Vanished {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 12

"Good morning, Ketchup. Sleep well?"

The nickname had made Alex freeze; the snarky greeting she'd been planning all morning caught in her throat as, for the first time since being locked in this room, she actually felt scared.

"Ketchup?" Pietro teased again, and Alex unfroze enough to let a solitary tear roll down her cheek.

"Don't."

"Ah, so that means something to you. I was confused when I first heard that recording of your call with that man, Sam— is it?"

Fear gripped at her throat, silencing her again just as she thought she'd managed to control it. Her silence was only confirmation in Pietro's eyes and he grinned at her,

"Sam then. I was confused why he called you Ketchup. My first thought was that it was a code name, but you actually answered the phone as 'Alex' which meant it couldn't be. Is Alex what they call you?"

Alex could use this. If she could get him off the topic of Sam, no doubt he would leave soon due to Alex's reluctance to do anything, "Only my friends call me that."

"Do your friends also call you Ketchup?" Alex twisted her foot against the floor, imagining there was a tiny Pietro being crushed underneath it. "Can I call you Ketchup?"

"You call me that again and you will lose a finger."

"Say that again, Ketchup."

Alex was speechless, mouth gaping open, which Pietro happily mocked, pouting like a fish. Two seconds passed, Alex desperately counting in her head to try and keep herself from crying. Another second and hot, angry tears were falling fast, all emotions Alex had been keeping away breaking free. Finally, her mouth closed and her tongue accidentally clicked, sounding like chickens pecking for food on a farm.

"C'mon, Ketchup."

"Please."

"What's wrong with my little Ketchup?"

A bloody, scaly claw collided with Pietro's head, making a sickening thud that echoed around the room.

It was Pietro's turn to be silent as the claw slid down his cheek, leaving a bloody trail, and hit the floor with another thud. The two teenagers stared at it for a moment, the room quieter than it had ever been before.

No longer feeling like she was about to cry, Alex rubbed her head against her shoulder, drying off the tears. That was the closest she'd gotten to saying something she'd probably regret so far. Even if she didn't remember much, she still knew enough about the Avengers to hurt them. Sam was her saviour and her weakness, and if she showed them that again...well...Alex didn't want to think about what Ultron would try to do to him.

Pietro touched his cheek, smudging the blood into a blush. He looked utterly disgusted and Alex found she couldn't hide her laughter back any longer,

"You fool," she managed to get out between laughs, still struggling to speak but for a completely different reason now which only made the situation funnier to her.

"Stop laughing!" Pietro commanded but Alex couldn't, anytime she looked up from the floor she burst out into new laughs.

She recognised the foot as being a chicken's but that was only from the leftovers of one of Tony's fancy dinner parties. They had been cooked and clean though, nothing like this foot that had appeared out of nowhere.