Right by your side | Natasha Romanoff

9 | Power enhancing shoes

Second POV
"Are you okay?" She used her cold hands to wipe off the sweat on your forehead.

Now, the life you're living in, is built on lies upon lies. One day it's going to come crashing down on you and you won't be prepared to face it.

"Yeah... just a nightmare from when I was younger." Natasha arched her eyebrow. Younger? You were already very young, she didn't think you would be able to remember much when you were a toddler.

Seeing Natasha's reaction, you knew you had made a mistake again. "Ahh... I-I mean from a horror movie my parents forced me to watch when I was younger." It was not a convincing lie but you were unable to think of anything else at the moment.

"What kind of parents make their child watch horror movies from such a young age?"

"I don't know."

Natasha cupped your face and measured your pulse sneakily. "Well, if you have any problems, you can come and find me okay?"

You nodded your head. "Can you... sleep with me tonight?" You were willing to change this situation into an opportunity, she may not know it's you but as long you know, that's all that matters now.

"Sure." She climbed into bed with you and wrapped a protective arm around your body and you slowly engulfed in a deep sleep. "You don't have to worry about anything."

"You know, there's this friend of mine. She also have nightmares and since she has a photographic memory, her nightmares would always be so realistic, not missing a single detail. I would always have to wake her up as well."

Maybe being small isn't so bad after all.

---

Your POV
I went to find Bill since he said he got something for me that might help. Wanda dropped me off as Nat had a meeting she had to attend.

"So what do you have for me?" I went to the basement where he works his magic.

"Hey, is this how you speak to me?" He huffed and crossed his arms against his chest. He was never this confident against me, he was more passive but with our difference in size, he likes to tease me more these days.

"I made this pair of shoes for you." He took it out from a box. It looks like a pretty standard shoe to me. "Hey, don't judge before you try it." I made a weird face as I put it on. We went to the backyard to try out its special ability.

He placed a soccer ball in front of my feet and gave me a nod to try it. "The setting is from low, medium and high." I decided to try the highest setting first. Go big or go home right?

I've missed this adrenaline pumping through my veins. A grin naturally showed on my face. I used to play soccer to pass time and ended up being pretty good at it. I backed up slightly for the run up sequence. I took a few quick steps before pulling my leg back and kicking it straight out of the yard.

"HOLY SHIT! I told you to test it out, not to wreck my backyard!" Bill screamed and went to assess the damage I had caused.

My mouth hung open as I saw the damage I had done, the fences were broken and the trees snapped into two. I had no idea the power would be this strong, why did Bill calibrate it this way? Okay... maybe sticking to the low setting would be a better idea.

"Why is it this strong?" I questioned him. Was I meant to kill people with it?

"You deal with enemies who are tougher than trees!" He said with his back facing me while trying to fix whatever he could with his hands.

"Well, true. I'm going to relax inside." I turned on my heels.

"Hey! Aren't you going to help?"

"I'm just a kid." I stuck a tongue out at him before turning the doorknob and entering the house. There's nothing to do in the house so I went to rummage for another soccer ball. It was kept in the storage space amongst all the other tools and equipment, what a mess. He should really tidy up his house a little.

I juggled the ball around aimlessly, trying all sorts of tricks, reminiscing the times I would play them after school, trying to aim for a spot in the club. It didn't last very long before I got taken by Hydra.

---

Second POV
Nat  only announced she was coming to pick you up a few minutes before she arrived. You didn't have a chance to get ready and had just managed to tell Bill when you heard her car horn.

"We're going for a team lunch outside." Nat said when you got into her car.

There wasn't any need to bring you along if it was a team lunch but you didn't mention anything. When you arrive at the café, only Steve can be seen sitting on the table. You and Nat joined him and ordered drinks to start.

Nat was glancing everywhere as she sipped on her coffee and so was Steve. It was then did you realise this wasn't a team lunch, but a mission. You looked on the roofs and inside of buildings to search if any other team members were here and you could only see Wanda, Sam and Bucky.

You sat there quietly drinking the juice they ordered for you and playing with the napkin on the table to look less conspicuous. If others were to see your table without food and the child sitting peacefully doing nothing, it would be even more suspicious.

"They could have ordered something for me regardless." You thought.

"I'm heading to the washroom." You muttered before getting up from your seat. They were so focused on looking out for any suspicious person on the streets that they didn't reply to you.

You were drying your hands on the tissues paper when you realised your table was empty. You took large strides of steps across the café and looked for them. When you couldn't see them anyway, you tried finding Wanda, Sam and Bucky where you last saw them but they were gone as well.

Screams and foot trampling were heard as people were pushing each other to be the first to get out of danger when shots sounded from the adjacent street.

You rushed against the flow of traffic. People were knocking you back like waves pushing you towards the shore. You were at their waist at most and it was hard to navigate a crowd of people when their only focus was to get to safety.

You found them fighting against Hydra agents from behind the covers. There were still a lot of people running around hindering their ability to take them down swiftly. Steve and Bucky were managing fine, their super soldiers after all. Wanda and Nat were working together as Sam navigated from the sky.

Things were getting tricky as you watched their backs when more reinforcement came. Team started to drift apart as their fights brought them elsewhere.

"You can have this back!" Putting your shoe medium setting, you kicked the bullet casing which was plenty on the floor towards a Hydra agent, it penetrated through his bullet proof vest and straight into his chest.

You continued eliminating agents as you moved from cover to cover, sometimes using other objects such as empty cans and bricks to knock out agents.

When everything was done, you emerged from your cover and went to find Nat.

"Nat!!"

She turned around when she heard you call for her. Nat bent down and looked at you. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be following the flow of the others? You could have gotten hit by a stray bullet! It's dangerous! You shouldn't be running towards the heart of danger!" Nat held your shoulders and tried to shake some sense into you.

"I- I was trying to find you..."

"... Just go to the car over there and wait for me. We need to settle some things here." She pointed towards a black car with SHIELD agents around. You trudged towards the car, you used to be able to participate in such events, now you're being pushed aside because they don't know who you are and what you're capable of.

Whatever meeting Natasha was in in the morning must be related to this.

Posted on 11 Feb 2022