Hey everyone! Please enjoy this next installment! As always, place all your suggestions down in the reviews, and please enjoy!
It had taken well over a week to get Wanda separated from Natasha long enough for her to go to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters to question the man that they had hauled in. They had kept him in a high security cell with 24/7 supervision until Natasha could come in and interrogate him, not wanting to leave it up to any of the lower level agents in case they let something slip. So, 10 days after they had brought Wanda back to the Tower, the girl finally let Natasha out of her sight long enough for the spy to go out for a few hours.
Unfortunately, this was not without an exchange. While Wanda had agreed to let Natasha go to S.H.I.E.L.D., she had been determined to not be left to her own devices for the time period. Instead, it was decided that Steve would sit with her, he was lowkey enough that he could handle her quiet schedule for the afternoon. So, after Natasha and Steve had finished their training, Wanda sat in the gym and watched, showered and had lunch with the girl and deposited her on the couch in the common area, Natasha gave Wanda a quick kiss to the top of her head on her way out the door, bidding the pair goodbye as she snagged her keys off the table and hit the button.
"Bye, Nat," Wanda chirped, her fingers twisting together as she spun her rings around, her eyes tracking Natasha.
"I'll be back in a few hours, little witch," Natasha comforted before stepping into the elevator and heading down to the garage.
Wanda sat in silence for a few moments, she could hear Steve cleaning up the last of their lunch mess in the kitchen before he joined her in the living room. They sat in silence for a few moments before Steve turned to face Wanda.
"So, what do you wanna do this afternoon?"
Wanda blinked, fiddled with her fingers and thought hard about her options. It was raining outside, so that really limited them on what they could really do, but Wanda didn't feel like going outside anyway.
"We could watch a movie," Steve suggested after a few more moments of silence.
"Sure," Wanda agreed, rising from the couch to look at the shelves of DVD cases on the wall.
Across town, Natasha had parked her car in the underground parking and was making her way into S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, flashing a badge as she entered.
"Afternoon, Agent Romanoff," the guard at the door greeted.
Natasha nodded in response, her mind entirely focused on the task at hand. She marched herself through the doors and straight through to the prison levels. She had been granted access earlier and bypassed security clearances quickly. When she approached the cell in question the man didn't dare the turn.
"Greetings, Miss. Romanova," the man chuckled darkly to himself.
"Why did you take her?"
The man merely laughed. His face was bruised, and clean white bandages lined his arm.
"I don't like to repeat myself, Ivan," Natasha snapped.
"So, you remember me."
Natasha circled the cell, watching Ivan. His eyes tracked her.
"Of course I do."
They were silent for another moment before Natasha spoke again.
"Why did you take her?" she demanded again.
"You've changed, Natalia."
"Enough!" Natasha's hands slammed against the glass.
Ivan didn't flinch with Natasha's outburst, instead he laughed again, keeping eye contact with her as he stalked towards her in the cell.
"You've forgotten your training, Miss. Romanova," he laughed.
"Shut up."
"You've been compromised, Natalia, and it shows," he smirked. "That girl… she clings to you like a child. She's compromised you, and she needed to be… eliminated."
That was the final straw that snapped the carefully concealed emotions deep in her chest.
Finally, he had paced forward, standing at the bars, well within Natasha's reach. With one quick movement, Natasha had him by the collar of his shirt and flat against the bars.
"Are you working alone? Who gave you these orders?" she demanded.
"You'll never find them all," he laughed.
Knowing she wasn't going to get anything else out of him, Natasha released him before yanking on his shirt again, slamming his forehead against the bars. When she released him again, he collapsed to the ground.
"Don't count on it," Natasha snarked as she turned on her hell and walked out the way that she came.
Back at the Tower, Steve and Wanda had sat back on the couch, watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, neither of them having finished watching the series as Wanda had been waiting for the team. Steve had talked her into watching it after she had stood longingly in front of the shelf of DVDs with the series for minutes when she had been picking the movie. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, smiling to himself as he saw that Wanda was, once again, completely drawn into the movie, much like she had been on her birthday. While the movie series wasn't making complete sense to Steve, he could see how much it meant to Wanda. She was still picking at her fingers and fiddling with her rings while she was watching, but Steve was thankful to notice that she was comfortable enough with him to devote her attention to the movie, even if he was on the other end of the large couch.
When the movie was drawing to its closure, a large fight scene that Steve knew meant that the movie was coming to an end, they heard the elevator coming up and the doors opening. Wanda's attention wasn't completely drawn from the movie, but he noticed her perk up at the sound.
Steve turned to look over the back of the couch to catch Natasha kicking off her shoes and tossing her keys on the end table before sauntering over to the couch and dropping herself down between Wanda and Steve.
"Whatcha watching?" she asked as Wanda subconsciously leaned into Natasha.
"Watching Harry Potter," Wanda mumbled, eyes glued to the screen as the characters fought valiantly with their magic.
With that, Natasha settled into the couch, pulling Wanda into a side hug and fell into silence as she watched the rest of the movie. Steve noticed that, when Natasha had sat herself down beside Wanda, the fidgeting and fiddling with her fingers came to an end. Steve smiled to himself, thankful that Wanda had found the comfort that she had been looking for, whether she was aware of it or not.
When the movie was finished, Natasha shifted slightly and Wanda latched on.
"I'm just going to put the next one in," Natasha shushed her.
It took another moment before Wanda released Natasha's shirt and let her stand up from the couch. She sauntered to the DVD wall and snatched up the two cases in order to change the movies. While she did that, Steve offered to gather some snacks for their next movie, the trio having had lunch almost 3 hours ago.
"Popcorn would be good," Natasha turned from her task and smiled at him.
Steve hurried to his task, throwing a couple bags of popcorn into the microwave in sequence and filling a couple glasses with some juice before bringing it all back into the living room and settling himself back into his spot. With a smile, Natasha started the movie with a flick of the remote.
The group sat in silence, Natasha watching Wanda more than she watched the movie. The girl was completely enthralled, her eyes not leaving the screen at any point during the duration of the movie. Her eyes lit up when watching the characters performing magic, and every once and a while, her fingers would wiggle with the wand movements, creating little balls of red energy that she would twiddle around her fingers. Natasha smiled as she observed.
When the movie was done, the popcorn was gone and the juice glasses were empty. Natasha had called it quits in order for them to make dinner and the trio headed obediently toward the kitchen.
Steve and Natasha moved around the kitchen, prepping a simple meal of spaghetti and garlic bread as Wanda watched from the counter. They were slowly joined by Tony and Clint, who parked themselves at the table and started the playful banter between the team members. Wanda enjoyed the easy banter that the team had, going back and forth about the mean, teasing each other about the day's events and whatever else Tony could make backhanded comments about. As Natasha chopped food and grated cheese, she asked Wanda to set the table.
Wanda nodded and jumped down from her place on the bar stool and went to the cupboards to grab everything she needed. As she worked through her chores, she overheard a comment from Tony.
"You've dissolved into domesticity, Natashalie," Tony commented loudly.
Wanda caught Clint shaking his head, eyes wide as he listened to Tony.
"Watch your mouth, Stark," Natasha barked back.
"I'm just saying, you've got the Star Spangled Man whipping up dinner with you, and there's Sabrina the Teenaged Witch setting the table like the perfect nuclear family."
Natasha, uncharacteristically, just rolled her eyes, choosing not to comment and start a fight with Tony. The group dissolved into awkward silence after that, the only sounds were Wanda placing plates and utensils on the table and the preparation happening in by the stove. When Wanda placed the last set of cutlery on the table, she turned around to find Natasha with a heaping bowl of pasta right behind her.
Halfway through the mean the team dissolved into chatter again, falling into easy conversation, the earlier tension forgotten.
They worked through the meal and clean up easily, spending their evening watching reruns of some sit-com on the TV before dispersing for bed.
Wanda bid Natasha goodnight as usual, the pair breaking off in the hallway to go their separate ways. She ran through her evening routine slowly, not wanting to go to sleep, as she had every night since Natasha had brought her home. Each night, without fail, Wanda would wake up in the middle of the night, plagued by nightmares so vividly that she thought they were real. And without fail, she'd make her way down the hall on quick feet, her fingers twisting and twirling at her waist, to Natasha's door. Each night Natasha would open the door, usher the girl into the room and lay her down in her bed. She'd ask Wanda if she wanted to talk about the nightmares, and would receive a negative response, before she would just hold her and run her hand up and down her back until Wanda fell back to sleep.
She knew it would happen again tonight, without fail and she wasn't prepared for it.
But, she went through her routine, brushing out her hair, brushing her teeth and changing into her pajamas. She left the string of lights around her headboard turned on but flicked the overhead light off her with her powers as she snuggled herself into her blankets.
Hours later, she woke with a jolt, shooting up into a sitting position, panting and out of breath. She could feel the sweat on the back of her neck and the anxiety curling in her stomach. Without a second thought, she threw off her blankets, and made her way out of the room and down the hall.
She didn't feel the magic pulsing in her fingers as she twisted them together, wringing her hands as she scurried down the dark hallway. Without a knock, she pushed Natasha's door open and hurried her way over to the bed, but before she could poke Natasha's surprisingly still sleeping form, Wanda's eyes wandered to a second, shirtless lump under the blankets.
"Steve?" she squeaked.
The noise woke Natasha, who shot out of bed faster than Wanda had ever seen her move.
"Shit!"
Wanda scurried backwards, prepared to go back to her own room, even though the anxiety hadn't left her body.
"I'm sorry!" she squeaked out again.
"Wanda, come here," Natasha called.
She heard a smack and someone snort and rustle the blankets. Steve was awake.
"Huh, what?" he startled.
"Wanda, come here kiddo," Natasha called again.
Debating for a moment, Wanda then turned herself around and made her way slowly back to Natasha's bed.
"I'm sorry, I'll go back to bed," Wanda mumbled.
"No, no, you're fine," Natasha soothed.
"But…" Wanda didn't know what to say.
"I-I'll just go," Steve said, rising from the sheets and silently moving out of the room.
"You and… and… and Steve?" Wanda stuttered, not sure what to say.
"Let's go to your room tonight, okay?" Natasha mentioned, pulling Wanda toward her as they both made their way out of the room.
She led them both to Wanda's room and settled them into her bed, repositioning Wanda's nest of blankets around them.
"Um… how long?" Wanda asked, not sure how to start.
"A while, but we… I… I didn't want to tell the team about it. Tony wouldn't shut up about it, and Clint, well, Clint's like my over-protective big brother. This is still kind of new, and I wanted to wait a while before we said anything," Natasha explained, running her hand up and down Wanda's back in an attempt to soothe the girl to sleep.
"But, what about me?"
"What do you mean, what about you?" Natasha asked, looking down at the girl.
"Now you have Steve. So, that's okay. I can take care of myself," Natasha could hear the anxiety and exhaustion in the girl's voice.
"No, no, no, no, no. Never, Wanda. Never. You're stuck with me, kiddo, I'm not going anywhere," Natasha rushed to explain.
"Oh," Wanda muttered.
"We're still going to do all the things we used to do, kiddo. We'll watch movies and we can go to the bookstore and we'll keep training and everything. Just because Steve's going to be… around a bit more, doesn't mean that I'm not going to have time for you. I'm always going to have time for you, little witch. You're mine, remember?"
"Oh, okay," Wanda sighed, already half asleep again. Natasha kept running her hand slowly up and down her back.
She knew she wasn't going to be able to get out of the questions tomorrow morning, Wanda was known to have lots of questions, but she figured that she could postpone them for now, not wanting to have to have the full conversation with Wanda when they were both half asleep.
"You ready to go back to sleep now?"
Wanda nodded.
"Goodnight, Mama," Wanda hummed.
Natasha smiled to herself, brushing off the feelings from the day, from dealing with Ivan and hearing Tony's crass commentary about her. Wanda was hers and she was Wanda's in some roundabout, make-shift sort of way. It was odd and confusing, but it was theirs, and Natasha was prepared to anyone tooth and nail against anyone who wanted to make a fuss about it.
"Goodnight, little witch," she smiled.