Chapter 23: The day we talked about him

"Alright, kids. It's getting late." Tony said as he passed his hand over his belly showing that he had eaten too much. "I suggest we go home."

"So soon, already?" Natasha asked. "What happened to the Tony Stark who used to party til next morning or so?"

"Well, he grew old." He pointed out with a shrug.

Pepper laughed and looked at Tony. "As if that was possible."

"It is."

Steve laughed at the newly couple and looked over at Natasha. She smiled at him and took his hand in hers. "You want to go home?"

"Not yet, let's enjoy this little moment with everyone. It's been a long time." She told him and Steve nodded in agreement.

Elena and Jamie had gotten up from the table and went aside. When you are a child, it can get boring to sit around a table among adults and just talk. They decided to play together and started chasing each other across the room. The two parents watched them play together and cuddled into one another, Natasha had her head on Steve's shoulder. Oh yes, how she had missed this.

"Oh, please. I was attracted to you first!" Tony argued as he looked at Pepper.

The woman crossed her arms over her chest as she looked at her boyfriend in a defiant look. "Well, I confessed to you first."

Steve and Natasha who hadn't heard the beginning of the conversation and wondered what had been said to lead to a conversation like that. They raised their eyebrows up in the air to show their confusion and tried to follow the discussion.

"But I was the one who asked you out, first!" Tony added.

She chuckled and smiled as she said. "I said 'I love you' first."

He sighed and tried to think of something more to say, she was not going to win, he was going to make sure of it. A smirk plastered on his face and the woman became worried to what he was going to say. Knowing him, it was surely something dumb.

"Well..." He began. "I proposed, first."

"Yeah, sure." She said not realizing what he said. "Wait, what—"

Tony got on one knees and took a small box from his inside pocket. "Pepper Potts, will you marry me?" He asked popping the small box open. Pepper looked down at him with a shocked expression and pulled her hands over her mouth muffling her gasp.

"What are you doing?" She asked out of shock as her eyes became teary.

"He's putting a finger on it!" Clint said with a squealing voice and Laura slapped his arm telling him to shut up.

"Usually it isn't so good when the woman you love takes so much time to reply." He said scratching the back of his head. "I love you and I will always. We have wasted so much time with people that wasn't worth it and I'm not talking about Nat." He said glancing briefly at the said woman.

"Why am I offended?" Natasha asked with a scrunched up face making Steve laugh.

Tony kept going. "I don't want to spend another day without being married to you, Pep. What do you say?"

"I— Tony..." She breathed and looked straight at him in the eyes. "I'm— I'm already married."

"What?" He asked shooting up from his knee. "To whom?"

She breathed out and sighed. "You?"

"You're asking me?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No, you asked." She said.

He scrunched his eyes and looked at her confusedly. He was not understanding what she was saying. "Who are you married to?" He asked again trying to acknowledge what she was talking about.

"You." She said sighing. "I was trying to tell you that I was seeing us being married already but I think that was one of the worst ways to tell you that I'm saying yes, I accept to marry you."

"So, it's yes?" Laura asked looking at them just like everybody was, with confusion.

"Yes, it's a yes." Pepper said nodding and looked at Tony. "I want to marry you."

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her head gently and whispered softly in her ear. "I love you."

All their friends cheered and clapped their hands for them. The newly engaged couple smiled and thanked them, both were overjoyed to the thought of promising their love forever.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have some celebrating to do." Tony said grabbing Pepper's hand. "See you later!"

"Ew!" Clint complained and threw a plastic cup at them that was still full of water.

"Crazy married man!" Tony yelled as he exited the room with his soon to be wife and flew away from his friends.

"This is who you are going to be, too!" Clint yelled back pulling himself up and he almost tripped down but luckily for him, the table was here to catch him. Laura took his arm and made him sit back down on the chair he used to be on. "How come Bruce didn't come?" Clint asked looking at Thor who gave him a smile.

"He had some stuff to adjust at the aquarium." He informed him.

Natasha listened to them talk and by the look on everybody's faces, they knew who that Bruce was. She obviously asked. "Bruce? Who's that?"

Thor flashed her a smile as he said. "He's my boyfriend." When the words escaped his mouth, the board shouldered man had this tickle of happiness in his arms.

Natasha looked at him with a surprised expression, she didn't know he was gay or bisexual or whatever he was, it didn't matter to her. "Since when?" She asked with an encouraging look.

"We've been together for two years now." Thor proudly declared.

"Oh, that's amazing." Natasha said with a smile. "I'm happy to see you like this."

He frowned and looked at her. "Like what?"

"Happy and in love but proud at the same time." She said nodding her head slowly as her smile never washed away from her face.

"Thank you."

"What does he do for a living?" She asked, genuinely wanting to hear more about the mysterious Bruce.

"He's a biologist." Thor said. "He owns that aquarium near New York, the Banner Aquarium."

Natasha gasped and turned to look at Steve. "We went there!" She almost yelled. "This is where you took me when we first went out."

Steve smiled and looked at Natasha with happiness in his eyes as he recalled the day. Actually, he just wanted to recall the moment they went to the aquarium not the moment where he acted like a total jackass to her. "Yes, it is."

"We should take the kids there some day." She suggested. "I know they would have as much fun as we did. Plus, we could continue the summer tradition you had with your grandmother."

His heart skipped a beat, he couldn't believe that after all this time she had remembered that. "That's a good idea." The blonde man replied with a smile on his lips. He was enthusiastic to go out somewhere that meant a lot with him with his children and Natasha.

"We are soon going to plan that." She said before cuddling into him again.

"You should come inside." She told Steve as she removed her seat belt. She turned her head to look at him before saying. "We still have a lot to talk about."

"What about them?" He asked nodding his head towards the sleeping children in the backseats. Running and chasing each other had worn them both out.

"Jamie's bed is big enough for the two of them." She informed him and climbed out of the car. She opened one of the back doors and unbuckled her child before taking him in her arms carefully. Steve did the exact same thing with his daughter. They both closed the doors silently and the blonde man locked the car. The little family made their way to the house. Natasha set her son on one of her hips and took out her keys to unlock the door. "Come." She said softly to Steve and even though he already knew it, she showed him the way to Jamie's bedroom.

She pulled back the covers and laid down her child on the right side of the bed whereas Steve laid down Elena on the left side. They both took hold of the covers and pulled it together over the children's little bodies. The two kids got a sweet kiss on the forehead by the two adults.

Natasha took Steve's hand and took him out of their son's bedroom. She walked them down the stairs and told him to go sit on the couch. She then walked to the kitchen to get some snacks before walking back to the living room. She set everything she took on table and noticed that Steve had put on 'What's love got to do with it?' which was her absolute favorite movie of all times.

"You know, I feel like somehow we will have to part soon."

He frowned. "What do you mean? I'm not going anywhere."

"I know, I know." She repeated nodding. "It's just that, every time we tried to be together all those years ago, there always was something that would make it impossible. And I can't help but think that maybe something bad is going to happen again."

Steve shook his head and scooted closer to her. He took her hands in his. "Nat, no matter what life has planned for us I'm not going to leave you ever again. I made that mistake once and I won't do it again."

"You promise?" She asked in a barely audible whisper.

"I do. I promise." He assured her and kissed her forehead lovingly. He gave her a smile which she returned. "Nat?"

"Yeah?"

"I have a question that I've been meaning to ask you since the beginning of the evening." He declared.

She looked at him eyes-wide. "Don't tell me you're going to propose to."

He looked at her and shook his head chuckling softly. "What? No, no. That would be too soon."

"I agree with you." She breathed out with relief.

"The question is not about us, it's more about you and that guy." He informed her.

"What guy?" She asked as her head tilted on the side.

"Alexei." He told her. "Who is he?"

"Oh." She said and turned her body towards the TV as a sigh escaped her lips.

Steve, seeing her reaction, immediately said. "But only tell me if you want to."

"I-I want to. I guess you deserve to know as I haven't really been open about my past." She sighed again. "I met him when I was 18 years old. We went to the same university back there, in Russia. I had no parents growing up, actually I grew up a bit everywhere in the country. I don't know who my parents are or even if they are still alive, I don't even remember their faces, I don't- know anything about them."

Natasha tried to not let that part of her life get to her but she knew that at some point she was going to cry. Steve squeezed her hands and looked at her softly, showing her comfort, confidence and support. "All my life I have been dragged from orphanage to orphanage and from foster homes to foster homes. I had no family and when I met him, he was just so nice and amazing that I let myself be fooled by him. He was there for me no matter what I was or who I was, he didn't care that I had a rough past and that was fine with me." She shrugged slightly and paused before arriving to the toughest part of it all. "Only, after months he became obsessive and jealous. He couldn't stand me being with a man that wasn't him even just a friend. He fell into alcohol addiction and he just… became violent. Violent with the people him but mostly it was me who he was most violent with…" She breathed out trying to conceal her tears.

"You know that scare I have there?" She asked Steve as she put their hands underneath her right breast. "He's the one who gave it to me." She whispered, the tears escaping her eyes. "And despite what he did I-I stayed with him. In my head that was the most logical thing to do, he was there for me when nobody was and even through all of the wrongs he did he was my only family."

Steve wrapped both of his arms around Natasha and kissed her head comfortingly. All the while he kept silent to let her finish. "I got kicked out of the ballet troop because of him. He would barge in and see me dance with another man and he'd see red. They didn't like it and fired me." She explained. "One night, I got overwhelmed with it all and I left him. I wrote him a note saying that I couldn't do this anymore and I went to the airport. I changed everything, I went to America and asked for the nationality, I changed my name and I got into a new university. This is where I met Clint, Maria and Wanda. They were the ones I could truly call family, they helped me so much. I wouldn't be who I am without them."

"They're that great." Steve said and wiped away the remaining tears on her cheeks.

"But I know I wouldn't be who I am today without you, too. You changed everything in my life Steve. You showed me what true love was and you make me happy like nobody else. Except Jamie, but I got him with you." She chuckled softly.

Steve gave her a smile and looked into her eyes. "Thank you for sharing this with me, Nat. That means a lot and I swear on whatever you want that I will make things up to you so you can feel that you are a part of the family. Well, you are and you have been since the moment we met."

She smiled. "You are my family, Steve." She said softly before kissing him. "I love you." She told him again.

"And I love you too." He said after kissing her back.

"Now, let's watch that movie." She said.

Steve laid down on the couch and Natasha laid almost atop of him. He trapped her into his big arms and pulled her to him. She smiled and watched the movie feeling truly where she belonged.

Natasha woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that she and Steve were in her bed. He must have put them to bed. She felt somebody move before her and she knew it was Steve because his arm was still wrapped around her waist. She looked closely and noticed that it was Jamie who had crept up at some point in the night between his parents. She smiled softly and watched them both.

"Daddy?" Natasha heard Elena's soft voice from the door frame and she looked over her shoulder. The little girl had her hair ruffled and she was rubbing her eyes with her small hands.

"Come with us." Natasha said holding out her hands to the blonde child. Elena walked up the bed and took Natasha's hand which helped her to climb on the bed. The woman pulled herself backwards so the child could lay between her and her brother. "I had a nightmare." She said softly.

Natasha smiled softly and caressed her head to comfort her. "It's okay, sweetheart. It happens sometimes, but you know what?"

The Rogers daughter shook her head no.

"All nightmares hit you like a wave and no waves ever stay." She told her. Elena smiled softly and cuddled into Natasha before falling asleep. Natasha eyed upon the three little members of her true family and couldn't help but feel pride for them.

First of all, thank you once again for the love you're giving to this story, it means a lot.

Second of all, as you guys might have realized, we are soon coming to an end with this story. There will be three more chapters and it'll be the end.

Love you!