An Interesting Arrangement

Chapter Four

Loki knocked on Natasha's door with great trepidation. "Natasha? Can I come in?" Loki turned to Thor. "Guess she's not at home! I can come back..." He was promptly yanked back by his older brother by the collar of his shirt.

"Nope. You're not getting out of it this easy." Thor banged on Natasha's door. "Natasha! I know you're sulking but you can either open this door or I can break it down. Take your pick."
*
Natasha groaned when she heard that. She knew that Thor of all people would break down her door. She reluctantly got up and unlocked the door, allowing the two Asgardians in.

"Look guys, I know you're here to cheer me up or whatever, but I'm really not in the mood."

Thor shrugged. "This may put you in the mood. Loki, tell her."

Loki gave his brother a dirty look and quickly told Natasha what he'd told Bucky and Thor. When he finished, she sat down heavily on the bed.

"So, you're saying that if I let you imbue me with magic, I could have kids?"

Loki nodded. "After I do it, there'll be quite a bit of pain for about a month."

Natasha shrugged. "I've undoubtedly been through worse."

Loki thought about that and nodded. "But after that, you should be able to get pregnant, though I'd be very careful about the kind of work you do. No heavy lifting or anything. This will be a delicate pregnancy at best."

Natasha nodded. "How long would it take for you to prepare the spell?"

Loki shrugged. "Couple of hours tops. But I suggest you discuss this with Steve first. It's not an easy thing to take care of magical kids. Or kids period. I'll do this if you want me to, but I won't do it unless both you and Steve agree."

Natasha nodded slowly. "I'll go find Steve."

"That won't be necessary." Steve said from the doorway. Thor and Loki walked out of the room leaving Steve and Natasha alone in there. Natasha turned away as Steve closed the door.

"Steve, I'm sorry." Natasha said quietly.

"Why should you be sorry?" Steve asked her, walking to stand in front of her. He gently took her by the arms and steered her to the bed.

Natasha sighed and sat down, still not meeting his eyes. "I can't give you what you want, Steve. Normal family, normal kids. The only way you're ever going to have kids is if Loki does this. But if he does..." Natasha finally met his bright blue eyes. "If he does this, will you resent me?" Her eyes began to tear up.

Steve sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Nat, I could never resent you. Remember that. I love you. I always have and I always will. And if this is what you want to do, then I'll support you one hundred percent." He gently kissed her forehead. "But you don't have to have kids to make me love you."

Natasha bit back a sob. "I love you too."
*
Loki was carefully reading his spell book while Thor and Bucky played cards.

"How long do you think they'll take to make a decision?" Thor asked Loki.

Loki grunted. "Dunno. Depends on how bad Steve wants kids. He's not gonna want Natasha to go through the pain and Natasha isn't going to want to not do it, cause she feels like Steve will resent her."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "People. Can't they just be like 'oh yeah I wanna do this. Ok then we'll do this no problem.' This back and forth stuff is the reason I never got married."

"I thought it was because you were presumed dead, turned into a brainwashed super assassin, lost one of your arms, worked for HYDRA, and you were originally from the forties so you don't know any girls to date." Loki said dryly.

Bucky gave him a dirty look. "That might be one reason, but still."

Thor shrugged. "Girls are a lot of trouble."

"Speaking of girls, whatever happened to that Jane?" Loki asked curiously. It had been a while since he'd heard Thor mention his mortal girlfriend.

Thor looked away. "We kind of broke up."

"She dumped you?" Loki asked, a little surprised. He hadn't thought she'd have the guts to do that.

"No." Thor said with a snort. "I dumped her. It was... a mutual dumping."

Loki patted his brother sympathetically on the back. Despite his own misgivings about the girl, Thor had seemed to like her.

Bucky carefully slipped an ace into own hand while Thor and Loki were having a moment. Just because he and Thor were friends didn't mean that he wouldn't occasionally cheat. Especially when Thor had been winning everything from cookies to paper clips (Natasha had forbidden playing for money when Loki had 'won' about 40 thousand dollars one night. Thor and Bucky still claim that he cheated while Loki claims that they're just sore losers).

Thor groaned. "Why's it taking so long?"

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Do you have somewhere to be?"

"No. I just figured they'd be done by now. It's been three hours."

Bucky shook his head. "Sometimes ignorance is bliss. What do you guys say to a movie?"

"I'll make popcorn." Loki said.

"And I'll get some cookies." Thor added, grabbing a plate.
*
An hour and a half later, the credits had just started rolling when Natasha and Steve came down.

Loki looked at them. "Well?"

Natasha glanced at Steve and nodded. "Let's do it."
*
Hey guys! Hope you're enjoying so far. Just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be at camp all week so I probably won't update until Saturday at the earliest. And if you guys have any comments, feel free to leave them! I love reading them!