How To Save A Life | Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanoff

3.

After the kerfuffle based around eating, Wanda retreats back to her bedroom, intending to make more marks on herself. The shooting pain going up and down the places she'd normally burn her skin becomes unbearable. It's like something inside her is telling her to hurt herself. Begging her, actually.

However, when she goes into search for her lighter, she realizes that it's gone and is now in a panicky state, knowing that her strongest form of release has been taken away.

"Lose something?" a smug voice asks, causing the witch to turn around to face the doorframe, where she sees Natasha standing with the baby blue device in her hand.

Wanda takes a deep breath, steadying herself so she doesn't do anything she'll regret. "Give it back."

Nat hums, "I think I'll keep ahold of it, thanks."

"It's mine."

"Well, maybe you should have hidden it better. You expect me to find out you're harming yourself and not take away what you're using to do so?"

"I'm not self-harming," Wanda bites back viciously.

The two redheads are on opposite sides of the room, both in stances that show they're ready to fight. Not physically, they wouldn't dream of hurting one another. But they could throw some nasty words at each other if they wanted to.

"You are, though," Nat adds on.

"What?"

"Self-harming."

The one being accused scoffs out of ridicule. There's no way on Earth she'd ever accept that she needs help, yet Natasha is determined to change that and she will go at any cost to do so.

"This isn't good for you, Wands. You know that," Nat continues, the Sokovian shakes her head in disagreement.

"I'm completely fine. I don't even know why you're here. You show up at my house, claim that I have something wrong with me, force me to go out shopping with you and eat something, then you take my property away from me."

Wanda then decides to take action on the matter at hand, walking up to Nat and using her magic to pry the lighter out of her grip.

Of course it works. Natasha is strong, but Wanda's powers are stronger. It's chaos magic, nothing can compete with that. The power she beholds is going to make Natasha's life a hell of a lot harder if she doesn't contain it.

"Hm. Okay. So, you have your lighter back. Watcha gonna do with it?" Nat asks dauntingly, pacing up and down the room slowly to intimidate her friend who, by the way, is pushing her buttons to the limit. It's a good thing Nat is stubborn.

"Don't play dumb, Romanoff. You know what I'm going to do with it and if you don't mind, I'd like to do it alone."

"Ooo, last-naming me. Wow, you're that pissed off at me? That's unfortunate," she remarks sarcastically. "And I do mind. You're not hurting yourself on my watch."

"Oh my god!" Wanda snaps. "Is your plan just to annoy the shit out of me until I give in? Huh? Is that your goal?"

"Yup," Nat pops the 'p' to really make her point stand out.

"Bitch."

"Aww, Wanda. I missed you, too."

Not even a full bottle of wine could placate Wanda at this point. Not only is the intense guilt setting in from eating, but she also has her so-called friend breathing down her neck and winding her up.

Natasha, on the other hand, knows for a fact that the pair could keep up this fight for the rest of the day. The rest of the week, even.

"Listen," the assassin starts, "Your alcohol dependency and the reliance you have on your lighter to make you feel better cannot continue. Because I'm telling you, Witchy, it isn't going to help you for that much longer. At some point, if you haven't already reached it, this will become your normal and that is what they call 'too far gone'. Now, I don't believe in 'too far gone' so I will continue to help you either way, but I will not allow you to get to that point in your life. Not when you can still turn it around."