The Widow's Daughter ✔︎

Chapter Thirty-Four

Nat looked confused. "Well, that was weird," she remarked, losing her angry-mother front for a moment. "I ate his bowl of pasta once and he yelled at me for about a week. Threatened to fire me too. And yet somehow you manage to steal and explode one of his billion-dollar jet planes and get away with only a warning? Gods give me strength." She rolled her eyes to the heavens.

"It's a gift I have." I laughed softly, wiping away my tears. "Do you think that the public will believe that a disobedient teenage girl made the famous billionaire Tony Stark go soft?"

"That disobedient teenage girl made the Black Widow soft, too," Nat snorted. "If you weren't my kid, I'd have you beheaded before you could say, 'spare me.'"

"Seriously?" 

"Yes, seriously!" something about Nat's face told me she was just kidding, but I still believed her. When we were in Korea she'd paralysed that drug lord with an empty glue stick and a container of uneaten rice, so I didn't doubt it. Her face softened as she took my hand and said, "I was so scared, Kira. I thought I was going to lose you again."

I felt a lump rising in my throat and I pushed it down, not wanting to cry again. It was literally Niagara Falls up in my eyeballs right now. "You weren't going to lose me," I said. "I'm always going to be here."

"And I you," Nat said. "I'll never leave you again." She looked like she was about to hug me, but instead she punched me hardly on the arm. 

I yelped. "Ow!"

"You deserve that," my mother grinned. 

I rolled my eyes. "OK, OK. Whatever." 

Nat kissed me on the cheek and stood up. "We're having a meeting in about an hour to confront the dilemma of Holly and Fury," she said, all professional-like. "You should probably come. Holly's little squad... the Salvatores are going to be there."

I gaped. "You rounded up the Salvatores? How?"

"With immense difficulty," Nat remarked, smirking. "They're in a holding cell right now. Just be warned that when you see them, don't be too alarmed."

Nothing about that last sentence was good. "Uh, why?"

"Well, they kinda blame you for what happened to Holly," my mother shrugged, resting her arm on the door handle. 

"Me? But I didn't do anything!"

"Many of us would beg to differ. But seriously, Kira, I would recommend taking a few aspirin with you to the meeting because they'll be screaming bloody murder at you and you are going to have a massive headache. Don't take it too personally." Nat grinned and opened the door, slipping out before I could say anything. "You've got a visitor," she called. "Love you kid."

"Uh... love you too..." I called back, watching as somebody else entered my room. Seeing who it was, I gasped. "PETER!"

"Hey, Bombshell," Peter said, grinning. He sat down onto the end of my bed and I immediately threw myself into his arms, burying my face in his chest. He waited a fraction of a second before closing his arms around me, pulling me close. "It's... good to see you're awake."

I pulled away, suddenly nervous. "Um. Well." I tugged at a strand of messy red hair. "This is awkward."

"Yeah." Peter's cheeks flared bright red. "Um. Things have changed a lot recently, haven't they?"

I couldn't take it any more. I leaned across and shut my eyes, brushing my lips with his gently. He cupped my chin with his palms, pulling me closer. It was a blissful experience that felt like I was floating into the clouds. After the kiss had ended, we were both blushing and slightly dizzy. I was about to say something when a loud mechanical voice said from outside the window, "Once you two lovebirds are done, we actually have a meeting to get too."

Me and Peter swung around, aghast, as we saw Tony's hovering Ironman suit with it's arms crossed levitating outside the window. "Oh my god! Mr Stark!" I spluttered. "I... err... um..."

Apparently kissing takes away a person's ability to form proper sentences, because Peter's words came out in blubbering, meaningless chunks while I tried to explain everything and failed. Mr Stark's suit looked like it was almost smirking before it flew away, leaving me and Peter alone in my room together.

"Uh. We should probably go," I spluttered, flushing. 

Peter's face was bright red as he muttered, "you should probably get dressed."

Wait.

What?

Oh no.

I looked down at what I was wearing and groaned, realising that I was dressed in my bright pink Powerpuff girls pyjamas. Embarrassed about Peter having seen me in all my pyjamafied glory (for the second time) I pushed him off my bed, slamming the door behind him once he'd left.

Wow, I really am an idiot, aren't I? I thought to myself, looking at myself in a mirror. My eyes were hollow and clearly my hormones were waging war with my pores because my forehead was dotted with pimples like barnacles to a rock in the ocean. 

Well, this sucked.

I could've sworn I heard the sound of Nat laughing the entire time.