Chapter 10 – Pietro

January 10, 2014 – 5 a.m.

She was humming again.

The melody had slipped into Pietro's dreams as he sprawled shirtless on the too-soft hotel bed. He woke up with a stiff neck and a lingering feeling of melancholy. It had been their mother's favorite song, the one she sang to them before turning out the light. Wanda only hummed it when she was afraid.

Pietro stood up, tried to crack his neck. He hadn't even showered before falling into bed, and his skin itched. God, he hated this job already. A draft caught him suddenly and he shivered. The door to the balcony was open. Wanda was sitting with her back to him, looking out at a small, circular park, its trees bare and gray around an empty stone fountain. His mind overlayed another image – bodies in the street, a high-rise burning. He knew she was remembering it, too.

Pietro had lifted a deck of cards from the airport gift shop. It was still in his trouser pocket. He pulled out a card and held it to his forehead theatrically, standing behind Wanda.

"What card am I -"

"Two of hearts," she said without looking at him. She sat with her legs curled up beneath her, a cup of hotel coffee in her hands.

Pietro threw the card over his shoulder and pulled out another one.

"King of clubs." She turned to face him. "Are you trying to close your mind?"

Pietro rolled his eyes. This time, he threw the whole deck over his shoulder in a colorful spray of paper. There was a blur and he was back at Wanda's side. He fanned the deck to show her all the cards were in perfect order before setting it on the other chair.

"Showoff," she said, smile almost hidden behind her hair.

"I was trying," Pietro said. His sister's smile vanished.

"Well, you have to try harder," Wanda said. "Or she'll get to you. She's getting to you already."

"She isn't," Pietro said. Wanda snorted. "She isn't!"

He crouched beside his sister.

"You're family. No power on earth can come between us."

"I'm not sure her power is from Earth," Wanda murmured.

Pietro shivered, remembering the monolith's eerie glow on the green ice, the way it stole his attention without him noticing.

As usual, when their conversations skated the edge of something serious, they suddenly and mutually changed the subject. Wanda looked at him as if she had just noticed his state of partial undress and clucked over him, herding him inside and shutting the balcony door. Pietro flopped on the couch, long legs draped over one armrest, his hands a blur as he shuffled the deck of cards into different configurations.

"I'm so bored," he complained, as Wanda poured the dregs from the tiny coffemaker into her cup. "What's on?"

He turned on the TV and "Let It Go" blasted the room at full volume. Wanda seized the remote and shut it off, tossing it across the room when he tried to take it back.

"Come on, sis!" He groaned, nobly refraining from blurring across the room to get the remote again. "It's not like we have anything better to do."

He clenched his teeth at the memory of the previous day's meeting - how Pierce had dismissed them like children while that other man leered at his sister.

When it's time, Pietro thought. When it's time I'll take care of that one myself.

Wanda put her hand on his arm.

"I don't like it either," she said. "Pierce's mind is like a nest of snakes, cold things slithering over each other. But sitting idle, doing nothing..."

"It makes it all worse."

They were working for the Mandarin to help Grandfather and working for Pierce to help the Mandarin and despite it all, here they were, sitting on their hands so they wouldn't sabotage anything. Of course Pierce was too smart to trust them with something important – the Mandarin was, too. That's why they were here.

"If you wanted to do something," Pietro said, "who could stop you? You could just waltz in and take whatever you wanted."

Wanda shook her head. "Not alone. Not without leaving a trail."

But she was chewing on her thumbnail, and that meant she was considering it.

"We need something for ourselves," she said at last.

"A weapon?"

"Information." She smiled, and Pietro knew SHIELD and Pierce didn't stand a chance. "Put on a shirt."

Here they are again - my favorite twins.

If you're thinking - "Hey, Thirdcow - isn't the Mandarin just some boring white dude that Pepper killed in Iron Man 3? What the hell is the Monolith? Who's Grandfather?" - you should follow my advice and read "Things Time Cannot Mend" which is set before this story and gives a little background on that.