"Here, let's try this one."
Wanda eyed Natasha carefully as the woman approached her with a bottle of light pink nail polish.
Since it had been decided that they would leave Bucky and Alya to fend for themselves, the two went upstairs to Yelena's floor to hang out.
And they definitely took this opportunity to have some 'girl time'.
They had a movie marathon, ate junk food, and were now doing each other's nails. Wanda had done Yelena's in an off-white color that she really liked, Yelena had done Natasha's in a bright blue just to get on her nerves, and now, Natasha was in the process of doing Wanda's.
The redhead hoped that Alya was alright. She didn't like spending too much time away from her, especially now, after the snap had been undone.
The separation, though it was bad, had not been as awful for Alya as it had been for Natasha. Those five years really did some damage and she was trying her best to keep a hold on it.
"She's fine, Natashka." Yelena spoke as if she read her mind. "The baby doesn't need you to be there twenty-four/seven. It will be good for the both of you."
The blonde had noticed a certain change in both her sister and her niece's behavior that could only be chalked up to a new separation anxiety. Many times, she watched Alya's eyes follow Natasha as the woman left the room and her gaze stayed planted right in the spot she left until the very second she got back.
Natasha would try to be more discreet about her constant monitoring, but she'd also watch, just from the side of her eye to make sure that Alya wasn't going anywhere.
And she'd always sneak into her room after Alya had fallen asleep to sit with her and rub her back.
Yelena knew all about it, but she never said anything.
She figured that eventually, the two would realize that everything was okay now.
"Okay, Wanda, give me your hand." Natasha snapped out of it, unscrewing the lid to the nail polish bottle so that she could slather some on the teen's fingernails.
She could afford to have some fun.
They all could.
"Hey." Natasha poked her head through the crack in Wanda's door. "I just wanted to check and see if you're alright."
"Come in." Wanda waved her over, putting the book that was in her hands, down on her nightstand. "I just wanted to get a couple chapters in before I turned off the lights."
Natasha couldn't help but smile at that. In all the time they'd known each other, Wanda was always a reader. That's one of the things she liked best about her.
Wanda could spend hours in her own little world, with her nose in a book.
She was very quiet because she loved to listen and learn. She was even-tempered, but she wasn't a pushover, and she was strong.
"Will you braid my hair?"
"Sure." Natasha nodded and sat behind her on her bed. She opted not to use a brush, instead, she ran her fingers through Wanda's hair.
The brown tresses weren't tangled together, so it made it easy for her fingers to glide through and create a neat dutch braid that fell down to her back.
"There you go." The woman smiled, securing it with a hair tie just before Wanda turned around to face her.
"Thank you." She smiled.
As she looked at Natasha, her smile faded and her shoulders slumped. She and Pietro lost both their parents when they were ten and had to struggle to maintain themselves for years. But then, she lost Pietro.
As much as Wanda didn't like to admit it, she missed her mother very much. Sometimes Natasha did things that reminded her of the woman and it made her feel warm inside.
But it also made her feel very conflicted.
"What's going on in that head of your?" Natasha asked.
"Nothing, it's— nothing."
"Wanda."
"I was just thinking about my mother." Wanda shrugged. "You braided my hair and you reminded me of her."
Natasha didn't say anything, she just nodded to let the teen know that she was listening.
"I like being here….." Wanda hesitated. "I like living with you, and Alya, and Bucky. I like it when we have movie marathons, I like it when you braid my hair, and I like our talks, but….I miss my mom and I don't want to replace her."
"I understand." Natasha knew where the girl was coming from.
"But that doesn't mean that I don't love you!" Wanda quickly amended. "I don't know, it's confusing. I like what we have now, I don't want to ruin it."
"Hey. I love you, too." Natasha cupped her chin. "I'm not here to replace your mother. If that's not how you see me, that's okay. I just want you to know that I'm always going to be here for you, whatever you need, I'm there. You'll always have a place in this family and with me."
"I know."
"Good." She leaned over and picked up the book that Wanda had set down. "Now, how about we read a few chapters before we turn in for the night?"
"Alya, slow down!"
Alya giggled as she ran through the park, her scarf flapping against the cold breeze and her eyes watering from the low temperatures.
As promised, everyone rallied up and decided to take that trip to Central Park that Alya wanted so badly.
She had gotten up at the crack of dawn that morning, first barging into her mother's room to wake her up. Natasha was having absolutely none of it, and sent her out to wake her father up.
In true Alya fashion, she peeked through Bucky's door, saw that he was still asleep and got a running start before she pounced on him.
The poor man was startled awake, but that didn't deter Alya at all.
She was more determined than ever to get everyone out of bed to get to where they needed to be.
"I can't!" She giggled, continuing to run. A shriek escaped her lips when she felt a pair of hands grab her and lift her up.
It was Steve.
He had her tucked under his arm like a football. Her arms and her legs went limp in protest, but she didn't exactly fight to get down.
Random people passing by let out a chuckle or two at her predicament. She definitely looked a little funny, hanging from Steve's arm, all bundled up for the winter weather.
Her coat was zipped up all the way, she was wearing a thick sweater beneath it with a pair of jeans tucked into her snow boots. A scarf wrapped around her neck and covered her nose and mouth to keep her as warm as possible.
To top it all off, a thick beanie sat on her head and a pair of gloves on her hands, to keep the heat in.
Getting her to wear all of that had been such a fight.
Alya argued that she was used to colder weather and she didn't need any of it, but her parents wouldn't budge.
She tried to compromise, but they remained firm.
It was only until Yelena started shoving her arms through her coat, was she willing to cooperate.
Steve carried her all the way to an empty area that would've been surrounded by grass had it not been for all the snow that fell the night before. As soon as they made it far enough, he loosened his grip, allowing her to fall right onto the cold, white blanket.
Fanny barked and raced over to her once Yelena unclipped her leash. The four-legged friend sniffed at the twelve year old and nudged her with her wet nose.
Alya sat up and shook some of the snow off, turning to glare at Steve, who had an uncharacteristically mischievous look on his face.
The child smirked and gathered up some snow, packing it into a ball before she threw it right at him for revenge, but Steve saw it coming and ducked just in the nick of time.
The snowball didn't hit him, but it did hit Bucky.
His eyes widened as he wiped his face, sending her a look of warning.
This obviously meant war.
And in that moment, everyone split into teams.
Wanda, Yelena, and Alya were on one team, while Natasha, Steve, and Bucky were on the other.
Fanny just kind of ran back and forth between whichever team would give her the most attention at the time.
There was enough snow to build a fort so that each side could hide themselves and create ammo. Of course, Alya didn't wait for the other team to get ready, she just pelted them with snowball after snowball.
"I'm gonna fall."
"No, you're not. You're doing great."
Alya squeezed her mother's hands as tightly as she could as the woman helped her glide across the ice underneath her rented skates.
Natasha had remembered that she promised Alya she would teach her how to skate. Today was as good a day as any to fulfill that.
After their snowball fight, or really, all out war, they walked a few minutes before finding an ice rink right there in the park.
It turned out, Wanda didn't know how to skate either and she wanted to learn.
They had gotten there right after the zamboni resurfaced the ice, making it smooth. The smooth ice made it a little harder to gain traction, but Wanda and Alya would manage.
Alya leaned back a little too far and her skates slipped out from under her, but luckily, her father had seen this coming and caught her before she could fall.
He was all for not over-coddling her and letting her take her spills, but he drew the line when those 'spills' could result in injury.
He wasn't about to let his daughter crash onto solid ice.
"Whoops." He chuckled, making sure she was steady before he let her go. "Bend your knees, Scamp. You won't tip backwards that way."
Alya did as she was told and bent her knees, feeling slightly more comfortable and more confident to continue.
"I wanna do it by myself." She declared.
Her parents shared an amused look from over her head before her mother smiled at her. "Okay."
Natasha immediately let go of the child's hands, allowing herself to skate a bit of a distance away, stopping when she felt she was far enough. "Skate to me."
Alya's tongue stuck out the side of her mouth in concentration as she put one skate in front of the other.
She could do this.
"Look at you go." Bucky coached her, lightly trailing her from behind.
Alya stumbled a bit, but steadied herself just as quickly, determined to actually do this without any help.
What she didn't notice, was the fact that her mother kept inching backwards every single time she got closer. She too distracted trying to find her rhythm.
And she did find it.
As soon as she relaxed, her legs began to do the rest of the work. It was almost as if a lightbulb went off in her head and the dots connected.
And for the last few feet, she skated to her mother, effortlessly.
"I did it!" She beamed.
"You did!" Natasha pecked her cheek. "What did I tell you? It's easy!"
"Did you see me?" Alya asked her father.
"Did I see?" He scoffed. "Of course, I saw you! Does the NHL know about you? I think you've got a successful career ahead of you."
"You're silly." She giggled.
This had to be the best day ever.
Both her parents were here, Yelena was here, Steve was here, and so was Wanda. They all left the Tower to actually have some fun and ended up engaging in a snowball fight which led to a couple of ice skating lessons.
There was nothing to fight, nothing to run away from, no one out to get them.
It was just a regular fun day.
And Alya couldn't remember the last time she had one of those.
