The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

On the dance floor

Music blaring in the background, y/n took another large sip from her glass before giggling once again.

"This is seriously impressive, Jimmy," she told him through her laugh, "you should do this professionally."

Jimmy, out of breath and sweating from the dance routing he was doing, looked at her, "you think? I've thought about it, but I've never tried looking for places to start."

"Yeah, it's great," she nodded.

When other people at the party started to notice the dancing in the middle of the room they started to take their turn. The littered crowd around the room soon attracted to the middle of the room to watch whoever was brave enough to take the dance floor.

Katy and Shang had performed another dance routine that they'd clearly rehearsed many times before. It took a while for the cheers and excitement from their dance to calm down and allow for someone else to take the floor.

Of course, the next contestant to dance was Bucky. However, whenever Bucky had a few moments alone on the floor, Sam would push himself in and steal the show. Sam claimed that he did it to be annoying, but y/n knew that it was because he didn't want to be away from Bucky.

Then, the next person to take the floor was Deke, which caused y/n to jokingly scoff to herself.

"Give it a rest, Deke, you know you can't beat anyone else here," she called over to him in her usual jokey tone.

"Yeah, why don't you make room for Coulson?" May suggested, "let him show you how to dance."

While everyone cheered and watched Coulson take up the space on the floor, y/n couldn't seem to take her eyes away from Deke. With a hopeless kind of shrug, Deke sipped from his drink and sank to the back of the crowd to be by himself.

Seeing how disheartened he was had already affected y/n to a point she couldn't ignore, even if it was only to someone like him. After taking another sip of her drink, she placed her glass down on the nearest side and walked over to Deke.

"Hey," she called to get his attention.

When he looked up at her, he seemed shocked. Shocked that she was talking to him in a manor that didn't seem to be rude. Holding back his confusion, he replied, "hi, y/n. You enjoying the party?"

She took in a breath and released it, heavily, "it's great. I've got everyone I care about around me, it couldn't be better."

"That's sweet," he nodded and smiled.

Y/n looked at him for a moment, even though his eyes were on the floor, "that includes you, you know?"

He looked up, brows furrowed, "I'm sorry?"

When she realised she'd have to say more about what she meant, she sighed, "I know that I'm hard on you. And that I take the piss out of you whenever I can- which is a lot, by the way, because you make i so easy," when she saw his face take the usual expression he'd make when he was ready to take a handful of insults, she changed her approach, "but I do care about you, Deke."

"I think you're just saying that," he gave her another look, "have you had too much to drink?"

"Yes, but that's not why I'm saying this," she corrected him.

"Then why are you telling me this?"

She froze. That was a question she'd asked herself so many times before, but it sounded so challenging coming from someone else. Instead of forming a stuttering mess of words, she took a moment to think before replying.

"Because you've always been a punching bag for me. Not literally, I mean. But you've always let me take out my anger or frustrations on you verbally, and you don't complain," she explained, looking at him with a sincere care, "I really appreciate that, Deke."

"This-" he shook his head, "this can't be true- y/n, you hate me. What's changed?"

"I don't hate you, I never have," she thought, "no, when I first met you, I did hate you, actually. I would've done anything to kill you back then, man, I mean I really hated your guts, it was not healthy-"

"Yeah, I got it," he cut her off, "but?"

"But," she lingered, "despite how annoying and irritable and stupid you are... you're a good guy."

It was clear how he tried to hide his smile to seem cool, but he couldn't do it for very long. When his smile broke out of his barriers, he looked at y/n again, "I never thought you'd say that."

"Yeah, well, I just-," she shrugged, "thought I should let you know in case anything happens tomorrow."

"Why would anything happen?" He asked.

With a large breath, y/n shook her head, "nothing. Probably nothing, I just-... you never know."

"Right, well, I appreciate you saying that to me. Really, it... it means a lot to hear that from you."

Hiding a smile of her own, y/n nodded to the dance floor that had been vacant since Coulson finished his own dance to MC Hammer's 'U Cant Touch This'.

"You still want to do your dance?" She asked, offering the dance floor to him with an open hand.

After Deke excitedly paced to the dance floor to claim it before anyone else could, y/n slowly walked back over to her spot to recollect her drink and watch from the audience.

Fitz, who'd seen y/n's interaction with Deke at the back of the room, made his way over to where y/n initially was so that he could talk to her when she got back. She smiled when she stood beside him and held her glass once again, but he couldn't take his confused eyes off of her.

"Did you just make Deke smile?" He asked.

Y/n nodded without looking at him, "I did."

Fitz paused before asking, "and did he just make you smile?"

She took a breath and sighed it out, "I guess he did."