Wanda is resting easily on her bed, idly watching the television Tony had provided her with, when a breaking news alert flashes onto the screen.
The roving reporter on the screen looks harried, as if she has just been thrust on screen. She sounds as unsure as she looked, as she relates the events that have just occurred.
"Just a few minutes ago, this school bus tipped over the edge of the bridge, and is now hanging preciously over the road below. Fire fighters have arrived at the scene, but are struggling to pull the bus back onto the bridge."
The picture changed to show one of the ubiquitous yellow school buses that Wanda is still getting used to seeing, half off the bridge, the children inside only faintly visible.
What is visible, is the terrified expressions on their faces – all of them clearly aware of how hazardous the situation is.
Seeing this, something inside of Wanda stirs – she remembers just what it was like to be a young child, literally inches away from death and unable to to anything about it. The electricity in her veins crackles, and she remembers that now she can do something about it – that she can use the power she does not yet fully understand to save these innocent lives.
Realising this, she flies into action – slipping out of her comfortable jeans and shirt into the outfit that she usually wears for training exercises and the occasional mission.
Wanda moves swiftly down the sprawling corridors of the compound, heading towards Natasha's simple quarters. Halfway there she remembers that Natasha, who is the Avenger usually sent out with Wanda on training exercises, is not currently in the compound. In the short time she's been in the compound, Natasha has taken her under her wing – being the person to carry out most of her training.
Most of the world thinks she has been sent on a mission with Clint, but Wanda knows that this is a cover, as they are both visiting the farmhouse where Clint's family lives, 'Aunty Nat' eager to see her young namesake.
This gives Wanda pause, as the senior Avengers have instructed her more than once that she isn't to go on missions without either Natasha, Clint, Steve or Tony for support. However, she realises that none of them are currently here, Steve and Tony having briefly left in order to visit Peggy Carter – known to her as the former director of SHIELD, but a close friend to both men.
She briefly considers enlisting Vision's help, but she knows that he wouldn't condone her embarking on this mission without backup.
This situation is unusual, in the months following the battle in Sokovia and Pietro's death, she is fully aware that the other Avengers have been ensuring that she isn't left alone for too long. In recent weeks however they'd stopped hovering around her quite as much – seemingly more confident that she is unlikely to do anything stupid.
Wanda hates to break their trust – it had been hard to earn in the first place – but seeing the terrified children on TV has left her without a choice – if she can help them, then she should.
Decision made, Wanda uses her powers to quickly travel to the scene of the accident, where she sees that the bus is balanced even more precariously over the edge of the bridge than when she left the compound.
Ignoring the multitude of curious onlookers, she hovers at the back of the bus, where it teeters over the freeway below. Using her powers to perform more than one action at once is something she has only practised in training sessions before now, but Wanda realises she has no choice if she is to protect the terrified children on the bus.
Focusing intently, she is able to slowly move the bus back onto the bridge, supporting it from below, at the same time as maintaining her position hovering in the air above the fast moving freeway.
A combination of the adrenaline running through her body and the sheer necessity of her actions gives her the necessary strength to force the bus back onto the bridge, breaking part of the structure, but leaving the children safe.
Before Wanda can take in her success, she is hit by a wave of exhaustion and is no longer able to maintain her position in the air, instead falling towards the traffic below her.
Just as she fades into unconsciousness she is aware of herself being plucked out of the air by a pair of strong arms, and carried back over to the bridge. She is conscious only long enough to see Steve's concerned face looking down at her before she falls into unconsciousness once more.
When Wanda finally wakes from her stupor, she finds herself back in her room in the compound. Steve is sat on the chair facing the television set, watching coverage of Wanda's rescue, with a frown on his face.
Wanda stretches, and tries to sit up – unable to hide the moan of pain that this action causes. Hearing this, Steve turns to look at her, turning off the television and moves to sit on the end of her bed.
"How… how long have I been here?" Wanda asks
"Three hours – Tony had to go and do damage control with the world council, but I wanted to stay until you woke up" Steve replies, giving nothing away regarding how he feels about her actions.
"Nat and Clint – do they know I'm okay?"
"Yes, we let them know. They're on their way back, should be here soon. Nat was calm when I spoke to her, but I think she wants to have few words with you – in fact we all do."
Wanda suddenly experiences a feeling that is uncommon for her, and has been since she first got her powers – fear. She knows that Natasha is not going to be pleased with her actions, however calm she sounded over the phone. With Natasha, calm normally means only that a storm is on its way. This time, it sounds like the storm will be aimed squarely at her. In the time that she's been a member of the Avengers, Wanda knows that Natasha has begum to see her as a protégée – and she has certainly warned her more than once not to use her powers without backup. This is not going to be pleasant.
Steve seems to sense some of what is going through her mind, as he places a steady hand on her shoulder.
"Try not to worry too much – Nat is upset, but she understands why you felt you had to help. She, and I, just wish that you'd found a safer way to do so."
"Steve – I'm… I'm sorry, I just knew I had to help those kids"
While clearly accepting her reasoning, something in Steve's face looks uncharacteristically stern, so she isn't entirely surprised by his next words.
"I know, but Natasha will still want you to explain what the hell you were thinking!"
Wanda then realises that Steve is more upset with her than he'd been letting on, and this shock must show in her face. The man visibly calms himself, before moving to exit the room, only pausing to say words that sound more ominous than he had perhaps intended.
"Try and get some more rest before she gets here."
Despite her growing feeling of unease, Wanda finds it easy to slip back into unconsciousness, tired out by her exertions.
The next thing she is aware of is an irate Natasha Romanov towering over her, looking more dangerous than Wanda has ever seen her.
Wanda quickly sits up, instinctively trying to put as much distance between herself and her mentor.
Outwardly, Natasha appears calm, but Wanda can tell just how angry she is by the look in her eyes, and by her icy tone.
"Would you like to explain what on earth you were thinking? You know you're not supposed to go on missions without backup! If Steve hadn't been heading back and saw you…"
"It would have been fine" Wanda exclaims "I managed to to save the children, the mission was a success!"
At this, Natasha's calm façade seems to break
"You would have died Wanda! You lost consciousness!"
"I did not know you cared. The mission is the most important thing is it not?"
Instantly Wanda regrets her words – however hard Natasha pretends to be unfeeling and detached she knows that the assassin cares deeply for all of their team members. However, it is too late to take back her words, and she watches the anger that had begun to subside appear in the other woman's eyes once more. For a minute she thinks that Natasha might strike her, but instead she moves to the other side of the room and collapses into the chair Steve had only recently vacated.
"if I've ever given you that impression then I am sorry. However, I think you know that is not true"
"I do, I'm sorry – I should not have said that. I just… could not see another way to help them."
Natasha looks placated by her apology, but continues with her scolding all the same.
"Wanda, you know that isn't the only way you could have helped. There are many ways that would not have involved you passing out from the exertion – you could have asked JARVIS to contact Tony, you could have convinced Vision to go with you, hell, you could even have contacted me, Clint and I were on our way back. But you didn't – you acted without thinking, like a child."
Wanda suddenly feels deeply ashamed of her actions – deep down she'd known at the time that she could ask for help, but she had been so keen to prove herself and help the children, that she had pushed aside the other options.
"I am sorry… you are right; I did not think."
Natasha nods in acceptance, before moving on to the next point.
"But it's worse than that – you abused our trust, endangering not just your own life, but the lives of those around you. Wanda, you're very young, and you're very new to this – but if we can't trust you to follow protocol and protect your own life, then maybe you're not ready to be an Avenger."
Wanda dips her head and stares at her hands, no longer able to meet her mentor's eyes. She'd been afraid of this since she'd seen Steve's face – the senior Avengers take safety seriously, in the early days of the initiative Clint, Tony, and even Natasha had apparently been rather reckless, and the team had suffered for it.
"What... what can I do? Since Pietro died…The Avengers, you, Clint, Steve, Vision, Tony – even Sam and Rhodey, you have been like my family."
Natasha is touched to hear this, but no less resolved to show Wanda how reckless her actions have been.
"I don't know how much you've heard about the early days of the Avengers – I know Sam likes to gossip, but I don't think even he has told this particular story. I know you're aware, because Steve never lets me forget it, that at the start of all this I was pretty reckless – I didn't really care about what happened to me, and I was willing to do pretty much everything for a mission."
Wanda doesn't quite know where this is going, but she can tell Natasha is serious, and wisely decides not to interrupt her.
"There was one particular mission that Steve and I went on just before the fall of SHIELD, where I risked everything and nearly got both of us killed, just to gain some intelligence for Fury. Steve had had enough, and in the end he… well he discouraged me from being so reckless in the future."
Wanda's face must look as confused as she feels, because Natasha takes one look at her and explains more fully.
"He spanked me Wanda. It wasn't the first time he's done it to a member of the team, and neither was it the last. We… find it helps to keep the team together, when someone does something particularly reckless we can move on more quickly, knowing they understand what they should have done."
Wanda is confused, Steve had showed no signs of this earlier, simply telling her to wait for Natasha.
"Is… is he going to do the same to me?"
"Unless you agree to it, no one will do anything – it wouldn't work if you didn't see why it was necessary. But if you do consent, then we agreed that I should be the one to do it – I've been responsible for most of your training, and we thought you might be more comfortable with another woman."
The idea of being spanked by the infamous Black Widow is more than a little intimidating, but Wanda can see how it would help. She does feel guilty – at least for worrying all of her teammates, and if this can help her work through it, then it might be the best way.
"Will it… will it hurt?"
Natasha smirks a little
"It wouldn't work if it didn't. You don't need to worry though – I'm not going to torture you, just explain to you why what you did was wrong,"
"and after this... it would be over?"
"The others will probably want to talk to you, but yes – we would move on from it.
Hearing that, Wanda gives a small nod, hoping that Natasha will take it for what it is, her consent.
Seeing this, Natasha pats her lap, indicating that Wanda should lay over it.
Slowly, Wanda moves across the room and does so. She feels herself being positioned further over her mentor's lap, Natasha lifting her hips as she does so, and easing her pants down over her slim behind.
Natasha wastes no time commencing the punishment, and brings her hand down hard on Wanda's behind, with a resounding SLAP.
Wanda gasps, the resulting pain worse than she'd imagined.
Natasha feels momentarily sorry for the younger women, and forces herself to remember the fear she had felt for her earlier that day. Steeling herself for what she has to do, she unleashes an onslaught of fierce swats onto the vulnerable backside of the women over her lap. She knows this is effective when she hears Wanda cry out and curse in Sokovian under her breath. She feels the small body in her lap start to twist in her strong grasp, attempting to escape the fast and furious swats.
Meanwhile, Wanda is forgetting all about her initial resolve to accept this gracefully, such is the pain Natasha's practised hand is causing, and flings her hand back to cover her bottom.
Natasha responds to this by taking hold of Wanda's hand and pinning it to the small of her back. Simultaneously she increases the tempo of her swats, tilting her forward so that she can target the so far untouched tender sit spots.
SWAT SWAT SWAT SWAT
She continues at a fierce tempo for another few minutes, allowing the fear she had felt for the young woman to help her continue. She doesn't stop when the behind in front of her darkens in colour, nor when Wanda yelps or promises to be good.
By this point Wanda has long ceased trying to escape, forcing her body to remain limp she accepts what Natasha is dealing out, now well aware of how seriously the other Avengers are taking her reckless actions.
Noticing this, Natasha decides that it is time to wrap this up, and so begins to scold for the first time since commencing the punishment, interspersing the scolding with hard swats from her hand. She had considered bringing her hairbrush with her, but considering this was Wanda's first ever spanking, she'd decided her hand would be more than enough.
'You… SWAT… do not… SWAT… go on missions… SWAT… without backup… SWAT… and you certainly… SWAT… do not… SWAT… act so recklessly…SWAT. You… SWAT… could have…SWAT… been… SWAT… killed!
Pausing for a moment she demands "do you understand me Wanda?"
Despite the fire in her posterior, and the tears pouring down her face, Wanda manages to choke out "Yes Ma'am"
Momentarily surprised by this form of address, Natasha pauses for a moment more, before saying calmly "good, five more and then we're done."
With this she raises her hand high above Wanda's abused posterior and brings it down hard five times, these swats the hardest of the whole punishment – she wants Wanda to remember this, and knows that her point will be driven home whenever the young girl sits for the next few days.
SWAT SWAT SWAT SWAT SWAT
The younger woman cries out, her backside burning more fiercely than ever before, and then allows Natasha to pull her carefully up into a sitting position, the older agent rubbing her back carefully until her charge's sobs finally cease.
Natasha continues to hold Wanda for a few minutes, well aware that the girl – in this moment that is what Wanda seems like to her – is probably struggling to gain control of her emotions once more.
When she feels her calm, she helps Wanda to her feet, and replaces her clothing, saying in a warning tone
"Next time you do something like this, I won't be using my hand."
Wanda blushes, but seems to accept this – both the truth in Natasha's statement, and the fact that there will most likely be a next time.
"The others – what will they say?"
"You're not the first person to go through this – they'll want to talk to you, to make sure you understand what you should have done, but they know I've dealt with it. Tony and Steve will probably be a little stern, but it's just because you worried them – worried all of us."
Natasha takes Wanda's hand, and leads her from the room – knowing that facing the others will be a little difficult for her after all of this.
"I think Steve is cooking – although as Vision is helping, that might be more of a punishment than anything I could inflict!"
Wanda can see that Natasha is trying to cheer her up, and rewards her with a smile, allowing herself to be led from the room.
Despite her stinging behind – Natasha sure knows what she's doing – Wanda feels more at ease than she has in a long time, knowing that she is finally surrounded by people who care about her, people that want to have her back.
Wanda is finally home.