No Place To Hide

Finding Pietro Maximoff hiding in her closet was not something Rogue expected.

"What the fuck? Pietro!" Rogue swore.

Pietro grinned weakly and waggled his fingers at her from underneath the black and green drape of her clothes. "Er…hey, Roguey."

Rogue's eyes narrowed, snapping with fire. "What are you doing in my room?" she demanded.

"I'm hiding from her!" Pietro hissed, eyes flicking back and forth as if he were afraid this infamous 'her' would jump out from the shadows and attack him.

Maybe he was.

"You're the only one she's really afraid of; she'd never risk tempting your wrath by trying to kill me here." Pietro smiled at his reasoning, secure in the fact that his continued existence was not in peril as long as he remained inside Rogue's closet. His logic had, however, forgotten to take into account the fact that Rogue would, most likely, not let him stay in her closet.

Rouge blinked. "Her? Her who? I know Amara hasn't gotten anyone yet, but she's not all that afraid of me, and I didn't think you were scared of."

Pietro's eyes went wide in shock. "Rogue, I'm not talking about the prissy princess. I'm talking about Wanda."

The minute his sister's name left his lips, a crash of thunder boomed overhead – despite the fact that the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky.

Rogue's eyes went wide. "What was that?" she asked, despite the fact that she was pretty sure she knew.

Pietro whimpered. "Wanda's mad I didn't let her join in."

"Join in what?" Rogue asked testily, irritated with the boy's caginess.

"Join in with me and Kurt when we pranked the mansion," Pietro said miserably, wincing as another loud boom echoed across Bayville. "Oooh, she's pissed…"

"And now you're hiding from Wanda in my closet because you're under the impression she's afraid of me?" Rogue demanded incredulously.

Pietro nodded vigorously. "Oh, but she is! She'd never say so, but I know she thinks you're a bigger bitch than she is, and vindictive to boot, and with Wanda that's about the equivalent of her breaking down into sobs whenever she hears your name."

Three successive booms sounded in the air after his words, as if Wanda had heard him and was raging at him for revealing her weakness.

She most likely had heard.

Pietro looked out the window nervously, gulping when he noticed the dark cloud zooming across the otherwise clear blue sky towards the mansion. "Oh, shit…"

"I am having no part of this," Rogue said, her hands held out before as if dismissing the situation.

Pietro's head jerked around so fast she thought it might pop off his neck. He gasped and jumped towards her, wrapping his arms around her legs. "No, Rogue, you can't!" he yelled, panicked.

"Can and will," she said through teeth gritted with the strain as she tried to remove the speed mutant leech from her person.

"No…" Pietro moaned, turned begging eyes upwards.

"Yes," Rogue argued, finally succeeding in peeling Pietro off of her and stalking out of her room. He landed on the floor with a thump. Fortunately it was right before Wanda's message appeared.

Written in air over his head – directly over his head; barely a foot away – in green hexfire, were the words: 'You can run, but you can't hide, Silver.'

Pietro whimpered and cowered underneath the bed in a futile attempt to prove her words wrong.