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The house was quiet after New York. That’s what Natasha chose to call it, not the Battle of New York, not when she was keeping company with Clint’s wife and children.
Lila didn’t even know anything was wrong, but Cooper— Cooper was old enough to see the weary way his father and Auntie Nat came in the door, leaning on each other, and read that something was wrong behind the smile Clint put on like he would his sunglasses, to be taken off later.
Hugs distributed, Laura sent the children back to bed and took both Natasha and Clint in with a long measuring look.
“I’ll just—”
“No.” Laura cut him off before he got the words out. “Come upstairs,” she said, more softly.
Clint could hold it together, but both Natasha and Laura knew the look in his eyes held so much distrust of himself. He’d seen enough PTSD in his military days even before SHIELD to know he didn’t want to bring something like that around his wife.
But Laura tugged gently on his arm, and he capitulated after an instant’s hesitation, following her up the stairs to their bedroom.
Natasha didn’t need anyone to point her toward a guest room. She had a place here and she knew it.
The house was quiet as Clint settled back into it, and Natasha could see it in their faces that the kids knew something was different. Clint threw himself into work on the house, another of his interminable projects, and somewhere down the line on the second day, she realized he was going to be fine.
It’d be hard. It had been a harder mission than most, but somehow he’d skated by without the worst of the fallout that could have happened. She knew his patterns and she knew this one.
Cooper knew patterns too. He was Clint and Laura’s kid and both of them had her number, but Natasha really hadn’t expected him to show up with a timid knock outside her door the night after she’d decided to go back to work.
“You’re leaving, right?” he asked, all quiet voice and wide eyes.
“Yes,” she admitted, openly because he deserved that.
“But Dad isn’t.”
“Not right now,” Natasha agreed. “Right now, he needs to be here with you.”
Cooper frowned for just a moment, then came and sat down next to her. He was getting so much bigger, Natasha realized. He wouldn’t be a little boy for much longer.
“Dad told me about his lucky arrow,” he started.
A story Natasha knew very well. “It always comes back to you.”
Cooper nodded. “I got this for you.”
It was a tiny silver necklace, an arrow.
“To make sure you come back okay.”
Natasha smiled, plucked the necklace from his hand, and kissed the top of his head. “You know I’ll always come back.”
She brought it up with Laura before she left. “They’re going to get the wrong idea about me and your husband,” she commented, gesturing at the chain around her neck. It wasn’t the kind of gift she could turn down.
But Laura glanced at Cooper and smiled. “That is a symbol of our family, and you’re a part of it.”
Of course, everyone knew it was a Hawkeye thing, and while she would miss having her partner in the field with her, Natasha wasn’t entirely certain she wanted anyone else to know that.
“Clint—”
“—takes care of you,” Laura pointed out. “And you take care of him. That’s what partners do.”
Stubborn woman. Natasha surrendered and promised, “I’ll be back, you know.”
And Laura smiled because she did.