Chapter 1
"Wands, where are you going?" Agatha asked, watching her roommate put on a black sweatshirt over her white bra and black leggings.
"I'm meeting with Vision today... Remember?" Wanda asked. "We have to study for that upcoming psychology test. You know that Dr. G makes the tests insanely hard."
"I forgot about that." Agatha said, crossing her arms. "Where are you guys meeting today, again?"
"At that coffee shop on fourth street. They have free WiFi there that's pretty decent, and Dr. G put the entire class online, so we need better WiFi than what the school normally offers." Wanda said, grabbing her favorite pair of combat boots and untied them to put them on, her red hair getting in her face as she tried to push some of it behind her ear. "Again, you know this."
"I am just double-checking." Agatha said defensively. "Sometimes, you forget to bring your phone places. I need to know where to find you in case I need you and can't get in contact."
"On accident. I forget my phone on accident." Wanda said, showing Agatha her phone, focusing on the case that was red with pink and white flowers on it, the focal point being a black cat. "Look at me, I'm stuffing my phone into the back pocket of my leggings now. I have my phone on me."
"Why do you not bring your phone with you everywhere? Every person I know is emotionally attached to their cellphone."
"I just... Never use it unless I need to listen to music." Wanda said, grabbing a black scrunchie so she could put her hair up later, swinging her red backpack over her shoulders and grabbing her red wireless headphones. "You know I don't use my phone enough. Sometimes I just... Leave it places."
"You really need to work on that." Agatha said, Wanda pressing a few buttons on her phone before Spotify started playing a song on some My Chemical Romance album.
"Remind me later. I'm gonna be running late to meet Vis for coffee and studying." Wanda said, leaving the dorm room.
As Wanda made her way to the ground floor, she passed by a few faces she recognized from different classes, waving hello, but didn't particularly pay them any mind as she made her way out to her car, wanting to get out of the September air that was quickly turning cold the closer they got to October. It was Wanda's second year at this college, she decently knew her way around, and maneuvering around the complicated paths on campus was common enough place.
Wanda climbed into her car, pausing her song as she connected her phone to her car via Bluetooth, only to get a call from Vision as she put her car into drive. Wanda answered as she said, "I know that I'm late, I'm leaving the dorms now."
"What's taking you so long?"
"Agatha wanted to make sure she knew where I was going since I always seem to forget my phone with her."
"Funny... You never forget your phone when you're with me."
"Because the last time I forgot my phone and I was hanging out with you, you literally had the biggest fit. I don't want you losing it on me again."
"Ah yes... How, on Earth, could I have forgotten the Great Christmas Party Incident of Last Year?"
"I don't know. That seems like a you problem. You always have such a horrible memory." Wanda teased. "Look, I'll be there in like... Five minutes if traffic is good."
"Well, you better get here soon. I already ordered your drink and you don't want it to get cold." Vision teased. "Otherwise, I may have to drink your hot chocolate myself."
"Oh please, you hate the taste of cinnamon and chocolate together."
"I may make fun of you for your weird habits, but that doesn't mean I hate cinnamon and chocolate together."
"So you do like them together?"
"... That is besidesthe point."
Wanda laughed, rolling her eyes. "Look, five minutes. Gimmie til then, and if I'm still running late, I will go to that new incredibly dorky space movie you oh so desperately want to see."
"Alright. Game on. Five minutes starting now."
"Game on, Shade." Wanda said jokingly, ending the call as she started driving to the coffee shop.
She and Vision had known each other officially for about a year now. Unofficially, they had been pen pals for four years previous because of a project Wanda's prep school in America had her freshman year to "expand their horizons" and forced them to get an out of country pen pal. Vision was her pen pal, he was from England, and they essentially became instant friends. While Wanda was only required to write letter to him for her freshman year, they continued talking back and forth. When it got time to choose a college, Wanda had, coincidentally, chosen the same college as Vision in England, and they had instantly become friends when they realized that they were on the same floor. Vision was easily Wanda's best friend and they both told each other just about everything.
Wanda pulled up to the coffee shop with two minutes to spare, looking up at the cloudly sky as she muttered to herself, "Smells like rain..."
Wanda liked the rain, which was a good things since she was going to school in the rainiest country to ever exist. She thought that the rain was calming and relaxing, she liked the sound, and she liked looking at it. Her brother had always called Wanda weird because of her fascination with the rain, but she honestly didn't mind. If she was weird because she liked how the air smelled in the moments before, then so be it.
Wanda walked into the coffee shop, and there was Vision with his perfectly trimmed blonde hair, cozy pastel yellow sweater, and blue eyes studying the laptop in front of him, blue light glasses pushed in front of his face. As Wanda walked over, she said, "Sorry I'm late. I didn't mean to be, honest."
"Wow... She actually got here in less than five minutes." Vision teased, looking up from his computer. "Fortunately, our drinks haven't been called yet."
"Well, gee, I'm sorry I was late, my giant overlord." Wanda said, rolling her eyes. "Hey, listen, it's about to rain-"
"You are a literal bloodhound in regards to rain." Vision interrupted. "How you can smell rain in the air, I have no idea-"
"Can you break your vow to sit across the door and let me sit across from the window?" Wanda begged. "Please? You know how much I love the rain!"
"And let you get distracted while we're supposed to be studying for our next exam? Absolutely not." Vision answered. "Besides, this is my spot, towards the door, and your spot is right there across from me. You can look at the rain when we get back to the dorms, Lord knows that it's gonna rain again."
"Why do you always sit facing the door, though?" Wanda asked. "The only time you don't directly face the door is in classes, and that's because you sit in the middle of the back row so you can see both entrances at the same time!"
"I like to know where my exits are."
"Yeah, you always give me that answer, but why? It's not like people are going to attack us."
Vision looked like he was about to answer, but then one of the baristas, said, "A chamomile tea and a hot chocolate with cinnamon for Victor!"
"Our drinks are done." Vision said, leaving the table. As Vision got up, Wanda vaugely noticed a few people staring at her and Vision, but she just shrugged it off as them being the most interesting thing in the room since they were talking relatively loudly, at the same volume as everyone else in the loud coffee house, and people were bound to focus on their conversation.
"You're not getting out of this conversation, mister!" Wanda said, watching as Vision got out of his seat, his black jeans instantly straightening themselves out, and walk over to go grab the giant mugs the coffee shop used for their drinks. "I'm gonna get this answer out of you eventually!"
"You mean you aren't giving up after a year of no answer?"
"You know me better than that. I'm too determined to give up. I'm stubborn." Wanda said, grabbing her laptop out of her bag. "You like that about me, just saying."
"Yeah, when I'm not the one you're stubborn with." Vision countered. "Trust me, being stubborn is a very good quality, but I don't like it when you're being stubborn to me."
Wanda snickered, grabbing her mug and taking a sip of her hot chocolate, slightly burning her tongue. She stuck it out slightly, hoping that the cold air of the coffee shop could cool it down a little, as Vision laughed and rolled his eyes. "Hey... That's hot."
Wanda rolled her eyes in return. "Oh wow... Never would have guessed..."
Vision laughed again, staring at his computer screen as the screen reflected in his glasses lenses. "If we start by going over the first three chapters, then we can make it to lunch, eat food, and then do the other three chapters."
"Sounds like a plan." Wanda said, logging into her laptop. "You nervous about this thing?"
"Obviously. I mean, it'd be kind of sad if I wasn't." Vision said, glancing over at Wanda for a second. "Are you?"
"Not really."
"You aren't scared of anything."
"Not true! I was scared of the dinosaurs when we watched Jurassic Park for the first time!"
"Yeah, you were scared of dinosaurs that didn't look like what real dinosaurs did back in the day." Vision argued. "I mean that you aren't scared of anything real."
"I'm scared of a lot of things."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Then prove it. List one thing that isn't fictional that you're scared of."
Wanda thought for a moment, almost remembering the sounds of gunshots and people screaming that she had witnessed years ago, feeling like life times ago, but before she could officially answer, Wanda shook her head. "Yeah, you're not getting my tragic backstory out of me that easily."
"Oh come on!" Vision complained. "Not even one clue about something you're scared of?"
"Nope, sorry."
"Lensherr, you're killing me!"
Wanda chuckled. "Sorry, but I don't want to talk about it."
"Come on, your backstory isn't that bad, is it?"
"Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov would be running for the hills if she heard my tragic backstory, and she got assassinated by her own people." Wanda argued. As Vision focused on someone entering the coffee shop, Wanda reached over and gently touched Vision's hand. "Look, can we not talk about it right now? I'm already gonna be missing next week's study session because it's my birthday, I don't want to think about my backstory right now, okay? I wanna focus on studying for our exam."
Vision sighed, then nodded. "You know that you're gonna have to tell me at some point, right?"
"Not now."
"But later?"
"... Eventually." Wanda said, pulling back her hand from Vision's and tapped her laptop screen. "Can we focus now, please?"
Vision nodded, looking at his own screen. "Okay... Chapter one... What is-"
"Excuse me," A voice said. Wanda looked up and saw a strong looking bald man standing next to them, arms thicker than a honey roasted ham and covered in tattoos. The only one Wanda recognized was some kind of ring design, ten rings in all, all situated in a circle. The sight of that tattoo was enough to make Wanda's skin crawl with a bad memory, the sounds of screaming and gunshots coming back to the forefront of her mind. "Are you Wanda Maximoff?"
That name made Wanda freeze. She hadn't heard her actual last name in years, not since the incident and she had been put into witness protection as Wanda Lensherr. Wanda didn't even get the chance to answer before Vision calmly stood up, straightened his sweater, and punched the guy in the face and knocked him out.
Wanda only snapped out of it when someone grabbed her from behind and tried to carry her out of the coffee shop. Wanda quickly managed to kick the man who grabbed her in the balls, then ducked out when he tried to grab her and redirected him into a wall. Wanda glanced back over at Vision, watching him successfully go toe to toe with two guys much bigger than him, which was honestly surprising that people were bigger than him since he towered over just about everyone. Wanda quickly ran over, still seeing steam coming from her hot chocolate, as the man she threw was coming back over. Wanda grabbed her hot chocolate and tossed it into the guy's face, the guy screaming in pain as he backed up.
Vision ducked out of a punch, managing to sweep both of his opponent's legs out from under them. Wanda snapped her laptop shut and stuffed it into her backpack, zipping it up tight. The man Wanda threw the hot chocolate at started running towards her again, Wanda looking down at her backpack. Without any hesitation, Wanda swung her backpack up at the man's face, accidentally managing to draw blood when one of the zippers hit his forehead, but he finally managed to go down and stay down. Vision looked around the coffee shop, his eyes widening when he saw people recording him. "Oh shit... Wanda, we gotta go."
"Wha-"
"WE GOTTA GO!" Vision yelled, grabbing his own backpack, not even bothering to pack up his own laptop and kept his backpack unzipped slightly, as he grabbed Wanda's arm and dragged her out of the coffee shop.
"But what about-" Wanda started to ask, motioning to Vision's laptop.
"That doesn't matter, we gotta go!" Vision said, getting his phone out and dialing a number. As Vision put his phone up to his ear, Wanda briefly saw the caller ID. As far as Wanda could tell, it said HQ. Vision angrily muttered to himself, "Widow... Come on... Pick up the goddamn phone!"
Wanda started growing even more concerned every single time Vision opened up his mouth. She had never heard him curse that much in his life. He always made an active effort not to curse, but now it was like almost every other sentence had a cuss word in it. "Vision, what-"
"Right... Right... Are you okay?" Vision asked, almost pushing Wanda into an alley as he stopped walking, keeping his phone next to his ear. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"No, I didn't, but wha-"
"I think you know what's going on, your highness." Vision interrupted, putting an arm over Wanda's chest to push her against the wall as more men with the ten rings logo tattooed on their arm went running in the direction of the coffee shop.
Wanda paused, her fists tightening around her backpack straps. Even after officially having that title for almost eleven years, Wanda hated having that name. It represented the lives lost and the responsibility she never even wanted. Wanda asked, her voice teetering on anger and confusion, "How do you know that?"
"Because I read your witness protection file."
"How did you get access to that, Victor?"
"Because I was sent here to keep a close eye on you as you neared your twenty first birthday in case someone was sent to kill you before then. One of my associates, if someone will ever pick up, was sent to find your brother, but we could never find him. You are somewhat easy to find, compared to him."
Wanda turned her head to glare at Vision as she said, "So... What? Our entire friendship is fake because you're a spy?"
"Spy is... Generous, and I did what I had to do in order to ensure your safety." Vision said, someone seemingly answering the phone. "Ah! Natasha, you finally answered!... Yeah, someone attacked her today while we were studying.... Okay, text me the address, and we'll go there."
"No, I'm not going with you." Wanda said angrily, removing Vision's arm from her chest.
"Wanda, please. I know life hasn't been easy-"
"You're damn right it hasn't been easy! My life fell apart because of that stupid title. I just want to go back to the dorms-"
"That is the first place they are going to look for you." Vision interrupted. "Wanda, please, just come with me. I don't want to fight with you. I want to keep you safe."
"If you wanted to keep me safe, you should have just told me the truth."
"I couldn't do that for the same reason you couldn't tell me. Just come with me, okay? We'll get all this sorted out, and then you can go back to the dorms."
Wanda sighed, knowing that she didn't have a choice. "Just because I'm going with you, that doesn't mean I forgive you."
"Understandable." Vision said, going back to his phone conversation. "Okay... I got the address. We'll be there in fifteen."