Pietro nodded. "Sounds like you got back at 'em, though," he said, not moving. "Which is good. Bastards deserved it."

"They deserved more than what we did to them," Autumn muttered, cuddling a bit closer to him.

Pietro held her closer, just relaxing there with her.

"Well, when we find the rest of them, I'll keep that in mind," he murmured.

"I don't know what they did to me," Autumn said, her voice trembling a bit. "But I feel like they broke me, somehow."

"They didn't," Pietro said quietly but firmly. "Not unless you let them break you. You're not broken, you'll be okay if you want to be. Might take some work, but you're an agent of SHIELD. That's not exactly an easy job, so this should be fine."

"I feel like I got taken apart and didn't get put back together quite right," Autumn said quietly. "I'm not the same as I was, and I'm not sure if it's a good different."

Pietro shrugged. "You just have to figure it out," he said. "And if it's not a good different, then you make it good, however you have to."

Autumn made a small sound and put her head on his shoulder.

Pietro stayed there, holding her close. He knew it wasn't all that likely that he would really be able to help her, but he would find ways anyway. She needed the help, and he wanted to be the one to help her.

Autumn stayed there with him until the feeling of fabric against her skin got to be too much again, and she reluctantly moved away again.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just-- I can't--" She made a frustrated sound, not able to put into words what was happening.

"Don't worry about it," Pietro said with a little shrug. "You're still adjusting. It'll take time to get used to everything." He grinned a bit, rather teasingly. "You'll just have to be patient."

"It's just... difficult," Autumn replied quietly. "These are the softest things I own, and it feels like I'm wearing burlap or something." Her skin was sensitive to the point of pain, now, and she had no idea how to make it stop. Charles had obviously taken the edge off of some of her other senses, but this one seemed to be getting through full-force.

Pietro shrugged helplessly. He really had no ideas here. "Think about something else? Do something to distract yourself?"

"It's not that easy," Autumn replied, shaking her head a little. She bit her lip. She just didn't want to face everyone yet, and 'doing something else' meant leaving her room.

"I really don't know what to tell you," Pietro said with another little shrug. "I run things off, but that's just me. You could go grab whats-her-face for a while, she's still hanging around."

"Maybe," Autumn said, hunkering down a bit. "We'll see. I'm going to try to come down for dinner tonight, at least."

"If you don't feel up to it, I can bring food up again," Pietro offered. "Free of charge, even." He grinned teasingly at her, trying to lighten the mood some.

"We'll see how tonight turns out," Autumn said. She couldn't help but crack a small smile. "But thanks for the offer, I do appreciate it."

"Any time." Pietro sat there quietly for a little bit longer. Hopefully she'd be okay with a little more time.

After a little while, Autumn felt okay enough to lean against him a little again. She still felt like his shirt was too rough, but it wasn't as bad as it had been earlier.

Not quite two weeks later, things had calmed down. Alexis had settled into a new routine that involved running with Steve every day, and she had learned to at least mostly temper her strength.

So now, of course, Coulson needed to know everything, and had pulled the girls in to do a full physical evaluation on them. Alexis had dragged Steve with as her security blanket.

Autumn was there as well, accompanied by Charles and Pietro, who had insisted on tagging along. Autumn had also learned how to curb her new strength, but she still wore sunglasses most of the time, when she could get away with it.

Coulson nodded to the two. "Start with physical eval," he said. "The usual eval test." He nodded to the area cleared out for them to work in.

Alexis nodded, glanced at Steve reflexively, and started running. She didn't go full speed yet though.

Autumn steeled herself, and then took off her sunglasses and started running the track as well. The sooner she started the eval, the sooner she could get back somewhere more comfortable. She couldn't help but glance at Pietro a few times, though.

Alexis sped up after the first lap, until she was lapping Autumn. It wasn't too hard, but she did have to work for it. Clearly running with Steve was paying off.