Hey everyone! This one is a really long chapter so I hope you enjoy it! Also, I've noticed errors in my work which I'm honestly too lazy to go back and fix, so please don't judge me too hard on those. I'm working without a beta reader on this, so mistakes will slip by me.

Like always, I don't own anything relating to the characters.

X_X_X

"Wanda," the deep, soothing voice said from next to her.

Wanda turned her head and caught sight of a gorgeous pair of deep blue eyes. With a smile, she turned her body towards him.

"Hey," she said.

"Wanda," he said again, his eyes moving forward. She saw a stand of black hair fall into his face and with a small laugh, she reached up to brush it behind his ear.

She saw the eyes coming close and become slightly hooded. Her body automatically reacted and she closed her eyes as soft lips touched her.

She knew these lips. She knew they were soft but firm, shy at first but confident. She knew they tasted of mint and plums and sometimes they had a hint of blood on them but she loved it. She loved the man the lips were attached to.

She pulled back and saw a crooked smile on the bruised lips in front of her.

"Shut up," she teased, feeling the smugness coming from the man in front of her.

He opened his mouth to respond but instead of a smart remark, a horrifying scream escaped his lips.

The tortured screaming continued and Wanda reached in front of her hoping to comfort him but her hands met nothing where she was sure he should be. Instead, all she could see were his eyes as they fell. They were falling and all she knew was snow and pain and terrified blue eyes.

Wanda screamed when she heard the cracking of bones and the eyes were gone but she saw blood covered snow all around her.

"Wanda," someone said. She looked around and called for help.

"Wanda," the voice said again and it wasn't the voice from earlier but she recognized it.

"Wake up!" the voice urged but she didn't know how to get out of this nightmare.

"Help!" she screamed and the cold air around her carried her voice away into nothing.

"Wanda, wake up!" she heard again. She cried out, wanting nothing more than to get to the voice but she was stuck.

Suddenly the ground started shaking and she saw snow tumbling off of the mountains. She closed her eyes and let snow cover her body.

With a gasp, Wanda quickly sat up in her bed.

"Wanda," someone said from beside her.

Her hands were already glowing red when she raised them and turned to see who was in her room with her.

Steve slowly raised his hands.

"Wanda, it's okay. You're safe, you're with us, there's nothing to worry about," he said as softly as he could. He knew anything too loud could frighten her.

"Steve," she said in a choked sob.

She threw her arms around him and he held her as she cried out her fear. He gently smoothed out her hair as she shook in his arms, only shifting her so he could sit on the bed.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked when she had calmed down to an occasional hiccup.

"I-I don't- I can't remember," she said, flushing and pulling back in shame. She refused to look at him.

"Hey, it's fine," Steve said and pat her knee. "Dreams are like that, even nightmares. While the memory of it is gone, it doesn't necessarily mean the emotions attached are."

Wanda looked up and saw his light blue eyes full of understanding.

"I'm sorry for waking you," she said, pulling herself back to give him more space.

"Don't worry about it, I'm here for my team in any way they need me," he said with a gentle smile.

She tried to return it but she was pretty sure it came out more like a grimace.

"How are you dealing with things here? I know it's only been about a week but I hope you've come to see this place as a home," he said.

Wanda sighed.

"I do appreciate what you've all done for me, despite what I did in Sokovia," she began. "I've come to see you guys like my new family, but I still miss him, you know?"

Steve nodded.

"I know we can't replace your brother, no one will, but we are your family, Wanda. Being part of the Avengers doesn't just mean we fight together, it means we're family and we'd do anything to protect each other. It doesn't matter if you've been part of the team for a day or a decade," he said.

Wanda felt her eyes sting with emotion and smiled at him.

"Thank you," she said.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds.

"How's the search for your friend going?" she asked. "Bucky, was it?"

Steve let out a humorless chuckle.

"Yeah, that," he said, looking up at her ceiling.

"It's damn near impossible to find Buck if he doesn't want to be found. Even before everything happened, he was always good at hiding," he said.

Wanda wanted to ask more about what 'everything' meant but she got distracted when she felt a nudging at the base of her head.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked, wanting to help her friend.

"Actually, there is," Steve said with a playful grin. "You can try to get some rest so you're good for training tomorrow. Or, I guess it's later today now, isn't it?"

Wanda rolled her eyes but huffed in amusement anyway.

"If you can't win a fight then what use to me are you?" he asked, getting off the bed.

"Oh, gee, I don't know. It's not like I can magically move things with my mind or anything like that," she said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Steve laughed.

"Okay, good point. But I still need you rested, alright?" he asked, his facial expression stern but his eyes dancing with laughter.

"Yes, dad," Wanda answered.

Steve's face broke out in a grin and he pat her head before walking out of her room.

Shaking her head and chuckling to herself, Wanda laid back down and fell into a dreamless sleep.

X_X_X

Wanda was in the training room using one of Steve's punching bags. She'd been having difficulty sleeping the last few days and found out that there was a reason the Captain kept so many of these around.

They really did help.

"Wanda," she heard a sultry voice behind her and closed her eyes before opening them again and turning to one of the reasons she couldn't sleep.

"Nat," she said.

"Why are you avoiding me?" the other woman asked, getting straight to the point.

Wanda used her training with the spy to clear her face of any emotion.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not avoiding you. We're here, aren't we?" she asked, looking directly into the green eyes of the Black Widow.

Natasha smirked.

"While your eye contact and neutral face were great, you're giving too much away. Sometimes less is best," she said.

Nat took a step closer and Wanda stepped away. The smirk grew.

"Come," she said, taking the younger girl by the wrist and pulling her outside.

She went to sit by the small garden someone had started, using the burn marks of the bifrost as a design. Wanda hoped Heimdall wouldn't open a portal there again and ruin the person's hard work.

Natasha pat the space next to her and with a sigh, Wanda went to sit with her.

The older woman looked at her with a raised eyebrow and Wanda closed her eyes.

"It's just so embarrassing," she finally said, glancing at the Black Widow.

The eyebrow didn't move.

With a blush slowly rising up her neck, Wanda moved her eyes to the sky and asked Pietro to send her help. Or to have the ground open up and swallow her.

"Okay," she said taking a deep breath. "Okay."

"Okay," she said again.

"Say that one more time and I'll leave you with broken bones in places you didn't even know had bones. Start talking," Nat said.

Holding back a shiver, Wanda nodded.

"Um… I just… Ugh, screw it! I don't know how to say this, but whenever I look at you I see you naked," she finally spilled.

The Black Widow rarely showed emotion but even Wanda could tell that she was shocked.

"It's not like I want to see you naked, or that I'm actively trying to see you naked," she rushed to say. "It's more like when I see you I think back to something else that I saw at some point, I think. I mean, I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I could have seen that in person, but it's just there, you know?" she rambled on.

"What do you see?" Natasha asked and Wanda was grateful she hadn't tried to hurt her or anything.

"Well… I see a naked redhead with long, curly hair on a bed, crawling towards something. Or someone, I guess. That makes more sense," she muttered the last part to herself.

"Anyway, it's always the same thing whenever I see you and I'm, like, ninety four percent sure it's you. Except I've never seen you like that and in all the time I've known you, you've had short hair," Wanda said.

"I used to have long hair," Natasha said. "But I'm pretty sure you've never seen me naked. Half-naked, yes, but not fully nude. And especially not in the bedroom," she said with a small teasing smile on her lips.

Wanda let out a relieved breath. The Widow wasn't angry, thank the heavens.

"I'm just so confused as to why I keep seeing that," Wanda admitted.

"You probably saw that on TV or somewhere else and attached it to me since I'm the only redhead you know," Natasha said.

"That makes sense," she said, smiling at the spy.

"Anyway, since we're out here, why don't you tell me what's going on with Vision?" Nat asked.

Wanda frowned.

"What do you mean? Is something wrong with him?" she asked.

Nat rolled her eyes.

"Haven't you noticed the way he keeps looking at you during practice?" she asked.

"Well, yeah," Wanda said. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

The Black Widow gave her a look and then it hit her like a snowball to the face.

"Oh my god," she whispered in shocked horror.

Everyone froze as Natasha's laugh could be heard all around the Avenger's base.

X_X_X

How much can you lift?

Wanda wrapped her powers around objects she could find in the room. The voice in her head wasn't hers and she had a strong feeling it was a memory but she couldn't remember from where. She knew it was the same voice from her nightmares, though.

Frustrated at not knowing why she kept remembering these things and frustrated that it was nearing midnight and she was wide awake, she continued lifting things off of the floor. Chairs, weights, mats, books. Anything her powers touched found itself floating. Wanda hadn't even noticed the sweat dripping down her face or the slight tremble to her hands.

"You're going to wear yourself out," she heard Steve call out from the door. Putting all the objects down where they belonged, she turned to face him. He was leaning against the door frame.

"Well, that's kind of the point," she said.

"The point is to strengthen your body and mind," he said.

"Are you saying my fighting is bad?" she said, crossing her arms.

He smiled and made his way over to her.

"Well, it certainly isn't the best," he said.

"Of course it isn't. Next to Captain America and the Black Widow I'll never be the best," she said with an eye roll.

Steve laughed.

"Come on, let's go a few rounds," he said, walking over to the blue mat in the middle of the room.

"What? Like, right now?" she asked, unfolding her arms.

"Sure, why not? Let's make use of this time," he said.

"I was making use of this time by practicing with my powers," Wanda said, but still walked over to the mat.

"How about I let you use your powers in the fight? Then you can practice both," he said with a smile.

Wanda's face lit up in excitement. She was never allowed to use her powers in a mock fight before.

"You're on, old man," she said with a mocking glare.

"Oh, it's on," he said with a laugh.

Wanda was humiliated to discover that even when using her powers to block his punches, Steve still got the upper hand and won their pretend fight many times.

"You're small, Wanda, use that. The main point right now isn't to beat me, it's to keep me from beating you," he said.

"Protect yourself. Don't let me get the upper hand."

The voice rang through her mind clear as day and Wanda stumbled back a bit.

"During the practice I'll do something new and I want you to be ready for it."

"You want me to go into your head?"

"I knew you'd catch on."

Wanda felt as if she was just told her puppy died. The ache inside her chest was suffocating.

"You good to go again?" Steve asks, concern evident on his face.

Wanda felt the world around her shift into HD and she knew her eyes were glowing red, ready for an attack. Shaking the weird feeling off, she nodded.

As Steve went in for an attack, Wanda blocked him and let herself enter his mind. She read his next move and not only blocked it before he could act on it, but she also managed to push him back a little. Alternating between blocking and reading, Wanda's body went into automatic and she focused on her powers. It slid around her with ease and was ready to move at her command.

She allowed her powers to wrap around Steve and hang him upside down in front of her.

"Where did that come from?" he asked, his face quickly turning red. "I've never seen you fight like that during training. And I'm pretty sure we haven't taught some of those moves yet."

"I'm not sure," she said, looking at her hands as if somehow they would hold the answer.

"Could you have been taught in HYDRA?" he asked.

"I don't think so, they didn't really have us do any training besides controlling our powers," she answered.

"Well, whatever that was, want to keep practicing with it?" he asked.

"Same time?" she asked in return.

His smile came out a little pained.

"Put me down and we can train whatever time you want," he said.

After that night they fought regularly and Wanda could feel herself getting stronger. Even in training with the big group, everyone noticed her improvement.

While everyone complimented her on her skill, Steve couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu. Her fighting style was smooth and straight to the point and Steve had the odd feeling that he'd seen that same style somewhere else before.

X_X_X

Day five: I'm dead on the inside and no one has noticed. Although, I'm pretty sure we're all dead and just not saying anything.

Wanda was sitting on a swing at a park meant for children, although there were currently none. She'd glowered at the small humans who dared get close enough and eventually they all left.

All this in hopes that she came across Steve's friend. A friend that she heard so much about but still hadn't actually seen. A friend who could be here but probably wasn't. It was all frustrating and boring and five days of this had her glaring at innocent children. As much as she admired the Captain, she was one 'for Bucky' away from throwing him out the window.

Not that it would do anything, the man was constantly throwing himself out of windows all on his own.

Deciding to distract herself a bit, she mentally reached out to people around her, coming into contact with Sam's mind first, who happened to be across the street from the park.

She wasn't at all shocked to find him staring at the birds flying by, trying to identify them.

She moved on and came across Steve, who was walking down the street looking around. He mentally paused when he saw a cute girl passing by before blushing and repeatedly apologizing to her in his mind.

Wanda laughed to herself as he kept his eyes firmly ahead of himself after that.

Suddenly all she could see was red mist and felt soft lips moving against her own. A moan escaped the lips she was kissing and then she was back at the park.

What the hell? She asked herself, looking around to see if anyone caught her thinking about things she shouldn't.

It's probably like the redhead thing, she told herself, shaking her head to clear her mind. It didn't work because she could still feel lips hungrily kissing her and a cold hand running up her left side.

Looking down, Wanda was shocked to see goosebumps running up her arm.

"Cold?" a voice asked from above her, their shadow covering her.

She squinted up to see Steve holding a coffee out to her. She took it from him and sipped.

"Not really, I just thought I felt a bug on my arm but it turned out to be my hair," she said with a shrug. "Thanks for the coffee, by the way."

"You're welcome," he said, sitting on the swing next to her.

"Steve, what's your friend like? I just realized I come on these missions to help find him but I don't even know what he looks like," she said, slowly swinging back and forth on the swing.

Steve reached into the pocket of his pants with the hand that didn't have his cup of coffee and pulled out his wallet. Opening it up, he handed it to her. Gently taking it from him, she looked down to see a picture of Steve with another man who looked oddly familiar. They both had army uniforms.

"Wait… Isn't that the Winter Soldier?" she asked, handing the wallet back to Steve. He looked questioningly at her.

"Fury was asking me about him on the flight back from Sokovia," she said. "Even showed me a picture of him."

Steve put his wallet away and took a sip of his drink.

"Yeah, he was taken by HYDRA when we thought he had died and they made him into a killing machine. Named him the Winter Soldier and let him loose on their enemies. He only made it into Shield's radar recently, along with you and your brother," he said, glancing at her. "The file said you two fought together."

Wanda sighed.

"I don't know why. I never met him while we were in HYDRA. Maybe there were more experiments and those were who they sent to fight alongside him," she said.

"With the same powers?" he asked.

"I don't know, the scepter was the one giving out powers. It's possible," she said, although as soon as she said the words it felt wrong to her.

"Yeah, that's possible. We didn't have much information on the scepter before it was taken during the fight in New York and when we got it back Tony used it to make Ultron," he said a bit downcast.

Wanda shifted beside him.

"I'm sure we'll find him," she said out of nowhere.

It made Steve look up with a small smile and she knew it was the right thing to say.

"You think?" he asked.

"Sure. Have you met yourself? You're as stubborn as an old man," she said,

"Which you are," Sam cut in through their ear piece.

Steve rolled his eyes and Wanda grinned.

"What I'm saying is that as hard as it is to find Bucky when he doesn't want to be found, it's just as hard to hide from you when you're looking for something," she said.

"Thanks, Wanda," he said with a smile. He reached over and ruffled her hair up.

"Hey!" she said with a laugh.

"Come on guys, let's go home," he said, standing up.

"Finally," rang Sam's voice in her ear.

X_X_X

Wanda was in her room reading when she felt a pricking sensation vibrating against her forehead.

Without missing a beat she called her powers to her hands and blast it in the direction of the intruder. Vision doubled over in pain and finished morphing through the wall only to fall to the floor.

"Oh my god, Vision!" she exclaimed, throwing her book to the side and rushing to his side.

"I'm so sorry! Here, let me help you," she said, bending down to help him stand. When his arm was securely around her neck, she brought him over to her bed.

"Thank you," he said, still folding into himself.

"I'm so sorry!" Wanda repeated.

"I guess I should have knocked first," Vision said with a chuckle.

Wanda offered a small laugh and nodded.

"Yeah, that would be helpful. It's not normal for people to go around phasing into other people's rooms," she said.

There was an awkward silence as neither of them said anything.

"So, um, did you need something or…?" Wanda finally asked.

He looked at her and she shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of his pale blue eyes.

"I wanted to talk. It feels like you've been avoiding me," he said.

Wanda shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her hands.

"I guess I have, but I also did that with Nat, so don't feel like it's just you," she said. "I tend to avoid people I don't know how to behave around."

"But you're okay with everyone else now, why are you unsure about how to behave around me?" he asked.

"I don't know," Wanda started. "I guess it's because of the last time I was in your mind. I still connect you to Ultron even though I know that's not who you are.

"And I know what everyone else thinks of me, what they expect of me. With you I don't know," she admitted, looking up at him.

"Wanda, I admire you," he said. "I've never come across anyone like you before."

"Well, you haven't been alive for very long, and the only people you really interact with are the Avengers here," she said.

Vision shook his head.

"You intrigue me like no one else. I want to know more about you, learn things no one else knows," he said taking her hands into his.

Wanda felt as if she was watching herself from somewhere far within her mind.

"Like a friend?" she heard herself say.

Vision shook his head.

"I want to get to know you differently than how I want to know Natasha, or Steve or anyone else," he said.

Wand knew there was only one thing he could mean but her mind refused to accept it.

"I don't know what that means, what this feeling is, but I want to work it out with you. Will you give me a chance?" he asked. His synthetic eyes looked at her with so much innocent hope only someone like him could have.

You don't even feel the same way! Say no, she yelled at herself. You're only thinking it over because he's the only guy to show interest in you like that.

Wanda felt her mouth open and close.

Suddenly hopelessness flooded her every pore and she knew she she'd lost with herself.

"Okay, sure," she heard herself say.

She felt herself drop back into her body and offered him a weak smile.

"Thank you, Wanda," he said with a shy smile. He stood up and brought her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

"I'll see you around," he said before walking through the wall.

"Okay, sure," she repeated.

Her words mocked her as they danced around in the empty room.