Pyromancy

Chapter 12 - Getting Settled/Acquainted (Interlude 1)

After a little time had went by, it was clear that Wanda was slowly becoming better, both mentally and physically.

The loss of her brother still drained the girl, and there would be times where she broke down and forced herself to stay away from anyone due to fear and regret. But for the most part, Darren and the rest of the team managed to take her mind off of things. Mostly Natasha, Clint and Darren seemed to be the ones more frequently interacting with Wanda.

Clint's involvement may have somewhat due to being, or at least thinking, he was the cause of Pietro's death. Nat's affinity for her was probably mostly because they were the only ladies on the team.

Darren had been one of, if not her closest connection, primarily just because Wanda trusted him more than anyone else, given how kind and understanding he'd been, in the process of helping her adjust to her current life.

He had been doing what he could to help Wanda cope with things since they returned to the compound. He'd hang out with her, socialize with her and keep her company, help her train and better control her power, and other things of that nature.

The pair of them had even had a particularly interesting bonding experience when he'd taken a trip with her to Manhattan, where they'd started off just having a day to themselves, but then intervened in some mayhem that had erupted in that time, assisting someone close to Darren from before his Hydra, then Avenger, days in some lower-stake hero work of their own.*

((*Read Spider-Man: Earth-9576 for the details of that interaction.))

Over the weekend the two had been away, apparently someone had broken into one of the compound's tech warehouses, an act that Sam had supposedly attempted to stop, but  was apparently beaten by the burglar who, according to Sam, could shrink down to almost microscopic size. Naturally, everyone else found out, and each took their turn giving their ally no end of grief over the incident.

In only a week or so's time, Darren had come to find Wanda as good a friend to him as almost anyone else, rivaled only by maybe Natasha, who had always had an "older sister" vibe with him, which he always appreciated.

Currently she sat in her room, silently staring in front for her as she debated getting up and training or laying down all day.

At that moment, Darren was on his way to work out a little bit, whether it was normal workouts, or "Avenger" workouts, he wasn't sure which he was feeling at this point. It occurred to him that he hadn't talked to Wanda much today, so he thought that maybe she'd like to do something with him too.

He walked to her room, softly knocking on the door. "Hey. What's up, I was thinking I'd go get some exercise in. You wanna come?", he asked her.

From the other side, Wanda was quick to respond. "Sounds good!", she called from where she was. Judging by the sounds he heard through the door, he guessed she was getting changed.

When the door opened, he saw that she'd changed into black leggings and a red sports bra, partnered with what he recognized as Pietro's old blue zip-up hoodie. She had also just finished tying her hair up before moving to the door and slowly opening it.

"Hi.", she said with a smile. Briefly taking note of how nice she looked, Darren smiled back. "Hey. Nice to uh, see you dressed for the occasion.", he said, before kicking himself at how that sounded. Shaking it off, he smiled again, and waved her along with him.

He was wearing his own training outfit, composed of a black sleeveless compression shirt, black fatigues, as well as his sneakers, just to walk around the compound.

"So, what are you thinking we could work on today? Combat stuff, power control, field practice, or just regular working out?", he asked her casually. "I was debating what I wanted to do myself already, so maybe you can be my second opinion?", he added, giving a soft chuckle.