April 2023

"We're here."

Wanda lifted her head, blinking away the memories of the precious few years she had had with Nat. Clint parked the car, getting out and hovering over everyone as they joined him. They didn't protest.

Two days after the second battle against Thanos, Wanda followed the Bartons into the cemetery where Laura's family was traditionally laid to rest. Laura, Nate in her arms and Cooper and Lila by her side, led the way, weaving quietly amongst the gravestones. Clint trailed behind with Wanda, holding one of the three bouquets she'd brought for her.

Wanda took a slightly different path from Laura and the kids, leaving them to their grief for a while. First, she went two graves to the right of the one they stopped at. Kneeling before it, she gently set down the bouquet of tiny white and baby blue flowers. "I'm told it's been a few years," she joked half-heartedly.

There was a second gravestone beside her brother's, sharing the same plot, her own name etched into it. It was strange, but fitting, she supposed. It wasn't like there had been a body to bury.

"Did you see him?" Clint asked, standing over her like a guardian. "When you were… you know."

Wanda shook her head, resting a hand atop Pietro's gravestone. "No," she replied. "I don't know where we were for those five years, but… it wasn't with him."

"I'm sorry."

She bit her lip. "It's… it's not ok, but I still have to believe that he's out there. That we were in some sort of Infinity Stone limbo, and the Jewish afterlife is real, and he's there, waiting for me."

Clint squeezed her shoulder. "I know it is. He'd never go where you couldn't someday follow."

She glanced back at him, giving him a wavering smile. "Thank you."

Giving Pietro's gravestone a squeeze, she stood, moving one grave to the left. She knelt before it, but before she could bring herself to do anything more, she bowed her head and clenched her eyes shut, trying to banish the memories it conjured.

To half the universe, it had been five years.

To her, it hadn't even been half a week.

"It was Nat's idea," Clint explained, stumbling over her name. "To bury him here, I mean. She, uh… she said you would appreciate that."

"I do," Wanda assured him, forcing her eyes open. She set down the red and yellow bouquet to trail her fingers over Vision's name. "Do you… do you think androids get an afterlife?"

"After what he went through to save the universe? Yeah, kid. He's with your brother."

Wanda pressed a tear-stained kiss to her fingers, then touched them to Vision's name and whispered the words she had been too broken to say five years ago: "I love you, too."

To her left, Laura and the kids stood. After a moment with Clint, Laura guided them away, back to the car.

Wanda stayed frozen at Vision's grave.

She had had three years to adjust to Pietro's death.

She had, to the best of her ability, come to terms with having to sacrifice Vision.

She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Nat.

Realizing what she was doing, Clint patted her shoulder. "Come on, kid. You'll just feel worse in the long run if you don't do this now."

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, taking the hand Clint offered, Wanda pulled herself to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and together, they walked to the next grave.

Natasha Romanoff
November 22, 1984
April 24, 2023
Beloved aunt, sister, and Avenger

It doesn't capture her, Wanda thought. It didn't capture the brilliant mind that could think her out of even the direst of situations. It didn't capture the golden heart that had flourished and grown and loved so much despite the Red Room's best attempts to carve it out. It didn't capture the sarcasm that could convey the greatest disdain or the warmest affection. It didn't capture the spirit that could shift from fighting like a lion to caring like a mother in the quickest of seconds.

The gravestone honored Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow.

The gravestone couldn't capture Nat.

Clint handed her the final bouquet, and she took it with trembling hands. It wasn't black or red, like most people might expect.

It was deep, vivid pink. It was fiery orange. It was dark, sapphire blue.

It was the colors of the sunsets she had loved to watch. She'd told Wanda once that she found a certain poetry in the sun's fire taking the blue sky and white clouds and burning them into new, vibrant colors. A trial by fire that took something nice and turned it into something awe-inspiring.

Wanda had never told her, but she thought Nat was like a sunset. Brilliant, fiery, and gone far, far too soon.

"She loved you. Having to put your name on Pietro's gravestone… it nearly broke her."

Wanda looked up at him, his face blurred by her tears. "At the end, though," she whispered, "was she…"

Clint cupped her face in his hands, bringing her to him to press a long, gentle kiss to her forehead. "She didn't regret a thing, Wanda. She loved us to the very end."

Wanda nodded. Blinking through the tears, she leaned forward to set the bouquet down. She bowed her head, touching her forehead to the top of the stone. "Goodbye, Nat," she murmured. "Thank you for taking care of me."

A breeze wound its way through the cemetery, and Wanda could've sworn she heard a familiar voice whisper Always, little sestra. Always.

A/N: Yeah, I made myself cry writing that last bit. And I never thought I'd embrace the idea of the twins technically being canonically teens in AOU (I literally said just the other day that I don't use that in my fics lol), but I guess it's set in my head now wHoOpS