The debut of WandaVision got me jumping back into this. It's been more than a year since the last update. And what a year!
First Time For Everything (7)
First Trip To The Zoo
Sokovia was too crowded and polluted to house a proper zoo. Not counting the sketchy roadside one that she and Pietro had snuck in to check out, Wanda had never been to a zoo before. Neither had Vision. Going to Central Park Zoo would be an exciting first time for the two of them.
"Do you have a favorite animal that you want to really see, Vis?" Wanda asked when they lined up for tickets.
"I do not have a favorite animal yet," he replied. "I would like to see every exhibit, though. Every animal is fascinating and unique in its own way. Every species has its important role in establishing balance and harmony in the biosphere."
"I should've known you'd have an answer like that," she said with a smile. She looked down at the foldable zoo map she had spread out. "As for me, I'd really like to see the snow leopard. I've never seen one before. I haven't seen a lot of these animals, really. I think I will join you in thoroughly checking out each and every one."
"I am glad that we are on the same page." Vision gave her an inquiring look. "Did I use that idiom correctly?"
"Yes, you did. You'll find that the English language is eighty percent idioms and twenty percent exceptions to the rules of grammar."
Her dry remark about what she thought was the most frustrating, confounding language in the world earned a chuckle from Vision.
Once they bought tickets and went through the entrance, the calculating cogs spun in Vision's head. "I'm trying to determine the optimal amount of time spent for each exhibit...there are six areas, and each area is subdivided into..."
"Don't think about it too much, Vis," Wanda gently cut in. "Let's just stroll around at our own pace."
The android frowned. "You mean to tell me that people don't evenly divide their time among things they are studying? Then what are mathematics for?"
"For far less fun things than visiting a zoo," Wanda joked. Math was never her strong suit in the few years she had gone to school. "We can always come back around for the animals we want to see again." She took his hand to delicately lead him down the paved path. "Come on, let's go clockwise. That's about as much as I've planned."
He relented and left the logistics of the visit to Wanda. He still needed to get acquainted with the spontaneity of humans.
The first exhibit they stopped by was quite hard to miss. The sea lion pool was situated at the center of the zoo, and the barks of its occupants drew a crowd around the glass. Wanda spotted zookeepers on the rocks in the middle of the pool. They made gestures at the sea lions and rewarded them with fish they carried in buckets.
"Vis, I think they're having some sort of show."
She and Vision inched up closer to watch. Sokovia was a landlocked country, so Wanda had never seen a marine animal like a sea lion until now. She was fascinated by how sleek and lean they were, how effortlessly they cut through the water.
Vision pointed. "I believe that one is trying to imitate Agent Romanoff in combat."
Wanda followed the direction of his finger to the sea lion arching back its neck, bending as if it had no bones, much like how Natasha would clamp her legs around a goon's neck and flip him onto the floor.
"You're right," she said with a laugh. "Maybe it wants to join the Avengers."
"We could certainly use someone specializing in underwater operations."
That made Wanda keep a grin from ear to ear. For the first time, Vision could carry on a joke. Before, most banter would fall short or fly over his head.
The crowd ooh'd and aah'd as the sea lions performed high-fives, spins in the water, and handstands on the rocks.
Wanda and Vision watched with the audience in riveted silence, then with a tilt of his head, Vision said, "I am confused as to why the common name for members of the subfamily Otariinae is the sea lion, not the sea dog. It barks and does tricks much like a dog does."
Wanda shook her head and shrugged, turning up her palms in resignation. "You drive in a parkway and park on the driveway. Like I said, the English language is very confusing."
The area next on their tour of the zoo was the Tropic Zone. At the lemur exhibit, one of them stopped swinging from the monkey bars, one arm dangling with its legs, to fix its bright yellow eyes straight at Wanda.
She chuckled and waved at it. "Hello, there."
It chattered as if to reply, then swung out of sight behind the tree boughs.
Vision peered studiously from behind the cage as the lemurs capered around. "Of all the animals in the world, primates are most closely related to humans. The genomes of a lemur and a human are over ninety percent similar, yet that under ten percent results in the difference between these tailed, furry creatures in this cage and the woman standing beside me right now."
Wanda made a thoughtful tilt of her head. "I guess even the smallest part of something can matter and make all the difference."
"Exactly." He smiled down at her.
As they wandered over to the reptile subsection, Wanda quickly realized that she didn't want to thoroughly check out each exhibit, after all. They stumbled upon a python in the middle of feeding. Its mouth was stretched wide to swallow an egg whole.
Vision leaned in as close as the glass would allow a normal human. He could phase through and reach out to touch the snake, if he wanted.
Wanda shuddered at the thought and averted her eyes. "You can look at that all you want, Vis. I'll be over at the tropical birds."
"It's perfectly safe," he gently assured her. "There is no way that snake can get through this thick wall of glass. And given its size and diet, it would be much more interested in the eggs than any of us."
She managed a sheepish smile and continued to edge away from the python. "Fear has a strange way of defying all reason."
"I see. Well, I don't want to make you uncomfortable by forcing you to stay." He turned his focus away from the python to accompany her.
Wanda felt better about looking at the birds and the bats. She could watch them fluttering back and forth for hours. She used to dream of flying when she was a child. Reality and growing up, however, had a way of keeping her grounded.
"How do you fly if you don't have wings like these birds and bats?" she asked Vision.
He tapped at the middle of his forehead, where the stone was sitting and would show if he cast off the human guise. "This stone lets me do a great many things, including flying."
"Must be nice," Wanda muttered. "I've always wondered what it's like to fly. On my own, I mean." She had flown plenty of times in the Quinjet, and one time, in Vision's arms, when he had rescued her from plummeting to her death in Sokovia. But flying on her own accord would be a different experience entirely.
His cool finger rested briefly on her own forehead. "You have tremendous power locked inside you, Wanda. You are just starting to tap into that fountain of potential. If you put your mind to it, you can be capable of amazing things. Flying included."
His encouragement sent down warmth from head to toe. "Thanks, Vis. I might just try it someday. Maybe I can take lessons from you."
From the Tropic Zone, Wanda and Vision headed into Temperate Territory, where they first encountered red pandas on one side and snow monkeys on the other.
Wanda was drawn to the red pandas first. She raised both palms over her mouth. "Oh, they are so cute." She kept her gushing to a whisper, since the red panda closest to them slept on a branch. Its striped tail was curled around its fluffy red body, obscuring half of its face.
"It is indeed quite charming," Vision remarked. "It's unfortunate that the red panda is an endangered species. If people stop cutting down their forests and poaching them for their fur, then they could thrive."
Wanda nodded. "That's where zoos come in. Zoos do a good job when they can rescue and conserve these animals, and at the same time teach us about them." She leaned against the rail, watching the little red panda's body rise and fall with each breath. "Pietro and I had snuck into a roadside zoo once. Big animals like tigers and elephants were stuck in cages almost their size. They had no room to move around. The cages that did have room had animals that paced around out of stress and chewed on their own paws, or their own fur."
"That's awful," Vision said softly.
"It's not something I want to see again. My brother and I were curious, and we came out wishing we had never went."
The mood lightened when they went over to the other side, to amuse themselves with the snow monkeys lounging in their hot tub.
"We definitely need to get one of those tubs in the compound," Wanda said.
"I don't need to bathe, but it certainly looks relaxing." Vision had to laugh at the monkey slouched over the stony rim of the tub, with its eyes closed and looking like it had ascended to another plane of existence.
Farther into Temperate Territory was its feature exhibit: the snow leopard. Wanda's excitement dropped like a rock when she read the sign posted on the wall.
"Oh no, it's sick. That's why it's not out today."
"I hope it recovers soon," Vision said.
"Me too. That gives me at least one reason to come back to the zoo."
They moved on to the grizzly bears. Unlike most exhibits, this one was dug into the ground so that guests had to peer down at the enclosure. A small crowd had formed along the rail, craning their necks and pointing down.
"Another show?" Vision asked.
"I don't think that bears do shows here," Wanda replied. "One of them must be doing something cute, anyway."
She never got close enough to see what was drawing the crowd. What she saw instead was a toddler tipping over the rail. No one else noticed, except for Vision.
"Wanda—" was all he got out.
Instinct kicked in. Wanda thrust out a hand just as the little girl began her fall into the exhibit. The red aura caught the toddler and nestled her in like a cloud. That caught the crowd's attention, prompting shouts and screams of alarm. With a little lift of her hand, Wanda pulled the toddler up a few inches and over to the much safer side of the rail.
A pair of teenagers, perhaps the mother and father, clutched at the toddler as she wailed.
The crowd burst into an uproar.
"Oh my God, is the kid okay?"
"That could've been such a nasty fall!"
"How could you neglect your kid like that?"
"Hey, who saved her? Was it you, lady?"
People split up between berating the young parents and gathering around Wanda, who drew closer to Vision and shrank back from the sudden spotlight on her.
"I know you," someone in the crowd exclaimed. "I saw you on TV. You're one of the new Avengers, right?"
That sent up a buzz of wonder and disbelief, which only amplified the deer-in-headlights sensation overwhelming Wanda.
She felt like her tongue got tied up into a knot. "Right place, right time, that's all," she managed to get out.
Vision wrapped an arm around her and raised his other hand in an attempt to quiet and calm down the crowd.
"She needs space, please. We should get a medical team here to make sure that the child is unharmed."
His gentle yet firm urging eventually had the crowd dispersing and turning most of their attention to the toddler Wanda had just saved from a broken neck, or worse, getting mauled by one of the grizzly bears.
Vision led her away from the exhibit to the bench tucked away in the Polar Circle courtyard, where they could afford some privacy. He sat down beside her and rested a hand on her shoulder.
Wanda brushed back stray strands of hair behind her ear and let out a shaky sigh. "Thanks, Vis. I'm just not ready for people to see me as an Avenger yet."
"Understandable," he murmured. "You are still in training."
She fixed her guilt to the cobblestone at her feet. "The last thing I wanted was to draw attention to myself. But there was no other way to save that little girl, and I had to do something..."
"You did the right thing. Both of us were much too far away to run over and grab her in time. Shouting would have done no good. Using your power was the only solution. Your reflexes served you well and your heart was in the right place. You may be in training, Wanda, but I'm confident that you will become a fine Avenger."
She met his eyes to manage a smile through the stormy sea of her anxiety. "Thanks." Then she twisted in the bench to look over at the signs indicating the Polar Circle. "With the ruckus I've made, I don't think we'll be able to see the penguins today."
"I have to agree with you there. Would you rather go home now?"
"Yes, please. Like I said, we can come back another time."
Wanda and Vision put on a brisk stride and stole out of Central Park Zoo with as much discreetness as they could muster. They still attracted some stares and pointing fingers.
That made Wanda start to feel like she had become a star of her own exhibit. She'd like to get to the point where she could someday be like the zoo animals, which drew crowds every day and went about their business without batting an eye.