Finding Love Again

Chapter 5

Livy was bouncing up and down with excitement as Steve and she walked up to Wanda's apartment. She had been waiting for this all day long. Steve had a little bit of a struggle putting her down for her nap, but she finally did when Steve told her that time would go by faster if she fell asleep.

Steve rang the doorbell, and shortly after, Wanda opened the door.

"Auntie Wanda!" Livy exclaimed. She jumped up and Wanda caught her. Livy started kissing Wanda's cheek.

"Hey, Maggie! Did you miss me?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah!"

"She actually couldn't wait to get here. She was practically bouncing off the walls at home," Steve added.

"Hi, Steve, come on in," Wanda said, remembering her manners. "How have you been? Did you sleep last night?"

"I've been fine, and yes, I slept a little bit last night."

Wanda eyed him carefully. "I hope you did. You know you need to sleep appropriate hours. We don't want you passing out from lack of sleep."

"Relax, Wanda. I was in the army. Remember?"

"Yeah, but still one needs to sleep."

Steve decided to switch the subject. "Who all is here?"

"Just your partner in crime." As if on cue, Bucky came walking out of the kitchen.

"Hey guys! Long time no see. What's been going on?" Bucky asked. In reality, they had seen each other the week before, but for the two friends, it seemed like a long time.

"Well, a couple of things have happened since last week, but I think we should wait for Pietro to get here so that we can all catch up together."

Bucky nodded, and he looked over at Livy. Seeing that she was passionately hugging Wanda, he asked, "Well, Livs, where is my hug?"

She looked at Bucky and snuggled closer to Wanda. "I want to stay with Aunt Wanda."

"Olivia, give your Uncle Bucky a hug," Steve told her.

"It's ok. She wants to be with Wanda right now. I'll get my hug from her later."

A couple minutes later, Pietro and his girlfriend Allison arrived. After greetings were exchanged, Wanda called everyone to the dining room table. On the table there was lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. Everything smelled delicious. Once everyone was seated at the table, they started passing each other the food to serve themselves. Everyone was enjoying catching up with each other.

Sometime in the middle of the meal, Wanda remembered that Livy was going to go look at a ballet school, so she decided to ask about it. "Hey, Maggie, what happened about the ballet school?"

Livy's eyes immediately brightened. "I'm going to take classes," she announced, gleefully.

"Oh, that's so nice!"

Bucky turned to look at Steve. "When were you going to tell me that you had enrolled her in a ballet school?"

"I was going to tell you, but I just enrolled her yesterday. Sorry."

"I'm just kidding with you."

Livy didn't really like it that the attention had steered away from her, so she decided to say something interesting. "I already met my teacher. Her name is..." she frowned. "Daddy, what did you say her name was?"

"Umm," Steve looked down at his plate. "Let me think." Once again, he didn't want to make it obvious that he knew it by answering right away. "Now, I remember. It's Natasha Romanoff."

"Oh right. She's really pretty, and she's really nice. She has red hair."

"Really?" Wanda asked amused. Livy nodded. "What else can you tell me about her?"

"Well, she almost fell, and Daddy saved her! Then they stared into each other's for a really long time!"

A silence fell on the group, and everyone look suspiciously at Steve. Steve started feeling slightly uncomfortable. Breaking the silence, Pietro asked the question in everyone's mind, "Is that so? Care to explain?"

Steve started to poke at his food. He really didn't like being the center of attention especially when it came to this topic. "Well, how could I let her fall?"

"Oh, come on, Steve, don't play dumb. You know exactly what Pietro asked to explain," Wanda said impatiently.

"Well, she was pretty, but I already have Sharon. Nothing happened."

"Sure nothing happened," Bucky said sarcastically.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Well, since nothing happened, we can move on. I'm going to Malibu with Tony, Pepper, and Sharon in two weeks. I need you Wanda to take care of Livy."

"Well, I have to work during the day. Who will take care of her then?"

"Don't worry about that. She'll be in ballet class from 10 to 11; then either one of you guys can pick her up. I'll leave that up to you guys to decide. I just want to know if you'll be willing to help out."

"Of course we'll help out!"

"Yeah, Wanda's right. We're more than happy to help," Allison confirmed. "I could take her to class in the morning because I don't go into work until 10:30. Someone else would have to pick her up."

"We can take turns picking her up," Bucky suggested.

"That's fine with me," Pietro agreed.

"That's more than fine with me. I'd really like to see Livy's ballet teacher-I mean-ballet school," Wanda eagerly said.

"Don't get any ideas," Steve told her.

"No, I won't. Well, anyone up for dessert?"

Everyone said they were, so Wanda went to get the brownies she made and some ice cream. Things went by smoothly for the rest of evening. It would seem that everyone forgot about what Livy had said, but it was not so. Both Wanda and Bucky told Steve before he left that they needed to have a long talk. That meant that he not only had to talk to Stark but also to his sister and his best friend. At least Wanda and Bucky didn't know about the drawing he drew. He was a little bit nervous that Livy would also say spill that, but lucky for him, she didn't. As long as Sharon doesn't find out about this, everything would be ok or would it?

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Here is the last chapter I have written so far. The updates may not be so frequent now. While you're waiting for the next chapter, I would love to read what you think of the story so far.