Wonderland: fell down a rabbit hole, you held on tight to me ('cause...

Chapter 5: didn't it all seem new and exciting?

She's woken up by Clint and Pietro after a few hours of rest. Clint shook Pietro awake, but in doing so, startled her too. She, who had been a light sleeper by continuous habits of many lifetimes, for necessity and safety, urgency and Tony's-morning-music-blasting-too-early-parties-because-he-was-hangover- and -drunk-at-the-same-time.

She keeps her eyes closed, insisting on getting a few more moments of sleep, because she is not yet awake, and sleep calls to her like an angel to a good man or woman or person (or robot, or alien, or whatever other species exists). Pietro, however, removes his head from her and shakes her awake. Stubbornly, she refuses to open her eyes.

"Пойдем, Ванда. Я знаю, что ты проснулась. Ты не можешь продолжать спать, мы останемся на корабле. Мы должны идти. (Come on, Wanda. I know you're awake. You can't go on sleeping, we'll stay on the ship. We have to go.)."

"Нахуй отвали, Пьетро. (Fuck off, Pietro.)"

"Отлично. (Fine.)"

She then felt familiar hands hold her up, lifting her from her position, and she rested her head against Pietro. This worked. She closed her eyes again, as he carried her around, from wherever they were. As her eyes close, she vaguely remembers the feeling of being placed down on soft seats, and the new-car smell that she knew only because of her original timeline, 24 year old Wanda wouldn't have known that smell, and would have been too scared to let herself sleep in a new country, but then again, that Wanda didn't have a Pietro to carry her off the boat. Or know that she was the Scarlet Witch and have memories of a different timeline.

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Wanda woke again, in an elevator, still in Pietro's arms, and in a metal box...? No, no they were an elevator. She looked around, and noticed Clint in the elevator with them, raising an eyebrow at her. She stuck her tongue out at him, despite her age physically and mentally, because Clint was as--if not more, sometimes--childish as her most of the time.

She still hasn't forgotten the little prank he pulled on her four days after Christmas, waiting in her bathroom for her to come in and absolutely scaring the crap out of her. She didn't—and still very much doesn't—know what he was at all thinking, to spook the traumatized Sokovian with unknown powers, and yell at her to scare her as soon as she enters, then try to hug her after as some sort of apology as if that was a good idea, while he was still laughing. Needless to say, Clint left her room with a very funny footage of the scare, and an aching back, along with a headache. She later found out it was Steve's idea, but Clint had done it first, stealing the idea from him, because he had wanted to be the one that saw her genuine reaction. Bet he'd regretted that.

When she thought back on it now, the memory was a fond one, something she could think back on and remember with a fond smile, because yeah, she had happy memories, and it wasn't all just sad and Vision. It reminded her of Pietro then, the sort of pranks that he would pull on her even as young children, and made her happy, although also a little paranoid, for the rest of the day.

Now, Wanda sincerely hoped no one would try to redo that prank, especially at a different date, lest she use her now far stronger, far deadlier, far more dangerous powers in response to them. Not that she wouldn't hear them behind the door, but she also probably wouldn't with how high her mental blocks were to others' thoughts unless she wanted to speak to a specific person. Not quite enough still to block out her naturally passive empathic abilities, but most times, she also learned to tune them out, or well, live with them in the back of her mind, unless they were particularly strong emotions that overrode her own.

"Sleeping beauty's awake!" Pietro cheers. "How was your sleep, sestra (sister)?"

"Good." She said, as Pietro started to lower her and she let her feet touch the floor, feeling an instant rush of light nausea run through her as they arrived, despite her years of familiarity with elevators.