Hello everyone. Yes, it's been a while, as per. I've really been struggling these past few months with the pandemic, but I am back (for now, hehe). Hope to get the next chapter out soon and it'll be a banger, so please stick around ;)
THANKS FOR 200 REVIEWS!
Response to reviews (genuinely thank you to every single person who has reviewed. It really motivates me to write and I love hearing what you think):
Guest 1 - "I would just like to say that this is probably one of the best winterwitch fanfictions i have ever read. I love everything about it (though I am crying at midnight for poor natasha ;-;) thank you for writing such a great story" - one of the best?! I am honoured, thank you so so much. I'm really glad you're enjoying the story, I just hope I can keep up the quality writing over time.
Guest 2 - "I have been binge reading this story since this morning and I love it! Drunk Wanda is so cute and your writing has been consistent and very fun!"- Thank you my dear, thank you so much for your great reviews. I'm really glad you're enjoying it!
Guest 3 - "Really really amazing! I'm just now finding this fic and I'm so sexually frustrated for the both of them and then you have to pull a fast one on me! I hope you continue!" - Lol, expect to be very sexually frustrated in the chapter following this one, hehe. I'm really glad you're enjoying it though.
EssicaLee22 - Very recent review from you, I'm glad you enjoy my writing, I am happy to provide it :)
tobi256 - Thank you so much, I'm glad it was unexpected, that's what I was plannning. Glad you're excited for the following chapters!
Chelsea Sosa - Your favourite fanfiction? Oh shushhhh, hehe! Thank you so much, I'm really glad you like it! 3
Caphillfan - Thank you for treasuring my story, very kind! I'm really glad you like my writing style and that I would make your day :)
Ivy Calister - Thank you very muuchhhh, I love your reviews so much. Glad you love the writing I do, I put a lot of work into it 3
SAP (SlytherinAvengerPrincess) - Glad to surprise you, sorry I made you depressed. Don't think I'll exactly cheer you up in this chapter!
WSZ (WraithSnakeZenith) - thanks for the review, sorry to break your heart ;)
DarylDixon'sLover - Thanks for sharing your opinion!
QUICK NOTE: We are going to be continuing with James as his name from this point onwards. It has more symbolism of his progression through the story AND the reviewers wanted it so what you want, you get ;)
T.W. Torture
Wanda POV
"I leave you all alone for five minutes and it all goes to shit, huh?" Tony remarked, gesturing to the broken comms device laying on the table. J.A.R.V.I.S was running some kind of scan on it to see if there was anything we could retrieve.
I brought my hand up to massage the bruises on my neck. 'Can't get a collar that big' I thought to myself. It had been an hour since the fight, half an hour since I woke. My first thoughts were of Clint.
As soon as my eyes opened, I quickly pushed to sit myself up. I blinked as I tried to adjust my focus and saw Clint shaking his head. He was sitting beside me in the medical bay.
"Take it slow, take it slow," he chastised, placing his hand on my shoulder. I sighed and took his advice, slowly shifting my body to sit next to him.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "He didn't mean it."
I felt my eyes swell with tears as Clint brought me into his side for comfort. "I know."
After speaking to me and dropping me to the meeting, he went to stay by Natasha at her cubicle. She still hadn't woken up yet and was in isolation, her body being observed and blood being extracted to review whether she had control of herself. It was scary to think she was influenced by someone else like that. She wouldn't have betrayed us. Right? I needed to seek her out after this discussion and figure out what the hell was going on with her, but first...
"Shut up, Tony." Pepper emerged through the meeting room doors with a box of doughnut. She quickly walked over to Tony and shoved one of the treats into his mouth to keep him quiet. He frowned as his fiancé, but started to eat the doughnut with joy nevertheless.
Hill flicked the pen in her hand and spoke: "Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about Barnes? This can't be allowed to continue."
"I feel bad talking without him being here," Steve noted, leaning back in his chair.
"With all due respect, he could kill someone, Steve." All eyes shot to Maria who didn't seem phased by the attention; even Tony stopped eating. Steve seemed to recoil slightly like he'd just taken a jab. Unlike the Captain, I felt anger boil in my chest at her suggestion, even though part of me knew she was right. Hill sighed and stood up, placing her hands on the table. "Look, Stark put me in charge of you all. But I also have a duty to everyone else on this base. I need to make sure they're safe too."
Her argument was fair. I think I was just desperate for a solution to all of this, an impossible problem. Hopefully not completely impossible.
"So...suggestions that don't include locking him in the basement?" Tony asked having finished his doughnut. He licked the sugar off his fingertips and I frowned, feeling the sudden craving for sugar. Reading my mind, Sam slid the doughnuts box to me and I winked at him gratefully.
As I brought the doughnut up to my mouth, I realised everyone was looking at me, not just Sam. I slowly took a bite and chewed in suspicion, watching the others. "What?" I asked, my voice muffled slightly by fried, sugary dough.
"If anyone is going to have a good suggestion, it's going to be you," Stark commented, probably one of the nicest remarks he had made since I joined the team. I smiled momentarily as I put doing the snack and tilting my head as I thought back to earlier.
"It's me, you did it, oh my goodness." I clasped my hand over my mouth and grinned, watching as he took a deep breath. "Are you alrigh-"
Suddenly, he grabbed my throat and pushed me against the wall, my head slamming into the brickwork. My eyes widenned as I stared down at him, my vision dizzy for a second. All emotion was gone and the Soldier was there.
I turned from the table as I explained. "I went into his mind when..."
My head felt heavy and my lungs burned as his grip tightened. "Bu..." Oh my God, I was going to die. No one was here to save me. The air...was getting thinner...and thinner. The Soldier's face remained unmoved, staring directly into my eyes. He was gone. My Bucky was gone.
"...when he was the soldier," I added, being purposeful with my labelling. It wasn't him.
My vision blurred and decided it was time for the last resort. "I'm sorry..." I sent the message to his mind before using the only energy I had left to transport us.
Suddenly, we were in his mind...but it wasn't like usual. It was dark, black and empty. Apart from a singular light a few metres away. Underneath it was Bucky. He was strapped to a chair, his hands and feet tightly held in place with belts. He looked straight ahead, his eyes distant and wavering around. It was almost as if he had been drugged.
"Bucky?" I ran towards him, falling to my knees to get sight of his face.
It was not him. But I had access to both halves. James and the Soldier. But how much of that person could I actually access?
"The only thing I can think of doing...is..." I lowered my head at the thought. Thankfully, I didn't have to say it.
"Is recreating the environment again?" Maria answered with understanding and I turned around.
I nodded, not looking around to see the team react, but continuing with my theory. "In order to speak to him again...in his brain, he was chained to this chair. If I can approach him while he's in that state and try to unpack that person or the...the trauma perhaps, we might be able to figure out what's happening and put a stop to it."
I looked at Steve, the only person I really trusted in keeping James safe. "But it means transforming James into the soldier again, which I don't think he'll want to do."
Steve kept my gaze and nodded. "We'll speak to him when he wakes. We can discuss it with him and meet back later today. Anyone else have anything to say?"
Tony began to mutter about something, but Steve interrupted him. "Good, meeting adjourned." Steve and Maria were the first to leave, no doubt to have a more in depth conversation about the consequences of James' outburst.
"Asshole," Tony mumbled as he walked out with the box of doughnuts in one hand and the crushed earpiece Natasha was wearing in the other. "Don't forget my party later!" he shouted as he left.
Sam followed him out of the room and I grabbed the leftover doughnut, quickly running to catch him up. "Hey, are you okay after all that?" I asked, taking another bite. Jam doughnuts really were the best.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. No damage to me or the suit," he answered with pride.
"I just wanted to thank you. For Clint." We slowed and he turned to me.
"It was nothing."
"Well, it's everything to me," I told him truthfully as we strolled down the corridor towards the main living space. "I don't know what I would do without him and he could've died if it weren't for you, so thank you."
He smiled at me and winked. "Anything for you, Maximoff." He brought his arm round me to give me a side hug. "If you want to repay me, you can always give me the rest of your doughnut."
I elbowed his side and he feigned pain. "Not a chance."
He tutted as he walked towards the kitchen, waving his arms dramatically in the air. "I put my life on the line and this is the thanks I get?" I laughed at his antics and shook my head as he smiled back at me. "No reward? Shocking!" he exclaimed before disappearing to get himself a snack...probably something sugary and in the shape of a circle.
My smile faded as I felt a soft breeze from beside me. The window was still broken from when Clint was thrown through it by James. I stared at it for a few moments before leaving for the medical bay.
When I arrived, Clint was standing outside the room. Arms crossed. Eyebrows furrowed. Lips pushed to the side. Eye focused on one thing - Natasha. As I walked over to stand beside him, I realised just how tired she looked. Her eyes had bags under them and her hair looked dirty. Had she been this way before and I hadn't noticed?
One thing I definitely hadn't noticed was the big bruise on her arm. I could see it now that she was wearing a hospital gown. Big and yellow spanning just below her forearm up to her mid bicep.
"What happened?" I asked softly, stepping slightly closer to the glass that separated us from her.
I could hear Clint take a deep breath. "From the damages to her stomach and the...uh... the markings on her wrists, they think she was tortured."
My eyes flicked back to him. I could see the heartbreak he felt, though many wouldn't. "HYDRA?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Possibly. Hopefully, Tony can help us figure that out." He stepped forward to stand next to me and we watched her in silence as some medics checked her vitals. "She was brainwashed. Not for certain, but it's the current theory." My eyes dotted over her washed-out face.
"Like James?" I questioned, scanning the rest of her body and catching the bruises on her legs that were much darker than the ones on her arms - easier to hide.
"Similar, but not as intense. James' brainwashing took months, but they can't have had her for more than two or three days, so that's why the effects were so temporary."
"So when she fainted-"
"That was her body just giving up, yeah."
I bit my lip as I watched them scrape the underneaths of her fingernails and put the remnants in a glass dish. I twitched uncomfortably and looked back up to her face as they sealed the lid. My chest was tight with worry and I hoped that she would be able to come back from whatever had taken her, HYDRA or otherwise. I just wanted her to wake up. Her lifeless body made the strings in my chest twinge. I had never seen her look so innocent.
"This isn't the first time she's been treated like this, you know. She'll be okay." I glanced at Clint and huffed a laugh.
"I thought I was the one with telekinesis? Stop reading my mind, you freak." He poked his tongue out at me and nudged me a little with his arm.
"She'll be fine, don't worry about it." I frowned at him. 'But what about you' I wanted to say, but I stopped myself.
"What are you going to do?"
Clint tilted his head as he watched her with such care. "Be there for her," he answered simply. He turned his head to me. "Don't have to do anything or say anything, but just being there." He returned his gaze to her. "That helps her."
We all know Natasha would not want to be coddled and fussed over even if she was on her deathbed. Clint had probably done this enough times that barrelling her with loads of questions and over-crowding was the worst tactic. Instead, it seemed like he knew exactly what to do. From what he was saying, they had likely been in this situation before. But was it this bad? Had she fallen unconscious after stabbing her own leg?
My eyes were drawn to the slightly bloodied, though neatly assembled, bandage on her thigh. Clint told me after I woke up earlier that her injury was not critical, but would need time to heal. Can't imagine Natasha enjoying bedrest for the next few weeks. I was happy for Clint to take on that nightmare.
"And yes," Clint said out of nowhere.
I turned. "Yes, what?"
He smiled. "I would love to be your legal guardian."
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came back. I froze for a few seconds, feeling completely taken aback by his admittance. "Uh...are...are you serious?" I asked earnestly, wanting him to be honest with me.
"You're practically my daughter anyway," he joked, taking my hand and smiling down at me. "Might as well make it official."
I felt a big grin spread across my face. Throwing his hand away, I collided into him, my arms stretching round to give him a hug. "Oh my goodness..."
He chuckled and tightly hugged me back. I couldn't believe I was actually going to have a legal guardian. I hadn't had a family, an official one, since Pietro passed away, and this felt like a first step in the right direction to feeling whole again. I could almost feel it heal a little in my chest.
"Thank you," I whispered, holding him tightly as tears pricked my eyes. "This is so great," I said with a laugh as I pulled my arms down and wiped the tears away with my sleeves.
He chuckled too, but suddenly went very serious and put his hands on his hips. "Now that I'm your father, I'm going to have to give this boy you're seeing a good talking to," he mocked in a booming voice.
"The one that tried to kill me? Don't think he's my boy," I replied, nudging Clint out of his overprotective father act. He smiled and we went back to looking at Natasha lying on the medic bed. A few moments go by before he speaks again.
"Could've snapped your neck." I frowned. "But he didn't."
"And that proves?"
Clint shrugged. "Dunno, but it shows something. Could've killed you in a second, but chose to take longer." I considered Clint's theory, but, unsurprisingly, I didn't want to think about James killing me. I could tell he had noticed the shift in my mood. "What are you going to do?"
I stared at Natasha, watching her eyelids flutter as she slept. "I'm going to copy you. I'll just be there for him."
James POV
"James?"
I squinted at the bright lights above me, wincing at the slight sting in the back of my neck.
"James?"
Wanda. I squeezed my eyes tightly as I sat up. Visions of my hands around her neck flooded through my mind. Feeling a little nauseous, I quickly opened my eyes again. The memory remained.
"How are you feeling?" I glanced at Steve who sat beside my bed. What a question. I looked around and immediately locked eyes with the door. My eyes returned to Steve.
"Is Clint hurt? I asked. "I rememb-"
"He's fine." I mentally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he was the only other person I had put in serious danger. That wasn't true - everyone was in serious danger with me around.
"Does it hurt?" Steve asked as I slid my legs off the bed, lifting my body to stand. I didn't feel much pain, just a few aches and scratches that would clear up soon with the serum. Nothing worth attention.
You could've killed her.
I shook my head. "I'm going to my room for a bit."
Before Steve could argue or insist I get checked by a doctor, I leapt from the medical bay bed. As soon as I opened the door, I sensed her. I didn't know how, but I could feel her presence. Her mind, her soul. I couldn't bring myself to look at her, to see what condition I had put her in. I could hear her discussing something with Clint when I turned away from her towards the exit.
"James!" she called, but I kept walking, pacing towards the final doors. I narrowly avoided a doctor as I pushed the double doors open.
As I made it to the stairs, I could tell she was following me. I didn't break her leg or put her in a coma...but I still hurt her. I knew there would be bruising on her neck and a cut or indent from the metal arm. I sprinted up the stairs and rushed to my room, not paying attention to Sam and Hill in the living room. I needed to be alone, away from everybody else, their questions, their judgement, and, most importantly, away from her. It was too much.
Finally, I made it to my door. I quickly shut myself inside and headed for the bedroom, taking off the jacket that I had on and chucking it on the living room floor. Entering the bedroom, I pushed off my shoes. The effort to stand felt too much as I slid down one side of the bed.
"God..." I sighed, pushing my head in my hands. This was such a mess. I hurt her, the one person I cared about most. She had been hurt by so many people already and I was just the next person to add to the list. I felt my throat tighten as a tear fell from my eye. I wanted to protect her from people like me, not that she needed much help. I hated myself for it. It hurt so much as the guilt spread through my chest.
"James?" My ears perked up as I heard her soft voice call from the door. I forgot that she had access to my room. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes as she delicately knocked. She knew I was here and knew that she didn't need to knock. Why was she acting so kind when I had nearly killed her?
"Can I come in?"
I took a breath and ran my hand through my hair. "Yes,' I spoke just loud enough so she would hear. I didn't look as she quietly padded her way across the bedroom. I heard her slide down the wall opposite me as I hung my head.
"How are you feeling?" I immediately scoffed at her question and shook my head. How was I feeling? Me? The one who was barely injured?
"Are you even going to look at me?" she asked, her accent coming through slightly, the emotion ripe in her voice.
I looked up at her sitting opposite me against the wall, just for a second. My eyes felt heavy as they drifted up to I knew it, my focus was on her neck. She had covered part of it with the hoodie she wore, but I could see the purple bruise forming.
I shut my eyes tightly, shutting her out. It felt like too much all at once. Then she said it.
"It wasn't you."
"Don't," I replied sternly with a twitch of my head. It wasn't me? Every person I've hurt or killed I did myself. I physically murdered them whether it was with a gun or with my bare hands. I could remember all of them, but this was different. This mattered. She mattered.
"What are you feeling?" she asked with genuine curiosity. I decided to answer with honesty.
"Anger." I could feel it boil in my blood, the disgust. The shame I felt.
"Why?"
I pushed myself up. "You don't get it," I muttered, walking over to the window. I heard her stand up and felt her presence a few metres behind me. I closed my eyes tightly, knowing that it needed to be said. "It makes me feel...sick...to look at you," I admitted with my back still turned from her. I could feel my chest tightening. "To look at what I've done to you..."
"It wasn't y-"
"LOOK AT YOU!" I shouted, snapping around to face her. The rage was burning hot through my veins, the anger and...
Like a spark, it was gone in a moment when I saw her face, a coldness spreading over my body. The face that I felt grounded me in life and the one that I relied upon to feel happier each day.
"Look at you..." I whispered, my eyes clouding as my gaze drifted to her neck. My eyes met hers again, tears falling onto my hot cheeks.
"I could've..." I seethed a breath, shakily exhaling as I lightly gestured to her neck with my hand. She shook her head and took a step closer. "I would've."
"I don't believe that," she said softly, gazing up at me.
A short laugh left my lips as I shook my head. My head slowed and I breathed out, my mind focused on one thing. "I nearly killed you." The words barely came out as a whisper. My heart felt like it was breaking as I stared at her. Why did everything have to get so complicated between us?
She tilted her head and smiled briefly, almost grimacing. I could see the tears building in her eyes and my heart clenched. "But you didn't..." she whispered in disagreement, taking a step closer to place her hands over mine.
I stared at them, how her delicate hand looked so pristine against mine. My hands, the ones that were tightly clenching her neck a few hours ago.
I pulled my hands from her light grip, but continued to stare at her fingers. "This isn't a game," I told her matter-of-factly. I took my time to speak slowly and clearly. "We were lucky I didn't kill you, it wasn't a choice. I'm not a problem to be solved, there's no solution. And I was so..."
I looked up to her eyes, her beautiful, sweet, eyes, once more. I felt impure to be seen by them. "I was so gullible an-and naive to think that we could have what..." I closed my eyes as the images flooded through my head. Us. "...what I imagined."
She stepped even closer, so close that I could almost feel her breath. "And what did you imagine?" she asked politely, innocently, but she already knew the answer. I could see it in her eyes, the ones that made me feel weak to the core.
"It's pointless," I answered, biting my lip in though. "Having you in my life, the hope I felt, the things I've...how you've made me feel it's just..."
I stared at the floor as the words tumbled out of my mouth. I sniffled and furrowed my eyebrows, angry and confused as to how I was supposed to be feeling. "It's just an illusion to the real shit, this..." I waved my hands between us, but couldn't quite figure out what I was trying to say. Or more what I wanted to tell her.
"The main thing..is that you're safe around me." I wanted to protect her, but I was the one she needed protection from. "We're trying," she added, hopefully, but we both knew it was a lie. I stopped and looked up at her honestly, tilting my head.
"We have no idea what we're doing, doll."
The nickname slipped from my lips and I mentally cursed myself. Couldn't call her that anymore. I would miss it. But I couldn't. My brain felt like a battlefield - it was noisy and disorientating. It was silent for a few moments as we both awkwardly stared at the floor. I think it was the first time I had felt awkward with her. I didn't like it.
"Look," she began and I quietly breathed a sigh of relief that she had decided to say something. She spoke softly. "If this is about you and me," I glanced up as she looked anywhere by my eyes. "...then let's just stay friends. If it's easier for you to...deal with, we can forget about the other stuff. We can fully focus on finding an answer to the programming. No distractions."
I nodded, knowing that this was the solution that seemed right. "It's just too much, not with what just happened," I explained. She smiled at me and I felt the tightness around my chest loosen a little.
"I understand," she said with a small nod, taking a step away from me.
"I mean, how could I even touch you after that," I joked with a short laugh, hoping to lighten the mood. It wasn't really a joke, but I needed to say something to diffuse the tension.
I felt relieved when she tilted her head and smiled at me. "Well, there is the rest of my body," she quipped. She shrugged her shoulders with a smirk and innocently look to the side, her cheeks blushing ever so slightly. God, I felt like a fish on a reel - hooked. Even after what we had just discussed, I constantly felt at her mercy.
She cleared her throat. "How about we just take some space and then...I don't know...re-evaluate?" she suggested and I scoffed.
"Re-evaluate? You sound like Hill!" I coaxed and she rolled her eyes.
"Friends for now?" she asked and I nodded, glad we had come to some sort of conclusion after all of that. She raised an eyebrow. "Can I hug you at least?"
I nodded again and she wrapped her arms around my shoulders, burying her face in my neck. Just that made my breath catch. She held a dangerous power over me, one that I couldn't quite figure out. That was evident from the conversation we just had. One minute I don't want to be near her and the next I'm hugging her, never wanting to let go. She had this persuasive ability to allow people to see the bright side of things. Perhaps that was why I was so drawn to her, the light to my dark. She had changed me so much, for the better.
She slowly pulled away and, just for a second, her body was so close that I could feel her breath against my cheek. I wanted nothing more than to chase that breath. I gritted my teeth as I watched her walk to the door, my mind actively avoiding the idea of her breathing against my cheek for an entirely different reason.
"Let me know if you need anything, okay Buchannon?" she called, opening the door to leave.
I appreciated the sentiment, but frowned. "I told you never to call me that."
She just smiled and took her leave. "Oh!" She popped her head back around the door. "Please come to the party later?" she asked with poppy-dog eyes.
"Party?" I answered, wondering what interesting event I would be attending this week.
"Wedding celebration."
I frowned. "Isn't that the second one?"
Wanda shrugged. "Knowing Stark, they'll probably have five."
I smirked as she left and shut the door with a smile. I chucked myself into the desk chair. I leant back and stared out of the window overlooking the Avengers campus.
Who was I? I was James Barnes, that was certain. That's the name I wanted and that's the person I wanted to be. I wanted to help people as well, I figured out that much.
As these thoughts came to my head, I picked up a notebook from one of the drawers and started writing, listing down whatever entered my head. I wanted to help the Avengers too. They understood who I was. In all honesty, I wasn't sure if I would be accepted anywhere else. Though it was strange to admit, the facility and it's people were really starting to grow on me.
I knew my place and what I wanted to do. But...
Wanda
I wrote down her name and underlined it like it was more important than mine. In actual fact, it was. I leant my head back. She was my friend, one of my closest friends. Just like Steve. I frowned...not like Steve. But that was who I needed to see her as. All of these emotions were too much for me to bear. I didn't want to think about it.
I picked up a separate book, my sketchbook, and flitted through the different pages. Some drawings were of her, some of the Commandos and some of Steve. Sometimes I just drew what was outside my window out of sheer boredom.
I selected a pencil and started sketching the outline of her face. I wasn't helping myself, but it was impossible to resist. I already felt a power soothing my chest as I drew, like water slowly spreading across a surface. I was at peace when I drew.
I outlined the shape of her face as I thought about what she said: "Let's just be friends".
In all honesty, it was a relief to hear her say. Over the past few weeks, I had been thinking about her so much I had lost sight of the rest of the world. She was on my mind when I woke up, when I went to sleep and all the time in between. The distance would be good. Didn't mean I couldn't draw her though...
Wanda POV (a few hours later)
"So you're saying I shouldn't have?" I asked, clipping my bra together and twisting it round the right way. I took a few sips of my cranberry cocktail, feeling it rush through my body as Wavey by CLiQ played across our speakers. My toes tingled at the feeling of the alcohol rushing through my body.
"Not exactly, I'm just a sucker for romance as you know. I would've given in and shagged him by now," Darcy answered from the bathroom, applying her makeup.
I rolled my eyes. "He's just going through a lot, you know. I think he needs the space and it might be good for me too," I explained, holding up a dress against my body to see how it would look in the mirror. It was one of Darcy's dresses and I wondered whether the material at the chest would pool around my smaller breasts.
"How come?" she questioned.
I pouted my lips before dropping the dress onto the bed. I walked away from the wardrobe and leant against the bathroom door to talk to her. I hesitated to say it, but knew that I could trust Darcy. "He's all that I've been thinking about."
Her eyes flicked up to me when she noted the seriousness of my tone. "Really?"
I nodded and looked down at the ground. "It's like he's become...a sort of focal point, I guess. Like...everything I do, every decision I make, I'm thinking about how it would effect him, what he would think about it-"
"Whether he would find you attractive in it?" Darcy prompted, raising an eyebrow. I hate how well she could read everyone. She would be good for interrogating some of the criminals we catch.
I nodded and leaned against the bathroom wall. "I just feel...distracted."
Darcy placed the foundation brush she was holding on the bathroom counter and stood in front of me. She held out her hands expectantly and I rolled my eyes, reluctantly giving her my hands to hold.
"Look, you're friends now, right?" she asked and I nodded. "So when you're trying on dresses tonight, you're not going to be thinking about his opinion, what he thinks, whether your tits look great for him." I smirked and shook my head at her antics. "You're going to be thinking about you."
I tilted my head as I listened to her. "Everything you do in life has to be for yourself. Am I going to enjoy this? Do I feel good? Do I look good? Don't change your decisions based on another person. God knows I don't."
I smiled as she squeezed my hands. "Tonight, we're going to make you look like the sexiest woman that has ever graced the Avengers tower," she added, dramatically waving her arms. "And you're going to do it for yourself."
My smile grew to a grin and I chucked my arms round her to hug her. "Thank you, I feel like I needed that."
Darcy was right. I didn't need James or anyone else's opinion. I just needed my own. That was all that mattered.
"Now..." she said, pulling away from the hug. "Get out of my bathroom, because I am nowhere near done."
I giggled and went back to the bedroom, looking through a selection of things I had brought from my room to try on. There was a red dress lying underneath a series of others that I hadn't seen before. I pulled it out. If this doesn't fit, I'm gonna be so pissed.
Thank you so much for reading through this fic, I hope you're enjoying it. Sorry this is shorter than usual, but I felt it was a good place to end it.
If this wasn't the place you thought this story would go, I'm sorry, but good things come to those who wait, hehe! Things are going to get STEAMY in this next chapter, so stick around ;)
Please leave a review if you have the time, I really appreciate them :)
Much love,
Abstract xx