Swoon
*****
Being out in public with Vision when they went into town wasn’t as weird as one might think. Not the missions or anything, just the ordinary stuff like trips to the store or whatever. The town near the Avengers’ compound was used to them by now. Nobody blinked when she and Vision flew in because it was easier than taking a car, and they could walk through Target without getting stopped in every other aisle… at least by gawkers. All the stopping was because Vis found even the bottles of drain cleaner absolutely fascinating. Silly guy.
Being out in public with Vision anywhere else was, as Americans say, a trip.
After the morning workout, Wanda retreated to her room and took a ridiculously long shower. She was still wrapped in a towel, figuring out what she wanted to wear today, when his foot poked through the wall. “Vis!” she yelped, and the foot disappeared.
“Apologies,” he called out from the other side, his voice nearly a yelp too. “Please let me know when you are decent.”
Wanda groaned and took her time getting dressed. Once she had on leggings and a sweater, she said, “You can come in now,” not bothering to raise her voice because of course he could hear her.
All of him slid through the wall. “Again, I am sorry. It did not occur to me that you might be semi-naked.” He stared past her, and was that a bit of a blush on his cheeks? Cute.
“So, what do you want?”
“I am traveling to New York City this afternoon in order to visit a new exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.”
As Wanda spread moisturizer on her face, she caught his reflection in the mirror, with an expression on his face like he was waiting for her to say something. “Um, sounds nice.”
“Would you care to accompany me?”
She paused. Wasn’t like she had anything better to do today. Might be fun. And if the museum was boring, she could always ditch him and go shopping or whatever. “Sure, why not?”
*****
Two hours later, they were smack in the middle of Manhattan. And, as expected, the gawking immediately began.
Since flying themselves was still a bad idea – god forbid some asshole think they were drones or whatever and try to shoot them out of the sky – they took the helicopter from the compound to the top of Stark Tower. Once they emerged onto 45th Street, people started staring at Vision. Shit, you’d think they’d never seen an Avenger before. To be fair, he was ridiculously tall and red, but still. Either he didn’t notice or he didn’t care. “The museum is quite a long walk from here. Would you like to hail a taxi?”
Wanda mulled that over. Given all the staring, a cab would definitely be easier. On the other hand, it was a gorgeous day. “What, you think I can’t handle all that walking?” He blinked, and she added, “I’m kidding.” Vis could be kinda clueless about that sort of thing.
So they set off. And yeah, he was right. It was a ridiculously long walk. Chilly too, but not all that bad. At least she’d worn her sneakers and puffer coat, which screwed with her badass image, but hey. Not that anyone was paying attention to her. Nope, they were all about Vision. Gals and guys in fancy business suits stared at them. Passengers in taxis stared at them. Even hot firefighters stared at them. Wanda shoved her hands in her pockets to keep from giving them the middle finger. It’d fit that badass image, yeah, but she didn’t want to deal with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers’ wrath when – not if – they found out.
The funny thing about it all was that Vision truly didn’t seem to care. Every time he noticed someone gawking, he’d flash a bright smile and wave back at them. If anyone stopped and asked for a selfie, then he’d probably –
Yup, there it was.
A gaggle of teenage girls stopped short right in front of them, causing Wanda to nearly barrel into them. Vision halted just in time, thanks to those reflexes of his. One of them blurted out, “You’re Vision, right?”
Again, Wanda stopped herself from muttering, “Who the hell else could he be?” Rudeness was definitely against Avengers PR Protocol.
He gave them that blinding smile. “Yes, I am! And who might you be?”
“I’m Kenzie, and that’s Xiomara and Bella.” The former smiled back, while the latter looked like she was about to hyperventilate.
Nobody seemed to have noticed her, so she piped up, “I’m Wanda Maximoff.”
The three glanced at her and said, “Hi,” then turned their attention back to Vision. Big shock, that. Xiomara asked for a selfie, then said, “Wait, could you take it of all of us?” She handed Wanda the phone without waiting for an answer. The whole thing should be downright offensive, but the looks on the girls’ faces were harmless and pretty damn funny.
So, she took a few steps away and fumbled with the phone while they got into position. Vision held out his arms to place them on the girls’ shoulders, and she almost told him not to give them any ideas, but again, why not? They’d live off that photo for years, or at least until someone hotter than Vis came along.
Wanda called out, “Say cheese!” like in the movies, and snapped the photo.
Click. Smiles all around.
Well, smiles from Vision, Kenzie, and Xiomara, who giggled as they stepped back after the pic. Bella, on the other hand, kept staring up at Vision, eyes wide and mouth opening and closing like a fish. And then… she collapsed.
Vision caught her just in time, scooping her up into his arms.
The teens shrieked. Vision muttered, “Oh, dear,” over and over. Bella was completely out cold.
Wanda just stared at them for a second before snapping to attention. Time to be a real-world superhero. Whatever was going on, the sidewalk wasn’t the place for it. Glancing around, she saw an office building lobby and barked, “C’mon.”
The group scurried inside. A new set of gawkers now, but who the hell cared about them? She told Vision to lay Bella down on the floor and took off her puffer coat to use as a pillow. Everyone crouched down around the girl. “Should I do CPR?” Xiomara blurted out. “I took a Red Cross class last summer.”
Vision placed his hand on Bella’s chest and slid it up to her forehead. “Her vital signs are normal, albeit a bit elevated. She likely passed out due to excitement.”
Kenzie rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. She’s a hardcore Avengers fangirl. Especially you, Vision. She’s, like, totally in love with you.” A glance at Wanda. “Um, I think she likes you too.”
Gee, thanks. Crossing her legs into a pretzel, Wanda sat beside the teen and waited, as did the others. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the doorman with his hand on the phone, like he was going to call 911 or something. Wanda shook her head.
After another couple of minutes marked by Vision gently patting Bella’s shoulder while the girls babbled about how this was totally going on their Instas (Wanda debated whether to tell them to actually be good friends and decent human beings and let the kid have some privacy), Bella finally opened her eyes.
Vision was the first thing – no, person – she saw. Her face blushed nearly as bright red as his skin. Her mouth opened in a steady chant of “Oh my god oh my god oh my god.”
He smiled. “You’re quite alright. Just a bit of excitement.”
They all helped her to her feet and caught her when she nearly fell over again. “I am so sorry, Mr. Vision.”
Mr. Vision. Heh. Wanda filed that away for later.
Once they were all assured that Bella would be just fine, he offered to take another photo with her. The two of them posed, with Bella managing to stay upright this time. Barely.
Finally, with another flurry of “Will you be okay?” and “I can’t believe I did that” and “Bella you’re such a dork”, they went their separate ways.
Vision turned to her, that familiar calm expression on his face like it had simply been a hello-how-are-you. “Shall we proceed to the museum?”
Wanda blinked then laughed and laughed and laughed. “Sure, lead the way.”
*****
“I’ve got a theory.”
“Do tell.”
Wanda twirled her spoon around the bowl of clam chowder (definitely not a soup she ever would’ve expected to love) and said, “I think you like all this attention.”
Across the table in the museum’s cafe, Vision’s face went blank. But it wasn’t the same blank as when he would reboot his processors – that had been freaky the first time she saw it – or on the rare occasion when he didn’t understand her. Nope, by now she knew him well enough to peg it as his I have no idea what you’re talking about fake blank.
Sure enough: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Wanda reached over and tapped the still-chowdery spoon on his nose. It left an adorable splotch that got even cuter when gold rose on his cheeks. “Admit it. You love it when people stare at you. Especially when they act like you’re a superstar.”
He took a napkin from the dispenser and wiped away the soup in his oh-so-proper way. She expected his next words would be his typical polite protest. Instead, he actually admitted, “I’ve been alive for ten months and thirteen days. For a sizable portion of that, people reacted to me as if I was a freak. To be fair, I can see why they would see me that way, for reasons I’m sure you understand. But I must confess that, now that the world has become more accustomed to this body, it does feel rather nice to see their excitement and acceptance instead of recoiling in fear.”
Wanda looked down at her soup bowl, surprised by how that hit so close to home. Being treated like a freak was definitely nothing new to her, even back in Sokovia. But his words were bringing up all these emotions that she didn’t want to think about right now, not when she was still riding the high of how much fun it’d been to walk around the museum with him, listening as he droned on and on and on about the exhibits and all that science she couldn’t begin to understand. Sure, people still stared at him – her too – but this afternoon that hadn’t mattered. It had just been, well, a really nice day.
She finished off the rest of the soup and pushed the bowl away. “Well, you are a superstar. You’re an Avenger! And you’re tall and really sweet and handsome and all that. Women and men are probably swooning over you all the time; we just don’t see it.”
Vision’s face lit up in a bemused, slightly awkward smile. “Oh, I doubt that.”
Okay, this was fun. “Tons of swooning. All over the place. Want me to demonstrate?”
Wanda stood up and walked over to stand next to his chair. Putting on her silliest voice, she declared, “Vision, you’re amazing! Better catch me before I pass out from –”
“Don’t. You. Dare.”
People were staring at them. Some of them had out their phones like they were going to snap the moment for Instagram. She was acting sillier than she had in ages. Vision looked horrified, but she could tell he was also delighted in spite of himself.
She didn’t swoon. But that look in his eyes kinda made her want to. And it felt wonderful.
*****