Seventeen
WANDA
The explosion threw Vision and Strange into the air, but both caught themselves – Vision more gracefully than Strange – and they floated back to the earth with ease. Wanda had not been affected by the blast, but she could feel it still within her: this great destruction.
She realized they had never even been close. Back in Wakanda, if she had succeeded in destroying the Mind Stone – and Vision with it – the world would have still been thrown into chaos. Thanos might not have won, but they wouldn't have either. Wanda and Vision never stood a chance.
Maybe it was silly, holding onto happiness that slippery. Maybe it was wrong to begin with. And maybe Wanda had to suffer to make the world go; she didn't know why it had to be her, but maybe it did.
Vision wrapped his arms around her. She felt the rise and fall of his chest. It was artificial, but it was comforting. She never wanted to let go, but it was time.
Strange nodded to her and threw open a portal, disappearing back to New York.
Vision took her hand in his and kissed it. He had turned back to his vibrant red color, which was the way Wanda had first seen him and the way she always wanted to remember him. She would to tell him to go, and to not come back this time. It would only hurt him for a moment. Once he was gone, far away from the little bubble around the cabin, he would forget his pain. It would melt into nothingness in a way hers never could.
The bubble.
It was gone.
It had already been gone when they returned, probably dismantled by the tilted reality of a one-stone world. But here was Vision in color, looking so sincerely into the depths of her grief with understanding.
"Vis," Wanda said. "How do you feel?"
"Worried about you mostly – and, yes, I'm – I'm a little sad for me, too." He flashed his most dazzling smile. "But we won't always feel this way."
"No," Wanda said. "I think we'll feel a thousand different ways, sometimes all at once." She pulled him closer and pressed her lips into his. She needed to kiss him, just to be sure. And because she just wanted to kiss him.
He smiled again, and looked at her like she was a puzzle. What an utterly human look.
"You notice anything?" she asked.
Vision looked around and seemed to come to the conclusion that everything was as it should be. Then, Wanda got to watch the realization dawn.
"The bubble around the house is gone," Vision said. "But I'm – I'm like this." He marveled at his own color. "Are you doing this?"
"I don't think so," Wanda said.
"And the stone is gone?"
She nodded.
Vision tapped the little arc reactor in his head and it shimmered gold. "I think," he said slowly, "I think every time I passed through the energy field around the house, I absorbed a bit of it. I think I've been feeling more and more, but I didn't even notice it – because it's like breathing, isn't it? You don't even know you're doing it."
"You don't have to breathe," Wanda said.
"I do when I'm with you. I know because you take my breath away."
"Stop it," Wanda laughed.
"I won't ever stop," Vision said. "I want to see you smile. Wanting something – it's the first feeling living things have, from the moment we're created. And then you learn the rest without intending to do so: anger, fear, hope – love."
