Things had been quiet in the world, which both unnerved some of the Avengers, while others seemed to bask in its silence. Others being Tony Stark, and really he was the only one. SHIELD had been dismantled for almost two and a half years, Ultron had been dealt with, and the group found themselves walking around New York aimlessly most of the time. The only thing that had really changed was after Ultron, Pepper had gone to Tony and told him some news that had him passing out every time he thought about it. Nine months later, Tony and Pepper were given a bouncing baby boy named Howard Eddard Stark, the billionaire couldn’t miss the opportunity to throw in a Game of Thrones reference in his son’s name, and even though Pepper rolled her eyes at it at first, she eventually came around.
At first everyone had been kept away by Tony until they were all tested for any kind of questionable disease, and when they were given the all clear, everyone got their turn to baby sit.
At the moment, Tony and Pepper were away on business for the night, they’d taken the jet to California and would be back tomorrow, and until then, Clint and Natasha were babysitting. In the beginning, Clint had instantly taken to the tiny boy, cradling him in his arms and talking to him like he was older than his actual age. Natasha on the other hand had been standoffish, at least when she was around the others. She’d shown little interest in the baby until he started to get older, however, when it was just her and Clint, she wanted to do most of the holding, and even changed the baby more than the other spy had.
Natasha was seated on the couch, the baby asleep and laying on her chest, her arm under his butt to keep him cradled close. She mindlessly flicked through the three thousand channels on the television, sighing a little. She eventually gave up, stopping on the food network to watched Chopped, but it quickly went to a commercial. A baby commercial no less. The Widow looked down at Howard asleep in her arms, causing her heart to hitch as a painful yearning settled there.
“Something wrong?” Clint asked as he sat next to her, his arm going around her shoulders as he settled close to her side. They’d officially gotten together two years ago, but he knew her better than he knew the inches of his bow and the back of his hand from all the time they spent together. He only had to look at her for a moment before he knew there was a problem.
She shook her head as she brushed her thumb over the baby’s leg, her face a mix between a small pout and complete sadness.
“Really? Because you might be good at lying to everyone else, but you can’t lie to me,” he reminded her. “So come on, Nat….talk to me,” he moved a little closer to her.
“I’m just…,” she trailed off for a moment before she sighed, swallowing thickly as she tried to get this sentence out. “I…want this,” she shrugged one shoulder.
“What? Three thousand channels on the TV? Cause you know if you just told Stark you wanted the upgrade in your room he’d give it to you….He’s been dying to anyway and-,”
“No, Clint, not the damn TV channels,” she smiled a little, feeling better knowing that her partner had joked to try and break the heaviness that settled around her. “This…You…me….this,” she gestured to the baby.
He frowned, “Well that’s unexpected,” he said as he looked at her for a long moment. “Uhm…,” he scratched the back of his head, “I didn’t think you’d ever want this..,” he gestured with a splayed hand.
“I didn’t think I would either,” she shook her head. “It just…crept up on me out of no where I…I don’t know I was just holding him one night and he started having a nightmare or something I guess…he was whimpering in his sleep and I just…ran my hand over his back a few times and he relaxed and..,” she lifted a shoulder and let it go back down, not understanding what had changed and why it had changed so fast.
“Tasha…you know you can’t-,”
“I know.” She said quickly, almost snapping at him.
The silence settled around them again and Clint squirmed a bit at the suffocating feeling of it. “Nat if it’s something you want to do we have Bruce and Tony now and I’m sure if anyone on this planet can find a way to fix what they broke…it’s them. But you know what it means, don’t you?” he asked. “No more missions…not for a while…if something comes here looking for trouble it means you can’t put yourself in danger…no high stress situations no…anything like that.”
She nodded, “I know, I know…but something keeps telling me it’d be worth it.”
He sighed as he set his head on his hand as he turned a little to look at her. “Then if it’s what you want we’ll see what we can do.”
“You’ll do it with me, right?”
He leaned forward and kissed her gently, “Of course...I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else.”
Tony and Pepper returned the next morning and Clint had the job of asking him and Bruce to help Natasha. The pair were crowded around a neutron microscope in a lead lined room, though there was nothing radioactive out at the moment, and the only reason Clint knew that was because the science bros were in normal clothing and not those weird suits they walked into the kitchen wearing one time. He explained everything that happened the night before to the pair, sighing when he was done.
“So, see she really wants this.”
“But she sent you to ask her?” Tony asked as he arched an eyebrow. He lifted his fist over his head and made a whipping motion, before he sighed, his shoulders slumping. “JARVIS…,” he said to the AI. The billionaire made the motion again and a whipping crack came in through the speakers in the room. “Thank you.” He turned back to Clint, his arms over his chest, “So she’s baby crazed now, huh?” he asked. “Wanna fill me in on why she can’t get pregnant?”
“The Red Room messed her up,” he said, giving them just that.
Tony lifted an eyebrow as Bruce nodded, both of their arms folded over their chests. They turned to each other and started spouting off statistics and different tests, causing Clint’s eyebrows to jump up to his hairline, not understanding what they were saying as they tossed the jargon back and forth occasionally nodding and ‘hmm’ing.
“Okay, Princess Merida, we’ll do whatever we can,” Tony told him.
The archer rolled his eyes, “Thanks,” he mumbled.
Three weeks, many shots and shakes later, Clint and Natasha were pacing around their floor as they waited for the four pregnancy tests on the sink.
“Four, how many minutes does it take four tests to work? Is it work? What do they even do, register?” He asked as he looked over at Natasha who rolled her eyes. “It’s not going to be twenty minutes is it?”
“No, Clint, five minutes. Just because there are four tests doesn’t mean it’s going to take twenty minutes…that’s not how this math works.”
“Right….right yeah I knew that just…nervous,” he said as he leaned against a wall, his arms going over his chest.
“Sure you did…let’s hope the baby has my brains and not yours,” she smiled, joking.
“Funny. Dammit how much time has gone by?”
“A minute,” she said flatly. “Keep asking that question, I’m sure it’ll help the time speed up.”
Four minutes later they were huddled over the sink, all four tests negative. Both the former spies felt their hearts sink, and Clint realized for the first time how badly he wanted a child with Natasha. Sure he’d been on board when they started, and as the time went on he got more comfortable with the idea, but to have the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer in front of them, and then to have it come up the latter made everything come into perspective. He wanted a baby with her hair and his smile. He wanted to raise a family with her, sure not white picket fences and tire swings on the tree in the back, but he wanted to teach a carbon copy of him everything he knew, and if he had a daughter he wanted to threaten anyone who wanted to date her.
His throat burned as much as his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her, “I’m sorry, Natasha,” he whispered quietly against her temple, closing his eyes as he felt her shoulders shake. “I’m sorry,” he said again, running his hand up and down her side.
An hour later they made their way into the joined living area, trying to ignore Thor’s booming laughter while their hearts were heavy.
He had the baby lifted over his head, before he brought him down close to his face quickly, smiling when the baby made a squeal and then laugh, his face scrunching up in delight. The Norse God tossed the baby up in the air a little before he caught him easily.
“Okay, woah woah, easy there, M C Hammer,” Tony said as he went over to Thor and carefully picked the baby from the blonde’s arm. “Don’t give him whiplash.” He fiddled with the baby’s shirt, making sure the Dire Wolf was straight in front instead of half pushed around on his side.
“I would never do such a thing,” he said to him. “He was enjoying himself.” The large man looked over at Clint and Natasha as they sat, “Widow, Archer, what has the two of you in such a foul mood? Can you not hear the child’s laughter? It is enough to warm even the coldest heart of the cruelest Jötunn.”
Pepper turned and looked at the pair as her smile fell away from her face, “Oh, Natasha I’m so sorry…”
Thor turned to Pepper scowling, his face asking if he missed something.
“Natasha and Clint have been trying to get pregnant...,"
"And from the looks of it it's not going to well,” Tony interrupted. "Guess you don't have the greatest aim all the time," he looked to Clint. "Ow!" He hissed as Pepper swat at his arm.
A smile broke out on Thor’s face again, causing Pepper’s brows to fall as she looked at him as she shook her head, “That isn’t something to be happy about, Thor,” she shook her head.
“My friends, if you were seeking an offspring, why did you not contact me sooner?” the God asked as his attention went back to them.
“Kinda hard to talk intergalactically...it'd be a killer on the phone bill,” Tony shrugged. “Not only that but what exactly would you have done about this situation? No offense, but if the smartest guys on this planet,” he gestured between himself and Bruce, “couldn’t figure out how to give them little hatchlings, why would you be able to?”
Thor went over to Natasha and sat his huge frame on the table in front of them. He put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, his eyes narrowing a little. “Are you sure this is what you desire?” The redhead didn’t even have to answer, he could see the look on her face and the desperate want in her eyes. “Very well,” he nodded once before he stood up from the table and walked over to Mjölnir and took it off the coat rack, gently tapping the metal end on the floor once and then hung it back up and then went back over to the little Stark and started playing with him again. Clint and Natasha were turned, arms over the back of the couch as they watched him. After the metal ‘clinked’ gently on the tile floor, Natasha’s eyebrow shot up.
“Hold on, wait,” Clint said as he held up a hand, “woah…what the Hell was that supposed to do?”
“Fix whatever was ailing the lady Spider,” he said as he tickled under Howard’s chin, grinning when the baby kicked his feet.
“Yeah okay…I’m sure that worked…Gee thanks, Thor,” he said as he rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest and slumped back down into the couch cushions.
Eight weeks later Natasha was crawling over Clint’s body as he slept on his back. She smiled as she leaned down and pressed kisses up the cord of muscle on his neck as she settled back into his lap.
“Mmm…not that I’m not enjoying this…and I’d love to get woken up like this every day…what’s the special occasion?” he asked, a lazy sleepy smile stretching over his face as he slowly opened his eyes.
Natasha pulled her lower lip between her teeth as she reached out for the archer’s hand and settled it on her lower stomach. Clint’s eyebrows furrowed as he tilted his head a little to the side before it dawned on him.
“Holy crap…” he mumbled.