Rating: Teen and Up
Pairing: Peter Maximoff x fem!reader
Word Count: 2,332
Summary: Maximoff is a stranger to this reality. What were your options, and could he be trusted?
Warnings: swearing, slight angst, over thinking by the reader
A/N: I just want to say thank you for all the support and new followers I got after the first chapter was posted. I really fucking appreciate that. This series is gonna take awhile, and I’m not the most consistent author. I’ll be the first to admit that. I am fully online this school year though so hopefully I’ll speed up my updating as finals aproach. Nothing speeds up productivity like procrastination :j
You were right. It was a very, very long day.
You pinched the bridge of your nose as Maximoff let out a belch and wiggled his shoulders back to lean against the wall. Agent Tareen’s upper lip twitched in irritation as she eyed the man child. Plates and cups were laid out on the floor around you.
You glanced to your right and smiled softly to see Agent Iyer starting to nod off. He was sitting awkwardly on a knocked over punching bag, his back slouched completely to keep him from falling over.
Iyer wanted a place away from prying eyes as well as enough room to sit and talk. Unfortunately the conference room was now occupied. So that led to where you four were now. An abandoned training room complete with an obstacle course and gym equipment. While you and your team had sat in a circle on the floor, laptops out, discussing possible places for Maximoff to reside; the man in question seemed to take a kick out of running around the obstacle course and making little games for himself.
The few times you had glanced up, he was standing atop a metal rotating tower and seeing how fast he could climb up and down it, while also programming the tower to shoot foam bullets at him.
You caught yourself smiling as he was hit once and he acted out a Shakespearen death scene with full dramatics.
After a couple of hours you had offered to get food for everyone, something that Agent Tareen jumped at the sound of. She always packed her own food, but she loved the Avengers Compound’s kitchen. Her aunt was a chef and she found the sounds of a bustling kitchen comforting. Well that’s what Iyer told you anyway.
Tareen looked far from the smiley face she usually adorned when going to the kitchen. Instead a scowl was present on her face as you both left the training room.
“He’s a real piece of work.” She said crossing her arms as you two strolled, which you both hoped was casually, down the corridor to the elevator. You tilted your head and nodded slowly.
“I guess. I don’t know, it seems to me he uses humor as a defense mechanism. And being essentially held hostage by a random government agency with three agents around him, dictating his life for the foreseeable future. I would also feel the need to protect myself.” You said lowly, not wanting anyone passing by to hear. Tareen hummed at that and the pair of you fell silent.
It really was kind of amazing that Maximoff trusted your team at all. He had nothing to go on really. You bit your lip as you came to a stop in front of an elevator. Agent Tareen turned to you, making you pause.
“Do you think we can trust him?” She asked, bringing an olive hand up to press the ‘up’ button.
Now that was a question. And one you honestly should have thought over earlier. If you looked at it objectively, there was a strange man with incredible powers, who also had the same name and said power of a superhero that was killed. Also the strange man appeared in a forest and has no idea how he got to this reality. The only thing you could trust was that he was from another reality. According to the lab data, his cells were just slightly off, plus how he talked and acted was very 90’s. But you couldn’t look at it objectively. That would mean that you had to ignore that face he made when you told him the point of this all, was sending him home. It was such intense relief, and then you remembered the way he sat next to you, sitting in a ball next to a stranger and agreeing to trust you and your team.
You weren’t an idiot. You were the founder of a very important sector of S.H.I.E.L.D., and you spent your entire career protecting people who gave you their blind trust. Blindly trusting someone...
Images of machinery and thundering water came to your mind and you shook it off.
That time it was different. You were a child. You were taken advantage of.
You weren’t a kid anymore, you were the one in charge. You could trust Maximoff, because he trusted you.
The elevator dinged open and you were thankful no one was inside. You stepped in, turned around, and crossed your arms, facing Tareen who’s expression was taut, awaiting your answer.
“Yes. We trust him. And if you don’t trust him, then trust me. He’s not a threat.” Your voice was hard and Tareen met your fierce gaze with one of her own. You stared at each other before she broke eye contact by stepping into the elevator.
“I trust you.” Was all she said and she pressed the button to the fourth floor. That was that then. Maximoff had her support.
That’s what led you to now, surrounded by the dishes of your dinner, strained necks, and tired eyes. You glanced to your right again and Iyer had his eyes shut, long legs planted solidly to keep him from doubling forward. His warm deep skin looked shiny from the offensive bright lights as he dozed. You took a mental note to make sure the team had a late start tomorrow.
In front of you, Tareen had her face creased in concentration as she read over something on her laptop. It was placed in front of her on the floor, and she was sitting with her legs criss crossed, left elbow digging into her knee as she propped her head up with her hand.
You glanced around for Maximoff, only to see him lying on his back, mouth open, dead asleep in the foam pit. You let out a breath of a laugh before your smile fell and you sighed. It must have been around six in the morning. So far, all you and your team had done was place Maximoff in New England.
It had been the obvious choice, seeing as, as soon as the technology was available to send Maximoff home, he was going. The only people with clearance to make such technology were S.H.I.E.L.D. and Mr. Stark. New York was out because that was a little too close to home. Iyer was voting for New Jersey while Tareen wanted Maine. You were still undecided.
You slowly lowered yourself to lying on your back, staring at the ceiling. The fluorescent white lights hummed with electricity and you closed your eyes against them. Your arms were spread out wide and you were thankful for the fact you were in the training room. The cold of the floor embraced you more than a scratchy carpet of a conference room.
You let out a huff as you tried to relive some of the stress knotting in your shoulders. Agent Iyer always made lists when he was stressed; something about seeing everything laid out neatly calmed him. It's never worked for you before, but it was worth a shot.
There were five possible threats concerning Peter Maximoff. You bit your lip and started at the least terrible, moving to the worse. One, S.H.I.E.L.D. is being controlled by Hydra, finds out about him, experiments on him, and either infiltrates a new reality or uses him as a weapon. Two, Maximoff is secretly evil and came to this reality to kill everyone for some evil agenda that he relivels in a monologue. Preferably with sunglasses on and an evil laugh. You think he’d like that.
You smirked, eyes still shut and focused on your task with a shake of your head.
Three, Mr. Stark is actually lying to your team and he wants to be the only person aware of Maximoff so he can conduct experiments on him in the name of discovery. Four, other agencies like S.W.O.R.D. find out about Maximoff, expose him to the public, then the U.S. Government and all its intelligence agencies have a pissing contest to see who can “have” Maximoff for their own twisted agenda. Five, Wanda Maximoff hears about Peter Maximoff, hunts you, Agent Tareen, and Agent Iyer down, and personally rips your organs from your bodies.
You involuntarily shuddered and bolted to sit up. Wanda Maximoff was the most powerful Avenger hands down. You did not want to be on the receiving end of her wrath and grief.
Tareen kicked your foot as you sat awkwardly in front of her.
“We should call it soon. I’m gonna pray, make sure Iyer doesn’t even think about touching my laptop.” She said eying the man to you right. You glanced over, assessing his hunched over form: still sleeping. You raised an eyebrow at her suspicion and shrugged. Iyer did have a tendency to use whatever was available when he had an idea. No one knew when exactly inspiration would strike him. You watched her head out the door closest to the bathroom, before slowly turning to look at Maximoff.
You had to wake him to tell him your team was heading home. You sighed at the task and grumbled curses at Tareen and Iyer for being busy and asleep. Maximoff was preferable when he was unconscious, but someone had to take one for the team and wake him up. Guess that person was you then.
Pushing up from the ground, you walked over to him, trying to seem less dead and more authoritative. After all, you were technically in charge of him.
You trudged up the blue ramp to the foam pit, and peered down at Maximoff. He twitched slightly in his sleep. He was clutching his jacket close to his chest, and you smiled softly at him. He looked much younger when he was asleep, his teenage personality seemed to fit better here. Who was he?
You squinted your eyes as an idea came over you. You suppressed a smirk as you inched closer to the edge of the foam pit. You reached down slowly and grabbed a foam cube with your hand. You let out a breath of air as you aimed it and with no further thought, you pelted his stomach with the cube.
He jumped and tackled you to the ground, Maximoff pinning you down with a fearful expression on his face. You gasped as his long blonde and silver hair created a curtain over his face. His brown eyes were wide and his pupils were blown. He painted quietly and you felt the warm breath on your own mouth. You both stared at each other in shock for a beat before he clambered off of you.
“Oh shit, sorry I-,” he fumbled over his words as he scurried away from you, almost falling into the foam pit again. He crawled backwards, still sitting and you slowly sat up. You blinked and stared at him. He didn’t use his powers on you and he didn’t even realise. His fearful expression echoed in your mind as he continued to stutter out an apology.
What had happened to Maximoff in his reality? Why was his first instinct to fight? He could just escape in the blink of an eye. But he didn’t. He didn’t expose his powers, instead he attacked.
You felt a pang of sympathy and untensed your shoulders. And for the first time in your life, you wanted to show someone. To show that you could at least understand. You didn’t know what his reality was like. You didn’t know how he got those powers or how old he was. But you fucking knew what that was like.
You felt the back of your throat burn and your nose twitched. You didn’t expect to choke down a sob. You thought you were past all this and here this man comes and makes you feel as if you're cowering against your desk. Staring at a cup of water in fear.
Maximoff watched you, his hands raised as he kept talking. Just a non ending stream of excuses.
You surprised the both of you when you put your palm out and stood up. Maximoff watched you, still on the floor. His hair was still covering his face, and slowly put his hand in yours.
You gripped his hand tightly and heaved him up. You stared at each other, your hands clasped, your bodies so close.
How? How did you get here? How did you get these powers? How were you so okay? Your thoughts, directed at him, screamed as you stared.
You forced yourself to still and you took a deep breath through your nose and raised your eyebrows with intent. Maximoff broke eye contact, brown eyes unsure. You breathed again and he copied you this time. Deep breathes filled the sound around you two.
“We’re going to go home soon. I can show you where you’ll sleep?” You offered and gently pulled your hand away. That seemed to shake Maximoff out of his daze and a goofy grin came over his face.
He gave a fast karate chop which startled you. “I am so tired. Let’s go Boss.” He cheered and appeared next to Iyer happily.
Your heart ached as you watched him poke the sleeping man. Maximoff didn’t trust anyone here, he didn’t know this place, didn’t know you people, and he was terrified. You felt your hands twitch and your eyes widened in horror as the water bottle by Iyer’s leg toppled over. You hastily shoved your hands deep into your pockets. You watched Maximoff jump happily as he antagonized Iyer, blue haze filling the space as he ran around. His powers on beautiful display, despite his feelings. You looked at him and then back at the water bottle.
You let out a puff of air as you ever so slowly, brought your hands out of your pockets.
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