Chapter 5
***
‘so you’re getting married?’ Yelena scoffs a jaffa cake and flicks Maria’s temple
‘well I don’t know, we literally just swore to be together forever and the only thing missing was an I do’
‘so you’re engaged?’ another jaffa cake
‘I don’t know-hey stop it, those are mine’
‘you pay for my romance advice in food tree trunk’ Yelena locks eyes with her and eats another one whole
‘that’s gross and this is not advice’
Natasha and Maria had fallen asleep on the sofa together, until the faint ray of sunlight creeping in the window burnt Maria’s eyes and she slipped away, banging Yelenas door and offering food as an apology for the early wake up, to try and work out what the hell she agreed to last night
‘everything coming out of my mouth is advice, it might not be good advice-but its advice none the less’ Yelena smirks ‘but this is great-you have a one way ticket to propose, just get a ring off gumtree or a corpse or something’
‘of a corpse? Or gumtree’ Maria chokes on her biscuit/cake and rolls her eyes ‘I fear for whoever you decide to fall in love with’
‘go away’ Yelena groans ‘I’m not falling in love’
‘oh’ Maria grins ‘so Kate Bishop means nothing to you’
Yelena turns bright red ‘shut up. Shut up. Shut up. I don’t love Kate’
‘so you like her’
‘like a friend’ Yelena tries
‘I used to like Natasha like a friend’ Maria sighs and Yelena smacks her around the head with a pillow
‘shut up’
‘nope, I was like aw my bestie and then she kissed me and I just thought god I’ve been missing this for 5 years, why the hell didn’t we do this sooner’
‘ew that’s gross I don’t need to know about you kissing my sister’
‘you’ve heard worse from Nat’
‘yes I have’ Yelena gags ‘that scared me for life’
‘but you’re not admitting you wont regret not kissing Kate’
‘think about your own problems, little miss I proposed to my girlfriend maybe but im too scared to ask her officially in case she says no and I have commitment issues and trust problems’
‘ouch’
***
‘YELENA I NEED YOU’ Natasha runs over to where Yelena is doing pull ups on the side bar of the pig sty
‘what’s the matter? Is everyone allright?’ Yelena hasn’t even had breakfast yet (except the jaffa cakes at 5am) and was honestly only working out as an excuse to eat as many pancakes as Stevee, who was still calmly asleep upstairs in the house
‘yes. I have a problem.’
‘you killed someone?’ Yelena drops for the bar and pulls on her hoodie ‘I’ll get the shovel, the bleach is under the sink with some gloves’
‘not that’ Nat catches her arm and pulls Yelena back
‘oh it’s a Maria problem’ Yelena rolls her eyes ‘you can pay me in cake’
‘I tried to find some but all the jaffa cakes were gone’ Nat complains
‘weird that’ Yelena frowns
‘and so I thought you could just help me, please’
‘please?’ Yelenas eyes widen, surely something cant have gone wrong in the last 2 hours? ‘Oh god this is really messed up. Did she break up with you? did you do something wrong? Do I even want to know?’
‘I think I proposed. To Maria’ Natasha bursts out and Yelena snorts
‘oh no. really?’ she asks in a monotone ‘Imagine that’
‘I know-or maybe she did, I don’t know?’
‘you don’t know if you’re getting married to your girlfriend?’
‘yes, exactly’
‘oh god’ Yelena drops to the ground and starts whacking out press ups, Natasha drops next to her and follows suit, even in her baggy pyjamas and hoodie
‘I don’t know, do I ask her officially? So I forget about it? Do I start wedding planning’
‘I cannot do this again’ Yelena sighs ‘okay, Natasha’ she sits up and put her hands on Natasha shoulders, looking into her eyes
‘do you want to marry Maria?’
‘maybe, I guess?’
‘nope, yes or no. marry her or not?’
‘yes.’ Natasha tries ‘yes, I want her’
‘ew’
‘I want her to be mine. And I want to be hers. Fully. In everyway. In the eyes of the law, of the people, of our families.’
Yelena sniffs ‘I cant help you anymore. That’s it. The student has become the master’
Natasha rocks back on her heels, almost not believing what she just said
‘Nat, you okay’
‘I’m going to marry Mia’
‘yeah I know’
‘I’m going to marry her’
‘shocker. Im quaking’
‘im going to be her wife’
‘I knew this about 6 years ago’
‘and I want everyone to know’
‘yeah duh-oh you meant that’
‘fuck. I need to go’ Natasha stands up and starts to sprint off in the way of the house, then she wheels around and slams into Yelena, hugging her tightly
‘thank you yelena’
‘at least you said thank you. But maria brought me cake so eh?’ Yelena shrugs
‘maria came to you?’
‘yeah you better go or shes going to ask first’ Yelena watches a flurry of expressions cross her sisters face, then grave determination
‘nope. Shes mine. Bye’ then off she sprints, disappearing through the door with a slam that leaves the curtains flying and the pigs snorting.
‘gays’ Yelena shakes her heads ‘absolute bloody chaos’
***
Steve, Bruce and Tony tramp down the stairs to screams (or rather Bruce and Tony do, Steve breaks into a majestic run and breaks through the door only to find Yelena on the floor, Maria pinning her arms down and Natasha and Melina tickling her viciously
‘oh, theres not an emergency’ he stops stock still and Natasha looks up
‘nope. Just torturing my sister’
‘breakfast?’ Melina boops Yelena’s nose then stands up ‘we’ve been up for hours, so there some left on the stove for you’
‘sounds great, thanks ma’am’ Steve’s eyes linger on Maria and Natasha who have released Yelena and are standing, fitting perfectly into each other, but with palpable tension between then
‘what happened with them?’ Tony asks Bruce
‘I don’t know’ he shrugs ‘I heard them talking until really late last night, then up early this morning, but there weren’t arguing-I don’t think’
‘leave them be’ Clint appears from behind to steal Steve’s bacon that hes loading onto his plate ‘its Natasha and Maria, they’ll always end up together’
‘urgh I hate how little red has a better relationship then all of us’ tony sniffs ‘I talked to pepper last night, shes not surprised, she thought they were a thing years ago’
‘everyone know but us’ Steve shakes his head slightly, watching as Maria leans down and whispers something in Natasha’s ear, before standing up and walking out of the door to the porch. Natasha turns white, then locks eyes with Yelena, nodding at her before slipping out the door after her
‘uh oh, someones in trouble’ tony laughs and Clint snorts
‘this is going to be fun’
***
Natasha watches Maria for a moment, a silhouette against the nothingness of the horizon, then she slips forward, reaching her arms around Maria and standing on her tip toes to rest her chin on Maria’s shoulder
‘hey’ Maria doesn’t even jump
‘hey’
‘what did you want me to come out here for?’ Natasha feels a knot tightening in her stomach
‘I wanted to talk to you, alone, totally alone in the quiet’ Maria leads her further away from the house, walking over the yellowing grass, next to Natasha, their hands easily joining in silence
‘Masha, I have something to say too’ Natasha turns to face her and tapping her thumb to her first finger, middle finger, ring finger and little finger, then back again.
‘I’m happy to tell people. I want people to know, but not because they deserve it, not because the tabloids need more information about us, but because you are the only thing in this world that I love so wholely and so unconditionally that no matter what happens I will always return to you’ Natasha finishes and Maria looks down at her, a soft smile playing at the corner of her mouth
‘thank you Natasha’
‘but I’ll only tell them after’
‘after what?’ Maria asks and then Natasha takes a deep breath, shuts her eyes, sends a small prayer up to Rudá and gets down on one knee. Maria laughs
‘damn you Romanoff. Damn you’
Natasha turns bright red, not understanding why Marias finding this so funny
‘what?’
‘you always seem to know exactly what im going to do’ then she keels down opposite her, so theyre level (well, Natasha still a bit shorter, but you get the ides)
‘Natasha’ Maria starts and the redhead opens her mouth to inturrupt, but Maria raises her eyebrows and she just grins instead, trying to take in the moment, every sight every smell every breeze so she can drift back to the field years later
‘Natalia, I’m not going to do some sort of big dramatic speech because I don’t think that’s either of our things. But I love you, that all there is really, three tiny little words, thrown away too many times that are meant to encompass a huge, indescribable feeling of somehow being home. I run, that’s what I do. I leave- Italy Canada, my family, my father and yet I know I would stay anywhere, in any situation, for you. Ever if every instinct in my body was telling me to run I’d stay, I’d stay with you because you make me feel… you make me feel everything Natalia, everything that I’ve ever wanted, or ever needed and I don’t know what I could do with out it. I’m not going to lie to you Natasha, I don’t need you, we don’t need each other. But I want you, and I would like to be what you want forever’ Maria curses and wipes her eyes ‘I promised myself I wouldn’t cry’ she laughs and Natasha bites her lips, trying to blink back her own tears
‘Its cute, and that was definitely a speech’
‘but is it a yes?’
‘you haven’t asked me yet’
‘okay’ Maria shakes out her hands then looks Natasha dead in the eye
‘Natasha Romanoff will you marry me?’
Natasha wipes her eyes roughly with the back of her hand and sighs
‘I get my speech now, yeah?’
‘fine. But my knees are freezing off so be quick about it’
‘you could stand up’ Natasha offers with a glint in her eye
‘nope. I proposed first’
‘yeah right I got down on one knee first!’
‘but I actually asked’
‘I’m getting to it, im getting to it’ Natasha sighs, then wrings out her hands
‘I am a little bit broken. Every where, here’ she taps her heart ‘here’ she taps her stomach ‘and definitely here’ she taps her temple
‘and yet you fix me without changing me. Ever since I’ve known you you’ve never got any part of me to change, all you’ve done is gently peel back the layers of pain and suffering and stuff that I cant even think about anymore. But you made me me without pulling everything out and starting again. I fell in love with you as I fell in love with myself and you didn’t lie so I wont-you are the only reason am alive right now. You are the main reason im not in an unmarked grave in a foreign country that my family don’t know about. You helped me created myself fully out of myself and that version of me-the most treasured and the most sane-loves you. And every version of me loves you, every part of every face of every front and every made up spy loves you and so every part of me, although im annoyed you asks first says yes. Because you are the purest part of me’
‘you are the fiercest part of me’ Maria whispers, then they stand clashing in the middle as their lips meet and Marias hands fit onto Natasha wait and Nat’s arm wrap around Maria’s neck and she closes her eyes because that’s all that she need in her life right now. Maria closest to her heart, Yelena a walking distance away, her mother and father at the house and three confused superheroes and her brother nearby.
‘I don’t have a ring’ Maria whispers and Natasha lets her head drop against Maria’s shoulder as she laughs
‘neither’
‘oh thank god’
‘here’ Maria pulls out her hair band ‘I hereby pronounce you engaged to me yada yada, you have no way out now, this is how you perish’ then she wraps the hairband around Natasha’s ring finger three times
‘alright’ Natasha unties one of her braids ‘you are now stuck with me forever and ever’ she wraps it around Maria’s finger
‘with this hairband I thee engaged’
***
‘they’ve been a while, do you think they’re allright? Natasha looked pretty scared?’ Tony peers out the kitchen window and try to spot the women
‘there are a few walking tracks around here, they might be gone a few hours or so’ Melina looks up from where shes cleaning her and yelenas guns while the blonde texts happily on her phone
‘oh! Oh!’ Steve jumps up and down and points out the window ‘here-they’re coming back’
‘are they apart? Do they look angry?’ Bruce asks and the family moves to watch as they slowly come closer
Maria and Natasha are walking fast, like they want their time alone to be over quickly, Maria’s face is fixed in its stony, no nonsense Deputy Director expression, whereas Natasha looks like she could cry, murder someone or do both at the same time.
‘scatter’ Alexi orders and at onoce they all adopt places. Steve is drying up while Bruce washes, Yelena is still on her phone but Melina is explaining a blueprint to Tony while Alexi leans over Yelena’s shoulder, trying to read her texts.
The door opens and Clint falls out of the ceiling where hed been pretending to sweep some non-existent cobwebs
‘hi’ Natasha says, her voice low and quiet
‘hey’ the room choruses back
‘so we have some news’ Maria says, her voice totally blank and her face void of any happiness, Yelena leans forwards and Tony puts down his tea towel
‘okay?’ Melina asks ‘we’re ready for it’
Maria and Natasha look at each other and Yelena manages to spot a hint of a smile twitching into a smirk before she screams because both women chorus at the same time
‘we’re getting married’