LOST SOUL ➸ hawkeye ✔️

iii.

03 | PIETRO IS A BASKET

The rest of the dinner was a comfortable talk. Pietro and Clint bantered for a while about something Pietro had done during a fight with the Avengers while Cooper and Lila had headed up to get ready to sleep.

"You should be glad you weren't there. It was hell," Clint side-smirked, although Lana saw some deeper meaning hiding in his eyes. "I wouldn't have made it if not for that brat."

He jerked his head at Pietro, whose smile had faded and was now staring off in the distance. Lana looked up in alarm a few seconds later at the sound of a screeching chair.

Pietro sent an apologetic look to Laura. "I'm going to bed."

Clint frowned. "Sorry, kid, I didn't mean to-"

Pietro shook his head. "It's not you."

Pietro slightly limped away without another word, leaving the rest of the group in guilty silence. Well, everyone except Lana. The kryptonian was still confused. What exactly had Pietro done?

Not to brag or anything, but she was far from an idiot. She'd pieced together what she could. Her dad was going to die if Pietro hadn't saved him, and it had earned him a series of unseen injuries and a whole lot of pain.

Also it was bad enough that his sister was always tailing him, and constantly asking if he was alright. Not to mention that Lana noticed he struggled up the stairs and was out of breath half of the time.

Clint was beginning to stand, looking at Wanda in a silent plea for her to sit down and relax, and that he'd handle it.

"I can, uh ... I can go check on him ... " Lana said awkwardly.

Clint raised an eyebrow at her in a dead 'you?' stare.

"What?" Lana gave him a look before peering over to Wanda and gave her a lopsided smile. "Building friendships and all, right?"

Wanda answered her with a reluctant nod. Lana wiped her mouth with her napkin, set it on the table and rose. She pushed her chair back in and lifted her head back to her family, and let out a breathy smile.

"Don't worry. I got it." She turned her back to her family and entered the living room.

"No trust," Lana muttered under her breath as she left.

Reaching the staircase, she slowed her pace. Pleasant conversation had restarted as Laura, Clint and Wanda tidied the table and cleaned up dinner. Lana reached the top of the stairs, the last stair creaking under her foot.

Passing the upstairs hall-bathroom, the kryptonian spotted Cooper and Lila brushing their teeth and smiled at them, the two returning with bright grins. Finally she came upon a closed wooden door and tapped her knuckles against the hard surface.

"Pietro?" Lana called.

No response came and Lana pressed her lips into a thin line, and with a sigh she opened the door with a small creek. "Pietro, I-"

Lana lifted her head to see Pietro looking into a full-body mirror. The white-haired speedster had lifted his shirt, pinching the hem between his teeth. Thick gauze bandages tangled around his torso, faint spots of blood in some places.

Pietro poked at the wounds with a wince, examining them in the mirror.

Lana gaped and internally panicked, cursing silently. She was not supposed to see that. She didn't get another thought, because Pietro looked up in the mirror, catching her reflection and his eyes blew wide.

Lana sputtered. "Ah, sorry-"

"What the hell?!" Pietro quickly released his shirt.

Ah, right, this probably didn't look great. Lana probably looked like a freaking peeping tom.

She gawked at Pietro's expression. "This isn't what it looks like- I'm not a ... sorry-"

Her brain screamed for her to close the door.

"Sorry- I didn't, sorry ..." Lana scrambled for the door while Pietro's eyebrows were furrowed, mouth opened slightly as he stared at her.

With no regard to her enhanced strength, Lana slammed the door shut in a mad panic. The doorknob ripped from its place and the door twisted off of its hinges with a loud crack. Lana froze, doorknob in her hand and stared at the twisted door. It leaned on an angle in the doorway, only the bottom hinge still attached.

Lana was face-palming now, looking aggravated. The speedster walked up to Lana, trying to get a read on her. The kryptonian frowned again, feeling incredibly embarrassed. There was a moment of awkward silence, with Lana looking stuck halfway between a smile and a frown, and Pietro unsure of whether he should be really angry or really violated.

"Sorry," Lana repeated again pathetically.

"Hey, old man!" Pietro shouted loudly, his voice a bit ragged as he tilted his head at Lana.

"What?" Clint's annoyed reply came.

"My door is broken!"

"What?! Are you kidding me?!"

Lana heard footsteps, but her body was frozen and her mind was still trying to process what the hell had just happened. Her father was on his way up the stairs and made his way towards the two teenagers.

"You haven't even been here for more than a day and you've already broken something," Clint grumbled. "You little bas-"

Lana flicked her eyes to the bathroom as Lila and Cooper poked their heads out while Clint scowled. "-ket."

Pietro snorted, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms and leaned on the doorframe.

"Dad, why is Pietro a basket?" Lila inquired with a rising eyebrow.

"Don't worry about it, sweetie, just keep getting ready for bed," Clint urged, casually blocking her view of the dismantled door.

The children gave a nod while Clint gave them an easing grin, and they returned to the bathroom before the archer spun around, staring at the broken door.

Lana gave him a sheepish smile as she held the doorknob out to Clint. "Sorry, dad ..."

"It's fine," Clint sighed as took the knob, a small smile reappearing on his face. "I can fix it tomorrow."

He then turned his eyes to Pietro.

"And you, you white haired brat," Clint greeted.

The name-calling seemed to be on good terms, because they both shared a gaze.

"I swear, if you break something, I'm gonna-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Pietro cut him off.

Clint fingered the doorknob again as he began walking back down the hall, away from the two. He reached the end of the hallway and turned around the railing onto the staircase, leaving the two alone together again.

"So, uh ..." Lana began after a bit.

"Pietro Maximoff," the speedster stated.

He didn't hold out his hand, or nod, or really any greeting. He just gave Lana a friendly smirk, the first, if the kryptonian remembered correctly, which she did.

"Lana Barton."

Pietro chuckled again, shaking his head. "Pietro and Lana. Fighting crime and fixing doors."