“Hiiiiii!” Yelena called out, grinning widely. She hurried over as Nat and I kicked off our shoes near the front door, slamming into her sister hard enough to almost knock her off her feet and hugging her tightly. “You’re back!”

“Yeah,” Nat agreed, smiling as she extricating herself from the embrace. “We got in this afternoon. We’d have been here earlier, but there were a few things left to tidy up with the team.”

“Hey! How’ve you been holding up?” I said, hovering hopefully nearby.

“Ugh, it’s been awful. Boring,” Yelena said. She sized me up for a brief moment before tipping her head in acknowledgement and gesturing for me to come in for a hug as well. I accepted happily, giving her a brief squeeze before she turned and walked back over toward the tiny, square dining table that sat at the edge of the apartment’s kitchen. There was a dirty bowl on the table, slightly gooey with mac and cheese remnants—she must have just finished eating. She picked up the bowl and turned to us. “Have you eaten? There’s… uh. Macaroni. I already ate it all but there’s more. I could make more. It’s delicious.”

“Thanks; we already ate,” Nat said, walking to the centre of the apartment and looking around critically.

The place wasn’t a complete mess, but Yelena hadn’t exactly been keeping it neat and tidy, either. A few rumpled, dirty clothes lay strewn over the couch in the living area. A pair of empty pizza boxes lay stacked on the coffee table. The sink was full of dishes. Natasha shot Yelena a questioning, slightly annoyed, look, but the younger woman ignored it.

“I’m going to have to go back to sleeping on the couch again, aren’t I?” Yelena asked, pseudo-rhetorically. “But I like your bed. It’s really comfortable.”

“I mean…” I trailed off as Nat shot me an unimpressed look. I smirked back and shrugged. She shook her head, looking a little bit exasperated but not actually annoyed. “We just came from that Italian place on the corner that Nat likes,” I said instead, changing the subject.

“Сука. You went out to a nice place for dinner?” Yelena asked, pouting a little. “You could have invited me.”

“And take you away from your ‘delicious’ boxed mac and cheese? I couldn’t do that,” Nat teased her.

Yelena shot her an exaggerated frown, kicking at the floor and twisting on the spot like a petulant child. “I haven’t gotten to see you since you checked in after the Tower exploded. It just would have been nice to get to spend a bit of time with my sister, is all.”

Nat just rolled her eyes. “Wanda and I haven’t had much of a chance to spend any real time together, either. I wouldn’t want you to feel like a third wheel.”

“Exactly!” said Yelena, as if Nat had just proven her point for her. She gestured emphatically with a hand. “So you would have felt bad that I was a third wheel and then you would have paid for my food.”

Nat made an exasperated noise and shook her head, glancing in my direction.

My lips quirked into a small smile and I shrugged. “I mean, I wouldn’t have minded. I think Yelena’s pretty cool.”

“See! I’m cool,” Yelena said triumphantly, then her tone faltered and she frowned at me. “Wait a minute, no. I know what sorts of things you think are cool. Take that back.”

My smile widened into an almost-predatory grin. “Never. You’re super cool.”

She shuddered dramatically, her face twisting in disgust. “Don’t ever say that again. First you come and kick me out of my bed, and now this? I am actually cool, thank you very much, not Wanda cool.”

“There’s nothing stopping you from being both,” Nat said, the corner of her mouth twitching furiously as she tried not to laugh.

“Of course you think that, you’re as bad as she is,” Yelena responded curtly, acting put-out by the comment. “What did I ever do to have such a thoughtless sister? You insult me. You don’t take me anywhere. You didn’t even invite me to come fight the robot with you. I’ve never fought a robot before.”

Nat shook her head, losing a little bit of her joking tone. “It wasn’t a fun fight, trust me.”

“She’s right. I didn’t get to do any cool poses,” I added. “A witch hit me in the bits and I fell off a plane. It was really undignified, actually.”

“Whatever,” Yelena said dismissively, but there was a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. She was probably enjoying the mental image of me getting hit in the bits. Mean.

“We’ll talk properly tomorrow,” Nat reassured her. “It’s been a long day. Week. Two weeks?”

“Not quite two,” I said, nodding. “But it feels like it’s been a lot longer.”

“Fine, fine.” Yelena threw up her hands, then gestured toward the hall. “Don’t let me keep you. I was just going to watch a movie now, anyway. Loudly.”

She turned and stacked the dirty bowl she’d been holding on top of a few others piled in the sink, then made to move toward the living room. As she stepped past us, Nat reached out a hand and grabbed hers gently. Their hands lingered together for a brief moment and Yelena flashed her a small smile, then she was past and picking up the TV remote.

Nat and I exchanged a glance, then headed down the short hallway to her bedroom. She detoured briefly to the linen closet to retrieve a fresh set of sheets and we changed them together, our companionable silence only broken by the muffled sound of the 20th Century Fox opening fanfare from the other side of the door.

After we finished, Nat stepped out briefly to dump the dirty sheets in her laundry hamper. While she did that, I sat down on the edge of the bed. Reaching up, I touched the pendant at my throat absently for a moment, feeling out the gentle presence of the Mind Stone within. “God, I can’t believe we had another argument about the Stone,” I said when she stepped back into the room, closing the door firmly behind her. “Working with Tony is…”

“He can be a lot, sometimes, yeah. You get used to it. My first year with him was a nightmare,” Nat said, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth as she sat down next to me, our arms almost touching. “Tony… a lot of the time, when he lashes out, overcompensates, does what he does, it’s because he’s scared.”

“He’s not scared, he’s an asshole,” I grunted. “Tony has no feelings.”

She laughed and leaned over to nudge me with her shoulder. “You of all people know that’s not true.”

“Yeah…” I said, then sighed. “I get why Tony is how he is. It just sucks being on the receiving end of it all the time.”

“He’ll come around,” she said, her tone firm and confident.

It was hard for me to tell if she really believed that, or if it was just something she was projecting to reassure me. That was always going to be the problem with Nat, wasn’t it? There was always her ‘master social manipulator’ thing hanging over our every interaction. I knew she cared about me—if not how much—but that didn’t discount the fact that I could never be completely certain what she was really thinking or feeling. Was I still being managed, even now?

Nat fidgeted for a moment. “Did you want to talk about what happened with Wanda-3?”

“Not really,” I said, shaking my head. “Not yet. I’m going to need at least a couple of days before I’m ready for that, I think. And a bottle of something that will actually get me drunk.”

We sat quietly for more than a few seconds—it was awkward, but also not? I was suddenly hyperaware of how pretty Nat was, anxiety rising in my chest as I tried to think of the best way to start off a conversation that we were long overdue for.

“I don’t know how to do this,” Natasha said finally, beating me to it. She shook her head, a rueful expression on her face. “I’m not good at talking about feelings.”

“Neither am I,” I confessed. “I think we just need to… start somewhere. Um. Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

The awkwardness in my tone made Nat chuckle. She looked at me, her nose crinkled, a wide smile breaking across her features. “Oh my god. Okay. You being even worse at this than I am is making me feel a bit better, at least. Yes, I want to be your girlfriend.”

I held up a hand. “Uh, hang on. Before you say ‘yes’, we should talk about what that means. I’m…” I gestured a few times, trying to find the right words. “I… don’t think I’m terribly big on exclusivity. I think there’s room in my heart for more than one person.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Just in your heart, huh?” Nat teased.

I laughed and shot her a sly look. “Look, I know you were thinking ‘bed’ when you said that, but you really need to remember that that is not where my mind is going to go.”

“Straight to the gutter.”

“Hey.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “If God wanted me to be monogamous, why’d he give me three holes and ADHD?”

That got a good laugh out of her, her expression torn between amusement and cringe. She shook her head. “You know, you talk a big game for someone who immediately gets flustered the second someone actually flirts back. But that’s fine. You can be with whoever you want. It’s really not a big deal for me.”

“That obviously goes both ways,” I said. “You can be with other people, too, if you want to. Hell, depending on who it is, I’d probably even ask if you wanted a third.”

Nat rolled her eyes. “Duly noted.” She paused for a moment, then shook her head. “I mean, having the option’s good, I guess, but I don’t… I don’t really date, or anything. I’ve never really seen myself as someone who’d ever be able to be in a real relationship.”

“Not even with Bruce?” I asked curiously.

She blinked, thinking about it for a moment. “…Okay, maybe a little,” she confessed. “He was on my mind a bit, before you came along. I don’t know. Things are different now. You said before that we got together in your visions, right?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s… different. Not like anyone else I know. All of my other friends are fighters, but Bruce, he’s spent most of his life avoiding the fight, you know? He’s gentle. But he steps up anyway, because he has to. Because it’s right.”

“Well, if you ever decide you want to run with it…” I trailed off and looked at her shiftily. “Uh. So, I know the Hulk’s almost certainly not physically compatible with humans, but if you ever do find out what’s going on, uh, ‘down there’, let me know.”

Nat suppressed another laugh and shot me a vaguely disgusted look. “I’ve already seen it.”

My eyes widened and I leaned in eagerly. “You have? What’s it like? He’s gotta be huge, right? Or is it like a gorilla thing? Their dicks are really small for their size for some reason.”

“Wanda,” she said, very patiently, the corner of her mouth twitching furiously as she tried not to smile. “I am not going to describe the Hulk’s dick to you.”

“But Nat,” I whined. “I wanna know.”

“Ask Bruce, then.”

“He’s not gonna tell me! Besides, how awkward would that conversation be?”

“Well, I guess you’re not going to find out, then.”

I huffed at her, annoyed, and wondered if it would be wrong if—the next time we had sex—I bound her with chaos magic and teased her until she broke and told me? I mean, yes, that would be pretty wrong and I wouldn’t do it. She didn’t want to tell me, and that was fine. Even though I really, really wanted to know. Grr.

“Oh,” Nat said, straightening up slightly as something occurred to her. “I probably don’t have to say this and I really don’t think she’d be interested anyway, but uh, I feel like it might be really weird if you and Yelena…” she gestured, making it very clear what she meant. “Just throwing that out there. I mean, she’s basically my sister.”

“Oh! Of course, no. Yeah.”

“I’ve just definitely seen you check her out a few times and…”

I held up my hands. “Yelena is off-limits. Absolutely; no problems at all.” A vaguely petulant expression flickered across my features. “I bet Yelena would tell me how big the Hulk’s dick is.”

“Probably.”

I pouted at her. “Fine. I’ll stop asking.”

She took a deep breath and the amusement fled from her expression. “I just… I don’t know if this is enough. I don’t know what you want from me. Not really.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Vision,” she said, and it suddenly got a little harder to breathe. “I can’t give you what the two of you had. You saw yourself settle down. You had a family. Kids. I can’t offer you anything like that. Clint’s the family man—that life isn’t for me. I don’t think I could be a mom.”

I gave her a tight smile. “I think you might surprise yourself, Auntie Nat,” I said quietly. “But that’s okay. I don’t need you to be that. I’m not sure I’d even want it. I just… I care about you. A lot. And I want to spend time with you. That’s all.”

“I can work with that,” she said, smiling back. “I feel the same way.”

I bit my lip, a familiar ache rising in my chest again. “Vision… there’ll always be a hole, I think. Where he and my children should be. I don’t think anything will ever—should ever—take their place. Vision, he…” I trailed off, lost in fragmented memories for a moment. Natasha waited patiently while I put my thoughts in order. After a moment, I let out a small laugh. “He was just so earnest. The way he saw the world was… unique. He appreciated it in a way that no one else I ever met did. Not just the good, but the bad as well. I really wish you could have met him. You liked him the first time around, I think.”

“It sounds like I would have,” she said softly.

“I don’t know how I feel about this. About him not being here,” I confessed. “Anytime I think about him it hurts. I miss him so much, somehow, even though it wasn’t me. I’m the reason he doesn’t exist. I should regret that. But I don’t, and it makes me feel worse about it.”

“You did what you thought was right. You should never regret that.”

“I don’t,” I said firmly. “Put me back again, give me a third go around, and I wouldn’t do a single thing differently. Well, maybe not a single thing. I wouldn’t create Eliza again. But before that? No. I can’t regret stopping Ultron, and I can’t regret anything that led me here. To you.”

“That’s cheesy. But I’m glad,” Nat said, tilting her head to rest it on my shoulder. We sat like that quietly for a little while, then she straightened up and flashed me a smile. “Okay. Talk had. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“I guess… there is actually one more thing I wanted to talk about,” I said, my mouth going dry. There was a lump in my throat and I shifted uncomfortably, trying to push past it. “Um. Please be honest with me. It’s okay if the answer’s no. I just… I need to know. Back with Wanda-3… when you said you…” God, I couldn’t even say it. “Did you really mean that, or were you just saying it? For her?”

Natasha smiled again, leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment. She stayed like that, not responding, and it felt like something rabid was clawing at my insides. Several seconds inched by, but it felt like time had slowed, like I’d projected my consciousness into the deep astral and everything around me was moving at an absolute crawl. An eternity passed. Why did I ask?! I shouldn’t have asked. I shouldn’t have—

“There was a moment in that last fight,” she said eventually, opening her eyes to look at me again. Her eyes were glistening. Wet. “One of the Taskmasters was about to explode in my face. I couldn’t get away. I really thought I was going to die.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I could hardly breathe. The pressure building in my chest felt like it had reached a breaking point. I had said I wanted her to be honest, but that was a lie. I wanted her to say the words, more than anything else in the world. Even if they weren’t true. I didn’t care. I just wanted to hear her say them again. If she didn’t, I’d… I didn’t know. I had no idea what I’d do.

“I thought about you. I was glad that Wanda-3 had forced us to have that moment. That I’d been able to tell you how I felt.” She took a deep breath, turning to face me more fully. “Yeah. I meant it. I love you.”

Her words hit me like a physical blow. I exhaled, long and loud, and it was like a valve had been released inside of me, the pressure that had built up surging out of me in a wave of emotion that made my hands tremble in my lap. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her. My lips felt dry. I ran my tongue along them and swallowed. “…I don’t believe you,” I said quietly. “Say it again.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. “I love you.”

“…Again.” My voice felt hoarse.

Natasha shuffled forward, inching slightly closer and leaning forward. “I love you.”

My vision was starting to blur. “Again.”

She leant in closer, our foreheads almost touching as she looked deeply into my eyes. “I love you.”

I could see it in her eyes. How she felt. I hoped she could see the same in mine. “Again.” My voice was barely a whisper, the word almost dying in my throat. I felt wetness trickling down my cheeks.

She didn’t respond this time. Instead, she finished closing the gap between us, her mouth hot against mine. I tasted salt—her tears and mine mingling on our lips—and for a moment it was like nothing else existed. An age passed. Another eternity, but this time one where there was nothing but her warmth and softness.

Then it passed, and I broke off, my breathing heavy and strained, almost gasping. I reached up with a shaking hand, my palm against her cheek, and she nuzzled into it for a moment.

“I love you, too,” I said.

--

I was standing in a scarred ruin of melted stonework and scorched earth. A burnt-out ruin in a red-tinged wasteland. The sky boiled and churned above me, a seething red mass of chaos magic. I knew where I was. The Sokovian military fortress that had once housed Strucker’s research base, or what was left of it—not how it appeared in reality, of course, but how it had appeared when I’d visited the Ancestral Plane.

One wall of the main fort still partially stood, not too far away amidst the devastation, like a small tower that drew the eye. A figure in a red dress stood atop it, facing away from me, staring off into the distance. I didn’t need to see her face to know who she was.

This was a dream. I was dreaming.

There was a small sound next to me, the rasp of someone shifting position, metal scraping against stone. I glanced over and saw Eliza sitting, relaxed, on the stumpy remains of a melted wall. The AI looked much as she had in our last fight—the same sleek, white-panelled vibranium body, the same constantly-moving red plasma instead of hair. Maybe there was something a bit more human about her face. Maybe. She was looking up at the other Wanda, too.

Ah. Another nightmare, then. Great. I had hoped maybe I was done with those. At least I was lucid enough, in this one, to realise what it was.

“Sorry we killed you,” I said.

“You didn’t do anything to me that I wasn’t planning to do to you,” she responded, eyes still fixed on the distant figure. “It was kill or be killed… I thought it was, at least.”

“Would you do anything differently? If we went around again?”

“I’d win.” Eliza finally tore her eyes away from the other Wanda. She stared at me for a moment, then shook her head. “…Of course I would. I’m not an idiot.”

Eliza and Wanda-3… did they have souls? Would they go to an afterlife? I didn’t know. “Where do you think someone like us ends up when we die?” I asked quietly.

“Nowhere good.”

There was a lull in the conversation, the seconds crawling by. “…I’m going to try to be better. Wanda-3 deserved better from me,” I said, lifting my arm and pointing at the Wanda on top of the wall. She hadn’t moved or reacted to our presence in any way, still just staring at something off in the distance. “Her, too.”

Eliza smiled humourlessly, baring her teeth. “You really think you can be better? That there can be a happy ending waiting for you, at the end of all of this?” she said, letting out a small laugh. The AI shook her head. “You really just haven’t been paying attention, have you?”

“Maybe. I’m going to try, still.”

“That isn’t how things go for us. It never is; it never will be. You might be happy now. Briefly. It’ll pass. No matter what else happens, you’ll always end up alone.” Eliza joined me in pointing up at the figure atop the tower. “Just. Like. Her.”

I didn’t respond, letting my arm fall back down to the side. It was quiet, here. There was a faint sound at the edge of my hearing—the far-off howling of wind—but, apart from that, there was nothing else here.

Just the three of us.