Disclaimer: I DON'T own X-Men Evolution or Pixie Stix, so stay away you blood-sucking fiends!!! ~Holds up a can of lawyer repellent~ I ain't afraid to use this!
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
-William Congreve
Wanda Maximoff woke up with a start and looked around wildly. Glass shattered as she did so and she whipped her head around to locate her now broken mirror. Damn, it was the 4th one this week! Glass just wasn't safe around her. She was much more in control of her powers now than she ever imagined she could be, but they still got away from her sometimes. Like just then.
Wanda shook her head and tried to remember what had wakened her. It was probably some disturbed dream as always, but she couldn't remember what. She glanced at her watch. It was almost 5 AM. Great. No use getting back to sleep, not that she could or wanted to. She had been asleep for almost 15 hours now, thanks to an extremely stressful training session with that wacky witch woman. It had been a productive session though, and would be very useful for tomorrow's, (or rather today's, considering the time), battle.
Wanda got up and stretched, then went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. Her face had been covered in sweat when she awoke, which was enough to tell her that her dream had been a nightmare. At least it wasn't as bad as the one she had a few weeks ago, when she totaled her room.
Suddenly ravenous, Wanda trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen. She remembered having a very small lunch the previous day, and she had slept through dinner. Sugar, she needed sugar. Wanda had a sweet tooth big enough to rival her brother's. She raided the cupboards, which unfortunately were filled with 'disgusting' health food. They had been ever since Mystique came back with Agatha and herself. The boys hadn't complained much since they hadn't had a full meal in quite a while since Mystique left. They were just grateful to have food, any kind of food, but Wanda on the other hand had enough horrible 'healthy' food at the asylum to last a life time. They didn't exactly stock cakes and stuff there.
Oooh, cookies! Yum. Oh wait, they're fat-free, yuck. Wanda thought, wrinkling her nose. Surprisingly, the serious, destruction-bent Scarlet Witch everyone saw still had a mind that worked a lot like her brother's at times. Like when she was searching for food in the middle of the night and no one was around to see. Hey, she couldn't be morbid all the time, right?
Oh well, cookies are cookies, after all. Maybe they taste good anyway. With that, Wanda plopped down in one of the chairs around the kitchen table and ripped open the doomed packet of cookies, shoving two into her mouth. She sat for a while, munching thoughtfully. They weren't half bad. She supposed she could always go and raid Pietro's secret stash of junk food if she felt like it. Wanda grinned at the thought.
The Scarlet Witch had observed her brother quite a lot during the past two weeks, completely unknown to him or anyone else. She found (to her infinite surprise), that even though he was an arrogant bastard who deserved to die a very painful death for what he did to her, it became harder and harder every day to summon the hate she thought she still had for him. She did hate him, right? After all, he betrayed her, broke promises, and even had the nerve to defend the crummy piece of shit they called Father.
Even as all this ran through her mind, however, she couldn't help but feel a pang in her stomach every time she saw him, so much like she remembered him as a child. He had the same laugh, the same mischievous look in his eyes, and the same arrogance in his every step; yet, he had changed too. His formally cute childish features had turned into a strange sort of masculine beauty, which still showed a hint of his boyish charm. [AN: Sorry, couldn't help myself. It's the whole Pietro-obsession thing.] He was handsome; there was no doubt about that. He was a perfect mix of his mother and father.
Yet the physical change wasn't what stood out most to Wanda. Pietro had grown up, a lot more than he should have in just 6 years. It was obvious his life hadn't been easy either, but he deserved that, didn't he? Wanda just didn't know anymore. She missed him, she had figured out that much. That's what that pang in her stomach was every time she saw him. She missed her twin more than anyone could know.
She remembered, in those first few months in the asylum, when she'd stay up crying all night, not for her Father, but for Pietro. For her brother. He was the one she missed; the one she longed for. After about a year or so of cold solitude and imprisonment however, all the excuses she made on his behalf as to why he didn't help her or come to rescue her became redundant and nothing but excuses. They weren't true. She had started to hate him too, just like she hated her father, and that hate festered and drove her on throughout the years. It was very hard to let go of and so, so, easy to slip into.
Wanda didn't know how to forgive, even if she wanted to. She probably couldn't now, anyway. If Pietro didn't secretly hate her before she was sent away, he undoubtedly did now, after she tried to kill him that first day. Who wouldn't? She pushed him away later on too, when he tried to talk to her. She couldn't help it. The pain and rage were still so raw. All she knew was, she missed her twin. She didn't know why, but she did. She was horribly confused about the whole thing.
A few weeks ago, when she just started to get control over her powers, she decided to test them out one night. She wanted to go see her brother, while he was asleep. That was one thing she remembered clearly from her childhood. Watching her brother sleep, bathed in the moonlight. It had always instilled a sort of peace in her, and she had the mad urge to go do it again. She knew it was crazy. How could she miss him and want to look at him, while being mad enough to kill him at the same time? If her mind wasn't already so messed up, it would have torn in two.
Anyway, she did sneak into her brother's room one night. Wanda used her powers to keep Pietro and his room-mate, Lance, asleep. She had to, because her brother was the lightest sleeper in the world; at least, he was when they were younger, and she doubt that had changed. It wasn't his fault. Even when asleep, Pietro's mind worked at least 3 times the normal speed. It was part of his mutation, so he was incredible jumpy even when he was sleeping.
After making sure the two boys were in dreamland, Wanda pulled up a chair next to her brother's bed and sat on it. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at him. The moonlight streaming through the window fell on him directly, giving him an ethereal glow. He was just so beautiful, even more so than when he was a child.
Wanda unknowingly reached out and managed to stop her hand just before it touched him. A look of utter longing appeared on her face. She was looking at Pietro. Not Pietro, the horrible traitor who'd helped abandon her years back, but Pietro, her Pietro. Her beautiful, loving, perfect brother, whom she would do anything for.
It really was too much for her. Wanda just didn't know what to feel any more. As much as she was ashamed to admit it, what she wanted most in the world was for Pietro to take her in his arms and hug her and tell her that everything was all right and that he was there and that they would always be together from now on. Just like old times. They would get through their horrid past and go on to the future together. He could take her and they could run away together, never to be bothered by these people again.
But then again, that Pietro didn't exist anymore, did he? This was just some deluded fantasy of hers. She'd had a lot of those at the asylum, when she was so pumped up on meds that she couldn't even tell whether her hand was her own anymore. Fact was, the brother she knew was gone, pure and simple. He had turned into a copy of that monster who had left her to rot in hell. She was supposed to despise him, right?
Wanda sighed and looked at the sleeping angel in front of her again. Maybe, since he was asleep, just this once, she could pretend that this was the same Pietro she had once loved so much. That by some miracle he hadn't turned all evil, and maybe he still cared about her and still wanted to be her brother.
This time, unable to help herself, Wanda reached out and tucked one of Pietro's unruly bangs behind his ear, smiling slightly. But she was becoming tired. It had been a long day, and she couldn't force these two to sleep much longer. She was new at this.
Wanda knelt down by the bed. She took one of Pietro's alabaster hands in hers, examining the long, finely shaped fingers. Then, she bent over and gently kissed her twin on the lips; a goodnight kiss, just like she used to give him once upon a time. Her heart skipped a few beats. Suddenly, Pietro murmured something and tightened a grip on her hand.
"Wanda..."
Wanda froze in shock, and then relaxed a little when she realized Pietro was still asleep. So the spell worked. Good. She didn't know what she would do if Pietro were to wake up just then. Then she realized what he had called out. Her name. Wanda straightened up, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. There was an odd sensation at the base of her throat.
She swallowed and turned around to get out of there before she lost it completely, but stopped at the site of Pietro's jacket slung over his chair. Something about that nagged at her memory. Of course! Pixie stix. Wanda took the jacket and rummaged through it. She turned the collar inside out and pulled it, having it open up to reveal a hidden pocket. She almost burst out laughing as she reached inside and pulled out a few packets of Pixie Stix. Geez, some things never changed.
As kids, the twins weren't allowed many sweets. It was understandable; a sober Pietro was bad enough, get him on a sugar-high and it was just asking for trouble. For that reason, Wanda and Pietro used to invent hiding places for candy when they were younger. Pietro could sew, so it was easy to make them. The jacket collar thing had actually been Wanda's idea. Pietro was the one who decided that it should be used to hide Pixie Stix, which was the fastest way to get high on sugar. Pietro used to need sugar just as much as he needed air or water. Maybe more. He could get pretty scary when he was on a sugar high however, which is why he was never allowed to have too much. Not that it had ever stopped him.
Snatching a few Pixie Stix, Wanda replaced the jacket exactly where it was and sneaked out of the room. She refrained herself from looking at other possible hiding places for candy, at least for the moment. Shutting the door, she lifted her spell and let the boys fall back into a normal sleep. After that however, she never made any more night time visits to see her brother.
AN: All right! I finally got off my ass and updated this thing. I won't bother with excuses, but I'm incredibly sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I like the way it turned out though.
Anyway, I just saw Pirates of the Caribbean today. Is it just me, or was that movie totally awesome? Johnny Depp really outdid himself this time.
