Chapter Text
They say the average time it took people to move on after grieving their significant others was one to two years. But for you, it had been three years since the Blip. Since you felt the sole person who made you keep looking forward to the following day—Wanda Maximoff—go limp and cold right at your fingertips.
You had been fighting that day—warding off aliens, defending your planet, saving the world—but what you didn't expect was that due to this, you'd lose your own world. You were with Wanda when it exactly happened. The others were keeping Thanos distracted, doing everything they could just so she could buy time and destroy the remaining stone that Thanos needed to make half of all life in the entire universe vanish. You thought you were about to win, you thought Thanos wasn't going to succeed.
And yet, you were wrong. The moment Thanos reversed time and made Wanda stagger away with force, resulting with her head brutally hitting a nearby rock—everything just went downhill. It suddenly felt like time went slow just for this moment alone, wanting to savour the last moments where you could still hold your dearest—emanating warmth from her living body. You didn't even care if Thanos would or wouldn't succeed in snapping his fingers at this point; you were just desperate for your beloved to make it out alive. However, the moment you felt Wanda's pulse slowly let go within the next seconds that ticked by, the moment she whispered, ‘You are the only thing I was ever sure of’ and closed her eyes—your heart just shattered into a million pieces.
On Earth, when the Blip occurred, approximately three point eight billion people got erased. Wanda wasn't one of them, but she was one of the people that passed away—fighting for the life everybody deserved to get. You were sure that you could still feel her warmth. You claimed that her heart was still beating, that the blood that continuously trickled from her head which had started to pool beneath you, was some sort of mind trick. But none of that could ever describe the sudden wave of loss that crashed over you by the time you realized that she truly was gone.
She died in front of you—in your arms, in your embrace. Her body that had been warm just minutes ago had become unresponsive, leaving you with nothing but her lifeless body to hold. A choked sob escaped your lips before you knew it, curling yourself on the ground where her very own life dissipated, tightening your hold on her still and unmoving body.
“My love,” Wanda spoke against the top of your head, giggles escaping her as she teased you for resembling a clingy koala, wanting to feel her warmth with every chance that you're given since she got home.
To be fair, you were only being ‘clingy’ today because your girlfriend had been gone for roughly two weeks, busy with a mission she was tasked upon. You had missed her terribly and ridiculously so. And now that you've got her cradling your body like you were the only thing she'd ever want to hold, why would you even think of doing something else than to hold her impossibly harder?
Pouting, you lifted your head just to see Wanda grinning like an idiot at the sight of you burrowing your face against the crook of her neck. “My behavior is very valid, actually,” you petulantly grumbled, complaining. “You have been gone for one million, two hundred and nine thousand, six hundred seconds. I have gone through much suffering!”
“Oh, my poor baby,” Wanda cooed, purposely exaggerating her reactions just to rile you up even more. “You went through such a rough time while I was gone. God, just so you know, the mere thought of it makes my heart ache.”
“Shut up, Maximoff!” you whined, though your words didn't have any tinge of anger nor cruelty in it. Just the tenderness and love that you felt for her at this very moment.