#rachel’s gifs 💖

[glittertrail]

Send this to ten other bloggers that you think are wonderful. Keep the game going, make someone smile!!! 💖

🥰🥰🥰

[yzzart]

Tom Blyth being really fucking obsessed with actress!Reader, like constant physical contact, many kisses, maybe some moments on set? I love your writing 💖

"Oh, the lovebirds."

pairing: tom blyth x actress!reader.

summary: another compilation between you and tom? we have!

word count: 538!

notes: thank you for requesting this, anon and i hope you know that i love you and beg you to request more ideas!

"See them over there?" — Recording and switching the camera to frontal mode, Rachel pointed to you and Tom sitting under the tree, in the forest setting, together. — "Two lovebirds in love." — Tom's arm was around your shoulder, he was saying something that was, technically, impossible to identify, but then he left a long kiss on your forehead. — "Look!"

Rachel saved that video with a triumphant, happy smile on her face in an album she had made specifically for behind the scenes and it was the thousandth video of you and Tom that she had saved. — The first and biggest fan of both of you.

It wasn't difficult, and not at all complicated, to find behind-the-scenes photos of 'The ballad of songbirds and snakes'; so soon, it wasn't hard to see photos and videos of you and Tom together on set. — So much for you posting and Rachel too.

There were videos where he put Coriolanus' peacemaker helmet on you; your hands between his rough and cut hair, commenting on the possibility of him temporarily turning blonde;; a photo they took of him and him lying on the grass. — Several moments recorded, captured and saved with lots of love.

Also, the small and peculiar fact that you left written messages or just heart symbols on paper, sometimes torn up, for each other. — Hunter thought this was cute, and she even helped Tom put one of them in your trailer.

In every interview, to repeat, in every interview, Tom always tries to be in contact with you; mainly, the physical. — It doesn't matter if your chair is a little far from his, or if you or he are on the other side of the row. — Nothing can stop that man.

The cameras record, with attention and great focus, Tom holding your hand while you answered questions from the interviewer, who was also watching, and admiring the rings that were present on your fingers; and that some were gifts from him. — If Tom had the opportunity, he would never let go of you.

He contemplated carefully; distributing affection with his fingers on your hand and your palm, at certain moments, even tickling you and, sometimes during the interviews, a brief laugh accompanied your words.

And every time it happens, that passionate smile wrapped in such a strong emotion curves on Blyth's lips.

Well, it's not just the contacts and touches between your hands that are captured by cameras and the watchful eyes of fans; Tom's arm resting on the back of your chair, your leg touching his, your head on his shoulder and once again Tom's hand resting on your knee. — You looked like a pair of magnets.

Oh, and not to mention, a moment from an interview, another one from Vogue to be a little specific, in which Tom removes one of the rings that was on his fingers, the one that is always on his pinky, and decided to put it on your finger. — God, your fans went completely crazy on all social media, especially on Twitter. — It wasn't so perfect, in the right measure, but you didn't remove it in any way.

During the premieres, several photos with you kissing Tom's cheek and him kissing your hand, like a knight, spread across networks and even on the film's official accounts. — And Rachel commented on all of them. — And the photos that show Tom's hands on your waist, holding you so gently accompanied by such a sweet and intimate look and following you wherever you went became your favorites.

Flashes and snippets of interviews, videos of Tom's hand on your back, helping you with your long dress and him brushing some locks out of your face while you answered questions. — Even the interviewers smiled witnessing those acts.

And there's always a like from Tom Blyth on Instagram posts of these photos.

[midnightstar-90]

Dog Confessions

Garfield Logan x Reader

Taglist | Request | Wattpad Main Masterlist | DC Comics Masterlist

Summary: The Titans return home from a mission to find Gar and Y/N asleep on the couch. And Gar is a dog?

Warnings: Fluff, Gar as a literal dog 🥰💖 A/N: Long time no see. Yeah, I know! But here I am giving you this in return. Words: 1.4K

The Titans arrived home from their mission, only to be welcomed to silence. Kory, Rachel, Connor, and Dick each sent each other a look before Dick called out to the two members they'd left behind. When there wasn't an answer, the four instantly began to panic. That was until something green and lumpy poked out of a cover on the couch.

Dick motioned for Kory, Connor, and Rachel to stay back so that he could investigate, and the three hesitantly stayed where they were. As Dick approached the living room area, more features became more noticeable. The lump on the couch seemed way too big to be just Gar or Y/N. But when he saw a sliver of a hairy tail against a human leg, Dick instantly knew what was going on.

Dick moved closer to the other side of the couch and took a look at the other end of the cover. A small smile appeared on Dick's face as he gazed upon a sleeping Y/N who was cuddled up with a green labrador, which Dick assumed to be Gar, also sleeping.

"Dick, what is it?" Kory asked, speaking for herself, along with Connor and Rachel. She and the two teenagers behind her were genuinely confused about the situation and were unsure of how to handle the situation.

Dick didn't say a word. Instead, he shushed the magenta-haired woman and pointed down at the couch before walking over to the group.

"Y/N and Gar are asleep and I don't want to wake them," Dick said.

Everyone's mouths dropped in shock as they all took a quick glance over to the lumpy figure on the couch. Kory turned to Dick, "They're sleep? On the couch?" Dick only nodded at the woman's question. His smile grew larger by the minute.

After taking another look at the couch, Rachel decided to jump in. "Wow?" she started, walking toward the couch for a better view. "I mean- I had my thoughts, but I didn't actually think that they'd get together."

"I didn't know he could turn into a dog," Connor said, scratching his head.

Dick and Kory sent each other a knowing smile. Rachel was right. They all thought the two were dating. There were clear signs. Between the frequent nights out, how they always share the first bite of their food with the other, and this, the group could only confirm their suspicions. Unless they deny it.

If they denied the dating rumors, then maybe they were wrong. But everyone could see the chemistry between the two.

“Alright,” Dick started as he began to usher everyone out of the room. “Let’s let them sleep.”

Kory and Connor did as they were told but Rachel decided to stay back. “One sec,” she called out, pulling out her phone. She opened the camera app and said, “I just want to document this for future purposes.”

She snapped the picture, forgetting to turn the sound off, making Gar’s ears poke up. One of his eyes slowly opened to reveal his dark brown eyes staring directly at Rachel, who was staring back with a mischievous grin.

Gar panicked and quickly morphed back into his human self. Luckily, he was under the cover, or else everyone would have seen the one downside to his powers, again.

“What’s going on?” Gar asked nervously, taking his gaze away from Rachel to look at everyone, and then back at Rachel.

“When were you gonna tell me you and Y/N were dating?” Rachel asked with a fake pout.

Gar opened his mouth to speak, but when he looked over at Dick, Kory, and Connor who were all invested with what was going on he quickly closed it.

“Don’t lie to me, Gar. You and Y/N have been all lovey dovey for a while now. Even more than Dick and Kory.”

“Hey!” Dick and Kory yelled out at the same time.

“Y/N and I aren’t together. We’re just very close. She was asleep on the couch last night, and I saw she was having a nightmare. Without thinking I somehow morphed into a dog and cuddled up next to her, hoping it would help, and it did. So, I decided to stay.”

“Does she know that you’re currently lying against her with your naked butt, because in some cases, that would be assault?” Rachel asked with an amused grin on her face.

Gar was now beet face red with embarrassment. “W-well, I clearly didn’t have the intention of morphing into a human while laying next to her. I just wanted to help her,” Gar stuttered. He stood up, taking the cover with him, to cover himself and unknowingly woke up the girl he was previously laying with.

Rachel gasped, “You like Y/N!”

It’s safe to say that Gar did not like the confrontation. His face was getting redder by the minute and his heart was beating at immense speed. He was scared to admit his feelings whether Y/N knew or not.

Gar hesitated for a moment, looking away from Rachel before looking back at her. “Okay! Yes, I like Y/N!” He blurted out, causing everyone to jump a bit before sending the boy a loving smile.

Unknowingly to everyone, Y/N was also smiling. Her eyes remained shut, but a small smile made its way onto her lips. The girl remained silent, waiting to hear more before revealing herself.

“Why don’t you tell her that,” Kory said, jumping into the conversation.

Gar looked down at his feet and shrugged. “I don’t know. Y/N is amazing. She’s an awesome fighter, she’s a talented singer, and she has the best taste in everything. I guess I just didn’t want to lose what I have with her. I honestly don’t deserve her, and if I told her how I feel, I wouldn’t be surprised if she rejected me.”

Rachel smiled and placed a hand on Gar’s naked shoulder, “Gar, you’re an amazing guy also, and I can tell you that Y/N sees that too.”

Gar’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really?” He asked, earning a nod from Rachel. He turned to the other three and they sent him a nod also.

“Just think about it. I’m sure she won’t say no,” Rachel said, sending one last glance to Y/N before walking away with a huge smile.

Gar watched as the four of them left the room. Behind him, Y/N had finally opened her eyes and was now sitting up on the couch to face him.

“They’re right, you know?” Y/N spoke softly, making Gar jump and turn to face the girl. Her face illuminated with joy as she smiled up at him. “You are an amazing guy.”

Gar’s face scrunched up in confusion. “You heard all that?” Gar asked, pointing at the empty hallway where Rachel, Kory, Dick, and Connor all exited the room from.

Y/N nodded, “And I saw that cute little butt of yours.” She giggled as Gar tightened the cover around his body.

“I appreciate what you tried to do for me.”

The green haired boy scratched the back of his neck. “It was nothing,” he said. “I’d help any of you guys out.”

“But you morphed into a dog for me,” Y/N argued, her face beaming with pleasure.

“I don’t know how I did that,” Gar admitted with a scoff.

“Exactly.” Y/N stood from her spot on the couch. “I guess I also have some feelings I’d like to admit,” Y/N said, sheepishly.

“Oh. And what might that be?” Gar asked, nervously looking away from the girl.

Y/N stepped closer and boldly wrapped her arms around the boy’s neck. Gar turned back to face the girl, surprised by her actions. “I may or may not have been withholding my romantic feelings for you also,” she admitted.

Gar was taken aback by the girl’s confession, but it didn’t stop the large grin from appearing on his face. He went to hug her but was stopped by the cover that was covering his body from the girl’s eyes.

He cleared his throat, “Ahem! I was going to hug you, but I don’t think it would be appropriate seeing as it’s the only thing holding up the things covering up… you know what.”

Y/N looked away, a little shocked by Gar’s response before she began to laugh. She gave his chest a gentle pat and said, “Okay, how about you go get dressed and after, we can go see a movie?”

Gar nodded as Y/N released him from her hold so that he could go change. She watched as he began to leave the room, occasionally stumbling over the large cover, making the girl chuckle.

If your User is in red, I could not find you. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to be re-added. Taglist: @geli-likes-stuff, @tractsnook, @esposadomd, @avada-kedavra-bitch-187,

[justdancestimboards]

Lilas Stimboard “We can’t stop this fire”

credits/Links:

[wndaswife]

she would be so soft to hug :"D and to play with her hair while you hug her and kiss her cheek while she buries her face against you and-

yeees there was some self-insert there with me feeling so bad for wanda n all that throughout the fic xdd so i also had reader still maintain her feelings for wanda tho she was upset with her!!

THANKS :D i am happy u liked <3

matriarchal disturbance | wanda maximoff & fem!reader

Iryna Maximoff pays her daughter a visit, and Wanda must learn to balance living with her ever-complicated mother while navigating her rocky relationship with you, her stepdaughter.

Word count: 14 615

Tags: smut, angst, fluff, family issues, infidelity, age gap, strap-ons, cunnilingus, spanking, hair-pulling, praise, degradation, slight cnc, impact play, mention of somnophilia, mommy kink, sub!wanda maximoff, dom!reader. MINORS DNI.

You sped down the stairs and slung your backpack over your shoulder, hoping to avoid your dad and stepmother on the way out. The rapid padding of your feet prompted Wanda to force herself out of her husband’s arms as you passed the kitchen.

“Y/N?” she called out, listening close to how you walked over to the front door. Wanda rounded Vision and headed over to you. You were leaned over, pulling your shoes on with a backpack hanging from your shoulder. Wringing her hands around the dish towel she was holding, Wanda asks, “Are you going somewhere?”

You stalled with some stuttered hesitation in hopes of leaving and talking with your stepmother as little as possible. But you watched the way she stayed planted in front of you and you still had another shoelace to tie. “Yeah, going out, forgot to tell dad,” you answered finally.

“I can drive you if you’d like. Vis can finish making dinner,” she offered, and you saw her playing with her fingers when you looked up slightly from beyond your eyebrows. She was always trying to make some excuse to spend time with you. But you wouldn’t let her. Not unless you were forced.

The afternoon could be recalled as clearly as if it were yesterday. Months of getting close with your dad’s new girlfriend, gentle caresses and passing longing glances, excuses to get each other alone, delicate kisses exchanged, vows of love, all tossed away as delusion the moment her engagement to your dad was announced. He had his hand on her knee, Wanda’s hands wringing around uncomfortably in her lap as she anticipated your answer. 

Suddenly, you had no idea what to do with all the months you spent loving Wanda. She lost her virginity when she was sixteen to a senior at the back of his truck. She won a spelling bee contest when she was ten. She broke one of her ribs once when she was a young child hanging out of her father’s moving car.

What were you to do with knowledge like that?

Information about her that you held close to your heart for whatever reason, a pride you felt in knowing her and having been able to watch her face as she recalled stories of her life. She was once a grand and beautiful constellation, each day spent with her discovering one of the many stars she was made of. 

She made you feel and look like a fool — a lovesick puppy blinded by the thrill of first love. You hated her for it, and you hated her all the more when she made those pathetic attempts to make it up to you.

“I’m walking,” you told her and straightened to take your sweater from the coat rack.

“Walking? Is it far?”

Hoping that your brief response would suffice, you answered, “No.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed on.

“Wanda, I told you — I’m walking,” you repeated, meeting her eyes. She nodded and stepped to the side to let you open the front door. The stability of her relationship with you was precarious and she wouldn’t think twice before yielding to maintain what closeness she had left with you after her marriage to your father.

You didn’t believe there was much, if any at all, but you imagined that Wanda liked to hold onto the idea that there was.

Before you could step off the porch and finally make some space between you and home, Wanda called from behind you and asked if you were planning on being back home before dinner. You replied with something vague for you didn’t feel like thinking about when you wanted to be home, and you didn’t want to give your stepmother the benefit of knowing your plans.

Pretending to be content in spite of her lack of a role in your personal life, Wanda refrained from asking anything else and let you go without another word.

Several days ago, Vision suggested that you start calling Wanda something along the lines of ‘mom.’ Your father had initially argued against your refusal, insisting that it was time you started behaving maturely rather than acting like a rebellious teenager. Wanda was quick to defend you, but you were already cutting your meal short, heading to the sink to wash your dishes before going out for a drive.

Even if you had stayed seated while Wanda vouched for you, she was convinced you wouldn’t have been listening anyways. You hardly responded to her when she spoke to you, you didn’t even look up. Typically, it took urging from your father to even get her messages across.

Dinner was dull when you didn’t come home later that night. Things normally were when it was only her and Vision at home. Interaction between you and your stepmother was scarce, but knowing that you were home, having you for meals and seeing you occasionally when you came downstairs brought Wanda great deals of joy and comfort. She loved it when you were home from school.

It never crossed her mind how you interpreted her attempts at becoming close with you again, for she always had faith that you’d warm up to her eventually. She knew she had hurt you when she married Vision though she’d been dating him for months prior to the marriage. But she believed that what the two of you had was special. 

You were one of the reasons she felt assured in the decision to marry Vision. Things would be different, but she’d always have you. Wanda strongly believed that although things couldn’t return to precisely what used to be before her engagement, it would take a bit of effort to eventually return to the trust and affinity the two of you used to have for each other.

She hadn’t meant to lose you in marrying your father, and she wasn’t planning on it. She promised to herself to be a good stepmother, although she felt lost at times without a maternal figure to rely on for an example of how to provide for you as you needed.

These days, Wanda thought of Iryna a lot more than she used to. In her failures to earn your affection, she worried she was becoming more and more like her own mother. She had no one to ask advice from and in spite of her tumultuous childhood, Wanda caught herself wishing she had the kind of relationship with her mother in which she could simply call her and ask her for help.

Iryna and her daughter talked a few times perhaps every three months. Their communication was irregular and when they did talk, phone calls would consist of Iryna asking a few obligatory questions about Wanda’s life and listening to answers she didn’t truly care about hearing before the topic was swiftly changed to Pietro, Wanda’s twin brother. 

Pietro was part of a travelling soccer team, having firstly started his soccer practices for a few hours after school when he and Wanda were only children, and was now making his way towards his dream of earning a spot with his team representing their home country in the Olympics. He and Wanda texted a lot more regularly than she and Iryna, and unlike their mother, Pietro attended Wanda and Vision’s wedding a few months ago. 

They were close, and it was only different paths of life that put space between them. Even so, the distance was merely physical as the twins continued to maintain their close connection.

Though they had a strong bond, Wanda truly found herself rather bored listening to her mother drone on about how successful Pietro was in his most recent games, listening to all the countries he’d been travelling to and the games she attended. She’d heard it all from him anyways, but what was more was that Iryna travelled around the world to see Pietro, a total of seven different countries to watch his games and spend time with her favourite child, yet could not even bother to attend her daughter’s wedding.

Wanda was once a favourite of her father before he passed when they were young, and it was no secret that Pietro was always mama’s favourite, even after there became only one parent to share between the both of them. In spite of how the two of them knew Iryna favoured her son over her daughter, any and all of Wanda’s conflicted feelings had always been directed towards her mother rather than towards Pietro. It was miraculous, in a way, that they’d maintained such a close relationship over the years. But Wanda loved Pietro as he did her. It was only her mother that made her feel heaps of unease and burrowed in her years of unresolved insecurities. 

Sitting in the living room with a movie playing on the television though she wasn’t entirely paying attention to it, Wanda wondered about what you were doing. When putting on the movie that was currently only being partially-watched, Wanda hoped she’d be able to catch you coming in to make sure you got home safe. She supposed you were seeing your friends, which you were, but she wondered about what you might be doing with them.

Was it cold out? Did you end up wearing that sweater you brought with you? Would you be back tonight or tomorrow? She wanted to text you something brief asking how you were, but if you wouldn’t have a conversation with her the next time you were home about how you didn’t like for her to be pushy with you, you wouldn’t respond to her text at all, which likely would’ve made her even more worried. 

Her head perked up from her phone when a knock came at the door. She checked the time on her cellphone — it was ten-forty in the evening — before setting it down and heading to the front door and opening it.

Where Wanda expected to see you waiting on the porch stood her mother instead, the handles of two travel luggages in each hand. She felt a strange mix of dread and a kind of frozen pause that came over her body, making her unsure how to react aside from blinking at her mother with parted lips in disbelief.

“Aren’t you going to take my bags?” Iryna asked, urging them forward. 

“O-Oh, yes,” Wanda stuttered, leaning down to take them by their handles. She wheeled them towards her then lifted them up into the front foyer.

Sighing, her mother stepped into the house. “Mannerless child,” she bit passively as she looked around at the house and the living room. 

Wanda asked, “Mama, what are you doing here?” She locked the front door and turned to her mother who continued to survey the house with a great deal of scrutiny. 

“A mother can’t visit her own child?” 

Playing with her fingers in front of her stomach, Wanda said quietly, “You didn’t even come to my wedding, mama. You want to visit me now?”

“Yes,” Iryna answered, looking at her daughter with her head tipped upwards slightly. “You’d like me to leave, then? Give me my bags.”

Wanda blurted out a ‘no,’ before she stepped towards Iryna and let go of the bags. “I’m happy that you’re here, mama. I really am.” She wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders and gave her a hug. 

Her mother was never one for physical affection, though Wanda always was; it was one of the reasons she loved how close she was with you before — you were equally as physically affectionate with her. Wanda missed it. It didn’t feel nearly the same with Vision.

In all honesty, she’d never loved being touched and hugged by anyone as much as she did with you. It was a strangely specific preference, but you always made her feel like you wanted only to be close with her when you held her hand or kissed her cheek. 

To be wanted like that… It felt amazing. She’d only ever felt it with you. She only ever had a place when she was with you.  

She pulled away and smiled at her mother. “How is Pietro?” Wanda asked though she knew how he was as the last she spoke to him was that afternoon. But Iryna’s mood always seemed to lighten when her favourite child was brought up.

The two of them sat on the living room couch, the movie on the television paused, while Iryna went into detail about her trip to Madrid during which she visited Pietro that she’d just come back from. Wanda sat in silence, nodding and listening and occasionally making comments.

It was nearly an hour of listening to Iryna’s recount of her trip and her doting adoration and pride of her only son before the front door was unlocked. You stepped into the house and Wanda’s head perked up. She looked you over quickly and was then relieved at the sight of you — a sweater on and zipped up and even one of your hats from your backpack pulled onto your head. 

Wanda stood from the couch as your eyes darted between her and her mother. “Y/N, this is my mother, Iryna,” she introduced. She’d never talked about her mother before, and all you knew of her was what you supposed after her lack of presence at your stepmother’s wedding. 

She looked like Wanda, in some ways, though her stare was cunning and her eyes frighteningly calculating. A part of you couldn’t believe that the soft-spoken Wanda and her free-spirited twin brother were born from a woman like this.

“It’s nice to meet you,” you said finally, taking off your hat and unzipping your sweater. 

“Likewise,” Iryna replied with a cordial nod. 

Wanda felt nervous suddenly, recalling all the times she turned to her mother for advice in communicating with you. She hardly ever went to her mother for help about anything after her high school years, but after being newly-married and becoming a stepmother, she had initially relied on Iryna for help in trying to become closer with you. Her advice was poor and mostly judgemental of her inability to parent, so Wanda soon ceased bringing you up to her.

There was also always something strangely disconcerting about having her mother know things about you. Wanda felt possessive of the knowledge of you and felt uncomfortable that a woman like Iryna knew the kind of person you were and of her once-close relationship with you. 

Now, she felt rather uneasy watching the two of you interact. Iryna was indeed a cunning woman and unnecessarily conniving at times, and Wanda’s relationship with you couldn’t take any more pressure. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you,” Wanda said when you didn’t head upstairs, hoping that you’d leave and spend as little time as possible with Iryna. You gave an awkward smile to her mother and bid her a goodnight before turning and heading up the stairs to your bedroom. “Goodnight, Y/N. Sweet dreams,” she called softly from the living room. 

You caught sight of the two travelling luggages by the front door as you headed up and you dreaded the next unspecified while until Iryna left. You didn’t have any problems with her, but you were certain that you’d have to get to know her and spend a bit of time with her to be friendly, and that undoubtedly meant you’d have to spend more time with your stepmother.

Wanda and her mother spoke for a little longer as you could hear bits of their conversation while you were getting ready in the washroom. Later on, Wanda carried Iryna’s bags up the stairs and you listened to her lead her mother up to the guest room.

“How long are you planning on staying with us?” you heard Wanda’s muffled question through your bedroom door as she walked through the hallway and towards the extra room. Iryna told her that she’d stay for about three weeks before she’d need Wanda to drive her to the airport so she could take her booked flight back to Russia. 

Two weeks. 

You figured it wouldn't be too bad if you filled up the next little while doing anything else but being at home. 

You were awoken in the morning hearing the stifled shouts of your father from his and Wanda’s bedroom down the hall. He got pretty loud when he felt like it, he really did, and he was rather prone to being overdramatic when he was upset. 

On the night of their wedding, Vision’s family brought up what a perfect match Wanda was for him, how perfectly her sensitive attitude complemented his. In a way it was true, but mostly it just made you roll your eyes. The pair was painfully traditional.

You supposed he was upset about Wanda’s mother staying over without any notice. If you had a say in the argument, words of advice that would matter at all, perhaps you’d make a comment in defence of Wanda solely to argue against your dad. You imagined your words wouldn’t matter much to your stepmother anyways, who disregarded you to marry a man you always thought she never felt much sentiment for. It was he that she chose over you, anyways. Who were you to stand up for her?

Now that you were awake listening to the muffled words of their ongoing argument, you figured you wouldn’t be getting back to sleep, so you climbed out of bed and headed downstairs to have breakfast.

To your surprise, Wanda’s mother was sitting at the dining room table eating buttered toast with a book in hand. Feeling chilled by the sight of her tranquillity, you poured yourself a bowl of cereal and had no choice but to sit down across from her at the dining table lest she think you were intentionally avoiding her.

“Good morning,” she greeted, looking up from her book and setting it down by her plate. You met her eyes and smiled at her before returning her friendly greeting. “A mismatched pair, no?” Iryna said, indirectly referencing the argument upstairs. 

When you stared at her for a moment slightly stunned by her overt criticism, she darted her eyes up at the ceiling where Wanda and Vision were arguing upstairs before looking back down to you. “Oh,” you answered, feigning an onset of realisation. “They’re okay.”

Iryna said, “Wanda never had children of her own. I always told her she married too late. I do not intend to offend you, but I take it you aren’t very close with my daughter.” She chewed on a bit of her toast and swallowed.

“Uh, no, not very,” you answered. You had no intention of being rude to her, but you weren’t sure how to approach her questions. It seemed to you that her words held more weight than she was letting on, and you felt you had to choose your words carefully around her.

“In my own experience, I found it difficult to connect with her at times,” she recalled, cleaning the tips of her fingers from crumbs and moving her empty plate to the side.

You mentioned, “But you’re visiting her here, so that means you must be sort of close.”

“An obligation to check up on one’s daughter. It’s been many years since I’ve seen Wanda in-person. You know of her brother?”

Your eyebrows came together as you tried recalling his name. “Pietro?”

“Indeed. Successful boy. I just returned from visiting him in Madrid. It was a rude awakening coming here to see Wanda.”

“Why?” you asked, feeling strangely interested in Iryna’s recount of Wanda. 

With a sardonic chuckle, Iryna replied, “She’s an unaccomplished housewife, devochka.”

Wanda eventually headed downstairs from the argument while your dad was no doubt fuming in the bedroom, trying to cool down before having to eat breakfast at some point and face his mother-in-law. She sighed heavily as she stepped into the kitchen looking exasperated, a hand running through her hair.

She caught sight of you and Iryna sitting at the table and she froze, her eyes darting between the two of you. “Mama,” she greeted cautiously before smiling at you. Her smile was brief as it dissipated when she looked over her shoulder to her mother. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing important, Wanda,” Iryna said and lifted her cup of coffee to her lips. She watched as her daughter turned and began boiling water for herself. You looked up from your bowl of cereal subtly as she eyed Wanda with a certain scrutiny that made even you uncomfortable, and Iryna wasn’t even looking in your direction. “What was the argument about?” she then asked suddenly.

Taken off guard, Wanda hesitated, “What?”

“The argument,” her mother pressed, a deceiving lightness to her tone in spite of her blunt questioning. “Upstairs. We could all hear it down here.” 

From the corner of your eye, you could see Wanda look over at you, seemingly searching for confirmation, questioning if you really did hear her argument upstairs with Vision. But you refused to make eye contact with her — all you wanted was to get the hell out of that kitchen as soon as you could.

She cleared her throat and prepared her mug for her hot water and placed a teabag of berry tea into it. “It was nothing,” she answered. “It was about work.”

“Not your place of work though, I’d presume,” Iryna asked innocently, though she knew Wanda wasn’t working, and Wanda knew that she knew. Wanda flushed in embarrassment at her mother’s words that held a great deal of criticism despite the benign way they were spoken, and you felt that Iryna was humiliating her on purpose. 

“N… No,” she answered finally, looking down at her empty mug and fiddling idly with the teabag’s string. 

Humming in a way that could be interpreted as Iryna feeling satisfied with the way she chastised her daughter out of the blue, she took a sip of her coffee and picked up her book again.

“Y/N, how was your night out yesterday?” Wanda asked, pouring her boiled water into her mug and looking over at you. 

You weighed the pros and cons of brushing her off with a dismissive response, answering her honestly, or standing up from your seat abruptly and running out of the house like you wanted to do since the moment Iryna made that comment about the argument upstairs.

A part of you felt bad for the passes Wanda had to endure, so while you stirred your spoon around in your bowl of milk, you answered, “It was fine. I met with some friends at this bar. It was slam poetry night.”

Wanda asked curiously, “You presented some of your things?” 

“No.”

“You should. I think you’re a really talented writer.”

The compliment sent chills up your spine and you quickly downed the milk left in your bowl then stood to wash your dishes in the sink. You recalled sharing some of your pieces with Wanda when you first became close with her — a symbol of your trust in her. 

“Will you be going out today too? I was thinking of heading to that greenhouse you like. You could help me pick out some things for the garden now that the snow’s all melted and it’s gotten warm out,” she offered, her spoon weaving in and out from between her fingers.

The mention of the greenhouse made you tense, for it was a common place you and Wanda liked to stop at when you had time for yourselves as an excuse to browse the vast greenhouse gardens hand-in-hand. 

“Yeah, I’m going out later this afternoon,” you replied quietly. “Sorry.” 

You looked over at Wanda and smiled briefly as to not seem abrasive before putting your clean dishes on the rack. You said goodbye to Iryna and quickly made your way out of the kitchen — finally — and headed upstairs before Wanda could reply.

A sense of anxiety settled within Wanda as she watched you scurry away. Her eyes immediately went to her mother. “What did you tell her, mama?” Wanda asked, trying her best to restrain the amount of unease she felt as she let her mind wander. 

Her worry was certainly not at all assuaged when she saw the way Iryna sat at the dining table with a complacent expression. 

“You are not a teenager anymore. Do not worry yourself with gossip and adolescent concerns,” Iryna dismissed though it seemed she found amusement in disregarding her daughter.

Wanda placed her mug down on the table and replied, “Which implies that there was gossip to be told.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no.”

“Mama,” Wanda urged, not yet taking a seat at the table and staring down at her mother.

Iryna scoffed and put her book down before looking up at her. “Prekrati, Wanda. Let it go. I told her nothing she didn’t already know.”

Pulling out her seat, Wanda lowered herself onto the chair, feeling like a sulking child in the shadow of her mother like she always has. “I can’t have her being any more upset with me,” she said quietly.

“You will live without the validation of a child,” Iryna replied bitterly.

Wanda didn’t respond to that. She only set her tea bag aside once it was finished steeping and drank from her cup, feeling weighed down by her mother’s criticisms as they lingered heavily in the silence of the kitchen. 

The next few days passed with you making any and every excuse to get out of the house, much to Wanda’s dismay. She hoped desperately to have some sort of interaction with you that was greater than those that took place in brief passing; you were always busy, you always had somewhere to go or something to do.

One afternoon when you had nowhere in particular to go but a quiet spot in the library closeby, an argument began between Iryna and Wanda downstairs in the living room. Your bedroom door was ajar while you were doing work at your desk, and you could hear Wanda trying to keep her mother quiet as her voice started to rise. Your stepmother was a sequence of hushed whispers and pleads for her to speak quieter for Wanda knew you were upstairs. 

You tensed the moment you heard Iryna hiss out a string of angry Russian curses and you stood from your desk and tiptoed to your bedroom door. Carefully, you closed the door slow enough as to not be heard from downstairs. Then you sat back at your desk, hoping that they’d cease their arguing so you could leave for the library as soon as you could.

The last thing you wanted to do was get in the middle of them again.

After about an hour when you were sure their arguing came to an end, you crept downstairs, staring at the closed door of the guest room as you did to ensure you didn’t signal to Iryna your presence passing through the hallway.

Vision was always rather fastidious about having you ask Wanda for permission to go out when he wasn’t home, which you found pretty ridiculous considering you were now in your last years in college still needing permission from someone in the house to go out. But over time you gave in, finding that exchanging a few words with your stepmother wasn't as bad as having to listen to lectures from your father about safety and obedience.

He’d be home soon, but you were more likely to get the green light from Wanda, who more or less could not bear saying no to you.

You raked through the living room and the kitchen, and even called downstairs for her. Eventually, you found Wanda in the garden on her knees repotting a few flowers from the greenhouse she invited you to a few days ago.

She was wearing a pair of ankle-length jeans and a black blouse with sleeves rolled up to her elbows, a sun hat, and her gardening gloves. Her hair was tied back and out of her face aside from some loose strands as she leaned over and dug some space for her tomato seeds. 

“Wanda,” you said when you stepped past the open sliding door and into the garden. She looked up from the ground at you, one hand wrapped around the handle of a gardening hoe and the other knuckle-deep in a pile of mulch. 

Some stupidly-sentimental part of you wished you were as close as you used to be with her last spring because you would’ve never let down the image of her on her knees looking like a total dork with her fingers in a pile of dirt and a massive sun hat on her head. 

You looked away and distracted yourself from the thought as you ran your eyes over the things she bought from the greenhouse. “I’m going out to see a few friends on Friday. Probably won’t be back until Saturday afternoon,” you told her. 

“What will you be doing?” she asked.

“Carol’s hosting this big party at her house, so we’re going.”

Wanda stood up and laid her gloves down on a flower pot. She brushed a speck of mulch off from her cheek with the back of her finger. “I think you should spend more time on your studies,” she said. Her words nearly made you scoff out a laugh, but you were more confused than anything, so you just looked at her.

Continuing on, she added, “You’re never home, and your Spring Break is nearly over. If you were responsible, you’d use what time you have left here to stay home and study.”

“Where is this coming from?” you inquired incredulously. Not only did Wanda hardly ever criticise you for anything, but this was completely out-of-character for her. The strict authoritarian figure didn’t suit her. It made you hate her even more, in fact. “Dad tell you to say this?”

“No,” she replied. There was a hint of uncertainty in her speech, and you felt that though she Wanda was speaking, it sounded like the words were coming from someone entirely different. You weren’t as close with her as you used to be, but this was certainly not Wanda speaking. “I’m just saying that-that you’re a bright girl with a promising future, and I would want to see you take advantage of that instead of… wasting your time.”

You argued, “Wasting my time? It’s one party. And it’s Spring Break. I never do things like this at school anyways.”

Your raised voice seemed to make Wanda hesitate as she spoke her next words a bit more quietly. “But what about that thing at your campus on Friday?” she questioned.

“What?”

“The club enrollment event.”

From what you knew when you looked over the information sheet briefly, it was an evening event on campus showcasing a bunch of different sports teams, sororities, and frats gathering up members for the second half of the semester. There’d be food stands and games. It was a pretty big deal. But you’d never brought it up to Wanda before.

Your eyebrows stitched together in confusion. “How do you know about that?”  

Wanda stuttered and ran her hands down her blouse, seemingly reprehensible. “You told me,” she answered.

You straightened defensively at the realisation of where she could’ve heard about the event. “You looked through my things!”

“N-No! I didn’t. Your things were just face-up on the dining table when I passed and I saw the flyer,” Wanda reasoned, desperate to have your anger subdued. 

You replied sternly, “I’m not going to that. And stop going through my stuff!”

Suddenly, a voice interjected itself into the conversation and your dad popped himself into the garden through the open sliding door. “What event are we talking about?” he asked, looking up at you as he stepped down and kissed his wife’s temple, greeting her after just come back from work. 

“Nothing, just some stupid thing at school,” you dismissed. You looked away from the married couple and at the furthest wooden fence at the back of the garden. You wondered what Wanda and your dad would do if you suddenly just took off running and ran straight through the fence and didn’t stop running until you were two or three cities over. 

But then eventually you’d have no place to go, and you didn’t exactly have your wallet with you at the moment. Or your phone. Your dad and Wanda would catch up after a while. Even in your wildest imagination, you’d still have to face the reality of eventually having to deal with your dad’s scolding. That made you even more upset. 

“You should go,” your father advised carelessly without even knowing what the event was for. 

“Dad, it’s nothing. It’s for, like, clubs and stuff. It doesn’t matter.”

Wanda was silent in the shadow of your father, wordlessly listening in on the topic she brought up, the conversation she started. If she wasn't acting like herself then, she was now. Typical for her to start something then leave right in the middle of it just to flee behind your father’s back. 

You weren’t the greatest fan of hers, but the angrier you got with your stepmother, the more you felt yourself sympathising with Iryna. 

“She doesn’t have to go, Vis,” Wanda spoke up, brushing her hand against his as if to nudge him into being more lenient.

“When is it?” he asked, completely ignoring her.

Wanda answered, “It’s Friday, but—”

“Perfect,” he exclaimed. Then he looked at you. “If it’s for school, you should bring your stepmother. I’d go but there’s a conference I have to attend after work.” He kissed the top of Wanda’s head then walked back up the stairs to the house.

“Dad, I don’t want to go!” you protested, turning to look at him.

Not stopping once to look back at you aside from waving his hand over his shoulder, he answered sternly, “I won’t hear it. Wanda’s bringing you and I expect pictures. It’s for school, Y/N, and you’re an adult. It’s time you started taking responsibility for your education.” He shut the sliding door and left you and Wanda in tense silence.

“I’m sorry, Y/N,” she apologised, stepping forward. “I didn’t mean for him to hear, I just… I wanted to go with you. I wanted to see your school and… your friends and professors. I want to be part of your life.”

You turned to her, a cross expression on your face. “I haven’t seen my friends from here, any of them, in months.”

Wanda apologised again and reached for your hand, but you stepped back from her. “I really am sorry. I-I can still drive you to your party instead.”

“He isn’t going to let me go.”

She reasoned desperately, “It doesn’t matter, I’m the one who’s driving you.”

You made a comment referencing how strict Vision was, and Wanda silently understood the sentiment. All she’d been hearing from him was his complaints and arguments about how irresponsible she was, letting Iryna stay without notice. He wasn’t used to not having a say in everything, although Wanda hadn’t even known she was coming, and he didn’t let a day pass without letting her know it. 

“I won’t force you,” Wanda spoke quietly.

“I don’t have a choice,” you told her before opening the sliding door. But before you stepped into the house, you turned to look at your stepmother, who was looking up at you guiltily. 

“You want to talk about how much ‘time’ I have left here?” you said. “You and dad are lucky that I come home at all. I wasn’t sure about keeping my distance until the end of the semester, but I’ve made up my mind. You’re right — I’ll be responsible.”

Wanda’s expression seemed to be racked with an incredible amount of regret and her lips parted to say something before you shut the sliding door and left without another word.

That wasn’t the first time you and Wanda have argued, but it was the first time that she ever kept her distance from you rather than only the other way around. She seemed extremely troubled by your interaction with her that afternoon, and would not even look up from what she was doing to meet your eyes when you walked into any room she was in. 

You told yourself it didn’t matter, for when you left for your campus’ event, you vowed to yourself that you wouldn’t be home until your Summer Break started.

Friday eventually came around and Wanda once again made attempts to be friendly with you, albeit nervous and hesitant. About twenty minutes before you had to leave, a knock came at your door while you were making your bed before you had to leave. Wanda opened the door and looked into your room, seeing your two packed luggages and your now half-empty room. 

A certain feeling of despair settled within her as she looked at your room knowing this would be the last time until the end of your semester that she’d see you here. 

Quietly, she asked, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” you answered blandly, adjusting your pillows.

“Okay. I’ll wait in the car,” your stepmother replied. 

There was a silence that came after her words and you could see her still standing at your door. You looked up at her, seeing that she looked like she wanted to say something else. She was wearing a black floral wrap dress that reached just below her knees with a pair of black flats. Her long hair was straightened and she had earrings on, and her makeup looked really pretty on her. 

Wanda always looked pretty when she did her makeup, especially when she had on this pinkish-brown lipstick that looked amazing on her. You recalled a time with her when she did your makeup and chose a lipstick colour for you, and you remember her giggling when she saw you blush after she talked about how beautifully certain colours would work with your complexion.

She took a breath and parted her lips, but quickly redirected her attention to your luggages. “I-I’ll take one of these down to the car for you,” she said, stepping into your bedroom and taking one of luggages. She extended the handle then wheeled it out, closing your bedroom door carefully behind her.

It’d been months now since you and Wanda spent time together that was something more than quick exchanges of words. Going out in the evening while Vision was out at work reminded you all too much of those early months of getting to know her when she was just your dad’s girlfriend.

Wanda opened the truck from the driver’s seat when you rounded the car with the second luggage. You lifted it into the back then shut it before walking back around and getting into the passenger’s seat. She waited for you to buckle your seatbelt before she pulled out of the driveway and started the drive to your campus.

There wasn’t much conversation aside from Wanda asking if you had everything packed and if you wanted to stop for anything before she got onto the highway. Again, it was uncharacteristic of her to be so silent with you. But you didn’t care. None of it was your problem until the summer.

Nearly half an hour into the drive, Wanda said with a quiet tone, “I’m sorry for how I spoke to you before in the backyard when you told me you were going to that party.” You were silent, continuing to look out the window without a word. “Not just because Vision ended up hearing about it, but also because I’m… sorry for what I said.”

She continued, “My mother told me that there was a reason you didn’t want to be close with me, and that I only had to change the way I approached things with you. She told me that I was being spineless and that I had to change the way I was. Normally I wouldn’t listen, but having her over my shoulder every second for the last two weeks has only reminded me of how weak-minded I am with her.”

Regretfully, she said, “Even after so long of being away from her. I’m sorry. I should have known better, and I should have treated you better. You are very important to me, Y/N, and I’m sorry I let anything get in the way of how much I care about you.”

You hated the warm feeling that was instilled in you by her words and you wished you could hate her instead, but you found it harder the more she apologised.

“I didn’t mean anything I said,” Wanda added. “But I do think you’re a very bright girl, Y/N. I meant that part.” 

Suddenly a wave of recollections from the last few days came to you, memories of what Wanda had been dealing with from both Iryna and your father. She’d been criticised relentlessly since she allowed for her mother to stay. If she wasn’t defending her mother from Vision, who never took a liking to Iryna, then she was making attempts at defending herself and Vision from Iryna, who also never took a liking to the life Wanda made for herself.

Without really thinking, you said, “It’s fine. I forgive you. Just forget about it.”

From the corner of your eye, you saw Wanda look over at you and smile. “Thank you.”

Then after a moment when she’d looked back to the road, your stepmother confessed, “I’m really excited to be spending time with you. It’s been such a long time, and I miss being out with you.”

The both of you decided that you wouldn’t stop at your dorm and that you’d just go directly to campus then drop off your bags after. Anyways, you wanted to get the event over with, and you hoped you could use the luggages as an excuse to leave early somehow.

Wanda found a parking space behind the science wing close to one of the larger gymnasiums where the event was being held.

As you watched her step out of the car and look around, you found that she stood out from the rest of campus. It felt a bit bizarre to see her walking around in a place neither her or your dad had been before. 

For some strange reason, there was a fondness that grew in you seeing her look around curiously, trying to take in your campus and trying to picture you walking around between classes or hanging out with friends on a bench by the parking lots or something like that. She really did want to be more involved in your life, and she desperately wished to know what you did when you were away from home. 

You hardly ever texted her back when she messaged you when you were at school.

Wanda kept fiddling with her hair and her dress while you walked to where the event was being held, adjusting how it fell around her hips or how her sleeves looked, tucking and untucking her hair behind her ears and running her fingers through it. She seemed nervous, but more than that, she was meticulous about her appearance, though you couldn’t figure out exactly who she was trying to look good for as you didn’t think she expected to see anyone she knew here.

Your campus’ gymnasium was rather large, and inside was a grand array of food booths, games, and club stands. By the ceiling, the windows were cracked open to allow some ventilation, but it still smelled like a delicious medley of foods once you walked in.

One had to purchase tickets at a booth with money then exchange them to buy food and participate in any games. It was a dollar for each one, and Wanda paid for thirty tickets as you assured her that you weren’t interested in playing any games and that you only wanted to buy enough food for dinner. She followed behind you, looking around at the gym and all the club stands curiously as you walked around looking for somewhere to eat.

After apologising to you in the car, Wanda began to talk a lot more with you. She led most of the conversation, which was rather rare to see her do with other people. If you were honest, you don’t think you’d ever seen her as talkative with anyone but you. She talked about a lot of things from her plans for spring gardening to a book club she was thinking about joining that one of the neighbours, Dottie, mentioned to her. 

While waiting with Wanda at the side of one of the food booths for your order, some of your friends from your political science class spotted you and approached you. At the sight of them, Wanda immediately stopped talking and moved back to your side as your friends approached. 

Like you realised earlier, she was really not one to talk much around anyone but you.

“Are these your friends?” she asks quietly, looking at you. But you suddenly felt that you weren’t in the mood to talk with Wanda and you ignored her question to greet your friends, talking about each other’s Spring Breaks and complaints about your poli-sci class.

You talked with two of your friends about wanting to check out one of the swimming teams they were interested in and you went with them to stop by their stand while Wanda waited for the food the two of you ordered.

Eventually, one of your friends that stayed back waiting for you to return with the other two looked over at Wanda. “You must be Y/N’s stepmom,” she said.

Wanda felt rather elated knowing that you talked to your friends about her. She was initially rather worried about meeting your friends amongst everything else. She wanted to be part of your life and wanted to be closer with you, but a part of her also worried if there was a place for her in your personal life at all. It made her extremely happy to know that you’d mentioned her to your friends before.

She smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m Wanda. It’s nice to meet you,” she said and stuck her hand out for your friend to shake.

Instead of taking her hand, your friends exchanged a look in which its negative implications Wanda didn’t catch onto. “We’ve heard a lot about you,” one of your other friends added, a bout of mocking humour in her tone. 

Wanda put her hand down, feeling that they just didn’t notice her hand sticking out. She just smiled, happy to be included while not really catching onto the fact that your mentioning of her was not in any way in a positive light. 

It wasn’t that you hated Wanda so much, but it was that they were just friends from poli-sci, there wasn’t much to talk about besides classes and your immediate shallow issues about each other’s personal life, and Wanda always seemed to be scratching at the back of your head at some point or another.

Your friends, feeling that they wanted to stick up for you a bit in the face of the knowledge of how your stepmother had gotten on your nerves for such a prolonged amount of time, continued the conversation, finding easy segments into abrasive comments veiled at something cordial and friendly.

“It must be nice having Y/N out of the house,” your friend said. “She can really loiter when she has nothing in particular she has to get done.”

“No, I really like having her around,” Wanda replied, feeling some type of comfort talking about you to your friends. “I miss her a great deal when she’s away.”

Another friend said innocently while Wanda was looking at the food stand, eyeing your order and waiting for it to be called out, “I know she hates being at home, so I’m glad she has some time away.”

Wanda looked over to her. “W-What? Y/N?”

“Yeah. She was sort of dreading being home for the break.”

She wanted to not feel hurt about it, for it had to be the truth. There wasn’t any reason for your friends to lie to her as they’d been nothing but extremely kind. Wanda tried not to show the hurt that spread through her chest thinking about how you hated being at home while a large portion of what she did while you were at school was to wait for you to come back.

You being at home while Iryna was staying with her brought her comfort, and she hated to think that you never wanted to be there.

The person tending to the food stand called out the number of your order and she blinked out of her brief stupor and took the food from the stand, muttering out a ‘thank you’ before rejoining your friends. At that moment, you returned with your other friends and quickly said goodbye to them as they planned to sign up for a rowing club together for the summer semester.

Wanda looked at you, trying somehow to read in your expression any sort of hint of what she’d just been told being true. When you looked at her and took your half of your food from her, she looked away.

“Let’s go eat outside. There’s a quieter place by the orchard,” you told her, and Wanda followed behind you, carrying her food and a water bottle while you carried your own. She watched you from behind as if somehow she’d uncover your thoughts staring at your back.

Again, Wanda was uncharacteristically quiet when the two of you settled together at a wooden picnic table amongst cherry blossom trees. Now that it was spring, you thought the orchard looked beautiful, and even more so now that the sun was setting and the sky was painted a mirage of purple and orange, hinting towards a rather hot day tomorrow.

Indirectly trying to figure out what seemed to upset her, you asked, “What, um… were you and Iryna fighting about? Like, that afternoon I talked to you.”

“Oh…” She fiddled with her fork and poked at her food. Then she looked up and smiled reassuringly. “It was silly, I just brought up something from Pietro’s and my childhood that she didn’t enjoy hearing my thoughts about.”

“She sounded angry.”

“I didn’t mean to bother you with that,” she said regretfully.

You took a bite of your food and you saw Wanda watch you for a moment, looking a bit forlorn, before she forked a bit of her own dinner into her mouth. After swallowing, you inquired, “Does she usually get angry like that? It seems like she’s always mad about something.”

Your stepmother responded, “I’m sorry for how things have been at home; I know you don’t like Iryna. She hasn’t been very kind to me either. I had a very hard childhood.” It seemed to you that Wanda was avoiding answering your questions. She’d gone from discussing every detail in her life, excited to share things about her personal life with you, to becoming completely evasive and almost worried about saying too much.

After hearing that you hated being at home, Wanda didn’t want to burden you with the weight of what was going on in a place you never wanted to be at. Though if she was honest, she also felt fairly saddened knowing how you felt, and now felt much less jovial than she was before.

The drive to your dorm was much less awkward than it was slightly distressing. You wished you knew what was on Wanda’s mind. You’d never seen her so… down. It was different from how she was before. For the entirety of the ride, you didn’t think once about hating her or yourself for the sentiment and concern you felt for her. 

Seeing her act so different made you realise how much you relied on her for the eternal peace she brought, her warm embrace available to you with her open arms, the hopeful meeting of her eyes with yours and her attempts at becoming close with you, even if you had been purposefully avoiding her since her wedding months ago.

And most of all, there was an indescribable hollow feeling that came with watching such a warm light glow so dim.

Your dormitory building’s parking lot was emptier than usual as most people were planning to come back from their breaks after the weekend. Not even your roommates were home yet.

There was a strange comfort that your stepmother brought you as she walked down the hall beside you into your building, seeing her carry one of your luggages and looking around. You waited for an elevator together then took it up to the fourth floor where your place was.

You felt Wanda watching as you unlocked the door and despite how quiet she’d been, you could practically feel her curiosity emanating off of her as she waited to see your place. You let her in first and you watched as she looked around, taking note of the decor and wondering what was yours and what belonged to your roommates. 

After the both of you left your shoes by the closed front door, you led Wanda into the hallway where your rooms were. She trailed behind you silently with your luggage wheeling behind her and stepped into your room once you turned on the light and wheeled the luggage in your hand by your desk. You took off your jacket and laid it on the back of your desk chair before hanging your keys up.

Wanda followed suit and moved your last luggage over to where yours was, still obviously curious about your room and all your things. It was much more decorated here than at home, and it was different seeing someplace you obviously loved being in evident by the care you put into adorning the walls with posters from your favourite movies and shows, covering your shelves with books and little trinkets and gifts.

Standing in your bedroom made her feel like she was in the centre of your life and although it made her happy to some degree taking so much of you in, Wanda also felt a bit downcast looking around and finding nothing she was familiar with — things about you she didn’t know before now.

There was a realisation coming up behind her that would soon tell her that she simply just had to accept that she wasn’t as close with you as she thought she was, and that she likely wouldn’t ever return to the kind of affection she used to share with you, even if only completely platonic. 

“I’m sorta thirsty,” you said, the breaking of the silence making Wanda look over at you. “I’m gonna make hot chocolate. Do you want some?”

“Sure,” she replied with a small thankful smile. 

You led her to sit down on your bed while you went to the kitchen. 

Her hands laid flat against your bedspread, feeling how soft it was while she looked around your room. At the sight of a photo on your dressing table, she stood up and walked towards it. 

It was a framed picture of you and your friends together at someone’s place, and it looked like it was for Christmas. 

Wanda remembered that Christmas; she remembered arguing with her mother over the phone about her father’s death which occurred sometime around the holidays and how Vision cared little, if at all, about her not being entirely present. She remembered waiting for you to come back home. 

You didn’t come back until Christmas Eve, and left on the second of January. 

Textbooks lined your shelves along with some other books Wanda recognized from your bedroom. She looked at your plants and your desk, your pens and your calendar, and though she was painfully curious about all of it, it still hurt her a great deal looking at a life she had no part in. 

Maybe it was selfish. 

You returned with two mugs of hot chocolate and Wanda straightened and smiled at you, thanking you and taking her own into her hands. It wasn’t too hot, so she took a small sip of it before setting it down on your desk, which wasn’t too far from her spot on your bed.

You remained standing, leaning on your nightstand and sort of looking around drinking your hot chocolate. Then after a few moments of silence, you found the confidence in yourself to ask, “If you don’t mind, um, why was it hard? Your childhood. You said earlier that it was.”

“I don’t want to put a damper on your time away from home, Y/N,” Wanda told you and looked up. “I should… probably leave and stop pestering you with my being here.” She stood up and you reached over and took her hand. 

“Well, I wanna know,” you insisted, perhaps a bit assertively, but you wanted to instil in her the knowledge that she wasn’t going to bother you, and a feeling that you wanted to know what was on her mind without explicitly saying you were curious about what was bothering her.

She regarded you for a little bit and you looked at her in return while she was weighing whether or not she should involve you in things she wished she’d never exposed you to. But it was true — Wanda had a difficult time saying no to you.

“It was hard because she has never been any less authoritative than she is now, even in my younger years,” she finally answered.

You carefully let go of her and set your mug down, then took a seat on the bed and in your silent eye contact with her, gestured that she sit down too. 

Almost hesitantly, Wanda obliged and sat down beside you. 

“How does Pietro deal with it?” you asked.

She put her hands in her lap and looked down at her knees. “No, Pietro was different,” she answered. “Pietro was always the perfect son. He did not have to worry about my mother being the way that she is with me, cynical and judgemental, because he’d always been mama’s pride.”

Wanda added, “We are very close. He went to the wedding and I talk with him often, but… yes, we had vastly different childhoods.”

“So, you had to deal with her on your own?”

She nodded and drew patterns against her knee with her fingernail, not looking up. “Her expectations, her criticisms,” she replied. “Could you believe that she’s been saying the same things to me all my life? Things that weigh down on me now I’ve heard her say since I was fourteen.”

Iryna was indeed harsh. You remembered how she called Wanda an ‘unaccomplished housewife,’ and you’d hardly even known her at the time. 

“I wanted to make my mother happy, and I’ve done everything she’s asked me to. I married a man who provides for me and I have a family,” Wanda said. “And still… I’m still not enough for her.”

You couldn’t tell if you felt more angry with Iryna or sad for Wanda. All you knew was that there was a terrible pit in your stomach listening to Wanda recount her experiences with her mother. 

“The days leading up to the wedding, I kept thinking about how happy she would be once she saw me achieving what she’d always wanted for me. I imagined her helping me with the wedding planning and her finally telling me that she was proud of me. But she didn’t even come. I begged her to, I told her she’d enjoy being there, and even that Pietro was coming. Then she visits, out of nowhere, after having not even mentioned wanting to see me since the first year I immigrated to America. And all she can do is pick apart my life; nothing I do is good enough for her. But I wish something was.”

Though you felt slightly useless for it, you took Wanda’s hand. She’d never talked about her mother before, not even when the two of you were together. She wrapped her fingers around your hand and you felt reassured in your action. 

And then Wanda was… She was crying. Her tears fell against your hand and she raised her other to her face, wiping her tears but mostly hiding herself from you, ashamed of taking advantage of your patience. 

“Wanda…” you whispered. “It’s okay.” She tried to move away when you wrapped your arm around her shoulders, upset with herself for being so pitiful as to cry in front of you. But you insisted and your arm rounded her shoulders tightly, your other hand squeezing hers. 

Eventually she moved into your embrace, leaning her head against your chest and crying into you. It came to her how unfulfilled she felt and how much she was disappointing everyone, especially you. She felt like a child for being so upset. She felt pathetic. She wished she was more capable, more competent in being a better wife, a better daughter, a better stepmother. 

You let go of her hand and wrapped both arms around her, enveloping her in a secure embrace while you hushed her softly against the side of her head.

She wiped her tears from her cheeks then straightened a little in your arms to be able to look up at you. “I’m sorry,” she said. 

“Don’t apologise,” you told her and dropped one of your arms to allow her more space to move. 

“No, not about that, I…” Wanda sniffled and took a breath before meeting your eyes. “Y/N, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just— I couldn’t be with you. I’m much past the age I was supposed to be to get married and have children. You have no idea how badly I wanted to…”

She trailed off then looked back up and continued, “But I needed to make something of myself. I’m thirty-two now, and you’re a college student. I felt like it was time I did something serious for myself. I needed to settle with a husband and have children. But I was happy we could stay together. I wanted to stay close with you, but you didn’t want to. You still don’t want anything to do with me.”

A sense of anxiety came over you when Wanda began to talk about her history with you. You weren’t ready to discuss what had happened between the two of you back then, and the heavy feeling of rejection came back up your throat as if the day their engagement was announced to you was only yesterday. 

You stood up, taking your arms off of her and stepping back. “I-I think you should leave.”

Wanda sniffled and stood up, wiping her eyes once more and moving towards you. “I don’t want to leave. I want to stay and talk with you. I want to be here with you,” she confessed.

“I can’t talk about this, Wanda,” you said. She took your hand and prevented you from moving back from her any further. 

She insisted, “You don’t have to talk. Just listen.” 

When you finally met her eyes and shut your mouth, waiting for her to speak, Wanda took a breath. Then she spoke, “There’s a lot I have to apologise for in how I treated you and how I handled things with you. I’m sorry for throwing away the trust that I’d earned from you. I’m sorry for thinking that you’d just follow along with the decision I made without telling you about it first. I’m sorry for putting some nonexistent, childish desire to please my mother over you. I should’ve treated you with the respect that you deserve.”

Wanda looked into your eyes for a few silent moments, seemingly gaining some sort of confidence before her voice broke as she said, “I miss you so much. I think about you all the time when you’re away at school, and even when you’re home. I wish you would forgive me. I wish you would give me your attention.”

She inhaled and while you were frozen, she stepped towards you again so she was standing close in front of you. “I know it’s selfish. I know I’m selfish. But I want you to forgive me.”

Your legs felt weak.

Would it be a bad time to faint?

“I’m supposed to say that I would understand and that I would be okay if you never forgave me and if you hated me, and I would try, but I wouldn’t be able to,” Wanda confessed. She had all her cards face-up on the table. There was no point in hiding now. “Please forgive me.”

You looked at her with uncertainty, or perhaps a blank expression. You couldn’t imagine what you looked like now. All you could come to comprehend was the look on Wanda’s face, the desperation in her eyes, and you could feel the way she squeezed your hand.

“Wanda…” you whispered. “I don’t know what to do.”

She took one final step towards you and cupped the side of your face with her warm hand. “Let me show you,” she said softly, her eyes on yours as she leaned forward. Her lips met yours and her eyes closed along with yours. 

It’d been so long.

Your hand lifted to her lower back and pulled her against you carefully as Wanda’s soft lips moved against yours, the very slow speed of her kiss full of impassioned fragility. You walked forwards and Wanda followed, taking steps back until the back of her knees met with your bed. She sat down and parted from the kiss.

She looked up at you as you stood in front of her and she tucked her hands under your shirt. She lifted it slowly and uncovered your stomach before pressing soft kisses there. One hand held your shirt up while the other ran up your side gently, her delicate fingers brushing against your skin and leaving shivers in their wake.

“Come sit down,” Wanda muttered against your skin then lifted her head to look at you again. You sat beside her and she lowered herself onto her knees so you were looking down at her. Her hands ran up your clothed thighs, her eyes not leaving yours for a moment until they darted down to your buttoned jeans. 

Slowly, her hands moved up further and she undid your jeans, her head lolling to the side and resting against your knee. 

From this angle, you could see down Wanda’s dress and at her white bralette, its delicate lace resting against her soft breasts and her nipples hardened against her dress. You swallowed, feeling your cheeks flush as your stepmother slipped your jeans with your panties down to your ankles and tugging them off. She pushed them to the side and moved herself between your thighs, revealing your glistening pussy. 

She gave you one more look and a gentle smile before moving forward and pressing a soft kiss to the top of your cunt. Her hands moved up your hips, one moving to flatten against your lower back and the other slipping back down to rub your bare thigh. 

Her tongue darted out and flicked at the hood of your clit, making you inhale sharply. Her tongue extended and she flattened it against your clit, the tip of it brushing deftly against your opening.

You saw her eyebrows push together as your flavour spread against her tongue. The hand against your back rounded your hip and she laid it against your stomach, gently pushing you back onto your elbows to allow her more access to you. 

Eagerly, she delved deeper, her head burying itself further between your thighs. Her tongue teased at your opening before her lips wrapped around your clit, sucking softly then loosening to apply suction to your entire pussy. She released a few times with gentle pops then ran her tongue up your cunt and through your folds that became stickier by the second.

Your hand came to the back of your head and you entangled your fingers with her hair, looking down your stomach at her as she ate you out. “Fuck, Wanda, you look so pretty,” you uttered and you sort of saw her blush, and that made you smile.

Wanda’s hand came to your lower stomach and her thumb began rubbing circles against your clit while her mouth moved south, her tongue sliding itself in and out of your hole, coaxing herself further and further into you as she switched between having her tongue inside you and flicking it against the rim of your opening.

Her eyes opened and green eyes met yours with a chilling focus and you could swear you nearly started choking on the air you were breathing. 

Jesus Christ. 

Your fingers tightened around her hair and used it as a means to keep her pressed against your pussy while your hips began to buck upwards, grinding your cunt against her face. Each time you moved yourself upwards, Wanda’s lips parted momentarily from you and you could hear the wet suckling of her lips from around your pussy.

Your head was thrown back when she lifted herself from her heels and moved onto her knees. Both of her hands came to your ass, lifting you up against her as she ate you out with an indescribable fervour after growing impatient with the way you kept pulling your cunt away from her mouth with your thrusting.

“Come in my mouth, Y/N,” she breathed against you, her words muffled. “I’m here for you.”

Your orgasm coiled tight in your stomach and it took only a harsh pressure from Wanda’s thumb for you to finally come against her chin and mouth. Your walls constricted around her tongue and her thumb maintained its flicks against your clit. 

Slowly, as you came down from your high, Wanda’s thumb ceased its actions and she carefully began cleaning you up, careful not to overstimulate you. She slid her hands out underneath you and watched you from between your thighs as you caught your breath, her fingers wiping at her chin and around her mouth. 

There was a momentary feeling of doubt that came over her, the idea that perhaps you’d just send her home feeling worse than she ever had while feeling no less affectionate towards her as you did an hour ago. But you moved yourself onto your hands and leaned down to her, cupping her cheeks with her hair between your fingers. 

You kissed her lips after angling her face up and Wanda closed her eyes, still on her knees as you sat in front of her. One hand moved down and you wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her up so she was on her feet. 

Parting from the kiss, you buried yourself in her breasts, pressing kisses up the soft swells that made the sweetest little moans leave your stepmother while your hands did quick work of undoing her dress. Wanda’s hand rested on your shoulders, fingers playing with your hair a little bit. 

Your hands lifted to her sleeves and pulled them down her arms. Her dress fell to the floor and left Wanda in her bra and underwear in front of you. You trailed gentle kisses up from her lower stomach, your hands following along with your lips as they moved up her sides, squeezing her gently, possessively, until your lips reached the valley of her breasts. 

Standing from the bed, your hand went to the side of her neck and supported her head as you delved into her neck, kissing her there and sucking gently at her pulse point. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known,” you told her.

Wanda buried her face in shoulder, overcome by your compliments and feeling her eyes well up from the sheer joy she felt being with you. She was led onto the bed and you kissed her hip when she was on her knees before she laid onto her back, her hair spread out against your pillows. She watched as you dug through your nightstand, eyes following as you lifted a strap and its harness out.

Teasingly, you moved the tip of the cock to her face and ran it down the line of her jaw and you and Wanda exchanged a humoured smile before you kissed her forehead. She watched in admiration as you stepped into the harness and fastened it around your hips. Then you undressed in front of her until you were completely bare and Wanda felt her heart skip several beats.

When you leaned over and kissed her while you got onto the bed on top of Wanda, she lifted her hands to your body, one hand brushing against your breasts and the other running up your side as one would caress a work of art. 

You kissed her cheek and trailed kisses down to the corner of your stepmother’s jaw. Your hands rounded her body and unclipped her bra, then discarded it somewhere onto the floor. With two hands, you groped her breasts then squeezed them together before running your tongue over each erect nipple, feeling pride in the way Wanda’s breathing quickened.

“Turn around and stick your ass up in the air,” you told her. She obeyed immediately, her hands wrapped around the top of your pillow, her back arched and her ass stuck up for you.

You moved onto your knees, hands running up her hips then down the sides of her thighs, taking with you her panties. They were slid from her ankles and you lowered yourself to part her pussy with your thumbs, making Wanda hum in embarrassment into your pillow and bury her face into it. 

“Tell me that you know you have a pretty pussy, Wanda,” you instructed, looking up over the curve of her ass to look at her. She turned her head and uncovered her face.

“I… I have a pretty pussy,” she repeated bashfully. 

You smiled then patted her beautiful pink folds with your fingers, making her flinch forward slightly. “That’s right. Smart girl.”

Slowly, you slid your strap between her thighs then rounded your hips to her between her thighs where you pressed the tip of your cock up against her core. You carefully thrusted against her cunt until she became slick with her juices.

Wanda’s eyebrows stitched together and her lips parted to release her tiny moans, her fingers tightening around your pillows at the feeling of your cock rubbing against her delicate cunt. Then you slid your cock into her hole and began thrusting. Her eyes screwed shut and her moans became louder. 

“Is this okay? Do you like that?”

“Yes,” she breathed out.

You pressed, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes,” she said hastily, then reached back to tap your hips with her fingers. “Faster, I want it faster. Don’t be gentle, Y/N. I can take it for you. I can take anything for you. Fuck me hard.”

You wrapped your arms around her hips and jerked her body back against you while you thrusted your hips forward into her bare ass. Your leg was lifted up around her thigh and pulled you against her further, giving you more leverage to fuck down into her pussy. 

Her ass bounced beautifully each time you rutted against her, skin slapping rapidly as you fucked your stepmother. She moaned noisily, half her face shrouded from being pressed against her pillow. She whimpered and squealed when you took a handful of her ass and squeezed painfully before delivering a harsh slap to the delicate flesh.

You spanked her over and over until the soft ivory of her skin became a flushed red. You took pleasure in the way Wanda cried out at the feeling of being hit by you. 

Driven by the sounds of her cries, you spanked her one more time then took her hair into your fist, pulling her up and forcing Wanda to put her arms out and hold herself up, arching her back and applying more pressure onto your hips from her ass. Her hand reached back further and she placed it flat against your lower back, encouraging your thrusts. 

With your one arm still wrapped securely around her hips, holding her in place, you let go of her hair and took her wrist instead with your free hand and pulled her backwards, arching her back almost painfully and only pulling her back against your hips further.

“Take my cock, Wanda,” you grunted. “Fuck. Take it just like that, stupid slut.”

“I love your cock, Y/N,” she whined. “L-Love your cock.”

You watched as her breasts bounced with every one of your thrusts and you let go of her wrist to grope one, twisting one of her nipples and making her mewl something high-pitched and desperate. 

Your hand rounded her body and you shoved her forward so her face was pressed back down into your pillow. Your hands wrapped around her hips and took hold of her body, fucking her pussy on your cock like she was a lifeless little fucktoy. 

Her hands grasped at the bed sheets, pleasure coming over her body in overwhelming waves and making Wanda into nothing but your cockdrunk slut, whining and crying out your name, whimpering with every harsh thrust into her pussy.

“Y/N!” she cried out when she felt her walls begin to squeeze around your strap. “Ah! I’m going to come, Y/N—” Her words were cut off when she came around you, her loud moans reducing into a long cry that was constricted even further into tiny squeals. 

Her sweaty body fell forward and she attempted to catch her breath until you continued fucking into her. “N-No more, Y/N, I can’t,” she pleaded, trying to pull away from you and move herself off of your cock.

You pulled her arm back and lifted her up before sliding your cock out of her. 

“Please, I can’t do anymore, I’m—” 

You cut off Wanda’s pleads with a harsh kiss and she immediately melted into your arms, letting you turn her body and press her back against the adjacent wall your bed was pressed up against. You lifted her thigh up and positioned yourself between her thighs. She wrapped her legs around your waist and you thrusted yourself back into her. 

An arm snaked around her waist and you helped her bounce on your cock while you thrusted forward against her, her upper back pressed against your wall. Her arms wrapped around your neck for support as you started fucking her against the wall, her breasts pressed against yours and her head lolled forward, her forehead slick with her sweat laying against your cheek.

“You’re gonna take my fucking cock, dirty slut,” you bit, grunting into her ear. “I’ll fuck you whenever I please. Won’t you let me, mommy? Won’t you let your special girl use your slutty pussy whenever I want?” 

“Y-Yes, yes, Y/N,” Wanda answered. “You can take what you want. I’m yours.”

Your hand moved between your bodies and you squeezed Wanda’s breast before you ducked your head down and wrapped your lips around one of her nipples. She sighed out at the heavenly feeling, opening her eyes just enough to be able to see you suckling greedily at her through the mess of her damp hair.

Her orgasm quickly built up again and her fingernails clawed at your upper back, feeling that this orgasm was creeping up stronger than the last. “I’m close, Y/N,” she whispered, her throat sore from crying out.

“Come for me, mommy,” you told her, biting down on her nipple and making her yelp out. Then you lifted your head and kissed her cheek to grunt into her ear, “Show your sweet babygirl how much you love her big thick cock fucking your tight little pussy.”

Wanda’s hand slid up to the back of your head and she held you in place, loving the feeling of having you close to her. Her head lolled back against the wall and she let you scratch at her hips and grope her breasts, bite down on her neck and pull her hair.

The pressure in her lower stomach finally snapped and Wanda partially-muffled her pleasured screams with her face buried in your neck, allowing you to hear each break in the outcries of her orgasm, the way she called out your name, each syllable ghosting against the tip of her tongue as she spoke it through her release. Her thighs tightened around your hips, keeping you in place.

With her arms squeezed around you, her sweaty body warm and breathing hard against your own, you suddenly felt overcome by a wave of emotion.

When you lifted your head to see Wanda after having come down from her high with her head laying against your shoulder, her messy strands of hair against her damp forehead and her mascara mostly gone and slightly smudged under her eyes, her lipstick faded and likely spread across your own face, you felt that you’d never seen anything so beautiful.

“Are you feeling alright?” you asked. 

“I’m so happy,” she replied quietly, her eyes closed. “I love being with you.”

With a smile, you lifted her from the wall and laid her down on the bed, letting her breathing steady for a moment while you removed the harness from around your hips and laid it down on the floor.

“That tired me out,” she huffed when you laid yourself on top of her.

“Old woman,” you teased and buried your face in her neck, kissing up to her jaw. “Who knew you’d be so good at eating pussy?”

She grinned slyly albeit with a twinge of fatigue that made her look so cute. “You couldn’t have guessed?”

“What was your time in college like? Were you as much of a slut then as you are now?”

Wanda laughed and you kissed the corner of her mouth, adoring the way she looked when she smiled. “Bigger.”

“No way.”

She laughed harder. “I’m kidding.”

“Dude. I was ready with several questions if you were actually more slutty then than you are now. Because I mean… damn.”

“Y/N,” Wanda giggled.

“I’m joking. I think you’re amazing, you know?” 

You kissed her temple, letting your lips linger for a couple moments while Wanda closed her eyes, letting herself feel loved. 

When you pull away, she opens them and meets your eyes. “I know.”

“Cool,” you said and laughed through your nose. You slipped off of her and helped Wanda get under the blankets before you followed. Carefully, you removed her earrings and reached over her to set them down on the nightstand. Then you kissed her. 

Wanda’s hands came to the sides of your face, her thumbs rubbing your cheekbones gently, adoringly. She pecked your lips one more time when you pulled away. “I want to wake up with your hands on me. I want to be yours even in my sleep.”

“You’d like that, mommy?” you teased lightheartedly.

Wanda flushed and looked away, but you kissed her cheek and you felt the corner of her lips pull up into a smile against your own. “It makes me blush when you call me that.”

“Stay the night,” you told her. “Don’t leave.”

“Really? Here?”

You nodded.

She asked, “On the couch?”

“No,” you laughed. “Here. Right here. With me.”

Wanda regarded you with soft eyes and a small smile, feeling so filled with love and admiration for you. Then she said, “You’re going to regret doing this with me, Y/N. Maybe not tonight when you wake up and find me still here laying with you, or tomorrow, but someday you will.”

“What? What are you talking about?” you asked and moved onto your elbow.

“It is no life for someone as young as you with so many other opportunities to find something better, to choose a life with someone older. Someone like me. Even if only for a short while.”

You shook your head immediately and Wanda cupped your cheek with your hand, telling you that she understood and that it was okay. But you brushed her hand off of you and looked down at her seriously. “Wanda, this isn’t just going to be a short while. I… I want this. I want you.”

“You don’t want me.”

“I do,” you insisted sternly. She shook her head and looked away. You placed your hand on the side of her face and made her look at you. “Why are you doing that? Why don’t you believe me?”

“All I do is disappoint people, Y/N. You don’t think that, at some point, my mother had faith in me? And everyone who ever thought I’d be more than what I am now? And you?”

You rubbed at your eyes with the back of your hand, feeling yourself tear up. 

“Don’t cry, baby, please,” Wanda said, reaching up to wipe your tears. But you sat up out of her reach and looked down at her.

“This is real, Wanda,” you told her and dropped your hands into your lap. “It’s real. How I feel about you is real. It isn’t just going to be something that’ll go away when you make a mistake or when things get hard. I’m not going to go anywhere.” She looked up at you, seemingly astonished. “You’re not going to get rid of me. I’m not going to let you.”

She whispered your name quietly, but you continued, “I don’t care what you think will happen. I want to be with you.”

You must’ve started crying at some point because Wanda sat up and wrapped her arms around you, rubbing her hand up and down your back, hushing you softly and holding you close to her. Your tears warmed her bare shoulder and you hugged your arms around her. 

“Okay, I believe you, Y/N,” she said.

“No, you don’t. You’re just saying that to make me stop crying.”

Wanda pulled away and looked at you. “No, I’m not. I believe you,” she asserted. Her arms unwrapped from around your shoulders and she held your face in her hands. “Thank you.”

It was when your tears finally dried that you saw that Wanda was crying too. You leaned forward and kissed her. “You won’t leave? In the middle of the night or something?” you asked. She shook her head. 

Wanda laid back down in your bed and you followed after turning the lamp on your bedside table off. You wrapped her arms around her body the moment you sunk down in bed with her, your bare bodies sharing in each other’s warmths under the blankets. 

“I love you,” you promised.

She replied, “I love you too.”

Wrapped in your body and feeling filled to the brim with your promises of love and commitment, Wanda was kept up in your bed after you fell asleep as she basked in the scent of you, the silence of your bedroom, the sound of your breathing. 

Iryna always had the power of making Wanda feel like a child, of a wandering daydreamer with an overly-sensitive spirit set on a path of following her heart and nothing more.

Maybe her mother was right about her.

And for the first time in all her life, Wanda felt proud about that.

[bellamysgriffin]

i kept trying to think of a fun celebration to thank you all for 5k followers and then i figured that i had so much fun for my 4k celebration that i might as well do the same thing again. thank you so much and i hope you enjoy my multifandom mess of a blog as much as i do!

RULES:

must be following me

must reblog this post

feel free to send more than one request!

please only request things i have downloaded (you can find them all on my about page)

SEND ME A 

📺 + a movie/tv show episode for a time stamp roulette set

🎁 for a movie + character/dynamic/scene (only movies for this one preferably – you can send a show if you’re asking for a specific scene)

💖 + a character/ship + lyrics / quote of your choosing

🎨 + fandom/character/ship + color palette (here is a place to start if you need ideas)

tagging some mutuals under the cut

@bitchinlyras @georgianadarcies @userbettycooper  @bellamyblake  @prideandprejudice @trueloveistreacherous @siobhans-roy @benoitblanc  @lvcygraybaird  @clarkgriffon  @rebeccasjack  @rachel-bloom  @montygreen  @miriammaisel  @jakeperalta  @isakvaltzrsen  @marthaskane @muldery @bauern @magicaplin @bo-kryzze @singinprincess @sonyarebecchi @neil-patrick @craintheodora @crushcrushcrushs @barrowsteeth @cobbbvanth @sunflowersmoon

[daughter-of-melpomene]

For the niche questions ask game: Graham Pryor, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs 💖

Thank you so much for this, Alexandra!! Also gonna tag @luucypevensie and @manyfandomocs!! <3

a song that reminds me of them: “top of my school” by katherine lynn-rose.

what they smell like: a mixture of books, that same smell you get when you walk into a used bookstore, and coffee from his job at central perk.

an otp: graham/chandler; they’re so cute together!

a notp: graham/ross; they are strictly nerdy friends, plus graham has no interest in becoming another person ross has either screwed over or divorced.

favorite platonic/familial relationships: he and rachel are actually really cute opposites attract coffee-brewing besties!

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with: n/a.

the position they sleep in: on his left side, curled up nearly in a fetal position, with the blankets tucked all around him.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in: i’m sure he and your girl nadia would get along great!!

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn: he wears this on his first fate with chandler:

send me an oc!!

[harrywavycurly]

Sarah ♥️ girl first of all I love you 😘

Second, can I request like reader and our sweet boy having a brainstorming session on baby's name? Maybe for a girl?

Please, and thank you

Hiii babes!! I love youu more!! Of course you can request this!! I hope you enjoy💖

-also sorry in advance if you’re name is listed and Eddie says he doesn’t like it🙈✨

*Eddie wants something kick ass…but you just want something you both agree on*

“Tiffany?…everyone likes girls named Tiffany.” “Eddie no one likes people named Tiffany…” “what? Yes they do…what about Daphne?” “What about something like Rachel?” “Baby that’s so basic…she should have a kick ass name like…Felicity or something.” “Felicity? Eddie…no…how about Maggie?” “Maggie?…I’m not mad about that name…it’s cute…” “yeah you like it?” “Yeah yeah..Maggie can go on the list…oh what about Grace?” “I like Grace…it can go on the list too.” “Oh Wayne wanted me to ask how you feel about the name Susan?…” “uh…it’s cute?” “If you don’t like it baby it’s okay…he won’t be upset.” “It can go on the list…” “who knew picking baby names would be so hard?…oh what about Wanda?” “Absolutely not…oh she just kicked…” “see she likes the name Wanda…” “not happening Eddie.”

[saulweissberg]

it had been going pretty well. saul couldn’t reasonably expect the whole luncheon to go on without a single hitch, but he hadn’t been emotionally prepared for it as he thought. perhaps it could be blamed on finding out not only the true relationship between his boyfriend—for lack of a better word, though they had never discussed exclusivity—and his most recent ex-wife, but that they even knew each other in general. blue harbor was a small town, after all, but was it really that small? and he felt so guilty for having all three ex-wives in town for a spell, hoping it wouldn’t hurt thalia to see her two predecessors running around town, only to find out he had a predecessor. and he was fucking that predecessor. so, yeah, maybe that was contributing to his sudden bad mood.

in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal. the dessert table had no actual table to speak of, a detail that he couldn’t understand how the event hall staff missed, and the cake and various small desserts that were meant to be on that table were waiting in the kitchen, growing… cold. warm. something. the point was, they weren’t out for people to eat them and what was the point of even having a luncheon with no damn dessert buffet! it took a good fifteen minutes, but the event staff eventually found a table and a cloth to put over it, so the desserts could be served as planned. the day was saved! saul had apologized for his curt tone and tipped them all an extra twenty bucks on top of the total tip that was coming after the luncheon concluded, then grabbed a slice of pumpkin cake roll for himself.

walking away from the table, he hadn’t noticed rachel come up beside him until her hand was placed on his lower back. he jumped slightly, eyes widening in surprise, but relaxed the moment he realized who it was. saul instantly softened at her offer. “hey,” he smiled affectionately and placed his unoccupied hand on her shoulder. “i’m okay, really. thank you, rach.” shit, just how badly did he look? did he seem like a total asshole to anyone nearby, upset over the situation that was easily fixed? “i’d say a stiff drink, but i’ve already had three today. that might qualify me as an alcoholic if i had another.” not that saul was a stranger to drinking too much, but his preferred way to get obliterated was to partake in party drugs. he was just too old for the latter now, so he leaned on alcohol to loosen up—beyond the odd joint, but saul barely considered weed a drug. not when he spent most of the ‘90s snorting things up his nose in dirty club bathrooms. ah, youth. “how ‘bout you? are you having a good time? do you need anything?”

character: Saul Weissberg @saulweissberg

location: The Weissberg Law Firm's Charity Luncheon

Rachel had been slightly surprised when Saul had asked her if she wanted to be his date to the luncheon. Mostly because she felt like she had thought there were other people he would want to ask more. However, she'd been happy to accept his invitation. She did volunteer at Bright Sparks regularly and so it was a cause near and dear to her as she hung out with the kids who this was directly benefitting.

She'd been having a pretty good time getting to mingle and chat with everyone, having met Saul here earlier in the day. Rachel was aware how much this meant to him in the way he'd been chatting about the prep and she was hoping everything would go without any bumps in the road.

However, there had been a few moments she'd seen from afar that didn't seem to go as planned. Making her way towards Saul she wanted to help in any way she could. Placing her hand on the small of his back as she walked up to him, she kept her voice soft and quiet. "Hey, what do you need right now? Water? A stiff drink? More food? Air?"

[karma-is-my-girl-friend]

Show (some of) your favorite ships and let your mutuals assume what your concept of romance is.

Thank you for the tag @joelmillerisapunk

Héloïse & Marianne - Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Frank Farmer & Rachel Marron - The Bodyguard

Matt Flamhaff & Jenna Rink - 13 Going On 30

Gregory Eddie & Janine Teagues - Abbot Elementary

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy - Harley Quinn

Eric Northman & Sookie Stackhouse - True Blood

Johnny Castle & Baby Houseman - Dirty Dancing

Anthony Bridgerton & Kate Sharma - Bridgerton

This was so much fun! 💖

No pressure tags: @marvel-molly @luckydiorxoxo @always-rolling-my-eyes @sarahdonald87 @inshelliesworld @unhinged-nonsense @welp-heregoessomething

[destinyc1020]

Okay!!

I'm the anon who brought up the Jake's Take interview with Z, and here are my personal thoughts. I think the reason why Z is being asked about kissing her costars is because she is dating Tom. I know fans may disagree, but I believe the public interest on them has become so much of their brand, and I can understand why solo fans of each other are frustrated because they just want to support an actor they admire without the stanwars and public obsession. Again, I don't have an issue with them sharing stories of each other, I have issues if it takes away from their work. I feel it more on Tom more so than on Z cause she is in a higher position as she's been working with great visionaries longer.

Tom for the past few yrs has become very polarising for filmbros, critics, and antis because he is dating the it girl of our generation and because his career isn't on par as his peers. The think pieces OK this blog, the hate he gets on socials whether it be that he isn't a filmbro, he doesn't denounce marvel, hes dating Z and was getting mocked due to the challengers trailer and the hate he got from TCR, the controversies he's in has to deal with R+J is partly his own contrinution because he didnt post against the hate for Fran but it's exacerbated with the fact that because he's with Z and the expectations of him is so higher than other actors. It's so much because even when he met a fan in Scotland, they weren't happy to meet him they were happy to meet Z's bf, which is disrespectful. Like that sucks because even his career is nothing outside of his relationship.

It's also hard on Z because she even admitted post NWH and Euphoria 2 how hard it was for her to even leave the house with her costars because she thought she would make their evenings worse and that is so hard to hear. She has been accommodating her life in fear of being judged by her fans who refude to evolve like her, and that's not healthy for her or her fans. These are the same fans last yr who, during Christmas on that bird app, were going viral for bringing up her ex JE and blaming Tom for visiting her on set for Euphoria as if that was the reason they aren't together like he hasn't been dating Olivia for like 3 yrs. Those are the fans she's dealing with.

That besties narrative was pushed hard in promo for Dune 1 and 2, and as many fans dislike Timothee, I have to give him credit for not being a weirdo and allowing that narrative to be pushed. Most male actors in his position would love to push a showmance for the promotion for those films and he didn't, he even mentioned Tom on both press tours because of how ppl ship, he didn't even stop fans shipping him with Taylor or any of his costars but with Z he did. He didn't have to do that, but it kinda sucks he knew he had to.

It's a lot. Like there isn't any promo for R+J and Rachel and Kit are having photoshoots and tiktoks for their Romeo and Juliet, and that's unfair because if Tom did that with Fran, locals/incels will create a narrative and its exhausting. Popularity is important for an actor, but what costs?

Those are my thoughts, and thank you for allowing me to express them Destiny💖

Thanks Anon ☺️

Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I do feel like people would be curious about Tom and Z's private lives no matter who they date, simply because they're so famous.

I'm not sure though that I feel like Z would not get those same kissing questions if she were dating another actor that is NOT Tom. I honestly feel like she would get those questions regardless.

Sadly, for most women (actresses), they usually get the brunt of the relationship type questions. 😕 It seems, that's all anyone is interested in when it comes to women.

Plus, if you're attractive, that also makes people more curious...especially if your costar is also equally attractive as well. For some reason, ppl tend to think that acting translates into real life.

Re: Tom, career, etc....

I honestly don't know why fans keep repeating this mantra about Tom's career as if he's not doing well in his career or smthg. Have Twitter folks made you all brain washed or smthg? 🥴 Serious question.

Tom's R&J play sold out in 2 HOURS. How is his career "bad"? 🥴

I'm not understanding the logic.

And btw, just because ONE fan in Scotland was just excited to meet "Zendaya's boyfriend", it doesn't mean that MOST people feel that way.

MOST fans who get to meet Tom are there to meet HIM.... Not Zendaya.

Also, I know Z is usually a homebody most of the time, but where did she say that she was afraid to go out with costars because she was worried that she would ruin their evening out? 🤔

Re: Rachel....

Okay, if they are doing photos for R&J..... so what? 🤷🏾‍♀️

There are PLENTY of R&J adaptations going on and there will be for years to come.

They must have been planning this for a while if they're announcing it so close to Tom's production. Theirs will be on Broadway though, so it's a totally different production in a totally different country. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I'm not even sure Tom's production even planned to do photo shoots to promote the play..... but it would be sad to think that IF they did, that some people would be so hateful about it. 😕

But I'm not going to worry about smthg that hasn't even happened yet. 👀

[wndaswife]

thank you!!!!!!!! though it was slightly tedious to write all of it out im actually really proud of it now when i read over it :”) yeashshdjdjfkdnfkfn i was sooooo excited to write this version of wanda because she is really such a baby, especially with how she seemed to be so taken with vision as he’s a very philosophical and creative person, and also in civil war with how nervous and playful she can be! i was a little awkward about the smut part because it felt rushed to me, but i was very excited to write more top!reader as a longer fic rather than a drabble :D thank you so much for your rlly kind words it means a lot to me <3333

young fidelity

「 wanda maximoff x gn!reader 」

tags: smut, angst, fluff, mentions of trauma, depictions of violence, blowjobs, degradation, some slightly boring avenger mission details, sub!wanda maximoff, dom!reader. MINORS DNI.

word count: 10 872

summary: Even months after Ultron's death, you haven't forgiven Wanda despite her attempts to become close with you. You plan to get by with little interaction when you are partnered together for a mission, but she has other intentions.

“We’ve received signals of active HYDRA technology in northern and eastern Nunavut. There are approximately two bases north and two in the east,” Steve announced to the conference room. “But because of the nature of the province, it’ll be much easier to split up into pairs — take down each base together, separately.”

“Nature of the province?” asked Sam.

Steve pulled up an image of Nunavut’s map onto the projector. About a third of the province in the northeast was dispersed up into dozens of distinct sections of land.

“North can mean this,” he said and circled about twenty different patches of land before doing the same for the right-hand side of the province, “and East can mean this.”

He continued, “It would consume too much of our time to travel between each patch of land to the other. Fortunately, what we can tell for certain is that these bases are small. The signals they’re sending out are from HYDRA technology nonetheless, but the signals are weak and the technology is outdated.”

“A base of about ten or less,” Natasha noted, leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed and facing the projector screen.

Rhodes added, “Or much less.”

“Exactly,” Steve conceded. “We’ll head out in two days, give ourselves enough time to pack for the climate. Here are the pairs I’ve outlined…” He continued to announce the mission’s partnerships, but the back of your neck prickled with the feeling of being watched. 

You looked over your shoulder to see Wanda’s eyes on you. She looked away quickly when your eyes met and she shifted in her seat, crossing a leg over the other and looking up to pay attention to Steve.

“Then lastly, Wanda and Y/N.”

At Steve's words, Wanda’s head lifted slightly in peaked interest and you looked back at him.

“Why do we have to pair up at all?” you questioned immediately. “Each of us could easily take ten or more on our own.”

“I know that’s right,” Rhodes agreed cockily before exchanging a nod with Tony, who considered your commentary comedic.

“These areas of Nunavut, of Canada, are unexplored territory,” Steve answered. “The weather conditions are extreme up there, and the terrain may not be safe or predictable enough for us to go out in it individually. This will be a quick mission, three days and no more, during which a portion of it will be trying to map out the province. The actual overtaking of the bases will take much less time.”

You weren’t able to find a way to object to that, so you sank down in your seat, something bitter brewing in you at the thought of having to work alone with Wanda.

“We’ll be picked back up the same way we’ll arrive — by the Quinjet in an isolated area at the edge of Nunavut where the land is much less dispersed, closer to the centre of the province but not nearly as populated,” Steve said, and with that, he concluded the meeting.

When Wanda stood from her seat, she spent a few extra moments tucking her hair behind her ear, adjusting her rings, and playing with her sleeves as an excuse to wait for you to walk ahead first so she could approach you. 

But Vision met with her first and she looked over at you hesitantly, worried that she’d miss you leaving the room.

You began heading forward but instead of leaving, you started a conversation with Steve.

Now sure that she could spend a few moments talking with Vision without losing sight of you, she entertained his commentary on the upcoming mission despite not being included in the list of Avengers that were going.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” you told him, leaning back on your heels nonchalantly as you attempted at repressing what felt like a raging wildfire set ablaze in your chest.

Steve turned off the projector and started storing away some of the wires. “Two days isn’t enough to prepare, is it?” he questioned suddenly.

“No, two days is fine, I think,” you said.

You continued with a quiet tone, aware of Wanda and Vision conversing only a few feet away, “Wanda isn’t trained to go out with only one other person yet. She’s not ready for this.”

“She’s been doing just fine during training and other missions,” he reasoned.

“But she’s always supervised, and always with people who can support her if she screws up.”

With a smile of slight inexplicable amusement, he replied, “Then you can train her.”

Your fingers twitched at the mere suggestion.

Then, a voice chimed in from behind — Wanda’s. “No, I can fight. I’ve been training for months,” she insisted.

From the corner of your eye, you could see that she’d stepped away from Vision and was now standing by the edge of the table, only two or three feet away from you. 

Wordlessly, you left the room, overcome by her very proximity. 

Wanda followed after you, initially silent. She spun her rings around her fingers, watching the back of your head as she trailed behind you. 

“So… when are we going to start training?” she eventually asked. 

You walked through the hallways, heading straight to your room and avoiding having lunch until you were sure Wanda was no longer following you like an aimless puppy.

“I thought you said you didn’t need training.”

Suddenly filled with joy because you had actually answered her instead of ignoring her like you often did, Wanda sped up and joined your side.

“No, I never said I didn’t need training,” she corrected. “I just said that I could fight. But I would like to train with you. Before our mission. I think it would help. When can we start?”

“Not now,” you replied.

“Then when?”

You reiterated stubbornly, “Whenever I feel like it.”

Wanda bristled and she said wrapped her hand around your forearm. You tore it out of her hold and she looked at you, shocked at your resistance to be touched by her. 

She swallowed and straightened in spite of herself then said, “I’m just trying to do my job”

“It’s not your job to bother me.”

“I’m not trying to bother you, I’m just trying-"

“To do your job,” you interrupted. “Right.”

She stared at you silently, unsure what to say yet not wanting to walk away from you. 

“Is that how you rationalise things?” you inquired, your eyebrows furrowing together. “Is that how you rationalised what you did?”

Now feeling desperate for your validation and worn from the way you’d been avoiding her since the battle on Novi Grad, Wanda opposed, “I know that you’re angry, but everyone has forgiven me for what I have done. You are the only one who hasn’t.”

“You want to train?” you asked out of the blue. 

It took a moment for Wanda to realise what you were asking and to decipher if you were being sincere in your question. When she supposed you were, she nodded cautiously.

“Then let’s go,” you muttered and turned to walk the other way, down to where the gymnasium and training room were.

When both of you changed into the proper clothes for training, you met Wanda in the middle of the holopad. You programmed a few rounds of holographic HYDRA members to attack her, and a few other adversaries the Avengers had previously fought to fill the time.

Wanda strapped on her sensory gloves, designed by Tony to signal to the holopad where she directed her powers and with what magic she used for the holograms. It had been helping her with her training to a great extent as it allowed her to use the technology in the training room as every other non-magic-wielder did.

She stepped onto the ten-by-seven metered platform and you set the tablet down by the staircase.

You noticed her looking over at you before the holopad flashed white once, signalling the beginning of the training session, and Wanda then looked away from you.

It began slowly at first, several scientists running at her from different directions and Wanda’s red magic flowing out of the centres of her palms and darting out from the tips of her fingers. Her magic made contact with the holographic foes, Wanda’s sensory gloves connecting the direction and intensity of her magic to the location of each moving hologram. They scattered into tiny pixelated squares when her magic came into contact with them, floating up and dividing into smaller geometric shapes before disappearing entirely. 

The speed of the enemies quickened and with it Wanda’s reflexes. 

This was the first time since the final battle against Ultron on Novi Grad that you’d seen Wanda’s fighting. Several months have passed since then, and she improved substantially. You’d never say it aloud, and you looked away from the brunette to avoid even admitting it to yourself, but she would be the perfect partner for the mission to Nunavut.

Eventually, the holopad flashed white, indicating the end of the training session when Wanda defeated the enemies you programmed her to fight.

She stepped off of the platform and stood in front of you, a glistening sheen of sweat on her body. She was panting softly and you blinked inquisitively for a moment at the grin on her face. “Come on,” she said and took your hand before pulling you up onto the holopad with her.

Wanda positioned you on one side of the platform and she stepped back from you. “So, what will you show me?” she asked.

“I don’t know how to train someone with magic.”

“We can go hand-to-hand,” Wanda suggested, running her palms down her sides. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

When you did nothing but stare at her, perhaps out of scepticism or curiosity at her mood switch, she added with a laugh, “What? Are you scared?”

There was not a single person in the compound but you who knew this side of Wanda; a playful side of her, one that was presently unburdened by the weights of her losses and the solemn monotony that cast over her like a stagnant shadow when she was with anyone other than you.

There was a feeling of laxness that settled within her in your company, a freedom she felt with you that she hadn’t been familiar with since her time with Pietro.

You chose to think little of this lest you fall victim to Wanda’s deceptions as you had when you first met her. The very recollection of that moment of weakness awakened chills up your spine and formed a terribly large pit in the centre of your chest.

“Okay,” you said. “Fine. A quick skirmish, that’s all.”

If she was lucky, she’d sometimes walk in on you training and watch you for as long as possible while being as inconspicuous as she could manage. She’d watch the way you fought and moved your body, the confidence in your strikes and flexibility of your limbs. You were nothing less than inspiring. 

In many ways, Wanda idolised you.

The corners of Wanda’s mouth tugged upwards before she made an attempt to repress her giddiness to have a serious one-on-one with you. She raised her fists and bent her knees, eyes darting down your form to correct her posture accordingly. She took notes from you where she could.

In training skirmishes, the objective was to take the other down, get them off their feet and cause them to lose balance. 

You watched Wanda’s footing, the way she rounded and approached you by subtly cutting away at the inches of space that lay between the two of you.

Despite the sternness of her brow, there was a vague outline of a smile on her lips.

Your attention on her incomprehensible smile sullied your focus on the skirmish; Wanda extended her leg and in one swift movement, rounded your body so she stood outside your line of sight. Her knee lifted to nudge your thigh forward and throw you off balance but you turned quickly, a hand wrapping around her hip. 

Before you could push her back and move your legs out of her range of contact, Wanda’s foot raised and she knocked the back of your knees forward with the length of her shin. You tumbled backwards, and with your hand gripping Wanda’s hip, you pulled her down with you. 

Her arm extended past the side of your head, a wispy lock of red magic coursing out of her palm. The burst of magic slowed the speed at which you fell, breaking your fall and letting your back meet the ground softly.

It was only when the brief panic of falling backwards abated that you heard Wanda laughing. Stands of dark hair were falling in her face, her expression light and free of the burdens that normally followed her around like a shadow.

When her laughing settled into a fit of giggles, she opened her eyes and looked down at you, her gaze flickering between your eyes and your parted lips. She pushed her hair back and she lifted herself up with the heel of your hand placed on the platform by the side of your head. 

Her chest parted from yours but her hips stayed pressed against your own, your legs intertwined and her other hand resting on your stomach. 

You removed your hand from her hip and let it fall to the floor underneath you, damning yourself for the way you watched every movement of her soft lips.

“Come on, you’re not even trying,” Wanda teased. She used her hand by your head and the other on your stomach to prop herself up, slipping off of your body and getting on her knees by your hip. She then proposed, “Let’s go again.”

“I promise I’ll go easy on you this time,” she jested and extended a hand to you.

You sat up on your own, Wanda’s hand dropping into her lap. “I said we’d only do one,” you reminded her and stood up. “We’re done.”

Following you, Wanda got onto her feet. “You’re such a sore loser,” she joked with a laugh and trailed behind you as you stepped off the holopad. She unstrapped her gloves from around her hands and set them by the tablet. 

“What will we do next?” she asked.

“Nothing,” you told her, picking up your things and heading to the gym exit.

Wanda’s smile fell as she heard your stern tone. “But we’ve only just gotten here. There’s still so much I want you to show me before we leave,” she reasoned, speeding up and trying to get your attention as you walked ahead without regard for her trailing behind you.

You told her with finality, “Get someone else to show you.”

You exited the gym and Wanda decided to stop following after you. She watched you speed away, hands by her side as she stood alone in the training room. 

Dejectedly, she wondered if she had done or said something wrong — something to drive you away. It seemed she couldn’t do anything right around you when it was you she desired companionship and intimacy from the most.

You exchanged not even a word with Wanda for the remainder of the day, though dinner was filled with yearning stares from her across the table and never any words, partially because Vision filled her time with endless conversation. He was fond of her, and you often wished she would’ve glommed onto him instead.

The following day, you saw Wanda for a short time during a meeting in which Tony outlined the rest of the mission.

Deliberation between Tony, Agent Ross, and the provincial officials of Nunavut resulted in the Avengers’ permission to enter and explore their grounds granted they limit any destruction of the land and would provide the required funding necessary to repair any damage otherwise caused.

After the events on Sokovia, it was also decided that it would be best if the mission went as smoothly and as covertly as possible. This meant that the Quinjet would only take them as far as the edge of the northeast to lessen chances of being seen in the air, and would be stationed in an isolated space until everyone returned from their respective missions.

Additionally, government action would be taken to set a seven-mile radius around the Quinjet prohibiting any public access and ensuring the mission stay entirely under wraps.

Comms would stay open during each individual operation and after three days or less, they’d all meet back up at the Quinjet to depart as simply as it had arrived.

Everyone was working on their preparations for the rest of the day — going over Nunavut’s map and geology, Tony refining communication technology to guarantee they work throughout the mission despite the distance that would be between the team throughout it. 

The evening before the morning of departure, you were preparing for bed when a quiet knock came at your door.

Wanda was at the door holding a saran-wrapped dish of some type of pastry in both hands. “Hi,” she greeted with a tiny smile when you opened the door. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No, I’m just getting ready for bed,” you answered.

“I made blinis,” Wanda said, holding up the plate of what looked like a small stack of thin pancakes.

You stared at the dish for a moment then questioned, “At eleven in the evening?”

“Ever since moving here I’ve developed a bit of a habit of cooking when I’m nervous,” she explained, fingers tapping against the rim of the plate. 

Then she continued, “You can save these in the fridge if you aren’t hungry.” It was a kind gesture, though you were convinced she hadn’t made them with you in mind.

You hadn’t spoken with Wanda since her training session. You wondered how she was doing with her practice and wanted to ask what was making her anxious. But you withheld your questions, having learned from experience the faults of coming to Wanda’s aid.

“Thank you,” you uttered and took the plate from her. Wanda seemed grateful that you accepted her dish and smiled at you when she transferred the plate to your hands.

An awkward silent moment passed between both of you. Wanda inhaled, her shoulders raising as she readied herself before asking, “How are you feeling? Are you nervous?”

“No,” you answered. “I’m sure it’ll be like any other mission.”

There was a strange look of despondency that struck momentarily across Wanda’s face at your response. She smiled at you then nodded. 

“You have always been so strong,” she said, her gaze softening as she ventured through your eyes with her own. “I knew it from the moment we met. You’re different from them. Strong-willed. That’s why it was harder for me to-”

She cut herself off, her mouth closing to ensure she doesn’t slip up and let the next few words out: ‘That’s why it was harder for me to take over your mind.’

You looked at the floor between the both of you and took in a breath, then nodded. “Thank you for these,” you told her, lifting the plate of blinis up.

“O-Of course,” she replied and tugged at the hem of one of her sleeves. “Then, goodnight.”

Wanda headed back to her room in deep remorseful thought, tugging at her necklace and going over her conversation with you. She hadn’t meant to bring up bad memories, let alone the one that caused the divide between you and her, one that could not be crossed or mended no matter how hard Wanda tried. 

She had only intended to compliment you, to offer to you in her hands what she stored so close to her heart — an affection and admiration for you.

But she failed to reconcile things with you. 

Again.

That night you dreamt about your time with Wanda, before the fight between Ultron, the twins, and the Avengers.

You met Wanda before the rest of the team had even heard of the twins, a few weeks before their retrieval of Loki’s sceptre. 

It was a strange series of events. 

As was typical before the sceptre’s retrieval, you monitored any signal of its usage, any similar waves of power or sighting reports. After detecting a faint ring of energy in a mountainous plain of isolated land in Sokovia, you chose to go out on your own. What you saw on the monitors was a completely empty plot of land, but upon arrival you discovered a heavily-guarded compound stationed at the foot of a mountain and reaching an astounding height, and a young girl sitting by the edge of it, near the still water and under the waxing moon.

You never told any of the team about her nor her twin brother whom you never saw before the Avengers travelled to the HYDRA research base to retrieve the sceptre.

Wanda knew little of Loki’s sceptre, only that it was kept in a heavily protected sector of the compound. Despite the time you spent together, which eventually ended up being every night after the base’s scientists retired for the night and you were on your own in the lab, you couldn’t avoid telling your team about the sceptre’s location.

Retrieving it was part of something larger than your budding friendship with Wanda, though you still refrained from telling them anything about her and Pietro and their enhanced capabilities.

When the Avengers breached the HYDRA research base, you held no ill will to Wanda. The both of you were simply on opposite sides of a conflict that was long-running and complicated. You continued seeing each other though things became largely difficult once Ultron found the twins.

Though for a moment before the Maximoffs teamed with the android mastermind and they were unsupervised and not experimented on for the first time in several years, everything was blissful with Wanda despite everything else that had been going on between Ultron and the discourse within the team.

You saw her for hours at a time instead of a few fleeting minutes. You could travel anywhere with her rather than having to stick to the research base for the entirety of your time with her. You talked about anything that came to mind, sitting by a remote riverbank or under an evening sky discussing everything from Wanda’s childhood to your time with the team. 

You cared for her and Pietro where you could, organising for them to stay in an unoccupied safehouse the team owned and keeping their activity there off the monitors.

When you returned to visit her one morning, their place was cleaned out and you found no trace of either twin. It was only until the Avengers made contact with Ultron that you realised where they had gone, who they had aligned themselves with and on what side of the battle they chose to fight for. 

The team took a hard hit, each one of them falling victim to Wanda’s mind tricks, yourself included. She knew what specific memories to conjure, what fears to incite, what nerves to press on. She knew it because you’d told her all of it. She asked you for the best way to take the Avengers down and you told her — willingly.

You could never forgive her nor yourself for becoming the weak and unsuspecting piece in her game.

None of your teammates blamed you for what happened and made an effort to convince you that you had no hand in the Avengers’ collective loss. But you blamed yourself in spite of that. It was your fault.

You skipped breakfast with the team in the morning, your dream weighing heavily on you and the recollection of your blunder from months ago eating at you again as you recalled you’d have to spend the next three days with Wanda. Your mistake did not bring you as much guilt as it had months ago, but rather it made you angry. It made you bitter.

Despite having missed breakfast, you met up with the rest of the team by the foot of the Quinjet as planned. You packed a single bag full of your things, making sure to pack light to make sure travel wouldn’t be so tiresome.

Natasha recapped everything that happened while you were gone in the morning, which wasn’t much. Steve took some of the bags into the Quinjet while everyone else buckled themselves in.

Wanda, who was yet to be seen, finally arrived. 

“Y/N, I’ve been looking for you,” she said, slightly breathless when she stood beside you. “I thought you were still in your room, so I was going to get you.”

You weren’t sure what to answer her with and you considered ignoring her and boarding the jet. But if you wanted anything from the mission, it was to come back to the Quinjet successful and to have minimal conflict with her.

So you answered with an acknowledging nod, “No, I just got here.”

“Are you okay?” she asked, placing a hand on your upper arm. “You skipped breakfast.”

“I’m fine. I wanted time to myself.”

“But-”

Natasha intervened, beckoning the two of you over and saying it was time to leave.

Wanda looked over at you, concern still drawn across her expression. But you ignored it and walked ahead, boarding the Quinjet with Wanda following silently behind you.

The high speeds the jet could reach allowed for the trip to Nunavut to be no longer than three hours, which wasn’t all too strenuous as trips often were before the latest Quinjet models that now incorporated several rooms and even a kitchen.

Despite the room on the jet, Wanda stayed in one place for a majority of the journey. She got up twice for the kitchen, but largely sat around the main seating deck where you were. No conversation took place between the two of you though you did catch Wanda looking at you several times.

As planned, the Quinjet landed in its designated spot.

Comms were secured and designed to reach the very northern tip of Nunavut to the very east, though bases were expected to be no further than six-hundred kilometres out, allowing for the team to exchange updates throughout the mission.

After double-checking each other’s supplies and going over the mission plan once more, you each set out for the HYDRA bases.

High-speed snowmobiles charged for week-long usage were supplied for travel. You drove the vehicle while Wanda clung onto you from behind. You had the company of Rhodes and Tony for the first forty minutes before they branched off, following the signal of their assigned base. 

Though it was snowing heavily and there was nothing but blinding white plains and mountainous terrain in the distance for as far as the eye could see, the tracker Wanda held grew stronger as you travelled further into the snowy Nunavut.

She fed you directions from behind every so often, arms wrapped snugly around your midriff.

You couldn’t see the way Wanda laid her head against your back, often forgetting to give you directions as she hugged herself close to you, feeling the most secure since the two of you last spoke before she partnered with Ultron, even if you didn’t converse very much. It’d been quite a while since the two of you spent so much time alone together.

“It’s ahead, Y/N,” Wanda told you after fiddling with the tracker and ensuring it was working properly. 

“Ahead?” you repeated. “Already?”

Wanda replied after a moment, likely adjusting the antenna of the tracker and double-checking the screen wasn’t broken. “It seems like it,” she said finally.

You sped ahead, eager to get the mission over with and head back to the Quinjet.

“There’s something strange about the signal… It’s getting stronger. Stronger than the signal back at the compound.”

“I know visibility is pretty low right now, but I can’t even see it. How is the signal that strong?” you told her. “Are you sure it isn’t picking something else up?”

Wanda assured, “It has the same signal impression, so it’s definitely the same base they picked up. But the technology they’re using is a lot stronger than what the compound detected.”

“Stronger… So, modern technology?”

“Which means more scientists,” she figured. “And the signal is only getting stronger. There’s maybe a lot more than ten scientists, Y/N.”

You looked ahead, letting the sound of the blowing wind and snow null things out momentarily as you considered the options. “How many more?” you asked Wanda.

She estimated, “If I were to guess and assume that the signal was only to get stronger before we arrived, then maybe thirty of them. I think we should wait for one of the others to finish. I don’t want to go in without knowing what’s waiting.”

“You said thirty of them.”

“But that’s only what I think. I’m not Tony or Steve, I don’t know how to read this as well as them. I’m not as experienced either.”

You heard the twinge of self-criticism in her words but you kept quiet about it, looking ahead and focusing on driving forward when your mind couldn’t detangle itself.

When several more moments passed without a response from you, Wanda’s arms squeezed gently around your waist. You felt the reassuring pressure of her embrace through your layers of winter gear. 

“What are we going to do, Y/N?” she asked.

You gnawed at your bottom lip. “It’s only been about two hours since we left the Quinjet,” you uttered, shouting above the noise of the wind. “Even if we waited for help, it’d probably be at least eight hours until even Stark and Rhodes could meet us, and they’re the closest to us right now.”

“So we meet them instead? Come back together?”

“No,” you answered. “There’s not much else we can do but power forward for now. We’ll map out the base, try and get an estimate of how many scientists we have to deal with, and if things seem to be in our favour we’ll continue with the plan. If not, we’ll wait.”

There were several small safehouses scattered around northeast Nunavut built covertly by SHIELD decades ago. The plan was to clear out the HYDRA bases, avoid casualties if possible, rest in the nearby safehouses whose coordinates were also programmed into the tracking devices, then head back to the Quinjet as soon as the journey could be made. If you had to wait for help, you’d have to do it in one of the safehouses.

The both of you chose not to alert the team of the base you were approaching for fear that it might distract them and take them away from their respective missions. They would be updated only in the case that the base would be too much to handle without help. There was nothing to gain in telling them what wasn’t absolutely necessary.

Wanda guided you forward for the next thirty minutes, her arm squeezed even tighter around your waist then it previously was. “We’re approaching,” she told you then looked past your shoulder.

You squinted through the thick blanket of snow, looking for a light or an outline of a building, anything for you to pinpoint where the base was visually.

“Can you see it?” Wanda asked.

“No, I can’t. Are you sure we’re close? Maybe we’re still a few miles out.”

Then in an urgent demand that made you break the snowmobile so hard that you nearly fell out of it, Wanda blurted out, “Stop, stop!” 

After catching your breath to calm your thumping heart, you looked back at her. “Holy shit, what?” you gasped.

“The HYDRA base should be right here,” she said. At the sight of your mistrusting expression, she lifted up the tracker and showed you the blinking red dot representing the base and the smaller blue dot that represented the snowmobile. They overlapped each other, meaning that it should’ve been right in front of you.

You got off of the vehicle and walked ahead, squinting and looking around at the snowy plain. Greys and whites stretched on for as long as you could see, and it was all you had been seeing for the last three hours.

Wanda got off of the snowmobile too, wrapped up in a heavy layer of winter gear and walking up to you as a circular ball of jackets and scarves. “Do you think it’s really out here? Maybe the tracker got water damaged or something.”

“I don’t think so,” you replied, stepping through the blinding white sheets of blowing snow.

The young witch ran up beside you, afraid to lose you in the hurricane-like winter. She buried her face further into the shelter of the scarf, leaving her eyes uncovered to allow herself to follow you closely.

“The signal and… now this,” you continued apprehensively. “There’s something that isn’t right with this base, and not just because we can’t see it.”

In the white expanse of snow that went on for kilometres more and mountains that lined the horizon, there was a single outlier.

You approached what looked like a metal pipe coming out from the ground, uncovered by the snow despite the way it had been coming down for the last three hours. A steady release of steam bellowed out from the pipe. You removed your glove and steadied your hand on top of the steam, only for it to be warmed. The snow that fell on your hand melted on-contact.

“Look how strong the signal is now,” Wanda mentioned, pointing to the edge of the screen.

You lifted the tracker up again, looking back down to those overlapping red and blue dots.

“The base is underground,” you told her, your eyes running across the snow you were standing on, then further down where you were sure the building stretched out below.

Eventually, an entrance was found after wandering through the shadowed tundra — a snowy stone walkway and a metal door rusted from years of usage and neglect. 

“Should we… go in?” Wanda asked you, clinging to the sleeve of your jacket with both hands. “Is it safe?” 

In concealed irritation, you took your arm away from her and opened the door. A warm burst of air hit your face and you kicked away the inches of snow behind the door to allow yourself enough space to step inside.

Wanda followed after you, her cheeks tinting a soft pink when the door closed behind her and the two of you were immediately developed in the warmth of the underground bunker. She pushed her hood back and removed her gloves.

The entrance den was small, giving off the illusion that one had found a storm cellar instead of a research base of an underground terrorist organisation.

You walked forward despite Wanda’s quiet whispers of forewarning, across the slotted floors that made visible piping from below and a leaky cement foundation that made you wonder how old this base must be. 

As you walked deeper into the bunker, the tracker’s coordinates of the technology that was sending out signals became more precise. It was stronger, quicker, and indicative of transmitting hundreds of gigabytes of data every few minutes. It wasn’t nearly as fast or efficient as the monitors Stark found in Sokovia’s research base where Wanda and Pietro were stationed, but perhaps only a few models behind.

Voices could be heard from around the corner, and the tracker specified that their primary monitor was but a few metres away.

Wispy tendrils snaked around Wanda’s fingers as she readied herself for any sudden attacks.

Carefully, you unzipped your jacket and pulled out a thermal camera. The base didn’t seem to be well insulated, which was likely why they had to make up for it with the amount of heating they used. Fortunately, this meant that the thermal camera could detect individuals through the wall you were hidden behind with ease.

They were positioned poorly around the lab, as if not under any suspicion that someone might intrude their base. There were six people walking on a levelled platform a few metres up by the ceiling, rounding the room’s perimeter and doing nothing in particular. Five people circled around the southern area of the large room, and there were seven in the centre where the lab monitors were.

You expanded the thermal camera’s range until it reached the outer borders of the bunker and found no outliers.

“Eighteen of them?” Wanda whispered, looking over your shoulder as she stayed close to the wall. “Why so few of them for such advanced technology?”

“For somewhere so far out and underground, maybe they had to overcompensate,” you supposed.

Wanda looked around, then at the details of the ceilings and elevated levels. “It looks like this used to be a bomb shelter repurposed for HYDRA,” she observed. “Pietro and I were experimented on in something similar.”

You bristled at the mention of their experimentation. You recalled the hours spent with Wanda as she talked about what Strucker did to her and her brother, the inhumane treatment and the trauma she received from it.

“If I go from up top and bring them down, we can move in on them in the middle of the lab,” you proposed, fidgeting with the thermal camera and looking up at the elevated floor above the staircase ahead.

“Wh- We’re going to separate?” Wanda whispered.

You reasoned, “We’re not going to take on eighteen of them coming in from one direction.”

“But where will you go?”

“Stay here and wait until you see me come through right there,” you said and pointed at the wall wherein the entrance to the lab’s elevated walkway could be seen beyond it.

Wanda stared at you as if to survey whether you were being sincere and looked away when you met her gaze. “Okay. I’ll wait here,” she uttered and stepped back, away from the view of anyone in the next room while having a clear view of the walkway.

Without another word, you turned and went back up the staircase you descended. You took a left and followed the path down to where the other side of the room became visible. 

Wanda watched you intently, ready to come to your aid if you were to suddenly need her help. Her eyes darted between you and the walkway in the other room.

You weren’t much for combat, so you helped Tony design weapons similar to Natasha’s Widow’s Bites. Vial-like ammo were ejected from small silent guns, attaching to a target’s exposed skin, preferably the neck, before releasing a toxin and attacking and incapacitating a target’s nervous system for up to an hour. From complete stupefaction to a remarkable loss of one’s senses, they were perfect for a swift in and out.

The first four people went down quickly with the other two fleeing for the stairs. They made to escape through the exit Wanda was waiting in but were quickly paralyzed with a wave of her fingers.

At the sight of you jumping down from the walkway, Wanda kept the scientists in the lab from escaping while you stunned four of the ones by the corridor and knocked the fifth unconscious.

You quickly disposed of the empty gun and switched to the other, landed two vials on two different scientists while Wanda clouded the minds of the last five.

You eyed them when they dropped to the floor.

“They’re just in a trance,” Wanda explained suddenly when she saw you looking at them. “I haven’t done anything to their minds.”

She hadn’t used her magic to brainwash anyone since her and Pietro’s fight with the Avengers, and certainly not after her argument with you.

Ignoring her, you moved to the monitors and took out a USB before extracting data from the primary console. The parts were easier to navigate because they were older, but there was a lot of data to extract. You’d get data out first then corrupt what the base had left.

Wanda was flipping through their files as you did your own work, looking up at you occasionally and eyeing your body for any sustained injury.

The monitor screen flickered on when you moved the mouse accidentally, and on it was a file that caught your eye. Though it was in Cyrillic, it was easy to read — The Enhanced.

A gasp came from Wanda that startled you and you looked over to her to see she was holding a file in two hands.

“What is that?” you asked.

Her words were firstly a jumble of stutters, but she eventually answered you. “It’s information on me and Pietro. They were studying the experiments on us.”

You looked at the file on the monitor.

The Enhanced.

She read from the file and thought out loud, “Underground and in an old bunker like this, they were trying to replicate the experiments, make new weapons and reuse the progress that Ultron made with the Mind Stone.”

After making the connection, Wanda looked around at the research base then at the scientists on the ground. Her hands trembled and she dropped the file, running her fingers through her hair and scratching at her palms to ground herself. 

“I cannot be here. We have to leave,” she told you.

“Just a few more moments, Wanda, this is almost finished.”

But she insisted angrily, “No, we have to go now! You do not understand the kinds of things these people do. I cannot be an experiment again. You cannot.”

She suddenly reached her hand out and placed it on top of the USB. The progress percentage on the console boosted up rapidly. Its internal wires glowed a dim red, an advanced version of Wanda’s neuroelectrical manipulation.

Within seconds, the data finished extracting and Wanda ejected the drive and placed it in your hand.

“Let’s go now,” Wanda told you hurriedly and took your hand, rushing the two of you up the stairs and down the walkway.

You left the way you came, but when you turned to get onto the snowmobile parked just outside, Wanda was still standing by the exit. 

“Wanda, what are you doing?” you called down to her, the loud blowing wind encapsulating the two of you once again. 

“We need to get rid of this base. Forever.”

You walked back over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Limited casualties,” you reminded her. 

When she turned to you, her eyes were filled with tearful fury. “Let me do this,” she said sternly.

You stared at her for a few moments before nodding and letting go of her. 

A gas pipe was snapped in half, so it blew out into the bunker.

With shaky hands, Wanda sped up the release from the heating pipes, bundling them up into a focused ball of hot steam so its temperature rose.

It continued to rise until the metal from the pipes and walls distorted from the heat, and you were sure Wanda’s wrath on its own contributed to that ball of heat’s temperature. 

At the first sight of a spark and a quick lick of a flame, Wanda shot the ball to the side at the expelling gas without warning. 

It happened within seconds; the bunker filled with purple flame and rushed right up to Wanda’s face. 

You reached over her shoulder and shut the bunker door before wrapping your arms around Wanda and moving her away. Her back made harsh contact with the stone wall adjacent to the door when you pushed yourself against her body, protecting her from the explosion. 

The purple flames cooled into orange, bursting out from the frames of the door and turning the snow on the ground to water. 

“Holy shit,” you breathed out, your heart racing.

You looked back over to Wanda, whose face was flushed pink with parted lips. She was no longer crying but her eyeliner was smudged beneath her waterline. She was looking at you though you could see the reflection of the flames in her green eyes. 

“Are you okay?” you asked. 

Her mouth closed and she swallowed. She blinked and simply nodded in response.

You nodded and said, “Okay. Good, okay.”

You stepped back from her and zipped your jacket up then put your gloves back on.

“We should head to the safehouse now,” you advised. “Update the team then get some rest, and we can leave for the Quinjet tomorrow morning.”

Wanda only nodded again. She watched you as you ascended the steps and mounted the snowmobile. She fitted her hat back on and then her gloves, and caught her breath as she followed after you. 

She took her seat behind you on the snowmobile and wrapped her arms around your waist.

“Ready?” you asked. 

She nodded, feeling the back of your jacket against her cheek. “Ready.”

You held the tracker in your other hand as you drove to the nearest safehouse. Tony and Rhodes wouldn’t be there, for their nearest one was thirty miles south. But you didn’t dread being alone with Wanda as much as you did before. 

A part of you that hadn’t been awoken since the last you spent those evening hours awake talking with Wanda sparked a modest flame. Recollections of your time with her spread out during the last few months came to you in the blinding white plains of the Nunavut tundra.

On the way back to the compound after a mission a few months ago, Wanda had stayed with you in one of the rooms and tended to your injuries. She was surprisingly proficient in bandaging you up and keeping you elevated, and while you sat in quiet disdain for her, she reminisced aloud about how she and Pietro had to care for themselves for most of their life on their own and how caring for someone else often made her think of him.

The journey to the safehouse was a twenty minute drive. The building was larger than you envisioned.

You dug through the depths of your jacket for a key safely stored for the safehouse and opened the garage. It was miraculous that it still worked. 

The team was reassured that the buildings were safe from being built with any malicious intent during SHIELD's active operation, and were nearly forgotten until the exploration of Nunavut was proposed. 

You stepped off of the snowmobile and had Wanda unlock the door and take the bags in while you pulled the vehicle into its proper storage inside so it wouldn’t be frozen outside by the time you left in the morning. 

Locking the door behind you when you stepped into the house, you shedded off your layers and hung them from the hangers, moving your boots to the side beside Wanda’s. 

The place felt brisk the moment your jacket came off so you wandered around looking for a thermostat. From what you were all told, each safehouse came with three bedrooms and bathrooms, a common room, and a kitchen. 

You found the kitchen first, then a hungry Wanda who was standing by the counter with canned tuna and a glass of tap water. 

“Are you hungry?” she asked you, offering you the can of tuna. 

Looking around, you took the fork from her. “Where did you find this?” you inquired with a laugh. 

“There’s some food here, but they’re all raw or canned. Made to last, I would think,” she noted and took out another can from the pantry before peeling the top open. She took a fork from the counter.

“I turned on the heat when I came in,” she told you. “It should get a bit warmer in a few minutes.”

You looked through the pantry and took out a box of macaroni and cheese, then turned on the oven, feeling the prongs heat up. “Do you want to share some pasta?” 

“Yes, please.”

Within forty minutes, you’re sitting on the common area couch with Wanda in silence, eating cheesy boxed macaroni.

For the first time, you felt strange looking back at your history with Wanda before Ultron. It twisted something in your stomach and made your shoulders tense. 

Looking at her docile expression, unsuspecting and delicate as she sat across from you, legs crossed on the couch as she ate with you. The dim lamp from the corner of the room beside the broken television cast the silhouettes on her face you often used to follow with your eyes when she laid beside you in the plot of grassy land in front of the hideout she and Pietro used for a period of time after Strucker vanished. It was warm – the last few weeks of summer.

It was March now, months since the battle on Sokovia and even longer since the last time you spent this kind of time with Wanda.

Wanda put her empty bowl down and took a sip of water. She wrapped her fingers around the cold glass, her thumb running over the ring on her index finger.

“I know you don’t like me,” she uttered suddenly, “so I would understand if you never forgave me for what I’ve done to you.”

You looked up from the bowl in your lap and at Wanda, who was looking down at her fingers avoidantly.

“But I will always look up to you,” she continued. “You are so brave and kind. You are what I had wished I was becoming when I worked with HYDRA, and when I allied with Ultron. But I made a mistake. And I keep making mistakes.”

“You’re doing okay,” you told her suddenly before you realised what you were saying.

Then you added, “Everyone thinks so.”

Wanda looked at you, studying your face for what felt to you like quite a while. “When I looked inside your mind,” she said, “I saw something pure. I feel the same for you as I did before, if not with more gravity. I want to know more about you and these things I can feel that you love.” 

“What do you want to know?”

“This Shakespeare — I have read him and understand very little of what he writes about, or rather how he writes. I made my own way through several acts of Hamlet but found I could not pretend I found any sense of enjoyment in his writing. His works are enjoyable to you?”

And then you were laughing a kind of laugh that made you place your bowl on the coffee table to avoid spilling it over.

Wanda smiled as she watched you, the crinkling of your eyes that she found pleasing to look at and the unrestrained sound of sincere joy that came from you, especially when it was because of her and no one else. She laughed, quietly and with a few chuckles.

“That was funny?” she asked, still smiling.

You nodded and answered, “Yes.”

But she continued to look at you, anticipating an answer.

“He writes strangely, but because he lived from quite a while ago when the English language was different,” you said. “But also because he was an artist, and like any other artist, his work can be interpreted. Overtime, it’s become easier for me to understand his age of English, but the poetry of his works have become no less interesting to me.”

“What’s interesting about it?”

“There’s an eloquence to his style of writing, I think,” you thought aloud. “And for certain works like Hamlet, for example, it’s tragic and ironic, with beautifully written characters, all within a bound book of one of the most artistic styles of writing I’ve come across. He’s-”

Wanda leaned over, the sudden act making you halt your words and look over to her, only for her hand to find the side of your face. Her lips met yours in one swift movement and her eyes fluttered shut. 

Her nose was decorated with freckles.

You stumbled back in your seat and Wanda’s hand lifted to your knee. 

She parted from you, looking down at her hand on your knee and her fingers slowly retracting from your cheek.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered, her cheeks flushing.

Carefully, you took the glass away from her and placed it beside her empty bowl. Wrapping your hand around her wrist, you pulled her closer to you until her other hand was forced to remove itself from your knee and lay itself down on the couch by your hip.

You kissed her with a sudden ferocity that made her breath hitch.

“Wanda,” you breathed.

She moved closer to you so she was sitting up on her knees in front of you.

Your hands moved down her body, arching her back with your fingers pressing into her sides so you could kiss up her stomach then between her clothed breasts.

With a pleasured sigh, Wanda’s hands came up to the sides of your head, her fingers playing with your hair and urging you to kiss her body. 

Now irritated by the distance between you and her bare skin, your fingers hooked around the collar of her long-sleeved white shirt and yanked down. 

Wanda hid a grin in your hair and kissed the top of your head. 

You kissed the swells of her breasts, burying your face in her chest and nipping at her delicate skin. You craved more and your fingers pulled down her bra, exposing rosy nipples. Your tongue ran up one of them and they hardened at your contact.

“I like that,” Wanda said, an arm wrapping around your neck and pulling you closer to her. 

“Yeah?” you answered, looking up at her from between her breasts. You kissed up her chest and neck, running your tongue up her pulse point and making her squirm. “What else do you like, pretty girl?”

She blushed at the pet name and hid her face against the side of your head. 

“Anything, Y/N,” she answered. “Anything from you.”

You wrapped your arm around her ass and picked her up from the couch, making her giggle and wrap her legs around your hips. Your other arm was wrapped around her waist.

Wanda kissed your forehead and your temple while you peppered kisses against her throat.

You carried her up the stairs and towards one of the bedrooms Wanda pointed at. You flicked on the lamp on the nightstand and lowered Wanda onto the bed. 

She pulled your shirt off when you leaned over her while you unbuttoned and slipped her jeans off. Her legs were smooth and you couldn’t help but run your hands up the sides of them, gripping at her soft thighs and her hips. 

Her shirt was pulled off next while you took your pants off. 

You tucked your hands under her ass and you lifted her further up the bed, which made her laugh. You leaned back down when she was laid in the middle and kissed her. 

Her hands ran up your stomach and undressed you until you were bare on top of her. You unclipped her bra and wrapped your lips around one of her nipples, kneading her other with your hand. 

Her back arched up against you and she wrapped a hand around the back of your neck, pulling you close.

“Gods, you’re beautiful, Wanda.”

She shuddered when your hand ran down her bare stomach and you grinned against her cheek when you realised how sensitive Wanda was. 

Your free hand pinched one of her nipples between your thumb and index finger and she yelped before burying her face in your hair.

You slipped her panties off and dragged your fingers through her folds that were already slick with her anticipation. 

Wanda’s cheek warmed your lips when you kissed them for she was flushed, overwhelmed and embarrassed being exposed for someone like you. She idolised you, regarded you with high praise and adoration. 

To have you kiss breasts and call her beautiful, to touch her in a way she hadn’t been in years. But even her first time had been rushed, a decision made at the snap of her fingers.

Your fingers were brought to your lips and you licked her juices from them. Wanda’s eyes widened at the act and you grinned down at her. You ran a thumb over her bottom lip and kissed her, her flavour melding between your dancing tongues.   

You reached down between your stomachs and jerked your hand around your stiff cock. Wanda’s eyes followed your hand and her lips parted at the sight of you. You pecked her lips, amused at her awe. 

A hand ran up her cunt, collecting her slick and coating yourself in it. 

“Are you ready, Wanda?” you asked, looking up at her. 

She nodded eagerly, hugging her arms around your neck tightly. “I’m ready.”

You entered her with a long groan, feeling her soft walls squeeze around your cock. Her eyes were squeezed shut, shaky whimpers leaving her. 

“Y/N,” Wanda groaned. “That hurts.”

“You’re so tight,” you told her. “I’ll be careful.”

She opened her eyes and pulled you down to her so she could kiss you. “No. I want you, please. Harder.”

You wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting the lower half of her body from the bed and angling her hips down against your thighs. 

With two hands on either of her hips, you pulled her up and down, fucking her on your cock as Wanda’s mouth fell open, broken moans and cries of pleasure singing from her throat. 

She reached a hand down to you and you took it, interlacing your fingers as you dug your other hand’s nails into the side of her ass. 

Her ass slapped down against your thighs and you could only stare at her in admiration, watching her breasts bounce on her chest with every thrust into her, the sounds that came out of her that were for you, the sound of your name on her tongue that was moaned in a way that no one would ever have the pleasure of hearing for their own names. 

Your hand moved between Wanda’s hips and you laid your hand flat against her lower stomach while your thumb began drawing circles around her clit. 

“Oh my, Y/N!” Wanda cried. “Oh, I feel so strange.”

She was quite sensitive, nearing her climax so soon. You kissed up her stomach and let go of her hips, laying her flat down on the bed and mounting yourself over her. You kiss her and massage one of her breasts.

“Let me see you, Wanda. Come for me.”

Wanda buried her face in your neck, her hot breath panting against your chest while your thrusted into her and grasped harshly at her hip to maintain a strong hold on her delicate body while you fucked her. 

She babbled out a mess of half-finished words and her walls tightened around you. 

You lifted your head to see her and Wanda’s head was thrown back, her fingernails digging into your upper arms as she came. Her orgasm washed over her in heavy forceful waves, making her shudder and tighten her knees around your hips. 

There was a certain pride in making Wanda come, a young girl so often taken by timidity and whose inner feelings were unshared with those she did not find solace in. To have her shudder under you, hands grasping desperately at your body while she cried out your name sent bursts of warmth up your chest.

She took your head between her hands and pressed shaky kisses to your face, up the bridge of your nose and against your cheekbones, to your forehead and finally back down to your lips. “Let me get you off,” she whispered.

You switched positions with you now laying on your back, Wanda on her knees by your ankles. You reached down and ran your fingers through her hair in admiration, then down her cheek. Wanda smiled at you and kissed your hip.

She firstly took your cock with both hands, flicking the tip of her tongue against your tip. She ran her tongue through your slit gently then wrapped her lips around you, hands jerking you slowly.

When she had you with your head thrown back and your cock stiff in her hands, Wanda let go of you and kissed up the length of your shaft.

“Y/N, you’re so beautiful,” she said, looking up at you from below. “The most beautiful person I’ve ever been lucky enough to know. I haven’t treated you as I should. I do not deserve your patience, and certainly not any permission to see you this way. “But I hope to show you how much I adore you. Because I do. I truly do.”

“Wanda…” you uttered quietly, ready to protest before she wrapped her lips around your tip again and bobbed her head down.

She took a few inches at a time and you felt her throat open up for you as she moved her head down. One hand rubbed at your thigh and the other was placed atop your hip. She adjusted her position, kneeling and arching her back to get as low as she could, her ass stuck up in the air. She inched further down, relaxing her throat until her nose brushed your lower stomach.

She took your hand with hers and placed it against the back of your head.

You took hold of her hair and pulled her up along your cock and back down. You could hear Wanda’s mouth attempting to accommodate you with every entry into her mouth. She breathed through her nose, her grip tightening around your thigh as she drooled around your cock.

You pulled her up further occasionally so her lips reached only your tip, allowing her space to breathe before pushing her back down.

Wanda never protested, only looked up at you with sheer determination to bring you pleasure. She did gag at the depth you were fucking her throat in, though still that seemed to please you and Wanda was satisfied.

After ten minutes, you pulled Wanda off of your cock, wiping the drool from her chin and uttering, “Good, Wanda. That was good.”

But she was drunk on the taste of your cock, the pre-cum she was treated with occasionally when she curled her tongue around you a specific way and sucked at you with a certain velocity. 

“I want more,” she objected and kissed up your cock again, her tongue running up your veins and kissing your tip, running it through her lips and sucking at it teasingly. She rubbed her cheek against your wet cock then ran her tongue up it.

So you took her head between both hands and positioned her over your cock. She parted her lips instinctively and you jutted your hips up into her face, thrusting her throat down onto your dick at a speed vastly different than before, your speed having increased tenfold.

Wanda grasped the blankets and scratched at your hips while she tried her best to take you as deep and fast as you wanted, using her for nothing but your own pleasure. Her eyes filled with tears and her saliva coated the base of your shaft.

Your hips bucked up into her face and Wanda looked up at you, studying intently the line that formed between your eyebrows and the way your eyes squeezed shut. She flattened her tongue and wrapped it around your cock, flicking it side to side where it could fit. 

“Wanda- Fuck, I’m coming!” 

You shot your cum down her throat, your hands on either side of her head pushing her back gradually to fill her mouth with your cream, then finally you pulled out altogether to cum onto her face. 

With the tip of your cock, you rubbed your cum against her lips and cheeks. Wanda smiled and kissed your shaft proudly.

You wiped it off her face and ran your coated fingers through her messy hair while Wanda swallowed what she could, licking your cum from her fingers too.

“God, you’re fucking filthy.”

Wanda grinned and climbed up.

You wrapped your arms around her body, kissing each other’s tired faces. 

She twirled your hair around her fingers and with her cheek pressed against yours lazily, she whispered, “I’m tired, Y/N.”

“Sleep,” you answered and put a hand to the back of her head, letting her rest her head on your chest. You kissed her hair damp with sweat, and rubbed her smooth bare back as she dozed off. 

You muttered confessions of your adoration of her against her head, kissing her forehead in her sleep and eventually covering your bare bodies in thick blankets.

For now, she wouldn’t know how you admired her, her intelligence and her kindheartedness, her strength and her beauty. The green of her eyes and the softness of her smooth curves, the feeling of her lips and the smoothness of her skin.

But perhaps she would know at some point or another, and that brought you joy – a future you could imagine with her.

You pulled Wanda against your chest and kissed the top of her head.

A future with her.

The very thought comforted you, and you fell asleep soon after her.

[ginger-grimm]

🦣 + Celeste Morris, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs 💖

Thank you very much @dancingsunflowers-ocs! Also tagging @daughter-of-melpomene and @luucypevensie!

A summer trip they think of fondly: Freshman year of high school, Margaret took Celeste, Artie, and Mike to a resort in Spain and they spent the entire time sightseeing and eating. It was a kind of simple trip, but she thinks about it often.

Their favorite Disney princess: I would say Belle from Beauty and the Beast or Anna from Frozen, she would relate to them both for various reasons and they're the first she thinks of when people bring up Disney princesses.

The first song they would dance to with their partner at their wedding: There would definitely be a lot of fighting about it, Rachel would want a song from a musical but Celeste would say it would be hard to dance to. There's a lot of back and forth but they end up picking "a thousand years" by Christina Perri.

If they have tattoos or piercings: She would definitely get the Libra star constellation tattooed and she has a lyric from her favorite song tattooed.

The scariest moment in their life: There was a moment, right before she went on stage for her first bigger play, where she forgot every single line of her dialogue and she nearly fainted. It came back to her once she went on stage but she swears her heart stopped for a second.

If they would break the law: I don't think she would, unless someone held a gun to her head. Or at the very least it would probably be misdemeanors, nothing major.

Their favorite reality show (because everyone secretly has one): She's a bit too obsessed with the Real Housewives franchise.

If they have a favorite chore: She actually really likes doing laundry. She'll put her headphones on and go to town.

If they like being in pictures and what faces they make in them: She likes it moderately. If she looks awful (tired or not put together), she'll usually dodge cameras. If she feels she looks fine, she doesn't mind and will either smile normally or kind of do a fusion of scrunching up her face and light duck lips.

If they get along with kids: She does! Obviously, it always depends on the kid's character but she even gets along with the difficult ones. She knows how to bribe!

[brighter-by-the-daly]

Rachel Daly x Reader

Part Nine - Brighter Days

Posted: 20/03/23 Edited: 13/08/23

Stirring awake to the sound of Rachel placing a cuppa on the bedside table beside you then feeling the mattress dip as she crawled into bed, you could have thought you were still dreaming. Sliding one arm underneath your neck and wrapping the other around your waist, she pulled you into her as you rolled over to lay on her chest. “Stay at mine tomorrow? Mum’s at her boyfriends so I’ll be alone” you hummed in contentment. “We can’t have that can we?” she said cupping your cheek and leaning in for a kiss. “I can introduce you to the rest of the family and show you round my end?” you suggested. “Sounds perfect darlin” she smiled, still clutching your face and kissing the the tip of your nose in response. You reluctantly rolled out of bed and got ready to leave, saying goodbye at the front door. “I’ll miss you, this is our first night apart” Rachel pined leaning on the door frame, “you’re gonna have a great day with Millie” wrapping your arms around each other to share a passionate goodbye kiss. Rach opened the door and as you walked out screamed so loud you probably woke all her neighbours up, Millie was standing right outside and jump scared you both, camera rolling and in hysterics. Clutching your heart, you smacked her arm “it’s was too early for your shit Mills!” still trying to get your heart rate back into double figures. “Well you two have a good day! You better not post that!” rolling your eyes as you left in your car.

At work you asked for holiday for the World Cup, your manager being Georgia allowed you to use all your annual leave so you could go to the entirety of the tournament. She also allowed you to work from home for the remainder of your shifts knowing it was a long journey from where you’ve been staying for the past few weeks. It was such a benefit that your best friend got the managers position last year! You spent the day sort of working but mostly gossiping with your pals then headed home to your mum’s, spending the evening watching films together and ordered a take away. In bed you flicked through Tiktok spotting that Daly Brightness had posted a new video of them dancing for the first time in a year, they both looked ridiculous which made you laugh. “You both give me life 😂💜💙” you commented before going to sleep.

Katie picked you up the next day for your last day of work at the office. You completed absolutely nothing and spent all your time online shopping for clothes for Australia and discussing everything with your girls. Checking your phone at lunch to see you had a new notification ‘Rachel Daly posted a new photo’ pop up, clicking on it to see she had posted the photo of you leading her out onto the pitch from the photo shoot before the Brazil game with the caption “had the best mascot last night 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿❤️” the photo was of the back of you and holding Rachel’s hand was the main focus with your Daly shirt fuzzy in the background. You text her instead of commenting anything “you’re the cutest 💖🤭” you sent, “besotted 😉💜” she replied.

A few hours later you were packing up your stuff ready to leave the office for the last time, you were gonna miss the girls but you knew you’d talk everyday. Hugging them goodbye at the door Georgia spotted something over your shoulder and nodded in that direction. Turning around to see Rach in the car park, leaning against her car, one foot resting on the bonnet with her hands full of flowers. “You’ve got a good’un there (y/n)” Katie nudged you, both your friends were so happy you’d finally found someone worthy of your love. As you walked down the metal staircase they leant over the balcony squealing as they watched you go. Running across the road to greet her and launching yourself into her arms, she grabbed you around the waste spinning you round. Placing you down she arched your back to kiss you like in a movie, you’re sure she was just putting on a show for the girls who were clapping and squealing as she passed you the flowers. “Throw the bouquet!” they shouted “I feel like we need confetti!” You both laughed and waved up to them, “ we love you!!!!” they screamed as Rach helped you into the car “they seem excited” she smiled as her hand clutched your thigh. Gazing up at your best friends you couldn’t believe how perfect your life was, “they are” you replied coyly, not wanting to let out the secret that you’re going to Australia with her.

Directing her back to your mum’s house, you got changed then went to meet your grandparents who had put on a spread for tea, they always make an effort for guests no matter who it is. The way Rachel interacted with them made your heart happy, sitting back to admire her playing a very competitive game of scrabble with your grandad while you showed your granny pictures of your adventures. After leaving your grandparents house you directed her to the edge of town and along a quiet road which sat high upon the rest of the area. Pulling up in the darkness all the lights were glistening in the distance, this time you opened the door for Rachel and lead her hand in hand to a bench between two trees. It can’t be seen from the road and only locals know it’s there, it had the perfect view over looking the town that was sparkling against the night sky. You spoke about growing up there, your parents breaking up which still makes you sad sometimes but your mum’s engaged again and planning a wedding for next year. You spoke about her day with Millie and the fun they got up to, Rach asked if you managed to book annual leave but you said you have to wait to see if it’s approved. You wanted to do something special when you tell her the news. Knowing your mum is getting married again, she asked about your dad. “I’ll show you” getting back in the car and directing her to to the restaurant your dad owns nearby for a quick snack and a catch up with him before heading home.

Rach found herself some PJs out of your drawer and used your toothbrush before joining you in the bedroom. “I’ve gotta go to St James Park to do some promo with the team for the Arnold Clark Cup in the morning, I probably won’t be here when you wake up so…” she said while rummaging in her bag “will you meet me back home?” as she held out her hand with a key attached to an Aston Villa keyring. Glancing from her hand to her face your eyebrows raised with surprise. “I know you don’t want to leave your mum’s yet but there’s no harm having a key is there?” she looked down to her feet as shyness took over her usually confident demeanour. You shook your head as your smile widened, taking the key from her hand and kissing her softly on the cheek. As you crawled into bed together you spooned while watching the TV until you both fell asleep with your arms wrapped around each other.

Part Ten - What Are You Scared Of? 🔞

[pragmatic-optimist]

Sonia, I'm roping you in with an ask even though you're not always here (miss u, love u) 💜 we know you are the romcom QUEEN - give us your top 5 favourite romcoms!

Hi friend, thanks for this totally not difficult-at-all question. Lol.

Okay, as you know, I can’t ever answer anything succinctly. I am going to take this opportunity to plug this nonfiction book I’m listening to on audio, titled “From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy.” –highly recommend it to anyone who is a rom-com nerd like me.

The book asks the following question to determine what can be considered a romantic comedy:

“If you removed the love story from this movie, would you still have a movie? If the answer is no, it’s a romantic comedy.”

With this question in mind, here is my list (not in ranking order, I’m just listing them as they come to me.) Also, yes, this means I can’t list the 2000 gem that was Miss Congeniality. That is my #1 favorite Sandy movie. Not to worry, though, Sandy B. still makes the list.

Here we go:

Serendipity: The trope. NYC as a character. The cast—John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, John Corbett, Molly Shannon, and the illustrious Eugene Levy who stole all of his scenes as the Bloomingdale’s employee making John Cusack’s life miserable lol. It’s just so good. It’s peak rom-com in the early 2000s. Those of you old enough to appreciate that era of rom-coms will know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s one of my all-time favs. 👏🏽

Two Weeks Notice: Sandy B. Listen, I had to work hard not to make every movie on this list a Sandra Bullock-starring film. I feel like choosing your favorite rom-com actress from the 90s/2000s is a little like choosing your boyband team from that same era. I am Team Sandy B. all the way. (No disrespect to Julia and Meg, and so many others who also made movies I loved.) I love Sandra in this movie opposite Hugh Grant, she’s so smart and so funny. The premise of this movie is actually one I still hold out hope for seeing written as firstprince fanfic someday. Sandra is an environmental lawyer who goes to work for a billionaire’s company in order to save a community center that is very dear to her. There are aspects of that plot that I think Alex and Henry would fit into, and aspects to tweak because I don't think Henry would be quite as arrogant or bumbling as Hugh's character. I could talk about this at length lol.

Definitely, Maybe: Again – the cast. Ryan Reynolds. Isla Fisher. Rachel Weisz. Abigail Breslin. The trope/premise?? So good. I love how it jumps through time and shows us how second chances present themselves in our lives. It’s just a really lovely film and probably my favorite Ryan as a rom-com leading man, though The Proposal is a close second.

Hitch: This movie had me in tears, both from laughter and emotions. Also, the scene where Will Smith is teaching Kevin James’ character how to dance. Iconic. "I'm making the pizza!" “Don’t need no pizza, they got food there!” 😂

My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Windex. Nia Vardalos and John Corbett, watching their characters meet and fall in love. Just so damn dreamy. 😍 I also really love how this movie portrays that when you choose a partner, you’re also choosing their family. 💖

Set It Up: I know this is six lol. But I had to add in a movie post-2010. I love this one so much. I know a movie has become part of my personality when I start adopting the dialogue into my everyday vernacular lol. “I overdicked” is said A LOT. 😂 Also GLEN POWELL. 😏

Thanks for the nice ask! 💕

[manicpixiefelix]

Oliver L/N comforting Astrid when she finds out about Michael cheating on her 🩷🩷🩷

I'm working on getting the next chapter of h,h,h out in the next day or so, but OH MY GOD HI I MISSED YOU AND I LOVE FHIS SO MUCH IVE MISSED THESE AUS !!!! This turned into a bit of a mini fic, but Astrid and Ollie my beloveds 🥹💖 I don't think we've talked much about the Oliver L/N AU in the present day so this was so much fun to think about 😊😊😊

-

Oliver can tell that something's off with Astrid. He hadn't noticed at the wedding, mostly because his attention, like everyone else's, had been on Colin and Araminta, but at the reception, he barely has to say hi to her before he can sense there's something going on beyond all the festivities.

Astrid is, as she always has been, the absolute picture of elegance and grace, and had been trying to put everything to do with her soon to be ex-husband out of her mind. She had thought she'd been doing a rather good job of it too. Except then there's Oliver, who doesn't ask if something's wrong, because he knows there is. If anyone would be able to tell, she supposed it would be him; he's uniquely able to intuit when a well put together individual is in need of support and care, even if they're trying to act like they're fine.

It's rare to see one of the L/N siblings at an event like this without the other by their side, but Oliver barely has to explain himself for you to understand. You happily accept the burden of social responsibility for the night with Felix by your side, while Oliver dedicates his time to Astrid. It's not that they talk about the fact that they both know something's wrong, no, by all means they keep up appearances, and wear bright smiles, and Oliver even speaks candidly to the people around him, though much like you, Astrid happily bears the brunt of most conversations with others that he too was involved in. They dance and they laugh and they both know Oliver would leave her alone if she asked, but she never does.

The next day she invites him over for lunch at her place, and he agrees without hesitation. You, Felix, and Farleigh are all preoccupied finding out about the shit that went down regarding Nick Young's mother and Rachel Chu the night before. If it were any other day, he would be right there with you, but you insist he should go to her; you knew something was happening with her just by the way Oliver had been acting.

Oliver's one of the first people she tells about leaving Michael, and why. She wants him to hear it from her, not through gossip, or online, or the news, because it will be some kind of news. Listening quietly, he lets silence lapse out between them when she's done, giving her time to breathe, and himself to process. Then, after a very long moment, he hugs her tightly and apologises. Astrid insists that he doesn't need to, and Oliver says that he knows, but still, he's sorry. Not on behalf of Michael, obviously, no, quietly they both know he's apologising for the scrutiny and speculation she's sure to endure in the wake of this, from friends, family, and strangers alike. Oliver isn't family, but he's situationally adjacent in a way that means he understands the position she's in due to her social and financial status, without judging her or expecting anything from her the way her family would. Growing up, he was the closest thing she had to a little brother outside of her cousins.

Oliver is the only one who sees Astrid cry over her divorce, the only one who hears her speak spitefully and with ire about Michael's insecurities and how draining it was having to tend to his ego, to have to hide the extravagant things that brought her joy. When he asks her about what she'd bought recently, Astrid beams, mood turning in an instant; her eyes are shining with a delightfully childish kind of excitement.

"Can I show you?" Said with the kind of quiet hope of someone who's been desperate to share her joy for so long. Oliver nods eagerly, and feels suddenly much younger, like he's stepping into a memory as she grabs his hand and leads him to her closet.

Both know how well the other values privacy, these things stay between them.

They cook together, even if neither is really used to preparing a full meal for themselves. Astrid needs to do something that feels normal or she's going to lose her mind. The smell of smoke when they burn dinner, having forgot to set a timer, is bitter, and ugly, and human. Instead, they get street food, and people watch while eating, and Astrid's voice is soft when she admits that she thinks she still loves Michael. At least, the version of him that she'd married. Oliver knows Astrid's too smart to not have already thought of every answer he could possibly give her in this moment. Well, almost every answer.

"I liked that guy," Oliver agrees, petting Astrid's knee fondly as she rested her head on his shoulder, "I miss him, I feel like I haven't seen him in ages."

There's a beat as Astrid processes this before she lets out a quiet, almost disbelieving laugh, taking Oliver's hand and giving it a grateful squeeze.

"Me too."

Back in Astrid's apartment, they watch movies from when they were children while wearing silk pyjamas, and lay side by side in the dark reminiscing about their various adventures together with you and Nick from over the years.

When the conversation turns to the situation between Nick, Rachel, and Mrs Young, Astrid's expression sours considerably. The family had tried that with her regarding Michael, but they hadn't been able to find dirt on him like they had with Rachel.

"Rachel is strong, she is smart," Astrid muses quietly, "Michael was too, against all odds and the inscrutable politics of my family," she sighs with exasperation, "but the standards he set for himself, and the insecurity he felt when not meeting them, stem from expectations I don't think she will have to face. I know they'll have challenges, different challenges to what Michael and I faced, but Nick is a good man, and I hope they get through this, I really do; they deserve a happy ending."

"So do you," Oliver insists, and Astrid gives a tired laugh.

"I will find it eventually, I'm sure," she yawns, though at least she doesn't sound as defeated as the prospect may have made her feel at the start of the day.

"If you want to get away, you know there'll always be a place for you with us," Oliver tells her with a grin, "or we could even bring you to Saltburn, to get away from the city and all the people; Fi's mum has been dying to meet you ever since we told her about you and Nick. She'd probably let you move in if you wanted."

There's so much Astrid knows she will have to deal with here in the coming weeks, months, probably years, but god, escape sounds so nice right now.

"And his family loves you both?"

"So much it's a little overwhelming sometimes," Oliver admits with a chuckle, "apart from Farleigh, of course," though he amends, "well, he likes Y/N well enough, me, however, he's never really -"

"Haven't you been sleeping with that man for years?" She laughs brightly, and Oliver groans before he answers.

"He barely even seems to tolerate me then!"

"I still can't wrap my head around how that's still going on while you're in love with his cousin, and that said cousin is somehow okay with this whole arrangement!"

"It's like how Y/N and Venetia have an ongoing arrangement, except Venetia doesn't pretend that she can't stand my sibling the rest of the time like Farleigh does with me."

"Oh god, Venetia," Astrid giggled, "that's Felix's sister, isn't it? I forgot about her and Y/N; I met her that time in Milan, didn't I?"

"You did," Oliver can't help but smile at the memory, "I believe we were all absolutely plastered when you first met her -"

"Oh, because I arrived late! That's right; oh she's such a darling, you know she actually told me that I was the most beautiful woman she'd ever met in her life," the smile in Astrid's words is audible, and Oliver can't help but grin too.

"That's because you are," he says like it's a fact, continuing on when she tries to protest with embarrassment, "we all think that about you, Astrid, you're so lovely; I think I remember we had a little meeting about it in the car on our way back to the hotel that night."

"You are all ridiculous, and far too sweet," Astrid tells him fondly.

"We all love you so very much, you know that, right?"

"I know," she tells him softly, sincerely, taking his hand in the dark, "I am glad for the people you have all grown into over the years. I'm glad that you and Y/N now have a family who loves you," and she gives his hand a squeeze, "I'm very glad you're here, Ollie."

"I'm glad to be here too, you know I always will be when you call."

In the days that come, her family and the world will praise her for her strength, her elegance, her composure. Tonight, Oliver welcomes and loves Astrid for her humanity.