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“The kids finally fell asleep. I read them a story and told them about our plans for tomorrow’s picnic. They are very excited. I wish you´d seen their faces”.
“Thank you so much, Vis. I have already finished washing the dishes and I left the kitchen spotless. It doesn´t look like a battlefield anymore”.
“You’re the best, Wanda!”
The beautiful redhead smiled as she looked at her husband, that man with blond hair to everyone, but who in front of her showed that gray hue that she loved so much. Black and white, but it really was gray, and she liked him that way. She liked him even more when she could see him in his true non-human form. The real one.
Wanda ran her hands down her apron and then hung it up as her husband, Vision turned and poured a couple of glasses of what she knew was whiskey.
“Oh, no, Vis! Thank you, but no. You know I don't drink when Tommy and Billy are...”
But his smile disarmed her.
“Wanda, come on, just a little bit, please. It's like a little honeymoon before it's eight o'clock in the morning and the hustle and bustle starts again. Please, my dear. Join me on this one, please”.
She smiled so happily and accepted that glass of fine cut crystal that immediately clinked with the soft swaying of the ice that floated on the amber of that drink. She emptied it slowly, savoring the notes of that whiskey and sighed. She was not used to drinking and after a few minutes, she felt her cheeks redden. Vision noticed immediately.
“Are you feeling all right, my dear, or did I overdo it with...?”
Wanda smiled, covering her mouth.
“It´s okay, I´m okay. Wonderfully. Oh, could you play that song…? The one we always…?”
Vision had already approached the record player and suddenly those lilting notes began to sound. The redhead smiled as she watched the cause of her loving sighs make an elegant bow, extending his hand towards her.
"Would you grant me the honor of dancing this piece with me?"
Wanda smiled as she delicately took that firm but soft hand and took that little walk that, although brief, always preceded the delicate dance they were going to perform. She put her other hand on her husband's strong shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. She knew they were blue but looking at them in that grayish hue that sometimes-turned sepia, made her sigh again because she liked them. Wanda felt safe looking at her husband’s eyes, she felt safe knowing she was receiving the same devotion. She knew she was being loved as much as she loved Vision. It was pure love.
"Are you happy with this, my love?", Vision asked her in that deep voice that also framed a certain cordiality.
“You can´t imagine how happy I am”, she said.
“Is there anything else I can do for you to keep you this happy? Is there anything else you would like to have so I can please you more? Please, just tell me, my dear”, he said.
Wanda sighed.
“Everything is perfect. I love it so much. I love you so much and I do want you to know that”.
Vision smiled as his lips were drawing the lyrics of the song. Wanda grinned because she knew them by heart, and she just loved them. The song wasn’t the same as the one they chose as their own song, but this one was just magical. It was more than perfect because the melody made them feel as their vows were more than eternal and their love was more than unique. It felt real. It was real. Each word coming from Vision´s lips made her heart beats so excitedly that for a moment she thought she couldn´t handle it. Vision was the love of her life and he meant everything for her. He was everything that she adored.
Soon and without knowing it, she was already leaning on his chest, inhaling that fragrance that was the one that she had chosen for him. Vanilla with musk. Before at first, it had made her a little dizzy, but now it lulled her and whispered in their sweet notes that this was the scent of love, the one she had chosen and created. She was lost in sensations when that sudden turn when dancing almost made her stumble but she was not afraid as long as she continued to cling with all her tenderness and devotion to that body that rhythmically marked the movements to follow.
“I love you, Wanda. You are the love of my life”.
“And I do love you. You are the love of my life”, she whispered while she still felt she was dancing with that man. His love made her fill strong to keep going but now, it was all the truth she needed to keep living carefree. He was like an anchor in her life.
So she continued dancing, in the darkness of that sweet and secret evening that was real for her, in which she was embracing nothingness and that was actually something that was repeated incessantly every night or whenever she wanted it while that other was spying on her.
That other one who in his magic and power felt compassion for her. He had watched her for a long time indulge herself in dancing with the air and wrapping her arms around anything, whatever it could be, in that empty lot, where it could be obvious that a house must have been built. But the truth as his own eyes had noticed since a long time, just revealed that Wanda was dancing all alone, deliriant. He knew that her neighbors feared her for many reasons but apparently, she hadn’t noticed it already.
Stephen Strange had spent a lot of time watching her doing the same thing at the same time. Every morning, every evening, every day. It was something really painful to see until the dawn painted its colors and when the twilight arrived every time.
He arrived the first time when he felt that awful pain piercing his chest and his heart. He never felt anything like that before, so he looked for that stinging signal until he discovered her. He came decided to stop her, but when he arrived, he just felt mesmerized for what he saw, and he wasn’t able to stop her. He couldn’t. He didn’t want to.
He knew about her, about who she was and all the power she had and he knew that Wanda Maximoff was someone so powerful that even if he tried his best, with just a single word she could destroy him. So, he was cautious.
But when he saw what she did every day with such devotion, Stephen just got caught. He could feel and understand her sadness. He felt terrible each time he saw her dancing on her own, smiling at whatever o whomever she was smiling at and although it was invisible to his eyes, it seemed to be real to hers. He wished he could listen to what she whispered to the air. He wanted to know what she was looking at and it was the exact moment in which he decided to become a silent viewer, so she could keep on doing whatever she was doing but at least, it kept her calm.
Because he knew that Wanda was dangerous.
He felt compassion for her and for that reason, the only thing he could allow her was that: letting her dancing and talking to her fantasies. As long as she stayed calm with that, maybe he shouldn't interfere.
More than once, he questioned himself if maybe he had to interfere or if he had to shape-shift and join her, to take her by the waist and make her dance as an attempt to make her sadness and madness to decrease just to make her feel better. Stephen questioned himself if that would be a nice approach to keep her calm but he desisted as he knew that Wanda was delusional, but she was not stupid and his intention was not to make her feel that way because he respected her. If he dared to do that, she would notice that clumsy well-intentioned act that may unleashed all the destruction he wanted to avoid. So that wasn’t a good idea at all.
Stephen didn’t care to be hurt or killed as a consequence of that, but he knew he had to protect everyone and specially her. Stephen didn’t want to hurt her.
He just wanted her to be happy, he wanted her to have all that she had lost. He wanted to join her into her madness and if that was the case, he would be more than willing to be a new and good partner for her, to be someone in whom she could trust in. He would do anything just to make her happy even when he didn’t know what really could make her happy at all.
Maybe one day, he would dare to join her and show his face and his intentions. His real intentions. Maybe if the day and the timing was just right, he would tell her what she made him feel during all that time. Maybe he would be more than happy to be dragged into that incomprehensible reality she was creating but if there was something he knew and he wasn’t afraid of, it was that reality could be changed to make things better.
He just wanted to be part of her perfect black and grey world. He didn’t care at all because he was colorblind to whatever had to do with her because for him, Wanda was more than perfect.
He just wanted to be at that exact hour at which the magic, her magic just began. He wanted to be there watching her open her eyes at the precise moment at which she started, again, day after day, with her dream reality at twilight time.
Stephen was convinced that he would be a perfect husband for a woman like her, a witch like her. He had been daydreaming about being the one who came home day after day with such an enormous bouquet of roses for his loving wife as she was happily waiting for him. He wanted to kiss her perfect lips and then kiss their children and play with them before sending them to bed. He just wanted to be the one who made her dance singing that song that would describe their perfect relationship.
He just wanted to have the courage to tell her how much he loved her since the first time he felt her sadness. He just wanted to love her but at least for now, it would be something that would have to wait.
Stephen would have to wait for the next twilight to find the courage to tell Wanda how much he loved her. At least, he had to wait to find the perfect time to tell her how he felt and to offer her the life he knew, she deserved. Stephen would have to wait.
**
“Wanda”, Stephen whispered before he left and for the very first time, she heard him.
“Yes, Vis?”
“Excuse, my dear. I didn’t say anything”.
“You just called my name, didn’t you, Vis?”
“No, my love, I did not”.
Vision’s voice sounded so cold that it made her shiver. She truly knew she was all alone with all those images in her head.
“Wanda, is everything okay?”, asked the voice in her head.
Wanda stopped her fantasy. She looked at the sky above her and she sighed. She knew she was all alone in that empty place in which she made herself to believe she had built a house, a home. But there wasn’t a roof above her head. She was on her own dancing all alone under the night sky and a bunch of silent stars.
“I beg your pardon Vis, but I…”
“What, my dear? Do you need some help?”
Wanda frowned. Her heartbeat made her feel uncomfortable. Her heart was beating like it never did and she kept talking to the sweet nothingness.
“No, I’m okay. Do you mind to wait for me, please? I won’t take that long”.
Wanda didn’t get the expected answer but in that moment, a strong sigh came from her chest and made her to look at the sky, insistently trying to find something. That night sky covered with stars was just clear and although she kept herself on guard, she closed her eyes and tried to make herself easy again.
She allowed herself to indulge in her ravings in which she was a happy and exemplary housewife, a loving mother and the happiest woman in the universe. That was all what she had, all she had built for herself and she would not let a whisper confuse her, to tear her away from that world she had created for herself, because if she allowed it, then there would be no one able to stop her.
“Is everything okay, my sweet Wanda?”, she heard Vision’s voice again next to her.
“It’s all right, Vis. I’m sorry honey, but I must do something. Please, wait for me in our bedroom”.
Wanda looked at the sky again and then at that place in which a big window was supposed to be. She had felt another presence in the last days but she had tried her best to ignore it. She knew it didn’t come from any of her neighbors because all of them feared her a lot and nobody tried to walk close her ‘home’.
She had noticed that other presence whose energy was too strong, as intense as her own. That presence had unsettled her as never before and in spite of that, ever since she became aware of it, she had always tried to keep her composure. Wanda owed fidelity to the memory of her dead husband. She owed honesty and righteousness to the memory of her children, but that simple whisper upset her, made her feel that she had to return to reality even if she didn't want to and give herself the opportunity to meet the one who had uttered it.
Perhaps it was time to see who that stranger was and if she considered it appropriate, to meet him and see what he could offer her. But in the meanwhile, she would close the invisible purple curtains she had chosen in her delirium to protect her privacy and sit in that armchair under the complicit penumbra of that light she imagined.
Wanda closed her eyes when she felt her strength fading and it was the unmistakable sign that she should rest a little, that she should recover before returning to voluntarily surrender to her delusions, to those daydreams that she already had a hard time trying to believe, to feel because there was already something calling her with force. She could already feel that something in the real world was beginning to grab her and bring her back to reality, to the one she was so determined to deny.
But until she decided otherwise, her life would remain like this: black and white, discreet, happy.
Perfect.
The end.