Work Text:
Tony has time to think stupid, I should have brought the suit - and then the magic hits him. For a moment, time stretches and pulls as her power flows over him; his thoughts becoming viscous as all his attention turns to her.
“You want to listen to me,” Wanda whispers, and Tony can hear her like she’s whispering right into his ear.. Her voice is sure, but her eyes are wide and scared, and her hands, manipulating the threads of invisible magic, are tremoring in the air, a frisson.
He nods, his movements heavy and slow. Next to him is a loud voice, hands reaching, reaching - and finally clasping on his shoulders. Blond hair - Cap.
“ -out of it, Iron Man! She is controlling you, snap out of - “
“You don’t need to listen to him,” she whispers, and twists her fingers, and he can see it, just for a second, before it hits him like an arrow in the chest.
He can’t hear Cap anymore, an unimportant fact that is lost in how warm he feels, how safe. Like a wet kitten scooped from the river and bundled in a soft warm towel. Is this how it felt for Hawkeye when Loki had -
and with the memory, the realization of what’s happening to him, Tony slips free, and falls ungracefully to his knees.
“Tony! Tony !” Steve has advanced several levels in panic, judging by the tone in his voice. Tony lets Steve help him to his feet.
“Cap. How long was I,” - where did I - Tony shakes his head like there’s a fly hovering by his ear, “gone?”
“A few minutes,” Steve says. “Tony, we need to get out of here before she controls you again.”
“She,” Tony says, and stops without explanation, turning to look at her. She looks - resigned, maybe, or determined, or maybe just sad. Her eyes lock with his, and a hand raises, flicks something at him. Tony feels the magic hit and his knees almost buckle again. For a moment, the sticky-slow feeling comes back over him, and he rips his gaze away from her.
Steve is staring at him; Tony waves him away. “Trippy,” he says by way of explanation, and ducks behind him to walk to the Quinjet. He rolls his shoulders, a strange line of tension between them.
Magic is hard on the body, and controlling a mind is harder than most. The last charm she threw at him, though, that’s going to take a larger toll. Wanda gives in to the irresistible urge, now that the Avengers are visible only as a shrinking dot on the horizon, and lets her eyes close.
It’s going to work this time. Wanda can feel it, the way the magic hit home, the way Tony had looked back at her as he walked away, like he couldn’t help it. Like he didn’t even know what he was doing.
And now all that's left to do is wait.