Marinette and Alya had spent hours talking, catching up on life. It was a breath of fresh air to Alya really, seeing Marinette in a way she never had- at ease. It was something she never realized she never got to see, how exactly Marinette had always been on the go with responsibilities since day one. Life wasn't fair, that was a fact for everyone but life had been cruel to her old friend.

After Alya had initially left New York when Marinette was safe, she had a while personality and life crisis. A lot to think about in the aspects of how she acted because of Lila, and what she lost believing lies. She lost her relationship with Nino, and her best friend who needed her more than anything. Even when Marinette had tried to warn her about Lila, Alya simply chose to ignore the facts. She was drowning in her own ignorance without realizing it.

It was why she left New York that day, she felt unworthy of being a holder of the miraculous. Unworthy of Trixx or being part of the team. When she realized exactly how much shit Marinette had been through, and dealt with on her own, it was game over. Marinette was someone who was strong, she lost everything and still stood up. Alya believed she could never be that way.

Then the snap happened, and her whole family was dusted. For years she stayed alone in Paris, in a way it was her karma for everything she done in the past when she was younger. She accepted it as that, and she was willing to pay if that meant she would be free from the burden. Then Marinette had shown up, and now they sat in a weird tension. It wasn't bad or heavy, just neither one of them knew what to do next.

"So what now?" Alya asks, sitting across from Marinette in the dining area.

Marinette gave a shrug, "Honestly I don't know, but you should think of coming back to New York."

Alya had always thought about going back, more so when the blip first happened but she just didn't feel like she belonged. Even if she was forgiven about Lila, well Alya didn't think she should be forgiven that easily. She had been rude to Marinette, and it had been uncalled for. She wasn't mature enough then to sit and talk to the girl across from her now. She didn't think she deserved that friendship again.

"I don't think I belong there at all Marinette. Not after everything that's happened." It was true, because what would she do? There was no threats, no reason to be on a team of heroes and she wasn't even sure what to do with life. Being a reporter was a broken dream, and she didn't have any new ones.

Marinette sighed softly, looking towards the window. "It never gets easier, you know? The grief of it all, but somehow it gets manageable. Life is too short to hold grudges or be scared of leaping to try new things. Yet I also understand if you want to stay, but you're more than welcomed to stay with me if you chose to come."

Alya's eyebrows furrowed together, "They don't want me there."

"You'd be surprised." Marinette tried to offer a smile, "Everyone has matured, and sure it'll be a little rocky at the start but you're a part of our dysfunctional family. Families fight, but they forgive eventually. Forgiveness is hard, but it's attainable. Do you think I was happy to see Luka after he left New York? No, I was torn and pissed when I saw him, but there was a part of me that knew I needed him in my life. He helped me heal, and I'm truly sorry we never reached out."

"Luka loves you, he always has. I ruined everything with Nino, he hates me." Alya shook her head at the idea of seeing her ex. "It won't work."

Marinette leaned back, raising her hands in the air as a sign of good faith. "No one is going to force you, but Nino doesn't hate you. You made a mistake, just like he did back then. Can you live without saying you at least tried? As for Luka, he deserves someone who can love him back fully. That isn't me anymore. It hasn't been for a long time."

Alya took a long look at Marinette, a small frown forming as she thought it over. "I have to think about it. I don't know if I can just uproot my life and go to New York, everything I have is right here. Can I think it over?"

Marinette wasn't surprised, she knew it was a lot to ask of Alya but she couldn't bare to think of how alone her old friend was. She at least had the others and Tony, she wasn't alone. She had Morgan, the little girl who had taken over Marinette's world. She wished she had gotten the nerve to come to Alya sooner, but like Steve said- one step at a time. Healing herself was her priority for once, she owed herself that. If it wasn't for herself, it was for Tikki.

Kwami did she miss Tikki, but it was because of her that she was still alive. Marinette lived for Tikki. No, not only for Tikki- she lived for her parents too, and Peter, and Aunt May. Hell, even Stephen. The people who shaped her life, helped her become who she was now- they were all gone. It was a hard bitter pill to swallow, it always was and would be. At first the days were long and dark, and suddenly she was ready to be alive again. She lived for those she lost, who she knew would want her to live life to the fullest.

"I'm leaving back to New York tonight, but no rush. If you want to come months from now, my door will always be open for you Alya." Marinette offered a real smile now, standing up. "I can see myself out. It was nice seeing you, Alya."

Alya didn't move, just sat there as she processed their conversation and sunk into the couch cushions even deeper. She was so deep in her own mind that she missed Marinette pull out a small box with a red design on the top and carefully placing it on the counter top as she made her way out of the home of her old friend.

..................

For five years Natasha wondered why, well in a sense she understood why Clint Barton had gone AWOL. Her partner had always been the more nicer one, but now he was leaving behind a trail of bodies. He had been one of the first ones she went to check on after the snap, but found his safe house abandoned. When she realized what happened, her heart sunk. Initially, she believed he had been dusted, but that was until bodies were dropping and the CTV footage basically showed a glimpse of his face painting the streets red with the blood of known enemies. 

She understood the feeling, the urge to beat someone up to just feel something, She felt it when she didn't hear from Yelena for months, and she had to accept that her sister was gone in the wind as well with the rest of the half that was dusted. 

Was it like Clint? No, and she knew he would regret the violence one day. It was why she needed to find him, and stop whatever it was he was doing. 

"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged."  Rocket's voice echoed through the holograms speaker as Natasha cut her peanut butter and jelly in half. 

"It was an infectious garbage scow." Nebula's voice scowled right after Rocket's as she glared at Carol's hologram. 

"So thanks for the hot tip."  Rocket added as a last comment, looking as over it as Nebula. 

Carol lighting shrugged her shoulders, "Well you were closer."

"Yeah and now we smell like garbage."

Natasha looked over at the hologram projecting Okoye, " You get a reading on those tremors?"

"T'was a mild subduction under the African plate." Okoye's stance never changed from her arms crossed behind her back as she spoke. 

"Do we have a visual, how are we handling it?" Natasha questions, and out of everyone she had always been the most stressed. The bags under her eyes were just showing how little sleep she got. 

Okoye looked at her like that was the dumbest question in the world, "Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it ."

Natasha decided to just move on, looking at Carol next. "Carol, are we seeing you next month?"

"Not likely." Carol honestly answered.

"What, you're gonna get another haircut?" Rocket joked, almost smirking as much as an enhanced raccoon could.

Carol turned her head fully to look at him, "Listen fur face, I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere. On thousands of planets."

"All right, all right. That's a good point." 

"So you might not see me for a long time." Carol was looking at Natasha again as she finished speaking.

Natasha sighed softly and nodded her head, "Alright, un well, this channel is always active. So if anything goes sideways, anyone making trouble where they shouldn't, comes through me." 

There was a course of okays before everyone slowly ended their lines of communication. Everyone besides Rhodey, who got a small good luck from Carol as she cut her communication line. He watched as Natasha sat down at her desk, taking in how tired she looked and for the first time in a while- how defeated she was. He knew everything was taking a toll on her hard. Yelena missing, having young adults in the tower going in and out. Little pocket gods running amok in the walls. Then there was Clint, and everyone else who was dusted and having to come to terms that this was their new reality and that there was very little they could do to change what Thanos had done. 

Especially since Thor decapitated Thanos. 

It was then Natasha glanced up, mildly surprised Rhodey was still there, "Where are you?"

"Mexico. The federales found a room full of bodies." Rhodey started, arms still crossed. "Looks like a bunch of cartel guys, never even had the chance to get their guns off." 

Natasha looked away, eyes on the desk. "It was probably a rival gang." 

"Except it isn't." His voice wasn't gentle in a empathic way, but it was soft. It was time to really give it to her how it was, no matter how much she didn't want to accept it for what it was. "It's defiantly Barton. What he's done here.. what he's been doing the last few years. I mean, the scene that he left. I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him."

She knew it was him, always had especially when he stopped answering his phone. She knew he was alive, the disarray of his home told her that when she went to check on him and his family when she heard nothing five years ago after the snap. Yet as she sat there, biting the inside of her cheek and desperately looking down and away from Rhodey's eye line to keep her tears at bay, she knew her best friend was different. He changed into someone they never knew to be a killer.

"Will you find out where he's going next?" Just like that, her hard exterior snapped back into place, still refusing to cry or accept that Clint was just killing to kill. She grabbed her half of a sandwich, biting into it as she finally looked up. They all had a dark time, their friend needed support. Not an intervention. 

"Nat?" Rhodey could tell she wanted to give Clint benefit of the doubt, but the scene he just witness. He just wasn't sure if Clint hadn't snapped beyond reason. 

"Please?" She was fighting the tears at this point. 

Sighing, he nodded and turned to walk away from his hologram. "Okay."

As soon as Rhodey was gone, the tears were free falling and she cried as silently as she could. She tried her best not to cry, but emotions were too much some days. Yes she had her training at the Red Room, but the years flew by with Clint..with the other Avengers and they had truly been the family she always needed. Her heart broke knowing Clint lost his way, yet they all have at some point. They all were at least owed a chance to redeem themselves. Clint had given her that chance, and she wanted to do the same. 

"You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already." Steve's voice came in the room, coming by the bookcase. 

Natasha was quick to force a smile at his attempt to cheer her up, "You here to do your laundry?"

"And to see a friend." 

Leaning back into her chair, Natasha decided to humor Steve as she crossed her arms over her abdomen, "Clearly your friend is fine."

Steve fiddled with his keys, "You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge."

"In the Hudson?" 

"There's fewer ships." Steve could see the positive changes in nature that had happened. Marinette had also admitted to him that she felt a difference in the balance in the world, one that wasn't negative but healthy to the planet itself. 

"You know if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side, um, I'm about to hit you on the head with a peanut butter sandwich." Natasha quipped smartly, looking over at where Steve stood. 

"Hmm." Steve moved into the room, a grin on his lips. "Sorry, force of habit." 

Steve tossed his keys on the table, sitting across Natasha and copying her pose as she leaned back. He had a lot he thought about, often at how fast the world changed. When he first went into the ice, then from when he came out of the ice, and the world after that up until now. They had been through a lot of life changing events, but Thanos was the worst. He won, and still the world had somehow gotten healthier. 

"You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do, but not us." Steve watched her as he spoke, because it was true. They still had hope that life could be returned to how it was before, a new normal. 

Natasha looked over the table, "If I move on, who does this?"

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done." 

There were only a handful of times that Natasha Romanoff has ever been openly vulnerable to Steve Rogers, this was now one of those times as he watched the emotions crash in her eyes. 

"I used to have nothing, and then I got this. This job. This family, and I was better because of it." Natasha wiped her eye with her thumb, nodding her head at her words. "And even though they're gone, I'm still trying to be better." 

Steve nodded his head, still leaned back into his seat. " I think we both need to get a life."

Natasha let herself laugh, "You first." 

The two share a smile, and within a second their moment was broken. A chime cut the comfortable silence they had, a hologram popping up about activity in the front gate. Thinking it was just another delivery that one of the many young adults could have ordered, Natasha slid it to the left. 

"Oh, hi! Hi! Uh, is anyone home? This is Scott Lang, we met a few years ago at the airport in Germany. I was the  guy who got really big. I had a mask on. You wouldn't recongize me." Scott Lang's voice rang out of the speaker, catching both Natasha's and Steve's attention right away since this was the first they were hearing from him in five years. 

Steve's eyebrows were scrunched up, "Is this an old message?" 

Natasha's eyes watered again, why she didn't know but for the first time hope welled in her chest. It was a foreign feeling, but it was welcomed after all these years of hoping of something to help.

"It's the front gate."

..................

Tony Stark wasn't sure how life would be five years ago, especially being stuck in space with a magical girl and a part machine woman who was one of the daughters of the man who wiped out half of the population. 

He worried about what he how he was going to tell May about Peter, but in the end he didn't need to do that. It was a bitter pill to swallow, especially the time he and Marinette had to recover together. He got to watch her fall apart all over again and watch the years pass as she put herself together. Her resilience was something inhumane, but it demanded respect. He also vowed to protect Marinette like one of his own, especially since everyone else she considered family was gone. 

Then Morgan was born, and it was like fresh air was breathed into everyone's life, but something had changed in Marinette. She stepped up, and wanted to be active in Morgan's life. The dim light in her blue eyes had reignited and burned bright. It was nice seeing Marinette smile  genuine smiles, and then the relationships between the other Parsians all improved.  

They had all found a new normal in the past five years, and Tony was proud of them all. Yet it didnt change how often he still thought about Peter, even blaming himself for it still. Realistically he knew it was never in his hands if Peter would have been dusted or not had he never gone off planet. Still didn't change the guilt that burned him often, a guilt he shared with the others. 

Then Steve and Natasha had shown up with Scott, talking about time travel and the idea of going back on the off chance that they might be able to reverse everything Thanos had done. In all sense of that idea, it was ludicrous. The one thing someone should not  be able to do is mess with time, it was how things changed. One event changing is a domino effect, and he couldn't risk Morgan. Morgan was the best thing he had ever did, and one of the people he loved most in the world. 

He dismissed the idea without hesitation, and he was so very glad that they stopped by before Marinette came back from the airport. She had promised Morgan a sleep over when she got home, and the last thing Tony wanted was her to hear this horseshit and get false hope. The last thing she needed was false hope. She had come so far out of her shell, grown as a person. He would hate to see her lose that light in her eyes again.

"You seem bothered." Was the first thing Marinette said to him when she entered the Stark cabin around seven o'clock.

Tony gave her a forced grin, "Me? Never."

Marinette gave him the same look Pepper did when she clearly didn't believe him, "I haven't seen that look in a while, but I know that look. I wore that look for a while myself."

He couldn't tell her, at least he couldn't bring himself too. "It's nothing important, just thinking of Morgan and how fast the years are passing by."

There's a quick flash of emotion, like she was remembering past memories but it was gone as fast as it came. "The years are passing fast, she's growing fast too." It seemed like just yesterday that Marinette was holding a baby Morgan, and now she was almost five.

"Thank you, for always being a part of Morgan's life." Tony genuinely tells her, his eyes drifting towards the sink where photos where on display. There was a family photo with Pepper, Morgan, and himself. One of Marinette and Morgan, then another of Peter and Marinette. Finally his eyes flickered to the last one, just Peter. His own heart ached at how much he missed that kid, and he wondered what he would have done. 

Great things, Tony knew that. Peter would have done great things for this world, along side Marinette. They would have been the next generation of Avengers together, but now everything was up in the air. Marinette didn't want to save the world, she wanted to protect it. She wanted to protect the kwamis, and the ones she loved. 

"Thank you for letting me be here, apart of your family." Marinette replies softly, her eyes also following his to see the photos he kept. "My dad, he would have really appreciated how you took me in, and I can never tell you how much I appreciate you and Pepper. Especially after we got back on planet." 

"Change is never easy kid, we fight to hold on and we fight to let go. Only time heals." Tony offered he a smile, "Plus you are the daughter Pepper and I never knew we needed." 

The confession caused warmth to flare up in Marinette, and a genuine smile to grace her lips in a way it hadn't since Peter