Chapter 6
"Okay... New hotel, new city, this is great!" Natasha said happily as the group walked into the new hotel room in Rome.
"Yeah, great for you guys, maybe." Pietro said sarcastically.
Wanda rolled her eyes as she parked herself on one of the couches, flopping onto the cushions and staring up at the ceiling. Vision cautiously walked over, staring down at Wanda. "You good?"
"Just tired." Wanda answered. "All this running around Europe has made me exhausted."
"Why? Not like you've been running anywhere." Pietro said passive aggressively.
Vision glanced over at Wanda and nudged her foot with a balled up hand. "Stop thinking about murder."
"I'm not thinking about murder."
"Yes, you are." Vision said, pointing to the center of Wanda's forehead. "You get this little wrinkle in the center of your forehead when you're angry with someone."
"Okay... But that doesn't necessarily lead to murder."
"You only get that wrinkle when you're especially pissed off."
"Well, exhaustion aside, get up, you gotta learn some self defense." Natasha said, patting the bottom of Wanda's black tennis shoe and pushing past Vision.
"Right... In order for the plan to work... Self defense." Wanda remembered, sitting up on the couch as Vision slid next to her.
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Do we have to? Can't I just like... Sleep?"
"Your sister is willing to learn self defense." Sersi said bluntly. "She's willing to help."
"Yeah, well, I'm not my sister." Pietro said, tilting his head as he stared at Wanda. "And thank God for that."
Wanda slowly turned around to glare at Pietro as Bucky stepped between them. "Okay... I am sensing some... Hostility between you two, so why don't we make combat training a friendly... Friendly, competition?"
"Competition?" Sam asked.
"Head to head. Whoever takes the other down first wins."
Pietro smirked a little. "Sounds easy enough."
"Are you forgetting that I actually did P.E. in school? And dance team?" Wanda asked, standing up to walk towards Pietro.
"Athleticism isn't everything. In case you forgot, little sister, I'm taller and heavier."
"Well, you know what they say, big bro, the taller they are, the harder they fall."
"Dibs on training Wanda!" Natasha said happily, gripping Wanda's wrist to drag her back. When everyone gave her a confused look, Natasha said, "What? I'm the only girl here who fights, which makes me the only person qualified to properly teach Wanda what to do and what not do to."
"Alright. Fair." Sam said, nodding in agreement. "Should we make this a two on two situation?"
"Dibs on Wanda!" Bucky and Vision said together, the two glaring at each other.
"... I was gonna call dibs on Wanda too... But okay... Guess I'll train Pietro..." Sam muttered to himself.
"Why does nobody want to train me!?" Pietro asked.
The room was silent until Bucky bluntly said, "Because you're acting like a giant asshole, Pietro."
"Okay, I'm putting everyone's name into a randomizer. And by everyone, I mean not Natasha. Whoever makes it to the end gets to help Natasha train Wanda. The other two have to train Pietro." Sersi said, typing something on her laptop. After a few moments of silence, Sersi said, "Sam, you're out."
"Damn it..." Sam muttered to himself.
Sersi stared at her screen again before she said, "Bucky, looks like you're training Wanda."
Vision sighed, almost a little disappointed, as he said, "Come on, guys, let's go to the gym."
Pietro sighed, following Sam and Vision out of the room. Bucky and Natasha pushed back the furniture as Wanda tied her hair into a messy ponytail, Sersi plopping down on the couch as they moved it to do some checks on surveillance.
They must have trained for an hour, Wanda catching on relatively quickly, until Natasha said, "Okay, I'm going to teach you a fool proof move to take down your brother."
Bucky sighed. "Oh God... Not this..."
"Yes... This." Natasha said, nodding her head in confirmation. "I call it the crotch grab."
"The... What?" Wanda asked.
"This." Natasha said, sizing up to Bucky after she took a few steps back. She ran over, managing to jump high enough to wrap her legs around Bucky's neck, managing to use his body weight against him as she managed to flip him down to the ground, managing to land crouched down. Natasha looked up at Wanda and asked, "See? Easy!"
"Can I... Take a sip of water before we start, please?" Wanda asked.
"Yeah, go ahead." Bucky said, struggling to get up as Wanda walked to the mini fridge to grab a bottle of water. "So... What's the deal with you and your brother? Siblings fight, sure, but not like you two."
Wanda sighed, taking a sip of water. "He left me."
Sersi looked up from her computer for the first time in an hour. "What do you mean?"
"We were sixteen. Somehow, he had gotten money to get plane tickets to... Well... Here. He bought them without talking to me and he just expected me to follow him to Europe when we were safe in our school. I wasn't comfortable with it, so he left me behind. I stayed in school, he partied." Wanda explained. "That was the last time I saw him until now."
"That... Sounds rough." Bucky said cautiously.
"It took me a long time to actually open up to people like that." Wanda admitted. "Then... This happened."
"Wait... Is Victor-" Natasha started to ask.
"He was the first since I was sixteen. After all this... He has to leave me too." Wanda said, closing her water bottle and set it down on the bed. "That doesn't matter right now, though. Teach me how to do that."
Natasha nodded, knowing that Wanda was putting the task at hand ahead of her own emotions, something she usually did. "Okay... Let's get to work."
Natasha went through the technique with Wanda for another hour until Bucky got a text from Sam. Bucky said, "Hey, Vis called time. We gotta go downstairs so that the twins can try and move past their differences."
Wanda rolled her eyes. "Like that's gonna happen."
"Give it the old college try, okay?" Natasha said, grabbing one of the room keys. "Come on, Sersi. Don't you want to see Wanda beat up her brother?"
"Coming!" Sersi said, closing her laptop to follow the others downstairs.
The four made their way down to the gym and to the wrestling ring that was in the center of the room. Vision walked over and quietly said, "Avoid his legs legs and try to pin his arms behind his back. His legs are crazy strong, but I know you have a stronger punch."
Natasha's eyes widened. "You're going against the twin you trained?"
"Did you forget the part where we all agreed that he's an asshole?" Bucky asked, lightly nudging Wanda. "You should also be able to move quicker since you're smaller. Avoid his attacks, do that move Natasha taught you, and then pin his arms behind his back, maybe close to the middle."
"I'm... Not exactly good at that yet." Wanda said nervously.
"You're decent, though. You can also try distracting him by talking. Let him know just how angry you are." Natasha suggested, lightly nudging Wanda. "You got this."
Wanda nodded, glancing up at Vision. "Thanks... For the advice."
Vision smiled, nodding his head once. "Go get him, Tiger."
Wanda climbed into the ring, Sam quickly standing in between the twins. "Okay, let's make this a clean fight. First one who gets pinned to the ground loses."
Sam quickly exited the ring, Pietro starting to circle Wanda. Wanda kept her distance as Pietro asked, "Why do you hate me?"
"Why do I hate you?" Wanda asked, chuckling to herself. "I thought that would be obvious."
"Not to me."
"You left me at that boarding school, Pietro."
"I told you to come-"
"You didn't talk it over with me!" Wanda said angrily. "You bought the tickets and put me on the spot!"
"And how do you think I felt, huh!?" Pietro asked, running closer to Wanda. Wanda jumped out of the way, ducking into a ball as she rolled to the opposite end of the ring. "I bought those tickets so that we could go on the run together!"
"I didn't want to go on the run!" Wanda argued. "We were safe there!"
"Yeah, and how did school keep you safe recently, huh?" Pietro asked. "We can only depend on ourselves, Wanda."
"But being on the run was not the answer!"
"I wanted you to join me. Why do you think I kept texting you my location for four years!?"
"And why do you think I kept ignoring the texts?" Wanda asked, Pietro starting to run closer to her. Wanda quickly ran towards him, jumping and managing to wrap her legs around Pietro's neck, swinging her body to force Pietro's bodyweight to make him tumble to the ground. Wanda slightly fell off of Pietro, but managed to scramble on top of him to pin his arms to his back, almost straddling his torso.
"Three, two, one, GOOD!" Sam said excitedly, Bucky, Natasha, and Vision clapping as Sersi grabbed her phone and took a picture of the scene. "Wanda wins!"
"Wow... Forcing me to the ground... Things really haven't changed since we were kids..." Pietro commented.
Wanda took a couple deep breaths, moving some of her hair that fell out of the ponytail during the crotch grab out of her face as she said, "This still doesn't change the fact that you abandoned me and that you didn't talk anything over with me when you decided to leave. I may have gone with you if I had any say in what was going on."
Wanda got off of Pietro, releasing him from her clutch, as she walked over to Vision and the others, stumbling for a second. "Oh God... Head rush."
"Yeah, I know, right?" Natasha asked. "All you gotta do is work on that landing, and you got it down."
"Do you need me to grab you a water bottle?" Vision asked, helping Wanda out of the ring.
"No... I have a water bottle in the room." Wanda said, stumbling for a second.
"Come on, let's get you back to the room to get that water bottle." Sersi said, leading Wanda out of the gym.
Bucky smiled, joining Wanda and Sersi as they walked out. He gently patted Wanda on the back and said, "Good job. I knew you could beat his ass. He seemed like a weakling."
Pietro slowly sat up, glancing over at Sam. "I deserved that, huh?"
Sam nodded, walking back inside the ring to sit across from Pietro. "Yeah, kinda. You're gonna have to do some serious ass kissing to make it up to her, especially since you've been acting like an asshole for the past day or so."
"Right... Right..." Pietro said, staring at his wrists. "Oh God... She has a firm grip..."
"Want me to get you an ice pack?"
"If you don't mind..."
Sam nodded, standing up. "Coming right up."