If you live in a place that gets cold around this season, here's your wintry adventure. Where I live it was nearly below freezing today, so it's appropriate. Also, winter tends to make me feel kind of introspective – all that quiet and stillness – so this happened.

Here's a badass song to add to your playlist for the week: "Rise" by Katy Perry.

Enjoy!

Story 5: Be Transformed: A Snow Day Adventure

Some days, Wanda just wanted to forget everything.

Those mornings began slowly, sometimes with the realization that there were tears on her face before she even fully recognized that she was awake. She would stay curled up in her bed, a blanket half bunched in her arms like the handmade doll she'd slept with as a child. She would lie on her side, peering out the window over the Hudson River. And if it was empty and still, then it reflected her. If it had boats on it, or if the sky was full of Quinjets and flying Avengers, then that made her feel even more empty and still.

Words didn't come easily those days. Even when she finally crawled from her bed and ultimately padded in bare feet to the communal kitchen for food, she would look down and away, inviting no commentary and making no conversation. It wasn't a barrier of language, at least not to others. It was as if a cork had filled her throat and there were no words in any language that could shatter it.

Pietro always knew when those days were happening, sometimes before he even laid eyes on her. And he knew to talk at her normally, to expect no reply, and to leave her to her silence. Vision, after some practice (and Pietro pulling him aside) learned the same. The others may not have fully understood, but they were at least respectful. When Wanda curled up with whatever breakfast she could stomach, either returning to her room or taking up the chair in the far corner where she could fill her gaze with the window and sky, the others left her be until she broke from her stupor on her own.

Some days, she hated them for it.

Some days, Wanda hated that the Avengers were kind, even now. Even though she had claimed them as her own. Even though she would fight for every one of them, from Tony Stark whom she had spent years hating to Bucky Barnes who was the most tragic victim of them all. Even Loki. Wanda would turn her power against anything that threatened them without hesitation.

But sometimes she hated them all the same.

In her clearer moments, she knew that hatred should really be directed at herself. That they did not despise her as she despised herself made it so much harder for her to feel that she had truly paid for her errors. For tormenting Tony Stark, for taking control of Bucky Barnes, for the years of working with Hydra and the lives she had helped them ruin. If the Avengers had punished her, had struck at her, then at least she could feel that she got what she deserved. But they never did.

She loved them for that, too. All in their own way.

Stark — still difficult to love without feeling deep shame, too. Steve with his reputation for upstanding morals who was really just a rebel with a star on his chest. Bruce who held back a monster through force of will and a gentle soul. Nat who truly understood what it was to become a nightmare and try to rinse off the blood later. Clint — steady and patient when everything else came unmoored. Sam who acted like an annoying uncle but who saw keenly to the heart and knew when to listen. Rhodey who was fiercely brave and loyal and who never once blamed Wanda or Pietro for his injury even though she thought he was entitled to at least some resentment. Bucky Barnes who was the most broken of them all but never asked for anything and gave whatever he had. Thor who was loud and fun and childlike. Loki with his endless faked disdain and genuine sense of humor. Peter who seemed like the little brother she had always wanted, bright and cheerful and innocent. May Parker with her big sister smile and welcoming hugs. Pepper who always knew somehow when Wanda needed a break from all the boys. She even loved JARVIS who might not be human enough to reciprocate, but he treated her kindly all the same.

The others — Happy Hogan, Scott Lang, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Sharon Carter, the Wakandans, even Peter's friends the Leeds — Wanda didn't know any of them well, but she saw how they fit into the whole. They weren't family, but they were allies. And they belonged.

And then there was Vision.

Pietro teased her often enough about it, but he was an idiot sometimes, and Wanda hardly expected him to stop now. Still, he pointed out more often than necessary that Vision seemed to be as drawn to Wanda as she was to him. And she tried to ignore Pietro's comments, but that didn't make them less true.

Even if it had started with an affinity to the signature of the Mind Stone which felt so familiar and warm, it now went past that. Vision was not just a flame and she the moth warmed in its light. He was warmth. He was safety and refuge. Where others carried emotions that roiled at the surface and sometimes pricked the edges of Wanda's mind, Vision was a calm pool. Where the others including Pietro were confident, even cocky, Vision was still demure, still learning — more like her.

Wanda didn't know if she loved him yet, and she wasn't sure what kind of love it would be when she found it in herself.

So she waited, and kept her thoughts to herself, and let her days pass in silence when that was the only way to feel unbroken.

It was a Sunday in late January, and the Compound was quiet. A snowstorm had come up through the hills and mountains to the southwest, bypassing New York City but dumping several inches upstate. Steve had gathered the other available Avengers to go out and shovel the city of Esopus — in spite of rather loud objections from Sam who tried to explain that snowplows exist. But Steve left Wanda in peace in her chair, and did not push Pietro or Vision to join his excursion.

Wanda looked out at the unbroken snow beneath the trees, at the cloudy skies, at the utter stillness of the world, and she just wished she could melt away into it. If she could have phased through solid matter as Vision did, she might have sunk into the snowdrifts, or ascended into the clouds, never to come back. Like the mermaid who turned to seafoam never to be troubled by grief again.

But her peaceful day was interrupted by the sight of Iron Man flying inbound — with Spider-Man perched on his back.

Pietro and Vision joined her at the window in time to see the pair appear to wrestle in the air. A moment later, Iron Man hurled Spider-Man into the biggest mountain of snow in the area before flying into a landing bay.

Peter, apparently unhurt, crawled out of the snow and trotted towards the doors.

"I guess we have visitors," Pietro said to her. It was a gentle invitation for Wanda to rejoin the world, or a warning that she might want to make herself scarce otherwise.

Wanda felt her throat unstick enough to say, "We should make him some cocoa."

By the time Peter appeared in the common room, hair damp but wrapped up in a fluffy sweatshirt nearly as red as his cheeks, Wanda was almost breathing normally.

"Hey guys!" Peter immediately eyed the hot chocolate. "Oh, awesome. Is there some for me?"

"Of course." Vision offered him a steaming mug complete with extra marshmallows.

"We did not expect to see you today," Pietro said, slurping his own.

"Well, I was supposed to come up with Tony yesterday since I'm staying at the Tower while May's at her conference thingy again. But I guess the storm made the roads bad? Happy didn't want to drive, anyway. So I did some patrolling for a while and then Tony picked me up out of the air to come out and visit."

"Weren't you cold?" she asked him.

"Nope. The heater in my suit is great." Peter inhaled a pile of marshmallows and swallowed them in one big gulp. "But it feels weird if it gets wet and freezes." He glanced around. "Where's everybody else?"

"Steve has the rest of the team out helping the people of Esopus with clearing their roads and driveways," Vision said. "I believe he sees it as a form of community service."

Peter snorted. "I bet everybody is having fun with that. So why didn't you all go?"

Wanda stiffened, but Pietro answered right away. "Because we had the good sense to refuse."

"And I remained to keep them company," Vision added.

"Cool." Peter's gaze wandered back to the windows. "It's too bad. The snow out there is perfect for making a fort or having a snowball fight. I bet I could have talked Steve into using it as a training exercise and it would have been awesome. But by the time they're done, they'll probably all be too tired."

Wanda felt herself answering before she really thought it through.

"Would you like to play with us?"

Peter's eyes lit up. "Yeah! If you don't mind, that would be epic!"

Pietro was peering at Wanda, but before Peter noticed, he gave her a slight nod. "It has been a long time since we played after a good storm."

Vision said, "And I never have."

"Do you guys have snowsuits or something? JARVIS?" Peter glanced up. "Is there enough winter gear here so nobody gets cold?"

"The weather-appropriate gear is more intended for winter rescues and missions than recreation, but there are sufficient supplies for those who require them."

"Okay!" Peter gulped the rest of his hot cocoa down all in one gulp. "Let's go!" He bounced to his feet. "JARVIS, where can I find the stuff?"

Peter darted off after JARVIS's instructions.

Vision moved to Wanda's side and touched her elbow gently. "Are you sure you feel up to this? Peter would understand if you would prefer to remain here."

"Not like I can't kick his ass all by myself," Pietro added.

Wanda shook her head, and pushed some of the gloom from her soul. "I think some harmless play may be what I need today." She met her brother's eye. "And we shall see whose ass is kicked."

He laughed. "Challenge accepted."

-==OOO==-

Peter missed his suit already. Not only was the heater way better than the coat and snow pants JARVIS had found for him, but having the advantage of KAREN would have been really useful right about now.

Peter felt something icy run down his spine, but he figured it was snow and ignored it.

And promptly got hit in the back of the head with a heap of snow the size of a dishwasher.

"Ack!" On second thought, maybe not having KAREN was okay for one reason — there would probably be no recording of him making that sound as he fell out of a tree.

Peter hit the snowdrift at the base of the tree and tried to roll, only to dig himself deeper into the pile. He scrambled sideways as another appliance-sized snowball flew in his direction.

"So unfair!" he yelled.

Wanda was laughing. "You are the one who said we could use our powers, Peter."

It had actually been Pietro who suggested the two-versus-two snowball fight, and then promptly chose Peter as his partner because 'our shared name must stick together.' Peter had a feeling there was some kind of ulterior motive going on, but he couldn't really figure it out while running and dodging flying snowballs. So he just focused on being fast and making as many throwable chunks of snow as possible.

But Vision and Pietro were deeper in the woods; Peter could tell because he could hear Pietro yelling. Which left him alone against Wanda.

Who could levitate snow by the truckful.

Unfair.

Peter grabbed onto the nearest tree and used its trunk to protect him from her latest snow missile. The tree shook, snow in its branches raining down, and that gave him an idea.

Peter leaned out to one side. "You missed me!" He threw one of the three snowballs he'd managed to keep stuck to him through the coat and nearly got her with it. She only moved it away with a wash of red magic at the last second.

"You have yet to land a meaningful hit," she replied, smiling.

Peter was glad to see the smile. He knew Wanda wasn't always happy, and he didn't blame her considering everything she'd been through. But he was sure it was good for her to be able to play and have fun sometimes. So he ducked backwards, jumping from tree to tree.

"I bet I can sneak up on Vision while Pietro is distracting him," Peter taunted her. "It's not like you're going to stop me!"

Wanda had been working on her agility with flying lately, so she took to the air with red light curling around her hands like Tony's repulsors on his suit. "We shall see!"

Peter grinned and bounded a few more times until he spotted the tree he wanted.

"The bad news is, you can't throw snow at me and fly at the same time!"

"You wanna bet?"

Even though she faltered in the air, she did manage to huck another pile of snow in Peter's direction, if slightly less accurately. But that was fine. Peter needed that.

Using a trick he'd picked up from Loki, he spun in the air right when the snow reached him, breaking it apart with his arms and legs. In the burst of snow that followed, he dodged to the tree he had marked and scrambled up into its branches.

"Pretty good shot!" he called to her.

"Do you think I cannot see you in the tree?" Wanda called back. "Your coat is bright orange."

"So's yours!" It wasn't the greatest comeback, but it worked well enough.

Wanda began to float upwards, gathering more snow. "You had better run, little spider, or the rainspout will wash you away."

"Uh, this is snow, not rain." Peter balanced himself carefully. "But you're half right besides that."

"How so?"

Peter looked down at where Wanda was hovering somewhat below him.

"Somebody's getting washed out!"

And Peter jumped to the tree next to this one, an evergreen that was so covered in piled up snow that it was bending over. With a well-placed leap, he landed right on the biggest snowbank in the tree's branches, dislodging the whole thing right onto Wanda's head.

The tree shed its snow in a mini avalanche, and Wanda shrieked in surprise.

But then Peter shrieked, too, because what he'd forgotten to account for was that the tree was bent over. So when he kicked all the snow's weight off, it abruptly unbent.

And sent him flying like a slingshot.

On the other hand, there was really only one thing to do in a situation like this.

"Yeet!"

If he'd had his web shooters, landing would not have been a problem. But he didn't, so it kind of was. However, before Peter could figure out how to catch himself on a tree without crashing into it, he felt a warm arm snatch him out of the air.

"I believe a temporary truce may be in order," Vision said.

"Yeah, thanks." Peter sighed. "This is the super snowball fight version of hoist by your own leotard."

"Petard," Vision corrected.

"Whatever."

Vision descended towards the clear area right at the start of the trees on the property where Wanda and Pietro were waiting. Pietro was laughing hard enough that he had to sit down.

Wanda was drenched in snow, but, more importantly, was also absolutely covered with pine needles.

Her coat was littered with them, her gloves looked like they'd been attacked by a pine needle porcupine, and her hat was on the ground looking like a pine needle convention. Her long hair had been braided back, but there was no shortage of the sticky pine needles trapped in the braid.

"Okay," Peter said as Vision set him down, raising his hands in surrender, "to be fair, I didn't think it through that far."

"I can tell," she told him dryly. But then she gave him a small smile. "I expect you to help me get them out of my hair at least."

"I can do that."

"Does this mean that we are finished?" Pietro wanted to know. "I was hoping to build something large and obnoxious out of snow before the others return. Possibly inappropriate."

"I will not allow you to craft any indecent portion of any gender's anatomy where others will see it," Vision told him at once. "Besides how that would look for the Avengers if it were made public, Peter is still a minor."

Peter snorted, then coughed to cover it, and decided to go examine Wanda's hair.

"You are no fun," Pietro told Vision.

"We could still build something," Wanda said. "Just nothing that is not rated PG."

Peter had pulled off one of his gloves and began using his spider powers to selectively stick to needles before letting them fall from his fingers as he worked through the mess he'd made of Wanda's hair.

"You know," he said, "I bet you two could make something big and Wanda could shape it with her magic if we wanted to really get into it."

Wanda looked over her shoulder at him. "I'm not sure I have that much fine control."

Peter shrugged. "What better way to practice?"

Vision smiled. "I see no fault in the argument. What shall we build?"

They debated it for so long Peter ended up pulling Wanda over to where the outdoor chairs had been stacked for winter so they could both sit down while he worked. After finally coming to gleeful consensus, Pietro and Vision began the work of piling up an absolute mountain of snow.

"I could do this much faster on my own!" Pietro complained almost at once.

"You could," Peter told him, "but if you go too fast the snow will melt from the radiant heat."

Pietro grumbled something in Sokovian that was probably rude and maintained a relatively-slower-for-him pace.

While Vision and Pietro worked on the snow, Peter continued to pull pine needles from Wanda's hair and then her gloves. Once he got the trick down of sticking just enough without letting them get too much sap on him, it became an almost soothing exercise. Even after he'd finished with Wanda's hair, she remained sitting in front of him, her feet in the snow, watching the other two quietly.

But Peter couldn't take the silence forever. So eventually he asked the first question that came to mind. If he'd thought about it for even a second, he probably wouldn't have. But he didn't, so he asked.

"Are you ever sorry that you came back with us from Siberia?"

She didn't turn around, but he could tell she reacted anyway. "Sometimes," she said. "I would not trade what I know now about Hydra, but I think it was easier to live hating Stark than to live supported by him."

"Hmm." Peter twisted at a pine needle that had gotten lodged in the stitching of a glove. "Is it really that much easier to hate people?"

"It is. When you do not care, you don't have to worry about hurting them." Wanda shook her head. "This is why villains need not be so strong. They can simply lash out, and if they cause injury or damage, what does it matter? But heroes must be better, for they cannot do the same."

"I get that," Peter said, heavy with feeling. "I'm, like, way stronger than anybody except maybe Thor or Loki or Hulk, so I have to be careful. But a mugger can kick me as hard as they want because they're trying to hurt me and I'm trying not to hurt them."

"Exactly."

"Why does it make it hard to live with Tony, then?" Peter wanted to know. "Since I don't think you're worried about hurting him."

"You have never hated anyone, have you?" Wanda asked.

"I mean, not really? There's lots of people I don't like or who do awful things, but I'm not sure I really hate anybody specific."

She huffed. "Pietro and I hated Stark for most of our lives. Then we suddenly learn that he is a good man, and was not responsible for our parents' deaths. He gives us a home and protection, and trusts us with his family. And I can only look at what I was before and feel ashamed."

Peter considered his words this time.

"I think...maybe you and Tony are alike with that, though," he said. "Because he sounds just like that when he talks about who he was before Afghanistan. And what his company did. He was lied to, and he made a lot of mistakes, and now he hates the person he was then and everything he did."

Wanda nodded. "Yes, I know."

"And you know he doesn't blame you, right? He doesn't even blame Bucky that much anymore, and that was, just, way worse."

"He does not need to blame me," Wanda said quietly. "But I blame myself."

"Is that why — ?" Peter stopped, suddenly not sure any of this was a good idea.

But Wanda turned and pinned him with a stern look. "Why what?"

Peter gulped. "Um. Sometimes you just don't seem like you want to be here very much."

But Wanda didn't get angry. She nodded. "I think so. There is a dark well of grief in me, for those I lost and for what I became, and sometimes I feel stained by it."

"When we did the candle thing last month," Peter said, "you didn't come."

"No. I was not ready."

"Yeah, but." He cast around for how to explain this. "There are lots of things that hurt. I still miss my Uncle Ben like crazy all the time. But because I know I'm not alone in missing him, or in feeling that way, it's easier. Like two people picking up something heavy instead of just one. And…"

He looked away, but finished his thought.

"I used to do the same thing you do. Like, a lot. I wouldn't tell May when I had nightmares and stuff. Because I didn't want to make her sad just because I was sad. But...it's better because it's a lot less sad when we do it together. I guess."

Wanda was quiet for a minute. Peter continued to stare into the middle distance because he wasn't sure what he was ready to see on her face — or show on his own.

"You and I are not so different," Wanda said finally. "We do not let people in all the way until we are sure. And we don't want others to see our hurt."

"And the more someone matters to us," Peter found himself saying, "the harder we fight against letting them in. Like me saying 'Tony.'"

Peter looked up to see Wanda turning away, fixing her eyes on where Vision was in the air, stabilizing a pillar of snow while Pietro added to its base.

"I don't know that the dark well will ever leave me entirely," she said very softly.

"It doesn't have to," Peter said. "I mean, those two just dug a bunch of holes to make a pile of snow. Maybe it's like that. There's a hole somewhere, but you can make a pile, too, or something."

He felt dumb, suddenly. He kind of knew what he was getting at, but realized he just didn't know how to explain it. But Wanda chuckled and patted him on the arm.

"Thank you, little brother. It helps to know I live in the world with someone like you."

"Oh, uh, thanks? I mean, you're welcome?"

Peter hadn't really noticed that he'd finished with her gloves. Her hat was still a sticky mess, but Wanda just shoved it aside and stood.

"Come." She held out a hand and pulled Peter to his feet. "Let us finish building this monstrosity." She smiled. "I believe the effort will be well worth it."

-==OOO==-

Wanda stretched her fingers, a deep ache running through them all the way up to her elbows.

"Did you push too hard?" Vision asked her quietly.

"No." She shook her head. "It is good to exercise the muscle in many ways."

"Here." Peter appeared before her with a big mug of hot cocoa. "This always helps me."

She smiled at him and accepted the cup, curling her hands around it and absorbing the warmth. "Thank you."

Peter nodded and trotted away from Wanda's usual chair back to the kitchen area where Pietro was already complaining about wanting dinner. She hoped neither of them attempted to do anything about a meal — they were certainly both banned from cooking anything more complicated than pancakes.

"Hey, kiddo." Stark emerged from the elevator and sauntered into the room in a beat-up MIT sweatshirt and jeans with at least one burn on them. "Sorry that took longer than I expected."

"It's fine. Want some hot chocolate?"

"Don't mind if I do, actually. Everybody else still out pretending to be a snowplow?" He settled on a stool at the counter.

"Apparently," Pietro said. "Idiots, all of them."

"Not gonna argue on that one," Stark said, saluting him with the mug Peter handed him. Tony's gaze drifted towards where Vision was still sort of hovering around Wanda. "You two have a good afternoon?"

"Oh." Wanda managed a smile that didn't cut at her face. "We found a way to amuse ourselves."

Turning towards Wanda meant Stark was pointed in the right direction. His eyes widened and he nearly dropped his mug of cocoa in order to dart to the windows to get a better look. Then he started to laugh.

"Oh my god. Why didn't you invite me? I could have added some more pizazz!"

"Because," Peter said with the full sass of a teenager, "you were too busy being busy."

Stark laughed some more. "Alright, fair. But, seriously, good work all of you. Cap's gonna have kittens."

"I wanted to add a sign, maybe," Pietro said. "But I was out-voted."

Wanda missed whatever debate started up in the kitchen because Vision perched on the arm of her chair.

"Are you feeling any more like yourself?" he asked.

She looked up into his face and found the ability to relax there. How someone with purple skin and a yellow Infinity Stone in their forehead could also be the safest person on Earth — excepting her twin, of course — might always be a mystery. How he could also be one of the kindest people on Earth was another one.

"I am, thank you." She sipped at her mug, the warmth and sweetness blooming in her abdomen like a gentle hearth flame. "And you?"

He looked surprised. "I was not in any distress today."

"Hmm." She shook her head. "I don't think that's necessarily true."

Vision looked slightly uncomfortable, and he always seemed like he wished he were wearing a tie in those moments because he would be pulling at it.

"I...admit I was concerned for you. I find it...distressing when you are so lost within your thoughts."

That was a very different kind of warmth that stole through Wanda.

"Some days, there is just too much to feel. Grief and loss and shame." She glanced downward. "It is like the pain here." She flexed her hands. "It must be given time to rest and stretch so that it releases me."

"True as that may be," Vision said, "when you feel so...morose, I wish you would confide in someone. Even if that someone is not me. I have seen it in others, that coil of pain. Peter was right, you know. It is easier when it is shared."

She shot him an arch look. "You were listening?"

"I…" He met her eyes. "I am always listening to you, Wanda."

The heat in Wanda's face had nothing to do with her mug of hot cocoa.

Wanda set her mug aside and reached up until she could take Vision's hand and close it in both of hers.

"Thank you, Vis," she said, hoping he would hear the words that still didn't come so easily.

He put his hand on top of hers. "I do not...this is new for me. No amount of any of my previous knowledge tells me what happens now."

Wanda smiled. "Some things cannot be researched and figured out. They just have to be tried and felt."

The Mind Stone glowed briefly. Vision shut his eyes. "All I feel is you."

Wanda opened her mouth to reply, only to be partially hit in the face with a pillow thrown at super-speed. Most of its momentum was caught by Vision's inhuman reflexes.

"Go and make googly eyes at each other in your own room," Pietro said, glaring. "It is sickening out where the rest of us must be."

Wanda felt cold, suddenly. Vision was...whatever Vision was becoming, but Pietro…

And then he grinned at her. In Sokovian, he said, "I will kill him if he hurts you. But it is about time."

Wanda relaxed at the approval she hadn't fully realized she needed. Her eyes swept across to where Stark and Peter were in the kitchen very deliberately not looking their way.

But Stark must have sensed her attention because he looked up. He held up his own mug and raised it in their direction.

"Cheers," is all he said.

And that, Wanda felt, was more than enough.

Peter was reading the room very obviously, but when Wanda smiled at him, he grinned.

"Okay, so, I was thinking we should figure out dinner because if we wait any longer, by the time everybody gets back they'll be starving and grumpy and if there isn't food it's going to be miserable and they might knock down our snow friend out there."

"They might knock it down anyway," Stark — no, Tony — warned.

"They would not dare." Pietro sauntered back towards the kitchen.

And Wanda felt herself standing, gathering her mug in one hand and not releasing Vision with the other. She no longer wanted to remain in her quiet corner space. Not when her family was gathered under the glowing kitchen lights.

And, separately, not if they were about to attempt food.

Vision walked with her, and her hand fit in his, and somehow maybe the entirety of the last year had been leading up to this as inevitably as snow in winter in Sokovia. Because it was not a shock, but rather a dawning certainty, that Wanda had found something she did not know was missing.

"Gross," Pietro said to her, eyeing the held hands.

"Which is why nobody offered to hold your hand," Tony said, nonplussed.

Pietro's mouth opened and shut like a fish and Wanda laughed.

"So, dinner?" Peter prompted.

"Well, given the five of us," Vision said, even more nonplussed than Tony, "and only Wanda having any skill or talent for cooking, I suggest we order in."

"Seconded," Pietro said. "I would like food I can actually eat."

Tony wrinkled his nose. "I feel like I should take offense to that, but I can only cook, like, a handful of things, and none of those feed the ravenous appetites that surround me."

"Other than pancakes, same," Peter said. "So...pizza?"

"Pizza's good." Tony glanced at the others, receiving only nods in return. "JARVIS, can you put in our normal order for the crew? And add at least a hundred dollars to the tip in case Captain Snowman hasn't finished clearing out the entire town yet."

"Very good, sir," JARVIS answered.

"While we're waiting," Peter said, "I was wondering if Wanda could test what we did outside on something smaller in here. Like, you basically made a snow sculpture with your mind. Can you do that with other things?"

"Only if you wish to continue," Vision was quick to add.

And Wanda loved him — yes, she did love him, who knew? — for it, but she also stood up straighter at the eager challenge in Peter's face.

"I would like to try."

An hour later, Wanda was elated with herself, nursing a slight headache, and everybody else was staring.

"To be fair," Tony said, "it's one thing to know her powers manipulate molecular polarity, which basically means she can rewrite reality. But it's something else to see...that."

Most of Wanda's abilities were limited to energy manipulation and mental or emotional impacts. But she had found something in herself while fashioning their snow golem earlier, like cracking open a window to feel a sudden breeze. She could use energy to shape the snow, she had known, but she found she could also just will it into the shape she wanted with a great deal more effort.

And that is why what had been the pillow Pietro threw at her was now a lumpy footstool complete with clawed wooden feet.

"It's insane," Peter said with wide eyes.

"I think that's enough for now, though," Vision said, glancing at her and probably reading her headache from her own energy. "While it does open an intriguing new avenue, it is not without cost."

"I would be jealous," Pietro said, "but I do not have the patience for the amount of focus that took you."

"I appreciate the honest self-assessment," Tony said, clapping Pietro on the shoulder. "And, seriously, you with that magic would be a literal nightmare."

Pietro was about to rebuff him, but JARVIS spoke.

"Excuse me, but I thought you would like to know that your pizza order is due any minute and the other Avengers have returned."

Which, it turned out, was a completely unnecessary warning.

Because as soon as the Avengers entered the building, Steve Rogers could be heard shouting from the ground floor.

"Why the hell is there a giant snow Darth Vader with a shovel and my head outside?"

Wanda, Pietro, Vision, and Peter got a lecture, but they all agreed it was completely worth it.