hi! currently on chapter 11 of your mixtape and am in love with it! 🥰 the way you write - especially the way you depict vision so accurately that i can imagine him saying all of those things - is just amazing. not sure if you still accept requests but i would love to see a fic based on “start a riot-banners” (i am a sucker for angst, love the pain🥲) love your work!🥰
oof I am very sorry for long this took but hopefully the wait will be worth it! thank you so much for your request <3 for context there was a second message requesting something following on from the compound scene in episode 8 of WV. naturally, I cannot improve upon perfection - so I decided to look at a more physical rendition of VIsion breaking down Wanda’s carefully built walls. I really hope you enjoy 🥰
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Track #21: Start a Riot by BANNERS
Breathe
Wanda cried out to her own mind as she rocked back and forth, thumping a hand against her chest as though it would somehow alleviate the pain radiating from her heart.
She wasn’t sure what had brought on the intense wave of emotion – there were plenty of options to choose from, be it dead brother, the mass destruction of her city, the endless damage she’d committed under Ultron. There seemed no limit to her pain, to the pain that she had caused. All she knew was that she had woken up at some point late in the night and the darkness pressing in on all sides had made her panic, prompting the revival of all those memories she’d spent the last two weeks forcing down. Of course, it was going to bubble over. She’d just never thought it could get this catastrophic.
“Wanda!” She distantly heard Steve cry from her doorway as he tried to pull himself into her room. But it was no use, her powers were out of control, creating a dangerous tornado of swirling red magic that only seemed to grow.
A small crowd had gathered behind Steve – Nat, Sam and James Rhodes each with varying shades of concern and fear on their faces. And then a more familiar figure came down the corridor. Wanda wasn’t certain how she knew he was there before she saw him, she just did. He was a warmth at the edges of her mind, a figure in the corner of her gaze, there was always small part of her consciousness focused on him.
His arrival granted her one sweet moment of pause before the riling, spinning ball of energy encasing her room picked up speed once more. She curled in on herself, the bed at her back and the full extent of her power barely restrained between her two fists.
“This isn’t good,” Nat yelled from outside the roaring power, “we need to get through to her before she brings the entire building down.”
Yes, her powers would do that wouldn’t they? They’d bring it all crashing down, just as she had in Sokovia.
“Stand aside Captain Rogers.”
“Vision I don’t know if this is a good idea, the proximity to the power source in your head could make things worse.”
“Stay away!” Wanda howled, pressing her fists to her chest and calling her power in lest they hurt those who had been trying so hard to help her.
“I can reach her.”
With grudging respect Steve moved aside. "Have the sedatives ready," he said to Natasha as Vision began trying to enter the room she had effectively barricaded herself in.
“Wanda?” Vision’s voice was soft, yet she heard him clear as day.
“Please go,” Wanda whispered, clutching at her shoulders as though she could hold the pain in, the power in, all of it.
“Let me help you,” Vision said taking the first step into the room.
“I don’t want to hurt you!”
“You won’t hurt me.” Vision’s voice held a confidence that she didn’t feel. “I trust you.”
Wanda’s chest heaved with a sob.
“I need you to let it go, stop calling on the power.”
“I can’t,” Wanda cried, shaking with the effort it took to keep it restrained. “It’s too powerful.”
Vision was closer to her now, her power flinching off him like water off a duck’s back. She didn't want to hurt him.
“You are that power, Wanda.”
“No,” Wanda whispered and shook her head firmly.
“You are the power, you are powerful,” he said with such certainty that Wanda faltered. At the start it had felt like a separate entity, something that had latched onto her but the more she had experimented with the misty magic the more it had become her own. “You don’t need to control it, you just have to let go.”
He was crouching before her now, his hand outstretched. Wanda focused on his eyes, those strange eyes which were both artificial and entirely human.
“Take my hand,” Vision said, reaching out to her.
The roaring quietened a little bit, her mind calming enough for her to relax one hand and stretch it out. Her heat beat started to slow and the blood rushing in her ears lessened. His hand grounded her and slowly, layer by layer, her powers dropped down their red walls. Finally, the only one that remained was a half-hearted swirling mass encasing herself.
With a tight grip on her hand Vision dragged her out of her own whirlpool. Wanda shook with tears at the sudden quiet that descended upon them as the last of her power evaporated, leaving her arms aching with the magic as she let go.
Vision’s hand was her lifeline. He picked her up carefully and lifted her to the bed where she continued to tremble with leftover sobs. His voice calmed her as he whispered soft comforts and she maintained a vicelike grip of his hand.
Half an hour later and she had calmed down enough to get back in bed. The others had already retired to their quarters – convinced Wanda was fine once she started professing her apologies for disturbing their Saturday evening. Steve had left a herbal tea on her nightstand and Nat had given her a tight hug with the promise they’d talk more in the morning.
Vision didn’t leave though. He saw to making sure she had another blanket and intuitively knew to pull her blinds up so that the outside world might be seen. That he had known what would make her feel better startled Wanda and she watching him curiously. Finished at the windows he turned back to her, rubbing his hands before him as though not quite sure what to do with himself.
“Is there anything else I can do?” Vision asked hesitantly.
“You’ve already done so much,” Wanda said, her throat hoarse from the crying. “Thank you.”
Vision gave a small smile at this. “And you will be alright until morning?
Wanda managed a huffing laugh at his concern, wondering what on earth she had done to entice such care from the synthezoid. Regardless of whether it sense, she couldn’t ignore the warm feeling blossoming in her chest replacing the harshness of the feelings she’d been bombarded not long earlier. “I’ll be alright now, thank you, Vision.”
“If there is anything else you need,” Vision said stepping backwards towards the wall behind him, “now or in the future, please tell me.”
Wanda’s breath caught in her throat when she realised, he was making to leave, intending to phase through her bedroom wall as he so often did around the house. Just as quickly the panic was back at the thought of being left alone. Vision must have seen her eyes widen and her hands tense atop the covers because he paused.
“Would it bother you if I stayed a little longer?” His words were a rush. “I would rather not leave you alone, at least until you are asleep.”
Wanda’s lip trembled and she blinked furiously. “That would be nice.”
Vision smiled and pointed to the chair once again before shaking his head and walking over to sit. His mannerisms were becoming more familiar to her with every passing day, and his quirks were beginning to make her smile.
He remained at her side throughout the night, though he’d said he would only stay until she fell asleep. Though the chair was empty when morning light started to stream through her windows, Wanda was certain he hadn’t left her. She would have felt him leave, felt the absence of him even when her brain was lost in deep sleep. And a deep sleep it had been, she had not felt so well rested in a long, long time.
Wanda sat up when she felt Vision returning, and was surprised when he knocked at her door this time.
“Come in,” she called.
“I thought you might like to eat breakfast with the others,” Vision’s voice was hesitant as he cracked the door open to speak.
Wanda was quiet for a moment. She had yet to eat a meal with her supposed teammates, though not through any fault of their own. It had hurt her to hear their laughter each morning and evening as they gathered in the kitchen down from her room. She had hated the part of her that longed to join their laughter what with Pietro's loss so fresh in her mind.
“It would do everyone good to see you well,” Vision said, quieter this time.
He had torn at her walls yesterday and here he was again, making sure her defences didn't snap back up just as strong. He was asking her to leave the door open and take a step through. Wanda struggled to find a reason to say no. Afterall, Vision had walked through catastrophic amounts of her power just the previous evening, the least she could do was manage a plate of scrambled eggs.
“I’ll be right out,” she said, her voice still scratchy but eager for use.
Vision pulled the door closed behind him, just slow enough for Wanda to catch sight of his bright beaming smile. It was a smile she wanted to see again.
