Chapter Text
“Five days! Five days into the year and you already gave in. Shame on you, Wilson.”
“Don’t judge me, woman! You taste one of these and then try giving it up,” Sam exclaims, dipping another chicken tender into the ranch.
“What’s going on here?” you ask. You heard the commotion from the hallway and had to see what it was all about. You figured it would be something more dramatic than Sam eating in the kitchen.
By the way Natasha shakes her head at the scene of Sam stuffing his face, you feel like you are missing some important information. She answers, “Sam’s resolve broke. His new year’s resolution was to get fast food only once every two weeks. He got some yesterday and today.”
“Well that was just asking the impossible,” you say.
“No, impossible is Steve saying he would stop treating people like children,” Nat replies.
Sam chuckles, “He broke that one in two seconds when Tony said ‘I’d fucking love to see that’ and Steve scolded him for using the f word.”
You burst out laughing at that. Sounds about right.
“You would know if you had been there. Where were you when everyone was saying their resolutions? It feels like you disappeared right after the countdown,” Nat asks.
“I was actually starting mine at that moment,” you admit.
“And what is it? No more Stark parties?” Sam quips.
“No, my resolution is to get over my crush on Wanda,” you confess.
You’ve never seen Nat and Sam so shocked. Sam recovers quickly and starts chuckling. “That’s a good one. No, but seriously, what is it?”
You look at him confused. “Why are you laughing? I’m being honest. It’s why I had to leave the party. She looked so stunning in her dress, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I had to get out of there if I was determined to stick to my resolution.”
“You’re joking, right? Wait, don’t tell me. Your actual resolution is to be funnier and bring more laughter to the group. It’s working!” He wiggles his finger at you.
You don’t understand why he thinks it’s a joke. Nat finally speaks, looking almost horrified, “Oh, god, Sam. I think she’s being serious.”
You scoff, “I know my obvious crush on her might make it seem like it’s an impossible task like Sam’s or Steve’s and trust me, it feels like it, but I am determined and will power is everything.”
“You have a crush on Wanda? Like Spooky Sabrina the Teenage Witch? That Wanda?” Sam asks, still not believing what he’s hearing.
“Do you know any other Wanda?” You reply sarcastically. “And she’s not spooky or a teenager. She just wears a lot of eyeliner and she’s only a year younger than me. Don’t make me feel like a perv. Or actually, yes, do that. Maybe that will help me move on. I should date someone older.”
“Where are the cameras? Are we being punk’d?” Sam actively looks around, laughing like he’s caught on.
“Why do you think I’m joking?”
“Because there is no way you like Wanda,” Nat answers, still trying to put it together. How could she miss that?
“I thought everyone knew. I mean I’ve made it pretty obvious. It’s pathetic really,” you mumble.
“Trust me when I say, nobody knew. Here, watch.” Sam pulls out his phone and video calls Clint.
Clint answers. “Hello. I’m kind of busy right now.”
“You’re on a stakeout in the car. This is more interesting, trust me. Did you know about Y/N’s crush on Wanda?” Sam asks.
“Oh my god, Y/N crushed Wanda? With what? Is Wanda okay? What happened? I thought we agreed they should never be left alone together.”
What? You would never touch a hair on her precious head. You are offended that anyone would insinuate such a thing. You move to see Clint on the screen, ready to tell him so.
Sam stops him before you can get a word. “No, I said Y/N has a crush on Wanda.”
Clint rolls his eyes. “I thought this was important, not another joke. I got to go do my job now as you should too. Oh, and don’t let Y/N alone with Wanda. I was genuinely concerned for a moment.”
He clicks on Sam who looks at you. “See?”
“What’s this about not letting me be alone with Wanda? Why does he think I would hurt her?” You cross your arms.
“Because you hate her,” Nat replies. This is news to you.
“Wh-what?!” you stammer. “I don’t hate her. What gave you that impression?”
“Is she serious right now?” Sam looks at Natasha like you’re crazy. Then he starts listing things off. “First day she moved in, you slipped her a note that said ‘Are your parents terrorists?’”
“Oh my god, Y/N! You did that? No wonder. That poor girl. Her parents are dead,” Nat hisses at you like she’s afraid other people will hear even though it is common knowledge to the team.
“I know that now, but that wasn’t even the point. Did she read the back of the note? It said ‘because you are the bomb’. I even drew a cute little picture.” You tell them.
“Jesus, woman,” Sam voices. “You know her parents died because of a bomb, right?”
That is news to you. You feel like an ass. “I did not know that, no. Is that why Wanda wouldn’t talk to me for like a week? I’d enter the room and she’d turn red and leave. I thought she was just flustered by the note and was being shy.”
“And then apparently you told Steve you couldn’t go on the mission with Wanda because she was a bad person and you’d get too distracted having to watch her,” Sam continues.
“See, he misinterpreted. What I said was ‘I can’t believe I’m on a mission with that baddie. It’s going to be hard taking my eyes off of her’,” you clarify.
“You always roll your eyes when he says ‘I know you don’t like her, but you’re both on this one,” Nat points out.
“It’s a playful eye roll. This whole time I thought he was teasing me.” Damn, you are not good at reading tones of voice.
“There was that time we were going out for drinks and when Wanda came down you said ‘Oh, you’re wearing that?’ and the girl stayed home pretending she was tired,” he recalls.
“And when I tried to convince her to come, you said ‘Princess needs her beauty sleep. Let her stay’,” Nat remembers.
You shrug. “She said she was tired. Why should we have made her go if she wanted to stay?”
“Because she wanted to go, dummy!” Nat exclaims, getting frustrated at how oblivious you are.
“Then why did she say she was tired?” you ask.
“You made her feel bad about how she looked,” Sam responds. “Even I double checked my outfit so you wouldn’t roast me next.”
“I didn’t mean it like that! I would never make fun of anyone’s appearance. She looked great. I was just going to suggest she wear a jacket because it always gets cold at the booth we sit,” you explain.
Natasha and Sam reflect on Wanda’s outfit and come to think of it, you are right. She would have gotten cold.
“These are all just a bunch of misunderstandings,” you say. You feel awful thinking how you probably made Wanda feel. “I promise I don’t hate her. I guess I just don’t know how to express myself correctly.”
“So, I’m gonna guess when you call her ‘Princess’ you actually mean it nicely,” Sam chimes in. You nod.
“And when every time you see her with her guitar and you call her Taylor Swift, you mean it as a compliment,” Nat adds.
“Wanda loves Taylor Swift,” you mumble. Who wouldn’t want to be compared to someone they admire?
“What about all the times you’ve literally told Wanda to shut up and push her?” Sam asks.
“It’s how people flirt! I’ve seen it in the movies,” you reply.
“O-oh.” Sam realizes what you’ve tried to do there. “You’re doing it wrong. You’re supposed to giggle when you say it and be gentle when you nudge her. You literally had her fall on her ass the last time. I swore you two were about to fight.”
“Is that why Clint started standing between us? It’s like any time I try to go sit by Wanda, he swoops in. I thought she asked him to be a buffer.” What Clint said over the phone makes sense now. You admit, “I thought she asked him to so I would stop trying. I took that as a sign that she wasn’t interested. That’s why I made it my new year’s resolution to get over her.”
“You’ve really got to work on your game, dude,” Nat tells you.
You throw your head back in anguish. “I know. She probably hates me. I have to go and apologize, let her know it was all a mix-up.”
“If you plan to do that, you should probably do it with other people around. She said her resolution was to stop holding herself back. Now that could mean like life wise, but I’m pretty sure she’s talking about fighting you,” Sam warns you.
You gulp nervously. You are already dreading having to apologize for everything and now you aren’t even sure she’s going to let you get a word out without kicking your ass.
“Shit.”
You hesitate to knock on Wanda’s door. You’ve been standing out here for a cool 5 minutes trying to work up the courage and figure out what you want to say.
No, you didn’t take Sam’s advice of talking to her in public for two reasons. The first is it is embarrassing enough to have to tell her all this; you don’t need others to overhear. The second reason is that if she does in fact get violent, you’d rather not let the whole team see your ass get handed to you.
Word it whichever way, it all comes down to not wanting to publicly humiliate yourself.
You lift your hand up to knock, but the door opens before your fist can touch it. As misfortune will have it, that doesn’t mean you don’t make contact with anything. You accidentally smack Wanda in the face just as she is exiting her room, twice.
“Ow, what the hell, Y/N?!” She backs up into her room, rubbing her nose.
Your eyes widen in shock. How could you already be mucking this up? You invite yourself into her room following her. You rush out apologies. “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you.”
She rolls her eyes at you and scoffs, “Sure, you didn’t. That’s why you hit me twice?”
“I was only trying to knock, I swear.” She must hear sincerity in your voice because she lets it go. She sighs, crossing her arms over her chest, “Fine. What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you about something,” you tell her. She doesn’t say anything, rather waits for you to continue but you wait for her permission to start. She grows impatient when the silence drags on too long. “Well?”
“Oh! Right, so it’s been brought to my attention- actually, uh, can we sit for this?” you ask. She huffs and goes to sit on her bed. You do the same, making sure not to sit too close. You clear your throat and start again. “It’s been brought to my attention that I might have come across unkind and aggressive towards you. I am here to clear the air I didn’t realize needed clearing.”
She narrows her eyes at you, looking for a sign that you may be lying or playing some trick on her. It doesn’t help soothe the nerves. You carry on anyway, “I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. I didn’t know I was coming across as rude or mean. I promise you that’s never my intention when I interact with you.”
She laughs bitterly. “You mean to tell me the name calling and the hard shoves are not intentional?”
You grimace. “They are but-”
“Great apology,” Wanda interjects sarcastically.
“- I don’t mean them the way you and everyone else takes it. When I call you those names, it’s not to be a jerk to you. I’m trying to tease you in a nice way like how Tony calls people nicknames and everyone kind of just rolls their eyes, and I don’t mean to shove you. It’s meant to be a playful bump.”
“Playful bump? Maybe playful bump on my ass. I got a bruise from that,” she tells you.
“Sorry. I got carried away that time. I swear I was going to help you up and apologize but you stormed away,” you inform her.
“Why are you doing this, Y/N? You’ve had months to bring this up.”
“Honestly, I didn’t know this was something I was doing until literally an hour ago. I know it sounds unbelievable but it’s true. I’m just dumb and couldn’t see past what I was actually trying to do. I never reflected on what I actually did. Nat and Sam had to spell it out for me,” you confess. “I don’t want you to think I have something against you. I want to start off this year right and not have any more misunderstandings.”
“So what? Your goal this year is to make amends, be a better person. Is that what this is?”
“Actually, this is embarrassing,” you murmur. She throws you a curious look as you wring your hands, working the nerve to say it. “My goal was actually to move on from this silly crush I have on you.”
If Sam and Natasha’s reaction to you liking Wanda was comical, it’s nothing compared to Wanda’s. You don’t need her mind reading ability to see her mind is working overtime trying to process this. “You like me?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’ve made it my goal to get over you.”
“Get over me?” You are giving Wanda whiplash. First you don’t hate her. Then you like her and now you’re moving on?
“Yes! I have a full proof plan. I will keep my distance. I’ll try not to talk to you or to listen to you. Your voice is so pretty, I could hear you talk all day but that’s what the distance is for. I’ll only give a polite ‘Hello, Wanda’ and no more. And I’ll stop staring at you so much, which will probably drive me crazy cause most nights I’m thinking ‘I wonder what Wanda will wear tomorrow?’ though it never really matters because you always manage to look great.”
“I thought you were glaring at me,” Wanda admits.
You rub the back of your neck, sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m not the best at expressing my emotions or reading the room, I guess. It’s like every time I thought I was flirting, I was only hurting you.”
“Wait, so when you would kick me under the table, were you trying to flirt?”
“Yeah, it’s called playing footsie. I even started wearing thick socks up to my knees because you would kick me back hard. I thought you were just competitive or miscalculating, but I have been told otherwise.”
“This is crazy,” she sighs, trying to wrap her mind around this. It’s insane to think this whole time you weren’t trying to act hostile towards Wanda but the opposite.
“Yeeaaah,” you stretch out, awkwardly looking at your feet. Wanda doesn’t say anything, still in her head, and you’ve said what you had to, so you think it’s time you make your leave. Then Wanda starts giggling. You switch your gaze over at her.
“You have a crush on me!” Her giggles turn into a full laugh. She covers her face and falls onto her back, her body shaking. Any other day, your heart would melt at hearing her laughter, but getting this reaction after you confessed your feelings, it hurts a little.
“And that’s my cue to leave,” you announce, smacking your knees before standing up.
Wanda’s laughter dies down and she straightens herself back up. “Hey, wait. Where are you going?”
“I did what I came to do. I apologized and explained. So now I’m leaving,” you answer.
“You don’t have to go,” she says.
“I don’t see why I should stay to hear you laugh about my stupid crush on you,” you mumble miserably. So much for saving yourself some embarrassment.
“Stupid? Why is having a crush on me stupid?” Wanda asks, sounding kind of offended.
“Wanda,” you sigh tiredly. You didn’t want to keep explaining yourself. You just wanted to go wallow in your room.
“I have a goal this year too and that’s to start sticking up for myself,” she says defensively, getting up from the bed, walking over to you. “So, go ahead and tell me what’s so stupid about liking me?”
Based on the way she squares her shoulders and lifts her chin, you think she’s not happy with you. It might be silly to do so but you have to ask because as you found out today, you are not the best at reading a room. “Are you mad at me right now?”
She thought your excuses were laughable before, but seeing how you are seriously asking her this right now changes her mind. Maybe you just are kind of dense when it comes to social interaction. She helps you out with that by clarifying, “Yes! How can I not get upset when you say it’s stupid to like me?”
“What? I-I didn’t say that,” you stammer. “I’m saying my crush on you specifically is dumb because I know nothing’s going to happen here. Liking you isn’t stupid. You’re awesome! There are probably loads of people that like you. Like that one trainee in Steve’s group on Monday mornings. I saw him literally trip one time from looking at you. I can’t blame him though. I once got distracted by you and ran into a wall, only unlike him I got a huge scrape on my face to show for my drifted focus.”
Wanda remembers seeing your face like that. She wanted to ask but Steve beat her to it. Your answer left Wanda wondering why she even bothered to care. Now that she knows the story, you not being good with your words adds up. “I remember that. You said it physically pains you to be around me.”
Hearing the words from Wanda’s mouth, you can see your mistake. You sigh, “I really need to think before I speak. You know what I was trying to say now, right? It was supposed to be like you’re so pretty it hurts. That kind of thing.”
“English is my second language and I’ve never had this many problems,” she laughs.
“Yes, Wanda. I get it, alright? I’m bad at talking.” This time you come across as defensive.
“Y/N, I’m just teasing you. This is what it sounds like when someone is teasing, not trying to be mean,” she clarifies.
“Oh.” You drop your defensive attitude like she had moments ago.
“Thank you for coming to talk to me. It’s a pleasant surprise to know my teammate doesn’t hate me,” she comments, giving you a smile.
You nod. “Sorry again for the whole mix up,” you say. “I’ll leave you to whatever you were doing.”
You turn back to the door, but before you can let out a sigh of relief at having this humiliating talk Wanda scoffs, “Wait, that’s it?”
You look at her with confusion. “Sorry?”
“You’ve said that already. Are you really going to dump all this on me like ‘Hey, you know how you think I hate you? Well I actually really like you and it was all a misunderstanding’ and then tell me you’re moving on?”
This feels like a trick question. You answer honestly, however hesitantly, “Yes?”
“No.”
“No?” you repeat. You don’t understand what she means by this. What does she want you to do?
“No. You can’t just ‘move on’ from me,” she decides.
“I can’t?” You don’t even know why you are asking.
“Not when you just told me you have feelings for me. That’s not how it works,” she tells you, shaking her head. She sounds so sure of herself, you believe she knows what she’s talking about. So you look to her for guidance on how this works.
“How does it work then?”
“If you tell a girl that you like her, there is a grace period where you prove it to her so she believes you. You court her. You give her flowers, shower her with compliments, ask her out, do stuff together in order to show that you’re serious. You can’t just tell her you like her and then quit,” she lectures.
If you are understanding her correctly, which you hope you are, she wants you to try again, knowing now that you have a crush on her. You formulate your question slowly, “So I should do all that first before moving on?”
Wanda nods slowly, her unwavering eye contact assuring you she means every word. “Where should I or when should I start?”
“You start tonight at 7 by picking me up and taking me out,” she commands.
Was this really happening right now? She starts ushering you out of her room.
“Now go get ready and practice what you are going to say to me. You’ve got a lot of flattering to do after everything you’ve said to me these past months.” You stand outside her door again. You’ve got an adorable dumbfounded look on your face that makes Wanda want to giggle.
“Uh, thank you?” You don’t know what else to say. This is what you’ve wanted for the longest time. A few days ago you accepted that Wanda was never going to give you the chance and now here she is doing just that. This is so unexpected, it’s no wonder your tongue tied.
“What are you standing there for? You have to shower, change, buy flowers, and be here by 7 with a date plan. Get going!” Her voice of authority breaks you from your state and you start moving.
“Right, yes. Right away!” you say before marching off like a woman on a mission.
“Y/N!” Wanda shouts after you. You stop and turn around to see what is up. She points to the opposite direction you were walking. “Your room is that way.”
“Oh! Yeah. My bad. See you at 7!” You shout excitedly as you run to your room.
“Woah, where’s the fire?” You bump into Sam and Nat when you turn the corner.
“Can’t talk. I’ve got a date with Wanda tonight and a million things to do. Bye!” you rush out.
They stare after your retreating form trying to figure out what just happened, Natasha’s eyebrows furrowing and Sam’s lips pursing. He scratches his chin, thinking over an idea. “I think she might be ready for open mic night at the bar.”
Nat rolls her eyes and walks off, moving on. Sam jogs to follow her. “No, I’m serious. She’s been killing it with these jokes.”