watch your back

chapter 6

the next morning, tony woke up with the little metallic prototype in his hand. he immediately rolled his eyes when he remembered the last night. stark turned in his bed for a bit, not willing to get up, but at the end his restlessness forced him to.
he felt he had really tried with florence. but he didn't know what else to feel about her. on the one hand, she was immensely stubborn and didnt care about what tony had to say. on the other hand, she had every right to be angry. the only home she had ever had was destroyed. even if it was a terrible one. the avengers had left many kids disoriented, scattered all over the world.
he sighed, pressing his lips together. breakfast first, he thought. all the problems later.
the clock in the kitchen said that it was around 10 am when tony poured milk and cheerios into a bowl. the sandwich from last night was still lying around and he decided that would also make a good addition to his breakfast. yesterday he didn't have any appetite after the fight, so he had just left it there.
tony sat at the big, round table that stood in the middle of the room, enjoying filling his growling stomach, when someone walked in.
„morning.", tony greeted natasha, who still looked very sleepy, wearing only sweatpants and a shirt.
„hey.", she replied, opening the fridge.
„we never have any good food around here.", she sighed.
„yeah we do.", stark protested, his mouth full with cheerios.
nat decided to have a banana and some yoghurt, the only thing that mildly matched her appetite.
„how'd you sleep?", tony asked, when natasha sat down across him.
„not that good.", she said, peeling her banana. „you?"
„me neither."
they sat in silence for a bit, eating their food, deep in thought. then natasha spoke.
„listen...", she started. „i think we need to train that girl. florence. she needs to be prepared."
tony laughed.
„what?", nat frowned, irritated by his reaction.
„i don't think that'll be too easy.", he explained.
„what do you mean?"
„well... i had a bit of a fallout with her last night.", stark began. „it was about a suit i'm making. for her."
„you're making a suit for her?"
„yes. it's complicated...?" he looked at her, coy.
„sure.", nat smiled.
„and she... well, i don't really know what happened, but the gist of it is that she doesn't want to battle with us."
the black widow squinted. „then what does she want to do?"
tony shrugged. „i think we need to give her more time. she's still angry."
„about what we did?"
he nodded.
nat remained silent. then she put her spoon down and started to peel the banana, slowly.
„i'm going to talk to her.", natasha decided. if there was anyone who understood florence, it was her. their past made them somewhat similar and maybe for once she could use it for something good.
„im going to continue the suit."
„i don't think you could stop."
„well, it's fun.", tony defended himself, grinning. „besides, you don't know what im capable of."
he was putting his bowl into the dishwasher, about to leave the kitchen.
„definitely not that though!", natasha yelled as he was leaving.
now that she was alone, nat could really dedicate herself to her thoughts. something about florence was suspicious. it only now occurred to her, after what tony had said, but if she wasn't here to fight with them, and she was still so angry about what the avengers had done, why come in the first place? it didn't make sense.

while natasha was contemplating about that in the kitchen, yelena was walking down the hallway, whistling one of her favorite songs, „change" by taylor swift, though it was so out of melody that probably no one would've recognized it. suddenly, she bumped into someone.
„whoa!", she said, surprised by the impact.
„oh, sorry!", two blue eyes looked at her, apologetically.
„it's alright, it's alright.", yelena reassured, regaining her balance. „you walk really fast."
florence looked at her awkwardly, then yelena started to laugh.
„i'm joking, i'm joking.", she said, waving it off. then her voice took on a more serious tone. „are you alright, though?"
„yeah, yeah i am."
„you sure? you look a bit worn-out."
„thanks?", florence replied, with a lopsided grin.
yelena punched her on the arm, playfully.
„you know what?", she then said, looking the girl up and down, „we ought to get you some new clothes."
florence scratched the back of her head. „you're just full of compliments, aren't you?"
„maybe i just wanna go shopping really badly."
„with someone who's never once done that in their life?"
yelena could see how florence bit her inner cheek just after saying that.
„yes! then i can finally show someone all my tricks and tipps."
she added a bigger amount of enthusiasm to these words than needed, trying to cover up that she noticed florence being uncomfortable.
the curly haired one frowned. „tricks?"
„you'll see.", yelena just said, ominously, waving her to come along.