The Soldier and his Widow

11

Natasha tossed and turned, unable to find sleep.

"Something wrong?" Bucky murmured sleepily.

"You were right," Natasha said, turning over to face Bucky.

"Hm?"

"You were right. I was wrong. No one's going to shoot Steve in the knee."

"Widow, what are you talking about?"

"What Ramonda said at the table today, I can't stop thinking about it."

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows. "T'Challa is afraid of nothing but Nakia?"

"No. About wanting her grandchildren."

"Oh . . . ohh . . . OH!"

"You were right and I was wrong. I want one."

"Oh!" Bucky said again, seemingly unable to make any other sound.

"Are you just going to lay there and make me feel like an idiot until daylight?"

"No. I'm just . . . you caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting that. You can't blame me. I was still half-asleep."

"Sorry," Natasha murmured sheepishly.

"It's okay," Bucky said, moving closer towards the middle of the bed and pulling Natasha towards him. "Shuri wants to be an aunt, you know, maybe even more than Ramonda wants to be a grandmother. While you were playing villain with the kids a few days ago, Shuri came to make sure I'm still not going to snap back into mindless-mode, as she calls it. She was just talking, about anything. Like her mother, she complained about the fact that T'Challa is still yet to ask Nakia to marry him. It made me laugh then, how she said she would hack into adoption agency databases if she had to."

Natasha smiled and burrowed closer against Bucky. "Hm, you can ask her about that in the morning. For now, be quiet and go to sleep."

"Oh, now you're tired? After you woke me up?" 

"I love you," she sang softly, closing her eyes and drifting off. Bucky kissed the top of her head before closing his eyes as well. "Love you too, Natalia."

~~||~~

"This is difficult with a capital D," Shuri complained as Nakia walked in.

"Guess I'll come back later."

Shuri smiled at the woman. "No, I've got time. What is it?"

"Looking for you. Okoye and I learnt how to execute a new prank, and we were planning on using your brother as a victim. I came to ask if you'd like to film it."

"Absolutely."

"Not now!" Nakia said quickly when Shuri stood up at once. "What are you doing that's so difficult?"

Shuri pointed at the couple sitting at one of her tables -- nearly on top of each other -- as they discussed something. It was a miracle Bucky hadn't fallen yet, seeing as the only arm he had was not really doing much in the way of support.

"Choosing a child is hard, because what is the criteria? What makes one a better choice than another? How do you look at an array of children and pick one out?"

Nakia frowned.

"They want to adopt a child," Shuri explained.

"Oh!"

Nakia joined them. Okoye arrived a few minutes later to find out what happened to Nakia, and she too sat down.

Shuri had never allowed so many people into her own space at once before, so when Ramonda looked in an noticed a whole group, she came to inquire and ended up sitting with them.