Topic: A Hint of Family

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:01 EST

((I forgot to post this when we played it! Oops!))

The main problem with explaining Rhy'Din to anyone from the outside was that generally it was a difficult concept to get your head around. Nat neatly circumvented this with Colin by simply telling him they'd be using technology to get to another planet, which was almost correct. Thankfully, the Grangers had finally managed to sort out the portal in the basement of the big house on the Grove so that it wouldn't set off the security alarm if the person coming through was wearing an activated gadget that marked them as friendly. Steve had made sure Nat had one of these, which meant Colin and Coco's first trip through the portal did not culminate in screaming alarms. Just a few steps through a portal and into a high-tech basement.

Colin had been part of A.E.G.I.S., and before that MI5, long enough to be able to accept the concept Nat had explained to him, however unbelievable it might seem, but he still wasn't entirely sure what to expect. She had warned him there might be some vertigo and some nausea, but he was more concerned about his dog than himself. He'd been trained as a Royal Marine, after all; he could handle a little dizziness. What he didn't expect was to end up in a place that was more high-tech than anything he'd ever seen before, even at A.E.G.I.S.

"Coco, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," he murmured, more to himself than to his dog.

Nat chuckled gently, crouching to offer Coco one of the treats she'd "found" in Steve's room at the HQ, reasoning that it might help settle her stomach a bit.

"C'mon, Dorothy, there's more to see than this," she told Colin, rising to her feet to take his hand. "It's more like old-school England on the Grove than anything."

"How old?" he asked, pausing a moment to wait for the wave of vertigo to pass, his fingers tangling with hers. England was home, of course; it was where he'd been born and spent the better part of his life, but just how old was old"

"Uh ....like 1900 old?" she ventured. "Don't let it fool you, though. They have a whole lot of science and magic holding it all up. You good to go?" She tilted her head, waiting for the color in his face to normalize a little.

Though he couldn't know it yet, there were parts of Rhy'Din that seemed much older than that, but this was Maple Grove - a special place of its own, just outside the city of Rhy'Din proper. "Yeah, I think so. A little like jumping from a plane without a parachute, isn't it?" Not that he had ever done such a thing.

"A little, yeah," she agreed. "Only Rhy'Din doesn't let you die on landing." She squeezed his hand. "C'mon. It's not that far to walk, but this place is beautiful."

"Why have I never heard of this?" he asked, assuming it was Top Secret - so secret only a select few on Earth even knew of its existence. The color was coming back into this face now that the dizziness had passed, and he gave her hand an answering squeeze to let her know he was ready for the tour.

"Because Rhy'Din technically doesn't exist as far as Earth is concerned," she told him, leading the way out of the basement and up the stairs, Coco padding along with them. "It isn't just another planet. Are you familiar with the multiverse theory?"

To her credit, the dog didn't seem phased in the least by their weird form of travel, her tail wagging happily just to be going for an outing with her favorite humans.

"The theory, yes," Colin replied, falling into step with Nat and Coco. "You're saying it's not just a theory, aren't you?"

He was very quick. Nat smiled at him as she lead him across the paneled hall of the manor and out into the sunshine.

"Rhy'Din is the hub of the multiverse," she explained. "Anything is possible here, and I mean that literally. They have their share of troubles, but they're well equipped to deal with it. And this is Maple Grove, where the Granger family live. because Olivia Storm works for Jon Granger, they invited her and her family to live here, too."

It wasn't that difficult to figure out really, considering everything she'd told him so far, but it was also dangerous information, if it were to get into the wrong hands. Colin came to a halt, brows furrowed thoughtfully, as he mentally tried to put the pieces together. "Wait, Jonathan Granger" The actor?" he asked, looking either incredulous or confused.

"That's the one." Nat nodded back toward the manor they'd just left. "That's his house. Well, kind of. He lives there with his great-uncle and his family."

"They say he's a recluse," Colin said, though he didn't really follow or stay abreast of entertainment news much. He had far more important things to do with his time, but he did enjoy going to the movies every now and then.

"Not really. He just lives here. He's a director at the theater in Rhy'Din City these days - Liv's his P.A." Nat considered Colin for a moment. "You okay' This is kind of a lot to process, I know."

"No, I'm fine," he replied, falling back into step beside her again. He'd certainly had to process more information than that before. "So, this is where Captain Rogers disappears to when he's not at H.Q.?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "Also where Johnny Storm appears from when he's needed. They've built their lives and their families here, and they're safer here than they would be on Earth. After Lucy was attacked the first time, Steve moved them to Rhy'Din."

He arched a brow at this bit of information, but didn't seem terribly shocked by it. It figured that the Avengers had a few secrets and that they'd do everything in their power to keep their families safe, but he wasn't expecting this. "And now that Hydra is no longer assumed a threat?" he asked. Though they assumed that much, it was too soon yet to be sure.

"Once the clean up is over, I think it's pretty likely Steve will find another way to fill his time when he's not required on Earth," Nat assumed. "He's been a soldier for way too long. He deserves a home and a family, and time to spend with them."

"And Storm?" he asked, assuming Johnny lived here, too, since she had already mentioned his wife. He knew that particular Avenger didn't technically work for A.E.G.I.S., though he was a member of the Fantastic Four. Still, he had to pay his bills somehow, didn't he, even in this place"

Nat grinned at him. "Flame Boy's a firefighter for the city," she told him in amusement. "Damn good one, by the sound of things. And his eldest daughter's part time with the fire department for a while, too."

"That makes sense," he replied regarding Johnny's day job. "For a while?" he echoed, unsure what she meant by that exactly. He didn't know that much about the Storms; no more than anyone else did, anyway. He knew Nat was friends with the family though, so he assumed he'd probably be getting to know them better.

"She's going back to school in the fall," she told him. Nat certainly did seem to know a lot about the two families. "She doesn't know it yet, but all her tuition for the next three years is paid up in advance, so she won't have to work too many hours just to live."

"Paid by who?" he asked, wondering if it was Nat who was being generous or A.E.G.I.S. "What's she going to school for?" he asked further, genuinely interested, and not just making conversation. He'd heard about what the young people had done in China, though he hadn't witnessed it in person.

"An anonymous benefactor who can't get them to take her money under any other circumstances," she told him in amusement. "Fliss wants to be a child psychologist - to help kids like her, when they're young and need the help that a lot of them don't get. She knows the system, she was brought up in it until Johnny found her. She wants to make it better."

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:01 EST

"I thought it might be Uncle Tony," he remarked with a smirk. "I heard she was adopted," he said, though it was obvious enough. The Storms were too young to have a daughter Fliss' age by birth, though it didn't make her any less loved.

"Yeah, she was." Nat paused on the wide road they were walking down. "Most of the kids in the Storm and Rogers family are adopted," she warned him. "Four of them - the middle ones on both sides - were rescued from a Hydra facility a few years back."

"Hydra?" Colin echoed, his expression one of horrified amazement. "Dare I ask what children were doing in a Hydra facility or shall I guess?" he asked, his expression darkening at the possibilities. He was pretty sure they hadn't been there as guests or because they'd been someone's family members.

"I don't think I need to elaborate," Nat said darkly. "Just be aware that Maria Storm doesn't speak, but she can hear perfectly well. You know ASL, right?"

"I do, in fact," he confirmed. Though not everyone who worked for A.E.G.I.S. knew sign language, he did, for some reason. There were apparently a lot of things she didn't know about him yet, and vice versa, but they were learning. "I can't say I'm sorry about Hydra, even if it does put some of us out of work."

"I don't think anyone minds the workload being a little less conflict-heavy for the time being," Nat mused. "We could all do with a little more brain space and downtime. Which is why we're here, of course. We're going to charm the Rogers into taking Coco for ten days while we're in Malta."

"We," Colin echoed, chuckling a little. "I'm not sure I'm very good at being charming," he confessed with a smirk, though he had apparently been charming enough for her. "So, it's Malta, is it?" he asked, a little amused.

She rolled her eyes. "You can't back out on me now, I already booked the tickets," she informed him with a grin. "Ten days in Valetta."

"Sounds nice. What do you say we make it a destination wedding?" he asked, without so much as blinking, his expression entirely serious.

Nat was perfectly still for one exquisite moment. She had said she wasn't good with surprises, after all. When she came out of her pause, she said, "I say ....what are you smoking, and can I have some?"

"I don't smoke," he told her, coming to a halt and turning to face her, despite Coco's impatience. "I'm serious, Nat. I know a good thing when I see one, and you're the best thing that's happened to me in a very long time." Okay, so it wasn't an "I love you? exactly, nor was it very romantic, but he knew what he wanted and he wanted her.

"Uh ..." She could feel her mind spinning. This was fast, faster than she had ever expected it to be. But then ....she'd known him for six months. They'd got to know each other over that time, longer than she'd had a chance to with anyone who wasn't a teammate or a superior. She knew him, and she knew how she felt about him. If he was sure this was what he wanted, then ...."Okay?"

His face broke into a grin - not just any grin, but a smile that made his whole face light up with happiness. He was a reserved sort of man, not one to openly display his emotions very often, but that look on his face said it all without him even having to say the words. "Okay," he repeated, as he tipped her chin upwards and leaned close to touch a kiss to her lips, warm and ardent.

She nodded - half nodded, half shook her head, her lips parting in a slightly disbelieving grin. "Okay," she confirmed, laughing into his kiss as her arms wound about his waist. Oh, my god. I'm getting married.

He wrapped his arms around her to pull her close, another kiss to seal the deal, just as fervent as the last. Maybe it was fast, but life was too short, and he was sure they were doing the right thing.

And in their line of work, life really was too short. Especially given the missions that she was routinely sent on. Natasha leaned into him, feeling Coco's lead wrap around the back of her legs and push her closer into his arms, even as a yell sounded from further down the road.

"You know there's actual food in here, right' You don't have to eat each other!"

Coco was the first to reply, barking a greeting, tail wagging, happy to make more friends. Colin smirked into Nat's kiss upon hearing the female voice shouting at them from a short distance. He'd only met Lucy Rogers a few times, but enough to recognize her voice, even from a distance. "Friends of yours, Miss Romanoff?" he teased.

Laughing as she drew back, Nat rolled her eyes. "Never seen her before in my life," she assured him, twisting to get out of the tangle of dog lead. "We've been spotted, Coco. We're gonna have to be on our best behavior for about ten minutes, then you can flop all over the furniture."

Coco yapped in response to Nat or Lucy or both, eager to meet these new friends of her master's.

"I think we can manage ten minutes," Colin replied for them both with a grin.

"Fair warning, they have two dogs and a cat," Nat added to Colin as they headed toward the gate where Lucy was waving at them. "Thor's not a problem, but Kiki, the puppy, might get a little boisterous."

"Thor?" Colin echoed. "They have a dog named Thor?" He laughed, finding that hysterical, given he'd met the dog's namesake. "I guess we better go say hello," he added, brushing another kiss to her lips.

"It gets better," she grinned as he kissed her. "He's a geriatric Husky." One last kiss, and she pulled away, capturing his hand once again to draw him to the gate. "Dr. Rogers, if you don't behave yourself, I'm going to have to steal all your children," she informed the grinning woman at the gate.

Lucy chuckled, pulling the gate open. "I am always behaving myself," she countered. "Come on in. Hi, Colin."

"Mrs. Rogers," Colin said, greeting Lucy with polite and formal respect, at least until he was told to address her otherwise. Now he was starting to get nervous, for some reason.

"Lucy," she corrected him, glancing down as little hands gripped her leg. "And it looks like Natalia has come to see her Auntie Nat!" She bent, sweeping the toddler up into her arms to hand her over to Natasha with barely a second thought.

Nat cast a grin over at Colin. "You want one? There's a Mark 2 version of this one somewhere around here."

Colin knew Steve and Lucy had children, but somehow he hadn't expected them to be quite so friendly. Then again, it was pretty common knowledge among A.E.G.I.S. agents that Nat was close to Steve and his family. "I, uh ....I'm not very good around children," he admitted, though that was only because he hadn't been around them much. Dogs, however, were another matter.

"If you can do dogs, you can do children," Lucy assured him confidently, bending to say hello to Coco.

"Auntie Nat!"

Natasha looked over to the house, where Lianne was waiting impatiently for Jamie to pick his way down the porch steps so they could run over and say hello.

"Okay, this one I'm holding is Natalia, the little girl is Lianne, and the boy is Jamie," she told Colin under her breath.

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:02 EST

"Mom!" a boy's voice called from inside the house. "Can we go play' We have a meeting at the tree house," said a blond boy of about ten years old who emerged suddenly from behind the others.

"You can come and say hello to Auntie Nat and her friend before you go anywhere," Lucy called back to her eldest with a warm smile.

"And that's Martin," Nat told Colin, hoisting Natalia around to her other hip as Lianne came barrelling toward her for a hug.

Steve emerged from behind Martin with yet another munchkin, this one a toddler attached to his hip. He had a warm smile on his face, and for the first time, Colin was seeing him in civilian clothing, looking more the family man than the Avenger.

"Hi, Auntie Nat!" Martin said as he sprinted closer. "We have a meeting at the treehouse," he told her soberly.

Steve waved as he made his way to join Lucy and the small menagerie of children and pets that made up the Rogers household.

"Hey, Martin." Releasing Lianne, Nat turned her attention to the children for a moment. "This is my friend Colin, and his dog, Coco. Do the polite thing, then run away." She winked at them, making Lianne giggle.

Jamie, on the other hand, was already tugging at Colin's pants. "Hullo," the little boy said. "Are you Auntie Nat's wife?"

"Uh," Colin replied, uncertainly. "No ....Not yet anyway," he said, smiling down at the little boy who was tugging on his pants leg. "Would you like to meet Coco?" he asked, crouching down so that he was not towering so over the children. As for Coco, she looked eager to meet the small humans, tail wagging madly.

"Don't be silly, Jamie," Martin scolded his younger brother with a laugh. "Men become husbands, not wives."

"Mama says Auntie Nat wears the pants, and she said the man wears the pants," Jamie explained himself to his brother, beaming as Coco introduced herself.

Natasha chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Hey, old man," she greeted Steve. "How's it hanging?"

Martin laughed again, shaking his head as he, too, greeted Coco. "That makes no sense, Jamie! Hullo, Colin," he added, extending a gentlemanly hand in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Colin smiled as he returned the handshake. "I assure you, the pleasure is all mine."

Steve was beaming a grin from ear to ear, not only because he was happy to see Nat and her guest, but because he was just happy. "Same old madhouse, Nat," Steve replied to Nat with a grin. "Colin, nice to see you," he said, offering a hand, as well, as Colin moved to his feet.

"Captain," Colin replied.

"No Captain. I'm just Steve around here," Steve corrected.

"All right, all those who have a meeting in the treehouse, shoo," Lucy declared, giving the children leave to disappear if they so wished. She turned to their guests. "Come inside, it's cooler and there is alcohol."

There was a sudden flurry of activity involved giggling children and barking dogs and then, the four adults found themselves left alone with the toddlers and one dog who was too old and the other too young to join in the fun. "How was your trip?" Steve asked, knowing how unpleasant the first hop through the Nexus could be.

"It was all right, once the dizziness subsided," Colin said, pausing a moment to look around again. "Is this really another planet?"

"Yes, it is," Lucy confirmed, rescuing Nat from Natalia to hook the toddler onto her own hip as she snapped her fingers to Thor and Kiki, leading the way back to the house. "It becomes more obvious in the city," she added. "Out here, the closest we have to the weird and wonderful is a very cheeky Fae and her brother's werewolf girlfriend."

"Fae?" Colin echoed, glancing to Nat suspiciously. Apparently, she hadn't told him everything, though she had told him that everything was possible. "Where are we exactly' I mean, what galaxy?"

"Remember I told you it was the hub of the multiverse?" Nat said, rubbing her neck a little awkwardly. "It's kind of somewhere different in every possible universe that exists or has ever existed. And, uh ....yeah, that means magic is real, and so are ghosts and ghouls and Fae and everything else you can imagine."

Colin furrowed his brows at Nat's explanation. "I'm not sure that's a good thing," he murmured. "If that's true, how can this place be safer than home?"

"Because ..." Nat dried up, turning a slightly pleading look onto Steve and his wife. "I have no idea how to explain this. "

"Because it's orderly chaos," Steve said, knowing how contradictory that sounded. "Don't get me wrong. Rhy'Din has its problems, too, but there's no Hydra trying to kill us here," he said. "As far as the rest is concerned ..." He shrugged his broad shoulders, as he led the way with Lucy back into the house. "There really is an order to the chaos. There's sort of an unwritten rule here that as long as you aren't hurting anyone else, most people will leave you alone."

"The whole place revolves around tolerance," Lucy added, bouncing Natalia on her hip as the dogs skittered into the house. "You can let her off the leash, by the way - even if she runs off, someone will bring her back here."

"That sounds a little too good to be true," Colin said as he followed them into the house, with Colo looking eager to be let off her leash.

"It's not perfect," Steve agreed, as he set one of the toddlers in the playpen so that they didn't get run over by the dogs. "But it works. At least, most of the time."

"Every now and then some hothead tries to stir up trouble, and yes, people do get hurt," Lucy said, adding Natalia to the playpen so the twins could amuse each other. "But most people here like the status quo, and they will do whatever they have to in order to keep the boat on an even keel. Most of the city leaders feel the same way."

"And you live here," Colin said further, though that much seemed obvious. He didn't ask what it cost to live there, though neither seemed strapped for money.

"Yeah," Steve replied, moving to get a couple of beers from the fridge. "We're kind of honorary guests who became permanent residents."

Nat's fingers curled between Colin's, squeezing gently. "It helps to just accept things at face value," she suggested. "You don't need to know how it all works until you're comfortable with how it looks."

Colin nodded his head as Steve handed him a beer. It was a lot different than moving from London to New York. At least, the beer looked ordinary enough, except for the Orc on the label.

Steve couldn't help but smirk at Colin's reaction to that. "Trust me," he urged the other man.

Taking the leash from Colin's hand so he could open his beer, Nat crouched to let Coco loose, stroking the beautiful spaniel as she looked between Colin and the other dogs of the house.

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:02 EST

Lucy chuckled. "Thor, you make sure Kiki plays nicely," she told the elderly Husky.

"They don't answer you back, do they?" Colin asked of the dogs, unsure what to expect or believe anymore while they were there. What would Coco say if she could talk" He wasn't sure he was ready to find out.

"No, you're good there," Lucy assured him. "Thor's just an old guy who understands me perfectly, don't you, darling?" She bent down to the Husky, who raised his head to give her a kiss as she ruffled his fur.

"Wow, Steve, your competition is pretty stiff these days," Nat teased her friend, leaning back against the arm of the couch comfortably.

"He's even older than me, if you count dog years," Steve remarked, tapping his beer again Colin's. "Cheers!" he said, assuming the ladies would prefer something other than beer - or more accurately, ale.

"Cheers," Colin echoed, still looking a little confused, as he watched Coco happily scuttle off after the other two dogs.

"Come out onto the back porch, get comfortable," Lucy suggested. "Nat, you drinking today?"

Natasha nodded.

"Cool, I'll grab the wine," Lucy answered, gesturing for them to head out through the open back door. In the playpen, the toddlers were sagging - they could nap where they fell happily enough.

"I heard you got married and had a family, but I had no idea," Colin said, regarding Steve and Lucy. "How, uh, how's Mrs. Storm ....Olivia" I heard it was pretty serious," he asked, hoping it wasn't a loaded question.

"Five kids in five years - impressive, isn't it?" Lucy chuckled, emerging from the kitchen with a chilled bottle and two glasses in hand. Her smile softened at the mention of her sister. "She's almost back to her usual self," she told Colin gently. "What science can't fix on Rhy'Din, magic can."

Colin nodded, waiting for Nat and Lucy to take a seat before he did the same. "I assume that's a good thing," he said with an amicable smile. He hadn't met Olivia yet, but he'd heard the twins were as different as night and day - in personality, at least.

"It's a very good thing," Lucy agreed, thumping down into a seat at the table that was set out on the porch. She handed the bottle to Nat as she went on. "The conventional medical science I know" Liv would never have woken up, and if she had, she definitely wouldn't have been able to walk ever again. The magic here, though' She's had four healing sessions, and the last one is today. Two weeks after being crushed deliberately by a van, my little sister is going to be walking around as though it never happened."

Colin arched a brow at what Lucy was telling him. If he'd known that a few years ago, it could have saved him a lot of time and trouble, not to mention pain, but that was in the past, and nothing could be done to change that now. "That sounds like nothing short of a miracle," he told her.

"Like I said, anything is possible on Rhy'Din," Nat shrugged, pouring the wine.

"Not that anything is generally advised," Lucy added warningly. "Generally things like messing with time are frowned on."

"Messing with time?" Colin found himself echoing again. "You're not serious."

"It's not a good idea," Steve interjected, as if he'd once considered it himself and had decided against it.

"Good idea or not, if Liv had died, we would have taken that risk," Lucy said, and there was not even a trace of regret in her tone. She would do anything for her twin, including twisting the fabric of time.

Steve took a long swallow of his ale, instead of saying a word. There had been a time when he'd considered it, too. After all, he was a man out of time himself, waking up from a long seventy-year nap to find he'd lost everyone he'd ever cared for, and that was after he'd already lost Bucky. If anyone understood how Lucy felt it was Steve, and yet, he had not tweaked time to save his friends, not even Peggy.

Colin looked between them, sensing there was something unsaid there, but he didn't dare poke at it. "Thankfully, that didn't happen," he said.

Nat nodded, sipping her wine. "And she'll be back on her feet tonight, that's really good news," she said, smiling at her friends. "So ....how do you guys feel about having a guest with four legs and an adorable attitude for ten days or so?"

Steve looked between the pair, from one to the other. He wasn't terribly surprised to see Nat with Colin, though it seemed their relationship might be a little more serious than he'd first thought. That wasn't a bad thing, necessarily, so long as they both knew what they were doing. "Are we being asked to doggysit?" he asked, trying not to look amused.

"Hmm, let's see ..." Nat made a show of considering this for a moment. "Yes. Yes, you are absolutely being asked to doggysit."

Lucy snorted with laughter, glancing across the lawn, where Thor was holding court in the shade with Coco and Kiki.

"Well," Steve said, looking at Lucy expectantly, before following her gaze to the trio of dogs on the lawn. "What's one more?" he asked with a shrug. It wasn't exactly a yes yet; Lucy had the last word on that.

"It's only ten days," Lucy mused, looking back at the other couple - because they were clearly a couple. "I expect some beautiful piece of utterly meretricious tat from wherever it is you're going, though."

Nat chuckled. "You think I'd do you out of whatever their equivalent is to a straw donkey?"

"Can we ask where you're going?" Steve said, merely curious. They'd have to have a way of getting in touch in case of emergency, but that wasn't why he was asking. Colin exchanged a glance with Nat, as if asking permission to tell.

Catching Colin's eye, Nat's smile softened as she sipped her wine. "Sure, you can ask," she told Steve. "Question is, will you?"

"Is it a secret?" Steve asked, looking between the two of them again. There was something else going on here, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was yet.

"Not if you ask politely," Nat countered in amusement.

Across the table, Lucy was laughing quietly into her glass. Occasionally Nat took it a little far when she was teasing Steve, but it was hard to take offense when the redhead was so obviously happy as she was today.

Steve smirked at Nat's teasing. He didn't really need to know where they were going, and he knew wherever it was, they'd come back, but he couldn't remember for the life of him when he'd seen her as happy as this. "Okay, Miss Romanoff, just for you ....Would you kindly tell us where you're going" Please and thank you?" he said.

"What a polite young man." Nat grinned as Lucy snorted wine up her nose trying not to laugh too hard at the pair of them. "Doesn't he have lovely manners, Mr. Prescott?"

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:03 EST

Steve laughed. One minute he was an old man, the next a young man, all depending on Nat's whims.

"He did say please," Colin pointed out, reluctant to get in the middle of Steve and Nat's little game.

"True, he did," Nat agreed, reaching over to twine her fingers with Colin's as she smiled. "We're going to Malta," she told Steve. "I am taking my first vacation ever, yes. Get the teasing out of the way now."

"It's about time!" Steve grinned, having guessed as much already.

"First time for everything," Colin murmured beside Nat as she twined her fingers with his. There was something about the way the pair looked at each other, like they were still sharing some secret between them, but Steve didn't pry.

"When are you leaving?" Steve asked further.

Nat's smile was definitely holding some kind of secret, but it was one she wasn't sure she wanted to share until after the fact. As much as she loved her friends, this was far more personal than anything she had ever had before. "Uh, in three days," she told Steve. "Just enough time to go shopping and have more than jeans and jackets in my wardrobe."

"If you're going to Malta, you're going to need a swimsuit or two," Steve remarked, never having seen his best friend in anything other than pants of one kind or another.

"And for once in our lives, this is not a working vacation," Colin put in, giving Nat's hand a squeeze as if to remind her of that fact.

"Mmm, skirts," Lucy agreed with her husband. "Dresses. Heels that her not boots solid enough to kick a man into next week."

Nat chuckled, the tilt of her head making it absolutely clear that Colin was fast becoming close to the center of her world. "Not a working vacation, no," she agreed with him. "Although I am sort of considering kidnapping the good doctor here for that shopping trip. I can't let you in on all the little secrets. You've surprised me plenty the last couple of days."

"All good surprises, I hope," Colin replied with a grin, an almost impish sparkle in his bright blue eyes that made Steve even more suspicious. But he couldn't deny Nat was happy, and he couldn't argue with that.

"Why don't you stay the night then?" Steve asked. "Lucy and Nat can go shopping, and Colin and I can get better acquainted."

"Oh, love, you really have to work on making that sound less ominous," Lucy chuckled, leaning over to kiss Steve affectionately, hiding her murmur in the tender touch. "Try not to scare him off, darlin' - this looks like it could go the distance."

"I'll invite Johnny, too. Better?" Steve volunteered, with a smile of his own as Lucy kissed his cheek, knowing he could be intimidating without meaning to be. So long as the Human Torch was there, it was unlikely Steve would be doing much intimidating or interrogating.

"Oh, so the silent communication isn't working today, then?" Nat asked, utterly unfazed when pointing out the subtle indiscretion going on in front of her. She had a feeling Lucy would be only too happy to point out any of her indiscretions, so she was getting it in there first.

"It's okay," Colin interjected, hoping to solve the problem on his own. "I should get back so I can get some packing done and arrange for a few weeks off," he said. With any luck, he'd get better acquainted with Rogers at some point, but not just yet.

"What?" Steve asked, looking from Nat to Lucy, realizing he'd been less than subtle. "I don't bite, you know."

"Maybe it's a little too soon to be threatening to have the talk with Colin just yet," Lucy suggested, giving up on being subtle. "I'm up for shopping, though. New York should be safe with Nat, right?" She cast a curious eye at Steve - they both knew she would stay on Rhy'Din if he asked her to.

Steve got that punch in the gut feeling for a brief moment as Lucy suggested a trip to New York, before his body caught up with his brain, remembering that Hydra was no longer a threat - or so they assumed. "You tell me, Nat. Is New York safe?" he asked, turning the question on his friend, rather than answering it himself.

"With me" Yes." Nat's answer was absolutely unequivocal. And Steve knew she would take extra care to make sure his wife got back to him in one piece, no matter what happened.

Steve met Nat's gaze, as if he was trying to ask her something without actually having to say the words. He hadn't been in touch with her since he'd left New York to return home to Rhy'Din, and there were still a few things left unsaid between them.

Colin only looked between them, feeling a little like the pickle in the middle.

Lucy glanced between the two friends, and rolled her eyes, meeting Colin's gaze. "I should get dinner started," she announced. "How are you in the kitchen, Colin" I can always use a hand there."

"Pretty good, actually," he replied, his attention drawn away from Steve and Nat back to Lucy, almost relieved to be invited into the kitchen, where he could be put to good use. But before that, he leaned over to give Nat a smooch, claiming her for his own without having to say so. "Be good," he whispered.

"I'm always good," the redhead murmured back to him, pressing her lips to his once more before letting him go. She was grateful to Lucy for giving Colin an out - she had a feeling Steve was going to be a little blunt out of friendship here.

Steve waited until Lucy and Colin had retreated to the kitchen before speaking his mind. He knew her well enough to know there was something she was keeping from him, but he didn't know what that something might be. Still, there were a lot of things he wanted to say, but there was one that was first and foremost on his mind.

"Have you heard anything more about Fury?" he asked, with obvious concern.

Nat's smile faded. She shook her head. "No," she told him. "Preliminary intel suggests his body may be in a mass grave in Siberia, but as yet they haven't located the site. It's pretty certain he's dead."

Steve mirrored her frown at the news that yet another friend had been lost. Or at the very least an ally. It was hard to tell with Fury sometimes whether he was a friend or a foe. One thing was certain - there'd be no traveling through time to save him. It was simply too risky. "We'll have to have a memorial," he said, sorry he'd brought up a sore subject, but it needed to mentioning. "We can wait til you and Colin get back from Malta."

"Thank you." Nat sighed, rising from where she was sat at the sound of Lucy's laughter floating through the window behind her to lean on the railing overlooking the garden. "I don't often get a chance to say goodbye."

"He'll be remembered," Steve said. "We'll all remember," he said again, a little lower. Though they hadn't always gotten along, if it hadn't been for Fury, he might have still been frozen at the bottom of the sea. "He never gave up on me," Steve said, wishing they could do the same for him.

"Howard Stark never gave up on you," Natasha corrected him gently. "It was in his will that S.H.I.E.L.D. should never stop looking for you. But Fury made sure they kept on looking. First time I saw him smile, the day they pulled you out of the ice."

Steve jerked his head up to look over at Nat, suddenly awash in memories of the past - of Stark and Erskine and the Commandos and Bucky and Peggy - all of them gone, and now Fury, too. "He smiled?" Steve asked, trying not to get choked up. It wasn't often Nick Fury smiled, and somehow it touched Steve's heart to know that he'd been the reason for one of those smiles.

"Yeah." Her head turned toward him, her profile betraying her faint smile. "Coulson was so excited to be standing guard while you were defrosting. And then we got the news that you had a pulse, and Nick Fury just ....smiled. Like he'd known it all along, you know" Like he wished he could have been right there to see it when that line blipped."

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:03 EST

"I hope I lived up to his expectations," Steve said, leaning forward, his fingers linked between his knees. "To all their expectations," he added quietly. Though it seemed they'd won this battle, they still had taken at least one casualty. Losing friends was never easy, no matter how much they triumphed.

"You more than lived up to them," she told him, certain in that. "He never expected the Avengers to be as effective as we turned out to be, and I know he put a lot of it down to you, Steve."

"The Avengers was his idea," Steve said. "I remember when he first told me about it, I thought he was crazy, and then I met Tony. He's a lot like Howard, you know. We didn't always get along well, but he was my friend." Was he talking about Howard, Tony, or someone else? He could have said the same for Nick Fury. "Should we do something about it, Nat, or let him go' What do you think he would have wanted us to do?"

She sighed, looking across the lawn at the dogs rolling around together. Without Fury, none of this would have been possible, but if he was still around, would she be here to enjoy it' She didn't like the answer to that question, however accurate it was. "He signed off that message," she said quietly. "In all the time I knew him, he never signed off. He's already said goodbye, Steve. We just have to accept it."

It was hard to give up on someone when they hadn't given up on you, but Steve knew she was right. Anything was possible in Rhy'Din, but there were only a few ways to bring Nick Fury back and all of them risked bringing Hydra back with him. If there was anyone he would have wanted to save it was Peggy, and he hadn't even been able to do that. Steve got up from the chair to stand beside Nat, one arm sliding around her shoulders in a brotherly embrace.

"We'll never forget him, Nat," he assured her, though that might come as little comfort.

She leaned into the by-now familiarly harmless affection, though not as close as she would have had he been Colin. Even with her best friend, there was still a little distance. "I keep wondering if this is what it feels like to lose a father," she admitted quietly. "If anyone was close to it, it was him."

"Does it matter?" Steve asked, feeling her grief, though his own was more like that of a lost friend or mentor, than a father figure. No, Erskine had been that for him, though he'd only known the man a short while. "I lost someone like that once, a long time ago. I never knew my own father. He died before I was born. And Bucky was more like a brother. But there was someone once, and when he died - when he was killed - I don't know. I felt empty inside for awhile."

"I feel like he's been dead a long time," Nat murmured. "Like he died when he first failed to check in, and I've just been waiting for the confirmation. Like I did all my grieving already and now there's just ....nothing more to give."

"It wasn't your fault, if that's what you think. Fury would never have given up so easily. He knew what he was doing. If anything, he's a martyr. He sacrificed himself so that we could take down Hydra. Saint Fury," Steve said, with an ironic chuckle that lacked amusement.

She snorted with laughter, straightening from the lean as he rescued her mood from the plunge it had taken. "Shaft with a halo."

Steve smiled. "I think I got that reference. '70s action movie with a black hero in the title role" Lucy's been catching me up." Still. It took time to catch up on seventy years of lost pop culture, after all.

"Mmhmm." Nat grinned back at him. "Look at you, finally catching up on the 70's. Just five more decades to go, and you're all up to date, old man."

"The kids like to skip around, and it gets confusing," he said, with a shrug, though it was doubtful the kids had anything to do with him watching Shaft. That was all Lucy. "I'll talk to Croft about arranging a memorial for a few weeks from now," he assured her again, so she could enjoy a long-overdue vacation without worrying about it. "Now, what else aren't you telling me?"

She smiled, glancing down at her glass for a moment before turning her eyes back toward the lawn. "I'm moving in with Colin," she told him. As simple as that, no fuss, no agonising over sharing the information. The most recent decision, she was still a little unsure she wanted to share.

"Okay," Steve said, not daring to challenge her or talk her out of it or remind her that she hardly knew the man, when he and Lucy had barely known each other more than a few weeks before they'd decided to make it permanent. "Good. He's a good man." And more importantly, he had never seen her happier.

"Really?" Nat tilted her head to look at him with a smile that was as much a challenge as a tease. "No warnings against going too fast' No declarations of intent to rip all his limbs off if I let him hurt me" And you say I'm family - I'm hurt."

"What do you want me to say, Nat?" Steve said, frowning over at his closest friend and probably taking her too seriously, as he sometimes tended to do. "Let me ask you something ....Are you happy?"

She smiled again, looking across the lawn. Behind them, she could hear Lucy teasing Colin in the kitchen. "I am," she told Steve quietly. "I've known him for six months, and he's never given me any reason to doubt him. It might seem fast, but ....I'm pretty close to being in love here."

Steve had to smile at that, nudging her arm with his own. "I only knew Lucy two weeks," he reminded her. "Sometimes you just know." He never thought he'd see the day when the Black Widow would admit to falling in love, but there was a first time for everything, even that. "I just want you to be happy, Nat. If he makes you happy, that's good enough for me. Would you rather I gave him the third degree?"

"No." She laughed, shaking her head. "But isn't that how it's supposed to go' You're the closest thing I have to a brother, after all." Not just her best friend, then. It was rare for Nat to make it explicit that she liked anyone, after all.

"Then I expect to be invited to the wedding," he replied with a grin, though she hadn't mentioned anything about a wedding, just yet.

"How'd you know about that?" another male voice interjected - that of the Human Torch, who was fast approaching the pair on the back porch. "I haven't told anyone yet!"

Nat's mouth fell open, but she knew there was no way Johnny Storm could possibly know about the plan to marry Colin in just a few days' time. So this had to be about ...."Who's getting married?" she asked, tilting her head toward the Torch. "Don't tell me Liv woke up and forgot she married you!"

"Uh, no ..." Johnny stammered, looking even more confused than usual as he glanced between his two closest friends in the entire multiverse. "Did Liv set you up to this?" he asked, with a suspicious look on his face. But then, how could she do that when he'd just been with her"

Nat gave him a level stare. "Johnny, I haven't seen your wife since the birthday barbecue," she reminded him in amusement. "I repeat, how did we know about what?"

That suspicious look remained on Johnny's face for about half a second before he broke into a grin. "Fliss and Lucas are getting married!" he exclaimed happily, before adding. "Not right away, I mean, but yeah ....He gave her a ring and everything! Isn't that awesome?"

Nat blinked, not entirely sure how she was supposed to react, but Lucy's hearing had definitely improved over the years.

Steve's wife stuck her head out through the kitchen window. "Whoah, whoah, what now?" she demanded. "Your seventeen year old is getting married"!"

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:04 EST

"Yeah! No!" Johnny replied, laughing. He was obviously excited even more than usual, and he was already a pretty excitable person. "Technically, I guess they're engaged," he said, using air quotes.

"Everlast, if that girl has a ring on her finger, there's no "technically" about it," Lucy pointed out. "Oh my god ....Johnny Storm is going to be walking his eldest down the aisle!"

"Not yet!" Johnny said, scowling at Lucy. "Liv said it will take time to plan a wedding, and Fliss isn't even eighteen yet."

"Congratulations, Johnny," Steve interjected with a warm smile. "Luc is a good kid."

Lucy chuckled, ducking back inside the kitchen to continue cooking with Colin.

Nat grinned over at Johnny. "You happy about this, Flame Boy?" she asked him.

"Do I look happy?" Johnny said, flashing Nat a cheesy grin, but then the grin suddenly disappeared and Johnny turned a shade paler. "I could be a grampa. I'm too young to be a grampa!"

Nat snorted with laughter, rolling her eyes at him. "Well, the question there is ....how much faith do you have in your daughter being sensible about babies and such?"

"Relax, Johnny," Steve said, with a smile. "I'm sure Fliss and Luc are, uh ..." He looked to Nat for help.

"I gotta sit down," Johnny said, dropping onto the stairs, so he wouldn't pass out. God only knew how he'd handle the news if Fliss ever really did become pregnant.

"Not idiots," Nat finished Steve's sentence for him cheerfully. She was still laughing as Johnny sat down. "Look, Fire-pants, you raised a good kid. She won't even think about raising her own kids until she's secure to do it. So ease up on the gray hairs, would you?"

"Do I have any?" Johnny asked, turning quickly around to face Nat and looking a little panicked.

Steve couldn't help but snicker. "Johnny, stop worrying. Everything will be fine. If anyone should be worried about gray hairs, it's me!"

"Hey, technically I'm the oldest here," Nat pointed out. "And if either of you say you can see gray, you'll be seeing stars." She picked up her wine glass, moving to sit next to Johnny and nudge his shoulder. "You're pleased about it, right' They're so gooey, it's like watching molasses around them."

"Johnny, you want a beer" I'm gonna go grab a beer," Steve said, ducking back inside to let Nat and Johnny have a moment of privacy, before Johnny had a chance to reply.

"Uh, yeah. I am," he said, realizing the truth of it. "I like Lucas a lot. He's a great kid and he and Fliss are good for each other."

"It's not like it's gonna happen tomorrow, either," she pointed out to him. "They'll do things in the right order, and they'll do it at their own pace. They've been together, what ....four years now" It's not like they're rushing anything."

Thankfully, he wasn't hyperventilating. What had initially been excitement had quickly become anxiety. "No, I guess not. I just want her to be happy, you know?" he asked, not knowing he was practically echoing something Steve had said just a few minutes ago.

"Okay, look at it this way," she suggested with another nudge to his arm. "Is anything going to change, just because there's a ring involved now?"

Johnny considered that for a moment before responding. "I guess not," he confessed. "Nat?" he asked, turning to face her again. "Do you think they're ....you know?"

One thing he could rely on with Natasha was honesty. She sighed, leaning forward onto her knees. "Yeah," she told him, not even trying to temper her response. "I think they've been there for a while now. And nothing has happened. You'd know if something had happened, Fliss tells you guys everything."

"Not everything, apparently," Johnny admitted with a frown. Maybe she talked to her mother about the birds and the bees, but not Johnny. He found himself feeling like most parents did when they realized their child was growing up, a mix of sadness and pride and just a little fear. "I can't even get mad about it. I trust her, I do. I trust them both. I just ....My little girl is growing up," he said, despite the fact that Fliss hadn't been all that little when he and Liv had adopted her.

"Your little girl is always going to be your girl," Nat reminded him. "Without you, without Liv, Fliss wouldn't have anything that she has in her life right now, and she knows it. It's gotta be a privilege, watching her find her way and knowing you made it possible for her."

"I guess," he said, unsure how much credit he could really take for how Fliss was turning out. If he was asked, he'd probably give Liv a lot more credit than himself. "I'm proud of her. You should have seen her when we first found her, Nat. She was so lonely and scared," Johnny went on with a frown as he remembered that first day he and Liv had met Fliss at the orphanage.

"Without you, she'd still be lonely and scared," Nat reminded him. "She wouldn't have come this far without her Dad. You're the one who noticed her, Johnny. Without you, she never would have had Liv, either."

"You really think so?" Johnny asked, looking to Nat with an uncertain expression on his face. What had started as an excited wedding announcement had somehow turned into something else, though he wasn't sure what. "I really love her, you know. I couldn't love her any more if she was my own flesh and blood," he said, though he'd expressed this feeling often enough before.

"Johnny, in all the years you've known me, have I once bullshitted you?" she asked him pointedly. "You know how important you are to your little girl. Embrace it!"

"I am!" Johnny said, cracking a smile at last. "Maybe I should think I'm not losing a daughter so much as I'm gaining a son," he said, though he wasn't really losing Fliss at all.

"Dude, you're watching your family grow," Nat told him with a smile. "Some people never get to experience that. And you like the kid, that's even better. You get to approve without lying through your teeth!"

"Yeah, I guess," Johnny admitted, smiling. "Thanks, Red," he said, leaning close and bumping her arm as he smooched her cheek - reward for her advice, apparently. "I owe you one," he said, moving quickly to his feet. "Tell Steve I'll take a rain check on the beer. I gotta get back to Liv and the kids. Give Lucy the good news for me?"

"She kind of already heard it, but sure, Flame Boy." She laughed as he kissed her cheek, rolling her eyes as she, too, stood. "Say hi to Liv for me - tell her not to run a marathon before she can take the stairs without wobbling!"

"Oh, yeah! I forgot in all the excitement," Johnny laughed, nearly having forgotten that Lucy had already heard the news and commented on it. "Come by later and tell her yourself!" he added, as he hurried away, waving. Whatever had been said about another wedding was forgotten in Johnny's excitement, as well.

"I might just do that!" she called after him, chuckling as she turned to wander back into the house and locate the other adults in the kitchen. "He's gone back home to worry at Liv again," she informed the Rogers, setting her glass aside to poke her fingers into Colin's sides from behind.

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:04 EST

"I didn't mean to abandon you, but it looked like he needed a shoulder," Steve said, apologetically.

Colin grinned back at Nat before turning back to his cooking, which looked and smelled suspiciously like stir fry.

Peering around Colin's arm to inspect the food, Nat flash a grin toward Steve. "He needed a not so gentle kick up the ass," she informed her friend. "I can get away with that - you can't."

"But he looked so happy. What happened?" Steve asked, cracking open a second ale. He could have had a dozen and it wouldn't have mattered, as far as his sobriety was concerned.

"He is happy," Nat told him. "He's just freaking out over her growing up."

Lucy rolled her eyes as she drained the noodles to add to Colin's pan. "Let me guess," she drawled. "He couldn't possibly have had anything to do with how Fliss is turning out, and now she's leaving and never coming back?"

Nat snorted with laughter. "Something like that."

"I can't imagine raising a teenager," Steve murmured, though he and Lucy were going to have a couple of their own in a few years.

"Parenting sounds like it's fraught with worry," Colin interjected as he stirred the simmering mix of chicken and vegetables.

"This is why I am quite happy to be Auntie Nat," Natasha announced, leaning against the counter beside Colin. "I can give them back when they get annoying."

"Gosh, thanks for that," Lucy laughed back at her.

"Speaking of them," Steve started, "I assume the kids aren't joining us for dinner." It wasn't unusual that a meeting at the tree house meant they wouldn't be joining their parents for dinner, except for little Nat and Sarah, who were still in the playpen. The sounds of giggling coming from the other room told Steve they were no longer sleeping though.

"I did overhear something about pizza," Lucy told her husband in amusement. "And Jamie was helping to pick toppings, so it's a safe bet he's eating out there, too. Looks like it's just us and the terrible twosome in there."

"As long as they don't start throwing their dinner, we should be safe. Want to come wrangle them with me" I think the kitchen is safe in Agent Prescott's hands," Steve suggested with a grin that said he might want a word alone.

At least that was more subtle than his well-meant attempt to be a little more friendly by suggesting an entire day alone with Colin. Nat laughed as Lucy tossed the noodles into Colin's pan and turned to her husband.

"That sounds like a plan," Lucy agreed, wiping her hands dry. "Best deal with the toxic diapers so we don't nauseate our guest."

"I thought we had two of them," Steve teased, realizing Lucy was not counting Nat, as she was considered one of the family. In fact, Steve didn't so much want a word along with Lucy as he wanted to give Nat and Colin a few minutes alone before they were inundated with terrible twosome.

"Are we talking about diapers or guests here?" Lucy asked, grinning as she slipped out of the kitchen ahead of him.

Nat smiled, shaking her head at the other couple's escape. She leaned back against the counter again, looking up at Colin. "You okay there?"

Colin hadn't said much for a while, presumably focusing his attention on the stir-fry. At the moment, he was mixing together the chicken and vegetables with the noodles Lucy had added to the pan. "Yeah, fine. You?" he countered, amicably enough.

"Yeah." Her smile warmed as she twisted to watch him cooking, mildly envious of his ability to be more than a conversationalist in a social setting. "Just ....wondering something."

He hadn't been all that much of a conversationalist really and had mostly just been making small talk with Lucy, while Nat and Steve talked on the porch. "That sounds ominous," he said, with a smirk as he glanced her way a moment.

"It's not," she promised in amusement. "Just ....how do you feel about keeping this elopement of ours just between us, until we get back?"

He arched a curious brow at her, wondering where that had come from or why she was asking. "I rather think that's what eloping is all about, isn't it?" he asked in a low voice that matched her tone. "Why are we keeping it a secret?" he leaned closer to whisper.

She hesitated, but knew she could be honest with him. "Because I think it's less likely I'll lose friends if I don't have to tell them they can't come to our wedding," she admitted softly. She shrugged, shaking her head. "I know, I know ....rationally, I know I'm not going to lose friends over this. If they're real friends, they'll be happy no matter what. But ....I don't always have a rational brain."

"I don't think there's much you could do to lose Steve or Lucy's friendship," Colin reasoned. At least, he was finally referring to them by their first names, at Lucy's insistence. "Let me ask you something in return ..." he started, glancing toward the doorway to make sure Steve and Lucy weren't on their way back to the kitchen yet. "Would you rather have a traditional wedding?" he whispered.

Nat snorted with laughter, shaking her head. "I don't think I could stand all the fussing that goes into that," she confessed easily, then hesitated. "Unless ....unless that's what you want' I could put up with it for you."

Colin turned the heat down on the stir-fry so that it wouldn't burn before turning to face her, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't have any family left, so no one will be offended if we don't go traditional." He knew the same could be said for her, except maybe for her friends. "I want what you want ....and I don't feel like all the fuss either."

She studied his expression for a moment before her smile grew once again, rising onto her toes to brush a kiss to his lips. "I adore you," she murmured to him, barely giving him a moment to absorb that before she was moving away to open a cupboard and pull out crockery to start setting the table.

Her words took him more by surprise than the kiss, which he returned with equal warmth, despite its brevity. Adore" He arched a brow upon hearing those words. Was she trying to tell him she loved him' He smiled, a little amused at her choice of words. "Copy that, Agent Romanoff," he replied, before turning back to the stir-fry with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, we're not on duty right now," she reminded him with a laugh, turning to set the table with plates and cutlery. It took a second for her to remember that the toddlers still needed high chairs. "I have a name, and I do believe you have license to use it, mister."

"Which name would that be?" he teased back, as he stirred some kind of sauce into the stir-fry mixture. "Honey' Baby' Sweetheart' Love" Darling" Poppet' Do any of those strike your fancy?"

The look she gave him was equal parts withering and affectionately amused. "Poppet?" she repeated in disbelief. "Seriously?"

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:05 EST

He chuckled at her reaction, which was about as he'd expected. "No Poppet?" he asked, unable to wipe that smirk from his face. "I rather like Poppet myself. I think my Grandad used to call my Grandmum by that name."

Nat laughed, rolling her eyes. "If that's what comes to your lips when I'm busy rocking your world, you go for it," was her response to that. She didn't mind what he called her, not really. It was a new experience for anyone to want to give her an endearment.

"You're not really a Poppet anyway. Would you prefer Duck" Hen" Pet?" he went on, listing all the various pet names he could think of off the top of his head.

"Killer suits her better, but it's not exactly romantic," Lucy interjected, coming back into the kitchen with Sarah on her hip. She flashed Colin a grin. "How's dinner coming" Do we have to sit down like good boys and girls yet, momma?"

"Sugar pie, honey bunch. You know that I love you. I can't help myself. I love you and nobody else. Do-do-do-do," Colin sang with a grin, using the wooden spoon he'd been stirring dinner with as a fake microphone. He tapped a playful finger against Sarah's nose, just as Steve and Little Nat joined them, and Steve couldn't help but laugh.

"You've been holding out on us, Colin."

He certainly had. Nat was staring, wide-eyed, as Colin sang. Evidently she hadn't realised that hearing someone you're very attached to singing is pretty stirring stuff.

Lucy chuckled at the look on her face, handing Sarah into her arms. "Here, restrain the first troll," she said.

"The next time we have a karaoke night, he's on my team," Steve said with a grin, before sliding the younger Nat into her highchair. "I couldn't sing on key if my life depended on it."

Lucy laughed. "Shows what you know," she teased her husband, finishing up the table. "Nat's got a gorgeous voice. Quite happy to have her on my team."

Natasha snorted with laughter, wrestling Sarah into the highchair in amusement. "Your mom talks a lot of bull, kiddo."

"Sounds like a challenge," Colin said, starting to loosen up a little now that he and Lucy had gotten better acquainted - or maybe it was just the fact that she'd let him play chef in her kitchen.

"Seriously," Steve interjected. "I've had a few tomatoes tossed my way."

"Really?" Lucy grinned over at her husband. "Do tell, I haven't heard this story." She slid into a seat next to little Nat's highchair, tucking a napkin around the toddler's neck.

"How are we supposed to know Nat's got a gorgeous voice, if we've never heard her sing?" Steve pointed out, before looking back at his wife with a small frown. "You really don't want to hear it."

"You can't tease a story like that and not share it, old man," Nat pointed out, quite happy to keep the conversation away from her singing. It wasn't something she did often - the only reason Lucy had inside knowledge was because she'd caught Auntie Nat singing when she had bedtime duty a while back.

"It was a long time ago," Steve replied, almost wishing he hadn't mentioned it. Of course, he did his own fair share of singing lullabys to his children, but they weren't likely to throw tomatoes at him.

"Well, it can't possibly be worse than my first attempt to sing in public," Lucy declared, coming to his rescue as Nat moved to help Colin serve dinner. "Choir in something like third year, I was ....what, fourteen" Yeah, turns out I had no volume control and no one pointed it out until I saw the video of our first performance. Perfectly good carol concert utterly destroyed by my off-key pseudo-soprano warbling somehow being louder than every other member of this forty-strong choir of teens."

"But I bet no one threw tomatoes at you!" Steve pointed out, with a chuckle at his own expense. Whether that had really happened or not, Lucy's confession made him feel a little better. "I've heard you sing, Luce. You're not that bad."

"With the children, I'm fine," she admitted in amusement. "I cannot be trusted to sing with other adults. I have a competitive streak a mile wide, and it always results in me drowning out good singers with utter mediocrity."

Natasha laughed at both of them, urging Colin to sit as she did. "Every time I have dinner with you guys, I learn something new."

"Come on, Nat. You must have heard about the USO tour," Steve said, taking a seat between the twins so he could help monitor their eating. "Would you believe Tony's been pestering me to have a karaoke night' What do you think Thor would think of that?" he asked with a smirk.

"God, Thor would be all over that," Nat predicted in amusement. "That man enjoys the party almost as much as he enjoys the punching. Oh, by the way, he wants to send a get well gift to Liv, but I told him to check with Tony and you before he sends her something that'll freak her out."

"Uh, okay," Steve said, furrowing his brows. "I'll, uh, call him, I guess," he said, uncertainly. Just how did one summon the God of Thunder" It wasn't like Thor carried a cell phone. "Is he still at the mansion?"

"Last I heard, yeah," Nat assured him, her fork halfway to her mouth before she remembered something about this house. She lowered the fork again. "Sorry, forgot the whole ....grace ....thing."

"It's okay," Steve said, bowing his head and reaching over to link hands with Lucy on his right and Nat on his left, as he quietly recited Grace, ending with an "Amen".

Nat just about managed not to laugh as they said grace, avoiding looking anyone in the eye. She didn't really have a place in her life for faith, but she didn't mean to laugh at other people's faith. It was just a bizarre experience for her.

As the prayer ended, however, Lucy grinned at the other couple. "Have at it, we have to load up the terrible twosome."

Steve was a product of his time, after all, and some things just never changed. He didn't preach his own beliefs to other people, and he didn't even go to church much anymore now that they lived in Rhy'Din, but he still believed in the things his mother had taught him. He knew it was awkward sometimes for other people to have a relic like him around, but he couldn't be anyone but himself.

Colin hadn't said much up until now, letting his companions carry the conversation, but he thought this might be a good time for him to join the conversation. "They're not so terrible as all that," he remarked, looking from one twin to the other.

As if in answer to his compliment, little Nat held up a fistful of noodles and squeezed until they fell to pieces before drawing arm back to throw. Thankfully, Lucy caught the hand. "Oh, no, you don't, mischief," she said fondly. "You eat it, or we take it away. You know how this goes."

Natalia pouted, but obediently put her now mushy fist into her mouth.

"She lives up to her name," Steve remarked with a smirk and a pointed glance at the twin's namesake. It was almost as if the toddler had done it just to prove her father wrong. "You're lucky the rest of the brood is at the treehouse," he added, mostly for Colin's sake.

"You're the one who decided to name her Natalia," Nat pointed out in amusement, watching out of the corner of her eye as little Nat proceeded to squish every handful of food that came to her grasp before eating it. In contrast, her twin - Sarah - was very carefully inspecting everything in her bowl and separating it out before eating each piece with surprising delicacy for a two year old.

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:05 EST

"How can they be so different?" Colin asked, observing one twin, then the other as he skewered a bit of chicken and noodle mixture onto his fork. He knew about as much about children as Steve did about computers.

Lucy offered up a slightly embarrassed smile. "Martin kind of took to Sarah right from the start, and he's a quiet, thoughtful boy," she attempted to explain. "Whereas little Nat spends a fair amount of time with the balls of energy that are Lianne and Jamie. To be honest, I don't know. But they do sort of mirror me and my sister when we were little."

"I take it your sister was the quiet one?" Colin guessed. Though he'd never met Liv or knew much about her, he'd heard enough to make a pretty good guess, and Lucy seemed outgoing enough. "So, how did you two end up together?" he asked, gesturing between Steve and Lucy with a fork.

Lucy laughed. "She still is," she admitted. "She pretends she's the only one in the family who isn't special in some way, but she holds down a job and keeps her home running smoothly without ever breaking a sweat. And they have a dragon for a pet." At Colin's query about meeting Steve, however, she grinned, glancing at her husband. "I ran him off the road, took him home, and deflowered him," she said impishly.

Colin froze with his mouth open and his fork halfway to his mouth, stunned at something Lucy had just said, but was it the dragon or the deflowering that had left him speechless"

Steve chuckled a little nervously, flushing with apparent embarrassment. Another man might have denied Lucy's claim, but Steve had a hard time lying, even when it benefited him to do so. "It's true," he admitted. "But I grew up in a different world."

Nat nudged Colin's elbow teasingly. "And you thought I was blunt," she commented, taking a sip from her glass.

Lucy chuckled, shaking her head. "We got married about a month later," she added. "That was fun."

"The wedding or the, uh ..." Colin asked, trailing off as he didn't want to mention the deflowering again.

"It was fast," Steve admitted, having no idea that their friends were secretly planning on eloping.

"And then you compare us to Liv and Johnny, who took about two years to get from deflowering to the altar, and then overtook us in kids in about a year," Lucy added with a fresh grin.

"Because of Fliss?" Colin asked, regaining his composure and gobbling up that forkful of stir-fry.

"Yeah, but we're one up on them now that we have the twins," Steve explained. Only three of their five children were theirs by birth, but none of them lacked for love or attention. "We adopted Martin and Lianne after we rescued them from a Hydra facility," he explained further.

"And Liv and Johny adopted Alexei and Maria at the same time," Lucy continued. "But yeah, they had Fliss too, so they were in the lead for a while there. Just wait, though - next time they decide they want more kids, I'm putting money on them getting twins out of it."

"You think they'll have more?" Colin asked, brows arching upwards. "They have four already, don't they?" Though it seemed their eldest was already on her own, which left them with three kids ....and a dragon' "Do they really have a dragon?"

"Yes, I think they will," Lucy predicted. "Once they get on top of Bess teleporting randomly when she sneezes, that is."

Nat rolled her eyes. "You're doing a great job of not overwhelming Col, guys," she praised her friends sarcastically, before answering his second question. "See that blue lump over the pool in the other garden" That's Lir. He's a water dragon, so he doesn't breathe fire, and he's about the size of a donkey these days, so what looks like a shed is actually his kennel."

"Teleporting randomly?" Colin echoed, that puzzled look on his face again. He might have thought they were just pulling his leg, but he knew what the Avengers were capable of, so why not some of their children" "What the bloody ..." he murmured, trailing off as he followed Nat's gaze to the pool and the so-called blue lump that he'd mistaken for a pool toy.

As he watched, Lir's head extended from underneath his wing, and the juvenile dragon yawned, unfurling his wings to stretch before settling back down and appearing to hold quite a serious, if silent, conversation with a tabby cat that had padded out of the other house to visit him.

"That's amazing," Colin murmured as he watched the dragon through the window. He had, of course, never seen a dragon before, except in movies.

"We haven't figured out yet what we're gonna do when he gets bigger," Steve said, with an almost worried frown on his face, knowing how attached the kids had become to the dragon, especially Alex.

"We're going to have to find some way to teach him to hunt, I suppose," Lucy mused. "He's almost big enough for Alex to ride on him, and when that boy gets started, Liv won't be able to say no. They have an amazing connection."

"Telepathy?" Colin guessed again, unless the dragon was like the one in Pete's Dragon and could talk. "You said he's a water dragon' What are they going to do when it's winter?"

Nat laughed. "He's got his own little fireplace in that shed thing," she told him. "But dragons are wild things anyway. I figure Lir has some kind of anti-freeze in his blood, like frogs, you know?"

"I'm afraid I don't know much about frogs," Colin admitted, and even less about dragons, especially water dragons. "Where do water dragons live in winter in the wild?" he asked curiously.

Lucy shrugged, shaking her head. "Not the faintest clue," she answered. "Even the lady at the bestiary in town seems not to know quite where the egg must have come from. It's all trial and error, but they haven't had many accidents in two years."

"Accidents?" Colin echoed. He had that puzzled look on his face again. It was hard to believe he was actually having this conversation. "I guess I have a lot to learn about Rhy'Din," he said with a sigh.

"I felt the same way when I first got here," Steve said, sympathetically. "It's a little like living inside a fairy tale sometimes."

"Lir likes putting out fires," Lucy explained. "It was cute when he was tiny. Johnny or Fliss would hold a flame on their fingertips, and this teeny little dragon would spit water at it until it went out. He had to be taught quite firmly that we don't douse Johnny Storm in water when he goes to flame over last summer, though."

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:05 EST

"He sounds like the perfect addition to a fire station. He can fly, so he gets there quickly, and he has an almost endless supply of water," Colin pointed out. "Like a flying fire brigade."

Lucy stared at him. "You know ....that never occurred to me before," she admitted in amazement, looking over at Steve. "Think Johnny would go for it' When Alex is older?"

Steve furrowed his brows thoughtfully. "It's a good idea, but I don't think Johnny or Liv are gonna let Alex fight fires until he's a lot older," he pointed out.

"Well, no, but it might stop Johnny from trying to make Alex set Lir free before either one of them is mature enough to be able to handle that separation."

As Lucy said this, Nat leaned over to Colin with a smile, speaking softly. "This is good thing," she assured him. "They can go off on tangents that last hours, but it means they're relaxed."

"That's like asking Johnny to set Bella free," Steve pointed out. Whether Lir was a dragon or not, he and Alex were clearly attached, and both would be broken-hearted without the other.

Colin nodded his head at Nat's reassurance before daring to make another suggestion. "I assume dragons are long-lived. Why not simply build him an indoor pool or something to that effect?"

Lucy blinked, her thoughs derailed for a moment before she found herself smiling. "That is a very good idea," she pointed out, nodding gratefully to Colin. "One I'll pass on, if you're all right with that' The Old Man up at the manor couldn't have many objections to a friendly dragon calling the Grove home, right, Steve?"

"We're a family of orphans and misfits. What's one more?" Steve said with a grin, though not everyone living at Maple Grove fit that description. "He's practically one of the family already, and he'd make a good mascot for the fire brigade."

Natasha chuckled, shaking her head. "You have a very weird family, old man," she informed her best friend fondly.

"Careful or someone here might adopt you, too," Steve countered with a teasing grin at Nat. She was already part of the Rogers family, but not that well known among the Granger clan yet. Given time, that might change, and that was what Steve meant by his teasing.

"Oh, you think I could have a second career as a movie star?" Nat laughed. "Jonathan Granger's long lost fourth cousin, fifteen times removed by marriage?"

Across the table, Lucy rolled her eyes, offering Colin a smile. "How's your drink, Colin" Need a refill?"

Steve shrugged, unable to suppress a smirk. "This is Rhy'Din. It could happen." As unlikely as it was, stranger things had been known to happen. He still wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up on this side of the portal the fateful day when he'd first met Lucy.

"Um, yes, please. Thanks," Colin replied, a little uncertainly. Should he just get up and get it himself"

"You stay there, I'm getting up anyway," Lucy assured him, rising. A small hand caught her shirt as she turned toward the fridge, Sarah holding her in place so she was obliged to stretch to the fridge and grab ale and wine. "And where do you think I'm going, little missy, hmm?"

"They're adorable," Colin said of the twins, though one looked sweet and timid while the other looked like she was wearing more of her dinner than she'd eaten.

"This is why bath time is after dinner time," Steve said, with a chuckle at Natalia.

Handing Colin another ale, Lucy unhooked Sarah's hand from her shirt to kiss the pudgy fingers as she sat down again. "Didja miss me" Hmm?" The little girl giggled as her mother leaned in to blow a raspberry against her cheek, arms flailing.

Natasha's smile softened wistfully for a moment, her hand absently seeking out Colin's as she watched the twins and their parents. "They are adorable."

Steve reached over to do his best at wiping most of the noodle mess from Natalia's hands and face. Thankfully, she'd been wearing a bib. "Sometimes, I think we should just put her in a plastic suit and hose her down when she's done," he said, though of course, he would never do such a thing.

Colin had never really considered children before, but then, he'd never thought he'd be getting married either.

"And miss all the fun of washing dried spaghetti out of her hair?" Lucy teased him, having a much easier time of it cleaning Sarah - mainly because Sarah liked being cleaned off and Natalia did not.

How Steve had ended up with Natalia, while Lucy was in charge of Sarah, he wasn't too sure, but he wasn't one to complain either. "Do you remember how messy Jamie was when he was their age?" he asked, reminiscing. Of course, the little boy still had a habit of coming home pretty dirty, but at least, he didn't usually wear more than he ate anymore.

"Oh, good grief." Lucy laughed, including Nat and Colin in the memory as she recounted it. "Remember the time he managed to get out of the highchair and crawl across the table to sit in the casserole" Peggy nearly lost her teeth laughing!"

"It didn't help that Martin and Lianne were encouraging him," Steve remarked, smiling at the memory of it, even able to smile at the mention of Peggy now without getting too upset.

"Peggy?" Colin echoed, cracking open the ale Lucy had handed him and taking a swig. Either he had never heard of Peggy Carter or wasn't aware she had spent her last years with Steve and Lucy.

"Peggy Carter," Nat told him. "A very close friend of Steve's back in the day, founder of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"And my great-aunt," Lucy added, still grinning with Steve over the memory. "She lived with us for a while before she died."

"Bess is named for her - Elizabeth Margaret. Liv and Johnny got very close to Peggy before she passed," Steve explained. "I see," Colin said with a frown. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

Natasha Romanoff · Date: 2018-07-08 11:06 EST

"She died with a smile," Lucy said quietly, her smile fond as she remembered the old lady who had taught her how to be a mother. "Sarah's named after her as well - Sarah Margaret. Peggy was important to all of us."

"Peggy was very special," Steve said, turning quiet a moment, but not really wanting to elaborate further. Lucy already knew how Steve had felt about Peggy, and it was likely Nat did, too, but he wasn't about to explain it to Colin.

"She had a good run," Lucy said gently. She caught little Nat's eye, and the toddler twisted suddenly to throw her arms around her father's neck and kiss him soundly on the chin.

The older Nat snorted with laughter, rising to start clearing plates away automatically. She'd been here too many times not to be comfortable tidying up.

Steve laughed as the toddler gave him a sloppy kiss and a hug right when he needed one, as though she almost sensed he needed it. So far, Jamie hadn't demonstrated any unusual abilities, other than being exceptionally healthy, but it was too soon to tell about the twins. "Are you sure she isn't empathic?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.

In the meantime, Colin rose to his feet to help Nat clean up, even though he'd done most of the cooking. It seemed Steve and Lucy might need a brief moment alone.

"I'm not doing bloodtests on the children unless absolutely necessary," Lucy chuckled, handing him a fresh bib for Natalia. They still had to get through dessert. "Maybe she's just very sensitive to your moods, love. They all are."

"I doubt a blood test would help, do you?" Steve asked, smooching little Nat's cheek in return, before switching out bibs. "Are they?" he asked, arching a blond brow at his wife. He knew Lucy could tell when his moods changed, but he wasn't so sure about the kids.

"Yes!" She laughed at his surprise, gently tucking the new bib about Sarah's neck as the quieter twin burbled to her sister. "Haven't you ever noticed that at least one of them always needs a hug right when you do' That's not about them, Steve." She tilted her head back for a moment. "Nat, there's a cheesecake in the fridge for dessert."

"But how do they know?" he asked, as he adjusted the fresh bib under Natalia's chin. "Do you think they know what they're saying to each other?" he whispered, as if he was worried about them overhearing him, when they were sitting right there. By them, he meant the twins. Of course, for a pair that was in utero together, it wasn't hard to believe they had learned how to communicate with each other.

"Of course they do," Lucy assured him matter-of-factly. "It's a known phenomenon, Steve. Twins develop their own language that they use exclusively with one another before they start using their parents' language predominantly. They may not understand us all the time yet, but they understand each other."

"I wonder if Alex knows what they're saying," Steve mused aloud, though it kind of felt like eavesdropping on a private conversation to ask. Even as accustomed as he was to people with enhanced and unusual abilities, he had always had a sense of awe about the kids' talents, even if they had been because of Hydra's tinkering. "Do you ever wish they were just normal kids?" he asked further.

"They are normal kids," Lucy reminded him firmly. "They just have extra talents, that's all, and parents who aren't going to give up on them because of those talents."

Steve nodded empatically. "And we will give them as normal a childhood as we can," he said, which meant they weren't going to be part of the so-called "Junior Avengers" until they were old enough to take care of themselves. If Steve had his way, they would never be, but he'd leave that decision up to them.

"Exactly," Lucy agreed, smiling over at him as Nat pulled Colin back to the table to set down the cheesecake. "You know, you didn't have to tidy," she pointed out, but Nat just laughed at her.

"I've seen you leave the scrapings congealing on the plate for hours just so you can chat."

"Her super power is procrastination," Steve said, with a smirk, showing he wasn't afraid of doing a little teasing of his own, if he was in the right mood and company for it.

"I highly doubt that," Colin interjected. "Not with four kids." He looked to Lucy a moment as he took a moment to pour them each a cup of coffee, which he'd brewed to perfection. "So, I hear you're a doctor."

Ignoring the teasing aimed at her for the time being, Lucy smiled at Colin. "I am," she confirmed. "Started out as a specialist in critical care, then S.H.I.E.L.D. got me into research and critical care. I still look over reports and research when A.E.G.I.S. need me to."

"You don't miss dealing with patient care?" Colin asked further, merely curious. He was still in the getting to know you stage, after all.

"Sometimes I do," Lucy admitted ruefully. "But as it stands, I'm the foremost expert on identifying genetic enhancement on the human genome and its side effects. Reed Richards keeps trying to get me to write a paper on it, but I am not putting that information out to the general public. As wonderful as the original serum was, virtually all the attempts to recreate it have involved horrific experimentation. I don't want to encourage that sort of thing."

"No," Steve agreed grimly. "Someone would just want to weaponize it. The original serum was meant to create an army of super soldiers, but Dr. Erskine knew it could enhance evil, as well as good. He died with the original formula still in his head. Hydra's been trying to reproduce it all these days, but they never quite seem to get it right," he explained.

"There's some talk that the Russians managed to create a version of the serum back in the late 80's," Lucy mused, "but their paperwork is impossible to track down."

Nat's curiosity piqued at that. "Russia?"

"Yeah, Lucy's done an analysis of Nikolai's blood work. It seems the Russians did a little tinkering with his DNA," Steve told her, with a brief glance at Colin. He might have been reluctant about discussing such things in front of the man, if it wasn't for Alyona's assurance that his heart was in the right place.

Nat frowned thoughtfully. "If they perfected their own serum," she said carefully, glancing at Colin in vague alarm for a brief moment. "Luce, can you do that test on my blood" I had to ....you undergo a procedure before graduating from the Red Room. Maybe I'm not so much skilled as unfairly advantaged."

"I think you're pretty skilled, Nat," Steve assured her. "But I don't see why we can't test your blood," he said, looking to Lucy for assurance. After all, if they could do it for what were practically strangers, why not for family"

Lucy nodded, more than happy to do this if it would set Nat's mind at rest. "I could take a sample today," she suggested. "The tests take about two days to run, and analysis is around six days after that, so I should have answers for you by the time you get back from your holiday."

Colin remained quiet, merely listening while the others chatted about the serum and the possibility of checking Nat's blood for enhancements. It didn't matter to him whether she was or was not enhanced, but he knew it was important to her. His feelings weren't going to change either way. He only had one reservation about it.

"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked her gently as he leaned close and touched her arm. He didn't know what the tests might show and he was concerned she might not take the results well, and yet, she did have a right to know.

Nat covered his hand with her own, her eyes meeting his with honest certainty. "I need to know if they did something to me," she told him quietly. "Something more than they said they would do. The graduation ceremony was bad enough, but if they used a serum on me, I need to know that. I need to know what the side effects are." She squeezed his hand. "It won't change anything."

"No, it won't," Colin assured her, with a soft smile that spoke more of his feelings than he might have put into words. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, despite the audience. He wasn't going anywhere no matter what she found out.

She smiled faintly, leaning close to touch her cheek to his shoulder. Across the table, Lucy smiled, catching Steve's eye. It seemed as though the Black Widow had been well and truly ensnared in a web of her own choosing.

Steve smiled back, both at the shared knowledge that Nat seemed to have finally found her match and that she felt comfortable enough with both of them to share it with them. Whether she cared to admit it or not, it was a sign that she truly had accepted them as family.

And that, for a woman who had thrived for decades on being totally alone, was definitely a step in the right direction.

Topic: A Hint of Family

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff

Natasha Romanoff