Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Shakespeare, and also do not speak Italian nor Spanish, feel free to correct any language errors! Enjoy reading, and thank you! PS, I updated CHapter 8 because there was a section I missed uploading, go back and check if you want to, it might make more sense. Thanks!
"Okay, another question. What school did I go to? Unfortunately, I can't say, but I will tell you my favourite subjects. I've always liked sciences and recently had an appreciation for Shakespeare. That's all we have for today, thanks for watching TheSpidersByte! See you later!"
Peter collapses on his chair, sighing in exhaustion.
"Wow," He mumbles. "Never realised making videos was so tiring."
Shuri laughs,
"Ha, try doing several press conferences and interviews for weeks."
Peter groans,
"Noooo that sounds so hard! Good luck to you."
"Thanks. Now you wanna check the video out or just post straight away?" She asks, posed at the computer, waiting for his command.
"Just post it now, I can't be bothered to watch it. Wanna get something to eat? I'm starving."
"Sure, I mean, breakfast was literally just an hour ago but I could have a cup of tea." Shuri shrugs. "Aaand, the videos up. We'll check the analytics once we come back."
The pair head down to the kitchen and Peter makes a stack of pancakes to eat, adorned with scoops of ice-cream and berries.
May enters the room, speaking Italian on the phone.
"Ah ciao ciao, ci vediamo presto! (See you soon)" She laughs goodbye and ends the call.
"Morning you too, seems like you haven't had breakfast yet, Peter. At 10 o'clock." May raises a questioning eyebrow at her nephew.
"Um, yep. Just woke up super hungry, I guess." Peter says, shoveling more food into his mouth.
"No class then, today?"
"Free period. May, can I ask you a question?" Shuri says from the table, sipping her cup of tea.
"Sure, Shuri. Anything!"
"If you're Italian, how come your maiden name is Fitzpatrick?"
"Well," May takes a seat at the table before answering. "My father had it changed to fit in with American society more. We were still seen as outsiders from Italy, and it didn't help that we spoke Italian either. So, to help get jobs and be accepted, he changed our names."
"That's terrible!" Shuri exclaims. "You lost your culture."
"I suppose so, in a way. But we still continued speaking Italian at home."
"Peter, can you say anything in Italian?" She nudges her friend with her elbow.
He looks up, stunned.
"Um, what?"
"Can you speak Italian?"
"Uhhh ciao?" Peter says in a very American accent.
May chuckles.
"No, I never taught him any. Though, it would be nice for him to know since he's my last surviving family."
"Well, you can start now! Peter and I will learn together." Shuri grabs his hand enthusiastically.
"We- what?" Peter casts her a confused look, eyes darting up from his massive pile of pancakes to Shuri's excited face, down to their clasped hands.
"Really, Peter? You want to learn?" May asks, hope edging into her voice, pleased that her nephew was finally taking an interest in her home culture.
"Sure." Peter shrugs, not caring about anything other than his sugar filled breakfast.
"What do we learn first?" Shuri says eagerly.
"We can start with numbers maybe, and basic language."
They spend the next hour practising pronunciation and speaking small phrases in Italian.
Nat and Steve walk in, dressed in their respective suits.
"Perchè parliamo Italiano? (Why are we speaking Italian?)" Nat asks, in perfect Italian.
Shuri screws her face up in concentration, trying to piece together the sentence from her meager vocabulary, whilst Peter scoops the last of his breakfast up.
May turns around and gushes,
"Oh! Certo che parli Italiano, sei una spia così talentuosa. (Well, of course you speak Italian, you're such a talented spy)."
Nat inclines her head with a smile, pleased.
"Non, per essere competitive ma posso farlo anch'io. (Well, not to be competitive, but I can too)." Steve chimes in with a grin.
His partner rolls her eyes and says,
"Oh, veramente? (Oh, really?)" Nat pokes Steve in the chest with a smirk.
"Sì, sì." He stares back into her laughing sea green eyes.
May watches the interaction with a small smile, oh giovane amore, (oh young love).
"She asked why we were speaking Italian!" Shuri cries, having finally decoded what Nat was saying.
The spy chuckles,
"Yep, great progress for the first hour of learning! And how are you going, Peter?" She bends over to ruffle the boy's hair.
He gives her an exasperated look.
"I don't even know what we're doing right now. I studied Spanish, not Italian!"
Nat laughs at his expression,
"Ahora, cariño. (No worries, sweetie)"
Then turning around to face her partner, who understood Spanish too and chuckled at Natasha's affectionate words, she says,
"Alright, we better head off now, don't want to disappoint any sick children, hmm?"
Steve nods, knowing exactly what the Russian spy was up to…especially how cynical she could be.
"Yep, Stark's got a car for us to drive out there so let's go." He says from the doorway.
"Where are you going?" Peter asks from the sink, washing up his dishes from breakfast.
"To the hospital, we're comforting those in the ICU. Thought seeing America's hero and an ex KGB spy would cheer them up." Nat says half sarcastically as Steve heads downstairs to the waiting car.
"At least you can show them your weapons. Everyone would love to see you shoot the patients that are annoying with deadly accuracy." Shuri pipes up from the table, earning a snicker from the spy and a laughing look from Peter. "Oh, and while you're there, see if you can get me a sample of the disease, I'm going to start some research later today."
With a nod, Nat walks down and slides into the vehicle and Steve takes off.
"Peter's pancakes made me hungry." Natasha says conversationally as she whipping out her phone to scroll through the morning's updates.
"Yeah, me too." Steve replies, driving the car out and onto the main road.
"You're always hungry." She replies with a roll of her eyes.
His eyes flick towards her, taking in her side profile for the millionth time. What had Fury been thinking when he paired them together? To everyone's surprise, including their own, they worked smoothly together and completed every mission to the highest degree of success. He knew that Natasha is an extremely private person, but also kindhearted and loyal. Steve was no rookie, he'd read her file, seen the red in her ledger and yet, he found himself trusting Natasha and eventually confiding in her.
Pulling into the hospital's overcrowded parking lot, Steve looks over his shoulder to park properly.
His partner laughs,
"Rogers, there's cameras for parking now."
Nat presses a button on the car dashboard and a video flickers on.
"I don't care." Steve sighs, settling back into his seat after parking the car. "Technology progresses too fast for me."
"Okay old man, let's get this over and done with." Nat says as she unclips her seat belt and moves to open the car door.
"Nat." Feeling a strong hand on her back, Nat turns around to face Steve.
"What is it, Rogers? Don't want to see the kiddies anymore?" She asks skeptically, cocking her head to the side.
"You're not just an ex-KGB spy. You're a hero now."
"Ha, sure." She snorts.
Steve looks at her with sincere eyes.
"I'm serious, these people should know that. You helped save the city too. It's not right to just pick and choose what they see about you."
"Rogers, I know you're into all not making judgements until you know everything, the whole 'innocent until proven guilty', but that's not how it works. It never worked like that, not in the 1940s and not now. I'm a monster. And that's all they'll ever see me as." Natasha says softly, before moving away and stepping out of the car.
Steve sighs deeply and follows her to the hospital entrance.
"Hi, we're from the Avengers here to visit." Nat says to the receptionist.
"Okay, we'll get you signed in first. Names?"
"Natalie Romanoff."
"And who else?"
"Steve Rogers." He says with a charming grin.
The girl blushes and hurriedly writes the name down.
"Here's your name tags, the children's ward is the 4th level, down the hallway on the right."
"Okay, thank you." Steve takes them and hands Natasha's to her.
As they walk away, the receptionists gathers around together and giggle,
"Oh my, is that Captain American?"
"Yes! He's even more handsome in real life."
"Who do you think that is with him?"
"I don't know, maybe an assistant?"
"Wow, I'd kill to be her, working with that hottie all day."
Nat and Steve step into the elevator at the end of the hall and as the doors close, Natasha glares at the group of giggling girls.
"What's wrong, Natasha? Or should I say, Natalie?"
She casts him an irritated look.
"It's what they'll find on the registry if they check for anything. That one's almost completely blank unlike 'Natasha' who was blacklisted from the government for defecting to help Captain America.
"Though I'm sure the doctors wouldn't mind treating a beautiful outlaw."
"An outlaw that did it for you. And don't think I didn't notice you trying to butter me up with that compliment. If you're gonna score me, you'd better find some other descriptive than 'outlaw', Rogers."
"I did say beautiful, too." He says with a smile as the doors open. "Ladies first."
Nat tosses him an unimpressed look and stalks out to the children's ward, Steve chuckling behind her.
"Captain America!" The kids cheer as they enter the room.
"Hey, everyone! I'm Captain America and this is my fellow Avenger, Black Widow. We're going to show you some have a chat to you all and show you some cool tricks. Does that sound like fun?"
"Yes!" The children yell.
They spend around 10 minutes of demonstrating their abilities, where Nat flips Steve, and she jumps off his shield and does backflip, adding jokes and smiling the whole time.
They split up and do personal visits with the kids, asking them questions about their day and letting them touch their deactivated weapons.
"How do you flip so fast?" A little girl asks Natasha.
"Well, I've practised for a long time and take a big jump and around I go." She smiles, patting the girl's bare head, hair shaved off from treatment.
"Do you think I could learn too?"
"Absolutely! I think you'll be even better than me."
"Really?"
"Definitely."
"Can I tell you a secret?"
"Sure," Nat bends down so the girl can whisper in her ear.
"I'm scared for the surgery." She says quietly.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay. The doctors here know what they're doing, and I know you're safe. Will you be strong for me? Like Black Widow?"
"Okay, if you think so. Look! Mom! It's Black Widow, she said I can be strong for my surgery like her!"
The girl's mother smiles and bends down to kiss her daughter's cheek.
"Yes, sweetie, you'll be alright." And turning to Natasha she says,
"Thank you, you don't know how much my Zoe loves to see you. She even has toys of all the Avengers."
"But you're my favourite hero!" Interrupts Zoe.
Natasha laughs,
"Thank you, you're my favourite hero too. You're so brave for doing this."
"Thanks!" Zoe beams.
"Okay, Zoe, we're going to wheel you over to the surgery room now." A doctor says.
A team grabs the bed and takes Zoe away, with her mum and Black Widow waving goodbye.
"Hi, thanks for visiting the hospital, today's been a really busy day," says the doctor.
"It's not problem, really. I hope she recovers well."
"Yeah, me too." They share a grin.
"I remember when I got my first surgery." Nat sighs softly. "She's so lucky to have her family with her before it happens."
"Yeah, surgery is a big thing. What kind of surgery did you have?"
"A knee surgery." Natasha lies.
"Oh, nice. Was it for ballet? That's a common reason for injury."
"I'm a ballerina, actually. How did you know?" She smiles.
"I mean, you definitely look the part." He blushes as he realises she knew that he was checking her out.
Natasha pushes her hair from her face and watches as the young man's eyes flick to her hand.
"Um, are you coming to the hospital regularly?" He asks.
"Yep, I'm scheduled to visit each week, same time."
"Okay, that's cool."
"Yeah, it is." Nat flashes another smile, and the man pushes his glasses nervously further onto his face. "Careful, don't want to squash your nose there."
He laughs, and Nat has to appreciate the nice sound. And he is kinda cute too.
"What's your name? I'm Natalie."
"I'm Joseph."
They shake hands.
"Well, nice to meet you Joseph, maybe I'll see you next week?"
"Hopefully."
Nat nods and spins around, giving Joseph a great view to ogle at then whips back around to add,
"Oh, could I grab a sample of the virus? I have a friend that's in research and she said she needs a sample. I've got identity and paperwork if you need it."
"Sure, I'll grab a tube and sample if you'll meet me at the receptionist's desk in 5 minutes?"
"Okay."
She heads across the hall to the room that Steve's visiting and peeks through the tiny window to find a kid playing with the Vibranium shield and Steve chatting to another child. He looks up and sees her standing at the door.
With a smile, he calls goodbye to the patients and heads out the door.
"Ready to go?"
"Yep."
They take the elevator down and chat casually about their various encounters with the kids.
"I met this kid on a ventilator and," Steve shook his head. "It reminded me so much of how limited the technology was back in my time. Is that what would have happened to me? My own two lungs couldn't even breathe properly enough until I got the serum."
Nat shrugs,
"Maybe then you could've hooked up with a cute nurse."
Steve huffs a laugh,
"I hope that was a joke."
The door pings open and she says with a smirk before stepping out leaving her partner standing alone with an amused smile on his face,
"Was it?"
Steve follows Natasha to sign out at reception, dodging past excited fans and starry eyed girls (and some men). When he finally got there after having been made several statements concerning his marriage status and practically used his super speed to get to Natasha, she was chatting to a raven-haired man in a white coat.
"Hey, Steve. This is Joseph, he's got the sample Shuri needs."
"That's great." Steve says, sounding pleased but Natasha knew that it meant he didn't want to be there.
"Hi, it's a great honour to meet you in person, Captain America. Your portrait hung in the hallway of my room when I enlisted in the army and was very inspirational."
"Oh really?" Steve folds his arms across his chest and eyes the doctor up and down.
"Um, yep." Joseph says, fiddling slightly with the lid of his pen, darting a nervous glance at Natasha.
"Okay, we'll head off now then. See you next week." She says, waving goodbye.
"See you then, Natalie and Captain."
As they get into the car, Steve asks,
"Are you still hungry? We could go to a diner close by maybe."
"If you're up for it, could be a hassle with you still dressed up though."
"I'll risk it," He says with a smile that Natasha returns.
After a relaxing lunch, they head back to the Facility, and find Wanda nursing a cup of strong tea alone at the dining table upstairs.
"Where's everyone else?" Natasha asks, surprised.
"Shuri and Peter have class, May's on a call with a friend, Bucky's getting some supplies and the rest are working." Wanda waves her hand, gesturing to the empty seats.
"Okay, it should be time for lunch, I'll go grab them," Steve says, climbing the stairs to knock on the teens' doors.
After their class ends, Shuri and Peter meet downstairs, chatting about the latest from the Decathlon group chat and the massive new pile of History homework, a gift from Mr Donner to the poor students in his class.
"Hey, Wanda!" Shuri waves to the older girl at the table. She waves back, a sparkle of red magic eliciting from her fingers. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Can I sue a teacher?"
Wanda laughs but answers with,
"Yeah, sure. Depends on the grounds, though."
"Hmm, what about racism?" Shuri says.
"Yep, that's totally possible. Want to tell me more about the situation?"
"Okay, so Peter and I have a really rude History teacher, and we're studying the Jim Crow laws right now, and he's being really rude about it and totally subjective, giving his own opinions instead of telling us the facts about what really happened."
"Well, it seems like it's worth asking your teacher about it first, but it's up to you. We could probably assemble something to present if you really wanted to."
"Yes! That would be amazing. Thank you." Shuri beams. "And if you need anything technology or science wise, I'm happy to help."
Wanda nods, grateful for the offer.
They eat lunch, an omelet cooked by Steve, supplemented by milkshakes from Natasha.
"Oh, and Shuri, here's the sample of the virus you wanted." Nat hands the bag to the young scientist.
"Thanks, wow the handwriting is so neat!" Shuri exclaims.
"I know right, good handwriting is such a turn on." She winks and they laugh together, garnering unimpressed looks from Steve.
"We have English in five minutes." groans Peter.
Shuri shrugs,
"I don't mind English, it's quite interesting actually."
"I mean I do too, but I'm still hungry!"
"Tell that to Miss Roberts." Shuri replies, putting her plate into the sink.
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute!" Peter huffs and finishes off his lunch.
Saying goodbye to an exhausted looking Wanda and thanking the two soldiers for making lunch, he heads back off to his room for his final class of the day.
"Afternoon class, how are we all today?" Miss Robert's cheery face pops onscreen. "Today we'll be reading the timeless balcony scene. Please turn to Act 2 Scene 2."
"Miss, can I be Romeo?" Flash's boisterous voice surges through the computer speakers.
"Sorry, you know how this works, we'll use the spinner to decide."
Pulling up her trusty online spinner with the class's names on it, Miss Roberts announces,
"And today's Romeo is….Peter!"
"What about Juliet?" Another student asks hopefully.
I hope it's Michelle, Peter thinks wishfully. It better not be Flash
"And Juliet will be played by….Michelle! Where is she?"
"Not here, Miss." Says another hopeful student.
"Okay, what a shame. Well, her replacement will be…" A whirr of the spinner echoes in Peter's ears as the circle rotates.
"Sadie! Alright, take the stage Peter and Sadie, and action!"
Peter clears his throat before switching the microphone on and begins reading Romeo's lines.
"Uh, he jests at scars that never felt a wound."
"More passion, Peter!" Miss Roberts encourages. "You're sneaking out to meet each other against your parents' wishes, can you feel the rush of excitement?"
He continues reading Romeo's given part reluctantly, still wondering where Michelle was.
"And here we go, the second interaction between the fated lovers…" The teacher smiles.
Shuri bursts onscreen, longing radiating from her voice.
"O Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet."
Peter smiles at his literal on-screen counterpart, his secret ally. She smiles back at the screen and for a moment, it feels as if Shuri's looking straight at him through the screen.
"Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?" He wonders.
Shuri continues with her part, adding extra drama for the sake of it.
"What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any…other part belonging to a man." She giggles, and the class roars with laughter at her suggested meaning. "O, be some other name!"
They continue on in this fashion, making Shakespeare's play sound like some cringy modern soap opera. Peter glances over at his screen to find Shuri's smiling face so many times that he swears he can eventually draw it out from memory. He watches her flash perfect white teeth at the screen, lovely face partially hidden by a large jumper, and hair left out in a wild tangle, acting as Sadie, who in turn was acting as Juliet but underneath it all, it was still the Shuri he knew.
"But that thou overheard'st, ere I was 'ware, My true love's passion. Therefore pardon me, And not impute this yielding to light love, Which the dark night hath so discovered."
She falls silent after her lines finish. Peter, still staring at his screen in a dream like state is rudely awoken by the insistence of his teacher,
"Peter? Are you still there? You're up again."
"Oh, right sorry. Where were we?"
"You start at, 'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I vow'." Shuri tells him.
"Got it."
They finish the scene with a round of applause from a thoroughly entertained class.
"Wow! What a great scene by two very talented actors. I can see a lot of chemistry between you two." Miss Roberts smiles.
Peter ducks his head shyly and notices Shuri's wide grin onscreen.
"Alright, now sit back for Leo's famous scene with the beautiful Claire in Baz Luherman's movie. Everyone, ready?"
"Alright class, that's all for today. Thanks for all your hard work!" Miss Robert's chirps before ending the meeting.
Peter slumps back onto his chair, mind still reeling from being caught staring at Shuri. She's just a friend, he reminds himself, What about Michelle?
Peter grabs his phone, poised to send a text asking where his friend was when Shuri pops her head through the door.
"Hey Spider, want to see all the comments from your latest video?"
"Sure," He sends the text distractedly and plops down on the beanbags to peer at Shuri's computer.
"Ooh, very popular! Over 50 million views." Shuri says, impressed.
"Nice," Peter says, leaning back to check his new social media profile. "Wow, so many likes already, just for a photo of the view from my room."
Shuri snickers,
"I'm sure they're all dying to get another pic, preferably this time of you."
"Ugh, I can't be bothered to put on my suit. It's getting too hot anyway."
"Doesn't that mean it's easier to take off your clothes?" Shuri asks with a smirk.
Peter rolls his eyes, but can't deny that she's right.
"So, what happened with Michelle?"
"Not sure," He checks his phone again, nothing.
"Oh okay."
They lapse into silence, each on their respective devices, Peter replying to a few comments and adding a story update.
"Hey, look at this!" Shuri hands the laptop for him to check.
Peter reads the headline,
"Spiderman launches new social media profile, girlfriend spotted in the background. What?" He clicks on the attached photo, a badly Photoshopped file opening to find a recently posted photo of his combined with a selfie of a girl he'd never seen before added in the background. "This is crazy, how can people believe this?"
Shuri shrugs,
"People believe everything they read online."
"Oh. Wait, does that mean they say the same things about you?" Peter says as he realises how fake rumours quickly could get out of hand.
"Yeah, more or less." She says, not adding anything more on that subject.
Discreetly, Peter pulls up TheQueensCode profile on Instagram and clicks on the latest post, a selfie at her desk with the caption, 'Ready to code?'. He instinctively moves to double tap the picture, but stops himself just before it fully registers. So far, there was nothing online that linked Spider-Man with the Princess, and Peter wasn't going to be the one to start a new batch of dating scandals between them, not with T'Challa breathing down his neck everything he walks into Shuri's room, or vice versa.
Scrolling through the comments, Peter's stomach clenches as he reads the first few comments.
She's only famous because she's a princess
Sorry...but you're not pretty enough girl
Don't want to see that on my feed
Moving further down, he finds some positive comments from fans, Shuri even replied to a few, but the negative comments stick in his mind.
How could people say these things? Peter was all for freedom of expression but some were just downright cruel. Shuri didn't deserve to see those words pop up every time she was active on social media.
What could he do about it?
What could he do about it?
Just then, Michelle responds to his text,
Sorry, my wifi cut out, the neighbourhood has really bad connection
Nah, that's okay, just wondering.
How did English go?
Pretty okay, just reading through the scene
And as Peter types out his text, he realizes that even though Michelle didn't make to class, it was okay, because Shuri was there.