Trial and Triumph (A winterwitch story)

The Nightmares

She lay there in bed, surrounded by darkness. His touch still lingered on her skin, even after two days. All she could think about was him, holding her. Being in his strong arms she felt safe, the first time she truly felt at home in quite a while. She found herself slipping into a trance, where all she could see, hear, or smell was him. Then suddenly...

CRASH

"Wanda, Wanda! Are you alright?" He ran over to her bed and hopped up beside her. She sat up and he cupped her face in hands. "Yes, yes I'm alright of course I am." She stammered. "What is it?" "Oh thank god" he rasped. Engulfing her in a hug. "Bucky, whats going on?" She repeated, he was scaring her. She didn't like to see him frightened. Bucky started, slowly "I was in a cell, a gray dank room. I heard screams coming from outside and saw flashing lights. Suddenly I ran over to the door of the cell and started pounding on it, screaming 'No, take me.' I tore at the metal until my hands bled. Then they tossed a boy into the cell and grabbed me, they hooked me up to this machine, this torture device and I felt so much pain." He paused, and then continued. "I closed my eyes and when I opened them again I was back in the cell, alone. It was dark and quiet, then I heard voices." He took a breath and looked up into her eyes, "There were men, calling things to me, crude, awful things, the worst type of thing. That's when I realized this wasn't my dream. Dozens more scenarios like that followed and in one I looked up into a broken piece of glass and I saw whose body I was in. Yours." With that help ran a hand through her hair, tenderly. "What does this mean?" His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I'm so sorry, I never thought this would happen." She choked out, "I mean, it was a possibility but a far off one." "Wanda what is it?" He grabbed her hand, to steady and reassure her. "When you open a door it goes two ways," she sighed, "When I went into your mind, when I 'fixed' you it opened up a sort of link between us." A smile played on his lips at the mention of a link. "Those nightmares you had, well, they aren't nightmares," she bit her lip. "They're my memories." He reached a hand up towards her face, holding her cheek in his palm. "Those screams," he said softly. "Pietro's" she stated curtly, "and later mine." "How old were you?" "What" she asked looking down. "How old when those men talked to you?" He said again, his face flushed with rage. "I was thirteen when it began," she said, softly as if admitting a secret. "It never went beyond taunts, but I just," She shuddered, their comments echoing through her mind. His face was flushed with rage, he was practically shaking with anger. But then he looked down at her. She wasn't angry, or in a fit of rage, she was sad and accepting. It was a fact of life for her. That's what broke his heart, that she could be so young and know so much pain. He stared at his beautiful enigma and could no longer control the raging emotions inside him. He wrapped his hands around her, pulling her in and began to kiss her. She melted into him, pushing and pulling like ocean waves. He caressed her body and slowly moved his hands up towards her head. He wrapped them and knotted them in that captivating river of her hair. She placed her hands on her chest, slowly bringing them up towards his shoulders and then wrapping them around his neck. He slowly moved down to her neck. It was only then that she realized his metal hand was wrapped around her neck. It didn't feel cold, it felt warm, nice. He pulled away, pressing his forehead against her. In a breathy voice he said softly "I've been wanting to do that for a long time." He emphasized the last two words. "Mmmhhhmm" Was all Wanda could muster. Slowly he got up and left, sneaking back down the hallway into his room. But not before planting a trail of kisses from her mouth down her neck to her collarbone. "Night, doll" was all he whispered before he left.

As Wanda sunk back into the knotted sheets, her body tingling all over, she knew one thing, she would not be getting any sleep tonight.