PURE AND TAINTED ( wanda maximoff )

nineteen → no chick-flick moments

PURE AND TAINTED
CHAPTER NINETEEN
( no chick-flick moments )

AFTER CHECKING UP ON Clint and making sure that Loki's scepter had been taken care of, Aline quickly departed to her room. She took a long shower before changing into cleaner and more comfortable clothes. Wearing clothes with rips, snow, and blood wasn't as comfortable as she made it look. She braided her wet hair then plopped down on her bed, letting out a long sigh.

Her soulmate is with HYDRA, the organization that she had vowed to help take down. And to make matters worse, she hadn't been kidnapped like most of the other subjects, Wanda had volunteered for Strucker's experiments. Why? The report Maria had read didn't have much information about her circumstances, but she assumed that she had volunteered because of something important. If Aline were in her shoes, the only reason she would have done what Wanda had done was if this experimentation would have helped her.

She rolled onto her stomach and groaned into her pillow. Why was this so frustrating?

A knock at her door made her lift her head, and she saw Steve standing in the doorway. He had changed out of his captain's uniform into something more casual. "Is everything okay?" he asked, resting a hand on his hip with his head tilted towards her.

"Oh, you know me," Aline tried, grinning at him. "I'm totally fine."

The blond chuckled and stepped into her room. "Aline, I've known you for a long time so trust me when I say I don't believe you. You know you can talk to me. You've been distant since we got back. What happened?"

Aline sighed once more. "It's... complicated."

Steve almost laughed. "You're talking to a guy whose whole life is complicated. You can trust me." He sat on the edge of her bed, leaning an elbow on his knee.

After rearranging herself to sit with one of her knees to her chest, the other dangling off the bed, Aline said, "For the longest time, I mourned Madelaine 一 and I still do, but at least now I've let go of her. She was my soulmate and I loved her with every part of my being... and now..."

"And now?"

"Madelaine's not my soulmate anymore..." she said slowly, watching Steve's eyes widen with surprise, before correcting herself. "Well, sorta. I don't really know or understand any of this stupid soulmate B.S. simply because it's so confusing. There's no scientific way to explain it and people call magic fake even though I exist! So all the research I've done on it are simply rumors or just contradicting what the other things say and just 一 ugh!" She fell back on the bed, slamming her back against the blankets. She lifted up her shirt, revealing to Steve the brand new words tattooed on her side.

Slowly, Steve read the words across Aline's side. The writing was small and simple, but written in a girl's handwriting. He bit his lip. The mark didn't look super brand new, so he wondered how long the words have been there, but he'd bring that up later. "Okay... wow." Steve raised a brow. "Well, isn't this a good thing? You have a soulmate... again."

"But that's not the problem. The problem is that I'm confused as to how I'm supposed to feel 'cause I sorta feel like I'm betraying and replacing Madelaine, and, like, this is nuts, and also my soulmate is that Enhanced girl Wanda and 一"

"Wait, wait, slow down. What?"

Aline gave a weak shrug. "My new soulmate is that girl from the HYDRA base, Wanda Maximoff." She groaned loudly, rolling her neck. "And, seriously, there'd be no problem with that other than the fact that she kinda hates Tony's guts, she lives halfway across the world, and, oh, yeah, did I mention she's HYDRA?" Aline looked at Steve's face, seeing that he was not holding the same feeling as she was. She instantly jumped to her feet, standing atop her bed. "Why aren't you freaking out over this? You fought HYDRA and you seem oddly calm about the fact that the supposed new love of my life is HYDRA!"

Steve patted the bed, gesturing for her to sit, and so the hybrid did. "She's just a kid who made a decision to protect her family," he said. "I can't blame her for that."

"Oh, so we can't blame Hitler for 一"

"No, no, no, I'm not going there today," Steve interrupted, placing a finger over Aline's lips. "What I'm saying is... is that you deserve to be with someone who will love you as you are. Don't act like you haven't been lonely these past few years, I know you have. I want you to be happy and loved, and if you can only get that from her, then... by all means, go to her."

Aline stuffed her face into her hands "Please no chick-flick moments!" she screamed in a muffled voice.

Steve laughed, patted her back, and said, "C'mon. We have a party to get ready for."

Aline plopped onto her back once more, hands resting on her stomach. "I hate you."

"No, you don't," Steve said. He poked her nose. "You love me."

"Well, then I hate when you're right," Aline grumbled.

"Now get up," Steve chuckled as he dragged her off the bed.

___

By the time Aline had dressed herself in one of her little black dresses, along with the green crystal necklace, the party was already in full swing. People were chatting and dancing and drinking like there was no tomorrow, but that didn't particularly surprise her. While this was technically a party for the Avengers, at the heart of it was Tony Stark. A few people have managed to notice her, waving at her like they were her biggest fans, but she all she did was give them a smile and picked up a champagne flute. She placed the glass to her lips, instantly taking a long sip from it. Of course, Tony got the best. Sometimes (actually, most times, she was thankful to have a rich friend).

Aline mindlessly fiddled with her rings as she searched the crowd for a familiar face. Thor, Tony, Maria, and Rhodey were all talking amongst themselves by one of the bars, but she decided not to go in and bother them. From the faces Maria and Rhodey were making, it wasn't a conversation she wanted to join in on. Clint and Natasha were laughing and talking with a group she didn't know. Though she was thankful to finally spot Steve.

The tribrid advanced towards him, placing her now-empty flute on a table as she walked past it. She saw that he was currently playing a game of pool with his friend Sam. Steve had introduced the two sometime in the past year when it was revealed that the blond was searching for an old friend from his childhood. Apparently, he'd been kidnapped by HYDRA and brainwashed to become some sort of weapon for them, and he'd last been spotted running out of Washington, D.C. with some woman.

"Evening, kiddies," she greeted, placing her now empty glass on a passing server's tray.

"Well, don't you clean up nice?" Sam teased, pointing his pool cue in her direction. "I thought there was something pretty under all... this." He used his free hand to gesture to her body.

Aline had to bite her tongue from retorting at him. Instead, she held out her hand towards Steve. "Rogers, your cue, please."

"Careful, Sam," Steve said as he passed Aline the stick, "Aline here can get pretty competitive."

"Hell yeah, I can!" Aline said. "I am practically the queen of competitiveness! Besides, if I'm not, who is?"

A/N: when steve knocked on
aline's door, my first image of
him was just steve going all
protective mama bear and
being like "who hurt my baby"