the unraveling of natasha romanoff

avengers tower

After eating breakfast, Kate calls Rhodey for a ride as they were instructed to last night.

While they wait, they go next door to the coffeeshop and Yelena buys herself an iced coffee, and Kate just continues drinking the lemonade that she bought at the bagel shop earlier, mumbling something about how she shouldn't ever be allowed coffee.

The car pulls up not too long after, with Rhodey in the passenger seat and a gruffy older guy in the driver's seat.

Rhodey gets out, "That's Happy. He's been helping out Tony for years now, so you might as well get used to him."

Kate nods, thanking Rhodey for the ride as he lets them into the car.

Once they arrive at the Avengers Tower, Rhodey lets them up and they go to the main floor.

Yelena can't help but be taken aback by the building, it feels like it came out of a show about the future and it's very surreal. They're in what seems like an equipment room, walls coated in Iron Man suits and one wall decorated solely in pictures of the Avengers and their accomplishments.

The entire area overlooks a floor below it, and Yelena can't help but be immediately confused by the presence of a teenager hanging upside down from the ceiling.

He immediately scrambles down, doing a (stupid) pose when he lands and smiling excitedly, "Hi! Hi. You're Kate Bishop, right? I saw you in the news with the whole Hawkeye thing. I'm sorry, I don't know who you are, though."

He looks panicked and Yelena cocks her head, amused. He and Kate seem to have the same excitement levels.

"Yeah, I'm Kate, and this is Yelena," Kate nudges Yelena with her shoulder, smile played on her lips, "And you're..?"

"Peter Parker," he says quickly, straightening himself up and putting the book he was previously holding on the table, "I'm also Spider-Man, but... I'm trying to keep that on the down-low, so don't tell anyone."

The women nod, and Yelena goes ahead with her question, "Where's Tony Stark?"

"He's somewhere," Peter shrugs, wiping his hands off, "he'll probably be here in no time, he knows you guys are coming. Are you hungry? Pepper's not home and she normally cooks, but I can make grilled cheese. Morgan likes it."

Yelena's never felt so out of her depth before. She's very used to hand-to-hand combat and when reading about all of the things the Avengers have done, she never felt like she properly comprehended the whole aliens and witches and sorcerers and suits part of it all.

"Can I see the spidey-suit? I've literally tried to see you in action before but I've never gotten the opportunity to," Kate asks eagerly.

"Oh yeah! Of course!" Peter grins excitedly, running across the room to grab a suitcase, "Give me one second."

"Pete, you can't be a secret superhero if you go around telling our guests who you are."

Yelena and Kate whip around, and Yelena immediately recognizes the man that now appeared as Tony Stark. What surprises her, though is the little girl on his back with her arms wrapped tightly around him.

From all of the stories she's heard about him, he's seemed like the least fit of the Avengers to be a father, but this version of him seems most fit. He seems gentle and caring and nothing like the stories she heard.

Peter whips around, "Sorry, Mr. Stark."

He walks back around to where they're standing, offering quickly to take Morgan off his hands so that Kate and Yelena can talk to him.

Tony obliges and Morgan laughs loudly when Peter takes her downstairs via web. Tony just looks exhausted, but he puts on a smile and looks at the two.

"I've seen things about the Hawkling," he looks from Kate to Yelena, "but who are you? Backup? Girlfriend? Prostitute?"

Yelena rolls her eyes, now this sounds more like the person Natasha warned her about, "Greatest child assassin of all time and a Black Widow, сука."

Tony's eyebrows raise and Yelena can tell he wasn't anticipating that response. A part of her swells with pride and another part of her wants to laugh when she hears Kate almost bust out laughing.

"Black Widow?" Tony recovers finally, readjusting and leaning back against one of the tables, "So you knew Natasha?"

"She was my sister," Yelena replies, "and I'm trying to know more about her. Apparently you two had some sort of friendship and you have some way to get to her girlfriend, Wanda."

Tony nods, "So aside from the Wanda thing, what do you want to know?"

"Anything," Yelena responds, and Tony sighs, obviously trying to figure something out. It's clear that he wasn't given all of the information prior to their visiting.

"Well," he clicks his tongue, "she was the one that profiled me to be a part of the Avengers. I was going through a bit of a crisis at the time and she opted to not have me in, which she was right to do. I wasn't in the right headspace to be doing most of what I was doing at the time," he hums, obviously thinking, "I think when I met her that she'd just gotten into SHIELD... but she never... we weren't that close. She was best friends with Clint and really close with Steve, but we didn't ever get too close."

Yelena furrows her eyebrows, "What do you remember?"

"I remember..." he snaps, something obviously having clicked, "oh, there was a time after we got back from Sokovia, she and Wanda were living here and a couple of other people. I have an apartment on one of the floors so I was in and out, but one night..."

Tony left his workshop, humming to distract himself from the silence that came from working into the middle of the night.

(Who was he kidding, it was closer to morning than night.)

What he didn't expect was for anyone else to be up, much less watching TV at this time of night. He looked a little closer, now catching what was being watched, an episode of How I Met Your Mother. He squinted, trying to see who it is without interrupting.

"She's so gay."

His eyebrows raised, he wasn't expecting Natasha to be the person watching this.

"How would you know?" a thickly accented voice responded, and Tony recognized it immediately to be Wanda. Since when were they friends?

Natasha snorted, "Takes one to know one."

"I didn't witness much of their relationship," Tony clears his throat, "They kept their distance after the whole... getting Wanda and like half of the team arrested thing. I didn't know they were together until Steve told me a while after the snap."

He looks genuinely sympathetic and Yelena sighs, knowing that's about all he has.

"Do you know where Wanda is?" she asks, and Tony shrugs.

"I could figure it out if you give me a couple of hours. Until then, you're welcome to stick around. We're gonna order lunch in a little bit since Pepper's out of town," Tony responds, wringing his hands a little bit, "There's even a workout area, if you want to check that out. All sorts of gear and targets in there."

The tail-end of the offer has him glancing at Kate, and Yelena's excitement peaks a bit at knowing how much Kate would enjoy that.

"That would be great, thank you," Yelena smiles softly when Kate holds on to her hand eagerly, and Tony smiles back.

"Alright, Parker? Get up here!" he yells out, and a couple of seconds later, Peter's launched himself up on to the balcony's banister, eager look on his face. "Show them around to the gym?"

"Okay," Peter walks over, "c'mon, I love the gym. It's so cool and there are so many things to hang on. Not that you guys would get that, but... it's cool! Promise!"

"I'm down for anything," Kate comments and Yelena nods along.

"Morgan's still downstairs, right?" Tony interrupts, mumbling something after about how he can't lose her unless he wants Pepper to divorce him.

"She's watching Frozen," Peter replies.

"Got it," Tony waves them off, "Don't kill each other. And Yelena, I'm sorry I couldn't have more answers."

Yelena manages a small smile, "It's okay. Thank you anyway."

All she hopes for now is that they can find Wanda.