Variation - W.M.

Chapter 79 - January 21, 2017

Stark had announced to everyone that he was throwing some kind of party as a thank you to all those who had helped us protect the earth but thankfully his plans were set days down the road in order for everyone to recover from injuries and wind down from the chaos. Until then, thanks to the wizards from the Sanctum, we were all returned to the compound-or home for Scott-instantaneously.

As we had parted, Strange had kept his eyes glued to me for reasons I had already begun to understand once I heard the names of the two stones slip from Thor's mouth.

The first was the reality stone, previously kept by a man known as the Collector somewhere in space. He had begun to ramble on about how it infected his girlfriend before Strange told him to move on.

The second stone was the power stone.

The word power shot through me and echoed in every voice who had told me I needed more. If anything was going to send me home it was that.

Neither Strange nor I said a word but when I met his eyes as the glowing orange portal closed I knew that he would be visiting soon.

That's why, tonight, I pushed for a movie night, reasoning that we all deserved to relax and that the best way to do that was together.

I wanted to return back to my world desperately and I had been searching for a way, but now that one was possible my stomach refused to stop flipping and I felt as though I was on the verge of tears.

There were so many things about this place that I didn't want to leave; so many things I still wanted to make memories of to take back with me, but as I looked around the main room, my eyes drifting from one sleeping Avenger to the next, I knew that this was going to have to make do. This would have to be enough.

"You're leaving."

Wanda's whispered voice was one I hadn't been expecting from my shoulder and I looked down, careful not to disturb the other Maximoff whose head rested in my lap.

"Yeah, I think I am" I answered softly, blinking hard to keep the tears at bay. It was silent again, the room filled only with the soft sound of snores that emanated from multiple places in the room. "I know I have to go back but I think a part of me is never going to leave here."

"Do you think that your Wanda will want you back?"

The question was one that repeated in the back of my head every chance it got since the moment I had arrived here, although now it was more than a nuisance than anything else.

Since being in this world I had realized a multitude of things, but the two most important were that I was, in fact, in love with the redheaded woman I left and that the hostility and exclusion that she had towards me while we were on the run had stemmed from the desire to protect me. The latter undeniably true when taken into account the way she had acted after I had been hurt in Scotland.

"I don't know" I answered, leaning my head back to rest on the back of the couch. "I don't know if she'll push me away like before but if she does, this time I'll push back. I'm stronger now and I have powers, so maybe she'll let me help this time. She's been through so much and she just deserves to be happy."

"Even if it's not with you." Wanda's whispered words weren't a question but I nodded in confirmation anyway. "And what will you do after that? After you help her be happy?"

I hummed and shrugged, my hands moving to play with Pietro's silver hair in my lap. He shifted a little, letting out a soft snore. "Probably go see my family again. It's been a long time since I went to see them and I have a lot to tell them. After that, I don't know. Find a place to live, find a job. Live the life I had before Novi Grad, I guess."

Leaving the family I had built here to live a mundane life in my own timeline was an idea that I despised. Working a nine to five everyday and returning home to an empty apartment sent my stomach churning with dread but I knew it was my only option. There was another me in this timeline and everything here belonged to her. Oscar was her brother, Helen and George were her grandparents. Who knows if I had inadvertently changed the fate of her and this Wanda as well by showing up.

Both in this world and my old one my family, the one I had before the Avengers, was out of reach from me. My day with this Oscar and my time with Helen and George were memories I would hold on to forever but some part of me felt as if they were fabricated; like I would wake up and this whole experience would simply be a dream.

"Are you leaving tonight?" Wanda asked, breaking the silence that had grown while I was deep in my own head. I shook my head, words no longer available to me as my exhaustion caught up to me and my eyes drooped. Wanda hummed, her arms wrapping around mine as she snuggled closer to me.

The position I was in was far from comfortable; the couch not relatively soft and my body stuck in an upright position thanks to both the Maximoff's, but despite that my eyes closed fully and I was dragged down into the land of sleep.