Which Monster Is Worse?

The Truth is Often so Much Simpler.

It was truly paradoxical, this moment in time. Two souls with everything left to lose except each other. Yet their happy ending was set in stone by time itself. This much was true as they'd either end up side by side or simply none the wiser about the existence of the other.

Every other possibility of their lives flashed like TV channels through Adam's mind with each step he took towards her. The air was jovial, sure. But uncertainty weighed the atmosphere as Adam gently laid his hands over Wanda's shoulders. The tension in her body was palpable as Adam could feel the muscles beneath his hands unwavering to their weight.

"What's gotcha quiet, love?" Adam asked as he rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Where do we go from here?" The question was hopeful, but the tone it was said in was certainly melancholic.

"That's a great question..." Adam responded in a quiet voice, beginning to sway side to side with his heels kneading the dirt beneath them. It's in the caretaker's instinct to sway while holding a stressed infant or child. Granted, Wanda was neither a child nor infant, she certainly did need another voice to break the uncertain nature of her stressed silence.

"Well..." Adam began after putting the words in the proper order.

"I noticed you put the school somewhat back in shape. We can start getting everything in order on that front. There will definitely be people needing our help." The pause in his words left room for a reply from Wanda.

"There always will be." Her tone sounded more so exhausted than hopeful.

"While that may be true, we have a few people that need our help back at the cabin." Adam spoke as if just coming to the realization that they weren't alone. As he began to pull his arms off of her waist, Wanda clutched at his wrists.

"Don't leave. Not yet." The words were spoken quickly as she turned to face the man behind her.

"Can we....please...just sit here for a little bit?" The exhaustion was no longer just in the tone of her voice, rather plastered across her face.

Although his apprehension to go check on Pietro was bugging his mind, Adam shook his head slowly and brushed a few strands of hair behind her ear with his right hand.

"Of course...yeah we can rest here for a little while." A gentle smile wore itself proudly on his face as he sat down slowly, guiding her to a seated position in front of him.

"There's more on your mind right now. I don't have to have your powers to know that." Adam began, preparing to weasel the truth from Wanda in the form of a speech laden with anecdotes and philosophical waxing. Instead, she answered outright with little to no hesitation.

"When I called out to you after everything happened at the school, after what Charles had done...why did you come back? Why didn't you run as far away as you could? Why did you have to see all of this?" Her questions came one after the other in a perfect parallel to the spiral of doubt in her mind.

"I'm sure you want some sort of fairy tale answer about the power of unrequited love and transcendence of our earthly tethers through the power of love." Adam began, taking both of her hands in his own. As he did so, he kept his eyes on them as they rested in his lap along with his hand.

"But the truth is often so much simpler...." He raised one of her hands to his lips and pressed them against her knuckles gently before running his thumb over a line of skin on her ring finger that was shades paler than the rest of the finger.

"You needed help...from somebody that saw you as... well as you. I told you that your name was all I knew. And that....was a little bit of a lie." A smile played at his lips while his eyes still scanned her hands absentmindedly.