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"You should get a cat." Sam said over the sound of Stark spinning a pen on the wood table.
Wanda hardly turned her head, ready to ignore the comment. She had barely been in the same room with the whole team- sans Thor who had left off-world a week prior, and Clint who had returned to his family for the birth of his son- more than three or four times since she had arrived at the compound. The only times she had left her too-big room had been to attend a debrief of Sokovia (which she nearly walked out of on several occasions), and a meeting regarding their training schedule.
Said training left little room for conversation between her and her teammates. Wanda struggled through session, gained a few new bruises every day, then limped back to her room where she would remain until the next day, when training time rolled around once again.
Rinse and repeat.
Most days she couldn't even get out of bed until half an hour before training began. Tucked into her too-expensive sheets she would lay, for hours on end, staring at her too-tall ceiling. When Black Widow had asked her what she might want in her room, she replied with the only thing she could think of, the only thing that might remind her of home. The television she was gifted was shallower than the one her family had back home, the screen nearly five times larger, somehow foreign and simultaneously a familiar comfort as it played through the DVDs she had collected over just two months. It was the only thing keeping her from staying horizontal for 20 hours a day.
She hadn't watched her DVDs alone. Vision had been an unexpected companion since the day they had entered the compound together. He had saved her life back in Novi Grad. She had been ready to die. She had been resented him in the moment, when they were floating amongst the rubble. She couldn't recall the moment she become grateful for him, maybe it was sometime between episode one and episode five of season seven of Malcom in the Middle.
The other Avengers seemed happy to leave her alone. Wanda was more than thankful.
So naturally it was a surprise when she arrived in the conference room that everyone seemed interested in her wellbeing.
They sat around a long table, she wasn't sure what the wood was but she was certain it was worth more than her entire apartment complex back in Sokovia, at least before it had been blown up. Steve was the only one standing, focused on the screen at the head of the table, directly across from Stark. Wanda found herself in the position of not wanting to sit directly in front, but still not being comfortable enough to sit at all close to the billionaire. Sandwiched with Black Widow (Natasha, she had to remind herself she was on a first name basis with these people) to her front and Vision behind seemed to be the safest option.
She was wrong. The seat placed her directly across from Sam Wilson, who noticed the dark circles under her eyes and dove straight into about a hundred questions regarding how well she was settling into the new country. The main, very obvious source of her discomfort, that of the absence of her brother and the destruction of her country was ignored, not even touched with a ten foot pole. Everyone in the room was at least smart enough not to bring Pietro up.
No, Sam hadn't suggesting her lack of sleep and general discomfort had anything to do with that. Obviously it had something to do with the fact that she didn't have a little furry friend waiting for her back in her quarters right at this moment.
Which of course gave Stark the grand idea for his next pet project.
"Yes!" Stark slammed his hand down on his pen, stopping it mid spin. Wanda startled. "Best idea you've had so far, Hawk Boy."
Sam looked mildly offended.
"I support this, in fact, I'll go as far as financially supporting it, like I do with everything around here. Those naked cats are in right now, aren't they? Or the ones with the stubby legs? Oh! You know what? Don't tell anyone but I know a guy who is in the business of Caracals, I'll give him a call."
Two months seemed like such a short amount of time to have forgiven an entire adolescence of contempt for a person- and it was, forgiven Tony Stark was not. However, he seemed to be trying his hardest to absolve himself of the guilt Wanda knew he felt over his partial responsibility for the death of her parents, and the more direct responsibility for the destruction of her country.
Wanda simply glared at him.
"Tony, she doesn't want one of your black market tigers." Natasha grumbled.
"No tigers, but I do know a lion guy."
Vision, so far a silent, comforting presence on her other side, saw the opportunity to add some information that no doubt took him half a millisecond to find in his brilliant mind and took it. He seemed to like to do that, Wanda liked that about him.
"Millions of cats are taken into shelters and rescues every year, a large number of them are euthanized due to the limited amount of homes available for them to be adopted into, as well as limited resources within the shelter system."
Wanda grew despondent. "Oh that's awful."
He blinked at her. "I did not mean to upset you."
"Hey, that's good idea Vision." Sam said. "I volunteered at an animal shelter not too far from here, maybe you could go adopt from there?"
She glanced at Vision, considering Sam's proposal.
Vision returned her look, his blue eyes shifting, something that happened when he was deep in thought, she had noticed. "If you're searching for my opinion, I believe it would be beneficial for your to have a companion, it might help you feel more at home." He said quietly.
"But I've never had a pet before."
Stark waved his hand. "What, you just fill their food and water and scoop their shit in a bag and you're golden. Hell you don't even have to do that yourself, just hire someone to do it for you, I didn't hire all these goons around here for nothing."
Wanda frowned at him.
"Look if you really want some dumpster cat, fine. We can get you some stuff ordered online, it'll be here by tomorrow, I'll have Happy come by and get you a ride to the shelter and you can go have your pick."
Before Wanda could even reply, Stark clapped his hands together and stood from his chair so fast it clattered against the tables, once again startling her.
"Look for Happy!" He announced without even sparing a look over his shoulder.
Steve never had the opportunity to even begin his presentation.
---
Vision sat stiff as a board on the edge of her bed. It had become a welcome routine for them. After training, Vision would return to his quarters, which were empty of any belongings beyond two chairs and a painting he quite liked. Many would say the room was void of any personality, however Wanda had told him it felt "very Vision" one day while gazing at The Mulberry Tree.
Still, Vision didn't like his quarters very much.
After returning to his room, he would stand and count, 1, 2, 3, all the way to 1800, at which point Wanda had presumably showered and changed into her more comfortable clothes. He would then move to the opposite wall, the one he shared with her, where he would wait some more, until…
An invitation.
"Vis?" She would beckon.
He answered by phasing through the wall, materializing out of his combat suit and into his casuals.
Her room felt correct, where his felt uncomfortable, like a public space where one is allowed but not welcome, somewhere you only pass though on the way home.
Vision was scared the corner of her bed would grow a permanent indent where he sat. His spot. He tried so hard to keep his density at a normal human level, even lightened it at times, when he felt the bed frame creak under his weight.
Wanda on the other hand had grown only more comfortable with their visits. She now sprawled on her back with her head slightly lifted to catch whatever show she had already seen a hundred times. Vision hardly moved a synthetic muscle unless to speak with Wanda. She hadn't said anything about his behavior, but he could tell it frustrated her when she couldn't see his reaction to her favorite scenes when they weren't at face level.
There were nights where the episodes would play through until Wanda fell asleep, at which point Vision would turn off the television with a touch and gently place a blanket over her body, mostcertainlydefinitelynotthankyouverymuch letting his eyes linger on her face, or her hands, or her hair, before retreating back to The Mulberry Tree. There had even been one night the had been particularly close, when Wanda began to drift off and fell asleep leaning on his shoulder. He had stayed the whole night, she drooled on his shoulder. She apologized profusely, Vision had only been concerned about the prolonged position of her neck.
There were other, less frequent nights where Wanda would grab the remote and turn off the television. She would turn to him and ask him mundane things. "What's your favorite flower? Where would you like to visit most on the earth?"
Tonight, it began with "What will you wear tomorrow?"
Vision turned to look at her. Somehow she had made it onto the floor, she was twirling a ball of red energy around her fingers. He was glad to see how comfortable she had become using her powers casually in front of him.
"I suppose my outfit will be the same as it usually is. I enjoy wearing jumpers." He pulled on the sleeve of his current sage colored sweater to show her. It was similar to one she had worn a week prior. "Unless you'd rather I wear something different, of course."
Wanda shook her head. "No, I like what you wear. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to dress fancy or not."
Vision's irises danced. "What for?"
"For going to the shelter. It's gonna be the first time we've been out in public since we arrived- I guess for you, your first time in public ever."
He blinked.
"You wish for me to accompany you to the shelter?"
"Of course." Wanda blinked back. "It's our off day for training, do you have anything else to do?"
"I do not."
"Then what will you wear?"
His hands gripped his knees a little harder. Yes, he certainly wanted to accompany Wanda to adopt her companion, but…
"Am I allowed outside of the compound?"
Wanda frowned. "Why wouldn't you be?"
Vision looked down at his hands.
Wanda sat up onto her knees in front of him, searching to meet his eyes. "It will be good for people to see us out doing normal things. They haven't seen much of us outside of press coverage and general Avenger antics"
"I suppose you're right."
"Good. Wait, you do want to come, right? I don't mean to force you-"
"Wanda I'd love to."
Oh, and she grabbed his hands, with her own hands. They were very warm. Vision's own hands were warm, his body temperature set to the average heathy human 37 degrees Celsius (he learned quickly that keeping his temperature unregulated was unsettling to humans, first noticed when his hand accidentally brushed against Wanda's bare arm during training. Her skin had erupted into goosebumps).
But his heat regulation was definitely faltering, there could not possibly be another reason as to why his face suddenly rose by a few fractions of a degree.
"Good." She repeated. Her mouth didn't smile, her eyes did, it made no difference to him, it was beautiful all the same.
---
Word had somehow got out about their visit. By the time they arrived the next day, driven by a more than slightly annoyed Happy, a large group of people stood outside the doors of the animal shelters, cameras hiding their faces. Wanda clenched her teeth. Somehow this was Tony's fault, she decided. He had probably slipped the word, wanting to show off the new shiny Avengers doing normal human things.
Vision sunk into his seat. Literally. Wanda had to grab his hand to keep him from phasing through the car and into the road.
"Wanda." He said, composure falling into place. "I was not aware there would be such a crowd waiting for us."
"Neither was I." She kept hold of his hand as Happy began yelling obscenities at the throng blocking their path. The energy coming from them was overpowering. Most were purely curious to see the newest Avengers for the first time, but Wanda couldn't ignore the underlying emotion that she had been dreading. Many of the people outside their car feared them.
Vision already assumed so, he made quite the convincing mask of apathy. She squeezed his hand, his mask was broken with a smile.
Inside, several shelter volunteers greeted them enthusiastically, nearly stepping on each other to be the first to lead Wanda and Vision through the lobby. One particularly proud looking volunteer who had introduced himself as Oscar nearly the moment they entered the lobby led them inside another room. The others hovered near the door, occasionally peeking through the small window.
"Now I've heard that you're looking for a feline friend today!" Oscar rubbed his hands together like he had an evil plan. Wanda was worried he hadn't taken a breath since they first entered the shelter. "Lucky for you we have lots of friends available for you to look at! Do you have a particular personality you might be looking for, Ms. Maximoff? Mr. Vision?"
Neither of them had spoken more than a handful of words since they left Happy waiting in the car. Neither of them seemed very inclined to speak anymore than they already had.
"I hadn't really thought about that." Wanda admitted, only after enough time had passed to make the response awkward.
Oscar was quick to move on from the moment. "No worries at all! I actually have a few friends lined up that I thought you might be interested in taking a look at." He squealed in… what Wanda could only assume was excitement? “We are big fans of the Avengers here, we even have some named after your teammates.”
Yeah she was definitely regretting sitting across from Sam now.
“I have read that older cats have more difficulty finding homes than younger ones." Vision suggested.
“Yes I want an old one.”
“Another thing to take into consideration is the fact that Wanda is likely to spend several days to weeks on end away from the compound on missions, in which case the cat would be left in the care of one of the compound employees. It would be beneficial to the cat if they were not to suffer from separation anxiety.”
“Good point. They could still miss me at least a little though.”
“Naturally.”
“I have just the gal for you!” Oscar pushed the door open and practically skipped in.
It was then, when she reached out to hold the door open for Vision, that she realized she had only now let go of his hand. Her cheeks became obnoxiously warm.
They were met with the sight of wall lined with cages. Wanda nearly had a heart attack. There had been many stray cats in Sokovia. Many of them had been nasty and feral, but she just as well remembered visiting the alley beside the apartment building after school with Pietro, bringing along a handful of leftover canned fish to share with the mother cat that slept beneath a milk crate with her four kittens. She remembered begging Mama and Papa to let them bring the kittens inside, even after they said no, Pietro snuck all five of them inside and attempted to conceal them underneath an inconspicuous mewing blanket.
Still, she had never seen this many cats in one place in her life.
Nearly every cage had a little friend inside of it. Many of them slept, unaware or uncaring of the three who had just entered the room, many more of them stood and began meowing at them as they passed. Wanda stopped to coo at each of them as Oscar led them down the line, Vision seemed to have much better self control, but that didn’t stop him from wiggling his finger to a small tabby cat that appeared to bat his paw towards the gem on his forehead.
Wanda’s soul felt nourished. At the same time, her heart felt broken.
Why couldn’t she just take them all back? They had room didn’t they?
“Here she is.” Oscar waved his hands towards the cage at the very end of the row. Inside, a very rotund white cat stared up at them with the biggest yellow eyes Wanda had ever seen.
“Hello.” Wanda greeted.
“Hello.” Vision echoed.
The big girl meowed once in reply, her paws very politely uncrossed as she sat up to stick her nose to the bars.
Oscar opened the door, the big girl pressed her head into Vision’s hand for a pat the moment he offered it. Surely the volunteers collected out in the main room, even the photographers outside could hear the rumble of the purr coming from the girl's chest. “Nice to meet you darling.”
Wanda melted.
Oscar explained how she had been found in a basement after the rest of the building had burnt, covered in soot. They didn’t even know she was white until they had gotten her to the vet and rinsed off. That had been a year ago.
“She’s around nine years old, but she’s so friendly, she really deserves a great home.”
The big girl meowed again, a confirmation, obviously.
She had two separate pairs of hands petting her, Wanda had never seen a creature so happy. She rolled over onto her back to show her round belly.
“She seems to like you.” Vision said while he scratched the girl’s tattered ear.
“Me? I think she might be obsessed with you.”
He had to be cheating or something, maybe the mind stone had some frequency that attracted cats. The big girl chattered as she stared at the gem, her yellow eyes glowing with its reflection.
“You’re not trying to steal my cat from me are you Vis?”
“I would never think of such a thing.”
His expression told her otherwise. Vision was absolutely taken with the cat.
“Should I give you both a moment with her?” Wanda had nearly forgotten Oscar was there. Strange, given the fact that he was hovering just over Vision’s shoulder as if assessing the cat himself.
“No, we’ll take her.”
Oscar looked surprised. “Oh! Are you sure? We have lots of others, you can shop around if you’d like.”
She looked back down at Vision. He was eye level with the cat, letting her gaze into the mind stone. He chuckled when she struck her paw out and whacked it.
“I'm certain, she’s perfect.”
Oscar nodded, she was worried his neck would break. “Absolutely! I’ll go get you all set up. Mr. Stark has already dealt with most of it, all I’ll need from you is some signatures and we can get you and Hulkie here on your way home.”
Wait.
“What did you say her name was?”
—
Hulk, or “Hulkie” the cat had no issue settling into Wanda’s quarters. When the trio arrived home, a six foot tall cat tree had mysteriously appeared in her room, along with at least twenty multi-colored cat toys thrown across the floor and her bed. The big girl (as she bore no resemblance to her namesake other than her large frame, and Wanda felt quite uncomfortable having her cat named after their teammate who had now been missing for several months, Wanda and Vision had agreed to never let any of their teammates in on the knowledge of her original name) wiggled out of Vision’s arms immediately to scoot across the floor towards a green and pink catnip-filled mouse.
“Easy now little lady.” Vision had warned.
Wanda learned four things within the first four days with her new friend.
First, she was smelly. Wanda found out quickly that the bathroom was the best location for the girl’s litter box. Even then, it was a rush whenever she heard the scraping sound of the box to get Smelly’s waste in a bag, else her whole quarters end up unbearable to stay in for any small amount of time. Wanda made a call to the vet and set up an appointment to talk about the girl’s diet.
Second, Oscar had scammed her. The time eventually came on the second day where Wanda had to suit up and return to training with her teammates. Before she left, she filled the girl’s food bowl and departed with a pat on her head.
When she returned, she could hear the yowls from two halls down.
The walls were supposed to be soundproof.
Wanda was grateful when she had opened the door to only find two of her potted plants had been turned over onto the floor. The girl fell silent as soon as she opened the door, then proceeded to pad over and plop herself down in the dirt.
Wanda excused herself from training for the next three days by excuse of a sore throat.
Third, there were ghosts in her room.
When the girl wasn’t playing or sleeping or eating, she spent her leisurely time staring. At the wall. Sometimes she became so engrossed that not even her favorite stick with a feather on the end could distract her from her observation. Sometimes, in the middle of staring, she would begin to meow. That same meow that she heard from two halls down. Coming from inside the same room, the sound was sure to rupture her eardrums.
Fourth, the girl had somehow found a way to scare Vision off.
It was strange, Vision had seemed so in love with her at the shelter, even when he helped settle her in, he could hardly shake her off his leg, probably due to the fact that he kept reaching down to scratch her ear every five seconds.
Four days had passed now, he had yet to walk up to their shared wall and wait for her invitation.
The routine they had developed was an accidental one, but it had become Wanda’s favorite part of the day. She could even sense him in his own quarters, over on the opposite wall, where he hovered until the time came for the day’s training, or a team meeting, or any type of socialization that Wanda was missing out on because her new friend would just miss her oh so much she’d have to let the whole state of New York know it.
The fourth and decidedly last day she called out of training, Wanda settled on the foot of her bed with the girl sound asleep and purring on her lap. In the span of four days she had managed to watch her way through three seasons of her show. The show she had started with Vision.
She glanced over at the opposite end of the bed. His spot.
She felt the overwhelming urge to cry. She scratched the girl between the ears to attempt to console herself.
Then the ghosts must have appeared, because the girl shot out of her lap and ran towards the wall.
“Really, mače?”
The girl spun in a circle and began to yell.
Next door, she heard the thud of a door close.
The girl stood on her hind legs, pawing at the wall.
Wanda felt a familiar presence on the other side of the wall. It moved farther away, where it stood stationary in the corner of a cold empty room.
The girl threw her head back, she sent a series of demanding meows directed towards the wall.
No, there weren’t any ghosts.
The girl wanted…
“Vis?”
There was a moment of silence.
Vision phased through the wall.
The girl let out one more content chirp, the fell quiet when she realized Vision's leg was there and available to rub her face against.
“I apologize if I was… lurking.”
“No, you weren’t.” He was doing quite the opposite actually, that was what had been driving Wanda to the verge of tears.
The girl wound around Vision’s legs, happy ‘prrt’s coming from her chest when Vision finally squatted down to scratch her head. Wanda patted his spot next to her. At least while he was there, she could try her best to make him stay.
He took the invitation, the girl took the opportunity to jump in his lap. The picture was finally complete.
“Have you given her a new name?”
Wanda shook her head. “The only names I could think of were television characters, my brothers, and my parents. I think that any of those would just end up making me sad.”
Vision sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry.” He stroked the girl’s back. She slowly fell back to sleep. At least he couldn’t leave now. “What were your parent’s names?”
He knew this, of course he knew, he had access to her files, so could so easily look them up on his own. He asked anyway. Maybe she fell a bit in love with him.
Maybe she already was a bit in love with him.
“My mother’s name was Iryna, my father’s name was Oleg.”
He hummed, then was silent, save the girl’s purring. It was comfortable, it was warm, she could fall asleep in it, with Vision and the girl by her side.
“Can you name her?” Wanda asked, she didn’t know how much time had passed.
“Oh.” Vision looked down at the cat. “I suppose I could. I’ve never named anything before.” The girl had her eyes open now, her yellow eyes heavy and tired, still glowing with the reflection of Vision’s gem.
“How about Io?”
“Io?”
“Yes, Io is the fourth Galilean moon of Jupiter. It has a high amount of sulphur dioxide across its surface which gives it a strange yellow color, similar to the girl’s eyes.”
“That would explain the smell.”
“Alternatively, Io the moon was named after a figure in Greek mythology, but I find her tale to be quite sad.”
Wanda reached out a hand to join Vision’s in stroking Io’s back.
“Io. Do you like that mače?”
Wanda received a small chirp in response.
She chuckled. “I take that as a yes.”
Vision had a goofy smile on his face, his cerulean eyes shifting up from Io to her own eyes. “I’m thankful to have both of your approvals.”
Wanda realized she’d like to know what it was like to kiss his smile.
She had to break eye contact to clear her mind
“I’m sorry if the girl has been keeping you up at night.”
“Not at all. I do not sleep.”
“She missed you.”
Vision grinned. “I missed her too.”
Wanda frowned.
Vision noticed. “What is the matter?”
“It’s just, I thought maybe you were avoiding her.”
It was Vision’s turn to frown.
“Not at all.”
“Then why haven’t you come over after training in five days?”
“You haven’t invited me in.”
“You haven’t… come to the wall.”
“Well… you have company now I figured I would just be intruding.” He hadn’t pet Io for several seconds now. Annoyed, she chirped and leapt off of his lap to find her food bowl.
“Intruding? Vision I-”
She realized something very horrible. So horrible it made her sick, made her want to bury her face in her palms and cry.
“Vision. Do you think I was trying to replace you with a cat?”
His irises spun, left, to right, then left again. “As Sam suggested, you needed a companion to help you feel more comfortable. I believed that my purpose of providing you company outside of our duties had been fulfilled after Io had taken my place.”
She was speechless.
“I apologize, have I said something wrong?”
“Do you hear the way you’re talking?” Wanda took his hands in her own. She had missed the weight of them, the warmth of them. “You aren’t just a thing that I keep around to not feel lonely, Vis. You are my friend, my best friend. You saved my life, you’ve been by my side this whole time, am I not your friend?”
Vision looked at their joined hands. He was quiet, she couldn’t see his eyes. Her heart nearly crawled out of her throat.
“Wanda.” He sucked in an unnecessary breath. “I have only lived among humans for a very short period of time, however from my observations of human nature, which I have applied to myself, something I didn't believe was possible until quite recently, I have come to the understanding that my feelings for you are not that of a friend.”
Oh...
“Perhaps, they are more than that.”
Oh.
Wanda took his face between her hands. His skin was warm, her fingers traced over the vibranium lines on his cheeks. Her eyes dropped to his lips, looking similarly warm.
“Is- is this okay?”
She was sure his eyes were moving unnaturally quick, between her mouth and her eyes. “I know I am quite socially inept, but if my review of over 4,000 films, television, and novels I have just made in the last three seconds is correct, and what I believe is happening is about to happen, then yes, I am more than-”
“-Vision. Can I kiss you?”
“Please do.”
She did.
And when Io decided to leap onto the bed between them demanding attention, it finally felt like home.