One Against the World

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro absorbed her small tirade with a slight nod. Her sensitivity was born from experiences he could understand, rather than foolishness, and that he could respect.:: "Very well."

[Shade]

Shade still had her eyes on him and she still felt agitated. Pietro´s words did not sound sarcastic and she had the feeling he was honest about the feeling sorry, yet that did not much to calm her down completely, so she just gave him a glare. "You´re not the only one with bad memories." she said. "or with problems. It´s time you learn that." Her words sounded a little less harsh than she had intended them to sound, but his short reply to her rather long elaboration and the fact that her head was still throbbing had made her patience with him run really low.

[Pietro Maximoff]

"I'm well aware of that," ::Pietro replied. Did she think he was blind? If he honestly thought that the world was perfect but for his own lot in life, he would not rail against Magneto and injustice as he did. The world was troubled, but his world had been twisted.:: "I'm still the only one with the troubles I have."

[Shade]

Shade looked at him for a long moment. If it had not been for his earlier outburst she would have sympathised. That process had been there already, developing from the day when she had seen him with all those casts and started to wonder what had happened to him. But his physical violence had destroyed those good intentions of her trying to understand. She had never known violence against her, apart from some childhood fights and those really didn´t count - had been raised in the believe that violence was wrong and a sign of weakness.

"Yes, you are." she said. "but I tell you what. Problems although they sometimes can´t be erased, can be eased at least. And many people have a far less lower opintion of someone losing his temper against women than against someone secretly in love with his sister." She could not put that to rest, it was outrageous. Pietro kept insisting on his troubles which was a normal thing to do but there was no remorse of any sort with regards to his attack.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro could not quite believe she had the audacity to condemn his outburst on those grounds, that she was a women, rather than violence born of anger for violence's sake. His outburst was fine, to her, if she were male; at the same time, she could say as she wished, do as she wished, with no repercussions because she chose to hide behind her skirt? Such a belief boggled his mind. Even if she had never been a member of Magneto's Brotherhood - which Pietro found suspect as a claim - she knew that both the child Rogue and the shape-shifter had been members, had fought and killed. Women were hardly defenseless. Focusing on his own side, on his own family, Wanda, Rossignol, Ororo, Jean, all women, all possessed far greater power than he did.:: "The women I know can kill with a gesture."

::A pause followed, agonizingly long as Pietro's thoughts raced to what, precisely, should be done. He could not apologize, not as a battle of wills, but simply because he did not apologize without remorse and he had none for this. On some level, yes, in that he preferred not to act on his urges at all, but she had riled him and as the caveat read, "buyer beware." The conversation had become far more frustrating than usual, simply because there was a bridge he could not cross, and thus understanding between them could never be reached. She would not know that he lived each second of each day in a false reality, of which he was painfully aware while all others were blissfully not. How there were days he cursed ever meeting Wanda for this, and those thoughts pained him. How even on his darkest days he could not do anything about the situation, not even contemplating ending it, because it would destroy her. That he no longer lived for himself, that he had become a non-entity, existing only for Wanda's well-being and each moment was torture. She, too, would hate the world. She, too, would have no patience. She, too, would strike out because it was the only recourse she possessed. Yet she could not understand because he could never say those five words, "None of this is real."::

[Shade]

Shade´s gaze hardened slightly. Did he think she reproached him for the mere fact that she assumed women weaker than men? She did not, she never had, she had always hated to be treated weaker, as some men did against women, calling cutesie nicknames, being all respectful and oh-don´t-you´re-a-woman. It was one of the things she had always valued in Gambit: he cut her no slack for being a woman, but that did not mean he acted respectless like Pietro had done.

"This is nothing to do with weakness." she said. "It´s a matter of respect. If this is how you react to people setting you off, I maybe should return the favour in the same way." He had been setting her off more than once. He constantly did.

[Pietro Maximoff]

"Feel free," ::An invitation, not a taunt. Others were easier to understand when spoken in the language of fists than that of words. More than that, it would make Pietro feel, even if it was only pain.::

[Shade]

The oportunity was there and it was too good to miss. Although living up to her own threat and his offer meant that she would step down to his level, Shade felt that there was so much frustration against his ignorance and so much anger against him stored inside her that this would come as a relief. For a moment, she was twelve again, a tough little tomboy with more boys as friends than girls who had always lived in a safe environment but had learned how to have a decent fight in their little playful gang wars in the forests around their homes.

Without fear, she walked towards him, her gaze locked with Pietro´s. He was taller than her, but that didn´t matter. She still knew how to fight, after all the years. One didn´t forget about things like that. Putting all her strenght into the blow, she aimed for his chin with her right.She would strike hard if he did not use his powers to avoid her.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro could easily dodge from her way, even if it were only to side-step. He did not, merely met her gaze as she struck. It came slowly, contacted with his jaw, and he felt a tooth dislodge as he jerked his head back from the pressure.::

[Shade]

Her heart was pounding in her ears and Shade realised that she had put all her anger into this one blow, making her head spin with long withheld fury. She looked at her knuckles as they stung and noticed a fine line of blood trickling down her hand which didn´t bother her. The fact that he didn´t even try to fight back was kind of a let down, but she had gotten what she wanted. er eyes ablaze, her fist still balled she looked up at him with her eyes ablaze "You have no idea how long I´ve been looking forward to this." she hissed. For all the insults, especially those against Rogue.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro's jaw ached, though he made no action to soothe it. He could deal with it later, had learned in his childhood how to stave off nursing wounds. With his tongue he found the tooth that had been knocked loose, half-rooted now. Later, alone, he would fully remove it so it did not dangle maddeningly.

His gaze did not waver, and he found it almost comical, how quickly she had gone from her moral superiority to sinking to "his" so-called level. It always came down to violence; Magneto had shown him that enough times in life, and very few were above it. Only the pure, and she was not.:: "I have more than an idea."

[Shade]

Apart from her childhood fights, Shade had never struck on purpose. When she had slapped Gambit on the bridge it had been a gesture of helplessness which had shocked herself and it had been a slap, no fist blow like this one. It meant he had enraged her a lot, leaving her usual peacefulness behind.

"You do?" she asked, her gaze still the same. Thoughts connected in her mind, memories, ideas and theories "Was it that feeling that made you beat up your dad?" She was provoking him dangerously and part of her knew that, but she had never been one to back down against Pietro, not after her cheap escape after their first encounter.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro's expression hardened. Breath exhaled quickly as he pulled on all of his inner strength to keep from putting her in her place.:: "He is not my father."

[Shade]

He was angry, dangerously angry and Shade knew, had Pietro not hit her before, this would have been the moment for him to strike. She braved his look. She had never wanted to say something that cruel, because she sensed that it was the worst thing possible to say to him - pointing out that he was Magneto´s son. It had to e tormenting for him not being able to escape that. Damn, he even looked a whole lot like him.

There was a smartass reply to that on her tongue, relating to his earlier rebuke of "do" being an action word, picking about her use of grammar, a remark about the definition of the word ´father´, but she said no word. Instead, she just raised an eyebrow at him, before she turned around to walk away.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro watched her turn away, leave again as she had the first time they met. He did not call after her, better to let this die here. When she was out of sight, he brought a finger to his mouth, used it to check the bleeding. Yes, he would need Hank. And it settled all concerns about what to do with Wanda; why would she ever desire him?::