A Reckless Soul | Captain America ✓

REPERCUSSIONS

"I'm perfectly content where I am," she replied, slowly pivoting her head back around to observe the cloudy sky, buildings, and people driving or walking somewhere.

She audibly heard Zachary drawl out a sigh, long and whiny. "You're such a stick in the mud."

He had expected a comeback but he received dead air in response. A few more minutes of crude and awkward stillness grew between the siblings. Zachary's suspicion thus began to brew.

Rather than speak, he continued to watch as she intently viewed the sunset. The orange glow splashed across half her face, brightening a bit of the dullness that lay there captured from her bitter attitude.

Audrey grew farther and farther away from this world as she was enraptured in the evenings beauty, yet troubled from the previous day. The sunset crept behind buildings in the distant horizon, creating long dark shadows along walls of other structures and on the ground. Audrey observed two doves flying into clouds dusted in oranges and pinks. The setting sun illuminating the fluffy white vapors aloft in the heavens.

Bored, she took care in how they fluttered and twirled until they flew into the bright sunshine and was casted in silhouette. She grumpily scowled at the two innocent birds as they flew off and out of her sight.

Audrey took a large sip of her hot coffee—internally wishing for tea but sadly discovering she ran out—and enjoying the burning sensation down her throat as a means to forget everything that happened in the past twenty four hours. Even if it were for a few seconds. Her fingers unintentionally tightened around her hot mug. "Audrey," Zachary tentatively called out to his sister, seemingly trapped in her own thoughts. "Would you like to talk about what's bothering you?"

"No."

"Too bad. Sit over her child."

"Zach—"

"I'm the oldest. No protesting is allowed, now get your skinny butt over here."

"What could be taking them so long?"

The query at first had Zachary confused. He remained seated in silence thinking, and when finally he understood, he blurted, "Maybe Fury is interrogating the Winter Soldier and they have to be present?" Audrey snorted in responds, as if she doubted that was the cause of her having to be locked away in her new apartment space like Rapunzel.

The Englishwoman turned around and leaned on part of the windowsill, hands still gathered around her mug. She stared at her brother for the longest time until he flickered his eyes to the empty spot next to him, then back to her, then repeated the action.

A single heavy breath rushed out her nose as she reluctantly peeled herself off the window, padding on bare feet over to her brother who now sat upright. She plopped down on the furniture beside him with an aura of frustration.

Zachary on the other hand, studied her profile. She felt his brown eyes searing through her and mutely said nothing under his gaze. But soon she had enough of being the center of attention, and flicked her eyes over to him. "What?" she asked with a bit of a snarl in her voice.

"Don't 'what' me, you know what. Do I even have to ask what?"

Her inky eyelashes fluttered shut when she breathed in, then once more breathing heavily outward. Immediately the tension in her body vanished and she sunk further into the couch, as if to be swallowed away in the cushions and to never return from this miserable world. She opened her eyes but didn't look to Zachary, instead she turned her teary sight to the side. "Is this really about dad, or does your grumpy attitude have something to do with the Captain?"