open + overflow post

[shipping]

OPEN POST

AZIRAPHALE

BUCK

ERIK

HUA CHENG

STEVE

WANGJI

Comments

[redchaos]

Somewhere in the multiverse.

[It's just unfortunate the universes they belong to aren't as bright.]

Do you dream of her?

[incogneto]

All the time. In my dreams, she's just as she was.

[ He doesn't know this about multiverses, so he'll be happy to find out. ]

[redchaos]

That's your reassurance that in another universe, she's alive and well. Sometimes dreams aren't just dreams.

[They're glimpses through windows.]

[incogneto]

Oh?

How do I know when it's a dream and when it's real?

[redchaos]

I think the more mundane, the more of a chance it's real.

[She had so many dreams of the boys. Baking cookies, playing tag, watching a movie together. Boring, to anyone else. But everything to her.]

[incogneto]

Oh.

[ He smiles into his glass, taking another sip. ]

I hope I get to visit you and the twins in them.

[redchaos]

Just like that, you accept them?

[It's not a complaint. She would have loved for the boys to have a big, happy family. Just like the ones on TV.]

[incogneto]

The dreams? Yes, I believe you.

[redchaos]

The boys. [The tips her head to the side.] ... and me.

[incogneto]

If I choose to believe that other universes exist, then reasonably, there is one where you are my daughter.

And I choose to believe.

[ It's as simple as that. ]

You may not want to accept me as family.

[ You know, considering. But they're in the same boat now, huh? ]

[redchaos]

I had a father.

[And she loved him dearly. Still does.]

... and you had a daughter. As long as we know such things can't be replaced, I'm...

[She frowns, not wanting to offend, but still hesitant all the same.]

I'm not going to push you away.

[incogneto]

[ He nods. ]

What was his name? Your father.

[ He doesn't want to replace him, any more than he wants to pretend that Wanda is Anya all grown-up. But he does want to know about him. ]

[redchaos]

Oleg.

[Time for another dose of depressing. Wanda is sure he's not surprised at this point.]

He and my mother were killed when Pietro and I were young.

[incogneto]

I'm sorry.

[ He doesn't really want to ask how. He knows he doesn't like discussing how his parents were killed. ]

But you and Pietro, you raised yourselves fine.

[redchaos]

We managed. It was never easy.

[She watches him in silence for a moment.]

I don't think our family has it easy in a lot of universes. Not all of them. We're simply unlucky we ended up in this one.

[incogneto]

Unlucky is putting it mildly.

[ But after a brief pause, he wonders: ]

Tell me about Pietro.

[ He'd never considered a son, so, he just wants to know what he was like. Maybe he was very much like Wanda. ]

[redchaos]

[The interest in the people she loves most draws out another small smile.]

I think he would test your patience.

[incogneto]

Oh?

[ He arches a brow, but he's curious. ]

How so?

[redchaos]

Talked a lot. Fast. Always moving, always doing something. Liked being the smartass. But... he was good. Funny. Wanted to help people.

[Wanda was the angrier one that tended to brood. Twins, similar enough, but different, too.]

[incogneto]

[ Actually, that sounds a lot like someone he knows.

Cautiously, he asks: ]

How fast?

[redchaos]

Faster than the eye could follow.

[Just not fast enough at all times to avoid bullets.]

[incogneto]

[ Erik reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone, scrolls through to show Wanda a picture of Peter. ]

Did he look like this?

[redchaos]

[Wanda's baffled expression gives the answer before she verbally replies.]

That's not Pietro. That's--not him, but I've met this person. Who is he to you?

[incogneto]

He's one of us. A mutant. I - Charles heads up the school, for people like us.

They call him Quicksilver.

Why? Do you recognize him?

[redchaos]

He's not.

[Said maybe a little too quickly, and Wanda shakes her head.]

Not in my universe. He was... used by a witch, to trick me. She made me believe he was my Pietro.

[So, maybe in another universe, he is indeed... whatever they are. Mutants.]