Daybreak | Steve Rogers

Chapter Thirty-Four: Taking Time

I showered and changed into some of my own clothes, which I had kept in the quinjet in case something like that happened.

Taking a seat on the swinging bench on the porch, I waited for my hair to dry in the wind. Steve and Stark were cutting some wood on the grass in front of the house, both of them discussing something that I couldn't quite hear. I took a sip from my glass of juice, trying to clear my head.

Awful flashes from the vision filled my head, making my thoughts spin. I stared at him, remembering everything that he had said. I was hurting him, I was breaking his heart every time we went near each other.

"Can I sit here?" my head shot up and I saw the little girl nearby. I nodded silently as she sat down on the bench. "I'm Lila," she said, "What's your name?"

"Aurora, but everyone calls me Rory"

She gave me a toothy grin and shook my hand, "You work with my Daddy. I saw you on tv, you're so cool!"

I chuckled softly, "Really? Even though I don't have superpowers or a fancy suit?"

"Yeah! Do you know Auntie Nat, too?"

"She taught me everything I know" I replied softly.

Steve made eye contact with me for a moment, his gaze softening for a moment before he returned to work. "Is your name really Aurora? Like the princess?" the girl asked, staring up at me in wonder.

I nodded again, "Yeah, I guess"

"And Captain America? Is he your Prince?"

My eyes widened and I choked on my juice, coughing and spluttering in surprise. "What?" I wheezed, "N-no. Not exactly"

Our attention was suddenly caught by a tearing sound and we stared at Steve in surprise, watching as he ripped one of the logs in half with his bare hands. There was a tension between him and Stark, only being broken when Laura called the latter over to fix the tractor in the barn.

"Steve?" I asked quietly as I entered the small bedroom we had been forced to share. He glanced up at me, pencil hovering over a piece of paper. I took a seat next to him, seeing his sketch of a dark figure with a metal arm. "You're an artist," I smiled lightly as he placed the paper on the bedside table, "I'd never have guessed"

"I'm not that good, took a couple of classes back in the old days"

I let out a huff and edged a little closer to him, "Are you crazy? That's an amazing drawing!"

He shrugged and stared down at his fidgeting hands, "Would be if it wasn't so familiar"

"We'll find him, Steve. I know it" my hand reached out to hold his and he stared at me in surprise. There was a pause, "Did you see him in your vision?"

He silently shook his head, "No. But... she was there"

"Peggy?"

"Yeah," his tongue anxiously darted out to wet his lips and he cleared his throat, "She wanted me to... b-be with her, to stay there with her. A-and then you appeared"

My eyes widened in shock, "Me?"

He nodded, "You were there, you wanted me to choose. Then, you both vanished and I was alone"

There was a tense silence before I gained the courage to speak, "I was on a plane... the same plane that left me as an orphan twenty years ago. My parents were there, my brother, too. They wanted me to sit with them, to go down with them. And she was there, Melody. They just got angrier and angrier, blaming it all on me"

"There's something else, isn't there?" he asked after a moment, "You keep looking at me like I'm not there, like someone else is staring back at you"

"You were there. You were so angry," I traced my fingers against my neck as I spoke, "You said that I was breaking your heart. Steve, I'm so sorry that I hurt you"

He frowned and shook his head, taking both my hands in his. "You didn't hurt me. Sure, you're a little confusing, but you haven't hurt me" he assured me.

I sighed heavily and rested my head against his, "I just feel like I'm not the person you want me to be, like you fell for the idea of me and not the real deal. I know that's bullshit, but I can't do things the way you want to. I can't be all lovey-dovey, going on all these dates and... being all cosy in public. That's not me"

He moved back a little, his hands gently cupping my face to make our eyes meet. I shivered slightly as his thumb traced over the scar on my cheek. "I fell for you, Rory, I fell for the real deal. And I don't want those things if you don't want them. All I want is for you to be comfortable and happy," he murmured softly as he stared at me with a familiar emotion in his sky blue eyes, "So, what do you want?"

As I searched for the right words, I began to examine the tiny flecks of green in his blue eyes, the detail bringing an even bigger smile to my face. "I want this, I really do. I want the coffee afternoons that end up running into dinner, I want to talk and laugh, I want this," I gestured to the way we were holding each other, "But I don't want it to be a big thing. We don't need to put everything on show, we don't need everybody to know. I just want to be with you"

"I can do that," he beamed, "Can we be a little closer when people aren't around?"

"What do you think?"

His lips collided with mine, our kiss already needy and passionate. I leaned closer, a grin playing on my lips as I swung one leg over to straddle him. He moved his hands to my hips, pulling me closer and closer to him.

I let my hands wander, tracing his arms and chest until they finally settled at the back of his head. He began to trail kisses across my jaw, trailing down to the thin scar on my collarbone. My fingers gently ran through his blond locks, tugging on a couple of strands.

A quiet groan left his mouth and I chuckled kissing his lips again with just as much fervour. He suddenly rolled over, grinning as my head hit the pillows, platinum hair fanning out in a some sort of tangled halo.

We continued like that for a bit until I gripped onto his arms, attempting to flip us around again. Losing our balance, the two of us tumbled onto the floor with a loud thud. We stared at each other in shocked silence for a moment before a quiet chuckle fell from my lips. The room filled with the sound of laughter, any and all remnants of our pain fading away as we sat together on the ground, our sides aching from laughter.