Here's one shot number 4! Please read and review with any suggestions or prompts you might have!
In the weeks that came after the dinner party disaster, Peter had been around much more frequently than Wanda would have originally desired. Peter was nice enough, but way too eager in Wanda's opinion, always around and underfoot when Wanda was looking for twenty minutes alone to calm herself down. In a brief line of defence, Wanda had taken to carrying books around everywhere she went, so that if the crowd got to be too much, she could just pull her book open and take a moment. Tony wasn't as impressed about it as others, tending to roll his eyes or scoff whenever she did this, but Natasha and Steve were taking the time to encourage the girl, noticing that when she was getting to the end of a book, the following book would arrive beside her magically, allowing a quick transition between novels where Wanda didn't even need to get out of her chair.
Unfortunately, the relative peace that Wanda was experiencing was short lived when, a few days before her birthday, which she was dreading to begin with, Natasha received a special delivery from S.H.I.E.L.D. in the form of Wanda's records, recovered from Strucker.
The argument that came out from the information discovery had been monumental. Steve had been incredibly upset that Tony had let Wanda and Pietro travel with them and fight is Sokovia, while Tony hadn't seen the problems with that, and Natasha was, seemingly, indifferent to the issue, watching Wanda out of the corner of her eye as she tried to sneak out of the room without anyone noticing that she had disappeared.
Wanda's disappearance was followed by Natasha sneaking out of the room as well, letting Steve and Tony argue it out while she managed to have a conversation with the girl who they now knew was no more than a teenager. She found Wanda in her room, tucked into the corner away from the door. Without knocking, Natasha pushed the door open enough to get into the room, sauntered over quietly, and lowered herself down in front of the teen.
"Sixteen, huh?"
Wanda sniffled, rubbing her face against her curled knees and mumbling something that Natasha couldn't catch.
"I'm sorry," Wanda spoke up.
"For what?" Natasha was shocked, shuffling herself closer to Wanda, putting a hand against her knees.
Wanda huffed out a couple more uneven breaths, trying to get herself calmed.
"Take your time, kid. You're not in any trouble and there is nothing wrong with what you did."
Another few breaths and Wanda lifted her head from her knees, looking over her knees at Natasha with big, watery green eyes. Natasha crept closer, putting her arm around Wanda's shoulders and leaning herself up against the wall behind them.
"But – but I lied," Wanda whimpered.
"Sometimes, when it's important enough, lying is okay. I'm not saying that you were completely in the right about lying, but I understand why you did it," Natasha comforted. "Once upon a time, I did the same thing."
Wanda sniffled and leaned into Natasha, accepting the comfort that she had adjusted to having around in the last few weeks. They sat in silence for another few minutes, Wanda's occasional hiccups and sniffles the only thing breaking the silence.
"I know you don't want to hear this, but this will change some things," Natasha explained, running her hand up and down Wanda's arm.
"W—wh-what?" Wanda stuttered out.
"Well, you're a minor, Wanda. You shouldn't be heading out on missions until you're eighteen, and we need to see where you're at with school," Natasha started listing off and Wanda stiffened when Natasha brought up formal education.
"I don't want to go to school," Wanda interrupted.
Natasha stopped, deciding not to go down that argument with the emotions running in the room at the moment. There would be a better moment to deal with that issue.
"We'll figure something out," she promised.
The pair delved into silence again, Wanda's mind running a mile a minute and Natasha searching for ways to distract the girl.
"Your birthday is coming up next week," Natasha prompted.
Wanda squeaked, sniffling and tucking her head into Natasha's shoulder. Natasha internally slapped herself, of course the kid dint' want to celebrate her birthday. Not when her birthday companion, the twin she had never been separated from, wasn't going to be celebrating with her.
"I know it's not going to be the best day, but we can do something that you want to do, and maybe we could have a dinner with the team? You can pick, and we can have a cake and watch a movie. Whatever you want to do, kid."
Wanda sniffled, nodding slightly against Natasha's shoulder, her fingers wound together and fiddling with the hem of Natasha's tee-shirt. Natasha rubbed Wanda's back, trying to calm the girl down before she worked herself up again so soon after the first time. The two sat for a while, Wanda's sniffles died down and she stayed slumped against Natasha, enjoying the calm blanket her. She was tucking herself closer and closer to Natasha as time went on, curling herself into the redhead's lap, head tucked up against Natasha's collarbone.
"Movies would… movies would be good," Wanda mumbled against Natasha's collarbone after a while.
Natasha had to try her hardest not to chuckle at Wanda's comment, pleased that the girl was expressing something that she wanted.
"Okay, we can watch movies. That we can definitely do," Natasha hugged Wanda close.
As the big day came closer and closer, Wanda's anxiety was ramping up to new levels. She spent more and more time in her room, avoiding the team between training sessions. Natasha had spoken with her a few times since the issue with her records, mainly very simple things, like what she wants for snacks for their movies, what does she want for dinner on her birthday and what kind of cake she wanted them to pick up for the dinner.
Wanda had mixed feelings about it. She was looking forward to spending the day with Natasha and having dinner with the rest of the team, but she also felt deep guilt for looking forward to having the day be about her. She knew that her brother would be happy for her, happy that she was able to live with the Avengers, with a roof over her head and food in the cupboards. But there was still a voice in the back of her mind, whispering all of the dark and doubtful thoughts about how she got to live out their dreams without her brother. She usually tried to shut that voice up, shoving it down behind thoughts of training and anything else, reading books and having music or some type of noise playing at all times. It seemed to be working well enough so far.
The morning of her birthday came quicker than she had expected, and much earlier than she wanted for a day that Steve had promised would not include any training. Natasha had knocked on her door early enough that morning, getting Wanda up from her warm bed to get herself dressed and ready for the day, the mixed feelings still swirling around in her mind.
The first surprise that greeted her was the entire team sitting around the kitchen, Steve at the stove making waffles as Natasha, who had beat her downstairs, was chopping fruit with precision and skill.
"Happy birthday Wanda," Clint greeted with a smile.
Tony waved from the table, his nose stuck in his phone as he fiddled with the gadget. Wanda didn't take anything Tony Stark said or did to heart, she knew she wasn't his favourite person, and if she was being honestly, she didn't enjoy him much either.
Wanda sauntered over quietly to the table, taking a seat beside Clint and watching Steve and Natasha move around the kitchen, prepping the large, much more elaborate breakfast. She spent a lot of time lately watching Steve and Natasha around each other. Their relationship confused her, and she spent a fair amount of time wondering what exactly they meant to each other. Filing the thought away for another time, she turned her attention back to the food piling up on the plates in front of the pair. Piles of sliced fruit filled different bowls as Natasha chopped strawberries, bananas, bits of apple and some more exotic fruits, as well as rinsing off raspberries and blueberries. Steve's platters were filling quickly, stacks of plain waffles, as well as some with what Wanda assumed were chocolate chips laid out on the huge plate.
In front of her on the table laid a variety of condiments and spreads for their breakfast, as well as pitchers of juice and coffee. Clint and Tony had already helped themselves to the coffee, steaming mugs sitting in front of each of them, Tony's much emptier than Clint's. Wanda snagged the pitcher of orange juice, filling herself a glass, she settled into her chair.
The conversation was easy as the duo finished the final prep-work before dropping the plates onto the table and taking their seats, Natasha beside Wanda and Steve taking his chair across from Natasha.
"Before we dig in, we should wish a happy birthday to Wanda," Steve smiled, raising his mug into the middle of the table.
The rest of the team joined in, clinking their glasses together before serving themselves from the plates and spreads in the middle. Wanda snagged a large, fluffy chocolate chip waffle, tossing a few handfuls of strawberries onto the top and sprinkling some of the Nutella spread on the top.
The team dissolved into conversation about the rest of the day, excited for the festivities, asking Wanda what she was most looking forward to in order to keep her in the conversation and she worked her way through her breakfast.
Natasha had truly planned for the best day for both celebrating and distracting Wanda. In the past few weeks, Wanda had blown through all of her Harry Potter books, finishing the last one late the night before, so Natasha had planned a movie marathon with the team, complete with more snacks than Wanda could even imagine, some even themed around the movies, and lots of comfy blankets and pillows laid out in the common area for the team to lounge on.
After breakfast, the team dissolved, heading to their rooms to get ready for the day. Wanda went upstairs and gathered up whatever else she wanted to bring down to the common area. She snatched up a fleecy red blanket that she had picked up with Natasha when she had first arrived. Lugging it down the stairs, she was met with an empty area already filled with snacks and drinks for their day. Perfect for her to have her pick of where she wanted to shit. Being a creature of habit, Wanda settled herself into the smaller couch, saving the other side for Natasha as always.
The team trickled in, settling themselves into their respective seats and snagging bottles of water or juice to sip on throughout the first movie. Tony sauntered in last, fashionably late as always.
"Let's get this party started," he smirked, dimming the lights and hitting a few buttons on the remote to queue up the movie.
Within the first few bars of the overture music, Wanda was captivated, and remained that way throughout the entire first movie. Natasha would periodically hand her the bottle of water she had picked up earlier, and Wanda would take a sip, her eyes never leaving the screen. By the end of the first movie, Wanda was completely hooked, eager to start the next one. They took a small break, getting up to stretch and Natasha went into the kitchen to gather another plate of snacks to place on the table, and a large pitcher of what she told the team was butterbeer.
"Like from the books?" Wanda questioned, perking up.
"We found a recipe online and thought we'd give it a try, enjoy kiddo," Steve cut in as Natasha poured a frothy glass of the butterscotch drink.
Wanda took a tentative sip before beaming up at Natasha.
"Good?" Natasha laughed at the girl's face.
"So good!" Wanda nodded eagerly.
The routine continued through the first 3 movies before the boys were too hungry to pass up a real meal. So, following the plan that Natasha had laid out previously, they ordered in Wanda's favourite for dinner, pizza from the first night she had been in the tower, and planned to finish the night off with the fourth film, and a cake that Natasha had ordered from the bakery down the street.
When she placed the large sheet cake down in front of Wanda, decked out with 17 lit candles, the birthday girl felt tears prickle in her eyes. The cake, covered in white frosting, had red lettering across the top, 'happy birthday Wanda and Pietro'. She looked up at Natasha, unsure of how to respond. Natasha took a seat down beside Wanda, placed her arm around the girl and hugged her close.
"Happy birthday kid."
"Thank you," Wanda whispered.
"Blow out the candles! This bakery does a glorious chocolate cake, and it's been taunting me in the fridge since last night," Clint broke the moment, clapping his hands together.
With a watery laugh, Wanda blew out the candles and cut the cake, and Steve handed out the paper plates to each Avenger before they settled in to finish off the first half of the movies.
By the end of the movie, Wanda was ready to head to bed, the day, while not physically exhausting, had taken a lot out of her, and she was ready to snuggle up in her blankets and fall asleep. Natasha let her bid goodnight and thank the team before leading her up to their floor. Although, in her room she was greeted with one last surprise to end off the day.
A small stack of neatly wrapped gifts sat on her bed, all decorated with red paper and pretty silver ribbon.
"I don't understand."
"Well, the guys know that you don't want to make a big deal out of today, so they figured that you'd want to open your presents in private," Natasha smiled, pushing her toward the bed lightly.
Wanda finished the rest of the walk, settling herself down on the mattress before looking expectantly at Natasha.
"Come sit," she urged.
Natasha followed the order, joining Wanda on the bed and settling herself in to watch the girl open her gifts.
She received a pile of classic books from Steve, who had been recommending new books to Wanda as her first collection dwindled down to the last few. A large fluffy blanket from Clint, which she wrapped herself in as soon as the tags were cut off. From Tony she was gifted some Stark tech that she was sure someone would have to explain to her, as well as a set of new headphones, said to be much better with noise cancellation than the ones that she had picked up at the store with Natasha.
Finally, she picked up the last gift, a small, red wrapped box from Natasha. Without hesitation, she tore the paper off and was met with a velvet covered box. Confused, she opened up the box and was met with a jewelry set. A small pair of earrings with shiny red jewels, although Wanda wondered about their use seeing as she didn't have her ears pierced, a matching bracelet, and a small locket with a red jewel centered in the front. Wanda looked up at Natasha, tilting her head in question.
"Open it up," Natasha smiled.
With shaking fingers, Wanda pried open the locket and was met with the smiling faces of her and her brother.
"We found the pictures from some videos in your files. And I figured, this way, you can always have him with you," Natasha explained.
Before she could finish her explanation, Natasha was tackled, Wanda throwing herself at the older woman and wrapping her in a vice like hug. After a moment's pause, Natasha returned the hug.
"Thank you," Wanda sniffled.
"You're welcome, little witch."
They sat in their hug for another few seconds before Natasha pulled away slightly.
"Here," she pulled the case from Wanda's fingers, slipping the necklace from its spot in the velvet. "Let me put it on."
Wanda pulled her hair away from her neck, turning away from Natasha to let her clasp the necklace around her neck.
"Happy birthday, little witch." Wanda smiled, turning back to look at Natasha again.
After another hug, Natasha said her goodnights and left Wanda to her own routine. After brushing her teeth, changing into some comfortable pajamas, and turning off the lights, except for a string of fairy lights around her headboard, Wanda snuggled herself into her blankets and fell asleep with a smile on her face.