The Scarlet Apprentice 2: The Multiverse Between Us

Dancing with someone else

The moment the dressed-up team of fighters arrived at the venue in the limo Strange was offered, they immediately huddled at the bar.

Strange, Wong, Sam and Bucky all wore suits - though Bucky's hair had been tied back into a bun after he had asked y/n to do it for him. Y/n, out of spite, had stuck with the dress she wore, while Wanda wore a red dress that y/n tried not to pay attention to.

It wasn't that y/n didn't want to look at Wanda, it was that every time her eyes fell to her she knew she wouldn't be able to look away. She knew she wouldn't be able to stop herself from dancing with her, or holding her again, or just being with her. So she kept her gaze to herself.

While they waited at the bar to order each of their drinks, y/n's eyes wandered around the hall. She made sure to count exits, map out plans, and predict who of the dancing guests could potentially be secret agents, just waiting to strike.

If anyone in the group took one look at y/n, they'd know what she was thinking, and they'd make her stop by handing her a drink to wash away her worries. However, everyone seemed to be too distracted as they all casted their gaze upon whatever interested them. Slowly, the heads of the group began to turn to the same spot as they saw someone approaching.

Their attention all stayed on the person in the crowd, causing her to look up at Stephen in confusion. She asked what was wrong at first, but his stare was too focused to hear her right away.

When he heard her, he finally broke his stare to smirk down at her, "someone likes what he sees."

Y/n furrowed her brows in confusion before she looked to where they were all staring to see the man she'd met the previous day. Except today, he was wearing a suit with his hair styled that seemed to add a sense of confidence to his person.

While one hand casually unbuttoned his blazer and the other held a glass he'd taken off of a passing tray, he walked towards the group through the crowd, not taking his eyes off of y/n, who was ahead of him.

When he was close enough to hear her, she smiled to him, "hey, bus boy."

As he approached the group, y/n smoothly glided across the floor in her heels to get to him; her dress flowing through the air behind her.

"Angry girl," he attempted to call her.

She gave him a playfully annoyed look, "that is not going to become a thing."

"Sorry," he chuckled as he pulled her into a hug. It would've been a surprise to be hugged by anyone else, but even though she hadn't known Shang-Chi for long, she felt comfortable with him.

When they broke the hug, y/n gave him a smile but asked, "where's Katy?"

"Oh, she's gatekeeping the food table so we can all get the best pieces right when they're served," he casually explained.

"Oh," y/n laughed, then turned to the group behind him, "guys, this is Shang-Chi. Shang, this is Bucky, Sam, Wong, Stephen - though he doesn't like it when you call him that, so stick with Strange - and that's Wanda."

Shang smiled politely, "I've met Mr Strange, and Wong, but hello to everyone else," then he shyly looked down at y/n while scratching the back of his neck, "uh- do you wanna dance?"

When she looked up at the nervousness in his eyes, she couldn't help but smile to herself, "of course, bus boy."

A sigh of relief escaped from him and his shoulders visibly relaxed as y/n held her hand out for him. He gently took her hand, allowing a feeling of excitement to reach her. Despite her complaints and arguments against this party, she realised that she might actually be able to have fun.

While the two swanned off to the dance floor, hand in hand, the rest of the group began tending to their own desires. Bucky had managed to find himself a woman who seemed interested in dancing with him, so Sam made sure to follow behind them to annoy Bucky in any way he could. Wong had disappeared almost instantly, while Strange lingered around the bar to wait for his drink to be served to him.

As the Doctor leant across the bar to wait for his drink, he caught Wanda sitting alone out the corner of his eye. She had somehow managed to get her own drink and seat at the bar, despite how slow the service seemed to be when it came to Stephen.

"You okay, Wanda?" He asked, focusing on the way she almost smashed the glass with her hold.

"I'm fine," she forced another sip of that bittersweet drink down her throat, "why do you ask?"

"Because you haven't taken your eyes off of y/n for the entire time I've been looking at you and you look like you want to kill Shang for dancing with her," Strange very bluntly put it.

Then she finally looked at Strange - shocked with him at first - but she put her glass down when she realised he was right, "why is she doing this?"

"Dancing with him?" He asked.

"Ignoring me," Wanda blurted calmly, her hands tracing shapes on the wooden bar, "she hasn't looked at me the entire time we've been here."

Strange looked at the ground and bit the skin on his lip as his mind raced. He battled between telling Wanda what she needed to hear or telling her what she wanted to hear. When the silence became too much, he decided to tell her what she needed. Not what she wanted.

"Wanda, you ruined her."

Her tired eyes looked up at him while her finger circled the rim of her nearly empty glass, "I know-,"

"No, Wanda, you don't," he cut her off and forced her to listen to him because he was the only one brave enough to tell her the truth, "she's not just hurt because you can't stop loving The Vision... she's hurt because she can't stop loving you."

Wanda shook her head, "she seemed fine when she was with Robin."

"Y/n came to me last night and requested for Robin to be sent back to her post," Strange told her, watching the look of surprise on her face, "she said she couldn't bare to touch someone who wasn't you- to be that close to someone who wasn't you. Y/n is ignoring you because she can't be near you without falling in love with you again. She can't let herself love you when you chose him over her."

"No- I didn't choose him, Stephen, I swear- I didn't choose him," she began - tears blurring her eyes as she spoke - "I choose y/n, always, I just-... being constantly thrown around the multiverse has fucked with my head. Agatha has fucked with my head. I love y/n, more than I've ever loved anyone else, I was thinking straight the night I spoke to her, I wasn't."

"Then why haven't you told her this?" He asked her, leaning forward as he found himself invested in the process.

"Because she would never believe me."

"It's worth a try-,"

She cut him off harshly, "no, Stephen. You don't know her like I know her. She would never believe me. Even if she did, how could she ever trust me enough to let herself love me like how she used to?"

The two of them fell to a silence as Wanda downed the rest of the alcohol in her glass. When that hard sound of Wanda's glass hitting the wood filled Stephens ears, he picked up his own ready glass and prepared to walk away - but not before telling Wanda one last thing.

"If you love her as much as you claim you do, you'd do whatever it takes to make her see that," he mumbled to her, "because if you just sit on your ass, accept defeat and feel sorry for yourself after not even trying, then you don't deserve someone as good as y/n."

While the words stung Wanda's ears, Stephen sipped his drink and fanned off into the crowd, smiling and greeting the few men he remembered from his days as a doctor.

When Stephen became undistinguishable from the crowd of men in suits, Wanda finally pulled her eyes away and looked at y/n. She watched the way y/n danced so effortlessly with - who she thought was - a stranger, until she couldn't take it anymore.