Daylight | Bucky Barnes x OC

i. enter, aurora.

song of the chapter: california dreaming - the mamas and the papas.

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Green eyes flickered open, being met with none other than the white plaster ceiling of the Washington, D.C condo in which Aurora Blake resided. Nothing initially felt out of the ordinary as she glanced to her bedside, scanning over the red digital numbers which displayed the time as 'ten forty seven. She was late for work.

Rory, as she preferred to be called, sat up with a jolt - inhaling softly as she kicked the ivory comforter to one side and rose to her feet, pushing her messy blonde hair out of her face as her bare feet padded over to the ensuite of her bedroom, flicking the light on as she entered.

It wasn't until she looked in the mirror, noticing the faint hues of purple bruising that had kissed her left cheek, that she remembered that she wasn't actually late for work. Rory softened her posture as she decided to take a slow walk back to her bed and sit back down, fighting the urge to go back to sleep.

The reality was, she was no longer late for anything. S.H.I.E.L.D, or HYDRA as it actually was, no longer existed. The knowledge of this fact alone made Rory lay back as the various aches across her body overtook her, harsh reminders of the battle from the week before. Aurora had done the same thing for the past week, each morning waking with the mindset that she had somewhere to be - the routine so ingrained in her that even after almost seven days, Rory was still doing the same thing.

It was times like this that the headstrong blonde was reminded of how painfully human she really was, that no matter how smart and strategic she was - Aurora Blake was still only human (well, sort of).

Without sitting up, Rory reached a delicate hand back to fumble over her nightstand and lazily grab her phone while somehow managing to remain horizontal. As she pressed the 'on' button, her eyes squinted - feeling more sensitive to the light than usual. After a moment of adjustment, Aurora managed to unlock the device, eventually finding the willpower to scan over the words in the text messages she hadn't bothered to read due to her extended period of sleep that morning.

The majority of messages were either sales pitches or spam, the only one catching Aurora's attention was a text from none other than Steve Rogers. Considering he had spent the time since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a hospital bed, she was eager to hear from him. She pressed on the message, opening it so she could properly read what he had sent.

"Aurora, I hope you are doing okay. Got out of hospital last night, are you free to meet? Steve."

The wording of the message made Rory chuckle softly to herself, the way he introduced the message and signed off was so old fashioned and she appreciated the formality.

Rory had met Steve around three years previous, being assigned as his glorified tour guide when he got out of the ice as an attempt to keep her from any real agent work. Since then, they had fought together in the battle of New York and recently took HYDRA down together, it was safe to say the two of them were close so Aurora was happy to jump on the chance to see him now that he was back on his feet.

She quickly typed out a response to his message.

"Hey Steve, I'd love to. Give me a time and place and I'll be there." Aurora replied, quickly hitting send before standing up once more, this time for real, as she headed to the bathroom to get ready now that she actually had a reason to get ready.

She once again faced herself in the mirror, this time using her reflection to aid herself in clipping back her blonde locks so she didn't get them wet while she showered. Aurora peeled off the oversized grey band t-shirt that she had worn to bed, leaving her in her panties - which she kicked to one side before getting into the large, tiled, waterfall shower.