Brief return

[Shade]

The way he spoke those last few words got her attention. It sounded like a reproach, as if he was accusing someone; someone who had not done this, not used names. Usually, this would have been the point where she would have offered her opposit to talk about whatever was troubling him, because now she could sense there was something heavy on Pietro´s mind. Still, her dislike forbid her to do something of the like. Her voice when she spoke again though did not bear the same sharpness as it had before.

"Yeah." she said. "it´s even more fun when you use real names." She did a step towards him, her face serious but devoid of mocking. "Shade." she said extending a hand towards him. "not ´harlot´s friend´ and especially not ´Eva Braun´s cohort´. Just Shade." Her words did not imply her dropping allegiance with Rogue, quite the contrary. She was stating her point again, standing up against him. In her own defence, but in particular in Rogue´s.

[Pietro Maximoff]

"Your real name isn't Shade," ::Pietro said, but it wasn't an insult or an accusation of lying. He had balked at Magneto's insistance that their names in battle were their true names. It was weaponizing, to distill a person down to their abiities. A reminder that in Magneto's desired brave, new world, a person could be nothing more than their powers. He only used "Quicksilver" was because it was clever and he'd be damned if he was the only one on the battlefield to use his given name. Regardless of those thoughts, he took her hand in his, but waited for her given name before shaking.::

[Shade]

She could tell Pietro meant no insult with it, his voice was too calm to that; still what he said evoked her resistance. Noone knew what he would have called her ´real name´ - noone but Gambit and Rogue. She didn´t give it away lightly and didn´t even really know why. Maybe, because Shade had become her identity in the last year.

She looked into the young man´s eyes, without hatred, but stubborn to some extent. "Someone gave me that name." she said. her voice sounding steady. It had been Jimmy. She had called it stupid first, an unnecessary thing she didn´t need. A nickname, whoever needed that just because of being a mutant? But her view on that had changed with her brother´s death. "It´s all I have left of him."

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro accepted that answer. They all clung to what small reminders they had of loved ones. If he lost Wanda, and he assumed the other woman had lost a parent or a sibling, his entire identity would change.

It seemed they were calling truce, here. He still thought nothing of Rogue and would be the first to step in should the Brotherhood start up again. And if she were to choose her friend over the mansion, he'd take that as it came. Barring that, he didn't need another quarrel, and he could see himself in her eyes as she spoke about her loved one. He shook her hand firmly, showing his confidence and lack of diffidence, but without that additional tight squeeze he use with men he didn't trust, as though to say, "I'm watching you.":: "I am still Pietro."

[Shade]

Shade nodded before she released his hand again. He was wary of her she could tell. He didn´t trust her because of her friendship with Rogue and she knew he would become dangerous if there ever came the moment when he saw it apt to act against Rogue. She knew she would step in then which would sure as anything bring them on oposite sides again, Pietro and herself. For now she read something like an agreement in his face. He did not demand for her given name and had he done so she would not have given it to him.

She did not feel like justifying any further for him. She had her reasons to go by this name and not another. And she did neither know nor trust him enough to tell him more. Sharing that kind of thing was a privilege.

She thought for a moment. None of them had given in but she had made her point and shown she felt on a level with him; she was no weaker than Pietro which meant she could afford herself to leave now. Even turning her back on him, it would not be a defeated retreat.
"I´ll go get some things." she said, nodding into his direction before turning away.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro's hand dropped to his side when she released it, and he remained where he was as she excused herself and walked away. She had more confidence, he noticed, far more than when they had first met. She had all but run away that last time, using her abilities to hide she and that Rogue child as though that would have made a difference. He and Wanda had let them go. She was a stronger woman than she had been; that came hand in hand with confidence. If only she kept better company. He resumed sitting on the bench to mull over the conversation, the truce that had been called, unplanned as it was.::