Alex's POV

The beach.

Wanda in a bikini.

I can't keep my eyes off of her.

Spencer is trying to talk to me, but all I see is Wanda throwing her head back, hair falling to her ass and.. damn her ass ..

"Alex!"

"Wha- huh?" Eyes still stuck on her plump..

"Hey!" And there's a hand in front of my face waving back and forth, disrupting my view.

"What?"

"Dude, you are so obvious," she laughs.

"What? She's my girlf-" oh, right. No, she isn't. My eyes go wide as Spencers smile stretches across her face. And now she's jumping up and down.

"Holy fuck! You want to get back together with her!" She whispers shouts.

"Keep your voice down! And.. I don't know what you're talking about." Deny deny deny.

"Pshh. Please. You were totally about to say girlfriend. Don't bullshit me."

"Ugh, fine. Okay? I was. I don't know why. I guess.. it's so easy to get sucked back in to what we were. It's so easy to give in and just be with her," I admit to my hands.

"I get that. You have history. You loved each other. You broke up.. Can I ask why you don't want to give in?"

I can tell she sits down next to me, then I feel something cold on my leg, "jeepers! What the hell was that?"

She laughs at me again, "okay, Velma. What was that?!"

That's when I see she's holding out a cold beer for me to take. Right. Thats one way to get my attention.

"Thanks," I mumble.

She nudges me, "so?"

"I don't know. I guess.. we've hurt each other so much, ya know? I know I have forgiven her. Her and Yelena. But I guess it's hard to forget? Like there's something in me that won't let me do it, won't let me be that vulnerable again."

She nods, drinks half the beer down, " I get it. Being vulnerable with someone is.. hard. Almost impossible sometimes. To really commit to someone.. you have to let them see everything.. and not knowing how they'll react, if they'll stay.. it's one of the hardest things you can do."

"Exactly-"

"But it might also be one of the best."

My turn to drink beer.

"Hear me out?" I give a brief nod, "being cautious with love can be good, it protects us. But our brains can muddle things up. Because sometimes what's waiting for us just past that edge, what we're keeping ourselves from falling into, is incredible, life changing. And, in my not so expert opinion, I think if you both take down that last wall, you'll catch each other."

I whistle. "Damn, Spence. When did you become so wise?"

"What is she wise about?" Nat asks. Leaning down to kiss Spencer.

"What am I not wise about, love?"

They both chuckle as they look into each others eyes. God. They're so adorable. I can't even look at them. I'll just look the other way while drinking and-

Yup, there's Yelena. Also in a bikini. Damn it. This is not fair. Look in front of my feet at the sand. So warm and -

"Hey, just think about what I said, okay?" Spencer says as she stands up.

"Yeah. I will." It's pretty much the only thing that takes up space in my brain at the moment.

More beer.

Then there's someone else next to me. "Need a refill?"

"Hello, sunshine. I wouldn't say no to one." She had one ready in hand. "Thanks."

She kisses me. Very fair payment.

She leans her head against my shoulder while I drink some more, just watching everyone else run around in the water or sunbathing.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Just.. taking it all in."

I hear her hum in answer. More beer.

"Wanda, I.."

"Are you going to play?!" Carol jumps in front of me, currently blocking the sun.

"What?"

"We're about to play a game of flag football. You in?"

I look over to Wanda who is smiling at me, "what do you think?" I know. I don't have to ask her. She isn't even my girlfriend and I'm already holding on like a baby.

"I say, play."

"Then hell yeah I am! I can not tell you how much I love flag football."

"I didn't know you were such a fanatic," Wanda laughs, setting off an explosion in my heart.

"Yeah, well. Pretty much anything that involves running around, tackling, throwing, catching, or diving and I'm all in."

Her eyes narrow, "don't tell me you almost went to the Olympics for flag football, too?"

I chuckle, "no. Although, if it were in the Olympics, I would totally go for it."

"The Olympics? What?" Peter asks.

I go to speak, but I don't get the chance.

"Are we talking about when Alex was going to the Olympics for volleyball?" Yelena asks, walking instep with us.

Shit.

"You knew about that?" Wanda.

"No way! You went to the Olympics?!" Peter.

At the same time.

"Well, yeah. It may not have been technically real, but I did still date Alex and-"

"Hey, who wants to take a shot?!" I blurt out. Cause.. awkward.

I have multiple people cheer to that so I take it upon myself to make sure everyone gets one that wants one.

Nothing like alcohol as a distraction.

I'm kidding. There's healthier ways, better ways. I'm just not better.

"Wooh! Okay, now I think we can play!" I probably say a little too loudly. The beer and the shot (okay, I had two. Can you blame me? Two of my ex's in one place. Yikes) are starting to hit. And I feel great.

The game was wild. We got way too into it. Some of us even ended up turning it into tackle football. And if you scored a touchdown, the other team had to take a shot.

It was a blast.

Luckily I didn't have to take too many shots, my team was top notch.

"Okay, Alex, you are more than welcome to our team bonding anytime!" Carol says, half jumping on my back.

I laugh, "wow, I impressed Captain Marvel?"

"Yeah. You did." She winks as she turns away toward the food.

I laugh at her as she happily starts digging into the candy bowl.

"Hey, shooting star, throw me a piece!" Amazingly, she knows I'm referring to her and she tosses me a few.

She then returns to my side walking next to me as I head back to my spot.

"Want to jump in the water?" She wiggles her eyebrows.

I take a look around, spotting Wanda talking to Nat and Yelena. Yikes I don't see where that could be any good for me.

"Yeah. I think I could go for a cool down after the game."

We switch our direction over to the water, her wandering eyes don't go amiss.

We both jump in, swimming around for a while before deciding to just sit and talk.

"You know your girl is getting jealous."

"What?"

"Wanda. She's looked over here a million times," she smirks.

"Nah, uh. Wanda isn't my girl.."

"Well, she wants to be."

I ignore her comment and continue, "I'm trying to avoid looking in that direction altogether; she's over there talking to Nat with another one of my ex's. If she even counts as one."

"Wow. That's rough," she laughs. "How'd you end up dating two avengers?"

I give her side eye, because I've heard enough of Spencers story enough to know she dated Carol before Nat.

"Well, you know what I mean. Since you hate the avengers and all that," she waves her hand around. We talked quite a bit while playing. She knows stuff.

"I don't know. It wasn't exactly on purpose."

"And now?"

"What about now?"

"Are you going to get back together with her?"

Great. Another one. Doesn't everyone have their own relationship?

"Ya know, isn't your girlfriend around here somewhere? I'm sure she'd love to spend time with you."

"Nah. She's over with Thor drinking."

"You don't want to join her?"

"Do you?"

"I could go for another drink."

"That's what I thought."

We both exit the water, not bothering to dry off with towels, letting the sun do it for us.

I know Wanda is staring me down. I can feel it.

Then there's hands around my arm.

Curious, I look down to find Carols hands there.

"What're you-"

"Shhh. She's looking. And she's jealous."

"Yeah, but I don't want to-"

Then she's leaning close, her breath tickling my ear, "trust me, a jealous Wanda is a hot Wanda."

"I don't want to know how you know that," I shake my head, but we're both laughing.

"Ah, my favorite puny human!" Thor booms, instantly setting a red coloring to my cheeks.

"I'm not that small," but he brings me in for a warm hug I sink into. I do love this big guy. Even though he is sweaty.

"Love you too, Thor," I pat his back a few times before we pull away.

Soon enough we were drinking away with Val and Thor, them telling of their many adventures in space while I speak of a few close calls I had with some fires.

I know you probably already knew this, or drew the conclusion, but I really actually like most of these guys.

Okay, all of them. That I've met.

And hanging out at the beach with them; playing football, swimming, tanning, well it kind of makes them seem normal. Makes us all seem a little more human. Or like people.

We get so focused on our differences that we let it morph any chance we have of some beautiful relationships.

We let it cloud that fact that we are all people who need love and friendships and fun and to laugh and to genuinely know someone cares.