By the time Estella exited the training room, the sun was already going down.

She hopped into a bathroom stall for a quick shower, finding a change of clothes paired with a black bracelet constructed of what Nat had called 'Kimoyo beads' waiting for her in the changing room. Slipping on her hoodie overtop the tee shirt and leggings they provided, Estella breathed in the familiar, comforting scent before taking the elevator to the top floor.

"Ay, the legend herself has arrived!" A cheerful shout welcomed her to the solarium, its greyscale furniture streaked with impressive patterns of bronze and copper from the setting sun over the pond like an egg yolk suspended in a pool of molten gold. Estella stepped into the room shyly, nodding in greeting to all the occupants present - including Alycs. He turned away anyways, and she pretended it didn't mean all that much to her.

"Nat said you managed to knock her down," Sam explained, glancing up from his foosball game to shoot Estella an impressed grin. He then looked down again, groaning as he found in his brief lull in focus, Steve had managed to score on him.

"Seven - three!" The captain announced, before smiling knowingly at the other ex-military man. "Fair win?"

"Better watch your left, Rogers" Sam warned, his game-face set and feet planted. "I'm gonna beat your ass."

"Ooh he said a bad language word!" A new voice exclaimed, and Estella turned to see a dark-skinned girl in orange jump back against the couch, scattering cards into the cushions.

"Seriously, Nat, you told the royal family, too?" Steve huffed, to the ex-assassin's amusement.

"You said it, not me," Natasha answered cooly, as the captain jabbed a handle on the foosball table, swiftly flicking his wrist and sending the little ball projectile-shooting towards Sam. The African-American caught it this time, hurtling it back towards Steve and evading his goalie by a hairbreadth.

"I'm Shuri, by the way," the girl said, tapping Estella's wrist to get her attention. She gave Estella a radiant smile, and it was then that Estella pieced together Steve's comment on the royal family, Shuri's new face and suddenly felt flustered.

"Hi," she practically squeaked, before trying to compose herself. "I'm...I'm - I'm Estella."

Smooth going.

...should I bow?

"We are millenials, not Egyptians," Shuri gave Estella a cheeky smile, saving her from any further embarrassment, and patted the cushions next to her.

"Come, let us play American cards."

*******

At dinnertime, Estella prodded at her plate, watching the faces of the people around her. Wanda had done a superb job on the meal - round tortilla breads with various flavorful stuffings spread across the lazy susan - and everyone was already past their third helping, yet the conversation continued to flow merrily around them. Even Alycs made the occasional comment.

Everyone seemed so...comfortable.

Not that she had any reason not to be. Estella forked a dropped pepper off her plate and chewed, relishing the brief moment where the motion of her jaws drowned out the noise in her mind. There was always that constant, incessant ache, though, as if her mind was being slowly compressed into a pebble. Yet surely it was nothing - the people around this table were fighters, veterans - they had too much on their plate to worry about a child's headaches. They deserved this break.

"So how's the science exchange?" Sam asked in a lull in conversation, a mushroom slipping from his taco-like sandwich. Nat snagged it from his plate, popping it in her mouth, and he either didn't notice or didn't care.

Probably the latter.

"Many perspectives," Shuri spoke around a cheekful of food. "Mostly good. Japan is looking over some sustainable powering ideas at the present. T'Challa has discovered a fondness for eel."

"T'Challa?" Estella echoed.

"My brother, the king," Shuri explained casually. Estella swallowed. Right.

Nat pointed a pepper at the princess. "I'd be careful using that word," she warned playfully.

Shuri looked bemused. "Brother?"

The ex-assassin nodded. "Got knocked on my butt for it," she answered with mock solemnity. Was that what she had said, back at training?

"You have a brother?" Peter asked, holding what was probably his sixth burrito in his hands. He was looking at Estella - actually, well, everyone was looking at her. Estella's throat went dry.

"...n-no?" She cleared her throat and tried again. "No, I don't..."

For some reason, the second 'no' sounded less certain than the first.

The vigilante Avengers moved on, the metaphorical spotlight shifting off Estella and leaving her feeling more in the dark than she ever had before. Wanda rotated her wrists at a futuristic-looking kettle, maneuvering its lid off as the tap began running overtop it, then set it to boil; all without moving an inch off her seat.

Brother. Brother had set her off?

...why brother?

...better question, what brother?

Your brother, it seems.

A voice was thundering in her skull, demanding attention, slipping through the barriers in her mind and commanding her to find it. Aggressively, Estella devoured the rest of her burrito, hoping that by chewing as powerfully as she could it would tamp down the noise level.

What is happening?

I'll be waiting for you in the plains, Estella. Don't leave me floating.

Millions of questions were swarming her mind - Who are you? What do you want? Why do you speak when no mouths move, and make me listen when no one else can...and why do you sound so familiar?

But one thing that stood out the most was: what do you know that I don't know?

Estella backed her chair from the dining table, taking her plate with her and trying to still the unintentional tremble in her fingers. Carefully, she maneuvered her dishes to the kitchen, flinching at the slight clanking noise the plates made as her fingers slipped an inch too early, yet trying to keep the air of a normal person.

"I'm...I'm going to get some rest," Estella informed the vigilante Avengers quietly, nodding to herself when no one else seemed to hear. "...g'night."

No one heard her as she traipsed her way to the elevator, shoes dull thunks on the floor compared to the raucous table of adults comparing sibling stories.

No one saw the way she sank downwards, without the floor of the elevator compartment moving with her.

No one saw the dim shine of violet light seconds later from the solarium, shooting towards the sky.

It was like she was a ghost in this world, and apparition...

...like she didn't even exist.