⎯⎯ AURORA HAS ALWAYS LOOKED OVER HER SHOULDER, MOSTLY DUE TO SEVERE ANXIETY, BUT RIGHT NOW... IT FELT LIKE SHE WAS BEING FOLLOWED. A lot of the time, it's just her nerves. But as Aurora walks down the crowded streets of New York, the Avengers Tower in her peripheral vision... a strange feeling rushes down her spine.
As if someone were actually following her. She glances back quickly, just long enough to see a pair of men in suits. That was normal, what wasn't normal was how their bodies were positioned. They stood tall and both looked in different directions, except they had nothing in their hands like many businessmen usually did.
She knew that they should have something, a briefcase, a phone to their ears... but they walked with wide stances as Aurora looked ahead of her, chewing on her bottom lip. She tries to remember anything from the many movies she's seen in her life, the only thing she can think of is taking a couple of left turns before going right. The foolproof way to prove that the men were following her.
Aurora kept her pace slow and steady, although late, she knew that if these strange men were following her that they'd notice a bit of fear in her body. As she took two, three, four left turns she found herself gnawing her lips raw. The cool midmorning breeze drying the damp skin as Aurora takes an unprecedented right turn.
"Please don't be there, please don't be there..." She muttered under her breath before looking back and sure enough, the men were walking at a farther distance... but they were still there. In an instant, Aurora forced her body to start sprinting, even pushing people out of the way as she did so.
She ran as fast as she could toward the tower, trying to keep it in her view as she dashed across the road. Someone blared their car horn at her and she flipped them off and spared a glimpse behind her, the men now catching up. When Aurora was met with a bench, she hiked her satchel up against her side and just ran up the bench before jumping off the back of it.
Avengers Tower was nowhere to be seen, Aurora could hear her heart beating in her ears as she sprinted across a small patch of grass and turned into an alleyway. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." Aurora did the little 'there's nowhere to go' shuffle before turning around upon hearing footsteps at the front of the alleyway.
The men are surprisingly just as out of breath as she is, "Stop!" One of them yelled and Aurora gave him a confused look.
"Stop!? You're fucking following me!" Her arms lifted and fell to her side as the men stayed still.
"Mr. Stark asked us to make sure you were safe," This made Aurora's brain glitch momentarily.
Aurora looked between them, they didn't look too threatening. Only tall... and broad... "Wait, wait, wait, Tony fucking Stark, paid you, to follow me?"
They met the eyes of each other and nodded, "Yea, basically. We aren't murderers. I promise, my name is John." He extended his hand and Aurora just stared at it.
"Yea, okay, "not" murderers... explain why Tony wanted you to uh- follow me?"