Literature, lust and love - Professor Romanoff

THIRTY-SEVEN

"Hello Wands!"

I walked into the classroom with a coffee in my hand. Wanda looked up from her desk with a slightly shocked look on her face.

"Oh, is Wands weird? I'll just call you Wanda, my bad!"

Wanda shook her head and chuckled. "Wands is fine, but only between us." She stood up and walked over to me, taking the coffee out of my hand. I watched as she sipped it and smiled.

"Thanks for this, Desi."

"Oh, I didn't get that for you."

She raised her eyebrow and smirked. "So this just happens to be my exact coffee order?"

"What a coincidence!" I giggled and she laughed, scrunching her nose like always. "Why did you look at me like I was a ghost when I walked in?"

"I thought you were someone else?"

"Who else visits you at 6 am on a Thursday morning?" I pouted, sensing she had another favourite student.

She slapped my arm. "Don't look at me like that! Vision is supposed to be stopping by before he goes to work, I had a bit of a late night so we didn't get to talk much."

"Oh, so when I walked in, you expected it to be mr loverboy, so you were very disappointed when you saw it was only a little me."

"Well, you did bring me coffee, so I really can't complain." We smiled at each other before I gasped loudly.

"Can I meet him? Please?"

Wanda seriously debated it, tilting her head as she pondered. "Yes, you can wait with me."

"Yay!" I jumped onto my desk and swung my legs back and forth. "So how come you had a late night?"

"Oh, I was with some colleagues, we had a faculty night."

My mouth dropped. "Wanda Maximoff, did you go out on a school night? Wine tasting Wednesday was too hard to resist?"

Wanda furrowed her eyebrows. "How did you know we went wine tasting?"

Natasha had told me, since I wanted to have a movie night with her but she was already busy, she let me sleepover and I was there when she snuck in at 2 am. "Uh, just heard about it through the grapevine."

Before Wanda could interrogate me further, a tall blonde man walked in. "Hello Wanda darling!"

I watched Wanda blush, and I awed, which caused her to slap me once more. This woman loves to abuse me.

"Hi, Vision. This is Desi!"

"Ah, the famous Desdemona, a pleasure to meet you." Vision walked forward so I slipped off the desk and held out my hand. We shook and I stared at him gobsmacked. Wanda nudged me again so I dropped his hand.

"Sorry, Wanda didn't mention that you were English. The accent has completely thrown me off."

"What has Wanda mentioned?" Vision wiggled his eyebrows and I laughed.

"Well, some things must be kept in bestie confidentiality I'm afraid," Vision nodded, "but I can say she always gushes about you. You're quite the man, Mr Vision."

"Okay, Desi!" Wanda pushed me aside while smiling broadly at her fiance.

"I'm going, don't worry Wanda. So nice to meet you Vision!" I called out behind me as Wanda continued pushing me towards the door.

"Likewise, Desdemon. I hope to see you around!"

I waved goodbye before the door was shut in my face. I pulled a face through the glass but Wanda simply shooed me away. I laughed and set off towards the courts. Now that it was almost final season, there weren't any basketball games, but Coach still let us train if we wanted to. Alex, Yelena and I would always turn up, using the hours in the morning sun to hang out and have fun. Plus, since Emily and Alex were always together, this time was special to be able to see my best friend. Since moving out of Natasha's class, I only saw Em in our History class, but we barely chatted because Professor Rogers was so adamant about silent working. It was sort of a melancholy feeling, losing touch with friends, but then I had to remind myself that I was making new ones.

After my two classes of the day, I decided to stop by Natasha's office to see what she wanted me to make for dinner. I knocked on her door, two long knocks followed by three quick ones so that she knew it was me, and then walked in.

She was sitting at her desk holding a picture, a picture I realised was of us kissing.

"Awe, that's cute! When did you take it?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and kissing her neck.

"I didn't." Natasha's voice was quiet, and it worried me.

"What do you mean, you didn't? You didn't take this picture?" I snatched it out of her hands and examined the paper. I flipped it over and saw the note.

Hard to deny it now when I have proof.

I ripped up the paper, regretfully since it was a pretty cute photo, and threw it in the trash. When I turned around, I saw that Natasha had silent tears running down her face. I was quick to run over to her and sit on top of her. I cupped her face in my hands and brushed the tears away.

"Baby, why are you crying?"

"I don't want you to leave again."

I sighed, sadly, before kissing her forehead, then her nose, and finally her lips. "Tasha, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not making my stupid mistake ever again. We're going to fight this, I don't know how, but all I do know is that I'm never leaving your side. You're my girl, and that's all that matters.

Natasha's green eyes looked into mine as gentle whimpers left her mouth. I smiled despite the situation because I loved that Natasha trusted me enough to cry in front of me. "I love you, Desi."

"I love you too, Tash, so so much. What do you want for dinner?"

Natasha let out a laugh, confusion growing on her face.

"Sorry, housekeeping, that was what I was coming in to ask, and I just wanted to do it before all the hard talk comes and I forget about it."

"Salmon?" She suggested with a slight begging pout, so I nodded.

"Anything for you, baby. What are we going to do?"

Natasha rubbed my back and thought for a bit. "Well, I really shouldn't be telling you this, but the dean is leaving. So if we were to tell him now, and let the board sort it out before the end of the semester, when the new dean comes next year, there shouldn't be any issue. Maybe it would keep fewer people out of it."

"So, you think we should go to the board?"

"It's the only way." Natasha shrugged. "This person is going to keep threatening us until they do something, so we might as well beat them to it."

"Do you think it's Maria?"

Natasha shook her head. "I asked straight away last time, and she denied it. I believed her, because she's got someone new now, and she honestly looked happy."

"You saw her?"

"You know that day you were crying in the hallway?"

"You told me to breathe," I smiled, "You called me baby."

She pulled me into a hug as she continued. "I couldn't help it. If Wanda wasn't there, I would have probably scooped you up and taken you home." I nuzzled in her neck and she hugged me tighter. "When you saw me, I bet you noticed how tired I look, and that was because I had just come back from my drive, and I was so exhausted after talking to Maria. It really showed me how special you are, because I could never tire of talking to you."

I kissed her neck and she kissed my head. "So, it's not Maria."

"No, baby, it's not her."

"Well, no matter who it is, I'm not letting them win. I'm with you until the very end." I meant every word because I knew that I would never let Natasha go ever again. She was it for me, so I wanted to fight with everything I had in order to keep her.