"Hey, Tiny, what are we working on today?" Mack asked with an upbeat spring in his step this morning, almost uncharacteristic for him and for only 6am.  He crossed the lab with a nod to acknowledge Fitz, giving his friend a gentle slap on the back as he passed by to get to you. 

"She's not tiny," Fitz argued on your behalf, "she may be a little shorter than a few of us, but you really should pick a better nickname.  It's a bit derogatory."

"I don't mean it that way!  It's more like she's all tiny and cute, like I could put her in my pocket."

Fitz stared at Mack unapologetically, shaking his head with a grimace at the clear faux pas he was making when you were sitting only a few feet away.  "Yeah, because that's better," he mumbled, turning back to his work to leave you to your own defense, "she could still kick your ass."

"What was that, Turbo?" Mack asked absentmindedly, his eyes already focused on what you were doing and barely even listening to Fitz anymore; he wasn't really focusing on anything other than the completely confusing project that you had in your hands as you sat at your workstation, fully engrossed in it.  It may have been a completely unknowing action, or it may have been totally on purpose to link to the current conversation, but as he watched you work, his large and muscular arm rested atop your head when he took a stand next to you to try to follow along.

"Um, excuse me?"

"What?"

"Do I look like an arm rest?"

Mack quickly pulled his arm down and took a step back, raising his hands up in front of him with a quiet chuckle; he found your tone of voice strangely cute when you were angry, and it wasn't that he was trying to incite it, but it was just a pleasant surprise.  "I'm sorry, Tin- I mean, (Y/N).  You're just the right height."

"Hmm," you grumbled, turning back to your work, "so is that cabinet over there, and I'm pretty sure that it won't be insulted at all."

"Really, I'm sorry.  I didn't even realize that I did it," he continued.  "Forgive me?"

You slowly set down each intricate piece of your equipment one by one, sighing and swiveling your chair to look at him, only to find a lopsided smile and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes looking back at you.  It was hard to fight the urge to smile back at the overgrown doofus, but you did your best to hold steady.  "Okay, so convince me why I should, and how you're going to earn it."

Fitz had now turned his own chair fully around, leaning back into it with his arms casually folded as he watched your exchange, "well, if this isn't an interesting turn of events."

"Um...right..." Mack stammered, his smile fading just a bit, "okay, how about...I be your personal chauffer for the next week?  I'll piggyback you anywhere you want to go!"  His smile returned, accompanied by a loud laugh that echoed through the room, but he quickly found that he was the only one who was amused.

"You're such an ass."

"I was kidding!"

"Mack, come on, man," Fitz groaned, almost as insulted as you were, "even I know how to beg for forgiveness better than that.  Dig your grave a little deeper, eh?"

Turning back to your work, you decided that now he would have to try even harder, just to be taught his lesson.  It was bad enough that you knew he had a little crush on you, because you had no idea how to respond to it, but now you started to feel like maybe you could be reciprocating it and it did nothing but make you nervous around him.  You had always been focused on your work for SHIELD, since long before it fell; it was a lifestyle that left no time for interpersonal relationships, let alone anything even close to romantic, so if that was his intent, you had no idea how to handle it.

"Come on, (Y/N), I can behave," Mack pouted, but when you didn't turn back to acknowledge him, he looked to Fitz for help only to find his friend having nothing more than a shake of his head and his back turned to him.

~~~

The next morning, it was much of the same, this time running into your giant teammate in the kitchen before you could find solace in the security of the lab.  You were trying to hurry to get out of his way and to avoid having to deal with yet another far too jovial attitude, but as luck would have it, someone put your mug on the highest shelf in the cupboard.  Even as you stretched up on your tiptoes, it was no use, leaving you to grab a chair and climb your way to it.  All it took was one foot on the seat and the slightest wobble of the chair to have Mack rushing across the room and grabbing you around the waist, easily lifting you up to reach your target.

"Hold on, Tiny, I've got you!"

"Oh, no," Fitz sighed, grabbing his drink and hurrying from the room, grabbing Jemma by the arm and dragging her away despite her argument to stay and watch.  "Trust me, it's best to leave now."

With Mack holding you up in the air, the shock running through your body had to be obvious; it didn't help that now you were completely unmoving, staring at the cupboards in front of you at a total loss for words.  He was lifting you up so easily that between being utterly impressed and utterly embarrassed, you fought the inner battle of whether to congratulate or berate him.  "Mack," you choked out, your voice barely audible, "put me down, please."

"You could've fallen," he explained quietly, realizing his error, "sorry, it was just a reaction."

"Okay...well...thanks..." you stuttered.  The second that you felt your feet hit the floor, you turned to make your fast escape and he didn't make any move to stop you.  You felt your heart racing and your breathing grow uneven, but you couldn't tell if it was from the surprise or from the close proximity of him with his hands on you that way.  No matter what the cause, all you knew in this moment was that you needed to get to your desk and focus on anything else.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, Fitz, just...just let me work," you urged, grabbing your equipment and hastily tossing it around your station.  "I need to clear my head."

"And work is the way to do that?"

"Silence is the way to do that."

"M'kay," he sighed, turning back to his own work.

Nearly two hours had passed by without so much as a sound around you other than what you were working on, feeling yourself so engrossed in it that you didn't allow for any other senses to interfere.  Fitz may have said something to you once or twice, but you didn't catch it, and he might have left a while ago to get lunch, but you had no idea.  The only thing in your mind right now was...work.  Yes, work.

And Mack.

But work had to win this battle, and you were determined not to let that guy back into your head; at least not until you were ready, and now wasn't that time.  Your body's reaction to him grabbing you in the kitchen was unexpected and did nothing other than confirm that you had feelings for the guy that you hadn't given enough attention to. 

No, focus on work.

"Ow, dammit!" you hissed, dropping the tool in your hand after you had absentmindedly stabbed it into the other, leaving a trail of blood dripping across your station.  "See, (Y/N)," you muttered to yourself, "this is what happens when you let your mind do whatever the hell it wants-"

"Hey, are you okay?"

"What!"  The sensation of Mack's hand on your shoulder out of nowhere caught you off guard, leaving you at the mercy of your own reflexes when your brain was too engrossed in stopping the bleeding in your hand.  You grabbed his wrist and spun around, dropping low to swing your leg to kick his out and use his own weight and inertia to topple him to the floor.  In the flash of a few seconds, you had taken out a man at who had lifted you into the air like you had weighed nothing.  It left him flat on his back and completely silent in awe.

"So, I should knock first next time?"

"Oh my god, Mack!  I'm so sorry!"

When you reached down to help him stand, he waved your hand away, more worried about your injury than caring that you had all but tossed him on his ass.  "I'm good, but you're not.  Here, let me see," he directed softly, taking your injured hand in his.  "Come here, we gotta clean that up." 

He brought you to one of the clean stations that wasn't covered in your blood, sitting you down and keeping a purposeful eye on you while grabbing the first aid kit.  He set it next to you and laid out the gauze and bandages that he would need, again taking your hand to begin cleaning the wound; whatever he was using had you sucking in a harsh breath at the sting, your teeth clenched tightly to keep yourself from spewing a tirade of profanities in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Tiny, it'll be over in a minute.  Here," he paused, bringing your hand up to his lips, "is that better?"

"Mmm hmm," you mumbled, lost in the moment as you watched him begin again.  Before your confidence had a chance to flee, you ran all of the possible outcomes through your mind as to what could happen if you made your move, and when none of them were favorable, you took the chance anyway; you grabbed the front of his black t-shirt and pulled him to you, kissing him in a moment of sudden bravery.  The first time you tried to pull back, he resisted and held you there, his hands now keeping you pressed against him as he responded to the feeling that he had been waiting forever for; it was one that you were now realizing you had been waiting for too, and your mind was suddenly clear.

"Right," you whispered, stopping to catch your breath, "so I guess I do like you."

"Hold up, you weren't sure before that?"

"Well you were kind of pissing me off with all of that 'Tiny' stuff and using my head to hold you up.  Don't even get me started on the kitchen thing, and the comment about putting me in your pocket."

Mack smiled coyly and ran his hand over his head with an embarrassed shrug of his shoulders, looking just a little bit smaller to you now.  "I don't know...I guess...it's just how I say that you're...cute.  It probably doesn't come across to you the way it sounds in my head, huh?"

"Not exactly, but isn't everyone tiny to you?  I mean, come on, have you seen you?"

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" he protested with a huff.  "Now Thor, there's a big fella.  You probably look so small to him that your name may as well be Lang."