"Theres someone I want you to meet."
Natasha lifted her head from its position rested against Alexandrias naked shoulder to look at her younger wife. Ever since revealing their scar marked bodies to each other and sharing that first shower together it was starting to become a common thing for them to sleep in the nude cuddled up in each others warm embrace, not every night but enough that she noticed Alex wasn't as flinchy about her touching them with the lightest of touches. There was a part of her that wondered what Alex would be like when they truly consummated their marriage but she kept such thoughts to herself. For the younger woman who owned her affections she would wait til armageddon if she had to just so she had the complete peace of mind knowing Alex was ready for such a big step. "If you're suggesting a threesome I think that we should at leas-"
Alexandria blushed fiercely and slapped Natashas arm lightly for even suggesting such a thing. "No-not like that pervert" she said with a momentary stutter. "He means the world to me. Saved my life my last year with his actions." Her voice dropped to a quiet tone as a glazed look momentarily covered her eyes. Shaking her head she buried her face in the redheads throat pressing her body flush to Natashas own greedily sucking up the warmth and love that oozed off the other woman in droves. "Hes like a brother to me and he... He was the first guy not my dad to know about my secret & keep it" she said quietly.
Natasha didn't need anymore context as she wrapped Alexandria in an embrace that made it so there was no seam of space between their bodies whatsoever. Speaking in past tense, the film like glaze in her eyes, the notes of not quite healed pain and longing-not romantic but longing nonetheless- in Alexs voice told her that whoever this person was was dead. But if that was the case then how did Alex intend to 'introduce' them? She doubted that there was a graveyard on the school grounds so there was a snowballs chance in Arizona that there was a headstone. 'Unless she made one somewhere that meant a lot to them both' she thought as the idea hit her after a moment. "If he was the first guy to know your secret that wasn't your dad and not blab it off he has to be a trustworthy enough guy. When can I meet him? If you think so fondly of him I'm sure we'll get on well" she said nuzzling into her younger wifes hairs.
Alexandria smiled a small empty smile against the hollow flesh as her eyes closed. "You don't have to act like you're ignorant to my words context to protect my feelings Nat" she said softly. "Cedric... He died last year helping me survive a life and death situation. Remember that tournament I told you about?" she asked as a delicate hand traced up the redheads side along various scars and over the areas she knew the others ribs were.
"The one you nearly died three separate times in?" Natasha asked with a slight shiver that started at her toes and worked its way up her body.
"Yeah, that one." Alexandrias smile loosened up slightly as she felt Natasha shiver under her touch. As much as she loved the confident, take on the world by force side of her wife there was something about this side of Natasha that brought a true smile to her lips. A side of the redhead reserved strictly for her where she could see the strong super hero shiver and melt at a touch filled with love and tender care when they were alone. "It wasn't just... The graveyard."
Natasha let her free hand come to rest on Alexandrias own on her side and laced their fingers together before squeezing gently. "You don't have to relive those memories for me to understand this Cedric guy means the world to you" she said with a soft but firm tone. Moments like truly made her feel like their marriage had been around longer than it truly had been official, moments like this where many would call an old married couple moment when for the length of time they had been married was just barely out of the honeymoon phase. But she was ok with that and so was Alexandria, something she was so sure of saying that she didn't need to ask. Whatever ceremony they had done had been something so...primal and intimate that she didn't need to vocalize her questions to understand Alexs needs or emotions. She could be one moment the loving concerned wife who seemed more in place with having been married as long as she was alive and the next be the young head over heels dumbstruck puppy love honeymooner content for moments like this, cuddling naked in the moonlight that streamed into their room through thin slits in the curtain; contradictions that by no means should make sense together but in a strange cosmic way it did in all the right places.
"I don't have to and I don't want to but its... Its the easiest way for you to understand love." Pulling her head back Alexandria looked up to gentle love filled eyes gazing down at her with concern & unfiltered adoration. "Let me tell you, please? You'll understand by the end. I promise you will."
For next near hour Natasha listened without so much as a peep of interruption as Alexandria rehashed the tournament in detail. As shocked and horrified by the backwads nature of some 'current', ha! she laughed at the notion since some cultures were still ass backwards even with current times & perceptions, accepted traditions of some magic types and what magical Britain considered 'modern and acceptable' in comparison to her readings of other magical countries around the globe- the details of the tournament horrified her more. Risking childrens lives against mother dragons with unhatched children? Taking live hostages in the form of people closest to them and putting their very lives at danger by putting them to sleep & leaving them tied up at the bottom a lake? Those two alone constituted willful neglect and intent to harm by MACUSA laws! What made her heart stop for the briefest of moments was the recollection of third task that led into the run in that resurrected the so called Dark Lord using Alexs blood. Seeing unshed tears begin to prick at the edges of her wifes eyes she aat up and pulled the raven haired girl onto her lap and held her tight as she gently pushed Alexs head to rest on her shoulder as she pressed on describing what Cedric had done to try and save them both before being shot down by the fatal curse that stole his life.
Rage seethed in her soul as Natasha lovingly nuzzed the side of Alexandrias faces as she felt the first tears fall landing on her shoulder. She wondered briefly if this was the first time Alex had truly spoken of the traumatic event to anyone. The pauses and stuttered hesitations made her think so as gentle fingers ran through the raven locks and her nails ran long calming lines down her scalp. "I get it" she whispered softly in Alexs ear. "Not fully but I get enough of it to understand. When the world here in the school turned its back on you he didn't."
"Yeah... He told me that he believed me too... That I wasn't responsible for entering my name into the tournament after the metaphorical tar began to be slung my way" Alexandria said not bothered by the silent tears making trails from her eyes. Why should she be scared or ashamed for Natasha to see her cry? They were married and it was them versus the world. Natasha had already seen her at her best and worst already, what more seeing her when she was weak? Marriage wasn't just give and take but being strong for your partner when they were down and out at their weakest, something Nat didn't even hesitate to take control of letting the strength of her love come out to envelope her in a loving protective shield. "But that why I want you to meet him. What I have left of him anyway..."
"Just tell me when and we-"
"Tomorrow. After classes before dinner." Alexandria let her eyes drift down to her right hand and a soft sad smile pulled at the farthest edge of her lips. "How familiar are you Celtic Knot Work?" she asked as she moved her left hand to her right wrist and tapped once with magic lacing the digit. The skin of her palm shimmered for a moment like a mirage before a scar was made visible though there were parts that looked to be incompleted lines.
"I'm not acquainted with them at all. I know they have specific meanings in different contexts but thats about it. Why are you asking?" Natasha asked looking down spotting a scar on Alexandrias right hand she hadn't seen before.
"This scar on my hand is the only one I will never be ashamed of." For a moment Alexandria clenched her hand before it relaxed. "In Celtic lore and thought a Binary Knot consists to tie together two people or things of great importance to the other one. Its why its often used as a symbol of marriage for the love between two spouses like us" she said as a finger from her left hand traced the rough scar almost lovingly and reverently. "Or a promise between two people who cared for each other that can't be broken. Before the second task of the tournament last year I took Cedric aside from the student body and we had a long talk between ourselves. We both had felt it in the air the tournament was wrong, that their was bad mojo in the air." She paused in tbe motion raising her hand to absently flick a trail of tears away from her chin. "So Cedric surprised me when he embraced me, not as a friend or an acquaintance but the little sister he never had and told me as much, and asked me to make him a promise."
"What promise was that?" Natasha asked loosening her grip the tiniest smidge as she saw the tears begin to slow but refusing to let go of Alexandria. The relief of talking about something that had obviously weighed so heavily on her soul was clear on the younger girls face and she wasn't about to ruin the moment by letting the loss of her touch, something she knew Alex not only loved but craved at every opportunity, leave the younger witches flesh entirely.
"He asked me to swear an oath to him that no matter what happened come the end of the tournament I would stop hiding my true self from the world. He asked that I swear to him that I stop holding back and come out swinging to beat back those who talk me down or try to make me something they want me to be instead of what I wanted myself to be." Alexandrias smile grew a little more as her eyes closed. "I gave him my oath because in that moment I felt truly loved and watched out for as he swore to me in return that come hell or high water he would help see me through the tournament alive. Then a pain enveloped us when I took his hand in mine and silver light glowed from within that kept us from letting go for a minute even as we momentarily panicked. When we could let go we did and this" she wagged her right hand "was there. One half of a Binary Knot. My kinda sorta brother is dead and gone but magic herself recognizes our oaths as still just as valid as the day we made them and its thanks to that oath... That I met you. If I hadn't talked to Cedric when I did, if I didn't... Well I shudder to think what may have been. Its why I want to to bring you where I feel his presence most here at school. To show him I'm not just keeping my promise but that he inadvertedly led me to you and you to me. I thought we could thank him. Together."
A softness came to Natashas gaze as Alexandria finished. Stories could be spun but there was one thing that she knew in the deepest part of her soul about Alex, she couldn't lie to save her life if it depended on it; small mistruths or half truths were doable but full on life or death 'I wasn't there' or 'It wasn't me, it was the one-armed man I swear!' lies were beyond her. Not just that but when it came to her family or people she held dear to her heart Alex would never spin a yarn like that for any reason whatsoever; what she had been told was the god honest truth and she believed that with every part of her. "After class before dinner tomorrow night" she said leaning in and kissing Alexandrias forehead lightly as the younger woman adjusted slightly to be more comfortable but did not move from her lap. "I love you Alexandria."
Alexandria pouted slightly at her full name being used before leaning in and pressing a soft series of kisses along Natashas jawline as she threw a few light nips in for effect. "I love you more Natalia" she said quietly.
The screeching of bats and owls outside the window masked the whispered words of love & adoration as the two spouses adjusted to get comfy once more, Natasha taking up her original position as the big spoon with her arm around Alexandrias waist holding her raven haired lover- although the conontation was on a different level than societal accepted ideas of the term, love was more mental emotional and seen through actions than sex as far as she was concerned- to her so that the younger witches back was pressed to her chest and their legs interwined. "Thats impossible you know."
"I'll just have to spend the rest of long lives proving it to you won't I then?" Alexandria asked with love filled look.
Natasha didn't answer and instead let her action, a soft peck of a kiss, speak for her before they both fell into the land of nod, safe and securely in the presence of the one they loved more than life itself.
"You boys are mighty conspicuous you know." The moment a dozen guns were turned on him Tony Stark looked offended. "Only .45ACP round glocks? You must think I'm not a threat or something."
"Stand down and go about your business civilian. Interfering with government officials and their work will land you within precinct confines."
Tony snorted as he reached into his suit pocket and produced his S.H.I.E..L.D. credentials for inspection. "I'm sorry but who are you calling a civilian?" he asked with a sarcastically rude glare. "And what in the name of God are you doing making your investigation into...whatever you're looking into in full gear like you're ready to storm into Iraq? Are you trying to cause a panic?"
The lead W.A.N.D. and S.T.A.K.E. agents gave their men a signal to stand down. "Mr. Stark, we're working the same information you are since Agent Romanov knows far more about S.H.I.E.L.D. and its auxillery arms than most dream to understand. If she is in fact a turned traitor and the person of interest with her is a mutant like Scarlet Witch, Director Fury thought having our specialty units involved would be a boon not a hinderance. You may have the battlefield experience in most areas but a proper supernatural or magical enemy is a separate breed of animal altogether" the .K.E agent said as she crossed her arms across her stomach. "As for our gear its standard protocol cloaked. Civilians see goth fashioned twenty somethings and the only reason you see our gear for what it truly is is because the microchips in the fabric have RFID scanners that react to the S.H.I.E.L.D. identifiers inlaid to all agent credentials."
Tony grimaced at that statement. "Romanov is a lot of things but traitor is not one of them" he said. "Needing to get laid, needing to learn what fun is, perhaps pick up a dictionary and look up the definition of living but traitor, not by a long shot. Theres more to it than we all know currently."
"She betrayed the Red Room and gave us all the information on them when she defecred to S.H.I.E.L.D." the W.A.N.D. agent bluntly pointed out. "One only needs a right incentive to defect from an organization or group."
"Sir, ma'am! We found the source of the spike we've been tracking!" one of the S.T.A.K.E. agents called.
The S.T.A.K.E. agent sighed and turned her head. "We'll be there in a moment Jensen." Crystaline blue eyes turned back to look at Tony. "We have our order to track and observe. Take her down if necessarily proven she has turned coat on S.H.I.E.L.D. but don't make assumptions of us or our units Stark. You'd be surprised how weak technology is compared to the supernatural and magic in earnest and not that Asgardian sideshow freak Thor." The woman walked off toward the man who had called out to them.
The W.A.N.D. agent shook his head at the rather curt and blunt way of how his colleague put things. "You have your orders, we have ours. What we know of Agent Romanov suggests the same as you're saying Mr. Stark but you know the old addage. 'Better safe than sorry'. With her record in S.H.I.E.L.D. I want to think her disappearance is for a difference reason just like you do but we have to be prepared for all possible scenarios and outcomes." He turned on heel and joined his colleague over by the seemingly inconsequential column
On the shore of the Black Lake Alexandria stood near a tree bordering the forbidden forest witb Natasha at her side. "Hey Ced, hard to believe its almost been a year" she said tracing her fingers over the very words she carved there before departing at the end of the last scholastic year. 'Here lies the heart and soul of a good man, a good friend & my brother. Rest in peace Cedric' lay burned there before her eyes. "You kept your promise to keep me alive tbrough the tournament so here I am to prove I'm keeping mine." She paused sligbtly and looked to the redhead at her side. "I wanted to introduce you to someone too. Someone just as important to me as you arel" she said grabbing Natashas hand pulling her closer to the tree. "Its kind of funny actually. I met her because of the promise I made you and truth be told I can't recall ever being happier because of it."
Natasha wasn't quite sure what to say or do as raised her free hand and scratched her cheek. Talking to inanimate things, even if they were living things like trees, was a sign of losing your mind but the tree wasn't the important thing; it was the place. This was a place Alex and Cedric used to put their cards out on the table about their suspicions of the tournament & make such an important promise to each other. If there was a place for a spirit to linger it left no doubt in her mind it would be here and it would be the guy Cedric to make sure Alex was ok before he went on to whatever life after deatb had waiting for him. "Uh.. Hi?" she said questioningly.
Alexandria chuckled softly pressing herself into Natashas side. "Don't mind her awkwardness, shes not used to being in the realm of magic twenty four-seven all the time here like we are. Ced, this is my wife Natasha" she said looking adoringly up at the redhead for a moment. A strong breeze filtere through rhe area making her shiver and huff. "Yeah yeah I know I'm old in terms of getting married this late acxording to our damn cukture but it just happened and I wouldn't change it for the world. I love her and she loves me."
Another breeze blew through tbe area.
"Look, I don't know what you're trying to say with these breezes brushing through but Alex is right. I do love her, I nearly died to save her life. I think thst I deserve to have some benefit of the doubt here" Natasha said wrapping her arm around Alexandria.
"Both of you stop." Alexandria glared lightly between the tree and up at Natasha. "I will not have either of you take the tone with each other. I love you both and you both care about me. Be civil Ced, she'll never hurt me. Shes already promised me that and I know its truth" she said resting her head against Natashas chest. The breeze that wrapped around them slowed and was sligbtly warmer this time making her smile softly. "I know you're still looking out for me beyond the grave and I appreciate that brother. Really I do but I have someone else to help fight at my side now like you did. Go on, cross over. I'll be ok." Leaning forward she placed a momentary kiss to the smooth bark. "We'll meet again brother, thats a promise.
A/N: so thats the chapter ended. More character and peeking into the closing gap between W.A.N.D./S.T.A.K.E./Tony tracking down Natasha. I so didnt intentionally mean for this to come out as a two thirds focus on Nat/Alex around an intoduction to cedric but i think it turned well nonetheless. There was a song in my head that replayed on a loop while writing out the scene at the tree called Brother by Kodaline