A/N: Happy holidays guys. Nice timing for this chapter even though this was not planned. I took a small break. I finish the NaNoWriMo challenge so that good. But after that, I took a break. I didn't beta either just worked a lot in December and focused my time on just work and holiday things. But now the holiday is soon over, and I hope I will be able to start writing again.

A lot of things are happening in this chapter (and the last chapter.) looking forward to when you guys can see what I'm talking about and see what's ahead. It's kinda wild but that's the point.

Hoping you're having a great week and you had a great holiday regardless of if you had any celebrations or whatever, and I'll talk to you soon.

(also, as If my stories already didn't have enough typos this is not like beta-read at all. I might go through it soon but as for right now, it is how it is. Just needed to post something.)

Red/S-B

Laura woke up by two kids running around in the house and one baby screaming at the top of his lungs. She turned around on her other side just to find Clint with the pillow over his head.

"Not even 7" Clint only mumbled making Laura laugh softly. It was officially Christmas day and apparently, the kids were now ignoring all rules in the morning. Of course, she wasn't really expecting anything else considering Christmas was their favourite. And this year would be extra special, but still, would have been nice with an hour more or so.

"How nice would it be with just one morning without them being all over the place?" Clint said turning to Laura fully now making her roll her eyes. He leaned in kissing her softly. She could only smile into his lips before mumbling.

"Maybe in a few… ten years," Laura said with a small grimace before pulling his arm to get him up from the bed.

"Still, I have to say, I am quite excited about this one too," Laura said softly turning to Clint with a small smile. He looked back at her before nodding.

"Wanda being here definitely doesn't help the situation, no," Clint said before leaning over kissing Laura carefully again, making her smile.

"I am really happy she wanted to celebrate here. I was kinda expecting her to want to go back." Laura said as she stood up from the bed stretching her arms over her head with a small yawn.

"Well, I don't think she could have left without her," Clint said before turning to her again. "Besides, I think she is really starting to feel more at home here." Laura smiled at the last part of the sentence. She was really happy Wanda had decided to stay regardless of what reason she may have, but it was really nice to just hear it from Clint too, that they actually had made her feel at home and made her feel comfortable.

Her thought train got interrupted as they heard another scream.

"Do you want Nate or the two others?" Laura asked as she started to dress herself. Outside she could see some snow falling from the sky. The last time they had snow at Christmas was the last time Natasha was here at Christmas years ago.

"Considering Nate always will choose you over me in the mornings, I will take the crazy duo." Laura laughed again before nodding. She slipped out of the bedroom to go get the boy.

He was very much awake, and Laura could only start trying to calm him down before starting on his morning routine.

She changed diapers and nursed for a while before slowly making her way down. As she spent time with her youngest one, she noticed how the two others had started to die down. She had no idea what they were doing now, but usually when they were quiet something was up. Usually nothing good.

"Should we see what your crazy siblings are up to?" Laura said to the boy making the child reach after her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I don't want to know what mess they have made either." Laura said shaking her head before picking him up.

As she walked down the stairs, she braced herself for whatever madness the kids had done now. She didn't know why but she didn't have a great feeling about the whole thing.

Laura barely got her head through the door when Lila ran up to her throwing herself around her legs.

"MOMMY! NATASHA IS HERE!" Laura could feel her whole body freeze. How, what, when?

Since Wanda came, the kids hadn't even thought about Natasha or poked their heads at her bedroom, so they had, without any problem, kept her hidden. The kids seem to have kinda forgotten about her. Only Cooper had asked once. They only answered that Natasha was invited to join them for Christmas if she wanted, but she was, as always, very busy so they couldn't promise anything.

It was partly true. Laura had of course talked about Christmas with the redhead, but she never did give her an answer. In fact, Natasha had shown no interest, nor the energy capacity, to go downstairs and be with the kids at all. She barely got out of her room and Laura had ended up just nursing her back to health in her bedroom. Not that she really had a problem with that. If Natasha needed time alone that was what she could give her.

Even just yesterday the woman had been struggling, having a huge setback when she all of a sudden lost her balance when she tried to get to the bathroom. It had been really tough on both of them. And had caught them both of guard. So, her not wanting to celebrate Christmas, which was hands down the day of the year the kids were the craziest, was very understandable.

But now the woman was sitting by the kitchen table and somehow looked way better than she had done just 12 hours earlier. She was definitely paler than usual and her eyes were very clearly tired. But the kids didn't seem to care as they both seemed over the moon.

The woman smiled softly at her and laughed as Lila started to drag Laura with her. But even if Natasha seemed happy something seemed off. She didn't know why, but it just felt, wrong.

Laura noticed how she had decided to go back to the turtleneck. While her bruises had gotten better on the 12 days she had been here, they were still visible, and Laura understood why she wanted to hide them. Clint still knew nothing about it and the kids would for sure ask about it if they were to ever see it. Another decision Laura had to agree with, as it seemed to be the smartest move.

What did surprise her was how Natasha was now wearing her wrist brace. She hadn't used that the last 7 days and Laura thought it was getting better. Maybe she was wrong. The woman had her left hand resting over the brace and Laura could already tell it was bothering her even now. And that really was weird actually.

Deciding not to overthink it too much she tried to focus her energy on something else. To the left, beside Natasha, was Wanda. The other woman looked tired, which was understandable. It was still very early, and she didn't blame the teen for wanting some more sleep. She had her hair tucked behind her ears and she hadn't bothered to put any makeup on yet. Still, she smiles softly at Laura when they locked eyes.

"Natasha so wonderful to see you!" Laura tried to keep her voice as normal as possible as she spoke. She smiled at Lila as she let go of her leg and they both moved over to the kitchen. She threw Clint, who was standing by the counter, a confused look before handing him Nate to give Natasha a hug.

She tried to keep the hug as genuine, but also be as careful as possible, as she wrapped her arms around Natasha. She knew Natasha's body was still bothering her and she didn't want to accidentally hurt her more. She was still so confused. What was she doing here? Why was she downstairs?

The woman looked at her with a look that said keep it normal, please. And Laura could only nod shortly before smiling.

"I think we need some food." Laura finally said pulling back and looking at the kids.

They didn't really have any breakfast traditions, they just made something everyone liked. This year was pancakes as well as some bread Laura had baked last night which you could pair with all kinds of things. Some fancy jam Clint had gotten. Some beautiful ham. Some really nice cheese. Really whatever you could think of.

Laura liked how they had such a nice variety and not having the feeling of being tied down to something specific just because the "tradition" said so. It made it possible to have something on the table everyone would enjoy and as the kids got older too maybe they would someday settle down on something. But right now, just doing whatever they wanted that felt the most right.

The kids didn't really want to sit by the table for very long. Lila was almost jumping in her chair at this point. And Laura couldn't do anything other than roll her eyes at her. Cooper was a bit better behaved. He had always been better at controlling himself, but he too seemed very eager to get to the next part of their morning. Opening presents.

Still, the adults did not hurry. Clint just talked about everything and everything and Natasha and Wanda both laughed softly at him, seamlessly joining the conversation.

Having Wanda around was super nice. She had been an amazing company and the kids adored her more every day. Laura had talked about Christmas a bit with the girl, but she still wasn't sure if the woman had actually celebrated Christmas before. Religion for Laura had never been an important thing. She would never judge a person just for their religion. While her family did celebrate Christmas, she would not say her family was very Christian. They did it more just as an excuse for family time and nothing more. She was raised with an open mind and she wanted her kids to have that too.

Wanda was looking at Natasha while the redhead spoke softly to Lila. Her eyes were shining in the most admiral way, and Laura couldn't do anything other than just smile at that herself. She knew Natasha was very important for the younger girl. But it was just something, something about seeing it like this.

Wanda, like the kids, hadn't seen Natasha in the last weeks. She obviously knew she was in the house unlike them, but she hadn't had the opportunity to talk to her. But now that they were together, Laura could definitely see in the girl's eyes how much she looked up to her. How much she cared for her. How much she appreciated her.

Natasha on her part did an excellent job hiding everything from the kids. If Laura hadn't actually seen the damage, she wouldn't have known either. She seemed completely normal, talking so softly but also so happily and nothing could tell you what had really happened. How hurt and broken she really had been and still was.

As much as the kids tried to kinda keep it under control and talk to their aunt soon they got very restless. At one point the kids got so bored sitting by the table and Laura decided to just let them go. They wouldn't open the present yet, but they could go and play, and Nate could take his second nap as they did. It's been a while since they had a baby around Christmas, so they needed to change some things about how they did everything regardless, but Laura thought it would be nice to have a break between breakfast and presents. They hadn't put out everything last night, so they needed to fix a few things anyway.

The kids ran out of the room and the second Lila disappeared out of the room Laura could see Natasha sink down in her chair letting out a small sigh.

"You okay Nat?" Laura asked softly as she started to clean the table still trying to keep it kinda normal.

"Yeah. Just a bit tired. And my head hurts." Natasha said leaning back in her chair before closing her eyes. Laura turned to Clint and gave him a look. He only raised an eyebrow before continuing to clean in silence.

None of them talked as they finished cleaning the room. Wanda shadowed Laura as she used to, finishing every single task Laura started.

As they had gotten more and more comfortable around each other Wanda had actually shown her how her powers worked. She even sometimes used them around the house to finish different chores. But she never once did it around her kids, and Laura was very thankful for that.

Currently, she was washing off some dishes with her levitation powers while slowly floating some others into the dishwasher. Laura watched as Natasha followed the flying plates with an almost concerned look in her eyes.

"If you want you can go and take a shower. We probably won't do anything in at least one hour. I can take the bathroom downstairs to shave and you can take the shower" Clint said turning to Wanda as she finished up the last dish.

She looked between the three adults who all nodded in confirmation before smiling at them and handing Laura the damp towel.

The woman mainly used the bathroom downstairs when she washed up in the morning. It was quite small with only a sink and a decent size mirror, but Laura and Clint had decided to let her use their bathroom when she wanted to shower so she didn't need to share with the three other kids. She was still a teen in Laura's eyes, and she thought it would probably be the most comfortable not having to share a bathroom with two kids and a baby.

"Thank you for your help," Laura said with a small smile. Wand smiled softly back before she walked out of the door followed by Clint who winked at the two women as he left.

Laura looked after the two of them until they both had officially left the room before shifting her attention.

"I know I just asked, but I will ask again. Are you sure you are okay?" Laura said turning to Natasha after Wanda and Clint left. Natasha looked at her with a small, tired smile, before nodding.

"Yes, I promise…." She stopped for a second before letting out a small sigh. "But I do feel a little bit sick." Laura could see how Natasha was forcing it out clearly not wanting to admit it. The face Natasha gave her made Laura feel a small clump in her stomach.

"If it gets too much please tell me. Do not hesitate. Nat, I need you to be early giving us warming." Laura dragged a chair over closer to her, staring at her. She did not want to take any risks with her. She wasn't even sure if she liked that the woman was even downstairs. She could see why the woman wanted to be here, of course, she did, but she was still a bit concerned.

Natasha nodded before smiling at her. She let her eyes hang over her for a while before she finally opened her mouth again.

"Has…. Wanda been worried?" Natasha's voice was low as she spoke. She looked worried and Laura felt bad because she knew she couldn't lie to the woman, but she also didn't want to make her worry more and put even more things into her already overworked mind.

"She has asked a few times. But as long as I updated her along the way she seemed to calm down. I just think she needed to know you were getting better." Laura said, trying to really keep it as casual as possible. She could see Natasha didn't buy it completely, but she didn't say anything. She only nodded slowly.

"She trusts you. I can tell." Natasha said looking at her with a serious look. The way she said it sounded more like a statement than anything else. Laura looked back at her confused, not really sure what to respond.

"I guess so?" It sounded more like a question and not an answer. She could see Natasha let out a small laugh, probably because the woman looked very confused.

"She does. She would never have used her powers around you like that if she didn't. Her powers are connected to her emotions. And change and shift as her emotion do. If she wasn't comfortable around you, she wouldn't have dared to use them." Laura just stared at her. That sounded so, inhuman. Already just powers that could levitate and control things with just an…. orb of red power… thing was very unnatural. Still, at the same time, it also made so much sense it would connect with her feelings.

Laura had definitely noticed Wanda had a lot of emotions and was a very strong person with opinions. But she was also good at controlling them. And as she got comfortable, she got more confident.

"She told me she could tell I was telling the truth," Laura said slowly looking at Natasha with a small, confused look. She had actually been thinking about that for a while now. Because one thing was Natasha and Maria being able to read her like an open book. But they were like former superspies. Wanda was different. And Laura had a feeling the reason could read her was because she was different.

"She doesn't have full control over her mind-reading yet. Or correction, she did until she started to put it way not to use. It was a big change for her. She told me once, some people are just easier to read. Mostly them with strong emotions. As if their aura just kinda overflows." Natasha said with a small smile. Laura didn't really understand what she was saying but she only nodded with a small smile back.

"Thank you for taking care of her, making her feel so welcome." Laura let out a small laugh making Natasha lift an eyebrow.

"How is that funny?" She asked suspiciously making Laura laugh even more.

"Because you sound exactly like Clint did when I took care of you," Laura said with a small smile jumping even closer to Natasha giving her a soft hug.

Natasha turned her head and looked up at her with a smile.

"Do you want to go up to your bedroom and just nap for an hour?" Laura said with a small smile as she talked into Natasha's hair. She could feel the other woman nodded, but she didn't move before Laura stood up first.

Laura let Natasha upstairs ahead of her so she could peak into the bathroom Clint was in.

"Nat and I are going to take a power nap until Nate wakes up okay?" She said smiling at Clint through the mirror. Clint nodded at her before turning around to look at her.

"Is she okay?" He too sounded concerned. Both of them knew Natasha was very good at hiding things from them, especially when it came to her health. She was pretty sure Clint too was thinking about the last Christmas she was here where it all had turned into a disaster. And the main reason for that was simply because the woman had hidden everything from them and Clint and Laura had been too late picking up on it. And while they hadn't talked about it, they both knew that was the last thing they wanted.

"I'm not really sure, to be honest. She is hiding something. But I don't know what." Laura said simply before turning in the door.

"Yeah, I just hope we find out." She could hear Clint talk but she decided to not answer. He knew she agreed. But discussing this now wouldn't help anyone anyway.

When Laura walked into the room, she found Natasha already curled up in the bed. Laura smiled softly at her before joining her laying down under the cover. Soon she could feel Natasha curl up around her and soon she drifted off to a nice dreamless sleep.

When Laura woke up 50 minutes later Natasha was already awake. She was playing softly with her hair letting her hands brush it softly while at the same time massaging her neck carefully. Laura moved her head to look at her and Natasha only smiled back at her purring back as Laura was eyeing her.

"You sleep well?" Natasha asked softly, continuing to play with her hair. Laura nodded letting out a heavy sigh as Natasha let her thumb brush over a very tense part of her neck slowly massaging the knot out.

"God, you are so good at that." Laura could feel herself melt under the redhead's hands letting a loud moan slip out as Natasha started to use both of her hands on her neck.

"You sound like Clint haven't touched you in years, and I know that's not true considering you birthed out a child three months ago." Laura laughed softly rolling her eyes at the silly comment.

"Well, I wouldn't complain about more of this," Laura said looking into Natasha's green eyes. She smiled at her and Laura could see the sadness in her eyes. The redhead had seemed so sad lately, but she had no idea why and obviously the woman didn't tell her either.

Laura could hear the downstairs was now very much alive and they needed to go down and join them soon. They did need to start opening gifts soon if they wanted to finish before Laura needed to start on the dinner. Natasha and Wanda had of course not brought any. But Clint and Laura had already quite a few just to the kids between the two of them. And they always had some for Natasha regardless of her spending the day with them or not. Plus, when they found out Wanda was joining, both of them, on separate occasions, had gone out just to buy her gifts. Laura was very happy with this year's gifts and she was very excited about the exchange, she just didn't want to like…move.

But after five minutes of just lying there, they decided to move. Laura watched as Natasha spent a good 20 second to sit up in the bed. She could very clearly see the woman's body was aching and bothering her. Though she really thought she would be better now.

Still, they made it downstairs and found everyone else in the living room chatting with hot chocolate in their hands. Laura smiled softly at Clint before taking a seat on the couch with Natasha jumping close to her on her right side. The two kids were on either side of Wanda and Clint was in a chair with Nate on his lap.

"I feel like you guys are waiting for something," Natasha said leaning forwards looking at the kids with a small smirk. Making both of the kid's squeal.

Clint had clearly brought out the gifts they hadn't put out last night, and now the living room was drowning in presents of all shapes and sizes. And at this point, Laura had really no control of any of the gifts. She only knew what a few of them were and the rest she didn't remember.

They ended up just taking random gifts opening them as they went. It was of course mostly gifts for the kids. And mainly just toys they could play with. They got some practical things too, but those weren't close to as interesting for the kids.

Clint had ended up getting quite a few nice gifts for the women. Laura and Clint had a mutual agreement to never given each other too many gifts just because the best gift was just to give back to the family. When they needed something, they rather wanted to buy it when they had the chance. And even more, random objects were definitely not needed in the house considering they had toys more or less overflowing the whole house already.

Still, they had of course gotten a few things to exchange. The best gift was when he handed her an envelope with some tickets inside. It was two tickets for a Broadway show next spring. It was ages since she had been in New York and going to a musical was a dream.

To Wanda, he had ended up giving her multiple small things. Most of them were practical and just small things. But his main gift was an empty bulletin board and a beautiful silver journal. When Wanda gave him a confused look he only laughed before saying. "It's up to you to fill them with whatever you want. To express yourself, to remind yourself how wonderful life is. And to treasure everything we have." Laura watched as Wanda's eyes softened and it almost seemed like she was going to cry. She smiled at him hugging the journal tightly before mouthing thank you.

Between the four of them, Natasha was the one that got fewer gifts. Not that the woman seemed to be complaining. She seemed slightly distant regardless of telling them she was feeling fine when they asked. The kids didn't seem to notice their aunt was out of it, but she was clearly getting worse, and Laura was definitely feeling her own stress increase as the woman got lower and lower.

Laura could see she was playing with the Velcro on her brace on her wrist as she watching the kids open the gifts. Her eyes were glossy and got more and more distant as they went on.

Still, the woman got very happy when Laura told her she was getting the piano tuned. But when Laura told her when he was coming over, she seemed to turn sad again. And it was such a weird switch making Laura wonder what was going on.

But even when Natasha was down, everything else was going smoothly. Wanda seemed to be living in a dream, smiling more or less the whole time. Laura was very happy she enjoyed the day even though Laura would have loved to give her even more gifts.

The kids were more or less finished in the living room at this point and were off to their rooms to play with everything. Now it was the only gift left, Laura's main gift to Wanda. She had on purpose not mentioned earlier and waited for the kids to move along just because they would start either whine about not getting it themself or taking away from the real reason Laura ended up with this gift. Truth be told, it was her favourite gift of the day and she had been looking forward to seeing the woman's reaction for days.

"I have one last thing for you," Laura said softly as Wanda was slowly folding a sweater Clint had gifted her. Wanda turned to her and looked at her surprised.

"It's in the corner." Laura pointed at the gift resting in one of the corners of the living room. She had placed it there hoping the kids wouldn't notice the one big gift that was for none of them. They thankfully hadn't, and the only one that had noticed it was Natasha who had eyed her the second they walked into the room.

"That big one?" She asked carefully nodding at it.

"Yeah. Go get it." Laura said with a smile not even trying to hide the happiness in her voice.

She had tried to be smart with her gift wrapping. Partly covering it with cardboard before wrapping it not to give it away. Still, the second Wanda unwrapped the top part she could see the woman freeze. She turned to Laura and looked at her before looking back at the big gift that was still not even close to unwrapped.

"Just open it!" Clint exclaimed making Natasha laugh loudly at the man.

Wanda slowly ripped the paper off revealing the big black guitar case. She looked at Laura one last time before opening the box slowly revealing the guitar inside.

Even the case in its own Laura was very happy with. It was a beautiful black case with red velvet inside. But the guitar was just beautiful. She had spent quite a while just staring at all of the different guitars trying to figure out what she wanted to go for. The one she ended up with was a light colour wood guitar with a dark neck and gold details. But what really made it unique was the triangular sound hole instead of the regular circle one making it look elegant and modern. Two words that so very well described Wanda.

"This is too much. I don't know if I can accept this." Wanda said looking at Laura with big eyes. Before Laura had the time to answer Natasha said softly.

"Believe me, she won't take it back, nor use it. And she won't return it either, so you better just take it." Wanda turned to her mentor and looked at her with big eyes still clearly confused. Natasha only looked at Laura with a small smile before saying.

"She gave me something similar for my first Christmas too. Just take it" The redhead continued smiling at the woman softly. Laura couldn't have said it better herself. She actually had said the exact same thing 10 years ago when she gave Natasha her ballet shoes. She knew the redhead was very aware of the sentence she had just said, winking softly at Laura.

Wanda only looked at her with big eyes before letting her hands carefully glide over the neck of the guitar.

They finished up tidying the room for all of the wrapping paper before Laura walked over to the kitchen.

It was time to start dinner.

Christmas dinner was always a mix between beef and stuffed pork. They really didn't need to do two big main dished like this, but that was how Laura and Clint always had done it. Laura didn't mind spending some time in the kitchen anyway. She loved to cook and so making the food was no problem for her. She enjoyed this part.

Natasha was fast on following her into the kitchen immediately falling into Laura's flow seamlessly taking over half of the kitchen. The two of them were incredibly synchronized in the kitchen. They always had. Since Laura taught her to cook the redhead had so easily turned into this amazing shadow who just did exactly what she needed without never having to ask or with any orders.

Laura threw a look over her shoulder to watch the redhead work on the stuffing for the pork not saying a word as she worked. Laura couldn't remember her ever showing her the recipe for the Christmas dinner before, but the redhead had of course just taken the recipe out of her hand starting on her own.

The redhead was completely lost in her own head when Wanda walked into the kitchen throwing a look around.

"Do you need any help?" her voice was soft as she spoke walking over to Laura. Laura could see Wanda was watching Natasha carefully.

"Yeah, why don't you wash those asparagus for me, and then you can put on some water for the potatoes?" Laura said softly as she continued to prep the piece of meat she had in front of her. The woman nodded with a small smile before starting to work.

With three of them in the kitchen, the dinner was finished in record time. Natasha had finished her half of the dinner in two-thirds of the time Laura would have used. She wasn't surprised that Natasha had taken the complicated part of the dinner, Laura's own family traditional recipe, and absolutely knocked it out of the park. In both speed and presentation, she had ended up with something that looked better than Laura could ever dream of. But she wasn't surprised by this in the slightest. Natasha was an incredible cock. Even if she didn't want to admit it.

Pork wellington was definitely not a traditional Italian Christmas dinner, but for some reason, that was the part of Laura's upbringing that was the least Italian. Normally it was just a very simple recipe. Of course, Laura found it hard to make it both look good and being cocked nicely. And every year she struggled with it just as much as she had done the previous year. But here Natasha had a perfectly backed dish. She had even gone and made a small flower pattern on top. It was both unfair and incredible how the woman could just pick something up for the first time and somehow always ending up with a perfect result.

Wanda and Laura had together taken the other half of the dinner with the steak plus all of the little things like cooking the potatoes and setting the table.

This was the most mouths Laura had to feed for Christmas dinner in a while. Maybe for once, they wouldn't have a mountain of leftovers.

The dinner ended up being lovely. They never got dinner ready before quite late. And even though Natasha had been speedy with her part, both dishes needed the oven, and Laura and Wanda had not been as fast with their half. They ended up not getting the dinner ready before half-past six.

This was the day of the year the kids were up and awake the longest not counting the new year. Nate didn't last the whole dinner, so Clint ended up putting the baby to bed in the middle of the dinner, but other than that it was perfect.

The kids were still very high energy but that was okay. They went on about talking about all of the gifts they had gotten. And Laura was so happy they enjoyed their Christmas. If anything it seemed they had enjoyed it especially much this year, which was just amazing if anything.

They spent a few hours after dinner just talk and play with the kids before they were off to bed. Laura and Clint took one each, but the task of getting Cooper to bed now was not easy. Laura spent a good 10 minutes just laughing with the boy as she tried to tuck him into bed. He was still good and soon the ten-year-old fell asleep after a chapter of one of the Christmas books they were currently reading.

She knew she had the simpler job getting him to bed. When she was walking out of his room, she could still hear Lila up and awake. She just laughed and shook her head before slowly making her way downstairs letting Clint continue with the girl.

To her surprise, she found the downstairs almost completely clean and empty. Between Natasha and Wanda, they had cleaned more or less everything after dinner and put away all of the gifts. Now Wanda was sitting with her legs crossed on the couch by the fireplace with a book in her hand while Natasha was standing alone in the kitchen drying off the last plates from the dinner. Her hair was now in a loose bun and she was wearing a concentrated and slightly concerned look in her eyes.

Wanda smiled softly at her when she entered the room but lifted a finger in front of her mouth to stop Laura from talking as she tried to open her mouth. Wanda shook her head softly before nodding at her phone that was resting against her leg.

Laura looked at her confused, but Wanda only pointed at Natasha. And it was only now that Laura noticed the earpiece in Natasha's ear.

The redhead was not talking at all she was only looking straight forward with a look that made Laura feel slightly uncomfortable. It was cold and distant, clearly lost in whatever was said on the other end.

Laura continued to watch her for a bit before taking a seat beside Wanda picking up her own book.

They sat there for a while just reading not disturbing the other woman. Laura continued to throw glances towards the other woman now and again. But not once did she opened her mouth to say anything and Laura was starting to wonder what the other person was talking about since Natasha didn't speak at all. She had finished the dishes long ago and was now currently looking out the window with a blank look in her eyes.

After ten minutes Natasha slowly picked out the earpiece with a slow movement. The woman seemed almost a bit lost as she slowly put it away in a case. To Laura's surprise, Natasha picked up a phone Laura had never seen before. She knew it wasn't Natasha's personal phone.

Was this work?

The woman was just standing there looking at the phone for a while before putting that away too.

She decided not to ask when Natasha finally joined them, she only tilted her head before mouthing are you okay? The woman only nodded at her with a small smile before picking up her own book to read.

The room fell into silence and the three women continued to read their own books in peace until Clint joined them after another five minutes.

It wasn't before he finally did join them that the talk started again. This time without the kids the adult felt into a soft conversation. Even though they had had a full day with lots of things happening none of them seemed to be ready to go to bed just yet.

Wanda was smiling softly as she listened to Clint talk about some of the previous winters and how they liked to play around in the snow. Laura loved how the young woman seemed to really tressure every moment of life. She was so open to learn and listen and seemed to really try to make the best out of everything. Laura knew her childhood had been rough with everything that happened in her home, and then the experiments giving her those enhanced abilities. It had to be traumatic to live through all of that at such a young age. But now she seemed so happy and playful. Of course, you could definitely see the more insecure part of her. And she was very mature to be just 20, which probably was a side effect of losing her own parents at a young age. But as she got more conformable around them, she also started to lower her walls and just played around. It probably also helped how Clint too was really a child at heart taking her under his wing so early on. Being able to be both like a father figure and a friend.

It was such a nice atmosphere in the room Laura almost missed how silent Natasha was. She hardly spoke and it wasn't before Laura actually locked eyes with the woman, she got the realization of how extremely unrest the woman actually was. She was sitting in the chair slightly leaning forward playing with her hand holding around her injured wrist. On her face, she had a frown, and she was clearly thinking about something completely different.

Still, she answered softly "yeah. That winter was crazy" When Clint stopped his sentence to look at the woman. When Clint didn't continue to talk Natasha for the first time turned her head and looked up at the meeting their eyes.

"What?" She said looking at them confused. She genuinely didn't seem to clock the fact that she had been staring out into nothing for 30 minutes.

"You seem a bit… distant." Laura could tell Clint was very unsure about how to go about his wording as he spoke.

The woman only looked at him still a bit confused before answering softly. "Guess I was just lost in my head then." She said with a small smile.

"Well stop it then and start focusing on me. You know I need lots of attention." Natasha rolled her eyes dramatically before throwing a pillow at Clint.

"Don't know if you're worth my time, old man." Clint laughed loudly before throwing the pillow back at Natasha making her catch it, so it didn't hit her head.

"You know I love you right?" Laura turned her head surprised at the same time Clint lifted his eyebrow looking at her with a confused look. She turned to Wanda who only shook her head just as confused. Where was this coming from then?

"Yes?" He answered slowly continuing to look at her while she lowered her own eyes.

"Even if I do stupid things sometimes." Natasha continued, playing with the pillow in her hands nervously, not looking up at any of them.

"Well, it depends what you are…"

"Clint just answers the damn question." Natasha cut him off with a sharp tone making Laura almost drop her jaw. It was so harsh and rude. Completely out of character making Laura feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I guess so?" Clint answered trying to keep his own voice as calm as possible looking at the annoyed agent in front of him.

"Good. Please never forget that." Natasha looked at him fast one last time before she stood up and walked out of the room.