fingerstripes | IC Inbox + Friendr

[She cracks a smile at the Cinderella joke, and resists the urge to say that she doesn't have enough family left for that. The thought is morbid and...unexpectedly it hits a little closer to home in other ways. After all, hadn't she been locked up in the Avengers compound not so long ago? Put under house-arrest? Not that there had been a ball to go to but the people who had done so were the family of her heart rather than blood. Just like Cinderella.]

I'm afraid not. Instead there are hours long conga line celebrations to the days when Sam bakes his special cookies, and the mice getting a collective vote on movie nights.

[Wanda cuddles into his half-embrace at once, a smile still playing on her lips.]

You'd be welcome to join the movie nights if you'd like sometime. You could meet some of the others. Sam's friends and mine.

[If it's not weird. If he's interested at all in expanding on their types of social engagements this way.]

Yeah? [ He's surprised and more than a little touched. That she's willing to open that part of her life to him even a little. That she wants him to know the people she cares about. He squeezes her a little tighter, brushing his lips against the top of her head. ]

If you're sure they wouldn't mind. [ And halfway teasingly: ] They usually alright with interlopers?

[ And okay maybe he's wondering a little how often she actually brings guys home to meet them.

She's so beautiful. Stunning. There has to be a few, at least. ]

[Oh no. How could he. Wanda feels her cheeks warm and tells herself it's the hot cocoa and not at all the way he holds her tighter. It's definitely not the warmth of his lips on her head, or the shiver that runs up her spine from the ever so slight rustling of her long hair.

The smiles come so easily to her face around him, even if she's blushing somewhat. It's just the way he makes her feel and she's all the more pleased with herself for reaching out to him since it's led to this moment.]

Mm, I think so. I mean, you'd be the first, but the mice like you and I like you so I think they'd hold off on kicking you out the door right away.

[The fact that she's implied that she's never brought anyone else to meet them, that could be significant to Dick in some way, is something that she misses.]

It's all on you to keep us all charmed, of course.

I'll leave the knock-knock jokes at home. [ While he hides a little smile against her hair. He doesn't care. Not really. But okay, it's definitely a little flattering to be deemed important enough to break a trend.

Damn it. ]

I don't know if we're totally at meet the weird alternate reality kid brother levels yet, but-

I'd love to introduce you sometime.

[ lol ]

[Teammates are one thing. They're a stand in for her family, yes, but it's a little different. Knowing he'd like to introduce her to his brother, however, warms her heart. Wetting her lips, she resists the urge to nod, not wanting to jostle him away.]

I'd enjoy that. I'll meet your alternate universe brother. You can meet my alternate universe son at some point. We can just do it all as it comes up.

[It sounds remarkably like something significant. A milestone. But Wanda wants him to know the people she does. Wants them to know that he's important to her, even if she's not sure what they are, and wants him to know the people from her world. The closest thing to knowing her world in itself.]

If it wouldn't be too weird, anyway.

[ He lets out a little laugh at that, because. Well, no matter what it's going to be weird. What happened already over the last few weeks is weird, and he's lost for ways to reach either of them. Tim, no longer the kid who'd once confided in him so freely. Damian, who only wants to be known. He'd been letting them down even before he'd spontaneously regressed ten years. It kills him.

But Wanda matters to him. Whatever this is, it matters. To pretend she doesn't to the only family he has here feels wrong. ]

They can be a lot to take. [ He admits softly. He leans his cheek against the top of her head. His heart is lighter when he's with her.

It's a terrifying thought. ] But they warm up fast.

I didn't know you had a son.

[Wanda hesitates a moment, but the subject of Billy isn't one that keeps her up at night. Not the way the actions of his mother have in the past. Rather than dislodge him, she snuggles in closer to Dick as she replies.]

I don't. Not really. But the other Wanda, the one from the world where the other versions of my teammates come from, they know a version of me there. Older, I assume. She had twins. [A fact Dick will understand to be notable to Wanda, in light of Pietro.] Two boys. Teens at their point in time. Billy and Tommy. By all accounts, Tommy favors his uncle. A speedster. Billy's powers are more like my own...

I haven't asked where they got them, however. So many people from their world have powers, all of the mutants...It's all quite different from my version of Earth. But Billy, he's sweet and he's kind. I don't know him well yet, and he's not looking for me to replace his mother here but...I feel like perhaps in if we're here long enough we could begin to feel that sense of family with one another.

[ Loki's mentioned Billy before. They're friends. Teammates. Dick spoke to him only once, and only over the network. But he can see it now when he recalls that young face. The bits of Wanda there. He holds her a little closer when she snuggles in. ]

Must've been crazy to find that out.

[ He'd missed it with his own daughter. He wonders still why she'd chosen to wipe his memory. Leave him with nothing but a few bits of security footage locked away in Titans Tower. ]

[She shrugs ever so slightly, not willing to jostle him away.]

It was an adjustment, to say the least. It's easier now, and comforting in some ways.

[She has family here, some alternate universe, some more like family of her heart. It's something to know she's not alone.]

What about you? Any alternate universe oddness for you besides the brother?

[ For a moment he's silent, posture a little stiff against her. No, he should say. Nothing to see in this family. ]

There's, uh- well, there's kind of more than one now.

Damian is... [ A little boy who needs him to be someone he isn't yet. Someone he isn't sure he even wants to be.

The child of a man he loves more than anything.

He lets out a little sigh at last, and finally he has to relinquish his hold on her, bracing his hands between his knees. ]

...It's complicated. We haven't exactly met yet, where I'm from.

[Wanda has always understood the need to keep some things private. Even now she still wishes that Pietro hadn't told Ultron so much about them, hadn't given the robot the means with which to manipulate them. Dick matters to her and for that reason she doesn't press the issue or how little he actually reveals.]

It must be harder to meet someone for the first time when it's not their first time meeting you. At least with Billy...at least it was the first time for both of us in a way.

[Reaching a hand up she strokes it down his back, trying to be soothing as best she's able in light of the conversation.]

We don't have to talk about it, Dick. We don't have to talk about anything at all tonight if you prefer.

No. It's- it's fine, I'm- I didn't come here to bring you down. It's just... [ It's the last thing he'd wanted, and yet here he is, complicating things anyway. Oversharing. He's silent for a moment. ]

I think it set everybody back to see me that way. And I'm just really glad you weren't one of them.

I don't think it would have been as terrible as you think, but if you're glad that I didn't then I'll have to trust you on that.

[She doesn't sound doubtful as she speaks, but reassuring. Or at least as best she can manage. Her hand still strokes over his back beneath the blanket, giving him the space he's taken but otherwise maintaining contact.]

And you didn't bring me down. I understand what it's like. Pietro and I...we shared everything with each other. We had only each other for most of our lives. There is nothing I would keep from him and yet...there were times I wished I were close to someone outside our relationship that I could confide in about him. If only to give my thoughts voice and let it out. There's nothing wrong with that.

[And the implication that she's someone he'd trust to open up to is something that honors her.]

Yeah. I really- [ A big part of her life that she wasn't able to talk about. Not having an ear willing to listen even if you could find the words.

Yes, he understands that very well. He hesitates. ]

...I know it's not the same. And I can't pretend I really understand... anything about what you had with him.

But if you ever want to share with someone who cares- [ And he reaches for her hand, fingers intwining with hers. ]

I'd listen, Wanda.

[Oh, Dick. Wanda would comment on the fact that she appreciates he isn't trying to pretend to know what it was like to have a twin. To have lost a twin. Or that at times she wanted to be close to someone she could talk about Pietro to, someone who would understand her frustration when at times he was too reckless, never looking ahead far enough.

But his offer strikes something deep in her heart, reverberates through her and Wanda can't help but turn toward him. He takes her hand, fingers lacing together, and Wanda squeezes it gently as she looks at him with an expression that shows so much of the emotion clearly on her face.]

Dick, you already are the person I share with.

[Because he cares, not just about her but about people and things. It practically radiates off of him. Wanda couldn't have missed it even without her powers.]

[ It's an answer that reaches him. Eases an aching, lonely hurt he hadn't known how to put into words. He's relieved, in a strange, unnameable way.

He reaches out instead, putting his arms around her, drawing her close if she lets him. He'll drop a kiss on the top of her head, and then lean his cheek there. ]

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