The Web Is Not Easily Broken

Peter felt hopeless. There was no other word for it. He and Nebula were drifting through space in a spaceship that didn’t work, with no way of letting anyone know that they’d even survived, let alone where they were.

Mr Stark had turned to dust right before his eyes. Mr Stark, the wizard man, all the guardians, they were all gone. All that was left was him and Nebula, the strange blue lady that wasn’t a guardian but seemed to know them.

The first week they had been drifting, the two of them swapped stories; Peter talking about his life on Earth and all the meaningless things he could think of, and Nebula telling him about life travelling through space, which he found fascinating. Eventually, they had drifted into darker topics; how Peter felt after Uncle Ben died, the self-loathing, the anger, the helplessness. And Nebula talked about how she both loved and hated her sister in equal measure, because of what Thanos had done to them. They played games - finger football, charades after Peter had explained the concept, and funniest of all, I Spy.

Peter felt bad for Nebula now, more than anything. She’d explained to him that because of her modifications, she didn’t need to eat or breathe, and could probably live indefinitely. But Peter couldn’t. He was already weak from hunger, and there was only a finite amount of oxygen on the ship. He knew he would die soon; and Nebula would be faced with the god-awful choice of staying with his corpse on the off chance that someone found them or abandoning him and the ship to find a way back to Earth, or wherever she wanted to go.

Peter had managed to rig what little working machinery was left on the ship to create a distress signal. He’d massacred most of the navigational system, and a good part of the lighting system. And all he’d left of the engine was enough to power the air filtration system and the heating, and even that was failing now. But the distress signal was still going strong, and that was all that mattered. All it could do was beam ‘Help’ in morse code out into the galaxy; he couldn’t make anything more complex, even with Nebula’s help. He just hoped it was enough.

“Karen, I need you to record a message for me.”

Nebula looked over at him from the chair she was perched in. Peter knew he was on his last leg and had slumped himself in the furthest corner of the ship.

“What would you like to say, Peter?”

Peter took a deep breath.

“Hi, everyone, Spiderman here. I don’t know what happened on Earth, but almost everyone is gone. Mr Stark, the wizard man, and all the guardians, they disappeared. Turned to dust. I was lucky, or unlucky, I guess. Nebula is here too. We’re drifting in space, I don’t know where, but we’re sending a distress signal.

I don’t have long left. A couple of days maybe. To anyone who survived the dust, I’m sorry. I wish we could’ve been better, we almost had it. I’m so sorry. Can someone tell my Aunt May, Ned and MJ that I love them and I’m sorry I couldn’t be there.”

Peter could feel tears streaming down his face, but he carried on.

“Pepper, I’m sorry I couldn’t bring Mr Stark home. We tried so hard. Natasha, mama pauk, ya v uzhase. Ya skoro umru. Nadeyus’ y zhil. Yelena i Wanda tozhe, tak chto vy vmte. There’s nothing else to say, really. I love all of you, and I hope you made it. Spiderman, out.”

Peter wiped his eyes.

“You can end the recording, Karen.”

“Okay, Peter.”

“Any chance you can transmit that, Karen?”

“Unfortunately not, Peter. But if that changes, I’ll inform you.”

Peter smiled but didn’t reply. He dragged his head across the wall so he could look at Nebula. She was sitting in the pilot’s seat, staring out into the abyss. She’d been doing that for a while, and Peter thought maybe she could see further into space than he could and was waiting for a ship to come near them.

“Will you go back to Earth?”

Nebula’s head swivelled round to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

“When I…when I’m gone, will you go back to Earth? Or will you go somewhere else?”

“I- I will return to Earth, I think. You belong there.”

Peter understood what she wasn’t saying, and what he was too scared to ask her. She would wait until his body was returned to Earth before leaving, even if she had to return it herself.

Beep…beep…beep.

Peter scrunched his eyes. What was that noise? It didn’t sound like the distress signal - maybe someone was replying! Peter listened carefully but couldn’t figure out the message. It wasn’t morse code. He pried his eyes open, hoping to find the strength to make his way to the control panel.

He was greeted by a white ceiling. That wasn’t right. The ship was a dark grey colour. And where was Nebula?

“Nebula?”

Only the continuous beeping answered him, and Peter realised he was in a hospital room. It couldn’t be, surely not…

“FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Peter?”

A sob ripped from Peter’s throat before he could stop it. He was home.

“FRIDAY, where’s Nebula? Who else is here?”

“Nebula is currently in the Avengers common room. Also in the building are Natasha, Steve, Carol, and Pepper.”

Natasha. Natasha was alive; she hadn’t been turned to dust.

“Can you ask Nat to come see me, please?”

“Of course, Peter. She’s on her way now.”

Peter waited anxiously. He was desperate to know what had happened to make everyone turn to dust. He wanted to know who else had survived, surely, they couldn’t be the only ones left?

“Peter?”

“Nat! You’re okay!”

Natasha stride into the room and quickly pulled him into a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, malen’kiy pauk, we were so worried. Thank god Carol found you.”

“Who’s Carol?”

“Captain Marvel, she’s an intergalactic superhero. When we told her you and Tony might be stuck in space, she flew off to look for you. I’m just glad she got there in time.”

“Integalactic superhero? That’s so cool. Is Nebula alright?”

Natasha shrugged.

“She’s not said much, I think she’s waiting for you to make an appearance.”

Peter sighed.

“She said she’d stay on Earth for a bit if we made it back, but I don’t think she has anywhere else to go? Maybe you should give her a room here, I think it would mean a lot to her.”

Natasha smiled at him, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m sure it would. I’ll talk to her later.”

Peter looked at her for a few minutes.

“Natasha, who else…is my Aunt May okay?”

Natasha smiled at him.

“She’s fine, Pyotr. I went to see her as soon as we got back from Wakanda. She’s at work trying to sort logistics and things, she’ll be back later. Ned and MJ are okay too, we’ll invite them to come over tomorrow, okay?”

Peter felt as though a weight had been lifted off his chest. His family was fine; his family only little, but they all meant the world to him.

“Nebula told us what happened, on Titan.”

Peter swallowed the lump in his throat; he’d been avoiding thinking about it since he woke up.

“What are we gonna do?”

“Honestly? I have no idea.”

Peter was up and about after a few days. He spent most of his time with MJ, who was staying at the Compound because her whole family had been dusted, or by himself in the lab. May was still pulling double and triple shifts, trying to find a way to make things work with only half the staff. Natasha was working with Carol, liaising with various governments around the world to attempt to sort out the chaos the world had descended into, and Pepper was in constant meetings with the remaining SI employees, hoping to come up with a way to officially categorise who had been dusted and who had just gone AWOL.

Currently, he was alone in the Compound for the first time since he got back from space. He wandered around, wondering what he could do. He’d spent a while in the lab updating his suit and anything else he could get his hands on. He rounded the corner and stopped short at the sight of an unfamiliar woman in the corridor.

His spidey sense was tingling; whoever this woman was, she was dangerous. She looked unassuming, dressed in a pair of jeans and a jumper, but Peter could hear her muscles tensing and the way her heartbeat quickened, getting ready to fight him.

“Kto ty?”

Peter blinked in surprise at the Russian but responded in kind once he realised who she was.

“Ya Peter. Vy Yelena?”

The woman, Yelena, smiled at him.

“Ah! The baby spider! I have been looking forward to meeting you. Where’s my sister?”

Peter gestured for her to follow him as he explained.

“She’s in France, I think. Trying to get governments in order. She’ll be back tomorrow. Does she know you’re here?”

Yelena shook her head.

“I didn’t even know she was alive until this morning. One of the widows said they saw her in London two days ago, I came straight here.”

Peter nodded. This is what SI were working on; creating a database for the public to input their details, and those of people that were dusted, so everyone could find out if their friends and family were okay.

“Would you like a drink?”

“Tea, please.”

Peter set about making their drinks.

“FRIDAY? Could you send a secure message to Nat to let her know Yelena is here, please.”

“Of course, Peter.”

Peter heard Yelena tense behind him and took it upon himself to explain.

“FRIDAY is Mr Stark’s AI; she looks after us all and controls most of the building.”

“That is…fun?”

Peter grinned.

“It is! She can do all sorts of things like monitor everyone’s health and where they are, it’s very useful.”

“You are monitored?”

Peter turned around, noticing how tense Yelena’s voice had gotten. He handed her the mug of tea, smiling at her as she took it.

“Not in the way you’re thinking. I’m not really sure how Mr Stark did it, but she can read our radiation signatures. Did you know all humans emit radiation at extremely low levels? Some are higher, like Steve and Nat and me because we’re enhanced. People like Dr Banner have huge radiation signatures. Mr Stark’s is huge too, because of the arc reactor. It’s very cool. Anyway, FRIDAY is constantly monitoring the whole building in the background of everything else she does, and the radiation shows up, so then she knows where we are. Cool, right?”

Yelena was staring blankly at him. Oh no, did she not understand his explanation?

“Yes…very cool. Can she tell me my level? It sounds like useful information.”

“Sure! FRIDAY? What does Yelena read as on your radiation meter?”

Yelena glanced around again, trying to locate the sound system, and Peter had to resist laughing at her.

“Yelena reads at 6.4, Peter.”

Peter smiled at her.

“That’s so cool, Nat’s 6.4, too. I’m at 7.3.”

“Is there a way to mask that?”

Peter frowned, not having thought about that before.

“Well, theoretically, you could create some kind of lead armour? Lead creates a barrier for radiation. That wouldn’t work though, because that much lead could kill you. I’m sure we could come up with a way, maybe a way of absorbing it without harming us? I’ll have to spend some time in the lab figuring it out. FRIDAY, could you set a reminder for me to do that next time I’m in the lab?”

“Of course, Peter.”

Peter let his mind drift off for a few moments, trying to think of ways he could pull that off, sipping his drink absentmindedly.

“So, what do you do for fun round here?”

Peter glanced at Yelena, caught off guard by the way she was staring at the side of his head.

“Uhh…I mean at the moment everyone is working on trying to fix the world, but I can’t do that. So, I mostly spend time in the lab, or train.”

Yelena quirked an eyebrow at him.

“And how does a spider train?”

Peter laughed.

“Same way you do, mostly. We’re both spiders, after all. Nat helps me train when she has time. Would you…do you wanna spar? Or I can show you how I train? I think you’d like it, actually.”

Yelena drained the rest of her tea and clapped her hands.

“Yes. Show me how you train first, and then we can fight.”

“Spar. We don’t fight here.”

Yelena tilted her head at him in confusion, and Peter briefly wondered if the words ‘spar’ and ‘fight’ translated the same in Russian.

“What’s the difference?”

“I guess in this case fighting kind of implies that we try to hurt each other? Which isn’t the point of sparring. When we spar it’s normally slower than a real fight, so we have time to see what’s coming and react properly. We can’t learn how to counteract stuff if we don’t get the chance. If that makes sense?”

Peter felt like he had lost her somewhere in his explanation if the look on Yelena’s face was anything to go by.

“I…I do not think I know how to fight without trying to hurt the other person, that is the whole point, no?”

Ah. The Red Room. Peter got it. To Yelena, there was no difference.

“That’s okay, I’ll teach you.”

He offered her a small smile and was glad to see it tentatively returned.

“Follow me.”

Peter stood in his suit, waiting for Yelena. He had given her some spare gym clothes, so she didn’t have to fight in jeans, although Peter had no doubt she was perfectly capable of it.

“So, little spider, how do we train?”

Peter spun round to look at her. The clothes were a little baggy on her, but she’d be fine, and she’d braided her hair the same way Nat used to.

“I train up there.”

Peter pointed at the ceiling where his obstacle course hung. Yelena stared at it for a minute.

“I think I can do that. How do I get up there?”

Peter held in a chuckle. He’d known she’d want to try it.

“You can’t. It’s for me, so I just…”

Peter jumped and clung to the ceiling before flipping back down in front of her.

“I could…if you want, I can carry you up there? Don’t worry, though! If you don’t want me to touch you or anything I could probably build a ladder out of my webs? I haven’t tried that before, but it should be fine, they’re very strong.”

Yelena looked impassive, but Peter had heard her tense up the second he mentioned carrying her.

“Here, look. I’ll build a ladder.”

Peter sprang up to the ceiling again, if only to avoid the awkwardness. He was so stupid. Of course, she wouldn’t want him to carry her; he’d read what had happened to Nat in the Red Room and he could only assume Yelena had suffered the same, or worse.

He attached two of his synthetic webs to the ceiling next to a small platform he’d installed. Wondering how to build a ladder he stared at the webs. He decided to allow the webs to almost reach the floor before slowly lowering himself, tying rungs as he went. When he reached the ground, he stood a few feet from Yelena. He watched her carefully, and noticed she was watching him as well.

“You know.”

Peter knew it wasn’t a question, and he didn’t treat it as one.

“Yeah, sorry.”

Yelena stared at him for a few seconds more.

“Will you time how long it takes me to get to the top?”

Peter nodded.

“3, 2, 1, go!”

Peter’s eyebrows raised as he watched Yelena scale the makeshift ladder quicker than he expected. It swayed from side to side as she climbed, but she seemed to innately counter the movement with her body.

Peter sprang and clung to the ceiling a few feet from where Yelena was perched on the platform.

“4.8 seconds.”

Yelena nodded.

“Not as quick as I usually am, but this is not rope. I will be quicker next time.”

Peter didn’t respond, there was no point telling her she didn’t have to be better.

“This is my course. I designed it myself, so it’s really only suited for me and how my body moves. Nat can do it though, so you’ll probably be able to as well.”

Yelena nodded before studying the course.

“I do not know what some of this is.”

Peter smiled.

“That’s okay! It’s not anything, really. I just made shapes to help me move in new ways. If you want, I’ll show you how I do it, and then you can copy me? That way you’ll know what it was designed for, even if you don’t do it the same way.”

Peter had already figured out she would try to complete the course the same way he did, which would result in her falling. He’d watched Nat do the same thing the first time she tried it. Obviously, Peter would catch Yelena, not that he planned on telling her that, but he thought she might need to fail at something. He knew that the Red Room killed girls who failed, so Peter would prove that it was okay to be bad at stuff sometimes.

“That is acceptable. Off you go, baby spider.”

Peter laughed at the nickname before setting off. He went slightly slower than he normally would, so Yelena could see exactly what he was doing. Completing the course, he swung back to the beginning.

“Think you can do it?”

Peter challenged her, adding a little bit of bite to his voice, knowing it would goad her.

“Bring it on, spiderboy.”

Peter laughed and went to hang upside down on the ceiling next to the bit of the course she would fall at.

He had to admit, Yelena was good. Much better than Nat had been the first time, not that he’d breathe a word of that to either of them. He quite liked living thank you very much.

He watched closely as she neared him. This part of the course needed him to bend at an angle that, ordinarily, would be impossible to pull off and hold onto the course at the same time. Of course, with his stickiness and flexibility, it was easy for Peter. Yelena, however, would lose her grip and fall from the course. In 3…2…1…

“Govno!”

It was muttered as Yelena lost her grip, but Peter heard it. He shot a web out, letting it catch on her shoulder. She reflexively wrapped her arm around the strand and caught it between her fingers. Stillness filled the air. Yelena’s eyes were still screwed shut, and Peter let her take her time adjusting to not freefalling towards the floor. She kept the strand holding her steady; she didn’t weigh a lot to him, and he realised he could probably hold her up all day if he needed to.

“You caught me?”

Peter caught her eyes, she looked confused.

“Well, yeah? I wasn’t gonna let you fall.”

“Why?”

The question didn’t surprise him, not coming from Yelena.

“We don’t let people die for their mistakes here. Up or down?”

Yelena continued to stare at him.

“Down…please.”

Peter complied, lowering them both to the ground. Yelena sat on the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them. Peter sat down opposite her, about a foot away, mirroring the position.

“You knew I would fall, but you let me do it anyway. Why?”

Peter shrugged.

“Proving a point. You don’t have to be scared of failing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get something right the first time anymore.”

Peter watched her process his words. She was clearly struggling, but Peter didn’t know how to help.

“I-“

Peter could see her trying not to cry, the emotion of what had just happened getting too much for her to handle.

“Is there…can I do something? To help. What do you need?”

Peter wanted to just wrap her up in a hug, but he knew that wouldn’t go down well. So, he waited. He wouldn’t move a muscle or say anything more until she gave him some kind of sign.

“Can you, I mean…”

Peter caught her eye and nodded, encouraging her to ask.

“Will you…I’d like to try something. Can you come closer?”

Peter nodded and shuffled closer. He stopped when his feet were only a few centimetres away from hers. He watched her, waiting. Slowly, she uncurled one of her arms and held her hand out towards him. Peter looked at it, admiring her rings.

“You want me to hold your hand?”

Yelena nodded, and Peter gave her a small smile. He realised how much trust she was putting in him, he wouldn’t waste it. Slowly he moved his hand until it was hovering just above hers. He waited until he stopped watching his hand and caught his eyes.

“Are you sure?”

Peter saw something shatter behind her eyes at his question. He didn’t move again, leaving his hand hovering over hers, but not quite touching. He would let Yelena make the first move. Ever so gently, he felt her fingertips brush the palm of his hand. Yelena moved slowly until she had laced her fingers between Peter’s, gripping his hand. He tightened his own grip and let their hands rest in the air.

“I do not know much about how to do things…be around people, without the Red Room. It does not make sense to me.”

Peter studied her. Yelena was very much not looking at him, and Peter could see a faint flush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

“I read a lot about the Red Room when Nat leaked the SHIELD files. We can help you unlearn all the bad stuff, if you want? Nat did it, I’m sure you can too.”

Yelena stared at him again, she did that a lot.

“Why are you so nice to me? Most people do not trust me as far as they can throw me.”

Peter shrugged.

“Nat’s told me all about you. I trust her, so I trust you. I have a sixth sense to help me sense danger. And you’re dangerous, but not to me. Plus, you seem like you need someone to be nice to you.”

“You’re very confusing, baby spider.”

Peter laughed.

“So I’ve been told.”

Peter introduced Yelena to a lot of things in the 24 hours before Natasha returned. He had set her up with a Twitter account, claiming it was the best way for her to get caught up with pop culture references, they had watched a lot of TV, both fictional and documentaries, and Peter had given her a rundown of what it was like to go to high school.

Now, they were sat in the common area, a mix of popular music playing as they talked.

“So, how did you become Spiderman?”

Peter sighed.

“I was on a school trip and wandered off. There was a room full of spiders that they’d been experimenting on. I was looking for a black widow spider. I found one that was crossbred with a wolf spider, and it bit me. It gave me all these powers.”

“And you decided to swing around the city?”

Peter sighed again.

“Not exactly. My Uncle Ben. We were walking down the street, and someone shot him. I’d ignored the feeling that something was wrong, and then he died. So, I became Spiderman. I help people that need it.”

Yelena smiled at him.

“You are very admirable, Peter. You learned your skills from Natasha?”

Peter nodded, happy to talk about how much Natasha had helped him.

“Yeah! I loved her for ages before I became Spiderman, though. She’s my favourite Avenger. After the spider bit me, my body changed and suddenly I could pull off all her moves easily. We spar a lot now, sometimes I can surprise her, which is fun.”

Yelena raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

“Natasha doesn’t get surprised. She must be faking.”

Peter shook his head.

“Look, I’ll show you.”

Peter stood and moved into the open space near the sofa. He dropped into a stance and looked at Yelena.

“Based on how I’m stood, what would you say my next move would be?”

Peter held the position as Yelena analysed him.

“You would punch with your left hand but follow up with a kick from your right foot.”

Peter laughed under his breath before doing a roundhouse kick with his left leg and using his momentum to follow through with a left-handed uppercut.

“You should not have been able to do that. How?”

Peter dropped his stance and moved back to the sofa.

“The spider changed my biology. My muscles act differently, and I can shift my weight in ways I shouldn’t be able to.”

Yelena stared at him with calculating eyes.

“Can we…spar? I would like to try beating you.”

“Are you sure?”

Peter would be quite happy to train with Yelena, but she had already mentioned she wasn’t sure about fighting without the intent to hurt.

“I think so. I will…if I don’t understand something I will ask.”

Peter nodded, and they both left for the training room again.

“Before we start, I want to see what you can do.”

Peter led Yelena over to the punching bags hanging up in the corner.

“I do not understand.”

Peter frowned as he thought about how to explain.

“Well, if I can see how you move and how much force you use at full strength, I can show you how to pull your punches.”

Yelena nodded and sprung into action. Peter observed her as she threw punches and kicks at the bag, impressed with her strength. For someone so small, Yelena packed a hell of a punch.

“Okay, hold up a second.”

Yelena spun to face him.

“You’re impressively strong, you know? And your form is excellent.”

Yelena stared at him impassively, but he could see a light flush of pink on her cheeks.

“Now, throw a punch at me.”

Yelena frowned.

“You want me to hit you?”

“Yeah. Well, no. I’m gonna stand just out of reach. You won’t hit me, but you’ll get the experience of throwing a punch at someone you’re not trying to hurt.”

Yelena seemed skeptical but positioned herself in front of Peter anyway. He waited, just over an arm’s length away from her while she psyched herself up. Yelena’s fist came flying at his face, stopping barely an inch from his nose, but he didn’t flinch.

“How did that feel?”

Yelena seemed confused at the question.

“I mean, did you feel like you wanted to hurt me while you were throwing the punch?”

Yelena titled her head.

“No, but I did not feel happy about it, either. I don’t know what this feeling is.”

Peter nodded.

“And how did you feel about not actually hitting me?”

Yelena frowned again.

“I…I didn’t like it. My whole life I have been trained to fight. It does not feel right to pretend to hit.”

Peter smiled at her.

“That’s fine. Good, actually. Now, how do you feel about letting me try the same thing on you?”

Peter heard Yelena tense immediately.

“We don’t have to. If you’re not comfortable with it, we can go back to doing something else. You can try the obstacle course again if you want?”

Peter waited as Yelena thought about her options.

“I think I would like to try the course again.”

Peter nodded, and they made their way over to the course.

“Oh, the ladder dissolved. Let me make you another one quick.”

Before Peter could spring up to the ceiling, Yelena stopped him with a small hum. He waited. She was looking at him with that small frown again. Her eyes searched his face - Peter wasn’t sure what she was looking for - but she seemed to find it.

“Why don’t you give me a lift this time?”

Peter fought not to react. This was a huge thing Yelena was trusting him with, and he wasn’t about to make her uncomfortable by making a big deal out of it, not after she’d asked him with an air of forced casualness.

“Yeah?”

Yelena nodded. She stepped closer to him, not quite touching. She breathed in deeply. Once. Twice.

“How do you want me?”

Peter tilted his head and shrugged.

“However you want.”

Yelena got a calculating look in her eye.

“Well, how do you carry your girlfriend around?”

Peter huffed.

“She’s not- We haven’t…I haven’t asked her out yet! But she loops her arms round my neck, and I hold her by the waist.”

“Let’s do that then.”

Peter nodded. Yelena moved so she was stood right next to him on his left, barely a hairs breadth between them. He could sense the tension rolling off her, but he wasn’t about to suggest backing out. Peter understood the need to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and he was glad that he had made Yelena feel safe enough to do that with him. Peter held completely still as Yelena moved her arms around his neck. Once she linked her hands together, Peter waited a few seconds before speaking quietly.

“Still okay?”

Yelena nodded but didn’t say anything. Peter listened for a few seconds. Her breathing was still measured and even, but her heart rate had sped up slightly. Peter felt it was fine to carry on.

“I’m just gonna wrap my arm around your waist, okay? And then we’ll be up, up and away.”

Peter waited for Yelena to nod again before wrapping his arm squarely around the middle of her waist. With MJ, Peter usually put his arm a little lower, but MJ was MJ, and he definitely wouldn’t do it with anyone else, least of all Yelena. She had tensed, momentarily, when Peter wrapped his arms round her, but it had passed.

“You still good?”

Yelena breathed deeply again. Once. Twice.

“Yes. Up, up and away, spiderboy.”

Peter laughed and pulled them up to the obstacle course.

Natasha arrived back at the Compound in the early hours of the morning to find Peter and Yelena asleep on the sofa in the common area, wrapped up in blankets as an episode of The Most Popular Girls in School played on the flatscreen. Peter woke as she stepped into the room, Yelena jumping up a split second later, producing a knife from her sleeve.

“Hey guys, it’s just me.”

“Nat!”

“Tasha!”

Peter laughed as Natasha opened her arms and they both crashed into her.

“What have you two been up to?”

Peter let Yelena talk, not sure how much she would want to share about their day together.

“Peterboy let me have a go at his obstacle course, I only fell off once! He also made me a twitter account and we’ve been watching films and TV. How was France?”

“Exhausting, but you don’t need to hear about that. Come on, you should both be in bed, let’s go.”

Peter sighed.

“It’s not even that late!”

Natasha ruffled his hair.

“It’s late enough, and you’ve both had a long day. And so have I, so I’m calling bedtime.”

“Fine.”

“Okayyy.”