When she lived in her cabin, in solitary, she lasted half a year before she really started to believe in the Darkhold. She still read it, mostly the part about her, to remind herself of how dangerous she is, and to strengthen the resolve she already had to not use her powers, even if she was alone, just to make sure she wouldn't ever hurt anyone. She spent about half a year living her life trying to ignore the raw power thrumming behind her skin, and trying to live like a normal recluse. She focused on her gardening, on reading, on reflecting, and picking up all sorts of new hobbies. She spent half a year pretending she was a normal person, even if it was to no one else but her.
Half a year, ignoring and being terrified of a vital part of herself, hiding herself from herself. It took a toll on her, and her powers started to go haywire after half a year.
Now, safe and in hers and her brother's room, she feels so safe and supported that she can't even think of trying to hide her powers, not when watching him try to catch an energy ball to have it lift him up. During their lazy discussions about her powers, for the fifth time in three weeks, while they cuddled their pets—well, Pietro tried to cuddle Mister Diddles, but Diddles bit him because he started to get too clingy—and watched more episodes of 2 Broke Girls (they were currently in Episode 7, and that was only because when it was Pietro's TV hour, he watched 2-3 hour movies, and Wanda didn't care enough to stop him, because Pietro didn't have bad taste in movies), she mentioned a particular fact that she realized about her energy spheres while living alone.
"My energy spheres can lift a whole person up, you know?" She said, "It can carry a lot of weight, even if I'm not paying attention to it, and I can make it just roam around. I did it during the night, so there would be some light, and I grabbed one when it came close to me out of reflex, while it was floating up, and I started to get lifted. It's like floating in water with the help of a ball, flying, but like a game, and with a lot less concentration needed from my side."
Pietro had stared at her like she had just told her the secrets of the world—which was hilarious to her, considering he didn't even stare at her like this when she had told him she was the Scarlet Witch, or her extensive list of powers, and only came close to staring at her like that when she mentioned that he got food because of her reality manipulation abilities—and excitedly said--
"Can you make a bunch of lasting energy spheres then? Float them all around the room?"
Wanda raised her brow, but she didn't question it, and moved her hands together, her hands flickering as Chaos Magic was called to the centre of her hands, and formed an energy sphere, and she let go of it, like releasing a dove or a bubble into the air, and watches as it floats around without her help.
Pietro excitedly reaches out to touch it, but Wanda stops him, just right before his skin makes contact with the literal raw magic energy sphere. "Don't do that!" She says. "It's different if I touch it--it's part of me--but I wouldn't know it would affect you, so don't just go touching it out of nowhere like that, do you know this could hurt you-"
Pietro quiets her with a look. "I trust you, Wanda." He says, and it stuns Wanda, just how much he doesn't question or fear her, how sure he is that she will never hurt him, and that he will be fine even if he does something stupid like touching a ball of energy that she formed. She's never had that. Not even Vision. Vision knew she was dangerous, but he looked at her powers as a part of her that wouldn't hurt him, because he was strong too. He was unafraid because he had courage and power. Pietro sat before her, unafraid, because of trust and such a strong belief in her that it brought tears to her eyes. "I love you, of course I trust you."
She feels her heart squeeze, and that block in her throat is back, but this time it doesn't seem so bad, just rendered her speechless while she tries to work a way around it, and find the words that she doubts she could ever find in this lifetime, to express just how loved and understood she felt upon hearing those three words. And this feels like one of those things that people say they've been starved of their whole lives. His genuine trust and understanding of her heals something broken inside her, and that part of her—she believes people call it 'the inner child'—feels happy, and giddy, and lost all at the same time. She hasn't experienced this in so long, the knowledge on how to react is lost on her.
She's never been able to trust easily, especially after losing Pietro. She knew no one could or would, want to try and understand her. Vision had been a surprise. But to have the one person who's been there for all her past, and a great portion of her life, to have him know her future, and her abilities and still see that same unfaltering, undoubting trust. Her heart aches for more, more affection, more trust, more love . She feels angry, but not at Ultron, no. She feels angry that she has had to spend so many years without this affection, so long without it that she doesn't even know how to react to her own twin brother telling her he trusts her. She feels angry that she hasn't had this all her life. She feels angry that she's been deprived of this.
She feels enraged that she doesn't know how to receive it anymore, because she doesn't trust or love herself anymore, and it's so sad, and unfair, that she's seething. But then, a voice reminds her, she can't hold on to grudges. It's better for everyone if she doesn't, so she breathes out shakily, letting go of her anger and resentment (it's just how it is, she tries to tell herself, it's not fair but it's life).
"...okay." She concedes, ignoring that thought in the back of her mind that makes her question whether she can even love Pietro back half as much as he loves her, because she can't even love herself, or respond rightly to his affection. She ignores, again, that voice in the back of her head that answers for her, that tells her no, she cannot love Pietro half as much as he loves her, because she is too scared, too much of a coward to risk loving and losing again, of being a monster because she loved too much. Again. And having him hate her for it. She wants to live in the lie where she's not scared to trust and love her own brother, in fear of it leading to pain.
She wants to live in the lie where she doesn't think of Love as something synonymous to pain. Or something that leads directly to Pain. Pietro would be disappointed.
"Okay?" Pietro mimics.
"Okay." She repeats, mouth dry, and throat stuck. "Touch the sphere."
Pietro nods, as she lets go of his wrist, and he reaches out to touch the sphere that's floating but remaining in front of them, because Wanda's keeping it close, so he could touch it. She moves Liho to the side, for his protection, as she readies herself for the worst, hands at the ready to heal him for any sort of thing her magic does to him but he makes contact with the sphere, and nothing happens to him, aside from the way he rushes forward when the sphere starts moving away, and he's still holding on so tightly that it begins to drag him from his bed.
She feels glad that her Chaos Magic seems to accept him as someone not to hurt, when it's existing passively. Or, it might just be that it doesn't hurt anyone when it exists passively. Whatever it is, she's glad nonetheless.
"Wanda!" he calls, "Help! I don't wanna get up yet! I just got comfortable!! Mister Diddles, please help!"
Exactly what he thought a turtle was going to do to help him not get dragged off the bed was beyond Wanda. All sentimentality and affection she felt for him turns to exasperation (and fondness) in almost half a second, and she gives him a deadpan look. "...just let go of it?"
Pietro stops, and then realization hits, and he gives her a sheepish smile. "Right." He lets go of the sphere, and retreats back into the bed, sitting by Wanda. She tries not to facepalm. "Anyway, make more! Make more! Light up the whole room!"
Wanda smiled, affection and fondness returning, and she moved her hands together again, and in 10 minutes, there were about a dozen energy spheres floating around the room, half of a dozen up higher than they both can physically reach, and half closer to them, and the spheres seem to be rotating around the room. A slow float, but they're easy to knock around.
She reaches for Liho, who walks over to her willingly, right into her arms, and purring as she rubbed her head against Wanda's palm, relieving any sort of anger or negativity in her heart with her cuteness. "I love you so much, you're the best, you know?" She lifts the cat up and holds her like a baby, hands caressing Liho's fur. She lets go when she feels that Liho doesn't want to stay in the position anymore.
Pietro has spent about 20 minutes trying to catch and keep a ball so he could sit on it or be lifted on top of it, but it's hard enough to catch something that moves away if the air blows at it too hard, but to keep it long enough and keep still at the same time to attempt floating on top of it when it wasn't even as big as his hand? Well, long story short, Wanda was getting a very entertaining show. Entertaining enough for her to spawn fruit snacks for herself, and candy bars to throw at Pietro when he managed to catch and keep a sphere for more than 5 seconds.
"You still good to go?" She checks in, spawning a small amount of catnip on her hand, for Liho.
"Yeah!" he calls over his shoulder as he runs after a sphere that a clap of his knocked away, and now it's moving fast towards her and the bed, but it's right at his hand height, and it's currently the easiest to catch at the moment. Pietro may have had... questionable moments, but no one could ever call him stupid. (Seriously, if anyone ever dared, she would kill-- main-- hurt them).
He almost reaches it, but another sphere knocks it to the side, so Pietro reacts with his enhanced reflexes, and catches that sphere instead. He ends up elbowing Wanda in his--albeit successful--attempt to catch the sphere. She grunts, and he apologizes, but they both know she's not harmed, so they continue on with the game. Or Pietro does, Wanda resumes with her grapes and fruit slices.
He keeps it for longer than 5 seconds, and longer than 10, he keeps it the longest that he ever has. His tight grip on it keeps it from moving away while he tries to figure out how to make it fly. He tries to stand on it, which fails, because it rolls out from under him, despite his grip, and he almost breaks his face, heading high speed for the ground, but Wanda catches him, with a cushion of Chaos Magic.
"Thanks." He says, then resumes in his attempts to keep trying to find a way to stand on it.
He tries to sit on it, but the result is almost identical to his first attempt, except for the fact that he caught himself this time. He stares at the sphere in his hand and glares at it, like it will command him if he gets angry enough. Sad to say, that's not how it works, because it's linked to her emotions, but it's a fair attempt, considering their twin link. If he managed to manipulate--or at least communicate--with her Chaos Magic, then they'll truly be unstoppable.
His third, and fortunately last, attempt--"third time's the charm, as they say."--is wrapping his whole body around the sphere, like he's protecting a child, or keeping a bomb sealed--that analogy makes her uncomfortable--and it works. The sphere carries his weight, as he holds on to it, like it's a baby that needs protecting. As it floats upwards, so does he, and he looks up, when he feels his feet leave the ground.
"Wanda!" he cheers. "Wanda, look! I did it! I'm floating! I can fly! We can fly!"
Wanda claps for him, and whoops, and floats his favourite candy bar, a snickers bar, because her brother rarely has bad taste in anything--aside from experimental snacks, because his cravings get weird , and near poisonous, if that definitely expired/spoiled sunny side up eggs with sushi was any example--and he bites it from where he is on the air.
Then the sphere slips out of his hand, and he starts falling. Again, Wanda catches him. "You know I could just make you fly, right? No need for the spheres?"
"Yeah, but the spheres are more fun." He says, as he rolls off of the chaos magic cushion that she formed for him. "And sometimes, what if focusing on keeping me flying distracts you and I get you hurt? I don't want that. You've said so yourself, the energy spheres last and stand without need for any of your concentration. So I could fly without needing your focus on me, just you to send out energy spheres around before the battle begins. Plus, if I'm not around it, but an enemy is, you could so totally just make the energy sphere go KABOOM! And it's such a good trap. Can't avoid it if there's too much around the battlefield, like exploding snow!"
Wanda adored his ideas--slightly bloodthirsty as they were, because she was bloodthirsty enough to actually go through with them too--and nodded excitedly. "That sounds like an amazing plan! If we ever need an escape, that is perfect ! I love your mind, Pietro!"
Pietro grins. "Right??" He jumps like an excited toddler.
"But I could also just make a platform for you to run in, going upwards, like a staircase, or-- or-"
"That thing Elsa does in Frozen?! Like a slide, but upwards, you can do that?"
"I'm the Scarlet Witch." She tells him. "I can do anything. But you're right, that would require my focus a little, so I guess the energy spheres make sense."
Liho meows.
They keep playing the catch-the-energy-sphere-to-fly game for two more hours, Pietro doesn't get tired of it, and Wanda has Dick Van Dyke playing in the background, so she's not getting tired of it either, and there's absolutely zero magical exhaustion, because the spheres really do exist without her focus or attention, unless she wants to call them back which is easy enough. She has, however, started making the energy spheres float and move faster; At a speed that would be practical in battle.
Pietro has gotten the hang of it, despite the increased speed, and he's gotten amazing at catching the energy spheres no matter where they are as long as he gets them within reach, and has gotten even better at instantly wrapping his body around the sphere to have it float him, then looking up, so he doesn't look like a fool or would be easy to target because his focus is on the ground or on keeping himself on the ball. He picks up other balls that approach as he's floating and starts tossing them around.
"Look, Mister Diddles! I am so fucking mastering this shit! I'm amazing!"
(He tries to juggle the spheres while he's in the air at one point and yelling "Look at me! I'm doing it!" To either Wanda or Mister Dibbles, she couldn't tell, but after a few juggles that turns out to be too much, for even him, and he ends up hanging off the energy sphere he was on upside down).
Once again, he's dropped off an energy sphere--with a very flashy backflip type of landing, although it was kind of impressive too--and is chasing after a different sphere. Wanda turns away from him for one second to watch Dick Van Dyke, and from the corner of her eye, she sees him rushing for a sphere that was headed towards the wall, while in the show, the laughing track plays and it distracts her and makes her look at the TV again.
The next thing she hears is a crash, a thump, another crash--their shoe rack falling--and a very loud groan.
She looks to the side, from where the crash originated, and sees her brother wrapped around an energy sphere, nursing his head, and a small web-crack on the wall, his head is bleeding, and the moment he opens his mouth, it's to complain about his back ("Oww!!! My back! Ugh!!"), however, he still refuses to let go of the energy sphere and keeps one hand occupied holding the ball.
"Pietro!" She yells as she gets up off her bed in an instant, and rushes towards him.
She checks over his head, lifting him with her magic to rest his head on her lap, so she can check his head for any serious wounds, with gentle hands, separating his hair to see where the cut is, and pressing with as much gentle force as she can to see if there's any sort of bump on his head. "Don't let Mister Dibbles see me like this." He says as she does, and after two or three minutes, she begins to hear frantically running footsteps towards her room, but she tunes it out.
Then a command, and her door hisses as FRIDAY opens it without her permission. Steve comes rushing in, his shield armed--he looks ridiculous, in a Kiss The Chef apron over his clothes, and armed with a shield, she would have laughed if she was not thinking of more concerning things--and he looks around.
The energy spheres pop like bubbles in her surprise, simultaneously and leave a mist of red falling towards the ground like fireworks sparks, although disappearing before they hit the ground. For a split second, as soon as Steve opened the door, the energy spheres popping created a red tint in the room reminiscent of the Hex.
"Where's the threat, where is it? Who attacked us?" He yells, ready for anything, and on the defensive. Natasha follows in, looking more appropriate and apron-less, with a gun bared in offense. She scans the room.
"Wanda?" Natasha asks.
"What threat?" Wanda asks Steve.
Pietro groans from her lap. "Mister Dibbles, ugh, Liho." Liho strode towards Pietro, and licked his face. "Mister Dibbles, how are you out of your cage?"
Mister Dibbles stares at Pietro from his spot inside his turtle glass tank. Wanda knows her brother has a concussion then.
"We heard a crash! Are you two okay?" Steve starts to lower his shield a little.
She sees Natasha mouth a 'Mister Dibbles?' to herself or to Wanda in question at the absolutely ridiculous, but cute, name.
"Y-yeah. Yeah, we're okay." She tells them. "Pietro... crashed into the wall."
"He did?" Steve asks, confused. "Why? How?"
"We were... playing a game..." She drawled out.
Natasha raised a brow, ( 'hot' , no. Wanda. Stop.), and asked. "What game sends your brother crashing into the wall?"
"...Uhm..." Wanda bit the inside of her cheek.
"I was chasing a ball so I could fly, and I didn't stop fast enough." Pietro spoke, ceasing his groans in exchange for actual words.
"What ball?" Steve asks.
"...an energy ball." Wanda answers. "He was trying to catch one so it would lift him and make him fly..."
"..." Their silence is absolutely judging, but yet Wanda keeps talking, because she does that, she's a walking train-wreck. Something about being in her younger body has erased the sort of grace she held in the cabin, and when she was... well, perhaps it's just the Scarlet Witch that's naturally graceful, but she's Wanda Maximoff more than she is the Scarlet Witch.
"...and I was watching Dick Van Dyke and giving him snacks..."
Yes, the mighty Scarlet Witch was using her reality altering Chaos Magic to float snacks near her brother's mouth, while he played fetch and fly with her energy spheres. So what?
The two older Avengers turn towards the bed, where there is a neat stack of snacks, fruits and half-eaten open candy bars, and even empty cans and bottles of soda and energy drinks.
Steve blinked.
"Where did you get all those snacks from?" Natasha asks.
"...the mini fridge." She lies. But it works, because the mini fridge came in a week ago, and they've been stacking drinks, fruits, sandwiches, and all sorts of food and snacks in there.
"Can we stop interrogating my sister and take me to the hospital? I feel very feather head--what? Oh--lightheaded. I think I see stars."
Steve snaps out of it and rushes to take Pietro from Wanda, lifting him with a princess carry to take him down to the Medbay. Natasha gives her a pointed look that she determinedly avoids as she walks past the redhead.
When they're all in the elevator going down, Steve finally breaks the silence and speaks first.
"Do this in the training room next time." He scolds. Wanda doesn't doubt that his hands would be on his hips like a mother hen, if he could. She feels, rather than sees, Natasha's amused brow raise and slight smirk.
"Yes, Captain." Wanda looks away, embarrassed.
⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰
Having learned their lesson, the twins spent their time playing in the Training Room instead of in their room. They were in the training room before anyone was there, which was easy, because the Avengers had scheduled training days, and hours, and it was easy to work around that--also Natasha had apparently been banned from training outside of the training hours by Clint, for some stunt she pulled a few weeks ago--and Wanda told FRIDAY to turn off any cameras, stop supervising them until called, and never tell anyone about what happened in the training room when it was just the two of them. And so the twins got the needed secrecy and safety to keep playing.
As of right now, Wanda had closed the windows and the doors, and tinted any way they could be viewed, even sent out her Chaos Magic to cause interference with any sort of technology around the area (she'll keep that one up, just in case some stalker or someone decides to try and film them when they're not aware). And with their privacy ensured, Wanda has created an obstacle course for Pietro, right out of her imagination, and right into reality using her powers. There are jumping courses, monsters that are stronger than normal humans, but weaker than other monsters, and all sorts of things floating around. She's spread out her energy spheres, for Pietro to use them to his advantage.
"Come on!" Pietro taunts. "Is that all you got, sestra?"
As soon as he says it, he gets knocked down from where he stood, crouching on the energy sphere (he learned how to do it after she told him more about Peter Parker and his landing pose), with a punch from a screeching and flying monster that runs right into him and sends him falling towards the softened ground, and he groans.
"Oh, so that's what you got." he groans, clutching his stomach. "I regret bringing Mister Dibbles down, he's gotta be embarrassed seeing his super cool owner get knocked off like this."
Wanda and Mister Dibbles share a look. Is he really that hurt if he has the ability to make false statements?
"You know you're not supposed to do this with a mild concussion, none of this, I don't know how you convinced me— but all that aside, the goal is to avoid the energy spheres and make it to the end, without ever going up in the air."
"But it's boring that way!" He whines.
"Yeah, well, it's not my fault you went in a battle against our bedroom wall, charging headfirst, and lost ." She called back, flipping to the next page in her book, and uncrossing her legs to switch.
"I didn't lose! The wall took more damage than I did!"
"You caused a small spider-web crack in a 16ft tall wall. And got a concussion out of it. I think the wall won, Piet."
"Pfft, that crack is going to stay there forever, and I'm going to heal soon, so who really won?" He ran towards a climbing wall, and grabbed one of the rocks sticking out of the wall, and the screeching flying monster she spawned came right for him, attacking him until he fell to the ground again.
"Still the wall. And also, Piet! Stop climbing! No airborne anything! Stay on the ground, please."
Pietro groaned, and spread his arms out on the ground. "Then why do you keep the energy spheres and climbing walls?!" He complained.
"Because you need to learn to ignore them!" She replied firmly. "There's gonna be a lot of ways for you to climb up places like a monkey, and you need to stay on the ground. And ignore the spheres until needed. Keep your cards close to your chest and all."
"I hate your flying monsters." Is all he replies, and he goes again, jumping, rolling, and super-speeding out of the way and through the obstacles. But Wanda has gotten used to his speed, maybe she can't move as fast as him, but she knows him, just as she knew her son. So she speeds up her obstacles too, and encourages him to run even faster to outrun the obstacles and make it to the end, despite ignoring the easier routes which were airborne.
"You know," starts Pietro as he slides down to avoid a giant sweeper arm, and gets up to jump over the other. It takes a second for it to click in Wanda's head, but she realizes Pietro has paused going through the obstacle, to talk to her, and is instead choosing to play by the sweeper arm for fun. Like it's a toddler's inflated, toy obstacle course that you can find in a carnival or fair, or wherever. It's not. If that hits him, it will hurt. However, she lets him do what he wants to do. "Wanda, can you get my drink?"
Wanda, without looking back up, lifts a bottle from the ground, and right into Pietro's hands. He stops to drink and gets hit, and he groans in pain, before Wanda heals the wound, but Mister Dibbles has seen and Mister Dibbles makes a groaning sound, and it's really sweet how fast Pietro and Mister Dibbles have bonded. (She and Liho have bonded just as fast as well).
So, to appease Mister Dibbles, she stops the sweeper arm, and lets Pietro stand up, completely fine, and watches as Pietro smiles fondly at Mister Dibbles. Then, a few seconds later, she hears–
"Ah, five hour energy."And then the sound of a plastic cap coming off.
She blocks the liquid from leaving the bottle. "Put that down, Piet, you don't even need one hour energy."
"It's tasty though! Blue flavour, and all. Did you even know blue had a flavour?"
"It's an American thing, Piet." or it might have been in Eastern European thing too, she wouldn't know. In her time there, she'd spent her time in Sokovia, which wasn't very well known for being a rich and modern first world country. She'd have been lucky to even have found an energy drink with any flavour. Most that she and Piet found back in Sokovia were just the 'classics'. "I think."
"But blue flavour!"
Wanda raises a brow.
Pietro pouts. "Well, I'm tired!" He sighed dramatically. "Working at super speed lengthens how long a day is for me, because everything just slows down!! And we've been at this for hours, and it's fun, but it's been longer for me than it is for you!"
Wanda considered this, maybe her brother's powers weren't as simple as it seemed. She knew that time could slow down after a certain speed, due to the many times he had carried her while running, but that Wanda didn't know about the infinity stones then. Perhaps Pietro's powers were also from the time stone, or contained traces of it, to be able to run in a different time. Perhaps, if he ran fast enough, instead of just breaking the barriers of sound, and light, he could even break the barriers of time.
(Which would then make them time travelling twins).
She releases the cover, and lets him drink from the bottle. Although, she knows she'll regret it later, because their training isn't even going to last another 5 hours, considering he's close to the end already. He drinks the bottle greedily, downing the entirety of it quickly, and tossing it towards her. She swipes it while it's mid-air, and places it down beside her.
She lets the sweeper arms continue what it was doing, and keeps on reading her collections of myths and tales. It's worked before in the past, in her cabin, when she read a bunch of myths, and tried to mimic the sort of powers she read about, and it led to her finding out more about her capabilities. Specifically, controlling the weather (although she hasn't told Pietro about that yet, because she doesn't want to risk having him ask her to keep the weather clear and sunny everyday so they can go out into the city every day).
"What is the point of this–ugh–if-" He jumps over an arm, but doesn't jump far enough, and ends up sitting on top of the sweeper arm, with his hands in front of him, and between his legs, like a toddler. He looks down at himself, and moves his hands out of the way and starts trying to scooch off, but his pants and the steel causes too much friction. It's frankly a ridiculous sight, but Wanda adores it. Hilarious. "-if the Avengers are training us soon?"
Even after weeks of this exact scenario, of Pietro talking to hers and Mister Diddles' direction, she still doesn't know which one he's talking to when he does that. So she answers anyway, because as far as she knows, she still can't read the minds of animals (sadly).
Then again, she also thought she couldn't use Chaos Magic until the Mind Stone, but the Darkhold proved that wrong, so there's definitely many things about herself she doesn't know, and maybe being able to read the minds of animals is one of those things. She'll practice one day... on mice, because she refuses to potentially hurt Mister Diddles or Liho.
"To practice my powers, and your super speed. They'll be teaching us hand-to-hand, but no matter what Stark makes, what I make will always be better. And a creative obstacle course is the best thing for you to practice your speed, control, stamina, and whatnot, while creating that creative obstacle is a fun way for me to keep using my powers, and not letting it gather and explode randomly."
"Tru– wait, has that happened before?"
"Has what?"
"Your powers, exploding."
"...Yes."
"..."
"..."
"...Will you tell me what happened?" Pietro asks.
"No."
He huffs, unsatisfied. "Whatever." He jumps from one floating floor—a fun addition for Wanda, especially since it was slippery, and Pietro slipped a lot—to the other below it, and then to the steadier floor, and starts climbing the ladder up the tall and wide pillar. "Do you think we could start a coffee or flower shop while being the Avengers? If, like, we just have that shop really close to the Avengers building?"
"Not that we could, because missions will come, and more things will happen. The Sokovia Accords, and living on the run for one." Wanda said, skeptical. "But why...?"
"Oh, nothing!" Pietro hung from the ladder.
"Piet?"
He started climbing up the ladder aggressively.
Wanda looked into his mind, and blinked in confusion after, and watched as Pietro went still.
"What's AO3 and why are you searching mine and Natasha's name in it?"
"Hmm." He stopped, finally, and faced her. "Just a site for... some fans... of the Avengers to post... theories about... well, about you guys. Avengers. Me included."
"Theories like what?" Wanda asked, tilting her head down, her hair falling to curtain her face a little.
Pietro cleared his throat, and scrunched his face up, like he did when he felt awkward or needed an escape. They both scrunch their faces up, just for different reasons. And, if John and Bells were to be trusted, then it should also be added that Wanda's nose scrunch was cuter, and his was more handsome and masculinely adorable (if that was a thing).
"Uhh," his voice was up pitches, almost near falsetto. "Theories like uhm, Tony and Steve's enemy-rival-banter thing is to cover up their... relationship." He clears his throat.
Wanda flushed red, she couldn't even fathom thinking that. Especially not about Tony and Steve, she had lived with them, she knew they couldn't at all be dating. However, Bucky and Steve? Those two she had met, and those two she could see dating. "Right." She nodded. "Uhm, how does that apply to you searching up me and Nat— Natt...asha. Natasha. Me and Natasha."
"I was reading some theories about Natasha giving you her leather jacket as a sign of..." he licks his lips, "...of female friendship. Feminism, and all that."
Wanda decides to believe Pietro, because she knows he's lying in the back of her mind, but she's not sure she can handle the truth. Too many of the clues point to...
Then, as Pietro stands on top of a pillar, about to jump down into a field of pillars, to get to the other side, she hears the faint murmur of Steve's mind as he approaches the training room.
Shit.
Was there a training session planned for today?!?
She hurriedly waves her hand, removing most of her spells, as Steve enters the training room, to see Pietro dive from a small height, but definitely in the air, towards nothing, and they both watch in silence as he hits his face directly on the mat (which Wanda silently cushions with her mind). She lifts her books on the bench and starts wavering, looking like she's struggling with focus.
Pietro surfaces from the mat, and lifts his head, and raises his arm-- "What the hell, Wands?! I was about to crush that!" Then he moves his hand down to his no doubt hurting nose. "Mister Dibbles, tell her! You know I was about to crush that!" He yells towards the turtle tank.
The turtle starts to make a quiet hissing sound towards Wanda. She's really starting to wonder whether Pietro and Mister Diddles have a psychic bond.
Steve clears his throat, and Pietro realizes why she got rid of it all the moment his eyes land on the star-spangled man. His mouth shapes into an 'O'.
"Sorry to interrupt..." He blinks repeatedly as he looks at the way all the punching bags, and equipment were put to the side. And Wanda catches a glimpse of his point of view on the memory of Pietro in the air, jumping and diving towards the mat. "...Whatever you guys were doing, but uhm... Movie Night's tonight, if you guys want to join us..."
Wanda rubbed the side of her neck, her hand wrapping around her throat a little bit, as she stopped her performance of struggling with maintaining her powers. "Yeah, yeah, we'll join. Can we— we'll just stop by the Medbay first and see if that... fall... made Pietro's concussion worse."
Despite being the one who got hurt, Pietro seems to be having a lot of trouble not laughing. It's so like him, and it sends her back to memories of their childhood, and makes her want to smile and suddenly, she's pressing her lips together, and clenching her jaw as well, as she tries to contain the laugh that is trying to force its way past her lips. Though she still feels her lips tug up into a smile.
Steve nods. "You two go do that... I'm not gonna... I'm just not gonna ask what game you two were playing this time." He nods again and leaves.
Pietro and Wanda break off into giggles the moment he leaves the room.
Then Pietro groans and holds his head, "I think we actually do need to go to the Medbay."
He laughs again, and through her worry, she laughs back too, as they start walking out of the training room and towards the medbay.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
"The twins confuse me." says Steve, the moment he gets down from the training room and enters the living room. Natasha hands him his bowl of popcorn.
"What do you mean?" She asks, as she grabs a handful of butter-flavoured popcorn.
"I came into the Training Room, to get Wanda and Pietro, because that's where FRIDAY said they were, and I come in, and ask FRIDAY about what they're doing, but FRIDAY says she doesn't know and can't tell—which are two completely different things—and so I enter, and the moment I come in, a bunch of red disappears from my sight before I can even see what it was."
"Like the popping energy spheres." Natasha hums, walking with him towards the living room, at a slow pace.
"Yeah, like that." Steve nods. "And then Pietro, from up in the air. I'm not talking, 'he jumped' type of in-the-air, I mean 'he was several feet, like flying' type of in-the-air. Pietro's up in the air, and he jumps from his spot in the air towards the empty mat, just right at the mat. Nothing else there. He hits his head, and then yells at Wanda and his pet–"
"–Mister Diddles–" Natasha inserts.
"--yeah— he yells at her for doing something, and that he would have gotten it. I get their attention and tell them about Movie Night, and they look like they're about to start laughing, while Pietro's still holding his nose. As soon as I left, they started laughing. They confuse me." He slumps down on the couch.
"Where are they now?"
"They went to the Medbay."
Concern rises up Natasha's throat like bile, and words are at the tip of her tongue, questions on if they're okay—if Wanda is okay—and the urge to get up off the couch and rush to the Medbay. She's not thinking Wanda can't protect herself, she knows that the woman can. God knows that woman can probably take most of them and still keep standing, especially with her brother by her side, but Vision has informed her of Wanda's past actions, when Sokovia was falling. The way she stayed inside that train, willingly refusing to leave until Pietro was there falling with her, and she saved herself in the process of saving him.
She's concerned, because she's known too many people like Wanda. Too many people who feel too much, and love too hard, and lose everything too fast. They don't last. They lose their will to keep fighting fast, and even if they don't, fate is not kind to those who stay fighting despite having everything taken from them repeatedly. And Wanda is nothing if not someone who fate is not kind to.
Wanda has been here for less than a month and she's said two sentences at best to everyone else, outside of the games they play sometimes, and mostly sticks with Pietro. The most she's ever said to anyone outside of Pietro is her. Why Wanda talks more around a Russian spy, rather than anyone else in the team, she doesn't know, but she doesn't really question it. Perhaps it's because they were both the only females, or they were both Eastern European.
In less than a month, she has been quiet, only comes out for games or movies, is withdrawn around anyone that's not Pietro, and refuses to fight, or use her powers around anyone but her brother. Something about her behaviour doesn't sit right around Natasha, it concerns her. Wanda is clearly not comfortable with the Avengers, and she understands that (especially with Tony), but it seems like she's holding a secret, and trying not to get too attached.
People who seem to be actively trying not to get too attached are often the people who need the relationships and friendships the most, because they are the sort of people that are looking to cut off all relationships and isolate themselves soon, for horrible reasons. She knows because she has been that person.
She knows Wanda hasn't tried anything recently, or at all, since she arrived, but still, Natasha feels concerned.
"Don't worry." adds Steve. "They're just going to check on Pietro's concussion since he fell almost head first into the mat."
Natasha's concern eases.
She's fairly certain that Pietro's concussion will get worse though. She doesn't know what sort of games the twins play (especially if the first time Pietro crashed into a wall, and the second time he dove headfirst into a mat despite his concussion), but they seem to be having quite a bit of fun playing if they're still playing even after his concussion.
Then she worries that next time it'll be Wanda, who'll get hurt. Wanda, who doesn't have Pietro's faster healing. Wanda, who doesn't seem like she's been battle-trained at all, aside from her powers.
When the elevator drops and signals its opening, Natasha looks from her spot on the couch to see who has arrived.
Sam.
He talks with Steve as he gets his own bowl of popcorn and approaches the living room.
The next ding, Natasha knows it's going to be the Maximoff Twins, so she looks up again, and hopes she doesn't seem too eager.
It's not. It's Vision.
"Miss Maximoff— Wanda would like us to know that since Mr. Ma— Pietro's concussion has gotten worse, she has chosen to miss this Movie Night to make sure he rests and is alright."
Steve nods his acknowledgement, and Natasha slumps back on her spot, and stamps down her disappointment, and tells herself she's being childish.
Halfway through the movie, Steve turns to her. "We're going to start training the Maximoffs as soon as Pietro's alright, by the way."
"We?" She whispers back.
"You're the perfect person to train Wanda, and I have a similar figure to Pietro. Yeah, we. Unless you have reasons to not want to?" His gaze is seering.
Natasha shakes her head. "No reasons at all." She thinks of Wana panting in exertion. "I'll be good to train her." She thinks of pale skin, red with flush, and slick with sweat.
She hopes she hasn't taken on too much.
━━━━━┓ + ┏━━━━━
It's a whole week later when Pietro heals from his concussion. She thinks it's sooner based on the whispers she heard when she walked past the Maximoffs' room, of Pietro talking to his turtle, the day after the Movie Night that Wanda missed, technically Pietro's first day recovering from his concussion, since his real first day, he made it worse by diving headfirst into a mat—
"You don't get it, Mister Dibbles, she gets so mean! I've already healed so well, she even made sure of it, but here she is, forcing me to stay in our room, not doing anything, all because she doesn't want to train! It's so selfish!"
"Piet, just because I'm in the shower doesn't mean I can't hear you! And be glad I didn't choose 10 days!"
—After hearing that Wanda was in the shower, she promptly ran out of there, not quite interested in hearing more, because she didn't have the willpower to stay and not imagine Wanda in the shower. Her thoughts were out of control, and apparently, so were her hormones.
So she knows Pietro has probably been healed a few days ago, and yet waited a whole week to even consider joining the rest of the Avengers in the training room. Wanda comes in, feet dragging with tiredness, she yawns, covering her mouth, and rubs her eyes, which are half closed, and heavy with sleep. She's in a black hoodie jacket, a black dress peeking out from under, or a skirt, but it looks more like a dress based on the way the top—or as much of it as she can see, from how much Wanda has her zipper down—and skirt match.
Her green-blue eye flickers close as she walks forward, and she yawns again, stumbling forward, and Pietro tenses, his arm ready to reach her. Her cat is under her jacket, tucked in under the fabric, which is zipped up, so the cat stays warm and comfortable just as she is. Wanda nuzzles the cat. "I love you so much, you're my personal heaven, and my best friend, Liho." She cooes.
Pietro scoffs. "Just because you can bring your pet to training doesn't mean she's better. Just means she's more clingy."
Wanda turns to him and raises a brow, and Natasha second guesses her label as a bisexual, especially with that look in her eye, mischievious, cocky, and Natasha feels her mouth go dry in response.
"You're trying to talk about clingy, Piet?" The female Sokovian says, "the same man who got bitten by a turtle because he was being too clingy? Liho is better than your Mister Dibbles."
Liho meows, and Wanda, who was about to open her mouth and continues, stops, visibly softens, and lazily smiles back at Liho. "О мој Боће, мој анреле. Тако си савршена. (serbian/sokovian; Oh my god, my angel. You're so perfect.)" Says the telekinetic in her native tongue. Her lazy, tired drawl makes her accent thicker, and she rolls her r's even more, and Natasha dies a little bit inside.
Then Wanda looks up from her little angel, and her eyes land on Natasha, and her lazy smile turns into a thousand-watt light-up-the-whole-room wide grin, and Wanda's eyes crinkle at the sides when she smiles, her nose scrunching a little bit, as she waves excitedly, one hand still occupied on holding Liho close to her chest.
Natasha's heart skips a little beat. Then she reminds herself ("Love is for children"), even though she knows it's not true, because she knows of Clint and Laura, and the way they make each other stronger , rather than weaker, like the Red Room told her Love did. She knows Pepper and Tony and how they support and balance each other out, taking care of each other's flaws, and making the other person a better one. She thinks of the twins in front of her, and how neither are as strong without the other. She's only lived with them for a month, but she already can't imagine seeing one twin without the other, nearby or just gone for a short period of time. She knows they're two halves of one whole, and to think that Wanda had almost lost Pietro, she doesn't know if the other woman would have survived.
"Nat?" She hears someone call.
She turns to the source of the voice, and sees Steve staring at her with furrowed brows. "You alright?" he asks.
She nods, "Yeah, yeah— why?"
"No, I was just— I was just trying to get your attention and you were kinda spacing out."
"Oh, sorry." She says, walking past him, and getting the boxing pads, for a second, she closes her eyes and tries to clear her mind of pale skin, Sokovian accents, and blue-green eyes that represent the most beautiful green tinted blue oceans or vice versa, and slender bodies fitting tightly—perfectly—in her sleep shirt, and in her red leather jacket, and purge her mind of skilled long fingers, accessorised by rings, or innocent skin revealed by plunging necklines.
She succeeds, though she can already tell that it will backfire on her in a few hours, when she's in her room, and there's no training for her to help distract her. Plus, it's widely known, although not officially a rule that everyone's acknowledged, but everyone knows it— the Maximoff Twins have hijacked the training rooms.
After Pietro's wall vs. back battle (Sam had a great fun time laughing his ass of when Steve told him the story, and she understands why, the story was kind of ridiculous—
"I was going up to Natasha's room to tell her that dinner was ready, and we started to talk, then a few minutes later, we heard this loud crash from the twins' room, and we ran to get ready for an attack. My shield was left in the elevator, because I was taking it up to my room after I got Natasha, and maybe the twins. So, I ran back to the elevator and got it, then we both ran to the Maximoffs' room.
"I had FRIDAY open the door, and we come in to see a mess of the Maximoffs' room, some furniture is knocked around like someone was pushed into them, and there are slight singe marks on the wall, faint but there, and to the side is Wanda with Pietro's head on her lap, and Pietro's head is bleeding, he's curled up, and there are some cracks on the wall, and the shoe rack near them is down.
"I think that they absolutely had a fight that we didn't hear until Pietro crashed, so I get ready for someone to ambush me when I enter the room, but when I ask what the danger is, Wanda's completely confused. There was no danger. Instead, they tell me that they were just playing, and Pietro was chasing a ball to fly, while Wanda was watching sitcoms and floating snacks to him. I think they were lying to cover something up, like the two of them actually fighting in their room. I think they fight for real for fun. It's concerning, but Wanda won't tell me anything." Steve told Sam.
"Have you considered Wanda was telling the truth about what they were doing?" Sam replies. A beat of silence passes, and then they both laugh. "I'm kidding, they're absolutely hiding something!! Hahahahahaha! Telling the truth, I crack myself up. I am hilarious, man, you're blessed to be friends with me."
—The twins have since learned their lesson and learned to stop doing whatever they do up in their rooms, and instead spend that time in the training rooms. At first, they were pretty happy, and then they realized they traded their room in for the training room. They still weren't seen around, and they were in the training room when others weren't there, and if others tried to join, they were suddenly about to leave. So, others started to stay away from the training room, because the twins genuinely seemed to be having fun doing whatever they do in the training room, and only came there during planned training sessions. They had hijacked the training room so much, they started to bring their pets down.
And so since the twins have hijacked the training room, she knows she can't distract herself from Wanda by going to the training room—because she would, even if Clint had banned her from the training room already, for that time a few weeks ago in which she trained too much, lost in her thoughts, and broke the skin of her fist, and had to go to the Medbay to heal, which wasn't a happy time for anyone—especially since even if they would leave the moment she goes down there, the training room was now starting to be synonymous with 'The Twins' Replacement Hangout Bedroom', so she would still be reminded of Wanda.
She turns towards the twins, to see that Pietro is eating some sort of thing again , she doesn't know where he got the food from, but she's learned to stop questioning it. However, what she will question is why he has a turtle keychain made into a necklace, not that it doesn't go well (?) with his grey shirt, black sweatpants, and black denim jacket outfit combination. Natasha would have expected him to wear chains with his outfit (like a normal guy), but instead, he wore a black plain necklace, with a turtle plushie hooked into the string, to make a turtle stuffy necklace.
"What's with your accessory?" She asks.
Pietro looks down, and beams at it, lifting it. "Yeah, I couldn't bring Mister Dibbles down, so I decided to bring a little piece of him around. Isn't his plushie so cute? We had it made yesterday! Wanda has a cat one too!"
Wanda looks up from her staring session with Liho, caressing the cat's head once more, one last time, before she gets up to join the others at the training area, instead of sitting by the bench. "Mine's not a plushie." She clarifies. "I made it metal, because I... am not my brother."
Pietro throws his hand up with a questioning betrayed look. "Such a traitor."
"Oh, I'm so so sorry, victim. Perhaps your turtle plushie will comfort you, 'cause it's not like it can do much else."
Natasha couldn't contain the small smile that formed because of the two. "Come on, traitor and victim. Let's start doing less jokes, and more training." Her words are undermined by the smirk on her lips, and amusement in her tone.
Wanda dragged her feet to the training mats, and sent flying kisses to Liho, looking physically pained she had to be away from the cat for more than 5 minutes. Pietro looked worse off, already nuzzling the turtle plushie around his neck, and murmuring to it.
Did the Avengers secretly hire children or were they just a little bit crazy?
"You know," Wanda started, as soon as she stepped up on the mat, and caught the inner boxing gloves with her hands without really turning to look towards Steve who had tossed it. "Pietro has this thing where he can't fight for more than 2 or 3 hours. So I should go early– with him."
Pietro turned towards her with a confused expression from behind Wanda, undermining her from behind.
"Pietro doesn't seem to know what you're talking about, Wanda." Steve chuckled.
Wanda huffed, and turned towards Pietro, who shook his head, and shrugged. More of their non-verbal conversations.
"Why do you dislike fighting training sessions so much?" Steve asked. "It'll help you become a better Avenger, and safer."
"I have all I need in my magic." Wanda replies.
"What if there's a scenario where you can't use your magic?" Natasha comments, and sees Wanda's head snap to her, that same haunted look she wore when she started profusely apologizing for what she did (and the Hex, whatever that was, perhaps it's what Wanda called the nightmare trick).
"If there's a scenario where I can't use my magic, trust me when I say fighting skills won't do shit against her."
"Her?"
"I mean, anyone who binds— or stops me from using my magic."
"You don't know that."
Wanda stares at her, in silence, and then turns away.
"Yeah, alright, let's train." Wanda calls. Pietro walks over to his sister, and squeezes her shoulder, kissing her cheek, and Wanda places her hand over Pietro's and squeezes back with a small and weak smile.
There's something she's missing. Some part of the story that Wanda hasn't let slip. Related to a woman who managed to bind her magic. Someone who fighting skills were useless against, and perhaps it was something to do with The Hex. No matter how many times she tells herself, the Hex just doesn't seem like it's what Wanda calls her nightmare trick. She had slipped up during her apologies, she hadn't meant to say the Hex. The nightmare trick wasn't the Hex.
What happened to them in HYDRA?
"By the way..." Wanda said, soft-spoken because she never really yelled, not around them. Though when the twins were in their room, or in the training room, or somewhere far in the halls, or outside while they were taking a walk/run, many Avengers had heard Wanda scream something on the lines of 'Pietro, no!' , 'Pietro, stop!', and 'Pietro, in front of you!' (often followed by some sort of crash, most times simply caused by Pietro, sometimes the crash is Pietro), which were often a good enough look to how their dynamic worked, even if they rarely interacted with others. "...can you tell Tony that I'm not going to wear the suit he gave me as a 'uniform'? A corset and a long red leather jacket isn't practical, or comfortable."
Natasha coughed, in surprise, at what Tony had tried to get Wanda to wear. As a uniform, nonetheless. That wasn't practical in casual times, and especially not in battle.
"A corset?" She asks.
"Full on bust corset, I've tried it on, and it makes breathing harder, especially when you're panting." She rolled her eyes. "I've worn corsets nicer than that."
"You've worn corsets?" Sam asked.
"Many." Wanda says. "It's part of my wardrobe."
Natasha clears her throat and brings attention to her, "Let's please focus on training, and practice. Everyone, partner up." She can't handle this conversation, and she needs to keep a clear mind but thinking of Wanda in leather and a corset is doing wonders in destroying her sense of control.
"Right, okay!" Pietro grinned, running towards Steve. His blur of blue has gotten faster, it's hard to tell how much faster since all Natasha sees is a blue blur, but he seems to have crossed distances faster than he did before. Then again, what does she know, maybe Pietro just wasn't running as fast as he could before. He stops right next to Steve, and begins to bombard him with questions.
Wanda walks calmly towards Natasha, looking over the spy's shoulder, towards the bench.
"Less doting on Liho, Maximoff." She says, and Wanda's eyes snap back to her. "You know how to throw a punch?" She gets her stance ready, the boxing pads up.
"Do we have to do this? Can't we work on... flexib... no, I'm already quite flexible. Can't we work on stamina... no, I'm fairly... can't we work on strength instead?"
Natasha does her best to forget Wanda just said that. "This is strength."
"Then speed?"
"Do you want to run laps?"
"I mean, if that means I don't have to fight, I'd be fine running."
"Just throw a punch, Maximoff."
Wanda sighs. Natasha has since learned, from the first day that Steve tried to get the twins to training, that Wanda very much doesn't like to fight, and has actually used many lies, and outlandish excuses (that Pietro didn't hesitate to back up), and would start accusing Steve of calling them a liar and not trusting them when he would call her out on her excuses.
Long story short, Wanda hasn't gone to training for fighting for plenty of weeks, she got out of it by just running laps, which she seemed perfectly fine with, barely even tired after.
Steve has brought it up with her, and they've made a collective decision to let Natasha handle Wanda, so Wanda can't talk her way out of training. Now would be practically the first time that Wanda has even thrown a punch since becoming an Avenger, it's ridiculous, but completely true.
For a second, when she gets ready to throw a punch, she moves into the right stance, then averts her eyes for a second, and moves again, disrupting her stance for a casual one, standing still and too straight to have any support, and throws a fairly strong punch, though still not supported.
Natasha lets her continue on for a few minutes, with her crappy punches, and unsupporting stance. Then she finally speaks up about it, "Okay, Maximoff. Drop the charade."
That gets everyone's attention, they halt, and turn to them all, to Wanda's weak stance that she didn't correct, to her punches supported by her arm instead of her torso. To the way Wanda stares back at her, silent, calculating. Then she shakes her head with a small smile, and moves right into a perfect stance. Nothing to correct, it's as good as hers and Steve's stance, and they're experienced fighters. She raises a brow, a silent question.
"Chuck taught me the basics, HYDRA gave me fighting skills. Pietro had a good body, strength, speed, and stamina. Had it all. But I just had my magic, and I was too prized by them for them to risk me falling because I didn't know how to fight." She said, but no matter how smooth her lie falls from her lips, no matter how she keeps enough eye contact to seem normal, and shrugs like it's a simple fact. Natasha is the Black Widow.
And she knows Wanda is lying.
There's a habit of hers, that you can't tell, unless you've spent hours in her company or paid very careful attention to her. When Wanda lies, and lies good (she saw it once when Wanda convinced Pietro that Mister Diddles—honestly, that name—said his name, like a human, and got him to believe her), she gets a slightly steel look in her eyes, as if silently daring you to call her out on it and face the consequences—which then silently promise itself to be a very painful consequence—and it's intimidating.
(Also she spins her ring once or twice, in any direction before shrugging. If she can, sometimes she doesn't have her rings to spin, so her ring-spin-tell isn't too reliable of a tell to find every time.)
Now, Natasha's not easily intimidated, but something in Wanda's eyes when she lies, and gets that look in her eye, has all her senses for danger blaring like crazy, even louder in her head than when Hulk was chasing her. And she knows better than to question her survival instincts.
So she just nods, and accepts the lie. Wanda smiles in return. "I didn't wanna show that I knew how to fight because if I was gonna finally train, I wanted to be actually trained. But I don't know what you guys can teach me."
"I can teach you plenty of things, Maximoff." Natasha says, and she doesn't have to look to know Wanda was blushing. "Keep throwing punches, we'll work into different things when Pietro does."
Wanda lit up, smiling. Yeah, Natasha noticed that Wanda very much wanted to work and train at the same pace as Pietro, despite being ahead. Probably so that she could teach him, and coach him, without ever risking the possibility of making him feel less than for having to have her revert to older sessions just to teach him.
She'd seen it in other SHIELD agents that were friends.
"Thanks, Natasha."
Wanda kept on with her solid punches, and Natasha tried not to notice the way a thin sheen of sweat slowly built on her skin, causing her shirt to stick to herself sometimes, and her waist when she took off her jacket and tied it around her waist. No, Natasha focused solely on Wanda's stance and the force of her punches. Occasionally, she did notice certain things about Wanda's stance that reminded her of Steve's stance exactly, or the way Natasha threw punches, and the way she used her smaller body to her advantage, as if someone her own physique taught her how to.
There were many curious things about Wanda Maximoff, and one of those things were the secrets that she couldn't fully hide.
Then she tied her hair up, and Natasha's focus went back to keeping calm, sane, and professional, rather than the secrets that the witch had that her body betrayed.
Wanda threw a particularly good punch, and then stopped, and turned towards Pietro's direction while Steve was perfecting the speedster's stance, and taking his punches with the second set of boxing glove pads, and throwing in some jabs to keep Pietro working, since his reflexes were fast, and his reaction speed... also fast.
"What do you mean where's Liho?" She yelled.
"You weren't keeping an eye on her? She's–" Steve threw a jab, unable to control his already moving momentum, since he had drawn his arm back to jab the moment Wanda spoke, and didn't expect Pietro stopping, and dropping his guard, to reply.
"Pietro, look out!" Wanda exclaimed.
Steve's jab connected. Though, thanks to Pietro's endurance, and the boxing pad glove, he wasn't too hurt, but he did stumble to the side.
"What is it with you Avengers and me ending up getting hurt?" Pietro said. "Wasn't I supposed to be safe here? Aren't you guys superheroes? Meant to protect and all that??? Wanda, I am not a dumbass!"
"Never mind that!" Wanda exclaimed, storming up to him. "What do you mean where's Liho?! I told you to watch her! That we'd both take shifts looking at her!"
"I thought you were watching her!"
"I was watching Nat– I mean, punching!"
Did she just say–
Wanda tugged at the ends of her hair, and bit the nail of her thumb, like she did when she was stressed. She turned around and, after a quick glance all around the training room, she stormed out of the room, calling Liho's name.
"In hindsight, we really should have brought her cage..." She heard Pietro mutter, before he left the room as well, in a blur of blue.
Steve tousled his blond hair and followed after them, though walking into a different direction, also calling Liho's name. Soon, the entire team of Avengers was searching for a black cat roaming around in their admittedly huge building.
Faint faraway yells—two far more distressed than the rest—could be heard all around the building, strong voices carrying. Natasha roamed the building as well, unable to get the fear in Wanda's eyes out of her mind, when she rushed towards Pietro, and when she started to search for Liho.
The concern returned, at a lesser effect, but it was still there.
Running a hand through her hair, after searching the entirety of the living room with Sam's help, she went back up to her room to get her water bottle (she forgot it up in her room, since she was downstairs with Steve when training session hour came).
When the elevator arrived, she turned towards the right, since her room was the first on the right (and the twins' was the far far end of the hall, also on the right). There were rooms reserved on the left, especially one at the far left end of the hall for a 'Carol Danvers', but as of right now, it was just the Maximoff Twins and her that occupied the fifth floor.
When she turned, she saw a small thing of black fur, scratching at her door. Not the twins', hers. The small little cat that had caused such a ruckus with her disappearance and was currently scaring Wanda half to death right now, turned to her, green-yellow eyes and all, and meowed, and resumed her scratching on Natasha's door.
"So this is where you were." She commented, walking towards her room, and picking up the little cat. Liho meowed and nuzzled into her collarbone.
She went back downstairs without her bottle of water, and down to find Wanda. Walking around, she looked out the window and saw the twins in a screaming match that could be heard faintly despite the distance and the glass. Their Sokovian accent, already always quite noticeable, was now so thick it was hard to even understand their words, though yelled in English.
"WELL, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING HER!"
"SHE'S YOUR PET, WANDA!"
"OH, WE ARE SO NOT DOING THIS!!! I WATCH MISTER DIBBLES FOR YOU ALL THE TIME!"
"MISTER DIBBLES STAYS IN HIS CAGE! YOUR LIHO'S THE ONE THAT RAN OFF! HE'S NO TROUBLE AT ALL. YOUR PET'S JUST PROBLEMATIC!"
"MISTER DIBBLES WOULD GO MISSING TOO IF HE DIDN'T HAVE TO STAY IN THAT DAMN CAGE!! DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE BLAME MY LITTLE ANGEL, PIET, SHE IS NOT PROBLEMATIC!"
"SHE'S NO ANGEL IF SHE RUNS AWAY!! AND MISTER DIBBLES IS PERFECT, HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST OTHERWISE?! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LET YOUR PET ESCAPE BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO BUSY STARING INTO HER EYES."
She was going to ignore that one, she decided.
"THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT I WAS DOING! YOU SAID YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION TO LIHO! ALL I DID WAS TRUST THAT. TRUST YOU!"
"YEAH, I SAID I WAS WATCHING HER, LIKE, 10 MINUTES BEFORE SHE RAN AWAY. I WASN'T WATCHING HER FOR THOSE ENTIRE 10 MINUTES!"
"YOU– IF THE SAME THING HAPPENS TO HER THAT HAPPENED TO SPARKY, PIETRO—" And then red mists covered her hands, and she started to launch energy spheres wildly, wielding them like fireballs that singed the grass when it landed, and Pietro began to move in blue blurs, moving around the energy spheres.
Okay . Time to intervene.
Natasha ran out of the elevator the moment the doors opened, and out the exit, towards the courtyard, still paying attention to how tightly she was holding Liho, and when she reached, and yelled Wanda's name, the woman turned to her with eyes filled with red, a mystic force, pure energy, something that belonged in the universe found shining in her eyes.
And that wasn't a metaphor.
Wanda stopped instantly, and leaned in a second, then all red magic disappeared in an instant when she noticed the bundle of fur in Natasha's arms, and a huge relieved grin showed on her face.
Then Wanda was running right to her, and with full force of all her momentum, absolutely crashed into her into a tackle-like hug, and knocked her over, since she wasn't quite ready for an enthusiastic hug like that. Wanda kept her arms wrapped around her neck for a few minutes, even as they both laid on the grass—or well, Natasha did, Wanda was absolutely definitely laying down on her —and then the Sokovian was pressing kisses to her cheek, repeatedly, and saying a mangled chain of "thankyouohmygodthankyousososomuchthankyou" that it took Natasha a second to decipher what Wanda had even said, then suddenly, Wanda was sitting up and sitting right on Natasha's torso, as she took Liho from her arms, and hugged the cat.
"Oh my god, my precious angel, Liho, you scared me." She kissed the cat's head and paws, and hugged the cat again. Then turned back to Natasha, "I'm so sorry for all the trouble, Nat, and again. Thank you so so much."
Nat?
Wanda had nicknames for her now?
Then Pietro coughed, and Wanda looked down at them, especially Natasha's stoic expression, and raised brow—it took all her energy to not blush, because Black Widows don't blush —and realized what she had done. She got up, holding on to Pietro's arm for support, and then stretched an arm out towards Natasha.
"I'm so sorry, Nat– Natasha. I didn't mean to, I– I was just really happy. Sorry! Where did you find her?"
"She was by my door." Natasha said. "Somehow found her way back up to the fifth floor." Standing up without Wanda's help, and brushing the dirt and grass off from her behind, and her back.
"Thank you so much , again!" Wanda said, not hesitating to wrap her arms around Natasha again. "I owe you one."
"It's no problem." Natasha replied. "I'm glad we found her."
Wanda smiled that thousand-watt smile again, and held Liho up by her front legs, and moved the cat towards Natasha, pressing the cat's snout to Natasha's cheek, like a kiss. Then Liho licked her cheek.
"Thank you." She repeated for the millionth time. "And Liho's saying thank you too, I think she likes you."
"I like the little kitty too." Natasha said, patting the cat, and stroking her head.
Pietro coughed some word by the side, that Natasha didn't catch, but Wanda obviously did, based on her glare.
"You're really a lifesaver for finding her. I really do owe you one, Natasha." Wanda said. "If you ever need anything—and I mean, anything —I'll do it, or give it. I owe you one, even if you don't think I do. I was so scared."
"Alright." Natasha conceded. "You owe me one, then."
⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰
It was three days later when Wanda's nightmares returned, with not quite the same ferocity that it did during her first night after time travelling and sleeping in 'comfort', but with quite enough of a ferocity that all of Pietro's hard work on making sure she slept, once he realized that she refused to sleep, because of her nightmares, multiverse visits, and/or others' nightmares. He had made progress, and she had finally started to agree to sleep.
That lasted for 13 days. His 7 days faking his already gone concussion, and 6 more days after the Liho scare. Barely past 2 weeks, and it was all gone, after one bad nightmare.
But all it took was a combination of her nightmares, mixed with Pietro's, and some of Natasha's. Her kids, and her parents dying in the apartment crash, except this time it wasn't Stark that pulled the trigger, or pushed the button, it had been her. Her powers went haywire, and it caused the apartment to collapse on her kids, and her parents. Pietro was there blaming her for it, and then before she knew it, Pietro was strapped to a chair, a sack over his head, and the heavy weight of a gun in her hands, and blood in her hands. And her feet. And then the screams, and tortured begs of the citizens of WestView. The sounds of destruction that took place in Kamar-Taj. Her boys were screaming, and then it was back to the apartment collapse all over again, and it was like a loop, going from start to finish all over again, until it was hard to tell where the start and where the finish really was.
She woke with a scream lodged in her throat, that didn't escape in time, because her instincts to keep quiet and control herself were stronger. Years of conditioning, and traumatic habits won over the urge to scream in fear and pain, and beg. Sometimes, it didn't, but most times, it did. Most times, it was when the nightmares were that bad that she couldn't scream. And most nights, her nightmares were often that bad, still are.
Pietro figured this out after the second day, when, because of their bond, he got a taste of the fear, despair, and absolutely paralyzing pain that she felt during a nightmare, and woke up from his pleasant sleep to scream, but when she woke up, no sound left her mouth. She still felt horrible for that, because she should be far past the time when she let her nightmares make anyone else suffer. WestView suffered for her grief, and they were already bad enough, Pietro shouldn't have to. She hated that she couldn't control it as well as she wished she could.
She sat up, blanket moving from her neck to fall at her lap, and her mouth was open like she was going to scream, but no sound came out again, and that's what caught Pietro's concern the most. Still sleepy, the speedster rubbed his eyes and asked "Ты в порядке, сестра? Тебе что-нибудь нужно? Хочешь пообниматься? (Are you alright, sister? Do you need anything? Do you want a cuddle?)"
In response, she stared at him for a few seconds, just to remind herself that just because her dreams told her so, didn't mean it was right. Pietro didn't blame her, and she didn't cause the collapse of anything. She shook her head, and ran her hands through Pietro's hair, because she knew he found it comforting.
"No, Piet. Just go back to sleep."
"Hmmhmn, you sure?"
"Yeah." Wanda smiled. "I just need some air, I'm gonna walk the buildings for a few. I'll be back before you know it."
Pietro nodded into his pillow, muttered a "don't worry, sestra, me and Mister Dibbles will protect you and Liho.", and closed his eyes again.
Wanda got up off the bed, moving her blanket over Pietro, and pulling up the blanket up to his neck. She walked outside her bedroom, and spared a glance to their bedside alarm before she left the room with a zipped up jacket over her clothes for extra warmth and comfort, and fuzzy duck slippers.
2:22 AM
Wanda closed the door behind her, covering it in Chaos Magic to muffle any sort of sound. God knows her brother needed as much sleep as he could every single night, because his powers could get tiring. More so than hers. She took the elevator down to the kitchen to get a drink, so she'd have something to do while she tried to collect her mind, and get enough energy to not fall asleep again.
She entered the kitchen and saw a figure sitting on the kitchen counter chairs, someone who arrived before her. Red hair, and black clothes.
Natasha.
"Natasha?" she called, "What are you doing here so early?"
Natasha turned towards her surprised, and ran a hand over her hair. "Why are you?"
"Nightmares." She said, "I don't really like to sleep, because they come every night, and it just wakes Pietro up when I wake up, but he tried to convince me to start sleeping two weeks ago. Bad nightmare hit today, don't think I'll be trying to sleep again soon."
"You know that's not healthy." Natasha remarked.
"Says the one also awake at 2 AM. So, why are you awake?"
"Same reason as you." The older woman replied. "They come every night, it's better to just stop getting woken up."
Wanda acquiesced. She sat at the chair next to Natasha after getting a glass of cold water for herself. She took a sip, and it helped take focus away from her sleepiness. "Do you mind... will you tell me about your nightmares?" She braved. "If— if you want to."
Natasha stayed silent for so long, that Wanda was starting to feel nervous, and the urge to take her words back was growing strong, but Wanda also knew Natasha, and knew that if she interrupted the woman while she was considering something, or said anything, Natasha would back away and distance herself again, and Wanda wanted to get to know Natasha.
"Well, I guess... I mean... well, you've seen the most— you know more about me, and about my past than anyone else."
'And also your future' , she thought, but didn't say. She just nodded.
"And you haven't run away."
Wanda nodded, again. "Of course not. Never."
"And... I guess we're kind of similar, I mean, Eastern European girls taken in by an evil Russian organisation, and experimented on for the sake of the evil goals of the country or the individual or collective, and used as a weapon. Misguided. Took a while before we came around to the good side."
Wanda had heard this before, not from Natasha though, from Steve. It was during a night in which Steve came to check up on her in her room, and after she made a comment about Natasha hating her and her deserving it because of what she did, Steve assured her Natasha didn't hate her. They were just too similar, for her to be fully comfortable with Wanda, but that she would come around.
She did, but it took time.
As Wanda listened to Natasha's words, she couldn't help but realize just how far more alike they really were now.
Natasha had blood on her hands, the blood of innocents, and she died doing a good thing, the best thing. A noble sacrifice (a tragic casualty of war). She died an Avenger, the person she chose to be, rather than the person she was made to be, and she made up for the lives when she was misguided.
Wanda had blood on her hands, the blood of innocents, and if she died in her future like she prayed to, then she hopefully also died doing a good thing, perhaps not the best thing, and it wasn't quite a noble sacrifice, and more of a retribution, a price for her evil. A payment. She died as Wanda Maximoff, rather than who she became, and... well, that was the difference between them.
Natasha died a hero, because she had made up for the things she did when she was a misguided, manipulated killer.
Wanda died a monster, because she could never make up for the things she did when she became a misguided, manipulated killer.
Natasha was manipulated as a child, she was doing the best she could, her life and survival was threatened in the case where she disobeyed.
Wanda was manipulated by a book that used the darkness already in her heart, and she did know better and could have fought it, but she didn't.
Natasha was a hero at heart.
Wanda was a monster.
Natasha had been a child.
She had been a goddamn adult.
"Blood on our hands. So much it feels like it'll drown us, and we'd deserve it." She spoke.
Natasha stared at her, but then turned back, just nodding. "Did HYDRA make you kill?"
"No one made me kill." Wanda shook her head, memories of screams and scarlet tinted memories flashing through her mind. "But I do understand."
"Because of my memories." Natasha guessed.
"Not just yours." She replied, hoping to be as honest and cryptic as she could be. "Did you know... my telepathic powers get stronger every day, so I've learned to put up mental walls. Block your thoughts out, sometimes it falters, most times it doesn't. But when I sleep..."
Natasha winced, and took a drink. "No wonder you don't sleep."
She shrugged. "I feel more guilty than anything, really." She dragged her finger over the marble counter. "It's so invading, it destroys your privacies. I shouldn't be looking through your memories, and seeing your nightmares, but I am. And you guys don't even get a say."
"Hey," Natasha cut in, placing an arm on her back. "You don't get a say in this either. You shouldn't blame yourself. You're the one who has to suffer through all of our nightmares and yours."
Wanda smiled weakly. "Thanks."
"What about dreams?" She asks, and Wanda expected that, to be honest.
"No, dreams are too pleasant, and pleasant in sleep often means quiet. Quiet dreams and thoughts don't come into my mind." Wanda paused, while Natasha stared at her as she took a drink. "Unless it's a sex dream. Those 'pleasant' dreams are very loud."
Natasha choked and spat her drink back into her glass.
"Sorry!" Wanda chuckled, patting Natasha's back.
Natasha laughed. "I didn't expect that." She placed her glass down. "Whose sex dreams have entered your mind?"
"Sometimes Pietro's, when he dreams of his crush. I'm more susceptible to reading his mind because of our bond. Sometimes, it was a guard when I was with Von Strucker, he'd dream of the... disgusting things he wanted to do to me. Sometimes... y'know I once got a dream of Steve having a dream about Agent Peggy Carter, it was a really awkward morning, I didn't want to face him, so I stayed in our room the entire day, and Piet just took our food up and stuff."
"Ohhhh." Natasha nodded. "So that's what happened that day. We thought you guys were just not up to talking to any of us that day."
"Pietro's always up for that. Especially with Sam. They are like clones of each other." Wanda laughed.
Natasha laughed back in return, and Wanda didn't even try to ignore the fluttering in her chest, at such a beautiful sound, something so pleasing it shouldn't be rare, it should be heard by everyone, so they all could appreciate it, and appreciate Natasha for her big heart, and beauty, not just in physical terms. She didn't try to ignore it, because she knew she would fail. She tried a million times back in her first life to try and ignore the way she felt for Natasha, but it never worked, and she'd learned her lesson now.
"That's true." Natasha said. "So what was your nightmare about? If you don't mind telling me."
"No, I don't." Wanda said, even though she knew she was about to lie, or omit a few things from her dream. "I trust you." It wasn't a lie, but the fact that the next few words that were about to leave her mouth were going to be, despite what she just said, made it feel and sound like a lie. Making her tongue feel heavy inside her mouth.
Natasha offered her a small smile, and reached for Wanda's hand, and Wanda moved it closer to hers, so Natasha could place her hand on top of hers.
"It was about... I dreamed of our apartment collapsing. The first shell thrown... it happens in an instant. We were just in front of our TV, and then this large crash, that feels like a massive push from the back. My ear starts ringing, and I look around and see our apartment destroyed, and my parents gone. I look around, and see them, and there's a little bit of blood on the walls, from what I can remember." She starts. "But instead of Stark bombs, it's me."
Natasha squeezes her hand, and it feels different from Pietro, and Vision. She doesn't feel just safe, or just seen. She feels comfortable, she feels a certain courage, because this is the same woman that managed to do the greater thing, and sacrifice her life, despite knowing that she did have things to lose, and best of all, she feels understood .
Vision saw her, and never judged her, but it wasn't the same. He could never understand, because he never went through any sort of hardship that was at all similar to hers. But Natasha did.
"Instead of someone else to blame, instead of bombs, it's just me. My powers went haywire, and it caused the collapse of our building, instead of an explosion, my parents are crushed. Pietro's by my side, and he lets go of my hand, and starts blaming me, and I can't defend myself, not that I would if I could, but I can't anyway. Because I know that it is my fault, because my magic is still lingering around in places, and I'm the only one that survived." She took a breath, and turned over her palm so she held Natasha's hand back. "I'm the only one that survived, because next thing I know, Pietro's strapped to a chair, with a sack over his head, I'm holding the gun, and I pressed the trigger. And I shot the bullets. I killed him. My family's blood is all on my hands, and I know it's all on me."
She rubs her thumb over the back of Natasha's hands when she feels the redhead stiffen, and she continues on before Natasha can take her hand back.
"But then I wake up, and I know it's not my fault. I know my brain's distorting what actually happened. I know I wouldn't have pulled the trigger–" Natasha tugs her hand, trying to take it back, but Wanda holds tight. "—but even if I did, I know it wouldn't be on me. I know it would be on the people who put a gun in my hand, who made it so that it would be my survival and my life versus theirs. It would be the faults of the people who trained me to use a gun, and gave me a target. Not mine. What I do when under force and danger, is not on me. Not when I'm just a kid."
Natasha's hand still, then softens in her hands, and Wanda smiles at her, and brings her hand up to kiss the back of her hand.
"Just as it wouldn't be my fault, Natasha... Nat. It wouldn't be yours either." She drinks the rest of her glass with her free hand. "I'll tell you this every night until you believe it, just so you know."
"It's not your fault either." Natasha repeats, after a beat of silence, once she's done considering Wanda's words. "You were just a kid."
'No, I wasn't.' , she thinks. 'I was an adult who knew better and still did the things I did. Things I should be held accountable for. Things I will hold myself accountable for. Unspeakable, unforgettable things.'
"I know." She lies.
"I hope you can go back to sleep when you return to your room." Natasha says, pulling her hand away from Wanda's, and Wanda lets her go.
"I hope you can too."
Natasha gets up, and she leaves first.
Wanda watches her walk away, and stays, staring at an empty glass of water for a few minutes. A few minutes turn into half an hour, and half an hour turns into an hour, and she's still staring at the glass, seeing memories of Kamar-Taj and her hunt for America on the glass on loop, like it's a cinema movie.
Eventually, she finds the strength to turn her head away, and get into the elevator, back to hers and Pietro's room. Pietro doesn't stir, but as soon as she gets under the covers, he throws his arm around her and pulls her closer lazily. "Go back to sleep now, sestra. No staying up."
She cheats, and lets her body go to sleep, but astral projects, and just meditates. She feels around for everyone's mind, and when she gets to Natasha, and feels that she's resting, a small smile finds its way to her lips. Then she moves on to find Vision's mind, to feel him, because she hasn't been able to do that in too long now. She feels more stable when she feels his mind, but she does check back in on Natasha, to fend off her nightmares. One of them at least deserves a good nights' sleep, and it's not her. As much as she liked their talk, Natasha deserves better than to be haunted by the things she had to do to survive.
She only wishes someone could do the same for her, even though she knows, in the back of her mind, that she deserves it— the nightmares, the reminders of her evil actions; She's still too selfish, though.
⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰
Wanda wakes up that day (or, stops meditating, and moves her astral projection back into her body), and goes about her day. She and Natasha don't talk about last night, and Pietro's happy, because he thinks she spent a night sleeping peacefully without nightmares.
She's lying to them all, and it's getting too easy for her, and it makes the guilt she feels double, but she doesn't clear her conscience and tell even Pietro the truth. It's better if they don't know, especially him. He would just worry needlessly.
Wanda stops sleeping, after the 13th day, and spends all her nights astral projecting and meditating. Her body reveals no sign of her sleep deprivation, and it all works out for everybody, she protects Natasha and Pietro from nightmares, and spends the rest of the night, comforting herself with the feel of Vision's stable, familiar, mind.
And then the twins get their first mission.
It all goes to shit then.