The Avengers Weakness

Chapter Twenty-Two

Penny was laying across the large full-sized bed with her feet hanging off of the edge as she read a book. She was having quiet time, a period where she could sit in absolute silence and be by herself. She felt bad to admit that she found people to be too much sometimes. She enjoyed sitting in silence, the only thing she could hear at the moment was her imagination as it played the voices and sounds of what she read inside her head. Everyone was doing their own thing currently. Peter and Pietro had disappeared somewhere again, she found her brother did that a lot. He'd go missing for a couple hours almost every day; she was really curious to what he did and where he went but she didn't want to invade his privacy; maybe he was having quiet time too. Wanda was fixing her room up from her power outburst earlier in the week, Kate was practicing with her bow and arrows. She'd looked extremely focused as Clint gave her pointers before he left during the next hour. She didn't really know where everyone else was, but she found herself enjoying the silence. She felt anxious after a while when everyone was around. It made her feel crowded and she was tired of everyone looking at her. She wished they'd stop. But she knew they meant well; they were just worried about her. Ever since Mister Stark had told her what he thought was happening with her, it made a lot of sense. He thought she had anxiety and PTSD. He was probably right, but as far as she knew, she didn't think she went through anything traumatic. She knew what her Aunt and Uncle did was wrong; she knew it wasn't normal. But that wasn't anything traumatic really, it was just how they processed everything. She just wished that it wasn't her who ended up dealing with the aftermath. But she was okay, she was out now, and she was dealing with it; eventually she'd get over it. She'd grow and change to be strong like Peter. Peter was the strongest person she knew and she wanted to be just like him, everyone loved her big brother and she knew that if she was more like him, then everyone would love her too. She sighed loudly and tossed her book to the side, she couldn't focus on what she was reading. She was too consumed with what Miss Nat was bringing with her. Penny had learned when she was younger that most of the time, surprises weren't a good thing. She could count on one hand how many of them turned out to be good for her. She sat up when she heard a knock on the door.

"Hello?" she called.

"Can I come to Peanut?"

"Yeah...the door is unlocked."

The door opened to reveal Wanda, her long reddish hair was tied up in a neat bun on the top of her head. She was sporting a brown skirt with a vintage t-shirt and a red leather jacket; surprisingly she didn't look like the usual gothic-rocker she usually did. She walked over to the bed and plopped herself on the bed next to Penny. She looked over at the younger girl and gave her a small grin.

"Am I interrupting your quiet time?" she asked.

"No," Penny responded, shaking her head.

"Whatcha up to then Peanut?" she asked.

"I was trying to read, but I can't focus."

"Hm..." Wanda replied, "wanna tell me what's distracting you?"

"It's dumb..." the younger girl replied, picking at her fingernails.

"If it's distracting you from getting stuff done, then I can assure you it's not dumb peanut." the redhead replied.

Wanda turned to face her and adjusted herself to where she was sitting cross-legged on the bed. She used her powers to move the younger girl to where she was facing her. She stared at her, her greenish eyes staring into Penny's deep brown ones.

"What's up Peanut?" she asked again.

Penny sighed.