' im the king and your the queen and we can stumble through heaven '

TW- mentions of depression and self harm, if you struggle with any of these, please reach out to someone and know you are loved.

TAP, TAP, TAP. Her ring adorned knucles wrapped incessantly against the bottom of the table, tracing her thumb over its material. The morning after their whole outer-planet fiasco, the half of the team back in the compound spent their hours anxiously awaiting the others arrival. Wanda, particularly, was not at peace with the idea of her teams being on a desolate planet, alone, with the looming chance of something happening to Thor and leaving them with no way out.

Groaning, she pressed two fingers to her temple, drawing gentle circles in attempt to soothe her growing headache. When it proved unsuccessful, she dropped her hand, bringing it around her cup as she sipped the last bit of tea from it. She hadn't received any news yet, but she assumed that Fury would give the team time to rest before having a meeting to plan what they'd do moving forward. But the unknown was worrying her more than she'd care to admit.

The door clicked open behind her, and she turned toward it instinctively as a soft smile fell over her lips.

"Hey, Sharon," she greeted, gesturing to the chair in front of her. The blonde waved her off gracefully, instead leaning against a cabinet near the door.

"Wans, Fury says he wants to speak to you, something about some of our agents?"

The words 'Fury wants to speak with you' honestly never sounded positive to Wanda Maximoff, and she'd always had an.. unsteady air around the man. It wasn't that she was afraid, but maybe a bit intimidated. However, any trace of intimidation was drained from her face this time, with a wave of worry crashing over her. Oh God, was it about the team? If they weren't okay, she wouldn't know what to do with herself.

Nodding stiffly, she managed to force out a murmured thanks to the agent, before gluing her eyes to the door ahead of her. She was halted by a hand gently grasping her forearm, and she turned to it quizzically.

"Don't stress so much, you'll be fine," Sharon reassured, and Wanda forced out a smile, placing a hand on hers as she nodded. Releasing the hand, she let the woman's words properly sink in, and allowed some of the tension to seep from her muscles. It'll be fine-It'll be fine- It'll be fine-

"Miss Maximoff, please take a seat," a deep male voice offered, but it wasn't Fury- Ha, no.

It was Secretary Ross.

"I'd rather stand," she drawled out, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly, as if to not be noticed. Fury was intimidating, yeah, but he didn't have quite the same amount of power as Ross. Fury couldn't, and by now, probably wouldn't, kick her off the team, but Ross? He could shut it down as a whole. The world needed saving.

With a curt nod, the older man cleared his throat, eyes flicking down before back to meet her eyes. Tilting her head, she contemplated whether she should try to read him or not. Was it worth it? She needed to know so-

"We need to talk regarding your brother."

Snapping her head up, she felt the blood rush to ears and became uncomfortably aware of the clothes against her skin. Too tight, it felt like it was suffocating her.

"What about him," she choked out, piercing her palms with her nails as she balled her hands into tight fists containing the scarlet energy threatening up her wrists.

"We managed to get a group of agents to infiltrate the HYDRA base you found, it was emptied out."

"They escaped," Fury concluded flatly, eyes shifting from Ross to the witch. Eyes hardening, she glared at them,

"So find them. Hell, I'll do it myself if I have to."

"No need," Fury continued warily, sliding a piece of paper towards where she stood, prompting her to take a step forth toward the table.

"Coordinates. You found it?" He nodded his head grimly at her inquiry,

"They left them for us, they want us to go but.." he trailed off, lifting out of his chair with a piece of paper hidden in his palm out of her view. Quirking an eyebrow at him, she watched as he stuck it just below the coordinates where there was an oddly placed empty space. Her jaw tensed as she read the words scribbled on it.

'Bring to us The Scarlet Witch. Unless she is too afraid?'

She felt her face slacken, emotion threatening to seep through the cracks of her steel fortified barriers shielding her from the world. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"I'll do it," she snapped out immediately, not a trace of hesitancy in her voice as she flitted her eyes between the two men, "I'm going to do it."

"Miss Maximoff I don't think thats the smarte-"

"I have to. I owe it to Pietro," she hissed, narrowing his eyes at him as she felt her patience run thin, the crash of emotions drowning her in its suffocating depths. It wasn't the time or place to be overwhelmed, though, she had to keep herself in check.

"You don't understand, we can't let you go on this mission, it might interfere with our plan."

She scoffed on instinct, "Your plan will never work, Hydra is too smart for that. We have to give them bait, what they want."

Ross sighed, his face pinching into a look of exasperation which seemed to infuriate the witch to no end. He could never, ever understand what it felt like, the searing pain beneath her skin, the scarlet threatening to wax and wane and destroy everything in its sight. The barely living, trying your hardest to survive in a world wired and programmed against you.

He opened his mouth to protest again at her reasoning, but was instead cut off by the director who sat leaned back in his chair beside him.

"Let her go," he offered, and was met by a questoning gaze, "She knows better than we do."

"All do respect, Fury, this isn't your call to make," he said slowly, almost as if he were a child not registering the words.

"My team will make a new plan which includes Miss Maximoff. And this is my organisation, so it is my call. Do with that what you will." Fury shot back, not shifting from his position as he met his glare. Ross slid his gaze over to Wanda, before flitting back to Fury as he sighed in frustration.

"Fine," he forced out of his teeth, "But you won't get through easily. You can trust me on that one."

"And we do. Thank you for coming, secretary." The director shut down the other man, who simply surrendered toward the door and exited the building, two of his bodyguards hot on his heels.

Wanda barely had time to register what had just happened, her mind racing with thoughts of Pietro, Pietro and only Pietro. Fury looked up at her, an indecipherable question swimming in his eyes as he met her gaze.

"Thank you," she murmured, supposing he was waiting for something, but he just shook his head.

"Go rest, Maximoff."

And rest she did.

At which point her definition of 'rest' had become hyperventilating in her room amidst a horrific panic attack, she did not know. Too much, the last few days, weeks, fuck it, months had been too much.

All she wanted was to sleep and not have to wake up to a world on the brink of ending. Not wake up to a world demanding her protection and abilities. At times, she wondered if she even wanted to wake up. Would it be better to just drift away?

No, she had moved past that spiral of thoughts which had drowned her in her first few weeks at the tower. She wouldn't give up on Pietro, never again. Maybe that was just it, the worst, most gut-wrenching part of it all. She had given up. Given up on him, on herself, on her family. Even after she'd known he was alive, she let it wash away and acted like it wasn't real.

Because maybe if it wasn't, maybe if he truly was dead, she could save her the pain of just the thought he may come back and leave again. Maybe she could outrun the inevitable heartache that came with loss that she knew all too well, that was imbedded in her heart and carved into her forearms.

Shivering, she pulled the covers more firmly over her shoulders, knees pulled up to her chest. Suddenly, the door clicked open and she heard distant chatter before it shut again and footsteps approached her.

"Wands, the team's back and Stark insists on thro- Wanda?" He trailed off as he caught sight of a lump under the covers, and muffled sniffles. Tugging the covers away, he felt his features soften slightly.

"What's the matter, hm?" He asked, and she sat up as she looked at him through glassy eyes.

Hand trailing down to find her own, he rubbed comforting circles on it as she spoke softly,

"Its HYDRA, they emptied out the base they found but they told us where the new one is," she began, biting her lip as she contemplated over how to word the rest of it. "They want me to go."

He barely caught the whisper, but he had trained ears for her and he let the words sink in for a second as he just stared at her blank expression. "Do you wish to?" He cringed as soon as the words left his mouth, and her dumbfounded facial expression just amplified the emotion. Of course she wanted to go.

"Right, never mind. When do we leave?"

"I don't know Fury hasn't come up with a- Wait, we?"

The trickster mirrored back her puzzled look as he nodded slowly, "Yes, we. I am coming whether you like it or not." His chest bubbled with pride as he watched a smile quirk up at the corner of her mouth, he much preferred that than the previous dry stare she had given him.

"Okay," she whispered, before shaking her head, "But Fury said it'd take a while, a few weeks at most." In response, he just nodded, a hand moving up to cradle her face for a second before dropping it again.

"We shall worry about it then, but for now, the others have returned, and I am sure they'd want to see you," he offered, "If you're up for it."

Nodding furiously, she smiled as he set a gentle kiss to her knuckles before pulling her off the bed with him, she needed a distraction, and she'd been worrying about the team all day, so it made sense for her to bring herself to see them.

They walked in silence to the lift which took them to the main floor that the team usually used for game nights, and Wanda idly wondered how their mission had gone. Certainly it couldn't have been as bad as theirs.

A ding alerted their arrival, and the doors whirred as they pulled open. She met Clint's eyes first, and couldn't help the smile threatening at her lips.

"Oh good, you all survived," Loki declared dramatically, dropping himself beside Thor. Wanda sat between Natasha and Clint, shaking her head fondly at the God's words.

"Honestly, you'll wish we hadn't. Tony will not give up this masquerade thing." Clint scoffed, clapping a hand to her shoulder.

"How did it go from a private club into a masquerade ball?"

"Go big or go home, and big is the only way I do it," Tony defended, hands wrapped around a coffee mug as he took a swig from it

"Can Kate come? Sorry, shes been begging to go to one of you party things," Clint asked, gesturing his hand around as he attempted to describe Tony's extravagant events and the other man agreed immediately.

"Course, bring the other little Barton's too, the more the merrier," The Ironman said, flourishing his hands.

"Stark just doesn't want you drink," Nat suggested, and inclined her head toward Clint who narrowed his eyes at Tony and his traitor ways. "I'll take her and Lila dress shopping though."

"Maria and Sharon will want to come too," Wanda laughed, already imagining the two agents running around with Lila and giving her all the typical teenage girl advice ever.

Her eyes drifted across the room, pausing slightly on Loki who caught her eye with a look of question mixed with slight concern which seemed to ask, 'Are you okay?'

She nodded with a reassuring smile, before redirecting her attention to where Natasha had called for her name to settle a bet.

Her heart fluttered with warmth. And honestly? She hadn't felt so at home in a long time.

They opted for a small dress shop near Clint's farm as they went to pick up Kate and Lila. They offered for his wife, Laura, to come but she denied, insisting she had well over enough clothes for the occasion.

Lila was practically bubbling with excitement, loving the idea of being with her aunts and attending a real ball. Her energy boosted the spirts of everyone in the car. The radio blasted on as her hair flung around sporadically at the wind. Upon their arrival, they greeted the tailor who Maria seemed to already know, and she introduced them to her. With a smile, Wanda lifted a hand in greeting, before they began to wander around the building.

After a few minutes, they had barely made a dent in the amount of dresses they had to look at when she heard Lila halt in her position and gasp.

"Ooh, Auntie Nat, look at this one!" Lila squealed, eyes shining as she admired a long, royal blue dress which flared up at the shoulders and had a short train behind it. Judging solely by the glint in her eyes which had not been there for any other dress, Wanda assumed this was the one.

Lila was just about a teenager, she had turned fourteen a few months ago, so the dress might have been a bit long on her, but the fascination that it had over her was enough to make Wanda willing to sow it herself. Luckily, that probably wouldn't be necessary.

"Its stunning," Sharon agreed, hands rubbing at the material of the fabric as Nat called over a tailor in the shop. The woman greeted them with a smile, indulging Lila as she too gushed over the dress and whisked her away into a room to let her try it on with Maria following close behind.

They had brought Kate along, as per Clint's adamant request, and Gamora since she seemed not have much else to do. Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend, also tagged along, and Wanda had a vivid memory of the woman's kind treatment towards her after Ultron, despite the fact she had played with Tony's head.

Nat had already picked a long, silky black dress which hugged her body securely and had picked a matching black cat mask. Wanda had remarked that she should pick a spider mask, but they couldn't exactly find one in the shop. The Widow had also helped pick a dark dress for Gamora, who seemed utterly disinterested in the whole situation.

Kate chose a sleeveless, dark purple dress with patterned material along the top of the bodice and at the beginning of the skirt. She paired it with a black mask adorned with silver patterns to match the dress.

Wanda herself was yet to find a dress, none of them captured her eye and she was too caught up in entertaining Kate and Lila's child-like awe, it melted her heart. Amidst her search to find Maria a gown, she came across a particular dress which seemed to hitch her breath. It was a floor-length emerald dress which was off the shoulders but had puffed sleeves that cinched at the wrist. The bodice was adorned with intricate embellishments and attached to a flowy skirt with an opaque train. It had a rather regal look to it.

"I would've expected The Scarlet Witch to pick a red dress," Kate suggested with a toothy-grin, and Wanda hummed in agreement.

"Green seems just as appealing lately."

Another tailor at the shop directed Wanda to a changing room and insisted she help the witch carry the dress, despite Wanda's refusal.

She slipped on the dress and brushed out her hair which ruffled as she pulled the gown over her head. Zipping up the dress, she let her hands smoothen out the front of the skirt before turning toward the mirror.

An unrecognisable woman stared back at her, scarlet curls tumbled down her back and the dress trailed behind her. It reminded her of all the years she had spent as a child wishing she could attend balls with crystal chandeliers and elegant dresses, being whisked away and twirled by a gloved hand. Pietro and even her friends would laugh at her little fantasies, but now, they had finally come true, and he wasn't here to see it.

The witch located the matching mask the tailor had placed in her changing room, and she slipped it on to her face, it was gold and had intricate patterns along it. With a final smile at her reflection, she solidified the decision.

It truly was the dress of her fantasies.

"Your majesty," a woman said, kneeling before her ruler. "We've received news on the stones, and, if I may, surely we should act now.. its getting a-"

"Do you doubt me, my noble Lady?" The ruler responded, but no malice threaded their words. 

"Never, my Queen," she quickly amended, bowing her head.

"No need for that, rise to your feet, warriors haven't the time nor need to kneel. We shall act in all good time," the Queen announced, her voice, though soft, was firm and left no room for refusal.

"And will you send yourself, your highness?" The fierce warrior asked, lifting to her feet as per the Queen's wishes.

"Eventually. But first, we will send the others, and you, my fair Lady."

"Very well," the warrior agreed, nodding affirmatively, "I'll see myself to the others."

"As you may." The Queen bid her goodbye, but as soon as the grand doors of the entrance began to creak open, she stopped in her tracks.

"And will you tell them? Of your survival?" She asked with her back still turned, knowing the queen would not mind what would usually be considered disrespectful towards royalty.

The Queen's eyes crinkled with mirth as she answered thoughtfully, memories gracing her mind,

"I will see to that myself, Lady Sif."

a/n: im gonna start by apologising profusely for how long this one took, i've been really busy lately, i tried to make it longer to make up for it. but yeah, as promised, the main plot is being paused for a little while. as always, i hope you enjoyed, and ill try to get the next one out sooner