Life I Chose

May woke up to a knock on the door. Sighing, she crawled out of bed to address who had knocked. She opens the door and frowns.

“Coulson? It’s four in the morning.” She crossed her arms.

“May, I know that you don’t like getting woken up before your alarm goes off but, why don’t you let Daisy sleep in today?” He suggested.

“You should have slept in yourself.”

“I couldn’t, I was way too excited for today.” He gushed.

“Today? What’s today?”

“July second, also known as Daisy’s birthday.”

Oh. May didn’t know that. She stands in the doorway thinking for another moment.

“Since Fitzsimmons are taking a trip to England and YoYo and Mack are out visiting family, this leaves us three and I was thinking we could do something special.” Coulson explains.

“We’re going to need a cake and presents.” May mumbles. “And we don’t have either of those things.”

“Yes, I know, that’s why I woke you earlier than usual.”

“To buy a cake and get presents?”

“To make a cake and buy presents.” Coulson clarifies.

Make a cake? Was he insane? She couldn’t cook to save her life and he was somehow expecting them to make a whole cake for Daisy.

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen in a few minutes, I have to get ready for the day and turn off Daisy’s alarm.” May begins to close the door.

“No need, I already turned off her alarm before I woke you.” She hears Coulson say as he leaves down the hall.

Turns out making a cake wasn’t as bad as May thought it would be. However, after numerous failed attempts to make a nice floral pattern out of icing to stick onto the side of the cake, they just opted to pipe flowers on the cake itself, finding it far much easier.

Two hours later, they had just finished decorating the cake when Daisy entered the kitchen mumbling about being late to training and how May was going to kill her. The two watched slightly amused as Daisy continued on rambling, not even aware that May was standing right behind her.

“At least your alarm wasn’t Coulson.” May stated flatly. Daisy jumped. “May! Don’t sneak up on people like that!”

Once she recovered, Daisy noticed that Coulson was also in the room. “Oh, hey Coulson.” She waved. “Hey Daisy, whatcha doing up so early?” He asked as casually as possible.

“I was up for training and my alarm didn’t go off this morning and I panicked.” She explained pointing to her outfit which consisted of a tank top, yoga pants and sneakers.

“I figured to let you sleep in today.” May shrugs.

“Wait, why? Who are you and what have you done with May?”

“Happy birthday Daisy.” Coulson says with a smile. May moves her body revealing a white, double layered cake decorated with tiny daisies made of icing sitting on the table.

Daisy gasps then stares at the cake.

“You don’t like it?” Coulson asks.

“No, no, I love it, it’s just…”

Daisy was clearly flustered with all the love she was getting.

“It’s just- I’ve never had anybody do something like that for me.” She begins.

“What? Make you a cake? Coulson asks.

“Yeah.” Daisy admits shyly.

“What do you mean?” May asks, crossing her arms.

“Growing up, my birthday was never celebrated. It was either that or they forgot all about it.” She explains.

Coulson and May exchange glances. After only mentioning her birthday to Coulson once, Daisy was shocked that he still remembered and even cared enough to throw her a party. “You remembered?” Daisy asks in a small voice, sounding like she was about to cry. Coulson walks over to her. “Of course we remembered, Daisy.” He brings her in for a quick hug and releases her.

Daisy beams. “The cake is beautiful, it’s the best gift I’ve ever received.”

“Speaking of gifts, we kinda don’t have any at the moment because you are up earlier than we had anticipated.” Coulson begins.

“Do you want me to go back to bed?” Daisy jokes. Coulson chuckles. “No need, just stay on base and we’ll go buy some.”

“If it’s alright, I’d like to stay on base, I have some work to catch up on.” May asks looking at Coulson. “Yeah, that’s fine but I expect the base to still be here when I get back.” He answers. May eyerolls.

He flashes Daisy a smile before he heads out to. “I still can’t believe you agreed to let me sleep in today.” Daisy begins while catching up to May who is already leaving the room. May gives a small smirk. “Your welcome.”

“Out of curiosity, how do you and Coulson spend your birthdays?”

“Coulson does a full Captain America movie marathon with a lot of ice cream. Coffee flavored ice cream to be exact.”

“He doesn’t seem like the type to movie marathon or sit around and eat ice cream, I figured he’d be working or something.”

“He has definitely worked on his birthday but most years he would take the day off.”

“And you? How do you celebrate your birthday?”

“It varies each year.”

“What did you do last year?”

“Saved the world from Inhumans.”

“What about the year before that?”

“Nothing special.”

“You don’t take your birthday very seriously.”

“So?” May retorts.

It was clear to Daisy that May was quite uncomfortable talking about her birthday so she decided to talk about her’s.

“Back when I lived in my van, I made a small tradition to buy myself something nice even though I didn’t know if it was my actual birthday. It’s a small thing but it was nice.” Daisy gives a small smile when she finishes. May nods, showing she was listening. “What’s the best gift you’ve ever received from yourself?”

Daisy stops to think. She then raises her right hand. “These.” She says while pointing to her ring finger where three silver rings were stacked one on top of the other. May raises an eyebrow. “How so?”

“I got them when I thought it was my twentieth birthday.” She pauses. “It may sound stupid but due to the fact that I moved around a lot and had to share tons of things with other’s, I never had anything special and meaningful to claim as my own. Over the past few years, these rings have been my good luck charm. They remind me of the old days, in a good way, to be thankful for what I have and not to take anything for granted.”

“Is that why you never take them off?” May asks. Daisy smiles at her question, finding it kind of scary that May wanted to know more about such a small part of her life. “If I do take them off, I keep them in a specific location and I always make sure they end up back on my finger by the end of the day.”

“It’s also your nervous habit.” May points out. Looking at Daisy’s dumbfounded face prompts her to elaborate on her statement. “Sometimes when we are running surveillance or waiting for debriefing, you twist the rings back and forth.”

Daisy blushes gives a laugh, a bit embarrassed that May knew about her nervous habit. “Yeah, it's a habit I need to get out of.”

May shakes her head. “I won’t judge. In fact, harmless habits like this are good if they bring you comfort and familiarity.”

Daisy felt slightly better knowing that May wouldn’t judge. With the two of them on better terms then before, Daisy thinks it is an appropriate time to apologize to May.

“I’m sorry,” Daisy says, looking May in the eye. The sudden mood change has May slightly confused.

“For what?”

“Before. Making you uncomfortable while talking about birthdays, I didn’t mean to push.” Daisy confesses, playing with her ring again.

The two stared at each other for another second. May sighs and guides Daisy over to the next room for a bit more privacy.

“I don’t like talking about my birthday because for a good part of my life,” May hesitates and looks at Daisy who has nothing but sympathy written all over her eyes. “Especially after Bahrain,” She adds a bit more quietly. “I’ve always felt unsatisfied with what I have accomplished since the previous year or previous birthday.” May finishes with a sigh.

Now Daisy felt even more bad for pushing. Daisy open’s her mouth to speak but May puts her hand up to stop her. “You don’t have to apologize again. You didn’t offend me.” She reassures the young woman who is still looking quite guilty. The last thing May wanted was for Daisy to pity her and treat her differently now that she knew this tiny detail.

“Are you sure?” Daisy asks one final time. May nods. Though Daisy didn’t completely believe all was fine, she gave a smile to prove to May that she did take her word for it.

Suddenly, May and Daisy’s phone dinged off. It was the group chat (yes, they have a group chat). It was a photo of Fitzsimmons posing in front of a really cute looking cottage. Another message came through from Mack and YoYo who sent photos of their food dishes.

“We should send something.” Daisy suggests, looking up from her phone. “Like what?” May asks, shutting off her phone. “The cake.” She answers back with a smile. “Once everyone else sees that cake, they’ll want to hire me to make their next cake which is something I do not look forward to.” May huffs sarcastically, following Daisy out the room.

The two women make their way to the common room where the cake was and found that Coulson had come back from gift hunting.

“Enjoy your presents, Daisy.” Coulson pointed to the medium tower of gifts on the table. May raised an eyebrow. “I think I might have gone a bit overboard on the presents.” He gave a chuckle and blushed. “Hmm you think?” May smirks playfully.

Daisy wordlessly walks over to the table and carefully picks up the gift all the way at the top of the tower and grins widely. She turns around holding the present and sees Coulson smiling and May with a small but very noticeable smile.

Daisy looks back at the cake then at the gifts and back at the two of them. An overwhelming amount of tears, happy tears, flood her eyes. She runs over and wraps her arms tightly around them. “Thank you, both of you.” Daisy whispers into their ears. I love you, she adds in her head.

Though Daisy never voiced this strong, unspoken feeling between the three of them out loud, she knew the other two felt it as well. It was automatic that they just knew the other two loved them, no matter what. And nothing could change that. Nothing.