37. Love Spell: Opposites Attract – ft. Peter Parker/Natasha Romanoff

No-one knew what the spell had done to her, even a year after the original 'enchantment'. Not even Loki, who under Thor's supervision had checked her over, knew what it did, exactly (Natasha could tell he was lying, but he seemed vaguely amused more than anything so she didn't push the 'this spell is strange to me, though I do not believe it be malicious'). When she didn't show any obvious adverse effect after a month of being benched though, it was all sort of pushed to one side.

However.

However.

Hearing from Doctor Strange himself that the infamous 'Spiderman' was afflicted with the same 'enchantment', brought it all back, and before Natasha knew what was happening, Steve had all but banned her from going anywhere near him.

And so ensued Natasha's subsequent house-arrest and escape, with help, of course, from Clint.

She'd looked into his SHIELD file – it was painfully void of anything actually helpfully – but media helped more than she'd expected. Spiderman liked New York, for sure, but his little exploits? Unless he was fighting a Big Bad, he was mostly in the Queens area. That meant all she had to do was find trouble, and he'd come to her. Or, alternatively, she could make trouble…

A crash caught her attention. Head whipping up, she saw a group of masked men and women with machine guns pouring out of the back of a van that had crashed into a bank. Without thinking she took out her gun, firing six accurate rounds, two to three sets of wrists, causing them to drop their guns. People scattered from around her as the robbers turned their attention to her, some yelling her codename in warning to those that had already gotten into the bank. Natasha ran forwards, avoiding machine gun-fire as she came close, shooting four more wrists as she dropped her gun, not having a spare magazine on her to reload.

But she was the Black Widow. She didn't need a gun to take out these people.

That was how Spiderman found her, swinging from nowhere and kicking an approaching man into the crashed van, webbing him and his gun to its side, before securing the rest of the weapons and unconscious and/or injured robbers lying around her.

"Hey, Widow!" He called out as she finished dispatching the last of the robbers outside the building, before ducking behind a bin as ones inside the building started shooting. "Woah, let's see if we can help with that!" And then the van blocking the majority of the entrance was being pulling out of the way, giving her a chance to run inside, ducking the gunfire and taking out the nearest woman, knocking her unconscious with the butt of her own gun before taking it from her-

Only for it to be stolen from her by Spiderman. She had been holding on tightly, the surprising strength behind the tug causing her to stumble and slip to the floor, while coincidentally pulling her out of the way of more shots. Letting go, she rolled, hiding behind a pillar.

"No more guns, okay?" Spiderman swung into the bank, swinging up high and distracting the robbers so that Natasha could run over to where they were trying to secure hostages, dealing with them efficiently, Spiderman grabbing their guns and generally being a nuisance while she did all the heavy work. They made an unlikely team.

When it was over, Spiderman webbing all of the robbers together for the police to deal with, after she'd given a report on what had happened to an NYPD officer, Natasha looked over to the barricades they had set up, apprehensive at the sight of civilians and – god help her – reporters. She hated reporters.

"Wanna lift?" Spiderman called. Natasha looked up to him, suddenly remembering the reason she'd been in Queens in the first place.

"Sure," she replied casually. "How does it all work, then?" She watched him, amused by how he hesitated, before dropping down from the lamppost he'd been perched upon, approaching her with jerky limbs.

"Uh, well, it's sort of…close? I mean, I've gotta swing, so that takes up one hand at least-"

Natasha interrupted, "Do you want me up close and personal or piggy-backing?"

"Uh…lady's choice?"

Natasha quirked her lip, raising an eyebrow, "You're more of a gentleman than the Bugle makes you out to be." He groaned.

"Don't believe anything they say about me. I'm not a menace!"

"I know, Паучок. You're actually very helpful." He nodded emphatically.

"New York's friendly, neighbourhood Spiderman – that's me!"

Natasha hummed, before coming close to him, locking her arms around his neck. He locked an arm around her waist, seemingly on automatic, before releasing a line of webbing and jumping up – and then they were swooping through the sky, passing by skyscrapers and office-buildings, before they finally came to a stop only a few blocks away from Avengers Tower, on the roof of a low apartment building. Natasha grimaced.

"You had to bring me here?"

"Isn't this where you live?" He asked, sounding so young, "I'm sorry, I can take you somewhere else-"

"It's alright. The entire reason I was out was to find you, actually." Immediately, he became guarded.

"Find me? Why? Are you recruiting me or something?"

Natasha shook her head, stepping back slightly, unwrapping her arms from around his neck, strangely reluctant to let go. Then she saw it – the way he went to move forwards, too. She froze.

"No. I'm- I'm not recruiting you. Last year, I was hit with a spell from Amora the Enchantress. Only Loki seemed to have any idea what it did. Doctor Strange contacted us after he realised that you'd been hit too. I'm supposed to be on house-arrest, so I wouldn't go near you." Natasha put her hand up as he suddenly stepped closer, swallowing as the contact made her heart thud faster, her palm heat. Does he run hotter like Steve? And Bucky? The and me whispered in the very back of her mind, but he clearly was more like Steve than what she was, or maybe even Bruce, if the spider-like powers were anything to go by, except he was merged with his alter-ego.

"I knew something was wrong with me," he muttered, "I've been trying not to watch you on TV a lot since I last came into contact with that blonde lady. I had to break up with my girlfriend…"

"Oh dear," she murmured, wincing. She didn't really know what to say to that.

"You'd better- you'd better get back to the Tower," his voice sounded strangled, before he forced himself to step backwards. "Or you'll have to knock me out, or- or something. You could do that, you're the Black Widow, you can kill someone with your bare hands…"

"Go," she ordered him sharply, hating how it didn't come out angrily, or in a deadpan, how it came out as just tired. She stepped back herself, looking away from the boy, the child trying to save his city from thieves and murderers, not like her, who fought against Gods and abominations and Titans. "Now." She turned away, looking to Avengers Tower, where she could already see Iron Man flying out of, towards her. She heard a whistle in the wind, before she looked behind her.

Spiderman was gone.

Like he should be.

Natasha looked back to where Tony now floated. "Hey, Red-"

"Get Loki. Now."