Flying lessons

Or: How to throw Captain America through a window, in 10 easy lessons

Lesson 10: Wanda lets go

I make the captain wait over a week before the next training session. He keeps limping by my room saying things like "I'm practicing with Sam again for real" and "Natasha says I don't need any more physical therapy sessions" or "I can run really fast now. Wanna see?" with a hopeful expression on his face.

In the meantime, I decide to work on my new commitment to be part of a team. I consider Sam to be the least intimidating member of the team, just because he always has a smile for me, unlike Natasha who always seems like she is thinking of ways to kill me (probably not true, but that's how my mind works). So I find him first and ask him to let me fly with him.

"You mean throw you around?" he says with a glint in his eye.

"Y-yes. I mean, I can't fly on my own, and there may be some time when I need to-"

"Yeah, let's do it!" He rubs his hands together in obvious glee. I give him the side-eye while I wonder what I've gotten myself into.

Despite my fears, Sam turns out to be almost overly protective. He makes me wear a harness and won't even let go of me until I unbuckle the damn thing myself and drop almost two meters to land on my feet on the upper walkway.

"Damn, girl!" he says with a delighted grin, and after that he eases up a bit. I find myself agreeing that flying is FUN.

Emboldened, I approach Natasha to ask her to teach me some techniques in hand-to-hand combat. She narrows her eyes at me suspiciously.

"I thought that wasn't really your. . . thing," she says with a hand motion that I assume is meant to imitate my Chaos-shaping gestures.

"I'm sure there will be times when I need it. I'd like to be able to defend myself if the need arises."

She looks me over with a grin. "If you're serious, I could teach you a few things that could help you out, use your opponent's momentum against them. Banner falls for it every time."

After the first session, I'm ready to quit, but on our way out of the gym, she tosses me a tube of something called Icy Hot and says "Not bad, kiddo." This makes me feel disproportionately happy.

I keep practicing with the bears, with Vision "helping", until there is just one left in the box: a factory reject with a misshapen nose and one paw smaller than the others. Vision doesn't even appear to notice it is different, but for some reason the goofy little thing makes me smile, and that tiny touch of joy helps me get my anxiety under control until I can actually throw the bear up onto the walkway, and even get it back down again without destroying it. I'm so happy I grab Vision in a hug, which leaves him standing motionless for nearly a minute while I snap my fingers in front of his face shouting his name. When he finally unfreezes, it's like a computer rebooting, and he doesn't even seem to remember it happened.

Almost giddy, I take the bear back to my room, running into Sam on the way. "I didn't kill it!" I burst out.

Sam grins at the funny bear, holds up its paw and says "Lucky fin!" while giving it a high five. I have no idea what that means, but Sam just pats me on the shoulder, says, "Yeah, I'll show you that movie sometime. You'll like it," and keeps walking.

The next session with Vision, I am about to grab the bear to practice with, when I impulsively decide to take the little captain doll instead. The bear is too easy now—I need something more dangerous to keep my emotional level high enough to open the door.

Vision raises his eyebrows when he sees it. "I thought you had decided not to risk destroying it," he says.

"I think I can do it. I just wish this little helmet could come off. Poor guy probably has a headache."

Vision cocks his head like he is about to ask a question, but I just say, "Never mind," and set the little doll down in the middle of the room. It takes me several tries, but I finally get it up onto the walkway and back down without major damage. I even manage to throw him from one walkway to another, and then down into Vision's arms, who catches it with a surprised little "Oh!".

"Excellent work, Wanda," Vision assures me, but I don't allow myself to be too happy about it. I've seen what Joy can do, and I don't want that to happen to the little doll.

After a week, when the captain stops by my room to say "I can jump now" and proves it by leaping up to touch the light fixture, I finally realize his limp is gone and his smile actually reaches his eyes again.

"Want to practice tomorrow?" I ask him. I'm still not sure it's going to work with the real captain, but I feel I owe it to him to try again, since I did promise.

"Definitely! Six a.m., main gym," he tells me with some of the old enthusiasm.

"Seven a.m." I overrule him. "And we'll go get burek after, since I never got any."

"That was not my fault!"

"Maybe not, but you still ate my piece. And I know how to ride on a motorcycle," I say. He opens his mouth to respond, but I walk away before he can get the words out.

I'm a bit more human at seven a.m. than at six, but not by much. I'm not as grumpy, for one thing. That's probably good, since anger is more difficult to control, but not as hard as Joy, which as I discovered, is impossible. Anxiety is best, but that has decreased quite a bit as well, so I'm not sure how I'm going to do today.

The captain is jumping rope when I enter the room. As soon as he sees me, he calls, "See, Wanda? I told you I was better!"

"Yes, I can see that."

He drops the jumprope and scoops up his cowl and shield on the way over. His cowl looks different—it doesn't cover his ears anymore, and the chinstrap is wider.

"Your cowl looks different," I say without thinking.

"Yeah, Vision brought me a new one. He said he thought it might be more comfortable? I don't know why he would think that." He gives me a questioning look, until I finally shrug and look away. I wait nervously with my arms folded while he pulls on the cowl and adjusts the shield on his arm. Maybe this was not a good idea after all. What if I lose control again?

Finally he nods at me and says, "Ready?"

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yep."

I hug myself a little tighter and look around the room. The anxiety, which had faded so much in the past week, is back in force. "What if I uncover some more. . . dark secrets or whatever?"

"You said I could trust you, and I do. Whatever you see, I know you'll keep it to yourself."

I open my mouth to offer another lame excuse, but he just shakes his head. "Come on, Wanda. You can do this. I have faith in you."

Damn him and his all-American idealism. How am I supposed to argue against that? "All right. Let's try it."

"That's the spirit!" He holds up the shield and goes into a half-crouch, obviously waiting, so I pull the Chaos through and roll it in my hands. When I send out the bolt, I immediately follow up with another to catch him and carefully lower him to the ground.

"Ok, that's a start," he says enthusiastically. "Let's go higher."

So I do, with lateral movement this time, and again I immediately catch him and lower him so he lands on his feet, where he wobbles a bit before catching his balance when I release him.

"Not bad," he says, but his enthusiasm sounds forced this time. "Let's try for the walkway."

"Ok," I say reluctantly. I send out a bolt to pick him up and carry him up to the walkway, but when I try to set him down, he loses his footing and slips off the side. He starts to fall, so I shoot out another bolt to catch him, which knocks his feet out from under him just as he is trying to tuck in for a landing. Instead of landing on his feet, he comes down awkwardly on his shield with a grunt.

"Did I hurt you?" I call anxiously.

He rolls to the side and slowly climbs back to his feet. Instead of getting back into position, he comes and stands directly in front of me with his hands on his hips. His eyes search my face as if he's trying to solve a puzzle.

After a moment, I get uncomfortable with him silently staring at me with that contemplative expression and ask, "So are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm ok."

"Then what?"

"You said I had to trust you, and I do."

"Okay." I thought we had already established that. Why is he bringing it up again?

Another searching glance. "What about you? Do you trust me?"

"Of course," I say immediately. Of course I trust him, or I wouldn't be here.

"I mean really. Do you really trust me?"

"Yes," I reply firmly. I do trust him completely. He believed in me when no one else did. He fought for me to be on his team. Without him, I'd be rotting in a jail cell somewhere, or worse.

"Then let go."

"What? Captain," I say in a reasonable tone. "We've both seen what happens when I let go."

He shakes his head. "No, not let go of control. Let go of me. You're holding on too tight. You have to trust me that I can land safely."

"I don't know—" I start, but he interrupts me.

"Trust me, Please. I can do this. Just let me go."

Now it's my turn to search his face. Can he do this? What will happen to him if I let go? Am I willing to trust him enough to find out? Clearly, what we have been trying isn't working. If he thinks he can do it, then I should at least be willing to give it a try, right?

After wrestling with myself for another minute, I finally nod slowly. "I will try it," I say, and he responds with a huge grin.

"Aces!" He backs up into position again, going into a crouch with his shield at the ready. "Ok, Wanda. Let's do this."

My anxiety has grown to the point where the door opens easily now, and the Chaos slides through without any effort on my part. When I have enough, I push the door shut and hold it while I roll the scarlet filaments around in my hands. He waits, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet, eyes on the walkway.

Finally I shoot the bolt out, flick my fingers up in an arc.

And then, I let him go.

And he flies. . .

A/N: Aaand we all know what happened next. Maybe Wanda should have practiced that lateral movement a little more, like how to aim AWAY from occupied buildings. Anyway, this story is complete. I've been working on a really LOOOOONG Sherlock story for months, almost ready to post the first chapter. This story was a little respite from the angst in that one. Hope you enjoyed it!