Chapter 8
The nightly encounters became routine for the women. And despite the fact that Wanda had a reason to be up late every night for the last four days, Natasha had felt as though the girl’s moods were stabilizing. Enough for her to finally breach on one of the bigger topics gnawing at her: Wanda’s wardrobe.
Natasha herself had gotten new clothes almost immediately after joining the team, only because Clint had forced money on her, he had insisted. With Wanda in the state she was in when she first arrived there was no way he would have even tried, but with the witch doing better he would have done it by now… Natasha should have offered by now. Wanda couldn’t even drive, and while there probably was a credit card with her name on it connected to Tony’s account, the spy doubted that Wanda would be comfortable using it. If she even knew about it.
Natasha shook her head, it was sloppy work on her part. If the archer knew how poorly she had been watching over Wanda he would be disappointed. So the guilt, no it couldn’t be guilt, surely it was out of duty to Clint, is what brought Natasha, once again, to the witch’s door. Knocking softly. “Wanda?”
“Come in.”
Natasha took in the room as she entered, it was as empty as she remembered it, completely unpersonalized. Wanda looked at the spy curiously while she scanned the room, eyes finally meeting hers after a few moments. The witch was sitting in bed, knees pulled to her chest and she appeared to be coloring her nails with a black sharpie.
Jesus Christ the girl didn’t even have nail polish.
“Could I look in your closet?” Natasha had to be sure of her assumption before dragging Wanda to the store.
“Um, yes.” She was confused, not that Natasha could blame her. Once the spy had made it into the closet her suspicions were confirmed, Wanda had definitely not been shopping, and she would have to change that. Before she could make her proposition to the girl however, the witch appeared behind her, holding the jacket she had borrowed during the Ultron fight.
“If you were looking for this, it wasn't in there, sorry I didn’t give it back sooner.” It made Natasha’s heart clench that the witch assumed she was only here to get her jacket back.
She pushed Wanda’s offering hand down, “No, Wanda, you can keep the jacket, that’s not what I came here for. Do you have any of your own clothes?”
The younger woman was taken aback by this question, looking down at her current outfit, then back at the closet as if doubting her answer. “You just saw them?”
“I know you have clothes, but did you pick any of these out, or were they here when you moved it?”
“Were they not for me? Do they belong to someone else?” The Sokvian looked anxious at this implication, she obviously had no idea what Natasha was actually trying to say.
The redhead suppressed a sigh as she took a moment to reframe her approach. The knowledge that Wanda obviously didn’t consider herself lacking anything made the whole situation sting a little more.
“No, no, Wanda, the clothes are yours, but I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping, buy whatever clothes, or just whatever in general, that you want.”
Wanda’s face didn’t change much at the proposition but Natasha could see the muted joy bloom up behind her eyes as she scanned her room and closet again. “Umm, yes shopping could be nice.”
Natasha hid her relief at the answer behind a smile. “Perfect, want to go now?”
“Oh…right now?”
“You can take some time to get ready if you want.” Only now did Natasha clock that the witch was still in the black sweatsuit she had come to training that morning in.
“Okay yes I can be ready in five minutes?”
“I’ll meet you by the elevators.”
—---
The two women found themselves at the closet mall an hour later. Wanda had changed into a pair of jeans and a black long sleeve t-shirt for the outing, neither of which Natasha had seen before. The girl fidgeted a lot on the drive over, but based on her lightened mood the spy was pleased to deduce that the actions were based more so in excitement than nervousness.
They had walked almost entirely around the first two stores without Wanda claiming to want anything, despite picking up, before putting back, dozens of items during their time there. Before exiting the second store the widow felt she needed to interfere lest they leave the entire mall without purchasing something, “Did you really not like anything?” The spy pushed to keep the annoyance building up out of her voice.
Wanda looked almost guilty at the question, “I liked stuff… it was all just…” the witch tried to trail off, but Natasha’s steady gaze eventually pressured her to keep going, voice smaller this time. “It’s all so expensive. It’s fun just to look”
Oh. Was money really something she was thinking about? “Don’t worry about cost,” deciding that mentioning it was Tony’s money ultimately funding the trip was not going to be helpful, the spy skirted around the truth, “I’m paying. You can get whatever you want.”
The witch played with her hands, eyes darting back to the store they were in, before looking back hopefully at Natasha. “Actually?”
She smirked at the cute display before rolling her eyes playfully. “Yes, actually.”
Wanda bit back a smile before turning to go back into the store. “I guess getting a few things would not hurt.”
—-
To be in a mall with an unlimited budget felt like something out of her childhood dreams, but with her habits from her childhood still prominent in her brain Wanda couldn’t bring herself to break the bank too much. She got scolded by the Black Widow on more than one occasion for looking too closely at price tags or limiting her exploration to only the clearance rack of a store. Despite all this though she had come out of their shopping trip with three new dresses, three new skirts, one new pair of pants, four new shirts, some knee high socks and a pair of pajamas.
Looking up from the bags with all her new things as they left the latest store Wanda couldn’t hold in her gratitude, “Thank you, Natasha, this was a very nice gift.”
The spy smiled but furrowed her eyebrows nonetheless, “Are you finished shopping?”
It was Wanda’s turn to furrow her eyebrows, “Yes, I have seven outfits.”
To her surprise the spy let out a genuine laugh at her statement. “Wanda, you can get more than seven outfits.”
“Seven is more than enough, you have spent enough on me.”
Natasha’s face was quickly schooled into the disapproving scowl Wanda had seen many times that day. “We can’t keep having this conversation. Stop worrying about the money, you’re an avenger now, the money is unlimited.”
She blushed, a little embarrassed for having to be told so many times, but the spy wasn’t technically correct, “I am not an avenger yet, I haven’t gone on any missions.”
“I’d say the Ultron fight was a hell of an interview then.” The older woman smirked, face softening, before putting a hand on Wanda’s back, pushing her towards a makeup store. “Now come on, little witch, there’s more to be bought.”
And boy did they buy, Natasha practically put every product in the store into Wanda’s basket, no longer willing to deal with her frugalness it seemed. Being able to do her makeup again would be nice though, Wanda thought, it made her feel more like herself. The spy also loaded the witch up on nail polish, leading her to wonder if Natasha had been less than impressed by the sharpie work she had been doing on her nails earlier.
On Natasha’s insistence they also went into two new clothing stores until Wanda had enough clothes for fourteen consecutive outfits. Leaving the store, the witch felt brave enough to ask to go into a fitness clothing store. She had begun to grow more and more self conscious about her shield-issued sweatsuits next to Natasha’s sleek workout clothes in their training sessions.
All feelings of anxiety quickly dissipated at the joy on the spy’s face at the request and her immediate approval, they left with five new sets of training gear for Wanda.
After this stop the witch felt as if she really had enough things now, but as if she was the one with mind reading powers, Natasha cut in before the younger woman could suggest going home. “One more stop.”
“Where?” Wanda couldn’t think of what else she could possibly need. All of the items she had already felt like too much considering she didn’t contribute anything to the team yet.
“You're going to want some formal wear, Tony throws a lot of fancy parties we at least have to show our faces at.”
“Oh really?” Wanda replied with genuine curiosity. “What counts as formal wear?” Formal wear was not a scenario she had ever found herself in before.
Natasha proceeded to lead them into a store that seemed to only sell the fanciest dresses Wanda had ever seen. This couldn’t be a cheap place for sure. While Natasha had told her dozens of times not to worry about the money it was hard not to, not when she was looking at actual silk gowns. “Anything in here will do.” The spy replied, “I can help you pick something out if you’d like though.”
Wanda could only nod, overwhelmed at the luxury of it all. She couldn’t help but feel like she didn’t belong here. Only being pulled out of these thoughts by the older woman pushing a long red dress in her direction. “This one will look nice,” and in a low voice so no one could overhear, “it matches your powers.”
Surprised by the fact Nastasha remembered their color so exactly, since Wanda herself couldn’t recall the last time she had used them in front of the spy, the witch took a long moment to glance over the dress while she collected her thoughts. It had a thigh high slit and seemingly a low neck, it was nice. “I like it.” Wanda replied with a smile that the other woman matched once their eyes met again.
“I’m glad.”
—-
They did the same dance a few more times, with Natasha picking out a new dress to present to Wanda for approval, until they were at the end deciding between two options, the red dress from the beginning and a short black one that was much fancier than the ones Wanda had bought earlier.
The witch was biting her lip nervously trying to decide between the two. Natasha knew either would look perfect, she also knew that they could buy both of them, but Wanda’s indecision was too entertaining for her to cut it off early with reason. She could try to help though.
“Little black dresses do seem to be your M.O.”
Wanda’s eyes darted to Natasha at the comment as if the witch forgot she was standing there. “Oh… so I should switch it up then?”
“You do whatever you want.” The witch just sighed at her response, earning a chuckle from the spy, and a decision to finally put the girl out of her misery. Natasha grabbed both dresses from where they were hanging side by side and started walking to the cash register, feeling the witch trailing right behind her.
“What are you doing?”
“Buying both.”
“Both? Natasha that is too mu-”
The spy swung around dead in her tracks when she sensed where the witch’s objection was going. “If you bring up the price one more time I’m making you buy a third one.”
Closing her mouth at the statement, Wanda thought for a moment before opening it again, “It is not just money… why would I need two nice dresses, one should do just fine.”
“Why not? It’s fun to have options.” The spy shrugged and smiled genuinely, the girl’s modesty was very endearing. Leaving no room for further discussion Natasha turned back around and proceeded to the register.
As they checked out Natasha was too busy watching Wanda admire the dresses out of the corner of her eye to say anything else. She finally broke the silence as they walked out of the store. “Tony’s birthday is in a few weeks, you’ll be able to wear one then.”
“Oh?” Despite the party being for a man she knew Wanda was still weary of, the girl looked excited at the prospect.
“Oh yeah.” The spy smirked back, leading them both back to the car, the amount of clothes the girl had obtained finally being satisfactory to the spy’s conscience.