Vanished {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 23

"No." A second try, more certain. "No, why would I be, when I was protecting my family."

"Was I not your family? When did you protect me?"

"You didn't deserve to be protected. I'm sorry for the truth, Ena. Surely you knew already that what you did to me was unforgivable."

Alex nodded, not in agreement but rather in an act of acceptance. She cleared her throat as a distraction while her hand slipped the photograph of a young Alex and her parents off the table,

"My Zio always tells me I'm too quick to forgive people, no matter how big or small the mistake. He doesn't understand, I don't think most people do. I want to forgive people because it means I get closer to forgiving myself for every mistake I've made. But you? Your apologies are worth nothing to me. I want no forgiveness from you, you have not earned that right."

"Your Zio? Those people are not your family, I am your family. I am your mother, I was the one who gave birth to you, I was the one who looked after you."

Alex shook her head this time, moving closer to her mother as she spoke, "You are wrong. You've always been wrong and I kept on defending you. Family is who you choose it to be and I chose you over and over again. I'm done now."

"You have a brother!"

It felt like a last desperate attempt to get Alex to stay but she refused to concede, stepping forwards. There was a fear in her mother's eyes, a look that Alex both craved and despaired over,

"Ena, please." Alex followed her mother's gaze downwards. Tony's knife was gently nudging against her mother's stomach, the tip of it no more than a step away from ending her mother's life. Alex's clenched fist that held the knife relaxed slightly then fell back down to Alex's side completely.

It was over and Alex felt almost nothing. She hadn't meant to summon the knife; it had just appeared. The same thing had happened earlier, where she threw the knife away only to feel it in her hand minutes later. The knife vanished back into Alex's waistband, a gentle heat against her back where the Mind Stone lay in its vibranium casing.

"You don't have to go. I still love you."

"This thing you offer me...it's not love. I would rather die tomorrow than have you back in my life as you are right now."

<~~>

Alex hadn't planned on teleporting, not when she was still lightheaded and out of practice. She had no where to go, not even a family she could go too because everyone was gone. The temptation to leave again, run away from everything and never return was still there. Even after all this time, she was still just a scared little child who only knew how to vanish.

"Alessandra? What are you doing here?"

Alex's arm was still numb from the painkillers but she pushed through it, slinging an arm around Pietro's shoulders and then pulling him even closer by putting her right arm around his waist. They were a similar enough height that Alex could rest her head on Pietro's shoulder too, face turned away from his.

"Oh, we're doing this."

It was awkward at first, neither of them really know what to do. Pietro especially seemed hesitant, one arm holding Alex around the waist as he patted her back with the other one.

The hug was only brief but it still brought some life back to Alex. They were no longer holding each other like before but Pietro's hand found her own as they faced each other, cupping it and rubbing his thumb over the scars that covered Alex's hand,