Fire and Smoke - Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Chapter 96

I let myself stay with her, her consciousness lulling me into a false sense of security and comfort as the prickling atoms around me fade away and everyone else fades into nothingness. I'm not in her mind, I cannot hear her thoughts or really discern her emotions, and although I want nothing more than to understand all of her at all times, I would never invade her person in that way. I hate doing that as much as everyone hates me for being able to do it.

So instead, I just feel all of her, making sure she's alright. I don't understand the pull my scarlet feels whenever she's near, and I don't quite understand why my body wants to be near her at all times, and as much as it confuses me to feel so much for someone I cannot remember meeting, it also intrigues me. Vis wants me to let go and hold onto her, but he doesn't understand human emotion. He just thinks with his brilliant, one-of-a-kind, and amazingly intricate mind, but he doesn't truly ever just feel. My lips curl upwards as I'm reminded of the countless times I would want to rip him apart as he would annoy me to no end with his logical thinking. Solutions, solutions, solutions.

There's a small hitch in Olivia's thoughts, which perks me up, and my scarlet prickles hotly back in my body.

Olivia's POV

The air around me is stifling, and I feel like I'm about to pass out any second. I try to focus on my breathing. Steady, dependable. In and out. Easy, right? Fuck, I can't keep my hands from shaking ever so slightly. I can't decide if all I want to do in this moment is to throw up or to start running away. It feels like I've taken ten steps back, standing here in this Hydra uniform. I keep waiting to lose control over my body and become nothing less than a prisoner inside my own mind. I try to push those thoughts away and ground myself in my breath.

"Right, I give up! I literally can't make you look evil, Steve. No, don't make that face at me!" Natasha lets out an airy laugh, which brings me into the present and out of my mind. I turn to look at them.

Natasha is standing in front of Steve with her hands on her hips, looking up at Steve, who, despite wearing a uniform that only stands for evil, looks like he might burst into song at any moment and give everyone around him warm hugs. It won't work.

"He should put on a helmet. Will make him less recognizable." I mutter darkly, bending to grab one of the half-naked guards' helmets and handing it over, my body feeling awkward in these clothes. I briefly wonder if it was any of these guards who watched me change that time, and I shiver at the unwelcome memory.

"Oh, yeah, good idea." Steve smiles at me, but I can't reciprocate his smile in fear that I would just end up grimacing at him.

Natasha and I watch Steve place the helmet over his blonde hair. It doesn't really suit him, but at least it won't instantly draw everyone's attention to him. Natasha pats him on the chest, turning to look at me with inquisitive eyes, but whatever question she's pondering in her head she does not pose. Instead, she looks off slightly to the distance as she speaks to Darcy, keeping the line of communication open and clear. Darcy lets us know that as soon as we exit this room, we will be in the main section of the base, from where we should go down two stories deeper into the earth. On that level, we should be able to find a room that houses the central base for all Hydra electronics, and from which all their information flows. If we erase Wanda's file from those computers, it should disappear from everywhere - as long as we get the physical copy of it too. It sounds easy enough, as long as no one recognizes us. I cannot ignore the gnawing fear in me much longer; it's speak now or never.

"What if they get me, and they make me... do things?" I awkwardly express my worry, scrunching up my face as I sound small and frightened, the opposite of how I want to come across.