The way that the joy in Alice's face slowly seeps away just tells Natasha how much she wears her emotions on her sleeve; she doesn't even try to hide them, and Natasha can't help but find that somewhat endearing. She watches her closely as she goes through phases, and after a few moments Natasha can't help but give a sad smile. "You love him very dearly." It's more of an observation than a statement, and Natasha looks down once more. A part of her wishes that Alice wasn't so likable. Something in Natasha was hoping that she would be insufferable, because then maybe it would be easier to accept that she's slowly growing feelings for Alice's husband, which feels... wrong. Alice being here to reassure her with outward efforts to be involved in Natasha's life simply seems too good to be true. Things like this don't happen.

And yet here they are. Alice's smile returns, a strange sort of warmth that doesn't seem to match the feel of her skin coming with it, and Natasha returns it with her own. "Yes, I'm really going to stay." She shifts, letting go of one hand but still holding onto the other for reasons that even Natasha doesn't really understand, and she leans back against the couch with her free arm draped over it.

"I don't have anywhere else to go," she admits. "After what happened in DC, I can't really show my face anywhere. I have to wait for the heat to subside before I do that, I don't have a mission to get to..." her eyes divert again, and her smile fades. "I don't even have an agency to answer to." She looks back at Alice just as quickly.

"I don't have a permanent place, I've got an apartment in DC, one in New York, but all of them are - were owned by Shield and they were all practically empty anyway. So when Jasper finally told me everything... I have nothing to lose, right? So yes, I'm going to stay. Besides." Natasha gives a quiet, huffed laugh. "Since he can tolerate being around me, I'm not too worried about how the rest of your family is going to react."