Chapter Text
AVENGERS COMPOUND, NEW YORK 7:37 AM
“Mom, have you seen my bag?” Billy called out as he ran around the compound. He was almost ready for school, except having “lost” his bag. (Tommy totally didn’t hide it in his closet)
“Look in your brother's closet, honey!” Wanda answered. She was currently in the middle of trying to get her elder son to move a bit faster with getting ready. Tommy, of course, was having none of it. With a sigh, she put her hands on her hips and turned on her mom voice. “Thomas Shepherd Maximoff, quit slacking off this instant or you’ll be helping Tony wash his cars this weekend.”
“Nuh uh, that terror isn’t getting anywhere near my cars.” Tony picked this moment to walk in, a cup of coffee in his hand. His daughter Morgan trailed behind him, dressed in her ballet clothing and a sweater that said “Meowy Christmas.” It was October.
“He’s not a terror, Tony.” Wanda glared at him. The billionaire shrugged and exited the room, Morgan skipping behind him. Wanda missed when the boys were that age.
“Who’s side are you on?” Tommy inquired.
“The bells.” She replied, using her magic to pick up his bowl of cereal and place it in the sink. She then used her magic to throw a banana at him, just in case he was still hungry. Tommy caught it, not before playing hot potato with it a little, though, and wasting even more time.
Billy reappeared in the kitchen, backpack slung over one shoulder and his brothers over the other. He’d be the good twin if it weren’t for the amount of chaos Wanda knew he was capable of. There was a reason he wasn’t allowed to use the dishwasher or the laundry machine unsupervised anymore.
Tommy stuck his tongue out at his twin, earning the same gesture back from Billy. Wanda shook her head, smiling a little. The twins were little terrors, but they were her little terrors.
“Do you boys have everything?” Wanda asked. Billy nodded confidently for the both of them. “Lunch?” A nod. “Homework?” Billy nodded. Tommy took a second to panic before also nodding. “Emergency kit?” Both nodded. “Good.” She hugged them both, kissing them on the tops of their heads. Billy smiled as Tommy tried to avoid the goodbye kiss. He failed spectacularly. “Now, you two have a good day!”
“We will!” The twins said in unison. They headed for the door, nearly forgetting their coats. Luckily, Wanda reminded them. And then they were out the door.
Wanda let out a sigh of relief. Juggling being a superhero and a mom to two 10-nearly-11 (as Tommy said it) boys wasn’t an easy task, but she was managing fine. It wouldn’t be much longer of juggling, anyways.
“Good Riddance,” Wanda muttered under her breath. She couldn’t wait for her husband to get back from the current Avengers mission so the two of them could talk.
“Indeed.” Wanda nearly jumped out of her skin as a voice sounded behind her. She swiveled around to find Loki sitting on the counter. He must have teleported himself there. The young mage was truly an absolute terror. On top of that, he was a 9 year old.
According to Thor, Loki had been killed in a battle against “the dark elves” (he should really play DnD, he’d love it) and was reborn on earth. Thor had found him years later, scamming people in a French town and living in an orphanage. Thor recognized it as his brother the minute he saw his face. The mighty god of thunder was a softy and of course, he’d brought Loki back to the compound.
Plot twist, the boy had amnesia, and Thor had asked Wanda to help unlock his brother's memories. Wanda did so as a favor and some of Loki’s memories had returned, though he had no recollection of the invasion, or the dark elves, or anything before he was fully grown. Now, he was just a 9 year old with a tenth of his past selves power and a really annoying personality.
“Jesus!” She shrieked. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!” She looked Loki dead in the eyes. “Remember Thor told you not to do that.”
“Thor’s not here.” Loki said bluntly. Another thing about Loki was that he was very emotionally stunted. He used sarcasm when he clearly didn't intend to and acted happy in the worst situations.
“What do you need, Loki?” Wanda sighed.
“I wanted breakfast.”
“And what were you thinking of having for breakfast?”
“Food.” Loki deadpanned. Wanda had to bite back a groan and a laugh.
“Does cereal work?” She asked.
“That will suffice.” Loki nodded.
“Good.” Wanda walked over to the pantry and opened the door. “What kind?”
“Froot Loops.”
“Good choice.” Wanda said, grabbing the box and placing it on the counter. “Can you reach the bowl behind you?” Loki nodded. He grabbed a bowl from the shelf behind him and handed it to Wanda. She poured some cereal into the bowl. “Do you want milk in it?”
“No.” Loki replied.
“No thank you.” She corrected him on his blatant lack of manners as she handed him the bowl. Loki huffed but said nothing, instead hopping off the counter and grabbing a spoon from the cutlery drawer. “Kids,” She muttered as she exited the room. She’d been up since 5:30, she could use a nap.
Vision returned from his mission around noon. It’d gone successfully, luckily, and he was home earlier than he originally planned. The first thing he did when he landed was find Wanda.
He found her in the living room, watching Modern Family and eating lunch.
“What season are you on now, love?” He asked, walking in. Wanda startled before smiling.
“Vis,” She paused the show and got up to greet her husband. The pair exchanged a kiss before continuing the conversation. “Welcome home.”
“How have you been, my love?” Vision smiled as the two parted.
“I’ve been good.” She responded, turning off the tv. “It’s been a hectic few days here. Chaos as usual.”
“Have the twins been good?”
“Oh, you know the boys. They always have some trouble brewing in their little heads.” Wanda laughed, thinking about yesterday's activities. The twins had gotten back from school and were almost immediately wrapped up in Loki’s scheme to steal an item from every hero currently living in the compound. The trickster, the twins, and Stark’s offspring spent hours sneaking around spy style, stealing trinkets from each member and hiding them in a super secret location. Of course, they all got caught and had to fess up to where they hid it all. It was a little funny afterwards, but annoying when they had to find someone to fit into the air vent and get all the stolen items back.
“I heard about the fiasco yesterday.” Vision chuckled. “They’re magnets for trouble, aren’t they?”
“It must be a Maximoff family trait.” Wanda huffed. She and Pietro were demonspawn when they were that age, if she was remembering correctly.
“I wouldn’t put it past my familial background to have some part,” Vision hummed. Technically speaking, he was the child of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, seeing as Jarvis and Ultron were both connected to Stark and Banner and were both semi parts of Vision.
“A chaotic cocktail of genes.” A third voice chimed in, startling Wanda a second time. She swiveled around to find Pietro standing in the opposite doorway.
“Pietro, you scared me!” Wanda cried.
“Sorry, sister,” Pietro apologized. “You used to see that coming.”
“And you used to be a lot louder.” She said back.
“This is true.” Pietro nodded.
“Hello, Pietro.” Vision re-entered the conversation. Pietro faked a flinch as if he just noticed the symbiote.
“Hey, Vision, whazzup man? Anything new since we last spoke?” Pietro quipped. He and Vision had just been on the same mission together, but Pietro was nothing if not sarcastic and a jokester.
“Wanda and I were simply having a conversation.” Vision responded.
“Cool.” Pietro finger gunned him. He turned back to Wanda. “So, sis, when do the troublemakers get back?”
“3:30 pm. You know this, Pietro.” Wanda smiled as she shook her head. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you back.” She turned to Vision. “Both of you. They’ve missed you a lot.”
“I’m sure.” Vision smiled back at Wanda. Pietro must have realized how awkward his presence was at the moment, for he was gone when the couple turned back to him, or where he’d been. “Ah, it appears your brother ran off again.”
“You know him, he’ll be back.” Wanda laughed.
“Yes, so let’s cherish the alone time we have.” Vision smirked. He and Pietro had a slightly strained relationship. At the beginning of Wanda and Vision’s relationship, he and Pietro were constantly fighting over who protected and took care of Wanda more. Of course, Wanda shut them down, proving she was strong and capable on her own. Now, the brothers-in-law simply through joking remarks and jabs at each other, side eyeing each other.
“We’ll have all the alone time soon.” Wanda responded, subtly changing the subject.
“Yes, of course,” Vis nodded. “Have you told the boys yet?”
“I wanted to wait for you.” Wanda told him.
“Seems wise.”
“Now,” Wanda yet again changed the topic as she moved back to the couch. “Want to watch tv with me? I didn’t watch much without you.”
“Of course, my love.” Vision responded. He joined Wanda on the couch as the witch unpaused the show.
“We’re home!” Tommy called out as the twins entered the house. They shrugged their backpacks off by the door and raced the kitchen to see who was there and see if they could get a cookie.
“Welcome home, boys.” Vision said, turning away from the snack he’d been preparing. Both twins instantly lit up.
“DAD!” They screamed as they rushed forward to hug their father. Vision engulfed them in a dad hug. He’d been gone a week and lots of hugs were overdue.
Pietro entered the room quietly and smiled at the scene in front of him. He took out his phone and snapped a few pictures to send to Wanda. At the sound of the camera clicking, the twins' heads whipped up and they noticed Pietro. Their eyes were comically large now, like a cats when they got excited.
“UNCLE P!” They shouted, rushing over to hug their uncle as well.
“Demonspawn!” Pietro hugged the twins and twirled them around really fast. Tommy was thrilled, Billy less so. They’d learned that the younger twin wasn’t great with spinny things after the teacup incident of 2025 when they all went to Disney World.
“How was yours and dad's mission?” Tommy asked after Pietro let them go.
“It went great!” Pietro told them. “Well, aside from Bucky’s arm falling off.”
“HIS ARM FELL OFF?!” The twins exclaimed.
“Oh yeah, it was hilarious. Wish you could have seen it.” Pietro laughed. “But enough about us. How are you two rugrats doing?”
“We’ve been great, well, I have.” Tommy said. Billy shrugged. “Kids at school keep making fun of us for not having powers like you and mom.”
“Dad has powers too,” Billy commented.
“Yeah, but he’s a synthezoid,” Tommy said back.
“Whatever.” Billy muttered.
“Well, just because you don’t have powers doesn’t make you any less super.” Vision said, appearing next to Pietro.
“Yeah, your dad’s right.” Pietro agreed. “You don’t need powers to be a hero. Hell, look at Sam and Rhodey. They don’t have powers and they’re still superheroes, right?”
“Yeah! They’re super duper cool!” Tommy exclaimed.
“So there’s that.” Pietro told them. The twins nodded.
“But don’t be in a hurry to become like the team. You’re still kids, so enjoy it.” Vision told them.
“How can we enjoy it when we have so much homework?” Tommy joked.
“It’s 2 pages, Tommy.” Billy lightly punched him in the shoulder. Apparently, not lightly enough.
“Ouch! Hey, what was that for?!” He exclaimed. Billy blanched.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Tommy punched Billy back.
“Ow! That was harder than me, you idiot!” The younger growled. He hit Tommy and now the twins were fighting. Vision and Pietro quickly pulled them apart, but not before Billy had a handprint on his face and Tommy had a bite mark on his hand.
“He bit me!” Tommy exclaimed. Billy crossed his arms.
“You deserved it.” Billy spat. Tommy tried to lunge at his brother but Pietro held him back.
“Boys! Boys!” Vision said sternly. “There’s no need to fight!”
“He hit me!” Tommy pointed at Billy. “And bit me!”
“It was supposed to be a joking punch! I didn’t mean to hurt you!” Billy yelled back.
“What’s going on?” Everyone turned to see Loki in the doorway.
“Nothing, Loki, just a small fight.” Pietro told the demi-god. Loki nodded and crossed the room, getting up on the counter and grabbing a candy bar from the cabinet. Obviously, he wasn’t going anywhere.
The conversation turned awkward and the twins were no longer at each other's throats. The presence of Loki seemed to silence the whole room.
Luckily, the silence didn’t last long as Wanda entered the room. She was dressed in her coat, hinting that she’d just gotten home from an arrand. Upon seeing the chaos in the kitchen she sighed.
“Did the twins get into a fight again?”
“Hello, dear,” Vision responded. “They did.”
“Billy punched me.”
“Tommy punched me harder.”
“He punched me again!”
“He punched me again!”
“He bit me!”
“He slapped me!”
“Boys, Boys!” Wanda chided. The twins stopped fighting, still side-eyeing each other. “Fighting isn’t going to solve anything. Just tell me without fighting what happened.”
“Well, Tommy made a joke, and I meant to playfully hit him, but I accidentally hit him too hard and he hit me so I hit him back and then we started fighting.” Billy explained.
“And you bit me!” Tommy cried.
“No fighting.” Wanda said again.
“But he bit me, Mom, I have a mark to prove it!” Tommy showed her his hand with evident teeth marks on it. Of course, Billy had bitten his brother. He had always been a biter.
“Billy! Did you bite your brother?” Wanda turned to her youngest. He’d gone pale, biting the inside of his cheek.
“Yes, Mom, I’m sorry,” He said sorrowfully.
“Don’t apologise to me. Apologise to your brother.” She told him. Billy nodded and turned to Tommy.
“I’m sorry for biting you, Tommy, I shouldn’t have done that.” He stuck his hand out for an apology handshake (A Maximoff twin tradition). Tommy accepted the apology, proceeding to apologize himself, and shook his hand. The fight was resolved, leaving both twins silently sitting on the floor. Pietro and Vision were standing a little behind them, letting Wanda do her thing. Wanda nodded at the boy's apology and went to hang her coat up in the foyer.
The Avengers compound was set up like a bunch of apartments. Everyone had their own space in the compound and then some. Wanda, Vision, and the boys had one of the bigger sections, due to being a family of 4 and having 2 rowdy small children. It would be like having their own home if it wasn’t for other hero’s constantly popping in and out at any time.
Wanda and Vision had been contemplating moving for half a year now. They first came to the decision when they noticed how the twins seemed lonely. In a world of superheroes, Billy and Tommy were just normal 10 year olds. At school, the twins got bullied for not being special like Wanda and Vision and Pietro. Everyone had known who their family was since the first day of Kindergarten, when Wanda and Vision dropped the twins off in full hero garb. The twins didn’t hide it either, they were rather proud of who their parents were, both of them openly praising their parents duties as heros.
As life went on, Wanda dropped out of more and more missions, wanting to be there for her children. She was a great mother, everyone agreed, and no one minded her staying behind.
Since she stayed with the twins, she noticed that they didn’t have many friends at school. Scratch that, any friends. Billy was shy and nerdy, not talking much at school or talking too much about something he loved - at current, dinosaurs - a little too much. Tommy was very noisy and rowdy, playing rough in gym and at recess. The twins told their mom that they were fine just sitting the two of them, but Wanda knew that Tommy wanted other friends and Billy wanted someone who shared the same interests as him.
“We should move.” Wanda had said one Spring evening. The twins had just gone to bed and the parents were cleaning up a little. The words simply slipped out of her mouth, but she didn’t regret saying them.
“So you’ve been thinking about it too?” Vision replied.
“You’ve been thinking of it?” Wanda asked.
“Yes. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently.” Vision responded. He set aside the dishes he was cleaning. “The boys seem lonely and not at home here.”
“We don’t really feel at home here.” Again, it just slipped out with no regrets.
“Yes. Though I’ve never lived anywhere different, I don’t think of the compound as home.” Vision told her. “Maybe it’s the fact that it’s also work. We’re hero’s for a living, and who else lives here? The other heros.” Wanda nodded.
“Though, if we were to move, where would we go?” She asked her husband. The synthezoid pondered for a moment.
“Do you remember Westview?”
“The small town in New Jersey where S.W.O.R.D is located?” A few years back, Wanda and Vision had gone to the headquarters of S.W.O.R.D right after their honeymoon many years back. The headquarters had apparently obtained some dangerous extraterrestrial weapons and materials, and needed to be placed into the care of another organization. The two had stopped by the town directly beside the headquarters, and it was quaint, peaceful.
“Exactly. Remember how much you liked it?”
“Yes. It was very nice.” Wanda nodded. “Do you think the twins would like it there?”
“I don’t know.” Vision sighed. “Maybe we do a bit of research, then make a decision.”
“Yes. That seems wise.” And so they did.
As it turned out, Westview had a low crime rate, and it wasn’t dangerous at all. Many online said it was the perfect place to raise kids. The residents were mainly retirees, S.W.O.R.D agents, or people who’d always lived there. The school system seemed amazing, though they only had kindergarten through 8th grade, with the highschool being in the next town over.
After months of research, the couple made a decision. They decided they were moving to Westview.
Of course, they still had to tell the twins.
Back to the present day, the Maximoff family was eating dinner. Wanda and Vision had prepared macaroni and cheese with green beans and chips, the twins favorite. While the twins were happily eating, Wanda and Vision exchanged glances. One of them had to bring it up. Finally, Vision caved.
“Boys, your mother and I have something we wish to discuss with you.” This got their attention. Both boys looked up from their meals and stared at their parents.
“Yes, something important.” Wanda added.
“You’re not having another kid, are you?” Billy blurted. He instantly covered his mouth. Tommy burst out laughing.
“No, we’re not.” Wanda said.
“Not at present.” Vision replied.
“Good, Billy and I are enough.” Tommy giggled.
“Hey!” Billy uncovered his mouth to reveal his offended expression.
“No, we’re not having another kid.” Wanda continued. “It is life altering, though.”
“What’s that mean?” Tommy asked.
“It means something big.” Billy responded. “What’s happening?”
“Well, your mother and I have been talking for a while now, and it’s clear you boys aren’t prospering here.” Vision said. The twins exchanged worried glances.
“Yes, and we think maybe you’d be better in a new setting.” Wanda proceeded.
“So, after careful consideration,” Vision looked to Wanda, who nodded. Enough beating around the bush.
“We’re moving.” Wanda finally stated.