Another Life, Another Time: A Romanogers Fanfic

Chapter 1

Date: April 28th 2024

The five year old boy with blonde hair and green eyes giggled with delight as he ran around the house butt naked as his mother chased after him with a towel.

"James get back here now!" His mother ordered, failing miserably to hide the grin on her face as she ran after the boy.

"Catch me mommy! Try and catch me!" James giggled as he darts around the table.
Natasha ran faster, knowing very well that she can outrun her son any day.

"James! It's time for bed, you've finished your bath and it's getting late." Natasha did her best to reason with her son as he continued to run around their apartment in D.C.

"You've gotta catch me first mommy," James shouted squaring off with his mom from across the room. Natasha smiled to herself, and charged at James. He shrieked with excitement and did his best to dodge his mother's arms. But many have tried to escape the Black Widow, and all have failed, not even James would get a free pass.

Natasha wrapped the towel around James' little, squirming body as he kicked and wiggled all around in attempt to escape his mother's hold. "Caught you, my little rascal." Natasha tickled his stomach and James' laugher grew louder, soon enough Natasha was chuckling along with him.

"Let's get you off to bed, you've got a big day ahead of you." Natasha picked up James, who enjoyed the feeling of warmth he received not only from the towel, but from his mom's embrace as well.

He snuggled his head into her shoulder and yawned, "but I'm not sleepy."

This was a nightly routine for Natasha and as soon as she dressed him into his patriotic pajamas and laid him in his bed, his eyes grew droopy and he yawned more frequently.

---

James' room was ocean blue with a red stripe across the wall, filled with little white stars along the center. Toys were scattered everywhere and posters of trains, cars and motorcycles were abundant on the walls.

Natasha tucked James in his bed and pulled out the book called "Monster Trucks", James' favorite.

After she read him the book, she took the second to observe her son, he was five years old. It seems like only yesterday that she's brought him home for the first time. His soft blonde hair was neat, at least for now. His green eyes, which he'd inherited from her was the only feature of his that made him look remotely related to her. James looked just like his father, it brought both joy and sadness to Natasha to think about Steve Rogers.

"Mommy?" James yawned.

"Yes kiddo?" Natasha reaches down to comb James' hair from his face, he smiled lazily up at his mom as she leaned over him to kiss him goodnight.

"Why do you always wear that?" James pointed to the silver compass dangling from Natasha's neck.

"It's my favorite necklace, I've told you a million times silly." Natasha shied away from the subject as she's always done. Covering up her true feelings behind a fake smile, James was beginning to pick up on this now. He was again like his father in that way, only his father was the one to always know when something troubling Natasha, sometimes before she even knew herself.

"There's a story with it mommy, I'm old enough now. I'm a big boy, daddy is the story right?" James' big green eyes searched Natasha's for the answer he already knew.

"I'll tell you later—"

"No, now please. Open the necklace, I wanna see the picture." James pushed.

"What do you mean? There's no picture." Natasha lied, but James didn't buy it this time.

"You're a terrible liar." James smirked, his smirk much like the one Natasha herself gives people.