"Aww, you two are so cute."

Rebecca only smiled and snuggled into Alya a bit more at Natasha's cooing. Alya wasn't as sick as she had been a few days ago, but she was still recuperating and needed to take it as easy as possible.

Alya's body was still tired, so she opted to snuggle with anyone who was willing. Right now, it happened to be Rebecca.

The young woman was thoroughly enjoying the affection, so she wasn't going to complain. It wasn't often that she got to have her younger niece all to herself for extended amounts of time, so she was enjoying it while it lasted.

Alya looked up to see that her mother was nearby and immediately reached out for her, much to Rebecca's betrayal. If there was one person that Alya would ditch anyone for, it was her mother.

Moving on autopilot, Natasha scooped her up and pressed a kiss against her forehead, a subtle way of checking her temperature.

So far, so good. She was a little warm, but nothing to freak out over.

"How do you feel?" She swayed with the little girl in her arms.

"Stuffy." Alya sniffled. "Where's Wanda?"

She was only asking for her sister because she wanted to play and she knew that Wanda was the only one in the house that would let her do so.

Everyone else kept making sure that she was sitting still and not exerting herself. Even before Melina flew back home, she gave the girl explicit instructions not to overdo it.

"She and Yelena are upstairs." The redhead explained. "I want her to rest. Same as you."

The last thing she and Bucky needed was for Wanda to get sick, too. The more rest she got, the more her body was able to fight off whatever might try to knock her down.

"Popsicle?" Alya asked hopefully.

A popsicle sounded really nice right about now and it wasn't like she needed to run around while eating it. All she had to do was sit still and enjoy.

"Not right now." Natasha smiled, knowing she could use this as an incentive. "But if you eat your dinner, then it's a yes."

"I can eat out here?"

For the past few days, Alya had been banished to eat in her room all by herself.

Well...maybe that was stretching the truth a little. She could hardly get out of bed and her fever meant that she was still contagious, so her parents had her eat in her room. Her comfort was also a factor in the decision making process. Instead of sitting on a chair, she got to sit on her bed with her pillows at her back.

And she was never alone.

Natasha and Bucky took shifts, making sure that there was always someone to keep her company.

Still, getting to eat with everyone else would be a nice change in pace.

"I think so. I want to keep an eye on you."

"Stop picking at that cast, please."

"It's itchy." Alya pouted, pulling at the annoying appendage on her arm, despite her father's constant warning to leave it alone.

She couldn't help it.

Between not being able to do the things she needed to do and the never-ending itchiness she couldn't possibly wish hard enough to scratch, Alya's patience was wearing thin.

She needed to get this thing off.

"I'm sorry it's itchy." Bucky ruffled her hair, not giving her an inch. "Leave it alone."

Alya huffed and watched him as he flipped through some channels on the tv and all of a sudden, she got an idea.

She knew exactly how to get this stupid cast off.

It would completely fall apart once the water touched it!

Grinning sneakily, Alya's bare feet padded over to the kitchen sink, where she made sure that Bucky was occupied while watching a baseball game, and turned the water on very low.

Usually, she watched with him, even if it was only for a few minutes. She liked to see the players hit the ball and send it flying through the field. Bucky promised her that he'd show her the basics of the game one day, but she had to get better first. Wanda had not interest in sports, so she politely opted out of this one.

It was too bad, too. Playing catch with three was better than playing with two.

With a deep breath, she reached out to move her cast under the water, but let out a shriek of surprise instead when she was yanked away.

Bucky wasn't really sure what her thought process was for this stunt. There was no way he wouldn't find out what she was doing only a few feet away. Even if the water was low.

"What do you think you're doing?" He scolded before he took a look at her arm, relieved to see that he stopped her just in time. "I told you to leave it alone!"

Between the recent bout of sickness she was still recovering from and the reprimand she was receiving now, Alya burst into tears.

"Do you want this to heal properly?" Her father paid no mind to the waterworks.

He knew her tears well. She was crying from utter frustration and there was nothing he could do about it except make an active decision to pretend not to notice them to keep her from getting uncomfortable.

"Yes." The corners of her lips curved downwards.

"Then why do you insist on destroying it?"

"I-It's not comfy!" Alya hiccuped, rubbing at her eyes with her left hand. "It's i-itchy!"

"If it's itchy, then take a spoon, and use it to scratch. Don't soak it in water. You know better."

"M's-sick!"

"Being sick isn't an excuse not to listen." Bucky moved her hand away from her face, trying to keep himself from laughing.

Trust Alya to use being under weather as a free for all. She was so cute, he couldn't get over it.

"We've talked about this, right?"

"Y-Yes." She worked herself up to a cough, lifting her arms up when she found herself in need of comfort.

Bucky didn't hesitate before he swung her up onto his hip, rubbing her back to soothe her. He understood that between being attacked, then getting sick, and having to wear a cast was overwhelming. He wasn't going to let her destroy the thing because it wasn't comfortable, but he could empathize.

"Come here." He kept his voice soft, setting her down on the kitchen counter before he pulled a wooden fork out from one of the drawers. He held it the opposite way and slid the handle down Alya's cast, successfully scratching her itch.

"It w-worked!" Alya stopped crying in pure relief.

"See? I told you it would." He was so glad he was able to solve the problem and hoped that all her problems would be this simple.

But he knew that wasn't going to be the case.

"I'm gonna g-go show Mama!"

For now, he would cherish these moments.

The color drained from Alya's face when her stomach twisted around in knots. It was an odd feeling considering that she did feel better than she had before. She had gone so long without incident and she actually had enough energy to get up and walk around.

An increased amount of salvia filled her mouth, giving her the warning she needed to run to the nearest bathroom.

She got there in the nick of time, allowing the contents of her stomach to be unloaded safely without leaving a mess. Beads of sweat ran down her face as she leaned up against the toilet bowl, trying to catch her breath.

And once she did, her stomach contracted once again, forcing her to relieve herself for the second time in only a few minutes.

A gentle hand pulled her hair and rubbed soothing circles on her back, offering moral support and comfort.

Alya coughed, now feeling like she had several days ago, pushing herself up to find that it was her mother who came to her rescue.

"Sorry." She sniffled, looking up at her with big eyes.

Her mama probably heard all the noise she was making and came over to see what the trouble was. It made her feel guilty to think that she was interrupting her sleep like this.

"You don't have to apologize to me, you didn't do anything wrong." Natasha took a wet wipe and dabbed at her daughter's mouth to clean her up a bit.

She really hoped that Alya wasn't going to go back to the way she had been the first time she had gotten sick in her presence.

It was actually shortly after Alya moved into the Tower, the young girl had noticed that she was feeling much different and much more sluggish than normal. One minute she was hot, and the next, she was cold. She couldn't keep anything down for very long and her headaches made it hard to concentrate.

But she managed to hide it for a while.

It took a few hours for Natasha to put two and two together. When she did, Alya freaked out about how she couldn't get sick because it would render her useless. She had to be ready for anything and she couldn't afford to be a burden.

Natasha worked very hard to convince her otherwise and she would hate to think that all that progress was lost.

"I threw up." Alya looked pitiful just sitting there with a sad face.

"That's normal. Everybody throws up at some point in their lives." The redhead shrugged. The best way to handle this, was to be nonchalant about it. "Would you like some tea to settle your stomach?"

"Uh huh."

Normally, Alya preferred hot cocoa, but she didn't think that her stomach would appreciate that. She knew the tea would help in the long run.

"Come on then." Natasha stood up and hiked Alya up onto her hip, making sure to flush everything away to get rid of the vomit before she carried Alya downstairs to the kitchen. "Are you hungry? I think you should eat something." She asked, setting her down on the counter next to the sink.

It looked like Alya puked up her dinner, so that meant her stomach was empty and she needed to get something to replace what she lost.

"No." But Alya didn't think she'd be able to keep anything down right now. "I'll just throw it up."

She felt so queasy she didn't even want ice cream.

That said a lot.

"Hopefully, this will make you feel better." Natasha pouted, pouring some hot water into a mug where the teabag was ready and waiting to steep. "Be careful. Let it cool off a little."

Alya looked down at the brown liquid and wrinkled her nose at the smell. She could do this. She could totally drink all of this.

"As soon as you drink all of that, the sooner you can sit on my lap and snuggle." Natasha waggled her eyebrows.

Now, that got Alya's attention. That was the incentive she needed to put the mug to her lips and begin drinking as quickly as she could.

She would do anything to sit on her mama's lap. She'd even eat carrots and Brussel sprouts.

Natasha knew that, but she never made it a habit. Her love wasn't a reward, it was unconditional and Alya didn't have to do anything to earn it. She didn't want her to ever think that she did.

"Slow down, I'm not going anywhere." She warned. "You don't wanna make yourself sick again."

"Done." Alya grinned, placing the empty mug in the sink. "Let's go."

The redhead stifled a laugh when Alya reached out for her and allowed her to fall into her arms, carrying her over to the armchair in the living room where she sat down, placing the child on her lap as promised.

She pressed a soft hand to her forehead, finding that she was still a bit warm, which made her frown. Natasha hated to see her daughter so miserable and uncomfortable and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

This was one of those things that had to run its course.

"Mama, can I see Peter?"

"No, sweet girl." The woman shook her head, reclining the chair to get comfortable. "Not until you're feeling better."

"But what if he needs me?"

"He has Aunt May. She's helping him the same way we're helping you."

"Is he okay?"

"He's okay." She confirmed, pressing the child's head to her chest. "If you want, you can call him tomorrow morning, okay?"

She and May had been keeping in close contact with each other, updating the other on whatever was new with the kids. Turns out, Peter flew to London and fixed whatever problem he and Alya were so worked up over, but he sustained some injuries.

They were minor, but he still needed to take it easy. That would be pretty easy to do since he was grounded.

Natasha and Bucky spoke about what they were going to in Alya's case, but they really couldn't come up with anything. She didn't do anything wrong except fail to call home when it was needed. The most they would do in this situation, was have a very serious talk about what to do the next time this were to happen. That would come later, after she was feeling better.

And they were going to keep a very close eye on her, but she didn't need to know that part.

"Psst."

Alya's eyes fluttered open when she felt someone shaking her awake. The last thing she remembered, was falling asleep in her mother's arms. Natasha must've brought her back to bed without her noticing.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to figure out who it was and frowned when she noticed the Spider-Man suit.

"What're you doing here?" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth.

"It's kind of an emergency."

A sigh left Alya's lips as she sat up and slid out of her bed to see what he wanted. He looked pretty nervous, so this wasn't some kind of courtesy call.

This was really and truly serious.

"I have a really bad feeling that something is up." He reached into the bag he had on his back and pulled out the case Alya knew the EDITH glasses were in. "I can't keep these at the apartment and I know you can't keep them here…..but I was wondering if you could possibly get in contact with Mr. Stark. There's a note inside explaining everything and you don't even have to talk to him…."

Alya looked down at the case and then back at Peter.

That was a tall order.

But if he was right, and something was really going to happen, then she needed to put her personal feelings aside and help him out.

It wasn't going to be easy, but it needed to be done.

"Did you get hurt?" Alya couldn't see any visible injuries, but there's no way he made it out of the fight unscathed.

"Some." He shrugged, unwilling to dive into the details. "Beck's gone, so it kind of softens the blow. How are you? I mean with you arm and all."

"Oh." Alya had forgotten all about the cast on her arm. Which was a funny change from her being so irritated by it. Her father's little trick truly saved the day. "I'm okay. It doesn't hurt or anything and I'm getting it off in a few weeks."

"Good. I would've stopped by sooner, but I heard you got sick."

May had told Peter that Alya wasn't feeling well. As soon as the words registered in his mind, he was on his way to the door, but his aunt told him to give it a few days so that Alya could recover. As much as he wanted to rush over there and see how she was doing, he listened to his aunt and stayed home.

Now he could see that he was pretty much worried over nothing.

Alya was fine.

"I feel okay." She shrugged.

Both kids froze when they heard footsteps down the hallway and listened for them to get closer. They completely forgot that there were other people inside the house and that they needed to be careful. They couldn't get caught talking like this in the middle of the night. Especially since Peter wasn't supposed leave the apartment.

"I think I should go." He spoke after a long period of silence. They didn't hear any more footsteps, but he didn't want to take the chance.

"Okay." Alya nodded. She wanted him to stay, but she knew that he couldn't. They would probably get into a lot of trouble if they got caught.

"I, uh….I'll call you, okay?" He put the mask back over his head and stepped out the window with a wave.

"Bye." She forced a smile before shutting her window behind him.

She hoped everything would be okay, but that familiar sinking feeling hit her once again.