Red, White and Black

Angel

Steve waited at the door to the room that Angel was using. T'Challa had told them Angel was cleared medically and even though he had wanted to jump up and rush to her immediately, he wanted to finish the discussion he had started with Bucky first.

So, it was much later when he finally arrived at her room. He was just thinking perhaps she wasn't even in when the door opened and she was there. Something flickered across her face. Some emotion he couldn't identify because it was there and gone again too quickly.

He tamped down the desire to reach out to her, not wanting to rush her after everything she had been through. But she moved into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face against him. Resting his cheek against the top of her head, Steve wrapped his arms around her and let go of the breath he wasn't even aware he had been holding.

"Wanna come in?" Angel asked quietly once she had pulled away.

"T'Challa suggested you get out of your room for a while..."

Her eyes crinkled a little at the corner as if she was trying to puzzle something out, but she agreed and reached back to shut the door.

"Bucky mentioned something about a garden? We could go there?" Steve suggested, tilting his head a little when he caught the flicker in her eyes at Bucky's name.

"Sure, it's this way," Angel turned to the left and started walking, Steve falling into step with her and modulating his stride to keep it at the pace she wanted to walk.

As Angel led him through the palace and out into quite the stunning garden, Steve said, "This place is one of the most unique and amazing places in the world."

"Wakanda has really come to feel like home," Angel said as she took Steve's hand to direct him off the path and over to a tree near a small creek. Steve settled onto the ground next to her watching in fascination as the wings they had given her flared for a moment before settling back tight against her body.

"So, they actually work?" Steve asked, ignoring the urge to reach out and touch them. They really were beautiful. They were pure white, with an almost silvery sheen to them in the moonlight.

Angel sighed deeply, "I don't know if I can like...fly...but they move and stuff. Shuri said they are, for all intents and purposes, appendages now. Like my arms and legs."

"Does she know how?"

"Loki is pretty sure some kind of magic was used, but even with his vast knowledge of sorcery, he's not exactly sure how either." Angel shifted, like she was uncomfortable, the wings making the barest whisper of sound as she did.

Steve leaned back against the tree, watching her profile as she looked down at her hands. He could tell that something was bothering her and he thought perhaps it was the wings.

"I think they are beautiful." Her head whipped towards him and he could tell she hadn't expected him to say something like that.

"Really?" He could hear the disbelief and self-doubt in her voice.

"Everything about you is a beautiful sweetheart. Of course, I think they are beautiful too."

Her eyes dropped away from him again and he heard that soft rustling as she shifted. Steve ran his fingers through his hair and then remembered her bracelet. Shifting so he could pull it out of his pocket, he touched her arm.

She looked back at him and he held it up as he said, "Sam found it. I figured you'd want it back..."

Angel burst into tears. Swearing under his breath, he reached out to her and tugged her into his lap, "Oh, hey, darling. It's okay."