||"Do not underestimate the allure of darkness, for even the purest of souls are drawn to it."||
Even after minutes of staring at her hands, Wanda still felt the rush of blood in her cheeks. She had never seen Steve without clothes on before, and although he had a towel tightly wrapped around himself, she still felt as though it was incredibly intrusive of her to see him so bare. It wasn't necessarily her fault, but she still couldn't shake the feeling of jitters crawling along her skin.
Steve stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, and Wanda looked away from him, towards the window where the night sky had grown even darker.
"I'm not naked, I promise," Wanda glanced up at him and realized he was fully clothed. She let out a long breath and tried her best not to smile. "Sorry, I thought you were still sleeping and..."
"You do not have to apologize," she told him, and Steve brushed his hair out with the towel and then set it down on the chair. From where Wanda sat, she could smell his freshly-washed body; pomegranate and coconut laced his skin evenly, making Wanda's mouth water. Steve was made of muscle and courage, and the evidence of that was so obvious at how he carried himself. Before meeting Steve, Wanda had only seen such a man in her dreams, but now, here he was in front of her, in all of his glory.
Wanda shook her head. There was no need to be thinking of Steve in such a way.
"Jump in the shower if you'd like, I'm going to check if the food is ready," he loomed by the doorway before walking off, and Wanda turned to glance at him once more before he disappeared out of the room. She took her free time to look at her bandaged arm to see if it had healed yet. When she pulled back the white bandage, she saw that Pietro's name had turned into wide lines of red scabs, and soon they would vanish from her skin with only light scars to remember it by.
Before the Avengers, and before Pietro's death, Wanda had thought she had suffered the worst when her parents died, but now that she was alone, she solemnly realized that her feelings right now were ten times worse. Steve was kind to her, and so were the others, but they weren't Pietro, and they didn't understand her like her brother did. So now that his name had suddenly appeared onto her skin on it's own, what else was she supposed to think other than her dead brother was trying to send her message from the other side?
It was absurd, Wanda was well aware of that, but how was she supposed to shake the ominous feeling she had?
"Hey, the food is done," at the sound of Laura's voice behind her, Wanda grabbed her sweater and threw it on. She followed Mrs. Barton down to the kitchen where Steve and Clint were preparing the plates. "Come sit, we'll let the boys serve us for a change," Wanda smiled and watched as Steve cut her meat into small pieces. He looked big, and out of place, but she loved seeing him so relaxed. The family-home style suited him nicely.
"I hope you're in the mood for home fries and ham," Clint set down her plate in front of her, and the aroma of freshly cooked food made her stomach turn in excitement.
"Thank you," Wanda said, and she began to eat her food quietly. The tender ham melted on her tongue, and Wanda sighed in relief.
After dinner, Wanda showered and cleaned up her arm. The scabs were still visible, so kept her sweater on, worried that Steve might see if she took it off.
Steve prepared the bed for Wanda, and as she got under the covers, she wondered where Steve was going to sleep. The bed was big enough for the both of them. "Where do you plan on sleeping?" she asked him. He turned to her and rubbed his eyes, and Wanda could see his chest rise at the movement of his arms.
"The couch will be fine," he answered, and Wanda threw the blanket off and waved her hand in the air.
"No, you will sleep here. You will wake with a sore back if you sleep on anything else." Steve smiled down at Wanda as she forced him down onto the bed. Wanda's hands felt dainty against his arms, and even though she could barely move him in an inch from where he stood, her voice was stern enough to move him along. Steve obliged and got into the bed, nuzzling his head against the pillows.
"You know, I've slept on mud and on spring-less cots before, I think I can manage a couch."
"Sleep," she said, forcing his eyes shut. The second Wanda stepped away, Steve opened up his eyes again, and Wanda scoffed, punching down on the blanket. "Sleep, or I will make you sleep," she raised her eyebrows and walked over to the other side of the bed. The window across the bed had the perfect view of the moon, so when Wanda shut the light off, the moonlight glimmered through the thin glass like a beacon of light in the darkness.
"Can I ask you something?" Steve asked her, as Wanda got into bed beside him, she kept her eyes on the moon.
"Yes," she said.
He paused a moment before asking the question. "What happened to your arm?" Wanda's body went still, and her eyes fixated on the moon harshly as her mind sifted through lies. Steve shifted his body to face Wanda, but she refused to look at him. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't blatantly say that her brother was trying to contact her from the dead, but she also couldn't say that she did it herself. Steve's stare burnt into her face, and after minutes of ignoring his question, she turned to him.
___
Thor waved his hammer around in boredom. He waited for Vision to arrive at Asgard, and as he ran his thumb along the gold chair he sat upon, he thought of the trouble that Wanda and Pietro would face if things did not go correctly.
A sizzling sound broke through the great hall, and Thor stood, yielding his hammer in the air. Vision appeared from the shadows and glided over to Thor with a stone cold expression. Mjolnir landed loudly on the floor, and the walls shook fiercely.
"Any good news?" Thor asked.
"The Sentinels are still no where to be found. I can't trace them or even detect where they might be hiding." Vision grimaced and looked around the room that Thor usually resided in. After talking to Pietro, Vision spent days trying to find a location on the Sentinels, but he had no luck. The mutant hunters were going to be difficult to find, let alone kill.
"All that matters is that we keep the twins away from each other. If Wanda finds out that her brother is alive, things are going to fall apart. The Sentinels need to think they're dead."
From where they stood, the great hall threw shadows from all directions, and Thor rubbed his hands together as he thought.
"I stopped by the Stark tower, but Wanda wasn't there. Did she leave?" Vision's soft voice gave Thor the indication that there were feelings there. Vision had only been alive six months, but in those six months he had developed many human traits, such as compassion and love.
"Wanda is safe. Clint took her to his home out in the country where she can be looked after properly." Thor clapped Vision on the shoulder and smiled at him. "Worry not, Vision, she will be fine." Thor extended his free hand towards the floor, and Mjolnir rose and he gripped his hammer tightly before walking down the hall. "Join me for dinner, and we'll talk about solutions." Vision looked over his shoulder at Thor, then turned on his heel and joined him.
___
His arm was fully healed, and after applying the appropriate cream, the scars had softened to a light shade of red, scabbing appropriately. Pietro wasn't going to hurt himself again, but it bothered him that he hadn't heard from his sister yet. He knew the harm that could come to the both of them if the Sentinels found them, but he would have felt better if he was with his sister.
"Head up, speedy," Natasha cocked her gun and hung it on her belt. Pietro stretched his arms as he walked towards her, and stopped the second he reached the thick glass. "News around town says you know what's really going on." Natasha's dark hair looked even darker as she kept herself hidden in the shady part of the hallway. Her face showed no expression, and Pietro realized that she always held a tight face, never giving off how she felt. Everything about her screamed Assassin.
"Vision told me," he said, and Natasha stepped closer and furrowed her thick brows.
"I'm glad he told someone," the annoyance laced in Natasha's voice was obvious, but she kept her poker face still. "Bruce tells me that you're keeping yourself healthy, and by the looks of it, he's telling the truth." Her eyes trailed down Pietro's muscled body and her lips turned up in a smile. "Health is important, especially for you. Wanda, on the other hand, is suffering slightly. Her body is falling apart, but we're keeping a close eye on her in case something goes bad again."
"Again?" Pietro clenched his fists, and Natasha got as close the glass as she could before continuing.
"She suffers from chest pains, which of course is your life beating inside of her, and sometimes the chest pains get pretty bad. But, the healthier you get, the stronger she gets. Keep doing what you're doing, and no harm will come her way." Pietro's eyes didn't travel away from her as she pulled something out of her pocket. "Take these before you go to bed," she slid them down the thin hole on the wall and Pietro bent down to pick them up.
"What are they?" he asked her.
"They'll keep your heart from calling out to your sister." Pietro took one pill out and examined it. "Even when you don't feel it, your heart sends out signals to your sister, which causes her chest pain. It's extraordinary, but something we have to stop."
Instinctively, Pietro's hand found it's way up to his heart, and he gripped the bottle of pills tighter.
"How do you know this?" he asked her, and Natasha smiled shyly and turned away.
"Bruce is a smart man." Pietro watched as Natasha silently walked down the hallway. The blue colored pills dazzled against his skin, and he placed the bottle of pills on his bed and walked into the bathroom to shower.