LITTLE WARRIORS ( pietro maximoff )

Ten

{edited}

❝PEOPLE CRY, NOT BECAUSE THEY'RE WEAK. IT'S BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN STRONG FOR TOO LONG.❞
–JOHNNY DEPP

FOR DAYS, the three enhanced traveled around the globe. Together, they raided labs and facilities, gathering everything that Ultron demanded from them to bring. They didn't ask questions, being obedient little soldiers like they were at the HYDRA base in Sokovia.

It was a bit awkward being around the twins for Cara now; she hadn't told them about her memories but she had planned on telling them. The words spilled from her mouth like water, dripping out of her mind and into the air. The twins had watched with wide eyes as she told her story, her blue eyes shimmering with tears. Wanda didn't even think she knew she was crying.

Pietro, now resting after scavenging for whatever Ultron needed, was sitting in his hotel room that Wanda had "convinced" the hotel manager to get her, her brother, and her friend. He was lying on his bed, his feet dangling off the edge of the bed and just scratching the carpet. Both Wanda and Cara were napping in their room so Pietro had nothing to do but just sit there and wait for something to happen.

His thoughts were erratic as he thought back to the night they met Ultron when they were still in the hotel. While showering back home, he had overheard the girls' conversation and hearing Cara say, "It was a moment of weakness. It won't happen again."

His heart instantly broke when he heard the words leave her mouth; he kept thinking about why. When he kissed her, he sensed that she froze for bit but then welcomed it. She had kissed him back. So why would she say that? Did she not have the same feelings? From growing up alone with only his sister, he didn't really know much about love other than the sibling love he'd known his whole life. He'd catch the attention of a few girls here and there and would often get teased by Wanda. But not once would he actually go off and chase after that girl like he would Cara. Cara was different.

While the other girls he noticed were like roses - lively, young, and beautiful - Cara was something different. She was like a tiger lily. Tiger lilies are known to symbolize courage, compassion, kindness, and can be quite aggressive - all things that Cara was. Roses weren't very rare, that much he knew, but Pietro had never known someone to give their lover a tiger lily; it was just uncommon. Besides, it was just as rare to find someone as amazing as Cara.

But when he heard her story, he pieced it together like a puzzle. From her memories, Cara had come from a warm family, living happily with her brother and sister. Then just like that, the two were gone; killed before her very eyes. Other than them, the Maximoffs were the only people that she accepted like family. Cara had said she would protect them and they her. The Maximoffs were her family and Cara was theirs.

Although she would never say it, Pietro and Wanda knew that Cara was absolutely scared of losing someone again; losing anyone she loved was a scary thought on its own but to lost them, her new family, was petrifying.

The answer was suddenly as clear as daylight in his head.

She was scared. Scared to lose them, the only people she had left in the world.

Cara, the headstrong girl that he was falling in love with, was scared.

ϟ

"Don't tell me your men swindled you. I sent you six short-range heat-seekers and got a boat full of rusted parts. Now, you will make it right or the next missile I send you will come very much faster."