||"There are parts of you that want the sadness."||
Wanda fiddled with her rings, running her finger over them of habit.
Elijah was running a bit late, so Vera had gone off to go check what the hold-up was. In the meantime, Wanda sat cross-legged on the couch, staring at the empty space where Elijah usually sat.
It'd been a week since that morning in which he was unable to speak with her. While he took a week to himself, Wanda and Vera spent a lot more time together. Their yoga classes had grown more fun over the days and Wanda even found herself looking forward to going to them.
She wanted to prepare her body as best as she could before the big day, so if yoga was one way to do that, she'd gladly continue doing it until she couldn't.
Her fingers froze their movements when she heard the sound of the door opening.
Vera walked in first, smiling a bit as she spoke with someone behind her. That someone ended up being Elijah, and he was smiling, too, which brought a surprising amount of ease to Wanda. He looked exactly the way he did during their first session just a few weeks ago: eager to talk with her and genuinely content.
Elijah strode toward her, and Wanda was about to get up to greet him but he raised a hand. "No need," he said to her, and she relaxed against the cushions and smiled at him. "I am so sorry, Wanda. I wasn't feeling my best last time we talked," he pointed to his head, then sat down. "I assure you that it won't happen again."
He loosened his tie, staring down at his notes as he did so. Wanda kept her legs crossed and waited for him to begin.
"I know a week isn't that long, but, how is everything? Any news?"
"Not really," she said. "Everything is about the same," he wrote something in his notes and then set his pen down.
"Good. Can you explain to me why you and your brother left the city after the incident with Trask?"
It was a question she wasn't expecting, and she had to take a minute to really think about it before answering. "It was so that I could get better. Pietro thought I needed some time away from the city and from...from--"
"The Avengers?"
Wanda peered up at him, but then nodded. "Yes."
"It's my understanding that you were still trying to hone your powers during this time, and that stress was a huge trigger for your abilities, which is why your brother took you away after Trask was taken down. That must have been difficult for you."
That day at the factory was always, and still is, a blur. Wanda can easily remember Katarina and Sapphire standing over Trask, their fire so bright and deadly as it glowed blue and gold. Wanda would have stood by and admired it had she not been so consumed by her own anger.
Chaos awoke inside of her that night, and as she sat there just a few feet away from Elijah, she could feel it sitting in her core, quiet and controlled. Her training with Jean Grey and Charles Xavier helped her understand that control. It is why it sat quietly inside of her now.
"I was angry at my brother for taking me away, but I'm glad he did it."
"Why?"
Because of Nik--I met Nik, her voice echoed softly in her head, bringing up an image of his kind face, one she hadn't seen in a week. "I just needed time to find myself, and when you spend seven months in the woods, with so much time to yourself...it's hard not to think about things...about life."
"Did you find inner peace?"
Wanda breathed in quietly, remembering the sounds of the Sokovian wood--the birds, the wind, the animals. She wanted to bottle up that sound and listen to it forever.
