"But I can usually shoot a web a sling away-"

"And what happens when your web shooters run out, hm?" Katya asked, circling him. She'd had Peter holding a wrestler's starter stance to work on his spatial balance. She nudged his back foot with her own. "More weight here, but bring it up," she swiftly kicked it out from under him and, as she predicted, he collapsed to the ground. "Never. Flat. Footed!" She punctuated her sentence with claps, as if she could beat it into his brain that way. Peter groaned and rolled over before standing up.

"No fair, you were behind me-"

Katya balked. "Fair? Peter, in fighting there is no 'fair'. If they want you dead and you're waiting for 'fair',you're going to die."

Peter grumbled something as he adjusted the gloves of his suit, but fell back into stance, keeping himself on the balls of his feet this time. Katya finished her circle around him and smiled. "Better." She fell back into a stance of her own, her eyes trailing his. She held his gaze for a moment before raking his body for any other errors. She spotted six.

"Where should your center of gravity be?"

Peter adjusted himself. "More planted, towards the back, in case you lunge for my torso."

Katya smiled. "Correct. And your chest?"

He adjusted himself a little more. "Forty five degrees to the ground."

Her smile spread into a grin. "And your head?"

He lifted his chin a bit, still not breaking her gaze, but she could tell he was proud of himself. "Up."

"Yes!" Katya broke her own stance, grinning, and even offered a few claps. She'd let the other three go, for now. They'd been at the gym for an hour already, and it started very much the way their first session had gone- she'd kicked his ass a few times before explaining how he could prevent it, and he was at least clearly listening. Flushed, sweat dripping off his brow and the edges of the curly hair that framed his face, panting with exhaustion, but at least listening. He grinned, breaking stance as well when she'd clapped and he punched the air in victory, whooping.

Katya sighed inwardly. That hadn't been an invitation.

Wordlessly she grabbed his arm, wrapping her other one around his neck and twisted, sending him spiraling towards the ground. He yelped. "Hey!"

"I didn't tell you to break stance." She said simply, though there was a hint of tease to her voice. "But you did do a good job." Her smile returned.

He scowled at her with mock indignance, pushing his hair from his face. "You're exhausting."

Katya scrunched her nose at him. "No, learning is exhausting. I'm just trying to help."

Peter sighed heavily and made his way to the edge of the mat where their water bottles were, popping his open with his teeth and nearly draining it. He wiped his mouth across his forearm. "Well, thank you for helping, but also, ouch."

Katya sniggered and sat next to where he'd since lowered himself at the edge of the mat. She hadn't told him to take a break yet, but whatever. He was doing well.

The elevator across the room from them pinged, and the doors slid open to reveal Tony, who, after stepping out of the elevator, spread his arms grandly. Ever the drama queen. "And this," he gestured towards the pair of them "Is why I pay you the big bucks."

Katya rolled her eyes. "You don't pay me any bucks."

"No, but you live here rent free and I let you use the company card, so-"

Katya giggled. It had definitely been weird when she first got here- for her at least , she'd felt like an unbroken outdoors cat that had somehow found its way inside - but the more time they spent together the closer they'd gotten, especially since they shared a similar sense of dry humor. "I was just letting him rest for a second since he was doing well and you specifically told me not to kill him." she joked.

Peter scrambled up from his sitting position. "Hey, Mr. Stark, did Happy send you any of my messages-"

Tony held up a hand. "We've been really busy with the move, kid, in case you couldn't tell-" he held a hand out to the gym, where half of the equipment that used to be there- the machines, most of the punching bags- had been packed up, presumably. "But I promise he's been sending me everything important."

Peter rubbed at his neck. "See, I just don't think he's telling you everything-"

"Weird glowy weapons, I know, got it. We're keeping an eye on it." Tony's tone was almost dismissive, and Katya couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for the boy. "Anyway, I came up here to tell you Happy's ready to take you back."

Peter's face fell. "They're not just glowy, they defy physics , Mr. Stark, I really think-"

"Kid, we're on it. I'm going to need you to leave it alone for now."

"Leave it alone?!" Peter balked, "but what if they-"

"They won't, kid, please-" he held out a hand to the open, waiting elevator, inviting him to take it down to the garage. "Let the grown-ups handle it. Happy's waiting."

Peter's shoulders slumped, and Katya could see the disappointed frustration in his eyes when he turned back to grab his water bottle. He offered her a hand to help her up, which she clearly didn't need but took wordlessly. Turning back around, he asked, "have you at least started working on Katya's suit?"

Katya's eyes widened. She hadn't brought that up yet, what was he doing?! "Er-" she tried to interrupt, but Tony was quicker to answer.

"Katya doesn't need a suit, because you guys are going to leave this alone." His voice got more terse with each word.

Peter and Katya glanced at each other,wordlessly trying to come up with an alternate explanation.

"Erm, it'd just be for patrol purposes-" She began, her gaze falling to her bare feet. "Just to help him out a bit. It wouldn't do to have someone recognize me from school or anything like that."

Tony sighed, raking a hand down his face. "I'd say no, but then I'd sound like a hypocrite." he paused. "I"ll think about it."

Peter beamed over to Katya, who offered him a small smile in return. She hadn't brought it up because she hadn't been sure how to say it- the longer she stayed here, the more she felt like she was contradicting her reasons for coming here in the first place. Not knowing what to do with herself, as it seemed like Peter was waiting for an answer, she shrugged at him mildly.

—-

Once Peter'd left, Katya trotted her way to the kitchen, her stomach telling her it was time for a snack. She was still getting used to normal hunger cues- they'd been suppressed nearly all her life, as she'd been fed on a schedule by the Acadamy's mess hall- but she was pretty sure that's what the churning in her belly meant. That, or nerves, but nothing a snack couldn't handle.

"So you want a suit now, do you?" Tony's voice came from behind her and she froze, a box of mac n cheese in her hand. She hadn't heard him come in, and that never happened. She was so used to constant vigilance that sneaking up on her hadn't been a prospect before. She was getting complacent.

She shrugged, putting the box down on the counter. "I mean…" she trailed off. She didn't know what she wanted, exactly. She wanted to help Peter, and according to him that required a suit, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that by letting Tony build her one she was veering farther and farther away from Natasha's directions.

"I"m not even supposed to be here, you know."

"I know, and thanks-"

"If they catch me I"m probably going to jail,"

Katya smirked. "Well don't get caught."

Natasha pursed her lips at the comment before crouching down to meet Katya's height, putting both hands on her shoulders. "I need you to keep a low profile." Her tone was much more serious than Katya had ever heard from her, in the few days they'd spent together. She nodded.

"You asked to go to school, you asked to be normal, and this is your chance to do that."

A beat passed between them, and Katya resisted the urge to rub her arm self-consciously. She didn't want to disappoint her.

"Yelena and some of the others are tracking down the rest of the Widows to wake them up, and I'm sure they'd love you on their team, but you told her what you wanted first and now we're going to make it happen.."

Katya nodded.

"That means school, and homework, and maybe boys if you *have* to, but- I want you to trust yourself, okay? This is the whole point of this. To let you live the life you want."

"...It'd just be for patrol purposes." She finished. She bent down to fish out the pot from the cabinets underneath the counter.

"As in with Peter."

"As in with Spiderman. " Katya felt the need to correct, but regretted it almost instantly. Finding the pot, she pulled it out, and moved over to the island between her and Tony to fill it with water. "He says he doesn't hurt anybody."

"Oh, trust me, he doesn't." Laughter played behind Tony's words. "I think it'd be good for you."

Katya glanced up from the slowly filling pot. "You do?"

He nodded, adjusting his glasses ever so slightly. "I do. I know what Natasha said when you came here, and I promised I'd only use you for a sparring partner, but I figured you'd want something more-"

Katya shook her head. "But I don't," she wasn't sure whether she was trying to convince him or herself.

"You keep telling yourself that. But you come to me before you do anything, got it?"

An overflow of water onto her hands suddenly pulled Katya's attention away from her mentor's measured gaze. She'd overfilled the pot, great, so she had to dump some of it out, wiping the bottom of it with a dish towel so it wouldn't steam on the stovetop.

"Got it."

She set the pot to boil, putting the lid on, before turning back around. "Besides, it's just bicycle thieves."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, and we're going to keep it that way. You just say the word."

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