Malysh Mishka - Galgobaad56 - The Avengers (Marvel) (2024)

Chapter 1: Идти домой

Chapter Text

“What about that girl at the front desk? The one with the dimples. She seems more like your type, huh? Nice teeth, kind of blonde, smiles and all that sh*t.” Steve grimaces from across the room as Nat swings her legs on the table, a wry smile on her face.

“You mean Collen from Stark Tower? I’ve never exchanged more than two words with her, and also she insists on calling me Mr. America, always wears commemorative blouses and greets me with the strangest salute, kind of freaks me out.” Nat rolls her eyes, jumping up from the makeshift seat.

“For the love of God, Rogers! You’re too picky. That way there won’t be a single woman left in the state of New York.”, he returns her a calm expression as he reclines toward the wall.

“That’s fine with me, you’re the one who insists on playing matchmaker every time we’re alone for more than five minutes. In fact, I even think I should be more offended, you keep objectifying me, hurting my feelings.” she flipped him as a veritable pit of indifference, which only made the man laugh harder.

The laughter slowly drained from the room, Natasha kept busy, absentmindedly flipping through some papers on Stark’s desk. The two of them had been waiting there for over half an hour, a message to meet urgently in Tony’s office was passed on by Friday and when they reached the floor where the Stark industries owner’s rooms were located, they just knocked on the open door.

Steve watches her with arched eyebrows and a frown, even he knew that this concentration was a momentary mask. It wasn’t always and usually the atmosphere between them remained mild and friendly most of the time. But there were times, when he spoke or even made an offhand remark like the one he had just made, he could feel her closing in again, although it was not something so easy to notice. Nat could disguise her feelings as well as if the act were as simple as turning a key, and that was it, another subject, another person. But he could see her, maybe he wasn’t the only one, Clint certainly knew her more than he did, and maybe even Pepper, but it was something indescribable, it would be silly to say that they had a connection because of the serum that ran in both of their veins, making them superhuman, even if with some chemical differences as to the “medicine” itself and a completely different subtext, in that they were almost the same.

“I can’t believe Stark had us come all the way out here after an eight-hour flight, I couldn’t even brush my hair.” she speaks conversationally right away. Even though her shoulder-length hair was still damp and smelled like coconut. That was her shampoo, right? Nat could not hide her amused look when he also sported old sweatshirts as they entered Tony’s empty room. Apparently, Captain America had been interrupted from a good nap, which attested to the state of his slightly messy hair.

When he finally appeared on the doorstep, it was with a visibly affected air. The solemn look he threw them would have silenced a meeting with all the other Avengers in less than two seconds. Tony crossed his office in quick, steady strides, a thick, beige folder in hand. He dropped it on the desk before turning to face them, the two already approaching curiously, several possibilities dancing in their heads.

“What happened, Tony?”

“It’s something with Ross, isn’t it?”

He blinked once, dumbfounded, still staring at them as if he had never seen them before. The two looked at each other, Tony opened his mouth weakly before swallowing dryly and crossing his arms as he let out a tired sigh. A strangled laugh comes out of his throat, he looks both astonished and amazed.

“Indeed, we have a situation.”, they tense up in front of him and he hastens to add “Nothing with Ross, no, not for the moment at least.”, he scratches the top of his head in an unfamiliar gesture and they remain motionless, waiting for what of such importance has taken them away from their well-deserved rest after their trip back from Europe.

“It has to do with the little girl who traveled with us,” he looks from one to the other quickly, almost comically, as if expecting them to fish out the rest of his sentence, to guess the tenor of the matter. They, however, continue to wait for him to conclude his thought.

“Wanda, what about her?”, Steve could still see the body of the other child, the teenage boy, he had fallen with several gunshots during the battle.

Natasha tries to remember the girl’s face, they hadn’t had many chances to interact with the child, the older one always stayed ahead of her and during the battle he formed an alliance with the team making sure she stayed safe and away. Nevertheless, what was their surprise when they found her crouched next to Pietro’s corpse, remnants of red all around her and an indistinct mass of metal much larger than her hand.

It was Tony himself who recognized it first, the heart of Ultron. In the Quinjet, the girl fell asleep exhausted in Clint’s arms, and they thought it would be difficult for her to even understand the magnitude of what she had just done, her scarlet eyes and placid face denoted that she would hardly remember the act, the red magic possessing her diminutive body almost made her float in the firmament when they reached them.

No one talked about what she had made them see, not that they didn’t know that others had gone through the same thing, but the sight of the red possessing her and the chubby fingers unconsciously grasping the dead child’s bloody rags pushed any thoughts away. Cho greeted her immediately as they arrived Upstate.

“Has there been any change in her chart? I thought there were no serious injuries. Did you contact CPS?”, Natasha sounded almost bored. Tony scratched his eyes, his countenance not looking its best either after all that had happened the day before.

“I was about to do that, but before Cho needed to show me her test results.” the suspense hung in the air in no pleasant way, but even so he kept pausing his words to stare at them in astonishment, as if he hoped they already knew what he was talking about.

“And?”, Steve fidgeted restlessly in his chair, the two of them eventually sitting down next to the multi-millionaire, whatever such bombastic news he had to tell.

“And when she put Wanda’s samples in for analysis, she found that her DNA matched some of the ones on file in our system.”, Natasha feels the muscles in her face twitching in confusion, while Steve only nods slightly for him to continue, they don’t look at each other again. Although Tony still seems incredulous at the words that come out of his own mouth next.

“It’s you.”, he says simply, the silence that follows is as anticlimactic as the accompanying reactions. Nat remains motionless and staring, Steve does a hilarious double take and smiles shyly, not understanding.

“Come again?”, Natasha closes her eyes tightly in the first show of understanding, but he doesn’t notice her. Tony looks at him appreciatively, unsure if it’s better to let him mentally calculate it too, but decides that even he can’t take all that silk tearing himself.

“I mean, Cap, that her DNA has the same genetic information as yours... Just like she has Red's too.”, the two look at her at once, and Natasha doesn’t return the gaze, she has her hands buried in the arms of the seat, her jaw clenched. Steve looks from one to the other, mouth wide open

“Yes, so you guys looked again and saw that there was a mistake.” he spoke almost as a question, yet decisively. Tony looked at him, still casting worried glances at the motionless figure of the redhead in front of him.

“Naturally, that’s what we would have done, if that result hadn’t come out of a unique and infallible computer intelligence system... And also, it’s what we did anyway because no one could believe what they saw.”, he attempts a playful smile, but put it aside, (tough public). “Still, the mistake itself would be impossible, especially with you two specifically as targets.”, he reiterates, directly to the captain.

“The serum.”, Nat’s voice comes out lower than usual, but there is no doubt in her tone. Steve practically holds his breath, Tony looks at her warily, before she manifested he seemed about to snap his fingers in her face.

“Yes, she exhibits both of the genetic modifications noted in you two, apart from the DNA matches, of course. Which would obviously be impossible, were the child not yours.”

Steve leaps out of his chair, which practically flies towards the opposite wall, he staggers forward, stunned.

“What kind of sick joke is this, Stark? Have you lost your mind for good?”, Tony would have laughed in a different situation , really, but the present one was so ludicrous and improbable that all he managed to let out was a slight waggle of his eyebrows toward Rogers.

“Look, Steve, I know the situation is crazy, and as much as I’d love to record this furball attack of yours here and now for posterity, right now could you just get a grip?”, he pratically spelled it on the air. Natasha’s eyes slowly came back into focus.

“How old is she?”, it wasn’t the same nonchalant mask as earlier, but she moved in her chair and her body now hung toward Stark, he caught her tone.

“She just turned 4, apparently, it’s on her chart, what we were able to subtract from her and what Cho still assesses. Her birthday was May 2nd.”

Just five days ago. 4 years old. Natasha puts her face down and Tony regrets not being able to watch whatever passes on it.

“Tony, this is some type of coincidence, it can only be.” Steve tries to remain calmer, although he is now pacing impatiently back and forth across the gray, barren space. “For God’s sake! It’s a child, not a programmed android or whatever, how could anyone have taken samples from both of us and just make it?! That’s nonsense!”

Tony opened his mouth to express his opinion, which would be: I have no idea, buddy.

But the two were interrupted by a third voice.

“Not exactly.”, Tony immediately looks at her clenching his lips in surprise, Steve looks at her as if for a moment doubting her sanity, but then as in a flash his eyes change and this does not go unnoticed by Tony, who assesses every single movement of both of them. Nat looks at Steve directly now, for the first time since Tony released the news about them. Whatever passes between them happens very quickly, and soon Steve knows exactly what she is talking about.

The transformation in his face is palpable, his cheeks flushed and his chin quivering. He says nothing before he picks up the fallen chair and sits down in the same place where it was previously crashed, Natasha follows him with her gaze, but he flatly avoids her. Tony doesn’t have time to ask any more questions.

“You guys remember the time of my hiatus, I’m sure Fury briefed you at the time.” Tony barely blinks, such is his concentration, but Steve has his head between his hands, away from the two of them. She looks at Stark as she speaks, though she is clearly directing her words at the two men.

“It wasn’t so much a hiatus as a personal reconnaissance mission.” she speaks each word separately and with a dry tone. “I was sent to the Lithuanian border, there was a familiar movement near the Baltic Sea. I remember following Neman past Šilutė, the place was busy, but that was no problem, I had everything under control.”, she shifts her eyes to the wall, no longer looking at Tony’s face, who acquiesces.

“I regained consciousness in a lab, a little east of Slovakia, I think.”, despite the effort her tone doesn’t exactly come off as relaxed. “I didn’t recognize anyone in particular, but all the procedures were familiar.”

“Red room.”, she doesn’t affirm Tony’s placement, but she doesn’t have to.

“Remnants, maybe. I don’t know in detail what they did to me, but they didn’t possess the same artillery, they were weaker.”, this time she passes an odd, if lost, detachment. “But I know I spent almost a year in there, until the drugs subsided enough or until they thought there would be no more disturbances and they slacked off, who knows. My memories just don’t exist, they’ve been reprogrammed, like they used to.” she crosses her arms over her chest. When she raises her eyes again, Tony is surprised by the emotions trapped in there, conflicted for sure, but no doubt hardly contained.

“I spent some more time recovering in a safe house, just in case, and because I didn’t know what effects the... Procedure, would have on me.”

“Procedure?”, Tony repeats, trying to follow the line of reasoning.

She wiggles her chin.

“A single cut at the foot of the belly, no more than three inches.” Tony widens his eyes, which by now are about to pop out of their sockets.

“You mean a...” he gestures with his hands toward himself.

“It didn’t take long to me to find out that they had removed my uterus. I needed to have tests done on my way back to the States, Cho was the one who drove them, by the way.”

Tony seems to remember something else, his face becoming even more livid.

“Wait a minute, the red room, they... They sterilize, I mean, they sterilized the students.”, Steve raises his head, being one of those who knew virtually nothing about Natasha’s former life. She gives a morbid smile before continuing, although her voice is more controlled.

“There was a graduation ceremony, as usual, but it was more of a consecration of sorts, if you can imagine.” she lets out a quick, incredulous laugh. “The truth is that we had been subjected to non-surgical interventions since our initiation.” she practically spits out the last word.

“So you mean...”

“Yeah, even when it still existed, my reproductive system was totally stunted, ruined.”, the only weakness for Madame, she mentally recited, a shiver running down her spine.

Tony let out an exaggerated breath, trying to process everything he had just heard.

“So you’re saying that not only did you got pregnant, had the child of big guy right here and remember absolutely nothing, but his jurassic super soldier sperm also resisted what, your uninhabitable uterus?”, now he who sounded exasperated, running his eyes over the two of them in disbelief. Still with all the evidence in hand, what were the odds?!

“Pretty much.”, she cleared her throat quietly, Tony almost laughing at her casual facade. Steve had not taken his eyes off her for a single second.

When Nat looked at him again, her expression disarmed minimally, but she still had her body turned in an opposite position.

“I swear I didn’t know, Steve, I would never have traveled without talking to you, had I suspected it,” he too feels his throat suddenly feel too dry, and of course she wouldn’t suspect, after all it was impossible.

But she doesn’t linger on explanations. “It’s not an unusual method, at the time I just assumed that the tests or whatever they did on me during the time I was there had damaged the organ which was already unhealthy, I didn’t feel any physical remnants for a long time.”

Rogers stares at her for a few more minutes.

“We can do more tests, right? Examinations with recent samples, I say.”, Tony shakes his head appeasingly, Nat automatically stands up following the two. They don’t even exchange a word on the way to the Compound’s hospital wing.

The pickup is quick, saliva, hair and blood, a small room smelling of ether awaited them next, the waiting time was shorter than expected. The result was showing in Steve’s eyes and he still couldn’t compartmentalize It. In his head Tony’s voice continued to inform him of the 99.99% accuracy of these types of genetic compatibility tests.

Still in silence, they follow Doctor Cho into a sort of anteroom, in front of which, what initially appears to be a window of glass going from one end of the chamber to the other, is actually revealed to be a double-sided mirror.

On the other side, a room with light walls and beige seahorse paper, a little girl is sitting on a hospital bed, the side bars are up but it still seems too tall for someone her size. They didn’t even know that the place had a full children’s ward, but being Tony, they shouldn’t have been surprised.

And she is so small.

Steve steps forward and Natasha eagerly watches the frail fingers trying to balance the colored wooden blocks without much success, she wears a paper shirt that is at least twenty times her physical size, wires come out of the collar and sleeves towards nearby appliances, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Now bathed, the coloring of her hair matches the dim lights of the room, a light copper tone with a golden tinge. The child’s face is low, but her outstretched feet are past the rough bar of her clothing, and she wiggles her fingers now and then as she tries to concentrate.

“We are only monitoring her for now,” Cho assures them as she returns to the room. Tony was bringing her up to speed on the rest of the situation, probably. They watch together, the girl now tries to lift one of the heavier blocks, this time scarlet tendrils weakly wrap around her palms, but she doesn’t complete the action.

“She’s exhausted.”, it is Natasha who speaks the obvious, turning to the other woman. Cho gives a sad smile in response.

“She has overstepped her own boundaries for the past few hours, yes. We’ve tried to get her to rest more, but the blocks seem to calm her down.” she looks at the glass again before continuing. “She is especially fearful when seeing people in lab coats, but overall she has been quiet and withdrawn, obedient.” the last word resonates in Natasha’s mind with a bitter echo “We think Strucker was making her train her motor skills that way to make her gain more control, it’s a familiar comfort to her.”, she shows them a clipboard with signatures and medical results, Natasha tries to read one thing or another, but Steve continues to stare straight ahead.

“She’s extremely malnourished for her age, and has a severe iron and vitamin D deficiency, primarily.” her pale skin practically camouflages itself to the thin sheets beneath her. “We are hydrating and administering supplements, for now, but she refuses to eat, if this continues for too long, unfortunately we will have to try a tube.”, her tone is apologetic, but effective.

“Her powers are altogether unpredictable, but they seem to have their core connected to her emotional. I have taken the liberty of contacting Doctor Banner about the case.”, Steve quietly acquiesces. “As far as we could tell she has above average intelligence for a child who is still practically a toddler and her english seems surprisingly fluent for someone who has always lived in Novi Grad. We still don’t know exactly what kinds of tests were done with Hydra or the extent of the psychological damage that may have been done, but that is most likely all she knows of herself, we intuit that she had never left the facility in Sokovia.” A thin chuckle startles them, but as soon as it comes, it disappears, all the blocks remain standing in a single tower of over six foot, enveloped by a faint layer of crimson, which soon leaves them gently, causing a shower of toys to fall onto the mattress. Wanda laughs more quietly, but still puts the blocks together again, now touching them directly.

The three remain mesmerized by her actions for a few more moments, before Steve has the word again.

“What about physical remnants, from her time there?”, Cho stares at them impassively for a moment, but a quiet smile breaks out across her normally serene face. “She doesn’t seem to have suffered any physical ordeals other than theoretically purely emotional punishments.”, she pauses briefly before continuing. “I believe starvation was their biggest asset, since it would be the most basic mode of blackmail that a child of this mental maturity could keep up with, but she didn’t seem to particularly like the dark during our tests, so while that’s a response corresponding to anyone in the same age group I wouldn’t rule that out either.”

Cho then leaves them alone, and the only sound continues to be that of the wooden blocks. Wanda shakes them and grabs them in the air, though her fists seem shaky during such actions.

They continue to stare at her, eventually she tires of the blocks and sets them aside, she stretches a thin white arm across the railing and a large stuffed giraffe appears in her lap, she leans on the pillows that practically swallow her, the animal clinging to her face and her long hair falling over the sheets that she pulls with some difficulty over her body.

“So she doesn’t seem real to you either, does she?”, Natasha tries to sound light, but a lump seems to clog her chest.

“Not a bit.”, he turns his face to try to get a better look at the features that the little girl covers up with the toy, to no avail.

Chapter 2: Gan Choinne

Chapter Text

“For the time being we have chosen not to perform invasive procedures beyond what is necessary, but she is responding as expected.”, the doctor had them reassembled in Tony’s office, who was also participating in the brief meeting. “As I said before, Doctor Banner has agreed to monitor her closely, but I would also suggest psychological follow-up, as soon as the damage of life in captivity is better studied.”, Tony shook his head in agreement and Steve peered at the window thoughtfully. Natasha mentally went over the image of the child snoring on the other side of the glass.

“She’s been tested as an enhanced human, no doubt about it, but we’re still not sure at what age the chemical exposure tests started.”, Cho shows the two a few more scans, it’s quite a lot.

“Which means that whatever these powers she acquired through the mind stone are, her super-developed organism sure helped the outcropping and the thresholds are basically non-existent for the parameters that were set.”, Tony takes a sip of coffee as he watches them thoughtfully.

“So it’s not known exactly what she’s capable of?”, Steve and Natasha looked at the doctor for answers.

“To be fair, we’ve done very few tests so far given her delicate situation. Mental stimulation and more detailed examinations should be done in the near future, but as I said, for now the most we can do is to improve her health. A CT scan could only mean more stress for her at the moment.”, they didn’t lose her evasive tone, but they knew she was right about that.

“What about Sam? He’s a licensed therapist, right? We can talk to him before going to a specialist.”, Nat speaks to everyone, but it is on Steve that her eyes fall with the final suggestion. The two of them had not even been alone to talk about everything that had happened, but decisions needed to be made now, there was no time to waste.

Steve confirms in silence, Sam was extremely trustworthy and he didn’t know how he felt exposing that whole situation to a stranger, albeit a professional one.

“Well, I think that’s it for now, I need to check a few more things, but her condition is pretty stable. I’ll let you know if there are any changes.”, she sets toward the door.

“Thanks, doc!”, Tony speaks with his mouth full as Cho waves from the hallway, he offers a bite of the sandwich to the other two, but they both refuse.

“So, it looks like we now need to deal with some good old bureaucracy, huh? Who would’ve thought, me being Black Widow’s go-between?”, she shoots him a look and his smile lessens, though not by much.

There are more papers on his desk and Tony carefully pushes the snack away before wiping his hands on a napkin with a restaurant logo on it.

“Well, I don’t know exactly what you intend to do from here on out, but I’ve taken some steps assuming you don’t intend to send the girl to foster care.” he glances at them quickly before flipping again through the papers he has with him. “Normally there would be a petition for judicial custody and all that stuff. You would have to attend an evidentiary court with the child’s papers and of course, you would have to notify the birth parents.”, he raises his eyebrows showing them a minute clause from the small stack of papers he has organized.

“When did you have time to spruce all this up?”, Steve stares in amazement at the copy passed to him. Nat carefully assesses what is written on the dotted lines.

Tony makes an unassuming gesture with one of his hands.

“I’ve spoken with my lawyers briefly, but it’s going to be something mild for what you have in conjuncture. You won’t have to attend custody hearings or comply with strict court orders, and by signing these papers you’ll have provisional custody of Wanda for the time being, but there’s still a catch.”

“What would that be?”, Nat closes the documents to stare at him. Tony makes a funny motion with his head.

“She has no documentation of any kind, or even record in the formal Hydra archives we have gathered outside a file with just a date of birth and an identification number. So technically, little red didn’t even exist for the Sokovian government.”, Nat ignores the nickname, but understands well what he’s getting at.

“And she needs them urgently to get her citizenship certificate.”, Tony confirms before amending her line.

“That’s right, my dear Natashalie.” Steve shoots him an odd look. “Although she is biologically yours, her citizenship depends solely on making that parentage official in a legal way, without documents there’s no custody, and without custody she will not be seen as a citizen of the United States of America. Ironic, eh Cap?”, he gives a wink to Rogers, who just rolls his eyes at the teasing.

“And again, I have no idea what whirlwind is going through your heads at the moment, and I know I’m probably not helping matters by rushing you, but I’m sure you don’t intend to leave her at the mercy of the government. You can’t know what they would do to her in the foster care system, or even Ross and the others if they could get their hands on a child with the abilities she has. For all I know, they could very well lock her up in another military facility for the rest of her life or even worse.”, Steve remains rigid in his position, Tony doesn’t finish his posting, but he doesn’t have to. Wanda had been created as a weapon from the beginning, it would be no surprise if as a weapon she was also eliminated.

They remain silent again, Tony takes that as a yes and continues to dump more documents towards them.

The birth registration papers stared at them. Tony lingered a few more moments before also leaving them alone.

“I need to talk to Pepper, send me everything as soon as you’re ready.”, he lays a hand discreetly on the back of Natasha’s chair before leaving, closing the door behind him without a sound.

The day seems full with barely filled silences, but that one is especially uncomfortable. They had never, not even once, talked about what had happened more than almost five years ago, but now, it really did seem like an inevitable event. They just didn’t know yet who would be the first to rip that band-aid off.

Maybe it’s because he seemed to be the most affected by the initial news, but Steve finds himself poking the elephant in the room.

“I tought you were going to call me back the next morning.”, a sound of breathless looseness comes from her mouth, and a weak laugh washes her features at his attempt. Natasha continues with her arms close to her body, as if in a position of defense.

“How insensitive of me, to abandon you and walk barefoot out into the early hours of the morning.”, she contributes as well, even though they knew that the final scenario of that night could not have been more different.

Not only did they not exactly sleep together, and that is precisely the word one wants to use since the verb correctly presupposes that they would have been unconscious and together during those hours between midnight and noon, which of course, did not happen. Yes, they were together the whole time, but very conscious.

At daybreak, when sweat still bathed them and the muggy summer air came in through the wide-opened window of Steve’s old apartment, they lay there, eventually with their eyes closed, but never really unconscious. The dim light glinted off the tangle of sheets and leg mess that had dawned on the captain’s bed. They looked at each other later, still no words spoken, but there was a certain calmness in the air, the racing pulse had been left behind and now Natasha felt as if her own body disconnected from her, a strange tingling flooded as she looked into his clear eyes, a shiver that came from the soles of her feet and ended only at the scalp. And Steve was also analyzing her in the paired lighting, a sea of red fell over his arm and he felt himself getting lost in the tropical scent that came from it.

Eventually, like the pumpkin at the stroke of twelve, morning not night, the spell was broken. They parted as if in an interrupted trance and in a swift action she bent down to give him one last kiss before disappearing for over a year.

“You have to admit that your next assignment was rather convenient.”, Nat just stares at him with a neutral face, her mind going over once again, in what would be the thirtieth in recent years, the moments leading up to the thing.

It was the last week of the month and the two were out together for a belated celebration around Manhattan, or so they said. Steve’s birthday had been twenty-two days ago and Nat dragged him to a string of bars and delicatessens after a taco cart in the middle of the street. No need to unwind much from there, the drive to his house and a few more bottles of Busch Lighter took their toll.

Classy.

Nat grunts low between her teeth as she remembers the bitter taste of the drink. Steve shakes the folder in his hands.

“That’s the luck of the Irish.”, and it may have only been the clumsy tone of his voice, or even because he had actually attempted a galloping accent for her, but an uncontrollable giggle erupted and she needed a few more minutes to control herself. Steve gave an almost relaxed smile as he watched her disarmingly.

“So much for a dozen cheap beers.” he joins her in laughter for a moment. Nat wipes her eyes before continuing.

“So much for a 94th birthday, I’d say. You know what, I really think you’re the world’s oldest new parent ever, after all. Charlie Chaplin was what when his youngest kid was born, about 73 years old?”, she grimaces as if trying to remember the veracity of the information. “The Guinness book has never seen anything like it.”

“Ha ha ha.”, he turns a page with a falsely delighted countenance and she returns it with a debauched smile.

And that’s basically all the confrontation they can handle at the moment.

Later, not long after the brief conversation to nowhere in Stark’s living room, Cho guides them again to the infirmary. This time they watch her enter the same room as the girl, she cringes visibly at the sound of the door’s trunk and again drops whatever she had in hand to collect herself to the end of the bed, her legs disappearing over the hospital gown and she rests her chin on her covered knees. A curtain of light hair surrounds her and she keeps her head turned down throughout the brief conversation with the doctor. On the other side, they can’t make out what Cho is muttering quietly with her back to the glass, but the girl nods, her hands hidden throughout, pressed against her torso.

She signals to them and the door opens once more, Wanda does not move, she seems to be waiting for something. Cho rises from her crouched position next to the bed and looks at them once more before leaving towards the precinct, they wait for the sound of the other door as well before advancing cautiously towards her.

Natasha seems more afraid to go straight to the child, but Steve stands at the foot of the bed, far enough away not to frighten her further. It’s even more surreal to be on the other side of the mirror, the room is smaller than it looks and the blinds on the only window are kept fully closed, probably so as not to hurt her unaccustomed eyes.

“Hi, Wanda, I don’t know if you remember us. I’m Steve and this is Natasha, we met yesterday.”, she doesn’t move right away, but her head gives a very slight boost before a thin little voice sounds clearly.

“Hi.”

Natasha has the impression of seeing a faint pinkish glare obstructed by the sheets; she knows the girl is fully alert to them.

But still, she is too exhausted and her resources sufficiently spent for this to be more than a fatuous flicker, like that of a lamp with bad contact.

“Doctor Cho told us that you like to play with the blocks, especially the ones she brought earlier.”, at Natasha’s speech, the girl cranes her neck in her direction, a beam of her pale complexion glimmers through the still slightly tangled strands, and she shakes her head quickly in affirmation. Nat exchanges a glance with Steve before moving a little closer.

“We can bring more toys, if you want, more blocks even.”, he tries. She lifts her head now, and although a few wisps still intrude the full view of her face, her features are perfectly distinguishable beneath the fluorescent lights.

The first thing in sight was her button nose, as small and colorless as all of her seemed to be, there were faint freckles here and there, and her cheeks were not as chubby as those of a child of the same age group. However, her lips were slightly compressed and the almost translucent hairs of her eyebrows tightened in confusion. She was possessed of expressive, blue-green eyes, large and round and staring at them doubtfully.

“I have animal.”, her accent was not as heavy, but still prominent. She pointed with her little hand, now no longer glistening, the stuffed giraffe resting near Steve.

“Oh, okay, that’s a nice giraffe you have here, do you like it?”, she let out a louder ‘yes’ to his question, still looking as if she didn’t understand them. Although it was not the case of an language barrier, at least not a strong one, maybe she didn’t know some of the words, but apparently she understood them very well. They did not speak to each other again, but the joint effort was clear.

“And what is the name of your giraffe, Wanda?”, Natasha hardly knew what she was doing, but they needed to try. The little girl looked at the plush and then at her, her gaze curious and confused.

“Imya?”, she tried again, pointing at the giraffe. Wanda’s eyes widened for a moment, but she promptly responded as a nod in the negative.

“Too bad, you know, everyone needs a name.”, Nat noted the little girl’s attentive expression as she listened to her, Steve just participated passively as she carefully picked up the plush toy.

A tentative smile formed on her face and she deposited the nameless giraffe near the girl’s thread-filled arm. A squint and she could see the naturally bounced skin on the delicate forearm, probably the result of several needles.

“Do you want to name her, Wanda?”, Steve encouraged her. She looked from him to the lying animal now on her lap.

“I have name.”, she says as if in extraordinary realization and looks at the two of them in diminished expectation.

“Yes, you do, beautiful name.”, Natasha is surprised by the unsure sketch on her face. A small smile from the child, an itching sensation assaults her chest and she searches for what to say next.

“Pietro say Wanda.”, she lowers her eyes again to the toy, a co*cked index finger running past the brown and pink painted ears. The realization hits Steve and when he turns Natasha is already looking at him, with the same look of surprise he must also show.

Of course, she had no papers or legal identification of any kind, the name could not have come from one of her former caregivers who treated her like a lab rat.

“Pietro like blocks, play with blocks. Play with Wanda.”, she speaks in low volume, as if only to herself, still looking at the giraffe. It sounded more like a mantra, a trained phrase.

So apparently Pietro had also taught her english, after all, it made sense. They hadn’t sought to find out much about the boy yet, although surely Tony already had the entire dossier on the deceased teenager, he couldn’t have been older than 16.

“Brown.”, she hums even lower, and they remain quiet as she faces them again. “Brown.”, she points to the giraffe just as Nat had done, informing them.

“Her name is Brown?”, she smiles again, now in response to Steve, bringing the giraffe to her chest. Small progress.

A few minutes later, she was comfortable enough not to hold back so much when Natasha sat down at the end of the bed and Steve pulled a chair close, in his hands the toy box with the few things she now owned, she combed her new friend’s artificial mane with her fingers and let Steve show her how to build a small wall with the blocks. Now they separated them by color and she had a small pile of yellowish pieces near her legs, crossed in yoga position.

Now that they were face to face and the girl could stay more unarmed, Natasha allowed herself to really see her features in more detail. Her face seemed softened, yet delicate, her baby features remained prominent, though one could sense that she would have an elongated countenance when older, her eyebrows were indeed as coppery as her hair, and she had straight, square little teeth showing. A mole at the base of the neck and ears with attached earlobes.

She definitely resembled Steve, Nat wondered to herself looking from one to the other. The same cheekbones and the same chin. Steve had a big mole too, didn’t he? But his was further south if she remembered...

She is caught from her brief distraction when Wanda deposits all the orange blocks near her lap, still not looking at her. Her little hand brushes against hers and the girl startles, but goes back to doing the same as before when she sees that there is no scolding of any kind from the woman.

Steve, in turn, imitates the little girl’s actions and helps her assemble the next color-coordinated piles. She doesn’t flinch in doing so and doesn’t even pay much attention to him, but it’s nice to see her a bit more relaxed. He intently follows her greenish eyes, and the glances she casts from time to time in his direction are always encouraged with a friendly, albeit restrained, smile. The concentrated expression on her face is almost funny to be so familiar, but she does not remain serious more than just distracted by the objects.

The second pair of the same shade watching him at the same time are not equally staring, but carry different weight. He pretends not to notice that she looks at him without saying anything.

After the playtime has passed, Doctor Cho returns knocking on the door again. Wanda averts her eyes to her, but doesn’t seem particularly bothered by her presence, at least not more than usual. The doctor was always careful to appear in neutral clothing for her.

“Good evening, Wanda, I’ve come to see if you’re ready for what we agreed upon.”, with an encouragement she approaches and rests her arms in front of her body. The girl looks down sullenly and utters nothing more.

At once Steve is not sure if the girl understands what Cho is talking about, but when he looks at her more closely he realizes that she must premeditate what this is all about.

“What’s going on?”, but is Natasha who sounds inquisitive, albeit in a veiled way. In her mind she knew that more tests would not be done, but her posture did not relax anyway.

Cho wasn’t the only one who noticed her hesitation, but her response was much quieter.

“Time for her to feed.”, Natasha blinks once, as if processing such information. Surely she didn’t mean the feeding tube, at least not yet. “She hasn’t accepted anything so far, she really resists whatever food solution we’re trying to get her admitted for protein replacement.”

Nat understood well what it meant, soon the girl would become even weaker and they couldn’t risk it any further. Even with the improved DNA, her immune system was already compromised. Cho left again, saying she wouldn’t be more than a few minutes.

“You want to get out of here, don’t you, Wanda?”, she nodded more despondently to Steve. “You need to eat to get out.”, she made a nonchalant face at him, still fiddling with the toys. Natasha wasn’t too sure if this kind of bribery was advisable, but who knows, it might be an effective technique to keep her from an empty stomach.

The doctor’s return was accompanied by the arrival of a tray with a small variety of food, on the plate a few slices of orange stood out next to a portion of ground beef mixed with what appeared to be beans and chickpeas. Beside it a tall cup with a straw and purplish liquid, all utensils made of plastic or paper. Cho deposited the dinner in the extendable holder and the girl promptly sealed her mouth and stepped away, her fists clenched and whitish.

She looked confused as she saw the doctor’s figure turning her back on her, she had not been aware of the silent agreement between the adults.

“Come on, Wanda, don’t you even want to try?”, Steve tried to encourage her as he pushed the cup minimally to the end of the tray, but the girl just nods ‘no’. She props her hands up on her elbows, and they vanish into the giant sleeve of her clothes.

“You’ll get out of here later, you can eat.”, she tries to sound kind to the reluctant child, assuming that perhaps she was afraid to eat what was given to her by strangers. They watch her eyes flood with unshed tears, but wait a little longer before insisting again. Both internally panicked, he had never before interacted with kids directly and her experience amounted to sporadic visits to Clint’s children, but which never evolved to dealing with crying or tantrums. For that there were their parents.

“Pietro.”, a small sob makes her chest jump, but she doesn’t want to look at them directly.

“Pietro?”, Steve repeats the boy’s name and she looks at him with a wet little face. Her eyes accessing him as if she has never before heard another person speak his name. She shakes her head.

“Pietro eat too.”

Steve swallows dryly, looking directly into those vivid globes. He goes mute. Natasha watches the scene and catches the girl’s eye once again.

“Pietro eats too.”, Natasha assures, she also shakes her head and raises her hand to the untouched plate. The girl looks at her appearing less distressed, but no more inclined to feed. Natasha knows that kind of determination, but seeing it on the face of such a young child makes the emptiness that much more bittersweet and the memories that much more fierce.

Deliberately, she separates the food into two portions, so that at one corner of the plate the meat and three of the six orange thins remain separate. Wanda pays attention to every movement, missing nothing.

“Pietro.”, Nat points out to the food separated in the corner and in a slightly more spread out portion to disguise the smaller amount. “Wanda.”, she points to what’s left in the center.

The relieved smile the kid wears as she finally accepts the first spoonful is heartbreaking.

Steve almost recoils at the look of pure adoration she directs at Natasha after her feat, firmly believing that she would take the food to the other child; dead. He tries to focus less on the methods and more on the spoonfuls she now takes, chewing quietly and waiting for Nat to take the next one to her mouth, both her hands now resting. She lifted one of them half-weakly, scratching her tearful eyes and therefore wet eyelashes. A reddish spot had appeared on her fair skin where she had tried to rub it.

They knew, in theory, that she had been starving, but it was different to see the effects that that kind of life had on her behavior. There was a type of desolation, of pain that no one should, deserved to go through. It was inhuman.

Natasha remained noticeably more restrained as she helped her, but anger also simmered in her gut and she tried for the moment to stick to the present. Cho clearly had not succeeded in gathering such information from her, but this was probably due to the fact that Wanda didn't trust doctors.

After eating her portion of meat and grains, she timidly moved on to the fruit, but perhaps they were too acidic, she didn't finish eating them. The liquid that looked from afar to be grape actually turned out to be beet juice, and Steve only discovered this because she had fumbled with the surprisingly heavy plastic and spilled a little over the retractable table. He moved it away from the small puddle that had remained, wiping the bottom with his own hand and helping her hold it, she still seemed unaccustomed to the lack of punishment, perhaps. But she accepted it gladly after he adjusted the straw in her mouth, she held it with both hands and drank greedily.

Someone from the team must have been cooking, since although it was complete the hospital wing of the place was nothing more than that, an extra area, located on a different floor from their rooms. Cho and her team would probably leave again as soon as she was discharged. Maybe that was Sam's or even Tony’s food, who were the only others, along with Bucky, in the Compound. Vision was taking care of something for Stark out of town as usual and even then hardly stayed with them, Bruce was on his way and Clint had gone directly to the farm after making sure of the girl's condition, Nat had not yet had time to inform him of anything. Oh, and Thor had needed to get back to Asgard, obviously.

She falls asleep, simply rolls over onto the sheets, finally allowing herself to succumb to exhaustion. The toys still scattered near her. Steve collects the things while Natasha covers her. The two leave without saying goodbye to Cho, who awaits them after the antechamber.

It is seven o'clock in the evening when they reach the living room on the first floor. Where the other three are waiting for them in different positions. He goes to the kitchen briefly to throw out what is left of Wanda's dinner, his stomach clutching as he completes such actions.

Sam and Bucky ask no questions when he returns, Tony crosses his path to the kitchen after depositing a pat on his back. Nat is nowhere in sight and he knows exactly where to find her.

The smaller training room was always the one she liked to go to the most, not only because it was the least frequented by the others, but also because it was where she had the shooting stand.

Steve leaned against the threshold as he watched her unload the gun at the target in human silhouette across the room. That went on for another ten minutes, maybe. She removes her protective headset and deposits it anyway before sitting down on the floor, her back to the platform. Only then does she look at him directly, he doesn't know where to put his own hands and ponders leaving to gIve some time alone, not even knowing exactly why he went after her when he had nothing in particular to talk about at the moment.

But she overtakes him in this, and the words come out before she even has control over it.

"He was doing it for her, the boy." Natasha continues with the gun in hand, unloaded. Steve knew she needed it sometimes, didn't judge her, he better than anyone understood about the need to stick firmly to the faintest center of normalcy around.

"Probably found a way to pass food to her when he could, when she was left without it."

Steve doesn't respond to this, he doesn't need to. She is now lost in her own ghosts, disturbed by the ones that had just been unearthed.

She didn't know, didn't understand that he was really gone, how could she. She was only four years old, holy sh*t.

Natasha emerged from her thoughts, before the very memories of sharing and hiding food next to another tiny figure could drown her. Rising and heading for the door without looking back, empty-handed.

They ate in a hurry, before returning to the hospital wing and being approached.

Cho listened to their account of the child's apparent lack of appetite, at least this could be taken as half solved, apparently. She also had a slight case of dehydration, but nothing that could not be solved, and the doctor informed them that Bruce would arrive the next morning, so she would probably discharge Wanda the next day. They thank her and proceed to the room.

The lights remain dimmed but not totally extinguished, as the doctor had talked about. The little one is curled up in herself and breaths deeply. It didn't look like she would be waking up so soon, but they make no effort to get out of there. There is a narrow couch near a closed door and the two sit on opposite sides, facing each other and a good distance apart.

They had their paperwork with them and pens at the ready, communicating in whispers.

“We should pick a middle name for her.”, she appraised her own copies before turning her gaze back to him. “Any ideas in mind?”, Steve squeezed his eyes shut in the semi-darkness.

“I don’t know, Josie? Sheila? Gwendolyn?”, Nat made a brief grimace of displeasure. He tried to think harder.

“How about Rhonda?”, Nat tried not to find it amusing from the list of names he selected, all the most popular in the 1940s.

“Wanda Rhonda?”, she let out a snort.

“What?”, he frowned in confusion.

“Are you serious?”, Steve threw her an innocent look. “Okay, try saying it six times repeatedly without pausing.” he did so still begrudgingly, to her delight.

“All right, I don’t know what you have against a great stage name, but please go ahead.” he grimaced.

“Maybe something classic, I don’t know, a safe choice like Mary or Elizabeth.” she suggests. Steve sniffles once thoughtfully.

“I like Elizabeth.”

“Then that’s it.”

It had been one less thing to settle, though by no means the last. For the last name was the subject of a slightly more heated discussion, with her saying it should be ‘Romanov-Rogers’ and him claiming that ‘Rogers-Romanov’ sounded much better with the rest. The standoff finally ended when Steve claimed that she had had the veto and the final choice on the other name. Nat thought about reluctantly, but in the end gave in to him.

There was not much more to talk about for the rest of the evening, and the sound of pens going through paper was the last thing to be heard before. It goes without saying that they didn’t get the slightest bit of sleep for the rest of the night. They stayed awake and together for much of it. It was a lot to take in.

Chapter 3: Встреча

Chapter Text

Tony had long since collected the completed paperwork when Wanda was released by Cho, yet she was still fast asleep. They momentarily pondered waking her up, undecided and completely lost. Steve ended up carrying her wrapped in a blanket brought by Natasha.

They eventually carried her to the spy’s room, where the girl continued to sleep soundly. He carefully placed her in the middle of the bed, still disconcerted by her lightness. They stood watching her breathe in and out rhythmically.

All right...

What were they doing now?

They both looked at her as if she would disappear between blinks. Hell yeah, they really had a child to take care of.

“We should let her rest, not rush things, I say.”, but Steve didn’t know exactly where to start things. None of them, in absolutely every way.

“Probably.”, she agrees. “But eventually we have to introduce her to the others, socialize her.”, obviously they would also need to think about how to handle her powers, she would definitely need some sort of training.

Silence.

“She’s tiny.”

“So tiny.”

“And do you think she’ll adapt?”, Nat is reluctant to answer that question right away, mostly because she knows what he truly wants to know, for it is the same uncertainty that is practically chewing her alive at the moment. Will we adapt?

Steve takes a deep breath.

“I think she’ll try.”, she says to the sleeping profile that lies on her mattress. “She doesn’t have a choice.”, he casts a quick glance at her, but Nat no longer faces the bed with the same dry hardness.

He goes to his own room while Nat watches her sleep, it has not fully dawned yet and usually he would be returning from a run at such an hour. His quarters are coincidentally at the end of the same corridor and he can hear the murmurs before even turning the knob. God, he just wanted a hot bath.

Bucky flashes a smug smile as he fiddles distractedly with the buttons on the television and Sam, sitting in the old armchair that belonged to the old Brooklyn apartment, stops immediately from whispering whatever it was that had made him react that way. Steve closes the door slowly and unceremoniously takes off his shirt on his way to the bathroom, grabbing something from the closet and walking away, the two continue to stare at him in anticipation, but he deliberately ignores them. The shower does not completely drown out what is coming from the other room.

When he comes back fully dressed and still wiping his hair on the towel, the two friends are waiting for him, sitting on the bed next to each other, arms crossed and expressions of intervention writed on their faces.

“Have you guys ever heard of knocking? Do you know the meaning of personal space by any chance?”, he tosses the towel in their direction and Wilson promptly grabs it before it hits him.

“I knew there was something behind all this tension between you and Nat.”, he laughs weakly.

“Tension? What are you talking about? I’m not tense, in fact, if I relaxed any more I’d be dead.”, Bucky grimaces before grabbing the towel from Sam’s hands and throwing it back in Steve’s face in retaliation.

“You are so full of sh*t, Steven! How many times have I asked you if something was going on between you and Romanov and your answer was a resounding no?”, Steve deflects the aggression, but catches Barnes’ pretentious look.

“And I didn’t lie to you, James.”, Bucky makes a sound of disgust at his own name, but Steve pays him no attention.

Sam narrows his eyes, thoughtfully. One of his hands resting theatrically under his chin.

“Yep, pretty sure you just let it slip that four years ago something really happened.”, he reflects.

“And that you two have a whole ass child together!”, Bucky looks completely in shock at himself.

“But they didn’t know that either.”, Sam ponders with a laugh.

“Still.”, he relents. “Then you say I’m the one who reads too much into things.”, he speaks to Sam. “But there’s the little girl to prove my point.”

“By all that is most holy, Bucky, what is that point?”, Steve is hanging by a thread, his patience with his friend’s theories and machinations were nearing their end.

“The point, ma boy Stevie, is very simple in fact.”, a even more smug smile adorned his face and he regarded him expectantly. “You still have feelings for her.”, Sam raised his eyebrows and looked at them interested.

“You truly don’t have anything better to do, do you?”, Bucky doesn’t lose his knowing tone even with the crossed answer.

“Better than following the Mexican soap opera that has become your whole life? You can bet your cute little beanies i don't!”, he turns away to pick up the TV control again, it didn’t matter that his room was exactly the same way, with a TV of the same quality and with the same channels and streaming services, he always ended up invading Steve’s. “But for now I’ll let the dust settle, that is, until you guys work it out and I’m right all along.”, Sam looks at him with a trapped laugh and shakes his head condescendingly.

“How is she?”, Wilson ignores the other.

“Which one of the two?”, Steve drops himself into the unoccupied armchair, his body normally could stand to keep up on days of less than four hours of sleep, but the last few were proving especially challenging.

“I take it you haven’t told Wanda anything, so I mean Natasha.”, with Sam’s speech, Bucky resurfaces with a confused complexion.

“You didn’t tell the girl you are her father?! what are you going to do?”

“I can’t just walk up to a 4-year-old who barely knows me and say something like that, you moron.” he relents.

Bucky just stares at him expressionlessly. Sometimes it was mind-boggling how obtuse he could be. He meant well, at least.

“Okay, you have the emotional depth of a rock. I’m serious, get help.”, Sam addresses Bucky who just shrugs. “And you, you didn’t answer my question.”, Steve looks for exactly what to say to express the confusion inhabiting his head.

“I don’t know! She seemed... Conformed?”, he massages his own temples.

“Ouch.”, Bucky sounds, but Sam watches him cautiously.

“Is she the one who’s resigned or is it you who still can’t believe it?”, probably both, Steve thought, but didn’t speak at the moment.

“I don’t know, but it’s just that she always seems to be so in control of the situation, always calm, collected. You guys had to have seen when Tony talked about the DNA test, I practically had a nervous breakdown and she just blinked and asked the girl’s age, just like that! like she was asking about the weather on the next evening.", he complains in a restrained tone.

“And I’m the hopeless one.”, the others turn to the winter soldier again, his expression was somewhat incredulous, though not so serious. “Steve, you seem to forget about Nat’s background when it suits you well, buddy. She was bred to disguise and anticipate emotions, to calculate, maybe she doesn’t even realize the way she does that.”, Steve goes over his words quietly.

“Surprisingly so, Steve, the iceberg man here is absolutely right. Even people without trauma have different emotional responses to these types of shocks, she clearly has it as second nature to be a bit more stoic when in need.”, Rogers studies in detail the meaning of what he speaks.

“So you think she’s just repressing everything all the time.”, Sam craned his head slightly.

“Not exactly, she’s been conditioned to act like that, she may as well feel that way because that’s what she has as known. It’s safe.”, Steve gives more pause to absorb that. Bucky grumbles.

“When normal conversations turn into therapy time it’s always wise to stop talking.”, he gets up from the bed with a jump, almost at the same time a serene voice emanates through the room.

“Captain Rogers, Ms. Romanov requires your presence in her quarters, urgently.”, Friday’s voice echoes off the walls.

Steve practically leaps toward the door, already foreseeing the worst. Whatever it is. The remnants in his own room try to say something, but he is already outside.

The scene he found when he reached Natasha’s wide-open door, however, was not exactly expected.

Nat looked strangely at his alarmed countenance. There was no emergency, at least not an obvious one. Wanda had woken up, you could tell, she was looking at them with frightened eyes and hidden hands. She still had sleep marks on her face and was clearly trying to understand the sudden change of environment.

“What happened?”, he looked from one to the other, trying to catch some major recent event.

“She woke up.”, Nat frowned as if that was more than the obvious and it wasn’t that she just claimed an emergency for absolutely nothing. He thought best to let it go for now.

“Good morning, Wanda, did you have a good sleep?”, he tried to employ a tender tone in saying it, but the girl just looked down, irresponsive. Strange, she was much more talkative the night before.

“She’s asking for Pietro.”, she speaks in a hissing whisper moving closer to him. Of course, they still needed to decide how to proceed about that as well.

Steve took a few more steps before finding himself beside the child again, she looked up in anticipation when she saw him kneeling by the bed.

“I know you miss Pietro, that’s it, isn’t it? You miss him.”, she doesn’t answer, but that doesn’t surprise him, she seemed to be quite attentive to everything. “I’m very sorry, Wanda.”, the kid opened her mouth as if to say something else, but quickly closed it as she understood the condoling tone.

“Pietro went somewhere a little far away and he’s going to have to stay there from now on.”, lying to the girl seemed more than wrong, but they weren’t prepared, all three of them, to talk about something so complicated like that.

“He loves you very much, but he had to go.”, how do you even explain death as a euphemism for an infant? Steve would really appreciate to know.

“Had to go?”, she repeats the words without much certainty that she understands it perfectly, he can tell.

“Yes.”, he expects her to sputter or her hands and eyes to take on a reddish tint like when she was found right before the city fell from the sky, but she only sniffles once, before lowering her face again. The sobs are louder than those of the day before, and she makes no effort to wipe away the tears that soon bathe her entire front.

Great. He had barely started and was already going in a crazy down raze as a guardian.

Wanda didn’t want to look at them anymore, but she didn’t make any big fuss either. She just kept crying, copiously and silently. Painfully weeping her eyes out.

Natasha didn’t know how to handle it much better than him, but they needed to act, so she resolved to pick it up from where Steve had started.

“Why don’t you go downstairs and make her something to eat?”, she knew that he was feeling extremely bad about the situation, guilty as well. Steve didn’t talk much about the burden of being the captain of the team, even if it was at odds with his extreme aptitude for leadership. He clearly blamed himself for letting the boy fight alongside them.

“Are you sure?”, he remained in the same place, still ducking. She nodded only with a discreet movement of her head before he left reluctantly.

Natasha moves to close the door behind him and feels Wanda following her with her gaze. As she turns around the girl is looking at her still in tears, although focusing directly at her face the woman notices it’s more due to accumulated stress than anything else. Her life had turned upside down too, after all.

“Are you hungry?”, Wanda shakes her head shyly to signal no, but Natasha knows it’s a lie, she noticed her slight startle at hearing her mention food earlier. “So how about a bath, huh?”, she didn’t move away as Romanov came near the bed and when the Black Widow got close enough to touch her, the wee one finally uplifted her tearful face to the adult. In a customary motion, Nat extended her arms toward her, in the same way as she had done several times with Cooper and Lila since they were babies. Wanda looked confused for only a moment before she too raised hers, allowing herself to be hoisted.

Already in her bathroom, she continued to hold the little girl curled up on her hip as she prepared the tub, she herself hardly ever stopped using the shower to fill it, but for Wanda it would be perfect. Small, icy hands went around her neck and she could feel the child's heart beating anxiously almost glued to her chest.

Placing her on the lined floor beside the tub, she made sure to move slowly enough and very delicately removed the giant hospital vest by the girl’s head, before throwing the artifact in the trash. She examined the exposed skin on her ribs and the even more disconcerting pallor within that marble enclosure. She lifted her once more by the armpits after helping her sit to relieve herself, soon she was already being deposited carefully into the warm water.

She placed bubbles using some of the jasmine bath essence Laura had gifted her on her last birthday, Wanda moved her hands slowly through the floral smelling foam and appeared sufficiently distracted with the experience, she also didn’t seem to mind having her hair washed with some of the fruit-scented shampoo that rested near a shelf. Nat took a bath sponge that had never been used before to scrub the accumulated dirt thoroughly, doing so especially on her nails, a task for which she had to use a brush. She was careful not to get water in her ears as she made Wanda crane her neck backwards to remove all the hair product, her own hands serving as a gourd.

Soon they were back in the bedroom, Wanda now wrapped in a white, fluffy towel, once again in her arms. She was shivering a little, so Natasha hurried to dry her off, there were bags of clothes and some other things sent by Pepper, but they would need to shop urgently.

When Steve returns a few minutes later he finds her already properly dressed and combed on the couch across the large room, watching television. Nat goes into the bathroom to change as he deposits the tray and sits down beside her.

The vision is so mundane that he has to stop for a second to properly see it.

Her little eyes follow the movements of the animated characters extremely closely, and with one glance he recognizes the program as being ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’.

Bucky used to watch a lot of Nickelodeon sometimes...

“Hey, Wanda! I brought you some breakfast.”, she turns her attention to him, still looking delighted with the colors and the voices of the characters. She looks at her plate with interest, this time he also brought a glass of water next to the orange juice. Something about one always waking up already half dehydrated in the morning.

Steve cuts the pancakes while she watches him, before offering the cutlery so she can go for the food by herself. Wanda holds it loosely, but that was to be expected due to the sheer size of the object, for that matter, should he be giving her a fork? Was she even old enough for it? What about if she tore the roof of her mouth with that?

Slowly, her attention goes back to the program and she alternates looking at the cartoon and then at the fare beside her. The dress Nat had put on her was white with yellow embroidery, and he could already see her absently rubbing syrupy little hands on it.

Wanda was soon shaking her head and feet in rhythm with the opening of yet another episode, bright red sandals on, her legs fully stretched out and yet not reaching enough for dangling over the edge of the couch, she had two long braids meticulously intertwined all the way through, Steve remembered well seeing Natasha using all kinds of it when her hair eventually got longer.

When her bath (shower for that matter) was finally over, she found the man standing near her big bookcase, frowning and seeming to mutter something to himself.

“Snooping much?”, she approached slowly, to which he only responded with a funny twitch of his mouth.

“I had no idea your taste in books was this morbid.”, he makes mention of her copy of ‘The King In Yellow.’

She smiles softly at his confused expression, Steve couldn’t help but be outraged by certain things no matter how hard he tried. He was adorable most of the time, that is obviouslly when he wasn’t being a tad annoying because of it.

“Too bad they weren’t selling any more Sophie Kinsella when i went in.”, she satirizes. Steve moves so as to claim something else in the direction of ‘Dracula’, alongside ‘Something Wicked This way Comes’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw’.

A hight pitched laugh comes from the couch and they move around in time to see her still giggling at the scene.

They follow the rest of the episode still standing, just watching her watch Sponge Bob and his pink starfish friend making poor Squidward's life a hell on earth (sea). The loudest gurgle is surely when the scowling character falls into a vat of lava and then is thrown by a spring into a metal wall and falls onto a compressor belt with nails on it, before of course, being stretched and thrown like a cannonball at the horizon.

“These shows are really violent.”, Steve had never sat down to watch it, he always ended up in some old movie or horrible blockbuster recommended by someone on the team. They hear another chortle.

“She seems to like it.”, Nat wasn’t exactly a target audience for that sort of thing either, so it was also new to her too. Should they be worried about this? Wanda chuckled once again when an ‘x’ appeared in each of the character’s eyes. Steve was almost certain that the scene was intended to be of a sad tenor. He thought to himself looking from Nat to Wanda, both looking really amused.

“Your genes, I suppose.”, he gets a light slap on the arm. Wanda is still oblivious to their conversation, she now concentrically picks at the remaining blueberries on her plate. Natasha watched her calmly bring it to her mouth, whenever she saw this particular fruit the woman automatically remembered that Cooper, Clint and Laura’s oldest son, had a terrible allergic reaction when he first ate it.

“We should call Cho soon.”, she spoke suddenly. Scaring him. Once again.

“What! Why?”, Nat points with her chin to the girl sitting in front of them, whom is almost finished eating.

“I don’t remember her talking about whether she did any allergy testing on Wanda. We don’t know if she has any dietary restrictions.”, in other words, they didn’t know her.

“We can take her to the allergist, or Bruce can do it himself. By the way, he just arrived, said he’s expecting us at any time. I warned him about the lab coat.”, Steve agrees. Nat redirects her gaze to him, still somewhat lost in thought.

“Do you think it’s wise to take her right now?”, she asks. Steve also feels fearful, after all, the girl hardly seemed to trust even the two of them.

“I think the sooner we start introducing Wanda to her new reality the easier the adjustment will be.”, she knew that was probably true as well.

Soon after she finished eating, it was Steve who guided her to the bathroom sink to brush her teeth. A mini toothbrush was also among the provisions, Pepper had kindly taken care of it while they had to oblige to all that amounting paperwork.

He laughed when she grimaced at the taste of the toothpaste, who knows, maybe they should buy her a children’s brand, the ones that smelled like grapes and strawberries and that the dentists said didn’t make a bit of difference against cavities.

Steve tried to be gentle as he brushed It across her gums, by her curious reaction they were pretty sure that also that insignificant thread of humanity had been deprived of her. Wanda spat hard into the sink as he held her and stuck out her tongue, disgusted by the burning, foreign sensation.

“We have some friends who want to meet you, Wanda.”, they bend down to talk to her. She looks at them curiously, still unacostumed to this kind of accessing treatment. The affectionate term did not seem alien to her. “But only if you want to meet them, if you just want to stay here with us instead, that’s fine.”, he tried to give options but it was still very awkward to talk directly to her, he needed to remind himself all the time that Wanda's head didn’t work the same as a grown up’s (or Tony’s) did and that maybe she couldn’t even understand some of the things they were saying, whether it was because of the cultural barrier or her own age ability.

“Do you want to meet our friends, Wanda?”, Nat pulled one of the braids away from her shoulder and looked at her cautiously, yet kindly. As she almost always did, the girl merely confirmed in a non-verbal manner to them, so apparently she had understood it well. They walked to the elevator, she seemed to cringe with only the sight of the compacted space. Her heels parked abruptly and she squeezed hard on Steve’s hand, which was holding hers, a flash of panic pervaded her face.

“It’s okay, Wanda, it’s just the elevator.”, he wanted to reassure her, but she just tried to pull her hand away. Nat stared at them. “It’s okay, honey, we’ll go in with you.”, she started to make mention of going back to Natasha’s room, still, his words did nothing to calm her.

The redhead knelt beside her, placing hands firmly, without force, on the girl's arms. Wanda looked at her fearfully, maybe thinking that Nat would scold her for the adrupt refusal.

“Vse v poryadke, Zaya.”, she looked deep into the girl’s eyes. Wanda lessened the squirm at hearing the language so similar to her own. “Just close your eyes, okay? Just like that.”, Nat closes her own for a few seconds to demonstrate. Wanda still looks afraid, but it doesn’t take long for her to understand and imitate the other. Natasha signals Steve to take her on his arms and they enter the elevator.

They don’t say anything more, but this would surely be talk material later betweem them. She only removes the head hidden in his shoulders when they hear voices approaching, they’re going towards Bruce’s lab, but for that would also have to pass through the main Avengers’ living chamber.

Tony and Clint were arguing heatedly near one of the large glass walls on the other side of the room, it didn’t necessarily look like a fight refering the two of them. Bucky was lying on the couch, as usual, and Bruce and Sam seemed to be having an interesting conversation.

All of them immediately stopped to look at them entering, everybody's eyes flicked to Wanda and she returned them with a startled look . To say the least.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the family of the moment. I can hardly believe my eyes.”, Tony laughed satisfied, as always, though with the good sense not to attempt an approach. They could see the red threatening to rise up her forearms. Steve slowly made mention of putting her down and she looked at Nat over his shoulder, she smiled assuredly at her, repeating softly the same words of comfort in Russian from earlier.

“Everyone, this is Wanda.”, Steve resounded as she stood on her own two feet, still suspicious. “Wanda, these are the friends we told you about.”, she looked at him and listened carefully before turning back to look at the rest of them, theoretically they already knew each other, although she didn’t know the exact name of each of them before. Now she was being introduced as part of the team, the family.

“Hi, everyone.”, her voice echoed in the silence and everyone was surprised by the clarity expressed. She looked at Steve hoping to know if she had done the right thing, he as well as Nat smiled at her in approval.

“Hi, Wanda.”, they together recited in chorus.

“It’s always a great pleasure, baby america.”, except Stark, as usual.

Then they all arrived carefully, with Natasha and Steve speaking their names and pointing out the person corresponding to it. Bucky looked at her completely dumbfounded, though sympathetic, but Clint and Sam were especially careful and Tony restrained himself as best he could so as not to frighten her with his ‘effusive’ spirit. However, when Bruce’s time came everyone was surprised by her immediate reaction as she looked directly at his face.

“I like green.”, everyone froze upon hearing her. Banner blinked several times in confusion.

“That’s nice, Wanda, it’s a... a nice color.”, she looked at him somewhat appraisingly.

“Turn green.”, Bucky choked on something he was chewing, coughing outrageously, Sam eagerly patted him on the back from where they stood. Nat and Steve didn’t know what to say, not to mention Bruce. Seeing all the adults quiet and unresponsive, Wanda interpreted that they had not understood her.

“Turn green, you. I like.”, she tried to form the sentence clearly. She had seen the Hulk, for that one they had not expected. They stood in brief shock for a moment, before Doctor Banner responded somewhat bewildered.

“Thank you, Wanda. I guess...”, she smiled back at him.

As they headed towards the lab, now with Wanda walking between them and looking everywhere and everything at once, they wondered what else she had seen during the battle, the possible answers were devastating. Steve felt bad for sticking to the fact that she apparently had no awareness of what she had done while possessed by the reddish energy. The space occupied by Bruce has one of the large glass walls overlooking the rest of the grounds outside, she stares in amazement at the trees in the distance, spring at its height.

In general they just talk, Wanda seems less intimidated with only him present and Bruce takes the opportunity to reaffirm some of the things he had said to Dr. Cho. They would need to do some tests to assess brain waves and perhaps get functional records of what was happening to her mind as they emerged, but overall, that was all that could be done. When she was older and could better discern her own emotions, they could maybe go deeper into these issues.

Later, just before dinner time, it is Pepper’s turn to meet the new member in person, she brings with her a gift in giraffe wrapping paper and Wanda even seems a little disappointed to discover that this was not in fact her present, but only the one thing covering it. Fair enough, soon she is already sitting on the floor, surrounded by crayons of all shades and colors and enthusiastically coloring in her newest book. Everybody is scattered around and staring at her in diligence, as if she were the eighth wonder of the world.

And well... She was a miracle, technically.

“So I leave you for what? less than twenty-four hours and you and Steve go all Leave It to Beaver apesh*t? Seriously, Tasha, I still can’t believe it.”, he settles down next to her a few steps away from the girl, from there they can see only her back, Nat sees the hem of her once pristine dress now full of stains and chalk fingerprints.

Steve also watches her closely, sitting on the carpet, he seems extremely focused on the squirrel that she paints blue.

“What did Laura say when you told her?”, she looks at him directly. Clint laughs with good humor.

“You mean after she almost had a heart attack followed by a crying fit and then managed to finally pick her chin up off the floor? Asked if I had any pictures of your daughter.”, he smiles. Natasha shifts uncomfortably on the cushions and he studies her with interest.

“Don’t even start.”, she shoots him a look.

“I didn’t say anything!”, Clint protests with amusem*nt.

“I know you, and I know your wife. I don’t want to talk about it at the moment.”, she distances her gaze from Steve’s so as not to give Clint a slight chance.

“Okay, what about the details then?”, she opens her mouth to answer him. “I mean, of course, in what made it possible for her to exist per se, not the mechanics of how you and Steve drowned the goose together, but how it was possible for you, biologically speaking.”, she curses at him lowly in between clenched teeth.

“According to Cho, the serum present in his DNA made the sperm survive long enough to reach one of my supposedly unserviceable eggs, but she also said that from the state of my uterus it was most likely a very high-risk pregnancy and that they must have removed it because of a complication at the surgery.”, it’s impossible to describe the strangeness of trying to relate an experience of her own that she had no recovery of.

Clint lets out a long whistle.

“Super soldiers, indeed! Or super swimmers in this case.”, urgh, sometimes she even missed Tony and his addiction to unnecessarily graphic gossip when talking to her best friend. Out of nowhere, he started laughing to himself. “I’m sorry, but just remembering that you had sex with an almost 100-year-old guy.”, he almost doubled over.

“Damn it! God bless his heart.”, she threw a cushion in his face, he only suppressed a more outrageous laugh and language in favor of the child sitting nearby.

“I suppose Tony sent you the boy’s files too.”, she said after he calmed down, Nat pointedly avoided speaking his name, Wanda shouldn’t be able to hear them from where she was, but it couldn’t hurt to make sure.

His smile ceased almost immediately, but he remained in the same position.

“He did.”, Clint as well as Steve felt directly responsible for the teenager’s death. Natasha didn’t want to pull him into a place she couldn’t leave for the time being, but she felt the need to talk about the boy with someone other than Rogers.

“He seemed like a good person to me, you know, very young and without any kind of support kind of good person, but still.”, he lowered his gaze to his own hands. She had heard him talk that way before, specifically when he tried to convince Fury that she herself could be trusted.

Unlike Wanda, Pietro’s file was more or less extensive, Nat had had time to read it briefly in the early hours of the day, when sleep and anxiety for the next morning would not allow her to fall asleep.

Pietro Maximoff was the only son of a lower middle class couple, his father was a musician and his mother a teacher. Both were killed in a bombing when he was only 10 years old. He had begun to be experimented on at 12, by which time Wanda had been taken there with days, maybe only hours, of life. For a millisecond, she allowed herself to imagine the scene of the newborn being brutally removed from her inert body on the operating table.

The two of them were the only to survive the exposure. There were more children and young people taken off the street, desperate and lulled by the promise of a plate of food and a roof over their heads. From the number on his ID They discovered that only a different digit separated him from her, they must have been cell neighbors.

Sooner that day the body has been released, a wake and funeral arranged for him. It was something quick and symbolic, only she and Steve could not attend that afternoon, for obvious reasons. Wanda had spent those hours relatively calm, after returning from her conversation with Bruce she took another nap before lunch and the rest of the day was mostly spent exploring the children’s programs on cable TV with them, every once in a while she seemed a little fearful, but fortunately when the third elevator ride was due necessary the girl realized that nothing much would happen if she kept her eyes open inside the metal box besides it taking them to a desired destination. She was still very startled the first time she heard Friday’s voice, though.

Steve raised his eyes from where Wanda was showing him the colors he should put on her still-black and white unicorn. Natasha knew that she also held the same uncertain expression, and a discreet recline told her that he too was dealing with an internal tide as to everything they had felt and gone through on that first day of caring for her.

They sent to the cemetery a wreath each. It was not enough.

He only broke eye contact again when the light haired child poked him impatiently, showing him that he was doing it completely outside the lines and consequently messing up her figures. Natasha caught him trying not to laugh at her complete outrage.

Nat couldn’t help, but find that scene extremely amusing. For crying out loud, what 4 year old cares about painting inside the lines? She feels Clint’s evaluative stare beside her.

Dinner had been equally quiet, but she ate again with only the two of them by her side in Nat’s room, for fear of overwhelming her with the constant presence of everyone else.

Late at night, there are the three of them by the dim light of a lampshade, and they truly try everything. Not even Brown can distract her enough.

It is already high dawn, the two are completely exhausted and Wanda cried Pietro’s name until she fell asleep.

Chapter 4: Béar Réalta

Chapter Text

Wanda rushed forward, hands resting on the counter. She watched extremely amused as Steve paced back and forth in the kitchen. Gathering ingredients and depositing a bowl of dishes near her.

Sitting on a marble piece that formed the large island in the room, she watched him with fascination as he mixed the flour together with the baking powder and added salt and sugar. At least that’s what he said, identifying each whitish colored powder as he used them, Wanda realized that although the colors were similar, some of the grains seemed larger or shinier and less noticeable than others. She had never seen anyone make food before, but in those seven days that she was living with those new people what she liked best from afar was certainly all kinds of food she could try. That fluffy thing-y Steve made for her every morning was the tastiest of all, without a doubt.

She saw him put milk in it, that she knew, although He never let her have more than a warm glass on rare occasions when she deserved it.

Butter was a lovely color and looked like a pretty bar of soap, she laughed when Steve spilled some on his own shirt. Turning to look at her, he hit the spatula, which fell to the floor spreading some amount of unfinished dough.

Before he could stoop to pick up the utensil, however, Steve was surprised when he saw it floating up to meet him, the scarlet tendrils surrounding it.

“Thank you so much, ma'am.”, he said playfully as he washed the object for reuse. She wiggled her feet excitedly as she watched him bring out a tray of eggs from the refrigerator.

“I help! I help!”, she practically bounced on the place in animation. He walked over to her with only three of them. She already knew what those were about, the day before she had watched a particular episode of ‘Peppa Pig’ where the main character went to collect some of it in the chicken coop and before bedtime all she talked about was the said easter eggs she had seen them made. The holiday itself was still quite far away, but Natasha suggested that he take her to the kitchen early in the morning so that way she could quench her curiosity a little bit.

“Fine, but I’ll show you how to do it first, okay?”, she agreed, ready to contribute. Steve tapped the first egg on the edge of the container and she looked on bewitched as she saw the clear liquid drop like a goo, next to it a circle in bright yellow, just like in the cartoon.

Carefully she tapped the second egg, then opened it with her thumbs just as she had seen him do too, and poured the gooey food next to the others. The third was faster, and she almost dropped the shell along with it.

“Well done! You already know how to cook better than half of the team.”, he pointed out as he saw her trying to stir the dough the way she had seen him do earlier.

He helped her down from the stool before putting the batter in the pan, a bowl of perfectly sliced strawberries awaited her and she sat, again with help, in one of the high chairs that filled the other side of the room. He was already depositing the cut pancakes on her plate when Clint and Bucky entered the kitchen chatting.

“Good morning, Cap, baby America.”, Clint greeted them just then, Steve responded with a lower ‘Morning’ and Wanda just continued eating. He opened the fridge in search of the bacon while Bucky opened something in one of the cabinets, quiet, his eyes still practically closed. Steve put Wanda’s juice in as the archer headed for the toaster, he had already fed himself about an hour ago upon returning from his morning run, so settled for just an apple. His old ritual now lasted only half an hour and took place much earlier, by which time he should be awake and alert in case the girl woke up. Sam usually accompanied him, but he had left with Tony on a quick mission the previous afternoon and had arrived tired by dawn.

Bucky sat yawning on the other side of the child, a box of Frosted flakes in one hand, the quart of milk in the other, which he had turned over half inside the open carton. He nonchalantly picked up a wooden spoon from the sink stand and stirred it around while humming something. As he took the first spoonful of cereal to his mouth, he met the stares of the three of them, Clint standing on the sink with a cup of coffee, a disgusted expression on his face. Steve looked at him disapprovingly and Wanda had cheeks full of pancake, one hand poking at a piece that had been left out of her mouth.

“Whaaa?", he chewed purposefully with his mouth open and with an innocent expression. Causing the adults to turn their faces away in sounds of aversion and the little girl to giggle at his silliness. The piece of food almost coming out of her own mouth.

Seeing that she was really entertained he put even more flakes in his mouth, so that the milk ran down his cheeks. She almost choked trying to imitate him, but Steve stepped forward to take the half-chewed chunk of breakfast out of her mouth.

“You’re a terrible influence on this kid.”, Clint’s toast was ready and he turned to get a plate.

“Hey!For your information, Steve here thinks I’m extremely responsible with Wanda. In fact, even mentioned that he was thinking of asking me to be her godfather.”, Barton snorted a laugh as he buttered his bread.

“As if Nat would ever agree with that.”, Clint scoffed and Bucky turned to his friend for support. Steve wasn’t paying attention, helping her out, she was still coughing a little, eyes watering.

“With what?”, the redhead comes through the doorway in gym clothes and a half empty water bottle.

“Bucky thinks you guys are going to call him to be godfather.”, Nat raised her eyebrows in surprise before approaching them.

“Not a chance.”, Bucky looked at her in indignation. Clint was grinning from ear to ear. “We’re not going to baptize her.”, she says stopping behind her chair. Wanda was drinking from her new sippy cup with a straw and turned to look at her. Nat took one of her strawberries.

“We’re not?”, he returned to his original position. She looked at him as she masticated the fruit.

“We’re not.”

“We talked about it.”

“Yeah, and I said I didn’t agree with it.”, she speaks calmly eating more strawberries as Wanda went back to eating her pancakes. Steve looks at her dumbfounded.

“So that’s it, you say we’re not going to and we’re not going to?”, she looked at him with a funny expression before speaking.

“You get it.”, he lets out an incredulous, but not so humorous laugh.

“And my opinion is worth absolutely nothing then?”, she rolls her eyes at him. The others just watch, eating and watching the animosity.

“Of course it does, but I don’t think it’s wise of us to decide that for her right now any more than it would be to put earrings in her ears without her consent, for example.”, he’s the one looking at her incredulously now.

“You just compared two completely different things! It’s not like a lifelong piercing can equal a ceremony she won’t even remember.”, he seethed. Steve was not the most devout man in the world, but religion had been a large and important part of his own upbringing. His parents, Irish immigrants, and his parents’ parents as well as their parents, followed the christian faith with Roman Catholic roots.

“Really?”, she crossed her arms with a skeptical expression. Which was what she considered herself, by the way.

“Why not? If you don’t believe it she’ll just dip the head in some water.”, Steve tried to argue.

“Makes sense.”, Clint muttered from the other side. Nat looked at him with a slight scowl.

“Like you’re one to talk, to my knowledge you haven’t baptized any of your children either.”, she retorted.

“That’s completely different, Laura’s family is Presbyterian, but she doesn’t practice the religion. So we saw no point in baptizing them if she doesn’t even follow the precepts herself.”, he speaks taking a portion of bacon to his mouth.

“And since when is Steve a practicing Catholic?”, Bucky laughs before receiving a deadly glare from his friend. “Come to think of it, I’ve seen him say he went to church on Sundays, i think, i don’t really know.”, he shuts up with more cereal.

“Nice try.”, Nat mocks them. Clint laughs as well.

“Please, Nat, even Tony got baptized.”, he appeals to the final feature of almost every argument between them.

“What are you talking about? Tony’s Jewish.” she grimaces. Steve returns with a confident smile.

“No, he isn’t.”, he speaks with conviction, a sloppy smile still on his face.

“Yes, he is.”, Nat replies even more smugly.

“He’s not.”, he makes light of it.

“I hate to disagree with you, buddy, but Stark is very much Jewish, yes.”, Barton speaks up.

“Oh, yeah! I remember that co*cktail party one time when he spent half an hour just talking about how he smuggled some wee...”, Bucky loses his laughter and pauses as he looks at Natasha’s expression. “W. E. E. D for his cousin Donny’s Bar Mitzvah.”, he spelled out casting a glance at Wanda. Totally oblivious to them.

“Really? I can't believe it! I saw him getting lost in a ham sandwich more than three days ago.”, Steve speaks outraged, the sight of the scene was almost p*rnographic. Clint narrowly spits out his beverage with a bark, Bucky brings his hand up to Wanda’s fruit.

“Don’t steal her food.”, Nat chides a slap on his fingers, Wanda laughs in approval. He looks at her perplexed.

“You just did!”, Natasha ignores him as she turns back to Steve while Clint chuckles some more at Barnes’ face, who massages the palm with his titanium hand.

“Done!”, Wanda raises her little arms into the air toward Natasha, who smiles at her just then.

“Very good, sweetie.”, she moves into the arms of the woman, that runs her hands through the girl’s hair, still coiled from sleep. The ‘My Little Pony’ pajamas had fit her like a glove.

“So we’re done for the moment.”, she looks decisively at Steve, who just opens his mouth, without further argument. She turns her back on them and disappears into the hallway, chatting softly with Wanda.

The three of them follow her with their gaze.

“I get the slight impression that I’ve been conned.”, Steve takes another bite of the forgotten apple before tossing it in the trash.

“You think?”, Clint sneers as Bucky tries once again to reach for Wanda’s strawberries. Steve stands up and walks past the table, taking her food with him.

“Come on!”, Bucky complains to nothing. Clint only shakes his head in amusem*nt.

A small routine had been established naturally over the last few days of fitting in, the two of them balancing their time with Wanda and together.

There were spare rooms on their floor, but she had barely begun to get used to Nat’s, so they preferred to leave her there for the time being. Steve was the one who prepared and fed her breakfast, Wanda always woke up super early even though they tried to incorporate a curfew for her. By six in the morning she was up and waiting for him to pick her up.

This was not only because Natasha didn’t usually cook much, but also because Wanda had become specifically addicted to the pancakes he made. Then she would go back to Nat, who by this time should have had at least an hour of training. Steve was free to do the same while they went upstairs to shower and change.

Tony had suggested that the two of them take a leave of absence, however short. Steve was still an active captain, but they were off immediate missions, at least for now. Nat had an apartment in the city, just as he still had the one in Brooklyn too, but it was undeniably safer for Wanda to remain at the Compound and everyone else vehemently agreed that it was the sensible thing to do in the present. Friday had even been reconfigured to what Stark had named “nanny mode,” so that the elevators and rooms would remain locked if the little one managed to escape the adults’ gaze, and the security system monitored her twenty-four hours a day, using body heat sensors to do so that would distinguish her from the grown-ups.

On the second day after her discharge from the hospital, the girl surprised them with a request to visit Bruce’s laboratory. He himself had been shocked and unaccustomed to the apparent sympathy the child seemed to feel for him. Overall.

Now she was playing on the freshly cut grass after lunch, her first with the rest of the guys, she was shy, but less fearful in the presence of others. Now outdoors, surrounded by toys and with a concentrated gaze on what she was doing. Natasha was watching her closely with a book in hand, an old oak tree serving as a shadow for both of them.

With each page turned, she glances over to check what the girl is doing. The only sound that surrounds them is the light blowing of the wind and the rustling of paper. Nat is almost halfway through the book, when she raises her eyes for what must be the twentieth time in the last five minutes. The toys are dropped to the floor. Wanda is not in sight.

It’s all too fast, she gets up already sure that the kid can’t have gone far, she would know, her senses were enhanced to the point that she could hear through closed rooms sometimes, there’s no way she couldn’t pick on a little child waddling around. All said and done, Nat took less than ten steps before she spotted her sitting near another tree a little way ahead, but her legs were splayed and she had tears in her eyes as she tried desperately to wipe something on her clothes.

There were scratches on her palms, not deep, but noticeable. Nat made mention of reaching out to her, but before she could even do so the girl realized her presence and stood up hastily. Natasha was taken completely by surprise when Wanda threw herself on top of her, her arms encircling both legs and her flushed face burrowing into the fabric of her pants. She froze.

Felt as if a weight, as if a giant cold stone was coming down her throat and lodging itself in her stomach. Her hands went slowly towards the girl, a strange sensation coursed through her insides, it wasn’t exactly fear, no, it was something new, a kind of strange anguish that made her have to take a deep breath before she could move. Natasha realized that she was trembling.

Wanda wouldn’t leave her arms for the next hour, her face buried in Natasha’s neck and her hands gripping tightly onto her blouse.

Steve found them near the balcony on the third floor. The first thing he noticed were the strands of hair that had turned orange, entering the half open space. Nat was sitting on the hammock that was set up there, swaying in a calm rhythm as the wind made her short hair flutter lightly in the cool breeze.

He arrived quietly, hearing her voice humming an unknown tune, whispering words over and over again that he couldn’t understand. It sounded like a lullaby. Steve caught himself mesmerized by it, by her husky, melodious voice sounding low next to the almost mute clicks of the net as it was moved back and forth. She knew he was there, but didn’t seem particularly bothered.

As he slowly made his way around to the front of the glass that surrounded the edge of the terrace, he spotted something on her lap, a tiny person curled up on her chest. Wanda’s eyes were half-closed as if she were battling against sleep, the hand that was not blurred to her body was combing her long hair slowly. Natasha looked at her with a serene and bizarrely livid expression, the only thing moving on her face were her lips, which had disengaged as she proclaimed the verses of a Russian nursery’s ode long forgotten by herself.

“Smeshivaya sneg lozhkoy,

Nastupayet bol’shaya noch’,

Pochemu ty ne spish’, glupyy malysh?”

Nat went back and forth nuzzling her, Wanda increasingly intoxicated with the soothing. Steve leaned on the balustrade of metal at his back, there, with the sun and light reflecting off the glass and their hair, it looked almost the same color.

“Vashi sosedi – belyye medvedi

Spyat

I ty tozhe lozhish’sya spat’, detka.”, he heard her repeat what seemed to be the chorus. Wanda closed her eyes one last time after a weak groan, her face was already dry and now fatigue was taking over. Nat continued to hum with her mouth closed, the melody kept going and looping itself.

She was slowing down and slowing down until the song had escaped through the sound that made the net. The girl had already lost consciousness when she finally demonstrated his presence there.

“She didn’t want to go back inside, and I thought it would be easier to put her to sleep here.”, she continues to speak with a concentrated expression, her eyes focused on the relaxed ones below her. He follows her quotation and spots pink and somewhat swollen welts on one of the hands that Wanda has outstretched, the other still clinging, if less firmly, to the collar of her t-shirt.

“What happened?”, Nat sighs as she hears him, even though he sounded only curious, not in the least bit accusing.

“She fell.”, he notices her countenance change infinitesimally, she faces the child’s hand. He is caught momentarily by surprise by the bitterness in her voice and moves toward them.

“Nat...”

“Do you trust me?”, Steve ducks down, confused.

“What kind of a question is that?”, Natasha raises a serious frown to him, who has come to a slight giggle at the absurdity of the question.

“I mean it, Steve.”, she speaks at a slightly lower volume and he notices with amazement that her chin quivers more discreetly. “Do you honestly, blindly, trust me when it comes to Wanda?”, now it is he who lets out a breath in a huff.

“Why wouldn’t I trust you, Natasha?”, he remains extremely calm as he returns her question, but she still looks at him troubled. Nat turns her face minimally, but he notices it nonetheless, the light hits against her porcelain cheek and he sees it, the trail of a single tear, just now extinguished.

“I’m not talking about a mission or about work. I’m talking about her safety.”, a hint of anger pervades her voice.

“And since when do you of all people in the world pose a threat to her?”, he lets himself go and speaks a little louder. Wanda shifts uncomfortably and they both fall silent as she swings them around once more, the child buries the face in her with a sigh before becoming still again. He sits on the floor near Nat’s legs, his hands together and elbows resting on bent knees.

“I know you, Natasha, you are one of the few I would trust with my life.”, she closes her eyes tightly, quickly, the same way he observed her doing the day they were called into Tony’s office, as if a switch were being flipped in her face. This time didn’t change dramatically, but she took the focus off his face again.

“You don’t know me completely and you can never, ever think that way about absolutely anyone when it comes to her, Steve, not even me.”, he notices the flaw in her voice and feels a tightness in his chest. It was no longer from the strangeness of seeing vulnerability, how much it was from realizing the pain beneath it.

He puts her at ease for a few more minutes before speaking to her again.

“What happened out there, Nat?”, she continues to look at Wanda, there is a growing disturbance in the stiffness with which she appraises her quiet body.

“She’s going to get hurt.”, she finally speaks, after a certain amount of time. Steve misses some of what he was going to talk about next, thinking she would no longer contribute to the conversation. “She’s going to get hurt and there’s nothing I can do about it, just like I didn’t do anything while they were torturing and drilling her like a lab rat for the last four years.”, he suddenly has the briefest idea what that’s about, but it can’t be, it’s beyond absurd, it’s utterly nonsense.

“It wasn’t your fault.”, she doesn’t respond to his convinced statement, but continues to look distant. “Natasha.”, nothing. In an abrupt, offhanded move, he directs one of his hands toward her. He rests it on her knee, she still refuses to stare at him, but the slightest startle at the physical touch has not gone unnoticed by either of them.

“Okay, let’s follow your line of reasoning. Let’s say you were at fault for what happened, which comes off as ridiculous, I would be too, even more so this way.”, she looks at him with real anger this time.

“You’re not taking it seriously, I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“I’m not? You were the one subdued and kidnapped, Natasha!”, the muscles in her face become taut.

“And I could! I could have gone after you any time after you left my apartment completely terrified without telling me anything else, running like one of the characters in Wanda’s cartoons, so fast they leave the dust behind! Or even when you didn’t show up at the meeting place of the next mission we had together and I preferred to let it pass because I was afraid to confront you, when Clint called me two weeks after we saw each other, extremely worried, to ask what had happened to make you so distant lately. I might even have made an effort to get something out of Fury when you took that mysterious and strangely long hiatus, but I didn’t, any of those things.”, at the end his voice comes out less agitated, but not without the same emphasis.

“And I know all that for sure, Nat, I know it without even a shadow of a doubt because those are the thoughts that stayed with me after all that. That haunt me now every night when I see her crying for the child that I let die, for the one person who represented the family that she didn’t have and that I helped vanish from her life forever.”, she looks at him with unexpected facetiousness, her complexion like a doe in headlights. Speechless.

He frowns at her in questioning.

“So?” he challenges her to counter his arguments.

She still looks somewhat stirred, but after swallowing dryly and averting her eyes quickly, she seems more composed.

“That doesn’t change the fact that I’m not cut out for this, I don’t know what I was thinking when I accepted it, me!”, she laughs with no humor present. Steve looks at her, really looks now.

“Then why did you? I’m serious, Nat. I wouldn’t hold it against you, it’s a lifetime change, we didn’t even know she existed last week.”, she cranes her neck to look at him. It seemed hard to maintain contact when the expression on his face was so open, so sincere facing her.

“It wouldn’t be fair to leave all this weight on you, all the burden of responsibility and trouble and school and adjustment, not having a female figure to guide her, not that I don’t believe in single dads or children not raised by women, but...”, she pauses more to herself than now the benefit of his understanding, it was almost a ramble. And Natasha had never rambled like that in his presence; another layer.

“I was curious, I was anesthetized when I first saw her, dumbfounded, you know? And at the time I just thought it wouldn’t be fair not to give her that chance, to know me, to know who I was, but it’s not fair anyway! Look at you and then look at me now, you’re practically a giant teddy bear on anabolic steroids!”, she didn’t allow him to express the almost comical confusion that rumbled from his frowning face.

“What are you on about?”, she now allowed herself to finally roll her eyes in exasperation at him.

“You’re sweet and patient with her, you have this goofy and annoyingly conservative personality that sometimes literally turns you into a complaining old man, not to mention you’re helpful and kind, and you’ll do absolutely anything she wants, she knows that! She already runs to you directly when she wants to be spoiled, as if she knows I’m not enough for her, and I? I’m a killer, Steve, I should have left when there was still time for us not to get attached, so as not to hurt her or you any more in the process. I can’t do this, I’m not a mother, I’m nothing.”, although her eyes are not extremely watery, her voice carries an embittered, almost choking weight with it.

Steve reaches for her with a steady gaze, taking his hand from her leg and closing it decisively over the fingers she has supporting the diminutive, sleeping form between them.

“You really don’t see yourself clearly altogether, do you?”, she clamps her mouth shut in rebuke, perhaps a dry sob or an automatic complaining. Steve doesn’t flinch.

“You were the first person to be with her, even if you don’t remember it, you were... Even if she’s not aware of it yet and even if it sounds like a lie. You were there.”, she stares at him without moving.

“I wouldn’t be enough of a replacement for that in a million years, even if I lived a thousand lifetimes! She met you first, you were reunited long before. She came from you, Nat.”, a minimal smile, but a grin erupts spontaneously before he continues.

“I can be a dork with amusing jokes and a tendency for easy manipulation.”, she quells the amusem*nt in his tone, before Steve continues.

“But you are her mother.”, he emphasizes making an expression of almost childlike dazzle. “You do realize that, don’t you? I am absolutely no competition for you, that’s laughable, Natasha. A mom who kicks ass left and right? What kid wouldn’t want that?! Me? I’m the guy who’s going to have to advise her not to do drugs, who’s going to get gray hair when she’s late getting home or whatever, telling her not to do this or that because that’s how girls end up dead.”, she let out a muffled breath at the absurdity of his speech, which, though it shouldn’t have been, came off as extremely funny.

“And what about you? You’ll be the cool parent, the one she tells all her secrets to and asks for advice from, the mom who can take down a grown man with just her pinky and without blinking twice. Are we really talking about justice here? Because my reputation as a goody-two-shoes and yours as a huge badass are already making me start losing ugly.”, a reluctant crooked smile adorns her countenance, but you can tell her insecurity hasn’t faded yet.

“And when I have to go on missions? I can’t not do that, even if I wanted to, it’s who I am.”, he understands her, he really does. Steve also couldn’t imagine a life any different than the one he had led for the past few years with the Avengers, but he knew that consolidation would undoubtedly be the hardest part of all. It already was.

“We’re a team, you and I, we are in this boat together. Till death do us part.”, he jokes. She still remains a little tense, but it's not reluctant to appease him.

“Or until college happens.”, he ponders what she has said.

“That or puberty, whichever is when she starts hating us first.”, she allows herself a real laugh now and they both lower their eyes to the little girl cradled in her embrace. Hands still clasped together next to her.

Steve breathes wearily.

“And I know you have a lot of doubts, Nat, believe me, I have tons too. Honestly, the only thing that keeps me sane at the moment in the midst of all this storm is that of all people I am glad that you are the friend who gets to co-parent with me.”, Natasha feels as well as hears the intensity of those sayings coming from him. They stare at each other.

She is the first to brake it, escaping for the moment from those almost pleading eyes of his. That was cowardice.

“It’s not like your immediate options are very diverse either. Between me, Sam and Bucky then...”

He makes an offended face for a second before answering, but realizes the direction of the talk and lets her make light of the situation as well.

“I must admit that between you and Sam I might even be in doubt, but Bucky?! Are you kidding me? I can totally do so much better than Bucky.”, Nat tucks Wanda into her arm before adding.

“Can you even imagine the likely genetic outcome of something like that?” , she teases as she sees him wrinkle his brow.

“It would be like the seed of Chucky all over again.”, he speaks in a somber tone, referencing the dubious movie she herself forced him to watch in a marathon last Halloween. “Not even my DNA could save a child like that.”

“What do you mean by that?”, she asks already knowing the answer and Steve looks at her as if he had been saying that repeatedly for the past few days. And he was.

“The girl is practically my carbon copy, Romanov, get real.”, she arches her eyebrows at him.

“Should I be offended by that? Incidentally, I don’t recall you having green eyes, Captain Conviction.”, he waves his now-free hand with a nonchalant gesture, a tripping sound coming from his lips.

“A small drop of Russian contribution in a genetic Irish sea, pal. Admit it.”, Nat caught his smug expression.

“Yeah, well, let’s see if you still think so when she starts to stick out her sleeves in about ten or eleven years.”, she speaks sharply.

“You can be sure I’m more than ready to be right, dear.”, he mocks her. Natasha, however, does not yet have a fully prepared counter-argument when Wanda begins to stir more restlessly in her arms. She doesn’t wake up right away, but they don’t linger more than thirty minutes longer on the porch before going inside to wake her, past her nap time.

The rest of the day passed pleasantly dragging on, after that conversation. Clint said goodbye to them, ready to return to Laura and their kids. Nat still did not feel ready to visit them with everything that had happened.

That evening, while the rest of the folks at home went down to dinner, Steve surprised her with an unusual invitation. The three of them went to the garage, Steve going straight past his Harley Davidson and into the 67 Chevrolet Camaro that he had recently come to prefer over the motorcycle.

Wanda’s seat had not yet been installed, but they didn’t go back for it anyway. She sat attentively and excitedly on Natasha’s lap in the passenger’s one. They drive for less than forty minutes before reaching a drive-through and she experiences her first junk food as Steve parks already inside the property and a good few feet from the main entrance, the lake glistening with moonlight.

“You really liked it, huh Zaya?”, Natasha laughs as she sees her start to eat Steve’s fries as well after finishing hers. Her mouth was smeared with mayonnaise and she squeezed the burger like it was going to disappear from her face. They let her gorge herself, her diet needed to replenish all the nutrients her body was lacking, but just for that one night she could eat crap with them.

Nat made him agree not to give her any kind of soda or synthetic drinks, though, at least not while she was little. Steve felt genuinely relieved that he didn’t have to tell her that the day before she had tried some of Sam’s Crush Pineapple while the two of them were talking distractedly. Because he knew exactly what she would say in response.

What if it was Tony and not Sam talking to you?

And he knew that he couldn’t argue with that. For the answer would most likely be their child precociously drunk on just one sip of Stark’s stupidly expensive whiskey.

Chapter 5: Последствия

Chapter Text

“But are you sure he used those exact same words?”, Laura practically whispers on the other line of the phone. Natasha spies through her closet door, where she has been “hiding” for almost ten minutes straight now.

“May I ask why you are now interrogating me from over 900 miles away?”, she speaks even lower, stepping away from the door for an instant only, there was no movement in her rooms outside.

“Clint told me he felt something in the air between you and him, and of course I needed to check.”, Nat lets out the air without a sound.

“Of course.”, she can imagine him right now trying to hear her from wherever he was.

There is a muffled sound from over there, as if something has been knocked to the floor. A slightly louder cussing can be heard.

“I imagine the kids aren’t home.”, Nat leans against the wall while still keeping an eye on the door.

“Clint took them fishing, they should be a little longer.”, the dragging noise of a chair being pulled out. A little further on a gurgling sound and something being deposited on a surface close to the cell phone.

“And you’re the one drinking at two in the afternoon.”, Laura laughs at her amusingly accusatory tone.

“Nate finally slept, and I can sit for five minutes without bumping into a child running around the house.”, Nat couldn’t help but chuckle, the way she talked it sounded like they had a dozen kids... Which being Cooper and especially Lila could very well be the right equivalent. “So I opened a wine, sat quietly and am waiting for a pie to bake at the moment.”, she gives a clipped pause, most likely to take a sip of the drink.

“Wow, how honored am i to be worthy of your moment of peace.”, she says with a slightly playful tone.

“Feel graced, it really is for few.”, which was not only because Laura lived on a farm on isolated land and almost forty minutes from the nearest town, but also because in marrying Barton she had been deliberately rejected from her own family. Really nice people they were.

“I feel, believe me, but you're wasting your sacred childless time on me. I mean, you might as well be watching some movie, taking a nap, maybe even catching up with the latest season of Desperate Housewives, huh?”, Laura made an indignant sound. Although she loved the show. Nat knew that.

“How dare you, Natasha! You know what? Better go ahead and stop with these soccer mom jokes of yours, smarty-pants, unless you want me to tell everyone that your new addiction is now the mommy blogs I recommended to you.”

“Low.”, Nat hissed falsely impressed.

“Yep, i do have my moments... Besides, I took printouts of our last conversation, in case anyone doubts me.”

“When you’re not gossiping with your husband about my sex life?”, another sound, now coming from the bedroom hallway, Nat put the device to her chest to muffle the sound and missed some seemingly strong placements from Mrs. Barton.

“...almost slanderous when I’m sure he didn’t ask for that many details.”, and when she absolutely had squeezed every comma and pull of air out of him after he got home.

“You must know then that nothing much happened, well, outside of all the craziness of the last few days and all the turnaround in our lives, obviously.”, Laura makes a strange noise.

“And that’s leveling down, I’d say.”, she spoke, Natasha silently agreed. A ‘don’t even get me started topic’.

“I know now is possibly the worst time to try to talk about this, Tasha, but I want you to know that I’m here for whatever comes and goes, I didn’t tell Clint about that night either.”, Laura’s voice taking on a more solemn air, yet not losing the tender falsetto. Nat swallows dryly with no immediate response.

The closet door suddenly opens, a small red-haired firecracker bursting through.

“Gotcha! I win again!”, Wanda screams jumping around her. Steve comes walking hurriedly behind the girl. An amused look on his face.

“Seriously, you didn’t even try this time, Romanov.”, she just smiles laying a hand on the little girl’s head, her eyes sparkling and dancing across her face. She said it was best not to give the child so much sugar, this was nothing more or less than the result of the first chocolate of her life, they were trying to sap her energy so she would sleep through the night, the afternoon nap had already passed and she hadn’t slept a wink.

“Need to go now, Lau, I’ve just been found. Again.”, she says a quick goodbye with a few words and doesn’t wait for her friend’s response. “Okay, little troublemaker, why don’t you take a shower and then we’ll go visit Bruce?”, Wanda doesn’t even finish hearing the rest of the sentence before she runs buzzing towards the bathroom. The ‘hi-seek’ as she called it, had become her favorite pastime with them the last few days.

Bath time is already an automatic action and she even finds it strange when Steve offers to do it, a quick irritation comes over her before she remembers what she had talked about with Laura a short time ago. She had to let him participate, there was no point in wanting to take every possible task upon herself in the hope that the guilt would subside or that in this way her role in raising the girl would become clearer. The slight jealousy she felt about her attachment to Steve was natural, at least that’s what Lau said, ‘it’s normal to feel dismayed to see her becoming close to others, it’s as if you’re already preparing for the empty nest.’

Steve came back into the room with a restless, giggling bundle in his arms.

“Look, Nat, look!”, she showed her the still bluish tongue of the lollipop given to her by one of the boys earlier. Natasha let out a grin at the expression on Steve’s face as he watched her splash water all over the floor.

“I saw it, Zaya, your tongue just changed color!”, she feigned surprise to the child’s delight.

She had recently started calling them by name, not surprisingly, after all, the poor thing didn’t know who(what) they really were. Wanda had grown up during those years without the same human and emotional contact as other children, Pietro had been the only person to fill such a gap in a way, but still it wasn’t as if she really saw him in a parental or even fraternal view per se. He was only Pietro to her, so at least for now they were also only Steve and Nat. So there was no sense in shoving such foreign concepts down her throat in the very first days of their adjustment.

Steve was eager to hear her call them by that, but Nat was embarrassingly relieved that she could buy herself some more time before, as much as she already felt an absurdly strong and new connection to the girl, she still needed her major plug to fall into.

With the television on and Wanda bouncing in front of him, he tried to brush her hair as she twisted in place. Natasha just laughed as she watched them.

Laura’s saying still hammered in her head, though.

It’s not as if Natasha doesn’t quite remember when of what she was referring to, but for all intents and purposes until recently it was an event that could at least be ignored and relit to the back of her mind.

Steve’s words days ago also kept repeating over and over again, she had run away, escaped in horror after what they had done. Alcohol was a silly excuse and not even used by them, both of whom would need nothing less than a vat of that weak beer to start getting dizzy, let alone sleep together.

No.

They knew very well what they were doing, that was exactly what she had said to Laura years ago, Steve had almost let something slip during the heartfelt conversation on the terrace, he was not oblivious to what he had felt either. It was because they wanted to do it, because they had both thought about the possibility before all that.

The ghost of a hand caressing her lower back and a breath by her ear snapped her back to the moment.

Wanda was singing one of the theme songs from ‘Masha and the Bear' uncompromisingly, while Steve tried to untangle her hair, not so successfully. It was funny to see him twisting his nose at the premise of the Russian cartoon.

“That doesn’t make any sense! who in the name of God looked at the premise of this thing and just thought ‘yeah, a bear would totally be the perfect representation of a responsible babysitter’ for this incredibly annoying child’?!”, Nat noted as he already parted her hair in half.

“You’re over-analyzing, this is just a kids’ show.”, she spoke readily. It wasn’t as if she herself had had a particularly memorable childhood, but the tale of the girl and the bear was a popular enough folklore to have reached her ears as well when she was an infant.

“It could be, or the proposal is simply ridiculous and the bear will end up devouring her in the end.”, he spoke the last part in a whisper more directed in her direction.

“Bear is friend of Masha, Steve.”, Wanda, who didn’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation, turned to him with an expression that would be said to be condescending if it were coming from someone older and patiently explained to him. “Like you and Bucky.”.

Natasha laughed heartily at his disarming expression, both observing her nonchalance in saying that for sure. The irreverence and sometimes even innocent petulance that were displayed in her never failed to amuse them, especially Natasha as she witnessed Wanda imitating her rolling eyes at him.

“And it’s not like any cartoon was made to make sense either, Popeye, for example...”, Nat began after Wanda decided her attention was better spent on the TV.

“Popeye is the only design to make sense out of all the others. Let me tell you ‘bout it.”, he attributed, tying the first pigtail on one side of her head. He wasn’t trying to take any chances with Nat’s braids, at least for now.

“Surely, because every time I eat a can of spinach I gain the strength of five hundred mauretania.”

“As If! That teaches children to eat healthily for your information.”, he persists.

“If you say so.”, she relents with a wry face. “Who knows I’m just getting too deep where there’s actually nothing.”, he glances at her quickly as he tries to let Wanda’s other pigtail straight.

Wanda is still a ball of energy as they walk down the hallway, she tries to disentangle herself and run towards the door of Dr. Banner’s lab. Steve stops her with one arm and ends up carrying her inside clinging to his side as she looks around with absolute glee.

“Good afternoon, guys.”, he's no less surprised to see her needing to be restrained. A fond smile greets them as Wanda is finally released and rushes to look into every possible corner of the room.

“I see she is especially effusive today, so how about we get started before your angel brings the whole building down?”, he rushes to hold her before she advances on his desk. The child laughs in mirth as she is passed into Natasha’s arms.

They had agreed not to perform what was first in mind, which would be the positron emission tomography scan, Bruce warned them that it could be particularly invasive and that even then it would only be a smattering of what they might know of Wanda only in adulthood, hopefully. The safest and most dynamic thing at the moment would be an electroencephalography, by which he could track the electrical activity of her brain.

She seemed quite calm at first, Bruce tried to explain to her what he would do so that she could feel safe enough. They feared that she would be afraid or think that they were going to do the same tests as Strucker, to reassure her and allay her possible fears, Natasha positioned herself right behind her so that Wanda will be curled up in her lap while he applied all the apparatus to her. She became more alert as the equipment approached, but did nothing but bury her back to Nat. It would be preferable if she could stay horizontal, but they knew that would be asking too much of her.

“With each electrode placed I can measure the potential of each brain area, but it can vary according to the state of the person themselves, such as brain matter and blood and even whether they are awake or asleep. So sometimes it is not clear in which region of the organ that activity originated, today we will do a small session only to test some hypotheses. Don’t worry, Wanda, it’ll be super quick, okay?”, he tries to reassure her, she looks at him more seriously, but not in an accusing way.

“Okay.”, there had recurred them that only now she understood that Bruce was also a doctor, just like Cho and all those who had surrounded her since forever. The girl, however, still seemed considerably open to him. It could be a good sign.

Steve positioned himself on the other side of the room, in an attempt not to burden her in a possible delicate situation.

“It’s worth adding that Wanda’s may be naturally more difficult to get signals from, her being enhanced it’s like even the micro-areas that makes it up are a mystery compared to other kids.”, they knew this, at least in theory, Tony had been the first of them to point out the fact that even for someone in a cognitive growth phase she was capturing the new language too easily.

The machine started with seemingly soft readings and the signal produced almost straight, rhythmic lines.

Bruce needed her to try to exercise her powers, so he went about placing different receptacles at each turn, different sizes and weights. Wanda understood what was asked of her and levitated it in reddish myriads, her eyes had a softer coloration, you could see she was controlling or at least holding it back.

With only a few minutes of examination this became quite clear when, as she lifted more than one object, the scarlet tendrils took over not only her hands, but also her forearms. Her eyes began to alternate between green and red, and a gleam of pinkish light to form around her head.

The reader started to aim like crazy at the high waves and the machine was trying to keep up with what was going on.

“Wanda.”, she didn’t seem to listen to the next command, Steve’s voice meeting the silence as she stared ahead in paralysis. “She’s not listening to us anymore.”, he warned tensely, to which Nat and Bruce rushed around.

The girl’s body made a surprising thrusting force and although her red magic, as Tony nicknamed it, did not hurt on contact with Natasha’s skin, something worse was materializing. She let go of the blocks stuffed with extra weight that Bruce had presented to her, but she didn’t seem to be pending breaking the flow anytime soon.

“She’s panicking!”, Natasha felt the child’s emotions lodging itselves to the derm she had exposed around her, the red that was now almost a haze enveloping them soaked into an unglamorous and specific sensation. She pulled in a sharp intake of breath when a painfully sudden vision assaulted her unprepared, and Natasha saw the face and the white trimmed room long before she felt the familiar numbness in her extremities followed by her jaw locking automatically, the spasms excruciating.

“Turn it off, turn it off now!”, she heard her own voice growl snortingly amid the stupefied silence of the two men. She kept her arms safe around Wanda, still taken by the flash, still trapped within the vision.

Steve rushes over to them, desperately, not knowing what to do. They remove everything from her forehead and head, but she remains unresponsive. Bruce rushes outside to find Stark, such is his hurry that he not even thinks of accessing via Friday.

“She’s trapped, we’ve trapped her next to him again!”, at which point the three find themselves on the ground together, Wanda remains inert on Natasha’s legs and her eyes are no longer just the sole discriminator of her situation.

Her face is now a mask of agony and the girl opens her mouth in tiny movements, as if she can’t breathe, her eyes seal at once. Steve thinks about giving her cardiopulmonary resuscitation when for a millisecond it seems she can’t pull in air. His mind stressing at the fact that he would most likely break all her ribs if he couldn’t control his own strength, that’s if he managed to pull her out of Nat’s arms successfully first. The woman seemed almost as inebriated as the girl and the only clue that pointed out that she was more aware of the situation was the enormous affliction that was employed in her normally neutral expressions.

But Wanda is not choking, no, in fact she is trying to form words.

“Bo...bol’,” her voice comes out squeaky and strangled, in a baby-sense whine. It’s just confirmation attesting to the obvious, but it’s still heart-rending to hear her pleading the same way. Steve has tears in his eyes when Nat translates in a weak input what she understood.

“It’s okay, sweetie, it’s us, you can come back now. He can’t hurt you anymore, Wanda, just open your eyes, please.”, he tries to formulate some comfort as he tries to touch her face, Natasha has not let go of her for a single second and her own eyes are fixed on the girl’s. She doesn’t seem to hear when they call her name.

The room is almost all immersed in a crimson link as they try to calm her down and bring her back to reality.

“Steve!”, Nat lets out a pained wail looking down as Wanda writhes in a convulsion in her arms. At this point he too is cowed by the blood-colored cloud, and although now the effects seem weaker they still suffer from its remnants.

Everything they see is red, everything they feel, think and breathe is imprinted in what she unintentionally projects onto the two of them.

Suffering, absurd suffering.

But also blazing loneliness and a strange and cherished longing of youthful innocence. A life that was left behind, but that also left its mark. Was all she had. What she had known of the world until now.

When they hear the voice, a voice that was young, yet slightly mature. Wanda squirmed more faintly as she recognized it herself.

“Every time, need control, Wanda. Just breathe, breathe, and remember I’m here, yes? Everything will be fine, Rypka, everything will be fine. It’s nothing, it’s nothing...”, the remains of a boyish laugh finally drags them out of her mind.

All is very still for a while, the blush fragments gather from them with the gentle glide of leaves blown by a non-existent wind. Wanda hangs unconscious and Natasha almost falls unprepared for the thud that the cetrino haze would cause, Steve holds them up and supports them as the lab floor seems to thin harder around the three. A discomfiting dizziness hits them hard along with a throbbing numbness.

They remain motionless for a time that neither would know how long to actually pinpoint it, they still feel the racing pulse and the boiling fear coming from the ether as if it is continuing even now. Steve lays a hand on her cheek and Wanda remains peacefully asleep, Natasha can’t control an alien sobbing when she feels him shyly reaching around them with his arms.

When Tony, Bruce, Bucky, and Sam descend there in a flurry of running and awkward talking, what they discover amidst the partial destruction of space could not be more unexpected and reassuring.

They find themselves isolated in a circle, surrounded by all of Banner’s paraphernalia and positioned like survivors of a vermilion windstorm. They are cuddled around her and Wanda snores quietly in their middle as the two of them drink her in with anxious, watchful eyes.

Nat has her legs resting on top of one of Steve’s thighs so as to position herself between his legs. He also supports Wanda’s weight now, both completely lost in relief... and sorrow.

She doesn’t remember.

They realize this by the simple confused expression she expresses, as she awakens along with that mess of gear and grieving adults. Bruce is completely dismayed as he informs Cho on the phone and apologizes to them, but especially to Wanda herself for not having been sensitive and aware enough to calculate that the stimuli could lead to a crisis to the girl.

Later, still somewhat shaken, but trying to pass on as much normalcy as possible to her. They let her play outside for a while, Bucky offers to watch her while they completely pull themselves together, but neither of them is in a favorable position to have Wanda out of sight. Sam has a brief conversation before they take her to the lawn.

The prospect that she was suffering from a demonstrative condition of post-traumatic stress desorder made sense, he didn’t linger too long due to the incident being too recent. Reliving the events from an emotional/situational trigger should be complicated enough for someone who didn’t have to deal with it while being overwhelmed by a chaotic and seemingly tenacious unknown energy.

The helplessness that attacked them was almost palpable as they stood watching her along with Bucky on the carpet in the main room. The two were playing with the much old Avengers stickers that Bruce had gifted her with after the ill-fated experiment. Wanda accepted it uneasilly, but without disengaging from him, the doctor seemed troubled at the thought of having hurt her in some way, but the girl had almost or no awareness at all of the whole thing’s magnitude and at most smiled in appreciation before hurrying to pick out the Hulk and Thor figures to stick on the Winter Soldier’s awaiting face. Tony stared at them worriedly and offered to make dinner while the others watched her play. Sam went to meet him shortly afterwards with the intention of helping.

“She was electroshocked.”, Natasha revealed in a restrained voice as childish laughter filled the room once more. Bruce and Steve’s heads turned in her direction. “I saw it,” she explains in meager words, but Steve doesn’t even need her to.

I felt it.

That was what they thought together.

They felt it, all three of them, Wanda, Steve and Natasha felt together all that pain culminating in the girl’s core. They felt the cruelty and gruesome determination of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker on their own skin that day.

Steve can’t help but think about everything that had happened in New York years before, everything that lead them to what they were experiencing now. From the secret theft of the scepter by Hydra to the growing bond between him and Natasha weeks after the battle.

“I know the last thing you want to know right now is this, but the tests came out as expected.”, Bruce reports clumsily beside them. “It was fairly rushed due to her reaction, but the emotional aggravation was effective in identifying doubly what we suspected. Before the machine stopped an escalating action was identified coming from Wanda’s limbic system, which basically means that her powers manifest as purely emotional and regressive responses.”, he hastily tells only for them. “What triggers this chemical reaction could be any strong or even growing emotion, but from what we witnessed today she was most likely only accommodated to having it exposed primarily through stimulation that sets off defensive content.”

“So she’s acclimated to using it to full potential when she’s afraid.”, Steve opines, the self inflicted moderation bathing his stoic complexion.

“It’s like something registered in her mind, like It was learned.”, Bruce agrees with a disheartened nod. “The fact that she can use these telekinetic and telepathic abilities seemingly at any time even then reinforces that this is something extremely internalized, since she may have control normally, but her body responds as on autopilot in some situations. We assume it’s as if she has her own defense system encrypted in her body, red takes over that which she Wanda is not yet able to compute on her own, again this would not be unheard of to those who have been exposed to all that she was during the years that she had been in their base, but here we have the aggravating factor that her blackouts happens through a blur of immeasurable power.”

Bruce makes them even more thoughtful about the results and effects of the tests, but it’s not as if everything is an extreme surprise.

They don’t have to talk any more of the subject. Knowing damn well that no one would never expose her like that again.

Guilt mingles with regret and poignant terror.

“I know this is going to come out a lot more selfish than what I had antecipated, but I’m glad she can’t remember any of it.”, is what Steve whispers to Nat later as they watch her trying to braid Bucky’s now short hair with all the rubber bands and clips she had recieved from them. Dinner was especially quiet and their friend was solicitous to continue the banter in Steve’s room while they just stood alert beside the balcony.

Natasha threw a surprised look as she heard him, it was the first sentence directed at her since early on. They remained in a silent and elongated agreement, neither leaving Wanda’s side for a single minute. With her lack of response, he looks at her to better formulate what was said.

“I mean, all this baggage of hers, it’s unthinkable... What would become of her, Nat? If she had more conscience of Novi Grad, if she remembered what happened to the boy.”, Nat wouldn’t have to be looking at him to recognize his choked voice. Nor did she have enough of an answer for that.

“I know.”, was no lie.

Because Wanda would not remember Pietro, not only in his final hour, but the teenager as a whole. The years would pass, and who knows, she might still have a recollection of who he had been and all he had done for her. Even with them reminiscing and reviving the memory of the Maximoff boy, it wouldn’t be the same, not while they would be there, present, keeping track of everything in her life that he could never keep up with.

The image of the thin, shot body became one more among all the hauntings, his face one more among all the faces they saw at night before closing their eyes.

But that would never be said of Wanda.

She might be grieving now, with his still recent presence in her life, but time passes and she would grow past it. Grow past it and forget it. Hopefully. Terribly.

“I’m grateful too.”, Natasha spoke as she moved a little closer to where he stood. His expression heavy and his eyes studying the girl sitting on the bed combing and repulsing his best friend’s scalp.

“She’s fierce, much more than I ever premeditated she would be.”, Steve hisses at Nat as she looks at him again in the dim lighting. A sad smile comes to her lips.

“She’s your daughter, Captain Rogers.”, he returns her in a weak sketch as well. “An Irish lineage, right?”, he laughs weakly.

“Maybe, but I must confess that this whole mischievousness altogether seems a little too Russian to me.”, Nat doesn’t laugh, but he knows she’s running weakly still.

“Laura knows about that night.”, she pouts at once and he tapes her disarmed mind. Waiting for her to continue.

“I called her.”, Natasha gives a brief mental recap of the next day after she left his house bewildered. “I had spent the entire day restless, mulling over what had happened and wondering whether or not I should talk to you.”, he is surprised by what she says last.

“So you called her instead?”, he tries to follow the logic behind her actions.

“She was the safest option, I would say, Clint might have been second, but even he couldn’t help me at the moment.”, she confesses. Steve remains practically static listening to her willingly recount such deeds. “Laura calmed me down, ironically, I was freaking out about everything. It was like I couldn’t process it all at once.”, she figures perfectly in her head, the image of her self from over four years ago, staring at the apartment wall as her friend put some sense into her.

“I don’t suppose you mentioned it was about me.”, he risks a personal certainty. Nat catches him off guard yet again with her frank, stripped-down sincerity.

“It’s not like she needed me to.”, she assumes. “I believe she knew what it was about the very moment I said ‘hi’, Laura knows me well enough to know that few things would get me off track like that.”, they remain facing around, but sporadically cast glances at each other.

“And she advised you.”

“Apparently.”, she relents, primarily because that was uncertain even for her. “She listened to me, mostly, and I talked a lot in her ear, I’m surprised the long distance bill didn’t come with more than three zeros that month.”, she snickers to herself. “She said almost nothing, Laura’s not like that, she just listened, listened to me and asked a single question before I hung up.”, Steve tapes her impatiently to which she glares back at him as well.

“She asked how I felt about it.”, she whispers so close, and low, that he almost thinks he imagined it. Steve still waits for her with a certain expectation as she seems blandly unconcerned by his gaze.

“And?” he frowns waiting for her to complete her speech.

“And she was right, there was no point in dwelling and obsessing over what couldn’t be changed, especially something that didn’t cause me any special regret.”, Steve watched her simply limp her head in his direction.

A rasping sound sounded from the room.

“If you lovebirds don’t mind, little Wednesday Rogers right here is practically scalping me alive, blargh!”, Bucky, with stickers all over his face and chest and a strip with bows and rubber bands on various parts of his head, spoke up. “You know I could take that from few kids, Wanda, you should feel speciaaaaouch! Steven!”, they heard more laughter from her as she pulled mercilessly at his strands once again.

Nat moved to walk over. Steve held her by the arm, stopping her. She looked at him, amazingly at peace with what she had just revealed.

“What do you mean by that?”, he faced her a little more seriously, not like she was going to joke about something like that. Still. Nat puts her hand down just over the one he has on her limb, a dejected sideways smirk merely appeared.

“I think you get what I meant by that.”, she lets it out completely. The impact of those words were enough to leave him mute at least.

Bucky calls out to them again. Natasha also begins to show impatience, although better veiled. The question he wanted to ask was more than stamped on his face. Why now?

“I just meant that you weren’t the only one having second thoughts that day, Steve. That I considered about going after you too.”, she lets out a weak breath. “I think we’re more alike than we realize sometimes.”, she escaped his gaze, leaving him motionless in the same corner and stepping forward to free their poor friend.

“All right, baby pest, time for us to collect ourselves. Say night night to Bucky.”, she took the child in her arms, the girl still teasing him with a kid's comb in hand. Nat cackled as she rushed backwards in her embrace to try to reach the man.

“Night night, Bucky.”, she dodged the tickle he tried to give her, hiding her still cunning face under Natasha’s hair.

“Good night, Nat and a very good night to you too, lil' booger.”, he smiled at them. Nat turned in Steve’s direction one last time as she made her way to the door.

“Are you coming?”, he just shook his head, ecstatic. To which she returned him in a smile and a wave goodbye. Wanda already entertained by the prospect of only one more stunt with them before being put to sleep.

Bucky peered at him with a sappy expression as he rose from the bed.

“Yeah, buddy, I think I hear the chapel bells ringing already...”, he shrugs off a pillow, jumping back onto his friend’s bed, “Look, I just want to warn you guys that I’m not into something out in the open, and probably not in for anyhing in the summer too, you know? Sam and I have a trip planned for the next Independence Day and... Oh! I’m not really into blue or gray either, so let’s try to avoid those colors for the ceremo... Hey! Are you listening to me?!”, he continues shouting in provocation as Steve heads out of his own quarters. Closing the door in his face and making his usual way to Natasha’s rooms.

Chapter 6: A Shealbhú

Chapter Text

It was a joint decision, at least that’s what the two were trying to convince themselves. It was a peak monday, and deep down they both wondered if what they were about to do was really a good idea. But they had already promised, now it was too late to turn away from it.

Wanda was sitting in the back (now with her seat), and watched the adults’ conversation with curiosity.

“I don’t know, Steve, are you sure you don’t prefer the aquarium? Even though it’s a weekday, there could still be a lot of people there.”, she watched Natasha speak once again, from the passenger's seat. They had left the Compound about five minutes ago, but the girl couldn’t fully relax at the thought.

She turned her head minimally toward the back of his head, which due to the height she could see only in glimpse of where she was sitting.

“We’ve talked about this several times, Nat, remember it was you who suggested the zoo to her first.”, he recalled. Nat made a funny sound with her mouth, but that she can neither see nor distinguish, all she can see are a few red strands fluttering in the air conditioning.

“I know, but what if it’s too much? We might be recognized, she might feel intimidated.”, she stresses the sticking point that has been worrying them more and more as the days go by. The fact was undeniable, the girl would be discovered by the media one way or another, they were more than celebrities, more than public figures, they were symbols. The two of them had been trying to acclimate her and themselves to this lately, but the prospect was proving delicate, much more than they had expected at first.

It was not as if he was not afraid or tense at the prospect of her exposure to the spotlight, however, Nat was incredibly anxious, something rare to notice primarily in her person, to begin with. Although they were both public and famous, it was well known how much more discreet she was when it came to her private life. And from now on, boom! Black Widow and Captain America hook up in a romance and expose the fruit of it to the country. Because yes, they had already been reunited by Pepper in conjunction with the team’s advisory, it would be much easier to admit to a relationship, whether that relationship was past or not, than to open up a casual evening to the entire nation in collusion with a child newly discovered/created by then as a Nazi weapon. No, that would be bad, not only for their image as public beings, especially his, but it would be an extremely dangerous move for Wanda, especially if the government and Ross found out everything there was to find out about her. No way.

For all intents and purposes, they hid her until now. It made sense and the timing was considerably good, by the way, she was no longer a toddler, but she was still an extremely young child. It would be the perfect age to admit that there was no more hiding her from the rest of the people, she couldn’t live the rest of her life inside the grounds of the Avengers headquarters, sooner or later she would need to get out, go to school, meet new people.

The school/preschool thing was another one that had already caused a surprising fight between them, this time Nat was confident and apt to let Wanda maybe even start later that year, be in a properly guarded and safe institute (and one know she would make sure of that), or at home. Steve, on the other hand, remained reticent saying that she was still too little and it would be stressful and dangerous to make her deal daily with strangers, what they were not so long ago, by the way. She tried to point out the irony of him telling her to loosen up the day before just because she wouldn’t let him let the child try a coffee-flavored candy bar.

The matter remained open for the time being, and they focused on future security measures towards it once they were exposed, over all they never forgot that although it was extremely weakened Hydra was still a functioning entity. Interestingly enough, they didn’t bother to combine any specific story for what they supposedly had now (or had in the past?). This brief animosity was promptly put aside, however, as May drew to a close. They had already commented that they should have done something special for her birthday which was earlier in the month, the weight of having missed not one but four in a row seemed to bother them, but to see that she didn’t even know what the date meant was even more dismaying. It was funny trying to explain it, they had held back on saying how everyone had a special day, ‘your first day of all days,’ was what Steve had said as he helped her put on a pair of overalls that morning. And Wanda seemed as ecstatic to have that day of hers as she seemed to trim down all the new things and experiences that surrounded her lately, as she found herself more used to them and their environment.

What became decisive to the point that they told her about the outing was “giraffe week”, or even “giraffe holiday” as it was nicknamed. The thing was that a more or less well-known zoo not far from home celebrated the birthday week of its oldest resident, a reticulated giraffe named Lola, every year, and so the caretakers not only allowed visitors to get closer to her, but some were also allowed to feed the animal.

“This is going to be the best surprise ever for her!”, It was what Steve excitedly decreed to her after they researched the site and picked the perfect day. The rest of the guys wanted to go too, but the group would draw too much attention and apparently one of them had a severe phobia of ostriches, whatever that means.

“All right, but we are going to have some big rules for this outing.”, had been what she had established with him privately before they could share such news with Wanda.

“First, we go on the schedule and the day that is least crowded, at the first sign that she is feeling agitated or overwhelmed we get out.”

“Done.”

“And we have to keep an eye on her absolutely all the time, a faint trace of red and it’s run for the nearest exit, got it?”

He makes a salute for her, quite similar even to those of the girl at the Stark Tower reception desk. Nat ignores his joke and continues with her list.

The biggest concern, obviously, was that she was not feeling well. They had finessed on the idea of taking her along for the ride after the lab fiasco and were now afraid of overstimulating her by doing so, even though Sam himself had advised them to socialize her slowly with the outside world.

It had been a more delicate conversation, it wasn’t as if they didn’t know very well that a bad approach might sound the wrong way to her. So instead of complicating things further, they just directed her to warn them in case the “red” was coming, Wanda acquiesced and agreed thoughtfully. She knew she had caused all the havoc in Bruce’s room, but no one seemed particularly angry with her so far. Of course, Steve was quite serious the rest of the day and Nat insisting that she sleep in until a little later the next morning. But they were still receptive, all of them, Tony had presented her with a tricycle brought by Pepper and Sam had made her crepes the other day, which she only recognized as a slightly sweeter version of what Steve already made every day, her face completely buried in whipped cream. Bucky would let her do absolutely anything with him, from giving piggybacks to swallowing some expired lipstick when Nat allowed her some old make-up products, as long as she didn’t rub it on her own face in case of any allergic reaction. Even Banner, a notoriously secretive member, was present whenever they gathered in the main room or when she was playing on the long carpet by the dining room, timidly helping her assemble toys or positioning teddy bears to be hit by the bowling ball that Bucky had furtively lent her. Needless to say, the playtime was short-lived and did not end well.

They were strange those people, she tried to digest with her infant head, everything she had experienced in her new home was different. The doors were always open and there was grass and laughter and TV and they would put her to sleep and offer her things. He had never done more than leave her undisturbed in her corner for a day or two, but this was different, he was no one for her, that was what Pietro had once said when he had promised to wait for her on one of the nights she had been brought to the lab coats first. The young man had been the only person she knew to have a name, had been herself, she had always been Wanda, but Wanda because Pietro was Pietro and because he had her in that way.

Nat and Steve also called her Wanda, and she liked that. It made her open her mouth without having to move her tongue, and the sound ended in a sweet way when she reached the last letter. Pietro had shown her how to write her name once, but it had only been with his pointing finger across the open space in his accommodation to hers, and the only thing she had been able to memorize slightly was a flowery motion, the first of all, ‘down, up, down, up'. It was beautiful, and hers.

The parking lot was practically empty save for a car here and there, it had been no more than a twenty minute drive still Upstate. The entrance to the place had commemorative arches and a huge colorful one with the name of the zoological park.

Steve pulled up in the last far space away from a silver Sedan, he knew they might need some time first, and he was trying to lessen the anticipation for their first outing as he watched the tension practically roll in waves off Natasha’s shoulders.

“All right, Wanda, here we are. You remember what we talked about earlier, don’t you?”, Nat turned around already unbuckled to focus on the girl’s face. She returned it with a strong affirmation, nodding her head precisely enough to rest her chin against her own chest.

They got out of the car without much commotion, Steve, already wearing an old cap, helped her down. Nat just wore more casual clothes than usual. Jeans, a flannel shirt, a cap and sunscreen. They were the perfect picture of a small suburban family on a day off, that is, were not the suburban part a far off address and were not the day off a break from fighting evildoers and fascist organizations scattered across the globe. She seemed content by then, sporting her new sneakers and her beloved Hulk backpack. Steve tried to cover it up, but he had clearly been legitimately hurt when she had chosen it over the commemorative one in red and blue colors when they had shopped online days before. Nat tried to cheer him up with the excuse that she didn’t really know what that meant, outside that Wanda didn’t seem at all thrilled about the somber colors of her own products either, but it was still hilarious to witness his tantrum over the little girl’s hero preference.

It didn’t help that the child had run at the same time to show her doctor friend the new belonging. Natasha had made everyone stop laughing when he returned to the kitchen, but he knew he was the newest target of the crowd.

The entrance had been smooth and the view of the property was vast, it was a large open field with trails indicating the habitat of each specimen. The three of them walked together to the primates’ path first, Wanda in the center and holding hands with them.

As they watched in delight as a family of squirrel monkeys did their thing, Nat had managed to let her guard down a little as the rest of the visitors surrounded them. There were really few people, the place itself doing such a promotion because of the low season before summer. In that wing there was only one old lady and a few pre-teens snickering about something near the black-handed spider monkey nursery. The rest of the people who were scattered around the large acre of land didn’t seem to bother Wanda in any particular way, and even the trainers and guides seemed to be scarce there.

She looked extremely taken by the white-haired alpacas and giggled excitedly at the leaps one or two pygmy goats made for her. But it was in the area of the mini pigs that she first found herself.

“It’s Peppa! Look at that, George too!” , she tiptoed over to try to see them. The two watched her amusedly placing her little hands on the security bars on the other side of the circular fence. A boy who appeared to be a bit older than her also pointed vehemently at the small ones. At one point, she turned very seriously to them.

“Can i have one, please?”, she widened her eyes in pleading, though somewhat fearful, the question was directed at them, but it was Steve she looked at in the somewhat uncertain end. There was no blaming her, she was extremely inexperienced with this. Just like him.

Nat crossed her arms, openly entertained at the trouble Mr. ‘I please all tastes and ages’ had gotten himself into. He had just realized this himself, Wanda still looked at him with a pitying wee face.

“What?”, Steve thought he heard wrong as he tried to read the sign with the pigs information in front of them.

“Peppa, I want her.”, she said in a comically pure tone, pulling him by the hand to the edge of the enclosure, to also look beyond the vegetative space that separated the public from the piggies.

He lowered himself to her level, as he always did to speak to her. He opened his mouth uncertainly more than once, but they kept waiting for his justification.

“It would be really nice if we could take her home, honey, but i think George would be really sad if you took Peppa away from him now, wouldn’t he?”, he took both her hands in his and moved the head sadly. Nat squinted her eyes incredulously as an equally despondent ‘yes’ came out of her. This was coming off too easy for Steve, where was all that reassurance when soap had gotten in her eye the day before? Her whimpering had been so loud then that Steve walked frightened into the bathroom thinking the girl had slipped in the tub or something worse.

“See that? Child psychology.”, he said smugly as they walked over and each devoured an ice cream sandwich. Wanda indulged in hers with abandon as they walked through the aviary.

“You mean how she managed to take candy and a treat from you all at once?”, she said pointing to the wings made out of pink balloon that passed with straps across Wanda's shoulders, her bag now in one of his hands. Steve gave her an offended look. “I’ll tell you one thing, my friend, this girl sure knows how to put you off.”, Nat laughed again as she was pulled along by the kid, pointing admiringly at the lush colors of a peaco*ck. He snorted in disgust.

“I let her do that. I’m the nice parent, just so you know. Unbothered, cool.”, she grimaced into the nothing as they stopped near the noisy macaws.

“My Goodness, are those delinquents smoking suspiciously?!”, she directs in horror. Steve just goes on unmoved.

“You know what, Romanov...” she is still amused all the same.

“Yeah, let’s just hope that’s the last time she touches the subject or else we’ll wake up one morning and Tony will have brought home the entire cast of Charlotte’s Web.” she sneers at his solution.

They eventually stop to let her rest, the walk had been long and she wasn’t used to even that spring sun. Steve slathered what should be the second layer of sun protection on her, Wanda grabbing and finishing a bottle of water by herself while he was still trying to clean the remnants of her ice cream. There were chocolate drops in her hair on the top, how in the world had she managed this feat?

“Slow down, Chipmunk, or you’ll put it all out.”, he chuckled at her flushed cheeks, hurrying to be back to the animals. Nat took a step to hand him the bag, but at the exact moment he moved his arm to deposit the tube of protector back into Bruce’s greenish mouth, a stirring to the right of her peripheral vision caused her to park in place.

Steve immediately picks up on her change of demeanor, and without saying anything he scoops Wanda in one single motion. Nat walks up to them and the two face each other with none of the playfulness and lightness of before. He positions himself with his back to whatever it is, readily delivering her into Natasha’s arms after making sure he is covering them with his entire body, Nat’s diminutive figure making it easy. With one arm securely around her, she promptly brings her other hand to the back, where she feels the secure presence of her holster.

It all takes place in a matter of seconds in an all to casual way, and Wanda doesn’t even stop drinking her water as they prepare for whatever it is that might happen. Steve mentally goes over all the exits they had noticed and researched before, Natasha catches herself torn between the possibility of shooting at a moving target and at the same time getting the child away from there. Looking again and now directly at the suspicious area, she spots only a group of school-looking expeditioners setting off towards the reptile house. One of the students is holding one of those souvenirs with springs of a snake, it is going back and forth with loud movements. Still she doesn’t move until they disappear into the distance.

He doesn’t comment at all when she walks once more, now preferring to carry Wanda for a few more feet as they moved on.

“So, Zaya, are you curious to meet the kangaroo babies?”, the girl drew in the air excitedly to answer, she having seen several drawings and artistic representations of the amazing jumping animals. Right now trying to explain to Natasha how Sam had once told her that kangaroos actually lived a long way from there. She looked at Steve with a definite countenance, but he wasn’t going to touch the subject at all, he stuck to just resting his hand vaguely on her lower back as they headed off.

Then they saw still specimens of the asiatic cat-bear, followed by a grizzly-bear and a couple of bengal tigers in the large mammal section. The lion was sleeping far and lazily under a large shade and there were three more lionesses enrolled in the place, one of which, said the khaki-clad girl explaining their habits to a couple further on, was away from there with her new cubs. Wanda seemed a little less interested in this area, and soon after passing the African Leopards too they sat down next to her in a small abandoned plaza to the east of the marsupials’ nook.

There was a sort of pond covered with regal victoria and water lilies, the small space partially hidden under the wreathed leaves of a gnarled willow tree. A group of ducks were passing by, some still on land, it was a small but noisy bunch, and Wanda soon moved over to where they were. They just watched her for a while, both sitting on a stone bench, her balloons between them.

“Okay, I'll admit she reacted better than I expected.”, Steve turned his face momentarily as he heard her speak. A small, still-smug smile beginning to dawn. “It’s not that I don’t put faith in her, it’s just that she’s never been out in the real world and you see how she’s in the get-to-know phase with basically everything.”

He looks at the child again, now approaching the critters less hesitantly.

“She’s curious, I guess.”, they hear her talking to the ducks. “I know we laughed at Bruce’s suggestion, but maybe it’s the case that in the future we should invest in that, I mean, she is a gifted child.”, Wanda rushes back and grabs her bag, they don’t stop her from crouching down by the water’s edge and taking the tied bag of popcorn from inside. She starts by throwing it to the grass, but slowly the ducks gather around her in search of the snack.

“She’s very special.”, he catches her fond smile as she says it. The little one lets out euphoric squeals when one of the ducks, probably the bravest one, doesn’t run away when she pokes its head. She withdraws her hand as she feels the feathers, but after a quick glance at them she tries to get close again. “And quite fond of animals too, apparently. I’m not really the type, I think cats are my limit.”, she confesses.

“I’ve always loved animals, especially dogs, my mom never let me have a pet, though. So I always played with the ones of my block.”, Steve reminisces nostalgically about the mutts and playing in the street with his neighbors. She adjusts herself so that she is sitting sideways, one arm folded over the stone backrest.

“Have you ever been here before?”, she asks legitimately curious.

“No, why the question?”, he looks at her. She shrugs her shoulders before really answering.

“Nothing, it’s just that you suggested It pretty quickly when I mentioned Zoos, so I thought that you’d been here before and... Wanda! leave the poor duck alone, will you?”, Nat shouts in alarm as she sees the girl trying to hug the little wretch. She mumbles something, but obeys, going back to retrieve the food from the other hungry ones to distribute it again. The unfortunate thing looks confused and continues to circle her dazedly, somewhat imprinted.

“You seemed insistent on coming here, that’s all.”, she finishes still signaling with her hand for the girl to behave.

Steve briefly tries to touch on the subject, but it wasn’t as if it was something extremely personal or unpleasant in any way.

“I’ve never been here before, no, but the name caught my eye, it’s the same as a petting zoo I used to go to with my mother when I was a kid.”, she drops the scolding look at Wanda to peek at him in surprise. “I suppose it must be from the same family, or at least bought from them.”, he comments over. Natasha continues to look at him with a neutral expression, although he is not exactly the most secretive person in the world, the man scarcely talked about his time long past. Sometimes, not always, she completely forgot how far back that had been, and this made her feel bad for him all over again, it’s not like she really had much to remember that was worth doing it before Clint found her. But Steve did, he had a whole life before, one that had passed completely without him present.

Wanda reprimands a particularly rude voracious duck that almost bites her hand for a single popcorn. Her index finger wagging in its face in a ‘no-no’ motion.

“She used to take me on mornings after service, I remember she wouldn’t even let me anywhere near the sheep so I wouldn’t ruin my sunday clothes.”, he gives a nostalgic laugh. “It was right near our church, actually, a few blocks south.”, she examines his relaxed face. As much as she knew of his parents was that they had both died tragically, one a victim of war and the other of tuberculosis.

He had never met his father, this she knew without even getting into the subject. When November 11th finally came to the relief of the families and the troops, Mr. Rogers had not returned home. Steve was only four months old.

“What was she like?”, Steve notes her collected tone, Nat asks very few times about his life before the freeze, even then never anything so direct.

“She was kind, a woman of few words, but extremely devoted to everything she had. Which basically revolved around me, the hospital and the church.”, Nat twists her mouth a little in thought as he looked at Wanda again, his head clearly elsewhere.

“She would like Wanda, I’m sure. I mean, as a grandmother she would probably do it anyway. I don’t know, she just has this incredible, unique adventurous spirit in her.”, he chortles affectionately when the ‘adventurous spirit’ startles one of the ducks and causes it to fall over embattled. She looks on fearfully, but Nat pays no attention to her mischief.

She is too busy looking concentrically at him.

“That thing we talked about a few days ago, you know, baptism.”, Steve doesn’t lose his smile as he focuses on her, “I don’t think it can do all that much harm to only initiate her into a religion. Who knows, a lot of kids were raised Catholic and lived to tell the story.”, she partially covers her eyes with her hand as a shaft of sunlight passes through the fallen branches of the tree, which shimmers in the faint wind. Steve looks at her contemplatively.

A warm, harmonious feeling reoccurs in him, and it has nothing to do with a hot day on the thresholds for summer. A half embarrassed smile erupted from him.

“I’ve thought about what Clint said, too.”, he begins. “And it really doesn’t make sense to urge her into something that even we don’t practice. Let her grow up a little more, choose for herself. We know how much of her life has already been decided by others.”, his voice doesn’t take the usual familiar bitter turn, but he sounds less unruffled.

A flurry of wings alerts them, but there is no further commotion as they watch her again. She continues to toss the food after adjusting the bag on a mossy rock, with uncertain footing the greenish backpack wobbles and Wanda sets it down again carefully, another furtive glance in the adults’ direction.

“I know it’s important to you that she has contact with your heritage, I didn’t meant to dispose of it.”, she’s feeling guilty really? It’s almost funny for the improbability, but he doesn’t demonstrate It, not outwardly.

“Don’t worry your head about it, she can have contact with my roots in many other ways.”, he states without taking offense. “We can show her the neighborhood I was born in and let her taste the hot dog with chilli from down the street or let her fry an egg on the asphalt, for example. Buy scratch cards at the newsstand and show her the bridge and the pollution of the East River. And we don’t even need a priest for all that.”, she responds to his suggestions with genuine retribution, a half shy smile. She would look forward to the next walk, now in the concrete jungle.

A loud caw comes this time and he stands up a tad begrudgingly, pushing Wanda’s toy away from his lap. Nat had voluntarily slipped closer.

“Better go stop Itsy Bitsy before she gets us kicked out of the park forever.”, he heads in her direction. Wanda immediately stops what she was doing, clearly annoyed at being hindered in her own Steve Irwin moment. Seeing from where she was standing the state of the ducks, who were still a little reluctant to scatter away from the girl, Nat thought she might have more of a future making homemade foie gras.

Wanda wanted to go on the ground with the backpack on her back, even though she had offered to carry it. They noticed her a bit distracted and even suspicious on the way back, but nothing to be alarmed about.

Upon seeing the two giraffes walking through the vast space, she almost fell backwards, her eyes going from them to the animals and from the animals to them. The attendant, a woman who appeared to be middle-aged, approached cheerfully with a friendly smile. Apparently there was no one else in line to feed them that time of day.

“Hello there, but what do we have here... What’s your name, cutie?”, she approached them. Wanda took a half fumbled step backwards, almost hitting Steve’s legs. The employee propped her hands on her still-approaching knee.

“Wanda.”, she didn’t blink as she answered, but you could tell the uncertainty as she addressed the stranger. The woman’s smile widened kindly.

“What a gorgeous name you have, Wanda. Mine is Debra and it’s so nice to meet you! Did you know that our giraffes right over there have names too?”, she turned slightly to point them out, the two seemed to be closer now. On her chest a colorful badge denoted her name and occupation at the zoo.

“Everyone needs a name.”, the girl said in a springy manner, to which the woman laughed in response.

“Well, I’d say that’s very true.”, she agreed seriously. “Our animal residents are too important to us, so we only give them special names. Look there, the smaller one that is approaching is Oulie and the bigger one is named Lola, she is the birthday girl of the day.”

“Today is my birthday too!”, Wanda said a little more effusively, as she remembered exactly what had been said earlier.

“That’s wonderful! And how old are you now?”, she joined in the girl’s excitement. Wanda held up four little fingers to her.

“I have four years of life currently.”, Nat suppressed a giggle at her sayings like those of an eighty-year-old lady.

“How fantastic! I have a son exactly your age, Wanda, but his day is still a little while away.”, she commented in a conversational tone as If It was to a grown-up. “That deserves a special celebration! It’s not every day that the girls are visited by a birthday sister.”, she spoke up, long having noticed the print on the child t-shirt denoting her fixation with the animals. “How about we serve them their afternoon snack then, Wanda, what do you say?”, she beams with excitement almost immediately.

“It’ll be easy enough, and you can even pet them if your pa...”, the guardian of the giraffe nook raised her eyes amiably as she straightened up to speak to the adults. The two were all the time wondering if they would be recognized, because to be fair the costume and even their amateur mind recorded appearances might be a bit fuzzy. But next to Tony they were most certainly the ones with the most exposed faces at press conferences and meetings with reporters, so even that already remote chance barely stood up.

“Natasha.”, she steps forward before that lady can open her mouth in front of Wanda. The woman returns the handshake half weakly, she looks at them parked in place, astonished, even if in a visibly restrained way.

“Steve, it’s a pleasure.”, he takes advantage of her still upraised hand and shakes it with confidence and a polite smile.

“All mine.”, she seems to mentally shake herself and now casts glances from one to the other, looking more embarrassed than astounded.

“So, can we see them?”, Nat asks what Wanda seemed impatient to say.

“Oh, of course! Please, follow me.”, she bustled toward a passageway next to a large artificial rock with the information and trivia.

The feeding area was smaller and Debra took them there with the help of another keeper, but he remained in the giraffe territory without really maintaining contact with the visitors.

A huge, round bowl of leaves of various kinds, including lettuce and what looked like arugula was placed on the wooden stand that separated them from the animals. The cub seemed more receptive and soon the woman was giving her small cuts of greenery.

When she called Wanda to come closer the girl touched the lowered head of the giraffe with her fingertips, expression completely dazzled. However, when it was time to feed her, she backed away hesitantly at the sight of the giant teeth and tongue as the giraffe chewed what was offered by Debra.

“It’s okay, Wanda, she doesn’t bite, just licks with exaggeration.”, the older woman winks at her trying to encourage. She, however, seems more distant and passes one of her arms behind Natasha’s knee, leaning her cheek against her and closing in a slightly introverted manner. They try to coax her some more, without much success.

“Look, Wanda, she even has the same spots that Brown has on her neck.”, Nat signals to Oulie’s head, who stands still near the trainer getting some strokes behind the ear. The banter partially working, she steps back a little to check.

“Brown? Don’t tell me you have a giraffe friend at home too.”, Debra amends, naturally catching on with the child.

“Brown sleeps with me, but can’t go to the tub, she might get the flu.”, she repeats Steve’s excuse for the last time she wanted to take all her stuffed animals for a bath.

“Oh yeah, this time of year it’s really dangerous. You take good care of your Brown, giraffes are all rascals, we need to keep an eye on them.”, Wanda jerks awkwardly to talk about the time she lost her for almost an entire day.

They would know that well.

That girl had a truly powerful throat. She could be a lyric singer.

“Touch her neck like this, see how she likes it?”, she managed to get her to come closer, now Wanda was holding only the tips of Nat’s fingers in hers.

At the fateful hour Wanda settled on Natasha’s bent legs, the bag resting momentarily on her side. The giraffe ran part of her purplish colored tongue through their hands before lacing up what was held out. Steve took a few pictures of them next to Oulie while he had them distracted, the two giggling at the meek creature that devoured everything.

At the end of the activity Debra offered the child a small metal brooch in the shape of a giraffe, she pulled it out of her own brown scarf around her neck and stated it was a special gift for her birthday.

“A more than happy birthday to you, sweetie.”, the little girl waved goodbye after thanking her and incredulously showing them the new possession. Steve and Natasha were not oblivious to the leering glances they received, but at least she was as natural as possible with the whole situation. Stopping them only seconds before they were headed out of the nook to reinforce that it was indeed a real treat to be able to meet them in person.

She didn’t look like the kind who would run from there straight to the megaphones of the establishment to spread the news, but they felt more comfortable ending the visit at that. It had been about four hours since they had left the Compound, not to mention the drive back, which would take another twenty-five minutes depending on traffic.

The parking lot was even more deserted and the sky was a pinkish-orange color. They drove along the highway surrounded by green on both sides, the clarity between the trees made the girl dizzy trying to follow the path of the yellowish light. There was a pleasant late afternoon wind, and the windows remained fully open while the smell of damp earth mixed with a woody aftertaste of pine cones entered.

Nat looked for a decent station, Steve was not in the habit of downloading music to listen to on the road, always preferring the radio frequencies instead. She stopped on a less squeaky one when she heard the familiar voice of Dean Martin, he began to hum the song without much thought, but she just rested her head on the leather backrest and closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she realizes the particular tune that is playing, she opens them to find him straight staring at her. He has an expression of reverie, but it doesn’t take long for him to come back into focus in front of her with the frown he receives. Nat scrunches up her eyes and goes back to aiming at the trees to the right.

Wanda has long since rolled over from sleep strapped to her seat, and they remain without direct communication for the rest of the drive. The song is eventually replaced by the low baritone of a radio announcer who alerts listeners to the next ten most requested tracks on the station.

When they arrived home, the girl woke up still tired in Nat’s arms as she headed for their bedroom. Where Wanda napped for a while longer until dinner time a little later that night, when everyone ordered a dozen pizzas and a chocolate carrot cake came up with four indigo candles.

The adults enjoyed the small celebration even more than she did, the child awoke only long enough to confusingly blow out the candles and then fall asleep again on the way to bed. Steve did not accompany her there, since the girl was already sleeping, and after turning on the lamp on the other side of the bed for her, Nat also left, leaving the door only ajar.

She found him in his room at the end of the corridor, but the music could be heard even from the entrance to hers.

Steve was once again on the balcony, it was the only difference between the two suites, she hadn’t made much of an issue of the addition since she was usually traveling or even spending all of her spare time on the farm with the Bartons. But Steve was always present, he had to be, she wasn’t even sure that the old apartment was still in his proprietorship, she had heard a rumor through the others that he had rented it, probably through a sufficiently discreet realter.

He had his back to the door and yet would recognize with closed eyes and from meters away that scent.

“You really like that song, huh?”, she leaned over the iron balcony counter and he turned his face to her slowly, his eyes going up hers now without rushing.

“Gives me good memories.”, Nat chewed on the inside of her mouth. Steve was looking at her too intensely for her liking, she also knew there was no escape once they had gone down the rabbit hole. From the bedroom, the singer’s voice resounded into the open night ahead of them, just as it had done years ago on a night like that, with lights and as few witnesses as that. A warm night, late July.

Everybody finds somebody someplace

There’s no telling where love may appear

Something in my heart keeps saying

My someplace is here

They had taken the shortest route to the restaurant she wanted to show him in the West Village, both of them laughing after losing the reservation and walking around the city like younglings making jokes between one beer and another. They were back in Brooklyn, But not stumbling around, not in the least bit boozy.

The music was coming from an old record store located on the corner from his apartment. The glass entrance was open and the owner, an elderly gentleman who used to greet him now and then by catching a glimpse of Steve going to the bakery on the block, was tapping some rugs outside. Rogers had not only made Nat stop to listen to it all the way through, but also spun her in a quick and thoughtless action, making her snigg*r and debauch his taste for cheesy flirtations, but getting on the bandwagon and also spinning them around by holding him by the waist. The two shared a good long belly laugh when a stooped car drove by playing a Nicki Minaj remix at the top of the speakers and the store owner walked in grumbling to himself, leaving only them and the rest of the lyrics that echoed loudly in the middle of the empty street lit only by the few streetlamps here and there.

If I had it in my power

I’d arrange for every girl to have your charms

Then every minute, every hour

Everybody would find what I found in your arms

But it was ridiculous, right? They continued to stare at each other alone in the dew evening, she still had both hands resting on him after the fit of laughter and he would then also come to touch her more intimately in a few seconds, even if without much factual insight. Not even the usual walkers were in sight that day, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, she was looking at him with an expression of unseen premeditation and he was staring at her in a directed hypnosis. I mean...

It’s Steve.

It’s just Nat.

Everybody loves somebody sometime

And although my dreams was overdue

Your love made it all worth waiting

For someone like you

It was ridiculous indeed, but they didn’t seem to care much about it as they clashed in the middle of the sidewalk in the eyes of the sleeping city. Their lips collided an almost fatuous eagerness, but one that soon ascended into a stunned, bewildering ardor for both, the two of them moved forward.

It was a one-at-a-time, quiet thing. No problem with that, there was no reason for overthinking it.

They hurried hand in hand up the stairs to the apartment, stopping only to open doors and not even looking in each other’s direction. From Steve’s room they could still hear the looping forgotten by the shopkeeper who had not yet returned, the thunder had accompanied them through the single hanging openings in one of the walls, they didn’t bother to cover them either.

Everybody loves somebody sometime...

They had turned to each other as soon as the lock sounded at their backs. Nat lifted her arms to get rid of the blouse, Steve having neither the patience nor the willpower to open all the infinite buttons on the silk fabric. He was already in only his undergarments when she removed the last piece that prevented him from seeing her fully, and she didn’t so much jump as simply seem to float as she fitted her body over his while still standing. A ballerina leap followed by a voracious attack that claimed the rest of the interrupted kiss. Her legs wrapped around him.

Everybody loves somebody sometime...

Steve made no shy move about supporting her against the wall with some force, one hand resting on the base of her neck while the other occupied itself with something a little lower down by the elastic of her panties.

Everybody loves somebody sometime

And although my dreams was overdue

They didn’t linger long in the room as she bit his lips in beautiful retaliation for his tongue just moments before.

And every day, every hour

Everybody would find what I found in your heart.

The damn bed seems miles away, but they finally reach it after knocking over half of everything that stood between it and the path to the mattress. The laughter was interrupted by the kissing and the kissing interrupted by the laughter, but somehow they managed to control themselves enough to get rid of the rest of the clothes that were still in their way.

As the hymn with airs of false pivot ended, at last they did not disappoint it by. As they too didn’t let silence prevail for the rest of those dark hours.

“Same for me.”, she whispers the words at about the same time as he seem to surface the same memories again. Answering the mute question of her own. Steve smiles as he sees in her almost the same countenance as before. She can’t describe the feeling that that corner smile of his caused her. The old ode had already ended and left between them, in them, a glimmer, like an omen in the background, a carefree presage guiding them.

They had been close before, but he hadn't noticed her wrists only inches from his and she knew she had leaned at least a foot away from where his chest now was. After he dipped his head against hers, it was nothing more than a light nuzzle, a mere peck on the lips and a slight premature deepening, but it was also what they had time for.

Before the sliding door was opened without a hint of description and they parted their faces apart and opened their eyes to the newcomer.

“... and I thought I could give a puppy to Wanda.”, was the only thing they could discern from the slurred speech of Bucky, who was looking at them with an excited smile and had in his arms...

The dumb duck?

“f*ck.”, they both let out at the same time. How had she managed to do that without being discovered?!

“I came here only to warn you that something was moving inside of her backpack there in the kitchen and Tony almost shot directly at it, must have thought it was an ostrich egg hatching or something. But I see I came at a really bad time, you guys seem to be pretty busy yourselves.”, he didn’t seem the least bit sorry to do so. With him, the grayish duck continued staring bizarrely without making a sound.

“Your timing is always terrible.”, Nat looked at the bird in total disbelief. “But how was it that...”

“Where were you two and what were you doing so distractedly that you didn’t see a kid that size sneaking a duck this size?”, he continues to completely amuse himself, “Although it’s you were talking about... Steve, do you by chance remember that day when we were younger and I came into your room just in time to...

The thing lets out a raspy squawk that scares them all. As in a domino effect they get Friday’s alert, Wanda was starting to wake up.

“Out, now! Before I kick your sorry ass all the way to Atlantic City.” Steve makes mention of pushing him, his face now a total mask of irritation.

“Jeez cross, Stevenson, you really kiss your baby mama with that dirty mouth of y...,” the door is slammed in his face, and that of his poor hostage.

Nat crossed the room after making sure by the system that the girl had only rolled over from side to side and closed her eyes again. But that she was close to waking up if again, since her sleep was extremely light.

“She’s asleep, but I must go before the Spanish Inquisition enters the chambers of sin right here.”, she says and he puts his hands in his pockets, in a bashful attitude completely opposite to the one he had just seconds ago. Maybe it’s the fact that their daughter has just committed a more than obvious kidnapping right under the noses of two of the best agents in the world, but she finds herself sufficiently numbed even by his null responsiveness.

“We’ll talk to the delinquent at dawn, though I’m sure the poor creature will suffer much more at the hands of your friend, so you’d better see that too.”, he nods as she advances to him.

“I’ll make sure of it.”, reads itself as he was headed to Bucky’s room in a mission to drown him in flush water anyway. So he might as well also get the animal, the one with feathers, after that.

She stands on her tiptoes and he holds his breath too late, but seals his eyes when the kiss is positioned instead affably just at the corner of his lips. The sensation tingles until it reaches the beginning of his ear.

“Fancy seeing you.”, she almost snorts at his face. Nat walks out with steady steps and quietly closes the door as he is practically melting towards the floor. On the other side, she stood for some time still trying to recover from the slight dizziness. So much for another belated birthday with them.

Chapter 7: Вместе

Chapter Text

Bruce, The duck, as he was wisely named, became an honorary and lightning member, so to speak. The day after the poor guy’s theft/kidnapping, Steve and Nat got together to talk seriously with Wanda. They sat side by side facing her, who stared at them distractedly, the duck had the glossy feathers stroked in her lap and bent his head following the hand in a disconcertingly cat-like manner. After a while they put him back in his new habitat, translates as the bathtub, while they solved the first obstacle at hand.

“You know why we had to call you here, Wanda.”, Nat let her tone of voice steady towards the girl, who cast her an attentive glance before returning her gaze to the door that lead to the critter . Steve looked from one to the other before entering the conversation.

“You took the duck without talking to anyone, why did you do that?”, she looks at him with a small, lonely line formed between her frowning eyebrows. Her lips are further protruding forward, especially the lower one, in a pronounced pout as if she is about to cry.

“I wanted to.”, plain and simple. Well, it wasn’t as if she necessarily knew certain things. “You said no Peppa.”, Natasha looked at him intently as her speech registered on his face. Despite the situation, she wanted to laugh desperately at the seconds it took for him to realize that this was the byproduct of his so called ‘child psychology’.

Steve clears his throat in bewilderment as he sees Natasha turning her face to the side wanting to restrain herself.

“So you took the duck without asking.”

“Yes.”

“So I wouldn’t say no to you.”, she let the affirmative hang in the air as she swung her legs over the edge of the large armchair where minutes earlier she had given the duck a practically raw piece of pancake. They should probably stop her from feeding it human food. And made by Bucky, no less the girl was giving it to Bruce I, The Silent. As he would later come to be recognized.

“I know it may not seem like it, kid, but that’s also wrong, you just did it because you knew we wouldn’t let you.”, he tried to handle that as cautiously as possible, but as already mentioned, it was awkward balancing what would make sense or not in her ears. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“But you not say no.”, she relents in confusion, trying to articulate herself properly. She would come and go in the use of the simple past mainly, most of the things she didn’t pick up with them came from the children’s programs.

It would probably help too if she wasn't so nervous.

She really seems to have trouble understanding, even though she knows (and they know she knows) that they would not agree. It is interesting, even distressing, that what she says kind of makes sense. Look at them, being taken down by someone who could barely reach the doorknob and who didn’t even knew the concept of logic.

“You should always ask us first, Wanda, so you’ll know. It was dangerous to put Bruce in your bag, you can’t do it again, all right?”, Nat sounded a little softer than he did, although they were both probably more stirred than she was as they faced their first disciplinary action as parents. It was uncomfortable to scold her like this, in a more than serious way, more than anything it was tricky to try not to be so strict but at the same time get the message across.

“Right.”, she had her tiny hands together in a anxious gesture, her doe green eyes focused on them, blurred. They had arranged earlier to break the news together, not only because she probably wouldn’t do the mental calculation, but also because then there might be a better unity in approach.

However, Nat understood when he whispered quickly to her before they looked at Wanda again, he felt it was his duty to correct any wrong message he had accidentally passed on to her. Natasha didn’t agree with that guilt, but she did what he wanted anyway.

“I’m sorry, but Bruce can’t stay with us.”, the impact was instantaneous, the first tear fell over her joined hands. A thick, round drop that splashed lightly on her wrist.

“I’m good, promise.”, she returned him with a pained countenance as more tears appeared. Steve tried not to look directly at her, but it seemed impossible, she pleaded with him with her face already flushed from crying.

“He can’t stay away from nature, honey, it’s his place, he’ll be sad away from the other ducks.”, it was difficult indeed to explain the concept of home to her who was still learning to allow herself to have them as her own. She scratched one of her wet eyes when a sob came, as she always did when weeping.

“Please, Steve.”, she added his name after pausing for air. A thin wail came out of her mouth and she let out shaky sounds with her throat, like a guttural whimper that gradually intensified. Nat reached out to push the hair away from her face as she coughed while choking on her own lament. They had only witnessed a similar one coming from her the day they had met, when she had asked Pietro to eat too. Other than that, whether in the sporadic tantrums or even when she asked for him before bedtime, she had never cried like that. With the contrary desires or commands it was tiredness or just the naturally incomprehensible spirit of the age, and with the memories of her friend it was more of a longing, yearning. Never like this, with sad and desolate eyes, never truly hurt.

“No, Wanda.”, it was harsh, but she needed that, so did he. The shock was snatched away by another whimpering whine. She mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable amidst her tearfulness.

It was when he tried to comfort her that they surprised each other even more, she pulled away from his raised arm. Looking at him for only a few seconds, her little face now a pinkish mess and already a tad swollen, staring upset. Ignoring him completely soon after, she instead climbed onto Natasha’s lap and nestled there with a hidden countenance in her neck, turned away from Steve.

It was a blow to him, you could tell. Nat tried to talk to him with the crying child still clinging to her, but he only said that it was better to let her calm down for now. And walked out the door, visibly shaken.

It was a dichotomy-breaker for the other two, Nat knew that. It wasn’t as if she was any less close or fond of the girl, but Steve was clearly more permissive and less strict about what she did or didn’t do. It was understandable that she found it strange that he was less compliant, although Nat had no intention of commenting on that at the moment the two of them knew that she was only doing this because she strongly believed that he would eventually give in to her whims. They had considered a punishment, a light one perhaps, a day without TV or a few reflective minutes in the discipline corner, as Sam had suggested, but getting the duck out of her seemed reprimand enough for the moment, maybe not the most orthodox thing to do, but it was what they could manage at the moment.

Nat eventually came down to the kitchen with her still curled up, now only an annoyed whimper came out of her. She could feel the collar of her t-shirt and her neck soaking wet, the little girl’s ragged breathing tickling her skin.

Sam and Bruce, the human one, were talking about something in the corridor to the dining room and stopped immediately when they saw them coming, both looking at the disconsolate child with expressions of surprise and concern, they had never witnessed anything like this. Nat continued to stroke Wanda's long hair as she walked between them to her destiny. Bruce said goodbye to The Falcon and went back down to his lab, the latter having only let out an affectionate laugh and a disbelieving shake of his head at hearing of the tribute made by the little kid earlier, but Wilson accompanied them to the kitchen counter.

Once they were seated, Wanda allowed her to disengage a bit, spying curiously as Sam settled on the other side of the rack. Looking shyly through her own coppery strands for that.

He didn’t have to dig very far to notice that something was bothering Natasha as well, although she was obviously more composed. Her physiognomy denoted some disguised air of worry, or as much as she could express now.

“Bruce?”, he didn’t need many alternatives to get what was going on right either.

“Steve told her the duck can’t stay with us.”, even though she spoke at a slightly lower volume, the result of that information was more of a sobbing tearful snort. Nat waggled her eyebrows finishing the information with a ‘and that’s what it came to’.

“And where is he?”, he looked confused, not for nothing either. If Wanda was like that the least one would expect was that Steve was as always trying to cheer her up or at least doing that thing he was doing now, of watching her almost unblinkingly when she climbed the new playground slide or even when Bucky let her jump on his shoulders. The tension so strong in his face that the lines of expression could be carved in marble

“Not a favorite right now.”, she points silently at Wanda. Now it is Sam who moves his face in a surprised grimace and raises his eyebrows not understanding, or understanding and yet confused, in this case.

“Oh.”, he summed up his entire expression to that response. Wanda had rested her chin on Nat's shoulder and was looking outside through the glazed wall opposite the china cabinets. “Do you think I should...”

“Go talk to him? I think it would be a good idea, thank you.”, without saying anything else, he stands up and runs his hand once over the top of the girl’s head before leaving. One last glance at the other grown up is also fully readable in ‘don’t know who it’s going to be harder to console’.

A few more minutes passed and although she was also mentally listing the possibility of taking the kid outside for some air, Natasha knew she couldn’t let that go straight through her, even if it was in vain like that so immediately.

“Come on, Zaya, I think you’ve cried all you had to cry for today.”, she said, bringing the girl to face her a few inches from her chest after more than an hour they had been standing there. Her small one was puffy and scarred, her button nose and freckled cheeks red as tomatoes, most of all she had a sort of aggrieved expression on. Heading to the side bathroom, Nat made her sit on the sink in front of her and as with one hand she secured her belly from a fall with the other she brought the water. Natasha dried her with equal care, Wanda looked at her calmer although still visibly unsettled, the towel passed over her cheek and washed away some fresh tears that flowed down noiselessly.

To say that she felt helpless and tense by the situation was an implied factor. Not as if she disagreed with what had needed to be done, she assented to it before. It was true that a part of her, a large part at that, wanted nothing more than to coddle and indulge Wanda without thinking about the precise consequences, but she also shouldn’t go against what they had decided earlier, she needed to support Steve in that. There was no way they could keep the animal even with the acres of land around the grounds, there was only the artificial pondage-something created by Tony and even then this was not enough for the duck to move around or even return to the site, not to mention they barely knew what to do with Wanda herself, what were they going to do with a duck for the sake of everything? Bucky, obviously offered to be Bruce’s guardian, but they wouldn’t agree to that anyway knowing that one way or another it would be under their responsibility, apart from the problems of the lack of correct ecosystem of course. Wanda needed that discipline, Steve reminded her before they entered into that talk... And as much as it pained them, it wouldn’t be right to keep a poor wild creature, not when nature was its place.

It wasn’t that he was really stolen as official property of the zoological park, really. The single lagoon that cut through the properties had one or two rafts every right season and at most what she had done was kidnap him from his group. By the time they would get back there the ones he belonged to would probably no longer be on site and even then going back there after the keeper discovered them could be dangerous. Just imagine the tabloids it would give, there could even be snoopers who went there only for the rumors.

“Are you feeling any better?”, Wanda lowered her eyes at the question, even if asked only for the sake of it.

“I want Bruce.”, she sobbed wearily as Natasha went ahead to tie her hair with a flower elastic that was previously on her own wrist. “Steve is angry with me.”, she sounded out next.

Nat only sighed and prepared to do whatever it was she knew to do at that time.

“Steve is not angry with you, darling, he would never be like that. But he thinks that Bruce would be happier around others just like him, a bathtub is not the right place for a duckling to live, he needs to go.”, she averted merely and momentarily Natasha feared that she too was going to be rejected. However, something even worse occurred, the girl paled so subtly that Natasha could almost feel a shiver running down her spine too.

“Go? Pietro go too.”, the alarm rear in her voice, even if her face was not livid yet.

“No!”, she signaled with unexpected vehemence before calming down as well, Wanda’s eyes widened as she cried all over again. Natasha tried to think, she ran her gaze around the bathroom in search of a way out, but what she spoke was much more panic than reasoning. “Bruce isn’t really leaving, not like Pietro, not like that, no, he’s going to.... Uh, a... to a farm.”, she mentally slapped herself with her solution. Straight from the worst parental book not available.

She seemed to relieve herself a little more, not exactly happy, but perhaps less worried. She had long ago understood in her own way that the Maximoff boy would never return, Natasha couldn’t believe how eagerly unhinged she had responded to her despair at the possibility of the duck leaving as well.

“I see him then?”, it wasn’t stressed so much as a question, she also didn’t seem surprised by it as if it was her suggestion, it was like a direct implication, something that would happen naturally or obviously.

And that’s when at last the penny has dropped for Nat.

But of course, how had they not realized this before? Wanda wouldn’t know the difference between Pietro’s go and the duck’s go, by talking that Bruce couldn’t stay they were just informing, in her little head (even when Steve denied it or even while she was crying), that the animal wouldn’t be in the same place as them, but that she would still have access to it. Since the going of ‘never see again’ would relate to her as to Pietro, as if the duck was going to die, not that she knew what it was or that what had happened had been death. In the end the bill would be the same if they were also taking him away from her forever.

“Yes baby, you see him at the farm.”, as she said that she knew with full awareness that a promise made to that child was something that could never be broken. She wiped the girl’s face again, but now with her fingers only, Wanda truly smiled a bit at least. Nat wondered if she should even poke the hornet’s nest right then and there, but eventually decided to take advantage of the brief ‘spontaneous’ opportunity that had arisen. “I know you know that Pietro has gone somewhere very far away, Wanda.”, she began, ever so slowly, what she received was an interested and minimally reluctant glance.

“You know, there is the going like Pietro, but there is also the going like the Bruce duckling, many people need to separate, but that doesn’t always mean that they can’t see each other anymore, nor does it mean that he doesn’t like you anymore just because you don’t see him every day.”, she wants to say about the animal, but that ends up serving for both of them. Wanda appears to ponder her words as much as possible, her eyelashes heavy and still clinging and damp. When she suddenly seems to surface again, her request is so simple and practical that it sounds even more innocent.

“Nat, I want cake.”, she says, suddenly and startlingly remembering that she had not tried the one for her birthday.

“Sure.”, Nat thanks the heavens that it is finally something attainable for the time being, pulls her out of there once more and heads back to the kitchen. From her safety-locked chair attached to the high countertop, she watches as the adult takes from the fridge the still existing half of the carrot cake ordered especially to please her taste buds. After cutting slices for them, Nat puts the rest away and goes in search of the cutlery, but she just can’t find Wanda’s fork and while she looks for it the girl's patience is exhausted, apparently, for she returns with both pieces in hand and chubby fingers already attack the orange batter with voracity.

Shrugging shoulders for the first moment of quiet, she sits down and begins to fork the telltale dessert, beside her Wanda was not shy about stuffing chunks of cake into her mouth, there was frosting under her fingernails and she was definitely distracted by it. Natasha couldn’t hold back her laughter when she took a particularly larger piece and it dripped down between the space of her thumb and forefinger, falling back onto the plate and smearing from her upper lip to halfway up her nose.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Bucky really is a consanguineous relative of Steve.”, she grumbled as she wiped the girl with one of the tissues in the bottom drawers. Hearing the name of her partner in crime, Wanda raised her attention. “He’s definitely a bad influence on you.”, she didn’t grumble as much as relented that knowledge outloud. Wanda licked her hand again spreading even more food on the rest of her face. And she continuously allowed, as long as she was calm and satisfied, Wanda could even destroy the west side mezzanine with a red gust, Nat joked mentally.

The scarlet tendrils were kept only for times when she intended them, for now, when playing or even when voluntarily showing tricks to someone, usually her or Steve. She didn’t use them in anger or sadness exactly, they already knew that what released the mode of her ‘autopilot’, so to speak, were dangerous situations or quite specific emotional triggers that by purely unfortunate means they couldn’t be aware of unless they were to happen.

She was still eating slowly and nonchalantly when Pepper entered the kitchen in unusually casual clothes, she had slept next to Tony after the brief celebration.

“Good afternoon, girls, I hadn’t seen you today.”, she had sleep marks and eyes still half-nailed while making her way to the coffee machine.

“Hi, Pepp.”, Nat nodded in her direction and smiled cordially, her friend looked expectantly at Wanda, but she ignored them as she cared only for her plate. At this point one hand was supporting her cheek while the other was picking at the filling and the still existing crumbs.

“Rough day?”

“You don’t even want to know.”, the noise and smell of the drink seemed to have awakened the girl briefly as she cast interest to the abandoned mug in front of her while Potts searched for the doughnuts left by of the day before. Nat gave her the famous look she had been perfecting for weeks now, almost at the same time as Pepper placed her sippy cup with the remaining grape juice from the night before on the table. She picked it up dodging the automatic negative in case she tried to try caffeine once again.

Natasha thought she would be more tired after all that, but the girl didn’t seem pending to nap and was now absentmindedly sipping her beverage after her face and limbs were definitely clean. She needed to talk to Steve, not only because he was probably still a jot discomposed, but also to inform him of the big decision she had made on her own. She had no choice, by that, it was this or something worse, and Wanda looked at her with that desolate and shattered profile, what was she supposed to do anyway? Tell the girl to swallow up and that they would get rid of the duck in the bush nearest the road?

Pepper was chatting with her about a few amenities here and there, while Wanda had returned to her lap and was looking interestedly at the back gardens. This did not go unnoticed by either of them.

“How about you and I go for a walk in the newly planted rose bushes, huh? I bet you’ll love them.”, the woman offered after a brief and sensitive catching of what was going on. Wanda looked at her a bit indecisively, but if there was anything she liked better than animals (and pancakes) it was definitely plants.

“Go on, have fun, I’ll be waiting right here.”, she grabbed Pepper’s hand and followed her less excitedly than usual, but it wasn’t surprising. Wanda wouldn’t turn down an outdoor walk even if an axe was splitting her head in half.

Steve was returning from a run at an unusual time when he spotted her walking across the gravel tiles next to Pepper, she pointed to some white flowers in the more pruned hedges and they moved further towards the small open grove in which she and Natasha used to play, a little closer to one of the side entrances was her new double swing, for which they seemed intent.

He slowed his pace in long strides and walked into the kitchen, already heading for the refrigerator. From the transparent surfaces he had already seen Nat talking on the phone and exiting into the hallway afterwards, so he was not surprised when she returned after a short while, putting the cell phone back in her pocket and looking at him with a quizzical expression. They stared at each other tensely for a few seconds as he took a long swig from the last bottle of coconut water in the house, she stared at him with a funny look too, as if she didn’t know how to start the conversation. That was probably the case.

“So, does she hate me now or what?”, he tried to make an ill-prepared joke, Nat crossed her arms as she sat back down on the countertop, but he preferred to remain standing near the marble. He was too sweaty and should have long ago left for a nice, long shower.

“She doesn’t hate you, she’s just hurt because you’re always on her side and now don’t want to please her. She’ll get over it soon enough, don’t worry.”, she more positively cheered than said out of pure opinion, although her playful tone was visibly forced. They didn’t know to what level her confidence was strong enough in them at that moment, although they were her caregivers, it had been just over a month since she had been in their company.

“Do you really think so?” he inquired uncertainly and painfully resigned.

“Sam talked to you today?”, not subtle, but for that it was passable. Steve sent his chin in affirmative before pulling up an opposite chair, he could delay this shower by a few more minutes.... She watched the dark fabric sticking so wetly to the muscles of his chest, he didn’t carry his headphones with him as he almost always did, much less seem inclined to make one of his known green juice that made others turn up their noses and she take a sip or two depending on how acidic the one for the day was.

“He came to see me earlier, but I was already leaving. We’ll catch up later.”, Steve moved one of the stupidly hard limes from the oddly designed fruit bowl that Tony had stubbornly applied to the room in pale pastel colors, standing out as It was from the usually minimalist and more soberly colored rooms. Except for the private chambers, which filled the rest of the building. She found herself somewhat squeamish about witnessing it that sturdy.

“I know you’re shaken right now, Steve, but take it from me, she’ll forget It, you’ll just see. I guarantee you that by dinnertime she’ll be getting into your good graces and asking you to lift her up with only one arm again.”, she tries, and he looks at her totally serious before a tired sigh comes out of him.

“I know this probably won’t last, I think she’ll be resentful for longer than that, but still it’s on my mind that this is the first time ever that she feels I’ve betrayed her trust, Nat. And I did! even if I didn’t mean it or even if it was because she misinterpreted a line of mine, because she needed to hear it or because I didn’t know how to say it, she feels betrayed, that’s why.”, there wasn’t much to act tenaciously from that, it wasn’t exactly an untruth, even if it wasn’t so well pitched.

“You did what you had to, don’t beat yourself up so much, I know that sad little pouty of hers and those giant eyes just eats us alive, but you sure as hell held out as long as you could.”, she argues, snatching the unpalatable fruit from him and merely leaning it against his solitarily dry palm before passing the lime from one hand to the other. “It’s either that or she becomes a spoiled, willful brat who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer and who at every problem turns to her dad because she knows he’ll do whatever it is that she wants.”, Steve eyes her with suspicion in overlapping more instant appreciation.

“You rehearsed that while I was away, didn’t you?”, she aims at him with staged nonchalance before returning to the subject.

“In between my own bout of insecurity? You can be sure of that.”, she tossed the petrified object/fruit/item back to its usual place. “If you’re feeling like a bad parent just wait until you hear what I told her when she asked about the duck leaving us.”, he stilted curiously, clearly waiting for the misfortune that would make him feel less unhappy and isolated. She huffs audibly before continuing.

“Basically, she was in the bathroom with me finishing up crying and I unwittingly hinted that the bastard would leave in exactly the same way you had communicated about Pietro, so she panicked without understanding the difference from one going to the other and I had to say that we would visit him at a farm.”, Steve looked at her more than bewildered, he wondered if everything she had said made sense especially to her ears. Nat wasn’t the biggest fan of the pet, that’s an understatement.

“Farm? You promised her you’d make him live on a farm.”, he wanted to chuckle at that, imagining her totally unready to remedy the girl’s immediate doubts.

“Yeah, but don’t you think I was totally unprepared, I just talked to Clint.”, she props her elbows up and looks smug.

“And...”

“And he’s agreed to stay with Bruce, the hapless duck, as long as we visit them when we go to drop It off, see? Flawless, my system works like never before.”, he feigned congratulatory applause.

“A real master outing I must say.”

“Isn’t it? I practically had an aneurysm when I realized what she had understood, and the explanation was kind of botched, I admit. But I think she caught the difference pretty well in the end.”, was what she hoped.

He shook his head thoughtfully.

“Anything else from that conversation?”, she looked again carefully, trying to see exactly how to speak to him. He was eager to know and it would be nothing new, the two of them were always present in any situation that involved her up to that.

“Well, it’s not exactly a hard realization to make, but she thinks you’re mad with her for what she did.”, he opened his mouth in shock and by pure reflex ran his eyes around her back to see if Wanda and Pepper were around.

“See, I knew I should have used another approach, you should have talked to her, you have a better handle on this sort of thing! I don’t know how to be firm and hardline like that.”, she decided to ignore the compliment that could also be insulting for the time being.

“You’re kidding me, aren’t you? Because if there’s one person I know who knows how to be a professional pain in the ass, that person it’s you.”, he looked at her, half indecisive between pleased and offended.

“Thank you?”, she looked at him more intensely.

“I mean you know how to be as firm and hardline as I do, example of that was that you closed the subject and she realized it, the fact that you were upset that she walked away afterwards doesn’t mean anything. I would have felt that way too, it has more to do with the person you let down than the thing letting you down, she’ll understand.”, eventually she added just to herself.

He agrees a second time with a hard shake of his head, now raising his gaze to her as he does so.

“I suppose you're right.”, he looks at him incredulously.

“Yes, I generally am, Rogers, thank you very much.”, she retorts, though her thoughts drift to what she had not directly assunted since the night before. “I still need to know how it was that she managed to catch him that fast, how he was silent the whole time, how we didn’t notice anything.”, she almost exasperated remembering the alarmed squawks the ducks let out with Wanda around, but every glance they gave her there she was, a perfect halo above the head.

“She’s good.”, Steve marveled as he went through the whole possible process of hiding the animal. Without a shadow of a doubt hiding the duck completely was her long plan, which was not at all practical considering she was not left alone for any second of the day, but forgivable due to the extent of scheming and the maturity of the doer.

“Almost too good... I’ll tell you that, for someone fresh out of the diapers she is frighteningly sneaky.”, Nat smiled a little despite what she was saying herself, Steve looked at her strangely. Nat answered him with a very unfriendly face.

“Don’t give me any reprimands here, buddy, she colored a flag in a book once and you almost took a picture to put in the album.”, he thinks about countering her, but gives up right in the middle of posting. The glass door opens and although Steve, particularly, prepares for the inevitable, Wanda enters still entertained in a chat with Pepper. The two walk past them as if they hadn’t seen them, probably heading for the living room.

“Good to know I’m not the only invisible one here now, are you sure you didn’t accidentally step on the giraffe again?”, Steve makes fun in a less compressed tone as he gets up heading for his bathroom. Also just in time to dodge a flying fruit that flies right past his shoulder.

Wanda ‘disappears’ from their sight for the rest of the afternoon, which is already unusual; Pepper rarely spent whole days like this with them, so it was a good opportunity to spend some time with her.

“They’ve taken over the kitchen to make dinner.”, Nat dodges another sloppy swipe from Steve, it turned out he didn’t go for his shower after all and she instead followed him into the training room, enjoying the rare free time. He frowns and unintentionally gives a good opening to her, who takes advantage.

“And that’s a good idea?”, she knew he was still mostly torn, though no less resentful, to have her bonding so strongly with the others while he himself had had no contact with her since noon. Nat stopped in mid act of creeping up on him so she could answer It, they had been practicing physical clashes for an hour or so now and as time went on it was hard not to get scattered into other concerns. Not to mention that they hadn’t done it together since the girl had come into their lives.

“I don’t think there’s any danger, I trust Pepper. Other than that, Wanda never does anything unless she sees an adult do it first, she’s pure example.”, she parks her flexed legs in a more relaxed mention to signal the pause. He does the same, although he was already visibly less focused.

“I don’t remember stealing anything at Target last week, do you?”, he speaks with sarcasm, but she doesn’t even need to supplement her thought before he finishes his as well. “Maybe we should really think seriously about keeping her away from Bucky from now on.”, Nat considers the idea for a second, moving closer to him.

“It might be a good thing, that is if you can stay away from him for more than one night in a row.”, she returns to the resort of before, but he is caught by her speech without even caring in his return to the fight.

“What does that mean?”, she circles him almost languidly, though her feline movements are far more sure-footed than that of any minimally inattentive person, almost like second nature, as they say. Nat laughs at the question, but answers it just the same.

“I mean you two have a bizarrely platonic relationship even for the banners of this team.”, she shakes with her hand the small ponytail she had made in her own hair amid starting, he snorts incredulously.

“No we don’t, no, we’re as close as Sam and I or you and Clint.”, she makes a falsely reflective expression as she reaches behind his back once more.

“Don’t know, I’m positive I’ve never bathed Clint with an erotic sponge before.”, she stretches to speak that close to his ear preliminary to returning to the siege. Steve stutters at the last word, not knowing whether to laugh or laugh even harder at that rumor.

“Really? Is that what Sam gossiped to you people? He was drunk as a skunk and I feared he would drown in the full tub, I didn’t bathe him, I just made sure his head stayed on the surface, which Wilson was too busy vomiting all over my floor to be able to do. And what would an erotic sponge be, anyway?”, he legitimately questions in confusion, getting no further response. The prospect of someone like Bucky being that intoxicated, and in an alcoholic coma practically it seemed, was somewhat disconcerting, what had he ingested anyway, a still the size of Texas? It was Tony’s party and even if all the waiters had served him only, that should be impossible. The mystery remains unsolved. He must have mixed bleach in It or something.

“I saw him burp you once.”, she says walking up to him and grimaces at the memory. Now no longer so focused on attacking him. Steve tries to remember what she tells him of.

“That? That was nothing, I was choking on a chicken bone and he even did the incorrect maneuver.”, she partially remembers that it had been about a barbecue, yes.

“If you say so, I believe you.”, the small smile became prominent.

“Jealous?”, he jumped in on the joke, taking another step to lessen the distance that was already not great between the two of them. Nat watched him with purposefully theatrical disregard.

“Now who needs to get real here? Like you don’t come running at the slightest sign from me.”, he tried to see, for a millisecond he felt, he thought she was more serious, but he knew Nat wouldn’t bring up the previous night like that, not when they had even touched on the subject.

“A little sure of ourselves, aren’t we?”, her smile widened considerably at the mocking tone, also getting into the game.

“I never bet to lose, Captain, I thought you knew that by this point.”, she rests an arm unassumingly on his shoulder, but things slip quickly and unsure of the level of seriousness, still. A wink and he knows she’s more joking than gambling, at least right now.

“What about Bucky’s threat? Aren’t you afraid that our passion will come to fruition before you get to your so-called point?”, she laughed tasty. He did also at his own idiotic saying.

“Your story is fated to failure, you know how it works, don’t you? There’s no thinking brain in the relationship, no emotion.”, she taunted him, also passing her other arm around his neck. “I’d even put up with a threesome under other circ*mstances to help, but our initial goal of avoiding him would kind of be lost with this.”, Steve feels her fingers running with as little to no contact as possible through the hairs on the back of his neck.

“How very charitable of you.”, he lowers his face more toward her. This time, remaining attentive and alert enough to notice the urge in her features as well. “Although I must admit that I think you are treating the disturbingly strong bond between him and me with a certain disregard.”, he goes so far until their noses are touching, he feels the cool, warm breath coming from her, but it doesn’t reach his mouth. The two of them are dripping on the padded floor from so much sweat.

“As long as you don’t impregnate him with your Jurassic super sperm either, I’m pretty chill.”, she teases, but the barely noticeable yaw of her chin doesn’t contribute when he moves forward, which is no longer even forward since they are glued to each other. To deposit a chaste kiss on the tip of her nose.

Her confusion doesn’t last at all, in fact it doesn’t even materialize. Since they both take advantage of the breakdown of expectations to try to bring each other down, in a double move and without much intent. They end up collapsing together as well, a mess of legs after Steve manages to land the first blow, and she recovers quickly enough from her failure to pull him along with her.

And they laugh again, because the action is so pathetic that only that can come out of it. It hadn’t been a real effort, it was true, but it had been a while since they had flirted in joke form, or flirted at all. The last time had ended up a smidge seriously years before. It was the kind of friendship they had always had, possibly, she knew she would never do that with Clint or even Tony, it was a great level of intimacy, but at the same time impersonal enough, at least when they first met, that it wasn’t awkward afterwards. Steve had also never met anyone like her before, especially someone who was apparently always pushing him into sex, whether with others or herself, which one would say was not an exact habit, since they had only been together for real that one single time. At least that was all they thought there was to be, weeks ago. Now it was almost impossible not to relive and reaffirm some things.

They lay staring at the distant ceiling for a few more minutes.

“Couple days as parents and we’ve already lost the groove. God forbid, I’m afraid we’re starting to run out of steam.”, Natasha moves her legs away from his to sprawl more comfortably on the tatami.

“Speak for yourself.”, she turns her propped up head to see him. “I’ve always been lame.”, she lets out the air in a discredited gesture, but he is unmoved. “It’s true, just imagine if we had met in high school, you already a trained assassin and me a scrawny little thing about five feet tall.”

“First you would have to build a time machine for that to be even remotely possible, Dr. Brown. But yes, we were quite different at that age.” , she takes a slightly more distant intonation, what he had spoken arousing a new doubt in her. “Do you think she’ll want to follow in our footsteps? With the whole missions thing and all? I mean, not that we would allow it as long as we can, but she has the potential.”, that was undeniable. They dreaded the years ahead when she would have more of a sense of what she was and what she had done, what she was capable of. Making her one of the Avengers was absolutely out of the question and Stark, even Fury that was, would listen for an entire century should they accept her for anything before she was of age. Which was only as far as they possessed any power of choice.

“It may depend on how she views everything around us from here on out. Right now she loves Sam, adores Bruce and jumps happily knowing Tony’s inventions and playing with Bucky’s arm, but that could all change, she could even rebel against it all and want to leave.”, he thinks aloud, alternatives that had crossed his mind before.

Until then Wanda had been as attached to the Avengers as they were, from the beginning. Not only because of her powers, but because the contact made in Sokovia had not only been with them, but with everyone else. It was hard just to imagine, they were all one big family of misfits since the start, walking away from there, from that life and from who made them who they were was totally unthinkable, not fitting. Again, that was a undeniable thruth; weeks ago.

“It would be hard, but I think we could figure it out.”, she catches herself talking too, meditating aloud. Steve looks at her and sees in her equally serene face that she too is not over the possibility that something might, in the distant or not so distant future, cause them to have to abandon everything to run away with her. A path that unfortunately existed even though they took every care and tried their best to keep her steady and normalized in a routine as stable as possible. If it came to be necessary...

“We could.”, he figures his own opinion naturally, not bumping into hers. Nat closes her eyes as if to sleep, and they continue thus in a sparse talk less inclined to disaster.

“Argh, I hate to leave you all alone and abated, pal, but someone gotta go and see if the thing still lives or if Wanda has finally taken him out to play again.”, she stands up grumbling and brushing invisible dust off her butt and knees covered by the dark leggings. She had already forbidden Wanda to levitate the animal more than five fingers off the ground.

“I mean, he is in your bathroom, isn't he?”, Steve teased, still not moving.

“But you’re the one trying to make amends with her, not me. It’s naturally your duty to pay for the mastermind.”, he flexed his arms up lazily.

“Eh, that mastermind is fifty percent yours, as far as I know.”, he mimics her grimace.

“When it suits you well.”, she turns away leisurely heading for the exit. Without seeing the silly grin that persists on him for even more.

Steve doesn’t persist much longer there by himself, everyone must be downstairs by now and he doesn’t intend to linger too long in the bathroom. The shower releases extremely hot jets just the way he liked them best and the thoughts that hadn’t left him, when she did, continue to spiral in his mind. There, with no one else around and in the silence filled with only the comforting sound of the water lapping against his body and then at the floor, he allowed himself to imagine a different life, new names and occupations, most likely they would have to drastically change their appearance as well. Get normal jobs and live in a normal house, just the three of them.

Where Wanda would grow up happy and healthy and away from the exposure she would be doomed to to a greater or lesser extent from then on. He and Nat would have to pretend to be a couple and for all intents and purposes and in the eyes of the neighbors they would be the perfect representation of a normal little family, nothing to look twice at. Maybe the father who left early to go to the office, or the garden with a tree house, and maybe even a dog that jumped on his chest when he opened the front door, soon followed by the light footsteps and childish laughter he had become familiar with.

It was silly, he turned off the water register after opening his eyes again. Such a life would be a measure of emergencies, this would only be possible away from everything and everyone, in another country and with new identities. Wanda needed not only them, It was selfish. Everyone had welcomed her as a new member of the family, and there he was, wanting to take her away to fulfill an old desire for which he had long since lost hope. Before the freeze, before he woke up in a new world, he thought he would have this life, if not with Peggy, then with someone else.

He never dreamed in a bazillion years that this would still be possible after all that had happened, much less that the person with whom he would set it up would be the same woman he had met as a lethal, fleet-eyed spy on the battlefield. Not to mention one of his best friends, it was confusing at times, the way they felt so comfortable around each other. After July 27 everything would change a bit and they would take a step back after she returned more than a year out of contact. She was strange, now he knew why, at least as far as Wanda’s pregnancy was concerned. He didn’t touch the subject of their last encounter and they moved on fluidly, though always with the ghost of that night of adventures lurking behind.

The possibility that they had known everything, that she had not been captured also haunted him time and again. The ironic thing, cruelly so after a few more conversations with Cho, who had done previous tests on Natasha before she became pregnant and therefore before she had her uterus completely removed, pointed out that the pregnancy had been fragile to the point that she probably would’ve suffered a miscarriage in the first few weeks, before she even knew what was happening to her, had she returned home after this mission. Nat didn’t plan any upcoming appointments and therefore would have no reason to do so, not to mention that she didn’t even bleed monthly, the state of her reproductive system was such that the advice of the doctors who passed by her after the red room was unanimous, removal as soon as possible. If it hadn’t been for her enhanced organism, she would surely have already suffered some ailment because of the destroyed organ inside her body.

Then these days it would be all in the past, she could have called after realizing what had happened just to let him know, as much as he trusted her he had no way of knowing exactly how she would feel about it, but otherwise that was pretty much it. There would be no further connection between them and he knew that he would surely spend the rest of his life wondering what might have been, Nat might feel that way too, perhaps to different degrees, now that he knew that the possibility of being a mother at any resort was never in her plans or expectations. And he would never hear the giggles, never premeditate the short, hurried strides or the lightweight that dropped into his arms afterwards every single time.

She had had a dark, unthinkable start in life, but it was done, and now it was up to them to make the forward as best they could, whether or not it was the way they had imagined.

He turned out the light and closed the bedroom door, heading to join the rest of them.

As he reached the dining room he saw that the table was already being set by the boys, Tony walked by with salad bowls in both hands and protesting about something to Bruce, who responded in a condescending manner as he handed out all the silverware and plates. Coming from the other entrance, Sam brought a large pitcher of lemonade and clinked all the balanced cups while Bucky slurped on the leftover birthday cake, again. From the kitchen, Pepper came out with an even bigger platter of meatball and pasta, a delicious smell following her, she smiled at him and continued to complain about someone sticking their dirty finger in the sauce pan. A stupid cackle in the other room denounced the offender.

At the smaller table in the center inside the cooking area were Wanda and Nat, the former standing on one of the chairs at her tiptoes. She was distributing sliced strawberries here and there on a flattened pastry while the other just supervised her work.

“It’s getting pretty good, Zaya, but don’t you think you have too many strawberries here?”, she pointed to one of the edges overstuffed with the fruit, uneven to the sight.

“No.”, she said bluntly and continuing to put more strawberries wherever she liked. Natasha just snickered and set it aside as she finished doing whatever she wanted. He stood at the entrance only watching them.

“Okay, that’s enough now, Widdle Waddle, let’s have dinner.”, she stopped the little one in her motion of bringing her syrup soiled fingers to her mouth. A mischievous gurgle accompanied her as Nat put her back down. Without saying anything, she walked past him with a suggestive look and peered from him to the girl, the pie in hand.

Wanda looked at him expectantly when he turned to her again, she also seemed to have showered and now had different clothes than earlier, but her feet were still bare and he suspected that was because she refused to put on shoes after walking on the grass. Her cheeks and hands were honeyed with strawberry treacle and her stance was more hesitant than normal.

“Shall we get cleaned up?”, she didn’t protest when he carried her to the sink. She liked the liquid detergent and he let her sit with her back to him so that her little feet were also subjected to the soapy water. It wasn’t exactly the most hygienic thing in the world, but it’s not as if she had stepped over hospital waste either. “Like this... You want more bubbles?”, she stated quietly even though he was already depositing more soap on her hands. Steve helped her wet her face as well, careful not to splash too much on her robes. Which turned out to be somewhat useless, as the faucet was like a waterfall at full throttle, wetting most the hem of her dress.

That was it. She was still upset, Wanda never missed an opportunity to talk if she could, much less if it was with him. But Steve didn’t know how to fix it, not how he should at least, he still had almost zero experience with children.

So he went with what he had, he knew, and hoped for the best.

“Wanda, about Bruce, I’m sorry if I made you sad with what I said, I didn’t mean to.”, she ran her hands under the running water once more. She gave no more sign that she was listening than to simply continue doing what she was doing. “I didn’t mean he would go away, he won’t really.”, he hoped she understood what he was trying to get across based on what Nat had told her.

“I visit him, Clint has a farm. Nat says has lots of animals!”, she said a little more excitedly, turning around as he wrapped up the cleaning, there was a stack of paper towels next to them, luckily. Steve returned her genuine smile.

“She told me so, we’re going over there to introduce him to his new home too.”, she drew in air in a surprise like manner and he laughed at her expression of pure excitement.

“I visit animals too! Clint has lots.”, she repeated the information and he found It even more funny. The archer better be ready, if he had any pigs then... “You know Pepper let me help with food?”, she said moving toward his arms.

“Really? I didn’t know that, and what did you guys do?”, he flatters her as they head outside.

“We made pasguetti and Tony put his finger in pan, Pepper fought him and he kissed her!”, she now points accusingly at the couple to one side of the table. Steve leaves her confused, he didn’t even know she knew what kissing was.

“Hey! We don’t rat here, little red. What did I tell you?”, Stark speaks as she automatically moves over to Natasha’s lap.

“Don’t tell her I tasted the meringue too.”, she handed him in her baby voice, with a giggle and repeating exactly every word. Pepper turned her eyes to him. Tony stretched further to speak directly to her, in a slightly lower tone.

“I’m beginning to think you didn’t deserve that reward, you tiny tricky fox.”, she just smiled in a coy way at him without saying anything else. Everyone looked at them interested.

“Wait a minute there, I can't believe it, Stark, did you just bribe my child?”, Steve looked at him dumbfounded as Bucky laughed along with Bruce and Sam shook his head with a smile. Natasha stuck her hand into one of the side pockets of the girl’s clothes, a single dollar bill appearing next.

“You’re unbelievable.”, Pepper was embarrassed by him, that was now halfway filling his own plate.

“What? We had a deal, it was fair.”, he shook his shoulders unabashedly.

“Yeah, and she still passed you off pretty good.”, Natasha said as the girl in her lap continues to laugh at the look on his face. The proof of the enticement has now been confiscated from her.

“Well done, only you would do that to a four year old.”, Steve continued scolding him in disbelief. Tony directed him an slightly more amused look before speaking again.

“You mean only i would admitted it, right? Because just today I saw Big Bird here asking her to levitate the remote control to him in exchange for a sundae later.”, Sam stops in mid chew so he can defend himself, but Steve is already looking at him completely outraged.

“Sam?!”

“In my defense I still owe her the sundae.”, he swallowed with difficulty the piece os pasta that almost got stuck in his throat.

“Shame on you, I would expect that from anyone or Bucky...

“Come on, man.”

“But you, Wilson? You frankly knew better than that.”, he searched for more words to embellish his guilt speech.

“I got a mug for Steve.”, everyone turns back to her, now picking up with her fork and other hand the cut pieces with meat that Nat was offering her.

“What did you say, love?”, Natasha knew what this was all about, she teased just the same, already wanting to hear the results.

“Steve says can you get that mug for me on the shell please and I g...”

“She’s hungry, get some more, sweetness, i know you said you wanted to try Pepper’s spaghetti.”, he practically jammed a fork into her mouth, Wanda looked at him confused as she accepted the food.

“Well, well, well...”

“It seems that you, perfect little mister, also corrupts innocent minds...”

“What an example of hypocrisy for the poor girl and...”

“Shame on you, Steve, I would expect that from anyone or me.”

“It was a very high shelf, okay?”, he spoke a little louder in an effort to shut down the hubbub, which dissipated some more. “And besides, I gave her a popsicle afterwards.”, the ranting came full circle again, with everyone talking over each other’s speech.

In the midst of the confusion, Wanda continued to eat giggling and content, having been the sole and majority beneficiary in all of it.

Chapter 8: La Chéile

Chapter Text

A weekend seemed reasonable for them, especially since it was Wanda’s first trip. That is, of course, if you disregard the sudden change of country, nationality and identity.

The little girl only talked about the visit to Clint’s farm for the rest of the week and when Friday finally arrived, she barely allowed herself to be dressed and combed so elated by the animals they, as well as Barton himself over the phone, had promised her.

Steve was still picking up from the floor some toys that she had dropped the night before, both of them so tired that he fell asleep right there on her couch.

“Okay, so we have everything in this bag here and that other one...”

“The rest of her clothes.”, Nat completed his sentence by tossing a small first-aid kit case in his direction. Knowing Laura it was possible there was a small emergency room at the back of the house too, but it was always good to make sure. Besides, Wanda had specifically prescribed vitamins, which she didn’t even know she was taking. No wonder there was always a glass of juice waiting for her.

“Great, I think we have everything, do you remember anything?”, he speaks as they disembark from the elevator on the first floor. Steve automatically directs them to the nearest exit, already with half of their luggage in hand. A shrill shout comes from the kitchen.

“Just a little something.”, she steps past him toward the outside, pointing with her head in that direction. Sam has offered to take them earlier and takes what he has in hand as he arrives to meet him and Natasha. The two of them leave chatting something on their way to the Quinjet.

When entering the room, although he already knows more or less what awaits for him, Steve still stares in amazement. Not to say almost astonishment.

“You really aren’t afraid to die without being sick, are you?”, upon hearing his voice, Bucky and Wanda turn glances at the same time. Both with the most washed-out innocent faces in the planet. “You know Nat won’t let it go if she sees you doing that again.”, he notes the fact. Not that he could blame her.

Two days earlier only the dynamic duo were fooling around, as usual in a not at all worrying/risky way. Basically Bucky was using his titanium arm to hold her in the air by resting his open hand right in the center of her belly, which in itself is not a very prodigious description. Add in there him spinning her around, again, with one hand. Then imagine him throwing her in the air in the middle of the rotation to then pick her up again, and what do you have? Yes, a possible exercise in how to knead well your pizza, but also a sure recipe... For disaster.

What happened was quite premeditated, simple physics, as Tony said. Despite the destructive potential and the sheer capability of his bionic arm, Bucky was still Bucky, and it was only someone, specifically Pepper, drawing attention to what he was doing, for him to be distracted for a millisecond. Enough also for Wanda to get off balance; they arrived shortly thereafter. And it was ugly.

Well, her injury wasn’t pretty either, of course. But the deadly look Natasha threw him upon seeing what had happened, Bucky might as well have fallen lifeless stiff and dry right there. Steve was the first to arrive of the two when Wanda was crying in fright and holding her shoulder, beside him, Barnes was almost at that point too, white as paper and apologizing in advance. Which didn’t help after Nat arrived and practically flew into his throat when they thought her arm had been broken, for the girl let out a scream when they tried to touch where the blow had been. Bruce assured them that there was no sprain or dislocation, but she was incredibly whiny for the rest of the day and that was mostly what kept Romanov from dragging his best friend by the hair to the nearest incinerator, as Wanda licked the lollipop given to her by Banner with one hand and clung to her mother with the other. Going through another examination was not a bed of roses for them either.

Bucky put the little girl down slowly as he let out a guilty smile.

“She asked me to, what did you want me to do?”, Wanda, now on the floor, tugged at his shirt demanding to be lifted up again.

“I don’t know, maybe to have more insight than a small child? Good start.”, he said, albeit in a falsely excited voice. “She let it go last time, man.”, Steve reasoned with him.

Bucky made a face at him as he took the child in his arms again.

“It’s not like I’ve come through everything here unscathed, neither. You almost left me deaf the day before yesterday.”, true, but it was also with zero violence, physical that is.

“Because you are lucky, with Nat it is a one-way street. Do you, by any chance, aim in the near future to become a E.U.N.U.C.H?, he spells the word even though Wanda doesn't know what it means.

“Have a safe trip.”, he stepped forward to hastily deposit the girl in Steve’s arms instead. “I’ll accept a slice or two of Laura’s peach pie.”, he said already walking away. “Bye, Monkey.”, he gave Wanda a crisp kiss on the cheek and went down the hall like dust in the wind. It was endlessly funny to see him avoiding Natasha the last few days, too bad it probably wouldn’t last too. The peace of mind of having him away had been a result with an expensive price to pay, no doubt about it.

“Bucky is afraid of Nat.”, Wanda partly laughed and partly reflected aloud, surely something she had heard from Bucky himself. She and Steve headed toward the aircraft where the others were already waiting for them.

“Yeah, it’s not always, but sometimes he’s a little smart.”, he spoke more to himself.

It was a comparatively short stay to the ones Natasha used to make with the family, usually she would visit them on holidays or even the children’s birthdays when she could, but that had changed abruptly, and how so. The crew was reduced to the three of them with Sam in the front, and the duck. The same one that was now snoring in a makeshift dog crate, it was bizarre but they almost felt attached to the strange creature. Wanda seemed more resigned to the fate of her newest friend, excited at the premise of meeting the Barton family. Just as they had done with the trip to the zoo, they directed her to let them know if she needed help, both of them fearful even without admitting it out loud. Clint and Laura dismissed their concerns and made it clear that they would talk to the kids before they arrived so that everything would go as smoothly as possible. Their optimism at times was almost picturesque.

She didn’t exactly seem fearful about the trip, since she couldn’t even remember the first and only time she had been transported there. But she remained observant and aware of the unfamiliar surroundings, the seats and seat belts were too big for her and even with her own adaptable one she seemed a bit uneasy, uncomfortable as they reached over half an hour into the flight. Steve took his leave to ask Sam about something and the two remained in a light lull. At least, until Natasha caught eyes at her after she was sure she had seen the kid almost dozing off.

“What’s up, Wanda?”, Nat noticed her tightening her lips and frowning confusedly, though her hands went towards unbuckling the safety bracket. There was only time for her to stand and loosen up the girl’s belt. The poor thing deposited the entire contents of her stomach on the upholstery, not to mention on Natasha, fumbling with her own act of coughing followed by squirts of vomit coming out of her nose.

There wasn’t much to do and nothing at hand with which to trim the jets of bile, so after calling out to him only once and trying to keep her voice controlled. She simply pushed Wanda away from the mess while at the same time trying to stroke her back. Perhaps somewhat hastily, given that the last stroke was right at the front of her shirt.

Upon arriving at the scene, Steve blinked in stupefaction as he saw her removing her own clothes by her head before walking past him with the child in her arms, also only in her underwear. The seats were soggy, a yellowish liquid that smelled strangely sweet and cloying. The apple juice from earlier.

He took it upon himself to move them to another row and go in search of something to clean up the damage, there would probably be some valve, button or whatever to make the job more efficient. But Steve thought about it too late.

Minutes later they still hadn’t returned and he headed for the restroom booth.

“Sam said there might be some turbulence, but I didn’t think it would be this much.”, he jokes after she answers the first knock. Wanda had to shower and leaned on her still a little despondent. Steve set down the clothes he brought with him in the sink, Wanda barely moving as she was dressed efficiently and Natasha glaring at him as she reached the piece intended for her.

“Funny, I don’t remember buying this one at SAX.”, she said even as she forwarded the giant cream colored sweater to her own head. He set down the bag with all the thousands of medicines they had separated together.

“I wasn’t going to go out searching and poking around in the middle of your clothes.”, he didn’t seem as outraged at the idea as she would normally expect, but it still matched. The hem went all the way down to her thighs and the sleeves needed to be rolled up. Wanda didn’t even wait for him to finish putting out of the box the liquid Dramamine that had been packed for her.

“No, no remedy!”, she tried to jump to the floor and had to be stopped before she hurt herself against it. Just great, they should have given it to her before they left the house, what a blunder they made

“Look at that, Wanda, if you take it you’ll feel better, don’t you want to feel better?”, Nat tried to encourage her, but she just crossed her arms in negative, both of them too short to do more than lean on her elbows alone. She just shook her head as the ready-made spoon with the drops quickly deposited approached her face, the girl covered her mouth with her hands in alarm.

“Come on, honey, it’s not even that bad. It’s raspberry flavored. You’ll like.”, Steve read the box again. “Here, it’s just a spoonful.”, he took Natasha’s cutlery to try as well. They were both too tired, a feat unheard of and to the sole credit of that tiny person.

“You drink.”, she pushes his arm away as she stretches her back as far as she can. He looks at Nat, who shrugs her shoulders at the same time.

“Okay, I’ll take it then.”, he sighs before turning the spoon back to himself. In an extremely poorly staged gesture, he pretended to take the light-colored liquid. Nat, who was just passively looking, watched him discredited, cheating.

“Fo’ real!”, to which the child pointed accusingly, still protecting her mouth. Expectation building as she saw him approach the spoon again. It had been a long time since he had taken any kind of antibiotics or antiemetics, nothing that wasn’t injected or medication heavy enough to knock out a horse. Which was still often quickly burned off by his differentiated system.

The taste was simply awful, It went without saying. He swallowed in one gulp and controlled his features as she studied them rather cautiously.

“Your turn now, Wanda.”, Nat hummed as Steve brought the cutlery closer again, filled for the second time. The grimace made by her is simply hilarious, her eyes squeezing shut and her face stretching in sheer gasp. “It tastes like urine!”, is what he babbles voiceless over her head to Natasha. Neither does she put up with the question of how and why exactly he would know what urine exactly tastes like. A glass of water later and they all return to their seats.

“It shouldn’t take full effect, anyway.”, Steve whispers as they still stared at her in silent analysis. They both suspected that while that was a pediatric medication approved by Cho, it was too mild compared to her particular organism. While any other child of the same age and especially weight would now be in the tenth sleep drooling on the sheets, Wanda at most was calmer and more tired, Steve hadn’t even felt a tickle after that thing.

Wanda was contradicted, not to say frowny after being denied her food for the fourth time, but they needed to wait a while after she went all Regan MacNeil on the Quinjet floor. So she was reclining on Steve, curled up next to Natasha’s old blanket that had accompanied her since leaving the hospital. Occasionally she looked a bit sleepy, but in general was just staring at the cartoon playing on her new iPad-thingy, given to her by you-know-who. It was hard to admit, but that had come in handy a lot lately. Nat sitting a little further away, in the seats that faced the front of theirs, sniffed discreetly into her cleavage, where the odor was still strong enough even after a few wet wipes, which was all she had time and access to.

“That bad?”, Steve who had only witnessed and dealt with the aftermath of the tragedy, laughed from the other side. Wanda, now on his lap, had a large plastic straw in her lips even without the slightest desire to drink the rest of her coconut water. Her hand playing distractedly with his shirt sleeve as they watched what seemed to be the thousandth episode of ‘Earth to Luna’ of the day.

“Imagine the collective avalanche after my homemade eggnog last Christmas, now aim much higher. Then you’ll be a little less far away from what I lived here today.”, she moves her gaze to the distracted child once again. Her hair had been briskly rearranged on top of her head to keep it away from the dirt and stayed that way, in a high bun that was already falling apart as she straightened and moved during the trip. Nat had cut it, trimmed, the day before, the length of her hair was such that they were sure no one had ever bothered to do it. It was so long that although it had beautiful color and shine her strands were incredibly dry and had multiple split ends.

“It wasn’t that horrid, I mean, they’ll probably have to throw the whole aircraft away after that, but overall...”, he blurts out in mid-sentence, when Wanda unexpectedly moves to get more cosy inside the blanket and nearly knocks her device onto his chin.

“Totally, next time I’ll save a blast of orange juice just for you.”, she said in a falsely sweet voice to which he didn’t respond in time. Wanda’s half-groggy giggle followed by a half-faulty mumble stopped them.

“Whas happenin’...ere? What cany...ean? This the teatest thin’ I’ve seen!”, she staggers/sings exquisitely with the words in a thin little voice, which come out half pasty in her mouth. Well, she still had a straw blocking her speech too, fair enough.

“Doesn’t she look a little...”, Natasha analyzes the girl’s fixed eyes to the screen and makes a suggestive motion with her head. “To you?”, she completes.

“High? Yeah, little bit.”, he concludes after taking another look at her irises, normal in size. “I’ve seen worse.”, he reports conversively.

“Where, at the various raves you’ve been attending to without inviting me?”, she wryly quips already with a suggestive smile for him. Who to everyone’s surprise, themselves in this case, reciprocates her with the dismissive roll of the eyes that already practically possessed the so-called ‘Romanov watermark’.

“I’m a worldly man, just so you know.”, she huffed with his line.

“Okay then, ‘worldly man’ who’s afraid of my panties.”, Steve threw her a near-death stare, which in other places and situations would have made her fall off her chair from laughing so hard.

“Me not liking to invade other people’s privacy doesn’t mean I’m afraid of your panties, Natasha, we’ve both been in situations...events that could.... You know I hate it when you do that!”, she is almost bursting out at this point. “Let’s please take it up a notch when with company.”, he points to the rueful head a few inches below his own. The same one that at the moment didn’t even acknowledged being on the same plane as them. Still laughing, the woman raises her hands in surrender. Having already had a taste of teasing him and his puritanity.

In the end Wanda let go, and the last twenty minutes or so were bathed in nothing but her loose breathing. They woke her up just before landing and Steve took it upon himself to take her to the bathroom this time, then when they returned from Sam’s cabin after finally a snack and a new hairdo, it was to fasten their belts.

The wide ramp stretched out and all they could see was the green of the pasture and the blue of the sky, a few yards ahead the gates to the Bartons’ farm opened and two older children stepped forward. They had barely disembarked when the small, brown-haired figures already advanced toward Natasha, one of them, the girl with the short braids, jumping straight into her arms.

“Good to see you too!”, she chuckled in exasperation as she was almost taken to the ground, even though the two of them together were no burden for what she could carry. “My goodness, Lila, you’re almost hitting my shoulders!”, the said girl smiled before letting go of her. The boy also pulled away to get a better look.

“I thought you were coming for my birthday last month, Aunt Nat.”, he speaks, though his ear-to-ear grin denotes no hard feelings.

“I’m sorry I owe you your last present too, Coop. But don’t worry, I have a deal with your father.”, Laura had totally brushed off the possibility of them giving a crossbow as a gift to their firstborn on his tenth birthday that year, but she and Clint were trying to work around it somehow. It wasn’t as if Lila, two years younger, didn’t already have lessons, supervised of course, in archery. The boy nods happily before visibly shifting his attention to something at her back.

Wanda, now no longer so hidden behind Steve’s legs, watched the interaction somewhat fearfully, though with eager eyes that passed bathed in uncertainty from Nat to the other children, who were the first she had had contact with like this, face to face. She didn’t seem particularly tense, even if rosy traces faded slowly under Natasha’s trained and attentive eyes when she held out her free hand to Wanda. Accepting it and approaching the three them, she clutched at her clothes in a possessive manner, then claimed to be hoisted up as usual. As she did so, Nat could see the couple approaching with their youngest son. By the time she went to speak, they too could see and hear her.

“This is Cooper and Lila, Wanda. They’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”, she repeated exactly what her friend had told her during the last call. In which she had communicated to her how agitated they had been at the news of a new child in the family, Laura’s exact words about how Lila had spent the rest of the week arranging and rearranging dolls, Cooper asking his father every five minutes about their aunt visit.

“Hi, Wanda, good to see you.”, Cooper said in a sweet and somewhat shy tone, just waving from where he was standing. To which Wanda, already leaning more on Natasha’s neck, reciprocated somewhat sheepishly.

“I love your hair! Look at it, mommy, it’s just like Anna’s! We can play and I’m Elsa because I’m older and the blue dress is my size, but I have one of Rapunzel’s from when I was little too, if you want I’ll give it to you.”, Lila, on the other hand, can barely stand in place and advances in excited jumps to the little girl, herself having only two brothers to play with and almost no contact with other girls daily if not her own mother. The chortle from the adults accompanies Wanda’s confusion. Further back, Steve and Sam return with their luggage while also cackling at something.

“Yes it is, sweetie, but let’s just give her a little room to get used to us first, shall we? Who knows, maybe later you can show her and Aunt Nat your new bed.”, Laura smiles at Natasha as she holds her daughter’s shoulder without force.

“Oh, that’s right, Auntie Nat, just wait until you see the new color Daddy painted my room!”, and there she goes again. “Wanda can sleep with me if she wants, I have several pajamas and we can take Cooper’s bunk and have a slumber party with flashlights and everything!”, she turns at the same instant to her parents, who begin the difficult task of dissuading/distracting her from that for the hour. Her older brother is busy escorting the boys home to drop off their bags, Sam still does, but Steve barely has time to say ‘Hi’ to Laura and Clint as he is rushed by Cooper, who since meeting the rest of the team a little over two years ago, had always been especially curious when they showed up. What had only happened again once.

“I missed you, miniature. Did you miss me at all?”, Clint smiles toward the child, who leaves the arms to stand clinging to Natasha’s side. A little less petrified, she smirks mischievously shaking her head in a strong negative. “No?! That’s it, you hurt my feelings, you know. I’m even thinking of not giving you any of the cookies I have in store.”

“Cookie?”, she tilted her head more interested.

“We made them this morning, oatmeal and honey and chocolate chip too.”, Lila cut in, this time getting a bit more of Wanda’s attention.

“I like cookies, I watch the cookie monster on TV.”, she speaks the first complete sentence to the other girl.

“Oh, Nate and I also watch Sesame Street sometimes, but not all the time. Cooper says it’s only for babies, but my mom said I can’t pinch him anymore because of it.”, she justifies to the other. Wanda blinks staring at her with no apparent response to that.

“Don’t worry, Wanda, I saved chocolate chip ones just for you, you like them too, don’t you?”, Laura moves further into the conversation after Nate leaps at his father dashingly, his once chubby body now more of a toddler. Natasha makes faces at him from afar.

“Yes, thank you.”, the girl replies automatically and politely to the grown-up, visibly less withdrawn.

“You’re welcome, darling. My name is Laura, but you can just call me Auntie Lau, okay?”, Laura smiles completely charmed by her. Wanda responds with a customary, silent, yet equally discernible affirmation.

“Daddy said you like animals, you have to see the cows we have here now.”, Lila continues to chatter to the younger kid incessantly.

“Cows?”, Natasha raises her eyebrows at the two in total surprise.

“But they’re not our cows, they belong to our neighbor, Mr. McKenzie.”, Lila speaks once again.

“Yeah, he moved away and now we inherit his two cows.”, Clint speaks in a suggestive tone and intonation that she understands bluntly. From what she remembered this neighbor was an elderly man who lived west of their land, far enough away for them to remain particularly isolated on the farm.

“And where’s the duckie you guys brought with you ?”, the girl speaks as if she has also just remembered such information.

“The duckie? He’s...”, she turns in that direction and just then a whitish thing catches their eyes, moving hurriedly. Down the ramp, somehow free of the cage, comes the duck waddling toward the tall bush near a fence in the distance.

“Bruce!”, Wanda lets loose on the spot and rushes toward him meters ahead. Lila follows her at the same hurried stretch and Nate, who had also gotten to his feet, goes to meet the girls shouting something. Clint, who comes right behind, undertakes to bring them all back.

“Come here, let me get a good look at you, it feels like we haven’t seen each other in ages!”, Laura pulls her into a tight hug, and quickly. “Wow, that sure is a strong one.”, she pulls away fanning the air with her hands and looking at her clothes.

“I know, I smell like an entire mall food court. All together in a blender with Cheetos and hot syrup.”, Natasha gives herself another good sniff.

“All together indeed.”, Laura laughs at her face, momentarily wagging her nose.

“Don’t mock me, I feel like sh*t.”, she says, even though she is already amused by the situation.

“That’s the spirit.”, Lau says, putting one of her arms around Nat shoulders to guide her into the house. “Welcome to motherhood, hot stuff.”

“This one here is Penelope, that one in the back is Charlie and she likes belly rubs more than the other one, but that’s because Mr. McKenzie said Penny has too much temperature.”, Lila says strutting over the wooden fence. Beside her Cooper lifts his little brother up so he can also see the cows, who graze quietly.

“What he said was that she has a lot of temperament, Li.”, Clint proclaims/corrects.

“They’re big.”, Wanda, who is sitting on the last plank with Steve’s help, stares at the animals’ gigantic heads. “They eat cookies too, Clint?”, she inquires taking another one to her mouth and causing the avenger, who is standing next to them, to chuckle slightly.

“You can’t give cookies to a cow, silly. They might get a boo-boo.”, Miss Lila Ann Barton speaks from the height of her wisdom. To which Wanda just twitches her nose and reluctantly replies.

“I give Bruce cookies, he likes them.”, she puts her arm around Steve’s neck once again for fear of falling, her little hand safe and supported by the back of his head. Although he continues to encircle her with his own limbs.

“Bruce is a case apart, Wanda, God only knows what that poor bastard has ingested during the few hours that he’s been at Bucky’s mercy.”, Sam, who was also finishing chewing the fifth of his own cookies, puts in. Receiving a look with subliminal meanings from the other adults.

“We give hay and a few other things to them, little one. If you want I’ll show you tomorrow morning and you can even help me feed Bruce and his new friends.”, Clint suggests gently and in a less brusque tone than his daughter's. “Would you like that?”

“Yes!”, she smiles genuinely, showing true and fearless enthusiasm for the first time in front of them. Her initial goal having been contact with the farm animals. It had been a quick job to capture and relocate the duckling along with the other birds and chickens that were in the enclosed hen house just behind the family’s large barn, but the prospect of meeting the farm’s newest acquisitions made her distance herself a bit from the act of leaving him there.

“Daddy, maybe Wanda can join my lessons tomorrow too! I’ll teach her the basic movements.”, Lila, bless her soul, had stuck to the younger girl and now seemed committed to making her her new best friend. Clint looked at her wordlessly for a moment before he let out a breath in a half-compromised grin.

“Oh, no, baby, we won’t have practice tomorrow. Besides, Wanda’s too young for that kind of sessions.” , he signaled to Steve at the same time as Lila visibly wilted there before them all. The outsiders, minus the child who was now busy trying to lure the nearest cow with half her treat, looked at her curiously.

“Yeah, Lila, and you know Mom forbade us to talk about it while Aunt Nat was here, behave.”, Cooper scolds his sister with the impatient air of a grown-up. She just sticks her tongue out to him and goes closer to Steve in order to pull more conversation with Wanda, who right now won’t give her the time of day because of Penelope.

Steve just looks at Clint, but he was already starting to explain himself.

“Archery.”, he quickly and uncomplicatedly resonates to the other two, but there was no need to elaborate much more than that. Natasha had commented very superficially that the Barton children received some training with the weapon that was their father’s trademark, they had agreed to keep Wanda away from certain things and omens, together. She in specific seemed extremely uncomfortable at the prospect of giving any kind of tool/weapon to their child.

Steve just moved his chin discreetly, he had gotten the message. Clint and Laura surely knew a lot more about it and about her discomfort, he thought... You didn’t have to be a genius to deduce the obvious, her childhood had been no piece of cake.

“All right, gang. I think it’s time for us to head inside and knock our boots on the threshold, who was the last one to change the basin?”, Clint puts Nate on his shoulders in a fluid motion and rushes the other children on their way home.

“It was me, Dad.”, Lila gets down from the fence and hurries off as the new arrivals also move to follow them. Wanda goes forward near Sam, who holds the jar with the remaining cookies.

“You did absolutely nothing, liar. I cleaned it up and then filled all the water again.”, Cooper corrects her spot on. Receiving, obviously, an ugly look from her. Who sets about rebutting the veracity or otherwise of what he claims was the last task on his list for that afternoon, but which she herself recognizes as the one that had been assigned to her by her parents.

From the top of an ajar second story window, Natasha watched the small group that was now advancing along the dirt path that led to the back door. In particular the little girl and the blond man who was following her with a watchful eye.

“You just can’t let your guard down for a single moment, can you?”, Laura’s voice catches her from a brief ramble, which doesn’t even amount to anything.

“What?”, she forces herself to turn her back to the sunny day. Her neck slightly crooked as she still wipes her shower-damp hair with a towel. Propped up at one elbow on the bed, Lau is in no hurry to complete her thought.

“I hope you’ll all be well accommodated here, Clint and I have actually been thinking about making another room on the first floor.”, she fluffs one of the anise pillows adorning the blue-gray decorated room. Natasha’s was one of the last in the hallway, serving as the guest room for any other eventual visitors. Or so they said, since the only visitor was precisely her.

“We’ll be, thank you.”, Natasha moved on to her bathroom, another perk gifted to her by her friends. She knew Laura’s game well, she was sneaky, but not as sneaky as she believed herself to be.

“I thought I’d bring Lila’s old bed in here too, in case you guys would prefer it!”, she partially shouts from the other side. Nat goes back into the room to tidy it up a bit, they didn’t extend themselves much on attires, but at least the clothes for the stay could be stored there.

“It would be wasted effort, she only sleeps holding onto me. Once in a while Steve.”, she says opening Wanda’s bag and taking out a few folded pieces. Although she knew the place well and knew the weather perfectly, she had still laid out miscellaneous options without knowing exactly what to choose.

“Yeah, I know how it is. Cooper and Lila were slow to go to their own rooms completely, Nate hardly gets used to the crib. And even today she tends to go to bed between the two of us when it rains. But you know, it’s still early for yours, but there will come a time when you’ll have to readapt her, you never know when you’ll need it...”, and there it was. Natasha closed the dresser drawer with a single thrust.

“I know very well actually, nothing much is scheduled to happen.”, she zipped around the room looking for her own already open luggage, from which she had just recently taken a pair of shorts and a blouse less stuffy than the previous one.

“That didn’t stop you guys earlier.”, she sneers and gets a look from Nat, “I’m just saying, you never know. And you were the one who said yourself that you all sleep in bed together.”, she sits propped up against the headboard as she watches her friend unpack her own bag.

“No, I never uttered such words to you. What I said was that she tends to sleep with me, but that she occasionally falls asleep next to Steve in his room, at most on the couch in my quarters. Never in my bed.”, she casts another squint to ascertain Laura’s reactions. So far she seems too held back for her own banners.

“Well, then it’s too bad that our couch is so old and threadbare. Poor Steve, really uncomfortable.”, Nat almost laughs at what she is talking about now.

“You always have to be starting something, eh?”, she reaches into her side zipper pocket for Wanda’s night light, without which neither she nor Natasha would sleep a single moment that night.

“Au contraire, my dear, you are the one who always has to be shutting something down.”, Natasha stops what she is doing only to turn to her for the second time.

“Does this soliloquy of yours have any intended point or are you just shooting in the dark anyway?”, she sounds bored to which Lau grunts in annoyance. To soon after sit up more erect with the help of another pillow on her lap. Her expression is not serious, rather concentrated. She aims it with one hand resting on her face, as if analyzing an especially stunning landscape or a singular mind indecipherable work of art.

“Come on, Lau, I know you really want to say this...”

“You guys don’t even fool yourselves.”

“Fine.”, she uses the same appeasing and falsely condescending tone she used with Wanda and the late pancake requests. Which followed a midnight distraction after the nightly vitamin and heavy sleep afterwards.

“No, don’t you come at me with ‘all right’ and that facetious smile of yours. I know you, and I know exactly what’s going on here.”, she objects to Romanov’s aplomb.

“What is it?”, she takes the bag of dirty clothes from the airplane incident in her hands and heads to throw them into the bathroom basket. Laura follows her intently the whole time until she is back.

“You were wearing his clothes.”, she chooses not to use the preconceived arguments she had almost fully formulated for the beginning of the speech.

“I know, so sexy. Me with my chest covered in stomach fluid.”, she blurts out once again, now in sarcasm. “It’s not like that’s anything, we had a child together, what is he lending me a sweater now and then? I always wear your clothes when I’m here.”, she says in a finishing way.

“Exactly.”, Laura speaks in a sappy manner, moving from the mattress and going to help her with the task at hand. “There’s the path I want to take, you two are used to each other. You have chemistry, familiarity, an unresolved past. Now a daughter.”, she stops stacking for just a moment. “What means...”, she starts and slows down with implicit suggestion and malice.

“That we had enough chemistry, familiarity, and unresolved feelings for each other to have sex and make a child?”, she picks up the clothes that Laura has not finished folding again. Mrs. Bartons is still calculating the answer.

“Don’t try to smart your way out of this, young lady. I’m not setting foot out of here until you admit you’ve had a relapse with Steve.”, she whispers the last part with a somewhat uncertain glance at the unlocked door, even though Natasha herself was not worried at all.

“Technically, I can’t have a relapse per se because he’s not a bag of heroin. I’ve never been addicted to him.”, she begins with, to which Lau just shrugs shoulders at her mania for literalness.

“Only in abstinence.”, she gives a lewd smile and nudges the other’s waist. “At least until a little while ago.”, she emphasizes the ‘little’ with floating eyebrows.

“Not that much.”, Laura almost pirouettes a la Lila at the tiny confession.

“I knew It! tell me more.”, she throws herself on the bed on her stomach, fists retracted under her chin like a gossipy teenager. Which she was, deep down. Natasha knew that too.

Nat gives up organizing what little is left before she dumps herself too, lying face up on their extremely soft quilt. She stares at the plaster ceiling and the newly touched up paint on the ceiling wheel.

“We’ve always been particularly flirtatious with each other, but without a lot of second thoughts.”, she speaks in a flat voice, without much delivering emotion.

“Ok, that’s really old news for all humanity.”, and it was true. Not only because she had already witnessed the way they interacted. Natasha’s calls and visits always broadened into great conversation sessions. “But you know that has a reason, don’t you?”

“You have a truly fertile imagination.”, Nat declares at once.

“Do I?”, Laura teases her some more. “I hate to conjure up old dialogues here, but the night Clint and I were watching a...”

“Rerun of Dallas, I called in desperation because I had done an unthinkable thing and you just thought that I had finally snapped and murdered the asshole downstairs, I know, Laura.”, Natasha complements in a robotic, energyless mode. “Those are all your words, by the way. Never mine.”, she added.

Laura squirms, this time on her side, completely changing her position on the bed and thus forcing Nat to aim at her again.

“Do you like him?”, Natasha just averted them face to face.

“Yeap, I’ve been also wanting to call him during halftime to make out behind the bleachers again. What do you think?”, although she laughs as well, Laura doesn’t let herself be ensnared by it.

“Your cynicism makes me hopeless for our world.”, she pulls the pillow from earlier to support her head. “I mean it, Tasha.”, even if it didn’t seem like it.

“What a nasty question that is, Laura. I obviously have feelings for him, even a block of ice like me has love for a very close friend, especially Steve.”, she explains as to a child.

“And put close in that, huh? Not to mention the love part. Does that mean then that you are irrevocably in love with me too?”, Laura replies.

“Almost, you have a lot of emotional baggage. Not my style.”, she says.

“Imagine what you have then.”, Laura jokes with a quick tirade and gets a ‘good save’ sign from her. However, Natasha doesn’t persist so much more than that, they go chewing and trivializing the subject, but slowly Laura knew she would relax more.

“It’s weird, most of the time. It’s like we’ve been doing this for years, I don’t really know what to think sometimes when I see the two of us together.”, she gives a brief pause, but Laura just watches her in blandness. She takes a deep breath. “We had a more recent, serious episode.”, another peek to see if her friend moved a single muscle, nothing. “It was this song, we were coming back from the ride with Wanda and he found It already finishing at some station. It was like a hypnosis or whatever, and I had it pounding in my head afterwards.”

“But you said yourself that you guys went back to playful flirting, to what it was before everything.”, Laura intrudes only to add that essential comment. As a good viewer surgically puts it when following their favorite entertainment.

“Flirting, Laura, not nearly swallowing each other’s faces overnight and in the presence of Bucky on top of all.”

“You two were kissing with Bucky watching the whole thing? Gosh, didn’t think Steve was that kind of kinky.”, she makes a face in disgust. “Blergh.”

“We weren’t kissing and he wasn’t there at first, at least I hope so. It was precisely because of his distraction that we interrupted in what almost happened.”, she clarifies.

“Oh... And how do you feel about that?”, Laura resumes the swindler’s countenance before being reciprocated.

“I don’t know, disappointed maybe?”, Nat kicks out what she wants to hear first. “It was a huge turn-off and of course, like any other person I wouldn't like to be interrupted right in the middle of a...

The door is opened wide with a single motion and the doorknob slams with a bang against the opposite wall. Hurried footsteps enter without so much as a preview, or notice in this case.

“Mom, Dad said I can watch a movie now, but Lila won’t let me turn on the TV!”, Cooper arrives flustered and stands in front of them. Laura doesn’t have time to properly get up before the next complaint is thrown at her.

“He hid Frozen and won’t give it back to me!”, Lila, equally or even more outraged. She complains about her brother.

“I told you I didn’t take that stupid DVD! It must be in the middle of your trunk or in the mess of your room.”, he accuses.

“Cooper, don’t talk to your sister like that!”, Laura scolded him.

“My room is not messy, yours that stinks of feet, you ass!”, she returned.

“Lila!”, her mother called her attention.

“I don’t know why you insist on watching that bore millions and millions of times, you already know even the lines.”, he spoke wearily.

“But Wanda hasn’t watched it yet! I promised her we’d watch it.”, she stomps her foot in an authoritative manner despite being several inches shorter than him.

“Wanda doesn’t want to see this nonsense of singing ice princesses with reindeer and talking dolls of yours, I told her we would watch How to Train Your Dragon today. Not to mention it’s my turn to pick the movie.”, he adds smugly.

“No it isn’t!”

“Yes, it is!”

“It’s not!”

“Shut up, you little brat!”

“Don’t call me a brat, you sour old fart!”

“Get lost, you idiot.”

“You’re the idiot, you imbecile. Mom!”

“Mom!”

Laura quietly aims at them, not even unsettling herself.

“I don’t care.”, she puts it peacefully.

“But mom, she always does that.”, Cooper tries to argue, beside him Lila stares at in pure fury.

“And I don’t want to know! Who smells like farting or who’s a brat or an idiot in this house. Just go and ask your father.”, and it’s like magic. It takes them a while to stop squirming, but eventually they move the fight into the hallway in shrill swearing and yelling, heading probably wherever Clint is trying to camouflage himself to the furniture.

“Wow, that’s some model of how to break up intrigues.”, or causing more. Nat almost concludes.

“Yeah, usually we just put several glasses of water to each one to see who can finish first. But they’ve learned how to cheat.”, Laura gets up almost begrudgingly from the mattress.

“Not to mention doing shots like professionals in the future.”, Natasha acquiesces, also walking her out of the enclosure. “What were we talking about again?”, she teases, knowing that the subject would die as soon as they were out of their imitation of privacy.

“How fortunate you are to have to deal with only one child.”, Laura says as they make their way to the top of the stairs. Down there the siblings’ confusion can still be heard amid Clint’s voice.

“Yeah, and you’re definitely forgetting about where and who I live with.”, Natasha speaks as she steps onto the first step just behind her.

Chapter 9: Дом везде

Chapter Text

Sam stayed for dinner, as Laura practically dragged him to one of the chairs. Within a few minutes the little shyness he showed was already falling apart, the children were talking in the middle of the adults, and the siblings' fight was still going on for a while even after Clint left the two of them without the privilege of choosing the movie. In the end, Wanda and Nate sat down together to watch a taped episode of the defunct 'Dragon Tales' and that was it. Cooper was more content by the time they were called to eat, but his sister still had a tantrum and was half-heartedly fiddling with her own plate.

"Lila, eat your chicken.", she looked at her mother, who sat beside her next to Nate. With her elbows on the table and her face creased, she took a few moody bites of the meat.

On the other side, Wanda was chewing leisurely and looking, as always, at everything around her. They had already paid enough attention to this peculiar characteristic of hers, which she did sometimes even in familiar surroundings. She swept her eyes over everything and everyone before quickly returning to her own plate. The grown-ups still stayed in the kitchen for a while longer for a cup of coffee and more of the peach pie, of which Laura had already packed a large piece so Wilson could take it to his friend, Sam said goodbye shortly after the meal, Bucky's pie held in his hand after Wanda went to give him a hug. The distant noise of the Quinjet had faded by the time the children went to play some more in the living room just next door, Wanda seemed especially interested to see Lila's tea table full of teddy bears and fake china on the side.

"Can I go, please?", she turned to Steve, who was answering something to the hosts at the same time. He turned to her and saw the anticipation in her gaze at Lila and the dolls espousing themselves on the small moss-colored chairs with intricate, violet-colored flowers on varnished wood, the view from where he was sitting in the kitchen was straight to where the toys were. Cooper and Nate had already gone over there, the sound of a video game starting up could be heard in the background.

"Okay, but be careful, okay? And no going to the stairs, you might get hurt.", Lila, who was waiting for her on the doorstep, barely waited for him to finish his line. She was already taking Wanda by the hand and chattering about something to do with a lilac curtain and a joke she had learned from Cooper. Natasha and Clint laughed at her whirlwind at the same time.

"Will Wanda be able to keep up with that? By tomorrow morning she'll be completely sick of Lila's company.”, Clint says before taking another sip of coffee, his dessert already only in crumbs on his plate.

"That one? Just wait until she gets into a rhythm. Sometimes she's so fast that I'm afraid I'll give her some sugar and she’ll just crash.", Nat says. Her seat is between where Sam and Steve used to be, and she is still eating quietly, at least for now.

"Oh, stop it you two. The girls are getting along super well and besides, God knows how much Cooper needs a break from having to serve as a tea companion for her.", Laura mocks at the end.

"Well, except for what I saw earlier today. They are getting along better every day.", Natasha spoke up.

"You have no idea, everything is cause for a fight now. Cooper won't let her come more than three feet from his bedroom door and Lila gives a scandal every time he touches any of her toys. So it's been fun so far, looking ahead to their summer vacation in a few weeks.”, he adds. "Anyway, kids are an indestructible blessing from the skies and blah blah blah. I am sure you have already heard all this. Great consolation.”, Laura scolds him not too eagerly. "Anyway, Cap, I was wanting to ask you something about that meeting we had with Tony when we went to... Steve?", he called out a tad more emphatically. Said guy turned to him, attentive.

"Yeah?", he looked at them again, still somewhat disperse. The three watched him without saying anything, They didn't have to. "I was just checking, okay? She's never been among other children before and... Well, although she does spend a lot of time with Bucky lately.

“She’ll be fine.”, Laura spoke unassumingly from the other corner of the table. “Our kids are a little crazy, but we warned them to take it easy on her.”, Natasha seemed less concerned about what her friend claimed. Steve didn’t have much contact or as much familiarity of her with the couple’s children, and even if he tried not to make it that explicit, he was indeed somewhat wary of such older and seemingly energetic ones around the girl.

“Yes, I know that, it’s just that Wanda can also be a bit...”, he turns his face by pure reflex once more. A leap from the chair and he was already heading towards the corridor, towards the growing bright crimson light.

He paid no attention to the others who soon followed him, equally alarmed. Wanda was standing in the center of the room, her hands raised to her sides, their extremely reddish tendrils coming out like the finest strands of hair. They floated as if unaffected by gravity, an aura and a slightly lighter one. Of the same color illuminating the path traced by the tender current. Wanda was also looking at, the stairs?

That’s when they spotted it, now hovering at an odd angle of about 180° to the steps just below. Halfway up the flight of stairs was Nate, eyes startled and also looking directly at the girl. No one let out a single word, the other two kids had made room for her apparently. She was unmoved by the new presences, as they continued to watch what she was doing. Wanda brought him to herself slowly and seemingly in extreme concentration. The child came rolling through the air wrapped in her ruddy traces, more and more, overcoming the first steps and soon also the wide handrail. Down and down, until she landed hum with what must have been the utmost delicacy conquered by her at the moment. On top of the cushions they had taken from the sofa to play on, scattered on the floor.

Laura is the first to rush toward her son, and Wanda still draws the clear energy from his complexion, when his mother sits down next to him. The crying that follows is silent, but not from Nate, the poor thing faces the paralyzed faces of Natasha and Steve and her chin quivers with fear.

“I really am sorry, Mom, Dad!”, everyone turns to Cooper this time. Who looks at the grown-ups with a serious and still slightly pale face. “It was all my fault, I forgot the baby gate open again.”, next tô them, at the foot of the stairs, the fully cleared, unlocked entrance greeted their sight.

Wanda rushed toward them in a burst, still fearful probably, but without much escape. They both ducked down at the same time, she didn’t have many tears, but her heart must have been racing as or even faster than Nathaniel’s was at that instant. Coming across smiles didn’t make her spontaneously abandon caution, but she would soon get there.

“You were so brave, Zaya.”, Nat said to her in a incredulous whisper as the child returned Steve’s embrace.

“Brave?”, she repeated confusedly the word, which was not entirely foreign to her. In one of the animated episodes of her shows, she had heard something similar before. Wanda just wasn’t sure she understood the affirmative signaling, however.

“You’ve done something incredible, Wanda. We’re really proud of you!”, Steve was more enthusiastic, the line in between her eyebrows fading with his voice.

“It’s true, sweetie. What you did was a beautiful thing.”, Nate was already entertaining himself with Lila’s dropped toys. Laura said this with teary eyes as she looked from the little girl to her parents. “Thank you, Wanda.”, she didn’t move closer, but it was hard not to. Clint repeated the same as his wife with a smug smile to Natasha, she ignored him for that moment, but was sure to hear plenty from him at the first opportunity.

It is normal for one to feel uncertain or even embarrassed to find themselves like this, at the heart of such approval and praise. With her it would be no different, and Wanda pans them a curious look, no longer bashful, but understanding the opposite effect to what she had premeditated.

“So you’re like an angel or something?”, Lila, recovered from her own stupor. She stepped forward with gigantic eyes and confabulating in silence with her older brother. Cooper said nothing, embarrassed and still a bit too scared to speak at the moment.

“What?”, Natasha laughed as Wanda inquired of the other girl, less at length.

“Lila...”, Laura didn’t go so far as to scold, but spoke in a dull tone. To which the kid merely ignored enough. “Please don’t be rude with our guests, will you?”

“But didn’t you just see It too? She’s magic! She made Nate magically fly to the couch!”, Cooper finally Said. He looked in astonishment, though not especially hostile at the younger girl.

“Cooper, we’ve talked about this.”, Clint also lost his laughter for a moment, his firm voice rebuking the boy on the spot. They had indeed talked about it, not in so much detail of course. Aunt Nat had a child now, her name was Wanda and she had very special abilities. However, they should leave her alone about this and respect her boundaries.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound rude.” , he automatically reiterated, to Natasha and Steve’s direction.

“It’s okay, guys. They’re just curious.”, Steve rises again, and upon noticing that he is doing so, Wanda more than readily clings to his shoulders.

“I think we’d better collect ourselves now. It’s getting late.”, Nat smiles meekly at the children in a sign that she is not upset, but it is apparent that they both prefer to be alone with the girl for the time being. Everyone wishes a general, hurried goodnight before they head upstairs, but Cooper knows his parents too well to fully relax even after that. Clint turns to his two older children with a serious, though not angry, countenance.

Natasha opened her eyes to a pale glimmer, almost purplish as it bounced in the night light, which partially illuminated the room. She had to blink a few times to be sure of what she saw, sitting up in bed she still observed Wanda’s shrunken body intact, in a fetal position. Her fists were closed close to her face, but still the light coming from her palms radiated through the gaps in her fingers. Is she talking to someone? As she lifts her hand to the child she hears intelligible murmurs coming out of her mouth, but they are only muffled whispers and seemingly too disconnected.

“Wanda?”, she had always heard that the prudent thing to do was not to wake a sleepwalking person so suddenly, but the little one’s condition seemed to fit more into a mere talking in her sleep than to something like that. She then touched the top of her head and the only feature of her face that was visible, the girl’s forehead was warm, not quite feverish, but that was certainly not her normal temperature. “Wanda, are you okay, are you awake?”, the girl had stopped whispering upon hearing the woman’s voice and soon Nat thought she must be waking up. On the contrary, she began to talk incessantly, in a more breathless, rushed mode, but each time at a lower volume. Natasha gets close enough to have her ear almost pressed against Wanda's hair, and only then understands part of what she babbles in confusion.

“Ya ne znala.”, she half speaks half whimpers before repeating those same sayings once more. Natasha turns to face her again.

“What, baby? What didn’t you know?”, she tries to rest one of her hands on her wrists, which unlike her head, are infinitely cold. “Wanda.”, she speaks in a slightly louder tone, still afraid of scaring her.

“Ya ne znala! Net! Net!”, she shouts, muffled still by her own hands. Nat pushes the blanket away before better wrapping her inside it and prepares to move it somehow, still touching her, she decides to intervene anyway. The girl shivers and she releases her fists to better rest a hand on her forehead, the other supporting the back of her shoulders.

“Wanda.”, she repeated in the same active tone as before. Now with her head also declining toward her. “It’s Nat, I’m here with you. It’s everything alright.”

She thinks it was ineffective, to which the small girl continues to shiver in her lap. Meanwhile, her petite hands go slackening and loosening a few seconds later. The bright colors that clings next to her slowly being released into the rest of the room, soon strong enough to light everything in a flame coloration. Her new planetary lamp spins continuously and now the shapes it emanates on the ceiling and walls turn from soothing serene colors, to a blazing, blood red.

Being in the core of It is nowhere near painful or unpleasant, strange no doubt. As she is incorporated by that beaming shine coming off the girl Nat almost immediately feels the awakening of what some would call a sixth sense, a new presence withing herself. It was like a real extension of the child and she could feel her very being clasped by that whole incorporeal mass, which at the same time did not possess only a materialization of mist or smoke. It was hard to even try to find a physical state for what it was, she was completely enveloped by It, and except for the oxygen, which remained undisturbed, it was almost like the complete sensation of being completely submerged in the ocean. The wind from the half-open window still circulated to where they were.

“Nat?”, Wanda says in a clearer voice. But not in question or doubt, as if she is talking to her now. Her hands are already fully relaxed and Natasha is able to put them down. Wanda’s face is frighteningly white, she can tell this even with the modified lighting, her lips now clenched. Her eyes open, she seems to try to focus them, and blindly drags her vision across Natasha’s features.

“What happened, Zaya? What are you seeing? Who else is with you?”, upon hearing her voice once again, Wanda parks her gaze at a fixed point above her shoulder. Nat looks quickly, but there is nothing there. She puts her hand back, now for the third time, touching even the child’s hairline. A shiver breaks from her fingers going up her forearm, like a current of icy air, Natasha blinks, but it is no longer her eyes that seek.

There is a man, or at least that is what she presumes from the white lab coat practically glued to her face, and she is trapped, undeniably so. Something restrains her in the entire torso region. This person speaks something, but she cannot for the life of her understand it, her mouth also articulates something, and she for some reason can move her head only downwards. That is not her body, tiny hands are clasped, not hers, but she feels them just the same, throbbing beneath very tight restraints. She is forced to look up when something catches her by the chin, without much force, but insistently at most. The illumination from above apparently corrupts her already blurred eyes, but something glows in the other hand that presents something to her. A thin growl comes out of her chest, like that of a cornered puppy. A mocking sound rumbles from the strange. And she sees the gigantic syringe with suspicious liquid coming towards her. Something happens, one of her hands loosens, she can’t explain. A sudden flash and she can feel the thud as a heavy body, an adult one, falls to the ground. She lets her head drop again, her vision even more doubled and confused. Concise enough, though, to spot the human a few feet from her. The face frozen in a mask of horror, their neck twisted at a disturbing angle. The darkness swallows her up.

Natasha awakens from the quick projection with a startled gasp, the door is opened at once. She raises her eyes to the dark threshold, where the red no longer reaches anything. Steve stares at them still holding onto the doorknob. Something restless in her arms and she looks at It, Wanda is beginning to awaken. Nothing else comes out of her hands, but Natasha notes herself now, strangely holding her own forehead.

He realizes what is happening, but still remains in abstention for the moment. The girl wakes up inexplicably tired, still sleepy, and doesn’t seem frightened or in any way nervous. Apparently they hadn’t made much noise, only Steve, still quite awake, had heard what had happened upstairs.

“I want a cookie.”, she sits down once more. Posed between Natasha and Steve, both of whom lay on either side of the mattress, from which they were trying to get her back to sleep. She begins to climb up his legs, to posture herself sitting at his thigh and asks again.

“No way, it’s too late for cookies now, Wanda.”, Natasha speaks, in part to tease her as well, also turning sideways to face them. Wanda makes a tied up face and crosses her arms at her.

“I’m also sorry to say that there’s no more cookies left, Pumpkin.”, Steve speaks instead of laughing at her pout.

“But I want!”, they both shushed her at the same time. “Auntie Lau says I can.”, she insists jumping on his leg emphatically.

“Yeah? Then who knows, maybe your Aunt Lau would make some more for you tomorrow.”, Steve turns to look at her as he hears such sayings coming out of Natasha’s smart mouth.

“I thought you were totally against so much sugar.”, he speaks to her, who fluffs her own pillow.

“As of now I am only totally against stress and look where we end up.”, she sounds. Her attempt to introduce Wanda to a balanced diet was not that difficult, but considering that she had been totally deprived of sweets and caloric treats up to that point, they sometimes allowed her quite a lot.

“Very poetic of you.” he speaks less seriously, but making her smile a little nonetheless.

“I have my low guard moments too, sometimes even I can’t stand myself.” she speaks. She herself now without an ounce of sleep. Steve more than quickly retorts with something in smart-ass intonation, and so they give procedure to the usual.

Beside them, Wanda watches with a funny expression, face resting on her hands and elbows resting on her legs as if waiting for something to happen. What It was, perhaps, she herself doesn’t know. The number of times she had witnessed the implication of those two had made her learn to pay attention even to the way one responded to the other, it wasn’t a real fight more than the way they knew how to interact with each other, and even she could see the difference between the relationships of the two apart. Nat was nowhere near as angry as most people painted her, nor was Steve as serious or composed. Wanda obviously had no knowledge of such fame or even understanding of why they had such unique dynamics between them. What she could say was that she enjoyed watching them, they forgot about her and cackled in the middle of jokes, it was immensely fun to do things with the two of them together. It was always the three of them, at bedtime and when they woke up after. And even though she didn’t know what it was, what the name or the origin of that feeling was, what it was called that in her chest, the belonging and the warmth that she had never been able to enjoy. But she felt it, how she felt it right there.

“And besides, I was the one who told you that that raccoon was alive, you can’t just blame me for what happened.”, Natasha proclaims, only partially indignant at the accusation. They had embarked on that conversation with everything and now the intrigue was done.

“Correction, it was you who told me that It might be alive, not that the bug was in full health mode and about to jump on me.”, he spoke, but she almost at the same time waved her hand at him in a sign of dismissal.

“Yeah, because I don’t have a degree in veterinary science and because if a thing is floating suspiciously in standing water, you never go near it. Never! Everybody knows that, Steve. How did you survive during the war and not even know about this simple universal rule?”, she appeals, but Steve doesn’t lag behind either.

“First of all it was a small raccoon, not a crocodile.”, he begins.

“Yeah, and you had to take anti-rabies because a raccoon bit your hand in standing water. Honestly, I preferred the crocodile version.”, she teases him. “You were basically beaten by a twenty-inch critter, and it was a pretty small one at that. Are you really sure it wasn’t just a really big rat?”, she questions him, but he just blinks calmly as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

“Second of all that I was trying to help, not fight It. And no, it wasn’t a big rat, I think I could tell the difference as the thing tried to rip the phalanx off my finger. Besides, if it was really a mouse I would never try anything, you know how I feel about them.

She made a rather confused face at him, waiting for him to finish his own speech this time.

“I thought you didn’t like pigeons.”, she recalls a walk with him in Hell’s kitchen.

“They are like the rats of the sky, creepy, unreliable. Did you know that pigeons have been proven to practice cannibalism with each other?”, he said, at the same time with weariness and diligence in his voice. Nat looked at him interested for only a millisecond. It was better not to go any further into that subject for the time being, not only because she was completely sure that pigeons did not practice some kind of animal anthropophagy ripoff, but also because it would give his conversation even more time for thought.

“Okay, a squirrel then. Maybe a wide one with a slightly bad character like in your description.”, she said and Steve listened to her carefully.

“Yeah, I guess we’ll never know. Although you had an insider’s view of everything. Should and could have paid more attention.”, he says, without giggling. She makes a conceding motion with her head.

“All right then, next time a mutant-squirrel-coon-rat attacks you, we’ll take some pictures. If that’s what makes you happy.”, she supports her head with one arm. And the two of them now face each other, side to side.

“Aw, that’s so sweet of you. Maybe this time you can get the bug off me instead of laughing and rolling on the floor.”, he momentarily closes his eyelids, but without sleep.

“Yeah, I make no promises.”, she says in sincerity. Steve prefers not to get into topics of her having watched and remained passive to the creature’s attack on him less than two years earlier. The two rest, awake, the silence is wonderful, but of course, it doesn’t last. A loud ‘crunch’ and followed by audible bites. Chomp! Chomp!

They turn at the same time to look at the foot of the bed, where Wanda should be sitting. And she was indeed there, in the same exact spot, as if she had never left. Except for...

“Where did you get these?”, it is Steve who points out in amazement. Sitting with half a dozen cookies in one arm, the girl voraciously gulps down half of one of them, just like that, in one single bite. They expect her to chew it all, but she opens her mouth nonchalantly.

“Coo’is.”, she says trying still with food in her mouth. They sit up again, facing her.

“Honey, don’t chew with your mouth open please.”, Natasha speaks, still mesmerized. She had really slipped right under their noses, gone back and forth from the kitchen... Did she know how to unlock the baby gate too?

Wanda obeyed her without caring about their astonished, concerned looks.

“You don’t think she can teleport somehow now, do you?”, Steve speaks in a lower dumbfound voice. Moving a bit closer to her side on the bed.

“No, but I think for sure we’re going to have to do something about that. She’s incredibly sneaky when she wants to be.”, she elaborates. When she wanted to, with pure intent, as normally the girl would run around the Compound as if the whole building was on fire.

“Do something? What kind of something?”, he inquires of her while the two still watch the child. Thousands of bran falls on the bedspread and on her pajamas, but Wanda seems to not care at all.

“Put some kind of flare wherever she goes? I don’t know. Something that makes a lot of noise maybe.”, she speaks and he looks at her already wanting to chuckle.

“You mean a bell?”, she turned her gaze back to him so she could answer. “Because if that’s your suggestion I feel like I should be a little against it, but it would actually be of a lot of use for us.”, he admits.

“No, Steve. Of course I’m not suggesting putting a cow bell on the child.”, she rolls her eyes at him, who is still smiling. “I mean, at most tying a couple of cans with a rope around her waist or something, I think it would do the trick.”, she speaks, really suggesting it.

“Like the back of a newlywed car? Why don’t we then put some balloons tied to it when we go for a walk too?”, he suggests. Natasha looks at him with no time for jokes.

“Excuse me, weren’t you the one who almost had a heart attack the last time you two played hide-and-seek?”, she teases. This time she stares at the diminutive figure on the other side.

“That was a quite different scenery, she disappeared for almost twenty minutes into the game. Besides, look at the size of her! I was afraid she’d gotten stuck somewhere or something.”, he makes mention with his hand to the candy-eater right there.

“For sure, and she was in the gardens with Sam the whole time while you were practically having a full on panic attack inside.”, Natasha mocks, emphasizing.

“Precisely.”, he answers her. The two of them turning back to stare at her in silence. She was now chewing the last of the treats. “Wait a minute, how did she know there were more cookies in store?”, he completes. Because not even they had seen/heard Laura inform her that, although it wasn’t impossible for her to have done it covertly. “Tony had suggested a tracker, you remember.”, he speaks. Natasha just nods.

He had told them both that he was developing a device especially for her, one different from the ones that everyone on the team also had received not long ago. Natasha had not elaborated on the subject, saying that she preferred to wait until he was finished. Which could take a while.

Steve also knew that this saddened her, although it did him as well. They both wanted with all their hearts, more than anything, that Wanda could have a normal life. He knew that it bothered her in a different way, since no matter what the accommodations and accomplishments, the girl could never have, not totally, what was considered typical. And Nat knew what it was like not to have it, a childhood.

“I think it’s a good idea, after all. We need to use everything we have and can.”, she declares, just after Wanda wipes her dirty fingers anyway on the blankets and looks at them. A sudden hiccup made her jump and the two take off at once with the fright the poor thing had.

“You got it, I’ll get some water for our new cookie-zilla.”, he got up and away foram them after threatening to tickle her. Who escaped by crawling amidst the sheets to take cover at Nat’s back, also laughing amidst the dry snaps.

“You better hurry, alright? The way this one is, her stomach tapeworm might have devoured even the nightstand by the time you get back.”, Natasha grabbed the still giggling girl from behind herself. Wanda half climbed, half jumped across her shoulder. Slipping amidst a mischievous grin until she landed, hanging like a minuscule monkey. Her head and one arm resting on Nat's chest, her right leg still hanging close to her neck.

“I don’t know who you take after to be so sneaky like that, you little rascal.”, she joked as the kid still climbed her like a play net. Without the slightest trace of fatigue.

She drinks all the water in one snorting gulp, still clinging to Nat. Steve offers her an extra glass, but she declines.

“Wanda?”, she starts, causing the girl to look at her as well. The tiny mademoiselle beams still.

“Yes?”, she replies in the same intonation, on purpose. She is becoming more and more daring, getting extremely sassy each day.

“What did we talk about you going out around the house all alone?”, she denotes to the girl, choosing to ignore what she spoke earlier.

“We are at Clint’s, you say to me.”, she retorts. Okay, they truly needed to have a conversation only hovering over literalness and specifics with her. Steve took the leftover water toward his own lips.

“Okay, but you can’t go out alone anywhere ever, okay? Especially not here on Clint’s farm.”, Wanda listened attentively.

“Why?”, she asks, still not understanding.

“Because it’s dangerous.”, Nat patiently explains.

“Why?”, she repeats. Her eyebrows and frown creased in doubt.

“Because you don’t know the place.”, Natasha speaks promptly, in a tone that doesn’t accept placements.

“And why?”, Wanda turns her head sideways as she speaks, hanging onto Nat's arms. Who knew very well what that quick-witted game was.

“Because it might not be safe.”, she also turned her face at the same odd inclination. Making the girl enjoy even more her own playing, now she was just openly making fun of them.

“Why?”, she insisted. Gurgled.

“You might get lost, and then Steve and I will be very sad and you will be very scared.”, Natasha speaks up.

“But wh...”, at this point she is already doing it just for the tease.

“Because you should always ask us when you want something, that’s why. Period.”, she replied. Turning her face back to normal.

“I ask for cookies.”, she puts in, innocently, rightfully so. Natasha looks at Steve, who (still!) sips his water exaggeratedly slowly.

“Yes, you do.”, Nat speaks in a defeated sigh. “And I know you only went down because you were in the mood to eat them, I’m sorry. Next time you’ll listen to me and I promise I’ll give you a cookie, deal?”, she clenched her eyes conspiratorially. Holding out her hand.

“Deal.”, the girl replied, accepting the handshake. She had surprised them days before by making such a gesture, which they now had a hunch, she should have learned from Tony and his multiple bribes. “But Bucky says I should do it.”, she confesses. To which the two look at her, now the confused ones in the conversation.

“What?”, Natasha asks not understanding anything, but already sensing that this is not a good thing, “What did Bucky tell you?”.

“To get out when you date.”, she speaks in the most unashamed and unscripted spirit in the world. Steve spits out the rest of the water on the spot, almost choking on It too. Wanda laughs freely, paying attention now to the ‘trick’ he had just done. A chorus of ‘Again! Again!” ensues.

“When did he say that to you?!”, Steve looks from Natasha’s completely shocked face to his daughter’s playfulness.

“He says come out when you and Nat talk alone, because you and Nat are date.” she repeats the already said. Also clearly mixing/forgetting the use of the present continuous.

“Yes, yes. I understood that, honey. I want to know how he said it.”, he tries to articulate correctly to her. But the girl stares him straight in the face for a few seconds before speaking again.

“Tony and Pepper are date too.”, she spoke in a tone eerily similar to their friend’s gossipy one. She obviously didn’t know or understand what she meant by what she spoke.

“But we’re not like Pepper and Tony, Wanda.”, he explains almost syllable by syllable. As Natasha looks at them passively, the girl still bouncing animatedly on her legs. Her tank fully refilled with sucrose.

“You look like Tony and Pepper.”, she stubbornly says, becoming slightly exasperated with his denial.

“It’s not exactly like that, Wanda.”, he fumbles to elaborate.

“Why?”, she sounds almost annoyed this time.

“Because it’s not that simple.”, he formulates after looking once more at the other adult.

“And why?”, she provokes him now.

“Well, because...”, Natasha doesn’t even once interfere with what he is trying. “How about we watch an episode of PAW Patrol, huh?”

Miraculously, she falls asleep. It’s after two in the morning, but it finally happens. She lies sprawled in the space between them, her mouth slightly ajar in loose sleep.

“I didn’t think it was possible for her to get even more cheeky.”, he confesses. Nat raises her eyes also still attentive to him.

“Not to mention kind of scheming.”, she replies. Also in whispers.

“So much for a super baby with telepathic powers.”, he jokes. Expecting her to laugh or at least pretend to be offended by It. However, she reacts in an internally different way. Casting a quiet look at him after taking her eyes off the girl. Steve doesn’t need her to translate the signals further, he had ignored them for the moment when Wanda’s attentive ears were present and alert.

“What happened just before I arrived, Nat?”, she returned him with an odd expression. Resignation?

And she tells, every detail. Steve listens to her attentively and without interrupting once.

“Do you think she was somehow triggered by what happened to Nate?”, is the first thing he says when she finishes the account.

“I honestly think so, look at the evidences. She had never had night terrors before, or nightmares, at least as far as we know. You saw her face when we arrived in the living room earlier, she thought she would be punished.”, Natasha reiterates, something that had been swirling around in her head since Wanda had woken up.

“And she really doesn’t remember anything at all?”, he had also witnessed, experienced, what happened in Bruce’s lab. Yet he still felt in doubt, that could very well have been an exception event, rather than a rule.

“Nothing, it’s just like we talked about with Sam. It seems she has that part of her mind off, a defense mechanism. When you came in she had just woken up, you saw all of that part too.”, and he really did. Wanda was happy, in the same mood and spirits with which she had fallen asleep before. Had she not had such a gift, that of mental/emotional projection, they would probably never know what had happened.

They hesitated more as they discussed the faceless figure collapsing, nor did Steve ask any more questions. Not only because it would be too delicate to touch on the subject, after all they didn’t even know if it had actually happened, it could be made up of her imagination, the trauma itself. Natasha had shared a dream, a snippet only from Wanda’s subconscious.

“She was desperate, she obviously didn’t know what was happening anyway. But still, there is not a trace of bad in anything of hers, in any fiber at all.”, Natasha spoke smoothing the blanket over her daughter, a countenance, a sad smile. “There was only unpronounceable fear, she was hurting. So much.”, she runs her hand over the sleeping kid's complexion. This time infinitesimally more, delicately, almost not touching her skin. Her temperature had returned to normal. “You know, Steve, I’ve never prayed for anything in my entire life. But lately I ask the heavens every day, whoever it is to be listening; no one at all as i think.” She moved her hand away from Wanda’s pillow. “I truly hope that whoever did this to her never crosses our path again.”, she speaks in a scratchy, almost inaudible, controlled tone. So much is the pure viciousness with which she evokes such oath sayings.

“They won’t get anywhere near her ever again, Nat.”, he wants to reassure her, himself. His voice is firm, but she hers doesn’t sound with even a trace of doubt following.

“So be it, for I do not plan to spare anyone.”, there is no bluff in what she attests. He knows that well enough. “One by one.”, she lowers her gaze again to Wanda, her green eyes that denounce the purest and most sublime affection out of sync with the words, in malediction.

“And It won’t be just you.”, Steve catches himself claming soon after. Nor does he exaggerate his own sincerity in speaking to her. “If and when that time comes, we’ll do it together.”, she hears his words only partially surprised, but her eyes still eradicate well-wishing still. It is not the same, of course.

It was an inexpressible, personal pact. Only they would know about the fallen man, and only they had sworn there at that moment, to find, to annihilate all those who had contributed to the separation of their family. It was beyond any sense nobility, whatever that meant.

The sky already seemed to lighten minimally, but they continued side by side for a while longer, speaking little. Not before Steve brought up a subject that was also baffling him.

“What did you think about that thing from earlier? About what she told us.”, Natasha did not open her eyes, which now only rested. Although she moved her shoulders slightly in a sign that she was listening to him.

“I think deep down Bucky did it on purpose just to see what we would say to her.”, she speaks, he more or less agrees with his probable intentions.

“Yeah, but she’s also a lot smarter than we give her credit for sometimes. Did you just see that evil laugh?”, Steve speaks, somewhat bewilderedly. Addressing the topic, perhaps could be more delicate than imagined. Nat opens her eyes.

“I expected that, actually.”, she confesses, pulling the rest of the covers up to shoulder height.

“You did?”, he is surprised. Nat throws him a partially suggestive look.

“I think it’s normal for her to assume certain things once she starts trying to understand them, I mean. If she sees us next to Tony and Pepper, technically we have a pretty similar relationship, yes.”, she concluded by the hour to what he caught also analyzing. It made sense, or at least it seemed to in theory. Natasha gave him a smirk.

“Does that bother you?”, she prodded him. Steve wriggled, not exactly uncomfortable, but somewhat bemused by her.

“I thought you’d be the person to be most bothered.”, he let out, still looking at her features lingering only by Wanda’s lamp. Geometric shapes of moons, stars and planets traversing in light shadows over her fair skin.

“Honestly?”, the girl fusses minimally near them, but she continues in a low tone. “Few things bother me these days, let alone something that equals gossip from Barnes.”

“Yeah, he’s definitely going to move to another country after he finds out that Wanda let his gossip leak to you in that way.”, she lets out a particularly wicked laugh upon hearing it.

“I confess it’s kind of fun playing with his head, unfortunately that probably won’t last until the summer, though.”, she laments.

“Are you kidding me? Between now and July he’s already invited half the world to our spring summer wedding.”, Steve mocks.

“What are you talking about?”, Nat reopens her eyes that were already almost completely closed again.

“That’s what he told me last week,”, Steve now laughs as well. Even he had to confess that his friend’s jokes (and in very bad taste) crossed the line, it was almost always a tradition even.

“He's really asking for a misfortune to happen, huh?”, she complains in a voice that denotes almost no real annoyance. Most of the time this cluelessness from Bucky ended up being one of the lighter moments of their day, she really had almost choked him with a pillow quite a few times, fact. Their friendship was healthy like that.

“I just worry about how it might affect her in some ways.”, Steve tells her. It wasn’t as if Nat hadn’t thought about it at some point too.

“You say she gets disappointed because we don’t actually date or that she can’t discern It at all in the end?”, she suggests.

“Maybe a little of everything? Our relationship will always affect her anyway, whatever it is.”, he reflects. They turn away from each other at almost the same time. The ceiling only partially reflects the children’s lights, and the slightly fluttering branches sway in the fig tree that reaches the sill.

“So... Nothing more than what occurred on the terrace, right?”, Natasha whispers after he looks at her directly again.

“Well, I don’t know.”, she would give anything to see if he was somewhat getting flushed in the dark. That would simply never lose its fun. “Do you want that to repeat itself?”, he dwells on the word ‘conclude’.

“Do you?”, she retorts. Steve closes his face to Nat.

“Answering the question with a question, Natasha? Denial at its prime, I’d say.”, he mouths to her.

“I wouldn’t be that extreme, avoidance at most, okay? And I’ll assuage myself with that. Thank you very much.”, she says.

“Wise as always.”, he doesn’t miss the opportunity.

“Not all of us had the chance to study with Methuselah in kindergarten, Lambchop.”, she jokes.

“Do you realize that whenever we start talking about something for more than three seconds we totally lose focus?”, Steve looks at her trying to get serious. “It’s kind of a vicious cycle between you and me.”

“Yeah, yeah. All right then, is a totally straight answer what you want?”, he merely shakes his head at her question. “Okay, there you go. I think as long as we know how to separate our status as Wanda’s parents from our immature, unnamed and utterly confusing relationship that is entirely indescribable. We’ll get by.”, she says to him.

“Emphasis on immature, I’d say.”, he replies. “But I think so too, you’re right about that.”, he seems to relax a more.

“Yeah, cool down that golden head of yours, don’t worry, I’m not going to run off into the mountains just because people think we’re a couple. It’s not like it hasn’t happened before.”, she recalls a particularly awkward press conference.

“Great, so the spring wedding is on then?”, he tests, even though he already knows the answer.

“In the summer?”, she laughs subtly. “Only if it’s Britney's style, then I’ll marry you even in those 24-hour chapels from Vegas.”

“And we write it off after 56 hours?”, he picks up on the implicitness of what she throws at him.

“Should I, by any chance, be surprised that you know about that?”, she pins him.

“Unbelievably, but I actually live on the same planet as you, Sugar.”, he takes offense minimally.

“And?”, she raises her eyebrows.

“And I quite like flipping through magazines when I go to the doctor?”, he half answers half inquires uncertainly what she wants to hear.

“Maybe we’ll go to Atlantic City, stuff our faces, or at least try to do It. Wanda can stay with Clint and Laura and as long as we don’t somehow come back with another child, it will work out.” she embarks on the conversation.

“I thought you didn’t have a uterus anymore.”, he speaks up.

“And even so I wouldn’t doubt your ability to surprise me, big guy.”, she covers half her face with the sheet. Probably cackling some more.

“You know I hate that stupid nickname.”, he complains, but she’s still cracking up.

“I know.”, she manages to say.

“I swear you get meaner with each passing year, Natashalie.”, he tries. Nat oscillates her face in false indecision as to whether or not that was a good save on his part.

“You don’t know how to play, you don’t come down to the playground, Cap.”, she resumes, winking at him. “So what, we go away for two days and come back saying we got married? They would go batsh*t crazy, I’m pretty sure, no, I’d really bet money that Bucky would cry with emotion.”, she says truthfully.

“More likely he would go months without talking to us because he wasn’t invited.”, Steve formulates. “It might truly be worth it.”

“Who would guess It, Steve. The perspective of tying the knot with you only gets more and more advantageous... Is it weird that I’m marrying someone over ninety? What are you some good sixty-something years older than me? Holy sh*t! You’re my pseudo sugar daddy then.”, she stages a giant realization. “Except for looks, lack of monetary involvement, and also because if you ever dared to call me a baby I would propably knock you down the nearest parapet.”

“You’re very sleepy, aren’t you?”, he smiles from/to her affably.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve dozed off about six times since we started talking.”, she returns to her usual tone of voice. As an confimation, a discreet yawn assails her next.

“All right, I’ll let you guys rest now.”, Steve makes mention of getting up. Raising himself up enough to move away from Wanda on the mattress, one foot already resting against the cold floor.

“Wait.”, she doesn’t reach to shout, given the situation of the sleeping child almost reclined on her body. But her arm moves to hold his, Steve stops in the act, not having seen it coming. “You don’t have to go, I know Clint’s couch is lousy as hell and you’re more of a visitor here than I am, technically speaking. It would be just plain rude to give you that.”, she releases him, but doesn’t lie back down yet.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”, he speaks in truth. Natasha reiterates to herself with one of her looks.

“You need to try a lot harder than that, Sexy pants.”, she puts as he returns to the same spot and smooths their thick coverlet over all of them.

“But you can call me by these?”, they lay down. Nat still stirs a bit more before turning on her back and straightening herself on the sheets, turning to the side of the window.

“You pick things up so fast, betrothed.”, she says at last. “Sleep tight.”, he just shakes his head at what she rebutes. Like always.

Chapter 10: Le Feiscint

Chapter Text

It was with a not so faint, kick to the cheek, that Steve awoke the next morning, the room still covered in a faint, faux twilight light, as if it were about to be dark. He needed to blink a few more times, the covers and pillow cold to the touch despite the warmth provided. Even so, he still needed a few more moments to get situated within the unfamiliar environment. The walls reflected myriads of the most varied colors through the reflection of the window panes. It was still too early, the not-yet-sunny beams lazily seeping through the space. He changed more on automatic than anything else after returning from the bathroom, and by the time he saw them properly, he was already in his usual running clothes. Before leaving the room he sat down at the foot of the bed to tie his shoelaces and looked at them, both in a deep sleep. The girl was still completely bent over, now with her legs stretched out toward his pillow, her head resting sideways on Nat’s belly and her mouth slightly open. Natasha, meanwhile, was sleeping on her stomach and facing the other way, although one of her arms rested close to the child.

The icy air embraced him through the surroundings of the farm, although not knowing the territory as well as Romanov he had walked the interwebs on a previous visit. He chose not to listen to any music on the way, everything seemed to hum even more within his eardrums and the quiet and dewy serenity were irreplaceable in that place. It wasn’t a particularly long jog, but when he finally made his way back to the house after wandering the paths of a distant forest, the sky was still far from bluish, the pink and purple hues that were now present, making room in those low hours of the morning for a few clouds amidst an infinite indigo permeated by a yellowish clarity.

As he turned around to wipe the soles of his shoes on the doormat, he spotted Laura. She was sitting on one of the rocking chairs on the porch at the back of the house, wrapped in a dark peignoir with two mugs in her hands. She lifts one of them as she waves, a visibly sleepy smile on her face.

“Saw you leaving earlier, guessed you might want something hot.”, she extends him the steaming container and sits down again. Steve welcomes the drink, even though he is not the biggest fan of caffeine. Only when the smoke that warms his surprisingly cold fingers reaches his nostrils, does he realize that it is indeed hot chocolate.

“Thanks.”, he leans against the wooden pillar in front of him.

“You’re welcome, Clint had commented that you practically dawned to run everyday. I thought I’d come over and keep you company while the rest of the gang is still resting.”, she smiles minimally before releasing her own drink.

“And you usually always wake up early like this too?”, he questions as he tries the first sip. Laura made an evaluative motion with her head.

“Since Cooper was born, yes. More of a way to make my day pass, if you know what I mean. You?”, she sat over her own feet and adjusted herself in the seat. Steve squeaks as he burns his tongue, but continues to take his chocolate.

“Never abandoned the soldier routine, I guess.”, besides, waking up with the sunrise always gave him the impression of controlling time, of turning it to his advantage. Although he didn’t say it to her at that moment, ever since he had awakened he found it difficult to stay in bed for long, even if sometimes he still remained sleepy, tired. Laura rocks herself gently, the electric light that illuminates sparsely outside still on. “It’s so quiet here, all so still. Almost too good to be true.”, he raises his drink again. She laughs at his appreciative tone.

“I know exactly what you mean by that, I wasn’t very used to rural life either before this.”, she informs him. As far as he knew, Laura had moved from Boston shortly before she married Clint. “A little unnerving, if you asked me. Even after you get used to it.”, she says. “Especially when you’re waiting for some bad news.”, she adds in confession, but with a quiet smile on her lips.

“I can imagine that.”, something becomes immensely interesting about his feet for a few seconds. Clint’s missions had become less sparse after Nathaniel’s birth, but still frequent, more so than she and their family would probably like. As Captain, it was hard to personally balance those demands; everyone was friends, family.

“Would you like that?”, she brings him back with an emphatic tone of voice, as if she had asked him some other question before that, with no answer.

“What?”, she laughed at his distraction. “Sorry.”, he joined her in mocking as well, half out of shyness.

“I just asked if you think you would like that, a life in the country. Away from the noise of the city.”, he ribbons her in thought upon hearing her ask that. “It’s a great place to raise children, as well as to preserve your mental health a bit, I might add. I recommend it.”, she attributes as well.

“And by that you wouldn’t happen to be trying to send me any subliminal messages too, would you, Lau?”, he rests his other arm on the white-painted wooden balustrade. She casts him a suggestive look.

“Absolutely, I am literally trying to coerce you directly into this.”, Steve smiles with his mug already to his mouth with what she says. “You know, there’s a piece of land for sale right next door.”, she speaks. Steve hurriedly swallows the chocolate, which was for all intents and purposes simply splendid even after having burned it all over his tongue.

“You mean your neighbor’s who just passed away?”, he coughs up some of the liquid still as she defiantly takes hers.

“Less than a five minute drive here, prairie and wildflowers, no traffic, stress and paparazzi free. The kids would grow up together, Wanda would have a stupendous childhood.”, he makes a face at her.

“And you’ve done that same propaganda for Nat, I believe?”, he says and her smile narrowly fades.

“With her the way needs to be more sneaky, first I have to arrange for her to confess to me a bit more of what’s between you too. Then comes the offers of joint purchase and so.”, Steve can’t help but smile at the unhesitating assurance she shows.

“You said a little more? You mean you’ve already managed to get something substantial out of her?”, he pokes at the elasticity of their conversation. Laura is the one who grimaces now.

“Natasha is totally a melted butter in the end, you just have to know what to use. So yeah, I’ve gotten some interesting things from her.”, she waggles her eyebrows playfully at him. “And you, pretty eyes, aren’t you even going to blink a little bit? I’m used to having to dig through tougher husks than that.”, she nods her head to the inside, where her husband and best friend remained asleep.

“Who am I to dispute your investigations, Mrs. Barton.”, he speaks. Her eyes narrow almost in record time.

“I see she has already let certain things slip about my confabulation to you as well, how lovely. Great move, you know Stevie. Couple that gossip together stays together.”, she takes her cue.

“Amen.”, he raises his mug to her, who also toasts in the air with the same saying followed.

“But seriously now, the house is in perfect condition too. I know the realtor.”, she starts again, to which he just nods in good spirit before another big sip. The matter would apparently go on until noon.

The rooster had long since crowed when Natasha finally disentangled herself from Wanda’s nervous little fingers, which in some mysterious way had managed to stick to her hair in her sleep. Intent on keeping an even closer eye on the girl, she let her sleep a tad longer and went downstairs in search of breakfast. The house was usually quiet, the day was barely light after all, and she knew from experience that on weekends the kids were allowed to sleep in before the farm chores. Clint greeted her with a wave of the greasy spatula only, a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs soon found her next to a coffee as strong as a horse’s kick. Also still a little weaker than hers.

Giggles drew her attention to the back, where only the screen door remained closed. The voices outside were interspersed with loud laughter.

“So I’ve really been thinking seriously about replacing that old couch.”, he then after opens the refrigerator and takes out a pitcher of fresh juice. Nat smells pineapple with mint and accepts a glass even though she’s not a big fan of the concoction.

“Yeah, it might be nice maybe, to sit on something that doesn’t resemble a slippery rock.”, she chews quickly, had he put cheese and scallions in there too? Interesting.

“That’s a decision to make for sure. Milk?”, he offers to which she denies at the same time. Clint sits still wearing the yellow apron with green frills and binding on both sides of his waist, which someone who didn’t really know him might mistake as something he didn’t buy or choose on his own. Which, in fact, he had. “And who knows also, the bonus of when you guys visit and It’s not that uncomfortable, huh?”, she looked at him very nonchalantly while still listening to his banter, insinuating not insinuating.

“Are the children awake yet?”, he also knew that she knew they were not. In effect, his friend totally ignored his evasiveness. Tentative, that is.

“I came down for a drink of water in the early morning and didn’t see Steve sleeping, did something happen? Some event you both want to tell me about?”, Natasha would never be able to overcome the curiosity and eagerness for buzz from those two.

“Well, Wanda had a bad dream, if that’s what you want to know. We took our time getting to sleep afterwards too, she usually gets pretty active when she wakes up like that in the middle of the night.”, Nat rambled merely. Clint watched her in mute surprise and apprehension first.

“But is she okay now?”, he straightened, his posture previously relaxed in the kitchen chair. “I didn’t hear anything, you didn’t call us. You guys know you can call us, right?”, Natasha didn’t contribute to his apprehension, but before calming him down an instant smile came to her.

“I assume so, she must have been frightened by what happened yesterday. The real difficulty was convincing her to sleep again and not devour the whole kitchen.”, Nat said and he briefly sensed the conversational tone, but didn’t try to dwell on the specific topic.

“We had a serious talk with them.”, he attributed, it didn’t shock her, but she knew they felt the need to reassure her and Steve about that.

“I’m sure Coop was already feeling terrible.”, Nat put in and Clint nodded in agreement.

“They understood enough, from what we could explain to them they both felt embarrassed in the same way, I would say. They won’t tell anyone, I can assure you.”, Clint assumes an even sterner voice. Nat just remains silent, she knew what trust meant to him so she didn’t object at all, deep down she was grateful that they went to such means even if with the children themselves. Nat said nothing more for the time being. Clint was kind of at a loss too.

“But you have to admit, Tasha. The girl has style.”, he was not surprised at her half stoic reaction. “Well, they say the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.”, he tried.

“Yeah, but that fruit right there fell a little closer to another particular one, a certain New York sequoia. If you know what I mean.”, she joked, directing her eyes outside. He understood. A smile that she only saw on him in compartmentalized moments, when he watched her in nostalgia and reflection.

“For your information, Miss, she reminds me a lot of you, when I first met you that is. Maybe less elusive, who knows, but definitely with the same look of defiance and determination. You know she has a lot of that in her, don’t you?”, Nat shifted uncomfortably in her own seat.

“She hasn’t been with us that long.”, she huffed as she swallowed a lump stuck in her throat. “I don’t know if she could even get things from both of us that quickly.”, Clint’s patronizing expression was annoying, but definitely with less suggestion than Laura’s.

“Wait and see, kids have a gift for surprising us.”, the noises of footsteps on the floorboards were quick in offsetting the distance to the kitchen. Lau entered with two empty mugs in hand and gave her a facetious wink before heading for the stairs, a ‘quiet’ nod to her husband. “You let me know how that worked out for you later.”, he sneaks out with a mischievous grin; you can hear even faintly their whispering on the way upstairs. She started to roll her eyes, but stopped when she spotted him, half-heartedly standing in the doorway. An uncertain smile on his face, visibly coming from his usual laps.

“They really don’t know how to be discreet.”, Steve commented taking the first steps into the house.

“I would know that very well, you have no idea what I’ve had to put up with for years.”, she speaks, much though her voice denotes no more than a little veiled affection.

He just stares at her for a few moments, strangely, but not so strangely as to be much more unusual. He noticed her too, she had let her short hair mess up into barely formed and surprisingly captivating curls and as he lowered his vision a strange feeling came over him and he lost on the way to his lips the witty reply he had planned to give her. In the midst of something she was talking about, he allowed himself to ramble, no, to daydream in some distant way. Nat wondered at his fuzzy countenance, repeating the question once more.

“Do you want some?”, he blinked at her voice, but said nothing. Natasha approached dropping the glass and pitcher of juice she offered him on the table, he had a half frown and unfocused look. His eyes, though they followed her footsteps as close to him as possible, blinked in astonishment when she unleashed a light flick just above his nose using her middle finger. Her meticulously cut fingernail rubbed in an ultra-quick tickle.

“I didn’t think sleep deprivation was at that level with you.”, she spoke to him when Steve blinked a little harder. His eyes continued to direct themselves toward the woman, now more focused. The poor guy brought one of his hands up to his forehead, somewhat confused. She almost laughed at the scene, but refrained. “Are you really okay? You know I’m no expert, but even to me this looks dangerously like the onset of a stroke.”, she said in a less tense, but still tentative manner. The old age joke always came in handy to break their ice. Steve looked at her as if he had never seen her before. It was something that bothered in the back of his mind, like an itch nagging at him; his vision refocused on the purplish coloration of her T-shirt, she also lowered her own eyes to the fully covered bust.

“This shirt.”, she raised her gaze to find him looking now, at her, her face.

“Yes?”, she smiled half-heartedly. “It’s the one I told you I had to pick up yesterday to sleep in, remember?”, Nat begins to doubt if he is on the same earthly frequency as her, but Steve swings affirmatively. Yes, she had yelled something while he was in the shower earlier, something about having forgotten her nightwear in the pile of clothes on the bed when they needed to pack up all of Wanda’s demand.

“Uhum.”, he merely stammered, now questioning her in silence. Nat was already starting to get really worried. The realization was no more a shock than a hot wave that seemed to splash across his retinas, like a painful pulse, a bizarre reminder. And she hadn’t realized, apparently, how fantastic.

Natasha watched, static, as the long fingers approached the bar of her clothing. She remained completely still as Steve handled the fabric between his index finger and thumb, frowning at it with calm speed, a nimble wit as if to fold it in his deft hand.

Oh.That was what he was trying to point to.

She looked, really looked at the T-shirt that now served as her gown.

“You really don’t remember?”, he asked and the two of them almost collided when she went back to staring at him directly. She hadn’t realized how close he was now. A facetious smile permeated her as automatically as both of their chests, or his chest and her shoulders in this case, matched in measurement and air pulls.

“I could never.”, she said; watched his expression become one in regard. Perhaps they determinately had different reactions and responses, but it was nice to notice these tiny remnants like this, for what they really were. A multi-colored morning, a shared headache. It was almost ridiculous sometimes, these conspicuous oracles and random things that followed them in omen or idle coincidences. Natasha cackles some more at the look on his face when his front is already drooping, spanning terminally like a befuddled magnet against his opposing pole.

“I chose that shirt precisely to annoy you, there’s not the slightest chance I’ll ever forget it.”, she says, also resting one hand on the piece that covered her. It had been a strange dinner, no doubt about it. The first Christmas after what had happened. The mood in the tower was seemingly festive and healthily uncomfortable with Tony dressed as Santa and Bruce splendidly drunk trying to lift Mjölnir next to him, while Thor choked on trapped laughter and the two watched one from each corner of the room, quietly. Pepper was encouraging them less dashingly and Clint was practically devouring the whole piece of ham alone.

Clearly, luck was completely in her favor in putting him as her Secret Santa in Stark’s ridiculous raffle, so she had to buy a gift that matched the patheticness of the situation. Walking through the mall one afternoon, she couldn’t resist. She wrapped it in wrapping paper and paid attention to his confused/unbelieving/aliviated face when he opened the package and stumbled upon a cheap, not to mention tacky, model of a “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” commemorative edition t-shirt. The very first film she made him watch after they met, at which time he was still immensely lost, body and mind, in the midst of the 21st century.

It was her green light, the “Okay” that he had been waiting for, but at the same time had not been brave enough to take the first step in its direction. That they could go on from there, that their relationship could go on beyond that night. Because they had talked, fought, agreed and disagreed a million times since then, but always in a professional setting, always as avengers, never as Steve and Natasha.

“I can’t believe you never used my present, Steven!”, she practically whispers, considering that his face is only a few inches away from hers. He steals a quick, fleeting, but light kiss from her as a response to her indignation. “I should be so offended...” she puts.

“It looks so much better on you than on me, silly.”, he also tries to understand how that piece that he had not worn possibly more than once only had ended up in the middle of the clothes he had separated for the trip.

“Yeah, but I’m sure that Thor wears the furry ear muffs that Tony gave to him.”, she merely deflected just teasing when he dove in for another quick kiss. She managed to draw him in, of course.

“Does he really?”, Steve pauses vaguely remembering the Iron Man-printed wrapping paper, how could it be any different. The god seemed healthily pleased with what he had received, truth be told, the leopard print really enhanced his eyes. She shook her shoulders in puzzlement.

“You’re evading the real issue.”, he rested both hands on her waist.

“Your ingratitude?”, she pretended to brush an invisible dust off his collar.

“That thing mysteriously appearing in the middle of your clothes.”, he speaks, but she then just stares at him in silence.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers.”, she moves a bit further away just to get a better look at him when crooning.

“I see.”, he is merely distracted when she pushes his hair away from his eyes. Nat makes a disgusted sound with her mouth.

“You’re sticky!”, she pretends to repulse at his sweat while Steve is still trying to calculate when and how she managed to sneak that from the bottom of his closet. “Go take a shower and then we’ll finish this conversation.”, she dodges him, who ends up unintentionally crashing into her temple with the double motion.

“What an outrage, you didn’t used to be this picky, you know.”, he complains even if without any glow. To which she only attributed ready consolation as a kiss at the base of his chin . Steve’s truth to his mania for purposely hugging her after exercise was that this habit used to pass for a slightly less deliberate doing at the time, affectionately nicknamed by them as B. C; before coitus.

“Yeah, yeah. I know, I’m a sneaky fox who ripped and stomped on your pretty little simpleton man’s heart.”, they were naturally disentangling themselves, the joking tone still reigning.

Steve fakes a sudden ache in the left side of his chest, while making a seriously hurt face and trying to emulate a searching look toward her. The pain part is one he doesn’t have to fake it for long, obviously. Once Natasha shrugs she promptly hits him for the second time in a row that morning, now with a twist of his nipple, a mischievous pinch the kind you learn and improve in fifth grade.

“Ouch! Natasha.”

“Steve.” She speaks in the same complaining tone, trying not to get past how much she’s enjoying his outburst of spontaneity. “Don’t you start with that, too.”

“With what, honey?”, he props himself up on her elbows with his hands as he laughs at her half angry half uncertain face. Not even he himself knowing the reason for that outburst of elation.

“It’s because of this and others that these three have now pledged to surround us on all sides.”, she picks up once again on an already mangled topic between the two of them.

“Come on, Clint and Laura are fine, I’m sure their motivation is noble enough. But Bucky? The only reason he’s that committed is that in his words , open quotes: I still can’t believe any of this, I really need to see if Nat is really going to make the same mistake twice.”, he says and she listens to him in a face slowly turning to confused displeasure.

“I should have, without a shadow of a doubt, thought better of the whole package of you and your friends in my life years ago.”, she speaks, even though they were also her friends. Not to mention that Sam was immeasurably more bearable than the aforementioned one. He shakes his head as if thoughtful about the requirements and principles that would govern her possible choice and criteria of whom to impulsively sleep with. Not that he had many himself.

“I thought we had agreed to run together later, have you had enough of me already? It’s only our second night sleeping together, lov’.”, she sounds, now leaning on him as well.

“Oh, but how could I ever get tired of someone as inventive and cozy as you.”, she snorts out a laugh at his tone herself. “Hey! A little more sympathy, please? I just happened to wake up today with my jaw practically being ripped off by your cheeky apprentice.”, he points to the spot which, justice be told, still has a small reddish spot against the exacerbatedly depigmented skin.

“Don’t be for that, my dear. The cookie eater still has her fingers full of strands of my hair.”, she attests pointing to a specific space on her scalp. He touches the slightly irritated spot on her skin.

“Just imagine when we’re old.”, he sets the bait on the hook, ready for her response, but she’s apparently distracted for that.

“Yeah, we’re pretty well fixed up with that one over there.”, she speaks though it doesn’t sound like it to anyone in particular as she drags him up the stairs, just like that. Breakfast is forgotten.

“Wow, Nat. Is all this excitement for seeing me?”, he teases as she propels him to enter the room with her. Natasha casts across their shoulders a knowing glance. Across the hall you can feel the peeks escaping through the door that by millimeters is not completely closed.

“Try again, handsome.”, she signals for him to look into the room twice. Steve had commented more than once that Natasha’s hearing ability at times amazed even him. The messy little head that slips out from under the sheets stirs with their voices, she is actually sitting on the pillows and uses the covers to try to hide herself right away, gurgles erupt from the mattress bumps. They turn to each other. Steve tries to be quick enough as he puts both hands in sight, but there she was already ahead of him.

“Odds.”, he hisses softly, to which she had already started with the almost inaudible “Evens”. Natasha grunts at the result as Steve begins a ridiculous comemoration, she quickly arranges to throw him one of the towels that Clint had left near the dresser the night before for their use.

“Go and get that barnacle off, would you?”, he responds to her teasing only with the sticking out of the tongue that the two of them had recently, accidentally, taught the girl. She makes sure to deposit another, oh so inventive and cozy, kiss on his jaw before closing the bathroom door for him. As she turned around she bumped into the curious baby eyes, which were spying on them from underneath their hiding place.

The children didn't need to be asked twice when their parents later suggested they all go down to the lake, the usual morning routine having been eventually busy, not to mention especially late. Clint rounded up the four, including a bouncy and energetic Wanda, and accompanied him all of them still in their pajamas. Cooper accompanied his father to the cows while the girls waited next to Nate on the back stairs. The five of them returned laughing a few minutes after feeding the chickens and ducks.

“Look at that, what do we have here?”, Steve went over to meet Wanda and Lila, who were balancing together half a dozen still warm eggs. Laura received It and released the two to go back to playing, the other three seemed to act normal around her, what had worried Natasha and Steve partially the night before. Lunch was interspersed with a game of picnic around the house, with the kids insisting that the adults participate as well. Steve was the only one not to come up with an excuse in time.

The afternoon was almost over when they moved over to the site to the south of the property, which was actually also part of the Bartons’ grounds. There were shadows spaced between the trees and they were able to sit by the sandy banks, where rocks and gravel surrounded the edge. Wanda looked fearfully at the water as she sat next to Natasha and Laura on an old tablecloth. Even with the existing reservoir in between the Compound, she had never approached such a quantity. Steve and Clint took Lila and Cooper to the deeper side, but the other two grown-up s remained chatting some amenities.

“I get that your license will need a renewal soon.”, Laura comments in a mild voice as they watch just ahead Nate and Wanda, they sat with their backs to them, both in bathing suits, the water reaches the soles of their outstretched feet as they draw in the damp sand and gather polished stones by a bucket and with the aid of a toy shovel.

“Apparently so.”, she cast another glance at her friend before turning back to watching the children. “Steve will have to go out on a mission soon too, we’re not sure, but it’s a matter of days.”, they weren’t particularly having to touch with much dread on that subject, Tony had already met with them and agreed with a few more things, but the two had also established certain things just for them to know. Without a doubt, the first concern that came to serious mind was always who would stay with the child in case they needed to, and there were such cases, go all the members together on a specific mission, since when there was something smaller usually the maximum groups were two at a time to be absent from headquarters. The most logical option would, of course, be someone who didn’t need to go out on the same crusades as them, Pepper had made herself entirely available to them, even now that she practically lived there as well, but she also had her responsibilities, not to mention a very busy day-to-day at hand and it would be an abuse to want her to babysit all the time. Retirement had crossed their minds, and it was not an absurd idea by any means, they would probably have to move countries if they did so to preserve her identity anyway.

The recurring option, last to be put, was that Tony would make himself available in updating and improving the newly developed ‘nanny mode’ of his artificial intelligence device, the idea of a corporeal appliance was not that encouraged, although of course, it was a logical, ultimate of any possible robotic resourcefulness. By then they had agreed to alternate field appearances, with Stark, after trying unsuccessfully to encourage them to more recess time, offering to even make Vision available for monitoring if needed.

“We would be more than happy to have her here whenever you guys needed.”, she knew Laura would offer sooner or later, but still her smile of thanks was somewhat withering, though truly grateful.

“We know that, but it would be too great an imposition on you. Not to mention how it would affect her routine in the long run.”, was all they could think about, the sooner they could reconcile everything, especially in a way that didn’t affect her majorly, the better. Lau replied with a certain, yet soft face, she knowing the younger one's temper and what she would surely respond to.

“What you’re trying to do is hard enough by itself, Natasha, putting it together with what you charge yourselves with is going to end both of you completely crazy.”, she said in a haunted, yet overly comical tone. “If you aren’t already, to be fair I always suspected that you and he were a little cuckoo in the head.”, she finished with a finger swirling conspiratorially towards her own ear, a long whistle she let out and caught the attention of the smaller children less than two feet away. From where she stood, Wanda seemed to comment on something next to Nathaniel, who chuckled, the two were notoriously clingy, which was not surprising given the small age difference, but what was especially apparent after her action to stop him from rolling down the stairs the day before.

The girl said something in their direction, the fuzzy childish language mixing English with something similar to Russian, but which notoriously denoted the beautiful, exceptionally large and shiny jade-colored stone they had apparently excavated. The only thing slightly distinguishable in her speech had been the mention of her, the loud and clear “Nat!” that made them smile and the said to nod positively to the girl, who was soon back to plotting something with her other accomplice.

Laura hadn’t commented at all on the nomenclatures used around Wanda, and for that she was eternally grateful. Not that she thought her friend especially insensitive or nosy to any degree, but that undeniably could become an issue in the future. They were trying not to rush or compel Wanda into anything at all, and given all the thousands of specific and unrealistic situations that went on around her for all that she brought and represented to herself, there was no rush for much.

Clint and the children stayed afloat for a while before returning to shore as well to snacks, it was getting late and they had all been careful not to dive in on their full bellies.

It was with this last determination of late afternoon that Nat took Wanda in her arms for a last swimming opportunity, she didn’t seem so afraid as they approached the spot where Steve was, now standing on a rock waiting for them. Nat held her supported above her hip and walked over so that the girl could get used to the height of the water level, as her stride increased Wanda loosened more (see the hand she was just dipping and waving on the surface), Nat just laughed at her grimaces when the splashes hit her face, she relished the sunscreen and the smell of the lycra to be unveiled in the newest swimsuit gifted to her by the Bartons. A childish model with long sleeves and which she had quickly assimilated as having a doll with hair in the same coloring as Natasha’s, who only nodded as she saw her point to the ‘Little Mermaid' figure in amazement; she wasn’t that familiar with children’s movies in general either. Unlike, for example, Steve. He had made a list of over two hundred films recommended by everyone he knew, and most of the components had consequently been the work of one James Barnes.

Rogers swam to the point where the water was hitting Nat’s waist, and Wanda screamed loud enough to scare away any Beagle within two miles when he grabbed their legs from under the water.

“Didn’t think I was going to see my two ladies around here today.”, he resurfaces with a cheerful smile as the girl still struggles, albeit while giggling. The seemingly fainter rays of the setting sun beat down on the nearly crystal clear water and the lights refracts beautifully on their skins.

“We decided to come find you so we wouldn’t miss the opportunity, don’t know when we’ll be able to come back so soon.” Nat says as the girl, even though still afraid stretches to tease him with faces and one of her hands trying, and sort of failing, to mess up with his wet hair. As she does so, Natasha has to hold her back so that she doesn’t pull the string of her bikini top and Steve wheezes at the sight of her trying to juggle the child and her own clothes in place at once.

It doesn’t take long and she passes at once into his arms, now which causes him to place her on his shoulders as they chase Natasha there through the shallower area. She even relaxes enough to float between the two of them, one hand always at her disposal. Imperceptibly, the three of them move further and further away from the meeting point with the rest of them, although Laura, even from a distance, does not miss the opportunity to take some pictures of the little family enjoying themselves in the sunlight. These photos would be known to them top a bit later, but for the time being they were just spontaneous as It could.

“Now you the monster.”, Wanda managed to let out amidst high-pitched shreaks and giggles after another session of the finished playing. As per her wish, they still kept going some more, now with her trying to hide next to Nat, who was doing practically nothing to escape Steve surrounding them on all sides.

“Ah! It’s going to get us, it’s going to get us!”, the child jumped in her arms flapping her legs even though she couldn’t swim and trying unsuccessfully to get away, while laughing until she almost lost the air in her lungs. By now she had managed to take slight dives being attached to them and her little teeth were shaking and flapping, she shivered with cold being wet and exposed to the breeze that carried the evening, but she didn’t want to leave at all. Waves, in addition to all the water tossed back and forth by her, formed around them with all the commotion, and even if there were fish in the place, they had certainly been scared off to the sixth generation by all the fuss.

Natasha too, honestly, had her stomach already hurting from chortling so hard at Steve’s expense, as he was now getting incredibly tired of having to stay under as the ‘shark’ of the game, but who couldn’t change his role, because the little girl wouldn’t allow it at all. Luckily for him, and for his breath, the delayed afternoon nap paid its price not too late after that. And even while they were still playing, she was already leaning her head against the nearest shoulder in search of a doze. They didn’t talk any more after she had completely stopped the guffaw and loud demands, and everything nearby seemed very quiet too, accompanying them towards the shore, where the rest of the people were already ahead of them folding and stowing everything away.

Even with the cold weather provided and aggravated by the water that still dripped from both of them, they walked only after wrapping her in one of the towels, he teeny face still whiny and sleepy, and Steve held her in one arm while Nat collected and then carried their belongings. They had fallen behind on the walk, which was no problem for her who knew the place, so no one was ahead of them and the other five were already disappearing around the bend in the short grassy path when they started back, still in their bathing suits. And he looked at her once again, walking along and pointing out one thing or another, aware in general of what she said about an unfinished tree house or about later the importance of enrolling Wanda in a swimming lesson. Seeing her face as he had seen it in the morning, now only in a yellow two-piece and with her hair completely stuck to the back of her head, he could happily continue his contemplation from earlier, the one that had been interrupted by her change of subject. He remembered well the first Christmas they had spent after all that strange mood, not only because the gift was so personal and significant, but mainly because it was only right after the first day of the new year that Nat began her tireless task of finding him someone to go out with, which she started off brilliantly. With a girl she had met back in the day when she passed herself off as Natalie from Legal. And also, because it was exactly on the seven-day anniversary after they had almost had a huge relapse in one of the old empty rooms, around midnight on Christmas Eve, when Clint had already left for home and Tony and Pepper were arguing about something in the dining room. Thor and Bruce both drooling on the table.

He remembered, too, her expression, she was scared, completely and most likely more afraid than he was. They knew that, separately too, it wasn’t something that needed to be brought up in that oddly comfortable dynamic they had created lately. A little more toward the halfway point, she held onto the hand he didn’t use to support the sleeping girl. They visibly walked with less anticipation, and their muffled footsteps followed the dusk that was already shadowing their figures, lengthening and wandering toward the sunset.

Chapter 11: Моя стать

Chapter Text

The daylight brought a cloudy Sunday morning with surprisingly misty, sparse and seemingly less dense clouds. That descended the foothills in the distance and adorned the dawn on the Bartons’ farm.

The three guests who now resided temporarily in the last room on the left, end of the first hallway of the white wooden house and renovated slats, were already up early. Wanda had gotten them up long before the rooster even went to sleep, excited and elated at the prospect of going to the lake again in the morning, as Clint had promised all the children the day before, just after dinnertime, when Nate was practically snoring from his highchair and Cooper was running for one last hour on the video game, the girls chatting something quietly while barely touching their food.

However, his promise had to be temporarily relieved. When the rest of the family awoke to the sudden flash of lightning and the summer drizzle that brought into the house the warm smell of wet earth and the breeze that provided, even for those few hours of the day, a very mild climate. Because of that it was not advisable to head for the trails that went down towards the lake, the children themselves already knew this and therefore did not complain verbally as they went downstairs for breakfast with faces of discouragement. Even if there had been no landslides for a few years now and even if this was an early summer rain, it was the norm.

The coppery headed one, not native, much less even remotely comprehensible like the two older kids, just locked into a confused and displeased face when the grown-ups explained to her that the walk to the water would have to wait a little longer. It also helped that consequently she didn’t have the sense or the insight necessary to unravel that the ‘a little longer’ would probably be more than a day or two, probably weeks, months? They would not know precisely when they would return there for another visit.

Laura ended up making hot chocolate for them while Clint and the other two ran to check on the cows in the pasture and close the doors to the larger barn, after checking the somewhat loose boards on the top of the animal shelter. When they finally returned, somewhat wetter and muddier than expected, the four of them were gathered in the living room. No more resentful looks or sulky pouts, they were now all quiet and attentive in one place, like a small, pristine Sunday school class. On the TV, a rerun of “Pinocchio” was playing for all of them, who watched it focused and not turning away from the screen for mere seconds. It was comical how focused the little ones were on the old animation in front of them; in the next scene a blonde girl in blue robes and aura appeared to talk to the boy/doll, and their expressions diverged as they watched her descend from the above like a ball of incandescent light. Nate was propped up on the couch half as lazy as can be, his chocolate was sitting, as well as that of his new adventure companion, in a clear sippy cup, and he watched the scenes with curiosity, but without much depth overall. Cooper was in the armchair on the other side and sprawled out with serious features and lying, half askew on the cushions, to watch. Lila still held the empty mug in her hands, sitting on the floor although there was enough room at her back, she was absolutely delighted, eyes shining and smile on her face as she saw the sweet figure gliding in brightness and beauty in front of them. The only one barely touching her drink, as well as the only one with a frown slightly preponderant to an eminent frown on her face, Wanda blinked very poorly and followed the characters through the scenes and songs. The talking cricket caught her with its jerky, nervous chatter, but what got her full undivided attention was mainly the action of the fairy, who had so kindly and gracefully touched the simple wooden doll with her magic tip, a surprised grimace appeared to their delight that watched them from afar and when the supposed toy began to walk and talk like a real boy, she didn’t even move a muscle. Completely mesmerized and transfixed by the actions of the movie ahead.

“Oh, shut it, Laura. It even seems like this story only gets bigger every time you tell it.”, Nat complains once again in an outraged voice while the other three are still laughing at her expense. “And for your information, it wasn’t exactly a fracture.”, she retorts, once again taking the burger halfway to her mouth. Next to her, Steve is still holding onto his chair as he laughs at Lau’s thrilling narration. According to herself, from the day that Nat showed up for Cooper’s second birthday after a particularly challenging mission.

“Indeed, sweetie. You were dealing with multiple fractures to your humerus, could have been left with serious sequelae if you hadn’t been attended to.”, the older woman chides her, albeit with a less serious tone because of the laughter from just before.

“You’re exaggerating, it didn’t even hurt that much.”, Natasha practically stomps her foot like a boisterous teenager, while Laura merely indulges her in a quiet, debauched expression. “It wasn’t as serious as what they’re putting on, believe me.”, she addressed the audience and only new listener to the epic story from almost ten years ago.

“Yeah, Steve, believe her. Her bones practically crackled when she moved, and that’s what reported the problem to us. For real, she hadn’t even noticed she had a seriously broken bone.”, Clint takes a sip of the bottle beer he has by his side and by the grill, his favorite apron is back on and all around his waist. Rogers makes a dumbfounded face and spies the bored look on Romanov’s, who just shrugs off such ceremony.

“As if you’re anyone to judge, what about that time your nose was broken for almost a week long and the only reason you got it fixed was because Tony kept calling you Owen Wilson to wherever you went.”, she reiterates with a look of nonchalance at his nonchalance.

“Yes, my dearest. Although I did realize the bruised part of my own body alone, thank you very much.”, he gloated, accepting as he stretches out on the table the piece of meat Clint was offering him.

“Point for you.”, Lara cackled with her mouth still full and pointing at Steve. Natasha ignored them, turning to the side in time to peek over her shoulder. The children were running, chasing each other to be later exact. They wandered in bathing suits across the somewhat uneven lawn of the backyard, only a few feet away from the table set up for the adults. There were water pistols and a pink bubble maker involved in the rush, the small kiddie pool, remained forgotten with water still quivering in the inside, toys floating along almost its entire length.

Noon took away most of the clouds and brought back a partly clear sky with it, which of course, only pushed Clint into the advance of the barbecue they had planned for later on the last night of the three of them at the farm. It had been over an hour since they were played in the sun, but neither of them showed the slightest sign of tiredness or a desire to stop and eat. Lau had brought lemonade and sandwiches by the pool earlier and that was all they agreed to without stopping the chase for long.

“Look at Nate, he’s really trying hard to hold up with the older ones.”, Steve giggled as he pointed out the younger boy. His chubby legs and baby face wiggled as he followed one and then the other, now and then having to stop to catch his breath or even sit down.

“And Wanda? I thought Lila was an unreachable rocket until I saw her in action.”, Laura speaks after returning with more food for the table. They meet under the shadows of the porch. Everyone watches the little girl too, she didn’t even look like the same shy child that had landed there two days ago. Her face was extremely pink from the sun and fatigue now, but mostly she had a smile from ear to ear and a voice that was almost hoarse from screaming and squealing. All the weight she had gained in the last few weeks was an immense relief to them, especially since, as much as it didn’t seem like it, she had eaten very little during the first days of adaptation.

While everyone is still watching them, she stumbles while running away from Lila and the remaining water, tripping Cooper, who was on her team, and taking him with her into a prolonged fall by a slight roll in the grass. To make matters worse, Nate jumps on the two in retaliation and at the behest of his older sister. Lila sprays the three of them as they try to untangle themselves laughing and complaining.

“Kind of makes me wish Li had a little sister.”, Laura speaks partially distracted and in a somewhat low voice. In a manner only directed at Nat, the two watch their daughters playing together, an odd but not-so-new realization for both of them. Like their new cousin, the Barton couple’s only girl was very physically reminiscent of her paternal side. Lila runs with Wanda clinging to her side, the boys chasing them this time. Natasha listens carefully as she watches them with an unconcerned expression.

“Me too.”, she speaks and gets Laura to glare at her after giving up trying to understand the children’s new game. She doesn’t seem so surprised by what her friend says, but still raises her attention very discreetly in a sign for her to give vent to her thoughts. “Well, I don’t see myself with another one, that’s for sure.”, she quickly got the fact of infertility out of the way, which was now more than definite. Knowing that she didn’t intend to adopt/look for another child on purpose either, as much as she couldn’t imagine her life without Wanda anymore. She also caught herself thinking more and more about the first (and ultimate) pregnancy and that didn’t always come with good feelings. “And I know it doesn’t make sense, but I hadn’t stopped to think until recently that she would be an only child.”, she moved her head as she spoke after crossing legs on the chair in a yoga position. Laura continued to listen to her attentively.

“Maybe because it’s weird for me to think about growing up without any siblings, I don’t know what it would be like.”, she deflects the conversation to not a forced ending, perhaps an inevitable stop. Her eyes are directed to the girls again when Laura speaks up.

“I know what you mean, but I think this is put more to children from families that are much more lonely and isolated than ours. And if there’s one thing Wanda is going to have growing up, it’s company.”, she smiled tenderly before continuing. “Not always from people her age, in fact, but certainly surrounded by many friends, she is without a doubt an extremely endearing and remarkable child, to say the least.”, Nat smiled back at her in return, but continued in a contemplative charged silence. Lau knew that it was not all happening solely because of the issue concerning Wanda.

“Believe me, Tasha, being an only child has its privileges.”, Laura said, to which she actually knew from her own experience. “And there’s more, at least she’ll have my kids to interact with, do you know what my friends were growing up? TV and a folding ping-pong table that was kept in the garage.”, she put in good humor, getting a quick grin from Natasha. Who now leans less worriedly with her elbow between the snacks brought in.

“I need to stop always overthinking things, I never thought I would do that so much. I’m starting to doubt my own sanity sometimes.”, she jokes sipping some of the beer barely touched above the wooden surface.

“I was like that too some time ago. But days goes on, a glass of wine and a nap in the afternoon, a good night’s sleep follows and boom! Magic happens. You learn to ride the dragon.”, she doesn’t know for sure if Lau is serious, but just in case, she nods her head in affirmation. If she noticed this in her, Laura didn’t have much time to respond, since soon the woman was practically flying to where a small commotion was forming.

“Hey! What have you got there?! Let go!”, in response, one of her children just runs in the other direction. A living thing seems to be trying to get away from his hands. “Nathaniel let go of this frog right now!”, Lau rushes forward holding the hem of her summer dress with one hand, while with the other she advances ostentatiously toward the younger child’s intent. He continues to run wildly through the green quadrant, amphibian in his arms and a wily smile on his face. The other three scattered, running away from him and the poor defenseless animal in his hands. Natasha allows herself a smile at the sight of the scene, Wanda stops the escape for just enough of an instant to wave at her from wherever she tries to hide. She returns the quip and points her gaze to the front, where it catches Steve’s, or at least is caught by his stare for mere moments.

He turns his attention back to the conversation by the grill, Clint gesticulating excitedly as he tastes the meat, talking about this and that. She didn’t dwell too much on It, knowing that like her own, his hearing was practically perfect.

It seemed like it would never happen, but when they gave in to exhaustion the children had to be carried to the house practically in a coma, without exception. The nap of the day was especially shared by everyone in the house, and even the adults, especially the host couple, much more affected by the beer and time in the sun than their superhuman guests.

Like them, their byproduct was already keeping quite alert and with no remaining signs of drowsiness by the stroke of four thirty in the afternoon. Cooper and Lila were practically passed out in their respective rooms, Nate snoring next to his parents in the master bedroom.

They again found themselves at the kitchen island, trying not to make too much noise.

“And Cooper says Nate licked froggy too.”, Wanda repeats, in innocent gossip, what the oldest of the Bartons’ offspring had confided to her. With a grimace and sticking out her tongue, she uses the ‘nickname’ given by them for the captured bug. Neither of the two adults present fails to notice the hilariously similar tone to Li.

“Really?”, Steve repeats with an almost identical grimace on purpose, making her laugh as Nat looks at them condescendingly and helps her sit on the countertop, where her father is currently cutting her grapes for her.

“I’m sure he didn’t really do that, Zaya.”, Nat shakes her juice, and clandestine vitamins, before giving it to her to drink. “Besides, it was just a little frog, no big deal will happen if he licked it.”, she says, at the same time watching her drink and trying to remember, maybe Laura’s alarm was about the licking, really. It wasn’t quite a lie that the boy was going through a difficult time at that age.

“Lila says he got lice!”, Wanda drops the straw for a minute to speak, amazed and wide-eyed. Although, of course, she didn’t know what that meant.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, honey, you might choke.”, Steve pushes the jar of washed and sorted fruit to her, after grabbing a handful for himself still in the bunch, he used to repeat that same mantra to her every morning at breakfast, but it was kind of an empty effort living where and with whom they lived. “And no need to worry, I can assure you that Nate didn’t get lice from maybe licking a froggy.”, the child listens to him diligently, albeit with a certain wrinkle teased between her eyes.

“So you don’t get lice licking froggys?”, Wanda inquires with a suspicious expression as she looks at the grapes for the first time. They exchange a blazing glance.

“No, I don’t think so. But you must never, ever lick frogs.”, Steve speaks up, still wondering in what universe he would ever say something like that to someone.

“Why?”, Wanda twists her head a bit as she questions him. Natasha jerks on the other side, but tries not to intervene.

“Well, because it’s... Weird and creepy and because frogs don’t like to be licked.”, he speaks with the assurance of one who had just been told by the frog himself.

“But why?”, she continues, not surprisingly.

“We’re not starting this again, young lady.”, Steve narrows his eyes almost immediately in her direction. Her reaction, which quite the opposite of being startled or even scolded (obviously it was a joke, but she might not catch it being a child), was nothing more than a bell-like, audible, heartfelt laugh that made the two of them look at her without much reaction. Hers having been so unexpected.

“You do just like Nat!”, she points out, very cheerfully and practically jumping in the same place.

“How’s that?”, the two find themselves mirroring the other’s line. Though while Steve sounds encouraging and laughing, Natasha only sounds slightly indignant.

Being focused on Steve, with whom she was conversing directly before. Wanda follows in what he asks her.

“Nat looks at you like that.”, the child also narrows her own eyes, surprising them even more by trying to cross her arms as she does. “Rogers.”, little Wanda succeeds in imitating the subtle grunt in the adult’s more mature voice. All this, while looking at Steve with a disdainful face and an especially menacing stare.

The two continue to gape at her, somewhat dumbfounded. Not only because they hadn’t taken her for that observant, but mostly because the imitation was painfully accurate.

“Oh, dear God.”, it’s Nat who despetrifies herself first, whispering disarmingly to him as she moves closer. By this point, Wanda has returned to normal and is now chortling at their faces, returning to her food.

“I know, right? Bucky would've just peed himself, the girl is good.”, Steve scoffs, even as he places a mental reminder to himself. They would need to record that soon. Before she got too grown up and embarrassed for that kind of nonsense.

But it served to distract her and divert her from questioning for the time being, and however somewhat self-conscious now, Natasha also delighted in the gratification. Their plans were not truly laid out, but since everybody else seemed knocked down to the rest of the day in a sort of collective hangover, it was Nat who suggested that they could take a walk through the less dense woods west of the main house. It wasn’t too far and Wanda could also use a bit of stretching her legs.

Less than ten minutes later and they were on an open and well-lit trail, Wanda was walking a few hurried steps, not many, ahead. She was bouncing around in her new sneakers and occasionally grabbing a few wildflowers that sprang up here and there, so all that was left for them to do was to keep an eye out for poisonous ivys that might possibly cross their path.

“Did you used to do this route a lot when visiting?”, Steve pulls conversation already when the house is no longer in their sight.

“Sort of.”, Natasha stops as if to momentarily assess herself. “I started visiting more often as the kids got older, but it’s been over two years since I’ve been that way.”, she, also aware of having previously said something in those same tones to him. The weather remains cool enough that they don’t even need to make stops for water, it also helps that the not-so-laden clouds still cover the sun, even if the less offensive mid-afternoon one.

The verbal exchange until they get there boils down to that and the so-called warnings for when the girl accidentally sneaks a tad beyond them at one turn or another. The top of her head still harks back to the warmth of lunchtime and the sunscreen made her even whiter against the clear day, but she doesn’t let herself get discouraged as she hops between one trunk and another, reddish sparks dancing very discreetly on the tips of her right-handed fingers as she selects yet another plant for her collection. It was remarkable that Wanda, with a few exceptions of situations and people, tended to only become comfortable with her powers in a recreational and fluid manner when she was alone with the two of them. That wasn’t to say that she strictly didn’t use it in front of others, as for example what happened on the stairs with Nate, but she seemed aware of social spaces, she was smart after all. Most of all, there was within her a fear, that unfortunately existed, but which fortunately served the ultimate purpose of sparing her from the world outside theirs. That is, at least as long as she maintained the same childlike mentality. There was no precedent, no ideas of how they would deal once she started to become an adult, to mature and to get to know herself.

“Wow.”, Steve just stammers when they finally reach what appears at first to be an average-sized clearing, but turns out to be the inconspicuous top of a hill. The vegetation grows a little taller and dangerously fuller than that on the outskirts of the ranch. Natasha just stretches out the borrowed sheet so they can sit on it.

“You should see it here at night then, no buildings, no helicopters or pollution. Just silence and nothing else.”, Natasha speaks amidst a steady intake of breath, the smell of untouched forest seeming to invigorate her completely. She couldn’t remember why exactly she had stopped going there. Steve listens to her more attentively, his talk with Lau the morning before had been swirling in his mind ever since, even if it seemed too distant and really unlikely. He couldn’t help but think, though, that the impossible always seemed to have a share as far as the two of them were concerned.

“You don’t like it much, do you? The hustle and bustle of the big city, I mean.”, she who already had her torso relaxed and her arms resting on the ground, lowers her previously uplifted face into the wind from higher altitude to aim at him. Wanda remains playing by herself, sitting not far away and occasionally looking at them as well, there were more wild specimens there, flowers in brighter colors than the thin white petaled ones she had picked a earlier.

“I guess you could say I’ve gotten used to it, but I must confess that I liked the new upstate facilities more.”, she speaks without much intonation, unconcerned about sharing that with him. Steve tries, even if wrongly, to compare in his head the memories of the time when they inhabited the tower to the more recent move to the more secluded area, farther away from the concrete jungle. It wasn’t an exact science, but he had the impression of seeing her more at ease in the Compound, Natasha was always armed with an efficient social mask when in the midst of people, but after living so close together it was quite obvious when she was wearing it or not.

“And you don’t like crowds either.”, he wasn’t asking her. Natasha cast him a mute consideration, as if in recognition of his sharp perception, before speaking to him as well.

“No.”, she stood more erect as she gathered her previously stretched legs. “And I don’t have any social anxiety or shyness issues in that area.”, she says, and he didn’t thought that she did either. “But I don’t particularly like being surrounded by a lot of people, strangers. I can't describe it, just gets on my nerves.”, she speaks. Curiously shaking her head, as if physically pushing away a thought, a memory.

“It doesn’t feel safe.”, Steve completes in his own saying and experience. “Always that itchy feeling around the back of your neck.”, he grabs some of the overgrown bush near his heels. Plucking them out and trimming with both hands.

“Also extremely tiring, having to be alert all the time.”, she intones to him, even if not in a complaining tone. No, resignation was even too much to say, she spoke with almost material detachment, with impersonality. “But you know that as well as I do, Captain. Don't know why I’m dictating to you.”, a minimally flirtatious smile and they shift the guide fluidly. Most of the time it was discreet like this, both of them with many wounds, much past to tread carefully.

“But I suppose it’s not surprising that you felt more at ease than I did when we were in New York, for example. You grew up in an urban environment, even if in Mesozoic times.”, she squints one eye as she speaks, but not in the deliberate, machiavellian way Wanda has just recreated to perfection. A little sun was now beating down on them and especially on her face, she made no effort to resist the glare any more than that.

“And you didn't?”, he doesn’t hold back, as directly and simplistically as the child beside them would have asked. Nat shields a bit of her face now, before answering him.

“Actually, I grew up in an area not unlike this one.”, she begins frankly and without seeming to be bothered by the inquiry itself. “It was certainly wilder and more mountainous in relief than those in Laura and Clint’s land, but I don’t think I went to town until I was 13 years old, perhaps?”, she seems to doubt her own recollections. Steve continues like a statue, not intruding on what was apparently a novel thing. He had no idea that to know a little more about her past life, as much as she was willing to share, would be achieved with a straightforward unpretentious question. That was probably what had weighed in on her not seeing a problem in talking to him about, as well as the child feeling less exposed due to the specific company.

“We didn’t raise any animals, that I can assure you. Let alone had elderly neighbors with heirloom cows and houses for sale.”, she says in a forcefully light, even if not overtly bittersweet tone. “And also, the games were less fun, that’s for sure.”, Steve holds back with himself the words implied in her speech and though it’s nothing to smile about, he does so even as he knows she was doing it for the sheer intent of the attentive and uncontaminated ears that accompanied them.

“It’s a shame.”, he begins half uncertainly, but nevertheless continuing the ongoing thought. “That you weren’t able to enjoy yourself like that, I mean. It must have been hard... not being able to play, I mean.”, he finishes awkwardly and stressed at the attempted subliminals, casting a nervous glance at Wanda, as if she could understand them with all that talk in codes. Even with vast understanding in itself, since, even though they were trying to address the dark traits of her upbringing, Nat really hadn’t had time to play as an infant. Natasha stares at him without saying anything for a short time, she does not sketch a smile, not with her lips. With her eyes she blinks with a fatuous glint and a too intimate relaxation of her eyebrows, which makes a particular impression on his face. Somehow, far more sincere than any mouth outline would ever be.

“It was.”, she puts it simply, without running away from the subject. As he anticipated, not condemning her for it. Natasha, however, was still remembering what that day at the zoo left in her. Steve had opened up so easily, with such insouciance. It caused her a strange envy, being completely true to herself. Of course, to her his past possessed much less to be ashamed or disposed of, not undoing the point that she carried the weight of so many deaths with her always and forever.

“I had a sister.”, she caught herself botching it out, just like that, with no quick caveats, but with enough of an unexpected level to make him almost knot his neck as he stopped looking at their daughter and turned back to stare at her. Natasha allowed herself to laugh, even if not much, at his face.

“I know you were curious earlier, it’s okay, Steve. You don’t have to be afraid to ask about my life, I’m not going to bite you.”, she whispered the last part. He was still looking at her less than stunned. “I can’t guarantee to give you all the answers, but you can always try.”, she said, knowing him well enough to know that he had always had this propensity, especially about her. The ambience must have weighed in on something, too, in her coolness to share some of the horrors she had already been through. Not taking away from the summation that the biggest reason for her being so slippery previously, apart from what one doesn’t need to spell out aloud, was basically because of what had occurred on his non-birthday and her denial to commit, to validate it further. Since intimacy they had enough and it wasn’t as if she had an impenetrable shell for people that close to her, example of this were Clint and Laura. Now their situation was more than shifted into a three-hundred-sixty-degree angle for her to deny more.

"We were not related by blood, but we had lived together since always. We were roommates.” At this she didn’t particularly intend to extend. Steve knew enough to be aware that when she said ‘always’ she meant more than literally that that had been her life for as long as she could remember. Nat had let slip once before that she didn’t know exactly who her parents were, but that they had probably been dead as long as she had been alive.

“I guess I could say she was kind of my Bucky in a way.”, with that she allowed herself a balance, but short, affected smile. “She was extremely clueless, impulsive. And she was four years younger than me too.”, something pervades her expression, but it’s so quick that he barely has time to try and read her better.

“You took care of her.”, Steve fills in with echoes of what she had spoken to Laura earlier. So that had been Natasha’s childhood, aside from the unimaginable terrors and inhuman training of the red room, she had a family before them, before Clint.

“We only had each other.”, she cut short what could be explained in the disappearance of girls in her age group year after year. When the red room fell it was estimated that her ‘class’ had been joined by over a hundred kids at the same time. Five had survived to graduation, only one to the present day. “It wasn’t like we had much of a choice.”, she says, attesting to the obvious, which even then sounded painfully devastating to him.

Steve looked at her, wanting to ask the question, but knowing he wouldn’t do it. She once again pity him, without truly registering how much such sayings meant and opened with regard to them.

“She’s gone, it’s been a long time now.”, Wanda raises her head at her voice, despite their precautions, paying no real attention to another’s conversation. “It was a little while after Clint first brought me here, I remember it well.”, she swallows with a dry throat and another deep breath. “A few years ago there were some clues, scanty ones, to be fair, but they didn’t lead me to anything. I confess I had a bit of hope at the time.”, she adds. Never having said so, to the world and out loud, that she had gone after her dead sister with vain possibilities.

Afterwards, Steve continued in absolute and resolute silence. As if allowing herself to digest along with him her entire monologue. She was grateful that he was not someone insensitive or inconvenient enough to continue when visibly she could/would no longer. Nor did he feel predisposed to prolong it, if she feared reliving it, Steve refused to incite her to such an act. Nor did he try to console her, it didn’t seem right to do so with anything, strangely enough, but it seemed far more considered and loving of him to do nothing, to give her space.

“I think there’s another storm coming up.”, Steve points with his chin at the sky that was already showing partly cloudy when they arrived and slowly taking on a more grayish tint, the clouds spreading like a thick sheet as far as the eye could see.

“Looks like it.”, she replies a bit later, voice audibly less restrained, but again bland. As if in agreement, a thunderclap breaks the skies in an introductory to the lightning that was already showing on the horizon.

Wanda jumps up startled, the flowers in her hands carried in the strong, icy wind, she runs close to them. Her hands glow warm against the sudden pallor surroundings and before they know it, the flowers gravitate unnaturally around the three again, the red chasing them individually, unconsciously. Like teeny tiny nymphs, they dance in whirling arcs around them. Stopping only, and just barely, when Wanda is lifted off the ground. The shattered petals stick to their hair and to the exposed skin of their legs and arms, but the girl calms down after the drops begin to fall, the gale slows down, and they must hurry back as soon as possible, while the storm sleeps steadily and fiercely at their backs. It is in this rush, threefold, that Natasha realizes she had not told him, not in all the words, how she had found that place a lifetime ago, when newly arrived in her new reality and mourning the only person that she ever loved. In a way, he already knew that too.

Chapter 12: Gné Dhúbailte

Chapter Text

Monday began, without a shadow of a doubt, in a drastically opposite way to the weekend. Wanda, surprising a grand total of zero people, didn’t seem at all exhausted from her recent trip. Truth be told, upon bidding the Bartons goodbye she seemed especially restless and sly, Lila promised to call her and let Steve and Nat know, and this is exactly the precise term of her act when addressed to the adults, that they should return for the Fourth of July. However, if on arrival at the farm she had been sick and vomited all over the aircraft, during the departure into the early morning hours she only snored silently, waking up only when placed back on Nat’s bed.

There was almost no one at home, in fact. Tony had gone to NY and Bucky had left very early to take care of personal business, Sam was kind enough to pick them up at Clint and Laura’s, also of course for another piece of pie. He had gone upstairs to sleep and didn’t show up until later. Pepper stopped by to say hello to Wanda around noon, bringing with her a chocolate pastry especially for the kid. Bruce did not come up from his lab to eat with them, although of course the little girl personally went to drop off a piece of her treat for her friend. They didn’t have much to plan for the rest of the afternoon, Steve would have a meeting the week after that and she would soon also be attending upcoming assemblies and public gatherings, whether that was before or after she went back to the countryside. It was a strange feeling, they agreed among themselves, to slowly get back to the pre-child routine.

Since the little rascal was more than willing with all the sugar and exultation left after the return, they saw no problem in taking her for some light exercise with them. In the larger training room, the one that actually resembled a multi-sport gym more than anything else, they first set up some basic, quick warm-ups for her to follow. All the equipment was put away, so there was only the three of them and the surrounding space. With slightly longer stretching sequences and obviously less rigid functional training, they took turns in positions. First Steve would stand at a certain point on the court, no more than about fifteen meters from where they were getting ready, and then the girls would run towards him, who would stand sideways with his foot marking the ‘finish’. Wanda giggled and jumped more than she ran, her short legs reaching a speed shocking even to them, already experts in the infant capture area. She had enjoyed the thing even more for the two of them, of course, this time with a much longer distance and a double course. Even in play, Natasha was faster than he, who although could make longer strides due to his size could not compete with her almost feline agility when on the course.

They were a little behind in getting her to exercise more, and even they admitted it. In the last few weeks the most physical activity she had done, if you don’t take into account how much she was already running and getting up to speed on a daily basis, was walking with Pepper and occasionally going to the new playground. It was no wonder that she still had an apparently great physical condition, but Cho had already warned them that this tended to get even more potent as she matured. When she arrived she denoted a life of malnutrition, and so it was difficult, without the parental information put in place, to imagine that she possessed the genetic potential of a super soldier in a dominant way in her genes.

The doctor said that she would most likely develop a greatly accelerated metabolism as a form of self-defense, exceptionally at the stage of puberty. She was indeed unique, a genetic rarity like no other ever seen. Serums were not meant to be passed on to children, not before the first adolescent phase at least. Not only because age retardation, prolonged youth, and acceleration of the body could also impair hormonal development, but mainly because the effects on fully matured individuals showed exceptionally high potential; in other words, lethality. Not surprisingly, you didn’t have to put one plus one together to come to the conclusion that something generated by the side effects of two distinct types of invasive metabolic stimulants would be singular in a shocking way. It was enough to think that, the genitors possessed such attributes and enhancements after laboratory exposure, but that she, generated through their material and therefore not exactly submitted to, but made through the serums, figured an unprecedented and undeniable potential when physically mature.

This was something they could not disguise to the closest, most attentive people, but the laymen, even those in the government could be fooled with a simple but effective component: technically, Natasha had not been put under the experimentation of any serum, at least not legally. This farce, however seemingly mild, could mean a great deal to the girl. Being recognized by the public eye as the daughter of only one genetically modified human, Wanda would not be predisposed to inherit any of her paternal ‘abilities’, since the components that altered his DNA were too unique to be compatible in anything like the presumably normal maternal one, and thus Steve’s enhanced genes would remain placated, ‘dormant’ within her because they were recessive when put to Natasha’s.

It would, of course, be the perfect and flawless plan to protect her from any results of exposure to others. Were it not for the small detail that she had also been separately exposed to experiments that were also extremely unique. Which had naturally resulted in her amazing mental and emotional abilities, barely explored and there was no denying, potentially dangerous.

“And now we snack?”, she little less than jumped off Steve’s shoulders after an attempted push-up session on his part. She was demonstrating to be especially hyperactive, still in the rhythm of the Barton children, perhaps. Nat chuckled at her impatience, approaching them and landing as usual one of her hands on the girl’s head, her size was certainly one of the few features that seemed irreproachable during her time with them, even with all that lay before her the journey of malnutrition and neglect had left traces, besides the psychic ones, that is.

“Almost, Pumpkin. Do you remember what we agreed on before you visited the farm?”, Steve stands at her level to speak to her. Wanda examines his speech like someone trying to remember something unwanted, although her face does not denote anger.

“We talked about training together when we got back home, Zaya.”, Natasha introduces as she pulls her hair up, away from her sweaty little face. The child having insisted on leaving them loose during the exercises. Wands raises her head to look at the woman who is now at her back, thoughtful expression still in vogue. It does not go unnoticed by them.

In fact, the two of them had tried to explain as much as possible to her earlier. They needed to start training her as soon as possible, even if in a few hours of a few days, as much as she could and was comfortable with.

It is important that she learn to know herself and her abilities as part of herself; Wanda has to come to terms with who she is, had been what Sam had said on one of the afternoons they had allowed him to talk/watch her. A bit too deep at first glance, at least when talking about such a small child, but that was a plus, he said. No doubt the marks only of captivity would follow her consciously and unconsciously for the rest of her life, but her mind was too moldable still, too fresh, for them to work with her on ways to control her powers without it inflicting trauma as it had in the past.

She was afraid of herself sometimes, this was clear. Wanda must not have been aware of it, but they noticed, it wasn’t as if she had been instructed otherwise, guided to a path of less abruptness and acceptance, she was a lab experiment until then. No name and no prospects except to exist as a tool and extract; who knows what she would be without Pietro to show her affection and humanity even in those few years.

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, we can try It another day.”, Steve held one of her hands as she returned her attentive gaze to him. They didn’t want to impose on her, it would be unthinkable after all they had witnessed, but unfortunately there was only one way to help her in that area and that was, like it or not, in practice.

“I don’t want to.”, she speaks/confesses. Serious eyes and stiffened profile. Neither of them expected her to want it right away, but they didn’t foresee enough reluctance for her to also amend if...

“Not another day.”, she cast a careful glance from one adult to the other. Having already picked up with the time she was with them that she probably wouldn’t be punished for that. Observant as always, she also noticed the silence that overlapped with her speech, to which the poor little girl stepped forward trying to justify herself.

“I don’t want dark.”, her voice falters tinkling at the end of the sentence, it seems an effort for her to say those words to make them sound defining as well. The frowns of both remained unscathed, frowning, Wanda looks at them, but they don’t respond because they are still trying to make in their heads the connection (which wasn’t that hard, but might still surprise them).

“What do you mean by dark, Wanda?”, Nat is the first to break the trance. They knew before she even tried to explain it to them, the uncertain, stammering tone for the simple childish vacillation and turmoil. But she doesn’t seem nervous, at least not from what she says next.

“I do wrong, I go to dark time.”, she speaks with such innocent, nonchalant obviousness. “I stay alone. Him leaves me alone.”, it’s even disconcerting how she articulates that, as if she doesn’t perceive the action for what it was. And of course, she really didn’t understand it. Natasha also stoops down next to her, Wanda remains with one hand held between both of Steve’s, now also coming close enough to posture herself standing between her squat flexed knees. With her free hand she fiddles as if distractedly with one of the loose strands in Nat’s hair.

“Pietro do wrong.”, she mentions still looking at the hair in her fingers, as if trying hard to pull something from the depths of memory. “We can’t talk, he stays away. I mis...,” she raises her eyes with a meaningful countenance. Her complexion smooth and serious, as if she could pass to them more than the words spoken there. When she no longer gives any sign that she wants to continue, they only posture beside her.

“You’re not going into the dark.”, Steve is the one who speaks to her, in a decisive tone. “Not anymore.”, she analyzes his speech as one who tries to unravel an especially curious object with lay eyes.

“That’s it, we’ll train you, but it’s okay if you can’t do something. We’re here with you.”, Nat gives a kind albeit shy smile to what Steve begins to smooth in circles the girl’s back. They have her getting upset at the direction of the conversation, but it’s not tears that follow what she hears from them.

“I mistake.”, she doesn’t answer in a twisted way, it’s more of a misunderstood reluctance. A custom. She doesn’t seem to understand that she doesn’t need to be penalized. Perhaps the confusion or even the new expanded perspective itself, but that was most likely the very first time the name of her late friend did not provoke her to tears. She looked sad, a resignedly alert state; relinquished. No less wise.

“We can play together.”, Natasha tries. Eyes flickering toward Steve, who also already seemed to fish out her idea. Wanda lifts her face some more , apparently more interested in that kind of conversation.

“Play? Like hi-seek?!”, she rolls her eyes to Natasha, visibly more excited about playing instead of training. Yes, they should have had the sensitivity to do that from the beginning. They would both have to have a better conversation to ways to get at Wanda with important matters like that.

“A little, but in this game you can use red too if you want, what do you think?”, the child seemed to evaluate the proposal very seriously. She knew that she couldn’t use her skills in all kinds of games promoted by the guys, not that she was very prone to cheating, but it was a concept that was becoming clearer to her every day.

They were discovering that the girl was a competitive spirit, albeit a childishly naughty one. There were some iron hula hoops stored next to the equipment, hoops that had almost certainly never been used. Creatively, Steve picked up some fuzzy green tennis balls that were still wrapped in sealing wax. At first they left her completely at ease, the objective was simple, she needed to hit the target, hoop, suspended by Natasha a few feet away from her and for this she could use any means possible.

The first round was merely experimental and she still seemed somewhat uncertain about the task and its end. During the first attempts, only two perfectly hit the empty space inside the circular artefact. This seemed to make her impatient, or at least somewhat frustrated. They still did not intervene when on her own she tried to throw the next colored ball with a furious burst of crimson. The ball flew past, causing a light wind to whip across Natasha's cheek. Wanda celebrated in leaps and bounds as they laughed at her slightly more recovered cheer.

“I did it! Did you see? I won!”, she celebrated prematurely if not fluffily. Until they explained that that wasn’t exactly a game with a ‘winner’ kind of thing, she seemed a tad more confused and immensely discredited with herself.

In the end, they ended up in a tournament-type thing. In which Steve also tried to hit the targets at intervals with her. It wasn’t a competition as such because they didn’t even keep score for one or the other, but the girl seemed aware, at least after they explained it, that victory was possible only in a competition model, i.e. more than one person playing at the same time. At one point in the game the balls came one after the other, in almost perfect rows and lit up by tendrils as vivid as blood, pure power emanating from her limbs as the child giggled and giggled at the ridiculous movements he made when throwing. They needed to take her to a baseball game sometime.

She apparently tired easily of one type of game, vehemently refusing a snack break now, how ironic. They spliced one section into another and soon she was lifting heavier objects, though not throwing them against nothing. Her motor coordination was enviable and for her age, one must admit It. As she balanced over two meters off the ground on a basketball, they timed it for her, it wasn’t much, thirty seconds was what they tried to get her to reach first time. Although they didn’t tell her that, nor encourage her to take longer or to hold on a little longer when she knocked down almost all of them under twenty. They celebrated with her even before she threw the ball, using direct hand contact to get her to break on her own. They knew from pure observation that the physical mass of things influences the energy needed to make them float like soap bubbles. The force of inertia even then made the thing, in this case the ball, seem to bounce off an invisible obstacle before ceasing to continue its initial motion. She seemed especially delighted with the noise of the heavy ball on the floor that echoed around her.

Everything had been previously settled after a session with Sam, it had been few so far. Also because the girl, although less closed off than before was still slightly reluctant to talk about anything. In general, it was just conversations with Sam. There was no doctor’s office, no lab coats, or anything else that would make her retreat before a face as friendly and familiar as his. So far there had been some improvement in the meager results, most of the time they didn’t even schedule an appointment or anything, usually taking advantage of a moment when she was resting or playing. Sam would lay on the grass of the playground or even on the floor of the large and generally unused dining room, where she seemed to enjoy sitting with her various toys. The glassed-in side gave a distant view of the small woods and the reservoir that were situated on the grounds. Wanda could also be extremely guarded at times, preferring the silence of an empty room or even outside the building. She was not left in any of these scenarios, but they tried not to disturb her when she appeared to have this desire for solitude. It was healthy to leave her alone with herself once in a while, was what Wilson repeated as well. He himself was careful to only embark on any topic when he was sure the girl was up for some company.

When they talked Wanda seemed to disconnect a bit from her own words, whether it was combing Brown’s hair without much thought or even putting lego pieces together in an imitation starfish. Steve or Natasha, whoever was looking after her at the moment, tried not to intrude as far as possible. Sometimes they just watched from afar as Sam and Wanda walked through the flower beds hand in hand, she telling him things distractedly and then returning after a mere five to seven minute walk by jumping up and asking for a snack (as was almost always the case). In the last one, which even occurred a few hours before Bucky dropped her from a potentially dangerous play, she had been the one waiting for the girl. Sitting far enough away from them at the long table, Nat flipped through an old magazine without much absorbing what was in it. It was more for their comfort and peace of mind to make sure she didn’t stress about things said or heard, Sam was undeniably one of the more sensible people on the team, which unfortunately didn’t say much for anyone.

On this particular day, they noticed a considerable change in her countenance. She didn’t look upset, or frightened. No, if that expression on her face could have any more tangible name, perhaps it was surprise, unaccustomedness, strangeness? Sam didn’t take long to inform them, as he always did at the first opportunity. After the incident she fell asleep surprisingly quickly and they were able to go to Steve’s room, also close enough, to receive the wrap-up of the “consultation”.

“She is learning to see herself and the world with new eyes.”, he said at the very beginning of the explanation. “It’s a slow process for her, Wanda is still having to perceive herself as an individual being, let alone as something that doesn’t involve Strucker or Pietro all together.”, It was a process that she would normally only meet in her early teens, he said. Saying goodbye to an old version of herself was part of that particular ocurring, but more than anything there was a core point to touch on.

“She's grieving.”, Sam translated many of the things he already observed in the girl. “Not just for the boy, that would be a more punctuated degree of the mourning she is experiencing. Mostly, she is grieving for her old life. As bad, hopeless, and difficult as those few years alive have been for Wanda. Perhaps the effects are less noticeable with her being practically a baby, but I guarantee you that even if she were a child just over a year old she would also be going through something similar to a bereaved state. You have to especially keep in mind how hard it is for her to find herself parachuted into a new reality, with new rules and especially with new possibilities.”

It was normal that a loss, a trauma of a certain magnitude, would affect individuals with different cognitive development in different ways. Sometimes she could act like a child of lesser age, that was what he warned both of them. For Wanda this would be besides a way of coping also a chance to have the opportunity to go through certain phases and experiences necessary for social contact for human beings. They did not take away the possibility that without contact with a single friendly being, Pietro, she could have suffered irreversible damage in this field. Motor and even cognitively they had the clues that she was very well assisted by others, they needed her to be able to move and reason at least as much to understand and accomplish tasks, was what Bruce had reported them shortly after he could read some of the few reports recovered from Hydra.

For that, however, Strucker would not need her to be any more intelligent or obedient than any primate trained and raised in experimental captivity, just like Wanda. She might not even be capable of linguistic articulation, were it not for Maximoff’s influence on her previous existence.

What could they do? That was the first quest for him, advising them as a friend was easier, though sometimes dispensable in this case.

“Mostly nothing more than you already try and do now, to be honest. Be patient, give her as many chances as she needs along the way, above all try to see things from Wanda’s perspective whenever you find yourselves twisted by some issue.”, in time she would also need to see a specialist in the children’s field, they knew that too. Sam had advised them to start making her whole in training as well, even if only little by little, “It’s important that she has a routine.”, was a recurring piece of advice and what repulsed them in guilt at times. They strove to give as much of that as possible to her.

For the time being the exercises did not move into the line of self-defense or combat, which they planned to fit into her routine in about four or three years at the most. For now it was more about inclusion than refinement, so they had both workouts scheduled with Wanda and workouts scheduled without Wanda. The most recurrent topics in their conversations with Sam ranged from that to the prospect of getting her into school or introducing her to new environments outside the home environment they had with the others. Other than that, they also followed his suggestions about conversations to have now and a little further down the road. Right away it was important that they instructed her about herself and other people, boundaries of physical/personal and gradually emotional space as well. Lessons about private parts of her own body and that she could feel free to tell them anything that happened to either one or the other, mainly they took care to teach her not to accept the approach of strangers, as well as the difference from bath time, a time when her parents helped her, to other times. They wanted to arm her in every possible way, to make her capable of defending herself in the future, but especially, immediately, to trust them. Together they arranged discreet and personal signals for different situations. More than this, they were concerned that she express what she felt, what distressed her.

Steve and Natasha helped her push the correct floor button and studied her body language in shared silence, she dripped with sweat and looked expectantly at the double, mirrored doors. As they disembarked on the correct floor she would rush off to her room, her feet not even skidding on the curve of the open door, she would always rush ahead hoping they would keep her awake longer. It never happened, though.

By the time the three of them together and with still wet hair returned to the lower floor, it had already been decided that they would eat whatever was left over from the previous meal. Wanda still seemed to have endless energy stored up, already huddled in one of the high chairs she was talking to Nat explaining something about how Lila had promised that they would have matching costumes for Halloween, even though the adults didn’t know if they would meet at this holiday. There was no one in sight and the only sounds in the surroundings were those of the little girl’s animated monologue.

“Yeah, looks like there’s nothing left of the meatloaf.”, Steve spoke from across the room. Still with part of his body into the expansive refrigerator.

“Really?”, she lifts the chin she had propped up in her fisted hand. Wanda also stops the torrent of words to pay attention to them. He turns toward the girls and nods, a bowl half-filled with melon slices in one hand.

“Well, we can always improvise something now.”, Natasha says as the other two practically attack the container with fruit. Steve gives her an amused look.

“Us?”, he almost doesn’t finish speaking before she reluctantly corrects herself with eyes already rolling.

“You.”, not that she was going to make him cook, even though Steve was no master chef, as one might put it flatly... It was safer for him to try cooking. “Well?” she concludes also serving herself. The two exchange glances at Wanda. Then with each other.

“We can get a pizza.”

“I’m in.”

They didn’t order delivery for obvious and customary reasons, but Wanda was also too energetic for the albeit dimly envisioned prospect of them going out to eat. They didn’t have to draw on the odd or even to see who would go this time, the last time they had bought Chinese food it had been Steve who had been the one drawn to go to the restaurant, nothing fairer than that he was now the consecrated one who could stay home.

“Fine, but it’s going to be Neapolitan you like It or not.”, she speaks over Wanda’s head and signaling for the direction of the garage. He responds only with a look as the girl requires his attention, Nat takes the opportunity to sneak out and keep the kid from missing her, the separation issue was still touchy for them.

She can’t say it’s at all bad to be able to pick up her own car after a while, unlike Stark she wasn’t much in the habit of collecting and it had been her model Jeep Wrangler that she kept in her apartment in TriBeCa or that. The black Corvette glided by with speed and her heart seemed to swell with a guilty yet comforting longing. There was no room in the car and it was anything but practical, but she still had those moments left alone to rejoice in memories. There was a Pizza Hut closer by, after at least about ten minutes on the road at an average speed, not the choice at the top of the list, but haste and occasion would have to elevate it to such a status.

The place was almost deserted for such an early hour, there were two teenagers in attendance and half a dozen people scattered around the tables. Nat walked in in her gray sweatshirt and without bothering to lift the hood, the boy who took her order barely raised his eyes to notice who was there and she laughed as she made her purchase.

Okay, Rogers, I’ll cut you some slack this time, she thought as she ended up placing on the seat next to hers a box containing a large Hawaiian pizza instead.

The way back was even faster and she didn’t even turn on the radio to fill the silence in the car. Already knowing how to proceed, Nat went upstairs with the food to the floor they shared. As she already suspected, when she opened the door to her suite, the sounds of the television filled the entire room. Wand is as always watching transfixed, at her side Steve seems to put something in his pocket. She notices, but prefers to ignore it for the moment.

The movie was silly and funny, with talking animals and somewhat questionable dubbing. Time seemed to fly by as they tried to eat and answer the thousands of questions coming from Wanda, who was tirelessly climbing and jumping up and down on the couch after depositing her grease-soaked little fingers in every corner of the room. When they finally unhooked her from the remote control, already asleep with her mouth open, there were only the napkins and a few crumbs left in the square box. The prospect of waking her up again was nonexistent, it was okay for her to sleep only one day without brushing her teeth. Friday was as alert as ever as they went downstairs to take out the trash together, an easy, light conversation accompanied them to the opening of the iron doors. Natasha watched him closely after they returned to the kitchen to dispose of the leftovers, the voice of one of the boys sounded a little off in the distance in the living room, but they continued on the same straight path.

They end up putting themselves on her bed on their way back, it’s kind of automatic to go back to where they started. If Steve realizes the thoughtless act he also says nothing, they lie down on either side of Wanda just as they did on the farm, even without the excuses from the day before it was also known that even there it was not something exactly inevitable. They talk in a mild manner, low enough in tone to be in whispers, neither of them tired or with a drop of the sleep of the previous nights. And then and because of that, because he knows she will do it for him, and because she is also used to initiating certain things, Steve finds himself compelled to put out something that had been plaguing his mind since the last two and a half hours.

“So.”, she could initiate less obvious or more didactic, but it was a moment they knew would have to come sooner or later. “How soon is it going to be?”, that is, how much time do you still have before we have to do what we don’t know how we’re going to do. Steve still looks at her, but also directs his thoughts and wishes to the universe, who knows, something would justify his odd discouragement and expectation for something that was once supposed to be his daily life.

“Sooner than I thought before.”, translates to as soon as possible. In the morning if I can delay a little longer. Okay. Guess it would no longer be just a meeting.

“Okay.”, she says, with a smile in a little comfort, a little pity. It was hard at the prospect of the break, the cutting off of what they were experiencing together, they would have to come back anyway. It was the two of them who preferred it to be earlier as well, there would be no point in stretching what was coming, outside of what they had thought a few weeks earlier. How wrong they were.

Now it was too late to regret the hasty choices, Tony had called as agreed and he was, still, the Captain. They hadn’t had time, not even making the effort to prepare her more for that new old reality, it would be in practice anyway, they would have to adjust to it now.

“Don’t worry.”, she launched at him more or less in ‘we don’t have that figured out, but it’s now this or that’.

“I’m not.”, he fires back at her, as in ‘we are so unprepared for this, man'.

Chapter 13: В моих мыслях

Chapter Text

It was a hard decision, a double-edged sword, as they say. On the one hand, they could ignore his unpreparedness and clumsiness, it would be more practical for him to just leave at once. It would be a mere reconnaissance mission, almost a diplomatic trip, as Tony had testified on the phone earlier. He would be going to Japan the next morning and would be gone a day and a half at maybe, three at most was the estimate.

Natasha had let him know that if he took the easy way out she wouldn’t judge him for it, but it had also been a line of comfort only half sincere; they both knew they wouldn’t be able to betray Wanda’s trust like that. Leaving, even on business, without her acknowledging that It was for that, he might as well disappear in the middle of the night with the same effect to her, never to return. The thing is, even in something minimal, which they actually didn’t even know if it was about that or not, goodbyes meant a lot to where and what they came from themselves.

“I won’t be away for long.”, they had learned hard how they couldn’t be careless when communicating to her big sudden changes, which, to the girl’s unluckiness or otherwise, seemed to be what surrounded her entire existence up to that point. Because of this and also because this was one of those moments, the ones Sam had referred to, that they walked away to the other side of the building, Bucky and Sam were talking near the aircraft landing.

Nat had stepped back a little, by her own choice letting them have that conversation, however brief, alone. And Wanda had already more or less understood what was going on, she was not stupid after all and did not need to know quantum physics to see that this was goodbye. She surprised him with a half-awkward rush to where he kept lowered to her level.

“Don’t go.”, she further whined, even if softly and with eyes still swollen, face with marks of heavy sleep even after an hour and a bath taken. That day, earlier than usual, he had woken her up excitedly and led her toward pancakes and the unbreakable morning routine that belonged only to the two of them.

She rested her chin on his shoulder, as she usually did with Natasha when signaling her own sleep. Steve cast a brief, panicked, disarming glance in Nat’s direction as the child wrapped her arms around his neck. They remained static, expecting her to kick up a fuss or cry harder for him to stay, the tantrum would be totally understandable, yet dreaded in that situation. However, contrary to expectations, more fears than assumptions, she just squeezed him for a few extra seconds.

“You come back then.”, she didn’t ask him, nor did she slip in an uncertainty posed in fright or shudder. She put it in, she intimated it, there was no room to counter what was said there. She puts her hands on his shoulders, and though the voice sounds naturally strangled he could not have prepared himself enough to spot in her an expression like that.

“Yes, I’ll be back then, little one.”, this time it was he who took the initiative, gently approaching her who had those big eyes soaked in hurt tears. Wanda brushed her temple against his and Steve closed his own eyes as she sniffled shyly. An even smaller ‘okay’ sounded almost inaudible even to his ear glued to her, his vision refocused ahead where Natasha stared at them momentarily lost in thought, her lips pressed tightly together until they formed a thin line.

It was like tearing a piece out of himself, the most literal figure of speech used in his entire life. She pulled away after receiving a kiss on the forehead and already with a downcast face left towards Natasha’s outstretched arms. And he stood with a horrible feeling in his chest, leaving them there, an irrationally logical guilt chewing him up inside even as he stepped forward to without any more words needed to be exchanged embrace Natasha as well. Wanda between them compressed and not moving a muscle as he engulfed them both with his entire figure.

Nat reciprocating only with an arm and her head available to lean against him, in a similar mention to the one he had earlier performed with their kid. She detached from him with grace, a chaste kiss, though a tad longer and not to mention unexpected, considering all the other eyes watching them even from afar. He held her face, hands landing on either side as they took off from each other’s lips and she smiled at him, not that playful and customarily carefree smile of hers, but a less characteristic, more comforting one, hard to say goodbye to.

With one more squeeze to her available fingers and a hand resting at the base of Wanda’s spine, now also bent curiously to look at him over her own hair, he began to physically move away from them. But not without first proclaiming in an almost whisper- because he would not forgive himself if he left like that, last minute without saying It and because it was the only, last attestation that he would as fast as he could be back to them, to that.

“I love you.”, Wanda folded like a ball into herself when he said that, but answered nothing if not impatiently pushing away the strings that were further preventing her from seeing him. Natasha shook her slightly, also looking at him without an immediate verbalization, meters away from them the distinctive sound of the Quinjet’s ramp brought him back from the brief daze that held his mind in the same place. And then he let go.

He had stayed awake at the crack of dawn to learn everything that was needed for the trip, knowing from experience that the sooner he knew everything possible, the easier it would be to steer clear of mishaps when the time came. Bucky would drop him off at the Stark tower, where he would take a jet and leave with a small group of Stark company representatives. As he watched the greenery of the distant territory Steve plots to himself everything that Tony had also been able to pass on to him. Why he didn’t go himself boiled down to what everyone knew, although he was extremely competent at what he did Tony didn’t have a very virtuous image in the international public eye.

This trip was part of an agreement that the American company had made with the Japanese government a few months ago, and with that everything would take place within 48 hours, to be a bit less optimistic, perhaps 72. A gathering of tycoons people that could come from different parts of the globe; he had even undergone a quick confidentiality agreement before leaving the country, his usual uniform replaced by an almost black version of his trademark garb. He would be more of a symbol than na interactive participant overall, although the agenda was briefly touted as being ironically the least of the problems he would possibly face, plans to accord to human rights mechanisms would be a possibility if the people selected from around the world were their respective leaders, which was not the case.

Upon finally reaching the landing strip located on the island they had been directed to, Steve took a look at the acres of land. The reception committee was polite and excited to meet him at the dinner that would take place later in the hotel lobby, he had been specifically suggested, it reads as requested, by the host, Mr. Ozu. With what he knew of him Steve already had at least a brief idea of his fortune, his father having been one of the great forerunners of Japanese film and television. It was only proposals, ideas of alliances at most, had Tony reassured him. He was not there to close deals, but to represent the country, ‘It will be very diplomatic of you.’, had been what Bucky had said on the way to NY as he briefed him on the mission. He had also realized that Tony did not plan to signal him or Natasha any immediate mission, even Stark did not foresee the demands that would be placed on him. The minutes would drag on, he had no doubt as he mentally prepared himself for smiles and handshakes, eyes already passing quickly over faces he would soon forget in a split second. He would rather be at home, but it was with effort that he followed the path directed by the employees of the place, he would have to start somewhere, after all.

The rest of the day had been especially awkward for Wanda, but the central goal was to distract her as much as possible in the time he would be gone. Natasha had risked enough and managed by some miracle to make her a tentatively version of Pepper’s spaghetti, that she had apparently enjoyed so much. The girl ate with her less effusively than usual, refusing even Bruce’s invitation to accompany him to the lab and after lunch she herself pulled Nat into the elevator to their room, it was still early for her afternoon nap, but perhaps it would be good for her to rest now.

When they lay down as they always did, Wanda pulled out Steve’s recently used pillow and the two of them shared it. Heads on the same level and only a few inches apart, she gathered her small hands to the chest with closed eyes as Natasha began to run fingers through her hair. Slowly, but deliberately, her face relaxed spectacularly and when least expected she was already snoring in light spasms on the blanket, Natasha easing the touch on her scalp until contact with her coppery locks ceased completely. As she rose carefully to shut out the light coming in from the windows, she was notified by a message from Tony.

“It’s on.”, she pushed the device away after acknowledging its receipt. Tony didn’t say anything else right away, and she knew he knew better. Even if imperceptibly to naked eyes, she instinctively relaxed at that informational addendum, confirmation of his arrival, reliably tracked by Stark and his advanced intelligence system, would be the only thing that would guarantee some sort of contact between them during his absence. Communicators were not used unless there were others in the rear as well, not to mention that this was a mission that would involve no one else and nothing else could be leaked to them. She hit the quick idea of taking a shower, discarding it as a feeling of premature unease fit into the space of her stomach. Instead, she merely went back to bed, now with the room dimmed to a meager daylight. Without even realizing that she was also exhausted before she began to lose herself to sleep, she last felt the diminutive body on the other side of the pillow nuzzling up against her own.

A thin squeak made her jump on the mattress, the hand that had automatically landed on the side where Wanda should have been finding the emptiness of the slightly twisted sheets. Rising in a leap, only then did she realize the pitch that consumed the entire room.

“Lights on, Friday.”, at the command hooked and still in a somewhat disoriented and sleepwalking state the large room was completely bathed in artificial clarity. It wasn’t necessary to run her gaze for half a meter to the foot of the bed before she spotted her, Wanda was standing with her hair still a bit disheveled, her eyes were wide in an almost comical way and she was wailing for the time being without tears, like a prelude to the crying itself. Cursing her own idiocy for having fallen asleep without thinking about what the impending dark would do to the girl, Natasha moved precisely to her while commanding the lights now to a lower state so that it wouldn’t hurt their eyes so much- newly accustomed to the dimness.

Picking her up Nat could confirm that Wanda remained less alert than if she were fully awake, the child nestled into her with a plaintive moan and she forced herself to continue standing through the fuzzy space of the carpet. Swinging her around with a muttered hum of one of those thousands of songs from any decade below the 1970s, that Steve insisted on singing to them while they did absolutely anything together.

Remembering his brief comment about why he recently hummed ‘My Girl’ to Wanda whenever it was his turn to put her to sleep, Natasha laughed alone with only a muffled sound as she pictured his voice. Between The Temptations, The Beach Boys and sometimes Elvis he insisted on introducing her to the same music that had been introduced to him in his own turn to know the world again. It was sweet, she thought, without questioning him and also embarking on the ‘classics’ along.

Wanda whimpered a little lower, still refusing to give in to sleep again. In her choked and slightly slurred voice, Natasha could make out the separate syllables interspersed with confused protests as if she were saying them directly to her. The poor thing continued to sob his name dryly for several more minutes, which she allowed without holding back in any way, during the few moments that Wanda seemed to have dozed off she slowly approached the nearest window and peered outside, the automatic blinds activated through the security system had hardly been used since Wanda had arrived due to her aversion to darkness, so she at most closed the normal curtains that didn’t entirely disable the influx of light during the day. The sky had adopted a purplish early-night coloration while they slept, both of them spectacularly getting through the first few hours without Steve’s presence in an enviable state of unconsciousness. Neither of them would be able to nail their eyes shut later, she predicted.

She awoke soon after, of course. Her face less confused, but just as thoughtful for the grimace of complaint Natasha now glimpsed. She prepared a bath and sat leaning against the tub while Wanda distracted herself with some toys and a children’s book with pages made especially for floating. She watched practically motionless at first, analyzing the child, moving only to reach for the sponge and run shampoo through her hair. More than half an hour later, Wanda’s fingers were wrinkled like twenty dried prunes and she held up her arms asking to leave. Nat thought about leaving her with some of the boys so that she could also use the restroom, but she had not let it go unnoticed the way the girl’s eyes nervously followed her every slightest movement inside the bathroom, always dropping what she was doing earlier on the way and only returning to It when she had Natasha again still.

They climbed into the hammock on the terrace that Wanda loved so much after eating, in the room like they did before, as the rest of the guys seemed to be consciously giving them some space. She jumped with all she got into the hanging fabric, giggling briefly when Natasha sat making her bounce onto her lap. Nat spread a blanket she had brought from her room over the two of them, meanwhile Wanda straightened up so that she could lean her head against the raised edge of the hammock as well as she did, one hand resting on Natasha’s shoulder she began to inadvertently play with the reddish highlights as the adult stretched her leg out, catching momentum with the wooden floor and carrying them, forward and backward. They remained in a semi-seated position only, facing the types of trees growing beside the building, some with leaves and branches fallen far enough to overhang the glass edge of the balustrade. It was a comfortable and not very spacious environment, perhaps for that reason all the more cozy.

“Aren’t you tired anymore, Zaya?”, she turned her head to the side so that way she could also see her face. Wanda had a crease of concentration on as she tried to make a braid in her hair. Natasha smirked heartily as she heard her mutter to herself ‘go over, part and pull; over, part and pull...’. Steve had tried to teach her what he himself had managed to learn from Nat, although most of the time when it was his responsibility to fix her hair he ended up making pigtails or just trying to put on her restless tiny head one of the thousands of different colored bows he had let her choose.

She could feel Wanda shaking her head in the negative, her strands were pulled very lightly into an incredibly loose braid.

“You have pretty hair.”, she said with her voice a little louder than her previous tone, almost whispering. Natasha struggled to look at her again without moving her head too much.

“You have too.”, at this the girl turned with a wary look at her, Natasha smiled as she completed “Beautiful, beautiful hair.”, she held a thick strand with one hand to materialize what she was talking about. Wanda even giggled as she pulled it to her face staging a mustache.

“And looks just like yours!”, she sounded more effusive about it, sitting-now disengaged from the hammock. Wanda postured herself over her bent leg pulling less gently on Nat’s strands which were now starting to go past shoulder height, as if to prove her point.

“It’s true, your hair color is very similar to mine, isn’t it?”, Nat altered her voice in the incredulous/ultraordinary way that she had recently discovered amused her. Wanda laughed once loudly at only the threat of her tickling, Natasha raised her eyebrows high as she posed her hands in ready claws like those of a professional piano player, posed to attack her at any moment. Wanda chortled again with gusto before continuing.

“Eyes too!”, she said- let out a squeal before screaming again as she had to dodge Nat, who had to hook her with her other hand to keep the girl from falling off the edge. She was laughing as well.

“And eyes too! How did you do that, Chickadee? You’re almost like a mirror image of me”, she said jokingly as Wanda, still smiling, bent her head to the side a little. She seems deep in thought, even if for mere seconds. Her expression only repulses into a pout. Natasha does not fail to notice.

“Steve said I'm spitting image of him.”, she speaks peering at Natasha deliberately. She lets her finish what seems to be a long post, but without failing to speak “Mm-hmm” to follow the child’s reasoning. The girl’s brow furrows as she says “But Steve don’t spit on me.”, she spoke almost in revolt at the meaninglessness to what he had said to her. Natasha had to control herself not to cackle and so perhaps hurt her feelings, biting her cheek as she imagined the absurd scene/the look on her face when he told her that-would have been priceless.

“Yeah, what he means is that you look a lot like him, honey. That’s all.”, she spoke as Wanda stretched her legs in the cramped space. A new grimace on her face in sheer incomprehension, Natasha tried to think of an easy, clear explanation for the figure of speech. However, as she machined it out on her own in her mind, the girl countered still unconvinced.

“Steve’s big and I’m small.”, she pushed that placement to Nat with the sure skepticism of an adult facing a dumb question. This time she had to- there was no way not to laugh.

“Yes, Wanda, but you will grow up one day. Steve was once small too just like you.”, a sudden image of Steve in childhood flashed through her head quickly, and she sketched a smile at the warmth that spread in her chest as she pictured a slightly changed version of Wanda. Now with short blond hair and blue eyes, running around dressed in those Sunday clothes he had told her about, as he crossed the low curb of the street she knew had been his family’s old home. Above a figure dressed in a pressed dress with a sober shade: a woman of undefined face who assures his hand-he unfortunately had no photos of his mother, but from what little he had spoken of her Wanda seemed to have inherited, like him, some of her striking features, such as the elongated face and the slightly higher cheekbones.

“Just like me?”, Wanda asked in a state of almost astonishment as she slowly lost her doubt.

“Just like you.”, Natasha automatically replied still smiling weakly as the image became elusive before Wanda’s voice and her own mental back and forth.

“And you too?”, she inquires with an even more curious look.

“Me too, we all get big someday.”, she put in generalizing upright so that the child would not find herself confused.

“I want to be big now.”, she didn’t whine any more than she said it in a concise, decisive manner. So that even without looking down, Natasha knew she was clenching her fists as she always seemed to do in anger or stubbornness. At the moment it seemed much more like the second option.

“But why do you want this, Zaya? Why all the rush?”, she put in a more relaxed question, it would help if they didn’t try to pressure her in conversation. Silently a fearful discouragement consumed the answer that she herself had not yet given the girl, the perspective seemed wrong, sad at the same time as encouraging- prosperous. It was difficult and yet automatic to try to think of that little dribble of people on her lap as an adult person a few years from that; mournful dread filled her rambling, again blaming the lost years, but she chose to focus for now.

“You’re big.”, she began. Once again rolling her tongue eagerly to form the contraction she had just learned to tame.

“I suppose.”, Nat said with little humor, her diminutive height being an old joke among her friends.

“You go to the dark.”, she said in affirmative as Natasha opened her mouth without saying anything at the same instant. For a few more seconds she just chewed on that placement, contemplated it.

“You know, big people are afraid to go to the dark too.”, she said to Wanda’s curiosity and certain amazement. “Sometimes not just of the dark, but of other things too. You know Tony is afraid of ostriches, for example, and he’s a big person too, kind of.”, she swings the net back with another thrust.

“Steve is afraid of pigeons.”, she continues more clearly laughing to herself as the girl just watches still thoughtfully. “And he doesn’t stop being strong and great because of that, everyone is afraid of something.”, Natasha speaks as Wanda twitches her nose in thought.

“And Lila is afraid of milk, Auntie Lau says.”, she begins to make the connection with the recent memory of the Bartons. Natasha chuckles without malice at her innocent attempt, forehead creased in concentration.

“Yeah, baby. Lila is allergic to milk, that means she might get a boo-boo in her tummy if she drinks it, remember?”, she gently corrects her. Wanda continues to stare at her as she pays attention.

“But she is afraid of milk making the boo-boo in her tummy then?”, she speaks even more confused, her pure line of reasoning is even adorable. Wanda had seen not only the girl taking it at breakfast, but also eating cereal with it. Natasha also links this directly to this information at the same moment.

“She is, that’s why Auntie Lau buys her a special medicine that makes her not get sick.”, she speaks referring to Lil’s lactase. Nat rests her heel pads on the other edge of the hammock, Wanda almost immediately rests her back on her raised legs. “And that helps her not to be afraid to drink the milk.”, Natasha speaks to which Wanda relaxes her face almost in automatic correlation.

“You turn on my light when I go in the dark too.”, Wanda pulls some more of the blanket to herself and Natasha smirks at her cleverness as she immediately relates that to her own situation-the night light that helped her sleep.

“Exactly, Zaya. You’re just getting smarter every day.”, Wanda revels in the compliment as she lies down further on the opposite side.

The silence that follows is only cut by the light wind, that was no doubt an improvement on what had gone on during the day. Natasha was well aware that it wouldn’t be long before she had to go too, soon it would be Steve there in her place, trying to distract and dissuade the child while the other was away. Despite the pleasant moment she knew well that this new stage would not be easy; to illustrate all the frustration and incomprehension possible it had only been morning breaking again, Wanda had dozed minimally after sleeping practically the entire day before and Natasha was trying without much success to get around the fact that he would not be there to take her downstairs. Despite this and the apparent retrogression as they had spent most of the day in their room – the hammock on the terrace again came in handy when she needed to put her to sleep, fatigue had crept in during the day in a particularly stressful way and it was a relief to be able to let her rest at last.

On the second day, Wanda even went out to jump on the playground and later to make an absolute mess in the kitchen with Bucky in an attempt to bake brownies. After the afternoon nap Sam tried to teach her how to play X-box games, which to his credit diverted her for at least over an hour straight, contrary to expectations. It didn’t do that much good, though; they could avoid the discouragement or even the anxiety of expanding while she kept busy, but in the end it didn’t matter much. Whether she was painting with Nat on the grass or having tea (currant juice) with Brown and Pepper on the flower path, Wanda was always and almost every five minutes talking about Steve, asking for him.

She wanted to be reassured that he would come back, that much was obvious, but no matter how hard they tried to do that it didn’t seem to be enough simply because those were just words before anything else. Yes, words of affection and trust, but words just the same; and Wanda wasn’t the type to forget easily, although she felt secured by the warmth of the fact that grown-ups were saying this to her-and perhaps that would suffice in another situation.

What might calm her most in this case was maybe the fact that he had promised that to her before he left, because of this and especially because no one else seemed to treat it as something to worry about. So she was reacting less drastically to the absence, though not letting them forget It in any possible way.

When the third day dawned, however, Natasha was glad that at least he had not promised her the exact date, not done with her the timing that she knew would probably make things either easier or harder. He didn’t come back the third night as they went outside together, that shouldn’t be a concern in the normal estimation of things. It was a mission after all, not a walk in the park. Although she could confess that she had spent the entire day in anticipation to hear the presence of the silent aircraft engine landing in the adjacent grounds, a normal, even half-bored buzz ran through everyone, the boys not ceasing to joke among themselves about how upset Steve must have been that he had to be late like that. They all knew how methodical he liked to be with the embarkation and disembarkation of this kind of task.

Only when the fifth day fell upon them did the first person let themself utter aloud the mere possibility. Natasha was too busy trying not to let Wanda pick up on the mood of expectation mixed with worry, they hadn’t received anything from him or Stark and the modus operandi was always to wait until they were certain of the uncertainty. She slept that night trying to swat away silly, troubled thoughts, convincing herself that she was beginning to be consumed by the girl’s restlessness. Tony returned to the Compound the next morning accompanied by his new intern/protégé. The spider-kid, as they had nicknamed him, was all smiles and excited questions when he was introduced (officially) to who was gathered near the main room, the atmosphere was still a bit tense but everyone was nice to the boy who was glimpsed and impressed and looked like a word's machine gun.

His company was somewhat refreshing, of course his impulsive speech and manner were charismatic if not a little unnerving, but you could tell it was more about nervousness and excitement than anything else. Stark had taken responsibility for the young man after he had been filmed on amateur cameras acting around the Queens area, the internship at Stark Tower was a pretext as well as an opportunity, from what little they had heard of the boy one could see that he was also an academic prodigy. The two of them arrived by car with Happy and soon after making a lightning introduction, Tony hurried to the floor where his office and the rooms where he and Peter would probably spend most of their time where, a fleeting glance in her direction that translated into a million sentences. Unlike the other members he would not take up permanent residence, but more visits and stays here and there-you could practically see the pure animation exuding through every pore of his beaming face. He was, as Sam said earlier, like a Golden Retriever puppy. All happiness and excited jumps.

“Thank you, Mrs. Romanov.”, he smiled immensely after receiving congratulations from Nat for the action involving a bank robbery in which he had recently been recorded intercepting.

“I already said you can call me just by first name, Peter.”, she repeated herself as he gave another pause in his chatter to look at her still dumbfounded.

“Oh, yeah. Sure, sure. I forgot, I’m sorry.”, he gave an even quicker smile and Nat reciprocated still finding the boy’s manner amusing. The two of them were chatting on the kitchen counter while Tony didn’t return to hook him to work and she had taken the opportunity to fish more about the teenager’s life, over the large marble island they were snacking on one of Bucky’s barely concealed snacks. She had offered him one of Wanda’s thousands of boxed juices and he had gladly accepted.

Natasha knew, as well as everyone else, that Stark had no plans to send the boy on any kind of misson any time soon, at least not the ones they were tasked to carry out themselves; it was a risk for him to keep fighting crime by himself- whether it was the ‘small neighborhood ones' he normally faced or not. Stark was monitoring him now. It was not unnoticed to her, however, that once he was needed and absent, the responsibility for the teen would fall to the entire group, it was only fair that she should know him better.

It was still a bit disconcerting to associate that boy with the masked being who jumped from building to building all over Manhattan in the last videos for he looked- was so young. The Maximoff boy, who was at the same age group when he died, was larger, stronger. Peter Parker, though, really looked to be in the 15/16 year old range, his stature wasn’t too tall and although you could tell he was far from being frail everything about him practically screamed that.

He went right back to the previous topic, talking about his aunt and how exactly Mr. Stark, as he called, had gotten in touch with him-she already knew all this, of course, but had let him talk anyway. The boy gesticulated with fascinated, slightly wide-eyed wonder.

It was in the middle of explaining how he had escaped discovery while changing clothes in an alley two streets away from home that they heard the voices and footsteps of more people entering the eating area, Bruce had come with Wanda in his arms and they seemed to be discussing something in low tones, heads together as if plotting, still when Nat appeared in their field of vision the girl all but jumped to the floor, rushing into her lap without even bothering to look at the unfamiliar face just ahead.

“Hey, you.”, she greeted affectionately when Wanda nearly slipped trying to climb the bar stool by leaning on her knees. “What’s wrong? I thought you were outside playing with Sam.”, she spoke as the girl sat up with her legs around her body, her cheek already glued to Nat's shoulder.

“Tired.”, she muttered to what Natasha caught if not as a conscious lie at least a sufficient artifice. Wanda was getting more and more discouraged and unwilling to do the activities that used to fill her routine; she knew that was idle talk not only because they had just woken up, but mostly because lately that was all she used to be able to get away with doing anything. The little girl was a fast learner and already knew that if she said she was tired she would be taken to her room for a nap, most of the time, however, this really amounted to her wanting to be alone with Nat.

“You and Bruce were going to build that castle later, aren’t you excited?”, she tried to get the girl to disengage from her and look her in the face, but Wanda barely moved as she shook her head. Bruce leaned against the doorway and cast her a meaningful look as she kept her tone of voice gentle in access to the child. Peter was watching all this with unveiled curiosity and she saw in him a chance to encourage her at the moment.

“You walked in and didn’t even say hi to Peter, baby.”, Wanda moved to look at her first. She had already been warned, as had the boy, of the existence of the other so to speak. There wasn’t much to do about the need for his integration into the team, but Tony had been quite clear about her unique situation to him.

“Hi, Peter.”, a small voice sounded below her chin and she watched as Wanda spun half her torso to its fullest to spy the teenager, hands still resting on her sides.

“Hello, Wanda. It’s very nice to meet you.”, the boy replied with a shy, kind smile. Visibly more careful and hesitant to talk to the younger one, he threw Natasha a look in tentative and she just shook in permission. “That’s a very nice teddy bear you have there.”, he pointed to the toy she had placed between her and Natasha now, the artificial fur bouncing up to her shoulder height and into his view.

“Brown’s not a bear, she’s a giraffe.”, the girl explained with hardly a note of impatience, but in that old childish version of what might be considered condescension. She continued to look at the boy as if analyzing him. So much so that just as he seemed to be getting ready to respond to her speech she cut him off:

“Are you a friend of Peter Rabbit?”, she asked almost in bewilderment, her body turning even more to get her full attention in his direction. Bruce chuckled disguisedly while Natasha merely did so even more quietly as she saw Peter’s half-unarmed expression, clearly he didn’t have much contact with children.

“Well, I...”, he looked at Natasha again for guidance but she just smiled minimally letting him do It freely. “I used to know him, yes. When I was little.”, he replied in purposefully dubious placement, you could tell he didn’t want to lie to the girl, even with something that silly. It was cute.

“But you’re not big yet.”, Wanda made a thoughtful and also confused face, to which the adults laughed openly and the boy just smiled half-heartedly.

“Look, Wanda, why don’t you come with me and Peter to see his new room, huh?”, Bruce stepped forward into the room in a few strides, hands in his front pockets and a relaxed expression while still chuckling lightly at the two.

“You can take your lego to play with him too, what do you think Peter?”, Natasha turned to him without actually giving him much of a choice, but the boy readily consented with a friendly expression. Maybe it was the prospect of someone new, probably the fact of another person who was not ‘yet’ an adult as she had said so, but she seemed to invigorate herself a bit at the idea of going to explore another place as well. Turning away from Natasha now more carefully, she stepped forward to search through the small pile of toys that had been left in the dining room for the desired box. Bruce went with less hurried steps behind her.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, okay?”, she tried to put him more at ease as she picked up his snack trash heading for the can on the other side of the sink.

“Oh, no, I don’t mind, really. She seems nice, it’s just that I don’t know many kids her age, don’t have much to talk about, you know.”, he said hurriedly in fear that he had seemed to dislike the girl, to which Natasha just laughed some more, he really was out of his depth there.

“It’s okay, kid, she can be a bit euphoric now and then, but it’s nothing too complicated. Bruce will keep an eye out, the most that can happen is you walk out of here today with your whole body covered in My Little Pony stickers.”, she reassured him. He smiled back looking less squeamish, surely afraid that she would complain about his lack of tact, which wasn’t really that, towards Wanda.

His smile slackened a little, he seemed to remember something.

“Mr. Stark told me about everything.”, he said quickly to which she looked at him again with forwned brows. “I mean, not about everything like everything really, but he told me about Wanda and I know I can’t talk about her to anyone.”, he spoke a little disconcerted. “I just wanted you to know that I won’t do that, I know you don’t know me, but I won’t let anyone know about her through me, I swear.”, he put it in a hurry with more emphasis and less lightness in his voice. She answered him even more relaxed, her hips against the other end of the stone surface.

“I know you won’t.”, she replied in a equally calm face, now studying him intensively. He was one of those people who wore their heart on their sleeve, you could tell right away. He was nice too, good-even more obviously young.

They came back for him and Wanda unceremoniously grabbed the boy’s hand to take him to the elevator, a ‘thank you’ just mouthed from Nat to Banner as he once again stepped out to babysit.

Natasha stood on the steps leading up to Pepper’s rose path, looking this way only the ‘back yard’ of the property looked even more like an ordinary farmhouse. The weather was more or less fine and she was trying to keep herself busy on whether or not she should call Laura later, perhaps it seemed rash to talk to her to vent concerns that continued to prove unneeded, besides she had to focus on Wanda’s situation and how she was, despite everyone’s combined efforts, being affected by Steve’s absence. Nat wasn’t going to lie, she sure as hell felt weird about everything she felt now that she didn’t seem to feel before, it wasn’t like the old days when they saw each other briefly or went out to eat after months apart with each on one side of the globe, their connection was undeniable and perpetual to the point that it seemed like a sentence now. She was starting to miss him too, not as in a break or a trip type of longing, which was what usually gripped her and had in fact been present at least until the third day. Maybe it was the effect of Wanda’s own sadness that was also affecting her, but at the moment she felt a nervousness coursing through her limbs, an impatience just to stand still; it was the emptiness-in-the-stomach and the looking-at-the-window-all-the-time kind of longing instead.

Maybe he would know how to handle it better when it was her turn to leave for an indefinite period of time, she didn’t look forward to it at all, but at the same time knew she needed to do it. It was only the first time, after all, and first times are always scary – she remembered what she had heard Sam say to the girl at one of their appointments/walks, it was okay to feel upset about something you cared a lot about, that didn’t make you a bad person. Nat took a deep breath raising her head to see the painfully blue clear sky above her head, almost as if she could mentally coax it out, her ears attentive to the noise of the aircraft as she knew they always were every time she went out in the open. Old habits never die.

Tony huffed unnecessarily after a few minutes of sitting next to her, without taking his eyes away from her momentary focus she could feel the stiffness in his body language. A sense of dread descended like a knot down her throat, but she remained untouched as she pulled in the air of hydrangeas and eucalyptus outside.

“I haven’t had a chance to see Cuddles today, is she awake?”, if she wasn’t already on alert, his low paused timbre voice would have taken her that way just the same.

“She went to play with Peter on the second floor.”, Nat moves her eyes slowly enough to see only his profile. Tony mutters something sounding like a “Right.” Before they go back to not speaking to each other. Expectation grows along with foreboding elevations that annoy and frighten her in those few moments of contemplation of the two parties, from where she is she can see with commensurate clarity his knees, where he rests his elbows. His fingers give away his actual state, they twitch and stir in pure agitation.

“I told Cap he could wait a little longer.”, he laments suddenly, making her look at him instantly. “I told you both, actually, but even I have to assume that perhaps it was too naive to send him there specifically and without us doing any further deliberations.”, he speaks in a haste that is uncharacteristic of him. Natasha almost relents, almost.

“How bad is It?”, at her firmness Tony turns his face to look her once and for all, he is serious, his countenance is surprisingly open.

“Pretty bad.”, she let out the air that held her lungs briefly, still focused even after that speech of him. “Bad as in I called an urgent meeting and Clint is on his way.”, he said and Natasha could see his expression contort almost imperceptibly in a way that was extremely rare to happen. He was worried.

“Tony.”, she said directly and without disguising her demure, he was trying to give circles around her and it was making her even more apprehensive. Stark was not one to delay around any subject, see the revelation of Wanda’s DNA- aka the day his chin was barely able to lift off the floor.

He took a deep breath, leaning even further forward in a defeated posture, his entire body hanging in an exhausted hunchback.

“I tried to contact him earlier today, we had agreed on this delimitation.”, he looked away from her eyes again, she knew he was procrastinating still because that time limit was customary after every mission went over the stipulated time and she knew it very well. “He hasn’t responded to any of my attempts.”, the nothingness that merely followed his next placement seemed to swell in the space between the two of them.

But she already knew what he meant and had been doing so since she noticed him placing himself on the step above her own.

“You’ve lost him.”, she couldn’t help but cringe internally at her own choice of words. Her tone of voice sounding accusing and blunt to her ears as well. He didn’t turn away from the accusation, but cast her a pained glare once more.

“I’m so sorry, Nat.”, she physically recoiled from his condoling tenor. A hot anger surging together at the bottom of her esophagus along with an unwanted tingling around her sinuses. “I tried everything I could, but the tracker failed or was disabled in some way, it doesn’t even show up in the system.”, he said without taking offense at the expression of growing rage evident in her. “We have no freaking idea where Steve is.”.

Chapter 14: Anseo

Chapter Text

There has been a bombing, was all she heard before she set sail from there to the inside. Tony was following her into the conference room, something pierced Natasha's nerves and she blindly followed the automatic notions without saying anything. Stark didn't insist as he watched her stand with her arms crossed in front of one of the glass surfaces, a heavy sense of guilt and deep dread gripping him as his thoughts wandered from moment to moment to the child on the floor above them.

Bucky and Sam were already conversing on their feet when the two entered the room, both casting pained glances that Nat promptly ignored in favor of them getting started on that preview as soon as possible, time was precious now and they had none to lose. Bruce came in breathless only moments later, one side of his face completely taken over by glitter and startled eyes passing from one to the other.

"All right.”, Tony said after another deep breath. "The situation is still being reviewed, but we can get a general idea of what happened later when the personnel I sent relay all possible information to me. Along with him were three more of my people, two died.”, Natasha turned to him for a few seconds before turning her face away again. "The last one was seriously injured, but that's about it. He was able to contact me a few minutes ago to report what he could, said he first thought it was an earthquake, it wasn't until the debris and the sounds of explosions became clearer that he realized what was happening.", Tony said in a firm voice.

"And Steve?", Sam rasped only in a low tone. Beside him Bucky, the only one to throw himself on one of the unoccupied chairs, had his eyes closed and the chin resting on his wrists.

"No sign.”, he spoke almost immediately. "According to Trevor he should be in one of the hotel conference rooms by the previous itinerary, but it's not a certainty, he said Cap had already made changes to some assignments in the previous days.", he tries to soften the information as quickly as possible.

"And?", Natasha deposits all her weight on one side of her body.

"And he can't pinpoint the extent we gave them, but there were at least three explosions. He said it seemed to come from underground.", he massages his temples releasing the air, a phenomenal headache making itself present.

"Are you f*cking kidding me now, underground bombs too?!", Bucky grunted in immense frustration, looking directly at him with an angry expression.

"Yeah, and for now we have no way of knowing precisely every exact location where they were activated. Trevor was in the southern part of the island when the first one happened, so I'm assuming with almost absolute certainty that it was at the pier.”, Tony said, eyes distant as if mentally sketching the metrication of the location. In the blink of an eye he had retrieved a simple notepad and ballpoint pen from somewhere, bending over the wood of the table.

"However, the island has basically three sections that separate.", he said drawing on the paper a makeshift figure, outlines of knotty contours in a shape that almost resembled that of a half moon. "We have the pier and the beach section right here.", he scribbled the titling near the edge of the wavy lines. "The hotel is basically the focal point of the whole place and it's to the east, it would be altogether very unlikely if one of the bombs hadn't been released that way.", he points to the upper right side of his draft. "Between them is the airstrip and a few more insignificant stations, but mostly, through and around all of this... Jungle.", he scribbles in continuous lines filling in the space between the previous two.

"And you say there isn't the slightest hint of his location?", Sam puts in, his eyes trained on the spacious rectangle with the big "H" above it, everyone was thinking the same thing.

Tony just shakes his head.

"It was recent enough that whoever was there when it happened hasn't made it out yet.”, he counters carefully. They knew that the nature of the event would not hold that many people, and the precautions taken were sure to cover sooner or later the need to clean up the mess after the dust had subsided.

It wasn't a big island, after all.

"That doesn't make sense precisely because the chip is designated for that kind of situation! Even if he had it stuck somewhere, even if he was-", Bucky interrupts himself angrily, but for a few seconds pondering somberly. "Unless..." he stops himself again.

“Unless it was ripped out of him.”, she completes turning fully towards them now, an expression of trepidation bathes their faces. “His chip is located in his left bicep, which means that even if his arm was severed we would still get a signal from the device.”, she answers Bucky’s uncertainty, looking herself between Bruce and Stark to make sure that what she was talking about proceeded. Barnes jerked his chin in a quick mention before staring at the ground again in silent desolation and she felt a bit sick even when what they were talking about was technically a possible vantage point. Because even though Nat also wanted to not think the worst they had to be practical here, even on a corpse Stark’s appliance should still work, so somehow it had been disabled.

The scene of his limb being hit hard enough to be torn off at the exact spot of the chip disturbed her eyes for seconds at a time, not much after she saw herself heading towards the exit. She needed to escape those stares and that feeling of helplessness that was chewing her up from the inside out, chills in bizarre waves sent confusing information to her brain and she almost laughed at her own need to just punch something and scream.

“Ready when you are.”, she stops before leaving the enclosure entirely. Only addressing Tony with a flick of her face. He doesn’t argue with her before silently stating for what he knew Natasha was communicating to him.

Once in her room, she finally let her worries wind down as she cursed softly and paced back and forth. It seemed like an eternity the twenty seconds it had taken Laura to answer her, but by now her friend was answering promptly on the other end of the line.

“Are you sure?”, she asked again, even though that was the solly intent of the call.

“I am, the kids will love having her here around.”, Lau replied in a controlled and forcefully steady voice. She could see that the last thing Nat needed right now was to be pampered by her nice words.

“Ok, thanks.”, Nat amended as she hurried to the closet. The task of getting her duffel bag out of Its new place of residence emerged in her as much more than an incessant craving. Leaving Wanda like this in a hurry, as Steve had done, caused her a silly sense of omen, but at the same time she did by simple impulse and habit, even after a while those movements were too familiar for her not to repeat them without a second thought. And she was like that, distracted and immersed in Laura’s monologue conversation, when a tiny coppery head put itself in the door at high speed. She was about to open the bag to check its contents when she confusedly found the strange expression on Wanda’s face, Natasha didn’t even have in her to think the girl’s arrival in the midst of this tumult of pondering and decisions, her eyes only had time to study and recognize in her that same face of strangeness. The syllables seemed to form very slowly ruminating in her brain as she looked at her focused, momentarily forgetting what Laura had directed her to do, Natasha let her own mind slip to something else as she began to move the device away from her ear, approaching the child, all in less than three or four seconds.

“Wanda, who came with you in the eleva-”, quickened footsteps came descending to meet them and Natasha already had another question ready to launch before Peter appeared, breathing heavily and peeking somewhat nervously into the open room- naturally, he didn’t know exactly which one was theirs. She didn’t even have to question the boy’s situation, since he also seemed to be trying to prepare an excuse for whatever had ocurred. It happened so fast that they couldn’t even look at each other before a little voice filled in into the deserted hallway.

“Are you my mommy?”, from the other end of the line, apparently Laura had heard well enough too, a muffled exclamation caused Natasha’s first move, now looking directly at the girl and no one else, to be to press the reddish button on the touch screen. She looked from Peter to her and then again, the difference in their faces was palpable in the full air that filled the room.

The boy looked as if he was about to lose both eyeballs, staring stupidly and comically his muddled face was almost or as full of the same glitter as Bruce's, It ran down his neck and found itself here or there in a few spots on the dark shirt. Wanda, on the other hand, seemed fearful of absolutely nothing and the wrinkle in a single creased line that marked between her almost transparent eyebrows demarcated much more questioning, curiosity.

“What?”, she couldn’t help the fluster of her own words as she stared in astonishment at the little thing less than two feet away from her. Nat couldn’t also quite categorize the emotions that seemed to rush in as she simply tried to reason, to assimilate what was about to happen. At the same time a bizarrely safe and relaxed anticipation took hold of her stomach, which although still giving the impression of being composed of plastic bags and filled with lava stones had quieted down enough for her to make way amidst all this new perspective on Steve’s disappearance for a new attention, a new situation that was now rising right before her eyes. Her fingers were suddenly trembling at the side of her body and she closed them into fists, not knowing what else to do, the anger of less than ten minutes ago was beginning to dissipate in favor of a strange, equally dominant and overwhelming feeling coursing through her gut.

However, Wanda was completely and utterly oblivious to all these things dizzyingly pirouetting in her mind. With voice equally devoid of fallacies or attempts to appease whatever it was, she finished in the same simple tone and in immense question intonation.

“Peter says you are.”, she, to further brighten the accusation, pointed effusively at the pale teenager in the doorway. Natasha met his eyes again, had she not had too much on her mind at the moment she might have had the instinct to cackle at the exaggerated fear on his face, as if she was going to exterminate him with one look right there on the new carpet she had bought together with Pepper during their last shopping trip, many, many months in the past.

“I... I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Romanov.”, poor boy, Nat pondered to herself as he continued to pour out a torrent of excuses and justifications. On the other hand, Wanda remained looking immensely amused at his difficulty and had even taken the part to let out a giggle when he fumbled over what he was trying to say. Nat felt a wry smile forming as they waited for Peter to retrieve the lung he seemed to have forgotten floors below.

“Why don’t you go wash your face and maybe look for Stark, Peter? I’m sure he’ll keep you up to date on the latest happenings.”, she interrupted him impatiently at his presence, though not unkindly. The lack of accusation in her tone and face seemed to calm him further, though she had a certain intuition that it would take him some more time to return to his natural state of vocabular torrent.

“I...”, he grimaced clearly in indecision. The willingness to not run from any consequences of his actions was something she had to admire Parker for, but holy sh*t, he needed to be more artful if he wanted to keep the whole climbing walls and jumping between buildings thing from the rest of the world, the kid was painfully too honest for his own good.

“It’s okay, you can go now.”, she trained a definitive, dismissive look that left no room for anything else. To attribute to that, she found herself walking towards the door and the desired effect was almost as good as expected-he practically dematerialized when he saw her advancing on his trail. Natasha closed the door as she saved that reaction of his to be analyzed later, as funny as his fear for her person was.

Little Wanda was curled up near her bedside when she turned around again, buttocks propped up on a pillow and bare legs stretched beyond into the white covers of the comforter. As she approached, none of Peter’s brief reluctance seemed to make itself present in the girl and while she tried to at least gain footing on what was about to happen, not that it was something terribly difficult to complete, she merely cast a calm, assuring smile at Wanda as she sat a few inches in front of her, legs folded comfortably and nothing else on her countenance remaining the rush and restlessness that still disconcerted her as she did so.

“What happened, Zaya? What did Peter say to you?”, she recalled, as always, Steve irritably reminding her that she needed to be less literal and more direct and clear to the girl. Although on other occasions she probably tried to do more of that, something in Wanda’s expression simply made her, compelled her to no more than frankness.

Wanda twisted her head as she seemed to think, as if in the instant she couldn’t remember exactly what had brought her there. Natasha, while at the same time somewhat unsure of how to proceed from then on, did not fail to be amused by the look on her face.

“He said Bruce told him my mommy was waiting for me in the bedroom.”, Wanda said flat explanation, her legs now mimicking Nat’s with similar posture and although in a slightly higher position because of the pillowcase below her, the two seemed to train together in meditation; knees bent to the sides and one foot tucked under each thigh. “You’re in the bedroom.”, she spoke self explanatory and now almost impatiently.

Natasha’s eyebrows threatened to go beyond her hairline as she looked at the child innocently awaiting her placement in the conversation, it had been an honest mistake by Peter, apparently-something implied. She really couldn’t blame him for thinking the girl had knowledge, passing on only for the sake of meaning the previous interaction, Natasha had been certain that he hadn’t heard Wanda call her by her name and even if that had happened it didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t use other nomenclatures too.

While Wanda was still looking at her, Natasha could imagine her line of reasoning as her own, for effect she more than naturally would know how to relate 'the room' to the one they occupied- the only one at that - and if, running to see who with such a foreign name was waiting for her in such an enclosure, she bumped into Nat and Nat only, the girl’s natural and all too clever conclusion made a lot of sense. Stopping to reflect on the brief moments it had taken Wanda cunningly to put two and two together when she arrived and saw her, Natasha couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride in her and her wit at such a young age.

Her girl was so smart, Natasha smiled seeing her chubby face impatient for answers. With a nagging sense in her chest that she definitely shouldn’t be doing that, at least not without him being present, Nat reassured herself with at least carrying it out the right way, the way she imagined he would if he were in her place.

“And you know what a mommy is, don’t you?”, she calmly passed one of her hands to put behind Wanda’s ear some strands that had come loose from her braided hair. With agile fervor, the girl barely waited for her to finish speaking.

“That’s someone who hangs out with a daddy.”, she said too readily for Natasha not to laugh at her flustering.

“That’s right, love. You’re too smart.”, she said knowing that the girl wouldn’t stop there in her conclusions, and even if she did that she would have to guide her to understanding. Not that she was going to go into more specific merits right off the bat.

“SpongeBob has a mommy with a daddy too.”, she informs Natasha, who confessedly didn’t follow her around as much on TV shows and cartoons as Steve or Bucky did. She and he talked about how to get at the subject with more subtlety in the potential of not causing any shock to her, but since apparently the first of the requirements had been thrown out the window by Spidey-boy and his giant mouth, now it was just a matter of control and damage repair perhaps-an attentive and supportive damage repair, of course.

“Really?”, she asked sincerely. Wanda acquiesced to her interest, moving her head in affirmative, excited as she always showed at the chance to share with them something she had learned.

“Peppa has a Mommy Pig and a Daddy Pig and her brother George, he’s a pig too.”, she lectured Nat with adorable enthusiasm and delighted in the individual attention she received from her. Whenever they heard about the show time and again Natasha and Steve couldn’t help but made fun among themselves at the slightly ‘britishized’ intonation the child acquired time and again.

“Yeah, and Mom and Dad look after Peppa and George, don’t they?”, she goes with the tide, Wanda following her readily and not seeming to struggle much on the subject.

“They jump in the mud puddles together! And Peppa is very disobedient too.”, Natasha lets out another giggle at the little one’s indignation-as if she herself wasn’t practically 24 hours a day secretly planning a double heart attack for her and Rogers. The girl begins to drift off into sweet chatter pushed by the topic, until somewhat abruptly the words pouring out of her mouth are saved and she interrupts herself in her haste to botch out that new unraveling.

“Lila has a mommy.”, she stalls looking for a millisecond frustrated with something she can’t pierce. Natasha decides to take more of the conversation in hopes that it will clear up for her.

“She does, and so do Nate and Cooper. Their daddy is Clint and their mommy is Auntie Lau.”, she declares as Wanda moves closer, hands resting on Nat’s knees as she ‘comes down’ from the pillow to land on top of her legs.

“Everyone has a mommy and daddy, then?”, she formulates the next question relatively quickly compared to what is being explained to her, but Natasha struggles not to let it go.

“Not everyone, Wanda. Some people have only one daddy or only one mommy to take care of them. Some have two mommies and some have two daddies, and there are also people who have neither of those.”, she knew that getting into the ‘parenting’ question in the most colloquial form might have to wait for a few more years as her tiny head was forming and absorbing some more notions and concepts. Although those of family and emotional ties were possibly by far the least complicated by then. That some had other types of parental figures should also be of importance for her future understanding, but at the moment Natasha feared that adding to the explanation the grandfathers and grandmothers or even uncles or aunts who could also occupy such a place would further confuse the child.

“You take care of me.”, she phrased directly as her legs remained folded beneath her, successfully picking up what the woman was trying to get across to her. Wanda hardly blinked as she continued to stare at her with an intensity that bordered on self-assurance. Her body restlessly swayed back and forth as she settled closer to Natasha’s lap. Staring at those orbs so identical to her own, Nat returned the gaze in reaction, a lack of concern ironically worrying given the situation that probably awaited them out of that room, took her over entirely. And she blinked along with Wanda as the two studied and carefully noticed each other. It was funny, though not true, how they both seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time, looking deep into each other’s eyes in a green mirroring that could last for decades in continuous, endless reflections.

“I do, baby.”, Natasha said, her being despite her insecure stubbornness who she was, knowing all she knew. “Because I’m your mommy.”, she sounded in fond confession finishing with an inevitable tug of her lips as her own words seemed to strike her for the first time as well. They seemed to float around them, and still absorbed in the girl’s immediate responses to her face, Natasha almost didn’t notice in time the fatuous reddish spark that danced up Wanda's fingers and then up to her left arm. The only remnant of red surrounded the girl’s torso in a secondary light that seemed to glow even brighter than if every possible supply of glitter imaginable had been poured over it.

With amazement, she watched as the tiny light, which looked more like a mini shooting star, streamed in excitement after releasing from Wanda at the height of her exposed shoulder skin, its flame even stronger as it circled the two of them at head height in a pocket pyrotechnic show and then landed with the feel of a butterfly on the tip of Natasha’s nose, who, still stunned, burst into laughter at the girl’s latest achievement. Wanda’s fairy shattered into thousands of glowing sparks as she, a grin from ear to ear, watched and enjoyed her mother’s tittering.

Before Natasha could even recover from this unexpected demonstration of the girl’s newfound control, she was already rushing to continue the subject.

“And Steve is my daddy because you hang out with him all the time!”, she seemed to tease in a voice too similar to Barnes’ to be coincidental, but Natasha could only find her endearing excitement even funnier. Beyond the sweeping logic, of course.

“Yes, he is.”, she verbalized confirmation as Wanda dragged the rest of the distance to her lap, arms automatically closing above her shoulders. The little girl’s chuckles being even more infectious as she didn’t stop still on top of her.

“Where is he?”, she amended so purely and naturally that Nat barely had time to feel impacted by guilt before promptly answering. Wanda still had a silly grin on her face.

“I don’t really know, Wanda.”, yes, she knew the consequences of those sayings. But promising over his promise might not bring something very favorable to the girl’s long-term trust in her; it was different from lying, however, she wasn’t doing that with Wanda right now-not that she wouldn’t do it in the future if it was really necessary.

“I miss him.”, the girl said, gaze low, but voice insistent. Natasha knew that the last few days would weigh harder sooner or later. She didn’t cry as she said it, but you could tell the genuine sadness as she clearly lost some of that twinkle from just before.

“I know, love. Me too.”, she nuzzled her temple against hers, Wanda sighing heavily propped up against her chest. Setting her nose at the angle she always preferred as she took shelter next to Natasha, mostly with her chin in the space of her shoulder and neck, the familiar scent calming and comforting her even more than the words and touches of comfort.

There was no ‘if’ in that, and only now was Natasha realizing it more plainly, which disturbed her beyond the expected concern. She was not going to allow this to happen, there could be no if, there was no possibility of him not coming back, tracker and Stark system be damned.

Although more divided than before, if that was even possible, she knew she couldn’t help but go after him. She owed it to Steve and she owed it to Wanda, she needed to prepare herself to leave soon, Laura would probably call again in a few minutes to find out when to expect their arrival. She wouldn’t think she was being abandoned, would she? No, she would make sure that didn’t happen. Nat needed to pick up Steve, it wasn’t a big deal-she also had to convince herself of some other things still because if not it would only be a thousand times more unthinkable to do the things Nat knew she had to do.

Not surprisingly, Wanda ended up falling asleep after lunchtime and stayed that way until late in the afternoon. Natasha went through these motions automatically, waiting a few more minutes in the room while the girl caught up on her sleep clinging to her so she could slip quietly out. Everyone was already waiting for her this time, including Clint. She just joined in without speaking directly to any of them, the situation slipping further apart by the minute with no news. Not compounded by the fact that this had never happened before, one of them becoming untraceable, that is, since Stark decided to equip them with locator microchips.

Vision greets her quickly before she takes her place next to them, Clint hugs her sideways without saying anything, but his encouraging smile weighed slightly with the creased forehead that accompanied it. As Tony projected between them a large version of the official map of the island now with the addition of possible information he got in the half time they have been on recess, Natasha tried her best to pay attention to the coordinates he repeated and the marks he circled around the concentration points, as they called them. As simple enough as it looked from above, she knew all too well that nothing would be as easy as it looked. The woods were dense and unexplored west of the territory to where they would probably need to land since the heliport had been completely destroyed. There was detritus and perhaps precarious construction to consider, not to mention the very real possibility of another underground bomb detonation. Tony could take a better look at the area with Friday to see if there was any more of this danger- if time was anything less precious, perhaps; as It was they had none to waste.

It was impossible not to make a certain connection to the last time the two of them had been in the field together, the destruction and then what was left of Sokovia were not images or memories that would leave her as easily as her older ones. Still, she didn’t fail to notice the pointed look Tony gave her as he split her up into a team with Vision to go straight to the hotel, or what was left of it, on the map they got a visual of a conglomeration of buildings coming together in blocks, two blue patches indicated the swimming pool areas and there were open recreational spaces around what would be the edge of the forest. Bucky and Sam would split up near the control towers, where with Stark’s command they would try along Friday, with a device she didn’t bat an eye at, to recapture the signal over the short distance if it was the case of a particular interference on the ground, or at least track the presence of the chip itself through the hope that they could force it back up for at least a mere second. All of this would take a few minutes and soon thereafter, signal or not, the boys would be out searching as well.

Tony and Vision would continue to fly over and review the place, mostly after more impending danger and life signs. He knew it would be more practical, perhaps, to put Natasha first into the docks with Clint, but he also knew she wouldn’t take that even as a suggestion. The island was uninhabited and even the resort staff only ‘existed’ when needed in the vicinity, there was no way to know the exact death toll counting all the people who surely escaped before anything could leak out, the Japanese government would only be concerned with cleaning up the mess before anyone else realized what had happened there and they couldn’t take any chances with Ross and the others to try to snoop around more than they could. They probably had a very short window of time to get down there and do what they had to do, it would be hard enough without it reverberating more than usual. So Steve and whoever was in need of help would just have to be found as soon as possible.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they were just now architecting this.”, he mused at the beginning of the meeting about the location simply being taken off the map. Too many implications were at stake and international tensions pointed to an attempt to erase what had gone wrong anyway. “Six, maybe eight hours.”, Tony premeditated with a grimace as the others grunted and huffed in response to anything that contributed against their chances. Bruce, now with a slightly cleaner face, would be in charge of overseeing all the Quinjet action, including timing their time expectation and warning the groups of probable unforeseen events via ear communicators.

“Nat, if you were-,” Stark addressed her in a direct manner for the first time.

“No.”, she cut him off in the middle of his planned posting. She knew he would try to dissuade her with a weight on his conscience. With receding hands and tired posture, he changed a weak ‘Fine’ and moved on to other last conditions. Natasha wouldn’t let it go unnoticed that Tony didn’t mean it actually, nevertheless it irritated her at the moment just the same. He also considered the girl when he put her now in the fated field and directed her to the place most likely for a second catastrophe to erupt, she was enraged mainly because he was most likely right in his critical and worried looks during all the passing of information and as much as no one else said anything, she felt what everyone there was thinking even without meaning to.

But everyone also knew it was out of the question, she couldn’t stay, even though her mind and her insides burned with the need to do so she couldn’t stand by, she needed to get involved if only while second in command to Steve in his absence. Clint squeezed her hand under the table when Tony finally switched to the other topic referred to Bruce, she didn’t look at him right away as she didn’t have to. He also knew that Nat would not be able to take the news in, perhaps far more than herself. No, she needed to be there, she would need to see with her own eyes whatever it was.

Distracted, though she should not be, Nat chewed the inside of her mouth trying and failing to mentally prepare herself to leave Wanda behind so prematurely. Glimpsing Bucky staring at her from the other end of the table she blinked a few more times to try to get back to what they were talking about, metallic taste in her tongue. Barnes had slumped shoulders and extremely focused features that pointed to an even greater reverie than hers, noticing her too he flashed her a sad smile over the coffee cup he was now carrying to his lips, a slight shake of his head that made her return even if dejectedly the movement. On the other side of him, Sam barely moved as his arms were locked tightly around his body, Bruce ruffled his hair in frustration as he answered Stark, one glint or another persevering among his gray strands made her smile faintly. Clint studied her with exaggerated attention and continued to gently squeeze her fingers. Tony was pure exasperation personified in human form, shifting from one side to the other, he being the only one standing, incessantly turning his neck side to side in an exercise of utter restlessness, Vision following his every move in perfect immobility, only putting in one or another piece of necessary information.

They were a mess, all in all. Nothing new either.

When they stampeded finally, it was for the last time until they gathered outside again. It was all settled, nothing more could be said.

Natasha walked leisurely along with Wanda, in one hand her own purse and her backpack, in the other the child’s tiny one. It was when they were passing through the dining room to go to the exit that she stooped down to the girl’s level, Wanda was looking at her calmly and expectantly.

“When I get there I’ll get to play with Peter again, right?”, she wiggled on her tiptoes as Natasha set her luggage down beside them, the boys should be coming down by now as well.

“Of course you will, Zaya, you guys will get to play all you want and I’m sure you’ll love getting to know Pepper’s house.”, she replied trying to imitate the same animation as the kid. She put her hands on her arms as Wanda seemed to evaluate well that new saying that was almost formulating itself out of her tongue.

Wanda didn’t know, yet, that she would not be joining her on the short trip there. They didn’t have time to leave her at the farm, every minute was already counting and they were already spending them too, it would be better to leave, less than ten had passed since they had left to get ready individually, clothes would be changed on the way there. Pepper was waiting outside to take her and the Parker kid, it had been a measure recommended by Stark himself at least for the time being, a flight to Laura however perhaps more effective would only prove potentially more stressful for the girl without Natasha. So a ride would have to do for the hour. Sending her to the Bartons would come only as a last resort.

While Natasha tried to calculate a safe way to inform and practice saying goodbye to each other, Wanda shifted her eyes directly over her shoulder to the outside through the large expanse of glass in the wall, to the dark of the night that was slowly coming over them.

She barely had time to notice the somewhat wide eyes, but the girl’s tilted head gave away something she spotted a tad too late.

“What happened?”, she was already starting to turn around, and yet Wanda still pointed vehemently. In the impossibly starry sky at Natasha’s back, a darker-than-night dot buzzed approaching the Compound exponentially. It seemed to zigzag without much control as she stood upright again with eyes almost squeezed shut to try and get a better view.

“What the...”, Natasha’s mouth remained open as she finally recognized the growing figure of a diminutive aircraft. Could it be? Her pulse quickened without command and she inadvertently moved closer to the glass, a small remnant of hope stubbornly assailing her. There was no denying it as the seconds ticked by, a helicopter advancing precisely to the open ground behind the building, a bit beyond the small grove in which Wanda usually played in the daytime. In a blur of circling and an uncontrolled and precarious descent it disappeared among the overgrown trees while an alarming stream of smoke and sparks did the honors to its propellers and everything around it, that glittered and signaled the forced landing.

Completely frozen for the first few moments, Natasha snapped out of her lapse of inattention as Wanda’s loud voice sounded already far away to the side of the kitchen. In wide panicked strides she managed to spot the child who was running too fast.

“Wanda, no!”, she grabbed her under the arms as the little girl was already running freely across the door to the outside. The runaway thing let out a shriek of pain at the abruptness of the act even though she didn’t fight the sudden rebuke by Nat. Mentally cursing her own fit of abstraction at the worst of times, Natasha found herself already beyond the lawn and facing whoever had trespassed. She heard more than she felt as the others began to rush out the back door as well. Passing Wanda to her own back with comely one motion she put the palm she had free around her holster, the other too busy holding back the kid who was struggling like never before, saying to the adult things that she at the moment simply couldn’t filter out.

When after what seemed like centuries a tall shadow began to appear through the fumes spreading over the less clear side of the vegetation, everyone was already in position. Natasha hadn’t moved a single muscle beyond retracting her weapon and sticking the child even closer to her, in her rear she could only immediately make out Sam and Bucky, who were positioned one on either side of her and a bit further back, someone was trying to convince her to let go of Wanda so that the girl could be taken inside again. Nat didn’t answer anything but unlock her revolver and no one tried to touch her or insist on the subject.

The person limping out of the orchard coughed loudly as the sparse moonlight reached their face, everyone seemed to let out a full breath in unison. He continued to advance in alarming strides as the shock hit them as a group, Natasha still not letting a single word escape, her eyes grew accustomed to the dimness and her arm had began to relax minimally as Wanda managed to free herself with her even if passive endorsem*nt.

They watched in silence as she ran wildly towards the man, hair glistening in pale glow as she moved further and further away almost as if floating, illuminated by the faint red tendrils that accompanied her like a beacon to where he was. Until her shout echoed through the open space a few feet before she could finally get to him.

“Daddy!”, she reached with a really forceful leap after Steve had already bent down to receive her with knees bent to the ground. With the impact, even from her light weight, he had to balance himself on the grass to keep them from falling as she pressed him against her with abandon. The two of them laughed together as the first few people at Nat’s side seemed to snap out of their initial trance.

She in turn wobbled forward after hearing his voice hissing hoarsely, but distinctly, her name.

It was beyond Wanda that their eyes aligned and she felt once again that annoying nasal tingling sensation that had been so present lately as she advanced towards them. His face denoted everything she couldn’t process on her own at the moment, such relief and disbelief that a sudden dizziness took hold of her totally unprecedented. She just ran to catch up with them.

Chapter 15: Нас не поймают

Chapter Text

As the air hovered in expectation and silence intermingled with general and consequent relief, everyone watched the scene for what seemed like minutes. At least until Wanda, partially detaching herself from the tangle of arms that surrounded her, turned her torso toward the rest of them with a smile so bright and with such vivacity that her eyes even narrowed because of It.

“Look, everybody!”, she chirped in a high-pitched voice. Practically bouncing where she stood in the middle of Nat and Steve’s fumbling embrace, still connected to the ground. The adults, including the ones holding her between them, laughed at her infectious euphoria. The girl spun her head around electrically, going from here to there to confirm that the rest of the people could move to go ahead. By the time the first reached them, Natasha had managed to stand up and pulled the other two along with her. Like the child her eyes were on all parts, although consequently contained to all parts of Steve mostly.

She didn’t ignore the dried stains on the dark fabric of his clothing, still more focused on the intimate grimace he let slip as he stood up with Wanda still in his arms. Natasha tried to move her, but the child became unyielding immediately refusing to leave his side.

“It’s okay, Nat.”, he sounded in a rough but firm voice. Wanda further tightened her hands around his neck and he and Natasha exchanged a much more deliberate look on her part. After a quick and silent interlude, he restrained himself from shifting the arm that supported the girl’s weight.

“What in the astronomical flying f*ck was that all about, Steven?”, Bucky approached amidst loud chuckles yet in almost painfully exposed nervousness. The atmosphere of celebration and incredulity so much so that no one even paid attention to his jocular chatter.

“Kind of the usual, I guess.”, he said between uncertain laughs. But it was almost a forced bark, Nat observed extremely attentively. One of his legs was discreetly stretching tight, firm muscles, as if trying to put little weight on that area specifically.

“Right, and that basically translates into you being a complete beast, as usual.”, Sam sounded close to them as well.

“Yeah, no surprise there either.”, Bucky joined in the mockery on behalf of his friend. They both got close enough to the three of them to see his obviously restricted face clearly.

“Only because it fits you better, Ice block.”, Rogers rasped through teeth, even if with hearty laughter.

“Uh.”, Barnes looked from Nat to Steve, then to Wanda, and again to Sam. Behind them, Tony and Vision were preparing to go to the scene together still, inquiry still necessary one way or another.

Natasha sighs at such pointless stubbornness, moving forward less than a step and a half is comforting yet heartbreaking when Wanda automatically clings tighter to him. She could feel the eyes of the others at her back as well, Bruce was talking something to someone, Clint postured a bit to her left, also passive.

“Why don’t we go get the present you made yesterday, huh baby? I’m sure Daddy will love it.”, the bait was played very openly, yet the girl thought for a few more seconds before giving in. The quick memory of the large origami swan made out of colored paper by her earlier, another distraction, cheered her up with full force. Sam had been teaching her for the past few days between one conversation and another. It was even abrupt the way she no less than leaped with all her willpower towards the grass, grabbing Nat’s already outstretched hand and buzzing in sweet chatter immediately about the ‘bad word’ Bucky had let out. Clint more than readily joined their short walk back to the building, the larger commotion creeping past as everyone tried to act on less alert.

Still, Nat could understand very well. She heard the moment he let himself fall, a quick grunt probably imperceptible to other ears coming to hers. The others whispered in light but urgent voices, one didn’t have to turn to know that the two friends were now bearing his weight.

As Wanda excitedly gathered all the colorful drawings and doodles made during his absence, Cho was already on her way to the Compound. Steve was admitted immediately while protesting, naturally, the need for more than a couple of tests. Natasha fulminated at the need to enter the room herself to push painkillers down the throat of that man, frankly, sometimes more stubborn than their four-year-old child.

Finally after practically being knocked out with what she could only assume was a horse tranquilizer disguised as a drug, he surrendered to a deep and lingering sleep. Seeing him there, dumped in the hospital bed was guiltily good even if the prognoses were not surprising and he was in fact someone who would endure much more than a normal human being would, it was still somehow distressing. Aside from the visible abrasions and the predictable smoke inhalation, the damage was spread unceremoniously throughout his body. There were gross fractures in his heel that explained the apparent discomfort from before, nothing that required surgery, however.

What was apparent, in fact, was that he had suffered a major blow to his rib arches, as the doctor had reported minutes after practically drowning him in Codeine after he, in his infinite stubbornness, refused injections for some reason-they were still waiting now to see if it would have the necessary effect, knowing how quickly his metabolism would burn off the whole thing. The hours passed especially slowly after the doctor’s last visit, everyone in and out of the room to see for themselves his condition. The night went on and after refusing to leave, Wanda fell asleep curled up in the sheets. The little girl had remained untouched at the foot of the bed, multi-colored hands with all the shades of her crayons, papers with every kind of drawing and color imaginable scattered all over the rest of the bed and even over Steve’s body. She had been warned about the injured leg from which she kept a careful distance, extremely determined to watch over him knowing he was somehow ill.

Nat collected herself with Wanda awake again long enough for her to get something to eat before she poured herself back into a loose sleep, she managed to nap for a considerable time before she felt the little creature beside her stir restlessly on her way back to the hospital wing. The morning had barely fallen as Wanda galloped unalterably contentedly toward the elevators, a pang of desolation threatening to hit her with the stark difference from only hours ago, when even if not visibly sad the girl seemed to carry with her an unspeakable weight.

They entered carefully, but already found him cackling in a low, detained voice, Bucky sitting on the ledge with a bowl of porridge in hand and mouth full. Sam rolled his eyes at something on the other side of the room, properly seated on the white guest couch. He was leisurely munching on a half-eaten banana, Steve was looking at him now, seemingly ignoring Bucky’s tirades in a condescending manner while appearing to be completely and inadvertently stoned. His eyes fell heavy and he stirred, seeking comfort in the thin hospital sheets. A wry smile graced his face in a carefree, sloppy act that rarely belonged to him while sober, as he looked as if he could literally slide off the floor if nothing held him back, so smooth did his figure.

When his gaze fell on them there was only the slightest startle, a more latent effort to try to lift himself higher than the position of the bed would allow. He traveled his eyes among them before he managed to make himself announce himself(?), even if unnecessarily, since that was his hospital room.

Wanda beat him to it, stepping forward to the side of the mattress that was allowed to her and then carefully crawling closer to him. Steve giggled.

“Hey, you.”, he spoke slowly in a drawn out laugh and almost closed eyes. One of his arms partially extended toward her.

“Hey.”, she also laughed at the words coming funny out of his lips. Natasha held back at the foot of the bed for a few seconds, Wilson soon made mention of the door with his head. With a last look at the two of them, she followed him into the deserted hallway.

She was not surprised that Tony had contacted her briefly, nor was she upset that she had been kept at a distance for the most basic information. Obviously, what they had from Steve himself was already something, even if they still needed in the near future to try to dig up more of what he had witnessed.

He and Bucky got only what little Steve was willing and consistent enough to leave exposed, but it was something. He had told them from the second explosion, which had caused them along with a specific group of security and Stark’s own staff to head into the underground tunnels of the building. The tycoons were running like ants in a water drop as he tried to make his way to the control tower – the final destination of the labyrinth, not surprisingly, his host had disappeared a few hours earlier, it had been discovered soon after the first attack. People were running amok and some were refusing to follow the security route, employees and a few others were already rushing to leave in stampede.

As suspicions mounted, so did the lack of time to waste, so when the second bomb exploded in the building’s foundations the passage to a possible exit was terminally closed. Steve was trying to dissuade more people on the way and even far enough away from the outbreak, he ended up being thrown violently against the hotel’s main power box.

“We’re guessing the electrical discharge disabled his chip transmission.”, Sam put in, arms folded across his chest.

“Did he say if he found anyone else on the way to the helicopter?”, Natasha asked even though she was already imagining the possible answer.

“Not alive, at least not until he could get his bearings maybe trying to look. He didn't entered specifics about that.”, she answered him with only a mouth murmur.

“Vision returned a few hours ago, Tony needed to fly immediately to Bucharest. Whatever the major consequences of Japan are.”, she gave her own piece of information. Sam nodded with a evasive face. Knowing both of them that now, most likely, whatever happened in the situation would happen beyond them and what they could contribute.

The two stood in shared silence for only a short while longer, the childish laughter coming from the doorway lulled both of their thoughts. Bucky’s voice booming inside the room amidst the giggles.

When Nat returned, Bucky was glued to the wall doing a headstand. In the bed next to him the Rogers pair were clapping their hands and interjecting encouragement. Natasha sighed at the scene while Sam huffed loudly enough to make his friend drop like ripe fruit. Wanda laughed until she nearly choked when she saw him fumble and slam the rest of his body to the floor – perhaps Steve really was right about the rather crude humor that she passed to the girl; Nat let herself find Bucky’s tomato red face amusing. Before long, the two of them left the hospital wing with Barnes’ excuse to go to the kitchen one more time.

“Wanda, be careful not to hurt him.”, Nat spoke as she noticed the girl practically sitting on Steve’s belly, who didn’t even seem to notice. Wanda raised her head in attention to her mother as she saw her approaching.

“It’s okay, she weighs like ten grams.”, he slurred the words into his mouth with trembling effort and blinking hard. Despite this, Nat allowed herself to laugh at his inebriated countenance.

“Yeah, but medical recommendations are medical recommendations, sweetness.”, she addressed him as she moved the girl to the other side of the bed, closer to him, but without the risk of hitting any injuries. His dazzled eyes followed her like in a trance when Wanda preferred to jump to the floor to get her painting material from across the room that she had left there the other night.

Natasha took the opportunity to sit on the edge of the mattress as she frowned and tried not to laugh at his face, Steve in turn still stared at her almost in amazement.

“You’re so hot.”, he let out in a whispered confessional tone and in agonized resignation. Natasha let the laughter trapped in a snort escape before she answered him.

“And you’re so high.”, despite the mocking tone, as she said this she lovingly combed his hair with her fingers. Steve blinked a few times with moist eyes as if momentarily dizzy, but also not many remnants of having fully grasped what she just said. She knew the dose had been increased-the pain in his spine was undeniably strong and as much as he tried to pass for less, the team that attended him had informed them by that point.

The child returned climbing now on Natasha’s lap, more sheets of paper in hand.

“Wow, what a beautiful drawing, Zaya. Who are these here?”, she touched with her fingertip a figure drawn in dark crayon next to what appeared to be a greenish puddle, the person depicted bent at an odd angle over the lime colored spot.

“That’s Bucky, the day he threw up all his breakfast because he had a boo-boo.”, Wanda comments turning the sheet better for the two of them to see. Steve lets out a slack chuckle as he catches a glimpse of the representation of his friend’s latest hangover.

“Look at that, is that Uncle Clint and Aunt Lau’s farm?”, Nat asked as she took the next sheet in hand. A large house in bright colors and a brownish roof sprawled across most of the blank space. The greenery that lay to the sides she assumed was the woods further away, at one corner a few people could be seen drawn and lined up near the house. Differentiated by their hair sizes and colors.

“And that’s Bruce, Uncle Clint said that he jumps the fence and runs after the cows now.”, the girl said as she signaled the figure further to the side of the duck drawn in profile and slightly larger in proportion than the humans themselves.

“I wouldn’t doubt anything coming from that duck, maybe the lack of oxygen in her pack has affected his brain.”, Steve mocked once again whispering in Nat’s direction, much though Wanda was within range of his voice. She was too busy rearranging her artwork to understand them, Nat rolls her eyes at him.

There were in the small pile two more drawings depicting her with the Bartons children, one of Pepper’s flowers in the garden and another bringing together her and a few other characters from the Bikini Bottom.

The latter consisted of three central figures, one with a head with yellow tufts on the left much larger than the others, another on the right with reddish lines, and a central, tiny one with orange squiggles. The hands coming out of the bodies in a triangle were also linked together, so as to form a plough from one end to the other. Identical, curved scribbles filled the faces in smiles, and next to it, separated only by a black line to symbolize the wall of protection was a representation of a giraffe – so identified not only by its characteristic colors, but especially by its gigantic neck. There was a violet-colored tongue on it that extended into the hand of a brown-haired figure, a green acorn in hand to be offered to the animal.

“That’s us.”, the little girl said when they reached it. “On my birthday.”, she raised her eyes from the drawing to gauge the receptivity of the two. Steve was smiling happily and still considerably doped up, but still pulling her in for a crisp kiss on the forehead.

“It’s beautiful, baby. You draw very well.”, Nat said as she watched them. The girl soon took advantage of her father’s embrace to relocate herself just under his arm, legs resting on her. Laura’s annoying and sure voice now emerged in her mind as she witnessed that painfully sweet moment, accusing her amusedly about maternal clichés while Nat nonetheless surmised the familiar drawing to keep in a photo album.

“In fact, I’d say that if the vet career doesn’t work out, the artist one is almost guaranteed.”, Steve joked about the girl’s obsessive need to see and touch every animal in existence and sigh. Something that would naturally be only cute, if it weren’t for her kleptomaniacal urge to kidnap them as well.

“I really should snap a picture for posterity now.”, she observed the priceless interaction between them, Steve struggling to stay awake amidst more lucid flashes, meanwhile Wanda had managed to get a carton of her newest glitter stickers from God knows where and promptly nailed them to his face and torso, he just allowed it.

Clint emerged as a kind soul to take Wanda out to lunch when Steve’s strained face denied the meal and asked Natasha to stay by his side a tad longer.

“I’ll bring you a sweet potato popsicle. Okay, Daddy?”, she hurried to capture the archer’s hand and together they left for the first floor.

“You’re in pain again.”, Natasha accused him after she heard in the distance the elevator leave and closed the door. He fidgeted under the pale covers, still with a less relaxed expression.

“Have I ever told you that you look incredibly charming today?”, he teased her.

Natasha propped her hips on the movable foot of the bed as she answered him.

“Your powers of subtlety, alas, have died out along with the turn of the last century, Rogers. It’s also incredibly difficult to take you seriously with a PAW Patrol sticker on your cheek.”, at her tirade he let himself laugh at the nostalgic implication of the two of them.

“I know, but it’s always good to stretch old habits, you know?”, he rasped accommodating himself better with a more disguised grimace. Without moving to get those stickers off his face.

“I’ll say.”, she spoke, motioning to the armchair across from him. “But then, give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call someone here and now to knock you out.”, she crossed her legs and reached out to pinch at the fruit he hadn’t had enough appetite to eat earlier.

“None, more than I’m the love of your life and you wouldn’t want to go against me.”, he fluffed the pillow half-heartedly using only one hand.

She pretends to cogitate.

“Meh, not strong enough.”, she throws another grape in her own mouth before reaching out to the monitor.

“You become more and more Machiavellian with the years.”, he lets out in false bitterness.

“Given the reason you’ve fallen for my person, for starters.”, she presses the button and he narrows his eyes but without laughing.

“Not even close to the real reason.”, he puts it smugly.

“Oh, and what would the real reason be, if I may know?”, she rests her chin on one hand on the support of her seat.

“The sex, obviously.”, he immediately refutes.

“Really?”, she smiles devastatingly playful at him.

“Really, you’re shockingly good at what you do. Not that that’s much of a surprise, of course. It’s just facts.”, she barely holds herself together with his purposefully clinical voice. “It’s also clear that I’m no expert in the field, humbled in my fossil experience, as you would say.”

“Naturally.”, she laughs again.

Cho enters the next instant, promptly charged with his next dosage. As he settled more comfortably after another IV dose, Natasha contemplated asking the doctor about the extent of possible cervical damage, even though she had already been informed that the impact had been sustained but compounded by the exertion made not long afterwards, which most certainly aggravated the injury. The night before she had a very quick glimpse of the sickly blackened spot spreading to the base of his waist, can do but imagine the state of the skin on his back.

“So? You dig it or what?”, his voice recaptured her from her daydreaming thoughts just in time for her to see that slick smile return.

“What?”, she switched legs in the chair and looked at him confused for a moment.

“The door is closed, we’re here alone. All you have to do is go and put the key in the lock.”, she raised her eyebrows in amusem*nt as she followed his train of thought and double meaning. It was so tacky.

“Oh my, Mr. America. I don’t recall any innuendo to that effect coming from you. You embarrass me.” , she speaks, though she contrarily goes to posture beside the bed.

“It was implied, my dearest Romanov. And don’t worry, I know you’re not so easily embarrassed by such silly things.”, he dorks out in a way going completely against the grain of his joking remarks.

She hangs her face to the side as she accepts the hand he extends to her and also sits even closer on his sickbed.

“I’m not sure you could handle it, besides what if your bones from the cretaceous period turn to dust just under me?”, she nevertheless smiles fondly as he lays her hand on his chest next to his.

“Yes, but I am very resilient myself.”, he replies without a drop of real intent. Eyes roll even more.

“No kidding.”, Natasha smooths the sheets with the hand she has free.

“Besides, we can go...” he sighs fighting sleep. “Real slow.”, he completes amidst a giant yawn.

She laughed lower.

“Ok, I’m holding you to that promise then, handsome.”

Steve just dozes off this time, less than fifteen minutes and he already faces her once more from the armchair, where she flips through a magazine found on the headboard next to him. Her cell phone resides discharged in the room after Wanda, with the unbelievable ability that only a Bucky apprentice can have, broke the device gifted to her by Tony. For the time being, Natasha’s was practically twenty-four hours a day occupied by children’s videos.

“Is Stark back yet?”, his voice sounded less weak, but just as affected to her.

“Not yet, but he should be close enough.”, she preferred not to give away the entire contents of the meeting right away. He would have enough time to do that when he was discharged from the hospital bed.

“Hungry?”, she let herself inquisition him.

“Not much, but right now I’m really craving that sweet potato popsicle that Wanda promised me.”, he said very seriously, turning his head towards her. Nat looked at him nonchalantly.

“Don’t worry, it’s easier for her to make one of the boys buy a whole batch in case she doesn’t have any left in the freezer than to forget to bring it to you.”, she said sincerely.

“True.”, he replies with a smile that was beginning to dawn on her. “And I take it you had the conversation with her as well?”, he questions her genuinely curious.

“Hardly.”, Nat replies already with an imminent air of pride. “Kid did the math.”

“Right.”, he sighs. “We seriously need to get used to it and stop being surprised by the things that firecracker does.”, he says with nothing but loving edge, even if extremely aware that they would never stop having mini-infarcts every time their daughter literally glided through the air or stole a duck. “Not that I’m complaining about that in particular.”, he confides her even if unnecessarily, his smile now practically piercing his ears.

Natasha just laughs some more. Lately, every time the girl called him by name it was noticeable how downhearted he got. She was glad that this welcomed him more than anything, he deserved the ‘Dad’ title more than anyone she knew.

“I’m her favorite too, you can tell already.”, he adds.

“Dreaming costs nothing, comrade. I’m the mom, ok? I’m basically her universe and the basis for every relationship in her entire life in theory.”, Natasha hits back just then.

“A bit egocentric today, aren’t we? I’m her superhero, love. Quite literally.”, he pouts, pun intended.

“Please, we all know that this post is Bruce’s, Steve. Don’t kid yourself, she adores him.”, she speaks after a huff of air in laughter.

“Ouch, how harsh.”, he laughs. “Although I admit that the green one has quite the charm too.”, he jokes.

“And here I thought I had to worry only about you leaving me for the iceberg man or for Sam.”, Nat doesn’t miss the chance.

Steve cranes his eyebrows in a flirtatious gesture.

“What can I do if everyone wants a piece of the wonderful America’s ass.”, he pulls her into yet another idiotic trap.

“Well, for now this wonderful America’s ass has a particularly restricted owner. So I wouldn’t get too excited if I were you, hottie.”, she grants the silly joke and gets a particularly enthusiastic wink from him in response.

Just in time, the door is opened to Wanda’s hurried little steps, a popsicle cradled in each hand for each of them. Squinty eyes and face still half-smeared with ice cream as she arrives alarmingly to her parents, reporting that she had just seen Vision fly out of the kitchen window.

Chapter 16: Thuas

Chapter Text

Wanda was running among the adults and the few pieces of furniture with her device in hand, the shrill voice of Lila Barton could be heard yards away. From the kitchen, Bucky’s indignant voice sounds startled to the conversation that could be heard in the dining room. The child had, according to him, hidden his favorite pair of boots and refused to tell of the hiding place. Barnes was even suspicious at Steve’s behest-not only because when he confronted her about the girl momentarily cast a conspiratorial glance his way, but mainly because his friend had been preparing for some time to give him the runaround for all the disturbance on his part.

It was still early and in a very rare event everyone was present for coffee, even more uniquely, to be in the kitchen. Pepper and Tony were preparing to travel to California for the weekend and Bruce had agreed, even though he knew he would probably regret it before long, to go watch the baseball game with Bucky and Sam that afternoon.

“Wanda, come on, we’re not leaving until after you eat.”, Natasha calls her again, but the girl is reluctant to hang up the video call. Steve resigns himself to waiting with a little more patience than her, though not much either.

By the end of the table, they could hear Stark repeating for the fiftieth time about the fact that apparently Happy was getting to know Peter’s aunt better. Pepper tried unsuccessfully to talk him out of the gossip.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the girl went to the table to eat her pancakes and scrambled egg, to which she still twisted her nose a little. By the time the others hurried to their destinations she was still chewing thoughtfully on a piece of sliced mango.

Bucky left still stubbornly over his lost shoes in the light hands of the tiny pest, little knowing that she had actually levitated them to one of the beams above the pool area under Steve’s expectant gaze on one of the afternoons when they took her there for her first lessons in swimming.

The trip would be particularly long for them, even longer than the one to the zoological park for her birthday.

They remained perhaps no more positive, but certainly better directed and accustomed. That was something.

The drive to the city seemed unspeakable outsider mind after long weeks Upstate, or even out of the country quickly as was his case. Wanda remained behaved and secure in her seat during the new route, there was of course the fear of overloading her as usual, but also accentuated to them more each day the sheer need they both felt to make sure nothing else was deprived of her.

After all, if they were serious about getting her into next school year – the stuff of endless discussion among all the Compound’s inhabitants, then they needed to start really normalizing everyday and eventual socializing, starting for example with one of the simplest: a family outing to celebrate Father’s Day.

It was the first of them with Wanda, Nat had promised days before on his sickbed that she would do whatever he wanted on such a commemorative date, and although she regretted such an oath practically while the words were still coming out of her mouth a promise was a debt. She herself had chosen not to do anything much on Mother’s Day, the three of them merely buying ice cream and watching movies until they fell asleep. The prospect of going out with the child in the middle of a festive Sunday was not one of the most discreet, that was a fact. It was one of the inopportune incentives for action as well, for her to have everything they craved, or rather, for her not to lose any of what they feared Wanda would need to be brought out of the safe and discreet confines in which all involved had majestically managed to keep her until then.

Natasha was driving this time and her nervous eyes on the rearview mirror only became no more deliberate than Steve’s neck turning to the back seat, from where the girl stretched and pointed in excited amazement at the cars and buildings that passed quickly by her window view. Beside her, Brown also stared at the outside of her backpack, only the long neck of the stuffed animal being visible along its furry head with static glowing eyes and at the moment a strong odor of aftershave cologne where Wanda had ‘accidentally’ poured all the contents found in Steve’s bathroom onto the toy’s head. Suffice it to say that he hadn’t found out about it yet.

Following his directions, Nat found a vacant spot as soon as they reached the block she herself recognized very briefly. Because of the holiday it was enough to say that any restaurant would be completely full and potentially impossible for them to even think about going in, but it wasn’t as if this was the initial intent of the outing. Steve had promised them a little exploration of the streets that were familiar to him in his childhood and that was what he intended to do first.

With her walking between them as usual, they made their way down the sidewalk. The strong summer sun was proving less harsh even as the high hour drew ever closer to noon, Wanda squeezed her parents’ hands tightly as she turned her head every which way at the slightest sound. There were few people around, considering where and when they were. Although Steve automatically adopted his persona aka just an old cap every time he went out as a civilian, Natasha didn’t make that much effort compared to him, since unless she walked around with a scarf covering her entire scalp it was half as obvious who she actually was.

In fact, even if she had wanted to she would never have done so on such an occasion. That morning the little girl had woken up with impressive energy, but also with quite clear demands. After talking for hours with Lila during the last week, and now that her ‘cousin’ was officially on vacation they had plenty of time for that, Wanda had begun to want not only to imitate almost everything her mother did or said, but especially to refuse not to dress exactly or at least as much like her as possible. According to Tony that would only be perfectly leveled out the day they could successfully find a child-sized human leather jacket – which Nat didn’t deny out loud.

It was strange at first, but absolutely understandable and funny – infinitely cute too. Although this was certainly a certain effect of the influence of Clint and Laura’s daughter, Sam himself had already warned them about this completely normal phase, although perhaps in her case a tad more pronounced, when you take into consideration that she had never before had a mother figure.

So the two were now walking side by side, each with a French braid adorning their hair. Nat in jeans and a peasant blouse that had been practically dug out of her closet along with other pieces until finally something matched the exact shade of green of Wanda's summer dress. Needless to say, Steve of course laughed heartily at the whole thing.

Turning the corner into an old condemned building- which he pointed out was until recently a post office, they came upon a small flea market with a considerable clientele. Natural chatter surrounded the place that was across the street from a cramped establishment with a long line stretching along the grayish curb. They made mention of cutting their way through, steps automatically tightened and firmed to avoid eye contact, though not in an overly suspicious manner.

This plan was diverted without hesitation by Wanda, who, almost free of them, headed straight for the entrance to the thing. Calling them both to have their attention focused on something that was apparently beyond the multitasking capabilities of the two of them, while at the same time trying to dissuade and control a child-shaped rocket. She knew that under no circ*mstances could she let go of their hands when in a crowd, however small-they had made a point of hitting this very line several times.

But children are children and theirs an especially eager one. Releasing Natasha’s hand to point, she tried in vain to push her father forward. Until she realized that there would be far more results if she simply forced him to accompany her.

As he walked through the somewhat crammed aisles of things organized by types and categories of utensils he objectively went back on his opinion about so-called child collars or whatever the thing was named, because the girl might not be faster than them but she was still ahead of the rest of the people like a greenish miniature musher. He could not even stop long enough to look over his shoulder and make sure that Natasha was keeping up with them the whole time.

When they finally managed to get past the people who were scattered here and there along what was in reality a wide corridor subdivided into sections, the two of them stopped in front of a wide shelf resting on what demarcated the area boundary of the goods. Looking no longer so confused, but bordering on terrified, he bent down a little to hear her voice amidst those of a group of adults less than five meters away from them.

“Look at that!”, the girl pointed in uncontained elation. In front of them an especially ghastly collection of porcelain dolls curled up in Indian row sorted by size, directly after her finger was a particularly large and fearsome face of a harlequin about a foot long. “Bucky’s gift.”, Wanda grinned from ear to ear trying to reach for the object while he still looked at her undecided between laughter and concern. Taking the opportunity to crouch down next to her and to redo the laces of one of her sneakers, Steve pointed to the dolls with his head.

“Are you sure you want to pick these? I thought we were going to make him that strawberry pie he likes.”, he reminds her. Wanda hangs her head slightly in remembrance before answering.

“No, Steve.”, she rests her hands on her hips looking discouraged and with no openings to be contradicted. While apparently showing no serious discomfort with the new nomenclatures assigned to them, the girl still caught herself rarely calling them by their names. It was not with an air of petulance or defiance; the child had merely first met them that way.

“Auntie Lau says she’s sending him a big pie, Sam says Bucky doesn’t need more than one pie.”, she explains with a tone already bordering on impatience towards him.

“Fair enough.”, he stands up again and quickly looks over to where Natasha is judicious appraising a set of metal book trimmers, eyes wilfully turning to the two repeatedly. Still trying not to laugh, he pretended to focus on a strange set of aged crystal ashtrays.

Sometimes he thought that the playful implication towards his friend became in time an irrevocable reality, looking at the child who was now studying the rest of the macabre collection with interest he however had to acknowledge to himself that this was most likely not spontaneous to the point of being malevolent, that she had somewhat irreverent inclinations was undeniable.

“Bucky likes clowns.”, she continues to explain herself, now also evaluating a doll with dark curls on the bottom shelf. Overall the products seemed moderately good quality, although already quite affected by time. The harlequin’s robes had brownish stains like those of something rusty, his face paint was faded like rain-beaten chalk, and he was staring at the eternal nothingness with beastly attentive eyes. Steve lets out a cackle through his nose because he has completely understood it all.

“Who even told you that?”, he speaks even as he already reaches out to take the toy.

“Mommy.”, she receives the clown with a bright, innocent smile.

“Of course she did.”, he guides her to the end of the tight ‘L’ shaped hallway. Nat walked a little farther away as he paid for said artifact and by the point they finally reached her Wanda had become enchanted with antique jewelry and fans printed on faux peaco*ck feathers.

She was apparently concentrating on a multi-colored pile of phones in the most stupefying shapes when he leaned his chin lightly on her shoulder and whispered just for her ears.

“Your nefarious and cruel spirit amazes me more and more with each passing day.”, she deposits the strange handset that connects to a glowing pineapple before turning minimally so she can answer him.

“Well, well, Mr. America. Would you please keep it in your pants? There are children in the room.”, she laughs low, much though Wanda is now too busy playing with a broken cuckoo clock to care about whatever they are talking.

“You’re so mean.”, he says while trying not to smile more openly.

“No, I am great.”, she crosses her arms and leans against the table of scattered samples. “And you know this well, because if I were even a slightly more lousy person I would have definitely lied to your delusional, stoned self and we would now at most be overdosing on ice cream and Coca Cola instead of walking in that oh-so-delicious Brooklyn air.”, her voice carries no bite really, she merely snickers teasingly at him.

“Don’t be for that, for I recognize your sacrifice and promise that next holiday we will do whatever you want.”, he vows with one hand on his chest and all. Her eyebrows almost touch her hairline, but only for a few moments.

“Funny you should mention that, knowing I’d probably want to visit the farm.”, you can practically see the gears turning in his mind. Wanda lets out a loud laugh and the two glance at her quickly, but Nat continues her conclusion. “But you know I know you would know I would want that, right? You fool absolutely no one with your false martyrdom of traveling again to Iowa.”, she narrows her eyes in false analysis in his direction.

“Ok, right. It’s also not like Laura hasn’t been sending me hints about it for over two weeks now.”, he surprises even her.

“Yeah, she’s pretty invested in both of us. Meddlesomely so.”, Nat confesses.

“Really? I never would have guessed.”, he taunts her and earns a laugh along with a weak punch to the shoulder.

“Like your friends are so much better at not meddling in anything.”, Natasha launches the classic card.

“Our friends, Funshine.”, he corrects her on the instant.

“But Bucky sure as hell is more of an aggregate I put up with from time to time.”, she puts it seriously.

“Oh, and that brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about earlier... You do know he has Coulrophobia, don’t you?”, he can see that she can barely disguise hearing him.

“Really? I never would have guessed.”, she smiles very peacefully before he signals what Wanda is carrying inside a transparent bag right there. “sh*t, but what an unfortunate coincidence, huh?”, she glances at him once more.

“But now I suppose it would be cruel of us not to even let her deliver It, don’t you think? She loves Uncle Bucky so much. It wouldn’t be fair.”, she speaks so offhandedly that it comes off as a flair.

“Demonic.”, he spells each syllable with conviction and seriousness. She would answer him with another tirade, but both are rendered impossible with the child running to meet them with something furry coiled around her free arm.

“I found one for Sam too, Daddy!”, Steve automatically retorts as she brings what, at first glance at least, appears to be a stuffed animal close to him, but which after a blink or two is revealed to be an absolutely terrifying version of what may once have been a Jolly Chimp toy. Eyes popped open and a macabre grin- Wanda makes him bang his plates and they smile in encouragement.

“That is so cute, Zaya. You have really good taste. Sam will love it.”, she smiles at the child, but the girl barely waits for Natasha to finish putting out the words.

“Can I pick out something for Bruce too, please, Mommy?”, she darts further away from them before the ‘yes’ is even fully verbalized.

“Oh.my.God.”, Steve looks at her with wide eyes and a bark caught in his throat that isn’t all that joyful.

“I know, she’s so creepy.”, Nat says as she looks over her shoulder at her daughter. “Still has a bit to learn, but great potential without a shadow of a doubt.

Now it’s his turn to narrow his eyes at her, the truth is that half the time he had no idea if what she was saying was a joke or not. He would probably never know with a hundred percent sure.

“Do you think maybe we should do something? I mean, she has her heart in the right place.”, she speaks as they still allow the girl to walk freely through the small space they are housed in. Refers to the girl’s choice of absolutely unthinkable items to give away.

“Yeah, maybe. But I kind of don’t care enough to do anything right now. You?”, he expresses.

“Meh.”

After another half hour and a veritable collection of objects that would give audience to an entire season of Ghost Hunters, they set off down an adjacent street. The bags needed to be put into the vehicle, but soon they were already walking down a familiar street again.

Steve’s old apartment, now rented, comes into their view almost at the same time as the bell of the old record store rings with yet another customer. Wanda jumps between them with hair flying out of her hairdo and an interrupted cheer as they pass a hot dog cart further down the street, where they stop for a few minutes. A group of pre-teens cycle past them toward an ice cream parlor on the other corner.

After they buy food and continue walking for a few more minutes in the neighborhood, he changes the ride once again. Now they leave in the direction of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, na option that without discussion proves to be bold, but the route is done the same way.

They end up at Pier 6, first at the Plaza picnic table area on the west side. The view of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty graces them in the bright sunshine at over two o’clock in the afternoon, and Wanda complains briefly as they once again slather her with a tenth layer of sunscreen, but her annoyance pales in comparison to the experience and the place. They passed Fornino earlier and she was certainly having a day to only eat whatever her heart desired.

They followed her with their eyes over an hour later as she explored the sandbox village, the place was met with a few more children and parents around, but nothing that seemed to particularly frighten her. They could watch from afar as she approached two more kids and their sand toys, with the help of a nearby water fountain the three of them were building a mess in mud and mischievous giggles.

“As long as she doesn’t kidnap any birds today.”, was what Natasha replied to Steve’s inquiry about her playing with seemingly slightly older children.

“She might even try, but this time we’re one step ahead of her.”, Steve says about to swing around so that Nat can see the girl’s backpack across from him on the stone bench.

“I wouldn’t doubt her ability anyway.”, she speaks as if it’s really possible for the child to just hide a Laughing Gull under her dress or something.

“All right, from now on we’ll be walking around with a duck detector if that’s what it is.”, she blurts along with his placement and the two laugh again at the thought that in the future they would be called to the school board when Wanda managed the fine feat of stealing the teacher’s desk in broad daylight, which in retrospect was certainly not a laughing matter- that is a child with probable kleptomaniacal attributes. What they did not know if she really possessed after all Brucey was, as far as they knew, a one-time thing.

The children talk and shout loudly around them and Natasha still has her head somewhat down even in the farthest location, surprisingly no one seems to pay attention to the parent couple sitting on the far left of the playground boundary.

“I thought you might want to explore more of the block earlier. Go into one of those millennial ice cream parlors, I don’t know, point out that the whole thing was just bricks when you lived there or that the owner’s great-great grandfather was your schoolmate. You know, Steve stuff.”

“I missed that.”, he says with a distant look beyond the trees surrounding the place. Without directly answering her question, but angled his face toward the rays penetrating the thin overcast layer of mid-afternoon.

“The sun?”

“Your jokes about my age.”, she frowns spectacularly at his joke, but Steve looks at her with no further hint of humor.

“Steve, I literally insult you every moment of every minute of every day. I would know that, it’s one of the reasons you’re so passionate like this.”, she manages to say that too without sounding like a joke- now he knows, can discern, that it is and it isn’t as well.

“You mean you’re back to making jokes about my cretaceous existence, because just a few days ago you were so uptight and serious. So opposite of your cheerful and sunny self, I was even getting worried.”, he teases her with a sideways smile. She rolls her eyes but doesn’t discuss it beyond a weak sketch of one herself.

“Even I know it’s somewhat in bad taste to mistreat a bedridden man, Steven. Gimme some credit.”, she speaks, but he quickly grimaces unconsciously.

“Since when? You took pictures and recorded videos while I was sedated!”, she laughs without holding back from his desperate/indignant tone. “In a serious legislation it would give you jail.”, Steve complains.

“But this is completely different! Come on, I couldn’t in my right mind see someone crying with Titanic 2 and not record it for posterity.”, she defends that with all her might.

“Doesn’t that qualify as abuse or something?”, he doesn’t entirely question.

“Probably, but then I bought you some sugar-free Jell-O and my conscience regenerated.”, she waves her hand in discollection.

“So much for not mistreating the bedridden man.”, he places fishing in Wanda’s things an open package of snacks.

“I guess I was too worried that you might have had some internal trauma that we hadn’t realized yet or something, but overall I was trying to keep myself distracted.”, she laughs picking up some of the food as well.

“What I wouldn’t give to see you dig yourself out from crying over my dying body.”, he jokes.

“Dream on, Boomer, but the very moment that was even ventured I’d get your little old grandpa heart pumping again anyway. No way you could abandon this boat and leave me to raise a child alone.”

“I’m touched.”, he shakes her braid in affront, but Nat isn’t bothered by so little.

“You’d better be anyway, because later on you’re going to be nice harnessed by dozens of cards she drew for you for Father’s day. Just wait until dinnertime and prepare the waterfalls.”, she speaks reminding him of the mountains of drawings Wanda made and pasted all over every possible surface in his hospital room, including his own face and torso.

“Okay, but how cute is it that you were genuinely nervous?”, he aggravates her again.

“Not at all, especially since I almost commit mass murder starting with Tony with that ridiculous idea of sending you on such a mission right away, doomed to disaster.”, Nat lets a bit of genuine rage seep through amidst the joke.

“Ouch.”

“You understood what I meant.”, she saves words, but looks at him intently. He is silenced momentarily.

“I really am sorry.”, Nat didn’t look away earlier and can visualize the natural change in his tone even slightly. “I knew something wasn’t right and I went anyway, regardless of what Tony had assured or said. I should have listened to my intuition.”

“You really better from here on out, Rogers. Because the next time you don’t come home to Wanda I’m going to hunt you all the way to hell and revive you myself just so I can kill you again with my bare hands.”, he smiles brightly at her slightly, genuinely, threatening voice. It was okay, they knew what they were talking about, and she apparently wasn’t comfortable opening the subject this early-so seriously.

“I love how much you love me, Nat. It’s refreshing, you have a way with words.”, he looks at her with unveiled tenderness.

“What can I say, it’s a gift that I have.”, she crosses her legs and winks at him.

“That and the endearing personality.”, he doesn’t miss the opportunity.

“Obviously.”, she doesn’t let it get her down. “Also because you’ll never repeat this in front of Laura, but more and more you’ve been proving to be my new kind of ride or die bitch. So I am especially attached to you, more so every day, as you would say.”, she pushes one of her knees against his. The arm he has wrapped around her shoulders since they posted themselves there is already unnecessary topic and act of second nature to both of them.

“But I always was, you know that right?”, he says in a nonchalant tone, even though she is now resting her head on his shoulder calmly.

“My bitch?”, she nudges him at the waist and snorts at his unrestrained jump.

“That too.”, he tries to restrain the hand with which she attacks him. The two still laugh alone without a care if they might attract more stares, by some miracle they didn’t even now.

“What do you think about us picking up Morticia and walking to the flower field in time for sunset?”, she starts to untangle herself, one hand already pulling her from him to stand up.

“I think it’s great.”, he however still plays with her fingers as he procrastinates rising from his seat. His eyes scan the scene once more and park themselves now on a small commotion further away. “And given that she apparently just tried to drown someone in a sand castle, presumably essential.”, the weird/romantic aura immediately bursts forth with the two of them rushing to contain their offspring’s fury before she, not so beautifully, departs for slightly more scarlet resources.

Chapter 17: Yрожай

Chapter Text

Their daily dynamics were still settling down after Steve’s return when they both learned of the inevitable presence they would need to make later in the week, there would be a press conference in Albany – who knows why there. Tony would also accompany them, as would Bruce.

There was, of course, one more reason above the most obvious for them to dread during that week of possible meetings with Ross’ people and everyone else, the main subject of the agenda would begin and end with what happened in Sokovia. All the public eye would be especially focused on them during those few days and it would be all too easy for Wanda to be exposed one way or another, Stark very condignly suggested that they could take advantage of the move to draw the tabloids into that very exciting scandal and thereby both securing her story as a hidden baby under lock and key and drawing the attention of the general populace away from the deals that would follow.

Steve, as expected, was decidedly against it. Natasha not so much.

To be fair, both were only defending what they thought was best at the moment, most effective. And perhaps it was already the fervor and anxiety of the day before, but tempers flared easily when they found themselves alone to discuss the proposal.

“Absolutely not.”, he turned his face away to face her focused and serious gaze, without deviating his trajectory. “We’re not going to do that, Nat. We’re not going to expose her for nothing and still during Ross’ commission. No way.”, he exuded tension, and she knew that very well precisely because of how long that discussion had been going on between them. Natasha closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to vaguely remember how many minutes they had been in that stalemate.

“For the last time, Steve. This is inevitable, we’re going to have to go through this at some point, we’ve talked about it a million times. If not today it’s tomorrow! Don’t you see that this is our chance to control it?”, she paced impatiently across the small space between his bed and the lounge chair. “And I’m just repeating myself to you, last time you even half agreed with me.”, she puts in practically throwing her hands up in frustration.

He gives a dry laugh before retorting once again.

“This is precisely the point of this conversation, the other time you only almost convinced me into allowing a public letter to be issued when she needs to attend school, which I even question again now as well.”, he grunts a cheeky reply at him with an air of golden displeasure.

“What the hell, Steve? We already talked about this, the girl needs to go to school!”, she controlled herself at the last moment so as not to scream in his face once again. Sometimes that stubborn stalling mule of his drove her completely insane.

“You mean by we in you spoke and I agreed quietly, don’t you? Because it seems to me here that my opinion is worth next to nothing when you are determined to stand up for what you think is good for her. So obviously I’m always the one who has to listen and embark on whatever decision you make!”, he gestured angrily to the empty space in the room. His red face left her silent for mere seconds before she filtered out what he was trying to say.

“Really? You’re throwing that at me at a time like this?”, this time it was she who chuckled in disbelief, even though she was far more hurt than offended. “Let’s make one thing very clear here, pal. I’m not going to become the villain of the story just because you want to put me in that position.”

“I want to put you in that position? Do I, Natasha? Then how about from here on out you listen to what I have to say before you come and discredit my wishes for our child?”, he lowered his tone of voice with bitterness as she approached with narrowed eyes and closed fists close to her body. Nat sneered in disbelief before taking another step forward, her whole being pointing to wanting to choke him at that very moment.

“You insufferable bas-”.

The almost inaudible but welcome creak of the door opening at their backs interrupted her in the act of cursing him to the fourth generation.

“I hate to interrupt the chatting of love, but Laura is here.”, Bucky, bless his soul, left almost immediately after delivering his message.

He even tried to finish the matter, justice be done. However, as soon as Barnes disappeared down the hall it wasn’t long before she shut down completely, shoulders turning without hesitation toward her own room and luggage.

Laura had actually offered, the children were curious and the summer vacations coincided perfectly. Natasha didn’t verbalize her relief at leaving the kid in her friend’s capable and experienced hands, but she didn’t even have to. Mrs. Barton was thoughtful enough to know that that first moment of complete parental separation would be much easier if Wanda was inserted into her own routine and not on the other side of the country. This time they had the opportunity to sit down and execute as calmly as possible the farewell at hand, the girl listened to them in silence, nodding here and there and asking one thing or another. In the end, she just took her eyes off them and pulled Brown and a plate of waffles closer to the TV in complete silence.

They traveled bickering.

To be fair it wasn’t like they were tantruming children, one sitting on each side of the aircraft, arms crossed and faces impassive.

But it was enough for Bruce and Tony’s especially pointed observation to note that they avoided interacting with each other beyond what was necessary, seated in customarily parallel rows on the plane. Steve seemed to be preparing in advance for the public appearance of the turn, his face a mask of seriousness rarely seen for a long time since the arrival of the little gremlin, not to mention the air of detachment and empty aura that Natasha so readily seemed to acquire as they disembarked, one of the newest Stark gadgets in hand showing that she keep busy with something consonant with the upcoming meeting.

They stood in the same hallway of the hotel, Banner entering and quickly locking his own door while Stark, after apologizing not so sincerely for supposedly putting them in the same room, gave them one last mischievous smile and withdrew from their sight before Nat found a way to smother him with his own socks.

The space was not small, although not nearly as large or comfortable as their personal rooms at the Compound. He allowed himself only a few seconds of indecision between going down to the reception desk, notoriously crowded with journalists lurking outside, to get another key. The team had landed on the building’s helipad for a reason.

She on the other hand, did not hesitate before declaring first pass to the only available restroom, they had less than an hour for refreshments and anything else before an initial press conference with some representatives of the energumen before the big fish actually got to them.

The truth is, they were not as mature as they looked on the outside, in fact they had no time or chance to waste with Ross and his herd of jackals lurking around before they settled the deals at once and got them out of the way so they could get on with any plans. Nor were they ungrateful to Tony or anyone else who was there primarily to cover the tracks of Wanda, who to all intents and purposes had never existed on European soil. The birth certificates weren’t interim forgeries, justice be told, they convinced themselves of that as they hurriedly decided on the name of the daughter they had just discovered they had in common. After all, she was theirs in blood and all the other things that mattered, that she had not been born in America on the registered day and time and by means of a quick but efficient C-section accompanied and to all intents and purposes recorded by her own father no one could attest, especially since that was the truth they would all assume from then on. Wanda was just a well-kept secret until no more.

Lucky would be if that was the only thing scratching their neurons as they went down less than forty-five minutes after jointly making a video call to Laura.

It had been advice not only from Tony or Pepper, much less only from Laura or Clint. They both knew it would be what was necessary and were at the time of the superficial planning even minimally relieved that they could do it. What it now boiled down to was a rather mean-spirited prank between the other members present-or only for Stark since poor Bruce couldn’t sustain heavy tension between the two of them for half a minute before heading for the nearest exit.

Right after she finished grooming, Steve motioned for her to approach him. If she found the velvety black box he had readily in hand strange, Natasha didn’t let it cross her passive face. He deposited it at once in the palm of hers, in silence.

“Tony’s idea?”, she murmured somewhat distractedly in his general direction. As she distanced herself and opened the small object.

“Tony’s idea.”, he replied in a tired sigh from across the room. She busy enough to examine interestedly the delicate silver piece in front of her.

Already in the elevator with the others and with the peculiar thing firmly set on the ring finger of her left hand, Nat continued to look at it in color and detail as they went over the planned itinerary. Its band thickened as It reached around the square-cut diamond, flowery branches went round of what she assumed were two tiny rectangular sapphires spiraled out from the center to each side of the stone, underscoring its delicacy. The not-so-pulgent sparkle denoted its age; didn’t look like Tiffany’s.

“... Steve not to show any animosity and for f*ck sake try not to overdo it, Natasha ", Tony lastly advised his friends who were respectively the worst and the best poker face he had ever met.

Although the trip was sudden, the occasion of the two of them together facing the public was not. They had a plan.

One so ingeniously naive and cliché that it was genius for its own idiocy.

They needed to pretend to date in front of the cameras. Or rather, from the unobtrusive left position of the ring Stark had made them exchange, married.

Maybe that wasn't the term, as Tony said as he preponderated that although their relationship was awkward and confusing the last thing they needed to do was pretend.

Well, that was a few hours ago. What they had now was a plan B hastily drawn up to plug the hole in Wanda’s revelation, which would not happen now.

When they hadn't materialized ugly words or resentment towards each other.

Now they needed to at least pretend to be on good terms with the other.

"Act as if we were in Little Red’s presence. No whispering, no grumbling, and absolutely no rolling your eyes at any stupidity said or done.", he directed his gaze intentionally at her after finishing the last thing he babbled in between as they walked towards the reserved area with a small portion of civilians and reporters. Everything had been meticulously laid out and planned even if at the last minute, from their ambitiously carefree clothing to their body language, which was honestly the most essential of all requirements for good acting.

Tony let them walk side by side at a believable distance, further behind Bruce and himself. As they took on their personas again and temporarily they little considered how much of themselves they would need to give away in that first appearance after their lives had taken consecutive somersaults toward a destiny with no turning back and no regrets.

First of all, they wanted to be discreet. It would have to be the kind of nonsense that the tabloids would focus on enough for days on end, which would convincingly set the stage for Wanda and still provide a precious distraction, which they desperately needed, from the whole Slovakia situation. Leave it to much future laughter to the irony that the latter was the technical trigger for the current feud between the two.

Steve naturally pulled the chair to Tony's right for Natasha, which was nothing new given that he had always possessed such irritatingly cavalier acts around her since the two had first met. What was new was precisely in the fact that he had not continued on his way to the other side of the businessman, but had instead taken a seat on Nat's own right, leaving the other seat previously reserved for them to Bruce, who had purposely lingered a bit longer outside the small raised stage. A few people were still passing through the entrance at the back of the room, past the discreet barrier of security guards. The flashes, however, no longer had any pause.

In unpremeditated synchronicity, he discreetly pulled his seat closer to hers as she turned toward him to flash him a weak encouraging smile. They were both fearful of everything that would entail from then on, there was no point in pretending.

It was shamefully uncomplicated to do so as well.

Too much even.

Questions floated here and there, some directed at them. Few really serious ones, like the ones Ross' team had to answer with little help from the four of them there, not to mention their tiny gestures that caught the unmeasured attention of several heads, among newspapers and curious people fortunate enough to get privileged entry. What it truly boiled down to was a few casual guests or even names known to Stark.

One time it had even been a genuine reaction, when Laura had sent her friend's cell phone a picture of Lila and Wanda in the pool with Sam and Bucky, each girl leaning on an adult's shoulder, a volleyball being tossed between them while Nate and Cooper floated oblivious to the rest.

To this Steve had given a hearty smile and a low but heartfelt laugh when he saw the next picture, in which the flying object crashed into the unprotected face of one of his best friends. He had rushed closer to her, almost over her shoulder, while the two of them were clearly smiling silly together to the phone hidden below the line of the table and the microphones.

Absolutely on point! Those would be Tony's words as he almost blew kisses on both their mouths after celebrating, just as your most enthusiastic high school drama teacher.

And of course, the grand finale that could not be missed...

An inconspicuous boy directly from the second row of recorders and cameras stood up to speak.

"Mr. Rogers and Miss Romanov, just one more question if I may be so bold.”, the young man, actually a member of the media outlet to which their advisory team had agreed to 'leak' information about the alleged affair, pretended to ruminate the questioning for a few seconds to himself before throwing out the line that would undoubtedly go out as the lead story to them the very next day. "It’s just that I couldn't help but notice, as have some of my colleagues here, that there seems to be a certain change of dynamic between you two recently. If my sources are correct you are indeed in a romantic invol-".

"Excuse me, but neither I nor anyone from my team came here to discuss personal matters.", Tony spectacularly cuts in on his cue to add even more fuel to the fire.

The hubbub is practically uncontrollable for the few seconds of the rest of the press conference, and soon they are being led to a more intimate room where a sort of co*cktail party is being served to select groups from the previous room, among them the member of the magazine who had just managed to unscrew the line for the scoop that would follow.

The space was also slightly informal with people approaching from time to time to greet them off the record, even though cameras were technically banned and the interviews closed, a few well-positioned cell phones were fighting for discreet angles that were clear enough to capture the following scenes even from a distance. Nat could imagine in the week's tabloids, the slightly grainy or shaky but clear images, Steve with one hand lightly resting on her lower back as the two of them talked to Bruce. Surely there would be one of the moment when he couldn't hear her well, leaning in still touching her, Steve brought his ear close to her mouth so that she whispered something about Tony's excitement watching them from the other corner bordering on bizarre voyerism. He laughs again.

And no doubt, the big guest of the occasion and future gossips was the ring-shaped beacon positioned next to her mimosa.

They knew that the media would be all over them both now.

Even though their outings with Wanda were running more paparazzi risk they were doing it for her. For them.

It was therefore unquestionable, the intention and the ultimate goal. It was also the reason why the two of them were feeling more and more remorseful for the fight and reasons as the day went by in boring conversations and strenuous company. They would much rather be in a bathtub full of hastily soaked stuffed animals or cleaning up gouache prints in the hallway.

After four in the afternoon and as Tony congratulated them in enthusiasm bordering on the lunatic side, there was good news and bad news.

If on the one hand they had been successful enough to satisfy any and all plans they had in mind to feed the reports, on the other one Ross was looking for one more small concession to sign documents and get off their backs forever and officially on that topic.

Result? The trip was cut in half, but there was no time for anyone to celebrate, as they would now have to fly to a ball at a castle in some godforsaken place north of Turku. Bruce continued to munch on some cheese sticks while they were being dispatched for yet another flight.

By the time the boys took their time to emerge in their tuxedos into the small lobby of the new place, Natasha was already waiting for them leaning against the glass doors of the private balcony, a jade green dress that fell fluidly across her figure, both hands free of jewelry, except that she did carry small golden drops to her ears and a thin chain of the same color that featured in one of its turns the same design and that in its other extended down her neckline. What she did have was even a wig, albeit a very convincing one. Cascades of mahogany-colored hair fell in waves across her shoulders and matched the coloring of her recently darkened eyebrows.

The excuse that she had the most recognizable face among them outside of Stark was put as usual, although Tony’s blonded wig and lenses were hilarious, Bruce didn’t shy away from wearing an equally convincing one in an almost entirely gray tone next to heavy facial prosthetics, much less Steve from putting on a particularly attractive set of beard implants in his natural dark gold tone- to which all three of the others would later admit: looked darn well good on him.

There they were on a quick reconnaissance mission, which they all knew would probably end in more than that. Largely because Ross needed them undercover with the other agents sent in. Something to do with an especially slippery arms dealer he had been pursuing for some time.

There were infiltrators at the billionaires’ ball/auction/bacchanal of the rich by the mountains. People from their side were passing by with trays full of flutes and canapés.

But their disguises were if not impossible extremely funny.

Nat and Bruce entered first, he leaning on a cane with a tiger head made of gold, decadent screaming on every visible aspect. Paloma Wollinger and her not entirely senile father, Gilbert.

On the other side of the entrance hall and only a few minutes late entered the figure of Louis Porter and his younger brother Henry. It was enough that they had to fake a British accent all night, it fit the situation well that Steve had only realized what Tony had done to his ‘character’s’ name when done that Bruce and Nat, from the height of their annoyance at having to fake a German accent above all else, took advantage of with quiet laughter as they heard him complain in angry mutterings through the ear pieces to yet another stupid reference from fantasy books.

They were looking for someone called ‘Longshot’. Absurdly ridiculous codename, of course, but it was a bit out of their jurisdiction to discuss the cheesiness of thugs these days.

Everything had started as usual, slowly.

“Jeez, these eggplant thingys really are a nightmare, heh pops?”, Stark joked meters ahead as Bruce feigned a slight gagg, taking Natasha’s drink in a raucous voice convincing enough to scare off an especially clingy gentleman from whom they were trying to get some initial information, signal for the other two? He not-so-accidentally knocked the rest of the champagne onto the target’s robes.

“Oh, my goodness! What a mess you’ve made, Papa!”, Natasha wanted to stick pins in her our own eyes as she heard the forcefully sweet scratching that came out of her vocal cords. The drooling old fool fell like a duck for the pretty girl’s help, even offering to take him to help with that soaked shirt.

As she walked away, Tony and Steve were busy paying attention to who was approaching Bruce and who was following Natasha and her lure with their gaze. They knew well what they were looking for now.

About two minutes later she faced the pile of soft limbs propped up against the wall of the private men’s bathroom, with only one stall and toilet. Approaching the scene, Steve cared less than nothing about the physical condition of the fallen old man.

Leaning on the sink, she didn’t even take her eyes off the small chip in the palm of her hand, away from the unconscious but breathing body.

There wasn’t a hair out of place on her head, and Steve would know this very well, for the first thing he noticed when he entered was her naturally red hair pinned up at the nape of her neck.

She lifted her face to his slightly raised eyebrow.

“It was scratching.”, she mocks still in an exaggerated accent. He snorts in response.

“Is this really the microchip?”, he asks incredulously. Equally taking out his hairy additive.

“All readings indicate a yes.”, she reposts to him, one of her features resting thoughtfully under her chin as if trying to think very hard about something. “You know that beard kind of wasn’t a bad choice on you.”, he looks at her minimally surprised.

“I’m just saying.”, she rests her heel on the toilet to reach for the first weapon. By the point that Friday had taken the second digital reading of the night through the contact lenses Tony had made them wear and which they now removed themselves before forgetting and wearing them the next time they went to the shower, Steve was also already preparing for the inevitable.

An explosion in the hallway interrupted them at the same time Tony’s alarmed voice sounded from the other side. The two of them retreated into a flight-and-fight environment. After pathetically easy catching one of their partners, the boss seemed not only to have noticed, but also to have set off in retaliation. What they now possessed would probably serve as proof, if the recording of all those faces was not already enough.

Immediately upon being noticed, now stripped of the few disguises that concealed them and more than lively on the offensive, they were forced to separate for a few moments. Nat without any patience took down a trio that was advancing in their line, shots without even hesitating that were indiscriminately distributed to advancing men and women. Steve soon reappeared in her line of vision after throwing another guy over the bar to the far right of where a large frowning man was still squirming from one of her widow’s bites.

Another bang came deafeningly along with a tremor that knocked both Steve and whoever else was around the staircase that had just been completely depredated by Dr. Banner’s giant, greenish hands. The Hulk’s roar helped scare a good portion more fighters out of the collapsed atrium. The rest of the castle seemed to shake with the same blindingly chaotic energy.

Tony had been gone for some time, armor flying off to where he claimed to concentrate some sort of safe space for the rest of the escapees, at least those who hadn’t run towards the side yard. That was before figures appeared with weapons that resembled monstrosities of machine guns, noisily firing everywhere possible.

“We have to take the main exit.”, Natasha spoke soberly after throwing a bottle of vodka next to a flaming piece of her dress, which had caught fire God only knows how.

The howls of pain, from multiple voices from across the room, following the sound of shrapnel and the puffing of flames were enough to understand that she had hit the nail on the head.

“Our best chance is through the side of the hanging garden.”, he shot her gun before ducking back behind the bar.

She frowned in confusion.

“We didn’t bring anything to slow the fall, Steve.”, she sounds as if she is trying to remember if they really hadn’t.

“Exactly.”, he speaks just before pushing her away from whatever it was that someone threw at them and which consequently destroyed all the bottles and glass artifacts in the surroundings, shards sticking and sinking consecutively into their exposed skins. It had been a silly but essential miscalculation on their part, everything indicated that the ceremony would be on the first floor – as if the lightning mission they had accomplished was not enough.

The only remaining chandelier hung dangerously low, and all the lights flickered after the first one lay over more than one fallen body, and they didn’t blink to rush with purpose to the open side straight to the cliff that extended beyond the confines of the lower courtyard. Bruce had been kind enough to offer them a more than good distraction by placing himself right in the middle of the hall, throwing tables and benches and people who got in his way.

They slipped under one of his upraised arms as he intercepted one of the pursuers who was last trying to get close to Natasha’s moving head, grabbing the man by the torso like a rag doll and totally ignoring the blurry vision that was denominating itself in his two friends. The greenish creature ruminated something as it lagged behind.

For the next few moments all that was there was Steve clutching her hand in an unstoppable trajectory toward the dense forest that stretched past the cliff just over twenty feet high, and the two of them rolled down the cliff with the help of his shield that was still ricocheting bullets coming from all possible sides.

Once on the ground, they barely had time to get to their feet before they were being followed with comrades at their heels.

Getting around the tall, sparsely spaced trees became more of a challenge amidst the total pitch and the hissing of projectiles coming from the rear, their communicators had already become obsolete a few minutes ago with all of Bruce’s roaring. In the background Tony was blaring out directions to his A.I, and they were trying to get as far away as possible without leaving the agreed route.

They went around the side of a stream previously seen on the map they had studied very quickly on the way there, they knew then that they had to go straight ahead to where they would find, very conveniently to be the entrance to the luxurious underground garage of the owner of a private estate.

They jumped into a brand new MC20, Natasha stepping hard on the accelerator as they needed to blend into whatever highway was nearest as quickly as possible. It was over one o’clock in the morning when they reached a covered tunnel, where they abandoned the car and rushed into yet another region of closed vegetation.

The next vehicle they took was more than thirty minutes away from the first one, although they did not need to be so careful to get mixed up with a Hyundai Creta hijacked directly from a suspicious parking lot at the foot of a roadside motel. They drove leisurely to the city limits, Tony had been outdoing himself more and more, now making them park near a marina, where two large jet-skis awaited them. After leaving the car in a place easily accessible to the original owners, they set off in only one, knowing that the other pair had optionally stayed behind but should be there at any given moment.

Only the glare of the moon and the squirts of water as a third wheel. It was only a few minutes to an islet far enough away that, frankly, Tony’s ridiculously exaggerated measurements sometimes gave them the creeps.

The enclosed hut was hidden in a rock slope, blending in with leaves and overgrown branches that together concealed basically the entire entrance to the hiding place. The digits passed to them for the lock that according to Tony had been installed by his father, was old enough to barely work.

When they finally managed to enter the practically impenetrable place, it was with shortness of breath and tired legs. Steve activated the locks while Nat leaned on a strange covered fireplace.

“Mission Impossible much?”, Steve needs to control himself not to simply throw himself on the strange leather couch next to the nearest wall. She mumbles something in response, kind of unintelligible.

“If I didn’t know the weirdo, I’d say he set this whole thing up.”, Nat almost, and that’s the right word, managed to laugh at herself at the moment. Steve coughs as some kind of white dust falls from his hair straight into his eyes and mouth.

“f*ck him and all his crazyness.”, he laughs, absolutely exhausted, still crossing his arms and refusing to catch up on sleep before the others arrive.

“I think we’ve lost a bit of stamina in our old age, Cap.”, she takes a few steps closer. Throwing the heels she miraculously still had on her with enough force and hatred to stab them into the nearest wooden material.

“Speak for yourself, young lady. I could do this all day.”, he speaks even as he rests the top of his head on the wall and rushes his body forward suggestively.

She chokes momentarily with an arrested giggle, just because he looks so cute and so silly dressed there with that hair totally white from the plaster or whatever had fallen on them earlier, the white tuxedo shirt now dirty with so many different things and colors that it was hard to tell them apart. He had dropped his weapons on the coffee table just as she had, the homely surroundings totally alien to their tattered clothes, cuts and bruises rendering to break even more in a few hours.

“So you say.”, she pushes, just loosening the laces of her dress for good measure.

“Want to bet to see?”, more joking than nothing, but still flashing her na equally exhausted and suggestive smile.

She couldn’t tell what or why, but something just clicked in the blink of na eye. He’d also already realized that they were too exhausted to keep up their little game at the moment.

It was silly really.

“Yeah. Show me.”, she took a few more steps towards him. Steve ducked his head minimally in confusion, completely surprised that he really was correct for a pause.

There were seconds of elapsed time in which he thought he had heard wrong and in which she thought she had said it awkwardly, but all that was behind them in less time.

Though no less time than it took for Steve to actually convince himself that it was happening, or no less for both of them to move towards the other at the same time, and most definitely no less time than it took for what was left of their robes to be thrown into any corner far enough away to make room for their sniveling and sweaty and dirty and beaten bodies. Adrenaline burning the last neurons and also the few shared inhibitions, if there really were any between them.

They fell into a jumble of legs and arms and groans over that millennial couch, giggles escaping involuntarily as they knocked over one or two hideous hunting pieces that had previously adorned their immediate space. A feat more than promptly forgotten moments later as he teased her with a trail of torturously slow kisses from her knee to her thigh. A spontaneous exclamation and repeated barking left her as soon as he finally touched the tip of his tongue to her bundle of nerves, capturing in the first long lick all the wetness she had involuntarily built up since the moment she had seen him in that stupid tux and ridiculously sexy beard. She tried to reach for him in the steeper position, but it was becoming difficult. He was going easy enough to drive her crazy.

She grunted as he pulled away once more. Surely this was some kind of revenge on his part, her mind trying to keep up with it all too fast, she could see and feel his reaction too as It touches her while Steve concentrates on getting all the exposed skin of her neck next.

In the end, or beginning, he seemed set to swallow her whole, even though she had to have him in her absolute, unrepressed urgency; pure unresolved need during weeks, years for him and for her.

When she could finally let him bury himself in her, they almost immediately peaked at once. For him the first time that night, for her already the second.

For that let himself lean against her chest as he felt his lungs empty into glee and stunned fullness, the longing that slowly seemed to give way within them.

Tony would probably be (not very) elated to know that for at least the next hour or so they didn’t spare even one surface of his father’s hermitage.

Chapter 18: Thíos Faoi

Chapter Text

The dark, high ceiling of the room was the first thing she could see clearly after she finally managed to open her eyes that were heavy and painful, beside her Wanda could feel the sleeping presence of Lila who was slipping in from the open light of the bathroom. A bitter taste inside her mouth made her swallow dryly, the grimace followed by an uncomfortable scrape in her throat that now seemed to be burning flames made her try to get out from under the covers for the first time. However, her body felt heavier than ever, and she soon fell back to sleep.

The next time the dim light met her retinas, however, it was in a mix of noises and sensations that barely allowed her to react in any other way than the following: turning to the edge of the mattress, the girl noisily threw up right onto the fluffy carpet that surrounded her mother’s entire bed. With a sobbing cry a startled groan at the not at all pleasant experience she managed to retreat to the headboard and there curl up again, she felt the mattress move, but the confused and sleepy voice of the Bartons’ daughter was already sounding longingly as she managed to close her eyes once more.

Adult voices blended not long after, and although she found herself in such a shallow stage of sleep, Wanda couldn’t at first discern precisely whose arms had lifted her from the dirty bed or even the soft voice that soothed her when she once again had to open her mouth to let the contents of her already sore stomach out.

Only when someone wiped her face with a damp cloth was she able, even with the strongest light behind her eyelids making it practically impossible, to open her eyes even slightly. The blurred vision allowed her to discern, even then, the bathroom sink and the now corrupted water spiraling down, as well as the erroneous shade of brown in the hair of the woman supporting her on her lap, not Natasha.

A sudden gasp erupted from her weary chest and she collapsed crying with abandon.

It was not with a lessened heart that Laura helped the child bathe as Wanda continued to whimper for her mother and occasionally father, loud sobs shook her small body and made her shiver even under the slightly warm water. Her clothes were soiled with vomit and sweat, as was the hair that Laura herself had braided the night before and that now had bits of digested food here and there.

Clint had tried to contact them all through the early hours of the morning without much success, and while Tony was able to reach him early in the morning, Wanda had already managed the feat of blowing out three light bulbs in succession as her feverish body tried to control the reddish tendrils coming out of her trembling fingers. Aunt Laura was nursing her in the hospital ward under a thick blanket when Bruce inevitably approached with the syringe for the blood draw, her shrill screams heartbroken everyone present as the poor girl said disconnected things and cried louder and louder, her watery eyes staring at the door every moment in search of two figures absent at the moment. For a few moments it seemed that the stress alone would be enough to make her completely lose control, she cried hurtfully and stared at the adults resentfully.

The other children stayed away during all the commotion, and even with Lila’s insistence that she needed to stay by her younger cousin’s side, everyone had agreed that the fewer people around Wanda the better to decrease the little one's anxiety levels. Bucky and Sam came and went from inside the room every half hour, only going as far as the threshold would allow to make sure her condition remained stable and trying not to let on how much the sickly sight of the child distressed them to the point where they couldn’t even go back to sleep. Shortly after the bath she had shown a slight improvement, but then this was dismissed when in addition to more vomiting the condition had worsened to a continuous diarrhea. Not having much to do at the moment and caring above all for Wanda’s comfort, Laura had cleverly put one of Nate’s diapers on the girl, which although not the right size fit her very well. Pepper, mediator of the whole situation, had called more than three times in the last two hours to inquire about updates, she was in London on business and was incessantly regretting not being able to be by their side in her parents’ absence.

It was high morning by the time the ramp of the aircraft stretched once again over the wide space of the Compound.

The hospital room was half-lit with only a few gaps open from the nearest shutter, and a small bundle wrapped in a purple blanket on the adult bed immediately distracted them from the sight of Laura rising from the attendant chair.

Natasha was immediately the first to approach the diminutive sleeper, her hand hesitantly reaching out to meet the fat little arm with IV access. Steve thought it best to give her some immediate space, especially since she had practically jumped out of the plane before it even touched the ground. Her face a true mask of undisguised concern since Tony had managed to contact them to pass on the information about Wanda’s condition.

“She’s fine, at least for now. Bruce said it could be a bacteria, probably food poisoning. I’m so sorry, guys.”, speaks in a mostly calm and in no way defensive voice. “I swear she looked so good when I put the girls to bed.”, her tone is whispered, but heartfelt.

“Kids get sick, Lau. It’s okay.”, Steve says, while not taking his eyes off Wanda’s pale face. The two of them posture themselves one at each side of her bedside.

“If anything, you were the best person to be here at a time like this, really. Thank you so much, Lau.”, Natasha deflects from her daughter enough to rest her hand on her friend’s arm. To whom she had entrusted Wanda justly expecting, being afraid, of a situation like this.

A weak smile is all she responds as Wanda stirs somewhat uneasily at their side.

“The thermometer is in the next drawer and I left some extra diapers in the bathroom, I’ll go see what the kids are up to in the bedroom, but call me if you need absolutely anything, okay?”, she squeezes Nat’s hand lightly before heading for the door accompanied by Steve.

“Oh, one more thing I almost forgot. She ate over seven hours ago and is refusing to drink water because of a sore throat, but you must still insist because she is losing a lot of fluid and at the moment the goal is to keep her hydrated. Even if she whimpers and cries, at this rate she will soon be accepting something more solid. Got it?”, she speaks stormily as she passes through the doorway.

“Noted, boss. And thanks again, I don’t know what we mortals would do without your grown up supervision.”, Steve smiles with sincerity and relief to a certain degree. Upon learning of Wanda’s situation the only thing that kept them from completely panicking about being more than hours away during their kid's first health crisis was that the woman was there to, no doubt, react to everything a thousand times more efficiently than they, first-time parents, would.

“Why, what kind of godmother would I be if I left my only goddaughter in the hands of someone as mindless as Bucky. Frankly, Rogers.”, she rolls her eyes with a complicit smirk before walking off down the hall.

Steve watches her curiously until she disappears around a bend at the exit to the elevators.

“Okay, did I hit my head too hard and forget some detail or did you genuinely call the Bartons for godparents behind my back?”, he shuts the door with no noise and ignores being shushed by Natasha, even though he is whispering as much as possible.

“It’s not like I said anything exactly, you know Laura. She practically invited herself into the position.”, Natasha replies as she silently moves the armchair closer to the bed.

“I thought we weren’t going to have any religious ceremony.”, he replied confused as he leaned close to the couch directly placed on the other side of the room.

“And we’re not.”, she retorted at the same second. The question was fitting and without much importance, but even so they still permeated together an edge of irritation after their most recent fight. Not to mention reconciliation.

“Right, so it’s only fair that Bucky takes the honorary position as well being that way.”, he brow furrows her.

“Huh?”, she frowns minimally confused.

“One on your side and one on my side of the family, isn’t that how it works?”, he moves closer until he sits on the edge of the mattress which Wanda can’t even reach with her childish stature.

“And why not Sam? In fact, why not any other mentally healthy person while we’re at it?”, she jokes, only half-heartedly.

“You know on the one hand I find it incredibly hopeful not to say innocent of you to think that I know anyone who isn’t completely f*cked in the head and secondly, Sam is an adult and will handle this in a way, I sincerely hope, more mature than the person who went without speaking to me for a month when he found out I went to see Disney on Ice without him.

“And that’s the kind of person you want taking care of our daughter in case something happens to us?”, she huffs in silent laughter. “You don’t seem to have calculated that right, mate,”. She smiles debauchedly, “And Language, before I forget.”.

He ignores her before continuing his line of thought.

“That’s the thing, Laura balances Bucky’s idiocy almost completely with a sense of responsibility, parental experience, and of course basically being a normal person.”

She pretends to think about it.

“Yeah, I don’t know. I feel like we’re missing the potential chance to stay Bucky-free for at least until Christmas.”, Natasha ponders.

“Oh, Natasha. How sweet of you to think just for a moment that it’s that easy. But believe me, the time without him is nowhere near worth it once he starts his stalking you phase until you give him what he wants, or kill him, or go completely insane.”, he says reassuringly.

“So you took him to Disney on Ice after all.”, she assesses to herself.

“Let’s just say I was one step away from mechanical asphyxiation and leave it at that.”, he says nonchalantly and she almost sketches a weak smile.

“Mommy.”, a low whimper interrupts them as the thick sheet is pushed aside by an impatient hand. Wanda, lying on her side, blinks incessantly against the face closest to her. “Hi, baby.”, the little girl tries unsuccessfully to sit up at that.

What follows is not only the premeditated weary cry, but also a strange tension after the feeble attempt to lighten the mood between the two dissolves in the face of the real situation. Wanda complains until Nat places her on her lap back in the armchair, all the care in the world in handling her IV that the child obviously protests as she sinks as far as possible into her mother’s arms and remains curled up there like a marsupial puppy.

The slight jealousy that hits him is not even remotely matched by the clear relief after taking the girl’s clearly lower temperature, and if it weren’t for the simple fact that this was physically impossible for him, Steve would even consider the possibility of leaving them alone in their magic space. That is, until Wanda, half-eyed and half her face hidden by Natasha’s hair turned intently to him and promptly requested that “Daddy get Brown.”, since no one had thought about her stuffed animal and, as they knew, she trusted almost no one with the carrying of her precious pet.

“Bringing up some memories, right?”, Nat whispers to him after he returns with said giraffe in hand.

“Not just good ones, unfortunately.”, he replies running his fingers through Wanda’s hair, who is sufferingly sipping a glass of water as he crosses the door. The déjà vu is almost impossible to size up when in relation to how they had met her.

Wanda’s changes from the first hospitalization were even more evident, now within a more acceptable weight range for a child of her age group, the girl was visibly more relaxed in the hospital environment and accompanied by both her parents. There was also the advantage that it wasn’t exactly an emergency admission like the previous one, before they arrived there were no unknown doctors or people in lab coats overtaking her senses, just Bruce and Aunt Laura giving her antipyretics and trying to get her to eat.

She eventually went back to sleep some time after chewing on a protein bar without much enthusiasm, she kept trying to scratch the access to her arm and this eventually led to a small tantrum followed by angry screams when she asked them to remove it. After she fell asleep once more they didn't verbalize anything to each other again, not even indirectly. The guilt of leaving her home sick was softened, ironically, only by the fact that perhaps it was not purely emotional, as they had feared. Both Dr. Cho and Bruce himself had already warned them that she, at least for some time, would have natural tendencies toward low immunity, having grown up for an essential part of her childhood in probably sterile surroundings and without the necessary exposure to the outside world. All the vaccinations she had had in the first few weeks with them proved this.

Another reason why contact with Clint’s kids was so beneficial, in a way, Wanda needed that contact with other people, but especially children.

But of course, what happened on the mission hung over their heads as innocently as it did abruptly, they had been called into the real world the next morning. They returned home to the reality that awaited them, and both of them, without exception, now had a dilemma on their hands that was as classic as it was unsurprising.

Obviously soft-hearted people like Laura or hollow-headed people like Bucky would see everything as hearts and confetti, but it couldn’t be that way. Not everything was simple between them, in fact, absolutely nothing was when it came to them.

They were still trying to get used to the dynamics and the idea of being parents of a small child, the same one that is, not to mention that everything ended up being multiplied a zillion times worse with all the unintentional exposure of their private lives that, before all of this, highlighted them for the simple reason that they ended up being the team members with the least things to gossip about, passing themselves off as discreet.

Now add to that a night of wild sex in the middle of nowhere inside Tony’s dad’s tacky cabin with the fact that they need to co-parent the same human being for the rest of their lives and you have either a) the perfect recipe for the next Hallmark Christmas movie or b) a situation inherently more complicated than a shallow assessment that they would work out with each other.

Because yes, they had feelings for each other. If that wasn’t clear enough during years of friendship and repressed sexual tension, then it will be even more obvious now that they formed a slightly more conventional family than before. There were other things at stake, the main one being Wanda, it was all fun and games when they were together being inconsequential and having fun with it over and over again and of course, why not, parents are people too after all... At least when the person you are in the back and forth with is not the other parent of your child, then things naturally start to get complicated. She needs stability and not parents who are in a yo-yo relationship.

All of this ends up in the same inevitable place: communication. They immediately needed to work on this and it was no joke on how urgent. Natasha balanced Wanda’s numb body weighing down on only one of her arms, her left shoulder throbbing slightly after a violent and unpremeditated blow, she watched Steve out of the corner of her eye almost as if expecting to see him fake an exaggerated snore at last, she knew he was not asleep, even though he was sprawled on the couch with one arm over his eyes and his body turned toward the ceiling. He also had minor bruising that was more apparent at the elbow, nothing that a little alcohol and absorbent cotton wouldn’t fix.

Steve could hear the low murmur coming from her in the form of an indecipherable song, although the notes reminded him very much of Twinkle Twinkle little star. She didn’t even seem to realize she was doing it as she lulled Wanda into a restless sleep.

It was all right with him really, it may sound like a lie being the so-called dinosaur of the two, but not for a second did he allow himself to override Nat with all those expectations and visions that had been permeating his mind for so long that he couldn’t even say precisely when. Steve could not say exactly how long he had fallen in love with the spy, but he had. No matter now how, only the truth: he couldn’t imagine life without either of them for even a second, no matter what, even if it didn’t work out, even if someday she got tired of him, even if they fearfully had to legally share custody someday. Maybe, just maybe, it was all worth the try.

Bruce came into the room not long after with the results of the tests that showed what everyone had expected, that it was a common virus but most likely the first in her life. Wanda was reacting well and her own immune system should basically do the rest. The patient even smiled when her friend gave her a cherry lollipop as a certificate of bravery for the tests collected. Soon the IV had dried up and she was free to go back to her room, she refused little more than two or three spoonfuls of lunch and they didn’t insist any further when she started to gag at the smell.

The two had moved quietly around her since then, cleaned her up and let her tuck herself in well before taking turns equally showering. Steve didn’t even flinch at the fact that somehow there were his clothes inside Natasha's closet even though his own room was down the hall.

Natasha came out of the bathroom still wiping her damp hair when she came upon the scene of the two of them lying on her bed. Steve had his eyes half-closed to the television set on another episode of one of the thousands of cartoons the girl watched, while Wanda was more awake than ever, half of her body lying on his chest as she drank, however slowly, the apple juice from her sippy cup. Maybe she could ingest some soup later.

Watching them she gave a tired smile, they looked like twins, and everyone who knew the little girl ended up telling her something similar. Wanda might have her eyes and hair, but otherwise everything, absolutely everything, even her personality radiated Rogers. Okay, maybe the bizarreness and debauchery part the little girl inherited from her side of the family, justice be done.

It kind of made her jealous in the beginning, she must confess to herself. Now it was one of her favorite things to watch, the two of them just existing inside their bubble. Usually she tried her best not to think about what might have been earlier, it was still foreign to think that she had manufactured within herself that incredibly funny and weird and completely wonderful and perfect being that was their daughter. Sometimes she allowed herself to imagine what it might have been like to teach her to walk, to hear her first words and even her first cries. It is true that everything for Wanda, as for them, ended up being extremely new in one way or another. But for now she chose not to think too much about what could bring her even more guilt, even more pain.

Natasha approached the bed at a slow pace, the mattress sank with her weight, but neither of them diverted their attention from what they were watching, although Wanda, who was now absentmindedly fiddling with her father’s overgrown beard, moved closer to stand between the two of them on top of the comforter, her sock-colored feet brushing against her mother’s ribs as Nat lay on her side next to them and began running her fingers through her slightly wet hair. The hours seemed to pass unhurriedly when the three of them were together, and it wasn’t long before they were all passed out and completely exhausted. So the long, deservedly lazy day followed.

None of them awoke until about dinnertime when Wanda, already feeling considerably less terrible, opened her eyes to find herself caught in the middle of a loose embrace right in the center of the bed. The two of them had their faces turned toward her and were lying on their sides, Steve’s arm stretched across the two and rested nonchalantly on Natasha’s waist, while she had almost the entire length of hers wrapped around Wanda, who had her back glued close to her but who had her head level with the pillows, thus making the adults face each other in their sleep and not her.

The little girl enjoyed the unusual silence for a few more minutes, the covers were too soft and warm for her to dare to move even if she wasn’t trapped between them, and the feeling of security and belonging that even at such a young age exuded from her every pore made her not only momentarily forget her stomach rumbling greedily after hours of nausea. From her fingertips red algae sparks crawled up to the ceiling and gathered in shades of pinkish orange from the weak late day sun permeating the half-open curtains. On the white canvas above them, the girl played with familiar shapes and faces, imperceptibly drawing for herself always trios of animals or flowers or even single stars or bright squiggles. Nothing took long to fade, soon she was forming something else and something else and something else. She didn’t care about hunger, at least not at that very moment.

Chapter 19: Вырезано из заботы

Chapter Text

They land on the farm before the first rays of sunlight even touch the green soil around Clint and Laura’s land, the aircraft that dispatched them as swift as a winged shadow taking off as soon as they set foot on solid ground. The adults readily await them on the balcony, the pale blue tints of near-morning bathing them in the taciturn journey of not waking any of the children, be it the one who came wrapped in Rogers’ arms or the other three who snored unsuspectingly upstairs.

Spending the Fourth of July in Iowa had been a deal to be kept by Wanda’s parents, especially after, recovered from her illness, she had demanded to visit her cousins during what she now knew was their summer vacation. And what would they do but accept the opportunity to escape into the country air. Nat had not confessed, but Steve knew that after the scare with the girl she would feel a thousand times better about being together with Lau.

Clint, still with his eyes nailed shut and letting out a huge yawn as he whispered sympathetically to them, welcomed them offering coffee even though he was already seconds later on his way to his own bed after helping with the luggage. Steve started up the steps before turning mute to her.

“You can go ahead and rest, I’ll be down here with Lau if you guys need anything.”, Natasha rummages through her handbag and barely spots his head shrug in affirmation.

Without even asking she already knew her friend wouldn’t be able to fall asleep anymore, already entering the kitchen dressed in the extra layer of the oldest of her sweatshirts, she headed straight for the vacant space next to Mrs. Barton in the back. Outside, an orchestra of frogs and crickets accompanied them as they walked to the cow pen, and it was still dark enough to see more of the stars than the color of the sky, which was now a lighter shade of indigo blue.

Leaning against the icy wood, they remained for a few minutes in contemplative silence. Merely taking sips of what shortly before was the last bag of hot chocolate in the house that Laura, zealous mother that she was, had successfully managed to hide from her children. Unfortunately Clint had devoured all of her mini marshmallows; a new hiding place for these in the near future.

Unlike other visits they had little news in between, now with motherhood added in common Natasha called her, if not on video call, at least three times a week in search of advice or just someone she could cuss with above the five scale of bad words in peace without worrying about peeping young ears picking up the signal. Laura, of course, more than loved it.

Things were still mostly the same and the most exciting event of the last few sessions of unloaded conversation between them had been the discovery that Bruce, the deranged duck, was not only not a he, but a she who, like them, had her own brood to worry about now. Nat even laughed upon hearing from her that Clint would probably try to return the animal now added her minor headaches. Wanda, as expected, almost had a heart attack upon discovering that she was now a proud new grandmother of not two, not three, but six, equally insane, ducklings.

It is enough to emphasize that even from a distance and ignoring the fact that she was technically no longer official guardian of Mama Bruce, nor of the chicks, the girl baptized one by one regardless of who was who, they were: Sam, Pepper, Bucky, Tony, Patrick and Tommy. The first four were pretty self-explanatory, while the fifth, they supposed, probably came from Sponge Bob and the starfish that was apparently her favorite character. The last, however, was just a random name she had heard after she had watched a marathon of The Rugrats with Tony and found it particularly cute.

“So.”, she breathes. “Are you going to start by telling me what’s going on between you and your vintage beloved, or will I be obliged to be even more grafty than usual?”, Laura breaks off her thoughts about nothing after the drinks have already cooled in their mugs.

Nat noisily lets out the air and squirms over the fence.

“Yeah, I don’t really know. We kind of hit it off by not hitting things, if that makes sense to you,” she glances back at Laura, who blinks with a completely impassive face. “We’re going through a funny phase right now, with this fake marriage and stuff. It’s weird to describe, I don’t know if I can.”, she rests her chin on her outstretched arms.

“To be fair, you two are already pretty weird on your own.”, Laura gives a minimal smug smile. “Lead me through it, would ya.” she puts in defiantly aside the sketch of debauchery.

“First, there’s this tension between us.”

“Right. Old news, but of course. Tell me more, sweetie.”, Laura also positioned herself more comfortably as in one of the informal sessions next to Sam.

Natasha snorted soundlessly before trying to formulate the said words she so desperately wanted.

“That’s definitively not the tension I’m talking about, Lau.”, she straightened her spine and spread her legs apart on the freshly trimmed grass. “It’s like a farce that isn’t a burden, you know? I mean, I know we’re not married, he knows we’re not married, you all know, but it’s still weird.”, she realizes she failed to get the message across correctly, sort of, as she notices her friend’s frown.

“Maybe because you guys don’t have to do practically anything to reinforce what the whole world thinks they already know.”, she attributed more gently. “Sure, once in a while a kiss or a more suggestive look in front of the cameras helps sell the narrative and all, but honestly? That’s also not much more than you were doing as close friends since ever, jokingly or not.”, she speaks seriously. “Also, you should stop and evaluate the real possibility that this is just freaking you out right now specifically because of the exposure of the whole thing.”, Laura watches her carefully, internally she is jumping up and down uneasily as she notices Romanov’s thoughtful face. She has waited too long to deliver this, albeit loving, shock of reality. Not that she had hidden such an opinion to herself previously, of course.

“You know I love you with all my heart, Nat, you know that, but let’s be honest... You’re definitely not the most open person I know when it comes to relationships, let alone a person who allows herself to try to change that.”, she tries to calculate a way to flow from there. “You’ve evolved quite a bit since we met, but I think your problem with intimacy, especially with change could still use a great improvement.”, Laura controls herself to give an affectionate chuckle at the expression of fake outrage on Nat.

“Well, damn.”, she crosses her arms below her face. “Thanks, I guess.”.

“Oh, come on, you stalled mule. Everyone knows you love that blonde headed fossil and that he is completely obsessed with you.”, this time she allows herself to speak behind a quick laugh at the younger woman’s grimace. “Get real, just between you and me. I have no doubt that this whole absurdly unbelievable story of you two would be completely different if it wasn’t exactly you two in it.”, Laura attributes with a smirk.

“You mean?”, she demands, even though she knows more or less where her friend wants to tread.

“First of all, do you think you’d be in all this storm of teenage angst if, let’s say, the father of your surprise child were Bucky?”

“Ew, God forbid. Of course not, I would never sleep with him.”, not in a million years, not if she ingested the equivalent of a barrel of alcohol, not if the only other alternative was to live without sex for another eighty years of her life. She got chills just at the possibility of a mini Bucky sharing genes with her, nothing personal with Barnes per se, she loved him she really did, but not in that way.

Oh, now she was understanding where Laura wanted to go. Devil woman.

Her smug expression said it all, but yet the brunette still took the trouble to rub the truth a little closer to her face.

“You see?”, she takes one last sip. “Clear as day, it’s even insulting how long you idiots have waited for this.”, she complains.

“To have sex again?”, Natasha scoffs lightly and Laura almost knocks over the thing in her hands such is her outburst of enthusiasm/unbelief/enthusiasm times ten.

“I knew it! You two with those honeymoon looks up and down, dear God! Now you tell me, why on earth do you call me ten times a day if you don’t even bother to tell me the juiciest stuff, Natasha? Do you even have any idea how boring it is to have to spend the summer locked up at home where the most brain stimulation I get is when Dora The Explorer asks me an asinine question?”, she slaps Nat’s arm in frustration.

“And how intellectually stimulating must it be to know about my sex life, you big pervert.”, she only half-jokes. They both know it is, or was, some years ago. Long before Steve was even a distant option.

The truth is, not only was Laura completely right to talk about her commitment issues, she more than anyone else had a lot of authority to talk about them, since she had always been Natasha’s confidant and knew very well that not only had the redhead never truly allowed herself to get into a serious relationship, but that for years she would run from it like the devil runs from the cross. Going so far as to pretend to a guy that she was moving out of New York the week after their third date and therefore could not enter into a relationship at this time. Sometimes Laura would remember the poor man and walk down that memory lane alone, what he must think at present.

Better than this only a girl Natasha had found cute at first, but who soon after left her in such a state of fright, intense was the woman apparently, that Nat not only lied, but also pretended not to speak, or understand, English. Dear memories, sometimes she felt nostalgic for those younger days, of course Cooper was a baby when they met, but still time had passed and things had changed rapidly.

Laura smiles warmly in the direction of what she considers a younger sister. Except for her and Steve, Lau was most likely the happiest person with the way things had turned out with the arrival of Wanda. Everyone knew this too, it was no secret.

To say that she was happy for the family that had formed, happy for Natasha, was at the same time unnecessary but also a little uncomfortable in a way, at least for her. It’s not as if she wished motherhood on her friend, much less thought that without it she wouldn’t be happy. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Laura saw Natasha almost as someone who was raised alongside her, or at least who learned to live in the outside world, the world without the red room, with Laura and her help at all times. For this and several other reasons that need not be cited to be valid here, Lau has always feared, fears, for Natasha’s happiness almost or as much as she does for any of the children she has known and raised since the first day of their lifes. After all, Nat was practically a teenager when Clint took her to their farm.

Happiness, unrestricted and love, in any of its forms, this is what she hoped and wished for Natasha. She never liked to see her so alone, because Nat pushed people away even though she was an extremely caring and loving person, because she diminished herself in their lives as the children grew up, afraid of being a nuisance, afraid of hurting, who knows even afraid of not belonging. Absurd thoughts that didn’t even deserve to be verbally materialized, but that Laura felt emanating from her all of the time before. With each birthday present arriving in the mail or each monthly phone call that lasted less than five minutes. She made no effort to get out of their lives, especially the children’s, but lately she made none to stay either.

And she liked being alone, sometimes even too much to the point that the level of social isolation she lent herself to was no longer healthy. It was what she knew, after all. It was what she first knew in her life, before Clint, before Laura and the children, but mostly before Steve. Before Wanda.

It was simply hilarious to watch.

If there was anyone on the face of the earth who appreciated their own personal space with vigor, that person certainly didn’t know the even more absurd extent to which Natasha lent herself to being able to isolate.

And having a child doesn’t allow you to ever have that, no matter who or what you are. In a way Laura found it convenient so that she could allow herself to allow people to get closer. Thus being vulnerable as every first time mom would be.

For this reason, for Laura, when she learned of Wanda’s existence, there was also a reassurance along with the pleasant surprise of a new niece.

Assurance that Natasha would allow herself to belong completely, inevitably. For after meeting the child, who was hers first in blood and now also immeasurable love, Natasha had no choice but to be her mother. Just as, to Laura’s gigantic insight and Natasha’s irreparable innocence, she had had no option but to approach and become friends with the man who, just a few years before, had thawed out in another world and had virtually no one. An interesting turn of events, if you asked her.

“And what do I do now then. Oh, wise one?”, she raised her eyes in request as she had done so many times before and Laura contemplated the answer very carefully.

“Just don’t fight it, organize your thoughts. Talk to him, sure. Make sure you’re on the same page. Gotta be a responsible adult and all that nonsense.”, Lau looks directly at her again. “But first you have to allow yourself to feel, Nat. Whatever it is, in the future who knows what awaits you, but first it is essential that you do this. There are some things for which there is no other solution but to throw yourself headlong and hope it works out.”, she lays her hand on Nat’s. “You, young lady, don’t get to give up without even trying. Not on my watch.”, the fondest smile on her face.

Natasha looked at the foliage and trees that moved with the gentle breeze of dawn, above them a pinkish magenta tone took up much of the horizon visible through the pastures and woods in the distance.

“I think you’re right, you have to be. I mean, If i like him and he likes me, it’s at least worth the try at the end of it all, right?”, she gave her an uncertain, almost childish, sort of hopeful look and Laura had to hug her sideways as she laughed once again at her best friend. Who although was absolutely the sweetest person in the world, also occasionally positioned herself as the most clueless of all.

“Please do it!”, she chattered pleadingly, clutching the other, “Please go and get your man, for the love of my white hairs, Natasha. That poor sufferer is begging to be bedded by you. Seriously, no one can take it anymore, please just get him and f*ck him alteady until he just can’t walk again. Do it for the people!”, although she returned the mild physical assault she received earlier, Natasha allowed herself to cackle along with her. The image in their head of Steve totally broken and shaken after marathon sex with her had them both doubled over laughing together like two lunatics.

“I hate you, you weirdo.”

“Whatever, we both know that the only other person you would raise a child together with would be me, babes. We’re like platonic soul mates or some other bullsh*t like that.”

“Please, do shut up now.”, Natasha pushed her without an ounce of force, still catching her breath. “I’d love to see you say that in front of your husband too.”.

“Oh, get over it. Clint knows you love me much more than you’ll ever love him, in fact, he was always resigned to the fact that I would abandon him for these pretty doe Russian eyes at the slightest chance.”, Laura teases her with another crushing hug and another smacking kiss on the cheek, the last one making Nat giggle like a silly little girl. She really missed that.

“I know deep down all you want is to get Steve and me hooked in one go. You know I’ve already warned Clint that we’re not that kind of couple.”, Natasha jokes, finally letting go of Laura and only allowing herself to be held by her friend.

“Why, that’s a shame, definitely. You know we found a new swing house in town. It’s your loss, anyway.”, she sneers jokingly, still resting her head on Natasha’s shoulder.

“I would rather stick thumbtacks in my eyes... Cut that out, I actually would rather have sex with Bucky Barnes while we do Carlton’s dance together than watch you and Clint do absolutely anything more than kiss. I feel like it’s as or more traumatic than watching my own parents do something, I'd never recover.”, she speaks sincerely and physically cringes with a disgusted grimace at just how unthinkable the possible scene is.

“Awn, they grow up so fast.”, Laura squeezes her cheeks, Nat protests by patting the backs of her hands. “I, on the other hand, although would also prefer not to imagine it, am extremely happy of your debauched adventures with Rogers. After all, how else could I enjoy myself at the expense of watching you suffer through the youthfulness of a copy of yourself. Sweet revenge they say?”, she finally lets go of Natasha, still laughing and smiling eagerly.

“And he says I’m mean.”, Nat said, still accepting the hand Lau offered her to walk back down the path to the house.

“Just because of that I won’t share with you the Sour Patch that I have hid in the egg tray.”, Laura threatens firmly. As if Natasha didn’t know where all her artillery was located.

As If.

Already not far away, at the door to the kitchen, an undefined shadow of one of the three older children could be seen by them. And whoever it was, it was now just scratching their eyes tiredly, listening to the laughter in the distance, waiting for their mother and aunt to come home.