Breaking Free | Natasha x OC

Chapter Sixty-Seven

"I've made peace with my broken pieces."
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Scott was pacing up and down, muttering to himself. Natara looked concerned and judgemental.
She side-eyed Nat, nudging her as if to say 'what the hell is his problem' but her wife just waved her off, too optimistic about his visit to judge him.

"Scott," Steve said. "Are you okay?"

The man in question paused his pacing. "Yeah." Hands wiping his face and pressing against his eyes for a few seconds, Scott then took a sharp breath. "Have any of you guys ever studied quantum physics?"

"Only to make conversation," Nat answered with a shrug, and so Scott's attention went to Natara, as if asking whether she knew about it, too. Her shoulders also rose and fell.

"There has to be another person in order for her to make conversation," Tara answered. She scratched the back of her neck quickly. "It was also a punishment. I was doing a lot of apologizing back then."

Nat's eyes went to her, not seeing as Scott gave them a nod. She was again reminded of just how far they'd come since then. Since the times when Natara went off for months at a time and Nat hardly heard from her. When she thought she'd left her.
Giving a smile reserved for only her, Nat watched as her favourite green eyes softened in understanding, a smile equally as soft as the one she'd given now, returned.

Unbeknownst to the two women who were visibly melting in front of the other, Steve watched closely, a small smile on his own face. Their eyes sparkled, both of theirs. It was a sparkle he hadn't seen in a long, long time. And it was that sparkle that led him to belive that just maybe there was hope after all.
He faced Scott, the physical form that their hope now resided in.

"...five years ago," Scott was saying, "right before... Thanos... I was in a place called the quantum realm. The quantum realm is its own microscopic universe. To get in there you have to be incredibly small." He took a breath. "Hope. She's my, um..." He seemed at a loss for words, "my uh... she was-she was my..." Tara rose a patient brow, "she was supposed to pull me out," Scott finally managed. "And then Thanos happened... and I got stuck in there."

Even Tara felt bad now. Obviously the isolation during that time was the reason he seemed a little loose upstairs. She couldn't blame him.

"I'm sorry, that must've been a very long five years," Nat spoke sympathetically.

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't." Scott looked at them as if he was about to say something really deep. "For me it was five hours."

Holy shit.

Natara frowned. So it wasn't the isolation, he was just weird all on his own.

"See, the quantum realms aren't like they are here. Everything is unpredictable." He looked to the side. "Is that anybody's sandwich?" He was already moving towards the plate. "I'm starving."

"Scott," Steve said again as the man ate the sandwich. "What are you talking about?"

"So," Scott muttered through a mouthful of bread, letting out an almost moan which Natara interpreted as him truly having been starving. "What I'm saying is... time works differently in the quantum realm. Only problem is, right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did?"

All three of them looked at each other, Tara moving a little back.

"I can't stop thinking about it. What if we could somehow control the chaos... and we could navigate it? What if there was a way that we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point of time... but then exit at another point in time? Like..." He swallowed, "like before Thanos."