Hydra's Spider

Chapter 11

Natasha sang the Russian lullaby that had become the Romanoff-Barnes family song. While quietly singing, Natasha was feeding Peter some soup while rewetting the rag on his forehead.

The boy was silent through most of it, feeling like he was in some sort of daze. He could hear his mother's voice, and he used that as a tether to stay conscious. Peter ate the soup and felt the rag, but it was that subtle voice that made him want to stay awake. But with it being a lullaby, Peter grew sleepy.

Soon, Peter was asleep. Conveniently enough, he had eaten all the soup, so Natasha silently left the room taking the bowl with her. She put it in the sick before turning to see what everyone was fussing about.

The Avengers surrounded the container where the black goop was trying to escape. Wanda said that it had a mental presence, but she couldn't access it. Right now, the goop was clinging to the lid, it's dangling icicles acting like spider legs as it spun webs made of black ink. The goop had transformed itself into an ink spider.

"Wow. I've never seen anything like this," Tony said fascinated by the ink spider. Natasha couldn't care less about it, but if it had some good uses, she was okay with keeping it around.

"Okay, Stark, I'm giving you a week. If you don't find a significant purpose for that then we turn it into SHIELD," Natasha sat down her ground rules. Bucky instantly agreed, feeling the same amount of dread about it since it hurt Peter.

"Well, I'd better start working on it," Tony said grabbing the container and going to the lab. Natasha sighed as Steve started to cook with Wanda. The other Avengers had dispersed to do various activities. That left Natasha and Bucky, alone, in the dining room.

"Since we have some time, can we talk about us? Are we... dating now?" Bucky said quietly. Natasha met his gaze before she sat down.

"As Avengers, I don't think that's the best course of action. But for Peter, I think that's what we need to do. So, if you want to, we can be," Natasha said with a nod.

Bucky smiled as if that was an agreement. But he did grab her hand giving it a squeeze. Natasha smiled back at him before she said she check on Peter.