Wanda was in a bad mood. She had no idea why, but she'd been grouchy and irritable all day. She stayed in her room, not wanting to get mad at Steve and Bucky and do something that she would regret.

She scrolled through her pictures on the phone her dads had gotten for her. She came upon a picture of her with Peter's friend Liz. She was really pretty. Wanda felt a weird feeling in her gut when she'd first met her, about a month before she started dating Peter. It had taken her a while, but she'd finally realized what the feeling was. She had a very slight crush on Liz.

The realization had thrown her for a loop. The crush was gone, and she couldn't help but hope that it would never happen again. She was straight, she had to be. She couldn't imagine what her parents would think. Of course, she wasn't worried about Steve and Bucky, but about her very religious biological parents. She didn't want to do anything that might not make them proud. And Pietro. What would Pietro think? Wanda wasn't even sure how she felt about it, other than a little scared.

She kept thinking about it, and she couldn't help but imagine worst-case scenarios. She felt her gut sink.

She barely heard when Steve called her for lunch. She found herself mentally cursing herself out. She was being paranoid about that thing with Liz. It was only a tiny feeling, and that was the only time that it had happened with a girl. She must not have been feeling well that day. She wasn't a... she wouldn't dare say the word. Steve and Bucky made it clear that no matter what, that particular word was off limits.

Her chest tightened as she thought about what would happen if she were still at the orphanage. Sokovia wasn't exactly an LGBTQ+ friendly place. The only reason Steve and Bucky had been allowed to adopt there was because of the excess of war orphans had made the law so that ANYONE who was suitable for adopting children and wanted to could adopt one of Sokovia's many orphans.

But her particular orphanage had a nasty reputation for how they treated kids who weren't... "normal". Wanda would have gotten the h*ll beat out of her before being kicked out, just like all the other LGBT kids. She refused to let herself use the word they used, though it swirled around in her head.

"Wanda, are you alright?" Bucky asked. "You seem out of it."

Wanda startled. She hadn't even realized that she was eating lunch at the table with her dads. When had she left her room? She certainly didn't remember going to the kitchen and getting a plate, much less sitting down at the table and eating. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just lost in thought."

"Whatcha thinking about so hard?" Steve asked.

"Nothing much. Just things."

"So specific," Bucky chuckled. "Really though, doll, what's got you so deep in thought?"

"I don't want to talk about it," She said quietly as the whispers in her mind got louder, begging for her attention once again.

"Honey, it's not good to keep things in. You look bothered. Please tell us what's wrong," Steve said.

"I SAID that I do not want to talk about it." Her tone was much ruder.

"Wanda," Bucky said sternly. "Be polite."

Wanda rolled her eyes. Part of her screamed at herself for being so rude. But mostly she was angry, and annoyed. She already said that she didn't want to talk about it. But they wouldn't listen to her, and were acting like a**holes because she was uncomfortable with answering their questions.

"Leave me ALONE." Her tone was growing, anger bubbling under skin.

"Wanda, Bucky is right. You need to be polite. We just asked you a question."

"And I SAID that I do not have any desire to answer it!"

"Wanda, if something is bothering you, you need to tell yes, not snap at us for being worried about you," Bucky said, annoyance in his voice.

Oh, HE was annoyed. Imagine how she felt. Her anger boiled over and before she even knew what she was saying, words spilled out of her mouth like a vulgar waterfall. "It's none of your business! Now, get off my back, you fa***ts!"

Steve and Bucky looked her in shock.

Wanda swore internally. Why had she said that? WHY had she said that? As she watched her dads faces turn from shock to anger at her use of the horrid word, she took a few slow steps back before turning around and running as fast as she could. She quickly ran into her closet, closing the door and cramming herself under the shelf, just as she always did when she was scared that she was going to be in trouble.

Her heart was racing. Oh, why had she run off? If she stayed, whatever punishment that she was going to have would have been a little less worse. Her thoughts were coming at a thousand miles an hour, overwhelming her. Bucky and Steve had to be absolutely furious with her.

The downside to this being the spot she always went to for self-inflicted punishment was that they knew EXACTLY where to look for her.

"Wanda." Steve's angry voice made Wanda shrink back. Her heart was beating so quickly that it made her chest ache. "Get out front there."

She was frozen in place. She was having difficulty breathing.

The door opened and Steve grabbed her, pulling her out from under the shelf. "Look at me."

Wanda looked him in the eyes, her lip trembling. Steve was very angry, and so was Bucky.

"Why did you say that?" Bucky asked. There was no joking tone in his voice, unlike usual.

"Because I... I don't know." She did know. But she was worried that it was true about her. She had never meant to call her adoptive parents such a thing, because they weren't.

"There's always a reason." Steve said.

"I was angry. I'm sorry, I-I wasn't paying attention to what I was saying. If... if you're gonna hit me, then I can-"

"Wanda, we are not going to hit you!" Bucky sounded exasperated.

Steve sat her on her bed. "We are going to meet my mom for a movie and dinner. We're leaving in two hours. You sit here until the timer I'm going to set goes off. Then you will get ready and meet us in the living room half an hour later, which I will set another timer for. Do you hear me?"

Wanda nodded.

"Now, you are allowed to do your schoolwork, but you may not play on your phone, your computer, or watch tv. Am I clear? You're in trouble right now."

Wanda nodded. "Clear," She whispered. She was still shaking.

"Good." He set the two timers on her phone and left the room.

Wanda's heart was still racing and she was only able to get through three math problems until she got up, ran back into her closet and curled back up in her spot. The familiar, horrific blanket of nyctophobia and claustrophobia washed over her. Her heart rate increased as her anxiety spiked. But she felt like she needed more punishment than not being allowed to leave her room and only do schoolwork.

She bit the inside of her cheek raw, terrified that Bucky and Steve might have been trying to throw her off with the pathetic excuse for a punishment.

She remembered mouthing off to one of the workers at the orphanage. The woman had slapped Wanda and said, "You know, I'm shocked anyone wants to adopt a mouthy brat like you. You must be playing your innocent little angel card with them. But trust me, they'll see how awful you really are, and do you know what they'll do? They'll send you back here, because they won't want you. No one wants a sassy, bratty teenager. And that's exactly what you are, Wanda Maximoff. A sassy, worthless brat."

The memory filled Wanda with dread. Steve and Bucky wouldn't send her back. They wouldn't. Would they? Maybe they would, after what she said. They had to be livid at her. She didn't usually act like a bad kid. But, since she was bad sometimes, that meant she was a bad kid, right? That's what she'd been told by the people who cared for her for five years. She might be willing to help an elderly person cross the street safely, but she hadn't saved her brother's life, had she? No, of course she hadn't. He'd be with her now if she had.

As her thoughts turned darker, she panicked, getting less certain by the second that they wouldn't give her up. Why would they want to keep an ungrateful brat like her?

And a selfish brat, too. She had to have hurt their feelings, and here she was, only thinking about herself. What a selfish b*tch she was.

The thoughts made her chest swell with more panic than it already was due to the darkness and tight space in her spot. She started scratching at her arms, both as a painful punishment and as a way to try to calm herself. Her throat started to close up, and soon she couldn't breathe. She tried, but it wasn't working. Her chest was starting to become incredibly painful. She quickly scrambled out of the closet and to her bed, trying to breathe.

She started to feel lightheaded, and quickly opened the front pocket of her knapsack, pulling out her inhaler. Two puffs and a few breaths later, she was able to get some air into her lungs, but not a lot. She reached for her phone to find out how much time she had before she was allowed to leave her room. Maybe it was only a little while and she could wait for some help. But there was still an hour. Her inhaler wouldn't help her much for an hour.

Tears of pain and fear rolled down her face as she called Bucky.

"Wanda, why are you calling me? You know you're not supposed to be on your phone."

"I-I know. Bu-but I can't... breathe."

"Oh my god, do you know what's wrong?"

"Asthma, I think," She started coughing, hard. She barely heard Bucky telling Steve to go to her room while he grabbed the nebulizer.

When Steve came into the room, she was coughing up phlegm. He sat down next to her patting her back.

"It's gonna be ok, sweetie. Why didn't you say that you were asthmatic?"

"I thought... I thought that if it was a big-" She hoarsely gasped for air, and Steve's chest ached in sympathy. "A big deal," She continues. "That they would have told you." She started couching up a lung again. The orphanage only let her have her medicine if her throat started closing up. It wasn't a you-get-your-medicine-ever-day thing like it had been at her house. She assumed that it wasn't that bad. She herself always forgot that she had asthma until it flared up.

Bucky set up the nebulizer, placing the mask on her face. He gently told her to lie down, but keep herself propped up on her pillows.

It took a full hour, but her breathing was mostly back to normal. They kept her on it until they were certain that she was breathing fine. Steve pulled out his phone to call his mother and explain what had happened and cancel, but Wanda begged him not to. She said that she was ok.

Finally, Bucky and Steve agreed to go, as long as she brought her inhaler and they had the nebulizer in case of an emergency. She didn't object. She felt bad about ruining their day as much as she already had.

Both of her dads picked up on this.

"Doll, we aren't mad at you," Bucky told her.

"Liar."

"He's not lying. Honey, we know that you didn't mean to say that to us. We were pushing you to answer a question that you didn't feel comfortable providing an answer for. But, Wanda, we want to make one thing clear. That you can tell us anything that is bothering you, no matter how embarrassing or stupid it may seem. Ok?"

Wanda sniffled. "Ok."

Steve wiped away the remaining tears from Wanda's cheeks. "What had you so scared?"

"I thought... I thought that maybe you wouldn't want me anymore, cuz I'm bad. I didn't want you to send me back, so I... I got back into my closet." It was then that she realized that she literally closeted herself, and she couldn't help the snicker that escaped her lips.

"Thought of something funny?" Bucky asked.

Wanda nodded. "Kinda."

"Doll, we know you get scared, but you can't keep putting yourself in your closet. It's not helping anyone."

"It does-"

"Wanda, it doesn't help you. You're using it to do mental harm to yourself. It is not good for you. I don't want to see you in there anymore."

"Yes, sir."

"Alright, then. You're ready to go after you touch up your makeup?" Steve asked Wanda.

"More like completely redo, but yes. I'll be ready in fifteen minutes, I think."

"Alright."

Wanda pulled herself together and by the time she left the bathroom, they would only be five minutes late. No too bad. She was still tired enough let Bucky carry her to the car though. She took a nap on the way there, completely unaware as Buck looked back at her, snapping a photo of her on his phone. "She's something."

"And aren't you glad that we adopted her? We love her, and who else could manage to handle her as well as we can?"

"I don't know, Babe," Bucky said, kissing him.

"No distracting the driver."