The rays of sun danced in the sky as noon approached. On the ground, the field of flowers swayed peacefully in the gentle breeze, until a quick whirlwind passed by, pulling the fragile petals with it.
The bringer of the breeze was a short figure, her hair trailing behind her in a beautiful tail of red waves. She panted softly with each hurried step, occasionally casting worried (but playful) glances behind her.
"Are you ready?" a voice behind the girl called in Russian, encouraging her to hurry her pace; she was not ready yet.
"Not yet!" she called back over her shoulder in the same language, hoping her words were loud enough for the other children to hear. She couldn't help her smaller size and quiet voice, but the others didn't always understand that; she was just happy they welcomed her into their game of hide and seek today.
She reached trees, the foliage accepting her rushed form with open, green arms. Brushing a bead of sweat off of her forehead as she ran, the redhead stopped beside a large tree. Thick bushes covered the ground beneath the branches, but allowed just enough space for her to crawl in and hide.
"Are you ready?" the voice called once more.
The girl turned back this time to reply, "Yes!"
Smiling to herself, she lowered herself onto her hands and knees, wedging herself into the small space. She crawled in as far as she could, until she felt confident in her hiding spot. Victory would be hers, she thought; surely, no one else had as great a hiding spot!
Then something caught her eye. The sparkle of something shiny stood out amongst the dark leaves, standing out in her peripheral vision. The child looked over in surprise, catching the glimmer of the object once again. What on Earth could it be?
Perhaps it was a jewel of some sort, a rare mineral - something that could be sold for a high price. Yes, she thought, it was a gift sent from God to alleviate her family's financial struggles! Her prayers had been answered! For her, at just six years old, this seemed to be the perfect and infallible solution to her problems.
"We're coming!"
She ignored the voices of the other children, telling her that she would be found soon. Her soft blue eyes never left the source of the sparkle, and her hands instinctively reached out toward it.
The light reflecting off of the item grew brighter, and suddenly enveloped her.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, casting its attentive light on Clint's face. He grumbled as the rays assaulted his closed eyes, turning on his side and burying his face in the pillow.
"Tasha...close the blinds," Clint groaned, pulling the covers up over his head. He waited in silence for a few moments before cracking an eye open. Surely enough, the person he had called out to was gone from her side of the bed. He sighed.
That's right; Natasha was spending the day with Pepper. Some 'obligatory best friend' thing, or something. Clint didn't question it, he'd just smiled and nodded when Natasha tried to explain it to him. As far as Clint knew, Tony had reacted similarly.
According to the clock on Natasha's nightstand, it was just after nine in the morning. Clint could definitely get away with sleeping in later, but he wasn't sure Natasha would appreciate that - she'd mentioned something about some chores she wanted him to do while she was gone the night prior. As much as he'd love to sleep the day away, Clint wasn't sure when she'd return, which meant it would be safer to get Natasha's favors over with earlier rather than later.
So he pushed himself up into a sitting position, reaching his arms out in a necessary stretch over his head. He swung his legs over the bed, stumbling up to the window to close the curtains; he was awake, so there was no longer any need for the blinding light in his room.
He walked into their bathroom to get ready for the day. After a quick shower, brushing his teeth, and getting dressed, Clint wandered out to the main room of the communal floor, ready to scope out who else was stuck in the Tower that day.
"Tash and Pepper are gone," Clint muttered to himself when he walked into the kitchen to start his coffee. "Thor is on Asgard, Steve is...on a mission. With Bruce, right, right."
As Clint remembered everyone's schedules, he realized Tony was the only one home. Fair enough, he could work with that. Tony usually stuck to the lab whenever Pepper wasn't around, anyway, which meant Clint practically had the rest of the Tower to himself.
Guess I should just get to work, then. Clint sipped at his fresh cup of coffee, immediately feeling much better. Amazing what coffee could do for a man, he thought to himself.
Coffee in hand, Clint returned to their bedroom, and found a note from Natasha on the bedstand.
Clint,
I hope you slept well. I'm not sure how long I'll be out with Pepper today, but we should be back just after lunch time. In the meantime, if you could get these things done for me, that'd be really great.
Natasha
Following the letter was the list of chores Natasha had entrusted Clint with. He quickly read over them, and nodded to himself. He tilted the small cup of coffee against his lips again, soothing his spirit with the caffeinated relief.
After changing the sheets on their bed, doing laundry, and cleaning their bathroom, Clint found himself tackling the final item on Natasha's list: cleaning the armory.
The so-called 'armory' was just a closet in the Avengers' training gym where everyone kept their weapons. Clint assumed Natasha wanted him to do some dusting, and just general organizing, as everyone had developed a bit of a tendency to just throw things into the storage room without a second thought.
Clint hummed to himself as he rode the elevator down to the gym, Natasha's note and a pencil in his hands. He crossed out the last thing he'd done from her list, and tentatively held the led tip of the pencil against the final item. Hopefully the messy disaster in the armory wouldn't be too much of a messy disaster, he thought optimistically.
When the doors opened, Clint walked into an already disastrous sight. He sighed as he saw training dummies and mats placed in a disarray everywhere, almost convinced someone (read: Tony) had been in the gym that morning just to mess things up for Clint to clean up. But, then again, the Avengers weren't exactly known for their tidiness, so it was entirely possible that this was just normal.
Tucking his pencil and Natasha's paper into his back pocket, Clint got to work, placing training mats back in their stacks and foam dummies in their respective corner. He worked silently, absorbed in his own reflective thoughts, until a sound caught his attention.
It came from the armory, the storage closet. Clint stopped in his tracks, looking up from the training mat he'd been dusting off. He stared at the closed doors of the armory, wondering if he'd just been imagining the noise.
"JARVIS?" he called instinctively, knowing the AI could identify if there was another life form in the room. However, he then remembered that was what Tony was working on this morning; JARVIS needed maintenance, so Tony picked the day the most people would be gone to do the necessary work.
The noise came again, and Clint knew he hadn't imagined it. He stood up straighter, assuming an offensive position. Could someone have broken into the tower and snuck into the gym? Perhaps to ambush Clint? He wasn't sure. But he wasn't about to take any chances.
He stalked silently toward the doors, his hands ready to take on whatever enemy may be waiting behind the wall. He stopped just before the armory, fists raised and jaw clenched. What would he find when he opened the door?
Before he could find out the answer, the shuffling inside the closet continued, followed by a soft cry. Clint stiffened at the voice; it was...a child's. No, he thought, that couldn't be. What child would be hiding in the Avengers' weapon closet in Avengers' Tower? While crying?
"Здравствуйте? кто-то там?"
So there was a child - a little girl - speaking Russian in their storage closet. Because that made sense. Clint furrowed his eyebrows, his mind automatically translating her words: Hello? Is anyone there?
Clint didn't reply, waiting for the girl to continue. She cried out again before speaking. "It's dark in here, I don't like it," Clint translated from her pleas. "I-I want to go home!"
She wanted to go home, but Clint wasn't sure where that was, or what that was. Maybe the first step to that answer was opening the door. Tentatively, Clint pulled the doors open, letting the lights of the gym spill into the dark space. His eyes widened at what he found.
The speaker was just as he had predicted: a little Russian girl. But that wasn't what had immediately struck him; no, it was the familiar shade of red hair and unmistakable, piercing blue eyes.
Had he seen these features on a child before…?
The little girl rubbed at her wet eyes, looking up at Clint with a sniffle. Her lips trembled as she spoke. "...Thank you," she murmured in her native tongue.
Clint nodded, crouching down to meet her at eye level. He held out a hand to the shivering girl. "It's okay, you can come out now; I won't hurt you."
Judging by her expression, it was clear she didn't understand; it was a longshot, but he could have only hoped she may speak English. He repeated his words in Russian, and her face relaxed in understanding. She took a few steps forward, exiting the armory and standing before Clint.
He offered her a warm smile, switching to Russian with relative ease. "You look lost. Where are you from?"
"Stalingrad," she answered, wiping at a stray tear. "My family is poor, so we live on the outside..."
A poor family from just outside of Stalingrad. Could it really be…?
Clint swallowed thickly. "What is your name?"
The girl blinked, sniffling one last time. "Natalia."
No way, no way, no way… Clint mentally shook his head. "Your full name…" his voice trailed off as he remembered her - Natalia's - lack of English. "Natalia Romanova?"
Natalia looked completely shocked. She gasped softly in surprise. "You-you know my name?" she demanded, taking a fearful step back. "Who a-are you?"
Clint couldn't blame her; meeting a grown stranger was one thing, but a stranger who knew your full name was another. But he wasn't sure how to answer either of Natalia's questions.
He knew her name after a guess, because he knew Natasha Romanoff, Natalia's future self. But how could he explain all of that, in Russian, and in a way that a six year old girl could understand?
As for Natalia's second question, Clint was equally troubled as to how to answer. Though his name would mean nothing to Natalia now, if she had any indication of his identity before they met in his mission to kill her, that might just give Natasha - Natalia - whoever - a bit more leverage, just enough for her to defeat him. It was the total surprise Clint had when he tracked her down that had helped him win, and if he told Natalia his name now, he might destroy that.
Then again, Natasha had practically no memory of her childhood, so Clint revealing his name to little Natalia would only be one of many moments of her early life to be lost in the void of brainwashing, courtesy of the Red Room.
This is all giving me a headache; it's too early for this shit, he thought to himself with a silent groan. What answer can I give that will appease her and not fuck up the timeline?
"I...ah, heard the name before," he replied nonchalantly. "You don't know me. I'm just a person who lives here."
Natalia's expression fell. "Where am I? I was just outside, playing with my friends."
Just as I thought, this Nat hasn't been to the Red Room yet. She still lives in Stalingrad and plays with other children...she's still innocent. Clint frowned. "You've traveled very far away from your friends, Natalia. What's the last thing you remember?"
"Um…" Natalia held her arms behind her back, rocking back and forth on her feet in thought. The sight captivated Clint, who had never seen Natasha at such ease before, especially in as stressful a situation as this; suddenly, a wave of remorse for the life Natasha lost to the Red Room washed over Clint, and he swallowed against the forming lump in his throat.
Natalia began, "I crawled under a bush, and there was a shiny thing. I thought it was a diamond, so I tried to grab it!" Her explanation was accompanied by excited hand gestures, which Clint had to fight a smile at. "But then, there was a bright light, and I closed my eyes. But when I opened 'em, I was in the dark room."
She turned back to the armory closet, the "dark room," her expression perplexed. "I don't get how it happened."
Neither did Clint. He followed Natalia's gaze into the closet armory before looking back to her youthful face. The bright light must have been what transported her, but he wasn't sure what the bright light was. "That sounds pretty confusing," he commented.
"It is," Natalia said, suddenly deflated. She turned back to him with a sorrowful expression. "How can I go home? Everything looks different!"
"Well…" If she's just going to forget about this in the Red Room, I suppose I can be a bit more truthful with her, Clint thought. "Natalia, what year is it back home?"
"Hm? It's…" Natalia thought for a few moments, her mouth twisting and eyebrows furrowing as she counted on her fingers. "I was born in 1920…twenty plus six...1926?"
Clint smiled. "You're good at math," he praised. She covered her mouth with her hands, giggling at the compliment (and Clint still couldn't believe how cute Natasha was as a child). "It's 2014 here."
Natalia gasped once more. "2014?! That's...a long time?"
Clint nodded. "It's eighty-eight years after 1926."
"Whoa! I'm in the future!" Natalia said, looking around at their surroundings. "Is this the Soviet Union?"
Clint figured dropping information about the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. would endanger things, so he shrugged. "Well...It's not Stalingrad, at least."
Natalia deflated at that. "Oh...then, I really am far away from home."
"Hey, it'll be alright-"
Clint moved to place his hand on her shoulder, but froze when he saw her upper body tense. Her arms came up, wrapping around her midsection, and her shoulders rose once with a sniffle. Natalia's eyes filled with tears, and Clint quickly retracted his hand.
"I...I wanna go home," Natalia whimpered, the first tear falling against her cheek. "I miss home…"
That's the second time she's cried since coming here, what do I do?! Clint watched her uncertainly. "I'm...sorry…"
To his astonishment, Natalia closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around Clint's neck in a warm embrace. Her body language suggested trust, to which Clint responded by lightly wrapping his arms around her small frame.
"Thank you, Вы," she said with a small sniffle, addressing Clint with what he recognized as a formal address for older strangers. "Thank you for being nice to me."
Her words were heartfelt, and Clint could feel a part of him melt at her tenderness. To know that the Red Room would later take this all away… "It'll be okay, Natalia. We'll figure something out."
At least, he hoped they would.
Prioritizing the little Natalia over the last item on his to-do list from Natasha, Clint led Natalia upstairs to the penthouse after she calmed down. The technology of the Tower amazed her, the elevator even scaring her into grasping Clint's hand a little tighter with the weightless feeling it gave her. If there was anything Clint remembered always making him feel better when he was a child, it was food.
"We have lots of great food here," Clint rambled to Natalia as they walked to the kitchen. "For one thing, we have a lot of snacks, like crackers and chips. We even have a ton of fruit, for when we're feeling healthy! But you're probably hungry for a whole meal, right?"
Natalia looked up at him in slight bewilderment, her mouth slightly open and eyes wide. "We don't have a lot of food at home...Mama says just one piece of bread and some soup is good enough for one day."
Shit, that's right, Clint mentally berated himself; while Natasha's life was no typical 'rags to riches' story, he knew that what early childhood memories she did retain were often characterized by hunger and poverty. She even admitted her 'criminal' ways to have started then, with petty theft.
"Today is a special day," Clint reassured her, stopping at the dining table. He pulled out a chair, and Natalia slowly climbed up into the seat, the large, gray dress on her seeming to swallow up her legs when she sat down. Clint guessed it was either an early hand-me-down, or it had been sewn with the intention of fitting Natalia for as long as possible. "Do you know what a grilled cheese is?"
Natalia shook her head, sending her messily cut bangs in all different directions. "I like cheese, but what's grilled?"
"It's a way to cook something," Clint answered, turning away and walking toward the fridge. Natalia quickly reacted, sliding out of her chair to follow.
Clint turned back with a small smile. "It's alright, Natalia, just go sit down at the table; I'm going to cook for you and then bring the food to you."
She stuck her lips out slightly, her eyebrows lowered in a suspecting expression. "You're not leaving me?"
"I'm not leaving you," Clint reassured her, opening the fridge and pulling the pack of American cheese out. He set it on the counter, then turned to Natalia, picking her up in his arms. "I promise I won't leave your sight."
He walked her back to the table then, depositing her in the seat she'd sit in before. Pausing after taking a few steps away to ensure she did not move, Clint returned to the cheese, pulling a pack of bread down from the pantry and setting it down. He reached down to a lower cabinet, pulling out a pan, and turned to the stove.
Natalia watched, enamored with everything going on; she'd never seen anything like it. Then, Clint suddenly flipped a switch, and there was fire! She gasped and grasped the back of the chair more tightly.
Clint sent her a quick grin. "Don't worry, it's not a dangerous fire; we use it to cook. See?"
She watched as he set the pan on the stove, just above the little blue flames.
Tony stretched his arms above his head as he rode the elevator up to the penthouse, yawning loudly. He'd been working in the lab for most of the morning, ever since Pepper left with Natasha; the two were due to arrive back at the tower any time now, which meant Tony needed to eat lunch so Pepper wouldn't give him that look (also known as, the knowing glare of you need to take better care of yourself).
Wiping at his moist eyes, Tony trudged out of the elevator, making his way toward the kitchen. He paused when he heard Clint's voice, frowning slightly at the fact that Clint must have been talking to thin air, as no one else was in the tower at that time. Weird.
On top of that, Clint was speaking in Russian, of all languages. Tony paused just before turning the corner to enter the kitchen. He listened for a few moments, jumping slightly when a second, unfamiliar voice answered Clint's.
"Are you enjoying your food?" Clint asked the stranger.
Tony could hear a smile in the stranger's voice (which, now that he thought about it, sounded very young and high-pitched, giving him a 'little girl' vibe). "Yes, thank you very much! It tastes good."
The exchange was in Russian, a language Tony had mastered long ago, and tried to improve his skills in recently considering the native Russian speaker in his new circle of friends. Though, the thing he'd only improved the most on in speaking Russian was insults, considering that was all Natasha usually said to him in her mother tongue.
But that still left him with the mystery of the identity of the girl in the kitchen with Clint.
Their conversation seemed to come to a pause, as Tony assumed they were eating the "good food" they had been talking about moments before. He decided he'd just tackle this thing head on, and walked into the kitchen as naturally as possible.
After about five steps into the room, Clint turned around to look at him. Following his motions, the small child also turned, her cheeks bulging with what Tony guessed was the grilled cheese she currently held in her hands.
"Um...hello," Tony greeted with a small hand wave, looking between the two. "I see we have a guest."
Clint swallowed his bite of grilled cheese, now speaking in English. "Tony...it's a long story."
Tony grabbed an apple from the bowl of fruit on the counter, leaning against the marble ledge as indifferently as possible. "I'm listening."
He looked to the girl again, studying her appearance. She wore a gray dress that was far too big for her; the short sleeves hung from her shoulders a bit haphazardly, giving Tony the impression that had it been a size any bigger, it would have completely slid off of her. Her arms and the few parts of her legs he could see were very thin, which, combined with the quality of her clothes, indicated she came from an impoverished lifestyle.
Her face contrasted these things, however, as her eyes were bright and her expression curious. The bright blue color of her gaze naturally drew Tony to her eyes. Her skin was fairly pale, which emphasized the bold shade of red of her hair; it was long, the wavy ends falling against her lower back. Unevenly cut bangs sat against her forehead, touching her eyebrows and complementing the equally bright colors in her eyes.
Tony wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing.
"This is...Natalia," Clint introduced, gesturing to the still eating child beside him.
"Natalia?" Tony raised an eyebrow, taking a loud bite from his shiny red apple (though, Natalia's vibrant hair color could compete with the shade of the apple). He smirked, chewing. "Barton, you should have told me you and Romanoff had a kid; I would have at least dressed her better."
Clint rolled his eyes. "Now's not the time for your self-righteous humor. She's not my kid." He glanced down at her once more. "She only speaks Russian, so I can explain this to you in English."
"Wait, so she's not related to Romanoff?" Tony tapped his finger to his chin, narrowing his eyes. "I could've sworn she looks exactly like her."
"Natalia, you keep eating while I go talk to him," Clint murmured in soft Russian to Natalia. She nodded in understanding, turning back to her plate to eat some French fries.
Clint stood up and walked over to Tony. "Look. I don't know how it happened, but Natalia over there...that's Nat."
Tony huffed in disbelief. "What do you mean, that's Nat? That's a little kid."
"That's what I'm saying: it's Natasha as a little kid," Clint explained, scratching the back of his head. "Somehow, six year old Natasha time traveled to the future - our present day - while she was playing hide and seek outside with her friends in Russia - the Soviet Union."
"That literally doesn't make sense. She would need, like, an Infinity Stone or something intergalactic like that to do that." Tony bit once more into his apple.
"I think that's what happened, actually," Clint confessed, looking back toward Natalia. "She said she saw something shiny, so she reached for it. I think it might have been the Time Stone or something."
Tony paused mid-chew. "Wait, wait, wait; you mean the same Time Stone we lost last week?"
Clint sighed. "Thor's going to be pissed."
"It was Romanoff who last...oh," Tony paused, realizing what had happened. "So it went back to her time period. Awesome."
"Though, if Natalia traveled here, that must mean the stone came with her," Clint pointed out. "So it's gotta be around here somewhere."
Tony shook his head. "This is some deep shit we're in, Barton."
Clint glanced between Tony and Natalia. "Don't cuss."
"Hell, Barton, you said it yourself, she doesn't speak English. It doesn't matter," Tony groaned. "What matters is now is sending her back to her time so we don't fuck up the time and space continuum."
"Right." Clint nodded.
And thus their search began. Once Natalia finished eating, Clint explained the situation to her: the way to send her home, the shiny thing that had brought her here, was probably hiding in the tower somewhere, waiting to be found. It made sense, and almost sounded like a game when Clint explained it. Meanwhile, Tony tried to get in contact with Thor, who was currently visiting Jane and Darcy in Europe, knowing that the demi-god should probably be told that his team had lost a precious stone that may lead to the destruction of the time and space continuum.
(Tony, of course, tried to play it off like it wasn't that big of a deal, in the voice message he left for the big guy.)
"Do you remember seeing the shiny stone when you were in the dark room?" Clint asked Natalia as he returned to the training gym with her, hand-in-hand. "Maybe it's in there."
Natalia hummed a bit. "I don't think so."
"Let's look anyway, just in case," Clint decided.
So they did. Once he had turned on the light in the so-called armory, it didn't look nearly as scary as it did before (or so Clint assumed, considering Natalia stepped out from where she had been standing - or hiding - behind him once he'd turned on the lights). Remembering that the room was full of dangerous weapons, Clint instructed Natalia to wait outside, as he figured allowing children to roam around weapons that were in reach and sharp was not very responsible.
He felt like a parent. It was weird and slightly uncomfortable.
"Do you see it, Hawk?" Natalia asked, using the name Clint finally provided for her to address him; he figured that wasn't too threatening to the timeline if Natalia knew half of his code name before meeting him (not to mention the sad truth: the Red Room would make sure she wouldn't remember most of this).
"No," he sighed in reply, exiting the room. He turned off the lights and closed the door. "It wasn't in there. It must be somewhere else."
"Oh…" Natalia said, her tone melancholy. She looked at her feet for a few moments, then turned her eyes back up to Clint. "That's okay, Hawk, we'll find it!"
Her optimism was pretty contagious, Clint had to admit. It also contrasted greatly to the adult Natasha he knew. If she were here, she'd probably roll her eyes and groan, declaring the search hopeless.
But he decided to agree with the actually present Natalia. "You're right. It's gotta be around here somewhere."
They resumed their search then, exploring any part of the tower they could. All closets were searched, all bed covers overturned, every couch cushion thoroughly felt around - even the air vents were suspects.
"I don't think it's up here, Hawk," Natalia said after crawling around the small, silver space for about ten minutes. "We would have seen it by now."
Overall, they spent about an hour searching, before deciding to take a break to relax in the penthouse.
"We're so fucked, dude," Tony said (in English, of course, so Natalia would not be exposed to a swear word!) when Clint and Natalia collapsed on the couch together. "Thor may actually kill us."
"Don't remind me," Clint groaned.
"Sir," JARVIS suddenly said, coming back to life after Tony's maintenance that morning, "Ms. Potts and Agent Romanoff are currently on their way up."
Natalia shrieked in fear at the sudden British voice, curling into Clint's side; meanwhile, Clint and Tony looked to each other with wide eyes, sharing the panicked sentiment of how the hell do we explain this?!
Before they could work out a solution, the elevator doors opened, and Natasha and Pepper entered the room.
"We're home!" Pepper cheerfully announced, setting some paper bags down on a nearby table. "We decided to pick some groceries up along the way."
Though Natasha was less expressive than Pepper, there was a lightheartedness to her expression and glow in her eyes that informed Clint she'd had just as much fun as Pepper. "We also had to tell a guy off on the street, after he said a few...rude things to us. That was pretty-"
She and Pepper both stopped then, finally taking in the sight before them.
Tony stood off to the side, biting his lip and nervously flicking his eyes between everyone in the room. Clint sat on the couch, wearing an equally uncertain expression as Tony, his arm around little Natalia, who had cowered into his side when the intangible JARVIS spoke.
Clint couldn't read much from Natasha's expression beside the confusion.
"Is that…" Pepper took a step closer. "Clint, who is this?"
At her words, the fearful Natalia looked up at the two newcomers, sniffling as tears filled her eyes, again. Clint couldn't keep track of the amount of times the tenderhearted Natalia had resorted to tears in the brief two and half hours he'd known her.
"Hawk…" she murmured nervously in Russian, leaning her head a bit closer to his.
Pepper looked to Tony. "Was that-"
"Russian," Tony finished for her with a nod.
Clint focused on Natasha, standing slightly farther away than Pepper. The initial shock from her eyes was gone, as was the joy from spending the morning with Pepper.
Instead, Natasha, with her jaw set and low eyes, just looked unsurprised - almost like she'd seen this before.
"Out of all the things you could get into, I never thought this would be one of them."
Pepper's words were accompanied with a sigh as she shook her head, sitting across the dining room table from Tony, who had just explained the situation to her. She looked to Natalia, sitting at the other end of the table beside Clint. "Really. This is a new level of craziness for you two."
"I think it should be noted that I completely agree," Tony established quickly. "I never expected this kind of thing could even happen. I still don't understand how it did."
"It was that Time Stone," Clint said, drumming his fingers against the table. "That damn stone. If only Thor had been here to handle it instead of us 'Midgardians'..."
"How do we fix this?" Pepper asked, looking between the two men.
"Well," Tony began thoughtfully, "we think that the stone traveled with the kid, which means it's around here somewhere."
Clint looked to Natasha, who sat next to Pepper, in the seat furthest away from where Natalia sat beside him, coloring (because apparently Tony and Pepper kept crayons and Avengers coloring books in the tower). "Tasha, don't you remember anything…?"
Natasha stared intently at her younger self, ignoring everyone else's expectant gazes landing on her. They'd already asked her once if she had any memories from this, but she didn't give much of an answer. She watched Natalia closely, her mind whirling with the few things she could remember from her childhood. At the same time, her mind was filled with an eerie static.
"Hardly," Natasha finally said, meeting Clint's eyes. "Most of it was lost in the Red Room, but now that's it happening…"
"It feels familiar?" Clint guessed, and she nodded.
"I remember getting lost playing hide and seek once," Natasha admitted. "And...I was helped by some strangers, and a woman who looked like me, just bigger and older, but..."
She could feel the memories there in her mind, but when she tried to reach for them, her head throbbed in protest. The true answers were all there, hidden by false visions installed in her brain by the Red Room; the internal struggle set off all sorts of alarms of discomfort in her mind, adding to the mess of thoughts and emotions and anecdotes that already existed on a daily basis.
In the physical, outside world, Natasha simply closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"It's okay, Tasha, don't worry too much about it," Clint reassured her. Natasha figured he'd known her long enough that he could recognize how the inconsistencies of her mind reflected on her outward behavior. "If you made it home in the end, that must mean we figured it out and were able to get you home."
Tony nodded. "Once Thor comes, he might be able to help us find the Time Stone, wherever the hell it went. I mean, it must be around here somewhere, since this is where Romanoff's mini-me ended up, but time travel is such an outrageous concept, who knows?"
"If anyone can fix this, we can," Pepper said confidently. "For the meantime, we should stay here, keep Natalia entertained within the confines of the tower."
"We could throw off the whole timeline by exposing her to too much of the future," Tony joked, offering a good-natured smirk. "Even if all of these memories will eventually be lost, we better not risk anything."
Natasha resumed watching Natalia color, losing interest in the conversation among the adults. Had she really looked that thin back then? The painful hunger she'd endured on a daily basis felt out of reach now, nearly ninety years later; it seemed to be nothing but a whisper of an experience from a lifetime ago.
Her entire childhood in Stalingrad, though brief, was buried so deeply within her mind that she'd doubted its existence for the majority of her life from the Red Room onward. Now she had a physical confirmation of its integrity, as she watched Natalia shyly glance up at everyone every few moments or so.
This encounter with herself left Natasha feeling...numb. She felt indifferent toward Natalia, wanting nothing more than to just send her on her merry way back home and move on with her life. Yet, something in her mind probed her to take action, to do something. Different parts of her called for her to do different things.
She could teach little Natalia how to defend herself now, so that the more painful experiences of her life wouldn't have to be so bad. She could advise Natalia of how to avoid her tragic fate, changing her life and future altogether (which would erase Natasha from this reality, if the fictional takes on time travel had gotten it right). As a matter of fact, Natasha could probably just...
"Nat," Clint said, pulling Natasha from her thoughts, "what else did you like to do as a child? I need more ideas on how to keep Natalia entertained."
Natasha felt something at Clint's words; was it jealousy? She knew that it wasn't, but the animosity of whatever it was left her feeling doubtful. "As long as you include her, she'll enjoy any activity or game you play."
It was the sad, pitiful truth; Natasha remembered a constant desperation for friends and attention from her childhood. Clint, Pepper, and Tony all looked at her with matching expressions of sympathy, from which she looked away.
"Don't look at me like that."
Thor finally arrived within the next few hours. His booming voice had scared Natalia to the point of tears (when asked about her quick flight to tears as a child, Natasha simply shrugged and walked away); fortunately, Tony and Thor moved downstairs to deal with the science (or magic?) of the situation while Pepper and Clint all remained upstairs with Natalia.
Natasha was present, too, every once in awhile, but she hardly participated in whatever activity they were doing; she'd usually stick to the edge of the room, watching her younger self interact with Clint and Pepper with an unsettling intensity in her eyes.
"Natalia, can you tell me how many dots are on this side of the dice?"
Pepper, too, was fluent in Russian, just like Tony; apparently everyone brushed up on their Russian skills when Natasha entered the picture. With a bright expression, she eagerly interacted with Natalia; Clint found it cute and endearing. He could identify the slight remorse within Pepper, as they knew Natasha's childhood was far from easy or enjoyable. Naturally, it would make sense that, perhaps by playing with Natalia and showing her love and affection, maybe Pepper could lessen the burden Natalia (and Natasha) would have to endure.
Clint respected Pepper more than he ever had before.
"Hmmm," Natalia pursed her lips, touching the small white cube with her fingertip. She silently mouthed the numbers to herself, counting each black dot. "...Four?"
Because of her impoverished life, Natalia would be fairly uneducated; she didn't count particularly well, and Clint figured reading was completely out of the question. Judging by her enthusiasm, Pepper wanted to rectify that as much as possible.
"Yes! Good job, Natalia," Pepper praised in Russian, patting Natalia's shoulder proudly. Natalia beamed, watching Pepper move her cardboard character four spaces ahead on the Chutes and Ladders board.
"Is it my turn?" Natalia asked, looking up between the two adults.
"Yes, now it is," Clint said, pushing the dice toward her. "Remember to roll it lightly."
(He'd already had to go fetch the dice from the floor, a few feet away from the dining table, several times; though it had been an innocent mistake at first, Natalia quickly found amusement in the way Clint would frown, groan, and slowly meander his way over to the lost game piece. Her sudden mischievous side reminded Clint very much of the adult Natasha he'd known for years.)
This time, Natalia spared Clint the trouble, as she peacefully rolled a three (which Pepper had quizzed her on as soon as the dice settled on its destined side). Her piece pulled ahead of Pepper's on the game board, both of which had long since left Clint behind; he'd fallen down the unfortunate rabbit hole of a slide, and was now in one of the beginning spaces on the board.
"Hawk," Natalia suddenly called, looking to Clint, "if this is the future, what do I grow up to be?"
Clint and Pepper both tensed at Natalia's question, making quick and panicked eye contact. Of all the questions Natalia had asked since traveling to the future (and there had been many, once Natalia grew comfortable around Clint, as Natasha was apparently quite the curious child), he was surprised this one hadn't come up yet; she'd even asked about the adult Natasha who would come and go from the room, for which Clint had to make something up.
"You're distant relatives who just happen to have names that sound similar," he'd told Natalia after she watched the area where Natasha had stood moments before. "It's just a coincidence."
Now, though, Natalia's burning gaze was honed in on his face, as she picked at the fabric of her dress under the table. The gray shade of the dress contrasted against the fair, pale shade of white her skin held, strangely reminding Clint not just of snow and winter, but of death itself.
(Natasha would argue such an image of herself was not inaccurate, Clint was sure.)
"Well," Clint started, clearing his throat uneasily, "I can't say too much, Natalia. If I tell you, it might cause a time paradox, or something of the sort; either way, if I tell you, then it might change the future, since you'll already know what happens before it happens, and we don't want that."
His long, roundabout answer threw her off the trail of uncovering what was really going on here, he could tell, as Natalia's mouth sat in a firm, straight line for a few moments, and she simply stared at Clint in silence. Pepper then mentioned it being Clint's turn, and managed to distract Natalia from her question altogether.
He rolled the dice, Natalia counted the black dots, and he moved his character up the appropriate amount of spaces, even climbing a small ladder in the process. It was a small, but successful, turn; Natalia congratulated him, then proceeded to predict her own victory with clear confidence in her voice.
While Pepper rolled the dice, Clint could feel eyes on the back of his neck.
"Since I'm losing by so much right now, I'm going to go grab a quick snack. You guys keep playing," he excused himself, standing up from the table.
For the first time, Natasha hadn't just walked into the kitchen to spy; this time, she wanted to make herself some tea, which, obviously, would be stored in the kitchen, where the others just happened to be.
After setting water to boil on the stove, she reached up to the cabinets above her head, managing to retrieve an Avengers mug from the lowest shelf (which Tony had always made sure was well-stocked with things, so the "more vertically challenged" members of the team - Natasha - could survive on their own). She placed it on the counter beside the stove and her tea bag.
Last she'd heard from Tony and Thor, progress on the Time Stone was slow, but happening. Once they'd started getting deeper into the scientific and magic aspects of it, she'd tuned out of the conversation, but found reassurance in the fact that this nightmare would be over soon.
She spent a lot of time this afternoon thinking, gradually remembering this event from her childhood (paralleling the progress of the Time Stone, it seemed). Warm food and physical affection first came to mind, their memory filling her senses; she remembered how full she felt after Clint's home cooked meal, and how touched she was by every act of kindness, no matter how small.
The feeling of her hand and Clint's intertwined suddenly felt a lot more familiar.
Speaking of, Clint now stood beside her, after excusing himself from the nearby game.
"You're back," he commented, his tone lighthearted and words in his natural English. "I was starting to think you were getting jealous of the attention we're giving her."
Natasha blinked, opting to not roll her eyes at his jovial jab. "I'm not jealous."
And she wasn't; jealousy was far from what she was feeling. Clint could play games with Natalia for the rest of the week, for all Natasha cared; that didn't matter. What mattered here was...her.
Not just Natalia, but Natasha herself - both of them, their shared, one existence. Natasha could not see the same person Clint and Pepper saw when they looked and talked to Natalia; where they saw childish innocence and mischief, she saw lies and weakness. They cherished this part of her that she had loathed for so long.
Then don't let her go back, a voice repeated in Natasha's mind, as it had for the majority of the afternoon. She had, in a sense, full control of her fate with this unfortunate mix-up with her child self.
"You don't seem overjoyed about this, either," Clint pointed out.
Why would I be? Natasha turned back to the stove, turning it off. "Nothing good will come from this," she reminded of Clint.
Clint exhaled. "Well, once she goes home, life will definitely not go her way…"
"I remember," Natasha said, glancing up at him as she carefully poured the appropriate amount of water into her mug, "being excited when I made it home, but...after we send her, me, back home to the past..."
"The Red Room, right?"
"She'll go home. Her family will welcome her back after worrying over her sudden disappearance. And when she goes to bed that night…" Natasha trailed off with a shake of her head, turning to Clint. "Look. These were some of the very last moments I had of an 'innocent' childhood. Everything is about to go to hell."
She briefly considered how much easier things would be if they hadn't gone the way they had, how much suffering would be avoided if she had never made it back to the past. If there was no more Natalia Romanova, no more Natasha Romanoff, then, maybe...
"Tasha. You're gonna hurt your hand."
Clint's words grounded Natasha, and she relaxed her right hand, which had gripped the cup of scalding water so tightly, the heat had slightly burned her palm. She sighed, grabbing the tea bag with her undamaged left hand, lowering it into the water.
"As painful as it is, we can't change the past...I mean, I suppose we, literally, can change the past right now," Clint thought aloud, glancing over at Pepper and Natalia, still engrossed in their game of Chutes and Ladders, "but think of how much that would ruin our lives in the present day. So much would be different…"
Natasha gently blew on her hot drink, thinking of how different her life would have been if the Red Room had never played a part in it. On one hand, she may have just died in her life of poverty at a young age (though, she thought cynically, that fate would probably be more merciful than the ninety-four years of life she'd endured since then); on the other, should Natalia not make it back to the past for...whatever reason…(Natasha shook her head of the quick and painless ways to take matters into her own hands that started to flood her mind) at least she would have lived six, decent years of life, rather than ninety-four painful and sinful years.
"Not sure how ruined my life would be," Natasha admitted to Clint, taking a sip from her tea. "But, in the meantime, I'll leave you to it with kid me."
She took her leave then, turning away and walking out of the room.
Once Steve and Bruce returned to the tower later that afternoon, things grew just short of chaotic.
While everyone was still trying to solve the mystery of the missing Time Stone, Natalia seemed ecstatic to be surrounded by so many friends (Clint had introduced the rest of the Avengers to her as such, and her face lit up so brightly, his heart ached for her) and just wanted to play.
Tony showed her how to play checkers. Natalia quickly understood the rules of the game and made some impressive moves for a six year old (though Bruce was sitting next to her to help her; Tony seemed to have let it slide).
Pepper taught her how to read and write a few key phrases (in Russian, of course, as they weren't sure if introducing Natalia to English now would mess up the natural progression of Natalia's inevitable Red Room training), mainly endearing things such as I love you and you are my friend. Natalia excitedly wrote them down on several pieces of paper to hand out to everyone.
Steve drew a few things for Natalia, mainly animals and flowers, finishing just the lineart and then giving them to her to color. They quickly became quite the artistic team, Natalia combining her newfound writing skills to add little notes to their combined art before giving them out to the others. Though there had been a bit more of a language barrier between herself and Steve, they still had a lot of fun together.
Thor spent most of the time searching the tower for the Time Stone, but would spend any breaks he took with Natalia. He gave her piggyback rides around the penthouse, and even made the mistake of depositing her on the floor beside Mjolnir at one point.
That was how everyone discovered Natalia Romanova was, in fact, worthy.
"Children are still innocent," Thor quickly explained after retrieving the hammer from a pouting Natalia. "They are born worthy, but once they are exposed to the evils of the world, they grow cynical and lose that innocence."
Nobody wanted to point out that such a loss would be inevitably inflicted upon Natalia.
The only one absent from everything going on was Natasha. She continued to watch the activities from afar, similar to when Natalia had been playing Chutes and Ladders with Clint and Pepper in the kitchen. Whenever Clint glanced back to look at her, she looked away.
"That's it!" Tony suddenly yelled from where he sat on the couch, his tablet in his lap and Pepper startled at his side. He looked around at everyone, his eyes bright and smile wide.
"Shh," Clint shushed him, laying a hand on Natalia's chest. He was sitting on the other couch, Natalia lying down beside him with her head rested on his lap. She was exhausted from all of the excitement and activities in the tower, and had proceeded to curl up beside Clint. Minutes and a soft melody sung by Clint later, she was out. Clint glared at Tony. "You'll wake her up."
"Sorry, sorry," Tony said in a rush, jumping to his feet. Everyone looked to him with the same confusion painted on their faces. "I just solved the mystery of this whole thing. I know where the Time Stone is."
"Where, Stark?" Thor said softly, which was still relatively loud, but a clear gesture taken for Natalia's sleepy sake. Clint smiled.
"Let me amend my previous statement: I don't know where it is," Tony said, turning toward Natasha, who stood farthest away from the group, "but she does."
"Nat?" Steve questioned, also looking in Natasha's direction.
But Natasha looked just as confused as everyone else. She furrowed her brow, her lips pointed downward in a frown. "Don't look at me, I'm just as clueless about this as you all are."
Realization dawned on Bruce's face. He stood up from his chair, the light of the sunset streaming in through the windows and bathing his white lab coat in a deep yellow. "I think I get it. Natasha touched it last in the present, which made it go back to the past…"
"And then Natalia came into full contact with it," Tony continued, stepping toward Bruce. "So she came here, as did the stone."
"Meaning…" Pepper's voice trailed off.
Thor turned to Natasha as well. "Meaning it's Natasha's turn to find it once more."
"What does that mean?" Natasha questioned them, holding her hands out to her sides. "I haven't seen it anywhere."
"The Infinity Stones are mischievous things," Thor said, shaking his head. "They act upon their own will. The Time Stone brought little Natalia here, and is also responsible for bringing her back home. We must find the stone to ensure that happens."
"If we send Nat looking for it," Clint surmised, "it'll make itself visible?"
Tony grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Told you I figured it out."
"It should be somewhere Natasha will go," Thor said.
"Somewhere she goes a lot?" Steve asked. "Like...her room?"
"Our room," Clint cut in cheekily, prompting Natasha to roll her eyes.
"Whatever, Clint." She shook her head, stepping away from the wall. "Alright, then, let's go see if the brilliant Hawkeye actually did his chores today."
"I told you, I did!" Clint huffed defensively, looking between his moving teammates and the still sleeping Natalia. He felt guilty disturbing her slumber, so he carefully lifted her up. Pepper walked over to him and helped place Natalia onto Clint's back, piggyback style, carefully draping her arms around his neck. Natalia stirred momentarily, her eyes fluttering briefly as she pressed her head against Clint's neck before returning to sleep.
Clint smiled at the display, as did Pepper. They followed the others toward the elevator.
"Well. Someone better give Tony an award for being right."
Natasha sighed as she found the familiar light of the Time Stone floating in front of the large window in her bedroom shared with Clint. The stone was levitating just above the part of their wooden dresser where she'd haphazardly deposited her S.H.I.E.L.D. jacket and Widow's Bites, prompting Natasha to look at Clint with an unsurprised expression.
He would have raised his hands in his defense if he could, but Natalia was still sleeping on his back. "Hey, last time I touched your stuff, you got mad, so I left it there for you to deal with yourself."
"I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner," Pepper said, shaking her head as she and the others walked into the room behind Clint and Natasha, all staring at the found Time Stone. "We literally looked everywhere else."
"It at least gave us more time to spend with Natalia," Steve said with a small smile, gesturing to Natalia's sleeping form.
Clint heard the others murmur in agreement. Even Natasha looked a little more at peace with the whole thing now (maybe because Natalia was about to leave). He smiled to himself, twisting his head to look down at his shoulder, where Natalia's resting face sat. Natalia's quickness to trust had taken Clint so off-guard - knowing Natasha, no one would expect her to trust so willingly, openly, and swiftly. But Natalia offered everyone her affection and respect upon their first meeting, which only saddened Clint.
These were some of the very last moments I had of an 'innocent' childhood, Natasha's words from earlier rang in Clint's ears. His smile fell, morphing into an uncertain frown. Everything is about to go to hell.
"Yeah, it was nice to see the nicer side of Natashalie," Tony said coyly. Pepper smacked his arm while Natasha simply rolled her eyes.
"Kid me just didn't know how much of a piece of shit you actually are," Natasha snarked in response, looking at Tony over her shoulder. "But she'll learn soon enough."
Thor bellowed a laugh. "This child shall grow to become a brave and noble warrior, who is quick with her tongue."
Natalia stirred at all of the noise, sleepily raising her head from Clint's shoulder and lifting a hand to wipe away the sleep from her eyes. She began murmuring something, but then gasped as she caught sight of the glow of the Time Stone before her.
"It's there!" she said excitedly, pointing at it with her index finger. She tapped Clint's head enthusiastically. "Hawk, we found it!"
Clint didn't say anything, simply bending his knees and lowering Natalia to the ground. She climbed off eagerly, circling around Clint's legs to run up closer to the Time Stone.
"Yeah, Hawk, liven up," Tony said in Russian when Clint remained silent. "It was a success."
Natalia laughed happily (a sight that reminded them all of Natasha, whenever she felt successful or particularly boastful) while Clint stood up straight once more, his eyes downcast.
"Thank you for playing with me, everyone!" Natalia said cheerfully, swinging around on her feet to face the Avengers once more. "I had so much fun!"
"Be careful when you play hide and seek next time," Pepper replied in Russian with a mischievous grin. "Try not to touch any more weird stones that light up."
"We all had a lot of fun playing with you, too," Bruce said warmly, his Russian a bit rougher than that of the others, but still coherent enough for Natalia to understand.
Tony gestured to Steve. "And I know Steve would, if he could, tell you you're a great artist," he said. Steve nodded happily.
"Thank you for playing with us, Natalia," Steve said, looking to Tony, who translated his words into Russian. Natalia beamed.
"You have traveled a long way from home, little one," Thor said. They quickly discovered he had an ability similar to the Biblical "speaking in tongues" - it seemed that anyone on Earth could understand him, regardless of their own, native language. "Stay safe when you travel home, alright?"
"I will," Natalia promised, nodding.
"Though this isn't necessarily a very happy ending, I guess it turns out okay," Natasha said lightheartedly in English. She looked to Clint, the corners of her lips raised slightly. But Clint didn't respond, his gaze still focused on his feet. Natasha tilted her head to get a better look of his down turned face. "Clint?"
"I…" Clint swallowed against a forming lump in his throat. "I can't let her go back."
Everyone stared at Clint then, surprise and confusion etched into their expressions. Clint's fists tightened at his sides as his lip quivered.
"Once we let her go back, she's just going to suffer," Clint said quietly, disguising his words in English to keep them from the innocent ears of Natalia. "She's going to endure so much pain. And I just…"
He looked up then, focusing his hard eyes on Natalia, who offered him a trusting smile in return without any hesitation. She couldn't understand what he was saying, but still looked to him with such adoration and affection.
How could someone destroy that? How could anyone purposefully disarm this innocent child of her enthusiasm and openness to everyone? It wasn't fair. It's not fair. Whenever Natalia had cried that day, Clint felt immediately obligated to dedicate his whole self to amending whatever was bothering Natalia. The fact that there were people out there, in the world Natalia was returning home to, who would turn a blind eye to such a pitiful sight as Natalia crying, even make her cry more...
Clint bit his lip then, closing the distance between himself and Natalia and crouching down in front of her, wrapping his arms around her small body and hugging her tightly to his chest. "I can't let her go back," he repeated, his voice watery and hands trembling. "I can't see her off to her fate. How could I? She's going to suffer for so long…"
His shoulders started shaking, followed by the sound of his sniffling. Natalia looked concerned, twisting her neck around to look at the back of Clint's head. "Hawk? Why are you crying?"
"Natalia...I can't let you go back," he murmured, switching to Russian and tightening his arms around her as tears fell down his cheeks. "You don't deserve this fate…you don't deserve to go through so much pain."
Natalia frowned, visibly unable to understand what Clint meant. The rest of the Avengers looked on with conflicted expressions. Tony made a move to step forward and say something, but Pepper reached her hand out and shook her head.
Natasha moved instead.
She stepped up behind Clint, right in front of Natalia's eyes. Lowering herself to Natalia's eye level, Natasha cleared her throat, and addressed her younger counterpart for the first time since she'd come.
"Natalia...would you like to stay here?"
Natasha's softly spoken Russian surprised everyone. Clint pulled back from Natalia to properly see both Natasha and Natalia at the same time, his now red eyes overflowing with tangible emotion. Natalia's eyes watered at the sight (out of empathy, Clint figured; Natasha had proved herself to be quite empathetic in the years he'd known her, more than she would ever openly admit, so it made sense that her younger self would act accordingly), but she turned to look at Natasha once more.
"Like Hawk said, your life...there will be things that are difficult and hard, and you will be hurt a lot," Natasha explained slowly and carefully. "You will be sad a lot. You're going to feel lonely a lot. The world will be a dark and scary place. It won't be very fun.
"But...you will meet friends who will make you feel wonderful again. You'll feel whole again, thanks to them...they will be your family," she spoke honestly and optimistically, closing her eyes for a reflective moment, then opening them with a lighter expression. "You will meet everyone again, in the future, and we'll all live happily together."
"I...will meet Hawk again?" Natalia asked, glancing between Clint and Natasha.
"If you choose to return home now, and endure the hardships of life as they come, you will meet him for yourself, in the future," Natasha said with a small grin. "And you will make him very happy, which will then make you very, very happy."
Clint sniffled, wiping at his eyes with his fist. "Nat…"
"So, then," Natasha brought the conversation full-circle, "what will it be? Will you stay here and live with us now? Will you avoid the painful fate waiting for you when you return home?"
Natalia's mouth sat in a firm line as she seemed to mull things over. Everyone's eyes were on her, waiting for her fate-determining answer. Clint thought about it; surely, caring for Natalia wouldn't be that difficult. She trusted them all so much already, and got along with everyone fantastically. But what would that make of the Natasha standing beside him now?
She would probably cease to exist, maybe fade into oblivion, or something. Was Clint really willing to sacrifice Natasha for...herself? Though, a part of him argued, this was to protect Natasha from her pain, to spare her from a life she did not deserve...surely, that validated changing the timeline and erasing his own years of history with the grown-up Natasha?
It didn't matter for him or the others either way, though; just as Natasha had said, it was Natalia's choice. She was choosing her own fate.
And, finally, Natalia took a deep breath before opening her mouth widely with her response.
"Nope!"
It was so lighthearted and cheerful, Clint inhaled sharply in surprise. Natasha simply raised her eyebrows.
"My home needs me, even if it's sad," Natalia said, placing her hand over her heart. "My family needs me, too. I wanna meet everyone again and be happy with them! And…"
She looked down momentarily, her thoughts clouding her eyes as a smile, brighter than each one she'd offered so far in her time since traveling to the future, overtook her face and she looked up at Clint joyfully.
"And, I have to meet Hawk and become his friend! Because I already love him so, so, so much!"
Clint started tearing up again, his hand instinctively covering his mouth in his shock at Natalia's - Natasha's, despite the age difference she was still his Natasha - bold and loyal statement. Natasha's cheeks reddened in sudden embarrassment and she glanced away from Clint, the others laughing softly behind them.
"I'm going to go home now," Natalia said, the weight of her decision reflected in the determination in her voice. "Thank you for everything! I love you!"
She waved at everyone before turning back around toward the Time Stone and running up to it. It lowered itself closer to her when she approached, stopping when it was just within her short reach. Her fingers made contact with it and she grasped it tightly in her palm, offering everyone a final smile before vanishing in a bright light.
Everyone was blinded momentarily. When Clint and Natasha managed to open their eyes again, they saw nothing but the light of the sunset filtering in through the windows, casting spots of light against the wooden floor and Natasha's Widow's Bites.
"So, the Time Stone…" Tony said uncertainly, looking up at Thor.
"It'll certainly return in its own time," Thor said, seeming to shrug it off. "I hope that when it makes its presence known once more, we will be better prepared to keep it in our possession."
Tony laughed nervously at that, scratching the back of his head, while Steve just shook his head and rolled his eyes with a playful smile. Bruce sighed.
Pepper quietly instructed the other Avengers to leave and allow Natasha and Clint some privacy, for which Natasha was grateful. After they left with the door closed quietly behind them, Natasha turned her attention back to Clint, sitting down on the ground beside him. This whole day had thrown her for a loop; she was exhausted, despite participating the least in all of the activities and excitement.
"Hey," Natasha said softly, laying a hand on Clint's upper arm.
Clint sniffled and wiped at his wet eyes once more, offering Natasha a small, timid smile. "Hey."
Natasha exhaled, lowering her hand from Clint's arm to his own hands, grasping his left in her right. "You did the right thing, letting her go."
"I didn't do anything, that was all you," Clint pointed out, carefully grasping her hand. "Did you mean it?"
"Mean what?"
"All of it. All of...that."
Natasha blinked, thinking it over for a moment. She did. There wasn't a question or doubt in her mind about it. The restless part of her mind that had sought vengeance on herself earlier had been calmed; Natasha felt as if her short interaction with her younger self had laid some of the demons in her own mind to rest. She looked to her hand, connected with Clint's, gently twisting his hand to properly intertwine their fingers.
And, of course, as Natalia had said herself, Natasha did love Clint so, so, so much.
(Maybe little Natalia wasn't all that bad after all.)
"Yeah. I did. So did she. Both of me did."
Clint laughed at that, pressing a kiss to the side of Natasha's head. "You were right. You did make me happy. You do make me happy."
"You make me happy, too," she said softly. Standing up, she pulled Clint up with her, gently pressing herself against his side. She leaned her head against his upper arm, squinting slightly as the sun's radiant rays fell upon her face. "Thank you..."
"Why are you thanking me?" Clint shook his head. "I should be thanking you, you - when you were six year old Natalia, I mean - chose to go down the path of pain and losing everything, just so we could meet again. That's…"
"Insane?" Natasha shrugged. "It gave me a reason, a purpose, to keep going. Even when they told me I had no place in the world...something, somewhere, deep inside of me, insisted that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, just waiting for me to make it to the other side."
"Was it worth it?" Clint asked quietly, looking uncertain. He turned his eyes away from Natasha's as her sharp gaze honed in on him.
"Stupid," Natasha hissed. "I may have been six, but I wasn't dumb. I knew I wouldn't be happy for a long time...but, I knew I would be very happy eventually. I already knew it would be worth it before I even got there."
Clint didn't reply. Natasha relaxed her face, allowing her expression to soften. By the time Natalia would grow up and meet Clint, her memories of her time in the future with the Avengers would be buried very, very deeply. Natasha remembered fighting Clint with the full intention to kill him until his face was fully exposed to her in the light, accompanied with him introducing himself as Hawkeye. He then proceeded to explain, in Russian, his name came from his keen eyesight, which rivaled that of a hawk. That one word, combined with the revelation of his face, seemed to have reached a hand into Natasha's mind and soul to dig out her six year old self, who responded with familiarity to the so-called Hawkeye and allowed Natasha to hesitate for just one moment.
That was the moment Clint managed to overpower her.
"Hawk," Natasha suddenly murmured in Russian, grounding herself in the physical present and looking up at Clint. "When we first met, and you mentioned the word hawk, I saw you. That little girl buried within me for so long saw you, though I couldn't completely recognize you...but it didn't matter, because by then I'd already been restrained and presented the choice between defection and death."
"And then you made your choice once again," Clint finished her story, looking to her. His eyes were widened in surprise, calming the stormy cobalt that had been a result of Natalia's departure. The waves lowered, unveiling his characteristic laid-backness. "Your choices are the reason we're here today."
"That's how life works, from what I've gathered," Natasha said, casting her gaze out to the sunset once more. The sun was close to disappearing completely below the horizon. "I guess not all of my choices were bad."
"Everything happened for a reason," Clint said, following Natasha's eyes out to watch the sky.
Natasha pushed herself up onto releve, standing on her toes to match Clint's height more comfortably. She pecked his cheek, smiling against his rough skin and touching her head to his.
"Let's stay like this forever," Clint mumbled, leaning into her touch.
"I have no problems with that."
The sun set then, the blues of the impeding night sky blending with the reds and painting a purple sign of hope across the horizon for them.
A/N: I've been working on this Clintasha one for weeks now, perhaps even months...I've lost track. Anyway, I was inspired for this by my favorite anime, Higurashi, in which one character's younger self travels to the future and another character does not want her to go back to her time because they know she is going to suffer. While the relationship between the two characters this happens between in Higurashi is not romantic, I could see a similar thing happening between Clint and Natasha.
I hope this wasn't too confusing to understand! The hardest part was writing the language barrier between little Natalia and the others; see, I have a hard time in fanfic when a foreign language is spoken for parts of it without any accompanying translation (usually left for the ending author's note), so I wanted to make Natalia's words clear here. Because the perspectives I wrote this in are Natalia's, Clint's, Tony's, and Natasha's, all of whom speak Russian (at least here, they do), it makes sense for Natalia's words to be clear and able to be read by us.
Let me know what you all think! :)