Title: Don't Fear The Reaper
Paring: Pietro Maximoff X Reader
Warnings: ghosts and death and healing
Spoilers: yes for Age of Ultron. Major spoilers.
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Some days, it would be normal. Well, as normal as the Avengers could get; it wasn't exactly a picnic when a group of superheroes came together to crash in the Avengers facility in upstate New York.
Everyone was their own person. But, to be honest, and frank, it like living in a damn sitcom. What, with Tony's tinkering would wake the team at ungodly hours, and on Sunday morning Thor would shock everyone out of their celebratory hangovers with his baritone rumble. Even Steve got in on the drama; he would make the new training Avengers follow a strict diet (which you, Sam, Wanda and Vision begrudgingly ate...but also snuck powdered doughnuts in to substitute cheat day to be everyday).
But a very not normal thing was going on.
Something very not normal. At all.
You happened to notice this occurrence only because of the one thing which made you the reserve Avenger. Thanks to your freakishly weird mutation that Charles Xavier trained you to manage before you left the X-Men's yellow and black spandex for an Avenger ID card. You, ________ ________, had been known for reasons scientifically unknown, to possess a gene to heal people ... as well as resurrect them.
But the latter? That had one-time thing, an accident, when Bobby fried himself with the toaster. A one off.
Sure, you weren't a regular miracle, and Nat and Clint made sure there was no need for Reaper to make an appearance (you really disliked the codename, you didn't kill people) but it had its perks where it did. Seeing as you were fully trained for combat, thank you Mr Summers - you had to wait your turn on the sidelines for speciality tuning.
Which, by pure happenstance and accident, was when you noticed the strange, not normal, very peculiar goings-on going on with Wanda.
Quietly, as if she was talking to someone beside her, she'd gesture and animate her face with a variety of emotions. She would talk, aloud, in her head, in all variations of tones. The first time it happened, you wondered if it could be a fluke. Wanda Maximoff was an enigma wrapped up in a burrito of strange. But, the sixteenth time that month, and you were starting to wonder about Wanda.
"Hey - is it a bad time to talk?" Turning, you find you're face to face with a slightly sweating Sam. Obviously, he's taken three rounds to many with an angry rhinoceros, or has been in hand to hand with Cap.
You shake your head. "Nope. Just waiting. What's on your mind, Sammy?"
He smiles. You're the only one on the team who calls him that without being disputed. "Same thing that's on your brain, Reaper. She sure talks a lot to her self, don't you think?"
You lay your head on your knees, and look at her. Really look at Wanda, like a Men in Black agent or a pet owner trying to suss out what their rambunctious puppy did to their poor living room.
"...Sam," you breathe, "you've worked with people with PTSD and stuff, right? In your support group back in DC?" You turn to him. His face is beaded in sweat, eyes wide.
Sam nods. "Just because I have a support group doesn't mean I'm the freaking angel on your shoulder, gorgeous." He smirks. "But yeah. PTSD is common along the usuals for Vets."
From the corner of your eye, you see Wanda nudge the thin air, as if she's shoving someone for a remark.
"I think Wanda is seeing her brother's ghost," you whisper.
There's a shout from the mat, and just at that moment, you witness Thor's arm twisted backwards by Steve; only to be accompanied by a resounding crack! Your face pales - even though you were trained back to front on your abilities, and had been doing it for years, it still felt almost sick to be used as a healer for those who shouldn't have been hurt that badly on a training mat.
"That's my call!" you wink to Sam.
"Knock 'em dead, Reaper," he laughs, shoving you off. "But don't actually kill them. That would look bad as f-,"
You roll your eyes. "Dude, my CV is perfect. I've got to heal an Asgardian before he tries to set his own broken bone again."
The next day is Steve's cheat day, and you meet Wanda at the breakfast bar. Her slim hands are deft, quickly making rum-balls out of chocolate biscuits. Her fingers make it look almost like an elegant dance. Beside her, Vision watches vigilantly, aiding her in her cooking by passing the coconut and rolling them into the tray. You're still not sure if the pair of them are exactly that, a couple, but love happens where it does.
"Hey, Wanda? Is now a bad time to, uh, talk to you?" You wonder.
The brunette raised her head. "I'm free! What's wrong, ________? Did Steve send you to steal all of my rum-balls?"
Vision's face darkens into a deep frown. "I will protect these balls with my life. They are helpless, defenseless. And tasty."
You shake your head at the android and his girlfriend-to-be. "No, no, Steve didn't send me, I sent me. Not for rum-balls at all. I'm here to, okay, don't think I'm being rude or mean, but..." Your voice trails off, "I've seen you talking some days, and nobody is there. Who -,"
Wanda waves you off. "Don't you worry, I'm not crazy just yet. It's my brother. I can see my brother."
You frown. "The one I read about?"
"I forget often that you were not a part of the team when the Maximoff twins were aboard," Vision's frown relaxes. "You read quite in depth about Wanda's speedy brother."
You blush. "He had a quite expansive skill set," you admit, and deflecting their gaze, "But not like you, Wanda. You're literally the definition of superhero."
Wanda rolls her eyes. "Though that flattery will get you nowhere in the world, I say...to hell with that. Thank you, my friend. I think my brother lik - would have liked you well."
It's midnight when your dreams are interrupted with a surge in your veins. Dumbfounded, you try and walk off this buzz in your blood, returning to the kitchen where you learned most probably the strangest thing since Tony portal jumping in broad daylight. Were ghosts even real? How could Wanda see her brother, was -
Your thoughts are disjointed by a ... glowing? The first thing you could think of was Bruce Banner and his multitudes of experiments, then the problematic Tesseract. But as you turned the corner to the lounge area beside the kitchen, you stop.
And stare.
Wanda Maximoff is asleep on the armchair, snuggled under a fluffy comforter with a book open across her chest. It's Tolstoy.
But she, the Scarlet Witch isn't the cause of the abnormality for once.
Standing before her, is a pale, eerie form, iridescent in the moonlight. You know the handsome face of this man from somewhere, but all you can see is this perfect human, strung with lithe muscles and windswept white hair. He wears clothing, just as translucent as himself. But all of him, all that he is, he is alight.
His eyes turn to you.
The man, no, the ghost before you is Pietro Maximoff.
"Holy -," you whisper. At once, everything seems to be ringing in your ears. Everything that you were thinking about, dreaming about, ever taking or breathing or being about in your years prior to this moment turns to a screeching white noise that bleeds into your brain. He's here, he's real, he's here -
And suddenly, you're falling toward him.
The carpet had been rumpled, and now, you're falling into Pietro Maximoff - almost to completely be a part of his glowing ghost form. His face warps from a serene gaze into one of almost horror ...
and that's where it ends.
-
Your eyes open at once, and burn at the brightness of the white light. What kind of sane person has a white lamp - you're in the hospital wing. It explains the people sleeping around your bed, and the baggy blue nightdress and the ugly hospital blankets. It would explain the casual twin beeping of the heart monitors, and the footsteps of Dr Cho approaching.
"_________! You're awake!" she beams.
On both sides of the bedside, the team snap awake. Sam looks like he hasn't moved from the bedside, and the same for Wanda.
Wanda.
Pietro!
"I saw a ghost," you blurt out. "Of Pietro Maximoff last night, and -,"
Steve hides his yawn behind his big hand. "That was four weeks ago, _______. We've missed our Reaper."
Natasha agrees. "I broke my wrist two days ago. Hey, now you're awake, you can heal me!"
Clint scowls, reprimanding his battle partner. "Let her wake up, Tash."
Your head is spinning, mouth dry and eyes wide. Four weeks? That's almost a whole - it's a month! I've been asleep -
Bruce Banner brings you back from your panicked thoughts with a touch of your wrist. "It wasn't as abnormal as you would believe, ________. Your mutation, it ... how do it put it?" The scientist frowns.
"See for yourself," Tony slides back, and withdraws the curtain to the bed beside you. "Morning, Speedy."
Your eyes widen.
In the bedsheets, is not the ghost of Pietro Maximoff, he's undoubtedly alive. And playing solitaire with himself on the removable hospital bed ledge. His light eyes catch yours, and he gives you a smile.
"Hello, ________." He greets, waving. "Thank you for bringing me back to my sister."