Bruised and Burned but We're Bold and Brave
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
Bruised and Burned but We're Bold and Brave by normalisoverrated
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Black Widow (Movie 2021)
18 Dec 2023
Tags
Summary
“You were pregnant.”
13 years ago those words had broken Natasha’s heart and numbed it to ice. 13 years ago Madame told Natasha they’d killed the child in her womb during her graduation ceremony. 13 years ago Dreykov forced Natasha to watch as the Winter Soldier was wiped of all memory of her.
She’d had cause to curse the Red Room a thousand times over but even she hadn't seen this coming. She'd never imagined Madame lied. She hadn’t considered Dreykov would want to keep the Winter Soldier’s child.
When Steve asked her to look for Bucky, she didn’t expect to find him. She wasn't prepared to find a 10 year old with red hair, green eyes, and her James's features.
She thought she’d lost her child forever, before she even had her, but it was all a lie. Now suddenly she’s mother to a traumatised 10 year old girl more familiar with guns than hugs. Her child has spent 3 years frozen in cryogenic storage and the other 10 training as a Widow.
And Natasha would go to the ends of the earth and fight any monster to protect her daughter but even she might not be up to the task of protecting her baby girl. Because the Red Room is still out there, and Dreykov will stop at nothing.
Set after CA:TWS
Series
-
Leaving Loss and Learning Life by normalisoverrated
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Black Widow (Movie 2021)
30 Sep 2024
Tags
Summary
The Red Room is gone. They won. It's over.
Natasha and her family are free.
But taking down the Red Room is one thing, learning what life looks like without it is another. Freedom is not something they were ever trained for.
Natasha is still figuring out how to parent her traumatised daughter, who seems more soldier than child most days.
Bucky is pulled between fighting Hydra and the woman and daughter he loves more than anything.
Steffie has little practical understanding of safety.
Yelena has only just started exploring a world free of chemical subjugation, a world of food and fashion and choices and unexpected connections.
Melina is settling (back) into being a mother and grandmother, but resents the limitations of her ill-health.All of them are traumatised. All of them have a lot to learn and overcome. But together, they might just be able to face anything.
Or: The (Ex) Assassins' guide to family life, featuring: bribing a child to watch cartoons, top hats, home renovations, many phone calls, Christmas fluff, the occasional break in (or out), sparring for comfort, children being way too sneaky for their own good, and a few things done completely out of order.
Series
-
Hissing Hatred and Healing Hearts by normalisoverrated
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Black Widow (Movie 2021)
03 Nov 2025
Tags
Summary
America wasn't like the sitcoms Wanda watched as a child. There were no laugh tracks, falling was painful not slapstick, everything didn’t come out OK after 20 minutes, and the guy in the hospital didn’t go home at the end of the episode. If the Avengers were one big, happy family, then Wanda wasn’t a part of it.
Steve and Sam didn’t trust her and they were right to. Natasha was perfectly professional, as if Wanda hadn’t locked her into her worst memory and walked away. Clint had to return to his family and the other boys were rarely around. And Pietro, the life always sprinting parallel to her own, as crucial as oxygen, lay unnaturally still and silent, his mind closed off.
And then, one day, Natasha brought her daughter to work. And for the first time in four weeks, Wanda felt hopeful. Wanda was good with kids. Really good. And the others adored Steffie. Maybe if the kid warmed up to Wanda, the others would too.
… That wasn't precisely what happened.
Or how Wanda and Steffie hate each other until they don’t, and their sharp edges cut until they stitch.
(Can be read without reading the previous fics in the series, but you'll miss some of the context and humour.)
Series
-
Songs, Sightings, and Soaring Steps by normalisoverrated
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Black Widow (Movie 2021)
22 Dec 2025
Tags
Summary
Life can be a little unpredictable when just your immediate family includes three former assassins and two current Avengers. Add in sisters, cousins, the Avengers, and the world outside it all and you really need to know how to roll with the punches. Luckily, the Barnes-Barton-Belova-Vostokoff-Maximoff-Rogers-Wilson-Stark clan are old hands at that.
Oneshots from the Bruised and Burned but we're Bold and Brave universe. Probably won't make sense without reading all the rest of the series first.
Series