Chapter 2
‘my girl’ is the first thing Alexi declares, opening his arms and squashing Natasha tight, lifting her off the ground
‘hey papa’
‘why are all these people still alive after hugging Natasha’ tony stage whispers to Bruce, he shrugs
‘I don’t know’
‘papa, these are my friends-Tony, Bruce and…. Gary’ she eyes rest on Steve with a slight threat in them
‘good to meet you’ Alexi crushes each of their lands in a crushing handshake leaving them all wincing then hugs clint slightly and slaps him on the back
‘ahhh the master archer-back for a rematch’ Clint turns literally green
‘no thank you sir’ he stammers and Alexi frowns and turns to Natasha
‘what about Maria? Your Masha will surely be up for the challenge’
‘Maria doesn’t drink’ Natasha reminds him gently ‘but, we aren’t talking about her now’
Again the boys share a look ‘who is this mystery maria?’
‘Anyway’ Melina is quick to distract ‘food. You are probably all hungry’
Theres a flurry of nods
‘Natasha, take the boys upstairs and show them where the spare rooms are, the shower’s free and I think Clint has some clothes here’
Natasha nods
‘yes ma’ and leads the say the rickety stairs
‘little Red?’ Tony asks as they reach the landing ‘im so confused? Sorry, wait, my brain is still struggling to process-these people are your family?!’
‘yep’ nat nods
‘yes you dumbass its not hard to work out’ a voice yells from a shut door on their left
‘shut up Yelena’ Natasha yells back
‘make me bitch’ the blonde shouts back and Natasha rolls her eyes, kicking the door as she passes it
‘this is my room’ she gestures to a shut door ‘you’ll be down here’ she waves a at few more rooms further down the hall ‘the backroom is at the end-you can share the two rooms between you’
‘bags not with Tony’ steve immediately says at the exact same time tony yells ‘bags with Steve’
Nat smirks ‘well, this will be fun’ she pats each one of them on the head
‘dinner will be an hour-you’re free to do as you wish-don’t come in my room, except BirdBrain’ then she’s gone and the door is slamming in their face
‘o..okay’ Steve turns around ‘I guess im going to have a shower then’
‘im bagsing the biggest bed’ tony bounds into the other room
‘well I guess im in here’ bruce shrugs going into the other, Clint just looks between them, then at Nat’s door, then back, before gently knocking
‘I said go away’ her voice cracks slightly
‘its Clint’
‘oh’ Clint opens the door solely and creeps into the room.
The room is the best representation of Natasha and Maria he’s ever seen, even more so than their apartment, safehouses, or space on the Triskelion because here is somewhere where they can leave behind the Deputy Director and the Black Widow and just be truly them. The wardrobe in the corner is messy, spilling out hoodies and jogging bottoms, sports jegging and exercise tops shoved in a draw, the dressing table is a mess of makeup and weapons, the scary combination of a mascara wand and a glock 24, next to a small hand grenade and an eyeshadow pallet. The wall is a blue-takcy mess of posters, for movies, for albums, for songs, some photographs dominate the space around the window, most of them of scenery-places he knows they’ve vanished off to together, and in some there are the shadows of two women, never staying long; passing through the world like they were mist and everyone else were rocks, always together, intertwined, connected.
Natasha is crouched on the end of the bed, her knees drawn up to her chin and her breath shaky and small
‘Nat are you okay?’
‘uh huh’ she nods but he knows shes lying
‘I need you to breathe Natasha, breathe with me’
‘im trying’ Natasha gasps angrily, her hands going up her her head ‘they’re here Clint’
‘who?’
‘the others, they’re in my space, they’re in my home’ she struggles to take deep breathes, swallowing thickly ‘this is my safe place.’
‘and it still is’ he crouches down on the floor ‘do you trust the others?’
‘no’ Nat immediately replies and Clint laughs
‘okay, I set the bar too low there’ Natasha tries to chuckle through her gasps
‘do you think that Tony would ever, or Steve, or Bruce accidently do something to endanger your families lives or cause any harm to this place, or the people in it?’
‘not intentionally’ Nat manages to smile a bit, finally looking up
‘exactly-now, they’re here-but be happy about that-theyre here!’ Clint waves his arms dramatically ‘let Bruce talk Yelena’s ear off, let Melina teach Steve darts, let Alexi bruise Tony’s ego and never, never let me drink against your father again’
‘okay’ Natasha grins ‘fine.’
‘good’ Clint passes her her phone, shed left in the jet my accident ‘now, call Maria-tell her whats going on and try to breathe at least once a minute’
Natasha clutches the device like a lifeline ‘thanks dingus’
‘anyday’ Clint stands up and stretches ‘bye nat’
‘bye cli-‘ she begins then her call pings through ‘Masha!’
‘hey love’ Marias voice filters through strong and clear and Clint heaves a sigh of relief as Nat does, gently shutting the door and leaving Nat to her girlfriend
****
An hour later various Super people tramps down the stairs, respectably clean and dressed to eat. Melina hasn’t left the kitchen and is sharpening her knives as Alexi and Yelena play on the xbox-the Russian curses making her eyebrows raise and mouth curve up at the corners
‘hey Mama’ Natasha comes back down last in a tracksuit and hoodie, her hair spread down the back
‘hey, you look happy’ Melina eyes Nat’s relaxed grin ‘is Maria alright?’
‘yes fine, shes coming over’ Nat adds quietly, eyeing the guys
‘really? When they’re still there’
‘I….’ Nat struggles to find the words ‘I’m, im having a bit of a bad time... I’m not okay Mama’ her voice breaks slightly ‘the last mission was hard, and we think we’ve found a ring of human trafficking’
Melina winces and her eyes go dark ‘good. She will make you strong’ then she pulls Natasha in tight
‘my brave, brave girl. Pain only makes you stronger, but love is what gives you hope’
‘love?’ Tony asks ‘you and birdbrain finally together?’
‘shut up Tony’ Natasha slaps him lightly round the back of the head
‘yeah I have a wife mate’ Clint tried and there a moment of silence before Bruce, Tony and Steve all burst out laughing
‘sure you do’ tony snorts ‘sure you do’
Dinner is a mostly silent affair, Yelena chatters away about the latest fashion trends and spends about an hour trying to explain the combination of TikTok, Tumbler and Pinterest to Steve while Tony tries to get as much technological and scientific information out of Melina before she shut up like a clam. Bruce is first off to bed, thanking everyone politely and sneaking upstairs, soon followed by Steve, then Tony, then Clin until only Natasha and her family are left
‘thank you’ she says quietly
‘anytime’ Yelena smirks ‘theyre annoyingly cool-except the old man’
‘I agree’ Melina nods ‘they have my approval’
‘your approval?’ Alexi snorts ‘none of them are good enough for our little girl’
‘they don’t have to be papa’ Nat reminds him
‘yeah shes got Maria’ Yelena grins
‘the perfect Maria’ Melina adds
‘your favourite child’ Natasha points out dryly and Alexi laughs
‘ah, not quite yet’
‘yet’ Melina raises her eyebrows suggestively and Natasha buries her face in a cushion
‘shhh mama’
‘oh’ Yelena raises her eyebrows ‘OH’
‘no’ Nat groans
‘OMG’
‘no.’
‘IM GETTING A SISTER’
‘you already have one dumbass’ Natasha throw her blush-hiding pillow at her sister
‘suchka’ Yelena fires it straight back at her
‘girls, girls, don’t fight’ Alexi waves his hands lazily
‘if you do at least do it with knives’ Melina rolls her eyes ‘or guns, at the minimum’
‘ma!’ Natasha squawks
‘what? I have standards’ Melina sniffs ‘but you aren’t getting out of this-when are you going to ask her’
‘I might never’ Nat shrugs ‘marriage isn’t everything, you know, I’d be happy to be with her forever and I don’t have to be married to have that’
‘yes but-‘ Yelena starts to argue but Nat cuts her off
‘Why cant we talk about why kate Bishop is so high up on her list’
The room turns to face Yelena who gasps dramatically, her ears turning pink
‘Kate is.. my best friend’
‘like Maria was my best friend?’ Nat asks with a knife sharp grin
‘i… uh…’ Yelena splutters and Nat gets up
‘im going to leave you with that’ she slips upstairs to Yelena’s threats, Melina’s yells and Alexis rolling laughter.
She curls up in a tiny ball on the corner of her bed, hating to sleep without Maria lying next to her and squeezes her eyes tight waiting for sleep to come.