#outcast reader

The kiss ends slowly, reluctantly, like neither of you really wants to pull away but both of you are terrified of what happens if you don’t.

When your lips part, you’re both breathing too hard for such a soft kiss. Bucky’s hands still on the back of your neck intertwined with your hair, your fingers are still curled into his shirt, neither of you move.

For a moment, it feels like the world has narrowed to the space between your mouths, then reality crashes back in. Bucky’s eyes flicker open, and the look in them is raw. Not regret or fear but something messier, something he doesn’t know how to hide. He lets his hand fall away first. You drop yours a second later.

The space between you feels suddenly enormous. He clears his throat, looking anywhere but you. “I…shouldn’t have done that.” Your stomach twists “Oh.”

“No-no, not like that.” He drags a hand through his hair, frustrated with himself. “I wanted to. I’ve wanted to for a long time. I just- “He stops, jaw clenching.

You wait.

He exhales shakily. “I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what you want. I don’t even know what I’m allowed to want.” Your heart stutters “You could’ve asked.” He laughs under his breath, bitter and soft. “I’m not good at this.”

“You’re doing fine.”

“I’m doing terrible” he mutters, “I kissed you when I’m still shaking from a fight, I kissed you when your upset, when I don’t even know if you want me to.” You lean in closer, just enough that he notices. “I kissed you back” you spoke with a soft smile on his face.

He freezes, you continue, quieter “That wasn’t an accident.” His eyes flick to yours, searching. “So…what does that mean?” You open your mouth, nothing comes out.

You swallow “I don’t know yet.” Bucky nods slowly, like he expected that answer but hoped for something else. “Okay.” He stands up giving you space even though it clearly hurts him. You wrap your arms around yourself. “This is…complicated.”

“Yeah.” He says softly. “It is.”  Silence stretches between you, not cold but thick with everything neither of you knows how to say. He finally breaks. “I don’t want to mess this up.” He spoke clearing his throat. “Whatever this is. Whatever it could be.”

Your chest tightens. “Then don’t.”

He huffs a quiet, humourless laugh. “I’m trying.” You nod, because you are too.

The kiss should’ve made things clearer. It didn’t It made everything louder, you left buckys dorm with your pulse still raising, your lips tingling your thoughts a tangled mess of want and fear. You didn’t sleep, you just lay there in the dark, replaying the moment over and over till it was burned into your brain.

Bucky wasn’t doing much better. He says on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor like It might give him answers. His knuckles throbbed, his chest aches, his mind wouldn’t shut up.

He shouldn’t text you, he should give you space and let you think. But every time he closed his eyes, he felt your hands on him, your breath against his mouth, The way you whispered I kissed you back.

It was torture and hope. By 2:17am he cracked. He picked up his phone, opened a new message and typed something, deleted it. Typed something else, deleted that too. Tried again. Deleted that.

He groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Get it together Barnes” He tried one more time, this time he didn’t delete it, he hit send before he could stop himself.

Bucky: Are you awake

You stared at the screen the second it lit up, your heart dropped straight into your stomach, you should pretend you were asleep, but your fingers moved before your brain caught up.

You: Yeah

The three dots appeared instantly, disappeared came back, stopped and came back again. He was struggling, you could practically feel it through the screen.

Bucky: I can’t stop thinking about you, and I don’t know what to do with that.

Your pulse hammered, you typed back with shaking fingers.

You: You don’t have to do anything tonight. Just…don’t disappear again.

The reply came faster than you expected.

Bucky: I won’t.  I promise.

You lay back against your pillow, phone pressed to your chest, heart pounding. Bucky did the same, neither of you slept, but for the first time in days, the ache in your chest felt a little less sharp.

You barely slept.

Every time you drifted off, you dreamed of him, not in some dramatic cinematic way, but in small devastating flashes.

His breath against your mouth. His fingers brushing your cheek. The way he whispered I can’t stop thinking about you.

You woke up flustered, heart pounding, the ghost of his lips still on yours and then your phone buzzed.

Bucky: Morning

Just that, simple and soft. You stared at the message far too long before replying. You repeated his words, before leaving the dorm and hitting send. Beginning to make you way across campus.

You didn’t even make it across the quad before you heard it. Walkers voice, loud, smug, carrying across the courtyard like he wanted everyone to hear.

“I’m telling you, Barnes is losing it over that girl, dude went feral. Like, actually feral. Someone laughed. “What, that freak?” Walker snorted. “Yeah. He’s obsessed. Its pathetic.”

Your stomach twisted, you kept walking trying to ignore it. But then he said, “But apparently she kissed him, practically climbed him, desperate.” You stopped dead, heat rushed up your neck, anger rushing through you.

You turned around, walker was surrounded by a few teammates, basking in their attention like a lizard under a heat lamp. You walked straight toward him, he noticed too late. “Oh look,” he said, smirking. “Speak of the- “

“Shut up.”

The words came out slow and steady. Walker blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” You stepped closer, voice quiet but lethal. “Stop talking about me. Stop talking about him. Stop pretending you know anything about either of us.”

His smirk faltered. You didn’t stop.  “You’re not funny. You’re not clever. Your just loud, and everyone tired of hearing you.”

A few of his friends shifted uncomfortably. Walker’s jaw tightened, “You think barns is gonna back you up.”

You just leaned in closer, you finger poking at the raw bruise blossoming around his eye. “He already did.” Walker’s face went red, you walked away before he could respond.

Your adrenaline was still spiking when you stepped into the school, and that’s when you saw him, standing at the end of the hallway, backpack slung over one shoulder, hair still damp from a shower, looking like he hadn’t slept either.

He froze when he saw you, you froze too. The hallway buzzed with students, but it felt like two of you were trapped in bubble of silence, he took one step toward you, you smiled and carried on walking, you could hear your pulse in your ears, quickly making your way to class. You felt his eyes on you’re the whole way down the hall.

By lunchtime, the whispers had started. You knew this would happen, being around someone like bucky came with the consequence of how popular he was.

“Did you hear? Walker said she threw herself at Barnes.” “Apparently she begged him to kiss her.”

You kept your head down, you didn’t cry, didn’t break, but every word felt like a bruise, and bucky heard the too, you saw him across the cafeteria, jaw clenched, fists tight, eyes scanning the room like he was trying to find you.

When he finally did, his expression softened instantly, he took a step towards you, you turned away not because you wanted to but because you didn’t know how the handle wanting him this much and the attention you were getting for it. You left your tray abandoned on the table.

You didn’t mean to hide, you just needed a minute, a quiet corner a place where walkers voice couldn’t reach you and the rumours couldn’t crawl under your skin.

So, you slipped into one of the empty study rooms on the second floor, the one with the flickering lights and the window that overlooked the quad. You sat on the floor with your back against the wall, knees pulled to your chest, trying to breath past the tightness in your throat.

You didn’t hear the footsteps at first, but you heard your name, soft and frantic. “Hey- hey there you are.” Bucky stood in the doorway, chest rising and falling like he’d rushed after you, his backpack half unzipped. His expression somewhere between relief and panic.

When he saw your face, something inside him broke. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him, leaning against it like he needed it to stay upright. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” His voice low and breathless. “You just…disappeared.”

You looked away. “I needed space.” He nodded slowly, like he understood but hated it. “Okay. Yeah, I get that. I just- “He swallowed hard. “I didn’t want you to be alone with all the crap he’s saying.”

Your jaw tightened. “You heard.”

“Everyone heard.” He said quietly. “And I’m sorry, so sorry.” You shook your head. “Its not your fault.”

“I feel like it is.”  You didn’t answer, he took a hesitant step closer. “Sam told me you snapped at walker.” You let out a humourless laugh. “I didn’t snap, I detonated.” A tiny smile tugged at his mouth, proud even, but faded quickly when he saw the look in your eyes.

He sat down beside you. “Talk to me.”

You stared at your hands, “Everyone thinks I threw myself at you.” His jaw clenched. “They’re wrong, they’re all idiot if they believe anything walker spews”

“They think you only fought walker because you’re obsessed with me.” He didn’t respond because it was true. You finally looked up but he was already looking at you, “Bucky…why did you fight him?” You whispered.

His throat bobbed but he didn’t look away, “Because he hurt you.” He said softly. “Because he made you think id talk to you like that, because he made you doubt yourself, made you doubt me.”

Your chest tightened. “And because” he added, voice just above a whisper. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you walking around thinking you were anything less than…everything.”

Your breath hitched, he exhaled shakily, running a hand through his hair. “I know things are complicated. I know this kiss didn’t fix anything, I know the rumours are awful. But I’m here, I’m not going anywhere not unless you tell met to.”

You stared at him your lip caught between your teeth, slowly you reached out, your fingers brushed his. He froze then carefully, he threaded his fingers through yours. The tension in his shoulders melted like he’d been holding his breath for hours.

“I really want to kiss you again.” You voice was quiet, he smiled, pulling you closer, he didn’t kiss you right away, just held you his forehead dipped towards yours, his breath warm against your cheek. “Tell me to stop.” He murmured.

You leaned in that last impossible inch, and he met you halfway, this kiss was slow, careful. Like he was memorizing the shape of you, the way you tasted, the way your fingers curled in the front of his hoodie. His thumb brushed you jaw, gentle in a way that made your chest ache.

When he finally pulled back, he didn’t go far. His nose brushed yours, his voice barely a breath. “I’ve been losing my mind.” He admitted. “All morning. I though you were avoiding me because of what people were saying.”

“I wasn’t avoiding you.” You whispered. “I just…didn’t know how to deal with all of it.”

His eyes softened, something warm and fierce flickering there. “You don’t have to deal with it alone.” You swallowed, the words catching in your throat. “The stuff people were saying…about you, about us. I don’t want to make your life harder.” He huffed a quiet laugh, shaking his head.

“You think I care what walker or anyone else says? I care about you. That’s it.”

Your heart thudded painfully. “You shouldn’t have fought him.”

“I’d do it again.” He said instantly, no hesitation. “I’m not proud of it, but I’m not sorry either.” You stared at him, stunned by the honesty, he squeezed your hand, grounding you. “Look.” He said softly, “I know this is messy and I know you didn’t ask for any of it. But I’m not going anywhere. Not because I feel like I have to protect you, or because of some stupid rumour. I’m here because I want to be.”

Your breath trembled. “I don’t know what this is.”

“Me neither.” He admitted, a small smile tugging at his mouth. “But I know what I want it to be.”  You blinked “And what’s that?”

He didn’t answer right away, instead he reached up, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. His fingers lingering at the base of your neck, his voice dropped low and earnest. “Something real.”

The room felt too small, too warm. You opened your mouth to respond, but footsteps echoed down the hall, loud fast and getting closer. Bucky stiffened, his hand tightening around yours. “they’re looking for you.” You muttered, Steves voice echoing through the corridor.

He nodded “Probably for you too.” His hand now wrapped tight around yours, his thumb brushing circles on your skin. You exhaled shakily. “I’m not ready to go back out there.”

“Then we won’t.” He stood, pulling you gently to your feet. “We can stay here for a minute.” You hesitated. “People will talk. He gave you a look that was almost a challenge “They already are, let them talk more.” You felt something in your chest shift.

You stepped closer, your fingers curling into the fabric of his hoodie, “Okay” you whispered, “Just a minute.” He smiled, soft and relieved. He leaned his forehead against yours. You couldn’t help but lean in again and pressed your lips to his.

But the footsteps stopped right outside the door, and someone knocked. The knock comes again, firmer this time. Bucky’s hand slips from your cheek, but he doesn’t step away, He just turns his head toward the door, jaw tightening like he’s ready to right who ever is on the other side.

You clear your throat, trying to steady your pulse. “We should…probably answer that.” He doesn’t more for a second, then sighs, pushes himself up and opens the door just enough to peek out.

A student you vaguely recognize, some sophomore with a stack of text books, stands there shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. “Oh” she says when she sees the two of you. “Sorry. I, uh…my group booked this room for a project.

Bucky blinks at her, “Right. Yeah. Sure.” She gives you both a curious look and steps back to let you pass.

You gather your things, your heart still thudding and step into the hallway. Bucky follows, closing the door behind him. The moment it clicks shut you realise you’ll have to walk out there, together.

The hall way is busy, students moving between lunch and class now, voices echoing the usual midday chaos, but the second you step into it, you feel eyes on you. Not many. Not loud, just enough.

Your stomach twists, bucky notices instantly. He shifts closer, enough that you can feel the heat of him. His voice was low, only meant for you. “We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for.”

You nod, “I just don’t want to make things worse.” He studies you for a long moment, then slowly, giving you every change to pull away. He reaches for your hand. His fingers brush yours, your breath catches, you look up at him and he’s already watching you.

You slide your fingers between his. His shoulders drop, relief flooding his expression so raw it almost hurts to look at, he squeezed your hand once, gentle but sure and you feel something inside you settle.

The hallway goes quiet, not literally. But it feels like it, the noise fades around the edges, like the two of you are stepping into something new and terrifying and real. Someone whispers, someone else stares.

But bucky doesn’t look at any of them, he looks at you. “Ready?” He murmurs, you nod, even though you’re not sure you are. But his hand is warm in yours. And you walk.

Together.

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AN- Ive got a Bucky x mutant!Reader coming out soon!

Taglist for this series- @dpr-teag @mfstargirlsworld @avatarofthetimelords @vicmc624 @anddiesworld @chonkybonky @kileyking @nameless-ken

Her hair was damp, appearing more blonde than silvery white, you knew her hair smelt sweet with a tinge of lavender and then your eyes descended, inch by inch. The piece of cloth flaunted her skin beautifully, bringing some justice to those legs she was so eager to hide through her choice of dress and skirts. It was criminal to conceal them.

She was so pale that her cheeks down to her chest, elbows and knees were always flushed after taking steaming showers and damn it never ceased to make you drool over her. Actually, you were foaming in the mouth right now. Kidding.

“I’m flattered to know you’d rather stare at me than read those boring newspapers.” She had a whimsical grin on her pink lips while gazing at you from the vanity mirror. She then collected her expensive smelling lotion, the one that had you so addicted and began with her legs.

There was a faint blush creeping on your cheeks, by the time she was finished, “You know it’s so rude of you to shower without me.” You put the newspaper down and sauntered toward the woman’s direction.

“Oh, honey. You slept like a log. I tried waking you up.” When you reached her, her body jolted at the surprised touch when you groped her firm ass. Your arms then automatically crawl around her waist, pulling her flushed against your body.

“Mmm, you should’ve tried harder.” On the last part your tone dropped, your lips pressed on her shoulder igniting a small whimper from her own lips.

Her skin was soft and cool, contrasting your slightly calloused fingers from teaching archery but she didn’t mind. She inexplicably adored them especially when they were doing a certain task that produced the most lustful sounds from her mouth.

Larissa watched your reflection in the mirror, the way your fingers danced to unwrap the towel to your lips as they moved from her shoulder to nape, placing hot and open-mouthed kisses to her other shoulder.

Whatever products she lathered herself with, you swore there was something magical in them, something that had you going nuts about, almost obsessed. “We’re going to be late. You still have to shower and get ready.” Her head was already swimming in guilt but her body kept encouraging your touch.

Your lips never left the smooth and flushed surface of her skin, “Don’t worry, pretty. I will be quick.” You said in between kisses.

And then the towel dropped on the floor, Larissa observed the way your eyes feasted on her nude form with your lips gaping, absolutely engrossed. Her body grew hotter, she didn’t know if it was the close proximity of your bodies or the way your breath seemed to caress over her shoulder, either way, it had her squirming.

You shamelessly marvelled each slope and curve, took in the delicious sight of her protruded clavicles, the shallow bend of her waist, those breasts, those hips…You planted a sweet kiss on her neck before you turned her around and brutally kissed her lips, your hands roaming up and down her body.

Consequently, you were an hour late to this gathering that was organized in Jericho. You were compelled to go by Larissa, not leaving you with so much choice, because she claimed she would get bored out of her mind without you and honestly it made your heart flutter.

Upon entering, everyone was quick to gather around Larissa and she embarrassingly had to make up a whole excuse and constantly apologizing for tardiness. You stood behind her while holding her hands the whole time, enjoying the lies and the apparent guilt on her face with a smirk on your face.

From the corners of your eyes you caught a sight of this man, tall and broad with dark hair and cleanly shaven face, stalking around for quite some time now. You didn’t think much of it, not until Larissa excused herself to go to the restroom and found him trudging her way. He stopped her and later they hugged.

You knew it was awkward. Unpleasant as it was to the blonde, she kept a sweet charming smile on her lips and before you knew it they were walking back to your direction.

“I thought you were going to the restroom?” you whispered, eyes scanning him up and down.

Discreetly she leaned to your ear, “Well, not anymore.” While she eyed him. You nodded.

Then she stood in her full height to introduce him. “Honey, this is Victor. We were in a fencing team together and our host for today.”

“Nice to meet you, Victor.” He offered a hand, you looked down, it seemed cleaned enough.

“Victor Brush, delighted to meet you.”

“That’s quite a handsome name for a gentleman.” You said fighting the snort from coming out. A soft jab on your side made you eye the woman, “Behave.” She reprimanded.

Thank God, he was too self-absorbed to notice the little interaction. He smiled, shying his eyes away, tint of red shading his cheeks. He thought it was a compliment. Idiot, you thought.

“This might come out as rude but do you mind if I steal Larissa for a while?”

“No, no, not at all, please.” you responded through gritted teeth, again, he didn’t think of it as anything.

And he was already pulling her away from you, “I’ll be right by the bar, darling!”

For about half an hour, you walked around, hid behind people’s backs, and kept a safe distance from your woman, happy to just observe how people swoon over her and smirking as you sip your cocktail knowing they stood zero chance against you, that you knew with your whole heart, hence jealousy was a rare thing in your relationship.

But this, this Victor was testing you, getting into your nerves and it was befit to say jealousy was the root of your impending tantrum.

When Larissa turned, what she saw was exactly what she had expected to see. Larissa could differ even from a great distance if the red on your cheeks was a harmless blush or from grave annoyance, unfortunately she knew it was the latter. The frown sitting on your face merely strengthened her belief.

Bored and vexed, you unclasped your bracelet, a minimal jewelry that diminish your gifts and ability when worn. The scales from your skin glistened like glitters and you felt relief rush through your body. You hastily pocketed the precious amulet, eyes too focused on the events unfolding before you to notice it slipped from your pocket.

With a tilt of your head, the water in his hand started to swirl and then with a brief whisper to the wind, the liquid in his glass spilled to his dress shirt. It all seemed like a little mishap. But then when your eyes averted from his damp chest to find those fiery blues, they were already looking at you. You bit the grin on your lip and mouthed an apology.

When he excused himself, Larissa could only sigh, the tight smile that made her cheeks hurt finally relaxed. With a few long strides, she crossed the room, bending down quickly and stood in front of you but you didn’t notice until she spoke, “Hey, darling.” Her voice was gentle, so sweet that if you could taste it, it would be just like honey.

She offered the two of you to move by the bar, by no means to oppose her, you took her hand in yours and walked side by side. You scooted closer to her, and cautiously placed a hand on her bare thigh a little too possessively but she made no effort to remove it. As a matter of fact, she welcomed it by uncrossing her legs and spreading them apart. Thank God for the skirts.

Then you started to talk as if your hand wasn’t wandering dangerously up her thigh, “He’s a normie.” It wasn’t a question, nor an accusation. It was the truth.

“Excellent observation.”

“But how? How did he get into nevermore? Daddy’s money?” Because it was written on the invite that this gathering was exclusive only for outcasts.

“Yes, his family was well recognized and considered as the most influential at that time,” she paused, licking her plump lower lips and your gaze were quick to follow.

“His father was the mayor and he threatened the school to shut down unless the school took his son. He believed it would be good for the school’s image. That his son was in fact helping the school to gain people’s trust. Truth was, little Victor badly wanted to be an outcast, he thought by attending nevermore he would harness some sort of ability.”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. He had changed to another fine cotton dress shirt, tucked neatly into his trousers and sauntering toward your wife’s direction. Oh fuck me. Quick, you saw the fish tank and well, the unimaginable happened. The water leaped from the edge of the tank, partially soaking the left side of his body, he groaned and ran his hand down his face.

“Oops.” You murmured, giggling behind your hand. The commotion earned collective gasps followed by a series of “Are you okay?” in which he only responded with a glare and stomped away, furious and embarrassed.

You had enough of your fun, concerned that if you kept doing it you might actually unleash some real troubles. When you palmed your pocket to feel the bracelet and felt it empty, panic paled your face, and your heart instantly leapt to your throat.

Larissa was amused, watched you hop off the stool and searched the floor without leaving your spot. The game would have prolonged but Larissa didn't exactly have the heart to watch your panic increase. But then she thought it might teach you a thing or two about misplacing valuable items.

Alas, she pulled the jewelry out of her purse, "Looking for this?" your head whipped to her and found the pearls in your partner's hand. Relief kicked the panic in your chest.

Your lips curved to a coy smile, mirth glistening in your eyes. "It must have slipped or something." you deadpanned, wedging yourself between her legs, "Help me put it back on, pretty?" and her cheeks were dusted off with pink blush, still ever so shy when you call her names.

Once it was secured again around your wrist, you framed her face with your hands, “Thank you." and you kissed her full red lips.

Seeing the charm return to your eyes Larissa couldn’t help but make a comment, “Done with your tantrum?”

“Honey, it was barely an outburst. I only had a little bit of fun.” You justified yourself and nonchalantly shrugged your shoulders.

When your wife’s eyes shifted down your lips, and her breath kissed your reddening ears, it tempted you to moan, “I have another idea of fun but I don’t think this is the proper place for it.” The ending of this day was already decided with the mischievous gleam in her eyes.

“Wife, are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?”

“Yes.” And so, you grabbed her hand, eagerly dragged her across with a silly grin patched on your face before she could change her mind. Behind you, Larissa couldn’t contain the giggles as you led her out of the crowd.

Your asthma was always at its worst when you were sick and this chest infection that had made a home under the lapels of your nevermore blazer was certainly giving your lungs a run for their money. Each breath ended in a small wheeze, and you were stifling coughs as your felt the ragged and shaky intake of air in your lungs with each breath. You were only half paying attention to the botany teacher who was stood at the front of the room lecturing. You were merely pretending to take notes yet the page in-front of you was as blank as the glassy look in your eyes.

You were exhausted. Waking up in the night coughing and hitting the puffer just to fall back into a restless sleep. You were pretty sure based off the heat you could feel cooking you from the inside out that you had a fever. But you would be damned to do anything about it. Asking for help was simply not in your nature.

You absent-mindedly fiddled with the cap of your pen still staring out the huge glass windows. You must have not been paying attention or time slipped away from you because the next second you were dismissed from class. You stood righting yourself as you swayed slightly, and Enid shot you and odd look, but you turned on your heel and left before she could say anything.

Walking through the hall was hard enough on a good day with the amount of people. But when it hurt to breathe sitting down, being suffocated in a hallway while walking seemed a very real possibility. In a dazed state you kept knocking into people slightly muttering a brief apology and going back to trying to stay upright.

After a moment of walking with your eyes trained on the floor you ran straight into someone. Before you could see who, it was you felt yourself fall backwards and your wrist connected with the wall behind you. And good god did it hurt. Pain flared down your arm as you felt hands on your elbow to stabilise you from falling all the way to the floor. What little air you had managed to keep inside you very unhappy lungs was knocked from your chest leaving you wheezing something awful. You felt strong arms wrap around you as the slight vertigo of the fever made interpreting what was going on rather hard.

You rested your head on the nearest thing and after a minute registered based on the rhythmic movements that someone was carrying you. You wheezed deeply and rested your head against the persons chest. Trusting them seemed like your only option right now. It took a minute for you to realise your bag was over one of their shoulders and another minute to register who the person was. Your cheeks flushed slightly. Principle weems was carrying you bridal style through the halls. Luckily the rest of the students had gone to class, but it was just your luck you had managed to collide with the one person in the school with all the power.

Blinking you still felt the harsh ragged wheezing ratting your lungs and you tensed in her arms coughing into the crook of your elbow. Pain shot through your chest sharply before numbing back to the dull ache of a chest infection asthma attack hybrid you were growing to know quite well. After another minute your breathing was getting worse, the wheezing was sharper, and it felt as if someone was stabbing you between the ribs. Mouthfuls of air seemed to have less and less of what you needed in them, and it seemed like it just wouldn’t stay inside your lungs.

Your wrist was still burning and in your fevered haze you hoped someone would bring you your asthma puffer.

You felt your body being gently set down on something soft. The couch in weems office. You rested your head on a pillow and watched her blurry form retreat. You make a noise of protest not wanting to die alone and you watched her lips move but heard no words. After a moment you shut your eyes trying to control the breathing. Your right arm cradled your left wrist and slowly the sound came back to the world. The crackling of the fire was what you heard first before you could hear and make out what weems was saying.

“That’s it Y/n deep breaths. Nice and slow. I’ve almost found it. You're doing such a good job darling.” You could hear her rummaging in the desk drawer of her office before she made a noise of success and moved back to your side. You felt her lithe fingers gently hold the back of your head as she pressed a puffer to your lips. She was still speaking.

“Now take a deep breath in.” She said exaggerating her own breathing.

“And out.” She said. “And in.” This time when you drew a breath she pressed down on the puffer and the medicine shot into your lungs.

“Hold.” She said and waited for a bit before gesturing for you to breathe. This time you were simply panting, the wheeze almost gone. Weems lent forward and brushed a stray curl from your eyes.

“There she is.” She said and you managed a weak smile. “Do you need another round with it?” She asked holding up the small blue device. You shook your head, and she patted your thigh before setting the puffer down next to the couch.

“Im going to go and get a first aid kit, some ice and a thermometer. Stay here for me, ok?” She said and you nodded again.

Your head still swimming slightly you stayed seated. After what felt like not enough time she returned with the things. She gently placed an ice pack wrapped in a cloth over your wrist and at first you hissed at the cold contact on the sore skin but sighed after a moment. It helped dull the pain slightly.

“Alright sweet girl. Can you open your mouth for me. I’d like to take your temperature. You felt a bit too warm for my liking when i had you in my arms.” She said pressing a thermometer to your lips. You parted them and she placed the stick inside. “Under your tongue.” She said and shut your jaw with a finger on the underside of your chin.

“Now. I know that wasn’t a regular old asthma attack. I have seen many of those in my years teaching and not many have managed to scare me quite as much as that one did. A+ for effort but next time let's try to keep breathing. It's quite important believe it or not.” She chucked. She placed a hand on your knee and looked into your eyes. “Whats going on darling? It’s not like you to not watch where you're going now is it?” She said and you looked absolute miserable. All the exhaustion of keeping up the pretence was ebbing, and you were left with nothing but pure exhaustion.

“‘M sick.” You muttered around the thermometer and weems clucked her tongue and the stick beeped. She gently removed it from your mouth and looked mildly surprised by the number displayed.

“101.9 far too high.” She said disapprovingly. “Here take these.” She said and handed you two small white tablets and a glass of water. You complied and only winced slightly as the water stung the sensitive flesh of your throat which had been irritated by the coughing. Weems began to gently lift the ice pack off your wrist to inspect the swelling and gently press on parts of it. Apologising profusely when you would wince or suck a sharp breath.

“Do you have any idea whats wrong darling?” She asked and you nodded wearily.

“Chest infection.” You said.

“Have you seen the nurse?” She asked raising an eyebrow.

“No time. Busy.”

“Darling there is always time for your health. Studies come second.” She said patting your knee. Gently she replaced the ice on your wrist. “Im almost certain it's not broken darling, but it is badly sprained. You’ll need to keep icing it over the next few days. I’ll excuse you from classes for the day provided you stay nearby, preferably in my office so i can keep an eye on you. The nurse is not here today she called in sick.” Weems said frowning. “Have you eaten today?” She asked. And you nodded.

“What have you had darling?” She asked skeptically.

“Just some jam and toast and some juice.” You replied. She frowned.

“Is your throat sore at all?”

“Just from the coughing.”

“I’ll bring you some cool water to sooth your throat and if you feel up to it, please help yourself to some biscuits. I’ll have the cook send someone up with some broth for lunch later.” She said standing and brushing invisible lint from her skirt. You nodded feeling exhausted.

“Sleep if you need. Im here if you require anything.” She said once she had returned with the water. You took a tentative sip relaxing a sigh as it soothed your throat. It wasn’t long before your eyes began to close, and you felt the glass being pried from your fingers. You didn’t fight her on it, simply succumbing to sleep.

Weems returned to her desk, typing on her laptop and sending off some important emails. She paused every once in a while, to gauge the wheezing as you slept, to give her an indication of if you required anything.

It was about two hours later you woke up feeling cold. You whined softly unsure of where you were. You heard a chair move and saw the face of Principle weems couching beside you. You grinned lopsided.

“Oh dear.” She said looking at your flushed cheeks and slightly damp curls. She placed a gentle hand to your cheek before moving it to your forehead and humming in disapproval.

“I fear your fever had risen.” She said fetching a thermometer and shooting you a worried glance as you giggled deliriously.

“Darling, under your tongue.” She said popping it into your mouth.

You smiled a goofy smile and did as you were asked. You both sat looking at each other until it beeped. Weems seemed to be looking for anything further that was ailing you but only found the constant wheeze of your breathing and sweat soaked form looking slightly parched.

Once she removed the thermometer she frowned again.

“W’s wrong?” You slurred.

“102.7 we need to get that down.” She said and gently passed you some more meds and a water. You took them gratefully and she left for a moment before returning with a small basin and a washcloth. You watched curiously as she dipped the rag into the water before wringing it out and gently wiping the sweat that had beaded on your face.

With careful and precise movements, she wiped down your cheeks and forehead. Once she had finished her ministrations, she dipped it once more and wrong it out before gently placing it on your forehead where she left it to rest. You hummed in content at the cool feeling on your face and weems left for a moment to bring you the broth she had kept warm on a silver tray.

“Isnt sil’r li’e bad for the wolves?” You asked still loopy and gesticulating wildly. Weems raised an eyebrow.

“It's not real silver darling.” She said and placed the tray on your lap, adjusting the pillows and cloth so you were sat more upright. Your hands shook making it very hard to get any of the soup into your mouth. Weems placed a soft hand over yours.

“Let me.” She said and slowly began to spoon feed you the soup. Between mouthfuls you gave a small pout which weems had to fight not to smile or roll her eyes at. Once the soup was all gone, she placed the tray back on the coffee table and adjusted you once more.

“Rest now. Your body needs it.” She said brushing the hair from your eyes with her fingers and once more adjusting the crooked washcloth.

Your eyes seemed to close on their own as you drifted off once more still glassy eyed and mildly confused. You felt a hand rubbing your arm gently until you were fully under the guise of sleep.

The next time you woke it was dark and your body felt stiff. Wriggling more upright you stretched reviling in the relived tightness of your muscles. You heard the click of stilettos and weems appeared once more.

“How are you feeling?” She asked pressing her hand to your cheek. “Your fever has gone down.” She noted and you nodded blearily.

“I feel better.” You said punctuating with a cough. She looked at you and raised a brow.

“I need more than that from you Ms L/n.” She said and you blinked.

“My throat doesn’t hurt as much but my chest still aches. It feels tight and it rattles when i breathe. It's not as unbearably hot in here as before so I guess thats good.” You said softly. Weems nodded.

“Yes. I suppose it is.” She said and tapped your cheek. “Open.” She said and slipped the thermometer under your tongue.

The two of you sat in a comfortable but slightly stiff silence waiting for the beep. When it did you knew the routine now well enough to let weems remove the stick from your mouth herself. She hummed a seemingly happy hum.

“100.2 it has gone down.” She noted and gave you and approving nod. You beamed and let out another small cough. She frowned. “Time for more meds.” She noted and handed you some more pills. You took them unassisted this time and weems handed you the puffer.

“Don’t think i didn’t notice your breathing being shallower. One hit, is all i ask.” She said watching closely as you administer the medicine into your lungs and sighed after, your airway feeling less tight and chest feeling more open.

“Good.” She said plucking the blue device from your open palm and placing back on the coffee table. She peeled the rag from your forehead and patted your arm.

“Let’s take a peek at your wrist.” She said and gently removed the ice she had been periodically placing there whilst you slept.

Your arm was resting on a pillow to elevate it and she gently examined it with soft pressure applied by her thumbs and fingers to gauge the swelling and pain. Once more she apologised when reaching any tender areas before giving a nod and replacing the ice.

“It's very much still swollen but I believe it will be ok. I'd like you to wear a sling and wrist brace to restrict movement and rest it until i deem fit.” She said and noted the bruise that was forming there. “Now, other than that are we feeling much the same?” She asked and you nodded. She hummed and stood.

“I’ve some work to attend to but need anything and I’ll be just over there.” She said pointing to her desk. You nodded and began to doze lightly as her heels returned to her desk. Not even meaning to you fell asleep to the sound of her keys typing.

It was safe to say weems was quite the nurse. When you woke the next day, you felt miles better than before and stood making your way to the bathroom. Once you had finished you made your way back to the lounge.

“What are you doing?” As voice said startling you and you felt, and arm wrap around yours to stabilise you.

“N-nothing i needed the bathroom.” You said and weems hummed and gently led you back to your makeshift bed.

“Let’s take your vitals and see what we’re dealing with today.” She said and gently deposited you back where you had been for the past 24 hours.

She took your temperature, pleased your fever had broken in the night. She examined your wrist and listened to your breathing, satisfied it had less of a wheeze than the day before. After this she stood and walked over to her desk, you watched her curiously. After a moment she found whatever, she was looking for and retuned to your side. She crouched in front of you and gently took your injured wrist. She guided it into the brace she had procured from her desk and explained how she had found one from the nurse's station earlier that morning. After adjusting it and making sure it was correctly applied to restrict movement she told you to rest some more, and you did.

Over the next few hours your improved greatly before weems dubbed you fit to do slightly more strenuous activity’s. She had Enid bring you the classwork you missed and the two of you worked side by side for the afternoon, weems typing away on her computer and you studying whatever classes you had been taking. After a while you paused spinning your pen between your fingers.

“Principle weems?” You asked and she looked up pausing.

“Yes dear?” She said.

“Thank you.” You said and she smiled.

“Anytime darling.”

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6

part 7

part 8

part 9

part 10

part 11

part 12

part 13

part 14

part 15

part 16 - finale

if you'd like to read any of my other works, you can find them here :)

a spotify playlist i curated specifically for this fic:

You sat in the Weathervane in a corner seat away from the window. In your right hand, you held a mug of (coffee/tea) and your phone in the other. You scrolled through your phone, the sound of the shop becoming a buzzing sound in the background. The sound of footsteps approaching your seat had you looking up quickly before looking back down at your phone. 

“Hey, Y/N.” A voice called out as they sat in the seat opposite you.

“Galpin.“ You replied coldly.

“How are you?” Tyler asked in an attempt to make a conversation.

“Better before you came.” You replied, looking up to glare at him.

“Okay! Why do you hate me so much?!” Tyler exclaimed after he tried and failed to make conversation with you.

“If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not going to tell you.” You replied before standing up and walking out. Principal Weems stood nearby when you hid in the shadows and disappeared. You reappeared in the dark woods not too far from Nevermore Academy.

“Ah! You have returned!” A masculine voice called out as you walked past the gate of Nevermore to a derelict cabin, towards the back of Nevermore.

“Hello, Andras.” You replied as the shadows combined to create a creature. Your hands went to touch his head when the sound of a twig snapping echoed through the woods. You spread your hands apart as shadows created a weapon for you to use. “Who’s there?”

“It’s just me.” Tyler walked out from behind a tree before looking at you with wide pleading eyes.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” You asked bemused, your hands touching each other and disintegrating the weapon. Tyler began to walked towards you while Andras went back inside the cabin to give the two of you privacy.

“Wednesday found out I’m a Hyde and that you know. She called us monsters. Are we?” Tyler trembled, his eyes tearing up as he looked at you for some semblance of comfort.

"Monsters? Humanity is the monster. My abilities should not make me your villain. Let alone anyone else’s." You replied, Tyler wrapping his arms around your waist as he nestled his head into the crook of your neck. “Humanity sees different as dangerous and we get treated like absolute crap for it. At some point, some of us think that if a villain... a monster is what they want and all they see us as, then that’s what they get.”

“But we’re not right?” Tyler asked, his voice muffled as he spoke.

You see the goalkeeper moving towards the ball projection and it was as if it was slow motion for you. You see her jump, and her hand almost brushing the ball, but your kick was basically perfect, indefensible, impossible to reach. The slow-motion bubble broke when the ball touched the net on the goal.

A smile and a victorious scream erupted from your chest and you raised your arms to the air, immediately, you felt arms to wrap around you. The once calm and apprehensive crowd on the stands exploded on cheers when the ball nested on the net.

You locked eyes with Coach Okoye, and she gave you a firm nod with a proud smile on her face, also smiling, you nodded back. Not long until the referee signaled the end of the match, and you complimented the visitor team before heading to the lockers room to get changed.

Then when you were halfway on the hall, you hear a voice calling out on to you, making you to spin on your heels and look at its owner. The sight of Wanda Maximoff closing the gap between the two of you, in all her glory, wearing the school cheerleader uniform, made your heart ache.

The smile on her mouth was immoral and you had to remember yourself to keep your heart beating, specially when she wrapped her arms around you shoulders in a tide embrace. Her hair hit your face as well as her perfume, making you to feel dizzy.

“That was amazing!” Her breath on your ear proved to be a little too much for you to handle and goosebumps broke throughout your skin. “You were amazing.” She spoke a little lower and that made you clench your jaw. God, that girl would be the death of you.

“Thanks Wanda.” You whispered back and she broke the embrace rather awkwardly. “There was a moment I thought we wouldn’t make it, though.” You spoke lowly, fearing to be heard by others. Funny enough, you’d never admit to another person that you doubt your skills, except to the girl standing in front of you.

Her hands slid from your shoulders down your arms until she laced her fingers on yours and you wondered if she was aware of what she was doing, or aware of what she was doing to you, for that matter. “I never doubt you.” She squeezed your hand lightly. “And you shouldn’t either.”

The light portrayed by her eyes were so pure, so true, that you had a hard time on gathering your thoughts after staring at them for so long. At a loss of words, you only nodded and smiled lightly at her, only to be met with a wide smile from her.

Your mind was still trying to wrap itself around the idea that her hand was resting on yours until the noise from other girls walking down the hall broke the spell and Wanda drew her hands away. Awkwardly, the two of you kept staring at each other while the others passed by you, but when Pepper called on Wanda, she looked at her friend. “Wans, are you coming?”

Wanda only nodded and replied a faint ‘in a bit’ and turned towards you again with some kind of renewed interest. “Oh. You should come with too.” The confusion was obviously written on your face, for she laughed a little and explained.

“You’re a Princess now. You’re invited to these parties and you can bring whoever you want.” Right in the middle of her sentence, you were already shaking your head. “No way, Wanda. That’s not my place.”

Your resolve broke when she caught your hands once more and squeeze it while speaking. “C’mon. Pretty please? It’ll be fun…” Her eyes pinned you down in a way that only she can. “Plus, we barely had any chance to talk outside school.”

You stared at her for a few seconds and right then and there you realized that she had you on the palm of her hand, and damn, how you wanted her to recognize this fact. You smiled lightly and nodded. “Okay. I’ll be there. But I’m taking Sam with me”. The smile adorning her lips could light up the whole world and you felt you heart doing summersaults on your chest, gladly, she can’t see it.

“Of course.” She steps a little closer, catching you totally out of guard, and give your cheek a gentle kiss. “Bucky will enjoy that.” And like nothing happened at all, she starts to walk away, turning to send you one last smile before disappearing through the door.

“Gods, I’m so screwed.” You mutter starting to walk to the showers, hand touching lightly where she had kissed you.

---

The house was huge, and it looked like a maze filled with horny drunk teens kissing, laughing, dancing and playing games. Strangely, a lot of people came on your way to compliment, shake hands or at least to acknowledge your existence. You were so used to being ignored that this change seemed a little too much.

“So this is a Royal’s life.” Sam muttered beside you. “This is so cool, dude.” He spoke looking around to try and perceive everything that he could. For the first time since forever, the two of you were among the cool kids and weren’t treated as outcasts. People wanted to talk and to be around you.

However, there was only one person that you wanted to talk to and to be around. As if a moth to a flame, your eyes caught a glimpse of the beautiful red hair on the table in the middle of the room. Involuntarily, you took her in. Skirt, blouse hugging her curves and high heels complimenting those beautiful legs.

Certain that you were drooling, you turned your eyes away from her, but not fast enough. Maybe she sensed eyes on her or something, for she turned her attention away from her friends and locked eyes with you. A stunning smile creeped to her lips and she got on her feet and started to walk towards you.

There was something about her, something about that smile that had you smiling back at her as if you weren’t in public, you shouldn’t be looking at her like this. Specially, not here. But damn, she made it so hard to even think coherently.

“Hello gorgeous.” You greeted and your boldness made Sam to look at you rather shocked, however, Wanda seemed to like it, for the already stunning smile turned even brighter after the compliment. “Hey, superstar. You’re not so bad yourself.” She finished her sentence while hugging you a little tighter than usual, something that you wouldn’t complain.

“Thank you.” You couldn’t help the smile that never faded from your face and found its match on her lips. She was about to say something else when an arm landed quite hard on her shoulder, bringing her body closer to Jarvis, who had just arrived on the conversation with a predatory smile. His eyes, though, screamed danger.

“Oh sister!” He spoke loudly, surely wanting to gather some attention. “You arrived just in time to play ‘I have never’ with the cool kids. Or is this too much for you?” The sarcasm dripped from his tongue and your jaw clenched as the audience gathered around the two of you.

If there was something that people loved more than to be around a Royal, it was the drama that always came with Royals and their bullshit. You never understood why people loved to gossip that much.

Deciding on to play his game to defuse the situation you were on, you spoke. “Why don’t you show me how you do, then, little brother?” The predatory smile never faded from his face, and you should’ve known better, but what could you do? This boy was insufferable.

Someone shoved a plastic cup filled with a drink that you don’t even know what it was and saw that Sam was by your side with a cup in his hands too. There were some cheers and you looked around to see that the whole party stopped to watch the game.

“OKAY! I’ll start.” You wondered how Tony Stark looked to be one drink from being wasted but still managed to speak comprehensibly. You looked around and you felt a lump on your stomach when you realized that Sam and you were the only ‘outcasts’ in this game. No matter what their stupid rules says, these weren’t your friends, and you weren’t welcomed in places likes this.

The players around the table and the order of the rounds were Tony himself, Pepper, Agatha, Peggy, Pietro, Jarvis, Wanda, Darcy, Steve, you, Sam, James, Bruce, Thor and finally Jane. You winced already fearing the hangover you’d have on the next day.

“I have never swum naked.” He barely finished his sentence and started to laugh and to drink. I saw some of them to drink too and very few didn’t, like me, Sam, Bruce, Wanda, Peggy and Jane. Then it was Pepper’s turn. “I’ve never kissed someone on the kissing booth.”

You thought that you could blush and that was something that you didn’t want to give them, hence why you immediately covered your mouth with the cup. The alcohol burned your throat, but you sipped the amount of liquid you were supposed to. Then it was Agatha’s, were the problem started.

“I’ve never had sex with someone of the same sex.” You thought you were seeing things, but you could swear that Agatha spoke looking directly at you. You drank, she too, along side with Sam, James, Tony and Steve, who shared a glance at each other. Wow, that’s new.

After a minute of silence, they started to laugh and to point at each other, then the questions of “whos” started. Everybody in the room seemed to be shocked that Tony and Steve had an affair during last year. Well, that’s definitely gossip.

“Hey soccer star, who’s the poor soul that had that experience with you?” Jarvis tone was full of malice and you wanted to punch his teeth. Without missing one single beat, you replied. “Danvers and…” You stopped midsentence, you had had sex with Pepper not so long ago and she was already dating Tony, but she didn’t drink from her cup. Of course she didn’t, this was her dirty little secret. “… someone else.”

“Wait! Do you mean Danvers as in Carol Danvers?” Pietro was alarmed at your blunt confession. “Yeah.” You didn’t even try to hide your smirk, but your eyes never left Jarvis’. “Damn girl. Carol was so hot.” Pietro completed and your heard murmurs of agreement at his last statement, Carol was a veteran last year and she always had boys and girls crawling to her feet, specially that she was the previous soccer princess.

“The other, though… don’t feel like sharing?” Tony’s voice broke the staring contest between you and Jarvis. You shook your head to Tony and let a smirk to grace your lips. “I don’t think she’d be comfortable with this.” Tony laughed and damn if he were intelligent. “Oh so she’s here in this table?” He looked around the table and spoke. “Looks like we have a liar between us, or was it you, Agatha?” He laughed it off, as if he didn’t care that someone was cheating the game. And why would they? This was stupid, after all.

Agatha clicked her tongue as if the fact that she wasn’t the other person who slept with me had upset her. “Too bad it wasn’t me.” When the laugh died down, you weren’t the only one to look at her rather shocked by her words. She sent a little kiss towards you and this time you couldn’t hide your blush. After everyone calmed down again, Peggy was encouraged to shoot her sentence.

“I’ve never kissed two different people at the same night.” At this, almost everyone drank from their cups. Only you and Bruce didn’t. Even Wanda drank this time, as subtle as you were trying to be, you were all too conscious on how many times that cup touched her lips. “I’m starting to think we’re too innocent for this game, Banner.” Your words met his amused smile.

“You know, I was going to say the same thing.” He laughed and raised his cup mocking a toast that you gladly retributed. While waiting for Pietro’s turn, you casted a glance at Wanda, only to see her eyes on you and a small smile on her lips. Right in that moment, you realized how much you wish you had the power to read minds.

Your attention shifted to the older Maximoff, who had a devilish smile on his lips and leaning on the table, he spoke. “I’ve never wanted to make out with someone on this table…” People were about to start to drink when he stopped them. “I haven’t finished yet.” He looked around as if to check if everyone’s attention were on him. “But if you already date someone on this table, you will drink if you want to make out with someone else on this table.”

He stressed the word else, and you could see some couples looking warily at each other, like Steve and Peggy or Thor and Jane. You were single and you did want to make out with someone on the table, so you didn’t have to hide. You thought about lying but then again, who’s Jarvis and who is he to stop you from wanting Wanda? You’re free to love on your own.

So you drank and saw few others drinking too. The protests, laughs and the “whos” started here and there and, without better judgement, you looked at Wanda who were staring at her cup intently, as if the liquid could be a menace or something. Your brows furrowed when you saw her lifting her cup to her lips and took a sip from it. ‘Oh my god’, you thought. Is it possible…? You shook that idea even before it started.

Wanda Maximoff was one of the biggest mysteries in this universe, you thought. Ever since the kissing booth and you started to work as pairs on Ms. Hill’s class the two of you became closer. Closer to the point that you called her friend on more than one occasion and heard her referring to you as friend as well.

On the course of these months, you started to look at her differently. Ever since that day on the lockers room that she helped you to clean up your wounds, you started to learn who that different Wanda, that she herself mentioned, was, and you fell for that Wanda too. Even more than you thought you had fell for the one that everybody else loved or wanted to be.

Sharing school’s project forced you to meet and work together, and with such closeness, came the never-ending talks where both of you shared dreams, fears, wishes and plans. It was more than learning her favorite ice cream flavor, which was chocolate mint, or to which college she, Wanda, wanted to go, not the one her parents or Jarvis wanted her to attend. Somehow, the complicity between you deepened when you shared with her how hard was to grow up after your mother died, or when she confessed that her parents almost got divorced few years ago and how insecure she became after that.

The more you talked to her, the more you fell in love with her beautiful soul and, oddly, the less you wanted to confess your feelings, afraid this would make things awkward between the two of you and you didn’t want to jeopardize your friendship with her, nor wanted a fight with Jarvis involving Wanda, only to upset her.

Your mind returned to the present when you saw Wanda, very slowly, lifting her head until her eyes met yours. Your head and your heart were in the middle of a war, where your emotions were about to get the best of you. ‘This is not possible’. The battle kept going on your head while a small smile graced your lips, founding a match on Wanda’s. The moment, however, broke when Jarvis caught you looking at each other and hugged her tighter and pretended to laugh at Wanda drinking this round.

“My love, you’ll have to tell me who this guy is, so I’ll have them killed.” He laughed and his friends laughed with him, alongside with some of the people watching the game, as if this were the funniest joke in the world. He didn’t even let her reply, not that she would, but maybe he feared her reply.

“Right. It’s my turn.” He spoke and his eyes darted towards you. Somehow, you knew that his mind was searching for something that could hit you, very lowly, if you knew him. And you knew him too well to your liking.

“I’ve never had a father that cheated on my mother and left her pregnant to merry another.” The whole room went dead silent, no one dared to breath. His razor-sharp smile made you sick and he answered the glare you shot him with a triumphant laugh. How sick this boy could be?

Millions of thoughts ran through your head, and you truly fantasized the idea of jumping on his throat in front of everyone, but then, you felt a hand on your shoulder and knew that it belonged to Sam. His light squeeze told you that you were not alone, and should you start a fight, he’d be right by your side.

You lifted your cup as if on a toast and drank. You downed the full content on the cup and when you finished, you put it down on the table a little too hard, not that you cared. “I’m out.” It was as if your voice brought back the air to the room because everybody started to speak at the same time. You barely discerned some grunts and disagreements towards what had just happened, but you couldn’t care less. This wasn’t your place and Jarvis have made his job to remind you that.

“I’m cool, man.” You spoke softly to Sam that was retreating from the game as well. Just because you were out, it didn’t mean that he should too. His doe eyes portrayed how worried he were about you, but a small smile told him that you’d be okay, you just wanted to be alone and out of this place. He nodded and returned to the room while you walked outside the house.

Riches and wealth meant nothing in this city if that couldn’t buy you a house on the beach, and whoever this house belonged to, were filthy, for it was a small castle and had almost a private beach to themselves. You followed the stone path across the pool until the garden ends and the sand starts. Then, you turned left and walked to the end of the small pier that led you above the rocks on the shore.

It was a beautiful night. With little artificial light you could see hundreds of thousands of stars painting the sky and the moon rising on the horizon across the sea. The cool air and the sound of waves on the rocks brought you some sort of serenity and you just enjoyed the moment.

Not long until a new sound to appear and soon, footsteps on the wood of the pier were discernible. Before you could look back to see who decided to join you on your solitude, Wanda was leaning on the wood rail, mimicking your position and held a sorrowful look in her eyes. ‘Did he say something else after I left?’ You wondered.

For a whole moment, you stood there, just two people staring at the night and savoring the breeze, treasuring the beauty before you. You simply were two people enjoying that mesmerizing view. After a while, you saw Wanda shift her position to look at you once then to look back to the sea once more.

“You know, it’s refreshing to have a company that doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence.” Her melodic voice should mean an interruption to the song coming from the waves, but somehow, it fitted, it complemented, and it was lovely.

You turned your body fully, in order to look at her, this way your side was leaning on the rail, using your arm as support. In the dim light, you savored her sight more than ever, because there was only you in that moment. And never have you seen her eyes shining the much they were, they were sad, of course, but they were marvelous.

Suddenly, you fought the urge to reach out and touch her hair, touch her skin that you knew were impossibly smooth, just like silk, soft as a rose petal. But you did nothing. Just stood there, relishing in her presence just like you did with the sea and the sky few minutes ago.

“I thought you liked to talk.” You said finally and when she looked at your face, you already had a smirk adorning your lips. Months ago, she’d told you that sometimes she feels lonely, because even surrounded by friends, brother and boyfriend, there were very few moments she could be herself and speak freely or even to talk knowing that the other person would hear what she had to say, let alone not to judge her. But then, she’d met you and you were the perfect listener, after all, you could hear that lovely voice until the end of your days.

She shoved you playfully, laughing lightly, but you were highly aware of how close you were, now that her scent, mixed with the salty air, invaded your nostrils. “You know what I meant.” She kept looking to the horizon while speaking. “I don’t remember being in the company of someone where I could simply… be.” The heaviness of her words settled in your stomach like a rock and oh how you wanted to hug her and tell her that you wanted her to be by your side.

“I understand.” You replied simply, giving up on thinking on a smarter answer or something else to say that didn’t involve you embarrassing yourself, specially after what happened in the game. As tough as Wanda could hear your thoughts, she turned to you with those sad orbs that could make you move worlds, if that meant she’d be happy again.

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was small, almost foreign, and her brows were knitted together in a way that looked very painful, even in the dark. Without thinking, you used your thumb to gently sooth the spot on her forehead.

“This is not my place, Wanda. These are not my friends…” Your voice was flat, but you knew she’d see right through you. “It’s not your fault that I need to be reminded of that.” When your eyes met, she was even more upset, and you wish you could understand what you have said wrong. Angrily, she forced you to stop soothing her brows by picking your hand and keeping it between hers.

“And I don’t understand why.” She looked at your eyes as though looking for an answer, to what you could never know. “Everybody likes you. We should be your friends.” Her hands were cold, something that didn’t quite match her.

You laughed dryly at her statement and shook your head, disagreeing. “We’re not friends, Wanda.” You took one step back, though you missed her warmth, you could think properly without being dragged by her eyes or scent. “That was just a game, that was just a party. Your friends only like me so they can laugh at Jarvis unending jokes about my life.”

She was taken aback by the harshness of your words but composed herself rather quickly and took one step forward. “That’s not true. Not even Tony thought it was funny this time.” Her voice was low, but you could hear it clearly.

“This time.” You repeated and she knew what you meant by it. “Only now they are starting to know you, you have to understand that before…” There was something about her words that should make you calm down, but it didn’t, it was like throwing gas on a bonfire. “Why? So before is cool to laugh and bully, just because you don’t know me?”

“You?” Her voice cut the air like a knife. “Are you including me?” She pointed to herself, and all that sorrow was now anger. “I’ve never laughed at you, never condoned his bullies and you know it.” If you hadn’t drank that much of alcohol, you’d step down on this arguing, but right now that idea seemed alien.

“Do I?” Your anger flared on your chest. “Yet, you’re still by his side. You just don’t “condone” his actions.” A fake smile showed up on your face and you were about to say something else, something that you’d truly regret, so you bit your tongue and said nothing.

Something shone in Wanda’s eyes for the briefest of the moments. “Look, I don’t want to argue with you, I just came to see if you were okay.” She took few steps back, with her hands on the back pocket of her pants. Bewildered, you thought ‘how could one moment turn so fast into an argue?’

“Wanda, wait.” You sighed and looked at her once more. “I’m sorry. It’s not my place to say those things to you, nor should I throw my frustration on you like this.” You hated the situation you were in, you hated to be in love with her when she dated a jerk like your brother, but you’d hate yourself if you let her go upset at you like this.

Even with the poor light, it was possible to see that her eyes were glossy. She seemed to think for a while, and you tried again. “I’m sorry. I mean it.” Slowly, she took small steps until she stopped a few away from you. You wanted her closer, but you wouldn’t complain with what you had either.

“Apology accepted.” She spoke softly and you genuinely smiled at her words. She was so adorable in that moment that your heart ached with the need of touching her, ached with the desire of holding her close.

“And I meant what I said earlier.” Her voice was soft as if her tongue was velvet. “They like you.” Though you tried hard, you couldn’t keep yourself away from drowning on her green orbs. “Why?” Your voice was above a whisper, but her shrug showed you that she’d heard you.

“Maybe they’re finally seeing how amazing you are.” She replied in a whisper as well and you could swear you heard your heart thundering against your rib. Against better judgement, you used your hand to move a strand of Wanda’s hair from her face and tugged it behind her ear.

You held your breath, for sure, when Wanda looked at you through her lashes and damn if she was perfect. “I’m not.” You whispered again, certain that speaking in any other volume would break the moment.

“After everything I’ve told you and you’re still here, willing to listen to me.” Her hand slipped down your arm until she found yours. “And nothing turned into gossip.” You felt your mouth drier than ever, specially when you realized that your chest was touching hers, so close you were. ‘Does she knows what she’s doing to me?’ “You’re my best friend.”

You had to close your eyes at the stinging pain crossing your chest, you probably flinched at the final strike that came with her words. Friends. That’s all you’ll ever be with her, nothing more. It wasn’t a bad position, though. Wanda was incredible beyond her looks; she was a nice person and extremely funny and that made her an excellent company. However, you wanted more.

You forced a smile, keeping in mind that being friends with her was an accomplishment itself, it meant that she liked you, just not the way you wanted her to. “Sam probably has a rule against me saying that you’re my best friend, you know.”

Her breath hit your face when a laugher erupted from her chest and her whole body shook with it. “Oh God, you’re an idiot.” Damn that stunning smile gracing her lips and nothing in the whole world could keep you from looking at it. Maybe the alcohol was still clouding your heads, maybe you were feeling bold, but your lips moved before you could realize what you were saying. “I love your smile, Wanda.”

Maybe, if this were before she’d think it odd or maybe she’d think such compliment were awkward, however, there was a tenderness on your words and there was something about the way you spoke those words that it felt good, it felt right. The broad smile was even wider after your praise and Wanda caught herself admiring the small smile you held on to your very own lips.

She was about to reply when a sudden noise coming from the house caught your attention, then sirens and lights from police cars made pretty obvious that the party was over. “Apparently someone call it a night.” You spoke while texting Sam to check if he were still on the house and you remembered that you didn’t know if Wanda would be going home with Pietro or Jarvis.

“Do you need a ride, Wan?” At your question, she looks at you and nods her head. “I’m hungry, though. Do you know a place where we could have something?” She inquired also looking at her phone, probably checking on her boyfriend’s whereabouts and you kicked yourself mentally, for always forgetting who you were and who she is and, specifically, who she dates with.

A wide smile made its way to your face as if on its own accord, you wouldn’t complain or pass the opportunity of spending more time her. But without the prying eyes from the gossipers? It was a bonus. You snaked your arm over her shoulders, leading the way to where your car was, you spoke casually. “Now now Queen Bee, I don’t know a place. I know the place!”

You felt her arm to hug your waist while she fell into step with you and started to laugh at your antics. Damn if you loved her laugh. Damn if you loved everything about this girl. “Oh. I’m sure you do.”

---

“That’s disgusting!” Wanda was alarmed when she saw what you called ‘dessert’. She was having a chocolate milk shake after devouring her burger almost as fast as you did, and you too were appreciating you own milk shake, only you were using it as a dipping sauce for your fries. It was odd, of course, but extremely misunderstood, for this was something that you and Sam “discovered” when you were younger.

“You can’t know this for sure if you don’t try.” You spoke matter-of-factly while repeating the same movement that provoked her comment in first place. She expressed her distaste by your food combo with a scrunched nose which was was adorable and you found yourself grinning at her.

“C’mon, that’s not that bad. I promise.” You offered her the basket with fries. “If you don’t like it then you just don’t eat it.” She looked at the basket weighting her options, then looked at you as if evaluating if you were mocking her. Though, you ate half of the basket with your shake already, this couldn’t be a trick, despite the mirth in your eyes.

Slowly, she picked one unit and dipped into her shake and, also slowly, she put it into her mouth, closing her eyes as if bracing herself for the foul taste that surely would come, as if preparing to spit it the moment it touched her tongue.

You watched astonished and somewhat fascinated when her expression morphed into a rather pleased one. She opened her eyes, then her lips twitched into a smile. “This is really not bad.” She picked two more fries and did the same, this time without the scrunched face. Then, again.

“Gee, this is really good.” She laughed lightly and your stomach fluttered with butterflies at the sound. “I told you so.” Your wide smile found its match on her lips, and she nudged you gently, something that she always did when she felt shy or lightly embarrassed.

You ate in comfortable silence for a moment, then she turned to you and asked. “Did you enjoy the party?” She raised her hand hastily. “Despite Jarvis thing.”

You pondered at her question and felt yourself nodding. “It was quite nice, actually.” And it was true, before the I-have-never game you had the chance to talk with some people and they were nice and funny. You even had a nerdy talk with Banner about some biology project, with Tony about some repairs his car needed and about comics with Thor. “It was a good surprise, you know.”

“What?” Wanda turned to look at you. “How did you think it’d be?” You shrugged at her question and replied. “Honestly? I thought it’d be a reunion of a bunch of blabbering kids, jabbering about the newest gossip.” Her heartly laugh was so natural, so beautiful that you stared at her, secretly, in awe.

“God, I love your spontaneousness”. You smiled softly at her words. Ever since that first class together at Professor Hill’s class, you realized that you could speak freely and be yourself around Wanda, because she too was herself around you and there was no judgement, no criticism between the two of you. It was a freeing friendship as she had said once.

More than once, she complained that she didn’t feel comfortable with sharing some thoughts around her other girl friends, for they usually didn’t like her point of view. Actually, they usually prefer to gossip then to talk about something else. With you, she found her solace because not only you never judged, but even supported or engaged mature conversations. “Thank you.” You said, finally.

Still smiling she said. “We’re not that bad, not at the whole time, at least.” She leaned her head on her fist and rested her elbow on the table, never braking eye contact. “And now you’re part of it. You belonged to the we”.” You groaned at what she meant, and she chuckled.

“I suppose?” Your reply was more a question then anything and you winced confirming that you knew you belonged to the selected few called royal. Her deep green orbs held something in them that made you self-conscious, obliging you to busy yourself with your straw to avoid them.

After a while in silence, your head brought to the surface a question that were bugging you all the way here. “Can I ask you a question, Wanda?” Still analyzing your straw as if it were an alien, you questioned her after you heard her humming, encouraging you to ask what you wanted. “Who’s the lucky one?” You glanced at her briefly and saw the confused look, so you clarified. “The person on the table that you’d kiss, you know, other than Jarvis.”

Her expression changed, rather subtly, but you still noticed, and you wanted to mentally kick yourself for making her uncomfortable. You were about to withdraw your question and change the subject when she whispered. “James.”

Your heart sank in your chest and honestly, what were you expecting? That she’d want you? Please, look at her! Wanda Maximoff was an amazing young woman, intelligent, kind and gorgeous. How could she be interest in someone like you? Maybe another lifetime, not this one though.

It took more strength than it should to forge a smile at her answer, to pretend that it didn’t upset you was pretty hard, but you’d damn yourself if you let her see right through you this time. “I’ll keep this from Sam.” You smirked at her.

Oddly, her smile didn’t quite reached her eyes as you thought it would, but before you could dwell on it any longer, she shot at you a question of her own. “And you?” You were surprised for a moment, because those two words meant that she knew you’d drank that round, which meant that she was looking at you by then.

You shook your head lightly, trying to clear your thoughts. ‘She’s not interest in me’, you scolded yourself, then you panicked thinking that you must lie. To speak the truth would be awkward at best and disastrous in the least. Your mind rapidly surveyed the names of the other girls on the table. “Agatha.” You said, trying to shrug as much as you could in spite of being so tense.

She nodded at you and straightened her posture. “She is beautiful.” Her voice was soft and, again, the smile didn’t reach her eyes, and it bothered you because it didn’t feel right. Was she sad? Why, though? “She is.” A tide smile punctuated not only the end of the sentence, but the end of the subject. Or so you thought. Wanda, on the other hand, had other plans.

“I thought you and Romanoff were a thing, though.” Her eyes were trailed on her milkshake, so she missed your disgusted face. “Ew. No.” She turned to you somewhat amused by your antics. “Dating Natasha would be as odd and ridiculous as dating Sam.” She grinned at you.

“I’ll trust you won’t gossip this around, but Nat likes Banner.” Your voice was low, there weren’t many people on the diner, but one could never be sure. Natasha would kill you if word got out that she fancied the only popular nerd in school, and that was because he was best friends with Tony since kids, when they used to create the coolest science projects. When everybody was still trying to make a volcano work or losing time creating an ant farm, they build a robot controlled by their cellphone.

“Really?” Wanda was surprised by this development yet, there was another emotion, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint. Was she relieved? But why? Natasha was never a ‘threat’ to her relationship with Jarvis, in fact, she knew how the girl despised the blonde boy due his infinity bullying. “Guess I didn’t see it coming.” She complemented.

“What?” You turned to face Wanda. “You don’t think pretty girls can like the nerds?” You stared at her and saw her expressions morphing, she was about to explain what she meant, when she realized that you were teasing her, breaking into a fit of laugher with you. And just like that, the air was light again.

They’d hidden you until they couldn’t anymore. Until their personal demons, the drugs and the violence had gotten you taken away. You’d started from the bottom but now, in Stark tower, you felt like an impostor. You were trash. You were nothing. As you started the shower and cranked the water to the highest setting you just wanted to drown. You felt like wallowing. It had been a rough day. The rest of the team all knew each other. They had stories with each other. They had ways to relate to each other. You didn’t.

You’d been good at this once. Relating to others and building rapport. But your best demographic was kids and adults with no orientation to reality. You knew how to navigate red tape like a fucking pro. But this... Fuck this. 

You weren’t good enough for this. 

You sat on the floor of the shower and let the hot water burn on your skin and let the tears flow. It had been a hard day. You’d tried to talk the bad guy down and had only succeded in pissing off most of the team. They hadn’t wanted him talked down and arrested. They wanted him dead. He was dangerous.

You’d gotten an earful over comms as you were doing it and summarily ignored it. You’d talked him down, talked him out of what you suspected was a brief break with reality. He’d let hostages go. And all the way home in the quinjet you’d been glare was what you were good at. It had kept you safe, knowing when to talk and when to shut up.

After your shower when you came downstairs in sweats and a hoodie, you didn’t join the others. You just grabbed a pint of ice cream and slipped out. They were decompressing, watching a movie. It looked like Ghostbusters. You loved that film but you didn’t love being glared at. You knew no one wanted you. They’d said you were going to get someone killed. That your powers weren’t enough to make you an Avenger. You didn’t expect to almost collide with Natasha as she blocked your path. 

“Hey, Y/N,” she said softly. You look away, “Sorry,” you say trying to slip past her. You hate sparring. You hate confrontation. She stops you and tilts your chin up gently, “Come watch the movie,” she said softly, smoothing her thumb over your cheekbone. You shake your head and swallow hard, “No, it’s okay. I’ve got... I need to go do something.” It’s a flimsy lie. You knew Natasha knew it and you waited for the disdain. You waited for the cold sneer. You rushed past her, head down. You just wanted to hide. You wanted to be out of the way. You wanted to go home but... There was no home to go back to. This was all there was now that you’d been exposed. You were a freak. A mess. A monster. 

A former client had seen you on the street and run screaming. 

This was all there was and you weren’t good enough. You never would be. 

You took a bite of ice cream and threw it away with disgust. It tasted like cardboard and chemicals. You missed the ice cream from the shop in your home town. That had been made in-store and was perfection. This was just sad. 

The snort behind you made you jump and you whirled around to find Bruce sitting on your chair with a book. You back away slowly. You know Bruce is pretty even-tempered but you don’t like feeling blocked in. You don’t like not having a place to go that’s just yours. Bruce holds up his hands and makes a soft noise, “Easy,” he soothes, “I just... I saw what you did today over the feed in Tony’s visor, I-I just wanted to tell you. You did good. That was some quick thinking.” You feel your face color and you look away, “Thanks.” It feels like a trap. It feels like there’s about to be yelling and you want to bolt but, there’s no where to go. Bruce watches you and swallows hard. Watching you now, cowering away from him; he can’t stand it. They’ve been hard on you. All of them have. And none of them took into account that you were already a hero. You had skills that none of them had ever thought were important. 

He slipped past you and left you be, feeling awkward and wrong-footed now that he realized he’d invaded your space and stolen the one bit of peace you’d been trying to hang on to. Downstairs Bruce slumped on a couch next to Tony and sighed, “She’s not going to come down,” he said softly. Steve pinched the bridge of his nose, “Did she say why?” he asked. Bruce shook his head, “No, but... Why would she? We’ve all been treating her like a time bomb. Or an intruder.”

Hawkeye and Natasha exchanged glances and Clint nodded, “Anyone know what she likes? TV Shows? Candy? Movies? Favorite Animals? Anything at all?”

Clint was good at this. He’d been training new recruits since before Natasha had come to SHEILD. Sometimes they came in cocky and needed to be broken down to make them a hero. Other times they were scared little bunny rabbits that needed careful handling. Clearly, they’d all taken your reluctance the wrong way. It wasn’t a lack of willingness to participate. It was fear. Fear that you had hidden pretty well by just not talking to anyone unless you had to.

It made sense. 

You’d been a lab rat for a decade before they’d set you loose on society to see what would happen. To see if they could make an Anti Super Soldier. An evil version of Steve Rogers. You’d responded by becoming a social worker. A community organizer. You specialized in working with kids. And the mentally ill. You hadn’t wanted to be an Avenger but when push came to shove and you’d used your powers to stop a train and leveled half a city block, Fury hadn’t given you much choice. Go to the Raft as a terrorist. Be an Avenger. 

As you lay in your bed, emotionally drained and hungry, you wished you’d chosen Jail.

Clint turned over pieces of your file in his mind and half-listened as Tony asked FRIDAY to give him a list of anything you’d seen on netflix. Any food preferences she could identify. 

He’d failed you, that much was for sure, the Archer thought. They’d been so caught up in the things you had done under someone else's’ control that they hadn’t looked at what you tried to do in the aftermath.

You tried to be good.

You tried really fucking hard.

Steve sunk lower in his chair and glanced at Bucky.

Bucky.

The other outsider. The other interloper. The one Tony had given the hardest time. He knew and he’d tried to warn them. Quietly. He’d kept his distance from you, respecting that you didn’t want anything to do with any of them. That you probably wanted less to do with them than they did with you. Bucky cleared his throat, “She likes ice cream. And otters. Sometimes she likes true crime documentaries.”

He manages to slip out of one of Steve’s arms and walk towards your face and shove a finger inches from your nose. You ball your fists and clench your jaw. “You’ll never be me.” He hisses. “You’ll never have what I have.”

You were about to punch his teeth when Professor Ross started to yell at the students playing audience in hallway. The boys mingled in the crowd, and you felt a presence by your side. Her perfume announced her arrival before she could even speak.

“My God, are you alright?” You looked at her, only to see that she was upset. Of course she was, and you were mad at it. “What happened this time?”

You were so angry with her, with him, with life and you didn’t want to be in her presence anymore. “Vision being a fucking dickhead.” She looked at you startled by your harsh tone. “I don’t know why you still put up with him, Maximoff.”

You walk towards your classroom thinking when this shit happened, and you couldn’t help but think: “That stupid kissing booth.”

--- Earlier that year ---

You were leaning on a fence enjoying your cotton candy looking at people passing by. Some rushing to the Ferris wheel, others laughing at their own silliness or couples walking together sharing some popcorn.

You enjoyed watching people being themselves because sometimes you were annoyed beyond your mind with all the ‘idiocracy’ from school. Specially the popular kids that think themselves higher than others, calling themselves as Royal.

There were popular teens in every school, of course, but only in S.H.I.E.L.D. High they call the King and Queen from the ball as Royal, as well as the other popular kids in their orbit. Yes, it is stupid, but people are really invested in this shit.

“Look what I got for us.” Sam arrived by your side, boasting energy, as always. “If it’s not bumper cars’ tickets then I’ll be very disappointed.” Your sarcasm is evident, but he’s not fazed by it. His laugh was all you needed to feel at ease, you extended your arm to collect the ticket he was handing to you.

“Better. Tickets to the ‘Kissing Booth’.” Instantly, your face contorted into a grimace. “Do you know how many bacteria they are sharing right now? Billions!” You spoke, pointing at the agglomeration not far from where both of you were.

“C’mon, grumpy. Rule 18: Do not kiss someone unless you can hook up your best friend with someone too.” You smacked his arm. “This rule doesn’t even exist, Sam. And don’t! You’re not creating this rule right now.”

Samuel Wilson was your best friend since you were kids and if there was something good in your life it was him. You were always there for each other and somewhere along the road you started to create these rules. The outside world could see it as childish thing, but you always respect it. They were everything in your friendship.

“Why do you want to blend with the cool kids that much?” You asked him, giving no indication that you were going to move from your spot. “It’s senior year, let’s do this…” He gave you those doe eyes that could get almost anything from you. “Please?”

Grunting, you start to move towards the box filled with horny teenagers kissing each other with Sam hot in your heels, smiling like a dork.

You waited in the line with Sam, dramatically standing out of the line dedicated to kiss-a-boy, because ew. He was bouncing in his feet evidently excited, and you smiled at him.

“Look, Peter Quill is the Kisser. He’s not that bad.” Sam was right. Peter likes to hang with the troublemakers so-called ‘ravagers’ and poses as a bad boy but he was quite nice. “Too bad it’s not Steve.” He spoke quietly for only you to hear and you giggled at that.

“Don’t think Carter would like that, my friend.” He gave you a sheepish smile and moved, standing as the next in line to kiss a random guy. “Oh. My. God.” You looked at the booth to see that once there was Peter, now there was none other than James ‘Bucky’ Barnes blindfolded.

While Sam walked to the booth and gaped at the boy in front of him, you laughed quietly running the possible outcomes on your head. James Barnes belonged to the basketball team and were a royal. He was a prince in their stupid ranks: pretty, player and popular, hence prince, not a king.

You watched stunned when James kissed Sam back, even held him in place with a hand on the nape of his neck. Oh, that was interesting. Cheers and whistles erupted from the people waiting and watching the show, probably already preparing the next gossip.

You thought about sneaking out of the place and going somewhere else, but Sam’s words resonated on your head. It was your senior year, so what the hell… what could go wrong with kissing someone?

There weren’t many people waiting on the kiss-a-girl line, and you busied yourself with your phone until it was your turn to humiliate yourself and get infected with trillions of buccal bacteria. While looking down, you never saw the curtains behind the booth moving.

Prying on the next kisser, Gamora smirked to herself when an idea popped on her head, she had the perfect opportunity to create a little disaster. If there was one thing that she always looked for, it were chances to mess with the royals and to fuck with their little-perfect-fantasy world.

And if this goes how she’s planning, then the chaos could be big enough to bring her one step closer of becoming a royal herself. “Oh no Nebula, your ex is the next.” Nebula looked at Gamora, she didn’t have exes in this school. Yet. But sensing that Gamora had a play in mind, she went along with it.

“Oh no!” Looking around dramatically, their eyes landed on Wanda and much like a shark after their prey, they approached the redhead eagerly. “Wanda, hi.” They pretended to be troubled by something. “You see, the next in line is my ex. Would you mind going instead of me?”

Wanda looked almost annoyed at this, she was in the group to organize the event not a volunteer to be a kisser, her boyfriend wouldn’t enjoy it, that’s for sure, nor was she in the mood to kiss a stranger while blindfolded. Her eyes averted to Gamora, silently asking her to go.

Understanding what Wanda meant, Gamora opened her eyes wide as if this would be outrageous or obviously against some law. “She’s my best friend, it’s a crime to kiss your friend’s ex.”

Wanda rolled her eyes at their shallow thoughts and behavior, but before she could argue, she felt herself being dragged blindfolded to the booth by the duo and there was nothing more that she could do now. She’d have to endure this silliness, hopefully the person won’t have bad breath.

She stood still on her spot mildly aware of the girls giggling before retreating to the backstage of the box. Wanda realized that, oddly, the people waiting on the line, or the bystanders were quiet. She could even hear the footsteps from Nebula’s ex.

Not in a million of years you’d imagine that she would be the one to come from those curtains. You climbed the steps and walked slowly to your assigned place, you looked behind your shoulder to catch Sam’s smirking at your doe eyes. You stopped in front of her and took her in.

Her red hair was cascading down her shoulders, you couldn’t see her eyes, but you knew every single shade to your heart. Her plump, full lips were redder than a normal mouth should be, but you stared at them anyway.

You took a deep breath before gently touching her cheek with your hand, brushing her skin softly with your thumb while you slid your hand past her ear until it rested on the back of her neck and gently pulled her into you. Into your lips.

When your lips touched hers, you realized that all those cliches about hearing bells or angels sighing or singing where bullshit. There was no way to describe what you felt, neither bells or angels.

But it as if there was a fireball erupting from your chest climbing up on your body, ready to explode. Your knees, already weak, almost melted when she kissed you back and held you close by placing her hands on your cheek and shoulder.

When your hand found her waist, she gasped into the kiss giving you the perfect chance to slide your tongue in, to touch and clash with hers. Once they did, you felt shooting stars spinning inside your skull and you could swear you saw heaven’s doors not that far from you.

You broke apart when the air became an issue and you had to fight back a dopey smile since there were people watching. Your breath hitched when her fingers softly brushed her lips and you wondered if her lips were tingling as yours were.

Right in that moment, the unfortunate truth became crystal clear on your mind: you were in love with Wanda Maximoff. The only problem in this story was that she had a boyfriend, and he was your brother.

---

You feel arms wrapping around your torso from behind and soon it slide to your shoulders and you see their owner walking side by side with you. “Good morning, soccer team’s captain.” You look to your side to see a girl greeting you, her signature smirk was on.

“Morning, Romanoff.” You looked ahead in search of your locker. “The game was Saturday. How do you know that already?” You felt her linking her arm with yours, something that she always liked to do. “I have my sources.”

You gave her a pointed look and she giggled before replying. “Hawkeye broadcasted the game. And they announced that you were chosen to be the new captain.” Well, that made sense. Your school have a Radio, called The Hawkeye, they know everything going on in S.H.I.E.L.D. High. And they broadcast every game, even the ones your school was the visitor team.

You were not among the cool kids, and you never bothered yourself about it, but you always loved sports. Soccer is one of them. You’ve been playing on the team since freshman year.

Outside the field, you were shy and collected but inside those lines you were a born leader, always giving your best and inspiring others to do so. Sensing that she could drag so much potential from you, Professor Okoye told you that she needed more than just ‘a very important player’ as you were last year, she wanted the best version you could be. Last year, your team ended the championship as runner up, this year, though, you wanted nothing less than the first place.

“Make way to our new royal! Damn, my best friend is the Soccer Princess!” Sam’s voice boomed on the hallway, and you tried to hide your face when people looked at you with some sort of new interest.

And that was the only problem in being captain of any sport in S.H.I.E.L.D. High, you instantly become a royal, a lesser one of course, but a royal, nonetheless. And in this godforsaken school, this meant popularity. Which means unnecessary attention.

You rolled your eyes profusely. “Don’t be an asshole, Sam.” He laughed, opening his locker. “I am not.” You watched him collecting all the books he’d need for the next classes. “C’mon, your phone will be buzzing with girls asking you out by the end of the day. You should thank me for that.”

“But let’s not talk about who you kissed on the kissing booth on Friday.” He winked mischievously and before you could shush him, Natasha’s curiosity peaked. “Oh our nerdy friend kissed someone?” Her smirk never left her lips and Sam only nodded, matching her smirk.

“No one less than the Queen Bee.” Gladly, he spoke quietly and with a quick glance around you saw that no one was paying attention to you. Natasha, on the other hand, gasped in the most dramatic way she could, making you to roll your eyes at her.

“My dumbass friend kissing the Maximoff girl?” She looked as if she was alarmed by the news. “Are you running for King, or better say, Queen?” You groaned at their teasing and closed your locker energetically.

You opened you mouth to give her a not so politely reply, but before you could, you saw everybody in the hallway to open space for the royal’s entrance, something that you and Sam affectionately called ‘circus parade’.

As front commission came the girls waving at their fans as if they were their subjects. The princesses Pepper Potts, Peggy Carter and Agatha Harkness flanked the Queen, Wanda Maximoff. And it took you one glance at her black skirt, knee-high boots and that red jacket for you to swallow dryly.

She was always gorgeous. Everyday she showed up dressed for impress and make-up set to kill, but there was something about her today that you couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, she was beautiful than ever.

Right after the girls, comes the boys. Pietro Maximoff, the fuckboy of S.H.I.E.L.D. High; Steve Rogers, Carter’s boyfriend; Tony Start, the richest of them all who was currently dating Pepper; and Bucky Barnes, which now you understood why he was single.

And there in the middle of them all, walking as if he had all figured out, yet bored about everything, a hand possessively on Wanda’s shoulder, Jarvis Vision literally paraded as if he were truly the King of anything.

He was the boy that everybody wanted to be or be with and you always despised that thought, because he was nothing more than a playboy and bully with good looks. But right then and there, you wanted to be him, just to be with Wanda.

The bell ringing signaling that the class was about to start brought you back out of your mind, shaking your head slightly, you and your friends went to the first class of the day.

---

You watched wide eyed when Professor Hill presented the new pairs for this midterm project and Wanda slid into the seat next to you, greeting you with a small smile. ‘Does she know that we kissed three days ago?!’, you thought to yourself.

If she did, why would she act differently? You scolded yourself. That was just a kiss on a kissing booth, and you paid for it, it meant nothing. If she does know who she kissed, why would she make a big deal of it? She dates Vision and that’s not gonna change.

The relationship between you and Jarvis were always a warpath. Your father used to date your mother while having a secret affair with Jarvis’ mother, but after he found out about your mother’s pregnancy, he left her.

What stings the most is that not even months later, they were expecting Jarvis and he gave everything to the boy, nothing to you or your mother. The only thing tying you is your blood, not even your last name is the same, for you took your mother’s.

That’s it. That’s the little tragedy of your life and karma wanted to make it even worse for you: You were in love with his girlfriend and to be honest, you never got that well with Wanda, especially because of Jarvis.

Surely, you always saw her as a shallow preppy girl, however, whenever you had the chance to talk to her, she painted a whole new image in your head. Whenever she was alone, she was a different person.

You feel a slight nudge on your shoulder, making you to look at those green eyes and, for a second, you forgot how to breathe. “I heard about the game, and that you’re the captain now. Congratulations.” You watched her smile softly and put a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘C’mon, breathe.’

“Why. Thank you Maximoff.” You said almost awkwardly. “I heard that you were nominated by the team… I mean, it wasn’t just the Coach’s decision, right?” She spoke conversationally.

“Yeah. I.. hm” You gulped and shook your head slightly, trying to recompose yourself. “We do sort of choose who we think is a valuable player or a good leader. When Coach’s interests and our choices are aligned, it makes it easier.”

“Are you saying that everybody loves you?” She asked and your brain short-circuited at the smile gracing her lips. “Yes…” You cleared your throat. “I mean, no.” You glanced at her only to ser her giggling softly, just as you imagine an angel would. “There wasn’t anybody else that people hated less, I guess.” You shrugged in the end.

“My my, you’re the first captain that I met that has such a confusing, yet humble explanation as to why they were chosen.” Her voice hints some degrees of humor. You were still trying to figure it out if she was making fun with you or of you, though.

“Your boyfriend is the basketball team’s captain.” You say but immediately regret your words, you don’t want Wanda telling him that you mentioned his name at all. “You speak as if you never met Jarvis ego.” Her reply takes you by surprise, it is as if she was agreeing with you.

“It could be his middle name.” You two spoke at the same time, after a moment of staring shocked at each other, you both started to laugh out loud. A book falling heavily on your desk made the both of you to jump on your seats.

“You were paired together to work. Not to trade the newest gossip!” Professor Hill stern’s voice met a sheepish apology from you and Wanda.

---

You were digging into your locker for a specific book when you hear a fist landing on the metal door right by your side. You looked behind your shoulder and met Jarvis eyeing you with that usual hatred of his, and something else.

“Do you think you’re funny? Do you think you can become popular out of nowhere, freak?” He hissed on your ear, and you rolled your eyes at him. Of course he’d act like this, his main goal in school was to ensure people would only despise you. Nothing more.

“I don’t understand why you care so much, Vision, or, more precisely, why do you think I care.” You spoke not even looking at him, you weren’t in the mood to fight.

“I heard you kissed Wanda.” He was jealous and you could tell by how the words left his mouth. You smirked to yourself; it wasn’t a common thing to see him so bothered. Was he afraid of losing his trophy girlfriend or to look like a fool? Hm, maybe both?

“Trouble in paradise, little brother?” You spoke turning to face him right in time to see his face contorting with anger and your smirk grew wider. You knew he was pissed.

“Who do you think you are, bastard? No one likes you.” Ah here you go, when he was angry and had no arguments, he always tried to put you on your place by reminding you ‘who you were’. “Wanda is mine and if you get anywhere near her, I’ll make your life a living hell.”

His nostrils were flaring, his mouth was curled down in what resembled a snarl… everything in his posture told you to back down, but your ego spoke louder by hearing him talk about her as if she was a property, so your next words dripped with sarcasm.

“Oh. I’m sorry Jar, did she say that she liked me better?” You didn’t know what hurt most: if his fist colliding with your face or the back of your head hitting the locker behind you. As soon as you recovered from your stupor, though, your fist found his nose.

You heard voices, enchants of ‘fight’, people yelling while you and Jarvis wrestled against each other like animals. When you two were successfully separated, you looked up to see Principal Fury’s scowling at you.

“My office. Now.”

---

“Mr. Vision, I won’t tell you again to wait your turn to speak.” You saw Jarvis sinking down on the chair next to you. He had a few bruises, but his nose had stopped bleeding. You knew you weren’t looking good either.

“Is there anything else you want to say, Miss?” You shook your head and he nodded to you. He looked at Jarvis to let him speak, but his phone ringed. After few words, he sighed and spoke to you.

“I have to take this. Detention for the week, and you’re both suspended from your teams for two weeks.” You groaned looking to your lap but Jarvis voiced his opinions, earning a stern look from Principal Fury.

“If you don’t want suspension Mr. Vision, you two should learn how to solve your petty fights without fists. Now, off you go to take care of all this blood.” You walked out of the room fast, trying to put as much space between the two of you as possible.

“This isn’t over, freak.” He yelled at your retreating figure. His only answer was you showing him your middle finger while you walked towards the lockers room.

---

“Can I help you with that?” Wanda’s quietly voice startled you. When you looked up you saw her nodding towards the medical kit in front on you.

“Your boyfriend is in the infirmary, Maximoff.” Your tone was flat, trying to convey that you were bored and not bothered by the whole fight or his words. Or what he meant.

“Miss Cho can take care of him.” She sat in front of you even without your consent. “Let me?” She extended her hand at you asking you to give her the material so she could take care of you. You sat there, in silence, secretly admiring her beauty so close to you.

She placed her hand under your jaw to hold you in place and started to clean your mouth. You winced and tried to move away, but she held you in place. If not with her hand, with her eyes locked in yours.

“Not so tough now, are we?” She had a small smile, and you fought the urge to stare at her lips. Her scent hit you in waves jumbling your senses, and you could feel the sweat pooling in your hands.

“I’m sorry.” She spoke and you blinked at her. “What for?” You mumbled for she was still trying to clean your split lip and damn it burned. If for the cloth imbibed in sanitizer or by her digits touching your lip, you didn’t know.

You clenched your jaw and tried to think of anything else other than her fingers, or her scent or her, for that matter. If this were a different world, maybe you could voice your feelings, maybe you could try something with her.

However, in this reality, she was your brother’s girlfriend and never, even in a million of years, the Queen of S.H.I.E.L.D. High would feel the same way you did. Even if, a very long if, she had feelings, who would give up on their reign and popularity to date an outcast as you?

“About you and Jarvis.” Her words sliced your thoughts. “This isn’t the way brother and sister should act towards one another.” Her eyes were soft just as her fingers on your lip.

“There’s no need for you to be sorry.” You rasped out the best you could without interrupting her work. “Jarvis see things differently from me on the parenthood matter. You and Pietro are brother and sister, and you have a relationship, a very good one. But your boyfriend is not my brother. Not really.”

Her eyes were sad and before she could speak, you said. “Why are you with him?” Struck with some kind of boldness that alarmed you both. You saw her hands leave your face and rest on her lap, immediately, you missed her warmth.

“Jarvis is different with me, when he’s not around school and trying to pose as the popular king, he’s kind to me.” You felt a disgusting jealousy acid burning your throat at her words. He was a jerk, but she couldn’t see past it. “He’s complicated sometimes but he has his moments.”

“You could do better, you know?” Now you knew you were trespassing some sort of line with her, and she thought it too, for she got up on her feet and started to walk back to the class and you knew you had upset her.

“Who?” Her question caught you our of guard. Okay, Wanda was beautiful, it was only obvious that a lot of people would love to go on a date with her. Hell, you’d take her to a date right now if you could. Does her question mean that she’s afraid of being alone? That she put up with Jarvis childish behavior because she didn’t want to be alone?

Me. You wanted to say but the word died on your throat along side your boldness. Funny to think that you kissed her but couldn’t tell her that you did or how you wanted to kiss once more. “I don’t know.” You shrugged your shoulders. “Being who you are, I’m sure you have a lot of candidates.” You sent a smile but her face remained stoic, devoid of any humor.

“People see a Wanda that it is very much different from who I really am.” Her voice was low and you learned in that very moment who that different Wanda was, one without the confidence required to be the popular queen, yet, even stronger, even prettier. “People want to date the popular girl, not me.”

“I would.” Your words died on the coldness of the lockers on the locker room after Wanda had already left you alone with your thoughts and your answer. ‘Was life that hard to everybody, or did I get the special number?’ You mused to yourself.