It took a few months of hiding out with the Bartons, but eventually, Natasha had managed to accumulate her new legal identities, and the buzz from the hearing had died down, so they were able to go out into the open, and bask in being back out in society.

They would be eternally grateful for Clint and Laura allowing them to reside safely in their home for a large period of time, but now it was time to leave. They needed their own space back and also wanted to have a very late break to have their honeymoon.

A week in Greece was decided on, and the two had a wonderful time. After three months spent solely on a farm, the new sights were very welcome. Many feasts were had on all of the delicious food, and they did all of the touristy sights, in awe at all of the history right in front of their eyes.

They thought that it was the perfect trip with a perfect balance of play and rest. Their souls were rejuvenated, and they went back home feeling more at peace than they had been for a while. This peace lasted for a few months as they settled into starting new hobbies as they agreed to take a break from trying to find a job for a while, though they had begun to start feeling a bit restless.

But that peace was eventually disturbed by the one and only Tony Stark. It was nice to hear from him, as it had been a while since they had been in contact. There was some small talk but both women could tell that Tony was just stalling to butter them up for something.

"Why are you really calling, Tony?", Natasha deadpanned after Tony had asked them how they'd been for the second time.

He hesitated as he didn't know whether the two wanted to get back into the same type of work as SHIELD any time soon, but explained that he wanted the Avengers back together to start raiding HYDRA bases as they were still continuing to operate even with some of their information out in the public.

It was explained to them that Stark Tower, now the Avengers Tower, in New York would be the main base of operations, and that they would both get a large apartment area on one of the top floors.

After a silent conversation via eye contact had occurred between the two, they accepted. Besides, they couldn't leave the team hanging dry, and even though they were enjoying having time off they knew that the holiday feeling ending was imminent and that boredom would kick in. So, the perfect time to end the break on a good note and not let it be tainted by their brains going numb.

It was time to go back to work.

Tony sounded very happy that the invitation was accepted, and told them that their living space would be worked on immediately for them to arrive within the week.

A pang of sadness struck Eleanor's chest when the call ended and she looked around their apartment, and at seeing Natasha looking around longingly as well, she knew that she felt the same. They would have to say goodbye to the apartment yet again.

They were still keeping it and leaving some necessities here just in case. But for the most part, they were taking most of their belongings with them, knowing that the Avengers were not going to just be around for a short stint. This could be a year or more of work, there are HYDRA rats all over the world.

Eleanor did the very British thing in awkward situations of slapping her thighs when seated and slowly standing up, saying "Well...", simultaneously. Natasha rolled her eyes with amusement at the habit but also stood. "We should pack".

"Yeah, we should". Their tone of voice was rather sad, but they tried to hype each other up by thinking about how exciting it would be to get back into work and to see everyone again, other than Steve and Clint it had been years since they saw them. Everyone was going to be there aside from Thor, who they assumed was still at home in Asgard doing whatever the God of Thunder does best.

When doing activities where music playing in the background is essential, the two take it in turns to choose from their own playlists or CD collections. It was now Natasha's turn, and after she had spent a few minutes pondering, she turned on some Taylor Swift. Eleanor was never allowed to tell anyone that Natasha was a secret Swiftie, the younger woman had promised that it would be a secret that she would take to the grave.

So, whilst the soft music rang through the apartment they began boxing up their decorations and memorabilia. It was fun to go through, some items were placed in the back of drawers as they had too many things, so going through everything brought back some memories. Such as finding a rock that Natasha had brought back from their trip to England, and tickets from their trip to the aquarium.

Natasha had never used to be sentimental with physical items, mostly because she didn't have anywhere to store them. But ever since having her own space at the Triskelion, and then her own apartment, she likes to keep items and trinkets. Which unfortunately meant a lot more packing as she didn't want to leave any of them behind.

Over the next week, they made the most out of being in their home, as they knew that the group living was likely to be of a similar dynamic to living in the Triskelion, and they had moved away to remove themselves from that dynamic. To get privacy. So they wanted to cherish what time they had left without the potential of the Captain organising early morning training sessions, or hearing Tony blasting AC/DC at inappropriate times.

They were looking forward to living in close proximity with Clint again though, other than when he took breaks to see his family, though the other Avengers wouldn't know the reason. Over the last couple of years due to Eleanor and Natasha being placed primarily with the old STRIKE team, the number of missions they went on with Clint had decreased, so it would be nice for it to feel like it was old times again.

---

The week had passed too quickly, and soon they were driving to New York City. Natasha wanted to keep the car that Maria had given them, it was a Mercedes C63 AMG, and she enjoyed driving it, so they didn't bother searching for another car. They were unsure how Maria had been able to get it without having SHIELD ties, but when they had found out that she was working for Stark Industries it made more sense to them, she was probably able to wrangle something up with Tony.

That was another reason why they felt excited, Maria was still going to be in close proximity during work and would be living in the building as well.

The drive was a lot more fun than when they had driven the car to Clint's, it was a lot less tense and they were able to make frequent stops, which were needed because Eleanor was chugging iced coffees like there was no tomorrow.

And the karaoke was also top tier according to Eleanor who was belting out the top hits on the radio whilst Natasha absentmindedly tapped along to the beat on the steering wheel.

It really was a fun drive, but then when they hit New York traffic the mood immediately turned sour. They were so close to arriving but had to keep slowly inching forward, it was a weekend which was their first mistake. Their second mistake was accidentally leaving D.C. at a time that guaranteed to make them arrive during rush hour.

So, Natasha kept gripping and ungripping her steering wheel with impatience, and Eleanor leaned her head against the window and longingly looked out, just wanting to be in the outside world.

When they eventually entered the parking garage of the tower they both practically leapt out of the car and onto the concrete.

"Finally!", Eleanor yelled as she grabbed both hers and Natasha's duffel bags and bolted over to the entrance of the building, Natasha running after her as best as she could whilst laughing.

They were immediately greeted by a member of staff who guided them over to the elevator and told them to go to the 70th floor. The place was huge, even the elevator was the fanciest one that the pair had been in and was gigantic.

The two gave each other quick smiles of excitement at a near-full reunion of the Avengers, and before they knew it the elevator dinged, signalling for them to make their exit.

Eleanor beamed at the rest of the group who were already standing nearby waiting for their arrival, they were clearly the last to get to the tower.

She made a hasty exit but immediately tripped, and would have faceplanted had it not been for Natasha lunging forward and yanking her back by her jacket. Nat was stifling a laugh as she brushed the new creases that she had caused on the jacket, and the rest of the group just playfully shook their heads. For those who hadn't seen her for a while, she was exactly as they remembered her.

"Welcome!", Tony walked forward with his arms outstretched and hugged Eleanor before ruffling her hair. He looked over to Natasha who just shook her head slightly, she did not want to hug him, but she did offer a head tilt that said 'sup.

Nobody had mentioned the scar that was prominent, but Steve had probably warned them, along with Clint who was left with a large bruise the last time he had mentioned it. So, likely wanted to protect Tony and Bruce from a similar fate.

They then went to drop their bags off in their apartment block. They only brought some valuable belongings with them in the car, as Tony had already arranged for the rest of their stuff to be brought over to the Tower by the people he had hired. So, walking in all of their suitcases and boxes were already in there, and they let out a sigh of relief that their stuff had gotten there okay.

The apartment was huge, it had a small kitchen area in it much like the one at the Triskelion, but there was a main communal kitchen with a lot more storage space and utilities that would probably be used more often. There was a full-sized bathroom, a walk-in closet that was the same size as the bedroom, and a cosy little lounge area in the same room as the "kitchen".

But the thing that the two were mainly focused on was the view. They had giant windows that spanned across the entirety of the outer wall, and boy, the view was incredible. They could practically see the entire city, and couldn't help but let out a small gasp as they stood hand in hand watching the small dots that were people making their way around. For privacy, the windows could dim at the push of a button. Living in Tony Stark's playhouse had its perks.

Another perk was Jarvis the AI, who was a very helpful friend and would be very useful over the course of them living there.

As to not seem too anti-social, they went over to the communal living area. They had almost forgotten, after living in their own space for so long they were ready to just settle back into the routine that they had previously, but had reminded themselves that they would have to go back to a similar routine that they had in the Triskelion.

Tony had ordered some pizzas that had arrived a few minutes after they arrived in the kitchen and a few beers were cracked open as well. So the group all sat themselves down and settled into a nice quiet conversation. Until Tony had noticed the wedding band on Natasha's ring finger.

He clearly froze mid-speech and stared at her hand, causing Natasha to narrow her eyes at him suddenly feeling quite exposed. Then his head whipped to Eleanor's left hand as well, seeing the same ring. "Are you engaged?!". Everyone else also looked over, shock written on their features.

Eleanor had to hold back a laugh when she saw Clint acting shocked, they had agreed to just tell people that they had eloped to protect the farm. "Uh... no", Eleanor started as she placed her half-eaten pizza slice down.

"Oh...", Steve began as his eyebrows furrowed and everyone else's faces had dropped too with disappointment, "That's a shame, was rooting for one of you to pop the que-".

"We're married", she interjected with a cheeky grin.

"No way!", Tony smiled, "Congratulations! Here have more pizza", he threw another unopened pizza box at them whilst everyone else said their congratulations as well.

"You're a billionaire, and your wedding gift is a pizza?", Nat looked over to Tony, she sounded unamused but her smirk suggested otherwise.

"Shh, Nat. It's free pizza!".

"Honey we're already eating free pizza", she gestured around the table to prove to Eleanor that it was a shitty wedding present. But she just began stuffing her face with the pizza that had a different topping.

"You picked a good one there", Clint joked before sipping his soda, Nat just hummed in agreement as she softly smiled at her wife, choosing to ignore the clear sarcasm. She had picked a good one. Though her smile dropped slightly as she spotted Bruce looking a little down, which he hadn't been earlier on in the dinner, she shrugged it off when Eleanor placed another pizza slice on her plate.

She gave Eleanor's thigh a squeeze in thanks, and carried on eating, listening and joining in with the ridiculous conversations that were happening.

Even though the main purpose of them being there was going to be to work, that dinner immediately showed them that it was going to be an incredible time.