Ablaze {Marvel} ||2||

5. Drive

"Damn it," I hissed. Another nightmare got the better of me, waking me up for the third time in the span of a few hours.

The sun was starting to wake over New York, the sky was changing into interesting, beautiful colors. I loved when the sky did that. It brought a beauty to Earth, one that most ignored because they were always so focused on what was ahead of them that they didn't bother to look up.

I pushed the hair away from my eyes, shuffling out of bed to the window. The latch was locked. I thought back to our intruder a few weeks ago. She hadn't made a reappearance, and Todd and I hadn't had any problems since. Maybe it was just a fluke. Maybe it was nothing. But the whole scene itself was off, a few things still didn't make sense.

Right now, that was so far behind me that I didn't really care anymore.

I heard my phone vibrate. Yawning, I went to it. It was Steve. Message: Are you awake?

I rubbed my eyes, squinting at the unnecessarily bright light. How is he awake right now? I wrote back: Can't sleep?

His response: Nope. You can't either, it seems. Coming by soon.

This early? I wrote back.

No point in trying to fall back asleep if we know it's pointless to try.

I would give Steve credit for that. At this point, I had no intentions of sleeping again.

I threw on what I could, making some toast while Todd slept in his room. As long as I heard his snoring, I knew things were in order in the apartment. I munched on my small breakfast as I waited. I'd made sure to leave a small note for Todd. I didn't want to leave a text message, as the noise or even the light from his phone would disturb him.

When I heard the familiar soft purr of a motorcycle cut off, I knew Steve was here. I met him outside.

"Well, aren't you a morning person?" I teased him lightly. "Really couldn't sleep, huh?"

"You couldn't either," he reminded me. "So, want to get going?"

"Sure. Got any places in mind?"

"Nope. We're just gonna drive, see where the day takes us. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll let you take it for a spin."

I looked apprehensively at the sleek vehicle. Not that I hated the motorcycle, I would just prefer being a passenger than the driver.

"You'd be in good hands, I won't let you drive her blind," he told me, patting the bike affectionately. He tossed me a helmet. "Let's go."

"I'm not sure I need this. I'm Asgardian, I can take some rough hits."

"Safety first, Kiara. Humor me."

I did by strapping on the damn contraption.

Steve climbed onto the motorcycle, with me getting comfortable behind him. I flinched at the roar of the bike. I was better with it the third time around. We looked to make sure traffic was clear before pulling out.

I kept my arms respectively around Steve so I didn't go flying off the motorcycle. In turn, Steve didn't make any sudden knee-jerk reactions to send us flying or into an accident. He was careful in his driving.

Once we got through the worst of the New York traffic, Steve let the motorcycle go a little faster, let her breathe a little more.

I watched New York go by in blended blurs. When we moved with the bike, it was almost like time stopped or we were moving awfully fast compared to the rest of the world. When the lights held us up, we were part of the busy New York life. During our brief still periods, I took note of the fancy, upscale, very tall buildings. All that time and effort put in to create such massive architecture. This wasn't Asgard, but New York had its own sense of beauty.