Hey ho! What's up guys? Sorry, this update is a little late and not as long but this kinda felt like the right place to stop. Next week will be longer and more exciting, shit's about to go down, promise. Don't worry about suspense, it'll come quite soon. *cough* Rumlow *cough*
Keeping Promises
The sun is shining into the half-veiled windows. The bright light of the morning comes soon after Steve's call and would raise the dead but not so much the Stark-Rogers household, especially not after a long day driving to their summer house on the eastern beaches of the States and dealing with the sadness caused by the absence of the male adult of their little family.
Natasha turns away from the sunshine, muttering something about Jarvis shutting the blinds, then buries her nose in the soft pillows, unconsciously looking for the crook of Steve's neck to hide away in. After the call from Steve she had slept much better, knowing he is safe and with people he trusts. She cares little for SHIELD and even less for the organization's fate. Steve had sounded sure that he could deal with this in record time, furthermore he's got Romanov at his side, and he had been in hiding plenty of times before. Natasha isn't worried. At least she likes to tell herself so anyway.
She pushes the thoughts aside, groaning when her brain refuses to shut down. Tiredly she opens her eyes to find her kids still fast asleep, not moving or making any sound apart from their quiet breaths. At least James' medication still works correctly and he wouldn't suffer another asthma attack any time soon though it probably is too early for such assumptions. Still, Natasha makes sure to always have her phone and his inhalator close by in case he could need help. The sunlight divides the room like a curtain.
She reaches for her phone on the bedside table and checks the weather forecast though there seems to be no need for that. The air that comes from the open window smells fresh and clean, promising a warm and sunny day, begging to be spend outside. Nat still makes sure that no rain cloud is about to litter the perfect rich blue sky she can peer at through the moving curtain. Jay draws up the weather forecast, contenting Natasha. There's supposed to be sunshine till the late afternoon so nothing is standing in the way of a day at the beach. She had promised after all. The weather will be too cold to do more than hold the finger tips into the sea though. The walk there will take them long enough to still provide a nice activity for the family.
As quietly as she can, Natasha stands up, letting the kids sleep for another few minutes. With any luck they'd be just that tired again in the evening, making no trouble when she's going to take them to bed. Sneaking downstairs she makes a list of things they would need to take with them, dictating it for Jarvis to write it down.
The cupboard under the stairs holds almost everything she would have to pack, including a backpack with a blanket and plastic cups and plates. She knows plastic isn't good to drink or eat from but she figures stepping into shards on the sand isn't too healthy either. In the kitchen she looks for some things to take with them, deciding for apples and sandwiches.
When Natasha is done with that, she asks Jarvis to let her down into the cellar. A panel of the wall in the hallway slides back, revealing a narrow staircase. She had designed this door to be invisible so the kids would get no strange ideas or any stranger would find their hiding in case of an emergency. Not that it would do them any good. The door is practically impregnable. Behind it hides a two-inches thick wall of steel that belongs to the bunker the cellar is build in. Down there is a small workshop which the Mark 57 occupies currently, and the basic systems that keep the house running like the servers that hold Jarvis, the heating and air systems. Nat checks everything over routinely, quickly finding the vent that's broken and fixes it, allowing the cleaned air to get into the house again.
The morning wears on, it's already past the time Nat usually would prefer to stand up, when the brunette wakes her kids and they eat breakfast, a mixture of different cereals for them all.
'Do we go to the beach later?', James asks, reminding her of yesterday's conversation and having seen the backpack on the counter.
'Yes, James. As soon as you're ready.' She smiles at her son. Of course he hadn't forgotten about their agreement yesterday.
Rachel squeals in delight and jumps up and down in her seat. Their worries and fears seem stilled for now and are pushed aside as Nat notes with a smile.
She stands up and cleans their bowls (more like places them in the basin and hoping they'd magically vanish somehow). The kids jump up and get ready to leave quite soon. Jarvis reminds her of several things she shouldn't forget, then Natasha walks upstairs to check on her kids' progress.
Rachel struggles with her clothes, having chosen a dress she likes to wear.
'Sweetie, wait.' Natasha smiles fondly before freeing her daughter from the bright yellow prison she had somehow managed to get stuck in with her head. 'Don't you want to wear something more functional?'
Rachel vehemently shakes her head, sending her hair whipping around her face. 'I want my dress!'
'It will be uncomfortable, sweetie.', Natasha tries to reason, going to the wardrobe and gets some shorts and a tee for her, the latter also in a bright yellow.
'Mommy, no!', Rachel protests loudly. 'I want my dress.', the girl whines and crosses her arms in defiance, stomping her feet to convey her point.
'Rachel.', Natasha sighs. How does Steve just manage to deal with her temper tantrums every day? 'You can wear the dress tonight. But not while we are wandering.' Then a thought crosses her mind. 'You want to play at the beach, right? It will get dirty and then you can't wear it anymore.'
The blonde girl ponders over this. She looks like she is about to argue some more but gives in eventually. The prospect of losing her favorite dress might have been enough to deter her. 'Tonight?', she chews on her bottom lip.
'Yes, then you can also climb on the trees. In a dress that will be difficult.', Nat coaxes further.
'Okay.', she finally gives in. Natasha breathes a sigh of relief and helps her get dressed. They leave Rachel's room just when James runs past them towards the stairs.
'Whoa there. Where do you think you're going?' Natasha raises an eyebrow with a smile. James stops immediately, looking slightly guilty. 'First sun blocker, then fun.', the brunette decides, stretching out her hand to take his and drag the two grumbling children into the bathroom, using the opportunity to brush James' hair also since he hadn't done so himself.
They take after Steve's easily burned skin unfortunately. The sun isn't strong for now but Natasha refuses to take any chances. Steve just has to go out into the sun without a proper blocker and gets red within a few minutes, her kids are just the same just that Steve is an enhanced human and it heals within minutes as well either on the contrary to them. Because Nat knows that at least Rachel will rebel otherwise, she smears the sun milk on her own skin as well though she likes the tan that would have probably settled on her skin at the end of the day. Well, there would be enough time to lie in the sun within the next days. Assuming the rain wouldn't last too long.
The kids grumpily accept to be covered in the lotion, Nat making sure that every visible patch of their skin gets treated.
When she finishes their make up with a baseball cap for each, sliding sunglasses over her own eyes, they head downstairs where Natasha picks up the bag, surprised how light it still is.
'See you later, Jay.', she calls when they leave the house. The AI locks the door behind them and won't let anyone enter the house except for family or Avengers members. They turn to the forest on their right.
The trees are wide spread and in the beginning there is almost no undergrowth. The ground is covered in fallen leaves. The kids still know the way and they run in front of Natasha, delighting themselves with the white flowers that rise their heads out of the brown foliage. They pick a few of them while climbing the slope. There are paths up the small hill made by deer which Natasha follows while her kids are more busy collecting the prettiest flowers.
They walk past Jarvis' last sensors as they reach the top. The kids stop for a few seconds to look over a big part of the forest which now lies in front of them, the trees are tall with bright green tiny leaves, the floor is green and white here because of all the small blossoms. Some pines already mix with the local beeches and oaks, telling the viewer all about the closeness to the sea.
'Come on.', Natasha says quietly after some moments, taking a hand of each in her own. They wander the ridge for a few moments before reaching a well used path which winds over the back of the hills. The ground up here is almost level at all times though there are enough dead trees for the kids to not get bored as they balance on them and jump over the pits and dents left by them.
'Can we make a crown out of the flowers?', Rachel asks, holding on to her mother's hand and hopping over the rustling ground. She has forgotten all about her dress, being happy about the additional layers between her and the cool forest air. The trees shade almost the entire ground though some sun beams make it down to the ground where plants crowd in the early spring light, illuminating bright patches before it too is cut out when the trees will be fully foliate.
'If you pick enough and let the peduncles as long as you can.', Nat tells her. She already has to carry a whole bunch of the flowers with short peduncles, too short to even place in a tiny vase (aka a tumbler). Seeing how much fun they already have collecting different flowers, though the choice is rather limited, and finding the prettiest ones, she makes a mental note to check for any place with ''Flowers for self picking''.
James walks in front of them with a stick, poking and prodding the earth every now and then. Rachel nods full of enthusiasm, slips her hand out of Natasha's and begins to pick flowers anew, this time paying attention to not just take the blossom.
Natasha had never made a flower crown in her life, it's not like her parents took her out to admire the beauty of nature and she skipped the best part of pre- and elementary school so there also weren't really any girls around to teach her. But really, how hard can it be for a PhD of engineering?
Birds are singing in the trees, not bothered by their passing beneath their feet though they aren't as quite as the forest would demand. Eventually they reach the end of the ridge and carefully walk down the slope towards where a real path made by humans is visible. Down there they sit down on a bench to rest, or rather Natasha sits down and rests while the kids run around the bench, still singing a hiking song. She hands each of them something to drink.
More than three quarter of the way is thankfully behind them already. At least they aren't wandering in the direct sunlight or the heat would be another problem, Nat thinks, trying to calm her heartbeat. She'd have to take another look at her arc reactor once they are home again. Or maybe she is just out of form after a winter in the lab. She really hopes it's the latter. The fear that the reactor could stop working somewhen or that her body would eventually reject it, never really leaves her. Natasha forces herself to take a deep breath and let her worries rest.
They follow the road for about half a mile, then leave the main way to climb the stairs to the right. There are way more conifers now. The stairway is placed into the soft ground consisting mostly out of wooden planks and leveled dirt to make climbing the hill easier. The kids run up the stairs as if they are nonexistent, Natasha follows them a little slower.
At the top of the hill the trees thin out, revealing the stormy coast.