The guard cleared his throat awkwardly as he stared at the young couple, "You two aren't allowed to be back here."

They broke apart and Ward turned to look at him and smiled, "Oh, I'm sorry sir, we didn't know, we'll leave." Ward took Skye's hand and led her out of the hallway.

"Seriously Ward? We didn't know? That's like the most cliche line in all of movie history," Skye chuckled awkwardly, hoping to get rid of the sudden tension between them.

"Of course it is. You want to know why? Because it works."

"Yeah well it worked this once, I wouldn't count on it working again."

"You'd be surprised," Ward smirked as the Bus landed right in front of them. The cargo ramp was lowered and they stepped aboard.

"Wait how many times have you used that excuse?" Skye asked as she realized what he had just said. She never heard his reply, he was already walking up the spiral staircase to report to Coulson, as FitzSimmons and Rose bombarded her with questions.

"Oh Skye you look stunning! Doesn't she look stunning Fitz? I knew you would look great in this dress Skye," said Jemma, eager to talk to Skye and Rose alone so they could find out the details of the mission.

Skye chuckled, "thanks Jemma."

"So," Fitz started, "how was it?"

"Italy's beautiful, the food's amazing, the people are nice, and the scenery is breathtaking."

Fitz, seeming satisfied with this answer, left to go play with his dwarves.

"Ok Skye," said Rose, grabbing her hand, "tell us everything that happened in my bunk."

Skye let herself be dragged by her two best friends, it had only been about a day, but she still really missed having them around all the time. Jemma pushed her inside Rose's bunk and they locked the door behind them.

"Ok, now tell us what really happened."

"Well... We checked into the hotel as soon as you guys dropped us off and then we got hungry so we decided to go out for dinner."

Jemma interrupted her with a squeal, "He took you out to dinner? In Italy? That's so romantic!"

"Jemma, he kind of had to take me out to dinner, we had no other food at the hotel," Skye rolled her eyes.

"I know, but still..."

"Jemma just let her tell her story," said Rose.

"Thank you Rose," smiled Skye, "Now, as I was saying..."

***

"Where did you even find this place?" Skye asked Ward. He took her hand and pulled out her chair for her.

"I've been to Italy before."

"On a mission or with Simmons?" she inquired as he sat down across from her.

"Romanoff. We were best friends at the academy, did everything together while FitzSimmons were back in Europe. We got sent on a lot of missions together."

The waiter came up to their table and gave them their menus while they ordered a bottle of wine.

Skye leaned in closer to Ward, "are you meaning to tell me that you are best friends with THE Black Widow, who is an Avenger?"

"Pretty much," he said nonchalantly, not even looking up from his menu.

"That is so cool! What's she like?"

"Very strong, and loves to pull pranks on the newbies. So if you two ever meet, number one - I'd watch your back if I were you, and number two - I just really hope you don't meet, because it might just mean the end of us all."

"So you're familiar with her pranks then?" He grimaced and she took that to mean yes, "What was the funniest prank you two ever pulled together? Knowing your secretive 'I like to have fun, I just don't want people to know it' side, I'm going to guess that you helped her on a few."

He chuckled, "you'd be right. But you're not going to ask what kinds of pranks she pulled on me?"

She raised an eyebrow, "you seriously want me too?"

"Yeah, you're right, never mind," he shook his head.

"Besides, I want to save those questions for when I meet her," she smirked.

"Wonderful," he rolled his eyes.

The waiter came up and brought them their wine and they placed their orders, Skye ordering spaghetti and meatballs, because come on, it's her, and Ward ordering a chicken Alfredo.

"So robot, tell me what you two got up to while we're waiting for our food."

"Well one time we coated the work out room floors in grease so that every time someone tried to move, they fell. The principle kind of hated us for that. Then there was the time that Nat hacked the loudspeakers so say some pretty rude things about one of our language teachers. He was not happy about that. And every once in a while, when we were too busy to pull pranks and what not, we would fill the water supply with tons of food coloring, usually yellow, green, or blue."

Skye whistled, "You did that when you were busy? Dang boy."

They made light conversation here and there until their food got there five minutes later.

They ate quickly, and conversation flowed easily between them.

"I'm full, I don't even know if I want dessert," Skye said as she put her hand on her stomach.

"Who are you and what have you done with Skye?" he asked, eyes growing wide as he looked across the table at her.

"I would laugh at that if I weren't so uncomfortably full."

"Come on, you just need to walk it off. Maybe we'll stop to get gelato later." He gave her his hand and helped her out of her seat. They walked inside to pay the check and decided to stroll around the town hand in hand.

"Ooh! A pier! Can we go on it?" She looked up at him, big brown eyes pleading.

"Sure," he consented with a small smile.

Skye practically dragged him along onto the pier. They sat next to each other, feet dangling over the edge of the pier, right above the water. Skye sighed.

"What is it?"

"It's just so beautiful." She replied as she rested her head on his shoulder. "You think Coulson will ever take the team back to Italy one day?"

"You could always ask, Miss Surrogate daughter."

"I'm not his surrogate daughter," Skye laughed.

"Yeah, but we all know that you're his favorite." She laughed again. They sat in amiable silence for the next few minutes before deciding to head back to the hotel.

***

"Aw," cooed Rose, "how romantic. Who's Natasha?"

Skye blushed, "I guess. She, Ward, and Natasha's partner - Hawkeye are the best agents to ever come out of the S.H.I.E.L.D academy."

"Go on Skye, tell us what happened the next morning," urged Jemma.

***

Skye rolled over in her bed, she looked at the bed next to her's expecting to see Ward there, but he was gone. What time was it? She looked at the clock, 11:00. Aw, he let her sleep in, how sweet. She got out of bed and walked into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee, she looked in the microwave and saw that Ward had left her a coffee in there so that it would stay warm. There was a note on top of it,

Coffee for you Katarina, just how you like it. Tons of sugar :P

I just went for a run and I should be back soon.

~Hale

She smiled at his sweetness and drank her coffee. When she was finished she decided to go take a shower.

When she got out of the shower, Ward was already back.

"Hey there sleepyhead," he smiled at her.

"Hey. Thank you for the coffee and for letting me sleep in."

He shrugged, "You needed your sleep. Are you done getting ready?"

She nodded."Then let's go explore," he said as he grabbed her hand. She wasn't going to lie, she didn't mind the constant hand holding at all. If all of her undercover missions were with Grant, she would sign up for them in a heartbeat. They explored the town until around four o'clock, when they decided to get back to the hotel to get ready for the gala. After all, beauty takes time.

***

"How did he know your coffee order?" asked Rose.

"I mentioned it once when I saw him drinking his coffee black. I told him that black was way too bitter for me and I told him my coffee order. I just didn't expect him to remember it."

Jemma laughed, "my brother remembers everything. So, anything exciting happen at the gala?"

"He taught me how to dance," Skye smiled triumphantly.

"You two danced! This is just getting better and better!"

"Jemma, it was a party, of course we danced," Skye chuckled at her friend's excitement.

"Anything else exciting happen?" asked Rose. Skye blushed, something Rose didn't fail to notice, "Something did happen! What was it?"

"I... grabbed him by the collar of his suit and started kissing him in the middle of a hallway when I heard a guard come around the corner."

The two girl's mouths dropped open.

"You actually kissed him?"

"Well it was that or be caught, so yeah, of course I kissed him," Skye stated as if it was obvious.

"Ah this is perfect! Now we can get you two together!"

"Jemma he doesn't like me like that, I'm just his annoying headstrong Rookie," she tried to deny.

Jemma got up to leave, but as she was leaving, Skye thought she heard her say, "Keep telling yourself that, Skye."

What did that mean?