Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Marvel Studios, Disney, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, y'all! Hope you guys are well. Today's chapter title comes from Charlie Brown by Coldplay; I don't have too much to say other than that.

As always, I hope you enjoy, and until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~the heavy souls 'verse~

~life in technicolor ii~

~chapter 9: charlie brown~

"Do you want to come train in the gym with me?"

Harley gave her a distinctively unimpressed look. "So you can kick my ass? No."

"Oh, come on," she complained. "I'm not going to kick your ass. I'll go easy on you."

"That sounds so reassuring."

Penny sighed, looking back down at the work table between them. They were working on a project which was fun, as they were trying to make what were basically disks that had the repulsing power of her dad's suit in them, therefore giving the Avengers an extra weapon in their arsenal, but. Her dad had left about twenty minutes ago to go to some last-minute SI meeting instead of working with them on the disks, and she was...bored.

Perhaps that wasn't the right terminology to use. She was filled with that nervous energy of the need to go, to run, but she didn't really feel like going out as Spider-Woman yet (yes, even she, it seemed, could get phases of burnout now that all of her needs were being met and she wasn't purposefully ignoring them), and she didn't want to go to the gym alone. Because the last time she had gone to the gym alone, she'd run into Steve, and that experience didn't bear repeating.

Harley sighed too, and then the holographic blueprints were abruptly gone as he turned off the holoscreen. "I can practically hear your thoughts right now," he said. "Fine. We'll go. But you really gotta go easy on me. I don't fight people on a routine basis like you do."

Grinning, she ran around the worktable so she could press a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you! And you know, you couldfight criminals on a routine basis, if you wanted to."

He snorted. "What, and be an Avenger? No. There's already enough of those, including you."

"I'm not an Avenger," she said. "And Clint's already semi-retired, and the rest of them are going to get that way too, eventually. The world needs heroes."

"And what would be my name? The Bionic Boy?" As she started to snicker, he glared at her. "That's not funny."

"It's a little funny." They were already in the elevator now, which was taking them downstairs. "But, I don't know. If you become a superhero, it's your name to pick."

"Literally nobody on the team has chosen their own names except for you the second time around, Clint, Matt, and Pietro."

"If you decide to have a press conference and get in front of it, you will get to choose," she pointed out. "Maybe you should think about it."

He crossed his arms. "It's not going to happen."

"So you say."

"Damn right, I do."

Nobody else was in the gym when they got there. Both she and Harley were pretty decently dressed for a round of sparring, as he was wearing a pair of shorts since it was a hot day outside and it wasn't like they would be going anywhere for his robotic leg to be spotted out in public. The shorts probably weren't the best thing to wear in the lab, but seeing as how all they had been doing was working on the holoscreens, Tony had let it slide.

Penny used the black hairband on her left wrist to pull her hair back into a ponytail. It was getting long again. She was either going to need to cut it soon, or let Nat do it for her. One of the two.

They got ready on one of the mats, each of them getting into a fighting stance. Harley's wasn't as fluid as hers: his was tenser, more inexperienced. But, that was to be expected. "Don't go too easy on me," he warned. "I don't want to win the fight just to lose my dignity."

She smiled. "I wasn't planning on it."

Fighting Harley was different than her fighting Natasha or sometimes Matt now during their trainings. Harley didn't have the decades' worth of experience that they did, but he had his own strength backing him up. Like her, he kept just how strong he actually was from everybody else, although he let it slip more when he was fighting her.

"Come on," Harley bit out, sidestepping one of her hits with ease. "You're going easy on – ow!"

She danced away from him as he let out a small groan from the hit to his left leg. "You're playing dirty," he accused.

"No, you said not to go too easy on you. That's what I'm doing. You don't want to fight me when I'm playing dirty."

Harley was able to get some hits in on her. He brought his fist down on the back of her shoulder at one point, and it hurt, letting her know that it would bruise later, but it would heal. She didn't really mind it, although she knew that he would probably fret over her later for it, if the bruise didn't heal up by then.

Finally, she got in the winning hit. With a well-placed kick, she swept him off of his feet, causing him to fall to the floor. She stood over him, smirking. "Do you yield?"

"...Yeah." He let his head thunk against the mat. "You know what, maybe I should start training more. Just so I can beat you, one of these days."

Giggling, Penny offered him her hand.

Just before he could accept the gesture and get to his feet, they heard somebody applauding them. Startling, she jumped away from Harley – she jumped away so much, in fact, she went back a good eight feet.

But it was only the Twins, not Steve or Sam. That wasn't to say she was as unnerved by the Falcon as she was Captain America, it was just – things were complicated.

They were always complicated when they came to her.

Pietro cringed at her movements, stopping his clapping. "Sorry," he apologized. "I did not mean to scare you. I was just impressed. You're good." He looked over at Harley. "So are you."

"Don't try to flatter me," he muttered, pushing himself off of the ground. "I know I suck ass."

"You'll get better with practice, if you want to," Wanda said. "You could be as good as the rest of us."

"I don't know if I want that," he quipped back.

Penny shifted her weight some. She didn't mind that Pietro and Wanda were here, but she didn't know why they were here, either. Probably to train, yeah, because that was what the gym was for. But her anxiety disorder was manifesting itself, as it often did.

Wanda seemed to pick up on this, even without the usage of her powers. "We don't mean to intrude," she informed her. "We were just wanting to come down and train. If you want us to come back at another time..."

"No. No, you guys are fine," she assured them, feeling bad. She didn't want to be hogging the gym away from them.

Harley went over to where the benches and the refrigerator and cabinet filled with water bottles, electrolyte drinks, and protein bars were, and she went after him. She sat down on a bench as he got a water bottle out of the fridge and a protein bar for himself, before he sat down next to her. There was a drop of sweat sliding down from his temple; she, of course, with her complete inability to produce it, was dry.

It made her a touch bittersweet. Living with her dad and almost all of the rest of the Avengers now just confirmed to her how different the spider bite had made her. There were so many simple things she couldn't do anymore.

After he'd taken a swig from his water bottle and opened up his protein bar, Harley grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Do you guys mind if we turn on the obstacle mode?" Pietro asked them then.

They shook their heads. "Not at all," Penny said. "Have at it."

Originally, or so Harley had told her, the gym had been split in half: one half dedicated to the basic gym stuff, the other an obstacle course designed to challenge the Avengers and learn from their behaviors. But the summer after Ultron, with the introduction of Pietro, Wanda, and Vision onto the team, her dad had renovated the gym so it could be completely one or the other, depending on whether or not you had the obstacle mode on. She'd trained in the obstacle mode before: it was impressive, and let her practice her parkour to her heart's content.

Thankfully, the break niche was protected from the obstacle course when it was turned on, so she and Harley got to watch the twins work out peacefully. They were...good. Like, really good. Penny knew she shouldn't have expected any less, because they were Avengers, but still.

"Wow," she said.

Harley chuckled next to her. "Oh, yeah. That's right. You've never seen them train before, have you?"

"Nope."

Wanda was insanely impressive at hitting the targets the obstacle course sent her way. Her eyes and hands glowing with red, she was able to hit them just as she saw them out of the corner of her eye, almost like she had a touch of precognition like Penny. And for the ones that she couldn't get a chance to attack, Pietro was a flash of blue, getting rid of them while dealing with the ones aiming at him specifically.

But, naturally, it was an obstacle course. The longer they went on, the harder it became; not even the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were able to keep up with the targets. Eventually, they heard a shooting noise as one of the targets pointed a red light at Wanda's chest. As Pietro became distracted at the sound, coming to a stop with wide eyes, he was "shot," too.

"Game over," FRIDAY announced from the overhead.

Each of the twins were panting. "Dammit," Pietro mumbled, putting his hands on his knees. "How long...?"

"Thirty minutes, Pietro. That is five minutes longer than last time."

He made a noise of disagreement. "Not – not good enough."

Wanda frowned. "Pietro..."

"Nie!" he spat. "All it takes is one time. One time. And if I can't protect you again..."

"I don't need you to protect me. You know that."

Pietro's expression became pained. "But, drága..."

Penny got the sensation that she and Harley were now intruding on an incredibly, incredibly private moment. It was clear the twins had forgotten that they were there. As Pietro straightened his posture, he looked angry – not at Wanda, but at himself. And Wanda's shoulders were raised defensively, in a position she was all too familiar with.

Wanda said something in Sokovian, her accent becoming thicker than she usually let it be. Then she and Pietro were arguing in the language, their voices becoming heated.

And although Penny didn't speak or understand Sokovian, she had a feeling she knew what the argument was about.

Getting up off of the bench, she looked at Harley, wordlessly asking him to come with her. He glanced down at his water bottle and protein bar, but she wasn't swayed. She jerked her head towards the elevator, repeating to him the importance of them leaving. With a roll of his eyes, he moved to stand up.

But, in the process, as he tightened his grip on the protein bar, its wrapper crinkled. Loudly.

Pietro and Wanda abruptly stopped speaking.

"Oh," Wanda breathed. Her face quickly reddened. "Oh, I am so sorry."

Pietro was similarly chastised. "I'm sorry, too. We didn't mean to argue in front of you."

"It's fine," Penny said. Next to her, Harley nodded in agreement. "We...were just going to go. To give you your space."

Wanda's eyebrows crinkled. "You don't have to do that. You were here first."

"It's not a big deal," Penny replied.

But Wanda and Pietro seemed keen on acting like it was. They glanced at each other, then back at her. Penny felt a tingle run down the back of her spine because of it. It wasn't her sixth sense, but it was...close.

"What?" she asked.

The twins shared another look between them.

"What did Tony and Harley tell you about us?" Wanda inquired finally. "Or Matt and Natasha?"

Next to her, Penny felt Harley tense. She frowned at him, but he just shook his head. His expression told her, whatever was going on, he didn't think it would be that bad.

She sat back down on the bench. "I mean, they all told me a bit. I know the three of us are teenaged superheroes. I know we...don't exactly have the greatest of backstories."

Pietro's face darkened. Wanda, meanwhile, smiled shakily. "You're right," she acknowledged. "We don't."

And...there it was. That feeling, coming back again.

Because Penny knew they knew about...Skip. She'd told her dad it was okay for him and Steve to tell the rest of the Rogues, because she hadn't wanted to deal with the complications that would've arisen if they hadn't known.

And her dad hadn't said it outright, but his saying she had "a lot" in common with Wanda and Pietro practically said it all.

She decided to just outright say the question this made her want to ask, ripping it off like a bandaid. "It happened to you too, didn't it?"

She didn't need to clarify what "it" meant.

Wanda nodded. "It did."

She and Pietro sat down on one of the benches, Pietro grabbing water bottles for each of them in a blur of blue. "It...happened while we were in HYDRA," she began softly, slowly.

Penny's throat tightened as she felt her face heat and pale. "You...you don't have to tell me anything. You know that, right?"

"I do," Wanda said. She cracked the lid off of the water bottle in her hands, but instead of taking a sip of the drink, she played with the lid while it was still on the water bottle, shifting it back and forth between her fingers. "But...I want to, if you want to. It seems only fair, since we know about yours."

"...Alright," Penny agreed.

She didn't want to say "no" to Wanda, not about this. Granted, she wasn't exactly sure she would be able to listen to the entire thing, depending on how long or graphic the story was, but she would try. She didn't think it would be that bad, anyways.

Wanda was a survivor, like her. She knew the basic triggers.

"When we were with HYDRA, they experimented on us. Tortured us," Wanda began. "But they didn't do just that to me. One night...well, two men came into my cell. They did what they did. They didn't bother to try being quiet about it. And Pietro's cell was right next to mine."

Her brother turned thunderous, but in a subdued way. "I could hear every second of it," he said. "And we had our powers by then, but the cells they kept us in blocked them from the outside world. There was...nothing I could do."

Penny knew that pain. "There wasn't anything I could've done, either."

It was something she and Anne had talked about quite extensively. Could she have gone to the police, or told her mom or another teacher, like she'd known and been told to do by her other unassuming teachers? Maybe, on a theoretical level. But she'd been just a kid when Skip had hurt her. Around sixty to eighty percent of people did not disclose childhood sexual abuse until they were adults, according to some studies. She'd beaten the curve on that, even if she'd only done it by taking the matter into her own hands.

Pietro, she thought, wanted to disagree with her statement, probably something about how it was different like how every protective brother would've, but he didn't.

"I – we – have wanted to talk with you about this ever since we came back, to tell you that we understand. That you're not alone," Wanda said for her and her brother. "We just haven't wanted to step on any boundaries."

"You haven't been intruding on any boundaries." Penny wiped her the palms of her hands on her shorts, although of course there wasn't any dampness there. It was just a nervous habit these days. "I, um, I've actually wanted to talk to you guys, too. I want to be friends. Like, you guys are cool, you're Pietro and Wanda Maximoff." That made both of them grin, and she knew it wasn't just because of the compliment. She saw them for them, not Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, just like how she'd wished to be seen as Lolita, though she hadn't really realized it then. Again, something Anne had helped her with. "And Dad told me we have a lot in common, and...I don't exactly have a lot of friends these days."

"You have me," Harley interjected.

She snorted, though not unkindly, nudging his arm with hers. "You're different, and you know it."

"We want to be friends, too," Pietro went, kicking his feet in the air. She figured, from previous experience, it was a habit of his, due to his powers. He always had to be doing something. "And don't knock yourself down. You're cool too, Penny."

Yeah, okay, she thought. She didn't really feel cool most of the time. Not when she was just Penny, in any event.

But Harley knew her inside and out; he knew what she was thinking. He nudged her arm back. "You're cool," he told her, grinning crookedly. "You're Penny Parker. You're Tony Stark's daughter, and a certifiable genius."

"Harley," she groaned.

"And your web-shooters," Pietro piped up. "How did you make them?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you really want to know?"

"...Yes? No?" He paused, disgust crawling over his face. "Oh God, please don't tell me everyone's been lying to us and you produce them naturally. That would be so gross."

"What? No!" Penny laughed. "The webs are completely synthetic, I promise. See?" She activated her right web-shooter – as yes, she did have bracelets that weren't just built into her suit, although she hardly ever used them – and shot a web at one of the other benches to prove her point. Pietro and Wanda jerked in their seats, but they equally seemed fascinated as she held up her wrist to them as proof. "No, I just don't think you want me to bore you with all of the chemistry stuff. It took a lot of attempts to figure out. I'm surprised I discovered the right compound as soon as I did, to be honest."

Silence fell over them then. But it was a comfortable quiet.

"So, what do we do now?" mused Wanda, setting down her water bottle next to her on the bench. "Now that we're friends."

Harley abruptly sniggered. "Dear God, you three are hopeless," he sighed. His protein bar now finished in the time they'd been conversing, he deposited its remains in the trashcan before walking back to them. "You guys do what any friends do. You hang out, spend time together. If y'all didn't live in the same place, I'd suggest going to each other's places, too. But, you do."

Penny tilted her head. "You haven't invited Ned and MJ over to your place that often."

He shook his head. "That's different."

"How?" she wanted to ask.

But, she wasn't able to, as Pietro's posture straightened, a glean coming to his eyes. "Clint got you to come home, right?" he asked her. At her nod, he smirked wickedly. "He was close with us too, after we first came back to the Tower. And I have just the idea for how we can make him proud."

Later that night, after Penny had come back from her patrol and changed into her pajamas, she laid down on the bed, snuggling into Harley's frame. He actually seemed tired for a change, as he wasn't on his laptop nor that much interested in continuing to watch the movie he had on. In fact, he even yawned.

"Wow," she teased, tiredly herself, giggling as he looked down at her a little annoyedly, still yawning. "Is the infamous Harley Keener actually sleepy for a change?"

"'Hut it. But yeah, I am." He shimmied down so he could put his head on his pillows properly. "FRIDAY?"

"Actually, FRIDAY, wait." Just as soon as the lights had been turned off, they came back on, per her request.

Harley squinted his eyes at her. "What?"

Penny hummed. "I just have a question for you, that's all."

"And?"

"When you said that friends invite each other over to their places, but that it's different for you with Ned and MJ...why did you say that?"

It'd been bothering her ever since they'd parted company with Pietro and Wanda: during dinner, while on her patrol, and as she'd taken a shower after coming back home due to falling into a truck container of milk (another story for another time, although man, she knew it was gonna be at least two or three industrial washes before she got that smell out of her suit).

As she'd said before, she didn't like feeling like she needed Harley, regardless of how much it seemed like a statement of fact. Nor did she like feeling like she was taking up a lot of his time, even with them only spending three days a week together, her and her dad's trip up to the Compound a week ago notwithstanding.

He yawned again, his eyes sliding shut. "...I don't know," he muttered. He reached out with his arm like he usually did once he finally fell asleep, wrapping it around her like he was the big spoon and she was the little one. "It just is. I know you 'aven't stopped by since you came home, but I just wanna make sure. I want to keep you safe. Is that a bad thing of me?"

"...No." She didn't need protecting by him, it was really more of the other way around, but she could appreciate the gesture.

"Does it answer your question?"

"Mmhmm."

"Good." He pulled her closer as she turned around, so her back was facing him. "'Night, Penny."

"'Night, Harley."

The lights went out.

But all she could think about before she went to sleep was...

Well, she had a lot to think about.

Word Count: 3,764

Next Chapter Title: stay with me a while