At first Pietro comes in just to say goodnight before going to bed. Leaning against the doorjamb, he stays there for an hour, just looking at sleeping Wanda curled in the middle of a huge bed, like a tiny shell in the sand. He spends more and more time with every night looking at her white face, shimmering in the dark, tangled hair falling over the forehead, as she tosses in sleep, but makes no move, not a single tiny movement or step to take it away. There are lines he is afraid to cross. There are things he can`t catch, no matter how fast he is.
After that night with a wound in her left side Pietro finally makes a step forward and sits at her bedside all the night. First he sits at the wall, leaning against it, immersed in darkness, focused on sister`s breathing, that`s the only thing important here and now. Then, we moves closer and closer and finally falls asleep near her bed, with the head resting on the hands next to her hand.
-You don`t have to... - she says into the darkness, knowing that he is here, frozen like a thief caught in the middle of a robbery, she can read his thoughts - confusion, embarrassment, a tiny speck of shame, almost hidden in an ocean of concern.
-Yeah. - Pietro shrugs, hardly separable from that darkness, which hides him. - Anyway, you can always snap your fingers and make me fly out of the window, or do some other magic tricks.
-I know something better. Come here. –she reaches out her hand.
Since then, they sleep together, tangled bodies, tied into a knot, Wanda sleeps resting in his hands, he lays legs on hers, she wakes up with him above her, covering her body like a human shield, that`s all for him – she says to herself. It`s the only way to stop his anxiety. The only way to calm Pietro down. But then, when lying in the dark and listening to his steady breathing, inhaling and exhaling in unison, Wanda matches the beating of their hearts, touches his temples, imagining beautiful dreams, and then realizes it is not just her problem anymore.
Sooner or later they will become something more, united, complete, and in her dreams Wanda sees her hands becoming transparent, diving into his body, grow inside and their bodies finally merge into one.
-You don`t have to worry, - she says one day, lying in bed next to him and staring at the ceiling aimlessly.
-About what?
-We can`t just ... disappear. You or me. People are searching for someone all the time, and we don`t need to. We have already found. - It's really pretty simple. No matter who was the firstborn, some ten minutes earlier, they are inseparable. Their thoughts are tuned in unison, sometimes it's difficult to understand whose feelings they are.
-Oh, Wanda. - Pietro turns his face to her: - But I`m already gone.
She wakes up in sweat, still in the bath, the water became warmer, and she just got used to it, the same monotonous sound of droplets hitting the water, soaked hair stir in water like algae, live, smooth, and silence still surrounds her.
-I hate you, hate you, hate YOU! - She repeats words, silently screaming, just a little bit and she will explode of the overflowing anger, splash it out with the bathwater.
Pietro was always with her before. He could comfort her. Now he is gone. Wanda can`t bear it and finally shouts loudly, leaning back, her head smashes in the edge of the tub, blood is trickling down the neck and back, but she can`t stop until bottles, candles and towels start falling down the shelves and a hefty crack runs the mirror with scattered tiny sliver lines of glass web.
-Where are you, damn you! Where the fuck are you, when I need you?! - Wanda is choking with words, anger, pain, pulls the body out of water, barely moving feet, clinging to the door frame, and leaving a wet footprints, she drags herself to bed to fall down. She has no more strength for anything else.
She could stand six months, steady and calm, before was fed up with it.
She collapses on the bed, closes eyes and hears soft whisper:
-Wanda ... Wanda… Promise. – She kept it, now she finally can fall asleep.
She wakes up in Pietro`s hands, they are warm and strong clenching her as if she is going to disappear, and Wanda can`t help but intertwine their fingers , pressing in his body with a force as if to fuse in it.
-What`s wrong ... - she hears brother`s quiet and sleepy voice. – Everything fine?
-Bad dream. - Wanda smiles nervously; she thinks that in fact everything turned into a very bad dream, the one you cannot wake up. - Just a dream.
She looks at his chest rising and falling slowly, Adam's apple moving smoothly and hardly restrains the desire to touch the skin, with open palm; maybe she would be finally able not to let him go anymore? Would she?
Her fingers run on the uneven scar left by her teeth, it is almost healed, still slightly standing out above the skin, whitish, oval-shaped.
-What IS wrong, Wanda? - She looks up and sees Pietro looking at her too attentively for a sleepy one.
-Nothing. – She responds and pulls up, covering his mouth with her. - Nothing ... – Wands breaks away for a moment to catch a breath and then kisses again, – at all. – The remembrance of the imaginary pain "torn half of one soul" is too strong to retreat.
The desire to heal this wound is so big, strong and unbearable, that she doesn`t immediately realize that he is responding to her kisses, his will is bigger than she would have expected. She no longer needs to rip up his thoughts, prying, they flood her mind now, it`s like an ocean she can`t absorb at once, and Wanda gasps. Head is dizzy and hands clutching his shoulders are numb of strong and fierce kisses. Her fingers bury in his hair, slide on the hot skin, soft and moist with sweat, Pietro turns her over, pressing down under his body, then lets go, and she is on top again, they are tangled into a knot and break kisses to breath in and burst back into the darkness of intoxication.
-Take it off, - she orders, happened to be on top again, and helps him, tearing a gray T-shirt off his shoulders eagerly, she can't lose a second now. The fabric is ripping and Wanda smiles with a corner of her mouth, bites Pietro`s lip to the blood, she knows he is much as impatient as she is.
She reads his mind, knows he has been waiting much longer, her half-year is a drop in the ocean of his patience, and allows his feelings fill her empty starving mind, further and further, until finally chokes with desire.
They are so far away from brother- sister now, from some common lovers' relationship, naked, glistening with sweat, panting, they look like one human who found himself finally. She touches him where he wants to be touched, but he doesn`t even have to ask. She throws the neck back and allows him to kiss her throat, bite the skin of shoulders, and she doesn`t even have to ask. Wanda runs fingers over her shoulder, displaying for his teeth and Pietro bites so violently, leaving an uneven bloody oval that she emerges from insane abyss of desire for a moment and contentedly notes the similarity of marks- scars on their shoulders. Now they definitely are similar, Wanda thinks falling down on her back and clenches legs on Pietro`s back, crosswise, as if protecting him, or nailing.
-More, - She knows she has started this and he will obey, so sets the rhythm of their movements. She controls minds, increasing sensations and lengthening every tiny movement, every spark of pleasure into a long thread, weaving them all together never to be divided.
Two minds merge into one, solid, strong, alive, when she gasps shuddering from the sharp pleasure, shared with him, pressed her forehead to Pietro`s, intertwining fingers in the final paroxysm of passion, and immediately loses all strength, leaning back in his hands weak and trembling.
There`s only one thing left to know.
Pietro smiles, removing disheveled locks from her face, nothing has changed for him, it`s not necessary to touch his mind, no more.
-If or when, - she repeats his words, - you will not be around, where can I find you? – Wanda raises her faces for Pietro`s kisses, forehead, temples, eyes.
-Then you have to go home. - Pietro kisses her cheekbone tenderly. - We can always meet there. Secret place, remember?
She remembers.
Wanda slowly traces the bite on her shoulder; it hurts enough to understand - it's real.
Wanda wakes up, gets out of bed, and walks slowly to the bathroom; she is looking at the broken mirror, reflecting dozens of identical blue-black bites on her shoulder.
She is smiling, touching the swollen skin.
It's time to go home.