Song: Passing Through (Can't The Future Just Wait) (by Kaden MacKay)

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Ellery's Pov:

I sit up from the floor that I am lying on and set my book off to the side as I hear a soft knock at the door.

"Hey Raven, it's me, Bucky."

I go to the door and open it with knitted eyebrows, questioning what he is doing here. As I open the door I notice the smell of the lovely breakfast to be much stronger and then see the two plates of food that Bucky is holding.

He gives me a small warm smile. "Is it ok if I come in?" He asks warmly.

I nod, open the door wider for him and step to the side to allow him in. He walks over to the large window ledge and sets the full plate down on one side.

"Is it alright if I join you?"

After a moment I nod and he sits down on the opposite side of the window ledge with his plate of food. I saunter over and sit down as well, carefully picking up the homemade breakfast. I have not had a home-cooked meal made by someone else in many years. I loved cooking myself, but it was never as good or the same as when someone else made it and put effort into it, there was just something different about it.

A comfortable silence settles over us as we dig into the perfectly sweet french toast. Eventually, through a partially full mouth, Bucky speaks up. "So how did you sleep last night?"

I give a half-hearted shrug with a very slight smirk tugging at my lips.

"Did you sleep at all?" Bucky asks in a tone that could only be explained as a motherly concern.

I shake my head releasing a small chuckle.

He sighs and continues. "And why not?"

[Habit] I slowly fingerspell out.

He nods in understanding. Several moments later he gestures to the book on the floor that I set aside when he came in. "What are you reading now?"

Since I don't feel like getting up, I smoothly flick my wrist, teleporting the book to my hand. As the slight golden glow of my seiðr fades, Bucky snaps his head towards the book that I now hold in my hand, to where it previously sat on the floor, and back again several times, mouth hanging open.

"You have magic too?!" He says in awe.

[seiðr, but yes]

"What can you all do?!" He asks, nearly bouncing in his seat with excitement.

I reach over to grab the notebook that is sat close by to write it out. [Well there are many specific simple and complex spells I know, but I am specifically proficient in illusions, teleportation, telekinesis, telepathy, energy manipulation, shapeshifting, conjuration, and astral projection]

Bucky's eyes go wider with every added skill, and once again looks to be in so much awe that he is about to burst.

[I learned from the best.] I added on with a slightly somber look on my face.

"I see why Fury wants you on the team." He quietly whispers.

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Once we finish our food, making small conversations every now and then but mostly just enjoying the calming silence, Bucky stands up to leave. Just as he is getting up I stop him, hesitant to ask my question at first but continue on due to my concern that refuses to cease.

[How is Wanda doing?] I fiddle with my hands slightly after I sign the question.

He sighs. "Uuh, I don't know. She didn't come out this morning," he says with a slight amount of concern in his voice.

[I am going to go check on her.]

"Her room is at the end of the hall, second to the last door on the left." He responds with a gentle comforting smile as he leaves and gently closes the door behind him.

I take a deep breath and prepare myself, knowing that I may very well be the last person that Wanda wants to see, but I have to at least try. Even though I am still very mad at the fact that she invaded my mind, especially since it was much more than necessary, I still feel a sense of responsibility and guilt. I then grab the notebook and pen so that I can communicate with her and make my way toward her room.

When I get to her door I stand in front of it just staring and debating whether to raise my hand to knock for a long while. I finally gain some courage and knock on the door. If she sends me away, screams at me, or tries to kill me, then so be it, but I need to at least try.

The door slowly creaks open and I see Wanda poke her head through the crack in the door. When she sees me she quietly gasps and straightens up slightly and seems to grasp onto the door more harshly with white knuckles.

I cautiously raise the open notebook so she can read the page that I wrote before knocking on her door. "Can I talk to you?"

She looks back from the page to me and silently nods and hesitantly opens up the door more as she steps to the side. I walk into her room, and when I do I glance around, it has a very warm and homely atmosphere. There are plants everywhere and many personal touches splattered around. It was like an artwork, Everything seemed thought out and calculated. It felt like there was a story behind every object and all together they formed a beautiful safe space that complimented her wonderfully. I admire it, it reminds me of my room back on Asgard, filled to the brim with my own personality. I remember how It held shelves crammed full of books that reached from the floor to the ceiling, random trinkets and knick-knacks scattered around, all holding a story that I could go on about for hours, and even the literal pile of weapons I had stacked in a corner. I miss it, nowhere else has ever felt like home as Asgard did. However, I didn't even think that Asgard would ever be able to feel like home again, at least not without the people that actually made me feel at home.

Wanda sits down on the edge of her bed and I pull her desk chair over so that it is sitting across from her and sit down on it. I then start to write something out on the next page of the notebook and Wanda looks down at her lap where she fiddles with her hands.

"How are you doing? Are you alright?" I hold up the paper so that she may read it.

She purses her lips and pauses for a moment. "I- I don't know... But how are you alright?! What I saw in there Raven... how do you stand here now, and then am also able to ask if I am alright?"

"I have lived with everything you saw for a long time, Wanda. But I am also not going to pretend like I am doing better than I actually am. I am constantly fighting the urge to run far away from here and never look back, but that is what I have been doing for a long time now, and I can't any longer. My past still haunts me and follows me everywhere, but you don't need to let it haunt you too, Wanda. The past is what it is, in the past. There is nothing we can do now. So what is really haunting you so much?"

"How do you live with yourself?" She blurts out after a pause.

Her eyes go wide right after she says that and quickly stumbles over her words. "Wait! no that's not how I mean it! I just mean... I see so much of myself in you Raven... but some of the things you have gone through, I can't even imagine..." She sighs, "I mean, I feel like sometimes I can't even stand here myself, but then I see what you have continued to stand through, and even when I just simply watched it, I can't even stand through that and it never even happened to me!" She looks away from me but continues. "I lost someone very important to me, and I felt like I lost everything, but you lost everyone... and I guess I don't understand and am jealous of how you kept going... I also watched everything you have gone through and that destroyed me, I could feel everything, Raven. I feel like I was there experiencing that, and even still it is wearing me down."

I take a while to scribble down my response. "Wanda, I have not 'kept going' like you say I have. Everything stopped on that day and has never continued again, but there are important things that I need to do that I need to keep moving forward for. Over time I have realized that, sadly, I can not change the past. That doesn't mean that I have been able to let it go or even come to terms with it, but the only thing I can do is keep moving forward. It has taken me over 800 years to realize that, but I believe that you can learn that too. And you don't have to worry about me Wanda, I am sorry you had to experience that, but you don't have to bare that burden."

She looks up at me with teary eyes and subtly nods. "I'm sorry Raven, I shouldn't have invaded you like I did. That was wrong of me and I am sorry I put you through that again."

I purse my lips and nod accepting her apology, she really did seem sorry, I could hear it in her voice. After over a century of constantly being around the god of lies, I was very good at being able to spot a lie, and she did not speak one.

I turn the page once again in the notebook and write out something again. "You should go see the others, they are worried about you."

She nods slightly and after taking a deep breath she stands up. Although, as she is about to walk out of the room she surprises me and grabs a hold of my wrist starting to drag me out with her. When we get out into the hall I quickly dig my heels into the floor causing her to stop and I pull my hand away from her while giving her a harsh look asking what she is doing.

"If I am going out there, so will you," she says in response to my confused look as if it was obvious.

[I don't think that is a good idea.] I sign and stand my ground.

"Come on Raven, it will be fine, I promise. Plus, you can't just hide out in your room forever. You are a part of this team, and even with the liking that Fury has seemed to take to you, even you can't convince him otherwise."

I know she is right, but that still does not convince me that this is a good idea. Nevertheless, I grudgingly let her continue to drag me towards the living area, where I can even hear the commotion from way down at the other side of the hallway.

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When we reach the living area I have to take a second to take in the sight in front of me.

A very intense game of Mario Kart is taking place on the TV with many people gathered around. Clint is leaning forward in his seat on the couch clutching his controller for dear life, Sam is perched on the top of the couch, and Bucky is standing in front of the couch while death glaring at the TV screen in front of him while exaggeratingly leaning as steering his character as if that will make a difference. All while they are all shouting insults that I have never even heard within my over 800 years on Midgard.

Steve is sitting off to the side while looking at Bucky with the biggest and most elated heart eyes I have ever seen. I wonder how long they have been together.

Vision is sitting on the couch next to Steve, seeming to be trying to talk to him but then realizing that he is far too infatuated with Bucky to be paying any attention to him. He abruptly stops talking resulting in simply shaking his head at his completely whipped friend.

Natasha is sitting on the edge of the couch watching the chaos with a pleased smirk on her face.

Tony is loudly trying to pitch his 'newest and greatest idea.' From what I hear, it has something to do with buying the entire Baskin Robbins franchise simply so he can keep the seasonal Iron Man flavor as a year-round thing.

Bruce and Pepper are both trying to convince him of what a terrible idea that is.

Strange is seeming to be held hostage in the kitchen by Rhodey who is going on about how he crashed a tank through a window or something. I don't care to listen to the rest of that story, it seems quite boring.

And lastly, very different from the others, and a sight I have never really seen before, there is a somber Thor sitting gloomily in a chair in the corner seeming to be very lost and thought. I however hastily pry my eyes away from him.

Surprisingly, even with how engrossed he is in the game, Bucky is the first to notice the two new presences in the room. Before Wanda can even speak up or announce us, Bucky does.

"Oh hey Raven, Wanda," he says with a small polite smile.

This however causes the rest of the previously oblivious and happy faces of the others to snap toward us and their smiles are quickly replaced. Some even stand up, their hands hovering over their weapons, trying to either intimidate or attack, it's hard to differentiate so I expect the worst.

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A/n - Not going to lie, I really do not like this chapter, but I am way too tired to go back and fix it (I may in the future), but for now, please just pretend that it is much better than it is.

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