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The night before they are to leave for New York, Vision finds Wanda sitting on the roof drinking tea, watching the April skyline turn pink and orange as the sun starts to peak out over the horizon. He floats over to her, and she moves aside to give him room to sit beside her without even looking, already knowing he’s there before he’d said a word.
“Is something wrong, Wanda?” he asks, sitting gingerly on the tiled wooden roof, legs dangling beside Wanda’s. “You weren’t in bed when I woke up.”
Wanda sips her tea. “Can’t sleep,” she says softly, eyes fixed on the horizon. A breeze flutters her hair, and Vision has to resist the urge to wrap his cape around her; it’s cold even in April this far north, and Wanda’s wearing her pink fuzzy robe and a pair of socks and thick flannel pajamas, but he still worries. He can see the swell of her pregnant stomach through her clothes, and an ache of tenderness crashes through him for the hundredth time.
“You should try,” he says gently. “It isn’t healthy not to sleep.”
Wanda’s mouth curls up. “I know, Viz, but I’m fine, really. Just nervous, I guess.”
He tilts his head. “About moving tomorrow? Or today, I suppose.”
Wanda nods, eyes downcast as she rubs her thumb around the rim of her mug. “It’s just…”
Vision reaches out and pulls one of her hands away from the mug so he can lace their fingers together, bending to press a kiss to her knuckles. “Tell me,” he says softly.
Wanda breathes out slowly, and leans her cheek onto his shoulder, letting him play with her fingers and stroke her hand comfortingly. “This is the first place that I’ve been really happy - really, truly, genuinely happy - in such a long time. I was never… I was never really at home at the Compound because I always felt like such an outsider, and then in Westview…” she shakes her head, grimacing. “But here. We’ve built this amazing home, and this amazing family, and we’re happy here, and safe, and it’s all ours. Just ours, and no one else’s. And if we leave… if we leave, I’m worried that everything will change. And I know that’s stupid because I’m the one who wanted to leave in the first place, and I know it’s the right choice for all of us, I’m just - scared.”
Vision kisses her fingertips, one by one. “It isn’t stupid in the slightest, my love. I have my own worries about leaving, too, but I do believe it’s the right choice.”
Wanda turns her head up to look at him, her chin on his shoulder. “You do?”
Vision nods. “For one, Stephen mentioned that anyone with enough power could find us, and if we’re ever discovered here by someone hostile, they would have every advantage simply by blocking us in. And for another….” He pauses, trying to collect his thoughts into a feasible order. “You and I have never had the opportunity to have a normal life for a variety of reasons, and while I wouldn’t trade our life as it is now for anything, I think that I would like my children to have the chance for some semblance of normality. The boys will be able to attend a real school with children their age, will have friends, will have a life. And our little ones -” he reaches out and cups her belly, where their younger twins (and he still hasn’t quite recovered from the shock of learning they’re expecting twins again) have only just started to move within the last week, though they’ve yet to feel a kick - “will be born into a life where their mother and father and brothers are safe, in a real house in a real neighborhood.
“There are so many things I want to do with our children,” he continues, lost in thought as he strokes Wanda’s stomach. “And so many things that I want to do with you. I want to take our children to the park, and to the movies, and throw them birthday parties and graduation parties, and watch them play soccer or learn ballet or act in school plays. I want to teach Billy and Tommy to drive, and to see our new little ones learn to crawl, and walk, and take them to their first day of kindergarten with you. I want to be able to come home to my wife after a long day and know that she and my children are safe - safe and happy, and living the best life they possibly can. I want to give the five of you everything that you deserve, all the things we’ll never have in isolation here.”
Wanda’s eyes spill with tears. “God,” she croaks. “I love you so much, you know that?”
Vision smiles. “I do, in fact.”
Wanda lets out a wet laugh and wipes her face. “Hormones,” she says weakly. She sighs. “I want all of those things, too. So bad. I guess that what I’m really afraid of is that something will go wrong, and all those things will be taken away from us again. That the kids won’t ever get to have all the things we want because of the enemies I’ve made.”
“They will have everything,” Vision says. “Because you will see to it that they do. You are the best mother our children could ever ask for, Wanda. There is nothing you can’t or won’t do for them.”
Wanda smiles, still watery around the eyes. “That’s true,” she says. “I’d like to see someone try to take that away from my kids.”
“I pity the poor soul who attempts it,” Vision says dryly, and Wanda giggles, leaning into him, and he pulls her close and kisses her head.
She rubs her cheek against his chest. “What else do you want to do?”
Vision hums. “I’d quite like to take the boys to a baseball game, now that they’ve become obsessed with it. I want to take Tommy grocery shopping so he can find new recipes to try, and take Billy to an art class. I want to paint the nursery for the twins, and plant a vegetable garden in our backyard. I want to take you out for a real, proper date in New York, because I never had the chance to before.”
He can hear the smile in Wanda’s voice. “And what will we do on our real, proper date?”
Vision strokes her back. “I want to take you to a theatre,” he says. “You loved the play we saw in France.”
“I did,” Wanda says softly. “What else?”
“Coney Island,” Vision says. “Neither of us have ever been. We can even take the boys, though I suppose we’ll have to wait until after the babies are born if you want to ride the rides.”
Wanda laughs. “I do love cotton candy.”
“I’m sure the boys will, too.” Vision smiles. “We could find a Lamaze class.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mhm. Stephen says this pregnancy looks like it will progress normally, so I imagine we’ll have plenty of time to learn how to do things properly this time around.”
“And not give birth on the floor,” Wanda adds dryly.
“No,” he agrees, laughing. “And I’d quite like to see both of these ones born, as well.”
Wanda squeezes his hand. “Boys or girls, do you think?”
Vision pauses. “I will be happy with either,” he says, “so long as they’re healthy and you’re healthy. But… I think I’d quite like to have a girl or two.”
Wanda smiles. “Me too. I always dreamed about having a little girl someday.”
Vision’s heart swelled with love at the idea. “Yes,” he says, imagining a little girl in a dress, one with Wanda’s dark hair and green eyes, dancing after her older brothers, maybe with a twin sister at her side. “I would… I would love that.”
At the horizon, the sun is starting to come up in earnest now, streaks of sunlight breaking through the blue dusk and banishing the stars. The air smells fresh and bright, like hope and the promise that dawn will always follow the dark.
“Hey, Viz?” Wanda asks, as they watch the sun blaze.
“Yes?”
“I can’t wait to live in New York with you.”
“No,” Vision says, and kisses her head. “I can’t wait for it, either.”
They watch the sun finish rising in silence, as the first day of the rest of their life begins.