Chapter 37
Warnings: None
Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own a few OCs like Elizabeth, Katherine, Stacy, and Jessie. I do not condone any copying of this.
"Look how adorable she is." Natasha cooed as she picked up Lucy in her arms. It was strange, seeing her in a green shirt. You weren't sure you'd ever seen her wearing green. Bruce stood by her side, a small smile on his face. Natasha smiled down at Lucy and you smiled, even if a part of you felt sad. "Oh!" Nat looked at you, and Clint who was standing next to you, his arm around your shoulder, "Bruce and I are able to get an adoption!"
"What? Really?" You asked in surprise. As mentioned before, adoptions were extremely hard to come by, and usually did not end up working out well.
"Yes, one of the towns in Thailand had a humongous flood." Nat said sadly. "A couple hundred people were killed and there were a lot of children that survive because one of the schools took some of the kids out on a field trip of sorts. Bruce and I are adopting twins!"
"What are their genders and names?" You asked in interest.
"They are a boy and girl duo and their names are Sofia and Max." Nat answered. "Well, Max is short for Maximillian, but I like calling him Max."
"I'm glad." You said earnestly. "I hope the others find good homes as well."
"My sister Yelena is taking one of the boys." Nat nodded, "Quite a few widows are going to be able to adopt children actually. Though I wish it could be done without tragedies."
"Me too." You said quietly. "But enough about depressing things. Elizabeth will blow off our heads if we're depressed at her baby shower."
Nat giggled, bouncing Lucy on her hip before handing her over to Clint. Clint took Lucy eagerly, smiling down at the confused baby in his hands. Lucy stared up at Clint before laying her tiny head on his shoulder and promptly falling asleep.
You giggled, kissing the top of your babies head and went off to find other people to converse with.
Hogun and Elizabeth were talking to the other Asgardians. They were rather excited about the baby that Elizabeth was carrying, as it would be the first child any of the warrior three had had. Which was a surprise considering they were all a thousand plus years and were all soulmated to Sif. Elizabeth was just under the eight month mark.
Heimdall and Katerina were there as well. They were not married yet, though they would be in a few weeks. You looked forward to their wedding as well.
"Hey sweet mama." Rhodey murmured in your ear, coming up behind you to hug you. "How are you holdin' up?"
You turned in his arms, smiling up at him. His firmly defined muscles were bulging against the tight polo shirt he was wearing. Everyone had secretly worn a shirt that matched their Hogwarts house- without actually having the Hogwarts house on it. His red shirt was a bit tight around the arms, which you were sure was done on purpose.
You were wearing black jeans and a H/H/C shirt.
"Hey." Bucky said, coming over to kiss the top of your head. He was wearing a yellow shirt and he looked rather uncomfortable wearing such a bright colour, "Can you tell me again why I'm wearing yellow?"
"Your test results." You muttered in undertone so that Elizabeth wouldn't hear you. "We're dressing up in our Hogwarts House colours and you happened to be a Hufflepuff. So you have to wear a yellow shirt."
"And what is my house again?" He whispered back.
"The kind, patient, fair, hard-working house." You muttered back.
"Okay and what is Stephens' house?"
"Slytherin. Ambitious, strong leaders, achievement oriented, and cunning."
"And Steve is wearing red."
"No surprises there. Gryffindor. Bravery, boldness, and loyalty." You murmured.
"Vision is wearing Blue. So is Bruce, Hope, and Scott." Bucky murmured.
"Ravenclaw." Elizabeth's voice behind you made you jump. "intelligence, learning, wisdom, wit, no social skills. Just kidding about the last one by the way."
"Did you hear us?" You asked, grinning sheepishly.
"Nope. I figured it out the minute I stepped into the room and saw everyone was only wearing four colours." Elizabeth grinned and then paused, "Well except Fury. I guess he's posing as a teacher wearing all that black."
"Fury can only wear black." Clint said, throwing an arm around your shoulder. You saw he was no longer holding Lucy. A quick scan around the room showed she was in a red shirted Wanda's arms. Clint was wearing yellow.
"Both Steve and Sam are wearing red and I'm wearing yellow." Bucky muttered.
"I'm wearing yellow." Elizabeth pointed out. "A Hufflepuff through and through. We can stick together, yeah?"
Bucky grinned, "yeah."
"Although," Elizabeth said, looking over at Tony, "Why is he wearing a green and blue shirt?"
"He's a SlytherClaw." You explained.
"Ah, makes sense." Elizabeth said with a nod. "Although I was not expecting Thor to be a Gryffindor, nor was I expecting Okoye to be a Hufflepuff."
"Me neither." You replied honestly. "Well, I mean, not surprised about Thor, but I thought Okoye would be Gryffindor as well."
"Where's Loki?" Elizabeth asked with a smirk. "I wanted to see what he's wearing."
"Green of course." Clint answered, rolling his eyes.
Elizabeth shrugged, "I thought he could've been a Ravenclaw."
"He's another SlytherClaw." You said thoughtfully. "But he will only wear green."
Elizabeth giggled, "Sounds like Loki."
You looked over to see Pietro wearing green and Hogun was wearing red.
"But does Fury have a house?" Elizabeth asked.
"Slytherin." Clint answered.
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow in skepticism. "No way. He's definitely a Gryffindor."
"Eh, he can be manipulative." Clint shrugged.
You giggled and the conversation slowly turned to other things.
"What'd you get Elizabeth as a baby shower present?" Katerina asked as the two of you stood near the food table.
You smirked a little, "I got her a crib mobile with little flying keys attached to the strings."
Katerina laughed, picking out some sort of Russian dessert that Nat had brought over. "Her kids are either going to grow up loving Harry Potter just like their mother, or they're going to hate it."
"Hopefully love it." Elizabeth said as she joined us, her hand on her stomach. She snagged a hot fudge brownie. "Or I'll disown them." She winked before going back to Hogun's side.
"So Elizabeth." Katerina said, rolling her eyes.
"Hello my Queen." Loki murmured, hugging you from behind. Katerina waved and went back to where Heimdall was listening in interest to the warrior three, but not saying anything.
"Hello Lokes." You said, tilting your head back so that you could kiss him. "Are you enjoying the party?"
"I thought it was a baby shower." Loki frowned.
"Same thing." You grinned, "At least where Tony's involved. Everything is a party."
"Yes, the flying metal man certainly has a love of these things." Loki grumbled, "How many more of these are we going to have to do?"
"Um probably every time we have a child, every birthday, every Christmas, perhaps Halloween though I'm not entirely sure if he will do it around that time or just take the kids out. Definitely Fourth of July, we're extremely patriotic you know. Oh and of course anniversaries."
Loki groaned, "Time to book more trips to New Asgard."
You giggled.
Later, you found yourself sitting in a corner with the rest of the Asgardians. They told humorous tales about each other, tricks Loki had played on them, tricks they had attempted to play on Loki, and so forth.
Everything was rather relaxing. Everything was going well.
Buster jumped up on the couch as you held Marcel in your arms. He put his paws on your arm, attempting to lick the babies head. You giggled, pushing him away a little. They were still very little, just under the two month mark, and you didn't want Buster to be to rough with them.
Alpine's kittens were all curled up in the corner. Mini Loki sat proudly in front of the bed, swiping his claws out at any of the bunnies or puppies that tried to come close. They were all either black or white, two of them a mixture of both colours. He was a very proud father.
"Here we go!" Wanda said cheerfully, setting a large, rectangular cake down on the table in front of Elizabeth and Hogun. A stack of paper plates was set up next to it along with an entire box of plastic forks.
Everyone waited in excitement as Elizabeth picked up the knife, slicing out a corner piece for herself. She gasped, tears coming to her eyes when she saw the pink inside of the cake.
"It's a girl!" She squealed, throwing her arms around Hogun. He smiled, wrapping her in his arms, resting his chin on her shoulder. He was beaming with pride.
You smiled, knowing just how wonderful it felt to find out what your child was going to be. The idea of a child, a baby girl in your arms. You immediately reached over, plucking Lucy out of Thor's arms to hold her, kissing the top of her head.
Cake was handed out and you admitted it was delicious. You hadn't helped with this one- Wanda and Pepper had handled it.
Slowly, the party came to a close. Those who didn't live with you guys left, bidding Elizabeth best wishes.
You, Steve, Sam, Rhodey, Pietro, Hogun, and Elizabeth all helped clean up the house- although every had been rather good about making sure trash ended up in the garbage, etcetera, so that wasn't a big deal.
Elizabeth was beaming as you guys retired to the kitchen to get something to drink. Elizabeth made herself a peppermint tea. You had a F/D. The others settled on various sodas, milk, water, juices, or teas.
"We should do Karaoke." You smirked.
Elizabeth laughed, "What could go wrong with that Y/N?"
You laughed, "I was just kidding."
"We really ought to get. . ." Elizabeth drifted off and shook her head, laughing at herself. "Sometimes I forget we're moving out."
"You're excited?"
"Oh yeah! I mean, I honestly can't wait till we're running our own farm! You guys are always welcome naturally. It's because of you guys letting us live here that we even were able to save up the money to get the farm." Elizabeth said earnestly.
"It really was no problem." Tony said with a shrug, "And I was more than willing to pay for the house anyways."
"I know, thank you for that." Elizabeth smiled softly. She looked around, "Anyways, what do you guys want for dinner?"
"I'm full from cake." You admitted. "I think most of us are. Besides, it's your day. We ought to take a break."
"Swimming?" She asked with a grin.
"Swimming." You agreed. The two of you got to your feet before there was a sudden explosion.
You felt yourself fly off your feet. You crashed through something. You could hear screaming and yelling. You heard one of the dogs bark. You crashed to the ground, groaning as you felt pain shoot all through your sides.
You could hear stuff crashing around you. Parts of the house. For a moment, everything was dead silent. And then you could hear both dogs barking.
You fluttered open your eyes. Most of the house was still intact, though there was a huge crater that had gone through your kitchen. You were laying out in the backyard. Charred bricks and stone, plasters of wood, metal bits, and glass were sprinkled all around you.
You couldn't see anyone and you struggled to your feet, glancing around you. There was no one in sight. Not any of your soulmates, not any of the animals, not Elizabeth or her soulmates, not your children.
YOUR CHILDREN!
"LUCY! BUCKY! LOKI! THOR! T'CHALLA! NICK! ELIZABETH! JAMES! STEVE! SAM!" You continued shouting names. Buster ran up, circling your feet. You could see Mini Loki and Alpine near another tree, licking and counting their kittens.
You suddenly felt a throbbing in your left wrist and you quickly held it up. You heart froze when you saw three butterflies, pulsing red and gray. One butterfly started to move faster and faster, before it went gray. Forever.
One of your soulmates was dead.
It was-
~End of Book 1~
