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Traveling with Lehnsherr is no easy feat. Pietro already gets people's attention with the freaky grey hair, despite being old enough for them now. But Lehnsherr gets recognised all the time. There isn't anyone in the world who doesn't know him.
That complicates things. They can't stay in one place for much longer than a week, which requires planning long ahead. That's more tiring than the running. That's a bother, as Pietro has to do both.
But the worst part is definitely having to deal with fucking Lehnsherr. He's a shell of his former self. With his powers, his will to live shrunk too.
Pietro might be in over his head. He hasn't cared for anyone since he was six and accidentally lost his turtle. But he does his best. Like right now.
"I told you to eat." He angrily shoves the plate of boiled potatoes back into Lehnsherr's hands. Food is scarcer than before too, something Pietro tried hard to not think about.
His cooking is not so great either. Lehnsherr cooks when he can manage to and it's much better. But there's only so much a man can do with a bag of potatoes. His mind drifts back to his mom's cooking. He doesn't think about her often.
"You need it more than me." Lehnsherr tries to give it back again. Always so fucking stubborn. Pietro considers hitting him.
He ultimately decides not to, Xavier should be proud. "I had my half. Now eat it before I shove it down your fucking throat." He had his half, which was by no means enough, but it'll have to do. Every stolen food means a SWAT team, or worse, a Sentinel, could be send after them. He can't afford to risk like he did before.
He makes sure that the abandoned apartment building they're staying in today is truly abandoned. Then he tries to secure it to the best of his ability.
Lehnsherr eats slowly. Not just slowly for Pietro, slowly as in forcing himself to swallow each bite, slowly. It's irritating. Thought it might just be his problem. At least he eats finally. There were months when Pietro had to force him to eat under more than just a threat of violence.
"You can leave me behind. My powers are returning. It'll be easier for you when we split." Sprouting bullshit again. They're having this conversation over and over again.
"I told you to shut up and eat." He barks at him. It would be reasonable. Hiding one speedster is easier than hiding an elderly. But he can't bring himself to. He knows it wouldn't end with death for Lehnsherr. It would end with months - maybe years of experiments. Not even he deserved that.
But his powers were truly returning. Slowly but surely. The cure didn't work or at least wasn't permanent. "I'm sure you'll defend yourself against sentinels so well when you can barely levitate a screw." That sentence doesn't have that much force behind it. "We can talk about that when you can stop a moving train." But when he's capable of that, it'll be more useful to have him close.
Lehnsherr doesn't answer that and Pietro is grateful. He prepares the two sleeping bags. "Any message from the Professor?"
Due to his speed, Xavier can't read his mind or even focus on him for a longer time. But he had been talking to Erik over the months, sometimes sharing useful information.
"Nothing yet."
Pietro hopes that the government didn't choose the school as their next target. He didn't think they were quite there yet. Sentinels had free reign over the whole world, but so far targeted only mutants who have proven to be dangerous. Or related to the dangerous mutants apparently. "Maybe tomorrow."
Pietro finishes the rest of the portion that Lehnsherr left. He knows the older man is doing it on purpose.
Lehnsherr himself is sitting on the bed, testing the limits of his returning powers. It's not so great yet, but he's slowly improving.
Pietro unpacks and repacks the bag again. It's an evening routine, checking that everything is as it's supposed to be, what needs to be bought (stolen) and what can be left behind.
"Do you need help with anything, Pietro?" Lehnsherr asks from the bed.
Pietro. It was better than Maximoff, for which he wanted to strangle him at first. He wanted to have nothing in common with his bastard step-father who's last name he had.
"No, don't bother."
But he has to admit that Lehnsherr is growing on him. He doubts that they'll ever be a father and son duo, but they're mostly civil now. At least Lehnsherr stopped antagonising Pietro all the time. Now it's Pietro doing the antagonising.
Truly his father's son. Pietro shakes Caliban's words from his mind. Freaky albinos should keep their opinions to themselves.
Still, he's yet to throw a car at him. The biggest thing he threw was probably a glass. And that was because Lehnsherr kept having stupid comments, not because he was saving a human life.
Pietro cleans up the plates and prepares for sleeping. He makes sure that the windows are closed and blocked, the door locked and their supplies close. It wouldn't be the first time they'd have to flee within seconds of waiting.
They're really like Bonnie and Clyde, except for that only one of them is a crazed murdered. And he isn't even particularly great at that anymore. Pietro was fairly sure he didn't kill anyone for at least the year and a half they were on the run together.
It's time to sleep now. Pietro puts the bag next to his head, zips up the sleeping bag and tries to get the most out of the four hours he can handle. He sees Erik do the same.
Being with him on the run wasn't so bad after all. At least it soothed the dark pit of loneliness taking up space in his chest.
Pietro closes his eyes.