2015
Natasha looked around the house. A delicious smell wafted out of the kitchen as Laura pulled a carrot cake out of the oven. Steve stood on a stepstool, holding up one end of a streamer while Clint directed him from the ground on how to hang it properly, both of them ignoring the fact that Natasha had said she didn't need the decorations in favor of the fact that she hadn't said she didn't want them.
"You deserve a proper birthday party," Clint had insisted. "And that means all the signs that it's a special day."
Steve had given her a cheeky look before adding, "A wise woman once told me that just because you have what you need that doesn't mean something you like more will hurt."
At that point, Natasha had given up. If Steve was going to resort to quoting her own words back at her as wisdom, she was never going to win. She had never even tried protesting in the first place when Laura declared she would make Natasha's favorite foods for dinner. Long experience with her unofficial sister meant that Natasha knew that Laura wouldn't back down from giving her something good unless Natasha was actually uncomfortable with it. And really, her friends' insistence on creating a wonderful day for her warmed something in Natasha's heart.
If someone had told Natasha fifteen years ago that she would one day be sitting on the couch in the house of two of her soulmates reading a fairy tale to a little girl who called her "Auntie Nat" and keeping an eye on her baby namesake, she would have thought they were completely out of their mind. She never would have believed her soulmarks would lead her to find two brothers and a sister. Even after she defected, the idea that anyone would treasure her or trust her would have made her laugh. Yet here she was.
"…and they all lived happily ever after," Natasha finished, laying the book down.
"I love that story," Lila declared, snuggling into Natasha's side.
Natasha wrapped her arm around her niece. "I do too."
"I know superheroes are real because you and dad are," Cooper said, leaning over the back of the couch on her other side, "but are fairy tales real?"
The Black Widow would have said no immediately, but Natasha was no longer just the Black Widow. She was a former SHEILD agent, an Avenger. She was the woman who had Clint's back, who laughed with Laura, who led with Steve.
Natasha turned to face Cooper. "When I was young, I was taught that love was only make believe, that goodness was weakness, and that happily ever afters only came at the end of fairy tales. But when I grew up, I found that the love and goodness I had disregarded were the only things that could really save a person, or even the world."
"What about happily ever after?" Cooper asked.
Natasha looked around at the family she never thought she would have. "I think that's real too."
And that's a wrap!
Thank you to all of you who have come along on this journey with me, especially those of you who've been here since I first started writing this in 2020! This is the longest story I've ever posted, and I've loved seeing all your feedback. Feel free to leave a comment, no matter if you're reading this right after I published it or years in the future. I'll treasure it either way.
Remember, you are loved :)