Where the Heart Is

Practice Makes Perfect

Having a wicked fast metabolism was extremely useful because it required you to eat so much in order to stay fueled up. This meant that Pietro had eaten two quarts worth of strawberries by himself before they even left the strawberry patch, and he had enough room to eat a third while sitting on the back porch steps. He didn't even bother to wash them as he popped the sun-warmed, sweet-tart berries into his mouth one after another, savoring each one. They were delicious and fresh, and the rest of the quart had no chance. It was going down.

He didn't feel too bad though since together he and Wanda and Laura had picked a big box worth for everyone else. Laura had been very insistent that he not use his powers while they were at the strawberry field, so he was pretty damn proud of that box full of berries.

He could've picked the same amount in under a minute, but he guessed it was worth taking the time. After all, there hadn't been a chance of anyone calling the police to report some demon blur or whatever stealing all their strawberries. Laura probably appreciated that.

Didn't mean he hadn't snatched a couple when no one was looking.

The kids were back from school and doing homework by the time the berry-picking crowd had returned, so Pietro had gone for a run around the property that the Bartons' owned. They had about 125 acres to themselves, so there was plenty of room to zoom around.

Since the battle with Ultron, he hadn't been one hundred percent; his own slightly accelerated healing and Dr. Cho's cradle had helped out a lot, but there had been a lot of damage. He hated staying still though and admitting he wasn't entirely okay wasn't anywhere on his plan.

Steve had said that they were going to bring the team back together in a new facility in couple months. Pietro had every intention of being on that team, no problem.

After the run, he had zipped back inside to steal two huge handfuls of strawberries and retreated to the back porch steps to cool down and enjoy his prize. The only one who had seen him had been Wanda; to everyone else, he had been a swinging screen door.

He was finishing off a strawberry when he heard the door on the other side of the house open. A few moments later, he saw Cooper walking off to the barn with Clint following behind and Lily skipping behind her dad. They disappeared into the rickety old building that looked like it should be condemned and came back out in roughly ten minutes.

Clint was carrying a quiver, his bow, and a bucket of tennis balls while Cooper had on a smaller quiver full of red-fletched arrows and a black recurve bow. The two of them were talking about something that looked serious judging by their faces. Lily followed along behind them, wearing a white quiver and carrying a white bow that looked different than the other two. He couldn't help but notice that she had traded out her sneakers for little white boots. Kid already had a uniform going on. Before they could get very far, Lucky appeared from one of the fields and caught up with Lily, his eyes on that bucket of tennis balls.

It was that time of day. After the kids finished their homework or whatever they had to do for school, Clint often took them off down a trail to a clearing in the woods to practice archery for an hour. Sometimes one of them would whine about it, but most of the time they seemed excited. So far, Pietro hadn't seen the kids train.

Most days he was too tired after his own training sessions with Wanda and Clint. Why the hell did the man have to have a thing that let him shoot nine arrows? Nine exploding arrows? It was easy enough to catch them, but it was harder when they might explode in your hand. He was damn partial to his hands. And sparring against Wanda was worse. She was trying out this new telekinetic net thing...he was not a fan. Most evenings he ended up on the couch with Cooper and Lily, watching a movie or reading mystery novels.