Newfound Family

Happy Halloween

Today, Nat drove Steve's truck.

"Hi, Mama." Wanda noticed her mom in the front seat, wearing her usual pair of aviator sunglasses, despite it being the end of October.

"Where's daddy?" Wanda asked, placing her backpack in the back seat. He had told her this morning he would be there to pick her up.

"He's working. Going over some mission briefing with Uncle Clint."

"Oh. Can I sit in the front seat today?"

Nat turned around to smile at her daughter.

"Absolutely not. Not until you're twelve. Why, does your dad let you?"

"Maybe sometimes, but he told me not to tell you." She grinned. She had been asking, with no luck. From her mum, at least.

"Your daddy, I tell you. Such a pushover. Sorry, milaya, I'm sticking to my guns. It's dangerous. Plus, you're still supposed to sit in the car seat. I'll have to have a chat with your dad about that. Sometimes he can't help but be stuck in the 1940s when everything they did was pretty much dangerous."

Wanda climbed into the back seat, clicking on her seatbelt, which no matter how many times she had ridden in a car, still bothered her.

"So how was school today?" Nat asked her daughter in the rear-view mirror.

Wanda shrugged.

"The same. We carved pumpkins, though. I get to take it home tomorrow. Do you think we could put it outside the front doors to the compound?"

"Of course, we can."

"Oh, and apparently I need to dress up for school tomorrow. Jamie and Phoebe said so."

Nat's heart soared. Every time Wanda mentioned her friends, it made her so proud of how far her little girl had come.

"Well, it is Halloween. Any idea what you want to be?"

"No, not at all." Wanda flipped through her newest library book, one she picked out today. Little House on the Prairie.

"I'm sure we can come up with something," Nat said, pulling the car out of the parking lot.

"What are your classmates being?"

"Uh, Jamie's is some Indiana guy, I can't remember. And I think Phoebe's being Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I overheard Julia saying she's gonna be a ballerina I think, oh! And I have to tell daddy this, Michael is going to be Captain America!" She laughed.

Nat chuckled to herself as Wanda chattered on the rest of the way home.

Wanda skipped into the kitchen, noticing Peter raiding the snack cupboard.

"Oh, hey Wanda!" He said, throwing her a granola bar. She didn't catch it, and instead hit her in the chest and landed pathetically on the floor.

"Ow." She said pitifully, bending down to pick up the snack.

"Sorry, how was school?"

She dropped her book bag on the floor, sitting at the table where she was supposed to be doing homework, but instead opening her new library book.

"It was good, what about you?"

Peter slumped beside her.

"Eh, fine." He said, grabbing an apple out of the fruit bowl and spun it like a top.

Nat noticed that neither of them were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

"Hey, homework, you two." She placed a kiss on Wanda's head. "I'm gonna pop into that mission briefing. Please do your work. You too, Peter."