Chapter Text
With her horrible date with Simon behind her, and a new plan for the upcoming Charity Ball established, Wanda was able to relax and enjoy the rest of her evening with Vision and the twins, eating Chinese food and watching cheesy popcorn action movies.
At some point, Vision received a phone call, excusing himself as he disappeared to the next room to answer it.
“Hello?” He listened to the words from the other end of the line, and frowned. “No, I’m not going to reconsider. Yes, I understand this makes the case more difficult, but I won’t have Wanda involved. Goodbye, Mr. Murdock..” He disconnected the call, startled by a voice behind him.
“Dad?” Billy had come to bring the dirty dishes into the Kitchen.
“Oh! Billy, you startled me for a moment..”
“Who was that on the phone?”
“Well.. It was.. Uh..”
“It was your Lawyer again, wasn’t it?”
“Well.. Yes.”
“You still haven’t told Mom about the court case, have you?” Billy frowned, placing the dishes in the sink. “You said you would. And you know she’d want to help..”
“I do” Vision sighed, “Which is exactly why I haven’t told her.. And I’m not sure why I even told you. I don’t want her to get involved and have to drag up the past again. It will hurt, and I don’t want that for her. She is finally in a good place.. We are finally in a good place, and I..”
“Shouldn’t it be Mom’s choice, whether she wants to get involved or not?” Billy raised an eyebrow in a way Vision was very familiar with, albeit on a different face. He was so kind, kinder than one would expect considering his past, and wise beyond his years. Where Tommy often seemed to be his lost uncle in miniature, Billy was the very best of both his parents.
“Well.. yes.. But..”
“It’s not like you’ll be able to hide it much longer anyway” Billy continued. “A Supreme Court case to officially decide an Avenger’s legal status will be a media circus. Better Mom finds out from you before she sees it on TV.”
“That.. Is a good point.”
“So you’ll tell her?”
“I will.. But not until after the Ball” Vision told him. “I won’t add to your Mother’s list of things to worry about before I have to.”
–
Later that night, Vision gave Wanda a ride back to her own apartment building.
“Thanks, Vizh” said Wanda, as they pulled into the parking lot. “For the ride, and the ‘Bad Date’ rescue. You didn’t need to.”
“As a best friend, and a man who believes that the Mother of one’s children deserves a certain level of respect regardless of what the current relationship between them might be, yes I did” Vision replied.
“Still..” Wanda blushed slightly, kissing his cheek. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome..” Now it was Vision’s turn to blush, but if either one noticed that the other was, in fact, blushing, they very kindly didn’t mention it.
“So..” Wanda opened the door, ready to get out of the car, “We’ll talk more details about the Ball closer to the day, yeah?”
“Of course.. And we’ll almost certainly see each other before then. Lunch next week?”
“Sure, just call and let me know what day works best for you. See you soon.”
“Yes, definitely.”
–
As she waved Vision off, headed inside, and got herself ready for bed, Wanda found herself in a rather good mood. This good mood lasted until the following morning, when it occurred to her that she was going to a Ball, and if she was going to a Ball, she probably needed something decent to wear.
Nothing in her wardrobe was the appropriate level of formal, and she was not exactly experienced in shopping for formal wear, so the thing to do, it seemed, was call for help, and considering her relatively low supply of female friends at that point in time, she simply re-dialled the last one in her call history.
“Yelena, hi, I..”
“Hello. I would ask how your date with the Wonder boy went, except I already know it went badly..”
Wanda had been about to correct Yelena, and point out that Simon preferred to be known as Wonder Man, until the second half of her friend’s sentence caught more of her attention.
“How do you know it went badly?”
“Because you ditched him. I just saw it on that nasty Everheart woman’s TV show.”
Wanda winced.
“How bad is it?”
“Pretty bad” another voice, slightly muffled, called down the phone. “It’s in all the Tabloids, and Simon’s apparently trying to sell an exclusive to E.T.”
“Great.. Hey, is that Kate?” Wanda frowned, semi-distracted again. “What’s she doing at your place? I thought she was still staying at the Compound..”
–
“She is” Yelena, in her rented house on the outskirts of suburbia (she had wanted yard space for her dog) glared at Kate, only slightly annoyed, while Kate shrugged sheepishly. “Except for when she eats too much Mac and Cheese and falls into a food coma on my sofa. So.. go on.”
“Go on what?”
“I’m sure you have a good reason for ditching your date.”
–
“I do..” Wanda sighed.
“Details, woman. Give us the details.”
“Well, first he ordered for me and got salad instead of the pasta I wanted, and made a thinly veiled jab about my weight..”
Both girls on the other end of the phone gasped, scandalized.
—
“And then when Tommy showed up to rescue me, Simon pretty obviously freaked out about the fact I had kids..”
“I could kill him, if you like” Yelena offered, surprisingly nonchalant, which Wanda supposed made sense, considering her assassin past. “It would look like an accident, no-one would ever know.”
“That’s, uh, not necessary.. I’d settle for someone embarrassing him in training, though.”
Prior to now, everyone had been instructed to go easy on Simon in training if they were chosen to spar with him, given his lack of experience. Simon himself had not been made aware of this, and was subsequently beginning to develop an overinflated sense of his own capabilities.
“That’s too easy..” Yelena pouted.
“I’ll do it!” said Kate excitedly. “The idiot doesn’t know I’m a black belt, so I’m sure he’ll be unpleasantly surprised when I knock him on his butt..”
“And at least the whole date-ditch situation means you're probably free from another set-up..”
–
“I wouldn’t have needed one anyway” Wanda replied. “I have a date for the Ball. Vision and I have decided to go together, as friends.”
“Really?” came Kate’s voice. “Because Clint says..”
Wanda blushed, grateful when Yelena shushed Kate.
“Yes, as friends. The Ball is actually what I called about. I’ll need help finding something to wear.”
–
“And you called me?” asked Yelena, confused. “Why?”
“One, I don’t have that many female friends, and I’ve never actually been shopping for formal wear before. You’re a Widow.. Isn’t dressing to look good part of the training for when you have to infiltrate places?”
“Well, yeah, but I wasn’t quite so good with the ‘formal’ stuff, that’s why I was mostly deployed for snipering and black ops.. Oh, I could call my Mom, though...”
“Your Mom?”
“Well, the closest thing Natasha and I had to one” Yelena explained. “Melina. More on the brainy side by Widow standards, but more of an eye for fashion than me.. She’s coming to visit next week anyway, I can just work a shopping trip into the itinerary..”
–
“That would be great, if she doesn’t mind..”
“Just, uh, one thing..”
“What?”
“She is not exactly, uh, legal. But we’re working on it. So if you could just not tell anybody who would frown upon this in the meantime..”
“Don’t worry” Wanda chuckled. “I was ‘not exactly legal’ for my entire first tenure as an Avenger. Melina’s secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you..”
–
After disconnecting the call from Wanda, Yelena turned, finding Kate grinning widely.
“I get to meet your Mom?” she asked, almost bouncing.
“Only if you get that big dumb smile off your face..” Yelena replied.
–
Meanwhile, no sooner had the call ended than Wanda received another. An unknown number, but these were, on occasion, Avenger emergencies, she had no real choice but to pick up.
“Wanda Maximoff. This is Christine Everheart. How do you feel breaking the heart of Simon Williams, America’s most eligible Superstar Bachelor?”
Wanda immediately disconnected the call.
“Shit..” This was a life complication she definitely did not need.
–
“Um.. is there someone taking photos of us across the street?” asked Vision, confused, as he and Wanda were meeting for brunch a few days later.
“Yeah..”
“Which of course always happens, what us being Avengers and all, but.. Is that another photographer in the bush just there?”
“Yes” Wanda confirmed, jabbing at a piece of scrambled egg on her plate. “Haven’t you heard? It seems like my ditching Simon on our date has become a bit of a Hollywood scandal. I didn’t realize how much at first, but then there were journalists and Paparazzi waiting to intercept me in the lobby of my apartment building this morning. A few must have followed me here..”
“Oh..” Vision frowned. “Did you try to explain that it was a Family emergency?”
“That would have just led to questions about what the emergency was, and if you remember, there actually wasn’t one” Wanda paused, chewing and swallowing a mouthful. “Besides that, Tommy and Billy being my children isn’t exactly wide knowledge to the general public. That in mind, what possible emergency could I have made up?”
“Maybe your Aunt was ill?”
“I don’t have an Aunt..”
“I know” Vision smirked, “But the general public doesn’t.”
“Anyway.. I was almost going to cancel our Brunch” Wanda sighed. “And I understand if you want to pull the pin on going to the Ball together..”
“Why would I do that?” Vision frowned.
“Because the whole thing is going to be a circus now. It’s bad enough that the Paparazzi is catching me out having Brunch with my Ex..” Wanda ignored the way that last word sounded wrong in her mouth, and she definitely didn’t see Vision flinch, no siree. “How are they going to act when we show up to an official event? They’ll probably assume we’re back ‘On’, and everything will get weird and awkward and..”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why does it have to be weird?” Vision asked. “Journalists, photographers.. They’ll say what they say, and do what they do. It doesn’t matter what they think..”
“But..” Wanda tried to argue.
“No buts” said Vision, reaching across the table to take Wanda’s hand, uncaring of how this might look to any watching photographers. “What matters is what we know to be true. For me, the truth is that I promised a very dear friend that I would accompany her to the Ball, and that is a promise that I intend to keep, regardless of whatever conclusions outside observers may draw.. That is, if said dear friend still wants to go..”
Vision smiled at her then, a familiar sweet, warm, shy little smile. A smile that had rarely failed to turn her insides to mush. A smile she had often been unable to resist kissing, and on some days, if they were alone and had the time, would lead to them tangled together in the bedsheets, pleasured cries of the other’s name..
Wanda felt a slight redness in her cheeks, a lump in her throat. This was beginning to feel entirely too intimate. The best thing to do would be to take the out Vision had offered, tell him she had changed her mind, she really didn’t want to go to the ball with him. But he was still holding her hand, and smiling that godforsaken smile..
“I..” She swallowed the lump in her throat, “I think I would still like to go..”
“Then the matter is settled” Vision’s smile widened, but then his phone rang, and the moment was shattered.
“You can get that if you like..” Wanda took the opportunity to pull her hand away from his.
“No, it can wait” Vision’s brow furrowed as he checked the ID, seeming slightly annoyed, then let the call ring out, turning his attention back to Wanda. “So, what are your plans for the rest of the week?”
“Well, if I’m still going to the Ball then I need something to wear, so I suppose I don’t have to cancel my shopping trip with Yelena and Kate..” Wanda didn’t mention Melina, not because she didn’t trust Vision, but because she wouldn’t betray Yelena’s confidence. “Of course, that’s assuming I can make it out the door without getting cornered by the press..”
Vision paused, thoughtful. He knew that these days Wanda kept the use of her powers to absolute minimum except in cases of genuine emergency, so he didn’t offer that as a solution. But, a thought came to his mind.
“There may be a way around that. Did you know King Valkyrie is in town?”
“I may have seen a little blurb about it in the paper next to my stupid front page report.. Why?”
“Well” Vision chuckled, “I may be able to call in a favor..”