- i saw the way you looked at me; i love you too.
The entire next morning Natasha and I were working out the plans for the wedding. Natasha wanted it to be all solid as soon as possible so we can start booking venues. I agreed with her. The sooner we got married, the better.
We started to create a Wedding Binder, where we found designs of dresses and tuxedos, and all sorts of neat wedding things. Natasha cut pictures or printed them and assorted them into the binder with my help.
"SHIELD wants to fund our wedding, so we don't need to worry about that," Natasha informed me with a smile. She was so excited about all this, it was amazing to see her this way. "Since neither of us really have any family, there's something we have to decide. We have to figure out who we're putting in our wedding party." She touched the pen she held to her lips. "Do you know who you want?" She asked me.
"Maid of Honor is Lucia, then I would like Wanda, my Best Man as Nadeem, and then Amar," I told my bride-to-be and she took this into consideration. "Who would you like in your wedding party?"
"My Maid of Honor is Ava. I'd like Clint as my best man, with Steve and Bucky." She stared off into the distance. "Ava could walk down with Nadeem, and Lucia could walk with Clint. Nadeem and Bucky, then Amar and Steve. What do you think of that?" She looked to me for approval.
"Perfect." I smiled, kissing her cheek.
Natasha began to think again, asking me a question. She wanted to know what my tuxedo was going to look like. I had already chosen to wear a tux, so I had to figure out what I wanted it to look like.
"I haven't decided yet." I shrugged. "I'll probably ask Amar and Lucia for help on that."
"We should start our guest list," Natasha said, pulling out a notebook. We began to rattle off names, starting with everyone on the team, and then close allies. Then we invited the New Warriors, along with others. Once we had a decent sized list, we began to think of a date and venues. "How about in February?" She asked. "It's September right now and February is soon. Probably the closest date we're going to get right now."
I sighed and leaned back in the chair. "This is very exciting." I caressed her hair as she wrote. "This is almost too exciting. I don't really know how to react to any of this."
Natasha stopped writing and took my hand from her hair and gently pressed it to her lips. My heart fluttered and she let my hand go. "I feel the same way." She gave a faint smile, then returned to writing. "We should find a photographer, florist, band, and caterers. Do you want to get down to one of those?"
"I'll get all four if it's okay. Do we want a band for the beginning and then a DJ or something for later?" I asked.
"Sure," Natasha nodded. "We have to have a DJ because there's no band here in New York that could possibly sing English and other languages just the way we want."
"Multi-language playlist?" I quirked an eyebrow.
Again, she nodded. "It would be fun, right? Just rattle off our favorite foreign songs. Well, your favorite songs because I haven't listened to music before meeting you."
I smiled and got out my phone to begin finding a photographer. In the end, I found someone who was skilled at least according to the quality pictures he took. On the florist, it wasn't as difficult but there were a lot of choices. The caterer I chose had wonderful ratings and one that someone Lucia knew recommended them for me. I wasn't sure about a band, I couldn't find one at first so I had to call Tony and see which one performed at his wedding. Once I got them on the job, I had to call each one back up and tell them about the date. Natasha had booked February 22nd for our wedding day.
"Are we throwing an engagement party?" I asked Natasha once she began to put away the wedding binder.
"Whatever you want to do, I'm okay with it all."
I thought for a moment. "There's already so much that needs to be done before February. An engagement party would just be another hassle. I say we just get on with the wedding."
"Then I agree." She kissed my cheek.
I watched her as she continued to take care of wedding preparations, calling everyone in her wedding party to let them know they've been selected. They seemed happy over the phone because Natasha was excited as she spoke.
She got off the phone and I moved to sync my phone with the Bluetooth speakers. A song began to play and I looked expectantly at her for her reaction.
She raised an eyebrow, questioning me. "What song is this?" She asked.
"Miss Independent," I told her. "By Ne-Yo."
"And the significance? Or you just wanted to play this song."
"This, Natasha, is what I just thought would be your theme song." My words made her smile. "It's true, though. You're independent and I love that."
She smiled and got a glass of water for herself. "You're too cute." When she spoke a smile ran on my face. "I'll have to start listening to music and find a theme song for you."
An idea sparked in my mind. "I have a wonderful game I want to play." I blurt.
"What's that?" She asked.
I got to my feet, excited about my idea. "You have to pick three songs that describe me and three songs that remind you of our relationship. I'll do the same and we'll compare and see whose songs are better."
"This is unfair, Katya. You've been listening to music for, well, forever. I've only started some time ago."
"I have faith in you, Natasha. I'm sure you'll find songs," I paused the music before the next song could play. "I'll let you go through my CD's for inspiration."
She groaned but still accepted the challenge. "Fine. But don't expect me to find any good songs." I flashed a smile before disconnecting my phone to Bluetooth and heading to the bedroom. "Where are you going?" She asked.
"I have to call my wedding party, then I'm picking the songs."
I closed the door behind me and first dialed Lucia. I told her the news of her being my maid of honor. "Oh darling!" She squealed. "This is such wonderful news! Thank you, I feel so...so...honored!" I laughed and she continued. "Finally, one of us are getting married!"
"I'm sure you're not far behind with Nadeem, right?" I asked in a teasing voice. We all had tried to insist that Lucia and Amar get together, but Lucia told everyone to stop pushing something that wasn't going to happen. She later told us it wouldn't happen because she was romantically involved with Nadeem.
"Darling, I have all of eternity to get there. Nadeem is just dragging his feet."
I chuckled. "I'm sure after my wedding, he'll feel inspired to do something similar."
"Let's hope so." Lucia sighed.
I called Wanda next and her reaction was similar to Lucia's. She was completely touched by my offer, but I had no one to tease her with.
Nadeem was thrilled to be chosen, especially since he hasn't been to a wedding since the makeshift family was established. Amar had almost the same reaction as Nadeem, but with less profanity and much more mature.
I spent the rest of the day as Natasha did. We both sat opposite of each other on the couch, headphones in, trying to find the best songs for each other.
I had already chosen Miss Independent by Ne-Yo and was now looking for more. But as I searched for a second and third song for her, I kept looking up to see Natasha intensely searching the internet for a song. It made her look firecly adorable.
As for our three love songs, I immediately found that I Like Me Better by Lauv was perfect. Each word seemed like it was made for us and how we live our lives. Cliche, I know. But I liked the song and I thought Natasha would too. The next song I picked, was Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. Finally, I decided to use Head Over Boots by Jon Pardi. It was one of the strongest country songs I knew and I loved it.
After searching some more for songs about Natasha, I thought Whatever She's Got by David Nail sounded nice. It sounded right, too. I did want whatever she's got. For the last song, I chose You And Me by Lifehouse. It was the slowest song I chose, but I knew she would like it.
I pulled the headphones off my head and laid on the couch, stretching my legs out in front of me. There I lay, just watching Natasha listen to songs and try to find the best ones.
After a few minutes, she seemed to be finished because she also pulled her earbuds out and sighed, looking pleased.
"What's next with your game?" She asked me.
"We text our song names to Wanda and she makes a playlist on Spotify for us. We can add any songs we want 'cause she'll make it a collaborative playlist. But it'll be our playlist." I watched her expression soften again. "It's going to be perfect. We'll keep it forever and continue to add our songs into it."
"That sounds nice." She nodded.
We texted the song names to Wanda and around fifteen minutes later Wanda replied saying that she had the playlist ready for us, and she texted us the link so we didn't have to go searching through all of Spotify for it.
"When do we listen to it?" Natasha asked.
I ran my tongue over the ring in my lip. "After dinner? So we can listen to the songs properly."
"Sounds like a plan." Natasha nodded. "I'll cook tonight."
"Thank goodness, because I really didn't feel like giving us food poisoning." I joked.
"You're not a bad cook," Natasha nudged me. "You're a wonderful cook, you've been practicing longer than anyone has. You just need to focus a little more and not get distracted."
I smirked. "But with a beautiful woman like yourself waltzing aroung, how could I not get distracted?"
She rolled her eyes and moved to the kitchen to prepare dinner. It was ready in an hour and by that time I was so eager to eat. Again, it wasn't required for me to eat, but food tasted so good I couldn't help it.
After dinner as promised, Natasha and I sat in the living room with a glass of wine as I started the playlist. Both of us were excited about hearing the songs the other has chosen.
The first song to play was my Miss Independent, then I Like Me Better. After two songs of mine, one of hers came on. It was That Kind Of Love by Max. I knew the song, but I didn't really remember the words until I focused on them now. It was a beautiful song. You And Me played afterward and I could tell Natasha loved it. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur, and Yellow by Coldplay were Natasha's, then Just The Way You are came on, followed by Head Over Boots. I lip sang the country song, earning laughs from Natasha.
The rest of my songs were played and then Natasha's followed. Her final three choices had been Wherever You Will Go by The Calling, God Gave Me You by Blake Shelton(I found it quite amusing she had chosen that specific song) and finally She Keeps Me Warm by Mary Lambert.
"I wanted to find a song that used the right pronouns for us." She explained the Mary Lambert song.
I kissed her, enjoying the sweet taste of the wine on her lips. "These songs you chose really were perfect." I kissed her between my words. "I knew you'd pick the best songs."
"Your songs were better," She countered.
"It's a tie, then," I offered.
She smiled through a kiss. "It's a tie."
"Getting married to you will be the best thing I've ever done." I curled into her as she wrapped her arms around me.
Natasha kissed the top of my head, and sighed, "I could say the same thing, Katya."