Not everyone got their happy endings.

No, life wasn't some Disney movie where you sang a song and all your dreams came true. Life was cruel and played with your heart before ripping away the one thing that actually meant something to you.

And for me, that 'one thing', was Pietro Maximoff.

I had lived a life where the people who were supposed to keep me safe were the ones who caused me the most pain. So when I finally escaped that life, I didn't bother to hold onto the tiny flicker of hope that had somehow survived years of endless torture. I built up walls so high that I wasn't sure I could take them apart even if I wanted to.

My life had changed drastically after I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. They taught me how to fight and helped me learn to fully control my powers. I didn't have to be afraid anymore. But the best part was that I was no longer alone. I grew close to a couple of agents. One of them being Clint who had become something like a father to me. Then there was Natasha who gave the 'tough speech' when needed.

Even though I started to talk to people and actually socialize, I never grew very close to anyone. Everytime someone got a bit too close, I found myself pushing them away. Clint was the only one who had somehow managed to stay put and in a way, it was a good thing because that meant that I was never truly alone.

My life stayed constant after that. I was the girl who trained and went on missions, completing them efficiently and well. But that all changed when I got the mission to gather all the information HYDRA had on the enhanced. Fury deemed me the most fit to carry out this mission since I was an enhanced myself. He thought I could use that as an advantage to get any enhanced that we met along the way on our side.

Of course all that changed after Ultron recruited the only two known enhanced to his side and I tagged along with the Avengers on their mission.

Pietro Maximoff was -at first- a nuisance, with his impatience and speed and quick tongue. I never thought I could stand the likes of him for more than five seconds. But that changed after I read his file and realised our pasts were quiet similar expect for the fact that the twins were ophaned at the age of ten because their parents died, not because they were abandoned.

After that, I found myself growing closer to him without even realising it. I grew to realise that Pietro wasn't the annoying person I had thought of him as. When needed, he was actual quiet thoughtful and a good listener which I found very surprising. But the turning point in our relationship had been when I told him about my parents and he hadn't looked at me the way others did. He seems to actually understand in someway and that was more than I could have asked for.

Pietro was the one who brought down those walls with sweet words that still rang in my ear as I sat alone in my room -those first few days after returning from Sokovia- knees pulled to my chest and eyes squeezed shut while I tried to stop the image of him falling that day in Sokovia. He was the one that made me open up and got me to realise that I could be loved and not because of the pain I had gone through, but because I was someone worth caring for.

We may have only known each other for a couple of weeks, but that was enough for me to understand what kind of a person he was. He may have played tough, but that was only because it had been necessary what with the life he lead. He had to be the strong one to survive a world as harsh as the one we lived in and moreover, for the sake of his sister.

But I had seen his soft side, maybe for just a couple of minutes, but that was enough for me to realise he wasn't the person I thought he was, but so much more.

At first, I thought getting close to him was a mistake, but after I recovered from the initial shock of his death I couldn't believe how selfish of a thought it was. Even if we couldn't be together, the small amount of time I spent with him was something I would never regret. Even though our lips only met once, it was something I would never be able to forget because Pietro had been the one who made me realise that people did actually care about me.

In a way, Pietro Maximoff had brought out the best in me.

After spending a month at the Avengers tower, I packed up and left with Clint. I wasn't retiring like he was, I just needed a break from it all and leaving to stay with his family for a couple of weeks was exactly the best option in that.

On my first night at the Barton's farmhouse, I sat in bed late at night waiting for everyone else to fall asleep. When I was sure they were all in bed, I snuck out of my room knowing that if I was caught, Clint would ask me what I was up to. I walked out onto the front porch, chilly wind hitting my arms. I didn't bother to sit down, instead rummaged through my pocket before pulling out a small piece of folded paper.

I opened it, running a finger over the creases to smoothen it out before looking down at the scribbles on the paper which somehow actually looked neat in an odd way. The words written on it didn't really mean anything to me. They were just scribbles written when we were trying to locate Ultron.

The thing that did mean something was that it was written by Pietro. Maybe it wasn't some kind of meaningful letter with sweet words bidding farewell, but it was a small but meaningful reminder that Pietro Maximoff had been a part of my life.

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Looks like this is the end.

Oh wait a minute! No it's not! I'm going to be publishing an alternate ending in a couple of days so maybe please don't remove this book from your libraries yet! Also there's a chance of some extra chapters (maybe one or two...) so this is definitely not the end.

So, as usual, please consider giving a vote or leaving a comment to let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

(No, seriously, thank you all so much for reading and voting and commenting! You guys are the best. Oh, and by the way, the actual 'bye bye speech' (lol) will be at the end of the book so bye for now!)