A.N- This is part one of a six-part story. It's set in the same universe as my other Avengers fic, Forget About Yesterday. However, this is set after both that fic and the events of the Avengers movie, which have been slightly adapted. I may provide an explanation at the end, we'll see. So, with that being said, let's begin! As usual, I don't own the characters.

Natasha

Natasha flopped down onto a couch in the main room of the Avengers Tower. She kicked her heels off and tried to get comfortable. She'd just got back from another stupid TV interview, from being asked more ridiculous questions that had nothing to do with how she'd helped stop an alien invasion, and right now all she wanted to do was get changed out of the short black dress she was wearing and into something more comfortable, get a big bag of candy and watch stupid movies on Netflix. After a moment, she got up and went to get changed.

A few minutes later she returned, now wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a purple zip-up hoodie that used to belong to Clint, but he'd given it to her a few weeks ago. Before that, she'd had a tendency to borrow it, so it had made sense. Smiling, she went to get the candy, then lay on the couch for a few minutes, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't even hear the door open, didn't even register that she had company until she heard a familiar voice.

"Oh, great, not you too?" She glanced over and saw Bruce sitting on the other couch.

"What do you mean?"

"Tony seems to think that because I've signed up to take Introduction To Psychology- which hasn't even started yet- that means he can vent all his problems to me and I'll have great responses and advice every time. Honestly, I thought he knew by now that I didn't want to be that kind of doctor." Natasha laughed.

"He probably just needs someone to talk to. I mean, it can't be easy, losing your parents and almost dying twice in a few months." She sighed, glad she didn't know what the latter one felt like, but knowing all too well what the first felt like.

"I can get that, but I don't like having to play therapist, you know? I prefer it when there's a bit of back and forth- you know, you vent about this thing, I vent about this thing, and we try and help each other find answers." She nodded.

"It's like that with me and Clint. He's needed me a lot over the last few weeks, and since I've leaned on him a lot in the past, I figured that was a fair trade off." She wasn't being completely truthful. Clint had been avoiding her for the last few weeks, but she wanted to at least give off the impression that everything was still normal between them.

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." He noticed the bowl of candy. "Were you going to watch something?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure what, though. Anything other than that interview I did today."

"You were in an interview?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, and it was awful. They never ask me real questions, you know, it's always about my outfit or my hair or whatever."

"That sucks." Natasha sighed, knowing that she shouldn't have expected a big response. After all, it wasn't really Bruce's problem, or any of the other's problems for that matter. It wasn't something they had to deal with.

"So now I just want to forget that the interview ever happened. I won't have to do another one for a while, so I'm going to enjoy the break."

"That sounds like a good idea. Hey, if you don't mind, I think I'm gonna go up to the labs for a bit, make sure that Tony's had lunch yet. I don't think he's had anything other than energy drinks and coffee today." He sighed, and left the room before she could respond.

A couple of hours later, after the movie was done, Natasha decided to go and find Clint. She hadn't spoken to him all day, and she wanted to make sure that everything was okay. Ever since the battle of Manhattan, heck, ever since she'd snapped him out of Loki's mind control, Clint hadn't been the same. He felt guilty about what Loki had made him do, embarrassed that he'd let a guy who looked like he was in the seventh grade get inside his head like that. These days he spent most of his time either in the new shooting range in the Avengers tower or off on his older sister Laura's farm. She wasn't really sure what he did when he was there, since he was yet to invite her to visit. In fact, they hadn't really spoken much after the battle. She sighed and got to her feet, heading for the shooting range, not sure what she'd do if he wasn't there.

She was honestly a little surprised to see him there, sitting on a bench a few feet away from the target range. A basket of split arrows sat beside him. She sighed, knowing things must've been pretty bad today. Otherwise he'd never have shot so many times and hit the bullseye every time.

"Hey," she said after a while, when he didn't notice her there. He looked up at her then and smiled. Natasha couldn't help smiling back. He hadn't smiled at her much lately, and just seeing it was enough to make her feel happy.

"Hey, Tasha. What're you doing here?" If she could've smiled any more, she would've done after hearing him use that nickname. He was the only one who called her that, and he only did it when they were on their own. She sighed and sat down next to him.

"I wanted to see you. Is that okay?" He looked over at her then, and she had the feeling that he was seeing her properly for the first time since Loki had came into their world.

"Yeah, that's fine. I was just finishing up here anyway." He stood up, and she followed him.

Natasha insisted that they had lunch together, since it was a way of making sure Clint had something to eat. She really did worry about him sometimes, especially these days.

"Um, how's your day been?" he asked after a while. She rolled her eyes, not wanting to go over her day again. Eventually, though, she decided to tell him.

"I had an interview today. One of those awful chat shows where I get asked all these ridiculous questions about my outfit and my hair and which one of you guys I'm dating."

"Seriously? Don't they have anything better they want to know about? What about all the stuff you did to help save the world? You snapped me out from under Loki's control, and managed to close the portal, stopping the rest of the Chitauri getting through. Don't they care about all that stuff?"

"I don't know. It's probably because they're too shallow to care about all that stuff. The time for talking about what we actually did is over, as far as they're concerned. Now that the danger's over, they can treat us like normal famous people, not literal world-savers. It's probably easy enough for them to ignore what I did. Firstly, I'm a girl, so they were always going to be more concerned with how I looked rather than what I did, and second, I don't think enough people saw what I did, so it's pretty easy for them to forget about it."

"That's stupid. You did plenty, you deserve to be given credit for it."

"I know. There's not much I can do about it, though, other than push through it and wait for them to forget about me and move on."

"What makes you think they're going to forget something this huge? I know I can't."

"That's because you were involved. It'll stay in our minds longer. They're different. Eventually, something new will come along. It might be good, it might be bad. Either way, it'll draw their minds away from us and we'll go back to having normal lives."

"Are you sure about that? I'd expect at least a bit of talk when we get back to school." She nodded.

"Yeah, I can see that happening, but that's not what I meant. Our popularity will probably hold out that long, but how much longer I really can't say. If I'm being honest, I think they'll forget about us first, since we don't have powers or anything."

"Maybe they will. Still, I won't forget about us." She smiled, even though she knew full well that at one point he had forgotten her, and everything they were together. "Sorry, maybe that wasn't the best choice of words."

"It's fine," she sighed. Leaning across the table, she took his hand. "Are we still okay? You've kinda been avoiding me lately."

"I know, I'm sorry. The last few weeks have been really hard, and I wasn't sure if..."

"What?"

"Do you still want to be with me? Knowing everything that happened, everything I did when I was under his control?" She wanted to sigh, but at the same time that wouldn't be helpful, so she didn't.

"Of course I still want to be with you. I'm not stupid, I know that you didn't choose to be taken over by Loki, or to do any of the things he made you do. So, I do still want to be with you, provided you still want to be with me."

"I definitely still want to be with you." He smiled at her again. "Hey, I noticed you've still got that necklace I gave you, before all this mess started." She glanced down and saw the small, silver arrow attached to a chain around her neck. She was so used to it being there, she'd almost forgotten about it until now.

"Yeah, I do. I don't think I've taken it off since you gave it to me." She looked at his hand, and was pleasantly surprised to notice that the ring she'd given him, the one with the black and red black widow symbol on it. "I thought you might've lost that ring, though."

"Of course I didn't. I don't think Loki ever noticed it, though, which is probably for the best." Natasha nodded, and went over to sit beside him.

"Hey, maybe we should try and forget about all this and go and do something fun?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"What kind of fun?" She thought about that for a moment. They'd already slept together the night before Loki showed up, and as good as that had been, she had a feeling that it was a bit soon to try anything like that again. After a moment, she sighed.

"I don't know. Wanna just watch a movie or something?" He nodded, and they headed into the living room together.

A few minutes later, as they sat watching one of the newer Batman movies, Natasha decided to shuffle a little closer. Clint seemed to take the hint and put his arm around her. As they settled down, she wondered if things would ever really go back to normal, and what she was going to do if they didn't. After all, it was one thing to win the battle. It was another to live with the outcomes. Compared with that, maybe winning had been easier.