The Captain's Husband

18. Spider's Dance (Tony)

From where I'm currently sitting, I'm a bit perplexed.

Bruce is watching the radar and external cameras, so he's just fine. Thor is lending Clint a hand with a few housekeeping tasks for the next mission. Wanda is FaceTiming Vision, so she's happy as can be. Bucky and Steve are making their daily round of the ship, Steve's contact status has been moved back to green, and I can see them on the internal security cameras, so they can't get in too much trouble.

But, Natasha? She's something else.

The reason why I'm so perplexed is that she's refused to leave my side since she came back from last night's intelligence mission. She's okay - I have the body cam footage to prove it - but something is different now.

We've become a bit of a public item, stepping out of the shadows and coming clean with everything. Initial reactions were all over the board, but many people chose to focus on Peter rather than the two of us. The same thing happened when his adoption went public. People were curious, they wanted to know if he was really ours. Peter was CEO of Stark Industries and an Avenger, after all, but he handled it like a champ and turned the matter over to us to handle. We hosted a press conference to address the rumors.

Natasha intrigues me, much like a spider dancing on a web would. I haven't been able to take my eyes off of her — let alone leave her for more than a few minutes — and I'm head over heels. I have been for years. I mean, I told her I loved her back while Bucky was in cryo, so we've been together for a while.

Bucky teases Natasha about me, much like an older brother would. Wanda gossips with her, asking her about me all the time, and then she makes sure to doll Natasha up whenever she spends her free time with me. Bruce has started leaving the bridge whenever we're the only ones here and Nat comes. Steve strategically asks me about her, and relays my responses to her.

I'm not blind to their witchcraft or the way Natasha is around me. She's my angel, the love of my life. I honestly couldn't imagine my life without her.

     "Hey, Tasha," I smile when I see Nat.

Natasha walks over to me and sits on the corner of the desk, facing away from me, with her phone in her hand. She's texting Steve about his night. From the pictures I see over her shoulder that Steve sent, he's going to be wearing a shirt everywhere he goes for the next few days.

He's taken a shirtless mirror picture of both him and Bucky, who is shamelessly grinning at his side, and sent it to her.

She smirks and texts him back: "Scandalous! Thanks for the blackmail!"

"You gave Steve your report, right?" I ask her as she sets her phone to the side and looks out across the bridge at the windows.

Saturn is just outside and we're in her orbit.

     Her rings are almost as beautiful as the assassin before me.

Nat turns her head, short red curls bouncing off her thin shoulders, and says, "I gave him my report this morning when his status changed from blue to green. He and Bucky were in the command center with Fury. Why do you ask?"

I need an excuse.

     Shit.

     Um, do I have one?

Yes! I do!

"Clint hasn't given his report to Steve yet," I tell her.

"He wanted to rewrite it, I think," she says.