The Widow's Daughter ✔︎

Chapter Five

"...And that is how I came to be Captain America," finished Steve. He looked down at my notes and nodded, giving me a small smile. "You're a smart kid," he said after reading them.

I laughed. "So I've been told," I replied. 

Steve bent down so that we were eye to eye. "How's your lessons going?" he asked.

I nodded. "Good," I said. "Tony's making me do all these super-complicated equations and Clint  said that I was a natural at shooting a longbow. Also, my gift is developing more and I found out that I can call upon the power of shadows and silk to help me."

"Silk?"

"Mind control," I explained. "Also, I can almost summon lightning." I paused. "Almost."

"By almost, do you mean, you can create a tiny spark like that of a torch, or a real lightning storm?" Steve asked, amusement flickering in his eyes.

"The former," I mumbled. "But it's still cool!"

"Super cool," Steve said, laughing. He patted my notes, then he looked me in the eye. "You might want to head to your next class... what do you have?"

"Getting beaten up by Nat," I said quickly, then looked at the time. 5:50pm. "No!"

"What is it?"

"I'm late!" I bit off a curse word. "I'm really sorry, Steve, I have to go." I piled all my notes into a small folder and ran out the door, turning around to call, "thanks for the lesson!"

I sped through the Avengers tower, my heart pounding. Not only was I going to get beaten up by Black Widow, I was going to be beaten up by an angry Black Widow, and that was infinitely worse. I ran up the 300 steps to Nat's floor, throwing open the door to her training room and dropping everything, panting, "sorry I'm late."

Natasha had her back turned to me. She was rummaging through a binder that looked like it contained top secret files. Her shoulders were shaking, and at first I thought she was laughing, then I realised she wasn't.

She was crying.

"Are you alright?" I asked softly. 

Natasha spun around and I caught sight of her face, which was streaked with tear lines, a map drawn onto her skin. She sniffed and wiped her eyes, punctuating it with a vicious glare. "You didn't see that," she growled, putting the binder in a chest of drawers and locking it. "Shut the door please."

I shut the door behind me and stood awkwardly. "I did," I whispered. "I did see that." I paused. "What's going on?"

Natasha glared at me and stood up straight, walking over to the middle of the training room and facing me. "It's none of your business," she snapped. "Come on. We need to train."

I nodded and stood opposite her. "You know," I said. "You don't need to be embarrassed if you're seen crying." I winced, regretting the words that came out of my mouth as soon as I said them. 

Natasha raised her chin and said, "that's a lie," she said. "So is this," she lashed out with her left arm, punching me on the arm.

"OW!" I held my arm and looked at her in shock. "What was that for?"

"Your timetable says 'fighting with Romanoff', does it not?" she smirked. "So, come on, kid."

The 'kid' thing annoyed me, I had to admit. It was fine when Tony and Steve called me that, because they were actually nice and they seemed to sympathise with me. I'd been called kid before, though. 

And not by someone who meant it kindly.

Natasha hit me again, on the other arm this time. She went in for another strike, aimed for my side, but I was ready. Using my anger as a lifeline, I ducked and parried her punch, delivering a swift uppercut to her chin. She grabbed my fist and twisted. I could feel my bones straining so I used my legs to kick her in the shin, making her let go. She went on to continue her relentless attack, so I used every limb I had to defend myself. I narrowed my eyes and scanned the room for anything I could use to my advantage, breathing heavily as I defended myself against Natasha's swings.

I held out my hands. "Stop," I wheezed. Nat did and looked at me with what might have been concern. "Why did you say that crying was a lie?"

Natasha smirked again and went for my right shoulder. She hit me and I felt the bone jar as I stepped back, holding it in pain. "Because you've been lying to us the entire time," she said, going for my left shoulder. 

I parried her attack and said, "no I haven't."

"Tell me about yourself, Kira," Natasha said, spinning with lithe grace as she attacked me. I fought her off, wheezing as I did so. She punched me in the face and I wiped my chin, not surprised when it came away sticky and red with blood. 

"Only if you tell me why you were crying," I replied, going for a jab at her abdomen. She twirled away and shook her head.

"We're on the same team, kid," she drawled. 

"So why are you trying to-" I broke off and gasped. "-trying to kill me?" I finished.

"I'm trying to train you, silly girl," Nat said, performing a wicked chamber punch to my right side. I managed to block it that time, adrenalin coursing through my veins.

"But why did you say I was lying?" I demanded. "And why were you so sad?"

"You're lying to everyone right now," Natasha said, swinging at me. "You've just given me solid proof of that."

"If you know so much, then what is the lie?" I spat out blood.

"You never went to an orphanage," Nat said victoriously. "You come from Russia, in a place called the Red Room."

I froze, memories of my childhood bombarding my brain. I remembered blood, and death, and horrors that I'd sworn to forget. I shivered and asked, "How do you know that?"

Natasha Romanoff smirked. "Well, for one thing, you're speaking Russian right now."