Making it work

The air was still a little bit warm. A vague heat settled in the air from the aftermath of the machine, like a weirdly localized harsh sunlight. Daisy shifted, suddenly incredibly aware of the bare skin of her legs, just as she was aware of how little she could do about it.

There was a smear of melted rubber on the floor from where her boots had been. Apparently they'd burned first. She didn't even have that protection.

"Okay, could you look at the samples in SR-38 next?" Coulson said. "There's some concern about them. If now's a good time?"

"Why wouldn't it be a good time?" Simmons said, giving a very false-sounding laugh. Despairingly, Daisy rolled her eyes.

"She'll get on it," Daisy said. "Daisy out. Jemma."

Simmons was blushing. Daisy quickly made sure her earpiece was off, and waited for Simmons to do the same - she did not need a repeat.

"Sorry. You're very distracting," Simmons said.

"You're distracted by this?" Daisy said. "I'm the one who's naked!"

Simmons stammered for a second. She eventually settled on turning around, starting to walk again; she hesitated after a few steps.

"It's easier if we focus on work," she said. "Are you coming?"

"I'm happy staying here," Daisy said. "Holler if you find a shirt."

"I think that's unlikely. Oh! You were joking," Simmons said. She hesitated. "You're not helping?"

"I don't think I'm exactly offering much," Daisy said. "You seem to have it handled."

Simmons hesitated. Then she **** herself to turn back around, and looked Daisy up and down, flush more prominent on her cheeks. Daisy squirmed.

"Oh this is ridiculous," Simmons said. "They're just bodies, you can't be so weird about this."

"I'm being weird about this?" Daisy said.

She had one hand squeezed between her legs, and another crossed over her breasts, her hand cupping one, fingertips digging into the skin as a small outlet for the tension she felt. She looked incredulously back at Simmons, and Simmons at least had the good grace to look self-conscious.

"True," Jemma said, clearing her throat. "It is... unexpected, to see you... You're my friend. And co-worker. And gorgeous. And I did not expect to see you like this when I came into work today."

"You and me both," Daisy muttered.

"But we need to be able to work together," Simmons said. "You can't just stay back here and do nothing and make all this take longer. We're down here now, this has happened."

"And it's the one of us that's dressed that's saying this," Daisy said.

Part of her would have been tempted to at least ask for a jacket, if Simmons had been wearing one. Instead, she was looking rather minimalist - normal pants, shoes, and a tank top that seemed out of place on her, exposing rather noodly arms, but that she'd apparently pulled on after her lab-coat had gotten sometime hazardous on it before she'd come here.

Not even spare clothes there.

Simmons went pink again, then took a deep breath, and steadied herself.

"No, no, it's normal," Simmons murmured to herself. "Besides, you don't need to be shy around me. I have seen your butt before."

"Pretty sure you haven't," Daisy said.

"Daisy, I'm your doctor, we have hospital gowns," Simmons said. "I definitely have."

Daisy's face went warm. Ah. Right.

"That's different," Daisy said, shifting awkwardly. "Hospital gowns are at least something."

"Then walk ahead," Simmons said. "Or wherever, I can be professional about this, we just need to finish working here. Coulson probably expects us to be at the next sample by now."

Simmons was always irritatingly reasonable. She was blushing as much as Daisy would have been had her complexion allowed for it, but through a sheer effort of will managed to make her voice come out clearly. Daisy was still just fidgeting.

"Fine," Daisy said eventually. "Fine. Lead the way. And don't turn around."

Simmons nodded smartly, and began to walk past her; Daisy kept her arms carefully in place, and started to move.

Simmons held the scanner ahead of her as they headed down a more central aisle, though no significant danger presented itself. They looked at labels until they reached the one Coulson has requested; Simmons peered at the metal box, opening it carefully, a small escape of steam signalling the emergency of three glass tubes, each with odd-looking specimens inside.

And just like that Simmons was back to being focused on her work. Daisy fidgeted, glad of that much at least.

Casually doing SHIELD work nude wasn't quite as easy as Simmons wanted it to be. Well, no, Daisy amended. It had been significantly easier when she'd been alone and not worried about her friend having a clear view of it.

Simmons stood up, then hesitated, a moment, before turning around with her eyes closed and blindly thrusting her bag of equipment forwards.

"Take it!" Simmons said, alarmingly loudly.

Daisy blinked. After a second, making sure Simmons couldn't see, she tentatively reached out and took it, pulling it back and holding it against her breasts. She still needed to cover her core with one hand, but the bag at least did cover a bit more.

"You can carry that," Simmons stammered. "Just pass me what I ask for."

"Er. Right," Daisy said.

Simmons hesitated. When she tried to turn back around, she bumped into the shelf and stumbled back, quickly opening her eyes to make sure she didn't hit anything worrying. Still not good at pretending this was as casual as she insisted.

Still, Simmons was right about one thing; if Daisy had been doing nothing, she'd have only been able to dwell on the fact that she was stuck without any clothes. This way, she was led around the warehouse, and at least had momentary distractions in the form of weird jellyfish samples, or odd machines, or files, as Simmons went from flagged item to flagged item. Plus she could roll her eyes at Simmons' very poor attempts to act normal.

By the end, Simmons was even able to pick the air purifier back up, the terrigen contained.

"Alright, that's it, good work," Coulson said. "Come back up. I'll send a Quinjet for you."

And that was when Daisy froze. At some point, she'd let her arms drop; they grew sore constantly being held at awkward positions, and Simmons was at least trying to look away. She even held the bag by her side.

At that, her face went hot and she quickly covered up again, as best she could.

Oh. Right. All the distractions had also stopped her processing the fact that at some point she'd have to leave the relative seclusion of this storehouse.

"Copy that," Simmons said. She laughed nervously. "Say, any chance you can bring a spare uniform when you do?"

"Right!" Daisy quickly interjected. "What she's trying to say, we had a bit of trouble with the ice machine I mentioned, wouldn't mind a change of clothes."

There was a pause. Daisy didn't want to think about what Coulson probably thought was happening, especially given Jemma's awkwardness and the stray lines he'd overheard.

"I'll see what's available," he said slowly. "Come on up."

The line went out. Daisy looked nervously at Simmons, and then at the elevator, shaking a little.

Somehow she felt like the Quinjet wouldn't be anywhere near as devoid of people as it was down here.