Chapter Text
“‘I’m so glad.’ I tell him I love him and he says ‘I’m so glad’?”
“It’s Vision. Everyone can see how much he loves you. Maybe he doesn’t understand social cues and that people usually say it back. He is still learning,” Steve defends the synthezoid.
“No, that’s not it. It’s been days and he’s been avoiding me since that night. There’s something he’s not telling me and I’m going to find out if I have to pull it out of him myself,” Wanda decides.
You have been stressed to say the least. You’ve tried acting the same around Wanda, taking her out on dates, showing how much you care. It’s obvious how much you care. Everyone can see it, including Wanda but you still haven’t actually said it out loud. You haven’t said “I love you” back.
Wanda hasn’t said it again. She was clearly hurt the first time she said it to you-Vision, not to be confused with Vision-Vision, and you didn’t say it back. You can tell she is waiting for you to acknowledge it as much as she tries to act like it was no big deal. She’s not subtle with the way she looks at you expectantly every time you leave her room with a kiss goodbye.
You think it would all have been easier if you had said it back but you couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right. You love her. You do. It would be so easy to say it but then you think about how you and Vision have been lying to her. Her boyfriend is out there in your body going out on dates with some other girl, another reason you can’t say you love her.
You’re not entirely sure Vision truly loves Wanda. If he did, he would be asking to take his body back because he misses her and he definitely would not be seeing someone else whether or not it’s not his body doing the act.
Wanda deserves better. She doesn’t deserve being lied to, but she also doesn’t deserve the inevitable hurt she’d go through if she found out the truth. You’re not doing this anymore. You’re getting your body back.
You talk to Vision about it. He seems happy living your life and appears enamored with this girl he’s been seeing, but you talk sense into him when he tries to ask for more time. You help him realize that he’ll only hurt this girl further by carrying on with this lie.
You give Vision two more days to do what he wants and to break it off with this woman. Meanwhile you go to work planning out how to “borrow” the weapon that was used to switch your bodies. Vision gives you directions to where it should be stored.
As discreet as you have tried to be with this whole trading places with Vision, you were never one to be sneaky, so of course rumours start floating around. Your secret phone calls were a secret no more when Wanda hears from gossiping agents that you have been talking to some girl.
Wanda gets them to tell her everything they’ve heard. Apparently, your time in the restroom wasn’t time for yourself to think but time to talk to your “side piece”. Wanda knows better than to accuse you solely on what people are saying. She has to find evidence of this before bringing it up and to her dismay she does.
She sneaks into your room while you are in training. She finds the phone at the bottom of a drawer. It takes her three guesses to get into your phone. She goes straight to the call log and sure enough you’ve been talking to someone during the time you would be in the restroom. Only one number appears and you’ve been talking everyday.
She writes the number down on her phone. Then she goes to your messages. There is only one person with whom you chat. She reads a few messages. They’re odd to say the least. This person you’ve been talking to tells you some really personal details. She scrolls and finally sees a picture of this girl in a bikini and that is all the proof Wanda needed.
She throws the phone back in the drawer. Everything makes sense. You’ve been cheating on her. It’s so obvious. You sneak around for your phone calls. You won’t tell Wanda you love her because you probably love this other girl. Now she understands why you won’t sleep with her. You’ve been sleeping with this other girl. You probably call this other girl “baby” too.
Wanda thinks about her next move. Will you lie when confronted with the truth? A few hours later she asks if you’ve been talking to anyone in the restroom. She tells you a few agents heard you talking on the phone. You gulp nervously and lie. You tell Wanda you don’t even have a phone. Wanda nods and drops the subject. You don’t think she believes you.
After you leave her room, you go straight to your drawer. You sigh in relief seeing it’s where you left it. You have a new message from Vision that says Wanda is onto you. You call him.
“What do you mean? She knows?” you ask, panicking, forgoing a hello when Vision answers.
“She called me earlier. I did not answer because I know her number. I do not think she knows but I think she’s close to figuring it out,” he answers.
“We have to do it tonight. I’ll sneak the gun and fly over to you. Send me your location.”
You hang up. Everything goes according to plan. You find the gun that’s placed in a special case, you think because Stark doesn’t want anyone to mess with it. You fly it, case and all, to where Vision is. He waits for you outside.
You touch down and approach him carefully. It’s one thing to see someone else in your body through a phone screen, but having to see it face to face is bizarre.
“Woah. This is…”
“Incredible, I know,” he finishes.
You admire each other and the crazy situation for a minute before you get back to the task.
“You have the weapon?”
“Yep. Right here.” You demonstrate the case and he frowns. “What? What’s wrong?”
“We have to do this quickly. The case has a tracking chip. Once it is out of the lab, Mr Stark is notified. Someone is most likely on their way now,” he informs you.
With time running out, you hurry to open the case. By the time the weapon is in Vision’s (your) hand whoever they’ve sent arrives and is yelling at you to drop the weapon.
“Shit,” you groan at getting caught. It seems half the team is here and worst of all, Wanda is here and she looks angry.
“Drop it. I don’t want to ask again,” Nat commands, pointing her gun at Vision. He steps forward, not letting go of the weapon, attempting to explain. You see the immediate danger of doing this, but before you can warn him, Nat has pulled the trigger.
You watch as your body falls to the ground, releasing the weapon. Luckily, Vision was just tazed unconscious, but you rush over to help anyway. You never thought you’d be in the position where you are slapping your own face to wake up, but nevertheless here you are trying to render Vision conscious again.
“Vision! Vision! Wake up, dude,” you practically plead. You are definitely not going to be left alone to deal with all the questioning when it was all his idea. He couldn’t just sleep through it.
“So, it’s true then? You’re cheating on me with her,” Wanda speaks through gritted teeth. You whip your head towards her and stand up, pulling the same move as Vision and stepping closer to explain.
“What? No! I would never,” you begin, but she doesn’t want to hear it. She holds a finger up warning you not to step closer.
“How do you explain all this then?” Clint asks for her, waving the weapon he collected from the ground and waving it around.
“Woah! Be careful with that!” You tell him. He listens and points it down. You take a deep breath before outing yourself. “Look, I’m not Vision, okay? He is.”
You point toward your body still on the floor. Everyone looks at you confused. “Or she is I guess, cause it’s my body. A few weeks ago, I stopped at this place to see if they had a bathroom and I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time because it turned out to be some Hydra facility and then you guys were there and Vision found me.
“He tried to help me when we were shot with that thing and then I woke up and I wasn’t where I was supposed to be or who I was supposed to be. I got stuck in Vision’s body and he got stuck in mine and when we figured out what was going on, he asked i would allow him to have human experiences using this opportunity for a couple of weeks and that’s what we did but I just couldn’t do it anymore and so here we are trying to switch back,” you explain.
You await everyone’s reaction, paying extra attention to Wanda. She gives you an incredible look and shakes her head in disappointment. She scoffs, “That’s the best you could come up with? Unbelievable. It’s creative. I’ll give you points for that, but forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
She turns around to head back to the jet. You yell after her. “I’m telling the truth!”
She keeps walking and then Nat is shaking her head at you too and following a Wanda. Clint stands there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. “I guess I’ll see you at the compound. I’ll take this back with me.”
“Sorry, but I can’t let you do that,” you say before swiftly snatching it away. Nat and Wanda turn to see the commotion, hearing Clint yell at you, but no one is quick enough to stop you from pointing the weapon towards you and Vision and pulling the trigger.
You wake up groggily. It takes you a few seconds to recognize you are back at the compound. You hear the voices of Dr Cho and some of your teammates. For a moment, you think you might have failed to switch back bodies but then you see Vision in his own body standing in the room with the others.
“She’s waking up,” Dr Cho informs Vision, Steve, Nat, and Clint. Right away, you notice Wanda is not here.
“How are you feeling, Y/N?” Vision approaches you while the other three avengers stand by the wall watching you.
“God, my head is killing me,” you groan in pain. Vision gives you a tight smile.
“I’ll give you something for that in a moment,” Dr Cho supplies.
You thank her and she leaves the room. You stare down at your hands, evidently smaller than the ones you had not so long ago. How long ago was not so long ago?
“So it worked,” you comment and though it wasn’t a question, Vision answers anyway. “Yes.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Long enough for Wanda to completely wreck the kitchen,” Clint responds.
You have the decency to sport a guilty look on your face at the mention of Wanda. You have to apologize to her. You groan, sitting up. “I have to go talk to her.”
Vision places a hand on your shoulder, keeping you down. You stare at him questioningly. Clint advises, “You should wait for her to cool down a little bit.”
“Did she really wreck the kitchen?”
He nods and Nat adds, “I don’t blame her. What you and Vision did was really fucked up.”
“Nat,” Steve scolds.
She rolls her eyes while Clint tries not to laugh. She defends, “What? It’s true.” She faces you. “I’d hate to be in your shoes when she decides to come for you next.”
“Next?”
“How do you think she wrecked the kitchen? By throwing pots and pans at his head.” Nat points her head at Vision who gives everyone a sheepish smile.
“I apologize for everyone having to see that,” he says.
“I’m not. When she said ‘that’s what I get for falling in love with a toaster’ and then threw an actual toaster at you, I think she reinvented comedy,” Clint laughs. She did what?
“We just stayed to make sure you woke up fine,” Steve switches the conversation seriously. You feel like you are going to get in a lot of trouble now that they know the truth.
“So what now? Are you going to arrest me?” You panic at that thought. You don’t think you could make it in jail. Would they send you to a regular prison or some other special one for the bad guys they take down?
“Why would we arrest you?” Clint asks.
“I don’t know. Identity theft?” You shrug.
“No, we are not going to arrest you,” he answers, easing your mind but then he adds, “but Fury does want to speak with you and Vision.”
“Oh shit.” You’ve heard of Director Fury and how scary he can be. He’s the big boss and you hoped you wouldn’t have to meet him. So much for that.
“‘Oh shit’ is right. How nice of you to join us, Miss L/N. Have fun playing Hero?” Nick Fury enters the room and Steve, Clint, and Nat leave.
You stand upright next to Vision, both of you having something to say.
“Mr Fury, I just wanted to give Vision a -”
“Sir, it was not Miss L/N’s fault, I asked -”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses! Sit your asses down,” he commands and you both sit in unison. “I don’t know you, so I can’t say much but to a member of this team, I expected much better than this dumb assery.”
He chews you and Vision out for 15 minutes before he leaves saying he has to get back to important business, muttering how inconvenient your stunt was on his way out.
“So that was Director Fury.”
He confirms with a nod. “I figured he would have been more upset with us. I guess when you are director of SHIELD there are more important things.”
You look at Vision incredulously. “That wasn’t him mad? My neck is sweating and I nearly wet my pants.”
Vision chuckles and you begin to laugh too, but it doesn’t last long as Dr Cho finally comes back in and brings you something for the headache.
She tells you that you should be fine but if you find anything to be wrong at all to immediately call a number she writes down for you. With that, she gives you the all clear and leaves.
You guess the all clear means you can go home now. However, last night’s event still needs to be discussed.
“So I take it Wanda’s mad at us?” You ask, knowing the answer.
“The only reason I’m still alive is because Wanda knows I’m an asset to the team.”
You wince, picturing how bad it must have been in the kitchen. Nat was right to say she’d hate to be in your shoes. You hate to be in your shoes right now too. Is it crazy to use the weapon again to swap bodies with someone so they can face the consequences of your actions?
Yeah, probably.
You sigh, standing up. “Well it’s now or never. Time to go apologize. In case I don’t make it out alive, let my family know I love them and I did this to myself.”
You say it jokingly but underneath the humor, you are nervous about how the conversation with Wanda will go. You hope she’s let out most of her anger earlier with Vision.
Vision wishes you luck and you head to Wanda’s room. Your sadistic mind plays the death March as you get closer to your destination.
You knock on Wanda’s door. You hear her yell, “I’ll clean it up, Steve. Just give me a moment.”
You open the door anyway. The sight of Wanda curled up in a ball, clearly crying breaks your heart. She hears the door open and tries to hide her tears, wiping her eyes quickly. The sniffles don’t help. “Steve, I said to give me a -”
“It’s not Steve,” you voice, inviting yourself in and closing the door behind you. If Wanda is going to start yelling at you, you’d rather it be behind closed doors and not heard by everyone.
She’s surprised to see you standing there, but the shock on her face morphs to a glare. Clearly she doesn’t want you here but this might be the last time you see her and you have to let her know how sorry you are.
“Can we talk?”
“I have nothing to say to you,” she hisses.
“I don’t believe that. I think you have a lot to say to me - to yell at me even.”
She shakes her head. “Yelling at some asshole stranger who went along with my exboyfriend’s stupid idea isn’t going to make me feel better. I already yelled at Vision and all it did was make a mess for me to clean up.”
“I’m not a stranger, Wanda,” you scoff.
“Yes, you are. I literally learned your name yesterday! This is the first time I’ve ever talked to you as you,” she replies, waving her hand up and down motioning to your body.
“Did you suddenly forget all the weeks we’ve spent together? Cause I don’t. That was me you were talking to Wanda.”
“That was you pretending to be someone else!”
“I might have been wearing his face, but everything I did was me. *I* sat next to you every night to watch your favorite shows.” You point at yourself as you list off the things you did. “*I* brought you flowers. *I* took you to that concert. *I* almost burned down the kitchen trying to cook for you.”
“I told you it wasn’t me!” You hear Clint yell behind the door followed by someone shushing him. So much for not wanting anyone to overhear. You ignore them.
“*I* listened to you, *I* held you, *I* made you laugh. It was me. I’m not a stranger and you can’t write me off as one.”
“No, I’ll write you off as the asshole who played me for weeks and broke my heart.” A lone tear rolls down her cheek but she’s quick to wipe it away. Her voice cracks out of both anger and sadness when she continues, “You should have left it alone. Vision and I - I was going to break up with him and then you did what you did and I thought I fell back in love with him but it turns out it isn’t even Vision I fell for but some girl pretending to be my boyfriend.”
She chuckles bitterly, “It’s kind of genius actually, getting you to fix our relationship. Who knows women better than women? I feel like such an idiot. I thought the reason you wouldn’t say I love you back was because you were seeing you -er Vision was seeing you- you know what I mean.”
She shakes her head at herself, laughing as if the situation she found herself in is silly. You disagree, “You’re not an idiot, Wanda.”
You sit down next to her but make sure to put distance between the two of you. “I’m the idiot for going along with this. It’s just that, Vision had saved my life and I felt like I owed him one and he seemed like a good guy who needed a break and I thought why not make it even better and fix this relationship. He really cares for you, Wanda, so I thought I could get you two back on the right track. That wasn’t right for me to do and I realize that.
“I know it probably doesn’t mean anything to you now, but I do love you, Wanda. I wanted to tell you that when you said it but I realized then that I wanted the words to come from my own lips and not his. I’m really sorry to have made you think I didn’t feel the same way. It was also that night that I knew I had to stop the charade and go back to my life and have Vision resume his here.”
You reach over, taking a hold of her hand. Squeezing it, you let her know, “I really am sorry for what I did. It wasn’t fair to do that to you. You don’t have to, but I hope you can forgive me someday.”
You give her hand a last squeeze before standing up and heading over to the door. This was it, the last time you’ll cross through her door.
“What? That’s it?” Wanda says unimpressed.
You turn around to see her stand up and walk over to you with her arms crossed. You don’t know what to say as she approaches you, tilting her head. It’s a sign of trouble, you think.
“I go out of my mind for a week, waiting to hear you say you love me and you think you can say it now like it’s nothing and walk away?” She scolds you and you stumble over what to say.
“I - I don’t- I”
“You may not be a stranger, but I was right. You are an asshole, Y/N,” she says, before reaching for your neck. You think she’s about to strangle you, but you’ve got it wrong. She doesn’t choke you to death but she does kill you in the most pleasant way by pulling you in and kissing the life out of you.
You are quick to kiss her back when the shock subsides. Dazed and smiling, you pull away when you need to breathe.
“I’m still angry with you,” she says before giving you a chaste kiss.
You nod. “Very understandable.”
You seriously thought this would go a different way when she called you back. You figured it was going to end like she did with Vision, but she’s kissing you again. This reminds you.
“Did you really throw a toaster at Vision?” You break the kiss to ask.
“And I saved the coffee pot for you so you better watch yourself,” she warns.
You chuckle, though you know she’s serious. “Nothing but my best behavior from now on, baby.”
Her eyes shine upon hearing the term of endearment, almost like she couldn’t believe it was you the whole time until right now.
“Good. You have a lot of making up to do,” she smirks before kissing you hard. She leaves you standing there breathless when she pulls away and goes to sit on the bed.
You give her a look of disbelief as she turns on the television. “You’re going to kiss me like that and decide to watch a show?”
She smirks at you, “I feel like watching a movie actually.”
She giggles when she sees it click in your head and you rush over to join her on the bed.
“What’s going on? I can’t hear anything,” Clint asks Sam, both of them with their ears pressed to the door.
“Do you two not have anything better to do?” Nat interrupts, crossed armed and eyebrow raised.
“No,” they say together.
“Then find something and leave them alone,” she commands. Both men groan at having to leave the drama.
“Whatever. They’re just watching a movie now anyway,” Sam replies. He and Clint take off, leaving Nat in the hallway.
Curiosity gets the best of Nat and she leans in to listen through the door. She hears an action film playing but it isn’t loud enough for her trained ears to pick out other noises.
She scurries down the hall regretting being snoopy. “Nope. Definitely not watching a movie.”