Dimidium - Marvel Studios [7]

fifty-one.

April 2022

I sat in the passenger seat of a car, Natasha's hand clutching onto the wheel tightly as we drove down the road that was surrounded by trees. It was a gloomy day, fog encasing the tip of the greenery and the lights shining ahead on the car, the small winding road leading back down towards civilisation. We had spent the day in a small town upstate, needing a change from New York city for a small dinner that made incredibly good pancakes and waffles which we took advantage of today. Oddly enough the town felt like it had just the right amount of occupants, which New York city didn't feel like anymore, so it was a nice change of pace for everything to seem like it used to again.

My thumb lazily typed a text on my phone to Steve, telling him I'd be home for dinner, the winding road crunching under the wheels on the car as Natasha looked over at me quickly. "Are you going to take Steve's last name?" Natasha asked me, my eyebrows raising as I looked over at her, her eyes turning back to the road. "What?" I asked, thinking I had misheard her wrong, having asked an odd question to break the silence between us. Natasha shrugged her shoulders at me, pointing her fingers on the hand that was holding the wheel, moving them like she was conducting an orchestra.

"Alyona Rogers" she said rhythmically, a smirk falling on her face as I shook my head turning back to look at me phone as I sent the text quickly. "No" I replied quickly before locking my phone and setting it back down onto my lap. "My name is way too Russian to take the last name Rogers" I told her, shaking my head at the thought of my name being Alyona Rogers. I was proud of my name, there wasn't much to it and I had no idea who gave me it but it carried my story, and I liked to think that people would remember me with it.

"Don't get why you didn't change it" Natasha said as the car turned down a small corner, a red truck moving in the other direction as the audi ripped past it. "Shut up, Natalia" I replied, making Nat shrug her shoulders at me as my phone screen lit up again, Steve having sent a quick 'okay cool' as a reply as I just ignored it. "I like Natasha better" she replied to me as I leaned back in the leather seat a little bit, leaning against the door as I faced her slightly, my head leaning against the cold window. "Yes well I wasn't kidnapped and enslaved to change my name because I sounded like a KGB spy" I retorted, making her look over at my briefly with her eyebrows furrowed before she took her attention back to the road.

"You were a KGB spy" she corrected as I shrugged my shoulders quickly, not particularly seeing the importance of that. "No one needed to know at the beginning" I replied as she tapped her fingers along the wheel, the rev of the engine filling the silence in the car as we zoomed down the damp road. "Wedding plans yet? It's been a month" Natasha asked as I sighed, not at the question in particular but I just hadn't even thought about actually getting married before, it seems like a scenario that would never actually come true. "I doubt it's happening anytime soon" I replied simply, Nat's brow knitting together as she ran a hand through her hair quickly.

"Why?" she asked me as I shrugged my shoulders I reply, not actually having spoken to Steve about it yet. "I don't know, doesn't seem like my ideal time to get married" I replied quietly, the thought lingering in my mind as Natasha just simply nodded her head, knowing exactly what I was talking about even with no context. "There's just a lot of people I would want there who wouldn't be" I added, my voice quiet as it filled the car slowly, Natasha looking over at me with a shy smile, not having anything to reply to that, knowing exactly what I was meaning.

Clint, Laura, the kids, Sam, Wanda, Bucky.

They all need to be there and they wouldn't be.

"That reminds me" Natasha said finally, looking over at me with her eyebrows raised as her knuckles tightened around the wheel. "Have you talked to Tony lately? I haven't heard of him" she asked me, and I think my heart actually skipped a beat. I took a few beats, not knowing a single thing to say. It wasn't my place to tell her about Pepper and Morgan, I had never actually spoken to Tony about telling people but knowing him he trusted me not to, and I had to live up to that.

"No, not really" I lied, shaking my head as Natasha let out a deep sigh, turning back to the straight road as she shrugged her shoulder quickly. "I don't know, it feels weird that we are all so separated" she told me, her mouth hanging open slightly as I shifted in my seat, turning back to face the front window as I cleared my throat. "That's just what happens I suppose" I replied through a small sigh, my hand pushing my hair behind my ears as I looked over at her, the corner of my lips turning upwards slightly. "Things come to an end" I added, Natasha just nodding her head in reply.

"Yeah" she said through a sigh as I crossed a leg over the other, my head rolling to look over at her once again. "I'm sure he's fine" I said quickly, not wanting her to worry about him, even if I couldn't tell her exactly what was going on with him. "Do you want to come over for dinner?" I asked her, desperate to change the conversation before I slipped out with something I probably shouldn't. "What is it?" she asked me, the sign showing the direction to the highway coming into view as we raced towards it.

"Steves making something, meatloaf maybe I don't remember" I replied, shrugging my shoulders as I grabbed my phone again, going to check his text he sent earlier when he was in the grocery store. "Meatloaf?" Natasha asked, her face screwed up as I let out a sigh, smiling at her reaction and nodding my head slowly before replying, my thumb scrolling through Steve's texts.

"Yeah sometimes I feel like he think it's still the war"

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A/N: hello hello hello
so I have decided that this book will have 60 parts, so there is actually only 6 parts left (after this one)!!!
I have not yet started book 8 (I do have a name though!) but I will get that started when I can and hopefully you guys will be able to read soon!
it's going to be a wild boo though trust me, I have a few chapters planned out already - and a few I actually wrote straight after I saw endgame bc I knew exactly what I wanted to happen - but a lot of it is still in the air so i'll be finding out Ally's story the exact same time as you do
please do not forget to vote and comment and I will see you soon