Sam falls from the course and I swoop down, grabbing him before he falls on whoever entered. I set him down a little ways off and he immediately goes for his wings. I grab them before he gets them. "No, no wings until you finish the course without them."
"I almost got killed."
"You should learn not to be distracted so easily. Come on." I grab his hand and fly him back to the start.
"I can't start where I left off?" Sam whines.
I laugh. "Now where's the fun in that? You need me to show you again?"
"Yes." I retract my wings and get ready to start the course.
"Anya?" I hear from below. I look down and Steve stands there, laughing silently as Wanda and Pietro stare at me in shock. I wave and jump down, doing a few flips 'til I reach the floor, landing gently on my feet.
"Hey, don't leave me up here!"
"You're Falcon. You can deal with heights or learn to climb." I turn back to the others. "Hey."
"Hey? You come back from the dead and you just say hey?" Steve asks, amused.
"What am I supposed to say?"
"I don't know, how about explaining it or something."
"Yeah, well, that's kind of pointless if they are frozen now isn't it. Why tell something three times?"
"Point taken. How's training Sam going?"
I look back at Sam. "Well," I start, "Not as well as I'd hoped but we are getting somewhere. There's a problem with older people. They tend to be real stick in the muds!" I raise my voice the further I talk.
"Was that directed towards me?" Sam says.
"Now why would you think that?" Steve and I say in unison.
"Steve's older than me."
"But he learns better than you," I retort. Steve and I high five and laugh as Sam groans, almost falling.
"Where's Natasha?" Steve asks.
"She might be fonduing. I don't know."
"But she likes Bruce, right?"
"Yeah. Who do you think she'd be fonduing with?"
"You found him?"
"Yeah, in Africa."
Wanda and Pietro unfreeze, walking hesitantly towards me. "How are you alive?" Wanda asks. "Clint told us you were dead."
"Did you see me dead?" they don't reply. "S.H.I.E.L.D. rule number one, never believe it 'til you see it. Even then, you can't always believe it. I asked Clint to take me underground if I got hurt. That's what he did. I got to spend some time with my family once I was better. I just got in this morning."
"Why didn't you tell us? You let us think you were dead for a month!" Pietro screams
"Because my family needed me!" I scream. "I needed to be there for those who needed me and it's not like I could do anything anyway. I was stuck on the couch for a month. As I said, I only just got in this morning."
"You could have called or not let us believe you were dead!" Pietro screams.
"I'm sorry. I needed a break from S.H.I.E.L.D. and I should have told you."
"Why aren't you mad, Steve?" Wanda asks. Steve looks away. "Why are you so okay with this?"
"I'm just gonna," Pietro cuts him off.
"You knew!" He screams. "You knew the entire time."
"Not the entire time. I only found out when Natasha brought me to Clint. Guess who we found with Clint?" Steve gestures to me.
"And you decided not to tell us?" Pietro yells. He runs up to me and punches me again and again. Steve and Vision grab Pietro and hold him back. I sit on the floor. Tears start to come to my eyes. I get up and run out of the room. I hear Wanda and Steve yelling at Pietro. I run to Tony's lab and sit in a corner, crying. I feel my face swell and my stomach feels sore. My arms slowly gain purple and blue spots. I don't know how long I'm sitting there. I fall asleep in the dark corner, curled around myself.
When I wake up, I'm laid flat on the table with a blanket over me. I see Bruce, Tony and Natasha talking around me. I look at them and Natasha sees me. "Anna, what happened to you?"
"Pietro got mad and started punching me when I told him."
I try to sit up and Bruce holds me down. "You need to rest."
"So, how'd coming back go?" I ask. My voice is hoarse.
"You were right. I had nothing to fear. It's great. Thank you."
I smile and nod. Tony walks over to me and I can see where he had cried. "You're alive and you didn't tell us?"
"My family needed me. I'm sorry," I tell him.
Tony leans over me and picks me up in a hug. "Please don't do that to me again. I can't lose you too."
"I won't. I'll tell you if I need to go next time. I promise." Tony sets me down and pets my hair. "So how is everything here?"
"Pretty good. You should be alright in the next few hours to a day at most. Your face has stopped swelling and it is reducing."
"Alright. I need to get back to training. Can I go?"
"You need to take it easy, alright?" Bruce says.
"I will." I sit up and get off the table. "Oh and Tony. I like the suit."
"You have it?"
"Of course. I didn't just leave it at Clint's house. I love it!" I give Tony a hug before running through the halls. I get to the training room and see Steve talking to Wanda, Pietro and Vision as Sam tries to hit the punching bag. I zip up before anyone can see me surprise Sam. "Hey, there. Ready to run the course?"
He jumps and throw a punch at me. I block him and hold his wrist. He retracts his arm and takes a breath. "Sorry, don't sneak up on me." He notices my appearance. "What happened?"
"It's from earlier when Pietro got mad. I'll be fine. There are only a few bruises. Come on, you ready?"
"As I'll ever be." I call go and he races to the course. He zips through the course, his wings hitting a few of the hoops. He manages to stay aloft and reach the other side. I retract my wings as he flies back over. "How was that?"
"Good. Now lose the wings."
Sam sighs and shakes his head. "You really are crazy. Alright, have it your way." Sam sheds his wings and hands them to me. He prepares to jump and I call go. He swings between the hoops and bars, flying through the air. He makes it to the other end and hangs onto the hoop. "Hey, I did it!"
"Yes you did." I tell him. I look at my stopwatch. "In ten minutes. Let's start trimming that down." We run through the course dozens of times and by lunch he's down to just under three minutes. "Alright, take a break. We'll continue with the combat training after lunch."
"Thanks. Now, how do I get down?"
"You haven't figured it out?" Sam stares at me. I roll my eyes and jump, grabbing a harness of the ceiling. I swing over to Sam and hand it to him. "Clint and Steve trained be up here. Since no one can fly, they used harnesses to hang up here." Sam smiles and attaches the harness to himself. I hit the button and he glides to the ground, landing before the others. I pull up the harness and reattach it to the ceiling.
"Hey, you coming down?" Steve asks. I look down and Wanda is looking at me with a smile. Pietro tries to look at me but looks away. I see tears run down his cheeks.
"I'm good. I'm gonna do a little training of my own then work on Sam's wings. I'll be fine. Have a good lunch."
"Alright, don't forget to eat!" Steve calls.
I laugh and the others look at me, surprised. "Stop worrying. I've only done that a couple of times."
"Yeah, a couple dozen. I'll track you down."
"Bye!" They leave and I flip down from the ceiling. I pull out a few mats and do flips up and down them. After a while, I pull out a punching bag and hang it up, extending my wings. I start going at it up in the air. I hardly notice when the others come back, I just keep punching. I start to see the memories from my childhood with Pietro. I remember his promise to protect me and to help me. I remember the times we played together with Wanda. My punches get faster and tears come to my eyes, stinging my cheeks.
Arms wrap around me and hold my arms to my side. I stop and retract my wings. We land gently on the ground and I fall to my knees as he lets me go. After I take a few breaths, I stand up and turn back to see Steve and Sam there with the others behind them. "Anna, you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I just need a break." I walk around them and as I leave the room, Steve catches me.
"What did you see?"
"My past. My childhood. Before I was an experiment, before I met you, before I met Clint, before the bombs hit. It was my memories from playing with Wanda and Pietro. I think about that and I think about this morning. I'm scared of what he's becoming. I've never seen him so angry with me. I was scared."
"He didn't mean it. When you ran out, he calmed down and realized what he did. He's been scared to face you since then. He's scared you'll reject him."
I take a deep breath and hug him. "I wouldn't do that. Would you tell him? I want to talk to him, just not right now. I'll be in my lab if you need me."
"I'll make sure to tell him. Be careful, alright."
"You got it."
xTt