Night Visions

Chapter 8

Was this what it was to sleep? He would not lose consciousness, of course, would never achieve the depths of R.E.M. cycle. His mind needed no dreams to catalog and encode the information of the day. But he lay on his back with his eyes closed, studying the loosening tension of his limbs, wondering at the heavy calm spreading through his chest. No, not sleep. But the Vision understood now what it was to be at rest.

Wanda had already slipped beyond the waking world. She lay curled against him, her head pillowed on his chest, each breath stirring warm against his skin. He measured them, counting the silent spaces in between, feeling the beating of her heart where flesh met flesh. A dialogue between physical forms, wordless yet powerful, one more of the many wonders she had shown him.

She had slipped into his mind before they returned to her room, her presence a slight but comforting pressure behind his eyes, not unlike the feeling of her fingers knotted through his. She meant to reassure him, he knew, to look without fear, without turning away. When he stopped to take her in his arms and kiss her again, he felt her flare inside him, the ember glowing, warming them both, swelling until it threatened to engulf him. But then she had pulled away, taking his hand again as she led him on.

"What did you see?" He asked the question with a hesitation that might have been dread. He relished the connection, as new and intriguing as all the rest – as a conversation or a handshake, as the simple pleasure of standing beside his teammates. But this was different, unique... and it only went one way. He had often wondered what it would be like to see into her. Even from the first, he had put his new senses to the task, attempting to measure her, to quantify her, to find some understanding, a reason for his fascination. Still it had eluded him, still the feeling had defied description. It wasn't until he paused to study his own perplexity that the word had presented itself.

"Light." She turned to look back at him. "Most people, their minds are a mess. They are full of fear, full of anger, with dark corners where all the bad things that have ever happened to us hide. You are different."

"Perhaps I only need time. I am rather new to this. And it seems I am not without the capacity for anger, for doubt."

She smiled. "Is that all?" They had reached her door. Pushing it aside, she led him inside.

Guilt stirred as he remembered how he had left her here, glaring up at him from the floor as she tried to hide her tears. He wanted to take her in his arms, to apologize again, but she pulled away, stepping back toward the bed. In that moment, she also left his mind and the compounded loss was almost more than he could bear.

Wanda studied him from across the room, as though she could sense his need. Perhaps she was as surprised as he, but then she was pulling her nightgown up and over her head, her smile softening even as a challenge flared behind her eyes.

He knew that he should avert his gaze – he had been well versed in matters of propriety – but found that he could not. The nightgown had not hidden terribly much and he had spent many nights with her body pressed against his, but he found once more that his appraisal had fallen short, that his curiosity had failed to truly capture the sense of her that suffused each gentle curve, each careful step as she made her way back toward him.

She tilted her head to look up at him. "What?"

"I..." Still he was at a loss for words, unable to turn his eyes away.

"It is only fair. I saw you." She smirked. "We all did."

"Then I am glad it is you standing here and not Mr. Stark."

Laughing, she lay a hand on his chest, her eyes widening as the molecules of his uniform shifted and began to recede. "That's... convenient."

"I find it to be." He smiled down at her, holding her gaze until his flesh was as bare as her own.

She was in his arms then and he was lifting her to him, carrying her back toward the bed. Her hair spread out around her as he lay her down amongst the pillows. So small she looked, so pale, delicate but fierce, soft but strong, a gift to be at once protected and devoured. The dichotomy awoke an ache that staggered him. For a long moment he could only stare, trailing a wondering finger down her cheek, her neck, her collar bone.

"Are you certain...?"

For answer, she pushed herself up to meet him, stealing the doubts from his tongue, filling his mind with light as her lips parted beneath his. Down she drew him, the warmth of her enveloping him without and within. He knew the capacity of this form, the functions that he had not dared to contemplate, but that had become increasingly difficult to dismiss whenever she was near.

But she was probing deeper, activating synapses that burst brilliant behind his eyes, feeling as he felt, using it to guide her hands and draw out dizzying gasps of new sensation. His lips were moving over her, tracing the lines that his fingers had made, opening deeper, sweeter pathways as she shuddered beneath him. He gave himself over to her then, to a place beyond questions, beyond doubt, bringing all the untouched strength of his form to bear. Had it truly been his own before this moment? Had he truly been anything at all?

His face was buried against her neck, her arms wrapped tight around him, but the swelling sense of vertigo nagged until he glanced up.

Wanda saw his smile. He nodded and she followed his gaze, a laugh bursting from her lips as she saw the bed floating far below them. "Are you doing this?"

"It would seem that you are." Then he was kissing her again, tasting her laughter, chuckling himself as the world spun to place her above him. Still they floated, still her legs wrapped round to pull him close, the air crackling electric as she rose and fell above him.

The memory was a sweet one and the idea that he could lay here replaying it in his mind was a pleasure all its own. But she was stirring beside him now, opening one eye to smile up at him as he swept the hair back from her forehead.

"No more nightmares?"

Her voice was a whisper. "No more nightmares."