The Witch's Shadow (Wanda Maximoff x Girl)

Four

"Miss Ray, Miss Romanoff has requested your presence in the kitchen." Jarvis chirped at me.

I groaned and stretched, all my joints protesting from the hard shower. Slowly I got up and left the shower, cracking my back and knees in the process. A quick glance in the mirror told me that my hair would be up today and that's what I did as I went to meet Nat in the kitchen. She had her back to me doing something with stove. Music was playing quietly and she was humming along with it.

I watched her intently; this Natasha was very different then the one I knew. Red Room Natasha would have never been caught dead singing along to a song, let alone in her pajamas. Or cooking. Or standing up for her friends, that would have gotten you killed in the Red Room. I leaned against the island and just watched her. She sounded happy, content. Free. Like she had no worries.

Must be nice,I thought with a slight scoff. The sound made her turn and she smiled when she saw me.

"Morning Ray. How'd you sleep?"

"Oh fabulously," I said sarcastically. "I don't understand how you can sleep with that giant glass wall."

She laughed, something else she almost never used to do. "It takes some getting used too. You could have had Jarvis dim the glass, it helps." She turned back to the stove and started to scoop out whatever it was that she was cooking. She filled up two plates and set one in front of me. A pile of pancakes looked up at me and my stomach greeted them, loudly.

"Since when can you cook?" I took one and rolled it up and shoved it into my mouth, not bothering with silverware.

"It's a new skill," she said as she opened the fridge and pulled out a couple bottles of juice, "orange or apple?"

"Apple, obviously." She slid the bottle to me and I cracked it open, taking a long slug. Nat watched with an amused expression as I, probably very grossly, devoured my breakfast. "Not bad," I told her as I patted my stomach.

"You're going to wish you hadn't eaten so fast in a minute," she took a last bite of her food and set the plate by the sink.

"Why?"

"Because today," she said with a grin, "you get the amazing privilege of being my workout buddy."

"Ugh do I have to?" The last thing I wanted was to spend my first day in the tower in a sweaty smelly gym.

"Well, it's either that or I can have Jarvis lock you in the apartment. Your choice, Ray."

"So what are we working on today? Arms? Legs? Stamina? From what I remember you never could go as long as me in the training center," I teased with a grin.

"Oh Ray," she said as she walked around to my side, "I think you'll find that I can last a very long time." She trailed her hand across my shoulders as she walked towards the door to her room. The contact made me shiver, but not from the half flirt that Natasha had thrown my way. That part was normal, or had been at least. It had been a running game between us to see who could make the other blush, and usually I won.

It was familiar and yet weird to slip so easily into one of our old habits.

"I'm sure that dorky guy from yesterday would want to know that," I tease back, shaking off the chill from her touch. It had been so long since I'd had such casual physical contact that wasn't me beating someone up, that the feeling was strange and made my skin hurt.

She looked over her shoulder and gave me a puzzled look, "who Bruce? We're just friends."

"Oh yeah sure, if you say so." I got up and followed her down the hall. "Come on Nat, the guy looks at you like the sun shines out of your ass." We go into her room and she starts to pull clothes from her closet, throwing a few things on her bed. Her room, I noticed, was a lot smaller than the one she gave me. And there wasn't a glass wall. "So mine is the guest room huh?"

She gave me a sheepish look, "it was too big for me."

"That's what she said."

"Very mature. Here," she handed me a bundle of clothes, "you can borrow these until we get you your own things. Now go get changed, we leave in ten minutes."

"Yes ma'am," I snap a fake salute and turn around and do a dramatic march out. Once back in my room I was blinded by the sunlight coming in through the window. "Jarvis can you dim the window?"

"Of course."

Almost immediately the glass turned a smoky color and the light was cut in half, leaving the room pleasantly dim. "Thank you, that's much better." I took the clothes and put them on the bed and was surprised that Nat remembered my style. She had given me mostly leggings but there was a pair of black jeans, a few dark green t-shirts, a sports bra and some socks. I hold up the bra and sigh. It was definitely too small. But beggars can't be choosers so I stripped out of the pajamas I had found in the wardrobe. The leggings fit perfectly but I had to fight the bra. By the time I got it on and my boobs squished into it Nat was banging on my door.

"Ray! Let's go!"

"Yes drill Sargent!" I yelled back. Throwing on a shirt I went to the bathroom  and rummaged through the drawers until I found a brush. It took a few minutes but I finally got my long hair tangle free. Throwing it up in a bun I head out to the bedroom to find my boots, groaning in annoyance when I find one of the soles falling off.

Tossing them aside, I go out to the living room and find Nat who glances over me and raises an eye at my feet. "No shoes?"

"They got damaged yesterday," I tell her.

She looks sad for a brief moment before going back into her room and coming out a minute later with a pair of black boots. "Here these should fit."

I put them on and they did fit but only just. Natasha had always been smaller than me, and her feet were no different. I took a few steps and heard laughing behind me, "I'm sorry," Nat laughed, "but you look like a baby learning to walk."

"Yeah well you try wearing boots that almost a half size too small," I snap.

She keeps laughs as we got into the elevator and she pressed a button for the 28th floor. The sound of her laughter bounced around us in the steel box and I groan, this was going to be a long day.