You Didn't See That Coming? ~Hawksilver~ #Wattys2015

Orphans Part I

A/N: the Orphans storyline and the Splitsides storyline are going to be back-to-back every chapter. The Orphans storyline takes place when the twins are age 11. Hope you enjoy!

Pietro's POV

Wanda and I faced the building that, potentially, we could live at until we reach age 18. After a year on the streets after our parents died, we were feeling so alone besides ourselves. We didn't like to steal or beg, but we had to in order to survive. But it wasn't until last night when we decided enough was enough...Last night was the coldest night I can think of. Snowing hard, the ground iced over, the air stiff and frigid, Wanda and I had been huddled with our arms tightly around each other in a failed attempt to warm ourselves. Wanda had found some tarp that we were using like a tent for a shelter from the falling snow, but we soon realized we'd only get piled under a heap of snow and freeze to death anyways. Instead we used it as a bedspread and sat on top of it. We both shivered like the ground did when the apartment crumbled due to the shell hitting last year.

Enough was enough, we decided. We would go to an orphanage and seek care, shelter, food, new clothing...possibly new friends and more company. Wanda took a look at me, unsure, but I nodded and took her hand, hoping I reassured her and stepping forward to the big wooden double doors. I reached out and hesitantly knocked on it three times, stepping back and waiting for it to open.

After about a minute, there were rushed footsteps and the door opened fast and roughly to reveal a large, plump woman with a fussing little child in her arms. Her stern, cross expression softened as she looked down at us with pity.

"Please," she said, "do come in." She opened the door for us a little more with one hand, struggling to hold the little toddler still. "Hush, Willough, it's still early. Getrude...Rudy, please get some dry clothes for these children. They're young-but not very young-I'd say around nine."

"We're eleven," I muttered quietly, and she looked up.

"My, my, rather small for our age, aren't we? I don't even need to ask if the two of you are brother and sister...twins?" We nodded, still petrified. "Don't be scared, children, nobody's going to hurt you. We're going to get you into dry clothes, and get you both warmed up. Are you hungry?" We nodded again. "Please, use your words. I know you can speak."

"We don't know a lot of English," I said, "Does everyone speak English here?"

"Yes, all the time," the woman said, "Some of us don't even know Sokovian or Russian. One little boy only speaks Polish. When was the last time the two of you had a proper meal?"

"It's been ages," Wanda said, exasperated, "A year, maybe." The woman's eyes widened, and she suddenly realized the toddler had fallen asleep. "Oh, thank goodness..."she gently ran upstairs and came back down, the toddler no longer in her arms. "Mind I ask, why are you here? Has something happened?"

"Our parents died in the bombings," I said, still being quiet as I could be.

"That was a year ago. Where have you been in the past year...no. Oh, no, don't tell me you've been on the streets this past year."

"We have," Wanda said, "I'm sorry. Is that bad?"

"It's awful!" She cried, "You poor, poor children...Getrude!"

"The clothes are laid out, ma'am," a younger, slender woman said, walking into the room. Her eyes snapped at attention to see us.

"Make two large mugs of hot cocoa, a few slices of toast as well. Feel free to get the rest of breakfast started, these children must be starving." She turned to us. "Follow me." She walked up a staircase and led us into a room full of beds in long, neat rows sectioned out in ages and gender, all with sleeping children in them. "Now, I would like to keep the two of you together...in the same room. The only problem is, it is sectioned out between boys and girls. Are the two of you fine both being in the boys' section? If not, we can separate you two-"

"No!" We both said in unison.

"You have to keep us together," Wanda said, holding onto my arm tightly. I kissed her forehead, reassuringly.

"Very well. The two of you can have these beds," she walked us into a room with rows of sleeping boys around our age, and two empty beds right in the middle. "Getrude laid out some clothes here," she said, "The two of you could go to the restrooms and change into them. Just put your wet clothes into the laundry bins, we'll wash them for you."

"Thank you," I whispered, shivering a little and going to change.

Later...

I was wearing a loose t-shirt and dark grey sweatpants, wrapped in a fluffy blue blanket and sitting close to my sister by the fireplace. Getrude and the other woman, Caterine, handed us plates of hot breakfast food and toast, and best of all...

"I haven't had hot chocolate since that time Father came home with some from the market years ago," Wanda whispered, nuzzling up to me sleepily as she took a long sip of the drink. I took a small sip of the delightful cocoa and felt instantly warmed by it, and very tired. I took a bite of toast and another sip of the hot chocolate, suddenly glad I chose to bring Wanda here.

"You two must be exhausted. It's four in the morning, for heaven's sake! Go ahead and finish your drinks, we can leave the food for you while you sleep. I'm sure the children will be excited to see some new blood around here."

"Thank you, Caterine," we said together.

"Not a problem...I don't know your names!" She laughed. "May I please ask you to introduce yourselves?"

"I'm Pietro Maximoff, and this is Wanda."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Pietro and Wanda," Getrude said. "I'm Getrude, but you already know that, I'm sure, from all of Caterine's yelling. You can call me Rudy. All my friends do. I hope we'll be friends. I hope the two of you will be very popular, most kids your age are. There are a lot of eleven and twelve year olds here, you know, and only nine that are seventeen. The youngest ones we have are Reta, who is two, and Willough our three-year-old. Let's see...do the two of you participate in activities? Or did you?"

"Pietro runs," Wanda said. "He's very fast. And he's strong, too, or his age."

"I am not that strong," I said, blushing a little bit.

"Do not humble yourself. You're strong, and you have to be, because you helped Father carry wood and such."

"So you carried wood?" Rudy asked, a bit confused.

"Carpentering. We had to get the wood from somewhere," I said with a shrug. "Well, Wanda, you used to braid flowers into Raina's hair. Remember?"

"How could I forget," she said with a laugh, "That's not a talent."

"The way you did it, it was. You've sketched some pretty things on paper, too."

"Really? Have you ever painted, Wanda?" Rudy asked, and she shook her head. "Maybe you'd like to take an art class with some of the kids in your age group tomorrow morning....in a few hours, that is. Speaking of which, you'd best be off to bed. Goodnight, children, it's nice to meet you."

"Goodnight, Rudy," we said, walking up the stairs and walking past the sections of beds, crawling into our individual beds and I slid under the covers, falling asleep almost instantaneously.