Covered in dust, dirt and blood, the Avengers trouped off the quinjet at the Tower, leaning on each other as they stumbled down the ramp. They marched straight through the doors and into the Tower, reading to find showers and comfortable clothes before collapsing for the night.
Trailing at the back of the ground was Clint, almost carrying a barely conscious Wanda Maximoff. Her hair hung limp, hiding her tear-stained face after she had spent the entire flight sobbing in the back corner of the jet, flinching when anyone beyond Clint came anywhere near her. The events of the day had been traumatic, finally catching up with the poor girl when she had a moment to stop and breathe. Vision had dropped her on the jet before disappearing back into the sky, once again leaving her alone.
She had worn herself out within the first 45 minutes of the flight, her hyperventilating sobs, and now she was in a numb state, staring at the floor as Clint dragged her into the elevator in the Tower.
He brought her into a barren bedroom, a simple bed with plain white bedding and 2 pillows sat in the middle of the room, a small table and a simple lamp placed beside it. The thought flew across her mind briefly that she was covered in blood and dirt, before realizing that some of the blood belonged to her brother, and the tears welled again. She shoved the emotions down as Clint lowered her down on the soft bedding.
"There's a shower through that door, if you want to get cleaned up," Clint said, pointing toward a door across the room from the bed.
Wanda hummed quietly and made no move to get up from the bed.
"Okay, well, um," Clint didn't know what to say. "I'll leave you to it, and someone will come and get you when dinner is ready."
With that, Clint turned and walked out, leaving Wanda to her thoughts.
"Widow, I'm tagging you in!"
Clint wandered into Natasha's room to find her towelling off her hair, her widow suit crumpled on the floor beside the door leading to her bathroom.
"You're what now?" Natasha put down her towel and narrow her vision at Clint.
"The witch. Wanda. I put her in the room down the hall. You know, if you wanna check on her or something. Do some girl bonding on whatever." Clint's eyes flickered around the room, feeling Natasha's gaze zero in on him.
"Girl bonding?" Natasha questioned, lifting an eyebrow.
"I mean, she might need some help. With clothes or something. I don't think she has anything else."
The silence was deafening as Natasha stared down Clint. After a moment, she took a breath and got up, grabbed the suit off the floor and dropping it and her towel into the laundry hamper before turning around to look at Clint.
"I'll let her settle for a while first. She's probably overwhelmed."
Clint stood for a second, questioning Nat's decisions before deciding not to question her right now. Natasha had always been secretive with the team, keeping her distance and never getting too close or personal with any of the guys in the Tower. Clint knew more about her than anyone else on the team, and even then, Natasha still managed to surprise him with her habits and mannerisms.
"Well, someone needs to get her when we have dinner ready, so you can pick her up on your way downstairs."
With that, Clint left the room, leaving Natasha to her thoughts.
Nat stood at the hamper, debating her options. She considered the young girl down the hall. She was surely feeling lost, confused, alone. Natasha knew those feelings well, perhaps too well. She debated between her bed, the exhaustion creeping into her bones, and the door, knowing that the girl down the hall needed someone right now. With a deep sigh, Natasha knew what she needed to do. She moved toward the door, ready to give the Maximoff girl, Wanda, what she herself had desperately craved for years.
A knock on the door sprung Wanda from her mind, snapping her back to reality. Without her acknowledging the sound, she heard the door slowly swing open and a second, louder knock sounded through the room.
"Can I come in?" A feminine voice asked.
Wanda vaguely recognized the voice from before. Natasha Romanoff. The Black Widow. And subsequently, the woman who's closet she had taken her jacket from.
Giving a non-committal answer, Wanda heard the woman come into the room on silent feet, pushing the door closed. She felt the very edge of the bed dip as Natasha took a seat on the corner.
"I – I'll get your jacket cleaned. Sorry I got it dirty," Wanda whispered, unable to get her voice any louder due to the sobs in the jet.
Wanda could feel Natasha's eyes on her back, and yet she couldn't muster up the energy to turn and look at her.
"You keep it. It looks better on you anyway."
Wanda didn't know how to respond to that.
"Clint mentioned you could use some company," Natasha continued after a few moments in silence.
Before she even knew what she was doing, Wanda had turned around to look at the spy.
"Why would he say that?"
"Because he knows what it's like to feel completely alone."
Natasha was once again met with silence.
"Listen kid, I know that right now, it feels like nothing could make this hurt go away. But I want you to know, that the people in this tower, this team, are already ready to fight to the death for you, and we were ready to do the same thing for your brother," Natasha paused for a moment. "Now, as much as you are welcome to sit here and wallow, you are covered in dirt, and there is going to be a pile of greasy take out sitting downstairs in a few minutes. So, you are more than welcome to grab a shower and then we can go downstairs and sit with the guys and listen to them bicker about what movie we're going to watch while we gorge ourselves on pizza and Chinese food. What do you say?"
Wanda paused, considering herself. Her eyes dropped from Natasha's face to her fingers in her lap, fiddling with the rings circling her fingers. She hated the feeling of the dirt all over her skin and she could feel the hunger clawing at her stomach. The shower was sounding better and better by the second.
"I don't have any clothes," she admits quietly.
Natasha chuckled, reaching out and placing her hand on Wanda's knee. Wanda followed her arm back up to her face, looking up through her dark, mascara coated lashes.
"That I can handle. You go jump in the shower, and I'll go dig out something from my closet that might fit you."
Wanda tried to give Natasha a smile, managing to quirk the corners of her lips up her tear -stained cheeks. Natasha responded with her own smile. With that, Natasha rose from the bed and extended her hands toward Wanda. Hesitating for a second, Wanda placed her hands in Natasha's before the older woman pulled her to her feet.
"I'll be back in a few, and I'll leave some clothes outside the shower for you."
With that, Natasha left the room, leaving Wanda alone to her thoughts again.
Deciding to keep her promise, Wanda wandered into the bathroom. She was in awe of the sheer size of the room. A large counter complete with cabinet space underneath and a deep sink and a huge mirror that Wanda avoided looking into, a toilet, a deep, fancy looking bathtub that Wanda could picture herself spending a fair bit of time relaxing in. She quickly shook that thought from her mind, not wanting to get her hopes up. And finally, placed in the corner, what she was focused on finding at the moment, a large, glass doored shower.
Fiddling with the many buttons and knobs for a few moments, she got the warm water running in the shower. Stripping off the jacket, she looked at it momentarily before dropping it to the bathroom floor, the rest of her debris ridden outfit following suit.
The water felt fantastic on her sore and tired limbs, and Wanda took a few moments to enjoy the warm water pounding down on her before looking around for soap. After locating some she scrubbed and scrubbed, trying to rid the day's events off of herself. She heard the door open quickly, the sure sound of Natasha dropping a pile of fabric on top of the toilet lid before quickly closing the door again. Wanda was thankful that the glass doors had fogged up thick enough that Natasha hadn't seen her.
After what Wanda was sure was longer than she should have taken, she shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. Outside she was greeted by a small pile of soft looking fabrics, and a large, fluffy white towel. She towelled off before dressing in the clothes Natasha had laid out, a soft pair of black leggings and a hoodie three sizes too big for her very slight frame. Scrubbing her hair with the towel, she opened the door and was met with Natasha sitting on the bed.
"You ready?" Natasha looked up at Wanda as she entered the room.
Wanda took a deep breath.
"Yeah, I guess so."
Natasha took the towel from Wanda's fingers, pulling open another set of doors in the room and dropping it in a bin before ushering Wanda out the door. They walked down the hallway together, stepping into the elevator. Natasha hit a button and the doors closed. When the elevator arrived on the floor, the doors opened and the two were greeted by a bunch of noise coming from another room around the corner.
"Come on, it'll be fun. And once the movie starts, they'll settle down a little. Promise," Natasha said, smiling softly as she encouraged Wanda out of the elevator.
The two stepped out after a moment, and Wanda looked around, bombarded by the noise as they turned the corner. The common area was large, filled with plush couches in rich colours, shelving units filled with books, CDs and movies from any and every genre imaginable. A huge TV sat, turned off, on the wall, the furniture oriented to face the wall. Sprawled out on the large coffee table were multiple pizza boxes, closed and stacked on top of each other, and little white cartons piled beside them, centered around a stack of DVDs.
Tony sat in a large plush chair, cuts and bruises littered his face and he spoke heatedly to Clint, sitting on the floor beside the coffee table, a slice of half-eaten pizza in hand. Sprawled out on the large couch, watching the chaos unfold was Steve, lounging and laughing with a white take out box of rice in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other.
"Gentlemen!" Natasha greeted, clapping her hands together. Wanda stood silently at her elbow, eyes flickering around to the three men sprawled out in the room.
"Hey Nat! Hey Wanda!" Steve greeted.
Clint hummed a greeting, his mouth fill of cheese pizza.
"What are we watching?" Natasha questioned, leading Wanda over to the smaller couch in the room, sitting them both down before snatching up a pizza box. She handed Wanda a piece, taking one for herself and placing the box back on the table and putting her feet up on a close ottoman.
"These two are still debating," Steve laughed, shoveling some rice and chicken into his mouth.
"What are the options, boys? Wanda and I aren't here to watch you two bicker like an old married couple," Natasha took a bite of her slice, Wanda followed her lead.
"Let's leave it up to the new girl for the final decision," Clint smiled at Wanda and threw three DVD boxes at the girl.
Wanda, not expecting the projectiles, fumbled the boxes with her free hand before letting them fall to her lap. The titles of the bright coloured boxes stared up at her. The Lion King, Brave, and Finding Nemo sat in her lap.
"Cartoons, seriously?" Natasha looked over Wanda's shoulder to read the covers of the cases.
"We figure some light-hearted cartoons were needed after the last few days," Steve commented.
"And we need to keep catching Steve up with the century," Clint chuckled from the floor.
"I haven't seen Brave," Wanda commented quietly.
"Brave it is!" Tony cheered, jumping up from his spot, snatching the DVD from her hands and put it in the player, starting it up.
Wanda enjoyed the rest of the evening, slowly relaxing into the couch as Natasha periodically handed her another slice of pizza, and later a small cookie in a plastic wrapper. The movie played on the huge screen on the wall and by the end of it, Wanda found herself sitting against Natasha, feeling the day's events, the warmth of the room and her full stomach taking affect, as her eyes slowly started dropping.
The next thing she remembered was Natasha shaking her awake and slowly leading her, half-asleep, back to the room she had been in earlier. After tucking her into the soft plush bed, Wanda started drifting off into sleep again.