The Start of Something New
December 2006
“That apple pie smelled delicious, honey,” Howard said, hand wandering towards the wonderful cinnamon smelling warm apple deliciousness dessert on the pie cooling rack.
But his hand was batted by a wooden spoon by his wife, whom was looking at him sternly. “Howard Anthony Walter Stark, don’t you dare.”
While at the same time, Andromeda hissed,” Get your hands off of that pie, Mr. Stark,” and Hill growled, “I will cut your fingers, father-in-law be damned, “ while Pegs threatened him something in Croatian.
“But it smells so divine,” he whined, making grabby hands as Maria pushed his body away from her dessert.
“You just have to wait until after dinner,” she pushed him out of the kitchen, into the living room.
The Stark’s Penthouse has its living room and dining room connected to each other in one big room, so they could commute after dinner towards the living room faster. Especially on Christmas where the whole family came to celebrate the biggest holiday by eating dinner together, which were cooked by Maria, Andromeda, Pegs and their badass daughter-in-law.
“But…”
With a hand on her hip, his usually sweet-loving wife glared at him. There’s several strain of blond and white hair in front of her eye, making her looked endearing in his eyes. It’s wonderful to see Maria looking her best, but the way she looked a bit messy and didn’t afraid to get her hands dirty in the kitchen, could still make his old heart fluttered in his chest.
She blew her runaway bang from in front of her face and huffed with another pointed look. “After dinner.”
Then the door was closed in front of his face. Thankfully, it didn’t hit his face. Behind him, he heard soft laughter coming from his oldest son. Turning around, he saw Harry sitting on the love seat in the living room, bouncing his granddaughter on his leg.
Lily, his darling granddaughter looked so cute with her hair tied up into pigtails and the pretty purple dress, white bolero and pink tight complemented her sweetness perfectly. She’s the cutest and sweetest little girl in the world and he’s one sappy grandpa.
“Oh, don’t you start, mister,” he took a sit on the couch next to the love seat.
“I know when to hold my battle,” he shrugged. “Especially when Aria was in the kitchen.”
“Mommy no like Daddy in kitten,” Lily giggled with her hands on her mouth. “Mommy’s eyes like this,” she pulled the side of her eyes into lines.
“Kitchen, sweetheart,” Harry corrected his daughter’s speech.
Howard made a whipping motion and sounds, the universal language for ‘whipped by one’s spouse’.
“Touché,” the wizard’s lips tugged a little, before he blew raspberries at his daughter and tickled her. “And now here’s come the tickle machine.”
“Hahaha, Daddy nooooo,” she giggled. “Grandpa, help! Hahaha.”
The old man joined the fray by taking the little girl out of his oldest son’s hands and sat back on the sofa to tickle her in his arms.
“Grandpa, noooo,” she giggled, arms waggling around.
“I’m not grandpa. I’m the tickling machine’s friend, the tickling monster,” he growled playfully.
A loud pop sounded from behind them, “ What are you doing, uncle Howard?”
Having sons and friends from wizardry world that liked to popped in and out of their living place had trained Howard and Maria from being surprised when they arrived out of nowhere with a loud sound.
At first, it sounded so much like a gunshot sound, but in time, they managed to distinguish the noise. He would not lie about still being a bit nervous every time he heard the sound, even after Tony gifted him and Maria with magic rings. (‘Infused with protective charms and a compilation of counter-spells. Can’t believe I invent them with these hands’)
Turning his head around, he looked at the brunette and greeted him,”Hi Teddy. Just tickling this cutie-pie.”
“Teddy!” Lily stood up from the couch, hair a bit messy. “I miss you!”
“Lily, I miss you too honey. How is my favorite girl?” He bend a little to talk to the girl.
“I’m gweeeeat,” she stretched her arms as wide as her mouth when she answered her much older friend.
“It’s rude not to address your godfather, boy, “ the older wizard smiled at his godson from the love seat.
“I didn’t see you there, Harry,” he stood up; walking around with his arms wide and was received by the older wizard in a bear hug.
“I want Teddy,” Lily pouted before the old man pulled her and smothered the 4-year-old with kisses. “Grandpa, noooo.”
While the child laughed her heart out and has all of her attention on her grandpa, Teddy could take his time by talking with Harry.
“Been a while, Ted,” Harry squeezed his godson’s shoulder fondly.
Teddy pulled himself away from the hug. “Sorry, Har. Work kept me busy these days.”
“Well, don’t work too hard. You still have a life outside of work, “ he patted his shoulder, motioned him to take a seat on the other couch. “Maybe a special someone?”
The brunette took his glasses off, cleaned them with the end of his robe. Without looking at his godfather, he calmly asked, “Did grandmama put you up to this?”
“Well, I wouldn’t lie, “ the healer shrugged. “ But she did confide in me about it a couple of weeks ago.”
“I told her already, “ he put his glasses back and frowned. “I just haven’t found someone, yet. She pestered me too much about this. I mean Tony is still single and you or uncle Howard and aunt Maria never push him to find a wife.”
“Andromeda is just worried, “ he tried to defend the old woman. “You aren’t even trying to look or date someone. And you know Tony has someone he set his heart at.”
“I know, “ Teddy sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically. “I still didn’t understand why he didn’t just date Pepper. I mean even a blind man can listen to how cute they are when they’re talking about anything besides work and just know that they like each other. It’s ridiculous how adorable and obvious they were into one another.”
“It is ridiculous, “ he nodded in agreement. “But not as ridiculous as you trying to change the direction of this conversation from you to my son.”
The auror suddenly sprawled on the sofa, head thrown back and groaned, “ I almost succeed.”
“Not even a little, “ his upper lip twitched a bit. “At least tell me this. Is there anyone that you like? Even a little? Maybe a co-worker?”
The younger man looked at him blandly. “If I had someone, would we be here sitting down and talking about it right now?”
“Well, no, “his son amended. “But…”
“I’m still young. Only 28 years old, “his fingers carded through his hair. “10 years younger than my dad when he had me. In my opinion, I still had a decade before I need to settle down with a wife and kids.”
“Your father was a werewolf, “ he explained, adding quickly with, “and he was afraid of having a relationship with anyone lest he hurt them. And your mother, Nymphadora, “ he smiled, “ she was relentless and hopelessly in love with Remus. She chased after him and convinced him to let her in.”
Harry sighed deeply, “What I’m saying is, you don’t have an excuse not trying to find someone.”
When Howard looked at the displeasure arisen from Teddy’s face, he immediately cut into the conversation. He pulled the little girl on his lap and looked toward Harry. “Harry, the boy’s still young and a workaholic. Maybe he just wants to have time to himself at this moment in his life. After a while, he could take his time to think about raising a family.”
This prompted Teddy to smile winningly, but then the billionaire looked toward the younger wizard. “And you, Teddy, my boy. You should at least try dating someone. Your grandma will not push you to try to marry every lady you date. At least tried seeing someone, anyone you feel attracted to. Ease her mind. She’s not getting any younger if she kept worrying over you.”
Both men grudgingly nodded, in Harry’s case, he mouthed a ‘thank you’ at him. He gave his son a quick wink before there was a buzz on the door. He put Lily on Harry’s lap and walked down the hallway to answer the door.
It was Bucky, with a dark brown leather jacket and scarf, hair tied up into a pony tail with several locks ran away around between the side of his face and thin beard over half of his face as usual. Next to him was a beautiful young woman in her early 20’s, short wavy red-haired and red lipstick. She wore white coat and black scarf around her neck with black jeans. As confident as she tried to portray herself, Howard could see her lips trembled a bit, and definitely not from the cold.
The woman has a wooden box of chateaux margaux that he and Maria loved to indulge themselves on certain occasions. The oldest Stark guessed it was probably the good year’s one, since James liked to splurge on gifts for people that he liked and he knew well about Howard’s taste for good wine.
“Hi, Ingenieur (German), “the former soldier curled up a little smile at his old friend. “Are we late?”
Bucky so fond of calling him engineer in every language that he knew.
“You know you’re not, Bu… James, “he cocked an eyebrow. “The ladies are in the kitchen. They’re quite busy.”
“Bellissimo (Italian) kicked you out of her kitchen, didn’t she?” He teased him lightly.
“Let’s not talk about how my wife kicked me out of my own kitchen, shall we?” He rolled his eyes at his friend, motioning them to get inside. He opened the closet door, next to the front door where coat rack was.
As the two of them finished hanging their jacket and coat on the coat rack, Howard opened with, “I’m Howard Stark and you must be ms. Romanoff.”
She stiffened immediately and seemed to try very hard not to clench too hard onto the wine box, but her eyes were on him, bravely watching him under her eyelashes, daring him to kick her out for her infamous past.
“My sons didn’t tell me anything about you. They respected James too much to gossip about you. But I was one of the people who saved you, you know. I hear things from James about you, Ms. Romanoff, “his smile softened a little. “It’s not much but he told me that you’re his daughter. The one that he loved and lost more than a decade ago.”
She didn’t loosen up until Bucky’s shoulder touched hers. She looked more relaxed after that. His father nudged her a bit, prompted her to slowly hand the box of wine to him.
“папочка…Yasha said you like this brand of wine,” she said politely. “It’s 1945.”
“Really? 1945?”
“I was trying to be funny,” he shrugged nonchalantly.
“By choosing the year when you went missing?” He cocked an eyebrow, feeling slightly amused.
The man shrugged yet again.
Howard couldn’t help but laughed. “Considered myself amused.”
Howard still couldn’t believe that in his state of mind years ago, Bucky still managed to attach himself to a child, let alone adopted the said ‘child’ who was legally a young woman as his child 15 years later.
The official knowledge about the adoption papers was secretly known to a few people only, since being a Russian ex-spy alone could put her on the government radar. The risk of being deported or put in prison were too big. The information about the adoption was so well-hidden that even SHIELD didn’t know how Howard was able to speed up the process of Romanoff becoming a US citizen.
As Howard received the box, he looked at the packaging. It was still nice and solid. James probably bought it on his travel abroad. As he inspected the box, James talked to his daughter.
“все в порядке, котенок. (It's alright),“ James reassured her. ”You can call me anything you want in front of him. I trust him.”
“если он предаeт нас, я могу убить его?” (If he betrays us, can I kill him?)
She was smiling serenely as she said this. Howard wasn’t a talented businessman for nothing. To be great at negotiating deals and contacts overseas, one has to be able to understand more than one language. It’s a good thing; he understood Russian and could speak the language fluently, even if he had a sucky Russian accent.
“Твой отец - мой друг. если я предаю тебя, тогда я предаю свой собственный принцип.” (Your dad is my friend. If I betray you, then I betray my own principle)
He said solemnly. It’s not out of ordinary for him to receive threats, even if it came from one of the best assassin known present.
“Каков ваш принцип?” (What is your principle?) Romanoff seemed delighted at being spoken to with Russian.
“Мой друг - моя семья.” (My friend is my family) Then he added,” Пока они не окажутся надежными, как Баки здесь.” (Until they prove themselves trustworthy, like Bucky here)
“Я люблю его лучше, чем его болтливый сын. Но его удар ужасен.” (I like him better than his chatty son. But his accent is horrible)
“может быть, вы можете научить меня.” (Maybe you can teach me) He grinned.
“когда рак на горе свистнет.” (*equivalent of ‘when pigs fly’) She smiled sharply with all teeth.
“Наталия,” Bucky grunted softly.
“I’m not that good with Russian idioms, but the one you just said was said to me more than once by my business partners in Russia. I understand the message clearly, Ms. Black Widow,” he raised an eyebrow amusingly. “Come on. Come meet the rest of the guests.”
When they entered the living room, Howard immediately put the box on the dining table and looked towards the drawer for something to open the box. It will go great with the roasted beef and surely it would be wonderful to enjoy the whole bottle with the family.
“James, how was France?” Harry asked while Lily made grabby hands at the man. “Uncaw James, uncaw James.”
“It was beautiful. Hello, princesa (Spanish),” James swooped the little girl up in his arms. “I want to introduce you to my daughter.”
“She small like me?” She whispered in his ear, shyly.
“No,” he rubbed his nose on her hair lovingly. “She’s big. Like Tony.”
“Aw,” she looked disappointed for a moment before her face lighted up again and she clapped her hands cheerfully. “It’s okay. She’s gewl. I have gewl fwend now.”
Bucky turned towards his daughter. “Lily, meet Natalia. Котенок, this is Lily, Harry’s daughter and Tony’s baby sister.”
“No baby,” she pouted, arms crossed. “ ‘m 4,” she pulled four fingers out from her fist, showing them to the young woman. “Big gewl now.”
Howard had managed to open the box and now was watching the interaction between his Lily and newcomer. He knew he should feel nervous of having his granddaughter in close proximity with an infamous assassin, but her anxiousness around the toddler made him felt more at ease. No killer could hurt that cute face. Not even the black widow.
She smiled a little,” Hi, Lily.”
“Hi,” she waved merrily. For a little girl, she was a feisty child. Very brave and outgoing like Tony when he’s still a little boy. “How aw you?”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
“I have big fwend. He’s Tony’s fwend,” she informed her with her child-like speech. “His name’s Teddy.” She turned her head around, looking for her friend. “Teddy! I have new fwend!”
“Alright bossy Lily, wait,” Teddy’s voice came from behind the balcony door. He stepped back inside with his hands inside his slack.
“What were you doing there, payaso (*clown, Spanish),” Bucky sounded perplexed, turning around to look at the younger man. “It’s freezing out there.”
Teddy smiled, walking towards his uncle James. “Uncle James, it’s been a while,” he hugged the man, with Lily in the middle. “Work stuff. I don’t understand how anyone could still work on Christmas. I love my work, but family time is still number one in my calendar.”
“Teddy, can’t bweath,” the little princess huffed.
“Sorry, sorry,” he grinned, letting go of the man so that Lily has room to breathe.
“It’s okay,” she accepted his apology graciously before pointing at Ms. Romanoff. “Meet my new fwend. Natalia.”
Teddy could be oblivious sometimes, but even Howard could appreciate a beautiful lady (James would kill him if he say this, but his daughter is hot, *Maria would help carry the shovel for him) standing not too far away from him.
The brunette looked towards the red-headed woman, whom he seriously didn’t notice was there before and the billionaire swore he heard his breath caught in his throat. He looked nervous all of a sudden, “ He… hello.”
“I’m Natalia,” she told him with a small courteous smile.
“Lupin… I mean my name is Lupin,” Teddy ‘s eyes looked around in panic. “I mean you can call me Teddy. Teddy Lupin or just Teddy. Just call me Teddy or Ted. Or whatever you like.”
As soon as he said that, Teddy’s face turned red; moreover, his hair turned as pink as Maria’s favorite soft pink roses. It’s been a while since he lost control of his metamorpmagus. Curious, Howard thought.
In turn, the young woman chuckled, but she put a finger to refrain from further laughing. Black widow put up a serene expression, although, her eyes still showed some mirth in them. “Hi, Teddy.”
“Hello,” the auror squeaked embarrassedly. He tried to smile, but it came out weird and his hair color turned into neon pink. “Hi. I mean hello again.”
James looked uncomfortable all of a sudden and his body language turned rigid. He watched the interaction sharply with narrowed eyes.
Oh, oh.
Interestingly, maybe Andromeda didn’t have to wait long until Teddy tried to date again. But Romanoff was a wild card. It could be nothing, yet it could also be something. Howard couldn’t wait to see how this pan out.
***