check /m

It had been awhile since she’d laid eyes on her brother. If she were brave enough, she’d actually admit it had been half a decade, but that made it sound so much worse. If she were to say she’d lost track of time, that would be a poor excuse. It would also be downplaying everything that happened. How could she even tell him where she’d truly gone?

It was time to go back to him, though, and back to the safety of the institute. This decision was only made because Agatha had nothing else to show her at the moment. Wanda bit her lip as she boarded the plane headed for New York. At least she still had time to think of something to say, five hours to be exact.

That day she walked into the Professor's office the last time she was there, he told her she would benefit from studying under someone else. He knew someone that had a similar power and much more knowledge. He mentioned how powerful he believed Wanda was and how much potential she'd waste if she simply stayed to studied under them. Of course, she had accepted that fact. The decision to leave had made it easier to tell Pietro about the school because she was gone when he got there.

Wanda knew she would have to admit what she did to him. She needed to tell him that he'd died for her, and that she had torn apart reality to bring him back, yet she was afraid. So she continued to run from him each day without acknowledging the truth.

The day after she left the mansion back then, she had only made it halfway to Agatha Harkness. A witch had gotten the best of her. Even though Wanda had brought her brother back from death, it had been the pain of losing him that spiked her power during that moment. Something inside her held her back this time, or maybe this witch was just more powerful, either way Wanda had lost and she was stuck.

She had been thrown into some kind of facility and tossed into a glass cell. She'd only laid eyes on one other prisoner the first day she was shoved into a cage next to his. The two didn't talk much at first, but she'd forever be haunted by his screams the first time he was dragged away. When she sat quietly in her cage that first night, she wondered how long he'd been there, and how long she would be there.

It turned out the answer was two years, but it felt more like ten. It was nearly unbearable, the pain they caused her, when they tried to force her to bring more people back from the brink of death. Wanda was sickly exhausted and emotionally drained. It seemed like this would never end and no one even knew she was gone.

The day her neighbor escaped, he didn't leave her behind. They had grown close in their time trapped together, so it was obvious to him that they should overpower their captor as partners. They'd killed the witch and left hand in hand.

She'd never forget his name or his face. She'd never kissed anyone besides Pietro before, but she was overwhelmed with emotion and the kiss they shared was full of passion. It'd caught the man off guard when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her as best she could. He picked her up instead and molded with her until she hesitantly broke it off.

They parted ways, forever bonded by shared trauma, but she was sure to tell Nathaniel Essex there was a safe place for people like them. She promised, even if she never saw him again, she'd always remember him. She owed him after all.

When she'd ultimately made it to Agatha, the older witch hadn't even realized Wanda was two years late. Agatha just threw everything at Wanda rapidly and expected her to catch up. It took three years, but she did.

Two months was a long time to be somewhere his mother had been without officially talking to her. At first, he thought it would hurt too much to see her, so he avoided her all together. When he couldn't do that, he instead decided he wouldn't talk to her all that much. Of course, that didn't work out so well either. Now, he was entirely too happy to talk to her whenever he could. Olivier might even be losing sight of the goal at this point because, though she may be technically younger than him now, she was still his mother. Maybe she was a little more rough around the edges than he remembered, but he loved her all the same. He didn’t even think that other people might see his attitude toward her as something else entirely; none of them knew his real name except Arlo.

Maybe it’s fate when he jumps into a taxi when he hears the passenger is going to the Institute. She looked like a professor, but she was really prickly when he asked her questions. He just talked until his stop came up and jumped out of the moving vehicle. A few days later, he decides maybe he should go there too.

Unfortunately, he’s not brave enough to face any of them without his mask. Even worse, he’s not sure if he can even build up the courage to talk to her. Still, he shows up in his suit and hopes she won’t recognize his voice if he talks using an accent. “How’s it going, lass?” @sugarynspice​

Studying was not something Lorna always enjoyed. Or often enjoyed even. But studying with Scott at least made it more bearable. That didn’t make either student any less tired. Scott, it seemed, especially right now. Lorna didn’t notice until he was leaning on her, glasses askew. Not wanting to disturb him, she carefully shifted so she was more comfortable on the couch, book in hand, letting Scott sleep against her while she read.

—

The only reason Pietro had come to this place was because Wanda had suggested it, she had told him it was the safest place in the world for people like them. That’s why he brought Klara here years ago. But if it was the safest place, then why had she left? He had feared, for years, that once she told him of it, she’d decided that she didn’t want to be there. She was always running, but it was still relatively new that she was running from him. He’d given up hope she’d ever come back, so when he heard that perfect, beautiful voice, he nearly jumped out of his skin. 

Setting down the cup of coffee he’d just fixed himself, he walks out into the foyer and it seems like he might not stop walking until she was in his arms but he stops short. And stares. She was as beautiful as always, talking to Hank who had come to greet her and her laughter was like a bubbling stream they’d laid by together. He feels jealousy rush all over him, seeing her laugh with that big bumbling idiot the way she is, and that motivates him to keep going. “Why are you here? Where have you been?” he asks harshly, ignoring the way Hank peers at him with concern. “You can leave,” he says without looking at the other man then grabs Wanda’s elbow to bring her to the corner of the foyer. His voice drops and he whispers to her in their shared language, “No letters? You don’t own a phone?”

~~~

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see him walking toward her and her heart rate picks up exponentially. It pangs her a little to know he isn’t running to see her, but Wanda still grins at Hank and tries to rush out her goodbyes. That is until her brother charges into the conversation instead. When his first words are why and where, it all clicks into place and she understands. “See you later, Hank.” she is still grinning and waving at him with her free hand.

Wanda’s smile fades even though her heart is still pounding out of her chest. She turns to Pietro and is about to make an excuse; she’s about to lie. Nothing she can think of would be a good reason to him, but how could she tell her brother that she was in danger? How does she tell him that when she was out of it, she was just too ashamed and afraid to write him? No, she didn’t have a phone because it was taken from her and she never got a new one. After racing through all of those memories in her head, Wanda manages to mutter out in the same language, “I’m sorry, Pietro.” She considers leaving it at that, but she knows he would not accept that.

Wanda bites her lip and continues in English, “I was learning from someone with similar power. The Professor sent me to her right after my last letter to you. Can we... talk somewhere else?” She wonders if they move from this crowded hall, would she even tell him anything else?

Reyna stepped further into the room, feeling awkward as she did. Out of place. That summed up a lot of her experience here in this house-turned-school. But no one here yet had told her she didn’t belong, and she knew it was safer here… So she stayed. She picked up the textbook, examining it.

Reyna nodded. Most of that stuff she could probably do. She’d never been bad at school, not when she’d had the time to actually do the work. She just didn’t have a lot of time without a thousand more important things.

Scott felt dense now because he basically was inviting her to study right now and she probably only came to talk about how to take the test. A sheepish smile made its way to his face, “Uh, but we don’t have to work on that now. If you prefer to study alone, you can take the books. You know where I am now, so you can bring them back whenever you’d like.”

Scott’s surprise shouldn’t come as a shock. How many times had Alex argued back? How many times had he just gone again anyway? Especially before Scott had been at the Institute? Too many, if his brother was begging him just to stay. And yet, Alex did feel a twinge of surprise.

“Yes. Really. I’ll stay.” 

Lorna nodded as he pointed out the tree, eager to see what he would do. She didn’t bother to tell him that she knew there was no one on the other side of the tree–it was too difficult to explain this early–but it was sweet that he warned a hypothetical person anyway. Scott seemed sweet generally, really.

She didn’t feel sorry for him either, until he cringed and she realised that was probably really hard, not being able to take the glasses off. But surely, here of all places that was understood? 

Those thoughts were blasted from her mind along with a good chunk of the trunk of the tree Scott was aiming at. She was stunned into silence, not entirely sure whether or not she should laugh. When Scott put his glasses on and laughed though, she couldn’t hold it back. “I mean… Only a bit. Yeah. I got the idea though.”

As his laughter died down, Scott placed a hand on the back of his neck and a huge grin lit up his face. He was glad she wasn’t judging him for missing, if he hadn’t called out his target in the first place it wouldn’t have been as embarrassing.

Years had gone by since she last stepped foot on this campus. A wave of relief washed over her once she finally reached the steps and she smiled for the first time in a long time. Not to say that she didn’t smile with Agatha, it just wasn’t the same as seeing this place again. Wanda, despite only being here a short time before she left, felt like she could actually call this place home. Though if she were being honest with herself, her home was where Pietro was. She had been sending him letters before, but a lot had happened and her letters stopped. In her heart, she knew her brother was fine because she could feel it.

Alex didn’t reply for a bit, letting Scott say what he needed to say. And maybe what Alex needed to hear. Because hearing his brother so upset was enough to tug at him. But it was his last quiet remark that pushed it over the edge. It was never about running away from Scott, and his first instinct is anger. Defensiveness. But… Maybe Scott was right.

“Okay. I won’t. I’ll stay.”

Scott was so ready for push back from Alex, but it doesn’t come. At a lost for words, Scott rubbed his eyebrow and just stared with a puzzled look on his face. Was this a dream? It had been so hard to convince him before, what changed? Forgive Scott for being skeptical, but he’d been waiting for this for so long he didn’t think it’d actually happen.