Worlds Apart | Leo Fitz Book Five

Chapter Fifteen

"Okay so," Asia said, clapping her hands down on her thighs as she surveyed the tools before her, finding the avionics and flipping them on, moving through her flow of a normal aircraft start up, pausing only when she found switches and buttons she didn't recognize. "Taking off seems easy enough based on what I'm looking at. I'd imagine docking is hard. Haven't tried that before. And landing....impossible. There's no gear." She looked towards Coulson and pointed down to where a landing gear switch usually would be. "Though I'd imagine we don't have to take into account the Earth's gravitation pull as we enter the atmosphere because there doesn't seem to be an atmosphere anymore."

Coulson clapped a hand on her shoulder. "See? You'll be fine." His words didn't exactly instill confidence in her. She glanced back at Leo over her shoulder and he gave her a hesitant thumbs up. Great. Just great. She sighed, reaching up and pulling a lever above her to get things going and detach the restraints that held the ship to the bay. The metal whale shuttered but slowly began to ease forward and Asia took a deep breath as she felt the engines kick in and slowly watched them dip into space.

There was a beauty to it, the stars where they had always been, even in this not-so-distant future. She recognized constellations and planets her father used to point out to her when she was young. He had always told her space was bigger than she could have ever imagined, but she never thought she would be out there to see it for herself. Guiding the ship forward with her right hand, she felt another set of hands come down on her shoulders, rubbing them gently. She looked up, meeting Leo's gaze. He smiled down at her, before looking out at the beautiful landscape before them. It felt right that her first time traversing outer space was with him at her side.

After a while, as she guided them towards the crumbling bits of planet that remained, Coulson vacated her co-pilot's seat and Leo took his place. "I," he said as he settled in, straightening his seatbelt. "Am never going to leave your side again."

"I know," She replied, smiling to herself. "That's why you asked me to marry you. And why I agreed." Her nose crinkled up a little bit as she smiled at him, and she took a spare moment to turn and meet his gaze. She was confident enough in her decent towards the remnants of the planet was smooth enough and on course. He met her gaze, reaching out to take one of her hands, squeezing it gently and leaning in to kiss her. Just as their lips met, the ship shuttered and jolted, forcing them apart. She tore her hand from his and put it quickly back towards steering.

"Okay well maybe my whole atmosphere theory wasn't correct," Asia said, gritting teeth, her words jolting around along with her body as they reached a point in their trip towards the surface where it felt like the spacecraft was going to shake apart mid flight. "Jot that down on the list of things I was wrong about."

She could hear her team scrambling behind her to secure themselves into seats. "Everyone just hang on!" She shouted as they began to dip between early cloud layers. She narrowed her eyes as she took the ship as slowly and carefully as was possible, which wasn't very, through the clouds and closer to the ground. This was stupid. So, so stupid. Why did any of them think that taking out a ship without any form of landing gear that was only meant for space travel was a good idea? It wasn't. It was a horribly, horribly stupid idea.

"We're coming in hot so everyone better have on a fucking seatbelt!" she shouted back, hands still firmly gripped on the yoke. She could vaguely hear Leo speaking soft words of encouragement but frankly didn't have the energy to divert and focus on him. Everything she was focusing on right now was with the intent of getting them down in one piece. She just needed them to get there safely. A safe crash. On an unfamiliar terrain. Perfect. Easy. As easy as speaking a language you just learned fluently on the first try. Everything was fine.

The ground was becoming closer and closer. Her best bet was the dirt. At least the best as opposed to the rocks and ice. Rocks and ice she and Daisy created. Great, she was crash landing in a hellscape created by her and her best friend. And she thought the Framework had been bad.

She kept her eyes open all the way down, all the way through impact, as terrifying as it was. The ground got closer and closer until a force that rocked her entire body rocked the ship, tossing them back and forth like they were discarded toys in a kid's toychest. And it hurt. It hurt like hell was brown soil filled the window in front of her, darkness surrounding them as she sat there, stunned into shock by the force of impact. Her eyes felt heavy and her brain was foggy. An airbag of sorts was deflating slowly around her and Leo. She tested her jaw, slow, unable to fully speak yet as she was still seeing stars.

None of them expected the door to the side of their ship be ripped open, nor for men clad in bundles of clothing to come in, pull down their goggles, and ask if they were the agents from the future. And yet, that's exactly what happened.

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Asia unwrapped a scarf from her face, taking a deep breath of not-dusty air, looking around the crash-landed Zephyr. She turned to look at Leo and grinned, stepping up to place a kiss to his temple. "Leo, you know I love you, but I have to say, your design for this thing was the shit. How is it still here? And apparently still functioning? Because you're brilliant, that's how."

"Wait, you designed this?" Deke said, stepping up and inserting himself into their conversation. "That's...wow. I can't imagine what it's like to see this thing fly."

Leo looked down at his fiancé with a sweet adoration in his eyes. "Technically, I'm just the engineer, not the pilot. You'll have to ask her about that one." She smirked back up at him, that familiar grin in her stormy eyes. He couldn't wait until they could be alone again, in their apartment, in their bed, where he could tell her about everything he did to get back to her.

Before anyone could speak again, someone let a low whistle out from where they were standing on the little balcony above them. "Holy shit. Is that Deke Shaw?" An older man's voice echoed around the open space of what used to be their cargo hold. "I'll be damned," he said, as he moved quickly to the ladder leading down to meet them. "Could've sworn I was looking at your dad twenty years ago! Look how you've grown."

Deke's eyes lit up at this man Leo and Asia had never seen before. "Voss! What...how?" he said, eyes widening as he opened his arms to accept a hug from the man. "I should've known better, not even the roaches would touch you!" They laughed, clapping each other on the back.

"So tell me something, what the hell are you doing with these folks?" The guy, Voss, thumbed back towards Asia and Leo. "I'm sure it'll take a hell of a time and some drinks to share it. You can tell me all about if these people are the real deal or not." Asia's brow furrowed ever so slightly as she watched Deke be lead away.

"Don't trust that guy," she muttered quietly, only loud enough for Leo to hear, as her eyes trailed after the pair. Leo reached down and looped his index through hers, squeezing.

"I trust you," he whispered, just as quietly. "If anyone has the nose for these things. It's you. Let's keep an eye out, shall we?"