Double-Edged Sword ─ age of ultron ✓

epilogue

The final chapter. This is really not great, but I needed to update, since it's been over a month. I sense a major edit in this book's future.

★★★

NATASHA reeled backwards, her back smacking against the building's outer wall. She recovered quickly and threw a roundhouse kick, which Sasha bent backwards to dodge. Sasha, built like a slinky, bounced back up and sent a punch flying at Nat's chest. Natasha deflected it, and Sasha staggered back dramatically, flopping onto the field of grass that surrounded the new Avengers facility.

"I'm so glad you're never dramatic," Natasha said in between heavy panting. Sasha fanned her arms and legs out like she was about to make a snow angel. Her hair, which was almost red again after being subjected to a round of color remover and weeks of less destructive color removal methods, wove itself between blades of grass.

"Never ever." She nodded solemnly, staring up at the sky. The sun was about to disappear beneath the horizon, the pink and orange sky slowly fading to a deep blue.

"Should we call it a day?" Nat asked, suddenly realizing how late it was. The two of them must have been outside sparring for a half hour now, after several hours of training with the rest of the team inside.

"Yes, please," Sasha groaned, sitting upright. Natasha grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet.

They headed into the facility to collect their things and say their goodnights to everyone else.

The new Avengers facility was more than just a new headquarters for the team. Many of their trusted former S.H.I.E.L.D. colleagues, like Maria Hill, were part of the operation, the facility housing their office space. It felt almost like a new, smaller S.H.I.E.L.D. base sometimes. For Wanda, who hadn't lived a life outside of Hydra in many years, the facility was now home, as she didn't have the means to live elsewhere. There were a few more spare, sparsely decorated bedrooms and a small kitchen for late nights or the team's commuters who needed a place to crash.

Sasha and Nat rented an apartment in a town roughly twenty-five minutes from the facility. To Sasha, it made no sense that Natasha decided to move somewhere more than ten minutes from the facility when there were closer locations at a similar price. Every time she brought it up, Natasha insisted it was because this town and this apartment building's features got them the best bang for their buck. This was partly true, but it wasn't all about money. Unbeknownst to Sasha, Nat put a decent amount of time into research. She went with the place that had the best high school and best overall safety rating for what they could afford. When she watched Sasha's face light up at the several different S.T.E.M. clubs listed on the school's website, she knew she'd made the right decision.

"We're heading out," Natasha announced to whoever was left in the training room, a room roughly the size of a small school gymnasium full of equipment.

"Night!" Sam called from across the room, where he was throwing punches at a punching bag held in place by Steve.

"Goodnight." Steve gave them both a nod.

"G'night." Alex grinned, looking up from the knife she was sharpening. It never got any less strange for everyone to watch someone as smiley and innocent-looking as Alex casually sharpen blades in the kitchen or hold her own in a fight against Captain America himself.

She and Steve settled into a place ten minutes away from the facility. In their spare time, they were trying to figure out what to do about Alex's schooling. Sasha finally sat down to do the math based on Hydra's extensive logs and calculated that Alex was biologically and psychologically a couple months short of fourteen. However, Alex's formal education only went up to fifth grade, and that was in the 1950s. To compensate for all the time she'd missed by the fall was a gargantuan, probably impossible task, not to mention all of the document and record forging they would have to do.

"See you guys in a few days, I guess," Sasha said, and Alex nodded. The next day, Alex and Steve were boarding a train to D.C. to visit Alex's brother and Peggy. Alex insisted she was perfectly fine making the trip alone, but Steve wouldn't hear of it. Despite her vocal protests, Alex didn't actually mind him coming. Although she'd never admit it, they were at a point in their relationship where she felt safer when he was around. Slowly but surely, the two of them were coming into their roles as father and daughter.

With a final awkward goodbye to Wanda, who was in the kitchen attempting to cook something, Natasha and Sasha left the building and made a beeline for their car beneath the sky now gray with dusk. Adjusting to Wanda's presence was a process in itself. The idea of being teammates with someone who once chose to join Hydra and royally fucked up the team felt odd, even though she fought alongside the Avengers against Ultron and had continued to prove herself in weeks since. Sasha in particular harbored some animosity at the beginning, in part because Wanda's brother impaled her with glass and in part because of the emotional toll Wanda's powers took on Nat, but she too started to accept the new addition.

"I honestly don't feel like cooking tonight," Natasha said as she slid into the driver's seat. "Should we stop and pick something up or take our chance with what's in the freezer?"

"I don't know." Sasha shrugged, buckling her seatbelt. Before the Ultron shit show, she was doing relatively okay with her eating disorder. Now things were more uncertain. She ate like she was supposed to, not restricting like back in D.C., but it came with an emotional cost. More and more, her mind began zeroing in on nutrition labels and the way her figure looked and how many calories all this training burned. Today was one of the bad days where the idea of eating made her want to jump out a window. "I'm fine with whatever. We have some lettuce and tomatoes and stuff in the fridge. I can make a salad."

"A lettuce, tomato, and onion salad is not dinner." She backed out of the parking space, then glanced at the clock. "Damn, it's later than I realized. I don't know what restaurant'll be open now." A downside of living in Nowheresville instead of the city was that there wasn't a ton there, and most of it closed early. "We can make a quick stop at the grocery store, get a few things."

"Sure." Sasha stared down at her sneakers. As she went through each day struggling with her ED, a thought occurred to her. She kept putting off bringing it up, even though she knew the answer would be yes, because she didn't know how to admit this was what she needed. But she did know that not asking might mean losing all of her progress. After a minute or so of silence, she swallowed and added, "This is totally out of the blue, but do you think..." She closed her eyes. "Do you think we could try finding a therapist for me? I know around here, it's easier said than done, but...I think it would be a good idea."

That caught Natasha's attention immediately. Not because she was against it or surprised that Sasha thought she needed it, but because she wasn't sure Sasha had ever truly asked for help before. Help was usually received because Sasha was forced to get it or because Natasha told her it was a good idea and she passively went along with it. This was the first time Sasha initiated it on her own. Natasha had actually been searching for someone for Sasha, had been planning on bringing it up when she found a selection of the best candidates to choose from, something she chose not to mention. In this moment, she just wanted to be proud of Sasha.

"Of course." As they were driving straight for the next few minutes, keeping her left hand steady on the wheel, she grabbed Sasha's hand with her right. She was no longer so afraid of these displays of affection. The fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and now training together regularly brought her and Sasha closer, to a point where they felt like a real family, not just two people who lived in the same apartment. Nowhere near a perfect family, but comfortable enough to express that they cared about one another in their own subtle ways. "I'm proud of you, kid."

Sasha didn't feel like someone anyone should be proud of. "Why?"

"I know it's hard for you to see it sometimes, but you've come a long way from where you were a year ago. You're a great kid."

"Thank you." Sasha didn't think so, but anything out of Natasha's mouth meant a lot to her. She squeezed Nat's hand. "I'm really lucky to have you."

Natasha squeezed back before letting go to turn the steering wheel. She was lucky to have Sasha, to have the weird little life they shared that felt like a slice of normalcy. She was lucky to have the team, her second family after Sasha. She was lucky to have all of this.

★★★

So I guess I need to plan a CA:CW story now? I'll get back to you at winter break, lmao.