You just need to breathe to feel my heart against yours now, against yours now -Ed Sheeran, Wake Me Up

"Can we talk?" Natasha said as she walked into Tony's lab. Her husband was sitting at a workbench in a tank top, a wrench in one hand, the other holding a piece from his Iron Man armor. The speakers were blasting AC/DC. She had a brief moment of worry for his hearing before her mind returned to her purpose in coming here.

"Yeah, babe, what's up?" Tony said without looking up. He cranked at something in the scratched red gauntlet and it made a protesting crunching sound. Natasha winced at the sound and sat down opposite him. The metal gauntlet partially obscured his face from her view.

"Tony, I –" she began, but he was still focused on fixing his armor. She huffed in annoyance. "Look at me, Tony, this is important." He gave a low growl of frustration as the suit continued to be unyielding.

"Yeah, yeah, give me a sec." He tinkered for a minute while Natasha tapped her fingers impatiently against the bench. A minute later he gave up, shoving the bent metal aside. It crashed discordantly against scraps of metal and Natasha grimaced. The sound, plus the AC/DC that screamed from the speakers, gave her a headache. "Jarvis, turn that off," she said and the AI complied.

For once, the lab was completely silent.

Tony leaned forward, elbows on the bench, his fingers steepled. "Okay, shoot." With his messy hair, his goatee and the posture, she couldn't help but be reminded of Sherlock Holmes. Well, she had his full attention now. She took a deep breath and forced herself to put on her emotionless mask. She put the stick of plastic she was holding onto the bench, and pushed it towards him.

His eyebrows rose and his eyes grew impossibly wide, till they were shining brown disks bordered by a breadth of white. His eyes darted to her stomach and back to her face. "You're –" he stammered in disbelief, searching her face like he expected her to tell him that it was all a big prank.

She couldn't help it and her lips cracked into a grin. "Yeah. I'm pregnant."

At her words he let out a laugh, at once incredulous and joyous, "Oh my God, Tasha!" He ran to her side and she stood to meet him and he wrapped her in a tight hug. She held him close to her, her heart leaping with giddiness. "Oh my God," he whispered, his voice husky. She might be imagining things but she thought that he was shaking a bit in her arms. She fondly carded her fingers through his tousled hair. He relaxed his hold on her just enough for him to look at her face to face, one hand on the small of her back and the other below her shoulder blades.

"How long have you known?"

She bit her lip, pondering whether she should tell him a happy lie – that she had found out an hour ago. She decided against it; she had made up her mind early in this relationship to be truthful to her lover. "Two weeks ago," she said. At his wounded expression she said quickly, "I've been saving the news. I'd planned to tell you today."

"Today? Why today?" His forehead crinkled in confusion.

Natasha laughed. "It's the second Sunday in May."

"The second Sun –" Realization dawned on his face. "Oh." He grinned. One of his hands came up to cradle her head and he leaned his forehead against hers. "Happy Mother's Day," he said, his eyes warm brown pools of pure adoration.

Natasha stood on her toes and kissed the tip of his nose. "Happy Mother's Day." Before she could settle back on her heels he drew her in and kissed her on the lips, deep and slow and so full of unspoken love. When she pulled back her eyes were moist, and she brushed at them roughly with the back of her hand.

"Oh God what did I do –" Tony said anxiously, wiping at her spilled tears with a panicked care that was so endearing that her tears came afresh and she tried in vain to stop them before they fell. "What – Tasha, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to – what did I say?"

She actually laughed, still half-crying, and he looked at her like she was crazy. "You got me pregnant, that's what you did," she said, "and you're going to have to deal with this mess for the next seven months."

He let out an incredulous laugh, shaking his head. "Gladly. And you can remind me all the while that it's my fault."

She brushed away the last of her tears and gave him a knowing smirk. "Oh, I will."

Her heart felt like it was swelling in her chest with all the love she had for this man. She remembered being seven and wanting nothing more than a family, before remembering that the Red Room was all she had. She remembered the day she became a Black Widow and was told that that meant she could never have a child. She remembered defecting from Russia, resolute that she would never marry, never mother a child, and would give her life to righting her wrongs. Then Tony came along, and the rest of the Avengers, and she knew that she had found her family. And now, their family, her own family, was growing inside her. She knew that no matter how much she would struggle with parenthood, Tony would be with her, and together they would fight with their lives to protect their child and give him or her more love than either of them had known as children. She may be scared, but she knew with the same certainty with which she knew that her heart was beating for love, that her future was brighter than her past.

Note: Happy mother's day to everyone who's celebrating this holiday today. Or anytime, really. Because mothers are the best ever and it's never the wrong time to tell your mom you love her.

Disclaimer: Marvel owns all these characters.