Fire and Smoke - Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Chapter 87

I turn the old, slightly unyielding knob to the right and the water slowly and stubbornly trickles to a halt. The occasional droplet escapes and falls down onto my burning shoulders. I convince myself that is the reason for the goosebumps all over my skin. I awkwardly peek over my shoulder, knowing that she is still sitting on the edge of the bathtub, not having heard the door close at any point. I'm right. Of course I am. the goosebumps aren't from the water. She coyly drops the slender hand she was using to keep my water from turning me into a lobster. I cannot see much of her face as she keeps looking straight ahead to give me some semblance of privacy, but her cheeks are slightly flushed and a ghost of a smile plays on her lips. My stomach does some sort of pirouette inside me, awakening the dormant butterflies which take flight and make me feel almost drunk.

"I don't have a towel."

My voice sounds oddly calm, echoing slightly within the inside of the tiled walls. It's odd considering my nerves have started what feels like a Cinco de Mayo party. My mouth is dry and I silently scold myself for being so forgetful, my attention only on the task at hand, never thinking ahead. And now I'm standing here, utterly naked with her right there. Despite my annoyance at myself, I know this is not an issue as I know there are a couple of old, slightly worryingly stained towels underneath the sink. The only problem is that she's in the way and I cannot help myself to one unless I care to lean right past her. Naked. Which I do not, really. I turn my eyes onto Wanda's half-obscured face in time to catch her biting her lower lip in an attempt to keep herself from smiling. She blinks, releases her lip, and exhales, and I wonder why I am studying her movements as though I were an explorer who accidentally stumbled upon the rarest of creatures. Wanda's cheeks blossom in color and her eyes flit to mine so quickly had I blinked I would have missed it.

"Oh." She lets out a shaky breath and slowly stands up, brushing a stubborn strand of hair that escaped the loose constraints of her tired bun behind her ear. That is all she seems to be able to convince herself to do, as she stands there, gnawing on that lip staring blankly ahead with a blushing face.

I let out an awkward hum, finally convincing my eyes to let go of her and turn them onto that yellowish tile in front of me as I wrap my arms around my naked torso, for once at a loss of what to do or say, which irks me more than I care to admit. I am no longer a stupid child and she is no longer someone my insides should be burning for. So why can't I stop reacting the way I am?

Grasping onto that little flame of annoyance before it is extinguished, I turn around on my heels, aware of her green gaze pretending it isn't on me. But I am fuelled by some sort of pride I didn't know was hiding within me, so I confidently lift one leg and step out of the bath, and then the other, until I am standing shoulder to shoulder with her. The Cinco de Mayo party inside me has seemed to reach its peak.

"Oh." I hear her exhale once more, her eyes round like saucers as they're fixed on a point straight ahead of her.

Her uselessness gives me some joy and with a smirk, I take a small step forward and lean in front of her towards the cabined hosting my prize.

"'scuse me." I murmur as I slip in front of her and feel her shock seep through her into me.

She goes to say something back, but her words seem to hitch on some invisible trap in the back of her throat and all she is able to produce is some form of sound not quite resembling any words I am familiar with. That again stokes the flames of my ego and I finally clasp my fingers around the scratchy material that is a towel, feeling like waving it over my head like some sort of flag.

I don't, of course, opting to instead simply wrapping the towel around me, my heart thumping in my chest both from exhilaration and probably from fear I'm about to experience, but cannot quite yet due to whatever adrenaline rush I was blessed with. Cold droplets of water drip down the strands of my hair onto my burning back, and just as I finish wrapping the towel around me, another sensation reaches my brain from the skin on my back and suddenly all thoughts other than that feeling are dispersed. A finger softly traces from the back of my neck down my shoulder blade so very slowly I forget I have a need for breathing.