"Alex, wake up."
"Don't kill me right now," Alex mumbled. Her loose hold on Theundruk tightened slightly, prepared in case Pietro tried something.
|| Why would he? ||
"I don't trust anyone who wakes me up," Alex replied to Theundruk. "Especially when they've tried to kill me before."
|| I don't understand. Why are you together if he has tried to kill you? ||
"Don't you start too. He apologised and I forgave him because I'm emotionally broken."
Alex had forgotten Pietro was there, only reminded when he whispered in her ear, "Do you regularly talk to yourself?"
"Only when the company I'm with is boring." Alex offered Pietro her right arm and he pulled her upright. At some point during Theundruk's training, she had fallen asleep on the floor and the dumb stone hadn't cared enough to wake her up again.
|| I didn't know humans slept in beds ||
"And the other human on the bed wasn't a sign?"
|| Anomalies exist ||
"Jokes on you, I don't even know that word."
"What's wrong with you?" Pietro had guided Alex to the bed while she was speaking to Theundruk. She had to stop responding to the stone, at least out loud— Pietro was actually looking concerned about her. "Don't answer that actually, you'll just find a way to blame me."
"You'd deserve it." Alex laid on the bed, tucking the blanket under her head so she wouldn't be bothered by the softness of the pillow.
"How did you get on the floor?"
"I walked there, obviously."
"Oh, obviously." Pietro mocked, the gap between the curtains showing just enough light to highlight his shirtless body. Alex's eyes admired him slightly as he moved across the room before she caught herself.
|| Dopamine, fascinating ||
"I'm thinking about food." Snapped Alex, making Pietro lookup,
"You want me to get you breakfast? It's nearly nine."
"No, it's fine. Give me five minutes and I'll be up."
"You look like shit. I'm not letting you leave that bed."
"Threats don't work if I like the sound of them." Retorted Alex, only to blush a second later. Pietro had heard it too, clearing his throat awkwardly and disappearing into the bathroom.
The other side of the bed was still faintly warm from where Pietro had slept and Alex reached out to it. She wasn't too tired, just in pain from sleeping on the floor and it always took her a while to wake up no matter how little sleep she'd got the night before.
Theundruk had been brutal, pushing Alex again and again until she'd finally collapsed out of exhaustion.
It was worth it though.
True to their word, Theundruk hadn't given Alex any new powers but the enhancement on her own was even better than shooting lasers or controlling minds as Loki did with his scepter. Not that Alex didn't want to do that, but like Theundruk had said, they'd barely scratched the surface of what Alex would be able to achieve.
So far, she could teleport anything to her now, from anywhere in the world. Theundruk had started by getting her to teleport a pen from halfway across the room and together they'd progressed until Alex summoned a giant stuffed giraffe from Harrods.
Last night had all been focused on achieving that in preparation for today, but Theundruk had spoiled that they'd cover changing Alex's density, teleporting to anyone in the world and a shit ton of other stuff.
So much information kept on being dumped on her and if it wasn't for Theundruk's voice in her head this morning, Alex might not have believed it had happened at all.
|| Are you done lazying about yet? I want to see if last night worked ||
"I don't see why I have to do this. I can just teleport us both to New York."
|| It's a test of your strength as well as your obedience to me. Call the one who tried to kill you, tell him that you're about to leave ||
"Pietro," Alex called, "I know how we're leaving here."
"And where are we going? You may not have noticed, but our only weapons are your knife and my charm."
"I've got something cool to show you."
"I hate it when you get secretive."
"And I hated it when you took me to Ultron. Get over it and get ready to leave here."
<~~>
"Prepared to tell me what we're doing yet?"
"No." Alex held out Theundruk, pointing the knife at the spot where she needed the Quinjet to be. Her eyes narrowed in concentration before she forced herself to relax. If this didn't work, she kept telling herself, it would be fine.
It really wouldn't, but Alex was trying a new thing called optimism.
Her eyes shut of their own accord, helping her picture the Quinjet. The image grew stronger, veins of a soft amber lighting up the inside of the ship.
Alex forced her fingers into a snapping position. Theundruk had told her that she didn't need to do it anymore, that she'd ever really needed too but Alex still liked it, feeling it was the only way she could retain some control over her teleporting.
Alex snapped.
The image of the Quinjet vanished was surrounded by a flash of amber light and Alex felt herself being pulled towards it. This had happened last night, all she had to do was resist it and try and teleport again.
Alex's eyes opened and the Quinjet was there.
"Yes! Yes, I did it!"
|| I'm impressed ||
Alex turned around, grinning proudly at Pietro. He was frowning, but from the way his brow was furrowed, Alex could tell he was just trying to cover his confusion.
"Is this real?" He asked.
"Real as you and me, bitch." Pietro had slung Alex over his shoulder and taken her into the Quinjet before she'd finished speaking. He didn't put her down right away either, exploring all over the ship as though she weighed nothing.
Considering the comments Alex got from Tony and Clint about her weight, it was more strange than nice that Pietro didn't say anything. She knew they only meant it as jokes, as Alex's muscles rivalled their own and while it made her uncomfortable depending on why they had to carry her, she could hardly blame them for complaining how their normal, human strength wasn't enough to carry her.
"You gonna put me down, bitch?"
"You know, you can't call everyone bitch."
"I called Nick Fury a bitch, I think I can."
It was a testament to how much time Pietro had spent around Alex that he didn't even question what she said. Instead, he lowered Alex into the pilot seat and asked, "Do you know how to fly this thing?"
"Not really. How difficult can it be though? Thor's done it before." Alex tried to flip a switch only for something to beep and announce loudly,
"Voice recognition needed."
"Minchia. Alex?"
Beep.
"Alessandra."
Beep.
"Alessandra Esposito?"
Beep. Pietro looked faintly bemused, sitting in the co-pilot's seat and resting his chin on his hand.
"Farfalle?"
"Welcome, Starkling."
"Farfalle?" Pietro queried, spinning the steering wheel as far as he could.
"It's pasta. The worst type too, fucking Stark."
"I didn't know pasta had a bad type."
The smile Alex gave Pietro was almost as scary as when she was wielding a knife.
"Oh, we're going to have fun on this ride back."
<~~>
Six hours and thirty types of pasta later, they were nearly at New York.
"And that's why, although macaroni has the best shape, penne is the best overall. People hate that they love classics, that's why they insist something like strozzapreti is better."
"Your knowledge of pasta is outstanding."
"Pasta isn't even my speciality, just wait until I get a chance to talk about fishing. My mother used to make a seafood-only hotpot on the second Sunday of every month. We should go out for some after all this— there's a great little restaurant in Bayside and they like me there, even begun testing new dishes on me, like this stinky tofu pizza. It was awful, the tofu did not pair well with the mozzarella and gorgonzola."
"Alex!" Pietro shouted and Alex jerked the steering wheel up, having got dangerously close to running into a flock of birds.
"Sorry." Once to Pietro, and then again to the birds, "Sorry!"
Pietro pressed a palm to his head, "I am once again going to ask you to put auto-pilot on."
"It's fine. Not worth it anyway, for these last ten minutes."
"That's a point, have you thought about how to land this thing?"
Sheepishly, Alex glanced over to Pietro, "Is a crash landing not allowed?"
Pietro disappeared for a moment before appearing with what looked like a manual for the jet,
"Give me five minutes and I'll take over."
<~~>
After Pietro's rather impressive landing of the jet on top of Avengers Tower, Alex had teleported them both to outside a small bakery.
Pietro was still complaining about Alex not telling him anything, "You can talk about food for hours but telling me what we're doing here is too difficult?"
"This is part of our trust exercises."
"We don't need them."
"Oh, we definitely do. Do you trust me?"
"Less and less every second that we spend standing on this street rather than finding Wanda."
"Come on then." Unwillingly, Pietro linked his arm through Alex's and she led them into the bakery.
The first thing Pietro noticed upon entering was that the scent was far too strong for a regular bakery. He stepped away from Alex and ran to the back of the shop, deliberately knocking over a large back of flour.
The back room was empty and far too organised. The ovens were empty and dirty equipment was stacked up in rows next to the sink. Even the flour spread out on the work surface was ordered, a thin line separating it from a single recipe. He brushed a hand over the flour and noticed some of it collecting in what looked like a thin crack that went across the whole table.
Pietro circled the room once, examining every nook and cranny. His shoulder brushed against a pan rack, setting it in motion to knock a microwave door closed. He was more preoccupied with other things, however, not noticing the metal spoon left inside the microwave
Alex had only made half a step forwards when Pietro returned so he carried on exploring the room. There was a handgun taped to the back of the cashier's chair which he checked the safety on before putting it in his pocket. The cash register was easily opened and although Pietro felt mildly bad about it, he still removed a few dollars in case he and Alex needed it later on.
Simply out of curiosity, Pietro tapped the glass displays with just enough force that they began to shatter. He panicked and quickly went round to the other side to rescue a red velvet doughnut, Wanda's favourite. That went into his pocket too, just to show Wanda that he had been thinking about her.
Papers had been lifted into the air by Pietro's speed and he was faintly aware that the sprinklers were about to go off. Sure enough, as Alex finished taking a second step forward and Pietro linked arms with her again, time resolved itself.
There was an explosion from the kitchen, the glass displays shattered and papers were scattered everywhere. A few moments later, the sprinklers went off followed by the fire alarm.
"Beautiful afternoon to you," Alex greeted, hair plastered to her face, "Can I have two cinnamon and rum cupcakes. Please."
The woman held a deadpan expression remarkably well but Pietro noticed her hand move back slightly to get near to the gun he'd taken, "Credit or cash?"
"I'd rather have it on my tab. Name's Stark." As soon as Alex was done speaking, she bit her lip as though it would stop the laughter threatening to appear.
"Very well. I need to check if we have that flavour." The woman said, turning around and walking into a side room. As she passed Pietro, she threw him a look that could rival Black Widow's for deadliness.
"Cinnamon and rum?" As soon as she was gone, Pietro grabbed at least five different cupcakes from the display labelled 'kosher-safe' and was taking turns trying them. Alex smacked his arm lightly and he offered one to her, "What kind of disgusting cupcake is that?"
"One for a pirate."
"Why would you need-"
A faint cough interrupted Pietro. The woman was back and she was gesturing for them to follow her through the door. Alex stalked through the door and Pietro followed after her.
Alex eyed up the locked fridge that would allow her to enter the Turtle Dome, a small and exclusive spot where S.H.I.E.L.D agents could relax, drink beer and boast about themselves. While usually frequented by ex-agents, Alex knew that Maria Hill kept tabs on it and may even be in there now.
The fridge door swung open and Alex climbed into it, shivering at the cold.
"Come on Pietro," she said, offering a hand to help him through. "It's time for you to meet S.H.I.E.L.D."