2014-02-13 - Why Natasha Romanova Hates the Word Red

Two days in a row, and Natasha is dealing with Russian damned mafia. This is her penance, she has decided, for helping Clint out with his little mafia issue in Brooklyn.

And whoever that Red Hood was, she needed to /handle/ him too. Plus Siberia. And the serum. And Red Skull. And the Red Room.

At this rate, the word 'red' was going to be forcibly removed from the vocabulary of the world,. if she had a choice.

So she's in a bad mood when she enters the mansion-- having left Asia in the care of one Piotr Rasputin, being dropped off outside by him. Her face looks somewhat gruesome, with the oozing trickle of blood from a bullet graze along her cheek.

Tony is actually sitting and watching the Winter Olympics. He pops in some popcorn when Nat enters the sitting room. "So what was with that 'gift' out front earlier anyway Nat?' He turns to look at his 'Kinda-Lover' and blinks, "Holy shit! What the hell happened?!" The popcorn bowl almost goes flying, but Stark manages to put it aside and gets up to approach Natasha to worry and look over her wound.

"It is nothing," Natasha replies, though if he touches her arm, hidden by the giant winter marshmallow coat she is still wearing (despite being inside), she winces slightly. A second graze, it seems. She's not as fast as she would be with the serum.

"And as for the 'gift', apparently I have an admirer of sorts, on Twitter. He left that as a 'gift'." She looks... annoyed.

"Well, least it wasn't one that bit. Hell girl...maybe I should be making you armor now," Stark comments. "Instead of bobbie protectors, it be arm and face protectors." He's frowning, really worried and stressing about it, but suppressing it mostly as he knows Nat would be upset she was injured as well.

The suggestion actually brings a look of abject /terror/ to Natasha's face. "No. No, Tony, do not even joke of this!" She actually pulls away. "No armor. No suits. I will be fine." she wipes away at the drying blood on her face.

"Next time it is 'take your daughter to the Russian Mob' day, I will try and just move out of the way of bullets faster," she assures him.

"Umm...I wouldn't put you in serious boobie protectors Nat. Take a look at Spider-Woman's light-weight armor, it doesn't even have anything electronic as it is all mechanical. That was a /twitter/ joke, not something I would seriously build." Stark doesn't know why Nat is freaking out. He then rolls his eyes, "Ya, little difficult for the daughter part," as Stark did have access to Nat's original medical records when she joined The Avengers. Natasha's expression goes completely blank for a moment, and then she pastes a smile on her lips. "Da, of course... no daughter. I meant Asia. She dragged me into some mess with the Russian mafia and--" well, she handed over /those/ genetic experiments to SHIELD, and she's not really interested in giving him details. "--and it was not exactly the way I wished to spend my afternoon."

"Asia is heroing earlier this year, hope she's alright," Stark states. "She's partially bullet proof, but some of the weapons criminals use these days has me worried," he confesses. Still, he brushes your hair back from your face. "You really alright? We got a state-of-the-art medbay down below you know, and I can play doctor."

Natasha shakes her head. "It is just a graze... all right, two," she allows. "I am more frustrated than anything else, what with everything going on." She kisses his cheek. "I appreciate you being concerned though."

"Just a graze...sighs. You know, I am working on a new lightweight metal downstairs. Sure you don't want to check it out?" Stark still looks worried, especially thinking of the narrow confines of the base they plan to infiltrate and attack for information.

"Would it make you feel better?" Natasha asks seriously. "Because if it will, I will do so." She doesn't look thrilled with the idea, but she at least seems willing to make Tony happy or more comfortable.

"Actually...yes. Even if we just use the same metal as Jess' suit, I'll show it to you. Come on. It's pretty neat." Stark moves to take Nat's hand to her uninjured arm and goes to lead the way out. "It will give you an extra defense until you are a super soldier again, then you can decide if you want to keep using it or not."

Natasha squeezes Tony's hand, allowing him to lead her out. "As you wish." She's been saying that far too much lately, and it's chafing on her. But she's at least not fighting with him.

Tony is going to have to burn a copy of Princess Bride and hide it in Nat's bags or locker or something, seriously. Cause...that saying is starting to make him blink triple time! Stark leads the way to his lab silently, mulling over those three words.

Once they get to the lab, Natasha shrugs out of the puffy marshmallow coat, hanging it up. She looks less than happy to be down in the lab, but she's not arguing with him.

Not even a little bit. Either something was up, or their conversation the other night had her unwilling to do much combativeness with Stark.

Stark reaches out to pick up part of a chest piece that was discarded from Spider-Woman's armor from a scrap pile. "Think fast," he says and tosses it Nat's way. it's not a small pieace of metal. One would expect weight. However, it's very light, surprisingly light. So night, Nat might end up dropping it anyway. It's hard though, so if dropped it would THUMP loudly as it is bullet proof.

Natasha catches the armor, startled. "This /is/ light," she comments, almost dropping it, but keeping it up, though she does quickly lay it down on a nearby table.

"It can be fully mechanical." Stark moves over to flip up on a holo-emitter an image of Spider-Woman's armor without her in it from a nearby keyboard. He then puts the image of an outline of 'Jessica Drew' inside it and it starts to move to show how it works and operates.

http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140210145932/comicadventures/images/1/18/Spider_woman_by_kidnotorious.jpg

"The arms use a special kelvar fabric that is about the thickness of thick cotton cloth, if even thick really," Stark states. "It can resist a lot of cuts and wear and tear. I can design something custom for you. I think less armored protection than Spider-Woman has, you don't see the type to move comfortable in it even if it is that light. You are too used to fighting without it."

Natasha moves over behind Stark like she did the other night, sliding her arms around him and resting her head against his back. "You're right-- I do prefer less restriction," she agrees. "The armor you made for Drew looks impressive, though."

"Ya, she got the crap beat out of her and set me a photo of it on twitter DM. Funny part is?" Stark hehehes a bit. "I'm not sure if she realized or not that part of her areola on one breast was showing. So now I call her armor, the boobie protectors, but ya...couldn't say no after her almost indecently exposing herself to the public, now could I? Not with the Avengers trying to /improve/ our PR, right?" But Tony moves to side one of his hands over yours. "Want me to at least give it a try, see if I can make something you like Nat?"

"If you want," Natasha chuckles. "You will whether I agree to it or not, and then sulk at me until I agree to try it on. So, I'm just cutting out that entire song-and-dance, mm?" She drops a kiss on his spine.

"Alrighty! You really are exhausted. Do you need a checkup?" Stark is starting to sound REALLY concerned at this point!

That's when she begins to look frustrated. "What is it you want, Tony?" Natasha says. "I lie to you, you get angry-- angrier I think than I've ever seen you. So I try and..." she takes a deep breath. "I am /trying/, Tony. I don't know how to do this. I could just... I don't know. Push your buttons, string you along, do these things. But honestly? I /don't/ know how to be a friend, or a lover... I can make any man fall in love with me, desire me, tell me all their secrets and throw themselves in front of a bullet for me." She takes a deep breath.

"But this is... I..." she prefers to bury her face in his shoulder blades again, he can't see her that way. "This week I have had to tell secrets I've held for years-- because I had no choice. Do you understand how hard it is for me to do these things? To open up, even under orders, on things I know should stay buried?"

"I...," and Stark looks confused too. "No, that...Nat, I'm sorry," he says sincerely, his hand gently squeezing hers. "Nat...," he then sighs softly. "I'm really sorry. I'm just...used to you being prickly, and when you not, it's /weird/. It's not bad, but I worry something's wrong because it's not the norm. I guess I'm a bit paranoid I'm doing something to screw things up too, or haven't you figured out I suck at that sort of stuff too and I keep secrets too? Pot calling kettle black, right?" Stark sighs at that once more.

Natasha nods. "I know. It is hard /not/ to be... prickly." She doesn't seem to like that term, but can't deny it's at least somewhat accurate. "It feels strange, and I want to just..." she shakes her head, forcing herself to finish the sentence as she was thinking it, "...go, bury myself in work. Take a few side jobs, even-- even black ops ones. Anything where I can just not think about any of this."

She is silent for a moment or two. "Part of me... wants to open up, tell you many things... maybe not everything. I don't know if I could tell anyone everything. But it is hard to not shut that part away and just leave this, and the Avengers, and everything /good/ that I do." She finally extracts herself from him enough to move in front of Tony, to look up into his face. Her own expression is that strangely placid and unfeeling look she keeps on her face most of the time. "I've never been a hero, Tony. Not even once. What good I've done has been wholly pragmatism. There is a lot of red in my ledger, a lot of things I have done-- you could never know even a fraction-- that I can never make up for." She stops, looking momentarily frustrated again. That was a lot for her to admit.

Stark turns in Nat's arms and moves to pull her into his this time. He leans down to kiss her, really kiss her after those words. He kisses her until she starts to relax a little bit and only then breaks it. "Nat...I /know/. I don't know the details, but I /know/. But you don't only have red sweetie. You have other colors too, and if it takes us having one of the messed up relationships possible for both of us to help us both figure things out, then so be it. You are /beautiful/, inside and out. You just don't let yourself see the good parts because you are so busy concentrating on the bad stuff, on not feeling. It's why I work so hard, so ya...we adjust in our own ways. But...I guess, I wish you could see yourself through my eyes. I don't see you as perfect by far, flawed as hell, but I can see the wonderful stuff, and it's something precious I swear to you it is."

Natasha leans her head against his chest. She doesn't respond for a bit. Then, she asks, "Were you really going to ask me to marry you back then?" her tone is slightly amused-- she's changing the subject away from where she had been opening up. "I am surprised I did not find this out."

A wince at that, "Umm...," Stark looks anywhere EXCEPT at Nat...., then groans as he works things out in his own head. "Umm..., do you really want that honesty?" Awkwardness! Him and his big mouth!

"Tell you what," Natasha offers, looking up and smirking slightly. "You answer that, and you can ask me a question I must answer honestly as well." She gives him an innocent look. "One-time offer."

A quiet hrm...., "Can I save my question to ask later?" Stark asks this seriously! He appears thoughtful. That is QUITE a prize after all!

Natasha considers. "Mm. I reserve the right to choose to have you ask another question if it will compromise SHIELD. But... I suppose, if you wish to ask later." Her eyes glitter with amusement.

A nod, "Alright," Stark says. "I'm holding you to it," he states. He then grins lopsidedly at that, before it then fades awkwardly. "Umm...and ya. I mean...we got along great, danced the night away, but it was more than that. You seemed to understand and adapt to my double life when I was keeping a secret identity, like...you /understood/ me somehow. I was checking out rings, though didn't actually purchase one," Stark sighs. "Finding out you were a spy kinda ruined that idea ten ways to Sunday, and likely for the best. We...didn't really know each other back then like we both thought we did."

Natasha looks thoughtful. "Yes. You did not know me at all," she admits. "But then again, that was the point, wasn't it?" She leans up, kissing his lips lightly. "I am in some ways surprised you are willing to bed me now, knowing what you /do/ know." She bites her bottom lip, something obviously on her mind. But she shrugs, glancing back out at the lab in general. Years ago, she would have killed to be in here. But now? She has the access, and still hasn't really bothered to /look/.

Stark brushes his fingertips along Nat's jaw line. "You also aren't the same woman you were back then Nat, and I'm not the same guy, and hell...did you really even /guess/ I was Iron Man?" He grins at that, then leans down to kiss the tip of Nat's nose. "And I'll see if I can actually design something you will /like/. I'll see it as a personal challenge. In the meantime, how are you feeling, seriously? You just been shot up a bit, and you gotta be tired."

"Yes, I am tired..." Nat responds lightly. "But I will be fine. I have had far worse happen to me." She grins a little bit. "I'm considering whether I give you the gift I put together for you earlier," she muses, tapping his nose with her fingertip.

A blink at those words and then a laugh at the tap on his nose. "Alright, I'll bite. What gift are you talking about?" Does they guy not realize it's Valentine's Day?! Apparently not!

"Just something," Nat responds with a light shrug. "But I don't know if I should distract you from working..." she teases lightly.

"Oh my...now my mind is in the gutter, thank you very much!" A smirk at that. But he then says, "So..what is it?"

Natasha reaches into the smallest pocket on her jeans, pulling out a microSD-like card. She shrugs lightly as she hands it to Stark. "It is just something... I noticed you listen to music when you work... and play. Mr. Gutter-mind. But since you're already thinking about that... I might be willing." There's a hint of a wicked grin playing across her lips at that. "And I have been enjoying listening. So. I put together songs that made me think of, well, when I am with you." Yes. Nat made him a mixtape. Be afraid.

The chip has these songs: Love Somebody -- Maroon 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU8B4XDI3Uw Blurred Lines -- Robin Thicke feat TI and Pharrell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU Closer -- Tegan and Sara http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7MNGPmrlW0 Fall for You -- Secondhand Serenade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1O9DyFLIKo Say Something -- A Great Big World feat Christina Aguilera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2U0Ivkn2Ds Crazy Bitch -- Buckcherry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSzyKO_kW_s The Way -- Ariana Grande feat Mac Miller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O3AOhEufyo Never Too Late -- Three Days Grace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qOvNgEsZ9s Kiss Me Slowly -- Parachute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km75Pc0YzdQ Careless Whisper -- Seether http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCeSJrYy_HA It’s Been Awhile -- Staind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yz6Mz-gzLU Heaven -- Three Doors Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gleULUi2U

Stark looks surprised, and then chuckles as he accepts it. "I'll be damned. Sometimes, you just amazing me in really good ways Nat." And he leans over to kiss your temple. "How about you indugle me and double check those bandages and make sure all that dried blood is cleaned up, then how about a nap. Then I'll wake you up with some music in numerous ways." He winks teasingly at that.