Oil and Water
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Pepper/Tony, one-sided (mostly) Natashalie/Tony
Warnings: Sexual themes and scenes, major character death. Not for those who don't like sex scenes or those who can't deal with the Nat/Tony pairing. For the record, I'm not a fan of the pairing either, but it IS part of the story and if you can't read it, don't bother flaming me.
Summary: Natasha Romanoff was, first and foremost, a SHEILD agent. She was trained to do what Nick Fury directed her to do. Secondly, she was Tony Stark's personal assistant. Behind her well-to-do exterior, though, the Black Widow is planning something- something big. Can Tony survive it when she flips his world completely upside down? T/P.
So this is my first srsbsns fic. Calling it srsbsns probably defeats the purpose, huh? Anyway, I got the idea for this completely out of nowhere and REALLY really liked it- hope you guys do, too. I'm also hoping that my writing brings my ideas to justice because I often feel like they don't. As much as I feel like the Natasha/Tony pairing is just plain not realistic, if it were going to happen at all, I think it would have happened like this. Don't worry though- the story is very plainly T/P. I do love Nat though- and I'm sure her character in Avengers will be nothing like this, but I rather like Evil!Natasha, so, yeah. Reviews get virtual cookies!
She had begun to think of herself less as Natasha these past few months, and more as Natalie. She wanted to be whatever it took to stay close to Tony Stark, and for a while it seemed like it was going to work.
She knew he was attracted to her. That much was clear from the moment she met him. She could feel just as plainly as Happy and Virginia could see Tony's interested glances; he wasn't as subtle as he thought he was, or maybe he knew just how obvious he was and didn't care. The main problem was Potts. The sexual tension between her and Tony was thick enough to cut with a knife (which occasionally Natasha wanted to try), and as much as she sometimes felt that seducing Tony Stark was easy, he still looked at his 'Pepper' with a different expression than anyone else.
And that was what she wanted. She wanted him to look at her like that and she couldn't understand what Virginia Potts had that she doesn't. The woman has no curves, no nothing, and Natasha knows for a fact that she does, and that men like it. She just doesn't understand.
The main reason behind her plan of seduction is more of a business-related cause than a lust-related cause, though Tony is, of course, a handsome and charming man. He is also Iron Man, and she is also Black Widow- which he doesn't necessarily know, but he will if her plan goes right- which would make them the best super-couple the world had ever encountered.
Whether they'd be superheroes or supervillians was something she was willing to toy with for a bit longer. Originally she had thought that Tony's promiscuous ways and her seductive advances would be enough- but it soon became clear that she'd have to actively get rid of Potts in order to get him right where she wanted him.
And that was why she was crouched, hiding, in Tony's workshop, waiting for him to come home from the Expo.
Her nails scraped against the tile floor and she narrowed her eyes, reviewing her plan yet again in her mind, a smile creeping across her meticulously-glossed lips.
"So, how are you gonna resign?" It was a weird question of him to ask her and she realized that he probably hadn't understood that she had overreacted. She laughed, hands flat on the front of the suit on either side of the arc reactor. "I'm not," she told him, leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips.
Pepper Potts really did like kissing Tony Stark- each time she did, she liked it a little more. He pouted (it wasn't cute at all, she told herself. It was juvenile and… damn, those puppy-dog eyes got her every time) and said that he didn't understand, and when she laughed again he kissed her again- thank God, his lips were on hers and nothing else mattered.
One suited hand was pressed gently to the back of her neck, the other ghosted across her lower back, sending pleasant shivers up and down her spine. She reached her arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer, and they kissed until oxygen became completely necessary.
"You should probably get out of that suit," she murmured, fingers toying with the dark hair at the nape of his neck. He sighed , his breath huffing against her lips deliciously, and closed his eyes briefly. "Yeah, probably," he admitted slowly, "But I'd rather stay here on this roof with you."
"You can bring me with you," she pointed out. "You'll need someone to help you get cleaned up- God knows you'll never go to a hospital." He grinned and his eyes shot open- gave her that shit-eating grin that made her absolutely sure of what he was about to do before he did it- and then, quite suddenly, they were airborne.
Tony got them home fairly quickly- though he was flying more carefully, with Pepper wrapped around him, laughing whenever he corkscrewed or dipped even a little. He liked what she looked like in his arms, liked what the wind did to her hair and how much she seemed to have relaxed now that they were in the air. He could hardly wait to get out of the damn Suit and feel her body warm against his, to taste those incredibly soft lips without having to worry about whether he was crushing her with the added power of the suit.
He flew into the garage and down through the tunnel into his workshop, where he set Pepper down and was able to land fairly accurately onto the platform that would dismantle the mangled Suit. She helped him peel off the neoprene under-suit, so gentle that he could hardly feel her hands on him. He stood before her in his standard undershirt and boxers, watching her reactions as she looked him over, gauging how badly he was hurt by the concern she was trying to hide behind a neutral expression.
"I'm bruised, huh?" he asked softly in an attempt to lighten her expression. She finally met his gaze and he was shocked by the sadness that he found there. It worried him- damn near killed him, actually- to think that he was causing that look on her face, so he didn't move when she reached out to cup his cheek in her hand.
She was shaking.
"I'm fine," he told her. It wasn't strictly true. He was starting to feel the wear and tear of battle- the exhaustion, the crash of the adrenaline high of the fight. He was pretty sure he had a few broken ribs and his right arm felt pretty torn up, but he put on a brave face, his pain numbed by the kisses he and Pepper had shared, by her hand on his cheek and her sad blue eyes.
"You're stupid," she told him, trying to smile. "You've got to stop doing this, Tony… you're going to kill yourself."
"Technically it would be someone else that would kill me," he pointed out. It sounded less morbid in his head and he winced when her smile disappeared. "Kidding," he added quickly, reaching up to take her hand and drop their joined grasp between them.
"It's not funny," she told him, letting go of his hand, stepping back, shaking her head. He had a sudden flash of awareness when he was absolutely certain that there was somebody behind him, only a split second before Pepper's frightened blue eyes focused on a point behind him and something connected with the back of his skull. There was a sickening crunch and the world fell away.
She'd like to think she was surprised when it happened, but she didn't really have the time to be surprised. One minute Tony had been knocked unconscious by the butt of a pistol, the next thing she knew, blood was pumping from two perfect circles in her stomach and she was screaming.
All she could do was watch as the blood stained her pressed white blouse, as her shaking hands flew to the bullet wounds, and then she started to spasm in terrible pain. It was the kind of pain that didn't really register in your mind- but your body still reacted to it, and she was unable to fight it as darkness enveloped her.
Natasha called 911, knowing that her shaky, panicked voice was only half-faked, and dropped the pistol into Tony's open palm, curling a few of his fingers around it. She peeled the gloves from her hands and shoved them into her bra (nobody would ever think to look there, and if they did, it was a lawsuit anyway). She dropped a particularly heavy piece of metal a few inches from Tony's head and then kneeled next to Virginia's unconscious form, taking her head into her lap and preparing herself.
The ambulance was there within the next three minutes. By then, Natasha had effectively conjured a convincing sob and gasp routine, was rocking back and forth and acting every single bit like the shocked onlooker. They took Potts away, and Tony soon after, as he returned to conciousness, groggy, the pistol clutched in one hand. The evidence was pretty clear, and as Natasha huddled in the passenger seat next to Happy on the way to the hospital, she had to stop herself from smiling.
Step one was complete.