A/N: Finally. Ohmygoodness, RL has been crazy. I've had a headache for two days now...anyhow, the baby shower! Serious fluff warning. I may have developed cavities writing this.

A couple months passed after Diana's encounter with an alternate timeline, and it was time to plan Pepper's baby shower. The CEO was definitely starting to show now, and they'd confirmed it was a boy. Tony was both terrified and thrilled, and he and Pepper were currently discussing names. None of the Avengers were allowed to give suggestions that were their own names, but they left sticky notes in Tony's office anyways.

Diana made Wanda her second-in-command for party planning. Darcy and Maria Hill viewed babies with abject terror, and Natasha viewed parties of women going 'awwww' with extreme indifference. Wanda though, was ecstatic.

"I love babies," she said again for the third time in an hour.

Diana smiled. "Me too. I'd spend every summer babysitting the kids in my neighborhood. To get them to take naps I'd read Shakespeare aloud. Worked like a charm."

Wanda laughed. "Of course you did." Her smile softened in remembrance. "When I was younger, my mother would take care of one of our neighbor's babies. He was the sweetest thing, and my mother would let me play with him."

Diana gave her a brief hug. "What does your brother think about babies?"

Wanda shook her head. "To him they're worse than puppies."

Diana snickered. Pietro still thought of the dogs as a plague, and would avoid Abby, Sarge, Ivan, and Spot at all costs. He'd fallen asleep on the couch the other day and woken up to find Ivan sitting on his feet - she'd never seen the speedster move so fast. She rolled her eyes fondly and gestured to the holographic screen. "Okay. Color scheme. Not red and gold."

Wanda laughed. "Not red and gold," she agreed.

"Might I suggest pale blue-grey, a midnight blue, and a sage green," Vision said, melting through the wall.

"Vis!" Diana said. "Knocking?"

"The door was open," he replied, pointing to the open door on the other side of the room.

Both women rolled their eyes, and Wanda entered the suggestions into the computer. "I like this," she said. "It's very soothing."

"Exactly what we need," Diana agreed. "Relaxed parents-to-be."

"Thank you Vis," Wanda said, giving the android a soft smile.

Vision smiled back, pleased, and sat down next to Wanda on the couch.

Diana smiled at the pair of them, and wondered who else was going to inevitably pair off in the team. That reminded her to ask Natasha how she and Bucky were doing. "Anyway," she said aloud, "snack menu."

Later that evening, Diana went looking for Natasha. She found the super-spy laying on her bed, Sarge comfortably curled up with his head on her hip, his tail wagging lazily. They were listening to Russian folksongs, both their eyes closed. "What's up, sestrenka?" Natasha murmured, eyes still closed, patting the bed.

Diana came to flop down next to her, and reached over her soulmate to scratch the Golden Retriever's ear. "Nothing much," she said, lacing her fingers on her stomach, "I just wanted to see how my favorite soulmate was doing."

Natasha smirked. "You were too busy ogling Steve this morning to chat with me," she corrected.

Diana grinned. "Yep." Her husband had been lifting weights when the two women had been sparring. Diana had come out of that sparring session not a little bruised, too busy admiring her soulmate's physique.

Tasha snorted in amusement, and reached down to scratch Sarge's ear. "I've been trying to think of something to give Pepper at the baby shower," she said after a few moments of content silence. "What do you give a billionaire couple who could literally buy a small country for their own child? Not to mention I don't know anything about children, anyway."

Diana glanced over at her. Tasha's face was poker-perfect equanimity. "You love Cooper, Lila, and Nate," she reminded her. "And you're Cassie's favorite Avenger."

Natasha cracked a smile. "Not Ant-Man?"

"Nope."

"And you've already thought up at least ten pranks to corrupt the Stark baby with, haven't you?"

Natasha's smile widened. "Twelve."

"There you are then." Diana turned her head to smile. "Tasha, you're amazing with kids. I'm sure whatever you get for Pepper and Tony will be perfect."

"What are you and Steve getting for them?" Tasha asked, snuggling into the pillows.

Diana giggled. "I have no idea."

Both women laughed, and Sarge woofed joyfully, moving to lay in between them, exposing his belly.

Diana leaned up on an elbow to rub at his belly. "I think Steve's working on an art project for the baby's room, but he hasn't shown it to me yet. I don't even think he knows I know, so don't say anything."

"Promise," Natasha said.

"And..." Diana paused thoughtfully. "I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe something with books, or stories."

Natasha smirked. "Of course."

"Of course of course," Diana said. "Books are awesome."

They lay there for a little bit, listening to the cheerful Russian folksongs, and then there was a soft tap on the door. Steve poked his head in. "Evening, Nat."

"Steve."

"Can I have my wife back? I'm in desperate need of cuddles."

Diana gasped dramatically and grabbed onto Sarge. "Not the dreaded cuddles! Sarge, save me!"

Natasha snickered as Steve approached the bed and scooped up his wife into a bridal hold, easily breaking her hold on the dog. Sarge watched lazily and wagged his tail.

"I surrender," Diana said, smiling. "You can put me down now."

Steve kissed his wife's smiling lips. "Nah." And he started to walk out.

"Night Tasha," Diana called, as she was carted away, her arms around Steve's neck.

"Night you two!" Natasha called, rolling her eyes.

The Rogers' got ready for bed, and Steve got his promised cuddles, his arms wrapped around Diana and his nose buried in her hair, their legs tangled together comfortably.

"You distracted me," Diana murmured, her voice muffled by his chest.

"Hm?"

"You distracted me," she repeated, her fingers tangling in his shirt. "I was going to ask her about her and Bucky." She felt Steve grin against her hair. "What?"

"I just talked to Buck about it today."

She drew back to see his face. "What'd he say?"

"He said that neither of them are willing to name their relationship. It's not physical, it's more, shared experiences and an emotional bond," Steve said. "Bucky said he's not ready for a typical dating relationship, and Natasha's never going to press him. So for now, they're just close friends."

"Hm," Diana said, relaxing. "Good to know."

The next week brought the day of the baby shower. The men of the facility were promptly kicked out, ordered to go do something to help Tony prepare for fatherhood, and the women converged on the living room of the Avengers facility.

Mrs. Lawrence brought a chicken pot pie and a peach cobbler. She came early to help Diana, Wanda, and Natasha prepare, and they decorated the living room and kitchen with streamers and balloons in the aforementioned soothing colors. Wanda and Diana had made cookies in the shape of teddy bears, and Natasha made a pot of hot chocolate.

Maria Hill got there precisely on time, bearing ice cream and a blue gift bag, and Jane and Darcy trailed in five minutes later, bearing more balloons and gift bags. The three women were stoically prepared for the evening of mushiness revolving around babies.

Laura, Nate, and Lila came in with Clint, who only stopped long enough to kiss his soulmates on the forehead and pop out again. Lila was named keeper of the gifts, and she solemnly placed them around the coffee table according to size and weight. She was impatient for Pepper to arrive so they could start to open them, but a stack of Stark-ified Legos was enough to distract her.

Helen Cho arrived, carrying cake, and sheepishly admitted that yes, she'd 3D-printed it in her lab. A small swipe of the frosting by Natasha assured the ladies that yes, it was tasty.

Also present were two of Pepper's cousins. They were near her age, and her closest female friends from the non-super world. Their names were Amanda and Susan, and to their credit, only displayed awe for the first five minutes of introductions. They were nice, and excited for their cousin, and everyone remembered to keep their conversations to non-classified subjects.

"Is it weird that we can't have a conversation without mentioning things like espionage or aliens?" Diana murmured to Natasha. "Maria almost mentioned the thing Jane's been working on."

Natasha smirked. "What's weird is that it took you this long to realize we're all mad here," she said, gesturing with her mug of tea to the women in the room. "Even Pepper's cousins are insane, for agreeing to come to a baby shower hosted by a mutant, an assassin, and a woman who might possibly be ruling the world."

"Good point." Diana suddenly gasped. "You used an Alice in Wonderland reference!"

"Yeah?"

"You said you hadn't read it!"

"I didn't. I watched the mini-series with the really cute Hatter."

Diana mock-scowled. "Without me?"

"You were busy with the twins," Natasha said, shrugging. "And Bucky wanted to watch it."

Diana smirked silently. Not give their relationship a name, indeed.

Then Pepper, the guest of honor, arrived, and everyone cheered. She looked surprised to see everyone there, and then faintly teary-eyed with appreciation.

Diana ushered her to a seat, and said, "Okay, first things first, food."

Everyone laughed, and agreed.

They had dinner and polished off the peach cobbler while they watched 'While You Were Sleeping', and then it was time for presents.

"This is more presents than people," Pepper said suspiciously.

"All the guys got you and Tony something," Diana explained.

"Start with this one," Lila said, taking her job very seriously, and handing Pepper the first tiny package. It was from Bruce, and she opened it carefully. There was a pair of hand-knit wristbands with curious little bumps on the inside. "For when little Stark is making you nauseous," the note read. "I got them from a friend in South Korea with three children."

Pepper smiled. "Very useful," she said, putting them in her pocket.

The next box was from Clint. It was a hand-carved baby rattle, the balsa wood soft and smooth as silk. A stylized 'S' was on the front. When she shook it gently, its rattle was quiet and gentle. "It's beautiful," she said, smiling at Laura and Lila.

Lila nodded. "Daddy made one for each of us. Look, this is Nate's." She held up a similar rattle.

Pepper gently put the rattle back in its nest of tissue paper and received the next bag. It was from her cousins, and it was an empty photo album, and a set of 'Daddy's little engineer' onesies. She smiled. "These are perfect. Thank you."

The next box was from Pietro. It was a tiny wool blanket with a hood, and- Pepper smiled. When the hood was up, "it's Iron Man," she said, smiling. "Tony's going to love this."

Wanda smiled. "Pietro knew Tony would want him to have something red and gold."

They all laughed. Just yesterday, Tony's suggestions for a nursery had been firmly vetoed, and he'd sulked for a good hour before getting distracted by mission reports from South America.

Wanda's present was a beautiful set of carved animals from her home country. Each of the animals was wearing little hats or scarves, and the bear was wearing mittens. Pepper thanked her with a hug.

The next was Natasha's present. It was a simple USB drive. She blushed when everyone turned to look at her inquisitively. "It's an album of lullabies," she explained, twisting her fingers in uncharacteristic nervousness. "From Russia. They're all I remember from my mother, and when I was little, and, I wanted to share them with you." She refrained from mentioning she'd recorded herself singing them.

Pepper guessed, though, and her eyes grew shiny with tears. "That means a lot, Natasha, thank you," she said, drawing her friend into a close hug. "And I hope when this little guy's born, you can sing them live."

Natasha smiled. "I wouldn't miss it."

Next was Jane and Darcy's gift, which was a complicated baby monitor system that was fully compatible with FRIDAY, and allowed the users to carry little chips for monitoring. "So you and Tony get live feedback," Jane explained.

Helen Cho's gift was a blanket woven with temperature sensitive strands, so you could tell if the baby was hot or cold depending on the color of the blanket, and the strands would thicken or loosen accordingly.

"You should patent this," Diana told her, admiring the soft, shimmering weave. "Revolutionize the infant care system."

Helen nodded. "I've got an appointment with the patent office on Tuesday."

"No work," Wanda scolded lightly.

Maria's present was a SHIELD-grade bulletproof diaper bag with numerous pockets. "Almost literally indestructible," she promised Pepper. "And it's got a homing beacon in it, if you lose it. And-" she leaned over to press her finger to the inside corner of the lining. The bag immediately stiffened up, turning more into a box, and started to shimmer. "In emergencies it can turn into a baby-sized Hulk-proof room. It's got little force fields to cushion the inside and outside. Your husband helped work out the designs but he didn't know what it was for."

Pepper's jaw dropped. "Wow. Thank you..."

Maria shrugged. "Can't have the smartest baby on the planet in danger."

Sam's gift was babysitting vouchers, printed out on glossy paper and very official looking. There were at least twenty of them, all entitling the bearer of the voucher to 'an evening or an event to themselves.' Pepper merely grinned.

Vision's present was a small stack of one hundred percent soft cotton clothes and a box of diapers that were guaranteed hypoallergenic. Pepper smiled, remembering once that Tony had complained about his own sensitive infant skin.

Rhodey had gotten the little man his first set of sports equipment - a tiny, plush football, equally small soccer ball, baseball, bat, and basketball. And a note confirming that 'Uncle Jim' would teach baby Stark all about sports since his father would teach him all about everything else.

Next, Lila handed Pepper a large box that was labeled 'fragile'. It was from Bucky, and Pepper opened it, curious. He'd always been friendly, but he and Tony were not super close. She smiled when she saw it though. It was a perpetual-motion machine, one where brightly colored balls and wires swooped endlessly through space.

Scott's present was a soft teddy bear, and it came with a card. 'From Cassie and Ant-Man," came the slightly crooked writing. 'This is Magnus, and he protected me when I was a baby from nightmares.' And a heart. Pepper smiled softly, and smoothed the teddy bear's fur neatly out of its button eyes.

Peter's gift was amazing, as a spider's gift ought to be. It was a baby-sling, the tight weave made from his spider-string, and coated in a light blue. The diagrams (Aunt May was modeling with a watermelon for the pictures) showed you could use it multiple ways, and the baby would be perfectly secure.

"That's gonna get a lot of use," Diana said, pleased. "Babies are heavy."

"Tell me about it," Laura said, shifting Nate to her other arm.

Three people offered to carry the dozing baby, and he was shifted off to Auntie Nat's protective hold.

There was a gift from Coulson, which made Pepper laugh so hard she almost cried. It was a well-used set of Supernanny DVD's.

"Two left," Lila said cheerfully. She picked up the smaller box and handed it to Pepper.

It was from Diana. Pepper glanced at her, and she ducked her head, pretending to be preoccupied with her hot chocolate. Pepper opened the box curiously, and stopped to smile. "Books," she said aloud, chuckling. She lifted out the first set, that looked curiously worn. They were all children's classics, nice hardcover editions, and when she opened the front cover of the first one she realized why they looked familiar. 'Diana Lawrence' was written in careful print in the corner. A more familiar, 'with love from,' was added above each name. With love from Diana Lawrence. "These are yours," Pepper said softly. She knew how much Diana treasured her physical copies.

"And now they're this little guy's," Diana said easily. "I want him to know the smell of books and ink, and the swish of a page." She smirked. "And besides, I'm going to read them all to him, eventually, so I'm not missing anything."

Pepper smirked, and lifted the other set of books out. They looked new, and the title wasn't a classic. 'Avengers Assemble'. The author was a D.L. Rogers. Her jaw dropped. "Diana..." She flipped open the first slim book and her eyes fell on the first chapter. "The Prince and the Snake," she read aloud. The doodle underneath was undeniably Thor. "Is this about us?" she asked.

Diana was now scarlet. "Yeah, maybe. I've been working on a series of stories, fairy tales, since Nate was born, and I've been adding to them whenever I can. My old boss helped me get them published, and, these are the first three in the series. There's a story about everyone in each book."

Pepper went back to the front page. It was dedicated to the Avengers and their legacy. And signed in black ink, with a long paragraph that Pepper decided to read later with Tony before she cried. "This is incredible, Diana, thank you," she said softly, admiring the covers. "Steve did the artwork?"

"Yeah."

The others were staring at her. "So you're a published author now?" Natasha asked, smiling proudly.

Diana shrugged. "It's just another form of print," she said, not wanting to take away from Pepper. "There's one more gift. Here Lila, sweetheart."

The last wrapped gift was a canvas. Pepper could tell. She could also tell that it was from Steve. She carefully unwrapped it, and stared in amazement at the beautiful abstract cityscape on the canvas.

Amanda and Susan murmured appreciatively. "This is great," Amanda, the art major, said. "Captain America painted this?"

"So that's what he was working on," Diana mused. It was a large canvas, and it was incredible work. She hadn't seen it before today, just like Steve hadn't seen her books. He'd known she'd wanted the doodles, but he thought they were just for her. She smirked. She was going to have to give him his own set of books.

Pepper tilted her head to study the brush strokes. Then she gasped. "Whoa." She straightened her spine, and then frowned. She tilted her head again, and then the other way. "Look at this," she said, amazed. "Tilt your head."

Everyone crowded behind her to look at the canvas, and FRIDAY snapped a picture of all the women tilting their heads curiously to the right. They all gasped as the Avengers emerged from the abstract city scape. There was Iron Man, a blaze of red and gold in the sky. There was Thor, surrounded by stormy clouds and lightning. The others were all perched on buildings or on the ground in heroic poses, fighting against an unnamed threat. Pepper was there, a gauntlet on her hand, and so was Diana, standing side by side with Captain America in a defensive pose. And if you tilted your head to the left, the scene changed again. The city scape blurred out, and there was everyone posed as if for a family photo, in civvies and wide smiles. Tony had his arms around Pepper, and Pepper was holding a nondescript bundle in blue.

"How'd he do that?" Darcy asked, her eyes wide.

Diana smiled proudly. "He's a genius, that's how."

Natasha nodded. "You'd better insure that piece, Pepper," she said wryly.

Pepper wiped her eyes with a napkin. "Definitely," she said. "This is going on the nursery wall. It's perfect."

Gifts were put away and placed in a corner, and it was time for cake.

The 3D-printed cake was as excellent as promised, and they all tucked in.

Wanda leaned over to talk to Mrs. L. "Did you know?" she asked, nodding to the books that were being passed around, Diana's face red as she protested.

Mrs. Lawrence smiled. "Yes I did. She wanted someone to critique them but she didn't want to ask any of her soulmates or friends to do it, because none of you can keep a secret longer than an hour. And she needed someone to vent to when she was waiting for her letter from the publishers."

Wanda smirked. "That's true." Now she knew why Diana was so stressed lately. Not only the baby shower, but the books.

"I want a copy," Lila pouted, touching the pretty covers of the books.

Diana smiled and hugged the girl. "If you'll check under your pillow, you'll get one," she promised, kissing her forehead. "And you too," she addressed the room at large.

They all grinned.

Pepper smiled again at the pile of gifts, and laid a hand over her baby belly. This child would grow up to be loved and cherished by a large family. She blinked back sudden tears, and silently cursed her pregnancy hormones.

Maria distracted her with a question about two o'clock feedings, and the conversation flowed to 'worst babysitting experiences'. They were all crying from laughing so hard, when the alarms went off. "Intruder alert," FRIDAY announced. "Thirty hostiles have breached the perimeter."

"Seriously!" Darcy yelled crossly at the ceiling, yanking her Taser from her bag and standing up.

Natasha suddenly had a gun and a knife, and Maria was equally armed. Diana pulled a small repulsor stun gun from underneath her chair, and assumed a defensive position. Helen had a gun, and even Jane was armed with a taser. Laura, Nate, Lila, Mrs. L, Pepper, and her cousins were herded into the middle of the living room, and Wanda created a bubble of defensive energy around them.

The lights suddenly went out, and FRIDAY's interfaces went dark. "They blew the power," Maria muttered, guessing that the reason Avengers personnel hadn't come flooding in was that there was a distraction around the other side of the campus. Later she found out that she was right.

Natasha and Maria moved to the stealth positions near the doors, and Natasha gave Diana and Darcy, her pupils, a stern glance that even in half-darkness they could see meant 'don't forget your training.'

The doors to the living room suddenly blew inwards, and ten heavily armed men came marching in. The first four went down thanks to Natasha and Maria, and Diana got the next two as they slipped past their fallen comrades. Darcy scored one, and so did Helen and Jane. The last one was Natasha's. "All unconscious, none dead," Maria announced, checking their bio-readings while the spy kept a lookout.

The power came back on. "-forces apprehended," FRIDAY was saying, distressed.

"We're secure," Natasha said tersely.

"So is the rest of the compound," FRIDAY reported.

The Avengers support agents came flooding in, then, and quickly hauled away the unconscious men. Natasha and Maria left to take charge, and three sturdy ex-SHIELD agents took their place guarding the perimeter.

Wanda carefully let her bubble of protective energy down, and the shaken cousins collapsed into a chair. "How are you not panicking?" Susan demanded of Pepper, who sat down calmly and resumed eating her cake.

"The intruders didn't even get a shot off," Pepper said dismissively.

"Nice shooting, by the way," Darcy told Diana.

"You too." Diana slid the stun gun into her belt, just in case. Her eyes widened as she heard the whine of a quin-jet. "Uh, did we call off the Avengers?" she asked.

Wanda sighed. "No, we did not."

Superheroes in full gear flooded onto the premises, both coldly calm and highly irate, and everyone went to their respective partners. "Where's Nate?" Clint asked, turning a rare shade of pale when he couldn't see him.

Laura calmly opened the grey diaper bag at her feet and showed it to him. Nate was laying on his back, calmly chewing on his foot. "He was perfectly safe," she said.

"Talk about a trial by fire," Jane said, relieved that the toddler was okay.

Steve had gone straight to Diana and wrapped her in his arms. "I can't leave you alone for a minute," he said fiercely, his face buried in her shoulder.

She smoothed his hair gently. "It's fine, Steve. We're all good. The only thing damaged was the door."

He pulled back slightly to inspect her, and then pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

"Fine," she promised. "Now go find Natasha and Hill and get a situation report."

He gave her a wry grin and a lazy salute. "Yes ma'am." He snagged Sam by the collar. "C'mon, sit-rep."

The other Avengers came over to make sure Diana was okay, and Bucky took up a watchful position at her side. "You and Steve," he grumbled. "I'm sticking to both of you like white on rice till you can go one day without something happening to you."

She smiled and took his left arm. "Sounds good to me, Buck." She glanced over at Tony, who had Pepper in his arms, his hand protectively over the baby bump. "All right, folks, time to end this crazy evening," she announced.

They put everything away, stacked the gifts in the quinjet, which Tony and Pepper would be taking back the next day, and the superheroes stayed on guard while the civilians went to guest rooms.

Diana, closely followed by Bucky, headed to the control center to find out why they'd been attacked.

Turned out, it was a contingent of General Ross' men. Their primary mission was still to get intelligence on the Hulk, and they'd heard about the baby shower and planned accordingly: women and children in exchange for the Hulk. Apparently, they hadn't planned on the women and children being completely trained and protected.

"Idiots," Diana scoffed. She wrapped an arm around Steve. "I'm going to make sure everyone's settled and then I'm going to bed."

"All right." He kissed her forehead. "I'll join you in a bit."

She made sure her mom was okay, made sure Tony and Pepper were calm, made sure Pepper's cousins were taken care of (Wanda and Darcy had taken charge), and finally headed to bed. Bucky was still at her shoulder.

He took a seat on the couch in the apartment living room as she headed to the bedroom.

"Are you going to stay there all night, Buck?" she called, changing into pajamas.

"Until Steve gets here," he called back.

"Kay." She finished changing and headed back to the living room for a glass of water. "But as soon as you're done here you need to go look under your pillow."

He frowned. "Why?"

"I left you something."

"What?"

"It's a surprise. Everyone else got one too."

His frown widened. "All right."

She chugged her water, kissed Bucky on the forehead, and went to bed. Well, sat up with an adventure novel until Steve got back, anyway.

He came in at eleven thirty, and looked surprised to see her awake. "I thought you were going to sleep."

"I wanted to see your surprise," she said cheerfully. 'There's a gift under your pillow."

He changed into pajamas, sat on the bed, and lifted the pillow. "What is it?" he asked blankly.

She shoved gently at his shoulder. "Open it, Steve, duh."

He opened it, and stared at the bright covers of the three books for a minute, until it clicked. His eyes lit up. "This is your name," he said, after a second.

She grinned. "Yes, it is."

"These are your books."

"Yes they are."

He opened the first one reverently, and found the inscription. "To my husband, my soulmate, the dearest man in the entire multiverse. I couldn't have done this without you." His eyes turned bright with emotion. "My wife, the published author," he murmured, opening to a random page and skimming the text. "These are stories about us."

"Yes they are. Age-appropriate, of course. Don't want Nate and baby Stark to be traumatized this early." She smirked at him. "You're the illustrator, mister published artist."

He turned back to the front page. Illustrated by S. Rogers. He smiled. "Oh yeah."

"I saw your painting," she added. "It made Pepper cry."

He smiled softly. "Yeah?

"Yeah." She took his hand, kissed his fingers. "You could totally give up your day job."

He smiled. "Maybe." He smiled down at the books and looked back up at her. "So could you."

"Maybe."

He put the books on his bedside table and pulled her close. "So besides the attack of the incompetent minions, how was the baby shower?"

She snickered. "It was great. Everyone got them really personalized gifts. And the cake was good. It came out of a printer."

"A printer?"

"Yeah. Helen brought it."

Steve rolled his eyes. "She's obsessed with her printers."

"Everyone needs an obsession, dear," she chided softly. She kissed his chin. "FRIDAY, lights." The lights turned off and she snuggled into his embrace. "I love you Steve."

"Love you too." He pressed a kiss to her lips.

When she woke up the next morning, Steve was still in bed, in his pajamas, one arm casually behind his head. The other hand held the last of Diana's storybooks. He was reading, a gentle smile on his face. "These are really funny," he commented.

She blushed, still half-asleep, and turned away. "You're not supposed to read them while I'm here," she protested sleepily, feeling her ears burn.

He leaned down to kiss her. "Why not?" he asked, kissing her cheek gently. "You're a good storyteller, and these are sweet." He put the book away and wrapped her in his arms. "Although, you are more interesting than a retelling of mutant turtles..."

She laughed, remembering the mission that had inspired that "fairy tale." "At least they weren't named after Renaissance artists," she reminded him.

A/N 2: All right. Next chapter: more Baby Stark, some Asgardians come to visit, and possible alien strike...? These next few chapters things are winding up for the next big Thing...