Avengers One-Shots

Natasha's Funeral

I rewatched Endgame the other day and I decided it was unfair that we didn't get to see Nat's funeral. Oh and in this, Steve doesn't run off to whenever and stays when he is! (I'm mad about that too, can you tell?) Romanogers is married.

The funeral of Natasha Romanoff was a quiet ordeal. She had always said she didn't want people who she didn't know or like turning up, that she wanted to keep it intimate and honest. She had always known that there was a large possibility of her dying in action, so she had a will written up and had discussed funeral plans with her husband, Steve. She had known his, too but it just happened to be her that died first. Steve knew that Nat was completely at peace with the idea of death, and was probably sipping super dry martinis on a yacht with Tony, making the most of heaven. That or she had Satan himself wrapped around her pinkie in hell. This was the only thing that enabled him to find the strength to force himself out of bed on the morning of her funeral.

Steve and Wanda had been sharing a small, two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn since the battle. They had both suffered the loss of the love of their life. Unlike Pepper, they didn't have a five year old daughter to help with the recovery, so they had spent their now abundant free time watching as many sad movies as they could get heir hands on, Friends and Brooklyn Nine-Nine while cramming their faces with junk food and occasionally crying. The apartment constantly had the blinds shut and had developed that smell that something developed after homing two people who looked like they had never heard of a shower, but neither of them cared. They didn't really care about anything any more. Why should they.

The night before Natasha's funeral, both Steve and Wanda slept in the living room. Neither of them wanted to be alone. When they woke up, the shower was used for the first time in way too long. Steve dug out Nat's favourite suit and Wanda found a plain black lace dress and a pair of rarely used heels. Steve had done the majority of the planning from the comfort of the couch and leaving Sam and Bucky to do the rest. He trusted them to do a good job and couldn't bring himself to pick out what kind of casket would be buried. It wasn't like she was going to be in it. The main thing he had had to do was write a speech. It was difficult, but he finally found the right words to say. 

When Steve and Wanda met in the living room, his large, bulky frame collapsed into her much smaller one.

"She's not coming back, is she?" He whispered, steady tears streaming down his face.

"Neither of them are," Wanda replied, also crying, small sobs already making her shoulders shake and her chest ache. Steve wrapped his large arm around her comfortingly and they stepped out of the apartment for the first time is a week and a half. 

"We can do this," he assured her "together."

It was much harder to put on a brave face once they got to the small private cemetery behind the Avengers headquarters. Nat had always said she didn't want her funeral to be in a church. She said something about her dark soul tainting the holiness. Instead, the service would just be all her closest friends saying things about her under an arch of red roses before lowering her casket into the ground. Everyone was greeting Steve and apologising for his loss, and it made him went to scream at them. He wanted someone to sit with him in silence and relate to his situation, not to pity him because his incredible, beautiful, intelligent wife died saving the world. He knew in his heart that there wasn't a way that she would rather have died than that, and it gave him slight peace of mind. It was how she wanted to be remembered, but he still wished he could have had more time.

The service started with a speech from Nick Fury. He held a special place in his heart for Nat, the young assassin he had rescued and helped find a place in the world.