The school day had felt interminable. Katya spent the entire day watching the tracker, jotting down the specific places and times she'd seen Aneszka move. So far it seemed like a day job- she 'd gone somewhere briefly in the morning, where she spent about ten minutes, and then went to a second location where she spent the rest of the day, and was still there when school let out. If Katya had to guess, it was picking up coffee and then heading to work, but of course they'd double check. Katya'd looked up the address on her laptop and it seemed to be the headquarters of the Daily Tribune, the questionably sourced newspaper that tended to thrive on scandal. Katya'd also learned through some more googling that day in History class that there had apparently been a recent election where conspiracy theorists were kicking up that Russia had interfered with the election somehow, which sounded like a perfect Dreykov modus operandi to station a Widow, just in case things turned ugly.

She relayed all of this to Peter on their way to the Tribune headquarters, which they slung to for about half the way- just until they'd gotten out of queens- before Peter threw on his civilian clothes back from his backpack to keep the suit inconspicuous. He'd been acting weird all afternoon- almost like he was extra nervous, to the point of almost avoiding talking to her about anything but the mission, a fact that she brought up by pegging a sour candy at his forehead.

"What's going on with you?" She took a bite of her Delmar's sandwich, which they'd procured before leaving Queens- proper stakeouts needed provisions after all- and for a moment he seemed more stunned than anything.

"What do you mean?" He ate the candy that had fallen into his lap, but avoided eye contact.

"Right there!" she held her free hand out at him, "You've been super shifty all day. Did something happen?" Maybe he'd told Ned more about Operation Government Homework without talking to her first, which was fine, as long as he'd talk to her about it now.

"No I haven't-" he tone was defensive but laced with a guilt Katya couldn't place.

"If you'd rather go on regular patrol I can do this on my own, you know." She took a sour candy for herself. She didn't mean for it to sound mean, but recognized her voice was a bit terse.

Peter's eyes widened a bit, and he finally looked at her. "No! No, that's not it at all- I want to be with you. Here. With you. I mean."

"Then why are you acting so weird?"

Peter sighed, and a beat passed, which Katya spent chewing and looking at him expectantly.

"It's just something Ned said that got into my head, it's not a big deal."

"That's not how you're reacting to it." Ned said a lot of weird things. She fished through the sour gummy bag for another blue colored one- those were her favorites, and she ate them in order from favorite to least, leaving green for last. "What'd he say?"

Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "Just some stuff about the dating stuff. Remember how I told you about all those rules?"

Katya laughed, relieved. At least it wasn't a serious problem. She kicked at one of his feet with her own. "Yeah, but, we talked about don't need rules, remember?"

Peter seemed to relax slightly, as he managed to take a bite of his own sandwich. "Yeah, he just- I guess he got into my head, is all." his voice lowered to a mumble. "I just hope I'm treating you right, is all."

Treating her right? "Pauchok, you're treating me exactly the same. Which is the whole point. I mean, yeah, now we kiss and stuff-" she shrugged, "but it's not like I want anything to change."

"I just feel like maybe I haven't explained myself fully to you-"

Katya nearly rolled her eyes. "There's nothing to explain. You're my pauchok and I'm your myshka." she pegged another sour candy at him. "What does Ned know, anyway?"

Peter visibly relaxed somewhat, laughing when the candy hit him in the chest . "Yeah," he repeated, "What does Ned know anyway."

—- —-

It took another hour before there was movement on the tracker, and Katya hung her head over the side of the building to get a better look at the main doors, which the tracker said Aneszka was moving towards. It took a few moments for her to make it out of them, dressed in a smart grey skirt suit, her hair done up in box braids. Her gait was clipped, typical for an about-the-town professional, Katya figured, but recognized the posture that could only come from the hours of ballet class they'd all had to endure. She'd only been able to consciously unlearn it herself by mimicking the stance of her fellow students at school, but she still found herself falling into it when she was alone.

"That's her," Katya whispered over to Peter, who was on his belly beside her. "Let's go."

Peter rolled over to rock into a standing position, smacking his chestplate to deploy his spider drone. "Okay, Droney, I need you to stay completely out of sight, and follow that woman-" he pointed, as if the drone needed directions. With a whir, it disappeared into the trees.

The only unfortunate part is that Peter didn't have access to the drone's footage without his mask on, so he stuck it on after repelling the both of them down the back of the building to reduce the risk of being seen. Technically, Katya could have repelled herself down as well as she was wearing her Widow's gauntlet this time, but it was nice to be close to him for those few seconds, as much as she wanted to stay self-sufficient. They'd already set up their comms on the rooftop.

"You stay a little behind, just to keep this-" she gestured to her own face, "Out of sight. I'm going to go ahead a little bit and see if I can get closer." She tugged her sweatshirt's sleeve lower over the arm that had the widow's gauntlet on, and glanced at the tracker. "I think she's headed to the subway."

Before Peter could respond, the both of them took off at a slight jog, Peter slinging between the trees that lined the Tribune campus to stay as out of sight as possible. Katya herself navigated through the carefully manicured gardens of the front campus, before using the parked cars that lined the street as cover, making sure to keep far enough away that Aneszka was only just in sight, just in case.

As predicted, Aneszka made her way to the closest subway station and soon disappeared underneath the streets of New York, and Katya wordlessly followed. "I'm not taking the train," she told Peter over comms, whom she couldn't see, which was a good sign, "I just want to see which one she takes."

Katya hurried down to the platform, blending perfectly in with the rush hour of professionals heading home from work. She wove in and out of the crowd, trying to keep eyes on Aneszka which was proving more frustrating between the throngs of similarly professionally dressed people. Thankfully, it being New York, there were still plenty of other platform goers in all shapes and sizes, so she didn't stand too far out in her school clothes and backpack. She scanned around for the spider drone, hoping it was in proper position. "Pauchok, does the drone have eyes on her?"

"Yep, it's already in the compartment."

Annoyed she hadn't seen it crawl in- it seemed like each passing day she spent here her vigilance suffered, she had to work on that- she responded, "Okay, good. Looks like she's getting on the Z."

"Drone in position."

"Perfect." Katya smiled to herself, making sure she saw the doors close all the way with Aneszka inside before running back out of the station and onto the streets. Peter landed beside her immediately. Katya pulled back the sleeve over the tracker.

"So she started out here-" she pointed to the place she'd seen Aneszka leave that morning, "So hopefully that's where she's going, but this'll also keep watch as she's on the train."

"So we can swing? Since she's underground, she can't see us." Peter asked, excitement tingeing his voice. Katya grinned.

"Yes, we can swing."

— —

Thankfully Aneszka made no stops Katya hadn't already guessed, and resurfaced about a block away from an apartment complex that Katya could only imagine was hers. From the block corner diagonally across the street from the subway station, Katya and Peter made sure to stand between a throng of tourists to watch Aneszka resurface from the subway platform, back onto the streets. They followed her, across the street and a little bit behind, just in case, and even though Katya still couldn't see the drone Peter assured her it still had eyes on Aneszka.

The apartment complex itself was a U-shape with a little lawn just a ways away from the street, though very stoll and grey otherwise. Aneszka walked directly towards it, still using her clipped, postured gait, and greeted the doorman before disappearing inside. This time, as she was purposefully looking for it, Katya spied the tiny spider drone following her into the revolving doors. She glanced at Peter, worriedly.

"Make sure to stay out of sight, droney, don't get too close," he spoke to his mask, getting the message. It wouldn't do for Aneszka to realize something was following her, not after all the precautions they'd taken.

A tension she didn't realize she was holding lifted from Katya's shoulders. "Okay- between this-" she held up her wrist "- and the drone, I think we've got her for the night,if yesterday was anything to go by. Let's go home."

She couldn't see through the mask but she could feel Peter smile, and he pulled her close to him to swing them back to Queens.