She walks down a Hell's Kitchen street and turns onto another street. She walks exactly three blocks and stops for a few seconds, pretending to check something on her phone. She turns around and walks a block before turning onto yet another street. She stops again. She sighs.

Nat collapses onto Matt's couch a while later. Matt, in the kitchen cooking something that smells super good, raises an eyebrow and asks, "Long day?"

She frowns. "I think Castle's stalking me."

Matt frowns, too. "Frank? Why?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

He turns off the stove and thinks for a bit, resting his hands on his hips. "You want me to confront him?" he asks. "Or do you want to yourself?"

"I'll do it," she tells him with a smirk. She gets up slowly, walks towards him, and places a kiss on his cheek. "You can come too, if you want."

So, turns out Castle isn't stalking her. He's stalking the undead lady who's been following her.

"What?" Matt says.

"Your ex," Castle says, waving his rifle around in the air. At least they're on a rooftop and are unlikely to be seen. Probably why he chose the place.

"What?" Matt says again.

"Y'know, died in your arms or whatnot? Yeah, she's still up and about, like a fucking zombie or somethin'."

Nat is, admittedly, disappointed in herself because she hadn't detected this other person following her, but to be fair, Matt hadn't noticed anything, either.

He tilts his head now, frowning. "Huh," he says. "She doesn't have a heartbeat."

Castle examines their surroundings closely as if Elektra is about to pop in on their conversation, but she knows Matt would have warned them by now if that were the case. "That raises more questions for me than answers," he says.

"Especially considering she's supposedly died two times over," Nat mutters.

"Two?"

Matt looks up at the sky and sighs. "I hate my life," he says.

Before she can respond, Nat gets a text on her phone, alerting her to an Avengers mission in Europe, something involving the multiverse, elemental monsters, and, unfortunately, Peter Parker. It would be improper for her to admit she feels relieved, but she does. "I have a mission in an entirely different continent," she informs them. "You"—she points at Matt—"better have this sorted out by the time I come back."

Matt salutes her mockingly. "Yes, ma'am," he says.

She kisses him lightly on the lips to make it seem like less of an order.

"There's something up with this Beck dude," Nat mutters.

"There's a lot up with this Beck dude," Tony says, raising his eyebrows as he skims through whatever he'd just furiously searched up on his phone.

"Yeah, that's 'cause he's a fraud," Strange drawls out from behind them, cape flowing from his shoulders, and they both jump quite literally in surprise. Nat meets Tony's eyes, and they both silently agree never to tell anyone about this.

"I gathered that," Tony says sourly. "One of my former employees using my technology...of course he's a fraud."

"Not in the way you think," Strange says. "He's lying about the whole multiverse aspect. I would've known if there had been an interdimensional disruption."

"Of course you would," Nat mutters.

"He brought my kid into this!" Tony hisses.

She raises an eyebrow. "You're admitting it now?"

Strange frowns. "I thought Peter was your illegitimate child all along."

"What? No!"

"Anyways," Fury says, stepping up to them (and there's something up with him, too, though Nat can't quite put her finger on it), "what do we do with this information?"

"Kick names and take ass," Tony says with a twitch of his lips. Strange snickers in a very undignified manner, and Nat rolls her eyes. Honestly, the two of them.

"I'm so glad you guys are here!" Peter says, sounding a bit breathless over comms as he swings around the city defending himself from the drones. "I didn't think you guys would come."

"Of course we're here, kid," Tony says. "You asked for help."

A grunt. "You must have better things to do."

"Shut it, Peter."

"Right, okay."

"Sitrep, guys?" Steve asks. Nat hears the clanging of his shield against something solid, and assumes he's doing well.

"Peter and Tony are getting the brunt of the attack, no surprise there," Nat reports, crouching behind a car on the shaking bridge she's on and sweeping her eyes across the area. "Stephen is flying around helping them." Along with his surprisingly sentient cloak. "Everyone, just remember that damage control is our priority."

"Got it," Steve says. "How does the bad guy have control of your drones anyways, Tony?"

A repulsor blast. "I guess I've been slightly more lax with my security protocols lately. My bad," Tony mutters. "Fucking hackers."

"That's a no-no word!" Rhodey says, voice slightly strained despite his attempt at humor.

"Morgan's not here!"

"That's okay, Mr. Stark!" Peter says enthusiastically. "I know you're trying your best!"

"Did that sound condescending to you guys? It sounded pretty condescending to me."

"Very condescending," Bucky says. "Didn't know you had it in you, Parker."

She'd missed the banter. It's what they all need in a battle such as this. There's something wrong with this situation, but again, she can't quite pinpoint what it is. She's helping civilians to safety and fending off drones and looking for the final clue, and the adrenaline helps, the teamwork helps (she's not alone), but there's something else...

She pauses and looks up at the trajectory of the drones for a second. She needs to think.

"Could Beck be in the water somewhere? On a boat?" she asks, the thought suddenly occurring to her. She starts sprinting across the bridge, trying to avoid the debris falling all around her. Maybe the other side will give her a better vantage point than the chaos she's found herself surrounded by. "Crossing the Tower Bridge now. Headed in your direction, Sam."

"Gonna fly over to the Thames and meet you," Sam responds. "I'll have a better view of possible hiding places."

"Uh, Nat?" Tony says, suddenly nervous for some reason. It is a battle, but they are used to danger, and Nat doesn't like the undercurrent of anxiety in his voice. Something must be more wrong than usual.

"He's on the bridge!" Peter suddenly screams, and his voice is loud in her ear.

"Everyone off the bridge!" she screams into her vicinity. She tugs open car doors and helps people out and pushes them in the safest direction. She cranes her neck around, trying to spot anything useful, but sometimes that's how it is with her on the ground in the middle of a battle. The big picture is hard to see. She has to depend on her teammates, her people. "Heat signatures on the bridge?" she asks hurriedly.

"One more, to your left," Tony says. "I didn't see it before because of the swarm of drones that also somehow have heat signatures, but Beck is above you."

"I trust that you guys got it?" she asks with a tired grin, because it's not like she can do much about Beck right now. She has no superpowers, can't just jump up to meet the guy who's made life miserable for half of London.

"Don't worry 'bout it," Tony responds, a bit distracted. She's still worried, but it's nice to have the reassurance.

She makes her way through the wreckage and finds a little girl with brunette braids wedged between a car and the side of the bridge, inches away from falling into the water. She clutches a small stuffed seal that was probably white before it got covered in dust. "Hey," she says gently. "Hey, come here." The girl looks up with tears in her eyes. Nat reaches out for her, and after a moment, she runs into Nat's arms.

"What's your name?" she asks breathlessly as she starts sprinting towards the other end of the bridge.

"Katheryn," the girl mumbles into her shoulder. Nat frowns as she climbs over a few cars blocking the way.

"And who's your friend here?" she asks, voice tight. Yelena used to have a white stuffed rabbit when she was little, named it Mashed Potato and lugged it around everywhere.

"Marsh. It's short for Marshmallow."

Nat smiles, despite it all. "Isn't that a cute name?" she says, and then immediately shields the girl with her body as a drone comes by. Nat takes out her gun and only needs one shot to take it down.

She relaxes and looks down at Katheryn to make sure she's okay. Katheryn looks up at her with wide eyes, reaching up to throw her arms around Nat's shoulders and holding on tight. "Marsh wants to ask if we're gonna be okay?" she says hopefully.

Nat bites her lip. These are the types of promises you aren't supposed to make, especially in their line of work. She looks up. They'll reach the end of the bridge in 30 seconds, at most. "You'll be okay," she says quietly.

Right after, Sam swoops in and lands on the bridge. Nat startles just a little and holds onto the child in her arms tightly before relaxing once more. Katheryn coughs miserably, the smoke on the bridge getting to her.

"Lemme fly her off the bridge," Sam says, reaching out. Nat hands her over and says nothing as Sam flies off again, reaching the end of the bridge much faster than Nat would have.

She sighs and stands there, just trying to catch her breath. She turns around and looks up at where most of the drones have converged. "You guys got something to do with this?" she asks.

"Kid's doing a really great job," Tony says, the pride leaking through his voice.

Nat smiles, and is immediately blasted off the bridge. She hits her head against what could be a car's bumper. Everything goes black.

Nat comes alive with the force of her coughing, choking up water uncontrollably. After what feels like an eternity, she groans, laying weakly on the pavement as the sound of chaos returns to her slowly. She realizes, belatedly, that there are no more explosions or piercing screams. There's a lot of shouting and panicked conversations, but the battle seems to be over, somehow.

"Shit," Tony says, and Nat rolls her head to the side to see him out of his armor, hands shaking a little. "Shit," he says again. "You fucking scared me, Romanoff."

She tries to smile. "Everyone good?" she murmurs, and then she has to cough a little, squeezing her eyes shut with the pain in her chest. Broken ribs, probably.

"Everyone's good," Tony says. "You're the worst off, actually." He raises a hand to press against the comm unit in his ear. "Yeah, yeah, she's fine, awake and alive. Her comm got damaged in the water."

Huh. She hadn't noticed.

Nat frowns. "What happened?" she croaks out. Her throat feels like it's been torn to shreds by a knife.

"We got the fraud," Tony says. "Actually, Peter did. I'm super impressed with him today, and if it were anyone else I'd tell you not to tell him I said that because his ego doesn't need any more stroking, but that kid actually has self-worth issues, so I actually do need to tell him that I'm proud of him sometime."

She blinks, not following most of the words, but Tony rambling in this way is a bad sign. It's his coping mechanism, means he's worried. About her?

"Hmm...maybe I have self-worth issues too," she slurs out.

Tony frowns down at her. "Well we gotta fix that, don't we?" he says, reaching out to brush her damp hair away from the side of her face. "Yep, bad head wound. Feel like you have a concussion, Nat?"

"People who have concussions usually don't know they have one."

"I guess that's true."

Nat shivers a little, and she's not planning to point it out, but Tony notices—they all notice more than she had thought them capable of long before. He takes off the suit jacket he's wearing and lays it on top of her.

"Why—" She chokes on air and coughs to dispel the feeling. "Why're you wearing a suit?" she asks. She hopes her incredulity is communicated to Tony, but she's feeling really tired right now.

"So I can look fashionable out of the other suit, obviously," Tony says with a shadow of a smirk.

"Dumb choice. Impractical."

"I'm used to it."

"Impractical."

He sighs, a bit fondly. "Yeah, maybe," he says. He flickers his eyes away from her and then back again. "I'm glad you're okay."

And maybe before, maybe she wouldn't have agreed. The two of them, they've always punished themselves a million times over for mistakes that may or may not have been theirs. Unlike Steve, they had had to suffer first before deciding to fight for the common good. They have pushed themselves to do more and more again and again, and they will do more again and again for as long as they live. But maybe, just maybe, what they've done up 'til now is already enough.

She smiles. "I'm glad I'm okay, too," she says, finally.

The rest of their time in Europe is a blur, but eventually, Nat wakes up in the medbay back at the Avengers Compound with Yelena curled up into her side.

As soon as she notices that Nat is awake, she sits up and says, voice harsh, "You could've given me a heart attack!" There are tears in her blue eyes.

Nat sighs. "You're a bit young to have a heart attack," she says, in lieu of all the emotions threatening to drown her...poor choice of words.

"Do I need to remind you?" Yelena asks, a bit hysterical. Nat reaches out to squeeze her hand. Yelena looks down, squeezes back, and continues, more quietly, "You're more human than the rest of the people on your team. And I don't mean that in a- a mean way, or anything. What I mean is that you don't have superpowers to protect you. You just have yourself, and that used to be enough. The Red Room taught us that we could only depend on ourselves and that what we had would be enough. But it is a different world now, Nat. You cannot throw yourself into danger like that." She sniffs a little, and Nat notices, vaguely, that her accent thickens when she's upset. "What would that do to our parents?"

"I'm sorry," Nat whispers. "Some things you just can't control."

Yelena wipes at her eyes with the backs of her hands and sighs, long and weary. She moves to lay down again. Nat turns onto her side so they are face to face, like they often were when they were little, and Yelena would crawl into Nat's bed after a nightmare. She'd snuggle into Nat's side, Nat would cover them both with the blanket, and they could both ignore the rest of the world for a while.

"I don't like being scared," Yelena says after a few minutes. "I thought I was past that."

Nat, who had closed her eyes, opens them again and says, "There's a difference between being scared for your own life and being scared for someone else's."

Yelena frowns, her nose wrinkling endearingly. Nat, ignoring the IV in her hand, reaches up to brush back Yelena's stray hairs, and she lets her. "Who did you steal those words from?"

"They're my own words, you brat," Nat mutters, feeling a bit blurry around the edges. "I'll have you know I went through the same kind of realization back in 2012."

"When the Avengers first formed."

"Yes."

"Huh. I suppose they are super worried about you."

"I would like to think that they would be," Nat says with a smile, before frowning. "Not that I want them to worry—"

"Relax. I know what you mean. The drugs are making you weird."

"Why so many drugs?" Nat asks dramatically. "I wanna get outta here as soon as possible. I only drowned."

"Only?" Yelena asks incredulously with eyebrows raised. "Well, there's your concussion"—she reaches up to brush against the bandage on the left side of Nat's temple that she had not noticed before—"and there's also a bunch of shrapnel from the explosion that knocked you into the water. Did you forget how to swim or something?"

"Concussion," Nat mutters in explanation.

"That's no excuse. Alexei always told me I needed to learn how to swim so well I could do it in my sleep."

Nat snorts, closing her eyes again because her eyelids seem so heavy right now. "Was he a good teacher?" she murmurs.

"Well, I'm still alive, aren't I? Anyways, Kate told me..."

Nat drifts off into the land of sleep.

When she wakes up next, Yelena is breathing deep and even into her shoulder and Clint is standing in the doorway looking very confusedly at the ground. "What'cha looking at?" she mumbles. Ugh. She wants to be more awake and eloquent.

He points at the ground, eyes wide.

She rolls her eyes, and winces as she turns away from Yelena to see what Clint is pointing at.

Oh, it's Matt.

"Why's he on the ground?" Clint asks.

Based on Matt's sprawled limbs and the slightly askew chair next to him, he probably dozed off sitting up and somehow fell to the floor without waking. "Accident," she says, but it sounds more like a question.

"Well, my chair now," Clint declares, very gently kicking one of Matt's legs away from the chair to make room for himself. "How are you feeling, Nat? Swallow a lot of disgusting river water?"

Nat groans. "I'm fine," she says, "and I really don't want to think about that right now."

"You're contradicting yourself."

"How so?"

"Usually, if you're fine, as you say, you're okay with revisiting past trauma."

Nat rolls her eyes. "I really am fine," she says. "I've had so much worse."

"That's not as comforting as you think it is." He leans forward, examining her more closely. She lets him scrutinize her, and after a moment, he leans back, seeming satisfied with whatever he's come up with. "I wish I was there," he says finally. "I wish I had your back."

"You can't teleport," Nat protests.

"Yeah, but—"

"Besides, you were with your family. What is more important than that?"

Clint smiles softly. "We've established this, Nat. You're family, too." She has nothing to counter that, and he grins upon the realization. She asks him about the kids, and he tells her about the shenanigans they've been up to, with even Laura as a partner-in-crime. Nat laughs at all the right moments, not that there are wrong moments with Clint, and for a while she just basks in his presence, and he in hers.

When Matt stirs, Nat narrows her eyes down at him and attempts to be stern. Drugs make her soft, apparently. "You figured everything out?" she asks. He gives her a tired thumbs up without even opening his eyes and goes back to sleep.

"Figure what out?" Yelena mumbles from behind her.

"I think everyone's trying to belatedly shovel talk Matt right now," Peter says, sitting criss-cross applesauce at the end of the bed beside her legs. He'd snuck Nat one of the mini cartons of ice cream in the compound fridge (this one is strawberry), and together they've been slowly making their way through it. "Matt's very uncomfortably answering some very personal questions about his ex."

Nat snorts. "I'm not gonna save him," she says. "He can fight for himself."

"Literally and metaphorically," Peter says with a solemn nod. "I still can't believe it."

"Please don't go around telling everyone."

"Scout's honor," Peter says, placing his right hand on his heart and grinning.

After a few moments, Nat says, "You did good on the mission, even if it wasn't planned."

Peter reaches up to rub the back of his neck. He grimaces. "Thanks, I guess. I just wish I could've done it all without inconveniencing all of you."

"Peter," she says, prompting him to straighten up and look her in the eye, "part of being a superhero is learning how to ask for help."

"That's something I have trouble with," Peter says sheepishly.

"It's something everyone has trouble with."

"Even you?" Peter asks, and Nat does not know how to feel. Sure, she knows in a distant sort of way that Black Widow has been a role model for years, but to be confronted by that fact here in her own hospital bed? It's...not the worst feeling.

"Even me," she says with a soft smile. "And I don't think you're that hopeless at it, after this whole mess and also with Team Red."

Peter groans. "Don't remind me," he says.

"How did the three of you meet and form an unofficial team, anyways?"

"Matt never told you?"

"I never asked," she admits.

"This is gonna be a long story," Peter says.

"Well, I've definitely got the time."

And so, Peter tells her the origin story of Team Red. It is ultimately a short story, filled with random meetings and some antagonism and the shenanigans she had been expecting. Anyways, what really matters is what they've become.

A week later, all of them are hanging out in the living room with the TV on when the chaos starts.

Peter's aunt drops her glass of water.

"Fuck," Peter says, wide eyes trained on the screen. Nobody reprimands him.

MJ stands next to him, frozen, and Happy, on the couch, just says, "Oh no."

Nat takes Morgan from Pepper's arms as she starts to furiously talk to someone on the phone. "The bad guy had a backup plan," she mutters to Morgan, who is frowning and swinging her legs in the air.

Tony turns to Matt, who immediately, conspicuously, tenses up. "Murdock, what do you think 'bout taking another high-profile case?"

Matt sighs, taking out his phone. "Let me call Foggy," he says tiredly.

(The trial goes much better than Bucky's had. After all, Spiderman is a beloved Queens local, and J. Jonah Jameson is not a government official.)

(Peter also has the Avengers backing him up. There's no better cheerleading team than that.)

Nat's wedding is in about a month and she doesn't know what she's doing.

Taking her own advice, she had enlisted help with the wedding planning, and they are now in a much better state than before. But still, weddings are a lot of work. Nat appreciates wedding planners a lot more now, seeing as they have to do this on a daily basis.

"They might have an easier time of it, actually," Clint points out during one of Nat's visits. "They're not busy saving the world...or dealing with exes who are supposed to be dead."

Right.

("Elektra wanted my help with something, like she always does," Matt had told her when she'd still been recuperating in the medbay. He'd been frowning, and she remembers that she had wanted to do anything to make his sweet smile return.

"She got a problem with me?" Nat had asked, reaching out to grab onto Matt's hand and rubbing her thumb over his red knuckles.

Matt had smiled mirthlessly. "I think she approves of you, for some reason." He'd shrugged. "Well, I never needed her approval."

"Damn right," Nat had said, and then she'd pulled him down into a kiss.)

Some things are easier, like picking out the dress (Nat goes with a simple knee-length one with white lace; it makes her feel young and carefree again). On a related note, Matt looks incredibly handsome in his tailored suit. But some things are harder, like when Matt gets melancholy for an absentee mother who lives only a few blocks away from him (this is a secret Nat will keep). Father Lantom probably informed her about the upcoming wedding, and Nat hopes that she feels some sort of regret for hurting Matt like that, for abandoning him before he could properly remember her.

"You have me," she tells him one night when they are sitting alone on the roof, cupping his face in her hands and leaning in close so their foreheads can rest together. "You have Foggy and Karen. You have Foggy's family. You have Father Lantom. You have the people at Fogwell's Gym, and the Defenders and Team Red. You have the Avengers now, too. You have so many people who love you and care about you, and you don't need anyone else."

His smile is tremulous. "Thank you for reminding me," he whispers. "Sometimes, it's easy to forget."

A thought occurs to Nat. "And you have God, too, if you need that reminder," she says. "I don't understand religion but I understand you. I love you."

Matt smiles. "I love you too," he says immediately, so much faster at it than Nat had been. "What did I do to deserve you?"

Nat snorts. "I thought that was my question."

"No, no, it's definitely mine."

"It's neither of yours," Jessica says sourly, and Nat turns to raise an eyebrow at her. Matt just tilts his head.

"Did you just jump up here?" he asks.

"I like to try to surprise you sometimes," she says, arms crossed in front of her chest, "but tonight I regret it." She looks away and down towards the street for a moment before looking back at them. "You guys are disgustingly sweet. I'm happy for you."

Matt grins. "I'm touched," he says, pressing a hand to his chest, "truly."

Jessica coughs awkwardly. "Fuck off, Murdock."

Bruce has been away for a bit. Nat thought he was in New Asgard the whole time, but he enters the Avengers Compound today with his very green cousin in tow.

"Hi," Jennifer Walters says sheepishly with an awkward wave.

Steve's jaw drops. Rhodey, in a suit and tie and late for some important government meeting, grabs his coffee and says, "Someone better explain this to me later!" He runs out the door.

Tony, still holding a spoon inches away from Morgan's mouth, says, "The sleep loss must be getting to me." Morgan whines, and he resumes feeding her on autopilot.

Wanda walks into the room rubbing one of her eyes. She stops upon seeing who is there, and turns right back around.

"Bruce, what did you do?" Nat asks incredulously. "Also, hi. We're usually more polite than this."

"No worries," Walters says with a grimace of a smile.

"Car accident," Bruce says, as if that explains everything.

Tony frowns. "Last I checked, gamma radiation was the cause, not a car accident."

"There was a car accident," Walters confirms. "Bruce bled on me with his weird blood."

Nat blinks. Bruce groans. "There were so many better ways for you to phrase that," he says.

Bucky, who'd passed out on the couch the night before, jerks awake. He sits up and blinks at the scene in front of him. "So this is my life now," he says after a few seconds. "Okay then."

You would think that nothing could surprise them after years in the superhero business, but some things still do.

Nat opens Matt's front door to find Foggy and Karen, each holding a grocery bag. Nat raises an eyebrow at them. "I want nothing to do with this."

"But going camping and eating s'mores over a campfire is a summer tradition!" Foggy protests.

"We live in the city, Foggy," Matt says from somewhere behind her, in his Daredevil suit and ready for another night out.

"Yeah, well, it's the thought that counts. Also, the dichotomy between your non-threatening, unmasked face and the rest of your suit is really weird to me."

"The mask is really weird to me," Karen says. "Well, when you're not standing threateningly in a dark alleyway."

Matt sighs, because they've had this conversation about his suit many times before. "It's a symbol," he says.

"We know," both Foggy and Karen say.

Nat snorts. She doesn't know when these interactions became normal to her.

"Anyways, tomorrow is Saturday. We have nothing to wake up super early for," Foggy says. He lifts up his bag and raises an eyebrow at Nat. "How 'bout it? Matt can join us later."

"I've never actually had a s'more before," Nat admits.

"Right, okay, this is a wrong that must be rectified," Foggy declares. "Obviously your parents didn't do a very good job of going undercover in Ohio if you've never done this very American thing." He turns around and starts walking down the hallway towards the stairs, on a warpath.

"We're stealing Nat!" Karen calls out, grabbing onto Nat's arm and starting to pull her down the hallway, too. "Have fun!"

Matt smiles and waves, completely unconcerned. The last thing Nat sees before she closes the door is him putting on his mask.

It does look weird in a fully lit room.

They end up inviting Yelena, who is here often enough that she now has an apartment in New York City; Clint, because he isn't going to pass up on free, unhealthy treats; and Kate, because Yelena and Clint are there.

They make a tiny fire on the roof of Kate's new apartment building, which probably isn't the most safe, but that doesn't exactly deter two Hawkeye's, two Black Widow's, and two of Daredevil's associates. While none of them have any fire-resisting superpowers (or any real superpowers at all), they've certainly gone through worse than a little arson.

"My old apartment was actually burnt to a crisp by a gang," Kate says conversationally.

Clint swallows a bite of gooey marshmallow. "Tracksuit Mafia," he corrects. "Not just any gang."

"They are a joke," Yelena says, lifting her roasting stick from the fire and examining her burnt to a crisp marshmallow before deciding it hasn't had enough heat and putting it back over the fire.

Nat, who's never really been one for sweets, nibbles on a graham cracker. She'd had one whole s'more earlier and that had been more than sufficient for her.

"Do they smuggle tracksuits or something?" Foggy asks curiously.

Yelena snorts. "No. They all wear tracksuits."

"It's like a uniform for them," Clint confirms.

"Very red," Kate says. She bites into her s'more.

"Oh, wait, I think I've run into them before," Karen says. "They all call each other 'bro', right?"

"Yeah," Kate says, "they're actually kinda cool."

Foggy immediately turns to Karen. "When did you run into them?" he asks with some concern.

Karen stays silent on the subject.

Nat smiles at them, gazes out at the rest of the city, thinks of Ohio, and wonders how the hell she got to this point. She is forever grateful for the people she's met, the people who have her back, but she marvels at how one single change in any one of their lives could have contributed to this moment being different, one person less or more. She looks up at the sky and wishes she could see the stars, the constellations, the myriad of stories set in them. The sky has been her only constant throughout all of this, even with the light pollution and the smoke from destruction and the entirely different view of things when you are in outer space. The little fire warms her face, and despite all of the mistakes she's made and the deaths she's caused, she doesn't think she regrets anything because she has finally made it to this point. She's surrounded by family and getting married soon, and is there really anything else to ask for in life?

Yelena unearths a bottle of bourbon from her bag, and they pass it around. Since there's so many of them and the bottle isn't that big, they won't feel too terribly come morning. Probably.

When Kate reaches for the bottle, Clint reluctantly hands it to her and Foggy squints at her, asking, "Are you even old enough to drink?"

Kate scoffs, taking a sip and immediately coughing and thumping her fist against her chest, which really doesn't help her case. "Of course I'm old enough," she chokes out, quickly handing the bottle back to Yelena and proceeding to cough into her arm.

Karen raises an eyebrow at her. "How old are you?" she asks.

"I'm 22," Kate says.

"Unfortunately, it's true," Nat says, having maybe looked at her birth certificate when doing a background check.

"Oh, more than old enough to drink," Yelena says, passing the bottle back to Kate, who grimaces and attempts to drink it again. She's much more successful this time, but the grimace does not disappear.

"I don't know if you know this," Foggy says dryly, "but the legal drinking age here in America is 21."

Yelena, who was about to take another bite of her questionable s'more, freezes. "That's old," she says after a few seconds. "So, you can't drink at 18?"

"You can," Kate says slowly. "Is it legal? Well..."

"No," Clint says, scrutinizing her closely. Kate stands up impressively well under his gaze. After a few seconds, Clint sighs and reaches for the bottle, taking a swig. "Underage drinking is something I hope I'll never have to deal with."

"Your kids are very well-behaved," Karen says from the one time she's met them.

"And even if they did drink before 21," Nat says, "I'm sure they're smart enough to hide it from you."

Clint frowns at her. "I hope you have nothing to do with that."

Nat shrugs. "I'm supposed to be the cool aunt."

"A bad influence, is what you mean."

"Ha, children," Yelena says with a smirk. "A problem I neither want nor have to deal with, thank god."

No one deigns that with a response.

Just on time, Matt climbs onto the roof from wherever he's been. Nat waves at him and smiles a smile she hopes he can feel, somehow.

"Oh, hey Daredevil!" Kate says. "Long time no see. You want s'mores? We've got plenty."

Casually, Matt takes off his mask and collapses onto the ground between Nat and Karen. Karen raises her eyebrows and pokes him in the leg. Foggy is struggling to hide his smirk.

"I fucking knew it," Yelena mutters accusingly. Kate is speechless, staring at Matt like he's playing a joke on her.

Clint throws a s'more stick at Matt, who lifts his hand up just in time to catch it. He groans, sits up, and reaches over to get a marshmallow.

"Your mask hair is the worst," Kate says finally.

"Thank you," Matt says.

"That wasn't meant to be a compliment."

"To you, maybe. To me, well, it just means I'm getting the job done."

"Or getting incredibly beat up," Foggy says, eyeing Matt closely and trying to look for injuries. Nat is much better at it, though, and knows that he's come out mostly unscathed tonight.

Matt begins roasting his marshmallow. "You caught the stick!" Yelena says.

Matt tilts his head. "Stick?"

"The stick Clint threw at you!"

"I sensed it."

"You didn't sense the cutting board I threw at you!"

"The what?" Foggy says. He points accusingly at Yelena. "Did you hurt my friend?"

"No! Well, yes, but not on purpose!" Yelena says, actually leaning back away from Foggy like she's scared of him. She probably isn't, but the wrath of a concerned friend is one you should never invite upon yourself.

Matt takes his marshmallow away from the fire at what seems to be the perfect moment and begins constructing the perfect s'more. Nat smiles, reaches up, and attempts to fix his hair, but it's definitely a lost cause. She really just wants to brush her fingers through it, sometimes.

"What happened?" Karen is asking, eyebrows furrowed.

Yelena explains, and then says, "So you really do have no sense of self-preservation."

Foggy snorts. "Maybe. He's working on it."

Matt frowns. "I detest that accusation," he says, pointing at Yelena. "I'll have you know that you hit me before I had my morning coffee."

"Have we found the common weakness of superheroes?" Karen asks in a hushed voice.

Matt rolls his eyes, and Nat only just realizes that he doesn't have his glasses on. It's normal for her and Foggy and Karen to see his...his bare eyes, for lack of a better word, but otherwise, Matt feels insecure about letting people see blatant evidence of his blindness.

Tonight, that doesn't seem to be a concern.

"I didn't think anyone would attack me in Clint's house," Matt continues. "That's generally what I associate as a safe space."

Clint presses a hand to his chest, admittedly touched. "Aww...is that why you chose my place for your wedding?"

Matt shrugs. "I'm told that it looks nice," he says.

Clint nods. "I hear that it looks nice, too," he says seriously.

Clint and Matt both grin. Everyone else groans.

Matt tilts his head suddenly and says, "We're about to have company." But he doesn't move to put his mask back on, so it must be nothing serious.

Soon enough, Nat can hear a familiar thwip sound, and turns to watch Spiderman swing onto the roof. "Are you guys having a party I wasn't invited to?" he asks.

Foggy narrows his eyes at him. "You're definitely not old enough to drink," he says.

Peter peels off his mask, crosses his arms in front of his chest, and pouts. "You're right, but I resent that."

Matt sighs. "Pass me the bottle," he says.

*dramatic gasp*

They're getting married next chapter!

Ahhhh

On an unrelated note, you know you're a multifandom fanfic writer when you're trying to write about the Spiderman: Far From Home drones and end up typing in 'droids' instead, EVERY SINGLE TIME drones are supposed to be mentioned. Like, I didn't even notice until right before I posted. Star Wars and MCU stuff are taking up the same space in my brain, I swear.