The Scarlet Apprentice

The wait continues

More time had passed since Stephen Strange had vacated the area, but wanda hadn't gotten more comfortable with the hope since he left.

She was stationed beside y/n for most of the time, but when she wasn't, she was anxiously pacing up and down the halls. However, even when she was occupied doing something else, she would pause it every now and then to check up on y/n - for y/n was her number one priority; now and forever.

The moment the sun started to set in the distance over the peaks of the mountains, wanda made herself a drink and sat beside y/n once again. She only made the drink as a sense of comfort, since her main source of it wasn't responding.

Her eyes didn't leave her sleeping lover, not even for a second. While her eyes glazed over the body she desperately wanted to hug tightly again, her mind wandered.

Thoughts and scenarios toppled over one another as they rushed to get to wanda's attention but, even though she had so many ideas of what she'd do with y/n when she finally woke, she acknowledged and smiled at everyone one of them.

The thought of going strawberry picking with y/n in the summers heat warmed her heart; the image of imagining y/n handing her another rock made her smile; and the idea of being able to spend every second of the night discussing the most pointless topics of someone she was so helplessly in love with finally shook her.

She bit back her bottom lip in an attempt to block the flood of tears she sensed were going to follow her next actions.

"Y/n." She spoke, her voice coming out in a shaky exhale as her eyes began filling with the tears she'd tried to hold back, "y/n, if you can hear me..."

While she began speaking, her eyes burned deeply into y/n's face, hoping she'd be able to see if her words garnered any kind of reaction from her, even if she was unconscious.

"Please, wake up." She swallowed the lump in her throat, "there's still so much we need to do together. We need to pick names for each of these rocks, you know?" She asked, knowing she wouldn't be offered a reply in return, "we can name them after the characters from killing eve. But we're not naming one Konstantin, I hate that guy. I really love the rocks, y/n, even if they were just silly symbols for rent."

If y/n was awake and listening to wanda at that point, she would've been quick to correct her. The rocks were never a symbol for rent, not really. Even if she didn't know it then, the rocks were a symbol for love. They were an alternative expression for the love y/n couldn't put into words; and Wanda cherished them as such.

However, y/n was deeply lost in the depths of her mind. She was only awake in her own head, the outside to her seemed so far away. She couldn't hear wanda talking, she couldn't feel wanda sitting close, and she couldn't smell the drink wanda had made and placed beside her.

While wanda rambled, y/n only had the voice of the scarlet apprentice - or what was now her subconscious - talking to her. It's voice was still that of a desirable tone, stirred with a hint of indistinguishable manipulation.

"Where am i now?" Y/n asked.

She was merely a life with no body, an expression with no face, and a worrier with no sense of feeling which roamed around her mind. While her physical form shut down in preparation, she had only her subconscious to listen to and to speak to.

"Inside your own mind." It told her, "it's quiet, isn't it?"

"Too quiet." She noticed, trying to listen to anything other than what was now herself talking.

It trailed off into an explanation, "Your body has temporarily shut down to adjust to the amount of power you've taken in. It's becoming part of you, and it needs to do it while you're still; completely still."

"Is Wanda okay?" She asked.

"This process is about you, not-." It began to tell her.

"That's not what I asked." Y/n sharply cut her off and pushed her to silence, "is Wanda okay?"

With slight hesitation, it answered, "she's doing okay. She's sitting beside you right now."

"What? How can you know that but I cant?" She asked in a ever so slightly whine, "I thought I was unconscious."

"Oh, you are unconscious. Technically, I'm part of the process you're going through, so I'm not unconscious with you." It explained almost with a brag, "once the process is complete, I'll become you completely."

"Does that mean I'll never have to hear your voice anymore?" Y/n asked, her brow cocking.

"When you've transformed, yes, you won't hear me ever again." It assured her.

She scoffed a faint laugh, "thank fuck for that."

Outside of the sleep shell of y/n, wanda remained rambling, her smile slowly returning the more she allowed herself to think about the future.

"The island in the middle of the lake would be absolutely beautiful on a hot day." Wanda smiled, still talking to the unconscious partner, "we should take a small boat out there and stay there all day."

Her smile remained until she was snapped out of her hopeful ramble when she glanced at the fact that her girlfriend hadn't moved at all. Disappointment ached over her, pushing down the possibility of her being able to enjoy herself whatsoever.

"When you wake up..." she nodded to herself, "or if-."

She paused the moment she realised what she was unknowingly letting herself say. With her heart aching deeply within her chest, she moved closer to y/n and looked her in her closed eyes with guilt.

"Please, just wake up." She begged, bitting her bottom lip as if it would get rid of the tears that were already cascading down her puffed cheeks.

With a sharp inhale, wanda snaked her hand over to y/n's and lifted up her limp hand, holding it tightly in her own so she'd be able to feel the moment y/n moved slightly.

"I can't lose you." She whispered, "I'll lose everything before I lose you."