The Scarlet Apprentice

Inside one's head

Wanda sat on the edge of the couch, her eyes instantly landing upon y/n as she walked out of the bathroom. Without paying attention, y/n harshly rubbed her wet hair with a towel as much as she could before leaning back into the bathroom to hang it up on the bar.

Even though y/n was completely unaware of the fact that she was being studied, wanda couldn't seem to pull her eyes away from her. Something about her just pulled her attention away and focused it so much that she couldn't seem to break it.

That was until y/n finally looked over at wanda, causing her to cough and cover it up, "did you enjoy your shower?" Wanda asked

"Yeah, it was nice. Except for the fact that water burned into my cut so much that I thought I was gonna die." She explained.

"I'm pretty sure I heard you suppress a pained scream once or twice." Wanda mentioned with a smirk.

With a sigh, she shook her head, "I was really hoping you didn't hear that."

With her damp her draping over her shoulders, she wandered into the rest of the house as if to explore the parts she hadn't yet.

The moment y/n's attention turned away, wanda's landed back upon her. She watched the way she wandered around, but not with purpose, simply with curiosity.

Then, she realised y/n was distracted and casually roaming around with wonder. Wanda stood up from the couch and tried her best to normalise the fact that she was walking into the kitchen with y/n.

Y'n's hands rested on her hips while she wandered around the kitchen to find something to occupy herself with. While she scouted the kitchen, wanda considered something that she knew she shouldn't have been considering.

She'd thought about it a few times before, but the impulse to see what y/n thought about grew more as the hours passed each day.

The for and against arguments battled in her head as she crept closer to y/n, trying her best to blend it out into causality. Y/n stood clueless, simply washing her hands in the sink with her focus completely locked onto it.

The scarlet energy twisted between wanda's fingers as she hovered her hand beside y/n's head, but before she could enter the depths of her thoughts, she was interrupted.

Y/n turned around quickly, grabbing wanda's arm and turning her around. She wrapped one arm across wanda's neck and held it with her other arm so she couldn't break out.

At first, wanda struggled to try and get out. Even though she could've used her magic to push herself out of the hold, she didn't want to hurt y/n too much, so she tried to get out normally.

"I'm only gonna say this once." Y/n leant close to her ear to tell her.

Instead of using all her strength to break out of the hold, wanda stopped and listened.

"Stay out of my head." She ordered, speaking closely into her ear before letting go and pushing her away.

She had no real intention to harm wanda in any way at all, she was just very set on not letting wanda find out about her true feelings.

The two stared at each other for a moment while thinking about what to say next. Y/n calmed herself down with a faint pant, and Wanda tried to fight back the smile she felt was coming.

Wanda smirked as she began walking away, "oh, I see. You let your guard down a little bit earlier so now you wanna completely block me out."

"No-" she stammered, trying to follow wanda to make sure she heard what she wanted to say, "no, don't act like you know me."

With a scoff, wanda turned, "Look, y/n, I'm not gonna strip you of this stone cold appearance that you put on for whatever reason, but you have to understand that you can't keep this up forever."

What she'd just heard caused her to freeze. She just stood and waited, knowing that wanda wasn't finished with what she wanted to say.

"I get that you've lost people, believe me, I understand that more than anyone, but..." she sighed, "blocking out people who want to help you, isn't going to get rid of that pain. If you want to keep up this barrier between us for whatever reason, then fine. If it makes you happy, do it."

It didn't make her happy. In fact, it made her miserable. Seeing the way wanda looked at her shook her to the core, but she couldn't let herself react to it in a healthy way. The barrier she'd put up had grown to be too strong to the point where not even she could break it down. She knew she needed someone to completely destroy it, but she never thought she'd find someone who cared enough to want to break it down.

Until she stumbled upon wanda.

Wanda still watched her, analysing the way y/n seemed to want to accept what she was hearing, "I know what it's like to want to put up a barrier, and I know what it's like to desperately want to get rid of it. So I want you to know that if you are gonna keep up this barrier..." she shrugged, "I'm gonna wait as long as it takes to break it down."

Was this it? Was this everything y/n had been looking for? Someone who was willing to break down the barrier, or at least wait for it.

Her face washed to a blank look as she tried to comprehend what she just heard. The two stared into each other's eyes, regardless of how different their reactions were. Their stare continued for longer than they prepared for, almost as if there was a punishment for breaking the tension.

Y/n broke the stare first as she dipped her head while taking in a large breath of air. She hoped that the breath of fresh air would stop herself from wanting to have an emotional conversation. It wasn't her that actually wanted to be closed off, it was just a defence mechanism that she'd used for so long that it started to blend into her natural instinct.

Sensing exactly how y/n was feeling, wanda softly nodded with a faint - almost invisible - smile, "I mean that."