Hi guys! I am sorry if the fluff ahead makes your teeth hurt. (No, I am not.) I am still open for suggestions and requests so don't be shy.
And that thing about Pepper... It's from the comic books that she's married to Happy and I thought, why not? He is nice and she deserves to be happy (especially since Tony doesn't really exist and I don't like them together that much anyway). Enjoy!
[And see? Reviews make me write much more (: ]
Murphy's Law
She regrets not falling asleep earlier when she hears her kids running through the hallway. Natasha had lain awake most of the night after Steve's call. Worry had make sleep evade her. She knows enough about the mission to know that it's not overly dangerous but still risky enough to make Captain America's presence necessary. What if something goes wrong? The thought hadn't left her all night. She's always jittery whenever Steve goes on a mission of which she can't influence the outcome.
Now she has to force herself to stand up and take care of their children and to not dwell on the nagging feeling that possesses her. The kids think that their father only goes to work somewhere else, not that it includes risking his life so Natasha can't let them know.
After getting dressed rather quickly, Natasha steps out of her bedroom, finding no trace of James and Rachel anymore. Worried she checks Rachel's bedroom but finds it empty. Neither can she hear the TV downstairs.
'Jay, where are they?', she asks when she doesn't hear any commotion from anywhere.
'Master James and Mistress Rachel are both in Master James' bedroom.', the AI informs her.
'Thanks, pal.', Nat mutters, walking over to James' room, stopping dead in her tracks when she reaches the open door.
A head peers out of the big blanket fortress standing where usually there is a desk for the boy. Another head reveals that indeed both kids had withdrawn to the castle. Natasha recognizes blankets from the living room and Rachel's bedroom. That's what the running had been about.
'Good morning, Mom.' James grins widely when he sees her stunned expression. He seems very pleased with himself. His hair is still ruffled from sleep.
'Do you want to come in too?', Rachel asks, smiling sweetly from between the pile of pillows and blankets. They are in their pyjamas, having decided to build their hide-away right after standing up this morning. Rachel's eyes are still a little puffy from sleep.
Natasha smiles at the sight. They are happy, at least for the moment. She wonders how they managed to set this up in such a short time, feeling a little proud of their handiness. 'If I may.'
James nods vigorously and slips back inside. Seconds later the front blanket swings to the side, revealing the cave the kids have build. They have books and paper in their fort and even thought of a lamp to dispel the darkness. Several drawings litter the floor. Rachel must have brought all of her pictures here to work on them anew like she regularly sees her father do.
'Wow. This is great.', she praises her children. They had included the structure of the table without it being seen from the inside, all the colorful blankets create a nice surrounding to spend some leisure time in. It's even big enough for Natasha to sit in with her head tucked in only minimal. Their creativity is impressive.
'Isn't it? We build it all by ourselves.' James sounds really proud when he closes the fort behind his mother so she can see the whole greatness of their construction. It's small but really cozy. 'It's just stupid that we can't show Dad.' He pouts a little.
Natasha takes out her phone from her pocket. 'Show him. I don't think he'll answer but if you record it your Dad can see it. I'll make sure he watches it.'
James lights up immediately, making her smile. Rachel excitedly presses Emma closer to her chest and giggles, hiding her cute smile behind the ears of her bunny.
'Say 'hi' by me.', Natasha adds.
'Will do.', he quips, gazing at the phone in wonder. They are allowed to play around with some old technology but Steve and Natasha had agreed to not give them their own cellphones yet, Steve insisting that they are already spoiled enough and that they also survived growing up without it.
Natasha shows him how to activate the camera though that is hardly necessary, so her kids can make a video for their father, knowing he won't be able to take a video call.
Natasha ruffles James' hair with a smile. 'How 'bout you play a little and I'll make us some breakfast?'
'Can we have rice pudding?', James asks, his eyes shining.
'Rice Pudding. With cherries.', Rachel repeats excited.
'Sure, sweethearts.'
She leaves the fortress with a smile. When she reaches the kitchen, Natasha stops. 'Jarvis, I'll need your help.'
'Already on it, Mrs Stark. First you will need milk...' Step by step Jarvis guides her through the surprisingly easy recipe.
'Here.' James hands her the phone when the kids come downstairs for breakfast. 'Thank you, Mom.'
'I'll send it right away.', she promises.
'Can we call Dad tonight?', James asks, being backed up by his sister.
Nat worries her lip. 'I am not entirely sure when he will call or if he's going to call at all. Today is a hard day for your dad, okay? We'll see.', she tries to evade.
'Please!'
'Please, Mommy.', Rachel whines.
'If you're still awake, you can talk to him as well.', Natasha promises, not being able to resist the unhappy faces of the children but she regrets it instantly. Now they will probably not go to bed at all just to see their father for a few moments and they'll be cranky in the morning. She sighs. Steve probably doesn't have problems like this when she is gone. When she calls late at night the kids are always asleep, well fed and happy. How's that possible? It's hardly fair. Then again Steve is perfect in about everything. Why should being a father be the exception?
'Now get your breakfast before it gets cold.' She shoos them into the dining room where there's a bowl fixed for everyone along with cherries in sauce standing in the middle of the table.
During the meal, Rachel manages to get the red sauce all over her shirt. Jarvis suggests to wash it out instantly, adding that washing is also on the list from Steve. Natasha wonders if Steve tries to make a housewife out of her but then shakes her head and laughs about herself.
After getting Rachel into new clothes and transferring their mess from the dining room to the kitchen, Natasha gets the rest of the laundry and steps into the elevator, letting Jarvis direct her to the laundry room.
'I didn't even know we had one of these.', she muses.
'May I remind you that it was you who designed the Tower, Miss?'
'I thought I had people to do these things for me.' Natasha shrugs and readies one of the washers to the best of her abilities, even separating the white from the dark clothes after Jarvis reminds her of that (because, come on? How come no one had invented anything for this problem?) and swears that she'll come up something that will make this whole process much easier, (dirt proof clothes sound like a good idea, Jarvis write that down.), not that she plans on repeating this experience. Then she heads back upstairs to make sure the kids haven't got into trouble.
They still play in their fortress though some blankets have found their way to the floor already, leaving behind holes in the walls and roof.
Natasha works a bit on her tablet while watching the kids play and draw. They seem more contented now that they could send their father a message, it's almost like Steve is just gone for the morning or as if he'd be in his home office. In the evening they'd be clingy enough.
Half an hour later Jarvis reminds her of the laundry and Nat goes downstairs with the kids who apparently help Steve with the laundry every now and then. For a few moments she just stares into the room flooded with bubbles. Soap bubbles float lazily through the air, glistening in all colors of the rainbow. It looks like an oversized bubble bath if one would ignore the loud clacking of the washers. 'You couldn't have warned me earlier now?, she asks rhetorical.
The kids squeal in delight and dash right into the mess before Natasha can stop them. She can hear their little feet splash on the wet floor. Rachel and James start throwing hands full of foam at each other, giggling madly. This gets a small smile on Natasha's face despite it.
'As soon as I noticed I called you, Miss.', Jarvis replies smoothly.
Natasha curses under her breath, then runs a hand through her hair. 'I can fix this. I guess..' She steps closer to the machines, ignoring the kids play in the bubbles, not trusting the washers as bubbles still come out of them. Suddenly they come to a halt as Jarvis cuts the power supply.
'Are they broken?', Natasha asks cautiously. A new washing machine Steve would surely notice.
'The Internet suggests you might have taken too much powder.'
Natasha blinks a few times. 'Why didn't you tell me before?', she demands to know. Her voice takes on a hysterical tone. A headache announces itself in the back of her head.
'You seemed very sure about what you were doing.', is the mocking reply.
Okay, now she certainly has a headache. When did that damned AI just get so sassy. 'One of these days, Jarvis.. Don't you dare say a word to Steve about this. Actually, do not mention this to anyone. And delete the footage.' , she adds on an afterthought. 'We were never here.'
'Right away, Miss.', Jarvis replies dutifully.
Something wet comes into contact with Natasha's head. Dazed she shakes the foam from her hair. Rachel had gathered the bubbles on her arms to get their mother to also enjoy the unexpected quell of joy. The little blonde girl grins from ear to ear.
Within a few steps she has caught the little girl who tried to run away after the attack. Rachel squeals in delight when her mother picks her up. Smiling Natasha looks at her daughter, then crouches down to gather a hand full of the bubbles and blows them over Rachel's head. The blonde giggles delighted.
She holds out her other hand for James. 'Come on, let's get you into dry clothes before you catch your deaths.' James takes her hand and lets himself being guided away from the cold bubbles.
'Can we do that again?', James asks with big eyes.
Natasha takes a deep breath. 'Maybe.' She can't really guarantee for this to be a one time thing.
xXx
Natasha saves the clothes and mop the floor to leave no evidence of the mistake. The clothes need to be washed again but she postpones that until tomorrow.
In the evening Natasha is ready to fall into her bed and to never stand up again. Like ever. Running after the kids to make sure they don't hurt themselves or each other is difficult enough but how Steve manages not only that but also the household and his word AND finds time to draw a little on the side is beyond her.
'Hi! Anyone home?', a light voice calls from the living room just as Nat is about to give up on cooking dinner and order something. She survived years on take-away, her kids surely would survive one time.
'Pepper?' She looks out of the kitchen as her kids rush past her to crowd their favorite aunt. 'Did Steven send you?', Natasha asks distrustful.
'No, he didn't.' Natasha doesn't believe a word she says. This is no coincidence. 'I'm just here to remind you of the contracts I gave you to sign last week. Tomorrow I need them, the board meets to discuss some details.' Pepper carries her papers into the living room and sets them down on the table before embracing James and Rachel.
Natasha's shoulders slump. 'There is a meeting? I- I can't, Pepper.' She raises her hands to point at everything around her. It's impossible to let the kids alone for a few hours just to fight with some boring old people about how the company should be led. The Tower wouldn't survive that.
The red head rolls her eyes. 'It's nothing too big, so we won't need you. That's why you're no longer CEO, remember?'
Natasha breathes a sigh of relief. 'Best decision of my life. You're the best. I'll get them right away.' She heads for the stairs before remembering dinner, stopping dead in her tracks, looking in the direction of the kitchen.
Pepper waves her away. 'I'll take care of that.' Pepper ends up saving the meal and even makes it edible again. Later she checks if Natasha hadn't forgotten any signatures and they talk about some annotations the brunette still had.
'You can stay, it's already late.', Natasha reasons when Pepper packs away the contracts. The kids are already upstairs to get ready for bed. 'Happy wouldn't want you to drive in the middle of the night.'
'Nat, it's not even eight. And I have a driver.' She smiles knowingly. 'Nice try though.'
'Well, the meeting's pretty early. You could sleep here and sleep a little in.' Natasha isn't willing to give in just yet.
'You'll do just fine.' Pepper hugs her and refuses to listen to her rambling and insisting. Pepper soon is gone, leaving Natasha to walk upstairs to take the children to bed. Before heading for Rachel's room, she gets ready for bed herself, feeling ready to sleep until Steve returns at least. Not even the coffee after dinner had helped and with her that says something. When Natasha returns from the bathroom, she is surprised to find both her kids sitting on her bed with a book between them.
'Can you read to us?' James already urges her to take the book when she steps closer. They miss their father, crosses Natasha's mind. Then she remembers her half-promise.
A fond smile graces her features. 'Okay.' She slips into the bed between them do both can hear her and look at the pictures should there be any. The kids cuddle into their mother's sides to get comfortable. 'Where were you?', she asks when they are all settled.
Rachel already yawns but forces herself to stay awake for her father's call. And to not miss anything that happens in their story so that James would have no advantage, of course.
'There.' James points at the first bookmark. Natasha takes a good look at the book. It appears to be The Wizard Of Oz.
'Your father reads this with you? Are you sure?', she asks, not putting it past her kids to trick her into reading something from the forbidden section. She sighs when James nods vigorously. 'Why don't you first tell me what happened till this point so I understand the story?'
The kids' eyes gleam excited to teach their mother something they know and she doesn't. 'Okay. So there is this girl...'
Maybe being responsible for two kids isn't so bad after all.
xXx
'Hi Dad.' The smiling face of James appears on the screen.
'Hi Daddy!', Rachel chimes in. 'Can you see me, Daddy?' She gets closer to the camera, shoving James to the side. 'I love you, Daddy.' The blonde girl presses a kiss on the camera.
'Rachel! That doesn't work that way.', James admonishes her.
'Why not?' James draws Rachel back, revealing the most adorable confused pout. The boy sighs with a smile.
'We wanted to show Dad our fort.', he reminds her instead of explaining. She brightens up on that prospect, her eyes shine with new enthusiasm.
'Look what we made! Just like you and Uncle Bucky!', Rachel happily exclaims to the camera, waving with her tiny hands at the pillow fortress in the background. James grins as well, taking the camera.
'Look how cool it is. We made it all by ourselves.', he boast. 'Mom was really impressed.' The blankets are drawn aside, revealing the cozy inside. Rachel knocks one of the pillows down while crawling inside, resulting in another blanket to fall to the ground, leaving a hole in the wall. 'Rachel!', James sounds downcast.
'I am sorry.' She turns back to her brother with shining eyes, looking at the damage.
'Be more careful.', he chastises her.
'I'm sorry.', Rachel says now in a quieter voice, looking to the ground. With one hand she rubs her eyes.
James examines the damage with critical eyes. 'You'll fix that later.'
She sniffles and nods, brushing off the tears. 'Can you help me?'
His face softens. 'Of course.' Rachel flails her hands and gets closer to James, hugging him. 'Right.' He seems to remember the camera. 'Mom says hi. We miss you, Dad. Come back soon. Bye!' Jame waves.
'Bye, Daddy!' Rachel waves with both her hands before the screen turns black.
And Steve gets homesick all over again.