Living In Her Shoes : W Maximoff

2. Is this a dream or a nightmare

As Luke walked into his room after saying goodnight to the rest of the team, he felt a chill run down his spine often a warning a precognitive vision would occur, or that the temperature was very low, mainly due to Nat preferring cold temperatures by far in comparison to hot, everyone dealt with that but now with a speedster on the team, cold would not be healthy for him.

Luke spent most of his downtime around computers before Vision was created and Wanda and Pietro joined the team, sometimes he and Jarvis the towers AI before Friday took over and Jarvis was placed in vision, they'd have friendly hacking and programming contests. Luke won about 8 out of 10 times, those 2 losses he let Jarvis win out of respect to the AI and Stark.

Recently Luke had been working on his own AI for his suit, which he chose to name Esme after his best friend who died in a car crash during the Chitauri invasion years earlier, she was a sweet girl, cared about everyone no matter their flaws and happened to be the niece of Bruce Banner, Luke hated to recall the memory of her dying in his arms, but he wanted to do this to help honour her memory. He had a little help from Tony setting the base code but that was the only help Luke had wanted, he worked alone on things like this.

After about three hours he decided to call it quits for the night, there was a lot he had planned for the next day after the post-mission meeting. Mainly teaching Wanda archery, of which he had to modify his spare compound bow to be less tense once drawn back as her main strength is phycological rather than physical, what he was truly thinking was that he didn't want it to be too hard for her or cause it to hurt her. Once that was done Luke walked towards his hammock, the only avenger who had one, Stark did once but feel off in the middle of the night, to Nat's amusement. It didn't take long for Luke to fall asleep but when he did the nightmare took hold.

-Dream in Luke's POV-

He was running after me, like a frenzied beast crazing the powerful gift I held, precognition, if he got it he could wield it from me, conquer the world, other worlds maybe even the universe. But as I race through this bloodied dreamscape of the tower the others couldn't see me or hear me as if my pursuer wants me to feel abandoned, lost, hated and betrayed as if I was left to die by those I love most. But from around the next corner, a darker more evil-looking version of me turned it firing a poisonous arrow through my right lung, throwing me to the ground on my knees coughing up blood and choking on my breath unable to say anything. I tried to stand but the dark imitation of me rushed me kicking me down and shoving the short blade I forged a week after I joined the team through my stomach twice and one in the heart leaving it there dying on the floor outside Wanda's door and her not seeing me, nobody seeing me.

- In Luke's room outside the dream -

"something was wrong with him, his brain is going crazy as if he's been trapped within a nightmare," Wanda said to the team as they all started to gather outside Luke's room.

"It's probably the nightmare where he's being chased by something monstrous, his description, not mine" Clint responded raising his hands in surrender

"whatever it is we have to get in there and wake him" Steve commented

"Friday can you get it open" Tony commanded towards the AI

"maybe sir, Luke programmed his door to responded to Esme's coding, before you all ask Esme is the AI he has been working on, I could try to communicate through and hack it open but Luke is the better hacker" Friday responded

"then do it," everyone said

As Friday opened the door Wanda and Thor crossed the threshold into Luke's room and as soon as they were in Luke's bulkhead doors closed detecting insane levels of power erupting from within. Given a god and two as powerful as gods, all Wanda and Thor had to do was wake up Luke and get his precognitive vision/dream to end in which would hopefully open the bulkhead doors Tony designed as safeguards of potential hostile presences.

As the duo cautiously walked through Luke's room Wanda noticed a red jacket on a mannequin similar to her and thought to herself about why Luke might have it, she said to herself that once the situation had calmed down she'd ask him about it. Thor opened the door to Luke's bedroom to find him shrouded in a green smoke cloud clear enough to see through.

"Which one of us should go through this cloud?" Thor asked

"I'll do it, he saved me back in Sokovia so it's my turn to save him" she replied at the same time as she started walking through the mist, using her telekinetic powers around herself forming what looked like a skin-tight bubble protecting her from any potential negative side effects it might cause. every step she took felt heavier than the previous step but still just as easy. as she reached the bed she moved her right and carefully took hold of Luke's left one. As she sat by his side this mist started to dissipate and she slowly leaned forward planting a kiss on his forehead. Red energy flowed around the room calming down both Wanda's fear of accidentally hurting Luke and Luke's fear of his dream.

Suddenly the bulkhead doors swung open and the others rushed in to see Thor standing outside the room that was just filled with the green mist, they all stood at the door frame minus Clint who raced to his son's side and to thank Wanda for calming Luke's mind

"you don't need to thank me, thank Friday for connecting through to Esme and getting the door open for me and Thor to get in here" she replied

"Esme? He finished his AI in a week? It took me a year to make Jarvis and Friday fully operational" Tony stated in a manner that made his intellect feel inferior.

Almost as soon as Stark finished talking Luke's eyes suddenly rushed open and had a startled look in his eyes one that Wanda used to experience when she was terrified by something and know the person she loved most even if they didn't know she did had the same look of fear

"I'll stay with him." Wanda argued "It's best not to leave him alone right now, especially after such a nightmare"

"fine, don't worry about going to the post-mission meeting tomorrow" Steve commented feeling sympathy for the pair.

after the team left Wanda grabbed Luke a glass of water. She promised herself she wouldn't let anyone she cared about get hurt, whether it was physically or mentally. They sat there beside Luke's hammock chatting and Wanda asked what he was dreaming about not expecting him to want to tell her but he did, he told her how long it had been happening, what he thinks is causing it, or what it could mean.

"if you want you can go into my mind and watch it over, I'm perfectly ok with that you know" he stated almost stuttering at the start

"no, but I can help you sleep and have a nicer dream if you want that is" she responded hoping he'd say yes

"you being by my side makes me happier and calmer, in truth, I like you Wanda not as a friend or a teammate but as someone I'd protect from harm no matter the cost to me"

"Luke, I was actually about to confess my feeling to you then but you beat me to it"

"Stay the night, as Cap said he thinks it best if we miss the meeting, we'll have more time for me to teach you archery most of the day," Luke said. He fell in love with Wanda the second he saw her not realizing that she felt the same way about him ever since the first contact between them.

"Ok, let's get some sleep and have fun tomorrow" Wanda flirted back