shards - pietro maximoff

chapter ten ; baking and blushes

"So there's not a thing? Not a single thing? Where could she be? She didn't vanish off of the face of the planet."

Clint was one minute away from throwing Tony's goddamn computer off of the table. It had been two days, and they still had no idea where she could be.

Since Ultron had taken Natasha and vanished, they had yet to hear a single thing from her, and they've been analyzing all online communication worldwide since her absence.

And Clint was close to his breaking point.

All of the Avengers dealt with Natasha's disappearance in different ways.

Tony was never particularly close to Natasha, she was more like a work acquaintance, but he buckled down and worked to help get her back nonetheless.

Steve was sort of in the same boat, and he was working as hard as he could to keep his teammate safe.

Bruce was a mess, to put it simply. The whole team knew that there was something going on between Natasha and him, and it was clearly driving him crazy.

Clint was extremely angry, and anything could set him off. Everyone tried to steer clear of him, if only to escape his wrath.

Thor, as always, was completely oblivious. He knew that people were generally upset, but much like a giddy child, he was still cheerful as ever. Truthfully, the only reason he knew anything was wrong was because of his friendship with Dahlia.

Dahlia. She, like she always tends to do, simply ignored her feelings. Wanda and Pietro were providing a distraction that she really needed. The twins noticed that she was feeling down, no matter how much she tried to cover it up, and they took it upon themselves to keep her happy.

This, at the moment, involved entertaining her most ridiculous ideas. Which was why the three of them were currently in the kitchen, practically covered head to toe with batter and frosting.

"Never thought you'd be one for baking, darling."

"Yeah well, I never thought you'd suck at it as much as you do. I guess the day is full of surprises." Dahlia laughed.

Pietro was a nightmare when it came to baking, and no, that wasn't an exaggeration. He had burned so many cupcakes at this point that Dahlia had to forcefully sideline him, and now he was perched on the counter, eating frosting out of a bowl that she had made specifically for him.

They had yet to talk about the other day, or rather, how intimate that moment was. Dahlia was never really sure how to address these kinds of situations. Everything usually came naturally to her, at least in terms of socialization.

It was as if she reserved a personality and a certain number of personal things that were dependent on how well you knew her. Strangers got the classic jokes and sarcasm, but nothing much under the surface. The Avengers in general were allowed a bit more insight on her life. And Natasha was the only one allowed to know every aspect. And she was missing that at the moment.

The issue here was, she had no idea where Pietro fit in. She felt she could trust him, but was she wrong?

What if she opened up to him and it all came back to bite her in the end?

He was more than a stranger or acquaintance, but Dahlia had never found someone who she even thought of having a romantic relationship with. And the idea of it scared her. She didn't know what she was doing, why would he want her? There were surely tons of people better than her out there, so why her? She feared she would be a disappointment, like he only wanted the strong person she seemed to be on the outside, and if she let him in, well, she was afraid he'd run.