we need to go
Pietro knew that he wasn't at his best today. His mind kept drifting off to his sister, hoping that she would manage until he would be back. Maybe he should've just skipped his morning run today...
"You okay, kid?", he heard Steve ask, as the super soldier finally caught up with him. He'd let him speed around for a few minutes, catching up with him at the finish line, as always.
"Yeah, I'm just worried about Wanda.", the younger boy admitted, noticing Steve frowning slightly.
"You wanna tell me why? Maybe I can help.", he offered, resting his hands on his hips. Pietro shook his head.
"I can't really tell you without her permission. But thanks for the offer.", he replied, scratching the back of his neck, hoping that his mentor wouldn't take it personally which, of course, he didn't. Steve just nodded.
"Alright, I respect that.", he assured him with a smile. "Let's get started on training, okay? I want you to match my pace.", the super soldier explained, already taking off for another round around the park.
Pietro huffed in annoyance. He hated Steve's "match my pace" training. He was quite in control of regulating his speed when he was running on his own. Concentrating on matching Steve's pace in the process was a totally different thing.
Nevertheless he followed the instructions and was soon caught up with his mentor, running next to him.
When they were about to start their third round, Pietro stopped abruptly.
Something was wrong.
Steve noticed the younger boy's absence and stopped as well, looking back at him. "You need a break, kid?", he asked, not quite understanding why Pietro would stop in the middle of training like that. He usually took it very seriously and let him know when he needed a break.
When he didn't receive an answer, he jogged back until he was at Pietro's side once again. "Hey, are you okay?", he asked, concern visible on his features.
"I am... But Wanda isn't. Something is wrong.", Pietro muttered, trying to process the mess in his mind, which was undoubtedly coming from his sister.
Steve didn't question what Pietro had just said, trusting him that he wouldn't make up some lie to get out of training. Especially if it involved his sister.
"If you feel like you need to go back to the tower, go. I'll catch up later.", he promised, leaving Pietro with the choice of ending or presuming their training.
Before he knew it, they boy had sped off towards the tower.
-
"Malyshka, talk to me, please.", Natasha said calmly for what felt like the hundredth time, while she watched Wanda stuff clothes into a bag.
"I can't... I-I have to leave...", the brunette muttered, her hands shaking while she grabbed a hoddie and pulled it off of its coat rack.
"Wanda, honey... Look at me, please.", the redhead tried again unsuccessfully.
Wanda walked into the bathroom with the intention of grabbing her toothbrush so she could put it into the bag as well. But when she turned around, Natasha had blocked the way, trapping her inside the bathroom.
"Sweetie... Look at me, please.", she repeated softly, noticing the younger girl's hand tremble. "I'm not mad at you, alright? I just want to talk about what happened.", she added, hoping to coax the girl into talking to her.
Slowly, Wanda raised her head and looked at the redhead, tears streaming down her face, her eyes full of fear. "There you go, baby, good job.", Natasha praised, smiling slightly in hopes of reassuring the brunette.
"I'm going to touch you, is that okay?", the spy asked, noticing that Wanda's thoughts weren't with her right now. With a, hopefully, more assuring smile, she reached for the brunette's hands, feeling a pang of disappointment when she flinched away.
"Don't-...I-I don't want to hurt you again.", Wanda choked out, her hands still trembling, as she noticed the burnt skin on Natasha's left hand.
"You won't hurt me, Wanda. I know you won't.", the spy said softly, reaching out for the brunette once more, only for her to flinch away again.
"You don't know that.", the younger girl accused, her voice trembling with fear.
Natasha hadn't felt this lost in a long time. "Wanda, please just talk to me. I'm worried about you... I haven't seen you this scared before.", the redhead said, shuffling to the side to block the way as Wanda tried to walk past her.
"Has this something to do with what happened last night?", Nat asked, hitting the nail right on its head, judging by the brunette's wide eyes.
"Just let me go...please.", Wanda pleaded, hoping that the older woman would just drop the subject. But obviously that wouldn't happen.
"No, Wanda.", the spy stated, more firmly. "I won't and you know why? Because I care about you and I want to understand what's going on so I can help you, but I can't do that if you won't talk to me!", the redhead raised her voice slightly, sounding more and more frustrated with every word she said.
Wanda stared at her silently, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Nat pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "I'm sorry for raising my voice, malyshka.", she said softly, taking Wanda's hand into her own uninjured one, smiling when the younger woman didn't pull away.
Wanda opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a panting Pietro coming to a stop in the middle of her room, looking around frantically for his sister.
"Wanda?!", he called out before he spotted them in the doorframe between the bedroom and bathroom.
His eyes immediately found hers and Nat let go of her hand, stepping aside so Wanda could reach her brother. The spy knew better than to stand between them.
The moment the path was opened, Wanda found herself pulled into her brother's strong arms. "Are you okay?", he mumbled into her hair, noticing the mess in his sister's usually tidy room.
"No...", the brunette choked out truthfully, increasing not only her brother's worry but also Natasha's.
"Tell me what to do.", the blonde boy requested, feeling how his sister's tears wet the front of his shirt.
"We need to go. Now.", Wanda whispered and Pietro immediately understood what she meant. Sokovia.
"Okay. Let me just pack my bag and then we can-", Pietro started to promise until a very frustrated redhead interrupted him. "No, no way. Neither of you are going anywhere before you tell me what's going on.", Natasha demanded, her brows furrowed.
Pietro felt his sister's grip tightening around his torso. "We need to go back to Sokovia.", he said vaguely, but obviously that wasn't enough for the redhead.
"It's really important.", he added as Wanda let go of him to resume in packing her bag.
The spy sighed again. "Okay. You can tell me why, when we're on our way in the quinjet.", the russian stated, making her way over to the bedroom door.
Wanda's eyes shot over to Natasha in shock. "Tasha-"
"I won't repeat myself, malyshka and I most certainly won't let you go alone. So if I can't stop you two from leaving, I'm going to accompany you. End of discussion.", the spy stated firmly, leaving no room for arguments.
Before she crossed the threshold, the redhead stopped once more to turn around.
"I'm not angry, but if you leave without me, I will be."
-
The first few minutes of their trip were spent in awkward silence.
The twins hadn't left without Natasha, although they had briefly argued about doing so, who was now sitting in the cockpit of a quinjet, flying them towards Sokovia.
Pietro sat next to his sister in the back, letting her fidget around with his fingers while both of them thought about what exactly they should tell the redhead.
Wanda's original plan of only telling the spy about the witch part of her secret had been successfully destroyed by her demonic and increasingly annoying roommate taking full control over their shared body for the first time ever.
"Alright, Jarvis is going to fly us to Sokovia on autopilot. Now we have nine hours of time to kill.", the russian stated as she climbed out of the cockpit and made her way over to the twins, sitting down on the opposite side of them.
Neither of the three said something for another few seconds.
"Start speaking whenever you're ready. Just know that I won't judge you, okay? I only want to help you.", the redhead assured softly, before she took off her black leather jacket and put it on top of an empty seat next to her.
"You read our files from Hydra, correct?", Wanda asked timidly after another minute of silence, choosing to not drop the 'I am a witch-bomb' onto her directly. Natasha nodded.
"It says that we gained our powers because of their experiments, correct?", the brunette went on and the spy nodded again.
"Yes, that's what they say and that's also what you told us before we read them.", the redhead added calmly, referring to the evening the team had found out about the twin's powers.
"I also know that you lied about what happened during the experiments.", the spy revealed, watching as Wanda's eyes widened in surprise. "W-what?", she stuttered nervously.
"Don't take this personally, malyshka, but you're a terrible liar.", Natasha said, smirking as a blush covered the younger girl's cheeks. Pietro snorted. "Povedal som ti. (Told you.)"
Wanda shook her head. "Well uhm... Anyways... Strucker didn't exactly give me my powers. He... increased what was already there.", the brunette began explaining, watching as the spy raised an eyebrow.
"You already had powers before the experiments?", she asked for clarification. "Yes. Well no. I had magic, that's not necessarily the same thing.", the brunette answered as Nat raised one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows.
"Magic?", she repeated as Wanda nodded slowly.
"I'm a witch."
The silence stretched as both Maximoffs watched closely for Natasha's reaction, though the spy's face remained blank.
"So the experiments amplified your magic?", the redhead asked, surprising the twins. "Wait, you believe me?", Wanda frowned, not sure if Nat was being serious or sarcastic right now.
"Malyshka, I'm friends with a norse god. If you tell me that witches exist, I believe you. I'm not even surprised at this point, honestly.", the russian spy sighed before frowning. "That's quite concerning actually..."
Pietro snorted once again, feeling stupid for forgetting that Thor was a literal god. "Well that went better than expected...", he commented, as he leaned back against his seat.
"So you're a witch. That doesn't explain why you desperately need to go to Sokovia though.", the spy noted and Wanda nodded.
"Last night, when I floated in the air above my bed...", the brunette paused, swallowing at the memory. "...I spoke to our mother's spirit."
Natasha raised both of her eyebrows. "What?", she asked in disbelief and Wanda nodded.
"She told me to go back to Sokovia and find a witch named Agatha Harkness.", the brunette went on.
"Why?", Nat asked, making Wanda pause. This was it. The question she'd been dreading.
The witch had two options now. Lie or tell the whole truth about the voice in her head. Her gaze found her brother's, asking a silent question.
He took her hand in his and squeezed reassuringly. 'I trust her too.', she heard him tell her through their mental bond. She looked back at Nat.
"I'm not quite sure...", Wanda stated truthfully. "...but I think it has something to do with the voice in my head."
Natasha's face scrunched up in concern. "You hear voices in your head? Apart from the thoughts of those around you?", the redhead asked but Wanda shook her head.
"No, it's just one voice and until today I thought that it was just that but...", she hesitated, because she hadn't had the chance to tell her brother about the next part yet.
"... today she took control over my body for the first time.", the young woman admitted, feeling Pietro tense next to her.
"What?!", he exclaimed, looking at his sister in shock. "She took control of your body?", he asked and she nodded.
Before Pietro could freak out any further, Nat cut back in.
"And this Agatha Harkness witch is able to help you?", she asked.
"She's the oldest witch to still live to this day. Her knowledge exceeds that of every other witch.", Wanda explained.
"If she can't help me then nobody can."