Prelude: What We Need We'll Never Have

Pietro liked his life the way it was, thank you very much. He and Wanda would go to school and then afterwards they'd play with their friend, Evan. Pietro really liked Evan, he cared about him almost as much as he cared about his sister. He was good at basketball and even let Wanda braid his hair into cornrows, something Pietro would never do, no matter how much he loved her. That was one of the things that made him admire Evan, along with his ability to drink a gallon of milk in one sitting, without getting sick.

Sometimes when Wanda would get really bored the boys would cave in and play house with her. Evan, of course, would play Wanda's husband, because it would be disgusting to the twins if they had to marry each other, so Pietro was often stuck with being the uncle to Wanda's two dolls, Tommy and Billy. It was a rather small family they had, but it was still fun for Pietro whenever Wanda got mad at Evan for not doing one of his husband duties, like change their kids' diapers or bring her flowers. Pietro has never really seen his father doing anything like that because their mother was long gone, but he doubted he'd ever do that anyway.

So, one day, they were playing basketball, Pietro against both Wanda and Evan – he lost the coin toss on who got to take Wanda – and he managed to pass Evan and was heading for Wanda, when he heard her yelling.

"Pietro, you're running too fast!" And after a second, he did notice that everything he passed seemed more blurry than before. Still, he couldn't miss his chance, so he charged, passing Wanda and heading straight to the net. He threw the ball and scored, turning around to proclaim his victory, when he saw that both Evan and Wanda were staring blankly beneath his feet.

Pietro followed them suit, seeing the molten asphalt tray he left behind.

That was the day Pietro's life changed completely.