Tony's gaze held Natasha's as he asked, "What's stopping you then?"
Natasha's lips parted slightly, her breath hitching as the serum forced the truth from her. She wanted to fight it, to keep her composure, to maintain the carefully crafted walls she had built over the years. But the drugs had already seeped into her bloodstream, working their way through her defenses like a slow-burning fire.
She clenched her fists, trying to resist, but the words slipped past her lips before she could stop them.
"The Red Room," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.
Tony remained still, his expression unreadable. He had expected something like this, but he wanted to hear it all.
"They sent me," Natasha continued, her green eyes flickering with something between guilt and defiance. "I was assigned to get close to you, to spy on you. They wanted to know what you were working on. They're… curious about why you've distanced yourself from Stark Industries, why you've buried yourself in a lab after MIT instead of taking over the empire your father built."
Tony swirled his beer bottle absentmindedly, letting her words sink in. "And what did you tell them?"
"I told them you were unpredictable," she admitted. "That you were working on things that even I couldn't get full access to. That whatever you were building, it was locked away behind layers of security I couldn't crack." She exhaled, frustrated with herself. "But I was getting closer."
"Were you?" Tony smirked, tilting his head. "Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like you fell for your own game."
Natasha didn't answer. She couldn't. The warmth of his touch, the heat lingering on her lips—it was messing with her focus. She had always prided herself on being the one in control, but right now, under his knowing gaze, she felt exposed in a way she hadn't in years.
"And what exactly does the Red Room want with my research?" Tony pressed.
Natasha hesitated again, but the serum wouldn't let her hold back. "They think you're building something new. Something dangerous. Something even more advanced than your father's weapons."
Tony hummed, taking another sip of his beer. "Interesting theory. And what do you think?"
"I think…" She met his gaze. "I think you're hiding something. Something big. But I don't know what it is."
Tony smirked. "And yet, you kissed me anyway. You sure this was all just part of the job?"
Natasha opened her mouth to respond, but Tony leaned in slightly, cutting her off with his next question.
"Tell me, Natasha… did you kill Madame Hydra?"
A flicker of surprise crossed her face. A rare, genuine crack in her usual mask. "What?"
"Viper," Tony clarified, watching her reaction closely. "Did you kill her?"
Natasha's breath hitched, her pupils dilating slightly. Then, after a pause, she nodded. "Yes."
Tony didn't look surprised. "And what did you do with her eyes?"
Natasha's brows furrowed. "Her eyes?"
"You heard me."
She hesitated again, but the truth serum wouldn't let her lie. "I didn't keep them. The Red Room took them."
Tony's fingers drummed lightly against his bottle. "Why?"
Natasha swallowed hard. "Because they found out something. Something about those eyes."
Tony leaned forward. "What do they open?"
Her breathing was shallow now. The truth serum was forcing the words from her lips, even as her instincts screamed at her to stop talking.
"There's… an underwater Hydra base. The Red Room discovered it by accident, but they don't know what's inside."
Tony's expression darkened slightly. "And Viper's eyes are the key."
Natasha nodded. "Yes."
Tony sat back, processing this. Hydra, an underwater base, and Viper's eyes being some kind of access key? That wasn't just a coincidence. Something bigger was at play here. He thought that Zola AI must be there in that base or the original formula of the SSS.
And Natasha, whether she had intended to or not, had just given him the key to unraveling it.
He looked at her, smirking. "You really should've used a stronger dose."
Natasha exhaled sharply, glaring at him. "Bastard." She began to feel hot and was blushing. Well, it would seem Tony also pushed the aphrodisiac into her body along with the truth serum. His touch made a jolt run through her body.
Tony only chuckled. "Oh, Romanoff. You should know by now... I always play to win."
Natasha's breath was coming faster now, her chest rising and falling as heat curled through her body like a slow-burning fire. She pressed her thighs together, trying to ignore the way her skin tingled under Tony's touch, how every nerve in her body was suddenly hypersensitive.
'This shouldn't be happening,' she thought, clenching her fists. Her body was enhanced, trained, experimented on, and conditioned to resist poisons, toxins, and drugs of all kinds. Truth serums, sedatives, aphrodisiacs... none of it should have affected her. And yet… her mind was clouded, her thoughts slow and unfocused, every inch of her aching for something she shouldn't want.
She should be questioning this. She should be fighting it.
Instead, she leaned in and kissed him.
Tony didn't hesitate. He met her halfway, his lips crashing against hers, tasting the heat and desperation in her kiss. His fingers slid into her hair, gripping just tight enough to make her shudder as he pulled her even closer. Natasha pressed against him, her hands roaming over his chest, tracing the strong lines of muscle beneath his shirt.
The fire inside her only burned hotter.
Between kisses, she barely managed to whisper, "Tony… we have a problem."
He hummed against her lips. "You don't say."
"No. Listen." She pulled back slightly, her breath shaky, eyes glazed over with a mix of desire and urgency. "By now, the Red Room has heard everything. They're on their way."
Tony exhaled slowly, brushing his thumb along her jaw. "Romanoff," he murmured, "do you really think I didn't plan for that?"
She blinked, her hazy mind struggling to keep up. "What?"
Tony smirked, his grip on her tightening just slightly. "Right now, the Red Room is only seeing and hearing what I want them to see and hear."
Her eyes widened, realization dawning through the fog of desire clouding her thoughts. "You… You tampered with my comms."
"Of course I did," he said smoothly. "You didn't really think I'd walk into your game without playing my own, did you?"
Natasha exhaled sharply, her body still burning, but her mind starting to catch up. The bastard had flipped the game on her. She wasn't sure if she wanted to kill him or kiss him again.
He chuckled at her expression. "Don't think too much, Nat. Just enjoy the moment."
She should be furious. But all she could do was pull him back in for another kiss.
Natasha didn't hesitate. She pushed Tony down onto the sofa, straddling him with ease, her legs on either side of his hips. Her hands gripped his shirt as she kissed him harder this time... raw, desperate, as if she were trying to consume him. Tony responded in kind, his hands roaming over her waist, pressing her closer against him. The heat between them was unbearable, like an electric current crackling in the air.
Between kisses, his voice came out in a teasing murmur. "What if I help you?"
Natasha barely registered his words at first, too lost in the sensation of his hands, his lips, the fire burning beneath her skin. "Help me?" she breathed against his mouth, her body pressing into him.
Tony smirked, tilting his head back slightly as he looked up at her. "What if I give you what you want?" His hands slid up her back, tracing slow, lazy circles. "What if I undo the damage? What if I fix what the Red Room took from you?"
Natasha froze.
Her breath caught in her throat, her body suddenly still atop his. For a moment, she just stared at him, searching his face. "That's impossible," she said, her voice quieter now, but laced with something fragile.
Tony's fingers traced a slow line down her spine. "Impossible for most people," he admitted. "But I'm not most people."
Natasha swallowed, her heartbeat hammering against her ribs. "The damage was done on a cellular level, Tony. My body was altered, my DNA changed. The Red Room's serum didn't just make me stronger—it made me sterile. There's no cure for that."
Tony's gaze never wavered. "What if I told you I could change that?"
Natasha wanted to scoff, to call him out for giving her false hope, but something in his eyes stopped her. He wasn't joking. He wasn't messing with her.
He was serious.
Her fingers curled against his chest. "…You're saying you can undo what they did to me?"
"I'm saying I will," Tony corrected. His voice was steady, unwavering, filled with the kind of confidence that made people believe the impossible. His hands rested on her waist, grounding her. "All you have to do is trust me. I can rewrite the damage. I can fix it." His voice dropped lower, softer. "I will give you what you want, Natasha."
Her throat tightened, her emotions warring inside her. She wanted to believe him. God, she wanted to believe him so badly it hurt. But hope was dangerous. Hope had never been kind to her.
She shook her head. "Even if you could… The Red Room would never let me go."
Tony leaned up slightly, brushing a kiss against the corner of her lips. "Then what if I add a little side bonus?"
Natasha swallowed hard. "What?"
His hands tightened on her hips, his voice a low, steady promise.
"Freedom."
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