idk what possess me to write this but yeah….
Running. Nothing made Pietro feel more alive. Before the powers, before Strucker, even before the death of his parents at the hands of Tony Stark. Throughout it all, running stayed constant. He savored every minute. The rhythm of his feet hitting the ground, the pounding of his heart, the sense of fulfillment after a particularly good run.
Pietro always tried to get Wanda to run with him. “Pena, you know it is good for you.” She always gave him a million excuses. “I’m tired” or “Prala, it’s too early” or “I have things to do today”.
After they got their powers, he gradually got less persistent. He knew he was too fast to truly run with her. He didn’t want to push her away more than she was already retreating. The experiments were much harder on her. She was always fragile to him, his little sister. He decided to give her space. So, he ran alone, in silence.
If they were allowed out, he’d jog around The Compound. But mostly, he just ran laps in his cramped cell. Running was no longer freeing but it was something.
He often dreams of what it would be like to have a family of his own. To be someone’s father or someone’s husband. Sometimes these dreams would come to him while he was running. Family dinners in a nice house, inviting Wanda over for a drinks with him and his fictional wife. In this world, he was a science experiment, but in his dream-life, he was normal. He never once imagine life without his sister.
When ever Wanda would complain about him pestering her to run with him, he joke “Get used to it, you’re stuck with me”
Then the world changed. One day, the Compound came under attack and in a stroke of luck, Pietro and Wanda escaped. Shortly after, Ultron recruited them to destroy the people who destroyed their life. Ultron eventually killed the quick-witted boy Wanda called her brother. The people Wanda had been told to destroy became her family.
Grief is hard. For the first months after his death, all she could do was count the moments without him. It took all her strength to leave the side of the coffin long enough for the undertakers to bury him. Steve and Vision stayed by her side at the gravesite until she finally fell asleep and they could carry her away. For months after the funeral, Wanda couldn’t bring herself to look at his shoes. She was able to go through the rest of it.Clothes were meaningless. His shoes however, those were his favorite things in the world. they brought him so much comfort before his death. She often thought she should have buried them with him, but she kept them. Selfish. “Something to remember him by” she would tell herself. As if keeping them could somehow preserve him. Vision tried to help. On some level, he did help filled a bit of the void left in her brother’s absence. Still, the hole he left was gaping.
A year after, she finally went on a run. It slowly became a part of routine and she was starting to understand why her (late) brother enjoyed it so much. It was so weird to refer to him like that. He had been with her through everything, and then suddenly, he wasn’t.
Steve sometimes joined her. He knew what it felt like, losing someone so close. He figured the last thing she would want would be to be alone. Sam joined once, but it didn’t last. He was wrong though, she much preferred it. When she was running she could be alone with her thoughts. She often wondered what Pietro would think of on those lonely, dark mornings when she refused to join him. Did he wonder about where their next meal would come from? Did he scout places to steal from? Part of her wished she had joined him, just so he wouldn’t have had to be alone.
She missed him every moment of everyday. Vision told her she needed to left go. “He was part of me. You can’t just ‘let go’ of part of your soul. but I guess you wouldn’t get that, would you?” she spit at him as she storm out, slamming the door without even laying a finger on it. She may have been a little cruel. After all, it wasn’t his fault. What does an android know about losing part a soul?
Eventually, she did move on. She dedicated herself to her training. Not just her powers, but her running as well. Pietro would have been proud.
She even started a foundation, in his honor, to help the orphans of their home country. Every year, she hosted a fundraising marathon. She often participated and dragged her teammates along. Steve and Vision always participated and even grew to love it as much as Wanda did.
Vision became her rock through the years, the missions, the public events, and eventually the best part of her life. Together, she helped raise the two most important people in her life, Billy and Thomas. She still thought of her brother, her Pietro, everyday. She raised her sons as strong and powerful like their uncle before them. Decades later, she retired with Viz to a quaint home in upstate New York. A long way from her homeland and her beloved brother. She was finally at peace.
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