Dreams of another life

VIIII

He let go pretty quickly, maybe thinking he'd overstepped because she didn't respond to his actions. He hadn't.

He cleared his throat, "I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that." And it was true, he didn't, he wasn't an affectionate person. Hell, the only person he'd hugged in nearly a hundred years was Steve.

Relief had flooded through him when he saw her.

"No it's...okay" Wanda spoke. Bucky noticed her accent was thicker than before. "Where are we?"

"You don't know?" He thought she'd might've figured it out.

"No, I don't. I can see the mirror dimension though" she mused.

"Wanda, we're inside the mirror dimension" he told her.

"I-I don't understand. How are you here?"

"I...it's...is there a place we can sit? This might take a while" he struggled.

Wanda led him to the porch of what he presumed to be her house. It was the only one he hadn't seen in Westview. She moved slowly, lethargic.

Sitting side by side on the top step, Bucky chose to look at the tree before him rather than her as he spoke.

"After everything that happened with you and Strange, I started...dreaming of you" he started, embarrassed.

"I know."

"Well, I went to Sam because I thought that I could help you if I had him too. He took us to see a woman, Darcy, to get the tapes from Westview."

Wanda flinched, "you've seen those?"

"Yeah. But anyway we went to see Strange after, to find out why I was dreaming of you and he explained about how there are all these universes and dreams are like glimpses or whatever. But the ones I was talking about weren't about us living together or being...it was the ones you did on purpose, didn't you?"

"Yes, I-I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Strange told us you were dead, died at that mountain place. But he lied to us. Sent us to Westview, we spoke to Monica and Agatha when he knew all along where you were" his metal fist clenched.

"You went looking for me?"

"'Course. You...the dreams I had you were begging for help and you looked hurt" he glanced over to her, still finding it unbelievable that she had the same cuts and bruises he'd seen. "I couldn't do nothing."

Wanda picked at her nails.

"He told us eventually, Strange. Him and Wong found you in the rubble, not conscious and put you in here. They were scared, didn't know if you'd be you or the Scarlet Witch."

"I am the Scarlet Witch. There is no difference between us. It...it was that fucking book. It did something to me" she scoffed.

"I know that and so does Sam. Strange is just...scared. Enough that he almost didn't let me in here and lied about you being dead" Bucky said.

"People will always be scared of me" she barely whispered.

"I'm not" he answered immediately. "I wouldn't be sitting here if I was."

Wanda went quite, retreating into her mind.

"I remember when you didn't talk so much" she finally spoke.

He laughed then, the most he had in a while. "You can thank my therapist."

"You're in therapy?" she sounded unbelieving.