Too Little, Too Late
Summary : In which you fell first, but Wanda fell all too late.
Warnings : Angst, hurt/absolutely no comfort, sorta kinda unrequited love, just useless and avoidant sapphics, WandaVision (the ship, not the show), events of and after CA:CW did not happen, song fic but the lyrics are written to be integrated with the story, hints of other songs I've been listening to on repeat (*ahem* Pushing It Down and Praying + Drag Path *AHEM*), time-skip heavy, fic written entirely in Wanda's POV, reader wears a wedding dress, lmk if there's anything else!!!
Pairing : Wanda x fem!reader
Authors note : Wow can you believe this took 2 whole months to write... The procrastination of a writer never fails to amaze me. Anyways I started reading Babel by R.F. Kuang and that has been a big inspiration for me to continue this (if you've ever read the book yourself, you'd be able to tell). Consuming good media can ACTUALLY give you motivation for your own creative works, what a shocker. I've always loved x reader fics where the POV is focused on the character and not the reader themselves, so this was really fun to work on <3 Hope y'all enjoy! But not too much cause I might need to call a therapist on us :p
Wanda had fallen in love with you that day, even if she hadn't realized it.
It could've been the early morning of a bright Sunday, or the late noon of a gloomy Wednesday, she couldn't remember if she tried. But she will never forget the way you nervously walked into her personal quarters, hands behind your back, eyes not even daring to look up from where it had stuck itself onto the floor.
Looking up from what she was doingâwas it reading a book?âyour head was hung low as your body shifted around. Odd, you were usually much more energetic than this. Half the time you'd saunter into her room without a care in the world, already plopping yourself down onto her bed as you go on about the tales of your day.
Taking a big breath, you finally look up and meet her eyes. She noticed they shined with something she couldn't place at the time.
"I got you something," you spoke, cautiously. "It's not anything special, just a little appreciation gift."
Raising a brow, Wanda only continues to study your movements. Slowly revealing your concealed hands, you held a small but slick gift bag. The bag itself didn't give off what was inside, so as you carefully walk over to her, her curiosity only spurred on. The second you were at arm's length from her, you dropped the bag at the edge of her feet. Adverting your eyes away from her again, you could only stand there, holding your breath as you wait for her next move.
The witch hummed in response, stretching her arms out as she reached to grab the tiny packaging at her feet. The longer her movements went on, the more jittery you got. It was almost like you were a ticking time bomb, ready to erupt at any second. The moment Wanda extended her fingertips into the bag, she immediately felt the sensation of a smooth but exquisite box. Without any further thought, she grabbed the box and gently took it out from it's confines.
As she slowly lowered the bag to the ground and cupped the upper part of the box with her left hand, she opened the lid almost a bit too warily. There laid a stunning gold pendant, in the shape of a heart. It was almost glimmering, shining as if it was worth millions.
Taking out and raising up the necklace to face level, Wanda's hazy green eyes could only bask in it's intricacy.
"It's beautifulâŚ" She had uttered quietly.
"Yeah, it is." You were never talking about the necklace were you?
"Thank you, I love it. It's⌠I'm so grateful to have a friend like you." Putting the necklace back into the box, she could only smile and look at you. Your eyes flickered, but your face had softened before she even saw it. Your body was finally relaxed now, back to how she was used to you being. Maybe if she was a little more perceptive that day. Just maybe.
You smiled back, and even with the gold in her hand, she swore it was the most precious thing in the universe.
Wanda had fallen in love with you that day, even if she refused to acknowledge it.
âËĘ á˘âË⧠ďž.
Soft laughter erupts from a distant corner in the Avengers compound, as if threatening to rip through it's silence. There you and Wanda lay, on the small of your twin size bed, face to face. The two of you have been retelling funny training stories for a good part of the past hour now, resulting in continuous fits of giggles escaping through the cracks of your team-designated bedroom.
When the two of you finally calmed down, her eyes landed on yours. It was still laced with warmth, the type you'd only find once in a lifetime. The next words tumbling out of her mouth might be one's she would regret for the rest of hers.
"I started seeing Vision." The brunette breathed out.
Silence. A blink. Then another. And another. Your body seemed frozen in time, almost unmovable, nearly untouchable. Should she have known?
"That's amazing Wands." almost as instantly, your smile was on your face again, the mask you wore so willingly. "I'm really happy for you, the whole team is talking about how you've fallen in love you know?"
Rolling over your bed, with your back now facing the mattress, you continued. "He's not really someone that girls dream about though." A hollow giggle left your mouth, which Wanda could only follow suit.
"Yeah, but he feels real to me. He makes me feel like I'm on top of the world." She said, only to continue without missing a beat; "Like some kind of ruler on top of a kingdom."
"Oo someone's in love~" You coo, which earned a jab in your ribs, which then turned into a flurry of tickles. You had turned back to face Wanda after flinging around the bed aimlessly, breathless from laughing to hard. With your hands wrapped around your stomach, you lift your head from where you laid on the pillows. Wanda noticedâfor the first time, she had realized laterâhow pretty you were. Your face beamed with an expression she could never replicate in photos. Your irises held stars she could barely bring herself to get lost in, and in the middle of it all was her. Her reflection, as well as the undeniable truth she did not dare to utter out.
"I really am happy for you Wands." You had whispered quietly, snapping her out of the dream-like trance she found herself stuck in. Wanda could only hum in response.
Wanda's mind would often wander back to that day, and question herself that if she had the chance, would she have changed anything at all? The answer, while not always constant, was a yes.
âËĘ á˘âË⧠ďž.
The day you announced your departure from the Avengers was the day Wanda knew she had lost her fight with fate.
The team had arranged a small farewell dinner for you, consisting of all your favorite food choices, along with all the people you've ever cared about for the past five years.
It wasn't until you were actually leaving for the night had the revelation finally clicked in for Wanda. She'd been sitting on the information for weeks now, uncertain of what to think nor feel. Sure, you had personally told her weeks prior from your following announcement to the whole team, as most would expect from a close friend, yet it felt like she couldn't fathom the idea of never seeing you again for every seven days of the week. For the last five years, you had been her constant. Her pillar of support. The only personâsafe for Visionâto see her for who she truly was, the moments she tried to rectify all she had done with Ultron, and the instances where she messed up missions so heavily dependent on her subpar understanding of magic. You were leaving her behind. How could you?
She felt anger, sadness, and resentment all at once. None of these feeling would matter in the coming years, but Wanda had felt them so strongly at the time. The unpleasant taste on her tongue was reaching an all time high, and as if being suddenly dunked in ice cold water, you had called to her. It almost killed her to see you standing there, with all your belongings next to you, and subsequently all evidence that you ever existed in the first place.
"Wands, are you alright?" Concerned etched all over your face, your eyebrows scrunching up.
She could only muster up a thin smile; "Yeah, all good. Don't worry about me." That had seem to appease you. Your expression loosened up, your features beamed.
"Thank you for always being there with me Wanda. Thank you for everything. And I'mâŚ" You pause, almost catching yourself before the fall. "I'm sorry, for leaving. You're going to do great for the world, I just know it. Please keep in touch okay?"
To hear you say her name with such softness, Wanda could only acquiesce. You could scream it and she'd still feel like you were singing her a lullaby. And at that exact moment, she knew there was no turning around anymore.
"Will you⌠Be fine?"
But how could Wanda begin? To tell you she should've chased you cross every single state? That she should've known sooner? That if she wasn't so ignorant to her own feelings, it could've been you instead?
She could only lay down her sword for fate now.
A smile and a nod, that was all Wanda could give you, cause it's too little way too late.
âËĘ á˘âË⧠ďž.
In three years time, you had found a girlfriend.
She was everything Wanda wasn't. A coincidence that did not go unnoticed by Wanda, nor did it Natasha. While conducting your sporadic catch-up with them at a local cafe, you had decided to bring her along. You mentioned that you've known each other for about a year, and that you're better now.
"She loved you, you know?" A sort of quiet had draped around the atmosphere after you left, only broken when Natasha finally spoke up, tracing her fingers around the rim of her coffee mug as she stared into the woman sitting across her.
"I know." Wanda didn't need the reminder of things she's done wrong. Of promises the both of you had broken, another piece of fragility hidden in song. She had accepted it at this point, often asking herself if you were soulmates in different lifetimes. That at least in this one, you had loved each other.
If Vision was the stability in her life, the order to her chaos; then you were the depth, the harmony she never deserved.
Natasha could only continue to assess the witch, and she knew that there were some stories she could never unravel. As the bitterness of the coffee spread through her senses, she could only watch as two fundamental truths unfolded upon her.
âËĘ á˘âË⧠ďž.
Wedding bells were heard all over the grassy fields, and as Wanda stood at the edge of it all, she could only wonder if you had any regrets.
Would you go back in time and change anything at all if given the chance? What if you leave her? Throw Wanda a lifeline, alter fate and change the roads you were both stumbling down. She knows that you're happy, but it just killed her.
It felt like just yesterday the two of you were basically inseparable. Volunteering to go on missions as a duo, sticking close together when Tony hosted one of his excessively rambunctious parties, staying up till the dead of night just to talk with each other. And here you are now, already leaving that chapter of your life behind and starting a whole new one.
"Wanda!" A voice screamed from behind her.
You were in all white, your wedding dress specifically. Your professionally done hair was slightly messed up from moving around and greeting guests, but you were still the most beautiful thing Wanda was ever allowed to see. She had already admired you from afar when you were walking down to your newly beloved earlier, but seeing you standing right in front of her, it was a clear fucking x-ray of if she'd stuck around. That maybe she could've been the one at the end of that walkway.
She swore to God, she almost drowned.
"How have you been Wands?" You asked.
Over the past few years, you had stopped informing the team on your mundane updates. Not only had they gotten busier with their own livelihoods, you did too. As life goes, Wanda assumed. It still didn't soften the sting though.
But how could she begin? To tell you she should've chased you? That she should be who you're engaged to?
She lost her fight with fate, she knew. A tug-of-war of leave and stay; the one where she would never voice out, that if she had come to terms with her feelings sooner, then maybe all this could've been different.
"I've been well, congratulations. On the marriage." Giving in, she abdicates. She lays her sword down anyway, to the cruel hands of fate. In the far future, she'll see you in Heaven's gate, to know whether she would ever have another chance with you.
"Thank you," A trace of sadness hits your face. "I've missed you."
Wanda could only smile.
"Yeah, me too."
âËĘ á˘âË⧠ďž.
While the ceremony went on, Wanda had escaped to the hill tops that oversaw your celebration. And as she viewed the bright lights and soft music from a distance, opened wine bottle in one hand (she was meant to give it to you, as a gift, but changed her mind), holding the necklace she still wore to this day in the other, she whispered vows she'll never say to you.
"I love you, and I'll probably love you for the rest of my life, but it's too little all too late now."
Half a year later, Vision proposed. Wanda accepted.
