The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

Concerns

After the crying passed and the girls fell to sleep back in their bed, the morning rose over the earth. Y/n promised a slow and gentle day for her love after the stressful night they'd had, and Stephen didn't seem to mind letting them rest considering everything they'd been through. The day flowed smoothly and calmly from the moment the sun rose to the moment it began to fall again. Stephen occupied himself to his own work; Wong followed shortly behind him wherever he went. Sam and Bucky didn't seem to mind having a calm day, which was what everyone expected.

After spending the day providing comfort and serenity for the Scarlet Witch, y/n found herself sitting on a bench beside a large window in one of the hollow rooms. The room was mainly filled with artefacts and weapons, which would usually have her attention locked to it, but she was too tired to care for that on this particular day.

Few people made their way past the room, past y/n, but no one stopped to sit with her until Sam had entered. Without saying anything, Sam sat beside her and watched the birds fly by outside of the window, while y/n slouched over and stared into the floor.

At first, he tried to ask her if she was okay, or if she needed anything but the replies were either short of muffled by her mumble. So, he thought to ask her about something she'd want to talk about without realising that it was the very thing that would break her.

"How's Wanda? She alright?" He asked, hoping the answer would shift her out of the void-like state she was consumed in.

"There's something different about the way she looks at me." She mumbled, gently sliding her hands against each other.

His brows furrowed as he focused, "what do you mean?"

"She's keeping something from me, Sam." She nodded to herself, staring off into the same plank of wood.

"Y/n," Sam nudged her until she finally turned to face him, "you know that's ridiculous, right? She wouldn't keep anything from you, she loves you more than anything."

With the skin of her lip caught between her teeth, she continued to look at the floor as if nothing burned behind her eyes. "There's something she isn't telling me."

"It can't be anything to worry about," he shuffled closer as he spoke, "she'd only ever keep something from you to protect you, not hurt you."

"I'm not worried about her hurting me, I'm worried about her hurting herself. She's hurting, Sam. I don't know how I can bring her close to me again."

"What do you mean by that?"

Y/n turned, forcing her tired eyes to look into Sam's hopeful ones. "What if we're never going to be the same again?"

Then, Sam's hope flushed from him and his lips parted in shock at what he heard. Y/n was never one to express herself, but when Sam heard how she truly felt - what she truly feared - he didn't know how to react.

"Y/n, you-"

Before he could offer any kind of support to the pained witch, the doors to the room were pushed open under the weight of three people. Stephen walked through confidently, not even glancing at the two who sat by the window. Wong accompanied Strange, but sent an aquatinted nod to the guests in the room. Then, wanda shyly entered. Once she saw where y/n was, she hid her hands in the long sleeves of her cardigan and made her way over.

"Y/n, training soon, don't forget." Strange blandly told her before exiting the room out of another door. He clearly wasn't there to make conversation with anyone.

"Your gear is folded on your bed for whenever you're ready." Wong turned around to add before disappearing behind Strange.

"Thanks, Wong." Y/n weakly smiled, knowing nobody would notice it.

When Wanda sat on the bench and muttered a subtle, "hey," Sam cleared his throat to catch the attention once again.

"Are you gonna be alright?" He asked, looking directly at y/n.

She didn't let herself think of the answer before blurting it out, "I'll be fine. Go annoy Bucky, he's had a peaceful day so far, it's unfair."

Y/n diverted her attention to watch the way Wanda tucked her legs under her body to face the window, while Sam watched her face.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Sam, just go," she told him, "I'm fine, I promise."

Even though it was clear that he didn't believe it, he removed himself from the room in hopes that time alone with Wanda would bring light to y/n again.

"Did you get bored in the library?" Y/n asked, instantly diving into a conversation with Wanda to distract herself.

"I wanted to come find you," she answered, her gaze casted upon the view outside of the window, "wanted to see what you were doing. If you were okay."

Y/n smiled dolefully while brushing her fingers along the back of Wanda's hand. "I'm okay, Wanda."

"Good, I'm glad." Wanda reciprocated the hand touching, but kept her eyes away.

"What about you?" She asked in return, "how have you been?"

Wanda sighed calmly, "I'm better. I've just been thinking. I've thought about so much since I came back."

Studying her expression with her beady eyes, y/n softly asked, "like what?"

"About the future," Wanda finally faced her. Finally. Y/n stared into her eyes with concern, "about how we're going to get out of this."

"It's just Agatha, right? All we've gotta do is kick her ass, it'll be simple," she tried to console her, even though Wanda didn't seem to be too worried about that specifically, "it'll be fine."

"Agatha isn't the only old wound that's come back up." She removed her hand from y/n's and faced the view again.

Even though wanda had turned away as if the sentence was nothing of importance, y/n couldn't take her suspicious eyes off of the side of her face.