Daisy Stark

Diasy walked into the dojo, it was going to be her first joined session with the other woman, so Daisy felt nervous. From what Colleen had told her, this woman over matched her big-time, so that definitely was cause for worry. But then again, something told her Colleen wouldn't just place her with someone knowing that Daisy wouldn't stand a chance. Colleen was there, and she was talking with another woman, the woman was a brunette, but Daisy suspected she dyed it as the woman's hair color didn't seem to match her skin color, the woman had a strong posture, like you would expect from an experienced fighter, would this be Daisy's... what to call it, classmate?

'Hello' Daisy said, causing both Colleen and the other woman to spin around startled. Daisy felt the corners of her lips pulling upwards.

'Oh Daisy,' Colleen said, glancing at her phone. 'right on time, this will be your sparring partner for these sessions, her name is Nadine.'

'Please call me Nat, or Dina, Nadine sounds so girly.' The woman said.

Daisy liked her immediately, with a name like Daisy she knew all about the feeling. Even if it was the name she felt most comfortable in, there was a reason 'Skye' had been her alias.

'I will, my name's Daisy, though you probably already knew.'

Nat smiled. 'That's true.'

'Alright, then how about we start with the training?' Colleen said, she didn't like any interruptions. 'if you can get your bokken then we will start off with some kata and then you can practice on each other.'

Daisy took her own bokken from her bag, and saw Nat doing the same. If Daisy hadn't realized her sparring partner was good already, she did now. Only someone who knew what it was like to really fight, knew the importance of using a weapon you were used to, instead of a new one every time. It was that way with knives, guns, and, as Daisy had found out in the past weeks, swords as well.

They went through the kata easily, following Colleens moves. Colleen seemed even more alert for mistakes then she was during the privates, but clearly she was satisfied with both Daisy and Nat's performances. When they were finished with the kata they started with the actual fighting. Nat's movements told Daisy that the other woman was practiced in many more martial arts than just this part of karate that they were currently doing, but Daisy had grown quite good with the katana and apparently fighting with swords had not been part of her previous training anymore then it had been a part of Daisy's. Result was that while Nat's footwork was much and much better, Daisy still could keep up with her swordsmanship.

At some point Colleen let them stop and gave then pointers and tips. They started fighting again, both of them paying more attention to their techniques, but also growing tired, it was only when Daisy felt her arms starting to hurt, that she realized how much she had learned to endure at S.H.I.E.L.D., if she had never met Coulson, life would have been so different. Even if she had eventually started training in this dojo, she would've just given up on fighting the second her arms had grown tired. That had been the kind of girl she used to be. That was what she did every time she had trained in boxing or judo with Rodhey or her father. Now, she would never, she just bit though the pain in her muscles, accepted the fact that she would wake up sore the next day, and fought on. They must've fought longer then Daisy had realized because Colleen made them stop again, this time because the two hours of training had finished.

Daisy put her bokken back in her bag and studied Nat properly, she looked familiar, the way she looked through her eyes, the way she moved, Daisy knew for sure she'd seen the woman somewhere before. She just couldn't figure out where. Daisy shook her head. She'd figure it out eventually. She always did.

Before walking out she asked Nat for her number, so they could hang out sometime. The smile the other woman gave her was genuine and Nat's number got added in her contacts. She also took a picture 'making the contacts more personal'. Daisy planned running a facial (she still had access to the FBI/old S.H.I.E.L.D./CIA etc databases, and she'd made a program that also sought for matches on the internet.

When she got home however, that plan got put on a hold, as her father asked for a favor.

'Daisy, you were curious about spider-man right? Well, the boy recently got into some trouble because for all his strength, he can't actually throw a good punch, and... I was wondering if you could teach him some fight-moves, and some common sense as well, god knows the boy has even less sense of self-preservation then either of us. It'd be in the main-compound, where no-one would question you being there if you'd just be there under the guise of teaching the boy some moves. Do you mind helping?'

Well, how could she say 'no' to that?

And that was why, the next day, after an exhausting session with Colleen, she was picked up by Happy and driven to a high school, she groaned when she saw which high school it was. Of course the boy she had to train went to the same high school as she did.

They were early, Peter was still in class. A quick hack into the school (they still hadn't upgraded their security) and she saw he had PE. Well, it was time to pay that living nightmare a visit. By that she meant the subject, though spiders were definitely nightmare material.

When Daisy walked into the gym, she was remembered of all the things that had made her hate any exercise as a teenager, endless sit-ups that felt like they had no use, climbing up on ropes and hit the ceiling, jumping-jacks. Daisy sighed, realizing these were things she did daily nowadays. What had life come to. It was then that coach Wilson spotter her. Daisy had to admit the guy was nice, even if she wished she’d have been able to skip his class.

‘Daisy, what are you doing here?’

‘Oh, a friend of Peter’s asked me if I could give him some self-defence classes. The fact that PE is his last period gave me a chance to see what I would have to work on.’

The coach looked like he was going to faint. ‘You teach self-defence?’

Daisy bit back her laugh, clearly coach Wilson was trying to compare the physical exercise hating girl he knew to the woman in front of him. And clearly he just couldn’t fathom they were the same person. ‘I don’t actually teach it, I’m just pretty good at it and I don't currently have much to do, so when I got asked I accepted.’

‘Oh… You want me to get Parker, tell him you’re here?’

‘That’s not necessary, this is a meant as a surprise, and I wouldn’t want to spoil that.’

‘I honestly don’t think Parker will appreciate more workout.’ Wilson said.

Daisy realized that she quickly had to come up with an excuse. ‘Well, he will probably appreciate being able to defend himself against muggers.’ She half-lied.

Then some kid fell a couple meters down from the rope, so the coach had to go and check. The kid was already standing though, so he would probably be fine. Then the school bell rang, a sound that gave Daisy throwbacks to her own time at the school. She saw Peter walking into the locker room, so she turned around and walked back to the car that Happy had kept parked. 

Daisy saw Peter walking out of the school with his friends, she saw him spotting Happy, muttering some excuse about why he had to go. Then he walked up to the car. He asked Happy why he was being picked up, Happy responded by saying Peter would find out himself eventually. She saw the boy sighting and rolling his eyes. Daisy smiled sympathetically, she knew the feeling. When Peter stepped into the car and saw Daisy sitting there, his eyes widened, he clearly was wondering who Daisy was and why she was there. Daisy knew that Peter was just as much of a secret as she was herself, so she knew what Peter was thinking. 

'Hi, I'm Daisy...' She briefly considered telling the boy that Tony was her father, but she decided to keep that until later, until she found out how good he was at keeping secrets to be precise. 'Tony asked me to teach you some self-defence moves.' and rationality, she added silently. 

'Peter, but you probably already knew.'

Daisy decided to steal a note from Nat's book. 'That's true.'

Peter just looked at her. He had an excellent death stare.

Daisy just shrugged.

It was late, Peter had just left, returning home. They had spent the first hour practicing how to properly hit, kick, and duck. The second hour they worked on learning Peter how to immediately hit someone while he is still in the movement and speed of his swing. Then they had just talked some more, Daisy telling him about her time at the school, how she had started to excel at hacking, how she had hacked the school as her senior year prank. After a while talking, she decided that she could trust Peter with the knowledge of who she truly was. She told him about her time growing up, the great lengths Tony had gone avoiding the press while in Disneyland. (he had dyed his hair pink once.) She told him about the time she'd had to prevent being a cosplayer to get out of the tower unnoticed just before the battle of New York, when she'd returned home for a visit. Peter told her about how Tony had suddenly been in his living room when he came home from school. How he'd gone along to Germany, how he'd fought with Captain America and the Winter Soldier. He laughed when he described the shock on the Winter Soldiers face when the man had heard his voice. 

Eventually it had gotten late, and Peter returned home. Daisy asked Happy to return her to the apartment, and just before she fell asleep she realized where she knew Nat from. The woman might've been introduced as Nadine, but Nat was also short for another name. Natasha.

Her sparring partner was Natasha Romanoff, the black widow.

Well shit.