Affliction (P.P.)

Part 4

(Peter POV)

Today is the day Charlotte starts training. I've never seen her so excited, she's practically bouncing off the walls. "Char, you're gonna faint from being too excited, let alone anxious." I tease. She pushes me in the shoulder. "Get over it! I'm finally gonna put this behind me. I'll be over it. Free. I mean, Black Widow is training me. I'll be better in no time." She says. "Don't get your hopes too high too fast. I mean, yeah be hopeful, but don't think it'll get better in a day either. It'll be tough sometimes." I say. "Peters right you know. This will take time. Remember not to push yourself." Lottie's mom says. Charlotte nods. Her mom drives and we talk some, but it's mostly a worried silence the whole way. Well, a worried silence between me and her mom. Charlotte is a pure ball of excitement.

We get to the Tower, and I guide her and her mom to the training room. Which is surprisingly big, with big shelves of weights, bars for pull-ups, punching bags, stacks of yoga mats, bleachers on the right side of the room, ropes to climb, a rock climbing wall on the left, and a boxing/fighting ring in the middle. It's really cool looking, and I can tell Charlotte thinks the same. Natasha is there waiting for her outside the boxing ring. "Thanks for dropping her off." She says with a smile. Charlottes mom introduces herself. "Hi, I'm Charlottes mother. So this is where you'll be training?" She asks Nat. Natasha goes into a detailed explaination of what will happen and what will go on. They talk for a while, then Natasha starts ushering is out of the room. "Wait, we're just dropping her off? I thought I was staying with her?" I say.

"Nope. It's just me and Charlotte. Now shoo." She says, making a shooing motion with her hand.
"But-"
"Peter. I'll be fine. I'm not gonna die without you silly. Go ahead and do something without me. You can hang out with Ned or something." Lottie says. They both look at me. "I- okay then." I laugh. Charlotte's mom gives me a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry. She's strong." She says. "I know." I say, smiling to myself, and I watch fondly as she excitedly follows Natasha to the boxing mat. Then I head out, and say a prayer for this training session to go well

(Charlotte POV)

"Alright. Your main thing, needs to be focus." Natasha says. We're up on a big mat in the middle of the training room. So far we've just been practicing a bunch of tai chi type moves and talking about focus. "I'm serious Lottie. If you don't focus you're going to faint at the slightest amount of anxiety you feel. So to work on your focus, I want us to do a few yoga poses before we train everytime. It'll be good for you." She says as I copy another tai chi move called, 'Repulse Monkey'. Yeah I know. But it's Natasha Romanoff, so I'm gonna do as she said. "I know you think this is crazy, but this is one of the ways I was trained when I was your age. We were also trained through ballet." She tells me.

"Wow. That's amazing." I say in awe. "Not if you knew what they trained me for." She smirks. "Oh yeah. You were kind of an assassin right?" I ask.
"Kind of." She snorts.
I laugh. We keep doing more moves, and then she makes us sit crisscross on the mat. "Okay, so have you ever tried a mind cleanse? Not exactly meditating, but just sitting down, and thinking about nothing." She says. "No. I haven't." I reply. She nods. "Close your eyes, and just sit there and focus on your breathing."
"This sounds exactly like meditating."
"Okay but we're not gonna call it that because the word meditation is for the weak." She jokes, making me laugh. We both sit with our eyes closed, and it actually does help. My mind feels, clean. Like she said.

It's really calming. Until someone shouts "AAAGHHH!!" Right in front of me and I jump backwards, my breathing speeding up. "Clint!" Natasha scolds. "What? You guys were being quiet and that was my perfect opportunity." He laughs. Then I feel it. The drowsiness. I'm gonna faint. Again. "Oh no you don't." Natasha says, standing in front of me. "Eyes closed. Breath. Focus." She says. I don't close my eyes, afraid that I'll really faint if I do. But I try to focus. I just keep looking in Natashas eyes. "Focus. Breath." She says. I breath in through my nose, and out through my mouth. I try to fight it. As I try to push it away, it tries to come back harder. But I keep breathing and pushing it away. "Think of something to focus on." Natasha says calmly. I think of anything. My mom. Natasha. The other Avengers. The chemistry test I have due next week. Peter.

And that's where my mind starts to clear. So I focus on him. How supportive he's been, how he didn't wanna leave me by myself here, how he's always there for me, and how he's been my shoulder to cry on since day one. And the drowsiness is starting to fade. I keep breathing and focusing on me and Peter's good times. At least it's something. Finally, my breathing slows, and I feel normal again. "I....did it?" I say, almost in questioning. "You did! You fought it off!" Natasha says, hugging me proudly. I hug her back excitedly. After that incident she decided that it's time to call it a day, and Peter picks me back up. I tell him all about what happened. He beams. "That's amazing! I'm so proud of you! We've gotta tell May and your Mom!" He laughs. I wave back at Natasha as we exit the training room. She waves back. "Until next time, Моя девушка." (My girl.)