The Scarlet Apprentice

A trip down memory lane

The light smell of faint coffee which had overpowered any other scent in its way had now made it to the second bedroom. Apart from the muffled sounds of cars passing by on the road outside of the apartment, there was a quietness.

A slight breeze on the hot day was seeping through the crack in the window and lightly pushing the thin curtains away from them, but they always fell gracefully back down to their original spot. The cover that lied gently on top of the sleeping girl slowly rose and fell as she breathed in her sleep, but it soon changed when her eyes began to open.

"Y/n?" Someone, clearly from another room, called out.

The moment she heard her name, she opened her eyes completely and instinctively sat herself up in a tired slump. For a while, she sat still while adjusting to the tiredness she felt, but she never questioned why she felt it.

"Y/N!" The voice shouted, now growing impatient.

When the second call confirmed that someone was indeed calling her, she pushed the covers off of herself completely and stood up from the bed. When she stood up straight, she realised that she no longer felt the pain or worry she felt just moments before.

Her clothes weren't blood stained, and her shoulder had no wound in it at all. While wondering about her change of clothing and perfect health, she began to look around the room and furrow her brows at the new surroundings.

A small suspicion of where she was entered her mind, but she didn't want to immediately believe it. She didn't want to give herself the hope of it being true, as she knew she wouldn't have been able to handle to disappointment of it being false.

Holding onto her suspicions, she opened the door to the room and walked out into the hallway. When she saw the person the voice belonged to, she stopped where she stood and froze entirely, whereas he sighed with impatience.

"There you are. Jesus Christ, your alarm must be so shit." Her brother groaned, "do you want anything different from the store?"

"What?" She asked with a squint.

He paused in confusion, "are you alright? Did you sleep funny, why the fuck are you so confused?"

Her chest grew heavy once she realised who she was standing opposite, "Teddy?"

He shook his head and shrugged, "did you suddenly forget who I was?"

"No, I just, I-." She cut herself off to come to terms with what was happening, "I'm tired." She lied, "my alarm didn't wake me up... I overslept."

"Do you want anything different this time?" He asked her.

While she listened to his voice in disbelief, her eyes began to blur and trail around the room. There, from behind him, she saw the badly painted walls and remembered the day it was painted. She reminisced about when she threw a splash of paint at him because he jokingly pushed her, or when he smudged paint on her face because she wouldn't stop criticising the way he his brushing techniques.

"Hello? Earth to y/n?" He called, realising that she was distracted.

"Yeah?" She snapped out of her gaze and asked.

"Do you want anything different from the store? I'm leaving now." He repeated, for the last time.

"Uh- no, no, I don't think so." She furrowed her brows while looking at him, still deciding whether or not it was real.

"Thanks for finally answering." He faked an annoyed look before making his way to the door.

Not wanting him to leave, y/n followed him over to the door and watched him open it, not knowing what to say that would make what she wanted to do seem natural.

"I'll see you in a minute." He told her, but, just as he was about to shut the door, she jolted forward and pulled it back open.

"Wait." She blurted, watching the way he stopped immediately.

He turned around and looked at her, "what?"

Then she paused, not particularly sure on what she was going to say. So, without saying anything, she slowly stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. At first, he was confused by the unexplained hug, but he still wrapped his arms back around her.

When she realised that her arms had actually wrapped around something that was there, she let out a large exhale. It was a breath that she'd been holding on to since the day her brother died. The guilt that shadowed her for so long had left her with the breath she let go of, and she could finally relax. Like she said to wanda, death was inevitable. But all she wanted to do was to say goodbye, whether her brother knew it would be his last day or not. Even if it wasn't real, it felt like it to her, and that was all she needed, and all she wanted.

"This is... new." He mentioned, still holding onto her.

"Yeah, I just-." She pulled out and cleared her throat to act casual, "I just wanna say... goodbye."

With a smirk on his face, his brows dropped as his confusion intensified, "you're weird." He laughed it off, "goodbye."

"Can you get me those chocolates that I love?" She asked, "the ones that dad would refuse to buy because he thought they were too unhealthy."

"Oh, so you're having one of those days, are you?" He jokingly asked.

"Oh, shut up." She sarcastically smiled, "just get them and come back here so we can eat them and watch that movie you never shut up about."

He squinted, "kingsman?"

"Yes, kingsman." She rolled her eyes.

"In that case, you can have as many of those chocolates as you want." He smiled before finally walking away from the door, pulling it closed as he did.

When the sound of the door closing hit her ears, her eyes instinctively shut. However, when she opened them, she was in a different place.

She could see the roof of the quinjet and feel the ground moving harshly below her. She also felt herself encased in a hug, but it wasn't from her brother. Instead, wandas arms were wrapped nicely around her as she sat, leaning against her.

Wanda was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall of the quinjet with y/n tucked up in her arms. Wanda's own arms were now wrapped up in bandages that Darcy managed to find, and y/n wore a bandage that tightly wrapped around her wound.

When y/n realised where she was, she finally made a noise and unknowingly confirmed her safety to wanda. The moment wanda heard the faint grunt coming from y/n, she gasped in relief and sat up in a tense, yet somehow relaxed, state.

"You're okay." Wanda's hug became tighter once she realised.

Y/n turned as much as she could and looked up at wanda while laying in her lap, "I'm okay."

With a smile on her face, wanda hunched over and kissed y/n's forehead as much as she could, listening to the way y/n's giggle grew with each one, which caused her to smile while leaving the kisses.

Once she stopped showering her in excited kisses, her hand gently cradled y/n's head, holding it as close to her chest as it could be while wanda's joyful tears slid down her cheeks.

Y/n wrapped her tired arm around wanda as much as she could, "thank you for that." Her eyes began tearing while she sighed, knowing she had gotten the closure she needed, "thank you."