Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She sat on the bridge overlooking the East River. It was pretty, she thought. Traffic was slowing down as the sun set in front of her. Her brother's death had hit her hard. It had come so unexpectedly, she had laughed out loud when she had heard the news, not believing it at first.

It had only been roughly six years since her parents were crushed in their own home. Since the two had moved to New York for a new start. She was going on two weeks since his death. She was lost without him, dare she say alone. On top of barely being able to speak english, she knew virtually no one. The dark water below was getting more tempting each day.

Until someone joined her up on the bridge the next day, a half hour after she had originally gotten there. “You aren’t going to jump are you?” Her voice was rough, raspy almost, but had a silky edge to it, causing the brunette to whip around to face her so fast she almost lost her balance.

Her hair is a pretty shade of red, and bright green eyes meet her own. Her figure is slim and Wanda takes it in as she shakes her head. “Not now.” She was subconsciously irritated by the heavy accent that came with the words. They sounded choppy.

The redhead takes a seat next to her, crossing her legs, and facing her. “Does that mean you were planning on it?”

She shrugs. “Maybe.” Wanda turns back towards the setting sun, resting her hands in her lap. “Why?” The sunset wouldn't be a bad last sight before death. Especially since it reflected off the water.

“You shouldn’t,” is the only response Wanda gets. She scoffs and shakes her head, refusing to look at the other girl. Maybe if her and Pietro had also been crushed then things would've been better. She wouldn’t be in pain.

Wanda must’ve taken too long to respond because she speaks again. “I'm Natalia.”

“Pretty name for a pretty face,” is the best response she can muster. The girl, no, Natalia, let’s out a small laugh.

“Quite the charmer, aren’t you?” The brunette shrugs and she continues, “how about a name to go along with that?”

“Wanda,” she offers. She hates the way it sounds so drawn out.

“Cute.” They sit there for a while until the sun is fully set. “Need a ride home?”

~~~

Watching the sunset alone had become a very infrequent occurrence now. A month after Wanda had first met Natalia. Her brother wasn't as sharp an ache as it had been. She still wasn’t prone to talking about him, however.

She has found herself enjoying the red heads company more and more. Today, however, something seemed to be throwing Natalia off more then usual. She was tenser than normal and Wanda chalked it up to it being because of the blonde boy standing at her side.

He was definitely taller than both of them, standing a good few heads above Natalia. His build was muscular but slim and he seemed to be evaluating her as she approached them.

Natalia wasted no time, jumping right into introductions. “Wanda, this is Clint. Clint, this is Wanda.”

Clint wasted no time easing into a friendly conversation, clear blue eyes meeting her hazel ones. “Tasha has told me about you here and there, surprising as that is..hey!” He is cut off by Natalia scoffing and punching his arm playfully.

Wanda’s expression changes to confusion at the name ‘Tasha’. Natalia must’ve noticed, but she doesn’t correct him or elaborate for her. Wanda just let it go. The day was smooth from there on, despite Wanda being a bit more quiet than usual.

That night she returned to the bridge for some quiet, or as much as you can get from New York. Quiet from people. She sits with her legs crossed on the edge, hands in her lap just watching the world. Natalia didn’t join her that night and she nearly fell back off the bridge in surprise at she was met face to face with Clint.

He had reached out and grabbed her wrist to keep her up. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to startle you,” he laughs nervously.

“Why are you here?” She questions him, head tilted. As far as she knew he lived on the upper side of the city with Natalia, which was opposite from herself.

“Tasha sent me here to see if you were here. She and I made last minute plans and it was a mutual decision to ask you if you wanted to come along too. You didn’t pick up the phone so she went to your place.”

“Plans for what exactly?” She eyes him skeptically, but maybe he isn’t that bad.

“Bowling. Tasha, me, a few others, and maybe you?” He tilts his head, almost like a puppy would.

She hesitates before answering. She wasn’t particularly busy tonight but she had to get up early for some speech class that supposedly would help her pronunciation (and hopefully lose her accent some). “I suppose. But I cannot stay out too late.”

His face lights up a bit. “Great! Come on, she’ll meet us there. Have you ever ridden a bike?”

“Bikes? Yes, once.” She begins to follow him towards the end of the bridge, trying to remember if she even knew what bowling was. She didn’t think so. She did find out, however, that her definition of ‘bike’ was way different from Clint’s. “This is not a bike.”

“It's Tasha’s bike, actually.” Is the response she gets. Wanda furrows her eyebrows. “You’ve never ridden a motorcycle?”

She shakes her head. “I’ve seen them in the streets before. When I was younger. My brother, he-” She stops mid sentence, a sharp pain present at the thought of him. She noticed Clint giving her a look. “Never mind. How are you supposed to ride this?”

After a few minutes of Wanda refusing Clint’s help to adjust her helmet she finally caved and allowed him too. “Now all you have to do is hold onto me so you don’t fly off. Okay?” They had arrived at the bowling alley ten minutes later.

Wanda’s ponytail had more fly aways than it did and she was pretty sure her arms were wind burnt, despite hiding behind Clint’s back the whole way. She had to admit, it was exhilarating to say the least. Clint turns to face her, slipping off his helmet, hair slightly frizzy. “So? How was it?”

“Better than I was expecting,” she smiles and he returns it.

“Great. C’mon, they’re all probably inside already.” Wanda follows him into the building, sticking close to his back. He nods to the girl behind the counter and starts heading towards the far end of the lanes.

Natalia wasn’t hard to spot, her red mane sticking out among the blondes and brunettes of the group. She was nervous to be in such a big group, it wasn't really her style. Her pace slowed a bit and that was when the group noticed them, waving over Clint and presumably her.

Music was blaring throughout the speakers positioned here and there, two television screens placed above every other lane intersection. It was overwhelming and the place was quite packed (not that she really knew what packed was).

Natalia made her way over to them, greeting Clint with a hug and then turning to Wanda. “You came.” Wanda nods. “We had better get you a ball then.” She follows the red head towards a rack of bowling balls and they start to look for one with a good weight. She settles with a lighter one, the ball a pretty shade of blue with white swirls (not that she really had a choice since it was the only one in that size). She decides the colour is okay, but not her favourite.

Next she’s introduced to the group. Steve is friendly, Tony is snarky, Maria is practical but she seems fun, Thor intimidates her but Bruce is quiet although he doesn't seem to like her much. Sam takes to her right away, offering her a seat and asking for her name.

Tony is tasked with setting up the lanes, writing in what looked like nicknames for some of them. He doesn’t bother for her name, however. Cap, Thor, Bruce, Widow, Falcon, Hill, Genius, Hawkeye, and Witch. She assumed that she was ‘Witch’ and the name kind of appalled her, but he had already started the game.

The name clicked to ‘Hawkeye’. Maria spoke, “Clint looks like you're up.”

“Prepare to get your asses handed to you. Again.”

“Now I remember why we stopped inviting him..” Tony teases and Clint scoffs, grabbing his ball. He walks over to the lane, tossing it down the lane and knocking all of the pins at the end over.

“And that's a strike! Excellent start to the game, wouldn't you agree?” Clint smirks as Witch lights up on the board. She finds everyone staring at her. She picks up the ball awkwardly.

“I-I don’t know how to bowl..” She bites her lower lip nervously, looking at them all.

“Let me help,” Clint speaks and reaches for her hand to lead her over to the lane. “I need some competition anyways.”

Wanda nods, still feeling everyone’s eyes on her. The blonde starts to teach her, showing her the basic stance and throwing in some tips, teasing her playfully. The rest of the group's attention slowly began to waver, but she was almost sure Natalia’s eyes were still on her.

A minute later she pushed Clint away and followed his crash course on stance and tossed the ball down the lane. It knocked over around half the pins. A round of applause came from behind her and she could feel her face heat up. There was no doubt it was bright red.

She pivoted on her toes, yelping as she slipped on the floor, the shoes offered by the front desk sliding out from under her. The ground came rushing up to meet her face and she quickly saved herself, throwing her hands in front of her. Her face burned. Definitely bright red. She picked herself up, refusing to look at any of them as Clint handed her the ball again.

“Try to knock down the rest of the pins,” he instructs. She nods and chooses her footing more carefully, throwing the ball again. The ball went into the gutter and Wanda frowned. “Don’t worry, you have ten more turns. It'll cycle back around to you after everyone else has gone.”

“Okay,” she nods and turns to see her chair being used by Tony’s legs. Clint started to offer her his chair but she shook her head, choosing to stand...until Natalia gestured to her seat.

“Keep it safe for me?” She asked with a wink and Wanda nodded, taking the seat while the red head took her turn.

As soon as she finished, Wanda got up to stand next to the chair to let Natalia sit. And as soon as she did the other girl pulled Wanda into her lap, causing her to squeak. She heard someone wolf whistle and she pretended like she didn't hear it.

She wasn’t sure if the other girl was comfortable with her weight. Wanda couldn’t have weighed more than her, despite the fact she was almost five inches taller. She had exactly gotten a lot of food when she was younger, and pretty recently as well, so she was rather malnourished. “This okay?” Came the silky voice in her ear.

“Yeah. It is,” she responded, allowing Natalia to rest her head on her shoulder and put her hands in her lap.