Ch40. Dealing with trust.

It was the middle of the night in Malibu and Tony was suddenly awoken from his peaceful slumber full of pleasant dreams by an erratic banging on his door. He briefly wondered if the world was ending because if not he would have to get nasty in his payback.

There was no other excusable reason for anyone to drag him from his soft bed at such an ungodly hour.

Tony groaned and slowly get out of his bed, walking towards the door like a corpse, trying to wake himself enough to be able to give a coherent scolding to whoever decided to use his door like a boxing bag.

Grabbing the handle, Tony swung his door open, his scowling face coming face-to-face with Natasha who looked more excited and worried than he ever remembered seeing her.

Tony quickly got a flashback to the events that happened yesterday... and just like that, he was wide awake and even his little bro was about to start stirring.

Before he could start questioning what was going on, Natasha eagerly exclaimed, "I need you to come with me!" She grabbed his hand and Tony didn't even manage to react as his sluggish body was dragged through a portal.

Tony found himself in Tao's room in Kamar Taj...

"Scrooge McDuck? Really? That is your choice of pajamas?" Tony heard the positively delighted voice of The Ancient One and almost winced when he remembered what he was wearing, "You continue to impress me, Stark."

And while he felt a bit embarrassed, he just puffed out his chest and raised his nose higher as he cockily smirked, "Heh. Impressing you doesn't take much effort, then. I wonder if such a thing comes with age..."

"And I wonder if you still sleep with a teddy bear." Tao retorted back.

"Hmm, I surely have one of those stashed somewhere. Why? Were you too violent with yours during your joint bedroom activities?" Tony bit back, grinning at the calm bald woman.

Instead of replying, The Ancient One turned towards Natasha, "Are you really sure about your life choices?" She dryly asked and Natasha sheepishly shuffled before giving her a small shrug.

"Yeah. I get your doubt. He looks better in the Star Wars pajamas." She awkwardly said, feeling a bit embarrassed for Tony who proudly stood in the middle of Tao's room in his pajamas sporting an elated Stooge McDuck swimming in an ocean of gold.

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed in exasperation. "I am fabulous in anything!"

"Your night fetishes aside, Mr. Stark," Tao slowly ended that topic with finality in her voice, "Natasha dragged you here for a reason. An important one at that."

And that was the end of all fun as the room descended into a serious atmosphere and Tony sat down behind the table, opposite Tao while leaving enough place next to him for Natasha who also seated herself, but instead of taking the spot next to Tony, she walked around the table and nervously sat down next to Tao.

Tony looked at Tao before his eyes trailed towards Natasha before returning back to Tao after a while, giving the two women a searching look, "This is not one of those conversations where you will reveal you are actually lesbians and are about to start a serious relationship, is it?" He doubtfully asked, causing Natasha to groan.

"No, Mr. Stark. Believe it or not, we are both perfectly straight." The Ancient One rolled her eyes and the serious atmosphere was instantly replaced by a lighter one.

"Ah. I always thought you were more like a boomerang, to be honest." Tony cheekily quipped, not letting her the chance to retort as he quickly continued, "So, what's this about?"

Instead of getting an answer, Natasha took out a parchment and put it on the table, causing Tony to furrow his forehead as he looked at it. He could feel there was something special about it but he just couldn't pinpoint what.

Natasha took a deep breath and spoke, "This is a specially made parchment capable of holding even the strongest contracts."

"It took even me a few hours to create it." The Ancient Ones interjected.

"For which I am immensely grateful." Natasha nodded at her before turning back to the confused Tony. Did they drag him out of the bed for some parchment? Oh, his payback would be humilia-

"I want to enter a soul contract with you." Natasha interrupted Tony's thoughts of revenge, uttering something so ridiculous Tony had the urge to check her temperature. He saw this as a heavy case of fever at the very least...

Nevertheless, he decided to humor the two women who thought this was more important than his beauty sleep. "That sounds quite ominous. Care to explain? I may be reckless but I won't be selling you my soul without knowing what I am getting in return." He joked.

"I know you don't fully trust me, Tony." Natasha deadpanned, stopping Tony's jovial mood. "Don't try to deny it. I also know there is no way for me to prove that I won't betray you. You know me too well to trust me." She stated indifferently, not really feeling bad because of that.

Hearing that, Tony looked at Tao but...

"I am here only to answer your questions. This is between you two." Tao calmly sipped on her tea, fully intending to watch the show without interfering.

So he returned his gaze to the redhead who was obviously nervous. That meant she meant this and it was important to her.

The whole situation just got infinitely more complicated.

Tony sighed. This really wasn't a joking matter anymore. "And this soul contract is supposed to fix that, I assume."

"Yes. The soul contract is unbreakable. It binds the souls of the two contracted parties, forcing them to obey the stipulations of the contract. Of course, with magic this powerful, it has to be agreed upon by both parties by their own free will otherwise it would not work. The contracted parties also get a full understanding of what the contract would mean for them so nothing like hidden clauses are possible." Natasha explained.

Tony did not need to turn to Tao for confirmation. This discussion was far too important to not activate his empathy no matter how uncomfortable it was for him. He knew Natasha was completely sincere with him at the moment.

Because of that, he chose to get the full picture before making the final decision.

"And pray tell, what exactly do you imagine as the stipulation in the contract between us."

Natasha nervously shuffled in her seat but her expression turned hopeful with a hint of worry."Only one simple thing. That neither of us will ever betray the other." She slowly spoke, blowing Tony's mind away.

This was... massive.

Tony realized that Natasha was clearly giving him a huge amount of trust to propose this. His mind again returned to the events of yesterday and he couldn't help but look at the redhead in muted shock, suddenly understanding the reason why she was determined to go to such lengths for this.

That changed everything and nothing between them at the same time.

Tony closed his eyes, not believing he was really considering this but...

"And the penalty for breaking it?" He asked, barely keeping his voice even.

It wasn't Natasha who answered, though.

"There is none, Mr. Stark. The contract will not punish you for breaking it because it is impossible to breach it in any way for the contracted people. Once established, it will be a part of yourself. You will simply be incapable of doing that. In this case, neither of you will be able to betray the other." Tao explained and Tony's suspicion got only reaffirmed.

This was really a massive leap of faith from Natasha's side. Sure, it would solve his trust issues when it came to Natasha but...

Tony opened his eyes and looked intently at Natasha whose expectant eyes were holding a deep resolve and he understood she was literally willing to bind her soul with a contract in order to get his trust.

He would be lying if he said he did not feel anything for Natasha. They spent most of every day together and understood each other better than lifelong friends. The time they spent together was very pleasant too.

But Tony always held himself back because of his trust issues.

And now, Natasha wanted to destroy this last barrier between them. Tony wasn't an idiot. He knew where this was heading. The question was... did he want to do this?

Meh, he wasn't worried about the contract itself. He was a businessman and contracts were a normal thing. This one was just a bit more binding but that was honestly it. There was no demerit for him in it anyway because he never intended to betray Natasha.

In many ways, it was less cutthroat than ninety percent of the contracts made in SI.

The contract was not dealing with emotions or thoughts either. They could very well come to hate or love each other at their leisure and the contract will have no bearing on that.

But with the contract, Tony could be at complete ease near her.

Silence descended onto the room for thirty minutes, during which Natasha barely prevented herself from looking at Tony with a pleading gaze, worrying he would refuse, as he clearly did some soul-searching.

Tony thought about many things, for the first time pondering about what he wanted from this new life. So far, he was fixated on Thanos and then study of magic but... he realized he desired more.

This was his second chance. It would be a pity to just waste it, no?

In the end, Tony sighed before giving Natasha a wry smile. His decision was made.

"Fine. Let's do it."