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Wanda ran through the numbers again and sighed. She hated keeping accounts. Passionately. She had barely scraped through the accounting part of her business degree and had put Viz in charge of the dreaded job ever since they had started the café.
But Viz was on a mission in Thailand today which meant that this was one of the rare occasions in which she had to square her shoulders and go at it. She tried again. They still didn’t add up. She checked the impulse to blast the damned book into a different galaxy.
The sound of the bell tinkling alerted her to the fact that someone had entered the shop and she eagerly looked up, glad of the distraction. The café was empty right now, the summer heat keeping people off the street.
“Peter!” She stepped away from the counter and made her way over to where the youngest member of the Avengers stood, smiling bashfully at her. He was a senior now and had even grown a couple inches taller but to Wanda he didn’t look a great deal different from the eager young kid she had met in Germany no matter how hard he (and Tony) argued to the contrary.
“What on earth are you doing here now? Don’t you have a study group to go to?” she asked drawing a chair for him while glancing at the clock. 3 pm. Huh. This must be important. Peter never missed a session with his friends (nerd group as Happy called them) ever since he had become a senior so if he was here at the café right now, it meant he wanted to talk. Unfortunately the person he clearly wanted to talk to was at NYU giving a speech to a graduate class right now.
“Hey Wanda” Peter gave her a small smile as he sank into the chair, clearly exhausted. Wanda frowned. According to May, Peter had been studying like a banshee ever since school started and had also been working hard on polishing up his resume for college. Add to that his night-time activities and no wonder he looked like a cast member from the Walking Dead.
“Have you had anything to eat yet?” Wanda asked, immediately zoning in on the grey bags under his eyes and the sweatshirt that hung too loosely off his thin frame. Tony had been right when he had said that the kid was killing himself. He had effectively shut the UN up by telling them that they could either accept that Peter Parker would take on official Avengers duties only after he had completed high school or they could go fuck themselves but there was little he or anyone else could do about Peter’s inflated sense of responsibility. No matter how many times Tony had threatened and May had begged, Peter had insisted on continuing with his patrolling of Queens.
Peter shook his head causing Wanda to tsk in disapproval before moving to heat up a sandwich. Once it was done she placed it in front of him before seating herself next to him. She watched in amusement as Peter practically fell on the sandwich and attempted to inhale it. “This is good” he moaned after he had taken nearly half of the sandwich inside his mouth in one bite. Realising that he was talking through a mouthful of sandwich, he blushed and swallowed before hurriedly asking” How are things going anyway? Er-Thanksgiving! Is everything ready?”
She gave him a mock frown before laughing and replied “Well so far I’ve made a dozen calls cancelling the orders for a performing bear, a Russian circus, three dancing dolphins and the Wu tang Clan”. Peter choked. “Apart from that all I’ve had to do is stop Tony from sending invitations to a wide variety of individuals ranging from the Pope to the Kardashians”. Peter was by now alternating between laughing and coughing and she hastened to pour him a glass of water.
“Now do you want to tell me what is going on?” she asked after the coughing fit had subsided. Peter grinned sheepishly at her before blushing and stammering “I was actually looking for Mr Stark to help me with something”.
Wanda smiled sympathetically and said” Tony isn’t here right now draga, so if it’s a science thing it will have to wait. He will be back in an hour though so if you like you can settle down and make yourself comfortable while I get you some coffee to go with that sandwich”
Peter smiled gratefully at her before taking another bite of his sandwich while she got up to make good on her promise of getting a coffee for the kid. When it came to coffee there wasn’t much to choose between Tony and Peter, she thought fondly as she prepared a plain black coffee for Peter, just the way he liked it.
“Hey Wanda?”
Wanda turned to find a scarlet faced Peter fiddling with his backpack, studiously avoiding her eyes. ”Yes?” she asked in what she hoped was an encouraging tone. “You know about girls right?”
Wanda pressed her lips together to prevent any giggles from escaping and focused on keeping her face expressionless. “I should hope so seeing as I’m one myself” she replied once she could trust her own voice. Blissfully unaware of his faux pas Peter continued. “It’s just-I’m having this problem with Michelle and while Mr Stark did give me some advice, I’m kind of having second thoughts about it and I was thinking-you could help me. I mean you are a girl right? An old one but still?” his voice trailed off as he looked at her with an expression that always reminded her of a puppy waiting for a treat hopefully.
Wanda grabbed a couple of cupcakes out of the display and put it on a paper plate. If this talk involved untangling whatever problem that had occurred as a direct result of a boy clueless enough to refer to a woman in her late twenties as old following the romantic advice of a Tony Stark, then it was going to be a long talk.
“Sure Peter” she replied and headed over to his table balancing the coffee and the cakes. “What is it?” she asked seating herself without mishap.
“Michelle and I’ve been dating for a month now and I wanted to do something special for our anniversary. Problem is, everything I think of, I just know she is going to hate. All I keep coming up with is dinner, dancing and Michelle is….she is pretty cool and she is going to think that I’m an unimaginative wuss with whom she shouldn’t be wasting her time!” Peter’s voice rose towards the end of his tirade before cracking and trailing away.
Wanda looked at him, torn between sympathy and amusement. The boy had clearly been losing sleep over this. He lifted his head from his hands where he had buried it and looked at her in an imploring manner. “Mr Stark recommended a walk down the meatpacking district at midnight, couple of places where some famous murders have taken place and also offered to hire the Dakota building for me but-but”
“But you don’t want to” Wanda finished for him, mentally smacking the love of her life on his head because really- take a walk down the meatpacking district? He was lucky May hadn’t heard that otherwise Wanda would be standing sobbing right now while Tony Stark’s coffin was lowered into the ground.
“No-o” Peter muttered miserably. “I get that MJ is cool and all and I love her for it but sometimes Wanda, I just want to take her out for dinner like a normal couple and go to a movie or go dancing….you know- normal stuff.”
“Then tell her” Wanda said firmly.
The boy looked startled, the idea of an honest conversation clearly throwing him off. “Te-tell her? What if she dumps me?”
Wanda sighed before leaning forward and speaking slowly, making sure that the boy understood her. “Peter, relationships are about what both parties want. You are not doing Michelle any favours by lying to her and keeping things from her. Talk to her, tell her everything you want to tell her and if she really cares about you, then there isn’t going to be a problem”
Peter blinked. “But didn’t Mr Stark like, do something amazing the first time he asked you out?”
Wanda rolled her eyes. “Mr Stark, Peter, is a shameless liar and for the record he didn’t ask me out, I asked him out”. Peter’s eyes widened even more than she would have thought possible and he let out a strangled gasp. Apparently the idea that his idol could take creative liberties with the truth hadn’t occurred to the poor sweet angel. Wanda went on ruthlessly.
“The first time I asked him out he literally ran away from me leaving me in a pool of humiliation and despair” she reminisced with a fond smile. “It took me two weeks to confront him and tell him what I felt and another six months for him to agree to go out with me on a date and while there were plenty of conversations there certainly weren’t any walks through the meatpacking district at night”.
Peter grinned at that. “You know what” he said, gathering his books up. “I think I’ll take your advice and head over to MJ’s right now”. Wanda smiled back. “Glad I could help”, she said.
“Peter!” a familiar voice boomed out and both Wanda and Peter turned to face a haggard Tony Stark making his way in before collapsing onto a basket chair. “Hey Mr Stark” Peter waved at him with a grin. Tony waved back before closing his eyes in a manner that suggested that the act of waving had drained him of his very breath.
Wanda rolled her eyes before looking over at Peter and saying sternly “I’ll expect MJ too at Thanksgiving then “. Peter chuckled before surprising her with a sudden hug and vaulting away. Wanda stared at his retreating back suddenly feeling warm and happy. Peter had always been very close to Tony but this was the first time he had opened up to her about something.
“What was that all about?” Tony asked, cracking open an eyelid. Wanda made her way over to him and started to knead his shoulders before replying “That was Peter having girl troubles and coming to me over them because someone very stupid had given him some truly awful advice. Meatpacking district? Murder sites? Really?”
Tony moaned and arched his neck as she hit a particularly tight knot. “Hey it’s not my fault that the girl he is dating is a weirdo-Yowch!”
Wanda grinned and rubbed the skin where she had pinched him, gently. “How was today?” she asked bending to plant a light kiss on his mouth. Tony pouted as she pulled away to continue massaging his neck.
“AWFUL” he said in sepulchral tones. “Why on earth do I go on forty eight hour benders right before I have to give a speech somewhere?”
“Because you are an idiot and you don’t listen to me” Wanda replied in a matter-of-factly. Tony huffed. “More of that sass and I shall take up an offer I got from a cute little co-ed today to go bungee jumping with her” he declared dramatically.
“You do that darling” Wanda cooed. “I will spend that time with that hot tattoo artist who owns the shop opposite ours. Who I might add, has been crushing on me since Day one”
Tony sniffed. “How could you possibly know that he has a crush on you? He could be just interested in the-uh-business. Or he could just be a friendly guy. Or he could be ……….. gay?”
“He has been sending me love notes with rather disturbing drawings every morning and evening for the past year”
“That’s it I’m buying him out. Fri call Pepper!”
Wanda laughed and abandoned her massage to slide down into his lap. Tony put both arms around her and tucked her in before dropping his head and burying it in the crook of her neck. “Tired” he mumbled. She cuddled into him and nuzzled his chest.
“Everything ready for Thanksgiving?” he asked, half asleep. She attempted a glare at that. “No thanks to you” she said drily. “A Russian circus?!”
He smirked at that. She briefly contemplated braining him with a cricket bat. “Pep and Happy will obviously be there. Sam called to say he will be coming and he is also bringing a couple of his famous pot pies. Bucky and Darcy texted yes. I assume Thor’s coming because I found the word YES burnt into our lawn today morning. Also, Jane sent me an e-mail. Laura called to tell me that she and Clint will arrive a couple of days earlier with the kids to help Viz and me with the cooking. Rhodey, Bruce and Nat are in charge of decorating. So we are all set provided you don’t arrange for the animals of the Central Park Zoo to attend”
“Rogers?” Tony attempted to sit up, his voice growing several degrees sharper. Wanda didn’t reply immediately and merely tightened her grip around tony. “Steve-” she began hesitantly. “He said he will let us know if SHIELD doesn’t have anything for him to do that week”.
“That’s bs and you know it” Tony said bluntly. Wanda nodded before lifting her hands to smooth the frown lines away from Tony’s forehead. “Give him time” she said gently. “It takes time to accept your mistakes and move forward”
Tony swore softly. “I would just like to point out that I accepted the mistakes I made with ULTRON and the ones I made during the Accords period fairly quickly and dealt with them accordingly”. Wanda smiled fondly “Well you have a long history of messing up and having to deal with the outcomes. Steve has always been the guy that people have looked up to, the guy who stands for righteousness and for him to accept that he was in the wrong, it’s going to take some time”.
Tony looked unimpressed. All things considered, he had a perfect right to be, she thought absently as she threaded her fingers through his own. Steve had attempted to kill him and had left him alone and helpless in Siberia. The thought sent a sudden flare of panic through her and the grip on his hand tightened almost painfully.
“I’m right here”. It was said quietly but the calm certainty in his voice helped ease the tightness in her chest. She gave him a shaky smile and said “As I recall, I had trouble accepting my mistakes after we returned from Wakanda. That year—it had a lot of bumps in it”.
“If by bumps you mean insults, threats to maim me, random fights with the staff and students at Xavier’s, jabs aimed at me specifically-both verbal and physical and numerous attempts to escape the X-mansion and overturn the UN then yes, there were a lot of bumps” Tony finished, his lips twitching.
Wanda let out a horrified choke of laughter and buried her face in her hands. “I was at a dark place “she mumbled, screwing her eyes shut to ward off the memories which never ceased to both embarrass and appal her. Had she really done all that?
“Very dark” Tony agreed with one of his patented smirks. “You fried my phone with your red thingy once”. Wanda looked up and met his laughing eyes defiantly, her own eyes smiling back at him. “In my defence, I had just called you a monstrous fiend who profited off broken hearts and your only response had been to raise an eyebrow at me before going back to texting. I had to vent”.
Tony laughed and gathered her close. “You were infuriating” she informed him. “I did everything I could to get a reaction out of you and all you did was look bored and carry on with whatever you were doing”.
He laughed again before telling her “Charge accepted. Now let me get some sleep and I promise you that when I get up I’ll make up for being an unfeeling monster by doing your accounts”. Wanda grinned and replied “Deal.”