A Warm Welcome

"Well it wasn't my fault she kissed me." Harry protested as he sat in his apartment, Padfoot was sat next to him on the sofa as they both watched TV.

"Woof." Padfoot responded with an amused bark.

"Laugh it up," Harry rolled his eyes. "Goddamn it, I've got tell Nat about this now, don't I?" Harry asked.

"Woof." Padfoot nodded.

"Fuck." Harry sighed. "What are the odds that she will try and shoot me?" Harry asked. He was immortal but that did not mean he liked getting shot at.

"Woof."

"That high huh?"

...

Harry finished getting the magically made table ready with a few waves of his wand, the candles and food were all ready as well. Harry himself was wearing smart black shoes, trousers and a white button up shirt. He had invited Natasha to dinner, hoping to use the opportunity to talk to her about what happened. He was hoping to talk to her before she found out, because knowing her it was inevitable that she would find out sooner or later. Harry was no expert when it came to women, he could admit that, but he knew that they did not like it when their boyfriend gets kissed by another girl (obviously discounting threesomes).

"Harry." A voice called just as a knock came from the door. Harry breathed in before he let out a deep breath, he walked over to his door and opened it. Standing in front of him was Natasha, looking as beautiful as ever, wearing a lovely red dress. "You're looking nice." She complimented as she walked in.

"Thanks," Harry said as he closed the door once she was inside. "you look brilliant." Harry said before he guided her over to the table.

"Thank you," Natasha smiled as Harry pulled out a seat for her, she down and gave him a nod in thanks. "I'm sure to enjoy what looks like the cheapest date ever."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry said as he sat opposite Natasha.

"Didn't you magic everything up?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I did, everything but the food." Harry replied. "I made that with a lot of hard work."

"I'm sure it will be delicious then, where's Padfoot?" She asked.

"Chasing some tail would be my guess, I just need to work out if it's his own." Harry responded as the two began eating. "I asked for a night for just the two of us. By the way, how was the whole situation with the nuclear codes?" Harry asked. "I don't really know much about it beyond the fact that it involved nuclear codes."

"It could have been a lot worse," Natasha paused and took a sip of her drink. "it all started with this asshole from Bulgaria." She said before she began telling her story, she spoke for several minutes with Harry giving her his full attention and responding when needed. "And then we got the codes." She finished with a small shrug.

"Hmm, how's Steve doing?" Harry asked.

"He could be better," Natasha sighed. "he's trying hard to act normal but this thing with Bucky has really messed him up." Natasha added sadly.

It turned out that Bucky Barnes, AKA Steve's best friend, didn't actually die during the war like most believed that he had. During the war Bucky's regiment was captured by HYDRA, where Barnes was experimented on by a man named Arnim Zola. Barnes, along with those who still remained from his regiment, were later rescued by Rogers, who had become Captain America during Barnes' absence. Barnes and Rogers along with a few others would go on to form a combat unit known as the 'Howling Commandos' to battle the Red Skull's forces. However, during an attempt to finally capture Zola in the Austrian Alps, Barnes was caught in their ambush and plummeted hundreds of feet from a train. As no body was ever recovered, Barnes was then presumed deceased, but officially listed as missing in action.

Unbeknownst to his team, Barnes' experimentations allowed him to survive the fall, albeit with the loss of his left arm. Once found by the Soviet Union, and HYDRA, Barnes was further experimented on, granting him superhuman abilities, and was subsequently brainwashed and armed with a new cybernetic limb in order to become their operative, known as the Winter Soldier. Over the next fifty years, he would eliminate anyone who posed any threat to HYDRA.

Natasha still had a bullet wound from the last time she had run into him. Whenever Barnes wasn't being brainwashed and sent out to kill targets then he would be placed in cryogenic stasis, which is why he still looks exactly the same as when he died, give or take a few years and a haircut.

A short while ago Shield along with Harry, Steve and Natasha had raided the area where Bucky was held and were able to get him out of his cryostasis chamber, unfortunately Bucky tried to attack but was quickly knocked unconscious by a stunner from Harry. Since then Shield had been spending a lot of time working on Bucky's mental health.

"Anyway, what about you and that 'invasion of dark elves' thing?" Natasha asked.

"How much do you know about it?" Harry asked.

"Just enough to know that there was some invasion of alien elves and that you and Thor were involved along with Erik Selvig and Jane Foster plus her friends." Natasha responded.

"Alright well it started after I took down this Hydra base in England," Harry began explaining. "once I was done I reported to Fury then just spent some time walking around when suddenly the weather changed almost instantly. Bad weather is not something new in England but it usually was a bit slower, I also felt a large magical presence and decided to investigate."

"Of course you did." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Don't pretend you would have done any differently, anyway I was in this warehouse area where I stumbled upon Thor talking with Jane Foster along with her friend Darcy, if that wasn't enough then there were rozzers all over the place."

"I'm sorry, 'rozzers'?" Natasha blinked, looking very amused.

"Fuck, I went full on British there, sorry don't know where that came from." Harry shook his head. "The police, basically."

"Rozzers," Natasha repeated with a small laugh. "what else do you call them on the other side of the pond?" She asked.

"Most just call them police," Harry shrugged. "but I've met a few that call them pigs, some call them 'fuzz', and others are less complimentary. The first time I ever heard anyone call them 'rozzers' was when I was in my old world and doing a mission in Albania. One of the guys I was working with saw the police coming and just blurted out 'Crikey! It's the Albanian Rozzers!'. I found the word funny enough and eventually I started saying it for a while, anyway, I think we have gotten off track."

"And we all know whose fault that is." Natasha smirked.

"The devil." Harry nodded.