Two of a Kind | Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 23: "So, You Turn Into a Giant Dog?"

The motel room smelled like take out. After the team was sure that things had calmed down between Jemma and Claire, Natasha and Steve ventured out into the town of San Pedro looking for something for dinner. They returned to the motel with three different pizzas, some burgers, a couple small orders of fries, some bags of various snacks, and a couple litters of soda. They split the food up, each room taking their share, and they all spent the rest of the night relaxing and pigging out.

Claire and Wanda had pushed a small desk that sat against the far wall by the window over between the two beds, creating a table for them to place the food on. All tension evaporated as the three women sat together eating with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, laughing hard at a joke that was said.

"So, let me get this straight," Jemma said, bits of pizza falling out of her mouth, regardless of her covering her mouth with her free hand. "When you get angry, you turn into a giant dog?"

Claire leaned her face into her cup as she lurched forward a bit. A second later, she straightened her back and soda was running down the front of her face and her cheeks were bright red. Wanda shook and wheezed out a quiet laugh as she looked at Claire. Grabbing a napkin, Claire wiped her mouth and threw the now dirty napkin at Wanda's doubled over body.

"Actually, I don't turn into a dog, I turn into a wolf," she corrected. "And it's not just when I'm angry. I can control my wolf and can shift whenever I want, but this power is connected to my emotions, so when I get angry, the likelihood of me shifting is increased, mostly because I lose control and my wolf takes all the control."

"So, kinda like the Hulk?" Jemma asked putting the pizza down and wiping her hands.

"Yeah...like the Hulk." Claire's voice was low and her shoulders slumped. She'd heard that one before.

"So Claire, what's your story? How did you end up here?" Claire's hand froze, holding a handful of French fries inches from her open mouth. She put the fries down and shifted on the bed, moving her left foot out from under her and sitting on her right one, bringing the left on top. Wanda looked at Jemma and shook her head, her eyes big and soft. "I'm—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"No, it's fine," Claire interrupted, her voice strong. She inhaled a deep breath and let it out through her mouth. "I was kidnapped after going out with some friends one night when I lived with my family in Sokovia. I don't know what happened exactly, but when I woke up, I was chained in Strucker's base." Jemma's eyes widened and she looked at Wanda.

"Strucker, that's the guy that—"

"Yeah."

"My story is pretty much like Wanda's; Strucker experimented on me, trying to get me to 'unlock my full potential'," she raised her hands, holding up two fingers, and bent them twice, imitating air quotations. "I was there for a year before he brought in Wanda and her brother. They were my cellmates, and we talked to each other whenever Strucker wasn't around, though we never met until now. We were all friends, but when the Avengers stormed the base, they left me there to find my own way out. I did, and managed to escape back to the U.S., where I learned everything that happened." She paused, looking down on the bed, taking another deep breath.

"A couple of weeks later, Bucky found me after some guys were following my back to my apartment. He scared them off, and afterwards, I tracked him down, and we became friends until I moved in with him and followed him to Bucharest. That's when the whole 'Civil War' thing went down and me and Wanda were arrested in Germany, and she was once again my cellmate."

Wanda leaned her head on Claire's shoulder, playing with the many rings on her fingers. Jemma placed her plate on the desk and looked at the floor, biting the nail of her thumb. Claire reached over and grabbed the remote, turning on the TV and landing on the first channel that came on not bothering to focus on the show; it was only on to fill the growing silence.