Quiver | Pietro Maximoff ✔

Chapter Nine

~Eliza's POV~

I was angry.

No, I was more than angry. I was furious.

I just couldn't figure out who I was angry with.

I was upset with Pietro. I knew deep down that injecting me was probably the best course of action, but it still caused me an immense amount of pain. The serum of drugs had belonged to Bruce, and part of my anger was directed at him too, for having handed Pietro the needle and giving him the go ahead to inject my arm.

I was also angry at myself. I'd overreacted by snapping at Pietro and we hadn't spoken since. It had been three days, and neither of us had acknowledged the other.

I was planning on speaking to him, and apologise for how I'd reacted. I really was, but when I found him that morning, he'd been shamelessly flirting with a delivery girl who'd been bringing a selection of take out food for our dinner.

The pang of jealousy hit hard, and that only reignited the anger.

I trudged into the kitchen, dressed in a pair of shorts and a thin jumper, with fluffy socks pulled over my feet. It was a cute, casual look, that made me appear a lot happier than I felt.

Pietro was sat at the table, engrossed in his phone, but he glanced up when I walked in. I let my eyes skim over the room so he would think I hadn't been watching him, only to land on Tony and a stranger.

He was tall and slim, with a shaggy brown mop of hair curling over his face. His eyes met mine over Tony's shoulder, and I saw the chance to get back at Pietro. This guy was cute, and I needed to tend to the bruise that Pietro had left on my spirit.

Tony clocked me, and turned to introduce us. "Eliza, this is my kid Harley, Harley this is Eliza, the new Hulk."

I frowned, "I didn't know you had a son."

Harley laughed. "I'm not his son, he's just like a weird uncle who tried to adopt me into his life."

"And I succeeded." Tony slapped his shoulder, "right, I need a shower I think. Stay out of trouble." And with that, he left.

I took a step forward, flicking my hair out of my eyes as I turned to smile at him. "How long are you here for?"

"Just the night." He leant back on the counter, and offered me the jug of fresh orange juice. "Tony filled me in about the whole Hulk thing, that sucks."

"It does." I poured a glass of the juice and sipped it slowly. "But I'm coping with it. Some people here need to learn that I'm not that fragile."

Pietro stiffened in his seat, and I caught sight of his jaw tensing slightly.

Harley didn't seem to notice, as he quietly chuckled. "You're one of the strong ones, yeah?"

My eyes flicked down to his lips as he laughed, then back to his eyes. "I guess you'll have to find out."

I saw him gulp, with a faint blush on his cheeks, before I turned and walked out of the room. I smiled to myself, knowing his eyes were glued to my back the entire time.

***

~Pietro's POV~

I knew what Eliza was doing. And it annoyed me that it was actually working.

She'd caught me flirting with Tayla, which wasn't something I was exactly proud of. She was kind, and clever, and before I'd met Eliza I'd had a small crush on her, but that had faded in the recent weeks.

But Eliza had pushed me away, and I selfishly needed to feel like I wasn't a terrible person. I knew Tayla would convince me I was still a good guy.