Kara woke to the soft hum of the sun against her skin, her body soaking in every ray like it was liquid gold. She stretched, feeling her power swelling within her, growing sharper with each day uhis universe’s sun. There oint, she knew, where she’d have to sciously start holding back. That point roag fast.

  Yawning, she rolled out of bed and padded into the kit, where Natasha was, as always, already there. Coffee brewed. A tablet open with S.H.I.E.L.D. reports. She wore her usual off-duty outfit—bck tank top, dark jeans, hair tied ba a loose bun. Effit, lethal, and, to Kara, hot as hell.

  “You live here now,” Kara teased, leaning against the ter, arms folded across her chest.

  Natasha didn’t look up. “Security protocol.”

  “Right. Security.” Kara grinned, biting into an apple. “Ever notice how there’s nuys on the security detail? Or is it just me?”

  That made Natasha pause, if only for a fra of a sed. Her eyes flicked up, then back down to her tablet.

  “Men are unreliable,” she said smoothly. “They’re probably off drinking somewhere.”

  Kara raised an eyebrow, but let it slide. She liked having Natasha around, regardless of her increasingly obvious territorial instincts. Besides, the idea of men being inpetent enough to disappear didn’t sound that crazy.

  Natasha sipped her coffee calmly. Beh the table, her foot nudged a duffel bag filled with freshly soiled gloves and a shovel—tools from her te-night work in Kara’s backyard. A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had gotten a little too fortable the night before, hanging around Kara’s perimeter after his shift. Natasha had corrected that mistake. Permaly.

  The grouhe tree line behind Kara’s guesthouse was starting to look a little too freshly turned. She’d o cover it with some new pnts soon.

  Her phone buzzed. Gwen.

  Gwen: “Harry’s hosting Thanksgiving dinner. You should totally e. We hang out after ;)”

  Kara grinned. Gwen was getting bold. She liked that.

  “Gwen invited me to Thanksgiving at Harry’s pce,” Kara said casually.

  Natasha’s coffee cup stopped halfway to her lips. Her eyes narrowed, barely perceptibly.

  “Where?”

  “The Osborhouse. Fancy. I guess Harry’s trying to make an impression.”

  Natasha pced her cup down with precision. “I’m ing.”

  Kara smirked. “Security protocol?”

  “Security protocol.”

  Kara didn’t argue. She knew Natasha’s possessive streak was only growing, and she was enjoying every sed of it.

  As Kara typed out her acceptao Gwen, her ears picked up something else—aed heartbeat across the city. Norman Osborn, alone in his penthouse office, was talking to himself. Well, to part of himself.

  “No… not now. I’m still in trol…”

  “You’re weak, Norman. They all want to take what’s yours. Your board… your son… even that alien girl. You see the way she ughs? She mocks you. They all do. Kill them.”

  Kara stirred her coffee zily, tuning in and out of the Goblin’s growing dominance over Norman. She could fly over there, rip his armor apart, heat vision him into dust. But where was the fun in that? This was better. Watg the slow unraveling. She didn’t o intervehis eter’s story to handle. She was just here to enjoy the show.

  Another buzz. A message from Harry.

  Harry: “’t wait to see you Thursday. You’ll be the most beautiful girl at the table. Don’t tell Gwen ;)”

  Kara ughed out loud. Natasha’s eyes snapped up.

  “Harry,” Kara said. “Flirting. He’s really trying.”

  Natasha’s grip on her cup whitened her knuckles. Her jaw tightened, but she smiled—dangerously.

  “I’ll ha.”

  Kara raised her hands in mock surrender. “Easy, wifey.”

  Natasha didn’t deny it. She didn’t o. Her mind was already running through sarios: a warning gre, a discreet threat, a gun pressed to Harry’s temple if necessary. She’d elimihe problem if it persisted. That’s what wives did.

  Later that day, as Kara strolled through the city, she caught the st of desperation. A man—mid-thirties, fident but a little too eager—approached her outside a bakery.

  “Hey,” he said smoothly. “I couldn’t help but notiaybe we could—”

  Kara smiled politely. “Not ied.”

  He persisted, leaning closer. “Aw, e on. Don’t be like—”

  He never finished. Kara kept walking, but as she turhe er, she saw her.

  Wanda, dressed in civilian clothes, leaning against a mppost like she’d been there forever. Her eyes met Kara’s briefly—a faint smile. Kara kept walking.

  Behihe man clutched his chest and colpsed into the alley. Heart failure. Or at least, that’s what the er would say.

  Wanda turned and walked in the opposite dire, red tendrils briefly flickering at her fiips before fading.

  Natasha buried bodies. Wanda made them disappear with a whisper.

  No men would get near Kara. Ever.

  That evening, Kara settled into her couch with Natasha beside her. The TV was on low—another J. Jonah Jameson rant about the "alien menace." Kara didn’t care. She was more amused by the fact that there were still no male agents in sight.

  “You know,” Kara said, stretg her legs out across Natasha’s p. “I swear I haven’t seen a guy on my detail in, like, a week.”

  Natasha didn’t flinch. “I told you. Men are unreliable.”

  Kara raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because Fury’s been assigning—”

  Natasha cut her off smoothly. “Probably in a bar somewhere.”

  Kara shrugged. She didn’t really care. But something in Natasha’s tooo calm, too prepared—made her curious.

  Across town, Fury sat in his office, flipping through personnel files. He tapped his pen against the desk, frowning.

  “Where the hell are all my men?”

  Kara y ier that night, staring at her ceiling. Her phone buzzed agaihis time.

  Gwen: “Goodnight <3 ’t wait for Thursday!”

  She smiled, replying with a quick goodnight. Gwen was sweet. And crazy. And hers. She liked it that way.

  In her room across the city, Gwen whispered softly to Venom. “Harry won’t st long. her will the Widow. She’s mine.”

  Venom purred in agreement.

  Natasha y in her quarters, but her mind was elsewhere—on the weight of her gun, the precise location of the Osborhouse, the best way t a body through Kara’s backyard without being noticed.

  And Wanda? Wanda watched from the shadows, patient, but her fingers ached for Kara’s hand.

  Kara closed her eyes, grinning to herself.

  This universe erfect.

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