Chapter Text
A week went by.
A week full of stolen glances across the dinner table, knowing smiles during daily workouts, and shared kisses when no one was looking. Natasha didn’t think it was possible to be this happy but, then again, Wanda had always made her feel like that. The difference now resided in the fact that she was actually allowing herself to embrace it, sinking into the feeling of loving her best friend instead of trying to run from it.
And she was proud of herself for that.
Natasha was humming a tune under her breath that Wanda had been playing that morning on her guitar, a smile tugging her lips upwards as she washed the dishes when Yelena bumped her shoulder with more force than necessary.
“Are you singing?” she had a teasing smile on her face.
“No, I’m not,” Natasha quickly schooled her features, clenching her jaw as Yelena kept staring at her. “What?”
“Nothing,” she shrugged, lips still curled in an amused grin.
Natasha narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Sure.”
“You’ve just been really happy lately…” Yelena trailed off, arching an eyebrow at her. “Something you wanna share?”
There were many things Natasha wanted to share — she wanted the world to know how much she loved Wanda, shouting it from the rooftops; she wanted to tell Wanda over and over that she loved her and wanted nothing more than to be her girlfriend; she wanted to share with the world this unadulterated, unbridled happiness coursing through her veins.
But she wasn’t ready yet.
She wasn’t ready for the world to know just how much she felt. Despite being out of the Red Room, living with an actual, nurturing family, and having been reassured time and time again that feeling, and loving, were a good thing Natasha still had a hard time ignoring the conflict between her mind and heart about feelings being a weakness or a strength.
Some days they felt like a strength, burning deeply within her, powering her up. During others, they felt crippling, paralyzing, like having her heart living out of her body, ready to be shattered by the world.
The world wasn’t a safe place so she didn’t feel ready to let it know there was more than one way it could hurt her.
“Nope,” Natasha simply said, putting the rest of the dishes on the drying rack.
“Seriously?” Yelena scoffed, annoyed. “You’re gonna make me drag it out of—”
She got cut off by Alexei’s noisy entrance into the kitchen, grunting as he dropped all the bags he was carrying on the counter.
“You girls are not going to help me?” he asked when they simply looked at him.
“You’re a super soldier, Papa, you can handle it,” Yelena shot him a nothing-but-innocent smile and Natasha snickered.
“What’s all this anyway?” she asked when Melina also came in, carrying more bags.
“We are having cookout this weekend,” her mom explained. “Coulson is coming back home.”
“Nice!” Yelena cheered, immediately diving for the bags to see if there were ingredients for mac and cheese — her sister was so predictable.
“Yeah, cool,” Natasha agreed, drying her hands. “Can I tell Clint to come too? He’s sticking around town but doesn’t know many people yet.”
“Of course, malyshka,” Melina agreed. “It will be pleasure to have him.”
“Yeah, tell that tupitsa to come,” Alexei gruffed, cracking his knuckles. “So I can give him piece of my mind.”
“And why would you do that?” Natasha arched an eyebrow at him.
“You know why, molodaya ledi,” he glared at her. “I want to talk about you and your little… date.”
“Oh, my God,” she rolled her eyes as Yelena guffawed next to her. “I’m not explaining this to you. Again. I’m going over to Wanda’s.”
Melina had an amused smile on her face when she called after her. “Tell them dinner will be ready in an hour if they want to come over.”
Natasha nodded, walking past Yelena to get to the back exit. She could sense her sister’s eyes on her, see her annoying, knowing smirk out of the corner of her eyes, and held in the urge to flip her off as she closed the door behind her.
//
Before she could even ring the doorbell, Natasha was greeted at the door by Wanda herself, cheeks flushed and a toothy smile on her face. She could feel herself mirroring her actions and didn’t bother to try and control the way her heart started pounding a tattoo against her breastbone as she walked through the door.
“Hi,” Wanda said, sounding a little breathless. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I just come over to say hi?” Natasha teased, pleased when her girlfr—er, Wanda rolled her eyes at her. “I missed you.”
Every moment she spent away from Wanda it was like a part of her was missing, leaving her hollow. And now that she knew her feelings were reciprocated, it made everything more real, amplifying the sentiment tenfold. Natasha knew that she should try and get a better grip on her emotions but it was hard when everything was so new and foreign to her.
“We saw each other this morning,” she said gently, but her eyes softened as she looked at Natasha and stepped into her personal space. “But I missed you too.”
“Cool,” she smiled goofily, leaning in to lay a quick kiss on Wanda’s lips.
Butterflies erupted in her stomach when she felt Wanda thread her hands through her hair, firmly holding Natasha in place as she deepened their kiss. She swiftly curled her arms around Wanda’s waist, smirking as she felt her pushing them backward until Natasha’s legs collided with the side of the couch, Wanda maneuvering them until Natasha found herself lying on her back.
“I did come here with an ulterior motive, though,” she puffed out a shaky breath, goosebumps trailing down her arms as Wanda’s kisses descended her neck.
“Yeah?” Wanda’s voice was muffled by her actions. “And that motive wasn’t to make out with me?”
Natasha’s laugh was ragged. “We’re having a cookout this weekend,” she said, starting to squirm as Wanda’s lips continued their glorious work on her skin. “And dinner’s gonna be ready in an hour.”
Wanda hummed absentmindedly, finally cocking her head back to look at her, her green eyes a shade darker than usual. “So what I’m hearing is that we have some time before we have to head back,” Natasha couldn’t argue with that logic and nodded, butterflies twisting up a revolution inside her as Wanda smirked. “Wanna go up to my room?”
Like Natasha would ever say no to that.
//
When Saturday rolled around, Natasha was no closer to figuring out what to do than she had been three days ago.
Yelena and Clint were still unrelenting, trying to get her to tell them if there was something going on or not as if they had some sort of stake in the outcome of her love life — and, to be honest, knowing her sister and friend, they probably did have a bet going on and were trying to see who had won.
Natasha refused to give them the satisfaction, out of principle.
Alexei still clenched his jaw and muttered darkly under his breath whenever Clint was brought up in conversation, leading Natasha to believe he still had no idea what was actually going on — and that didn’t surprise her. Her father was a good person, but also one of the most oblivious people she had ever known.
Coulson had just arrived the night before, so Natasha didn’t really know what they knew, if Wanda had told him anything. They were a hard person to read; one of the advantages of being a well-trained spy, Natasha guessed.
Pietro and Melina weren’t bothersome like Yelena and Clint but Natasha knew they knew something was up. Her mother was very perceptive; Natasha had always been an open book to her no matter how hard she tried not to be. And Wanda and Pietro shared a bond stronger than anything Natasha had ever witnessed so she guessed he had to have at least an inkling that something was up.
And Wanda… well. She didn’t push or demand anything out of Natasha, as if letting her set the pace on whatever was going on between them (and Natasha loved her for it). But at the same time, it was terrifying to have that sort of decision in her hands and Natasha had never been very good at communicating or asking for help.
It felt like she was being pulled in different, conflicting directions and Natasha knew that she would crumble soon.
She just wasn’t prepared for it being that soon.
Natasha was fiddling with the sound system, bickering with Yelena about what they should play, when their shared fence gate opened and Coulson arrived with Wanda and Pietro, carrying an armload of food. Yelena used her moment of distraction to slip her Fleetwood Mac CD on, and Natasha couldn’t even argue, too distracted by the sight of Wanda in black skinny jeans, a band T-shirt, and a jacket — Natasha’s leather jacket, more specifically.
“Is that your jacket?” Yelena asked, a knowing smirk curling her lips.
Of course, Wanda would be wearing the jacket Natasha had accidentally-but-maybe-not forgotten in her room the day before. But she was utterly unprepared for how much it would affect her. Needing a moment to collect herself, Natasha gathered the strewn CDs on the table to bring them back to the house. It didn’t take long for Wanda to follow her.
“You’re wearing my jacket,” Natasha said when she heard her come in, closing the door behind her as she carefully stashed the CDs in a neat row.
“I am,” she could hear the amusement in Wanda’s tone. “Do you mind?”
Sighing, Natasha finally turned to drink in the glorious sight of Wanda wearing her jacket up close; it looked even better than she had first registered, leaving her brain cells functioning at an even lower capacity.
“No,” a traitorous smile curled her lips upwards. “You look great.”
Wanda’s nose scrunched as she smiled. “Thanks. My girlfriend has good taste.”
Natasha tilted her head to the side, hope expanding in her chest as she took in the look in Wanda’s eyes. “Your girlfriend?”
“Yeah?” Wanda shrugged sheepishly. “I mean, we can do the whole romantic thing, but… you’re my girlfriend, right?”
Natasha didn’t reply, just pulled her closer by her jacket’s lapels into a kiss to try and convey everything she was feeling; the way she felt Wanda’s lips stretch in a smile against her own before she responded to her kiss told her she had been successful.
“Natasha!”
Alexei’s booming voice coming from the backyard pulled them apart, Natasha groaning as Wanda giggled at her frustration.
“I guess we should head back,” Wanda — her girlfriend — whispered, leaning in for one more kiss that ended too soon for her liking. “But maybe, after, we can go out? Just the two of us?”
“Are you asking me out on a date?” Natasha smirked, delighted by the blush covering Wanda’s freckles as she nodded. “I’d love to.”
They made their way back outside to the utter chaos that always seemed to happen when their family got together, Natasha steeling herself for whatever was causing her father to shout her name like she was in trouble.
“Natasha!” Alexei boomed again when he spotted her coming back. “Your boyfriend has a boyfriend!”
“What?” that was when she saw Clint at the picnic table, surreptitiously cowering behind Sam — his boyfriend — as everyone watched, amused. “Dad, how many times do I have to tell you? Clint’s not my boyfriend!”
“But you went on date!” he argued and Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose, groaning in frustration.
“It wasn’t a real date!” she glowered. “We were training!”
“What?” Alexei visibly deflated. “What do you mean?”
“Clint’s not the one I’m dating, Dad,” Natasha blew out her cheeks, blindly reaching for Wanda’s hands and taking a firm hold of them, relishing in the way the action managed to calm her down. “I’m dating Wanda.”
There was a brief moment of silence before Yelena was jumping on the bench, arms raised in celebration. “Ha! I knew it! Pay up, losers!”
Pay up?
“I’m not paying you shit!” Pietro huffed, crossing his arms. “It just happened! Clint and I won!”
“That’s not true!” Yelena insisted. “Tell them, Natka!”
“It happened last week,” Wanda supplied, causing Yelena to whoop loudly, dancing, and Clint and Pietro to groan. “After we got back from Washington.”
“I can’t believe you had a bet going on,” Natasha scolded, eyes widening when Yelena collected money from Coulson, Clint, Sam, and Pietro then shared half of it with Melina. “You too, Mama?”
“It was a matter of when, dorogaya,” Melina said with a serene smile. “Easy money.”
“Can someone explain to me what is going on?” Alexei asked, looking like a lost puppy with his shoulders sagged in defeat.
As everybody started talking, speaking over themselves to get to the explanation, Natasha turned to Wanda, who had an amused smile gracing her lips, green eyes sparkling with mirth.
“Wanna get out of here?” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “We can get burgers and ice cream.”
“Then go to the park and watch forest stars?” Wanda’s hopeful smile lit up her entire face and Natasha could feel herself melting at the sight.
“As you wish, kroshka.”