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Natasha went through the data given to her about her next mission from SHIELD one last time while getting her Widow-bites ready on her wrist. She was sitting in the kitchen of Avengers Tower at an ungodly hour of the morning with an empty cup of coffee on the table in front of her and a tired looking Tony Stark who was busy getting upset at someone over the phone.
Her eyes lifted once to look at Tony when the man sighed and dragged a hand down his face. “No, kid. You can’t just decide you don’t need to go, anymore. I’m telling you, life is more than swinging around in your tights.” So, Spider-man then. Natasha looked back down at her hands and smirked. Only this kid managed to drive Tony crazy like that with his innocent, idiotic ideas and too many pop-culture mentions. And yet, somehow, Spidey got Tony wrapped around his little finger without even trying. Or maybe he actually had secret information about Tony and kept it to himself at the cost of Tony’s cooperation.
As a good friend and colleague, Natasha felt obliged to stay out of it. Especially since Tony declared pretty much immediately that, no, they couldn’t know Spider-man’s real identity. Tony figured it out by accident, apparently, and the vigilante wanted it to stay as hidden as possible. So the rest of the Avengers stayed away, recognizing the territory as an unsafe one.
And, despite Tony’s suspicious glares towards her, Natasha couldn’t just take one look at Spider-man and figure out who he was. There was a reason why people couldn’t just determine who was under the mask. It was hard. Tony even modulated his voice to help cover his identity under extra layers of protection. So Natasha had no idea who it was, in this costume. But Tony trusted him, and she guessed she trusted this man’s judgment enough to not question his decision to stay so close to Spidey.
“I swear, if I find out you didn’t go to…” Tony glanced her way and coughed. “You-know-where, I’m going to come down there, Iron-man suit and all, and blast you into last week, got it, Underoos? I don’t care if it gives away your identity on the way. You’d deserve that.”
Natasha got up and closed her files, knowing Tony might look inside and yet not caring. Fury gave her a mission. He didn’t tell her to make sure this nosy billionaire stayed away from it. Honestly, she kinda liked watching those two fights it out. Fury could pretend to be smarter than Tony, but he was only good at tactics and planning ahead. Tony… Tony was a genius who could outsmart everyone Natasha had ever met.
She looked at the man still on the phone. “I’m heading out. Hope to be back in a couple of hours. Don’t wait up.” And she went out the door, hearing Tony’s sarcastic comment and yet not fully registering it because, honestly, his bullshit would take her entire memory capacity if she’d let it.
It was supposed to be a simple mission. There was a small coffee shop a few blocks away where, apparently, people traded important information. SHIELD didn’t like it and wanted those people behind bars so Natasha was sent there. They were supposed to trade information in about an hour and she needed to be there, find them and take them down. SHIELD would take care of the rest.
The coffee was just around the corner, so she turned and then fell down right away, someone falling on top of her, yelping and flailing to get back up. She blinked up at the two wide, terrified, brown eyes that stared at her and after blinking once realized it was a teenager, with a backpack on one shoulder and the most innocent looking face she’d ever seen. He looked utterly devastated and stood up, flushing brightly and reaching out to help her get up as well. No one around gave them even a second glance, but still the kid looked uncomfortable.
“I am so, so sorry.” The teen muttered, voice nervous and high-pitched. Was he on helium or something? “I didn’t see you coming and…” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Sorry.”
She looked around. The coffee shop was right beside her. She scanned the inside, noting the three men sitting near the kitchen door, mumbling under their breaths, heads leaning in, like they had some kind of a secret to discuss. Which… they probably did. Great, target found. Facing the kid again, she smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. It was an accident.” Then she did a double take and watched him carefully. He looked like he hasn’t slept in over a week. His eyes were puffy and his hands gripped the strips of his backpack forcefully, as if it was going to grow legs and run away from him if he didn’t. “Here, let me get you some hot cocoa. You look like you could use it.”
The teen blinked up at her, looking utterly confused and surprised and yet following her inside the coffee shop, nonetheless. “I’m… I’m not really supposed to talk to strangers, ma’am. Much less get a drink from you.”
Ordering the cocoa, she turned back to look at him over her shoulder. “I’m pretty sure I’m not that much of a stranger.” She was famous, after all. Exactly not what a spy should be, but… still. She was and people recognized her all the time. She could tell the kid knew who she was as well by the look she received after saying that. “Here.” She handed him the drink and then glanced over at the conspiring men.
They were all looking at her with narrowed eyes. Well, shit.
“Umm… thanks, I guess. But – Look out!” The kid’s muttering turned louder at once and he shoved Natasha out of the way when one of the men pulled out a gun and fired. It would have pierced right through her had he not shoved her. The fresh, hot cocoa was now spilled on the floor, people running around or over it in a rushed attempt to get out of there.
Natasha pushed the boy from her and stood back up, frowning at the three guys. Apparently, only that one guy had a gun because the other two tried to get out and leave as well from the kitchen, knives held tightly in their hands. The guy with the gun fired at her but she moved around, trying to get close to him. For some reason the kid stayed there, glued to the spot. He looked like he was contemplating what to do.
Was he crazy? Did he have a death wish?
Before she could scream at him to get out of there along with the other costumers, Natasha got to the man with the gun. She managed to kick the weapon out of his grasp, but he was skilled, too. So they fought for a couple of minutes, destroying the shop and attracting some attention from the people outside.
Eventually, though, Natasha had the man pinned to the ground. She glared at him and watched as SHIELD agents came rushing in to take him away. Not waiting to see what’s about to happen to him, Natasha moved on and crossed the kitchen quickly. Those men couldn’t have gone far, right? She just needed to –
She stopped in her tracks, eyes wide and brows higher than usual. The two men were out the back door. One of them was unconscious on the ground, groaning slightly in pain and the other was losing to… the kid. The kid who moved like he was made of water. Like he was trained in martial art. Like he was used to it. And before she blinked, the second man was on the ground too, eyes closed and not moving. Still breathing, though.
The kid lifted his gaze from him to Natasha, a nervous expression on his face. His backpack was thrown near the dumpster and a couple of textbooks spilled out of it. He was on his way to school when he ran into her. He was probably a high-school student who was running late and, for some reason, could fight like the devil. She looked at him, interest in her eyes and he shifted uncomfortably, stretching his arm to grab his bag and lift it to his shoulders.
“Well… it was nice meeting you. Thanks for the cocoa, ma’am.” And he bolted out of there without so much as letting her ask one question. Who the hell was this kid??
“Tony, I need you to find someone for me.” Natasha called out into the large space of the training room. According to FRIDAY he was here with Spider-man, training. So, naturally, she barged in and searched for him. She found Spider-man first, clinging to the wall and waving at her enthusiastically. No matter who the guy was under that mask, Natasha knew she liked him. He was so friendly and nice and cheerful… she liked it.
Tony was on the ground, without his suit on. A bottle of water was in his hand and he took a long sip from it, his eyes watching her as she strolled towards him while waving back to Spidey. She knew Tony well enough to know he was awaiting some kind of bad news form her. Or payback for something. She still needed to work on that, actually.
But then she held out the photo in her hand for the man to see and he froze for a moment before looking up at her, face blank. “You want me to so what?” He pointed at the picture. “Where’d you get that? What, another mission for SHILELD? You’re kidnapping children now? Last I checked, being a minor wasn’t illegal.”
Above them, Spidey threw an elastic ball at Tony but the man just grumbled something about exceptions. Their inside jokes were horrible, honestly. Natasha sighed and waved the photo to make Tony concentrate.
“I’m not kidding, Tony. This kid is special. I want to know more about him and I want to see him again.”
Tony furrowed his brows. “What do you mean, again? You’ve met him once? What, you go to high-school on your spare time and look for kids to shadow and interrogate? That sounds kind of creepy, not gonna lie.” He got up and put the water bottle down, singling for Spider-man to get down from his place up the wall.
With the grace only Spidey had, the vigilante jumped and landed in front of Tony who had his back to Natasha. She wasn’t close enough to hear anything, but she knew Tony whispered something to Spider-man because the masked vigilante then leaned slightly to the side to take a look at the photo held by Natasha. She didn’t care. She trusted him. Even if the lenses of his mask grew at the sight of it. Then Spidey leaned towards Tony, whispering frantically to him, using his hands too much while talking.
Shaking her head, Natasha sighed. “You boys are gonna hush it out for long or are you going to actually be useful for a change.” When they both turned to face her, she smiled at Spidey. “The second part was meant for Tony, Spidey. You’re good.”
She had a feeling he was beaming at her. “Oh, awesome. Cool. Yeah…” He nodded his head and then looked sideways at Tony. “Umm… I have to go, actually. Just remembered. Family thing. Bye, Nat. Bye Mr. Stark.” And he ran off, waving wildly, before disappearing out of sight. Natasha folded her arms and looked back at Tony who now looked amused more than anything.
“So… let me get this right. THIS is the kid you told me about? Who helped you in your last mission? And, what? You want to train him?”
“Can’t I? You have Spider-man. I want to see what else this one can do. You get enhanced beings and I get normal, crazy skilled kids.”
The expression on his face was strange, but then he took the photo from her and smiled, although it looked more like a smirk. “If you say so, Romanoff. I’m gonna look into it. Just… be careful, okay? You don’t want to mess this kid’s life.”
The warning was strange and weird coming from someone as reckless as Tony, but Natasha nodded, nonetheless. She was just happy that he agreed to help her find this kid. With Tony’s resources, she knew she’d have the name and the address of this kid in no time.
The front door opened and got slammed back shut loudly, footsteps started padding the floor of the living-room. Or perhaps the kitchen. She heard the quiet sound of someone humming along to music she couldn’t hear and then more footsteps, getting closer to the room she was in.
“Back in black of a Cadillac; number – HOLY SHIT!” The door opened and got immediately closed again. Natasha leaned back on the bed, smiling to herself. Come on, it was amusing. Yes, it was probably wrong to sneak into the kid’s house without alerting him. Actually, it was probably wrong to sneak into his house, period. But she needed to talk to the kid and his aunt was inside. Natasha didn’t know what the aunt knew about her nephews skills, but she figured hearing from him would be better than crushing into their house, unannounced, to talk about everything with the sweet lady present as well.
And the reaction she got from the kid at the sight of her was funny, alright? She winced when she could hear the kid’s aunt asking what’s wrong from the living-room where she had the TV on.
The door cracked slightly open. “No, everything’s fine, May. I’m… I’m just gonna finish my homework, alright?” And then he entered the room, closed the door and let his backpack drop to the floor beside him with a thump. Natasha noted the fact that it was, for some reason, a new backpack. Strange, since the last one he had the week before looked brand new as well and the rest of the kid’s stuff looked rather old, like they didn’t really have that much money to spare. So why buy a new backpack?
For a couple of moments neither one said anything. Natasha watched him, observing him, and the kid eyed her, annoyance and discomfort written all over his features. He fidgeted anxiously in place before pinching the bridge of his nose.
“This is somehow better than finding Tony Stark flirting with my aunt. And the fact that I can say such a sentence does NOT make me feel good about my life.” He scrunched up his nose before sitting on his chair, his eyes still focused on Natasha, and yet he looked slightly calmer than before. “What are you doing here?”
Stark came here personally to give him the internship? Tony told her Peter was an intern at his company, but he didn’t tell her anything beyond that about their connection. She felt like it wasn’t that simple, though. “I got you hot coca.” She gestured towards his table and the kid swirled around on his chair before spotting the takeaway cup, grabbing it and taking a sip. His face broke into a smile. “Since you spilled the one from the other day.” A beat. “Tony came here?”
The kid nodded, smiling into his cup. “Yeah. I guess he didn’t tell you this, right? We don’t like mentioning it. I’m, like, his personal intern. Also, because I’m the youngest one as SI.” He shrugged sheepishly. Then, as if to answer her furrowed brows and questioning look, he continued. “I usually work from here, though, and send him everything in the Email, ‘cause I don’t need to physically be there to help him and it’s more comfortable, working from my room and not having to travel all the way to Manhattan from Forest Hills, you know?”
She had a feeling Tony allowed Peter to work from his house instead of showing up at the tower mainly because Spider-man like lurking around the man’s lab and Tony wanted people to stay away from his precious vigilante, but she didn’t voice that thought. It was better to let the kid believe Tony was just thinking about his comfort.
So, she nodded her head, smiling. “So you’re smart and a good fighter, huh?”
The kid blushed. “I hope I’m smart. Nowhere near Mr. Stark, of course,” This kid looked up to Tony more than that man deserved, Natasha noted. She rolled her eyes at the way this kid must have stroked Tony’s ego a little too much. She’d have to change that quickly. “But still. But… I’m…” He blushed. “I’m not a fighter, really. I don’t really like violence. I mean, if it’s completely necessary, then I’ll let it slide, but otherwise, it’s just mean.”
There was silence for a few moments and the kid used it to finish his drink, throwing the empty cup to the trash can on the other side of the room with seemingly no effort. Good eye-hand coordination as well, then. God, this kid was full of surprises. She was ready to deal with someone who was clearly good at combat. She didn’t expect to find someone smart as well. And with morals, too.
“Alright,” She held her hand for him to shake. “Let’s do the introduction first, shall we?”
He shyly nodded, shaking her hand lightly. “Peter Parker. Well, Peter B. Parker, really. The B stands for Benjamin, by the way. But… yeah, it’s just Peter.” He licked his lip. “Parker.”
She wanted to laugh at his awkwardness, but instead just introduced herself too. “Natasha Romanoff. You can call me Nat.” She saw the excitement and surprise in his eyes and narrowed her eyes happily. “I want to train you.”
Tony insisted on coming along for the tour Natasha did for Peter even though it was ridiculous. The kid and Tony had this one moment when she noticed their silent interaction, with Tony smirking and Peter pouting at him. She had no idea what was so funny but let them have their fun. They seemed comfortable around each other, despite not spending any real time together, which was weird, but Natasha wasn’t going to ask them about it.
Instead, she showed the important areas of the tower to Peter. He looked around with a tight smile and the most awkward look in his eyes but was clearly at awe. She found he really liked the gym with its advanced fitness equipment even though he didn’t look like the kind of guy to go to the gym willingly. Then again, he didn’t look like the fighting type as well. He liked the training room as well, even though there wasn’t too many things that could interest normal people in there apart for the ropes, the climbing wall and the arena.
When Natasha suggested Peter and Tony have a spar they both looked at each other before Tony held his hands up in the air and smirked at her. “No can do. You said he took down two guys. I’m just one. You fight him.”
Peter looked flustered at that, but nonetheless got into the arena with her in front of him. He didn’t get ready or made any kind of pose. He just stood there, with his hands by his sides and looked at her and at Tony with helplessness Natasha wanted to wipe away. Instead of doing that, though, she launched forward, ready to punch him in the face, but coming up with noting.
She looked over her shoulder and found the kid somewhere else, still looking nonchalant and scared, but with a small smile on his face. Turned out he was good at avoiding and deflecting attacks. Natasha felt kind of tired after ten minutes of trying to hit him. She managed only once and he didn’t seem to phased by it.
“Go, Parker!” Tony cheered and the faintest smile stretched upon the kid’s face. Natasha smiled right back and decided to up the game. She didn’t hold back as much this time and Peter jumped, ducked, leaned sideways and slid beneath her. He tried throwing his own hits every few seconds, and she left herself open for those, but every time he was close to doing just that, he withdrew his hand and slipped out of her grasp again.
He didn’t like violence, Natasha reminded herself. He probably didn’t want to hurt her, even if he looked like it couldn’t hurt more than a smack from a feather. So she encouraged him until he relented and kicked her, sending her tumbling backwards slightly. He was by her side in an instance, looking worried.
“Are you okay? Oh my Gosh, I’m so sorry, Nat.” He muttered. Somewhere to their right Tony was laughing and Peter sent a glare his way before turning to face her again.
She smiled. “That was good. Don’t hold back again, kid. Let’s try again.”
And he blinked at her before nodding sheepishly and starting the spar all over again. Tony kept on cheering Peter, laughing at Natasha every time she got hit and hissing in sympathy at Peter’s few slip-ups. At some point Natasha snapped at him and told Tony to go away.
“Wasn’t Spider-man supposed to be here? What, he bailed on you so you decided to annoy us?” She asked in between movements.
Tony snorted. “He’s busy. Besides, I have nothing better to do and watching you take a hit it actually pretty nice.” He said smugly and Natasha sighed. At least the kid was getting slightly more confident with Tony’s presence close by. It was good, since she thought that the tension between his shoulder was an indicator that he was still holding back.
All in all, it was good. It was very good.
“Alright. I like it.” Natasha admitted when Tony and she sat together at the kitchen table, coffee mugs in front of them. Natasha took a shower after her twenty-fourth practice with Peter and came to relax only to find the man already there, typing furiously. “What are you doing?”
“Texting Spider-man.” Tony answered. “What do you like, again?”
She smiled and wrapped her hands around the warm mug. “Teaching someone. Having a ward. Someone who looks up to me.” She noticed the way he smiled at her, trying to hide it with his thumb. “I understand why you like it so much. It must really ruffle your feathers, when someone complements you all the time.”
Tony snickered. “And who exactly is my ward, again? I didn’t know I have one.”
“Spider-man. Who else?”
He eyed her funnily and then shrugged. “He is one of a kind.” Then he got up. “I’m gonna call him. Apparently he got into another mess.” Rolling his eyes, Tony got out, already calling the vigilante on his way out. “Hey, Spidey. What’s that I hear about missing another practice and needing an alibi? Ugh, you’re giving me gray hairs, kid. I swear, if I die soon know that it’s on you and on you alone. Got it? Yeah, I’m on my way. Another pop-culture reference and I’m going to end the call and go take a nap!”
Natasha drank her coffee and leaned back, relaxed. Suddenly she realized why Tony put up with being so tired and anxious and whatnot for Spider-man. It was worth it. God, it was so worth it to have a kid who trusted and counted on you. And as someone who could never have kids, this felt nice.
This feeling lasted about a month before Natasha noticed Peter was getting slopy. He was constantly tired. Or… more like exhausted. He would daze off in the middle of her explanations and every once in a while she found him pulling at his hair, stressing out about something and then being comforted by Tony who tended to always be around when the kid came, for some reason.
When Natasha turned to Tony with those points he just shrugged and told her to talk about it with Peter himself. “Although I do know for a fact that he’s got a lot on his shoulder. He’s probably trying to do everything he used to plus coming to train with you without taking a break.” And then he walked away to get into his Iron-man suit because Spider-man got hurt.
That happened a lot lately, too. Tony said the vigilante was just out of the game, with his head in the clouds, but Natasha still worried about him. Every time Spidey came to the tower and passed by her, she stopped to smile and have a small talk with him, seeing the way his mask moved, like he was smiling under it. Whoever it was liked interacting with others, so if that was all she needed to do to help in some way, she didn’t mind.
But her main focus was on Peter. Spidey was Tony’s problem. Peter was… well, Tony should have taken care of him too, seeing as he WAS Tony’s intern. But the man was busy with Spidey and Natasha didn’t mind trying to solve this on her own.
“Almost got it.” She encouraged the kid when he tried to repeat the kick she just showed him. He yawned loudly, blinked twice and then tried again. It wasn’t even close but she smiled nonetheless, trying to make him feel better. When he almost tripped the next time, though, she grabbed his hand and took him aside to rest for a minute.
With a grateful look, he sat down on a bench and took huge gulps of water from his bottle, closing his eyes and lazily opening them after about a minute. God, he looked horrible. Natasha pursed her lips, looked at her palms, and then looked back up at the kid.
She touched his arm lightly to grab his attention and he turned to look at her, clearly ready to bounce right back to training even though his body was failing him. “Hey, what’s going on, Pete?” She asked. “Do you get any sleep at all?”
His eyes widened for a moment and he reminded her of a deer caught in the headlights. But then he deflated and rubbed his eyes roughly. “I…” He swallowed painfully. “It’s not that I don’t try to sleep. I just… can’t.” His shoulders slumped in defeat. “Something happened. Something really bad and every time I fall asleep I have the worst nightmares about it. And then I wake up and I can’t fall asleep again, so I just stay awake.” He looked up at her with an apologizing smile. “Sorry, it’s stupid.”
It wasn’t stupid at all. It was actually… just like Tony. This man’s been through so much and then had to live with the fact that he couldn’t close his eyes without going back to the past. To those moments he dreaded. She knew Peter’s nightmares weren’t as bad as dreaming of wormholes above New York or fighting aliens, but whatever it was, it was clearly too much for him to handle.
“Why won’t you see someone? That can help, right?”
He frowned. “I can’t.” He didn’t elaborate. Natasha figured it must be because he didn’t have enough money to pay for such a thing. He could buy new backpacks every other day, though, apparently. Today his backpack was bright blue. She actually liked the game of trying to guess the next color his backpack is going to have. It was ridiculously fun.
But if money was the problem, Natasha could always ask for Tony’s help. He could pay for it. The kid clearly needed it. Or, better yet, he could talk to Sam. Wasn’t he a part of some kind of support group before meeting Steve? She decided to bring it up with Tony later on.
Then she hesitated. “You… wanna talk to me about it?”
Peter furrowed his brows and stared at her like she was a stranger before the faintest smile tugged at his lips. “Thanks, but I can’t.” He looked down at his hands and sighed. “It’s complicated… why I can’t talk about it. Please don’t push.”
And she didn’t. She just nodded and watched as he got up and started training again with her watching from the side. He was determined, sleepy or not. And it was a distraction for him. So she let him have it, not saying another word throughout the whole session.
He was friends with some girl in his class. Michelle Jones, antisocial but, apparently, friendly towards Peter and his best friend, Ned. He mentioned Michelle’s name only once (“She let us call her MJ, though!”), but ever since that moment, he’s been feeling better. Natasha didn’t know whether that girl was helping him get through his nightmares or if she was just a person who made him want to change things, but suddenly Peter was more alive. He beamed at Natasha, joked around, looked more healthy, more awake.
Tony noticed that too and tried giving him The Talk, but Peter ran away from him the moment he realized what the subject of the conversation was going to be and hid in the gym between the equipment. Natasha thought it was adorable. Tony thought it was hilarious.
When she came up to Tony with the request to find more information about that girl on the edge of her lips, she found the man already reading every available data on her. So Peter didn’t mention her to him again since that awkward talk.
Michelle Jones AKA MJ was two months older than Peter. She was an only child and the daughter of an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. Therefore she moved to live with her aunt Anna Watson in Queens when she was five. She went to Peter's school from the start and the records mentioned they were somewhat close until a kid named Ned Leeds came into the picture and became Peter's best friend. Ever since the connection between Michelle and Peter was limited to only being classmates.
She was mostly alone, hanging by herself. Her grades were outstanding, almost like Peter’s, and her personality, as told by others, was snarky, brutally truthful, closed off and quiet. She did stand up to Peter more than once against a bully, before and after their friendship as kids.
The picture of the girl revealed a dark skinned, beautiful teenager. Her hair was a mess of brown that covered half her face. She had dark, intellectual eyes that didn’t look impressed in the least. All in all, she looked like a normal, moody teenager. So how come she changed Peter like that just by being more present in his life?
When Natasha investigated (read: stalked), she spotted Peter and MJ talking to one another awkwardly on their way out of the school and then hesitating before departing, looking slightly flustered. So they were, probably, dating. Or during the stage that came before dating with teenagers that couldn’t voice out their emotions.
After that Natasha left the matter alone, only thanking that MJ girl in her mind every time she saw Peter grinning or laughing with less exhaustion and more enthusiasm.
“Nat, Spidey’s in trouble. He was hurt. I need you here ASAP.” Tony called over the comms, distressed. Natasha was currently fighting a bunch of huge worms. She sliced two of them before swirling around, spotting Tony hovering in the air a block away.
Running through the chaos, she noticed Steve and Wanda were working together and Sam and Rhodey were blasting everything they could from the air. Bruce and Thor weren’t there since no one wanted the Hulk out when it wasn’t completely necessary and Thor was in Asgard, doing whatever it is Thor had to do in life as the prince. Probably nothing, then.
She hopped over a dead worm and turned, feeling like her stomach was turning. On the ground, right underneath the Iron-man suit, was Spider-man. His suit was covered in blood and his masked eyes closed shut. He had a gush near his ribs, clearly made by one of those creatures’ teeth. It looked bad. “What happened?”
Tony landed beside her, watching the area and blasting every worm that was getting too close to the three of them. “He was swinging and… shit, it was my fault. I got distracted and accidently shot his web instead of one of those worms. He just fell face-first onto the sidewalk and then, before I could stop it, one of those things bit him and…” His voice was shaking. “He’s alive, right? Tell me he’s alive.”
Natasha frowned and watched as the vigilante’s chest rose and fell with every inhale and exhale he took. “He’s alive. But you said he fell. You know if he suffers from any head trauma?”
“FRIDAY, what are his vitals?” Tony asked, punching a worm to subconscious. “She can’t get a reading. His suit is damaged.” He hesitated. “You need to take the mask off to check this, right?” When Natasha didn’t answer he sighed. “Well, he trusts you, so that’ll have to do. Just… don’t freak out, Romanoff.” He warned her, and Natasha swallowed before reaching for Spidey’s mask and yanking it off.
The fabric slipped out of her fingers at the sight of the young, familiar face of Peter Parker. She gaped at him and then looked behind her at Tony as the man stopped the worms from approaching, still. “Seriously??”
Tony sent her a deadly look. “Not the time!”
She clenched her hands before breathing deeply. This should have been obvious to her. The talent he had, the dynamic with Tony… God, his nightmares were probably about things that happened to him as Spider-man, which would explain why he couldn’t talk about it with anyone. It wasn’t money. It was his secret identity that was standing in the way.
Pushing through her confusion and hurt and everything else swirling in her gut, she checked the kid and sighed in relief. “He’s fine. Just passed out.”
“Doesn’t sound fine to me.” Tony grumbled. Then he grabbed Natasha and Peter and flew them up to a close by rooftop. When he put down the kid, Peter stirred, moaning in pain. His hand immediately shot up to his stomach where the wound was and he winced, his eyes opening.
He looked down, saw the bleeding tear in his skin, and groaned. “Oh, come on. Not again.” Then he just stared at the sky silently, ignoring everything else. Tony was by his side in no time, holding Peter’s hand and making the kid look at him. He smiled. “Oh, hey Mr. Stark. How’s the fight going?”
Tony’s brows furrowed. “How’s your Spanish quiz going?”
At that Peter blinked twice before wincing. “Oh, COME ON! This looked really serious! And I was, honestly, going to get to class and ignore it but then this worm-y thing practically attacked me so I stayed. Besides, I can take the test again some other time.” That was when he noticed Natasha and the woman noted the way his face drained of color. “O-oh. Hey, Nat.”
Her mind was racing. Peter was Spider-man. Her prodigy student was enhanced, just like Spider-man because he WAS Spider-man. He said the combat thing came naturally to him, which must have been true because she heard Spidey telling Tony about the way his powers made his instincts work overtime. Spider-man was a sixteen-year-old kid from Queens. He was probably Tony’s intern BECAUSE Tony figured out his identity and wanted to keep him close. Tony lingered around Peter and Natasha all the time because he wanted to actually make sure the kid was alright. Maybe he didn’t trust him with his ability to keep his identity to himself.
And now Peter was hurt when he was supposed to have a Spanish quiz. And he was looking at her with his wide, pleading eyes, like he knew her reaction would be bad and wanted to get it all now and be done with it. But he really did like her, didn’t he? Tony said he trusted her. And Peter WAS willing to spend time with her to train together when he could just refuse in the first place.
Even before that Spider-man was always friendly around her, making jokes and laughing alongside her at Tony or Steve or any other Avenger. She liked Spidey before even knowing Peter Parker, and she liked Peter before knowing he was Spider-man.
“How fast do you heal?” She asked eventually.
Peter stared at her for a moment, confused by the strange question. “Umm… I dunno… I usually heal during the night if I have enough to eat ‘cause my metabolism’s like a monster. Especially when I’m really hurt.”
So like Steve. Maybe even better. When she looked at Tony she saw him smirking at her, as if telling her, ‘Cap could only dream of healing as fast as my kid’. She ignored that, obviously. “So I expect you to be at the tower tomorrow, on time. And stop holding back on me, Parker.” She went towards the edge of the roof, planning on joining the fight again.
“So… is she mad at me or not?” Peter whispered loudly to Tony.
The man snorted. “You want the optimistic version or the more realistic one?”
Peter groaned. “But I’m hurtttttt!” He whined pathetically and Natasha smiled to herself before jumping down, leaving behind the two of them. They could banter for hours on end, and she knew no amount of injuries would stop them. Besides, Peter needed to rest. She could always take revenge tomorrow during training with him by doing extra harsh. Plus, she needed to plan a revenge plan for Tony. This man was in on this secret and enjoyed it way too much for way too long.
She had some plans to make.