You never meant to fall in love with the Revenant.

The first time you met him, you were a ghost in the halls of a Serpent Order facility, more rumor than fact. An experiment, like him—caged by glass & steel and silence. They kept you separated from the others, but not from him. (©TRS0425CAI)

He found you one night during a transfer, your wrists cuffed, your feet barely holding you up. He was the weapon at your side, sent to escort you. The guards muttered orders, but you only heard his voice.

“Are you an angel?” he asked, tone flat but eyes—those impossibly blue eyes—staring at you like you were something made of starlight.

You blinked. “What?”

“An angel,” he said again, quieter now. “I heard the guards talking about them.”

Your heart pounded. Not from fear. From the strange tilt of his head, the raw innocence behind the question.

“They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe,” he went on, a whisper meant only for you. “They live amongst the stars, I think…”

You stared at him, stunned. He wasn’t a machine. Not entirely.

“You're funny,” you said softly.

And for a second—just a second—you saw something like a smile flicker across his face.

Five years later, the stars are gone. There’s only the night sky above Wakanda, heavy with the promise of war. You sit beside Griffin in the quiet, his arm resting on his knee.

“Don’t be afraid,” he says, voice low, steady.

You swallow hard. “I’m not afraid to die.”

You turn your head toward him, eyes tracing the slope of his cheek, the tired curve of his mouth. You’ve watched that mouth speak things that broke your heart, & kiss you like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

“I’ve been dying a little bit inside each day since you came back into my life.”

His brows furrow, his whole body shifting to face you. “What are you talking about?”

“I love you.”

The words fall like stones into a still lake, rippling between you.

“You… love me?” he says, almost like he doesn’t believe it. Maybe he doesn’t.

“I thought we decided not to fall in love,” he adds.