What, you didn't see that coming?
Chapter One:
The Overly Dramatic Death Scene
"I bet you didn't see that coming." The words slurred as they left his mouth and pain exploded through his body. Pietro fell to the floor in tangled heap as his eyes briefly rolled back in his skull. His thoughts stuttered through his mind in broken fragments. He was dying, Wanda, soon he would be nothing more than a memory. His silver hair rustled in the wind and he blinked slowly once more. Everything faded to black, and in that moment a fear he had felt only once before grabbed hold of his heart.
He was going to die.
Pietro felt the familiar surge of energy. A warm red glow filled his mind and suddenly he was no longer afraid. No, he had done the right thing and he would be rewarded in the afterlife. He would see his parents again and hopefully, in many years' time, he would be reunited with his sister, his twin and the only one to ever understand him fully. She would live, she would grow and she would be happy again. It would just take some time. She would live on, for the both of them. With a final exhale, the breath slithered from his lungs, leaving his body.
Pietro Maximoff was no more.
Clint's eyes widened in disbelief as he turned away from the child in his arms. Leaving the boy, he dove for Pietro, turning him over roughly in his arms. The man's lifeless eyes stared back at him. He searched for his pulse and found it just in time to feel the speedster's heart gave out. Clint swore. The guilt he felt for even joking about killing the silver haired boy below him flooded his veins. It had only been a joke; he didn't want it to actually happen.
If he hadn't been holding onto him, Clint wouldn't have felt it but he did. With a jump, Pietro's heart started again and began to beat faster by the second. Within a moment, the heartbeat had disappeared and Clint once again felt nothing. Pietro was fighting for his life, and if Clint had anything to say about, he would live. Hauling Pietro's body into his arms, he fireman carried him to the closest airship before collapsing onto a bench a blinding pain in his side. Had he been hit?
"Aww, bullet wound."
Pietro's mind was hazy. A fog had settled over it and was wafting around his mind, making everything intangible.
"Stop being so dramatic," said a familiar voice, a voice he was sure he'd never hear again. He did not dare to open his eyes. This couldn't be real, could it? He had died. Was this what the afterword was like? "I can sense you're awake," said the voice with an edge of mirth to it. A terrible thought crossed his mind causing his heart to double its speed. A shrill beeping filled his ears and made them ring. What if Wanda had died as well? What if she had followed him through the thresholds of life and death? All because she couldn't be without her twin, her other half. With urgency, Pietro pried his eyes open and grunted as the light attacked his irises.
Aches and pains he never knew he could have flooded his body. A long exhale that sounded much like a whimper left his mouth, as his brown eyes focused on the blurry figure in front of him. He reached up and unhooked his heart monitor, which was now flat lining.
"I thought you'd left me," spoke Wanda, softly, almost fearfully gentle, as though this was a dream and if she used her real voice it would shatter the illusion and he would be dead once more.
"What and leave you to defend the earth alone?" he joked, his cracked lips stretching into a smile. Pietro's voice was gravelly from being unused and he had a bad case of cotton mouth. Without warning, Wanda threw herself on him, burying her head into the crook of his neck. Hot tears wet the side of his neck and slid down onto the pillow below. Blinking back his own tears, he lay still, in pain but happy.
"Hey kid," said Clint, leveling a straw to Pietro's mouth. He drank with gratitude before pulling back and looking the other man in the eye.
"I had the perfect exit," he said with a small shake of his head. That had been an epic one liner and now it was wasted.
"It wasn't your time." Putting the cup of water down again, Clint turned back to Pietro and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Neither was it yours." Pietro nodded at the Avenger, not having much control over his body at the moment.
"Thank you." Clint nodded back.
"Should I say the same?" he asked with a cocky grin.
"Well it's good to see that some things don't change…" Clint rolled his eyes, a small up turn to the corner of his mouth the only indication he was happy. Pietro put his head back down on the pillow, its softness engulfing him. He felt like he had slept for ages, but right now, maybe he could use a little more. With a grin on his face, his eyes closed. Pain medication was nice. So was not being dead.
A.N: I don't know what came over me but I had to write something Pietro Maximoff. Right now I don't know if this story will go anywhere because I don't have any plans for it past this. I just know I wanted to write it.
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