None

of these characters are mine, I don't really know what I was thinking when I wrote this, it was a late-night thing, short, maybe fluffy, pointless one-shot simply because the WatX universe needs more Jonda.
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Wanda rested her palms on the cold metal of the balcony railing as she stared out at the construction work that was taking place to re-build the island Magneto had destroyed. It saddened the queen to see the once-beautiful paradise in ruins. Especially when the reason for its undoing was the dreams that were supposed to have been keeping it alive in the first place. Only now did she realise they were the dreams of a megalomaniac. A single tear rolled down the woman's pale cheek. "Ya 'ighness?" The voice from the doorway pulled the witch from her thoughts, she brought her thumb up to her cheek and wiped her eyes In the pretence of brushing an invisible strand of hair from her face.

She didn't bother to turn, "Stop calling me that John." She told her 'guard' with a slight roll of her eyes. "The idea of me picking my own guard was to get that to stop," she pointed out. She hated the fancy titles, she'd only done what she thought was best for Genosha in taking over the island, she had no intention of carrying silly airs and graces, especially not in private with her friends.

"M'sorry," he said.

She could practically hear the smile in his voice, "You don't sound sorry," she told him turning away from the railing to look at him, resting against it.

"Oy am, oy jus' came at check if ya were okay, ya were awful quiet at dinner."

Wanda straightened up, so someone had noticed, pushing herself away from the rail slightly she shrugged, "I was listening to Lorna."

"Exactly, ya we'en't chattin' with her, so oy had ta come check if ya were al'ight Shelia." It may have been his job to care about her wellbeing but something about his tone of voice suggested it wasn't in his job interests that he was doing this.

"I'm fine John, thank you for your concern." She was the only person that called him John, everyone else called him Pyro, even Lorna who he'd been in charge of looking out for before the switch.

He looked at her and raised his eyebrow, "Ya make-up says otherwise Sheila," he told her stepping forward to brush his thumb under her eyes, Wanda tensed immediately rather unused to that kind of contact and then looked at he showed her the black mark on his thumb from where her eyeliner had run slightly.

She avoided his gaze, "I'm fine."

"Wanda, oy-" he started to object.

She cut him off, even his use of her actual name not softening her up, "Don't. Just leave me alone." The words came out full of command.

The surprise showed on his face but he nodded, "O' cou'se, 'm sorry ya 'ighness," he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he turned away to go back inside.

"John. I didn't mean-" Wanda tried to clarify what she'd meant.
"Oy know, ya jus' need at be alone, ya didn' mean anything' by 'ow ya said it." The pyromaniac moved through the doorway into her private room.

The witch looked down, he said it didn't matter and he still managed to sound dejected, "John, come back. Please?" she added the last word hurriedly to make it sound more like a request than an order. He turned, standing in the doorway, waiting. She glanced back at the ruined citadel before looking at him again, "I have a lot on my mind, it's one thing to come into control of a country, it's another to take control of a ruined country." She turned away again to stare past the broken buildings at the ocean, almost invisible against the darkening sky.

His footsteps were quiet but the sound still carried as he moved to stand behind her, "Ya doin' an ace job," he reassured her, "Everyone looks up ta ya, they know ya did th' right thing an' that ya gonna continue doin' th' right thing. Ya gonna make this world betta."

The queen unconsciously moved backwards slightly towards his body heat, it got cold quickly here at night despite the sweltering temperatures during the day. She turned her head to look at him, "Do you think so?"

John nodded, "Oy know so."

Wanda nodded too, "Thank you." It had calmed at least one of her fears, he always did have this unnatural ability to make her feel safe, it was just one of several reasons she wanted him as her personal guard. He was unobtrusive, quiet, good at listening. He knew exactly when sh did and didn't want a guard, he paid attention to her as a person not as an assignment, he was her friend and if she was perfectly truthful with herself he wasn't bad looking either. Which was almost certainly a bad thing to be thinking about when she had an unofficial relationship with Nightcrawler. That was just it though wasn't it? It was unofficial and recently they'd been spending less and less time together and Wanda herself had been spending more and more time with John (because obligatory or not he was fun to be around). They were very similar but John had the added bonus of that roguish 'bad boy' attitude. He could make her smile even when she didn't want to and she like spending time with him. Okay this was a bad train of though in general now and was possibly the result of those blue eyes that were staring back at her, looking so damn deep that she was having trouble not falling into them. She tore her gaze away to stare back out at the ocean. "There's so much about being ruler that I never really considered before I did it," she confessed training her eyes on the barely visible spot on the horizon where the sea met the sky.

"Like?" The Australian pressed.

Wanda wasn't sure if he was following her gaze or still looking at her but she didn't look back to check, "Like being in the public eye all the time, they look up to me, respect me, I can't let my emotions run riot anymore." She'd always been very emotional, very headstrong and now she was having to work with her head and ignore her emotions.

"Ya ain't in th' public eye now. Ya can let ya emotions rule ya here an' no-one can judge ya," John pointed out, something about his tine sounding hopeful.

"You could," the witch told him, not sure what that had to do with much, she'd been herself around him before.

"Oy don' judge people Shelia, 'specially not ya." The hopeful tone had gone.

Turning her head to look at him again the young woman raised her eyebrows delicately "What do you mean, especially me?"

"Oy jus' means ya 'ave been yaself round me befo' an' it ain't done ya any 'arm o' changed me opinion ov ya, luv.."

It took a moment for her to think that over, he had never judged her before and he'd seen her at her worst, she nodded slowly, "I just…part of me…doesn't understand how he could have done this, he always seemed to have the best interests of our kind at heart but another part of me is…mad at myself I guess, like I should have known something was wrong."

His hand found her shoulder, "There was no way fp' ya at know anything' was wrong Wanda, 'e 'id it well an' no matta what 'e's still ya Dad an' ya still woulda trusted 'im ta do th' right thing."

"I…I should've done more…should've done something…" tears were forming in her eyes again.

"'ey now, ya can' blame yaself luv." His hand moved to her other shoulder, pulling her into his frame so she could cry.

Her body shook slightly with silent sobs. How could she not blame herself? Surely she could have done something to stop those sentinels before they destroyed the entire citadel, should have noticed before he did it that Magneto only had the interests of his goal at heart and not of his people, should be able to help re-building the homes that had been destroyed? One way or another there should have been something she could have done rather than following him blindly up until the last minute. The sobs ceased quickly but the tears took longer to stop, Wanda left her head where it was, just underneath John's shoulder, until she'd stopped. "I'm sorry," she muttered as she pulled away wiping her eyes.

"No need ta be luv, there's only so much one person can hold in." He reached out and caught the last few tears as they fell, "Ya not invulnerable ta emotion."

The witch just shook her head, "A princesses heart must be made of stone."

"Don' give up on ya emotions Wanda, they're th' strongest weapon ya 'ave." He was right, despite what she'd been told and taught Wanda's emotions had been what fuelled her powers, pure, unadulterated rage worked best. She nodded and then shivered slightly, darkness had set in now. Even with John's arm around her shoulder still Wanda was getting cold, The aussie noticed this, "Cold Shelia? Let's get ya inside." He gently but firmly manoeuvred her into her room, "Oy'll be off now, let yah get some rest luv, bet ya worn out afta all tha' cryin', oy'll be jus' down th' 'all if ya need me try not tah work yahself up anymore." Leaving her standing in the middle of the room he moved to the door.

"John," Wanda called after him, making a split-second decision that she would probably regret later. Stepping over to him she gently kissed his cheek, "Thank you for being there for me," she told him turning away.

"Anytime luv," he promised, smiling and exiting the room, "G'night."

The door had already closed by the time she'd uttered her own "Goodnight."

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"A princesses heart must be made of stone." Is a play off a quote I think Lillandra gave in the 90's series, I think but am not sure she said "An empress must be made of stone, even at the cost of her own heart."