Seven recoiled in shock, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Peter slowly turned to look at her but she shook her head vigorously and mouthed "Later" at him which he understood as he nodded back, his eyes wide.
She really didn't want to draw any attention to herself but she was overwhelmed, the rest of the team was still talking but she couldn't hear them anymore, her eyes fixated on the pendant around Natasha's neck, the hourglass.
Seven slammed her eyes shut and then opened them, she pinched her arm, she flicked her finger but nothing changed which confirmed that this was very real and she was about to have another panic attack soon if she didn't get out of here.
Suddenly the team began to stand up, a few of them hugging Natasha before they all started filtering out of the room but Seven couldn't bring herself to move, staring at the seat that Natasha had been in just moments ago.
Peter waited until the avengers had left before he went over to Seven, pulling her up by her arm and leading her away from the conference room and back to his bedroom which was much closer than hers.
"Seven?" He spoke softly once the door had closed and they had sat down on the floor. "Seven are you okay?"
"It's me Peter," She whispered, her voice low and shaky. "It's me."
Peter could only watch as his friend began to break down, letting herself go for the first time all day. He was unsure of whether she wanted him to hold her so he reached out and grabbed her hands, holding them in his, letting her cry.
"I can't believe this," Seven gasped as she carried on sobbing, the tears falling onto the hoodie.
"I know Ven," peter whispered quietly, trying to be as comforting as he could while Seven's world came crashing down on her.
After a while, she stopped crying and it seemed like she was beginning to process what she had just learned, staring blankly at the wall. Seven reached up for her necklace, usually, she would hold it for comfort but now she didn't even have it anymore and now was when she really wanted it most.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Peter asked quietly, getting her attention.
Seven thought about it for a moment before shaking her head, she didn't think she could physically form the words to talk about it now, it was still all so new.
"Okay, that's fine." Peter reassured her, "But are you going to tell her? She thinks you're dead Ven"
Seven hadn't even thought about Natasha, oh god. Natasha was her mother and she had spent Seven's whole life thinking she was dead only for the small piece of hope she had to be destroyed by Ivan. That was a whole lot worse than Seven just not knowing who her parents were.
Would she even believe her? The only possible piece of evidence she had was no longer with her, blown to pieces in Russia. Or worse, would she reject her completely?"
"I don't know" She cried, "What do you think?"
Peter thought for a moment, "I know it's hard but I think you need to tell her, soon." Seven nodded, she knew he was right. "Now I know it seems so obvious" Peter chuckled.
"What do you mean?" Seven asked sniffling.
"Well you share the same eyes, nose, and your hair is even similar, you grew up in the exact same organisation under the same man and you were constantly being told how perfect you were for the black widow recreation project." Seven let out a small laugh too, it was obvious now that she knew, she had just never thought about it before.
"When do you think I should do it?" Seven asked, looking up at Peter.
"Tomorrow at the latest Ven, the easier it will be the faster you do it."
She didn't know if she would be able to do it tonight, needing time to process but she nodded anyway, "I think I'm going to go to bed now"
"Are you sure?" peter looked at her worried, he didn't want her to be alone.
She nodded, "I just need time."
"Alright, I'll be on patrol but just call me if you need me okay?" Peter reassured her and she nodded.
Seven got up and hugged Peter before slowly opening his door and stepping out into the pitch-black corridor. It was well past midnight now and all the avengers had gone to their rooms. Seven looked both ways down the hallway, instead of heading towards her room she turned left and headed back towards the communal area.
Seven didn't really know what her aim was, she just needed a calm place to think but her room just didn't seem right. She suddenly remembered that the living room had massive windows that had the perfect view of the skyline and she carried on walking, making her way into the kitchen and then the living room but to her surprise, there was already a figure, sat by the window staring out into the night.
Seven silently made her way over and sat down opposite the figure, their head-turning at the small scuffling noises of Seven's feet.
"Hey," Natasha said, immediately noticing the teenager's puffy eyes and uncomfortable facial expression but commenting on neither.
"Hi," Seven said back, she was suddenly shy knowing that she was sat so close to her biological mom, a strange urge to reach out and touch her came over Seven but she quickly reminded herself that Natasha didn't know and that would be weird.
"Couldn't sleep?" Natasha asked, turning back to look outside.
"Yeah, something like that" Seven nodded and looked out of the window too, the New York City skyline was lit up by the thousands of streetlights and from here Seven could see the rooftop she had slept on, the one that had started this whole thing. If she hadn't climbed up there she would have never met Peter or her mom for that matter.
Seven turned back to look at her mother, now noticing all the subtle similarities she hadn't before. It would be so easy to say it right now but the words just wouldn't form and Seven just hopelessly stared at her instead.
Hey, I'm your daughter.
You're my mom.
I'm your long lost daughter who you think is dead by the way.
Nothing seemed right, Seven wanted the moment to be special but she also just wanted it to be over but as hard as she tried, nothing resembling what she wanted to say was forming in her mind so she just let the silence lay thick between them instead.
"I'm sorry" Seven blurted suddenly. Now words were forming? Great timing.
"For what?" Natasha asked
"Everything. Ivan, not knowing your daughter all this time, the graduation" Natasha looked over to her in shock.
"You know about graduation?" Natasha said dumbfounded.
"Yeah, kids are irritating parasites and all. We were told that one quite frequently." She laughed a little at the absurdity of the situation. "Do you believe that?" Seven asked, holding her breath.
"Not really no, I used to until I had her. I was so young but suddenly I was so ready. I just never got the chance to prove it" Seven was relieved but her heart ached for her mother. Woah that feels weird to think about.
"Thank you for today," Natasha said
"The bullet?" Seven inquired, she thought that went without saying.
"I mean of course, but you were there for me when I wasn't myself. Plus I remember you taking down four guys on your own which is pretty amazing" Seven practically beamed at the compliment, a warm unknown feeling spreading over her.
"Just thank your widow bites for me" Seven smiled, "They were very effective"
"Well, Stark makes the best weapons," Natasha remarked.
Seven stood up from the floor, causing Natasha to look over. "I'm going to go back now, thanks for the chat... Nat," The word 'mom' danced on the tip of her tongue but she quickly shut it down and smiled before turning around and heading back to her room, ready for the best sleep of her life.
When Seven woke up the next morning she woke up with a smile on her face, for the first time in a while she felt peaceful and was excited for today.
Not wanting to waste any time, Seven hopped out of bed and made her way to the kitchen, grinning the whole time.
"Hey, Seven? What's got you all happy today?" Wanda asked as she grabbed a glass of water and sat down at the counter.
"Oh, nothing" Seven smiled knowingly, lifting her glass up to take a sip, "Do you know if Peter's up yet?" It was Saturday which meant she had the whole day to spend with her friend.
"He went out on patrol an hour ago," Wanda said, pointing to the window where Peter could occasionally be seen swinging from place to place. "He normally is out for about three hours unless something big happens"
"Oh, okay," Seven said, refusing to let her friend's absence ruin her mood.
"Hey guys," Steve said happily as he entered, Natasha and Clint trailing behind.
"Morning guys, you want coffee? It should still be warm" Wanda pointed over to the counter where there was a coffee pot sitting, still steaming.
"Sounds good," Natasha said as she walked over to get mugs from the cabinet, "Steve, Clint, you want some?" Both men just murmured yes in response.
Seven watched her mother pour three cups of coffee, suddenly she felt shy all over again, not knowing what to say. Sure she wasn't really that much of a talkative person anyway but she was being much more quiet than usual and it was beginning to become noticeable.
"You okay Seven?" Clint asked, reaching out to grab his mug from Natasha,
"Me? No, I'm fine, amazing actually," She cringed internally as the words tumbled out.
"Alright then," Clint said sceptically.
"What are your plans today steve?" Wanda asked
"I'm going down to the SHIELD hospital wing to visit the kids and check that everything is alright, I was just going to ask you Seven if you wanted to come?" He explained, sipping his coffee.
"Me?" She questioned
"Yeah, I thought you might want to check on Lilly, plus I'm sure the girls would all love to see you again" He added.
Seven thought about it for a moment, she really did want to see Lilly again, plus she could hang out with Peter later. "Is uh, Is anyone else coming?" She asked, glancing quickly at Natasha.
"No" Steve answered, narrowing his eyes at the little glance he had watched. "Just me"
"Oh alright then, when do you want to go?" She asked, now eager.
"Twenty minutes? It's almost noon already."
"Okay, I'll go get ready" Seven leapt off of her stool and skipped away to her bedroom, she was still in a great mood.
"What was that about?" Steve asked, "Tell me it wasn't just me that saw that" He looked around at the other three.
"Nope, I saw it too," Wanda said, nodding.
"Huh?" Clint asked, clueless as always.
"Saw what?" Natasha asked, eying the soldier curiously.
"You know Romanoff, for an assassin you really need to pay more attention," He joked.
"I still don't get what the two of you are on about," She said, sighing.
"Nevermind then" He shrugged, "Tell Seven I'm pulling the car around."
Steve got up and made his way to the elevator, heading down to the garages.
When Seven was fully dressed and prepared to go she headed down to where Wanda said Steve would be, looking out for a car. Turns out that lots of cars were on the busy New York city streets and she stood outside the front of the tower, scanning the road. Eventually, she spotted an all-black, sleek car that had dark tinted windows and she guessed that was the car as the number plate read 'CAP038B'.
She opened the car door and was relieved to find Steve sat behind the wheel, dressed in a baseball cap and sunglasses. She slid into the seat and began laughing, ignoring his offended expression.
"Really? That's your disguise?" She asked mockingly.
"It's proven to be very effective actually," Steve said proudly as he pulled out into the road.
"Well shouldn't I have a disguise too?" She questioned, still chuckling.
"No one knows who you are, you don't need one." Seven frowned, "But I figured you might say that" He laughed as he reached into the back seat and pulled out another hat and a pair of smaller sunglasses.
"Do you have a whole collection back there?" She asked, peering behind her.
"No silly, those are Nat's," Seven looked down at the disguise in her hands and eagerly put the hat on her head and sliding the glasses over her nose.
"Won't these just make us stick out even more?" Seven inquired, no normal person would wear these when the weather wasn't even that warm outside.
"Not where we're going" Steve answered, "Agents are always in and out of the building, this makes it easy for no one to recognise you."
"You sound like you have a lot of experiences with disguises" Seven pointed out, adjusting her hair underneath the cap.
"Whenever we go on missions in public we normally wear something to keep us as best hidden as possible, there was this one time though when I went out on a mission with Nat and we were almost recognised," Steve said, recalling his undercover mission in the mall.
"Really, what did you do?" Seven asked, interested.
"Oh nothing important," Steve said hurriedly but Seven just stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "She kissed me" he muttered after realising the teenager wasn't going to ignore it.
"Really?" Seven grinned, everything was more interesting now she knew that Natasha was her mom.
"Yeah" Steve sighed, "It was just for the mission though, public displays of affection make people uncomfortable" He rambled, sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Seven.
"Are you blushing Steve?" Seven teased, noticing the pink tint on his cheeks.
"What? No" He definitely was. "We're here" He added quickly and Seven looked forward again, now noticing the huge building they had pulled up to.
"Woah" She breathed, before leaning forward to get a better look.
"Come on kid, we have things to do" Steve reminded her as he opened his door and Seven tore her eyes away from the building, opening her car door and jumping out. "You ready?" He asked considerately.
"Yep, let's go". The pair made their way into the building.