Bad Decisions

•FIFTEEN•

When she woke up hours later, Aurora found her bed empty, the sheets long since gone cold, the shades still drawn over the windows to block out the sun high in the sky already. There was a sweet ache between her legs, and probably at least one bruise on her neck, which reminded her that the night before had not been a fever dream, but had actually happened, though Noah had disappeared. Again.

She probably didn't handle all the information Noah had thrown at her all that well, but then again, how should one act in a situation like that? Smile and accept it? That just wasn't who she was though. And she had fallen asleep as soon as she had let herself snuggle into his form, her head on his chest, all of her energy wasted.

Aurora sat up slowly, remembering in detail every single moment from the night prior, letting the covers fall away from her bare body. She didn't yet get out of her bed, and instead, she sat in silence, listening. Her apartment was comfortably silent... until she heard the shuffle of pan along her cooktop, and the unmistakable sound of an egg cracking, and then another.

Noah was still there.

Aurora circled her arms around her knees, and let her eyes shut so she could focus on the sounds from the kitchen. He whisked the eggs in a glass bowl, then there was the crackle of butter hitting a hot pan, the quiet beep of the oven being shut off, then the door opening, and something getting pulled out.

Had her life not been snatched away from her and replaced by the one she was living now, would this be how it would sound? Noah, the man she was currently tasked to kill, making breakfast for them? Noah, the only one who held the key to her past, whom she could never kill now, and... her? Noah, and the woman called Sarah, who no longer existed?

Aurora's eyes popped open and she shuffled from her bed, the silken sheet sliding from her body as she stepped onto the thick, warm rug beneath her feet. She let herself into her closet and found a partially open black duffel bag sitting on the ground in the corner. In her agitation, she hadn't even noticed Noah carry it into her home the night prior, or where it sat until it was moved into the closet. It didn't irritate her, or upset her; instead, it warmed her, just a little, and she smiled down at it before she pulled out some jersey knit sweatpants and a matching crop top before she slid on a bathrobe.

She crept silently from the room, and stood in the dark hallway, leaning to the side where the light didn't reach her, her dark gray clothes helping her blend in, and she watched Noah in the kitchen. He wore a simple, black sleeveless shirt, his array of tattoos on proud display, and his hair was slightly mussed, like he had run his fingers through it more than a few times.

Noah flipped bacon on the stove, causing the fat to pop and sizzle, and probably splatter all over her kitchen. Then he turned and sliced up strawberries that he pulled from the sink, the ruby red fruit causing her mouth to water. She watched him slip a morsel of the fruit right between his lips, and it sent an ache right into her core. 

"You coming out anytime soon?" He asked, and Aurora started. Noah hadn't even looked her way; he knew she was there just from her presence alone, the change in the pressure of the apartment, the shift of the shadows she stood in.

"I see you made yourself at home," she said, stepping into the darkness of her living room, and then into the bright kitchen. Her eyes fell on the counter he had made a mess on and her eyes snagged on- "Did you make cinnamon rolls?"

He smiled deviously. "You have no good food in this place. No eggs, no bacon, no fruit; nothing. Do you just live off of malice and wine?"

Aurora rolled her eyes. "No, I have a strict diet to maintain a certain level of fitness. In the mornings, I have a smoothie along with a coffee, and most days I get take out for lunch or dinner."