All things considered, Natasha supposed it could have been far worse.
She ducked under one of Wanda's kicks and darted into her guard, punching her in the gut along the way. The younger woman grunted, stumbling backward. Natasha then swept out her legs, and straddled her, leveling her elbow just above her neck.
Wanda's eyes were wide, and her breathing was short and ragged. Natasha stood up and offered her a hand. Once she was up, Natasha directed her to the water bottles laying on the bench in the corner. She sat down and cleaned the sweat off of her neck with a small towel, while Wanda drained her water bottle.
"Thought you could kick me again?" she asked lightly. Wanda stopped sipping almost immediately, appearing almost fearful for a moment, before the corners of her mouth turned up bashfully.
"Maybe." she said.
"You slower than you were last time." Natasha said, "Why is that?"
If Natasha was entirely honest with herself, she had been half-expecting Wanda to perform better; she knew she still had a sleep deficit, even though she had gotten her usual amount of rest for the past three days. "Wanda?"
Wanda's shoulders hunched slightly. Her grip on the water bottle whitened her knuckles. "I'm sorry." she said. "I'm just… concerned."
Natasha peered at her, searching. "Vision?"
"I've never seen…" Wanda responded, "It's odd. I don't understand what's happening in his head."
"Sit up." Natasha told her, "What's confusing you?"
Wanda complied, and drank some more water. "I could always see his mind if I wanted to. It wasn't quite human, I suppose, but it…" she frowned. "...it made sense. But now, he can feel pain - he's eating, and he isn't human." Wanda paused. "Or Asgardian. I know there's something present, but…"
"If it's any consolation," Natasha said, "Tony's been kicking himself over this too. And he built Vision."
Wanda nodded. "Yes. I - thank you. Sorry."
"Stop apologizing," Natasha told her, "You're doing your best." she stood up and took a short sip of water. "Now get your head in the game. We have two hours before we have dinner."
Wanda stood and stretched her neck. "Right."
Tony rubbed his brow tiredly. Had it really only been a week ago that he thought the avengers were childless? "What?"
"The fundraiser, Tony," Pepper chided over the phone, "The one on the Brooklyn Bridge."
Tony blinked. Fundraiser? He was in a world where fundraisers still existed? "Huh."
"Tony, we had to negotiate with the mayor for two weeks to get it approved." Tony could hear her lips pursing in disapproval. Maybe he shouldn't have thought of that. That would be very clingy ex-boyfriend of him. "Steve agreed to show up to raise money for the New York Public Library. The one that you agreed to attend."
Tony sighed heavily. "Yeah. I remember it. Steve really loves Jane Austin."
"I'm just reminding you now," Pepper said, "So you can't say I didn't give you time to prepare your speech. I've also told FRIDAY to remind you every day until the fundraiser."
Tony narrowed his eyes at the ceiling. "Really, FRI?"
"Are you alright, Tony?" Pepper asked. Tony's hand moved to pinch his nose while he closed his eyes.
"Yep. Fine."
When you can the… the things that I can, but you don't… and then the bad things happen…
Christ.
"What happened, Tony?"
Oh, nothing. Just one extremely jarring CW-esque plot twist and intense concern over the fact that a kid had nearly died because of a choice he made - and it wasn't even the first time he'd put the kid's life in danger. Tony was feeling great.
"Nothing. Just Cap being an ass."
That was a lie, but Pepper probably wasn't going to look deeper into it. Maybe. He hoped she wouldn't.
Pepper is silent; she's sitting at her desk right now, the bright… what time was it? Tony checked his watch with a furrowed brow. Okay, it was still morning. Right. The bright, early morning-
"You're security's good, right?"
The words came out before he can stop himself. All that he's been able to think about is that Rumlow shot a kid - a kid - and that the boy had looked so, so tired. Tired like he looked much of the time. And if he squinted, he swore Natasha's frown once or twice. And now his life was partly in Tony's hands, and if Rumlow could nearly kill an enhanced (albeit, a teen, who wasn't prepared, but still), what was to stop him from shooting others? The police had no leads on the shooter, too; the guy had seemingly sunk into the floor after shooting Peter.
Paranoia? Definitely.
Unjustified paranoia?
"Yes." Pepper said slowly, "Happy cleared them all years ago. What's wrong?"
Well.
Tony wiped his brow, turning away from the paper haunting his eyes. It was held down by a spare wrench, with one end curling upward. It was black and white and he'd had to get it from the printer himself, because he couldn't trust anyone else with this. Natasha had given him a fresh spit sample to use, to compare to Peter's, and sure as the tension he stored in his neck, she hadn't been lying. The one goddamned time-
"Tony?"
Tony sighed heavily. "Rumlow. That terrorist, y'know him?" Pepper definitely knew who he was, Tony was just being himself. He felt great. "He shot someone. They're staying with us now, but - it would make me feel better if you got Happy to clear them."
"I'm fine, Tony." Pepper said, "You haven't given him the address of the compound, have you?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "The kid - the person." Tony clicked his tongue against his teeth, then sighed again. He could hear Pepper's eyes narrowing. "Okay, I know how that sounds-"
"It sounds," Pepper interrupted, "Like you guys just took a minor into the compound."
Tony ground his teeth together. Steve had wanted to keep the circle as tight-knit as possible. Lying would probably just dig this whole even deeper - the compound was technically his property, but Pepper had enough access to determine that the kid was indeed a kid and not like, twenty, although that fib was tempting. "His aunt agreed. Legally. And they're staying here together. I had Fri pick out everything he'd need, and my guys brought in things from their apartment." Tony paused. "So, uh, no need to worry."
"What's the boy's name?"
"Do you really need that info?" Tony, against his better judgement, approached the workbench with the DNA test on it.
"Well, if I ever need to come over, it would make a good impression to know his name."
"You can just say you don't trust me."
"That's not what I meant, Tony."
Tony set the beer can down on the workbench, unopened. Drinking wouldn't do if a kid was gonna be around - especially with the fact that they would be testing Peter's powers today. They already knew he had a healing factor, of course, but the kid could, still, technically, shoot lasers out of his eyes. Yep, drinking would probably be a bad idea.
No matter how much he desperately wanted to.
"Peter," He said, studying the DNA markers for the eighteenth time. "Parker."
Pepper responded. He knew because he heard the sound, but the words faded into the background or… something. They got lost in the words he'd just uttered, the half-truth he'd just told.
Because Peter Parker was really a Romanoff. No sign of any supersoldier project appeared on any FSB servers, but the tests didn't lie. Peter was her child, and he also had a bit of Steve's serum-modified DNA, too, buried under all that mutation. Signs of mutation from the spider-bite (god that sounded ridiculous) were present, too. It all checked out. Every single piece of it.
"Have a good day, Tony." Pepper said, and then she hung up.
Natasha was leaning against a wall when May walked out with her nephew. The skies were more than a bit drab, gray that grumbled about coming rain. Weights ranging from 100 to 800 pounds, were stacked on top of each other, and the high-jump bar that Steve used had been brought out. A few other contraptions had been pulled out of the Compound's storage, too, some of which didn't look at all like exercise equipment.
They looked out of place. They barely reached Steve's upper arm, and their eyes darted amongst the avengers assembled in front of them. Steve gave a friendly smile as he approached the pair, even as their face reddened.
"Thank you for agreeing to this, Mrs. Parker," he said, "hopefully, we can get a better idea of what's going on with you, eh?" he added, turning to Mary's son.
The boy nodded, and Steve lead him over to the dead weights. He gave the avengers another sweep as he did, and for a brief moment, Natasha was aware, truly aware, that they didn't know her. She was a stranger - larger than life, and, if the trepidation in their eyes was any indication, someone who was very intimidating.
And Natasha… felt. About that.
A feeling that she would never act on, of course. The less people that knew, the better. They deserved better than a mother like her, and in any case, she didn't choose to be a parent. She had a right to her own choices, and they had a right to live with people that genuinely cared about them. Because she didn't - she couldn't.
"Alright," Steve directed them to the high bar. "Try and jump over that. Make a running start from that white line. Try not to hold back, but if something hurts, feel free to stop." he pointed to a marker a few dozen feet away. They nodded slowly, and made their way to the marker as like they were walking on nails.
They moved faster than Natasha expected them to. Easily equal to Steve, but it was their jump that made her eyebrows rise. They soared over the bar, to the point that they surpassed the fence, landed almost perfectly. They were a bit heavy on their right ankle, but for an amateur, Natasha had expected far worse.
(She ignored the look in their eyes as they looked to May for approval.)
From there, they tested their strength (several times Steve's, which was somewhat concerning not only for the implications but also because she felt something akin to pride swell in her chest), reflexes, and so on. Awkward would have been a generous way to describe how they interacted with everyone, but it went well. Tony was getting on her nerves a bit, with the way he kept looking back and forth between her and them when he thought he could get away with it, but it went well. No-one was any the wiser.
Soon after the testing was finished, May was taking her nephew to the compound's cantine for lunch, and Steve was studying the kid as he left, with just a little pyrite to his smile.
"You aren't embarrassed, are you?" she asked, elbowing him.
He shook his head. "Of course not. Just…" Steve paused, "It's encouraging, I guess. Seeing that there are people out here willing to do what we do." his faced soured somewhat. "Just wish it hadn't happened so young, for him."
Natasha internally cursed. "Yeah."
Steve glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You didn't talk to him."
Natasha shrugged. "Didn't see a need. I scare people, Steve." She looked him in the eye. "He... he seems like a good kid, though. Reckless, but well-intentioned."
Steve nodded, then walked away. Natasha threw another glance around herself, and saw Tony talking on the phone, paying covert glances to her over and over again.
Natasha crossed her arms and marched over, just as Tony hung up. "Questions?"
Tony gripped his phone tightly. "A few. How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"That thing. The whole, 'he's not my-'"
Tony was cut off by Natasha grinding her boot onto his toes with a terrifyingly flat look.
"No questions?" Natasha asked. Tony spent a two seconds debating whether or not to press the point, all the while with Natasha grinding down his toes, then shook his head.
"Nope. Nada."
Natasha nodded, turned away, and briskly began heading for her quarters. Tony continued to peer at her as she left, but she didn't care.
She had a job to do. They weren't part of it.