emmylou | natasha romanoff

fifty-five.

2023
Manhattan, New York

"Do we have to stay with Anya?" TJ asks, "All she does is talk to Kate."

"I do not," Anya quickly defends.

"Yes you do," Diana says.

"And lucky for you all, you're not staying with just Anya," Melina says as she walks into the living room, setting her bag on the ground. The kid's faces light up as the four of them run over, embracing her.

"Babulya!" Elena exclaims, "Diana and I have been working on our Russian."

"Really?" Melina asks, "I'll help you girls improve on it. Knowing your mothers, it probably sounds extremely American."

"It isn't that American," Natasha insists.

"It is," Melina says quickly as she looks at Anya, "Even my baby's Russian is getting worse with each passing day she dates that New Yorker. My heart breaks."

"My Russian is not that bad," Anya says crossing her arms over her chest, "It's better than Natasha's."

"It is not!" Natasha insists, "And you got rid of your accent the second you touched American soil."

"Not the second," Anya says, "Reagan told me that I'd assimilate better with an American accent. And so far I have. I mean how else would I be president of Omega Tau Nu?"

Natasha stares at her, "You're proud of that?"

"See therein lies the problem. Assimilation. You should be proud of where you come from," Melina insists.

"The Red Room, woohoo," Anya says with a weak fist pump.

"That is not what I meant, Anya," Melina states.

Anya frowns, "And I am happy with my New Yorker. She's bringing me a t-shirt from Santorini."

"Oh a t-shirt," Melina says unimpressed, "Tell her to pay off your student loans."

"Natasha and Kennedy will do that," Anya says as she looks over at Natasha, fluttering her eyelashes, "Won't you dear sister?"

"Yeah no," Natasha replies, "We have three and a half kids to put through college."

"Three and a half?" Diana asks as she counts her siblings.

"We speculate that Elena will decide another path," Natasha tells her daughter.

"College is for losers!" Elena exclaims while her sister has an alternate reaction.

"Ooo," Diana says, "Speculate. I like that word. It'll confuse my classmates when I use it."

Melina looks at the young girl and shakes her head, "She's too much like her mother."

Natasha smiles as she messes up Diana's hair, making her giggle, "I know."

Outside on the deck in the backyard, Kennedy sat with her mother who was also helping keep an eye on the kids while she and Natasha went to find Clint who had turned to – darker hobbies after losing his family.

"Time travel?"

Kennedy sighs, "It's crazy."

"I've heard crazier," Meredith says with a smile, "So what's the plan?"

"We're going to go find Clint. Bruce is going to get Thor, he's in Norway helping out with the Asgardian colony there. Everyone else is going to fly in and we're going to hold a vote. Everyone votes yes and then we're going to go back and get the stones before Thanos, undo the snap, and then return them."