Take Flight ↬ L. Fitz [1]

Chapter Four

Aurora lent against one of the worktables in the lab. As she spent more time with the team, she found herself in this position and positions like it more often than not. Despite Fitz and Simmons's unwavering and unquestioning loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D., their lack of suits made her feel more at ease in their presence. Plus, their intelligence made for conversations that went right over Aurora's head, creating excellent background noise.

She noticed that Skye also spent a good amount of time in the lab when she wasn't cooped up in her hiding spot in the S.U.V parked on the ramp. Ward and May spent the least amount of time in the lab, as May avoided contact with everyone except for Coulson and Ward only showed up when he needed new gear. He was always more fidgety in the lab and watching the ever-confident man be thrown off kilter never failed to be entertaining.

"I only get one shot," the man said, holding up one of Fitz's modified bullets. "And it has to knock a person back, as well as out."

"Which is why we're perfecting this little beauty," Fitz said, holding up what looked to be a handgun version of the weapon she had used to shoot Mike Peterson with. "It's a .45 caliber cartridge, semi-automatic. Each mag," he loaded the magazine, and a blue light appeared on the barrel, "contains eight therapeutic rounds of Dendrotoxin."

"In case you miss!" Simmons said, turning away from her microscope. Ward shot her a look over his shoulder. "Or have multiple assailants."

Fitz pulled the gun closer to his chest, when Ward reached out to take it from his hands. "Yeah, we're gonna have this new Night-Night pistol working in no time. Okay?"

"Great," Ward said. "One thing, we're not calling it that." With that, the man exited the lab.

"Ah, told you," Simmons said, playfully smirking at Fitz.

"Yes, we-- yes, we are." Then Fitz looked to Aurora, searching for the other combat agent's opinion.

Aurora agreed with Ward, calling a paralyzing weapon a 'Night-Night' gun seemed too childish. But when she saw Fitz's wide, hopeful eyes and excited expression, all she could say was, "You made it, you name it." A tinge of pink flooded his cheeks, and he nodded firmly, looking almost smugly at Simmons.

"See, Audi gets it."

"Audi?"

The two scientists stiffened and shared an almost panicked look, and Simmons abruptly turned back to her microscope, clearly leaving Fitz to dig himself out of the hole.

"Um- it's just- well, your name," Aurora raised her eyebrows. "It's just your last name's kinda long, and, more, uh, formal than Ward or May's, so you know, we shortened it." Simmons' let out a pointed cough, and Fitz rubbed the back of his neck. "I, I shortened it."

She knew the agents meant well, and a small part of her was flattered. It had been years since anyone had given her a complimentary nickname (she knew well enough that 'the Angel' was not meant to be flattering). But the rest of her was irritated, angry almost, at the butchering of her name. Auditore was a beautiful Italian name. It was a name of power. It was her Father's. It was a name that, to anyone that knew anything about her world, meant honor, loyalty, Royalty. It was a name that made her stand up straighter and hold her head high. One of the few things, the only thing, she had been allowed to keep when she 'joined' S.H.I.E.L.D. 

And she would not share a nickname with a car.

Slowly, she pushed herself off the table.

"If you want something less formal, call me Aurora, not Audi." She made sure to keep the anger off her tongue. She felt an odd, unfamiliar, feeling build in her gut at the sound of her first name. At the mere idea that someone would call her that again. That there were people in her life that maybe, perhaps, wanted, to call her that. A layer of sweat built on her palms as she watched Fitz swallow.