The Soldier and his Widow

Bonus

P.S. this gave me the closure Endgame failed to do and I almost cut it entirely from the book.

~~||~~

"Agent Romanoff."

Natasha stilled.

"Did you miss me?"

Natasha glanced at the man who sat on the floor beside her. He was young, she noticed at once. Young as he had been when she had first met him.

"So, this is what the end feels like, huh?"

"You shouldn't be here."

"Neither should you."

"You had a kid," Natasha argued, "you had Pepper. They need you, the Avengers need you."

Tony studied Natasha. "They need you just as much as they need me. But they'll be fine. Pepper will be fine. Morgan will be fine. Can you say the same about your family?"

Natasha shrugged. "I had to. Bucky will be okay. He'll get through it."

"And what about your kid?"

Natasha looked at Tony for the first time since he sat down. Tony stood up and held out his hand to her. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Natasha walked a few steps with Tony, until a scene faded in. Replacing the whiteness around her, Natasha recognised Tony's home near the lake. "What is this?"

"Our funeral. But that's not what I want you to see. Look over there."

Natasha looked where Tony pointed. Peter Parker stood with a blank expression on his face. On one side stood May, a comforting hand on his shoulder. On the other was Bucky. In Peter's arms was Natasha's daughter, her head buried in Peter's chest.

"Peter never mentioned her to us before . . . he did blurt it out after we undid the snap and got him back, though. I don't think he even realised half the things he was saying. He was talking a mile a minute. I'm not even sure I caught everything. But that's not how I found out about her."

"How, then?"

Tony slipped his hands into his pockets and watched the seven-year-old's body shake as she cried into her brother's chest. "Five years ago, I meant to offer some consolation about a failed mission you and the others undertook. I stood in the doorway for ten minutes and watched you pull out that old as hell photo and stare at it for a moment, then put it back in the locket and snap the disc down the middle. I watched you cry over the family you lost. I didn't say anything. I thought you would. After we all came back, Clint had the necklace. He must've caught it when you fell. I left a gift for your daughter."

Natasha gave Tony a grateful smile before turning back to the scene before them. "Her birth certificate says her name is Anastasia Nikitichna Volkova, but we all called her Anya Barnes. Shuri and Peter both call her their little wolf. I wish I could've said goodnight to her one last time."

"Why'd you never mention her?"

"When I mentioned her, I wanted to be able to introduce her. It never occurred to me that I might not live to see our victory. Not talking about her was the only thing I regretted when I jumped."

"Moving on," Tony said a moment later, waving his hand. Natasha recognised the front porch where they had begged Tony to help them.

Two figures stood, talking.

"His name is Harley," Tony said, "I met him in 2013. He's a good kid."

"Tony, why --"

"Shh. Just watch."

Two little girls walked through the door, tightly holding each other's hand. Anya tugged at Peter's pants. "What is it, my little wolf?"

Natasha's heart clenched, and her breath hitched. Tony smiled sadly.

"Mamma is with Mr Stark?"

Peter nodded as he kneeled in front of the girls. "Yes. They saved the whole universe."

"Both of them," Harley added, crouching beside Peter.

"This is Harley," Peter told Anya, "he's a friend."

Anya tugged on Morgan's arm. "This is Morgan. She's Mr Stark's daughter."

"I know, my little wolf. Morgan, my name's Peter."

"My dad liked you a lot," Morgan said.

"Yeah. I liked your dad a lot too. Even Harley, here."

"You can be Morgan's big brother," Anya told Harley, "like Peter's my big brother."

"Or," Peter said with a small smile, picking Anya up. Harley got the hint and lifted Morgan off the wooden floor. "We can both be both of your brothers."

"Dad would like that," Morgan said.

"Mamma will be happy," Anya added.

"My clever little angel," Natasha whispered.

Tony took Natasha's hand. "Time to go."

"Can't I stay? Watch her grow up? Don't you want to see Morgan grow up?"

"I do, but it's time. Go to sleep," Tony said, guiding Natasha to a bed that didn't vanish with the scene.

"And what happens when I wake up?" Natasha asked, letting Tony force her down.

"I'm not sure. This is the end, though. It's time to rest, to move on. You've done brilliantly. All that red in your ledger you were once worried about? It's clean. You helped me save the universe."

Natasha exhaled slowly, sinking into the pillow she found her head resting on.

"You can sleep easy," Tony said, pushing her vibrant curls back, "you did good."

Tony watched as Natasha closed her eyes and disappeared, like the scene of their funeral, of Harley and Peter promising to take care of his and Natasha's daughters.

"We did good," he said to no one in particular, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

They did good.

~~||~~

wow.

Growing up in the MCU was a wild ride for me. Somewhere between the first and the last "I am Iron Man" that I saw, I grew up.

This story has been a wild enough ride that I truly believe it's part of the MCU.

All I can say is that I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have, cried where I did, and laughed where I laughed.

As always, I always want to hear from you. Let me know what you think and what the story did to you.

Look out for a marvel fic starting during Avengers(2012) that may take anywhere between months and a year to arrive

.............on an entirely unrelated note (lol not) how many of you would be keen on a sequel to this blasting off from the epilogue?

Edit: aw look what a baby I was lmao who am I kidding I'm still a baby. Also that fic I mention up there is Supernova, so if you haven't already, go check that out! The stats say it's my best fic.