Disclaimer: The Avengers, its characters and The Marvel Cinematic Universe belong to Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company, among many others. I'm only a fan, writing this for love of this film franchise and personal pleasure.
A.N.: Hey, guys! I'm sorry for taking so long, I promise I haven't abandoned this story. I just had a couple of rough months handling my depression that took away my energy for just about anything remotely fun. I've adjusted my meds, am working hard at therapy and got back to exercising as well, so things are looking up and I'm back to writing now. :)
Anyway, starting at the post-credit scene of Captain Marvel and some moments just before the beginning of Avengers: Endgame. I'm filling in some blanks and developing some dynamics between Nat and some of the other women in the MCU.
To Build a Home
19. Old Friends
If she were honest, hope wasn't something that came naturally to Natasha. She'd always been much more pragmatic and a realist, seeing how things worked in infinite shades of grey, taking the world as it was, not as they wished it were, which was why she and Nick Fury had easily bonded and worked together so well for many years. Life had treated her way more harshly than kindly, so such things as unbridled optimism and hope wasn't for someone as jaded as her. It was for idealists, for heroes, for people like Steve. Yet after partnering up for many years and with their recent stretch going on the run together they'd learned a few things from each other and she found herself keeping that glimmer of hope until they'd exhausted all possibilities. He'd said they would find a way to fix things and she had no other choice but to believe him.
If anyone could make the impossible possible, it was probably Steve Rogers anyway.
Rhodey had negotiated with the President their speedy return stateside and they'd all pushed on despite their collective grief to get things done. Following the battle in Wakanda, Thor and the enhanced, talking raccoon Rocket checked back on Nidavellir and Eitri, who had forged Thor's new hammer. While checking on the pod that had taken them there, Rocket found a recorded message from Quill's ship saying they'd gone over to Titan, Thanos's home planet, following a lead from Nebula, where they had run into Tony, Doctor Stephen Strange and Peter Parker. While the others dealt with the chaos left over on Earth, Rocket and Thor had travelled over to Titan using Stormbreaker in search of their friends. Unfortunately, they'd come back empty-handed.
"There were clear signs of a battle. The Milano wasn't there though, so I'm thinking whoever survived the battle and the Snap took our ship. Maybe they're even heading this way," Rocket had explained his thoughts. He'd then started making all sorts of adjustments and improvements to their equipment to calibrate for deep-space scanning and long-range communication channels in order to contact any surviving allies across the universe and get news of their friends or of the mad Titan, as there was still no clue to his whereabouts.
They'd all split up, doing the best they could. Rhodey was still in charge of communication and coordination with the government and search and rescue efforts with Steve on the east coast following the accidents and near disasters that had occurred, especially in New York City and the other major cities of the east coast, while Bruce put his many PhDs to good use to help out in several areas that needed support. Thor had found the half of the Asgardian refugee ship that hadn't been destroyed by Thanos and with help from one of Rocket's Scavengers contacts they'd managed to bring the survivors to Earth. The Asgardian god was now negotiating a settlement in Norway for his people. Natasha had been in charge of locating any allies that were still active and one of her first steps had been to go in search of Clint, of course, but by the time they came back to the US he had left his house and was already in the wind, which meant she'd have a hard time finding him. He was as good as she was on keeping low and going untraceable, after all.
Natasha had also found a modified pager when she'd gone chasing leads on Fury and Hill's whereabouts. That turned out to be the biggest discovery they had made so far and she soon realized it once it had stopped emitting a signal and suddenly a blonde woman in a blue and red battlesuit was standing at the compound with them. "Where's Fury?"
Her instincts made her act fast and the gun was in Natasha's left hand, pointed steadfastly at the stranger, before anyone else could even blink. "Who are you and how did you get here?"
Even with a gun mere inches from her face, the blonde only raised an eyebrow, a smirk seeming to pull at the corners of her mouth as she gazed unconcernedly back at her. "Relax, Romanoff. Using that on me would only get you hurt and I wouldn't want that."
Her expression remained cold and impassive as Natasha merely looked back at her, finger poised calmly over the trigger. "How do you know my name? And how did you bypass the security system?"
The smirk just pulled more on the corners of the blonde's lips. "I didn't bypass anything, I got in opening the doors with the retinal scan." One of Natasha's eyebrows flickered up at that. "Yeah, I'm in the system."
Green eyes narrowed back at the blonde. "How?"
"I believe Maria Hill included my information in the system when she was working here." Now she was the one raising her eyebrows at Natasha. "You're not the only one of Fury's favorites. Where is he?" She asked once more, looking around the room and taking note of the others there with them.
"We don't know," Steve said, narrowing his eyes at her, taking a step forward and a defensive stance beside Natasha, who still had her gun pointed straight at the woman. "How do you know Fury?"
The woman turned to him then, looking him up and down for a moment, a glimmer of recognition alighting her eyes. "The two of us go way back. He's the one who called me here. I left that pager with him for emergencies." She said, gesturing with her head towards the pager in the glass case behind them. "I came over as soon as I could, but I was a couple of galaxies away and it took awhile for the signal to reach me."
One of Natasha's eyebrows flickered up once more. "Huh. I guess you're Carol, then." She said softly, lowering her gun and holstering it, noticing the blonde's surprised eyes turning to her. "Yeah, I know about you, too."
"Would either of you care to tell us what the hell is going on then?" Rhodey said, eyebrows furrowed as he gestured exasperatedly with his hands at both women.
Natasha exchanged a quick look with the blonde, who nodded almost imperceptibly back at her. "Guys, meet Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel."
"Uh, that's supposed to be Mar-Vell," Carol drawled out and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Not according to your file. It said you're a former Air Force pilot and one of Nick's associates from back in the day when SHIELD first came in contact with aliens. When was it, 1995?" She turned conversationally to her, taking everyone by surprise, including their surprise guest.
"Yeah," Carol replied, crossing her arms over her chest then and narrowing her eyes back at her. "Fury didn't tell me you knew about me."
A ghost of a smirk pulled at the corners of Natasha's lips. "There's a lot he didn't tell either of us, apparently."
As Carol introduced herself properly to the team and exchanged a few handshakes, Steve pulled on Natasha's arm and they walked a few steps away from the others. "How do you know about this Carol Danvers?"
"It was in the files under the Avengers Initiative," Natasha said with an easy shrug. "Apparently she was the first extraordinary person Nick ever found, then he started keeping a roster of people who could be called in when the going got rough and they needed someone with special abilities to handle threats."
"I read those SHIELD files," Steve commented, raising an eyebrow at her. "I don't remember anything about her, and I have a pretty damn good memory."
"Hey, language. I think the correct term is 'eidetic', Steve," she called softly with a teasing smile. He only rolled his eyes at her, but a smile threatened to pull at the corners of his mouth and she counted that as a win and continued, getting back to what was important. "But I'm not talking about the SHIELD files. It's from Nick's personal files, the ones he gave me after faking his death." She'd been a little surprised to get them, as he'd said he'd destroyed almost everything after they'd taken down SHIELD, but she supposed that was his way to try to make up for the fact that he hadn't trusted her during his fake death incident.
"So you think we can trust her?" Steve asked then.
"Fury did," Natasha nodded firmly back at him. "From what's on her file, she seems to be the real deal. She single-handedly saved Earth from an alien attack then went on to settle some refugees and keep peace in space in places that needed help. So pretty much a legendary superhero, just like you." She finished by raising an eyebrow at him.
She noticed the muscles of his jaw tightening up, causing her to immediately regret her choice of words. Natasha knew how ever since they'd gone on the run Steve had been in conflict about his role as a hero. He'd left his shield and the image of Captain America behind, had even ripped away the star and stripes from his uniform. And things had only gotten worse now with their devastating defeat to Thanos and the horrible consequences that followed it.
"Well, let's hope she's the proverbial turn of the tide, then," he murmured and turned to get back to the others.
As the team went over the past events and caught Carol up on what had happened with the war for the Infinity Stones, she agreed that Fury had done the right thing by calling her over. As she quickly summarized her powers and abilities, they realized she would be a powerful and most welcomed ally if they had any hope of catching Thanos and reversing what had been done. Before they could actually get to that, Steve and Rhodey made a plea to see if Carol could help with finding their missing friends. It had been two weeks since the Snap, and Rocket had said the Milano should have reached them or one of their allies by now, but there was no word from Quill's ship.
"So you want me to find them?" Carol asked, quickly catching on and nodding back at them.
"We don't have any spaceships to go ourselves," Steve explained. "Thor can use Stormbreaker and head to other planets, but if they're stranded in space you would be our best bet. You said you can travel at the speed of light?"
"I can," she gave him another firm nod. "I got this. I'll head over to Titan and check the most likely routes to the nearest jump-points."
As she headed off with Rhodey to find Rocket and check on any info they had about Titan and the Milano that could be useful to her, Steve, Natasha and Bruce huddled closer together for a moment longer.
"You think there's a chance she'll find them?" Bruce asked, one finger pushing his glasses up his nose.
"We have to try," Steve said, frowning softly as he looked out as their new ally walked out the room. "We owe it to Tony."
Natasha looked at him in thought, taking in his words, then sighed deeply. "I'll call Pepper."
"Nat, are you sure that's a good idea?" Bruce said, turning to her with a concerned frown. "We don't even know if Carol will be able to find anything, let alone if there is anything to find."
"Yes, I'm sure," Natasha replied at once, something of a hard edge in her voice as her green eyes turned sharply to him. "Whatever news we get, she'll want to know right away and it's the least she deserves. She's tough and she's kept busy at work, like us, but I know she's been nearly going out of her mind for the last two weeks."
Bruce swallowed hard and merely nodded mutely back at her, feeling promptly chastised and Natasha turned on her heels to walk out of the room. Steve watched her go and stayed behind, turning with something of an apologetic smile to the doctor. "Don't take it personally."
"Nah, it's okay. I should've minded my words," Bruce shook away his concern easily with an embarrassed smile. "It's not like I don't want to find Tony. I want nothing more than getting him back here and then we could all go after that purple bastard and turn everything back to the way things were, just like old times. But…" He trailed off, shrugging his shoulders despondently as words failed him at the moment.
"I know," Steve nodded solemnly back at him, knowing exactly what he'd meant. Even for someone perceived as the consummate optimist like Steve, it was hard to keep high hopes in their circumstances. They were silent for a few moments before he sighed deeply. "But she's right. Nat and Pepper have been calling each other daily now, she'll want to know of any new developments."
As CEO of one of the biggest multinational companies in the world, Pepper was keeping them updated on what was happening out there in the real world while they turned their eyes to the skies and the universe in search of Thanos and kept track of his destruction and supported the areas that had been most affected following the sudden disappearance of billions on Earth.
After leaving the others, Natasha went straight to her office and closed the door behind her. Leaning her back against the door for a moment, she paused and thought about how strange it was that she was back in her office at the Avengers compound like it was just another day in her life. Almost as if she hadn't spent two years on the run, moving from safe houses to crappy hotel rooms as they ran their secret missions and liaised with whatever contacts from Fury or Hill that they could meet along the way.
Almost as if half the world hadn't suddenly vanished with a careless snap of fingers.
Sitting behind her desk, she dialed the long ago memorized number in the telephone system, following part of a routine that had been established as soon as they'd gotten back stateside. "Hey, Pepper."
"Nat, hi." The strawberry blonde said in reply over the phone line, her voice sounding rather breathless. A lot of background noise could be heard so she assumed the CEO was still at SI, despite the lateness and that business hours were long over. "I'm sorry, I know I missed our daily check in. Wall Street opened up again today and it was just─crazy here. You'd think after everything that happened, people would have more to worry about than their stock value." She finished with a long sigh.
"Well, you can bet that some things never change." Natasha commented easily in a dry tone, then she lightly cleared her throat before continuing. "Listen, we uh─we may have a new lead."
"On Thanos?" Pepper gasped back in reply.
"Maybe." Natasha murmured carefully. "I don't want to get your hopes up, but we got some unexpected reinforcements here and our priority at the moment is searching for Tony and the others that went missing in Titan."
"Oh." Pepper breathed out and grew silent for a few beats before the next words came out in a rush. "I'm heading over right now."
Sometime later, Pepper arrived in her car at the Avengers compound. When Rhodey had first made contact with her back in Wakanda she had kept in touch with the team and everything that was going on, but she'd been holed up in Stark Industries so far while they communicated via telephone or remote holographic teleconferences, so this was the first time she had driven upstate to meet them in person.
As she walked into the building and made her way through the familiar place, Pepper stopped in her tracks as a tall, blonde figure stepped out of a room halfway down the hall. "Steve." She called out softly as she stared at him. He looked so different with the long hair and the beard that she'd been rather startled, his posture not at all the way she remembered him as this quietly confident leader, but now a hardened, somehow darker version of himself. It was the first time they were seeing each other after over two years, as Steve had been conspicuously absent whenever she talked to Rhodey or Natasha during the past two weeks.
"Pepper." He snapped his head her way when he heard her voice and felt frozen in his spot as they just stared at each other for a moment, then suddenly Pepper was striding with purposeful steps towards him. Steve frowned a little at this, trying to read her movements and intentions, but before he realized it, she was already standing in front of him and bringing her hand up. He flinched, expecting her to slap or even punch him. "Hey!" He exclaimed in surprise, then repeated in a softer tone once he realized she was actually hugging him. "Hey." He found himself raising his arms and hugging her back, and after a long moment she let him go and stepped back. "Are you okay? What was that for?" Steve asked, still frowning in confusion. This was definitely not the reaction he expected from her after his big fight with Tony over the Sokovia Accords and Bucky.
She looked up at him, a sad, soft smile playing at her lips. "I watched Tony go away in a spaceship that attacked New York then people simply vanished in front of my eyes." She said, shaking her head a little. "I know you and Tony had your differences and that it got complicated and it got ugly." She paused and her blue eyes grew misty before she continued. "But I also know he loves you and I'm glad you're still here."
Steve could only look at her, feeling speechless as his eyes glistening up a little as he took in her words. He'd always thought Pepper Potts was incredibly strong, calm and level-headed─she had to be in order to be in a relationship with someone as maddening as Tony Stark. Now he realized just how loving and forgiving she could be as well. After a few stunned moments, he could only nod back at her, a too simple gesture to thank her for something that meant so much to him, but it was all he managed then.
Natasha had watched them from the doorway to her office, a small smile on her lips as she waited a few moments before joining them in the hallway. The two women also shared a tight hug before Natasha took Pepper towards the hangar where Rhodey was still talking to Rocket and Carol Danvers. Swift introductions were made to the CEO of Stark Industries.
"Captain Danvers, Nat has brought me up to speed on everything," Pepper said, shaking her hand. "I'm so glad you're here and that you're willing to help us out."
"Of course," Carol said, nodding back at her. "I only wish Fury had called me earlier, maybe none of this would've happened."
"No point wasting our time with could-have-beens," Pepper replied, shaking her head a little.
"She's right," Rhodey agreed, standing with them with his arms crossed over the chest. "We need to focus on what we can do now."
"We're calibrating your equipment to catch Carol's communicator range and then we're tracing likely routes from Titan that the Milano could be on," the talking raccoon Rocket said then from his point where he was tinkering with the communication equipment on the hangar.
Pepper blinked her eyes at this and paused for a moment, before nodding at him and thanking everyone. Raging green monsters, Norse Gods, 1940's super soldiers, murderous robots, sentient AIs and witches had been part of her life for a while now. It seemed fitting to add a genius, alien, talking raccoon to the list then. At least it was one more ally to help with this newest fight for their lives.
Despite her apparent calm demeanor, Natasha could read something in Pepper's expression that indicated this day was taking its toll on her. She easily excused them then and steered them back towards her office. As her friend nearly collapsed down on the couch and heaved a heavy sigh, Natasha rummaged through her cabinet then sat down beside her holding two glasses and a scotch siphon.
"I usually drink vodka, but I thought this would be nice after the day we've had," Natasha explained as she handed Pepper one of the glasses and poured her a healthy amount of the liquid. "It's from Tony's personal stash."
Pepper gave her a tired smile back and they made a silent toast. They spent a few minutes sitting quietly side by side as they sipped from their glasses and enjoyed each other's company and soothing presence.
Given how the two of them had met nearly a decade before some people may have been surprised by the fact that Natasha Romanoff and Pepper Potts were actually good friends. There had been some initial tension there when the former Russian spy had gone undercover at Stark Industries as Natalie Rushman and then weaved her way as Tony's personal secretary to keep an eye on him for SHIELD, but after that had been cleared up and once the Avengers had been formed both women realized they genuinely enjoyed each other's company. During the time when they'd all resided together at the Avengers Tower they'd grown closer and also learned it was nice to have someone to commiserate and get away from their testosterone-powered roommates for a little while.
They had almost finished their drinks in complete silence before Pepper turned back to her and spoke up again. "So tell me, how are you all doing?" She asked, watching attentively as Natasha's green eyes darted back to her. "How's Steve? He looks so different with that beard and I'm still not over your platinum blonde hair either. You know, if you were going for inconspicuous it was a near miss." She commented with a smile, looking pointedly at her hair. She'd always thought Natasha already stood out in a crowd with her looks and usual red hair, but her new look certainly wasn't doing anything to help keeping a low profile.
Natasha gave her a slight smile back as she reached for the siphon and poured another dose on their glasses. "Steve said the same thing, but there were lots of blondes where we were staying before… well, before everything, so I didn't stand out as much." She paused, losing her smile as she thought over how to best answer her question. "We're… still getting adjusted to being back here. Trying to do what we can to help." She put the bottle back on the coffee table and leaned sideways on the couch to give Pepper her full attention.
"I'm glad you're back." Pepper said, reaching for the other woman's free hand with her own. "You have no idea how much I've missed our talks and get-togethers the past two years."
"I missed you, too." Natasha admitted, grabbing her hand back and a sparkle lighting up her eyes. "I can imagine you were going insane, dealing only with Tony, Rhodey and Vision all this time."
"Yeah, you were lucky." Pepper said, huffing a little at that. "At least you had Wanda to break through all of that testosterone." Her smile disappeared then and she added in a softer tone, "I'm so sorry about her."
Natasha's smile also vanished and she only nodded back in appreciation as she looked down and blinked her eyes a few times. She still found it difficult to handle all the loss they'd suddenly experienced and for someone who had always been so much in control of her emotions, she found it incredibly infuriating that she couldn't seem to go through this without getting tears in her eyes now. After a moment, she recovered herself and looked back at the other woman with a half smile. "I'm sorry for bailing on you and leaving you with only the guys for company."
"Well, I did become friends with May Parker, Peter's aunt, after she found out about his being Spider-Man," Pepper said with a smile. "We could relate, the two of us being just outside the lines, trying to keep from worrying ourselves to death while they were out there doing the hero thing."
"I'll bet that wasn't easy." Natasha remarked with raised eyebrows, then she swallowed hard before speaking again. "You know, I tried very hard to convince Tony not to recruit a fifteen-year-old to join the fight," she said, feeling like she needed to explain herself there, as everything had happened so fast two years before and they'd never talked about this. "But we were outmatched and we were desperate at the time. I─I think I was selfish, I only wanted to keep St─to keep everyone safe," she said, catching herself and shaking her head a little. "Now among the many mistakes we made back then I also think I should've fought harder against it."
"From what Tony told me and what I know of him, that kid would've kept doing what he was doing anyway." Pepper said with an understanding smile. She knew better than anyone how hard it was to go against Tony once he got something in his head, and though recruiting a teenager to fight with them had not been his brightest idea, she'd also understood his reasoning. "He'd been at it for six months before Tony found him. He is stubborn and ingenious like that, seems to think it's his responsibility and he kept getting into trouble by himself anyway. Maybe he would've been even less prepared if he'd been on his own." She simply shrugged her shoulders, smiling a little. "At least Tony gave him a suit with all sorts of things to help him out and I promised May we would do everything we could to keep him safe."
Natasha attempted to give a smile back before sipping her drink. "How is she? Have you heard from her?"
Pepper's smile disappeared in an instant and she looked down at her glass. "No, I… She was in her apartment." She swallowed hard and cleared her throat before continuing. "I went over to check on her, but it looks like she was one of the people who… who vanished away." She finished in a small voice, looking back up.
For a moment, Natasha could only look at her, feeling the knot forming in her throat again and this nearly unbearable sense of loss crashing through her whole body. "I'm so sorry, Pep." She shook her head, not knowing what else to do or say.
"She called me as soon as she'd heard the news of Iron Man and Spider-Man fighting an alien threat in Manhattan that day." Pepper kept on talking. "She was freaking out and she was sure Peter was with Tony, wherever they were. And now…" She paused, heaving a sigh as she looked up at the ceiling, blinking her eyes a few times before she looked back at her and continued. "I don't know what's worse, not knowing where they are, if they're even alive or dreading having to tell Peter about his aunt."
"I can't imagine how hard this is for you." Natasha said softly as she frowned in thought at that notion. She hadn't had to deliver such news to anyone while they were living this nightmare, and the sitting and waiting around to hear about Tony was hard, but certainly nothing compared to the agony that Pepper must be going through.
"I've done it before." Pepper said, almost as if she'd heard her thoughts. "The waiting, then hearing he's most likely dead and how I should prepare myself for the worst." She elaborated, and unexpectedly a smile formed on her lips. "The first time that happened was actually just a crazy weekend in Vegas on my first year as his secretary." She huffed out a small laugh and Natasha joined her at that. "And the second time was something similar in Monte Carlo. There were several crazy nights in LA, Rio, Tokyo─I got used to all that." Pepper said with a dismissively waving hand, before she grew more introspective and continued in a softer tone. "Then there were three months in a cave in Afghanistan. A giant hole in the sky of New York. Our house in Malibu blowing up." She heaved a sigh then shook her head a little. "After that, every time he flew out in one of his suits, I thought I'd go crazy with all the worry and I started to resent everything and everyone for needing Iron Man, most of all Tony himself." She arched an eyebrow at that last observation, then her lips pulled back in a grimace. "And I bailed out."
"But you got back." Natasha noted, also arching an eyebrow back at her. "You're still here."
Pepper nodded a little back at her before replying. "When he came back from Siberia, it was like he was a different man. What happened there…" She interrupted herself, as she noted the unease in Natasha's expression. "I don't mean finding out about his parents. But losing Steve, losing you, the Avengers… It was too much for him. And in the time we spent apart, I realized… I can't stop loving him." She said, shrugging her shoulders in an almost helpless manner. "So I came back to be here, next to him, facing whatever comes up. I know someday the world, this fight is going to take him away from me. I think I always knew that, from the first moment I saw him wearing that suit. But I also know that as long as he's alive he'll always come back to me, he'll fight like hell to get back. And I'm not giving up until he does."
Natasha nodded firmly back at her, feeling somewhat energized by her words. "We'll find him, Pepper."
"I know." Pepper gave her a small smile. They were silent for a few moments before she continued in a conversational tone. "You know, my constant fight with Tony had always been about this obsession he had with 'saving the world'." She punctuated the words with a small roll of the eyes. "I thought that was just his ego, guilty consciousness and paranoia getting the best of him. Like he couldn't believe the world would be protected unless he was directly involved with it. Which is what started this whole Avengers thing and what kept him constantly tinkering with his suits and inventions and how he just couldn't seem to let go of it. And I hated it so much, because it only added fuel to this crazy idea of his." She paused, shaking her head a little as she looked out at the opposite wall, her eyes far away as if she were actually seeing something else. "And then it turned out he was right all along."
Pepper thought back on that conversation in Central Park, just before Dr. Stephen Strange stepped out of a portal bringing Bruce with him and changing their lives all of a sudden. How Tony had talked about their future and wanting kids and how she didn't want that for them as long as he'd keep on fighting this fight, how she wanted him to give it up and how he insisted his latest suit was a just-in-case scenario.
Tony Stark had always been a visionary, so it was no wonder his vision of this horrible future filled with his greatest fears ─ his monsters in the closet ─ turned out to be actually true.
"I was wrong." Pepper said then, turning back to Natasha with a small self-deprecating smile. "The threat he felt all this time is real and the world needs heroes, now more than ever."
Natasha took her words in, thinking of what Fury had once said about heroes being an old-fashioned notion and that maybe it was what the world needed back when they first formed the Avengers. She hoped they managed to find Tony and that it would push them all to do what needed to be done now.
A.N.: This goes out to my latest anonymous reviewer, but it can also be a general request for anyone out there. So I guess it's no surprise that I'm writing this purely for fun and I'm not a professional writer (otherwise I'd be earning money with this and sadly, no money). I've poured my heart and soul into every piece of writing I do, it's kind of ridiculous the amount of time I spend thinking of my stories even more than writing them, and I'm fallible like everyone else, so I'll make mistakes. However I never intend to hurt or disrespect anyone and I apologize if I've done so. I'm also not American, so I actually do not know why I insist on writing using terms like inches or miles as they honestly make no sense to me (it just sounds better in my head, I guess, after so much exposure to American media). This is chapter 19 so if you've been reading the story so far I assume there's something about it that you like. When I read fanfics I don't always leave comments so I understand how a lot of people don't review and just read or follow or favorite it ─ either way, it's always appreciated! But if you're going to leave any criticism I'd just ask to leave it in a constructive, encouraging, kind manner. Getting those review emails in my inbox is always very exciting and it can make my day when otherwise I'm dealing with a lot of crap on a personal level (re: what I said about my depression in my first author's note), so opening that message to read someone just criticizing my choice of descriptive words in a scathing, superior tone is very frustrating, disappointing and can turn my day from bad to worse. I want to learn and I want to get better based on what others think of my writing, of course. I just think we could all make the world a better place by being nice to each other ─ it won't cost you a thing and it can even turn someone's day around for the best. :)
