Heyoooo Attendance Time :)
Jayce POV
When I'm in the lab with Tony, telling him about the radioactive spider, an alarm goes off on his monitor. It shows an attack in the middle of the streets of NYC.
"Are those Ultron bots?" I frown and Tony sighs, "Yep. Might as well suit up. Get Widow, I'll grab Rogers and Maximoff."
I nod, quickly going to leave but I stop, "Don't ask Wanda. I don't want her seeing those bots."
Tony glances at me and nods, looking down as he remembers what happened to Pietro. Sighing, I walk to the lockers but pass by the training room, seeing Natasha fighting holographic threats with her knives.
I open the door and widen my eyes, catching the knife she throws at me, "Seriously?"
She stops and realizes it's me, smirking while she shuts down the training program, "What's up?"
"An attack in Midtown Manhattan. Ultron bots, some goons. Tony's getting Cap. I came to grab you."
She breathes, catching her breath from the workout and sips on some water before following me out of the room and down to the women's locker room where we start getting changed into our suits.
I glance over at Natasha, watching as she adjusts her Widow Bites on her wrists and places her electro-shock batons in their holsters on her back. I slip into my suit but the zipper gets stuck in the back.
Grunting, I tug on it but Natasha comes over with a light laugh, "Allow me."
She swats my hands away and fiddles with the zipper until it pulls up and Nat smiles at me through the little mirror in my locker.
"That zipper's a bitch," I whine and she just shrugs, smiling at me, "Sometimes things that are stuck just need some help."
I glance up at her again through the reflection but see that her attention and thoughts are elsewhere as she looks over the back of me, her hands on my biceps mindlessly squeezing slightly.
My cheeks start to heat up a bit until she snaps out of her little daze and pats my shoulder, "Mask up, let's get this over with. You and I have plans after." She smirks at me, winking, before she walks out of the room.
I stand, completely stunned as to what just happened. There was a moment. Brief, but there was a moment right?
Natasha's been acting a bit strange lately. When she helped me at the party last week and we had that little moment. Then all of our nights of sexcapades lately she has started to seem upset when I leave to sleep in my own room.
I can't lie, I want to stay and hold her, feel her head on my chest until the sun comes up, but she wanted us to have rules. So we made them.
And sleepovers is a no no.
Is she changing her mind?
Sighing, I go out to meet the team on the jet. Steve hands me my communication device that I put in my ear, pull my mask on and we get the run-down of what's going on.
Some assholes got their hands on Ultron remnants from the Battle of Sokovia and pieced them together to make their own little robot army.
Wannabe Iron Mans if you ask me.
"Alright, Romanoff, you're with me on the ground. Tony you handle the ones on the tops of the buildings. Don't let them touch the civilians. And Parker? Web 'em up. We can't have any of them getting leftover materials from the tower. I don't doubt that is their goal."
I nod and we land atop the old Avengers' building, getting out and looking down at the mayhem. There are tons of them. Police officers are evacuating the streets while the bots and the goons are ripping through buildings, but the ones trying to get to the inside of the tower we are on are the most worrisome.
There's guys with big guns and weapons, some of them are in their own little robotic suits.
Stepping to the ledge I look down and smirk, "Piece of cake."
Natasha glances at me, "Try not to die, alright?"
I chuckle and stretch dramatically, "I'll do my best."
Tony flies Nat down to the scene and I jump off, swinging down to a ledge to look at the goons on the ground.
Steve starts building hopping, making his way down to fight the bots. I spot two guys trying to get past the officers guarding the building. I swing down and land between them and the officers.
"Hey guys, the building's closed today but I'm sure you can get an Avengers tour at the exhibit a few blocks down."
One guy glares down at me, "The Spider. Why don't you get out of our way so we can handle these idiots, huh?"
I look back at the officers who glance at me, then I salute to them, "Officers. You mind if I tag in?"
One of them chuckles and nods, "They're all yours. We'll protect the entrance from any other threats."
"Sounds like a deal."
I turn back to the two guys who grunt, "You think this is a game? We're getting into that building and we are taking Tony Stark's Iron Legion drones."
"You do realize you just told me your plan right? Have you ever done this before?" I tilt my head at them, placing my hands on my hips which only makes the main guy angrier.
He huffs and nods to his friend, "Time to squash the insect."
I lean on a pole beside me and point at him teasingly, "Alright now that's just disrespectful, spiders are arachnids."
His friend lifts his arm, shooting a blast at me but I bend backwards, dodging it and shooting a web at his hand, then up at another building, making him fly towards it but cut out of it, landing on the street.
The main guy of the duo throws a punch but I dodge it and punch his helmet, groaning when I hit metal, "Ouch, what's that thing made of?"
He smirks, chuckling as he swings again, this time hitting me in the stomach and launching me into a car.
Natasha sees me from down the road and frowns, "What did I say about dying?" I hear her voice through comms, making me groan when I laugh a little.
"You're right, my bad."
"Stay sharp, Parker. You can take them alone?" Steve comes in and I nod, "Yeah. I got this."
I sit up and see the two men coming over to me but I groan, "You know, I didn't get to finish my stretches. That was just a warm up."
They laugh, "Admit it, Spider. You aren't good enough to defeat us. And now, you get squashed."
He reaches out to grab me but I spot a car parked on the other side of the street. Smiling behind my mask, I shoot a web at it and yank it over, knocking the both of them out of the way.
I jump up to my feet as they get up and dodge all the blasts they send at me.
"Get back here, bug!"
I start laughing, jumping onto the flying bots' heads as Natasha shoots at them, swinging from buildings and stop lights, shooting web after web at the two goons, completely distracting them from their original plan.
Now they're just focused on me.
I let them have some fun, swinging and shooting at me but I grab their guns with my webs and toss them towards Natasha who gladly accepts the weapons.
"You know, I think we could talk this out! Maybe get a beer?" I shout down at them, then land in front of them, dodging all of their attacks simply.
"Sure, we get beer. After we snap your neck." He grabs me and I grunt, shooting webs but missing.
His armored hand grips my head and I start to flail my body, then kick my feet into his face, making him stumble back and release me.
I land with my hand on the ground and one foot stretched out to the side, huffing as I rub my head, "Dude! That hurt!"
"That was the point," He grunts and then I feel something hit me in my stomach.
I widen my eyes and look down, seeing the other guy with a knife plunged into my abdomen.
The pain shoots all throughout me but I manage to shove him off, then pull the knife out of my side.
"Okay. Now I'm pissed off."
Grunting, I shoot webs at his face, blocking his view before I run over, shooting a web at his chest and pulling myself towards him. I kick my legs in front of me so that I can thrust my feet into his chest.
He falls backwards and I groan when I land but push through, webbing his arms and legs down to the ground and ripping his helmet off, cutting off wired connections to the rest of the robotic gear.
The bigger guy runs at me, punching me off and I hit into a newstand, but jump back up, running over and picking him up with my hands, throwing him into the side of a semi-truck.
I grab a flying bot with a web and throw it at the guy, making him cry out as the metal cuts into him, the bursting of electricity shocking his body.
Smirking, I web him up, locking his body in place before I turn to the police officers.
"They're all yours."
They nod, thanking me, before they go to take care of the criminals.
I stumble when I turn around, holding the gash in my side. I try to shake off the aching pain but it gets worse the more I move.
"Spider, what's your status?" Steve says. I see him fighting off bots and more of the guys down the street, some of them going for Natasha and chuckle, "All clear over here. Your stuff is safe, Stark."
I hear Tony laugh into comms, seeing him in the sky, blasting jerks off the roofs.
"Good job looking after my toys, Parker."
"Anytime. Now let's get rid of the rest of these fuckers," I huff and hear Steve respond, "Language."
I swing over towards the action but nearly cry out when I land. I look down at the cut, seeing my suit nearly covered in blood on my left side.
Natasha tears apart more bots and turns to me, smirking but frowning when she sees the blood.
"What the hell?"
"I-I'm fine. Let's do this," I try but she grunts and shoots behind me, taking down another before coming over to me and bending down to look at the wound.
"That's deep. You're losing too much blood. We need to get you to the jet."
Grunting, I side step her and shake my head, "I said I'm fine, Romanoff."
"You're hurt!" She argues and two guys shoot at us. I turn and grab Nat, pulling her down to dodge the flying bullets and whimper slightly.
"Let's go," She hisses but I shake my head, "No can do. I feel fantastic! Just a scratch."
"Just a scratch? Are you kidding me?"
"Two spiders in one place! How perfect," A guy smirks at us and shoots two blasts but I grab a car with a web, blocking it. The force of the blast pushes back on me but I lift my hands, pressing it against the metal and grunting as I try to hold it as our shield instead of letting it crush us completely.
I turn my head and look at the redhead, "Go!"
She looks at me and closes her eyes, shaking her head as she runs over and climbs the car.
"Natasha!" I scold but she jumps off, shooting down at the threat.
When the blasts stop, I drop the car and run around it, seeing Nat standing over him, gun at his head while authorities come over to take him.
"Nice shot," I compliment but she scoffs, "Nice wound."
"Natasha–" "Get your ass to the jet."
She turns around, her eyes narrowed threateningly at me, an anger burning beneath her gaze. I gulp nervously but before she can say anything else, I notice an explosion go off, sending a truck flying towards us.
Widening my eyes, I push Natasha away from me and catch the truck, grunting when the weight nearly crushes me, pushing me backwards. Natasha stumbles in shock as the gash in my side starts to burn and sting even more.
I fall to my knees in agony, closing my eyes tightly as I drop it in front of me, holding my wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
Natasha grabs me, preventing me from falling and pulling me up to my feet, throwing my arm around her neck.
"Now we go to the jet?" She tries to joke and I chuckle, nodding weakly, "Yeah. Yeah that sounds good."
"Spider's been hit, I'm taking her to the jet through the tower."
I notice the fight is basically over, Steve is talking to police while Nat and I get into the tower, taking the elevator to the top so I can get on the jet.
"Sounds good, try not to bleed out until we can get you to medbay, alright Parker?" Tony's responds, making me chuckle and nod, "I'll do my best. Might wanna call someone to wipe off the blood from your precious tower's floors."
"You've got to be kidding me," He whines and Natasha laughs when she leads me into the jet.
She lays me down and puts pressure on my wound while the other two come, Steve with a few scratches, flying the jet back to the compound.
-
In medbay, the doctor injects my stomach with something that makes the pain completely disappear and checks for any organ damage.
"You're lucky. It missed all of your organs. Just need some stitches."
I sigh in relief, "That's good."
When the door opens I look over and see Natasha glaring at me, walking over, "I can do them."
The doctor goes to protest but Nat raises a hand to silence her, "I've stitched my own cuts before, I can handle stitching up an idiot."
Pouting, I say, "Well that's not very nice."
The doctor leaves and Natasha starts stitching me up, ignoring my previous statement.
"I told you to get to the jet. You lost a lot of blood."
"And if I did that you would've been crushed by a flying pickup truck."
She scoffs, "I can handle myself."
"Not if you're dead."
"I don't need your protection."
"Fine, I'll let the truck hit you next time."
"I hate you."
"No you don't."
"Yes I do."
"If you did, then you wouldn't be so mad."
"That doesn't even make sense."
"You're only mad because you were worried about me."
She pauses the stitching and looks up at me, eyebrow raised, "What?"
I chuckle and smile down at her, piecing it together. She's only angry because I didn't go to the jet when I was hurt. She got mad because she was worried. She cares about me. Now it's obvious.
"You saw I was hurt and you got worried. You stopped fighting just to look at it. You care about me, Romanoff. Admit it."
My eyes remain on her, watching as her demeanor flickers from anger to confusion to shock.
"I-I don't know where you got that from."
"Please. It's the least you could do after I saved your life, just admit that you care about me."
She stares at me, frowning, unamused. Her head shakes as she looks down to finish up the stitches and sighs, "I do care about you."
Raising an eyebrow in surprise of her honesty, it begins to feel like a cage of butterflies were released in my stomach. Her cheeks go a little pink when I begin to smile, reaching for her hand.
"Was that so hard, sweetheart?"
The room starts to grow a little warmer as our eyes remain on one another's. Sitting up, I see the corner of her mouth twitch upwards as she steps closer to me. Her arms drape over my shoulders, eyes swirling with a sense of desire and something much softer.
Something that makes the fluttering get even worse.
I look from her eyes to her lips, my heart rate picking up as she leans down to be closer to my lips.
When we are about to kiss she pauses and nearly whimpers, "We have rules."
Breathing heavily, I look at her lips, then her eyes, smiling nervously, "Rules are meant to be broken."
Natasha searches my eyes and that's when I see the fear behind her gaze. She's terrified. She's so scared to be vulnerable that it's ripping her apart, making her hesitate. But she absorbs my words and gulps down a breath, nodding.
"Yeah," she whispers before crashing our lips together.
I smile into the kiss, feeling all the unspoken words we have both wanted to say going into the kiss.
My hands go to her hips, keeping her steady as our lips move in sync before we pull away.
She catches her breath and slowly opens her eyes, a small smile teasing its way onto her face.
"I think we just broke rule number 4," she mumbles and I smile up at her, brushing her hair behind her ear.
"Fuck the rules."
She nods and then takes a step back, looking around the room before she starts pacing.
"You're gonna walk a hole in the ground."
Nat places her hands on her head, gulping as her mind moves a thousand feet per second, "Okay I'm uh...I'm going to say something and you're going to listen, alright?"
Nodding quickly, I sit up straighter and gesture for her to continue.
She nods and places her hand under her chin, "I'm really bad at this, okay? The whole feelings thing, I suck at it. I'm not good at it. The last time I opened myself up to someone they left me, like literally. They're off world at the moment, they left. I was taught that love was for children, that I could never be loved by anyone. I believed it my entire life. I don't open up easily. I scare easily from stuff like that. But you came along and we made that damn contract...I started getting real feelings eventually and it scares the crap out of me.
So there. I said it. I let it out. I like you and I don't know what to do about it, okay?"
I sit there, completely stunned. I don't know what to say. I need to say something. She just admitted the one thing I was hoping I could hear.
But as she says it I start to think about my past relationship. I think about Gwen. I loved her more than anything, I wanted to keep her safe but gave in when she wanted to be with me again and it ended up costing her her life.
What if the same thing happens to Natasha? What if she gets hurt because of me? We're in the line of work for it.
I look up at her and see her absolutely terrified expression, the tears building in her eyes as she looks at me, waiting for a response. I furrow my eyebrows together, "Natasha...I–" "You know what? No, it's fine. I-um. It's okay. I must've read into things, I thought you would be happy I said that, I thought you felt the same but I-I was wrong."
She starts laughing, shaking her head as she looks away from me. I jump to my feet and walk over to her, grabbing her hands, "Nat."
"It's really okay," She whispers but I can already see a tear rolling down her cheek.
It crushes my heart seeing her in pain because of me. Dammit, Jayce, say something.
I place my hand beneath her chin and tilt it upwards so that she could look me in the eyes. Smiling gently, I shake my head, "Can I talk now?"
Her eyes lower when she realizes that she rambled on so much and nods, "sorry."
"Don't be. I'm flattered. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same. I'm scared too...terrified, even...I loved someone once and I lost her. It was all my fault. I can't risk having that happen to you."
She frowns, tilting her head in pity and curiosity, but she doesn't ask. She just sniffles and smiles gently, "I told you I can take care of myself."
"If it does–" "Jayce."
I stop talking and look down at her, seeing her smiling up at me more genuinely now as she lifts her hands to cup my cheeks.
"I just admitted my feelings for you. I don't do that. It was the hardest thing I've had to do in a really long time. We're both terrified."
She has a point. We've both lost so much, been through so much. But here she is, pushing all that trauma and fear down to show me her heart.
"Good point," I mumble and she giggles, "Now would be a good time to kiss me."
"Also a good point," I breathe out and lean down to kiss her sweetly.
She closes her eyes almost immediately and after a few seconds we pull away. She leans her head against me, "So what does this mean?" She whispers shakily.
I breathe in deeply and shrug, "That...we take it day by day?"
Natasha thinks for a moment, the gears in her head practically visible as she leans back from my hold, pondering before she nods,
"Yeah. Yeah I think I'd like that."
__
A/N: Ta-da!!!!!!!!
Are y'all happy?
Are you surprised Natasha was the first to admit her feelings?
What will happen next?