Someone To Stay | Wanda Maximoff

6. You Couldn't Possibly Understand

WANDA's POV

Due to the constant worrying of if Luna was okay or not, I hardly got any sleep last night. I was tossing and turning every minute and no matter what, I just couldn't rest. When you have a child, you spend ninety-five percent of your time worrying about them, but when you have a child who you haven't seen since you were eighteen years old, you spend a hundred percent of your time worrying about them.

This morning, Vision and the boys packed and left for a last-minute trip to the countryside. It gives them some time to father-son bond and it'll give me a chance to talk things over with Luna and figure out some long term plans.

Speaking of my daughter, I made it to her door around two minutes ago, but something is refraining me from knocking.

Come on, Wanda. She's gonna think you've disappeared again if you don't go in soon. It's already ten a.m.

"You can come in, Wanda," a small voice says to me from the other side. How did she do that?

"Hey, how did you know I was out there?" I ask as I push the door open and walk closer towards her, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and looking down at her since she's sitting on the floor. She must've slept on it since she's not used to the softness of the mattress.

"I just sensed it. Maybe it's something to do with our powers being the same or whatever," she shrugs, continuing the drawing she's working on.

"Hm. How long have you been working on that one?"

"Since four, maybe five? I uh... I get up early."

"That's because they forced you to get up at four, right? The routines there are strict, I remember. What was your routine?"

My question seems to have unsettled her in some way since her hand instantly drops the pencil and she puts her paper back onto the nightstand, then proceeding to hug herself tightly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so straightforward. I know it's hard to think about," I try and apologize, but Luna doesn't accept it.

"No, you don't know. You were there for maybe what, four, five years? I was there for sixteen years. That's my whole life. How could you possibly understand what I've been through? I had to get up every morning at four o'clock, and that's if I was lucky. Half the time, it was three-thirty. I had to strength train as soon as I woke up, that lasted until seven. Then for breakfast, I got a pill that enhanced my focus so that for the rest of the day, I could do whatever Strucker wanted me to do. Which most of the time, was simply being bossed to break things with my magic. Or kill things. Or even people, sometimes. They would bring in animals twice a week for me to torture, and they gave me the weak links of the kids they had. That's right, I had to kill children. Totally against my will. What kind of monster does that? I'm not any better than Strucker and his men. I'm exactly like them."

Her words silence me. The bitterness in her voice, the way her voice wavers because she's trying to hold back a tsunami of emotions.

I'm not sure anything I say in this moment can help, but I can still try.

"Luna, that is not true. You're not a monster at all! Like you said, it was against your will. You didn't have a choice, you literally had to fight for your life in there. Please let me be the one to help you see that."

LUNA's POV

I want to trust Wanda, I really do. But how do you trust someone that's already betrayed you once? My rule is: if they did it once, they'll do it again.

I'll pretend to be vulnerable with her. I'll make her think she's doing something good, for her own peace of mind. But I'm not letting my guard down for real. She doesn't deserve that from me.