Chapter Ten
In Which A Cult is Born
Pietro wakes up to his sister hugging the life out of him. They don't say anything, out loud, that is. Wanda berates him for his foolishness, but doesn't let him wiggle out of her hug. He hugs her back, apologizing for worrying her.
"Sonya's okay." She tells him. "Just tired. You can't go see her though. You're still recovering."
"But –!"
"I'll send her your way when she wakes up." Wanda sighs. "Don't worry."
Pietro's asleep again when Sonya's finally able to go see him. She leans over him, tentatively poking his forehead. Yep. He's definitely real.
He sits up suddenly, and they clonk heads. Again. Pietro falls back, groaning, as Sonya flops over his legs.
"OW!" But their noises of pain give way to laughter. It feels good to laugh.
Pietro slides his hand behind Sonya's neck and pulls her down, pressing his lips to hers. She smiles against his lips and hugs him tightly.
It's perfect, and she's safe, and she's happy.
At least until night comes.
Sonya sits up with a gasp, trying block out the images in her mind, of Pietro, broken and bloody. She's shuddering, hand clamped over her mouth. She isn't sure what makes her do it, but barely seconds later, she's padding down the hallway. She doesn't know where she's going, not at first, until she feels a wave of fear wash over her.
"Pietro." She whispers, breaking into a run.
He's tossing around when Sonya arrives, face screwed up with fear. He's mumbling her name. She shakes his shoulder.
"Pietro! Wake up! It's just a nightmare!" He comes awake with a strangled scream. Sonya clambers up next to him, rubbing his back as he slumps forward.
"I guess it was too much to hope for, that everything would just go away." She says with a weak chuckle, running a hand through her hair. Pietro turns his head to peek at her. He doesn't like the look on her face, the hollowness in her gray eyes is just so inexplicably wrong, and it hurts to see. He slings his arm around her shoulders.
"Hey, it's not that bad! Things are really looking up!"
She doesn't reply, just clenches her fists. "When I was really little, I started getting these really bad nightmares. I'd be too scared to even try to fall asleep, and I'd stay up all night. And the more tired I was, the worse they'd get. I think I was maybe 9 when I figured out that I couldn't block out the pain when I was sleeping. That was also around the time I started feeling emotions, too. I was too scared to leave my room, but at the same time, I was too scared to stay." Sonya lets out a hollow laugh. "I was in the car with my mom when the crash happened. That was the first time I felt someone die. It's worse when you know the person, the pain. The better you know them, the more you feel. Not to mention I was pretty beat up myself." She lifts the hem of her shirt, displaying a wide, jagged scar that twisted around from her belly button to her mid-back. "The car door bent. They said I should've died." She seems intent on continuing, but Pietro claps his hand over her mouth.
"You don't need to think of these things right now."
"I can't just forget them!"
"I know, and you shouldn't have to, but you don't have to think of it all the time. It's okay to think of the good times, too."
Sonya is quiet for a moment, staring at him, before her face crumples and she lets out a giggle. "The irony of this situation." She says, "I'm the licensed psychiatrist, here. I'm supposed to be the one saying these things, not the superhuman with PTSD." She laughs harder, her whole body shaking. "I came here because you were scared. Because you were the one who needed help, but really, I'm the one coming apart. This is so backward. Everything's just messed up." She slumps against him, sobbing now.
"Hey." He says. "Remember, we're gonna get through this together."
They fall asleep like that, curled around each other.
Sonya's gone when Pietro wakes up. He thinks it's a dream for a while, until Sonya gives his hand a little squeeze when she hands him a coffee mug. "Thanks. For earlier." She's smiling, and a little of the hollowness is gone from her eyes.
Pietro flashes a grin back, the tips of his ears heating up.
"You like her!" Wanda exclaims, face lighting up like she's just discovered something amazing. "I was wondering!"
Pietro glares, but his sister rambles on, all smiles. "Aw, that is adorable! My brother and my best friend! I approve!"
"Shut up, Wanda!" He grumbles, his ears bright red. She giggles and pokes his cheek.
"Aw, you're so cute! You gotta tell Sonya she is pretty. Everyday. She likes that. Make sure you do! And be nice to her, and pick her up for every date, and be polite to her parents…" Wanda's full on teasing now.
"Wanda." Pietro mumbles, putting his hand on her forehead and pushing her an arms length away. "Sonya doesn't have parents."
"Yeah, yeah, buy her flowers! Don't tell her you love her, not right away at least! Be a gentleman! Use pro-!"
Pietro turns on his heel. "I'm leaving."
"NEVER LEAVE HER!" Wanda shrieks after him, but he's already gone, and she's left alone in the kitchen, cackling like a madwoman.
Pietro is very flustered, so he goes to hide in the library (Which is really just an old lab Sonya commandeered and filled with bookshelves and beanbag chairs and fluffy blankets. It's become her pet project.). Except, Sonya's there, and she turns and gives him a quizzical look.
"Are you feeling alright?" She asks, concernedly. "Your face is very red."
"Sisters." Is all he says in reply. He snatches the book she's inspecting.
"HEY!" She splutters angrily. "Give that back!"
He just holds it out of her reach. "This is the book you were telling me about? Howl's Moving Castle?"
"You remembered?" She stops hopping around him and reaching for the book.
"Of course." He raises an eyebrow and smirks at her. "What? You didn't see that coming?"
Sonya puts her hands to her cheeks. "Nobody has ever really bothered to remember my favorite book before."
"Really?"
"I don't talk about myself much."
"Yeah?" Pietro takes a closer look at the book. It's not very big, maybe about an inch or so thick. It's a little frayed around the edges. On the cover is a whimsical watercolor painting of a tiny old woman waving a walking stick at a black castle with four stone legs. It's bright and colorful, and very obviously not a sad book. He decides he likes it. Sonya's name is scribbled on the inside cover in neat, delicate handwriting which is very clearly not her own. There's a date under the name, May 4th, 2007, and then a note that reads, "Happy 10th Birthday, Sonechka!".
"I had it in my backpack when the fire happened." Sonya says, running a finger along the worn spine. "I got it from my mom on my tenth birthday."
"Your mother wrote the note?" Pietro inquires as he hands it back to her.
Sonya nods. "Yeah."
"You've had it for 9 years?"
Sonya nods. "It's my most treasured possession." She grins as she says that, making it into a joke, but she's not kidding, not at all.
"I'll have to find out why you like the story so much." He muses.
She looks down at the book in her hands, then says, "Would you like to borrow my copy?"
He stares at her then. "I can't do that! It's your favorite book!"
"And that's the thing about books, you see." She says. "They're meant to be shared." She places it in his hands. "Just be careful, and don't dog-ear the pages. I've killed men for less."
Pietro quickly figures out why Sonya loves Howl's Moving Castle so much. It's a sweet, whimsical, down to earth sort of story, with just enough humor and adventure to calm you down right away. The characters are diverse, and deep, and the storytelling is fantastic. The speedster was never much of a reader, but this book keeps him up late at night.
He finishes it the next day, and gives it back to Sonya. "I liked it." He tells her.
"Who was your favorite character?" She grins eagerly, carefully placing the novel on her dresser.
"Calcifer." Pietro replies immediately. "He's really funny."
"Howl was always my favorite. I was in love with him as a kid."
"You had a crush on a fictional character?!" the speedster blurts out, grinning. Sonya blushes a little.
"I'll have you know, that Howl Pendragon is a very dashing man. The real question is, why wouldn't I have a crush on him!"
"Yeah, but he's kind of a bastard."
"A very dashing bastard!" She flips her hair. "Besides, he's also charming and intelligent, and funny!"
"Yeah, but he exploits people."
"I was ten."
They chuckle for a bit, then sit it silence. "There's a second book, you know."
"There is?!"
Sonya grins at Pietro's enthusiasm. "Diana Wynne Jones wrote plenty of books! Not all about Howl, though. I actually own most of her books."
"Is that what you've been mooching off Tony this whole time?" He deadpans.
"Absolutely. I use his money to buy books, Tony turns a blind eye. It's a very lovely relationship we have." She giggles and drags Pietro over to her bookshelves. She browses for a bit, before pulling out two books around the same size as Howl's Moving Castle. They are decorated in the same style as the aforementioned novel, with bright water-color paintings on the cover. One has a girl peering through a doorway in to a meadow, and is titled House of Many Ways. The other shows a great castle of clouds, and a man on a magic carpet flying towards it, titled Castle in the Air.
"Castle in the Air is the second, then House of Many Ways." Sonya says.
"Cool."
The two of them spend the day reading, occasionally joined by one of their friends.
"What are you reading?" Pietro asks Sonya. The healer is very focused on her own book.
"Homer's Odyssey." She replies. "I've just finished the Iliad."
"Aren't those the sort of books you read in school?"
"Yeah? So?"
"Aren't they boring?"
"No." She shows him a page. "They're written in verse, so they're a bit more challenging. For most people."
"Wow. That's really pompous of you."
"It's not pompous if it's true."
There's silence again for a while.
"What are you too doing?" Natasha asks, peering in the door.
"Recuperating." Sonya replies smugly. "By the way, I got that book I recommended to you. You can have it now if you'd like."
"Oh! Please!"
Sonya smiles and digs a small blue paperback out of the depths of her blanket. It's titled Persuasion. "This one's my favorite. By far."
Nat gives an uncharacteristic squeak of joy and plops down in a beanbag chair. "Yay!"
Sam is next on the scene, raising his eyebrows at the sight of his friends, who all look ridiculously comfortable.
"Come read with us, Sam." Sonya commands, waving her hand at him. "There are plenty of beanbags."
The Falcon sighs, laughs, and flops down, snatching down the fifth Harry Potter book.
Wanda shows up next, with the fourth, then Steve with Tom Sawyer, then Bucky, with the Hobbit, even Vision arrives, with a book of Greek myths.
Clint arrives with something by Vince Flynn, then Bruce with the Great Gatsby. Rhodey and Scott bicker over The Call of the Wild , until Sonya throws White Fang them. Peter's already buried in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Pepper appears to be reading On The Banks of Plum Creek.
"What is this?" Thor booms, arriving out of nowhere.
"Reading." Sonya says.
"Oh? I have never experienced your midgardian tales!" Everyone hushes him aggressively. "Sorry." He booms, a little quieter, this time. Sonya smiles at him, then drags the God over to a shelf, handing him The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
"This is a pretty famous book." She tells him. "I learned to read from this book. It's about the defeat of an evil witch by four siblings, and how they became mighty kings and queens. I think you'll like it."
The small book looks next to ridiculous in Thor's huge hands, but he grins widely. "I believe I shall enjoy such an epic tale!" He's shushed again, so he bends down a bit. "My thanks, Sofiya."
She grins at him.
It's quiet for a long time, the silence only broken by a turning page, or a whispered line from Sonya, or a soft chuckle from Pietro.
It's broken by a loud commotion upstairs. "Tony's home." Pepper giggles.
"Nobody tell him where we are." Sonya says. "He must join the reading circle!"
"You make it sound like a cult." Peter says.
"It's Harry Potter." Sam says. "It is a cult."
"Your Midgardian tales are fascinating!" Thor booms. "This Professor is quite the mysterious character, and Lucy is a valiant lady!"
Sonya giggles. "Lucy is valiant? Funny you should say that!"
"Oh? Is there information that I have missed?"
"You'll figure it out."
"I come home after a long day of dealing with government officials, and see you all ridiculously comfortable!" Tony protests. "READING!"
"Calm down and get a book." Pepper says, not even looking up at him.
"Yeah." Peter says. "Read a Harry Potter! Join the Cult!" He high-fives Wanda and Sam.
"I dislike mainstream." Tony sniffs.
"You obviously dislike joy, as well." Sonya says. "Anyhow, third bookshelf, top shelf, there's a book I think you'll like. By Neil Gaimen."
"Good Omens?" The billionaire inquires.
"It's good. You'll like it, trust me."
"Yeah, but what if I don't?"
"You'll like it."
A/N: This started out as a lovely hurt/comfort chapter, and ended up as an elaborate book campaign. I am sorry. But you should totally read all of the mentioned books, because you're missing out if you haven't.