It had taken the team roughly three hours to go from happy to insanely wound-up once the news of Natasha's pregnancy had gotten out at HQ. The energy had shifted but not diminished over the past two months, with Natasha participating in operations over comms only at Steve's insistence. She had argued that he was being overprotective until the whole team had demonstrated an unusual response to keeping the stubbornly independent Black Widow safe at all costs during a routine mission in Mauritius. The objective had been completed and she had grumbled from Ops ever since.

The media had noted her absence over the past weeks, but had accepted the press release about a lingering orthopedic injury. She and Steve weren't ready for the world to know all their business.

The world, for its part, was currently quiet, so Sunday had been judged ripe for a girls' day. Wanda had already dragged Natasha and Maria into several stores outside their normal interests at the local mall as she tried to temper her excitement without success. Baby clothes were quite possibly the cutest thing she had ever seen in her entire life, including Freckles. And it was really their fault for inviting her on a shopping trip 'for boots.' As if any of them needed more shoes! That was like saying they needed to go leather jacket shopping! She wondered if it was possible to lose one's mind over cartoon bears, frogs and dogs.

"You really need to calm down, Gummi Bear." Natasha seemed more annoyed than anything else as she diverted them from the ladies' room into the children's department in Macy's. "We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl. Steve doesn't even want to know because that would spoil the surprise. He's busy panicking about planning our wedding, anyway. Apparently we're going to hell for having a child out of wedlock, as opposed to every other reason I'm going to hell." She picked up and put down an impossibly adorable layette set without really looking at it. "Shouldn't we be dress shopping? Your big date with Bucky is this weekend. Why aren't you all about that?"

"It is just dinner and a play." It was technically their fourth official solo date, but the first Wanda really would be dressing up for. After a few lovely dinners at casual places close to HQ and some double and triple dates with their friends, Bucky had purchased tickets to Romeo and Juliet at a regional repertory company's theater. She was a little nervous – they'd only kissed goodnight after each of their dates so far, after all – and that seemed small in comparison to Natasha's current wedding/baby situation. She redirected the conversation, "What about dress shopping for you? I know you could wear a burlap sack and Steve would be thrilled to marry you, but how can you not be excited about this?"

"I am excited," Natasha eyed the ducky-patterned, satin-trimmed blankie Wanda was holding up for inspection, "but that's just a blanket."

"It is not just a blankie! Blanket, I mean. We are talking about your firstborn child! This is…it's…" Wanda ran her hand over the soft fleece. "Can I be Auntie Wanda? I don't want to be too forward, but…"

"You're already family. Don't worry." Natasha looked around. "Where is Maria? If she's in the shoe section already, so help me…"

"But look at the little…" Natasha's fingers dug into Wanda's arm as her friend pulled her from a rack of embroidered onesies. "But…"

"Look, I'm going to be stuck in maternity clothes soon, so the least I can have is cute shoes." They found Maria a few minutes later, holding a high-heeled calf boot. "Please tell me you aren't trying those on!"

"Jealous?"

"Yes! Wait, the black or the light brown?"

"Black."

"Then I could still get the brown without it being weird."

"Would it matter if you both had the same boots?" Wanda asked, already knowing the answer.

They both glared at her. "Yes."

Many fittings and one argument with a salesgirl later, Maria had two new pairs of boots, Natasha had one pair of heels and Wanda had a headache. She was about to suggest heading back to the baby clothes when Maria asked, "Shouldn't we be getting you an outfit? You're going out with Bucky this weekend, right?"

"I…yes, but I don't need…"

"A dress?" Natasha interrupted. "I agree. Shakespeare in a theater means you need a somewhat conservative skirt and a top."

"Then shoes," Maria added. "Unless you saw something we have to coordinate with."

Wanda had no idea when she had been dropped into an episode of Sex and the City, but she didn't particularly like her badass colleagues being so…actually, she didn't mind them in shopping-mode, but she really didn't like that they couldn't be distracted from her love life. "Why don't we get lunch first?"

"Yeah, I could eat." Natasha rested a hand almost unconsciously on her not-quite belly bump. "I definitely miss boozy girls' nights, though."

"Who said we're stopping that? The rest of us don't have to suffer just because you can't drink," Maria replied. "In fact, I think there's a pretty good pizza place here with cheap pitchers of beer."

"You and Wanda are going to split a whole pitcher?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Maria grinned. "Wanda will have to get her own."

They settled into a booth near the back when they arrived at the noisy restaurant, ordering a pitcher of beer, soda and two pizzas after Maria argued that the Veggie Supreme counted as healthy, so they should get a Meat Lovers as well. Wanda couldn't help smiling behind her glass of beer a few minutes later as she saw Natasha watching a couple with a baby and a toddler. The mother was helping the little boy color on a placemat while the father was trying to feed the baby, who was more interested in pounding some plastic keys against the tray of her high-chair. "Like looking into the future, hm?"

The baby took that opportunity to spit up something green that landed on her brother's coloring, setting off an instant tantrum. Natasha turned away with a pointed look at Wanda. "Very encouraging."

"Well…" Wanda could only pretend the baby hadn't started crying at high volume too. She raised her voice slightly, "So, Maria, when will Helen be back?"

"Not for another month, at least. Her team in Seoul is on the verge of a breakthrough in something with big science words. Her assistant used the word 'revolutionary' at least six times when I left a message for her the other day, but it's possible he didn't speak fluent English."

"Did he say 'hyeogmyeong'? I think that's Korean for revolutionary. Or maybe it's just revolution. I only know some key words in Korean."

"In whose dictionary is 'revolution' a key word?" Maria bit her lip as soon as she had finished. "Right, KGB. Sorry."

Natasha just shrugged. "It's fine. Actually, it's kind of nice some people think of me as normal now. I remember when I first joined SHIELD you'd only talk to me to communicate orders from Fury and every time you looked at me it was like you were expecting me to knife you."

"I think I was." Her hand stopped in the middle of reaching for her beer. "You're not thinking about that now, are you?"

"It's my day off. I'm barely armed." She seemed to be on the verge of showing off one of her concealed weapons when the waitress arrived with the pizzas. "This smells amazing."

"Pizza is the perfect food," Maria declared, taking a piece of the veggie pie. "Like a meal on an edible plate."

"Deep shower thoughts?"

"Hey, we don't all sing showtunes while we shower, Romanoff."

Natasha tried to come up with a comeback as Wanda almost choked on a bite of pizza. She managed her plea before she had to cover her mouth with her napkin, "Tell!"

"It was really late and I had just gotten back from a mission and I was humming in the shower…"

Maria interrupted, "She was belting out 'Defying Gravity' in the locker room at the Triskelion. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't manage to get a video."

"Is that when you decided to be friends?"

"No, that was when she found out how cute she looks with bangs after I slipped on the tile and missed cutting off her nose," Natasha replied.

Wanda laughed until she realized Maria was nodding soberly. She dug into her pizza without any more questions. The mood lightened again as she and Maria kept drinking, ordering another pitcher they couldn't finish. Natasha herded them out to the car right after lunch, balancing all of their shopping bags and the pizza box. "You do realize I'm carrying more than everyone's stuff, right?"

"We'll make it up to you by spoiling the kid," Maria said, tugging on the door handle. "Unlock. Unlock! Why doesn't this thing respond to voice commands?"

"Because I locked you out when you ordered the second pitcher."

"Smart. Good thing you haven't popped yet so you can fit behind the wheel."

Wanda dozed off in spite of Natasha and Maria's friendly banter on the ride back to HQ, not realizing that she really didn't have something to wear to the play until it was too late. Bucky didn't seem to mind that she was wearing a skirt he'd seen her in many times before when he arrived at her door with a bouquet of flowers, but he did seem to like the heels she'd borrowed from Natasha.

The play was good, dinner was better and the night was incredible. Wanda could only blush when Steve caught her leaving Bucky's quarters the next morning.

A/n: I relied on Google for the Korean word for revolution, so my apologies if it is incorrect.