inbox. (abraxas)

[punctually]

( text / action )

Comments

[carmesi]

( a handle which is, thankfully, made of wood, so he won't be burning his palm. wanda huffs, standing up and following behind him and guiding him to place it down on a pile of stones.

the concoction is sticky, but smells horrible, burnt as it is. )

It's fine. We'll just have to start over.

( wanda moves to the side to grab a bucket of water to dump into the cauldron. )

[punctually]

[ he sets the cauldron down on the stones and the burnt caramel sizzles loudly when wanda dumps the water in, thankfully mitigating some of that smell. he's quiet while they get another batch started, being more diligent about keeping an eye on it to prevent this one from burning, but as they both know that silence doesn't remain for very long. ]

... Is it Matt?

[ the one she's in a relationship with. ]

[carmesi]

( it takes wanda a moment to pick up what peter's putting down, more intent instead on getting the caramel syrup thing they're going for right, rather than having it get burnt again.

if they set their minds to it, surely they'll manage—

she looks up at peter after pouring the measured amounts of sugar into the cauldron. )

Why are you so interested in this?

( part of her thinks: this is none of his business. )

—it is Matt.

[punctually]

[ for a second, he asks himself that question as well. why is he so focused on it? does it really matter, in the end, who wanda wants to be with? something — swells within him, not quite protectiveness but something parallel to that, maybe. he doesn't really know how to really identify it. but he thinks of the wanda he grew up with and the day she told him she liked someone from school, and... well, maybe this is a shade of that.

it feels silly, now that he thinks about it. wanda can take care of herself. he's being presumptuous. he chews on the inside of his cheek for a moment, watching the sugar gather at the bottom of the cauldron. ]

Habit, [ is what he ends up settling on by way of an explanation. ] Sorry.

[carmesi]

( with every new ounce of conversation they have, it feels like they step into some brand new territory with a million minefields they are both not adept enough to navigate.

and yet she hates hearing him apologize so much.

maybe this is one of those hurdles they are never meant to really push past.

wanda grabs at the wooden spoon, and starts circling it around in the sugar, initially, letting it all spread out in as thin a layer as possible. )

He's a lawyer from Hell's Kitchen in New York. I like him a lot. ( she's kind of listing things... ) You should talk to him some time. He said he'll look for a chance to get to know you.

( she hands him the spoon to hold. there. )

[punctually]

[ he almost opens his mouth to say maybe he won't immediately get sick of me as a joke. but he remembers what wanda told him when they were gathering things for the funeral and keeps his mouth shut instead, taking the offered spoon.

it takes a while for the sugar to melt; it feels even longer for peter. but he sits with it, forces himself to remain still and wrestles down the anxiety that he made an irreparable mistake. if she was really upset with him, he's sure she would've buried him in the ground by now with hardly a thought. eventually, when the sugar melts enough for him to start stirring carefully, he speaks up. ]

That one time we had the whole conference call thing, when we were stuck underground, [ his cheeks puff out with his sigh, breathing it out slowly. ] He was really nice. I wasn't expecting it.

[carmesi]

( it's strange, to feel like the older sister when she's always been the youngest of the two. wanda doesn't think she's the most intelligent nor the most emotionally stable, but it shows—to her—that she has allowed herself for more growth in ways that peter is still working on.

she moves to take a seat on the steps that lead up to the back door of her shop, watching over the cooking situation from here.

wanda doesn't know how exactly to move this conversation forward, but... )

I'd like it for you and him to be familiar with each other.

( if he were to look up at her, she'd shrug. all the things he needs to hear about who they both are to one another, she's said before. it would feel insulting to have to repeat it. )

He isn't the best influence, though, but if you're just yourself around him— ( well. she scrunches her nose. ) It wouldn't be so bad, would it?

[punctually]

[ he does look up at her, blinking almost owlishly for a moment before he goes back to stirring. he doesn't see her nose scrunch but he can practically hear it; his tone turns dry— ]

Just myself. [ hah. well, if she didn't think it would go well, she wouldn't have said it. ] If you think he's ready for that, then sure.

[ he'll be on his best behavior. or, as best as it can be when it comes to him. ]

[carmesi]

Don't be so cynical.

( she knows that that's how he deals with things, putting himself down when maybe he shouldn't, in trying to see where (if at all) he fits in. it must be strange, especially when he is a version of the brother she was born with, the brother everyone else knows and likely compares peter with.

wanda makes a face at him. )

You are a lot more alike to Pietro than you think. ( —peter had seen him, the ghost of her brother, in the horizon— ) I would have told him exactly the same thing about Matt if he was here.

[punctually]

[ pietro's got an air of confidence about him that peter can't help but admire, even just from that one interaction peter had with him in the horizon. the less charitable would call it arrogance, probably. it's not as if peter is particularly insecure—maybe it's just the way pietro carries himself, unapologetic in the way he talks, the way he acts. pietro is the cooler brother that peter knows he isn't.

and that's fine. peter has never fit in anywhere, back home and here, and likely never will—always moving and thinking too fast, irreverent to the proper time and place. but there's always a part of him that waits for the other shoe to drop: the moment when she realizes where he's lacking and decide she's better off not knowing anyway. it wouldn't be the first time he's been passed on. sometimes, he still catches himself wondering how long it'll be before wanda inevitably pushes him away. it would be fair, he thinks. he'd never aspired to be like pietro, or wanted to replace him in any way, but it's tricky to navigate; the lines aren't always so clearly defined.

but she has no reason to be kind to him, nor to reach out to him as much as she already has. and that's more than he's ever gotten in his life. ]

Would he have hassled you about it? Give Matt a shakedown after?

[carmesi]

( peter tends to catch her off-guard in so many ways, and wanda constantly finds herself uncertain about whether she is telling him the right things or just what the two of them want to hear, in order to 'keep the peace' with these very strange circumstances of being siblings, worlds apart, but found anew in abraxas.

but, especially now, wanda hates making comparisons between the two. pietro was pietro, and will always be his own person; peter is just different, the circumstances of his life dictating why he isn't as hardened in ways that pietro had to quickly become. and, truth be told, wanda wouldn't want peter to ever go through the things she and her brother went through, growing up.

she sits back against the steps, feeling the hard line press against the small of her back, thoughtful about his questions. )

...I'm actually not sure. ( and it feels like a disservice to pretend that she would know. ) I never dated anyone seriously when we were in Sokovia. He was the one with all the girlfriends, and he made a mess of that, sometimes, too.

( meaning, wanda was the one hassling her brother for his actions. he never had to worry about her wanting to be in a relationship. )

There were a few boys I hung out with in secret from him, but the only real relationship I had was when I was in America.

( after he had already died. quietly, she says, shrugging her shoulders, )

I don't know what he'd say, but— you should do what you want. You have sisters, don't you?

[punctually]

I can see that.

[ pietro being the one with all the girlfriends, and making a mess of them. peter's mouth quirks into a lopsided smile as he continues stirring the sugar; it's easy to imagine wanda hassling him, if it's anything like the way she sometimes hassles peter. ]

I do, yeah. But they're a lot younger than you. [ in both body and mind. his mother spoiled them as much as she could, of course, not that peter blamed her for it. he laughs suddenly, feeling a pang of—something, in his chest. ] It's weird. I've changed their diapers, you know? But I don't think I'd ever be ready for it if they brought a boy home.

[carmesi]

( it's strange to think that peter would have a sister he isn't a twin to. just how different are the maximoffs within the multiverse, and how come she is as close to a twin to him, when they're both so separate from each other? )

You've changed diapers?

( she almost sounds surprised, like it's hard to believe. )

Willingly?

( maybe wanda has an incorrect idea of him. )

[punctually]

Yeah? I mean, they weren't gonna change themselves.

[ the wonderful thing about super speed is that he could change both his sisters' diapers at the same time. he squints at her over the cauldron and then raises a brow— ]

You don't have to sound that surprised.

[carmesi]

I'm not.

( (she is.)

called out, her brow cinches and she looks down, busying herself with the hem of her skirt that seems to be stitched all wrong from one of her attempts at sewing late at night when she couldn't sleep.

maybe this, too, is one way of broaching a difficult subject for her, )

I've changed diapers, too.