𝙎𝙄𝙇𝙑𝙀𝙍 𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎 ↯ ᴘ.ᴍᴀxɪᴍᴏғғ

12. A L A R M S

| T W O M O N T H S L A T E R |

Two months. It had been two months since Milenka and Pietro had kissed, and they still hadn't spoken about it. The kiss was short and gentle, which Lenks thought was completely out of character for either of them; they'd never been gentle with each other— ever.

It had caught her unawares, Pietro's tenderness, and she wasn't sure whether that 'one taste' made her want another, or just made her want to spit it out.

But Pietro had seemingly decided for the both of them. Not long after their lips had separated, help had come in the form of Wanda and a bunch of HYRDA soldiers who, after having tracked them down through Milenka's chip, cleared the rubble and took them back to the surface. And he'd barely said a word to her since.

Gone were the days of their near-constant arguing, which, if you'd asked her two months ago, she would have been over the moon about. But now, the silence was frustrating and, as much as she hated to admit it, Lenks was actually starting to miss the sound of his voice.

If they could just talk about it, then maybe things would go back to normal. But any time she'd tried to corner him for a conversation, Pietro would just make some excuse and run off.

Christmas came and went, the only sign that it was a special day was the Christmas dinner that took place in the afternoon. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the twelve-dish spread that Oksana would cook for the family, but the vareniki and borsch were enough to bring Lenks back to the happy memories of the Popova family crowded around the small wooden table in their apartment.

Milenka's 18th birthday went largely unnoticed. In all honesty, she hadn't been paying attention to the date, and only realised that it was the 5th of January when Alek found her in one of the corridors and gave Lenks her gift: he'd drawn a portrait of her and had managed to find a wooden frame for it.

Due to their whole 'not being able to leave' situation, Wanda hadn't been able to get a gift for her, but gave Lenks her dessert as a present.

Either he'd forgotten, or Pietro just didn't care enough to remember the date. In fact, it seemed that he had actively tried to avoid her even more than usual that day. But that was fine, birthdays only reminded Milenka of the family that she no longer had, and weren't a particularly happy occasion for her.

About three weeks after her birthday, Milenka was informed through Dr Schmidt that Strucker had approved the date for when her 'obedience chip' would be removed. Finally, everything was falling into place for her.

It was a simple plan, really, after the procedure she just had to jump out of the fortress and into the city centre during rush hour. From there, the journey to her babusya's house was easy enough— she'd grab any essentials that were still in the house, as well as her passport and the emergency money Oksana kept stashed under the floorboards, and one one-way ticket to Greece later, she'd be out of the country for good.

Simple. Apart from the fact that she'd barely teleported more than fifty metres before, and even that had exhausted her to the point where she almost threw up in her mouth.

She'd cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she just allowed her mind to focus on the destination for once, and not the journey.

Waves lapping softly against the golden sand. The sun's rays beating pleasantly on her skin, warming her from her skin and all the way to her soul. Walking to the edge of the sea, and feeling the cool water lapping against her toes...