A/N: Cliche title is cliche.
Touch seems to be one of the things he is most wary about.
With his new body, created in a lab and powered by some gem from space, ruled by a mind that at one time could feel next to nothing at all, he is worried near constantly about touching anything; especially humans, who can so easily fall apart and break despite their boasts to the contrary.
So he avoids contact with anything that isn't made of the same stuff he is, edging away from the friendly back pats from Colonel Rhodes and the group high-fives Mr. Wilson seems set on initiating every other day, from the hand up offered by Captain Rogers when he hits the ground in training and the one-armed hugs Mr. Stark keeps trying to pull him into every time he visits the base.
He avoids it, even though doing so earns him her questioning gaze, her quizzical expression; she does not understand his aversion to physical contact, because he'd had no problem whatsoever holding her in his arms, however briefly that contact had lasted.
There was simply no other option, he tells himself; she could not yet fly then, and at that point he was near certain she hadn't wanted to anyway. If he hadn't picked her up, she would have burned along with everything else on that hunk of rock.
But that does not stop the phantom feeling of her leather jacket and torn dress, a soft palm gripping onto his chest, her wildly flying hair brushing his face, her weight in his arms as he rocketed away from the danger.
He wonders if she recalls the fierce pounding of blood through her veins that he'd felt through her skin, if she could sense his own artificial heart rushing on something – not adrenaline, clearly, but something close to it – as he dodged through the debris to their escape.
He doesn't ask, never will; that day is full of many terrible memories for her, and asking her to relive them simply to answer his curiosity is unimaginably cruel.
So he continues as he has, avoiding all but the most necessary of interactions with his fellow Avengers recruits, feeling her eyes burning into him every time he manages to sneak away from it.
This seems to be the way things will continue forever, until their first actual got-to-save-the-world field mission where she actually grabs his hand before he could duck out of the helicarrier's bomb hatch.
He freezes at the foreign pressure, turning to stare at her, confounded.
She just offers a slight smirk. "For luck," she offers, before she herself jumps out of the helicarrier and starts levitating toward their destination.
He blinks, feels his hand twitch, aware of the surprised looks of both Falcon and War Machine before they drop out too.
It takes an explosion going off below for him to rouse himself, but the fleeting feeling of her skin on his stays with him for a long time after that.
She says nothing of it when the fighting is over, simply smiles slightly at him and accepts Falcon's excited bear hug without much complaint. He nods, and accepts it as a one-time thing despite the lingering desire to hold her hand again, and continues as he has before.
Except it doesn't stop there.
On missions, before they enter zones under heavy fire, she holds his hand; after training, she brushes his arm with hers and smirks at him; once, while they were awaiting a debriefing by Fury, she nudged his foot with hers with the most fake innocent look he had ever seen, and considering he used to work full-time with Tony Stark this is impressive.
The odd thing is, he can offer no complaint when she does any of it, either; where normally he would stiffen up at the unexpected contact, he only seems to relax when she does it.
For all of his infinite knowledge of the human mind, he cannot quite explain the way her presence and touch calms him, and so he doesn't try; he just goes along with it, offering a smile in return for her gestures, which makes her mischievous look light up into a truly delighted expression he really enjoys seeing on her face.
It is odd, and unexplainable, and so totally, completely human.
He rather likes it, and reminds himself to thank Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner, and especially Thor as well the next time he sees them for giving him a human… well, close to human body with which he can do all these things.
But in the meantime, Wanda is offering to teach him how to give a proper hug, a truly wicked grin on her face, and he doesn't exactly want to disappoint her.
A/N: Cliche ending is cliche. Also, I am Scarlet Vision shipping trash. Throw me into the bins with all the other rubbish. I was getting a bit heartsick from the angst recently, so have some fluff.
~Persephone