Red Widow

17. Under Siege

If you had asked him, nothing much happened during the week that had passed; apart from the training sessions being more intense than ever, there were no significant changes in their routine and Pietro was finally enjoying a peaceful week; nothing could break his good mood, not even Steve, who was overstressing the importance of creating a good team cohesion and was having them doing an infinite amount of exercise that, in his opinion, would strengthen their bond.

Sure, Red hadn't left the cell yet, but she was starting to act less wary around the whole team. Most of them had gone to visit her at least once, some even more: Natasha was an almost constant presence, like he and Wanda were; Tony had spent a whole afternoon with her and Steve went once to discuss tactics and update her on the training. That one time that he and Wanda arrived and found there Bucky was a surely funny one; his twin's head almost exploded and he could have sworn that he saw a flash of red in her eyes.

Watching his best friend and his sister carefully dancing around the elephant in the room was amusing, but it was becoming boring; if those two didn't figure it out that they clearly had a crush on each other soon, he would not take account for his own actions. Wanda had asked him to not interfere, but seriously, it was embarrassing him to see how terrible they both were.

That night the three of them had agreed that they would eat together, so he was in the kitchen, waiting for dinner to be ready, while chatting with the others. Steve was wearing an apron, watching like a hawk their meal that he was baking. He wasn't a bad cook per se, as long as he did something simple, like oven-ready meals. But today Wanda insisted that he learned how to cook a proper recipe, and nobody wanted to miss the fun.

"Stop opening the oven every five seconds or it will never be done!" Said Wanda, laughing.

The mighty Captain grimaced under the playful scorn. "Sorry."

Tony laughed soundly. "I would never have thought that cooking would succseed where the nazi failed. C'mon oldie! It's mac'n'cheese, not rocket science. You can do it!"

"Says the one that always orders take out when it's his turn to cook." Said Natasha.

"The Étoile Montante is a five star restaurant. I never heard anybody complain." He answered smirking and he was right.

"How is Red? Still happy with her current accomodation?" Asked Steve.

"Yeah, she's taking roots in there." He said displeased. "I'm starting to think that she will never get out."

"Don't stress too much about it, she will have to come out by the end of the next week anyway." Said Tony. When everybody looked at him confused he kept explaining. "We're moving to the new compound." But everybody still seemed to not have any idea what he was talking about. "Oh my... I left a message on the board for all of you to see three weeks ago, does anybody ever check that thing out?" He asked, pointing at a cork panel hanging on the far end of the wall.

"I never even saw that it was there." Said Natasha, shrugging, and it was clear by the other's faces that it was the same for them.

Tony looked offended and aghast. "Are you serious right now? I told you about it when all of you moved here years ago!"

"To be fair, I don't think someone really listens when you speak." Answered immediately Natasha, smirking.

That kicked out another small bickering. It was different from the ones that had happened in the past, everybody was making fun of each other, but not in a malevolent way. He would have loved to take part in it, but he was distracted by something moving in his peripheral view; he turned towards the big window, but didn't notice anything different. He looked down in the streets, where the car lights seemed not a lot bigger than ants; they were very high up the tower, almost in the last floors, and it was a cloudy night. Maybe it was only a bird.