Note: A short chapter, but a meaningful one.
Oh, and the beautiful new covers are courtesy of parxbciz . x

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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ: ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ɢᴇᴛ ʀɪᴅ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜ

❝ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ǫᴜɪᴛᴇ ᴍᴀɢɴɪғɪᴄᴇɴᴛ. ❞

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WITH A LOUD HUFF, YOU CLOSED YOUR EYES IN EXASPERATION AS YOU PUSHED OPEN THE DOOR TO THE DIRECTOR'S OFFICE AND STEPPED INSIDE.

"Alright, if this is about the food fight situation in the break room earlier today, I just wanna say that it was absolutely, one hundred percent Agent Smith's fau-" you cut yourself off and startled a bit as you spotted the unexpected third person in the room, "Oh, hey, Aaron."

"Good morning, love."

Squinting your eyes, you tugged your bottom lip between your teeth and pointed between Fury and the doctor.

"What's going on here?" you queried, taking a cautious step forward, "Is this some kinda intervention? 'Cause I-"

"Not quite," Fury interjected, nodding his head in the direction of the leather sofa, encouraging you to take a seat; you did, albeit hesitantly, and with a fleeting glance at Aaron, your godfather proceeded. "So far, you've done a pretty good job at laying off the agent stuff, but I – well, we – recognise that being around HQ during your time off might not have the most desirable effects on you. As proven by your new pastime."

He smiled condescendingly at you and you blushed a tiny bit, knowing full well that he was referring to the aforementioned food fight. Opening his mouth to speak again, he moved from behind his desk to stand next to Aaron.

"Fortunately, doc over here has come up with a solution – and I gotta say that I fully support it."

"Okay," you nodded fast, rolling your hands in a non-verbal way of telling them to hurry up with their explanation, "Which is...?"

"Ever heard of Doctor Erik Selvig?" Aaron asked, knitting his brows and looking at you down the length of his glasses as he tucked his hands in the pockets of his suit pants.

You blew a raspberry as you wracked your brain trying to piece together where you had heard that name before. "Name sounds familiar. I think dad might've mentioned him a couple times. Why?"

Aaron seated himself on the other end of the sofa and held his hands open as he explained. "He's a good friend of mine. More of a mentor, actually. And he called last night with an offer – he's working a stint with an astrophysicist by the name of Jane Foster, and he asked if I'd be willing to consult on the case."

A short chuckle slipped past your lips as you registered what was going on. Straightening up, you looked between the two men and spoke. "And lemme guess... you want me to join?"

"Sure as hell is a better way to spend your time than bickering with Agent Smith," Fury remarked, raising one brow and giving a small shrug.

Letting your eyes flutter shut, you exhaled slowly. You knew very well that they had a point; stuck in a cycle of nothingness was starting to irritate the crap out of you, and a little trip would work wonders to get your mind off of your hiatus.

With a tilt of your head and a small sigh, you relented. "Fine."

"Yeah?" Aaron perked up, beaming widely at you and making it near impossible for you not to smile back.

"Yeah," you confirmed.

Somewhat stunned by your quick conceding, Fury muttered to himself. "That was surprisingly easy."

"We'll be flying out to meet with them at five pm this afternoon," Aaron informed.

"Yeah," you cleared your throat, "flying to where, exactly?"

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Puente Antiguo, New Mexico.

Amid the endless flat, arid scrubland, the SUV hosting your group slowly moved down the main street, heading out of the one-horse town.

The vehicle was slightly modified, with the back section having been rearranged to accommodate the mass amount of equipment that Jane Foster used for her work. This obviously meant that space inside the SUV was limited, only allowing seating room for the driver and three passengers, instead of the usual four.

Jane's intern, Darcy Lewis, was in the driver's seat, commandeering the vehicle down the dusty, uneven road with a chirpy Doctor Erik Selvig in the co-pilot seat. Jane opted to sit at the back with her equipment, which meant that you and Aaron were huddled next to each other in the backseat.

You were sitting close enough that you could smell his cologne quite heavily, and the scent took you back to two nights ago, when you'd been even closer to him than you were now, and you involuntarily shuddered.

Neither of you had spoken about the kiss since it had transpired – a fact that troubled you more than you cared to admit. Aaron's silence on the subject cast a shadow of doubt in your mind, leaving you to ponder over all of the possible reasons as to why he was avoiding the subject.

He had pulled away rather soon into the kiss, so did that mean that he didn't enjoy it? God, were you really that horrible of a kisser that he could only tolerate your lips on his for a measly five seconds?

This, and countless other theories, were swirling around in your mind as you sat in the car, your skin brushing against his every time the tyres would meet a bump in the road.

Eventually, you had had enough of the self-torture and when your fingers touched for the umpteenth time during that car ride (and while Jane was occupied with checking the logistics of her equipment and Darcy and Doctor Selvig were locked in a heated debate over some or other nonsensical thing), you suddenly turned to look at Aaron and – sensing the shift – he did the same, smiling at you as he did so.

"Am I a terrible kisser?" you blurted, deciding it was better to not beat around the bush.

With a face that held an expression of both shock and amusement, Aaron let out a short laugh before furrowing his brows and shaking his head once.

"Oh, on the contrary, love. You're quite magnificent," he renounced, and the sincerity in his voice almost made you believe him.

"Am I, though?" you sucked on your teeth and narrowed your eyes, turning your head slightly, "'Cause, I mean, if I really were that good then, I don't know, someone would've kissed me for longer than five seconds, don't ya think?"

Realisation dawning on him, Aaron opened his mouth and closed his eyes, nodding his head to indicate that he understood the subtext, before fully turning his body to face you.

"You want to know why I pulled away?" he whispered; you nodded, eager for a proper explanation. "It wasn't because I didn't want to carry on kissing you. Because believe me, I wanted to."

He looked down before looking back up at you with sad eyes and an equally sad, yet tiny, smile. And as he did, he lifted one hand and brought it to your neck, carefully pulling back the material of your shirt to reveal a thin necklace chain, which he hooked his finger underneath and gently tugged out from under your clothes so that it was in full view.

Brendon's necklace.

"It was because..." he trailed off so that he could let out a chuckle, and ran his finger over the charm that the chain held, "How could I kiss you while you were wearing this?"

Ignoring the irritating tightening of your chest, you parted your lips and tried to conjure up some form of a response. Aaron watched you with soulful intensity, but also with a small smile that showed you he understood your verbal incapacitation – something that made your feelings of guilt well up even more.

Because even in death, Brendon still had a firm grip on you, and the necklace you wore around your neck was a symbol of that.

You so desperately wanted to respond to Aaron but the longer you pondered over what to say, the more you realised that there was nothing you could say.

And so, you turned your body to face forward again, and the two of you remained silent for the rest of the journey.

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Thank you for reading x