the interview
>>"You will stay here. I don't want to hear a sound. Understood?"
She nodded. His eyes narrowed.
"Understood?", he asked more fiercely, making sure that she understood he would not be tolerating another mistake.
"Yes, sir.", she answered, trying to sound brave, but failing. They couldn't know she was scared.<<
"Excuse me?", another male voice said, this one softer than the first one. She looked up.
"What did you say?", he asked again, pushing up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. She didn't answer and he didn't push her to.
"Okay uhm...I'm doctor Bruce Banner.", he introduced himself, clumsily taking out a pen of his lab coat's pocket. Although he smiled at her, his eyes radiating kindness, she was tense. She didn't trust doctors.
"I'm just going to ask you some questions, okay?", he said, pulling out a sheet of paper, awkwardly smoothing it down. He seemed even more nervous than herself, though she had simply learned to hide her nervousness around others.
After she didn't answer him, he took that as his clue to continue.
"What's your name?", he asked looking at her while clicking his pen open.
"Wanda.", she answered, her voice raspy and tired. He scribbled it down in a hasty handwriting that could probably only be deciphered by himself and no one else.
"What about your last name?", he asked, looking up again.
She needed to know where he was. If he was alright. But she didn't dare say anything other than the answers to his questions, too scared of what might happen if she demanded answers herself.
"Maximoff.", she answered, staring at a tiny hole in the metal table in front of her, wondering how it got there for a split second, before scolding herself for getting distracted.
"How do you spell that?", the doctor asked, scrunching up his nose.
"M-A-X-I-M-O-F-F", she spelled it out for him, while he scribbled it down.
"Date of birth?", he asked, looking up from the paper again. Why did he need to know?
"November 10th 1998.", she answered and he went back to scribbling her answer down on the paper. "So that makes you... 17 years old?", he asked, taking a moment to calculate it in his head. She simply nodded. She didn't know she was 17 years old until he told her.
He tried not to show it, but Wanda could feel the shock he experienced after figuring out her age. She was a minor, yes, but she definitely wasn't a kid anymore.
"Were you born in Sokovia?", he asked, the mention of her home country making her close her eyes. She could still see the snow falling down onto what used to be her home, before a bomb had turned it into ruins.
She nodded to answer his question.
"And you lived there until now?", he asked and she nodded again. Until now, she repeated in her head.
He finally put the pen and paper back into his pocket, giving her his full attention. "Do you have any questions, Wanda? Do you want to know anything?", he asked softly.
>>"You don't talk, unless I tell you to."<<
>>"If I hear one more word from you, I will make you regret it."<<
She couldn't. She had so many questions in her mind, but she couldn't.
Bruce must have noticed her hesitation, because not a second later he spoke up again. "It's okay, Wanda, you can ask whatever you want.", he promised, making sure she understood that he meant it.
Finally she gathered enough courage to ask what had been on her mind since she was told to sit down in this tiny room with a single metal table and two chairs in the center.
"Is he okay?", her voice was just loud enough so he would understand her question. She knew they were watching behind the glass wall, though her view was blocked.
"You mean the boy that was with you? With the bright blonde hair?", the doctor asked and she nodded.
"Yes, he's alright. He's also answering questions right now.", he answered her, noticing how she exhaled in relief.
"Can I see him?", she asked, immediately regretting it.
"You dare to make demands?! Who do you think you are?!"
Bruce seemed to hesitate, looking at the glass wall. Wanda followed his gaze, feeling the presence of another man on the other side of the glass. "I'm sure that'd be alright.", the doctor finally answered and a second later the door opened.
A women with red hair made eye contact with doctor Banner before nodding. "She's in here.", she said, but before the woman could finish her sentence, Wanda already felt the familiar rush of wind hit her face shortly before she was wrapped in the protective arms of her brother.
"He wouldn't answer any questions before we let him see her.", the redhead told doctor Banner, who gave her his piece of paper. "She answered everything."
Pietro released her slightly, looking down at her. "Oh, sestra... Prečo si to urobil? (Oh, sister... Why did you do that?)", he whispered, though he didn't sound mad at her. She knew he wasn't, he never was.
"Bála som sa. je mi ľúto. (I was scared. I'm sorry.)", she whispered back, watching the expression on her brother's face go from soft to concerned.
"Ublížili ti? (Did they hurt you?)", he asked, tucking a loose strand of his sister's messy hair behind her ear. A gesture that always seemed to calm her down. She shook her head.
"Nobody is going to hurt you here.", the redheaded woman spoke up. Though surprised that she could understand their native language, Pietro did not hesitate to counter:"Why did you separate us then?"
His thick accent was making it harder for others to understand him, but they did nonetheless. Wanda had always been better at speaking English, ever since their parents taught it to them, thinking that it could be useful one day.
Wanda on the other hand was happy to let her twin do the talking, even though she was easier to understand. She hated talking.
"We didn't know you belong together. You were in different cells at the base, so we thought you were strangers to each other.", the woman replied, unfazed by Pietro's burning gaze.
"You could have asked.", her twin argued, not ready to give up yet. "We did, but you guys didn't say anything.", the redhead answered, raising one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows.
Huffing in defeat, Pietro turned back to his sister and kissed her forehead, knowing that it brought her comfort. Comfort which she needed. She hated arguing.
"So are you ready to answer the questions now?", the redhead asked, softer this time, clearly trying to show them that there wasn't anything to be afraid of.
Pietro didn't answer, instead he stared at one of the metal walls, his gaze far away. Wanda knew he wasn't listening. She wasn't even sure if he was in the room anymore, she could hear him thinking.
Calculating if he could beat them up and run away with his sister if he had to.
Knowing that he wouldn't stop thinking about worst-case rescue plans, Wanda answered for him. "Just copy everything from my paper.", she said, clearing her throat.
The redhead raised her eyebrow again. "You're twins?", she asked, but began writing down Pietro's birthday and place of birth from the paper Bruce gave to her.
Wanda nodded. "His name is Pietro.", she added, before the woman had the chance to ask. Instead she smirked and wrote it down.
"Alright. Thank you...", she looked at the paper again, reading the name, "Wanda."