This one's for the lovely lucidhalos, who made the gorgeous cover for this fic and has also been with 'Clarity' since the beginning. Check out her profile for awesome stories!
(09.01.18)
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another note: it's recommended (by me) for returning readers to re-read this chapter, as there are scenes that have been largely changed. i will put a similar notice to this one at the head of other such chapters. happy reading!
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There were few instances in which Vanessa Liang felt more conflicted than she did now. A swarm of nervous butterflies fluttered about in the pit of her stomach, while something akin to thrill hummed through her veins. She stood in the locker set aside for her, staring into the mirror curiously. She saw two people. One was a woman, her face gaunt and serious; the other was no more than a girl, her eyes bright with both excitement and fear.
She zipped up her jacket and tied her hair back. The person she had wanted to be since ever her mother's death was staring back at her from the smooth glass. She had never felt more like a SHIELD agent than tonight, and she had ought to be proud of it, yet there was a sense of foreboding she couldn't quite shake.
Her SHIELD-issued cell phone vibrated loudly and abruptly against the metal shelf it rested on. She picked it up quickly, expecting some sort of mission update. Instead, her screen flashed brightly with:
Incoming Call ー William Choi
She stared uncomprehendingly at the glowing words for several moments as the phone continued to buzz in her grasp. It was against policy to pick up personal calls during work time, and she had already broken policy once to give the number to him for emergency use only.
But what could the emergency be?
Apprehensively, she swiped to the right and put the speakers to her ear. Even before she could utter a greeting, William's voice was already crackling through the phone.
"Where are you?" he asked, more concerned than angry. In the past, he probably would have been mad, but now that Vanessa worked for the world's foremost counterintelligence agency he was more lenient. Even so, she felt a pang of guilt strike her squarely in the chest. It was the second time since she had begun working for SHIELD that she had forgotten an arrangement. "You weren't picking up your phone-"
"In the middle of the Atlantic," she said, wincing at the loud intake of air that indicated his surprise. "I'm... at work."
"Yeah, I figured," he said sarcastically. "Didn't think you'd miss lunch at one of the best restaurants in New York City just to take a dip."
Once a month, their friend group - William, Cordelia, Ryan, and herself - hit a different restaurant in the city, determined to eventually try out every one of the fifty places on a list composed in high school. Their other friends and family thought they fancied themselves food critics or something, but really it was just a way to hang out while checking things off the bucket list. Not to mention, Vanessa's growing paycheck and Ryan's well-endorsed internship with Pym Technologies made them more ambitious and more comfortable with the classier stuff.
The thoughts, far more pleasant than they had any right to be in such a situation, sent another wave of culpability crashing over her. "Look, I'll make it up to you guys when this is finished - I can't tell you anything about it, but it's very important. A lot is at stake."
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Clarity | Marvel Cinematic Universe
Fanfiction[ー CLARITY 2.0 ] Vanessa Liang is eighteen, a psychologist, an illusionist, and an Agent of SHIELD - ordinarily, this would be enough for one person. But as fate would have it, the Avengers Initiative, the Norse god of mischief, and an alien invasi...
