Disclaimer: I don't own the Maximoff twins, the Brotherhood or anything else in this fic…it's sad I know…

A.N.: Set sometime after 'The Toad, The Witch and The Wardrobe'. And a big thank you to The Past for her help with this little one-shot. :)

I hope you'll enjoy reading this fic!

Make-believe

I pretend she is happy.

She looks happy.

Which is good.

She doesn't get as mad as she used to.

That's good too.

She doesn't want to kill me anymore.

That is – lets face it – fantastic.

So why do I still feel so rotten? Like I've just sold another piece of my soul? And for what? Mutant superiority? For family togetherness?

Well, like I said we get along now and I'm thrilled that she doesn't want to use me for target practice… as much… but it's not real. No matter how hard I try to tell myself that is. It just isn't real.

I know it isn't because we – Wanda and I – were a family once.

I know and still I pretend that she is all right. That she is better off not knowing about her six-year long vacation in the nuthouse, courtesy of Magneto. After all ignorance is bliss. Maybe it is, but it's certainly not the truth. But I pretend it is. And sometimes I pretend so long it becomes real. I forget that she has been absent from my life for the better part of a decade and I forget that she actually hates my guts.

But that never lasts.

There are little things she does that bring me back to reality. It can be anything from a smile to a frown or even something as simple as a look. Like the other day she was zapping through the different stations in order to find something not involving the Mutant Menace. And she found something. A documentary about a ballet company.

She stared at screen so intently that the others thought there was something wrong with her – well after they stopped complaining about her choice of program.

But I knew better. She was stared at the graceful ballerinas with the same awe and adoration she had when she was only eight years old. Wanda loved the ballet, loved to dance period – apparently she still does.

That brought me crashing back to the real world. That's why I know that eventually she'll remember what her – what our – childhood was really like even if I don't tell her. And I'm certainly not going to tell her. I mean feel bad for her, but I don't feel suicidal!

But I don't doubt that she'll find out eventually. She's already wondering why she gave up dancing, soon she will wonder about other things and then she'll remember what Magneto … what I did to her.

Yes, what I did to her! I just stood there like an idiot while she was kicking, screaming, begging to stay with us. I do understand why she hates me. But what was I supposed to do? I was just a stupid kid with no powers… at all… zero… zip… nada.

But I know – deep down – that it hurt her more that I did nothing than anything Magneto ever did. I mean Magneto was never much of a father to either of us. He dropped us off at relatives of our mother – the Maximoff's – when we where only in diapers. Because the great Magneto can't be bothered with something so trivial as raising his children, he had more important things to do. But it wasn't like we never saw him. He showed up now and again. Sporadically. When it pleased him.

At first we loved it because he brought us gifts and told us story's about how we were special and that one day we would be a Prince and a Princess.

HA!

If it weren't so sad it would be funny. Princess Wanda of the House of Magneto and her noble brother Prince Pietro ever loyal at her side, protecting the Kingdom from miscreants and marauders. Or at least that's how it was in the stories.

When the time came I didn't protect her. I just let him throw her away because she had become inconvenient.

So I don't really blame her for hating my guts. But a part of me wishes so desperately that it wasn't true. That she still loved me…

Of course there is also the part of me that is scared as hell of what she is going to do to me once she does find out the truth. That's also the part that's telling me to run.

But I can't leave her.

Not again.

So I stay and pretend that every thing is okay. I pretend that I don't see the dirty looks coming from Lance, Todd and even Freddy. I pretend that I never hurt or betrayed my sister. I pretend that Magneto is a good father and I pretend that I'm not scared of what will happen once Wanda remembers.

And most of all I pretend that she is happy.

And maybe – if I'm lucky – I will get away with pretending long enough for my make-believe world to become real.

Loved it? Hated it? Either way please review! Thank you:)