because there's just something about the Tony-Natasha friendship that I can't seem to leave alone.
enjoy.
"Nat?" Tony calls out as he looks around the common area and kitchen of the Compound. There's no sight of her so he walks over to the intercom and activates it. "Nat, you here?" He pauses to let her respond, but he's met with silence. Curse her insistence on no AI in the life-after-death Compound he grumbles to himself.
He makes his way further into the facility, figuring if she isn't out on the dock, in the kitchen, her room, or the common area, then it's a safe bet she's in the gym. If she's even here his mind tacks on, well aware that she could be exploring any part of the endless world they found themselves in now, after death. But as far as he knows she's been sticking closer to home, so he's pretty sure she's in the Compound somewhere...
As he gets closer to the gym he hears the telltale thumps of a punching bag, and he knows for sure that he's found her. He stops at the doorway to watch her for a bit. Her form is still impeccable and she looks every bit the terrifyingly agile, strong, and crafty fighter she'd been while alive. He knows that she had to work hard then to keep in shape, not having the safety net of a super soldier serum, demigod lineage, a green rage monster hiding beneath the surface, the distance afforded by archery, or a highly advanced tech suit to fall back on. Why she feels the need to keep up that fitness in a world with no enemies, he isn't quite sure.
"You're testing my restraint by standing there for so long, Tony."
He laughs at her half-threat. "What are you gonna do? Kill me?"
He swears he can hear her roll her eyes. "All the people in the world, and I'm stuck in an afterlife with you."
"You love me," he says as he strolls into the room and heads over to the punching bag where she's still standing.
"Debatable."
"Well then let's debate," he says, leaning forward to hold the bag steady for her.
"Little busy here," she says, throwing a nasty left hook that has him very thankful there's a bag between her fist and his face. He tilts his head in a silent 'really?' motion and she just grins and throws a quick few jabs unapologetically.
"I see that. But I'm sorta wondering why… I mean, no bad guys here to fight, so...whatcha training for, Million Dollar Baby?"
She scoffs. "Do I need a reason?"
"No," he admits, "but I think that's the actual reason why you're here."
"You get a psych degree sometime between dying and today?" she lobs back as she throws another few quick jabs at the bag.
He knows what Natasha is like when she's not game to verbally spar, and what she's like when she's well and truly angry. She's presently neither, so he pushes on. "Nice deflection," he quips just as she swings a leg up to hit the side of the bag, which he just manages to dodge. "Nice, Nat," he tuts, this time voicing his judgment aloud. "Real nice."
"There a reason you're interrupting my workout?"
"Yes, actually. You busy?" She stops her punching and drops her hands to her sides as she tilts her head and looks at him incredulously. "No?" he assesses with a cheeky grin. "Excellent. Get cleaned up, would ya? No offence, but you stink. And as a former spy, I know you're aware of the importance of first impressions."
"And who is it you think you're going to introduce me to?"
He grins. "My parents."
Her expression shifts and for just a moment he thinks he sees some vulnerability, but it's gone in a flash and replaced with her scrutinizing gaze. "And why am I meeting your parents?"
"Because I want them to meet you."
"Why?"
He huffs out an exhale. "Because you're my friend. And as we covered in our last couple classes, you're a part of my family. Don't make me assign you homework, Nat," he tuts with a grin.
Her mouth twists in a visible show of uncertainty. "I don't know, Tony."
Does she really not understand I want to introduce them to one of my closest friends?
"If you're worried about them not liking you, I'd throw that thought right out the window because you literally sacrificed yourself for the greater good. You saved trillions. Nobody can hate you. It's like hating a puppy. That's also, coincidentally, why no one can hate me now either."
She stays quiet, her gaze assessing him for something he isn't privy to. "What's the dress code?" she asks finally.
His face splits into a grin at her acceptance, no matter how reluctant. "It's not like we're going out for dinner at the-"
"Tony," she interrupts firmly as she levels a steely look of warning at him.
"Whatever," he answers with a shrug. "Casual, not casual, you pick. Doesn't really matter. Hell, go in your birthday suit if you-"
"Is that what you're wearing?" she interrupts him again, eyes glancing over him swiftly.
He glances down at his comfortable jeans and T-shirt. "You know, whenever Pepper said that I knew I had to change. Is that a woman thing, or…" he trails off as he sees her expression which is, to put it lightly, severely unimpressed. He decides to cut his losses, because he's still standing close to the punching bag and her hands are still wrapped, not to mention she'd already shown she had no problem throwing punches and kicks close to his face. "Ooooookay, I'm changing."
"You're not nervous are you?" Tony asks, glancing over at her in the passenger seat.
"I thought you told me I had no reason to be," she says as she turns to face him. He finds a curious expression on her face that's a mix of that uncertainty he'd seen earlier and a classic Agent Romanoff arched eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean you believed me."
She seems to relax at that. "I'm here, aren't I?" she challenges, a little smile curling on her lips.
"True, and I don't think there's anything I could say or do that would convince the Black Widow to do something she doesn't want to."
Nat smiles but it's clear to Tony that it's just a polite one. What he said had made her pensive, and he wonders if maybe she doesn't want to be the Black Widow anymore. He'd come out and owned his identity as Iron Man, but he'd also been the one to create it. She hadn't been afforded that same luxury. He wouldn't go so far as to say that she regretted being the Black Widow - after all, the Black Widow had helped save trillions of beings across the universe - but maybe she just wanted to be Natasha Romanoff now. And he could understand that, because for a long time when he was a kid he'd just wanted to be Tony, rather than Tony Stark. Hell, even now he preferred just being Tony, even if Iron Man had been the one to save the universe in his final act.
"Thank you," she says, startling him out of his thoughts. He turns into the driveway for his parents' house and parks the car before turning to face her with a creased brow. "For this," she clarifies, and he still finds himself a little puzzled. Is she grateful because she knows this is important to him? Or because she's still grappling with their new reality and she could use a distraction? Or because she needed an excuse to get out of that huge Compound?
She doesn't offer any further explanation and he doesn't press, instead electing to just smile, hopefully reassuringly. He hops out of the car and has half a thought to go open the car door for her, but she's already out by the time he gets to the front of the car. Instead, he holds out an arm theatrically. She rolls her eyes and huffs out a little laugh but she does loop her arm through his and allow him to lead them up to the front door.
"Last chance to make a play for the exit," he teases.
"I'm a little offended you think I wouldn't be able to engineer an exit later."
"Well, you can't exactly use the excuse of a potential world-ending event."
"True," she agrees with a laugh. "But I have my ways."
"You're underestimating my mother's keen eye for seeing through bullshit. How else do you think she put up with my dad?"
He raises his free hand to knock on the door, and then turns to face her. "Don't worry, Nat. They're gonna love you."
She smiles, though he swears he sees a bit of unease in her features. It's then that he realizes she's probably not met anyone's parents before. Or anyone's family besides Clint's.
"Tony!" his mom says with a wide smile as the door opens and she spots him.
"Hey, Mom."
"C'mere," she says quickly, opening up her arms for a hug.
He obliges and then steps back. "Mom, this is Natasha Romanoff. Friend, fellow former Avenger, and one of the few people to outwit me."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," his mom says warmly, holding out a hand. It's a little surprising to him that she went for the handshake since she'd always been a hugger, but she'd also always been good at reading people.
Natasha smiles as she takes the hand held out and shakes it. "The pleasure's mine."
"Please, come on in. I thought we could sit outside since the weather's so nice. Unless you'd prefer to-"
"Outside is fine," Natasha answers and Tony can't help but smile because the tone is one he remembers from her time as Natalie Rushman. Prim, proper, and painfully polite.
He leans in to whisper a "relax" into her ear before gesturing for her to go ahead as they follow his mom to the back deck. She deftly manages to flick his cheek with a surprising amount of force while shooting him a quick look of warning. He knew he'd overstepped with telling her to relax, but it was worth it to see some of her spark return.
When they reach the deck, she claims one of the chairs and he sits beside his mom on one of the couches.
"So, Natasha," his mom begins, a warm smile spreading across her face once more, "Tony's told us a little about you, but we both know it's better to get the information straight from the source, since he tends to… Well…"
"Be Tony?" Nat offers with a slightly raised eyebrow and beginnings of a smile to emphasize her point.
"I was going to say he tends to be forgetful of those things and people not directly concerning him, but that works too."
"Hey, I'm right here. And mildly offended. I didn't forget to tell you about-"
"Hush, dear. Natasha and I are talking."
Tony's eyes roll as he lets out a scoff. "She's here for like 2 minutes and already I'm chopped liver. Unbelievable."
"What's unbelievable?" his dad says as he appears in the doorway.
"Howard, this is Natasha Romanoff, one of Tony's friends and teammates."
"She needs no introduction," he says, holding out a hand as she rises to her feet. "Tony and Peggy told us what you did. Incredibly brave."
Nat's smile is weary and a bit forced, but she shakes his hand and says a quick "thank you" before sitting back down. Tony can't help but bring his hands up to cover his face at his dad's direct jump into touchy territory. Even he knew to step carefully around that stuff.
"Honestly, Howard. All this time and you still can't read a room," his mom chastises.
"What?"
"Of all the things to lead with, you go with the circumstances of her death?" Tony says with a shake of his head.
Howard shrugs. "We're in the afterlife. As far as I'm concerned, discussion of death is fair game."
"It's fine," Nat offers diplomatically. "He's not wrong."
"See, she's fine with it. Now, Tony tells me you worked for SHIELD?"
"Yes, as an agent."
"I hear you were with Captain Rogers when he took down Hydra?"
Tony sees Nat sit up just a little taller, and the briefest flash of something crosses her face. Maybe she's irked Cap gets all the credit, when she's the one who released everything? I should really get some more details on that whole situation...
"Yes, with some others." Tony can't hide his smirk at her slightly pointed words. How diplomatic .
"Then I owe you twice over. Saved the universe, and brought down the piece of shit organization that infiltrated SHIELD."
"Howard!"
"What? We're all dead, what are we supposed to talk about? The weather? I'm just saying, it's impressive."
Tony watches his mom's face fall into her hands in exasperation, and he thinks that Pepper would probably have a unique understanding of how she's feeling.
"Honestly, it's fine," Nat says, again playing diplomat. "I did help crash two helicarriers into the Potomac and leak decades' worth of files and intelligence onto the internet. So he's not wrong, I am impressive," she finishes with a grin that Tony recognizes, but hasn't seen for some time. This is the Natasha Romanoff whose biting wit rivaled his own, and who had just enough understated swagger to drive fear into the hearts of people everywhere.
"I like her, Tony," his dad says with a laugh.
"So...scale of 1 to 'I need fear for my welfare' how bad was it?" Tony asks once his parents disappear inside to prepare dinner, turning to face Nat.
A smile curls on her lips that Tony recognizes as a genuine one. The conversation had flowed into a much smoother and less blunt one, but he didn't want to presume anything. "It wasn't bad, Tony. Not at all. It's nice to meet them. I know they died when you were young, but physical resemblances aside, I see a lot of them in you."
"Really? I mean, everyone's always said I take after Dad, but-"
"You do, but there's a lot of your mom too. Your fierce loyalty and how you love people...that's all her."
After a lifetime of being compared to the great Howard Stark, her telling him he took after his mom too...it warmed his heart. "I think that might be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me."
"Well, take a mental picture then, because I don't throw those out often," she quips, ruining his moment.
"Don't I know it! Like pulling teeth to get anything out of you usually."
She smiles again and then gets up to lean on the deck's railing and look out over the backyard. Tony knows that she is fully aware he's watching her and he feels lucky that she's granting him this glimpse into her normally very guarded reactions.
"Penny for your thoughts," he says as he gets up to join her, opting to lean back against the railing next to her and face the house. He turns his head to watch her reaction and finds a thoughtful expression on her face.
"After SHIELD fell, I disappeared for a bit." He nods, remembering that Steve had mentioned she was going on hiatus. "Had some business to attend to with some folks who thought starting up the Red Room again was a good idea, and then I went back to Russia to try and find my parents."
He blinks in surprise because he really hadn't expected that answer. "You find 'em?"
"Maybe," she hedges, her eyes wandering over the backyard and steadfastly avoiding meeting his gaze.
His brow crinkles. "Maybe?"
She turns to look at him now, granting him a further look into what she usually held so close to the vest. "Records from then aren't exactly the most accurate or complete. But I think it was them. Two gravestones in a lonely graveyard surrounded by a chain link fence." She turns to look back out over the yard. "I couldn't even find a picture."
He stays quiet, sensing she has more to say.
"I see you with your parents now and recognize how much of them is in your actions and mannerisms, and I wonder…" she trails off.
"Nature versus nurture," he sums up her unspoken thoughts.
"Mm," she agrees with a hum.
"You thinking about trying to find them? I'm sure they're here somewhere…"
She shakes her head. "I don't know."
"I'll help if you want," he offers. He knows she doesn't have many people here in the afterlife and therefore could definitely use the support, but even if that weren't true he'd still have offered. She deserves closure and peace after the life she'd been forced to lead.
"Thank you," she says, sparing a quick glance at him, "but I don't think I'm quite ready to open that can of worms."
He lets her words linger for a moment before he adds one last thought when he sees his parents heading back their way. "For what it's worth, whoever and wherever they are, they missed out on one hell of a daughter." He reaches over and gives her hand a squeeze, offering some support.
She smiles, but then seems to sense the impending end to their privacy as she stands up straight. "God, this place is making me-"
"Less Black Widow-y?" he suggests.
Her response is to flick him, again with a surprising amount of force, and then turn her charm back on for his parents, who have returned with plates of food.
He watches as she swiftly offers to grab a plate from his mom, and slips into the role that he figures Clint and his family had seen regularly at the Barton farmhouse. This, he thinks, might be his first real glimpse at Natasha Romanoff, away from the responsibilities and duties of agent, Avenger, and Black Widow. Tony can't help but think that of all the different sides of Natasha he's seen, from Natalie Rushman, to motivated SHIELD agent, to stubborn leader of the patchwork Avengers post-Thanos, this one is the most special.
there's something so intriguing to me about having these two particular characters delve into the knowns and unknowns of where they came from.
thoughts? comments? suggestions?
let me know. :)