Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 34 - Burgers And Lagoon Races

"Ahh, I could stay like this forevermore." Keira mumbled sleepily, her cheek resting against her folded arms on the pool's edge. The lower parts of her hair that touched the water floated around her like a glowing halo, although, she could not see it herself.

"Same here." Natasha hummed in agreement. Her cheek was also resting against her arms, but unlike Keira, her eyes were open, taking in every single detail of the blonde's relaxed face. She still hadn't forgiven herself for failing to rescue Keira during the almost two years that her best friend had been gone, and she would be damned if she let her slip through her fingers again.

Although, she had done what Keira had asked, and given her a little more space. At least, physically. Every time that the blonde left her, to get some more drinks or to ask for a fresh towel, her gaze never left her. A fact that, unbeknownst to her, Keira was well-aware of.

But Keira appreciated Natasha's attempts to stay true to her word, so she stayed quiet about it.

Their retreat in Iceland had already lasted two weeks, but none of them were in any hurry to get back to the States. They knew that work would always wait for them, and Natasha didn't think that Keira was ready to return quite yet.

While the blonde put up a good façade, the trip hadn't just been sunshine and rainbows. She was plagued by nightmares, shooting up from bed in the middle of the night, shaking and sweating like crazy. Sometimes, when she woke up, she didn't know where she was, and it would take several minutes for Natasha to calm her down, to make her realize that she was safe.

And Keira felt guilty about it, disrupting Natasha's sleeping schedule, because she knew she wasn't the only one with nightmares. The only problem was, that Natasha usually stayed very still while having a nightmare. The only way Keira could tell that she was having one, was by the silent mutter and the pearling of sweat on her forehead.

While Keira needed touch in order to ground herself to reality, it was different with Natasha. The redhead was more defensive after having had a nightmare, so Keira always had to make sure that she was somewhat calm before embracing her.

On the journey over, Keira had suffered the first of many panic attacks. Because while Natasha insisted that they could snatch Stark's jet, Keira had insisted on flying commercial, wanting to feel like a normal human being again.

But her plan to feel normal, had failed miserably.

Her biggest worry had been the pressure changes, considering the fact that HYDRA had destroyed the Equalizers she had gotten from Tony. But like a guardian angel, Natasha had pulled out a small case from her front pocket, handing it over to her.

And what was in the case, if not two brand-new Equalizers?

After that, the takeoff wasn't a problem. Keira just leaned her head against Natasha's shoulder, closing her eyes and trying to relax. But that proved to be harder than anticipated. Her mind didn't let her drift off to sleep. No, quite the opposite.

With her eyes closed, every little sound became ten times louder. Every click of the pen on the other side of the aisle invaded her senses as though a gun was being fired. The constant muttering of foreign voices in her head only grew and grew, until she couldn't hear anything else. Mixed with a child's cry from the back of the plane, there was no peace to be found in her head.

"Key, you're alright?"

Keira's eyes snapped open, and she took a shuddering breath, not realizing how much her lungs had missed the oxygen she had been depriving them of.

Natasha glanced down at her, still resting her cheek against the top of the blonde's head, and slowly joined their hands. She hadn't missed how Keira had tensed up, how her breathing shifted between being erratic and holding her breath.