Her White Wolf

Chapter One

James had only very recently moved into a bungalow opposite hers, across a glistening body of water. She wasn't spying on him, not by any means, but she could see his comings and goings. She even thought they'd made distant eye contact as he settled in last night and she raised her hand to wave, but she wasn't sure if he saw. Wakanda... had a way of saving people's lives. Changing them beautifully. He deserved a real chance at having that, too.

Cleo had seen him arrive back in what was perhaps only a temporary home and she afforded him some time to settle in from his day's activities. The last thing she wanted to do was pounce on him. She watched as he came out of the bungalow and settled, however briefly, to look out at the water.

Now. Now was a good time, she hoped anyway. With her long, dark hair braided thick and pulled over one shoulder, she pulled a light sweater over her petite shoulders and slowly took the walk around the water. One foot in front of the other, her light brown eyes eventually settled on the man's profile and unconsciously a gentle smile started at the edge of her delicate features.

He noticed her quickly, likely hearing her from quite a distance, and she slowed her pace to give him the chance to shoo her away if he didn't want visitors. She held her hands low, unthreatening and offered the startlingly blue-eyed man a friendly smile. "Hi, I really hope I'm not bothering you," she greeted carefully before she began to take a few steps closer. "It looks like we're sort of neighbors. I thought I would introduce myself." There was no presumption to her voice, no judgment or preconception. "I'm Cleo. I'm the resident veterinarian, and sometimes a human doctor in a pinch."

"James," he replied simply, watching her every move. Shuri said I should talk more... that I can trust the animal doctor. James took a breath. "You're not bothering me... there's not much to do here besides chores."

Cleo laughed lightly, nodding in understanding agreement at his mention of chores. "Keeps you busy. You just moved in, I'm sure you need some time to make it your own," she said, gesturing towards the small structure behind him.

James glanced behind him at the house they were letting him use. "I don't know how to make things my own. I've never had a place to call mine since..." he furrowed his brow and stared at the woven blanket that he sat on. "Since I was a kid I think... or a teenager."

She didn't know what it felt like to be unsure of a memory. She also didn't know that it would ache this much to watch this man search for confirmation. "Well, maybe now you do," she suggested with a friendly shrug, taking the few remaining steps in his direction before she reached the edge of the blanket. She didn't sit, though. She didn't want to barge into his space. She knew better than that. Instead, she glanced around and quickly found a stump that could easily be used as a chair. "Mind if I sit?" she asked unassumingly.

James shook his head then shrugged. "It's a free country. I can't say that I make very good company though."

His response drew the smallest of laughs from her, the awkwardness of the moment making the pit of her stomach tingle. "It is a free country," she agreed, loosely crossing her arms across her chest, though not in a way to shut him out. The evenings got cooler than one would expect. "That's alright. I've spent the last five years talking to goats, rhinos, cows... any animal you spot around here has probably been subjected to far too long a one-sided conversation with me." She turned her eyes out to the water in front of them. She always found peace there. "Listen, so... you don't have to talk about it at all, but I just wanted to say...thank you for helping save the universe," she shared more quietly.

James' lips pulled up almost as if he wanted to smile but it didn't make it. "I think there are a lot of others who did more than me." A ripple of movement in the lake caught his eye as he saw a fish grab a bug from the surface. "My friend did a lot more than me."