The Soldier and his Widow

6

Shuri stared at the five people her brother brought into her lab. "Brother!" she exclaimed excitedly, "you made friends!"

"I'm not even surprised," T'Challa muttered to himself at the coated insult.

"Who is this?" Natasha asked.

"My younger sister, Shuri. Shuri, these are . . . they are friends."

Shuri scanned each one, stopping at the boy Steve still carried. "You look familiar."

"I like your accent," Peter said honestly.

"Thanks, I'm Liberian."

"You are Wakandan," T'Challa said.

"Oh, sorry," Peter said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I like your accent."

Shuri was silent for a few seconds. "I'm actually a lesbian," she tried again.

"Since when?" T'Challa asked.

"Oh," Peter said, "I thought you were Wakandan."

T'Challa sighed at the wide smile that spread across his sister's face. "In hindsight, this may not have been a wise decision."

"Spiderman!"

~~||~~

"You seem unharmed."

Natasha turned to the princess that had walked up to her. "Yes?"

"My brother said that we can help all five of you. You seem physically unharmed."

"I'm fine," Natasha said with a small smile.

"Sergeant Barnes mentioned that you have memories you'd like to retrieve. We can -- I can look into it if you want. He's accepted my offer of the same nature."

"How do you bring back lost memories?" Natasha asked, turning back to the Wakandan landscape.

"Memories are never truly lost. If they were made, they can be remembered. You just need a small nudge. We can work on it."

Natasha studied the teenage genius. "You remind me of Stark," she murmured.

Shuri beamed. "That's what Mr Stark said, only he mentioned that I've surpassed him."

"How modest."

Shuri clasped her hands behind her back and swayed on the spot. "You know, the Black Widow was always my favourite Avenger."

Natasha turned to Shuri. "Why?"

Shuri shrugged. "Why not? Anyway, you should come speak to Sergeant Barnes. He's going to go back under the ice for a while."

"He's going to what?"

Natasha nearly knocked Steve over as she barreled into the lab. T'Challa ushered Tony to the other end, where someone worked on healing Peter's broken ribs. Natasha glared at Bucky. "Are you insane?"

Bucky stared up at Natasha. "Don't ask stupid questions, Widow."

"I'm being serious, James. Why are you doing this?"

Bucky shrugged. "It's safest for --"

"Bullshit. You know what, if you go under, so will I."

"For what?" Bucky asked, standing up, "you don't have triggers ingrained in your head that turn you into a mindless soldier."

"You don't know that. Neither do I. But that's not even the point. Who here is going to use any of them? They're all Russian."

"Widow, it's--"