Requisite and Sensibility

Chapter 7 - Falling Out

Megan stared at herself in the mirror, she grabbed her sword and gulped. She didn't look anything like herself, insomnia due to crushing anxiety did much to change her look. Eye bags more prominent, face more sullen, eyes holding more pain, she sighed. She grabbed a bunch of her beautiful, long, silky hair and cut through it with the sword like it was putty. She kept on cutting and cutting until she had short, choppy, unevenly cut hair. She washed her face and walked out of her room.

Pepper stood at the threshold of the compound, her face a perfect epitome of worry and concern. "Any word from Tony?" Megan asked seriously, nowadays she hardly cracked a smile. She wore her leather gloves and placed her katanas behind her back in their proper holding places. Pepper couldn't help but notice the astounding differences in Megan as well. She looked into her blue eyes and saw the amount of agony that was behind them. Megan's aura radiated a melancholic haze mixed with pure anger and vengeance. She looked over at Natasha, who was doing no better, the agent stared at her wife as she saw her arm herself with her weapons.

"No." Pepper spoke, she couldn't help but notice that Megan now called Tony by his name instead of dad. She stared at Megan's choppy hairstyle and blinked, it reminded Pepper of a gangster, someone menacing and with no regard for others. "Meg, where are you going?" Pepper held her breath, waiting for the goddess to answer only to be met with stony silence. A few minutes after only the sound of clicking could be heard as Megan perfected everything on her uniform she pursed her cracked lips and stared at Pepper, "Out." She spoke and Pepper nodded slowly, "Out where?"

Megan spun around to stare at her friend, "Out to find answers. Four out of seven of my kids are dead, I need to know how Rain and Edward are doing." Megan turned to Natasha, "Keep an eye on Margaret while I'm gone?" Natasha nodded, she sighed at the neverending pain in her heart. Now, Nat thought about how the once triplets was now a single-person band. Margaret's two siblings gone, her dad gone, her 2 older siblings gone and 2 with Tony somewhere in space. "Meg, please, I'm hurting too." Megan pushed past Natasha with a stone-cold face and slammed the door shut behind her.

It had been only a mere few minutes when a loud knock on the door startled the two women. "Clint?" Natasha asked in relief as she threw open the door. Clint's hair was mused as if he had been running his hand through it too many times. "Laura's gone." Clint spoke, in the same shell-shocked tone that Wade, Megan and Natasha held when they discovered that they're significant others were gone. "I'm so sorry." Natasha mumbled, watching her best friend in pain only added to her endless pool of misery. "Where are the kids?" Clint asked and Natasha's hesitancy sent a dread through his body, settling deep in his stomach. "No..."

"I'm sorry, Lila just floated away in front of us and by the time we got back to the compound, Cooper and Nathaniel weren't here, only dust." Clint shook his head aggressively, "No, no, NO!" Natasha flinched at his tone but kept her comforting hand on his thigh. "I'm sorry Clint." "No, you're lying..." Natasha's tears started to fall again, it felt like nowadays her supply of tears was endless. Her eyes were swollen, it hurt her to close them because they burned, her nose was always runny and rosy. She felt like she was dying slowly from the inside.

Clint got up and started to walk towards the door, "Clint, where are you going?" "Somewhere far away... to be alone." Natasha shook her head, she ran out after him, the night breeze sent goosebumps rising on her bare arms. "Clint, no." "Don't Romanoff. I've made my decision." Natasha bit her lip, "We've all lost people, you're not the only one." She called after him and he spun around to face her, "Clint, I lost my husbands, my child and children that I thought of as my own. Megan's lost her husbands and her children. People she thought of as children, Wanda, Pietro, they're all gone." Clint sighed, "Tell me this, do you and Megan have each other?" Natasha paused.