Both of us walked for few hours until we somehow ended up beside the river shore of New York. “What now?”

I asked Nat as we had been sitting under the night sky quietly for quite some time, with her on my lap. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Just take me away.”

I looked down at her to see she was leaning on my chest. I smiled as I caressed her hair that got pulled in front of her face from the wind. “The world needs you.”

She shook her head. “I need you.”

Her grip on my shirt tightened. “Only if you want me in your…”

I interrupted her before she could finish her words as I hugged her closer to me. “Of course, I want you. Why would I not want you?”

The smile on her face was beautiful. She began chuckling making me curious. “What? Why are you laughing?”

Her chuckling turned into laughter. She stopped her laughter before looking me in the eye with a smile. “You are an idiot.”

I smiled hearing that as I responded. “Only your idiot.”

I had no idea why she said that, but I could care less as we both snuggled. A few minutes later I realised why she had laughed. “Nat?”

I called out slowly causing her to hum in response. “Hmm?”

I felt my heart began pounding as I prepared to ask her. “By any chance were you asking me to marry you?”

I could feel her heart beating at this moment as well as she replied. “You tell me.”

I really felt like an idiot. I pointed out as I began talking. “I wanted to ask you in a memorable way.”

She pulled away and looked at me as if I was dumb. “Wow, you really are an idiot.”

She affirmed with a smile as she leaned in to kiss me. She pulled away after planting a kiss on my cheek as she looked at me. “You think I would ever forget a moment I spend with you?”

I shook my head with a smile. “Yes, I will marry you.”

I leaned into her forehead with a smile as we both closed our eyes. I heard her voice. “If you ever decide to run away again, take me with you no matter what I say or who is wrong. Never leave me alone as you did 2 years ago.”

I nodded causing her to move her head with me. “Always with you.”

I felt her hand on my cheeks. “Promise?”

She asked me quietly. “I promise.”

I could imagine the smile on her face as I placed my hand above her own. “It was you in the ice rink wasn’t it?”

I opened my eyes to see her staring at me. My smile was all the answer she needed. “What else other than the ice rink and $1 million raspberries?”

She knew me and understood me. That was the woman I fell in love with. “Red Room.”

Her eyes widened as she heard that. Her voice began trembling as she began speaking. “All of it?”

I nodded. “All of it.”

She took a deep breath. Seeing what she was doing I told her. “Don’t hold it in.”

A smile broke out on her face, as tears emerged from her eyes. “Thank you and thank you for not killing them.”

She understood I spared certain people of the Red Room because of her. “What else?”

She asked without wasting any time. “The time when you were trapped inside the shipping container.”

This time her shock was much lessened. “Then?”

I recounted to her every event where I involved myself with her over the past 2 years. At the end of it, she just leaned in and kissed me deeply. “How can I ever repay you?”

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I shook my head as I told her. “You know I didn’t do it because I expected anything in return.”

She nodded with a chuckle. “Figure of speech David.”

We both laughed as we sat in each other’s warm embrace. *Beep*

I looked at my watch to see it was my mum calling. “Oh crap!”

I sat up as Natasha pulled away to look at me in worry. “What happened?”

“Kind of forgot my parents as I came after you as soon as I knew you were missing.”

Natasha smiled hearing that. “Answer them.”

She decided to move away to give me some privacy. However, I pulled her down with me. “You have to meet them someday.”

I pointed out to which she nodded with a smile. “True but like this?”

She pointed at her battle dress. I rolled my eyes at her. “Well not now.”

She pinched my cheeks lightly. I smiled as I answered the call. “Hello, mum?”

“Oh, thank God you are okay!”

My mum’s relieved voice came through as soon as I answered. Then it began. “Are you ok? Why didn’t you pick up for the past few days? Do you know how worried sick your dad was? Your dad already booked the flight to come there tomorrow..”

My mum started off and didn’t stop causing me to interrupt her. “Mum I am fine. I was just busy with some stuff here. Tell dad to cancel his tickets. I am coming back home in 2 days.”

Just as I finished telling her, I could hear my dad’s worried voice in the background. “Julie is that David?”

My mum replied. “Yes, he said he is coming back in 2 days and told you to cancel your tickets.”

I could hear my dad running towards the phone.

“David, how are you? Were you hurt in that alien attack? Come back this instant. No more staying in America. I will arrange a good job for you here. Also, why did you not answer our calls? Do you know how worried we were?”

Like my mum, my dad kept going as Natasha quietly listened beside me. She smiled hearing the concern held behind my parents’ voice. I could see the envy held in her eyes at the parental family I had.

I stroked her head as I interrupted my dad just like I interrupted mum. “Dad relax. I will explain everything once I am back. Everything is slowly going back to normal here and it is safe here.” However, my dad wouldn’t listen and kept urging me to come back.

After a while, my mum took the phone of dad seeing how he was still telling me off. My mum asked me ignoring my dad’s rant in the background. “David your dad is just worried. He will be all right once he sees you again. What time is your flight arriving?”

Natasha sniggered quietly beside me. My eyebrows twitched seeing this as I understood that no sane airport in the world would casually let me out of sight once I entered there, not to mention if my parent moved towards the airport alerting every government agencies in the world.

“I know how dad is, mum, so don’t worry. I have not booked the flight yet. Also, I will be bringing someone with me.”

Natasha looked at me in surprise to which I blinked my eyes at her.

My mum became curious about that. “Who is it?”

While my dad kept shouting in the background to come back making it very difficult to talk with her. “Shut up for a minute Rob! I am asking him something important!”

My mum shouted at dad which silenced him. “So, who is coming with you?”

Mum asked eagerly as she tamed my dad like she always did. “You will see.”

I leaned in to kiss Natasha on top of her head. “Is it a man? Have you finally decided to come out about your sexuality?”

“…”

My mum’s excited question stunned both Natasha and me.

I quickly ended the phone just as Natasha started laughing while I went red in embarrassment. “Well, that came out of nowhere.”

Natasha shook her head. “No, it didn’t. Who told you not to date anyone like a normal person and instead just remain single most of your childhood?”

My eyebrows twitched hearing that. “Well, I was busy studying and training. Anyone would do that when they are burdened with the responsibility to save their loved ones from the catastrophe that is bound to happen.”

Her smile froze hearing that. “I am sorry.”

She hugged me sadly. “I didn’t mean it that way, Nat. I was just joking as well.”

She nodded her head. “I know, it is just that I have always judged you too quickly without looking at everything properly. It took the realisation of your potential death to tell me how much I loved you and how ignorant and stupid I was.”

I shook my head in disagreement. “No, you were never at fault. Don’t blame yourself for my mistakes.”

Nat disagreed with me. “I don’t think so. If you weren’t who you were and had Clint never came in that day, you would never know about the real me. I would have hidden that part of my life from you, just like how you did it to me. There was nothing wrong in what you did David.”

“Natasha I don’t agree…”

She placed her index finger on my lips as she shook her head. I remained silent as I let her talk. “You were never fair with your love. You came to me and accepted me knowing everything about me and what I do. You loved me even when you knew I couldn’t have kids.”

Her voice wavered. “Even when I was a hypocrite and when I said I hated you, you still kept loving me. I mean what kind of idiot spend $1 million on a fruit that his girlfriend likes, just so he could see her smiling again when you can buy the same raspberry from a store for less than $5?”

She moved her finger from my lips to let me know I could speak. “The kind of idiot like you.”

Her lips pulled up as she shook her head in tears when she heard my reply. “No, you idiot. It’s you!”

She punched me but instead of being hurt, I felt happy from it. “I mean I know an idiot who didn’t change her house lock after a set of her keys ended up with the most wanted man in the world.”

I pointed out to which she chuckled. “I also know an idiot who wore a necklace from the said wanted man, despite knowing it might be used to spy on her.”

I grabbed the necklace from her hand as I said that. She smiled as she pulled her hair back. “Yeah, we both are idiots.”

She stated causing us both to burst out laughing as I tied the necklace around her.

I looked into her eyes as our laughter slowly came to a close. I asked her as I stroked her beautiful face. “Home?”

She nodded as she got up. She stretched out her hand to me. Grabbing it I got up. She held onto my arm, and we began walking back to the place where our walks always ended in.