Work Text:
2018, post-snap
“Read this, it will help you understand what type of magical ability you possess,” Strange said, handing her ancient-looking texts. Wanda took it from him and when their fingers touched the same hum of magic flowed from him into her. She pulled away quickly and he said nothing.
She opened the book and was instantly greeted by very old writing that she had to squint to read. She devoured the book. Everything in it, everything that she had suffered with or had problems controlling, all of the solutions were here in this text. She closed the texts, looking at the cover.
“There has to be a mistake. I don’t use spells, I'm not a witch.” She said and he stared at her.
“I don’t make mistakes.” He told her and she glared at him.
“So I’m the Scarlet Witch. What does that entitle? How does that even mean I’ll be able to help you open some portal to a completely alternate dimension that will help rejoin the two worlds?” Wanda asked and he pressed his lips together trying to think of what to explain to her.
“The Scarlet Witch is powered by chaos magic. It does not need spells to be used, but to refine it more, spells are required and should be learned so you are not outmatched by a witch who does know all the rules.” He tried to explain and Wanda scoffed.
“Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll be needing any spells. I’ve been doing just fine on my own. We can skip over that part.” She told him. Wanda figured if she cut his training time in half then maybe, just maybe, it would mean they would be able to reconnect the worlds sooner. He raised an eyebrow at her and had a blank face.
“Oh really?” He asked and she nodded her head.
“Yes, I’ve been completely fine on my own. The spells at this point are pointless.” She told him and finally, she thought as if she saw a flash of emotion across his face before it was blank again.
“I’m going to let you take this home to read up on just in case you decide that learning a spell or two might be worth any of your time.” He said, sliding a new book over to her. This one looked even older than the one pertaining to the Scarlet Witch.
“And?” She said knowing that there was another side to this.
“Tomorrow we will duel.” He told her and walked away. He never looked back and Wanda found herself frustrated at her new self-proclaimed mentor. He was the complete opposite of Natasha in every way shape and form. Still, there was something different with him. There was a need to impress him, a need that she had never had before.
She eyed the book again. Wanda never had to rely on a spell book, she never knew that she had to. Her powers came to her when she called on them, protecting her when she needed them to. She knew how to fight, and she knew how to win a battle. With that in mind, Wanda took the book home with her and placed it on the desk next to her bed, where it would stay when she proved him wrong tomorrow.
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It was early in the morning. Wanda was prepared. She could feel her magic flow through her fingertips. He was there early as usual and, without a word, they started.
He attacked her without remorse and she fought back. But, suddenly, he transformed and there were multiples of him performing multiple spells all being thrown at her. She tried to avoid the attacks, tried to manipulate them so she wasn’t surrounded anymore, but she hissed in pain as some landed.
Finally, Wanda was able to determine which one was the real Strange and threw some of her magic directly at him. It hit him and the rest of the images of him faded away. She smirked, thinking that she had won everything until his face changed. His lips moved upwards in a way that mimicked her own victory smirk.
She looked at him in confusion as she then called on her powers to him off, but she couldn’t feel it anymore. She couldn’t feel her powers. Wanda looked down at her hands, the red mist was gone and she looked up at Strange in confusion.
“What? How?” She asked and he looked around the room.
“Didn’t you notice the basic protection spell, one on each wall? Look around, I'll give you a moment.” He said and she looked all around her at the powers emitting from certain areas.
“What are those?” She asked, trying to use her powers again.
“They are runes. These runes in particular, as I mentioned, are for protection. In a given space, only the witch/sorcerer that cast the runes can use their magic.” He explained to her and she could feel her jaw drop. She wanted to tell him it was unfair, that he had an advantage but she stopped.
“If you even read the first chapter of the spell book I had given you, the first spell they teach is this one.” He mocked and she glared at him. He treated her in a way she had never been taught before. He was hard on her. He didn’t treat her as if she was about to break. He didn’t care that just yesterday she had tried to resurrect her dead boyfriend. Wanda was thrown off by it all.
“You are at a misconception believing that your powers alone are enough to rely on. You have only been fighting against people who are, for the most part, defenseless against magic. If you went up against a real witch or sorcerer such as myself you would be dead within minutes.” He stated and she pushed her lips together eyeing the runes that entrapped her with a newfound hatred.
“Do you understand?” He asked and she turned her glare to him. It didn’t faze him at all. He stared at her waiting.
“Yes.” She said and with a snap of his fingers the runes were gone and she could feel her powers surge back to her. She looked down at her hands and watched as the mist reappeared. Wanda knew that everyone was counting on her. She knew that thinking she could simply cut the process in half was stupid and irresponsible.
“Good. Now we can begin.” He said and the book that was meant to collect dust on her nightstand appeared in his hands.
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Day by day . . .
They started early. Wanda yawned almost falling asleep during his lecture. She could feel his eyes on her as she tried to stay awake. She had been up all night reading from the spell book.
She was coming to terms that this was going to take quite a bit of time. She was only a beginner in most areas. Between reading texts and lessons with Strange she felt as if she was making progress but whenever she looked into the hopeful eyes of people asking her how it was going or how much longer she realized that she was nowhere near ready to be able to create that kind of portal.
“Wanda, are you with me?” He asked, snapping her out of her guilt.
“Yes, sorry.” She told him and he continued paying close attention to her.
The next morning when Wanda arrived his back was turned away from her and at the table where she usually sat there was warm coffee with a book opened to a specific spell. Wanda touched the page and read the title “Astral Projecting”.
She read further and saw that it was a way for her body to rest while her mind continued to learn. The loss of sleep due to studying, gone, just like magic. She touched the page reading the spell over and over and realized that it was something that she would be able to do.
She took a sip of her coffee and looked oddly at it. Caramel latte, just how she liked it. She looked at Strange opening her mouth to ask him or maybe to thank him. She didn’t know which would come first and she would never find out.
He started the lesson without missing a beat as if it were any other normal lesson. As if he hadn’t done anything kind. She smiled, taking another sip of her coffee. She never yawned once during a session again.
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Year by year
Today marked the second anniversary that Thanos ruined everything. Wanda was miserable. She stared at the books feeling the pages. She had been practically isolating herself from everyone this past week. She hadn’t shown up to class with Strange, ignored the phone calls from James and Sam. She couldn’t face them.
How could she talk to them, laugh with them knowing that she wasn’t any closer to bringing them back? Wanda placed her head in her hands. She was a wreck. She wondered what Natasha would think of her, watching her struggle, watching her grieve Vision, watching her fail at the attempt so that she and James could be reunited.
Spell books were opened all around her but none of that mattered. Something was blocked in her mind. She couldn’t handle the magic anymore; she couldn’t think about all the spells that were important and that she needed to have known by now because, in the end, none of it mattered if she couldn’t perform the most important one of them all.
Head in hands, Wanda started to cry. She hadn’t cried in a very long time. She stopped letting herself feel her grief, her disappointment, her loss. Wanda heard a knock on the door and her head whipped up as she blinked, wiping the tears away.
“I told you, James, I don’t want to talk.” She said opening the door only to be greeted by the wrong pair of eyes.
“Good thing I’m not Barnes.” He told her, his voice held none of its usual snarkiness. She looked at him in shock.
“What are you doing here?” She asked and he raised an eyebrow.
“What do you think I’m doing here?” He asked and, for once, she took him all in. He was lacking his usual attire with his red cloak, but something told her that it wasn’t too far away from him.
“If you're here to drag me to class it’s not going to work, nor is it worth your time.” She told him and he just simply looked at her in amusement.
“No, I gathered you weren’t in the mood for class the second time you skipped.” He spoke to her and she eyed him suspiciously.
“Come with me.” He told her. His tone left little room for arguments. Wanda looked at the black sweat pants and loose grey t-shirt before deciding she simply did not care enough to put effort into her appearance before following him out the door.
They were silent for the longest time as he led her into the woods. They walked and Wanda wondered what exactly it was Strange was up to.
He suddenly stopped and Wanda found herself running into Strange’s back.
“Sorry.” She mumbled as he turned around his chest close to hers that she could almost feel his heart beating. He backed away from her, opening his arms wide and walking around.
“Look around you.” He said and she raised an eyebrow. They were just in the woods. The same trees that surrounded them five minutes ago still surrounded them. That was until Wanda looked again. She walked past Strange and touched a part of a tree. She could almost sense the fight that went down, she could sense her magic, her pain that brought Vision back to life.
“Why did you bring me here?” She asked him shocked that he would bring her to the last place where she lost control when she felt as if she were on the verge of losing it now.
“To show you how far you’ve come.” He told her and she could almost laugh at him. She wasn’t any farther, if she was then they would already be creating the portal that brought their worlds back together. Instead, she was not any closer in progress than she was one year ago.
“I think you’ve mistaken me, Strange. I don’t know what future you saw where I'm of any use but you're wrong.” Wanda said and Strange gazed at her. Wanda looked up at him, hoping he saw how broken she was, that she wasn’t the all-powerful Scarlet Witch, that she was going to let everyone down in the end.
“You know when I went through every single scenario to see what would happen, how we could win, I saw you for the first time. I saw your power, I saw your grief, but I also saw something else, something that I was able to witness in person when I met you for the first time right here.” He told her and she looked at him exhausted.
“And what’s that?” She asked.
“I saw your strength, Wanda. The power it took to bring something back to life. It was chaos magic, something I had only read about before. You are improving greatly in every spell, every trick you learn. Everything is important and was meant to play out this way. Do not think that you are failing anyone because of how long this is taking. It was always going to have to be this way.” Strange explained.
Wanda looked at him. She wasn’t sure what to say. He knew what was going to happen, he had seen the future, and she was in it.
“Do not let time dissuade you from your goal. As the one teaching you, my opinion counts above all else and I’ve seen how far you’ve grown with your magic. You are learning so much faster than I anticipated you would be. So know that this place is a marking point for you. It's the beginning. Now it’s time to leave it behind and see how far you’ve come.” He told her and she looked up at the sky, feeling the tears run down her face.
And much to her surprise, he was right there in front of her appearing that she almost jumped back. His warm hands were on her face wiping away the tears that were falling. Her green eyes met his blue and there was an emotion in there, one that she couldn’t pin down no not yet. She couldn’t see it yet, didn’t see the way her own eyes mirrored that emotion.
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Strange fired another attack at her and she dodged it narrowly. Reciting a spell she knew, she threw something back at him and hit him almost on its mark but he moved out of the way last minute. He grunted as the block of it all hit part of his shoulder.
Wanda smirked as she knew he could handle it just like he knew she could handle his counterattack that hit her leg sending her to the ground. She glared at him as he didn’t even pause to see if she was alright. She kept moving. Wanda had a plan. She knew what to do.
She took things up in the air and kept fighting. Her aim was off, she kept missing her target, Strange yelled at her. It had been five years since she should know how to hit a moving target, even if it was the Sorcerer Supreme.
“Rough day.” She explained and he gave her a rather unimpressed look. She bit down on her lip trying to hide it. She was so close, just a few more marks. She fired and they hit her target, her true target. Her eyes glowed red as she smiled, throwing an attack at him. This time she didn’t miss it.
She watched Strange try and dodge it, unable to throw up any kind of magical barrier. He stared at his scarred hands in shock before looking all around him. His eyes wide and he looked at her in shock, but there was something else mixed into his eyes. A spark that she had seen before in the forest only this time she was well aware that it mirrored in her own eyes.
Wanda floated over to him, and he knew the battle was over. The only thing keeping him afloat was her magic holding him up.
“In a given space, only the witch who cast them can use their magic.” She repeated the same words he had said to her when teaching Wanda her first lesson. He stared at her in awe looking around him at the runes that surrounded them and then back to her.
“I never miss my target.” She told him and they moved closer to each other. Wanda looked at him trying to read his mind, trying to figure out what he was thinking. She released the runes with a snap of her fingers and watched as he moved closer to her and she did the same.
He was so close, too close. A part of Wanda whispered that she wasn’t ready to be hurt again, that all those she loved eventually died. But an even louder part wanted to fill whatever space there was left to fill. She felt his hand come up and gently grab her chin. She looked into his eyes and she could finally see all sorts of emotions playing out in them.
“Last time I ever underestimate you.” He whispered to her and she felt that hum of magic, all she could feel was him. It was different from her own magic, it pushed against hers it clashed but it still called out to her nonetheless.
He leaned closer and she could feel his breath against her, almost waiting for her permission. She was about to speak when she heard people calling out for them.
“Wanda! Strange! We need you.” Sam called out his wings flying in the air. Strange dropped his hand from her chin and Wanda moved away feeling the loss of his touch.
“What is it? What happened?” She asked and Sam told them about some new trouble that he, James, and T’Challa were running into at the border. Wanda nodded her head and turned to look at Strange. Whatever emotion that had been there moments before was gone. Wanda turned away and followed Sam to where James and T’Challa were fighting.
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2023
Her boots clicked against the concrete as she made her way through the streets of New York. Rain was falling and Wanda cursed, pulling her hood up higher. The streets were crowded and Wanda could feel herself counting backward from ten trying to calm herself.
It had been a while since she had been in a populated area like this. She was still getting used to the whole universe being pushed back together. She didn’t even know why she was here. One minute she was heading back from Natasha and James’s wedding to isolate herself and again and instead she found the opposite.
Her feet were almost there. She was so close she just had to keep herself together for just a little longer, she had to tell him she wasn’t ready. That she was too broken, she wasn’t worth waiting for. Wanda still remembered the feeling of his hands on her waist as they danced. The whispers promising her that he’ll wait. She shook her head, he deserved better.
Wanda took a turn and was greeted by the plainest looking door she had ever seen. It was a blink and you’ll miss it but she knew better. She could feel the power radiating from inside. That power called to her. With shaking hands, she rang the doorbell.
Only nothing happened. She rang again a few minutes later, nothing. Wanda stood frozen at the door waiting. Nothing happened, more time passed and Wanda could feel the numbness take over. Turning away quickly as if the door had burned her she started wandering the streets of New York.
The rain was falling harder but she paid no attention. She was too numb. He wasn’t there. A small logical part of her mind told her that he could just be on a mission. A louder unreasonable and uncontrollable voice yelled that he grew tired of waiting.
Five years of wanting and he had had enough. She thought that that was what she wanted right? She wanted him to move on because she was still stuck in the past. Only she wasn’t sure she wanted to be alone anymore.
She found herself walking in a very rare green park of New York as flashes of the wedding came to her mind. She thought about Natasha and James, how they finally got their happy ending. She thought of how long it took for them to be together. How many obstacles and still it led to them finding each other. She thought of Laura and Clint the balance of work and home. She thought about how they were expecting their next child and she could feel her hand reach right below her stomach.
Finally, she thought of a time where she wanted all those things. She collapsed on the closest bench not caring how wet it was. Wanda thought back to before her powers. To the movie night with her family. How she always wanted a family of her own. She thought it would have been impossible after she was given her powers, her heart was too set on revenge only she found Vision.
She knew she could never have children with him but at least she would have someone. Wanda had someone after losing everyone else. She had someone she could rely on, someone who would look out for her and she would do the same.
But then she didn’t have Vision and the pang in her heart went off at the thought of that. His death still brought her pain but not as much as it once did. No, she had done her mourning.
Wanda paused at that thought and realized that she had moved on. That she had fallen in love with someone else, someone who could give her everything in life she could have ever wanted. Regret filled her as she realized that she may be too late. That she was too late to realize that she didn’t want to be alone anymore.
She lifted her face feeling the rainfall onto it. Her hood fell and the last dry piece of her was soaked. Wanda wished she could have given him an answer at the wedding his words replayed in her mind,
“I know how hard these past few years have been on you and I know that you still need time to heal. Wanda, I don’t want to make it any harder. So, I understand if I have to wait for you, I will. I’ll wait. And when you’re ready for me, I’ll be ready for you.”
Wanda was ready. She wanted to live. She wanted to be with him and all the craziness it entailed. Wanda paused her thought process as she realized that the rain stopped. But she could still hear it falling all around her.
Opening her eyes she was met with calming blue ones and darkness.
“Strange what the hell you scared me.” She gasped and he only glanced down at her. She saw that he was holding an umbrella that was blocking the rain from her face.
“You rang?” He asked and she blinked trying to understand only to realize he was there, he had heard her.
“You didn’t answer.” She told him and he had the audacity to smile at her.
“No Wong didn’t answer he was too invested I’m afraid in his binge of What Not to Wear. I had just gotten back from Egypt only a couple of minutes ago when I felt your aura.” Strange explained shrugging his shoulders.
Wanda opened her mouth but closed it having no idea what to say, she had no idea of bringing it up now that he was here. All that bravery vanished under his gaze.
“How was Egypt?” She asked the first thing that came to her mind. He blinked at her in surprise before joining her on the bench. Wanda was shocked that he would risk ruining one of his high-end suits but he didn’t even react, he only made sure that the umbrella was covering her the whole time, not caring that half of him was getting soaked in the process.
She heard him talk about Egyptian tombs, secret scrolls, all these missions that when she was his student she would have loved to learn about. Only now all she wanted to do was change the subject. Her mind was racing about how she could say it, how she could bring up that she wanted to be with him.
“I’m ready now.” Wanda blurted out her eyes going wide as she stared at him in horror. She looked at her confused opening and closing his mouth.
“To learn about those scrolls, I agree, remember that lesson we had about the different types of magic that came from earlier Egyptian scrolls? I wish we could have more time to review those but I’m happy to give you a book I think you might enjoy-” He tried but she cut him off.
“No, I'm not talking about that.” She suddenly said and he went silent. Wanda could feel him gazing at her.
“You once told me that when I was ready for you, you would be ready for me. I’m ready now.” Wanda told him. She was too scared to look at him. Afraid he’ll walk out of her life and never look back, she waited too long before telling him how she felt.
Wet fingers touched her chin. She could feel his powers surge through her body. It happened every time he touched her, it never faded over time. Suddenly she was met with those calming blue eyes and she wished she could use her powers and see into his mind.
“Where do you want to start?” He asked finally and she grinned at him. She thought about what would have happened if he had answered the door earlier, how today might have been ending a little differently than it was.
“You know those scrolls do sound very interesting, bring any back?” She asked and he gave her a heated gazed before pulling her face closer, waiting for a second hesitating, but she didn’t as she closed the distance, her lips meeting his.
They hide from the rain together under an umbrella. Her head on his shoulder as they talked back and forth about what he had learned in Egypt. She was particularly interested in how he obtained the scroll and he gave her a devilish smirk and she knew her mentor all too well.
“I’ll have to take you with me next time.” He simply told her and she frowned but he pulled her close kissing her again.
Wanda felt a warmth she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She could feel herself opening up again. Suddenly those little girl’s dreams of happily ever after didn’t seem so impossible anymore.
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5 years later
“Iryna come on, we need to get going. We’re supposed to meet your Aunt Natasha and Uncle James in five minutes.” Wanda called out from the bottom of the steps waiting for her daughter to come down so they could portal to Wakanda.
“Coming!” A small voice called out and Wanda turned to her husband who was chuckling waiting with the portal ready.
“What are you laughing about?” She called out hands on hips. He smirked at her, his eyes never backing down.
“Oh nothing, just how she’s exactly like you.” He told her and she tried to argue but realized in horror as she watched her daughter run down the steps. Her dark hair was a mess, while her personality was exactly like Wanda, she was practically a cardboard cut out of Strange besides her nose and green eyes, they were all Wanda.
“Alright, that’s one,” Wanda said, picking her daughter up off the ground.
“Alexandria, are you ready?” Wanda said as she saw her other daughter come tumbling down the steps. Wanda smiled as she was greeted with soft red hair and calming blue eyes.
“Ready Mom!” She said and ran over to Strange reaching for his hand. Wanda smiled softly at her husband. They had been on their honeymoon in Egypt touring the city of Alexandria when they started to notice odd things. Wanda wasn’t in control of her magic. She would make butterflies appear when nervous and rain would appear from nowhere when she started to cry.
Strange had been researching for weeks what might be causing her magically instability and sickness when Natasha had traveled to New York with Halley in her arms worried about her friend.
The second Wanda went running to sink about to be sick at the smell of spicy food Natasha pressed her lips together and knew.
Wanda could still remember the look on her husband's face when Natasha asked if pregnancy was a possibility. It almost rivaled the expression when they found out that she was carrying twins.
Wanda had been nervous, her pregnancy was anything but normal. The delivery was even crazier. The Avengers had to block off a whole hospital wing to give birth. She had Strange with her the whole time trying to help control her magic but it could only contain so much of the chaos.
By the end of it, they had both felt as if they had run a marathon. But after all that, everything was worth it. She had two beautiful twin girls. One was named after Wanda’s mother Iryna and the other was named after the city where their tiny adventure first started.
“Mommy are we going to get to see Halley and Nick?” Alexandria asked curiously. The twins loved Halley, they both looked up to her since she was two years older, they thought of her as an older sister. Nick was a little older than the girls, only a few months he was practically the third twin always up to mischief with them. It was nice to see how close they were to each other.
“Of course remember dear we're going to celebrate Aunt Natasha and Uncle James’s wedding anniversary,” Wanda told them as she joined her husband by the portal. She set Iryna down and straightened up her dress.
“Alright girls, remember what your mother and I talked about,” Strange said, eyeing up his mischievous daughters.
“Best behavior.” They repeated in unison.
“And?” Wanda asked and the girls pressed their lips together.
“No magic.” They sighed and Wanda breathed a sigh in relief. She knew that the girls couldn’t help it sometimes, that the magic just slipped out of them. Strange and Wanda tried to find ways to control but the best they could do was home school the girls until they could control it themselves.
“Ready?” She asked Strange and he nodded his head as they both took a hold of their daughter’s hands and stepped through the portal.
The girl's expressions of awe never stopped amusing Strange as he watched them walk through and realize that it was magic, that it was real and it was happening all around them.
They were portrayed right in front of Natasha and James’s house where Nick was in front with Hally playing.
“Halley! Nick” The girls called out running away from Strange and Wanda. The couple looked at each other in amusement.
“Remember when just last week Iryna was begging you not to let go of her while riding her bike?” Wanda asked him and he chuckled.
“Vaguely, time moves fast with these two.” He replied.
“I’ll say,” Natasha said walking out of the house.
“Aunt Nat!” The girls said running up and tackling her.
“Look at how grown-up you are!” She said picking them both up off the ground. James joined her shortly after and greeted the girls. Before they had gone back to Halley and Nick to start playing.
“Are we the first ones here?” Wanda asked in surprise, they were normally running behind.
“Clint and Laura are around back with the kids. Sam is on his way over as we speak.” Natasha said pointing up at the sky as they saw two pairs of wings flying high in the sky.
“Wow, five years it’s been a while,” Wanda said and the couple laughed. The thing was that even after all that they had been through they were still perfect for each other. Wanda knew it wasn’t all perfect. She knew that the decision to adopt Nick was stressful on their relationship. James’s gym was starting to open a second one because of its success rate with the likelihood of making more in several other communities. Natasha’s work with the Avenger had started to pick up with training new recruits. It just didn’t seem like the time between Natasha traveling back and forth from the compound to Wakanda and Halley was only two and just starting to walk.
In the end, it was none other than Nick Fury that had made them see what they both really wanted but were too afraid to ask the other to compromise. He had been stopping by for a visit, and the rest of the details were somewhat blurry as to how it ended but a few months later they had adopted Nick and that was the end of it.
The night went on as the friends all gathered together. Wanda was greeted by a fierce hug from Clint who gave a stern look to Strange as he always does. Wanda shook her head abandoning her husband knowing he can take care of himself.
Wanda eyed her children playing carefully; she was constantly watching over them when an old familiar tune started to play.
“Care to dance?” Her husband asked his hand out and she gladly accepted this time with no hesitation. Other couples joined into the song that Natasha and James first danced to as husband and wife but this song meant something different to Wanda and Strange. It was the start of a promise that he had given her.
Wanda wished she could have gone back and given him the answer she wanted to but was too afraid too, too in denial. But things were very different from how they were five years ago.
“I love you.” She said against her husband’s chest. She could feel his fingers lift her chin so she could look him in the eyes.
“I love you too.” He whispered, kissing her as the song continued and the night faded around them, there was peace. Wanda smiled and never realized how even now she fell more in love with her husband day by day, year by year.