some light angst, topped off with fluff, I promise. 😊
enjoy!
"Hey," Tony says as he holds out a plate with a slice of cake on it to Natasha, who's sitting in one of the chairs out on the dock. "By request of Morgan, I bring a bonus slice of cake for her favourite aunt."
"Well, if Morgan said so then I guess I can't really say no, can I?" Nat replies with a chuckle as she accepts the plate from him.
"Nope," he answers plainly, shooting her a smile. "The kid's really got us all wrapped around her finger, huh?"
"Can't say I'm surprised given you and Pepper are her parents."
"I can't tell if I should be offended by that or not," he comments wryly as he leans forward to let his forearms rest on the back of the chair beside the one she's sitting in.
"I guess I'll leave it to your imagination then."
Tony shakes his head in amusement. "I see your wit's just as biting as ever, Romanoff."
"Says the guy who's got a quip for every occasion," she counters with a tilt of her head and a teasing smile. It reminds him of the Natasha he'd known before the Accords had torn apart their team and he feels a warmth spread through him at the memories that surface. They'd never been exceptionally close — not like she had been with Cap or Clint — but they'd had their moments. They'd bantered and bickered, had inside jokes, and had shared a surprisingly high number of skills and hobbies.
"Well that's just part of my charm," he counters with a smirk when he realizes he'd been quiet longer than he intended as he'd gotten lost in his memories, "but I didn't come here to argue semantics."
"No? Just a bonus for me then?" she says dryly, meeting his gaze with an ever so slightly arched eyebrow.
"You know what? Just for that, I'm gonna join you and interrupt your little poetic moment," he declares as he pushes up off the back of the chair and moves around to the front so he can sit down. He can't help the quiet grunt he lets out when he sits down — he'd never admit it out loud, but after years of getting thrown around as Iron Man, his body isn't as young as it used to be after all — and he shoots her a look of warning preemptively. "Not a word, Romanoff."
She just grins. "No way, old man. We both teased Steve for years about his age. As if I'm going to let this slide."
"Oh, whatever. I got old. Sue me," he grumbles and she laughs lightly.
"Can't afford the lawyers, or I would," she quips before stabbing her fork into the piece of cake to break herself off a bite. "This is really good by the way," she says after she finishes chewing, gesturing to her slice of cake with the fork.
"I know, right? It's from this little mom and pop bakery Pepper found. Morgan picked the flavours and they worked their magic. And let me tell you, magic was definitely used because when Morgan asked for it to 'taste purple' they just nodded and somehow managed to nail it. How do you make something taste purple, you know? But tell me that doesn't taste purple to you," he says, pointing to her plate.
She smiles at his slightly excited rush of words. "Yeah, now that you say it…does sort of taste purple somehow," she concedes before she takes another bite.
"Pepper wanted me to thank you for playing so much with Morgan today, by the way. She might actually let us sleep in a bit tomorrow with all the running around she did with you."
"Happy to oblige," Nat replies with a vague wave of her hand. "These young legs of mine ought to be good for something I guess," she adds cheekily — another ever so brief glimpse into the Natasha of old — and he rolls his eyes.
"Only relatively young."
"Now Tony, I thought you knew better than to mention a woman's age."
"Nope, not falling for it," he says with a wag of his finger and she chuckles again. "Pepper said she was gonna make some hot chocolate if you're interested," he offers, guiding them away from their casual and playful argument. "Actual hot chocolate, mind you. Not that instant stuff."
"Yeah?"
He nods. "You in?"
"Yeah, alright," she agrees with a nod of her own before taking another bite of the cake slice.
He takes out his phone to tap a message to Pepper to let her know and then slides it back into his pocket before relaxing once more and leaning back in the chair. He lets his gaze drift back out over the water and onto the rapidly darkening night sky in front of them. It's a beautiful view, one which is unobscured by the blinding lights and deafening sounds of a city that he'd grown used to in New York at the Tower. He recalls having spent time sipping drinks with Natasha out on the balcony a time or two in the rare moments she'd spent at the Tower, so he supposes that there was something of a precedent for their impromptu meeting out on the dock.
"Thanks for inviting me," she says suddenly, breaking the silence that had taken hold.
His gaze stays focused on brushing some sand off the armrest of the chair as he replies, "Yeah, well, I make it a point to try not to disappoint my wife and daughter, so it seemed like a no-brainer when Morgan asked if Aunt Tasha could come."
He says it casually but it still feels significant. The hatchet had been well and truly buried between them and yet there were still the painful reminders of the distance between them. He'd left the hero gig behind while she'd stayed on stubbornly. She was a living reminder of his past and the fractured team left in the wake of the Accords, but with time and distance, he's come to realize that she's a friend, too.
"Morgan really does have you wrapped around her finger, hmm?" she teases, repeating his earlier words.
"Says the woman who only leaves the Compound to see her."
It's a somewhat playful dig but there's some truth rolled into it too. Rhodey's told him more than a few times that Nat was singularly focused on trying to fix everything, even if there's nothing she can do. She only seems to leave the Compound to visit Morgan (and only ever at her request), for some business regarding the operations of the orphanage intiative that can't be handled remotely, and rarely to go for long drives on her motorcycle that he knows includes a lot of speeding and winding corners.
She shoots him an unimpressed look and he knows he's poked at a tender spot. "Not all of us got our happy ending," she replies in a biting tone meant to be bitter, he knows.
Yeah, okay. Maybe I earned that one, he thinks ruefully. He hadn't meant to dig at her that way; he hadn't gone out to find her, wanting to pick a fight. He holds up his hands in a show of innocence. "I don't wanna fight, Nat. I'm sorry. That was shitty of me to say."
Her eyes widen fractionally. "An apology from Tony Stark. Wow. Wish I'd recorded it for historical purposes," she says dryly. He can hear the tinges of bitterness there too, but he knows she's already let it go. "I know you lost people too," she admits softly at his half-hearted glare. "I'm sorry."
He hears the sincerity in her words and takes it as such with a nod of understanding. "It's all water under the bridge, Red," he says with a dismissive wave of his hand. He lets them sit in silence for a beat before he presses on. "So… How are you doing?" She turns to look at him skeptically. "Rhodey may have mentioned he was a little concerned."
"Rhodey hovers like a grandmother," she grumbles with a frustrated sigh.
"Well, yes, he does," Tony concedes with a nod because Rhodey did tend to hover, "but in my experience, he doesn't usually hover without reason. Case in point, me over the last thirty-something years."
"I'm fine."
"Uh-huh. Wanna give that another try? This time maybe with the truth?" he volleys back with a tilt of his head.
She arches an eyebrow. "When did you become such an expert in human behaviour?"
He scoffs in amusement. "How do you think I've managed not to drive away Pepper all these years?"
"You have driven her away. On more than one occasion."
"Yes, and I learned on those occasions. So, you wanna try again?" She remains silent, focusing instead on eating the last few bites of her cake, which he patiently waits for her to finish and then inclines his head toward her in a prompt. "C'mon, Nat. Gimme something here. I'm trying."
She slides her gaze to him and he sees a flicker of tiredness in her eyes. She shakes her head subtly. "I'm okay, Tony." He nods his head again to prompt more detail. "Just...taking it day by day, you know?"
He nods in understanding but is stopped from replying when he hears footsteps approaching from behind them.
"Hey, you two," Pepper says as she comes up to stand beside him. "Hot chocolate, as ordered."
Tony grabs the two mugs from her and passes one to Nat. "Thanks, Pep. You wanna join us? Nat's practicing her sombre, philosophical gaze. I think she's thinking of taking up acting. You think she's got a future there?"
He knows the flick from Nat is coming and manages to dodge it just in time, though he isn't so naive to believe that she'll forget and drop it.
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a few things left to clean up, and then I'm going to take advantage of Morgan going to bed early for once and take a bath for the first time in I don't even know how long."
"Leave the dishes," he says immediately, "I'll do them."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, it's no problem," he confirms with a nod and a wave of his hand.
"Thanks," she says as she leans down to give him a quick kiss. "You heading back to the Compound soon?" she asks Nat.
"Yeah, as soon as I finish this, I think."
"You can stay if you want," Pepper offers. "We've got the guest room, and I know Morgan would love having her Aunt Tasha here for breakfast."
"Oh, she's bringing out the big guns from the get-go," Tony comments with a wide grin, knowing that if anything was going to sway Nat it would be Morgan, and that Pepper knows that too. "Ms. Potts means business."
"I don't want to impose," Nat says diplomatically.
"No, no," Pepper says immediately. "You're not, Nat. Not at all."
"If you're sure…"
Pepper smiles. "I'll make up the guest room. Tony, show her where everything is, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," he answers with a nod.
"See you in the morning," Pepper says with a warm smile before heading back to the house.
"She doesn't pull any punches, huh?" Nat comments after taking a sip from her mug.
Tony chuckles. "Never. She's an expert at guilt trips and specializes in the kind you don't realize you're in the middle of."
Nat smiles. "Makes me miss attending the board meetings."
"Oh man, I forgot you used to do that," he says as he wipes away some remnants of hot chocolate from his upper lip.
"It was fun."
"I think you might be the only person in the whole world who has fun at a board meeting."
She hides a smile behind her mug. "Can't help it if I enjoyed watching old, entitled men walk right into the traps Pepper and I set for them. They never saw it coming because they couldn't see past their—"
"So I guess it's a good thing you can't afford to be a major shareholder, huh?"
Her eyes twinkle. "Who says I'm not?"
His eyes widen as he sits forward and leans toward her chair. "Don't bullshit me, Romanoff. You invested in Stark Industries?"
"Maybe."
"No, c'mon now. I'm gonna need a firm yes or a no here."
"Why?"
"Because this is monumental information," he sputters with an almost frantic gesture of his hands.
"Not really. I have a pretty diverse portfolio."
"Is that a yes? I'm taking that as a yes," he says as he points to her. "But it's not under Natasha Romanoff, is it? It's under an alias, right? It has to be." She just arches an eyebrow. "Oh!" he exclaims with a snap of his fingers. "Is it under Natalie Rushman?"
"You really think I would — if I were going to, that is — use Natalie Rushman as my alias?"
"I think it's exactly what you'd do. You love a good prank."
She smiles and chuckles lightly as she nods. "I do love a good prank. But that doesn't mean I did it."
"Nat! C'mon!"
"A girl needs to have her secrets."
"Does Pepper know?" He asks and then immediately realizes his error and he shakes his head. "What am I saying? Of course she knows. I'm talking to her at breakfast."
"Mmhmm," Nat hums with an enigmatic smile that only serves to frustrate him further.
He glares at her until an idea pops into his head. "Hey, you any good at Super Smash Brothers?"
He expects confusion from her at his sudden change of topic but she surprises him by rolling with the punches. "What console?"
"N64. Original release."
"I've played once or twice," she replies with something of a dangerous glint in her eye, he thinks.
"For real? Because I've been itching to play it for weeks and Pepper won't indulge me."
Nat chuckles. "Probably because as a CEO and mother she's got other priorities."
He waves his hand. "Stop with the logic, Romanoff. I've got it in the house, we can hook it up to the big screen. Go a few rounds."
"I'm in," she confirms with a grin that's a little closer to what he remembers from back in the day.
He grins as he pushes himself up to his feet and offers her a hand to help her up. "You're on, Red. You got a world of hurt coming your way. I'm about to embarrass you. Too bad Morgan's already asleep. Could've used a witness for your downfall."
Nat snorts as she takes his hand and stands up. "Probably better she's not there to witness her father getting his ass kicked."
"Uh-huh. We'll see about that, Romanoff."
Tony slumps back into the cushions of the couch. "Okay, did I miss the part where you spent years of your life playing video games?!"
She turns to look at him and laugh. "Clint had an old N64 hooked up to a TV at the farm and he showed it to me the first time I visited. On my next birthday, he gave me a console and a bunch of games. Whenever I came back from a mission that was...lingering with me, I'd pop in a game and play for hours. It helped my mind to just zone out."
He nods because he gets that. He did a lot of coding that way. "I'm betting his kids probably played with you too?"
"Who do you think bought them each new console when it came out?"
"You spoiled those kids rotten didn't you?" He holds in a wince when he realizes he'd used past tense. Shit. Way to bring down the mood, idiot, he thinks to himself.
"What the hell else was I supposed to spend my money on? Stocks?" she replies with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
Relief flows through him when he realizes the mood hasn't been wrecked, and then he realizes exactly what she'd said. "That's just mean. I swear I'm gonna get FRIDAY to get me a report on all shareholders."
"It's cute that you think that'll reveal anything."
"I— Wait, what? Did you do something to FRIDAY?"
She just smiles. "So, you play a lot?" she asks with a gesture to the screen where a 'how to play' video is now playing because they hadn't touched any buttons in a while.
He eyes her critically for a moment before he relents because he knows that he's not going to glean anything regarding her possible investments in his company. "I logged some serious hours when it first came out, but not a ton since then."
"It shows."
He chuckles at her jab. "Yeah, well, I've got all the time in the world now, so you better get comfortable, because I'm coming for your high scores."
"Glad I can provide something for you to aspire to," she says with a wink.
"I'm making you choose a different character this time," he declares with a meaningfully pointed finger.
"Won't change anything except how I kick your ass."
"Okay, I was just playing for fun before. Now I'm taking it seriously."
"Mmhmm. Sure," she turns lazily as she leans back and then hands him her controller. "Go ahead and pick whoever it is you want me to win with."
"Jigglypuff," he decides as he scrolls over to select her character. "You beat me with that useless character and I'll concede you're better."
"Oh, Tony," she replies with a shake of her head as she accepts the controller he's holding out to her now that the character selection is done. "It's gonna be too easy."
"Uh-huh. I'll believe when I see it, Romanoff!"
okay, hands up if you've played the OG Super Smash Brothers game on N64! Haha.
Thoughts/comments/suggestions always welcomed. Always love to see what y'all think.
more to come!