Honey, I’m Home Challenge.

Married. Who would have ever thought the day would come that she would be married? Well, there are possibly a few murmurs, but those are mostly to frame jokes about the animalistic Black Widow’s mating habits; not that any of them ever make it to her ears.

Natalia had threatened to carry Ivan over the threshold, and she maintains that she could have done so. Still, as they pass into the sparse room, softened as its bathed in the light streaming through the windows, she is in Ivan’s arms. She slips down easily, the simple band on her finger demanding her attention.

As with everything else, its appearance is deceiving. On the underside of the band, the letters pressed against her finger, is a simple script. Девушка в красном и ее волк. The Girl In Red and her Wolf. 

As she laughs at Ivan pulling loose his tie, wrapping it around her wrists, Natalia can’t help but allow this one look to the future. One moment where they might live to finish their tale. The physical tie is easily escaped from, but it is not what truly bind them. 

The first time they had posed as a married couple, the ring had felt heavy on her finger - a little too much like tempting fate. She was too young for such a burden, the mantle sitting unevenly oppressive on her shoulders. She had thought then that she would never be a wife, something for Ivan to acquire.

It’s not age that has changed her, but time itself. She’s been running and fighting, never allowing anything to affect her too deeply. Ivan, as always, has been the exception, and she knew that he had been prepared for this day prior to her even considering it a possibility.

Their home is new, free of bloodshed for now, and while their own hands are drenched, perhaps forever, they can go on however they choose. Together.

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