I'm sorry, I don't mean to be totally awful, but I just thought I'd ask: everyone in my group of friends has pretty much paired up into couples. It sucks, so I'm wondering how Natasha feels about being single with so many of the people she knows happily paired up. (Sorry if you've already answered this or it's in your writing somewhere.)
Okay, confession time: I have a hard time shipping Nat with anyone other than Bucky. Ditto Remy and Rogue, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, and Peter Parker and MJ. These are some relationships that have actually been written well in the comics, not always, but often enough that they stick with me. I LIKE these couples, even if Marvel doesn’t always agree with me. 8)
Now, I loved the movie version of Gwen so much that she made her way into Peter’s world in my writing. And I find Peter/Johnny and Spidey/Deadpool to be adorable, but I don’t write them because eh, I don’t ship it. Cute! But it doesn’t hook me.
So I’ve had a problem with Nat and Bruce. Both of whom are intrinsically tied to other people in my head. So she hasn’t gotten a romantic story in the Toasterverse.
But I can’t break away from Bucky and Nat, and I have no idea how or if I’ll be able to integrate Bucky in the Toasterverse.
Of course, I realized while writing “Playing Both Sides of the Sheets” that I kind of think that Nat and Sitwell have something on the side. Sitwell’s not sure how it happened, but he’s not stupid enough to question it. I just like the idea of her showing up, enjoying herself, kissing him on top of the head and rolling out of bed before he can get his wits together.
EDIT: Cripes, I'm horrible, I didn't actually ANSWER your question. I think she's comfortable in my verse. She has a strange little family, a group of men who treat her like an equal, who don't creep on her and don't judge her. She has affection, and love, just not a romantic sort. She's included, and valued, and respected. And she doesn't have to pay rent.
She's happy. If she makes a change, I'll see if I can't do her justice. 8)