It almost felt wrong to Natasha, moving into an apartment in Queens. She was a Brooklyn girl through and through, just like her Ma. Not even the move to D.C. could change that, even though technically she'd lived longer in D.C. than she had in Brooklyn. But the apartment was nice, the building secure, she liked the neighborhood, Sharon's apartment was a quick motorcycle ride away, and best of all at least Queens was in the states. For the last couple of years she had been stationed all across Europe. Natasha had a pretty good feeling that Fury had sent her to every out of the way Eastern European country he could find so she wasn't around to remind her mother that he had recruited her behind her back. Europe had certainly been exciting, and the experience she gained invaluable, but she was really happy to be home, happy to be a simple drive away from her mothers, Sharon, and Tony.

Climbing the stairs to her floor, Natasha carefully balance the last few boxes of her personal things, which she'd just picked up from her mothers'. She had just turned left to head down the hall towards her new apartment when something slammed into her, knocking her off balance a bit and causing her to jostle the boxes. While she managed not to drop the boxes, the baking dish with the lasagna her Ma had given her as she left went crashing to the floor. Her blue-green eyes flickered down at the mess on the floor to the right of her, and then she turned her head to the left to see what had slammed into her. She was honestly a little surprised to find a young boy standing there looking up at her with wide deer caught in the headlights brown eyes and a mop of dark brown hair.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." The boy said rapidly. "I'm so so so sorry!"

"Peter Benjamin Parker!" A woman's voice shouted from the stairs. "What have I told you about rushing up and down the stairs all willy nilly like that!"

"I'm sorry Aunt May!" The boy, Peter apparently, said again, before turning to Natasha. "I'm sorry ma'am, really I am."

The woman, Aunt May, was of average height, slender but not thin. Her hair was a rich chestnut brown and long, spilling down her back in soft waves. And her voice, well that made Natasha smile because the woman was very clearly from Brooklyn. "No harm done." Natasha said as May came over to stand beside the boy. She watched as their gazes went to the mess on the floor, her own gaze landing there as well and she chuckled. "Well, almost no harm done. Doesn't look like my mother's lasagna survived the fall."

"Peter, go back upstairs and get stuff to clean this up." May said firmly to the boy while handing him her keys.

Peter nodded almost comically. "Yes Aunt May."

May shook her head as he scampered off. "I'm really sorry about that. He's a good boy, he just gets a little excited and ahead of himself sometimes."

"It's fine." Natasha reassured as she moved to set her boxes down by her door. "Really."

"At least let me pay for the loss of the lasagna." May offered.

Natasha shook her head and held up her hand. "No need, my Ma keeps an emergency lasagna in the freezer just in case. All I have to do is call her and she'd bring it to me."

"Was that a hint of Brooklyn in your voice?" May asked, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Born and mostly raised." Natasha said with a nod. "I'm Natasha by the way."

May smiled. "May." She replied as Peter came thundering back down the stairs. "And that's my nephew Peter, who is apparently still in too much of a hurry."

The boy waved on his way to clean up the mess he'd made. "We have to be back before the press conference starts, Aunt May, you promised!"

"Press conference?" Natasha asked, her brow raised in a similar fashion to the way her Mum did when she was curious about something. Did kids this age even know what a press conference was?

May rolled her eyes affectionately at her boy. "Most kids his age are obsessed with cartoons, or sports, or video games, or that Iron Man thing that's been flying around the city, but my little man is obsessed with Tony Stark who is apparently giving some kind of big press thing this afternoon."

Miraculously Natasha managed not to laugh. As much as she loved Tony, she wasn't sure if he was the best role model for impressionable kids. She knew the Tony under all the hype, the boy she knew was still under all of that arrogance and sarcasm, but that wasn't the Tony the world knew. "He is a brilliant man."

"Among other things." May replied.

"All cleaned up Aunt May!" Peter said with a beaming smile. "Can we go now please?"

May sighed and again rolled her eyes affectionately. "Alright alright, let's go." She smiled at Natasha as Peter began tugging at her arm. "It was nice meeting you Natasha. Welcome to the building."

Natasha waved and then turned towards her door as she fished her keys out of the pocket of her black leather jacket. Once inside she set her boxes on the sofa. Shrugging out of her jacket she threw it alongside the boxes and then flicked on her stereo. As she got to work on unpacking she let her mind drift a bit. May had mentioned Iron Man, and Natasha was fairly certain that Iron Man was the reason Fury had brought her back to the states. She was also fairly certain that after what happened at Stark Industries she knew why Fury wanted her out of all the agents at his disposal.

Her hunch was right. Sitting on her sofa with an open pizza box on her coffee table and a beer in her hand Natasha watched the press conference little Peter Parker had been so excited about. She had the bottle half way to her lips as she watched her cousin ramble and rolled her eyes, and then he faulted and Natasha froze.

"I am Iron Man."

"Son of a bitch, Tony." Natasha said as she gaped at the television. Unsurprisingly, moments after the words came out of Tony's mouth, her phone rang. "Hi Mum." She replied to the tight accented voice on the other end. "No, I had no idea. Fury? You'll have to ask him." Her mother was angry, Natasha could almost feel it over the phone line. Of course she could understand her mother's anger, especially on the heels of her fear and worry after Tony had gone missing. Natasha herself had been deep into a mission in Budapest when Tony went missing, otherwise she'd have been out there looking for him herself. "Hmm?" Natasha said when she realized her mother had asked her a question. "Oh, the lasagna," She looked at her half eaten pizza and smirked. "Tell Ma it was great, as always. I really missed her cooking."

Almost instantly after hanging up with her mother Natasha's phone rang again. She already knew who it was. "Fair warning, the old lady is so pissed right now, and a lot of it's aimed at you, Sir." Fury's reply was that he could handle Director Carter. Natasha fell off her couch laughing. When she was finished Fury told her to report to him for her new assignment first thing in the morning.