𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍 , barnes

016 (mid credits scene)

NATASHA ROMANOFF DRAGS HER FINGER THROUGH THE THICK LAYER OF DUST. 

The sky stretches with a thick blanket of different hues of red, yellow and orange. Like flames. That's how it was resembled. The moon is full and prominent in the landscape, illuminating the world beneath it. Everything is how it was left, books sprawled on the kitchen counter, an empty mug of coffee with its remnants just disappeared. The destruction from the break in of HYDRA guards, Liana's nursery left entirely as it once was, the bed Bucky and Natasha shared the same. Everything is just layered in thick dust. 

Natasha had to return to her house in Texas, one she still owned, one she still had an attachment too. She passed into the living room, crouching down and lifting up a small ring made out of barbed wire that had managed to slip from her finger all of those years ago. Swallowing the lump, Natasha realised that she can be weak in this place, and slid the ring onto her finger. It's one that Bucky had given her, a promise ring, one that meant he'd return. 

He never did. 

The red headed woman sat on the coffee table that was somehow still intact and rubbed her trembling fingers up and down her jeans, her green eyes skating the living room she'd once danced with James in, played with Liana in, watched her take her first steps, heard her say her first words. All of it seemed so surreal now, the faint memory of it flashing in her gaze. She pursed her lips into a tight line as the door cracked open, Natasha looked up to see someone stood in the doorway. 

Clint Barton. 

"Are you alright?" He asks, slowly making his way into the house and perching on the coffee table with his bestfriend. Natasha thinks long and hard about the question, is she alright? In truth, no she's not. She's alone again. Her daughter has left her. But she knew that Liana is safe with her father. It's all that mattered, she's safe. 

Nat shakes her head, red hair falling from her shoulder and down her back, "No, I'm not." She looked at the dark living room, "But I'll be alright, one day." Satisfied with the answer, they sit in silence for a while. Clint lets Natasha grieve her child once again, she'd grieved her child all of those years ago and here she is, mourning Liana all over again. Only back then, she'd believed she was dead. Now Natasha knew her kid was alive, out there somewhere, and that made the process a little easier but still. She's grieving a loss, knowing that Liana is out there but not with her. It must be hard. 

Clint folds his arms over his chest, looking around the dark and destroyed house, "Liana... it's a lot better then Harley, fits her better." Natasha chuckles softly, looking at her hands, fiddling with the ring around her index finger. "Weren't you originally going to name her Lily?"

"Yeah, it's a name I really liked but James... Bucky, liked Harley better so I chose that." Natasha nods, pressing her lips into a tight line. She continues to refer to him as James, it felt odd calling him Bucky when she's always known him as James and not that. "I just hope she never finds out."

Clint stays quiet, looking at his red headed bestfriend. They'd originally met in Budapest where he'd first tried to turn her away from what she's always known but she escaped and met James, after that she was taken back to the Red Room, sterilised and then forced out into the world where she escaped again. It must've been tough, during that time she was mourning the loss of a child. She'd believed that they'd killed Liana, turns out that she's been suffering this entire time. It made Natasha feels sick with herself. "About the Inhumans?"

"She's been through enough." 

The dark room painted an even more eerie picture then the look on their faces, the tone of their voices. Shadows from the moon peaking through the broken panes of glass, the wind whistling in the corners of the house. "She never needs to know that none of them ever died. That they're out there somewhere and she thinks they're dead. She never needs to know that the Inhumans are alive." 

Liana forgot about the inhumans being alive but yeah, idk if this makes any kind of sense but she forgot about them and it was supposed to be that they're alive and out there and she'd thought they'd died. Sitwell told her that they're alive but again, she had her mind wiped so she doesn't know anymore. One more chapter!