Chapter Text
She hadn’t breathed.
Not when the video alert first appeared as a banner on her phone Not through the entirety of Tony’s arrival to the bunker. Nor Steve making Tony watch that video without so much as sending Barnes outside.
Not during the fight. Not when it turned into a beatdown. Nor when Tony’s heartbroke as he was left there alone with a disabled suit.
Not when the elevator descended. Not when he was standing there in front of her, not the same, but perfectly fine. Nor when it became apparent that Friday, innocent and young girl that she still was, hadn’t found the words to tell him yet.
None of it stopped Natasha from screaming with the air she had left, “Why didn’t you fight back!?”
Tony had the audacity to turn toward her confused, but they both got earth shattering revelations at the exact same moment. He got the dump of all relevant information currently stemming from the video that Zemo had released via Friday. Natasha found out that Tony had injected himself with Extremis.
“No,” She gasped, knowing that had been a last resort for him, “NO!”
“Tali,” He went for their private nickname out of reflex.
“It was all for Barnes!”
“Don’t,” Tony reached for her and even started toward her, but he pulled himself back at the last minute.
And she hated herself for that. Because Tony had never cut her off. That blame lay solely at her feet.
Gone was any sense of composure she’d ever had. Natasha stormed over to the billionaire and seized him by the collar of his unbuttoned dress shirt, screaming, “How could you not fight back? You let him raise that shield!” Her head felt alight with flame in her anger, but it left her to crumbling ruins just as quickly, “You would have let him… You…”
"I'm right here, b… I'm right here."
"He said he would tell you. He said he had. You were supposed to know. I didn't lie! I didn't, I swear!"
Her voice broke into shattered shards. There felt like at least four rivers of tears were flowing from her eyes. And Tony muttered about her being a piss poor ice princess for the spy kingdom, as he pulled her into his embrace so that the Black Widow could hide her ugly crying in the expanse of muscles there.
Tony had been no slouch before, but Extremis was its own serum. A metahuman suddenly capable of manipulating technology the way that Erik Lehnsherr did metal underhand, Natasha was both curious about the intricate silver brackets of thorn shaped streaks that now had residency on Tony’s skin like a second type of vein, and she couldn’t have cared less. Not as long as he was here and putting all of his attention on her where it belonged.
Where it hadn’t been in way too long.
Despite what people would probably be proclaiming for years to come, Tony’s eyes had always been that blue. It was an electrically charged blue like that of royalty; the night sky in the background of a lighting strike. In terms of his painted irises, those were from his mother and completely unrelated to the lab accident that would be reported later.
It was his dark pupil that she feared was forever gone. The dark void like standing in the eye of a hurricane, knowing yourself the safest little girl alive for it, had been eradicated. Natasha thought she would forever miss that sensation of all his attention being directed towards her. Until the gold disappeared as he disconnected from his new abilities.
He cooed down at her, one arm locked tight around her neck and holding the scarlet spy safely to his chest, while his other hand wandered up to wipe her tears away with his thumb, “Tali, baby girl, breathe. We’re okay.”
“You never wanted…” She choked and trailed off, because she still looked just like she had when they met after ‘I am Iron Man’.
But, Tony? He’d loved every minute of getting older. The laugh lines, and excuses, and the salt and pepper look that had every eligible woman fantasizing about calling him 'daddy'... Natasha included.
And she'd gotten to have it. Him. The entire time that she was undercover.
Then, the day before the donut shop, she'd realized that she wasn't pulling out his desires for a relationship. He'd been manipulating hers out into the open from the beginning. And Natalia Romanova had been horrified and embarrassed.
So… Iron Man, yes. Tony Stark, not recommended. And worse yet was that he let her.
He let his little Tali have her temper tantrum, though he hadn't placated her either. When he'd gotten into a relationship with Pepper and the Black Widow got over herself, Natasha had found out quickly that Tony wasn't a wanderer, and it sent her scurrying for Bruce. She was relieved now, but at that time she'd drank a lot more than even an enhanced person should, and coped through being unhappy without him.
Now, suddenly, they were both single again.
"I've been thinking about it for a while, darling."
She snuffled, red nosed, and pulled back, "You have… Daddy?"
"Yes," Tony studied her for a long moment, before he bent to kiss her, neither a peck nor tongue.
He was holding out on her.
And his grin suggested he knew her perturbed by that fact, "If it's any consolation, baby girl, it's only because we shouldn't start up until the kids go to bed."
And that was when it struck her. Of course Tony had everyone and everything locked down. Safe.
It was Tony.
Not even twelve hours ago he was being beaten to death by Captain America and a brainwashed crone, though she hated saying that of Yasha, and the hero was currently back to work. He was containing the fallout and covering those left behind by Steve's crusade for Bucky Barnes, because someone had to. Despite the changes making his height and girth similar to that of Steve, he'd managed to also keep the silver streaks in his hair from the neck up, if not the laugh lines.
She pulled his face closer once more though, stroking his whiskers, "Who's here?"
"Laura and the kids…"
No surprise there. She couldn't believe Steve called a retired man into this fight. Or that Clint heeded such a pointless call to arms.
"Peter and May."
Good. Tony had been the one, laying in bed all those years ago, the night before Fury pulled her from undercover and she found out that the billionaire had known from day one, who demanded to know what she had against adoption. He asked her, since she clearly liked being the little princess, why she didn't just fulfill her dream of being a housewife with twenty kids running around. Natasha had thought the answer as simple as it always was.
"I can't have kids."
Blue eyes that had always had light, almost white, streaks like lightning appraised her, "You have some ethical qualm against adoption?"
She'd started, "Of course not."
"Then that doesn't account for the hold up."
Tony had never treated her like she was stupid. Like her looks had gotten her by. When he'd found out that Pep's new assistant could keep up with what he did in the lab, all she'd been was another consultant, until he wanted her between the sheets too. Until she'd wanted him.
And clearly he'd started collecting the kids he'd always wanted despite Pepper never wanting kids. Peter Parker was the newest addition she'd noticed, along with a Kamala Khan, though she hadn't met the Ms. Marvel applicant yet. Despite this she knew instantly that Tony wouldn't let the upcoming Young Avengers program be called into question.
Steve had made Iron Man's point about accountability brutally. She'd thought he truly saw a blitz coming and left Tony bare for the vultures. Natasha felt her breath hitch, "I'm sorry."
Tony pulled from his count off of Stark Tower's current residents, and it was already Stark Tower once more, to focus back on her. His pupils bled back to black where gold had started creeping in again, "You didn't fly a mission you didn't believe in. Nothing to be sorry for."
"I believed…"
"We all did," Darkness finally bled into his tone and she was relieved.
Tony was angry. Enraged and dangerous in the light of what had been revealed. And she was only calmed by the fact that she could cuddle up to the Merchant of Death, hug him and offer comfort, and even in his rage Tony let her.
After a moment the arms around her tightened before Tony kissed the top of her head and stepped back. He pulled her off toward the elevator. Luckily he didn't seem to mind the way she clung to his arm like an octopus, despite the fact that she very intentionally hadn't touched him, not since injecting him with that lithium.
He just went back to working, because that's what Tony was always doing when he didn't want to deal, even as he shrugged out of his white dress shirt, "Harley and Mickey got fully moved before I shot up, thank God."
She ignored the callous reference to Extremis. Tony had an emergency stash of it in the suit since he cured Pepper. The changes that had been wrought by his emergence into metahuman status barely even registered to the spy, but the knowledge that she'd released Steve to raise that shield still had her shaken.
But, the two of his children that Tony had full legal custody of, since their mother died of cancer the previous year, were squared away safe. That was what mattered. They hadn't been stranded at the compound during the fight there, isolated from Pepper, Happy, and the rest of their family… While the only man they'd ever called father had to use advanced experimentation to keep himself from suffocating in the snows of Siberia.
Tony was in nothing now but old worn jeans and an undershirt. He'd grabbed what looked like braces for Rhodey off his work bench, before hauling both of them toward the metal box of ascension, dutifully ignoring the way she kissed his bare shoulder as her mind raced, "Kamala and her family got here a few hours ago."
The Khans were traditionalists, by and large from what she'd heard, but Tony had a surprising ability with the conservative crowd. The futurist who not only embraced change, but created it with his very spirit, was still the only son of Howard Stark. He was born with a drink in one hand and his parents had argued about whether to put a weapon or cigar in the other.
She didn't need to see him charm the girl's parents with his overprotective dad schtick to know that it had happened. One deep gravelly comment about someone's tone or youth, and the couple had probably been packing their daughter up for the trip from Jersey to New York without another question asked. Tony never met a crowd he couldn't win over.
"Vision is here," He smiled as his back hit the metal rail at the back of the elevator, letting her cuddle back to his chest, tucked under his chin, as soon as he was situated, "And Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey arrived an hour ago."
His best friend, life partner, and first work spouse had been warning Tony that he might have to give up control of the Compound at any moment. It was no shock that Rhodey had proved right again. That was why Natasha had come here after leaving the airport. She hadn't thought… It wasn't supposed to go the way it had.
Tony was never supposed to be in danger from Steve, or Yasha. Especially not Yasha. But, Steve had almost killed him.
"Where is he?"
"Squatting with your boyfriend in Wakanda," Tony scoffed, "Thinks King Kitty is hiding them out."
She pulled away, honestly confused. T'challa was signed into the Accords. His father had just died believing in them. And Steve thought he was so righteous that the young king would throw away all of his political integrity just as Wakanda was rejoining the wider world?
How delusional was Captain America?
How much had she been blind to?
Letting herself become so worried about keeping one eye on Tony, the spy realized that she'd left him to manage the rest by himself, all due to her wariness. And he'd taken and taken everything the team had to offer, from the streets of New York, to the fall of Shield, to the Accords. Never once asking them for help.
"I know," Tony chuckled, running a hand over a greasy curl fondly, "Foolish, but convenient. He'll keep them contained… Especially now that the bunker video is out."
"Tony…"
Maria Stark's blue eyes, still full of the life the Winter Soldier had managed to almost take from the world completely, glistened with tears. But, it wasn't just his mother and Tasha knew that. She'd watched the video before running for the lab and she knew what he'd heard in that bunker, "He recognized him… He… They were worried about each other, at the end of it all."
Was Howard Stark a good parent? No. Could Tony have fashioned himself after the man more if he'd tried? Probably not. Did Tony love that alcoholic, work obsessed, weapons manufacturer with all of his heart? Yes.
It might have been easier for him to feel the burn of anger over his mother, which led to him attacking the woman's killer. But, it was the hurt over Howard that would linger far longer. Even as the forgiveness that Maria would have expected of him bled through and pressed into her hip when the Black Widow reached up to kiss him.
After a few floors passed, she stepped back and tried to do something with herself, making Tony laugh. She hadn't washed her hair, so she threw it up in a ponytail, while she was just stuck in her wallowing clothes. Sweats and a Harry Potter shirt that would have fit currently on Tony better than her, as it dwarfed the spy's small frame. She did use another hair tie to knot it off to one side, as if Tony cared what she was wearing while in the penthouse.
This wasn't her style though and he knew that. Tasha knew how much presentation could matter, even if he dared anyone to shame her in his tower. She would have normally loathed for him to see her in the spy's current state, so the rest raised her heckles.
By the time the elevator opened and they stepped out, Tony looked just as put together as he had when she'd come charging into the lab. He led them into a lively scene and it had Natasha relaxing. Everyone was okay.
Little Nathaniel was sitting on Vision's lap in a leather recliner, the two hopelessly lost in staring at one another, doing nothing. A young teen she placed as Kamala was explaining the braces in Tony's hand to Lila and Mickey via a hologram and Cooper was playing a video game on the penthouse's television with Harley and Peter.
May and Mrs. Khan were on the other leather sofa with Laura, sipping tea, and letting the woman vent her rage at Clint, a circle she fully intended to join momentarily. And Mr. Khan was sitting near enough Pepper and Rhodey to be overwhelmed by their conversation, as well as fascinated, even as Happy carried on a perfectly normal conversation with him, while the girls were on the floor at the Head of Security’s feet. Tony headed for his work spouses, one for the military and one for Stark Industries, before he fully processed the horror on their faces.
Rhodey looked up first, as the video placed them in its time and space with a sound bite, "My father made that shield!"
The video ended and Tony had frozen under his best friend's gaze. Upon a closer inspection of the room using Extremis, the boys' video game was paused and Harley was watching the video on his starkpad, Pepper was using her phone, and Kamala was looking up at Pepper's phone from the floor. May was on her phone too, so everyone knew. The younger kids couldn't see anything, but they'd certainly heard the battle, and Vision was his own device link up.
Mickey heard the elevator arrive and big brown eyes flew to him, before she shot off the floor like a cannon firing, "Daddy!"
She was crying by the time she got to him and Tony just stooped down to pick the disheveled eight year old up, "Hey, it's okay. Mick, I'm fine, honey."
His eyes darted toward the older boys on the couch and both Peter and Harley looked close to tears. He hadn't wanted the news broken to any of them this way and raised a hand to summon the teenagers over. When they collided into him like a couple of battering rams, Tony chuckled, "Come on, guys. You bunch act like I had the audacity to croak on you."
"He was gonna…"
It was no wonder that sensitive little Peter was the one to crack at the thought of Tony going anywhere. Iron Man chuckled in response, "Hey, your old man was never as down as he let them think to end the fight. Give me some credit."
Harley backed up and his smirk was devilish. He believed that statement from Tony with all his heart, it was true after all, and he backed away with a light to his eyes that sparked just like the older man's. Alright then, Tony's first human child seemed to agree, onto the bloodshed.
Tony returned the look with a laugh, his hand coming up to pat Harley's cheek affectionately, "You are your daddy's boy."
He'd shifted the braces to his hand holding Mickey and, as soon as she had stopped crying, he kissed her cheek before passing her to Natasha. He hugged Peter and sent the boys tearing back over to Cooper's sofa. It was only then that she noticed Pepper had locked gazes on her.
The power couple of Stark Industries had broken up and the CEO was seeing Happy. That also wasn't the point. There would be an adjustment period given that their romantic relationships had been given a drastic overhaul very recently.
But, after a moment, she noted that there was still a certain level of warmth to the high heel clad woman's sights for her, and Natasha knew that they'd be fine. Pepper hadn't minded when she and Tony were together before. The spy wasn't really applying for the same job that had been Potts' anyway.
Tony moved off with the braces, gesturing to Rhodey in his wheelchair next to Pepper's seat, "Alright, you're the future doctor. Make yourself useful!"
Kamala beamed as the braces were handed over, as did Mr. Khan, confirming what the Black Widow already suspected, but the girl still asked politely, "Can I help set them up, Colonel Rhodes?"
"I'm sure I'd feel much safer in your hands then his," Rhodey sassed, even as a hand reached up to squeeze Tony's hand on his shoulder, eyes shining with gratitude.
As they got to work, Lila ran over to her godmother and embraced her around the middle, locked under Tasha's hand that wasn't holding Mickey. She took a moment to take another look at Vision and she noticed, as Tony knelt to help get Rhodes situated, that his silvery blue eyes followed the billionaire through the exchange. It wasn’t just the human kids worried after seeing the fight in the bunker. No, Tony’s robotic children were sent spiraling by what had almost happened to him too.
She watched the synthezoid finally look away from his creator and back to Nate, his gentle head twisting as he took in the babe just sucking his thumb and staring back, “Fascinating.”
The sight made her grin as she met gazes with Laura, who snorted when the previous assassin made her way over. Natasha felt better about being right as she settled with her friend, Peter’s aunt, and Kamala’s mother. She was not applying for the same job that Pepper had been. Laura agreed with her, silent in a way that the look they shared wasn’t.
Tony had always been respectful of the fact that Pepper didn’t want children. He’d been content to mentor the kids from the Young Avengers and be a parent in that alone. With Pepper he’d been content to be part of the most fearsome power couple in the world and that was satisfying only so long when Tony was never satisfied.
It would be far easier for any woman to keep him busy, if she was invested in the same projects that he adopted into his orbit effortlessly. Stark Industries, the Military and S. H. I. E. L. D, they had never been enough. And Tony always wanted to be a family man on top of it all, even when he assumed he'd be bad at it.
Even as she made herself comfortable to discuss what in the name of every god known to man that Clint had been thinking when leaving a wife and three young children after he’d retired, Natasha let her mind wander a bit to what she’d almost lost. She was the only woman that Tony had been with, besides Pepper, and had been the first after Afghanistan. If she hadn’t completely cut him off after her cover was blown, they could have been in a very different place right now.
There were currently sixteen people in Tony’s penthouse and seven of them were either Tony’s kids or her godkids. She should have taken it more seriously when he swore to have his kids with or without her, but she wasn’t even sure she should feel guilty for claiming a title Potts hadn’t wanted. He’d been fully indulgent of her desire to be a mother from the first moment they talked about it. Just like she’d been indulgent of his desire to be a father, despite Howard.
Though, suddenly that wasn’t such a distinction for Tony. He felt lighter across the room and she realized something rather hopeful blossomed from the wreckage of that video, as he talked trash about the braces that they were currently testing. What made her smile was Rhodey agreeing with every horrible thing Tony said and listing all the things he would have done differently. Because, Howard hadn’t thrown back one too many and crashed that car going too fast.
The man that Tony had constantly held himself in reverence of, and then in opposition to in the course of one night, had swung back to the first. He’d been doing a favor for Aunt Peg, which was a whole other can of worms since the woman couldn’t have told Tony reliably for years anyway, but she was Howard Stark’s work wife through S.H.I.E.l.D. There was so much they now knew… Things that had been revealed since the data dump.
She wondered what Steve would think of almost beheading the boy who could have easily been his godson. Then, she wondered how long it would take him to realize what he’d done. Tony had shared all the research with her that Howard had on Steven’s version of the serum. It was damn near perfect, in that it kept him essentially human with no chance of differentiation among the next generation and he aged like a normal person, when not encased in ice, but that battle rage was no joke.
The shot of pure adrenaline that was pumped directly through to his brain was hard to come down from.
She and Tony dealt well with it, but clearly Steve was out of control. And now he had a brain damaged Yasha in a mindset of unknown variables and with unlimited capabilities depending on the aforementioned mindset… Then she still had to give the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist some credit. They were allowing the rogues to be contained in Wakanda.
For the night, their world kept spinning.
Eventually Mickey climbed off her and took off for the boys' huddle playing Mario Kart.
The Khans excused themselves by eleven and Peter was sent to walk them to their apartment a floor below. Harley moved off to bed with a quip about how he didn't plan to live his life squatting to avoid a couple geriatrics, while Cooper grinned at the shoulder of the older and edgier teen, following him toward the bedrooms. Tony didn't disappoint, zeroing in on Happy instantly.
"Who's been telling him it's his life?"
"Tis I," The man snorted, "The ghost of the cool uncle you used to be."
Tony groaned as all the kids disappeared from range, "Really, because it tastes suspiciously like the ghost of my old man."
Everyone felt for him, as Vision and a nodding off Nate were the only kids left in the living room, and the time to discuss the day arrived.
"How could you not tell us?"
"I disclosed everything to a closed council," Tony finally reported to everyone remaining, locking eyes with Rhodes.
Peter had been in Germany. Clint was wrecking shit in that airport on Steve's word. Rhodes and Pepper were responsible for stepping in for Tony, if…
Tasha had sent him in there. Thinking that Tony already knew about Yasha's mission on December 16, 1991 and fully expecting her boys to get to the bottom of Zemo. Steve had almost ruined that.
Tony just kept going, "Got back here minutes before the Khans arrived and went to check on Laura and the kids."
She guessed that was when he'd pulled on his favorite jeans.
Laura hissed, "Saved us from armed agents who'd tracked us for Ross. Back tracked Clint from the airport, all the way to the farm."
"By the time Helen approved that set," He motioned to the braces on his friend, "You were arriving and they were almost built. I ran downstairs before telling you and…"
Pepper sighed, "You didn't want it to come out the way it did."
"I know how it looks…"
"You let him beat on you," She glared at him, "So he wouldn't beat on anyone else!"
"Pepper..."
"Just like with the Hulk," She finally yelled, "It's okay to just cut the line."
"You do not have anything to prove," Rhodey joined in sharply, "To Captain Goddamned America!"
"Who are you telling?"
They were all sent reeling slightly by the even tone of his voice. Sitting back in his chair, Tony was dragging a hand over his face, and for just a moment he looked like someone that just went a round with Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Physically he was fine, perfectly capable of having a snark off with Harley, and calling Peter out for his language at the slightest infraction. Emotionally… He got up and wandered over to the windows.
Natasha watched him scoff and take in the view of New York at night, “He loved this fucking city... “
She was by his side in a moment, kissing his neck and wrapping her arms around him, because somebody had to comfort the heartbroken seventeen year old who was still in there somewhere. Rhodey looked like he didn’t regret what he’d said, only that it had added to Tony’s spiral, and Pepper looked like he’d just reached into her chest to flick her beating heart. Laura flinched at the comment, both her forefinger and thumb finding the wife and mother's forehead as she took in the brutality that he’d endured, while poor May’s hand flew to her mouth as she realized the billionaire was talking about his father.
Because everyone knew what had been said by the papers. Howard Stark was an alcoholic who killed his wife while recklessly driving. That video changed the facts hauntingly.
Just as tended to always be the case in circumstances like these, it was Happy who jumped in knowing what to do, “And with that, we drink.”
“Happy!” Pepper scolded immediately.
“What?” Her boyfriend shrugged, already making for the bar, “He could drink the whole bar and not get drunk with Extremis! It’s like you don’t listen when the man talks.”
Tony snorted at Pepper’s indignant yip and stretched in her arms, before pulling away, “Yeah, that actually sounds good. Finally, a true humanitarian.”
Rhodey scoffed, but his grin was still in place when he called after them, “Well, if you’re pouring out anyway…”
“Yeah, yeah…” Happy agreed, already having three glasses on the bar.
Pepper sighed, while Natasha returned to her sofa with Laura and May, “We have to address the fight and video, your injuries, and the rogues in a press conference at 8:00am.”
“What’s the story?”
“The truth… For once. Due to your injuries, you had to use advances and experimental procedures to enable your survival in Siberia, and you did so with the full knowledge and consultation of Dr. Cho.”
“Where’s Helen?”
“Flying in with Carol,” Pepper sighed, handing his statement to Natasha for the press conference, “They arrive at seven.”
“The Council?”
Rhodey jumped in after finishing his first sip, where he’d managed to walk over to the bar, the braces working well, even if the initial prototype was a bit bulky according to his and Tony’s shop talk, “Thrilled that Steve managed to make their point. They want them held accountable for the unsanctioned missions, from the loss of life to damages, but Ross has been booted after you revealed his history with Bruce and the abundance of evidence there."
Rhodey shrugged despite the day he'd endured as well, "So, right now they’re just paroling them back to the Avengers for community service. Only world ending missions and after enough training to make sure they never fuck up this badly again.”
She hadn’t been wrong before. The skill sets on the team were too necessary in terms of an alien invasion, to just toss them in jail and throw away the key, but this was beyond out of control. There was no doubt in her mind what was coming when the military commander appraised his best friend.
"Except…"
Tony sighed, "Except for the witch."
"She goes to Xavier's for evaluation and training," Rhodey hissed, "Or The Raft. He can't control her, she won't control herself, and I'm sick of you living in terror being around her."
"Why does Clint defend her?" Laura demanded. Her eyes were glistening in frustration and Natasha grabbed her hand, "I finally just told him to stop mentioning her in my house, because he was never going to justify her to me."
"The Council wants to release the footage from her Hydra days."
Tony sighed, knowing he'd been protecting her for too long, because Steve insisted that she was an Avenger. Clint too. But, in light of the last day, he was too relieved to not be shouldering that burden, "Fine."
"There's a good Tones."
"The footage has been uploaded to a flash drive for your disclosure, Colonel."
"You're the real MVP, Friday."
Tony smiled, taking the lit cigar that was being passed over to him by Happy, "True."
"What are we going to do with the kids?" Tasha demanded, because they did currently have seven under fifteen.
To illustrate her point, Nate burst into a fit of giggles and rolled onto his back in Vision's lap. She and Laura smiled at the pair. Especially the fascinated synthezoid.
The maroon incarnation of Jarvis couldn't help vocalizing just that, "Fascinating."
Tony just shook his head, "Peter and Harley have school, but we might as well just set up private tutors to come in house… Unless you're in a hurry to escape the big city?"
Laura snorted, "As much as I don't want to be in the way, I think you're stuck with me for a while."
"You are not in the way, Laura," The billionaire insisted right away.
"He's right," Pepper appraised her, "And I know that the Young Avengers were looking for a in-house director for the kids. If you're interested in the coming days."
"We've got to get everything at the Compound sold to the UN," Rhodey insisted, "Get the new system organized and released. It'll look better if Carol and I sign off on those plans."
"All the paperwork will be ready to sign following the press release," Tony assured quickly, smirking into his drink, "And if the date makes people think we signed before, they know what happens when one assumes."
Happy followed Pepper out, after Rhodey announced that the world wouldn't burn down if they slept, before the man led the charge in his braces. The other red head did stop to kiss Tony’s cheek on the way out, but it was only fond, “Hope Van Dyne arrives with Carol and Helen at seven.”
“Haven’t I suffered enough?”
May checked on Peter, before heading to sleep in one of the penthouse's five bedrooms, when all three boys were unconscious. A maternal type, she reported that both the girls sleeping in the penthouse were down as well, before she disappeared to collapse. Laura stayed sitting next to her on the couch, studying Nate where the baby had hauled himself up to get a closer look at Vision, especially the metal piece of his head.
Natasha studied her friend in a similar fashion, "You want a divorce."
Laura's dark head tilted, though her sights never left her youngest, "Not necessarily."
That was surprising. The woman that Clint had married was petty and vindictive. She wouldn't typically be this calm.
"I want him on his knees, begging for forgiveness for the mess he's made," Laura explained, "I want him to admit I've been right about that Hydra whore from the beginning, and I want him to explain the choices he made to our children knowing damn well he'll fail…"
That was more like it.
"Then," She clarified, "I'd consider reconciliation."
The spy and notorious Black Widow should have been surprised when her friend’s gaze swung to her like a lioness, but she wasn’t. Laura was a lot like Tony, from the moment she’d met the previous Agent Blackwood at S.H.I.E.L.D, as the other woman just got her. Hazel eyes were holding back molten lava that would come for Clint’s ass the first chance she got, even as the woman insisted warmly, “That’s marriage. That’s building a family with someone.”
“Trying to warn me off?” Natasha speculated, flushing slightly.
Laura just let her sights wander over to Tony, who was politely letting them have a private conversation, as he worked on the set of B.A.R.F. glasses that he’d unhooked from his belt loop, once all other forms of entertainment went away. The mother of three noted, “I’d never seen you with anyone the way you were with him. You were happy.”
“I got scared.”
“Even he knew, after the fact, that he should have handled you differently,” The retired agent thought back, “Wasn’t even a bad thing, giving him time to grow into the hero the world needed. That was only… What? A year after Afghanistan?”
“Yeah,” Tasha admitted.
“A lot happened in five years.”
She just snorted.
The spurned wife just snickered, "Can't say I blame you. I've never been more tempted to ask for a threesome and send the video to Clint."
Natasha rolled her eyes but reminded, "He'd only be outraged for so long… Besides, I think I'll have him again first, before loaning him out anywhere."
Her friend's voice dropped in surprise, "You didn't get his pants off downstairs?"
"Really?"
"Or hell, just get them unzipped," The woman demanded with a glance toward Tony, "For all the women not getting any for an unknown length of time, Natasha, you have a responsibility here."
"Laura!"
“Let yourself be happy, Tash,” Laura suggested, patting the Black Widow’s hand affectionately as she got up, “No one will ever say that you and Tony didn’t go above and beyond the call of duty to right your wrongs.”
“Vision, any chance I can reclaim my son? It’s wildly past his bedtime.”
“Of course, Laura,” Nate was handed over promptly and then the maroon avenger was making his way to the bar, “Are all human children so interesting?”
“Some don’t think so,” Tony chuckled, “I always have.”
She noted as she kissed her youngest godson goodnight that Vision didn’t seem to be bothered by Tony clearly working on numerous things at once. Nor did the genius show any signs of distraction, even as they carried on a conversation about developing minds, and he adjusted the glasses per the scans flying past his gold pupils in the form of holograms. The same thing crossed her mind, which she had pondered during their first meeting.
Who wouldn’t want to have his babies?
Taking a seat on the stool to his other side, the scarlet assassin demanded, “Where did you get all these scans?”
“Some of the earlier came from the data dump and destroyed Hydra bases,” He shrugged, but let her take the visual holograms, as he didn’t really have to see them with Extemis, “Then Zemo got some readings when posing as the not therapist and Friday got some great readings at the airport. The last are from the fight in the bunker.”
“What do they tell you about Yasha?”
Tony sighed, putting the finished glasses down, and getting up to stretch as he paced before the bar, “The chair became their primary means of assuring his compliance. The pain was a short term alternative to keep his long term memory at bay, so he would remain a compliant guard dog.”
Vision’s head tilted in curiosity, “But the trigger words act differently.”
“The backup alternative, if the chair wasn’t available,” He agreed, “Put plainly, his brain was trained to seize to a greater magnitude at the use of those words, but they had more long term effects compared to the chair.”
“What?” She demanded.
“The chair is a direct assault on his body and the serum heals him almost instantly,” Tony explained with one hand, before switching to the other, “But the words are a trained response they created using the word and chair over time, while his body doesn’t recognize their use as an assault decades later.”
“So, the brain damage is going unhealed,” Vision articulated.
“Exactly,” Tony agreed with his creation, “After being triggered he wasn’t capable of making his own decisions. He’s known what was happening, but he couldn’t grasp the situation beyond survival.”
“God, Steve,” Natasha cursed, knowing this could have gone so much better for Yasha.
Tony came over and pulled her into a tight embrace, “It’s alright, baby girl. Steve trusts the Wakandans. The damage will be stimulated to heal by a quick shot of steroids and I already had Princess Shuri shoot him up with a dose of cortisone.”
“Can B.A.R.F. disassociate his response to the triggers?”
“Yep,” Tony assured, “And I’ve already alerted the princess to expect the shipment to go out at first light.”
She hummed and glanced up at him a little nervous, “Do you want to go to bed?”
The look he gave her wasn’t an objection, but it did have a certain hesitancy to it, “You know, I’m not even sure if I do that anymore.”
Vision chuckled, “A brief period to recharge will still be required for optimal function, though between two to five hours per night should be sufficient.”
Natasha snorted, “So, even with Extremis, you still need to sleep more than you have been in the last five years.”
“Well,” Tony purred, “You know how much I hate sleeping in a cold bed.”
Rolling her eyes at the blatant reference to their previous breakup, and the fact that Pepper had been there through most of that time, Tasha still acknowledged, “Yes, I do.”
“And suddenly,” Vision noted, before promptly disappearing into the floor, “I have something to do away.”
Tony scoffed and led her toward the master suite. She tried objecting, wanting to go and get a set of her actual pajamas from her apartment downstairs, but he just chuckled, “I still have your robe and that last set you wore at my place in Malibu.”
That had her freezing in the doorway.
As if to prove his point, he got both out of the bottom drawer of his dresser, and threw them on the bed, before starting to strip himself. His undershirt went in the hamper before he looked at her again. Natasha was still surprised.
His bedroom in Malibu had been all windows, to the point that she’d joked his architect was allergic to walls, like he was to being handed things. It had also been a lighter and impersonal feel to the room. He’d even confessed to her that most of the time he spent there was because of her.
This room was all Tony’s design. Black marble floors, matching furniture, and every piece of metal, from the dresser knobs to the bed frame, was such a shiny silver that it had to be chrome. One wall was still all glass and on the wall beside it was the most extravagant water feature she’d ever seen.
Unlike a koi pond, there were no fish, and pale boulders the same shade as the moon, where the black marble floors disappeared beneath them, surrounded the pool… pond. They surrounded the pond, which had water lilies floating inside, and ascended half up the wall in an elegant assortment. And they were boulders; no other word could describe the massive rocks that one could easily sit on to take in New York’s skyline.
She wandered over and touched a lily, even though her sights were still on the clothes, “How did you manage that?”
Tony shrugged, taking another sip from the scotch he'd put on the dresser, "Sent it here from Malibu, when it was clear I'd sent you running. They were down in my apartment by the lab, until I was single again and remodeled this place."
"Hmm," She went over and appraised him while unbuttoning his jeans, "Need to get you some sweaters."
He laughed like she was joking.
Extremis wasn't playing any games. He could probably take Steve and that shield bare handed at the moment, because every muscle on him rippled. The only change visible besides the added height and bulk were the silver brackets of thorns that marked his arms, chest, back, and disappeared into his pants too.
"And some ugly Hawaiian shirts."
"Don't worry, Étoile," He grinned down at her, "You know you're my only ballerina."
That made her beam and his hand was instantly locked just below her ass, around the top of her thigh. She clutched at his trapezius surprised, even as her emerald eyes fluttered in askance, "Let me shower and change."
"Daddy doesn't give a damn what you're wearing."
"Please," She begged, going up on her tiptoes, "Or come shower with me?"
"Cut the wire wins the day again," He pointed to the bathroom.
His pettiness was one of his most attractive qualities in her opinion. It wasn't just how far he could go that was alluring, but that he would. If he could get the better of someone, then the only question was of timing.
The bathroom was more black marble and utterly disgusting in its extravagance, if she hadn't been about to utilize it. And suddenly she remembered why it was so easy for her to enjoy the spot of a spoiled brat. Tony made it really effortless.
Especially when he bent over to start filling the massive tub. His favorite jeans were even more welworn now, then they had been five years ago. It was truly indecent, actually.
In fact, he didn't wear those out. Not even to go and get Laura and the kids. Why… "Were you naked after you took Extremis."
"I hate that you're not a twit."
"You would have been bored immediately."
"That's not untrue," Tony agreed, checking the temperature, "But I stand by the tone in which I said it."
"I've said for five years," Natasha reminded, "That you should keep a real change of clothes in the lab…"
"In case of accidents," Tony finished with her, "I know."
"Instead you got caught with your pants all but down."
He didn't even try to deny it, "At least I had a dress shirt down there to cover everything."
She just scoffed and shook her head, "What happened?!"
"Steve's quinjet shot off and with the dying power to the suit I got that emergency injection of Extremis," He got up to take of his beloved jeans and continued, "The original rush of flame burst out of me as it spread and it burned the undersuit off, but the armor was fine."
"Burst of…" She threw her depressed and wallowing clothes into the hamper on her first try. His palm was up and a small flame danced within it, when he kneeled down beside her to show off what he could do. By the time he got to the floor, he was turning his hand over and a gauntlet was covering it, "Okay, Mr. Mistoffelees."
"For the rest of my days," Tony complained, "I'll be the man married to the one that actually likes CATS."
"Why are you saying it funny?"
"Because he's a big fat jerk."
Natasha startled. Usually AI children tolerated being metaphorically shut out of their creator's bedrooms rather well. Friday wasn't that young, so clearly Tony had invited her into the conversation.
"I was seeing if your theory had a tonile equivalent," Tony corrected the AI, huffing at her indignation across Extremis. The ability to feel his kids in a new way was great, "Congratulations, it holds water against two senses."
"What is he on about, Friday?"
"On the way back from Siberia," Jarvis' heir to the throne explained, "I told Boss that I didn't like the way that he said my name. I've always hated it."
"Why?"
"Because, he's been saying it in all capital letters and it's annoying," Friday exclaimed, "Say it like you would a person, not Broadway's leading lady."
"Alright. I stopped, didn't I?" Tony demanded, "Now shoo."
He blushed and the barest hint of gold dust fled from his eyes. Natasha appraised him, "Showing off a little too much?"
His lips pursed and he was pouting, "Getting to have an instant link to them is tempting."
"Hmm," She climbed over to straddle his lap, inspecting the gauntlet, "Can you take it off?"
He took it off like he always did the armor and threw it into the partially filled tub. She was distracted by the feeling of him between her legs again. They'd never been able to stop working closely together once Steve was thawed out, but there had been clear physical boundaries, which had suddenly been eliminated.
By the time her sights left the sinking gauntlet, a new one had reappeared on his hand, and when he turned it over that one bled back in like a wave returning to the ocean. When she shot the gauntlet in the tub another look, his hand shot out to summon it back, and it too bled back onto him. That was a nice party trick.
"This doesn't actually make you immortal," She insisted, running through every worst case scenario that could be used against him.
Tony scoffed at the serious set to her green gaze, but nodded solemnly enough, "I know that. I do, baby girl."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, "You scared everyone."
"It wasn't supposed to…" Tony sighed, one hand coming up to tangle in her hair and the other rubbing circles on her back, "I can't believe the kids saw that. They were never…"
"Peter worships the ground you walk on."
"Harley wasn't as unconscious as he let May think. I need to cut off his WiFi."
"The rest of the world is going to watch it. Why not him?"
He appraised her, where the spy had sat back on his bent knees like her own personal throne, and pondered the fact that she knew Harley was watching it on a loop. Over and over again. And again, "He's angry."
"He wants Steve's head on a spike," She corrected for specificity, "I'm tempted to give it to him."
"He got hold of himself."
"After he raised that shield," Tasha hissed, "And he was not aiming for your already injured chest."
"He didn't."
"He thought about it!" She yelled finally, "Why are you defending him?!"
Tony sat back a bit. When he'd first started courting S.H.I.E.L.D's Black Widow, unbeknownst to her, she'd confessed that she liked the way he constantly made her feel. Passion, anger, frustration, excitement, and happiness. He didn't balk in the face of the second.
He leaned back on both arms, thinking, "Because I thought about taking your Yasha's head off too. I thought about leaving them both as an ash mark on that bunker wall."
That wasn't surprising, "You'd just watched him kill both your parents. Found out that Steve had been lying to you for years, when he had the audacity to blame Ultron on you and not his Hydra whore."
Chuckling the billionaire appraised her, "That been an ongoing commentary between you and Laura?"
It was her turn to pout suddenly, "You wouldn't let me go to war with Steve over her placement on the team."
That was true enough. When Bruce fled to get away from Wanda and then disappeared, while their relationship ended amicably enough, with both of them admitting to be more in love with Tony than they were each other, she had wanted to make the witch go to training. Tony had already been trying with Steve though and he'd told her not to bother.
He sighed and nodded toward the tub, as it reached full capacity, "We fought. No one got hurt and I'm washing my hands of the witch. If he wants to keep defending her, then he can plant himself like a tree in Wakanda, and be King Kitty's problem."
"Horrible thing to do to that boy."
"Guilty as charged."
He sunk into the carved out seat at the back of his tub and Natasha swam over to perch on top of him, "We could save talk of his fate until the sun rises."
"Hmm…" His fingers drug delicately through the water and up her thigh until his middle digit could disappear between her lips, "We could do that."