"Long time, no see, Romanoff," Steve said, smiling as he leaned in and gave Natasha a quick hug after the jet taking them back to Kansas City was in the air.

"Hi, Steve," Natasha replied before nodding to Barnes. "Lieutenant Barnes."

"You can call me Bucky, if you want to, Natasha," Bucky smiled with what Natasha figured he thought was smolder.

"Hmm," Natasha hummed, giving him an unimpressed, thin-lipped smile as she held up her wedding-ring-containing left hand. "Married – but thanks, 'Bucky.'"

"Since when?" Steve asked with a smile that said he was genuinely happy for her.

And – thank God – without any of the awkwardness between them that Natasha had been so afraid might come up.

"Ah, since the day we met at Fury's grave, actually," Natasha smiled. "And we got pregnant a few months back, too."

"I knew I saw Barton waiting in that car for you!" Steve crowed. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks. So, how did things go with Sharon…?"

Steve cringed.

"Tell me you called her," Natasha groaned as she and the two men sat down across from one another.

"I did, yes, and we went on a couple of dates before we went on our separate ways."

"My gosh, you need a social life!" she declared. "You're supposed to be his best friend, right, Bucky? You're supposed to see to this sort of thing; it's in the job description, I think."

Not that she was really such an expert on being someone's best friend.

"I try," Bucky said with a sigh, getting in on the lighthearted banter. "He's still resisting my attempts at gifting him with a social life, but," Bucky glanced sideways at Steve as he said conspiringly, "I suspect he might already have a girlfriend." Steve opened his mouth to protest, but Bucky continued on, adding, "And this is where he says no, he does not, and I tell him he can't lie to the guy who's known him since forever. Then I ask him if, since it's not a girlfriend, is it a boyfriend instead? And he gets all flustered and red and exasperated," Bucky pointed to Steve. "Like that expression right there – and stalks away, declaring that HYDRA should've just left me where they found me."

Natasha bit down on a laugh that she really didn't want to have bubbling in her chest, saying instead to Coulson as he sat down beside her after coming out from the cockpit, "I really like these two."

"You're married, remember?" Coulson replied dryly.

Steve chuckled, glancing sideways at his old war buddy as he answered, "So she's already pointed out."

"I bet they're a lot like Abbot and Costello," Natasha volunteered in reference to the two soldiers.

"Really?" Coulson asked, rolling his eyes a little before giving her a pointed look. "Because I was being put more in mind of The Three Stooges."

Natasha just smiled back at him. Even after having not seen him for two years previous, whenever she got Coulson to roll his eyes, she could consider her day complete.

"So," Phil said, changing the subject. "Just to bring you boys up to speed with our thoughts on our next moves, right now we're weighing the pros and cons of getting Agent Maria Hill out from under Stark and back into SHIELD. Do you remember her, Rogers? She was on the base when Loki and his alien robots took a whack at Manhattan."

"Ah…" Steve paused before shifting as he said, "Yeah, I think I remember her."

Natasha suddenly got the feeling that Steve was lying or hiding something or both.

Bucky obviously thought the same thing, because he looked at Steve and his eyes narrowed with suspicion before he asked Coulson, "Brown hair, blue eyes, by chance?"

"Yeah," Coulson answered slowly.

Natasha asked Bucky, "How'd you know that?"

"You remember that 'thing' that he claims not to have? Well, there's a couple of pictures that I've spotted in his sketchbook that beg to differ depicting –" Bucky suddenly lurched across Steve's lap and grabbed Rogers' sketchbook, flinging it at Natasha before Steve could stop him.

"That is mine!" Steve protested.

Ignoring his friend, Bucky looked over Natasha's shoulder and flipped to a certain page of the sketchbook, stopping at a pencil-drawn, full-page, colored-in portrait of none other than Agent Hill. "Depicting her. Do you know who she is?"

Natasha arched her eyebrows at Steve over the notebook's edge, smiling at the way he was blushing, and showed the drawing to Coulson.

"Yeah," Coulson drawled. "We know who she is, alright." He turned to Steve, saying almost despairingly, "And here I thought you were going to be my new good child!"

Natasha barely refrained from snorting, instead asking Steve, "So, I guess you're all in favor of her being brought back into SHIELD, then, huh?"

Steve just glared, so Bucky said – totally unfazed by the lasers that were aimed his way from his friend's blue eyes – "If he doesn't insist, I will – for his sake, of course."

Steve snorted, Natasha rolled her eyes, and Phil sighed, replying, "I'll see what I can do."

Natasha pretended to pout then, mumbling to Coulson, "Of course you give Steve what he wants; he's Captain America."

"And you're the Black Widow," Coulson replied. "I fail to see your point."

"Aw," Bucky said, laying a hand on her back. "Does Daddy play favorites with his rug rats?"

"Yes," Natasha pouted some more.

"No," Coulson protested. "And you're not my rug rats, contrary to how you are all," he glared momentarily at the still truly pouting Steve. "Acting at this moment. You are my agents, and I expect you all," here he glared at Bucky. "To act like it."

Natasha shot Bucky and Steve an ornery look, and all three simultaneously saluted their boss, grinning as they said, "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Okay," Coulson took a deep, calming breath, saying, "Since you obviously can't manage to act like agents right now, can you at least manage to act like adults? You boys are older than me, and you, Agent Romanoff, are getting ready to be a mother. Let's act like the grownups I know you're capable of being."

Natasha answered that for all three of them with a jaunty, "Sir, yes, sir!"

Coulson glared again before trying another tactic with, "Okay, if you want to act like children, then let's play the quiet game on the way back, got it?"

Natasha obligingly mimed zipping her lips, smiling as she realized how good it felt to be able to let loose with her friends again.