❝MR. STARK, THERE'S SOMEONE HERE TO SEE YOU.❞
❝WHO THE HELL IS IT?❞
❝WELL, SIR, SHE SEEMS TO THINK SHE'S YOUR DAUGHTER.❞
❝CHRIST.❞
❝ACTUALLY, IT'S CHRISTA.❞
POST- AVENGERS: AGE of ULTRON; PRE- CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
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"...you know I can lip-read pretty well, right?"
Hospital in Iowa - January 4th, 2016
"He got burned in several places, has a few broken bones, and a collapsed lung, but other than that he's fine."
That had been the unofficial summary of Angus's problems given to Christa by Clint Barton just hours ago. But to Christa, it seemed like the list should be a lot longer. She stood by his side in his hospital room, and dangit, he looked so freaking helpless and Christa couldn't quite grasp why. Okay, so she knew why--part of a building had collapsed on him while he was trying to keep it from collapsing on her with a freaking shovel--but he wasn't supposed to look like this. He was Angus. He just wasn't.
"So... officially deaf...?"
At least, that's what Christa thought he said. Being unable to hear just about anything, she wasn't exactly able to completely understand what people were saying. Reading their lips was currently her best option. And, as she had realized over the past couple of days lying in that hospital bed, she was pretty darn good at it.
Lucky her.
Christa nodded, letting out a sigh and then wrapping a weak arm around an even weaker chest. It had hurt slightly with the sigh. Even now, a few days later, her lungs still weren't fully used to breathing clean air again--or rather, they were getting over breathing in dust and smoke and bomb residue during that interesting experience. She was sitting in a seat beside Angus's hospital bed, having been let out of her own just hours ago. The nurses and doctors attending to her had finally deemed her able to walk--slowly, though. They had made sure of that.
"Cochlear damage is pretty damn permanent," she said. An air of sarcasm was in there, but it was half-hearted.
At Christa's obviously glum look, the brown-haired teenage boy gave a small smile. She wondered how he could muster to try cheering her up with all those tubes attached to him, all those healing scars painted across his body like faint graffiti.
"Hey... some... pool--" no... cool? "... characters... deaf. Hearthstone... Magnus Chase...." That's what she pieced together from what he said, anyway.
Christa rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to get you some water or something?"
Angus's dark brown eyes met hers and he gave a slightly teasing smile. He pointed at himself with a finger, giving her a thumbs-up, as if to say, "I'm good."
There was a slightly awkward pause for a moment.
"Do you... owl--" know how...? "--cool it is that Hawkeye... painted tutus--" saved you?? "--An Avenger," Angus finally said.
