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Angela sat at the sideline of the basketball court and watched the rest of the Overwatch members, the score card on her knees. Jack had given them a day off today, so everyone was free to do what they liked to do. She would have loved to spend the day in her labs for an intense research session on her nanobot technology. Perhaps she would have also spent the day somewhere in a park reading. However – none of them really knew how or why – they ended up all together at the basketball court for a little tournament. So Angela’s plans of a somewhat quiet day were canceled.
Intuition told her that this tournament would not take place without any injuries and fate did not disappoint her. Right after a light warm up, Reinhardt growled in pain due to a shifted vertebra. Angela had told him to take it slow or just keep watching, but this giant old man was stubborn like a small child. So she ended up being referee during the time she had no injuries to take care of.
The high pitched sound of the whistle interrupted the game.
“No use of your chronometer allowed, Lena!”, she called over to the Brit.
“But what am I supposed to do, if Reinhardt’s in m’ way?”, Lena asked and pouted.
“Rules are rules. Fair play! Fareeha’s team gets the ball.”
Still pouting, Lena briskly dropped the ball to Reinhardt’s feet and backed down to her team’s side of the court.
“Play nice, play Pharah or what?”, she mumbled but Angela could not hear her.
The game continued and Lena tried to avoid Reinhardt as much as possible. Winston on the other hand confronted Fareeha below the basketball basket in a never ending duel with her. Whenever she was in reach for a slam dunk or else making a score, the gorilla tried to block her. If that did not work out for each of them, they tried to negate the score by pushing the ball the other way around out of the basket. It was a hilarious and exciting showdown.
Angela had a hard time to not lose her focus on her duties as referee, especially then when she caught herself staring fascinated at Fareeha. The ease with what the tall woman moved across the court as if she was walking on air, the perfectly matched interplay of her muscles and the moment she prepared for another dunking, Angela thought the Egyptian would fly.
She doesn’t need a raptora suit to fly.
“Oi, what’s the time, doc?”, Lena called over to her.
A swift look at her watch told her, that there were only a few seconds left. Angela counted down the remaining time and blew the whistle.
“10 to 8 for the blue team!”, she announced the final score.
Reinhardt let out a roar of joy and hugged his entire team at once. Winston took off his hat for Fareeha and Lúcio tried to cheer up Lena. The teams casually strolled to the sideline of the court and made space for the other teams to start their warm up.
“Hey, Lena. I want you in my team next round.”, said Fareeha and handed the Brit a bottle of water, who blinked owlishly in confusion.
“Me?”
Fareeha nodded and winked at her.
“A launch pad needs a rocket.”, she said and Lena seemed to get what she was saying.
Laughing, the Egyptian grabbed herself a bottle and sat down beside Angela on the bench, snuffing slightly.
“You played well.”, said the Swiss, smiling at her. “It’s quite obvious that you’ve played more often than the rest of us.”
Fareeha lifted her brow in surprise and started to chuckle softly.
“Yeah, that’s true. I’ve already played back in school and later in the army for stress relieve.”
Pleasingly, she stretched herself, allowing Angela to catch a glimpse of her defined core muscles. During the whole game she has had the feeling of being watched. Now Fareeha knew what that was about. However, she was interrupted in her analysis by sudden darkness that fell upon her eyes.
“Don’t catch a cold, tafali![1]”, Ana scolded and patted her daughter’s sweaty forehead dry.
“Al’umm…![2]”, Fareeha grumbled. “I’m 32…”
But Ana ignored her protest. With a blissful smile she took care of her already grown up daughter as if she was still 8.
“Do you have enough to drink?”
“Yes…”
“Put on your jacket! You’ll get cold.”
“La ‘abalgha, al’am![3]”
“La yujadil![4]”
Angela had to fight back her laugh when Fareeha let her shoulders grudgingly sink and rolled her wonderful brown eyes. She knew similar situations from the appointments with her and despite it was sometimes a bit bothersome, the blonde could not help but find this behavior cute.
Snuffing, the Egyptian dragged her jacket over her shoulders right to her mother’s pleasure. With a rapt smile, Ana gave her daughter’s cheek a small squeeze before she headed for Reinhardt. Fareeha shot a grim and an unnerved glare after her.
“Apropos drinking: You should definitely drink more than just these few sips and don’t tell me you don’t need to drink that much as you are used to this climate!”, Angela pointed out with a raised finger.
“Not you too!”, Fareeha hissed.
“Well, I’m still a doctor, you know.”, Angela said, smiling playfully.
“God, Allah and whoever else might care! Why do I have to be surrounded by such women?”
She threw her hands behind her head in resignation and sent a prayer to heaven. The Egyptian was not seriously bothered, but still she did not want to be mothered the whole time. After all, she was security chief, captain of a squad and a grown up woman.
The blonde next to her laughed whole heartedly.
“Aw, Fareeha~”, Angela said and mimicked a squeeze into the cheek of the Egyptian, whereupon she swatted her hand away in playful bother.
Finally, she’s relaxed. Thought that the tomboy she used to be was gone forever.
“Well, maybe Hana wasn’t that wrong with that nickname of yours.”, Fareeha teased her.
Angela rolled her eyes and gave her a warning glance.
“If you’ll call me that, trust me I – “
But Fareeha burst out into laughter before she could finish her threat and draped her muscled arm around the shoulders of the Swiss. The touch sent thrilling shivers down Angela’s spine and her heart skipped a beat. She was not used to be touched like that, especially not when it came to people that were supposed to be her patients. Just then she wondered if Fareeha really was just a patient or more like a friend or even… She did not dare to think any further down that path. But why did she feel that way? Was it because it was Fareeha touching her?
Her cheeks tingled and she was certain that at least a slight blush was noticeable due to her pale teint.
“Guess you had other plans for today, hm?”, Fareeha suddenly asked and Angela turned to look at her.
“Well…”
The sight of the sharp and proud features that were perfectly set in scene by the afternoon sun made her stumble for a moment.
“I… was thinking about some focused research.”, she finished her answer.
Skeptically, Fareeha lifted her brow, not bothering to avert her gaze from the court.
“What was that about work-life-balance?”
She promptly received a nudge to her ribcage by the pointy elbow of the doctor that made her groan in surprise. With a broad grin she turned to her and saw the soft blush on her cheeks. Oh, she loved that sight!
Of course Angela knew she should not work 24/7, but just because she gave this advice to everyone did not mean she would stick to it herself.
“Fopp mich nöt![5]”, Angela mumbled, which Fareeha did not understand but made her giggle even harder.
God, she loved that giggle! It was music to her ears.
Was it like that back then too?
She did not know but it also did not matter as long as she could have these moments with her for the rest of her life.