Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver Imagines

That Moment (Part Two)

It is a quiet, peaceful morning, and you have never been happier. You've been a lawfully wedded Maximoff for about a month now, and every day feels better than the one before it. You never really thought that you would get a chance to rest, to be a normal person instead of someone constantly caught up in the dangers of the Avengers life.

Yet here you are, smiling and happy, as if nothing had ever gone wrong. You didn't think you'd get the chance to have a life this good, especially not when you were captured in a small holding cell on the Raft, or when the love of your life, Pietro Maximoff, was snapped away before your eyes.

However, despite all evidence pointing otherwise, you managed to have your happy ending after all. You haven't seen most of the Avengers since the wedding, other than a few brief phone calls here and there to make sure nothing major has happened, but it's all good. For once, there is no trouble, no strife. Just you and your husband (what a thing to say!) in a house where no one can find you unless you want them. It couldn't be better.

You're lying on a sofa in your living room now, watching the sunlight trace patterns on the ceiling that shift and change with the growing hour. Pietro is wandering around somewhere behind you, you can hear the pattern of his feet on the hardwood floors and soft rugs, and it all feels so much like home that you almost can't believe you haven't lived here your entire life.

It's quiet and peaceful, or at least it is until you get a text on your phone from a number you haven't heard from in a while, Bucky Barnes. It says one thing, and one thing alone. Turn on the news.

Pietro appears in the space next to you, hair falling back into place from his sudden run. Apparently he got the mysterious message as well, and is reaching for the TV remote to see what's going on.

It doesn't take long to figure out what's captured Bucky's attention. There's a crowd of news reporters going live in DC, talking to a man emblazoned in the classic stars and stripes. What's more, he's carrying a shield you've only seen on the arm of one man before, and that was Steve Rogers. Steve is gone now, though, whether he's dead or retired you have no idea.

This man, though, isn't Steve. It's not even close. He may carry the shield, and he may have the same chiseled jaw, blue eyes, and blond hair as the supersoldier who came before him, but he is in no way Captain America. So why is he pretending to be your friend?

Through bits and pieces of the interview, you manage to get a grasp of the story. The government got bored without having the Avengers to prop up their PR, so they decided to recast a favorite hero in the hopes of getting public support back on their side. This man, John Walker, is the new Captain America. The only problem is that he lacks exactly what made Steve so good- a conscience. If Steve had seen this guy, he would have laughed him out of the country, something you tell to Pietro with more than a little chagrin.

Pietro looks just as irritated as you, though. "He can't just do that. I thought the shield was Sam's."

You grimace. "It should have been Sam's. Sam put it in the museum to stop this sort of thing. Looks like the government decided that wouldn't be a thing anymore. Why have a symbol if you can't benefit from it, you know?"

Pietro's gaze is stony, and you realize that he's thinking back to a previous round of supersoldiers. Pietro is eerily familiar with governments trying to claim heroes as their own; it's how he got his powers, after all, the same with Wanda. If there's one thing Pietro Maximoff hates more than anything, it's poorly intentioned men thinking they can fool everybody with a little bit of camera glamour and charm.

Pietro crosses the room in half a second so he's standing behind you, fingers tapping irritably on the back of the couch. You can practically sense his anger coming off of him in waves, and you smile in spite of yourself.