LITTLE WARRIORS ( pietro maximoff )

Twenty-Two

{edited}

❝IN A COME YOU DON'T DREAM – YOU JUST HOPE SOMEONE SITS NEXT TO YOU.❞
–CONNOR OBERST

"I THINK I KNOW WHEN I first loved you," Cara whispered to him. She was holding his hand in both of hers, tightly clutching it. Wanda had gone to go take a shower since she had spent the entire day watching over her brother.

A few tears escaped her eyes but she would just brush it off. A light smile tugged on her lips. "It was about a week or two before the Avengers came, before Ultron came, before you..." She paused. "You were just being you and teasing your sister repeatedly over and over again then Wanda would do the same to you and I would just sit there and laugh with the two of you. Just seeing you there – so happy and peaceful – it made me think of what I could do to you. How happy I could make you, I mean. It would warm my heart so much just to see you smiling face everyday. My heart would flutter in joy with you just standing there.

"You would always help me with my powers. I remember when I first got your powers and I ran into almost everything. I even remember when I tripped into you and made us both fall over. I was so embarrassed but you were laughing so hard.

"I remember promising you two how I would never leave you and I would always stay by your side no matter what, through thick and thin. But if you leave now... I couldn't stay with you. I couldn't be at your side or hear your voice or hold your hand." By now, the tears were falling at a faster pace. "So please just come back, Pietro. Please..."

ϟ

Two weeks. Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty-six hours. Twenty thousand and one hundred sixteen minutes. One million two hundred and nine thousand six hundred seconds. That's how long he'd been asleep.

Within the first day, the hellicarrier had landed, Sokovians leaving to find new homes. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had moved Pietro to a hospital room on the new Avengers' headquarters, a base a few miles away from the old one. A few days after that, Clint had said his farewells, saying he was going to spend time with his family for a while since his wife had just given birth to a boy named Nathaniel Pietro Barton. Cara's heart warmed at the baby's middle name. Two other mem, one of which was at the Battle of Sokovia, had arrived to the base as well, finally joining the Avengers. Their names were Sam and Rhodey.

Wanda came and went as she visited her brother, Vision comforting her most of the time.

Cara, on the other hand, stayed. The only reasons she left Pietro's hospital room was to shower, change clothes, and get food. Most of the time, Wanda had brought her food. Cara was afraid that if Pietro woke and saw the unfamiliar room, he would run off and hide from them all.

Most nights she would sleep in the room with him, leaning her body over and resting her arms and head on the bed. Often, she would find herself in a room that she was certain was decided was hers. Every one of those nights, she would relive the same memory over and over again: her brother and sister dying. When she woke up, she would start crying again and look over at Pietro and give him a kiss on the cheek.

When she would sit with Pietro, she would turn on the TV sitting in there (Tony had put it in since he knew how much she stayed in there) or would read books. Every second she would start thinking, I put him in here. Of course it wasn't her fault; he wasn't trying to save her but she kept thinking it.

One day while she was reading some book that Natasha had gave her, Wanda had come in with a serious look on her face, her arms on her hips like an upset mother. "You all right, Wanda?"

"No, no I'm not." Wanda forced the book off her lap, making Cara lose her spot. "As much as I love you and my brother, you need to get out."

"Why?"