Ch20. You are free...

"You- You just threatened Nick Fury!" Natasha incredulously cried out, unable to believe her own ears.

"Yes. And I will totally get away with it!" Tony smugly remarked, his eyes gleaming with glee.

Natasha was about to refute him but the sharpness of his gaze stopped her short. Instead, she just dubiously asked, "Will you?"

She didn't believe it much. Fury was known to be a vindictive motherfucker for a reason. He never let anyone get away with anything. Until Loki came and a crisis after a crisis started to happen, Fury was widely known as the most dangerous man in the world among certain circles.

"I find it hard, fearing Fury after facing Thanos." Tony snorted and lifted his eyebrow at her. "Don't you?"

Natasha opened her mouth before promptly closing it and gaining a thoughtful expression.

"Well, I can't fault you for that. If anyone would be biased in this matter, it would be you." Tony shrugged and Natasha unsurely nodded.

'Maybe he is right...' She thought.

The difference between her and Tony was, he had his suit and natural arrogance so facing a normal human like Fury did not seem so threatening. Tony could face off Thanos and while he would be hard-pressed to win, he could hold his own for a few moments.

But what about her?

She was just a well-trained spy. Among humans, she was one of the best but against those with superpowers? What could she do if she found herself facing off Thanos on the battlefield?

Natasha shuddered thinking about it. She barely managed to fight against Steve because his technique was horrendous and he wasn't all that agile. Despite that, a few hits from him and she would be done for. She simply didn't have enhanced strength and durability that could allow her to face these kinds of people. She was quite surprised she managed to survive being an Avenger for so long, to be honest. When she joined the Avengers Initiative, she fully expected to be killed in action in the near future.

That's why from her perspective, she never saw herself directly facing off against someone like Thanos or Thor. She would sure as hell do her best and fight but she was fully aware she didn't stand a chance.

Fury with his ability to call a worldwide manhunt for her was dangerous enough.

"Why demand me from Fury?" Natasha suspiciously asked Tony. "I doubt I am worth making enemy from SHIELD. What is your aim?"

Tony chuckled at that. Indeed... why make an enemy of Nicholas Fury for someone like her. She lived for a long time in an environment that worked on the basis of a 'give and take' while Tony was a businessman. Her suspicion was well-founded in this case.

Unfortunately, Tony had to disappoint her, "Nothing. You whined you have no freedom so here. Now you are free. What you do with it? I don't care." Tony shrugged.

"Are you serious?" Natasha asked in disbelief. She wasn't used to influential people doing something for her for free.

She could trust Clint Barton. He was her colleague and they covered each other's back. That was natural. He trusted her with his life and she trusted him with hers.

She could trust Steve Rogers because... as bad as it sounds... the guy was really simple. She knew what drove and motivated him and knew how he would react to most situations. He wasn't a puzzle. He wasn't someone desiring power, influence, or money. He had his faults, of course, but nothing was ever complicated with him.

Maybe that's why she liked him more than Tony when they were a team. Why she tended to trust Steve's opinion more. She could trust his intentions. Maybe they did not have the desired result at times... like when he asked her to withhold the truth of Stark's parent's assassination, and just thinking about it made Natasha wince... but he meant well in his own stubborn way.

Steve didn't want to open Tony's old wounds. His parents were dead for two decades and telling Tony it wasn't an accident would not help anyone. Or so was Steve's aim. Nothing really malicious. At best, misguided.

Not that Tony would ever understand that. He only saw the guy who knew for years that his parent's demise was actual murder and didn't tell him.

Natasha really couldn't fault Tony for that either though. In the orange realm she understood that in Tony's place if she knew her parents, knew they cared at least a bit for her, she would do her best to murder Steve with extreme prejudice too. As good as his intentions were, it was a dick move and she deeply regretted her part in it.

"Look, Natasha," Tony put his elbows on the table in front of him and supported with his hand his chin as he leaned forward and looked straight at her with a serious expression, "I have no need for an assassin. What would I do with you? Have you hunt down my competition? Pfft! I don't have competition. Just a few clowns who want to emulate me, really. Why kill them when they provide such a good entertainment value?" Tony grinned and Natasha could see he actually meant what he said which made her start involuntarily laugh at the absurdity of the situation before she could stop herself.

It took Natasha a while to calm her laughter. She couldn't even remember when last she genuinely laughed. "That... was the most arrogant thing I heard in a long while. I needed that. Thank you." She added, feeling as if all her worries disappeared.

"Yeah, I still got it." Tony smirked in his usual smart-assed way, mentally patting himself on the back. They enjoyed the light and companionable atmosphere for a few moments, neither having a lot of it recently.

In the end, it was Tony who interrupted it first. "As I said, you can do whatever you want. If you want to restart the Avengers Initiative, you can. If you want to fish Captain Popsickle sooner, you can. If you want to hunt Banner down and offer him sanctuary, you are free to do so. I will even pay for it." He said and Natasha had a hard time keeping her shock from her expression. That was awfully generous of Tony. "For all my misgivings with Avengers... We did a lot of good. We might not have had the best approach but we did good. Just don't expect me to join this time around."

And just like that, Natasha's rising good mood was ruthlessly crushed.