One shots

The soul realm (Nat's relationships)

Natasha kept her eyes open for as long as she could. Staring up at Clint's face, letting the peace wash over her. She didn't want to die, of course she didn't. But the last 5 years had been worse than death. All Nat wanted was to bring her family home, and now she could die knowing the red in her ledger was gone. She didn't know if they would succeed, but she had enough faith in them to know she wouldn't die in vain. She kept her eyes open until Clint faded from view. She was close to the bottom, and the air was rushing past her too fast to breathe. Natasha let her eyes flutter shut, for the last time.

Natasha woke up a moment later, the ground hard on her back, but it didn't hurt. There was no way she could've survived that fall, so why was she awake? Natasha opened her eyes tentatively. She lay in an empty field, no grass, no concrete, just dirt. There were no buildings around her, no trees, no nothing. Everything was tinted orange. She expected to be alone, but there were thousands of people around her.

"Auntie Nat?" Natasha pushed herself off the ground, to meet Lila Barton's wide eyes. Before she could react, the little girl threw herself into Natasha's arms.
"I knew you'd come. Mommy said you wouldn't come, but you're here!"
"Lila, where is here? Where's your mom?"
"Come on!" Lila jumped up and grabbed Natasha's hand, pulling her away. "They're over here." Many people were spread out over the land, but Lila guided Nat over to a larger group.
"Natasha?" Sam saw her first, standing up from the huddle.
"Sam!" Natasha still didn't know where she was, but a little of the pain lifted when she saw her old friend. He pushed past some of the Avengers, stepping on Bucky's metal arm, and ran towards her, wrapping his arms around her tightly. She laughed and hugged him back, refusing to let the tear in her eye fall down her cheek. He broke away from her, confused, hands still on her shoulders.
"Wha- how are you here? You weren't dusted."
"Sam, where is here?"
"The soul realm." A very official looking man in a cape had stood and walked over.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Dr. Stephen Strange."
"Okay...and what do you mean the Soul realm?"
"I mean a place where the snap victims were relocated after Thanos dusted everyone." They were interupted by Wanda racing over and jumping on Nat.
"You're here...you're here. You gotta help me, Nat, Sam and Bucky are driving me insane." Nat laughed again, holding Wanda up. More of the Avengers stood up, confused by the new arrival.
"Tasha." Nick Fury came over, smiling as widely as possible for him. Bucky wandered over to pry Wanda away from Nat, so she could embrace her old mentor.
"We found Carol."
"I always thought you two would be good friends."
"You were right, although she's usually off taking care of the galaxy."
"Sounds about right." Maria Hill came over, and Natasha hugged her briefly as well.
"I never understood how idiotic the men you have to deal with are until I had to spend all this time with them."
"Oh, please. The most idiotic ones are still alive."
"Ms. Widow?" Nat knew who it was before turning around.
"What, Spider boy?"
"Is Tony okay? I know he probably blamed himself." Nat smiled at the boy's selflessness.
"He took it hard, but guess what? He has a little girl now. Morgan."
"He does?" Peter smiled widely. "I hope I get to meet her."
"Me too, kid." Everyone was now gathered around now, asking questions.
"Ms. Romanoff." The magical doctor was back.
"I expect you have a lot of reuniting to do, but we need to chat." Natasha nodded and excused herself. Sam and Bucky followed, not wanting to be left out.
"I need to know what happened after Thanos snapped his fingers."
"After Thanos snapped his fingers, half of the population turned to dust. We thought they had died, but apparently you were transported to the 'soul realm.' We killed Thanos, hoping to get the stones to bring everyone back, but he destroyed them. We didn't know what to do, but now we're trying time travel, to get the stones from previous points in time."
"How long has it been?" Natasha paused, trying not to make eye contact.
"5 years." The space went silent.
"Holy shit." That was the first thing Bucky had said since Nat had arrived.
"So then how did you get here?" Strange didn't seem surprised by the amount of time that had passed.
"Wait...how long has it been here?" Sam responded.
"Not 5 years. Time is tricky here, but I didn't think it had been more than a year. Some say 2 years, some say only a couple months." Sam had clearly been something of a leader in the soul realm.
"How did you get here?" Strange could tell she was avoiding the topic.
"Soul for a soul."
"What the hell does that mean?" Bucky wasn't keeping up, and apparently neither was Sam. Stephen's face softened slightly.
"I'm sorry. I'll excuse you for a moment."
"What's going on, Nat?" Natasha knew they wouldn't react well.
"Clint and I were in charge of getting the soul stone. It's held on Vormir. Apparently, to get the stone, you need to lose what you love. A soul for a soul."
"Natasha, tell me you didn't kill yourself for that stone."
"I had to! Half the universe is gone, I couldn't just do nothing." Sam shook his head angrily.
"Did you not hear what Cap said? We don't trade lives!"
"There was no other way." Sam stood up, pacing around.
"If they do the snap, you'll come back, right?"
"I don't think so. The way the red floating guy phrased it, it can't be undone." Natasha stayed on the ground, hugging her knees.
"How are you so calm about this? You are coming back, you have to be."
"Sam, you weren't on Earth for the past 5 years. It's miserable. I'm alone there, everyone else is gone."
"They're not gone. You have Clint, Steve, Tony, Bruce. You still have people you care about!"
"You're not listening. They left. They all left. Every day, I sit alone at that compound, thinking about nothing but what I've lost. I'm sick of it. I had a chance to bring my family back. The price was small."
"Your life? That's not small."
"If there was another way, I would've found it." Sam stopped pacing, and just stared down at her.
"I'm confused." Bucky interrupted.
"You're always confused."
"If you died for the stone, how come we're all still here?" Natasha's stomach wrenched.
"I'm not sure. I don't know how the rest of the mission went. They could be preparing to do the snap, or they could've failed the mission."
"So wait. Not only did you die for this thing, you didn't even die knowing they would succeed?"
"That's correct."
"So you sacrificed yourself for the idea that if they got all the stones someone could do the snap, resulting in a small chance the rest of us would return." Natasha swallowed painfully.
"See, this is why I didn't want to tell you."
"That is the bravest and stupidest thing I have ever heard." Sam walked back towards the group.
"He's not mad. He's just going to miss you." Bucky got up too, and followed Sam. Natasha watched her family, smiling softly. It was still worth it.

"Uh...guys?" Peter Parker was turning to dust.
"Oh no, not again." He disappeared completely in a matter of seconds. Natasha's heart leapt, and she scrambled to her feet.
"They did it...it worked." She ran over to the group, finding Laura Barton.
"Tell Clint it's not his fault, okay?" Laura's eyes watered.
"Thank you..." she was barely whispering. Natasha nodded quickly, holding back her tears as Laura disappeared.
"Ms. Romanoff." She turned back to see T'challa.
"I'm sorry for electrocuting you back in that airport."
"No. You did the right thing. You opened my eyes to the hate that consumed me. Thank you." She patted his arm, but didn't wait to watch him disappear. She scrambled to find Bucky.
"Hey. Don't let Steve do anything stupid. He's hurting."
"I'll do my best." Bucky disintegrated quicker than the rest of them had. Natasha found Wanda next.
"Vision...he's gone, isn't he?"
"I'm so sorry, Wanda. I wish we could've done more for him." Wanda nodded, tears forming in her eyes.
"You're going to feel alone when you get back. But you're not. Get help, and don't do anything drastic."
"I won't." Wanda started to turn to dust.
"And Wanda? Kick Thanos's ass for me." Wanda smiled.
"I promise."
Natasha looked around, realizing everyone was gone.
"They're all gone."
"Not everyone." She smiled, remembering when he helped her and Steve back in 2014, the same year she died.
"How are you still here?"
"I'm holding on. Wanted to say goodbye, since apparently you're not coming back with the rest of us." Nat walked over to Sam and wrapped her arms around him.
"I'm gonna miss you."
"I'm gonna miss you too, Bird Brain."
"It suits you."
"What does?"
"Leading. Might wanna consider doing more of that."
"What about Steve?"
"I know him. He's not going to want to be a fighter for too much longer. It's time for someone else to step up. Maybe someone who can fly?"
"I don't know if I'm cut out for the leadership role."
"You'd be great."
"It's gonna be different without you there."
"I know. Don't let anyone blame themselves, okay? It was my choice."
"I have a feeling no one's gonna listen to me, but I'll let them know." Natasha tried to think of some good last words, but she was coming up short.
"It's time to go." She let go of Sam and patted him on the shoulder.
"Go home." He nodded slowly.
"Thank you." She smiled, letting the tears slowly fall out of her eyes.
"It was worth it, you know." He smiled sadly at her as she watched him disappear.

   Natasha looked around, seeing everyone gone, that she was all alone. She was happy. She had done what she meant to do, bring her family home. That didn't stop her from wishing she could've gone home with them. She turned around a couple times, making sure they were really all gone. They were. Nat sat down on the ground, getting used to her new home. Sitting there, Natasha felt like a kid again, all alone. The difference was, now she wished she wasn't.

So yeah, for the most part, this was nice and happy because Natasha got to reunite with her family, but it took a turn partway through. I included lots of Samtasha in this because they're really underrated and underdeveloped, and I wanted to convey the bond they had because they were on the run together for so long. I also made this to explain why no one asked about her during Tony's funeral (smh). Hope you liked it!