Chapter Two
Weeks fly by but not a day goes by whereby a pair of piercing blue eyes does not haunt Emma's dreams. She sees the same pair of beautiful eyes each night she goes to sleep but she can't remember where or when she saw them. Familiarity plagues her but frustration seeps in each time she comes up blank with a face to match those eyes. She knows she is not crazy but she does not know how to prove it.
It is a Tuesday evening when Emma is running away from the Sokovian Police because she was caught in the act for stealing grocery supplies. People dodge out of the way as she passes them quickly in the market place and she prays to whatever existing God for stealthy agile legs in a time like this because falling would lead to her capture and that option was unappealing to her.
Her legs never falter in her sprint and though she is tired, she pushes on with every inch of her energy, determined to lose the cops. Emma sees a window of opportunity and makes a sharp left turn into what she thought was a deserted alley and watches as multiple policemen fly by her hiding spot unaware of her presence. She holds her breath and leans heavily against the wall, and tries her best to remain quiet.
When she is certain they are gone, she slumps to the ground tiredly with her bag of loot in her hands. Only when she let her guard down did she hear multiple footsteps closing in and surrounding her.
She gasps and looks up to at least ten drunken men standing before her with lewd grins etched upon their faces.
Memories of her sexually abusive father and brother assault her mercilessly and she can't stop the feeling of helplessness and fear from seeping into her bones. Her feet stand rooted to the ground and her numb body shakes in terror, thinking she cannot escape them.
Her prominent fear makes her forget that she has a gift of gravity manipulation to defend herself and all she remembers is the scared little girl that she once was, laying on the floor of her bedroom helplessly waiting for a savior that never came as years of abuse were forced upon her.
To her, rape has and always will be worse than death. She thinks that death is painless, peaceful and kind even. And as she looks at the faces of the haggard men surrounding her, she gulps and breathes in deeply, knowing that there is no way she will survive this ordeal.
"N-no...P-please n-no..." whimpers Emma pitifully even though she knows no one will come to her rescue. No one ever did and she doubts that fact is going to change now. After all, she is nothing but an insignificant burden, as her father once said.
The first man touches her and tries to rip her clothes off but she fends him off with a weak push. She tries to do the same for the rest but she is outnumbered. It isn't long before she is pushed to the ground but as she shut her eyelids tightly, she hears the sound of something whizzing by followed by the sounds of groans of pain.
Then 'thumping' sounds can be heard and her eyes fly open to the view of her attackers laying unconsciously on the ground. Relief floods her but she immensely perplexed and distraught by the entire ordeal. Just when she thinks she is alone, she is swept off her feet by a gush of wind and her vision blurs as everything around her disappears.
Emma feels sick to her stomach when the fast movement finally ends but does not move until the nauseous feeling disappeared. She knows someone is holding her but what she sees the moment she opens her eyes makes her freeze in place.
Piercing blue eyes meet her warm chocolate brown ones and she stays still, blinking furiously to make sure she is not dreaming.
Those eyes...she dreamt of those eyes every night, Emma recalls as she reaches forward to touch the face of her savior. Her fingers graze the side of his face as she drinks up the sight of his silver hair and deep blue grey eyes.
He is like a magnet and she marvels at the sight of his beauty.
He is real, rejoices Emma internally as her lips curve upwards.
As though he could read her mind, he smirks at her and puts her down gently, helping her to stabilize herself but does not move away once she is able to support herself. If anything, he moves nearer to her until their chests are almost touching.
Blushing slightly, Emma whispers, "You saved me."
The silver haired man smirks at her teasingly, lightening the mood.
"What? You didn't see that coming?" replies her saviour in English with a thick Sokovian accent.
Too awestruck to say anything, Emma ducks her head and glances at the floor for a moment but he places his fingers on her chin and lifts her face up gently to look her in the eyes.
"Don't hide from me," he whispers intensely in a smooth velvety tone and she can't look away from his deep blue eyes.
"Your eyes," murmurs Emma softly, "Have we met before?"
"Perhaps," he replies, curious to know how much she remembered about their first encounter. "Why?"
As if she is snapped out of a trance, Emma takes a step back and sighs loudly, a hint of frustration in her body language.
"You're going to think I'm crazy," she says, refusing to answer his question.
"I promise I will not judge," assures the man quietly. And somehow, Emma believes him.
"I dream of you every night. Well, your eyes to be specific. I see them wherever I go but I come up blank when I try to put a face to them. But now, seeing you in person, I just feel like we've met before. Your presence is oddly comforting and it's warm, and familiar somehow, like family, or someone I love," she admits before flushing madly at the last part.
His face remains impassive and her stomach lurches at thought that maybe she blurted out a bit too much. Maybe he really believes she is nutters now.
"I can't believe I just said that, " blurts out Emma, mortified. She covers her face with both hands and backs away slowly only to be pulled to the man's chest in a gently embrace.
His voice is soothing as he replies, "You are right in your belief that we have met before. How do the Americans put it? We found ourselves in each other's company once, months ago."
"Once?" gasps Emma loudly as she looks up at his thoughtful gaze. "It feels like we've known each other longer than that."
"Yes, and it did not end well," admits her angel.
A thought makes its way into her mind and she blushes deeply before mumbling, "Did we have a one night stand?"
He furrows his brows in confusion and asks, "What is a one night stand?"
"Erm..." hesitates Emma before she flushes hotly and replies, "it's when two people have sex for one night and they never see each other again afterwards."
Upon hearing her answer, her angel throws his head back in laughter before he quickly dispels her misconception.
"No we did not engage in such relations, my dear. We met under much more dire circumstances," says the man.
Confusion pools in her eyes before she recalls that she didn't even know her savior's name.
Hesitantly, she asks, "Who are you again?"
Her silver haired companion smiles gently back at her and replies, "My name is Pietro, Pietro Maximoff."
"Pietro," repeats Emma slowly, testing the name on her tongue. It is exotic and unique, just like he is and she likes it.
Beaming widely, she gives him her name as well, "I'm Emma."
Like her, Pietro repeats her name loudly and smiles at the way it rolls off his tongue. It is beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Emma. It is absolutely perfect.
"A pleasure," he responds suavely never once taking his eyes off her.
Her dark chocolate curls match her warm chocolate brown eyes and the freckles dotting her face make her beauty stand out even more to him.
Emma is absolute perfection and they are standing so close to each other that it would be so easy to kiss her. All he had to do was lean forward.
However tempted he may be, Pietro restrained himself because he knew that unless he told her the absolute truth, there was no way for them to be together.
He does not want to hurt her and the guilt eats him away.
He pulls away from her and takes a step back.
"Where are you going?" asks Emma, worried at the sudden change in his facial expression.
"I-I...it is best if I leave you alone, I should not have come," says Pietro with a sad smile.
"You saved me, Pietro, there wasn't anything wrong with that," states Emma firmly as she moves forward to grab his hand into hers.
He looks away from her face, deep in thought.
"You being around me is dangerous. I should not have come," repeats Pietro once more. It is crushing to say this but he knows he has no choice. The more time Emma spends with him, the more risk she is in of being discovered by Strucker.
He did not want that.
"Please," pleads Emma. "We can make this work, whatever this is," she gestures between them, "All I know is that I feel strongly for you and I don't want you to walk away from me."
Pietro looks away from her and says emotionlessly, " I cannot."
This angers Emma and she stomps up to Pietro and glares at him until he looks her in the eyes. "If you really believed that you wouldn't still be here, Pietro. You want this as much as I do. We can make it work, but only if you want it to."
Hearing her words sent thrills down his spine and he could not stop the affection he felt at the sight of her fighting for him to stay.
Her words spoke the truth and for once, he did not hold back. He closed the distance between them and pressed his lips firmly against hers.
Emma was surprised but responded fervently when she felt his warm lips moving against hers.
They kissed for what seemed like an eternity until they were both out of breath. Gazing into Emma's eyes deeply, Pietro used his fingers to tuck a few stands of her mahogany hair behind her ear affectionately.
No words needed to be said between the two but Pietro did anyway.
"We'll make this work," he promises, repeating Emma's words back to her.
And she believes him.
Author's note:
Hope you liked it! Please do leave a review to let me know what you think! Thanks for reading