New Mission

A Day in the Life

*Continuing on from last chapter...*

"Hey!" Mia shouted immediately following James out of the bedroom "Wait. Let me get dressed, we'll go out for breakfast."
"No it's fine, I'll bring something in-" James tried to argue but he was cut off.
"No. I need to wait on something - there's this amazing place in Midtown we'll go there - then it'll be ready."
"What will be ready?"
"A point I need to prove to you."
"Do I have any say in this matter?"
"Nope."
"Right."
"You wanna go home and get changed first or are you ok going like that?" Mia asked James noticing that he'd made his date outfit more casual with his shirt unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up.

"I'll just go like this." He decided.
"Ok. Give me 2 minutes."

Before they left Mia set everything up that she needed to prove her point to James later on which included setting a pan of water over hot coals.

The journey uptown had been quiet and slightly awkward and now that they were sitting down eating their breakfast Mia broke the silence: "Why are you mad at me?"
James sighed before answering "I'm not mad at you - I'm annoyed at you and mad at myself."
"Why?" She repeated.
"Because you promised- you promised you would tell me to stop if I hurt you." Siobhan let out a single chuckle as she shook her head and smirked. "How is this funny?" James asked confused.
"You'll see." She replied cryptically "You won't believe me if I tell you, so I'll show you."
"Right, the point you want to prove to me."
"Mmm-hmm."
"You're starting to make me curious about this."
"Then eat up."

As they were walking back to the subway station James stopped suddenly realising something: "Babe, we forgot a condom last night. Shit! I'm so sorry. To be honest I didn't expect to need it; first dates in the 40s were quite different-"
Whilst James was speaking Mia was thinking it over and trying to remember for herself before quickly coming to the same conclusion. "Hey, it's ok. I'm on the pill." She reassured James resting her hands on his chest "Um, that serum made you stronger. Did it make everything stronger? Like, the pill will still counteract your swimmers?"
"Honestly, I have no idea how it affected that - HYDRA didn't investigate that. Thank God. That I'm aware of." James added on nervously at the end. Squeezing his hand in comfort Mia looked around noticing a CVS on the corner "Come on, we'll jump in here and get the morning after pill just in case."

Back at Mia's apartment she quickly grabbed a glass and filled it up from the tap to swallow the tablet before letting the tap run to fill up the whole sink.
"So what do you want to show me?" James asked.
"You're afraid to hurt me. I'm gonna prove you can't. Normally, I'd just fight anyone who questioned my abilities but you are currently afraid to squeeze my hand so that's no gonna happen. So, I'll show you this way." She explained bringing the pan of boiling water on hot coals over to the sink "Come here."
"What are you doing?" James asked nervously as he took in her apparatus.
"I remember when I began training to be a warrior. I was angry and hurt, the pain was unbearable." Star explained before reaching over for the ladle "Like this." She continued as she poured the hot water over the back of her hand.

"You're out of your mind put your hand in here!" James exclaimed grabbing her hand and trying to put it in the sink with the cold water but he was met with resistance.
"Every warrior must learn the simple truth, that pain is inevitable and suffering is optional." And with that she poured more water over her hand. "I did, obviously. So I'm sorry I didn't tell you to stop last night but the truth is you didn't hurt me."
"If I say ok and forget about it will you please put your hand in cold water now!?" Bucky pleaded frantically.
"Promise no more freak outs or getting mad at you or me and you've got a deal." Mia countered.
"Fine deal."
"Okay." She said putting her hand in the sink.

Later on at nighttime Mia realised a problem - her broken bed. "Are we staying at yours tonight then?"
"I don't own a bed, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Well maybe you can enlighten me into the delights of the floor."
"I'm not gonna make you sleep on the floor. You sleep on your couch tonight and I'll see you in the morning for furniture shopping." James said pecking her forehead, nose and lips.
"I wanna see your place." Mia begged "If that's ok." She added quickly.
"Yeah, yeah that's ok." James reassured quietly "Come on, go pack a bag."

The couple took the subway over to Brooklyn and as Bucky unlocked the door and let Mia in he asked "What do you think? And be honest." Siobhan looked around scanning the apartment "It's very... minimalistic." Bucky raised and eyebrow "Ok, bare would be more accurate." Bucky nodded laughing slightly.
"Hey, can I ask? I get the whole no bed thing, but you've been here a few months now. Why haven't you made it more homey." Siobhan asked slightly concerned.
"I don't know. I guess it didn't feel like a home just a place to live until the next thing happened or something went wrong. Everything in my life has always ended in a fight."
"Yeah I know that feeling, but that's normally the fun part."

"Okay, so I'm gonna go down and grab us dinner from that place on the corner I showed you on the way up. I'll be back in like 15 minutes, find something on the TV, love you."
"Wait, can I give you the money for it you paid for dinner last night. I don't like being in debt to people."
"No, don't worry it's not a debt."

Bucky did return in 15 minutes but they immediately forgot all about their food:

Once they were done Mia noted "I think I heard your phone bleep whilst we were..."
"Yeah, I did too but no way was I stopping." James said smiling before reaching over for his discarded phone on the floor. "It's Sam. He's having a party to celebrate fixing the boat."