The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

2| 513 Days

Natasha, Bruce, and Yelena sat around the kitchen counter.

"You said Widows come in pairs...?" Nat trailed off, asking for an explaination.

Yelena nodded. "There have been a lot of defections lately. Ever since you left... ever since that gas  was synthesized. So every Widow is paired up. If one leaves, the other has to finish the job." She sighed. "I was Ingrid's, most of the time. Dreykov probably didn't bother pairing her with a new one after I left."

Natasha nodded.

Yelena turned to Bruce. "So. You're Banner. I've heard about you."

The scientist nodded nervously. "As the Hulk, or as the scientist?" he asked. "One is a lot easier to defend than the other."

"No. Psh." Yelena waved him off. "You are cool. I was just checking if you're nice at first. You seem okay." She leaned onto the counter. "Are you two going to get married?"

Natasha choked on her sip of wine. "Yelena!"

"What?" Her sister asked. "You don't seem like the type to date casually, sestra."

Bruce chuckled lightly. "She's not wrong, Tash."

Nat rolled her eyes. "Sure." She reached over to her scientist's hand and took the pen he was fidgeting with and started to click it. "We haven't really discussed marriage. Stuff can get messy, what with faking deaths and my multiple warrants out and false identities and the fact that the government has it out for us." She glanced at Bruce. "But I think it's safe to say that we're in it for the long haul."

Yelena squinted and waved a finger between the two. "How long have you been dating?"

Natasha shared a look with Bruce. "Not... that sure..." she turned to the teenagers behind them. "How long have we known you two?" she asked.

Peter and MJ whispered to each other.

"Peter you've known for a year and a month, approximately," MJ replied. "You've known me since I got the internship, which was... the end of eighth grade..." she looked up, counting on her fingers. "June. June, 2015."

Natasha thought back. "So that was a month after... Our first date was on the 30th of April... shit..."

"One year, four months, three weeks, and four days," Peter piped up. "Or 513 days, if you want to be precise."

Nat nodded. "Thank you, Peter." She turned back to Yelena. "What Spiderling said."

Yelena tilted her head. "A year and a third. Not bad." She shrugged. "Melina and Alexei got married after what, three days, so my tolerance for this is really low. Invite me to the wedding."

Natasha sighed. "Yelena, that was an arranged marriage."

"So?" the younger woman said. "Now you know you love each other. Better deal than they had and they also fell in love together and had–"

"Ew." Natasha wrinkled her nose. "Don't need to hear about that." She shuddered. "Oh my god, I thought it. Ew."

Yelena laughed.

Bruce tapped Nat's shoulder. "I'll grab the kids, get them to work on something, and we can leave the two of you alone?" he asked quietly.

Natasha nodded, smiling gratefully.

Bruce turned to the teenagers. "We've got a lab freed up. Let's go."

The two hopped up, still engrossed in their bickering as the scientist steered them into the hallway.

Yelena sighed. "Back to the thing."

"Right."

The younger woman seemed uncomfortable– no– regretful. "That gas, the counteragent, it was synthesized in secret by an older widow from Melina's generation. I was on the mission to retrieve it, and she exposed me and I killed the widow that freed me." She shifted her weight.

Natasha looked at her. "Did you have a choice?" she asked.

Yelena fiddled with her fingers. "What you experienced was psychological conditioning. I'm talking about chemically altering brain functions. They're two completely different things. You're fully conscious, but you don't know which part is you. I'm still not sure." She glanced up at Nat. "That gas is the only thing that can stop Dreykov and his network of widows."

There was a silence as they listened to Peter shriek a laugh in another room.

"He takes more every day, you know," Yelena said. "Children who don't have anyone to protect them. Just like us when we were small. Maybe one in 20 survives the training, becomes a widow. The rest, he kills. To him, we are just things. Weapons with no face that he can just throw away. Because there is always more. And no one's even looking for him, thanks to you and Alexei."

Natasha blinked. "Alexei?"

Yelena chuckled wryly. "'Dad'." She played with a braid. "Did you ever look for your parents? Your real ones?"

"Well," Nat replied, "my mom abandoned me in the street like garbage. What about you?"

Yelena had a sip of her drink with a smile. "They destroyed my birth certificate, so I reinvented it. My parents still live in Ohio. My sister moved out west."

Natasha smiled. "Is that right?" She nodded for Yelena to continue.

"You're a dance teacher. You're working part-time, though, especially after you had your son. Your husband, he writes books."

Nat chuckled. "That's not my story," she said, shaking her head.

Yelena laughed with her. "Then what is your story?"

Natasha rolled her eyes affectionately. "Hm. I... am a teacher, kinda. My family is scattered around the world. I like to travel with my boyfriend, who's a scientist. We're wondering whether to get a dog or not, but not right now." She smiled. "Good?"

"Yeah." Yelena sighed. "Did you ever wish for kids?" she asked.

Nat shook her head. "Not consciously. There was a moment, when I was with Bruce, that I wondered what it would be like to raise a kid with him." She shrugged lightly. "I wouldn't be a very good mother. Plus, now I have those two running around."

"Are they powered?" Yelena asked, regarding the empty couch with renewed interest.

Natasha nodded. "Peter is. MJ, she's more of a trained fighter. Like us. But she wanted to get into it." She sighed. "She was originally an intern for Tony's company, but she became friends with Peter and now she's here. Once, Peter came back with bad injuries. That was when she came to me, said she wanted to learn to fight. She said that there's no use of her being in the chair if the person she's helping is out of commission." Nat smiled fondly. "Those are good partners."

There was a bit of silence.

"So," Nat said. "Where're you gonna go?"

"I don't know." Yelena shrugged. "I don't really have anywhere to go back to, so I guess anywhere."

Natasha clicked her pen. "You could stay with us," she offered. "Or..."

"Don't." Yelena laughed.

"Don't what?"

"You're going to give me some big hero speech, I can feel it."

Natasha chuckled. "Speeches aren't really my thing."

"No?" Yelena sighed. "Huh."

"It was more like an invitation," Nat amended.

The younger woman nodded slightly. "To go to the Red Room and kill Dreykov?"

"Yeah."

"Even though the Red Room is impossible to find and Dreykov is too slippery to kill?"

Natasha smiled softly. "Yeah."

Yelena exhaled. "That sounds like a shitload of work." She grinned.

"Well." Nat clicked her pen again. "It could be fun."

"Tash?" The intercom said in Bruce's voice. "Can I borrow you for a sec?"

Natasha nodded to Yelena. "I'll be right back. Don't pillage my snacks."

"Don't worry, I will!"

Nat left the room, shaking her head.