❝Sometimes, the last person you'd expect to see again is the one person who will matter the most. But god am I glad to see you.❞
In which two childhood friends reconnect and find love after the loss of their home.
(Full description inside)
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~•✴⭐✴•~ The Calendar | Chapter 27 ~•✴⭐✴•~
Wanda could hear the others over the comms; Natasha had the payload secured and Steve was with Rumlow, the man they had been chasing for the last six months. She ran in Steve's direction, hoping to give him backup if things went south. From what she knew from debriefings, Brock Rumlow was an excellent SHIELD agent and an all around dangerous person with a personal grudge against Steve and Sam.
As she pushed through the crowd and approached the two men, she could hear their conversation. They didn't seem to notice or acknowledge her presence.
"You know, he knew you. Your pal, your buddy, your Bucky." she heard Rumlow say as she got closer. The left side of his face was completely burned, probably a consequence of having a building dropped on him.
She was snapped out of her train of thought once she noticed him pull out a bomb detonater - a detail that, for some reason, Steve didn't notice - and press the button.
She broke through the crowd just in time to encase the burning man in a hex, grunting with effort as she lifted him away from the ground and the civilians. The explosion of the bomb proved too powerful for Wanda's hex though, as it became uncontained and blew up a near by building.
Wanda looked on in horror as she dropped to her knees, covering her mouth with her hand. She had just slipped up and cost people their lives, innocent people who were minding their own business. Their deaths were her fault.
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It was an awkward flight back to the compound. Sam and Natasha had tried to ease her conscience but she just brushed them off, getting wrapped up in her head.
Now she was back in her room, trying to find something, anything, that would get her mind off of what just happened. She grabbed her phone off of her nightstand and checked her messages, seeing that she had a text from Vivian.
Damn. It was only last night that Vivian had texted her to say that she was talking to her mother again. Now Wanda couldn't even pull herself together enough to respond to her. She puts her phone back before turning on her TV and flipping through the channels. Every news station was talking about Lagos and every gossip show was talking about Wanda and how dangerous she was.
Wanda starts to focus on the TV once they start talking about the Avengers.
"They are operating outside and above the international law. Because that's the reality, if we don't respond to acts like these." the news anchor was saying. She starts to tune them out before they shift gears to her individually. "What legal authority does an enhanced individual like Wanda Maximoff have to operate in Nigeri-" The TV was cut off by Steve, who had suddenly drifted into Wanda's room.
"It's my fault." Wanda says, looking at the ground.
"That's not true." Steve says.
"Turn the TV back on. They're being very specific." Wanda retorts, turning her head to face Steve in the doorway.
"I should've clocked that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it." Steve says, walking over to Wanda's bed and sitting next to her. "Rumlow said 'Bucky' and...all of a sudden I was a 16-year-old kid again, in Brooklyn. And people died. It's on me."
"It's on both of us." Wanda corrects Steve, still not giving up her stance. Steve might not have stopped Rumlow, but Wanda was the one who couldn't move him in time. She's the one who physically couldn't stop him.
"This job...We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, next time...maybe nobody gets saved."
Wanda thinks over what Steve said. Eventually she would have to get over what happened to Rumlow and those people, but right now the guilt and sadness was fresh.
A figure phases through Wanda's wall and she jumps before realizing that it was Vision.
"Vizh! We talked about this." Wanda says, thinking back to the first time he did that.
"Yes, but the door was open so I assumed that..." Vision starts to explain, gesturing toward the door before dropping the subject. "Captain Rogers wished to know when Mr. Stark was arriving."
"Thank you. We'll be right down." Steve says.
"I'll... use the door." Vision says, turning to leave Wanda's room before stopping short. "Oh, and apparently, he's brought a guest."
"We know who it is?" Steve asks. Last time Wanda checked, they were only expecting Tony today.
"The Secretary of State."
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Things might start to skip around a bit because we're nearing the end of the story (wow that feels good to say).
Happy New Year's Eve guys🎉 Thank you for the reads and the votes all this year. If it wasn't for y'all I probably would've deleted this fic by chapter three, but now I can say I'm almost done. It been fun writing this since May and updating since June, and I'm really proud of myself. Now let me go before your author's note gets too long.
