Radioactive | Bucky Barnes

The First Avenger: Chapter One (Ignite)

Stagehands rushed around; preparing for the big show.

Rhiley Lucia Stark tapped her foot against the ground, picking at her uneven nails. She watched her brother from across the room.

Howard Stark, the main star, the famous inventor, the man behind the wheel of the world's first flying car, and Rhiley Stark's twin brother.

"Can you not?" Howard finally pries his eyes away from his notebook. Ink covered his hands. "It's distracting me." He annoyingly added at his sister's lack of boundaries with her eyes narrowed in on him. She watched him like her next target.

Rhiley was bored, "What else do you reckon I do Mr. Stark?" She questioned, eyebrow raised, with a cigarette raised to her lips.

Howard flares his arms out, "I don't know! Talk to people? Make friends? Socialize?" He swirled around his chair, counting each suggestion on his fingers. "Anything other than staring at me."

"I already have friends."

Howard sends a pointed look her way, "I'm your only friend," then gestured, "You make people uneasy"

"You just gestured to me?"

"Yeah, you intimate people with that-" He gestured to her again.

"I don't know what you're trying to say, Howie."

"Your personality is off-putting to people."

Rhiley snorted, "Thanks."

Howard did have a point that Rhiley couldn't ignore. She did rub people the wrong way. She happened to be a bit bullheaded, and though she could talk up strangers on the job, she found it difficult to make friends past the 'small talk' and 'surface level' conversations.

"I guess I could go flirt with the soldiers." She muses out loud, pushing herself off the wall. "Since I'm bugging you."

Howard sighed, and dropped his pencil, running a hand through his hair, "I mean emotional connections Rhiley," He stressed, "Not physical ones." He turns back around to find his sister has already left. 'She needs to make some friends.'

Of course, Howard loved his sister with his entire soul, but he swore his blood pressure spiked incredibly high because of her.

He shook his head letting out a sigh. She was going to be the death of him.

Rhiley made her way through the crowd, making little to no noise, brushing past people like a quiet breeze on a spring afternoon. This is what she was used to. This was her job. At least, before everything went to shit, of course.

Tonight was her last night of civilian life. It had been three months since the incident. The incident that took her out of the game. They had put her on leave, forced her on bed rest, and made her jump through hoops to get back to where she was before, and even now she still felt like she was under a microscope. One wrong mistake away from being locked away for good.

Three months of being watched over, Howard hovering over her like a concerned mother. Three months of being caged like an animal in her own home. Well, her brother's home.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Rhiley stops when she hears Howard's voice crackle through the microphone up on stage, "What if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won't even have to touch the ground at all?"

Of course, she couldn't help but feel grateful for being able to spend this time with Howard. She was torn between the need to spend time with her brother and finding her purpose in this life. There weren't many women who did what she did and she didn't want to lose the upper hand.