A/N: Okay, this one is not so short, but in my defense, there are A LOT of cards in play! Note, soulmates work a little differently when Asgardians are involved, but I'll let that explain itself...

Undeniable Forces - Steph/Thor + Steph & Natasha & Sif

Natasha's POV

"Nat, seriously, what the hell are we doing here?" Clint whispered.

"I told you I don't know," I replied.

"Look, you're good, Nat. The best in the business and you know I know pretty much everyone in the business. But if you don't know what you need to do or why you're even here, I don't think we're going to be able to do… whatever it is we need to do."

"How often has Thor asked you for a favor, Clint?"

"I don't think Thor has ever asked me for a favor, which is still true because Thor didn't ask me for a favor, you did. And you ask me for favors all the time."

"Well, if you can't ask your soulmate for a favor who can you ask?"

"I don't know. I just hope that you find your platonic soon- maybe they can help me carry the favor load a little. Especially if you're going to pile on favors that other people ask of you."

"Well, like you said, Thor has never asked me for a favor either. So if he's going to ask me one for the first time, I'm going to bring backup so that I don't screw it up. Need I remind you that he saved my life when Bruce hulked out and attacked me that one time?"

Clint sucked in a breath next to me, and I winced because I really hadn't meant to bring that up. Clint had gotten much better over two years after Loki had used mind control to get him to attack SHIELD, which had triggered said hulk out, but he still had held onto a bit of guilt over the issue. I hadn't meant to remind him of it, especially when I needed him focused. Relatively quickly though, he shook it off before saying, "okay. So we're here. Remind me again exactly what it was that Thor said."

"I don't remember the exact words he used because, I mean, come on he just needs to learn to speak like a normal Midgardian. Anyway, he said that Heimdall told him someone important would be here, at this time, and need help, but Thor might not be able to arrive in time to provide the necessary help. Then Heimdall told him I would be the best choice to offer assistance in his stead."

"And you brought me."

"For backup, yes, because I'm basically a knife. But what if it ends up being a gun fight? Might as well have the worlds' best sharpshooter watching my six."

"So you're just using me for my marksmanship?"

"And because you're so pretty?"

"There you go," he responded with a laugh dropping a kiss on my cheek.

"No mushiness in the field," I whined, but gave him a wink when he let me go. Normally I wouldn't mind if I knew what the mission was, but because I didn't know, I wanted every ounce of my brain cells available to take in everything around me.

"Do you think it's that guy? Oooh, or her?" Clint started, then just kept babbling.

"Seriously, aren't snipers supposed to be good at sitting quietly and waiting?"

"When no one is there, sure. But you're here…" he trailed off and we both watched the street in front of us. A somewhat small woman had confronted a large man who had just exited a building, clearly not noticing that he was high on something.

Clint and I started moving forward together in unison as the woman's voiced raised even higher as the man turned to walk away from her. "Hey, I said, I'm a Bond Enforcement Agent and I'm here to take you back to the station to get your court date rescheduled."

The woman had guts, I had to admit when the guy broke out into a run, she was right behind him. She pulled a taser out of her bag, aimed while on the run, and managed to hit him, but all it did was piss the guy off. He turned on her, pulled the taser off himself then ripped it out of her hands. I could hear Clint behind me as he slowed down to flip open his bow and his quiver start shifting to create whatever arrow type he'd programmed. At the same time I'd sped up and pulled out my garrote knowing that if this man was hopped up enough that the taser was ineffective, my bites might not fare much better.

Before either Clint or I could act though, the woman nailed him in the family jewels hard. It had to be hard to take him down the way it did. Without pausing, she rolled him over and started wrestling to get his arms behind his back and into her cuffs. I suppose if we hadn't been there and I hadn't had Flexicuffs to offer her, she probably would have been in trouble when the man snapped out of it and she still couldn't get her too-small cuffs on him. I slowly approached her so as to not seem like a threat then held out the plastic restraints.

When she looked up at me, her smile was so friendly that I couldn't help but return it with one of my own. "Heimdall was wrong," I told her, "you can take care of yourself."

"I don't know who you're talking about, but thanks for the assist anyway."

With a laugh and a comment about it being his lucky day, Clint stepped forward and took the man from her. The man started loudly complaining, but Clint whispered something to him that had him shutting up. Fast. The woman stood up and dusted herself off saying, "hi, my name's Steph, and I swear, I'm a legal BEA. I have my right to apprehend paperwork in my bag. I don't just run around tasing people and kicking them in the nuts for fun."

"Well, that's a shame, it is such a good time. It would be a fun bonding activity," I said. I stepped back and peeled off the top half of my uniform, leaving me in a sports bra and held out my arm to her, "assuming, of course, this is your writing."

She nodded her head and responded, "yep, that's mine." Then she held out her hand to me, so I could see my writing in her palm.

I nodded my head before taking her hand in mine to shake and saying, "I'm Natasha Romanoff," then gestured to the words written in black across my chest and tilted my head toward Clint, "that's Clint Barton my other half."

"Don't you mean better half?" Clint asked.

"Nope," I responded, winking at Steph when she laughed as I'd hoped she would. "So, what do you want us to do with this guy?"

"I'm Steph, by the way. Stephanie Plum. I've got to take this guy to the police department, but you can ride along if you want. If you could at the very least help me drag him into my car and shackle him into the back, I'd appreciate it." We walked in the direction Steph had indicated without further comment. After a few seconds she broke the silence, "so you've got a romantic soulmate too. That must be nice."

"You don't?" I asked, surprised because I'd only met a handful of people over the years who didn't. When she just shook her head a little sadly, I remembered something Thor had once told me and said, "well, cheer up. You know who we are, right?"

"Black Widow and Hawkeye?"

"That's right. And we tend to get mixed up in lots of crazy things and meet lots of people. Including people not from this world. My understanding is that those people don't always have the same soulmate system we do, so maybe you have a romantic soulmate and he or she just isn't from around here." Her nose wrinkled a little when I mentioned a possible female match, so I shrugged and said, "he then."

Actually, now that I thought about it, Thor had never met his romantic soulmate. Of course, being thousands of years old, he'd had romances. But he'd yet to meet his romantic soulmate. And Heimdall did say that I would be a good substitute if Thor couldn't get there, so maybe Heimdall knew more than he was telling. If that was true, I really hoped I got to be there when they met because that would be entertaining to watch.

The thought had barely entered my mind, when a storm started brewing overhead and everything got static-y. I turned to Clint and mouthed, "watch this," as one of Thor's Rainbow bridges opened up.

The light began to fade and Thor strode forward calling out, "Lady Natasha, is everything well? Am I too late to be of assistance?"

"Everything's fine Thor," I called out, trailing off when Steph started panicking and sliding along the ground toward Thor.

Steph's eyes were wide and she started screaming something about magnets and it looked like she was trying to run toward Clint and I.

"Calm down, Steph, it's fine!" I hollered and she stopped struggling against the invisible force to gape at me.

"What's going on?" Clint asked me in a hushed whisper.

"This is how soulmates work in Asgard. If they're platonic, they'll end up grasping arms, but if they're romantic… there we are!" I said, clapping my hands excitedly as Steph found herself full on plastered to Thor's chest. Thor had the biggest smile I'd ever seen on his face, and given the fact that he was basically a giant puppy, I'd seen a lot of his smiles.

"I had almost given up hope of ever finding you," Thor said softly to Steph, who looked flat out confused, and I couldn't say I blamed her for that given that she lacked any context for what was occurring.

"Not that this isn't nice," Steph said, as her arms were forcibly placed around his neck, and his arms came around her lower back, "but someone care to tell me what's going on?"

"You and I are what, I believe Lady Natasha informed me, Midgardians call 'romantic soulmates'. We have but to kiss and you'll be free to move again as you wish."

"That's adorable," Clint whispered as Thor leaned down and gave Steph a relatively chaste kiss. "Dude needs to work on his game though."

I reached over to smack his arm and say, "they did just meet."

Thor set Steph on her feet and held her hand as they walked toward us said, "are you well? I was told you were in danger, and I must confess I was most distraught to be unable to arrive here sooner on this day."

When they pulled to a stop in front of us, I said, "well, Thor, buddy. I figured out why Heimdall told you to send me. Steph there and I are platonic soulmates, so you should know that anytime you have to leave her alone here on Earth, I've got her back."

Thor let go of Stephanie long enough to pull me into a hug and solemnly say, "you have my gratitude. And with it I offer you protection as well as asylum on Asgard if ever you should find yourself in need of it."

He released me to exchange a warrior's greeting with Clint and make the same offer. Then he squared his shoulders and looked at the man Clint clearly had secured. Beginning to twirl Mjolnir in his hand, he boomed, "and who is this? Did you harm my mate?!" I snorted a laugh when I saw Steph behind Thor look him over from head to toe and mouth the word "mate" while looking utterly bewildered. Thor stepped forward threateningly and continued as the man cowered away, "Are there more of you? I have two fellow shield-warriors here, and Sif and the Warriors Three will be here momentarily. We will defend her!"

"Ease up there, Thor," Clint said, pulling the guy back, "Steph there is a bounty hunter, and she took this guy down all on her own. And look, not a scratch on her! I was just helping escort him back to her car so she could take him back to jail, but she got him like this all on her own."

Thor turned back to Stephanie and said, "it is well done, My Lady. Forgive me, I did not know the circumstances, only that someone important was at risk of being harmed."

"No problem," Steph said nervously, "I appreciate the backup. Though it definitely seems like overkill. So… your name is Thor? I'm Stephanie Plum, but you can call me Steph."

"Yes, I am Thor Odinson, although I have renounced my heirship to the throne and reside here on Midgard most of the time, I do occasionally get called to Asgard to assist my father, Odin, the King. That is where I was, and I would not have stayed away if I had been able to help or didn't believe that Lady Natasha would be more than capable of offering you assistance."

I could tell that Steph was trying to process all that information, so I stepped in and said, "perhaps this is a conversation best had somewhere less public."

"Yes, let us turn over My Lady's prisoner and then find somewhere we can talk," Thor responded, eyes still firmly locked with Steph.

Behind him the bright light slammed into the ground in the same place it had previously, and Thor let out a delighted laugh. When the light cleared, crouched on the ground were a woman that I recognized from SHIELD's files as Sif and the men behind her The Warriors Three- Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg. I noticed Steph start sliding again at the same moment I felt a pulling on my arm. As we slid together in unison, Steph's left arm out and my right, I laughed over my shoulder at Clint's worried look. When I came to a stop, my right arm was clasping Sif's right, and she and Steph were clasping left arms.

"Hi, Sif?" I asked slowly.

"Yes, I am Sif. If I'm not mistaken, you are Thor's shield-sister Natasha."

I raised a brow at that but inclined my head. "And who is our third sister of the soul? Am I correct that you two are also linked in this manner."

Steph nodded her head slowly before visibly shaking herself back into reality. "I'm Stephanie Plum, or just Steph for short. Yes, Natasha and I are also platonic soulmates. And we just discovered that Thor is my…" she looked over at him nervously, and he just nodded his head eagerly so she finished with an unsteady, "mates?"

Introductions complete, we were all able to drop arms, and Steph's announcement was met with cheers from all the newly arrived Asgardians. She was swept off her feet by the three men and passed around in hugs before finally being placed in Thor's arms. When she wiggled a little, he gently placed her on her feet making sure she was steady.

"How joyous this is! You must be a fine warrior yourself to be matched so with the two of the fiercest warriors I know in all of the Nine Realms, My Lady! First, we shall transport Lady Stephanie's prisoner wherever he needs to go. Then, let us feast for we have much to celebrate!" Thor proclaimed.

Steph looked at everyone around us and said, "you know what, we definitely don't all fit in my car. I'm just going to step off to the side here for a minute and call some of my… shield brothers?... to come help with the transportation. They'll take the prisoner off our hands and we can go feast. But I'm going to have to explain this when they get here, and they'll probably want to join in the celebration."

She started out her call quietly, but before too long was saying in a very loud, exasperated voice, "I swear to God, no one blew up my car! And it isn't on fire. Nor did it get flattened into a pancake. Look, just send some cars over and I'll explain when you arrive. If someone could take in my FTA and get the body receipt, that'd be great. Then if we could borrow enough transport for eight of us… Four of whom are quite large… to go to Shorty's." She hung up her phone and turned back to us, "they'll just be a moment."

"Why would anyone think your vehicle had exploded?" Sif asked with concern.

"Because that is usually why I call."

I punched out a message on my phone to Steve letting him know that our mission was a success, Thor was in town with company, and we'd be delayed in our return. I promised quite a story when we did. As our crew was gathering quite the audience, I was grateful when true to her word, some Black SUVs and a big black pickup came pulling up less than five minutes later.

I watched, face carefully blank and grateful for the cool temper apparently brought on by living to be thousands of years old. Thor and his fellow Asgardians merely observed studiously as Steph was greeted enthusiastically by the group of men, almost all of whom used some sort of familiar term of endearment for her rather than her name. She explained the situation to the men, and I watched as smiles grew on all of their faces, particularly when she mentioned Thor. We all listened as she gave them all a crash-course in what she'd been able to figure out of Asgardian terms and dynamics, and I was impressed by how much she was able to put together given how much of a shock to her system to find all of us at once- including a "mate" from another planet. Then she went around making introductions, and when she was finally done, she stood next to Thor and let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, Ba-" Ranger, who it turned out was indeed the leader, eyed Thor then apparently changed his mind and continued, "Steph. We'd love to celebrate with you now or another time, but I'm not sure Shorty's is the place for this. You've already drawn a lot of attention here, and I don't think that will change there."

"We could go to the Tower," I said slowly. "Thor, Clint and I all live there. I assume Sif and the Warriors Three will be staying there if they plan to stay for any length of time. If you can take care of Steph's skip and help us transport everyone there, it shouldn't be a problem to clear you through security."

Before anyone else could agree, Thor swung Mjolnir a few times, pulled Steph into his side, and took off flying into the air. There was an awkward pause before Clint said, "guess we're going to the Tower."

Everyone slowly started toward the gathered vehicles and I turned to Sif and gestured to where Thor had taken off with Steph saying, "Thor will let us play with her some too once he gets over the newness right?"

"We will just have to make him," she replied.

A/N the second: So, I did a double post today. Make sure you read both! Aforementioned double post is in honor of a few people. My awesome beta who has been helping me out when I reach stumbling blocks on these and returning them almost as fast as I can write them (if not faster)... and just is generally awesome! I also just couldn't hold this one back anymore from my crazy, Thor-loving, biggest cheerleader. You know who you are. And lastly, for Lynda and Amanda. May this deliver a Mjolnir-powered blow to your writers' block! Or you know, at least entertain you and make you happy if not.