Vanished {Pietro Maximoff}

Chapter 30

"Not to sound like I care, but you really need to stop fainting," Pietro commented as he entered the room.

"If only it were that easy, bimbo."

"What did you just call me?"

"Bimbo?" Alex made a half-assed effort to get off the bed but sat back down on the edge of it, "Oh, Americani, rovinano tutto. I was trying to be nice, it doesn't mean what you think it does."

"I don't believe you," Pietro raised his eyebrows, smiling slightly, "dragă."

Alex pointed a finger at him, "Everyone knows bambino means baby—"

"You called me baby?"

"I meant to call you kid, which is bimbo, but I suppose the name for a whining, ugly thing works for you too."

"Oh, dragă, you do flatter me."

"Stop calling me that, not everyone speaks Sokovian. For all I know, you could be calling me the American bimbo."

"It is not my fault that you only speak ugly languages. You should learn Sokovian, it is a language as beautiful as you are." Alex flipped him off, then turned the motion into a beckoning one. Pietro obliged, sitting on the end of the bed.

"No, actually sit next to me. I need to talk to you."

"Are we not talking now?"

"Maybe the American bimbo also works." Muttered Alex, slightly louder than she'd intended and Pietro pretended to look wounded. He still moved to next to her, nearly his entire body pressing against hers and one of his arms rested around her back.

It still wasn't enough, so Alex placed a hand on the back of Pietro's neck, guiding him closer to her. She saw his adam's apple bob and jaw clench as though he was fighting something before he spoke, "What are you doing?"

"Pretend like you're whispering in my ear."

"I am whispering in your ear." Alex subtly pinched Pietro's arm and he leaned in closer, brushing Alex's hair out of her face. The closeness made Alex's stomach feel like it had fallen to the floor, and it was made even worse as Pietro whispered directly into her ear, "Why are we doing this, dragă?"

The strange feeling lapsed as Alex's lips pursed at the name then relaxed. The safest way to do this was to pretend she and Pietro were having a deep, romantic conversation and it would be hard to pull that off if she was glaring at him, "They have cameras in here. No sound, but the picture is clear enough that they can read lips."

"That's a massive invasion of privacy."

"And you think H.Y.D.R.A didn't do the same?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D was meant to be different."

"These places are never different. They're like governments, flawed in every way but one holds human rights in higher regard than the other so that's the one we all root for, no matter how terrible it truly is."

"You saying that the Avengers think like that too?"

"The Avengers protect everyone, not just those who can offer them something. We don't get paid for this, or I certainly don't so if they offer you money, you've gotta tell me." Alex shook herself slightly, "Getting off-topic. Take my hand."

Pietro did so, and Alex tucked the note she'd written explaining everything about Sidero and Jojo's plan to take Ultron's body for their own between his fingers. It took a few seconds for him to read it and when he was done, he crumpled the note up.

"They can't do that."

"So we have to stop them. It was wrong for me to come here, I shouldn't have trusted these people to help me without a price."

"Can't you just kill Coulson?"

"He's unkillable. They've tried so many times, nothing works. And anyway, this doesn't sound like something Phil would do either, someone higher up is making this call. They have the information they need, apart from where exactly to find Ultron."

"So what's the plan?"

|| Someone is here ||

"Trust me?"

"Yes." The door opened and Alex leaned forward, turning Pietro's head to the side with her hand as she did so. She kissed him on the cheek, felt his sharp intake of breath and then she pressed a kiss on the corner of his lips.

The stubble of Pietro's pitiful attempt at a beard was rough against Alex's mouth yet she lingered there for a moment. Pietro was capable of moving away, and he'd said that he trusted her so, in Alex's eyes, it was alright to do this.

The contact was getting too much— even without holding the knife, Alex could feel flashes of Pietro's feelings. Happiness, pain, lust and...

And disgust.

Alex leaned back. The tips of her ears burnt from embarrassment even as her heart pounded. A glance to the door to see who had entered— Sidero, glaring straight at Alex— and then she leaned back into Pietro, mouth brushing against his ear just as he had done before.

"Ready to kill yourself?"

Pietro, who had been looking slightly bewildered, now frowned. His pupils were blown wide, leaving only a thin circle of blue visible as he replied softly,

"Please be joking."