Conflicting Morals (The Maximoff Twins) •On Hold•

Chapter Seven

After lots of requests and procrastination, an update has finally arrived!

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VIENNA

MAY 5, 2016

Pietro rapidly bounced his knee. He had only been there for half an hour, and he was already bored. He would have thought that a United Nations meeting would be more interesting. He stared at the stack of papers in front of him. He sighed, and quickly flipped through them, signing the documents.

He soon finished. He got up and handed them over to the lady who had given them to him. Walking back to his seat, he accidentally bumped into someone. "Whoa, what-" He shook his head before looking forward again.

An African guy, maybe a few years older than Pietro himself, was standing in front of him. "Excuse me," The man said.

"Nah, man, it's alright. I wasn't paying attention."

The man chuckled at Pietro's words, but the teen wasn't sure why. "You are Pietro Maximoff, correct?"

"That would be me. And, no offense, but you are?"

"Prince T'Challa of Wakanda."

Pietro's face turned several shades paler for several reasons. Reason one: he had just talked to royalty like he would his friends. Reason two: this T'Challa dude wasn't just a prince. He also happened to be the prince of the country whose ambassadors had been killed in Lagos. Reason three: Pietro knew for a fact that T'Challa's father, the king, at least partially blamed Wanda for what happened in Lagos.

"Nice to meet you, ummm... Prince T'Challa? Your highness?" Pietro hoped he didn't sound like a white dude who didn't care about how to properly address Wakandan royalty. Sure, it was true that he only learned Wakanda was a place a year before, but who really cared about that? No one knew Sokovia existed until the previous year.

"Prince T'Challa is fine. You decided to sign these accords, yes?"

"That's why I'm here." The response just slipped out of his mouth. 'Godd***it, Pietro! You're talking to royalty, not your BFF!' He thought to himself.

T'Challa, luckily, seemed to find Pietro's snarky remark amusing. "If you do not mind me asking, where is your sister?"

"Oh, Wanda? She's back in New York." He was suddenly grateful Wanda wasn't in Vienna with him. She'd be so uncomfortable.

"And why is that?"

"She doesn't have a visa."

"Then why not get one?"

"Stark tried. But Wanda and I are not American citizens, and after Lagos... the government just barely agreed to a visa for me, but they aren't big on letting Wanda be able to travel wherever she wants."

"I can see why."

"I know my sister seems dangerous, and she can be," Pietro huffed. "But she wouldn't hurt a fly. It's not like she doesn't feel bad about what happened, because she does. She feels awful, no matter how the media tries to spin it. Anything that tells you otherwise is lying."

T'Challa nodded. "I saw the footage. I could see how horrified she was. It's one of the reasons I believe these accords are the best solution. Incidents like that would be less common."

"Yeah, I get that. They are restricting, but they make the general public feel a bit more at ease. The only thing I don't really agree with is the name. Couldn't they have called it something else? I don't know what, but not Sokovia. It's kind of triggering."

"You are Sokovian, right?"

"That I am. Or was, technically. Still am, legally speaking. It's hard to say what you are when you're legally a citizen of a country that no longer exists."

T'Challa chuckled. "I cannot say that I relate."

"Be glad for that, Prince."

The two boys looked over to where Natasha and T'Challa's father were talking. "I'm going to go. I wish you the best of luck with these accords."

"Thank you. And I'm sorry about Lagos. So's Wanda."

T'Challa nodded and walked over to his father and Natasha.

The meeting mulled on. Pietro was definitely starting to get restless. If this kept going, he'd have to leave for a few minutes to run some laps around the city. He groaned quietly, placing his chin on his palm as King T'Chaka spoke. Pietro hoped that he looked like he was paying attention. Suddenly, Pietro's had a jerking feeling in his gut. Something was wrong.

Next thing he knew, he was lunging forward, trying to get to the front of the room. He tackled the king to the ground right before the windows shattered and an explosion shook the building. Screams filled the room. Pietro scrambled off of the Wakandan king. The old man was unconscious, and barely breathing. But he was breathing.

"Baba!" T'Challa was next to Pietro, kneeling on the floor. He looked panicked.

"An ambulance is on the way!" A man called. "Is anyone else hurt?!"

"Pietro."

Pietro jolted, surprised by the sudden hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Tasha crouching next to him.

"Hey, hey, kid. Deep breaths. You're bleeding pretty bad. Your sister will kill us if you come back to her hurt."

"I'm bleeding?"

"Yeah. You don't feel it?"

"No. But that might be adrenaline."

Natasha sighed. "I'll have someone check you out for sure."

Pietro sighed in defeat; he knew Natasha had won this round. "Ok."

"Now, we're gonna call your sister and Clint and let them know you're alright."

"Yeah, yeah."

Nat pulled out her phone and called the first number.