Mama-Spider and Spider-son

The Getting to Know You Stage

Natasha knew that she would need to leave soon for a mission, Fury said he would estimate about a month before she would be called in. In that time before she would have to spy on Tony Stark, she planned on getting to know Peter as best as she could. She didn't know how much she would learn about Peter in that month though.

One of the first nights that Peter was there and sleeping in his bed the adults started hearing screams. Natasha got up and out of bed once she heard it. She sprinted out of her room and into the room next to hers to see Peter wrapped tightly in the blankets with a layer of sweat and panting. When she looked closer, she saw he was crying and whimpering. All she could see was the small boy she found in the cellar.  

She rushed to the side of his bed, and she started to lightly shake him.

"Peter, you gotta wake up."

He continued crying and moving around in the blankets. She shook him a little harder.

"Peter!"

Peter jolted awake and sat up. He continued to cry and looked over at Natasha, she saw his doe eyes with the most broken look. Peter rushed into Natasha's arms and buried his head into her shoulder while she wrapped her arms tightly around him and whispered small reassurances into his ear.

"They were there! They had the needles again! I couldn't do any-"

"I know baby, I know. Shh, you're not there anymore. I got you."

Peter slowly calmed down until about fifteen minutes later Natasha was just holding Peter in her lap. After she heard his heartbeat go to normal and he wasn't crying anymore she carried him downstairs. Peter clung to her like a koala all the way to the kitchen, or a spider if you will.

"I'm gonna put you down for a minute alright?"

"Whyyyy?"

"Well, how am I gonna make you hot chocolate if I don't have any arms to make it?"

"Hot chocolate?"

"Yep, the best thing to drink after a nightmare. It's what I drink after mine, too."

"You get nightmares?" Peter asked while he let Natasha put him down on the chair before gathering things for hot chocolate.

"Yep, and when I do I drink hot chocolate and write my nightmare in a journal. After that I don't think about the nightmare and I'm all better."

Peter was quiet after that and just let Natasha make the hot chocolate in peace before she gave it to him to drink. He slowly sipped on it and stayed quiet. Natasha sat there in quiet with him. It was nice. They just sat there until the others woke up maintaining the silence. The only other thing they did was make breakfast.

Coming down the stairs later that morning Clint, Laura, and baby Cooper would see pancakes being kept warm in the oven for them and Natasha and Peter rewatching Peter Pan on the couch.

That became the normal over the next few days with Peter getting nightmares that wake him. He wakes up screaming, Natasha goes to him and calms him down (sometimes with a russain lullaby other times with just reassurances), go to the kitchen and make hot chocolate, then watch Peter Pan until everyone else is down and awake. After everyone is awake Peter calms down, easier to get him distracted for a bit.

Though after she calms him down with a Russian lullaby, he always asks her to teach him Russian.

"If you want me to." was all the response she would give.

After a week Natasha figured that this wasn't healthy and that he needed to find a way to get through things. Problem was that she didn't know the best way to go, so she figured best way to start was to try and talk about it.