Natasha was sitting in the library, looking at some old books which told stories from her childhood (translated, of course), when she heard a soft voice, barely audible, ask her "Excuse me miss, are you the Black Widow?"
She looked at the source of the voice and saw a little girl, about 8 or 9 years old, dark of skin and way to thin, dressed in ill-fitting clothes. Natasha answered "Yes, I am the Black widow. Why do you ask?" The girl said "I know you know how to fight. Can you teach me?", surprising Natasha. She answered "That depends on the reason you want to learn. Also, what's your name?"
The little girl introduced herself as Bianca, and told Natasha "My stepdad beats my mom, and at school the other kids bully me for being a 'N*gger'. I want them to stop, and I want my stepdad to stop!"
"Well, I can teach you how to defend yourself, and how to make sure that people don't pick on you, but I'm not sure how teaching you how to fight will stop your stepdad from hurting your mom." Natasha said with a smile. "I think I will pay him a visit myself for that."
Bianca looked up at her with hope in her eyes. "Really?!" she asked, with wonder in her voice, making Natasha wonder how hopeless she must have been. "Really." she answered.
Later that afternoon, Bianca's mom got a surprising phonecall, telling her that she and her daughter were invited for dinner at the Avengers Tower, and that her daughter was already there. She quickly put on her Sunday best, left a note for her husband, knowing there would be retribution, and left for the Tower.
At the entrance, she was greeted by her overjoyed daughter, and the Black Widow, of all people! She quickly shook of her shock, and introduced herself to the other woman. "Keita MacKenzie. I hope Bianca wasn't too much trouble?" "Natasha Romanoff", The other woman introduced herself, and added, with a smile "No worries, she has been an absolute delight."
Keita was quickly guided into the elevators, to stop people from asking what she was doing there. Once inside the elevator, she was getting more and more anxious about why she, of all people, was invited for dinner at the Avengers Tower! Noticing her state, Natasha said "Don't worry, you'll fit in just fine. They're all wonderful people, even Tony." Keita smiled weakly, and told Natasha that that was not what she was worrying about. "What are you worrying about, then" Natasha asked with a slight smile. "I am worrying about why I, of all people, was invited to the flipping Avengers tower for a casual dinner!" Keita said, slightly exasperated. Natasha smirked and said "That's because of a little story your daughter told me, and I think you would be more at ease talking about it where no-one can overhear."
Natasha then started explaining what Bianca had asked and told her, and her reactions to it. When she came to the part about her step-dad beating Keita, the elevator stopped at their destination floor. They quickly got out, and made their way to the dining table, which was already set. The other Avengers, being clued in by Natasha, made their way over to introduce themselves. By mutual agreement, they dropped the topic for after dinner.
Dinner was, as was usual with the Avengers, a rambunctuous affair. Bianca felt right at home, sitting inbetween Steve and Natasha. Tony had to be told off a few times for his language, and for telling jokes that went way over the kid's head. Strangely enough, for those not knowing Bianca, that is, she actually was very interested in both Tony's and Bruce's scientific tales, almost absorbing the knowledge they shared, and giving a few surprising insights here and there.
After dinner, the Avengers retreated to their rooms for a bit of relaxation, except for Tony, Steve and Natasha. Tony told Keita and Bianca that he had half a mind of giving Bianca a scholarship, for such a great brain shouldn't be wasted, after which he went to his lab. Steve, however, stayed behind for both moral support, and as a sparring partner. Natasha continued her explanation of the conversation between her and Bianca, earlier that afternoon. When coming to the point of Keita's hisband beating her, she nodded tearfully, and told them that she didn't have the means for a divorce, and she was afraid that as a single black mom, she would never find a job, to which both Steve and Natasha both answered, simultaeously, that the Avengers Tower always had a place for them.
After that emotional conversation, they went to the gym inside the Tower, and started giving both Keita and Bianca a few shows of how to defend yourself. After that, the two were told to do some workouts to see where their current strength and endurance lay. Keita, as a cleaning lady, surprised both Steve and Natasha with her strength and endurance. Bianca too was ahead of the curve, despite being too thin.
After a tiring workout session, the two were offered to stay the night at the Tower, and they both accepted. When they were relaxing in the common living room in front of a huge television, the conversation turned to why a black girl had a name meaning white. "My first husband, Bianca's father, was a second generation Italian-American. His family came here after the second world war, and they were almost as ostracized as my family was. My parents were both ill at the time, and neither of them was up to raising 5 kids. Luckily, his parents, being our neighbours, helped out with raising us. I was the oldest of the bunch, and so was Nicolaus, so we were often babysitting our younger siblings together. We kind of fell in love back then, but we never acted on it. For some odd reason, I was chosen for a scholarship, and got a law degree, while Nico spent his days working in his uncle's restaurant, and training to be a gourmet chef. When I came back, Nico had prepared a huge feast for my welcome back party. We had our first kiss then. My parents died less than 3 months later, and he and his parents were a great help with preparing the funeral and everything.
"When I was a kid, my mom told me she was embarrased of her first name, and made me promise not to name any kid after her. After she died, I started to doubt the wisdom of that promise. However, my siblings pointed out that as long as I had them, she wouldn't be truly gone. Nico, however, made no such promise with his mom, and after she died, many years later than my own parents, luckily, he decided that with how estranged he and his siblings had become, some of them not even showing up for the funeral, we decided together to name our first daughter after his mom. And that's the story of how Bianca got her name."
The room had fallen completely silent while Keita was telling her story, and it stayed that way for a few seconds after she was finished. Bruce then broke the silence by asking if she had ever thought of becoming a children´s book narrator, for if she could keep them all engaged, he joked while looking at Tony, kids would be no problem. Keita responded that she had never thought about that, but that it was something worth thinking about.
After all the excitement of the day, they all went to their rooms and quickly fell asleep, even Tony didn´t wander off to the lab, thinking that a little girl´s safety and education were worth more than some silly fun in his lab.
The next morning, Keita had 27 missed calls on her cell, and 138 angry messages form her husband demanding her to come home. She ignored them for now, and told him she was a guest at the Avengers Tower, hinting at the fact that if he threathened her again, he would be in a world of hurt. After that, he became a bit more polite, but not much. Jarvis advised her to keep those messages for the court case they would be building against him, making it easier for her to divorce him without him getting any kind of custody over Bianca.
Most of that morning was spent by Keita, the Avengers (minus Tony), and a few people from both Shield's and Tony's private licence teams planning the court case, with both the Avengers and Shield already having a few job offers for her, both temmporary and permanent. Tony and Bianca, however, were down in the lab, tinkering with a few odds and ends, seeing at what level Bianca's education was, and in which areas she needed tutoring. One of the things they ended up tinkering on, was a new watch for Bianca, which could record and play both audio and video, had an emergeny connection to the Avengers' comm channel (only to be used in real emergencies, Tony told her, to which she asked if her stepdad beating her mom counted. Tony's answer was a resounding yes.), was waterproof, scratchproof, and inpactproof up to 50G, and was bright pink with yellow accents.
They had a quiet lunch, still thinking over the possible repercussions of the court case.
After lunch,Steve, Natasha, Tony, Keita and Bianca made their way over to the gym, starting on some light excercises to get them warmed up. After that, thay had their first hands on training session, with Tony providing them with foam training weapons, and information about nonlethal weapons like the taser and how to defend against them. The highlight of the afternoon was Bianca, after getting some one-on-one training from Natasha, taking down Steve with a few well-placed strikes to nerve clusters, none of which were in the crotch, for Steve was wearing a cup, and Bianca didn't want to hurt her hands or feet.
That evening, they went to Keita's house to pick up some of her and Bianca's stuff (including clothes) without the possibility of her husband interfering. After seeing the miserable state most of their clothes were, the Avengers offered to take them both shopping the next day, which happened to be a Saturday.
And so the days passed, with Keita spending the mornings preparing for the court case, and Bianca in school or in Tony's lab being tutored by both him and Bruce, with guest appearances from the other Avengers. The afternoons they spent training and sparring, with Keita quickly getting up to the level of a baseline Shield employee, and Bianca not far behind. Their evenings were spent relaxing with their new-found family, and spending time together.
The day of the court case, Bianca was given leave from school, and was sitting in the court room as a witness. She watched her soon-to-be-ex-stepdad walk in with a bowed head, and her mom walk in with the confidence of a queen. The case was relatively short, but it still felt like an eternity for Bianca. The result of the court case was that Keita's ex-husband was guilty of multiple cases of assault, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and attempted murder, had to spend at least 25 years in jail, with a forced psychological exam every yearhad to pay a huge fine to both the state and to Keita, and was to never have contact with either Keita or Bianca ever again, unless they initiated it, with a police officer or an Avenger there during the conversation.
Things had never been better for little Bianca as she celebrated her tenth birthday at the Avengers Tower. Her mom was rid of her ex-stepdad, she had a well-paying and well-respected job as a communications officer at Shield, and an official liason to the Avengers, Bianca was no longer bullied, she had actually made some friends after defending another girl from bullies, and was top of her class in all scientific classes, and in the top 10 for all the others. She even had a huge cake and an even bigger pile of presents! Though the best present of all was seeing her mom truly happy, sharing a hug with auntie Tasha. She vaguely wondered if those two were more than just friends, but decided not to worry about it, they were both smart enough to work that out themselves.
The End