Lincoln only watched as Skye placed her hand on his, intertwining their fingers together. He felt the electricity transfer between them - and she didn’t pull away. Thoughts of relief and confusion and anxietyraced through his mind, can’t get too close but i need a friend. Could Skye be a friend? Even if he had to betray her?
“Was that a Pokémon reference?” he said with a twitch of the mouth. “I’m not sure my very best is good enough for SHIELD, that’s all.” He bit his lip, taking a breath. It wasn’t like he would be of any interest to SHIELD, as an agent or otherwise, if he didn’t have his powers. The only reason he’d gotten in in the first place was because of some connection somewhere to someone. And even with his powers, he was a prisoner, a test subject, nothing more. It wasn’t like he was Avenger material, anyway.
“It’s a pretty lameass superpower,” he joked, his heart not really in it. “Can’t exactly fight evil with it.” Not with what she knew about it, anyway. And that was all she was ever going to know, lest she think Lincoln was a freak, and not a friend.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Never played it, no way for me to know,” Skye said in mock obliviousness, corners of her mouth tugging upward in return. “I wasn’t, either. I’m still not entirely sure how I fit into this. SHIELD - no, Coulson - agreed to spend two minutes on me to get coordinates on a guy and it somehow snowballed. I was a risk, still am, but they’ve kept me around for some reason. Let SHIELD decide what or who they need. They have the bigger picture, and the kind you have no say in.”
Her hand hadn’t moved off Lincoln’s, but whether it’d remain so was fully up to him. She’d gotten used to the prickling feeling of the static electricity against her skin, and, after hours of being numb, it made her feel alive, warmth spreading upwards from her fingertips. “It’s something. Something is good, no matter how minuscule. It’s there against all odds, probably for a reason, definitely to charge me right now. From where I stand, this superpower is finally making me feel my face.”
Skye reverted her gaze to the 3DS on her lap, then to Lincoln’s hand underneath hers, still, then the blanket spread out on the floor, next to it the file she’d grabbed in haste. A sharp twinge of guilt cursed through her once she realised she had a small smile on her face, so she sucked in a harsh breath, desperately trying to ignore the fact she had the contacts of a dead man’s family inches away from where they were sitting, and that she was smiling. “How about I talk you to sleep?” she said instead. “You still look like you need it. No offense.”
“Wasn’t really sleeping,” Lincoln admitted. He looked around at the trinkets Skye had strung about the room, hoping for something to change the subject. It was impossible to focus, however, and he found his heart beating faster in his chest as the silence dragged on. “I want to help people,” he said finally. “If I have to sacrifice myself to do it, so what. My life isn’t worth more than any other’s. I’ve met people who feel that way, and it’s not a way I want to live my life.”
His thoughts flickered to Jiaying and other Inhumans, with their belief that they were better than normal humans. He didn’t quite believe it. They always taunted him with sayings of “you’ll understand when they come after you”, and maybe he would. Eventually he would have to turn his back on Skye and everyone else here. But that didn’t make him better. It made him worse. “So yeah, fitting in helps. It makes me feel like I’m the good person I’m trying to be.”
Her first thought was ‘fuck it’. Her second thought was exactly the same, but with slight modifications. “I’m gonna offer positive and encouraging physical contact now, so please don’t freak,” Skye said with determination, tugging the sleeve of her blouse down until she’d achieved a sweater paw situation, “Now, I don’t know shit about physics, but I spend most of my life around wires and electricity anyway. If my super ingenious life hack fails, know I was bound to go out like this.”
Once she was sure the words had really sunk in, Skye reached over to rest her hand on his, but, unlike the previous night, kept it there instead of pulling back. The static immediately began working it’s magic through the blouse, enough to tingle but not to hurt. Her fingers crept out from underneath the material soon thereafter, allowing her to squeeze his hand softly. Not a catastrophe. It only hurt when the touches were accidental, and even then it was the sudden shock, not the static itself. “Right. There’s a way to help people without throwing yourself into an active volcano. SHIELD is lucky to have you alive, and, if my opinion matters at all, I know you’ll be the very best if you allow yourself to. We’ll figure it out.”
“Also, is it inappropriate to say the static is super cool?”
Lincoln was startled by Skye’s sudden outburst, letting the blanket fall off of him as he reached out to console her before pulling his hand back, deciding against it. “I know the feeling,” he said with a sigh, scooting closer to Skye while still keeping a distance. “Keeping secrets that prevent people from knowing the real you.” He looked over at her, fingers still on the buttons even though she was paying no attention. “I guess we all give up parts of ourselves to be here, parts of ourselves that don’t really fit into the greater picture. The only question is… is it worth it?”
Skye dropped the 3DS onto her lap, resting her head against the wall with a sigh. She’d seen Lincoln change his decision in the split second it took him to close the distance, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t want to reach out and finish what he’d started. For both of them. Prove to him he wasn’t the danger he thought he was. But, she didn’t. “Maybe. Does fitting into it make you feel like the person you want to be, even a little? If so, yeah. But, while I’m always an enthusiast for the greater good, don’t compromise yourself. You seem like the type of person who’d self-destruct for the sake of the others and I’d - losing you would suck.” She eyed the blanket that was now on the floor, turning to him with a small smile. “I scared you awake, didn’t I?”
“An educational experience?” mumbled Lincoln. “Hablo un poco. Not enough to play Zelda in it, though.” He didn’t bother opening his eyes; a rather large yawn managed to escape from his mouth. “Not much for Halloween, but if there’s some sort of party, I usually figure something out.” They didn’t really celebrate it in Afterlife (monsters were a bit of a sensitive topic for some people there), and he hadn’t much cared for going to the trouble when he’d gotten older. “Guessin’ there’s not gonna be a party this year, what with the ‘alcohol poisoning’?” He put the last two words in tired air quotes, slow with a lack of effort. “’s a shame. I could pull off Link.”
“Haven’t had one of those in years. This was more of a ‘let’s see how bad I can fuck this up’ situation. Spoiler alert: very,” Skye murmured, preoccupation with the game keeping her from commenting on how he was still awake. She could tell he was tired, though. Tired and putting a significant effort into staying up. “You could. The mental image of you running around with potions might just be the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
She kept poking at the buttons then, suddenly silent, but her mind kept flashing back to his air quotes, desperately screaming for her to stop ignoring the topic. It wasn’t as if he was forcing the truth out of her, if anything, he’d been shockingly (get it) respectful. It’s that she wanted to explain for her sake, voice her concerns before she combusted. She sucked in a sharp breath, making sure she’d sound casual enough for the completely non-casual things she was about to say, “I fucking hate it. Keeping secrets because I’m suddenly privileged. I’m going against everything I’ve ever stood for, which -” pause, filled with exasperation over how difficult it was to explain, ”is slowly stripping me of the identity I’ve made for myself over the years. The ‘people deserve to know’ persona is all have left and I’m not even that anymore.” Talk about heavy. “So, yeah. I’d love to get a megaphone or do an interpretative dance for the entire campus and all that, but I can’t. If only this mess had a walkthrough I could skip. Lo siento.”
“’kay.” Lincoln pulled the blanket up over himself and leaned against the wall of the bunk, trying to will himself to sleep, but as tired as he was and as much as he craved the company, he couldn’t let his guard down enough to drift off. He didn’t want to say he didn’t trust Skye, but he’d known the girl for what, eight hours? And with the possibility of his powers acting up due to anxiety, there was just too much to risk. Still, he closed his eyes to humor her and pretended to sleep, meditating on the small sounds of the Ocarina of Time soundtrack to keep his thoughts from going elsewhere.
“Have a mediocre nap, Lincoln.” The game kept Skye distracted, though not occupied enough to prevent her from looking over at him every once in awhile. There was no reason to check up on Lincoln, he seemed calm and unmoving, and yet she couldn’t help the nervous tick. At least she hoped her quiet ‘oh, fuck’s wouldn’t wake him up. Skipping the playthrough had been a bad move after all.
“I get why you like it,” Skye finally said, to no one in particular. She wasn’t depending on him to be awake to reply, more so hoped he wouldn’t be. “I haven’t thought about the outside world in ten minutes.” Then, “You should be him for Halloween, we’ll just ransack the local Peter Pan production and straighten your hair. Unless you don’t celebrate it. Completely fine, by the way. I didn’t get the chance to until I hit 18, and by then the only parties I could attend were the ones with 80 proof vodka and nurse costumes. Fuck. Remindmewhy I changed the language mode to Spanish?”
When Skye looked at her phone, Lincoln took his chance and quickly let a small stream of electricity from his fingertips, smiling slightly when the light turned green. Hopefully she didn’t see. Hopefully. “I won’t get bored,” he said, handing her the handheld, careful to make sure their hands won’t brush. “A nap sounds nice, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome, or get you in trouble when any of your coworkers get back.”
Skye undoubtedly sawthe small smile that ghosted on his face when she turned to accept the handheld from him. It was nice. “I’ve overstayed my welcome. Six hours and counting. Besides, they don’t really come down here anymore, which I take full advantage of when I need to get away.” The time it took the 3DS to boot up was the time it took her to retrieve a blanket from underneath the bed, lazily throwing it over Lincoln’s legs to express her complete support for being indefinitely unconscious. “So should you. Go on, recharge. I’ll alert you in case of any developments, the developments being me beating your high score or breaking this thing.”
“We’re an essential part of any Pokémon team,” Lincoln deadpanned, not really feeling the energy to make jokes but wanting to make the mood lighter. He sat down next to Skye, making sure to keep his distance, and booted up the 3DS, grimacing when he saw the flashing red light in the corner. Low battery. And he didn’t even own a charger. “It’s a game for kids,” he said, watching out of the corner of his eye for when Skye might look away and he could zap a little more juice into the damn thing. “I don’t think you’ll find it that hard.”
“You’d be surprised at what I find hard. Not getting into arguments with people who pronounce gif as jif, basic chemistry, being on time,” Skye listed intently, all of a sudden remembering she had no idea how long she’d spent tucked away in her bunk, or whether it was a hallucination and she’d been there for days. She threw a quick glance at her phone, brows furrowing when her suspicions were confirmed. Too long. The lack of messages was, for once, a good thing. “I’m depending on you not to get bored. I have a thing for closure, so it might take us a while. Feel free to just nap or complain about the state of our government.”
He relaxed slightly when he saw it was, in fact, Skye behind the door. Lincoln wasn’t sure who it would have been instead of her, but it was her, and he felt one of the many, many knots in his stomach untie itself. “No sightings,” he confirmed, forcing a smile. “Thanks again. For letting me come over.” He stepped inside the small bunk, sliding the door closed. Skye looked like what he felt inside - ragged, choked up, and trying her best to pretend it was all okay when it really, really wasn’t. “I brought Zelda.”
“You’re welcome. Making room in my busy schedule of hiding out on a plane wasn’t easy, but I had to catch a wild electric type. I’ve been reading up,” Skye explained, actually putting effort into sounding upbeat. Everything about Lincoln, starting from the soft way he spoke to her and ending with how exhausted they both felt, made Skye feel less on edge, so she was determined to return the favour. She effortlessly scooted over to make room for him, enough distance between them so that he wouldn’t have to worry about zapping her while still being close enough to show that she wasn’t afraid if he did. “The princess, yeah. If I turn out to be inexplicably shit at this game, you’ll look away when I hack into it, right?”
Lincoln walked up the stairs slowly, looking over his shoulder, still worried a SHIELD agent was going to pop out of the shadows and arrest him. He was more worried about that than a serial killer - he would’ve had no qualms about using his powers on a murderer, but for anything else, he had to keep a low profile. It had only occurred to him that befriending Skye would be beneficial to his mission as he approached the plane, and to be truthful, it wasn’t even something he wanted to think about right now.
Again, Jiaying had picked the wrong person.
“Skye?” he called softly, knocking on the third door like the instructions in her text said. He gripped his 3DS tighter in his hand. This was about comforting… a friend. A potential friend. They both needed it. He had no reason to be nervous. “It’s Lincoln.”
Fuck, okay. Just when she thought she had the entire ‘don’t think about people getting hurt so you don’t hurl’ situation somewhat under control. “I know who you are,” Skye quipped in return, voice breaking ever so slightly on the second word. She hadn’t talked in hours, the redness under her eyes was still letting her know it was there, and god knows how tired she looked, but a small smile still appeared on her features when the door slid open. “No sightings of the friendly neighbourhood serial killer, huh?” Nailed it.
lincoln: would you mind if i did? lincoln: i can fend for myself if there's still a mysterious serial killer on the loose lincoln: i'll bring ocarina of time skye: when have i ever said anything about a serial killer skye: i havent skye: and i dont skye: you should know where the plane is skye: upstairs, to the right, 3rd bunk
