Disappeared- {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 14

On a rare occasion, Pietro and Wanda had decided to join the rest of the Avengers for their takeaway meal of the week.

Pietro had finished eating long before anyone else, having not eaten in over a day, but he was stuck waiting for everyone else to finish. He poked at the spring roll on his plate.

Alex had only been gone a few days but he missed her. Crush aside, he genuinely enjoyed her company as a friend and without her by his side, he felt slightly lost. He hadn't even replied to her messages, caught up in other things.

"Are you going to eat that?" Wanda was tapping him on the arm too, pulling him from his thoughts. He stabbed the roll and offered it to her, muttering an apology for not listening.

The TV buzzed behind him, some show that Rhodey liked. Tony was texting Sam's boyfriend, much to his protests and half-hearted swipes to get his phone back. Steve watched over them all, arms folded and mouth in a thin line, or what Alex called his grandma face.

The TV's sound crackled, and Pietro's mind went into slow motion.

He stood— something felt wrong.

He picked up Wanda, holding her to him with a hand on her neck to stop whiplash. However, as he went to run out of the room, he heard a noise and turned back to witness the table buckling and breaking under the weight of something that hadn't fully appeared yet.

Then Alex appeared.

She was carrying an unconscious Natasha, who was
bleeding from her neck. Time resumed itself and Pietro set Wanda down.

"What the hell happened?" He tried to ask, but the Avengers were already moving into position. Steve pried Natasha from Alex's arms as she hadn't made any movement since arriving, and he and Tony quickly went off in the direction of the surgery rooms.

Sam tried to touch Alex, only for her to teleport to the other side of the room. Her eyes were brown with a vein of gold running through them and the air around her seemed charged with energy.

"Alex?" Wanda tried, only for Alex's neck to snap towards her and both her arms to raise. Wanda tried to step towards her but with a simple flick of her wrist, Wanda stopped dead and her face went slack.

Sam stepped towards Wanda, only for the girl to spin around and knock him over with a wave of her magic.

But it wasn't her.

No, Wanda's movements were too stiff and controlled as she made Sam rise into the air and forced his hands by his side. Her eyes were dead, unmoving from the spot straight ahead of her as the whole room began to shake.

Pietro ran forward, forcing Alex's arms back to her side. He could feel a faint buzzing in his head, but he pushed against it, refusing to let go of Alex, "I've got you. It's just me, Alex, it's just me."

She began twisting, writhing, trying to break out of his grip. Behind her, Pietro could see that Wanda was crouched in the corner and Sam had a hand on her shoulder, talking to her.

A sudden headbutt from Alex sent Pietro reeling backwards, blood spurting from his nose. He wiped it away and kicked Alex in the knee, so she buckled and hit the ground.

It was just a distraction though, and Pietro barely had time to see the knife in Alex's hands before she was twisting throw it at him. He dodged, grabbing it and throwing it at the wall. The second knife caught him off guard, just missing his torso as Alex teleported onto him.

She sat on his shoulders, legs crossed behind his neck so he couldn't get her off. From this position, she could use her elbows to hit him again and again— Pietro was only able to dodge some of the punches. His hands held her by the waist as he stumbled backwards and slammed into a wall,

"Not complaining, but I'd prefer to do this in a bedroom."

The hitting stopped and Alex teleported off him. Pietro raised his arms ready for whatever came next but Alex simply stood in front of him for a moment, mouth twisted upwards and brown eyes creased in laughter before she suddenly crumpled, unconscious.

"Sam!" Pietro shouted, running to catch Alex and he lowered her to the floor. When he tried to stand up though, Alex's hand closed around his ankle and they both teleported away.

<<>>

When Alex got out of the shower, Pietro was waiting for her on the bed. She sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. His heart was beating fast, a loud pounding in her head as remnants of Theundruk allowed her to feel his thoughts.

"What happened?" His words were coarse but his heart soft. There were so many words in his mind, all his thoughts overlapping as Alex tried to sort through them.

"You didn't take your Dexedrine." She whispered.

"I know. I had a bad rash and Stark told me to not take it for a few days so he could monitor."

"Is that safe?"

"I haven't left my room," His fingers were rubbing Alex's blanket, "Started playing Assassins Creed Unity. I'm on eighty-seven percent and I haven't slept more the five hours over the past few days. Wanda had to start switching off the tv every hour to make sure I got a drink and went to the toilet."

"Lovely, darling, lovely." Alex tried to laugh, make everything feel casual but Pietro's mind only accelerated. She teleported out of his mind and let go of his hand that she had taken without realising.

"You can't hide here forever."

"I could try." If she left, the Avengers would question her. They would find out about the mind stone, about how both Alex and Pietro were being hunted by a timeline management agency, about what really happened in and after Sokovia, "Would you stay with me?"

Love bloomed in Pietro's mind, a feeling so strong that it broke through the barriers Alex had been making.

He always felt this way around her. Alex didn't know why he did, but she was thankful for it nonetheless, especially in moments like this where it felt like one wrong thing could turn everyone against her.

|| You are so stupid ||

"Just leave me alone," Alex muttered. She sensed Pietro was about to move and grabbed his arm, "not you. I meant my...my mind."

He hummed in agreement, "Thinking is the worst."

|| You need to leave ||

"What," Alex emphasised the word as a response to Theundruk before trying to make it sound natural, "do you want to do?"

"Disney film until someone breaks in?"

|| They've found you ||

"Good idea," Alex grabbed Pietro's hand, "Better one, how about going to Turkey?"