Avengers: Endgame (Rewritten)

Chapter 5

Natasha is crying by herself when Steve interrupts her. "You know I'd offer to cook you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already," he says from behind a self. Natasha takes a second to recollect herself before looking over at Steve to reply back.

"You here to do your laundry?"

"And to see a friend." Natasha sits back in her chair and claps her hands together.

"Clearly, your friend is fine." Steve looks down at his hands and tinkers with a pair of keys.

"You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge."

"In the Hudson?" Natasha regards Steve's claim with mild interest. The distraction proving good for her current state of mind.

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water."

Natasha throws her head back to gaze at the ceiling, her arms now crossed over her chest. "You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side...Um...I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." She gives Steve a playful smirk and a small head tilt. Steve stifles a small laugh. He walks over to the table, shuffling his jacket and keys in his arms as he does so.

"Sorry. Force of habit." Steve takes a seat across from Natasha as he throws his jacket and keys on the table.Natasha leans forward to grab her sandwich, her feet also now rested atop the table. "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do, but not us."

"If I move on, who does this?"

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done." Natasha makes a small movement of her head as she tries to come up with the words she wishes to say.

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family." A lone tear makes its way down her face as she reminisces. "And I was...I was better because of it. And even though they're gone...Now, I'm still trying to be better."

"I think we both need to get a life."

"You first." A small smile graces Steve's lips at Natasha's words. A small ding accomplices a projected alert. Natasha slides her finger across the bar to open it. Its a video and both Steve and Natasha watch.

"Oh, hi! Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang," comes a voice from the man in the video. "We met a few years ago at the airport. In Germany. I got really big and I had my mask on." Steve and Natasha study the footage, their curiosity increasing by the second. "You wouldn't recognize me."

As Steve gets up from his seat he asks, "Is this an old message?"

"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that."

Natasha keeps watching the footage when she comes to her conclusion. "It's the front gate."

"I need to talk to you guys."

Once Scott is let in, he paces around as the two Avengers watch. "Scott." Steve's voice momentarily stops his pacing. "Are you okay?"

Scott rubs his hands across his face. "Yeah. Have either of you guys ever studied quantum physics?" Steve looks over at Natasha after the question is asked.

"Only to make conversation," Natasha answers. Scott points his finger frantically at the two.

"Alright, so eighteen months ago, right before...Thanos, I was in a place called the quantum realm. The quantum realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my...She...she was my...She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"Sorry, that must have been a very long time."

"Yeah, but that's just it, it wasn't. For me it was just a few hours. See the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable—is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." Scott grabs the peanut butter sandwich that laid untouched on the table and scarfs it down.