Wow. That's all I can say. I am absolutely floored by the amount of people who favorited/ added this to their alerts. You actually encouraged me to update quickly! I shall do my best to live up to your expectations!
Also, I'm adding Pepper, and I apologize if she's a bit OOC – I haven't watched the Iron Man movies in a while…
Last, the disclaimer on chapter one applies to all chapters… I own naught but the plot!
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Her gaze burns hot as fire
She is the sunrise on the plains
She's as beautiful as the sun-burned sky
And as dangerous as her blades
Oh, brilliant, Natasha thought, looking down at this new note. Whoever it is is writing me poetry now. All the same, she smiled.
If she was going to keep getting these notes, she was going to find out who it was. But she didn't want to go right up to one of the guys and ask them… she snapped her fingers. Pepper, that was it. She'd ask Pepper for help.
She and Pepper had begun to bond, if only because they were the only two girls in this herd of ridiculous men. She'd ask Pepper what she thought this afternoon when Tony was off playing with whatever his newest toy was and the other boys were busy pounding each other into the training room mat – Natasha could forego an hour or so of practice to get to the bottom of this.
That settled, she headed to the kitchen. As usual, Steve and Tony were at the table bickering over something or other, Bruce was leaning on the counter looking amused at them, and Thor was interrupting them every few minutes to make them answer some question he had. Clint nursed his cup of coffee, ignoring the lot of them. He looked up when she walked in and smiled with that warm look in his eyes that always made her heart melt.
"And what are our favorite geniuses arguing over today?" she asked him.
"Absolutely nothing, so far as I can tell." He grinned. She had that effect on him. He was usually so reserved with his emotions, but he could never quite keep them in check around her. That was probably part of why he felt the way he did about her. They had seen each other at their worst; they knew each other's deepest secrets. She understood him to a point that was almost frightening, understood him in a way no one ever had before. They were two of a kind – lonely assassins who had never had anyone but each other. Around her, he didn't have to pretend he felt nothing, because she was already too-familiar with the pain he felt. It was the same pain she carried within her.
"Clint?" He looked up as she waved her hand in front of his eyes. "Earth to Clint. Ahh, welcome back to the land of the conscious." She sat on the counter beside his plate.
"What's going on in there?" she inquired.
"Just thinking…" He still had that absentminded look on his face. She stole his coffee from under his hand and sipped.
"Ugh! How long has this been sitting here?" Clint laughed at the way she scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue. "I'm going to make new coffee. Or tea. Or something. This is just disgusting!"
"It's not that bad," he answered, a smile once more in his eyes. "Give it back!"
"No!" her eyes lit and she hopped off the counter. "I refuse to let you poison yourself with this awful brew!"
"Come back here!"
"You'll have to catch me!" She grinned. He really did need to stop brooding so much.
"I am not chasing after you over a cup of coffee. If it bothers you that much, make me another one."
"Oh, fine." She pretended to pout, but it felt good to see a genuine smile on his face. Then she noticed the others looking at them wide-eyed.
"Oh, and what are you lot staring at?"
"Ummm, nothing," Tony answered hastily. "Just.. you know… drinking our coffee… and stuff…"
"Good." She smiled wickedly and headed to the coffee machine. Steve, unnoticed, stared after her with longing eyes. The other three – Thor, Tony, and Bruce – gave each other knowing looks.
"There is so something going on between those two. I totally said so yesterday," whispered Tony.
"I do not think so… she is simply making him a coffee, yes? They have been partners for a good span of time. Should they not be familiar with one another?" Thor half-asked.
"Familiar my arse," Tony continued. "They are so sleeping together."
"Ten bucks says they're not," Bruce challenged.
"Twenty says they are," Tony shot right back.
Steve looked over, eyes a bit forlorn. "Ten on they're not, but there is something going on there…"
"Thor?" Tony asked.
"I do not like to think of Agent Natasha's reaction were she to discover we were placing monetary bets upon the outcome of her love life. I think that I shall, as you say, 'sit this one out.'" You could practically hear the quotation marks around the phrase.
"Smart man. Natasha is one scary woman," Bruce replied. "That said, I'm already in and I'm not about to pull out." They looked over again at Natasha and Clint (fresh coffee in hand). The pair were shamelessly flirting, though they were apparently completely unaware of it.
"Scratch that," Bruce said, grinning. "I'm with Cap. I doubt that they're together yet, but it's only a matter of time…"
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Okay, so the ending is a bit awks but I was having trouble with it and I wanted to get the update up… hope you guys think it's okay :)
Again, I'd like to thank everyone who favorite/ added this to their alerts, and especially to those of you who reviewed. That is absolutely the best thing ever. Sava Kaladze, I took your suggestion of Steve having a crush on her… hope it works right. We'll see where the story goes.
Anyhoo, thanks again. Hope you guys like this. I'll try to update again soon. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
(oh, and I didn't really put Pepper in this chapter… I was going to but the story went elsewhere. Hopefully she gets to show up next chapter…we'll see!)
