13

Pietro decided to make it his mission to keep me safe and away from the Avengers. That meant I would stay with him no matter what, and if an Avenger tried to come into the room we were in, he would take me away from them. The only Avenger who was allowed to see me was Wanda, which I didn't mind. She was my friend.

When it was eventually time to sleep, Pietro didn't let me go to a separate room. I stayed with him in his bed. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable I was in his arms. He made sure to hold on tight and not let me sleep facing the door. That happened every night for a while.

Every day I thought Pietro would get tired of our little routine, but he never did. He didn't have a single thought of stopping. I liked how he was protective of me since no one has ever done it. When I was with Hydra, they were defensive, meaning that they wanted to make sure no one could touch me or try to take me from them.

But Pietro was different. He wanted me to be safe.

---

After a while, Pietro told me that he was considering letting me be around other Avengers, but only if I consented to it. He didn't want me to be uncomfortable or feel unsafe at any time. I liked that he was making sure my needs came first and that he couldn't think about what anyone else wanted.

It made me feel good that he made sure everything would be okay.

I agreed on letting other Avengers be around me on one condition. If I ever felt threatened, he would immediately take me somewhere else, and we would start from scratch. So, we began doing a less restricted version of protection.

We would occasionally eat with individual Avengers or train together. When Pietro went off to do missions, he would leave me in the care of Wanda, who understood what needed to be done. The Twins were never on a mission together just in case something happened to me. They wanted to keep me safe.

Once, when Pietro was on a mission, Wanda made me sleep in her bed. She kept me in her arms all night long. I immensely enjoyed it. Her skin was so soft, and she would mumble in her sleep a little bit. Speaking Russian, or on infrequent occasions, she would speak Hebrew. I knew that she was Jewish because she would talk about it when we were still with Hydra.

Now I knew that I would need to take special care of her and Pietro.

---

I decided to start spending more time with the Twins when they were together. They both deserved my attention, and they were my friends. Being around Wanda more definitely helped with having my powers. She taught me how to control them better and helped calm my chaotic mind. Whenever Pietro was with me, I would be in his arms. Not just when we were sitting together. I would be cooking, and his arms would be wrapped around my middle.

I was getting the attention I needed with the Twins around.

Sometimes when I couldn't sleep, I would make both Twins comfort me in the same bed. They never seemed to mind, which was a good thing. I wouldn't want them to get uncomfortable. That would be very rude of me.

---

One day the Avengers all gathered in the common room while the Twins and I were in there. I instantly felt threatened and grabbed Pietro's hand. He started to move, but Captain America stopped him. Once everyone was seated, I spoke to them in a very annoyed and slightly angry tone.

"What do you want from me this time? Experimentation? Interrogation? Both?"

I watched the Avengers to see their reactions. There was a different expression in each Avenger. Though some tried to hide their expressions, I knew how to see through their facial expressions. Black Widow spoke and tried not to get on my bad side as she has seen it before. And see what I can do if I'm angry.

"We have all come to a collective decision on a certain matter. We want you to join the Avengers."

I thought I heard things for a second, but I was angry when my brain started to work again. I quickly flew through the air, grabbed Black Widow, and went miles away so I could talk to her in peace. Once I put her down, she seemed to have seen this coming, which is unfortunate because I thought I was surprising her.

"Why don't we start from the beginning, Natalia?"