Metallic Lights {Metallic Charms Book #3}

Chapter 26: Stay Away

Chapter 26: Stay Away

~~~~~~~~~~~{Noel’s Point of View}~~~~~~~~~~~

The day I finished my report for the Council about my time on Asgard was probably one of the best in my life. It felt the moment you stepped out of your last year twelve examination room and knew that you never needed to worry about studying again. You never needed to worry about this kind of stress again and you never needed to put yourself through that kind of hell again.

When I’d gone through my exams, my body used to run on over drive for weeks on end, I barely ate or slept, at one point I remembered living off of a mix of protein shakes and the on-campus coffee shop cake. And then after that, I had to be hospitalised for exhaustion from lack of sleep and hooked up to an IV drip for around thirty six hours.

I never thought I’d go through something like that again –and then I’d joined S.H.I.E.L.D, where every day was like that. But it was amazing what thirteen months could do to a routine. It completely threw you off track.

“I’ll send to it to them as soon as possible.” Fury commented as I handed him the five centimetre thick stack of paper.
“Greatly appreciated. I emailed you a copy, in case...” I trailed off, fiddling with my fingers.
“I’ll be sure to read through it.” Fury nodded, never looking me in the eye, only around the room, as if he were uncomfortable by me being here. “Hopefully it’ll help decipher the chaotic past few months.” 
“I hope so.” I nodded awkwardly before turning my back on him and slipping out of Director Fury’s office.

After about an hour of wandering around mindlessly, with no aim or any idea on where to go or what to do, I found myself on the third floor. Which, I slowly realised, was the last place I should probably ever be. Not only did this floor house Starlie and Bruce Banner, but also a whole plethora of agents I’d previously worked with before I’d run off with the Enchantress thirteen months ago –even pre-comatose.

And not even one of those agents was nearly as forgiving as I’d hoped they’d be.

I got booed and I got cussed at, somebody even threw their apple core at me!

And as soon as I made for the elevator to get off the floor, I bumped into the last person I ever wanted to see today.

Starlie Banner.

“Watch it, Barton.” She snapped in my face.
“Who peed on your waffles, Banner?” I glared.
I swear I saw a tiny twitch at the corner of her mouth trying to tug her mouth up into a smile, but she pushed it away and continued to wear her intimidating stare proudly. “You did.”
“Funny, when did I do that?” I smirked. “Yesterday or this morning? You’re going to have to jog my memory.”
“Don’t push me.” She warned.
“Oh!” I exclaimed, shoving her slightly. “I heard we had an ickle little She-Hulk on our hands. What triggers you? Yapping puppies?”
“Funny.” She said dryly, shoving me back. “At least I don’t run away from my problems.”
“I didn’t run away from my problems!” I yelled.
“So it was just a coincidence that you just happened to run away with the enemy a few months after Stark dumped you.” She smiled wickedly at me. She knew she was pushing all the right buttons right now. She could see the effect that had on me. While I was ninety-nine per cent over Anthony Edward Stark, that didn’t take away the pain that still rang out in my chest every time somebody mentioned his name. And that wasn’t because I wanted him back, it wasn’t because I was still pining over him like some love struck, pathetic teenager –no. It was because whenever I looked up on the short lived fling, all I remembered was the fighting and the ugly, grotesque words he said to me and the way he ended it all.