The Many Loves of Spider-Man

Learned to Love You (Natalia Romanova, aka the Black Widow)

In an average sized house, a woman with red hair who was looking outside waiting for her family was remembering everything that had happened. Natalia Romanova... or Natasha Romanoff as she now calls herself in the United States. She has had a hard life through her birth up until recent years.

Being raised by a foster father, while being a good father to her... she never really knew her biological family. For a time, she wanted to know them but that has stayed in the past and she has a beautiful future alongside the family she had created.

She had a picture pressed against her body. She just held it closer, not wanting to separate herself from the picture. But she let go of the grip she had on the picture and looked down on it. The picture was of herself hugging the arm of a handsome young man with brown hair. The man was carrying a young little girl over his shoulder, her curly reddish-brown hair covering parts of the man's face.

She smiled at it. She would have never had this life if she had decided not to learn about the man... If she had not decided to learn about Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man.

Flashback

"Penny for your thoughts, Red?" She looked back to see Spider-Man, the one who had been taking care of her when she had lost her memories and became Nancy Rushman. She felt her heart flutter, the feelings she created when she was Nancy Rushman were reacting. But she didn't want to drag him down this path... Her hands were always bloodied with someone else's blood and she didn't want to drag him into it. "You're back to normal, aren't you?"

"I'm myself again" She said while smiling at the hero she had kissed when her mind was the one of Nancy Rushman and not the mind of Natasha Romanoff. But she couldn't deny the feelings that kiss created inside her. The family she always wanted to create with the man she would choose to marry someday... a dream that was never going to happen thanks to the Red Room's rules. She is sterile because of that cursed place she would prefer to watch burn by her own hands.

"Glad to hear it" His voice sounded a bit hesitant and she noticed. Just as Nancy Rushman fell in love with him, Spider-Man had fallen in love with Nancy Rushman. She didn't want to give him any hope. She didn't want to feel this way. She had to...

"Are you?" Natasha asked, getting a look from Spider-Man she couldn't decipher. Even with all her training, the man in front of her was making it very difficult for her to see what he was feeling just by looking at him. "I remember all that happened..." She suddenly stopped talking. Once again, her feelings that she created as Nancy Rushman not letting her finish what she was going to say, which would have broken the man in front of her. "'Nancy Rushman' and you might have had something very special and beautiful"

"But you're not her" It broke her heart to hear him so broken. As if everything he had hoped for had just crumbled right in front of him. She wanted to say something to motivate him. But she had to let him go.. She.. She didn't...

"And my feelings aren't hers... I'm sorry" She forced herself to say those words. Every single word she conveyed was like an arrow pierced her heart. She so wanted to be with him... Maybe...

"Yeah, me-"

"But!" She quickly interrupted the now widened eyed Spider-Man. "I... Want to learn... To love you as well as 'Nancy Rushman' did... So please... Let's give us a chance" She crumbled. She couldn't hold it back long enough for him to go away. She gave up, but why was her heart so happy she gave up?

"I'm more than happy to try again, Red!" He took his mask off, revealing himself to be the same man who took care of her and gave her chicken soup when she was still Nancy Rushman. "We already know each other, but I want you to trust me... I'm Peter Parker, nice to meet you Natasha" Peter said, a smile on his face as he introduced himself. His smile was contagious, as beautiful as the stars in the sky. She reciprocated the smile with one of her own.