Chapter 2
A few days had passed, and Natasha bringing Wanda food became almost routine. She would walk into the witch’s room, uninvited, twice a day, with a plate from Clint in hand. More often than not she’d trade the new food for the untouched plate from the last time. But a couple times the food had been gone, and Natasha couldn’t deny the satisfaction she felt when that happened.
This morning brought her to Wanda’s door with a stack of waffles. She knocked as usual, didn’t bother waiting for an answer, then walked in.
She hadn’t expected the witch to be sitting up in bed. That hadn’t happened before. Her hair was still a tangled mess, but it was wet as if she had showered, and the bags were still under her bloodshot eyes, but she was sitting up, knees pulled to her chest, and was wearing a new outfit. She was staring out the window when Natasha had opened the door, but her head jolted towards the noise when she entered, eyes wide.
Natasha was starting to regret her approach, maybe she should’ve waited on the other side of the door for longer. She didn’t venture as far into Wanda’s room as she usually did. Standing closer to the door, she soon realized the auburn-haired woman would not be start the conversation. The silence was almost awkward. Almost.
She held out the plate, small smile on her face. “Breakfast.”
The anxiety in Wanda’s eyes faded a bit at this offering. Natasha took this as a sign to move closer, setting the plate in front of the girl on the bed. “If Steve made them, they’ll be amazing, if Clint made them, they might be raw in the middle.”
Wanda let out a huff that was probably representative of a laugh. It didn’t reach her eyes, and her lips didn’t turn up at all, but hey, it was something. She shifted and turned to pick up her previous dish from the nightstand, handing it gently to the spy, who was pleased to see that the plate was empty.
The witch played with the edge on the waffle plate, clearing her throat, she finally spoke, “Thank you but I am not hungry.” She pushed the plate away and went to hand it back.
With Wanda sitting up, the daylight, and their proximity Natasha was able to see how much thinner the witch already looked compared to when she got here. She pushed the plate back towards the younger girl, “Just try them.”
Wanda didn’t meet Natasha’s gaze. A silenced passed before Wanda spoke again, voice quiet and accent thick: “You’ve been too kind to me” She started playing with the sleeves of her shirt.
Nat was taken aback from this confession. Apart from the first time Wanda hadn’t said anything more than a “thank you” during her bi-daily visits. Most of the time she just hummed in acknowledgement or didn’t say anything at all. This comment felt like it required a warmth of conversation that would have been much better suited for Clint. Maybe she should run and get him.
Wanda glanced at Natasha. Another first. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Wanda looked back down. No time to get Clint. “I live across the hall ,it’s not exactly a big effort.”
“Still… you don’t have too.” The witch looked as though she was getting pulled into her head.
Natasha’s cat eyes were still intently squared in on her face. “It’s important that you eat, you’re going to need your strength once you start training, it’s for the team.”
“Oh. Yeah.” A few beats of silence passed. Wanda still wasn’t quite in the room with her. Maybe she should get Clint. Then tears started slowly coming out of the young girl’s eyes. Every instinct in Natasha told her to leave the room, but while she was looking at Wanda’s poor despondent face she knew it wasn’t the right move.
Natasha waited a few moments before sitting on the bed on the other side of the waffle plate and started cutting the breakfast up. This unexpected approach caught the witch’s attention.
--
Wanda had appreciated the small amount of company the spy had brought her. She couldn’t deny that the human interaction had slightly improved her mood over the days. The schedule of it all to had helped break up the days. Natasha always came in between 9-9:15am and 6:45-7pm.
The spy was always very respectful to not gawk at Wanda when she came in, which must have been hard considering Wanda knew she must look completely awful.
The self-consciousness of this fact made her not get immediately back into bed after going to the bathroom this morning. Instead, she finally opened the new toothbrush and toothpaste that were on the bathroom counter when she “moved in”. She even got into the shower, without the energy to actually wash herself she just stood under the stream of water for a bit before getting out. Afterwards she found that the closet, to her surprise, was filled with a modest amount of generic clothes, all in her size. Despite the options, she chose a set of comfortable looking black pajamas.
These actions took a lot of her energy, but even so, when she got back to bed, she also decided not to lay down. She was feeling a little bit insecure about her decisions. What if Natasha stopped coming if she seemed to be doing better? Not that Wanda wanted to be pitied per say, but there was no way Natasha was doing what she was doing if not out of pity. She was lost in thought staring out the window when the door opened.
This interaction was longer than the others had been. It was Wanda’s fault for talking. As much as she wanted the interaction Natasha pushing her to eat just reminded her of when Pietro would do the same, everything reminded her of him.
She was only vaguely aware of the conversation she was holding with Natasha at the moment, caught up in the memories of her and Pietro lives’ on the street before they volunteered for the experiments. How was she supposed to know to be savoring those horrible days?
She was pulled out of her thoughts by the superspy sitting down in front of her and… cutting up the waffles for her?
“I can do that” the witch said, wiping her face when she noticed tears had been falling, embarrassing.
“Yeah but you won’t” The spy said almost teasingly.
“You want me to eat them, but you haven’t tried them”
Natasha glanced up for a moment after this comment, meeting Wanda’s eyes before going back to her work. “What makes you think I haven’t tried them?”
“You don’t know who made them, and you don’t know if they are raw or not.”
The older women let out a laugh at this comment. “You got me there, and here I thought I was the spy.” She pushed the plate back towards Wanda. “And I can now tell you with confidence that they are not raw.” She still had a smile on her face and Wanda couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was. She looked down at the plate to force the thought out of her mind.
She could feel Natasha’s eyes on her. She guessed that her lack of movement towards the food was unsatisfactory when the spy spoke up again. “What do you want me to butter them for you too?” She had a joking tone, but Wanda could feel the earnestness in the offer.
This feeling was confirmed when Natasha pulled the plate back towards her and started buttering the pieces from a dish on the side of the plate. Once she was done with that she also poured some syrup on top.
The plate was pushed back towards Wanda. She felt the side of her mouth twitch to almost a smile. She didn’t understand why the spy was being so nice to her but this whole interaction had her feeling better than she had in a while. Grabbing the fork, she pushed the bites around the plate. Still in awe that Natasha had done that for her.
She always assumed Clint was not only preparing all the food Natasha had brought her, but also making her bring it at all. This made her question.
Lost in thought for too long, Natasha had once again pulled her out of her mind. The spy grabbed one of the bites and popped it into her mouth quickly. After she finished chewing she shot Wanda another smile. “It’s good.”
“So, Steve made them?”
Natasha let out another laugh at that. Wanda felt proud that it was because of her. “Yes, I’d put my money on Steve.” Wanda finally took a bite and nodded; they were good.
They sat in a comfortable silence as Wanda continued eating, the older woman’s eyes never left her face. After half the plate was gone she put down her fork. The spy’s eye quirked at the movement but she didn’t say anything. After a moment she let out a light sigh, “Okay well I’m going to go for a run.” Wanda nodded again and pushed the plate away from her.
--
Natasha didn’t want to take the plate half full like that but it was obvious to her that the witch wouldn’t be eating any more. She grabbed the plate, shot Wanda one more smile and walked towards the door. A small, accented voice came from behind her, “See you tonight?” Natasha turned around, not bothering to hide her smile, “Yes, I’ll see you tonight.”
The witch’s expression eased at the answer, and as she looked away, the spy took that as her cue to leave.
Clint was waiting in her room when she got back, as he always was, his barely concealed anxiety seemed to lessen when he saw the look on Natasha’s face. “That was longer than usual! What happened?”
“We talked a little, I sat with her” Natasha said casually, placing the plate on her dresser and going to grab her running shoes. Wanda had barely said anything, but still Natasha felt as though there was a certain amount of privacy she should uphold, knowing Wanda had only interacted with her out of trust.
Clint smiled at this admission. “Well that’s good progress.”
Natasha just hummed in agreement. When Clint didn’t say anything she turned to look at him, he was already looking at her, when their eyes met he finally spoke again. “If I stopped asking you would you keep doing it?”
“What?”
“If I stopped bringing you food to give to her, would you get it yourself? And still bring it to her?”
Natasha almost said no, until she remembered her and Wanda’s last interaction, she couldn’t just go back on her word. “I might, I mean she’s right across the hall.”
He was wearing one of his stupid smiles again, “Don’t pretend like you don’t care.”
Natasha schooled her face at the accusation, “And what makes you think I care.”
“Oh you know… things go well… you come out of her room smiling, kind of seems like the behavior of someone who cares.” His tone teasing
“Well she’s part of the team, she has to get better to train.”
“Oh yeah sure it’s about the betterment of the team”
She shot him a look that dropped the subject. Silence fell over them again before he spoke up. “I was only asking because I need to get back to the farm, Laura is about to pop any day now, but I can’t just leave Wanda here without anyone looking out for her. I mean, I owe it to her… I owe it to Pietro.”
Natasha’s face softened at his admission. But her shoes were tied and she was ready to leave. She was about to tell him to ask Steve when he continued.
“And don’t even tell me to ask Steve, she obviously feels more comfortable around you than anyone.”
She hated that he was right, about more than just Steve. “I’ll keep checking up on her, and hey, she was sitting up today, she is getting better.”
Clint smiled at this. “Thanks, Nat. I really mean it, I’m going to hug you now.”
“Don’t.” she was too late, his arms were already around her. She stood stiffly until he was done. Laughing a little at his persistence. “You better let me know when the baby gets here.”
Clint pulled away from her “Of course, you better keep me updated on our little witch.”
Natasha rolled her eyes, grabbing the breakfast plate and handing it to her friend, “I’ll try.” And with that left the room, one last glance at Wanda’s door before she headed down the stairs for her run.