emmylou | natasha romanoff

vormir #2

Author's Note: Okay, I wrote back when I was still doing Age of Ultron chapters because I wanted to give myself something to work toward. However, I changed a lot of things. Like in this one Kennedy would have gotten pregnant right after Black Widow which does not make sense when looking at the story and there are no triplets. I originally wanted them to have two kids but I like doing things in threes so that was the change in the original. So happy (mostly sad) reading!

2023
Vormir

Natasha watched as Clint paced back and forth. She knew he was trying to come up with another way, a way for them to get out of this, but Natasha had accepted it. She'd accepted that there was no way out of this and that this was the end for one of them.

"Clint," she spoke. His pacing came to a stop as he looked over at her and Natasha shook her head and Clint began shaking his own in response.

"No," Clint says, "There is another way."

"Clint," Natasha says, "Thanos came here with his daughter. She didn't come back."

"Natasha-"

She stands and makes her way over to him and takes his hands into her own. Clint looks at her and Natasha smiles at him and Clint's frown deepens, "What are you smiling about?"

"Funny that they sent the two of us here huh?" Natasha asks, "I bet Tony and Steve would be trying to throw each other off the cliff."

Clint snorts and Natasha's smile widens. Laughing was the only thing to do in a situation like this. It was much better than thinking about the smile on Kennedy's face when she said goodbye. The way that Elena had hugged her legs and told her to come home. The son that she hadn't met. That was what Natasha couldn't think about.

"Okay," Clint says nodding his head.

Natasha steps away from Clint, "Kennedy wants to name our son after Thor and Fury. Don't let her do that. Tell her to name him after her dad."

Clint's brows furrow, "Nat what are you talking about?"

"You haven't seen your family in five years. If this works, if we're able to bring them all back then you deserve to see them again," Natasha says with a small smile, "Elena, she just turned seven and she's amazing and that's all Kennedy."

"Natasha, you have a son on the way," Clint insists, "A son that you need to meet."

"He'll meet me," Natasha says with a small smile, "Kennedy will tell him stories about how amazing I am and there will be a movie made about this very moment and he'll see someone like Jessica Chastain or Bryce Dallas Howard play his mom."

Clint stares at her and shakes his head, "No."

"Clint-"

"This has to be me," Clint tells her.

"You haven't seen your family in five years, Clint," Natasha says, "I have had seven years to be a mom, that's longer than you've been without your family. There is never going to be enough time with Kennedy and Elena, so I am okay doing this."

"Nat," Clint says firmly, "You are not doing this. You don't owe anyone anything anymore. You are a wife and a mother. There is no more red in your ledger. You are clean. I'm the one whose hands are dripping red."

Clint looks Natasha in the eye, "I'm not the man my family once knew. I am not the husband and father that they once knew. I have sins that I need to atone for. This is my atonement."

"How do you expect me to look Lila in the eye? Laura? How am I supposed to explain this to her?" Natasha asks.

"How do I explain this to Elena or Franklin Thor Nicholas?" Clint asks, making the corner of Natasha's lips quirk, "How do I explain this to Kennedy Allen?"