Word count: 2,322

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The trees passed by in a blur. As for Wanda, she sat unmoving, unblinking. Her eyes didn't even flick from tree to tree. She was completely numb, and she feared to move. Ever since Pietro's death, she hadn't been able to move without feeling needles poke into every millimeter of her skin. Her lungs barely wanted to work, and she sometimes wished they would just shut off so she could see him again.

    Clint glances at her and turns the radio up, since he had caught her listening to the song on the radio a few days before, "Hey, don't you like this song?"

    Wanda just purses her lips and felt her head get light, "I used to like it... Pietro didn't like it, he said the singer's voice sounded like she was afraid..."

    Clint turns the music back down.

    "I'm sorry..." he sighs. He gently reaches over and takes her hand. "What do you feel?"

    "I feel sick..." she says. "Nausea... headaches... my limbs feel..." she stops herself. "You probably don't care..."

    "No, I do care," he says. "I... I miss him too, okay? But I have three little ones who are looking forward to seeing their new Auntie Wanda. I think you'll like Nathaniel. He's just a newborn, he's still in his cutest stage."

    Wanda smiles softly at the thought, despite chills continually sending waves up and down her back. She takes a deep breath and lays her head down on the door. She did like little kids, and babies were the epitome of little kids. They were small and helpless, and so, so cute. She had always wanted to have children. Clint turns the music up again after the song Pietro didn't like ends. She was pulled from her thoughts by the noise, and she looks at him with a bit of a worried look. She whispers softly, "Clint... why are you bringing me to your home?"

    Clint just shrugs, not saying a word.

After about a minute of some shitty song playing on the radio, he drives through a small town and says, "We gotta stop for gas... you can go into the gas station and get something to eat or drink or something."

    He pulls into a gas station and hands Wanda a ten dollar bill. She bites her lip softly and gets out of the car.

    "No booze, though!" Clint calls. Wanda rolls her eyes as she walks into the gas station. It felt pretty good to stretch her legs, especially since she kept them so close to her chest throughout the whole ride. Once inside, she just took a second and stretched her arms too. The whole gas station smelled like piss and Febreze, but Wanda honestly didn't care. She then gets to the fridge where they kept all their drinks. Her eyes hover over the beer and a small smile goes on her face. Clint had given her one instruction, and as much as she hated the taste of beer, she kind of wanted just to piss him off. She then moves on and looks at the other drinks. They were mostly energy drinks and sports drinks, neither of which appealed to her. She keeps walking and finally comes upon something she actually would drink, an orange cream soda. They didn't have them in Sokovia, but she remembered that, during their vacation to Istanbul when she was eight, she had one. They were pretty good, from what she remembered. Pietro had tried a root beer for the first time and it terrified Wanda, since she thought it was actual beer. She remains silent and expressionless as she grabs the bottle.

    By the time she had bought it, some candy and returned to the car, twenty minutes had passed, since she had taken a while to pick out her candy as well. Clint was texting his wife and looks at Wanda, "Did you stop a robbery or something?"

    Wanda rolls her eyes, "I just couldn't make up my mind..."

    Clint starts driving again, saying, "We're only about an hour away. You can take a nap if you want, but you'll have to be alert when we get there."

    Wanda nods slowly and uses her hexes to open her drink, since she never trusted the tops on soda bottles. She turns up the music and doesn't notice Clint look at her, since she already seemed to be healing a bit. That made Clint smile. Maybe all she needed was to get away from that facility. She had been cooped up inside there for days, and it seemed that an orange soda was enough to get her pretty happy. Clint rolls down both windows, making her eyes seem to light up just a little bit. She puts her arm out the window and closes her eyes, letting the wind hit her face. She was quiet for a moment, mostly still, before Clint feels someone touch his arm. He hears a soft voice say, "Thank you..."

    Clint looks at Wanda with a soft smile as she pulls her hand away, feeling the wind again. As odd as it is, the wind made her nauseous, but the same type of nauseous that she always got when her brother used to carry her. It was a bittersweet feeling, and she yearned to feel it again, to be reminded of how he felt.

    When the wind ceased beating against Wanda's face, she slowly sat up. She looked around, her eyes taking a moment to adjust to the light before she finally saw the house ahead of her. She furrows her eyebrows, "Are we here?"

    "Yep," he says as he puts the car in park. Wanda slowly gets out of the car.

    "Should we go in, then?" She looks at the man. Clint noticed how her blissful demeanor had fizzled out, leaving behind a look of slight fear and the familiar numbness in her eyes. He sighs.

    "Yeah. I'll get your bags, but the others are already inside. Go ahead," he says. He watches the brunette leave, tentatively walking to the house.

    As Wanda enter's the house's threshold, she feels the sun dance on her skin. It felt soft and inviting, but also burnt a little. She goes inside as soon as possible and was immediately met with two children running right past her, hurrying out to greet their father. Wanda starts looking around with her arms hugging her torso, feeling awkward. The whole room smelled like cinnamon and sawdust, an odd combination, but it was kind of comforting. It was a mix of neutral tones that were surprisingly calming, and small splashes of color, like the assorted Hot Wheels that were left about, or a broken Lego house under a chair. The lounge was mostly empty, spare for Natasha, who Wanda surprisingly ill-conversational with. Whenever they spoke, it was because they needed to. The reason why was a complete mystery to her, to both of them, in fact. Wanda wasn't in the mood to talk, so she was quite thankful for that.

    Soon a woman, obviously Laura based on her recently deflated belly, approached Wanda, smiling, "Hey. We don't have enough rooms, so it looks like you'll have to either bunk with someone else or find a couch..."

    "Laura, we worked it out," the voice of Steve Rogers says from a hallway. "Tony will be bunking with me, Wanda will be taking his old room. We have it all set up."

    Wanda stays quiet and just shrugs without saying a word. She frankly just didn't want to speak, since every conversation she had seemed to end in awkward silence to her being reminded of her brother. God, she missed her brother...

    Clint walks into the house, and the loud, obnoxious squeak from the porch door pulled her out of her thoughts. It then snaps closed at the same volume. He looks at the door and then at Laura, saying, "I guess we have something to fix."

    She walks over to him, giving him a kiss on the cheek, "Fine. But after that, no more projects."

    "I mean, we could use a little more water pressure..." he says. "I could install a new water heater..."

    Laura playfully glares and gently hits the back of his head, "Fine."

    Wanda watched with a soft smile. They were kind of cute, she thought. She then sees a little girl run in, with her hair in a tight and neat bun on top of her head.

    "Daddy! Daddy! Look what Auntie Nat did! She said I can start super spy training now that I have super spy hair!" She grins.

    "That's great, Lila," Clint chuckles. Wanda keeps watching, smiling softly. Clint looks at Wanda and says. "Meet Aunt Wanda. She'll be staying with us for a while."

    "Aunt Wanda?" Lila asks. "Cool! Can she show me how to be an Avenger?"

    "I'm not so sure..." Clint teases. "She's more trained in magic than combat... why don't you show her, Wanda?"

    Wanda smiles softly and puts a hand near Lila's face. As she spun a hex in her hands, Lila's eyes widen in amazement. She hears a soft 'Woah...' escape the child's lips before she dismisses the hexes. Wanda was grinning softly, despite the bags hanging from under her eyes. A new thought made its way into her head: Yeah, maybe this place would be good for her.

    The redhead herself ran downstairs, a wide grin on her face as she had a boy, a little older than Lila, on her back. She was laughing as she says, "Help! I'm under attack!"

    Wanda smiles a little wider, despite her and Natasha not exactly being on great terms. After Wanda stole Nat's jacket for the battle, she wasn't forgiven.

    Clint looks at the boy, "C'mon Cooper, let's get off of her, alright?"

    Cooper gets off, then Lila starts chasing him. After they leave the room, Natasha sits down, panting a little. She looks at Clint, "Has he gotten bigger since I was last here?"

    "No, I don't think so," Clint chuckles. Wanda takes this opportunity to grab her bags and search around for her room. "Maybe you're out of practice."

    She goes to a room without anyone in it and puts her bag down at the foot of the bed. She then closes the door and goes to the bathroom to inspect her features. She looks in the mirror and gently presses her cheekbones, then on her eye bags. They weren't too bad, but she looked almost like she had been punched. They were dark and deep, and she thought they ruined her complexion. She glances at the bed again, wondering if the house would be quiet enough for her to take a nap.

    Her question was promptly answered as she heard the sound of an infant crying.

    "Great..." she murmurs softly. The walls were thin, and she could tell that the baby was quite a few rooms away. Since she didn't hear anyone else move to help. She follows the sound and sees a baby lying in a cradle. She walks to the infant and picks him up gently, holding him against her and swaying softly, making him calm down. As he squirms gently, she slowly walks around the room. Wanda notices a small bib on the changing table, a familiar name on it. She reads it out loud. "Nathaniel Pietro Barton... huh..."

    She looks at the infant, who was almost asleep again. She then walks back to the cradle and lays him down again, saying with a hint of spite, "Of course you're named that... of course..."

    She sniffles and leaves the room, since Nathaniel was calm again. She returns to her room and lays down on the bed. Maybe it would be better if she just went to sleep... maybe that's what she needed. Maybe she just needed some rest. Yeah, she just needed rest.

    As she closes her eyes, she hears a crash from downstairs. Clint had broken a lamp after bumping into a table. It was followed by a loud "Aw, shit!".

    Maybe she needed rest, but then again, maybe she wouldn't get it. Maybe it was her mistake for deciding to come to such a chaotic home, but what else would she expect? It was Clint's. The insanity of every moment should have been expected. She knew it was a waste of time to try to sleep when something would happen every five minutes...

    But then, footsteps approached. She was pulled from her thoughts again as Clint walked in, having been sent on a mission to find the dustpan which was missing from downstairs.

    "You know, there are sheets on the bed for a reason," he retorts. Wanda doesn't respond, half wishing he would leave, half wishing he wouldn't. People had seemed to make a pattern out of that. The world had seemed to want to abandon her. Maybe it was what she deserved...

    She flinched when Clint touched her arm, making her intrusive thoughts fizzle away. She sat up and he pulled the sheets out from under her, then placing them over her.

    "If you're going to take a nap, at least do it properly," he says. "I'll wake you up for supper. Laura's making fish and rice."

    He starts to leave and closes the door. Wanda gets under the sheets and lays down. She then, for some reason unbeknownst to her, begins to cry. It wouldn't be until after she woke up that she would realize why she was crying.

    For the first time, she had felt like someone new cared about her. To him, it was just a little gesture to make her more comfortable.

    To Wanda? It was a little gesture that showed she was loved here. And she hadn't felt that in a long, long time.