#i might potentially do more drabbles and outtakes for this series eventually

[scarletvisionss]

Wanda hearing Auggie tell her I love you for the first time

(I couldn't get the idea of this out of my mind so i ended up writing a drabble for it.)

Wanda couldn't remember the last time she'd been this exhausted; the early days of Auggie's infancy were mostly a blur, and she knew she'd had some epically bad weeks of all-partying-and-no-sleeping during her worst years of college, but even those didn't compare to the bone-deep tiredness that clung to her entire body and weighed her down like a sack of stones. She hadn't slept in five days. At this point, Wanda was pretty sure she was going to lose her mind and be committed if Auggie didn't let her catch even just an hour or two.

Not that it was Auggie's fault - she'd come down with a terrible ear infection and had spent most of this week screaming her head off, refusing to take her antibiotics without an hour-long tantrum beforehand each time, and weeping miserably into Wanda's chest while tugging at her painful little ears. Wanda had never felt so helpless in her life than when she'd had to fight Auggie into taking her medicine, both of them crying, Auggie using all the vocabulary she had at the ripe age of eighteen months old to beg no, Mama, no no no bad! The bottle of antibiotics claimed it was supposed to taste good. Wanda learned very quickly that that was a big, fat lie. That, or Auggie was just too miserable to care about anything, no matter how Wanda tried to make it seem like fun. (As it turned out, pretending food was an airplane flying into your baby's mouth really did work. Wanda thought that shit only happened in movies.)

Despite the fighting, the medicine seemed to have finally worked: Auggie had settled down this evening, content to curl up into Wanda's lap with a sippy cup of warm milk and her cheek resting over Wanda's heart, but she still would not go to sleep. Wanda had tried everything - lullabies, rocking, nursing (out of desperation only, as she'd been encouraging Auggie's recent loss of interest in breastfeeding), even curling up on the couch and watching the most boring history channel shows she could find in the hopes that the droning narrator would lull Auggie to sleep so Wanda could put her to bed and crawl into her own. No such luck.

Wanda was ready to be committed to that insane asylum pretty much any day now.

"Mama," Auggie mumbled, rubbing her cheek against Wanda's chest. Wanda thought she was finally starting to look tired, though that might be wishful thinking. Auggie sniffled and curled her tiny hands around her warm sippy cup, hugging it to her neck. "Mama..."

Wanda ran her fingers through Auggie's short curls. Every day, Auggie's hair got curlier, and Wanda couldn't figure out where on Earth she inherited it from, since Wanda's family all had mostly straight hair and Vision (it still hurt to think of him, even now), had had straight hair, from what she remembered. Wherever Auggie got it from, Wanda didn't care: she loved those rust-red curls with all of her heart. Even if she knew that it would probably be a pain, someday, to get knots out of them when they were long enough. She loved them too much to care. "What is it, Bunny?" she said, when Auggie didn't say anything else for a minute. Wanda rocked her gently side to side in her arms, hoping that maybe that would convince her to finally drift off.

Auggie sniffled again, and tilted her head back, looking up into Wanda's eyes and smiling sleepily. As always, that smile made Wanda melt inside, and brought out such powerful, maternal, helpless devotion in her that Wanda knew she would do anything for her daughter so she could always be smiling like that. It was part of the reason Wanda hadn't slept in five days: she'd been too worried about Auggie to let herself fall asleep even when Auggie would cry herself into brief naps, too terrified Auggie would somehow get worse or need something and Wanda wouldn't be right there next to her when she woke up sick and miserable.

Auggie reached up and set her hand on Wanda's cheek, giggling when Wanda mimed eating her little fingers. "Mama... my Mama," she said.

Wanda smiled tiredly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "My Auggie," she said back. "My Baby Bunny. Do you know how much I love you? Even though I'm so tired I feel like I could sleep for years, I'd still rather be with you. I love you so much."

Auggie patted Wanda's cheek clumsily. "Mama," she said, blue eyes wide and sweet and earnest. "Mama, love you."

Wanda froze, surprise flashing through her, followed by joy, adoration, and love. She lifted Auggie underneath her arms, raising her up so she was standing on Wanda's thighs. "Did you just tell me you love me?" Wanda said, her voice wavering with tears. "Did you just say your first real sentence, Bunny?"

"Mama, love you," Auggie said again, and stuck her pudgy hand in her mouth to chew on.

Wanda pulled Auggie back to her chest, cradling her close, laughing and crying, so so so so tired and so fiercely in love with everything about her daughter that she fell into weepy sobs before she could help it. "I love you, too, Bunny," she said, kissing those beautiful red curls, rocking her daughter and holding her to her heart. "Mama loves you so, so much. More than you could ever know." More than she could ever dream of conveying to the sweet little girl in her arms; she'd move mountains for this baby, fight a god, take on the world. Did Auggie know that? Wanda hoped, each and every day, that she did. Wanda wanted Auggie to always know that she was loved, and by no one more than her mother. "I love you so much," she whispered. "My tiny, clever, baby... so, so, so, so much."

Auggie ended up falling asleep a half-hour later, and as tired as she was, Wanda held her just a little bit longer. Your baby only told you they loved you for the first time once - Wanda wasn't ready to let the moment go quite yet.