Chapter Text
When Natasha Romanoff was 13 years and 25 days old she came out to her parents as queen of the lesbians. When she was 13 years and 26 days old, they kicked her out. On the same day, she found refuge on her Uncle Tony’s couch.
4 years later, she had upgraded from Tony’s musty old sofa to the garage he renovated for her, she hadn’t spoken to her parents since August 9th 3 years ago when she gave them both the finger as she walked out of the lawyer’s office with her new legal guardian.
Uncle Tony wasn’t your typical Uncle, he was inventor, spending more nights in the basement than in his own bedroom. He reminded Natasha of Belle’s father in Beauty and the Beast – a nutjob, but a loveable one.
“Get up you lazy shit.”
“Shut up you’re not my dad.”
“Good, I’d hate to have you as my heir, you’d be a terrible daughter.”
Natasha grabbed the pillow from under her head and flung it at Tony, both of them laughing as he preceded to jokingly suffocate her with it before quickly kissing her forehead.
“I’m only joking, I wish you were my daughter…then I could’ve been able to abandon your mother while she was pregnant and would’ve never had to lay eyes on your ugly mug.”
“Still look better than you, old man.”
To an outsider, this conversation may appear as if it was bordering on verbal abuse, may look as if Natasha and Tony had a terrible relationship and she should be taken out of that house as soon as possible, but, that wasn’t the case. Tony was one of the best friends Natasha had ever had and Natasha was everything to Tony, she was the daughter he always wanted.
“Really though, if you don’t get up in the next 20 seconds, you’re going to be late for school, so get off your ass and get moving.” He left, giving her the finger as he backed out of the door.
She groaned, school, it was a teen cliché but she hated every minute she spent in that hellhole. Realistically, there was nothing wring with school, she had decent friends, good grades and she was hardly an eyesore. Her shoulder length red hair paired with her striking green eyes often resulted in almost every boy in school asking for her number, every single one saying they were the boy to “turn her straight”, every single one failing.
Pulling herself out of bed, she staggered over to her wardrobe and pulled out the first thing she could find that matched – a white t-shirt with a small spider embroidered onto the right breast pocket, paring this with a pair of black jeans she found on the floor. She pulled on a pair of black lace-up trainers and rushed through the kitchen from her bedroom to the bathroom, putting her toothbrush in her mouth as she swiped on some eyeliner in the shape of a small flick. She spat out her toothpaste and quickly ran a comb through her hair, it didn’t take much for Natasha to look beautiful and she knew it.
Grabbing a hoodie she stole from Clint, picking up her black backpack she kissed Tony on the cheek and mumbled a quick ‘bye love you’ before darting out the door. Her uncle had repeatedly offered to drive her to school but it was only a 10-minute walk if she was fast, plus it meant she could meet up with Clint before school and they could go in together.
“Is that my hoodie?” Barton asked as he noticed her turn the corner and go to cross the small road to meet him.
“Stop leaving your clothes at my house if you don’t want me to wear them.” She joked, jogging across the street to join him.
Stoneman High was as depressing as the name suggests, it was built in the 60’s and was best described as a concrete block with windows. Tony had tried to get Natasha into a better school but they couldn’t afford a private school and unless she was willing to do a 40-minute commute every morning to the nearest decent public school, Stoneman was all she had.
“Is it just me or does Stoneman get more depressing every time you see it.”
“Always the Debbie Downer Barton.”
The pair made their way to the table around the back of the school where their group met before school, interval, lunches, after school, it was their table and people were aware of that, they always left it available for them. There was always a group of new Freshman who thought they could sit there when they first make it up from middle school, but they never lasted long.
She saw Sam sitting on the table, clearly arguing with Scott over something irrelevant, Peter was copying out what Nat assumed was homework that was due today, she noticed Bucky was absent which wasn’t out of the ordinary, he was always late to school anyway.
“Hey Nat, tell Lang that The Last Jedi was the worst Star Wars film, he’s delusional.”
“You just don’t like change Wilson, it was one of the best and you’re just stuck in the past.”
Sam looked as if he was ready to tackle Scott to the ground, Scott had a similar look in his eyes.
“Sorry Sam, Scott’s right.” She replied, giving Sam a sarcastic, sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
“Aha! I told you Wilson, I’m always right when it comes to Star Wars!”
“Up until a few months ago you thought Ewoks were just Wookie children.” Natasha joked, tuning herself out of the conversation as Clint became involved, she noticed Bucky cross the yard, with him a short brunette girl. Another one of his fucking girlfriends Nat thought to herself.
The other girl was wearing a black skater dress with a long cream cardigan that looked like something your gran would wear, pairing her little ensemble with a pair of black pumps, she carried a red backpack and a matching scarlet binder. Her hair was long, almost down to her waist and seemed to be the kind of hair that always somehow end up tangled moments after brushing it. As she came closer to the table, Natasha noticed she had numerous rings on her fingers and had a necklace around her neck. She’s pretty, she thought, Barnes bagged a good one there.
“Hey guys, this is Wanda, it’s her first day here.”
“Hey Wanda.” The rest of the group muttered before resuming what they were doing.
“Hi Wanda, I’m Natasha but just call me Nat.”
“Hi.” Wanda raised her hand in a small wave, she looked painfully awkward.
“So how are you so unfortunate as to know Barnes.” Natasha smirked.
“Fucking shut up Nat.”
“Oh, well, our parents are friends so his mom is making him show me around.”
“How come you’re only just joining, we are seniors, there’s only 10 months left of school before we can all get the fuck out of here.” She popped a stuck of gum in her mouth before offering some to the new girl.
“No thank you, we just moved back here from LA, my parents are making me finish so I can get into good collages.”
“Fucking parents.” She blew a bubble.
“Do your parents not care about what collage you go to?”
“I haven’t seen my parents in over 3 years sweetheart, I don’t think they give a flying fuck what collage their faggot daughter goes to.” It was moments like this that Nat was desperate for a smoke, but she had quit a year ago, Barton had made her.
Wanda looked extremely uncomfortable with Natasha’s last remark, she had no idea what you say to a thing like that, Nat laughed, standing up and giving her a pat on the side of her arm.
“I’m just being a twat Wanda, it’s no big deal, don’t get your panties in a twist.”
In that moment, the school bell rang and figurately saved Wanda’s ass, Natasha threw the group a peace out sign and made her way to first period biology.