The one where Peter kind of runs away
After the Avengers finally pulled back, the Maximoff siblings were left alone in the ruins of their home once again. Peter swallowed the lump in his throat as he gingerly stepped over another dead body. Anyone who hadn’t been murdered or arrested were still in hiding or injured. Pietro and Wanda were doing their best to help, and a couple citizens from in town were climbing over the rubble to help search for survivors. Most people didn’t actually live at the Hydra base, they had lives, families, and friends in Sokovia, so this was a big deal for everyone.
Peter was numbly walking towards Wanda when he tripped over the foot of a dead scientist. Half of his head was blown off, leaving just enough for Peter to recognize a man who had always brought hard candies into the labs to share. Suppressing a gag, Peter turned away with a hand covering his mouth.
The stench of blood and death was becoming too overwhelming, so without a word, he slipped through a giant hole in the wall and started walking towards town. He didn’t really pay attention to where he was going, choosing to watch his feet hitting the ground instead. He followed the familiar path he took until he was at Annika’s door.
Paint was beginning to fleck off of the doorframe and the painted numbers on the door were faded by time, but inside was safe. He lifted his fist to knock but paused, swallowing spit down his dry throat. Annika’s mother didn’t trust him very much (he didn’t think so anyways), but she was kind, so hopefully she’d let him in.
Much to Peter’s relief, it wasn’t Annika or her mother who answered when he finally knocked, but her father. Annika’s father liked Peter, he understood why the Maximoff’s turned to Hydra, he too had to survive the cold streets for some parts of his youth.
“Peter!” genuine relife made his shoulders relax, “Are you alright? We obviously saw what happened,” He gestured Peter inside just as Annika darted around the corner. She flung herself at Peter and pulled him into a tight hug that he practically melted into.
“I-I saw that the Avengers were taking people away,” She whispered, “Are Pietro and Wanda alright?” Peter nodded, breaking the hug to rub at his eyes, hiding any tears that might’ve been trying to run down his cheeks.
“Everyone else is gone,” He sighed, thoroughly defeated. Annika’s mother finally approached Peter and he looked up at her, unsure of what to do.
She gently cupped Peter’s jaw in her hand, “Peter, honey, are you hurt anywhere?” He only shook his head, not trusting his voice to be steady as his chin quivered ever so slightly.
“No,” He finally rasped, “There’s just so many…” He swallowed again, “It was slaughter,” Peter’s voice was only a pained whisper and Annika’s mother nodded like she understood. He knew she didn’t really understand though. She hadn’t seen dozens of soulless eyes and rivers of blood lining the hallways of her home.
“I’m going to make some tea,” She said, gesturing for her husband to follow her to the kitchen. Peter was sure that they were going to be talking about him, and while he could easily overhear, he didn’t really want to.
“Did you get to see the Avengers?” Annika asked, handing Peter a blanket to curl up with on the couch.
“I punched Captain America in the face,” Peter chuckled and wiped away his tears once more.
Annika shook his shoulder, “That’s amazing!” She grinned maniacally, “I bet he’ll have a big ol’ shiner.” Her enthusiasm kept Peter smiling. “What do you wanna watch?” She asked, pulling out her family’s box of DVD’s from under the TV stand.
“Star Wars?” Peter asked with a guilty grin. Whenever given the choice, Peter chose to watch Star Wars (which is why he didn’t get to choose very often).
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Annika said without complaint. Once the movie was playing on the old box TV, Annika settled beside Peter on the couch.
Pietro dusted his hands off on his pants and heaved out a mighty sigh. He wasn’t exactly sure what would happen next. Maybe they’d be able to scrape together enough funds from desks and lockers to get by for a little while, but the safety of the base was no more.
“Hey Wanda,” Pietro looked up at his twin sister, who was resting on the floor with her head in her hands, “have you seen Peter recently?”
This got her to lift her head, her brows instantly creased, “He was helping me a couple hours ago but I got side tracked…” Wanda stood up, chewing her lip nervously.
“He probably needed some air,” Pietro scratched at his scalp, running through a list of all Peter’s favorite hiding spots in his head, “I bet he is at Annika’s.”
“That is smart,” Wanda nodded, “Do you want to check there and I’ll double check around the base?” Pietro flashed her a thumbs up and went to find water before he ran to town.
Peter often hid away at Annika’s house, especially when he was upset. When Peter first got his powers, Strucker had brought in higher ranking Hydra agents to show off Peter’s powers. He had done the same with Pietro and Wanda, but something about Peter caught their eyes. They called him an “asset” and Pietro had heard the word “soldier” thrown around a bit. Wanda and Pietro had been infuriated when they wanted to take Peter away. Strucker had sworn that Peter would be kept safe by their side, so they came up with a compromise.
About a month after Peter received his powers, he started going away for the first week of every month for “special training”. Strucker told the twins that their little brother was honored enough to be training with the Winter Soldier, but they didn’t think he was so lucky. Their brother tried to keep his spirits high, but every month he took longer to recover, resting in his bed or evading his siblings entirely. Pietro had tried to pry some information out of the kid, but Peter’s lips were firmly sealed.
Annika’s house had become the place that Peter would immediately retreat to upon his arrival home from these training sessions. According to Annika’s parents, Peter never told them anything, only wanted to watch their small collection of movies quietly.
It only took Pietro a minute to run from the base all the way to Annika’s house, but not after almost tripping over the mangled mechanical corpses of Stark’s rescue bots. He curled his lip in disgust at the burning smell rolling off the smoldering heaps. Once Pietro made it to the door, he knocked just loud enough to be annoying.
Annika’s mother answered the door with a tired sigh, “Hey Pietro,” she immediately stepped aside and nodded towards the couch. Pietro mouthed “thanks you” before spotting his sleeping brother.
Peter was young, just a boy, but Pietro could see that time was not kind to him, even in his sleep. His relaxed face had permanent worry lines etched above his brow and his lips were turned down into a slight frown.
“Peter,” Pietro called softly, nudging his brother to wake him. Peter’s eyes immediately flew open to dart wildly around the room and he began heaving in deep gulps of air, “Hey hey hey,” Pietro grazed his thumb soothingly over Peter’s ear, something they had done as children, “eto prosto moy mladshiy brat,” (It’s just me little brother).
Peter groaned, using a hand to cover his blushing face, “Sorry.”
“Ne izvinyaysya” (Don’t apologize), Pietro shook his head, “Let’s go back home, rest up, and figure this out in the morning, yeah?”
“Khorosho,” (Fine), Peter nudged Annika awake to say goodbye before getting up.
“Thank you,” Pietro whispered to Mr and Mrs Volkov, “for looking out for him,” He gave them a pointed look. They of course knew that Pietro wasn’t just talking about tonight.
“Of course,” Mr Volkov firmly patted Pietro on the shoulder and waved both boys out the door. Both feeling exhausted from the battle, the pair of brothers decided to walk home at a normal speed.
“What now?” Peter asked, “The base has fallen.”
“This is true,” Pietro nodded, “but we will figure it out.”
“I don’t think we should have let Stark get the scepter,” Peter confessed, making Pietro quirk up an eyebrow.
“No?” Peter was never known for questioning authority, especially the authority of his older siblings.
“I have a bad feeling,” Peter confessed, nubbing the back of his neck.
“Well it is not our problem anymore,” Pietro said, “Tomorrow we will hand out supplies in town and everything will be fine.”
“YA nadeyus’ ty prav,” (I hope you’re right).