Wanda was exhausted. She had been dragged into another universe, pulled a group super-powered individuals out from another on accident, and used her magics to send them all back. All she wanted to do now was get into her bed and go to sleep. Once the team had gotten back to the Triskelion, she had immediately gone up the her room, shutting the door behind her, not stopping to speak to anyone. Not even Pietro. Especially not Pietro. It was he who had convinced her to use her powers in the first place, against her own better judgment. Of course, he couldn’t leave her to be angry with him. It just wasn’t their way.
Standing at her dresser, taking off her gloves, she heard a rapid knock on her door, followed by the most familiar voice. “Wanda?”
She paused what she’s doing, releasing a heavy sigh. She couldn’t shut him out. “Come in.”
Her door opens and closes in less than a second, and Pietro is instantly at her side, a foot behind her.
She took a moment to wipe off her dark red lipstick with a tissue before quietly asking him: “What do you want?” She quickly regretted it, releasing a soft breath. She could instantly feel that her words had stung him. She hadn’t meant for them to.
Pietro reached out to rub her shoulder gently, hoping to comfort her. “Are you alright?”
Wanda stopped jadedly fussing with a few jewelry pieces on top of her dresser, and she shuddered slightly. “You promised me, Pietro,” she whispered, a tear slipping down her cheek. She wiped it away before her brother could see it.
“Wands…”
“You promised me, years ago, that you wouldn’t let this power control me, Pietro.” She closed her eyes for a moment, a second or two, taking a deep breath before she finished, absentmindedly playing with a necklace in front of her. “But look at what happened when I listened to you.”
Wanda felt her brother's arms wrap around her from behind, slowly. He was always going so fast, but he always slowed down for her. “I’m sorry, darling,” he whispered softly into her ear, placing a kiss to her shoulder. “I’d thought it would help us.”
She let her hand fall back against him, relaxing into his touch. “I know,” she said, turning around in his arms. “I know you did.” She held his face in her hands, gently combing her fingers through the sides of his hair.
“You still love me?” He asked her, though he already knew her answer.
She pulled the sunglasses he’d still been wearing off of his face and set them onto her dresser, her brown eyes looking deep into his blue ones. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her forehead against his. “Of course I do, darling.”
They stood there quiet for a couple of seconds before she asked him a question that had plagued her for years. “Do you think I’m dangerous?” Her voice was shaky, almost sounding helpless.
A tear threatened to fall down her face, and he wiped it away with his thumb. “Wanda,” he whispered, holding her face in his hands. “You are perfect.” He pressed his lips to hers, filling her heart with the love and reassurance that she needed.
She returned the kiss, tightening her arms around him a bit. They pulled apart after a few seconds, and she took his hand in hers. “I’m exhausted,” she told him, leading him over to her bed. “Lay with me.”
The two of them lay down on her bed together, she rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her, holding her close to him. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair.
“Do you remember when you first told me you love me?” Wanda asked him, running her fingers over his chest. “Not just as your sister.” She wasn’t sure why the thought had come to her mind so suddenly, but it had.
“You mean when I blurted it out one night?” Pietro replied, slowly rubbing his hand up and down her arm, the faintest smile crossing his lips. “And you ran away from me?” It had been painful at the time, but it was years ago. It was almost funny to him now. He knew how much she loved him.
Wanda chuckled lightly for a moment at the memory. “I was scared,” she explained, “of my feelings, and the world…” She stopped for a couple of seconds. “Of father.”
Pietro felt a flash of anger, thinking of their monster of a father. “Father can’t hurt us anymore,” He assured her, his jaw tensing just slightly. The man had ripped them away from their mother as children, abused them, brainwashed them since childhood to support his “cause”. He had been killed over a year ago, but the twins knew that he would always have some kind of negative effect on them. It was something they had come to except.
“I know,” she sighed, snuggling closer against him. “We’re free of him now.”
He held her a little tighter against him, with his ever-present need to protect her, always. “Are you scared now?” He gently ran his fingers through her soft hair.
“I’m not scared anymore,” she replied, and moved up to kiss his lips briefly, before returning to lay her head down on his shoulder, cuddling close to him again.
“I love you, darling,” he whispered into her hair, leaving a kiss there afterward.
Wanda felt her eyelids growing heavier, and let them close, content to fall asleep in the arms of her soulmate.
“I love you, Pietro.”