Reviews anyone? So many dust bunnies surrounding this story
Aurora woke with the dawn, hearing soft footsteps outside her door. She stood slowly, keeping her breathing level as she walked to her door and silently clicked it open. Steve stood, sipping at a mug of something warm, dressed in workout gear and looking out the wide windows.
"Steve?" She whispered, watching with scared eyes when he looked at her and sent a shy smile back to her. She stepped out, her eyes darting around before she straightened and waited.
"Sorry if I woke you. It's routine for me." Steve passed her a mug of something warm and she took it shyly. Steve placed his own mug in the dishwasher before heading for the door.
"I'll be back soon after my run. Sam might come to hang out after it, just a warning. I know it's hard for you to trust us." Steve explained, looking back at Aurora as she sipped the hot chocolate he had made for her, marshmallows and all.
"No, Sam's a good guy. His aura" A soft giggle that had Steve staring in wonder at her sudden change. "His aura smiles, like him. It hurts from the death of his friend and what he had to go through but his aura smiles because of the life he lives. I like him." Aurora smiled brightly, before shyly sipping at the warm drink as Steve smiled back.
"Okay, I'll let him know. Just no Clint right?" "Yeah. No Hawkeye." Aurora nodded as Steve left, leaving her in the apartment alone. She finished her own mug before heading to collect her drawing equipment, wanting to pass her time in the peace and quiet in her favourite past time and her eventual solace.
An hour later
"Aurora, we hope you don't mind if we brought… Ummm, when did you do this?" Steve asked, looking around the living room, balls of paper littering the hardwood floor, surrounding the young woman who had changed into a knee length navy blue dress with her wings relaxed against her back. Her head turned to face him, her eyes a glowing teal before she shook her head and stood.
"Welcome home, sorry about the mess. I couldn't get the background right. And then I couldn't get his eyes right." She greeted, looking down at her two final drawings that she had placed on the coffee table. Steve entered with Sam and a blonde haired woman, who now that Aurora looked at her under the morning light, had red hints in her hair amongst the blonde.
"What were you drawing?" The woman asked, stepping closer, making Aurora flinch and quickly pull the discarded jacket around her shoulders and hide the drawings in her book.
"Nothing. I… I have to go… go back and have a shower. Yeah." Aurora stammered, the blue green eyes of the woman watching her almost sadly as she scurried past, pulling away as Steve tried to stop her and rush back into the room she was borrowing.
"Steve, you didn't mention the wings." Pepper snapped, casting her gaze over the mess and lifting a less crumpled piece, smoothing it out and looking at the pencil drawing. The male was smiling, his thin frame almost glowing as he stared up at the viewer. Pepper smiled, the happy glow almost given life upon the page.
"She isn't ready for everyone to know yet, Ms Potts. She is just fragile." Steve explained, cleaning up the crushed papers. Pepper lifted another that seemed different to the others, making Sam walk over to look over her forearm.
"Hey, Steve. Was this the Docks you always keep talking about?" Sam asked, making Steve freeze and turn to them. Pepper turned the page around, letting Steve look at the image of two shadowed figures, one smaller than the other, walking towards a large building with ships steaming past.
"Yeah, Bucky and I used to work there. Well, whenever I wasn't sick, I worked. But that place is long gone, replaced by expensive housing and river smells." Steve said, placing the papers in the bin while Pepper and Sam looked at the two drawings.
"So this could be you? This skinny ass kid." Sam quipped, as Steve looked over again, startled. Pepper giggled softly at the wide eyed Captain before turning the other page around. Steve walked over to them and took the page gently, his eyes clouding in memory.
"I only smiled like this a few times. From what I can remember. And always when I was with Bucky. How could she draw this? There was never any cameras for photos this simple." Steve spoke, his mind locked in the past as he looked up. Pepper was about to speak until soft footsteps entered the room.
"Another way they used to find out information. I drew things I saw. You don't smile the same, Steve. What was he to you to make you smile even though you were so sick that day? Flu right? The ones that can't really be fixed unless you are in hospital?" Aurora asked, her eyes looking at the floor. Steve sighed and nodded.
"I thought so. Your aura was weak, weaker than Bucky's now. About a month later, you were chosen to be tested with the Super Soldier serum, right?" Aurora asked, walking out and touching his forearm.
"Yes, it was a lean week. Bucky had taken an extra shift that week to pay for my medicine and I kept forcing him to wear a hankerchief over his mouth so he wouldn't get sick. But we made it through. A week after that, he shipped out." Steve said, his mind replaying the scene of watching his best friend get shipped off to war, far from home.
"Then we have to find him. I will not stand by and see a light die within your eyes because he isn't here." Aurora quipped, squeezing Steve's forearm as best she could, considering the muscle under the skin, before someone touched her shoulder gentle.
"Miss Callum, I don't think leaving Stark Tower is the best idea at the moment. Tony wants you to stay in a monitored location until Hydra is stopped." Pepper explained, making Aurora flinch and pull away.
"I am not their plaything anymore. And neither is The Winter One. I fought so hard to break free and to try and help him that day. I was punished for it, but I still fought. And Steve needs my help. Who else can find an Agent gone rogue?" Aurora snapped, flexing her wings, before a cough had them looking towards the elevator. Tony stood leaning against the wall, his right hand holding a flat almost glass like tablet with holograms of data maps.
"Well, I can, Miss Broken. Has it ever occurred to you that I have a score to settle with the Winter Soldier?" Tony said darkly, his brown eyes almost glowing from the holograms. Aurora quivered slightly before biting the inside of her cheek and stepping closer to the now infuriating man.
"I know exactly what he did to your family, Mr Stark. I know because I can see it. Everything you don't let others see. Like the Captain America bear your father bought you the day before he died. You treasured that toy didn't you?" She stepped closer, her eyes glowing slightly. "Was it because you loved the comics or because it was one of the few gifts your father bought you? I bet you still have that toy, hidden, somewhere only you can find it to remember why you hate Steve's Bucky so much. Why you loathe the fact that that man still lives while your parents are dead." Aurora snarled, knowing she was tempting fate but not able to stop herself. But what she didn't expect was the back hand that had her smacking into the back of the couch, coughing when the wind was knocked out of her. She barely had time to struggle to right herlsef before a shoe clamped down on her left wing, pinning her to the floor, pressure building on the fine bone that had just healed. Aurora heard someone try and get Tony's attention but the fear of breaking clouded her view.
"Do. Not. Dare. You know nothing about me. Nothing about my suffering. Broken Angel, a weak member of Hydra. Brainwashed to believe that she could get her mother back by doing what they ordered. Your mother never loved you after that day and you know it. And you want to know something? I wouldn't want to love or even look at a failure like you." Tony growled, the pressure he was placing on her wing growing as he spoke. Aurora felt something snap and her vision became tainted with red.
"Two words, Stark. Hail HYDRA!" She screamed, flipping over and kicking him in the gut before launching herself out the window and willing her wings to work, to escape. She heard a voice call her name but she didn't look back, couldn't look back. Not after that.
Stark Tower
"What the fuck, Tony?!" Pepper snapped, rounding on the man she called her boyfriend, who just coughed and sat slumped against the wall Aurora had kicked him into.
"She's one of them. You can't tell me… she has changed…" Tony coughed, his brown eyes glaring at no one in particular. Steve looked back at the man who had given them permission to let her live here, his blue eyes stressed.
"She has. She just got scared…" "SCARED?! You call that scared?! She wasn't scared, she had reverted back. Like some programming had kicked in, literally!" Tony bellowed, standing and stalking over to Steve, who glared back.
"I do call it scared. You used the name she was trying to change. She is trying to learn how to be Aurora not this Broken Angel that Hydra called her. And then to bring the memory of her mother into it, that's low Tony, even for you." Steve snapped, making Tony laugh dryly.
"No, she mocked me. Mocked my parents and the day that… that weapon destroyed my life. And then to scream that phrase at me, why are you trying to protect her? We can find your 'friend' without her. And when we do, I am going to give that thing a piece of my mind." Tony snarled, turning and walking back to the elevator. Steve glared after him before punching the wall, sending his fist completely through it.
"I am protecting her because she cannot protect herself" Tony scoffed. "Aurora has been tortured her whole life. The first real trust she had of people and you destroy it without even thinking of how she felt. What if she had been Pepper?! If Pepper had suffered and when she finally opened up and let you back in, you called her the one thing she didn't ever want to hear you say. A monster. A killer. A pitiful creature who doesn't deserve to live or be loved. How do you think Pepper would have felt if you had cast her aside because of the serum?" Steve asked, watching as Tony's eyes went dark and clouded. Pepper walked over to Steve, looking back at Tony.
"She is so tiny, Tony. She is scared. She is still caught in the change between child and adult. She trusted us, trusted Steve to keep her safe. To show her that Hydra couldn't change who she was. Tony, you hurt a lost, orphaned girl who was crying out for help long before we heard her." Pepper spoke softly, watching the stiff muscles in his back relax slightly.
"It makes no difference. My parents died because of the Winter Soldier and there she was defending him. As if he hadn't done it, as if my parents meant nothing." "And you did the same back. She held onto hope, in her 20 years of pain and anguish. Held onto the hope that if she did well enough, she may feel her mother's love. Tony, you did the same with your father. You strived to make him proud. Try to understand that you and her fought for the same thing. Love, from a parent you loved so much it hurt, even when they never even showed it back." Pepper walked over to him, wrapping her arms round him gently. Tony held back a shuddering sob, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.
"I tried so hard. I just wanted to hear him acknowledge me. Just once." "And Aurora wanted the same. To be praised. To feel something back. Please, Tony, she is so fragile. She doesn't deserve this." Pepper soothed, running a hand over Tony's arm. Tony nodded and turned, hugging Pepper tightly before looking at Steve.
"Let's go find them both, Cap. And never speak of this to anyone." Tony stated, as Steve nodded and walked past, Sam launching out the window with his wings, ready to help.
On Top of the Brooklyn Bridge
"You made a big mistake, Aurora. Now they will hunt you down like him. Like some crazed animal needing to be put down." She sobbed, cocooned in her wings, hidden from the world as she cried, only seen by the birds that had made their nests on top of the bridge.
"I don't think you need to be put down, Aurora. Just taught to trust normal people again." A voice said, making her snap out of her ball, calling upon her flames. Sam looked down at her from his steady hover. Aurora stood, walking over to where he was and reaching out shyly.
"Wings? Mechanical ones?" She whispered as a hand took her outstretched one, making her yank away and call her fire again, her eyes glowing in warning.
"Sorry, just need to get you down so we can talk." Sam shrugged, giving the wings a quick flap before turning and dropping like a stone. Aurora leaned over the edge to watch as he landed near a bright red car and two figures. Aurora stepped back as he flew back up and landed, the wings folding away into a metal backpack.
"It's just going to be you and me, okay? No Tony, No Steve. Just Sam, okay? I just want you to trust me enough not to hurt you. Steve's worried about you." Sam explained, sitting down and taking the wings off and pushing them away, leaving himself unarmed. Aurora blinked before sitting down in front of him and folding her own wings away.
"He shouldn't. I am fine." She muttered, barely looking at Sam, ignoring the cries of the sea birds and the rush of the city.
"Of course, but he is still worried. You are quite scary when you want to be, Aurora. But then again, Steve is a big baby when it comes to women. Always afraid to speak and such." Sam joked, making Aurora giggle slightly. Sam smiled warmly before inching closer, her head snapping up and her eyes panicked.
"Easy, I was having trouble hearing you." Sam spoke softly, allowing her the chance to calm down before continuing.
"You didn't mean the 'hail hydra' thing, did you? It was just a scared response wasn't it?" Sam asked, watching as she nodded and curled into a ball, hiding her face behind her hair.
"I… I just wanted him to stop. He… He was so mean, like Hawkeye. Why do they hate me? I haven't done anything wrong. I… I just wanted to help." She burst into tears again, making Sam wish he could handle emotional unstable women but he shuffled forward and brushed her head slightly.
"I know, and so does Steve. Even Pepper and Natasha are coming around. But, Aurora, screaming things like that isn't how you help. Nor is speaking to Tony in such a voice. He's a bit of a brut and arrogant. But he is smart and he keeps the team on their toes. But, Aurora, when he learns to trust, he would defend his friends to the death. He even hated Steve for a while there." Sam soothed, waiting and listening as the crying ebbed and she looked up at him through her hair.
"How about we take it one step at a time? Okay? We lock everyone out until you feel ready to let them in. We do things your way, allow you to settle and rest. You are tired right? Tired of being alone and running when you sense danger?" A shy nod was his answer as Aurora watched him.
"Why don't we let Steve know and get the apartment fixed up? It's as much your home as ours now. I trust you, Aurora, you seem to know how to hold your own and make Steve happy. I want you to trust me like you do Steve, okay? Know that I won't hurt you or use any other name but your true name. I won't allow them to hurt you, Aurora, I see in you a lost young woman trying to understand why the world fears her because of her need to feel safe and loved by the one person she knew in her heart was supposed to. Let's go home, Aurora. And have some of Steve's cooking." Sam winked cheekily and stood, holding his hand out to her. Aurora took it shyly, allowing him to help her up. She watched him collect his wing pack and extend them, waiting for her to do the same. She jumped off the edge of the bridge before rising above the clouds so she wouldn't be seen, Sam a quiet guard as they made their way back, only reporting to Steve he was taking her home, broken window or not.
Steve and Tony
"What is he doing? How long does it take to convince a girl to go home?" Tony groaned, bored of waiting. Steve bit back a growl of frustration before watching as Aurora dropped from the pylon, followed by Sam and they flew into the clouds before Sam's voice came over the radio saying he was taking her home and that she had requested spaghetti for dinner.
"I'll send someone to fix that window tomorrow, it seems the little bird has returned to the nest." Tony remarked, getting back into the racing red Ferrari, waiting for Steve to sit down in the passenger seat before pulling away, guided by 2 black SUVs.
"She's a bird now?" Steve asked, barely hearing himself over the rush of the wind and the engine. Tony just smirked and changed lanes, sending Steve smacking back into his seat.
"Yes, I will allow her to stay in my building but she has to behave from now on, Cap. No more outbursts." Tony stated, looking quickly over at Steve before looking back at the road. Steve nodded stiffly before trying to watch the world fly by, giving up as he started to become dizzy. Tony wasn't a very careful driver, swerving in and out of lanes and smoking the tyres round the turns, something Steve still wasn't used to. Who owned cars that could go above 50 miles an hour? The idea baffled him still, even though he owned bikes that could do twice that now. This world still seemed too far ahead, too fast for him to catch up and keep up.
"Hey, wake up, Capsicle." Tony's voice broke him off his train of thought and made him realise they were back at Stark Tower.
"Sorry, tuned out for a minute there." Steve smiled shyly, getting out of the bright car and heading for the elevator. Tony followed him, leaning quietly against the left hand side of the elevator, Steve leaning against the right, watching the numbers change as they rose.
"Still no music?" Steve jabbed, trying to break the silence that reminded him of the S.H.I.E.L.D. elevator and the modified cattle prods.
"Nah, nothing feels right. The old stuff is… well stuffy. And modern music just doesn't suit the environment." Tony said, stepping off the elevator as it came to a halt and the doors opened. Steve stepped out after him and reached for the door.
"I am sorry to interrupt, Sir, but Mr Wilson has requested me to lock out all but Steve, Natasha, Pepper and himself." Jarvis spoke up, as Steve heard the door click open.
"I see I am being locked out of my property." Tony scowled, making Steve shrug shyly.
"Only for now, Tony. Just hack it out okay?" Steve reassured, stepping inside, hearing the door shut and lock behind him. Aurora and Sam were playing Jenga, Aurora focusing on removing one of the blocks, her eyes glowing.
"Never verse her in Cards, you can't call her bluff." Sam commented as the block slid away and was placed on top. Aurora smiled brightly at Steve before watching as Sam planned his next move. Steve walked towards the kitchen, planning on grabbing a cold drink when he noticed that the broken window had fixed itself.
"Care to explain?" He asked, looking back at the pair, watching as Aurora flinched physically and shot him a shy smile.
"Can we call it an 'accidental discovery of new powers'? I kinda got annoyed at myself…" "Yeah, like angry angry and then she blasted the window with the fire and it sort of re formed, like watching the shatter but reversed." Sam poked Aurora's upper arm as her ears tinted red. Steve just chuckled and nodded.
"Okay, just make sure to undo that before the window repair guys come." Steve warned, making Aurora nod and smile brightly.
"Yes Sir. Now about this promised Spaghetti…"
SSHoshi here again! Okay, forgot to explain in the last chapter that the American 'Emergency Brake' is known as a Hand Brake down here in Aussie Land. I found out the difficult way at work when a colleague asked me to find a part number for a Jeep one. Who knew that hand brakes could be electronic? My car has a CABLE system, so outdated DX. SSHoshi Out!
