Afterwards, Natalie turned over, and glanced at the clock, nearly 10:30. The evening had gone a bit better than she had hoped, the idea of playing her part for a bunch of guests at a 'Tony Stark' kind of party had not appealed.

Tony lay comfortably on her other side, snoring softly, and she smiled despite herself. He was indeed a great lover, but he was still just an assignment. At least until informed otherwise.

She wasn't sure if this encounter would be a strike against him or for him in her notes. The fact that she felt aches in muscles she didn't even know existed helped her lean toward a positive mark. She finally wrenched her gaze from the bright red LED numbers, and moved around, trying her best to relax and fall asleep.

The next morning, it wasn't the sun's rays shining through the curtains that woke her, it was the warm heavy weight of an arm around her waist. Somehow, during the night, Tony had managed to spoon around her while they slept. She cracked open one eye, and did try her best to move gently away, but the slightest movement seemed to alert him, and his arm tightened, and she noticed something else was awake.

"Going somewhere?" Tony mumbled into her hair, that to him smelled slightly of vodka. Or perhaps that was simply his breath bouncing back to his nostrils.

The previous night was a slightly fuzzy haze, everything after he had downed that martini sort of mixed together. A flash of images, and snapshots of bare skin, her bare skin, against his, went through his mind.

"Did you have an okay time?" she asked, ever the picture of blushing shyness. At least when it came to that, her current role didn't require she be an expert.

"You have no idea. I honestly think I blacked out at the end." He said with a wry smile, not joking in the least. He certainly needed to change the cartridge in his chest, or he might not wake up from another blackout. He hated to think how high the concentration was now. Last night it had been 89%.

She sat up, pulling the sheet with her to cover her modest cleavage. He didn't see the point, he could still easily draw to mind scattered images of her perfect form.

"I need to go do something. Stay here." He told her, slipping out of the bed without a thought to his nudity.

Her eyebrows rose in surprise, but she didn't deny she liked the view. She did recall him falling asleep rather quickly, but she had had no idea that it was from a blackout. That could be dangerous.

Tony winced as he pulled out the completely fried cartridge, almost afraid to look at the meter, but it spoke aloud, saving him the trouble,

"Palladium levels at 93 percent." The electronic voice said and Tony sighed deeply. He needed to buckle down and find something, or he could be dead in the next few days.

"Jarvis, inform Miss Rushman I will be unable to join her for breakfast. Direct her to the dining room, and turn on the WI-FI spot, so that she can work if she needs to. Don't bother Pepper. At least not yet."

"Yes sir."

Natalie heard what Jarvis said, but completely ignored it, getting up out of bed and striding over to where Tony sat, putting a hand firmly on his shoulder,

"You're not ditching me this easily. We're going to breakfast, you need to meet a friend of mine."

Tony felt the strength of her grip and knew that saying no was not an option.

"If you insist milady."

The black man in the eyepatch across the table from him looked very serious, which only made it more difficult for Tony not to crack up.

"So let me get this straight… Ms. Rushman here is actually a former KGB operative, now working for, SHEILD did you say? Sent to watch me in action, see if I'm good enough to join your little group of heroes?"

The man sighed, and gestured to Natalie, er, Natasha, who whipped out a syringe from her pocket, quickly jamming it into Tony's arm before he could even glance her way.

He gasped in pain and shock, then groaned in relief as he felt the strain from the palladium core lessen.

"What was that?"

"A little something to make sure you have the time you need to find an alternative power source." Natasha said simply, no longer playing her part of easily seduced assistant.

Tony looked up at her, his head no longer aching from the pain.

"Thanks…Natasha."

"I prefer Agent Romanoff." She said curtly, her blue eyes flashing dangerously.

He hummed in acknowledgement absentmindedly.

6 months later, when Nick Fury asked Tony Stark to come on as a consultant for SHEILD, he had only one question.

"Will Agent Romanoff be at the meetings, breathing down my neck?"

Fury glanced at him,

"She's not called the Black Widow for nothing Stark."

END?

Bonus-Epilogue:

"You know this will have to go in your file. On permanent record. Is it over? Was it merely an indiscretion?"

Fury gave her as stern a look as he could manage with his one good eye, and she sighed heavily, shrugging slightly.

"I'm not sure. Yes. I guess. I don't see anything wrong with it but... If it has to go on file, whatever. It happened. I know with the project being shut down it doesn't matter much."

Fury nodded,

"It's a lucky thing too. He didn't qualify, and if he had, it would have meant you were teammates, coworkers, that sort of thing couldn't have continued anyway. I'm glad you ended it."