Chapter Text
~~Bruce’s POV~~
Bruce hadn’t known the tower had an ice rink. He didn’t even know why they would have one. Probably some weird Stark project. But now he did. He’d just been going to a rarely used storage room amongst some computer databases when he’d heard... Classical music? It was muffled but still had something of an electro-pop feel. Gods, why could he even identify electropop?
The wall onto the hallway was frosted glass, and he couldn’t see much inside other than two blurred figures. When he stepped inside, there were two figures, both dressed in black on the ice. One was clearly Natasha, based off of her signature red bob. He couldn’t identify the other, though. The other figure had their hair done the way Yelena often did hers - -two dutch braids, crossed at the nape of the neck. The roots of their hair were black, fading into dark red. Both wore back leggings and black tops, fitting close to their bodies. As he watched quietly, Natasha picked up the mystery figure, making half a lap before setting them down and finishing the routine. The music cut out, and Natasha was grinning, not the soft false smile she occasionally wore, or the toothy, feral grin she sometimes got when she hunted down human traffickers and others who vitimized people. She’d looked free, almost as much as when he’d caught her dancing ballet.
Probably best to announce his presence before she killed him.
“Nat?”
Both figures turned towards him, drawing knives. Years of living with the Black Widow and he still had no idea where she kept all those knives. Now he could see the other figure’s face. They were younger than he’d expected by what he’d seen moments before.
“Eto prosto Bruce, my v bezopasnosti” Natasha sheathed her weapons, and the younger figure followed suit, though hesitantly
“Vy uvereny?”
“Da, he’s not a danger to you. Hey, Bruce.” Natahsa seemed to be taking the ‘act like nothing was happening’ route.
“We have an ice rink?” That was for some reason the first thing that came to mind.
“Oh, we’ve had this for years, didn’t get much use ‘til this one crashed into my life, literally”
“To be fair, we didn’t expect it at all”
Bruce flinched when Yelena dropped down a rope from the ceiling with a book in hand.
“Banner,” she greeted. “What? You did not think they would ignore you without someone keeping watch? Sometimes, I think you are foolish”
“I knew he was there,” the youngest(probably?) offered. “I just knew you were keeping watch, and Natasha made sure to tell me”
“Of course! Murder means explaining to Stark and Hill, and that takes too long” Natasha shrugged.
“Wait, so who is this? And how did they literally crash into your life”
“Technically, I crashed into a pile of debris, but that’s beside the point here. Vespera Volkov, she/her.” the figure Vera shrugged. “And you are Bruce Banner, aka Robert Banner, aka the Hulk, aka the best biochemist of our time, I’ve read your work. I mean I also annotated it for capitalist ideals, but that wasn’t my choice”
“Ugh, I remember doing that,” Yelena groaned.
“Wait, what?”
“This is Vera, she is the youngest widow left. She’s been living here under our care”
“Where? For how long? FRI?”
“Oh, she made friends with FRIDAY. She’s been living her for three-ish months”
“Three months, two weeks and six days” Vera confirmed.
“I will not disclose the location of Vera’s accommodations at this time, Dr. Banner”
“Ah.” that was absolutely not what he was thinking. He had so mant questions, but he also knew no one would tell him the answers. And based on Yelena’s mannerism, the Widows were very protective over this girl. “I won’t say anything. If you ever get bored, feel free to stop by my personal lab, it doesn’t connect to anywhere but the hallway and my room, no windows to the inside of the building, no security cameras and I have full control over who has access”
“Introvert’s dream. I’ll come by sometime” Vera smiled, sitting down and starting to unlace her skates.
When FRIDAY announced that Natasha was outside Bruce’s lab a few hours later, he was entirely unsuprised.
“Let her in, FRIDAY” he requested, waiting for Natasha to speak.
“So, I trust you not to tell anyone about her, but I know you have questions. Let me set a few ground rules: I won’t answer everything, some of them I might not even know the answers to. You are not to seek her out without reason, and me, Yelena, and Barnes will all kill for her without hesitation”
“Fair. First off, who are her caretakers?”
“Me, my sister, and James. Next?”
“How does she get food? And how old is she? Does she have access to medical care?”
“We bring her what she orders through FRIDAY, or she takes it from the kitchen. Her best estimate is fifteen, but we aren’t exactly sure, there weren’t any good records. And between the four of us, we have a good amount of medical knowledge through training, covers, and stuff we picked up.”
“She went to the Red Room, how many times did she go through?”
“Not answering that.”
“Fair. Does she have any enhancements?”
“Not that any of us know about, yet. But she said that she doens’t know half of what they did to her so anything’s possible. Next?”
“Does she have any mental help?”
“Not other than talking to us. She deflected when James brought up therapy a few times, and she’s even better than me when it comes to compartmentalizing; we don’t see much of her trauma because she’s really good at just not letting it affect her consciously. We just are keeping a close eye on her and have plans for if it goes to shit”
“Hm... Well, if she ever needs medical help, if I can work with you three, I think I can do something for her”
“Thanks, Bruce. And just so you know, she probably will show up her at an unholy hour, her idea of regular hours is that she wakes up consistently between five-thirty and seven”
~~Vera’s POV~~
Meeting Dr. Banner had been a surprise, but his invitation was welcome. Vera admired his research, but that was about it. Frankly, she discounted most of the Avengers&Co past their baseline of respect. They all had some sort of trauma, but Thor was literally a nepo baby with glorified construction equipment, Ironman wasn’t far off and worse in the nepotism category. Captain America was a twenty something dude who had a lot of shit in his past but his strict morals meant that he tended to have a dubious opinion of what a lot of people did to survive, but he was getting better, according to Yelena. Of course, Yelena said it more sarcastically. Banner had come from a broken home, but he still had some relatives with money who’d helped him out. Really, out of the original six, Vera only really liked or bothered with Black Widow, for obvious reasons, Hawkeye, and the Hulk. Hawkeye she discounted a bit, but he had literally joined the circus instead of finishing High School because his home was so bad, and he did try. Stark didn’t try all that much, Rogers was busy trying to figure out the 21st century in the first place, and Thor was Thor.
The idea of getting some new company was appealing.
James appeared a few minutes after she returned to her “room”, which was a weird loft/shed built into the corner of a room that had a bunch of computer databases or something. She wasn’t really sure, but no one had come in for something other than her for the nearly four months she’d been there, so it was fine with her.
Speaking of which, James was hauling himself up the rope ladder along with a bag.
“Hello, malen'kaya roza((little rose)),” He smiled, and Vera opened her arms for a hug.
“Hey James.” James was always a welcome presence, ever since Natasha had brought him in to help smuggle Vera medical supplies and set up her loft.
“What’re you doing? I didn’t mean to intrude, but FRIDAY said you’re available”
“I am, just trying to set up some new software”
“What is it?” James sat down on her bed to lean over her shoulder; her bed was parallel her desk, and the space was narrow enough here that he could lean forward and hover over her chair.
“Attempting to try some new editing software, I’m making an edit”
“Oh, Peter was showing me those. What for?”
“Don’t tell them, but I run a fan account for Natasha and Yelena,” Vera chuckled, pulling up Instagram. “Hey, do not give me that look, I get bored sometimes!”
“Hey, it’s fine, but none of me?”
“Harder to find good videos to work with for you. I think I have one or two… here!” Vera grinned triumphantly, finding a clip of James sparring in a self-defense course he did with Rogers. “Turns out, most of the stuff you do winds up not being in places that get recorded, hence the sparring edit. Not enough to work with, so sucks to be you”
“Wait, what’s this?” James leaned forward to click on one of the clips. Vera allowed the edit to play; it was one of her favorites. It was a highlight reel of Natasha and Yelena’s most dramatic team ups, set to “Royalty” by Neoni.
“I’ll do one for you next time I get good wildly available footage” she promised, closing the tab. “Anyways, is there a reason for this visit, or just here to chill”
“I wanted to see you, but also I wanted to see how things went with Bruce, Yelena said he found you guys at the rink.”
“Pretty well, he seems alright. He said if I ever wanted I could come visit his personal lab, and explained how it’s safe”
“Bruce isn’t a threat to you in my opinion. He keeps his word, and he’s saved Natasha and Yelena’s lives on more than one occasion”
“And you?”
“Never been in a fight involving him yet”
“Hm. How’s Natasha doing? She took a bit of a fall earlier”
“Mild bruising, it should go away soon.”
“I’m glad. She’s been getting more flashbacks lately, keep a good eye on her for me”
“I have been, I’ve noticed. She’s hiding it pretty well, but Steve noticed too.”
“Ugh, and how is Captain Puerto Rico?”
“He’s going to hate you if you call him that”
“Lovely, you know how I feel about him”
“He treats Natasha well”
“And you, or he dies”
“Don’t worry, Yelena already gave him a very intense shovel talk”
“How many ways did she threaten to kill him?”
“One, but complete detail of the prior torture that would last a week”
“Hm. I suppose I’ll have to up my game”
“Please don’t.”
“That sounds like a challenge, Barnes”
“Can we Just Watch a Movie or something?”
“Fine, who’s picking?”
“Your turn, is it pride and prejudice again?”
“You know it,” Vera smiled, clicking onto Netflix. “There’s popcorn in the second drawer,” she pointed towards the horizontal cabinet which served as a kitchenette, with a hot plate and microwave. One of the drawers had been taken out and replaced with a mini fridge.
“You should put in a new order, it’s getting sparse,” James remarked. “Instant oats, bagels, cream cheese and popcorn Isn’t much to live on”
“There’s sriracha somewhere, I think, and a big bag of mixed chocolate bars and stuff Yelena dropped off”
“You’re just proving my point, doll. Please, for goodness sake, just put in an order before I go shopping for you”
“I’ve seen what you come back with. Better you than Rogers”
“If it makes you feel better, he’s not allowed to go shopping for the group alone after last time”
“That was funny to watch.”
Vera decided to take Banner up on his offer a few days later around ten at night. According to FRIDAY, Barton wasn’t currently in the vents and she was safe to go that way, so she hauled herself up. This vent was rarely accessed outside of annual maintenance, so it was dusty enough that she ducked out to grab a bandana to wrap around her mouth(when did she get that?). Banner’s office was only about ten minutes away by the vents, which annoyingly carried sound from other floors, currently Stark’s lab above her, which meant that she got the bass and drums from his current AC/DC playlist. There was worse music to listen to on repeat, she supposed.
“FRIDAY, doktor Banner odin((is Dr Banner alone))?”
“Dr. Banner’s lab is currently only occupied by Green Bean Man”
“Spasibo((thanks)),” Vera hummed, unscrewing the vent cover, which swung down. Dr. Banner imeaditly turned, and Vera let her torso hang down, bandana around her neck. “It’s just me Dr. Banner,” she waved before swinging down. “Hope you don’t mind”
“Just Bruce is Fine, and I’m glad to have you.”
“No ‘why the hell did you just enter my lab through a vent at eleven pm?’ Impressive”
“Natasha warned me”
“What else did she tell you? Need a hand with anything?”
“Do you know how to… alright, you do. She told me how old you are, who takes care of you, and how you get food. Also that they do your medical care and you don’t have therapy”
“Therapy isn't happening. What’s this for?”
“Peter’s Medical Web idea. I’m testing an attempt for him while he’s on a school trip”
“Hm. It’s causing a reaction with the pork; the webs are hot when they go on and seaf shut the wound”
“Well, that’s a bust”
“No, you don’t just give up! Add a cooling agent to be applied to the wound first which counteracts the reaction”
“I hadn’t thought of that…”
Bruce’s lab was nice. Vera liked it, and they fell into a rhythm. Unlike Stark, Bruce tended to prefer classical music in the background of his work, which Vera hummed along to, enjoying the Russian composers she knew and others she’d heard vaguely. The cooling solution seemed promising, though convincing Bruce that it was fine if she didn’t get credit took some doing (“I’ve had other people take credit for my work my entire life, don’t worry about it” “that’s not actually a good thing, let me credit you” “how? I don’t even legally exist”).
“Vera, protocol “We Aren’t All Mable” has been activated in the Spiders’ Nest,, you and Miss American Pie have been notified. Robotics Project will also be notified as soon as his transport touches down.”
“Shit. Gotta run, Bruce, see you soon?”
“What protocol is that?”
“It’s a Widow protocol Yelena made, I’ll explain later.” And with that, she swung back into the vent, closing it behind her and scuttling at top speed towards the gym. When she arrived, it was dark, but Tchaikovsky was still playing in the background. Natasha was laying across the wooden dance floor in the corner of the room, breathing heavily. Luckily, she seemed uninjured, other than a blister on her foot. She was still dressed in her ballet clothes — black tights and leotard, flowy red practice skirt, black pointe shoes. Red Room standard. Gods, Natasha must’ve been having a horrible day. And James was out. That certainly wouldn’t have helped.
“Natalia? Ты слышишь меня((can you hear me))?”
Natasha was too deep in her own memories, so far as Vera could tell. The older woman would be a deadweight. Gods, she’s just started to be able to read her sister — no, she was just taking pity. Natasha and Yelena weren’t her sisters. Never were, never would be. She’d had this conversation with herself too many times. No. Not the time. Natasha.
“Please say you can hear me?”
Nothing.
“You can’t stay here, help me please.”
Ugh. So this was happening the hard way. Good thing she’d been trained within a millimeter of her life. With a groan, Vera swung Natasha into a fireman’s carry, moving her to a mat in the other corner and then starting to untie her shoes.
Until she subconsciously jerked around and drew her knives, assessing. There was only ambient light coming in through a window from the city, so she could only see the silhouette of a large man. And it wasn’t James. The man started to jog towards them, and her training kicked in. She hurled herself in a tackle at his legs, using the momentum from her swing to kick them out from under him while returning to a standing position herself. The man was good though. He got up, and swung. She dodged and hit his ear, disorienting him while she aimed for his diaphragm. He managed to get a half-added hit on her, giving her a bloody nose but not breaking it. Adrenaline doubled up and Vera quickly pinned him down in the dim light, and he gave up struggling after a few moments, the knife pressed to his throat a warning. She wouldn’t hesitate.
“Vera?”
A sound from behind her made Vera crane her head. It was Yelena, dressed in pajamas.
“etot ublyudok pytalsya bezhat' na Natashu. Ona vyshla iz etogo((the bastard tried to run at Natasha. She’s out of it))”
“yest' idei, kto eto((any idea who it is))?”
“ustroit' draku, kto by on ni byl((put up a fight, whoever he is))”
The door opened again, and both women aimed charged widow’s bites at the door until it was proven to be James when he spoke.
“что, ради бога, здесь происходит? Вера, пожалуйста, прекрати угрожать жизни моего парня. С Наташей все в порядке? Маленькая Роза, с какой стати ты прижимаешь Стива ножом к его горлу((what in God’s name is happening here? Vera, please stop threatening my boyfriend’s life. Is Natasha alright? Little Rose, why on earth are you pinning Steve down with a knife to his throat))? FRIDAY, turn the lights to indigo on three percent, please.”
When the lights flicked on a moment later, Vera found herself to have beaten Captain America, with a line pressed in his throat when she removed the knife.
“ser'yezno? Vy ne mogli by zayavit' o sebe((seriously? You couldn’t have announced yourself))?” she asked
“Bucky, who is this? Where’s Natasha?”
Vera had already turned by the time he spoke and was helping Yelena bring Natasha back to them. She had dissociated, not passed out, which was good. Natasha came back after a minute, and Vera could’ve cried in relief. Fuck it, she thought of Natasha and Yelena as her sisters.
“Vespera? Yelena? Dzheyms? Chto sluchilos((Vespera? Yelena? James? What happened))?”
“You triggered the protocall. Vera got here first and moved you here, and then Steve showed up in the dark and didn’t identify himself, lost a fight to a fifteen year old, and then nearly died. Yelena and I got here right after”
“I- you fought him?”
“He tried to run at you, Natalia, and push past me,” she said simply, sheathing her knife. “I protected you, just as you would’ve done for me”
“The fact that she did not taze him is a suprise,” Yelena remarked. “I sawlittle, she kicked his ass”
“I did,”
“Again, who the fuck is this?” Rogers repeated. Vera glanced at Yelena for confirmation before she answered.
“Vespera Volkov, she/her. Youngest widow left, Natasha, Yelena, and James’s ward, resident of the tower and thief of Parker and Stark’s snack stash”
“You live here?”
“Officially I don't exist. But yes,”
“FRIDAY, where does Miss Volkov live?”
“Captain Spangles, I will not be disclosing that at this time”
“The mother-fricking frick?”
“Frick is not an equal substitute for fuck, even you should know that Rogers,” Yelena remarked, calmly handing Natasha her sweatshirt. “Vera, come help Natasha with her shoes? I have Blistex.”
“So you have been living here, you don’t legally exist, and you’re a black widow”
“I was set to graduate next month. I’ve been cycled through just shy of three times, starting at age one. Madame B said I was the best since Yelena left, as good as Yelena and Natasha. Dreykov called me the academy's future”
“mladshaya sestra((little sister?))” Natasha asked softly, and Vera turned her head when the older woman nudged her. “YA tebya lyublyu. Spasibo((I love you. Thank you))”
“sestry((sisters))?”
“Я- ты в порядке?((I- are you alright))?” Yelena reached out and Vera leaned into the touch.
“Da, ya prosto… sestry? YA sirota vo vsekh otnosheniyakh((Yes, I just… sisters? I’m an orphan in every way))”
“yesli ty khochesh', chtoby my((if you will have us)),” Natasha offered uncertainty.
“da, seychas i navsegda((yes, now and forever)).” Vera smiled, reaching for Natasha’s hand as she finished applying cream to the blisters.
“If you’re done, I have a lot of questions,” Rogers spoke a moment later. Right, he didn’t know Russian.
“Маленькая роза((Little rose)), you should get some sleep. I’ll come by in the morning,” James told her, a quiet instruction. “Byddai'n well gennyf pe na baech yn clywed hyn, nid yw'n mynd i fod yn bert((I’d prefer if you didn’t hear this, it’s not going to be pretty)),” he added in Welsh.
“Paid â difetha dy berthynas er fy mwyn i, James((Don't ruin your relationship for my sake, James)).” quietly, she kissed his cheek and gave him a right hug, doing the same for her newfound sisters. “ya lyublyu vsekh vas((I love you all))”
Of course, when had she not gotten into other people’s business? Though, she thought, this time it arguably was her business. As soon as she landed back in her room, she had FRIDAY send the security feed to her laptop.
“You just didn’t tell me that you have another sister? Who has been living here for god knows how long?” Rogers asked angrily. “Why would you keep that from me!”
“Because she deserves a modicum of stability. She was at death’s door when we found her, Rogers. She’d just lost the only person who ever showed any kindness toward her, I watched her crawl out bleeding from rubble to sit with Antonia Dreykov when she died.”
“And she’s been living here without consent from anyone!”
“No one even noticed her, no one was bothered for months”
“How long has it been?”
“Just short of four months,” James answered carefully.
“FOUR FUCKING MONTHS?”
“Language,” Yelena remarked calmly, “yes, that is the correct number”
“She was at death's door, she survived, and was ready to kill me. You aren’t concerned?”
“As if we all wouldn’t do the same.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, because you are Captain America, paragon of perfect morals. We would all kill for her, Rogers. I would lay down my life without a thought”
“You have horrible self-preservation”
“No. I love Vera more than I love my life. I want her to live as much of a normal life as she can.”
Tears pricked at Vera’s eyes as she hugged her sweatshirt to her. It was Yelena’s, dark red with a black widow spider on it. Natasha’s merch.
“The team needs to know, at least”
“Bruce already does.” Natasha stated.
“And survived? Hell no, where’s the body” Rogers remarked disdainfully
“You know he is unkillable, Rogers. He is alive. She comes to his lab sometimes”
“And he’s okay with that? And that there’s essentially a ghost haunting the tower?”
“Unlike some people evidently, he understands a lot of it.”
“I don’t think anything should merit that.”
“Fuck you, Rogers.” Yelena turned on her heel, marching out of the room. The polycule were the only ones remaining.
“Why couldn’t you tell me?” Rogers demanded. “Because you don’t trust me? Because you care more about your ego than me?”
“Because,” Natasha said tersely, “we knew you’d react like this.”
“And she was supposed to keep living here, in secret? For the rest of her life? God, Natasha, she can’t be more than sixteen”
“Around fifteen, actually,” James corrected.
“The plan was never for her to stay here forever. Our plan was to have her here until she was a bit more stable and then get her an apartment in the building across from us, probably with Yelena. She didn’t want to leave us but agreed. Then she’d get a job at SI and we’d help her however we could”
“SI doesn’t employ minors, were you planning to lie?”
“Sometimes, you do what you need to survive.” James said plainly. “Steve, I love you, but sometimes you don’t understand.”
“I understand that you have been lying for months and planned to lie to Stark on things that could legally demolish his company”
“It’s not lying if you never asked. We just never mentioned it. And it wouldn’t because she’s too good for that.”
“You seem awfully confident in a fifteen-year-old’s ability to lie to a multi-billionaire.”
“She has the scars to prove she can. She was Dreykov’s daughter’s favorite. Dreykov’s biggest hope. Madame B’s prodigy. She’s damn well good enough, and more so. The fact that she didn’t kill you was a minor miracle. She tazed Yelena without even looking.”
“So, she has decent aim. What does it tell you that she was ready to kill me on sight?”
“That she’s fiercely loyal and cares deeply”
“I didn’t hear her move. I barely had time to react”
“She’s good,” Natasha shrugged.
“She took my legs out from under me and used the momentum to stand up in one motion”
“Okay? Evidently she didn’t plan to kill you without a conversation”
“With a knife to my throat? That doesn’t sound like any conversation I’ve ever heard of.”
“Stevie, she could have shot you, tazed you, thrown a knife that slit your throat, or choked you faster. Plus, she could have knocked you out or killed you with that move if she wanted to, but she didn’t, so she meant to talk to you to some extent”
“You know what, keep your secrets. She’s introducing herself to the team at the meeting tomorrow or I will”
“Rogers.” Natasha spun Steve around with one motion, pinning him to the wall. “I do not want to fight you. But I will do anything for my sisters. You know that.”
“There’s red in your ledger. You wanted to wipe it out. You said that yourself”
“I do. But I would rather my sister get to live happily than protect a ledger dripping in blood by sacrificing her.”
“She’s one of the most deadly women on the planet, Natasha.”
“So am I. And Yelena. And Wanda. And Carol. And Val. And Pepper. And Maria. And Kate. And Loki. And you are friends with all of us, or at least consider us safe.”