Disclaimer: Yes, that's right; I own everything, everything I tell you!!! ::laughs evilly::
Kevin: She doesn't own anything, and I personally think that's a good thing…
Filius: I second that notion…
P.J.: Ditto.
Me: WHY IS EVERYONE AGAINST ME???
Before you read this story, I feel I must warn you… this is the first book of the Lensherr Family Series, a series about this particular family's lives, which I'm afraid were not at all pleasant at the beginning for most of it's members. If you are looking for something funny, or happy, I suggest you read something by Red Witch, or even one of the Series of Unfortunate Events. Though this story is not horribly deathly dark with solemn words and empty feelings as some of the best stories I've read such as Everything is Wonderful, they are non the less unpleasant, though there is some happiness in some places. I will not hold it against you if you stop reading right here. You have been warned....
*Brothers*
"….HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU??!?!?!" The two boys flinched involuntarily at the tone of the man's voice. "YOU ARE NOT TO HANG OUT WITH THE LIKES OF THEM!!!!!!!" the man's voice continued to rise with rage, apparently forgetting that only one was his son. "GO TO YOUR ROOMS!! YOU'RE GROUNDED UNTIL TOLD OTHERWISE!!! NOW, MARCH!!!!!!!!" the two boys immediately scrambled past the man and up the steps as fast as they could, pausing in front of a door with silver lettering on it that was across from a door with yellow lettering on. The boys leaned on each other and started laughing as soon as they caught their breath. A girl with long black hair appeared out of a third door with red lettering on it, a slight scowl on her face that relaxed into a smile that she couldn't hold back.
"You realize that one of these days, F.D. going to get you good, right?" She asked in a superior voice. This caused them to only laugh harder. Suddenly, a small statue sitting on a table in the hallway smashed both boys in the head. The girl was no longer smiling. The boys looked up with indignant huffs. "You should listen to him; those kids can get you into a lot of trouble. And anyway, you should hang around with kids your age, not twice as much as it." She shrieked suddenly as something came whizzing by her, almost pinning her to the wall. She yanked it out and let out a dry 'ha-ha-ha'. Throwing it on the floor, she tried to crush it beneath her feet.
"Wait a minute," the older of the boys exclaimed suddenly. "F.D.'s not technically my dad, and technically, I don't live here, so technically, he can't ground me, so technically, I can go outside!" he laughed as the younger kid hit him with something that was short and pointed. "Hey!"
"Question: who taught you how to fish, hunt, ride a bike, and most of the other stuff you know?" The older kid tried to grab the younger boy, but only ended up getting himself in a headlock.
"F.D.," he grunted.
"And," the light-haired younger boy continued. "Where can you almost always be found?"
"Here," he grunted again.
"And do you or do you not have your own personal room and a spot everywhere in or around this house?" The girl was joining in now.
"Yes." The silver haired boy was getting impatient. They always went through this when they got in trouble, and they'd always end up goofing off and getting into deeper trouble.
"And, who do you listen to no matter what?" The younger boy had an extremely good grip on the older boy, despite how much smaller he was than the silver-haired one.
"M.D., F.D., and always A.O.," he answered without any hesitation.
"I think he gets the point, Evan," the girl told the younger boy. He let him go.
"Man, what, do you and Wanda practice that little move when you're locked up together in your room, or do you two do something else?" he grinned as Evan and Wanda both blushed slightly.
"I don't go in Evan's room, thank you very much, little bro," Wanda responded, pleased with upsetting Pietro.
"We're twins! We were born on the same day!" the silver haired twelve year old spat back.
"Hey, do you guys want to get into any more trouble?" Evan marched toward his bedroom that had 'Evan' spelled out in yellow letters on the oak door. He mumbled something, running a hand through his unnatural hair that was lighter than his skin.
Pietro and Wanda stood out in the hall a little longer before they both went in their own rooms.
****************
Pietro glanced around his room. His bed sat against on wall, light blue covers on it. The walls were covered with posters and pictures of him, his sister, Evan, and either Evan's parents and Aunt or a man with silver hair, just like his, in various places on various dates. Some were taken when they were all toddlers, just barely walking, and some were as recent as last month's barbecue. He thought it strange that Evan's aunt had hair that was as light as his, and that Evan himself, who'd had light hair when he was a baby, had hair that only got lighter as he got older. Of course, that was nothing compared to what the pictures didn't show. His A.O. could control the weather, which was pretty neat as they could usually talk her into 'helping' the weather so that they had a white Christmas every year. His own twin sister make things act weird, go on the fritz, and sometimes if she really concentrated, she could send out small energy blasts or even shut down Evan and his little spike throwing habit. Pietro winced slightly as he imagined spikes coming out of his skin, though it never seemed to hurt his 'brother'. Then there was his own father. Pietro felt a stab of pain and jealously at the thought of his father who liked Wanda and Evan better than him, his own son, because his father could manipulate metallic fields and found delight in children who also had strange abilities.
He rarely even saw him. Maybe that's what hurt the most; whenever he came, he always brought them all along, but he gloated over Wanda and Evan; they could do anything and still be little angels in his eye. It just wasn't right. Sure, he loved his sister and 'brother' as far as family goes, but he still hated the fact that his father seemed only interested in you for what you could do for him, not who you were…even if you were his own flesh and blood...
*******************
Wanda sat on her bed, listening to her brother's thoughts. She hated it when he got into these kind of moods. He would suddenly seem so distant from them, and he wouldn't say one word about any of it. She wouldn't even know what was wrong if they didn't have that limited telepathy. He's brooding over Father again. She thought bitterly.
Pietro, I know you're upset; we're upset, too, but can you please save this for another time? She told her brother, then tried to break the link, but Pietro wouldn't let her.
"Pietro," she growled out loud. Pietro continued to hold onto it though.
I need to talk with someone. He informed her.
Then talk to Evan. She replied bitterly. She had thinking of her own to do, and she didn't want her brother intruding on her thoughts.
It's not the same. He rebutted
He may be our father, but Evan understands it too; he's being used, and he doesn't even have to. He's being used because the two people he cares about most in the world next to his aunt keep dragging him back into it, and he keeps being dragged out of sheer love and loyalty to us, with our stupid false hope over and over again that just keeps getting broke!. Wanda was really upset now. Why did they keep that false hope? They knew how it would always end up. They knew he was only using them to his own ends. Wanda felt a surge of anger, a few light bulbs popped and Wanda felt unusually satisfied at the tinkling of the broken light bulb pieces on the red floor of her bedroom. No response from Pietro; he had to have felt that anger. Pietro? She mentally tried to contact her brother; he was still there, but he wouldn't respond to her. Maybe he was listening to her slightly then.
*********************
Evan tossed a small ball against the wall his collection of skateboards, various makes, styles, and colors. He sighed as he gazed at the many pictures of his family and E. His family. Wasn't that nice? Pietro and Wanda weren't even considered his close friends, anymore; he considered them his family. If someone asked him if he was an only child, he'd say 'Actually, I've got an older brother and sister that are twins', and they always said they had one twin and one younger brother that 'was not someone you take very lightly'; they got a kick out of making Evan out to be some vicious younger brother that they had to keep locked up at night or else he might kill anyone who had stepped on his or any of his family's toes; and Evan liked it…sometimes.
Then again, they're thoughts that they were telling the truth about them having the same parent might not have been that far off, since Wanda and Pietro's foster parents didn't exactly fit 'parent' description. As a matter of fact, the only time Wanda and Pietro were really ever there was for about two days before E came and a week after he left, because they were convinced that he had spies on them at least that long whenever he came, and if they weren't with them, they wouldn't get their money, the only reason for giving a hoot to who Wanda and Pietro were.
He hated that fact. He didn't understand how someone could abandon their kids like that. Evan also had a sneaking suspicion that those Maximoffs were abusing Wanda and Pietro; more than once, Pietro had come back with bruises or horrible cuts, and once, he even came back with a deep gash on his chest that looked as if it had cut very deep, and had probably been only an inch or so to the right of his heart. Wanda would almost always come back and flinch if anyone so much as put their hand too close to her without telling her first.
Evan looked out his window to the completely normal looking house next door and watched as Mrs. Maximoff watered the flowers in her garden. He hated her; putting on that act to fool everyone, but she didn't fool Evan. If it wasn't for constant argument from Wanda about how 'their father obviously thought it best' and even more physical persuasion from Pietro, Evan would have marched over there a long time ago and killed them; at least that's what he kept telling himself. In truth, no matter how much he wanted to be like Trigger, Check, and all of the others, he wasn't and Pietro and Wanda weren't and they never would be, thank goodness.
'E knows best my backside' Evan thought bitterly. "When I have kids someday, I vow that I will do everything in my power to make sure that they are happy, and that they're never mistreated by anyone, even myself!" Evan yelled solemnly at his room. He glared at the pictures. Two of them caught his eye. They looked as if they had only been taken yesterday, yet he couldn't remember it. Evan thought that strange, because they were the only pictures in which E was in, yet Evan looked genuinely happy; even in the pictures of him and his own folks, he looked slightly distant from the rest. He removed the pictures from the wall, taking a careful look at the first one. He and Pietro were sitting in two swings, wearing black jeans and baby blue collared shirts, neatly tucked in and buttoned. Pietro looked as if he was in the act of laughing, just like his sister who sat on his lap, wearing black jeans and a shirt just like Evan and Pietro's, except that it was light pink in color. The part Evan was most curious about, however, was the fact that there was a second girl, wearing the same thing as Wanda, sitting on Evan's lap, and his face was turned to hers. They had to have been looking at the other's face; both eyes were bright and twinkling even in the picture, making Evan feel as if they would jump up and start playing suddenly.
The girl had shoulder length dark auburn hair that was strangely the same color as Pietro and E's in the very front that had been arranged into bangs. Evan was completely shocked, but that wasn't all; another kid sat near the girl's feet, a messy mop of reddish, brown hair flowing on his head, his eyes the thing startling Evan the most; they were red on black.
"That's not normal," Evan thought out loud, then added as he looked to another kid was standing between Wanda and Pietro and himself, "then again, neither is that." The kid looked like a fuzzy blue demon, his smile revealing sharp fangs; seemingly flicking carelessly behind him was a tail that ended in a spade shape.
On the other side of the swing stood yet another boy and girl, the boy had long, dishwater brown hair and pale yellow eyes, though he had pupils, unlike the blue boy. The girl had blond hair put in the oddest hairstyle Evan had ever seen, even counting his own, in his opinion.
The last two children were both girls, both with long, dark hair, though one had tan skin, and the other was actually wearing an eye patch. The tan girl was leaning against the blue boy, and the last girl was grouped closely with himself, the girl, and the boy with the weird eyes; all of them had their arms around each other. The dishwater hair boy sitting in a strange position right beside Wanda, and the blond had her arms draped around Pietro.
"What the-?" Evan searched desperately for Wanda's mind. He knew that Pietro must have been looking at the pictures too, and if he knew anything about Pietro, he was upset, and he was mentally talking with Wanda. That was good; it was easier for him to get through to one of them if they had already set up a link, though it still drained all of them to accomplish it with Evan since none of them were telepaths, and Wanda and Pietro could really only communicate because they were twins. Wanda? Pietro had gotten Wanda upset again. Not good; not good one little bit. Not that Evan didn't like her; it was just, when she got angry, she could quite possibly destroy the entire city. It's not the same. Evan heard Pietro tell Wanda. Right, he was tampering with Wanda, he couldn't get her thoughts, only Pietro. Wanda must have responded, but something snapped in Pietro... Evan sighed, grabbed his coat, tucked the pictures in his pocket, and climbed out his window.
********************
"I don't know what the heck you think you're doing, but you know you're not supposed to upset Wanda! What, are you brain dead tonight or something?" Evan seethed as Pietro fell into the silver colored chair that sat in a triangle like arrangement of chairs in the center of the tree house. "By the way, do you remember this picture? The date says it was taken yesterday, but I don't recall any of it." Evan tossed the picture on the table. Pietro closed and rubbed his eyes as if he were tired, then glanced at the picture.
"No, now get me a beer, Porky," Pietro grunted. Evan scowled, but walked to the fridge and removed two bottles, tossing one to Pietro and keeping one to himself. He sat down in his own yellow sit and proceeded to open the bottle. Pietro looked his own bottle over critically. He slammed it down angrily on the table.
"I said get me a beer," he growled.
"And I said that my name is Porcupine, PQP, or Spyke, the Wonder Porcupine, but not Porky, Wondy," Evan replied calmly, preparing to take a sip from it.
"It's Wonder or Wonder Boy, get it right! And you know I'm finished with it all anyway after this, so shut up and get me a beer," he huffed.
"Dad said no more beer, so the closest thing you're getting is that Root Beer," Evan smirked. "Cheers." He took a sip.
"Oh," Pietro shut up about the beer.
"Now, look at the picture; it's strange, because they have to go to our school, otherwise, why would they be wearing out uniform? Also, there are way too many of them to be our class, even if half of them were in your grade and the other half were in mine, but I don't ever remember seeing any of them before, and people like that, you don't easily forget," Evan informed Pietro.
He took a better look at it. "You know, you're right; we should remember this, especially you since you look so happy about that girl right there," Pietro laughed dryly, pointing to the one on Evan's lap. Evan's cheeks tinted red.
"Ha, ha, ha. You know, you don't seem to be complaining about that blond draped all over you, Silver," Evan retorted. A tinge of pink lit Pietro's pale face.
"I agree with Silver, you should remember, Evan; not because of the girl, but because you remember every single thing since we first met when we were three."
"AHH!" Both boys jumped at the sound of Wanda's unexpected voice.
"You want to give us a heart attack, or something, Scarlet?" Pietro yelled.
"But you know I'm right," Wanda replied. Pietro looked down at his left arm where a thin, barely visible pink scar went from the crook of his elbow to dangerously close to his wrist. He let our a small hiss of pain as he remembered the only thing from that day; pain. Evan himself placed a tender finger to right above his right temple. Wanda looked at both boys sympathetically and let out a sharp breath. "I'm really sorry about that, you know."
"Yeah," Evan waved her off. "You didn't know what you were doing, you didn't mean to, and you were just scared. Besides, at least the tree was only a small one and at least those stupid Maximoffs got what was coming; bad karma, right?"
Pietro nodded slightly. "Just like A.O. always tells us." They sat in an uncomfortable silence, Pietro and Wanda wishing they remembered that day, but thanking God that they didn't, Evan trying desperately to forget it, but still remember.
Wanda spoke first. "Anyway, back to the picture- why the heck am I patting that kid on the head?!?!" Wanda grabbed the picture up to closer inspect it.
"'Heck'? Come on, you've said worse things than hell before," Pietro chuckled.
"That's not all," Evan interrupted, preventing a possible oncoming fight between the two as he removed a second picture. He handed it to Pietro who spit out his Root Beer.
"Who the heck are they?!?!" he asked as he examined. Wanda looked over his shoulder, then made a comment similar to her brother's.
"I'm not sure," Evan scratched his head, addressing two strange women and a man with strange, bluish-black hair. "But I think that somehow everyone in that picture is connected."
Pietro and Wanda frowned. "How do you know that?" they asked simultaneously.
Evan shook his head. "I don't know; but I'm going to find out." He tucked the pictures into his wallet he carried everywhere with him. He looked up to notice that suddenly Wanda and Pietro were both sitting down, their eyes downcast. "What's wrong?"
"We've got to go back tomorrow," Wanda explained in a teary voice. Pietro and Evan both immediately rushed to her side, trying to keep her from crying, but Pietro himself looked as if he was on the verge of tears. Evan didn't know what happened over there, but whatever it was had to be bad to move the older kids to tears. Pietro and Wanda had encountered some things in their short twelve years than most grown adults had in their entire life.
"Dad's coming next week, which is usually good, but…until then…" Pietro trailed off. He turned his head and shut his eyes to keep from letting the tears welling up in his eyes from falling.
Evan gritted his teeth. "Wanda, if they touch you, tell me; I'll kill them, I swear to God, I will-" Evan popped a long and extremely sharp spike, sharp enough to cut if you so much as touched it. He made a violent gesture with it.
"NO," Pietro barked. Evan looked slightly taken back. "We might hang out with them, but we're not going to murder them, we won't steep to Trigger's level. Promise me that," he looked at them. "Promise me, after this, we listen to F.D. and ignore them completely. Scarlet?" Wanda nodded solemnly. "Spyke?" Evan got up and walked out of sight.
"I hope that's his way of saying he'll quit," Wanda whispered.
"I hope so, too," Pietro said through clenched teeth, "but we both know it's not."
*******************
"Are you sure you're going to be ok?" Evan asked again as he carried Wanda's bag down the steps and out the back door to the Maximoff residence.
Wanda sighed. "For the fiftieth time, yes!" she told him, trying to sound cheerful. At the look of doubt on Evan's face, she sighed again, leaned over and gave him a kiss. "Ok?" she asked softly. Evan was so shocked, he only nodded. Pietro, coming behind them, laughed and gave a wolf whistle. That brought Evan back.
"Stuff it, Silver, and before I forget," Evan growled at Pietro before reaching into his pockets and pulling out two copies of each of the pictures and handing them to each twin. "I'm sure you've probably already got a copy of these picture at home," Evan begin, purposely drawing out the last phrase as if to prove that Wanda and Pietro belonged where he belonged, "but you can keep this on yourself at all times, just in case you run into one of these people." Wanda smiled and trudged on as slowly as possible. Evan and Pietro always stopped and talked before Pietro walked back into that prison. "Are you sure she's going to be ok? You'll protect her?"
"Promise." Even jokester Pietro knew when to get serious.
"What about you, bro?" Evan asked, making Pietro look him in the eye; they could never lie to one another if they were looking at the other's eye, whether it was Wanda, Pietro, or Evan, they could always see the truth. "You're going to be all ok, right?"
"Yeah….promise," Pietro said, hesitating slightly before answering. Evan frowned and Pietro looked away; Evan had seen the truth. He set the bag on the porch as Wanda came back out. It was taking them longer to talk than usual.
Pietro dropped his bags, and Evan put an arm around each of them and they did the same thing. "I want you guys to come back safe after E leaves, got it?" They nodded. "If they touch either of you guys, tell me, I swear I'll kill them if they do." Again, the twins nodded. Evan took his arm from around them and gripped Pietro's shoulders firmly. "Promise me again you'll take care of Wanda and yourself; I don't want to lose you two." Evan said gravely.
"I promise, no matter what." Evan hugged both of them, holding onto Wanda a little longer than usual.
Evan stepped off the porch, and even as he walked to his own house, he had never felt farther away from his the twins who had become his adopted brother and sister. No one said anything; somehow, they all knew that something was going to change, and that it had to do with Wanda; and whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good.