ASCENDANCY / P. MAXIMOFF

elephants

Short chapter, but it says a lot. I hope you don't mind.

All The Love,

Mika

Cold licked at his face and crept under his clothes, spreading across his skin like the lacy tide on a frigid winter beach. With purple lips tinged with blue and gently chattering teeth as he wrapped his arms around her tighter. She had dozed off over an hour ago, and he didn't have the heart to wake her. The stress and anger and worry in her face melted away while she was in slumber. Pietro thought she looked beautiful, peaceful. And he wouldn't deprive himself of seeing her like that, and he wouldn't deprive her of the much needed rest either.

He wished Wanda was with him.

Not necessarily with him, not out exposed to the cold where she could get sick. Just with him, maybe somewhere else. It was strange being separated from his sister like this. Even in small increments, which is why when Ultron took her, every hour was an hour of suffering. Pietro's old mentality told him that Wanda was all he had left in the world.

Looking at Ana, he felt differently.

He wanted to ask Wanda what it was that Anastazya had seen, and why it had frightened her so much. Whatever scared her, he wanted to chase it away. Did Wanda's powers malfunction? Did she accidentally show Ana her biggest fear? What was Ana's biggest fear?What was wrong?

But then again, Pietro would never go so far as to ask Wanda what hell lurked in Ana's mind. They were friends. Good friends. If she wanted to tell him, she would.

She moved around in his arms, and he stroked back her hair, smiling slightly as her cheeks puffed up with air, before deflating like balloons. There was no doubt that his Anastazya was absolutely stunning, it distracted him every time he looked at her. Her crystal orbs, beautiful brown cascades of hair, fair skin. Her small hands. He loved those things about her.

But what he loved even more was her personality. Ana was warm hearted, and genuine, and funny. She was terribly intelligent, too much for her own good. She was too self-sacrificing. She'd probably risk her life for a cat about to be hit by a car. She never listened to him when he told her to stop being stupid. She was a stubborn, insufferable, intolerable little brat.

And he loved her.

It hadn't taken Pietro very long to realize this himself. The strange feeling in his chest whenever he was near her, how relieved he felt when she had finally let him in. The feeling wasn't normal. He hadn't experienced it before. Not in his days before H.Y.D.R.A. Sure as hell, not during. It had to be love. He has seen enough movies to guess that.

And he had read a book once. And the main character was talking about the 'butterflies in her stomach' whenever she saw her one true love.

For Pietro, it was different.

Ana gave him way more than silly butterflies. She gave him.....

Elephants.