Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 20: Aftermath

''Kat, you still alive?'' Natasha joked over the comms. She hadn't heard from her in a long time, making her a little worried. She knew Katya's lack of luck in fights when it came to getting hurt. More than once did she need to stich up cuts or gunshot wounds Katya couldn't reach herself.

Katya removed her right hand from where she put pressure on the wound and moved her bloody hand to her ear. ''I'm all good, my shoulder might need some stitches though. And the world is spinning a lot faster than it should.''

Natasha chuckled, although worry filled her voice when she answered. ''You can never come out of a fight unharmed, can you?'' She wished she could come down and check on her, but as long as Loki wasn't caught yet, she needed to stay in the Tower.

''I love having you fix me up,'' Katya replied, returning her hand to her shoulder. It didn't help, but it made her feel better. Even though Natasha couldn't see her face, it wasn't hard for her to imagine the smirk that was on Katya's lips. 

Tony made a disgusted noise as he tried to stand up. He was a little wobbly but he managed, ignoring Steve's help. ''Get a room!''

''I see Stark is fine,'' Natasha joked. She had been way closer to the portal and saw him disappear into it better than the people on the ground. She hadn't expected to be so distressed about it, but she was. Tony had weaseled his way through her defenses.

''Define 'fine','' Katya answered while staring up Tony, who walked closer to her, a smirk on her face. 

He narrowed his eyes at her. ''Watch out Petrova or you'll get to pay for your own shawarma after,'' he threatened her. The smile didn't completely reach his eyes through. They held fear, true fear. 

''I may need to anyway,'' she replied, gesturing towards Stark Tower, which only held the letter 'A' now. ''That building looks like it will need a lot of restauration.''

Tony looked up at his Tower, truly seeing the destruction himself for the first time. The playful look in his eyes got replaced by sadness. After giving a little sigh, he said, ''Yeah, I guess it does.'' 

His eyes lingered on the broken tower a little longer before ripping them away and turning back to Katya, who was still on the ground. Stark bowed down to pick her up and fly to where Loki was on the top floor of his building, but her glare stopped him. ''Right. Touch again and I'll lose my hand. I'm quite attached to that hand so I'll just go, bye.'' 

He didn't know how fast he needed to get away from her. Even bloody and wounded, Katya was still terrifying to him. 

She laughed when he took to the sky and Steve and Thor just stared at her weirdly. These guys had no sense of humor. Not her sense of humor anyway.

''I could use a little help here,'' she said when nobody moved to help her up. Not that she needed the help, it was just nice to know she didn't fall on her head again when her body wasn't ready to stand up.

Steve snapped out of his staring and grabbed her good shoulder gently, not wanting to hurt her. Katya tried sitting up first. When that proved to be okay - no throwing up, nausea or more dizziness - he pulled her up to her feet calmly. 

Gravity immediately pulled on her entire body, begging her to lay down again. It needed rest, it didn't want to walk all the way to the building. Steve offered to carry her, but Natasha would never let that go and she didn't want to feel so weak and humiliated, so she declined.

He still wrapped his hand around her waist to carry most of her bodyweight. Katya really didn't like him touching her. Especially on her waist, somewhere only Natasha was allowed to touch her. But she tolerated it because one, she needed the support to not fall over and two, he was being polite.