Whumptober Day #22: "They never saw us coming, 'til they hit the floor."


"Right, okay. Everything's fine," Clint says. "Everything's completely fine."

Natasha knows, distantly, that it's good to stay in denial while you're still trying to survive. They can deal with things after they escape, if they escape.

After a few minutes, the main leader walks in—Natasha still doesn't know his name, which frustrates her to no end—slightly disheveled, blood splattered on his shirt. On the outside, Natasha simply furrows her brows; on the inside, Natasha's heart drops, perhaps literally (it certainly feels like it). She doesn't want to look down to see the broken organ in pieces on the cold stone floor.

Laura immediately begins yelling at him, still playing the part of the concerned sister with tears that aren't completely faked. This blatant show of emotion allows her to get closer to the man than she would have been able to before. He thinks her so blinded by her grief that she isn't capable of doing anything logical.

Well, that's wrong, and Natasha knows just what to do.

"You see now how serious I am about getting this information," he says, frowning down at Laura in disdain.

Clint tilts his head just slightly to the side, which allows both Laura and Natasha to see the way the man puts slightly more of his weight on his left foot. They need every advantage they can get.

Natasha knows just what to do.

"I do know now," she says, stepping towards the barrier, voice shaking just slightly.

He eyes her with interest, now completely focused on Natasha. "You understand now?" he asks with a slight smile that Natasha wants to wipe off of his face.

"I didn't think you would really do it," she says, tears welling in her eyes that she wishes weren't real. She's letting down some of her shields, but it hurts. God, it hurts. She hates doing this in front of people she doesn't trust.

"But I did."

"But you did."

"What do you know?"

Natasha closes her eyes to give them all time. She smiles sadly. "I know so much," she says softly. "What do you need to know?"

Which is when Laura strikes. She kicks the man's legs out from under him, starting with his left, and swiftly takes the gun he had tucked into his waistband. She shoots him in the back without hesitation, and he dies a gory, though still unsatisfying, death.

Clint sighs in relief. "Shit," he says. "You've still got it."

"I'm slightly offended that you thought I didn't," Laura answers breezily.

(They are all ignoring the obvious, the serious things.)

(They can deal with all of that later.)

(Right now, their objective is just to survive.)

Laura opens the door an inch and peeks out. There is no one there, so she steps completely out into the hallway. Natasha fells helpless from behind the barrier, and she knows that Clint does too, from the way he is clenching and unclenching his hands.

"Gonna shoot this electrical box," Laura says from just outside the door. "It should take down the barrier."

She does shoot it. Natasha allows herself to flinch, just this once, with only Clint there to see, because it reminds her- it reminds her of—

Right. Boxes. Mental boxes. She can do this.

The barrier does come down from only one gunshot, because Laura is skilled like that. "Let's get going," Clint says unnecessarily. He glances at Natasha, and Natasha determinedly does not glance back (at least, not as conspicuously).

The three of them move through the hallways like a well-oiled machine. Natasha and Clint have been partners for years, and Laura has always been very adaptive and accommodating to any situation she finds herself in. More recently, that has involved her kids. Before, well...before was a different story.

They take down another underling and gain a gun and a knife from his unconscious body. Wordlessly, Clint gets the gun and Natasha gets the knife, because they all know she's the best at hand-to-hand.

When turning a corner, Natasha isn't as careful as she should be and gets slammed face first into a wall for her troubles. She recovers enough to return the favor, leaving the guy unconscious on the ground, but not fast enough to avoid being stabbed in the arm.

She sucks in a breath and tries not to groan or cry out because that would be too loud in this dark, echoey building with long hallways and dim lights. (Matt is here somewhere.)

"Mobility?" Clint asks, stepping closer to her and immediately assessing the situation.

"Good enough," Natasha grits out, tucking her weapon into her waistband. Laura keeps watch while Clint tears off strips of his shirt. When he's done, Natasha smoothly pulls out the knife in her arm and stays still while Clint wraps the wound. "At least I have two daggers now." She holds up both of them, stained with blood.

"You don't know how scary that makes you look," Clint says with a grin.

"Good," Natasha says, and then they are off.

Natasha had unfortunately not done recon on the building (considering she hadn't known she'd be here), so she is unclear on the layout. They reach a door, Clint shoots the lock, and Natasha opens it to see the outside.

The light is so bright that Natasha has to squint. She breathes in the fresh air and sighs, partly in relief and partly in disappointment, because they still haven't found Matt.

Before Natasha can even step outside, an aircraft lands.

Not just any aircraft: the Avengers Quinjet.

"They have good timing," Laura says, quietly handing her gun to Clint, who takes it without complaint.

"Hey," he says, "I'm going back in, okay?"

"What?" Natasha says, turning back to look at him as the Quinjet's door lowers.

"I'm going to find him," he says, looking Natasha straight in the eye. For you, he does not say, but it is implied. He nods at Laura, who is swaying just slightly, adrenaline wearing off. "Get her to safety."

"Okay," Natasha says softly, because she knows that this is a favor to her, and that Clint also needs it. He needs to feel like he's doing something. He needs to find a friend he cares about. He needs to make sure Natasha doesn't see...whatever there is to see.

He runs back into the darkness. Natasha turns towards the jet and sees Tony and Steve walk down the ramp, suited up and together, like old times. She drops her weapons and breathes a sigh of relief because she trusts them. She makes sure Laura is standing on her uninjured side before pulling Laura's arm over her shoulders. They walk slowly towards the jet.

"Should've expected that you'd escape on your own, Romanoff," Tony says with a smirk. "Didn't need our help, did you?"

"It is still very much appreciated," Natasha says. Her adrenaline is also wearing off, and she feels tired, utterly exhausted.

"Are you okay, Laura?" Steve asks, the concern evident on his face and in his voice.

"I will be," Laura says honestly with a tight smile. "How'd you find us?"

"You've got some smart, brave kids," Tony says. "They called me and I thought I'd get a heart attack."

"And then he called me," Steve says.

"And then I called him."

They glance at each other, smiling a little. Other Avengers are filing out of the jet and running into the building or around it, securing the area. Natasha doesn't have to worry when her team is here, somehow whole and working together.

That doesn't mean she isn't a little shocked, though. "Why?" she asks. Why have they suddenly reconciled?

She doesn't have to clarify. Steve answers, "Because two of our friends went missing." He smiles sadly, and Natasha notes the stubble on his face. Is he trying to grow a beard? "Everything else...that whole mess doesn't matter when you guys aren't safe."

"What he means to say is that you guys putting yourselves into danger really raises team morale and unity," Tony says blithely.

Steve elbows him lightly in the ribs, and Tony doubles over dramatically. "I thought we were all good!" he says.

"I'll think about it," Steve says jokingly.

Natasha knows the situation isn't completely set and done, but she's happy for them, she truly is.

There is the sound of familiar, young voices coming from the Quinjet and growing louder. "So, I know you might want to kill me," Tony says, holding his hands up in a placating manner, "but I really couldn't leave them behind. They're very convincing. They're definitely your kids."

"Tony succumbed under Nate's puppy dog eyes," Steve says.

"I did not!"

But it doesn't matter, because the kids run down the ramp, safe and untouched and alive. "Mom!" they all scream, and Laura laughs tearfully, leaning down to hug them all and dragging Natasha into the group hug, too.

Natasha vaguely registers Steve walking away to give them privacy, but Tony stays right there, still in his armor and scanning their surroundings, ever the protector.

Natasha picks up Nate with her uninjured arm and lets him wrap his arms around her neck. "Hey there," she says, voice light and soft and utterly relieved. "I'm so happy you're okay."

"Me too," Nate mumbles into her shoulder.

Lila frowns at their cuts and bruises, tucked into Laura's side. Cooper rests his hands on his waist and says, "Where are Dad and Uncle Matt?"

That is...something Natasha would prefer not to think about right now. But they need an answer, and she won't lie to them, so she says, "Your dad's okay. He's inside cleaning up. Your Auntie Nat kinda made a mess of things."

Nate giggles, reassured. Lila furrows her brows, mildly suspicious. Cooper stares in growing horror at the main entrance to the building they had just escaped, because he knows something is wrong.

Laura pats his shoulder and smiles a grimace of a smile. Their eyes meet, and Natasha tries to tell her, through this glance, that she is sorry.

Sorry for what, she doesn't know. She's always sorry for something.

"Uncle Matt?" Tony asks. Natasha looks over at him to see his eyebrows raised.

Nate opens his mouth to presumably say Auntie Nat's boyfriend (who is hopefully not dead), but Natasha lightly presses her hand to his mouth. "My brother," Laura says helpfully.

"No he isn't," Lila says, completely ignoring Cooper making a slicing motion at his neck.

"Right," Tony says with a slow nod. "You guys just seemed kinda touch-feely in the security footage I saw, at least for your standards."

Natasha is going to kill him.

But then she hears a small commotion behind her, and she turns around, all thoughts of murder pushed to the wayside.

She finally allows herself to genuinely smile.

Because Clint is stepping out of the building into the light with Matt's arm across his shoulders. Matt looks a bit dazed but both of them are ultimately unharmed, or at least, not fatally injured.

"Dad!" Lila says, running towards him with Cooper following closely behind. Nate wiggles to be let down from Natasha's arms, and she lets him go.

Laura nudges her arm with a smile, and Natasha feels the tightness in her chest ease for the first time since this whole mess started.

Steve pats Clint's back as he passes and walks back towards Tony while Natasha and Laura trudge forwards to join their happy little family. Natasha turns to Steve and mouths thank you at him. He shakes his head knowingly, as if trying to say, No need. You saved yourself.

Natasha's muscles ache and her exhaustion is bone deep, but when she reaches them, she feels rejuvenated.

"Uncle Matt's hearing is a bit off, so be considerate of that, 'kay kids?" Clint is saying.

"Okay," Nate says solemnly.

"Are you okay, Uncle Matt?" Lila asks, leaning into Matt's side.

"I'm perfectly fine," he tells her with a fond smile and an arm around her shoulders.

"You sure don't look that way," Cooper mutters, but there is growing humor in his eyes because he knows where this is going.

Matt shrugs. "It's not like I can tell."

Natasha lets out an exasperated sigh, and Matt grins unabashedly at her, bruised and bloody and half-deaf, but he must have fought back well enough, if his bloodied knuckles are any indication.

She glances back at Tony, who raises an eyebrow at her in both fondness and curiosity. Ugh. He's going to be so insufferable about this, because Natasha is about to prove him right.

Clint and Laura lead their kids away, sensing that the two of them need a moment, and then it's just Natasha and Matt. The rest of the world fades away.

"Hey," she says softly, hesitantly reaching out to him. She feels kind of shy again, like when they had first considered a relationship together. Not the first time they met, no, because that had involved Daredevil and Black Widow and a lot of ass-kicking (Natasha still maintains that she had won that fight). No, she's talking about the time after the Chitauri Invasion, when they had been forced to face their burgeoning mortality for the first time, and Matt, for some reason, had decided to stay with her instead of leave.

"Hey," Matt says back, eyes warm despite their blankness. She cautiously reaches up to press two fingers against his neck, measuring his thankfully steady, comforting pulse. In response, he reaches up to press two fingers against the inside of her wrist. He tilts his head, as if making sure he is feeling the same thing he is hearing.

Natasha sniffs a little, but doesn't feel the need to hide her tears anymore. She wraps her other arm around Matt's shoulders, and Matt wraps his other arm around her waist, pulling her closer. They stand there, basking in their light, their warmth, in their aliveness. They have survived yet again, and they've done it together.

Matt lets a tear fall down his cheek. He smiles despite it. "I'm glad you're okay," he says, voice hushed.

Natasha swallows down the sob that wants to come out and threads her hand through his hair, gently bringing his head down to rest against hers. "I love you," she whispers.

"Love you too," he says immediately, breath ghosting across her lips.

She shivers and presses closer.

She's stolen many things in her life: secrets, information, other people's lives.

So, really, stealing a kiss from the person she loves would be one of the easiest things she has ever done.

"Right here?" Matt asks, mildly amused, because this—their relationship—certainly won't be a secret from the Avengers any longer.

"Right here," Natasha confirms. She presses their lips together, and feels something broken inside of her slot into place.


*shrugs* I just think they're neat