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Laura can hear Clint’s groan as the call comes in, can see him rub the sleep from his eyes as he mumbles his “good morning.”
She laughs, and it makes him smile a little bit. There’s shuffling in the background - weather report would indicate 99.8% chance of Nat - and as he readjusts the laptop he’s on she sees that he’s still lying in bed.
He was lying on his stomach, though. Progress.
Besides, it was what...six am, where they were? He wasn’t awake yet. They’d be lucky if he remembers later that he called her. (Although she’ll also be lucky if he doesn’t, because that means he’ll call again today. But one call a day on HD video was more than most wives of spies and superheroes could ask for, so she’s certainly not complaining...especially not with Fury sitting in her kitchen.)
“Long day ahead?” she asks gently, smiling into the screen on the counter. Clint chuckles.
“Aren’t they all?”
“Well, lucky for you, the kids are playing outside,” she teases, and he laughs a bit harder, running a hand through his messy hair and then making air quotes.
“Lucky, right.”
“You won’t be half as lucky if you don’t get your ass out of bed soon!” comes Natasha’s shout, clearly from more than a few feet away.
“I am talking to my wife, Nat, please, kindly fuck off.”
“Yeah, yeah. We still have to be there in less than an hour. I’m watching you,” she replies, obviously agitated. Laura knew she sometimes felt more like a babysitter than a partner, particularly on difficult mornings - not that Nat would ever use those words with Clint himself. Laura understands all of that, so she doesn’t bother mentioning it.
“You’re not watching me, Nat. The door is closed.”
“Still watching you!”
Clint mimics Nat silently, his face expressive as he mouths her words.
“So basically I just get to tell you that we are indeed still alive and that I’ll talk to you later.”
“Hey, you’re forgetting something.”
“Okay, this looks bad...I love you. And I love the kids, remind the kids I love them. Even the, uh, little inchoate one.”
“Inchoate? That’s a word I don’t expect at six am.”
“It’s not six am for you, is it?” Clint jokes, the implicit ba-dum-tsh following after the comment.
“Aunty Nat loves everyone, too!” Natasha shouts, her voice becoming louder as the sentence progresses, until she, with wet, seemingly-black hair, is leaning into Clint’s shoulder and waving at Laura.
After Laura returns the greeting, she pulls back off the bed and drags Clint with her by his undershirt.
“I love you both!” Laura yelps after them, not entirely sure they heard - but entirely sure they know. The tea kettle sitting on the stove starts to squeal, and she clicks out of the video chat and switches off the burner.
Her back is turned when Fury breaks his silence.
“Mrs Barton, I’m not entirely sure it’s my place to be informing you of anything on the matter, but I do wonder whether you have concerns in regards to -”
“Them having sex?” she finishes for him, and for whatever it’s worth, he actually looks taken aback. “I know.”
“Whaddaya know?” Cooper inquires, racing through the living room into the kitchen and throwing his arms around Laura, his sister in hot pursuit.
“Everything,” Laura deadpans, hinting at a joke she realizes he doesn’t know there’s a punchline to, and Cooper turns to Fury.
“I thought you knew everything.”
Now, Fury retains his usual steel countenance.
“I do, sometimes,” he backs her up, “it just so happens I’m not the only one.”
Cooper considers the answer, and accepts it after a couple moments of his concentrated deliberation.
“Can you make us lunch, Mama?” Lila asks, shoving her brother aside to get closer to their mother, and Laura nods.
“Go change clothes and get cleaned up first,” she says, and sends them off to - hopefully - their rooms; then, she turns back to Fury. The question of his that had been interrupted is still sitting in his eyes, so she doesn’t restate anything either of them has said.
“It’s my doing. I set them up. He brought her back here, after saving her. There was clearly a dynamic there that deserved, begged to be explored. She deserves someone who truly loves her, and she has multiple someones now...I mean, yes, they both were hesitant at first, and I won’t say I never felt a bit jealous that there was lust involved, in a way that has just about never factored into my relationship with my husband, but I think all of us feel freer for it.”
“You willingly gave your husband permission to sleep with another woman?”
“Explicitly, yes. Besides, he’s not the only one who has. It was all of us together, at first. Sometimes, still is, but she’s had other people to be spending time with, too, which is good for her. And Clint and I, we wanted this princess,” she rubs a hand against her belly.
“She’ll be named after Nat, too. And Nat’s their godmother, all of them. She’s around too much, they love her too much...”
“And you’re okay with them…doing whatever exactly it is they do?”
“If you’re referring to their sexual and romantic relationship, yes, although I’ll be candid and say that some missions do concern me.”
Fury smiles a tight-lipped smile - he never expects her bluntness. No one does, really...and after their previous discussion about it, he does seem to have decided against swearing in the house, so there probably isn't that much in his head that he could say. Laura leans back against the kitchen counter.
“They may be superheroes, spies, agents, whatever, but we’re on equal footing here, per unanimous vote. So yes, I’m okay with it. I saw that there was...unresolved tension, and a deep bond, and I gave the go-ahead on the resolution. Covertly. Shamefully covertly, actually, considering that they’re spies.”
She puts a hand on her hip - the one not steadying her against the counter - and sighs pointedly.
“I wouldn’t still be here if I couldn’t handle it, Nicholas. I’m not just Clint’s wife - I have to be an alibi, a secret identity, a functionally single mom, a farm owner...if he’s going to be away, saving the world, he may as well be around someone he loves. I won’t have either of them be any more miserable on my account, for some dated, dusty interpretation of vows that I’ve made.”
“Hmm,” he answers with as little emotion visible as usual, showing an intent to indicate that he was listening than to reply.
Lila whines at Cooper from back in their rooms, and Laura prepares herself to switch gears.
“All I’m saying is, the Barton family reserves the right to self-determination. Freedom, free will, that’s at the core of what superheroism is all about, isn’t it? We may as well conduct our lives like we care about exercising it while we’re at it.”