"Hello, beautiful," he said, gripping her elbow briefly in an affectionate gesture as he welcomed her into his newly renovated tower. "Wasn't talking to you, Barton," he added.
She smiled as she followed him down the hall to the section of rooms he'd designated as their personal quarters. She could hear Clint's low whistle in front of her.
"Looks like you've outdone yourself here, Stark," she said.
He grinned, eyes twinkling behind tinted lenses as he pointed out which room was whose. No one else was home, but she could tell that Thor had already been in his.
"Welcome home, darling," he said when he showed her to hers and she set her bag down on the floor. "If you guys need anything, you know who to call. Not me, JARVIS."
She turned back to face him, studying him with a slightly amused smile. She hadn't been sure about moving her few belongings in to a Stark owned property with five men, but this was looking to be a more attractive arrangement than her tiny quarters at S.H.I.E.L.D. and if anything, it would be another place that she could almost mark herself safe.
XXXXX
"Can you come down here?" His voice said over the intercom.
She wrinkled her eyebrows, setting aside her laptop and rushing to the elevator to head the twelve floors downstairs to his lab.
"Stark?" She asked, knocking briefly on the door to let him know she was there. "Are you okay?"
He looked up from his workstation in the center of the room. "I'm fine. Just need your help for a second."
Curious, she made her way over to him.
"Put your hands over here and don't move them for about eleven seconds," he said.
She obliged, although she asked, "Don't you usually have robots for this?"
He shrugged. "I needed another pair of hands. Strong hands. Plus, this is top secret S.H.I.E.L.D. tech enhancements. Who better to keep a secret than you?"
"Fine, but if you keep asking me to do things for you, you're going to have to put me on the payroll," she joked.
"You're an Avenger. You're already getting paid by me," he muttered idly, his eyes focused on her work.
"Not like that, like this," he demonstrated.
She mimicked his actions, but she could tell from the expression on his face she still wasn't doing what he'd asked.
"Here, come here, kitten," he said, moving behind her and placing his hands over hers to put them where he wanted them.
Her head snapped up to look at him, eyes narrowing, but he wasn't looking at her. "Don't call me that," she warned. "I'm your partner, not your pet."
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, dear."
XXXXX
She sat on a stool at the counter, a book in one hand and a large mug of hot cocoa in the other. It was late, and she knew that anyone that was home was sleeping. Quiet moments like this were rare in a space shared between six superheroes and a billionaire's staff, but she intended to thoroughly enjoy every second she had.
She looked up when she heard footsteps nearby and a second later Tony entered the kitchen area. "Hey," she said in surprise. "What are you doing up? Couldn't sleep?"
He looked at her without saying anything.
"You haven't gone to bed yet," she said as it dawned on her.
He shrugged.
She stood, reaching into a cabinet for another mug and gesturing for him to sit. "Why don't you take a break? I just made some hot chocolate," she said softly, setting the mug down in front of him.
She'd already known from working undercover as his assistant in Malibu that he spent more time in his workshop than anywhere else, but after a few months of staying in the tower, she'd come to learn just how much he put into the Avengers.
"Thank you, darling," he said softly, gratefully accepting the drink.
She sighed. "Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" He asked blankly.
"You know what my name is, right?"
"Natasha Romanoff. At least that's what it says in your file. But I'll bet you have some others ," he said.
"So you do know how to pronounce it. Yet you never use it. Why?"
"That a trick question, honey?"
"There it is."
"Ah." He smiled in understanding. "You don't like the 'honey,' thing, huh? Okay, fine. Natasha."
She smiled back, a tight lipped smile. "Good. Anthony."
"Uh, that's not how it works, darling," he said. "It's not the same if you use my full name. Which no one ever calls me. Except for my mom, and only when she was mad at me."
"So you are a genius after all." She took a sip from her mug, gazing at him over the rim.
"What, you're mad at me? Why are you mad at me? Because I called you 'honey?' It's not meant to annoy you."
"Then what do you mean by it?" She asked with a frown at his genuine expression. "All those cutesy names?"
"Terms of endearment, sweetheart. It means I like you," he said, rising up from his stool and placing his mug in the dishwasher.
"So… you call Thor and Steve all those weird nicknames because you like them too?" She asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion when he turned around to face her.
"Sure," he said with a smirk.
XXXXX
She aimed her guns, firing at the airborne beings who were crowding the Iron Man while she wrapped her thighs around the neck of a thug who was attempting to attack her from the ground. She barely had enough time to check if she'd succeeded in getting the enemies off of him before attending to the two more who were rushing at her with their own weaponry.
She knew the others were close by, occupied with their own attackers and making sure the civilians were getting to safety, but she couldn't actually see any of them in her immediate vicinity, although she could hear them periodically over their earpieces.
She flicked her wrist, sending her widow's bite through one of the thugs while she disarmed the other one with a well placed kick.
Before she could turn around to deal with the third one, it had her locked in its arms and suddenly she heard a blast and smiled gratefully as Iron Man sent a repulsor beam into a fourth one while she broke free of the one who had clearly thought he had her.
"Thanks, Shellhead," she said as he landed on the ground in front of her.
"My pleasure," he answered and she could hear his smug grin in his voice through his metal helmet.