15 years ago...

Natasha Romanov

Kids. Natasha didn't even like kids. They were needy, annoying, naive, and made disgusting messes that they never had to clean up. In addition to all this, they cost a fortune to maintain, and is, believe it or not, being a highly trained assassin didn't pay as well as most people would expect. So, yes, kids always seemed to be a repulsive prospect to her, something that she never really wanted to think about.

But then again, she wasn't a monster was she? What was she honestly supposed to do? If you saw a child abandoned on a rainy, muddy, highway, would you be cruel enough to leave it to die? Yes, Natasha has killed a lot of people in her lifetime, but thanks to her stupid conscious it wasn't like she could do anything about it.

Besides, she was a kid once. Abandoned by her kin. So she could sympathize just a bit for the creature. Whether it was abandoned or something happened to its parents, Natasha didn't care nor did she really want to.

she'd wished she had never seen it. But she did, and if she left it on the side of the road it would die. Technically not her problem, but still, thanks to her infuriating consciousness that was mentioned before, she now had a muddy, squirming bundle held to her chest while she drove her bike down the long, forgotten road.

Stupid, stupid, conscious.


Present Day:

Almost their.

It was pretty hard to implant microscopic chips into a pair of flashy glasses, especially with thick fingers. But in his mind, Tony Stark could do no wrong. With his fantastic intellect and steady hands, all he need was peace, quiet, and concentration to finish the prototype he had been working on for a couple of months now.

Luckily his employees knew better to disturb him in the lab, especially after last time when Tony almost blasted Steve Rogers face off after he caught him by surprise, casuing him to spill his lemonade on a project he had been working on at the time. To be fair, it wasn't one of his brightest moments bringing drinks into the Stark Tech lab, but he was Tony Stark, so it

didn't matter if he screwed up.

Tony gripped the chip tightly with the tweezers and leaned into the microscope that zoomed into the glasses lens. little wires were sticking out. He had to attach the chip to the wires so they could power it, and he could begin to program the glasses, like a computer.

But before he could install the chip to the lens, a giant blue eye suddenly appeared under his microscope, taking him by surprise. He cried out in surprise and. jumped back, losing his grip on the tweezers that held the final peice to the project, losing the microchip he had worked so hard on.

"What are you working on?' The culprit asked, picking up the glasses.

Tony, annoyed, snatched the glasses out of the boy's hands.

" Don't touch that," he snapped. He massaged his temples. of course, none of his employees would be dumb enough to intrude on him, but this hopless kid was. "Uh, sorry kid, you just surprised me, that's all."

Tony scanned the floor in vain for the chip. "Uh, aren't you supposed to be in school or something?"

The boy began walking around the lab, peering at all the tech in fascination. "It's Saturday, Sir."

Saturday. of course. Who made that a thing? If it was up to Tony, he would have school in session every day, all year around, so he could be left alone in silence.

"'How'd you even get in?" Tony asked. He was pretty sure you needed a key card to access doors on the upper level of Stark Tower.

"I took Natasha's card," the boy replied picking up a futuristic-looking blaster of some sort.

Tony rushed over when the boy tried peering into the gun, and swiftly grabbed it out of his hands before he killed himself.

"Don't touch that," he said. "That is not a toy, why don't you go downstairs and bother Bruce or something."

"Mr. Banner isn't here, sir." The boy, whose name was Peter, pointed to the glasses. "What's that?" he asked again.

Tony raised the glasses over the boy's head so he couldn't reach. "Oh, this?" He asked. "Something that your little childlike mind couldn't possibly comprehend."

"Come on, Mr.Stark."

"Ugh, come on Mr.Stark?" Tony muttered hopelessly, knowing the kid wasn't gonna give him a break. "Alright, fine."

Tony carefully placed the glasses over Peter's eyes.

"Their just glasses?" Peter asked in disappointment when nothing happened.

Tap the sides, kid," Tony said, motioning to the sides of the glasses lens. Peter did as instructed and nearly fell over from surprise.

He saw a whole bunch of moving schematics, too many to count. So many words and things popped up in front of his eyes that he didn't know what did what. When he looked at Tony, a tiny message popped up in his line of vision with a description of the man in front of him, including an option for all his known record. He quickly took the glasses off and stared in disbelief.

"This thing is amazing!" He exclaimed.

"Amazing, it is," Tony Stark said taking the glasses back. "Amazing and unfinished."

"You make a lot of cool gadgets," Peter said. "What are they for?"

"To sell to the public of course."

Peter scrunched up his nose and looked at the discarded blaster Tony had confiscated. "You're gonna sell blasters to the public?"

"I told you your childlike brain could never understand."

"But, I'm not a kid," Peter protested. "I'm fifteen, now."

"And you get more annoying every day."

But-"

Peter was cut off when the door to the Stark Tech lab opened, and in walked Natasha Romonav, dressed in casual jeans and a plain tan shirt.

"Where have you've been?" Tony demanded. "This kid nearly blew his brain out."

"You have such a way with kids," Natasha replied sarcastically.

"Go downstairs," she told Peter. "I'll be down in a moment."

Peter furrowed his brow, not wanting to leave so quickly, but did as he was told.

"Tell me why he's here again?" Tony asked.

"I couldn't just leave him."

"Why not?" Tony shrugged. "I heard foster homes were all the rage nowadays.

Natasha glared at him. " Funny."

You know we could use your help out there?" Tony said. "A little extra hands beating up the low lives of this city wouldn't be too much to ask."

" And you know why I can't do that," Natasha said. "I'd be putting Peter in danger. "

"Who said you had to beat lowlives as Natasha? you could do what all the corny superhero in movies do, and wear a mask," Tony suggested.

"Corny heroes like yourself?"

"Jealousy is not a good color on you," Tony smirked. "At least my mask looks awesome."

"Whatever helps you sleep, Tony."

"Come on!" Tony said. " So one piece of crap of a person breaks into your apartment and you give up everything you do just for an annoying teenager.? And what's worse? You move him into the tower!"

"He'd be safer here."

"Exactly! safe enough for you to go out and help us kick some butt." Tony pretended to spar with the air. She rolled her eyes at his pathetic display.

"Tempting offer."

At least think about it," Tony asked seriously. "It's been a couple of months already, with that annoying personality of his, that kid could scare off any criminal within an 8-mile radius."

" I doubt that."

"That's because you always let him bother me."

"It's worth it," Natasha smiles. "To see the most brilliant Tony Stark flustered over a 15-year-old kid touching his stuff. "

Tony frowned. "Funny."