linger » james buchanan barnes AU/OC

turn your nose up

The next morning, Saoirse got up early and went to Camden Street to try and find some second hand school books. The walk was quiet, it was seven in the morning. She found peace in the silence, she didn't smile at passers by and they didn't smile at her. It was nice to just be able to go about her day without faking friendliness. She arrived at the bookshop before it opened, so she decided to go to the shop and get some coffee.

The coffee was bitter and hot, she didn't like coffee even, but she felt like normal people her age enjoyed it so she carried on with drinking it. It warmed her tummy. She thought about who may have owned the books she would buy before her, how their fingerprints would touch but she would have no idea whose they were. She ended up throwing her coffee in a near bin. She waited in the bookshop queue for a while.

As it opened, she wandered in, scouring the seemingly endless shelves for material she could use. It didn't look very positive. The smell in the shop was old and dusty, filling her nostrils with a familiar but off putting smell of the public library. She frowned a little. At the end of her shop, she had purchased one book for a euro and seventy cents.

She began her walk home, her head beginning to pound- not from her hangover but from her lack of sleep. She groaned internally.

Her phone buzzed in her pants pocket.

Steve Rogers: where are you?

me: I went to get books

Steve Rogers: of course. Can you pick me up a sausage roll on the way back?

me: sure.

Saoirse made it to the shop at the bottom of George's street and bought various deli items for everyone back home. She wasn't particularly hungry herself at this hour, but she knew that later she would be grateful for them. The walk to campus from there was a mere 5 minutes. She was slow, walking and taking in the beginning of the Dublin City chaos around her.

Once she arrived at home, Natasha and Steve were lazed on the couch watching RTÉ News. It was some story about the European Union. Disinterested, Saoirse walked upstairs to have a shower. When she finished, she wrapped her dripping hair into a towed and cozied herself in a bath robe. She sat on her bed and scrolled through her phone for a while.

She was watching a video essay about an old album she liked when she received a text from Bucky.

Bucky: that movie sucked.

She laughed a little at this.

me: oh, have you tried watching it again?

Bucky: no. What r u doing?

me: I had a shower and I'm lying on my bed. You?

Bucky: Going to make breakfast I think. Do u want me to bring u some?

Saoirse frowned a little. That seemed like a lot of effort for him.

me: it's ok. I went to gay spar and got some sausage rolls and bits. Thanks tho.

Bucky: no worries.

-

Later that night, Saoirse's neighbour invited them all to a party. In the mirror, she fiddled with her brown hair. She adjusted her fringe, smoothed down her dress and smeared the blush on her cheeks a little, to soften it. Her dress was a white linen material with some lavender flowers scattered over it. Nothing too sexy nothing too prude. She forced a smile at herself in the mirror. She felt pretty.

She went to the kitchen and found Natasha and Steve drinking beers as they waited. Natasha had done herself up a little more- she was in a white blouse and a bodycon black skirt. She looked really pretty- gorgeous even. Steve just wore a shirt and pants, leaving a few buttons open at the top.