"You really think we should crash a funeral?" Arden asked Natasha as they walked up the steps.
"It's not really crashing when you knew her, and I'm just here for support for you and Steve. We'll just stand in the back." Natasha insisted, at the top of the steps.
Arden sighed, following her in, sliding past a few people to find a spot in the back. Arden bobbed her head around, looking for Steve, spotting his tall figure in the very front row, moving her eyes to a woman making her way to the mic.
"Isn't that Sharon, the girl that Steve had a small crush on?" Arden whispered to Natasha, pointing at the stand.
"Sharon... Carter. I didn't even put that together, that's Peggy's niece." Natasha figured out.
"Steve was crushing on his ex-girlfriend's niece? That's gross." Arden scrunched her face.
"Sounds like jealously." Natasha teased her.
Arden rolled her eyes, listening to the rest of the speech, along with others. Standing in the very back until the church was cleared, seeing Steve stand alone in the aisle near the front.
"You coming?" Arden looked back at Natasha.
"Go ahead." She replied.
Arden walking up behind Steve, her footsteps giving her away. Steve turning around to glance at her, leaning against the bench.
"When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out she was alive. I was just lucky to have her." Steve mentioned.
Arden give him a weak smile. "She had you back, too."
He returned the smile, sighing as he looked towards the doors, spotting Nat and nodding at her.
"Who else signed?" He asked Arden, changing the subject.
"Tony, Rhodey, Vision." She answered.
"Clint?" Steve added.
"Says he's retired."
"Wanda?"
"TBD." She answered.
"And you?" He asked her, looking into her eyes.
"I'm a ghost remember? I'm not an Avenger." She reminds him. "The accords technically don't apply to me."
"Then why stick around?" He sticks his hands in his pockets, truly curious.
"Because it's affecting the people I care about." She admitted, looking into his eyes so he knew she was being genuine.
"Nat?" Steve asked, looking over his shoulder, as she walked up to them.
"I'm headed to Vienna to sign. Just because it's the path of least resistance doesn't mean it's the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together." Natasha expressed.
"What are we giving up to do it?" He countered, and Natasha sighed.
She rubbed his arm, giving him a weak smile before walking away.
"I'm sorry, I just can't sign it." Steve admitted.
Arden sighed, nodding at him. "I know."
"Then why are you here?"
"I didn't want you to be alone." She sighed, looking up at his sad blue eyes.
She took a step forward, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders as his wrapped around her waist, squeezing her tight, burrowing his face into her neck. She was going to try to convince him on getting on the jet with her, but she knew he wasn't going to change his mind. Instead, she headed to Vienna with Nat.
"You haven't aged a day."
Arden turned smiling, giving him a small nod. "King T'Chaka. You have aged gracefully."
"You've always been kind." He replied, and she smiled as they shook hands.
"I would like you to meet my son, Prince T'Challa." He mentioned, his son walking up to them.
"Princess, it's a pleasure." T'Challa greeted her quietly, nodding his head at her.
Arden looked around, making sure no one was in listening reach and smiled.
"The pleasure's mine, my prince." She praised back.
An announcement went off, cuing everyone to take their seats to get started. While King T'Chaka was speaking, she noticed T'Challa pacing by the window, looking down onto the street, when she had chills shoot up her spine.
"Everybody get down!" T'Challa shouted, running towards his father, leaping towards him, while Arden turned towards the crowd widening her arms but she was too late, the explosion came faster than she anticipated.
When she regained consciousness, she looked up, coughing out the dust from her lungs, pulling herself up to look around as her ears were ringing. Spotting T'Challa holding his father's lifeless body in his arms while he wept, along with other survivors trying to help each other. Arden shook her head, moving towards hurt civilians, trying to assist them out of the room. After making it outside, Natasha found Arden, shoving a phone into her hands, showing the latest news discovery of the suspect of the bombing to be Bucky.
"I've been keeping tabs on him. He wouldn't do this." Arden defended, looking up at Natasha in shock.
"That's all I have right now." Nat responded.
Arden sighed, throwing her head back, taking in a deep breath so she didn't get overly emotional, seeing T'Challa sitting alone on a bench behind Nat. She patted Nat's shoulder, brushing past her to sit on the bench beside him.
"I'm sorry, he was a good man." She apologized, getting his attention.
"In my culture, death is not the end. It's more of a stepping-off point." T'Challa informed her, she noticed his anger rising as he squeezed his fists.
"T'Challa-"
"Don't bother. I'll kill him myself." T'Challa cut her off, walking away.
Before she could try to stop him, Natasha pointed at her phone, waving Arden over. Natasha point the call on speaker, seeing that Steve had called.
"She's right here." Natasha informed Steve.
"You all right?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah. I got lucky, I guess." She replied, shocked to hear him so worried about her, she started looking around, feeling that he was closer than she thought.
Nat noticed her looking around, furrowing her brows as she pulled the phone closer to her.
"I know how much Barnes means to you, I really do. But you need to go home, or you'll make things worse. For all of us. Please." Natasha advised him.
"Are you saying you'll arrest me?" Steve assumed.
"Dick." Arden whispered, continuing to look around her.
"No." Natasha scoffed. "Someone will. That's how it works now."
"If he's this far gone, I should be the one to bring him in."
"Why?" Arden jumped back in.
"Because I'm the one least likely to die trying." He answered, hanging up the phone.
"I can track him." Arden confidently said to Nat.
"Go." Natasha agreed. "Tony's going to want you back at the office when I go back."
Arden sighed, nodding. "I know."
She was able to track Steve back to a coffee shop up the street, seeing the back of Steve and Sam's heads at the bar. Rolling her eyes at the fact that they thought a hat and a pair of sunglasses were going to hide them from her or anyone really. Seeing a full head of blonde hair, she took a deep breath before walking up beside Sharon.
"Tips have been flowing in since that video went out. Most of it's noise." Sharon commented.
"Great, so which noise is useful?" Arden announced herself, leaning on the counter, smirking at Steve and Sam.
Steve swallowed, nervous and surprised, while Sam chuckled, clearly trying to hide his amusement but Arden smirked at him anyways.
"This." Sharon answered, furrowing her brows at Arden, sliding a file towards Steve.
"You better get moving then, Shar-Bear, don't you have orders to shoot on sight?" Arden spit out.
Sharon glanced at Steve one last time, before slipping away, Arden scooting towards Steve.
"How'd you find us?" Steve asked, looking around.
"I didn't bring any heat, relax." Arden reassured him. "If you really think a hat is going to hide you well enough from me, you're not as smart as I thought you were."
"Come on. I know where he is." She added, interlacing her arm with Steve's, leading them out of the shop.
"Yeah, it's in this file that Sharon gave me." Steve argued, removing his arm from her.
Arden rolled her eyes, pulling Steve around the corner where less people were near them.
"You really trust her more than me?" Arden asked sternly.
He sighed, looking away.
"Wow." Arden spit out, widening her eyes.
"What? I didn't say that." Steve defended.
"You hesitated." Sam backed Arden, and she raised her brows at him.
"I didn't- How would you even know where he is?" Steve countered.
"Because I'm good at what I do." She answered vaguely.
"Are you though?" Steve mumbled, following her.
She stopped in her tracks turning around to face him. "You want to find out?" She smirked, flirting with him as he rolled his eyes.