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At first, Natasha hadn’t liked the girl at all. She was too head strong and was never upfront about anything. With her telekinesis powers though, there were just too many things that could go wrong. Usually, Nat was a sucker for sob stories like Wanda’s; kids who had been taken unfair advantage of at a low point. But with Wanda? The story was different. Pietro, she had no problem with, his sister was different story. Surprisingly, it was Bucky who brought her around to the idea.
With his past involving mind control, Nat wasn’t sure why Bucky was so hell bent on bringing this girl home. She had a perfectly nice life at SHIELD. Wanda was even allowed to go out on missions, after she had completed mandatory SHIELD training. The girl was damn good at her job too; she would have made an excellent Avenger, had she not adamantly refused their help and goodwill. Somehow, SHIELD had worked their way around the whole “she’s a minor” situation, even she didn’t know how.
Bucky had formed a bond with the girl over the months that she was with SHIELD though. There was something of a kindred spirit in the two that no one could quite put their finger on, but it was there. It had started with them going on a mission together. She had somehow gotten hurt and Bucky had moved heaven and hell to protect the girl. After that? Those two were practically joined at the hip. He was the father figure she hadn’t had in years, and she was the one he could mother hen over. Natasha still didn’t get it. But even she was completely invincible against Bucky’s begging.
“Nat, please! C’mon! Just come meet with her! Sit down, have a conversation, don’t judge a book by its cover! Please?”
God damn his eyes. She threw her hands up in the air, “Fine! Fine! I give up! I’ll go meet the stupid, spoiled brat and then we’ll come home, and I get to have my way with you. Sound fair?”
The ex-assassin’s grin was downright devious, “More than fair.”
.
.
The next day, Natasha was sitting in a SHIELD apartment, drinking coffee and chatting with someone she thought she hated. Bucky was smirking the whole time, the bastard. He knew this would happen and had somehow talked the great Natasha Romanov into doing something she didn’t want to do.
They were talking and laughing, sharing stories about Bucky in the field (he pouted through most of them, while the girls just laughed), talking about the great nail salons in the area (the one down the street on the corner was the best), and the best way to get under Nick Fury’s skin (do the opposite of what he wanted).
Bucky waited until they got into the elevator to gloat.
“I told you so!”
She shoved him into the wall, “You’re gonna pay for that, that’s a promise.”
And when they got home? Oh boy, he really did pay for that.
.
.
After a few weeks, all three of them were going out on missions together. The STRIKE teams privately called them the dream team. The three of them worked together with seamless perfection, like they were talking telepathically the whole time. Wanda had promised to stay out of their heads and she had. They weren’t being controlled or anything, they just worked that well together.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later that Natasha started catching on to what Bucky was trying to do. She had told him from the start that she couldn’t have kids, thanks to the Red Room. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted kids either. He definitely did, but was willing to give that up if it wasn’t something that she wanted.
Now, here was Wanda, a fifteen year old girl with no family except her twin brother, who had been adopted by her supposed enemy. Add in Bucky, a man who wanted kids and was an absolute sucker for sob stories. Then, on top of that, throw in Natasha, who happened to be in a very committed relationship with Bucky, and who also couldn’t have kids. This whole situation was a ticking time bomb. But she noticed it too late.
.
.
She was getting ready for bed one night when Bucky just spit it out.
“I want to adopt Wanda.”
Nat pulled the shirt over her head before looking at her boyfriend, “Well, you don’t beat around the bush much, d’ya Sarg?”
He held up his hands in surrender but continued talking, “Listen, I know it’s a long shot, but she’s just a kid. And we’ve talked about adopting someday, but I think someday is now. Nat, I know you didn’t like her at first, but you’ve got to admit that there’s something that keeps dragging us back to this girl. You see that too, right?”
The knives hadn’t come out yet, but they just might here soon, “Why her, Bucky? Huh? Why this kid? We’ve come across dozens of others on missions, what makes Wanda so special? Also, we talked about adopting on the pretense that we would be married when it happened. And I don’t know about you, James, but I don’t see no ring on this finger.”
That stupid smirk again, “Well, this wasn’t exactly how I was planning on asking you, Tash, but if that’s what it’s gonna take, then I’ve never been so sure about anything in my whole life.”
He had a ring out and was down on one knee in front of her in a flash, “Natasha Romanov, when I remembered everything, I never thought that I’d have what I wanted before the war, a relationship, kids, the whole nine yards. And then I met you, this smart, beautiful, kickass woman who could at least partially understand what I had been through. The first time I saw you, I thought you were gorgeous. After I had met you, I wanted to marry you, right then and there. When we went out on our first mission together? I thought to myself, this is it, if I don’t marry her, then there’s nobody else. Will you make me the happiest person alive, and be my wife?”
There was definitely dust in the air, because the Black Widow did NOT cry, at all, ever. But the answer to the question was obvious.
“Oh my god, you idiot. Get up! Of course I’ll marry you, there’s no one else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.”
Neither of them wanted a fuss made over them, and they knew that everyone else would make the fuss if they announced their engagement. They drove to Atlantic City the next day and eloped. Long story short, when they told everyone, Steve and Clint were pissed, but in a good way.
They waited for Wanda to find out on her own. It happened when they took their gloves off after the latest mission.
She squeaked when she saw the simple silver bands, “You guys got married? And you didn’t tell me?”
Her look of indignation would have been enough to make anyone laugh, “Yeah, doll. We did. And we didn’t tell anyone else either. The team didn’t find out until just the other day. We figured you would find out sooner or later on your own.”
Nat looked at Bucky for confirmation before popping their question, “Can we adopt you?”
She rolled her eyes when Wanda fainted.
.
.
When Wanda did wake up, the first words out of her mouth were, “Are you guys crazy?”
The Russian Sweethearts just grinned and said, “Nope!”
And the rest was history. More often than not, the three were really more like siblings than parents and child, but nobody dared to judge the three of them, they were probably the deadliest family on the planet. Pietro was thrilled to have his sister so close, she just hadn’t clicked with Tony and Steve, but there was something about Nat and Bucky that had drawn her to them. Peter and Peggy soon fell in love with her too. Steve had almost had a heart attack when he walked out of the kitchen and his youngest was flying in the air, giggling with glee.
Wanda scaled back on SHIELD missions and started going to school with Pietro. At first, they had been apprehensive about school, having missed so much schooling while living with HYDRA. Pietro caught on amazingly quickly with Tony’s tutelage and Wanda learned from her brother.
The two graduated with the rest of the kids their age. Making friends hadn’t been the easiest, but they waded through the fakes that wanted them just for who they were related to and those who hated them outright because of it. Both of them had worked so hard to graduate and fit in, in the end, it worked out; Wanda and Pietro graduated Magna Cum Laude, Class of 2018. Pietro was following in Tony’s footsteps and going to MIT in the fall. Wanda wasn’t sure what she wanted to do yet, but was going to Hampshire, it was a good fit for her.
After they had received their diplomas and grinning back at the family like a bunch of idiots, Bucky turned to Natasha, “We did right by her, didn’t we?”
The former assassin turned toward her husband with a smile on her face, “Yeah, sweetheart. We got it right.”