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When Natasha died, sacrificing herself for that stupid rock, it hit everyone hard.
Clint blamed himself, thinking it was his fault. He should’ve fought harder, could’ve tried talking her out of it. But it was too late. Natasha was dead, and Clint didn’t even believe it. He wanted to go back, try trading the stone for Nat’s life. But he knew it was fruitless. Even if he went back in time to try and convince Natasha not to go on the mission to Vormir, it wouldn’t have mattered. Natasha was always too stubborn for her own good, if anyone would know that, it’d be Clint. From the moment he met her, he knew she’d change his life for the better. And she did. Nat always had his back, even when he’d try doing something so stupid, she was always there. Even when Clint’s family disappeared, and he went on a killing spree, Natasha was always looking for him. She found him, and brought him back from the dark. While logically, Clint knew Nat’s reasoning for sacrificing herself instead of him was reasonable; it was still hard for him to admit. In the end, Clint got to see his family again, and Nat died saving the world –clearing her ledger of red, something she always wanted to do.
The Barton family, after hearing of Nat’s death, also found it hard to believe at first. Laura had a feeling Natasha would at some point try sacrificing herself to wipe her ledger clean, she just hoped that the day would never come. Breaking the news to their kids was hard. Lila took it the worst, locking herself in Nat’s old room. Eventually, Clint had to lockpick the door, he opened it to find Lila sobbing, hugging one of Nat’s old hoodies. Clint then had to explain that it was either him or Nat, and Natasha chose to make sure Clint was able to raise his kids. Lila listened intently to the retelling of their fight on Vormir. At the end of the tale, Lila found herself both hating and thanking her Aunt for saving both her and her dad’s life. It took a long time, but eventually the Barton family came to terms with Natasha’s death. Although, Clint would still break down every time he heard his partner’s name.
The rest of the Avengers dealt with it in their own respective ways. Some trying to figure out a way to bring her back, others refusing to believe Natasha was fully dead as she was always fighting, always coming back to help despite the worst situation being thrown her way. Very few of the Avengers accepted her death, thankful that she got an end worthy of the hero she was.
Time went by and everyone’s heart began to slowly heal from the cracks made by Thanos. Until one day, Friday told Rhodey something that was slightly alarming, a gravestone for Natasha popped up in Ohio. At first, Rhodey wasn’t going to do anything, but the more he thought, the more he realised that the others should be told about this. Natasha never got a funeral, never got a memorial, not even a gravestone. Until now. While Rhodey understood that Natasha would never want anything to remember herself by —she was always like that, making herself seem more unimportant than she actually was— it still bothered him that she never got a proper goodbye like Tony did. So with this new discovery, Rhodey thought three things. First, he was thankful someone gathered up the courage to make a gravestone for her, because the Avengers were never able to. Second, he wanted to see this gravestone for himself, and maybe even the person that put it there. Finally, he knew he was going to have to tell the others, especially Clint, about what Friday told him.
Once Rhodey told everyone, they all had varying reactions. Steve, after he gave his shield to Sam disappeared and therefore couldn’t be told about the discovery. Fury and Hill were also off the grid. Clint immediately told Rhodey he was coming with him. Pepper declined politely, asking for a picture of the gravestone instead. Bruce said how he was glad someone made Nat a grave but refused to go and see it. Sam and Bucky, being together at the time, agreed to accompany Rhodey and Clint to see the gravesite.
The four of them headed out on the Avenger’s jet to Ohio, arriving in a rural area. They exited the jet, feeling the grief they all first felt when they lost their friend start bubbling back to the surface. As they entered the clearing, the sight of the grave came into view. It wasn’t a tiny flat headstone like any of them first thought. It was gray and weathered, clearly having been here for longer than when Friday first alerted Rhodey. Items of all kinds covered the bottom of it, stuffed animals, cards, pictures, and flowers. Fans and those thankful of Natasha’s sacrifice must have found this place and put the items there as a thank you. It was a nice stone with “Natasha Romanoff” at the top, and below it said “Daughter, Sister, Avenger”.
Clint read the words carefully, whoever put the grave here must not have known Nat didn’t have any family. No. The Avengers were her family, Clint knew that for a fact. Nat had even gone to him and mentioned how thankful she was that she had another family outside of the Bartons. He was then broken out of his thoughts when a blonde woman came into the clearing with her dog.
Yelena wasn’t just torn when she heard of her sister’s death over the news, she was devastated. Her heart broken, her soul empty. When she came back after disappearing for five years, she first tried calling Natasha, to no avail. She then called Mason to see if he knew anything, turns out he was dusted just like Yelena. He then offered to get her a plane to New York for free, to which Yelena obviously accepted with no hesitation. However, when she got to New York, every single billboard was showing the exact same thing. Her sister and Tony Stark’s faces, underneath said “These fallen heroes gave their lives to save our loved ones from death”. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t believe this to be true. So she did some digging, and what she found hurt her even more. Natasha, her sister, was dead. Yelena barely got to spend any time with her, barely even knew her. The one person who made Yelena’s soul feel whole, was gone. Killed herself for a stone. A stone! Yelena wanted to scream out, call out to her sister, say she was selfish, accuse her of abandoning her once again. But she couldn’t. Instead, Yelena made a gravestone in Ohio for Natasha. It didn’t bring her sister back to life, but it helped heal her broken heart just a little.
Since Natasha died, Yelena got that dog she always wanted, and visited the grave she put in every week. Mason gave Yelena all of Natasha’s fake IDs and safe house locations. She wanted to name her dog after Natasha but didn’t want to outright admit that to herself, so she named her dog Fanny, after one of Natasha’s covers that Mason gave her. This week was different from the rest when she visited her sister’s grave. The Avengers were there, not all of them, but still. She didn’t know if that bothered her or not, the Avengers visiting something that is supposed to be private. Although, because Natasha considered the Avengers her family, she let it go for now.
Clint, Rhodey, Bucky, and Sam all watched as the woman went straight for Natasha’s grave, not even bothering to glance their way. She was most likely a fan, or a person who had someone close to them dusted, so they let the woman be. They all watched in silence as the blonde told her dog, Fanny, to stay. She then started brushing the leaves off the grave, and even fixed some of the flowers that blew over from the wind. Finally, she kneeled down next to the grave and whistled. Clearly the woman was having a moment, and the Avengers suddenly felt bad for interrupting.
After a few minutes went by, the woman stood up —still staring at the grave— and spoke, “You let her die.” Her voice was even, with a clear Russian accent.
The Avengers were shocked at her statement, wondering who this woman was, to speak like the Avengers were the ones who threw Natasha off the cliff and killed her. Before Rhodey could speak up and defend themselves, Clint murmured, “It was supposed to be me.” The woman saying that, made Clint feel what he felt after Nat died, that it was his fault.
Sam then spoke, clarifying, “She knew what she was doing when she sacrificed herself. Without Nat, we wouldn’t have been able to get half the universe back.”
Yelena huffed, speaking mostly to herself, “Of course she would do something so stupid to clean her ledger.”
With the woman saying that, Clint was broken out of his thoughts of self-blaming. Natasha always talked about wanting to wipe the red from her ledger, but she never once said it to the public. Even a dedicated fan wouldn’t know of Natasha’s private mission of cleaning her ledger. So how did this woman know something so personal, unless she was someone Natasha knew directly. That would explain the Russian accent. Clint looked over to the others and could see the exact same thoughts running behind their eyes.
“Do you know who put in the grave?” Bucky asked the question that made them come here in the first place, recovering from what the woman said the quickest.
It was then that Yelena turned around and made eye contact with each of the Avengers for the first time, “I did. She said she wanted to stay in Ohio, so I made sure she will.” While Yelena knew Natasha’s body was lost somewhere in space on a foreign planet, it was still a nice thought to believe she was now at peace in Ohio.
So this is the person that put in the grave, Clint thought. He still didn’t know how he felt about someone putting in a grave when it should’ve been the Avengers that did it. But none of them could bring themselves to, not even his family. Clint then tried his hardest to decipher what the woman meant by staying in Ohio. Natasha never mentioned anything about Ohio, much less staying there for the rest of her life. Clint wanted to ask about what Ohio meant to Natasha, but figured if Nat kept it a secret even from him, then it either meant the world to her, or she didn’t care enough to mention it. Instead, Clint questioned, both his voice and his heart breaking as he did, “So you knew her?”
“I’m Yelena, her little sister,” Yelena responded, her voice revealing how heartbroken she was, “...or was”
The group looked over at Yelena, each one dealing with the new information in a different way. Clint wanted to decline the statement, say how she was lying. But he heard the woman speak, he heard the hidden grief behind the words. This woman, Yelena, considered herself to be close enough to Natasha to be her sister. He then remembered when she was on the run from Ross, Clint called her to see how she was doing. Nat responded saying how she was just dealing with some family business. Clint thought she was joking or using a code phrase he didn’t know. Turns out she was being dead serious, telling the truth.
Bucky believed Yelena instantly when she said that she was Natasha’s little sister. In fact when he first saw the woman enter the clearing, he thought he recognized her from the Red Room when he was a trainer there. Natasha, after they got close in the Red Room, asked him if he saw a blonde named Yelena. When Bucky answered saying yes, she immediately asked if she was alright. Bucky answered as much as he could and when he questioned who Yelena was, Natasha replied saying how she was someone once important to her.
Sam didn’t know what to believe. If the woman was telling the truth, or if she was lying for some heinous reason. He then thought back to when Natasha showed up with Steve on his doorstep, asking for refuge. She was mostly closed off, and didn't say anything to him unless it was mission related. Even as they got to know each other, she always had her secrets. Secrets she now took with her to her grave. So, if Yelena was lying, Sam was going to beat her up for causing suppressed emotions of grief coming back up to the surface. If she was telling the truth, Sam was grateful Nat had family outside of the Avengers.
Rhodey considered what Yelena said, her voice seemed to be telling the truth. He then thought back to the five years half the universe was gone. Natasha not once gave up trying to get everyone back. She led the Avengers and even when Rhodey caught Nat crying in the dark, she still went back to work the next day. Always trying to help restore order, constantly trying to find Clint when he went off the deep end. No matter what, Natasha never quit. One day, Rhodey went up to her and asked why she was still going, despite everyone else either leaving to start a new life or giving up entirely. Nat answered saying how someone very close to her got dusted and that after years of being separated, they only got to spend a couple days together. Nat continued, saying how she won’t give up trying to get her back as she already left her once. Rhodey, after hearing Yelena say she was Natasha’s sister, realized in that moment that Nat sacrificed herself, not for the universe, not to wipe the red from her ledger, but for her sister.