Love's New Hope

May I Have This Dance?

2 weeks later

Natasha groaned as she woke up to sunlight streaming in her window. It had been two weeks since she and James had had their first mission with the Avengers. Afterwards, Tony had invited them to stay in the Tower with the rest of them. This had caused a bit of a stir among the Avengers, since they had assumed that Tony would want Bucky as far away as soon as possible. But instead, the two of them had hit it off quite splendidly, partly because Bucky was such a nerd. Since that invitation, Natasha and Bucky had been forced to quit their job by the others so that whenever they had a mission they would be free. And both Natasha and Bucky found that they were much happier working with similar people and had developed close relationships with everyone, and in Natasha's case, redeveloped those relationships.

She turned over away from the sunlight and found herself face to face with her husband.

"Morning, sunshine." He told her quietly, smiling at her somewhat disgruntled expression.

"How long have you been awake?" She asked, frowning.

Bucky smirked. "Fifteen minutes or so." He replied, snaking his arm around her waist and pulling her closer.

She pushed away from him and sat up. "And you've been watching me sleep for fifteen minutes?" Natasha asked, annoyed that Bucky would do that.

He groaned and sat up. "Yeah, nothing wrong with watching you sleep." He wrapped his arms around her waist and began kissing her hair.

She rolled her eyes, though she leaned into him all the same. "We really ought to get up."

Bucky moved his kisses from her hair to her neck. "Are you sure?" He asked in between kisses.

She sighed, not really wanting to get up. "Yes," She said anyway, pushing away from him and walking to the bathroom.

Bucky chuckled. "So glad I married a romantic." Natasha turned and gave him a dirty look, which he chose to ignore.
*
Later that afternoon, Natasha and Bucky walked into the living room after an intense session in the training room.  They found that all the furniture had been moved away from the center of the room to the edges and loud music was playing.

"What's going on?" Bucky asked Sam, who was watching on the sidelines with a smirk.

"Tony decided that he and Pepper were the best dancers in the building and then Bruce and Tessa said no, they were and then Jane decided to pay a visit which caused her to be paired with Thor and then Lauren from Accounting came up and Rhodey claimed her and then Darcy came here 'cause she wondered what had happened to Jane and she decided that she and Loki needed to join in and then Wanda and Vision got dragged in 'cause they're a couple and so Clint decided to teach Steve how to dance since everybody else was having this little competition and since I don't have a date, I'm judging. So now, we've got seven couples competing for the title of 'world's most awesomest dance couple' (courtesy of Tony) and one embarrassed super soldier being taught how to dance by a medieval Cupid and a war veteran having an awesome time." Sam grinned at them. "Does that make any sense?"

"No." Bucky and Natasha chorused.

"Hey, grampsicle!" Tony called out, catching sight of Nat and Bucky. "You two get over here! All the couples are doing a dance off and I don't wanna look over anyone."

"Come on, Tony." Bruce said rolling his eyes. "They're from the forties. There's no way that they can compete."

"Oh, I wanna do it so bad now." Natasha told Bucky. "You game?"

Bucky smirked. "Absolutely." And the two of them took the floor. As soon as they reached it, they began swing dancing, doing many complicated moves, perfectly synced with each other and the music. After a few minutes, the other couples gathered around, watching Bucky and Natasha sweep effortlessly across the floor as if it was second nature.

When the song ended, Natasha and Bucky noticed for the first time that they were the only people on the dance floor as everyone else burst into applause.

"I think it's pretty clear who's the winner." Sam said, handing a trophy to the two of them.

Natasha eyed it suspiciously. "Stark, are you trying to tell me that you just randomly had a trophy in your basement with 'world's most awesomest dance couple' written on it?"

Tony grinned. "So I might've been planning a little competition for a while. Just wait for the pie eating competition."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Thor is obviously going to wipe the floor with you guys."

Thor looked touched. "Thank you, Loki!"

Loki shrugged. "Don't mention it." He smirked at his brother. "Ever."
*
Four hours, 237 pies, and two happy Asgardians later, Tony had to admit defeat.

"How can you guys eat so much?" Tony asked groaning. He'd eaten three pies and felt sicker than a dog. The others had only managed two, minus Steve, Natasha, and Bucky, who hadn't participated, and Clint, who had eaten twelve.

"101 pies each and you are both still going strong!" Rhodey complained, clutching his stomach.

Loki shrugged as he continued to chow down on one of his pies. "We were hungry."

Thor made a happy grunting sound as he made his way through the pies that had been set aside for the Avengers that had already quit.

"So who gets the trophy?" Steve asked curiously.

"They both do!" Darcy said, happily skipping in. Everyone except Thor and Loki jumped, as the other women, besides Pepper and Tessa, had left right  after the dance competition.

"While you guys were eating," Darcy continued. "I asked FRIDAY to make a second trophy just like the first." She handed the new trophy to Loki and gave the old one to Thor."

"Thank you." Loki told the girl with a smile, touched that someone cared about whether he got a trophy or not. He glanced a little closer and saw anew inscription on there. '555-124-9987 call me!' He raised an eyebrow at his friend.

Darcy shrugged shamelessly. "At least you won't lose it!" She gave him a kiss on the forehead before skipping out of the room to go home.

Bucky chuckled as Loki turned deep red. "Good thing the others are all under the influence of a tummy ache."

Natasha smirked. "Why do you think she chose now to give him the number?"

Steve snickered. "Do I hear wedding bells?"

Pepper, who had walked up during their discussion, laughed. "There will be if Darcy has anything to say about it."

"Don't be so sure that that's not what Loki wants too." Bucky commented, wryly. He pointed to where Loki was still sitting in a bit of a daze from Darcy's kiss. "I think we'll have a new couple before we can say 'Darcy Lewis loves Loki Odinson'."

"That's a pretty long thing." Steve put in.

"Well it could take a while." Natasha said slowly. As they watched, Loki pulled out his phone and dialed Darcys number.

"Or not." Pepper said grinning.