As you turn the corner down one of the many halls of the Avenger’s tower, you’re startled suddenly by a person you could’ve sworn wasn’t there a second ago. As you recover from your shock, your gaze trails up from their feet, following to their face and your chest instantly tightens.

“Wanda?”

Pure surprise is all you can feel for a split second, you can’t believe your eyes, you haven’t seen or heard from this woman in over a year. You never received an explanation either, but here she is.

It had been a long time, that was clear. The woman you once knew was a stark contrast to the person in front of you. Hair that was once a vibrant ginger was now a dampened auburn, eyes previously a bright green looked vaguely darker and lost.

Each little difference should’ve been sending alarm bells to your rational mind but you’ve missed her too much, they were all easy things to overlook as you immediately threw yourself into her arms, burying your face into the crook of her neck.

“I missed you so much-“

You’re too distracted with joy to notice her hesitation, the couple of extra seconds that it takes before the hug is reciprocated. If you hadn’t been so insistent on hiding your face against her, maybe you would’ve caught sight of the sinister grin forming on her face, a small hint of realisation behind her eyes.

This wasn’t part of Wanda’s plan, to run into such a gorgeous little thing so willing to let its guard down around her but who was she to complain? A small detour in the plan couldn’t hurt, dream-walking and borrowing this Wanda Maximoff’s body for a couple of extra hours would be fine… it’s been a while since she’s had something to play with and you seemed too blinded to notice that she isn’t your Wanda Maximoff.

“ …I missed you too, dorogoy.”