Can't Ask, Don't Need, Won't Acknowledge

Chapter 41: Krakow at Dawn

Wanda took a deep breath as she felt the sun hit her from the balcony of their small flat in the middle of Krakow. It was so beautiful and quaint, greenery surrounded by the old style buildings. Krakow thankfully had been spared unlike most of eastern Europe, which had been razed and destroyed during World War two and subsequent conflicts. It reminded her of Sokovia and home. Natasha approached her from behind and pulled the witch back towards her, “You know I don’t like you hanging over the balcony.” She wagged her finger playfully in front of the witches’s face.

Wanda rolled her eyes jovially, “it’s not like I’m in any danger Nat.” She let the red energy pulse from her fingertips to evidence her point.

“No powers,” replied Natasha, lightly slapping at Wanda’s fingers.
“Don’t be jealous,” Wanda leaned back into Natasha’s body, who naturally wrapped her arms around the younger girl. Natasha rubbed Wanda’s shoulder and spoke up, “Come on now breakfast is ready…”

Wanda turned to face the older woman, “It’s bread and avocado, I’m not sure you can say you got breakfast ready…”

“Well I sliced it, and I got the butter out of the fridge so you can actually spread it on the bread,” replied Natasha in a humorous tone finally releasing the girl from her grasp and walking back into the kitchen.

“To be fair, that’s a pretty good attempt at cooking from you,” joked Wanda back.

“Do you want juice or water?” Natasha asked as she opened the fridge in anticipation of Wanda’s answer.

“Is it the freshly squeezed orange?”

“Yeah,” said Nat in response.

“Juice please,” replied Wanda. Natasha poured a short glass with the juice and set it on the table, beckoning the teenager to sit down. Wanda nodded but turned the radio on quietly in order to have some background sound as they ate. She grabbed a piece of bread off the platter and started to butter it before continuing the conversation .

“So what are we doing today?”

Natasha shrugged slightly, “I figured we could just wander around the town. There is a place that apparently does the best hot chocolate in the world.”

“Better not tell Steve that,” said Wanda, before she realised her words and her mood darkened as she remembered the man was still back at the compound.

“You can tell Steve if his is better when we see him next week.”

Wanda allowed Natasha’s words to wash over her and she managed a small smile, “Yeah you are right.”

Natasha smiled back in relief at the fact the witches mood had picked back up again. The week so far had gone well. She managed to hide her hurt at the fact that once again Wanda was switching randomly between calling her Nat and Mama. Natasha knew patience was a requirement in this position, and that the witch wasn’t doing it out of spite or to hurt her.

Wanda spoke her up, “you know Krakow seems oddly familiar, like I’ve been here before.”

Natasha’s attention snapped back to the teenager, “yeah maybe you came as a child, Sokovia isn’t that far from here.”

“Yeah maybe,” replied Wanda, “I don’t really know much about where I’m from…I think my maternal grandfather might have been Polish.”