Chapter Text
Natasha observed the girl on the other side of the jet. The young witch looked horrible after the final battle with Ultron… She was covered in blood: her own, Ultron’s, and, the worst, her brother’s. Wanda was dirty, her dress stained and ripped apart, her eyes with a painful sight.
Wanda was on the corner, sat with knees benched, her head laying on them. You could tell the girl was not really there, almost as if she was unconscious, but only at mind.
‘’She had a bad day, huh?’’ Clint sadly sighed, looking at Natasha.
‘’Yeah… and she looks so young.’’
‘’Not older than when I found you, Nat’’
Natasha looked away from the archer and stayed silent for the rest of the ride.
Getting to the compound, Clint decided to stay last, so he could help Wanda.
‘’Hey, kid. I know today was really rough.’’ He said softly ‘’But we want to help you. We want you to be part of the family, to be an Avenger’’
The last part of the phrase caught Wanda’s eyes. She looked at Clint with her big green eyes, that carried her painful life, her painful years. In so little time lived, the witch carried with her so much sadness.
‘’Okay, come on. I’ll get you to your room, so you can take a bath and have some rest, what do you say?’’ He tried to be the most careful he could with his words, not wanting to scare the girl even more. Clint extended one of his hands to Wanda, who was suspicious, but took it carefully anyway.
The elevator stopped on the third floor. Despite feeling very tired, Wanda couldn’t help but be amazed by the building. It was giant, so modern and bigger than anything she had ever seen. She thought it was weird that she didn’t see anyone who was on the jet back on the tower, but preferred it this way.
Clint finally stopped walking, and, doing so, he opened a door, leading Wanda to a big bedroom, which looked too white in his opinion, so he thought to break the ice with this idea. “I know it doesn’t look good now, but you can decorate it the way you want soon, yeah?”
Wanda gave a small smile, but it never reached her eyes.
‘’Kid, there’s clean clothes waiting for you in the bathroom, Pepper has already prepared them for you. I think there’s really anything you’ll need in a shower, but if not, you can tell Friday to call me. Like this: Hey, Friday?’’
“Hello, Mr. Barton. May I help you?’’
Wanda jumped, startled.
‘’Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, kiddo. Friday is not real, she’s one of Tony’s technologies, and she won’t do anything but help you, okay? Nothing to worry about.’’
The girl gave a little nod.
‘’Okay, I’ll really let you have your time now, but if you need anything you can tell me, alright? We'll let you know when dinner is ready.’’
Dinner, Wanda thought. She didn’t know when it was the last time she had eaten something. Maybe when Pietro could steal them some food. Pietro… Her beloved brother, who now was going to be forever fifteen. His death took a part of Wanda’s life with it. Even though it had been only a couple hours before, the girl felt like it was an eternity, it didn’t look real yet. She felt like Pietro would enter the room anytime, to be with her, to protect her, to complete her. Wanda felt guilt for staying alive, she couldn’t understand why it wasn’t her in his place. All he had ever done was protect her, but when he needed, she didn’t make it. The young witch felt like a burden, like she didn’t deserve to be alive.
Wanda walked to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She felt like the girl looking back wasn’t really her. Her reflex seemed tired, in pain. She felt dirty, messy, weird. She didn’t feel like herself.
The girl then proceeded to take a hot shower, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d done that. Probably some time before the war got extremely bad, back at Sokovia. After that, she was with Hydra, and getting a bath there was considered luxury, and, if it happened, it was definitely going to be in the coldest water they could give.
After a good time, she left the bathroom, going straight to her new bed. Even though she felt mentally the worst, she was so tired there was not enough time to think properly, and soon Wanda was sleeping.
Some hours later, Sam and Steve had cooked everyone dinner. All the Avengers were so tired that this was the first time after the mission they were gathering together. As imaginable, the energy in the room was down, the heroes feeling drained and exhausted.
Clint was sitting beside Natasha. ‘’Nat, I’m gonna grab Wanda to have dinner with us.’’
‘’What? Are you actually crazy? The girl just had her life completely changed, we can’t force her to gather with us.’’ She gets up from her place, grabbing one more plate besides her own.
‘’What are you doing?’’ The man asks, curiously.
‘’I’ll have dinner with her, I know what it is like to be in her place.’’ She simply adds.
‘’Nat, you know you don’t really have to do this, right? I know she hurt you and-’’
‘’I don’t care. She deserves to have help. I don’t trust her yet, but I think she needs help, she needs a chance to live a normal teenager life, she deserves to be seen.’’ She left the dining area before Clint could even think to say something.
Nat softly knocks on the door. ‘’Wanda?’’ As expected, she doesn’t get an answer, so she carefully opens the door, finding the girl curled up, looking so small and young, deeply asleep.
The spy puts the plates on the table next to Wanda’s bed, and slowly approaches the girl. ‘’Wanda? Wake up, I brought you dinner.’’
The young witch wakes up startled, quickly curling up her head to her knees, scared.
‘’It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. Thought you could have some food.’’ Natasha states.
Slowly, Wanda looks at the woman in front of her. ‘’Why?’’
‘’What do you mean?’’
‘’You should hate me. I hurt you.’’
‘’I don’t hate you.’’ Natasha looks at her ‘’I may not completely trust you yet, but I don’t hate you, Wanda. It was not like you even had a choice for your actions, and you look really young, it’s okay to have some bad decisions in your life.’’
Wanda nods, which Nat takes as a confirmation that this was something she needed to hear. The spy can see that the girl has relaxed more.
‘’Okay, here.’’ She hands one plate to the girl ‘’You should really eat this.’’ She sits next to the girl, but still far enough to let the witch have her space.
‘’Thank you, Natasha.’’
Natasha gives a small smile to Wanda. ‘’Hey, can I ask you a question, Wanda?’’
The girl nods.
‘’How old are you?’’
Wanda seems tense with the question. ‘’Fifteen.’’ She says, out of breath ‘’But I can still work, I can still help you, I can still train to be an Avenger. I’m old enough.’’
This was the first time Natasha had seen the girl talk so much, and she felt bad for scaring her. ‘’It’s okay, don’t worry. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to know, really.’’
‘’Why?’’ Wanda looks up from her food.
‘’I want to help you, Wanda, really. And I need to know you for that.’’
‘’Why would you want to help me? I don’t understand.’’ The girl was genuinely confused.
‘’I know you don’t, and that’s exactly why. You know, at the jet, after the battle, I saw my younger self in you, and back then I had help, Clint’s help. Oh you don’t have idea of how difficult I was to deal with.’’ She laughed a little ‘’But he never gave up, and, eventually, I started to accept that I could have a new life, and that I was not only defined by my bad choices and my past.’’ She pauses and looks at Wanda ‘’It’s hard, you know? It’s not an easy path, but it’s worth it… And I wanted you to have the same chance.’’
‘’Wow… Thank you, Natasha, really. I can’t understand why you’re being so nice to me, I don’t deserve it.’’
‘’You do, and it’s okay if you don’t understand that for now. I hope you will, someday.’’ She smiles at Wanda, who was done eating by now. Natasha takes both her’s and the girl’s plate and puts it on the table. ‘’Do you like braiding your hair?’’
‘’I don’t tend to do it.’’ She looks down ‘’But I used to, when I was little.’’
‘’Can I braid it for you?’’ Natasha gets closer.
‘’Yes, please.’’
‘’Okay, sit here’’ Natasha starts by brushing Wanda’s caramel brown hair. It was a shade so pretty, one of the prettiest hairs Nat had ever seen. ‘’Your hair is gorgeous, Wanda.’’
‘’Thank you so much.’’ She couldn’t help but fall for Natasha’s touch. Wanda couldn’t even remember the last time someone had done her hair.
After some time, Natasha ended up doing two french braids in Wanda’s hair, she thought they looked so pretty. ‘’Done. I hope you like it.’’ She smiled at the girl ‘’I should let you rest now, it was a rough day, yeah? We can discuss important things tomorrow.’’ She grabbed the plates and got off of Wanda’s bed, directing herself to the door.
When Natasha opened the door, Wanda decided to say ‘’Natasha?’’
The woman looked back at her.
‘’Thank you for today, it meant a lot, really.’’ She confessed.
‘’I’m glad to help.’’ She briefly smiled ‘’If you need anything, my room is next door. Good night, Wanda.’’
‘’Good night.’’
Wanda laid back in bed as soon as Natasha closed the door. Even though this day had been one of the worse, she felt seen, she felt helped. The witch couldn’t understand why the spy was helping her, but from that moment, she decided Natasha was worth trusting.
And Natasha, on the other hand, couldn’t understand why she cared for the girl, why she felt the need to help her… But anyway, she was happy she could help, and decided that she was going to do anything in her power to support Wanda. After all, she had been in her skin one day, and it was so good to finally have another woman on the team, who she could count on, who she would surely do her best to give assistance to.