"You seem tired," Wanda approached, crossing the quinjet slowly towards you, "more so than after most missions. Were you hurt?" She stopped just before taking her place at your side, waiting for some sign from you that you would accept her; it wasn't something that she was used to from you after knowing you almost her entire life.

"No," you answered plainly, eyes closed and withdrawn, offering nothing more. You had desperately hoped that she would take the hint and back away, but as your best friend, you should have known better than to make such a ridiculous assumption. You could feel the shift in the air around you when she sat down next to you, fighting the urge to pull your hand away as she rested hers atop it slowly.

"Is it because of what today is?"

"Don't go there, Wanda."

"It's okay to be sad, (Y/N)," she continued despite your warning, "I'm incredibly sad. We both lost Pietro on this day, and it's only been a single year. The pain is expected to be this strong, but we have each other to lessen it as best as we can. Why won't you let me do that for you? Do you not care enough for me to do the same?"

"Wanda, please, don't guilt me, not now."

"I'm not trying to guilt you," she answered, but now her voice was uncertain and pained, "I love you."

"Dammit," you groaned, opening your eyes to look at her for the first time when you couldn't find a way out of this, "you really are good, Maximoff, you know that? By not guilting me, you've done some of your best guilt work to date. Don't be daft, you know that I love you too," you sighed, nudging her gently, "and I know what you're trying to do. I just need some time to myself, that's all. But I'll tell you what, once I can get home and clean up a bit, we can go grab a drink and drown our sorrows before I lock myself away in a nice, morose depression. Sounds healthy, right?"

When she silently nodded in agreement, you could sense someone watching the two of you; leaning forward just enough, you caught a glimpse of Steve before he jolted to attention and turned away, pretending to busy himself with the controls in front of him. He really was terrible at lying, even when he hadn't come right out and done it directly.

"What's up with the golden boy?"

"Hmm?" she mumbled, turning to follow your gaze. "He's just concerned. Tony asked him to keep an eye on us today, to be sure that we weren't too distracted on the mission."

"You mean babysit? He still doesn't trust us, does he?"

"He does..." she paused almost uncertainly, glancing back at the Captain, "he just worries a great deal. It's in his nature. Steve's been through his own amount of loss, (Y/N). You might find yourself benefitting from what he could share."

"Well, it's in my nature to deal on my own, and I hate to break this to you, Wanda, but there's no love lost between Steve and I. So thanks, but no thanks."

~~~

When you opened your apartment door after a long day of Avenging, saving people who you would never know merely because the walking flag said that joining them was the right thing to do, all you wanted was the solace of your quiet home and maybe a soak in the tub before bed. Your body was aching and your muscles screamed with even the smallest movement; for just a moment you considered skipping the bed and just passing out on the living room floor. Rather than your usual dark silence, what greeted you instead were hundreds of roses set up before you, and as far as your eyes could see into each room in the distance. You knew exactly who they were from; even after all that had happened in Sokovia and after the pain that had ripped apart your soul, you had always struggled with the sense that he was still alive, and now he had finally found you on the first anniversary of his presumed death.

Frantically and fumbling, you dug around in your bag for your phone, growling through clenched teeth when your incompetent fingers worked against you and wouldn't lead you to it. You had to call Wanda to see if he had visited her and how she was doing, forgetting to take the moment needed to see if he was still here. "Son of a-"

"What is it that you are looking for, my love?"

The voice that you thought you'd never hear again sent a chill through you, freezing you in place and halting the air rushing through your chest as if time had stopped. You closed your eyes out of pure fear that you were imagining him again, just as you had done for so long after he had died in your arms that day. What a cruel joke it would be for your mind and heart to do that to you, but you didn't put it past them, refusing to open your eyes until he spoke again.

"Are you alright, darling?"

"No," you gasped, finally taking a strained breath, "no, I'm not alright." Opening your eyes, albeit still reluctantly, he came into sight only a few feet from you; if you reached out, you would be able to touch him, but you wouldn't allow yourself that just yet. If this was an illusion, if he wasn't really here, then you weren't in a hurry to allow yourself to realize it. "Pietro...you...you died. I was there...I felt it happen."

"Yes, I did. But I'm back, (Y/N). I don't know how, and I wish I knew how to explain it for the both of us. I was brought back by a power that I don't understand, but that doesn't matter to me because I'm here with you." He paused and watched you intently, taking care to keep your hands steady and away from him, but when he couldn't take another second without contact, he took a step forward that sent you recoiling away. "My love, tell me that you believe me."

"What power?" you asked urgently as your mind came back, your focus quickly shifting. It hadn't taken long in your time with the Avengers to know that not all powers were used for good, and your senses were uncomfortably heightened. The love of your life was standing in front of you, his arms open for you to be enveloped within, and all you could think of was how wrong it was. "Pietro, tell me."

"I don't know."

You could see the fright in his eyes even beyond the relief in seeing you again; he wanted to give you the answer you were looking for, but no matter where he looked within himself, it just wasn't there. All that Pietro knew was that in one second, he was struck down, his last breath being used to focus one last time on seeing your face; the next thing that he knew, he was awake and in search of seeing you, a realization that he was now terrified of losing again.

"It's okay, Piet, don't worry. I'm sorry, that's not important right now, it can wait," you reassured, finally reaching out for him just to keep him calm. Now more than any fear that you held regarding what had happened, you were now completely frightened of scaring him away. "We can worry about that later, alright? What's important is that you're here...I can't...I can't believe that you're here," you sighed with a quiet whimper in your throat, allowing the moment to just take you over, pulling him to you into a kiss that you had waited an eternity to feel again when you had thought that it was gone forever.

"I want to tell you, I do," he urged breathlessly, his lips still ghosting over yours softly, "only I have yet to understand it myself."

"We'll figure it out together, I promise," you answered before his mouth overtook yours again, and even though the promise made was done so with honesty, it was quickly becoming the last thing that you cared about; all that mattered was back in your arms and you felt whole again. It took only seconds for it to no longer matter what power had brought him to you, just so long as he was there and would remain there for the rest of time.

You had successfully convinced yourself that nothing else mattered at all, with no regard to how much that terrified you. It was a lovely place to live in, even if only temporarily and based in no sense of reality, but the feeling of having your love this close to you, his heart beating against your own and his hands now caressing your back as he held you, made it easy to find yourself fully immersed. You were so gone within the world that Pietro was creating that you almost missed the loud bang of Steve's fist against the other side of your door.

"(Y/N)? Is he in there?"

You felt as if you had jumped out of your body in a sheer panic, your physical form frozen in a steady terror while your thoughts screamed and flailed around you trying to decide what to do. You turned your head just barely enough to look at Pietro, feeling completely worthless to help him, but in the same breath feeling like you were his only chance to remain free. Steve hadn't even said why he was there, but he already knew that Pietro was alive and it couldn't mean anything good for your love; if you had given him a skeptical welcome, you could only imagine what the team would put him through.

"Run, Pietro. Go now."

"What?" he gasped, shaking you gently to get you out of your trance. "No, I'm here with you and that's where I stay. I'm not leaving you again, (Y/N)."

"You don't know what they'll want to do to you. You don't even know who or what brought you back, or why. Please, just go until I can figure something out." You pushed past him and to one of the windows that faced the quiet street behind your building, wrenching it open and holding it up for him to escape. When he was suddenly in front of you again, kissing you for what you feared might be the last time, you had expected him to disappear just as quickly; you had no idea that the silver flash that enveloped him would now carry you as well.

Part 2 

"(Y/N)? (Y/N), I heard you in there, open the door."

Steve stood steady for a few minutes, giving you ample time to answer the door and let him in properly, but when his patience grew ever thinner, he cursed himself for what he was about to do and his temper got the best of him. With a swift and powerful kick, your door didn't stand a chance, the loud crack of wood resonating through the hallway. He had prepared himself to face your anger, fully expecting to be met with a firm hit to the jaw as a greeting, but when the apartment was eerily silent, he wasn't sure what to do next.

The door splintered even further as he pushed it open to make his way inside, stepping gingerly over the pieces left behind; he kicked them against the wall, not wanting to make too much of a mess because he still had his manners, after all. As he looked around the room, nothing seemed obviously out of place, and if anything, it looked as if you hadn't even been home for more than a few seconds before you were gone again. When he saw the curtain blowing in the breeze on the far side of the room, he knew exactly who helped you run.

"Great," he sighed, pulling out his phone to dial quickly. "Hey, it's me. He was here, and he's with (Y/N)."

"Any idea where they might be headed?"

"No, and with his speed it could be anywhere."

"I didn't stick my neck out to bring the kid back just to lose him. Find him."

"You know, I'm really getting tired of being your janitor, Fury, but yeah...I'm on it. How much time do we have?"

"Not enough."

~~~

"Pietro, put me down. Now," you snapped, relieved that he was still smart enough to take your tone as to not push any further. He came to an abrupt halt and set you gently on your feet in front of him, but he took a few precautionary steps back just to be safe. "When I said to run, I meant just you. Now Steve's going to be really pissed, and he's probably already got the whole team out looking for us."

"It's only been a few minutes..."

"Don't underestimate the guy. You remember him, right?"

"Yes. But I also remember that you didn't want to be a part of that group, but yet here you are, still with them after all this time. Why?"

"Because Wanda wanted to stay," you answered plainly, turning your phone over in your hand with a sigh of relief to see that the Captain hadn't tried to call you yet. "I couldn't just leave her. I knew that you'd want us to stay together."

"I wanted to stay with you as well," he added quietly, dropping his gaze to the floor, feeling your stare boring into him at his words, the air around you growing colder. He took a few more steps back and clasped his hands behind his back to keep them from fidgeting, but his feet instead took over, kicking at the dirt along the sidewalk anxiously.

"I wanted you to stay too, Piet, but you decided that being a hero was more important. As honorable as that was, it was unfair to us...to me. I haven't forgiven you for making that decision yet."

All the man could do was nod his head sadly, keeping his eyes cast away; you knew that he agreed with you, but he was the kind of man who would do the same thing again if it replayed itself today, and no matter how you felt about it, that wasn't going to change. Deep down, you didn't want it to, but it still hurt like hell to know that you had no chance. "Okay," you sighed, changing your tone to pull him back in, "so let's figure this out. Do you remember anything about it how you were brought back? Was there anyone with you? Do you know where you were?"

Pietro looked up at you with a curious stare, and you could see the lines of thought rushing through his mind to put it all together. He had seen so many faces but they meant nothing to him, and he tried to hold the surroundings in his memory, but the details were eluding him. He wanted nothing more than to give you all the answers you needed, but they just weren't there. The only answer that made any sense, didn't actually make any.

"Tahiti," he offered, but it sounded more like a question in his tone, "it's a magical place."

~~~

Steve and Wanda had been working together for hours now, with him scouring the city with any source he could find to track even the darkest alleyways and corners, and with her pushing her own mind to the limit to sense anything from either of you. When Steve had told her that Pietro was alive again, she dared to believe him; she wouldn't be able to handle the loss a second time, so she refused to allow it. When he pressed more and told her that he was brought back to help with a fight that none of them could survive on their own, she was immediately angry and thought about leaving this life behind to find him to help him hide forever, but she knew that it wouldn't be what he wanted. She knew that it wouldn't be what she wanted either, and that they could never just allow something like that to happen to the people that they had come to call family. That was before she even considered what it would mean to you.

"She's hiding him," she said quietly, breaking hours of silence between them. "If she's this determined, Steve, we may never find them."

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," he agreed readily. He darkened the screen of his tablet, trying to take the sting from his eyes with a rub of his hand but to no relief. He had been staring at the same information for hours, and only now realized that his teammate was likely right. "Nothing yet?

"They're skilled at blocking me," Wanda answered sadly, "that may be our downfall."

"What may be your downfall," you broke in, "is that you didn't tell me what was going on. You didn't trust me. That might be what makes this whole plan of yours come crashing down. I expect something like this from Steve, but Wanda...not you."

"Oh my god," she gasped, running to the doorway and into Pietro's waiting arms with such force that it knocked him back and ripped his hand from yours. "You're really here," she began to cry, "you're real. I can't believe it. But I promise you, (Y/N), I didn't know until Steve just told me after you disappeared."

While Pietro and Wanda continued their greetings, Steve stood as you approached him, standing tall in an attempt to convey his authority, but his eyes gave away just how relieved he was to actually see you both arrive. "(Y/N), thank you."

"Don't thank me so fast, Cap. You have no idea how unbelievably pissed off I am at you right now," you hissed, poking him in the chest sharply. "Is this your idea of walking it off? Bringing him back just so you can use him in another fight? How goddamn selfish can you be? Did you even once stop to think about what this would do to us? Did you ever think past your own needs, Steve?"

"Okay, I'm gonna need you to calm down-"

"I'm gonna need you to bite me."

"Then why did you bring him here?" he angrily retorted, stepping even closer to tower over you. "If you didn't want me anywhere near him, then why are you standing here right now?"

"Because the last thing I need is for that Fury guy to be hunting us. It's safer for Pietro to bring him here than to be on the run and looking over our shoulders every second. I decided to take the chance that you're the stand-up guy that everyone tells me you are, and that from this moment on, you're going to be honest with me."

Steve took a step back, realizing just how close he was and feeling the discomfort at the proximity. Your anger was palpable and the look in your eyes was one that he hadn't seen from you before; it wasn't the first argument that the two of you had fought, but this one easily carried the most emotion behind it. He wanted to say the right thing, taking his time to carefully formulate the words before they were spoken. "I'm always honest."

"Jesus," you groaned, matching his step back and away, "you're a walking tag line."

"(Y/N), listen, all I know is that there's something coming, and I don't even fully understand it myself, okay?" He reached out and grabbed your arm to keep you from backing away further, and when you tried to pull away, his grip only grew stronger. "The only thing that I know for sure is that we need everyone, as many of us as we can get. I promise you, that's all I know so far, and I'm doing my best here, so please, just...just stay."

"Could you please release her?" Pietro asked politely, taking his stand at your side, though it was a cold stare given to Steve until he finally relented and his hand dropped away. "Thank you," he responded curtly before turning back to you with a hushed voice. "I will do what you ask of me, (Y/N), but I will not leave you again. If you say that we should stay here and fight in whatever battle is coming, then that's what will happen. If you say to run, then I'll carry you across the world if I have to."

"What do you think we should do?"

"I may be a bit out of practice, I do admit," he smiled, "but we are Avengers. I barely had a chance to know what that feels like, to do the right thing. I wish to have that again, and to save the world if that's what it needs of us. But I will only do so if you're at my side, (Y/N)."

You looked past Pietro and to Steve, then turned to Wanda, each of them watching you expectantly, almost nervously as if you were about to disappear from their sight with a simple word to Pietro. It wouldn't be a lie to say that you were considering it as they looked on, and how easy it would be to run. What wouldn't be easy is exactly what Pietro was giving as a reason to stay; you would watch your team struggle in this battle, knowing all the while that you could be helping them. If you were to watch them lose, the guilt would eat away at you for the rest of your life.

"(Y/N)?"

Steve's voice shook you from your thoughts, the expectant look in his eyes giving you just a moment of power that you let stretch on a little longer than necessary, merely to enjoy it a bit more. "Okay, we'll stay. But on one condition."

"Name it."

"When this is all said and done, you're taking me to Tahiti."