~ 18+ MINORS DNI ~
Almost 40 years after Elise Cooper first crashed into Natasha Romanoff outside the library at Columbia University, she and the Avengers are adapting to a near-immortal life together with their large brood of children. Yet things...
The room was decorated in balloons and streamers we'd brought up from Earth and there was chaos everywhere. The twins had turned one and we were having a party to celebrate.
It was a special celebration for so many reasons. This year had been such a big change for us, and so much had happened in it. From making new friends to saving the planet and everything in between. Yet, here we all were safe, happy, and together after a year on a different planet. We wanted to celebrate - not just because the twins were now a year old according to Earth time, but because this would be the last time we were all together for a little while. Eddie would be returning to Earth with Lyra and Rory so that Lyra could give birth, and while they said they'd be back, who knew when that would be. Of course, we would go see them, but for all of us to be here with all our children and grandchildren to see Nova and Thour turn one was special.
The twins were walking now and both were happily toddling around after the other little ones with the vulparev at their heels. It was lovely getting to see them walking. They weren't good at it and fell over a lot - and if they wanted to get to something fast, they still crawled. But they always tried so hard to keep up with the other kids, and often the vulparev would encourage them to get up by nudging them or giving them something to pull themselves up onto.
Not only that, but they loved music. We would put on music that was being beamed through the galaxy from hundreds of planets and they'd jump up and start spinning or bouncing on the spot. There were a lot of videos of them dancing now.
While Thour grabbed a balloon and started waving it quickly back and forth by the tie so it bopped against her sides, Nova went over to the tv and picked up the remote. He grabbed it and ran over to Tony with it held out in front of him. "Dadadada," he babbled and bounced up and down on the spot, pointing at the TV.
"Okay, buddy," Tony said, holding out his hand "Let me put on a song."
Nova slammed the remote into Tony's hand and pointed at the screen making little grunting sounds and Tony started laughing as he queued up some music. The opening chords to Shoot to Thrill started up and both Nova and Thour spun around to face the speaker system and held their hands up in the air. When the drums came in, both babies started bouncing up and down and the other kids all joined in dancing and throwing balloons around.
It was funny to think about getting to your happy ending when there were still so many years to come. Yet this felt a little like that. This was where we were meant to be. These were the people we were meant to be with. Yes, there would still be dangers to face. Yes, we were still learning more about ourselves and each other. But this was where we were meant to be. The book about the lives of the Avengers had ended and we were on a whole other book now. We'd gone from superheroes to Norse gods and that was a whole different genre of story.
So while there would be more battles and more sexcapades, first words and first days of schools, bondings and grandchildren, and who knew five thousand years was a long time, maybe there would be more children too, this was the start of a completely different direction - our happily ever after.
The door to our chambers opened and Magnus the chef wheeled in a huge cake covered in fruit. It looked hilarious. We had shown him photos and described a birthday cake to him, but Asgard was not Earth and didn't have the same ingredients or traditions, so the cake was made of lots of thin layers, some kind of fruit preserves spread between each layer and a huge mound of what looked like chocolate frosting on top, but honestly could have been anything. It had been decorated with intricately cut fruits and edible flowers so even as rustic as it was, it was also somehow elegant and unique. Given birthday candles weren't a thing on Asgard a big yellow wax candle sat on top.
"Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you," everyone started to sing as they gathered together. I picked up Nova while Steve collected up Thour. As I brought my little one-year-old son to the cake, Natasha and Clint bracketed me on either side. I continued to sing, my voice joining the voices of the rest of my family, the two people who had brought me into this group pressed to my sides as I held the biological child I had with the one I met last.
Nova bounced in my arms as we sang and when we stopped we all tried to coax the twins into blowing out the candle as they attempted to grab handfuls of the frosting.
I was happy and I could feel the happiness radiating through the threads I shared with them.
We were home and this was our happily ever after.
~ END ~
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This is the end of the story. I don't have any more stories to tell about them. For those of you that have stuck with them the whole time, thank you so so much.
But I do love this family, so I am considering opening up to requests for one-shots. If you think you'd like that let me know.
