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Maria and Natasha have been together for 5 years and married for 3. They’ve had their ups and downs as all relationships do but they always work them out in the end. Lately however, Maria has noticed Natasha pulling away from her. Natasha has a demanding job because she’s an Avenger, something Maria understood as deputy director of SHIELD, but they always managed to make time for each other, even if it’s just a phone call. Unfortunately Maria doesn’t even get those anymore.
She’s been trying to think of reasons Natasha would want to pull away from her, nothing comes to mind except Natasha isn’t happy with her and wants to leave. It’s a fear both of them talked about early on in their relationship but managed to.
It’s scary how fast a fear Natasha managed to quell so early on in their relationship managed to come back full force.
Maria sat in her office at Stark Industries, doing paperwork. She had sent Natasha a message asking if she wanted to have lunch with her, but of course Natasha said no, she was too busy. Maria sighed, staring at her wedding ring. It was a simple band and the jewel with a mixture of their birthstones, diamond and topaz. It was beautiful, Maria always stared at it because it was a symbol of them coming together as one.
Maria slid the ring off and paused, this was the first time she’s taken the ring off barring missions or deep cleaning. At that exact moment, Pepper walked in, startling her and making her drop the ring.
“Hey, Maria, can you look at these for me?” Pepper asked, not paying attention. She lifted her hearing the clatter the ring made when it hit the floor.
“Is that your wedding ring?” She asked, watching Maria quickly pick the ring up and slide it back on her finger.
“Uh…no.” she said unconvincingly. Pepper raised an eyebrow and Maria looked at her sheepishly.
“You never take off your wedding ring, not even that time you had to get Nat’s out of Liho’s poop after she swallowed it.” Both women grimaced at the memory.
“Not my finest moment.” Maria admitted. “What did you want me to look at?” she asked.
“Oh! Happy left these files for me to read and I have no idea what they mean, but I figured you would.” she said, handing her the files. Maria grabbed the files, reading through them, before explaining to Pepper what they meant.
“You’re a lifesaver, Happy probably got distracted by Tony, again, and left this mess.” Pepper smiled gratefully.
“It’s no problem, I'm happy to help.”
“Isn’t it your lunch break? Are you waiting for Nat?” Pepper asked.
“No, she’s been busy so we haven’t been going for lunch. It’s fine though, I know things come up.” Maria explained.
“Don’t take me asking this the wrong way, but I haven’t seen her around much. Are you and Natasha okay?” Pepper’s voice held caution to it, she didn’t want to overstep or upset Maria.
“We’re great, everything’s great. I’m great and she’s great.” Maria could tell by the look on Pepper’s face, she didn’t believe her.
“I don’t think Natasha is happy with me anymore.” Maria whispered out. Thinking the words were one thing, but saying them made her heart constrict.
“Maria, what are you talking about? Natasha loves you, I’ve never seen her happier than when she’s with you.” Pepper told her.
“I don’t know Pep, it seems like she never wants to be around me anymore. She’s never home, she always says she’s busy which I understand, avenging is hard work, but before she would at least make time to call or text me, now she doesn’t even do that. It’s like she doesn’t want to be around me anymore and I don’t know why.”
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I know Natasha loves you. I’ve seen the love she has for you with my own eyes, don’t doubt that.” Pepper said, giving her a hug.
“Thanks Pep.” Maria muttered, reciprocating the hug.
Pepper Potts wasn’t one to meddle but she refused to sit by and let her favorite couple fall apart. Which is why the next morning, she went to see Natasha, who by her luck, was currently at the tower.
“Hey, Nat, can I talk to you?” Pepper asked.
Natasha looked confused but agreed nonetheless. They walked into the lounge which was empty. “I know it’s none of my business, but what’s going on with you and Maria?” Pepper questioned, getting right down to business.
“You’re right, it is none of your business, but since you asked me and Maria are fine.” Natasha said defensively.
“Are you sure? Because yesterday, I found her in her office upset because she thinks you don’t want to be with her cause you’re never home or even call her anymore. She’s been sleeping in her office too, she thinks I didn’t notice but I did. Look, Nat I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you need to fix it. Fast.” Pepper commanded before walking away.
“Fuck fuck fuck.” Natasha whispered to herself. “Pepper wait!” Nat yelled. She stopped before walking back over to her. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I need your help.” She told her. “I love Maria so much, please understand that. It’s just one night, we were talking about what we would do if we finally decided to settle down and we were talking about our dream home. Somewhere that we would both love, and could make ours. She even sketched it out and hung it on the wall, so we would always know what we want our future to look like. So, I’ve been building it with some help from Clint and a few others. I didn’t realize it was going to take this long, but we kept having setbacks and-”
“Natasha!” Pep shouted to get her to quiet her down. “I get why you didn’t tell her, you wanted to surprise her, but it might be time to tell her.
“But, it’s not finished yet, I just need a few more days.” she groaned out.
“Nat, you might not have a few more days. I know you love her, you know you love her, but right now she doesn’t feel it.” she said.
“I just wanted to do something nice for her because she’s always doing nice things for me and it needs to be perfect cause she deserves it. I didn’t mean for it to get like this.”
“Honey, it’s obvious you wanted to do something nice and it’s very sweet of you, Maria’s gonna love it, but distancing yourself wasn’t a good idea.” Pepper explained.
“How do I fix this?” she asked.
“Okay, you’re going to text her telling her to meet you at home, talk it out, have dinner while you’re there. Then you’re going to tell her what you’ve been working on, you don’t have to show her the house or anything, just tell her. She still loves you, you still love her, show her that.” Pepper offered.
“Show her I love her, I can do that. Thanks Pep.” “Anytime.” Pepper gave her a hug before leaving.
Natasha pulled her phone out to text her wife. She frowned seeing the attempts Maria made to spend time with her and her seemingly uninterested responses, she really fucked up.
to moya lyubovʹ <3: I know I haven’t been around much, and I’m sorry for that, but meet me at home for dinner at 8, I’ll explain everything.
from moya lyubovʹ <3: Ok
‘Ok’ wasn’t bad, it was a sign Maria at least wanted to hear what she had to say. Yeah, she was gonna fix this.
Maria came home at 8pm on the dot, punctuality was always her strong suit. She was curious to hear Natasha’s explanation, hoping it won’t end in her asking for a divorce.
“Nat!” she called out, “I’m home.” She took her shoes off by the door and put her bag in the closet.
“In the kitchen!” Natasha called back. Maria paused, this was the first time she’s heard Nat’s voice in about a about month or so. She’s missed it.
She walked toward the kitchen to see Nat with a box of pizza and a bottle of wine, it’s what they had on their disaster of a first date. Maria smiled softly at the memory.
“Hi Mia.” Natasha said, smiling softly. “Come on, let’s eat and I’ll talk.” Maria grabbed two wine glasses and together they walked to the couch. They started to eat in silence, enjoying being in each other’s presence again.
“Did you pull away because you weren’t happy?” Maria’s voice was so uncharacteristically quiet, Natasha almost didn’t hear it.
“No!” Natasha said quickly. “Masha, nothing makes me as happy as you.” she reassured her.
“Then why did you pull away? What was so important you wouldn’t even call me anymore?” Maria asked tearfully.
Natasha was silent for a few minutes. “Our house.” she answered in a small voice.
“What house?”
“Do you remember that night we were talking about our future and you said that whenever we were ready to settle down, we would have it built?” Maria nodded. She remembered that night well.
“I took your sketch and I’ve been working with Clint and others to build it. I wanted to surprise you because I think I’m finally ready to settle down.” Natasha explained.
“Baby, why didn’t you just tell me?” Maria questioned.
“I wanted to surprise you but things kept getting in the way, I really didn’t mean for it to get this bad. I love you, Masha. Please don’t ever doubt that again.” Natasha’s voice trembled.
“Hey, I never doubted your love for me. I know you love me, just like you know I love you. I doubted if I made you happy, those are not the same. We can love each other all we want but if we’re not happy then our love for each other can’t save that.” Maria stated fiercely.
“Mia, you do make me happy. I’m always happy with you because you love and care for me and you always manage to make me smile even on my worst days. I’m sorry I made you feel like you didn’t make me happy because you do!” Natahsa exclaimed.
“It’s okay. You were doing something so incredibly sweet and I love you for it.” Maria said before giving her wife a passionate kiss.
“Remind me to thank Pepper.” Natasha said, pulling away from the kiss.
“Thank her for what?” Maria asked.
“She told me how upset you were in your office, how you didn’t even come home anymore. She made me realize that I was so focused on surprising you, that I was neglecting you in the process.”
“Well, I’ll make sure to send her a bouquet from the both of us. And you don’t have to show me the house yet. You can wait until it’s to your liking, just don’t push me away again.”
“I won't, I promise.” Natasha held out her pinky, and a second later Maria’s pinky wrapped around her.
“I love you, my redhead beauty.” Maria uttered. “I love you more.” Nat muttered back.
Together, they cuddled on the couch, content with being with each other again.
Pepper Potts walked into her office the next morning to a bouquet of wildflowers sitting on her desk. She picked up the note attached to them.
‘Usually we hate when people meddle in my relationship, but this actually did some good. Thanks Pep!
Nat & Maria’
Pepper smiled, before putting the note down. Thank God, she thought to herself. She hummed before getting ready for a long day of work.