The shot was echoingly loud in the little room.

"You're dead Peter Parker," said a man's voice. "Too bad. I hear you were a pretty likable guy…"

The response was unexpected – and silent, for the most part. One moment the intruder was looking down at the bed, holding a percussion gun, gloating. The next there was a shot of something sticky that was pinning him to the floor.

"What the fu-"

The bedroom light came on, then, and Natasha Romanoff walked in, looking around as she did. She looked at the man on the floor, and then up to the ceiling. Peter Parker was looking down at her, one hand holding the ceiling and the other pointed downward, the web shooter still engaged. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a t-shirt – and a scowl.

Natasha smiled.

"Well done."

Peter dropped to the floor, lightly, but still looked annoyed.

"What was that all about?"

Natasha tossed the trapped man a knife to free himself.

"It was a test, of course."

"In my bedroom?"

"Yup." She could tell he was annoyed and understood completely. But it didn't mean she was sorry. "You're going to be away for a week," she reminded him. "We wanted to make sure you're ready."

The man on the floor had freed himself by then and stood up, interrupting the conversation. He handed the knife back to Romanoff and then looked over at Peter with a wry smile.

"Nice job, kid."

Without another word the man left, and Peter looked at Natasha.

"Who was that?"

"A new trainer," she replied. "Ted. He just arrived, yesterday."

Peter sat down in his bed. Obviously they were doing a check on his abilities. Which was fine, he supposed – although it was annoying to not be able to relax in his own bedroom – and in his own bed.

"I don't get it. I've been gone, before."

"I know, baby," she said, sitting next to him. "But not for so long."

"It's a week."

"Which is longer than ever before. We wanted to make sure you're going to be alright."

Hard to be annoyed when it was so clear that he was loved.

"You guys are going to be there, though."

"Not in your room. And not after a long day of competition and then hanging out with your friends until the wee hours of the night."

They'd kept him up late that evening, Peter realized. Now he knew why.

"They wanted to see how well you do when you're tired," Alec agreed.

"Oh. I guess that explains why you took Nutmeg to bed with you…"

She smirked.

"Nutmeg doesn't know Ted," she pointed out. "We figured better safe than sorry."

Alec was amused.

"Nothing worse than having your fine new trainer eaten in the middle of the night."

That made Peter lose the last of his annoyance and he grinned.

"Yeah. Where is he, now?"

"With Tony and Pepper."

"They knew?"

"No. Just a few of us. That way no one could give it away – even without realizing it."

"Oh."

She hugged him; Natasha read the boy very well and she hadn't missed how annoyed he'd been when he'd come off the ceiling. She definitely didn't want any hard feelings – especially between the two of them.

"Don't be annoyed, baby," she told him, pressing a kiss against his cheek. "We're just making sure you're safe."

"I know. It's okay. Really."

"Good. By doing this drill it helps us feel better about you being away from home for so long." She ruffled his hair. "You did great."

"Because I'm a bad ass."

The super spy smiled.

"Yeah. That you are. Are you alright?"

"Yeah."

"Go to bed. We'll want to debrief in the morning, sometime."

Peter rolled his eyes at that, but it was good-natured.

"No more tricks, tonight?"

"If I told you no, would you believe me?"

"Maybe. I guess I could go get Nutmeg from Tony and Pepper. Then I'd know for sure."

Alec wasn't the only one to snort at that. She got to her feet.

"I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay."

Natasha left, closing the door behind her and Peter flopped back in the bed. He was awake, now, and probably wouldn't go right back to sleep even if he tried. Luckily for him, there was a handy distraction on the other side of the planet who wasn't sleeping, just then. Shuri would be interested in hearing about the 'test', he knew, and it would be a fun story to tell her.

OOOOOOO

"So he just snuck into your room while you were sleeping?"

Peter nodded, smiling at just how scandalized Shuri looked at the idea.

"Yeah. I mean, Natasha knew he was going to – she probably told him to do it."

"But you did not let him catch you unaware?"

"Nah. I was awake before he even came through the first door – and I was on the ceiling by the time he came into my bedroom."

It was a relief that he didn't need to keep his abilities a secret with her.

"I would like to see that."

The boy shook his head.

"You can't. Karen doesn't record in my room, remember?"

"Not even for something like that?"

"She can't," Peter confirmed. "No cameras at all. Not in my quarters. That way I don't feel like big brother is watching me all the time."

"You do not have a big brother…"

Peter shook his head.

"No. It's – well, never mind. Anyway, no video of it. Sorry."

And he was, really, but he was also glad that his room didn't have any cameras or anything. A guy liked his privacy, after all, even when he lived next door to a spy.

"So now that you have passed their test, they will allow you to go to your competition?"

"They were going to let me go, already," Peter told her, wishing that he had Nutmeg to cuddle while he was sprawled on his bed talking to her. "But now they'll feel better about not being able to watch me every minute while I'm gone."

"What are they going to do when you leave for college?"

"Probably be nervous."

"This competition sounds as if it will be more exciting than the one where we met."

"It should be," he agreed. "But only because of all the people that will be there – and because it's so long. You won't want to come," he added, knowing that she would probably offer, because it was a girlfriend thing to do. "It's fun for the competitors, but not really for the spectators. Some of the international people are bringing family members – they're kids and they're going to be a long way from home and will need chaperones – but they're going to be bored during the competition."

"So you do not want me there?" she asked, smiling but pretending to be hurt at being excluded.

"You'd distract me. Then we'd lose, and then MJ would be mad at me. Can't have that."

"True."

"If we get to the finals, I'll invite you to that," Peter told her. "That would be more interesting. And you could wear something revealing and distract all the others."

"Not you?"

"Well… that would distract me, too," he conceded, blushing, slightly. "So I guess it's not such a good idea, after all."

"I am still invited, though, correct?"

"To the last part, yes," he replied. "I'll make sure to tell Pepper so she can talk to your brother about it. There's going to be a lot of security, and everyone coming has already been checked out by SHIELD."

"I will thus inform him."

"Good."

Shuri looked to the side, clearly responding to something that someone off the camera was telling her. Sure enough, she turned back to him.

"I must go, Peter my love." Which told him it was probably T'Challa. "I will speak with you again, soon."

"Good night, my princess."

He disconnected the call and then went back to sleep.