Author's Note: Woo! Congrats to Birdman on winning Best Picture (still kind of pissed that Micheal Keaton didn't win Best Actor but whatever that's a different story)! As promised I got this chapter up before March 10th! Go me! As always I'm sorry if anyone is too OOC. Here is Chapter 4: "I'm Glad You're Here Just Loving." This chapter's title comes from "I'm Glad" by Jennifer Lopez.
It was about three days before Thanksgiving when Steve came up with his big plan. He and Natasha were lounging around in his living room, watching TV. They'd both had had a long week of mission and were totally wore out. Natasha had even curled up on his couch with her head in his lap. A commercial for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the Purina Dog Show had just when off when he asked the question. "Why don't we cook everyone a Thanksgiving dinner?"
Natasha rolled over in his lap to stare up at him. "What?" she asked.
He looked down at her. "I think we should make everyone a traditional Thanksgiving dinner."
"What brought this about?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I don't know. I saw the thing about the parade and it made be think about how my dad took me and Bucky to it a few times when we were kids. It was always pretty fun. Then when we got home my mom and dad would cook Thanksgiving dinner and we'd invite Bucky's family to come eat with us. Then usually at Christmas they'd return the favor and let us come to their home and eat. I just thought it'd be fun to get the team together and do something like that."
"That's sweet, Steve," began Natasha, "But can you cook? Cause I'll just admit it, I can't. Learning to cook seemed to come second to learning to kill in the KGB."
"Well, I used to cook some with my mother, mostly when she was feeling sick and dad had passed away. My dad was actually a really good cook though he wasn't the guy you'd expect to know a lot about it," he said, "Besides with directions and microwaves and stuff, how hard can it be?"
"Steve, I've been wiped out from this whole week and unlike you I don't have super solider serum flowing in my veins to constantly replenish my energy. I want to relax and planning and making a big dinner doesn't sound too relaxing," she said.
"But I'll be there to help and we can relax after it's done. It's just for us and the rest of the group. Just get a turkey, some potatoes, some bread, some stuffing, things like that."
"Why don't we just have Stark get own of his chefs to cook it?" she asked.
"Because that would defeat the purpose. We're trying to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner which includes the tradition of actually making it. Come on, Natasha. It'll be fun and afterward you can rest all you want."
Natasha smiled at his enthusiasm. She sighed. "Fine, I'll help you," she said as she leaned up and gave him a small kiss. "Gosh, I'm getting soft."
"You're the best, Natasha," he said.
"I know," she began as she laid back down and turned toward the TV.
XXXXXXXXXX
The next day, during a group meeting at Avengers Tower, Steve and Natasha invited everyone to their Thanksgiving dinner. After the meeting Natasha decided she would go meet with Sharon at the shooting range and invite her before heading to ballet class. That left just the boys sitting there to chat.
"Are you two really going to cook? I can have one of my personal chefs whip it all up if you want," said Tony.
"Sorry Stark but this is going to be a traditional, home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner," said Steve.
"Suite yourself," said Tony.
"Alright, I have a question," began Sam, "How are we all going to fit into your apartment? That thing is small."
"We'll make it work," said Steve, "Come on, guys. Get excited about this!"
"Well, it will be fun for all of us to get back together for something not a meeting," said Bruce, "The Halloween party at Clint's was the last time we really did anything together like this."
"That's the spirit, Bruce," said Steve.
"You know I have to admit I'm surprised Romanoff is helping you," said Tony.
"Why's that?" asked Steve.
"Doesn't really seem like cooking and party planning are Natasha's forte," said Tony.
"Well, they aren't really mine either," began Steve.
"I have to agree with Tony some," began Clint, "I don't think she'd have done this if it wasn't for you, Steve."
"Natasha is a little warmer around you," said Bruce.
"It's kind of funny to see her like that," said Clint.
"So when can we expect the wedding, the suburban home, and the kids?" asked Tony.
"Very funny, Stark," began Steve, "but me and Natasha have only been together a few months, it's nothing that serious."
"I don't know, Steve. It's pretty serious if you can crack Natasha's hard shell," said Clint.
"I wouldn't say that I cracked her shell," said Steve.
"Oh come on, Steve, Natasha can be pretty different around you sometimes," said Clint.
Steve thought about it. It was kind of true. Natasha wasn't as hard around him. She like to curl up on the couch and watch movies with him, something you wouldn't except her to do in her free time when you first met her. She laughed and smiled a lot more around him. If she kicked his ass in training she'd smile and kiss him after she did it. Around most people she was usually all business, all the time but around Steve she showed a different side.
"Ok I guess that is true but it's certainly not marriage serious," said Steve.
Tony began humming to the tune of K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
"Oh, hush, Stark," said Steve as he got up but then the rest of the group couldn't help but join in. "Alright laugh it up, guys," said Steve as he headed to the door. "This meeting is over by the way."
XXXXXXXXXX
The day after that, one day before Thanksgiving, Steve and Natasha decided to go to the grocery store together to get what they needed to make their dinner.
"Ok so two cans of cranberry sauce, two packs of rolls, two boxes of stuffing, a bag of potatoes, wait-" began Natasha as they started down the aisles, "do we really have to get a bag of potatoes to mash? They make instant potatoes now."
"We're keeping it traditional, Natasha," he said.
She sighed. "Alright, if you say so. Anyway, paper plates and cups because you have nothing to eat off of, ingredients for a pecan pie for dessert, ingredients for a pumpkin pie for dessert, two cans of green beans, two cans of creamed corn, a turkey, obviously, and what is this? Various spices, rosemary a must?"
"To rub the turkey with," he said, "and I read rosemary was really good to put on it."
"You read all this?" she asked.
"I had a lot of free time after the group meeting yesterday," he said. "Speaking of spices, I think they're down this aisle."
So they went down the aisle and stared at the giant row of spices before them. "Good lord how many different spices can there be?" she asked. She reached over and pulled one off the shelf and turned it around to read. "Oh look it tells you what kind of meat and vegetables it's good on."
"That's helpful," he said as he leaned over her shoulder to look at it.
She leaned back against him and smiled. "It is isn't it?"
Steve started to wrap his arms around her but they quickly jumped away from each other when they heard a voice ask "Excuse me?"
They both turned to the left and saw a tiny, old woman standing there.
"I hate to bother you two but could you come help me get some cat food? The bag is pretty heavy and I can't get it into my cart," she said.
Steve shook his head. "It's no bother, ma'am. I'd be glad to help."
So Steve walked down to the end of the aisle with the woman and helped her get the cat food in cart. "Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome, ma'am. Are you sure you don't need help getting that to the car?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, no. I can get one of the bag boys to help me. Besides I wouldn't want you to leave your wife all alone."
Steve got a little red. "Oh sh-she's not my wife. We're just dating."
The old woman looked over at Natasha, who was still looking over spices. "Well you might want to get on the stick with proposing, sonny. She looks like the kind of girl you don't meet everyday."
Steve turned around to look at Natasha and smiled. "You're right. She's something special."
"All the more reason that you should marry that girl. You know I used to work at a jewelry store, selling engagement rings and such, and I saw a lot of people who thought they were in love and who really were in love and let me tell you that that girl looks like she's really in love with you," she said. She then patted his arm. "Go back to her, sonny."
She then went back to cart and started to walked away but quickly turned around. "Oh and sonny? You better treat a girl like that right. Cause she looks like someone who's seen them all and none of them have been good. She probably sees something different in you and fell in love with that. So don't do anything to make her think she was wrong."
"Don't worry, I won't," he said.
She smiled at him and nodded her head as she walked away.
Steve went back over to Natasha who was laying a handful of spices in the cart. "Well you two sure had a long conversation. Reminiscing about the '40s or something?"
"No, she was just sharing some relationship wisdom with me," he said.
"Relationship wisdom?" she asked.
"Yeah, she thought we were married. She told me not to let you get away," he said.
"Well can you blame her?" asked Natasha with a grin. "I mean come on, Steve. You'll never meet someone else like me."
He smiled as he kissed the top of her head. "You're too good for me, Natasha. Now let's get the rest of these groceries."
XXXXXXXXXX
It was early Thanksgiving morning when Natasha arrived at Steve's apartment. He had just turned the parade on his TV and set the oven to preheat when she knocked.
"Hey," he said as he let her in.
"Hey," she replied, "you already getting started?"
"I was about to," he said, "Just going to get the turkey started."
"Ok, let's go," she said, walking into the kitchen.
So Steve pulled the turkey out of the fridge and set it on the counter. They stood there a moment, staring at it.
Natasha poked it. "It's as hard as a rock. I thought you said putting it in the fridge would defrost it."
"It was supposed to," he began, "I guess it just needed more time. Don't worry though. I'm sure the oven will still heat it up. Look I'll get the spices and we'll get it in the oven."
"Steve, you do know we have to take the gizzard and stuff out, right?"
"Oh yeah," he began turning back to the turkey, "I almost forgot." So Steve put his hand in the turkey and quickly pulled it out.
"What's wrong?" asked Natasha, "Too chicken to put you hand in a turkey?"
"It's like solid ice inside," he began.
"Are you kidding me?" she began, "Ok what now?"
"Maybe we should just let it set out for a minute to thaw some more then come back to it in a minute. Let's just get the potatoes on to boil," he said.
"Ok," she began. So Natasha went to fill the pot up with water while Steve grabbed the potatoes. They put them on his stove to boil and decided to move on to the next thing. "Want to get started on the pies?" he asked.
"I'll take pumpkin, if you take pecan," she said.
"Deal," he said.
As they began on the pies, they heard the boiling over of the potatoes. Steve quickly turned around and saw the hot water spilling onto the stove and the floor. "Damn," he said as he rushed over to turn it down. In his rushing the pie he was working on flipped onto the floor. When Steve stepped toward the oven he didn't realize that the water had boiled over into the floor and slipped in the hot what. He bit his lip in pain as he fell to the floor.
Natasha quickly turned around when she heard the thump. "Are you ok?" she asked.
He shook his head. "No. Please turn that off and put a towel on the floor."
So Natasha grabbed a kitchen towel, threw it over the water, then stood to the side and reached over to turn the potatoes off. She then walked over and stood in front of Steve. "Did you burn you're foot?" she asked.
He shook his head as he slowly rose up. "Yeah but I've had worse."
She noticed he wasn't standing on that foot. "You should probably at least bandage it up. I'll go get some."
As Natasha walked into the bathroom she suddenly heard a beeping noise. She quickly ran into the room and saw the oven open and smoking and Steve trying to open a window cause the smoke detector was going off.
About the time he got the window open, the sprinklers in his apartment started going off. Steve and Natasha both stood there until the water died down and the smoke cleared out of the house. They were both soaked, the whole kitchen and living room where wet (thank goodness for leather furniture and wood floors though), and yet the first thing both of them did was look at each other and laugh.
Natasha made her way over to him as he sat down on his wet couch and she plopped down beside him and leaned her head against his shoulder. "We are perhaps the worse cooks ever," she said.
"Good thing we already have jobs that don't require that on the resume," he began.
She laughed. "At least there is that. But gosh, if we were ever married then we would have to live off take-out."
"Think it's time to call Stark for some back-up?" he asked.
"Most definitely," she said.
XXXXXXXXXX
It was later that night when everyone showed up at Steve's apartment. Steve and Natasha had mopped up all the water and cleaned the kitchen up before Tony's chefs had come with all the food, earlier. It was laid out all around Steve's kitchen table and counters. Steve and Natasha were still in there messy, half-damp clothes from earlier, sitting on the now dry couch watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving as everyone piled in.
"Wow!" was the first reaction everyone had to seeing the food, though after they got a look at Steve and Natasha and they explained that the cooking didn't go well everyone's reaction was ultimately laughter.
"At least you two gave it a shot," said Bobbi.
"At least we got free food out of it either way," said Clint.
"Well everyone, let's grab some plates and enjoy this fine dinner!" said Tony.
So everyone grabbed the paper plates and cups and plastic silverware and headed around the kitchen getting their food, chatting, and laughing as they bumped into each other. Eventually everyone was sitting all around Steve's apartment, enjoying the meal and catching up.
"This really was a good idea," said Sharon.
"Yeah it's nice to be together like this," said Bruce, "even if we are a little cramped."
"Just don't Hulk out or we'll really be screwed on space," said Tony. Everyone, even Bruce, couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Bruce is right though. It is pretty fun to be together not during some battle," said Sam. "And this dinner really makes us feel like one big family."
Everyone shook their heads in agreement.
"Speaking of family," began Clint as he stood up and put his arm on Bobbi's shoulder. "We have an announcement to make."
"Clint and I are going to have a baby," said Bobbi.
Immediately the room exploded in shouts of "congratulations", "oh my gosh", and "we're so happy for you".
Clint and Bobbi smiled at each other. "Thanks, you guys. We're really excited."
"When are you due?" asked Natasha.
"I'm two months along so we are due in June," said Bobbi.
"You two going to get hitched before the baby gets here?" asked Tony.
"Well we talked about it and we decided to wait until after the baby's born," said Clint.
"That's so good for you two," said Sharon.
"Can't believe there will be a little baby Avenger soon," said Natasha.
"Well we really couldn't either," said Bobbi, "but it's just one of life's little surprises, a good one though." She turned around and smiled at Clint. "A really good one."
XXXXXXXXXX
Later that night, Steve and Natasha were cleaning up his apartment, picking up trash, storing leftovers, and washing the dishes that the chefs had brought to return to Tony later.
"Can you believe that Clint and Barbara are going to have a child and getting married?" asked Steve, washing the dishes.
Natasha shook her head. "Nope. It's a nice surprise though I don't know that it's a good idea."
"What do you mean?" asked Steve.
"A kid with the work that they do?" she began, "Plus having to plan a wedding after it's born? That will sure be a juggling act to see."
"I guess that's true," began Steve, "but I'm sure they can make it work. They love each other and my mother always told me love is what makes a life with someone else easier."
Suddenly Steve felt Natasha's lean against his back. "Can you imagine marrying someone, starting a family?"
"Maybe," said Steve. "Can't you?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Marriage is never really something that had ever passed my mind in any of my relationships. I doubt I'm fit for really living forever with someone else."
"You don't think you could live forever with me?" he asked.
"Are you asking me to marry you?" she teased.
It was quiet for a moment as he dried his hands and turned to face her. "Not yet," he said.
She paused a moment, a little surprised by his comment, before speaking. "Well, since you brought up living with you, how about I get a little test run by spending the night? I really don't feel like heading back to my apartment so I was thinking I could crash on the couch."
"Sure," he began, "I'll go get you a blanket and a pillow from my bedroom."
She kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, I'm going to go sit down."
So Steve went to get the blanket and pillow. When he went back in the living room he saw Natasha curled up on the couch, fast asleep. He thought back to three days ago when Natasha had talked about how tired she was and he guessed it had all just caught up with her.
He smiled as he placed the cover over her. He expected that to jolt her awake but she didn't even twitch.
Looking at her sleeping so peacefully, Steve couldn't help but wonder what it might be like if they were married. He'd get to go to bed with Natasha every night, wake up beside her every morning. They could buy a little house together, maybe start a family like Clint and Bobbi.
He laughed a little as he turned the lights off and headed back to his room. That was all a long way away of course and he sure was thankful just to have Natasha in his life for the little moments like this for now. He was thankful to know that she would always be there.
So marriage is a long way away for our pair...or is it? No it is; I'm not going to have them marry after like three months. But for the future...hmmmm? Anyway a wedding is not in the next chapter. The next chapter is Christmas time! Natasha has gotten Steve the perfect gift but she says she doesn't want anything when he asks what to get her. Still he's determined to find something she wants! But back to this chapter for a minute. Clint and Bobbi are going to have a kid! Yay! Of course we are all excited for them as everyone is! Also it's nice that Steve is just thankful for having Natasha around. No need to rush there relationship because it's nice just to be as they are sometimes. And at least he knows she's always there for him. Anyway I don't know when I'll have the next chapter up but hopefully it will be soon. My school's spring break is the second week in March so maybe I'll find some time to write and give you all a nice chapter! Anyway, as always reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated! See y'all next chapter! ;D
Thank you to Ealasaid Una, Thegirlwonder09, LawLady562, KTstoriesandstuff, and the 1 guest for the reviews and constructive critisicm! Also thanks to all who followed and favorited!