~Eliza's POV~
Why hasn't he woken up?" I stared at Pietro's body, watching his chest slowly rise and fall under the light blanket that had been pulled over him. A few tubes had been injected into his arms, and were slowly pumping food and water into his body. The small mask over his mouth clouded with every breath he took.
"Eliza, we told you, he got hurt badly-" Bruce began, but I interrupted him.
"But it's been two days. It's been two days, Bruce. Why hasn't he woken up? You told me he has accelerated healing." My throat was burning, and my mind felt fuzzy. I hadn't slept since I'd first woken up, to find I'd hurt Pietro so badly that his body had slipped into a temporary coma.
"He'll recover much faster than the average human." Bruce settled himself into the chair next to me. "It will still take time, but instead of months, even years after a back injury like that, Pietro will only need a couple of days, maybe a week or two at most."
"But..." I was at a loss for words, the guilt gnawing at my chest, making my breathing falter. "This is my fault." I whispered.
I could hear Bruce's sigh, but instead of turning to look at him, I brought my knees up to my chest in my chair, and shielded my face in them. It was because of me that Pietro was struggling to recover from injuries I'd given him.
"It wasn't you, it was the Hulk-"
"Who is a part of me, right? We're connected, so whatever she does, I do too! I hurt him Bruce. I hurt him!" I snapped my head to the side, tears making the image of him become blurry. His silence was the only confirmation I needed that I was the one at wrong.
I pushed myself away from my chair, and stalked to the other side of the room. I needed to get out, and let off steam somewhere. The Hulk was being surprisingly quiet, but I could only feel my own raw, human anger growing at the situation I was in.
"Eliza, you need to-"
"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" I screamed in a sudden outburst, waving my hands out. "I hurt him! Look at him! And that was an accident, I didn't mean to hurt him like this."
I was sobbing as Bruce stood up, but I couldn't take his sympathy right now. I couldn't face listening to his empathetic speeches about what he'd been through, I just needed to stop.
I was tired.
I backed into the door as he approached, and managed to fumble with the handle so it opened behind me. I left him in the room with Pietro, and began pacing the length of the corridors alone. I needed to scream, to yell, to punch out my frustrations with the world. I needed to find whoever had injected me, find out their motives, and take revenge on them for ruining my life.
If they hadn't hurt me, then I wouldn't have hurt him.
I could feel my pace speed up, and as I stormed round the corner I hit someone. Hard.
I stumbled back, sliding across the floor in my socks before managing to right myself. Bucky wasn't so lucky, and was sprawled on his back, groaning. "Nice to see you too Eliza."
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, suddenly sheepish with how rude I was acting towards others, and offered him my hand.
He staggered to his feet, wiping his hands on his trousers before looking at me. His eyes focused on mine, eyebrows furrowing as his lips parted momentarily. "Are you about to cry?"
"What? No!" I protested, trying to swallow back the burn of my throat that had been living there since I'd first seen Pietro's state.
"Do you want to come to the gym?" He offered, gesturing back down the hall I'd just marched through. "Let off some steam." He tilted his head knowingly, reading my behaviour like it was written across my face. Which it probably was.
"Okay."
I followed behind him, sticking close once we reached the doorway that would lead around to the line of hospital style beds. Bucky noticed me tensing, and sped up a little so we could hurry past it.
"Chuck these on." He threw me a pair of boxing gloves over his shoulder, before wrapping what looked like a pair of flat ones over his own hands. I managed to get the first one easily, but grew frustrated as I battled the second glove on.
After a minute or two I achieved it, and walked to stand in front of Bucky. He'd positioned us in the middle of a brightly lit, white room. It was almost entirely bare, besides the row of benches that lined two walls, and a huge cabinet that stretched the length of the shortest wall.
He lifted his hands, moving his legs so he was sturdy on my feet, then gestured for me to punch his open palms.
So I did.
"Do you want to tell me why you're angry?" He asked after a couple of minutes.
"Because I hurt Pietro." I huffed, cheeks blotchy from my efforts. "I hurt him and now he's lying in a coma."
He looked at me for a moment, studying my face as I swung another punch at him. "Tell me the real reason."
I glared at him, furious with myself. "That is the real reason! Did you see him? He's really hurt-"
"Tell me why you're angry." He replied calmly. "Who hurt him?"
"I did!" I shouted, my punches flying quicker and harder than they had before.
"In what form?"
"The Hulk." I gritted my teeth, clenching my fists as I continued my assault. "The Hulk hurt him."
Bucky lowered his hands, and stepped back as I tried to finish the punch I'd already swung in his direction. "Do you know who I am?"
I blinked, lowering my hands in slight confusion. "You're Bucky."
"Right. But who else am I?" He was unstrapping his gloves as he spoke, his gruff voice soft when he lifted his eyes to meet mine.
I thought for a moment. "The White Wolf?"
"Yes. And?" His patience was starting to make me lose my own. He was speaking in riddles.
"Steve's boyfriend?" I asked.
He laughed a little at that, his eyes twinkling as his cheeks lifted with his smile. "Very true. But come on, who was I? I haven't been them for a long time."
I floundered, before realising what he meant. "You were the Winter Soldier. But that doesn't count, does it? It wasn't really you, you were injected with that stuff and then they'd read those words and you'd transform-"
"Exactly." His eyes had returned to seriousness as he looked at me carefully. "Exactly Eliza. Who else was injected with something against their will?"
I went quiet, hanging my head. "I was."
"And who else transforms against their will?" He questioned.
"Me." I whispered.
"The Winter Soldier and I are both the same person, and separate people. It took me a long time to realise that his actions were not mine, and his thoughts were not mine, but we shared a body." He walked over to the bench, took a seat and then leant his head back to rest on the wall.
I hesitantly walked over to him, fiddling with taking my gloves off. He looked up at me, knowledge levelled in his gaze. "You are not the Hulk, Eliza. You did not hurt Pietro."
The tears fell then. The frustration, the tiredness, the anger. The emotions wept over my cheeks as I sunk down onto the bench beside Bucky, shoving my head into my hands as my body heaved with each breath. "I don't know what to do." I sobbed, "I'm so... angry. At them."
I felt a large hand on my back, rubbing smoothing circles to calm my panic. "At who?"
I wiped at my eyes, fumbling in my pockets in search of a tissue. Bucky held one in front of my face, seemingly produced from nowhere, and waited whilst I blew my nose loudly. I sniffled, brushing the tears away more fiercely now before sucking in a deep breath.
"At the people who did this. My... life, has been ruined. They've taken everything from me. I'm not an innocent child anymore, Bucky! I was working to save money, trying to figure my life out, and now this! I'm living with the Avengers with a rampant green monster living inside my head, and I'm so lost!"
His lips crooked into a sympathetic smile as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Do you know what we should do?"
I leant into his side, wiping at my eyes sleepily. "What?"
"First, you should go to sleep. You look like you haven't been near your bed in days." It was true, but I still took offence at him judging my sleep-deprived state. "And then, we're going to hold a meeting. Find out who those people were, find out their goal, and then take them down. Punish them. Bring you the justice you deserve. If I could do it to HYDRA, then I would, but there's too many of them and they keep spreading." He gritted out his last sentence, and his fingers tightened against my shoulder.
I gently shrugged his arm away, and yawned loudly. "That sounds good." I smiled with relief, and felt my eyes begin to slide shut.
I could feel Bucky gently stand me to my feet, and ask, "Shall you go and sleep now?"
I nodded tiredly, and held my hands up. I could feel myself slipping away as his arms hooked around me, and lifted me against his body.
***
~Pietro's POV~
"Where's Princess Hulk?"
"Princess?"
"The accent, come on Bruce."
"She stormed out."
"Why?"
"She was angry she hurt Pietro."
What?
"But she didn't-"
"She's struggling to understand that the Hulks actions are not her own."
My head pounded harder, and I could feel a mask over my face slow my breathing. I sucked in a breath, then another and another, but I couldn't breathe.
I threw my arm at my face, and ripped at the thing that was preventing me from taking an actual gulp of air. I flung the mask away, shooting upright as my eyes blinked open.
The world was blurry, and it took a moment of people's hands pushing me, before I lay back down into a lying position. I could feel drugs beating through my system, making my world hazy and foggy. "What happened?"
Bruce's body wobbled in my eye-line, only growing blurrier the longer I looked at him. "Eliza turned into the Hulk-"
"I know that." I rushed out, then turned to the side to vomit into a strategically placed bucket. My head was aching in a sharp point on my temple, and my back stung with every tiny movement. I felt someone wipe a cloth against my mouth, and adjust my body back into the bed. "Is Eliza okay?"
I heard a snigger in the corner, and looked up to see Tony shrugging. "What? The kids been beaten black and blue and the first thing he does is ask after his friend? It's so cute!"
"So why are you laughing?" Bruce's voice had hardened slightly as he stood back from helping me.
"Nerves?" Tony squeaked out, waving his hand in the air as Bruce huffed by my side.
Bruce moved so he was sat beside me. "Pietro, Eliza is incredibly upset with herself-"
"But why?"
He was quiet, eyes flicking down to his hands before he looked back up. "She hurt you, and she feels guilty-"
"It was the Hulk. I helped get Eliza back, Eliza didn't hurt me." I tried to explain through the pounding headache and slamming pain of my back.
"We know." Bruce spoke softly, "we know, but she's struggling to accept it herself."
"Well where-"
A knock on the door interrupted us, and Tony pulled it open to reveal Bucky, standing sheepishly in the doorway. "I've spoken to Eliza."
I sat back upright, but Bruce placed a warning hand on my shoulder. "How is she?"
"She's sleeping."
"Finally." Tony murmured, but straightened when Bruce and I turned to stare at him.
"Tomorrow we're going to hold a meeting and figure out how the hell this happened." He looked a little angrier than his usual calm expression, and he glared at the floor for a moment. "We're going to help her."
"I need to see her, please take these out." I pleaded with Bruce, holding my arms up so he could remove the various tubes in them.
His face held reluctance, and he paused. "Pietro-"
"Bruce, please." I begged.
He nodded, and with a sigh carefully removed each one. "You have to come back and speak to one of the doctors as soon as you've spoken to Eliza. They need to make sure you're actually well enough to be going out."
"Fine." I agreed, and held onto his arm so I could push myself onto my feet. He held me carefully, helping me step into a pair of jogging bottoms he'd brought me, so I wouldn't expose my back as I walked back to the sleeping corridor.
I pulled a sweatshirt on, and staggered to the door. "Why can't I go fast?" I mumbled, turning back to Bruce. "Why?"
"You're healing." He told me sternly, "you are very badly hurt."
I huffed and walked out of the room, not enjoying the slow pace I had to travel at as every point on my body ached. Our rooms felt too far away, and long minutes had passed by the time I finally reached her door. I felt like close to collapsing as my body screamed in agony, and I knocked twice on the door that now separated Eliza and I.
There was no answer, as to be expected, and I leant against the wood for a moment to collect myself.
"Eliza?" I whispered, when I pushed her door open. She was hidden under a pile of blankets, hair messily spread around her face and pillows in a tangled mess. "Eliza?" I called again, pushing the door shut behind me.
Her head lifted up as she made a groaning noise, but she quickly rolled over and fell straight back to sleep. I moved to the side of her bed, and reached out to hold her hand. Her fingers squeezed mine gently, before her eyes opened slowly.
She pushed herself up, tears already creeping to the tips of her cheeks. "Pietro, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"
"You're okay." Relief flooded me as she fumbled with her blankets, pulling them back so she could reach up and pull me into a hug.
I stumbled from her action, and fell beside her onto the bed. "Eliza-"
"I'm sorry," she cried softly, "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, please Pietro..."
She curled into my chest, and I enveloped her with as much of my body as I could. I wrapped my arms around her, and entwined our legs as she nuzzled her face into my chest.
"It's okay Eliza," I stroked her hair slowly, "We're both okay. I promise."
I wiped her cheeks gently, making sure she had calmed fully. She squeezed my middle, fingers clutching the back of my sweatshirt. "Why are you here Pietro? You need to be in the hospital room."
"I came to you."
She rolled her eyes playfully through her tears, "Yes I know, but why?"
I frowned at her, wiping her hair from her forehead as she peered up at me. "You promised to come back to me when you feel sad, or need someone. I promised to come to you, so I did."
"Pietro-"
"Let's sleep." I whispered.
She nodded slowly, and pulled the blankets over our bodies so she could be buried under their weight.
"Thank you," Her voice was almost inaudible as she spoke into my chest.
"For what?"
"Being here." She tightened her grip on my top yet again, before closing her eyes.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi! Sorry this chapter is a few days late! I've been so busy lately and this weeks been really hectic, which also means this chapter is a little shorter than usual.
I also missed my update for Her Second Soulmate, so that chapter will be posted next Friday.
Thank you for your reads, votes and comments!
xxx ❤️❤️❤️