The Winter Soldier's Lost Love

Chapter 2

With her classes finished, and graduation not too far out, Grace found herself with actual free time. A couple of months back such a thing was unheard of. She'd always be picking up shifts at the diner, trying to keep on top of bills and putting money into savings. Today she lived in what is called an Avengers' funded house, a term she's sure is made up and pulled out of Tony Stark's ass. But the bills were paid, and despite her arguments, and the numerous profanity filled voice mails, there was no way out of it. She wanted to fight it, but then she realized the amount of pressure it took off of her and she just decided to let it go and accept it. It allowed her to actually work part time at the diner, while in school, to make enough for food and necessities.

Today, she had no classes, she had the day off, Trey was in school and so Grace decided to step out of her routine and do something spontaneous. She took a cab to the city and decided to just explore. She'd lived in New York for years and never really got to experience it. It kind of felt like she'd become one of those people she'd watched from that window in the diner.

Things were going well for the first hour, she'd poked into a couple of shops, did a little shopping. It wasn't until she stopped at a coffee cart, did the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She glanced around, unsure why she felt as if someone was watching her. With as many people moving about the street around her, it was hard to pin point anyone. She rolled her eyes at her own paranoia before turning when she realized it was her turn to order. With her coffee in her hand, she turned and nearly bumped into a person walking toward her.

"Oh, I'm so-" when she looked up and saw their face, her eyes widened. "Yelena? I didn't know you were going to be in the city. I would've called, we could've drove out together."

"It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I didn't have anything to do and wanted to pretend to have some kind of life so I thought I'd come here, try to find a gift for my sister's birthday."

"Any luck?"

"No," she nudged her head and the pair began walking. "She's a hard one to shop for. Totally lacks any kind of style whatsoever." she smiled as she turned to Grace. "She mentioned liking my vest once though, but I can't find one like it anywhere." Grace just laughed, her eyes glancing up to a digital billboard, and the smile fell from her face. Yelena noticed the look and followed her eyes to see the billboard that showed the asshat dressed as Captain America.

"This doesn't seem real." Grace said with a shake of her head. "Steve is Captain America, Captain America is Steve. They can't just put a shield in somebody's hands and deem them Captain America."

"Why do you even care?" Yelena asked and Grace sighed as she looked over to the woman. Grace met Yelena at Berkeley, and she'd only shared minor details about her life. Trey and Colin were the main things, but nothing about her family, or her association with the Avengers.

"I don't really. Trey is a fan and I guess I'm getting more into it than I should." Grace turned away and took a sip from her cup. She turned to Yelena. "So you know what you're doing next semester? Taking a break or pushing forward?"

"I haven't decided yet." Yelena shrugged as she turned to Grace. "Have you decided to go for the gold, and stick around for two more years to get your masters so I won't be a total loner?"

Grace laughed, " No, I think I need to get back to real life. Maybe I can start looking for a job that doesn't make me want to hit people." she turned away with a shake of her head. "Colin offered me a trip to anywhere I wanted to go to celebrate my graduation."

"And you said no, right?"

"Of course I said no, but he's getting persistent. He also offered the trip even if he didn't go."