𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄 | 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘕𝘢𝘵

- CHAPTER 1

| CHAPTER ONE. |
-
REASONS WHY

you said you'd grow old with me
- Michael Schulte

| 16TH MAY 2015 |

          WANDA MAXIMOFF HAD ALWAYS BEEN UNSURE. From the moment she'd started at HYDRA up until she met the Avengers and flown back to New York City with them. It wasn't that she didn't still feel weary of these superheroes, she did, but there was some about them that made her certain she would get to live a second life for her and Pietro. And she didn't know if she deserved it.

She missed her brother more than anything. She supposed it was the longing for a person that no longer existed that hurt the most - or was it the fact that she was now alone in the world, at a time where she needed her brother to keep her straight? Either way, a pang of emotions hit her, and she couldn't see straight on through the blurriness of her teary eyes.

There came a small knock at her door. She paused a moment before calling out to the person on the other side. "Come in." Her accent was still thick and bold, her voice rough from the nights of endless crying.

The metal of the handle curled against the touch, and the door pushed open without a sound. Natasha Romanoff stood in her doorway, concern plastered all over her face. She was still weary of the witch, as far as Wanda could tell, but Natasha held a different kind of caution to the other Avengers. Although certain she was afraid of Wanda pulling another stunt, Natasha proved she could be a person - someone who actually paid attention to the feelings of others.

Wanda had been alone with Captain Rogers the second night back in New York, and he had sworn that Natasha had never cared so deeply about anyone, barring Clint Barton and his family. Wanda felt a kind of warm sensation, her stomach fluttery with butterflies - all for a reason that baffled her.

Right now, Natasha leaned against the door frame, still hesitant to penetrate the bubble of personal space she knew Wanda bad worked so hard to reinforce.

"Do you want anything?" Natasha said softly. "I'm just finishing up with dinner, if you want to come and get a glass of water, or some food?"

Wanda barely looked at her, though feeling a sense of guilt for not doing so. "I think I might pass."

"Again? Wanda, I don't-" A pause. "We, don't want you to pass out, you know."

"Thank you for that. But I don't feel like eating." Wanda's voice turned cold, like that biting wind in the winter.

Natasha nodded once before pushing her back away from the frame and turning around. Her hands grappled for the handle as she spun on her heel, muttering words that Wanda could not hear, but guessed to be some along the lines of, "If she gets herself sick, it will not be my fault."

Wanda pondered the meaning behind the bitterness, but shrugged it off. She was used to being a bit of a burden. Natasha Romanoff was just another person who'd be let down sooner or later. The things she's done throughout her life were always going to be immeasurable, uncomprehensible, unable to justify. She'd wrecked havoc on the world by turning to HYDRA and letting them take away her sanity. Wanda had wasted precious years waiting to be useful, yet when she'd finally gotten her calling card, she'd lost more than just her stability; if you could call HYDRA stable. Which you most likely could not.

Wanda's stomach growled at her out of annoyance, a deep begging which had lasted days. It had been a few weeks since she'd had enough food on a plate to call a meal, and that had been the evening when she'd scolded Pietro for stealing.