Seeing Beyond

13

"We're gonna be here a few days until after Bucky gets put under, alright?"

"Alright," Aurora nodded with a sigh. Everyone else but the two and Bucky had left. "You know, T'Challa offered me asylum here."

"Me too."

"I've been thinking about it..."

"Rory, you said you wanted to go home."

"I really can't go back to RAFT, though. Do you know how awful that was? I got maybe four hours of social time in total while I was there. For a month," she reminded him.

"I know." Steve sat next to her, watching her face. It still had cuts that were visible, since she refused to let a doctor see her yet. To be fair, they'd just gotten there a few hours earlier. "Tony misses you. I know you miss him."

She thought about the silence she'd given Tony when he told her that he missed her in RAFT. She liked to think she didn't say anything, but a lot was said with that.

"I feel bad. I wouldn't talk to him when he left RAFT. I was mad, I didn't mean anything..."

"I know. Tony knows that too, deep down. He's got a good support system."

"Steve, he doesn't," the girl looked at him with huge eyes. "Jesus Christ, Pepper left, then I left, Rhodey is... I don't even know if Rhodey's alive!" she cried in realization

Steve sighed. "He's alive, just paralyzed in his legs."

"That's gotta kill him."

There was a few moments of silence.

"Steve, I don't know if Tony even wants me to come back."

Steve looked at her like she was an idiot. "I promise, there's nothing he wants more. You always brought out the best in him and he knows that. He appreciates everything you've done for him."

"I've fucked up so much, though. Like, especially lately. Even before this, I came home one night hammered while I was on my mission. How stupid am I?"

"Rory, don't beat yourself up. A lot's happened within the past few months and it's a lot to handle."

Aurora hadn't noticed herself starting to cry, but Steve did. He wiped some of the tears away and the girl looked even younger than she was. She'd come so far since they helped her leave HYDRA, yet she still felt so helpless.

Steve opened his mouth to fill the silence when Aurora had just realized how big this room was. Okay, maybe it wasn't that big, but compared to her little cell that she could barely pace in? It was a palace.

"Ugh. I'm crying."

"That's what happens when you're human."

"It's weakness. It means you're vulnerable and easy to take out."

"Feeling things isn't a crime, Rory." When he was met with silence, he gently lifted her head so that she would look at him. "It means you've got something to lose. That you don't wanna lose it. That you care."

She smiled a little at him. "This was all a lot easier when I wasn't supposed to act human, you know."

Steve laughed a little as the two heard a knock on the doorframe.

"Hi," Shuri smiled and entered the room. "Am I interrupting?"

"No, no," Aurora shook her head and quickly wiped her face. "I don't know if I've met you..."

"Shuri," she smiled and stuck a hand out. "You must be Aurora?"

"Yeah."

"Fantastic. I've been assigned to work on erasing HYDRA from Bucky's brain. I was told you also used to be apart of HYDRA, so I wanted to see if you'd like to give me some assistance on what might be in there."

"Um," the girl looked at Steve for reassurance. He gave a small nod. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. If I make it back to New York I can research methods there, too, if you'd like. I mean, we'd be far away but I'm gonna be in hiding so I'll have a lot of time to come back and forth."

"My brother talked to you about asylum here, yes?"

"Yeah. I really appreciate it and I might eventually, but I really need to fix my relationship with Tony. I'm kinda walking on a tightrope with almost everyone I care about," she gave a humorless laugh and realized what she said was actually kind of sad.

"I understand," Shuri smiled. "Just find me whenever you want to work on this and we can work on figuring out what Bucky needs when he goes under."

With that she left and Aurora deflated against the back of the couch. "I'm gonna make myself look like an idiot around her."

"Woah, she's not expecting Einstein or anything," Steve chuckled.

"But she's... so smart and pretty. And I have two black eyes."

"You've known her for two minutes, there's no way you can have a crush on her yet."

"Steve, I'm a teenager that got super-soldier serum as a child. That makes everything go insane. Hormones are whack."

"Uh--" Steve turned red and wasn't sure how to respond.

"I'm like a teenage boy," Aurora joked with a laugh. "I like basically anything that moves."

"Oh my God," Steve couldn't help but laugh while he turned red.

"Woah, what now? Did I come in at the wrong time?" Bucky asked a few steps in from the doorway.

"No, you're fine," Aurora motioned him over.

"If you're getting the talk I can--"

"I'm not getting 'the talk' from Steve," the girl rolled her eyes. "I'm talking to him about a crush and how this serum makes everything about you go insane."

"That's true. I don't know what you got, Steve, but our was definitely different. You never seemed to be as unstable as we are."

Aurora and Bucky high-fived. Steve's blush was just starting to go away. Aurora almost forgot sometimes that he wasn't the person who was most comfortable talking about any of that stuff with her.

"I'm warning you, Steve," the girl pointed, "I'm gonna start talking about the crush so if you're gonna be awkward you can leave."

"Noted," he nodded and stood up.