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“I don’t understand…” Natasha paced in front of him.
“You don’t understand. I asked a simple question. I expected a simple response.” Tony shrugged.
“But back up though—People are picking on your intern at school and you want me to go and take care of this?”
Tony nodded.
“Why? What’s so special about this intern? Why can’t he handle this all on his own? Tell a teacher, a parent, the principle? This hardly seems like an Avenger level threat.” Natasha asked.
“It’s not that simple. He doesn’t even know I’m getting involved, but Nat—-The kid doesn’t have parents.” Tony told her his friend softly.
“We’ve all got a tragic back story…”
“He made him cry. He’s a bully. You hate bullies. AND I’ll upgrade your weapons!”
Nat’s sighed, “Give me a name.”
~
Nat walked behind the boy after school and waited for her plan to fall into motion. Clint walked toward him from the other side and the kid turned back and his face paled of color. He knew he was trapped by two Avengers, but he probably had no clue as to why.
He held his hands up in surrender, “Listen. I know I shouldn’t have stolen that pack of gum, but I had forgotten my wallet, and I just took it.”
“You think this is about gum?” Clint asked.
Flash nodded rapidly.
“This isn’t about gum.” Natasha told him pulling out her stun gun to check how it was functioning in front of him.
“Wh—Whats it about—About then?” Flash stammered watching the stun gun.
“Peter Parker.” Natasha said slowly—In a tone that implied a threat.
“What about Penis Parker?” Flash asked gaining some bravery again.
“Leave him be.” Clint told him.
“Or else?” Flash asked.
Natasha walked over to Clint, “Remember Budapest? That was crazy. Remember that guy we took down—It’s a shame that his face couldn’t be put back together again.”
Flash swallowed audibly, “Fine. Whatever.”
“Don’t make me come back here…EVER.” Natasha told him putting the stun gun where it belonged.
~
Peter walked into the lab one day and was surprised to find Natasha there, “You’re the BLACK WIDOW! You’re like the coolest superhero ever! I can’t even! Mr. Stark! You didn’t tell me she’d be here—If you had…I would have ya know…Fixed my hair or something….It’s normally not this crazy…Promise. OMG! ARE YOU REALLY BEST FRIENDS WITH CLINT?” Peter rambled setting all of his stuff on the floor and sitting on the chair next to her.
Natasha tried not to smile, but she looked at Tony and Tony could tell she finally understood why he had asked for her help, “I was actually going to ask you what product you use in your hair? Curls are so tough to tame. Clint and I are best friends—He’s always had my back. ALSO—Would you say I’m your favorite superhero?” Natasha threw out casually.
“Oh for sure!” Peter easily agreed.
“Thanks for the upgrades!” Natasha told Tony who stood shocked at his intern’s reaction.
“REMEMBER WHAT I TOLD YOU—THE STUN GUN HAS TWICE THE POWER AS BEFORE. DON’T KILL ANYONE.” Tony told her snapping back to attention.
Once Natasha had left Tony turned to Peter, “Really, Pete?”
“BLACK WIDOW.” Peter raised a brow as if that explained everything.
~
It had been a month since Peter had met Natasha. She now stopped in often to chat and ask him for help with upgrades to her suit and weapons. He wasn’t sure why but he got the idea that she was keeping an eye on him. It didn’t really bother him if she was. It was nice to have someone watching your back. She had Clint and he had Tony, Nat, and May. He didn’t mind most days that is—But he was sporting a black eye and it had yet to heal from his super freaky spider powers.
“Kid, he’s going to figure it out.” Happy told him apologetically pulling into the garage.
“Which is why I asked you to take me home!” Peter grumbled.
“If I did that then he would have asked me about it and what would I have said?” Happy asked.
“Food poisoning?” Peter said.
“That’s actually not a bad lie, but we’re here. He knows you’re here. Go face the music.” Happy told him.
Peter made his way as slowly as possible to the lab. He was pretty sure that he was literally dragging his feet not just figuratively. He finally let himself in and kept his face looking toward the floor.
“ребенок паук?” Natasha asked.
Great. Now he had to explain what had happened to not just one, but three adults because he knew Tony would talk to May even if he had healed before she saw him.
“I’m fine.” He mumbled sitting down quietly.
Tony went to the freezer and grabbed an ice pack and said, “Fine? Put this on that. Who did this?”
“It’s not a big deal.” Peter mumbled.
“I didn’t ask if it was a big deal. I asked who did it.”
“You’re just going to overreact.” Peter mumbled.
“I won’t. I promise.” Tony knew it was wrong, but he crossed his fingers behind his back.
“It was kind of my fault.” Peter admitted.
“Your fault?” Natasha asked.
“I haven’t had an issue with umm…Ya know…Flash in a while. I didn’t—Wasn’t—-I should have been prepared for him to go back to his bullying ways.” Peter told her.
“He hit you?” Natasha asked.
“I’m scared to answer that. I know how many weapons you carry and that you know how to use all of them to kill people.”
“Peter Benjamin Parker…DID HE HIT YOU?” Tony asked.
“Technically—I hit him first though. Please don’t tell Aunt May!”
“You hit him first?” Natasha smiled.
“I did. I’m not sorry either.” Peter lifted his chin in defiance.
“Why? You’ve let him bully you for years. What finally drove you to hit him?”
Tony asked sitting down next to him.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Peter mumbled looking down again.
“Peter—“
“—No. It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know. You can punish me for starting a fight or have Aunt May do it. I’m not saying what happened.” Peter told him firmly.
~
Natasha walked into the lab the next day, “I know what happened.”
“What did you do?”
“I warned him…He knew the consequence of his bullying.” Natasha shrugged.
“What did you do to that kid?”
“He’s fine.” Natasha rolled her eyes.
“IN your world that means he’s alive, but maybe not as okay as he once was.” Tony snorted.
“He may or may not be hanging from a tree somewhere. Is it my fault if he can’t get down on his own?” Natasha shrugged.
“So what was the reasoning? What did he say about Peter this time?” Tony made a mental note for have Friday scan the city so he can send help even though he didn’t like that kid one bit. They couldn’t just leave him in a tree.
“He didn’t say anything about Peter…” Natasha said quietly.
“Nat…Just tell me.” Tony was getting tired of this. Someone just needed to spit it out.
“He was talking about you. He was saying that you have always been a screw up and will always be a screw up. He was doing it to get a rise because he knows Peter loves you.” Natasha explained.
“He doesn’t…” Tony blinked back the moister in his eyes.
“He punched the kid in your defense Tony…”
~
Peter walked into the lab and was surprised by a hug attack. He coughed out a breath and Tony loosened his hold, “I thought we weren’t there yet…?”
“We’re there.” Tony told him.
Peter smiled as he melted into the hug.