"Goodbye, Mrs. Barton." I said, giving her a hug.
"Goodbye, Pietro." She whispered, patting my shoulder.
I stepped outside the porch, looking back at Laura and her children. They still clinged onto her, sadness in their eyes. I waved at them, receiving a small wave from the little girl. I smiled and turned to walk away. Laurel stood in the horizon, waiting for me. I took her hand and we walked towards the Quinjet. Everyone was already on board.
"Turning on the engines, everyone on board?" Tony asked, looking back at us.
"We're all here." Natasha spoke, sitting silently on one corner of the jet.
I slowly got up and slid towards Natasha. She looked up at me with a confused face. I suddenly grabbed her into a tight hug.
"Everything is going to be alright, Natasha." I whispered.
She immediately pushed me away and gulped. She walked away and sat at the back of the plane. Nick told me to let her go, that she wasn't used to people comforting her just yet. Only Clint could've succeded in doing that.
"Well, I tried." I muttered, sitting back down next to Laurel.
"Hey, where are we even going now? We have nowhere to go." Maria asked.
"That's what you think, Hill." Nick smiled, looking out the glass pane.
Surrounded by wilderness sat the new Avengers Headquarters. It was a big, flat building, with many glass panes, Quinjets, and personnel. A crowd of agents stood in the middle, shouting at us. They were actually cheering.
"What is this?" Natasha asked.
"Our new headquarters, Romanoff." Cap said, holding out his hand for her. She stared at it for some time before reaching out and taking it. As the Quinjet slowly landed, the doors opened to reveal us to dozens of agents celebrating. I took hold of Laurel, who was smiling at me.
"Let's go, Avengers." Cap said, walking out of the jet with Natasha.
We descended the ramp and made our way inside the building. The main hall resembled much of the tower, with a meeting table in the center, a sparring mat, a bar, some exercise machines, a computer section and many other facilities. We all stood in awe as Tony gleefully smirked.
"Thank you, Tony, for using your money to fund and build this." He sarcastically said.
"Thank you, Tony." We all spoke in unison.
"Yeah, yeah. All your rooms are down those halls, the kitchen is down those stairs. So, make yourself at home, this'll be our tower for now." He said, walking down some stairs to his lab.
"Uh, Pietro? Can I talk to you for a moment?" Laurel said, tugging at my shirt. We walked down to my room and stepped inside. It was much bigger than the tower room.
"Wow." I stood in amazement. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Um, I can't stay here."
"What do you mean?"
"My life is in New York City, not here." She said, crossing her arms. "My job, my friends, my apartment, my father. Everything is over there."
"What do you propose?"
"Well, I'm not an Avenger. I can't stay here and pretend that I am one." She muttered, biting her lower lip.
"But if you leave, we will not see each other." I sighed. "We agreed we would have this week to ourselves."
"You'll be Avenging, Pietro. What time will you have for me?"
"I will make time. I just do not want you to leave."
"I know... But I... I can't leave my city to stay here. Just like you, I have responsibilities."
"Well, I guess you are right." I sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
"I'm sorry." She said, sitting beside me.
"Do not be, you are right." I laid my head on her shoulder. "You are your own person. You have a life and I cannot take that away from you."
"Thank you for understanding, Pietro."
"Should I prepare the Quinjet?" I asked, getting up.
"I think I can spend the night here. This bed looks comfortable." She said, laying on the red sheets.
"I can help you with that." I threw myself upon her and started kissing her neck. Little moans escaped her mouth, increasing the tension.
"Pietro!" A voice called out from outside.
I released from Laurel, but she grabbed my neck, pulled me back, and crashed her lips on mine.
"Pietro?! Are you in there?!" The voice called out again. It was Natasha.
"It is Natasha." I whispered, Laurel continuing to kiss me down my jawline. She ignored me at first, wrapping her legs around my back. "Laurel."
She stared at me for a while before she finally let go and went inside the bathroom. I walked towards the door and opened it.
"Hello, Natasha. Something wrong?"
"I need a sparring partner." She said, her arms crossed. "Like, now."
"Okay...?"
"I mean you, Maximoff."
"Oh. Uh, I do not know, I am kind of busy..." I looked inside my room, seeing the messy sheets.
"Pietro, spar with me or I will tell everyone you are having sexual relationships with Laurel instead of doing your job." She stated, her eyes staring intently into my soul.
"You are good... Let me go change." I quickly closed the door, changed into exercise clothes, told Laurel to wait for me, and opened the door.
"Ready?" I said, walking out the room.
"You do know I really wasn't going to tell everyone about you having sex with Laurel, right?" She spoke, her red hair swaying as she turned her head.
"You are a pretty great manipulator, Natasha. Anybody could have believed you."
We walked into the main hall, where Cap was exercising, Maria was on the computers, and Tony and Banner were in the lab.
"Where's Thor?" Natasha asked.
"He said he needed to get back to Asgard. Something happened over there." Cap said, sitting up on the bench press.
"Huh. Well, Maximoff, ready to be taken down faster than... Yourself?" Natasha got on the sparring ring, taking off her shoes and getting into position.
"Can I use my speed?"
"Only if you want to be taken down harder." She smirked. Then, she immediately delivered a blow to my face, sending me flying to the ground.
I groaned in pain, slowly getting up from the ground. "Ow."
She then rolled beneath me and kicked me in the back, delivering three blows to my stomach.
"What's the matter, Maximoff? Too fast for you?" She stood, waiting for me to get back up.
"I was not ready..." I coughed and regained my balance. I ran towards her and delivered a punch, only to have it dodged and get kicked in the face. She then mounted me and performed her signature Widow takedown. She spun me around and threw me to the mat.
"The key to sparring is anticipating and predicting your opponent's attacks. You are very predictable, Pietro."
These words annoyed me, and I got up to tackle her to the mat. She somersaulted out of the way and I ended up tackling the ground.
"Powers aren't everything, Maximoff. You must surprise your opponent with new and unpredictable moves. Try not using your speed and you might just surprise me."
I stood and got in attack position. Natasha walked around me, studying my body. I turned to face her, but a punch was all I met. I quickly blocked the punch with my speed, and ran to Natasha's behind and kicked her to the ground.
"Now that's what I call unpredictable. Try to create strategies to defeat your enemy instead of just attacking them head on."
"I got it, Natasha." I said, rubbing my shoulder.
"So, ready for round two?" Natasha grinned.
"I think Pietro wants to rest, Natasha. I would love to spar with you instead." Cap said, stepping onto the mat.
"Thanks, Cap. She might have broken my legs if we had continued." I smiled, making Nat smile too.
I walked off the mat and went to the kitchen. There I met up with Wanda, who was making a strawberry smoothie.
"Hello, sister." I said, sliding into a chair.
"Pietro, you are all sweaty."
"I just had a sparring session with Natasha."
"Well that explains that. How did it go?"
"It went well. I learned some tips. To be unpredictable and strategic."
"That is nice. Here, try this." She gave me a small cup with some smoothie.
I took a sip of it and different flavors tingled inside my mouth. "Well, it is interesting."
"You do not like it?" She frowned, mixing the smoothie with her powers.
"I did not say that, it is just a very unique blend of flavors that do not taste like strawberry to me."
"Pietro!"
"I am saying the truth!"
She levitated a tray filled with cups of smoothie. "Let us see what the others think of my smoothie. You may just have bad taste."
"It is probably that." I sarcastically remarked, spinning in the chair. As Wanda made her way out of the kitchen, Laurel entered.
"Hi, Laurel. Would you like to taste some of my strawberry smoothie?" Wanda asked.
"Sure." Laurel took a cup and drank all of it. Her eyes widened. "Tastes really good, Wanda!"
Wanda looked back at me with a stern yet bragging look. "Thank you, Laurel." Wanda walked out as Laurel made her way beside me.
"That was a really good smoothie." Laurel said, licking her lips.
"Wow, I might actually have bad taste." I grinned, eating some candy off a bowl.
"My dad called." Laurel muttered.
"What did he say?"
"Oh, nothing, just something about the Italy trip.
"Uh, what did he say?"
"That I can take you with me."
"No way. No way."
"Yes way, Pietro!" She jumped off her chair and took me with her. I immediately swept her off her feet and spun her around.
"We're going to Italy, Pietro!" Laurel exclaimed, hugging me tightly.
"We are going to Italy!" I yelled, a huge, wide smile on my face.
"Dad realized that it was going to be a business trip and he was barely gonna see me, so he agreed that I could take you with me!"
"That is amazing. We are going to have so much fun over there!" I smiled, kissing Laurel multiple times on her cheek.
"You are going to have fun where?" Wanda interrupted, a serious look on her face.