The Winter Wraith

Chapter 19

One second Adina was sitting in the conference room about to have a panic attack, and the next she was in the forest with Pietro. He gently set her down on the soft grass, her back resting against the rough bark of an oak tree, before taking a seat beside her.

"You need to breathe, Adina. You're okay, you've got this. Just breathe."

Adina's breathing still remained erratic; her eyes were unfocused, not giving any thought to the man addressing her. Seeing that he wasn't getting through to her, he changed tactics. The speedster grabbed her hand and brought it to his chest. He took a deep breath of the fresh outside air.

"Feel my heartbeat? Just listen to it. Now, take a deep breath with me, Addy."

The scared girl followed his instructions and breathed in sync with him. Hints of pine wafted through the air as birds chirped to one another overhead.

"There you go. Deep breaths, everything's okay."

A couple of minutes later, Adina's breathing had returned to normal. She dropped her hand from Pietro, not liking the physical touch, yet grateful for his fast thinking.

"How'd you know what to do?" she asked.

"When my sister first got her powers, she could hear anyone's thoughts. Sounds like a cool power at first, yes? But, before she learned how to control them, there were times when all the thoughts would overwhelm her and..." he trailed off, making a gesture to Adina's situation.

Adina looked down to the hands in her lap. There was a slight tremor in them, so she clasped them together in order to not bring any unwanted attention to it. Vulnerability was not something she particularly liked to showcase. So, she wouldn't. Another beat of silence between the pair passed before Adina suddenly spoke up.

"Well, thank you for the help, but I would've been-was fine. We should, uh, head back before they come looking for us."

A look of confusion danced across Pietro's face. One may have thought there was a hint of pity in his eyes, but Adina could not discern that, as she refused to make eye contact with the young man. She kept her head down and faced away from him, her arms wrapped around herself.

Pietro stared at the girl for a few seconds, concerned over her sudden switch in behavior. For a second there, the girl reminded him of his own sister, though he didn't really know why. He shook the weird feeling off and broke his stare. No matter if he agreed or disagreed with Adina's statement regarding her well-being, Pietro listened to the younger girl and sped them both back to the Compound to the awaiting team in the conference room.

It was an interesting sight to see, the differences of emotion once the two returned to their seats. Adina kept a blank face throughout the rest of the meeting as if her composure had never slipped, ignoring the looks Pietro kept sneaking towards her. Eventually, Wanda got annoyed with it and gave her brother's arm a light slap to get him to stop.

"Anyway, that's all the rules and such. How about a team bonding exercise after dinner tonight?" Steve said as he dismissed the team.

"Cap, if you want to watch Frozen 2 again, just ask," Pietro teased as he walked away.

"Not another princess movie. I say we have a Nerf War."

"I call Natasha on my team!"

"That's not fair! You had her last time!"

Wanda let out a quiet laugh as she watched a few of her teammates get into a heated agreement about who would be on whose team. They took Nerf very seriously. Whoever won would brag about it for days on end.

"Wanda, I need to talk to you," Steve spoke, causing the young woman to turn around back towards the table, where he was standing.

After the team cleared out, Steve finally asked his question.