Wanda and Natasha were alone at the compound for the weekend. Everyone had gone off for some personal time but Wanda still felt behind the others in training so she wanted to stay and continue to workout in the gym. Of course Natasha stayed with her to help her train. The Sokovian had tried to tell Nat that she didn't need her to hang around for the weekend, that she deserved some time away as well and she would be fine not slipping for a couple days. But the woman refused to leave her, telling her that they would go away together when Wanda was ready.
For now they were in the kitchen after their morning training with Natasha making them smoothies. The redhead slid a strawberry smoothie across the counter to Wanda and asked, "Any other plans for today?"
"Afternoon workout session?" Wanda asked, taking a sip of the frozen drink.
Natasha shook her head, "You need to rest and relax too, do something fun.. I saw there was a carnival in town and was wondering if you wanted to go."
"I'm not little." The witch said, wiping at the condensation on her glass.
Natasha kept her sigh to herself, waiting a beat before continuing. While little Wanda had fully immersed herself in with the Avengers- plastering herself to Nat, hanging off of Steve like a jungle gym, having tea parties with Pepper, playing hide and seek with Sam and Vision- big Wanda still held a few reservations, thinking of herself as a burden to the others on the occasion. The Widow wished she could convince the younger woman that she welcomed all parts of Wanda. She said steadily, "There is a little section of the carnival if you'd like, but I was thinking the two of us could just go. There are plenty of things for us to do there.. Unless you don't want to go with me. That's fine too."
"No!" Wanda said a bit too forcefully before clearing her throat and dialing it back, "I mean, no. I'd want to go with you. I just thought.."
She let her words trail off but Nat didn't need her to finish her sentence to know what she was thinking. The spy gave her a patient smile. She would go over this with her for as many times as it took, "I like hanging out with you, Wanda. I want to hang out with you. I'm not just trying to be nice or waiting for little Wanda to appear. I like you."
The witch's cheeks went pink and a shy smile tugged at the corners of her lips, "I like you too, Tasha."
"So.." The redhead raised a playful eyebrow at her, getting back to her original proposal of going to the carnival.
"I've never been to a carnival before." Wanda admitted, clearly looking enticed.
"Then we have to go." Nat declared, "We'll go on rides, eat fried food, play games. I'll even win you a prize at one."
"Yeah, okay." The brunette finally agreed, "I'd like that."
"Great. Finish your drink, then we can get cleaned up and go." Nat said with a broad grin.
----
About an hour later Natasha and Wanda were driving down the road in the Widow's cherry red convertible with the wind whipping up in there hair. Wanda laughed as Natasha sang along to some top-40's song that she was surprised the woman knew the words to. It wasn't a long drive to the carnival. It was a quick 20 minutes into town only for them to end up going right back out on the other side another 10 minutes to a large field where the carnival had been set up.
As Nat pulled into the designated parking lot on the grassy field, Wanda looked in wonder at the slowly spinning Ferris wheel and other rides, the colorful tents, and the smell of fried food wafting on the breeze along with the chatting laughter and occasional high pitched scream of excitement. She peered over the sun glasses Nat had let her borrow, "Wow, it's so.. vibrant."
Natasha nodded in agreement and teased, "You want to head in or just look at it?"
Wanda looked over to Nat, not realizing she had already gotten out of the car. Quickly she jumped out and joined the woman as they walked toward the entrance together. There was a short wait for them to buy an all-access wristband for the rides but then they joined the crowd of people walking through the corridor of games with vendors calling for some one to step right up to come and play their game.
Once in the throng of people, Wanda became a little nervous and shifted closer to Nat. The Widow must have noticed because she easily took Wanda's hand into her own to keep her from getting lost. The connection helped and the Sokovian started paying attention to the games they passed, a ring toss, a water gun game, target shooting. She turned to the spy, "Aren't we going to play any games?"
"Oh no, not yet." Natasha swung their hands, "You don't want to win a prize too early because then you'll have to carry it around all day. Don't worry, I have a plan."
"What is the plan then?" Wanda asked.
"First rides, you always want to do rides first so you don't get sick." Nat replied, "Then food followed by games and we end with a ride on the Ferris wheel. How's that sound?"
The witch just smiled, "I trust you."
"Good." Natasha returned the smile.
They got to the section with the rides and started out easy with the carousel. It was a simple ride but Wanda couldn't keep the grin off of her face as the horse she chose bobbed up and down and neither could Natasha. They went on a spinning ride next that whirled them around and had them laughing on it and laughing off when they climbed out of the cart all wobbly legged. There was a small rollercoaster that Wanda was a little wary of, but Nat convinced her to give it a try. The brunette had a death grip on Nat's hand the whole time but when it was over she immediately wanted to go again.
They bounced around the section, riding and re-riding some of them until finally they were hungry and it was nearing dinner time. They went to the food stalls and Nat got them hot dogs and French fries. They were walking to get take a seat at a picnic table to eat when they passed an alcohol tent.
"You want a beer?" Nat asked.
"Can I?" Wanda tilted her head curiously. She hadn't had a chance to try beer before.
"Of course you can." The Widow said, "You're old enough. At least right now."
She threw in a wink and swung around to grab them two beers as well. Finally they sat. Wanda was relieved to be off her feet, not realizing how tired they had been getting. Nat tapped her plastic cup to Wanda's in a casual cheers then took a swig. The brunette followed suit. She pulled back the cup in surprise at the sharp, bread-like taste as the foamy drink tickled her tongue. Nat watched her amused, "What do you think?"
"It's different." Wanda took a more tentative sip, "It's good.. I think."
She laughed a little at herself and Nat smiled wider, "You don't have to drink it if you don't want to."
"No, I want to try." She determined to give it more of a chance. She was glad she did because she got used to the taste and was cold and refreshing as the early evening still held onto the heat of the day. It also started to warm her cheeks and relax her as Nat told her humorous stories about Clint that made her laugh more than the rides had.
Their food was gone and Nat stood, declaring, "I'm going to get us a funnel cake. It's just down there. You okay here for a moment?"
"I'm good." Wanda nodded, not quite ready to get up. The redhead squeezed her shoulder as she went off to get the dessert. The witch watched the people go by and finished her beer that had turned a bit warm now. As she set down the empty cup a voice made her jump, "Hey there pretty lady. Can I buy you another one?"
The Sokovian looked to her right to see a man standing there, leering at her. He wasn't bad looking, but there was something off and twisted about his demeanor. Immediately she shook her head, "No, thank you, I'm just waiting for-"
"Come on now." He interrupted her and came closer. "It's just a beer."
Wanda shifted away the best she could as he leaned on the table right next to where she sat. She tried to project firmly, "Like I said, no thank you."
"Don't be like that, babe. I'm trying to be nice here." The guy continued to look her up and down in a way that made her cringe with disgust and now a little bit of fear. The way he leaned on the table made it difficult for her to get out of the bench seat and she was beginning to feel trapped.
"Leave me alone." She glared but he just laughed, but it wasn't a pleasant sound. It sounded cruel.
"Why would I want to do that?" His hand moved forward to possibly touch her hair, Wanda flinch back, but his hand never made it. The brunette blinked and suddenly Nat was there, twisting the offending appendage painfully behind the man's back. He cried out in pain as Nat said darkly, "You shouldn't touch people without their permission."
"What the hell lady?! Get off me!" He shouted and tried to break her hold but couldn't.
The Black Widow didn't let up though, "When someone says no, it means no. Do you understand?"
"Yes.." He finally gritted out. Nat released him and shoved him forward so he stumbled and fell into the hard-packed ground. Apparently the man didn't know when to quit as he popped up and made a wild swing at Nat who easily dodged the punch and landed her own solid blow to the guy's jaw. Already unsteady on his feet the man toppled over, running into a metal trash can and knocking it over with a bang. He blinked, dazed for a moment and stunned that the woman could get the best of him. With a dirty look, the man finally scampered off with his tail between his legs.
Once he had left, Natasha spun to look over Wanda, her hardened expression melting away to sweetness and concern for the younger woman, "Are you alright, detka?"
She cupped Wanda's cheeks with her hands and looked at her searchingly. The witch was relieved for Nat to have swooped in to help her. She pushed through her hands and hugged the woman, pressing her face into her shoulder and mumbling, "I'm fine Tasha.. thank you."
She soaked in the comfort of having the other woman holding her close. Nat spoke softly into her hair, "I'm sorry, sweetheart. You're really okay? He didn't touch you? Do you want to go home?"
Wanda shook her head, secretly smiling at the Widow fussing over her. But her initial fear had truly faded and she didn't want one bad moment to ruin their day, "I'm okay, really. He was just a jerk. I want to stay."
"Okay, good." Nat breathed out, relaxed now that she had been convinced the younger woman was indeed fine. Wanda didn't pull away though immediately and neither did Nat who maybe needed more reassurance that Wanda did at that point.
The Sokovian did eventually pull back a bit, "Tasha, where is the funnel cake?"
"I-" Nat looked perplexed for a moment before remembering, "I dropped it when I saw that guy bothering you."
"Oh." Wanda said then laughed suddenly, not sure what was so funny about it but Natasha laughed too.
When their laughter died down, the redhead stood and took her hand, "Let's go get another one."
They went to together this time to buy it and ended up getting some pink cotton candy as well. Wanda loved the funnel cake, the fried dough with powdered sugar on top was delicious. She liked the cotton candy too but they saved most of it for later and headed to try their luck at some games.
Nat warned that the games would be difficult to win, that most of them were rigged so that people couldn't win and would keep pouring their money into them. But they still had fun watching the ping pong balls bounce around the fish bowls but never go in, and the rings never quite staying around the milk bottles. Finally they got to the air rifle game and Nat gave her a slightly devilish grin, "Which prize would you like?"
Wanda gazed at the rows of stuffed animals waiting to be claimed and her eyes landed on the biggest one there, a perfect white unicorn with rainbow colored mane and gold horn. She pointed, "That one."
"The unicorn?" Nat asked and Wanda nodded. The redhead put her money on the counter for the man, "What do I have to do to get the unicorn?"
"6 shots in a row. Then you have to hit the duck." He informed them sliding the $5 bill she had given him into his apron. The game had endless moving targets on the bottom and above was an erratically moving duck with a target on it as well that would be impossible for most people to hit.
"I don't know, detka.. Seems pretty tough." Nat clicked her tongue and winked at her, saying, "How about the little alien instead?"
Wanda bit the inside of her cheek lightly to stop from laughing and put on a faux pout, "Please Tasha. I really want the unicorn."
Nat did laugh, "Alright, I'll give it a go."
The Black Widow raised the rifle to her shoulder and easily knocked down the six targets in a row. She took a moment longer to track the ducks movements before taking her shot and the ping of the pellet hitting it signaled her victory. Natasha had a smug grin on her face and Wanda smiled happily and rocked up on her toes with excitement despite knowing with almost certainty Nat would have won.
"We have a winner!" The carnival worker announced loudly, "See folks, it's a game of skill. Step right up and see if you've got what it takes."
He then got a long stick with a hook to pull down the large stuffed animal and handed it to Wanda. The unicorn filled her arms and she looked over it at the redhead, "Thank you Tasha. I love it."
Doing her best to move the toy out of her way and press a kiss to Nat's warm cheek. If Wanda didn't know any better, she would say that Natasha blushed as she said, "You're welcome.. Are you ready to go on the Ferris wheel?"
"Yeah, I'm ready." Wanda said as she rested her head on the unicorn's, knowing her little self would love it.
It was dark outside now and the carnival was all aglow. The pair waited in the line for a bit but soon found themselves in the one of the compartments on the wheel. The ride started its lazy spin carrying them high above the glittering, colorful lights of the carnival and into the dark calm of the night sky with its delicate, pinprick stars. After a few go arounds the wheel started to stop periodically to let people off. When Nat and Wanda were stopped at the very top the women looked up, the spy putting her arm around the witch's shoulders. Wanda rested her head on Nat's shoulder, "Thank you for today. It was really wonderful."
"You don't need to thank me, Wanda." The redhead insisted, "This was wonderful for me too."
"Yeah, but still.." Wanda realized whatever she was trying to say didn't matter and trailed off.
"But still." Nat replied in agreement, kissing her temple before going back to enjoying being in the sky with Wanda for a little bit longer.
//
Just remember that on that Ferris wheel with them is a large unicorn plushie. I won't stand for unicorn erasure. So no Little Wanda, but still some bonding(?) for the ladies. Are we interested in more chapters like this?
Anyways, hope you liked this one even if it's a bit different.
Until next time! ~Raven