The PO box they had to visit wasn't too far, so after watching about half of Star Wars, Episode One; The Phantom Menace while they built,, Peter announced it was probably a good time to start patrol, so Ned carefully organized each of the piles they'd managed to separate ("Great progress, guys!" He'd praised,much like a teacher would) into little plastic baggies, he'd gone home, and Katya waited at the window for Peter to suit up.
"We can visit the PO box first, if you want, to get that out of the way." he told her, as he pulled his suit the rest of the way on. She'd seen him change in and out of it so many times he no longer felt self conscious about it.
Katya studied the space in front of her- she'd kept appearances up for Ned, but still seemed deeply troubled. Peter wasn't sure if asking for details was a good or bad idea at the moment.
"I don't know." She finally said, "It's meant to be inconspicuous, but-" she waved at his suit, "Everyone's going to be watching where Spiderman's going."
"Oh that's easy-" he threw on a pair of jeans and the flannel he'd discarded to suit up in the first place over his suit, pocketing his hood in his pants. "I'll be undercover."
That got a smile out of Katya, so Peter counted that as a win. She was clad in simple black leggings, the Midtown Tech sweatshirt he'd leant her what felt like ages ago that he'd told her to keep,and her leather bomber jacket- nothing out of the ordinary,either. Just two teens going out for a walk.
Walking to the post office definitely took longer than swinging, though. Peter noticed that Katya kept rubbing her wrist, where her Widow's gauntlet would be, when she did wear it. The silence itself between them wasn't uncomfortable, but Katya herself certainly was.
Peter ripped off the band-aid. "What's going on?" He kept his voice light and curious, trying to keep the situation as relaxed as possible. It took Katya a beat to answer.
"It was Natasha on the phone. I don't have a lot of details, but she said Yelena needs my help and to go to this PO box." She held her palm out to him, where he could see she'd scribbled a number and an address on at some point. "I don't know what she wants, but it's not like I can say no,after everything they've done for me."
Peter was still fuzzy on the details but did know that Natasha-er, Black Widow, he didn't think he was on first name basis with her just yet- had played a big part in getting Katya situated in New York with Mr. Stark, even though she was currently a wanted fugitive from the government and Mr. Stark and her weren't on such good speaking terms. "You keep saying 'they'." He noted.
Katya sighed small,weary sigh. "Her, and her sister Yelena,and this guy named Mason.. When the Academy-or, the Red Room, I guess- was destroyed, I was the first Widow Yelena and the others picked up. I was on my way to my first solo mission, but hadn't made it very far, so they tracked my jet, shot me down, and Woke me up. Apparently, Yelena and the rest of the Woken are traipsing around the globe, trying to find the ones Dreykov stationed before he died,and wake them up, too."
"They shot you down?" He asked,incredulous, before he could stop himself.
Katya shrugged."There wasn't any other way." she said simply."I was still programmed at the time. It's not like they could reason with me."
So much of that explanation went over Peter's head- she'd used "Woken" like a title, a ranking of sorts, and he'd never heard of any of these people past Katya's mentions in passing (aside from Black Widow of course), and only knew what she'd told him about the Red Room- or the Academy,or were those two separate places? From her offhand anecdotes. Peter'd known the second he'd met her that she was running away from something, and he'd thought he understood it more with each passing day, but her answer had just given him more questions. And she'd already steeled her gaze, which meant she was shoving down emotions, and he didn't want to press her any further. Not yet.
They reached the post office the address corresponded to and wandered in, taking a second to look around before spying the rows of PO boxes in a small nook over to the left, away from the main lobby. Katya made a beeline towards them and Peter followed, helping her scan the numbers to match the one on her hand.
"There-" he pointed, and Katya practically lunged for it, but her fingers hovered over the keypad, hesitant. "Do you want me to-"
"No," She practically snapped, the steel door shuttering over her eyes again. She took a deep breath, and grabbed his free hand, kissing the back of it. "I'm sorry." she murmured. "But I'm fine. I can do this."
She didn't let go of his hand, but punched in the key code with her free one. After a second, the PO box clicked, unlocking, and she swung the door open.
Inside was nothing but a manila envelope, with some Russian scrawled on the edge, as if in an afterthought. Katya untangled her hand from his so she could slide it out, smiling to herself as she read the scrawled message. She pressed the envelope lightly,as if to gauge what was inside. "Feels like a USB, something chunky and…something cylindrical." Her brow furrowed,and she double checked the PO box again, but it was empty. She shut the door,and they could hear the lock whirring back into place. Katya held the envelope close to her chest like she expected it to be snatched at any moment.
"So I'm probably going to need a computer, and there might be some papers in here… I guess you'll have to go on Patrol by yourself today." Her voice sounded sad.
"We can take it back to my place," he told her,wishing she had a free hand to squeeze."Both our laptops are there, and I can skip patrol for a night."
Katya's eyes widened."Skip patrol? But Spiderman doesn't-"
"Even heroes get double-booked, sometimes," He told her, shrugging. He didn't know what was in that envelope, but it was clearly important, and he wasn't just going to let her deal with it on her own.
"I can handle it." Her tone was mixed between grateful and terse. She clutched the envelope to her chest tighter, so without a free hand Peter settled for tucking her hair behind her ear, smoothing it down.
"Of course you can. I just want to help- support, and stuff, you know?"
She hesitated, but nodded all the same. "Okay."
I guess we watch each other.