A/N: Happy New Year, guys! I wanted to write some fluff to celebrate.
"We said this year was gonna be exciting, right?" Natasha asked her husband, arms folded across her chest. Her eyes kept making frequent glances towards Tony's large flat screen TV where a timer in the far corner was counting down the minutes until the new year. Six minutes.
"Very," Loki promised, standing beside his wife in a far corner of the room while their friends were drinking as they hunched around the TV. "More exciting than the last."
"It just might be." Natasha casually laughed to hide her discomfort. "But you're okay with that, right? Excitement's always good."
Loki flashed her a sideways smirk. "Darling, you were asking for an exhilarating life when you agreed to marry me."
"This is different, though," she warned him. "We might be getting tangled up in something neither of us were trained for…"
Loki let his fingers brush Natasha's red curls from her face so he could better see her eyes. "I thought this was a mutual agreement," he chuckled. "We both want this and there is no turning back."
Looking the god straight in the eyes helped her feel more at ease. "I know," she said in a hushed voice. "I love you. You know that," she stated.
"And you are my world, Natasha," Loki earnestly replied.
"I'll be right back," she said quickly as she slipped away from him.
Loki nodded and turned his attention back to the ball dropping on the television screen. The timer continued to tick down and everyone started to grow quiet in anticipation. He noticed that Tony and Steve had the bay window open, ready to set off some fireworks at the stroke of midnight.
Natasha returned to her husband's side, a plastic cup in hand as the countdown reached the one minute mark. "Ready for your surprise?" she asked. "Promise me you won't be disappointed," Natasha added.
"I'm confident that this will be the greatest surprise of all," Loki mused.
The surprise was meant to be a Christmas present, but Natasha decided to save it for the new year as a way to welcome it with a bang. She was certain that the surprise was going to be a good one-a strong gut feeling told her so. But just in case, she didn't want to upset her husband who had a notion of what was coming for a while.
"Ten," Loki whispered into her ear.
The red plastic cup was slightly crushed under Natasha's firm grip. "Here." She offered him the cup as the countdown reached seven. Loki accepted the cup and Natasha wrapped her arms around his middle. She forced herself to look at Loki and focus solely on him as he stared into the piece of plastic.
"Four… three…two…" their friends all cheered in unison.
"A cross is good, yes?" Loki hopefully grinned, looking from the cup to his wife.
Natasha snatched the cup from him to steal a glance at the pink plus sign displayed on a pregnancy test she had taken earlier. She needed absolute proof so she could finally let the official news sink in.
"Happy New Year, Natasha," Loki chuckled. "This will be a grand year for the three of us." He pulled her in for a long kiss.
"I love you, Loki," she murmured. So far, their year was off to the best possible start imaginable.