Chapter Text
Madeline lowered the lollipop from her mouth, a sense of concentration set over her face. She glanced towards Peter, a contagious smile spreading his lips up to his ears. “No judgment?” She asked once more, smiling when Peter agreed.
They had been dating for a few months now, a happy ending to the fight on the beach. She didn’t want to mess this up with her answer, she didn’t want Peter and Ned to be mad, no matter how annoyed she was at Ned’s pacing. As she put the candy back in her mouth she laid against Peter's bed, angling her body so it was closer to his.
“Empire Strikes back,” she answered finally, her voice muffled against the food.
Ned stopped in his tracks, looking at her like she had just torn his heart out and stomped on it in front of him. “You choose Empire Strikes Back over Revenge of The Sith?”
“Wait now hold on. This is a judgment free zone, okay?” Peter asked, sitting straighter against his bunk bed railing. “Now here’s the important question. Empire Strikes Back, or The Phantom Menace?”
Madeline scrunched her nose in thought, cracking the lollipop into 3 pieces and removing the stick from her mouth. “The Phantom Menace.” She said in finality, glancing up at him. The sun shone through the window just right, peeking through the curtains to wash the boy in a glow. Madeline loved it, the way his brown hair turned slightly golden in the sun, the way his eyes crinkled as he smiled, the pure joy just radiating from him, so different from when he was keeping his alter ego a secret. But now everyone knew; May, Ned, her. And he was happy.
Peter leapt in joy, pumping his fist into the air, lowering it in a pained groan as it hit the ladder. Madeline smiled, enjoying the moment.
Months ago she never thought she would have this, a family, friends. She was in a cage, struggling to survive under doctors and experiments, living off of hope that she would be okay, that she and the twins would get out and live somewhere safe. She had that now. More than that actually. She had love, something she had thought died out when she was 10, when her parents had stopped paying attention to her.
As Peter laid back against the blankets, Ned pressed play on the movie they had been watching, a random one from the stack of Star Wars movies in the corner of the room. It was how they were spending their week off of school, watching movies, rotating between Neds, Peters, and Madeline’s houses, sometimes even MJ being in the mix as her face showed up more and more in their plans.
May’s voice rang from the kitchen, something about ordering Thai food, and Peter sprung up, causing Madeline to move away so she didn’t get hit by Peter’s slightly flailing limbs as he tried to find his footing, rushing to the door to exclaim that yes, people were over, and yes, they would also like food.
***
By the time Natasha made the short trek from the apartment door to Madeline's, her mind was made up. It wasn’t an easy thing, and every instinct in her body told her to run. To pack a bag and leave, simple as that, and not be around when the tears came.
She simply told them to fuck off.
She needed to do this. Madeline deserved that much. She brought her hand up to the door hesitantly, the knock echoing through the silent apartment, and receiving confirmation, she stepped in.
The room had been transformed from when she had first seen it many months prior, back when she was still a part of a family. That family was gone now, quickly replaced by another, and soon to be a third.
“Mads…there’s something we have to talk about,” Natasha said as she walked in, closing the door behind her. The girl was sitting atop her bed, her computer dimly showing a math worksheet she was working on while music played from the TV adjacent to them both.
With eyebrows furrowed in concern she closed it, moving to the side to make room for Natasha. “What happened, what’s wrong?”
Natasha glanced at the bedsheets, her fingers tracing over the gray fluffy blanket and turning the faux fur a darker shade of gray. “Remember how I told you about the red room? How I had a sister, and we were separated?” She paused, Madeline taking it to mean she was waiting for confirmation and nodding. She was gathering the strength to continue instead. “I asked Maria to help me look for her, and they found her in Budapest. I’m going to look for her.”
Tears rushed forward after a minute, the realization that she was going to be left alone once more. She quickly blinked the tears out of her eyes, glancing towards the TV. A different song was playing now, the lyrics showing up on the screen along with a background image. “How long will you be gone?”
“I have no idea,” She admitted, shaking her head. Would she even be back? Natasha would’ve loved to believe she would be, that Yelena would make a marvelous addition to their mini family, but what if she liked it in Budapest? What if the life there was freeing? What if things went wrong and she died? “But either way you wouldn’t be alone, the twins are staying.”
Madeline nodded silently, biting back the bitter words on her tongue and trying to bury the vile thoughts in her head. Turns out the voices were right all along, she would be left alone, used and discarded. A place holder while they searched for something else, something better. “You will be back though, right?” She asked instead, hopefulness seeping through the question.
Natasha smiled, wrapping an arm around her and tugging her in for a hug so she wouldn’t have to look at the girl while lying. “Yeah, kid. Of course I’ll be back.”
***
As Wanda sat on the bed in Pietro's room she looked around, side eyeing the pile of laundry in the corner of the room, the trash slightly piling up next to his bed, the mounds of dishes slightly toppling to the side on the dresser.
His room was the same layout as the rest of them, minus the mess and the colors being switched and the decorations covering the walls. It was a nice distraction from the conversation she was dreading, her phone turning over in her hands over and over as she tried to calm down. Pietro would know something was off if he saw, he always knew when something was off…
“Hey, Pie?” She called, drawing his attention away from the game he was playing on the computer. He lifted a headphone off his ear, angling his body slightly outward to indicate he was listening while his fingers didn’t lose their speed on the controller. “Pie. I really need to talk.” Wanda tried once more, this time her brother actually listening to her and pausing the game, walking over to the bed.
“What’s up?” He asked, laying back against the bed while his feet hung off the edge. Wanda sighed silently, maneuvering her body to face him once more.
“So, you know how Vision and I have been talking for the past year? Then dating?” She asked, chewing her lip as she waited for him to connect the dots. “I’m moving in with him. I think…” She added as Pietro’s eyes went wide, sitting up immediately.
“You’re moving in with the robot?!” He asked, scooting down on the bed so they were next to each other once more.
Wanda laughed slightly, “I’m moving in with the robot…Nat’s leaving for Budapest in two days, said we could go to the airport together. I have to tell Maddy, but figured I would tell you first.”
Before Wanda could blink Pietro’s arms were around her waist, his face buried into her shoulder. “Where are you moving?” He asked, voice muffled against her shirt.
“London, I think.” She answered quietly, arms wrapping around him.
Pietro’s grip tightened. He lifted his head, not caring about the tear treks making their way down his face. “I’m visiting you. I can get there in like…2 minutes. I’m visiting every day, okay?”
Wanda nodded, trying to hide her smile. She carenned forward, hugging him tightly. “You better,” She warned, smiling widely when he hugged back.
***
The first sight Madeline saw as she walked into her bedroom was Peter sitting on her bed, their cat in his lap as he scratched its head. She set the bowl of fruit down on her nightstand as she got comfortable, settling into Peter’s side as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, lightly kissing her head.
School had gotten out a week prior, and so far Peter had spent every day either at her apartment with her, Pietro, and their cat Indie, sometimes on patrol, or going home to be with May.
“Are you going on the trip to Europe next year?” Peter asked, flipping the remote in his hand as he settled against the pillows behind him.
Madeline nodded, pausing to finish the strawberry in her mouth before speaking. “Where are we even going? Italy?”
As the cat started to purr on his lap Peter stroked its back, digging his nails lightly into its tailbone as it arched its back in pleasure. “Italy, France, I think Spain too? Not really sure about it, but I do know one of them is—”
Peter was cut off as his suit, which was laying on the bottom of the bed, started beeping. It was a gift from Tony after the fight. He had said Peter had earned it back, and given him his old suit in a brown bag, watching in amusement as he laughed giddily, opening it immediately before realizing they had been in public, and closing it. As soon as he had gotten home that day he put it back on, smiling as it snugly to his chest once more, Karen saying hello as she turned on.
The cat meowed in surprise as Peter leaned forward to grab the suit, squishing him against Peter’s chest by accident. He sat up immediately, watching as it ran over to Madeline’s lap, glaring at him as she started to stroke her head.
A hologram popped up against the green walls as Madeline turned the TV off, lightly scooping the cat up and placing it on the ground as she stood, going to put her fruit back as Peter went to change. On her trek back to the room she saw Pietro run in, the door shutting behind him before he stopped, Madeline watching as he undid his shoes.
“Wanda kick you out of her apartment?” She asked amused as Pietro walked over to the fridge, taking out the bowl she had just put in there.
Pietro nodded as he turned around, leaning on the counter as his arms propped him up. “Yeah, Vision came back so I booked it to the States. Said I’d text when I got back.” He said simply, crossing over to her.
Madeline nodded, “Tell her I miss her and she needs to visit, even if Vision has to fly her over.”
Pietro smiled as he walked in, calling back “Will do,” and shutting his door to the girl.
As she walked back into her room she scooped Indie up once more, setting her outside the bedroom as Peter walked back in, clad in his suit. “Where to?” She asked as he walked over to the window, stepping out with one foot on the fire escape.
“Somewhere by the school, come on…” he mumbled as she walked over, his wide smile hidden by the mask as she closed the window, setting her arms around his neck.
“If you drop me–” She warned, eyebrows raised as she leaned back to look at him. He laughed, and she shook her head, closing her eyes in preparation for the fall, screaming out as she stuffed her head in his shoulder, trying to muffle her yells of fear as he swung off a building.
***
It was 6 pm when Madeline finally checked her phone again, the sky still bright orange against the city buildings. Her head rested on Peter’s shoulder as she looked down at the people, her leg swinging against the building they were on, knocking against the bricks. A bell chimed from below, and both teenagers glanced down, watching as Delmar exited his new shop, heading home for the night.
“Holy shit, he opened that quick?” She asked, eyebrows raised in impressiveness as Peter unwrapped a sandwich he had bought, nodding to her question.
“Few weeks ago,” He answered, voice muffled against the food in his mouth. “I think I was his first customer in the new shop. Murphy had to get a new place to rest, I think he’s in the snack aisle now.”
Madeline raised her head, offended as she unwrapped her own food. “How did you not tell me this?!”
Peter shrugged helplessly, “Kept slipping my mind!”
“You just said you were his first customer! How did that slip your mind?”
Peter shrugged once more, gesturing to nothing in particular, which Madeline seemed to mean everything. “I’ve been busy!”
Madeline shook her head in disappointment, taking another bite of her sandwich, bringing her leg up to the roof they were perched on. “I want a divorce…” She joked, leaning against a smoke pipe that had been there from the previous century.
Peter smiled, “I burned the marriage certificate, you can’t divorce me.”
“Fuck…” She mumbled as Peter jokingly knocked into her, her smile widening as she lowered her head to the boy’s shoulder once more, the sun starting to set on the city of Manhattan before them.
***
As Yelena lowered the bottle to the metal picnic table she shrugged off her jacket, the feeling of the extra layer bothering her more than she would like to admit in the humid air.
“Do you have any kids?” asked Yelena after a pause, raising a beer bottle to her lips as she stared at the kids running around them. The beer slid down her throat, offering a nice reprieve from the summer night air. She could see it in Natasha’s eyes, a yearning for something she could never have, or rather, a yearning for something she had left behind.
“Yes,” Natasha answered finally. She tried to control her voice as she looked back at the family feet away from them. A parent was chasing a child, the kid screaming as it ran playfully around the lot. Natasha missed that, she realized with a twinge of pain in her heart. She missed everything in New York; the avengers, the kids. With a slight smile she remembered the screaming matches of the twins when they played Mario Kart, not noticing Madeline egging them on from the couch. She missed their sundae movie nights, their alarm clocks waking her up in the morning or disturbing her peace when she was already awake. She missed the rides to the gyms, Pietro leaving them to run the track or work on his legs while Madeline worked on arms, Wanda taking to her core. She missed the groans of defeat as they walked into the apartment, complaining about homework and what teachers they hated and the ‘oh my god did you hear…’’s that came from their mouths almost every night at dinner. She missed it all.
“I have 3.”