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━ In which Peter is Natasha's little brother.
Natasha was the last person Tony would ever suspect of being a caring, older sister.
The thought of her being one never crossed his mind, or anyone else's. She was always awfully good at covering her tracks and background history, and Tony had tried before to at least figure out who her parents were out of pure curiosity, but facial recognition drew blanks. So, he decided to drop it, knowing the spy would never intentionally tell them anything personal.
So, to see her on the rooftop of his tower at night, genuinely laughing alongside a young man he has never seen before, definitely confused the billionaire. He felt as if he were intruding for a moment, but his feet were glued in place by his curiosity. From the comfort of the fire escape door, he watched Natasha bicker with the man, ruffling his hair and switching from English to Russian in some moments.
Tony never saw a side to her like this. Perhaps, the hero thought, they were friends from their younger days. But the man was much younger than her, it was obvious. He only reached up to chin, curly brown hair that bounced with every laugh that fled from his lips. Their hands were stuffed in his pockets, a black coat hung over his frail shoulders. He wore what looked like a stealth suit, a similar taste to Natasha's.
Eventually, Tony heads back when the two stop talking in English and switch to Russian. The event never left his mind, always being remembered whenever Natasha would pass him in the halls. He bit his tongue whenever he felt the urge to ask, but it would always leave an intrusive feeling so he never did, until the spy's meeting with the young man started to happen more often.
"You need to visit more often, mladshiy brat (little brother)." Natasha asks one night, leaning over the balcony. "It gets lonely sometimes."
"Lonely?" The man laughs, tilting his head. "You live with the avengers, sister. How lonely is that?"
Sister. Tony hangs on to that word for a moment. He can't really picture it. Natasha being a protective, older sister. But the longer he looks at the two, his mind does its own facial recognition scan. The jaw, the dip of their noses, the accent. It was obvious to the hero yet he wasn't sure if he could believe it.
They were siblings.
Somehow, Natasha managed to skilfully hide the young man from all sorts of databases. Out of her desire to protect him from threats such as HYDRA, or let him live the lives he truly deserved after having his childhood stripped from them.
"Yes, I do. But I sometimes need to be around people that...know me personally."
"Then, you should visit Yelena and I in Budapest more often." The man suggests, leaning against the railing as the cold wind blew against his hair. "Other than being shot through our windows, it is pretty quiet."
