Chapter Text
Jemma was furious. Her cat had earned a lifetime ban from her room after the mess he had made of her clothes. It was one thing to spill a liquid that would leave a stain. It was another thing to spill one of her incubated solutions that were required for work next week onto her clothes in the drawer. Jemma couldn't believe the damage done to her clothing and her work assignment. It was definitely going to be equally difficult to first, wash her clothes of the slightly corrosive stains and second, to explain to her boss what was an equivalent to a dog eating her homework. Her version though was of course her bloody cat tipping over one of her solutions that she set down for a second.
That was why she found herself at 2:45am driving over to a laundromat four blocks away from her apartment to fix some of her clothes that she was going to need in a few days. She had attempted to do a preparatory rinse to some of the garments that had been exposed to a decent amount of the solution but ultimately, Jemma just stuffed the selected clothes into a basket and left her place. At this hour, she was able to park quite close to the destination and walked right into the empty place with only some steady hums of washing machines. It was a 24 hour self-service laundromat which was an ideal place for Jemma's current mood of not wanting to see anyone or be disturbed as she grumpily stuffed her clothes into the washer setting it for a 40 minute wash. She sighed and settled on a nearby chair and began to pass the time by looking on her phone while listening to music.
After half an hour of scrolling through her phone, a sudden noise stirred Jemma's attention. She was sure that she was the only one here at 3am in a 24 hour laundromat unless she was so wrapped up with fixing her clothes to notice. She took cautious steps towards a washing machine and dryer set that was on the other side of the room. Jemma could hear the sounds growing closer as she peered around the row of machines.
There she saw a pair of legs next to a basket full of pants and underwear. The tanned legs belonged to a stranger who was half hidden in the dryer reaching deep into the machine to assumedly retrieve some more garments. Jemma's eyes were glued to the stranger's ass that was only clad in maroon panties while her thighs were on display. The cheeks of her butt peeked through the material as it rode up her crack with each twist of her hips. It was an alluring sight to see at 3 in the morning and Jemma knew she should return to her post.
"Ow." The stranger backed away from the machine with her head catching on the curve of the dryer. She brought a hand up to nurse the sore spot underneath her long, brunette locks while her other hand had a fist full of underwear. There was a distressed, stretched source of material that seemed to belong to a ruined pair of panties (unless it was a thong). The woman finally looked up to see Jemma who hadn't said anything. She gasped before throwing down her held batch of delicates and yanking up some pants to cover her bare thighs and legs. "Whoa! I thought I was the only one here."
Jemma finally diverted her eyes with blush beginning to redden her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I thought you needed help. I also thought I was the only one here." She turned around to let the half naked woman to put some pants on.
She shoved her legs through her jeans and soon stood up to shimmy it up over her butt. "I'm okay thanks. Just, some of my clothes got caught on the dryer so I had to dig in to get them. Plus, today all my good pants had to be washed. That'd explain me not wearing pants." She gestured to her lower half as she finally settled into her pants buttoning them up.
"Completely understandable." The woman in front of her didn't need to apologise or explain an innocent mishap. Though, she did feel the need to introduce herself to her new company. "I'm Jemma, by the way."
"Skye. Nice to meet you." She offered her hand for Jemma to shake and their hands met in the friendly gesture. "It's not often there's other people washing at this time of night." Skye returned her hands on her hips.
Jemma scoffed remembering her current laundry situation. "Well, a disaster occurred with my cat which meant I had to visit the laundromat at this hour to have some things ready for the next few days."
Skye offered a sympathetic look. "Sorry to hear about that." She shut the door of the dryer. "I was sitting down here when you probably came in so we didn't see each other at first."
"I would also blame my stingy mood for probably not noticing anyone else." Jemma shrugged.
"Well, rightfully so. I can only imagine how pissed you were." Skye leaned on the machine.
She sighed. "What's done is done. I just hope my clothes can survive the damage."
"I'm sure it has. I hope so." Skye peered down to her basket of clothes. "I hate to leave but I should probably get back home now."
"Of course. Don't let me keep you waiting." Jemma nodded her head politely. "Uh, do you always do your laundry at this time?"
Skye bent down to pick up her basket. "Yeah, pretty much. Around 2 or 3 in the morning every Saturday night. This is the only place that runs for 24 hours and I like to wash my stuff alone." She set the basket against her hip upon standing up. "It helps that I live just around the corner too."
"Oh, that's definitely convenient. It's quite good as well I managed to find this place open at this hour." Jemma smiled to keep the light conversation going. She heard the beep of the washing machine indicating that her clothes were done. "It was nice meeting you."
Skye nodded in agreement. "You too. Well, I'll hopefully see you around, Jemma." She brushed past her and headed out of the door.
Jemma watched as the cute stranger disappeared from her view. She slowly made her way back to her washing and began to transfer it to the dryer. Despite how tired she was, Jemma couldn't shake the thought that perhaps she could afford to shift her laundry day to this new time to hopefully see Skye again. Somehow, her anger from her cat's accident had faded away and was replaced by the pleasant warmth of Skye's company and the mesmerising sight of her ass.