When Katya arrived back at the compound, it was already late- Happy'd grumbled the whole drive up about how he'd just been ready to go to bed- but somehow Katya still wasn't surprised to find Tony in his lab.

"Almost thought you'd gone rogue on us," he said, not looking up from…whatever it was he was doing on the touchscreen in front of him. Messing with some sort of design for what looked like tiny, foldable missiles. Probably updates for his suit. Katya sighed, and sat down on a nearby bench. She wasn't sure how to say what she needed to, so she just jumped in.

"I need a favor."

"You need a suit."

Katya resisted the urge to sigh again because they both knew he wasn't wrong- and that he'd been waiting for that very moment since she'd gotten there. "Yes."

"Finally." He grinned and tapped something on the touchscreen, still without looking over at her, and over in the corner of the lab the wall opened up to reveal a mannequin clad in a gunmetal grey bodysuit, simple, but with a hood rather than a mask like Peter's . She wasn't sure if that was going to work. Katya could feel herself beginning to freeze up again, so she forced herself to keep talking.

"Thank you, but-"

"Don't worry-" Tony assured her, this time spinning around on his bench chair to face her. "It's very basic- I mean, nothing I build is basic, it's got tons of safety features- but like you said, it's just for neighborhood patrol-"

Katya kicked her feet against the wrung of the bench. "That's actually what I needed to ask- I need a suit, like a real one. Not just for neighborhood patrol. I need something with knives, and maybe a gun. I've got my Widow's gauntlet but I'm worried that won't be enough, maybe something with night vision or heat signatures or-" her words were tumbling out of her mouth faster than she could edit them.

Tony held his hands out almost defensively. "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there. You want a gun?" a ghost of a smirk crossed his face. "I didn't know bicycle thieves required guns to take down now."

Katya kicked at the rungs again, her eyes steadily on her shoes. "It's not for bicycle thieves." she mumbled.

"What's it for, then?" Tony asked, his voice now soft. When Katya didn't answer immediately, he continued. "Kid, is everything okay?"

Katya nodded. "Everything's fine. I've just got something I've got to do that's going to be...a lot more difficult than neighborhood patrol."

"You and Peter better not be messing around with-"

"No, no-" Katya shook her head hurriedly. "This has nothing to do with Peter." Which was, of course, a lie- Peter'd made it very clear to her that he'd be with her every step of the way. They were partners after all. But Katya wasn't going to enter that entanglement right now.

"Then what are you planning to do?" Tony's tone had shifted from soft to worried, not something she heard from him often.

Katya sighed and stood up, making her way over to his workbench. "There's another Widow out there, Tony, just like me. She's in Brooklyn. Yelena sent me this-" She fished around in her pocket for the serum vial for a moment before retrieving it, placing it on the workbench's surface between them. "I've got to save her."

"And who said this was your job?" Tony's voice remained low. "Isn't there a whole hoard of you guys running around for exactly this purpose?."

Something twisted in Katya's stomach that she couldn't identify when he'd said you guys, but that was exactly the point. "Yes, and I'm in perfect position to help her. We-" She briefly pictured not just Natasha, not just Yelena, but the whole ship that had come to help her, "-were the lucky ones. And it's only fair we save the rest."

"One to ten kid, how likely are you to get killed?"

Katya scoffed. "Only five, if I approach it right. She's older than me and still on active duty, and her specialties are different than mine, but I've got a broader set of skills than her file lists."

"Just because it's not on her file doesn't mean she's incapable-"

"I know, okay? I know this isn't going to be easy." Something flared up in her, fiery, as if his doubt had wounded her pride. "But I can do this. I have to-"

"Just because someone asked you to?"

"No!" Her voice grew angry, suddenly, and she didn't know where it was coming from, "Because it's not fair that I get to live my life and she's stuck in the Red Room that she doesn't even know is gone." Her voice softened. "I signed up for this the minute I was Woken-"

Tony turned to her now, fully, minimizing whatever it was he'd been working on. He put a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't sign up for anything, Kid. You signed up to go to school."

"I get to live the life I want, Tony, Natasha said so. And I want to do this." She knew it would gnaw her to death if she didn't. "And I don't need any help from Iron Man. This is something I have to do myself."

Tony's face darkened. "I'm not just going to let you go alone."

"And why not? I can handle this, I was literally trained for this-" her voice broke, and her eyes were getting hot again- no, don't cry, please, not now-

"Because it's my job to keep you safe, and none of this sounds very conducive to that endeavor."

"I can keep myself safe. I was built for this." She watched him cringe at her choice of words, which surprised her. "I'm only here because Natasha thought it was the best place for me to go, but -" she cut herself off, before lowering her voice to a mutter. "I'm not your responsibility. It's not like you're my dad."

Tony looked taken aback - almost…hurt?- and actually took a physical step away from her. He set his jaw but said nothing, turning instead back to his holo-screen, maximizing whatever he'd been working on again.

"Maybe I'm not your dad, but I'm your guardian for now, and I care about you, kid. I'm not just going to leave you to die."

"You've been trying to get me to 'join the Avengers' since I got here, Tony, don't act like you don't think-"

"I do!" His voice rose with his temper. "I know you can handle yourself, that's why I want you on the team, but the team is a team, we-" he paused and swallowed, hard. Katya could practically see the cogs whirring in his brain as he formulated what to say next. "We look out for each other."

Katya huffed, a sinking feeling in her stomach telling her she wasn't sure she was going to win this argument- or if she even knew what they were arguing about. All she knew was that she had all of this roiling….frustration? Anger? She didn't know the name, but she felt like she wasn't being listened to. Is this how Peter had felt when he thought Tony was ignoring his warnings about the Vulture?

"You don't have to make me a suit, I can just figure this out on my-"

Tony barked a humorless laugh. "Oh, no, kid- if I'm letting you go out there, it's gonna be in the best of the best. Give me a day, tops."

Katya's stomach calmed, but she wasn't sure if this conversation was over completely- even if it seemed to be, for now. "Okay."

"No funny business until then, you hear me?" He looked at her sternly, still working on the holographic images with his hands. Katya nodded.

"No funny business."