The Avengers were sitting on the main floor talking and laughing with the tv playing in the background when Peter and Wanda got off the elevator. “Hey guys, how was school?” Steve asked, from the couch.
Peter groaned, flopping face down onto the love seat. Wanda smirked and rolled her eyes at the other teens' antics. “What’s wrong with him?” Clint asked, surprising Wanda for a moment before she remembered that this was his ‘work week’ for the month. Since going into partial retirement Clint had gone from being on full active duty and living at the tower ninety percent of the time to living at home ninety percent of the time and living at the tower one week every month. Though whenever he was home he was on what he referred to as ‘World ending emergency call only.’
Wanda rolled her eyes again. “He’s just upset over the fact that we were assigned a paper in English today.”
Peter groaned into the couch again muttering something unintelligible. “What’s the paper on?” Steve asked.
Peter rolled over onto his back. “We have to write a three to four page paper on someone we consider our hero and why.”
“Well that hardly seems like a difficult assignment, you’re gonna write about me right, kid?” Tony asked, looking smug.
Peter looked over at the billionaire. “I don’t know, Mr. Stark.” Tony looked slightly annoyed at the lack of response but let it go.
Natasha cleared her throat. “Who are you going to write about, Wanda?" She asked the girl, curiously.
Wanda hesitated for a moment. “I was going to write about Pietro.” The room quieted as everyone thought of the sarcastic speedster, who gave his life protecting Clint and a little boy during the battle of Ultron in Sokovia.
Nat smiled gently at Wanda. “I think he’d like that.”
Peter watched Nat quietly, it wasn’t often that he saw this softer side of the Black Widow. Natasha Romanoff was a mystery to him. One moment she would be cold and distant and the next she would be laughing and joking with the others, and maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him but Peter swore that at times he caught Natasha staring at both him and Wanda with what he thought might have been wistfulness. Every time he thought he had her figured out Nat would do or say something that would just wreck everything the young spider thought he knew about the woman. And in all honesty it intrigued him.
From what little Peter knew about Natasha’s past, which was very, very little despite her S.H.I.E.L.D file having been leaked back in twenty-fourteen and Peter having scoured the internet for hours for as much information about the woman as he could, her past was not pretty or happy in the least. What little information he did have told him that the red haired woman in front of him should not care how Wanda felt nor should she sympathize with the teen who had lost her brother only six months ago. From everything Peter had read, the Black Widow should not be capable of caring about everyone in this room, and yet she did. She cared so deeply for each person here that she had proven time and again that she would be willing to sacrifice herself in order to save one of them.
“Peter!” Wanda yelled, waving a hand in his face.
Peter jumped, rolling off the love seat in his surprise. “What?” He asked, quickly getting to his feet.
“I asked if you were okay? You were just staring off into space.” Wanda told him, fighting the urge to take a look in his mind to make sure he was okay.
Peter flushed in embarrassment. “Oh, uh yeah no I’m fine. I was just thinking about the paper is all.” he stammered, realizing everyone was staring at him now.
“Who are you going to write about Pete?” Steve asked.
Peter thought for a moment. He knew exactly who he wanted to ask, he wanted to ask Natasha if it would be okay for him to write about her. But he was afraid she’d reject him and he really did not want the entire Avengers team in the room if and when she rejected him. Coming up with an idea Peter said. “I’m not sure yet. I’ll decide when I get done with my patrol. Who’s coming with me tonight?” As he spoke Peter bent to pick up his backpack, tossing a pillow he had knocked to the floor with his dramatics back onto the love seat before straightening back up.
Tony smirked at Natasha. “I believe it’s mama spider’s turn to take care of the spiderling.”
Nat rolled her eyes at Tony, but made no move to dispute the claim. Instead she stood from her spot on the couch. “Come on Peter, get ready I’ll meet you back here in ten.” She said tossing him a small smile and giving Wanda’s shoulder a quick squeeze as she passed by the other teen, on her way to the elevator that would take her up to the floor she shared with Clint when he stayed at the tower. Peter followed behind, getting on the elevator with Natasha and riding to his floor in silence.
Twenty minutes later he was back in the elevator tinkering with one of his web shooters. The doors opened to the common room and he stepped off, pausing at the kitchen counter to put the screws he had removed back. “You’re late.” Nat said, leaning against the doorframe.
Peter looked up at her and flushed slightly. “Sorry, when I was putting my web shooters on I realized one of them was more damaged than it had looked after my last patrol and I needed to fix it before we could go out.” He rambled on.
Natasha smirked, moving to the other side of the counter to sit on a stool. She rested her arms on the table, her widow bites already strapped to her wrists. They were always a piece of tech that had fascinated Peter, and he longed to get his hands on some of her older versions just to see how they worked. “It’s okay, I was just messing with you.” She said, watching as Peter tinkered with the web shooter on the table.
He looked over at her for a brief moment before focusing his attention back on the task at hand. He quickly put the last screw back in place, setting down the small screwdriver he attached the web shooter to his left wrist, tightening the straps and flexing his wrist to test the range of motion as he did so. Once he was satisfied with the placement of the shooter he tucked the small screwdriver into the pocket of the coat he had worn earlier that was laying forgotten on one of the chairs. “Okay, I’m ready.” He told Nat.
The two of them made their way to the roof in silence, Peter going over how he was going to ask the Widow if he could write about her for his paper in his mind. He noted that Natasha kept glancing subtly at him out of the corner of his eye, though whether it was out of concern over how quiet he was being, or some other reason he didn’t know. He watched as the woman debated something with herself for a moment, before coming to a decision and leaning against the back of the elevator. Another minute or so passed in silence before the elevator finally stopped moving and the doors opened. “Have a safe patrol Mr. Parker, Agent Romanoff.” Stark’s AI FRIDAY said as the doors slid open.
“Thanks FRIDAY.” Peter called over his shoulder as he stepped off the elevator, tugging his mask on.
Natasha followed behind him. “Oh, uh I guess I should have checked. Do you need me to uh-” Nat cut Peter off.
“Carry me?” She raised an eyebrow, smirking. “No, Tony upgraded my widow bites, gave me a grapple feature kind of like Clint’s grappling arrows. The real question is can you keep up, kid?” She teased.
Peter grinned. “Can YOU keep up? I mean I know you’re a spider but you aren’t known for your webs.”
Natasha snorted. “Watch and learn little Spider.” Nat said before leaping off the building. Peter ran over to the edge of the roof looking frantically for the red haired woman.
“Looking for something, kid?” Natasha’s voice called from the next roof over.
Peter looked up in shock. “Woah, that's cool!” Peter leapt off the roof following after the ex-assassin, smiling under his mask.
They were three hours into the patrol and had just finished stopping some would-be muggers, after which they had retreated to a roof ledge with a couple sandwiches and drinks when Nat suddenly spoke. “Just ask.” She told him.
Peter looked up surprised. “What?” He asked, confused.
Natasha rolled her eyes. “Whatever you want to ask, just ask.” She told the teen.
“How did you know I wanted to ask you something?” Peter stalled.
Nat looked over at the teen. “Pete, for one thing I’m a spy it’s kind of my job to know these kinds of things and two, I know you kid. Usually you talk nonstop on patrols but tonight you’ve barely spoken three words to me. If I was anyone else I’d have taken offense.” She joked.
Peter was both unnerved and impressed with how easy it was for her to read him. Peter took a breath, it was now or never. “So uh, you know we have that paper for English.” Nat nodded, not wanting to interrupt incase Peter shut down again. “And I know Mr. Stark is expecting me to pick him to write about and, well, maybe if I was younger or hadn’t gotten a chance to spend so much time around the rest of the Avengers I would choose him.” Peter paused.
Nat looked over at him. “But you don’t want to write about Tony.” Peter shook his head. “Then who do you want to write about?” She asked, curiously.
Peter took another breath to steady his racing anxiety. “If it’s okay, I’d like to write about you.” He admitted quietly.
Natasha sat frozen in shock. She had been expecting him to say Steve, Bruce, Thor, possibly the android Vision, hell even Clint, never her. She hadn’t once thought the teen would want to write about her. “I’m no hero, Pete.” She told him quietly, after a few moments of silence.
Peter turned to face her suddenly, confusion on his face. “Of course you’re a hero, Nat!” He cried.
Nat shook her head. “No, Pete. I’m not. I’ve killed a lot of people and done a lot of bad things. I’m no hero, I’m a monster.” She started bitterly.
Peter moved closer to the woman. “You weren’t given a choice, Nat. I’ve read your files, I read them before I became Spider-man. I saw some of the stuff you went through and Nat, it wasn’t your fault. None of it was. The Red Room took away your freewill, put you through things no one should ever have to go through and made you do things you didn’t want to do. But you got out. You left and now you’re making the world safer. That’s not something a monster would do. And it’s what makes me look up to you so much. It’s what makes so many little girls look up to you. It’s what makes you a hero.”
Nat stared at the teen in front of her. A teen who had seen some of the horrible things that she had not only been through but had also done and still he saw only the good in her. She spent so much time hating herself and her past for the horrible things she had done and along comes this teen with spider powers who took far too many risks and sometimes pulled idiotic stunts, who believed in her so much he wanted to write a paper about her being his hero. It hit her then, why she was so drawn to him, who he reminded her of. He reminded her a lot of Yelena, her younger, adoptive sister. Yelena had been through the same thing as her in the Red Room the only difference had been Yelena was chemically subjugated so that she was obedient to the Red Room, and yet she still had belief in people, in Natasha.
“I, Pete, I don’t know what to say.” She told him quietly.
Peter shrugged. “I can choose someone else if you’re really uncomfortable with it. But, I mean it.”
“Mean what?” She asked, aware that her voice had come out with a rasp as she fought back the tears threatening to fall.
He looked over at Nat making sure he made eye contact with her. “You’re my hero, Nat.”
This time Nat couldn’t help it as a tear fell down her cheek. She pulled the teen into her and hugged him close, surprising both of them. Peter wrapped his arms around her, holding her just as tightly knowing the woman needed it. “Thank you, Pete. And yes, I’d be honored if you wrote about me.” She whispered.
Peter pulled back, grinning. Nat wiped furiously at the tears that had fallen down her face, clearing her throat before speaking. “We, uh, we should go. We still have another hour and a half before we need to be back at the tower for dinner.” She told him, standing up.
Peter nodded, climbing to his feet as well. Pulling his mask back on, he paused. “Uh, you won’t tell Mr. Stark will you?” Peter asked not wanting to deal with Tony’s moping that would follow if he found out Peter wasn’t writing about him.
Nat turned to Peter smirking. “I won’t tell him if you don’t tell him I cried like a baby.”
Peter grinned at her and nodded. “Deal!”
Nat paused, watching as the younger spider struggled to pull his mask down properly. “You know, you remind me a lot of someone I know.” She told him as she gently tugged the back of his mask down where it had rolled up on itself.
Peter looked up at her curiously. He didn’t know much about anyone Nat knew outside of the team, in fact, now that he thought about it he hadn’t known that she knew anyone outside of the Avengers period. “Who?” He asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.
Natasha smiled softly. “Yelena, my sister.”
Peter paused, he hadn’t known she had family. “I didn’t know you had a family.” He told her honestly.
Nat realized what she had said, and for a moment considered telling him to mind his own business but then she thought about it a bit more and realized she wanted to tell him about the dysfunctional little family the Red Room had given her. “Adopted.” She told him before pulling him back down to the roof. “What I’m about to tell you, stays between us for now okay?” She asked him.
Peter nodded, he wasn’t about to do anything that would destroy Nat’s trust in him. Nat took a breath trying to figure out the best place to start before deciding that if she was going to tell Peter about the three idiots she called family, she had to start at the very beginning. “Just some context, up until Clint brought me into S.H.I.E.L.D I had spent my entire life in the Red Room. When I was about six, I was chosen for a long term undercover assignment along with another little girl, Yelena, who at the time was about three. We were to play sisters, an older Widow named Melina played our mother and The Red Guardian, Russia’s version of Captain America, who’s real name is Alexei played our father. We spent three years undercover before Alexei got ahold of the information he was tasked with obtaining and Yelena, Melina and I went back to the Red Room. Those three years were the best years of my life. When it ended I was...destroyed. I knew what was going to happen to Yelena and I and it terrified me that Yelena was going to be put through the same program I had gone through, she was only six when the mission ended.” Nat paused, trying to gather her thoughts and keep her emotions in check.
“Anyway, fast forward twenty one years and I got some mail that ended up being from Yelena, which led to a...well it wasn’t a happy reunion at least not at first.” Nat smirked thinking back to when she and Yelena had first reunited and the ensuing fight they had had, then of them breaking Alexei out of prison, of the ‘family’ dinner they had had when they finally reached Melina’s place. She left out the parts about just what had brought her back into contact with her family, not quite ready to talk about the events that had brought the Red Room down for good.
“When things settled down, I realized that the feeling of family Alexei, Melina and Yelena had brought me when I was a kid was still there even after being separated for twenty one years. We haven’t seen each other in a couple months, they’ve been busy helping some ex-Widows adjust to life outside the Red Room and I’ve been busy with the Avengers and the whole Ultron thing. But I haven’t told the rest of the team about them yet, I’m going to, I just want a little more time to enjoy having a family outside of the Avengers, you know?” She told the teen.
Peter smiled under his mask, Nat really was a softie at heart. “Yeah, I get it. And I won’t say a word until you’re ready to tell them. For the record though Nat, I’m glad you found them again.”
Natasha smiled back at him. “Thanks. Now we really should get going otherwise we’re going to be late getting back to the tower and you know how Clint gets if he’s kept from food, especially on taco night.” Nat joked, standing once more.
Peter stood quickly, following Nat to the edge of the roof. “Hey, Nat?”
Natasha looked at the teen. “Thanks, you know, for trusting me enough to tell me that.”
The ex-assassin nodded slightly before shoving the teen gently off the roof with a smirk. Waiting until she saw him swing up onto the roof across the street before jumping off the roof herself and following the teen through the city.