Hey! This is part 1 of 2 of a prompt submitted by tvt2 on Ao3! Thanks so much for the prompt! Please enjoy and review!

After weeks of nothing but training and not much else, Steve had graciously, to the teasing of the team, given them a day off. Wanda and Natasha had taken advantage of the day, sleeping in and planning a trip into town for multiple reasons. First of all, Wanda wanted to go back to the bookstore, having made her way through all of the books from her first trip and most of the pile that she had received for her birthday. Natasha was also planning on fulfilling a second part to Wanda's birthday present, promising that she would take the girl to get her ears pierced herself, wanting to make sure they were done properly and to her liking.

So, the two enjoyed their day. Wanda managed to sleep in until 9, something that she had not been afforded often and took advantage of when possible. Natasha had knocked on the door to let her know that breakfast was ready by 9:30, long enough for Wanda to have gotten out of bed and ready for the day. They ate quickly, excited to get on the road.

The music in the car and the windows rolled down made Wanda smile. Natasha had cranked up the volume of some pop station as soon as they had made it out of the garage at the Tower. They laughed and sang along the whole ride into the mall, Wanda enjoyed the moments with Natasha where she could feel the anxiety leaving her body.

Before Wanda knew it, they had pulled into the parking lot of a smaller building, the logo for the piercing studio blazoned across the front window. It was a little rundown but looked put together enough.

"Come on, it's going to be great," Natasha smiled, rubbing her hand on Wanda's shoulder in comfort before turning and opening up the car door to get out.

"Is it going to hurt?" Wanda asked nervously.

Natasha stopped halfway out of the car.

"It's a different kind of hurt. Just a quick pinch and a slight burn," Natasha explained.

Wanda took a steadying breath and then exited the car. She followed Natasha into the parlour quietly, her anxiety spiking slightly when the doorbell dinged when they entered. A dark-haired man covered in tattoos up his arms and piercings in his ears greeted them from behind a desk, not looking up from his paperwork at first.

"Welcome, what can I do for you guys today?"

"Yeah, we're here to get her ears pierced," Natasha jumped in.

"Hey Natasha, who's your friend?" he looked up after recognizing the voice.

"This is Wanda," Natasha introduced her. "Wanda, this is Zach. He does all my piercings."

Natasha accented the comment by pulling her hair away from her ear, showing off an array of rings and studs up her ear. Wanda waved awkwardly at the guy as he stood up from the counter and moved around to greet them.

"Nice to meet you, kid," he stuck his hand out for Wanda to shake it.

"Nice to meet you," Wanda mumbled, shaking his hand lightly.

"She got ID, Nat? She seems a little… young," he joked.

"Don't worry about it. Nothing crazy for her, just her lobes," Natasha joked.

"Sounds like a plan," he smiled.

He ushered them over to another room behind the desk, where Natasha positioned Wanda on a cushioned bench before taking a seat on a stool beside her. Zach handed Natasha a clip board with a form attached and a pen, asking her to fill out the forms and sign for Wanda, due to her being underage. As he gathered up his supplies, Wanda started fidgeting, twiddling her fingers and playing with her rings. Her eyes flickered around the room and landed on the sterilized, plastic wrapped supplies that were pulled out from drawers. Two of everything, a pair of sparkly faux diamond studs, a marker, lots of sanitizer and some paper towels, and what made Wanda's breath catch, a set of sharp little needles, neatly wrapped in their plastic package.

Natasha noticed Wanda's stress and decided to intervene.

"You know, Zach, I am feeling a new ring," Natasha jumped in. "Why don't you do me first?"

Zach looked up from his supplies, noticed Wanda's panicked eyes, and followed Natasha's train of thought.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" he jumped in. "What are we thinking?"

Natasha stood from the chair to join Wanda on the bench.

"Surprise me," she smiled at the man.

"Sounds good," he laughed.

With that, Zach turned and started to gather things, pulling them from drawers in the corner.

"You can watch me go first, it's really not that bad. Promise," Natasha gave Wanda a side hug and nudged her off of the bench.

Wanda appreciated the opportunity to observe the procedure first. She understood the basics, had spent some of the day before researching on the internet about how it worked. Unfortunately, the research still left her unprepared for the reality when finally faced with it. Thankfully, Natasha was willing to be a living example.

When the supplies for Natasha were gathered, Wanda took a peek and caught a different piece of jewelry than hers, a shiny silver ring instead of a pair of sparkly studs. It went quickly, Zach marked up Natasha's ear, a small dot in the middle of the outside of her ear. Natasha took a quick look in a small mirror, nodded her approval, and he got back to work. If Wanda had blinked, she would have missed it. One second, he was holding the needle to Natasha's ear, and the next, she had the shiny silver hoop in her ear, with skin around it slightly red, but Natasha looked unbothered.

"Done," he smiled.

Natasha snagged the mirror off the table again, taking a look at the work.

"Nice, thanks."

She effortlessly switched spots with Wanda, depositing the girl on the bench and keeping a hold of her hand as she sat down on the stool.

"You ready now, kiddo?"

Wanda took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yours will be even easier than Nat's. There's no bone right here," he joked, poking at the bottom of her ear.

Wanda nodded again, not trusting her voice.

She felt the cool antiseptic wipe against her ears, and felt the man manipulate the skin on her ear, and the slight pressure of the pen against her skin.

"What do we think of these?"

He handed Wanda the mirror and she took a peek. The dots seemed even to her, but she looked at Natasha to double check. Natasha smiled and nodded at the girl, agreeing to the placement. Wanda handed the mirror back to the man.

"Okay, here we go," Zach smiled.

Wanda swallowed and started playing with Natasha's fingers in her lap, desperate to keep her powers inside while out in public. She felt the latex of the gloves against her ear again and felt a pinch and then a slight burn in her ear as he placed the needle through and then replaced it with the earring.

"Not too bad, huh?" Natasha smiled.

"One more," Zach said, he quickly repeated the process and finally, Wanda had the mirror back in her hands and was looking at herself with a sparkly pair of earrings sitting in the bottoms of her now bright red ears.

"So, you're going to want to clean them out twice a day, and keep those in for the next 6 weeks, and then you're free to change them out as you wish. But Natasha knows all the details," Zach explained when Wanda handed the mirror back to him.

They thanked the man and headed out of the shop after a couple minutes of casual chatter between Natasha and Zach.

When they made it back into the car, Wanda pulled the mirror down from the ceiling, looking at her reflection and trying to adjust to the new additions to her appearance.

"They look great," Natasha compliments as she turned on the car.

"I like them," Wanda smiled, tilting her head side to side to watch the jewelry sparkle in the sunlight.

"I'm glad," Natasha smiled, pulling into traffic from the parking lot and heading down the road toward the mall.

"Thank you," Wanda looked at Natasha.

"No problem, kid."

They rode in silence, just the sound of the radio playing and Wanda periodically looking at her reflection in the mirror and smiling to herself. She had never been someone obsessed with looking at herself, but she was enamoured by the way the little studs sparkled in her ears. She couldn't wait to switch them out for the shiny red ones that Natasha had given her for her birthday to match the locket that she had around her neck. By the time they had pulled into the mall parking lot, Wanda had to tear her eyes away from the mirror to get out of the car. The redness had gone down, but they were starting to ache a little. Although, nothing Wanda couldn't handle.

They sauntered into the mall easily, Natasha leading Wanda down slightly empty halls toward the bookstore. Wanda was running out of books from her collection that he had yet to read, and Natasha wanted to use their outing to allow her to pick out some new material for her afternoons.

They took their time, Wanda browsing along the aisles of the store, picking at books and reading the summaries, considering her options. She was much more confident than the first time they had come to the store, picking out books on her own and even going as far as to ask Natasha to hold them when the pile got too big for her arms to support. After an hour, Wanda had amassed a decent stack of books, having picked out a few new series to make her way through, finding the fantasy genre incredibly to her liking.

The pair headed up to the cash and waiting in line for a few moments before getting through their payments and heading out. Wanda eagerly held one of the bags, as the employee had had to place her novels in a few bags in order to hold them all, and Natasha held the others as they headed back out the door to the car.

"I have to go to the bathroom before we leave," Wanda commented as they walked by the public washrooms.

"Okay, I'll hold your bag and wait out here for you," Natasha reached for the bag and parked herself on the bench in the hallway.

Wanda nodded her head and made her way down the hall toward the bathrooms.

Natasha waited, she sat and played with her phone for a few moments, sending a message to Clint and Steve telling them about how the day was going, and that they'd be heading home shortly. She checked her emails, deleting any spam notifications and skimming an email from Fury about paperwork. When she looked up, Wanda was nowhere to be found still.

Deciding it had been long enough, Natasha gathered up the bags and marched down the hall to check the bathroom and find out if Wanda was okay.

When she entered the bathroom, the entire area was empty. She checked. Every stall. Even corner and every nook and cranny in the place. Nothing.

"Wanda?"

No response.

"Wanda?!"

Still nothing.

Starting to panic, Natasha dropped the bags and started scanning the area with sharper eyes. Nothing but a small glint on the floor by an open window. Rushing over, she fell to her knees and found a ring. Something she knew all too well. Wanda's ring, the one that sat on her index finger, that she twirled around her finger when she got anxious. Beside it, sat the smallest spot of red.

Natasha was nauseous just watching it but couldn't bring herself to look away.

Knowing she needed backup, she reached for the phone in her back pocket and, without breaking her eyeline with the ring on the floor, dialed Clint's number.

"Hello?"

"Clint…"

"Nat?"

"Clint… something's wrong."

"Nat, what happened?"

"I – I – I'm at the mall. A-A-And she's… she's gone, Clint."

"Nat, stay where you are, we're on our way."

"She's gone, Clint. They took her. I know it."