WORK OF ART ▹ W. Maximoff ¹ ✓

━ xxv. guardians (but not of the galaxy)

"Vision," Fury looked to the synthezoid. "I want you to do an internet search on as many parenting sites as you can."

"Yes, sir." Vision bowed his head.

"What about the consequences Steve mentioned?" Nat's brows furrowed. "We could take Aleyna's devices, but what about Wanda? What do we do with her? Take her powers?"

"Hide the TV remote." Steve snapped his fingers as the thought come to mind. "She likes watching TV. Unplug all of the wires and take the remote."

"And if she tries to use her mental manipulation?" Fury disputed, crossing his arms. "What's next?"

"Dr. Selvig could form some sort of technology that makes the five of us susceptible to her power?" Vision shrugged, the three Avengers looking at him in confusion. "Five?" Nat questioned.

"Mr. Wilson, Mr. Rogers, Dr. Fury, Agent Romanoff, and I. I severely doubt that she'd try to control Miss Tunikova."

"Well, case closed." Fury concluded, a small, yet proud, smirk forming on his face. "Romanoff, Rogers, go get Selvig to start building. Vision, start searching the web. When it's time, I'll get the remote, because-"

"Everyone listens to Fury." The three finished with an exasperated sigh.

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"What'd you need to know?" Aleyna inquired after sitting on Wanda's bed, the Ukrainian girl summoning ice to surround the door handle and close it. "The way your face dropped... it sounds important. What happened?"

"When we got to the compound," Wanda began, swallowing the lump in her throat. "You started talking about Operation IcyHot. Re-explain it again?"

"Well, we were holding hands while you slept. My hand started to tingle, so I go to look at it, and your red swirly glowy things surrounded my hand. But the thing is, they didn't hurt." Aleyna recalled, looking down at her hands as Wanda sat beside her. "Just a weird tingle. It was...warm, almost like a bubble bath. I thought about Fury and the operation, so I pulled over and parked near a tree since we were in the woods. I know, sounds like the setup for a horror movie, but it was four am, and I wasn't thinking. I summoned my little ice stars and your glowy things went into it."

"Into it?"

"Yeah! Like, it was surrounding it, and I watched as it went inside of my star. I threw it out the window, and it hit a nearby tree. The bark burned, but it had ice on it. It was like a mix of-"

"Hypothermia and heatstroke." Wanda joined in, their voices syncing.

"Why'd you ask?"

"What if," Wanda pointed to Aleyna's power stabilizing ring, her finger slowly rolling over the small link in the middle of it. "What if the ring had to do something with it? I mean, it keeps you from destroying everything... what if it also helps you destroy everything?"

"How would that work?"

"I dunno." Wanda bit her upper lip briefly. "I dunno. I don't even know if the ring thing is right in the first place."

Aleyna and Wanda quieted, both trying to brainstorm ideas as to how they made the hot ice. The Ukrainian girl looked down at her ring, the light from the dim lamp beside Wanda's bed bouncing off of it. She continued to stare at it, racking her brain for anything that could help the two of them.

As the girls contemplated on their situation, Nat paced around her room as she pulled her phone from her back pocket. After pressing the buttons quickly, she held the phone up to her ear, her finger tapping the back of it impatiently. She waited, listening to the dial tone while praying for an answer.

"Romanoff."

"Stark." She began sternly. "Did you-"

"Yes." He interrupted, and Nat could almost feel his signature sly grin. "Yeah, I did. Did Aleyna get a picture? Y'know what, it's fine. I can imagine you grinding your teeth right now. That should keep me warm through the winter."

"Stark, you know damn well that you shouldn't have helped them." She snapped at him through gritted teeth, forcefully moving the translucent curtain out of the way to look out of the window. "You knew the risks more than they did. What the fuck were you doing?"

"Look, if I thought they were gonna be stupid and get hurt, I wouldn't have done it." Tony explained, his fun demeanor soon replaced with an uncharacteristically stern one. "I would've blocked their number and moved on with my life. But you're keeping them captive and expect them to listen to you. It pains me to say this, but they're really damn smart. I knew they were gonna do it right. I knew they'd never let anyone know who they are. For some ridiculously unusual reason, I trusted that they'd make it out alive. And they did, didn't they? Not only did I help them have fun, but I also got you and Rogers pissed. So, win-win for everyone."

"No! Not win-win! Stark, you can't let two kids run around New York for fun!" She retorted, having to lower her voice to keep from yelling. "I know you wanna get under everyone's skin, and that's fine, but leave the kids out of it."

"The kids? Wow, Nat. You're going soft. You're thinking like a mom. Honestly, embarrassingly enough, it's sorta sweet." He let out in a sing-songy voice. "Look at Romanoff, growing up."

"You're forgetting the part where they could take out half of New York with one wrong sneeze."

"Why didn't you watch them more?

"Why couldn't you just say no?!" She exclaimed through gritted teeth yet again. "You're the adult that could've said no."

"Nat, they're children. They're gonna make stupid mistakes and do dumb shit. Take it from me and my experience; it's better to learn through fucking up. This isn't gonna be the last thing they do, so you and the rest of the team better start building your fortresses." Tony advised sharply before hanging up.

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word count: 1573
a/n:

Yeah, Tony, we already know you fucked up ✋🙄

feb 4th 2022 edit: WE ARE NUMBER ONE IN #SCARLETWITCH.
HUHHH?? bruh- i only started writing in october!
thank you guys so much for everything!

-V <3