SELCOUTH | 6.2
"DUDE, THAT'S MY MOM"
Edinburgh, Scotland | 2018
ATHENA STARED AT HER DRINK AND SIGHED. At this point, she could just go back to the United States and just get tossed in a cell. Then she'd get out on good behavior and could live on Tony and Pepper's couch for the rest of her life. Or maybe she could stay with her mother and the two of them could actually bond over the twenty-two years that they had lost.
None of those options were appealing to Athena because all she could think about was Wanda. It was as though she had this entire timeline in her head and now it was gone with a simple, I can't. She saw no future, no purpose. She felt numb besides the constant pain in her chest where Wanda used to be.
The sound of a chair scraping beside her takes Athena out of her thoughts. She looks up to see her mother taking a seat in the chair beside her. A scoff escaped Athena as she stared ahead at the bar.
"How'd you find me?"
"Wanda called me," Freya says, "She asked if I had seen you, to which I replied no. Then she told me that you had been missing for nearly a year and that no one has seen you."
"That would be correct," Athena says, downing the bourbon in her glass. The bartender comes over and instantly refills her glass, causing her to smile as she reaches out to drink it, but Freya's hand stops her.
"Athena," she says firmly, "Stop."
"Stop?" Athena asks with a laugh, "It doesn't have any effect! I have been drinking for at least three days straight and I have felt not even a buzz. So no, I don't think I'll stop."
Freya pushes the drink away from her and Athena feels herself getting annoyed, "You reek of booze dear. I'm telling you to stop for that reason. And the fact that you used your charmspeak on an entire bar."
"It's not like I used it to harm them," Athena says reaching out to grab her glass of bourbon, "Just to get free drinks and to pretend that I don't exist."
Freya watches as she drinks the entire glass of bourbon. Upon noticing the empty glass, the bartender walks over to refill it, but Freya stops him.
"Close her tab," she tells him.
"But she told me to keep pouring her drinks no matter what," the man tells her.
"And I'm telling you to stop pouring those drinks," Freya states firmly, "Am I clear?"
"Yes," the bartender says before scurrying away.
"Charmspeak to undo charmspeak. Clever," Athena deadpans as she looks at Freya, "Maybe you would have been a good mother."
"You proposed, didn't you?" Freya asks and Athena falls silent instantly. The disapproving look that Freya had been given her instantly softens, "Wanda said no."
"She said no," Athena mutters, "I would have seen a rejection coming, I would have known if Wanda weren't ready or if she didn't love me enough, but I suppose that's the thing about love. It blinds you and what you expect to see coming, you don't."
"Your life isn't over," Freya says softly, but Athena scoffs.
"It is," Athena states, "My heart doesn't beat like it used to. Honestly, I'm not sure it beats at all."
"You really loved this girl," Freya notes, staring at her daughter in slight awe.
"I did," Athena tells her as she looks at her drink, "I still do."
"Then why have you run from her for a year? She's been searching for you and just because she said no, doesn't mean that she doesn't love you," Freya explains.
"Look," Athena says shaking her head, "I don't need you to use your weird love analysis powers on me. Wanda may love me, but love that isn't to the same extent, it's pointless."
"Why?" Freya asks.
"Why ask questions you already know the answer to? You loved Odin, but he had a wife. He was never going to love you the way that he loved Frigga. But you saw an opportunity and got your heart broken anyway," Athena says shaking her head.
"That wasn't how it happened."
"That's how most affairs tend to happen," Athena shrugs, "And even if Odin did somehow love you, that love was never going to compare to that of Frigga's. He married her. He just fucked you."
"Don't project onto me because of your insecurities," Freya tells Athena firmly, "The reason you ran from Wanda is that you believe that you tricked her into falling in love with you. That your entire relationship had been a lie because of your abilities."
"That – that isn't true," Athena says shaking her head.
"Then why did you run, Athena?" Freya asks her, "We both know that you are crazy for that girl, so why run from her?"
"Because she said no."
"That isn't why," Freya states, "Why did you run from Wanda? I want to hear you say it."
"There isn't anything to say," Athena says, standing from her seat. She doesn't get the chance to leave as the entire bar shakes and the lights begin to flicker. Athena looks at her mother who slowly stands as well.
The door of the bar is shoved open as three figures that certainly were not human walked in. The patrons let out screams as they rushed toward the exit of the bar, but Athena didn't move as she stared at them curiously.
"Athena, let's go," her mother tells her, grabbing her wrist, ready to follow everyone out. Athena, however, stays rooted to her spot.
"You!" one of them states, "You have the stench of the Mind Stone all over you. Where is it?"
"Well, it's gonna be complicated to understand where the stone is if you don't have an understanding of European geography," Athena says as she heads over to the back of the bar, looking at the drink selections.
"Don't play games with us," the alien states, "Where is it?"
Athena grabs a bottle of vodka and takes a sip of it before setting it down on the bar. On the other side, the alien was glaring at her, the two other aliens accompanying her were drawing their weapons and Athena relaxes. She wasn't scared of them. At this point in life, she wasn't scared of anything.
"I'll tell you where the stone is, but I want something first."
The alien tilts her head curiously at Athena, "And what is that?"
"Who wants the stone?"
The alien smirks at her, "The great titan. Thanos."
Her mother lets out a gasp and Athena's eyes flicker over at her. She had never heard the name herself, but if her mother, a goddess of Asgard seemed frightened, then Athena knew that she should be terrified.
"Never heard of him," Athena says, "But if you must know the stone is with my ex-girlfriend and there's no way I'm letting any of you near her."
Athena lifts her hand and watches as red drops begin to peel off the skins of the aliens. Their faces shift to one of fear as they watch the red droplets fly toward Athena.
"You know the curious thing about blood is that no matter what species you are, human, god, even alien, water is found in plasma. Plasma makes blood. So, in a way, I can manipulate blood."
Athena clenches her first and the three aliens drop to the ground gripping at their chests and gasping for air she squeezes tighter, and their seizing comes to a stop as they lay still, glassy eyes staring up at the ceiling.
"Athena, how did you-"
"Practice and research," Athena answers as she goes to the cash register. She punches it, causing it to shoot open, "My powers rely on water, rarely in a fight is water around so you have to depend on other things. If there is a high enough water composition, then I can manipulate it."
She shoves the cash register closed after emptying it and looks at her mother, "Who is Thanos?"
"He's a powerful titan. He goes to planets and kills their inhabitants. If he's after the Infinity Stones-"
"Vision and Wanda are in trouble," Athena mutters, "We need to get to Scotland."
"I think there's a train headed there tonight," Freya says as she grabs her phone and scrolls through it, "The next one leaves at ten."
"We're gonna be on it," Athena states.
___
Athena walks quickly out of the train station, Freya at her side. The first place that she was going to look had to be the flat that she shared with Wanda and Vision while they were on the run. Technically they were still on the run, but it was no longer Athena's home.
"The flat isn't too far," Athena states, "It's just up-"
Athena stops when she finds Wanda and Vision leaning against one of the buildings.
"Vision?" Athena asks, rushing over to his side. Her eyes widen at the sight of his wound, "What happened?"
"Athena!" he says with a smile, "You returned."
"Yeah, for you," Athena says, watching as Wanda closed his wound, "We've got some new enemies."
"So, it seems," Vision tells her, he glances at Wanda and Athena knows social cues. He wants her to look at Wanda as well, but Vision needs protecting, not Wanda.
There an exclamation and Athena looks up to see one of the aliens charging right at Wanda. Reacting, she tackles her out of the way, landing right on top of Wanda. Beneath her, Wanda acts quickly, using her magic to toss the alien into a building.
She looks down under her at Wanda to see her breathing heavy, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Wide green eyes stared into her own and Athena was quick to remove herself from Wanda. She held her hand out and Wanda took it, allowing Athena to help her up.
"Have you heard word from New York?" Wanda asks her, "A giant spaceship landed in the city."
Athena shakes her head, "No, but I was attacked at a bar in Manchester. These aliens, they're after the Mind Stone."
"That's where you've been?" Wanda asks her, "Manchester?"
"Athena look out!"
Athena looks up hearing her mother's shout and shoves Wanda out of the way as she ducks under the blade being swung at her.
"Wanda, protect Vision!" Athena says as she continues to dodge attack after attack. The blade stops inches from her face and Athena looks up to see Wanda had used her powers to stop the blade.
Athena frowns as she headbutts the woman, snatching the blade from her, "I've got this! It's Vision they're after."
"You're welcome," Wanda tells her bluntly before flying off.
"Very lightweight," Athena shakes her head as she twirls the weapon easily with her fingers, "And terribly unbalanced."
"Different from your trident?" she asks, standing up. Athena's eyes narrow, unsure of how the woman knew of her weapon of choice.
"I think it's a little unfair that you know about me and I know nothing about you," Athena states, "Can I at least get your name?"
"Proxima Midnight," she answers, "And you Athena, daughter of Odin and Freya, should surrender and turn the stone over."
"No," Athena states plainly.
"Disappointing," Proxima states as she charges at Athena. She attacks quickly and Athena does a good job of dodging, but because she's on the defensive, she's not able to lay a single blow, not to mention her inability to use Proxima's staff.
Proxima lands a punch, sending Athena stumbling before snatching the staff and blasting Athena, sending her flying. She feels glass shatter beneath her, and she lets out a groan, regretting the drinks that she'd had earlier.
She looks over to see Wanda and Vision, slumped over. Athena shakes off her fall and makes her way over to the two of them.
"Please leave," Vision asks Wanda, his hand coming to rest on her cheek. Athena watches the exchange feeling that something was different between the two of them, but she couldn't bring herself to identify it.
"No," Wanda tells him, "We're not going anywhere without you."
"She's right," Athena tells him, causing both of them to look over at her. Vision's hand drops quickly, and Athena pretends that she didn't notice, "We leave, we do that together."
The glass breaks and Athena turns to see as Proxima Midnight and her friend land in front of them. Athena looks over at Wanda who nods at her. Wanda's hands glow red and Athena simply clenches her fist and releases it.
Proxima's eyes drift behind them and Wanda and Athena both turn to see what exactly she was looking at. Athena believed her eyes were playing tricks on her as the train passed by, but they weren't. The train had gone, and the figure was still there, standing in the shadows.
Proxima threw her weapon and the shadow caught it with ease before stepping forward. Athena's shoulders sagged at the sight of Steve who had apparently grown a beard.
Athena turned quickly at the sound of Proxima's partner letting out a scream and grinned when she saw Sam flying by. The icing on the cake was when Steve threw the blade and Natasha caught it, stabbing him in the side.
Proxima summoned the blade back to her, ready to attack Natasha, but Steve was quick to defend her. They fought until they had the two of them cornered.
"Get up," Proxima commands.
"I can't."
"We don't want to kill you," Natasha states, "But we will."
"You'll never get this chance again," Proxima tells her before being taken up in a beam of light. Athena looks up through the hole to see that they had been taken up in a spaceship, which flies off into the night.
Athena looks at Natasha, taking in her blonde hair, "Is it true that blondes have more fun?"
"Is it true that you've been missing for a year?" Natasha asks before pulling Athena into an embrace. She hugs Natasha tightly having missed the embrace of the older woman over the last two years.
"We need to get you on the jet," Steve states as he looks at Vision. Sam and Wanda help the synthezoid to his feet, just as Freya makes her way into the train station. Steve and Natasha are ready to attack when Athena steps in front of her.
"She's with me," Athena tells them, "Freya this is Steve, Natasha, and Sam. Guys this is my mother."
"Damn," Sam mutters as he looks at her mother.
"Dude that's my mom," Athena says walking over to slap him on the back of the head.
"Ignore him," Natasha says as she begins walking, "We need to get on the jet."
Athena smiles reassuringly at her mother as she keeps in step with Natasha.
"Now we had a deal. Stay close, check-in, don't take any chances," she looks up at Athena, "You disappeared."
"I was in Manchester," Athena says, "I had to get away for a while."
"A whole year?"
"Yeah well," Athena looks and glances at Wanda, who happens to look up and meet her gaze at the same time. Athena sighs as she turns back around, "Things happened."
Natasha looks back and then at Athena, "You two broke up?"
"Unofficially but yeah," Athena says looking down.
"What the hell happened?" Natasha asks, "You love that girl more than you love yourself."
Athena sucked in a breath, "I proposed?"
Natasha's eyes went wide, "You – you proposed?"
Athena nods her head, "She said no."
"Oh Athena," Natasha says, throwing an arm around her, "Everything is gonna be okay."
Athena scoffs, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed."
"Noticed what?" Natasha asks her.
"Somethings different between the two of them. It's intimate," Athena mutters shaking her head, "I don't know."
"We can sort that out later," Natasha tells her as they stop in front of the Quin Jet, "For now we have bigger issues to worry about. Where's your trident?"
"New York. Tony took it," Athena tells her and Natasha nods her head.
They get on the jet and Athena watches as Vision and Wanda settle down next to each other. She feels a hand on her shoulder and looks over to see her mother standing beside her. She glances down shamefully, and Freya gives her shoulder a squeeze.
"It's not what you think."
"How do you know?" Athena asks.
"There's certain knowledge that comes with being the goddess of love," Freya says looking at her with a sympathetic smile, "Wanda's heart still beats for you."
Athena looks over at Wanda. She wanted nothing more than to hold her, to run away for the inevitable doom looming over them. She still wanted Wanda, but there was no way that Wanda still wanted her.
"Where to Cap?" Sam asks as he assumes navigation of the jet. Athena tears her eyes away from Wanda and looks over at Steve who had a contemplative look on his face. He looks at them and exhales a deep breath.
"Home."
___
They enter the Avenger's Compound and Rhodey's there, having a conversation with the holographic version of the United States government. She frowns at the sight of Rhodey's leg braces, a result of the conflict in Berlin.
"Mr. Secretary," Steve greets.
"You've got some nerve coming back," he states and Athena scoffs. The world was quite literally on the brink of destruction and he was still thinking about the stupid Sokovian Accords.
"Seems like you could use some of that," Natasha tells him.
"The worlds on fire and you think all's forgiven?" he asks, eyes scanning over the entire group.
"I'm not looking for forgiveness and I'm way past asking for permission. Earth just lost her best defender. So, we're here to fight. And if you wanna stand in our way, we'll fight you too," Steve states plainly. Athena smirks at his answer. When had Steve turned into such a badass?
It had to be the beard.
Ross turns to Rhodey, "Arrest them."
Athena scoffs, "Seriously? The biggest threat the Earth has ever faced is here and you still want to throw us in a cell? Is your pride worth more than all of humanity?"
Ross doesn't even respond, instead, he repeats his request to Rhodey, "Arrest them."
"All over it," Rhodey answers before ending the call.
"I love you, Rhodey," Athena says, stepping forward to hug the man. He seems surprised by the embrace at first, but relaxes into it, hugging Athena back, "I'm glad you're okay."
He pats her back as she pulls away, "Glad to see you're okay too. Tony was worried about you. Heard you robbed him."
Athena grins, "That I did do."
Rhodey chuckles, "Glad to see nothing's changed."
Athena steps back, allowing Steve and Natasha to properly greet Rhodey. She notices the look of confusion on his face as his eyes rest on Freya.
"Rhodey, Freya, Asgardian goddess of love and my mother. Freya, James Rhodes of the military," Athena introduces.
"Pleasure to meet you," Freya says.
"You as well. Athena looks just like you."
Athena looks over at her mother, surprised to find a look of pride on her face.
"You guys look terrible," Rhodey teases and everyone lets out something resembling a chuckle.
"Not all of us were able to rob Tony Stark and get a nice apartment," Sam says, fixing Athena with a look. She shrugs, a smile on her lips, but it slips away as she thinks about the memories, she and Wanda had made sharing that apartment. Memories that were probably forgotten and replaced by those made by Vision and Wanda.
"I think you guys look great."
Bruce steps into the room, his steps hesitant. The last they heard of him was when the Hulk stole the jet and disappeared after everything in Sokovia. She wonders if anyone caught him up on everything that had happened in his absence.
"Bruce," Natasha says.
She can tell that he doesn't know what to say to her, he shifts awkwardly and fiddles with his hands before settling with a simple, "Nat."
"This is awkward," Athena hears Sam mumble. She looks over at him to see Vision and Wanda doing the same. Wanda glances at her and Athena quickly looks away.
"So, what's going on?" Athena asks, wanting to solve whatever problem they had and get the hell out of being in the same space with Wanda, "Where's Tony?"
"He was on that spaceship. The one that landed in New York," Rhodey informs her.
"Great," she mutters, "Tony's in space."
"Thanos," Bruce informs them all, "He wipes out worlds and right now he's after the Infinity Stones. He has the Power and Space stones and he's already unstoppable."
"Did you encounter him?" Steve asks and Bruce nods his head. His eyes flicker over to Athena and Freya and it doesn't take a genius to know that he has even more bad news.
"What is it?" Athena asks.
"Asgard," he says, "It's gone."
"Gone?" her mother asks, her voice cracking, "What do you mean gone?"
"Hela, Odin's firstborn, returned. She took control of Asgard. The only way to stop her was to cause Ragnarök. We were able to get everyone off before it began, but Thanos showed up."
"We? You mean Thor?" Athena asks and Bruce nods slowly, "Where is he?"
"Athena-"
"Where the hell is my brother?" she asks. She'd already lost a planet that she never got the chance to call home, there was no way she was losing her brother as well.
"I don't know," Bruce answers honestly and Athena's jaw clenches. She wants to cry, but not out of sadness, out of anger and frustration. Wanda looks at her and knows what's coming. If everyone continues to look at her, she just might cry.
"They want the Mind Stone," Wanda states, redirecting everyone's attention to herself, "They came after Vision. They came after Athena because they'd sensed she'd been near it."
"So we have to assume that they're coming back, right?" Rhodey asks.
"And they can clearly find us," Wanda adds.
"We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" Bruce looks at Natasha.
"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families. They're on house arrest," Natasha informs him.
"Who's Scott?"
"Ant-Man," Steve answers.
"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?" Bruce asks confused. Everyone in the room simply nods. It was weird when you thought about it. Bruce shakes his head, "Okay look, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe and he is not gonna stop until he gets – Vision's stone."
"Then we have to protect it," Natasha states.
"No, we have to destroy it."
Everyone looks over at Vision and he explains further.
"I've given a great deal of thought to this entity in my head. About its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source something very similar to its own signature, perhaps its molecular integrity could fail."
Athena knew what Vision was hinting at. He wanted Wanda to destroy the stone. However, that also meant that he would die, truly meaning that Wanda had to kill Vision.
"That's not going to happen," Wanda says looking at him.
"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it," Vision tells her softly, trying to reason with her, but Athena knew that reasoning with Wanda was like reasoning with a wall. When she had her mind set on something, there was no changing it.
"Are there any other stones not attached to our friends?" Athena asks, "I mean there are six of them, right? Let's assume that he has three. Vision has one. That leaves us with two other stones that we could destroy."
"Except that we have no idea where they are," Bruce tells her, and Athena sighs annoyed.
Vision cups Wanda's face between his hands, "Thanos threatens half of the universe. Don't let my life stand in the way."
Athena's too amped up to stay in the room to watch the two of them bicker about the worth of his life. Without a word she heads outside to the balcony, staring down at the pool that she used to spend hours in.
"Hey," she turns to see that it was Natasha who had followed her.
"Sorry," Athena mutters, "I needed air. Too much information was being piled on me at once. My planet is gone, my brother may be gone-"
"And the love of your life may be gone as well," Natasha says.
"It's not about that," Athena says growing frustrated, "I cannot think about Wanda. Not when everything is on the line."
"But you are," Natasha states, "You still love her."
"Of course, I still love her," Athena mutters as she squeezes her eyes shut, "It doesn't matter because she stopped loving me."
"Hey," Steve says poking his head outside, "You, okay?"
"I'm fine," Athena tells him, shoving her unresolved feelings somewhere deep, "What's the plan?"
"We're going to Wakanda. Their technology is much more advanced than ours. We're gonna try and extract the stone from Vision."
"And he'd be okay?" Natasha asks.
"Bruce seems to think so," Steve answers. His eyes scan over her before he steps outside, holding something.
"Thought you might want this," Steve says holding her trident out to her. She smiles at the sight of it as she takes it from him.
It was all she had left of Asgard.
"Thank you," she tells him.
Steve nods at her, "Be on the jet in ten."
Athena nods her head and Natasha places a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze, "Think you'll be alright?"
Athena smiles weakly as she looks over at Natasha, "Do I have a choice?"
___
Wakanda certainly wasn't what she imagined and if she lived in a country as beautiful as this, she wouldn't want to open her doors to outsiders either. As they got off the jet, King T'Challa was waiting for them, along with his Kingsguard known as the Dora Milaje.
"Should we bow?" Bruce asks.
"Yeah, he's the king," Rhodey responded seriously.
Bruce bowed as Rhodey slapped him on the shoulder, "What are you doing?"
T'Challa stares at Bruce, "Uh we don't do that here."
Athena snorted as she looked over at Bruce who seemed embarrassed.
"This reminds me a little of Asgard," Frey's mutters beside her, "It's so beautiful."
"I'm sorry," Athena says softly, "About your home."
"The destruction of Asgard has been prophecized for years. I just thought I'd see it once more before then."
Steve and Natasha explained the situation to T'Challa as he led them inside. They were eventually joined by Bucky who Steve greeted warmly.
He led them to his sister's lab which was extremely high tech. Shuri scanned Vision and ran multiple tests on him while they all stood around waiting anxiously for an answer on whether or not she could remove the stone.
"It will take time," Shuri tells them, "But I can do it."
"How long?" Steve asks.
"As long as you can give me," Shuri answers.
Okoye pulls up a projection in her hand and Athena leans closer to get a look at how she was capable of doing such a thing. Okoye glances at her and she takes a step backward.
"Something's entered the atmosphere," Okoye informs them.
"Hey Cap, we got a situation here," Sam's voice comes through the com.
Athena looked out of the window to see that things were beginning to fall from the sky but weren't penetrating the forcefield that surrounded Wakanda.
"It's too late," Vision says sitting up, "We need to destroy the stone now."
"Vision get your ass back on the table," Natasha orders.
"We will hold them off," T'Challa says heading out of the room.
"Wanda, as soon as that stone's out of his head you blow it to hell," Steve commands.
Wanda nods her head, "I will."
"Hey," Athena says as she grabs Steve's arm, "I might have a way to stop Thanos."
Steve looks at her curiously, "What is it?"
"Blood manipulation. It's a little skill I've learned in my free time. Water's in plasma, plasma makes up blood. Every species, no matter the planet, has some form of water in it. Including titans. I can induce a heart attack on Thanos. Those slow anyone down."
Steve nods his head, "Alright. I'll see you down there."
Athena nods her head as Steve heads out of the room. She looks over at Wanda to find her watching her. Athena sighs as she heads out of the lab and into the hallway. It's not seconds later that the door opens, and Wanda stands in front of her.
"We need to talk," Wanda states.
"Now?" Athena asks.
"If not now, then when?" Athena shrugs dismissively, something that Wanda doesn't like as she storms closer to Athena, "Would it kill you to take something in your life seriously?"
Athena holds her ground staring Wanda in the eyes, "What?"
"You don't ever want to face the problem. You just run or deal with it later, right?"
"You want to talk? Fine then let's talk. I proposed to you. You said no. There! What else is there to talk about?"
"You left!" Wanda exclaims, "You promised that we would face things together. You promised me forever!"
"I asked you for forever and you said no!" Athena retorts, "You turned your back on forever first!"
"Because I was scared. You asked me to marry you. That's a big commitment and we were on the run, it didn't make sense to say yes!"
"It," Athena takes a moment to compose herself, "It didn't make sense to say yes? We'd already promised each other forever, Wanda. I just wanted to make things more official, and it wasn't like I was asking you to marry me right then and there."
Wanda shrugs, "I guess we'll never know because you caught the first train out of Edinburgh that night."
"Oh, so it's my fault?" Athena asks, unable to believe the words that she was hearing. It sounded like Wanda was blaming her. No. Athena knew Wanda was blaming her, however, it was far from her fault.
"Partially!" Wanda exclaims, "We were supposed to talk in the morning."
Athena can't help as she taps her fingers on the side of her leg anxiously. This conversation with Wanda was draining her more than the potential end of the world. How the hell was that possible?
"What were we going to talk about, Wanda? The list of reasons why you couldn't marry me? Number one being that you didn't love me and number two being that you actually had feelings for Vision?"
"Are you serious?" Wanda questions, green eyes wide with disbelief, "You think that I have feelings for Vision?"
"I'm not blind. I saw the way the two of you were touching each other. I study behavior. Besides I used to date you. I know what that looks like," Athena states.
"Vision had nothing to do with me saying no. I said no because I was scared. And I get that you're mad at me and I'm mad at you for leaving, but I cannot go through all of this thinking that you hate me. I need you to tell me that you don't hate me."
"I don't hate you. I could never hate you," Athena says, disturbed that Wanda could ever think such a thing.
"I still-," Wanda cuts herself off abruptly as she bites her lip, eyes dropping from Athena's. She watches Wanda patiently, hoping that Wanda was going to say what she needed to hear. Something to ground her in all of this madness.
"I can't sleep when you're not around and I'd really like to get some sleep," Wanda says, "So please tell that there's still something there. That we can fix this."
The building shakes and Athena grips her trident a little harder for stability. Their time was up, just as they were coming to some sort of resolution and Athena found that worst than not having the conversation at all.
"I should go," Athena says softly, and Wanda nods her head, understanding evident in her eyes. She reaches out and takes Athena's free hand into her own as she plays with Athena's fingers. She was nervous. She always reached for Athena when she was nervous.
"Hey," Athena says, getting Wanda's attention, "I haven't been sleeping well either so I'd say that there's something there."
Wanda smiles at her but it quickly fades and Athena feels it too, the gravity of their situation, "You should probably go."
Athena walks as far as she can still holding Wanda's hand before the distance becomes too much and she has to let go. She didn't want to leave Wanda, but she knew that they needed her out there.
"We'll talk over dinner," Athena says, walking backward, toward the stairs. Realistically, they might not even get to see the sunset, but it was nice to think that after all this, that there might be something. Athena needed to hold on to that.
"You promise you won't run?" Wanda asks, feeding into the fantasy as well.
"I promise I won't run. I'll be the sexiest woman in the restaurant," Athena says with a small smile, "After you of course."
Wanda smiles and Athena's happy that she gets to see her favorite smile once more.
"Be careful," Wanda tells her.
"You too," Athena says before heading down the stairs, all the things she wanted to tell Wanda left unsaid.