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wanda maximoff (fears) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-06-10 19:12:00

WHO: Wanda Maximoff & Padmé Amidala
WHERE: Padme's place
WHEN: {backdated} after this conversation
WHAT: Eating ice cream, talking 'boys', girl time.
WARNINGS: PG (for male objectification)
STATUS: Complete.

"Okay, so you're right -- Chunky Monkey is far superior to Cherry Garcia, and now I feel bad for every doubting you." Padmé licked the back of her spoon and smiled at her friend. It'd been a while since they'd been able to spend time together, but they talked and texted and Padmé was really starting to feel close with the younger woman. Who knew that a random invite to go hiking would turn into a lasting type of friendship?

"I bet you have tons of other opinions on desserts I should listen to. You know me and my sweet tooth." Padmé smiled cheekily. She couldn't stop herself when there were sweets, which was bad when she attended so many weddings.

Wanda just smirked, crunching down on some frozen chocolate banana piece. "You see, it's always good to have more sugar in ice cream." It was an entirely American thing, ice cream as comfort, ice cream as a treat, ice cream just because. Although Wanda enjoyed sweet tasting foods, it was usually pastries and cakes that she'd had.

"Oh, I have a lot of opinions, indeed." Wanda picked some more of the chocolate pieces out, putting them on her spoon with some of the toffee sauces, "In my country, we take dessert very seriously. My mother used to make mucenici, all the time, not just in March as is tradition." And she and Pietro would help make a mess in the kitchen and share out the bread, cinnamon, sugar and walnut treat. "I should try to make it one day, if you like walnuts?"

"Walnuts, peanuts, almonds...all nuts. I have no idea what mucenici is, or the tradition behind it, but I would love to try some of your traditional foods." Growing up the way she did, she'd had a lot of European type foods (French, Italian, Spanish); eastern european food wasn't tried as much. "I'm not the best baker though, I mean, the last time I tried to bake cookies, I ended up with hockey pucks." She leaned her head back on her seat, cradling the ice cream pint between her knees. "I can feed myself well enough though. Make pretty damn good soup."

Nuts were a good nutritional group, although many people seemed to be allergic to them, which was a shame, they were a staple in many Romanian dishes. "My mother taught me how to bake, a lot of it is timing and mixing." Although plenty of things could go wrong among the preparation. In some ways it was suitably like science for Wanda, everything was laid out, the instructions were there and she could expect the result to be the same when she followed the recipe.

"I don't do it often, small kitchen and student budget, but I find it relaxing." Busy lifestyles likely meant that people didn't have time for more complicated things. "Soup was a favourite at home also, you can never really go wrong with it."

"Soup is good," Padmé had to agree. "That's how I made it through college. Made a big batch on Monday, eat it all week. I barely know how to do anything else, I think I've told you that before." She tapped her spoon on her pint and gave a little shrug. "I don't know if I told you this but I ...well, I grew up rich. Like pretty well-off. My parents, they have a staff which includes a chef. I wish I had memories of doing things with my family, or learning things from my mom. All I learned was how to dress well, how to set a table ...those kind of WASP-y traits that she thought I should have."

Padmé rolled her eyes. "Funny how it all comes in handy now. I can set a table in my sleep."

Wanda watched Padmé carefully as she worked her way through what she wanted to say, shaving little spoons of ice cream off the top of her own tub as she did so. "You mentioned that your parents expected certain things," Wanda had made the connection given Padmé's comments, come to the conclusion that her parents were something important and all the things that went with it.

"It is a shame that they did not make those memories with you, but I am sure you have some good memories with them, different ones." Some people showed their appreciation and affection in different ways. But Wanda came from an entirely different life from what Padme had grown up with. "Sometimes I put the fork in the wrong place, I am not so good with my left and my right." Purely because she sometimes used either hand for her fork. "But I'll bet it comes in handy with work, right?"

"Yeah...." She straightened up and put her ice cream on the table in front of her, and tucked her feet under her bum. The spoon was now tapping on her lips as she thought about it. Did she have any kind of bonding memories? "You have such a positive way of looking at things, Wanda. You're right, I shouldn't look back and think 'sigh, we didn't do family things' because we kind of did. I mean, my mom taught me how to hire staff and like I said before, etiquette and crap. I'm happy to teach you, but it's pretty useless information if it's not a formal event." She gave a little giggle. "When I have Anakin over, I always make super formal place settings, and give him like four forks to use. He ignores it every time but it makes me laugh."

"There comes a time when seeing a silver lining is the best thing to focus on." Because Wanda didn't want to be one of those people who just felt sorry for herself, the more she dreamt, even the more she just lived life, she understood that the past wasn't something to dwell on. These things couldn't be undone.

"I'm not sure when or where I would ever use those lessons, but I would not say you shouldn't teach me." It was probably a good thing to know how to sit at a table properly, which piece of cutlery to use, how to address people in a formal setting. "I am now picturing someone using a fish fork all through dinner without a care." Although it was rather cute to have such in jokes.

Padmé had to giggle too. She didn't know if she had ever given Anakin a fish fork, but now she wondered if she should. He probably would give up and use his hands though ... "I've actually been talking with a man named Logan. He runs a teen centre, and they've suggested I teach some etiquette classes, or interview skills, things that I'm good at. I'm kind of scared of it, really. I don't know if I'd be a good teacher or not, and I have like little experience with teens."

"Maybe that would be good," if it was a centre that was geared towards helping young people, learning the ins and outs of things like interviews or how to behave at a fancy dinner, maybe it would be good for them, help them progress somewhere. She knew that the university was putting on a fundraiser after the end of classes to try and raise money for the science departments, maybe things like that needed a certain degree of etiquette understanding. "You'd be fine, I think you just need to treat them like equals, they might be teenagers, but that doesn't mean they want to be handled with kid gloves."

She'd been young when her home was bombed, and people had treated her like glass when she was clearly made of tougher stuff, coming through what she had. She'd just wanted someone to talk to her like she was a person and not a child. "I'd go with you, unless it's something you'd be likely to invite Anakin to?" Wanda gave Padmé a small nudge with her elbow, smirking slightly.

Padmé couldn't help the flush that brightened her face. "Anakin wouldn't go with me to that, he'd think he was a bad influence..." Or would he? She could never tell what the other man would want to do .. Peeking up at Wanda, she gave a long suffering kind of sigh. "I don't understand him at all. He hides behind words, he hides behind actions but he's not a liar. He's pretty honest when I ask him to be.." She lets out another breath. "Why are boys so difficult? I mean, maybe it's worse because like ... I don't even have any experience." She mumbled the last bit but it's true: she has had maybe two, three boyfriends tops in her life. She's fiercely independent after all.

Stopping with the spoon in her mouth, Wanda wasn't sure if Padmé was genuinely expecting a good answer or any advice that could be useful from her. Wanda hadn't exactly been doing stellar in the boys department either. "Maybe he's bad at the .... accepting good things stuff?" Which was probably difficult for some people at times. Wanda was still trying to work out how to balance being herself and knowing that she was going to be a super villain someday -maybe even here, it was hard to tell since her powers were decidedly supervillainy.

"If he's honest with you, when you ask him to be, that's a good indication that he's trying though, right?" If Anakin was open and honest where it mattered, there was a chance for progress, surely. "Maybe... just ask him?"

Just ask him. The simplest advice, and yet with Anakin? The hardest. "He doesn't know how to answer a question," she huffed, rolling her eyes. "It's just hard because I don't know what to do either. I feel like I'm either annoying him or something, and yet he always answers my texts, he's never really said no when I ask if we want to hang out, and he invites me over at times too. I mean," she hurriedly added, "we live very separate lives. I don't know what he's doing all day, and I don't think he knows what I do...but when we're together, it feels nice..." She sighed.

"I over think things. It's what I do. I think about everything to such a minute detail that I lose sight of it entirely. This is really why I don't date. I think I'm too intense." She laughed but it was true. She wondered if Wanda would be shocked to know that Padmé had never really done much with guys....or anything really, other than making out. She really did have zero experience.

"If he doesn't say no, I don't think you're annoying him," in all likelihood, it would be the opposite. Maybe Padmé's friend was just very poor at expressing his feelings, or wanting for things. Wanda could understand the logic behind that. But then, it was silly to her, to push away when you didn't really want to.

"I don't think it matters what you do when you're not together, you have your own lives, you live those as you do. It's important that, when you're together, you're together." If they were in their own worlds while they spent time together, Wanda might think they needed to rethink things. "There's nothing wrong with thinking," Wanda felt like maybe more people should think things through, "but some people like intense, and you're probably the right kind of intense for someone."

Maybe that someone was Anakin, maybe it wasn't, but it didn't seem like Anakin was put off if he still wanted to spend time with Padmé, even if he didn't open up easily. "Perhaps you just have to peel him back slowly, like onion layers."

Anakin was the worst kind of onion, Padmé thought to herself. An onion that would somehow find its layers and put them back on.

"It always amazes me how insightful you are, Wanda. You have all the answers. I bet all the guys at your college are after you. I mean, I'd do you," she teased, looking at her friend. "Or maybe I should say, I'd marry you and we could have an open relationship so that we could do whatever wanted, but still be happy and content in our own space that isn't our own space." She laughed. "We'd be the best wives."

Wanda snorted a little at Padmé's wild tangent about boys and wives. Although Wanda was aware of more open relationships, things that weren't defined by social constraints that were handed down by traditions that were, in many ways, flawed at best. "I would certainly marry you for an open relationship where we mutually benefited from companionship and understanding." Which, honestly, wasn't the point of a marriage in the first place?

"But I think I intimidate the boys in my class. Or at the least I'm not... I'm not perky enough." It wasn't really an issue for Wanda, she didn't want to date any of the boys in her class anyway, she'd contemplated dating when she'd been invited out by some girls in her English class, but she quickly discovered that dating wasn't what they were talking about. "I think I'm the wrong kind of girl anyway."

"Well what about that older guy I see you with sometimes?" Padmé smirked at Wanda. "You guys chat on the network, and sometimes when I text you, you tell me you're busy with Peter...."

She raised an eyebrow and took another satisfying bite of her ice cream. "He doesn't seem to mind you're not perky."

"Oh it's not like that," Wanda wasn't able to hide the blush though, because it wasn't that Wanda wouldn't be okay if it was like that. "Peter is... He's just a good friend, we spend time together and things, but he seems to be more interested in um..." She was trying to find a word for it, what they were called, without being nasty about it. "Mean girls?"

Which was probably selling Peter a little short, but given that he liked casual relationships with girls like Evie, Wanda didn't think she would be his type even if she was more endowed in the boobs department. "What is it that people say? Cannot always have what you want?"

"Uh huh." Padmé was amused. Wanda always seemed so unflappable. Padmé was usually the one who blushed. "Guys only like mean girls when they only want one thing. If he's hanging out with you, maybe he wants something else too." She could give relationship advice too!

"Unless you don't want that. Then cool, guys and girls can be friends. I mean, I think. I don't know. I don't have ..any real male friends. Except for Will, I guess, but we just surf together."

Wanda could handle some gentle teasing, she knew that Padmé wouldn't just be mean, that wasn't what it was. Although Padmé's words about wanting one thing echoed what Peter had said about booty calls -she'd looked it up, and then promptly deleted her browser history. "I think he just wants a friend from me, he has um... bedmates for other things."

And Wanda wasn't judging in the least, after all, Peter spent a long time without company in that regard and he was funny and smart and attractive, so it was natural that he wouldn't really struggle to find a partner for those kinds of activities. Wanda wished he'd maybe find girls who weren't openly mean to him, but it wasn't like she was going to say that to Peter. "I do better with female friends too, Peter is... I don't really know. I like him, he's fun to spend time with but, I think he's not really the type to have anything serious."

And Wanda didn't know if she would be the type for anything that wasn't serious.

Padmé made a face. "Yeah, I can see how that would suck." She sighed. "Still. He's nice to look at. You should see if you can get him to take his shirt off." Her eyes twinkled, obviously joking. "I keep telling myself if I ever run into Thor, I'll have the guts to ask him to do that. Sometimes, you just want to appreciate a really toned body."

It took a moment, Wanda pausing with the spoon of ice cream in her mouth as she considered shirtless Peter. It wasn't especially right to just picture him though and Wanda shook the thought free with a side glance at Padmé, "I can't just objectify him like that." But maybe she could? Then again, she'd likely be very unable to hide any kind of interest.

The mention of Thor at least gave Wanda a sidebar moment, "I share dreams with him." Although she wasn't sure to what degree yet, "I think I use my powers on him, but he said I gave him a vision."

That caught Padmé's attention. "You share dreams with Thor?" Her eyes widened. "Wow...that's so cool. And the fact you have powers." She shook her head, amused. "And hey, you can objectify people in the safety and comfort of your friend's home. Especially if she is too....it's just in public that we need to be better behaved."

"And Tony Stark." Although she didn't think Tony was aware of it yet, she didn't think he'd be as nice to her if he was. "Although I don't think we're friends in the dreams." It might be worth it to talk more to Thor about that though, see what progressed of if she'd need to send some 'sorry I messed with your mind in our dream world' fruit baskets.

Peter was probably the type that wouldn't mind non-creepy objectifying too.The only thing he seemed confident about was his looks. "I think Peter wouldn't mind private objectifying, he seems very proud of his appearance."

Tony Stark .. Padmé had seen him on the network, but had never had the guts to speak to him directly. The fact that Wanda shared dreams with all these impressive people was ...well, impressive. And then they were talking about Peter again, which made Padmé laugh inside.

Poor Wanda. She had it bad.

"So objectify. Why not! Men get to do it to women all the time, it's about time for turnabout right?"

"But I am the one who still needs to look him in the eye," although she and Peter were fairly friendly that it would probably be laughed off. She wasn't lying about Peter being the confident sort, at least as far as his looks went. Peter was probably used to people looking at him.

"He's probably the first proper man that I could say I have objectified. Everyone else has been a boy, not really the sorts in those magazines and things, right?" Wanda wasn't new to the concept of a crush after all. "What is Anakin like?"

"Um." Padmé was taken a bit off guard. She did just say that turnabout was fair, but damnit, she hadn't expected it to go back on her. "Anakin. How do I describe him ... well .... he's the single most frustrating person I've ever met. He never answers a question, everything is a joke, and I never quite know where I stand with him." This was all said with a gentle kind of tone, as she wasn't really upset by any of it -- it was just how he was.

"But he's also really passionate about his work, caring with his friends, and has always stepped in when I've needed him. Even if I didn't know I did." She gave a little shrug. "And he's not bad to look at either."

What Wanda thought was most telling was that Padmé described who Anakin was before she got to his appearance, it made her smile a little. It amused her that Padmé found him frustrating while also calling him dependable and giving. "He sounds very interesting." Although she hoped that Padmé wasn't going to be hurt by Anakin's stubbornness too.

"Well, when he has an appealing personality, the appearance is just a bonus, isn't it." At least it seemed like Anakin and Padmé might have a hopeful chance, might have something together, even if they were going at glacier pace in getting there.

Dipping her spoon into her ice cream again, Wanda selected another topic to shift the conversation to, letting Padmé distract herself with something else.