"Daddy? Where's mummy?"
Steve Rogers looked up from the pile of paperwork he was meant to be doing, meeting the gaze of his intuitive four year old. It had been a whole four years since James had been born and since he and Natasha had become parents. He still couldn't believe it sometimes until he noticed how big James was getting.
"She's got some things to take care of buddy, so she won't be coming home tonight." He smiled gently, getting of his seat at the dining room table and picking James up. He was extremely small in comparison to Steve, but then again, almost everyone was, let alone a four year old toddler.
"But I want mummy, she promised me." James pouted, rubbing his eye with one hand. "Don't do that buddy; you'll get germs in your eyes." Steve said. When it finally dawned upon him what he had just said, he almost laughed despite himself. He was beginning to sound like Natasha. She might have been a master spy and assassin, but she was as much of a neat freak as anyone else. Sure she still left the laundry lying around when he was on a mission and wasn't there to take care of it, but she had a peculiar thing about unseen germs. She would never let James rub his eyes, or eat something he'd dropped onto the table and washed his toys at least twice a week.
"You sound like mummy, daddy." James giggled. "I know, she's definitely rubbing off on me." Steve sighed as he carried James to the living room. Settling down on the sofa, he sat James down on his lap, "Okay, now what did mummy promise you?"
"She promised to read me a bedtime story." He said, sounding disappointed. Before Steve could reply, his phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Steve? Hey, is James asleep?"
He shifted the phone, cradling it between his ear and shoulder as he held James. "He's not because someone promised him a bedtime story and didn't fulfil her promise." He said teasingly.
"Fury sent me out on a last minute mission; put me on speaker will you?" She sighed, "I feel like a bad mum."
"It's not your fault Nat, hold on." Steve put the phone on speaker and held it in front of James. "Mummy's on the phone James, she wants to talk to you."
"Hello?" James said, grasping on to the phone with his tiny hands, "Mummy you promised me a bedtime story."
Steve ruffled his hair as Natasha replied, "I'm sorry baby, I'll be home tomorrow okay? Then I'll read you your story." He felt bad because he knew she felt terrible about it. Natasha loved James more than anything in the world, she hated to disappoint him.
"Okay…" James said, sounding about just as sad as he looked. "Don't worry James, I'll read you one in place of mummy okay?" Steve smiled as he took back the phone from James.
"I'm feeling so guilty right now." Natasha said, and he could tell how much she meant it. "Don't worry; you can make it up to him tomorrow."
"I definitely will."
"I miss you." He said.
"I miss you too but duty calls soldier. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Alright, be careful." He said, meaning it. She was the world's best spy, but that didn't mean he couldn't and wouldn't worry about her.
"Don't worry." She said, hanging up.
Steve put his phone away, and picked the toddler up, "Come on buddy, let's get you into bed."
As Steve tucked James into bed, he sat down, "So which story do you want to hear tonight?"
"I want to hear one about a princess."
Steve smiled, "A princess huh? Let's see what we can do." James yawned, "I don't want to hear a scary story daddy."
"Okay, let's see... There was once a beautiful princess who loved to do ballet. She had beautiful red hair and was the best ballerina in the entire kingdom. This princess was caring and she was kind, and everyone in the kingdom loved her. But one day, an evil witch who was jealous of the princess came, and cast a spell over the kingdom, making everyone forget about the princess. The only way to remove the spell was to kill the evil witch but the princess wouldn't dream of doing that, so she was really sad and she no longer danced."
James looked at him in disbelief, "What happened to the princess daddy?"
Steve laughed, "Calm down buddy, let me finish."
"One day, a prince came. He wasn't like the prince in Cinderella or the prince in Sleeping Beauty. He wasn't strong, nor was he very handsome but he promised to save the princess from her sadness. But the princess didn't believe that he could do it, because there were a lot of people who tried to save her, they promised they would, but they couldn't do it and the princess didn't trust people very easily."
"But daddy it's bad to break promises!" James said, cuddling his teddy bear tighter. "Yes it is buddy, but sometimes we are forced to break promises because things happen and we can't prevent it. Like mummy, she couldn't be here, but she promised to make it up to you tomorrow. Are you mad at her?"
"No! I love mummy! She has a reason!"
"That's a good attitude to have James. Sometimes responsibilities can come in the way of promises, but can you promise me that you'll take care of mummy when daddy's not around?" Steve ruffled James' hair. "I promise daddy…" James beamed, stifling a yawn.
"Okay, it's getting late. Let's hear the ending of this story shall we?"
"The prince knew he didn't have the power to kill the evil witch, so he brought the princess far far away from the kingdom, where nobody knew either of them. And the princess was still sad at first, but she realized that she did deserve to be happy. The prince, who was in love with the princess, felt happy because he knew the princess, was happy. In the end, the both of them got married. They even had a little boy who was the centre of their universe. They did indeed live happily ever after."
By the time Steve finished at happily ever after, James had already fallen asleep, his breathing even. Steve smiled to himself; he wasn't that bad at telling a story was he? He got up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him quietly. He sat back down at the dining room table and continued to fill out his long overdue paperwork before his phone buzzed with a message.
How was story time? –N
It was eventful. –S
Finish your work Rogers. I know you've got a lot of undone paperwork, although that is partly your own fault. –N
Wouldn't dream of saying no to a dame. -S