Tired

Joy giggled as she was playing outside in the garden with Meggie, her favourite chicken in the whole wide world.

"Be careful Meggie, don't eat too fast" said Joy as she giggled while feeding Meggie corn from the palm of her hand, she wasn't in any way scared that Meggie could peck her palm and hurt her, instead, she just giggled as if tickled.

Joy sneezed when the wind suddenly started to blow softly and that caused Meggie to move away from her as if not wanting to get sick.

"Sorry" said Joy as she apologized to the chicken as if it could hear her.

Joy sneezed again as she shook her head and sniffed, she must have gotten dust in her nose from sitting on the grass for too long.

"My nose tickles" said Joy to herself as she sniffed some more and she stood up from sitting down on the grass.

Meggie on the other hand circled around Joy as if wondering if she was suddenly sick.

"I'm fine now Meggie, don't worry" said Joy as she laughed at her chicken looking at her weirdly, she had the cutest chicken ever.

Meggie the chicken didn't seem to care about what Joy was saying, she just clucked and started to peck at the fallen pieces of corn that were on the grass.

Joy laughed and shook her head as she looked up and realized that the sun had gone down a bit.

"Wait my mommy should be back by now, let me go check Meggie, I will see you later" said Joy happily as she bent down and gave Meggie a quick cuddle, Meggie didn't even move, but as soon as Joy let go of her she clucked and walked into her backyard mansion.

Joy laughed as she looked at her chicken and she ran out the garden into the kitchen.

"Joy slow down, no running in the kitchen you can hurt yourself" said Alfred in worry as Joy almost bumped into him.

"Sorry Alfred, I won't run" she replied sweetly as Alfred smiled.

"Are you done playing outside with Meggie?" asked Alfred as Joy nodded.

"Yes, is my mommy back yet?" asked Joy.

"Yes she just arrived not too long ago" said Alfred.

"Okay thank you Alfred" said Joy with a happy smile as she proceeded to walk out the kitchen.

"Please do not forget to wash your hands Joy" said Alfred.

"I won't Alfred, thank you" said Joy with a happy smile as that caused Alfred to smile, it was true how the saying went, children grew up way too fast, it felt like just yesterday when Joy was learning how to speak, walk and talk, and now she was her own little person, life was wonderful to think about in that sense.

Joy quickly washed her hands with soap in the downstairs bathroom, and then she dried her hands in the same manner and rushed up the stairs making her way to Natasha's office.

She did not even bother knocking, it was her mother's office after all, she opened the door and rushed in.

"Mommy, Mommy!!" called Joy as she ran to Natasha as Natasha turned around and smiled at her as Joy hugged her.

"Hello my beautiful darling, how are you?" asked Natasha as she carried Joy and hugged her.

"I am good mommy, and how are you?" asked Joy with a smile.

"I am good too my darling, how was school today?" asked Natasha as she sat down on the yellow couch in her office with Joy on her lap.

"Today was very fun mommy, we played with some paint, and then Uncle Charlie and Michael came to pick me up at school and we went to the park before we came back home, and then I was playing with Meggie in the garden, but then I started sneezing, but my nose stopped tickling me" said Joy as she relayed her entire day to Natasha.

"That does sound fun my darling, have you had lunch yet?" asked Natasha as she smiled and Joy shook her head.

"Why not?" asked Natasha.

"I wasn't hungry, and I was waiting for you" said Joy as Natasha smiled and pinched her little nose.

"That's sweet darling" replied Natasha as she smiled.

"Mommy you look tired, is something wrong?" asked Joy.

"Tired?" asked Natasha in surprise as Joy nodded.

"How do you know that I am tired?" asked Natasha.

"You have little bags under your eyes, and you don't look very happy, did something bad happen?" asked Joy as she frowned.

"No, not at all my princess, everything is fine, I am just tired from work, I have many things to do, and I didn't sleep well last night" replied Natasha as she sighed.

"Is that because you and Daddy went out last night?" asked Joy.

"Yes, but how do you know about that?" asked Natasha.

"Well I woke up at midnight and Aunt Lulu told me that you went out with daddy" said Joy.

"Yes we did go out, we needed to check on some cargo that just arrived for the company" said Natasha as she ran her fingers through Joy's curly hair.

"Are you working at the company now mommy?" asked Joy in curioisity.

"Well no, it's just that I do own a large part of the company... I will explain in detail later, because right now, I want to send out a document and then relax" said Natasha as Joy smiled.

"Okay Mommy, I am going to eat lunch, do you want me to bring your lunch for you?" asked Joy with a smile as she climbed down from Natasha's lap.

"No my darling, I'm not hungry yet, but thank you, enjoy lunch" said Natasha with a smile.

"Okay mommy, I will" said Joy with a smile as she ran out of the room and Natasha smiled, stood up to get her laptop and then sat back down again on the couch.

She had a lot of things on her mind, for one, she knew that she needed to hide all files that could point to her as the source of the information Agent Dians had.

Luckily she already had her usb drive hidden in a safe place, she just had to remove some certain implicating files from her laptop, and she could rest assured that Dians wouldn't come snooping around for more information.

Natasha was busy on her laptop, so deep in thought that she did not notice when there was a knock on her office door, to which she absentmindedly replied that the person come in.

"Natasha are you alright?" asked Dom for the third time as his voice snapped Natasha out of her thoughts.

"I'm fine, what are you doing here?" asked Natasha as she pretended as if she was not startled by his sudden presence at all.

"I wanted to talk to you, Agent Dians called me earlier" said Dom.

"What did he say?" asked Natasha.

"A bunch of things, but mostly, he asked me if I knew that you were at the station in the morning" said Dom.

"And what did you say?" asked Natasha.

"Well I told him that I was aware, and that you were there to see Peter" said Dom.

"Good" said Natasha as she sighed in relief.

"Anything else?" she asked.

"Yes, and I don't want you to panic or get worried" said Dom as Natasha frowned.

"Stop treating me like a child and tell me what it is" said Natasha a bit harsher than she had intended, but Dom beating around the bush was causing her heart to beat faster, something told her that whatever else that was left to add would not be good at all.

"Okay... he asked me if you had any sort of relationship with Romanoff that I know of" said Dom as Natasha felt her heart drop as she looked worried.

"And what did you say?" asked Natasha.

"At first I tried to sway off the topic, but he insisted on staying on the topic" said Dom.

"And what did you say?" asked Natasha as she didn't like that Dom was involved in this at all.

"Well I didn't want to make it obvious that I was lying, but... I just tried to sound very believable when I told him that I was not aware of any relationship you may or may not have with him" said Dom.

"I told him that I did know that you were part Russian, but that was just about it" said Dom.

"Then what did he say after that?" asked Natasha.

"I don't know, he seemed to be satisfied about my answer, and then he invited me to play basketball with him sometime" said Dom as Natasha sighed in relief.

"You see that's why I didn't want to tell you, I told you not to get worried" said Dom.

"Easier said than done, and I didn't agree to it, Agent Dians is getting too close for comfort" said Natasha as she put her laptop down on the couch and stood up.

"Tell me about it, he was way too friendly this morning, I think he knows something" said Dom.

"Well whatever he knows, he should keep it to himself, I really don't need any more trouble right now" said Natasha with a sigh.

"How is Romanoff? what did he say when you went to see him?" asked Dom as Natasha looked at him.

"A lot... you don't need to know" said Natasha.

"And you are sure that he won't throw you under the bus?" asked Dom as Natasha frowned.

"When I tell you that I trust that he won't, it means that I trust he won't, stop asking about that" said Natasha in annoyance.

"In fact, stop talking about this" said Natasha.

"Fine, there is a meeting at the company tomorrow, it's important, are you going to be there?" asked Dom.

"No I can't make it, my proxy will be there" said Natasha.

"Alright..." said Dom as he took a pause.

"Natasha are you alright?" asked Dom as Natasha looked at him and frowned.

"Stop acting like you care, I'm alright" said Natasha.

"You know Natasha, I am not acting, I actually do care, and I am asking because you look like you feel guilty" said Dom as Natasha scoffed and looked away from him.

"I'm telling the truth Natasha, I can see it in your eyes, you feel guilty for what is happening to Romanoff, but it's not your fault" said Dom.

"You are in no place to tell me that, get out, I'm done talking to you" said Natasha as she glared at him, she had had more than enough of his overstepping.

"I will go, but you and I both know that I am right, and you shouldn't feel guilty for something you had no control of, sure you might have caused what happened, but you weren't the one who arranged for Romanoff to be there at that time" said Dom.

"You did nothing wrong Natasha, and you know it" said Dom very softly as with those final words he turned around and left the room as Natasha scoffed at him.

"Who does he think he is to talk to me like that??" asked Natasha in anger as she took a deep breath, she hated involving Dom in anything that concerned her.