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To say it had been a long day was like saying that Stark had a few dollars. Technically true, but completely underselling the reality.
Natasha’s day had spanned decades, planets, timelines and planes of existence.
She’d been shaken awake from her soul-stone induced slumber by a hand on her shoulder, and a voice demanding that she ‘Get the hell up’.
That was what Fury had deemed a reliable way to coax her back to the land of the living. It wasn’t exactly subtle, but it had done the job, and Nat had followed orders.
The battle that followed was…unfathomable. She’d spent most of it alongside Clint, listening to him berate her for her ‘sacrifice’ whilst they batted off attackers. Since it had worked, and since she was alive, though, Nat had won that argument. Natasha had seen so much bloodshed in her lifetime that her vision may as well have been tinted red, but the sheer magnitude of that fight, well, it still held the haze of a dream in her memories, not yet solidified.
Afterwards, she sat on the steps of what was once a townhouse, blown to ashes by aliens and friends alike, and she waited.
It could have been an hour later, or five, but a shadow fell over her, and Nat let herself smile.
“Were you going to say hello?” Maria asked, taking a seat on the step below Nat’s. It put their eyelines at level height.
“You seemed occupied, Commander,” Nat said, and her voice came out thick with emotion, like she was trying to talk with something lodged in her throat. “Even death can’t get you a day off work.”
“It’s one of my flaws,” Maria reached out, tentatively, brushing her fingertips over the ends of Natasha’s hair, where the red gave way to the last hints of blonde. Nat caught Maria’s hand in hers. Feeling Maria’s skin, solid and there, Nat let out a breath loaded with tension. All the time she’d been sat on that stoop, watching Maria and Fury from a distance as they co-ordinated the cleanup, as they’d done so many times before, Nat was half sure that she was hallucinating. Somehow, though, impossibly, they were alive, and together. “Nat, I’m so so-“
“Please don’t.”
“I talked to Stark. It’s been five years, Nat. I understand if things have changed for you,” Maria looked away, and it took seeing the normally composed Deputy like that to make Nat grab onto her shoulder, and turn her back towards her.
“Don’t apologise for what that maniac did,” Natasha’s voice was quiet, but far more certain than it had been just minutes ago. “Nothing has changed, Maria. I was just…waiting for this.” They locked eyes, and the profound understanding there was all Nat needed to see. Maria cleared her throat.
“I hear you basically ended up with my job, should I be worried?” Maria nudged Nat’s knee playfully, diffusing the emotion. It was somewhat their specialty.
“I don’t know how you put up with us for so many years. I’ve had enough e-mails from a Raccoon to last a lifetime.”
Maria gave her a quizzical look, and Nat realised she had zero clue about Rocket. “It’s a long story,” Nat explained, a wry smile flitting over her face.
“I bet,” Maria returned the expression. “As for how I put up with you, well, there were some perks.”
Nat raised her eyebrows in a ridiculous fashion, “Oh yeah?”
Maria burst out laughing, and the sound thawed the ache in Nat’s chest, like the sun had settled there for a moment. She’d never understood the power of making a beautiful woman laugh until she’d met Maria.
“You’re ridiculous,” Maria said, and she was one of only a few who knew it. “How’s Liho?”
“Liho’s got grumpier, if you can believe it, but I’m sure she’ll be a ball of sunshine once she sees her favourite,” Nat returned Maria’s earlier nudge, sliding her hand from Maria’s shoulder to fall to her lap, and settle on Maria’s thigh. Maria was wearing jeans, and the material was warm beneath Nat’s hand. It felt like their first date again. Less nuclear explosions, perhaps, but comparable bloodshed.
Maria settled her hand over Nat’s, holding it in place.
“I know my wait was nothing like yours, but I was waiting, Nat. You were the only thing on my mind. I was driving Fury insane,” Maria said.
“Pacing?” Nat guessed. For a spy, Maria had some tells.
She nodded, “Like Quicksilver.”
At that moment Fury came over, his eyepatch slightly askew. Wisely, none of them mentioned it. He looked at them together, then at each of them individually, and then nodded, seemingly appeased. “See you on Monday,” he said, before turning on his heel and over towards Captain Marvel. Danvers was gesturing at his eyepatch, a grin on her face. There was a story there Natasha couldn’t wait to uncover.
“Monday,” Maria called at his retreating form. She looked at Nat, “And today is?”
Nat shrugged, “No damn clue. I was in a stone.”
“And I was dust, I think we can be forgiven a bit of time to get our calendars in order.”
“Well, you’d think, but we both know Fury, and-“
“Nat,” Maria cut her off. Natasha made a questioning noise, but found her answer as Maria’s lips touched hers, feather light for a moment, then with more intensity. Nat sighed into Maria’s mouth, felt Maria’s tongue coax her own, and she slid her hand into Maria’s hair.
After a while, both momentary and infinite, Maria pulled back, a flush high on her cheekbones, her eyes roaming over Nat’s face as if to capture it in her memory in precise detail.
“He didn’t say which Monday,” Nat reasoned.
Maria smiled, her voice dropping low, “Let’s go home.”
It wasn’t an easy fix.
The world had changed, and there were years of adjustment for Maria and the others to catch up with. The Returned, an article had dubbed them. A little simplistic, maybe, but it said all that could be said.
The two of them had always had nightmares — occupational hazard — but after the battle they came back with a vengeance. Those first few weeks, they were living on coffee, cat hugs, and grounding touches. Touches to confirm their new reality, that they were alive to have a reality. Liho had taken Maria’s return exactly as anticipated, so Maria had the lion’s share of cuddles, but Nat couldn’t blame her. Lost time, it was still haunting them.
The weeks rolled into months, and their lives were rebuilt. In little things, they reclaimed their normalcy. It was in Nat sparring with the brave SHIELD recruits she could convince to take her on, it was in Maria getting back to her office (on a Monday) and drinking crappy coffee, which she brought up for the hundredth time in a budget meeting with Fury, it was in their movie nights with their ever-expanding cohort of Avengers, it was in arguing over who got to choose their takeout tonight, it was in the nights they spent relearning each other’s bodies, it was in Liho sleeping on Maria’s chest in place of her (Stark designed!) cat bed, it was in Steve assembling the Avengers for a disaster that threatened only neighbourhoods, not galaxies, it was in the time they found hidden every day.
It was a different world, sure, but it sang with possibilities.
They were Avengers, after all.