Bruce and Natasha

1

They were sitting in deadly silence, incapable of comprehending that the Avengers, Earth's mightiest heroes, had failed to save the half of the population of the universe. Thanos might have been living under this false conviction that he was somehow ending all the hunger and poverty within the universe, but in reality, all he was doing was shattering the hearts and souls of those that were left behind.

Natasha moved the blonde strand of hair that was covering her face and looked up at what was left of the group of weirdos that once was a family. Sitting across from her was Captain America. The man that was the first, and perhaps, in the conventional sense, the best superhero the world had ever seen. Due to his ultimate sacrifice during World War 2 and his noble actions that followed his wake from his coma, he had been illustrated him as a courageous, principled leader with an incredibly strong moral compass, yet today, he was broken. For the first time in his long life, he wasn't able to sacrifice himself for those that needed him and his power and bravery weren't enough to defeat evil. Instead, he had lost those who were closest to his heart, and had to watch Bucky Barnes, his best friend, and the person he cared about more than anyone else in the world, turn into ashes. The hopeful and driven Cap was long gone and was replaced by a miserable man spiraling in a lost-cause.

Next to Nat was a creature that she couldn't quite figure out, yet felt grand pity for. Rocket was sitting on the floor with his knees pressed against his chest and taking deep breaths. Nat was definitely curious about what technology created this raccoon-like being who appeared more intelligent than the many humans that she had had to fight against, but was hesitant to ask since he seemed to be in a saddening grief due to the death of that, once again, inexplicable, tree-like creature called Groot.
She gazed at Thor who had one hand on the raccoon shoulder and the other lightly on his hammer. At least he was somewhat comforting the gloomy raccoon, however he seemed to be the most sorrowful out of everyone in that cold room. During the fight, Nat didn't witness the death of anyone that was particularly close to Thor, but then again she wasn't very caught up on his life in general. She had no idea that his girlfriend dumped him, his mother and father had died, his best friend was brutally murdered and even Loki, the person that Thor had come to realize was the dearest to him, was dead. And this time it seemed to be for real.

The only thing that broke the intense silence in the room was Rhodey, circling the room and mumbling theories about what Thanos's next step might be, where those people who 'died' might have went, if they weren't actually dead, and most of all, how Tony could still be alive and could be in the middle of some great conspiracy that could save them all. Nat sighed. Unlike the annoyingly positive Rhodey, she wasn't delusional. She knew that those people who died had died, Thanos was a giant, purple dictator who was more powerful than the universe itself, and whether Tony Stark was alive or not, he wasn't the incredibly intelligent and string hero that Rhodey often made him to be. He was an admirable man, but he wasn't incredible.

In fact, there was only one incredible man that Nat had ever fought alongside, and he was standing right in that room, very much alive and present.