Chapter 5
"But Wanda it’s cold outside"
Day 3: Sunday, December 13.
WANDA
They arrived a the house when it was almost four. Clint offered to cook again but Tony insisted on ordering out, they agreed in ordering Chinese food. Also thai, from Natasha and Wanda’s favorite restaurant, Pizza, because Thor complained about not having pizza on Asgard, McDonald's, because Clint insisted they had the best fries, and Italian, because Pietro couldn’t get enough of it.
Her brother walked her to her room. lately, he had been quiet, so unlike him. Still, it didn’t feel like something was wrong, on the contrary, every since he started that thing with Clint, he seemed happier.
“I will call you when food is here” Pietro kissed her cheek, once they were in front of her room.
She nodded, and before Pietro could leave, she grabbed his hand. The man frowned and turned to her. She smiled widely and Pietro smiled back at her, she knew it was the first time she smiled all day, and it felt nice she did it for her brother. She took a strand of silver hair off his face, Pietro always had his hair sticking out in places.
“You are happy” Wanda said, cupping his cheek.
“Of course I am” Pietro nodded grabbing her hand, he tilt his head slightly, in a very catlike manner, “Are you not?”
It took her a few seconds to answer, and when she did, she was truthful, “I have never being happier”
Pietro hugged her tightly before she could finish, burying his face in her hair. She held him back and smiled to herself this time. Pietro did that when he wanted to say something to her, a secret, and for a moment she thought he was going to confess his thing with Clint. Instead he sighed in frustration, which made Wanda chuckle. He pulled back and smiled, disappearing in a blink of an eye.
“Show off” She yelled, expecting him to hear her.
She was in her room taking her shirt off when someone entered her room, she wasn’t aware of it until the door closed. She turned quickly, Vision was standing in front of her. The man’s eyes traveled through her body.
“You startled me” she said covering her chest with her arms.
“I apologize” Vision then looked at her arms shielding her body, it took a few seconds to understand she was covering herself with them. “I apologize” he repeated.
Wanda nodded.
She put the shirt she had discarded back on and frowned to Vision, she remembered she was upset for his absence all afternoon. He kept his gaze to the floor until she spoke.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“It has come to my attention that I caused you distress when I missed the…” Vision looked for the word, “Skating”
“Whatever Steve said-“
“It was Pietro, actually”
“Of course” she shook her head and sat on the bed.
“There was a reason I was absent” he said walking towards the bed and sat next to her. She lifted her gaze and locked her eyes with his’. He grabbed her hand and put something in it.
“It’s a… rock” She frowned looking at the small rock on the palm of her hand.
“It’s a star” Vision corrected her, “A fragment of it, actually”
Wanda looked at him, and then back at the rock- the star fragment on her hand, “You are giving it to me?” she asked.
“Yes, Wanda, it is for you”
“Why?” she asked after a few seconds. Vision stared at her, like he hadn’t understood the question. He then looked at the wall in front of them.
“This morning, when Natasha pulled the crystal star out of that box you looked... amazed” he answered, “I thought maybe...“ he looked at the rock- Star fragment on Wanda’s hand, “You would like having a real star”
Wanda’s heart started beating fast. Vision had gotten her a star.
“How did you get it?”
He looked upwards, “A long flight” he answered.
“And it’s for me” she repeated.
“Yes, Wanda” When Wanda hugged him he froze, his hands awkwardly hanging at both sides of his body.
“I really like it” She said once she pulled back.
She held the small star fragment tightly. Vision only smiled softly. The look on Wanda’s eyes was exactly the same she had had when she saw the crystal star.
“I didn’t get you anything” Wanda felt guilty for being mad at him before.
“You did” Vision answered. His fingers touching her cheek softly. “I let you continue with what you were doing”
“Yeah, okay” she said. Both stood up,
Vision gave her a small nod before leaving. She let out a breath she was holding when the door closed, she the threw herself on the bed and stared a the ceiling, she put her hand on her chest, the little rock still there.
There was knock on the door.
“Wanda”
"Come in" Wanda said.
Steve entered the room, “Food is already here”
“I will be there in a minute” she said standing up quickly.
“Okay” Steve frowned, “What’s that?” he pointed at her hand.
“A star” She answered, “Vision got me a star”
Steve smiled when Wanda’s eyes lit up again, she had been sad all day. He nodded and then closed the door behind him.
When Wanda arrived to the tenth floor everyone was already eating on the living room, the fireplace was on so it was warm and comfortable. The food was on the table in the middle of the living room. Pietro, who was already eating, waved at her. Steve turned his head.
“Wanda” he greeted, “Come” he smiled, “Saved you a seat”
Wanda walked towards the table and sat on the big couch next to Natasha and Steve.
“There’s some egg rolls here” Natasha pointed, Wanda loved egg rolls.
“Thank you” she said grabbing one from the table.
Natasha smiled at her and then continued talking to Bruce. Clint and Pietro where arguing about some TV show and Vision talked with Tony, meanwhile Steve talked with Thor, who was being explained what the Grinch was.
It was when she was surrounded by a lot of people that she couldn’t control her powers. All their voices blended together and suddenly she was inside their minds, which made things worse, ten voices became a hundred, they all thought fast and she could barely tell the difference between what they were talking about and what they were thinking about, for Tony it was the same though.
Just when she started feeling overwhelmed Vision’s deep voice raised among the others. They had promise each other to never get into each other’s minds without permission, but Vision only did it when she was losing control. She wondered how did Vision did it. How was he so in control when she was such a mess.
“Wanda” Wanda closed her eyes for a few seconds, “Listen to my voice” he continued.
“I can’t” She frowned to herself, trying to focus on his voice and only his voice, “It’s… too much”
“It’s just you and me in your head now” All the noise dissipated gradually.
“Wanda” Natasha shook her shoulder softly, “Hey, are you okay?” Wanda blinked at her, her eyebrows knitted in concern.
Everyone was still talking normally, except Pietro who was looking at her with a worried look. She nodded at him and gave him a small smile. Pietro nodded back and continued talking to Clint.
“I’m alright” she told Natasha, “May I have another roll?”
“Sure” the redhead nodded and gave her another one, “There’s also noodles”
Wanda ate the rest of her meal while Natasha and Bruce now talked to her. She looked at Vision with the corner of her eyes.
“Thank you” she whispered to him.
“Anytime” he whispered back.
“No… More” Clint muttered, “rolls” He leaned back on the couch, resting his head on Pietro’s shoulder.
Pietro looked at her, his cheeks turning almost crimson red, Wanda looked away and smiled softly to herself. Normally, Clint or even Pietro would try to keep the touching each other to the minimun. She didn’t really know why though.
“Pietro” Clint gave Pietro’s shoulder a nudge, “Do it for me”
Pietro whined, “Too full” he put his hands on his abdomen, “Cap? Stark?”
“I don’t think I can” Steve sighed, he then looked at Tony.
“My body can’t process all that fat like yours kids” Tony shook his head, “Bruce, come on, represent”
The man shook his head.
“Me neither” Natasha said.
They all stayed in silence. All looking at Thor with the corner of their eyes.
“Thor, man, take it away” Tony said after a few seconds.
Thor grabbed the remaining roll and smiled widely before putting it in his mouth. Tony then stood up and clapped his hands.
“Let’s beautify that Christmas tree, people” Thor cheered, “No superpowers aloud” he pointed at Pietro who had stood up and was already next to the tree, opening the boxes.
The silver haired boy grinned and shrugged.
“Let’s hang the lights first” Bruce suggested.
“I’ll help” Clint offered.
When the tree was already adorned they turn the lights on, the crystal star shinning bright on the very top. Tony patted Steve’s shoulder. Wanda sometimes got glimpses of what people felt, and she smiled at the warm feeling she got from Steve.
“It’s a very beautiful tree” Pietro said, standing next to her.
“It is” Wanda answered, “It will look even better with presents under it”
Pietro nodded. He then put an arm around her. It had been long since they celebrated christmas properly, and even when they did, his family didn’t have enough to get a tree like the one in front of them.
She hugged Pietro.
“I love you, brother” she said.
“I love you too, sister” he answered.
Wanda let herself wander into her brother’s mind, looking for all those happy memories they had with their parents and the hard ones they had when it was just them.
“We aren’t alone anymore” Pietro’s voice supplied.
“I know” she smiled softly, looking at the rest of the team.
Pietro kissed the top of her head.
“Hey, you two” Steve called, “We are making some chocolate”
“Hot cocoa, Cap, Cocoa” Tony corrected, Steve rolled his eyes.
Clint yelled something about letting Pietro add vodka to it and Pietro laughed leaving behind him.
“Wanda” Steve said, he then threw his arm around her, “Are you alright?”
“Never better, Captain” she smiled widely.
Steve smiled back.
Wanda was back in her room, she wasn’t tired so she decided to take a walk around the city, she flew from the balcony down and walked alone for a few minutes looking at the decorations on the street, most were completely covered by snow. She sat on a park bench after a few minutes and thought about Vision. That was all she could think about lately. She looked at the little rock on her hand and smiled.
“Excuse me, Miss” She looked up, an old man in a Santa suit smiled at her, “Do you wish to donate something for the children in need” he asked, shaking a basket with cash in front of her.
“Sure” She took a few dollars she had in her pockets and gave them to the man, "It's all I have" She said, “Here you go, sir”
The small rock on her pocket fell to the ground, the man pick it up.
“Oh, boy! Is this a star fragment?” he asked looking closely at the rock.
“Yes, it’s… it was a gift”
“I use to work at a museum, they collected stuff like that!” The man continued proudly.
“That sounds great” Wanda smiled at him.
“Wonderful, just wonderful” the man gave her the rock back, “That thing is very valuable, take care of it”
Wanda smiled and then nodded.
“Merry Christmas, young lady”
“Merry Christmas” she said back, “Santa?”
The old man laughed and left. She waited for the man to leave and then looked around noticing the streets were empty. She immediately regretted not having a thicker coat, it was really cold and the sweater she had on wasn’t warming her enough.
She went back to the tower wanting to talk to Vision.
She found him in the balcony, looking at the sky.
“What are you looking at?”
Vision turned and stare at the for a few seconds, before looking back at the sky, “I was just... star gazing”
She looked at the sky for a few seconds, “You can’t see many stars because of the city lights”
“I can” he answered.
“Of course” she smiled softly.
“It is cold here, Wanda” Vision noticed she shivered.
“I wanted to talk to you”
Vision looked at her for a few seconds, “About what?”
“I don’t know” she shrugged, “I just like talking to you”
Vision smiled softly, his gaze looking down.
“You could watch the stars with me” he offered his hand to her, she nodded and took his hand.
When she closed her eyes she started seeing through Vision’s eyes. The sky became a dark blue veil adorned with bright little dots. She could see every constellation visible form the new york night sky.
“This is what you see” she said with awe, “It’s beautiful”
“Indeed” Wanda then felt Vision pulling her closer to him, he embraced her and covered her body with his cape.
She was no longer cold, his body heat spreading through hers. She then wondered if she could kiss him, like Natasha and Bruce that morning, she would like that, being able to tell him how she felt.
Because what she was feeling, the warmth that was spreading through her body, was the same feeling that went through Natasha’s body when Bruce kissed her, the same one that she had detected on Steve when Tony put his hand on the small of his back. Even months before, on her brother whenever Clint and him talked.
It was love.
Wanda opened her eyes, her feet weren’t touching the ground, without noticing they had been floating for a while now.
“You should go to sleep” Vision said quietly.
“Yes” she said, once in the ground, she kissed his cheek softly, “Goodnight”
“Goodnight, Wanda”
Once in the safety of her room, Wanda sighed, she put her hand on her pocket feeling the little rock. She smiled to herself and then laid on the bed. Her eyes felt heavier and heavier until she drifted to sleep, one last thought in her mind.
Vision.
"They think I'm insane, they think my lover is strange, but I don't have to fucking tell them anything"