Emerald Eyes | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 44: That's Not English Breakfast Tea

hello! sorry i've been missing! life got really crazy busy and stressful and i had absolutely no time to write. But I'm back! I hope you all had an amazing christmas and new year if you celebrate, and i hope 2023 is going well! I should be back in a regular posting schedule (maybe) so let's see how this goes!!

~~~

Wanda was bent over the kitchen sink, absentmindedly scrubbing at a burnt pan as she gazed out into the garden. The cold winter months had left the trees bare, their willowy branches swaying back and forth in the wind like spiders' legs. The sky was a dull grey colour as the clouds hung low. Probably the ' sunday-est sunday' she'd seen in a while.

The house hummed with activity as everyone was home for once. The boys were in the living room playing a video game with their headphones on, occasionally yelling out as one of them lost the game. Vision was sat in his office sorting out some left over paper work that had been bugging him all week. And Avelia was supposedly working on homework in her room. But Wanda knew there was little chance of that happening.

After squirting on some more dish soap and abandoning the pan in the sink to soak, Wanda drifted into the living room to curl up on the couch so she could watch her boys play. She never understood the game, but seeing them happy made her smile without fail.

Upstairs, Lia was lounging on her bed, maths textbook open along with her notebook. Her black biro was tapping against her top teeth as she read the problem for the 10th time.

Faint piano music drifted from the speaker on her desk but the teenager barely acknowledged it. She only had 2 more questions to do but they were the hardest ones, and without Nat's help she was struggling. But the determination she'd inherited from her mother made her stubborn and she vowed not to leave until her homework was done.

As her brows furrowed again and her teeth came to clamp down on the pen lid, a sudden vibration came from her phone which had been abandoned on her bedside table. But Lia was a good student, and she ignored it.

Until it vibrated again.

She continued to ignore it, but her focus was broken. Her curiosity was beginning to get the better of her, so she shook her head and started writing the math problem in her book.

3rd vibration.

4th vibration.

5th vibration.

Sighing heavily, Lia slammed her pen down and sat upright, rolling her eyes. She'd been doing so well studying, so whatever pulled her focus had to be urgent.

She reached for her phone and tapped the screen, frowning at the messages. She wasn't expecting any from Nat because she was out with her family somewhere. It could have been Clint or Maria, or some random instagram notification. But the last person she expected to see was Raven.

Raven 🔮
Hey
Are you free?
Lia
I need to talk to you.
Avelia?

Apart from exchanging homework answers and the odd book recommendation, the two girls never texted each other. They rarely spoke outside of school as their friendship only really appeared in class. Lia had seen Raven a lot around the town when she was shopping with Nat, but they'd never spoken like this. Not with this urgency either.