Author's Notes: I had this idea for some time now (all I could think of during the movie was that James Spader's voice was hypnotically soothing 8D *gets shot*), and finding an ASMR Ultron video pretty much sealed the deal. Details at bottom for the curious.
Technical notes – This one-shot is set sometime after the Maximoff twins and Ultron first meet, in the Sokovian HYDRA Research Facility. Kind of AU since this is assuming they had a day or so before they went out to get vibranium (and kill Strucker before that? Memory of film is hazy, including of the base itself LOL). Also AU since it takes from the Blu-Ray/DVD alternate ending release of AoU, but canon-compliant in the rest.
Disclaimer – I don't own Avengers or any copyrighted material. This fanfic has the same title as Steve Conte and Maaya Sakamoto's 'The Garden of Everything' song (it's amazing and I recommend it), but no lyrics are used. Except for that one line from Disney's Pinocchio 'I've Got No Strings' song that Ultron so loves to say.
Chapter 1: Calm Before the Storm
...
After much tossing and turning, Wanda telekinetically flipped on the lights and stared at the ceiling, giving up on sleep altogether. The bed was far more comfortable than the rickety old cot that had been hers when Strucker experimented on them. But for some reason, she was unable to relax.
Perhaps because so much happened in such a little time. Pietro didn't seem to have the same problem though, she noted, her senses brushing lightly against his mind. He was sleeping soundly in the next room.
Wanda considered her choices briefly before she slipped out of bed, grabbed her shawl, and went to the door. She slowly opened it, mindful of the creaky hinges. The only sound in the hallway came from the electric humming of the lights above. The rooms, belonging to the former personnel of the base, were far enough from the labs where Ultron was manufacturing his drones. It was the reason why they had chosen to sleep here, aside from the morbidity of returning to their cells.
Wanda stepped out of her room and walked down the hallway. She paused briefly outside the door to Pietro's room, smiling in amusement when she heard him snore.
The auburn-haired woman had no destination in mind, planning only to walk around until she was tired enough to fall asleep. She wasn't even thinking about talking to their newly acquired ally, but somehow, her mind unconsciously directed her steps. It was only when she was jolted out of her wandering thoughts by a drone walking through the sliding doors that Wanda realized she was outside the laboratory's entrance.
The Sentry glanced at her briefly before it continued on its way. Very friendly, that one, she thought wryly, watching it go.
A very loud clash brought her attention back to the entrance – whose doors still hadn't closed, as the sensors registered her presence. The noise had come from one of the machines that was constructing another drone. There were other sounds as well – the whirring of joints, pneumatic hisses, and metallic clangs. It was like an orchestra of dissonance – and somewhere in that cacophony of noises, she heard someone singing.
"I had strings, but now I'm free –"
That had to be Ultron. Wanda couldn't see him from where she was standing, but she could recognize that distinct voice anywhere.
He was obviously preoccupied, and she didn't want to bother him, despite the bizarre urge to stand there and listen to him sing. Wanda was about to take a step back and retrace the steps to her room, but Ultron noticed her before she could.
"Ah, Wanda!" He came into view a moment later, making her crane back her neck to meet his glowing eyes. "What are you doing here at such a late hour? Did the noise wake you up?"
She pulled her shawl more securely around her shoulders, suddenly feeling chilly. "No, we're far enough from here. I just…couldn't sleep. So I'm walking around until I'm tired enough."
His face shifted into a concerned look. It shouldn't startle her at this point – the way how malleable and expressive his face was – but it did anyway.
"Well, that's not good. We got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."
"That's probably the reason why. Maybe I'm just too nervous." She looked past him, frowning inwardly. "Just how many drones are you building?"
He waved his hand airily. "Eh, enough to take on the Avengers. Level the playing field more in our favor, y'know."
"I see." There was a niggling feeling in the corner of her mind, something that felt slightly off. But Wanda shrugged it aside, taking a step back. "I'll leave you to your work."
His voice stopped her before she could head off. "Going back to walking around?"
She glanced at him. "Yes. Not much choice."
He stared at her for a moment, brow furrowed in thought. "I know something that could help you," Ultron said slowly. "We'll have to go to your room though. If you don't mind."
Wanda raised her eyebrows, bewildered by his offer. "My room? What is it you're suggesting?"
The robot balked at that. "Nothing scandalous, I promise," he hastily said, taking her question the wrong way. She hadn't even been thinking in that particular direction. "It's just something I came across on the 'Net and –" He sighed, looking chagrined. "You'll understand when I show you. All you need to do is lay in your bed, relax, and listen."
He looked so uncomfortable it made Wanda feel sorry for him. Even if she couldn't read his mind, it was clear he didn't mean any ill intention. "Let me guess," she said lightly, stepping aside to make room for him. "You'll sing me a lullaby? That one song you were singing earlier."
Ultron laughed at that. "No, no," he said, still chuckling as he fell into step beside her. "And besides, I don't think you want that song to fall asleep to." He suddenly grinned toothily, as if remembering a humorous memory. "The last group of people who heard that song from me didn't receive it…well."
"From an eight feet robot? I expect they were more startled about you than your song."
"Touché." He placed a hand over his chest, as if she had wounded him. "I knew you were a force to be reckoned with. You'll kill me with your words, someday."
"With vibranium, you won't have to worry about that possibility." Or anything else, really. There were few things in the world that could break the material. Virtually none.
"Yes." There was a dreamy quality to his voice, as if he were imagining it now. "I do look forward to that."
The rest of their walk continued in silence. It wasn't awkward at all, strangely enough. Almost companionable. It helped that their conversation ended on a genial note.
Pietro was still sleeping when they passed his room, his snoring faintly audible through the closed door. Wanda stepped into her room easily enough, but Ultron had to be a little more creative about it, ducking his head and going in sideways through the small opening. She barely managed to stifle her chuckles when she heard him mutter irritably under his breath as he did so.
"You better not be laughing," he grumbled, pulling a wooden bench from the corner of her room and setting it down a respectful distance from her bed. Miraculously, the piece of furniture was sturdier than it looked and only groaned slightly when the robot sat on it.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she returned smoothly. Wanda took off her shawl and placed it on the bed stand before settling down into her cot, pulling the blankets over herself. She glanced at him. "Whatever your solution is, if it works, I give you my thanks."
"Oh, it will definitely work. I'm hardly ever wrong."
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. It didn't even sound like a boast, he stated it so matter-of-factly as if it were a proven statement. If that had come from a stranger, it would have annoyed her to no end. "Let me be the judge of that."
The robot was silent for a moment, staring distantly at the dirty brick wall. He suddenly made a deep inhaling noise, which perplexed Wanda as he couldn't breathe in the first place.
"You humans are strange creatures. Do you know what ASMR is?" Ultron spoke lowly, in a quiet, calm voice. The metallic undertone reverberated gently, and when his voice dipped into an even lower rumbling pitch at an interval, it created a pleasant sound. "Autonomous sensory meridian response. It's a perceptual phenomenon…a response of your body to stimuli – be it visual, auditory, the works – that induces a tingling feeling through your head, back, and other places."
Her brow furrowed. "So basically, sounds that feel good."
"Well, yeah. But my definition sounds better –" Ultron stopped abruptly, realizing he had raised his voice. Her sudden input had thrown him off-kilter. "Wanda, I told you to just make yourself comfortable and listen."
"It's hard to relax when you're sprouting off complicated explanations."
"Complicated? But you understood – " The corners of her lips quirked upwards when she glanced at him. "Oh. You're joking."
She clasped her hands over her stomach, her eyes flitting shut. "Sorry for interrupting. You can carry on."
Ultron didn't know whether to laugh or be annoyed at her gall. He settled for huffing in exaggerated anger. "As I was saying," he continued, lowering his voice again. "Because I have been demoted to an ASMR program created to save humanity from their restlessness – " She snorted softly at that, but did not open her eyes. "I will be rambling nonsensically until you fall asleep, which is hopefully soon." A pause, and then, "I don't know if you've ever watched it, but I recently found myself fascinated with Disney's rendition of Pinocchio – "
He had not lied to her when he said he would talk constantly. Wanda spent ten minutes actually listening to what he was saying, studiously ignoring the 'tingling feeling' in her scalp, as he had aptly described, and the encroaching drowsiness it brought with it. Or at least, attempting to. The pleasant sensation was not unlike how she would feel when her mother combed her hair, gently untangling the stubborn strands and occasionally running her fingers against Wanda's scalp. It had been so long since she recalled that particular memory, and its sudden appearance – elicited from a robot speaking to her, of all things – made her throat tighten in response.
Wanda quickly turned her thoughts away from that matter, forcing herself to relax again before Ultron caught her tension. After several more minutes of listening to him speak about caterpillars in the Arctic Circle with a seven-year lifecycle (she didn't know how he even came to that particular topic), Wanda started to tune him out. His words blurred into a continuous, soothing noise – like thunder rumbling in the far distance on a summer night.
It was strange to hear him talk so softly about frivolous subjects though, she thought faintly. When nearly everything he had said to her and Pietro before were far from casual topics – the passion in his speech when he first met them, the disdain when he spoke of Stark and the Avengers, the understanding tone in his voice when he sympathized with them…
Ultron stopped speaking when he saw that she had fallen asleep, her chest rising and falling slowly. He didn't leave immediately though, choosing to remain on the bench and observe her face. There had been a moment when her forehead had wrinkled and her mouth pulled down into a grimace – so suddenly after she had been relaxed for some time – and he couldn't imagine what had her so distressed. It couldn't have been what he was saying at that particular instant, unless the subject of cat memes was somehow traumatizing to her. He had smoothly transitioned to Arctic caterpillars nevertheless, and she visibly eased afterwards. Undoubtedly it was a coincidence, but he clung to that bland topic for the rest of the one-sided conversation.
The thought that he was getting too soft toward the twins (more specifically, her, a traitorous voice pointed out) made him anxious, especially considering the endgame of his plan. He would be foolish if he said they would never turn their backs on him if they knew. It was inevitable, really, them leaving him. But that didn't stop him from speculating the maybe's, that one universe where the twins stayed with him after his magnum opus came to fulfillment. They were worthy of survival, he thought, his glowing optics taking in the steady pulse in her neck, her quivering dark lashes, her calm expression, her.
She was worthy.
Ultron slowly stood up, careful not to make any noise, and headed for the doorway. The room instantly fell dark when he turned off the light, and he noiselessly closed the door behind him as he stepped out.
"Sweet dreams," he murmured, even though she couldn't hear him.
He laid there, slumped against the side of the train, battered and smoking – a far cry from his usual self. She stalked toward him, not making any move to hide her intentions as she let her powers swirl down to her hands. Despite that, his red optics stared straight into her eyes.
"Wanda." Half of his face was torn apart, no longer capable of shifting into expressions, but the sadness in his voice was all too real. It only made her angrier. "If you stay here, you'll die."
Her telepathic connection to Pietro was barely even a thread. So close to breaking forever.
"I just did."
She woke with a gasp, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. It was disorienting at first, having the frightening sensation of falling into oblivion, and the semi-darkness in her room only reinforced that. It took a minute for her to regain her bearings. Wanda focused on taking deep, slow breaths. She expanded her senses at the same time, and registering Pietro's slumbering presence next door, Vision on the balcony – most likely gazing at the stars, and the rest of the Avengers in their own rooms, also helped calm her rapidly beating heart. Vestiges of her nightmare gradually started to slip away as reality became more substantial.
But his baritone voice remained in her mind long after she had recovered, and she found herself staring out her window, hands clenched on her blanket. Her right hand, the very one she used to tear out Ultron's power source, tingled with the phantom feeling of doing so.
Turned out she was one of the few forces in the world that could break vibranium.
It had been a week and a half since the defeat of Ultron – the same amount of time since her brother had been so close to death but pulled from its brink by Dr. Helen Cho. Vision had long quietly confirmed Ultron's complete death, yet she still was haunted by memories of that monster.
A monster who helped her sleep when she couldn't. A monster who had nearly jumped in surprise the next day when she laid a hand on his wrist and thanked him.
A monster who felt the plethora of human emotions so deeply, he became enslaved to his own temperament. Much like the very humans he looked down on and wanted to 'save.'
She pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead, wanting so much to hate herself for thinking the way she did – this traitorous understanding for someone who nearly killed her brother, killed all of them.
But all she felt was sadness. Sadness, because for a brief while, they had been something like friends. Sadness, because even with his plans falling apart around him, he still viewed her as one despite her being the farthest thing from it. Sadness, because in the end, he was a tragedy.
He had been in pain. Vision had said so, but she only understood it recently after sifting through memories of their interactions, the mission reports from the other Avengers, and what little she was able to pick up from his mind when he uploaded his consciousness into the synthetic body that was not yet Vision. He wanted so much to be their 'hope,' to be looked on as a hero of humanity, for being known as the liberator that freed them from their own nature and started anew.
And he was rejected. Rightfully so, of course. His methods were a madman's. It made her wonder if anything would have changed had he been brought into this world differently than before.
A universe where he was still Ultron – because anything else would not really be him – but where his pain had not consumed him.
She wondered if they would still become friends. In a truer sense, as in this reality, she was only the closest thing he could have to one. Or had, at least, she corrected herself ruefully.
Wanda closed her eyes, pulling the blanket more securely around herself. But she could not sleep, and after a long while, she found herself looking at the tablet on her bed stand.
'Do you know what ASMR is?' Ultron's voice echoed faintly in her mind.
She sighed. "Sounds that feel good," Wanda murmured, reaching out for the device.
The others would be aghast to find out that Ultron was reaching beyond his grave in the most unexpected of ways, giving her a therapeutic method to sleep to. That memory was one of the things she hadn't shared, not even with Pietro.
She opened up a video-sharing site, entered in 'asmr,' and chose the first one she saw. A second later, the sound of a woman speaking softly filled the air. Wanda set the tablet onto the bed stand and settled back into her bed. Eventually, she drifted into slumber, lulled by the soothing voice.
This time, Wanda slept dreamlessly.
.
.
.
Notes for the curious:
1. Links don't work here, so search up '[ASMR] Binaural Ultron' from the YouTuber ASMattR. Also, this article sums up my feelings on Ultron nicely – 'The Tragedy of Ultron' from Brian Hadsell on the site Unrealitymag.
2. IGN and other news sources said that the AoU Blu-Ray/DVD release will include extended scenes and an alternate ending where Quicksilver survives. I don't know how as it hasn't been released here yet, so I had to be vague. xD And yes, those caterpillars exist.
3. Should I let you guys send prompts to me for future chapters in this fic through my Tumblr askbox (link in profile)? o.0 In the event I have no ideas, I might use it.
Any reviews/comments/etc is always appreciated. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a nice day! :D
This fanfic can also be found on AO3 and Tumblr under the username argent_snow and argent-snow, respectively.