A/N: Due to the downtime yesterday I noticed not a lot of people actually saw the story but that's ok, here's chapter 2. Warning: Minor Spoilers for Thor 2 ahead, I've tried my best not to reveal too much
"I cannot believe this!" Fury exclaimed throwing a file onto the desk in front of where Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff were siting. "I give you one routine, easy mission and you come back telling me that two of my agents are dead and that we have an escaped hostile who is apparently a 15 year old that has pyrokinesis."
"Uh she's actually 14 or 15, we're not really sure of her exact age," Clint spoke up.
Director Fury glared at him. "Shut up." He fell silent under the Director's hard stare. "I think the both of you could use some time off." Natasha sat up quickly. "I recommend a week's leave staying at Stark Tower where I can keep an eye on you."
"What!" Natasha exclaimed. "Sir we need to be out there looking for her."
"I already have people on the job, Agent Romanoff, it is not up for discussion. I need the both of you to collect your things and then I'll arrange transport to Stark Tower. You needn't worry about not having company. The others are there as well." With that Director Fury turned and walked away.
Natasha sat in the car next to Clint as they drove to Stark Tower. Since the battle all the damage had been repaired and Tony had added rooms for all the Avengers along with training rooms. It was the current residence of Dr Banner. Apparently each Avenger had their room styled differently. Natasha hadn't seen her room yet but she suspected she would feel the need to punch Tony very, very hard very, very shortly.
The car ride was spent in silence. Natasha was not happy about being relocated to Stark Tower. She would have to spend her day wandering around and doing nothing while trying to avoid Tony who will almost certainly attempt to annoy her for fun. Not exactly her idea of a good vacation.
The car pulled up and Natasha stepped out carrying her duffle bag over her shoulder. Clint carried his own bag which was filled to burst with bows and arrows. They walked in the front door and saw a blonde receptionist sitting at the front desk. She did not smile at them.
"Second floor from the top," she told them in a drawled voice. "Mr Stark will be waiting for you up there."
The girl didn't sound too happy about her job. Natasha remembered her own experience working for Tony, she shuddered. Having to flirt with him was the worst. They stepped into the elevator and Natasha spotted the button for the correct floor. She shrugged and pressed it. Instantly something popped out from the top of the elevator and scanned them. Natasha drew her gun on instinct.
"Do not be alarmed madam," JARVIS's spoke. "I must scan anyone that attempts to access this floor. Security measures put in place by Mr Stark of course. Scan complete. Enjoy your stay at Stark Tower."
The scanning device popped back into the celling and the elevator shot upwards. Natasha saw a security camera in the right corner of the elevator. She smirked. At least Tony Stark had better security then most recent mad scientist Natasha encountered. The elevator dinged as they reached the correct floor and the minute the doors slid open they were attacked.
"My friends!" an incredibly loud voice boomed. Thor walked forward and gave the both of them a bear hug. He was in a surprisingly good mood. Natasha and Clint dropped their bags at the door and scanned the surroundings.
Standing behind Thor was Captain Rogers, Dr Banner and Tony himself. They stood in a sort of living room with what looked like a kitchen and bar on the right. Natasha saw pictures of Iron Man and the Avengers all around the room and rolled her eyes.
Captain Rogers and Dr Banner greeted them with handshakes. Tony's way of greeting was. "I was watching you in the elevator and I have to say I'm disappointed. I put that camera there specifically for real, live time porn and you didn't even talk to each other." Natasha shot him a look.
Thor shoved Tony aside so hard he nearly fell over. "Please friends sit down," Thor motioned to the couch and Natasha noticed that he was resting his hammer Mjolnir on the coffee table. Natasha was personally waiting for Thor's explanation on why he was there. She was informed that he was in Asgard. Apparently someone got their information wrong.
"Thor it's very nice to see you and all, but. Why are you here?" Natasha asked with her hands clasped together in front of her.
Thor paused a second and then looked around the room at all of them. "I'm sure you all witnessed the occurrence in Greenwich. Well after those events and what happened on Asgard, my father advised me it would be wise to have some time away from Asgard. So I thought it best to come here and see my friends."
Natasha nodded in understanding but obviously the supplied information wasn't enough for some people. Steve leaned forward and looked the demigod up and down. "What about your girl Jane? Aren't you going to visit her?"
How Captain America knew about Thor's girlfriend, Natasha didn't know. The topic however was curious. Natasha didn't know much about Jane Foster, except that Thor obviously had a thing for her. It was strange for the assassin to be involved with normal things like gossiping and talking about romance.
"I actually spent the whole of yesterday with Lady Jane," no wonder Thor sounded happy. "She showed me some sights of Midgard. Then we spent a rather pleasant evening together."
Clint started to cough furiously and Steve looked to the side. Natasha shook her head in amusement. Although it was interesting to hear about the things she didn't know, Natasha didn't want to know that much about their relationship.
"You know, speaking of girls," Tony spoke up. "Pepper!" he called out. There was no reply. "JARVIS where's Pepper?" Tony asked his electronic butler.
"Taking a shower sir," JARVIS replied. "I recommend you don't..."
Tony wasn't listening. "Tell her to come out here. We have guests," he stood up and moved towards the window. He looked outside down at the streets of New York. Then he turned around to face them. "So would you like to see your rooms?" he asked Clint and Natasha.
Although the idea was ludicrous, Natasha still agreed. Tony led them back towards the elevator. He pressed another button and the elevator went downwards, Natasha did some quick calculations in her brain and came to the conclusion that the sleeping quarters were about two floors down from the main living area.
They stepped out into a hallway with doors along the sides. Each door had a different painted symbol on it, clearly labelling which room belonged to which Avenger. On her left Natasha saw a door painted red, blue, and white with the symbol of a shield, on her right Natasha saw a door painted green with the symbol of a fist.
Dr Banner broke his silence as he stepped in front of her and looked up at the green door. "If the door shocks you, then you definitely do not want to see what is inside," he told them as he took off his glasses to clean them on his shirt.
"Hey I designed those rooms specifically to represent our superhero abilities and stuff," Tony defended his decorating. "It is not my fault the room is green I just followed the superhero guidelines. You turn green, therefore the room is green."
Dr Banner sighed, clearly he heard this a lot. Tony led them past Dr Banner's room, he stopped in front of a door painted purple with a symbol of arrows on it. Just further down from Clint's room was the door for Natasha's room, which was painted black with her symbol.
The two S.H.I.E.L.D agents hesitated. Clint was the first to enter his room. Natasha peered around the door and saw a very stylish room with a double bed in the corner of the room and a bathroom on the left. It was decorated with black wallpaper and purple curtains covering the window. She was definitely jealous.
"You got lucky," Bruce commented from beside Natasha.
"Yeah well I decorated the first two rooms personally but then I got bored so JARVIS took over by reading your files," Tony explained from behind them. "Did I forget to mention I made a file on all of you?" Natasha and Bruce turned their heads towards him and glared. The billionaire shrugged his shoulders trying to look innocent.
Natasha turned to her door. With a hand on the doorknob she turned to Tony who smirked at her. She suddenly regretted coming here without arguing with Director Fury more. Then she turned back and opened the door. She dropped her bag at the door and stepped inside slowly.
Her queen sized bed was up in the centre of the room against the window. There was a desk with a computer on the right and on the left there was a bookshelf and wardrobe. The sheets on the bed looked like silk or velvet and the room was decorated black and red. Her bathroom was on the right. On the left, opposite the bathroom door, there were shelves built into the wall. She looked at them and opened the first one she saw. There were spaces for guns and ammo inside.
"Good enough?" Tony asked.
Natasha searched for words. "It will do," she replied.
At that moment Pepper decided to appear at the door wearing jeans and a buttoned up white t-shirt. Her hair was still wet and it was a mess. "What's going on? JARVIS said it was important. Has something happened?" She asked Tony. Then she realised he was smirking. "What?" she demanded.
"Nothing," he replied as he walked away down the hallway.
Pepper gave them an apologetic look before following him. There was a silence between the two agents and Dr Banner. Then Bruce spoke. "I suggest you look in your room for any hidden cameras. Tony has a habit of spying on people. Captain Rogers is still convinced Tony hid a GPS tracking device inside his uniform."
There was another moment of silence. "Thank you Dr Banner," Natasha said before backing away into her room and closing the door.
Once inside she picked up her bag and dumped it onto the bed. She unpacked while scanning around her new room. She noticed a vent to the right of the door. She reminded herself to check it out later for any cameras. Then she realised she was still wearing her S.H.I.E.L.D uniform and found suitable casual clothes to change into. A black shirt and pants was all she needed. Out of suspicion of the cameras she changed in the bathroom. She looked over her red hair and decided to leave it loose. It was pointless to tie it back at that moment.
Natasha sat on the edge of her bed trying to decide whether or not to go back out to the living room area where the rest of the Avengers were when someone knocked on her door. She tensed. It took a minute before she managed to remind herself that this was a secure building and that whoever was at the door was not trying to kill her. "Come in," she told them.
The door opened to reveal Clint. Natasha hadn't spoken to him since the Phoenix mission. She had no idea if he was angry with her or not. After all she was the one that compromised the mission. He walked in and stood in front of where she was still sitting on the bed. She didn't dare make eye contact. He finally spoke. "So do you like your room?" he asked.
"It's fine," she replied still refusing to look at him.
"Natasha," he spoke softly trying to get her to look at him. "Nat," he spoke louder and she finally looked up at him. "It wasn't your fault."
"If I hadn't hesitated those agents might still be alive," the words finally escaped from Natasha's mouth. Clint was the only person she could openly talk to. "I made a mistake, I don't know what happened to me in that basement but I thought I could…" she trailed off, bitting her lip to stop herself talking. She was upset of course but Natasha knew how to handle death, she was more angry with herself for allowing Phoenix to escape.
Clint moved and sat next to her. "Nat, even you wouldn't have had the guts to shoot her. Every single agent we have would've done the same thing. You're not to blame. You thought she was just a frightened teenage girl. You couldn't have known she would attack."
"Clint I was trained to kill when I was a child. I should've known more than anyone that she was dangerous. We both read that journal."
Clint grabbed her hands and looked directly into her eyes. For a moment Natasha's breath caught. Then she managed to keep control of herself. "Natasha there was nothing you could've done. S.H.I.E.L.D will find her. You should put this week to good use and relax," he told her firmly.
She sighed. "Ok fine. But just so you know I'm going to get bored really easily and I may end up causing serious harm to someone. Most likely Tony."
He chuckled. "There's a fully equipped training room below the bottom floor. Tony added it after we partially destroyed the tower. I don't know why, but it's off limits until tomorrow. You can survive one day can't you?" he asked the last part carefully. Natasha was occasionally prone to outbursts that more or less always involved knife throwing.
Natasha thought for a minute. She held up a single finger. "I can manage one day. Any more than that and I won't hesitate to rip out JARVIS's main systems to gain access to that floor."
They laughed together. Natasha felt something spark in the back of her mind that brought forth an onslaught of memories shared with Clint on missions, but, as usual, she kept her emotions hidden. Recently though it was getting more difficult. On missions she could still keep up appearances and play any card to get her way. In real life with people she classified as friends, it was harder. For some reason she was getting more aware of everything around her when Clint came close. She was aware of her heart beat, her scent, and her appearance even. She couldn't explain it.
"Do you think we should go back out there and check on them?" Clint asked after a slight pause, mostly caused by The Black Widow's distraction of her own thoughts.
"I think that might be a good idea," she agreed.
They both stood up at the same time and walked down the hallway, past the doors painted by Tony, side by side. Surprisingly the sight that awaited them in the living room posed no immediate threat of danger. To be honest, the whole scene looked boring. Although after battling an army of aliens in Manhattan, everything looked boring for Natasha recently.
Tony was, to no one's surprise whatsoever, standing at the bar. Pepper looked uncomfortable sharing a couch with the God of Thunder and a man that could turn into a giant green rage monster at any given time. It only made matters worse that a man from the 40's was sitting across from her. Upon noticing Natasha's entrance into the room she jumped up and ran towards her.
"Hi Natasha. Listen I really need a break from this," she motioned to the scene behind her. "Do you want to come to the spa with me?"
"A spa?" Natasha asked.
"Yeah. I know it's not really your thing but Director Fury did say you needed time off. I figured going to the spa would be a good way to relax."
Natasha looked sceptical but Clint elbowed her gently. "Just go Nat."
She paused and scanned Pepper up and down. "Alright then," she agreed.
Pepper grinned, then grabbed Natasha's hand and dragged her towards the elevator. Clint watched them enter the elevator, Tony's humming caused them all to turn and look at him. He was sipping on a drink. He put a finger up signalling them to wait as he skulled the drink. Once her finished he put the empty glass down and turned to the four men still sitting on the couch.
"I have some highly important genius stuff to attend to. So, Legolas, can you take Thunder and Uncle Sam down to the shopping centre across the street? I need a babysitter. Banner will stay here, I don't particularly want to pay for a shopping centre smashed to pieces by a Hulk," Tony announced.
Clint honestly had nothing better to do so he simply nodded weakly knowing that things were about to get frustratingly annoying.