Just like that, 2008 slips away and Tony finds himself reliving 2009 for the second time through. Of course, things are VERY different this go-around. Last time he was in full swing as Iron Man by now. Swooping around the world in his red and gold suit, taking down bad guys and giving himself missions whenever Rhodey and his superiors didn't have anything for him to do. The creeping realization that Palladium was poisoning him and that the very thing he'd invented to save his life was going to kill him in the end.
There was none of that this time around. This time around, Tony was doing a lot more science. Inventing and reinventing things he knew he would need in the future. Staying in the lab, keeping his head down. Well, sort of. Every other month he was pushing some new product out of the lab and over to marketing. Stark Industries had always been a Fortune Five Hundred Company. But at the rate Tony was going, they'd be at the top of that list by the end of this year and be making the rest of the single digits of the Fortune Five Hundred Listing look like toddlers by the end of 2010.
Of course, the business was barely a side hobby at this point. Having unlimited cash reserves was pretty useful, so Tony was happy to make sure that Stark Industries 'won capitalism'. However, it wasn't the most important thing. Not by a long shot. There were enemies coming … there were enemies already here. Tony wanted to destroy them all and be done with it, but now that he had secured his and Pepper's safety, he was taking his time with it.
For the time being, it was just him, Pepper, Maya, and Helen with the Extremis Super Soldier Serum so far. Tony had considered giving it to Happy Hogan as well. He'd waffled on whether or not to do it for a time. In the end, cold logic had won out over sentiment. The more people knew about a secret, the less secure the secret was. Happy was family, but he wasn't what Tony would call subtle. Unlike Rhodey, Tony knew where Happy's loyalties lay. He knew that the man would never knowingly or willingly betray him. That didn't mean Tony could trust Happy to keep such power a secret.
Maybe in the future, when the threats got bigger and they weren't playing these silly spy games Tony would offer to dose Happy. When they finally needed all hands on deck, Tony would bring Happy on board. But not yet. Not now when things were at their most delicate.
Admittedly, it felt a little strange keeping his head of security in the dark about some very serious security risks. Tony hated the fact that he had to keep lying to Happy for the time being. But he also knew the former boxer would understand. He always seemed to understand, always seemed to be happy staying in his lane. What Happy didn't know couldn't hurt him… for now. SHIELD and HYDRA were dangerous, but they were most dangerous when they thought you had something they wanted. Happy's rather… hapless nature meant that despite being ostensibly one of Tony's closest friends, he had all but fallen off the radar of Stark Industries one approved security risk… 'Natalie Rushman'.
"Mr. Stark sir, I've finished. Will there be anything else?"
Glancing up from his tablet, Tony has to repress a smile as he sees Natasha Romanoff looking at him expectantly from the doorway. She's leaned against it with her heels off and in her hand, her pantyhose-clad feet resting on the carpet. One could look at her and assume she was just tired from walking around in those inch heels of hers all day. Or one could look a little closer and notice that she'd also undone another button on her top from the last time Tony had seen her.
It's not much… only a little risqué. Tony can barely see a hint of the lacy red bra that Natasha is wearing under her usual white blouse.
The last few months had been… fun, to say the least. Even if sometimes it felt like bullying the poor SHIELD spy. But then to be fair, it was Natasha Romanoff. Given everything from the previous timeline, Tony kind of felt like she deserved it. Just a little bit.
He and Pepper had yet to do anything with Natasha, despite her giving them so many signs and so many cues that said she was all too ready to be seduced by the two of them. Instead, they'd passed her back and forth between them, utilizing her as their shared personal assistant and no doubt driving her wild. Certainly, this was an escalation that proved Natasha thought she needed to be more obvious to finally make her way into Tony's bed.
Peering at her for a long moment, Tony hums consideringly.
"Actually yes, Ms. Rushman. There is one more thing you can do for me."
Natasha perks up at that. She bites her lower lip and twirls a lock of her curly red hair around her finger.
"Oh? And… what would that be, sir?"
She was laying it on a bit thick, but at this point, that was part of her character. Natalie Rushman was getting more and more fed up that Tony and Pepper were missing all of her signals. She ' d picked up on their own signals and was trying desperately to make them realize that she wanted what they seemed to want… albeit without just coming out and saying it.
It was rather amusing to watch Natasha play the role of horny personal assistant desperate to crawl under Pepper's desk or Tony's workbench and show them what her ruby red lips were really good for. And it was even more amusing to deny her that time and time again. "I need a coaster for my drink, please."
He gestures past his tablet to the glass on the coffee table in front of him. Natasha's eyes dart down to it, where the perspiration from the ice cold coke is slowly crawling down the glass, making its way towards the very expensive wood underneath it.
For a long moment, Tony thinks Natasha might leap across the room, wrap her legs around his head, and put him in a scissor hold right then and there just like he'd seen her do to Happy all those years ago.
But no. Natasha Romanoff is a professional. And so far, so is Natalie Rushman. Plastering a strained smile on her face, the spy-turned-PA walks over… saunters, really. Then, she picks up the coaster from the other side of the coffee table, not but three feet from where Tony is sat, and carefully slips it under his drink. She makes sure to bend over far more than she has to as she does so, arching her back and giving Tony a long look down her unbuttoned top as she gets it juuust right.
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