"Now these," Peter told her excitedly as he pulled two large wads of tinfoil out of the brown bag "are New York's finest breakfast." He held one out to her, and she took it. It was still warm.
They'd gone up to the roof of Peter's apartment building to have their breakfast with the rest of Queens. Katya smiled at his excitement, and peeled open her tinfoil. It turned out to be a bagel filled with bacon, egg, and cheese. She'd seen these before- they were everywhere- but hadn't ever actually gotten around to eating one yet.
"Bodega bagels are the best," Peter said,his mouth already full of the bite he'd taken. For the night they'd had, and having gotten no sleep, he certainly had took a bite of her own, the warm cheese blending with the salty bacon and chewy crust in what she had to admit was a delightful way. Plus, she couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten.
"So?" Peter prompted. Katya nodded, her mouth full.
"It's pretty good."She would've smiled, if she wasn't chewing.
"Pretty good?! Peter kicked at her dangling feet lightly, pretending to be indignant."We'll make a true New Yorker out of you yet."
"I hope so. It would be nice to be 'from' an actual place, for once."
"Where did you live before the Academy?"
Katya shook her head, swallowing another bite of her bagel. "There was no 'before'. I was taken as a baby- or I was an orphan, or abandoned- they tell you that but who knows if that's true. I might not even be Russian, just everyone in the Academy was, so that's how I grew up."
Peter's voice softened. "Why you?"
Katya shrugged."Apparently they have a program that assesses genetic capabilities for potential to become a Widow,and Yelena said that's how Dreykov chooses. But I'll never know for sure."
"Do you want to find them? Your family."
Katya let out a hollow laugh. "They're not really my family. Somebody, somewhere, gave birth to me,yes, but I don't think that alone constitutes as 'family'." She'd wanted to find them, of course, her entire childhood, but between the Academy's steadfast repetition that she was 'found' and 'unwanted' until Dreykov 'rescued' her, her imagination was constantly stifled. Plus- and she didn't realize this until she'd been Woken Up, the chemical subjugation she suffered had dampened her imagination significantly. It had dampened everything significantly. "But now I sorta have one."
"Yeah!" Peter's tone seemed grateful for the subject change,"You've got me, and Ned, and Mr. Stark, and the more you hang around, Aunt May is going to adopt you whether you like it or not."
Katya smiled. "I'd like that."
"And now you get to choose to do whatever you want to do. Once we graduate, you can go to college anywhere, and-"
"Graduate?"
Peter looked at her oddly."Yeah, we're not going to be in highschool forever."
"I"m pretty sure my understanding of that word is very different than what you're describing."
Peter furrowed his brow. He'd long finished his bagel, and was now molding the tin foil into different shapes, like clay. "What'd'you mean?"
Katya sighed a bit. "At the Academy, Graduation is the last step before they send you off on your own. Once you reach a certain age and pass certain tests, it's an…" she searched for the words on the streets of Queens. "...involuntary hysterectomy." She thought she got that word right. Peter's eyes widened, but he said nothing, so she continued, mostly to make sure she'd translated correctly."Like, they go up and-"she gestured with her hands, "just rip out all your reproductive organs. Just, snip, snip, snip." her hands became scissors. "It eliminates hormones and makes you better machines. I was the only one who made it to graduation from my class. " She'd been the only one left in her class, period. But she didn't voice that.
Peter still said nothing, but scooted over a bit and squeezed her thigh. "I'm glad you're out of there." His voice was soft.
Katya nodded. "Me too."
There was a pause, which Katya took advantage of to finish her bagel. Shoving the weight of everything she just said off the rooftop, she asked, "What does it mean here?"
Peter's shoulders visibly relaxed. "Here It means you get to go to go to college- which is like a more specialized school- and study whatever you want, and eventually get a job in that field." He patted her knee before gripping the lip of the rooftop with both hands, his feet kicking the air. "I'd like to go to MIT."
"What do you want to study there?"
"I"m not sure. It's a science and tech school, so probably something with technology, but to be honest, I haven't thought about it as much with all-" he gestured to the burrow around them, but Katya knew what he meant. WIth Spiderman. "-this."
"Could be fun though."
"Yeah," he smiled,"could be fun."
