The Scarlet Apprentice

Calming down

That was what did it for her. That was what it took to get y/n to stay: wanda wanting her to. It was a simple and illogical reason, but it didn't change the fact that it was all y/n really wanted to hear.

It didn't take long for the day to begin to fade away into the evening, and by then, y/n had settled back into the cabin. Dusk flooded over the cabin with ease, sending it into a darkness, the only light source being the lights from the inside of the house.

Y/n slouched over on the couch, her elbows resting against her knees and her fingers intertwined. As usual, wanda twirled her way through the kitchen while preparing a meal for the two to eat. Y/n didn't complain once in her wait, mostly because she was too deep in thought to notice how much time had actually flown by.

Then, due to the gentle sound of the plates being placed on the coffee table in front of her, she was jogged out of her pool of thoughts and her blurred stare returned to focus.

Gently sliding herself off of the couch, y/n joined wanda on the floor with her legs resting underneath the coffee table.

There seemed to be a new profound wave of tension between the two that both of them sensed. It wasn't the kind of tension two sworn enemies would get; for they didn't consider each other an enemy any more. No, it was the kind of tension that hinted at the missing conversations even the atmosphere knew they should have.

Once again, a silence grew over the two. They were eating in silence, sat side by side, and even though there was a tension there, the silence was still not uncomfortable in the slightest. In fact, it was a comfort that they both found in one another, regardless of their situation.

However, their silence was interrupted when wanda remembered something; something that she wanted to clarify with her guest.

"That bolt of lightning." Wanda mentioned.

Instantly knowing what she was referring to, y/n cleared her throat, "yeah, i just... I know what it's like to lose your brother, and I'd love to have something to remind me of him."

She nodded understandingly, "You don't talk about your brother that much." She noticed.

"Yeah, well, I-." Y/n looked down at her hands, "it still hurts to even think about. I think about it everyday, and i-... I'd do anything to just-." The lump that formed in her throat caused her to stop talking.

"Bring him back?" Wanda tried to finish the sentence for her.

She looked up at wanda, "to say goodbye. Death is inevitable, and like you said, I didn't know he was going to die, but..." she shook her head and shrugged, "i just wish I said goodbye, or hugged him to have a good last memory. Like closure."

Wanda smiled faintly at the memories she had of her brother, "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Once Wanda's question was answered, she returned to eating her food, allowing the blanket of silence to fall upon them again. Although wanda was able to instantly return to eating, y/n couldn't help but feel a fog clouding over her - a fog she knew she had to get rid of.

"Wanda, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about sword. At first, I forgot about it. It just completely left my mind, then when I remembered it," she sighed, "i didn't want it to ruin what we had- or what I thought we had."

"Have you always been with sword?" Wanda asked.

"Uh, no." She inhaled deeply, "I worked for shield, at first."

"And how was that?" She asked, slowly continuing to eat her own plate of food while listening.

"God, it was amazing. I felt like I found my family. I fell in love." She told her, "I mean, for the first time, I fell really in love."

Wanda nodded, "what was their name?"

"Daisy Johnson." She smiled slightly, "but... I guess being taken 75 years into a dystopian future might shake a relationship apart."

Slightly confused but not wanting to belittle y/n, wanda softly tilted her head, "what?"

When y/n realised wanda wouldn't know what she was talking about, she cleared her throat, "oh, it's-... it's just a mission we went on. We kinda had to save the world from being split apart, so we got abducted by a space robot who took us 75 years into the future." She sugarcoated it, of course, "when we were done with it all, two of our team members were dead, and everyone else was shaken up. Daisy went to deep space to... run away from it, I guess, but I just couldn't go with her. I didn't want to stop being an agent, but I couldn't bring myself to be around people I didn't even recognise anymore. So I was transferred to sword, and I did really well there. I really made a name for myself."

"Did you-..." Wanda cut herself off briefly, "did you have anything to do with westview?"

"No." She quickly shook her head, "oh, god, wanda, no. If I knew what Hayward was really doing, I never would've let that happen, you know that, right?"

Even though wanda didn't answer the seemingly simple question, it was very clear in her expressions that she did indeed know that.

Without wanting the energy in the room to fall to a dull, sad tone, Wanda hummed quietly, "75 years into the future, Huh?" When the reply garnered her confirmation, she asked, "what was it like?"

"Shit." Y/n answered, barely taking the time to think about it.

Wanda instantly let out a chuckle due to the unexpected answer, "are you exaggerating?"

"No, I'm being serious." She told her, but it was evident in wanda's lingering chuckle that she didn't believe her, "the main source of food were these pellets that tasted like dog food, water came from pipes, and the whole place was run by giant blue aliens. There were roaches the size of horses in the base, they would make inhumans fight only to sell the winner into slavery, and there were these monitors dug into your wrist which used tokens as currency. Would you like me to go on?"

"No, no. Please, no." She shook her head, her chuckle remaining.

For now, they were calming down. It might take a few days for their trust to form once again, but they were both willing to wait for it. To wait for each other.