Never Too Late Part 2/2

[daniomalley22]

Part One

In between work and school, the two of them got the apartment cleaned up. Darya insisted they stop at a supermarket to pick up snacks - apparently the chips and soda they already had were not up to scratch. They arrived home from school on Wednesday afternoon and Natasha looked around for anything that was out of place.

“It’s fine, Mom,” Darya said. Spring cleaning had lost its appeal for her very soon after they’d begun, and Darya had become increasingly impatient with Natasha’s preoccupation.

“I know it is,” Natasha lied. While Darya wasn’t looking she wiped down the countertop one last time, and then the doorbell rang.

Mitchell and Pepper stood at the door, Mitchell holding a plate of brownies. “Mom said we needed to bring something, so we bought these at the bakery. The plate is from home, though, so you’ll have to give it back,” he said seriously.

“Mitchell!” Pepper exclaimed, two bright red spots appearing on her cheeks. “That was a little rude.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

Natasha could see Darya eyeing the treat like it was going to fly away, so she grabbed napkins and served the brownies quickly, telling the kids to eat them in the kitchen before going to play. They wolfed the brownies down and raced off, Pepper calling half-heartedly after Mitchell to wash his hands.

“Well,” Pepper said once they were gone, “Thanks so much for having Mitchell over.”

“It’s no problem,” Natasha said. The silence stretched out awkwardly. Natasha debated whether to do the polite thing and invite Pepper to stay, as Pepper had done for her.

“Do you-” Natasha began, just as Pepper said,

“I love the-”

They both stopped and glanced at one another, chuckling uneasily. Natasha waved at Pepper to go on, and she said, “That’s a beautiful print, over the couch. A Matisse?”

“Yeah,” said Natasha, shrugging. She hadn’t been as interested in the origin of the artwork as the fact that it matched the curtains. “It’s not an original, of course,” she added pointlessly. “Nothing like what you’ve got at home.”

“An original Matisse, wouldn’t that be something?” Pepper said with a laugh. “You have amazing taste, though. Your home is beautifully decorated.”

That was a bit too much for Natasha to take. She didn’t make any special effort to make the home look nice, just tried to keep things reasonably tidy. “Still, I’m sure it’s nothing like what you’re used to,” she said. Pepper’s presence was putting her on edge, making her feel out of control.

Pepper looked at her intently. “You don’t like me much, do you, Natasha?” she asked.

Natasha froze solid, unable to believe that Pepper had finally spoken the truth neither of them had acknowledged since they met.

“Uh,” she said. “Um. I don’t know what you mean.”

“What I don’t understand is, why?” Pepper demanded, as if she hadn’t spoken.

Since Pepper wasn’t playing along with Natasha’s pretence at ignorance, she went on the attack. “Come on, Pepper, it’s no secret that you don’t really care for me either.”

Pepper narrowed her eyes. “No, it’s not the same,” she said decisively. “You’ve had it in for me since we first met. I only reacted to you. Why? What did I do to you?”

Natasha sighed. Now that Pepper had put her on the spot, the reasons for her grudge seemed unbelievably petty. No, not seemed. They were.

“It’s really nothing,” she said.

“I want to know.”

“It’s just...” She hesitated, not really accepting that she was actually about to divulge this story to Pepper. But Pepper was waiting expectantly, so she said, “It’s just... back when Darya first started at the school, there was this fundraiser, a bake sale. You remember?”

Pepper nodded. Natasha added, “I volunteered to help organise it because I thought it would help me meet people. And at the first meeting, I’d made a few suggestions people liked, just some things that were slightly different, and then you came in late and said, well, no, that’s not how we do it, and you changed everything back. And everyone just sort of went along with it.”

“Huh,” said Pepper. “I don’t really remember, but I might have - It would have been right around the time Tony and I were getting divorced. I was kind of difficult to deal with then.” She looked at Natasha, waited for a moment, then said, “And?”

“And what?”

“And, so - that’s it?” Pepper said incredulously. “That’s the whole reason you’ve had it in for me for two and a half years? Natasha, that’s...” She trailed off, her expression troubled.

“Look, I’ve never been great at getting along with people, and I sort of figured with Darya changing schools it was a chance for me to make a bit of an effort, and then it turned out, well...”

“No.” Pepper shook her head. “That’s bullshit.” Natasha stared at hearing that come out of proper, cultured Pepper’s mouth. “Because I vetoed some of your suggestions at a bake sale more than two years ago, you haven’t made a single friend out of all Darya’s classmates’ parents? That’s just an excuse you’re using to hide from the real reason.”

Natasha moved away from Pepper, suddenly dismayed that she’d cleaned the house so thoroughly that there was nothing to do to give her a pretence of being busy.

“You’re afraid of getting close to people,” Pepper accused, following her but keeping a little space between them. “Why?”

Natasha opened a cupboard between herself and Pepper and pretended she wasn’t hiding behind the door. “Just drop it, Pepper.”

“Why, so you can go back to blaming me for everything?”

Natasha closed the cupboard sharply, only checking herself at the last moment so that it didn’t slam. She tried to stare Pepper down, knowing that nothing showed on her face, not a flicker of weakness, but Pepper didn’t look away. She was nervous, though, with fingernails tapping restlessly at the countertop giving away her relaxed stance.

“I think I deserve an explanation,” Pepper said, her voice much quieter. Natasha stepped in close to her, meaning to push Pepper away, but instead her hand wrapped around Pepper’s wrist and held it loosely.

“I think you should...” Natasha trailed off, distracted somewhere in between failing to think of anything mean enough and watching Pepper’s lips move.

Pepper waited for her to finish, though. Waited until it became downright weird. Natasha tried to put together a convincing story, but there was something in Pepper’s unwavering gaze that made her question whether it was worth the effort.

“Think what you like,” she said instead. She stepped away from the counter and made her way to the door, employing every subtle trick she knew to convince Pepper it was time to leave. She must have underestimated Pepper, though, because she came towards Natasha with a purposeful tread, not appearing to notice the open door at all.

She stopped in front of Natasha, a bit of a frown on her face like she was trying to work something out. Natasha kept her face carefully neutral; she was good at that. No one had ever been able to get any information out of her that she hadn’t intended for them to get, so why did Pepper look so damn smug?

Pepper leaned in towards her and Natasha leaned away. Pepper smirked and Natasha wanted to kick herself; she knew better than to give ground so easily.

“Am I bothering you?” Pepper asked, her voice a lot deeper than usual. More sensual. Natasha shivered involuntarily and Pepper’s eyes widened. She blinked. Stepped back.

“Natasha...”

“Just go,” Natasha said, manoeuvring Pepper out the door and shutting it quickly behind her. She leaned against the door and replayed that memory - Pepper leaning in, the collar of her shirt offering just a glimpse of collarbone. Her voice, in that tone which could only be described as seductive - “Am I bothering you?”

She went to the window, where she could see Pepper down in the car park, getting into her car, sitting in it for a minute, then driving away.

She went back to the kitchen and poured herself some more coffee. “What the hell just happened?” she wondered aloud to the empty room.

***

It was pretty awkward when Pepper came back a few hours later to pick up Mitchell, but she was still pretending nothing had happened and Natasha followed her lead. She tried to put the incident out of her mind and had middling success.

A few days later Natasha got a call at work from Darya’s school.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, concerned.

“There’s been an incident,” answered the principal. “Darya’s not hurt, but we’d like you to come and collect her as soon as you can.”

So Natasha had to track down her supervisor and ask to leave early, which didn’t make him any happier than it did her. She hurried to the school, worried, even though the principal had assured her that Darya wasn’t hurt. They wouldn’t have called if something wasn’t wrong.

As she walked in to the front office, Natasha could hear Pepper’s voice raised in anger.

“You’re telling me that the one kid to stand up for Mitchell is a bad influence for him? Come on, Gary, give me a little credit here.”

Natasha could hear the principal reply in a lower voice but couldn’t make out the words. Pepper replied, and Natasha heard, “No, maybe those weren’t your exact words, but I can read between the lines quite well. The way I see it, no one at this school has done a damn thing about this situation except for a nine-year-old girl, and now you’re trying to make out that she’s the one in the wrong.”

Natasha caught the receptionist’s eye; she smiled tightly and said, “They won’t be long,” but Natasha was in no mood to wait. If Pepper’s argument with the principal turned out to be completely unrelated to Darya she could always apologise profusely later. She rapped on the door once and opened it.

“Mrs Romanov,” the principal said, looking not at all happy to see her.

“It’s Ms,” Natasha said. “What’s happened?”

“Darya intervened when some of this school’s less pleasant students were giving Mitchell a hard time,” Pepper said primly.

“Well, that is what they say happened,” the principal said.

Natasha saw Pepper’s mouth opening, so she quickly said, “It sounds like you think differently.”

The principal straightened. “Ms Romanov, I need to tell you that your daughter pushed one student over and hit another with her pencil tin.”

“Good for her!” Pepper said.

“You both need to understand how serious this is!” the principal snapped. “We don’t tolerate fighting at this school.”

“But bullying is completely fine, apparently.”

“Pepper, we’d take action against the bullying if Mitchell would alert teachers when it happens. We can’t be everywhere.”

“Of course he’s not going to tell the teachers about it, Gary, come on! Why don’t you be a little proactive about this?”

The principal grabbed some papers from his desk and stacked them. “Ladies, I’m actually late for a meeting. We’ll have to pick this discussion up later. Ms Romanov, Darya will be suspended for the rest of the day and tomorrow. I hope this won’t happen again.”

“That’s completely ridiculous!” Pepper snapped, but the principal was already out the door.

Pepper and Natasha exchanged a glance. Pepper started to speak, stopped, and left the room. Natasha followed her. Darya was waiting in the reception area. When she saw Natasha she ran up and hugged her, hard.

“Can you get Mitchell to come up, please?” Pepper asked the receptionist stiffly. “I think I’ll take him home now.”

Natasha waited while trying not to be too obvious about it. Mitchell came up with his schoolbag and they headed out as a group.

Natasha looked at Pepper as they descended the school steps. It was the first time she’d seen Pepper since that day in her kitchen. She still looked angry, her face tense and flushed, but she looked good anyway. Pepper always looked good.

Pepper looked over at her. “There’s a park we like not far from home,” she said. “Want to follow us?”

“Sure,” said Natasha.

Once they were at the park and Darya and Mitchell were off climbing the jungle gym, Pepper found a seat on a bench facing the playground and Natasha joined her.

“It’s strange to think that you’ve given your child everything you possibly could, and they still have problems you can’t help them with,” Pepper said with no preamble. “When I look back to when I was in elementary school, I don’t remember it being anything like what Mitchell’s gone through. Is that just nostalgia? Are these kids unusually vicious? What?”

The topic was hitting a little too close to home for Natasha, but she wanted to comfort Pepper. “Kids can be vicious, given the chance,” she said assuredly.

“But is this a normal part of growing up?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Natasha had always been good at reading people and knowing how to play them, and she’d had reason to develop the skill. She could tell that confiding a little bit in Pepper would gain her trust, and she did it almost without thinking about it. “My childhood wasn’t exactly normal.”

“Really?” said Pepper. “Why’s that?”

Natasha wondered why she’d told Pepper that. Pepper wasn’t a mark she needed to manipulate, damn it. Pepper was maybe a friend. Maybe she could be something more.

But confiding in one’s friends was possibly the thing to do. Natasha had never quite figured it out; she’d done a poor job of fitting in when she’d first arrived in America until she’d turned all her abilities towards becoming just like everyone else, losing the accent, learning the right stories to tell and wearing the right clothes and doing all the right things so she didn’t stand out, . She’d done it for years but it was hard enough to fake normality around acquaintances; if Pepper was going to be anything more than that she didn’t want to have to be constantly worried about acting a certain way.

“I left school when I was thirteen,” Natasha said, watching Pepper from the corner of her eye so she could monitor her reaction. So far, Pepper seemed surprised, eyebrows raised, but not too much. “I still read a lot, in Chechen and I’d learned to read Russian by then, and a little bit of English, but...”

“You’re Russian?” Pepper asked, surprised.

“Chechen,” Natasha snapped, surprised at herself. She hadn’t realised she still cared that much about independence, but apparently she did.

“Okay,” said Pepper. “Sorry. I didn’t realise. You don’t have an accent.”

“I know. I made sure of that, once I left.” Pepper was looking at her with enough horror in her expression that Natasha said, “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to - I was just trying to say that there’s no point asking me what’s normal for a kid Mitchell’s age.”

“Right,” Pepper said, too quickly. “Okay. No - of course.”

On the playground, Darya went down the slide squealing and waving her arms. She stood at the bottom and shouted up to Mitchell, “Come on, your turn!”

“I worry about her,” Natasha said. “She’s nearly as old as I was when my parents died. How am I going to know how to raise a teenager?”

“I don’t think anyone knows how to raise a teenager,” Pepper said absently. “You’ll do okay.”

Mitchell slid down the slide, a lot slower than Darya had, and Pepper called out, “Five more minutes, Mitchell, then we’ll have to go home.” The kids raced back up the ladder to finish up whatever game they were playing, and Pepper said, “Natasha, I don’t know if I’ve completely got the wrong idea or not, but would you like to go see a movie with me? Maybe on Friday night?”

“Um,” Natasha said.

“Feel absolutely free to say no,” Pepper added quickly.

“I’d like that,” said Natasha.

Pepper smiled. “So would I,” she said. “I’ll call you later, and we can sort it out. Okay?”

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Natasha. “But... we didn’t figure anything out. About Mitchell. I’m sorry, I got distracted by my own...”

“Natasha,” said Pepper. “It’s fine. Please, don’t worry about it. I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Yeah,” Natasha agreed. “See you.”

***

Pepper offered to have Darya babysat along with Mitchell at her house, which made things a bit easier. On the other hand, Natasha had to make sure that Darya had everything that she needed as well as getting herself ready for the first date she’d been on in years.

“Why are you and Pepper going to the movies?” Darya asked for the fifth time.

Natasha wasn’t sure how to answer that. Should she tell Darya the truth? What if it didn’t go well? What if it did go well? What if Darya got upset?

“We’re friends,” Natasha said instead. “We’re going to go out together - as friends.”

“You could come to Mitchell’s house with me and we could all hang out together,” Darya said.

“Pepper and I want to have some time with just the two of us,” Natasha said. “You and Mitchell can have some time with just the two of you, too.”

“And the babysitter.”

“Well, yes, and the babysitter.”

What Pepper hadn’t mentioned was that the person watching Darya and Mitchell while they were out was Tony Stark. He grinned when he saw Darya and rubbed his hands together. “Awesome, you’re here. Now, who wants to make something explode?”

“Pepper?” Natasha asked over Darya and Mitchell’s excited squeals.

“Don’t worry,” Pepper said. “He hides it well, but Tony’s actually good with kids. And very responsible when he needs to be.” She said that last with a glare over her shoulder in Tony’s direction, which Natasha found not at all reassuring. “He’ll convince them that they’re doing something far more dangerous than it actually is. They’ll be fine.”

Natasha still had some doubts, but Tony had both kids in gloves and safety glasses before she and Pepper were out the door. Pepper looked completely unconcerned so Natasha decided to let it go and hope for the best.

Natasha realised they might have made a mistake by not selecting a movie in advance around the time they reached the lobby and found that only two movies were due to start any time soon. Their choices were a romantic comedy or something with French subtitles, and Natasha studied Pepper from the corner of her eye to see which would get her judged less.

From the slight pursing of Pepper’s lips, she was making the same calculations, which struck Natasha as stupid. What was the point of going out with someone and not being able to be honest about what she actually liked? So Natasha said, “I wouldn’t mind seeing the French film.”

Pepper released a breath and actually looked kind of relieved. “Sounds good to me,” she said.

Afterwards, they went for a light dinner and coffee. Natasha had learned during the movie that Pepper spoke French, and that provided plenty of conversational fodder. Pepper had done a lot of travelling, both for business with Stark Industries and just for fun. She’d even been to Russia, once or twice, although Natasha was more interested in hearing about Venice. At least, until Pepper had let it slip that her vacation there had actually been her honeymoon with Tony. That made Natasha feel awkward.

“You two are still very close, aren’t you?” she asked. “I mean, I don’t want to sound jealous, but...”

“I suppose we are,” Pepper agreed. “That’s a bit unusual, isn’t it? It’s not - being with Tony seemed like the perfect life. You know, he’s wealthy and famous, and he tries to hide it but he’s actually a good person. But we weren’t happy together, and now things are better. We put up with each other a lot more easily.”

“It seems like you do better than putting up with each other.”

“Well, yes, we do. But that would never have happened if we were trying to be a happy married couple.” Pepper gave Natasha a long look. “Does it bother you?”

“No,” said Natasha quickly, because she knew she was supposed to. Then she took the time to figure out an honest answer. “Maybe, a little bit. Tony just seems like - a lot of competition. You said it, he’s rich and famous and a genius. I’m not...”

She trailed off, embarrassed, and Pepper shook her head. “It’s no competition. I don’t think of Tony like that anymore. It’s actually sort of hard to believe I ever did.” She shrugged. “We decided we had to figure out how to get along for Mitchell’s sake, and it turned out to be far easier once we were actually divorced. That’s all.”

“How is Mitchell?” Natasha asked, remembering what they’d talked about at the park.

“Oh,” Pepper sighed. “You know, still the same. It’s nearly impossible to get him to talk about anything that’s going on, but to tell you the truth I’m always a little bit relieved when he clams up, because if he did talk to me I probably couldn’t help him anyway.”

Natasha wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I have the same problem with Darya,” she offered tentatively. “Everything is so different for her that sometimes, I can’t think how to talk to her.” As soon as she’d said it, she began to regret it. Pepper had enough on her mind and probably didn’t need Natasha bringing up her own childhood issues. But Pepper was just nodding and smiling sadly.

“It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?” Pepper asked. “I mean, my parents were well enough off, middle class and all but not rich by a long shot. Now, I’ve got everything I could possibly dream of. I can give Mitchell anything in the world, and I still can’t fix this. And you...” She stopped then, biting her lip like she was afraid of overstepping, so Natasha went on instead.

“When I was Darya’s age I could never imagine the sorts of opportunities she could have, but I’m still so sure that I’m not doing enough for her,” Natasha admitted. “She’s a great kid, but I know she doesn’t quite fit in with her peers, and I don’t know what to do about that. Or if I should do anything. And sometimes I worry that I’ve told her too much about my past, things she shouldn’t have to know about, but I was never taught that children should be protected from anything.”

Pepper laughed a little bit. “It’s a wonder anyone becomes a parent by choice, when it seems impossible to get it right,” she commented. “Tony’s parents had everything, and they tried to give him everything. Now I think his entire purpose in being Mitchell’s dad is to make sure he has the things he never got from his own parents. And that doesn’t seem to be working out so well. Now I wonder if Mitchell will grow up to send his own kids off to boarding school and do all the things with them that Tony and I have decided against.” She sighed shakily and Natasha drained the last of her coffee in one gulp.

“This is getting too serious,” she said. “Let’s get out of here, okay?”

They paid and left the restaurant. There was a short walk to the car, and Pepper’s knuckles brushed against Natasha’s as they walked. Natasha glanced sideways at the touch, startled, but then she turned her hand and wound her fingers through Pepper’s and the other woman smiled at her.

When Natasha pulled up in front of Pepper’s house, she reached to open the door, but Pepper took her hand again, and tugged.

Natasha leaned across and Pepper met her halfway, pressing her mouth against Natasha’s and opening it just enough to allow just a hint of tongue. Natasha made it a point to try to take control of the kiss, putting her hands to Pepper’s shoulders and parting her lips to chase Pepper’s tongue with her own. Pepper wasn’t a pushover, though, and a nip of her teeth made Natasha gasp.

Natasha felt Pepper’s hands run up her arms and then - yeah, that was Pepper’s hand on her breast. She pulled back, somewhat reluctant but not willing to go any further while parked on the side of the street. Pepper looked at her with dark eyes and a wicked expression; Natasha hadn’t realised Pepper was capable of looking like that.

“It’s getting late,” Natasha said breathlessly. “I’d better take Darya home.”

Pepper nodded. “We should do this again sometime.”

They walked up to the house together. Pepper’s hand brushed against Natasha’s and she knew this time that Pepper was doing it deliberately. “You remember what we were talking about earlier?” Pepper asked as they reached the front porch.

“Um...”

“About Mitchell and Darya, and how there’s some things we can’t just give them.”

“Oh. Yes.”

“Maybe we should focus on what we can.”

It wasn’t a question, but Pepper’s expression seemed to demand a response, so Natasha said, “Okay?”

“Want to help me?”

***

Darya could barely contain her excitement. It was still a little early in the year for going to the beach, but Darya was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and could easily paddle or even swim if she got the urge. Natasha had made sure to pack a towel and change of clothes just in case.

Mitchell was dressed similarly and Pepper was carrying a basket of sandwiches and snacks. Natasha had made sure to bring sunscreen and a blanket to sit on, and they found a spot to set up on the sand. Although it was a Saturday, they’d made sure to leave early, and it wasn’t too crowded yet.

Mitchell and Darya dashed off as soon as they had Natasha and Pepper’s okay, squealing and jumping over piles of kelp. Pepper stretched out on the blanket straight away while Natasha watched the kids run.

Pepper’s Stark phone buzzed and she pulled it out with an apologetic look at Pepper. Natasha sat down while Pepper took care of whatever was happening at Stark Industries - some problem with a supplier, by the sound of it. Pepper ended the call and said, “I’ve got to send an email quickly. It won’t take long.”

“Don’t mind me,” Natasha said, pulling out a novel and settling in to read a few pages.

It was a peaceful day, even though Pepper got two more phone calls and sent five more emails. Natasha supposed that Pepper would never be able to have an entire day completely free of business. In between phone calls they played cards and talked. Darya and Mitchell constructed an elaborate system of castles and canals in the wet sand.

At lunchtime they called the kids back to hand out sandwiches and reapply their sunscreen. They ran off again, straight for the ocean, and splashed in up to their knees.

The day had warmed up considerably and the water was beginning to look pretty appealing. Natasha hadn’t thought to bring a change of clothes for herself, and she couldn’t decide whether or not she cared. But to her surprise, Pepper got up and raced after the kids, leaving her sandals behind on the blanket.

Pepper waded into the water and the kids immediately splashed her from head to toe. She shrieked and picked Mitchell up, dangling him threateningly in front of a wave. Darya laughed and pulled on Pepper’s arm, and all three of them fell down in the surf.

Natasha didn’t want to miss out on the fun, so she ran over and helped the kids gang up on Pepper, although it quickly turned into a free-for-all with everyone splashing everyone else.

Natasha withdrew from the water, drenched hair dangling in front of her face, shivering in her clammy clothes, and rubbed herself dry with Darya’s towel. Pepper followed, drying herself off with an extra towel and pulling on a large flannel shirt, because of course Pepper came prepared.

The kids were still playing, and Natasha watched in awe. They could probably go all day and into the night, but Natasha didn’t think she could handle that.

“I didn’t bring any other clothes,” Natasha said. “We’ll have to go soon. I’m soaked. And I’ve got sand all over me. Between my toes, in my hair, I’m pretty sure there’s some in my underwear...” She caught Pepper’s eye and blushed.

Pepper, for her part, gave Natasha a knowing grin but didn’t comment. “We’ll have to get you home, then,” she said instead. She held out a hand and Natasha took it, following her back to their things on the beach to begin packing up. Natasha watched Darya play as she followed up the blanket, and Pepper followed her gaze.

“Pepper, this was...” Natasha trailed off, because she couldn’t think of anything to say about the day that felt quite right. Across the sand, she heard Darya squeal, “Best day ever!” and couldn’t help but grin.

“Yes,” she said. “The best day ever.”