Natasha had to admit that sitting on a deserted island with a teenager completely stranded definitely wasn't part of the plan she had for this mission but that was the nature of their job. Sometimes they got turned around. As she sat on the beach with the waves licking up the shore, she thought back to how the hell she ended up here with a fellow spider-themed hero (although he took the aesthetic much further than she had) trying his best to find wood for a fire.
"We need to get out of here, now," she announced. The team had been split off into pairs for the mission and she'd landed up with the youngest of the group. Of course, Tony had thrown a fit over the pairings but they needed to split up and he'd be better by her side. After some coaxing from Spider-Man, he allowed the pairings but he argued that it wouldn't happen again if it went wrong. Black Widow was sure it wouldn't happen again when she and Spider-Man ran from a spray of bullets towards a helicopter she'd been eyeing up the entire time they were there.
"But what about the others?" Spider-Man asked, his senses going absolutely crazy from the amount of danger they were in. Every second the voice in his head screamed at him to move one way and then the other. It'd be a miracle if he didn't get whiplash.
"We'll rendezvous at the plan B location. Right now, I need you to concentrate on us." He made an unsure noise before nodding. He shot a few webs behind him and the bullets lessened. She let out a little sigh of relief at that because the last thing she wanted was a bullet where it shouldn't be. They got to the helicopter and she quickly got into the pilot's seat whilst Spider-Man continued to knock out the swarm of guards.
"Ms Widow, I'm almost out of- SHIT!" She whipped around to see the younger using some wed fluid to cover a gunshot wound on his shoulder. Yep, definitely never pairing up with the kid again. If she wasn't so skilled, she'd be counting her days until Tony killed her. Unfortunately, although she wanted to, she couldn't spend her time concentrating on his new body alteration. She focused on getting the helicopter ready. Eventually, she flicked the switch and they were in the air.
The bullets ricocheted off the outside, a few tearing open the metal casing, and she noted how quiet Spider-Man had gotten. He only seemed to perk up with the noises stopped and they were flying away from the base.
"That was a close one, huh?" he shouted to her.
"Closer than I would've liked. How's that bullet wound?"
"Okay, I think?" She made a displeased noise at his uncertainty. "They knocked out Karen so there go my communications! I'm hoping that you have something to contact Mr Stark?"
"We'll see him at the location! Just...don't bleed out." She meant for the latter sentence to go unnoticed but his hearing was a lot more sensitive than she remembered.
"I won't, don't worry! I webbed it up! It'll be healed over by the time the webs dissolve!" She hummed and hoped for a steady flight.
It was not a steady flight. Natasha glanced over to the water where deep below the waves their stolen helicopter was sitting. Had she been by herself, she would be floating out there if she was lucky. If she wasn't then she'd be beneath the weight of the ocean. Another spy never making it under the soil of their home country with a gravestone to remember them by.
Rapid beeping filled the cockpit as she came to the sick realisation that the fuel tank had been compromised and their prospects of a full trip to plan B were in the shitter. They didn't have enough to fly to their location and they were losing altitude fast. They were lucky to get as far as they did.
Spider-Man spotted an island not far from them when they were suddenly falling much faster than they were before. He snatched Natasha out of her seat and held her close before jumping out of the falling aircraft. She held on tightly to him as the wind rushed past. He was pretty small and slim so there wasn't much to hang onto but she'd worked with worse.
He shot two webs at the trees that were coming at them much faster than either would like but managed to slow their descent from the tension of the webs. They stopped their plummet a few feet above the ground and Natashia could feel the nervous smile he flashed her through the mask.
"Talk about a rough landing."
"Hey Ms Widow, I couldn't find a lot of wood but I did find this cool fruit that I'm not sure about because cool stuff can be dangerous," Spider-Man announced, rousing her from her thoughts. She glanced over to the teenager who had a pile of twigs in his arms. It wouldn't be a great fire but it would keep them warm. With his thermoregulation, anything warm was better than nothing. He dropped the twigs and plopped himself down beside them to pile them together. He stopped when he got to the point of actually starting the fire and his eye lenses squinted comically at the twigs. "How do I make a fire?" he asked, looking up at her.
"Did they not teach you that in the boy scouts?" she replied.
"Pfft, I've never been in the boy scouts. City kid through and through. They probably should teach us how to though since you never know when you're gonna be deserted on an island somewhere," he answered. She could hear the smile in his voice and couldn't help but feel thankful for it. This situation would be much worse with a mopey teenager. "Do you know how to make one?" he asked.
"I'm an international spy."
"So I'm guessing yes! Hey, maybe we can tell each other stories so it's more like a camping trip. Maybe not ghost stories whilst we're stuck here. I'm a man of science but Wanda literally exists and I'm not sure if that extends to ghosts. I used to think my apartment was haunted but it turned out to be rats in the walls. Who knew they could get there? I guess a lot of people since it's Queens. There's a tonne of rats. I saw one rat that was so big I thought it was a cat. Stole a slice of pizza."
"You ramble a lot," she stated.
"Oh," he breathed out defeatedly.
It made her cringe when she saw his body language shift almost immediately. His once loose and welcoming atmosphere was now tight and guarded. She really wasn't used to interacting with kids. She'd been a sort of aunt-like figure to Clint's children but she found they were much easier to talk with. All she had to do for the babies were jangle keys in front of them and they'd look to her as if she were a god. Saying that though, Spider-Man probably held her in the same regard and that's why he withdrew. He was fine before with the teasing the others gave, returning most if not all the jabs thrown his way for his age. Rambling must be a sore spot.
"I didn't mean it as a bad thing. Just an observation." The posture returned to the positive form.
"Oh! Sorry yeah, it's a nervous thing. Kinda nervous about the whole abandonment on an island in the middle of nowhere situation we're in. Also, my parents sorta died in a plane crash and a helicopter is basically a plane so that's- sorry that was oversharing." She hummed with a frown. Poor kid. She knew there had to be some reason he only ever talked about his Aunt May but she didn't like to assume when it came to personal things even though she was incredibly good at it.
"I'm sorry about your parents." He shrugged.
"It's fine I guess. I was little when it happened. Barely remember anything about them." He went quiet for a moment, seemingly staring at nothing, before perking back up. "So fire?"
"Only if you take off the mask."
"Aww do you miss my smile that much?" he teased with a laugh. She rolled her eyes and pulled it off herself, throwing the mask back to him with a smirk. In reality, she wanted to keep an eye on his features. With Karen out for the count, there was no point in keeping it on and she'd have to catch all the signs of shock, hypothermia and general illness stemming from the bullet wound.
"Go find some dry moss. A handful should be enough." He nodded dutifully and raced off into the shrubbery. A small smile settled on her features. This could be worse. She could be stuck on an island with Clint. His whining would've driven her round the bend.
Not long after disappearing, Peter reappeared with handfuls of moss. His hair was all kinds of messy and she spotted a few leaves in there too. She tutted at how he could possibly get like that in the search for moss but decided not to ask. He handed her the dry moss and returned to his seat on the sand with an expectant look. Natasha wondered if this was how he stared at Tony whilst he worked. It'd be pretty distracting if it were but that didn't mean she didn't like the attention. It was sweet in a way.
She got out a knife and picked up the thickest piece of wood, slicing it down the middle to create a flat board then she made a V-shaped notch.
"Get a thinner stick and start rolling it in your hands as fast as you can. Then put the embers on some of the moss," she ordered as she stood up. He nodded and did as he was told. It was funny in some way that one second he'd be completely fine with taking orders but the moment you ordered him not to get himself killed he was suddenly rebellious. Always the hero she supposed. "Is the tracker in your suit still working?"
"Yep! That thing could survive a nuclear bomb. Not that I would though. Maybe I could. Healing is weird so maybe I could survive the radiation poisoning if I'm not wiped out by the initial blast. I might ask Dr Banner about it since he knows so much about radiation. I doubt Mr Stark will let us dabble with it but we could work on it theoretically," he rambled. She hummed and continued to watch him. There were small flinches as he moved and she tilted her head to his shoulder.
"Where did you say that fruit was?" she asked.
"Oh, it's over there." She nodded and got up, walking behind him where she found something or rather where she didn't find something.
"The bullet is still in your shoulder," she stated. He froze and she narrowed her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" He put down the stick and turned to her with a sheepish smile.
"I'll be healed in-"
"You can't heal with a bullet still in your shoulder. We need to get it out. You're lucky it didn't sever something important." Geez, she sounded like Tony right now. What was it with this kid and attracting injuries? Must be some sort of curse. That or his total lack of self-preservation. They really needed to start teaching him that. Well him and Steve. Maybe they could have a group intervention.
"It would grow back anyway! Enhanced healing!"
"That's not the point. Wood down, I'm going to have to get it out. Hopefully, my knife will do," she mused aloud. He gave her a nervous look at the mention of a knife, the colour draining from his face at the mere thought of it. "It's either that or we rip you open and dig it out when it's connected to all those fun gushy insides."
"Ms Widow, with love and respect, I'm going to run and climb up a tree if you try to get this bullet out of me with your knife."
"And, with love and respect, I'll drag you down from that tree and do it anyway."
"So we understand each other?" There was a moment of silence where Natasha wasn't completely sure if he would have the balls to do it before Peter jumped to his feet and ran down the beach. She let out an exasperated sigh and ran after him.
"Peter Parker get your ass back here now!"
"This is child endangerment," Peter said plainly as Natasha held him in a light chokehold. He daredn't try to rip out of it since he didn't fancy getting a Widow Bite to the face.
"You are a child hero, everything about this is child endangerment," Natasha pointed out. He huffed dramatically even though he agreed. CPS would have a headache trying to count the number of laws broken with him being a teenage superhero. Granted, he was a mutant and the law was kind of funny about that but there'd still be some trouble.
"I'm not a child hero. I'm like two years away from being a legal adult," he argued. She released her hold on him and pointed to the ground. He sat down but not without a dramatic sigh and folding his arms across his chest to make his pout extra emphasized.
In all honesty, his shoulder hurt so much but with the adrenaline of surviving a helicopter crash, he'd been able to stave off the pain. Now that they were just waiting around for rescue, his body was rapidly making sure he knew that there was a bullet wound in his shoulder. It burned in a way he couldn't describe and pinched his nerves in the worst way when he moved. Being tackled by a super-spy didn't help his pain all that much either.
"You won't be seeing eighteen if you don't let me get the bullet out," she grumbled, kneeling beside him. The webs covering his shoulder weren't completely dissolved yet but they were malleable so hopefully, they wouldn't be so stuck to his wound. She got her knife out again and frowned. She'd used it to cut the wood and there were all types of bacteria on it now. Other than heat, she had no way of sterilizing it but that meant she had to make the fire whilst making sure Peter didn't get a second wind.
"That's a little dramatic Ms Widow. At worst I won't have an arm which will be hard to explain but I could get one that's like Mr Bucky's."
"Wait, why am I Ms Widow and he's not Mr Wolf or something?" she inquired with a glare.
"It was a compromise. We can make a compromise now. I'll call you Ms Natasha if you don't jam your knife into my wound? Good? Great."
"What did you compromise?" she asked, hoping he'd take the bait of a different conversation. He usually jumped at the chance to gush about heroes and right now was no different.
"Basically I have to use the prefix to be polite because I don't know you guys like that and also you're all adults and I've always been told to be polite to your elders." She nodded along as she began to make the fire that she hoped sort of sterilised her knife because the last thing they needed was an infection. "But he said that it made him uncomfortable to be called his codename all the time - which sounds much cooler than superhero name I must say - so I explained I could call him Mr Barnes but then he said that Mr Barnes is his father." The embers sparked to life and caught his attention for a moment before he continued with the story. "I told him that calling him just Bucky felt weird because we're really not there yet like I'm not even on that level with Mr Stark and he's my da- mentor. Mentor." The redhead smirked at the slip-up but didn't call him out on it. If he made a run for it when she wanted to do some field first aid then he'd definitely get the hell out of dodge if she pointed out something embarrassing. "So he said he could tolerate Mr Bucky but I have to promise that in a year we'll have the conversation again. You guys don't like your formal titles huh?"
"You have to admit it's unusual to call your co-worker by their formal title," Natasha argued.
"We're coworkers?" he replied. She nodded. "That's awesome," he said with a soft smile. "Did Mr Lang want you to join the bug club? I tried to explain that spiders are arachnids but he said if it's a small creepy crawly then it's a bug. He has a blatant disregard for biology."
"He hasn't spoken to me no. He's smart enough to be scared of me."
"I don't think he's scared. Intimidated is accurate. You're a cool person and you're intense but I mean that in a nice way. Like MJ is intense but I know she wouldn't stab me. You on the other hand," he replied, smirking near the end. She couldn't help but return it.
With the fire now alive and crackling, she put her knife over the flames until she was sure it was hot enough to be a little less like a bacteria's playground. Peter watched her actions carefully and his hands mindlessly messed with the sand beneath him.
"This is gonna hurt, isn't it?" he asked quietly. Natasha turned to him and nodded slowly. "And we can't wait until we get picked up?"
"The longer the bullet is in there with your enhanced healing, the worse it will be to get it out." He let out a shaky sigh and looked around.
"I need a log."
"A log?"
"To hold. I'll break bones if not," he replied, his tone vaguely jokey. "Mr Stark has to give me a lower-grade version of Dr Banner's Hulk tranquillizers. My metabolism is like a speedier version of Captain Rogers so I burn through things fast. One time I bent an IV pole. I fixed it but I still felt bad." He glanced at her as he got to his feet and when she didn't yell for him to sit back down, he went off to find something that wouldn't immediately snap under any pressure. He returned not long after with a thick branch in hand then returned to his place on the floor.
Natasha found herself feeling sorry for the boy as he nervously picked at the bark. He was in pain, she knew that for certain no matter how hard he was trying to hide it, and this wasn't going to help at all but it was needed. If the bullet got jostled or healed in place, there could be some serious damage and Tony would already be pissed at her crash landing even though there wasn't much she could do about that. Always the hysterical dad. She supposed that made her a sort of aunt figure. Weird. She would be a cool aunt at least. A wine aunt maybe despite their job making it hard to enjoy any sort of alcohol with the prospect of the world suddenly needing them at any hour.
"I'm gonna do my best to make this quick. Stopping isn't recommended so I suggest you power through or let yourself pass out."
"Have you done this before?" he asked.
"Three times to be exact." He nodded, somewhat relieved to know that. "Are you able to move your suit? It'll be easier to work without the fabric getting in the wound."
"Gross." Peter pressed the spider emblem on his chest and the suit relaxed around him. He carefully pulled it away from the problem area and let out a pained hiss as he ripped the webbing away with it. Now without the suit, Natasha could see a small hole in his shoulder and a trickle of blood flowing out of it. She frowned when she saw how little it was since that would make her search even harder. Tweezers would be great right now but if the bullet wasn't too far in she'd be fine.
"Alright, lie down and hold your therapy log. I don't need any broken bones."
"Gotcha." He grabbed the branch and lay down on the sand with a grimace. "I'm never gonna get the sand out my hair. I'll be finding it in my mask for months." Natasha hummed and moved so that he could put his head in her lap. He moved his head to the side so she had more room to work and looked off to the other side so he didn't see her working. "Thanks."
"It's fine. Anything to stop your whining," she teased. He let out a huff of a laugh at that. "Uhm, you got any crushes?"
"What?" he squawked.
"I don't know what you kids do! My cut-off is like however old Clint's kids are."
"Mr Hawkeye has kids?"
"Just talk about something Spiderling." He smiled warmly at the name. This kid and pet names.
"Well, I guess it's kinda cool that we're both spIDER THEMED OW!" Peter yelled when he felt the knife slide into his wound. He gripped onto the wood and let out a shaky breath but Natasha continued to work. "BecAUse it'S lIKE we HaVE the SamE aESThetIc n' thAt's cOOL."
"It is interesting."
"I dOn'T REmEMber the SpeCies thAt bIT mE."
"I doubt you would. The most important part would be the mutations, would they not?"
"YoU'Re rIGHT." He let out shaky whimpers as she continued to dig around for the bullet. They were both hoping for him to pass out. There was pain ripping through his shoulder and it only got worse when he felt something scrape against his insides. He let out a loud yelp and struggled to regain his composure. His hands clenched into tight fists, the piece of wood he'd collected snapping like a twig.
"You need to relax your right side unless you want me to extend the process."
"I can't," Peter whimpered, doing his best to blink away the tears. The spy looked down on him with a heavy sigh and tried to think of some way to relax the kid. She searched her mental Rolodex on anything that previously relaxed him. A lot of the things she couldn't do given that she didn't have a TV nor any of those big boy painkillers but she did remember one thing. Cautiously, she ran her free hand through his hair and played with his brown curls. He let out a little sigh and managed to relax enough for her to continue to work.
"There we are. Not that hard was it, baby spider?" He flashed her a smile before his face scrunched back up in pain. "It's okay, just a little longer." There was another stream of whimpers as she moved the knife skillfully through. She was sure she had the bullet, she just had to bring it back to the surface. "Almost done." It was awful work. She hated this. It didn't matter how hard she tried to block out the pained moans and the taught expression on the younger's face, she still felt guilt seeping in for putting him through agony without anything to help.
When she did this alone, it felt easier. She knew her limits, she knew what her body was going through. With someone like Peter, so innocent yet so experienced in the worst ways, she found the work difficult. That wouldn't prevent her from getting the damn thing out but it was a background static that played the entire time.
Finally, she managed to get the bullet out and briefly left playing with Peter's hair in favour of picking up the bullet and showing it to him.
"Congrats Peter, it's a bullet."
"That's awesome," he mumbled breathily. He gently took it from her and twirled it between his fingers. Natasha found herself focusing on the rise and fall of his chest like she'd seen Tony do so many times before. She didn't know what it was about the kid but he'd grown on her like moss on wet rocks. This is not where she thought killing people would get her but she wasn't exactly mad at where she'd ended up. Her hand returned to play with his bouncing brunette hair and she felt him lean into her touch. He let out a tired sigh as his eyelids became heavier.
"Falling asleep on me, baby spider?"
"A little. Hey, if I'm baby spider does that make you mama spider?" She thought for a moment before deciding she may as well take the plunge.
"I suppose it does."
"That's nice Ms Natasha."
"Oh, it's Ms Natasha finally? Digging out a bullet win you over?" He hummed as he struggled to fight off the impending sleep brought on by the adrenaline rush. Although she knew there was more to do than just sit there beside the fire with a teenager drifting off to sleep in her lap, she couldn't find it in herself to move. "Get some sleep. You need your strength for healing." He smiled lazily and let his eyes close.
"Thanks, Mama Spider." She scoffed lovingly. The kid definitely didn't realize he said that out loud as he was asleep straight after. Even though she knew that she liked to think he meant it all the same.
"Gnight Baby Spider." The fire crackled in the background and she continued to pet his soft hair. She should really get the brand of conditioner he used.
"You did what?" Tony exclaimed when she explained what happened. His rescue came in the early morning and he'd found her in the same position she'd been in since that afternoon only now she had pins and needles something rotten. Clint happily made fun of her as Tony scooped up his kid who was in the throws of sleep and wakefulness. Not wanting to deal with a cranky spider, he'd settled the boy back down as they were brought onto the Quinjet and asked the spy for details. Judging by his reaction, you can guess how he felt about it.
"He was fine. I wouldn't have done it if it weren't necessary." Tony grumbled at her but resigned to cradling the teenager who somehow fit so well in his arms despite his age. "I think I'm his new favourite."
"Oh yeah? How'd you figure that? Do a blood ritual whilst you carved into him?" She rolled her eyes at the dramatics.
"No. He called me Mama Spider. Perhaps I'll teach him to say it in Russian so it'll be purely our thing."
"You wouldn't dare."
"I most certainly would. Spiders stick together Stark."
"Oh please!" he scoffed.
"Someone's jealous," Clint taunted from the cockpit.
"I am not jealous."
"Sounds like something a jealous person would say." He grumbled something about restricting internet privileges but Natasha didn't hear him. She was too busy watching the kid sleep soundly in the older's arms. Good, she thought. He needed the rest.