Unconventional

Family wasn’t something she ever remembered having. As far as she knew she had always been on her own in one way or another. Until Clint, that is. He picked her up, dusted her off, and dragged her home with him. Though, ‘home’ was a relative word for him as well. He dragged her to SHIELD, anyway, and they’d been partners and friends ever since. Still not really a family, but if you squinted and cocked your head to the side, just so, it could maybe, possibly, kind of, resemble a family-like structure. Fury – obviously the tough-love dad. Coulson – the indulgent, loving, but still kind of strict (when he wanted to be) uncle. And Clint…well, she never knew quite how to label her relationship with him. It was complicated.

Enter the Avengers. When she first went undercover to scope out Tony Stark, she never would have thought that she would ever grow to be as close to him as she has. Or that she would get a plethora of other men to take care of and be cared by. But she has.

Tony really was like that know-it-all brother who liked to strut around and show off and teased his ‘siblings’ for every little thing but would secretly do little things to show he cares. Like sitting with her late at night when the nightmares got really bad. He wouldn’t say a word. He just sat down with her on the couch, passed over whatever alcohol he happened to have on hand and allowed her to soak in the safe feeling of having him close, protecting her. He never talked on nights like that, but there would always be some way he’d show that he trusted her. Like when Pepper was away and the Arch Reactor needed maintenance. It was Natasha that he called down to the lab to help, to pull out the reactor and replace it with the new and improved one. She really hoped she never had to do that again, but it was nice to know he trusted her above everyone else with something so sensitive.

Along with Tony, naturally came Pepper. Natasha’s relationship with the woman had started out rocky when it was clear Tony had originally been attracted to her. Though at the time that had been her intention, the Russian still felt bad about driving a bit of a wedge between the obviously madly in love couple. It got better after a while, as Natasha helped keep Tony’s business afloat while he cured himself. Once everything was out in the open, and Natasha revealed who she really was to Pepper, they got along a lot better. She considered Pepper her best friend, and maybe even an older sister type, being able to tell the other woman anything without the fear of judgment. Pepper really was a beautiful soul.

And then there was Bruce. Ah, sweet Bruce. He was kind of like another father figure, or maybe an uncle. Well, maybe not that. He was always there for a shoulder to cry on and an open mind, but she had helped him just as much as he helped her. She still felt shame festering in her gut at how they had originally treated him after the Battle of New York. It had been inexcusable, but he’d gracefully accepted her apology. Though he did talk her out of kicking Ross’s ass, telling her she would cause a lot of trouble and a lot more paperwork than necessary if she did. (She really hated paperwork.) Huh. Maybe he was the level-headed, wise father of the group, after all.

Steve had come on the scene rather quietly for her, considering the ways she was introduced to the other Avengers. One minute she was listening to Coulson gush on and on about Captain America and the next she was meeting the guy. He was pretty cute, in the Disney Prince kind of way, and one of the most polite people she’d ever spoken to in her life. It kind of made her wish she could travel back in time to live when he did, even with the war. However, he was a great soldier, no matter what time period. She felt almost honored fighting with him. But it wasn’t until after the dust had settled and the team fell into a sort of normalcy that Natasha really got to know the man, got to understand how confused the poor guy was around all technology and advances he’d skipped over. Not to mention how people interacted now. Tony liked to poke fun at him, but Natasha tried to help him as much as she could, sit down with him and talk him through whatever had him stumped as any big sister would do a younger brother.

Thor was definitely the baby of the family, always following one of them around, being too loud and nosy, asking endless questions when the answers seemed so obvious to everyone else. Half the time Natasha wanted to bang her head against the wall in frustration, while the other half she wanted to cuddle him close and coo over him like he was a helpless puppy. (And really, everyone agreed that he pretty much was.) So it was hard to refuse anything he asked for. Even when that meant taking him to the “adorable themed play land for adult” also known as Disneyworld. Really, they should have thought that one through more. Though, Natasha can’t regret being able to dress up as a princess (something her sketchy-at-best childhood didn’t allow) and having Thor twirl her around in front of Cinderella’s castle while Clint filmed it all on his phone. If anyone could bring out the Russian assassin’s inner child, it was definitely the God of thunder. And how ironic was that?

So yeah, they were all very close. And for once, Natasha got to feel like she was part of something that she always, deep down, yearned for. A family. A chaotic, strange, complicated one, but a family nonetheless.

The first year they were all, officially, living in Avengers Tower together, (including Jane and Betty) was epic when it came to the holidays. Tony really went all out on the Fourth of July, shooting the biggest and brightest fireworks she’d ever seen from the roof just for them as they all huddled together in blankets on the helipad Thor used when he came back from Asgard. Halloween was the next big one, the entire tower basically being redone into a haunted house. It was more annoying than anything, having things jump out at you at random moments. Pepper nearly chopped Tony’s head off for doing something to the toilet. No one had yet to discover what that something was. All bathrooms were now off limits to any and all holiday or non-holiday themed pranks and/or decorations.

But there was on holiday (okay Christmas too, but that was later) that Natasha was really looking forward to. Thanksgiving. Now that she had a sort of make-shift family, Natasha was determined to have a good old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and pie and cranberry sauce and whatever else there was supposed to be. She may not be technically American, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself. And besides, Thor wasn’t even from Earth, so it hardly mattered.

Everyone was game for having dinner together, including Fury and Coulson. No one knew how Natasha had managed to wrangle those two into it, and she wasn’t telling. Pepper sweetened the deal by offering to host it at the cabin in Connecticut that Tony had bought her the past Christmas.

So the second to last week of November found the Avengers and their loved ones, standing around the living room of the large cabin (which was more like a mansion) arguing over who got what room. Natasha just sat back in the armchair by the fire with a smug smile on her face. This was her family. And she couldn’t be happier.