4215/Schrodinger's Cats

Schrodinger's Cats
Date of Scene:	10 April 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Affter her Bellvue encounter, an exhausted Wanda and Nolan wake in his bed and have a long, quiet talk about personal things.
Cast of Characters:	Deadwatch, Scarlet Witch

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Deadwatch has posed:
Well.. she was right...

He couldn't walk, not after dropping the power of the Deadwatch /and/ teleporting through the whatever she pushed them through using him as a focus.. The congenital chronic pain is always present.. That's pretty much what chronic means, but tonight has pushed that beyond the usual boundaries, what with having to push himself because of the hospitals psychic imprint hindering him..

And no, she couldn't carry him. She isn't weak, nor is he particularly heavy, but both of them were not at their best at the moment so disregarding the pain (or just dealing with it) they made it a team effort,. She helped leverage him up to the edge of the bed.. and he fell /on/ the bed.. See! Teamwork!

There was so much to say.. but before any more words could be spoken everything went black. For him, at least. maybe it was the last surge of pain, or maybe he was paying some other 'price' for the power he called on. All he knows is that one moment he was looking at her then.. blackness

Maybe it was sleep. There wasn't any dreaming, though.. or maybe it wasn't long enough to have a dream. All he knows is that he stirs, sore, and opens his eyes... "Wanda..?" he rasps, his voice crackly and dry..

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda didn't remember falling asleep. She remembered making it to the bed. It had seemed that they were never going to make it there. It had gotten so bad that she even considered her magic, even though she knew the odds weren't in her favour there. The effort to leave that.. place.. had taken all she had at the time. And even then, if it hadn't been for Nolan and his grounding her, she wouldn't have been able to accomplish even that.

The bed was warm. And comfortable. Wanda couldn't remember when she'd felt comfort last. Her memories in that place had been distant things. Detached from her. Filled with troubling sounds and visions. She hadn't slept the entire time she was there. Truthfully, there were times she wasn't really there at all, merely her body while her mind occupied a tormented and tumultuous space that threatened to own her.

If he'd not come.. if he'd not rescued her from the table and the drugs.. it was uncertain how long she'd have been lost.

But for now, she slept, drifting in the warmth and comfort of safety and familiar smells that soothed her. Until a word drew her from that sleep, pulling at her slowly at first, and then with a harshness that had her sitting up and gasping for air, calling out "Nolan!" without even knowing why she did so. Or even where she was. All she knew was that as consciousness hit her, she'd been filled with incredible dread for him.

Deadwatch has posed:
It must still be late.. or early.. it's a strange distinction here in Gotham. The single small window in his room is barred and at ceiling height, and mostly blocked with tar paper, but a little light seeps in from the sides where the edges aren't perfect and there is a faint reddish glow.. it pulsates, slowly.. then flares.. probably neon lighting outside.

Nolan stir s abit, the pain for the moment having ubsided to a low ache rather than nerve-peircing sharpness. He casts his gaze over to her, his mismatched eyes almost aglow in the faint neon haze. When she gaqsps he reaches over, gently grasping her shoulder...

"Wanda.. I'm here.. you're safe..." he reassures her.. And it's true. She /is/ safe, here.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
When his voice filters through to her, she remembers more clearly. Moving him to the bed /was/ real. Not just a fantasy conjured up from her wishing it so. He had rescued her from that place.. it still had no name in her memory. It was just a barren wasteland devoid of any real connection to the world. Worse, any real connection to herself.

His touch brings her to the here and now with an absolute certainty. More than grounding her, it comforts her, and her breath eases back into an even cadence. Her voice a gentled thing, "I thought I did hear you cry out. I was frightened. It must have been a dream."

She settles back against the pillow, trying to read his face in the neon glow lighting the room. "You were not there," she murmurs. "It was like this there. Only dark, too. I could not see into it. We were so afraid."

Deadwatch has posed:
With an inhalation Nolan lays half back on his own pillow again though he does not slide his hand from her arm.. keeping contact with her.. Because maybe he /is/ asleep still and maybe /he/ is dreamig.. And he wants to be sure this /isn't/ a dream or.. if it is a dream that he can stay in it? God his head throbs.. All that psychic /noise/ still lingers.. but clears a bit more every second as she herself gain focus.

"Maybe I did.. cry out I mean.." he says, voice still hoarse.. tinted with concern for /her/ and not himself.. and maybe some confusion. "I don't remember if I dreamed or not.. I don't even remember falling asleep...."

He then frowns as she says that one word.. /we/. He know she doesn't mean him. She meant /her/. The other Wandas. The echoes. Thats what they were to him. Manifestations of her spirit. "You don't need to be afraid anymore. You are /not/ alone.." he says and rolls half on his side, facing her. "It's okay to be in the dark so long as you're not alone.. and I won't let you be alone.."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda gives a slow nod, fingers of one hand curled up against his chest.

"It was.. I could not make them all go away. There were so many. So many whispers and voices. They were the strongest, though."

Her voice is soft, "I was not so much afraid as.. well, yes, afraid. I do not know. It was.. They were going to make me go away. When you came. They were going to make me go away. And I could not feel the magic."

That, he knows, frightened her. Terrified her, even.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight inhales again, sharply, s her fingers curl gently against his chest.. even through the shirt the warmth of her digits a strange almost intoxicating sensation.. a sensation both alien mostly to him yet somewhere deep within him familiar in that he craves it.. His body shivers ever so slightly and he gently, shakily, slides his hand down her arm.

"They, whoever or whatever they are.. They /can't make you go away,Wanda.. Not unless part of you really wanted that.. Thats why they kept whispering.." he says, his voice equally soft now.. soft yet knowing.. "They wanted to break you down, until you gave them what they wanted."

He closes his eyes. Yes, he knows the tactic well.. Too well.. because thats his life every day. Every single day. Every single waking moment. "The voices.. all the time.. driving you to distraction.. Never giving you a moments rest, or peace.." And every time he says 'you' it almost sounds like he is saying 'me'.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
His voice soothes her. Let's the memories of 'that place' come forward without the fear they'd held for her there. Lets her see them without emotion. Deatached from the reality of having lived them.

"The voices wanted to be real. They were all me. So many sounds.. I remember hurting. I couldn't make it stop. Then the voices came. When I found myself again, I was at that place and everyone was afraid. Some of the voices I did not hush. They did just stop. I couldn't hear them anymore."

She still couldn't hear them.

For a brief moment, her fingers tighten against him, her breath a quick inhale of concern before she can catch herself again. Before she can still the fear and make it remember that she is not there anymore. Even if the loss of those voices worries her; feels permanent; fills her with an aching sorrow she does not understand.

"You are talking about you," she says finally, in understanding. "Oh, Nolan."

Deadwatch has posed:
What he will not tell her, probably will nevr tell her, is that 'That Place' never scared him. Oh, what it was doing to her scared him. And the place in itself angered and saddened him at the same tim but.. he was never scarred /of/ that place.. And he doesn't want to say that and make her think he may think she is weak. because he doesn't think that. Not at all. he just has /existed/ in such places all his life and they aren't his fear.

"The voices.. They /always/ want to be real. Be they your own, some fragment of what-was or could-be.. Or be they other echoes born of your basest emotions, or others.. or be they the ghosts of the past. Thats the /point/. They want be real, either again or for the first time, becasue they /aren't/ real. They are not whole things. They are part of the whole, yes, ut not whole themselves. And they will never /be/ whole, unless you allow them.."

He shivers again as her fingers tighten, his heart beat quickening under her palm.. he shifts a bit and looks ashamed.

"No.. I mean.. maybe.. Maybe I am talking about me. But it's different. I've dealt with this since I was /born/. Literally. You.. You haven't. It came later. So I cn deal with it. I haven't fallen yet. And you won't either.."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda listens, lulled by his voice. It leaves her sleepy-eyed and comfortable, something of a smile upon her lips. "So, you do not think they were all me?"

She can't really tell. To her all the voices seemed part of her - likely because they had been up until she arrived at Bellvue. Once there, circumstances were against her, for whatever reason, though she is not yet ready to dwell upon the supposition that she, herself, was responsible not only for being there, but for allowing all that had happened while there.

"It is not so easy, you know. They do not all wish to share," Wanda murmurs, thinking of the ones who had managed to remain behind. There weren't all hostile, but neither were they all benign. Each of them wanted to be Wanda. Each of them had reason to work with Wanda. Each of them had reason to not wish for the others to be integrated. It was that which kept her from moving past this point in her life.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight inches on his side, closer to the witch, and his hand tentaively rests on her hip. He seems calm, almost reflective, but his heart is racing.. if only because he hasn't been this close to anyone in a few presidential terms. And really thats not the only reason., because she isn't /just/ anyone. SHe is someone he is developing feelings for. No, thats not right. She is someone who he is developing /more/ feelings of some sort for. And it's those feelings, some sweet and some.. not so sweet.. that are confusing and scary for the usually very closed off psychic.

"I can't tell you if they were or weren't all you.." he admits. "I know /I/ saw a few of them. Heard them. I usually don't see the spirits or the.. /facets/.. of a living person like that."

He then shrugs and sighs. "In either case, it's not up to what they, be they shades of your own spirit or some existantial spirit pretending to be you, to decide what they want. If they /are/ you, truly you, then /you/ get to decide what you want.. or need.. to share."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda's fingers uncurl against his chest so that her palm lies there flat. It's an unconscious gesture, much as one might stretch out one's toes, or roll one's shoulders. A motion of comfort and settling, her index finger traces absent patterns there.

"I do not know. You make it sound like it is so easy. Sometimes I think I am.." She pauses, then gives a small, helpless shrug that ends with her smiling at him. "We were all one for.. oh, I do not know how long. It wasn't that there was time there. I kept forgetting myself. But when I would remember, they were there. We were all together. Even if they did not want me to be in charge, they did not want to be there even more."

Even the darker aspect of herself had aquiesced, though, perhaps of them all that one was the one most likely to work to leave. Still, she hadn't helped.. merely hadn't interfered.

"How did you find me, though? And what was it you did that you were there? I saw you. You were not like yourself. You were strong, and fighting?"

Deadwatch has posed:
It may be a gentle and unconscious gesture, her fingers flexing and resting against his chest, but it is starting to have a very conscious effect on him. And it's not just the increase in his heart-rate. He feels.. warm. Very warm. Yes he tries to concentrate on just the conversation at hand because.. he is sort of afraid of what he is starting to feel.

"It /isn't/ easy, Wanda.. I just have a lot of years dealing with voices in my head, though most of them are not my own.." he admits, though that is also an admission that some of them just may be his own. He inhales, a sigh, but catches her scent and has to steel himself a bit more. "Part of me think you might have had some kind of childhood trauma.. that your voices are some kind of compartmentalized separations of your personality but.. What do I know.." he says and sighs

When she pushes the conversation forward he is almost relieved.. but the actual question makes him start to blush again. "You.. dissapeared.." he tells her. "I had a gut feeling and I couldn't scry for you.. SO I asked my.. friends.. to spread the word about you.. and they led me to Bellvue." he admits, looking a bit embarrased he may have breached her privacy. Something he /usually/ doesn't care about with others. When she asks about the fighting he.. looks away. "Thats... something I can't really talk about.. Not yet. I'm sorry..."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
His words are taken and contemplated in silence. There is no judgement in it. No pulling away. Only a stilling of that finger, it curling up again, and joined by its fellows against his chest.

"It is okay," she says finally, of the finding her. Of the not being able to speak (yet) of what he's done. "I am not afraid of you, Nolan. You are not that to me. I do not think you could ever be that to me."

She's not sure why she knows this, she just does. Just as his presence soothes her. Connects her. Just as she has those odd moments where she suddenly needs to reach out and know he still exists. They aren't things she understands. They just are.

"Your friends. They are the voices? The ghosts?" She nods as she asks, as though that makes all the sense to her. But it is the other that draws her thoughts away. Thoughts of her childhood. Things she remembers.. Things she doesn't want to remember..

Things she's tucked away and refuses to revisit.

All that keeps her from drifting too far down those lines of thought is his nearness. Her hand on him. His hand upon her hip. A thing she is suddenly ever so aware of - his touches have been so infrequent, and always with cautious hesitation. Though now she's aware of her own hand on his chest. Her own cheeks a pretty little flush.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight looks even more ashamed that after al this, he is holding out on her about some personal information.. How does he explain the origin of The Deadwatch? What it does? What it /means/? What it means about what he does. She already knows he has killed but He isn't ready to explain that /more/ yet. But that she seems to accept that.. Well it just tugs at him a little more and he looks grateful and nods slowly.. shakily.

"Thank you.." he whispers, a bit hoarsely.

He then clears his throat and is able to look her in the eyes again and nods slowly. "Yes.. Yes they are.." admits. "Ghosts. Spirits. Other small entities that float around, unseen by mortals. I.. asked.. them to look for you.. It took a few days because I didn't know how far you were and they had to pass the word around..." As well as the word of the Reward.. which he /will/ have to pay. But it is worth it.

He can see that she is thinking about the past.. he recognizes that look like he recognizes his own when he looks in a mirror. Thinking about about things one doesn't want tothink about it. He wants to ask what she is remembering, or trying not to, but can't.. He doesn't want to push her. But then he senses a change in her thoughts.. the flush on her cheeks.. and THAT is something he doesn't get,.. What could she be thinking of now? His fingers unconcioulsy mirror her own, curling on her hip, and his breathing hitches abit.. "Wanda..? You okay?"

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Of course the flush deepens. It's not just the curl of fingers at her hip. It's the worry in his voice. How he's so grateful of her acceptance. And so close. That part, too, her mind keeps focusing back on despite her intentions.

"I am.. it is.." Then she laughs evver so softly. "We are so silly. I was only thinking of things. My secrets. Only you are here, and suddenly it was.. why is this harder than other things? This.. us?"

Not in how they fit, for they fit well. But in the circling that seems necessary to them. Like clockworks, tightening the gear so that time will be kept. They circle about one another in their shyness and their own feelings of unworthyness and fear, only to continually end up here, where they are, unable to draw apart. Uncertain how to move foward. Even if there is no push necessary to the pace.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight is silent for a moment because.. well.. Yes. They are being silly. His flush spreads down his neck but he does smile. A bit of a fearful smile, but also an amused one... Maybe self-depreciative amusement but still amusement. He looks to his hand on her waist, then back to her eyes and sighs once more.

Yes.. We are being silly. And I don't know why it is harder, right now.." he says.. then frowns suddenly. "I mean, the us being together being harder.." he quickly ammends with some embarrasement..God, did he actually just say that.. gah, he is such an idiot.

Swallowing, Nolan shakes his head. "It's like.. taking that first step into a deep pool. You may know, technically, how to swim but..." he trails off.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Yes. Yes he did just say harder. And then, further, pointed it - and his embarrassmend - out, leaving no doubt as to what other ways it might have been interrpreted under the circumstances. All of which makes Wanda giggle, even as her flush rises to meet his own.

"I did understand the first time. And it is okay. I mean the hard. How you say it, you know you can swim, but you are afraid, still, that the water may be too deep, or you will forget. And it is much safer to be on the sides and watch."

Her voice is gentle and understanding.

"I did not so much do these things. It was easier to be so innocent. And you - touches were not always good things in your past. It must be hard to learn to feel them as good?"

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan never knew that someone laughing at him, for saying or doing something stupid, could be so.. intoxicating.. exciting... /arousing/. Her own embarrassed giggle, seasoned by her lovely blush.. It makes something in him break just a little.. it's a tiny yet encompassing pain that somehow feels good.. a burn that slowly simmers deep inside...

"N-No... Touches were not always good... For so so so many reasons.." he admits, looking downwards. There is more shame again. Maybe some self loathing.. and definitely anger. "There is a lot of pain in touching.. We're not supposed to remember pain. Humans, I mean. We can remember /being/ in pain. But not the actual pain itself. The nuances.. the actual agony, from the smallest of pinpricks to the greatest of beatings.. We are wired not to remember so we can never stop learning from it. But I /do/. I'm not wired like most people. I always remember the pain itself. Every erg of it. And.. I don't want to... I want to enjoy it. To know I can.."

He bites his lower lip. "I want to.. jump in the pool so bad.. the learn to enjoy to.. swim.. But I don't know now to take that first.. last.. step."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Her giggle, nervousness, amusement and all, tempers as he speaks of pain.

"So, when I touch you, it hurts?" Her confusion is evident. "You do like me enough that you.. would take pain to enjoy being with me?"

She's not sure she follows all of it, but there's something enlightening about it. About the thought that his care for her - no, his liking of her - runs deep enough that there are things he would bear merely to be near her. That those things are greater than all the fears and the pains combined. Which makes her own fears seem like such trivial little things.

"Her lips bow over a gentle smile. "You have already done all the hard parts, my Nolan. See? I am here. And you did say you like me. The rest, it is only a small thing to wait, yes? It is I am afraid of the water, too. It would be simpler, I think, if I did not like you so. Only, I am afraid that if I swim with you, I will never want to swim with another, or get out of the water again."

Her eyes search for his in the dimness, seeking to settle upon the familiar mismatched things. To know that all is well. "Did you know that good is like that, too? We only know it in the moment. I can feel your heartbeat under my fingers. Only, if I pull my hand away, it is only the memory of. Even to feel the beat, I must form the thought, and it is already a memory. I do not know what pleasure teaches us. I only know that you are waters I would swim in when it is time."

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight bites his lower lip and he shivers.. no.. he /trembles/ like he is cold.. like is body is freezing yet is mere inches, less, from a source of heat that he yearns for yet is afraid of getting burned by..

"No, thats just it.. It.. It doesn't really hurt. I mean it does hurt but not.. not that way. It's a different type of hurt. I can't explain how it is different but..But I keep expecting it too turn bad. It's confusing.." he says, his heart fluttering. God how can he explain this.. He doesn't know how. This isn't fighting demons or ghosts.. But in a way that he doesn't get, that's exactly what he is doing. Fighting demons and ghosts. His /personal/ demons and ghosts.

He tries to center himself, his fingers uncurling, spreading, resting on her lip.. feeling that warmth.. feeling her hand o his chest, where she can feel his heartbeat racing.

"It would be simpler.." he agrees, almost sounding sad but.. "But we're passed simple, aren't we. And as much as that scares me.. I am tired of standing on that edge..." he whispers. "Pain or pleasure or whatever.. I am just tired of fearing it."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
"Oh," she says with sudden and simple understanding. It's a thing at the edge of her awareness, but she thinks she understands. "It is.. You are human when you are touched. It hurts, but it is also beautiful because you *are* then." It might not be exactly what he means or experiences, but there's a certain clarity to the thought in her mind that makes it all so easy to understand. And makes her fear hurting him less. At least this way.

His fingers uncurl. Her own hesitate to follow suit, but that racing beat beneath them convinces her to still her fingers over his heart and let him learn her presence. That she is as real as he is. Or he as real as she.

"We are too long past simple," Wanda agrees. "Even if we did never learn this with one another, we were never simple." He was a beacon to her from the start. A piece she never knew she was missing, and not merely on the level of feelings romantic. Striking her as funny how she could picture his relationship with touch easier than she could explain how it was she knew he fit. How she knew they needed to be together.

That this other had grown from that? Wanda wasn't so certain that had been part of the plan. She knew, though, that she did not regret it.

"Nolan?" Wanda waits for him to answer her, then tells him, "If I moved closer, will you too?" It wasn't what she'd meant to say. She'd meant to tell him she wasn't leaving. To not be afraid. That she was just as afraid as he was. Only the other fell out of her mouth and left her the one biting her lower lip.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight silently listens to her.. Not just to the sound of her voice, with it's faint accent.. Her tones subtle and almost hypnotic, finding their way into the depths of his brain.. his heart... his being.. No, he also listens to what she /says/. And if what she says, the exact words, do not make real sense then their underlying meaning, what she is trying to convey rather then how she conveys it, are sinking their fingers into him.. A /non/ physical touch to match the softness, the warmth, of her hand that presses against his chest.

And as scared as he is, he feels this is right! Oh, he could be wrong but he doesn't actually care. He doesn't care how risky it is. How /crazy/ it is. He feels /right/ with her. She thinks about peices fitting? He does too. he's been told for, all his life, that he is part of the whole yet not whole himself.

ANd while he may always be a bit broken, or a /lot/ broken.. He could be broken with someone else. Someone who, in their own brokeness, their pieces fill those cracks with their own. o make their own kind of whole.

He is startled out of this line of thought, eyes going wide as she speaks his name.. He blinks, his brain taking a moment to catch up with her, with this moment in time, her question unspooling in his head.. and he nods. "Yes..."

His hand on her hip conforms to that soft curve, shaky and tentative perhaps but still determined, and he gently pull her towards him as he shifts closer.. closing that space between them.. legs along hers.. his body to hers.. "Y-Yes.. I will."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
And then they are lying not only alongside one another, but close enough that the heat from their two bodies mingles. His legs to hers;hers to his. Feet tangled together at the end of the bed while their faces are held just far enough apart to look at one another and see their whole visage.

Once there, nestled near one another, Wanda isn't sure what they were so afraid of.

"Do you think it is always so difficult?" She gives him a small smile, suddenly shy with a memory. "I did tell you what my sister said? About how to be with someone?"

Deadwatch has posed:
The last time Nolan lay next to someone was.. well.. it was a very long time ago in much darker days. Was it really just a figament of his imagination, that memory half obscured by a haze of time and addiction and fear..? he doesn't know and he doesn't care. The smile she bestows him is enough to make his own lips quirk slightly and he chuckles, basking in the deliciously awkward warmth she basks him in.

"If it is always this difficult.. I still don't mind.. not at all.." he tells her, his voice soft and hoarse and.. pleasant? He then cocks an eyebrow. "No, what did your sister say?"

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda's smile is a blossoming thing, if touched with a some shy embarrassment - she is, after all, lying next to a man (totally ignoring the fact that she's slept in this very bed before).

"We did talk about how it was to be with someone. I was saying to her that it all seemed so hard to figure out. That perhaps it would be simpler to be with someone to learn.."

Wanda's voice softens as she remembers the conversation.

"It was strange. I did ask her because she would not answer as my brother would.. I did kiss a man.. Well, he did kiss me. Only I did not think of him."

Her fingers move from the mid of his chest to lie along his collarbone, fingertips rubbing there nervously.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight sort of tracks what she is saying.. the parsing is a bit hard, of course, since her hand has slide upwards, her fingers resting against the tight flesh of his collarbone.. The warmth of her hand is distracting, all the more so as there is not very much distance between them.

"W-Well... I mean, it usually /is/ hard to figure out how to /be/ with without being w-with someone..." he says, slowly.. hopeful that he actually said it properly. Like, in a way that made sense. He then thinks back to his first kiss, finding it hard to remember the circumstances.. Which is a bit sad if he thinks about it. "Who did you think of?" he asks, slowly.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
There's a pretty little blush that might not be seen so much as felt at this distance, Wanda's eyes downcasting with a sudden shyness that is al too aware of not only *who* but the fact that she's here, as she is, with him right now..

"Who did I kiss?" Her words are a stumble of prevarication that she immediately regrets. "No. That is not what it was you asked. It is only, well, it is only that it was you. I did wonder why it was.."

And here she stops herself again, lifting her gaze back to Nolan in apology. "No, that is not true either. I did know why it was I thought of you. Only it was.. I was afraid. It did seem simpler if I did not come to you. She did tell me it was not better the other way - to learn from someone only because they were with the experience."

Her smile of apology grows simpler, encompassing the strangeness of herself and Nolan, and their relationship. "You did say you did not like me still then. And we were only friends. I did not know if friends did have those thoughts."

Deadwatch has posed:
Yeah, so Nolan is quite sure he doesn't need to know who it was she was kissing (though part of him, the jealous part, would LOVE to know) but his blush mirrors her own when explains and he sighs slightly. "I did not say I liked you then, no.." he admits. "Which goes to show you I am very good at lying.. especially to myself."

He shakes his head and gives her a wry look now.. with a self depreciating smile. "BEcause you weren't the only one who was afraid. I was /terrified/. Still am, really, though... in a way that..." he tries to find the right word to explain it.. searching his mind.. wracking his brain..

"At least you had the guts to.. experiment.." he says, almost teasing her.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda's eyes widen when he tells her she was brave. "Oh, no. I did not experiment. He did kiss me. I only did not slap him for it."

The memory of that makes her nod to herself.

"No, it was I said maybe I should learn from him. It would be easier." She watches his face, and worries at her lower lip. "It did seem that maybe we were only friends who worked together. I thought maybe I did shame you. By saying I liked you. Or perhaps because I did not know how it was done."

She's blushing faintly again, and looking awkward. "I do not know. It just seemed so many confusing things and maybe if I knew this thing there would be one less. I did not really want to so much as.."

Wanda sighs.

"I am not good at this. There are so many things I did not try because I have been afraid. It was easy to be innocent. If I am always innocent then I can not ever be what I was." Her voice lowers. "I did hurt people, Nolan."

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight almost stifles a laugh when she quickly points out that she /didn't/ slap the guy, and he cannot hide his grin at all, even while bites his lower lip. "Life, lovely Wanda,, is always confusing. I think thats the point of it. At least thats what I have always thought the lesson was." he tells her and his hand slide up her arm, over her hand, pressing it more firmly to his collarbone..

"Neither of us are good at this, Wanda. And both of us have... hurt people. And lets be honest, we'll hurt more people in the future. Again, thats life. And in turn /we/ will be hurt but.. I can stand that.. all of tat.. So long as wer are being hurt, or causing the hurt, together.."

Okay, that may not be the most NORMAL romantic thing to say but.. he says it honestly... and from the heart..

Scarlet Witch has posed:
The stifled laugh isn't missed, and Wanda's hand is lifted to give a gentle swat to his chest. "That is horrible. You are laughing at me." Only she has to admit, it was funny. Thor had stood there after the kiss looking quite concerned that she /was/ going to slap him, and the memory of that made her laugh as well.

"My sister said you should be with someone who makes you happy. A friend. And if there are other things, then that is good too, but first it should be a friend." Wanda nods at Nolan. "I did already like you. You did not look so strange at me when you saw what I could do."

Sobering, her next words come softly, "I do not wish to hurt people, but I think you make me understand that sometimes to be innocent allows hurt as well. That I need to learn to balance all of me so that I do have the power, not that the power has me."

Which is a great leap in understanding for the woman, and a far cry from where she's been until present.

Deadwatch has posed:
His fingers slowly interlace with hers, weaving digits among digits as he never tears his mismatched gaze from hers own. Once woven, once anchored to her, he raises her hand to his lips and brushes her knuckles with his lips. It's corny.. It's cliche.. but it's also something he feels is right.

"I was blindsided the moment I first saw you.. and I still am.." he whispers. "Just too look at you.. to be with you.. God it hurts... it burns. Deeply. And I.. I like it.."

He wiggles a bit, siding closer.. until her arm and his are trapped between them, the only thing keeping the pair apart.

"I don'yt mind this pain.. Not in the slightest."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
There's a soft giggle from Wanda. "You wanted to know who I was and how I got there. I think you thought I was breaking in. That is a very strange definition of blindsided," she teases, suddenly feeling terribly light in the face of all this.

He was right. They were never going to be ordinary. Or easy. But that was okay. And it was them.

"I remember how you took my magic and bent yours around it to make even the smallest bits I had missed whole. I did think how could you do that? How could you see a missing thing? I had been so careful, and still, it did not make me angry or ashamed. It made me want to put my magic with yours again."

Her fingers lace neatly with his, and she watches him brush her knuckles with her lips.

"You keep saying you do not know how it is I might like you. Sometimes I feel like that. Like you might look at me and think how she is too much. Or maybe not enough. Only.. will you still like me if I am not still this Wanda?" Meaning, he might understand, if she allows herself more freedom to *be* rather than this tight little package of innocent and naive.

Though there is also the sense that those bits will always be of her, just as it's also true that the depth of her power means the fullness of her dark side will always exist as well, no matter how she finds herself between those things.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
..and as such things go, they talk into the quiet hours and fall back asleep.