"You're telling me that you got Captain America-the War Hero, Steve Rogers-to become best friends with a thirteen-year-old kid? What, is this supposed to slowly introduce him to how irritating Generation Z is? Project Training Wheels or something?"
...
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Natasha Romanoff kept a close eye on the Not-So-Little Baby Carter a short distance away, now on her fifth lap around the large driveway Tony insisted on because it made the New Avengers Facility look more 'fancy.' Her lips were set into a frown, arms crossed over her chest, every small movement of Lizzie Carter under scrutiny of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. assassin. Seeing the fifteen-year-old at the Avengers Facility was nothing new. She'd been coming by pretty much every weekend for her training, save when she was away playing games. But while Natasha and Steve had to train the new Avengers recruits—Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, and Vision—they also trained Lizzie. Kept her strong. Kept her agile. Kept her, in Natasha's opinion, ready.
Steve refused to believe that Lizzie Carter would become apart of their world. Natasha didn't know how he didn't see that she already was. The girl wasn't out in the field and working on active missions, but she was as much a part of the team—if not more—than their newest. She had been trained by Natasha. Trained by Steve Rogers. By Clint, and by Tony, and by some of the world's most dangerous and lethal humans. And she was only fifteen.
"She still going?"
"On her sixth now."
Steve hovered. Natasha learned that quickly. For the last three years, she'd watched him fall even deeper into the life of Lizzie as she grew up around them. While her being the great niece of his first love wouldn't have changed much, it did made the obligation to protect her all the greater for him. So he fulfilled the role of a teacher, a mentor, a friend, and a second father to her—welcoming the new paternal instinct like he was born to meet Lizzie Carter—and no one, not even Tony, could joke about that. Because somewhere along the way, all of them learned to love her too, whether they were expecting it or not.
"She hasn't said anything since I told her," Steve muttered, his worried eyes watching her every move as she slowly took the corner of the driveway. Her strides were fast—getting faster every time—and he couldn't imagine her in a few years time. "Just immediately wanted to start training."
