"Hey, hey! Wait up!" Skye called. The figure turned, confirming to Skye's eyes that it was in fact Harry.
She half expected him to keep walking, but he stopped and waited for her to jog up to him. "You really walk fast, eh?" She said breathlessly.
"Only when I'm trying to get away from people." Harry said archly, a single raised eyebrow was enough to make her feel sheepish. How was it that everything he did had such an acute impact on her?
Skye forced herself to swallow her embarrassment. "Yet you stopped for me."
"So I did." He said with a ghost of a smile "So, what do you want?"
Skye's mouth went dry, that was the question, wasn't it? What excuse did she really have for spending more time with him? She could tell him she wanted to leave Shield too, but that was a lie too far. At the same time, she realized the task she had accepted was fundamentally deceitful, even if the deception was to a fairly benevolent end. Now that she was talking to him, though, she really didn't know what to say.
Her mind couldn't help but produce one very honest reason why she wanted to see him again. She wouldn't have admitted it to her team over her dead body, but it had been in her mind as essentially a fantasy. She couldn't bring herself to do it, that wouldn't just be a lie, it would be an awful lie, to sleep with him just to stall for time.
So instead, she just lamely said "I just, wanted to talk to you. You stormed out, and I… I needed to know why, and that you were okay."
He studied her intently, his eyes seemed to be able to see through her. She shivered and wondered how he could so easily produce those effects in her. Finally, he grunted and said. "Come on." Then he was off. Skye scurried to catch up to him and fell in step right behind him.
"Where are we going?" She asked.
"I'm not going to talk to you out in the street, where anyone can hear." Harry said, "We're getting a hotel room."
"At this time of night?" She was dubious that anything would be open at that time.
"A few of the… less classy places may be able to accommodate us." Harry said delicately "But first…" He wheeled as they came across an ATM.
"Cash?" Skye asked.
"Yeah, but I didn't think to bring my card." Harry shook his head "I was in a bit of a rush. Confundo." That last one was obviously a spell, and Skye was only drawn from the look of concentration on his face by the sudden onrush of bills that began to shoot from the machine.
Harry grinned at her "To be completely honest, I had no idea of that was going to work."
Skye found herself grinning back "You seemed pretty confident."
"Yeah, that's the trick with magic. If you believe it will work, sometimes that's just enough. Fake it 'till you make it." They gathered up a sizable pile of bills and shoved them discretely into Harry's bag. "Now then, you have your phone?" Skye nodded. Of course she did, as if Coulson would have let her go on this mission without a phone, and a backup tracker to boot. "Search for hotels, ones that look like mom-and-pop places. The worse the better."
After a fifteen-minute walk and a conversation with a groggy hotel owner that ended with a wad of bills shoved in his face, Skye followed Harry into a dingy hotel room.
He turned to her, and her mouth went dry. Something about his demeanor, the way his eyes burned into hers… He stepped close to her and brushed a few errant strands of hair behind her ear. Skye couldn't help the slight intake of air, she could feel his breath tingle on her lips, and it gave her the urge to close the gap. "Harry?" She asked breathlessly, her hands coming up to solid shoulders. "W-what are we doing?" She cursed how her voice wavered. She cursed her own weakness. He was technically her mark, she shouldn't be letting him seduce her, let alone so easily. But come on, she was a red-blooded woman! She wasn't Natasha Romanoff, she wasn't some super-spy.
Harry leaned over; his voice low in her ear "Do you think I missed how you were looking at me earlier?" Skye's body breath hitched again as heat flooded her cheeks. "You think I don't know what you did in your room last night?" Her heart lurched in her chest. How did he know!? How could he possibly know unless… could he read her mind? Or was she just that transparent to him? Could he see, right now, just how desperately she wanted him? "We both know you want me." Harry told her, pulling back fractionally to look her in the eye "Isn't that right, Skye?"
There were many reasons why she should say no, but for the life of her she couldn't remember them. "Yes. I want you." She cursed at how needy her voice sounded "God, I want you."
She briefly spotted a gratified, cocky grin that looked far too attractive on his face, and then he was kissing her. The next few moments were a rush of pure dopamine as Skye yielded to Harry's insistent tongue. By the five second mark, she was being thoroughly kissed, and by the ten she was clinging to Harry's chest by her fingertips. His body felt so good against hers, comfortable and firm. She was compelled to press herself against him, and so she was disappointed when he pulled back, so disappointed that she couldn't suppress a whimper.
"Eager, are we?" Harry smirked, and damn if the confidence didn't look good on him. She couldn't even deny it, she was having sex with someone she met hours ago in a grimy hotel room, she was eager.
"Just… kiss me again." She demanded. He wasted no time in obliging her. His kisses were forceful and thorough, and as soon as she'd gotten her bearings, he would switch tactics on a dime. It was a dizzying, intoxicating experience, and whenever her mouth was free to do so she was letting out whimpers and moans.
Then she was falling back into the creaky bed. Above her, Harry pulled his shirt off, and she got another, longer look at his lithe, muscular build. God, it was just unfair how attractive he was. Then he fell on top of her, and she didn't offer any resistance as he kissed the sense from her. She was too distracted with the feel of his body against hers and running her hands over every bit of bare skin they could find.
"Oh my god, you're so fucking hot." She moaned at one point while he kissed her neck. "You're so fucking- uh!" She gasped as he nipped at her neck. She didn't care if he left a mark, he could do whatever he wanted to her if he kept making her feel like this.
"Your turn." He purred "Let's see what you have for me." Her practical uniform jacket had come off the moment she'd entered the room, and Skye didn't bother to make a production of taking off her shirt. His heated eyes drank in the newly exposed skin hungrily, but he didn't stop there. "Pants too, take them off." Flushing, her entire body feeling hot under his eyes, Skye didn't hesitate to obey.
"That's good." He praised "Now, on your hands and knees." His commanding tone left no room for disobedience. The thought of objecting didn't even enter her mind, she'd do whatever he asked if it meant this could continue.
"Is that good?" She asked him from all fours, wiggling her ass at him teasingly.
He took the bait, lightly slapping her ass and making her squeak, and then said "Perfect." Then his hands began to methodically roam her exposed skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps wherever they traced. He touched her- sliding up her thighs, her abdomen, stomach, upward... each touch drawing a gasp. She was almost embarrassed that she moaned just from her gently cupped her breast through her bra. His fingers sought out her nipple and firmly massaged, causing the noise to trail off with a needy whimper. It wasn't just that he was touching her, it was how he touched her. He was restrained and controlled, giving her just enough to titillate but no more. He circled around in front of her, and she realized that at some point he'd taken off his jeans. In her surprise, she let out a breathy grunt, and she had no choice but to look at the obvious tenting of his erection.
She licked her lips. "Wow." She breathed.
"You know Skye." Harry said as he brushed her hair behind her ear. The action, along with the trailing of his fingers along her cheek sent shivers down her spine "Doing this takes a lot of trust, yeah?"
Skye nodded hesitantly, a queasy feeling taking ahold in her gut. "You've trusted me to take control, and I appreciate that. But remember, I'm trusting you too." The queasy feeling churned over. God, what was she thinking? What did she think would happen once her little deception would be revealed? Harry certainly wasn't going to be thanking her for delaying him on behalf of Shield. Especially now that it probably looked like she tried to seduce him to do so! She hadn't, he'd seduced her!
"Wait." She said thickly "You… maybe shouldn't trust me." He remained silent, his eyes revealing not even a hint of surprise. "Coulson and Hill sent me out here, to stall you until they could get the other Avengers here to talk some sense into you."
Harry nodded, and with a quick motion reached for her chest. Her heart leapt momentarily, only to settle when she realized he was just removing the locator that she'd strapped to the inside of her bra. "Shield location tracker." He said tonelessly. "I suspected that that was what you were up to right away, but I didn't know until I got your clothes off and looked."
"You knew, the entire time?"
"Suspected" He repeated dryly "You aren't exactly a spy, Skye. Maybe just a baby spy."
Skye looked down at the sheets, not able to muster the energy to move from her position. "I'm sorry."
"Why did you do it?" He asked her, pulling her from her self-pity.
"Because… you shouldn't be out there alone." She managed "They said that you'd been almost assassinated, twice."
He nodded. "Alright. Well, I appreciate you telling me. Even if it took a little guilt trip to make you do it." He sighed "I actually like you, Skye. I'm sorry that my method of getting the truth out of you wasn't fair to you either."
Skye couldn't bear to look at him. "Wait, so all of this… was it just an act? Just to catch me out?" She felt like she was falling into a pit.
"No!" Harry said with sudden vigor, giving a firm shake of his head "No! Look, I do like you, Skye. And you're very attractive. If you had been clean, we'd absolutely be having sex right now."
Skye vainly wished she could be in that happier world, a world where she tossed away her phone and tracker and would probably be in sweet bliss by now. She couldn't even blame him for his own deception, she tried to trick him, and he'd responded in kind. But damn it if it didn't just crush her, to have been played so easily.
"Anyway, I'm willing to just call it even and part ways. I will have to destroy your phone and tracker, though."
"Wait." She called, finally shifting from all fours to sit up on her knees. "If you do that, they'll know you made me. They might send someone else to follow you or use aerial recon."
"Right." He muttered.
"If you want…" She tried "I can call Coulson, say you're hunkering down for the night and that they don't need to rush."
"You want to help me, now?"
"Look, I feel like shit. I want to make it up to you. Do you want my help or not?"
"You do realize you'd be lying to your team." He told her "Are you sure you want to do that?"
Skye hesitated, so caught up in the moment that she didn't think through the implications of what she was offering "I guess it depends, what exactly are you planning?"
For a moment, Harry wavered, before seeming to come to a decision. He knelt down so that he was at eye level with her on the bed and touched her forearm. "I'm trusting you." He said, holding her eyes. "You can't tell anyone about this, not even your team."
Skye nodded, her eyes never wavering from his. "I won't. I promise." She meant it, and she hoped that he could see that. The fact that he was trusting her with this, when he had every reason to distrust her, meant more than she could say. It spoke to the kind of person he was- someone who wanted to see the good in people, even as circumstances forced him to be more cynical. She wanted to live up to his hope, to be worthy of his trust.
He seemed satisfied "I'm after Loki's Staff. Shield took custody of it, but it's disappeared, no one seems to know where." Skye's eyes went wide at the implication "It's an artifact that could be as powerful as the Veil. If Shield is doing experiments on it as recklessly as they did here…"
Skye swallowed. Yeah, she could see exactly why he was worried. "Okay, I'll help."
They worked out a few subtle changes to her story, which would hopefully buy him a little more time. Skye gave a seeking look to Harry as she held the phone in her hand, hoping for some reassurance that she was doing the right thing here. Harry smiled and put a hand on her shoulder "You don't have to do this; I can get away on my own."
She shook her head, resolve filling her, and dialed. Coulson immediately picked up. She just knew he'd been waiting at the edge of his seat this entire time, waiting for news. "Skye, what's the situation?"
"He's going to stay put and rest for a few hours." She told him, keeping her voice low, as if she were trying to avoid being overheard "I've been talking with him. He's cooled down a lot. I think we might be able to talk him out of it if we don't push too hard."
Coulson, bless him, was relieved "That's good to hear Skye. Keep working on him. We'll keep our distance for now."
"Great. I'll call with an update when I can." She hung up. Feeling equal parts exhilarated and guilty, like a kid playing hooky. "See, I can be a spy." She declared.
"I apologize for the grievous insult. And thank you.". The guilt dissipated with his smile, and she found herself feeling a little more at peace with her decision.
"So, what now?" She couldn't suppress the disappointment at her time with him drawing to an end.
"Well, I suppose we should get dressed." They were both still in their undergarments, a fact that had scarcely left Skye's mind "And we'll go our separate ways…" He trailed off, and then with a coy smile added "Unless you'd like to go with me?"
-----
Their voices carried through the stiff breeze. Harry had clearly built a rapport with the men- a trucker and three warehouse workers- judging by the laughter that increasingly dominated the conversation. Finally, Harry waved her over. "And this is my girlfriend, Chloe." He introduced, using a cover name that didn't feel quite right on her. One of the men gave a wolf whistle, which she pointedly ignored. Harry made a show of wrapping his arm around her waist, and it made something inside of her purr happily.
It was easy to lean into him, to smile up at him and press a kiss to his cheek, just to play into her role, of course. "Nice to meet you all. Dan says you can help us."
The trucker, who Harry had primarily been talking to. "Yeah, though I should warn you, it won't be the most comfortable ride."
"I don't think you need to worry about her." Harry told the man "Now, for compensation." Almost as one, the four men present leaned forward as Harry produced a meaty stack of pounds. They'd burned through the cash surprisingly quickly this morning- buying bags, second-hand clothes, burner phones, and even an old computer. With money distributed, the trucker clapped Harry on the back and gestured to the open end of the sixteen-wheeler.
The problem with getting out of Britain was the limited avenues of exit- all of which Shield could easily monitor. Even if they'd fooled Coulson, they could always look back through the records and trace their path. Harry however, had a plan for that, a way to avoid showing up on any records or cameras.
The door closed heavily behind them, and Harry wordlessly conjured an orb of light in his hand. The carefully chose seats on crates right across from each other, so that their feet were almost touching. "I'm surprised, you seem pretty comfortable with them." She noted.
"I worked in a warehouse for two years before Shield recruited me." He said "I didn't have an ID or any records at all, so I picked up a few things. Including how much gets done under the table, and how many people slip through on cargo transport."
"I had no idea." Skye said, surprised "I guess I just assumed that you'd always been a hero charging in to save the day." Of course he wouldn't have always been, he'd had to have started out with a normal, mundane life, just like anyone else.
Harry laughed "Well, it's a little more complicated that that." He said cryptically "My life is strange." Skye leaned in, eager to hear more. Harry deflected her interest with a shrug "It's a long story."
Skye looked around from side to side in exaggerated fashion "I've got time."