relocation

Rex was taking a nap when suddenly the lights in the lab turn on and he gets woken up, only to see Skye being carried into the lab by Coulson with her having multiple red spots on her skin looking like an overpowered allergic reaction.

"What is going on? What happened?" He shouts, moving to the side of his window where they place the unconscious girl and Simmons immediately starts checking her and treating her.

While Coulson, Simmons, Bobby and Fitz are focused on Skye May notices him banging on the glass with a worried expression and goes over to the console to talk with him.

"She's going to be fine. She had an episode while we were on a mission and stopped it, but she just collapsed." May tells him calmly.

"How's that possible? Why would she collapse?" Rex asks.

"Not sure. But it has to do with holding back her powers. Have you seen Hunter or Mack?" May asks, receiving a headshake negative from Rex.

May then rejoins the others and hopes for Skye to come out of this unharmed.

2 days later

Skye is sitting in her small room on the plane wearing Arm braces, which are supposed to help her heal and is waiting for Coulson to show up, since he told her to pack a bag and that they'll relocate her to a less stressful environment.

Skye is then pleasantly surprised when Rex knocks and peeks into her room.

She immediately gets up from her bed and hugs him as best as she can with her arms restrained.

"What happened? One day you're bunking with me, the next you're gone?" She asks.

"I was getting checked out by Simmons and Fitz." He answers.

"My mutation apparently has something to do with heat and my temperature is above the norm now." He replies shrugging.

"Wanna trade?" She asks jokingly, presenting her arms.

"Does it hurt?" He asks feeling guilty for not being there to protect her.

"Yes. But I'm getting used to it." She says.

"I'm sorry. I failed. I promised I'd keep you safe." Rex apologizes.

"Hey, I did this to myself. It's no one's fault." Skye tells him and sits back down on her bed.

"So any idea where we're going? I mean the fridge would be the logical choice if it were still operational..." Skye says glumly.

"I don't know. But we just have to make sure we won't get separated again and I think we'll be alright." Rex tells her with a smirk.

|4 hours later|

Rex and Skye are all alone in the Shield hideaway after Coulson left them there.

"Looks like it's gonna be just us for a while." Rex says, sitting down on the chair across from the one she's sitting on.

"Rex. I want to know. Are you afraid of me?" She asks.

"No." He replies calmly.

"How can you not be scared? I could literally bury us in a rockslide." Skye says worried, pacing up and down.

"Look at your arms and you'll know why I'm not scared." Rex says, standing up and holding her by her shoulders, careful not to hurt her.

"Skye you will be fine. I dealt with this before. It gets better if you accept you won't be the same again." Rex tells her, a pair of nanite constructed metal hands coming out of his wrist, poking her cheeks.

"But you're not a natural disaster." She say shrugging him off.

"You don't know the half of it. When Fury first found me I was terrible. I turned into a giant robot and passed out almost immediately crushing 5 houses underneath me." Rex tells her.

"Seriously?" She asks surprised.

"Yeah. Never tried it since because like you I was scared. But maybe here is as good a place as any huh?" He asks with a small smirk and a glint in his eyes.

"Hey, what are you doing?" She asks when he pulls her along with him by leading her with a hand on her lower back.

He leads her outside and to the big lake inside the contained area.

"You wanna join me?" Rex asks stripping down to his underwear.

"With these hands?" She asks doubtfully, her arms in braces.

"Maybe the water will help?" He suggests.

"Hmm." She huffs, looking back to the cabin before giving in and says "fine. You need to help me though."

The already undressed Rex nods and tugs on her pullover, pulling it over her head, careful not to hurt her arms.

Once she's our of the pullover, only wearing a sports bra underneath she unbuttons her jeans while he unties her shoes and helps her out of the shoes and socks.

Meanwhile she wiggles her jeans down her legs and steps out of them afterwards.

"You sure this will help or did you just want to peep on me?" Skye asks nervously.

"If you really thought I only wanted to peep on you, would you have agreed to this?" He says knowingly and unstraps her arm braces with her hissing slightly.

"How does it feel?" He asks looking at her worried when her bruised and red arms are revealed.

"painful." She says.

"Come on. Trust me if something goes wrong, I got you." Rex says, stepping into the slightly cold water and holds out his hand to her.

She wordlessly offers her hand which he gently takes and she joins him in the ankle deep water.

"I can't even remember the last time I was in water, not on a mission at least." Skye says.

"The last time I had to pull Simmons and Fitz out of the ocean." He laughs.

"Ah yeah, you did that." She says recalling hearing about the event.

"Come on, lets see if you can stay afloat by yourself." He says, letting go of her hand and walks further into the lake until he's at shoulder height with Skye following.

"Ready?" He asks looking back at her and Skye nods confidently, swimming ahead of him with her arms moving only very slowly, mainly being propelled by her feet.

"Nice. How does it feel?" Rex asks, swimming alongside her.

"Soothing." She admits after a short pause.

"So, are you gonna show me or what? I thought you were gonna show me a robot?" She says teasingly.

"Yeah, later. First just relax." He tells her, turning on his back and floating while looking up at the clear sky, Skye following suit seconds later, the two drifting on top of the water, their heads next to each other upside down.

"Isn't this a nice change from the usual stressful fight for survival?" Rex asks with a pleasant sigh.

"I admit this was a good idea." She agrees, splashing him lightly.

"How are you handling what happened with your dad?" Rex asks, looking at her.

"I'm not. I don't know anything about him and that's a good thing." Skye says as if talking herself into it.

"You do you, I'm not exactly the best person to give parental advice anyways. " Rex tells her relaxed, recalling how he felt used by his parents, who experimented on him despite actually behaving like loving parents at all other times.

The two stay like this for maybe 20 minutes when Skye's arms start to ache and the water starts resonating.

"I need my braces." She says panicking and tries to swim to shore quickly, only for her arms to hurt like crazy.

"Don't hold it in. let it out Skye." Rex tells her, sprouting his mechanical rotor wings and flies them to the shore, snapping her braces on just in case and sits down with her in the dirt.

"Skye. Look at me. Nothing is going to happen. Just let lose. You don't need to keep holding everything in. I can handle it and so can the house." Rex tells her, calmingly brushing through her hair while holding her gently, the shaking gradually stopping before a loud noise is heard and the two are sitting in a large dent in the ground.

"See. I'm all good and so are you." Rex says, reassuring her.

"Look at this. I can't go into public like this." She says freaking out.

"Hey. You said you want to see my robot right?" He asks, hoping to stop her from freaking out.

"Ye-Yes." She says breathing raggedly.

"Alright. Then watch this." Rex says and jumps into the lake, turning into an orange-bronze colored giant humanoid robot maybe 30 meters tall and as wide as a bus easily towering out of the small lake.

"See. I told you." Rex says in this form, striking a dramatic pose like from a comic book before feeling hot again like when his nanites overloaded and quickly dismisses the nanites, falling into the lake with a large splash before surfacing while spitting out water.

"What happened?" Skye asks when he swam back to shore.

"I think if I stay too long in that form I'll overload again." Rex says.

"But you barely used it." Skye says confused.

"The thing is after the chamber... my nanites have been feeling like I'm overloading really quick." Rex says a bit worried.

"Looks like we both do belong here afterall." She says, looking at her arm braces in thought.

That evening Rex started a fire for them in the cabin and the two are sitting in front of it next to each other, their legs touching.

"Why are you so forgiving with me?" Skye asks finally.

"You didn't give up on me. Why should I give up on you coming around?" He says with a grin.

"But I did. For a short while at least." She tells him.

"Look. I like you and no one expects you to be perfect and do everything right." Rex tells her.

"Doesn't feel like it. The expectations I mean." She says smiling to herself slightly.

"Then at least I don't expect you to be perfect. You're great the way you are. Powers or not." He tells her, looking over to her.

Skye moves in closer and slowly places her lips on his, kissing him as if testing something nervously.

After the gentle connection of their lips, she looks in his warm eyes and captures his lips again with more vigor, cursing her arms current state when she instinctively tries to hug him but ends up with her holding her arms behind him awkwardly.

"I have a question for you." He says, placing his forehead against hers after the passionate kiss.

"Do you trust me? I mean I remember all of my Hydra past now." He says.

"Depends. Is there something you haven't told me?" She asks.

"One kind of important fact, yes. The friend I talked about. We became a thing just a couple months before the explosion." Rex says.

"Do you still like her?" Skye asks backing her face away not sure what to make of the information.

"I don't know. I do like you. I haven't seen her in almost 2 years. I just know I need to find her and explain what happened." Rex tells her.

"What if you still like her when you find her?" Skye asks.

"I don't know." Rex answers honestly.

"Let's not go there then." Skye says disappointed and scoots away a bit.

"Skye, don't shut me out." He tells her, recognizing her expression.

"I'm telling the truth when I tell you I'm crazy about you. I just want to treat Ruby fairly. She didn't want to be in Hydra just like me and we promised we'd get out together someday. I need to come through on that promise." Rex tells Skye, squeezing her knee.

She searches his eyes and gets the feeling that he's telling the truth.

"Fine. Just don't expect me to wait around while you straighten up your affairs." She says hiding her disappointment behind a teasing facade.

"I'm not. I just want you to have all the information. I see how the mystery of your past weights on you and after my 2 years of amnesia I understand that better than anyone." Rex tells her, giving her cheek a quick peck before getting up.

"Do you want to eat something?" He asks moving to the small kitchen area.

Before she can answer however a noise appears in front of the cabin, followed by a steady knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Rex says wearily, going over to the door and opening it.

The mutated man who can teleport and took Skye's father when the team was about to arrest him is standing in front of the door, holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"What do you want?" Rex asks, his forearm and hand turning into a sharp sword.

"I'm just here to talk to your friend. I mean no harm." The man answers and Rex is about to slam the door in his face when Skye joins him at the door.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" She asks surprised, nodding at Rex to let the visitor enter.