no proof, not much, but you saw enough
When you live in the same building as the two people you’re romantically interested in (by like, a lot), and your twin brother who shares a brain cell with you; it’s very easy to make a fool of yourself in front of either two, and find a reason to never want to come out of your room ever again; 30+ years experience of life or not. Mythical powers beyond words or not.
“Come on, Wanda!” Pietro called. “It wasn’t that bad!--- I mean, I think. It couldn’t have been, if I didn’t hear stories about it around the building!”
“It was definitely that bad!” She called back, yelling at the locked door of the bathroom, huddled in the corner inside the bath-tub. She briefly considered being extra-dramatic and turning on the shower to wallow in embarrassment and cringe, but then she realized that was a really useless use of water, and would really waste what she didn’t need to.
Years of luxury didn’t wipe away the way her mind thought about wasting resources that she didn’t have much of back in Sokovia, which meant most resources.
“What happened though?” He asked back, she heard the telling noise of his clothes shuffling and a small thud as he dropped down to sit on the floor beside the other side of the door, and then another thud as he leaned his back against the door.
“Vision--- it’s--- he must have -- I dunno know what I did, but I must have been obvious, because… Okay, so we were just sitting there, and I was cooking and he was on the other side of the counter, and he was watching me and it was sweet and then he said--- he said something along the lines of it being right that I did like to spend time with him, and favoured his company over other Avengers, and there was that look in her eyes--- I know that look in his eyes, he smiled like that whenever he knew something I was trying to hide--- A placating teasing gentle sort of look thatś really boyish and cute and---”
“-okay, point taken.” Pietro interrupted.
“---right, and so he-- I don’t know how, I’m still not sure about it, but I just--- he must have--- no, I must have been so goddamn obvious about my crush that he saw it and, god, just the thought of that is so embarrassing. I still can’t--- I’m trying to think back to all the times we interacted in this life, and I can’t--- I don’t even know how I was obvious!” She tugs at her hair.
She hears a wince, or a sharp intake of breath, a wordless, and voiceless confession of guilt carried through air.
A silence, a beat.
“Pietro…” She started, suspicious.
“...” He stammers out a, “Okay, in my defense---”
Suspicions confirmed. “YOU were the reason he knew?!” She shrieked.
“Look, as I said--- in my defense-”
She stood up. “YOU?!”
“You were in a-”
“Not me?! You let me-”
“-coma, and I was really emotionally--”
“---wallow in our bathroom for 3 hours and I didn’t even do anything?!”
“--vulnerable, and it just slipped out and honestly I regretted it as soon as I said it-”
“-You did. Wha-- so because I was in a coma means it was alright for you to tell Viz that I like him? I wouldn’t have let you do that while I was conscious, why would you think it was alright while I was unconscious?--”
“--and I didn’t think that Vision would catch on, like maybe Natasha, but-”
“--YOU TOLD NATASHA TOO!?” She nearly tore open the door, and he fell back, head almost hitting the floor if not for his fast reflexes and her instinctual instinct to make sure he didn’t die, shown in the way she placed her foot right under his head.
“Shit-”
“--WHY DON’T YOU JUST GO AHEAD AND TELL EVERYONE ALL MY SECRETS AT THAT POINT?!”
“IT WASN’T-”
“BOTH OF THEM!!”
“--IT’S NOT LIKE I MEANT TO-”
“I mean, HONESTLY,-- why not just, I don’t know--- TELL THEM ABOUT ME-” she raised her hand, a wave of scarlet that interfered with F.R.I.D.A.Y. amongst other spells for their privacy. “-KNOWING THE FUTURE OR TIME TRAVELLING, OR-”
“THAT’S REALLY NOT FAIR!”
“--ME BEING THE FUCKING SCARLET WITCH-”
“IT’S NOT LIKE I PLANNED TO DO IT! I-”
“--’CAUSE IF YOU’RE SPILLING SECRETS, MIGHT AS WELL DO IT RIGHT!” She gestured wildly with her arm, while Pietro reacted with his whole body.
He was standing up again, and they were standing, legs against the end of their bedframe, standing on the respective sides of their bed, and though there was a certain arm-length distance between them and it was enough for Wanda to push Pietro, and when she did, he pushed back.
She heard---or more like, felt---someone come in. The existence of their mind poking at her mental walls, alerting her of their of their presence in the room---Sam, as predicted, and Steve, and Tony (for some reason)---and then heard the present thoughts in their minds, the way their words formed in their mind before it left their lips: (“The twins are arguing again.” “Again? Do they ever stop?” “I don’t know, man. They’re arguing about songs, or something, I think. I dunno, just not the right time.” “Shoo, shoo, away from the twins before it gets violent.”) That last one was definitely Tony, even if she didn’t know his mind presence.
“I DIDN’T EVER JUST SIT THERE AND THINK ‘oh, you know what? I wonder how I can tell my sister’s crushes that she likes them’ OR SOMETHING.”
“WELL, YOU OBVIOUSLY DIDN’T HAVE TO?! YOU DID IT WELL ENOUGH! CONSIDERING THEY BOTH KNOW NOW.”
“--IT WAS A SLIP OF THE TONGUE, WANDA!”
“NOOO, No, a slip of the tongue is what you gave Zrinka in that kiss when we were playing spin the bottle at 14; A slip of the tongue is when you told Natasha that one morning that I stole a car for my ex-crush/friend/boyfriend/partner in crime.” She said to him as he pushed himself back up to a sitting position. “What you did was not a slip of the tongue; You spilled the--”
“Okay, I didn’t say romantic interest! They could just, like, think you really think of them as friends more than others!”
Wanda gave him a deadpan look, hand on her hip.
“Okay, yeah, never mind.” He replied.
They both knew Wanda checked Vision and Natasha out sometimes, and it wasn’t that sly some---like once or twice---of the time. Each.
“I don’t know--- they probably didn’t notice? Or like--- they’re both conventionally attractive! Who hasn’t checked them out before?!”
“Are you saying you’ve checked out my future husband and current crush of two lifetimes?”
“I’m saying anyone with eyes has, Wanda.” He replied, shrugging, “I mean, you’ve obviously seen them. You understand.”
Wanda turned away, staying silent.
He was right, though, she smiled. They were both attractive, and nice and really cool and badass and… She did have good taste.
“Lovebirds,” She heard Pietro mutter.
⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰
Wanda wasn’t proud of how, after just three weeks of being awake from a coma, she almost put herself into another one. Walking down the stairs---because she needed time to think by herself and too many people used the elevator on a daily basis---in socks caused her to slip.
The sock slipped against the tile, and then before she realized what was happening, she was falling down the stairs, and soon she would feel her back hitting against the stairs as she slid down---ow---like right…
now?
Was she floating?
She opened one eye first.
Oh.
“Natasha-”
Natasha wore an amused smile, and Wanda could now distinctly feel the heat from Natasha’s hand on her waist, and on the back of her neck. The distance between their faces, her breath so close to her face.
“Wanda,” She mimicked. “Are you always this clumsy?”
Wanda turned as red as her hair in her past future. She scrambled to get up, hand on Natasha’s bicep---oh goodgod, she had muscles---as she pulled herself up to a standing position. Her hand slipped into Natasha’s, a smooth caress down from her biceps to her soft hand, while she tried to regain her balance. “No, no not qui-- Well, I---sometimes.” She replied, trying not to seem like too much a fool.
Natasha nodded, her smile was tamed now, something more of a resting expression but her eyes, they glowed with mirth. “I see. It’s a good thing I was here to catch you.”
Wanda found it in her to smile back, “Oh, yes; my knight in shining armour.” She giggled.
Natasha began to walk down the steps, and although Wanda had already been headed this way before her appearance, it felt like she was following Natasha like a lovesick puppy when she walked down after her.
“So why aren’t you using the elevator?” Natasha asked.
“Why aren’t you?" Wanda returned, half defensive, half teasing.
“I asked first.” Natasha smirked.
“Fair,” Wanda said back, briefly ignoring Natasha’s mumbling (“wow that actually worked, they really are children.”). “It’s easier to gather my thoughts here.”
“Why’s that?”
“Too many people come in and out of the elevator.” She said.
“Ah, crowded?”
“You could say that.” Wanda replied, holding on to the railing.
A flight of steps down, she noticed that she still held the spy’s hand. She wasn’t sure if Natasha noticed, but if she didn’t, Wanda could pretend she didn’t. Wanda didn’t let go and neither did Natasha.
The two kept walking down the stairs.
Natasha gave her a look, encouraging her to continue.
“Aside from the crowding, there’s also the enclosed space.”
“You’re claustrophobic?”
Memories flashed through the front of her mind, the straitjacket pressing against her, the amount of space she had, all alone in this floor that was her cage and yet she couldn’t move an inch or else she’d be hurt. All the vast space there and yet her cage was smaller than Clint’s, and Sam’s, and Scott’s.
Her breathing hitched, almost quickening in panic.
The sight of Natasha’s concerned green eyes brought her back.
“No, not--- a little bit--- but not really. What I mean is, I have a good mental wall, but when you put a lot of people in one metal box with a telepathic empath, there’s only so much my mental walls can ward off. People tend to…to think loudly.”
Realization washed through Natasha’s expression, and then sympathy and understanding. Pity? Natasha grimaced. “Am I thinking loudly?”
“No, not… Not you.” She said. “I wouldn’t say that your mind is quiet, but you--- you don’t project your thoughts. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were a witch who knew what she was dealing with. You’re--- it’s--- how do I explain it? Most witches know how to keep their thoughts to themselves, kind of like locking it into a safe, their thoughts, I mean. And you’re not quiet, I can kind of hear loud murmurs, but I can’t read your thoughts. It’s pleasant, like a kind of buzzing--- well, not really like that, like uhm, pleasant background noise. Like really quiet café chatter. Witches are quiet, they have practice in it, like Agath-”
Natasha quirked up a brow, but mercifully didn’t call her out on her name slip. “So you’re a witch?”
Oh. She’d slipped more than once.
I’m not a witch! I don’t cast spells! No one taught me magic!
“I-- no, of course not.” She laughed, in a higher pitch than her usual. “I’m not a witch, I don’t cast spells, no- no one taught me magic.”
Natasha regarded her with a curious expression. As if taking a cue, she moved on from the subject, and Wanda felt so grateful to her for it she could have kissed her right then and there (to be fair, she would have kissed her any time in this life and the past).
“So you hear everyone’s thoughts?”
“Sometimes,” she said. “My mental walls block a lot of it--- most of it. There are only two or so stray thoughts that reach me. But in an enclosed space, it’s like the thoughts bounce around, keeping the mental wall takes just that little bit more effort to keep it up, and I would rather reserve that mental power to--- to, well, my thoughts. To what I need to think about. Hence, the stairs.”
Natasha nodded in understanding. Wanda didn’t like how much she liked the fact that Natasha was genuinely interested in her--- her powers--- in a, in a safe wa. Just asking her and letting her talk rather than what she was sure Von Strucker would have loved to do to her had she been this powerful at the start, and as foolish as she was in the past.
“How far does it go?” She asked.
“Hm?” Wanda looked up.
“How much you can hear.”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ve always been focused on tuning it all out. With my mental block, not much, just those near me. Without it…” She trusted Natasha, a lot, for the things she’d live through in her other life, she knew that if anything hanged in this life, one thing wouldn’t and it would be that Natasha had a heart so big and loving that it was impossible not to trust her, regardless of her past (or was it despite?).
She let her mental walls fall, and she didn’t put effort into tuning out the numerous voices. They pierced through her mind, and she gripped something, squeezing it, it was either the railing or Natasha’s hand, she couldn’t tell. She focused, expanding her reach. She could definitely hear each level of the Avengers compound considering she just heard Vision at the top floor, floating above the roof, and Sam near the exit, thinking of tacos for his next lunch. She quietly ignored Pietro and his thoughts of leaving a body mark running through concrete like in the cartoons; surely he wouldn’t actually try it.
1 kilometre…2…3…5…12…
38 kilometre… 40… She was sure she could go farther, but this was the limit of her mentality, not her magic. 40 kilometres of ground covered, 40 kilometres of people’s thoughts all entering her head.
“40 kilometres… 24 miles, in all directions.” She said. Should she have hidden it, because that was a little more powerful than she should be at this time? Yeah--- but she’d slipped up so much around Natasha at this point, and Natasha had never pushed, and if that wasn’t worthy of her trust and at least a little truth, then nothing was.
“Wow.”
Wanda centered herself, to bring herself back to only herself, only her thoughts, and to block out the rest of the world as soon as she did. A deep breath in, a deep breath out, and then Natasha’s familiar background noise sort of calming thoughts were all she could hear.
“You good?” Natasha squeezed her hand.
Wanda nodded, “Yeah. I’m good.” She smiled as reassuringly as she could.
“Inconvenient power, huh?”
“Well,” She shrugged, still wearing her smile, though it turned into something closer to teasing and comfortable rather than reassuring. “It helps in missions, so it’s not all that bad; and it has its perks.”
“Like the silent conversations you have with Pietro?” Natasha asked, quirking her brow up, a smirk tugging at her red painted lips.
Wanda laughed. “When did you figure it out?”
“You laugh out of nowhere when he tells a joke, and across the room, you can see him smile to himself. When you two are making fun of somebody, you sneer in sync and roll your eyes. When Pietro’s about to do something dumb, you get this cute little wrinkle between your brows when you frown at him, and he stops.”
Cute?
Wanda wasn’t sure if she was effectively suppressing her smile, she was pretty sure she wasn’t, but just the very thought of Natasha finding anything about her cute and paying so much attention to her like that--- it made her flush red.
Natasha chuckled, in that low register husky chuckle of hers, and Wanda felt her breath almost catch in her throat. God, she was just so useless with her crushes.
“Has anyone else?”
“No. Steve is confused by you two.” Natasha laughed.
They were at the second floor, and soon they would reach the bottom floor, which was where she wanted to be, and she’d never ever before not wanted to get off the stairs so much.
“What about you?” Wanda asked, as they turned the corner to go down another flight of stairs, hands still linked together.
“What about me?”
“Are you confused by us?”
“No,” she said. “Just you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s so confusing about me?”
“You’re an enigma, that’s what.” Natasha smiled. “Or a mystery. One minute it seems like I have you all figured out, like my spy training’s finally gotten through, but then the next you just surprise me, and suddenly you’re nothing like what I thought you were.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“It’s a good thing, little witch.”
Wanda blushed, she saw the first floor door. She turned the knob with her free hand and pressed her shoulder against the door, pushing it open. “I’m not a witch.”
“It’s just a nickname.” Natasha teased, leaning over her and causing the breath in her lungs to disappear, like she’d had it winded out of her, as she opened the next door for them, the one to the kitchen.
Wanda nearly ran towards the open doorway from the kitchen to the living room. She knew Natasha could tell, could see it in the way her eyes shined with amusement and something darker when she turned her head down shyly as she kept walking. Something she was sure she could figure out someday, but not now, she had a feeling she wasn’t ready to know.
Steve glanced at them as they entered the room.
“Why are you holding hands?”
And just like that, the bubble burst, and their hands let go of each other.
“Nothing.” Natasha said, cool and dismissive as she walked past Wanda to get the remote from Steve.
“She just saved me from falling--- down the stairs. I slipped. And she was helping me stand, that’s all.” Wanda replied, turning back to the kitchen and scurrying away, embarrassment and shame colouring her cheeks.
Wanda glanced back at Natasha. Natasha wasn’t looking back at her.
Of course she wasn’t, Wanda thought, berating herself. Why would she?
⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰
Wanda heard a clatter, she turned her head towards the noise and saw Vision approaching. She brightened up, smile widening as she turned her body to face him. By her side, Pietro gagged.
They’d been called to Tony’s lab about 10 minutes ago, to get their new suit. Wanda didn’t technically need one since she could change clothes with a wave of her hand, but she couldn’t very well say that either, or reveal that it was actually her Scarlet Witch regalia she wore during their first mission slightly altered to look similar to what Tony made for her. Pietro did need one though. The one he’d gotten hadn’t been a Tony Stark creation, so it ripped apart pretty fast when Pietro decided he would go for a run for fun.
For 10 minutes now, they’d been standing awkwardly, but now Vision was here. Pietro could stand awkwardly by himself.
“Vision,” she said in way of greeting, walking towards him.
Pietro cleared the edge of Stark’s table and lifted himself up to sit on the edge, arms crossed, he watched her interact with Vision.
“Wanda,” Vision replied, her name slipping from her lips sounding like nostalgia and memories and happiness---or however close she got to it before she had it taken away from her---and that soft look in his eyes felt like coming home in more ways than one.
“How have you been, Viz?”
“I’ve been doing well, Wanda. I recently just watched a movie. I didn’t quite get the point of it, considering we could buy the movies ourselves, but it was a delightful experience. I would have loved to see you there.”
Wanda smiled softly, her shoulders loosening. “I’m sure it was quite the experience. What movie did you watch?”
“Tomorrowland.” Vision answered.
“Oh, I haven’t watched that movie.”
“It was…objectively a decent movie.”
They chatted for a while, like old friends, and Wanda could feel Pietro’s gaze on her and Vision, but they both ignored him.
Tony came eventually, and after shooing Pietro off his desk, gave him his new suit.
It was blue, of course, made of a different and it seemed, far far more durable fabric, there were buttons on the inside of the wrist on the suit.
Pietro put it on, and visors formed over his eyes.
“Woah, woah this is--- woah.” Pietro awed. “I can see the date, and--- is this connected to my phone???”
Tony nodded absentmindedly.
“What’s that thing on the corner? The 0.0 thing?”
“Your speed.” Tony said. “Is Sabrina flirting with Vision?”
Wanda stopped and turned towards the two men. “Wanda?”
“N-no, Viz! No, I’m not!” She said, and was slightly confused to realize she mostly meant it. She’d just, well, she’d certainly been at the start, eyeing him even, but that eventually turned into genuine like, just enjoying their conversation.
Vision was so easy, so comfortable and safe and nice and it was all so natural, second life or not, that she’d…. She wasn’t sure how to describe it, it was just so easy to slip into that comfortable conversation, and lose track of whatever she came into the conversation to do.
“Sure,” they said, both clearly not believing her.
They turned back to themselves to discuss his new suit. Wanda nearly sulked at their lack of belief in her. The two men exited the room to the room connected to the lab, cleaner there, so less chances of Pietro destroying something while he tried out his new suit.
Natasha came into the room, and Wanda leaned her body to the side, looking past Vision to smile at her. Natasha offered a smirk in response, “Hey, little witch.”
“I’m not a witch,” She replied, just as teasing as Natasha’s tone was.
Was it their thing now? It felt a little early to call it their thing but it was totally turning into their thing now, right?
“Just a nickname.” Natasha replied back. She leaned against the wall behind Vision. So, you got a new suit?”
“Yeah, uhm, Piet’s trying out his first, I think.” Wanda said. “I-I mean, he is. I know. I- he’s- he and Tony are kinda just uh, testing it out.”
“It’s awesome!” Her brother shouted from the other room.
“It’s going great apparently.” She continued, following his exclamation.
“I hate Stark and all but this suit’s so cool!” Pietro continued.
Wanda ignored him. “I’ll test mine out later.”
“Hopefully it’ll be more practical this time.” Natasha said, sitting beside Vision.
“Was the last suit she got not practical?” Vision asked.
Wanda turned to Vision, she ignored that small small part of her brain that had been surprised to hear his voice, that had forgotten he was even there because of Natasha; that just wasn’t possible. He was her fiancé, her almost-husband, obviously she could never forget he was in the room because of a crush on another teammate.
Her gaze moved from Natasha to Vision, and that warm feeling in her returned again, doubled, and she smiled to herself in her head. Yeah, there was no way, not when just looking at him felt like this, like walking on cloud nine, trusting him to keep her safe no matter what happened.a
“It had a corset and it was made of leather,” Wanda said, disregarding the fact that it hadn’t been this time, because she’d used her powers to create a near replica that was pretty practical. “I’d say it was very impractical.”
“And it was a dress, so that probably didn’t help.” Natasha added.
“I like fighting in dresses.” Wanda countered, “That part wasn’t an issue.”
Natasha nodded, and took that as a fact without pause, or question. Wanda thought it was pretty sweet of her, to not judge her for that. Or something.
“Isn’t fighting in a dress impractical as well though, Wanda?” Viz asked.
“No, it’s--- well, it can be, but I like fighting in dresses so it’s not really impractical.”
“A little bit impractical if it’s a leather dress, just a little.” Natasha remarked.
Wanda nodded. “A little bit.” She smiled.
Natasha hid it well, but Wanda could tell she was smiling back too.
“I see.” Vision said, and Wanda snapped out of it. ‘It’ being the near daze she was in staring at Natasha’s lips, or--- her smile. Not her lips.
“Sabrina!” Tony yelled. “Your turn for your suit!”
“I’ll--” She jerked her thumb towards the room Tony had yelled from. “Uh, yeah. See you guys.” She smiled awkwardly, and walked towards the room.
That was…weird.. Just a little bit.
And she wasn’t smiling, no matter what Pietro would say later.
────━▒ ۞ ▒━────
“WHERE’S MY GAY MESS AT?” Pietro asked, coming into the living room. He’d asked around after training, which Wanda had now been excluded from because she’d stopped with the excuses and just gave these certain glances or eyebrow lifts and Steve would back off.
They’d all told him different locations, starting from when she came home from a Bar, in a dress that screamed Club---was there a difference between bar and club?---but the last was that Wanda had finally remained in one room and that was the living room. Which was good. Super speed and stamina or not, it was getting really annoying to go up a floor then down then in this room but oh no, she was in a different room.
“Have you looked in a mirror?” Wanda replied, her tone cool, but the way her eyes nearly widened screamed total embarrassment. She hid it well though, practically chugging her water bottle.
“Well,” Pietro replied, smiling easily. “We’re twins for a reason, no?”
Wanda smiled back, a small smile she still kept hidden behind the cup she held. “What is it, Piet? I’m trying to get settled in, so I can read.” She removed her heels from her feet.
“Yeah, uh--- mission time.” Pietro said, smiling boyishly.
“So soon?” Wanda asked. She waved her hand and changed into her suit. Oh, how he envied that power.
“Yeah, I was--- I had questions about that too, but it’s been like a month and a half, and It’s breen pretty clear that you’ve been sleeping considering the drool on your pillow--”
“---I don’t drool--”
They both knew it was tears, but they both also knew they weren’t going to address it in broad daylight in the living room, peaceful and safe space or not. They barely discussed it in the privacy of their bedroom, with all sorts of Wanda’s spells around the room.
“---I figured it would be safe, and I gotta learn to trust your abilities again someday so do they. They said it’d probably be a hard mission, so y’know, considering that thing with raisin titan I figured having none of us die should probably something we should guarantee and what’s more of a guarantee than you?”
“Are you sure? You’re not worried?” Wanda asked, flicking her hand, and the book that’d been in her hand disappeared. It either went somewhere or got taken out of existence, he didn’t really know what she did.
He looked around for her, to check if no one saw. Good. Coast was clear.
“Oh no,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m terrified, but if I just try to keep you in here, never to go on missions, especially on missions where people could get hurt but wouldn’t have if you’d been there--- I’d just put you through more self-hate.”
‘God knows you don’t need more of that’, he thought.
Wanda rolled her eyes. Then walked beside him, and held his hand. “Don’t worry, Piet. What happened before…it won’t happen again. I’m me, okay? My powers aren’t faltering. I’ve been resting---It’ll be alright. It won’t be like before.”
He took a deep breath and squeezed her hand back. “It better not be.” He turned towards her. “Speaking of not like before, what happened the last time the Avengers went on this mission without you?”
“Clint sprained his wrist, Steve came back with a nosebleed that turned to just a bruised nose by the time he got back, Natasha bruised two ribs and almost got a concussion, and uhm, Tony had a pretty nasty bruise for at least two weeks.”
Pietro hummed, nodding. He opened his mouth to speak---
“No, Piet. I can’t save everyone but make sure Tony gets the bruise anyway, that’d be--- no.”
He tsked. It was a good try.
“Was it? Was it really?”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding with an all-too pleased look on his face. “Definitely.”
“Hmm,” she replied, pursing her lips and shaking her head. “No, I don’t think it was.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Are we doing this?”
“I don’t know, are we?” She asked, raising a brow in challenge.
“You started it.” He said.
“Hmm, one could argue you did.” She said, hiding a smile.
“One could, but one would not.” He raised his pointer finger to eye-level.
“One would.” She nodded, wearing a similar self-satisfied smile like his.
“Oh, so we’re definitely doing this.” Pietro grinned, unrestrained joy so freely expressed on his expression. For a second, he was sure that her expression faltered, eyes shining with pain, before it went away, almost smothered.
For some reason, his mind went right to his future nephew, with powers similar to his.
“Present your argument, m’lady.” He said, flourishing towards empty space behind him. “The stage is yours.”
He wanted to distract her. He was sure she could tell.
“Well---” Wanda smiled.
And then the argument began.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
The twins come to the Quinjet in the middle of an argument.
For a certain reason, none of the Avengers even blink an eye. The twins in complete conflict or complete unity, and there’s rarely anything in between. It’s become the default, that is the reason.
In her training, as the Black Widow, she’s been taught to pay attention to her surroundings, listen to everyone and pay attention to everything, always be alert so she’s never caught off-guard, and so she might have knowledge that could be useful either in the present or in the future.
So her ears strain to listen subconsciously.
“Considering there are plenty more chances for us to see Stark harmed, I don’t think it’s necessary to show blatant favouritism-”
“-but they already know we hate him, and it’s two weeks, sestra.”
“Brat (brother), do you know how much careful manoeuvres I’d have to take to make sure no one gets hurt but he gets that specific bruise? I wasn’t even there the first time.”
Bruise? First time?
She chalks it up to the weird things that Wanda says, right besides Pietro’s sometimes weird(-er than usual) behaviour, and the Hex.
It’s a thing she does on instinct, keep all sorts of information she’s gleamed in files in her head, to recall and add onto in the future. There’s probably a psychological reason for it linked to her trauma, but she doesn’t really care enough to find out.
Plus, psychologists? Just not her thing.
Steve clapped his hands together loudly. “Okay, team. This’ll be a dangerous mission.”
“When is it not?” She heard Pietro whisper.
“When I’m here.” Wanda whispered back.
She didn’t know Maximoff was that confident in her abilities. Especially considering her first mission.
“Okay, you aside. You’re like a total anomaly.”
“Really? You’re calling your twin sister an anomaly?”
“Well, I’m not wrong-” Pietro whispered back. Wanda turned to face him, a raised brow. “-That’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, I know, I’m just teasing you-- but I think he means-”
“Maximoffs!” Steve exclaimed. “No whispering.”
Pietro rolled his eyes, and Wanda laughed. She tried to hide it, in that way of hers, covering her mouth and letting her eyes flicker to the ground, but her eyes blink fast and shine with amusement when she does that. Natasha could tell. She’s watched Wanda too long not to--- and Pietro.
Her and Pietro. Not just Wanda.
Not just them.
Everyone in the team.
Natasha turns away. It was probably just a telepathic conversation thing she wouldn’t be ever privy to.
Wanda holds her hands in front of her hips, rings adorning her fingers. They catch the light, and so Natasha notices easily, even when she’s not looking, the way that they move quickly to swat Pietro’s arm.
Steve is still talking, Natasha’s just heard enough of his speeches to start tuning them out. “I know that the twins’ last mission was…”
The rest of the team goes silent, if silent can be even more silent. Sullen, they stare at the ground briefly. Wanda looks guilty, she bites and stresses her lower lip. The twins try to find each other’s hand. Comfort.
Natasha wonders if Wanda thinks that what happened to her was her fault? She squirms, an uncomfortable nagging urge rises in her, something that wants to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, because she's spent too many years blaming herself for things that weren’t her fault too (don’t get her wrong, a lot of things are her fault, but there were some things that weren’t) and it’s a self-destructive, painful, habit she doesn’t want people to go through. Least of all, not Wanda.
She should hate her still, another part of her reminds. Loss or not, this is the same woman that came into her mind and shower her greatest fears to her.
“--we’ve taken precautions, and nothing like that will ever happen again. Trust me.” Steve finished. “Are you guys ready for this? This is a facility that’s heavily armed and guarded, it’s highly likely they’ll notice our presence before we even properly infiltrate. You all need to come in expecting a fight.”
“--Ah, ah, ah- but!” Tony butted in. “There’ll be no destroying of the facility itself. We don’t know what we could trigger or lose. That building’s too important. So… you know… just uh-- don’t hurt the poor building, alright kids?”
The team gave various forms of acknowledgement, grunts, hums, and nods.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
There is music playing, in the comms. Someone brought their phone, someone decided to play a song towards the comms.
The Quinjet landed, eventually. The team took leave of the vehicle, and with quiet steps---(“Why are we being quiet? Didn’t Steve say they would already know we were here? This is dumb.” “It’s probably precautions, Pietro. Shush.”)---and the team following Natasha’s lead considering she was the most versed in being sneaky, which really should have been high praise, but it sadly wasn’t considering the rest of the team consisted of two Avengers that could not stop snarking---three, counting Pietro---Steve who literally could be recognized from a mile away, the twins whose powers glowed---as did Tony’s---and Vision, who was… Vision.
And just as they suspected, high above, guards spotted them, and rounds of bullets began raining down on them.
“Natasha, you infiltrate. Tony, Sam, Vision, distract them. Pietro, take out as many as you can. Wanda---” Steve hesitated, and even through the comms, it was easy to tell. “---Just stay out of danger, and give us a layout of the inside, how many are in there.”
Natasha couldn’t spare a moment to turn around and try to see Wanda’s expression after that obvious dismissal and babying from Steve, while she disarmed an approaching guard and stole his gun hitting him on his temple with the butt of the gun,. He dropped like a potato sack.
However, Wanda’s strained “Copy that.” and Pietro’s grimace was enough to tell her how the twins felt about that. Tony was silent, and Sam scoffed. But no one said anything.
She ran out of bullets from the guard’s gun, just as Sam swooped in, his wings shooting down the enemy in front of her. But they never stopped coming. It was like a goddamn apocalypse.
“7’o clock, Viz.”
“Thank you, Wanda.”
Natasha threw the useless gun towards the back of the head of the guy shooting at Steve.
“Thanks, Nat.”
She nodded at him, and ran ahead.
I've been out here for a minute
Hands clenched as I walked through the fog
Blood in the water, smoke in the air, filling my lungs
You were my friend
Veil torn, now I'm seeing your lies
Full of demise
Blood moon paintin' red in the sky
Onto the surface
Your dark heart leading you to the grave
Beautiful mask, pure evil behind the charade
I hear the mourning, I hear the cries
Tony aims his thrusters towards his line of sight. Guards jump out of the way in self-instinct, while most stay foolishly.
Out of the darkness into the light
If you want me gone, you pull the trigger yourself
His thrusters whine quietly as they charge up. The guards shoot at him, and bullets harmlessly bounce back from his armour.
Look me in the eyes
He sends a blast towards the guards in front of him. Dust eats at the sight. The guards are down. He turns towards a different direction. It’s too easy.
I see who you are
Steve throws his shield, and it flies in an arch, hitting three men on the head with blunt force before it returns to him.
You are my enemy
Steve throws a punch, a cross, raises his shield to cover himself from the bullets.
My enemy
Steve jabs his forearm forwards, and hits the guard in front of him with the vibranium shield he wields. He turns towards the rest, watches them flinch in fear, but try to bravely keep their guns firing.
You are my enemy
Sam flies in, the guns on his wings showing with good aim, and he resists the urge to whoop, the air against his face, the feel of victory, it feels good.
I see who you are
Sam lands, dust and dirt flying from the ground, and his wings retract. He turns to face his enemies and raises his fists. “Bring it on.” he says.
You are my enemy
Vision flies with an impassive look on his face, he turns his head. The stone in his head fires its laser.
My enemy
Natasha keeps her guard up, feints a punch, sends a kick. She is a living weapon, perhaps human, but the guards in front of her shooting at her, they never stood a chance.
You are my enemy
She wraps her thighs around a guard’s head before throwing him down the ground with the momentum, and taking his gun from him. She has her own. It’s just fun to take.
The music stops.
“Everyone, clear a path for her!” Steve yelled.
Tony and Sam swooped in from the air, guns shooting ablaze ahead of her, giving her a clearer path, but it also drew attention to others, and soon after, Sam and Tony were distracted keeping them away from her and facing their own groups of enemies, while Pietro ran ahead of her, the blue streak creating a distinct path like Sam and Tony did.
“Am I part of that ‘everyone’, Steve?” Wanda asked, sarcasm lacing her voice.
Steve answered with silence, for a few seconds at least, before he tried to properly answer the question. “It’s too dangerous, Wanda. You’re valuable. You give a layout of the mission, keep us all safe.”
Wanda clicked her tongue and that said it all, it couldn’t have been worse even if she’d cursed.
Weirdly enough, it reminded her of Melina, how her disappointment was worse than her anger. Her silence spoke volumes. It reminded her of mothers. Which was weird, Wanda may have shown a very maternal side but in no way was she a mother yet, not with her life, at that age.
Natasha rushed into the building, Pietro still with her. When the guards were reasonably thinned out, unable to do anything against Pietro---had he gotten faster or something?---and his super speed. He rushed towards her, stopping by her side.
“I’m gonna go back out, good luck!” he said, sheepishly, after a few seconds of silence, of what was presumably him thinking of what to say. He gave an awkward thumbs up---seemed like that was a Maximoff thing too---and rushed past her.
Natasha tunes everything out, she focuses on defeating enemy after enemy and getting to the control room. She gets a few scratches, bruises, wounds, but how did that saying go? You should see the other guy.
Natasha reaches the control room.
An alarm triggers.
The guards, that seemed to be finally thinning out, come out. More from hidden compartments in the room, behind the numerous items in the room, from boxes and behind shelves and they start shooting at her.
She hightails it out of there.
“It was a trap, Steve!” She said, pressing the comms. “They were here waiting. I need backup.”
“We can’t reach you!”
“What do you mean you can’t reach me?!”
“More soldiers out here too, we’re pretty busy.”
“Shit.” Natasha ran out into the hall, waves of bullets following after her.
She lasts for 20 minutes, running, and dodging, firing her own shots back. But she is one against a group that has an advantage over her.
“Still need backup, Rogers!” She yells at the comms, as she jumps from the balcony of a floor and right into another room, hoping to lose the trail of guards following after her.
“Still pretty busy, Nat!” Steve yells.
She quietly curses and praises Clint for having the good wit to retire.
“You know,” starts Pietro. “There’s someone you’re ignoring. Powerful backup.”
“No. It’s too dangerous.”
“We’re Avengers, Steve. It is what we signed up for. You have to let her do this.” Pietro argues. “She is more than capable.” He says that like an inside joke. Maybe it is. No one really knows with the twins, friendly(ish) as they are, they keep to themselves.
“I can’t risk that-”
“It’s not your choice,” Wanda says, finally speaking. “It’s mine.”
Natasha is focused on the conversation happening in her ear, if even just for a second that she fails to notice the barrel on her right---who has a barrel inside a building full of important information????---until a bullet shoots through and it explodes.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
She wakes up, and instead of a ringing noise in her ear; Natasha wishes she was surprised.
She realizes she’s not in the building. She lets one eye open, cautiously looking around, taking note of her surroundings before she even lifts her body up. Needs to be sure she’s safe to react.
She realizes she’s in the janitor’s closet she ran past earlier. The door is closed.
“Guys?”
She hears collective sighs. “Good to have you back, Romanoff.”
“What happened?”
“Wanda’s the backup.”
She hears a distinct lack of fighting sounds. “Details, Steve. Sam? Why aren’t I hearing fights?”
“It was a condition.” Sam said. “Things got bad when you went offline. More soldiers came at us. More weapons. Took me down with a bazooka fired at me, near me, I don’t know, I fell towards Tony. Things happened, hell broke loose, man.”
“And?” Natasha asks.
“And Pietro says his sister can handle it. Says there’s no choice anymore.” Sam continues.
“What do you mean there’s no choice anymore?!”
“Got that bad, and he sounded pretty damn confident. Didn’t sound like he was up for argument. We were about to start taking hard hits left and right. Pietro yelled. Like, you know--- like-”
They knew what he was talking about.
The three months they’d yet to really speak of.
“Said she could do it, but we’d have to retreat, make sure none of us, Avengers, were looking. No one on our side. Not even Tony. Pietro’s stayed outside of the building, he was here a few minutes ago, making sure none of us turned to even try and see what was happening. Wanda’s in there with you.”
“You let her in here?!” She hisses.
“They wouldn’t take no for an answer, Natasha.” Steve contributed. “It wasn’t our choice.”
She hears the music start again, on the comms.
You want me dead
From the door crack, she sees a wave of scarlet, thin by the time it reaches her, barely a wisp. Wanda’s close by.
You want me gone
She tries to honour the condition that for whatever reason the twins insist on. It’s not like they don’t know what her powers look like. They’ve seen her use it. Multiple times.
Covered in evil, you turn on the saw
She sees flashes of scarlet, like a blinking light. It varies.
Hungry for power
Curiousity and concern win out. She didn’t make any sort of deal or accept any condition. She quietly opens the door, and peeks out.
Hungry for pain
She’s pretty sure she might be hallucinating it, but she thinks she sees some sort of crown on top of Wanda’s head, and her outfit looks…different, from what Tony showed her. And from what she knows, Wanda hasn’t gotten a new suit yet. She was supposed to today, but the mission was sudden, didn’t have time for testing, and it wasn’t safe enough for Wanda to wear when they didn’t yet know how it functioned while Wanda wore it.
Wanda’s eyes glow a vibrant red, she sees when she turns her head just for a second. She lifts a hand, and all the men that'd been chasing her lift up into the air, she flicks her hand easily and---holy shit she’s never seen Wanda look that powerful, confident---she’s not struggling. Her crown goes from flickering to something solid.
You kill a man if he gets in your way.
Wanda throws up a shield with another flick of her hand and approaches another approaching group. The men she’d lifted land on the ground on their feet, eyes vacant. They hoist their guns up, but not at her. At the ones approaching.
I walked through the valley of shadows.
I’m not alone, no, I won’t fear.
The hangman’s at the gallows.
Wanda’s hand movements look delicate and powerful all at the sametime. She’d never been aware that was really possible. She’d never really watched Wanda’s hands. Now, she can’t tear her eyes off of them, as she sends a small ball of scarlet forwards and such a small thing causes a large explosion under those running up the stairs to get to her. Wanda pulls her hand back, and the men’s gun fly from their hands towards her, pooling at her feet.
I’m not afraid of the death-
She flicks her hand towards the ground, and another explosion occurs. It’s such a casual show of power, she wonders why Wanda wouldn’t want them to know she’s hiding this sort of power. During training, her powers flicker, falter, and she struggles. Even on her first mission.
She’d been hiding this level of power, that…(...actually makes a lot of the twins’ weird behaviour make sense)...worries her. Does she not trust the Avengers? Was she hiding something more sinister than that?
-and the stare
Wanda turns, her red eyes catch the surface, and Natasha finally sees Wanda’s face clearly. A look of impassiveness, matched with the terrifying red of her eyes, the way they glow, menacingly, and the way they scream of power. It sends shivers down her spine.
I’ll never be like you.
I’ll never be like you.
I’m rising up, and I’m ready to fight you.
Ready to fight you.
A guard rises from the fallen, aims his gun. Shoots at her shoulder. The bullet goes through. Natasha almost makes a sound. Then she watches as the bullet wound closes, no blood leaks, and her clothing repairs itself at the same time.
I’m all in.
I’ve seen you before you all are the same.
You’re just another goin’ up in the flames, and if I’m dyin’ in the fight.
It’ll be while I’m bringing you down to the grave.
Wanda tilts her head. On the reflection, Natasha sees her almost smile. The man bolts up screaming, and runs down the ruined stairs, watches as he doesn’t even seem to notice the stair he plans to walk on is missing, and watches as he falls through, still screaming.
Natasha doesn’t know if she’s terrified or impressed. Both.
I see who you are
You are my enemy
My enemy
You are my enemy
In a final downwards hand movement, the rest of the overwhelming numbers fall like dominoes, their guns turn into bubbles that pop into the air and take away all traces of its existence. The bullets that were fired before their guns disappeared are fired right back, and those that still stand drop to the floor like possessed sandbags.
I see who you are.
You are my enemy
My enemy
You are my enemy.
Natasha noted that Wanda had her hand in a gentle almost claw sort of position, pressing it closer to her palm, like clenching her hand into a fist, then she realizes her angle was just wrong, and her hand wasn’t clenching, it was gently moving to the side.
The magic sweeps towards the damage caused by her magic, the explosions and probably more that she hadn’t seen from in the room, begin to fix itself up.
Natasha is in awe. But her fear doubles. And so does the gratitude over the fact that she chose to be on their side, wonders if she never chose their side, and how horrific that would be.
Wanda turns towards the clean metal wall, and their eyes meet in her reflection.
The spy’s heart rate quickens.
“How much did you see?” Wanda asks, her tone low.
Natasha doesn’t answer.
Wanda stretches her hand out towards her, and Natasha prepares to have her mind invaded, to feel another presence in her mind, one she did not allow, and wasn’t sure she would be comfortable with but also strangely---very very strangely---did not mind.
But nothing comes.
She thinks, for a second, that Wanda is subtle.
But then she realizes, as she looks around; time is rewinding. The bubbles are forming back into guns, the ruin from her magic is coming back. The guards are standing, Natasha's eyes widen. This is a better alternative to having her mind fiddled with like a toy, but she has no idea how to feel about it.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
Natasha wakes up in a janitor’s room.
She gets the debrief.
She argues.
When curiousity wins, the door does not open.
However, she does hear, “And Pietro, stop playing that song.”
The music stops.
Natasha’s not too surprised that it was Pietro, she had three guesses; Sam, Tony and Pietro. But considering Sam had military training and knew how to be professional, and t a song on the comms wasn’t quite extra enough for Tony, it made sense it was Pietro that was playing that.
Steve will probably pull him aside after the mission to lecture him on not doing that, because it was disrupting and distracting, and distractions means someone could get hurt. Natasha knows him well enough to know that now.
She sees blue light from the gap under the door, and hears a clap---high five?---and then the blue light goes.
When the mission ends with less injuries to the team and the files being in good condition, and those that weren’t, were easy enough to fix while all the guards were down, it feels like a miracle came to them.
The camera on Pietro’s visor is hacked by Tony in secret, Natasha knew him enough to know too, and her curiousity did get the best o f her sometimes. He watches as he plays the video, and curses when he sees that it turns to static the moment he crosses the threshold into the building.
For some reason, no one but her remembers that Wanda was inside the building with her, that she was the miracle. Not even Wanda and Pietro themselves, but she was pretty sure Pietro was lying, but it didn’t seem like Wanda was, then again, she was in a rush to leave after the question. Nothing changes, and she feels like the king in that tale about the village well.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
For some truly strange reason, Natasha wakes up, not at an unholy time, but not early either. No, it’s 12:39 AM and she’s down at the living room. The twins are loitering around again in the dark, they don’t bother to turn on the lights, they simply lay in weird positions on the couch (Wanda is upside down on the couch and Pietro can’t seem to ever actually sit on the couch, so he’s sitting on the backrest instead) while the TV plays.
Except unlike usual, because there is a usual, other Avengers, often not Natasha, wake up at late hours too, because everyone in the team has their baggage, their nightmares that ruin their sleep. Steve, Sam, Tony, Vision, they all tell stories of the shenanigans that they’ve seen the twins do at night.
Steve claims he’s seen Wanda return from a party---she’s been going to those a lot---with more than a handful of fast food takeout and watched them as Wanda and Pietro ate for at least half an hour and ordered more again, while they both completed 500 pc puzzle while quizzing each other on Harry Potter knowledge.
Sam said he’s seen the twins trying to bake two batches of cupcakes, and they were delicious (he gladly volunteered to be the taste tester, until PIetro got jealous and started eating with him, leaving Wanda to finish baking the rest by herself). Sam, of course, helped clean the dishes, while Pietro cleaned up the kitchen. Wanda relaxed on the couch while they cleaned.
One day, they woke up to more than 15 balloons hung up, and the puzzles they’d finished in frames on the wall, there was a banner that said “Good Morning!” and on the couch, was the twins cuddle up next to each other. Vision told them that the twins did it out of boredom, when the show they’d been watching had gotten too boring for the twins, Wanda left and returned with a bag of balloons, two, and some string. Then together, they blew the balloons up, and Vision left the room. He returned, and apparently, that was still too boring, so when he’d returned, Pietro was colouring a welcome banner, and Wanda was putting their puzzle into frames.
Natasha, although she had an unruly sleep schedule time too, rarely ever saw the twins with their shenanigans, but now, here they were.
Wanda was in a dress, again, a jacket over her, and black heels were beside the couch. She’d gone to a party again and returned. Natasha stopped to watch them, curious. They were talking.
“Yoooo,” Pietro said.
“What?”
“I have another question.”
“Just ask it, wait stop talking.”
The woman on the screen finished her words, the TV volume was down too low for Natasha to hear. She did hear a sound track though.
Pietro moved his leg over and nudged Wanda’s arm with his foot, like a light kick.
“Okay. Ask.”
“What were you doing when you weren’t, y’know, sleeping?”
“Other than the obvious?”
“Yeah.”
“Natasha, she…has nightmares. Bad ones. The last time, it was because of me. I listened to her alone in that room, in the dark--- it was heartbreaking, and all my fault. She was nice enough to never say it to my face, but I knew, and I did that. I hate flashbacks, but I just--- I triggered the worst ones for her.” Wanda said. “I couldn’t forgive myself. Still haven’t. Not even when--- so I just--- I can do better this time. I did. That’s what I did. I made up for my past.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Wands, you didn’t know-”
“I never seem to know anything, but that doesn’t make it not my fault.” She said, harsh, almost like she’d snapped it back instead of replying. “I went into her mind-”
Natasha tensed.
“-and put up mental walls for her, so I wouldn’t catch stray thoughts, or what she was dreaming about. Her mental walls, they didn’t just defend her from me; they defended her from her nightmares. Dreams pass through, they’re pleasant, but the darker sleep waves, the dark subconscious that trigger nightmares, they’re blocked.”
Her mind flashes back to that month, a month without nightmares, either just dreams or completely dreamless. She’d been at her peak then, had the most rest, she felt like she was moving on-- then they’d come back after.
And now here the twins were, discussing that in front of her, that it’d been Wanda who shielded her from her nightmares.
“Before that, we talked, she told me about her nightmares. I felt like shit. But I could do better then, and so I did. I’d keep it up, but even my mental barriers fall sometimes, the ones against others, not against my nightmares, those rarely do their job. Anyway, if I can’t even protect myself from my nightmares, others’ nightmares, when I’m asleep, no way could I keep a shield in Natasha’s mind to protect her from hers.” Wanda let her head fall back, and then her arms followed, tapping a rhythm against the floor.
A month.
Had she not slept for a month?
She’d seemed well-rested.
That…
She hid behind the wall, back pressed against it, out of sight from the twins.. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, she didn’t want to know, because if that was true…she wasn’t sure she’d been worth it.
“So…gay reasons?”
“Я ударю тебя сковородкой по голове! (I'll hit you over the head with a frying pan!)” Wanda said, pressing her hands flat against the ground. Pietro sped from his spot on the couch to behind the kitchen wall, peeking at Wanda with his tongue out.
In a show of flexibility and balance, Wanda pushes herself off, into a handstand and almost neatly lands on the ground. But then her leg extends too far and kicks the TV backwards. The TV crashes a dent against the tough metal wall. The twins visibly freeze, Wanda slowly turns around, and Pietro brings his hands up to cover his mouth. Both of their jaws fall open in shock. They turn towards each other, a panicked look on their faces---Natasha holds in her laughter---and then stare back at the TV.
“That was your fault!” Pietro whisper-yells.
“You’re the one that started it!” Wanda whisper yells back.
Footsteps and the sound of the elevator fill the almost silent room.
The twins rush to the TV and try to lift it, Wanda with her magic, and Pietro with his bare arms. They get it back on the stand, and it plays a coloured glitch, static, then a glitch again, and then it shuts down. There’s a crack running from the upper right edge towards the middle of the screen, and a piece of the thin black framing has a piece of it chipped off.
“Can’t you do something?!” Pietro says, holding on to his head, pulling at his hair, and walking around in a very short circle, almost spinning, as he panicked.
Wanda has never gestured more with her arms---that Natasha has seen---until now, her hands and arms flying around frantically, to herself, the TV, at Pietro, emphasising as she speaks. “I’m a witch! I can’t fix that! What about you?! You’ve got the faster brain function!”
“I can’t think of things I don’t--- I haven’t learned about what to do when someone crashes a TV!” Like the twin he is, Pietro begins to mimic Wanda, his hands flying around everywhere as he speaks.
“I did not crash that TV!”
“You kicked it, Wanda! What do you call that?! Upgrading it?!!”
Natasha covers her snort of laughter with her hand.
“An accident, Pietro! That’s what I call it!” She said, her shoulders rising, defensive. “Can’t you just--- speed up and like--- check the wires of this thing?!”
“I don’t even know how to check the inside of this thing! It’s like metal paper, it’s the thinnest TV ever! It literally looks like a fucking---I don’t know---painting!???”
“Phase through?!”
“I’m not that fast!”
The footsteps get closer. Natasha makes herself known, appearing from behind the wall, raising a brow, and placing a hip on her side. “What…has happened here?” She asks.
Right on time, Steve arrives, Sam follows, Tony after Sam, and then Vision comes last, to her surprise.
“Did somebody break in? What happened?” Steve asks, before finally glancing a proper look at the centre of the room, instead of looking around to see if there are enemies hiding.
The twins stand in the middle of the living room over a broken TV on the stand, their body language tense, and Natasha stands in there with them, giving them a curious look. Wondering how they’ll get their way out of it, really, but she knows it passes off as someone waiting for an answer.
Pietro stares at the TV and then to Wanda and Natasha. He opens his mouth to speak. No word comes.
Wanda scans behind her, the team standing, some groggy, some awake, all wary and confused.
“...” Wanda narrows her eyes, stands tall, fixes her posture, and then lifts her arm and points at Natasha. “Natasha did it!”
“Excuse me?” She hears herself say.
“She…” Wanda trails off, taking a second, to think, probably. Licks her lips to stall. Natasha denies staring at pink lips, and a pinker tongue that darts out. “...” Throws a glance towards her brother. Their eyes both dart down briefly, momentarily, towards the heels on the couch, it quietly begins to move towards them, just one shoe. She’s the only one who notices, she’s the only one who pays attention enough to. “...threw a shoe at us, and it…crashed teh TV.”
“Yeah, we--- we tried to stop her, y’know? We--the-the-the TV was in the way, and we knew something bad might happen, so we just… We tried to tell her not to. But she did, and it fell, and--- You know what? We’re really tired, man, you know? We’re gonna---ahhhhhhh, yawn, I mean---uh. Yeah, we’re gonna---we’re---uh, see ya. We’ll be up in our rooms. Sleeping. And…--- Yeah. You should probably talk to Natasha about that.” Pietro stammers, then takes Wanda’s hand and they walk past the stunned Avengers, that quietly turn to watch them as they take the elevator.
“Yawn?! Who says yawn while yawning?!” Wanda whispers.
“I don’t know! I panicked!” Pietro whispers back, shrugging defensively. “So did you!”
Wanda goes silent immediately.
When the doors close, the rest of the men turn to her. Steve begins to lift his brow.
“Uh no. Pull that fucking brow down, Steve. That was not me, no matter what they say.” Throwing her under the bus like that? Bold move. She turns to Tony. “We need a new TV.”
She walks past them too, and waits for the elevator doors to open.
Bold move, Maximoffs. Unfortunately, she’s pretty sure FRIDAY got all of that on camera. They’re not pinning this one on her, even if they tried. It was a good strategy though.
She tries to keep her mind on that, the broken TV, the panicked whispers, and not the silent and solemn whispers of a confession right before it. She doesn’t want to think about acts of kindness that she’s sure she doesn’t deserve, she knows it’ll lead to thoughts that’ll lead to darker memories.
She can’t ignore it forever, yes, but she can certainly try.
“FRIDAY,” she says. “Send the footage of the last 15 minutes to Stark and Rogers. Start to when Pietro teases Wanda.”
“Of course, Ms. Romanoff.”
────━▒ ۞ ▒━────
“Hey, do you wanna go…training…?” Pietro stops. “Are you going to another party or something?”
Wanda looks up from the mirror, as she puts on makeup. “Yeah, and I don’t think you have to wait today.”
“What des that mean?”
Wanda sends him a glance.
Oh.
“You know…you’ve been going to a lot of parties. Returning late. Wearing… Well, okay, that’s not really an issue. Wear whatever you want. But--- the drinking, the disappearing, the 2 AM returns---”
“That’s not fair, sometimes I come back at 1, or midnight. Or earlier.”
“Or later, like 3-4 AM. One time, you returned when we were having breakfast.” Pietro catches the look in her eyes, a sort of beginning-to-get-defensive look. “I- I just-- I don’t know. I’m-- I worry, okay? I just worry. I-I don’t--- I don’t want you to get hurt. I know you can take care of yourself, but this is… I don’t know, it’s--- you’re not acting like yourself, Wanda.”
Wanda’s gaze flickers to the floor, her eyelids hide a flash of some expression he thinks is guilt and sadness. Then she looks up, eyes smiling along with her lips. “Don’t worry, Piet. I know exactly what I’m doing.” She caps the lipstick. “I’m just having a little bit of fun.”
She puts on her heel. “Do I look…” she doesn’t say the word, she doesn’t need to. Still, it makes Pietro cringe. Sometimes, he regrets how close they are.
“Yeah, you look…” he scratches the back of his head and looks away, uncomfortable. The topic and worry slips from his mind, replaced by the uncomfortableness. It doesn’t cross his mind once, until far later, that Wanda might have done that on purpose. “...hot, er, attractive. I guess. Good luck, or something.”
Wanda smirks. “I won’t need luck.” She winks, and then takes the handbag from her desk, and floats her makeup stuff into it, and walks out the door. He assumes her phone is already in there.
Pietro cringes again.