Make It Right Again
By Blossom X-Men: Evolution does not belong to me, nor any of the characters that appear in this story. I don't get a single dime for this, so suing me would be futile at best. I do it for the love of writing and for the material.
AN: This is my first XME fic, so be gentle, 'kay, I know it's also a little on the short side. I began writing it as a workout, something to stretch out after such a long period of inactivity. However, it soon became more. I began to put a lot of thought into it. I always loved some of the Pietro fics that appeared on FF.N., like Melting Point (my current favorite) and anything by Chiru and TheLostMaximoff. So insightful and well done. Hopefully, this isn't too bad by comparison. Enjoy!
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You placed your hand on my shoulder and began rubbing it, as if that would make everything right again. It didn't. Nothing would ever make anything right again.
The guards were careful to hold her hands against her, and when she shot out an arm, as if to grab a hold of us, they twisted it back.
They had been warned and they didn't want to die.
Neither did you.
"Father!"
She called to you. Why? You were the one who did this to her. Why didn't she call to me? Why didn't she say, "Brother, please don't let them take me!"?
Because she knows she can't depend on you for anything.
I turned away, unable to take it anymore. The rain was coming faster now. I've always hated the rain. It makes it harder to run. Now I had a new reason, forever reminding me of the day I lost my better half. I didn't even bother pulling up my hood; it wouldn't have matter anyways, I was already soaked.
Not from tears. I didn't cry. The worst day of my life since the death of the Maximoffs and I didn't cry. I never cry, not then and not now. Even when I can't take the pain, I don't cry. It's one of the few things you're proud of me for.
"Wanda, your brother is the one who sprained his ankle but he remains calm even with your wailing. Stop it."
Wanda always claimed I was your favorite. She said that's why I was always the one who came with you when you visited Xavier or let Ms. Monroe, now Storm, take me to Evan's to play. When she would cry because once again you walked past her when she tried to get your attention, showing off macaroni art or a piece of homework with a smile sticker, I could never bring myself to comfort her. I wanted to, but then her eyes would have met mine, and we would both remember how you put my perfect tests on the refrigerator in your lab.
Soon, I couldn't hear her anymore. The guards had taken her inside. Inside where it's dark, where there are people who moan and whisper things to make you not want to wake up the next morning. You claimed Wanda was mad and not just a little angry. Well, if she wasn't then, she is now.
You looked stern as the doors to the hospital closed shut. Your eyes are usually cold, like chips of glaciers were used to make them. The only time they show anything else is when you finish a project. Then, they are like a hot, clear summer day, glowing with reserved excitement. At those times, you hold me to you, explaining why this gadget or the other will advance the mutant cause. You have no colleagues, other than Xavier, and he doesn't want to hear it anymore. You only had your then nine-year-old son to brag to and I barely understood what they did.
You never held Wanda like that. I never tried to get you to. You weren't cruel. Never once did you hit her or cursed at her. I don't think you've ever cursed, even when you would get into shouting matches with Xavier. You didn't deprive her of food or clothes, or any of the usual abuse that other kids suffer. You just didn't love her. For that matter, for all the little things you would do, I don't know if you love me. She could turn rocks into flowers and turn the local playground into spare parts for you, and you treated it as a matter of course. Your eyes were always cold when they settled on her.
But this time, your eyes are not even cold. They show...finality. Like the doors of the hospital, you were shutting Wanda away.
But it wasn't her fault!
Wanda couldn't take it. Warping reality whenever she moved her hands was too much. It warped her. One minute frightened and the next...
"P-pie! Please help! I did-d-dn't mean to, one minute they were there a-a-and t-t-then..." Tears running down her cheeks...
When my power emerged, I could only hurt myself, running into walls, through walls. Sometimes I would slip and fall across the ground for several feet. My skin would be rubbed bloody and raw and my bones fractured, times the pain was so bad I could have cried. But they weren't uncontrollable.
Hers were. Wanda's hex spheres couldn't just hurt her, or even other people. They could hurt reality. One minute the neighbors are jogging past the house and the next there's no record of them having lived across the street, even though we remembered how the Anderson's would play their music too loud at night.
That was the only time your eyes weren't cold or excited. They were wide with...uneasiness and continued to be when Wanda looked up and smiled. She smiled! Her eyes, which had been shedding tears, now took on a luminous look, feverish with I had then thought was excitement.
"Now we can all get some sleep".
You turned your back on the hospital and open the car doors, using your magnetic abilities. I followed.
Coward.
My whole body felt stiff, like I did my morning 'jog' for longer than usual. I was completely water logged and I hoped it would ruin the upholstery of the car. It seems kind of petty now.
You didn't wait for me to buckle up, you did it for me.
"Comfortable?"
"Yes, sir."
It's always confused me. You always insisted that I should be independent and approved of when I 'behaved fittingly', like never crying and calling you 'sir', not 'father'. Then you do things like hold my hand when we cross the street and tucking me into bed at night. Of course, you don't do that now. Now, you just make sure my loyalty goes only to you by having me alienate all the people who might have been my friends.
"Sir?"
"Yes, Quicksilver?"
"We can get Wanda back, right..?"
Your hands tightened on the steering wheel, making the knuckles white and splotchy red. Shifting your weight to make yourself more comfortable in the seat only made you look more uncomfortable.
"When she's better, right..?"
"I'll get better! I promise, Pie! It'll be okay! Don't be scared. Here, I made this for you..." She brings her hands from behind her back.
"She will get better, right sir?"
"I made it from him. It'll go back in a few hours, but for now, it's a teddy bear. See, he knows it's us."
He' wiggled his arms...
"And when she does, she can come home and-"
"No."
"But..."
"NO!"
The car engine roared as we picked up speed. The rain hit the windshield harder. It sounded like palms slapping, water demons trying to get in. I began to get nervous, remembering the pain from when I fell, trying to run in the rain. I gripped the dashboard. Then I realized we were in a car, so even if we swerved off road, you could always use your magnetic powers to stop it.
"Why not?"
"Why not? Why not?! Because she's insane, that's why not."
"Yeah, but when-"
"No."
You said it in the way your eyes looked when they took her. Final. Those glacier eyes stared ahead, not really seeing the road. You meant it. You intended never to let her out of that nightmare place. You were abandoning her!
Inside I had known it. I just didn't want to admit it.
"But I can visit her right? Like during the summer or when it's our birthday or..."
Please give me that much!
"No. As time passes, she will grow angrier and remove herself farther from reality. She will not recognize you. Or if she does, she will attack you, perhaps even kill you."
"No. Wanda's never tried to hurt me. She al-"
"Put her out of your mind, Quicksilver. She isn't important to our plans anymore."
You reached out your arm to put on my shoulders, drawing me to your side. My cheek pressed against your rib cage, and you began rubbing my arm, as if that would make everything right again.
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Blossom Morphine: Well, wasn't that depressing! All right, everyone, you know the standing orders are for reading a fic: Review!
Chibi Pietro: What for?
Blossom Morphine: (hugs Chibi Pietro to her) Because it's nice, duh! (begins kissing his forhead and cheeks) So cute! I could do this all day!
Chibi Pietro: (squirms) Yeah, yeah! Hurry, before she starts talking about her childhood.
Blossom Morphine: I think it all started back in elementary school, when I saw my first story 'published' by the school anthology...
Chibi Pietro: Aaaagh!