Babydoll

The plan

In the weeks after the closet incident things mellowed out a bit between the couple. Instead of lashing out after a long day, Aurora would send Bucky a heads up text to warn him if she needed space or that she really needed to talk. Because he was right. She couldn’t bottle up all of the stress she’d been shouldering since she’d taken over for her father only to lash out on the man she loved. Or any one else to be fair. There may or may not have been another incident preceding the one with Buck with Piet. Her friend had shown up at the office for a surprise bestie lunch date wanting her to take a break when she had been in the midst of a crisis that only she could handle. And Rory might have snapped at him a little too harshly when she informed Pietro that she didn’t have the time to take off when she was trying to deal with a shipping issue on some parts for the prototype they couldn’t build in-house. 

Not only had she instantly felt bad, it had strained her relationship with the speedster. Briefly. Since the shiver-inducing ‘lesson’ with Bucky that she regularly thought about whenever she noticed the picture of the two of them on her desk, Rory made time in her schedule once a week to set aside for Piet to eat with her. Sure it was in the office. But it was better than not taking any time to keep up a friendship with someone who she'd become so close to in the ten months since Aurora had come back to New York. Pietro Maximoff had become like another brother to her, hell, even her own brother had gotten just as close to the Sokovian. Which was nice because then it meant Rory didn’t have to feel any guilt with how much time she spent with her bestie. Like today for example, they were currently seated in the sitting area of her father’s office that had temporarily become hers, each with a take out box from their favorite dim sum restaurant. 

Heels kicked off, Aurora sat with her legs drawn up under her on the couch that Pietro lounges next to her on with his own shoes off as he stuffed his face with porky goodness. For once he took his time as he ate listening to her unload about the stubborn man she called dad. Poking at her last Har Gow with her chopsticks, she lets out a snort of annoyed laughter. “He thinks that I don’t know when he ‘sneaks’ into the building. As if I wouldn’t have security send me a heads up. Or Marty who rats him out when he shows up to the R&D lab. The man is tired of having my dad hovering over him.” Shaking her head, Aurora pops the dumpling into her mouth. Speaking after she swallows. “And I don’t blame him. My dad is supposed to be taking it easy. Taking it easy isn’t micromanaging everything from afar, only to still come in when things aren’t going as quickly as he wants.”

Leaning over to the large round glass coffee table to snag a daan tart, Pietro shrugs. “Well, can you blame him?” At her wide eyes he tacks on, “Come on, Rory. The man has built this place from the ground up into one of the largest airplane manufacturers–”

“That’s not all we do.” Aurora mutters around the siu mai she was currently chewing. Building planes was what her family was known for but there was so much more to it than that simplified description. When it came to anything that let Richard Donahue apply his eager engineer's mind to, they had their hands in it. Add in her mother's interests of fashion, food and art with the lifestyle magazine she started fifteen years ago. One that had turned into a huge sensation when they'd turned it into an app that regularly had people's favorite actors, chefs, designers and musical artists making cameos. Then on top of the world loving anything to do with the Avengers, they wanted to buy stock in their company to say they had some kind of connection to the heroes. It was the same with Tony and Stark Industries. 

Arching his dark brows he snarks at her making Aurora sit up a little more. “Don’t interrupt me when I’m trying to make a point, Donahue.” Piet pauses to make sure Aurora would keep her trap shut only speaking once she huffs out a sigh and nods for him to continue. “Anyway, like I was saying. This company was his baby before he ever had you and Matt. Of course Richard is going to have a hard time letting go of the reins. Even if he trusts you and his employees.” When she would have opened her mouth to argue, Pietro adds, “Rory, you have to remember that he lost control of his life and his business during an important time for D.A. And it happened so fast.”