Because I'm Your Sister
“Now that the girls are settled downstairs, that gives us time to be alone.” Natasha wrapped her arms around Bucky’s neck with a teasing grin. “You know, we haven’t been able to spend time alone in a while.”
“Well, I was away on important business. What do you suggest we do?” Bucky pressed a gentle kiss to his wife’s lips.
It was true.
For the past week, Bucky had been out on important Avengers business with Steve to keep him company. It was one of the longest weeks he had ever had. All he could think about was getting home to his wife and his kids.
“I don’t know.” Natasha shrugged pretty flirtatiously. “We could have a little movie marathon.”
A movie marathon would be a nice change in pace for her. She always got stuck watching one of Wanda and Alya's films, and not that she was complaining, but she could only take but so much of the 'Troll in Central Park' or 'Stuart Little'.
“I’ll get the popcorn.” Bucky winked.
“Alya, leave me alone!”
And just like that, the mood was interrupted.
“I’m not doing anything to you!”
“You’re leaning all over me!”
“But I wanna stay with you!”
“They’re fighting again.” Natasha groaned, detaching herself from her husband before running a hand through her red locks. “That’s the fifth time this week. I don’t know what to do with them.”
She tried everything she could think of!
Separating them, sending them to bed early, issuing a certain amount of quiet time, talking!
She even tried to let them figure it out on their own.
Nothing seemed to be working.
“I’ll handle it.” Bucky sighed and made his way down the stairs just in time to see Alya reel her hand back and slap Wanda’s arm.
Wanda yelped and lifted her hand to hit her back, but Alya saw it coming and tried to move away. The quick movement really backfired on her because she couldn’t get away quickly enough. Wanda’s hit caught her directly on her thigh instead of her arm, causing her to shriek.
“Mama!” The wail left Alya’s mouth before either of them could blink.
"Stop crying!' Wanda glared. "You hit me first!"
“What’s the problem?” Bucky asked, his voice giving away his lack of amusement.
Alya took the question as her cue to get even more worked up than she already was. Wanda just huffed and crossed her arms, knowing that somehow, someway, she was going to be the only one who got in trouble for this.
“I asked you both a question.”
The significant change in his tone of voice made Alya suck in all her tears and quiet down.
Wanda rolled her eyes and fought back the urge to shove Alya off the couch. She loved that kid, but sometimes she really got on her last nerve.
This was one of those times.
“She keeps bothering me.” She pouted.
“Oh? How is she bothering you?” Bucky inquired, taking notice of how silent Alya was being as he sat down in front of them on the coffee table.
The little girl’s eyes darted between him and her sister, but she didn’t look like she was going to say anything anytime soon.
“She never leaves me alone.” Wanda sighed. “She’s always following me around and she’s always copying me. It’s annoying.”
“I see.” Bucky fought back a smirk at the preteen’s obvious frustration. Of course they had been fighting about something petty. He should’ve guessed. “Alya?”
Alya’s eyes widened, but she looked at her father to let him know that she wasn’t ignoring him.
“Do you have anything to add?”
“I hit Wanda.” She sniffled.
“I saw that.” He acknowledged. “Thank you for telling me the truth. Why did you do it?”
“She kept saying means things.”
“Like what?”
“She said I’m annoying and I’m a pest.” Alya’s eyes teared up again. “She doesn’t wanna do anything with me.”
She didn't understand.
She and Wanda always did everything together. Now, everything was changing!
Wanda would rather hang out with her friends from school than to spend any time at home with her.
It made Alya feel like she was losing her best friend.
“That hurt your feelings, huh?”
“Yes.”
“I'm sorry your feelings are hurt, Pal, but Mama and I have talked to you about hitting before. Just because someone says something that you don’t like, doesn’t mean that you can lash out and hit. It’s isn’t nice. Can you say sorry?”
Alya chewed on her bottom lip and glanced at her sister, thinking about whether or not she actually wanted to apologize.
Wanda said some pretty mean things to her this past week and she didn't know if she was ready to be nice to her yet.
Then again, Wanda was still her sister. And most of the time, she was nice to her. The got along really well and whenever she needed her, Wanda was there.
“Sorry I hit you, Sissy.” She spoke after a long pause, pulling her knees to her chest.
“It’s okay.” Wanda shrugged.
“Do you have something you’d like to say, Wanda?” Bucky prompted.
“Huh?”
Wanda didn't know why she needed to apologize when Alya was the one who hit her in the first place.
“You know you said things that hurt her feelings and I watched you hit her. I don’t mind either of you defending yourselves, but I’m not gonna stand by and watch you injure each other just because you’re upset.”
“Sorry I was mean to you, Alya.” Wanda sighed. Maybe she had gone a little far in defending herself. She put a lot more force behind that blow than what was necessary.
At the apology, Alya didn't say anything. She just nodded and kept her focus on their father.
“Now that we have that solved, I think you both need to spend some more time away from each other. You’re not in trouble, just steer clear of each other for a while.”
“I wanna stay here and watch tv. Alya got to watch ‘Curious George’ all morning.”
If Wanda had to hear that ridiculous monkey once more time, she was going to lose it.
“Okay, go ahead.” Bucky granted Wanda permission. “What about you, Alya?”
“I wanna go upstairs.” The little one rubbed at her eyes as she slid off of the couch, not bothering to move her hands from her eyes as she walked up the stairs to find her parents’ room.
She felt the cat brush up against her leg and only stopped to pick Mischief up before she climbed onto her parents’ bed, right next to her mother.
“What’s wrong, sweet girl?” Natasha asked, noting her sad little face.
“Wanda doesn’t wanna play with me anymore. She said I’m annoying. I don’t think she likes me anymore.” Alya pouted.
“I know that’s not true.” The woman clicked her tongue, pulling the seven year old in for a hug. “Wanda loves you.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Alya shook her head.
“I don’t think that’s true.” Natasha cradled her daughter. “Do you think that maybe you might have been doing something to annoy her?”
She was immediately brought back to when she and Yelena were kids. Yelena looked up to her and she always wanted to be around her. At times, it did annoy Natasha because she was trying to be her own person and she was figuring out her newfound independence.
But, one day, Melina took her aside and explained that Yelena wasn't doing all of that just to get on her nerves, even though it certainly felt like it.
She was doing it because she thought so highly of her.
Wanda and Alya would figure it out eventually, but first Natasha had to get Alya to see the situation through a different lens.
“It’s possible.” Alya admitted.
“It’s possible?” Natasha chuckled. “Your sister really loves you, Alya. I know sometimes she might not want to spend time with you, but that’s because she’s getting older and she needs her space, and she needs her time to hang out with her own friends. What if you and Sarah wanted to hang out and Wanda kept trying to tag-along?”
“I wouldn’t like that.” Alya's nose scrunched.
“Do you think that Wanda might be feeling the same way?”
"Do you guys have any macaroni and cheese?" Yelena asked as she entered the room where Bucky and Wanda were still sitting. "I'm all out upstairs...."
The blonde trailed when she caught the not-so-happy expression on her elder niece's face.
"What's the matter?"
“She’s always following me.” Wanda grouched, crossing her arms, not even paying attention to what the tv was playing, even though she was the one who wanted to watch it.
"I'm going to take a wild guess here." Yelena moved away from the kitchen, deciding her macaroni and cheese could wait.
“She’s always copying me and she always wants to do everything I do." Wanda huffed. "Why does she do that?”
Wanda just didn't understand it.
She and Alya saw each other all the time! Why did she always want to be right on top of her?
Why couldn't she just leave her alone?
Was it really too much to ask, to be able to spend time with people her own age? She didn't always want a seven year old kid tagging along to do everything she did.
It was infuriating!
“Because she loves you.” Yelena exchanged a silent look with her brother-in-law before he nodded and left the room, probably to go and check up on Steve.
“What?” And that stopped Wanda right in her tracks.
“Your sister’s relationship with you is always going to be changing, but some things stay the same. You’re older, she’s always going to look up to you and she is always going to want to do what you want to do. It isn't because she wants to annoy you, she just wants to find a way to be close to you. You know, Natashka and I went through the same thing."
"You did?" Wanda raised a brow. "I can't imagine you being as annoying as my sister."
"Please." Yelena scoffed. "Where do you think she gets it from?"
"Great."
"The point is, I was always trying to copy Natasha because I wanted her to like me. She meant the world to me and it hurt very much when she started to prefer hanging out with other girls instead of with me. Especially since we were so close."
Wanda sighed and hesitated before uncrossing her arms, a sign that he was getting through to her. "I didn't mean to hurt her feelings."
"Neither did Natashka." Yelena nodded. "Do you know, that besides us, your sister is going to be the one person you can depend on for anything?"
Yelena was sure that Natasha would agree, but if they could go back in time and do something differently, they would've cherished each other a lot more in Ohio. But neither of them knew that it would end so quickly and so terribly.
The only thing they could do now, was make up for lost time.
"Your friends are going to come and, maybe, some of them will go, but Alya will always be your sister. Don't take that for granted."
Alya woke up to a gentle hand stroking her hair. She didn't remember falling asleep, but now that she had, she certainly felt better.
At first, she thought it was her mother that was with her, but she realized it wasn't when the mystery person hummed a soft tune.
It was Wanda.
That was odd.
So the seven year old turned around to face her, a deep scowl printing itself on her face. "Why are you here? I thought you didn't want me around."
"Alya...." Wanda's heart tugged at her little sister's words, because they had been her own. "I didn't mean that."
"Yes, you did." Alya argued. "And you don't have to say it anymore, because I'm not gonna bother you. You can go spend time with your friends without me. You like them better anyway."
"Alya, that's not true." Wanda's eyes widened. "My friends are nice, but I don't like them more than I like you."
Alya didn't say anything. She just lied still, having nothing to add to the conversation.
"Alya, sometimes, I like to be with people who are my age. That doesn't mean I like you less. There's stuff that I can talk to them about that you wouldn't understand."
"Like what?"
"Algebra....and boys."
"Ick." Alya cringed.
"See? I can't talk to you about that kind of stuff, not yet." Wanda was so glad that Alya was coming around, because she could be really stubborn. "But they can't take your place and I could never love them more than you."
"Why?"
"Because I'm your sister." She playfully rolled her eyes. "You know all my secrets."
"Yeah." Alya grinned mischievously. "I can ruin you."
"But you won't." Wanda smiled back, cuddling into the child who had no issues in receiving the much wanted affection. "Know why?"
"Because I'm your sister."