Wanda and Ev

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda's spending some time in the gym when Ev stops by. There's some mutual ogling before Wanda fills him in on the biggest thing that's happened to her since they were at the mansion together - Chthon.

Gasping, Wanda took a step back from the punching bag and dropped her aching arms. The bag swung in a lazy circle, still moving from the force of her punches even after she'd stopped. As tired and as sweat soaked as she was, she was smiling - she'd always been a gym rat and there was something about putting herself through her paces that made her feel strong enough to take on the world.

Which, she thought wryly, was a good thing considering that they often did take on the world. Hunting around, she spotted her bottle of water against a wall and decided it was time for a small break.

Ev had much the same idea as Wanda. Sabbatical or not, his body was a finely honed weapon and he had a responsibility to himself to keep it ready to strike. He was wrapping his hands when he approached the gym and a flash of scarlet flared in his mind's eye. That recognizable aura again, darker than it once was but no less familiar. He grinned and pushed open the door, and only years of super spy training kept him from openly gawking at the sight of a sweaty, half-dressed, heavily breathing Venus.

"Wanda."

Water bottle in hand, Wanda gave Everett a slow smile as he continued into the gym. He was dressed for a workout and it clearly showed that working for SHIELD had been very good for him, at least physically. "Fancy meeting you here," she said in response, taking a moment to take a deep drink of the lukewarm water. "Settling in well?" Her lips twitched. "Again. Though much has changed since our first days here."

As her breathing slowed, Wanda felt the good ache settle in her arms and hands that told her she'd pushed herself but there was still a little more room to push.

"I think I've finally made the right-size butt groove on the couch," Ev admitted as he began his stretches. Walking toe touches. With his back to Wanda. "Comfort is key. How're things with you?"

"What is it you Americans say?" Wanda asked, unabashedly ogling while he walked himself through his stretches. She'd apparently been a really good girl recently and someone up there liked her. "Just peachy? Which just makes me think you all are really fixated on food. But it has been surprisingly quiet lately." Outside of some students getting taken to another dimension. What was it with this place?

"Interestingly, that term goes back a while," he said, putting his linguistics minor to use for the first time in a while. He got down to his hands and feet and started inchworming across the room. "Peaches are round, fleshy, juicy fruits, so being like a peach is a good thing. There's probably something vaguely sexual there, too. There usually is."

She smirked at that. "The best things in life generally are." Water finished, Wanda put the empty bottle back against the wall before sinking to the floor herself. "Though thank you, now I am hungry and my stomach will be whining the rest of the time I put myself through my paces." With a wince at the popping noise her knee made, she folded herself into a butterfly stretch.

Ev raised a curious eyebrow at her first comment, and her second elicited laughter. He went to retrieve a jump rope by the stack of medicine balls and started with that, slowly at first. "You must know all the good joints around here. Any recommendations?"

"There's a delightful Indian place that I frequent when I am not working in the city," Wanda said, pressing down on her knees. Her body fought her a little, it had never liked stretching, but eventually gave in. "Of course, there is also always Harry's." She grinned up at him through a shock of hair. "But as much as I love Harry's, I enjoy the drinks there more than the food."

Maybe some day, Ev would actually leave the mansion grounds and try it out. "How about that sushi place we used to go to with Scott and everyone? Ichiban or something? They had the best unagi outside of Chinatown."

Her smile softened at his words. "It's hard to believe I nearly had forgotten about that place," she said. "It was the first time I had ever had sushi. You ended up having to pay me to even try it, do you remember? I was so horrified at the idea, though I certainly warmed up to it. And I kept your twenty so it was a win-win, really."

Did it still exist? She was going to have to find out.

Ev tried not to laugh too hard while he was jumping rope, else he'd collapse for lack of air. "I'd like to think I started your adventurous streak," he teased between breaths. "First raw fish, then ancient ruins and spycraft. It's linear, and I'm at the base, eh?"

Wanda did laugh as she got to her feet, moving back to the punching bag as that was, simply, far more fun than stretching. "Should I place all of the blame for my weird life at your feet as well?" she teased. "If you take the credit for the kickass Indiana Jones like spy that I've become, you are more than welcome to take the blame for the less glamorous aspects." The bag rocked back, the frame squeaking slightly, as Wanda rocked back on her heels, absorbing the shock from the impact.

It was a good thing she was not facing him because she did not see the very brief fading of his smile. He hid it with a quiet chuckle when he finished with the rope, and put that back before taking a swig from his own water bottle. "I'm sure I'm responsible for lots of things. What kind of weird with you? I mean, besides you-know-who. I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole."

"Ugh." Wanda's noise of disgust could be heard even above the sound of her fist hitting the bag with even more force. "That is more than fine by me. The less I have to think or talk about daddy dearest, the happier I am." Thinking, she tapped her hands lightly against the bag and wondered if she'd slipped up for a moment. Things had changed since they'd last seen each other and not all of it was happy. There were simply things she wasn't sure she could share because surprisingly she wanted his good opinion of her, fueled by summer filled memories, to last. Some of the things in her past...

Instead, she focused on the biggest thing because it simply wasn't her fault. "You were always smart," Wanda said, taking a step to the side so she could still look at the bag but also see Everett. "You must have noticed that outside of the fact that I finally grew into this damned long limbs of mine that something else changed." Wanda glanced over. "My power signature is different - sharper, spikier, darker, yes?"

He nodded. "You know how I see mutants', uh, auras in color." His own multicolored aura flared for a second in demonstration. He needed a better term for that, he considered. Too new agey to call it an aura. "Yours has always been red but now it's . . . blazing, for lack of a better word. Scarlet, appropriately."

That made her smile. There would be time for her to regale him with the stories of her X-Man code name later. "Sadly, that was not through a natural growth spurt. As fanciful and strange as it sounds, someone had ... piggybacking with me throughout my entire life. A entity calling himself an Elder God, known as Chthon, god or master of chaos, depending on how some of the texts are translated." Every time she told this tale, she had to wonder what her life even was. "Some years ago, he broke through and took over. I did more than simply blow a hole in the wall during that time. I'm amazed Charles ever let me move back in, honestly."

Stories of mutants losing control of their powers were a dime a dozen. Ev had literally never met one mutant, even one with the most mundane ability, who had not been overwhelmed at least once. Nor was he a stranger to tales of possession, or even gods, having known the Avengers. But put them all together with someone as fierce and forceful as Wanda? He was reminded of long ago, they stood before a pile of rubble, awed and terrified by what they had done, promising that if one of them went down, the other would follow. How he wished he could have followed through, knowing now what she had just told him.

"I . . . don't even really know how to reply to that. How did it happen? How'd you free yourself? Tell me if I'm prying . . ."

"I'm the one oversharing so trust me, you are not prying." It was strange to think about how long ago it was when it was always so fresh in her mind. Recalling the details was like thinking about what she'd had for lunch that day. "He'd been with me, so to speak, ever since I was born. Becoming an X-Man had me using my powers more often and in different ways than I ever had before. I hit a breaking point and he took advantage."

It didn't help that her recent mental trip had brought most of this back to the forefront. She hated possession, no matter which end she was on. "Thankfully, between the X-Men, Charles and a lot of effort on my part, we managed to rip him out. But it changed me in very fundamental ways. Magic users can sense the damage that you see in the auras. And to make my life just that much more fun, there's a cult out there bent on bringing him back into the world."

Turning so that her back was to Ev, Wanda pulled her tank top up, revealing not only her back and some scars that weren't there when they first met but also a unique tattoo at the small of her back. A stylized owl in dark ink. She gave him a grin over her shoulder. "It is not only pretty but it serves a purpose. It helps keep him out."

Ev fought hard to remember a time when this kind of story did not seem like something straight out of the mass market paperbacks he used to read all the time. It was still fantastic, in the word's most literal definition, but not entirely out of the realm of experience. That realization as much as the happy ending of the story itself elicited a short laugh. "You are amazing, I have to say."

"Well, you certainly aren't wrong." Smiling, she let the shirt drop back into place before turning back around. "So, welcome to the weird and wonderful world that is my life. Or at least the tip of the iceberg." Wanda still felt a strange of emotions after finishing. It was always good, but strange, to tell it to someone for the first time. And she didn't want to scare Ev off - the idea of becoming friends again appealed to her and she knew her life was full of pitfalls. More than one, unfortunately. "So, tell me, you seem comfortable with the weird and strange. Do you have any strange tales of your own?"

"If I told you then I'd have to kill you." An old joke, but Ev was always a fan of the classics. Satisfied with his warm-up, he double-checked his wrappings and took to one of the heavy bags. A simple routine at first, more showy than good exercise. "I suppose relative to you, it's all pretty mundane," he said between jabs. "Unexplainable phenomenon here, go investigate, use some combination of diplomacy and violence to settle the problem."

The joke earned an eyeroll and a soft groan. But Wanda was still - a little - amused. "Oh, I promise you that I haven't seen or heard it all just yet," she scoffed, suddenly more than happy to lean against the wall and watch Ev work. "The day that happens is the day I retire to some pretty little beach. But the formula does sound the same ... though I think you probably were able to use more diplomacy than I have been able to."

Some of the ones with too many teeth flashed through Wanda's mind.

"It's less effective than I'd've liked. Terrorists aren't so big on talking. Sometimes it's shoot first and then ask question later." Or, all too often, never even get far enough to answer questions. Bullets are quite effective at muting their targets.

"Seems we continue to have more in common than our shared, sadly not as sordid as it could have been, past," Wanda said understandingly. There was simply too much history, not all of it good, to get caught up on so quickly. But being around Ev was enjoyable and she didn't have any other place to be, so ...

Standing up, Wanda stretched and smiled. "So, we've both enjoyed a warm up. Want to take this to the sparring mats?"

Ev landed a final punch with what would be bone-breaking force on a human target before facing Wanda to answer, flashing brilliantly white teeth in an appreciative smile. "You're on.