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With Us

Clint Barton and Wanda Maximoff stared at the lake where Tony's little refuge was built next to. He was comforting her; or perhaps, she comforted him.

They stood too far away for Tony and Natasha to hear them. Tony could guess what they were talking about either way; this was an occasion he was rather disturbed to attend, honestly.

Until New York (the first time around, Tony thought bitterly), he had strictly refused to believe in a higher power (and still, he's not sure Thor and the Asgardians qualify if they're from a different planet). He hadn't settled on an idea of the afterlife, although he'd certainly pondered it.

This really, really wasn't it.

Attending his own funeral, for example. His right half had been fried, for lack of a better word, when he'd snapped Thanos away, so he could understand opting for a funeral where his corpse was not seen.

He'd been just a bit touched when he saw what they'd put on the flower arrangement. His first arc reactor – the proof that he'd had a heart.

Watching Morgan was the most painful, certainly. His beautiful, darling daughter, who was saying goodbye to her father without really understanding it. Pepper was a close second – she remained composed even at her husband's funeral, a strength Tony would never have. If she'd been there in his stead… Tony knew she grieved, but in a different way.

But all those people who'd come. Some he'd not known well, like Carol. Others like the surviving Avengers and their families, and the remaining Guardians. He'd gotten rather attached to Nebula, on those three weeks of hell after the First Snap. Most startling was certainly General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. He'd demolished his favorite bar and disobeyed him when Steve broke the rest of his team out of the Raft, so his decision to pay him "respects" came out of left field. He wasn't even harassing Bruce.

Peter with May, and Harley, all grown up and next to Maria Hill. The two boys that perhaps had shown him, just a little bit, how being a parent could be. (The most rewarding thing in the universe. Those few years with Morgan meant everything and more to him.)

His oldest friend, Rhodey, who had cried when he'd seen Tony's last message. Fury, the man who had been partially responsible for sending him out on this journey to hell along with his parents, Stane, fucking Loki and his nightmare in the purple flesh – in the very back, but there anyways.

Cap would send the stones back, afterwards. And maybe he'd take a chance to get the simple life he'd always wanted. Tony hoped it would be as wonderful for Cap as it had been for him, before the time travel.

Maybe, all of them would find peace. Pepper had told him he would be able to, now; given that he was currently invisible and watching them say their farewells to him, he was inclined to disagree.

The not-quite-redheaded woman next to him probably did, too.

"Yours was nicer", Natasha said, breaking an odd kind of silence, where you could hear everyone but only one heard you.

"I thought yours was calmer."

"Who is that blonde boy, next to Hill?"

"Harley Keener. I kind of invaded his garage in Rose Hill, Tennessee, after the Malibu Mansion blew up. His parents left him alone most of the time."

"Quite a gathering."

"Yeah."

"This is a new thing, but I'm already tired of it", Natasha said.

"The being undead thing or watching everyone live their lives while no one hears us and we only have each other for company thing?"

"Isn't it the same thing?"

Tony sighed. "I guess you're right. Also, agreed."

"You done here? I have seen enough funerals to last a lifetime. First when the snap happened, then my own. Now someone else's, again. Who I'll probably be stuck with for the rest of eternity. I don't feel like crying, today."

"Hey, I cried at yours."

"Clint did deliver a surprisingly touching speech. I always knew Laura married him for a reason, but I didn't think he could be so eloquent."

"You meant a lot to him, you know."

"If I hadn't, it wouldn't have worked. You needed to give up something you love to get the Soul Stone."

"Nebula told us how Thanos sacrificed her sister at Vormir. What happened to her, anyway? I saw her younger self in the battle, but she disappeared at some point."

"I don't know. I showed up again the moment you died."

"I can't believe it was just the two of us who died. I expected more bloodshed, honestly."

"Well, I'm glad no one else is here. Imagine Thor, unable to get drunk." Tony shuddered at her words, or as much as some sort of spirit could.

"He really let himself go, after that first loss." Seeing that frat boy of a "God" had horrified Tony, and not just him, either.

"I never thought I'd see someone in this bad a shape again, not since your stint with palladium poisoning." Natasha sighed. Somehow, it had been a simpler time. No aliens (at least not in public, since Carol had apparently met Fury in 1989 already), no world/galaxy/universe domination/decimation plots… the biggest problem they had were terroristic capitalists and men like Ross, hunting down enhanced individuals like their friends.

"I think he might leave, too", Tony said. "He's not happy on Earth, not even in their New Asgard. His talks with the Guardians are just offering him an already-searched for way out. They'd take him."

"If it will make him feel alive again, I can only be glad about it." They sat in silence. Tony agreed with her, just like he had when it was about Cap; it would be good for them both, to get a new or the always dreamed of life.

"I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Tony stretched. There were no joints to pop, but it was habit and would probably take a while to vanish. Wanda's head turned at that.

"Let's go, then." Natasha was looking at Clint and Wanda – for a second, she was sure Wanda could see him, her. Then she faced Clint again, and Natasha's feeling disappeared.

"Rest of our lives, huh?"

"Yeah."

They felt more than really moved the distance of the lake. They'd always see their friends and family again, but for now, they were taking their own path.

Wanda smiled, faintly. She sensed them more than saw them, but she knew. And as she told Clint, they were watching. They had seen their victory, had seen peace restored.

It was all she could have hoped for Natasha and Tony.

They returned when Cap did, after seeing him live his "simple life". He had become an old man, married, with a shield by his side, again. Not much longer, though; he passes it on to an incredulous Sam Wilson. He's happy. He's at peace.

They're with Bruce when he finds out how to revive a form of Vision, even without the mind stone, and with Wanda, when she sees him again.

They're with the Guardians and Thor, taking flight, leaving Earth and its painful memories behind.

They're with Peter, returning to school, acclimating again to life. With him, widening his home turf to include Europe.

They're with Carol, and the new Captain America and Bucky Barnes, with Clint and his mentee Kate, with the next generation of superheroes and their children, and they never leave them. Not really.