Friends

A few months have passed since the meeting with the Ancient One and the slaughter of the Hydra members.

In the months that followed, I felt much more in control of myself and didn't lose my temper anymore. However, I will need to check how I will do if something unspecified occurs again.

It seems that moving on after accepting my parents death helped me a lot.

Shield was fine too this time. Since they weren't publicly known they could frame the accident at Triskelion as a terrorist attack. The only thing that shocked me was that Nick Fury resigned as Shield director and went into exile. Probably to hunt down other Hydra cells.

My mouth dropped nearly to the ground when I saw Tony Stark sitting from time to time in Fury's office... If I remember correctly this happened also in the comics, but I didn't imagine it would occur in the MCU too.

It seems that having the knowledge that something bad could happen in the future changed his approach to things.

However, since that means that Shield will likely operate even more effectively for the better or worse, I have nothing to complain about at the moment.

But I will probably have a word or two in the future with the new director.

Since my collection didn't make any progress, I also started my own merchandise company. I not only support the culture of this world, but I also create jobs for people, which is a truly selfless act on my part.

Using the money I sto... I mean with the money I borrowed from the criminals, I bought a small toy company and shaped it to my liking. Surprisingly, it began to generate a healthy income.

My job in the company is to send some ideas from time to time. One of them is a series of Black Widow merch with a slightly different face, which became a hit immediately even when people didn't know her.

I also pitched some ideas about series and movies and manga's to some random people, like a guy named George R. R. Martin. I heard he started writing a book after this.

So after dealing with the most urgent problem in the world, all I did was train and keep my mind in check.

But not today because it was a special day. It's my birthday.

I'm sitting with Matt Murdock, his girlfriend Karen Page and Foggy Nelson who helped me win the case against my insurance company.

After this we kinda started to hang out and Matt started training with me from time to time.

Matt also began to train his chakra control or chi, as he calls it, with my guidance. Watching the Daredevil series, I've always known he could use some form of energy instinctively.

For now, he could strengthen his body like Luke Cage or add power to his weapon or punches like Iron Fist.

He is a really fast learner.

As we sat in my apartment drinking and eating cake that Karen brought, someone rang the door bell.

As I opened the door, I had a small deja-vu. Standing there was Natasha, with whom I hadn't spoken since the day in Triskelion. She was wearing a gorgeous dress and had some expensive looking wine in her hand.

She smiles and says "Hi I'm here to bring you a message and to congratulate you on your birthday!"

"Thank you. Come in no need to talk in the hallway." saying this, I move my body to let her step in.

If she is here, Loki is probably already acting.

Why don't I stop Loki myself? Loki is essential to the formation of the Avengers. And without them I wouldn't be able to live comfortably here.

Unless they can't stop him before he arrives in New York I have no intention of fighting against him.

After giving me the wine she stepped in. She was surprised to see other people already in the living room but collected herself quickly.

"This is Natasha Romanoff. She's an acquaintance of mine." I introduce her to them, not caring if she uses a different name right now or not.

As the drunk mob also introduced themselves, we shared a drink with them and walked onto the balcony for a more private conversation.

Standing there with a drink in hand she starts to speak, "I want to thank you again for saving us in Triskelion and to say sorry because of the evening with Fury."

She looked sincere to me, but being a spy her whole life I couldn't really read her here.

"I know you had your orders and the thing with Hydra helped me in the long run too so there is nothing to apologize for." I said while smiling.

She gave me a beautiful smile back.

Initially, I wished I could show her a world where she wasn't living only to die for the Avengers.

But I forgot that she was not Natasha from Endgame. Instead, she is the twenty six year old spy Natasha who still does not know what it means to have people around you, that are like family to you.

Why should she change then who she is for a guy who she doesn't even know? All the people she has met so far have only tried to use her, including me...

So I kept my distance from her and let things progress by themselves.

"So what message does Stark want you to convey to me?"

Raising her eyebrows for a moment she says, "Why am I not surprised that you know that?"

She sighed and continued on as I just shrugged my shoulders.

"He said I should bring you to Triskelion tomorrow. He wants to talk with you about something like discovering the stars again or something."

This made me laugh while Natasha looked confused.

"Tell him I will come to this meeting because I also wanted to talk with him."

Giving Stark some tips on how to prevent the New York incident should be enough to stop it.

She looked relieved when she heard that I had accepted the invention.

Afterwards she spent some time eating some cake and drinking some drinks with me and the group. This was to avoid any suspicion as to why she was here.

After she left the drunk Matt looked at me and said, "Is she special for you? I never heard your heartbeat in this rhythm before."

"If you could see her your heart would also change its rhythm" I said laughingly while grabbing a drink and forcing him to drink it.

Coming to the conclusion that I will probably never be her knight in shining armor. However that doesn't mean I can't save her from her MCU fate.