natasha romanoff. (morethanstories) wrote in valloic, @ 2023-03-28 12:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, marvel: carol danvers, ~plot: future vallo, ₴ inactive: emmeline vance, ₴ inactive: marlene mckinnon (2), ₴ inactive: natasha romanoff |
There was no denying that. It was an indisputable fact. They could hope otherwise all they wanted, but there was no denying what was in front of them: Interitus was taking control. His forces were widespread and innumerable. They’d lost a hell of a lot of people in the First Stand, and that wasn’t something Carol took lightly.
The kids were gone – the big kids and the little ones, blipped out of existence. Wanda’s kids, too; there one moment and popped away by Interitus the next. Bobbi was dead, taken down among the masses during their ill-fated stand against their not-so-benevolent overlord. Pepper and Tony had consolidated with Steve, Natasha, and her sisters at the Compound now; even Marlene had been with them since Christmas. Ella stayed because she was Ella, doing everything in her power to encourage Carol without pushing, not a task for the faint of heart. She’d done a pretty solid job of breaking a bit of Carol’s confidence the other night, too.
Carol just couldn’t bring herself to go. Not yet.
She insisted it was for Marley’s sake. This was the home their daughter was born in, the home she deserved, and she didn’t want to let anything or anyone stand in the way of that. She could see her wife’s exasperation growing, something she shared with Natasha, who was here on a weekly basis pushing and pushing, trying to get Carol to listen.
She should be, she knew that. Things had only worsened since the failure of the First Stand. Those who refused to flee were being taken care of by Interitus’ forces, and there was no doubt it would be their turn soon.
Unfortunately, Carol Danvers was immovably stubborn. Even as Emmeline bagged up more and more of their things, sending them off with Marlene and Kate to pack into a room at the Compound, she refused. She argued. She insisted she could handle whatever came for them, even though she knew, in the back of her mind, she wasn’t the endless well of power she’d once been.
(If she was, they wouldn’t have lost so badly.)
She was on the living room rug with Marley, a selection of toys laid out between herself and their three-year-old to play with, including a toy piano that small hands poked at tentatively. She was old enough now that she no longer banged the keys senselessly just for the sounds – now, she wanted it to sound like music. Carol did her best to guide her, holding her in her lap and pressing her little fingers into the keys to form an imperfect rendition of “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music.
“Wanna do it, Mama!” Marley declared, shaking Carol’s hands away.
“Alright, alright,” Carol chuckled, acquiescing to her daughter’s demand and shifting her hands to her sides. “You go, baby girl.”
She heard the front door open just a minute or so later and Emme’s footsteps as she stepped up to meet them. There were some quiet words exchanged before a different pair of feet started their way. Carol looked up to see Marlene headed their way, smiling wide and her eyes mostly on Marley.
“There’s my girl,” she grinned, sinking down on the rug beside them. “Mind if I take over for a bit here, Mama? You’ve got a visitor.”
Carol looked up in the doorway, a smirk curling her lips at the unsurprising visitor. “That time of the week already, huh?”
Marlene raised an unimpressed eyebrow and shoved her shoulder into Carol’s. With a sigh, Carol squirmed out from under Marley (who was more than happy to slide right over into her namesake’s lap with the cutest toddler giggle) and nodded toward the kitchen. Whatever came from this, she wanted it out of Marley’s earshot.
Natasha’s arrival wasn’t unexpected on Emmeline’s part. The two were long since past any lingering awkwardness, and had actually become excellent at communicating with one another. Particularly where Carol was involved. Emme trusted Natasha and knew the other woman’s instincts were solid. The first time she’d broached coming to the compound, Emme had been ready to leave. Carol, though, she wouldn’t be moved.
The weeks turned into months as the city around them became more and more dangerous. Her magical wards around the house couldn’t be trusted, and Emme often found herself unable to sleep at night, always anxious about being caught unawares. Each time Natasha visited, Emme pushed Carol a little bit harder. Today was different though. She’d spoken with Natasha and Marlene at length about it, and she wasn’t going to back down this time. None of them were.
Her dark hair had begun to streak with gray around the temples, and Emme had it tied out of her face in a loose plait as she met Natasha at the door. They exchanged a few quiet words while Marlene headed into the living room.
“We’ve got this.” Natasha’s tone was soft and low, so as to not reach Carol in the other room. When Emme didn’t look quite convinced, the redhead gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
The three of them headed into the kitchen together and Emme immediately busied herself with pouring them drinks that she was sure none of them would touch. She just needed something to keep her hands busy.
Natasha on the other hand, got straight to the point. “We’ve gotten more intel on Interitus’ forces. They plan to completely take the city in a matter of weeks. Your timeline has officially run out, Danvers.”
Natasha’s words elicited a sigh from Carol. She sank down onto one of the stools at the island, fingertips tracing a path across the granite countertop. It wasn’t the news she’d wanted, but she wasn’t entirely oblivious – she’d seen what was happening around them. She knew what the end result would inevitably be.
She couldn’t even say she’d hoped otherwise. She had never been that kind of ‘hero’ – like Kara, radiating hope and faith in people’s goodness until the bitter end. She’d learned better than that a long time ago. This was all obstinance, the kind that had always made the people that loved her most sigh and call her stubborn ass.
She just wanted sheer, stubborn willpower to be enough.
“There’s no pushing them back?” she questioned. “Not even a bit longer?”
“No.” Natasha’s answer was immediate and direct as she gave a curt shake of her head. “The city is a lost cause at this point, Carol. We have to re-direct our support to other areas. You had a good run. You gave Marley as much time as you could here, but you knew this day had to come eventually.”
Setting glasses in front of them, Emmeline eyed the two women as they spoke. Carol’s posture slumped a little as she stared at the countertop, Natasha somehow standing impossibly tall despite her diminutive height. “Carol, please.” She inhaled deeply and gripped the edge of the island for support. “I can’t do this anymore. I know you want to keep things as normal as possible, but nothing about any of this is normal. I’m terrified to let our daughter go play in her own backyard. I can’t remember the last time I got proper sleep. I’m exhausted.”
Carol had fought this endlessly, pointlessly. She’d known it would inevitably come to a place where she couldn’t, and while she hated to give in, she knew Natasha. She knew when she’d stopped playing around and being lenient with her. It was time to get over herself, and it wasn’t like the Compound was a terrible alternative. There was plenty of space, and they would be safe there. Marley would be safe there.
She just needed to convince herself this wasn’t giving up. It was doing the right thing.
It was her wife speaking up that was the final nail in that coffin for her. She turned her full attention to Emme, pressing her lips together and watching her with soft eyes and guilt roiling in the pit of her stomach. She knew what she’d done to her wife, making her feel forced to stay here for so long, but her self-righteous streak had staved off the guilt enough to ignore it. Emme was always just this wall of strength and composure, and Carol had let herself believe that wasn’t just a mask.
But she’d been hurting the woman she loved. There was no mistaking that now.
“Babe…” She stood, stepping around Natasha to wrap Emmeline up in her arms. “You’re right,” she sighed, pressing her lips to her wife’s temple. “I’m sorry, honey. I shouldn’t have done this to you. I don’t know what–” She cut herself off, swallowing against the lump that had formed in her throat. She couldn’t say she hadn’t known what she’d been thinking; every refusal had been very intentional.
She looked at Nat and nodded, hands stroking soothingly down Emme’s back. “Okay,” she agreed. “We’ll go.”
Emmeline sank into that embrace as months worth of tension seemed to seep out of her at those words: You’re right. Thank Merlin. She dropped her forehead to rest against the curve of Carol’s neck and breathed out a sigh of relief. No arguments, no pushback. Just those words she’d been waiting to hear. We’ll go. If Natasha hadn’t been there in the room with them, she might have let some tears of relief fall. She would forever retain her English need to hide any of her messier emotions from others, though. So instead she just breathed in deeply to calm herself and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her wife’s mouth. “Thank you.”
Natasha surveyed the two of them silently. She was also incredibly relieved that Carol had finally accepted that her pride needed to be put aside. She gave Carol a soft smile. “It’s about time. Stubborn ass.”
“Couldn’t make it that easy for you, Romanoff,” Carol scoffed softly, raising her eyebrows at her friend with a playful smirk. “But fine, I’ll take the stubborn ass.” Her gaze shifted back to Emme’s, head tilting down to press their foreheads together. “I deserve it,” she murmured, both hands raising to cup her wife’s face. “Forgive me?”
“You know, just once, I would be okay with you making something easy.” Natasha’s posture had relaxed slightly from when she’d first entered the kitchen. Then she’d been preparing for a fight, now she softened a bit, her hip leaning against the island. She debated slipping out of the kitchen to give the two of them some private time, but then figured that Carol would ask for it if she needed it.
Emmeline, meanwhile, smiled as Carol cupped her face like that. It felt like the first genuine smile she’d managed in weeks. “We’ll see about that. You might have some more making up to do first.” She stood up on her tiptoes and pulled Carol into a quick kiss.
“Deal.” Whatever it took, she would do it. She had put Emme through enough, and she didn’t intend to push that any further. Her wife was saintlike, always had been, and she put up with the questionable choices Carol made on her behalf every time. She needed to cut that out, once and for all, and do right by her family. Maybe that was why the fight – which she’d had every intention of putting up in this situation, just as she had all the weeks before – had drained right out of her. Her conversation with Ella a couple days ago had been a pretty strong contributor, too.
She leaned into that kiss, letting it linger for a few moments but not impolitely so with Natasha still close by. She broke away only to press another kiss to her wife’s forehead and let her hands fall from her face, one arm wrapping protectively over her shoulders.
“So, when do we go?” She looked at Natasha, then back at Emme. “Are we ready? I know you’ve been packing up already, and I’m assuming ‘by cover of night’ wouldn’t be a good move.”
“Sooner the better. Emme’s already gotten us most of your essentials. Clothes, toiletries, doubles of Marley’s toys.” While Natasha could be incredibly pragmatic, she knew there was a deep emotional side to letting go of this house as well. It was the home that Carol and Emmeline had made together. It was where all their memories of Marley’s childhood resided. It had been their safe haven for so long. “But if you two want some time together with Marley, I can come back in a few hours.”
The concept stung even now that Carol had agreed. She had accepted defeat but that didn’t mean it was easy. They were attached to this house – she might have clung harder, but she knew that was true of her wife, too – and the idea of giving it up was painful. She had hoped Marley would get to really grow up here, from birth to whenever she chose to go out and make a life of her own.
Leaving it early, in circumstances so dire and terrible, wasn’t something she’d ever wanted. She wanted to give it a proper goodbye.
“What do you say?” she asked Emme, stroking down her upper arm. “Got another hour in you for this place?”
Emmeline looked from Carol to Natasha and back again. As much as she loved their home, and she did, Emmeline knew that ultimately it was just a house. The memories in it, they could take anywhere. There was more to it for Carol, though. And for Marley, who had never known anything else. Her blue eyes shone as she nodded her head in agreement. “Of course, love.”
Natasha gave them a kind smile and a nod. “I’ll be back at six.”
Carol shot her an appreciative smile just as a loud squeal of delight echoed back from the living room, followed by Marlene’s distinctive laugh. She nudged her wife and kissed her one more time. “Go ahead, give me just a second with Nat.”
“Of course.” Emme gave Carol’s hand a reassuring squeeze, then moved around the island to head off to the living room. As she passed Natasha, she stopped and threw her arms around her in a quick hug.
A little surprised, but not in a bad way, Natasha returned the hug with a smile.
Emme whispered a soft “Thank you” in Nat’s ear before letting go. That accomplished, she quickly slipped from the kitchen to join her best friend and daughter.
Natasha watched her disappear before she turned back to Carol expectantly.
Years down the road, it was still a little bit of a trip to see her wife getting along so well with her ex, but Carol smiled at the sight of it. They had come a long way from how disastrously she’d handled Natasha’s timeline memory upload, and especially now, in a time like this, she wanted two of the people she loved most to be close, to trust each other. They needed it more than ever.
But back to the matter at hand–
“I owe you an apology, too,” she admitted, leaning against the counter. “I should’ve listened to reason a long time ago. I just…” She waved a hand. “Giving this place up is the last thing I want, and I dug my heels in too hard.”
At the words, Natasha turned her attention back to Carol. She knew that admitting she was wrong was one of Carol’s least favorite things, and Nat appreciated that she was taking the time to say it. After the arguments and frustrations this particular bit of stubbornness had caused, it was very much appreciated. She would have known it with or without the actual words, but it was still nice to hear it.
Nat turned to take a few steps closer to her. “It’s your home. Of course you wouldn’t want to let go of it. I know I came off like a hardass a lot, but I do understand that, Carol. You did everything you could, but sometimes that just isn’t going to be enough.”
Carol nodded, her expression a little wistful. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I know. I’ve known, but–” She cut herself off with a sigh and shrugged. The way she’d dug her heels in had been all emotionally motivated, they all knew that. Some might say it was an improvement, letting emotion in after years of being the ever-stoic Captain Marvel, but Carol had always been a woman of extremes – sometimes it could make things difficult.
“Thank you,” she continued softly, reaching out to snag Natasha’s hand and pull her in to hug her properly. “Thank you for always pushing me.”
Natasha fell into Carol’s arms easily and returned the hug. “You’re welcome.” She smiled softly into that blonde hair. “I care about you too damn much to do anything but.” She continued to hold Carol for a long moment before she finally pulled back to break the embrace. She dropped her arms back down to her sides, but stayed close.
As Natasha had watched Vallo go to hell around them lately, she’d certainly thought a lot about why it was easier for her to adapt, to let go of certain things, then it was for others. She supposed that after living through the decimation of Earth at Ultron’s hands, perhaps she was just better practiced at it. Whatever the reason, she felt a deep responsibility to look after those who were still left. To save them from themselves when necessary.
“You’ve still got Emme, you’ve still got Marley, you’ve still got Kamala, and you’ve still got me. You’ve still got plenty going for you, Danvers.”
“I know. I’m lucky like that,” Carol agreed, looking back at Nat with unmistakable fondness. Their group had done pretty well overall – they’d lost some, but they’d held onto more, and it made sense to start consolidating as much as they could with how steeply everything was rolling downhill. If not for her sake, it was the right move for Emme, for Marley, for Ella. They had been trapped here by her stubbornness long enough.
“You don’t have to leave. Stay, especially if things are shit out there. Come play the tiny piano with us, and then we’ll get out of here.”
Nat arched an eyebrow in Carol’s direction. “You sure?” Time had smoothed over their once tenuous relationship, but Natasha still tried to be acutely aware of boundaries to make sure things stayed that way.
“I’m sure,” Carol confirmed with a fond roll of her eyes and a grin. She wrapped an arm around Natasha’s shoulders and began guiding her out of the kitchen and back into the living room. “Marlene’s not going anywhere, and what kind of monster would I be to deprive my kid of Auntie Nat?”