864/Welcome Home

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Welcome Home
Date of Scene: 30 March 2020
Location: Avengers Mansion - Labs
Synopsis: After a long day of defending the world from militaristic madmen, Natasha brings Tony fast food and Tony shares an anecdote of their first time working together as 'superheroes'.
Cast of Characters: Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark




Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    You ever basically fly around the world in a single day?
    Even with SHIELD's tech, Natasha doesn't really reccomend it.
    It's getting late when Natasha returns, eyes a little heavier than normal, wearing a short black coat over a white shirt and black trousers, carrying a paper sack in her right hand. When she steps into the Mansion, she gives a little sigh as she takes in the familiar sight of the entryway. Somewhere along the line this place snuck up on her and became 'home'. She's getting increasingly comfortable with bad ideas for spycraft.
    "Jarvis, where's Tony?" She asks the open air as she slides her coat off of her shoulders and hangs it up by the entryway.
    <<In his laboratory, Ms. Romanoff; if he has not deceived my sensors.>>
    "Okay good." Natasha says, rubbing one eye, then pauses. "Is he alive?"
    <<To all appearances, yes.>>
    Natasha begins moving towards the lab. "... Has he been good?"
    <<That is... subjective, Ms. Romanoff.>>
    "Mmm." Natasha opens the door to the lab, affecting a bit of a smile as she knocks twice on the doorframe. "... Hey there. You're off the hook." She says, her voice a bit heavier than normal, audibly veering towards the tired side.

Tony Stark has posed:
Tony's own space within the Mansion's admittedly expansive laboratory complex is quintessentially Starkian. For one thing there is a holographic table located in the middle, projecting imagery up into the air. It looks like a semi-translucent wireframe model of a suit of armor, specifically focused on the gauntlet at the moment. He's leaning back against the wall observing it, a bottle of water in one hand and a towel around his neck. The high-energy soundtrack blaring through the speakers suggests he's been mixing a workout with design time.

He hears Nat's voice, however, and with a gesture of his hand the music cuts off immediately. The smile on his face is a genuine one as he turns to see her, walking towards her and placing his hands upon her hips. He doesn't hesitate over it anymore, instead he just leans in to give her a quick kiss before leaning back a little to look her over.

"I am? You look like you could sleep for a year." A pause. "Not flattering. You look good."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    The bright high energy environment is a bit of a shock to the senses after the day she's had, but at least it's a familiar one. Increasingly, so is Tony's approach. She still has to suppress about ten instinctive impulses to knock him on his ass, but that's down from twenty! So that's progress!
    "Mmn~" she makes a sweet little sound as Tony kisses her, putting her free hand on his chest. In the pause between the observation and the save, Natasha raises a bemused eyebrow, and then closes her eyes with a soft huff of a laugh. "Timezones. I skipped over... most of them today." She pauses, now. "You didn't hear me say that. Here!" she says, and presents a suitably greasey and appetizing smelling paper sack from whatever place Tony fancies, "Since you've been cooped up, and Door Dash doesn't come here anymore."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Yeeeeees," Tony says gleefully, almost snatching the bag from Natasha as she offers it to him and immediately digging around inside. After a moment he produces about eight fries, popping them in his mouth and looking suddenly euphoric, "Mmph. Fhhf purrfuh."

He moves over towards the holograph table, waving the images out of the way and beginning to lay out the greasy food for the pair of them. He turns his head, glancing up at her as he does so.

"Hard day at the office, huh? Is freedom safe for another day? Did you use the - " he doesn't say the word, instead gesturing his fingers at his face and miming a mask sliding down over it.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha grins softly at Tony's reaction - it's the little things, it turns out - and shakes her head at his slurred speech, guessing at its contents and replying "You're very welcome."
    She moves to the table - one might see a hint of a saunter, but she's not quite there yet - turns her back to it and leans her butt against it casually as she steals two fries and bites the ends off of both of them. Chewing thoughtfully she smartly replies "Rrmn..." and then swallows. "Freedom is... redacted. For another..." she smiles thinly, "Redacted." She takes another bite and smiles a little at Tony's gesturing. They might need a name for the goggles. Her Gauntlets' tazers didn't have a name until some smart aleck called it the Widow's Sting, but it still stuck.
    Come to think of it, was that Tony? Or Clint? Hrm.
    "I *did* use the goggles." She says, raising her eyebrows slightly, brow raising pleasantly. "Theeeeey kept my hands free and vision good in the dark when I needed to adjust... they weren't cumbersome or heavy at all; felt like part of my head... they *probably* made me look like some kind of ninja robot..." she smiles a little, "... and they survived and informed data for a HALO jump. So..." Natasha leans in and smooches Tony on the cheek. "... I'm very happy with them. Thank you."

Tony Stark has posed:
"Good," Tony says with a nod of his head, unfolding the greasy paper from around a burger and surveying it for a moment like one would a precious jewel, "Oh, yes. Perfect. Perfect."

He tips a carton of fries onto the paper, making a little impromptu meal on his plate. As he does he looks up towards Nat, still smiling broadly.

"Glad you like it," he answers, "I spent a lot more time on that than I care to admit, truth be told. The others are gonna be jealous if they find out I'm outfitting you."

He lifts the burger to take a big, mighty bite from it and once more his eyes close in that euphoria of greasy food after a busy day of burning mental and physical calories. He sighs contentedly, lowering it down to chest height. He moves closer to her, leaning against the table next to her so they're thigh-to-thigh.

"You're my hero, y'know."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha smiles as the food gets laid out - TERRIBLE for her occupation AND figure - and steals one more fry. "Oh, yeah?" She asks regarding the time spent on the goggles. IE the first time she tried to dodge this entire situation. It seems silly in hindsight, but it WAS a little soon! "Ooohhh, no, you don't want to set that precident, it's true. I think I'm spoiled enough with the mask. Besides..." she shrugs, "Iron Maiden is a terrible super hero name."
    That and she's... not a super hero. T-shirt aside. So.
    She glances down at the hip as it makes contact, and then back up at his face with a smile; though what he says draws a curious look. "What's this, now?"

Tony Stark has posed:
"I'm going to tell you something," Tony begins, after taking another bite of his hamburger and finishing it, "That I have never told anybody. And if you share it with anyone, I am going to deny it vehemently. Besides, nobody will ever believe I said it anyway."

A pause, his eyes narrow a little and he looks at her askance: "I feel like I ought to pat you down for listening devices. Hm. Guess I'll let it slide for just this one time."

"Soooo," he begins slowly, as though searching for the words, "Remember Loki? I mean the first time with Loki and the elves and the giants and all that Lord of the Rings crap? Well, I remember there was this moment during that fight where I looked over at you and just thought how amazing it was that you did everything you did - do, I mean - without fancy technology or a magic pill or being from Rigel VII or any of that. A genuine super human."

He turns a little back towards the holographic table, sweeping away the remnants of his design to bring up what looks like a file list: "I've still got the footage here, somewhere. Thor's birthday party, no. Pym's symposium, big no. Here."

Then he pulls it up, showing a flat screen video clearly recorded from the visor of his Iron Man armor. In it, Nat kicks copious amounts of Frost Giant and Dark Elf ass for the good of all New York.

"Hero," he says, as though the word were punctuation.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    At Tony's preface of denial, Natasha maintains a curious stare, stating: "I'm intrigued." Though she smirks a bit at the prospect of patting her down.
    Remember Loki? "Dimly." she says with zero audible irony, though her expression does gradually soften... and then go a little bit blank as Tony speaks, staying that way for a moment before a smile twitches gradually back to life on her lips.
    She steps away from the table and turns around, crossing her arms to watch as the video feed comes to life, drawing a look of surprise from Natasha. She had no idea he kept things like this.
    She'd also never really seen herself at work before; much less in a war zone. Two years younger, black catsuit and slightly longer red hair, kicking an enemy's knee out from under him, and then kicking him in the head when he goes down. Immediatelly forced to lean backwards under a stave thrust that barely misses her nose while her body's nearly horizontal, during which time she reaches 'upward' to put two bullets into the Dark Elf behind her, before straightening up and pulling herself onto the attacker's shoulders, crushing her thighs together around his head, and using her momentum to turn her body around and twist it 180 degrees around and ride him back down to the ground.
    She picks up his stave, and from there it... gets a little hectic.
    In the moment, her eyes are closed and her head is lowered with a little smile on her face, arms folded over her chest. She looks at Tony, warmly but... a little hesitantly.
    He's being SO sweet. She wishes her brain would let her just... take the compliment, take the pride, and just make it part of herself. She wishes there weren't so much about her that could easily change Tony's mind. If he knew that even after all that, she wasn't even close to karmically even...
    But Tony doesn't need to deal with any of her nonsense. She can take Tony's feelings for what they are and... maybe live in his version of things for a little bit. To that end, she finally looks at him sidelong, and lets her right arm drop, swinging blindly for a bit before she takes his hand and pulls herself closer to him. "I recall you helped too." She says softly, and kisses Tony once on the lips, adding "A little." with a cheeky, teasing little smile, blue eyes sparkling behind narrowed eyelids.

Tony Stark has posed:
"A little," Tony says back, nodding his head solemnly, "A tiny bit. A smidge. An iota. A footnote in the great Agent Romanoff saga."

He makes the most of the joke, enjoying the chance to play himself down a little in a fun way. In so many other places he needs to put on a show of sorts. He needs to be the Tony Stark they expect to see. That's not so much the case with Nat, and it's genuinely refreshing. They are flawed people, there's no denying it. But the difference is that each seems happy with the other's flaws.

He returns the kiss, leaning his forehead against her own. The half-finished burger is put down on the paper and he turns to face her fully. His hands return to her hips, drawing her closer for another kiss after that first one. He leans a little against her, other hand resting on the edge of the holographic table, and -

Outside, in the corridor, there's footsteps booming down the corridor and a booming voice asking if anyone has seen it's 'tiny window through which to view the man and woman who have married without courtship.' One of Steve's guards.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    As Tony elaborates on his increasingly diminished role in Earth's survival, Natasha smiles broadly and laughs through tightly closed lips, eyes twinkling for a moment before she shakes her head, squeezing one of Tony's hands against her hip and putting her other hand on his neck, purring, "noooo..." she grins a little as they draw near, "I think you're a big deal..."
    And then god damn it to hell *Asgard!*
    Like a lightning bolt, Natasha is at the opposite corner of the table, one arm folded across her stomach as the other idly, disinterestedly checks that her hair is in place while she blankly eyes the door, hearing footsteps move up to the door, and then past it; though briefly close enough that the light above the door changed color asthough preparing to open.
    If a facial expression could say 'WELP!' that's what Natasha's would be saying as she very softly says. "... I'm. Starting to wonder if it'd be... better to spend more nights at your place. Sometimes."
    She's not *ashamed* of Tony or anything, but... well, A) This is against a lot of rules, Stark is her charge, and her co-worker, AND kind of her employer in a way; B) She watched Clint and Wanda's snuggle turn into a block party last month, which she doesn't want, and C) Nat is a very private person. Ain't nobody's business that she doesn't make it their business.
    It's complicated enough that they're 'married'.

Tony Stark has posed:
For Tony's part, he draws away as well. Not as quickly nor with the same agility as Natasha, but he definitely moves away. He's got his own reasons for not wanting to share this one with the rest of the team just yet, and reason B is definitely one of his own. He's suddenly intensely interested in the hamburger he's eating, lifting the bun to look underneath it as the video of Natasha plays suspended in the air behind him on repeat.

When it's clear the person in the corridor is moving out of the way, he relaxes a little. He offers a wan smile to Natasha, lifting the hamburger and taking another big bite out of it. When she speaks his eyebrows raise a little, head tilting to one side. He holds up a hand, silently asking her to wait until he finishes the mouthful.

"But," he begins, swallowing the remnants of the burger, "You can't just live on the couch and I've only got the one bedroom."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's gaze slowly slides over to Tony when his hand goes up, looking at him sidelong until he speaks, at which point she turns her head to look at him more straightforward. She closes her eyes for a moment, smiles, and then opens them again as she says, "... Yeah." Her voice gets a little softer, almost embarrassed when she adds, "I know."

Tony Stark has posed:
Natasha's answer throws Tony for a moment, and his brows furrow once again. For one of the smartest men on the planet (maybe even in this area of the galaxy), sometimes ideas travel at the speed of molasses before they reach him. Slowly, realisation dawns on his face and he coughs a little - almost choking on a remnant of hamburger. He pats himself on the chest, holding up his other hand to her as if to say 'one second.'

When he's done, he turns around more fully to face her again. He takes another step towards her, glancing carefully at the door as though one of the Asgardian house guests will burst through it at any moment. Satisfied, for now, that this isn't the case he once again rests a hand on her hip and nods his head.

"Then yes," he tells her with a firm nod, "Definitely. You do need to do that thing."

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
    Natasha's brow raises as Tony struggles with the answer, amusement flickering across her face for a moment, but the pause is just long enough for Natasha to think she may have pushed too far. She starts to say "I mean-" before Tony finally voices his response. She finds herself rather pleased to be interrupted, and smiles softly. "... I will then. Good. Yeah." She says, looking down and shaking her head a little, flummoxed by her own behavior before she looks to Tony again warmly, "Sounds great."
    Her goal isn't to move in, of course. It's just... taking it slow hit a sizable road bump; and while 'damage control' may be the more logical response... she could use a few more nights like the one they shared.
    Now and then.