It was a long way down.

Mantis was aware of it in the same way someone would note the brightness of the leaves on a tree in the summer sun. It was there, but inconsequential to the journey.

Wind buffeted the skyscraper she was standing on top of, whipping at her bright green suit and the harness she was clipping into.

'You're not throwing her off a building!'

She rolled her eyes and turned to look back towards the shrill, angry voice as a much deeper voice replied 'It's safe.'

'She's going into a combat situation! She's seven!'

Mom and dad were having their bi-annual spat. It was bad timing. Another aloof look over the ledge allowed wind to gust into her face. It toyed with the copper red strands she hadn't been able to tie back.

Natasha was always the more overprotective one.

'She's been trained.' Winter Soldier replied evenly.

'She's seven!' Natasha repeated in exasperation.

Mantis - she would always think of herself as Praying Mantis when she was on a mission, not Florence Romanova-Barnes; It helped detach herself from the everyday and focus on being the weapon, not the child - risked a look back behind her. Though Soldier had his back to the platform, she could see the tension in his stance. Whenever he and Widow argued, there was tension. He expected her to use physical force at some point and was prepared to counter it.

Widow looked angry and alert - as though she expected Soldier to try to pull something and wanted to see it coming. Mantis understood that when she had agreed to resume training under the agreement that Florence participated fully in civilian life a year ago, that she had never expected Soldier to turn up and want to include her in the incredibly dangerous world they inhabited.

Widow and Soldier had vastly different opinions on what they wanted Mantis to be. Widow wanted her to be a human being - Soldier wanted her to be prepared. It was one of those subjects that could spark all out war at any minute but continually failed to do so. If there was such a thing as love - and Mantis was cynically aware that there may never be something like that for something like her family - then it seemed to be all that stood between them and utter implosion.

'You agreed to put her to training. I want to implement it.'

'I wanted her to train to protect herself!' Natasha countered. 'This is the complete opposite!'

'Protect herself?' Soldier mused.

'You know our reputations. Who we've made enemies of.' Natasha murmured quietly. 'She needs to know how to defend herself.'

Soldier relaxed, all the tension leaked out of him. 'I know.' he replied. 'I want her to defend herself too.' He approached the platform and for a moment, Mantis thought he was going to tell her that the mission had been stepped down. Instead, he took note of her rig and then threw her over the edge with his metal arm.

She heard Widow screaming about how much of a bastard Barnes was. If Mantis had a second to herself, she'd have chuckled as Soldier replied 'What? She'll be defending herself.'

The training took over as she flipped around and planted her heels at a convenient window - crashing through it and into chaos.

Time to do what she did best. Hopefully, she made it back in time to stop the fight that had probably ensued.