In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

The Snap 2.0

The original Avengers and I decided to seclude ourselves from the others. We walked together behind the Compound, where there sat a small dock on the lake. We decided to mourn our friend quietly and respectfully far from the others, who weren't as close to her as the rest of us.

Steve and I sat on the bench beside each other. His elbows were on his knees, his head turned to the right and towards the lake instead of us. I heard sniffles from him. I sat quietly beside him, my arms around my body.

I didn't find much in me to cry for her. I felt her loss, and would feel it for the rest of my life, because I had known her for almost fifteen years. Natasha had been my only other constant besides Fury since I was plucked from the Civilian world and thrown into the Superhero one. I remember us clashing, at first, because I was submissive and she preyed on it, because I was never as good at combat as she was, because I had the "cheat" of my powers. It wasn't until we were thrown together for the HYDRA mission and the subsequent years that I grew into my own and Natasha began to see me as I was: an equal.

I cried little over her because it wasn't in me to mourn her decision, like some of the others were doing. I cried of losing her and never again seeing her smirking at me, but as for her decision, I was proud of her. I couldn't bring myself to cry over it or wonder why she chose it, because I knew it was what she wanted. Natasha Romanoff chose her death, after spending her life assumed to die at someone else's hand. She died for the Stone because she knew it would never be in vain, because her family would make sure everyday that her sacrifice was worth it, and she decided to do so because it gave her life purpose.

She and I had found meaning in the mission to return the lost ones, moreso perhaps then the others, because before this family, we had no one. Before the Avengers, before Tony's debut, even, Natasha once lived a lonely existence, as I did, and the crafting of this team was the reason we no longer found the world lonely, unfulfilling, loveless. Two lost souls found love. There was nothing she wouldn't do for the people who made her feel like she belonged somewhere, or to finally see herself as a hero after a lifelong of debate over her view of herself.

Tony couldn't raise his eyes from the floor. He mumbled, "She have any family?"

"Yeah," sniffled Steve. "Us."

"What?" asked Thor, turning abruptly. He and Tony made eye contact, and Thor marched towards him angrily, grumbling, "Why are you acting like she's dead? We have the Stones. As long as we have the Stones, we can bring her back. Isn't that it? So stop this shit— we're the Avengers! Get it together."

Clint's definitive, "We can't get her back," shocked us into silence. He had been silent since we returned. On the dock, he had only been watching the ripples in the water. It was a shock to hear his voice, and when we stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue, he turned his eyes to us.

"It can't be undone. It can't," he whispered. His chin quivered. He had lost the last person he truly loved in this world. He was alone.

Thor laughed at him, shaking his hands in disagreement. "I'm sorry. No offense, but you're a very Earthly being. We're talking Space Magic, and 'can't' seems very definitive, don't you think?"

"No, I know I'm very out of my paygrade here, but she still isn't here, is she?" asked Clint.

"That would be my point."

"It can't be undone. Or, at least, that's what the Red Floaty Guy had to say. Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay?!" asked Clint, his tone raising with his annoyance towards Thor's dismissal. "You go grab your hammer and you go fly and you talk to him, because it was supposed to be me! She sacrificed her life for that God damn Stone!"