Arthur and Natasha stepped away from the chaos, leaving Banner and Betty to reclaim a bit of peace after that whole storm of destruction. The two walked through the debris.
When they finally reached a quieter area—a bench in front of a fountain—Natasha sat down carefully, crossing her legs and letting out a long sigh. Arthur remained standing for a moment, watching the sky before sitting beside her.
"It's been so long since I stopped to breathe like this…" she said, studying the dust on her hands.
Arthur let out a soft laugh.
"It's been so long since you stopped to breathe… and since I stopped to talk to you about absolutely nothing." He nudged her shoulder lightly. "I think I missed this."
Natasha raised an eyebrow, but her smile betrayed that his words had hit a spot she preferred to pretend didn't exist.
"I missed it too…" she admitted.
For a few seconds, they remained silent, simply listening to the wind. It wasn't tense—just comfortable.
Then, unexpectedly, Natasha broke the calm:
"Why did you disappear?" She turned toward him, eyes locked on his. "Why didn't you warn me? Not a message. Not a note. Nothing."
Arthur sighed deeply.
"Nat… in case you didn't notice…" He lifted a finger, pointing at her with a tired half-smile. "Our last goodbye wasn't exactly a warm farewell."
"Kenshin…" she began, but he raised a hand, stopping her.
"Nat, you tried to kill me." he said, in the driest, most matter-of-fact tone possible.
Natasha closed her eyes and shook her head, as if lightly slapped by the memory.
"I had my reasons…" she answered, embarrassed but still stubborn in her usual way.
Arthur gave a short chuckle.
"You always have reasons for everything… even when your reasons are 'orders from above' that you hated following."
She opened a small smile.
Arthur rested his elbows on his knees and stared at the ground.
"After that night… some things happened." His voice lowered, heavier. "I finally got what I wanted. The revenge I spent years planning."
Natasha watched him with total focus. She knew that tone.
"And when it was over…" Arthur continued. "I realized I had nothing left to do there. No target, no purpose, no motivation. So I left it all behind. JCC, friends, reputation… everything. I wanted to disappear from my old life. And… " He let out an ironic laugh. "I even changed my name."
Natasha's eyes widened a little.
"You really did?" she asked, genuinely surprised.
"I did. My name is Arthur Morgan now, and preferably, call me that from now on." He lifted his chin as if proud of his own uselessness. "I figured no one would associate me with… all that anymore."
He gave another small, tired but amused smile:
"It worked really well… until Fury found me and invaded my house like he owned the place. Things unfolded in a weird way that day, so don't even ask."
Natasha laughed.
"Right… Fury loves showing up in people's living rooms like some ghost of Christmas past."
"He found me in under two months," Arthur grumbled. "Two. Months. I spent nearly three years dodging JCC people and three months fleeing Russia… but the bald bastard tracked me like I'd left a postcard behind."
"He's annoying like that." Natasha sighed. "And efficient. Which is even worse. But… why didn't he ever mention it?"
"Because he doesn't remember." Arthur laughed.
"He doesn't remember? How?"
"I asked a mutant friend to tweak his memories a bit. After that, all I had to do was break into SHIELD's database and erase anything about that encounter."
"… You haven't changed at all." Natasha burst into laughter.
Arthur stared at her for a few seconds…
"Back to the point… The main reason I didn't come looking for you…" he finally said. "Is that I didn't know if you wanted me back."
Natasha's expression softened into something quietly melancholic.
"Arthur…" she began, her voice gentler than she intended. "All of that… I didn't want it to end that way."
She swallowed hard.
"I never wanted to kill you. Not for a single second."
"But you tried." Arthur replied, eyes drifting back to the sky.
"I know…" she admitted, sincerity raw and painful. "And that's something that's never stopped hurting me."
They sat there, side by side, sharing a silence heavy with complicated feelings.
Until Arthur exhaled lightly and nudged her shoulder again.
"Look at us, talking like two functional adults…" he said with a theatrically incredulous expression. "This should be illegal."
Natasha laughed. For real. Short, muffled, but genuine.
"You're right," she agreed.
Arthur turned his face toward her.
"Nat."
"Hm?"
"I… missed you."
Natasha fought the smile, but she couldn't hide the truth in her eyes.
"I missed you too, idiot."
Arthur and Natasha laughed together, and when the laughter faded, they found themselves staring at each other as if the world around them had vanished. Their breathing filled the silence. The distance between their faces shrank, almost inevitably.
They leaned in, just a few centimeters more…
And then—
"ARTHUR?!"
The voice cut through the air like a whip.
Both froze.
Arthur blinked and immediately turned his face away. Natasha frowned, surprised and irritated by the sudden interruption.
They turned toward the source of the shout.
And there she was.
Spider-Woman landed on the ground in a light hop—but the expression on her face, visible even through the mask, was pure horror.
In a dramatic—and extremely reckless—gesture, she ripped off her mask with one hand.
Gwen Stacy, sweaty, breathless, and covered in dust, stared at Arthur as if she'd just caught him setting fire to a children's hospital.
Natasha's eyes widened.
"…Did she just take her mask off in front of you?" she muttered, incredulous.
Arthur's lips curled into a slow, mischievous smile before he let out a short laugh.
"You don't even try to hide your secret identity anymore. Saves time."
"Very funny," Gwen shot back, narrowing her eyes. "If I had arrived ten seconds later, you'd be kissing another woman without my permission!"
Natasha blinked twice.
Then twice more.
As if trying to decode alien syntax.
"Permission?" she repeated, baffled.
Arthur opened his mouth to respond, but Gwen was faster—much faster.
She pointed at Arthur, then at Natasha, then back at Arthur, like someone trying to assemble an emotional puzzle while too irritated to do it calmly.
"Yes, permission," Gwen replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Because he's mine. And I don't share without talking first."
The sentence made Natasha pale for a second.
Or blush.
Hard to tell.
Arthur lifted a hand in a calming gesture.
"Gwen, relax. We were just talking."
"Sure," Gwen countered, crossing her arms. "Talking with your nose practically touching hers. Very intimate conversation."
Natasha turned to Arthur, her expression oscillating between surprise, disbelief, and… maybe a hint of irritation.
"You… and her…?" Natasha pointed at Gwen, almost automatically. "You have that kind of… arrangement?"
Arthur inhaled to answer.
He never got the chance.
Gwen was already beside Natasha, grabbing her by the arm as if she were an old friend who urgently needed to be dragged away from a bad influence.
"This is girl talk!" Gwen declared, in a tone that accepted no arguments. "Come on, redhead. We're going to have a quick and extremely necessary chat."
Natasha's eyes widened.
"What? Wait! I—hey!"
Arthur opened his mouth to protest, but Gwen raised a hand toward him without even looking back.
"Stay there. Don't move." she ordered with absolute authority.
Natasha tried resisting, but it was useless.
Gwen's strength—still soaring post-battle—was far greater than her appearance suggested. She dragged the Black Widow with absolute determination, like hauling a particularly rebellious shopping bag.
Arthur watched the whole thing, bewildered… until he started laughing to himself.
He knew he had completely lost control of the situation.
Gwen glanced over her shoulder and threw a final warning:
"Don't you dare move, Arthur! We're coming back to settle this."
Natasha, being hauled away like a VIP prisoner, could only mutter as they disappeared:
"What do you mean permission? What do you mean he's mine? What do you mean settle this?!"
Gwen simply replied:
"Relax. I'm going to explain EVERYTHING."
And then they vanished behind the trees.
Arthur remained seated, still smiling.
"…This is going to be a lot of work," he murmured.
But honestly?
He didn't mind more work at all.
(End of Chapter)