Yelena complained the entire ride back to Missouri. Every five minutes she would make a snide comment about Natasha's driving or say that she was uncomfortable, and kept insisting that she should be the one driving the bike because apparently Natasha was "driving so slowly that she was going to get parking tickets in the middle of the freeway." Natasha just rolled her eyes and was incredibly relieved when they finally drove up the road to the farm.

It was early in the morning, so Natasha drove into the driveway as quietly as possible and decided that it was best to stay outside until everyone was awake. Laura might not like waking up to some random lady inside of her house. So, the two of them sat on the porch, watching as tiny birds hopped across the damp grass and the trees in the distance blew in the slight wind.

The moment was awkward, so Yelena decided to break the silence.

"You know, I used to eat those little birds. Once, during a mission, we had no food and we were stuck in the woods until our team came for us so we had to eat whatever we could find."

Natasha scoffed. "And how did they taste?"

"Like shit."

Nat smiled over at her sister, who had her legs curled under her and her arms wrapped around each other. It was only then that she realized that Yelena had on nothing but a t-shirt and jeans and was probably cold. She was about to ask, but then she realized that Yelena would only deny being cold, so she pulled off her jacket and draped it over the other woman's shoulders. Yelena looked up at her in protest for a moment, but then nodded appreciatively and went back to studying the birds.

A little while later, she wasn't sure how long exactly, Natasha heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Lila standing in the doorway, a blue cardigan pulled around her. She was looking quizzically at the two of them, her brown hair falling messily around her face.

"Oh hey, kid." Natasha said, standing up to give her a hug. Lila mumbled "hey", leaning into Natasha and shivering slightly.

Yelena stood awkwardly by the porch steps, looking almost curiously at Lila and trying to think of something to say.

"This is my sister." Natasha began, gesturing to Yelena and receiving a frown from Lila.

"You… have a sister?" She asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Well, sort of. We were… I guess you could say adopted?" Natasha said, realizing that she wasn't quite sure yet how to describe her relationship with Yelena. They hadn't been sisters under normal circumstances. "Is your mom up?"

Lila nodded, and opened the door behind her to let Natasha in. Yelena was hesitant, but Natasha inclined her head to let her know that it was okay to come inside.

"Oh, Nat, you're back. H- oh, hi." Laura said, stopping short when she saw Yelena. She looked to Natasha for an explanation, but Lila jumped in.

"Did you know auntie Nat has a sister?" She said, still standing by Natasha and looking cautiously at Yelena, who was still by the door. Laura was suddenly hyper aware of the other woman, looking Yelena up and down.

"She might have been mentioned." Laura said with a clipped tone, eyeing her suspiciously. Natasha could guess what Clint might have told her, so she stepped forward to explain her plan.

"I was thinking I should take you all back to Avengers tower. It might give you something to do, and Yelena doesn't have anywhere else to go. Besides, I should get back. So I figured… but if you want to spend time just the four of you I completely understand." Natasha explained, and Laura relaxed slightly once she realized that this former assassin she didn't know wouldn't be staying in her house. Sure, Natasha was a former assassin too, but she trusted her. The same was yet to be said about her sister.

"That's not really…" Laura began to say, but then stopped for a moment. She looked around her, at the framed pictures, at the furniture, and at the bits and bobs on the shelves. Everything reminded her of Clint. Everything. They bought that carpet together in Thailand. She spilled wine on that couch and they spent the entire night trying to get the stain out. Clint had given that vase to her for her birthday, and they ended up using it as a pencil holder instead. Not one inch of that house wasn't touched by Clint, and it hurt just to be there. So maybe going away for a bit would be refreshing, she thought, even if it wouldn't take away the pain.

"Would we get our own private rooms?" Laura asked. She wasn't about to share living space with a bunch of middle aged men who exercised all the time.

"You would get your own private floor." Natasha replied, and Laura slowly nodded.

"It might be nice to get out of here."


Bruce sat in his lab, his face shoved into a magnifying glass stand and his hands carefully soldering two wires together. His hands shook as he placed the tool back in its holder and stepped back from the piece of technology he was trying to make. Something just wasn't right about it, and he couldn't figure out what.

He turned around in his swivel chair, almost expecting to see Tony seated at the other bench, working on some crazy invention of his own. But the room was painfully empty. Bruce was so used to asking Tony for advice, because technology was more his specialty and Bruce was more into science and medicine, but now he had to figure it out on his own. He glanced around the room, his eyes stopping at the closet in the corner where he knew "the machine" was stashed away. No one had dared to touch it after what it had done to Natasha eight years ago. Bruce smiled slightly as he remembered that, without Tony, Violet wouldn't even exist.

He shoved his work away and started up the stairs because he just couldn't handle being in that lab anymore. There were so many unfinished projects that he was planning to finish with Tony, so many sticky notes posted on the wall with Tony's messy scrawl scratched across them.

It was too sad.

When he got up to the main floor however, Bruce noticed two cars pulling into the desolate parking lot. It took him a second to realize that Natasha was stepping out of one of them, and Clint's wife from another. So that was where she went.

Bruce frowned slightly as a younger woman with blonde hair emerged from one of the cars, standing awkwardly as she waited for Natasha to get something. He shrugged, returning to the living room area where a surprising amount of people were sitting. He soon realized it was because a few pizzas were sitting on the table and everyone was snacking on them.

"Nat's back, and she brought Clint's family with her. And another woman." He said, sitting down and helping himself to a slice of pizza just as the door down the hallway opened.

"Hey." Maria said, getting up from the couch to give Nat a one-armed hug and help with the inpour of luggage.

Everyone stared as Laura, Lila, and Cooper entered the room, Nate trailing behind them. The blonde woman, who was carrying a surprising amount of luggage, stood awkwardly next to Natasha. There was a long, uncomfortable pause, and then the woman chuckled darkly.

"Well this is depressing."