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16

That caught Wanda off guard.

It was a visceral, physical reaction. Like someone had sunk a dagger into her chest and pulled downwards, ripping the air out of her lungs as her entire body stung with pain. The speed in which tears had begun to burn in her eyes was similar to getting sucker punched right on the nose. That simple snap of words had hit her straight in the jugular.

Wanda didn't know what to say. She'd had everything planned out in her head, a perfect little script of what to say, but all of that had been thrown out of the window as soon as Vision was mentioned.

She tilted her head to the side, shoulders hunching in on themselves out of pain. Wanda wasn't physically hurt, but it sure felt like it. She fought her bottom lip as it tried to wobble, taking sharp, shaky breaths. "Y/n-"

"I can do it! I'll do it right now!" Y/n exclaimed with an exasperated laugh, throwing her hands up in the air. "What colour walls do you want? How big of a house? Do you want to be neighbours?" She asked, bombarding the poor woman with as many questions as possible. Her eyes stayed glued on Wanda, trying to force her to make eye contact.

Wanda flinched at every single word that came out of y/n's mouth. She couldn't help but let her body close in on itself as the woman continued to talk. It was an offer she hadn't expected. Y/n was holding out a perfect life on a silver platter. A life where she could settle down with Vision.

But she knew that if she accepted the offer, it would never be real. Thousands of people would still be held under y/n's control. Thousands of people would still be tortured.

"What job do you think Vision would have? Maybe a nice office job?" Y/n continued to ramble, getting closer and closer to Wanda. She was desperate to convince her. Desperate to keep her 'perfect' life. "Ooo! How about a bakery? You could run it together! Your baking was always amazing."

Wanda clenched her jaw as a few tears escaped, pattering down on the wooden floor. She hated how y/n could manipulate her so easily. She hated that she was actually debating taking the offer. It all sounded amazing. "Don't-"

Wanda cut herself off as she finally lifted her head up to meet y/n's eyes, solemness coursed through her in a matter of seconds. It wasn't what she was expecting at all.

Y/n wasn't angry. She wasn't trying to manipulate her.

Y/n's mind had cracked and crumbled.

She was desperate, despaired, and completely and utterly hopeless.

All y/n was doing was standing opposite Wanda, but the look in her eyes mixed with her mannerisms looked like something not even the storybooks could describe.

Y/n's eyes swirled with frustrated tears, desperately trying to mask the darkness and mourning that sat underneath. Her pupils were dilated like saucers, just seeming to accentuate the deep eyebags on her face. She looked exhausted.

The wide smile forced upon her face trembled and wavered with every word that came out of her mouth, the muscles in her face obviously sore. Her lips were cracked and dry due to her anxiously biting them - something that Bucky had been trying to get her to stop doing before he was dusted. Everything was clear, even if she'd tried her hardest to hide it underneath a natural layer of makeup that matched whatever time period she was in.

Up close, y/n's puffy yellow dress looked like it was falling apart. So did her hairstyle. Stray threads hung off the hem of her dress, wrinkles and evident where y/n had anxiously scrunched the dress up in her hands.

The hands that had nail beds red and raw. The calloused fingers that had dug themselves into an already crumbling cliff, clinging on to whatever was left of her fantasy.

Y/n needed help.

She wasn't manipulating Wanda. She was begging.

"What do you think? 'Wanda's Cakes' or 'Magical Makes'?" Y/n asked, adamant to keep going, to keep pushing. "Or do you want something that involves Vision, too?" Y/n hummed, frowning in thought. "That's hard... We can't really add 'synthezoid' to a bakery name-"

"Y/n, stop." Wanda interrupted, raising her voice a little so that y/n would listen to her. She looked at the woman with sad eyes, just wanting to envelop her into a hug and never let go, but she couldn't. Y/n had put up far too many walls, and hugging her wouldn't solve the situation. It wouldn't wake her up from her deluded daydream. "Please."

Y/n paused as Wanda interrupted her, eyes wide as the woman practically begged for her to stop talking. She clenched her jaw, chewing on her bottom lip once again as she came to the realisation of why Wanda was there. "No." She whispered in a shaky tone, a sad smile struggling to form on her exhausted face. "No, Wanda..."

Wanda took a sharp breath, her posture straightening as she noticed the realisation in y/n's eyes. It was her chance, even if y/n didn't want to accept it. "Y/n, please." She pleaded in a quiet tone. She took a step toward the woman, but y/n immediately took a step back. "What you're doing here is wrong, y/n. You know that as well as I do. You need to let go-"

"No!" Y/n yelled, yet there wasn't an ounce of anger on her face. It was pure, unrelenting grief. Her hands reached up to rake through her hair, squeezing a painful breath past the lump in her throat. She let out a broken laugh, one that echoed as she paced between the pews of the church.

Letting go of Westview meant letting go of Bucky. She couldn't do that. She couldn't do that.

"I was supposed to be happy, Wanda!" Y/n yelled after a few moments, throwing her hands up in defeat as she finally stood still. Tears poured down her cheeks, but she didn't care anymore. "I deserve to be happy!" She pointed to herself, her tone becoming a bit lower as the grief caught up with her.

Y/n hiccuped between the tears, her shoulders beginning to fall as she tried to form the next thing she was going to say. "They're all so happy for me, Wanda! The entire world!" She yelled in a broken tone, her bottom lip wavering. "Y'know, on the way home from Natasha's funeral-" Y/n paused, looking up at the ceiling as she fought to not completely crumble. "On the way home from Natasha's funeral, Steve had to stop for gas. I stayed in the car, and people knocked on the fucking window and thanked me for saving the world." Y/n gasped in a breath, tears freely streaming as the sad smile on her face continued to wobble. "I just hate it, and I hate myself because sometimes-" She paused again, feeling the grief ravage through her chest.

"Sometimes I wish I never did."