It took two weeks for your world to turn upside down. Two weeks since Wanda and Strange were gone.
Wong moved in with you a few days ago. You were quite confused when he appeared in the middle of your living room with all of his stuff. Things went down in Nepal apparently, they were all in disagreement as to what the next course of actions should be, and Wong needed some peace and quiet to get his friend back. He never even hid the fact that he didn’t really care about Wanda, but you didn’t mind since he promised to try and get her back as a thank you for your hospitality.
He wasn’t even a bad roommate. He was in Manhattan most of the time, trying to find remnants of Wanda’s magic. You found yourself wandering into his head a few times when he was reading about realities, universes and timelines, but the headaches it gave you weren’t worth it. As for the rest, you realized that if you had enough money to have your own place, providing for two people was a little harder on your bank account. And of course magic wasn’t paying the bills, and Wong was broke.
As you were coming back from the compound, you parked your car on Happy’s spot, since he left again. And if you had to do his job, you could at least have all the privileges coming with it.
You vaguely waved at Noah and ran to the elevator. You still had some time before Pepper had to go get her daughter at school and you really needed to talk to her today.
“YN ?” she said when you entered her office. “I wasn’t expecting you today.” She showed you the chair in front of her, which you gladly took.
You got out a pile of paper from under your jacket and put it in front of you. “We need to do something about SWORD.”
“Still nothing from your requests ?”
You raised a finger and started to take one paper after the other, sliding them to her side of the desk. “Denied, denied, denied, de-nied.” You finished giving her everything and sighed. “They replied to all of them.” Pepper pursed her lips and took a quick look at the forms. “Don’t bother trying to find a reason, they didn’t even bother filling that part,” you said, rolling your eyes. “The good news is, they don’t just hate me. It’s all of us. I asked Sam to ask for an accreditation, denied as well. Who in their right mind could ever hate Sam ?”
“They want us out of their business.”
“And we want what they have on Vision,” you argued. “They already gave us most of it, what is it they want to hide now ?”
Pepper crossed her arms and let out a small chuckle. “Well,” she started, putting your papers back together, “they didn’t really gave us anything.”
“You stole from them ?”
“Their security system was shameful, they could use our help to get a better one,” she laughed. She cleared her throat and leaned forward. “We needed Wanda to help us, and I knew that the idea of getting Vision back would get her on our side.”
“How did they find out ?”
“The man I asked to get the information from wasn’t the best at covering his tracks,” she sighed. “I was in a hurry, I made a mistake.”
You laughed, realizing that she wasn’t talking about stealing from SWORD in the first place, but getting someone inadequate to do it for her. “You could’ve told me at least,” you said. “That was a lot of paperwork. I’ll find another way.”
She nodded at you and leaned back on her chair, relieved that her mistake was out of the way. Even if it was a big deal, you weren’t in any position to blame her for that, you were the one who begged everyone to lie two weeks ago.
“Any news from Wanda ?”
“Nope. I might need a raise to keep feeding Wong, but he's got nothing so far. Except that Wanda’s powerful.” You both laughed at this brand new piece of information. “So you’re paying to get Manhattan back in shape ?”
“We have to look good. With everything going on with Peter, people aren’t sure they can’t trust us on what happened there.”
“Anything new on that ?”
“I can assure you he’s not a murderer,” she said, serious as ever. “He’s a kid, not a killer.”
“I believe you, but I’m not the federal government. And paying for everything,” you added with a sorry smile, “it looks like you’re paying the guilt away.” You knew it wasn’t the case, but you’d been a regular person for many years, and that was what it looked like to everyone.
Pepper smiled back at you and took out a few papers from her desk. “It would surely help if you-”
“No,” you immediately said. “I’m not talking to them.”
She put the papers away and nodded. “Fine. But I might need to get you an assistant if it goes on. I’m not paying Julia to tell journalists that you don’t have any comments on anything.”
“Ask Noah, he’ll enjoy the extra money.”
That was another fun part of the past two weeks. When you went home after Wanda kidnapped Strange and his magic house, you thought the day was finally over. You thought you’d be able to rest and take care of the massive headache you got. As soon as they were done with everything, Bucky and Sam joined you for dinner.
And then, you made the mistake of turning the TV on.
It was no surprise to you that ‘your’ journalist had been live the whole time while she was helping you. You didn’t expect all channels to show the images of what happened. The good, when you helped save a few people. The bad, when you admitted that you couldn’t even take care of yourself. The ugly, when everyone saw that Wanda kicked you away from her mind, creating a hole in the ground that killed people.
For days, the images were playing on repeat everywhere you went. The calls to Pepper started, with more journalists asking to finally meet you. You’d been protected after Madripoor, but now it was out of the question to keep you in the dark. You were an adult with abilities, and people wanted to know more about you.
And before you could have the time to think about it, everyone else made the decision for you.
Some people decided that you were a hero, others that you were utterly useless. Some thought that you were a danger just like Wanda, others that at least you tried to stop everything. Even your relationship with Bucky was a topic of conversation. Either you were dating a criminal, making you one by association, or your romance with an Avenger was cute and made you normal.
It wasn't so much these people who bothered you. People had to talk, it was normal. But your parents went on national television to say how proud of you they were. Your former bullies tried to tell people that you were a freak, doctors you'd seen against your will were happy to know that you turned out okay.
Since everyone already made up their minds about you, there was no need for you to go and tell the world the truth. The world didn’t need to know about your relationship with your parents. The world didn’t need to know about everything that happened in school. Those were things you wanted to forget, and these journalists would never let you. So you’d never talk to them, ever.
You left Pepper’s office, knowing that she’d bring it up again some day. You knew how hard things were for her too, but you couldn’t bring yourself to help her with that. Everyone was suffering from the consequences of the Wanda situation in different ways, and this was yours. The media. If she ever came back, you were ready to have a serious talk with her about never using magic ever again. Wong would probably agree with that.
It was even harder on everyone’s relationships. Yes, Wanda was your friend and you all made the decision to cover for her. No, none of you was ignoring how dangerous she really was. And whenever the subject came up, it would start a fight with the others. You tried to compare Wanda to Bucky’s past, and Sam lectured you for an hour on how different they were. Both were crazy according to him, but one had magic powers while the other only had a metal arm that could easily be taken off. When Pepper asked Wong what happened, he told her that Wanda’s power were greatly affected by her emotions, and she snapped at him, telling him that she’d been angry before and never killed 86 people for it.
All in all, things were pretty bad for everyone. Except for Wanda, who was looking for her kids wherever it was that she brought Strange to. It was probably the only thing you all agreed on. She messed up and left you all to deal with the consequences of her actions.
You didn’t stop when you drove past your building. Since Wong was eating your food, you’d play it smart and eat Bucky’s food. The only downside was Alpine’s company, but you’d survive.
You heard her on the other side of the door before you could even knock. Bucky opened it quick enough, and you stuck to the wall to avoid any contact with the animal. Not that you were scared anymore, but you were out of sticky rolls to keep her hairs away.
“How was your day ?” Bucky asked, closing the door behind you. Even if you wanted to say that a kiss was all it took to make the crap from your day disappear, it wasn’t nearly enough.
You shrugged and sat on his couch with a tired sigh. “SWORD denied all of my applications, I went to the compound and got in another argument with the boss there, got a ticket because I was driving too fast, Wanda’s still missing and Peter’s still a dangerous criminal. Oh, and Pepper is a thief,” you added with a scoff. “How was yours ?”
“I made you a key,” he casually said, handing you the small item. You didn’t like where it was going. “Sam and I are leaving for Austria tomorrow.”
“Why ?”
“Sam's still looking for people who used to work with Sharon,” he explained. “We just want to talk to them, for now.”
“For now,” you repeated. You really didn’t like that. You cleared your throat, trying to keep the bad thoughts away. “So, you need me to feed the beast.”
“It’s just a cat, YN.”
“Whatever,” you laughed. “And here I was, thinking that it was your way of making things serious between us.”
“Either way, you have a key now. I’ll buy some of your soda if you want some time alone.”
You rested your head on his shoulder and looked at the cat. “I’d rather be with Wong and learn about all of the horrendous places Wanda and Strange might be fighting for their lives.”
“She likes you.”
“She’s pretending. Just like the rest of them,” you whispered.
For a while, you just rested your head on Bucky’s shoulder. Maybe that was the most normal you could get. A couple and a cat, resting after a tough day at work. If only your face wasn’t on TV all the time and he wasn’t leaving in a few hours to go chase some criminals around the world.
Your phone beeped in your pocket. You took it, ready to know what was going wrong again, but it was just Pepper.
I know how to get information on SWORD.
??
They had a new director right after Westview.
Why ?
It’s classified, but the previous one is in custody.
If he was in charge when the new Vision was created, he must know how to find him.
That’s what I thought. And since he won’t tell us anything, I scheduled us an interview with him next tuesday. They agreed to one hour.
That’s amazing ! I kinda want to marry you right now.
I’ll see you at work tomorrow.
“Wow,” you said, looking at Bucky. “I proposed and she just ignored me.”
“I’ve seen that,” he said, unamused.
“You shouldn’t read my texts, by the way. But I’m in a much better mood now that we’re getting somewhere with Vision.”
He smiled at you and dragged you away from the couch. “That’s good, because I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
You quickly followed him to the bedroom and prevented Alpine from following you. “You stay there. Adult humans only.”
She scratched on the closed door a few times, but you were far too busy to notice anymore.
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