Sorry this has taken longer than expected. Kinda had a bit of a mental breakdown earlier this week. Yay. Love uni :) Tbh, I'm feeling so much better right now. I'm trying to get my eating and fitness on track :) Hope you guys are all good, if you need a chat, just message me.

Response to reviews:

Kay - Yaasss, all the feels in this story, even more so in the next chapter, so watch this space.

SAP - I KNOW! I love writing about MARVEL characters and their ships because you can really direct where the story goes. Yes, I love the doll and Darlin', I am definitely keeping those in. Mama Nat and Daddy Clint are definitely precious - you'll see a bit more of that in this chapter.

jesseort1382 - BLESS YOU! I love that the notifications from this story make you happy, that is my ideal goal! Thank you so much, I promise you something will happen soon, you just have to be patient. Slow burns are the best kind ;) Thank you for giving me so much feedback 3

Bethypie1998 - I'm glad you love their moments together, they are very cute aren't theyyyyy :) Yes, he is free and staying with the Avengers. Boo-yah! Yeah, this is a tad emotional, but the next one is probably even more so...good luck :P

DarylDixon'sLover - Thank you so muchchhhchchchchchchchchchch :) Can you see my excitement? Haha

StarWarsandDisneylover - Thank you :) I'm glad you like my chapters. They will be an official item soon, I promise.

James POV

A few days went by since Ross came to visit. I was staying, because my head needed to get fixed. Yes, part of me was staying for Wanda and Steve, but I know that finding my memories was more important than keeping friendships.

Wanda and I had discovered more memories over the past few days, some good and some...not so good. We worked through them though, as usual. I hadn't seen her yet this morning, she didn't come out for breakfast. She seemed a little down last night but I didn't question it. Maybe I would see if she was alright later?

Natalia had been avoiding me for a few days or maybe she was just very busy. I wouldn't be surprised as she did help run the place. That time away from her had led me to where I was standing - directly outside her door, hand up ready to knock.

JARVIS had informed me that she had taken an hour to herself. I shouldn't have been intruding but I needed to speak to her about the memory.

I knocked three times. "Enter," she answered immediately. I breathed out as I opened the door to her quarters. She was at her desk with a pen in her hand, writing notes on what looked like paperwork. "Oh, hey," she greeted when she clocked her eyes on me.

"Hi," I replied with a short wave and shut the door behind me.

"I was wondering when you would come and talk to me," she said, shuffling up the work on her desk into a neat pile. She put it to the side and turned to face me.

"Why didn't you come to me?" I asked, walking a little further into the room. I didn't feel very comfortable in her room. Her living space was near and tidy, unsurprisingly having a theme of black and red. She had an entire wall of weapons - guns, knife, even a samurai sword.

"I didn't want to pressure you," she answered, bringing my attention back to her. At least her reason for not speaking to me had good intentions. She gestured for me to take a seat in the chair next to her desk. I slowly, with a bit of caution, walked over and sat down in the chair.

"So, we slept together?" I asked, getting straight to the point. I didn't want to get through awkward small talk and neither did she.

"I'm glad you remember now," she replied, crossing one of her legs over the other. She sat back against her chair and folded her arms over her chest.

"Do you regret it?" I asked. The question had been burning on my mind since I found out it happened.

"No," she said simply, looking me straight in the eyes. "Throughout our lives we were tortured and ordered around." She glanced up at me. "We got to be free for an hour."

I nodded, understanding that her reasoning was the same as mine. Neither of us deserved the torture we went through, but it happened. We wanted to feel something and I didn't feel guilty about it, even if the circumstances weren't great.

"Do you regret it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at me. Her face genuinely looked a little worried.

"No, definitely not," I reassured her, shaking my head. She nodded and I could see the relief on her face.

"Good," she replied, resting her hands on the armrest of her chair. "Now, that that's over and done with, how's your head?"

I was glad we weren't talking about it anymore. I felt we both found out what we needed to know and could move on. I smirked at her question. "I've never had any complaints..." I muttered and she raised her eyebrows, looking a little shocked.

"Wow, the soldier has banter. Who knew?" she chuckled, standing up. She moved across the room to open a cupboard. "Seriously though, how are your memories doing?"

I grimaced and shrugged a little. "It's going to take a long time to go through them, but Wanda and I will get there in the end."

She nodded as she brought over two glasses, a bottle of vodka and some lemonade. "You're drinking this early? You're just as bad as Stark." I told her as she set the items down on her desk. She looked at the time - it was 10am.

"Firstly, 10am isn't that early for drinking. Secondly, we are drinking it, not just me. And thirdly, I'm Russian, which means I'm not an alcoholic as its practically a citizenship requirement to drink daily."

"But I'm not Russian," I argued as she poured some vodka into each glass.

"You speak it, that's good enough," she said, filling the glasses up with mixer. "So how is Wanda?" she asked, looking at me with concern.

"She's good though I haven't seen her this morning." I heard Natalia sigh quietly to herself. That concerned me. "Is something going on that I don't know about?" I prompted as she ran her fingers through her red hair.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Did she not tell you?" she asked, sounding a little quieter. Okay...now I was getting worried.

"Tell me about what?" The saddened look on Natalia's face wasn't helping my anxiety. Something was wrong.

"It's the anniversary of Pietro's death today." It was like a bucket of ice cold water was poured over my head. She hadn't told me, not that I expected her to, but it was a bit of a shock. We had become quite good friends recently and I thought she would want me there for her, but instead she felt the need not to.

I took a breath. I needed to respect her decision. If she didn't want to tell me, that was her choice. I wasn't angry, just a bit confused. What should I say to her? I'm sorry for your loss? I'm here if you need me?

"Are you alright?" Natalia asked, bringing her glass to her lips. I looked at my untouched glass and grabbed it, downing the whole thing. I don't know why I felt the need to as it wouldn't do anything, but I just wanted a drink. My friend was mourning her brother and I felt guilty for not being there even though she hadn't told me.

"Yeah," I murmured before clearing my throat and looking up at her. "Yeah," I repeated with more confidence. Natalia had a doubtful look on her face. "I'm just surprised she didn't tell me."

Natalia nodded. "Just tread with caution. I think Clint is spending most of the day with her."

I nodded back and sank into my chair as Natalia filled up both of our glasses again. She had finished hers too. "So what are you going to do for the rest of the day without your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," I told her, slightly exasperated with Natalia's teasing. I would never have a 'girlfriend', especially one as beautiful as Wanda.

"Could've fooled me," she said with a smile, bringing her glass up to her lips again. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"We are just becoming good friends," I told her honestly. I didn't want to mess up this new friendship with her. "Nothing more," I stressed, taking a sip of my drink.

"Okay, okay," she replied, putting up both her hands with forgiveness. "I'll stop teasing." She still had that mischievous look in her eye though.

Honestly, I didn't mind Natalia teasing me now that we were...friends? I liked to think that we could put our past behind us and try and be friends. We were two people who had a lot of shared life experience. I wouldn't want to be romantically or sexually involved with her again though. It would complicate everything. Also, I didn't find her attractive. Obviously she was beautiful, but it wasn't attractive to me somehow.

My mind went to Wanda. I wondered whether she would be alright with Clint. Hopefully I would get the chance to speak with her later. I'd never comforted someone who had dealt with a loss apart from Steve, but then again, that was an entirely different life.

"Seeing as your sparring partner is taking the day off, fancy a session with me?" she asked before downing the rest of her drink.

"Sure, but do you not have paperwork to do?" I asked gesturing to the large pile of documents on the desk.

She shrugged. "They can wait. Besides, I'll just give them to Clint later," she said with a smirk, grabbing the jumper that was hanging over her chair.

By the time we got to the training room, only a few people were in there. Tony was boxing with someone I hadn't seen before, supposedly a trainer. He was medium build, black hair, green eyes, heart rate at 134 beats per minut-

"Barnes?" I turned my head to Natalia who was looking impatiently at me. I stepped through the boxing ropes she was holding apart for me as I looked around the rest of the room.

The only other people there were Clint and Wanda. They were on the far side, looking at something on the wall. I couldn't quite see what it was, but it had a slight glint to it. I nearly laughed when I saw what Wanda was wearing - silky shorts and a hoodie that nearly engulfed her. She looked so cute. Her legs were longer than I thought, but then again I hadn't stared at them for so long. Part of me wanted to get close to her and stroke them, feel how soft they were. Wait...what? I shook my head and pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. She was in mourning for goodness sakes. I should probably stop staring now.

I held my hands in fists, protecting my face as Natalia and I circled around each other. "You sure you're going to be able to keep up, old man?"

I rolled my eyes and lunged forward with attacks, trying to aim for her stomach and face. The problem with Natalia was that she was quick and small and strong and tactile and practically the perfect spy. She dodged my punches with lightening speed and slid herself between my legs, swinging her body back around to knock a hit to my stomach.

I heard her laugh as she pushed herself back to a standing position. Before she was fully standing, I didn't hesitate as I swept her feet from under her with my foot. She hit the ground, rather ungracefully, a soft groan coming from her. "So...we're playing dirty, huh?" I let her stand up fully again before raising my fists.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Wanda hugging Clint. My mind went to Pietro again. I couldn't believe she hadn't told me. A near punch to the face from Natalia, that I only just managed to deflect, brought me back to the task at hand.

She advanced towards me with low round houses, side snap kicks and even a straight up heel push at one point, but I kept my distance as she moved forward. I stopped at moving and grabbed her ankle to catch her off guard. She was prepared for it.

She jumped forward, kicked my chest with both of her feet and managed to land on her hands to spring herself back up. I watched from where I was on the floor as she just walked away with a smirk on her face.

I rolled my eyes and pushed myself back up again. I was distracted though when movement caught my peripherals. Wanda and Clint were walking towards the door of the training room, away from the shiny...things on the wall.

I froze for a moment, watching as she walked away. This time I could see parts of her face, hear her heartbeat. She was unhappy, I could tell that much. Who wouldn't be in that situation? I wanted to run over and hug her. I'd never felt such a need to comfort someone else as much as I did in that moment. Perhaps it was because she had lost her brother, just as I had lost my sister, and we shared that sense of mourning. Maybe it was because I missed her company at the breakfast table this morning or the fact she was wearing the oversized hoodie that made her look sweeter than usual. But maybe it was actually because I-

Suddenly, I stumbled backwards, feeling immense pain in my cheek. I felt my cheeks reddened as I looked back at Natalia, feeling a little mortified. My super soldier abilities picked up on the snort that left Wanda's nose as she walked out of the room, obviously amused by what had happened. Natalia had a smirk on her face as she returned her fist to her hip.

"Getting distracted by your girlfriend, are we?" she teased, walking backwards with her head up as if to challenge me. I was not going to lose a fight with Natalia over Wanda. She was gone now, one less distraction. Now I just had to put up with listening to Tony's sarcasm and stupid one-liners for the rest of the session.

"Shut up," I muttered at her smug face and went to hit her right in the jaw. Irritatingly enough, she dodged.

After we finished sparring, two hours later, I was quite tired to put it lightly. Yes, I was a super soldier, but Natalia was practically up to the same standard. Fighting constantly for two hours was difficult, but she was a great opponent.

As we both grabbed drinks from the side of the room, I noticed Wanda and Clint sitting at the edge of the tree-line again, red tendrils surrounding them. Her abilities were absolutely incredible. Being able to hold herself as well as Clint that high and be in control was mind-boggling.

"Are you worried about her?" Natalia asked from beside me. "Because Clint is like a father to her. He can take care of her."

"I know," I replied immediately, not wanting her thinking Clint wasn't capable of doing that job. In fact, quite the opposite, he seemed like the perfect man for it. "I just wish I could take away her pain," I said quietly and partly just to myself. I would do anything to help Wanda.

"You can." I turned to Natalia with a frown.

"How?" I asked, thinking if there was anything that I missed. Tracking down the people who killed her brother would be easy and pointless because Tony was in the same room as me, but there was no way I was killing him. I had killed too many Starks already. Wanda deserved happiness, I just wasn't sure how to give it to her.

"Be there for her, distract her with a movie later tonight or have dinner with her. Do something to take her mind off of what's going on and she'll talk when she needs to. I'm pretty sure Clint has some stuff to do later and can't be with her, but nobody wants her to be alone today," she explained, drying the sweat on her face down with a small towel.

I nodded and looked back at the pair at the end of the field. I was pretty sure we still needed to watch that Harry Potter film...

Wanda POV

Today was the day. I hadn't been thinking about it until yesterday. Things were going so well with James and the team that it slipped my mind. I tried not to feel guilty about it, but failed.

Three years. I was lying in bed still. I looked over at the clock - 9:30. Usually I would be up by now. I hadn't even eaten breakfast yet, but I wasn't hungry. There was a faint knock on my door.

"Wanda?" I heard Clint's voice from behind my bedroom door. Only Clint, Nat, Steve and James had access to my room. I didn't really trust anyone else.

"Come in," I answered, leaning back against the backboard of my bed. I was perched on my pillow with my duvet wrapped around my legs. I was wearing my sleeping clothes - a pair of silk shorts and a tank top. I didn't mind Clint seeing me. Any Avenger could see me in my outfit and I wouldn't be too embarrassed.

"Oh love," he cooed, coming over to sit on my bed. I shuffled over and he sat next to me, holding his arm out so I could snuggle up next to him.

"Everything is shit," I told him frankly, tightly holding onto him. I was sad, but felt more pissed off than anything. The world had taken my parents and my brother from me. It was unfair.

"I know," he sighed. "The world is a piece of crap and we're all gonna die."

I frowned and looked up at the archer. "Shouldn't you be encouraging me to stay positive?"

He shrugged and smirked down at me. "Just trying to be truthful darling." I rolled my eyes and put my head back on his chest. We were silent for a moment, listening to nothing as we hugged. I really don't know what I would do without Clint.

"They aren't here," he whispered, continuing to stroke my arm softly. "but the world is what you make it to be."

Clint, despite popular belief, was actually rather smart. Everyone knew he was banterful and compassionate, but usually it was seen that Natasha was the smart one and Clint was the goofy one. I think they dabbled in both areas.

I nodded at his statement and hugged him tightly. "Have you eaten?"

I didn't, couldn't, answer him. He knew I had eating problems in the past and I didn't want them to be a big deal now, but I never wanted to eat on Pietro's anniversary. Something stopped me from wanting to, which was odd because usually when I felt sad or guilty I would make as much pasta as I could.

"I'll take that as a no," he said, not sounding disappointed or angry, just observant. He tapped my arm and moved to get up, pushing me up too. "Come on, let's get some food."

I groaned and stood up. I grabbed a hoodie from the side and chucked it on. Nobody was going to question my outfit. Also, I didn't give a shit what anyone thought today.

We went into the kitchen and Clint fixed me up with some scrambled eggs. They were buttery and delicious, just the smell of them peeled up my hunger. I moaned in content as I finished them.

"Good?" He asked, drinking his second cup of coffee for that morning.

"They were lovely." I put my hand on his, stopping him mid-drink. "Thank you," I said after a moment. I wanted him to know how much I appreciated him. He was like the guiding light out of my shitty gloomy dark hole.

"Don't mention it," he said, picking up my hand and kissing it. I smiled as I picked up my plate and took it to the sink. I would do the washing up later.

"I have something to show you," he said with a smile on his face. I was immediately suspicious at that.

"That's your 'I've done something sneaky face'. What's going on?" I asked, folding my arms and raising an eyebrow with concern. The sneaky face could be either good or bad, but was always a surprise. I wondered what it could be this time.

"Come on," he said with the nod of his head to the door. I shoved my hands into my pockets as I followed him. We seemed to be heading towards the training room, but the only place I wanted to head was bed.

My thoughts went back on Pietro. He would be sneaky sometimes. He would buy me something that was way too expensive for us to be buying, saying that someone owed him a favour. He once bought me a beautiful dress that was worth about €30. He told me not to wear it in front of anyone but him as the other people in the town would get jealous and might try to take it. I never did wear it outside, but I would spend many evenings in it, lying on our creaky bed, dreaming about someone taking me out to dance in it. Of course, that never happened.

When we arrived at the training room, Tony was boxing with his trainer with Rhodey watching outside of the ring. They looked over when Clint opened the door. I could see Rhodey smile at me before turning his head. Tony gave me a little wave before getting back to boxing. They both knew that I didn't want to be disturbed.

Clint walked me over to a corner of the room where there were a series of rectangles on the wall. As I got closer, I realised they were plaques. "What is this?" I asked as we approached.

"This is the Avenger's commemorative wall. I pitched the idea to Hill last week to see if we could get it done for today," he explained, his eyes flickering over them all. "It's for fallen Avengers only. Thankfully there are only two names so far."

I looked to the first name - Phil Coulson. I remembered someone telling me he was a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill was Fury's right hand woman, and probably still is, and Coulson was Fury's right hand man. It was a shame I never got the chance to meet him.

My eyes went to the second plaque:

'Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) - taken too soon'

I glanced up at Clint as tears welled up in my eyes. "You...did this?" I asked, staring back at the plaque. It was beautiful. The small rectangular shape and light brown framing was so beautiful.

"He was one of us. He deserves it," he said whispering the last bit. Pietro meant something to Clint too. I could see the teary look in his eyes. He was right, Pietro did deserve it.

I threw my arms around him and squeezed him tightly. He brought his arms protectively around me and squeezed back. "I love you," I whispered, shutting my eyes and holding onto him tightly.

"I love you too," he replied, stroking my back gently. We stayed like that for a while, content and peaceful. I heard the door open and shut a few times and people grunting from their workouts, but I ignored it.

"Thank you," I told him, letting my arms fall away from his embrace. Clint was such a kind person.

"It was honestly no trouble," he said with a smile, staring back at the plaque. I knew Clint still felt a small amount of guilt over Pietro's death even though it wasn't his fault. It must've been difficult for him to witness.

I held his hand as we stood by the wall, just watching the plaque. Part of me found some piece knowing that his efforts were recognised through the plaque, defending Sokovia and being part of the team.

"Fancy a walk?" Clint asked, turning to face me.

I took a breath before answering. "That would be lovely." I felt the need to be up in the air and feel the wind on my face. Being up in the sky was bliss, even if I couldn't go that far. Flying just above the tree line allowed me to be away from the noise and see the landscape for miles and miles. I hoped that James would come with me again at some point.

As soon as that thought entered my head, I turned to leave and saw him and Natasha training on the other side of the room. Clint and I began to walk out when he noticed me.

He paused to look at me and suddenly I didn't feel so warm wearing my shorts and hoodie. Within that split second, Natasha landed a hit to his face so hard that he stumbled backward. I snorted a laugh as he tried to recover and refocused on the fight. "Why you laughin'?" Clint asked from beside me.

I turned to him with a grin. "James got distracted by me and Nat saw the opportunity to punch him in the face."

Clint looked over at the pair who were both now in the fighting zone before looking back at me. He smirked. "He doesn't get distracted by anything you know."

I knew that look. It was the same look Natasha wears whenever she teases me about James. Perhaps they spoke about us behind our backs. I shrugged, hoping that I wasn't going too red, as we exited the room.

"Would you stop? I get enough of this from Nat," I replied, pulling the sleeves of my jumper over my hands.

"You can't deny he's hot," Clint admitted, tilting his head sideways. I rolled my eyes.

"If you like him so much, you date him. He's not my type." That was an absolutely lie, especially considering I didn't have a type. James was fucking beautiful. Like, actually beautiful. He was visually stunning, but not just that - he had a kind soul. He was sweet, not that the rest of the world saw that. But the rest of the world wasn't seeing me in a good light either and I like to think that I'm a reasonably okay person.

"What is your type then?" he asked, pressing the button to call the elevator.

"I don't know, what's yours?" I asked to which I was met with complete silence. "So Natasha then?" I tried to stop the grin blossoming when he glared at me, but I couldn't help it. "Come on, you two are perfect for each other and you know it. I wish you would just marry already."

Clint scoffed at me, but I could see the blush rising on his cheeks. The pair of them were made for each other, no matter the rumours of her secretly liking Banner and Steve too. "What? Then we could adopt you and play happy families? I think we both know that world doesn't exist."

I hated the dejected tone of his voice. He deserved happiness and so did Natasha. I wished they would just wake up and smell the coffee. "Don't give up hope," I encouraged, opening through into the now open elevator doors.

We stood in silence for a few moments. I was waiting for him to talk, because I didn't know what else to say. If he didn't like her in that way, he didn't like her in that way.

"She would never marry me." Ha! I knew it. I straightened my thoughts and realised that Clint wasn't being his jokey self. I could see the saddened expression on his face, but there were no signs of pity.

"Why not?" I asked, curiously. He turned his head to look at me.

"Because she can't love anyone." The joking mood was definitely over. Natasha was a tough egg to crack, but I didn't believe she couldn't love anymore. And if she couldn't feel that way, Clint was definitely the person to reawaken that love.

"You don't actually believe that, do you?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest. "If you asked her out, I doubt she'd say no."

"If I asked her out, I doubt she's say yes. In fact, if I asked her out, she would probably kill me with her knives," he replied with a very concerned expression. He shook it off and shrugged. "Besides, I don't want to ruin our relationship."

The elevator doors opened as I huffed. "Fine." I gave up. They just needed to figure it out for themselves. Either Clint needed to get drunk and admit his feelings for Nat or Nat would need to get dr...actually...Clint getting drunk was the only option, because realistically the vice versa would never happen.

We ended up walking around the entire field, watching as trainees took part in bleep tests and hand to hand combat lessons. We were half way around when I looked at the trees next to me. I followed their trunks up until I was looking directly at the tips swaying in the breeze.

"Shall we?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. I nodded and he smiled in response. Clint was so adorable. He loved to come up and fly with me, not that we got the chance to do it that often. People got jealous - i.e. Tony and Sam.

We rose to the top lines of the trees and sat back, watching the horizon. I took a deep breath and leaned against Clint's shoulder. The sun was beautiful, not too bright or dim - the perfect summers day. Unfortunately, today wasn't perfect for me.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please let me know by popping a review in the little box below, I would really appreciate it. Sorry this was shorter than usual by the way, I just thought this was a nice place to end it. Please let me know if there are any mistakes.

MORE WINTERWITCH FEELS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! VERY GOOOOEEYYYYY! LIKE A CHOCOLATE FONDANT!

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