A continuation from the previous chapter. Enjoy!

[[(Prompts: Pietro being a good boyfriend & Pietro confessing his love to you)]]

2. Us and Them [[Pink Floyd]]

A week after he'd first caught sight of her, Peter spoke to her. Or rather, he tried to. She had been waiting outside of the Professor's office when he'd rounded the corner, thirty five minutes ahead of his scheduled meeting with the odd telepath. According to Hank, every student had to go through an 'evaluation' of sorts, though this news did nothing to hamper Peter's strained attempt to walk as slow as he possibly could towards the large oak doors of the office. Tesla had shot him a small frown, which had prompted an instantaneous grin to split Peter's lips wide. He smirked, leaning against the wall, crossed his arms and opened his mouth. And that's as far as he got. A thousand and one thoughts hummed within the complexity that was his mind, one hundred greetings, three hundred snarky remarks to make, and even five dozen or so paradoxical compliments ranging from how stunning her eyes looked with the sun shining across them through the window pane to how no one in the history of his existence had managed to prank him half as well as she had the week before, and did she happen to like hohos and ping pong? And the thoughts went whizzing and zipping, flying with unimaginable speed around and around his head as Peter gaped at her, eyes widening larger than his mouth was open. A thousand and one thoughts hummed within his incredibly nimble mind, and yet Pietro Maximoff could not think of a single word to utter to the peculiar girl who stood before him.

Out of the darkness, a single thought began to resonate, amplifying in girth and pitch until, without even meaning to, Peter blurted, "What the fuck?" Since when did he find it so unusually difficult to speak to a girl? Irritated, he frowned deeply, his crossed arms tightening around his chest.

"Excuse me?" Tesla's voice was edged with a wary hardness that made him flinch. The question itself had been one of confusion, and it was with a jolt that Peter realized he'd, once again, spoken too fast for her to understand. I really need to work on that... At least it had been to his advantage this time. Swallowing, the silver haired mutant seized his chance of atonement.

"Uh... I said you really suck." Peter winced; he'd never felt so frozen before, like his tongue was fused to the roof of his mouth and his brain was halfway stir-fried. Nice one Peter. This is why you steal things instead of talk to girls.

Tesla threw back her head and laughed, the sound vibrantly young and full of life. Peter's eyebrows rocketed to the ceiling, his arms unfolding as he was momentarily caught off guard. Forcing himself to bring his dark eyes up to meet Tesla's grin, he smiled nervously.

"So you're the fast one who likes to prank people."

"And you're the giant walking battery."

Tesla giggled. "Ooh, very original. Really, I haven't heard that one at all before."

Peter grinned, hoping she wouldn't take too much notice of his dimples. God he hated them. Instead, Tesla quirked a brow.

"So I've been dying to know..."

"Yes, I'm single, lucky you right?"

The girl feigned shock. "I would have never guessed. I bet you just whisk the girls right off their feet, literally-"

Peter snorted.

"-And that amazing hair. Which brings me back to my original question... How much do you actually spend to keep it that way?"

"What way?" Peter asked, confusedly reaching up to grab at a lock of silver.

"Well you know, the color. It can't actually be..."

Zipping to Tesla's side, Peter couldn't help the smirk that had slipped its way onto his lips. "It is. Wanna touch?"

Reaching out a hesitant hand, Tesla jumped back, startled, when Peter flitted away, appearing on her other side.

"Too bad, too slow. And when I say slow I mean, like, really slow. I think you just broke the record for it actually." He snickered, watching as the girl bit her lip. A thrill rocketed from the soles of his feet up to the tips of his ears at the sight.

"I can't believe I just fell for that," she moaned.

"It's okay, everyone does," Peter said, rolling his eyes.

"Hmm, I can imagine. It must get old."

Peter shrugged, trying not to notice the way she was looking at him, her blue eyes, profoundly deep, seemed to shine with a kindness she liked to keep masked. They were abysmal, he decided, a word his mother liked to use far too often. "Not really... So why'd you think my hair was dyed?"

"Besides the fact that literally no one has that hair color?" Tesla rolled her eyes. "Because your fast. And with silver hair, you could easily call yourself something rad, like Quicksilver."

Peter frowned. "You think I dye my hair because of a nickname?"

"The Professor has one," Tesla shrugged, "And so does Hank- haven't you ever heard Wolverine call him Beast?"

"Wolveri-"
"Logan." Tesla said flatly, her eyes flipping gracefully upwards then down once more. Behind them, the door to the Professor's office opened, a small boy with orangey-red hair slipping out. With a smile and a punch to the shoulder Tesla turned away.

"I'll see you around Quicksilver."

Rubbing his arm mindlessly, Peter's eyes watched her go. "Yeah... yeah."

~*~Quicksilver~*~

It took Hank, Logan, and Charles- or the Professor, as he'd so pleasantly requested to be called- to convince Peter that running off at supersonic speed to the mysterious building where Trask Industries was holding Tes was, as Hank had so delicately put it, "a suicide mission that would end in two deaths. Yours, and hers."

That had shut him up real quick, figuratively speaking. He still had hundreds of questions, all of which were not deterred when Charles had put two fingers to his temple with a sigh and told him to calm himself.

'You must calm your mind,' the Professor's voice seemed to echo back and forth across the innermost workings of his skull, making Peter more than a little uneasy. 'We have a plan in place Peter, but we need your utmost cooperation in the meantime. It is imperative to our success.'

"I know this is hard," the Professor continued, retracting himself from Peter's thoughts and speaking aloud. The silver-haired mutant let loose an audible sigh of relief that did not go unnoticed. Clearing his throat, Charles continued. "I know this is hard, but you must trust us. And, above anything else, you must listen, as precisely as you possibly can."

"Tesla's life depends on it." Hank interjected.

Peter swallowed, his hands, always moving, tightening into fists at his sides.

Logan returned then, the door banging open with a pop that had Hank flinching.

"The car-"

Peter, who'd been pacing back and forth at a rate that barely allowed the other's to see the silver of his hair and jacket, halted abruptly, sending a gentle wind that fluttered past Charles' chin-length hair to the curtains beyond.

"Is it time? Are we ready? I can'tstandwaitinghereanymore. Ican't-"

A hand was clapped firmly onto his shoulder, Logan peering down at him with his ever-guarded gaze.

"It's time."

~*~Quicksilver~*~

A month after they first spoke, fate would find them kissing in the backseat of Peter's mother's old Ford Galaxie. Piano Man, Tesla's favorite song, was blaring obnoxiously from the speakers as Peter's tongue ghosted the crest of Tes's lips, his breath hitching into a hushed gasp as she kissed his neck, his lips, nipping at his ear. Finger's swirling in her long hair, Peter's constraint on his speed slipped suddenly, and with a gasp Tesla found hands that had previously been ensnared in her ebony locks dancing delicately from her breasts to her hips and beyond, far faster than her's could move over Peter's bare chest.

"Pete-Peter," she managed, her words coming in breathy gasps. Instantly, Peter's motions slowed, a husky chuckle escaping his lips.

"Sorry,"

"S'okay."

Eyes connected, blue fusing with black, merging faster than the speed of sound, and suddenly he was kissing her and she was arching up into his touch, the fabric of her shirt tugging roughly up and over her shoulders and head as Peter helped her out of it. A mouth found her left breast, an agile tongue licking and swirling so suddenly that a spark of electricity ricocheted from fingertips that clutched desperately to Peter's muscled back, causing him to grunt, though he did not slow in his ministrations.

"Aah," Tes breathed. Peter chuckled, the vibrations scattering across her chest, drawing a low moan from her lips. Her hands flitted downwards, and Tesla did not miss the harsh intake of breath as her fingers slipped over the bulge of his pants. Peter's lips had returned to Tes', kissing her hungrily, so entranced by the girl beneath him that for all he knew the radio had died out a long time ago and they were kissing in the melody of faint breath and lips against lips. The zipper of his pants was down suddenly, leaving Peter wandering if it was, in fact, Tesla that had super speed, and she was touching him there, each caress softer and yet more pronounced than the last, lingering, and he was moaning, the threadbare material of his boxers spiking his frustration, his want- there was a shiver, a ripple in time, fleeting, and he'd slipped up again, he'd sped up, suddenly poised at her entrance, waiting- but Tes was nibbling his lower lip and her hand was tight around him and he began to position himself and- and-

"Peter," Tes's voice was hoarse, her lips a brilliant red and her eyes rivaling the moon in their luminosity as they stared roundly up at him, saucer-like and frightened and-

"What's wrong?" He asked, alarm ripping through him like a spark of lightning. Tesla shook her head, eyes not meeting his, teeth worrying at her lower lip as tears welled in the corners of her aquamarine gaze. Wasting no time, Peter dressed, pulling up his boxers and zipping his pants before Tes could blink, before gently taking her face in his hands.

"Tes? Tes, what's the matter?" Gently, far more gentle than Peter had ever been in his life, he thumbed away a tear as it escaped, raining down delicately from a blue eye squeezed tightly shut. Leaning forward, Peter kissed Tes just above her ear. "You know you can tell me... You can tell me anything Tes." He murmured.

A moment passed, a heartbeat for some, twenty two for Peter, who counted each one as he waited, tenser than that day a year before when he'd gotten his first glimpse of the Pentagon through the smudged, dirty window of a rental car.

And then- "I'm not... I'm not ready." She whispered, the words so faint he had to strain to catch them as they tumbled brokenly from her lips. Tes opened her eyes, blinking past the film of mortified tears. "I'm not ready for- for that. Because- Because-"

Something inside his chest crumbled, crashing brokenly, plummeting to the lowest part of his abdomen where it settled like an iron weight. Peter swallowed. Reaching upwards, he took Tes' chin gently in between his fingertips, turning her so that her face was upturned towards his. Two shallow, twin rivers of gleaming tears highlighted moonbeam trails across the paths of her high cheekbones, and as delicately (and slowly, ever so slowly) as he could, Peter drew his fingers across them, wiping the sparkling dew into oblivion. Tes' brows knit, her lower lip trembling as she peered meekly up at the silver haired mutant with eyes as wide and deep as the ocean.

"Don't," Peter's voice shook when he spoke, the emotion too strong, too overpowering for him to fully contain. Licking his lips, he continued. "don't you ever think that you have to explain something like that to me." Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss, as gentle as it was chaste, to the swollen puffs of skin under each of her eyes. "Not to anybody." Peter shook his head, his voice soft. "It's okay Tes, I understand. It's okay."

Tesla closed her eyes as Peter leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers, opening them only when the plucking of a guitar and the dulcet voice of Jim Croce floated from the radio. Beside her Peter turned his head, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek where a shining droplet had been falling before resting his head against her own. Slowly, their eyes lulled shut.

"...If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I'd save every day like a treasure and then

Again, I would spend them with you..."

"Peter?"

"...hm?"

"Thank you."

Peter smiled.

~*~Quicksilver~*~

Hank grounded the plane on a small, private landing stripe that Peter was pretty certain could get them arrested, if anything. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have given two shits about such a conclusion, but now... His hands were white as he clutched the armrests of his seat. The plan had been explained to him in as great a detail as absolutely possible (Charles had even slipped into his mind amidst all the "whirring and thrumming", as he put it, to display the mental layout of the warehouse he'd amassed through Tes and several scientists whilst in Cerebro), though it had been hard enough sitting still the entire time, but coupled with the knowledge that at any point, Tes could- she could be-

Even lost waist high within his own thoughts, concaved deep within himself like a snake avoiding the sunlight, Peter's perception was acute enough to notice the looks Charles and Logan were shooting back and forth at one another as the plane touched down with a jolt. Pressing his lips together firmly in a pencil-thin line, the Professor sighed, shutting his eyes for a moment before wheeling his chair over to where the young mutant sat. Peter didn't even so much as turn to acknowledge his presence, resigning himself to leaning mutely against the window as his blurred fingers drummed an inaudible beat against the armrest.

"Peter, might I have a word."

Silver hair and dark eyes flashed, glaring his answer. Be my guest, Charles.

Charles coughed. "In private."

"That important huh?" Peter grunted, shoving himself upwards. "It couldn't wait?"

"No, I'm afraid not," It almost looked as if the man were wincing as his next words spilled from his lips. "You're going to want to hear this before you go in there."

Sighing, Peter headed to the back of the plane, arriving in a mere millisecond, tapping his foot impatiently as he awaited for the Professor, who's wheelchair was taking a crippling amount of time to fight it's way back. Wheeling to a stop beside the younger mutant, Charles' hands went from the wheels of his chair to his lap.

"Sit down Peter."

Frowning, Peter flopped himself into the nearest seat, his fingers going to the armrests immediately, knuckles white and strained. He didn't know how much longer he could stand just sitting around. What did the Professor have to say now that was so important that it couldn't wait until after Tes was safe. That is, if she was-

Peter winced, a shudder rippling through him at the thought. Glancing over at Charles, he raised a brow impatiently, the latter man shifting so that he could glance behind him.

Out of earshot, now would be the most opportune moment to tell Peter. It would be hard, Charles knew, especially since the information was only meant to brace the boy for the state, both mental and physical, he would surely find Tesla in. Clearing his throat, it was for the fiftieth time that hour that the Professor noticed how unnervingly quiet Peter had become.

"I understand that you have fully memorized the plan-"

"Yep, which is why I don't quite understand why we aren't putting it into action. Can't this wait?"

Charles held up a hand. "What I have to tell you is information regarding Tesla's... state of being."

Peter sat up, his spine ramrod straight, the blood in his veins becoming glacial as it froze. "What are you talking about. What have they done to her? Tell me."

"I will, or rather, I shall show you." Charles held up two of his fingers, placing them delicately against the side of his temple. "If you will allow it." The words had barely left his mouth when Peter spoke.

"Do it."

The Professor nodded. "Before I show you, Peter, I want you to remember two things." Charles drew in a breath, rolling his shoulders. "One, that everything you are about to see has come to pass, and that you must be prepared for both what you will find within this facility, as well as Tesla's state of wellbeing, whatever it may be. Two." Here Charles leaned forward an inch, his electric cobalt eyes catching Peter's dark ones in a stern gaze. "No matter what you are about to see, you must remain calm. Flying into a fury will no further help Tesla than inaction will. Keep your head. Do you hear me Peter? Do not let your rage take over. I am showing you this for a reason. Tesla is going to need all the help she can get to recover, and that includes you being aware of what she's gone through, so that you may help her cope." Charles' voice dropped an octave. "She loves you Peter." He murmured gruffly. "Don't forget that."

Peter gulped, eyes hard as he nodded. His fingers were trembling. Steeling himself, he gripped the armrests until his palms and fingers hurt, his left jigging faster and faster as he closed his eyes. Charles pressed the fingers to his temple and let out a shaky sigh.

"Are you ready?"

"Do it." Peter growled.

~*~Quicksilver~*~

Six weeks after he had kissed her tears away to the lulling of what would soon become their song, Peter had told her that he loved her. It hadn't been like some would imagine: just the two of them all alone on some roof, cuddled in a blanket as the stars floated on high like orbs alighting the heavens. They'd been at a concert, Pink Floyd to be specific, amidst sweaty bodies and girls screaming until their lungs shriveled and ran dry. The concert was being held just inside of D.C.; Tesla had surprised him with the tickets, an early birthday gift that Peter had decided was just about the best thing anyone had ever gotten him. And that included the ping pong table his mother had saved up for (no he hadn't stolen it).

And so as the soothing melody of 'Us and Them' settled like a blanket over the stadium, Peter took Tesla's hands in his own, hugging her body to his as the crowd rocked in the slow lull of the song. The upsurge of the chorus had Tes leaning her head into the crook of his neck, smiling softly up at him as Peter tipped forward and whispered,

"I love you."

And her eyes had closed, that small smile still gracing her pretty little mouth as she murmured into his ear, "I love you too."

Peter had leaned down, and she had craned upwards, and when their lips met there were no longer thousands of fans swaying around the two. Only them. Lost in their little world of planetary rapture.

Two weeks later, Tesla Anneal went missing.