Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author Note: It takes place post-Age of Ultron. So spoilers - see end of story for a bit of explanation.
EVERY DAY'S A GIFT
There was a box on Darcy's desk. It was maroon and gold and her name had been written on it in marker-pen block capitals. Darcy grinned and let her fingers dance across the lid. She hummed as she set everything up for the day – she got Jane's first work coffee of the morning ready, the latest reading and observations were collated according to Darcy's awesome system, and the whiteboards hadn't been touched, as per Darcy's instructions. She'd taken photos of the work scribbled there the night before and now just in case.
Darcy switched her computer on, still grinning. She was freaking out the labrats who were just starting to trickle in. It didn't dim Darcy's expression though. She flicked through the notes she'd made the previous day on her phone and began typing everything up in the format that SHIELD insisted on. She saved a copy on an external server as well. Nowadays she knew for sure that there was no such thing as being too careful.
She texted Pietro and Wanda, Thank you. The delicious boost is completely appreciated.
She drank her coffee – lavishly creamed and sugared – and nibbled on a chocolate from the maroon and gold box. Once Jane arrived, Darcy offered her the top tray. Jane took a couple of chocolates, her coffee already in her other hand, her gaze fixed on the closest whiteboard.
"Darcy."
"Photos taken and ready, boss."
Wanda sometimes wore a deep red scarf. Darcy had knitted it for her a few weeks ago; she'd used an incredibly soft wool, one that practically sighed against Wanda's pale skin. From what Darcy had heard, she doubted there'd ever been much in Wanda's life that had been soft or gentle.
Wanda liked the scarf. She didn't seem to feel the cold, neither she nor Pietro did, but she wore the scarf that Darcy had made for her. It felt very sweet against Darcy's skin.
Pietro's kisses were firm and hungry. He always kissed like he didn't want to miss a moment, like Darcy might disappear. But his touch was never demanding, it lingered. It wasn't all that surprising to Darcy; Pietro knew the value of every second. How could he not? Darcy felt cherished, whether he moved fast or slow.
There were bad nights, of course there were. Wanda twitched in her sleep, her body restless and despairing. Her magic didn't unspool while she dreamed though; she'd been trained better than that. Darcy knew that a lot of people thought she was crazy, sleeping next to someone that could literally get into her head. And yes, it was freaky. Darcy had heard all about Wanda's powers and what they'd done before but Wanda was super-disciplined. Like Thor was, his strength didn't crush Jane when they hugged or whatever. And Wanda was sure so Darcy was too. Wanda hadn't given her reason not to be.
When Wanda's dreams were bad, Pietro would climb over Darcy and wrap his arms around his twin, murmuring in Sokovian. Darcy had learned to stay right at Wanda's side. Wanda had told her that that helped, it was grounding, anchoring Wanda in the present because Darcy was not the past. So Darcy hummed the songs her mom and aunts had always sung to get her to sleep and ran her hands up and down Wanda's side and bare arms.
She kissed Wanda's temple and stayed close.
When Pietro's dreams were bad, he seemed to vibrate. He couldn't be touched, he had to be left until he reached out. Then Wanda would hug him and Darcy would kiss him until his breathing completely evened out.
Wanda wanted to learn. She trained with the rest of the Avengers, just like Pietro, but she also spent a lot of time in the labs, watching people as they worked and occasionally asking questions. Some of the labrats didn't like her there or wanted to use her as a test subject. That was vetoed for now but Darcy knew it would come eventually.
"You don't have to," she told both Wanda and Pietro.
"We know."
Pietro sounded slightly amused, as though the idea that they had to be told it was a choice was laughable. They'd chosen to be enhanced in the first place. Like Steve, it'd been their decision, for their country but for them it had also been about revenge. They still didn't spend much time with Tony when he visited HQ, Darcy didn't blame them. A laboratory was a fact of life for them, it had enhanced who they were and they clearly didn't regret it.
Wanda lightly pressed a hand to Darcy's knee, then her cheek. "We know."
Okay then. Darcy shook her head, feeling embarrassingly stupid. She wasn't supposed to react like everyone else. Wanda kissed her. This, Darcy could do gladly without screwing up. Pietro demanded a kiss afterward too; the metal of his rings a familiar comfort against her cheek.
At work, Wanda often sat beside Darcy, their knees pressed together as they pored over computer tablets, discussing what SHIELD was doing and all that Jane had accomplished. Wanda traced her fingers over photographs and studied the information she was given intently.
She taught Darcy Sokovian. Communication was turning into one of things that Darcy could do for SHIELD. She could speak pretty handy Italian anyway and could say stuff in some languages that helped her get by or at least get someone's attention. Sokovian was something else though, it was like learning a secret code, a really special one seeing as only the twins spoke it at SHIELD HQ. Now Wanda wanted Darcy to know it.
So Wanda learned what kind of world she and Pietro had now become a part of and Darcy began learning a very special language. It was slow going but it was worth it when Pietro lit up or Wanda smiled because Darcy had said something that was recognizable. It made Darcy feel warm and tingly all the way through.
Pietro went through sneakers like water, unsurprisingly. The engineering department were trying to come up with something especially durable for him so that he'd stop literally burning rubber. He couldn't run barefoot, blisters from warp speed had to be terrible.
Darcy used SHIELD money to buy a truckload of sneakers until she located a pair in Pietro's favorite colors that he found the most comfortable.
Darcy didn't know how long she'd been staring at the sky but her mom's voice pulled her attention away. Her mom was wearing the green dress that she loved to wear when the sun was hot and her hair was doing that curly-bounce thing that always reminded Darcy of 90s shampoo commercials. She was about to grab her mom for a hug but her mom was gripping her arms tightly and telling Darcy that you need to let go of them all.
Then there was Jane, her eyes empty and dull, looking at Darcy like she was a stranger, like she didn't need Darcy at all. And Erik was shaking his head and the sky was really dark and there was a thick rumble of noise in the background. Darcy looked around but she couldn't make sense of any of it. Her insides were rolling and her heart was running as fast as Pietro.
The background noise warped, then there was a mash of sounds that Darcy thought she recognized – the hiss of the coffee machine that she kept in her apartment, Sokovian words, Italian songs. Darcy took off towards it all. The sounds got louder as she followed them and she could smell rich dark chocolate and feel a puff of air, then wool, cool metal and clever fingers against her skin. Yes.
She woke up – she'd been asleep? - with a harsh hacking gasp and vaguely shakily took in a blur of white and flashing lights. Someone shone a penlight in her eyes and then her glasses were carefully slid onto her face. Okay, she was in a hospital bed, by the look of it in the medical wing of SHIELD HQ. What the hell?"
"What the hell?"
There was a gaggle of doctors around her bed, one of them was checking one of the machines that Darcy was hooked up to, "How did you do that?"
Darcy was about to reply that how the hell should she know when she realized that the doctor had been asking Wanda who was clasping Darcy's hand tightly. Pietro was stood on Darcy's other side, looking at her intently, his hand now reaching to palm her neck, as though checking she was really there. She was.
"You were asleep," Pietro told her, his gaze unwavering. "It was a thing, a device, in your labs. You were consumed."
Consumed didn't sound good. So asleep? "How long was I out?"
"Four days," Wanda answered, her grip on Darcy still tight. "Everything they tried did not take."
"So she tried," finished Pietro.
Wanda had tried. Oh. That was a brand new experience. Darcy squeezed Wanda's hand. Somehow Wanda's powers had wormed their way into Darcy's nonstop dreams and had guided her out. Thank fuck.
"Thank you," Darcy told her, in Sokovian.
Wanda's smile was a wonderful thing and Darcy's head dipped to meet Wanda's, their foreheads touching. Pietro's hand stayed warm and present at Darcy's neck. The doctors were going to have a lot of questions and Darcy didn't doubt that Jane was probably raising hell at that very moment to try and understand the device that had zapped Darcy. Darcy needed to see her and Erik, to banish those cold and cruel dream-images. What the fuck was wrong with her?
She shivered, who'd build a device like that? It'd been a found object, not invented by SHIELD. It'd trapped her in dreams; it was a really creepy nasty way to drop people. Darcy didn't know how she was going to feel about sleep after that.
Wanda and Pietro stayed with her as the doctors asked reams of questions and Jane came to see her, hugging Darcy and telling her about the device that they were still trying to examine without setting it off again. Darcy didn't have to be told by medical that there was going to be psych sessions in her future.
Darcy didn't let go of the twins, she couldn't. They didn't let go of her either.
Wanda tasted of black cherries. Pietro tasted of almond flakes. Darcy didn't know why but those were the impressions and associations that she often got. She asked the twins what they got in return.
"Chocolate and coffee," Pietro told her, straight-faced, a hand stroking through her hair, one of his rings catching in it. "And sometimes honey."
"Coffee," Wanda agreed. "And caramel peaches."
Darcy couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten anything like that but Pietro's expression was focused on Wanda, like he was double-checking something really important. Wanda looked back in wordless confirmation. They held hands and they held Darcy.
-the end
Author Note: Pietro being alive and kicking is down to Wanda - her magic is scary powerful and its boundaries seem to fluctuate over the years so I figure she'd find a way to bring her twin back.