Loving Precautions
“Hi! You’re… Adeline, right?”
The girl in question looked up in surprise at the sound of her name. She was greeted with the sight of bright red hair and a wide smile. “Um… I am, yeah. Who are you?”
“Oh! Ha, silly me.” The woman laughed and smacked herself in the side of the head before holding out her hand. “I’m Sage’s Auntie Nat! She’s told me so much about you!”
“Oh. Uh, okay, sure. I’m… sorry, she’s never really mentioned you. Which one of her dads is your brother?”
The redhead laughed again, and really Adeline was starting to htink that laugh was fake. “I guess I’m not really surprised. We’re a rather… private family. I’m not really her aunt, you understand. Simply a very old friend of the family.”
“Right. Yeah, of course.”
“Adelynn?”
“Oh, that’s me. Listen, it was really nice to meet you, but I have to get going. Tell Sage that I said hi?”
“Oh, I definitely will.”
---
“Your girlfriend says ‘hi’. Natasha mentioned off-handedly at supper that night.
Sage narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her. “What did you do?”
“Nothing! We happened to be at Starbucks at the same time, and I simply introduced myself to her. She’s very polite. Definitely suspects something about me.”
“Probably that you’re a liar.”
“Hey, now.”
“Speaking of that girlfriend of yours, Sage, what’s her favourite era of music?” Tony steepled his hands under his chin. ‘She gives off a very ‘faded vintage’ vibe, and I was curious.”
“Oh, she loves sixties music. Especially Paul Anka.”
Tony hummed, “A respectable choice. The more I learn about her, the more I like her.”
“It irritates him to no end.” Loki said, winking at Sage.
The girl giggled into her food as Tony turned to glare at his husband.
“Lokes. We’ve talked about this. What happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom. We don’t bring it up at the dinner table, no matter how much you enjoyed it.”
This was met with a chorus of displeasure from around the island, including Clint visibly turning down his hearing aids and Bucky throwing a roll at tony as Sage turned bright red.
The inventor arched an eyebrow at all of them and smirked as he took a bite out of the roll. “Serves you all right.”
“I didn’t even do anything this time!” Pietro cried.
“The key phrase there being ‘this time’.” Bruce clarified with a grin.
Sage smiled softly to herself as the team all continued to bicker playfully around her, closing her eyes for a moment to soak up the love radiating from each of them.
Loki caught her eye when she looked up again, a soft, barely there smile on his face. He gets it, she thought. Based on many of Thor’s stories about their childhoods on Asgard, her papa hadn’t ever entirely fit in with that war-based society. He’d been an outsider so often, but not here. They wouldn’t let him. For that matter, they wouldn’t let her either, and she loved it. So much.
---
“Hey, thanks again for driving us around. I really appreciate it.” Adeline said as she slid into the backseat of Sam’s Chevy Cobalt.
Sage grinned and clambered over the front seat to cuddle into Adeline’s side.
“Sage. Seatbelt.” Sam rolled his eyes when the blonde stuck out her tongue at him, and glared at her until she obeyed. “It’s no big deal. Gives me a chance to keep an eye on Sage.”
“Sam thinks that if he chaperones us, nothing untoward will happen. Little does he know…” She inched her hand extremely slowly up Adeline’s thigh, watching her girlfriend closely for an outward signs of distress or being uncomfortable.
“For God’s sake, Sage. Take the AUX cord and give your girlfriend room to breathe.”
Sage grinned at took the offered cord. “Little does he know, we haven’t eve kissed yet.” She whispered to Adeline, scooting over slightly and handing the AUX cord over. “Play somehting good, babe.” she serruptitiously watched as Adeline thumbed through the music on her phone, a certain playlist catching her eye. 12.18.02. Her birthday.