"I couldn't give you up."
"...I know."
As the daughter of Black Widow, Nyla-Rose is used to the craziness that has become her life. When sudden truths are revealed and she's finally ready to take a break from everything, an intergalactic sociopath s...
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It was a sea of people pushing for the auditorium doors, small children hoisted on the shoulders of their fathers or brothers, babies strapped to the chests of their exhausted mothers, gaggles of teenagers secretly wishing it was their own graduation day so they could clear out of high school and be done with it. Natasha watched from the side of the building as a particularly large family broke off, half of them entering and the other moving to the side where they could wait patiently for the new graduates to exit. They carried armfuls of Saran wrapped candies in the shape of large necklaces with big black and white balloons that read "Congratulations!" and rolling behind one of the men, a booming speaker that blasted music she couldn't identify.
Tony took a deep inhale behind her.
"The spirit of graduation is thick in the air," he released a breath, "remind me why we're outside again?"
"Because I said so."
Clint let out a low whistle.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
He winced as Laura batted him on the arm, giving him a sharp glare and patting Baby Nathaniel's back comfortingly as he began to whimper.
"This is an important day for her, okay? Ease up."
"Yeah, Dad," Cooper chimed in, "ease up."
Important?
That was an understatement.
Natasha was as nervous as a bride about to walk down the aisle minus the dress and add in the black pantsuit. It was almost worst than Nyla-Rose's first day of preschool when she couldn't handle the anxiety and had to pick her up halfway through.
This was different.
Nyla had grown up and she had been there every step of the way, watching and hovering carefully in case her daughter took a step in the wrong direction. But now, Nyla didn't need her and it seemed as if the two of them had drifted farther apart than she realized. She had seen her pore over those college applications, so many of them far away from home. Natasha didn't know how to feel about it. She didn't even want to think about Nyla-Rose leaving her.
"Nat? We gotta go in before we catch the back."
"And Tony Stark doesn't "catch the back." Honestly, woman, we should be in the very front."
"Stark," Wanda scolded softly, "let her have a moment."
"Yes, is there any moment in which you don't like the sound of your own voice?" Pietro threw him a smirk and Tony raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"The nerve of this little—"
"Do you think," Nat said suddenly, "they're coming?"
Her question, one they've all been secretly wondering, plunged them into a tense silence.
