Night Visions

Chapter 1

She made her way through the darkened halls on slow and silent steps, her nightgown brushing around her ankles. The new facility was vast, a maze of armories and training rooms and sleeping quarters, but she found her way to the kitchen easily enough. It wasn't until Wanda had taken the pitcher from the refrigerator and poured herself a glass that she realized she wasn't alone.

He sat with his back to her, staring out the window. She reached out instinctively, feeling for his mind, but of course he knew that she was there. Still he sat unmoving, stiff and eerily calm, but she caught a fleeting sense of... fascination.

"Drink?"

The Vision turned to regard her with a tilt of the head, a slight twitch of the lips that might have been a smile. "No."

"Right." She approached slowly, sipping at her glass. "And sleep?"

"I do not appear to require it."

"Of course not." She drew even with him. Still he stared up at her, but his face was not so devoid of expression as she had thought. There was a calming quality to his stillness, a softness around the eyes. All it took was someone there to see it. Stepping past, she settled on the couch opposite him and curled her knees beneath her. "So this is what you do? Stare out the window?"

Again, that bemused half-smile. "I am running diagnostics. This body... the potential sensations... I am... well, I suppose I'm cataloguing them. A familiar function. I find it soothing."

"Like meditation."

He inclined his head. "An apt analogy. And a process which your body performs in sleep, in dreams. Yet here you are."

"My dreams are not so good."

"Of course." He turned his gaze back to the window. He would not pry, she knew, would leave her if she only asked. But she found she did not want him to.

"It is just that... when I dreamed, whenever I woke screaming, Pietro would..." She trailed off.

His eyes found hers again. "I am sorry about your brother."

"Are you? You can feel that?"

"I... It is difficult to explain." His smile was sad. "But your sorrow is something I would rather not see."

She shook her head. "All my life he was there, watching over me. I have never been alone. Until now."

"Loneliness is all I have known. Though I must agree that the night is better with company."

Despite herself, she smiled. She was tired suddenly, the sleep that had evaded her coming back in force. Nodding at the couch, she raised her eyes to his. "Would you mind?"

"By all means."

Tucking a pillow beneath her arm, she lay down and curled onto her side. The Vision rose smoothly but he only disappeared long enough to find a blanket and drape it gently over her. Then he returned to his chair.

Her smile was grateful, her eyes already heavy with sleep. "You will stay?"

He inclined his head. "I have nowhere else to be, Miss Maximoff."

"Wanda."

"Wanda..." He seemed to taste the word. "Yes."

Something in his expression made her laugh. But sleep was coming fast, that strange calm washing over her, soothing the dreams away. She let her eyes fall closed, muttering into her pillow. "Thanks, Vihz."