Venomous

49. Sibling Rivalry

Getting out of Budapest was a lot easier than Natasha made it out to be. Thankfully the three of us were not stuck in the crawlspace of the Hungarian subway for as long as she was stuck with Barton. I couldn't imagine being stuck with that man for more than five minutes at a time. He was a man of few words and immense sarcasm, and his down-to-business attitude really grated on our nerves. Natasha adored him – and I was about to understand why.

We waited an hour or two for the general subway traffic to disperse once the car wreck was cleaned up by authorities. We watched as maskhead came out from beneath the tracks empty-handed. It was hard not to chuckle, but doing so would probably not be great for maintaining our position without being caught. When the coast was clear, we dropped down silently, one at a time from our lofty perch, making our way up the stairs to street level in silence. The sight that greeted us was like a punch to the gut. The police were still cleaning up the mess the tank had left behind. Judging by the darkening look on Natasha's face, she felt an emotion that mirrored my own. Guilt. All this damage, and who knows if anyone was hurt – it would be hard for there not to be any injuries with the extent of the wreckage– and it was our fault. Reading my face, Natasha caught my hand, squeezing my fingers as we walked towards the outskirts of town. We were going to be safer away from large crowds, meaning that city life was not in our best interests. Or the best interests of the city, as it turns out. We walked in silence until the city center looked like dots behind us. The silence did not last for long.

We made a beeline for the first gas station we passed once we were out of town. We were in desperate need of some supplies, and we needed to get the gash on blondie's arm cleaned up. It didn't seem to be bothering her or restricting her movement at all, but she certainly complained about it enough while we were hiding that you could have fooled me.

"The Red Room's still active. Where is it?" I glanced at Natasha as we walked through the open door before scattering in all directions to look for whatever each of us was after. Her unwillingness to use complete sentences indicated that she was angry, but there was more to it than that. I frowned. This wasn't like her, and this wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I thought about her family. From what she told me, they were all gone, which certainly didn't appear to be the case.

"I have no idea. He moves location constantly. And every widow is sedated on exit and entry for maximum security." I frowned again as Yelena spoke.

"The red room is mobile?" I asked. My presence – and my question – were ignored by both widows, making me roll my eyes. This was going to be a fun trip.

"I'm just finding it hard to believe that he could stay off of my radar." Natasha shot an accusing glance towards the younger woman, and I sighed.

"Nat, it's not like the Avengers haven't been busy," I attempted to smooth things over. My efforts, as it turned out, were also ignored.

"Well, it's not smart to attack an Avenger if you want to stay hidden. I mean, the clue is in the name. Dreykov kills you, one of the big ones comes to avenge you." Yelena threw the snark right back at her sibling and I tried to hide my smirk. Natasha's elbow to the gut informed me that the attempt had been unsuccessful. I clearly wasn't needed in this conversation, so I excused myself and went to look for more supplies in the form of chocolate for my partner. If this was going to be a messy fight, we were going to need all the encouragement and incentives that we could get our hands on.

"Wait, what are the big ones?" Natasha frowned as she asked her clarifying question, and my not-so-hidden smirk turned into a snort as I moved behind the far row of isles to avoid any additional contact from either widow. This was going to be good.

"Well, I doubt the god from space has to take an ibuprofen after a fight. "

Blondie has a point. The voice reverberated in my head as my eyes moved between the two, watching. She did have a point. But there was more going on here than just a discussion over the status of different avengers. The follow-up question Yelena asked sealed it for me.