Snip to Chapter 37

She glances at the hero she is referring to, who has yet to take his eyes off the infiltration team they’ll be working with. In particular, the mercenary they brought along. 

“Something wrong?” She inquires. 

He doesn’t look away from Silver as he responds, “Are we sure this is a good idea? Bringing Silver along I mean.”  He looks at Widow now and she can see the concern on his face, even with the mask covering it, “If she’s involved, wouldn’t it turn into an international incident?”

“Not necessarily,” Widow immediately tells him, having already thought about it, and glances at the woman she’s worked with, “They’d want to keep quiet about this operation because not only do they have a well-known criminal leading the project, but they’re also responsible for a fake X-Men team that attacked your team in broad daylight.”

Spider-Man sighs, “That does very little to make my worry go away,” he tells her as he looks back at Silver, “I just don’t want Silver to have to do anything that’ll put her at risk. She could be labeled a terrorist.”

“She volunteered to come along because she knows how big this is,” Natasha tells him, factually, “She knows the risks and she knows what she’s doing.”

He sighs as he says, “Again, does very little to make me worry less.”

She looks at him and can see there is more going on than he is letting on. “What’s this really about?” She questions.

He seems reluctant at first before he relents and slumps, “She kissed me,” he says, surprising her, “And we talked about it back at the mansion.”

She looks at him curiously, “What did you do?” She asks. She is aware if his current relationship status, being involved with three women at once, so she is curious on how he is handling rejecting advances from other women.

“I didn’t reject her,” he informs her, throwing her for a bit of a loop, “I just told her my circumstances.”

Natasha looks at him, bewildered by this and says, “Wait. Are you saying that you want her to be a part of this harem you’ve got going on?”

“It’s not a harem,” he states, offended from the word, “It’s a relationship that includes multiple people. But I’m not the center of it. They’re with each other too.”

She raises a delicate brow at him.

“Look, I know how weird it sounds.”

“Do you?”

“But it’s not as weird as you think, okay?” He tells her, “We’ve got a long history with each other.”

That is the only way it would make sense to Widow. If he didn’t have a history with the women, she’d assume he was doing something to them.

She looks over to where the mercenary is with Betty Ross, and sees the two conversing, “And how does Sable fit into that history? “

She looks back at him and sees he has adopted something of a dewy-eyed look as he explains, “I can’t deny that I’ve never thought about it. I mean I’ve worked with her plenty and she is attractive, smart, strong-”

“I get it,” she interrupts him with a roll of her eyes, “You’ve got a crush on her.”

“It’s more than that,” he tells her, “When she kissed me not too long ago, it stuck with me.”