"So, uh," Steve said. "I know you said avenging wasn't your thing."

"Yes," Sam said.

"Right, and I get that -- "

"No, no," Sam said. "What I mean is, yes, I'll join your secret treehouse gang. Now hand 'em over."

"Oh!" Steve said. "Wait, hand what -- oh, the wings."

"Yeah, the wings," Sam said. "You telling me you didn't get ready to hook me up with a set of wings before you came here to ask me? What'd you think I was going to say? 'No, Steve, you'd better just keep saving the world by yourself with that dude who keeps building killer robots?'"

Steve blew out a breath. "Yeah, well."

"Don't get me wrong," Sam said dryly. "I'd love it if this job came with a retirement package and not just life insurance, but I'm sold on you needing more people on this team who don't think they can get to heaven on a rocket ship."

"No kidding," Steve said. "The wings are back at HQ, they're still building them. They made some improvements. Turns out we had a little extra vibranium left lying around."

"Okay, that's good, I'll take that as an excuse," Sam said.

"So, uh," Steve said. "I'm going to be your CO now -- "

"Just so you know, the answer to this one's going to be yes, too," Sam said.

"What?" Steve said. "I wasn't going to ask a question."

"Yeah, I know, Mr 'I'm going to be your CO,'" Sam said. "Since you've found yourself an iron-clad excuse for chickening out, I'm going to have to ask it myself. I just want you primed with the right answer. Say 'yes, Sam.'"

"I, uh."

"'Yes, Sam,'" Sam repeated patiently.

Steve turned red. "Maybe you should just skip ahead, since you've got the answer all set," he blurted.

Sam's grin broke out like sunrise. "Yeah, I guess I should," he murmured, stepping in close.