"Blegh!!"
Natasha, who had been full of happiness just a moment ago, couldn't help but question her life choices.
Her beautiful face instantly crumpled into a ball.
"What on Earth is that?!"
She had never eaten anything so bizarre in her entire life.
"Endure it; it'll be fine once you swallow it."
It was only because Natasha had undergone professional training that she was able to eat the entire fruit.
Um... actually, Peter had originally intended to tell her that she only needed to take one bite.
But by the time he remembered, Natasha had already eaten more than half of it, so he swallowed those words back down.
When Natasha finished the entire Devil Fruit, she couldn't help but gasp for air as if she had just survived a disaster.
With reddened eyes, she looked at Peter resentfully while struggling to wipe the saliva from the corner of her mouth.
If someone didn't know better, they might have thought Peter had fed her something else entirely...
"Are you sure this is something humans are supposed to eat?"
Just as Natasha was asking Peter with lingering fear, wondering if she should take some anti-diarrhea medicine later, her body suddenly underwent a change.
First, her hands.
A layer of silvery-white, fluffy fur emerged on the backs of her originally fair hands, and her nails became sharp and long, glinting with a cold metallic luster.
Next were her ears.
Two furry wolf ears pricked up from amidst her red curls, twitching nimbly the moment they appeared as if capturing surrounding sounds.
Then came a larger, fluffier tail.
"This..." Natasha looked down at her hands, then turned to look at the tail wagging uncontrollably behind her, completely stunned.
So cute~
Peter admired Natasha's beast-eared girl form, feeling a bit excited for a moment.
Black Widow's already amazing figure, paired with these wolf ears and tail—the sense of contrast was maxed out.
"Don't panic; this is the hybrid form of the Devil Fruit."
Peter reached out to pet the wolf ears on her head. "What you obtained is the Mythical Zoan type, Okuchi no Makami form. Simply put, it's a type of ice-attribute divine beast."
Hearing Peter say this, Natasha indeed felt as if a new kind of energy had appeared in her body.
She subconsciously opened her mouth and exhaled, releasing a frost breath.
The breath hit the nightstand, instantly freezing a thick layer of ice onto its surface.
Natasha tried aiming her claws at the nightstand and swiped; it was immediately sliced into pieces.
This cold, this power...
Natasha couldn't help but gape in shock.
This was too exaggerated!
"Can I... can I still change back in the future?"
Natasha suddenly thought of something and couldn't help but ask stutteringly.
"Of course you can!"
Peter stroked Natasha's wolf tail, reluctant to let go.
"You just need to focus and visualize your form. You can switch freely between human, beast, and hybrid forms."
Natasha closed her eyes skeptically.
After a few seconds, the wolf ears and tail slowly vanished, and the fur on the back of her hands gradually receded, returning her to her previous appearance.
However, perhaps due to the influence of the cold energy, the tips of her originally fiery red hair had turned a gradient ice-blue, looking as if she had specifically gotten a professional dye job.
Peter couldn't help but reach out to brush the stray hairs from her forehead.
"It looks quite good."
Natasha rolled her eyes at him, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but quirk upward...
Over the next hour or so, Peter spent his time teaching Natasha how to control her Devil Fruit abilities.
Natasha quickly adapted to the changes in her body and couldn't help but marvel.
"It really is powerful, but it's much harder to control than I imagined."
"Take it slow; developing a fruit is a major project that takes time.
In the future, if you can develop it to the point of Fruit Awakening, it will be even more incredible. By then, your physical stats will probably be even more formidable than those Asgardians."
As Peter spoke, he turned the little broken watch on his wrist, switching it to the Symbiote form he hadn't used in a long time.
"Next is the standard-issue suit that everyone in the family has."
As Peter spoke, he controlled his body to forcibly split off a small portion, which merged into Natasha's body. Before long, a symbiote suit condensed onto her.
Perhaps influenced by the Okuchi no Makami within her, Natasha's suit was also white and blue.
Feeling the power within her surge by an unknown number of times, Natasha's expression became incredibly complex for a moment.
"Aren't you... giving me too much?"
For Natasha, who had always lived with loneliness and knew nothing of what it meant to be cared for, Peter had directly filled the part of her that was most lacking.
"It's not much."
Peter's tone was casual, but his words made Natasha's nose sting.
"Since you are already my woman, I naturally won't let my woman face any threats."
He paused there and added another sentence:
"By the way, there's one more thing."
"What is it?"
"The Red Room."
At those three words, Natasha's body instantly tensed up.
Noticing her reaction, Peter couldn't help but pull her trembling body into his arms, comforting her softly.
"Don't worry, I'll help you take care of it."
"From now on, I won't let anyone threaten you."
Speaking of which, Peter had been planning to take action against the Red Room for quite a while.
It was just that things had piled up, and since the Red Room people couldn't come looking for trouble because Peter had destroyed Natasha's chip, he had gradually pushed the matter to the back of his mind.
It wasn't until today, after solidifying his relationship with Black Widow, that he remembered it again.
To be fair, the female Agents of the Red Room were definitely top-tier bodyguards, if nothing else.
Additionally, they were very suitable for monitoring the high-level officials of America, preventing that group from secretly trying any more tricks against him or his family and friends in the future.
He might be able to take them all under his wing and give them a new organizational name.
Like the Black Rose or something...
On the other side, hearing Peter's words, Natasha remained silent for a long time.
The Red Room was the deepest thorn in her heart.
That place had ruined her childhood, taken away her right to be a mother, and trained her into a heartless killing machine.
It wasn't that she hadn't thought about going back for a reckoning.
But the forces involved behind the Red Room were too many and too deep; she couldn't shake them with her strength alone.
Now, Peter was saying he would help her.
Not that he would try, or do his best, but that he would directly handle it for her!
"Do you know how much trouble the Red Room is?" Natasha's voice was a bit tight.
"Can it be more troublesome than Laufey, or more troublesome than the Bifrost Bridge that almost blasted through Earth?"
Natasha was instantly speechless.
Only now did she truly realize what a powerful support she had found.
"Thank you."
Natasha couldn't help but speak.
"Don't say such silly things~"
Peter rubbed her head, then used the horse talisman on her.
"Instead of saying silly things like that, why don't you let me experience that hybrid form properly again?"
Natasha:...
Is this guy allergic to romance!