how the avengers would react...

It had always been unfair–that was a point that never needed to be said. No one dared to, after all. Speaking out always ended in punishment, and punishment was, at its worst, fatal. No one would object, except Yelena. She had always been a fighter, a strong-willed girl, and that stayed true during her time in the Red Room. 

It was always that familiar blonde hair, slicked into a tight ponytail, and the mischievous gleam in her eyes. Maybe that’s what drove you to be friends with her. She was the only one kind enough to talk, and confident enough to speak up. When bullying became a constant in your life at the Red Room, it was quickly silenced with Yelena’s harsh yelling and aggressive outward demeanour. 

“Do you think we’ll ever get out of here?” you had asked once, when the moon had been high in the night sky, blanketing the Red Room in a dark, clandestine haze.

“Of course,” she says confidently. She knows she’ll get out, somehow–she’s always had that kind of confidence.

You smile at that, reaching a hand out to her bunk. She snorts, giving your hand a little squeeze with her own, before her hand falls back to her mattress. “Now shut up, we’ve got sparring tomorrow. If you lose to Natalia, you’re a loser.”

Natalia–the widow’s sister. She had always been senior to the pair of you, but you knew she was safe. As long as you were friends with Yelena, Natasha would never lay a finger on you. Even when life in the Red Room became harsher, too much for your already fragile mental states, you knew you had Yelena and her sister.

It happened one night. You had woken with the rest of the widows to silence. It hadn’t been real, until you had moved over to your best friend’s bunk and stared at the emptiness. The sheets were cold, and Natalia’s bed was empty as well. You could only assume that the pair had left without you. They had left before mind-control was implemented. They had been lucky. 

You lost everything when they left. With them, your hopes of escaping vanished, your hope of being more than just a weapon dwindling quickly. You hadn’t realised how dependent you were on them until you found yourself bearing the brunt of abuse from the other girls. You only had one choice–grow tougher, or die alone. As much as death seemed like a sanctuary of silence, you couldn’t bring yourself to do it, not after you had been brought into a room, your senses stripped away from you and replaced with eerie silence and only a command in your head.

And so you took the hard way out. You trained yourself to the bone, honed every muscle in your body until you were finally told you were going on your first mission to celebrate how strong you’d grown.

You should have realised the Red Room was sending you off to die when they asked you to travel to America and retrieve files. It was never a simple retrieval mission, and you’d realise that when you were deposited in a field behind the SHIELD headquarters. For the most part, it was quick and easy. You tranquillised and killed those you saw, and snuck in through the back entrances. The hard part, you’d find, would be facing your past. As you jammed a hard drive into a computer, you felt hard steel pressing into your skull. You took in a soft breath, your hands raising away from the keyboard and into the air.

“Медленно повернитесь, (turn around slowly)” the holder of the gun says. You do, slowly spinning on your heel to face her. She’d grown so much, you’d noticed. Her hair was shorter now, her eyes wide with surprise.

“You’ve changed,” she says now, in English, the barrel of the gun still inches from your face.

“You have too,” you point out, your eyes hardened, fingers tense–as if you were seconds away from gripping the barrel of her gun and trying to twist it from her grip.

“Don’t tense up,” she warns, assessing you. You looked stronger. Healthier, and taller than she remembered you.

A red vial is pulled from the former Widow’s pocket, the particles inside swirling within the vial as a small cloud of dust. “I’ve been saving this,” she admits, “For when I find you.” She brings the gun closer to your neck, grabbing the vial with a harsher grip and pressing a button on the back, the particles firing into your face. Your head hurts, a splitting headache overcoming you as you keel over, Yelena grabbing you and holding you in her arms as you collapse forward. 

When you recover, your breath comes heavily against her shoulder. “Let me go,” you say softly, but she doesn’t listen. She’d seen the effects of mind control and what it had done to its victims, and she was worried.

“I just want to save you,” she says quietly, helping you over to a chair.

Wanda and Natasha had their eyes on you for a long time. Of course, you were their favourite. You were always there for the pair of them, always at a moment's notice. You were always ready to be there for either of them if the other wasn't. It was only a matter of time that they would fall for you. They just weren't sure if you were aware.

You had been pining after them for a long time, but you'd never tried anything--of course, they were together. They wouldn't want you. They had everything, why would they need you?

When they had first asked you out, it'd been a shock to you. These days, you'd been growing groggy from lack of sleep, and it was hurting the pair to watch. It was simple, the next time you had seen them in the hallway, Wanda roping you into a hug while Natasha had stood behind, watching with a fond smile.

"Are you doing anything this weekend?"

"No," you'd sigh, running an absent, stressed hand through your hair, "Fury has me on mission reports."

Natasha would smile knowingly, having done her fair share of boring mission reports. "We could take the stress off. You know, see the movies, or something."

You stared at them skeptically, not having understood exactly what they were inviting you for, "I've gotta get my work done, though..."

Wanda would exhale under her breath, "Mилая, we're asking you on a date."

When you'd get home after your date, you'd find your pile of reports gone, replaced by an email from Natasha--she'd convinced Fury to lighten your load, having noticed your lack of sleep that you desperately needed.

(...MID...DATING? WHATEVER):

You'd been dating for two years now, the three of you madly in love with one another. So of course, it was only natural that on the day of your anniversary, you woke up to petals scattered across your bedroom floor, your hands rubbing sleep from your eyes. The petals were accompanied by a little note on your nightstand, written in Wanda's polished writing.

"Meet us downstairs, wear a dress?"

You do, of course, donning a simple summer dress and moving down the stairs. Before your feet hit the last step, Natasha is sweeping you off your feet, hoisting you up in her arms and carrying you to the couch where Wanda waits. Wanda looks up to see the two of you in a fit of giggles, cackling as Natasha dramatically drops you onto the couch beside your girlfriend.

"Hi," you hum, pulling Wanda into a kiss, your fingers gripping at the dress she'd decided to wear. Your girlfriends were gorgeous, and it was clear that they'd taken time to get ready for you.

"You're pretty," you coo, pulling back, grabbing Natasha's hand to pull her down on the couch with you.

"So we were thinking," Wanda begins, taking your hands in her own, "That maybe we could take the stress off. You know, go to the movies, or something."

Tony had been there when Steve had seen you lift the hammer, and his first instinct was to play a prank on the rest of the team. He'd drunkenly invite you over to his side of the couch, brazenly whispering in your ear his idea: "You should put the hammer on top of..." he'd cut himself off with laughter, but would finish his sentence, nearly doubled over, "their stuff." It would take a hot second for you to figure out quite what he meant, but when you realised, it was enough to send the two of you into a fit of giggles.

Natasha was the first victim of you and Tony's antics. The spy always woke up earlier than anyone else for training, and walking into the training room the next morning, she'd find her catsuit stuck under the hammer. Of course, no one was awake to hear the frustrated pleas of the Black Widow--other than you and Tony, of course, hiding away in his workshop, and watching from a camera. Natasha, ever the attentive woman, would spot the new camera, and march herself down into Tony's workshop... and kindly 'ask' for you to move it. She half expected Thor to be with Tony, but when she'd seen you, she managed to put two and two together. She was proud of you, of course... after the frustration and mild silent treatment ended.

Clint was next, and shortly following Natasha, he would find his bow trapped under the hilt of Mjolnir. He nearly had a fit, stomping with mild annoyance towards an innocent Thor's room, who had been so preoccupied with his findings of 'video games' that he hadn't even noticed his hammer's dissapearance. Thor, now the victim of Clint's morning annoyance, would try to eagerly rope the archer into playing with him. The pair would only be found later that night, passed out over chips and a few broken controllers. (...when Clint did find out who exactly had trapped his bow, he would laugh outwardly, and then whisper a good-natured warning in your ear, "Don't do it again, or I'm putting you in one of those holding cells until the next person finds you.")

Peter always wanted to go an a real, official mission. He doesn't even care if you've failed, he looks up to you anyways. Screw everyone else if they think differently; you're cool for having gone on one in the first place!

Tony would have been dissapointed, but maybe it's just the way he saw how dissapointed you already were in yourself. Instead, he has you sitting beside him in his workshop, letting you watch him design some fancy new technology he's had in the works ...(it's really just a new suit, but Pepper would kill him if anyone found out.) Building stuff is his way of forgetting his problems, and some part of his mind thinks that letting you watch him will let you forget the dissapointment of today.

If Steve was dissapointed, he certainly didn't say it. Instead, he does his best to cheer you up--he had been in your place many years ago, after all. He knows what it's like to fail, and how it can crush a person. His first thought was to offer you ice cream... he's not really sure what the 'kids' like these days. You seem to like the ice cream, so he considers it a job well done.

Natasha was dissapointed, to say the least. Good thing she has a soft spot for you, or you'd be running laps for the mistake you'd made. Most agents usually get that treatment with her, but seeing the pure dissapointment on your face made her change tactics. Natasha isn't one to sugarcoat, and of course, she tells you all of the ways you could have done better, but above all, she tells you everything you'd done well. Constructive criticism is necessary for success, after all. (Afterwards, Natasha totally accompanies you on another mission and does everything in her power to help you complete it... without doing it herself, of course.)

Clint had been on backup when he'd seen you mess up, and was quick to save you from the tough spot you'd put yourself in. He was quick to reassure you that the mission could always be redone another time, and he was glad you were safe and unharmed. He was stressed, of course, but having you safe was his priority.

Bruce was the fastest of all the Avengers to get to you once you'd gotten home. He was quick, checking you over for injuries and shushing you as you tried to provide excuses for what you'd done. He is the first to tell you not to worry, and that everyone screws up. To his embarrassment, he decides to tell you a story about himself, a few years after the Avengers' formation.

Thor laughed it off when you told him you had failed. He, of course, started laughing boisterously. He might've thought you were being sarcastic, but when he realised that you were serious, he was quick to jump to condolences...and the offering of mead, of course. Because alcohol makes everything better. Sort of. The rest of the Avengers would find the two of you slumped over a couch, giggling incoherently.