Magic Box | Tuesday

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda found herself lost in her thoughts at work today. She had been dreaming of Pietro last night. It had been nice at the time, but it only made coming into an empty store even more depressing than usual.

There were more boxes that she guessed were filled with more Halloween stuff in it, but she didn't have it in her to decorate right now.

[Open]

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[shapethecentury]

Bucky's dreams hadn't been any different from the ones he had all other nights (and the less said about any of them, the better). And he didn't have a good reason to show up here.

But then he didn't have a good reason to be much of anywhere lately, did he? So, here he was, hands stuffed in his pockets as soon as he was in the door.

"So this is the store."

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda immediately looked grateful to see Bucky, and it probably showed in the way her shoulders relaxed some when he came in. She was generally at her worst when she was alone, and was well aware of it at this point.

"This is the store," Wanda said with a flourish of her hand. "We are...currently getting ready for Halloween for some reason."

Mostly because the decorations kept coming and she had nothing else to do.

[shapethecentury]

Bucky didn't shrug, but he sounded like he might as well have. "Well, seems kind of like magic season, right?"

Or at least there was a lot of witch stuff. But, same thing?

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh, we are definitely entering prime magic season," Wanda said with a smile. "I've got a couple months to decide whether dressing up like a witch for Halloween is too cliché or if it's just me being ironic and self-aware."

[shapethecentury]

"But you plan to dress up, though?"

That was a good stab at what felt seemed like natural small talk. Good job, Barnes!

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh, definitely. I loved Halloween as a kid," she said. "And in Sokovia you were just as likely to get some gross fish dish from someone as much as candy so it was a real trick or treat."

[shapethecentury]

Bucky forced a little huff.

Only it neither sounded nor felt forced. "That sounds..." he groped around for the words for a second. "Like not something you want."

[scarlet_chaos]

"My brother and I ran away screaming from more than one house," she said, laughing a little at the memory. Which also just reminded her of her weird night.

"Okay, can I just say you picked the best day to come here?" Wanda said. "Because I had a weird night and I'm pretty sure I was going to sit here brooding all day if nobody came in."

She wasn't a great brooder. Sometimes it ended with her taking over an entire town by accident.

[shapethecentury]

Clearly expert brooders focused on keeping towns away from themselves. Like Bucky!

Who wasn't sure he believed his presence could be that good, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. (This time, anyway.) So instead, he asked, with a gentle kind of curiosity, "What kind of weird night?"

[thedadalorian]

The kid had woken up in a strange mood that ice cream hadn't fixed which left the pair going for a walk around town until he seemed back to normal.

"That's a lot of boxes," Din said as the kid toddled on over to investigate them. He was going to end up in a witch hat.

[scarlet_chaos]

Grogu would look adorable with a witch hat!

"Someone keeps sending me Halloween decorations about three months too early," Wanda said. "I keep putting them up because I like the holiday."

[thedadalorian]

"Which one's Halloween again?" He was still muddling through the local holidays here.

[scarlet_chaos]

"It's the one where kids get all dressed up and go door to door to get free ca--" She stopped herself, and looked over at Grogu. "Free C-A-N-D-Y."

She didn't know if Grogu knew what candy was or not but she wasn't about to risk it because she currently didn't have any on her.

[thedadalorian]

Grogu blinked up at her, knowing it was something he wanted if it was getting spelled out.

"Oh, that sounds like fun for him."

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh my gosh, please get him a little costume," Wanda said, clapping her hands together. "It would be so cute."

[thedadalorian]

"Do you sell those here?" Because now he had to, right?

[scarlet_chaos]

"Not yet," she said. "But I seem to be getting these deliveries daily, so who's to say I won't have them in a couple weeks."

Grogu would make a cute little pumpkin. No! A piece of candy corn. An adorable piece of candy corn.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve wasn't normally on the island on Tuesdays, but since he was here this week, he stopped by the store. He was only limping slightly and the heavy bruising that he'd walked home with last night was mostly gone, leaving him with a black eye only if he was standing under strong light.

"Hello, stranger," he said with a smile.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hey!" Wanda said. "Wow, I get no customers for months and you're my third one today."

Maybe she was unconsciously emitting some sort of 'I'm lonely please talk to me' vibe? Was that a chaos magic thing? Could be.

She gave him a once over. "You look like hell, by the way."

[heroic_jawline]

"Aw, you say the nicest things," Steve teased. "Got slightly...crushed...by a building on Sunday. It'll be fine."

He'll walk it off.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I have no doubt you'll make a full recovery," she teased. "Anything I should be worried about?"

[heroic_jawline]

"Nothing other than Hydra's completely boggling obsession with things with tentacles," Steve said with a rueful shrug. "I got caught by a giant air-breathing octopus...thing."

[scarlet_chaos]

"They like to remain on brand," Wanda agreed with a nod. "How have you been outside of the whole octopus thing?"

[heroic_jawline]

"Well, before that there was a hole that chased me," Steve said with a little grin. "But other than that, it's been a relatively uneventful summer. How are you settling in?"

[scarlet_chaos]

"Well, on one hand, I think I convinced Bucky to play Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the movie theater, which will be fun for me," Wanda said. "On the other, Wednesday I literally could not stop myself from telling the truth and totally unloaded on this poor girl while we were wearing cheesy t-shirts."

Wanda was a good ten years older than Annie at this point, she totally got to call her 'this poor girl'.