Ethan Stark happily hummed to himself as he took the last gigantic bite of his double cheeseburger, polishing off the meal he had gotten to-go from his favorite burger joint. He and his girlfriend Wanda Maximoff were just leaving after enjoying yet another amazing dinner date night out together.
"Mmm...so delicious! I could seriously eat at that place every single day and never get tired of it," Ethan declared dreamily through his very full mouth. A small smear of burger sauce ended up on his cheek, but he didn't notice at all.
Wanda just smiled indulgently at her adorable boyfriend and gently wiped the bit of sauce from his face with a napkin. She absolutely loved Ethan's childlike innocence and enthusiasm for basically everything in life. Dating the rather simple-minded yet lovable son of Tony Stark certainly kept her on her toes, but she treasured every chaotic moment.
"I'm very glad you enjoyed your meal so much, dear. I had an absolutely lovely time tonight with you as well," Wanda replied warmly, looping her arm affectionately through Ethan's as they strolled leisurely together down the lamp-lit street.
Feeling suddenly inspired by the romantic mood, Wanda added on impulse, "In fact, our wonderful date tonight actually got me thinking a bit - wouldn't it be so nice if someday you and I got our very own private place together away from your dad and all the other Avengers? You know, somewhere just the two of us could go to have some real privacy and quiet time alone..."
Ethan's eyes instantly lit up with excitement at Wanda's suggestion. "Ooh, yeah, that's an awesome idea! If we had our own apartment, we could build giant blanket forts in the living room, and eat ice cream sundaes for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day!" Ethan enthused, positively beaming at Wanda with a huge, goofy grin spreading across his face as he imagined all the possibilities.
Wanda couldn't help laughing aloud at Ethan's adorably enthusiastic response. He was always so unfailingly eager to agree with literally whatever she proposed or wanted to do - it was just one of the countless things she found totally endearing about him. Feeling quite happy and affectionate in the moment, Wanda gave Ethan a quick but tender kiss on the cheek.
"It's decided then - someday soon we'll start officially looking for our very own cozy little love nest that's just for us," Wanda declared warmly, winking up flirtatiously at Ethan in a way that she knew would always make him blush with pleased shyness.
By the time the smitten couple finally leisurely meandered their way back home to Avengers headquarters, the hour was getting pretty late. However, Wanda and Ethan were quite surprised to see Bruce Banner suddenly come hurrying right over to them the instant they entered the front doors, trailed by a small cluster of the compound's other top research scientists and looking even more anxious and discombobulated than usual.
"Oh good, thank goodness you two are back! Ethan, I could really, really use your help tonight testing out the prototype for an extremely important new interdimensional portal device I've been working on tirelessly in the lab for months now. I swear it's totally safe though - I would never put you in harm's way!" Bruce quickly explained, wringing his hands fretfully.
Upon hearing Bruce's request, Ethan immediately stopped mid-bite into the brand new burger he had picked up for himself on the walk back to headquarters, his eyes lighting up with great interest and excitement.
"Whoa, cool! You need me to help test out a real portal to other universes and junk? That sounds awesome! I totally wanna help!" Ethan exclaimed enthusiastically through his very full mouthful of food. Adventuring into the unknown realms of experimental science stuff always looked incredibly fun and neat to him.
However, Wanda frowned slightly with uncertainty after hearing Bruce's proposition, not fully convinced this was such a great idea. "Oh Bruce, I don't know...Ethan literally just finished eating a massive dinner, and you know he tends to get quite drowsy and unfocused after filling up on so much food so late in the evening," Wanda cautioned hesitantly.
