Fear.
It's fear that wakes Wanda up, just as it has numerous times before.
It's always fear. No amount of bubbly, playful joy can wake her up, but fear, that can wake her from the heaviest slumber. It's not even her own fear, which is perhaps the most frustrating part. She feels every nightmare in this building, and she has to suffer through it in silence.
She suspects she knows whose nightmare she feels today. Loki's nightmares are always the strongest. It's probably the reason they don't tend to last long: he wakes up fairly quickly. Thor wakes him up fairly quickly.
But Thor's not here right now, which puts her in a bit of an awkward situation. Is he going to wake up on his own? Is he going to be alright if he does? Would her company make him feel better or worse?
She knows the answer, really. It would undoubtedly make him feel worse. She knows how afraid he is of her, and she certainly doesn't blame him. But if all she does is wake him up because Thor's not around to do it... Well, that would be nice of her, right? She'd be helpful. She'd be helping him.
So that's what she decides to do. She quietly climbs out of bed, careful not to disturb Pietro on the other side of the room. She sneaks out without waking him up — not that it's difficult; he's a much heavier sleeper than she is — and starts off down the hallway.
She expects to find Loki in his room, but that's not where the trail of fear leads her. No, it leads her to the common room, much to her surprise — and what she sees in the common room only surprises her more.
Loki's back is pressed against the wall, seemingly awake but terrified all the same. He trembles with fear, eyes wide as he stares straight ahead at nothing.
Steve stands a few feet in front of him, a look of fear in his own eyes. "Loki, what's wrong?" he asks — he pleads. "Look at me. What's going on?"
Wanda furrows her brows, head cocked to the side. This is interesting. She steps into the room, and the subtle creak of the floorboards alerts Steve to her presence before she'd planned to make it known.
He whips around, and his worry turns to anger when he sees her. "Are you doing this?" he demands.
Wanda shakes her head slightly, but her attention still rests on Loki. She takes another few steps toward him. What if she...
"Wanda, stop it," Steve snaps. "Leave him alone."
Wanda ignores him, just walking past him until she's standing face-to-face with the god.
"Hey!" Steve grabs her arm to pull her away.
Wanda pulls his fingers off and throws him across the room — gently, of course. She doesn't want to hurt him; she just wants him out of the way. Her magic keeps him in place, though he continues is fruitless struggle to get free.
Wanda looks up at Loki, eyes narrowed with intrigue. "Where are you?"
"I—" Loki's eyes dart frantically around the darkened room. "I don't know."
She shouldn't do this. She knows she shouldn't. But she can help him. She can satisfy her own curiosity, and she can break him of this trance all at once. And maybe she can fix him, too. Maybe she can find what's been bringing out all these nightmares, and she can put an end to it — for both their sakes. And that's good. Helping him is good. And that's what makes it different this time. She's not doing this for herself – not really. She's doing it for him.
She raises her hands to the sides of his head, fingers hovering mere inches from his temples. Thin trails of scarlet creep into his head, and the cool blue of his eyes turns to a fiery red.
"Wanda, stop it," Steve growls.
She ignores him, her attention entirely devoted to Loki. She can feel his fear as though it's her own; as though it's right in front and she could grasp it in her palm. But she already knows how he feels. She wants to know why.
She closes her eyes, and she sees the room through his eyes. It's not a room anymore; not really. The darkness remains, though now, it's punctuated by stars off in the distance. Whenever he is, wherever his mind is, it's not here.
And he can see her, too, though only vaguely; a faint shadow in front of him and nothing more. He knows somebody's there. Whether he knows it's her, she's not sure.
The dark expanse of his mind tells her she won't gain anything from this. She's not going to learn anything new. He's not going to let her. But that's alright; that would only have been an added bonus if she'd had the chance. She doesn't need to learn anything. She just wants to put an end to his terrors.
She sends a new sight to the forefront of his mind. She's not sure what it is, exactly; she just knows that the memory is accompanied with warmth and comfort. He's sitting atop a small rock, a cloudy night sky above him and a forest of trees around him. His feet rest in a small pond, and she herself can feel the slight chill of the water. It's beautiful; it's calming. It's what he needs right now.
She can feel his fear begin to dissipate as the tranquility of his surroundings sinks in. He takes a long, deep breath and lets it out slowly, allowing himself to calm down.
He puts his hands on top of hers, and she opens her eyes as he lowers her hands to her side. She can't feel his emotions anymore. She can't really read them at all — not in his head or in his expression. It's probably a good thing. She'd certainly prefer this to the fiery rage she'd feared she might receive.
"Loki?" Steve asks cautiously. "Are you okay?"
He ignores him. "How did you know?" he asks quietly.
"Hmm?"
"That place," he says. "That pond. It's always been my escape when I was upset. How did you know?"
She gives him a small shrug. "I didn't," she admits. "But we all have safe places in our minds. It was not hard to find yours."
He narrows his eyes slightly. "What else did you see?"
"Nothing," she says. "Nothing but stars in the night sky."
"Did you see him?"
Wanda shakes her head. "I only saw what you saw," she says. "If there was somebody else in your dream, he was gone when you woke up."
"You had to look through my head to find that pond," he says. "What else did you see?"
"I don't need to look at every memory in your head," she says. "HYDRA taught me how to find a person's biggest fears, but I learned from my brother how to find their safe space."
He cocks his head slightly to the side, a silent question.
"You are not the only person who has lost everything," she tells him. "And you're not the only person who sees it in their dreams." Much like Loki and his brother, all Wanda and Pietro have is each other. Her powers can't quell her own nightmares, but they can help with her brother's.
He doesn't speak for a moment, and neither does she, looking up at him expectantly. He's bound to say something. A part of her wonders what he's thinking. A part of her wants to look. But she saw what happened the first time. She all but broke the Avengers. She certainly broke him. She'd like to avoid a repeat of that if she can.
Finally, he says, his voice dangerously low, "Keep that stone out of my head."
"I was only trying to help," she says. She's sure he sees that. "Your fear can get very loud sometimes."
"If I wanted your help, I would have asked."
"I know."
And with that, she turns to leave. Loki's fear has quieted down now, so sleep seems much more achievable now than it did only a few minutes earlier. She drops her hold on Steve, freeing him from her magic. As she reaches the doorway, she flicks on the lightswitch, and over her shoulder, she says, "Sometimes it is easier to orient yourself in the light."
And then she leaves. She's not welcome here, and she knows that. She's not welcome in many places. But there is one place she knows she's always welcome: with her brother.
She opens the bedroom door as slowly and quietly as she can. Pietro is still sprawled out in bed, fast asleep the way she'd very much like to be. She smiles to herself at the sight, then crawls into her own bed, slipping under her blanket and hugging it around her.
"You were gone for a while," Pietro remarks. He's not as asleep as he looks, it seems — though certainly not awake, if his mumbled speech is any indication.
"Loki woke me up again," she tells him.
"Did you talk to him this time?" Pietro asks.
"Mm-hmm."
"Is he okay?"
She hums. "He's with Captain Rogers. I think he'll be alright."
"Until tomorrow night," Pietro mumbles.
Wanda huffs. That sounds about right. Maybe tomorrow will be fine. The last few nights have been. But she has very little doubt that his nightmares will wake her up again. She's come to accept it.
"This is why I am glad I got the cool powers," Pietro adds.
Wanda scoffs. "Excuse me?"
"Your powers are giving you insomnia," he reminds her. "My powers could take me to Disneyland in 30 seconds. I obviously have the cooler powers"
Wanda laughs quietly and rolls her eyes. "You could not get to Disneyland in 30 seconds."
"You don't know that," he says teasingly. "We are in America. Disneyland cannot be too far away."
"Do you know how big America is?" she asks, playfully exasperated.
"Do you know how fast I can run?" he counters. "I could be at Disneyland long before the sun rises."
She rolls her eyes, amused. "Do you even know what Disneyland is?"
There's a pause.
"Maybe not," Pietro admits, "but I could still get there faster than you."
She shakes her head to herself, a small smile on her face. "Goodnight, Pietro."
"'Night, Wanda."