There was something brewing at the edge of all the conversations at the Avengers manor. No one wanted to admit to it. No one wanted to admit to the fact that they hadn't been out on any international missions lately. Not because of any civilian disasters, but just because there were bigger problems at home. Problems everyone was trying not to talk about. Everyone seemed to know what everyone else thought on the matter anyway, though, and an odd sort of unspoken divide had appeared between people. No one dared speak about what was dividing them, for fear that the unspoken line would suddenly become a lot more real and dangerous.
It was bothering everyone. All of them could see that. They could see it in the hastily turned over newspaper (eventually cancelled altogether) that Steve always had delivered. They could see it when Wanda flipped over the TV channel the moment someone walked into the room. They could see it in the glares, always averted before someone else saw, and they could see it in the way the manor suddenly felt a lot colder. The tension was building, and sooner or later, it had to snap.
There was this feeling of knowing. Sam didn't have the experience with the Avengers to know that Tony had a rather negative opinion on the matter at hand, but he could tell that Steve knew that Tony had the negative opinion.
The tension built for weeks on end, eventually leaving the manor in almost dead silence. Any conversations were hushed, and immediately dropped as soon as a third person entered the room.
And then it broke, inevitably, in some stupid way. Though it wasn't really stupid, because Wanda was worried. She'd been worried about this topic from the moment it had started coming up, and it reached a point where she just HAD to ask someone about it. She had to ask the opinions of people she wanted to trust. She'd listened to endless streams of opinions of all these people online and on TV that she didn't know. But they didn't change that maybe she was worried that Clint, if he ever came in for a visit (he was very busy), was going to be against this.
And so the next time he visited, she asked him. He had seemed almost shocked that she'd brought it up, before resting a hand on her arm in his usually fatherly way and explaining to her that this was all a hell of a lot more complicated than TV made it look. She understood it was more complicated than that, she told him, but she didn't understand. Because people like her and people like Steve would still be allowed to go on existing with the rights they'd had beforehand, so why not them? Clint didn't seem to have a very good answer to that, and he'd hurried off to talk to Nat about something 'urgent'. Everyone was so evasive, and she hated it.
She really wanted to go out and help with the refugees coming in. She knew, for example, that there were new mutant laws in Sokovia. She could help people from there, especially. She could speak some German, too. She could do heavy lifting with her powers. She wanted to help, but she knew that if she did, someone in the house wouldn't approve. It was a matter of judging who in the house she could talk to, who in the house she could go to and get them to let her help without being yelled at or dismissively told that there was no point. Steve seemed a safe bet, as did Sam. She wasn't sure about Vision. Vision was nice, but there was something unnerving about him. Especially as he was generally very certain about his opinions. So it may be better not to ask him. Tony was completely off limits, she knew. Nat was very good at hiding her opinion, even when Wanda tried to use her powers to see what she hid inside her mind. Everything was so closely guarded- there was no way of telling if she was safe to talk to. Oh, she hoped that Nat wasn't against this. There was something she deeply admired about Natasha; even though the woman wasn't always around, it felt like Wanda could trust her. Perhaps it was because they both shared the burden of being the only two females in the manor, usually. Wanda found it comforting to have someone like Natasha to look up to. It showed her that she didn't have to be perfect, she just had to keep fighting and stay strong.
But even so, she didn't want to talk to Natasha about this. If the woman was in her favour then she could probably be out, helping and then back again and no one would bat an eyelid because Natasha would say it was a trip with the two of them or something. But if she didn't agree, Nat would know the moment she even set a date to try and help. She didn't want a suspicious Nat watching her every move, so that only left Steve and Sam that she could talk to. Sam was possibly the less intimidating one, but Steve held more authority in the group, and could probably get things done faster. Steve was sort of old fashioned sometimes, though. Did they have widespread mutants back then like they did now? When she'd been looking at articles about it, the first major incidents with mutants had been dated to the 1960s, but surely they'd been around before then. There were stories that hinted at mutants during the Second World War, but not many proven accounts. It was worth talking to Steve about this...it had to be. What would be the worst that could happen?
It turned out that talking to Steve was a good idea. She asked if they could talk out on the edge of the grounds (because Tony was in the kitchen, whispering with Rhodes about something tense), and he obliged. He could probably tell what she wanted to talk about.
She explained the situation nervously, red energy instinctively twining around her fingers as she spoke, although she had no intention of using the power. She explained every way she wanted to help, every way she could make a person happier.
Steve stopped her halfway through her long thing that she had prepared. "I understand, Wanda," he said, and she wanted to collapse in relief. "It's awful to see people suffer. Neither of us grew up in what could be considered an economically affluent area. And now these people, who haven't done anything wrong..."
She could have hugged him, if hugging people was a thing she was inclined to doing very often. But instead, she settled for smiling, nodding and thanking him, asking question after question about when she would be able to help.
Steve was doing a frowny smile thing. He was pleased, but worried. He was easy to read. "I've been thinking about it," he said, "and I'm not sure if I want to make a specific Avenger statement on it or anything. I mean, you pass as a mutant, just doing your part, but my identity is pretty public by now." He paused for a moment. "It's not like I don't want to help," he said quickly, "and I think that's more important than our public image, I'm just worried about Stark."
Wanda was worried about Stark, too. Everyone knew that Tony was in firm opposition to Steve, and therefore either of them making any sort of statement either way would wrench the Avengers in half. "I could go and help while he's off doing other things," she said. He had been going on about a conference to his old university the other day.
"You can't go by yourself," Steve insisted. "It isn't just because you're young. I wouldn't let anyone go off and try to help with this alone. If you're really set on helping, we need to know everyone who's on our side, and we need them all to work together."
"But no one wants to talk about it!" She said. She was part of that no one. She didn't want to fall out of favour with anyone in the group. She liked them, but any one of them (especially Tony) could get her shipped out of the country in an instant. That's what she'd been told by the team, anyway. That they were taking a risk by keeping her around.
"I know, Wanda. I know. It's difficult...Sam's on our side, he wouldn't let me down at a time like this. You're pretty close to Clint- do you think he'll help us?" Steve had folded his arms and was pacing up and down, a sure sign of his nerves.
"I asked him about it and he said it was a complicated issue," she said. She was fairly sure that he supported them, though. Personally, she thought Steve was making too big of a deal about this. It was only a matter of helping people who were legally here. Getting them on their feet a little. She'd want people to do the same for her. In fact, the Avengers HAD done the same for her.
"Hmm, that doesn't surprise me...I'll talk to him myself, later. If any sort of aid mission gets organised, I'll be sure to let you know." Steve gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder and walked off, still looking worried. An aid mission. She understood now. That could mean they'd be funded and supported to be out there for days, if not weeks, rather than just putting in a few hours here and there like she'd been imagining. She supposed that would be better, really. What sort of meaningful help could be set up in a few hours, even with her powers and the help of whoever else might be coming? If they stayed for a longer time, the people who needed help would be able to get homes, perhaps, and certainly get food and water. She'd seen on the news how bad it was. Entire areas of coast were covered by boats from people who'd sailed from an area in Canada, no longer allowed to cross the border normally. Airports and airspace were swamped by relief planes and commercial flights had been cut down to a minimum. Still, more people were coming. They always found more ways to get here, flooding in from everywhere with strict anti-mutant laws. Some of the strictest places were the UK and Canada, and, for a while, thousands of people per day had poured in from those countries. Now, it was the middle of Europe. Asia and Africa were mostly untouched by the laws, and Wanda had read something about attitudes being very different over there. Where a power would be seen as a benefit rather than a curse.
After the Sokovia incident, most of Europe and the rest of the Western world had turned against mutants, enhanced humans, anyone with powers. America's law promising to allow refuge to these people had been controversial, and Wanda was fairly sure they were considering trying to repeal it. At this point, though, there were already so many mutants in the country that it wouldn't make much of a difference. It was almost funny, she thought, that now, even if the government wanted to control the mutants, they wouldn't be able to.
Really, there was nothing to stop the mutants having some sort of uprising and trying to take over, if they wanted to. She was surprised that it hadn't happened yet, honestly. Or maybe not. These people were normal people, had been for part of their life. The same way she had, actually. And sure, when she got powers she might have used them to hurt lots of people, but she hadn't wanted to bring a country down or anything. Especially not one that would take her in (sort of). She supposed she would just have to wait and see what happened. Everyone would have to wait. The tension would just keep building, and they'd all have to just hope the world didn't come to some sort of end.