Breaking Free | Natasha x OC

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"You hold an absence at your centre, as if it were a life."
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"My Gods, Steve. I thought you were counseling grieving people. How the hell did you manage this one?"

"I'm sorry," He replied. "They were just there, and you know how the press gets- I'll fix it."

Natara sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose. "There's nothing to fix. She is married. We're not trying to hide it... they're just going to be all over this now, and her. They'll turn it into 'Avenger Natasha Romanoff married?' And they'll make it something to do about living in a world post Thanos. Gods, they're going to have a field day over this one."

"I'm sorry," Steve apologized for the one hundredth time.

Every several weeks, Natara would phone him and Natasha. The calls generally weren't too long, but they were the best she could do.
She realized now that her going with no communication after she first left was an asshole move. It's what she'd needed then - to just pull away entirely before starting this new journey... but it wasn't fair, and she didn't feel like she had to anymore.
"Have you spoken to her?" Natara asked him. They knew she meant Natasha.

"I saw her yesterday. She's more worried about you in this whole thing. Says the sudden media attention might make your job harder wherever you are."

Natara visibly softened and saddened at his words. Of course Natasha was worried about her in this.
"I should be fine. The few of us left will all have more light thrown on us for a while, but they haven't figured out who she's married to... so I should be okay all the way over here. If they decide to use their brains and actually put a few things together and see it's me, then I'll worry more."

She supposed she couldn't really blame the media for not having figured it out yet.
Yes, there were several photos of her and Nat together before the whole accords issue, and there had been speculations about their relationship, but nothing had ever been set.
That made sense, as they hadn't actually been dating each other or even admitting their feelings back then.
Everything between them had happened while on the run where they were under the radar- so naturally, no pictures or stories about their relationship emerged during that period, even though there would've been an actual relationship to write about by that time.

And then they'd come back to New York, already married, and had gone straight to Wakanda. There would've been no one to see anything.

Nat hadn't left the compound since Thanos, and Natara was in rural upstate New York with her when she did her running. And even though there were small places around that might see her, it had practically been right after Thanos so people were a little preoccupied.

Until now.
Eight months after Thanos, where some reporters had cornered Steve after a counseling session and asked him questions before he'd somehow managed to mention Natasha's marriage.

Natara couldn't actually blame Rogers much either though. Tara had a feeling that he'd mistakenly mentioned the marriage when the reporters were almost undoubtedly asking if there was anything between him and Natasha now that the Avengers were practically retired.

So on the one hand, Natara supposed she was a little grateful that people would no longer think him and her wife were together.

She knew the press and their obsession with putting Steve with either Natasha or herself, and it's the only way Natara thought Nat would've come up in conversation where Steve might've mentioned her being married...

"Have you spoken to her?" He asked, a little hesitantly. "When do you think you're coming back to visit?"

Natara winced at this subject line, again. "I spoke to her a few days ago," She replied slowly. "Natasha's finding the distance... hard. We both are. It's a struggle... but I think we'll get through it." She tried to sound as optimistic as she could.