experienceandpatience

"Stop apologizing, Pietro," he repeats a little more firmly, but not unkindly. His-- resolve is not so weak that the pheromones alone will be his undoing. It isn't as if he and Heike hadn't discussed what it potentially meant to take in an omega ages ago.

"Go clean up and we'll go."

The automatic response is to apologize again but the omega catches himself in time and, instead, takes a sip of his coffee.

“Okay. I won’t be long.” And true to his word, Pietro returns 10 minutes later, dressed accordingly and hair a little more tame -it’s never truly neat and he never really tries to make it so. “Ready.”

"Eager. I like it." he gives a teasing smile as he sets his now empty mug in the seat. Stepping forward, his reaches out to rest a hand against Pietro's back as they walk towards the door.

"Is there anywhere you would like to go in particular? Or shall we see where the drive takes us?"

Pietro rolls his eyes but he’s smiling and there’s something fond in his expression; perhaps a response to the easy tease.

“Wherever. It’ll just be nice to go out.” He and Wanda aren’t prisoners by any means, but they don’t really have anywhere to go, most of the time and it’s easy enough to stay on the estate.

"You know that you are free to go anywhere you like, don't you? You wouldn't even be limited to Sokovia." They have the means to send them anywhere they would like to go, even if Zemo thinks he may miss their presence close by.

“Yeah. We just don’t really have a lot of reason to.” They didn’t have anyone outside of the residents of the Zemo estate and, aside from small shopping trips, there wasn’t much else to go and do.

Any further than the country limits and Pietro is afraid he’d miss home, miss the place their parents were.

He’d miss Helmut himself.

"You do make the house much more lively when you're around. Both of you." He gives a fond smile as he guides Pietro towards the garage.

"I'm sure Heike enjoys the company when I'm gone as well."

Pietro offers a smile in response. "Well, I can definitely provide entertainment." Even if it is just that sometimes he's the butt of the joke for the two women of the house. "I think Wanda enjoys the female company after so long of just having her dumb brother as her only real companion."

He lets out a soft laugh at that despite himself. "Your sister would be lost without you, but perhaps. They do seem to be rather close, don't they?"

He eyes Pietro curiously. "And you... do you enjoy having company outside your sister?"

"I would be just as lost without her. She is a part of me." In the way only a twin could be, he thinks. They'd been together from the very start and they'd be together until the end.

"I do. I do wish you were here more, if only to stop them from ganging up on me. You leave and it's two against one."

"So you would rather they gang up on both of us." He gives a teasing smile. Heike would not care if there were two of them or not. It's one of the things he loves about her, honestly. "I do wish I could be here more often. Both for Heike and for you."

He leans in, nudging a shoulder against Pietro. "But I will be here now, for a week at least. How would you like to spend it? Anything you want, Pietro."

"So you would rather leave me to face them alone? At least together, I am not alone." It's an easy comradery to fall into and it's a surprise, given the strange way he felt before. "For me?

"I am happy to do anything if I get to do it with you."

"Point taken, Pietro." There's an amused chuckle before he gives a nod. "Does that bother you?"

It's... a difficult line to walk, between what instinct tells him to do and the desire to not make things awkward for Pietro.

the next comment has his expression softening a bit. "You flatter me."

“Together it is, at least, a United front. For all that would achieve against those two.” So, not really a lot. “No. It was just unexpected, I think.”

There’s clearly some level of mutuality here but Pietro isn’t sure how far that stems, or how far the Baron wants it to. And he’d never want to do anything that would hurt either Helmut or Heike. It makes it hard to know how much to say.

“I enjoy your company.” And, perhaps in a move that is too bold or just bold enough. “You make me feel safe I’m a way only Wanda ever has before. Though there is a difference, of course.”

"Of course you are safe," he assures fondly, his arm sliding more properly around Pietro's shoulders. This is all a very-- new sort of challenge, one that they're both trying to learn how to maneuver.

But it does warm him to hear Pietro say that. "Although I am curious... what sort of difference, beyond the obvious, Pietro?"

"We weren't always, before you." Pietro had been an omega on the streets and having a beta for a sister hadn't always been enough to scare people away when need be. He'd been lucky. Others weren't.

"Well, for starters," a teasing glint comes to Pietro's eyes and he smirks at the other man. "You are not my sister."

There's a sympathetic look. He knows it couldn't have been easy, an orphaned omega, and while he has little against betas - he did marry one that happened to be the love of his life - they weren't enough to always fend off alphas, especially an alpha who has caught the scent of a heat.

It couldn't have been easy.

The teasing has him smiling a bit, shrugging his shoulders. "You are right. I somehow doubt her dresses would flatter me quite as well."

He nudges Pietro forward once they've reached the garage and the car he wants. "Go, make yourself comfortable."

Pietro hasn't really spoken about what it was like before the Zemo's took them in. He had been fortunate enough that things had never progressed further than some verbal harassment, even when he had been at his most vulnerable.

"If anyone could pull off one of Wanda's dresses, it would be you. Or, if you were game enough to wear one, perhaps... I could pull it off." It's easy enough to get into the car, having a moment to hide his blush.

That surprises another laugh out of him, uncertain whether that's a true compliment or not... but the rest of it certainly piques his attention. He moves to slide into the driver's seat.

It isn't as if he and his wife haven't... discussed certain things, in depth. It needed to be done, with an Alpha and an Omega under the same roof that weren't truly related. As good as his control was, Pietro was... tempting.

And Heike had given her blessing. She cared for Pietro, trusted him. She also knew there was nothing that would compromise his love for her.

So it isn't with much guilt at all when he fixes Pietro with a teasing look. "Would I have to be in a dress for you to do that? Or will my regular clothing suffice?"

Pietro, unaware of the conversations the Alpha has had with his wife, is caught off guard by the response to his flirty comment and it shows on his face. He turns in his seat so that he's facing Helmut as best he can.

"Are you serious?" Of course, he had been, despite the obvious tease in his voice but he hadn't really expected much more than another flirt in return. "What about Heike? What... Does she know?"

There's a quiet chuckle. He can't quite help it for the look he receives in return. "You know that I would never do anything to hurt Heike, or without her blessing."

He gives a softer smile after a moment, reassuring. "You know that I would never do anything to hurt you or your sister either, of course."

Or he hopes he knows that.

"Yeah, that's why I asked." Pietro was well aware of the love and respect the Alpha had for his beta but that didn't mean the suggestion hadn't caught him off guard enough to question things.

He also didn't wish to hurt Heike in anyway.

"I know. I've never doubted it." In a moment of candor, Pietro smiles again. "It's part of what draws me to you."

"We have had some discussions." He isn't certain how much to bring up at the moment, but if it alleviates some of Pietro's worry...

"She knows there is a natural draw." And not simply because of what they are either. He gives a smile in return at that simple confession. He's glad to hear it.

"I think anyone who even looks at us knows that." It was palpable; it was in their scent, in the way they looked at each other, the way they moved around one another. Anyone with working eyes and nose would know of the natural draw between them.

But only Heike's opinion mattered outside of their own. "And? Where does she stand?"

"She loves you as much as she loves your sister, Pietro. And she is a practical woman... she's-- encouraged it. Us. If we want it." If they both want it. It's a complicated matter - he knows that, and he would rather not hurt their relationship as it is now.

But he doesn't think that it would.

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