AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, so this chapter went through much editing it went from 5 pages to 7. I wasn't going to post this one so soon, but I finished editing the next chapter and I really wanted to get that one out, so expect that coming up. Also I originally wasn't going to name their mother, but she ended up becoming important, so I used Magda like their mom in the comic-verse, but this isn't the same Magda and obviously their dad isn't Magneto, so just keep that in mind. Let me know if you see any typos, or just want to say something.

DISCLAIMER: Once again I don't own anything here that belongs to Marvel.

The next morning followed much the same pattern as the morning before. Starting with Lia's mother headed to work, saying that she hoped she had a good day. Afterwards Lia put on another record and sat at the window, although this time as she stared at the park below she replayed the events from the day before. She felt a ghost of a smile come across her face as she thought of Wanda's infectiously curious demeanor, and she even recalled Pietro's mischievous antics with slight fondness. As time went by she sort of hoped that she would see them on the playground so she could go out and play with them again.

After sitting at the window for a few hours Lia was surprised by a knock at the door. She rushed over to the door, but paused once she had reached it. No one had ever knocked while she was by herself before, and she wasn't sure if her mother would want her to answer it, but what if it was Wanda? After a few moments of contemplation and a few deep breaths she opened to door to see Wanda with an excited smile. Even Pietro was standing behind her, though he looked completely disinterested gazing at the ceiling with his hands in the pockets of his black athletic pants.

"Hey Lia, do you want to come over and play with us today," Wanda asked, leaning her head to gesture towards their own apartment. Lia nodded shyly and opened the door wider welcoming into her apartment since she still needed to change out of her flower print pajamas.

"Wow, this place is really empty," Pietro said as he noticed the three suitcases and record player in the corner.

Wanda elbowed her brother painfully in the stomach, "don't be a jerk Pietro."

"It's okay," Lia said, taking them both by surprise, "mom and I have only been here for two days."

It took the siblings a moment to recover from what was the longest sentence that they had ever heard the quiet girl say. "Oh, I guess that explains it," Wanda felt that Lia was beginning to open up a little bit to them. She quickly made it her goal to get a full two sentences out of Lia by the end of the week.

"What about your dad," Wanda elbowed her brother a second time for asking such a sensitive question.

"I don't know," Lia said with a shrug. She never really worried about her father. Lia had never meet the man and her mother had been able to raise her just fine, so she had never questioned where her father was. It took Lia a few minutes to grab a gray wool sweater and some black cargo pants then change in the small bathroom. Once she was done she saw Pietro and Wanda going through the records that were sitting next to the record player.

"This looks so cool," Wanda said, "I've never seen a record player before."

Lia smiled, she was very proud of that record player. It was the most valuable thing they owned, and they put it to very good use. "One day we'll have to come over here and play with is. Would that be okay Lia?' Wanda fixed her with a hopeful stare. Lia smiled and nodded, she would love to show off her record player to people. Maybe they could even dance together.

"Okay, that is really cool and all, but mom said she wanted us back in five minutes," Pietro said as he moved away from the pile of records, "I have other things to get in trouble for."

"Maybe if you weren't so set on causing trouble mom wouldn't be so angry about us being a minute or two late," Wanda suggested with an accusing tone.

"Someone has to stir things up, if not imagine how boring everything would be," Pietro said with a mischievous half smirk, in response Wanda just rolled her eyes before grabbing Lia's hand and leading her out of the apartment. Normally it would only take Lia a second to lock doors, this one in particular had a quirk where you needed to push up on the doorknob while trying to lock it or else it wouldn't work, but she found herself stalling. She was nervous to go over to their apartment. They made it sound like their mother was home, which means not only would she have to worry about doing something dumb in front of Wanda and Pietro, but now there was a chance that she could make a bad first impression on their mother too.

She found her palms starting to sweat, and then the key started to slip from her hand, "here let me help," Pietro said as he gently nudged Lia out of the way, "the doors here can be a little tricky, you just have to push up on the knob." It took Pietro less than a second to lock the door, and as he turned to give Lia back the key he had what was quickly becoming his signature crooked smirk.

"You don't have to show off Pietro, Lia is new here, she probably doesn't know about the stupid doors," Wanda said, trying to wipe the smug smirk off her brother's face. He just rolled his eyes as he moved to 148 and held the door open for the two girls.

"There they are, late, as usual," Lia looked to see the woman who she could only assume was their mother, "and this must be Lia. It's a pleasure to meet such a cute little girl."

Lia couldn't deny that their mother look really pretty. She had the same dark brown hair and deep eyes as her children. Her hair was pulled into messy bun, which still managed to flatter her beautiful facial features. This women looked somewhere between a mother and a model, and that left Lia torn between feeling welcomed and intimidated. She grabbed the sleeve of Wanda's maroon sweater nervously, which surprised both girls for the same reason. Lia felt comforted by the sleeve of Wanda's sweater, and grasping it reminded her that they were there, which was not a comfort Lia was use to.

"Sorry mom, Lia is sort of shy," Wanda explained to her mother who looked surprised at the young girl's response.

"Well that is okay," the surprise was quickly replaced with a warm smile, and it became very clear where Wanda got her warm smile from, "there is no need to feel shy Lia, any one that can put up my children is more than welcome here. My name is Magda by the way," Their mother finished off her statement with a wink.

"You mean anyone that can put with Pietro," Wanda laughed.

"Oh yeah, because everyone knows I'm the unbearable one," Pietro's statement oozed with sarcasm and Lia let out a light giggle, which Wanda noticed.

"No way, Lia you can't possible agree with Pietro," Wanda looked betrayed at the girl holding onto her sleeve.

"I just don't know how Pietro can say that with a straight face," Lia issued the challenge, and Wanda began to laugh loudly as her brother let out an offended gasp.

"Come now, I haven't even pranked you yet."

"Which is exactly why she doesn't trust you twin of mine. It's obvious who got all the good behavior genes," Wanda said through her laughter.

"You guys are twins," Lia asked in surprise. Somehow it had never come up between them, and Lia had just assumed Pietro was older, since he was a little bit taller than Wanda, and came off as really protective of his sister.

"Yeah, didn't we mention that yesterday," Wanda responded. Lia just shook her head in response.

"Well I am 12 minutes older than you," Pietro interjected, "so you're still my baby sister." Wanda gave her brother the stink eye, and was about to argue with him till their mother interrupted.

"Well, I'll you kids to play, I'm baking cookies, so stay out of the kitchen. I don't want anyone to be tempted to sneak some cookie dough," their mother turned to walk away, "that means you Pietro."

"Mom," Pietro whined after his mother, and Wanda just laughed before she grabbed Lia's wrist and guided her over over to a cabinet filled with board games.

"Which do you want to play Lia? Candyland is my favorite," Wanda asked as she showed off all the games that they had. Lia had never seen so many games outside of a toy store before, the twins had 6 different games. She had never experienced any of these games before, so Lia just pointed to the game that Wanda had mentioned. Wanda excitedly grabbed the game and began to set it up, but she didn't explain any of the rules. Lia silently hoped that she could get the hang out it after watching them play a round.

"Pietro," Wanda called to her brother, "we going to play Candyland without you if you don't get over here now!"

"Jesus fine, I call blue," Pietro said as he sat down on one side of the game board. Wanda smiled and sat in front of the board, and Lia sat directly across from Pietro.

"What color do you want to play Lia," Pietro asked, Lia nervously picked the green person, and Wanda picked the red one, "okay awesome, why don't you go first Lia?"

Lia froze, she wasn't expecting them to pick her for first, "um, it's okay, you can go," she said nodding towards Wanda.

"But you have never played with us before, so you should have the honor," Wanda said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lia gulped and looked down at the board that has their three people on the start tile, and a single deck of cards. She had no idea what to do, nervously she tucked an orange curl behind her ear and chewed on her lip.

"You know what, I think I'll go first," Pietro said as he reached for the deck of cards. Lia glanced at him curious as to why he went first. Pietro winked and graced her with a half smile that spoke for him, ' I know something you don't'. Immediately the relief drained from Lia and it was replaced with a mixture of curiosity and awe, somehow Pietro had figured her out, she wasn't sure how, or what he had figured out exactly, but it was clear he picked up on something.

"That's not nice Pietro, we already said that Lia could go first," Wanda protested.

"Well I've already drawn a card, and it says two purples, so I'm moving to the second purple space and there is nothing you can do to stop me," Pietro said very matter-of-fact. Wanda huffed and insisted that I go before she went. It was rather easy once Pietro had cunningly explained the rules without Wanda catching on. When the finished playing Pietro had won and Wanda was furious.

"No fair, you cheated," Wanda openly accused her brother.

"How can I cheat at Candyland, all it is is drawing cards and doing what they say?"

"You picked up two cards and used the one that helped you the most!"

"I only did that once, and it was an accident and we agreed, as a group, that I should just pick one and put the other on the bottom of the pile. That isn't cheating," Pietro said as he stuck his tongue out at his sister.

"Mom, Pietro cheated!"

"Did not!'

"Did too!"

"Children, play nice together or you can't have any cookies," their mother said as she walked into over to them with a chocolate chip cookie in hand, "you can have one though Lia dear, they just came out of the oven."

"Mom," Wanda and Pietro complained at the same time.

Their mother just laughed, "only kidding loves, go ahead and grab one." Wanda and Pietro rushed over to the dining table next to where the stove was to grab cookies leaving Lia behind with their mother, "you'll be good for them Lia. Lord knows they could learn a thing or two from you about behaving a little calmer. You're welcome here whenever you want sweetie, they need to be around someone besides each other." Their mother gave Lia a little wink and a smile that made Lia feel instantly at ease.

Once their mother stood up to walk away Lia felt some words bubble from deep within her, "thank you."

"You're more than welcome sweetie." Lia had never felt more at home without her mother around, and as she looked back at Wanda and Pietro fighting over which cookie was the largest on the plate she couldn't help but smile and think that for the first time ever this could really work.

After they had settled on their cookies Wanda showed Lia how to properly rebox the game of Candyland and they were back to know really knowing what to do. "What do you want to do now Lia?" Wanda asked, and Lia responded with only a silent shrug.

"Maybe we should play 20 questions," Pietro suggested, "Lia didn't even know we were twins. This way we could learn a little more about each other and stuff."

"Yeah that sounds like a great idea, do you want to do that Lia," Wanda asked, eager to do whatever Lia wanted to do.

"How do you play?"

"Someone asks a question, then they answer their own question, then everyone else gives their answer to the question to. They tend be small questions , like favorite color, or animal," Wanda explained. Lia thought that it sounded like a decent thing to do. It would be nice to know the twins a little better. "Okay, I'll go first, what is your favorite color? Mind is red."

"I like blue," Pietro said, then the siblings looked at Lia, urging her to give her answer as well.

"Um, I like a lot of colors."

"Come on Lia, you have to have a favorite color, you wear a lot of green, is that your favorite color?"

Lia just shrugged at Wanda and began to fiddle with on of her orange curls, "green just doesn't clash with my hair color," she explained, "I guess I do really like green though."

"Fair enough, my turn," Pietro said with a shrug, "How old are you? Wanda and I are 10."

"7," the small circle they had formed suddenly got quiet, and everyone sort of just looked at each other.

"It's your turn Lia," Wanda said while giving Lia a soft smile, trying to comfort her friend.

"Um, what is your season?"

"Winter," Wanda said, "I love the break from school."

"Summer, it's the best time to run around outside," Pietro explained, "but you never told us what your favorite season was Lia."

"Um, Summer, because the forest get's really pretty." Soon Lia had gotten the hang out playing 20 questions, and she found out a lot of things about the twins, and even felt closer to them. She almost had the nerve to say that the twins were her first friends. No doubt her mother would be really happy to hear that tonight when she got back.

Before the trio knew it the had started to set outside of the apartment building, "well Lia, isn't your mother expecting you back for dinner soon?" Lia blushed at Magda's question and felt like maybe she had overstayed her welcome. She knew that her mother wouldn't be back for a few more hours at least. Some nights her mom wasn't even home till after midnight. Regardless of that fact Lia simply nodded her head in agreement with their mother and climbed to her feet.

"You should come play with us again tomorrow Lia," Wanda said after her, and Pietro only nodded his head along with his sister.

"Okay," Lia muttered with a meek smile, and suddenly Wanda had enveloped her with a hug.

"You look so cute when you smile Lia, you should do it more often," Wanda said as she squeezed Lia tighter. Lia was surprised at the contact but eventually returned the hug in an awkward fashion. It took a few moments for everyone to say good bye to Lia, and soon she found herself back in her room, alone. Lia quickly turned on some music after locking the door tightly behind her, but found that even the music felt like it was missing a little something. Lia sighed as she went to go sit at the window, maybe she was starting to grow attached to the feeling of having Wanda and Pietro around, they were certainly easy to be around.

Lie had only been sitting at the window for a few minutes till she heard another knock at the door. She had no idea who that could have been, and was surprised to see Pietro standing there once she had worked the door open. "You uh, you forgot your shoes," he said as he handed her the white and silver sneakers.

"Thanks," Lia said as she grabbed them from him. They stood in silence for just a few seconds before Pietro began to speak.

"I also wanted to say thanks for, you know, hanging out with Wanda and I. We don't tend to get along with others all that well, and I think she really wanted to make a female friend."

Lia only smiled and nodded shyly, "how did you know I didn't know how to play Candyland?" It had been a question that she had been asking herself since they had started playing the game that morning.

Pietro laughed before grabbed one of her orange curls and tugged it gently, "you play with your hair when you're nervous. I kind of just put two and two together."

"To get four?"

"No silly, to figure that you probably hadn't played a board game before. You don't exactly seem like the type that has a bunch of friends to play board games with, and all you and your mom have is a record player. It actually wasn't all that hard to figure out, I'm surprised Wanda didn't realize it too." Pietro looked really proud of himself for noticing Lia's nervous tick, and she had to admit she was slightly impressed. "Look, I know you probably aren't sure about this whole playing with other kids thing, but Wanda thinks you're cool, I think she likes having you around, be warned, she'll probably start acting like a big sister soon. She can get sort of bossy sometimes."

"I don't mind," Lia said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Of course you don't," Pietro said, "and you say that now, but just wait till it happens. It get's really annoying sometimes."

"But I thought you were 12 minutes older than her," Lia suggested with a small mischievous twinkle in her eyes. If Pietro hadn't been looking he probably would have missed it. Unfortunately for Lia he had been paying attention, and Pietro felt he saw a glimpse behind her shy exterior, and while he hadn't minded her before he was beginning to see why his sister was so attached to their neighbor.

"Maybe you can remind her of that sometimes. With both of us telling her maybe she'll start remembering it. Night Lia, we'll see you tomorrow." Pietro said as he nodded his head.

"Night Pietro," Lia smiled before shutting the door. She wasn't sure what it was, but Lia felt a slight tingle that stretched from her toes all the way to her face. Somehow she found herself looking forward to playing with Wanda and Pietro tomorrow even more than she had when she originally left their apartment earlier.