The X-Project

Wanda decides to take that day off a day early and winds up running into her brother. Things start out odd but they quickly realize they both want to mend those burning bridges. Maybe they aren't quite the worst twins in world. Maybe.



Tugging off her motorcycle helmet, Wanda shook her head, freeing her hair from whatever knots it had gotten itself into during the drive. She was here to see Jennie but also because Pete and Remy had kicked her out of the office. "Forced time off," she sniffed but there was no malice. Even with the kidnapping from her teammates, she was still tired and had not argued--much--about enjoying a day off.

Sliding off the bike, she put the kick stand up and stretched.

Pietro had been out running, testing the invisible walls of his federally-mandated cell, when he spotted Wanda's motorcycle roaring up the drive. He'd struggled with the question of trying to talk to her, but in the end . . . well, whatever Wanda thought, as far as Pietro was concerned this had gone on long enough. He arrived in the garage shortly after she did, and watched silently from the door as she dismounted from the bike.

Pausing, knowing that someone was behind her and guessing from the lack of conversation that it was her brother, Wanda's fingers tightened briefly on the helmet. A small, very petty part of her wanted to keep walking. But she was tired--exhausted, even--both physically and mentally and a lot of that had been her own doing.

With practiced moves, she secured her helmet to the bike and then turned around, hands in her pockets.


"Wanda," Pietro greeted her. It was almost diffident. "Congratulations on your coursework. That's excellent news."

She tilted her head, amused that gossip was never still even as far away from the mansion as she was, as she replied, "Thank you, Pietro. It was challenging but, well, anything worth it is, isn't it?"

"Difficult things aren't always worth doing, but the converse is often true, yes." Pietro rubbed the side of his face tiredly. "Wanda, I'm--I'm tired of fighting. I don't want to anymore."

Her shoulders slumped slightly, not in disappointment but in relief. "And neither do I," she agreed. "This...one was quite beyond our normal ones and I think it came at the worst possible time. For both of us."

"Ha. Well, yes. Then again, if it weren't the worst possible time, neither of us would have been on edge enough to quarrel that badly." He sighed. "I still can't agree with what you're doing. Or who you're working for. But it's just that . . . I've lived in that end of the moral gray area for a long time. It does things . . . the choices you have to make change you." Pietro looked away from her, and his voice went very quiet. "I just don't want you to wake up one morning and realize that you despise yourself as much as you despise what you're fighting."

Moving closer, she sighed. "I do not expect you to like the path I am on now and, there are times that I curse the reason I started down it." Wanda closed her eyes briefly, remembering Josh and their last mission. "It just needs doing, though. And I hope that being able to temper everything I see and do with my friends and my family will prevent that morning from ever coming." And that was why she had been so angry at Pietro when she had found out about his spieing for the X-Men. Without friends, without her, there the potential of a fall had just been greater.

"But it doesn't need to be done by you. Let them wallow if they want--you're better than that. I wasn't thrilled when I found out you were with the X-Men, but at least I can respect Summers. I hate thinking of you wasting yourself on LeBeau." He shook his head. "But that's venturing into argument territory again; I'm sorry. When you need to talk about it, when you need someone who knows the territory . . . I'll be here." He spared a wry glance for the GPS tracker on his ankle. "It's not as if I can be anywhere else, at least for the time being."

Glancing down, she gave a pinched smile. "It's very...fetching," she said, dryly, knowing how much it had to rankle to be confined to anything. Looking back up, Wanda locked eyes with her brother and then stepped closer, getting close enough so that she could, gently, clonk her forehead against his.

"Ow," Pietro murmured petulantly. "I vanish for five years and you forget how to do this." But he smiled as he rested his forehead against Wanda's; it felt like coming home at last. After a moment, he cleared his throat roughly. "Did Mother . . ." he said, voice very small, "did she really die thinking I'd abandoned her?"

"No," Wanda said softly, sad eyes looking back at him. "I will not lie, Pietro, she did when you first left to find him. She was so mad at you. And so was I. But over time we both just missed you. There was nothing more than either of us wanted then to have you there when she passed but she loved you just as fiercely as she always had." Her own voice dropped to a soft whisper. "And do you truly think that I have made our father proud, that I'm walking in his footsteps?"

"No," Pietro admitted. "Not really. But you're so close, Wanda, it frightens me. He too believed--still believes!--that his is a job that needs doing. And I have faith in you . . . but I had faith in him too, once. Please, please be careful how many compromises you make with your conscience."

"~The day I stop praying for my soul,~" she whispered, switching to the language of their youth. In part because it felt like home and also because her faith was something that was sacred and not shared with many. "~That is the day that I will need your help more than any other. But I still light the candles and my only regret is that there are more these days.~"

"~There comes a time when no amount of prayer is enough,~" Pietro answered roughly, in the same language. "~When you must stand and claim your soul, or lose it. I see that day in your future, and I would give everything in my power to shield you from it.~"

"~That day will not come,~" Wanda promised him, "~because we will be there to support one another. You would not allow me to fall as I will not allow you too. We shield each other more effectively together.~" It was not a rebuke but a reminder.

"I suppose," Pietro replied, switching back to English. He shot Wanda a wry grin. "As long as you don't mind if some of that shielding comes out as encouragement to find another job. Because really, Wanda."

"Oh, brother mine, the day I listen to you is the day that Father rules over the planet and he and Xavier join in holy matrimony," Wanda snorted, reaching over to give his arm a quick squeeze before stepping back.

"Yes, that's always been a failing of yours." Pietro snorted and shook his head. "But at least I'm used to it. I suppose you probably came up here for some other reason than to talk to me--have I made you late?"

"Not really all that late," Wanda replied, glancing at her watch. "I was meeting with Jennie to do some powers work and, also, because Pete and Remy forced me outside. They claim I work too much." It was said lightly but wryly because she had been working herself into the ground before the intervention the other night.

"Well, that's nothing new." Pietro went a little shamefaced. "I was part of it this time, wasn't I?"

"Our fight, yes, and something that followed close on the heels," Wanda said, not unkindly. "But you know me as well as I do...I either lose myself in work or 'fun' and lately, I have been too old to indulge in more than one night out on the town." She clucked slightly. "I think I might be losing my touch. After my session, though, I'll be free--I have direct orders not to come back inside or else Doug will shut off my computer again--if you have some free time."

"Yes, well, as the one Mother invariably sent to drag you back from a bender, may I say I'm just as pleased it's work this time." Pietro grinned. "I would like that, yes. And I have nothing but free time--I don't know if you noticed, but aside from being currently between jobs, I'm just incidentally confined here."

She sniffed. "I owe my ability to hold my drink to three things: my upbringing, my body type and the fact that I kept trying to keep up with you, which is just folly in and of itself." She gave him an amused looked. "And here I thought the anklet was just a fashion statement."

"Ah, but wasn't it fun betting tourists they couldn't out-drink the skinny teenage boy? So much slower than picking their pockets, but so much more satisfying." Pietro shot an annoyed look at his ankle. "If the day ever comes that GPS tracking units are all the rage, I will rest secure in the knowledge that I was ahead of the trend."

"And isn't it just like you to always be ahead of the crowd?" Wanda teased and then paused. "Do you ever, truly, miss the old days?"

Pietro paused before answering. "Sometimes. I miss the innocence." He shrugged. "But it doesn't matter. Time marches on."

Tilting her head, Wanda nodded. "Yes, it does at that," she said, knowing that neither of them would have been content to stay at their mothers side forever. The itch to venture out had been too strong for either of them. "But, yes, lunch perhaps when I am done? And we can catch up for real then." "I'll look forward to that."