Candlesticks and Home Fires
"Thanks for giving me a good morning start, Bucky. You know, there's nothing I love more than the sound of a good fuck from next door. I really didn't need to wake up to that shit."
Maria snorted in her coffee and covered her mouth, trying to hold back her laughter. When she got a handle on her coughing, she said, "I'm sorry, what?"
Bucky rolled his eyes at Sam and poured himself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. It was a good thing his girlfriend was in the living room and chose not to respond to that. "Wanda and I were a little loud this morning."
"A little?!" Coffee dribbled out of Sam's mouth. "You were so loud, I could hear your breathing patterns! Who the hell has sex at three o'clock in the morning?"
Maria cleared her throat and patted Sam's hand. "Ah, we do. And three times, to be exact."
"...oh. I guess I forgot."
"You did? Well, maybe I'll just spend the night here so we can get payback on Wanda and Bucky, then." Maria smirked and pulled Sam to her, kissing him hard, running her hands over his back and groping his behind.
"Dammit, I'm trying to eat, here! If the two of you want to fuck, could you go somewhere else with that?" Bucky grumbled at the couple and shoveled a spoonful of Cheerios in his mouth.
After kissing for a long period of time, Maria gave Bucky a glance and grinned mischievously at him. "You know you like to watch."
"You wish," the super soldier replied as he picked up his bowl of cereal and trudged off to the living room.
As Bucky left, Natasha came into the kitchen. There was a agitated scowl on her face which alerted Maria to the knowledge that something was very wrong. "Lemme guess. Someone ate your Lorna Doone's?"
Natasha's head snapped in Maria's direction and squinted her eyes at her. "And how do you know about that?"
"Sam told me about what happened earlier. You know, you should probably ask Peter if he ate them."
"Peter? You think Peter Parker ate my cookies?"
"Personally, I don't think anyone but Steve should touch your cookies, red," came a voice from the hall.
Natasha rolled her eyes as Tony appeared and grinned at the group.
"Shut up, Tony," Maria said with exasperation in her tone.
"Oh, that's too difficult for him, Mar. The only way to keep his mouth closed is to put Mjolnyr on his lips when he's asleep."
Tony frowned at that. "Not funny, Sam. It's a good thing that Vision happened to be coming to the gym to practice, or I would have been stuck there for hours. Do you know how hard it is holding back pee when you have Mjolnyr lying on your face?"
"No, but I'm sure it was hilarious to my Instagram followers. Last time I checked, that picture had over two million likes and four hundred thousand comments."
Even Natasha had to smirk at that, but Tony was in shock, his mouth hanging open. It wasn't too often that he was surprised by anything, but with Sam and Bucky on the team, he'd begun to discover that he had two matches in mischievous behavior.
"You're an asshole, Sam."
"Love you, too, Iron head."
Tony ignored Sam and opened the fridge and pulled out a plastic container of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. He tossed a handful in his mouth and grimaced, struggling to swallow the fruit. "Ugh. Who the hell put fucking blueberries in my fucking berry mix?"
Sam took off and ran down the hall with Tony chasing him soon after. "You're dead, Sam!" Came his strangely girlish scream as their footsteps stamped out of the room.
Natasha hummed to herself for a moment. "So you think Peter ate them? My cookies?"
Before Maria could respond, a voice said, "I would never do that to her." Peter showed up in the kitchen wearing a shirt that said 'Black Widow is the world's best adopted mother'.
Natasha stared at the shirt for a few seconds, disturbed that he was wearing it. "Did you have that made?"
"Yeah. Do you like it?"
The redhead rolled her eyes. "Pff, it's hideous. I love it. Oh, Peter. Would you like to do a little investigating for me?"
"You want me to find out who ate your Lorna Doone's?"
"I always said you were a bright kid."
Peter rolled back and forth on his heels, like an excited puppy. "What do I do when I find the culprit?"
"Kill them," Natasha deadpanned.
Peter's eyes widened and he started to look a little scared. "...um, couldn't I just force them to play Bop It with me or something?"
"Sure! Bop It is fine, but just make sure to bring them to me when you're finished playing."
"Yes, ma'am! Don't worry! Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is on the case!" Peter picked up his toaster strudel and ran off, yelling in excitement.
"I really love that kid," Natasha said, smiling as she watched him go.
The adoration in the redhead's eyes made Maria smile. She had never seen her friend so happy around any kids - well, Peter was a teenager now, but in her eyes, he was still a kid. It was also really cute to watch him embrace his role as an Avenger, but a bit freaky, since he was pretty young.
After a long silence, Maria spoke up. "You know, sometimes I think it's weird that you're Peter's legal guardian now." She munched on her peaches and Wheaties thoughtfully.
"What's so weird about that? Don't you think I make a good mother?" Natasha pouted at Maria.
"No. I think you make a great mother. It's just...well, I think about you and Steve and how you're both so close like a married couple and if you get married, you both will end up being his parents. That means Steve would essentially be adopting him, too."
The blood drained from Natasha's face and she chuckled nervously. "Married? Wh-what ever gave you that idea?"
"Well, the two of you have been dating for three years now and everyone knows how serious things have been between you. I just figured that marriage would be another step down the road."
Natasha's palms began to sweat and she rubbed them on her pants. "Um, no. We haven't talked about that. I've definitely thought about it, but settling down is just not me. I mean, he and I are too different to be together like that."
Maria opened her mouth to respond, but her eyes widened when she saw who was behind Natasha and she lowered her gaze down to her bowl.
Uh oh. The conversation that the two women had been having took all of Natasha's attention from her surroundings, and as a result, she hadn't noticed the footsteps that came from behind her and in the direction of the hall. Natasha closed her eyes for a second and slowly turned around.
As she suspected, Steve stood behind her, his eyes full of hurt. "If that's what you really think, Nat, then what the hell have we been doing for the last three years?"
"Steve, I-"
"Was this just a game for you? Because it wasn't for me. Being married to you was always what I planned for us. I knew it would take a while for you to get to that point. That's why I never brought it up and bided my time, but if this is how you feel..." Steve let out a breath and lowered his head. "Just forget it." He turned to walk away.
Natasha reached out to grab his sleeve. "Steve, wait. Please."
"You don't have to explain. I thought that maybe my love for you was enough, but I guess it isn't." Steve touched her cheek, stroking the soft skin. Then, he whispered, "I just wish you would have said something sooner," and he left, trudging off down the hallway, his shoulders hunched in defeat.
Natasha felt tears splash onto her cheek and her chin trembled as she watched Steve walk away. What had she just done?