement as she settles the empty bottle in the middle of their little circle, setting the game up.
Skye grins when Jemma allows her the first spin, and there's that glint in his best friends' eye Ward knows means nothing good as the object comes to a stop right in front of Jemma.
"Truth or dare?"
She hesitates for a moment, as if psyching herself up, before saying, "Truth."
Skye looks extremely pleased with Jemma's answer, and rubs her hands together before asking, "Have you ever had a crush on anyone in this room?"
Fitz snorts, and looks positively giddy at this development, whilst Jemma turns bright red.
Skye turns towards Fitz, curiosity evident in her features. He replies with a one shouldered shrug and a smirk.
Jemma clears her throat, mutters something close to I knew this was a bad idea, but still manages to stutter as she speaks.
"Y-you."
It's almost a whisper, but in a room so silent she could've shouted it, and it would not have made a difference.
She hides her face in her hand, and Ward leans forward to ask for an explanation.
Jemma glares at him.
"One question."
"It's an extension. It counts."
Jemma turns to Fitz for help, and is greeted with him looking downward, smile gracing his features.
"Fine."
Jemma chances a look in Skye's direction, before she begins, to see her taking another sip of beer, avoiding her gaze.
"It was, uhm, before we became friends?" She fiddles with the label on the bottle in hand as she speaks. "I thought you were cute. Were. Obviously. Because we're friends. Now. I mean. Uhm."
Jemma looks increasingly uncomfortable as her sentence trails off, and Fitz takes it to himself to salvage the situation, speaking up.
"Okay, then." He looks at Jemma. "Jem, looks like it's your turn then."
Jemma finally looks up, and feels relief when she sees the smile Skye directs towards her, so she gathers the courage to spin the bottle again.
When it lands on Ward, the grin she sports makes Ward regret he ever spoke.
She's absolutely expressionless, as if whatever she says next isn't going to ruin his entire life.
"Truth or dare?"
He picks the one he thinks will embarrass him less.
"Dare."
He's absolutely mistaken.
"Mm. I dare you to close your eyes, pick a number, call anyone," She holds up the phone she has in hand, Fitz's', "On this phone, and ask whoever it is on the other line out on a date."
He almost spits his beer out in surprise.
"What?"
"You picked dare."
"Yeah? But. What? What if, like, they say no?" He considers it for a moment "Oh, god. What if they say yes?"
"They say no, you embarrass yourself in front of a stranger. If they say yes, you've got yourself a hot date. It's win-win. No?"
"Jem," He whines, "You know I don't date."
"It's one date, tin man, it's not going to kill you."
He takes to muttering under his breath. "It just might."
Jemma raises an eyebrow. "What was that, smartass?"
"Nothing." She nods. "Pass me the damn phone."
He grabs the phone, closes his eyes to scroll through the contact list, and clicks on the first one his finger lands on.
Opening one eye, as if the action would change the display, he reads the name.
Lincoln Campbell.
That seems pretty alright.
He looks up, into three curious faces. "Who's Lincoln?"
Fitz simply shakes his head no, looking right at Jemma.
Ward turns to her.
"No cheating. It's in the rules."
The exasperation is very clear when he speaks again.
"What rules? You came up with this, like, five minutes ago!"
She shrugs, but looks far more pleased with herself than he's comfortable with.
"My rules."
He grumbles, "Fine."
He takes a deep breath before he presses the call icon, and his mind races as the phone rings.
It's not like this could go that badly. Right? What were the chances this guy would even say yes, anyway? Little. Very little. Probably.
He calms himself enough with his small inner monologue that when a voice filters through the speaker Jemma made him turn on, he manages to speak clearly.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Yeah. Okay. Would you like to go on a date with me?"
He pauses in preparation for the rejection.
"Yeah, sure. But, maybe you'd like to tell me your name, mystery date?"
Grant says the worst thing in response.
"What?"
He hears laughter.
"You asked me on a date. Unless I heard you wrongly?"
He shakes his head no, as if the guy could see him from across the line.
"And I said yes. So, are you going to tell me your name?"
He's all sorts of surprised, but he replies anyway.
"Grant Ward."
"Okay, Grant Ward. So, I'll see you at, what, 8?"
He mumbles yes in response.
"Near the law building, if you know where that is?"
"I do."
"Okay. So, see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. Bye!"
Before Ward has a chance to click off the call, he speaks again.
"Oh, and tell Fitz to email me those notes later, maybe?"
Grant looks at Fitz to see him nodding enthusiastically.
"Sure."
"Bye."
The phone clicks off before he can reply, and it’s ridiculously silent.
The silence is broken by Skye's giggling, and she follows it with a question.
"It's one date. Don't you think it's a little too early to say 'I do?'"
Ward furrows his eyebrows in confusion at her inquiry, and takes to re-imagining the entire conversation he just had. When he finally realises why she’d said what she had, he turns bright red, much to his friend’s delight.
She crawls towards him, and reaches out to pinch his cheeks.
“Aw! Ward-y kins! You’re embarrassed!”
Her hand muffles his words, but he tries anyway.
“‘M not.”
Skye turns to their friends, and in an exaggeratedly excited tone of voice, says, “Guys! Our little baby is all grown up now!”
Fitz and Jemma nod, to play along, more than anything, but Grant can see the smiles they sport from where he is.
Skye looks him right in the eye, her tone mocking.
“He’s in l-o-o-o-ove.”
Ward turns away before she can grab his other cheek, and chooses to ignore her entirely instead.
She takes his actions into stride, and instead starts to converse with Fitz about Ward’s date.
“So, who’s this Lincoln guy, anyway?”
“He’s an engineering major, same year as us. We share a lot of classes together, actually”
He pauses, taking the time to think us more tidbits.
“Oh! We did a project together once, sophomore year.” He shares with glee, as if this bit of information will help ease Grant’s worry about the following night.
“Hmm.” He says, with as much disinterest as he can muster, and the subject is thereby dropped for the rest of the night.
They play another few rounds of the game, and finish up about two packs of beer, and by the time they fall asleep, cuddled around one another in the living room, Rapunzel playing softly in the background, it’s almost three am in the morning, but Grant Ward can't stop replaying the sound of Lincoln Campbell’s laugh in his head.
Maybe this game was a bad idea after all.