It takes exactly three seconds.
That's how long it takes for everything to fall apart.
Melany barely makes it into the living room before Wanda sees her.
The room is warm—sunlight spilling through the windows in soft golden strips across the floor, the quiet hum of conversation lingering in the air. It feels normal. Safe. Like every other day.
Melany almost believes she can just walk in like nothing's changed.
Like she isn't carrying something new.
Something permanent.
Three seconds.
One—
Wanda looks up from the couch, mid-sentence, something casual still on her lips.
Two—
Her gaze drops.
Locks.
Fixes.
Melany feels it happen before she even follows the line of Wanda's sight. Her fingers twitch slightly at her side, the subtle weight on her hand suddenly impossible to ignore.
Three—
She freezes.
Completely.
Melany stops mid-step.
Her heart kicks once, sharp and sudden.
"...what?"
Silence.
It stretches just long enough to feel fragile.
Then—
"Oh my—"
Wanda stands so fast the cushion shifts behind her, the fabric wrinkling where she'd been sitting like the moment itself got disrupted.
"Oh my GOD."
Melany winces, already laughing because there's no stopping this now. "Wanda—"
"YOU'RE WEARING IT."
Natasha doesn't move right away.
She's seated at the arm of the couch, one leg crossed over the other, drink in hand. Calm. Composed.
Observing.
Always observing.
Her eyes flick slowly to Melany's hand.
The ring catches the light.
A small movement—but it feels loud.
Intentional.
Real.
A beat.
Another.
Then—
"...well," Nat says, setting her glass down with deliberate care, the soft clink grounding in the otherwise charged silence, "it finally happened."
Melany presses her lips together, trying—and failing—not to grin. Her cheeks ache from it already.
Her hand lifts slightly without her permission, thumb brushing the edge of the ring like she needs to feel it again.
"Yeah," she says, softer now. "It did."
And even saying it out loud—
It doesn't feel less surreal.
It feels more.
That's all it takes.
Wanda lets out a sound that is somewhere between a laugh and a full emotional breakdown.
YOU ARE READING
Doll. // Bucky Barnes X OC
FanficMelany Banner has spent her entire life being watched, protected, and managed - all because of who her father is. When a classified S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol forces her into close quarters with James Buchanan Barnes, she expects another soldier followin...
