wanda and vision's mixtape

An evening in was a rare thing when you were an Avenger. Wanda had become increasingly aware of the fact after two years living, training and fighting with the team she had come to know as family. Which meant she was shocked to find that, after a month of traveling from job to job out West with Nat and Sam, she had a whole weekend to relax. No missions, Steve had promised, and no meetings either.

This information had been conveyed through her personal tablet which was conveniently linked with the group calendar that the whole team subscribed to. It was almost comical to think how lost they’d be without the updates provided by the compound’s AI that kept them all running on time and aware of each other’s commitments. The current date sat open on the screen and Wanda relished in her deep mauve calendar colour being vacant from the day’s activities. The rest of the team, however, were fully booked until the following day. Steve, Tony and Bruce had commitments at a function down in the city, Clint was at home per usual (he only returned during the week when needed) and Sam, Nat and Rhodey had been called out of town to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D business.

According to the calendar the only other one staying at the compound that evening was Vision. Wanda got giddy at the thought of them being able to spend a normal evening in together, free from the incessant teasing from the rest of the team or the all too frequent emergencies demanding their attention.

It seemed Vision had the same idea as she heard a knock on the other side of her bedroom wall.

“C’mon in, Vis,” Wanda called, a smile dancing across her lips.

“Good afternoon,” Vision said as he phased through the wall.

Wanda leant back against her pillows and wrinkled her nose in amusement at him. “Is it really so hard to open a door?”

“Not at all, but that is how any of the team might enter your room,” Vision said, gesturing with his hands as he explained.

“Ah, I see,” she said teasingly.

“You’ve seen tonight’s agenda?” Vision asked walking to sit at the edge of her bed.

“We’re all free,” Wanda said in excitement. “I wish I’d known sooner, I could have planned some special.”

“Any evening with you is special,” Vision replied without missing a beat.

“Smooth,” Wanda said raising her eyebrows in surprise. “Did you practice that on the way up?”

“All day actually.”

“Well, either way I say we make the most of it,” Wanda said setting the tablet down and jumping to her feet. “First we’re going to the store in town to get snacks and baking materials because I am in the mood for cake, then we are–”

“Spending the evening watching the sitcom Parks and Recreation?” Vision finished the sentence for her.

“As you promised we would for our next free evening,” Wanda reminded pointing a stern figure at him.  

“I did give you my word,” Vision said placing a hand upon his chest with mock sincerity.

“Give me a chance to change and we’ll head off.”

Wanda made to shoo him out of her room, through the door this time, but Vision caught her arms and held her still so that he could kiss her quickly. She relaxed against his embrace and kissed him once more.

“Go on,” she said pushing him towards the door reluctantly, “that cake isn’t going to bake itself.”

Wanda was a frequent patron of the grocery store in the town centre nearest to the Compound, but it was the first time she had brought Vision along with her.

As they milled through the various isles, she pointed out particular snacks she had wanted to try as a child in Sokovia after watching American television programs and seeing the food they ate. There were a few she had forgotten about since moving to upstate New York and she pointed them out in excitement.

It took her until they were nearly ready to go to the check out for Wanda to realise that Vision had been putting each of the snacks she mentioned into the trolley he was pushing behind her.

“Vis, we don’t need this many snacks,” she said gesturing to the small mountain of biscuits and sweets that had grown behind her back.

“You said you wanted to try them though,” Vision said looking at his wares in a satisfied way, “which is why I am buying them.”

“But I won’t be able to eat this much,” Wanda said and then in a more hushed voice, “and you don’t eat.”

“I’m aware of that,” Vision stage whispered back. “Just think of it as insurance for the next time I beat you at scrabble.”

Wanda rolled her eyes but let him buy the food for her. He had a point with the scrabble comment, it was difficult to win a game when you were playing against a superhuman computer and Wanda was pained to admit that she got ridiculously competitive when it came to board games. The snacks were an easy way for him to get back in her good books.

At the check-out an elderly woman helped put their things into two bags and they were soon out in the chill of the autumn air once more. Wanda bobbed on the balls of her feet as she rubbed her hands together against the cold, immediately regretting her decision not to wear a coat with pockets. Noticing this, Vision extended his elbow to Wanda and she grasped the warm wool of the sweater around his arm.

“Such a gentleman,” she said past the cold as warmth from Vision flowed back into her fingers.

“Gentle-synthezoid?” Vision pondered and she laughed.

It wasn’t a long walk back to the compound but by the time they arrived the rest of the team had cleared out for the evening and Wanda’s teeth were nearly chattering. She hadn’t anticipated how cold it would get once the sun went down.

Once they had made it inside Vision set down the shopping and vanished through the wall without a word, leaving Wanda in the entry hall as she slipped out of her boots and picked up the bags to bring them through to the shared kitchen.

In moments Vision was back at her side again, this time with a large blanket from her bedroom. He slung it around her shoulders and wrapped her up, squeezing his arms around her for extra warmth.

“Hmm, I’m not too cold anymore,” Wanda said leaning back into him and looking up.

“Yes, but I am,” Vision said, his words brushing against her head.

Wanda rolled her eyes and shook her head but revelled a few more moments in his embrace.

When they finally parted Wanda kept the blanket wrapped around her shoulders and began to waddle about the kitchen, feeling very much like a large penguin, as she unpacked the shopping.

“Will you teach me?” Vision asked looking at the baking mix before them on the counter once her new stash of snacks had been tucked away for later.

“How to bake the cake?” Wanda replied in surprise.

He nodded in response.

“Alright,” Wanda smiled and picked up the chocolate cake ready-made mix she had picked up at the store. “This one is cheating a little because it’s pre-made so you just add the liquids.”

She went through the motions of pulling out a mixing bowl, getting eggs and milk from the fridge and adding some chocolate chips. As a child, Wanda had never had much of a sweet tooth, Pietro had eaten enough sugary treats for both of them when they were teenagers. Now they were something of a comfort food for her and she was glad that she could share the experience with Vision beside her.

He was close enough to watch intently or take over in stirring but kept enough distance that Wanda could tell he was focusing intently on what she was doing. They chattered sporadically throughout the process but when spaces of silence spread between them it was comfortable, filled by the motion of Vision lining the cake tray for her or the sound of the tap running as they left the washing up in the sink.

“Cake for supper on the couch upstairs?” Wanda asked as she slid the cake tin into the oven for 20 minutes.

“You read my mind,” Vision replied promptly as he turned to the sink to clean.

“May I?” Wanda asked a hand outstretched towards him.

“Of course.” Vision didn’t hesitate to duck his head a little in her direction as he began to fill the sink up and scrub away at the mixing bowl.

Vision’s mind felt like coming home to Wanda. It had frightened her at first when she’d taken a second look at his mind in the weeks after Pietro’s death and the disaster in Sokovia. It had been entirely an accident but had started them down the path that had led them to this moment.

Wanda wasn’t sure how long she had been hovering in the kitchen, all she knew was that her mind didn’t seem to be able to move. It was like she was watching herself from the side, frozen before the fridge about to open it but unable to make the effort to do so. She didn’t want to acknowledge exactly what made her go into this state, where she retreated so thoroughly into her mind that she felt a stranger to her own body.

She’d come downstairs to get juice, that much she knew. It was a liquid, required little effort and involved no cooking, plus the sugar helped. Yet here she was frozen.

“Wanda?” She managed to turn her head in the direction of the voice near her. “Are you alright?”

It was the synthezoid. Vision.

Wanda swallowed, her mouth as dry as sandpaper. “I’m fine, thank you,” she rasped finally managing to reach a hand to open the fridge.

“If there is any food you require I would be happy to get it for you,” he offered hesitantly, and from somewhere deep within her she recognised the kindness and tucked the information away for later.

“I’m alright, thank you,” she said once more, picking up the orange juice carton and closing the fridge behind her. As she did the door clipped her wrist and she dropped the carton in surprise.

They both lunged for it at the same time and almost knocked heads in the process. Wanda had unknowingly reached out with her powers as well so when her hands connected with Vision’s around the juice she was inadvertently thrown into his consciousness.

Most people’s consciousnesses were fairly difficult to navigate, only the slower minds could string together thoughts at a speed she could keep up with. It had gotten better with practice and she was good at finding the painful spots within someone’s psyche, particularly given how familiar she was with that realm of her own mind. But Vision was something wholly different. She had only looked into his mind once before and it hadn’t been something she’d been in a rush to repeat.

This time things were clearer, as though his mind had grown a little more defined. She was vaguely conscious of his eyes locked on her own, which were likely glowing deep red.  Within his head there were thoughts flying past so quickly she didn’t have time to catch them all. She managed to collect a few snippets that jumbled together so quickly that they seemed like nonsense.

‘Juice isn’t substantial enough –’

            ‘—download cookbooks?’

            ‘red glow… sleeping well?’

            ‘—warm hands’

And beneath it all a general feeling of… worry. Concern, fear – but not damaging enough to make her recoil. It was the genuine nature of the emotions beyond his synthetic presentation that made her falter and snap away from his mind with shock. She’d only ever been short with him, straight up rude in some cases, yet here he was with a mind moving thousands of motions a second and behind it all a sense of worry… for her.

It had thrown her off her game so much that she had scurried off with the entire juice carton and then felt guilty about not leaving any for the rest of the house’s inhabitants the following morning.

But in the two year since she had befriended Vision and as they’d eventually become more, he’d let her delve into his mind often. He was always wonderfully articulate in conversation, but she’d come to see that it took him a little bit longer to find the right words to express emotions. That was when he’d pick her hand up and press it to his temple, or if the feelings were particular tender, above where his heart might’ve be.

On this occasion Wanda was surprised to find the overwhelming emotion overshadowing all of Vision’s other thoughts was warmth. He was simply content. Happy in the moment but without the highs and lows that accompanied such a bipolar emotion. He was at peace in this space with her.

Wanda focused on him alone, his eyes and the feeling of his cheek beneath her hand and tried her best to convey the same feeling back. I am peaceful, you bring me peace, comfort, warmth.

Vision’s eyes widening were all the acknowledgment she needed to know that her message had gotten through loud and clear. She was about to draw her hand away shyly, but he leant into it more.

‘—love’

She squinted, concentrating harder.

‘I love you.’

 Wanda smiled softly as he turned his face to kiss her palm tenderly. She leant forward, bringing their foreheads together until their noses were touching lightly. “I love you,” she whispered quietly as though she could hide the scary truth from the rest of the universe around them, “you are my home.”

The rest of their evening passed by relatively uneventfully after their surprising confessions in the kitchen. They spread out on the comfiest couch in the communal living room above the kitchen, Wanda with a plate of warm cake in her lap and Vision in charge of the remote. As promised, he had downloaded the first episodes of Parks and Recreation ahead of time and Wanda ate her cake happily as the domesticity of the first episode of the sitcom began.

She wondered if Vision could still feel how content she was in this moment, as she’d impressed upon him earlier. The pure peacefulness she felt as she leant back against his chest on the couch, feeling it rise with each of his breaths of laughter at the poor jokes on screen.

It was no surprise that shortly after finishing her piece of cake Wanda started to nod off. Seeing her eyes beginning to droop Vision pulled a blanket from the side of the couch across the two of them, adjusting his arm around her shoulders so that she could settle back more comfortably. He set the volume to low so that the television show continued as a comforting, yet distant, background noise.

They remained that way throughout the night and though Vision thought once about carrying Wanda to bed he was content to let her sleep in his arms for the night.