The three days leading up to the accord amendments were absolute hell. The compound had never known such awkwardness. Such tension. In the evenings, the dinner table would usually be full of at least half the team, eating whatever had been cooked and laughing the remaining daylight hours away. But since the discussion of the accords, people had been sneaking food away from the kitchen or ordering takeout, and eating in their rooms. Nat and Eleanor were just glad to still be in each other's company during this shitshow. Going from team dinners to eating in complete silence on your own didn't sound fun, so at least they could still talk to each other.

Some others had paired up too, like Wanda and Vision. Though both women were slightly confused as Wanda was leaning towards not signing the accords, and Vision was sticking to his initial decision. They had expected some tension to appear between them, but at the small glimpses they got around the compound they seemed to still get on like a house on fire.

The same could not be said for their trio. Awkward smiles were shared, and conversations were not had. Eleanor remembered the way her chest burned when Wanda walked into the kitchen whilst she was making a fruit bowl for her and Nat to share and walked out almost immediately. Eleanor was left feeling glum in the kitchen, swallowing thickly as she clumsily chopped up some melon with unsteady hands. She missed her best friend.

Natasha was masking her emotions a lot. As hard as she tries to, she never expects people to stick around. The only exception to that rule was Eleanor as she had proved time and time again that she would dig her way out of a grave before she would leave Natasha. It took a while to prove, but it was now drilled into Nat's head that she wasn't going anywhere.

But, because she never believes that people are going to stick around, in her mind she felt fully prepared for how everything was playing out. And because of that thought process, she acted like she was okay. Though what she didn't realise was that Eleanor could see through her as though she were a sheet of glass.

The two spent a lot of time together as it was, but with the isolation from the rest of the team, she had been extra clingy. If Eleanor went to the bathroom, she would walk back out into the bedroom and clutch her chest as her body jumped when seeing Nat sitting on the edge of their bed staring the bathroom door down, and smiling when Eleanor reappeared. "Hi, honey", she cooed at the woman on her bed and cautiously walked forward.

Nat stood up and engulfed her in a hug, "Hi", she smiled sweetly into Eleanor's shoulder, "Are you ready for training?". And that was how the three days went, but Eleanor didn't mind. It was Nat's way of anchoring herself to reality when everything she had gotten comfortable with seemed to be crumbling. All Eleanor could do was be there, and honestly, she liked the comfort she got from being near her wife just as much as Natasha did.

---

The phone call that Steve received during the initial accords meeting had turned out to be because Peggy Carter had passed away in her sleep. The team sent their condolences regardless of the dispute. They were still a team after all, a family, and they were just going through a rough patch. But come high or hell water, they would be there for each other if needed, at least that's what Eleanor and Natasha hoped.

The funeral was on the day of the accords signing, which meant that Nat and Eleanor were able to go to London to see Steve before they headed off to Vienna. It was a last-minute decision so they weren't able to let Steve know about it, they didn't want to text him in case it interrupted any parts of the service, which would not be a great impression to give.

So, the two women were sitting on a quinjet, in similar outfits to what they had worn during their trial on Capitol Hill, on their way to their English detour. Under any other circumstances, Eleanor would be excited to be walking over home soil again, but it would be a ten-minute pit stop at a funeral for their friends 'once lover' before they went to a legal amendment hearing that has torn their family apart and will break it apart even more before it's finished its rampage.

The ride was quite uncomfortable. Eleanor wanted to pretzel herself into a comfortable position like she normally did, but the suit got in the way of that. Natasha watched as her wife huffed every thirty seconds in an attempt to get comfortable on the uncomfortable quinjet seats to no avail. She cleared her throat and smirked when Eleanor turned to face her, looking like a deer in headlights, thinking that she had been slick as she shuffled around, but evidently not.

"Come on", Nat gestured her over to the bench that she was sitting on, "Get comfy". Eleanor sat next to her, wondering how Nat thought that moving back to the bench that she had moved away from would be comfortable for her, but when Nat grabbed her shoulders and guided her to use her legs as a pillow she understood. When Nat began twirling her fingers through Eleanor's hair she immediately calmed and Natasha smiled when she felt the tension seeping away from her.

But it wasn't long before the jet landed in a clearing outside of a church and the two had to make their way in. Hand in hand they entered, seeing that it was just Steve remaining, facing the front clearly deep in thought about something. The two gave each other a look as they continued forward, it wasn't nice seeing a friend in pain.

Hearing the click of Natasha's heels, Steve turned his torso to face them before leaning against the pew wall. "When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out she was alive, I was just lucky to have her".

Eleanor sent a sympathetic smile his way, not really knowing what to say. The situation was just so... sad. "She had you back too", Nat nodded softly.

Steve paused for a second and looked at the floor, "Who else signed?", he looked back up at the two women, both letting out small sighs at the topic being on the accords again. It was so dominating.

"Uh- Stark obviously, Rhodey, Vision", Eleanor began listing off, realising just how small the list actually was, internally grimacing at the realisation, especially because Tony was already retired, so that left four Avengers who would be able to continue work. Yeah, they were screwed.

"Clint?".

"Says he's retired", Nat answered Steve's question, glad that Clint wasn't getting involved in this. He truly was family and the idea of going up against him was just painful.

"Wanda?".

Eleanor's jaw tightened at the mention of her and she cleared her throat, "Undecided currently, but she's swaying more towards not". The room was tense, and even though the accords were being discussed, the elephant in the room wasn't. Steve was on the opposing team of a deal-breaking thing that would change all of their lives forever. It was an awful situation that they were all going through and it was clear that no one wanted to talk about the endgame of it all.

"We're off to Vienna for the signing of the accords", Nat started in a soft tone that sounded very persuading, "There's plenty of room on the jet". Steve sighed and looked down again, prompting Natasha to continue as she squeezed Eleanor's hand tighter, "Just because it's the path of least resistance, doesn't mean it's the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together", she finished with a hopeful smile. And there it was, she had articulated everything that she had wanted to shout, to scream over the last few days. She didn't want to lose anyone, and the only way for that to happen was to sign the accords.

"What are we giving up to do that?", Steve countered, "I'm sorry, I can't sign it".

Eleanor could feel the disappointment radiating from Nat even though she kept a small smile on her face the entire time. "We know". There was an awkward silence that Eleanor was practically holding her breath through, so was relieved when Steve spoke again, thinking that there was the possibility of passing out in the middle of the church.

"Then what are you doing here?".

Nat looked over to Eleanor's side profile after seeing her head tilting out of her peripheral as the younger woman thought of an answer, "We wanted to be here for you, no matter what's going on".

Natasha nodded and slowly turned back to face Steve, "We didn't want you to be alone". Steve looked ever so slightly taken aback by this, as though he wasn't expecting kindness to be shown whilst they were on different sides of the debate, so for the first time since the two had walked into the church, he let his walls down and looked at them how he normally did. As friends. This triggered something in Natasha, and she moved forward, letting go of Eleanor's hand after dragging her with her a few steps, and held out an arm to engulf Steve in a hug. He wrapped an arm around her and opened up his other arm for Eleanor to step into.

It was a comforting bear hug, and Steve had a tight grip on them. They'd been through a lot together, and he was glad that he hadn't lost them.

---

"I'm tired already", Eleanor whined as the jet began descending into Vienna, and she pouted when Nat responded with a laugh. "I'm serious! I might end up falling asleep in there, that would be some seriously bad press", her eyes went comically wide as she looked at her lap and shook her head.

Nat shrugged, "Well, you know what they say, there's no such thing as bad press, honey".

This earned a scoff from the younger woman as she looked at her wife, "I'm pretty sure if I fell asleep during the ratification of the accords that are supposed to represent us owning up for our many mistakes then that would indeed be bad press", she spoke with a teasing tone, though being fully serious with her words. After a few minutes of pretending to mull it over, Natasha agreed with her, so, when the jet landed, she pulled up an airhorn app on her phone.

Eleanor stood and yawned whilst stretching as she slowly moved towards the hatch of the jet, shaking her arms around slightly to try and wake herself up. Behind her, Natasha was smirking as she stood and was as silent as she could be in heels, thumb hovering over the horn button on the phone, getting ready to attack her poor, innocent wife. As much as she loved her, Natasha lived for annoying Eleanor and finding various different ways to do so. Excellent wife material.

Just as Eleanor was about to press a button on the jet to open the hatch, the deafening sound of an airhorn was blasted into her ear at full volume. She screamed and slapped her hands to her ears as her entire soul left her body. Her heart pounded out of her chest and when her mind realised what had happened, her arms fell to her sides and she slowly turned around to Natasha, who instantly laughed at the scowl on her face.

"You bitch!", Eleanor shouted, but she couldn't stop the open-mouthed smile appearing on her face, replacing her dropped jaw.

Natasha smirked and pressed the horn button again, making the younger woman flinch and reach to snatch the phone from her wife's hand who instantly stretched it out behind her. "Nuh uh! You said a bad language word. Besides, you wanted to be more awake, I'd say I did a good job at helping you. You're welcome!".

"Fucking hell Nat, I didn't mean to give me a heart attack when I said I was tired".

Nat tutted and shook her head as she pocketed her phone, "Another bad language word, what am I going to do with you?".

"You could buy me a vanilla latte if they have some? I could use the caffeine boost to wake me back up from the dead after your little prank".

Natasha moved forward as she laughed and opened the hatch, "Will I ever be able to get you away from that basic bitch drink?".

The younger woman gasped in faux-shock, "Bad language word! And no, I love my lattes and they don't try and kill me". Nat shook her head and smiled softly, placing a hand on the small of Eleanor's back as they walked towards the UN building, trying to ignore the yells of the crowds of people waiting outside.

"Yeah, okay. I'll get you your drink", she pressed a quick kiss to Eleanor's cheek as they continued walking, praying that what they were here for wouldn't completely tear their lives apart, and hoping that a vanilla latte would take the edge off.