summary: Some years into the future...X23 disappears from the Institute, leaving nothing behind but a broken-hearted Pietro Maximoff. Why did she leave? And why was she gone so long? Xietro oneshot.

Author's note: I wrote this while listening to One Republic's "Apologize". Great song - however, lyrics really have nothing to do with the story. But it's just a note, cause I tend to write to music, so I like to include my soundtrack as well. Also, this is my first fic under this penname...so be nice, please?

X-X-X-X-X Too Late To Apologize

He knew she was back in the mansion before anyone (except Logan). If he exaggerated a little, he would say that he knew she was back as soon as she was coming up the winding up the driveway. But that'd be a lie.

Every day for the past five years, he had listened to the front door of the mansion open and close, and his ears perked up every time, hoping that it was her. That she had finally come back. That she had come to her senses and returned. Each time, he was shot down.

But this time...this time, it was different. Something changed in the air, there was an unspoken energy and tension in the atmosphere now. His heart beat a pattern that it hadn't in nearly five long, lonely years.

He noticed the clock - 2:57 AM, it read - as he quickly threw on discarded jeans and a sweatshirt over his tshirt and boxers before super-speeding down the stairs to the front door, an unknown source of energy fuelling him in the early morning hours.

And there she was, still standing in front of the closed door. Her hair had been cut choppily, weird angles all over her head, the longest being at her collar bone. It looked as if it had been cut with claws, not scissors. She was also in a HYDRA spandex suit, which was definitely a warning sign that she had been going through troubles.

Pietro took a step closer to X23, putting his arms halfway up for an embrace, as if he was still contemplating it. She looked at him with wide green eyes, cautiously lifting up a hand and barely touching one of his.

"I need to talk to you, before anything." she whispered. Her throat sounded dry. Pietro nodded quickly.

"Of course. What about Logan?" he asked quickly. He didn't feel the need to slow it down for her - he knew she could understand him.

"Weapon X has already been here. He'll leave us alone." she responded, her fingertips still lightly touching his. Pietro nodded again.

"Do you need anything? Water, food?" he asked.

"It can wait." she said, then grabbed his hand and led him out the door again, closing the door almost silently. She sprinted across the yard, leading way to a bench underneath a tree far from the Institue. It was covered in shadows, and Pietro could hardly see anything.

"Why are we coming here? It's pitch black." he asked. He could tell she sat down, because the old bench squeaked softly.

"I don't want to see your expression when you hear some of the things I'm sure will come up." she responded.

"I'm not sure how to take that." Pietro said, feeling out a spot next to her in the darkness.

"I guess...just...I don't know how to do this." X23 said. Pietro could hear the frustration in her voice.

"Here, I'll start." he offered. He figured her silence meant yes. "Why did you leave?"

More silence, before a sorrowful sigh from his partner. "That's a bit complicated."

"We've got all night." he said bluntly.

"Ok. Hydra...wasn't completely destroyed, like I thought it was. Viper...the one that created me...survived, somehow. And she found out where I was, what I was doing...she watched me, constantly, and for a long time..." she paused, and Pietro heard the soft crinkling of paper that had been folded and unfolded too many times. "She sent me this...and I know you can't see it...but it says, 'You come, or he dies.' Five words, and my life came crashing down around me."

"Did that mean me?" he asked softly.

"Yes." she answered shortly. "They even put some of your blood on it, just so I wouldn't get confused as to who it was. Did you have a cut anywhere, the morning...?"

"I honestly can't remember." he answered. "My mind was focused elsewhere."

Another moment of silence.

"So, you get the note, then you went with them, and...?" he prompted.

"I go with them, back to their base, and they continue right where the experiment left off. They developed this drug, to pause the healing factor on certain areas of me so that they could operate without me healing too quickly, so now my body..." she choked up and stopped. There was a long silence, and Pietro felt around and grasped her hand, encouraging her to go on. "I have scars now. All over, except for my face." she gasped out. "They're faint, the drug wasn't that powerful, but...it still surprises me, every time I see them.

"For three years, I was stuck in that base, with them running experiments on me, testing me. I grew cold again...But I couldn't take it. I personally took care of Viper and every single person in the program before destroying the complex, once and for all."

"Where did you go then?" Pietro asked. She was silent at first, before slowly pulling her hand out from his. He imagined her pulling her knees up to her chest, but since all he could see was shadows, he wasn't sure.

"New York City, trying to escape. I was living off the streets, doing alright, until..." she fell silent again. Pietro opened his mouth to say something encouraging, but she interrupted him. "No, I'm going to get this out. Just give me a moment."

So Pietro shut his mouth, and simply waited for her to continue. After a few minutes spent in complete silence, she seemed to gather enough strength to finish her thought.

"This man came to me, when I was on the streets. He offered me a nice place to sleep, and food, and anything else I could want, if I would do things for him. I had just come from Hydra, I thought he was a mercenary or bounty hunter or something, and had somehow figured out my assassin abilities. So I accepted..."

"He wasn't looking for an assassin, was he?" Pietro asked softly.

"No. He was looking for a prostitute." she answered shortly. "Every time that man made me go to someone...every time, I thought of you, and I felt dirty, and cheap, and used, and so alone...I had this undying guilt, that just ate me away at night...

It was then that I realized that it wouldn't be good for me to come back to you." she said.

"But you're here." he said, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"But I'm here." she agreed, and she sounded as if a weight had been lifted off of her. "You should know, every day I was gone, I couldn't get you out of my head. Every night, I imagined I was back here with you, imagined your voice, your touch...I never meant to do anything to hurt you."

"You left." he stated shortly, but not angrily. He heard a sharp intake of breath.

"But don't you realize for what? I couldn't handle you being killed or captured by them, Pietro - if anything were to happen to you, it would have killed me inside. And after all I did, all that had been done to me...I'm tainted, now."

Silence.

"Why didn't you come back here after Hydra?" he asked her. She paused.

"I wasn't myself. I wasn't who you knew, I wasn't who I knew. That's why I went to the City, to try and find myself again. Instead, I became more lost, and there was a point where..." she left him hanging.

"A point where what?" he prompted.

"Where it was too late!" she said, and she could hear the sobs threatening to escape.

"Too late for what?!" he continued.

"Too late to apologize!" she finally screamed, and he could hear the pain escape. He quickly grabbed her in an embrace, holding her tightly and close to him. "I had done too many things, so many wrong, hateful things, and too many things had happened to me...too much time had passed...I felt disappointment in myself, and in everything around me, and I couldn't bear to come back to you like that..."

"It was never too late." he said to her. "You are not the only one who did wrong in the past five years." her answer was sobbing. "The first year after you left, I couldn't do anything but run. I ran everywhere, no matter where it was. I just had to run, like Forrest Gump. The second year, I tried to drown away my pain in drugs, and alcohol, and other girls...but there was always the crash, where everything would pile on me and reality would hit like a semi. Three and a half years after you left, I overdosed and almost died. It was then that Lance and the others sent me here...and I don't even want to know how you knew I was here instead of the Brotherhood...and McCoy saved me and put me in rehab. I've been clean for a year and a half, living off the hope that you would come back."

She finally pulled away from his embrace, sliding her hands up in the darkness until she had her hands on either side of his face, softly feeling the shape.

"We're pretty messed up, aren't we?" she asked softly, and they both gave a quiet laugh.

"Yea, but I think that it's what makes us work so well." he responded. He placed one hand on hers, slowly moving up her arm until he too found her face, specifically her lips. When he finally did find them, he slowly moved forward in the lessening darkness, finally covering her mouth with his in a simple way to explain that it was never, in fact, too late to apologize.

They then held each other close, watching the sunrise. A dawn of a brand new day.