Marvel Oneshots

Star-Crossed Agents (Grant Ward)

Summary: Grant's SO is part of SciTech, which means they have to sneak around a little bit to hang out, and with the end of their Academy careers approaching it's harder than ever to find time for each other

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I took a deep breath in and then let it out, slow and heavy in a massive sigh. I'd been staring at my laptop for what felt like an eternity, and I was about to truly and completely lose it.

I snapped out of my thousand yard stare at the screen two feet in front of me at the sound of my dorm window sliding open. I shot up from my desk and whirled around only to find my boyfriend, Grant Ward, hanging out of my window.

"You gave me a heart attack," I said by way of hello as I rushed to the window to help him the rest of the way through. He had takeout containers in one hand, which I immediately took to make sure he wouldn't drop them. I turned to set them on my desk, and by the time I returned to Grant, he'd made it all the way through my window and stood in the middle of my room with his hands on his hips.

"Really? You went for the food before me?"

I just shrugged and grinned at him. "You're a Specialist in the top of your class. I figured you'd be able to handle it, especially since you've done it a thousand times before."

He sighed, but didn't waste another second before crossing the room to kiss me either. His arms wound their way around my waist as he pulled me to him, and I brushed one hand against his cheek before gently pulling back.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but I don't think I'm gonna be a very good date tonight. Between trying to finish out the SciTech-Ops prank war and my final thesis project being due in just a few months, I'm probably going to have to mostly do work tonight."

"I don't mind helping you with SciTech pranks, if that's what you're working on," said Grant as we walked to my desk together, sitting shoulder to shoulder. "Why don't you open up your notes on that, and let me see all the things you have planned."

I scoffed. "I thought Specialists were supposed to be better at getting information out of people than that."

Grant fixed me with a look and put his hands on the arms of my chair, slowly leaning in until his face was inches from mine, effectively pinning me to the spot.

"I bet I could get you to give up some secrets if I tried."

I leaned in, closing the distance between us until our lips were barely a hair's breadth apart. Then I smiled.

"Nice try, but I'm already betraying my entire school by dating you. No way I'm giving the Ops kids an edge in the prank war. And no way I'm letting you distract me, either, I have work to do."

Grant sighed, but when he leaned in for a kiss it was just a quick peck before he sat back in his own chair.

"Fine. We don't really need your help to win, anyway. We've got this in the bag."

"Mhmm. And you just keep telling yourself that, Superspy."

Grant and I shared a grin as he dished up our food and I reluctantly turned back to my laptop. Leaning against Grant and having him here, especially with some of my favorite food, made trying to work less frustrating. But it didn't magically spark any inspiration or ideas like I'd hoped it would.

After we finished dinner, Grant crossed the room to kick back on my bed and cracked open a book while I kept trying to make my brain work. I stared at the computer screen, just trying to get some kind of brainstorm to start. I felt a headache coming on with every passing moment, and my brain started to feel literally heavy, like thick fog was just sitting up there, weighing me down. My eyes squinted against the glare of the screen, and still I didn't move, scanning over my notes like they might magically add some insight that they hadn't before.

I jumped when a hand landed on my shoulder, then turned with bleary eyes to find Grant had returned to sit next to me, a worried expression on his face.

"Are you alright? You were starting to look like a zombie over here."

"Yeah, yeah, just... waiting for inspiration to strike."

"...And how's that going?"

"Uh. Not well."

Grant huffed a laugh, the corner of his mouth quirking up in a smile as he pulled me a little closer to his side.

"Then I think it's time we take a break together."

I sighed and leaned my head against his shoulder. Truly all I wanted to do was spend time with him, without anything SHIELD-related hanging over our heads, but final tests were coming soon and I really didn't have a moment to spare.

"I don't think I can, Grant. Everything I've been working for since the day I got here all comes down to this project. I have to make sure it's perfect."

"Right now you're not going to be able to make anything perfect."

I pulled back, mouth dropping open as I glared at him, but he just stared right back with the frank appraisal of a Specialist that I both loved and hated.

"Your brain is clearly fried from working on this for too long. Anything you put down now is just going to be something you have to go back and fix later. I've seen it before, from new Ops recruits and from you. You need a break. If you take one, odds are you're going to have a much easier time brainstorming and working things through after you spend some time not thinking about this project. It'll be faster and better than anything you might manage to force out now."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "That... actually kind of makes sense..."

"I know it does. It's because I'm right." I scoffed, but Grant ignored it, instead leaning forward and resting a hand on my thigh. "Besides, the next month or so is going to be hell for both of us. Between your final projects and all of my practical exams before we graduate... I'm barely going to have time to see you. So we should enjoy the time we have now, while we still can."

I sighed, leaning forward and raising one hand to rest at the nape of Grant's neck, gently touching my forehead to his.

"I don't like to think about that," I admitted. "Or about how much harder it's going to be to stay together when you're out in the field and I'm in the Hub or the Triskelion doing work."

"I know. I hate thinking about that too."

We fell into silence for a few moments, the uncertainty of both of our futures hanging over us. Grant's grip on me tightened slightly, and I sighed. He was right. I needed a break, and I needed to enjoy every moment I could get while it was just the two of us like this.

"You know what? I think we'll be fine," I said, straightening up enough to meet Grant's eyes. "If we can make it work as two people from rival SHIELD schools dating each other? Like a more intense version of Romeo and Juliet? Then I think we're gonna be just fine, no matter what the rest of the world tries to throw at us."

"...You know Romeo and Juliette ended pretty badly for both of them-"

"I know! I was just trying to make a point, we're from aggressively rival groups and we're finding love anyway. Just... ignore the ending."

Grant chuckled. "Alright. So does this mean you're going to take a break with me?"

"Yes, it does. Come on, let's watch some terrible tv and eat the chocolate I keep in the bottom drawer of my desk for emergencies and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist."

Grant smiled, catching my chin before I could move away and pulling me back to him for a long, deep kiss. When we finally broke apart, I was breathing hard and grinning like an idiot at the man before me. I really, really loved him, even though when he finally spoke he said:

"Anything but Love Island."

"What! Grant, come on. We were almost done with the last season! We have to get caught up before the new one starts."

"No way. I'll watch anything but that."

"...Anything?"

He sighed. "This is gonna be a long night, isn't it?"

I just grinned at him. It was fun to give him a hard time, but at the end of the day, I was happy doing anything as long as I got to do it with him. And I knew he felt exactly the same way. We'd make it work, from picking a tv show tonight to whatever our futures might have in store for us after this.