"We've decided..."

"Okay Cap, I've decided you're taking too long," interrupted Tony and then quickly, before the now flustered Steve could continue, he told the Avengers the news. "Well, Natasha agreed when Steve suggested this, and then when I heard I wanted to make it a big deal because - duh, and Clint said it had to be today because he's bad at keeping secrets, which is unfortunate since he's a spy, but basically, Wanda you're cleared for the field! Welcome to the Avengers - officially!"

Wanda's mouth opened but no words came out. This meant, this was, now she, they all... It felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders, all the stressing and it turned out it was the opposite of what she had feared. She did belong. She wasn't being kicked out. She was an Avenger, officially, now and forever. She felt her eyes welling with tears. Happy tears for once. Oh Pietro, you'd be so proud. I'm one step closer to being able to avenge you, as an Avenger. I only wish you could be here now.

"Jeez Tony, you took your time," said Natasha, but she was smiling, and so was the rest of the team. They were smiling at her, waiting for her reaction. Wanda didn't know what to say, she was a whirlwind of emotions. Euphoria. Pride. Embarrassment that all her teammates were looking at her. And sorrow, that she was an Avenger, but Pietro wasn't. She managed to squeak out "Thank you," her voice thick , her eyes on Natasha. The spy smiled with the corner of her mouth, eyes sparkling.

"You deserve it kiddo," said Steve.

"Woop woop! This calls for champagne! FRIDAY-"

"Tony, it's 11am."

"Exactly Rogers, not too early to celebrate!"

"These three months of training have paid off well Wanda."

"So sentimental Cap - I'm so proud of you kid, you've worked so hard. Harder than Tony ever did before his first mission."

"Clint! As a matter of fact I did my first mission with no training."

"That kinda proves my point."

"Wanda. I hope you're pleased. I am pleased for you." Vision said.

Wanda was now laughing, the relief making her slightly hysterical. "Thank you. Thank you! Steve, Tony, Clint, Vision and Natasha..!"

And Natasha. Natasha just smiled. Wanda felt herself smiling back, so glad that the spy didn't seem offended by earlier's shenanigans in her room. She had probably been overthinking it.

"And, we've got a perfect mission lined up too." Steve said nodding at Tony who put down the champagne flute and swiped at a panel on the window, darkening the room. He pulled seemingly out of the table a blue holographic model of a warehouse. "It's nice and easy. Here's the plan."

Two days later - Somewhere above Mumbai, India

Wanda sat in the back of the quinjet, small bag at her feet, lost in her thoughts. She was in denial that she was going on her first mission. Well, if you didn't count Ultron - and she definitely didn't. The excitement was making her fingers tingle, and a look around told her she was alone, bar Tony who was sleeping in a sitting position in his Iron Man suit, and she knew that he wouldn't mind. In fact he'd been the one who'd been the most helpful with her powers, building her gizmos and gadgets that she could use to practise and experiment. Steve and Natasha had taught her everything she knew about hand to hand combat, sleuthing tactics and sneaking up on people, but as per with her promise to the Black Widow, and with Steve's liking to 'good ol' fashioned' training, she hadn't been using her powers as much recently. She flexed her fingers and the familiar surge of warmth shot through her wrist. This felt good. Her vision reddened and she was suddenly hyper-aware of everything. She could feel Tony dreaming, his dream was pushing into her subconscious, but she ignored it. She was past snooping into other people's heads. She just wanted to relax a little, and what better way than with a little levitation? She'd been working on that, practising on random things in the compound, including Natasha. She still couldn't believe that, it had been so random...

(Wanda's flashback)

It wasn't a good day. Wanda had woken up early from a nightmare and it left her shaken. She'd taken breakfast and lunch in her room and was feeling particularly down. She hadn't even let Vision in. Everything was just too much today, and she was glad that there was no training on; Sam was out doing something with Steve, Tony was tinkering in his lab and Clint and Natasha were due back from a mission tomorrow. Wanda was alone. Suddenly the loneliness overtook her, no longer was the quiet peaceful but rather too loud. She hurried her head in her duvet and felt the tears forming. She'd never been a crier before but nowadays felt on the verge of tears a lot, mainly in the evenings when it got dark and silent.

She had just reached the snuffling stage of crying when she felt a weight settle next to her. She jerked out of the blanket cocoon, hands glowing ready for an attack, heart pounding in her chest.

"What are you -", she spluttered out, before she felt small and cool hands clasp her own together with surprising gentleness. She reluctantly met the eyes of her 'attacker'.

"Natasha! Oh gosh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I thought you-" Wanda stuttered, utterly shocked to see the spy sitting next to her. Wasn't she meant to be on a mission?

"It's okay, I shouldn't have creeped on you like that," said Natasha, a look of concern on her face. Wanda was confused and then realised it was probably because of her red and puffy eyes and snot-covered face. She opened her mouth ready to tell Natasha I'm fine really and what happened on your mission? but Natasha got in there before she could.

"I thought we could have some fun since I'm back early from my mission," she said, a mysterious glint in her eyes, answering one of Wanda's unanswered questions and completely ignoring her downtrodden state.

Wanda was intrigued.

"Okay…"

Now, on the quinjet that was hurtling towards India, she cleared her mind of that memory. She closed her eyes and concentrated. With a flick of her wrist and a shimmy of her fingers she attracted the minuscule dust in the air and on the ground and swirled it around in the air in a luminous red dust cloud. She felt alive and free and powerful. It was cathartic. Suddenly her senses picked up on someone else's brainwaves and she twisted around, hands still levitating the dust, which had now shaped itself into a massive dust bunny - literally.

"Hey Wanda," it was Steve. She grinned and manipulated the dust so that it was in the shape of a shield. "Hi Steve."

"Just passing through to wake Tony, we're going to be landing in about an hour," he said and proceeded over to the snoring form of the billionaire and not so gently shook him by the shoulders. "You know, that's pretty impressive what you're doing there," he continued, 'maybe if this mission goes well we can try to incorporate more of that into our training. Provided Nat doesn't mind of course." He flashed her that perfect American smile. 'I know she's funny when it comes to you and your powers but she's got her reasons."

Wanda noticed he didn't elaborate on the reasons, but she had a pretty good guess what they were. She merely grinned at Steve, feeling like his little sister when he ruffled her hair.

"C'mon soldier, up and at 'em, we have a mission to do," he told slumbering Tony.

'I'm… not a. Soldier," mumbled Tony, still half asleep. Steve rolled his eyes and Wanda half giggled - she was reminiscing on what Steve had said about her powers, feeling optimistic. My first mission as an Avenger. The prospect of being able to use and grow my powers. The warmth of my camaraderie with my teammates, no - friends. Finally I'm happy.

Author's note: Finally I'm updating this! Don't worry, I didn't forget, I'm just not used to having to write out my stories in order, as usually i'd jump around from chapter to chapter. I'm also sorry that it's so slow paced, I promise some action is coming! I hope you enjoyed and please leave a review!