I Am

One

Her foot tapped as she tried to get comfortable on the hard bench she was sitting on. Her elbows dug into her thighs, then her palms pressed into the seat on either side of her, her legs crossed at the ankles beneath the bench, then stretched out in front of her...

Steve smiled as he turned away from the cockpit "It'll be fine," he promised her as he made his way over and sat opposite.

"We're breaking people out of prison," Harper answered with a shake of her head "Excuse me for being a little nervous."

"I've seen you fight, I'm sure you can hold your own," a voice, one belonging to Natasha Romanoff, yelled from the pilot's seat. Her head peered around the large seat she was in, a smile on her face "We need all the help we can get."

"That doesn't help but thank you!" Harper called back, hint of sarcasm in her tone as she pushed her fingers through her hair.

Natasha had showed up just before Steve and Harper were about to leave. She emerged from where she had been hiding with her signature red hair gone, cut into a severe blonde bob which framed her beautiful face perfectly, and tight lips when asked where she had been.

Harper had breathed a sigh of relief as soon as she had stepped off the jet she'd arrived in, if Steve had Natasha he didn't need her - the team was complete and she'd just be an extra. In the way even.

But that hadn't happened. She still had to squeeze into the suit Steve had given her at the airport, uncomfortable from being made specifically for another body, and board the jet. She had to sit on the uncomfortable bench and watch as the safety of Wakanda disappeared into the distance.

"Coming in to land!" Natasha called from up front and Steve looked up once more, casting a smile over to where Harper was wringing her hands together.

Her stomach twisted before she straightened up, stretching her neck from side to side before she pushed herself up onto her feet. Her eyebrows raised as she shared a glance with Steve, the two of them standing at the doorway of the jet as Nat came in to land. Despite her nerves she couldn't stop the adrenaline from coursing through her veins, a spark of excitement joining it.

"Okay Harper," Steve said, trying to reassure her as much as possible "Just like we practised."

"Are you daydreaming again?"

She jumped, raising her chin from where she'd been resting it in the palm of her hand. Plastering a smile onto her face she spun the chair she was sitting in so she was facing where Shuri was standing "No."

"You know, you're supposed to be here to learn," Shuri said, folding her arms over her chest "And to keep me entertained, it's very boring in the lab when I'm alone."

"Sorry, sorry," Harper said, straightening up in her chair "I'm just a little distracted. You did put my..." she paused, her eyebrows twitching into a frown before she continued "Bucky in the fridge and I haven't been able to see him since."

Shuri rolled her eyes "It was only like last week," she waved off "And you're forgetting I also lost my father. Dead. Not coming back."

"Yeah, well it's not a competition," Harper huffed, catching Shuri's eye and sending her a smile. Pushing herself up onto her feet she crossed the shiny floor of the younger girl's lab, leaning over to see what she was working on "Is this my suit?"

"Maybe," Shuri answered, the smile of an inventor at work coming to her lips "But it is still a work in progress," she continued, guiding Harper away from her desk "So maybe you should just sit and daydream about the day you almost became an avenger."