IronWidow fanfiction: Time Bomb

Four

Natasha woke up to her phone buzzing beside her and blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she looked at who was calling her. The photo of Clint that she had taken last year during their undercover couple's holiday in Paris- they arrested the leader of a cult of serial killers but Clint always reminds her of how he tried snails for the first time instead of that- popped up.

She answered, yawning as she spoke, "Clint, good morning."

"Morning, Tasha," he said and he sounded unusually bright and chipper. "How's Stark? Is he an ass? I bet he's an ass. I could never work with him."

"You'll probably never have to, Clint, so calm down," Natasha got up and stretched before walking to the kitchen. "Stark is fine. He's not dead yet and I've not hit him yet so everything's okay over here. How are you?"

The kitchen was cold and she wished she'd worn something warmer than her shorts and a thin cotton t-shirt. She turned the coffee machine on as Clint started to talk about the promising new recruits. The hissing distracted her for a minute and she frantically wondered if she'd broken it. "Um, Clint, hang on," she said desperately and put him on speaker phone. Natasha jabbed at the off button but it hissed at her and beeped. "Shit."

"What's happening?" Clint said, suspiciously. "Is he sexually harassing you because if he is, I can file a complaint and you can drop the mission and come to work with me."

"Having fun?" Natasha jumped guiltily at the sound of the playboy's smooth voice and turned round. Tony wasn't wearing a top but thankfully was wearing checked pyjama bottoms. He reached round her and turned the machine off then glanced at her phone. "Who's that?" He said loudly.

"I'm Agent Clint Barton of SHIELD, Agent Romanoff's partner," came Clint's grumpy voice. "I'm guessing you're Stark. If you hurt Natasha or harass her, I will kill you. I mean it."

"Of course," he looked amused which made Natasha mad. Why should it be funny that her friend was trying to protect her? Usually the mere implication that Clint was trying to protect her from something made her angry but having someone else make fun of Clint made her angrier. "She'll call you back later, Agent Barton."

Then he hung up her phone.

Natasha glared at him as he picked it up, smiling at her background picture. It was of her, Coulson, Hill, Fury and Clint in Las Vegas at the conference Fury made them go to. It turned out to be fun, despite Fury's insistence that they shouldn't drink. He ended up getting the most drunk and kissed Coulson.

"You look nice in that photo. Happy," Tony commented.

"Don't I look happy now?" She replied and took two mugs out of a cupboard.

Tony worked the machine and soon was handing her a steaming hot mug of black coffee. "You look like you want to kill me but I'll let that pass, honey."

"Honey?" Natasha's scowl deepened.

"Sorry. Force of habit," he smirked. "I'm used to calling the beautiful women in my kitchen at 8 in the morning who are making coffee pet names."

"You're disgusting. I thought you were dating Pepper," Natasha snapped.

Tony shrugged. "We have an on and off relationship. Currently it's most definitely off because she has gone to Barbados for a month holiday with her new boyfriend Javier."

"Oh..sorry," she blushed. "But you shouldn't have put the phone down on Cli-Agent Barton. He might be flying over here by now."

"Flying from where?" Tony started looking through his cupboards and she noticed a few scars on his back, disappearing under his bottoms. She frowned, trying to remember his file. He had been kidnapped by Ten Rings a few years ago but his file hadn't said anything about torture and there wasn't any evidence of anything. She always suspected that he had deleted it from SHIELD's databases; ashamed maybe. Tony then turned back round and gave her a quizzical look.

She remembered with a jolt that he had asked her a question. "I'm guessing Sydney by now. He got on a plane yesterday. Some undercover mission with a new recruit."

"Sounds fun," Tony smirked. "Is the recruit a woman or man?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Just thought you'd be bothered if it was an attractive woman. Barton being your partner and all. Wouldn't want to be replaced," he went back to looking in the cupboard and finally pulled out a USB. "Natasha, listen to me. However much you would rather be in Sydney with your partner, being undercover, I need you to protect this USB with your life. This isn't about me anymore. Sure, it would be a bonus if I didn't die but this is more important."

"My mission is to protect you, Tony," Natasha tried to sound business-like and sharp but she couldn't help softening her voice. "Tony, listen to me, I'm not going to let you die for some stupid USB. You're my mission, that isn't."

Tony shook his head and she could have sworn she saw a glimmer of a smile flash across his face before he pocketed the USB. "That's my girl."