Drabble: Steve/Natasha
Rating: NC-17ish?
Word Count: ~1,400
Prompts: "(303): we fucked the fort apart but we'll rebuild it after we get some drinks."

... ...

Babysitting is… well, she kind of totally loves it, and it surprises the hell of her every time, but whatever. Maybe she loves it as much as she does because Nikki is such a sweetheart and Natasha will take any chance she gets at some quality time with her. Which is pretty often, since Pepper and Tony are always being invited to some charity or benefit thing, and because they want to keep Nikki as far away from "all the public crap" (Tony's words, obviously) for as long they can, they'd rather her stay at the penthouse with Natasha and Steve.

That's the other thing she loves about babysitting—watching Steve with Nikki.

The girl adores him, obviously, and it's no surprise at all that he's awesome with her. He makes her giggle like crazy and sings whatever she asks him to and always finds new recipes for snacks or desserts that she can help him with in the kitchen.

Tonight their project was sugar cookies, and Steve brought up food coloring and royal icing and the two of them rummaged through the sweets in the pantry so they had plenty of toppings to decorate with. Pepper is probably not going to appreciate them stuffing her daughter with sugar before dinner, but whatever. The girl isn't a particularly picky eater and won't even pout or anything if her parents tell her that she's reached her sugar limit for the day, or just don't want her eating junk at the moment, so Natasha thinks the girl can indulge a little for tonight. Plus, it's totally adorable to watch her sort of eying Steve when she reaches for a marshmallow or M&M and then light up when Steve tells her to go for it.

Nikki iced a cookie for every one of her aunts and uncles, and her parents, of course, and then one for "Grandpa Nick" (definitely Tony's doing, because she used to just call him Nick at first, and the fact that Nick lets her get away with this is one of the greatest things Natasha's ever heard).

Natasha's taking a bite out of one of her trial cookies—because the girl is as neurotic as both of her parents and did not want to give anyone a cookie she felt she messed up on—when Steve walks back into the living room. He gets this grin on his face when he sees her, because she's still sitting underneath the blanket fort Nikki wanted them to make.

(Yeah, Pepper will definitely not appreciate this, either.)

"Well, she's definitely out," he announces, ducking under a blanket to sit beside her.

"She fell asleep?" It's only nine, and Pepper and Tony usually stay up with her later than this, so it's weird that she'd crash already.

"Yeah, I found her passed out in the middle of her room, so I moved her to her bed and turned off the light." He grins again, reaching over to brush the crumbs off of the corner of her mouth with his thumb. "You're making a mess."

"Bigger than the mess we already made?" He chuckles and she stuffs the rest of the cookie in her mouth, licks her lips after she's swallowed. "Pepper's going to kill us."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration, but…" He glances around. "Yeah, we should probably start cleaning up."

"Later," she says, lying herself on her back. He raises his eyebrows. "What? Nikki might wake up again, and she'll be upset that we cleaned up her fort, and then we'll probably have to rebuild it, anyway. We'll just do what we always do and start cleaning up when Tony texts us that they're on their way home."

"You just want to keep the fort up for yourself."

"Shut up."

He laughs and moves to lie beside her, propped up on his elbow. "I think it's cute," he says, probably only half teasing. She glares at him, but he just grins because he knows she doesn't mean it. It's quiet for a few moments, but it's nice, too, because they've kind of been going non-stop all night because of Nikki, and she was pretty sure they'd be at it for another hour or two until Tony and Pepper got home. He smiles, reaching up to brush her hair back. "I hope you know how amazing you are with Nikki," he says. "She loves you."

She lets out a laugh. "Trust me, she loves you more. You're better at playing with her than I am."

"You're really good at it," he insists, his settling over her hip, because it kind of just always ends up there and she loves it. "She loves being with you, and she's always trying to be like you, too. She told me she wants red hair to be more like you and Pepper."

"Liar," she says, except it comes out in this sort of whisper, because shit, that's actually really adorable.

And she has noticed Nikki trying to copy her, sometimes. Tony's probably thrilled about that.

"You're great with kids," Steve goes on, smoothing his thumb over the skin above the waistband of her yoga pants. "You're going to be a great mother someday."

"Who said I'm going to be mother?"

He chuckles, shaking his head, and she loves that they can tease each other about things like this. They've talked about moving into a place of their own, getting married and having kids and the future before, and no, they're not in any rush to get any of that done right now, but she honestly thinks she'd feel ready if they happened, anyway. Mostly, she just loves that she has the chance to have these things for herself, to build this life for herself when it hadn't even been an option before, and the fact that she gets to share this with Steve?

It's kind of crazy, really, when she stops to think about it.

She pulls him closer and presses their lips together, and he squeezes her hip a little, kissing her back. They're gentle at first, lazy and content, but his fingers are tracing idly over her hip, digging into her skin with just enough pressure that it kind of drives her crazy, and she can feel him as she shifts beneath him, brushing against where he's hard for her.

"Steve," she murmurs against his lips, kissing him a little harder, a little dirtier, and he makes this noise from the back of his throat.

Her hand comes between them, grasping at his belt, and he mutters, "Wait, 'Tasha." Her hand brushes over the front of his jeans and he pulls away. "Nikki might—"

"She's asleep," she reminds, even though she was the one that'd said she could wake up, but whatever. They'll be careful to listen for her, and really, it's not like this is the first time they've fucked with someone else in the other room. She hooks a leg around his hips, pressing him closer. "But if it really bothers you that much, I can take care of myself."

"No," he says lowly, eyes dark, and she actually bites her lower lip a little to keep from smiling too widely as she pops the front of his jeans undone.

He nearly growls when she grasps him, then lets out this throaty laugh when she leans up and whispers, "Hush," into his ear, shifting his hips against her hand. God, Tony and Pepper may actually kill them if they find out they had sex with their daughter just down the hallway.

Steve's head falls to her shoulder and he murmurs, "Natasha," with his breath warm against her neck.

"I need you to be inside me, okay?"

"Yeah," he breathes, and she tugs a blanket over them as he pushes her yoga pants and panties down her legs, she really does care about the possibility of Nikki walking in on them. She bites her lower lip, trying to be quiet, but then Steve sinks into her and she lets out this pretty loud moan that has Steve kissing her to stifle her. "Hush," he whispers into her ear, and she lets out a soft laugh at first, until he angles his hips and brushes against a spot that has her arching her back, tugging at a blanket and sending a wall of their fort down.

Damn. They'll have to fix that before Nikki wakes up.