[3] Just A Mortal Girl | Avallone the Avenger [DISCONTINUED]

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

FIVE

YEARS

LATER

The gym was quiet, peaceful even. Early hours of the morning were the best to visit. No one was there, other than the staff, which meant you could do whatever you wanted.

I usually started with stretches and a warm up on the treadmill, running for about ten kilometers. After working up a sweat, I'd focus on my core and did plenty of planks and what people called high boat to low boat. I then did a few weights with my legs and arms, although that wasn't my main focus. That was usually when the other early birds began to filter in, and I'd hit the showers.

After leaving the gym, I'd go home and make myself a hearty breakfast. Home had become the Avengers compound, where Natasha had also decided to stay. The others had chosen to live elsewhere, disregarding the constant reminder of our failure as the Avengers.

A good breakfast and a few hours spent studying up on everything outside of earth, I would usually tend the grounds and make sure nothing was overgrown or weeded out. Lunch would come and then Natasha and I would spend the rest of the day either training of her teaching me ballet.

Perhaps we were both heavily in denial, or there was still too much hope, but a silent agreement had been made. No matter how long it would take, or if the chance ever came about, we would be ready for the day.

Dinner and then attempts to communicate with the others about the issues going on around the universe. They usually came hand in hand. Then another restless night and the cycle would start all over again.

This routine I had settled into seemed eventful, like I was living my life and trying to be better person because of Thanos, but I knew the truth. After I lost Loki, I lost everything. I lost my love, my faith and my hope. The world had become an empty existence for me, and I was just waiting on the day where I could take my revenge, and hopefully die trying.

If Loki was somehow watching me, he would see that my life wasn't wasted after his death, and that when I would die, it wouldn't have been for nothing.

Thor left us very quickly after he removed Thanos' head from his body. He had mumbled about a New Asgard, and some days I wish I had gone with him. But they had never been my people, and no matter how much I had loved Loki, I would never be one of them.

Tony also removed himself from the equation fairly quickly. He was blessed to have Pepper still in his life, and he bought a farm outside of the city, making good on a promise he'd made to Steve many years ago.

Steve stayed in New York, at his old apartment, but often came and visited. He was grief counseling others while still drowning in his own depression. I just wanted to hug him, but we were all so distanced these days.

Bruce disappeared, only hinting at the work he needed to do with the Hulk.

Clint was M.I.A. After the snap, he transgressed his house arrest and fell off the grid. News of an assassin killing hundreds began to leak into the media. Natasha rarely said a word about it, but I heard the nights when she cried. The walls were thin.

After five years of a made halved, it felt like all hope was lost. I'd been slowly catching up on events I'd missed, and people I had never been granted the chance to meet.

Natasha had just finished up a meeting with Nebula and Rocket, Okoye, Carol and Rhodey. Peanut butter sandwich in hand and tears in her eyes, I entered the room with my own dinner.

"Bad news?"

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Rhodey is following another lead."

I grabbed her hand across the table. "We'll find him one day Nat, I promise."

Fighting sobs, she pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed deeply.

"You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already." Steve Rogers was leaning against a bookshelf, a sad smirk on his face.

Natasha was quick to wipe away her tears. A strong woman through and through. "You here to do your laundry?"

"I'm here to see my friends." He smiled gently at me.

A small glance my way, Natasha replied, "clearly, your friends are fine." Hands now folded in her lap, a smile crept across her face. Having been trained as a master assassin and a woman of many talents, she was able to throw emotion out the window when the time came and put a beautiful smile on her face. For that, and much more, I greatly admire her.

"I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge."

I could not help but smile. Steve was trying his mind tricks on us. Having been mind played by the best, I could see past the patriot's opening line. And yet, I still played along. "In the Hudson?"

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water."

Natasha leaned back in her chair. "If you're about to tell me to look on the bright side - um - I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." All said with a cute smile.

I loved her through and through.

"Sorry, force of habit," Steve replied, taking an empty seat and sliding into it. Throwing his keys and jacket onto the table, he was silent for a few moments. But he was never exactly the type to keep silent for long. "You know I keep telling everybody they should move on, grow. Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?" Nat asked, holding a sandwich in her hand. Although I helped her, we both knew she was the one in control. I'd never be able to do it on my own.

Steve shook his head. "Maybe it doesn't need to be done."

Tears began to form in her eyes. This was the only thing giving her purpose now, surely Steve was able to see that. "I used to have nothing. Then I got this job, this family. And I was better because of it. And even though they're gone, well, I'm still trying to be better."

Turning my head, I fought back my own tears. Natasha was doing what everyone else was trying to do. She was trying to make a life out of the disaster that happened to us. Some chose to move on, as Steve said, but Nat's choice was to cling to the hope that somehow, things could go back to the way before, and she was going to be the one to do it.

"I think we all need to get a life."

"You first," I teased, a smile creeping onto my face. Brushing away the tears, I almost didn't hear the small beep that indicated something had come through. But Natasha had already swiped to see it before I was even able to raise my head.

An unfamiliar voice echoed through the room, "oh, hi, hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I was the guy that got really big and I had a mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

Steve stood. "Is this an old message?"

"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that."

"It's the front gate."

"I need to talk to you guys."

I felt hope fill my chest for the first time in five years. "Let him in."