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The world at large had forgiven, some would say almost forgotten, the darkness in Wanda Maximoff’s past, but Wanda herself had most definitely not. Many nights, her darkest deeds haunted her in the form of nightmares.
An innocent city heavily damaged by the Hulk because Wanda had twisted the mind of Bruce Banner.
The screams from a crumbling building in Lagos.
The pained faces of those she had inadvertently tormented in Westview.
The Wizards she had slaughtered in Kamar-Taj.
America Chavez. Almost a woman now, and surprisingly gracious with Wanda on the occasions that they saw each other.. But she was always a girl in Wanda’s dreams, a frightened girl she had almost killed.
The worst were the nightmares of Tommy and Billy, her own sweet boys, and their terrified faces. Of how badly she had hurt the two little people she had sworn to love and protect above all others..
—
Wanda jolted awake, as was a rather common occurrence these days, and after ascertaining for sure that it was all just a dream, took a breath to calm herself, and reined in the Scarlet energy that had instinctively sprung from her fingers.
Sighing at the fact that all the things that had once calmed her nightmares were no longer options, she instead rolled over to grab her phone, checking the time. It was a little after 3 AM. Wanda knew that she should probably try and go back to sleep for another few hours. Instead, she found herself staring at her phone’s new Wallpaper.
It was a picture of herself, Vision, and the twins, taken on a recent trip to a local Diner. A selfie taken by Billy, who had rather happily declared it their first family photo, while Tommy had scoffed, annoyed, but eventually smiled for the picture anyway.
Even her boys were not little anymore. They were young men, who had spent this version of their childhood entirely without Wanda. Thankfully, they were willing to let her get to know them.. and Vision, of course.
Wanda and Vision were friends again now. It was a tentative friendship, but a friendship nonetheless. They’d shared a few outings now beyond the ‘getting to know you’ ones with Tommy and Billy.
Friendly Lunches.
Friendly Dinners.
Friendly cups of tea.
A friendly trip to the movies.
They were friends. Just friends.
Wanda wasn’t complaining about this. Vision’s friendship was more than she would ever have hoped for, far more than she believed she deserved.
Still, at times like this, as she was lying awake with her heart pounding nearly out of her chest, she couldn’t help more desperately missing the times when they were more, because Vision’s warm embrace, his soft, calm, comforting voice, had always been the best balm to her frazzled nerves after a nightmare.
‘Just friends’ did not call each other at 3AM for anything other than a genuine emergency.. and yet Wanda found herself unlocking her phone, finding Vision’s name in her contacts, and making the call.
She was both surprised, and not surprised at all, with how quickly he picked up.
“Wanda. Are you alright? Are you hurt? Is something wrong with the boys..”
His voice sounded rather panicked, and immediately Wanda felt guilty. Of course he would assume something was wrong, getting a call so late.
“I’m fine” She tried to reassure him. “So are the boys, so far as I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called so late. I didn’t mean to worry you. I’m just.. I had a nightmare and..
“I see. You needed to talk to someone..”
“I’m sorry..”
–
“It’s alright, really..” Vision, in his own apartment not too far away, switched his phone to speaker so that he could see Wanda’s face in her caller picture, the very same one of them and the boys that Wanda had currently been using as her wallpaper. “I.. I have nightmares too..”
In fact, he had jolted awake from one moments before Wanda’s call, so his panic was not just due to the late hour.. but he did not tell Wanda this, not wanting to burden her with it when she was clearly already upset.
“You do?”
“Yes..” Sometimes it was his own death, but others, more often now, his nightmares ended with Wanda’s blood coating his bleached white hands, their sons screaming.. he shook his head. “I don’t really like to talk about it..”
–
“You don’t have to talk about it” Wanda cut him off. “I’m sorry again, I really shouldn’t have called so late. I’ll just go..”
“No. Don’t.. You don’t have to go.”
“I’m interrupting your sleep..”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Why are you awake after Three AM?” Wanda frowned, now her turn to sound concerned. “Are you alright? Oh crap, you’re not staking out a villainous lair or something, are you? Have I blown your cover?
Vision’s laughter echoed through the phone, and Wanda silently cursed the flutter in her heart that the sound had prompted. One’s heart did not flutter for just a friend.
–
“No, I am not on a stake out” Vision told her once his laughter had subsided. “I would have told you if I were doing anything like that..”
“You would?”
“I would.”
“Why would you need to?”
She sounded confused, and Vision paused for a moment, thoughtful. Why would he have felt the need to tell Wanda, if he were doing anything potentially dangerous?
There wasn’t any real reason why he would be obligated to. They were not a couple anymore. She was not his Wife.. never had been, in the truly real world, a truth that for some reason caused an odd, unpleasant twist in his gut.
Maybe because he had wanted her to be, once upon a time. Had purchased a plot of land, drawn up plans, had wanted to look at rings.. But all those Could Be’s or Might Have Beens did not give him an answer to her question just now.
Maybe he felt a need to tell her for the children they somehow shared.. Not that they were co-parenting them, or really doing much parenting at all. Thanks to some strange, mystical circumstances surrounding the twins’ reincarnation, Tommy and Billy were, at least from a legal standpoint, unrelated orphans. They lived at the new Avengers Compound, technically under the guardianship of Sam Wilson, as part of the new ‘Young Avengers’ Initiative. Both were rather fine young men, and although neither he nor Wanda could claim much responsibility for that, Vision still couldn’t help feeling proud.
Again, though, not really an answer to Wanda’s question.
He supposed the real answer was that if there were ever a chance that the worst could happen for him, again, Wanda’s was, despite everything, still the last voice he would have wanted to hear.
But he couldn’t tell her that.
“I just.. I would have told you, that’s all” Vision sat up more fully in bed, suddenly eager to change the subject. “Have you been having these nightmares often?”
—
“Well.. a little more often than usual” Wanda admitted. “Why?”
“Hmm.. I wonder..”
“Wonder what?”
“If, maybe, this increase in your nightmares coincided with the news that we are all to be guests of honor at the Van Dyne foundation’s charity ball..”
“Maybe..”
–
“And you are uncomfortable with that notion” Vision continued, feeling a little ache in his heart for her, “Because you think your past renders you unworthy of being honored.”
“Why do you say that?”
Her voice turned a little defensive, but that only served to tell Vision that he was probably right.
“You didn’t think I would want anything to do with you because of it.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“Similar enough, just on a larger scale. And I will say the same thing now that I told you then, and a little more. There were some rather serious mitigating circumstances for the things you did.. It cannot all be blamed on you. You deserve this second chance..”
–
“Even if that’s true” Wanda huffed into the phone, unwilling to admit how right he was, just how well he still knew her, because that would only make her miss him more, “It doesn’t help my nightmare problem, does it?”
“I guess not.. Maybe, try focusing on happy things as you’re going to sleep? Trick your subconscious into happier dreams.”
“I’m feeling pretty wide awake right now..”
“Try and relax.. Just close your eyes.”
“What about you? We never did get to the bottom of why you were up at Three in the morning..”
–
“For now I am rather more concerned about you, Wanda” Vision deflected, “And I intend to stay on the line until you are sleeping.”
“You do?”
–
“I do. So, relax..”
“Okay..” Wanda tried to do so.
“Close your eyes.”
“They are closed.”
“Take a few deep breaths..”
“Vizh” Wanda sighed.
“Yes?”
“Are you trying to meditate me to sleep?”
“Uh.. Is it working?”
“Not yet..”
“Oh..”
“Can you..” She paused, knowing she probably shouldn’t ask.
“What?”
“R-Read to me.. Your voice is soothing. It’s the accent, I think.”
–
Her own accent had slipped out in the final few words, and Vision tried to ignore the slight stirring in his belly, reaching for the book on his bedside table.
“I have Shakespeare Sonnets..” He swallowed thickly. “Is that okay?”
–
“Yes..” Wanda swallowed a lump in her own throat, remembering other times he had read Shakespeare to her.
Vision began to read:
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are..”
Wanda could almost see the long-lost color return to his face.
–
“Um.. maybe not that one.”
Wanda laughed, then, and Vision’s heart briefly soared, but sank just as quickly, bcause when she spoke again, she sounded.. Sad.
“No.. not that one. But.. Pick another?”
Even though she could not see him, Vision nodded, flipping through pages, until he found a sonnet strangely befitting their current situation.
“Is it thy will thy image should keep open
My heavy eyelids to the weary night?
Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken,
While shadows like to thee do mock my sight?
Is it thy spirit that thou send’st from thee..”
–
Wanda listened as Vision read, first that sonnet, then more, and eventually, after how long exactly she wasn’t sure, she felt his voice lull her off to sleep.
She floated backwards in time, into a dream that was also a memory. One of their stolen moments.
A lazy morning that was quickly heading towards noon. Soft, bare skin, warm and lightly flushed with the afterglow of earlier lovemaking.
Wanda’s head had been resting on Vision’s chest, his fingers running through her hair, as he read to her from a book of Shakespeare quotes and sonnets, a gift she had brought him for their visit.
She let herself stay lost in the memory, for however long she would be allowed, and at least for a little while, Wanda slept without nightmares.
—-
Vision kept reading until his own eyes grew heavy, and he drifted off himself, his book falling into his lap.. that one had been given to him by Billy, a thoughtful gift after the boy had learned from where his name had been chosen.
He drifted into the very same dream-memory that Wanda had, and for a while, Vision was happy.
When he began to wake, sometime later, he had thought for a moment that he was still dreaming, as he heard the sounds of Wanda waking beside him.. then he realized that he had not disconnected the call, nor had Wanda, and somehow, neither phone’s battery had run dry.
—
“Wanda?”
She was less startled than she should have been by the sound of Vision’s voice. Mostly, Wanda was rather touched that he had not hung up.
“Hey..” a small smile tugged at her lips. “You’re still there..”
—
“I am.. how did you sleep?”
“Alright.. looks like I actually slept in a bit in the end..”
“So did I..” Vision replied. He was glad to have helped her sleep, but felt a sudden odd tug at his heart.. needing to see, for himself, that Wanda was okay. “But it’s not too late.. maybe we could grab Brunch?”
—
Wanda hesitated. The late-hour phone call had seemed strangely intimate, much more so than ‘just friends’ should be, and her current friendship with Vision was too precious to her to risk blurring the boundaries of it too much.
On the other hand.. she wanted to see him. And it was just Brunch, right?
“Alright. Just give me some time to get ready, okay?”
—
“Yes, of course.. I’ll come pick you up in about three quarters of an hour?” He tried not to sound too excited. He wasn’t sure if he was succeeding.
“Sure. See you then, Vizh.”
“See you..” Vision couldn’t help grinning as the call finally disconnected.
Just Brunch. With a friend.
A friend who was still one of the most precious people in the world to him. For now, friendship was enough.
Maybe it would have to be enough forever.
Whatever the case, he would always be there when Wanda Maximoff needed him.