How do you heal?

Chapter 45: Open Up

Annie and Pietro sat on the couch in the living room. It was the day after Thanksgiving and Alex and Loki were both working.

"What's the most daring thing you've ever done?" Annie asked as she pulled a card from the 'Conversation Starters' game box she'd dug out of a closet. A game that Charlie, ever the entertainer, had bought years ago to pull out at parties to help his introverted partner. The duo had finished off the leftovers April had sent home with them and had been playing for about twenty minutes.

"I would say signing up for illegal human experimentation is pretty daring." Pietro answered with a grin.

Annie looked at him flabbergasted. "Yeah, I would have to agree. Also I don't think this game was made with superheroes in mind. My answers have been super boring compared to yours."

"I don't think your answers are boring. I like learning things about you." He said with a smile, giving her leg a soft nudge with his foot. "Okay, my turn. Would you ever sing at a karaoke night?"

"Yes, I actually used to sing at one weekly but I haven't really gone," she paused for a moment and sighed. "Since Bucky left." She rolled her eyes as she finished her answer as if she were irritated at having to think about the super soldier at all.

Pietro watched as her mind went elsewhere and she began to bite her nails. "You know, not that my opinion on the topic matters but I think what he did was pretty shitty."

She dropped her hand and smiled as she returned her focus to him. "You and me both, Maximoff. I just wish I could stop thinking about it."

"You'll get there but until you do I will just have to keep distracting you. Now pull a card, it's your turn."

Annie did as she was told and pulled a card but before she read it she said, "You know I never thanked you."

"For what?"

"For the rave, the hikes, the video games. The distractions. I've still got a ways to go but without yours and Alex's plotting I don't think I'd have gotten back into the world anytime soon."

"It was purely self serving. With Wanda dating Vision I was bored and you are the only other person at the compound I like hanging out with. Now read your card."

"Fine." She said with a soft laugh. "What is your favorite childhood memory?"

"Watching old sitcoms with my family."

"Really?"

"Yes. I used to pretend to hate it but I didn't. We would all sit down together and I would tease Wanda because she would get so entranced she'd watch with her mouth hanging open. I miss it."

"I'm glad you have good memories of them. It doesn't make up for what happened but, I'm sure it helps to look back and remember being happy."

For the first time since she had met him Annie saw genuine sadness cross Pietro's face. "It's better than nothing." He lay back on the couch, tossing his feet into her lap and forcing a smile back to his face. "What about you though? Your family seems pretty great and there's so many of them. I bet you have a ton of happy childhood memories."

"Ha ha, yeah uhm...my family is great, all of them, but my childhood was anything but happy." She said as she played with the card in her hand.

"Seriously? Your dad was like, the nicest guy I have ever met." He said, surprised by her statement.

She beamed at the mention of her father. "He is. My dad is honestly the greatest man ever and my favorite person in the world." She tossed the card into the box and rested her hand on his leg. "But I didn't know he existed until I was almost six and I lived with my asshole alcoholic mom until I was twelve."

He sat up in shock moving closer to her. "What?"

"Yeah, my dad's first wife passed away when my brothers were little. Sometime after that he had a fling with my mom and about a year later he married April and along came my sisters. But while they were living it up in the suburbs I was living off of ritz crackers in a shitty apartment while my mom was out getting plastered."

"That sounds awful."

"Eh, honestly it was better when she was gone, especially after Alex's family moved into the building. When she was home it was like walking on eggshells just waiting for her to freak out because the dishes weren't done correctly or there were ashes from her cigarettes on the floor or whatever other unacceptable slight she came up with happened. For someone who had no work ethic the woman was incredibly demanding." Annie never really spoke about Cherry with anyone other than Alex and Charlie and as far as she was concerned April was her mother in all the ways that mattered but she had spent so much of her life on guard, tip toeing around conversations and hiding herself behind walls out of fear of saying the wrong thing, igniting someone's rage and loathing the way she had Cherry's. It felt nice to open up. Especially with Pietro. He himself was always so open and forward and unconcerned. When she'd mentioned Charlie the other day he hadn't made a being deal, hadn't gotten awkward and offered condolences with pitying eyes. He just took in the information and moved on and it made him easy to be around.

"So how'd you end up with your dad, if you didn't know him until you were five?" He asked with genuine curiosity.

"I was incredibly lucky and by an absolute miracle he ran into my mom when she was picking me up from school one day. He said he took one look at me and knew I was his and then fought tooth and nail for the next six years to get me."

"Wow, I'm glad he won in the end."

She shrugged. "I'm not really sure 'won' is the correct term."

"What do you mean?"

"Well my dad being my dad helped a drunken Tony Stark get safely back to his hotel once and gained a very rich friend. When Tony found out about my dad's situation with me he paid Cherry to go away and a good lawyer to make sure she could never come back."

Pietro furrowed his brow. "Tony did that?"

She nodded. "I get why you and Wanda have issues with him but he's not all bad. He's not perfect but he was a product of his upbringing and he's trying to be better. But even at his worst he cared for the people that cared for him and lucky for me my dad's a caring guy who was in the right place at the right time."

He leaned back on the couch next to her and tossed his arm around her. "Is that why he calls you Fortunato?"

She leaned into him and looked up at him with a shocked expression. "You know...I've never asked him."

Pietro leaned over her and plucked another card from the box. "Okay, my turn. Do you sleep in the nude?" He asked and waggled his eyebrows.

She laughed loudly at that. "Nice try but I know for a fact that no card says that." Easy, just so easy.

"No, but it's a good question."

"Not how the game works, read your card or forfeit."