END-GAME

“Told you it's a gray one”

“I'm not that old. I don't have gray ones”.

“Really? Exactly how old are you, Bennet?”

Theo began massaging her temples as she fell down the bed abruptly,only to sit down. He was leaning against the wall right across her, his eyes alone provoking her. She grabbed a mug with yesterday's coffee, cold and mostly bland by now, and drank it all down.

The taste alone was enough to make her widen her eyes, “Whoa..”,she muttered.

“So, you're not gonna answer that,are you?”

“My mom didn't turn gray until she reached her forties. It's in the genes”.

“Your mom is lying”

“Was”.

His expression grew a tad softer at that. Not that Theo cared all that much about it. He let his hands fall down and scratched the back of his head, but as he was about to approach her, he realized something was holding him down.

It was always like, and would always be like this. Before Theo,with Theo- after Theo. Pietro merely couldn't help himself, but hold it all inside. Every urge to touch, to feel someone close. To be genuine and sincere; saying stuff that sounded harsh only to pass of as honest, this was easy for him. But actually sharing his thoughts and allowing anyone to get close- or getting close to anyone himself, this he could not manage and do.

“You look tired”,he managed to say in a low,deep voice.

Theo shook her head all so slightly; he took yet another look at her. There was no stiffness, despite his obvious attempts to anger her. Her expression seemed soft, in the way it gets when someone is too tired to even blink. Her eyes narrowed, her hair all too messy.

Yet again, she hadn't braided them. It had been like that for the past month. Even though he couldn't remember a time when Theo had let her hair down before, in all those years he knew her, suddenly it looked to him as if she lacked the courage to even do something as small and silly as that.

“I haven't peed in two days, Maximoff”,she attempted to joke, her voice coming out hoarse. “This is the first time I've felt the bed's mattress in almost 50 hours”.

“Is this another sniper thing? I told you, you don' need to stay in that position for so long Bennet. You can take turns with Perez”.

Theo smiled faintly. She appreciated the concern, but she didn't have enough clearness of mind to admit to it.

She gulped down, feeling some sort of dizziness. It wasn't just those two days; Theo had managed to sleep on an average of two to three hours every four days now.

Sleeping with Natasha by her side was one thing. But sleeping with Pietro, Naveen and Peter- she just couldn't do it. All she could think of was Steve. She would never admit that, but she desperately needed time to process what had happened. And she clearly lacked that privilege.

“Perez has his own territory to cover, Pietro”,she huffed out quietly. “Now.. just.. just let me close my eyes for five minutes. Alright?”

Pietro sighed. He crossed his arms against his chest as his gaze fell down. He felt completely useless, seeing her like that. As if he was only decorative, no use for him whatsoever.

“I got you,Bennet. Sleep a lil. You need it”.

“Yeah,I...Thank you”.

She allowed her body to fall down slowly, on her side. Putting both arms under her head, not bothering to change her clothes, or even get a pillow. She simply lied there, but as Pietro witnessed, two seconds were enough for her to drop unconscious.

He sighed; she looked extremely uncomfortable in that position, and yet she was so exhausted that she fell asleep right in.

He scratched the back of his head; his gaze wandered for a bit, as if to subconsciously make sure no one was there to see him.

Then Pietro approached the bed, and gently pulled the blanket up to cover Theo, his movements all to cautious, as if he feared he'd wake her up. He stood there looking at her for a while, until he for some reason, bent his knees to put his face on her level.

“Stark truly worked some wonders on that eye- didn't he..”,he murmured to himself.

He took notice of a few details on her face, those he wouldn't be able to see clearly when she was awake. He'd never let himself get caught starring too long.

Theo wrinkled her nose for some reason,and her dimples formed a few nooks on the corners of her lips.

Pietro chuckled; she looked far too serene in her sleep for a person which always looked angry and strict as her.
She also had a few freckles along her nose and cheekbones, some of then straying away to fall on her eyelids.

The slamming of the door made Pietro flinch so much he almost fell down. He quickly got up, as far away from the bed as he could. Peter was the first one to rush inside, removing his nano mask from his face.

Tony's orders, as the team's faces were well known by now. They wouldn't want to be seen by anyone, as this would compromise the confidentiality of their being in Macao.

“Man, miss Liu hates me”,he gasped in a loud voice.

“It's Mrs, Parker”,Naveen corrected him.

Pietro pulled his lips to a thin line, wrinkling his nose. His eyes fell on Theo who, thankfully was so deep in her slumber that she hadn't heard Peter's shouting and slamming as he came inside.

“Keep it down”,he scolded them as quietly as possible.

“Oh- crap, she's sleeping?”,Peter tried to whisper.

“Yeah. It's her first in two days. Shut your mouths,will ya?”

Peter nodded rather fiercely, while Naveen merely raised his eyebrows. He was carrying most shopping bags, as they had just returned from a convenience store placed a couple blocks away.

“I don't think it's only been two days though”,Peter mumbled.

“Nah. She rarely keeps her eyes shut”,Naveen explained, “She mostly stays down for a couple hours tops”.

Pietro breathed in as he looked at her. It wasn't a secret of any sort. It wasn't as if this was only due to that particular mission or anything. Theo had had quite a lot on her plate, even without all this mess.

Fist Steve, then her father, then her sister. Tony helping out Steve's going back in time, Thor's retirement. They had all taken quite the toll on her, as it was obvious. He clicked his tongue, choosing not to comment anything more as he joined Naveen in the kitchen.

Peter hoped his way In as well, and sat on the small table by the corner as Naveen began sorting out the items they had just brought in.

“Still no word from Frost”,Naveen spoke. “She's been gone for almost eight days now. This should keep things straight on Matthews and Otieno's end”.

“Wanda took her sweet time preparing them”,Pietro sighed,rubbing his right eye. “They're gonna be fine”.

Naveen nodded. Peter got up to grab a soda from the fridge, gulping most of it down before he even sat on his chair again.

Truth was he didn't feel all that well for this particular mission. Surely enough, his spider senses didn't exactly work like that. Sometimes it was just his own gut, nothing spidey related, as he used to say.

It was just a instinct sort of thing. Like an oddly shaped mass on his stomach that felt a little too heavy inside. He truly hoped it was just him being overly suspicious over all those hits and bombings and the underground connections and all.

This entire investigation thing wasn't his cup of tea. He'd often get too confused over what they were supposed to know, or find out and how it all pieced together. Tony wouldn't spare anytime in explaining, and Theo and the marines weren't all that talkative.

He felt extremely out of place. This wasn't what he was used to. Most of it- those missions. He wasn't an agent. He wasn't a spy, nor was he a cop or anything.

All Peter wanted to do was help.

But lately, it seemed as if all he did was sit around and wait for something to happen.

For someone to call his name, for someone to humor him and explain the details. Going down to shop from Mrs Liu's shop, go take a stroll just to make sure nothing seemed out of place. Have small talks with Theo and Pietro, comment on old war movies with Naveen.

Nothing hero-like much.

“Think Theo's gonna let me stay with her- y'know, after all this is over?”,he asked all of a sudden, feeling a little too heavy after this train of thought.

Pietro arched an eyebrow at him, while Naveen turned around,stopped chopping those onions that had kept him busy for the last couple of seconds and eyed him suspiciously.

“Come again?”,Pietro asked,his tone suggesting some hints of disbelief and irony.

“Y'know, she's looking for a roommate now that.. y'know,Mr Rogers is gone an' all..”

Pietro huffed out a short chuckle. “'S that so,now..”

“Yeah man, she told us when we went to get her for Loki's party. Didn't Wanda tell you?”

“Maybe I should fill in that position”,Naveen joked.

Pietro and Peter both turned to look at him, their eyes narrowed and upper lips raised. Naveen stopped cutting the onions once again, getting the feeling he had said something wrong.

“Just kidding”,he huffed out.

“You're lucky she's asleep. Still got that bruise on your ribs from the last time she kicked ya?”,Pietro asked,a smug smile on his lips as he leaned back.

Naveen huffed out an ironic chuckle, choosing to humor him for this one time. He pointed the knife at him,his lips pulled to form a smile.

“You know, Maximoff, flirting aside- I'm not really too much into that whole hard-to-get thing. I mean- do I wanna jump her? God yes. But..other than that? Nah..she's not as hot as she thinks she is”,he chuckled lightly.

“Hey-”,Peter raised his tone, starring at him with an awfully austere look.

Naveen was taken by surprise. He'd expect such a reaction from Pietro- but not from Peter. Not the goofy, naive underage boy dressed in red leggings. Peter crossed his arms against his chest, almost looking as if he was hugging himself.

“Watch your mouth man”,he warned him, as best as he could. “Don't speak like that about her”.

Pietro let out a faint,yet smug, smile slowly form on his lips. He took Peter's soda and gulped some of the liquid down. He needn't speak for her. Even if Peter wouldn't, Pietro would have not felt the need to defend her or anything. Or,at least, that's what he was telling himself.

“You do understand she's not your mother. Or your sister, or anything at all. Don't you,lil Parker?”,he tried to tease him, his goal falling mostly on undermining him.

“No- she's my friend”.

Naveen placed both palms on the counter, letting out a huffing laughter. Mostly hollow, as to highlight the irony flooding inside his throat.

“Friend? Parker- all she ever does is insult you and ask you to shut your mouth!”

“That's cause most of the time I'm sayin' dumb stuff..”,he mumbled to himself at first. “But she always has my back. Always watches out for me- Yo, did you know she once beat up a bully hanging out outside my school?”

Pietro pursed his lips, surprise or maybe, impression shown on his face. He leaned forward, placing his feet on the chair's sit as he crouched his body.

“She did? That doesn't sound like her”,Pietro noted.

“Nah, man- she did. I once came to mister Stark and asked him about, y'know responsibility 'n all cause, you know, just cause I got the suit doesn't mean I should go around messin' up with people,right? Well, he said so, but Theo was there too and she asked and- long story short, next day she came with me and kicked the guy to a pulp. Maaaan- it was awesome to watch. But like, he was in his twenties so she didn't feel bad or anything. He was a rather bad dude, you know”.

Naveen didn't really say anything to that. His eyes were narrow, his lips too stiff. He wasn't exactly impressed if he was to say so – but still, he was unsure of how to respond to that. He didn't want to sound like a jackass either.

“Anyway, my point is – she might be mean sometimes.. But she's a good friend, you know. So.. don't talk like that about her. Also- she is that hot, and you know it”,he stated in a dead serious stare.

Pietro couldn't help but laugh at that statement of his. He wasn't sure if Peter said so if he himself had a silly childish crush on her- or he simply wanted to defend her honor.

Peter merely hated listening to someone trash talking about a person he cared so deeply about.

Naveen arched an eyebrow, a faint half smile appearing on his face.

“So- you're saying I should go for it,then?”

“Hellno”,Peter almost gasped. “You got a death wish,man?”