Agony (Wanda Maximoff)

Chapter 16

||"Do not underestimate the allure of darkness, for even the purest of souls are drawn to it."||

Even after minutes of staring at her hands, Wanda still felt the rush of blood in her cheeks. She had never seen Steve without clothes on before, and although he had a towel tightly wrapped around himself, she still felt as though it was incredibly intrusive of her to see him so bare. It wasn't necessarily her fault, but she still couldn't shake the feeling of jitters crawling along her skin.

Steve stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, and Wanda looked away from him, towards the window where the night sky had grown even darker.

"I'm not naked, I promise," Wanda glanced up at him and realized he was fully clothed. She let out a long breath and tried her best not to smile. "Sorry, I thought you were still sleeping and..."

"You do not have to apologize," she told him, and Steve brushed his hair out with the towel and then set it down on the chair. From where Wanda sat, she could smell his freshly-washed body; pomegranate and coconut laced his skin evenly, making Wanda's mouth water. Steve was made of muscle and courage, and the evidence of that was so obvious at how he carried himself. Before meeting Steve, Wanda had only seen such a man in her dreams, but now, here he was in front of her, in all of his glory.

Wanda shook her head. There was no need to be thinking of Steve in such a way.

"Jump in the shower if you'd like, I'm going to check if the food is ready," he loomed by the doorway before walking off, and Wanda turned to glance at him once more before he disappeared out of the room. She took her free time to look at her bandaged arm to see if it had healed yet. When she pulled back the white bandage, she saw that Pietro's name had turned into wide lines of red scabs, and soon they would vanish from her skin with only light scars to remember it by.

Before the Avengers, and before Pietro's death, Wanda had thought she had suffered the worst when her parents died, but now that she was alone, she solemnly realized that her feelings right now were ten times worse. Steve was kind to her, and so were the others, but they weren't Pietro, and they didn't understand her like her brother did. So now that his name had suddenly appeared onto her skin on it's own, what else was she supposed to think other than her dead brother was trying to send her message from the other side?

It was absurd, Wanda was well aware of that, but how was she supposed to shake the ominous feeling she had?

"Hey, the food is done," at the sound of Laura's voice behind her, Wanda grabbed her sweater and threw it on. She followed Mrs. Barton down to the kitchen where Steve and Clint were preparing the plates. "Come sit, we'll let the boys serve us for a change," Wanda smiled and watched as Steve cut her meat into small pieces. He looked big, and out of place, but she loved seeing him so relaxed. The family-home style suited him nicely.

"I hope you're in the mood for home fries and ham," Clint set down her plate in front of her, and the aroma of freshly cooked food made her stomach turn in excitement.

"Thank you," Wanda said, and she began to eat her food quietly. The tender ham melted on her tongue, and Wanda sighed in relief.

After dinner, Wanda showered and cleaned up her arm. The scabs were still visible, so kept her sweater on, worried that Steve might see if she took it off.

Steve prepared the bed for Wanda, and as she got under the covers, she wondered where Steve was going to sleep. The bed was big enough for the both of them. "Where do you plan on sleeping?" she asked him. He turned to her and rubbed his eyes, and Wanda could see his chest rise at the movement of his arms.

"The couch will be fine," he answered, and Wanda threw the blanket off and waved her hand in the air.

"No, you will sleep here. You will wake with a sore back if you sleep on anything else." Steve smiled down at Wanda as she forced him down onto the bed. Wanda's hands felt dainty against his arms, and even though she could barely move him in an inch from where he stood, her voice was stern enough to move him along. Steve obliged and got into the bed, nuzzling his head against the pillows.