3 Days Later

Wanda, Pietro, Vision, Tony, and I all stand outside on the lawn to headquarters as we watch Natasha, Steve, and Sam board their respective jets. Each is being flown by some of the new SHIELD recruits, giving the Avengers the freedom to relax as they head their separate ways. Sam and Steve are headed to London for the funeral of Margret Carter while Natasha is headed to Vienna for the signing of the Accords. This leaves Pietro, Wanda, Vision, Tony, and I. Rhodes got a call from the Air Force about a day ago and hasn't been back since.

So far, the tension has been crazy here. There's this near tangible hostility between everybody. But in a low-key way. Tony, Natasha, Vision, and Rhodes have all signed the Accords. Meanwhile, Pietro, Wanda, Sam, Steve, and I have decided not to. And Clint. But he's been tending to his chickens as of late and nobody really counted on him signing the Accords. It was kinda inferred that he was retiring when he left the New Avengers facility to be with his family.

Then there was the slight tension between Steve and Pietro. I was quick to let Steve know that Pietro had managed to discover me attempting to tracking down Bucky. I remember the two having a long talk about it before coming to a neutral agreement. I was doing this to help Steve find his best friend while also attempting to get answers about my past. We also came to the agreement that should this get to be too dangerous, we'd let it go. Pietro and I have moved past the argument, but I can still tell there's a bit of tenseness between the two males.

As the jets begin to power up, sending forceful winds whipping across the field, Tony turns and begins to walk back to the base behind us before Vision casts the three of us a look. His gaze lingers for mere seconds before he too turns and follows his creator back inside. This leaves the three of us to receive bad hairstyles and watery eyes due to the wind as we watch our friends leave for a few days. Once the jets take off in like directions, I heave a long, drawn-out sigh. I reach up and run my hand through my hair a couple of times before allowing it to settle. I see the twins following my lead. "You know, now that the parents are gone, we have a nearly free reign of the palace, right?" I say with a smirk, looking sideways at the two twins. They look back at me with a childish curiosity.

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"Pietro stop cutting me off!" I shout without taking my eyes off the screen the three of us are staring very intently at. Somehow I managed to teach Wanda and Pietro the fundamentals of Mario Cart and we've been playing for the past hour. Given, the first fifteen minutes was mostly teaching them how to play. Pietro seemed to pick it up fairly quickly while Wanda's a natural at it. It didn't take them long to get used to the controllers and the game rules. But, unsurprisingly, Pietro kept complaining about how the carts didn't move fast enough and how everything was too slow to be racing. I think I've smacked him at least fifteen times already.

"Well then maybe you should have picked a faster..." He blinks a few times, his face scrunching up as he fights for the correct word. I still sometimes forget he and his sister are foreigners and don't have the same extended vocabulary like I do.

"Cart?" I question with a scowl as I unleash a red shell on him. "I'm using the fastest cart in the game, Pietro." This causes him to laugh as he seems undeterred with spinning out, allowing his sister to pass him as she grins.

"Perhaps this means he is just a better driver than you, Iris." Wanda comments as she manages to pass me next.

"I believe my sister is correct." I don't dare comment.

"You guys have been playing this game for an hour and you're already better than me. What is this world coming to?" I grumble to myself as I get hit by a green shell and then hit a banana peel. "WHO KEEPS SPAMMING ALL THESE BANANA PEELS IN ONE PLACE THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE." I shout as I hit another banana peel, setting me back into seventh place as Wanda cackles. "WANDA!" I say accusingly as she crosses the finish line, followed by Pietro, and eventually me. Her only response is more laughing. "You know what? Before my ego is bruised anymore than it already is, let's do something else." I close the game and shut off the TV before setting my controller down on the table. Wanda and Pietro follow my lead as I stand up and make my way to the kitchen. I pull out a clear glass and set it on the counter as my eyes look at the many bottles of alcohol lining it. "Honestly, with the amount of alcohol Stark consumes I'd be surprised if he wasn't 97% alcohol himself." I comment as I shift through the clear containers of what I can assume is whiskey and other forms of alcohol.

"Hasn't he caught fire before?" Pietro asks as he takes a seat on one of the bar stools, followed by his sister. I grin at the Sokovian speedster as I pull a bottle of amber liquid across the counter to me before pulling the top off.

"Yes! I think he was in Italy? On a racetrack? He was on fire then. Well, his racing suit was." I laugh and bend down to take a whiff of the strong alcohol before recoiling with a grimace. "Wow, that smells disgusting." I straighten up and look away from the amused faces of the twins to my glass. "Almost as bad as Russian vodka." I comment and cap the container before pushing it back where I found it, deciding on just some orange juice instead.

"Have you had Russian vodka?" Wanda asks, leaning her elbows on the counter while setting her chin on her hands.

"Is that a trick question?" I grimace as I go into the fridge and grab a pitcher filled with orange juice, pour myself a glass, and then walk around and take a seat next to Pietro. "It's funny, actually. Russians seem to drink vodka like it's water." I laugh and notice both the twins grinning at me.

"Have you been to Russia?" Wanda asks innocently.

"Yeah. I was held in Russia." Despite living with the team for a year, I've been rather secretive about my time as a test subject. The most anybody really knows about it is that I was held by HYDRA up until about five years ago, that I destroyed the facility accidentally, and that my creation proved to Strucker that an enhanced can be created. I look away and swish the juice around my glass before taking a sip. As soon as the liquid hits my tongue, I gag and spit the OJ back into the glass with a cough. This causes the grins on the twins' faces to turn into concerned frowns. Before either can ask what's wrong, I grimace and stand back up. "That is not orange juice." I only now notice the faint smell of alcohol that's been dulled by the smell of sweet fruit. At least my suffering is amusing, as both twins burst into laughter at my revelation. "Why does Stark have a pitcher of mimosa in his fridge? Does he not have enough alcohol on his counter? Like there's not even a carton of normal orange juice in the fridge! So I mean any rational person would just assume this is the normal orange juice! But noooooo, Tony just loves to spike all his drinks with alcohol. That man, I swear." I mutter to myself as I pour the drink down the drain. "Disgusting." I grumble and notice that both of the twins still haven't stopped laughing. They're leaning on each other as they laugh, their faces expressions of joy. I stand there staring and smiling as I watch them.

Shaking my head, I place the glass in the sink before moving back to the opposite side of the Maximoff's. Their laughter is slowly dying down as Wanda wipes under her eye as though she's got tears. Pietro sits back up, gently tapping the counter with his hand as he slowly calms down. I begin to fiddle with the drawers, pulling them open before shutting them as I investigate their contents. As I reach the third drawer and pull it open, my eyes widen and a smile breaks out on my face. "Holy crap there's glow sticks in here." I probably shouldn't be surprised considering this is Tony Stark's 'personal bar,' but it still is surprising.

It can't hurt to have a personal party, right?