Special Touch Part: Three

Chapter Sixxxteen

Since you were at a shelter all day, having found a new one to set up camp, Natasha was at home with Cory on one of her days off. You'd deny it if someone asked, but you might've taken your time with coming back since you knew Clint was visiting to finally meet his best friend's son.

You just didn't really love that guy all that much.

But then you ended up at the tower in the early afternoon after the lunch rush and you needed to get to the bikini bottom of something.

"Who could she have meant?" You thought out loud, chewing on your bottom lip, and swinging your legs off the desk you were sitting up on, "I mean, 'wait until you meet the big guy'? This shit's been bothering me for ages."

"Slow hands, we're kinda busy here, do you mind?" Tony grumbled as he and Bruce tried to work on something around you, but you ignored them, too lost in your own thoughts.

You tried talking to Natasha about this, but everything was going so good between you guys, and she felt like you were just looking for a fight that may never come. She was protective and confident in what she had built between the avengers and you, but she never even hinted at her fear of what could come. So, you kind of let her sweep the issue under the rug because it made her happy, but that one phrase Amanda had uttered forever ago still bugged you and it was getting harder to sleep lately.

"What if something or someone is lying in wait just to attack at the worst possible moment, and I end up losing everything?" You let your wandering mind slip the main question off your tongue and the sciences bros stopped what they were doing to share a look before glancing your way.

"Another attack?" Tony asked, sounding small, and your eyes flashed to his.

"No," You assured, not wanting him to panic, "Not like that," You shook your head, looking back down at the floor in front of you, "But with how much damage I did to SHIELD and what my parents did before they died...and even after," You mumbled the last part before continuing, "What if I created some monster that is just lurking in the bushes outside like some pervert?"

"Reminds me of last Halloween." Tony smirked lowly and you rolled your eyes.

"Yeah, but I was naked and drunk off my ass, Stark."

"You – what?" Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, looking between you both with confusion clear across his features, "I thought we all dressed up for the party and then called it an early night because of the gas leak?"

"That was to get all the boring people bringing the party down out by midnight," Tony shrugged and then cringed at the doctor, "No offense."

"I've been doing research," You continued from before, ignoring the huff Bruce let out, "And after many late nights induced with Chinese take away, I've found nothing," You looked to them, but really only Tony was watching you as you spoke and Bruce was pretending not to care because he was a bit hurt by the Halloween party diss, "All their connections, Hydra or not, have been killed off or aren't in the country and those still alive are stretching it, I truly don't think they'd care enough to mess with me."

"I took a sample of Cory's blood when he was here and-" Bruce started, but you cut him off.

"You stabbed my kid for what?"

"He wanted tests run," He shrugged, "I just figured he was a little weird like you."

"Yeah, speaking of," Tony chimed in, "When I was with him and Peter, he said he was 'craving a fruit loop quesadilla' and I have no fucking clue what that is."

"Delicious is what it is."

"As I was saying," Bruce sighed deeply, getting impatient, "I ran a few extra tests after you picked him up because I noticed something in his genetic coding."

"Bucky's serum? Yeah, kind of already figured that one out." You smirked and Tony looked surprised.

"No, your side," He shook his head with a frown, going to pull it back up on the screen, and you raised your eyebrows as did Stark, "See, right here," He pointed to the screen and Tony's interest was definitely piqued, but you couldn't make it out entirely, "So, I separated Bucky's makeup from yours and added Anthony Waller's to see what would've happened if you had had his baby instead," He moved the screen with a few swipes and gold littered the DNA sequence, but so did something black, eating up the gold bits like Ms. Pacman, "It would've been..."

"Holy shit." You and Tony muttered at once.

"Waller had an experimental coding to him that was rooted in evil sorcery that hadn't taken form in his physical body before he died, remaining dormant," He thought for a moment before adding, "Imagine if Strange and Wanda weren't on our side," He crossed his arms, still reading the information, "I don't think the other guy I have could take out anything like that."

"Combining this information with just how much he echoes his parents' personalities and interests," Tony nodded in agreement, "An unstoppable monster would've been born, probably worse than...Thanos."

You widened your eyes at them and then snapped your attention to the doctor who cleared his throat, shutting down the screen. He then nodded towards the door behind you and when you turned around you understood why both of them looked so uncomfortable now.

"What could be worse than Thanos?" Wanda gritted out, standing firmly in the doorway with her arms crossed and her hip popped a bit.

"Nothing," You finally said when the other two didn't look to be in the position to respond and when they snapped back into reality, they just went about their business like they had been before you showed up an hour ago, "We were just...talking out of our asses."

"Okay," She spoke the word slowly and you resisted grimacing before she cleared her throat, "I came down here to see if you wanted to get a late lunch maybe?"

"Sure, Wands," You smiled and then nodded to the other two, giving them a wave before following her out that they returned with nervous smiles, "See you guys."

Relief started washing over you as you realized that there wasn't something looming in the dark, waiting to ruin your life, and you smiled, taking a deep breath, as the two of you walked over to a café about five blocks right of the tower.