An Act of... Love? [An Avengers Polyamorous Fanfic]

Chapter 22

"Are you joining us for dinner?" I turned to Wanda and Nat, "Can he join us for dinner?"

Stephen went to say something, but the girls both said that he could join, causing Stephen to force a smile. "I would love to," he said. It didn't feel like he was being truthful, but I was glad for the chance to repay him in some way.

"Great, I'll cook!" I said excitedly. "I just need to go drop Aella off at my apartment," I said as I started walking towards the door, Wanda and Natasha instantly following me and sticking close to me. Stephen followed, too, after a moment.

We all went to the elevator and I told Stephen he could come to my apartment while I dropped Aella off if he wanted to. "Oh, and Wanda! The construction is done, so if you want to help me out like you'd offered feel free, the shelves are rather empty right now," I told her with a giggle. The three of them followed me to my apartment, and when I opened the door the furniture was all there just placed in the entrance area.

"Whoops looks like I missed them delivering everything," I giggled as I skirted around everything and headed over to my bookshelves. I placed Aella on the highest shelf that I could reach, but there were still three shelves above that. Being only five feet tall did not bode well for being able to reach high shelves. My three guests were busy looking around at my apartment, which honestly looked brand new. In one day, the construction crew had built all of my bookshelf room dividers, painted, and replaced my kitchen cabinets.

"This looks nothing like a typical Stark Tower apartment," Stephen commented looking around in awe as I smiled over at him.

"Tony offered to get me construction when I moved in. It'd been too open of a space for me before. I like things tight and cozy," I explained to him with a giggle. "I have a few plans for the place still, but Tony made sure the major parts got done." Stephen nodded.

"Do you need any help with the furniture?" Stephen questioned. I looked at the pile of furniture and laughed.

"I certainly will, but you've already helped me plenty," I motioned at where Aella's urn now was. "I will probably get Steve and Bucky to help me. Ooh, maybe Pietro," my brain trailed off, wondering who'd want to help me.

"I'm sure if you ask at dinner who wants to help, we'll all be in here after dinner moving furniture," Wanda said with a laugh. I blushed as I looked at her.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, why not make a group activity out of it?" she smiled genuinely.

"Alright... if you want to stick around, Stephen, I could purposely not put you to work," I said as I headed for the apartment door once again.

"Sounds like a plan," I heard him say as we made our way to the kitchen. Wanda and I headed to the kitchen, Wanda offering to help me cook since she was decent at it. I took her up on the offer, instructing her to begin making chicken while I decided to bake my secret chocolate chip cookie recipe. Wanda and I may have gotten out of hand once we got into the groove of cooking because by dinner time our counters were filled with different food options and desserts.

"Maybe we went overboard," I giggled to her, wrapping my arms around her waist as she finished preparing a salad.

"Eh, no one will mind," she responded, leaning back into me. I liked this - this sort of blissfully domestic harmony we'd fallen into. "We should get Pietro's help for putting it on the table, though," she said. As she mentioned him, the speedster himself stepped into the room.

"Help us out?" I asked with a tilt of my head. He grinned at me, and then the food started disappearing from the counters in a blur. "Accomplished," I murmured to Wanda, pulling my arms back from around her to make my way over to the table.

Everyone was already sitting around the dinner table talking and I smiled. I loved that we did dinner together, it made me feel like I had a family. We all talked and ate to our heart's content.