Y/n Y/l/n
Flashbacks
New Years Eve 2020 11:30 pm
I'm currently sitting on the edge of the Stark Industries tower waiting for Wanda to show up. When we were in high school Tony had brought us to his dad's workplace to ask for his permission to have one of the conference rooms as a venue for the junior homecoming after-party. He had said yes and I remember Wanda and me sneaking out of the party to roam around the Stark building and we somehow made our way up to the rooftop.
We only had a few minutes to stare at the city from a birds-eye perspective because we had set the alarms off since no one was allowed at the rooftop without a key card. Tony of course got scolded by his dad but so did Wanda and I, especially since I grew up with Tony and his family was like an extended family to me.
Though we were told to not do that again, Wanda wanted to go back up to the roof to take her time and breathe in the air as well as appreciate the view from above. I of course didn't want to be scolded once again, therefore I had gone up to Uncle Howard one day and asked him if Wanda and I can hang out on the roof again. It took a lot of convincing but with the help of Tony's mother, Aunt Maria, I was able to persuade him.
He had made a copy of the rooftop key for me and Wanda and from then on this rooftop became our safe haven. Wanda and I somehow fell into a tradition of coming up here 30 minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve to watch the fireworks and be the first people to greet each other of the new beginning. This has been a tradition since high school and we had never missed a year, not even when we had significant others to kiss. That's why I furrow my eyebrows when I look back down on my watch and notice it was 11:45 pm. 15 minutes before midnight and Wanda still isn't up here.
The small intimate gathering of our friend group was downstairs at one of the conference rooms for the New Year's Eve party that we have every year, therefore I knew Wanda was here. Before I stepped out of the party, she and I made eye contact from across the room and I pointed at my watch to show her the time and she had simply nodded silently telling me that she'll be right behind me, but now that I've been waiting for 20 minutes it tells me that she definitely wasn't right behind me.
I sit on the edge of the building and I watch as it strikes midnight, welcoming 2021. The roar of the people from the streets was loud, cars honking relentlessly, nonstop cheering, yet all I can hear was my heart breaking into pieces. I look back up at the sky and watch as the fireworks erupted into beautiful shapes and colorful sparks. The same electrifying sparks erupted in me, but not for the same happy reasons the fireworks in the night sky did. I wipe the lone tear that fell down my cheek and I notice it's been 15 minutes past midnight, 15 minutes into 2021, a year that'll inevitably be shitty.
I jump off the edge back to the platform of the tower to make my way back inside and I check my phone to see if Wanda had at least messaged me but all I see was messages from everyone else but her. I guess Wanda did choose to stay downstairs as everyone's message to me was: I'm sorry.
Little did I know, when I got back to the conference room their apologies were for something bigger. I enter the party confused as I watch everyone taking turns hugging Wanda and patting Vision's back. The door being shut caught everyone's attention making them turn towards me, "did I miss something?" I ask and I watch as everyone looked at me sympathetically except for Wanda and Vision.
"Vision asked me to be his girlfriend when the clock hit midnight," Wanda shares excitedly. So that's why she stood me up. I feel everyone anticipate my reaction therefore I paint the fakest smile I could conjure, probably looking creepy, as I walk up to Wanda to congratulate her.
"Congrats, that's amazing to hear," I tell her as I hug her in congrats. "Thank you and I'm so sorry I didn't make it upstairs. I was going to but Vision pulled me back telling me he had something to tell me and I completely forgot to send you a message," she explains.
"It's fine," I tried to not have a bite in my tone but the slight wince of Wanda's facial expression was the proof of my failed effort. I ignore her look as I walk over to Vision patting his back, "you got it in you after all," I joke before excusing myself. I see Wanda take a step towards me in my peripheral vision but her now-boyfriend pulled her back to him, making her completely forget about me.
Saturday, January 2nd, 2021.
I take a deep breath as I stand in front of Wanda's apartment and I take a second before I raise my fist to knock on her door three times. It's been two days since New Year's Eve and we haven't talked but she never sent me a message to cancel our weekly brunch on Saturdays or vice versa, and that's why I'm standing in front of her door with a wicker basket filled with our go-to brunch food.
I'm taken aback when the door opened and Vision greets me with a soft smile, "who's at the door Vis?" I hear Wanda yell from somewhere in her apartment. My grip on the wicker basket tightens, she forgot. She's going to bail on me, again. She's going to push aside our tradition, again.
"Hey, Y/n, come on in. Wanda's just getting ready," Vision says with a smile opening the door wider. "Vis?" Wanda yells in question, waiting for an answer to her question.
"It's Y/n honey!" Vision yells back to the apartment as he encourages me to step inside which I did and I move aside for him to close the door, but I move no further into the apartment.
"Y/n?" Wanda asks confused as she walks around the corner from her bathroom, "Hey, what are you doing here?" she asks completely confused. I swallow the mixture of sadness and anger in my throat as I look into her eyes and simply state, "it's Saturday."
"Yeah, I would know that's why Vision and I are going to the game today," she tells me in a light condescending tone as if I offended her for stating the obvious.
"Right. I forgot," I say clearing my throat and she tilts her head in question, knowing she never mentioned her plans until now. "You two have fun. I only came here to drop off that wicker basket filled with brunch food for you and Vision like you asked," I tell her and Wanda immediately turned ghostly pale.
"You planned brunch for us, honey? That's so sweet, thank you Y/n for bringing it," Vision says clueless and I clear my throat once again as I break the intense eye contact with Wanda and hand the basket to Vision with a small fake smile.
"Anyway, I should get out of your hair so I'm going to go. Have fun you two," I announce and I quickly turn around opening the door to exit.
I make it to the end of the hall when I hear the door open again accompanied by my name being yelled at by Wanda from the opposite end of the hall. I turn around to face her direction and watch as she runs over to me with a remorse look on her face, "I'm so sorry I forgot about brunch."
"It's fine."
"No, it's not fine," she shakes her head.
"I'm used to it," the hurt on Wanda's face when I said that made me almost regret saying it at all but I don't. "And quite frankly, I don't know why I still try with you."
Wanda's jaw drops slightly and I have to admit that maybe that last part was a little too harsh but she's been treating me like shit when all I do is put her before me and before anyone else.
When she doesn't say anything for a few seconds, I took that as my cue to leave so I did, leaving her in complete shock.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2021.
A knock at my door startles me and I place the tub of ice cream I'm eating on my coffee table as I pause Friends on my TV. I glance at the clock and scrunch my eyebrows together at the time, 10 pm? Who could possibly be here at 10 pm on a Wednesday night? A school night for that matter.
I take a peek through the peephole and I furrow my eyebrows even more at the man standing outside my door. I open the door with a puzzled look, "Vision?"
"Hey, I apologize for showing up unannounced at this hour," Vision says shyly. I wave my hand dismissingly as I open my door widely for him to enter. "Don't worry about that. Can I get you something to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee?" I offer.
"Um, water sounds good. Thank you," I nod and walk into the kitchen to grab him a glass of water. I observe through my peripheral vision as the man in my home scans his surrounding. "You have a beautiful place, Y/n."
"Thank you," I say as I hand him his glass of water and gestured for him to sit on the couch while I take a seat on the opposite end. "So what brought you here?"
"Oh right," Vision says suddenly becoming nervous which only makes me nervous. From what I've observed and heard from others, Vision was a good man with a good heart. I think I would've liked him, maybe even been friends with him, if I weren't in love with his girlfriend.
"Well, Wanda's birthday is on the 16th," he starts and I glance down at his bouncing leg for a second before looking back up at him. "And this Saturday the 13th we have her party at Tony's," I slowly nod along with the obvious facts he's spewing out, still quite confused at all of this.
"And I've been thinking about this since the beginning of the year but I still can't seem to think of a good present for her," I narrow my eyes at him slightly, slowly concluding as to why he showed up at my doorstep suddenly.
"And I know how close you and Wanda are. I know you'd be the only person who would be able to help me at finding the perfect gift for her in a short amount of time," he finishes and waits anxiously for my response.
"Um, yeah. I can help with that," I give him a small smile when the relief flooded his face. "Thank you so much, you have no idea how thankful I am that you agreed since I didn't think you would," he confesses.
"Why would you think I would say no?" I ask him puzzled. "Well to be honest I thought you didn't like me," he says quietly making me widen my eyes in surprise.
"Vision why would you think that?" well I kinda know the answer to that. "I like you, dude. I think you're a good guy and everyone agrees with that. You treat my best friend the way she deserves to be treated. I'm just a big introvert who chooses to observe when surrounded by people instead of socializing with them," I easily reassure him since it's the plain truth. I have nothing against Vision, never have and never will, unless he breaks Wanda's heart of course.
"Oh that's such a relief, I was afraid Wanda's best friend didn't approve of me. Really, Y/n, thank you."
Friday, February 12th, 2021.
I groan as I step into my home after spending hours trying to find a gift good enough for Vision to give Wanda but to no avail. I throw my head back against my front door as I stare up at the ceiling, "still haven't found a gift, huh?" I hear an all too familiar voice.
I jump clutching my chest, "Yelena! What did I say about scaring me like that?" I exclaimed at the Russian blonde who emerged from my kitchen. She shrugs with a smirk, "it's not my fault that you're easily scared. That sounds like a you problem."
I roll my eyes as I take my shoes off and my coat, "to answer your question, no I still haven't found a gift."
"I still don't understand why you agreed to help Vision," another familiar voice spoke and I watch as the redheaded Russian walked out of my kitchen and stands beside her sister.
"I gave you two a key to my house for emergencies, not to raid my snacks," I say gesturing to the bag of sweet chili heat Doritos in Natasha's hands. They both shrug with a smirk making me roll my eyes yet again, "anyway, I said yes because the man truly was desperate and nervous to hear what I would say. I'm not heartless you know."
"I still think you're an idiot," Yelena boldly says earning a sharp elbow to her ribs from her older sister. "What are you going to do? Her party is tomorrow and it's," the redhead looks down at her watch before looking back at me, "11 pm and you're still empty-handed."
"Not empty-handed," I simply say as my eyes trail to the wrapped gift on the coffee table. I look back up at the two and watch as they look at what's on my coffee table. Yelena's head snapped back to face me with her jaw dropped, "no."
I shrug my shoulders trying to seem nonchalant about the idea and Yelena shakes her head in disbelief, "no Y/n! You are not giving your gift to Vision to give to Wanda! Are you crazy?"
"I have no other choice," I say in defense of my decision, and this time it was Natasha who spoke up next, "go tell him to buy her a necklace or something! Don't give him the gift that you're giving her, dumbass."
I roll my eyes at the insult, "really it's fine. It's not that big a deal."
"You rode the train for 5 hours to Salem Massachusetts and rode it 5 hours back to New York for that gift. And don't even get me started with the fortune you spent on that thing," Yelena scolds me.
"And now you're out here just chucking the gift to Vision? Plus, Wanda will totally know you had something to do with it," Natasha adds.
"I told Vision not to tell her that I have something to do with it," I shrug and walk over to my living room picking up the gift before continuing. "And thinking about it, I already gave her that one-of-a-kind brooch pin for Christmas. I can't give her another one-of-a-kind gift for her birthday."
Saturday, February 13th, 2021.
Vision dropped by this morning to pick up his gift for Wanda and I told him a small summary of how rare the gift was and made sure he knew the basic information regarding it.
Now here we are, sitting in a circle in Tony's living room as we pass Wanda her presents. "Okay, who's left?" Sam asks the circle of friends.
"I think only Y/n and Vision's present are left," Bucky says as he looks around to investigate and confirm his assumption. I glance over at Vision and decide that we should probably save the best for last, I guess.
I internally sigh as I take the last-minute present out of my purse and slide it over to Wanda, "Happy Birthday Wands," I give her a small smile which she returned.
I watch as she slowly unwraps it revealing the pandora box. I try and ignore everyone's confused look at the present since they all knew what I got her earlier this month. I observe as she opens the box and watches as a soft smile forms on her face at the new charm added to her charm bracelet.
"Thank you, Y/n," she says and I give her a nod as a welcome. As she was putting that gift away, I shake my head at everyone, dismissing their confused looks.
"Happy Birthday to you my love," Vision says while handing her the gift. Yelena wraps an arm around my shoulder and I lean on her side, suddenly feeling numb.
Yelena holds me tighter as Wanda slowly revealed the rare item and I look around the room to see everyone staring at the item in shock. It was so quiet that I almost questioned if anyone was breathing at all. I scoot closer to Yelena, wrapping an arm around her waist and grip onto her shirt tightly.
"Do you like it?" I move my eyes back to Wanda at Vision's question. The brunette's jaw was dropped in shock as she stares at the gift while Vision nervously waits for her answer.
"How did you get this?" Wanda breathes out confused, "I mean, how did you even know about it?"
"I had done my research babe. I had to make sure to give you something special, so I drove to Salem Massachusetts to get the book," I bite my tongue to refrain myself from groaning at his choice of words. It wasn't just a book.
"A book? This isn't just a book. This is the Darkhold," Wanda exclaims as she looks back at the item that was sitting delicately on her lap.
"There are literally only three copies of this in the entire world. One of them is in America in Massachusetts and I would know since I called the owner, Agatha Harkness, to ask how much would she sell the book for and she told me around $1000+," Wanda explains to him in disbelief as she carefully examines the book.
"On top of that, I never mentioned to you my obsession with witch magic," Wanda eyes him suspiciously.
"I talked to Pietro and he suggested it as I joke but I got it anyway," I mentally facepalmed myself. I told Vision not to mention names because Wanda would know he's lying and here he is, throwing a name out of his mouth.
Why do men not listen?
"Pietro?" Wanda questions him and I look at Pietro who already had his eyes on me and I give him a small nod to play along with us to save Vision from further embarrassment.
I look back at the couple on time to see Vision nod at Wanda's question but it was obvious to the rest of us that she didn't buy it. Wanda had spoken about her obsession with witch magic to everyone, including Pietro, but she had never mentioned the Darkhold to her brother.
"This is amazing, thank you so much," Wanda hugs Vision in thanks and I send him a reassuring nod when his gaze falls on me.
Soon after everyone gets up to clean up the gift wrappers while I help Natasha with cutting everyone a piece of cake. The redhead leaves me in the kitchen to join the rest in the living room while I wash the cake knives we used and as I was drying my hands with the dishtowel, Wanda walks into the kitchen.
"You really thought that I wouldn't know that you had something to do with Vision's gift?" she asks me as she walks closer to me. I shrug my shoulder as I hang the dishtowel, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh come on Y/n, you're the only person I have ever spoken to regarding the Darkhold book," she says.
"Okay and?" I look into her eyes and I almost falter at the determination and fire behind them.
"Why did you get it?" she asks and I narrow my eyes at her and cross my arms over my chest as an act of defiance, "why are you so sure that I'm the one who bought it?"
"Because I've been saving up to buy the book for months now. And a week ago I called Agatha Harkness to tell her that I was finally ready to buy it from her but then she told me that some girl from New York already purchased it at the beginning of the month. I was devastated to hear that until today when I found the book sitting on my lap."
I chew the inside of my cheek not knowing how to respond since there's no way I could bluff my way out of this one.
"Why did you give it to him to give to me, Y/n?" I look up in surprise at her now soft voice in contrast to her previous accusing harsh tone.
"He asked for my help to look for a special gift for you so," I shrug off nonchalantly.
"And you decided to just hand him something as big as this and put his name stamp on it?" Wanda exclaimed in disbelief.
"He wanted to give you something special Wanda," I deadpan and she drops her shoulder with a hurt expression.
"And you didn't?"
...
A/N: Oh shiiiiiiiiit.
Well, that was part 1 y'all. What are your thoughts??
Words: 3,620