Meeting.
Natasha frowned, narrowing her eyes at the windows as they tore her vision from the dusted tracker. It had been quite a few weeks since the snap, but still the tracker only rose as more and more people were reported missing, and immediately assumed to be dead.
Her friends were amongst those people.
She missed Sam and Bucky more and more each day. Sure, she complained about them nearly constantly for their insolent jokes and pranks, but now that they were gone she didn’t feel whole. She missed Sam’s sarcasm. She missed Bucky’s avid cluelessness - he still didn’t know how to work basic household appliances. Showing him how to use a microwave had been beyond entertaining. It was hard...not having them by her side every day.
It hurt.
Right now, though, there was a glow. A yellow-tinted glow that was getting brighter and brighter, illuminating the darkness outside. She could hear Steve and Rhodey from where they were in the kitchen also getting up from their stools. She met them in the lobby, and saw Rocket, Bruce and Thor already outside with Pepper. Throwing each other calculating looks, the three tentatively walked outside.
It was glaring. Vivid. Intense. It was almost like a meteor was falling, right onto the compound (honestly, if that was the case, Natasha wouldn’t mind - she didn’t have much else to lose).
“Should we...run?” Rhodey said, half-genuinely as he side-eyed Natasha.
“No.” Pepper said clearly, crossing her arms. “We need to see who it is.”
“Pep, none of us are armed.” Steve said softly.
“And?” Pepper snapped, making everyone avert their eyes. “We stand and we wait.”
And so they did.
It didn’t take more than a few seconds before Natasha could faintly make out a blurry, blue, blonde figure. She recognised it, but she couldn’t work out from where. As the thing came closer, it slowed down, and Natasha could see that it was carrying a spaceship.
A spaceship.
She could hardly focus on anything other than the loud thump thump thump of her heart in her ears, and she gulped. It couldn’t be…
The figure landed the ship and herself carefully and safely onto the ground.
It was.
He was alive.
Natasha hadn’t felt such a relief in a long time. Elation, confusion, disbelief - it all coursed through her veins in those moments. Running on pure adrenaline, she watched as Tony stumbled out of the ship and right into Pepper’s arms. There was hope - Tony was hope. He’d survived. Natasha briefly wondered about what he’d seen, what had happened, who else had survived, and a tall, blue, mechanical creature stepped off the ship too. Rocket had spoken of her - Nebula, his friend. He seemed as elated to see her as Natasha felt to see Tony (it was the first smile she’d seen the raccoon give so far). Whilst the boys talked amongst themselves and Pepper and Tony began to silently reconnect, Natasha looked round at the blonde figure she’d lost focus of from the sky. She recognised her.
Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel.
Of course, how could Natasha not remember her. It was hard to forget a random alien stomping into the compound unannounced with threats and demands to know Fury’s whereabouts. They’d met briefly those weeks ago, and from what Natasha gathered at the time she was a friend of his - a worried friend. Whilst she’d offered Carol food and water (and refused to admit to herself that she found the girl incredibly attractive upon first glance), Carol hadn’t stayed for long enough to accept. As soon as she'd heard that Fury was missing, was dust, she’d flown off again in a fit of rage and upset. But now she was here. She was here and she was standing awkwardly to the side, looking slightly worried as she eyed how tightly Pepper was squeezing her clearly weak fiance.
Natasha felt a pull. It was sudden, it was serious, and it was strong. Tony and Nebula had been lost, completely off the radar of all the maps the remaining avengers could find. Wherever they were, they had exceeded all distant microwave connections, all satellites back to Earth. They must have been light years away, and this Captain Marvel had just carried their ship right back to Earth.
Without her, Tony would have died.
Natasha needed to thank her. She gave in to the attraction, walking briskly up to the other blonde and gently but firmly embracing her in a big hug. Carol seemed stiff at first, but she quickly relaxed and hugged Natasha back. It was then, with someone else’s arms around her - something that she hadn’t felt properly in a long time - that Natasha felt the gravity of it all, the understanding that someone had just come back. Someone she’d assumed to be dead had just returned, alive. She pushed her head into Carol’s (still hot) shoulder, and let a few tears fall. She sniffled quickly though - there was no way she would cry here, or now. Not with everyone there. Not when she should be happy. Were they happy or sad tears? She could hardly tell. All she knew was that she was immensely grateful to Carol right now, and would probably feel forever in her debt.
“Thank you.” Natasha said sincerely, squeezing tighter.
“I did what any decent guy would’ve done.” Carol replied honestly. She squeezed tighter. “But I think we should take him inside. Do you have a ward or something in here? He’s not healthy, he hasn’t had any food in a long time.”
Natasha let go, and nodded, clearing her throat. Carol was right. Now that Tony was here, they needed to get him back to normal. Figuring Pepper and Tony had had enough greeting time for now, she walked over and told Pepper what Carol said, and together they brought Tony inside.