I Hate You But I Love You

14.

I'm back. I know it's been a long time, 3 months I think but I haven't felt up to it lately. Schools been rough and everything with the pandemic has been crazy, so I've just felt a bit down. But for the ones that might have worried, I'm going to finish this story. I just needed a little break from everything.

A few days later things were still the same. Nat was avoiding Wanda and Wanda didn't know why. They had yet to talk. So after training Wanda decided to try again.

"Nat, wait !" Wanda yelled after her as Nat left the training room but she was already gone. Fuck! She thought before running after her. "Nat! Hey!" Wanda yelled again. "Yeah?" She answered without stopping or even slowing down. Is she serious right now?! "Wait a sec I wanna talk to you!" Wanda said while rounding her and stopping in front of her, effectively stopping Nat as well. "I can't right now. I have to go to the office to do some stuff. Maybe later okay?" Nat said. "But..." Wanda started but Nat had already walked past her. Damn it!

The next time Wanda saw her was actually two days later. She had wanted to talk to Nat in the evening after dinner but the readhead was nowhere to be seen. The following day was a Sunday so they had a day for themselves and Wanda thought it was the time for her to talk to Nat. But when she woke up at 9am, an hour and a half later than usually, Steve told her that Nat had already left. Wanda spend the whole day training, reading and watching TV while she waited for Nat to come back. But somewhere around 11pm she fell asleep and Nat still wasn't there. Today she didn't even try to talk to her. Nat was obviously avoiding her and if she kept pushing her she would close up more. So she decided to talk to Steve.

So after training she watched Nat go and held Steve back. "Yeah?" He said as he came a few steps closer to Wanda. "Can we talk?" She asked. "Yeah of Course. What about?" He said while sitting down on a training bench. "About Nat." She said. "What about her?" He said. "I feel like she's avoiding me. Do you know what's up with her?" She answered. "Oh I think she just has a lot to do. You know with the change in training plans and coordinating new missions. She's probably just busy." Steve said. "Are you sure? There were lots of times when she had a lot going on and she still found the time to talk or even hang out. And we haven't talked properly in over a week. That never happened before." Wanda said. "Well you know it's a little different this time. She's a leader now and that comes with a whole set of new responsibilities she didn't have before. She's new to this and needs some time to adjust. But if you really think soemthings going on, why don't you just ask her yourself?" Steve said. "I tried. But either she tells me she has no time at the moment or that we'll talk later and then I don't see her at all for like two days except for training. And after training she leaves before I even have the chance to talk to her. I just feel like I upset her and I don't know how. I don't want to be fighting again." Wanda said frustrated. "I really think she's just busy. Just give her some time. She'll get around and then you'll be hanging again. But I gotta leave now, too. I have some stuff to do myself. See you tomorrow." He said and left. But Wanda still didn't belive him. It would surely be possible for Nat to take five minutes to talk to her.

The next morning Wanda walked into the kitchen to hear Nat say that she was excited to have a whole day to herself, without any office work. "So then you'll finally have time to do something with me." Wanda said. Nats head whipped around to see an excited Wanda standing in the doorway. Fuck! She thought and looked helplessly over to Steve. He just shrugged his shoulders. "You know I... just started this book and I actually kinda wanted to finish it. It's really good."Really? A new book. You couldn't have thought of a better excuse? She thought to herself. "Well you can finish that sometime else, can't you? Or you'll read a bit and we'll do something after? We haven't done something together in weeks and I really miss you." Wanda said. She almost sounded desperate.
"Yeah ok. Let's meet up here again around 1pm and then we'll go to the mall or something, that alright?" Nat said, finally giving in.
"Yeah, that's great. So see you later I think?" Wanda said excitedly before she took a banana from the fruit bowl and began to make her way out of the kitchen again. "Yes, see you later." Nat called after her.

"A book? Really?" Steve chuckled when Wanda was gone. "Shut up! I panicked ok." Nat said. "Yeah I could see that. So are you going to be able to do this?" He asked carefully. "We'll I don't have a choice do I?" She answered. "Not really, no. But you see, you're important to her and she misses you. I think it's gonna be hard to keep distance with her. She'll always come back and bug you about spending time." He said. "I know, but it just hurts ok. To see her and to want to be with her, but knowing that it can't happen." Nat said. "I get that. Really I do but you can't keep her away forever. It's been weeks, maybe you should start to let her back in." He said. "I don't know." Nat said hesitantly. "Think about it. You don't wanna lose her as your best friend, too, do you?" Steve said. "No, you're right. I'll think about it. Thank you Steve." She answered. "That's what friends are for." He smiled.

I know this wasn't much but I hope you still liked this chapter. I'm going to update as soon as possible.