Summary: Angela's wings are partially molting, but she doesn't want it to slow her down. Unfortunately, Angela hardly ever gets what she wants these days.
A/N: While this scene does technically happen, I got excited and wrote it from the wrong POV for the chapter. So, this is for fun. Not beta'd or consistentcy checked. Essientially not canon yet, as details will change as I continue to write the actual chapter.
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Angela hears enough grumbling about special treatment without skipping drills. So she kisses Satya on the forehead, crawls out of bed with Fareeha, and trudges to the gym.
Her wings throb sorely as she flexes them on the short walk. Fareeha reaches over and massages the space between them, rubbing the sore skin beneath her tank top.
"You don't have to go, you know."
Angela sighs and nudges Fareeha's side with her wing.
"I do know. But I need more than flight fights to stay mission ready. I won't let a few frumpy feathers get in the way."
It isn't even an hour before she really wishes she had.
-
Fareeha squares her stance, planting herself solidly. In this pose, Angela can look her in the eye- just for a moment.
Their goal as partners is not new. Fareeha, taller and more muscular, has to keep Angela from getting away. Angela has to prove she's not completely useless with her wings out of play and, ideally, win without flying away.
It's not easy, Angela thinks as Fareeha sweeps out her leg and tries to trip her on a judo move Angela is too familiar with. She dances back, ducking to the side as Fareeha grabs for her closest wing.
It takes everything in her to shut down her learned instincts- take to the sky, get up and away, flight, flight, flight!- but Angela whirls, kicking back at Fareeha's knees.
Fareeha does not go down easy; right now she doesn't go down at all. She reaches back and grabs Angela's arm, bracing it to flip her over.
Angela gasps as she flips through the air, landing on the mat so hard that the wind rushes out of her lungs. Her wing flaps uselessly.
Fareeha dives for her and Angela rolls out of the way, almost fast enough to avoid her fiancée's outstretched hands.
There's a fraction of a millisecond when Angela can feel the casing of the blood feather resist before it shatters under the weight of a whole person.
"Gaaanh!"
The sound is somewhere between an agonized scream and a desperate gasp. It claws its way out of her throat, bringing tears to her eyes. Wings collapsed at her sides, she falls onto her hands and knees, startled by the acute agony, the pleasant relief, the out-of-control physical feelings. The next thing that comes out of her mouth is a choked sob, echoing in a dead quiet. She can't see the blue of the mat beneath her, only a blurry ocean surrounded by rapidly enclosing darkness.
"That sounded like that hurt," Genji says into the silence. He says it so matter-of-factly. No one responds.
"Ange, talk to me, please," Fareeha is close enough to touch.
Her breaths come quick and shallow
"Feather. Bed. Follow please," Angela signs quickly with one hand. It isn't enough but it's all she has before she scrambles to her feet and flees to the nearest exit.
—
Satya doesn't technically need to be awake for Angela to slip into the open window, but it feels polite.
Angela taps on the glass until she sees her girlfriend roll over and look up.
"Good morning. Again."
"Sorry to wake you. I didn't want to scare you." Angela eels into the round window headfirst, slowly diving onto the enormous bed and tumbling until she lays on her back next to Satya.
"Is there a reason you chose to use the window?"
"I flew back from the gym. I didn't want to annoy Athena. Fareeha isn't back?"
"She came in a few minutes ago and said she'd be back with bagels soon."
Verdammt. Angela reaches up and covers her face with her hands.
"Is there a reason you're back from combat drills so early?" Satya continues, asking with her usual flat affect.
"Fareeha accidently popped one of my blood feathers while we were sparring," Angela mumbles into her palms.
"Did you treat it?" Satya shifts in bed, making a flurry of rustling noises.
She shifts her fingers to side eye her. "No, it'll heal on its own. My nanites-"
"-are already overworked and underappreciated." Satya reaches up and pulls the light chain, almost toppling with the change in balance. "We will not waste time arguing. Let me see your wings."
Angela considers arguing anyway, then sits up, burying her face in her hands again as she extends her left wing for Satya to see.
"You are aware that blood feather means blood surrounds the ensheathed feather, correct? Angela, there's blood all over your wing."
Angela hears her but doesn't answer, breathing shallowly into her palms. Her breath is wet and hot on her skin, as are her tears.
Satya is still talking, even as she maneuvers the feathered limb expertly, gently parting barbs to clean the blood with something damp.
"Can't I just get it over with?" There's no hiding the choking with bravado. Her shoulders tremble.
Satya stops talking. When she speaks again, her voice is softer.
"No, Angela, you can't. You can take time off from drills. You can't rush an already mistimed developmental stage of… your body."
That gets a laugh out of her.
"My body? What is this, third puberty?"
"When I say your wings, you continue to see them as separate."
Angela opens her mouth to say something else sarcastic, but Fareeha chooses that moment to walk in with breakfast.
"You're back." Fareeha sets a tray of toasted bagels on the bed. "Thought I had missed you."
She flinches at the carefully measured words. Was I gone that long?
"I had to… I needed to fly for a moment."
The sweat between her shoulder blades has long since dried. Satya pauses her tending of the bloody feathers.
"With your wings at less than optimal efficiency?"
Angela winces again, at the slight ice in her voice.
"I hate when they make me feel things I didn't mean to feel," Angela whispers, but it's too late. She's already said it and the words start to spill out of her. "I hate that they take over so much of my life. I hate feeling like I belong to them and not the other way around. I needed to… I needed to feel like I had any measure of control over this situation. Just for a moment, I wanted to pretend that I've had a tiny fraction of control over my life since April. I want to stop falling apart over every single little hiccup. I love them but I hate this."
"No one blames you for needing to leave, Ange. Everyone was worried, even after I explained the feather."
"I don't want to be a spectacle, some thing that everyone has to explain!" Angela snaps, pulling her wings in. "I just want... I don't know. I'm sorry."
Fareeha hands her a bagel half- cinnamon raisin. "You're going to need to be a little more specific."
"You're right. I don't know what to apologize for right now," Angela pinches the bridge of her nose. "You didn't hurt me, I just… was startled. Like popping a burn blister."
They're all quiet. She takes a deep breath.
"I'm sorry for not listening to you. I'm sorry for snapping at you. I'm sorry that I ran away and left you to explain everything."
"It's okay, Ange." Fareeha sighs, running a hand through her own hair. "I'm sorry I landed on you. I thought I was being careful."
Satya hands Angela another bagel, which is just as well because the first half is already gone without here realizing it.
"It's only a few days. Let's find a routine for you that works for all of us, shall we?"
- i’ve said before that angela is not a morning person, and i stand by that. she hates early mornings and unless there’s some sort of emergency, she’ll only get up earlier than she absolutely has to if it’s for fareeha or satya. not for genji, not for jesse or mei or baptiste or lena, not for anyone but her two wonderful girlfriends.
- fareeha is a huge dork who loves old movies, and by old i mean from roughly anytime between 1980 and 2005 because those are extremely old by the time overwatch takes place. it’s something she picked up from her mother, and classic horror-comedies like beetlejuice, gremlins, and ghostbusters are among her favorites.
- satya and angela aren’t sure they see the appeal, but if fareeha wants them to watch one with her they usually will. sometimes they even enjoy them—although satya can’t resist pointing out plot holes—but mostly they‘re just happy to spend time with her, even if that means cuddling up to watch movies that were made long before even the oldest members of overwatch were born.
- they will, however, both begrudgingly admit to enjoying little shop of horrors—mainly because it’s also a musical, and one thing the three of them definitely have in common is an appreciation for musicals.
- speaking of which, fareeha loves to sing along to showtunes! sometimes she’ll just start singing without realizing she’s doing it, and she’s a surprisingly good singer, so satya and angela love listening to her.
- also, sometimes when it’s late and satya and/or angela are having trouble sleeping, fareeha will sing them a lullaby and maybe play a bit of guitar.
- something else i’ve said before is that angela loves showering her girlfriends in physical affection, but that sometimes satya is more touch-sensitive than usual and she and fareeha have to find other ways to show her affection on those days.
- so something i think that angela does on days like this or just when satya is feeling down in general, is she’ll compliment her a lot more than usual and offer her advice and just try to let her know that she’s loved, that she isn’t a burden, and that she’s a good person—all of which are things that satya struggles with often.
- fareeha, however, isn’t quite as good with words, so she just tries to remind satya that she’s here to listen or help her with anything she might need. she’ll also pick up little gifts for satya while she’s out, just to let her know she’s thinking of her—a bundle of her favorite flowers, a book that seemed like something she’d like, a bath bomb for her to relax with, or a brand new journal with a cute design on it, for example.
- when angela is on a date with either or both of her girlfriends, she sometimes can’t help pulling out her phone and trying to do little bits of work on the side.
- when fareeha notices, she’ll put her hand on angela’s and gently remind her that she needs to relax, and if she starts working now she’ll never stop.
- when satya notices, she’ll just pull the phone right out of angela’s hand and tell her—lovingly, of course—that while she understands not wanting to leave anything unfinished, now is not the time and she wants them to be together with no unnecessary distractions.
- angela might roll her eyes a little at this, but she’s definitely grateful for it. her work may be important, but it’s not all there is to life, and satya and fareeha are always there to help remind her of that.
satya likes to run her fingers through her hair as a stim, but she likes angela’s hair even more because of how soft it is, and she enjoys making small braids in fareeha’s hair.
she also loves to make intricate geometric shapes out of her hard light, and sometimes she’ll just make dozens of tiny shapes at once and fill bottles and jars with them. she once filled a whole jar with star shapes made from hard light to give to fareeha as a gift, and then decided to fill another jar with heart shapes for angela.
one of satya’s special interests is physics, and it’s something she and fareeha can talk about for hours because they share an interest in it. the same goes for her special interest in architecture, only it’s angela she talks with about that. fareeha is always willing to listen, but doesn’t really understand it the way angela does.
she wears flavored lip gloss because she loves the smell of it, so angela and fareeha never know if her kisses will taste like watermelons or peppermint or something entirely different on any given day.
angela likes to send both of her girlfriends lots of text messages throughout the day just reminding them that she loves them. fareeha thinks it’s adorable. satya is a little bit annoyed by it at first because the messages are so frequent, but then she realizes how much it warms her heart to know that angela is always thinking of her. so she starts responding to each message with a yellow heart because she knows yellow is angela’s favorite color.
the three of them love to go on movie dates and laugh and cry on each other’s shoulders, and during romance movies they’re always stealing kisses and holding hands.
they all just mean the world to each other and are girlfriends!
Ko-Fi request for the wonderful @kinaesthetiq of a selfie of the three Queens - Sympharmercy! Go check out her fics, Angela has wings -nod-
👏 In this house we stan beautiful loving poly relationships👏
Thank you for your support, Kina. I hope you like it ^^
Request a Ko-Fi here! | Twitter | Commission info <3</b>
Isn’t it just so great that Satya Vaswani, Angela Ziegler, and Fareeha Amari are all in love? I love how good it is that:
Fareeha always wakes up earlier than either of them--she’s a morning person and they aren’t--but she doesn’t mind because she enjoys making them coffee and breakfast.
Satya often stays up late at night invested in her special interests and Angela gets really caught up in research, so Fareeha has to remind both of them to get some sleep.
While Angela loves to shower both of her girlfriends with physical affection, she knows that sometimes Satya is more touch-sensitive than usual and is able to tone it down on those days.
And on those days, she gives twice as many kisses and cuddles to Fareeha while they bond with Satya in ways that avoid setting off her touch-aversion.
Fareeha knows exactly which foods Satya doesn’t/may not like due to her sensory sensitivities relating to their texture, and also always remembers what her favorites are.
Satya frequently starts infodumping about her special interests and Angela and Fareeha always listen because they care about her passions (and they love the sound of her voice).
Satya and Angela love to sit together and read, and they can end up discussing their favorite books for hours.
Satya has a ton of stim toys, including ones that she doesn’t even use, because Fareeha buys them for her every time she sees one she thinks is cool-looking.
Angela buys her stim toys sometimes too, but is more practical than Fareeha and actually considers which ones she might use.
Satya and Angela both have trouble dealing with large crowds but are able to stay more calm when Fareeha is there.
Whenever Fareeha has had a long day at work or just needs comfort, Satya likes to massage her back and Angela likes to make her a cup of tea and they all talk about whatever is on their minds.
Satya, who was isolated and lonely for so long working with Vishkar, and who is still filled with a lot of sadness over the fact that they used her desire to help others in order to manipulate her, has two amazing girlfriends who love her for every part of who she is.
Angela and Fareeha, who have also been through a lot and have their own insecurities and fears, have found love with each other and with Satya and the three of them will always be there to support and care for each other.
Like, wow! Mercy and Pharah and Symmetra are three wonderful polyamorous sapphic women who just love each other so much! Isn’t that fantastic?
