NOTES: This story is going to play with Marvel canon a bit. It takes place six-and-a-half years after the events in The Avengers. There was no HYDRA infiltration, Natasha's history with the Red Room and the Winter Soldier will be changed, etc.

This story is another in the series known as The Nadiaverse. It is not required that you read things like Wishes and Nightmares and What We Become beforehand, but it's a good idea.

Thank you to my readers who have patiently waited for me to start this off. I regret that as of right now I can only do monthly updates, but I'll do my very best to ensure their quality.

And, as always, thanks to the_wordbutler for being my cheerleader and word-scrubber.

"No, Daddy, that's wrong."

Nadia put her hands down from above her head and moved from Steve's left side to stand in front of him. The four-year-old then wrapped her arms around his right calf and grunted as she pulled his foot forward into the correct place for third position. "It goes there," she said, giving him a stern look.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized, fighting a grin, "I'll try and get it right next time."

He got a weary sigh in response.

Steve knew third position. He knew all five positions to put your feet in for ballet; he'd picked it up from the showgirls he toured the country with decades ago. But his daughter didn't need to know that. He was quite happy playing the dumb student, at least until Nadia's temper flared, but Steve knew what warning signs to look for when it came to that.

Nadia settled back into her place at his side and looked up, ever-serious expression on her little face. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She nodded and then began to count. "And one, and two. Three and four-"

Steve kept his feet moving even as he heard the front door unlock and saw Natasha walk through. But as soon as his eyes fell on her face, he froze. She caught his gaze and gave the barest of nods and suddenly, the room seemed to tilt on its axis.

"You're sure?" he asked. Natasha nodded again. To the untrained eye, the action was more confident, but Steve saw the chinks in the armor and easily read her nerves.

"Daddy, you're not paying attention," Nadia groused at his side.

"Sorry, Bug, give me just a second," he said, eyes staying on Natasha. He crossed the expanse of the living room in few rushed steps. "Really?" he asked quietly.

Natasha nodded once more. "Ran the test three times. All positive."

He felt his face threaten to break with the grin that spread across it. Despite the excitement that had exploded within him, he made sure his movements to grab hold of and hug his wife were gentle.

"I'm not going to break," she whispered in his ear.

Theoretically he knew that, and she'd repeated it enough to him since taking Frigga's pill a couple of weeks ago for it to be embedded in his mind. But Steve also clearly remembered her third trimester the last time, which made him pull away and ask, "How are you feeling?"

She gave him a single-shoulder shrug. "Fine. I honestly just went for my annual check-up. Didn't think they would find this. Certainly not this soon."

He nodded. "It did happen faster than I thought it would."

"True, but since when do we ever take things slowly?" she asked while smiling coyly at him.

He laughed and leaned down to kiss her. While they hadn't taken some things slowly—Steve agreeing to raise Natasha's baby with her, jumping into a marriage that had felt more like a business deal than love—other things and emotions had taken time to fall into place over the last five years.

Natasha sighed against his lips before deepening the contact. The two of them only broke apart when Nadia loudly faked clearing her throat behind him. "Ah-hem."

Natasha pulled away and leaned around his broad frame. "Who taught you that?"

"Unc—I mean, no one."

"Are you lying to your mother?" Steve asked without turning around.

"It was Uncle Tony," Nadia answered, and without looking behind him, he could picture her with her face turned to the ground out of guilt for ratting out one of her beloved uncles.

"Uncle Tony is rude; don't do what he does," Natasha reprimanded before walking around Steve to move towards their daughter. "Did you teach Daddy your routine yet?"

"No, he still doesn't know third position," Nadia replied, giving Steve a look that clearly read you should be better at this.

"Oh, really?" Natasha answered. "Whenever he dances with me, he knows lots and lots of positions really well."

"Tasha," Steve warned.

Nadia's face scrunched up in confusion. "I thought there only five positions when you dance."

"There are," Steve answered, a hint of sterness in his voice. Natasha shot him a smug look, and he shook his head. "It's me they call when she starts unknowingly speaking in innuendos at preschool, not you. Don't make my conversations with her teachers any worse."

"They call you because they're female and you look like you do." Natasha turned back to Nadia. "I just saw Uncle Bruce. He said if you wanted to go down for a tea party in his lab, you could."

The little girl practically vibrated in excitement. "Really?" she said in a quiet, hopeful voice.

Natasha nodded. "Just be careful with his things."

"Can I go right now?"

Natasha pointed at the tablet resting on the coffee table. "Let's find out."

Nadia brought it over, and Natasha held it out to face her. With young yet skillful fingers, the child punched in the series of keystrokes needed to open a chat with Bruce down in his lab.

"Hey, Nadia," Bruce greeted.

"Hi, Uncle Bruce," she responded.

"You want to come down and have some tea with me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Please," Steve muttered.

"Yes, please," Nadia restated.

Bruce grinned at her. "Go get ready and I'll be up there in a minute to come and get you."

"Okay!" she replied excitedly before bounding off to her room to put on the child's sized lab coat and goggles she wore religiously whenever visiting Bruce's lab (and sometimes Tony's workshop).

Steve leaned into frame. "One day, she'll learn how to hang up a phone call instead of just running away."

Bruce chuckled. "It's fine. Is she okay to have cookies? I picked up a few too many when I went out for lunch today."

"Sure," Natasha answered, her tone making it clear that she didn't believe Bruce completely.

Bruce raised his eyebrows in Natasha's direction, and she gave a small nod. The scientist then turned to Steve with a shy smile. "Congratulations."

"Yeah, thanks," Steve answered, returning the grin.

"Did you win a contest?" Nadia asked as she came back into the room clad in her lab gear.

"What?" Natasha asked.

"Uncle Bruce said 'congratulations.' Did you win a contest, Daddy?"

Steve scooped her up and held her against him. "I won The Luckiest Dad in the World Contest," he answered.

The goggles only exaggerated the four-year-old's eye roll. "You're silly."

"Yes, I am," he answered, placing a kiss on each of her cheeks. "You ready?" he asked.

"Can I go down on my own? Please, Daddy?" She even pouted her bottom lip to give the full effect in attempting to play her father.

"No," Natasha answered. "You know the rules. You can only ride the elevator by yourself to the apartments. Not to the labs or outside."

"Fine," Nadia replied in an exasperated tone.

"I'll leave right now and be up there in a second," Bruce told her, chat still active on the tablet. That earned him a smile from his pseudo-niece.

Once Bruce came and collected Nadia and told Steve and Natasha that they'd be back in a couple of hours, Steve moved to hold his wife in his arms once more. "How are you?"

"I told you, I feel fine."

"How are you?" he repeated.

He felt her give slightly in his grasp. "I'm terrified."

"Glad I'm not the only one."

She pulled away enough to meet his eye. "Are we still sure we should we have another one?" It'd been a discussion they'd danced around for a year after Frigga had given Natasha pill that would render her fertile for a limited amount of time. Unlike Loki's spell that had created Nadia, this magic apparently wouldn't be detrimental to Natasha's health. Sometimes, Steve could almost believe that idea.

"I think it's a little late to ask," he answered. "We apparently should've had this conversation... How far along are you?"

"Bruce guessed four-and-a-half weeks. Which means the kid's due the first week of July."

"I swear I wasn't trying to give myself a birthday present," Steve said while trying to bite down on a smile. "So when did it happen exactly? Could you tell by the test results?"

Natasha nodded. "On the way back from that thing in Mexico City, apparently about thirty seconds after I took the damn pill."

Steve felt the corners of his mouth tug up in another grin. "If the kid ever asks, we're lying instead of telling them they were conceived in my ready room on the Quinjet, right?"