Chapter Text
Tony was staring blankly at her.
“Tony quit ogling your new assistant” Pepper hissed softly, glaring at him heatedly. He rolled his eyes strongly, letting out a soft scoff. “You’ve only had her a few days, why are you acting weird already?” he wrinkled his nose at the thought, Pepper pausing for a moment.
“I’m not ogling, I’m….confused.” he winced a little as he made the admission. Pepper raised her brows at him. She’d never seen him so blatantly disgusted at the thought of ogling a woman, he certainly wasn’t shy about it when they first met.
“Is this that vulnerability thing the therapist was talking about?” Tony scowled for a moment, glancing at “Natalia” again as she sorted through some paperwork.
“That’s Skye’s girlfriend Pepper.” Pepper paused, turning her gaze to Natalie in sync with Tony, staring intently through the one-way glass of the office.
“There’s no way, she’s-”
“A Shield agent, so either Fury is trying to steal some intel because I won't give it up or she’s made a vast career change.” he frowned lightly, furrowing his brows a bit as he stared at her.
“None of us know what Natasha looks like Tony.” she reminded.
“I saw one photo a while ago, and Natalie is weirdly close to Natasha.” he was glad he’d had the forethought to keep Skye under his mother’s maiden name, it was saving a lot of headaches of having to put her in the public eye. “Jarvis restricted all classified files from Natalie since she got here, I told her she was on a trial period.”
“I also must remind you Skye is set to return home in a few hours, should I alert her of Miss Natasha’s presence?” Pepper’s face dropped as a sly grin bloomed across his face.
“No need, she’ll see her when she gets here. We’ll meet her at the house. Tell Natalie she needs to pick up some paperwork in the offices there.”
“Tony-”
“It’ll be funny.” he grinned widely, dragging her along as she gave him a reluctant look.
Waiting for Skye to get home was the hardest part. Natasha arrived and was sorting paperwork in his office (Meaningless things, he made sure of it) and Pepper was giving him progressively more dirty looks of disapproval as time ticked on.
All made worth it when the door clicked open. His gaze was firmly on Natasha from that moment onward,
“Hey Tony!-” Natasha’s head snapped around in a split second, eyes wide and disbelieving, “-You haven’t been answering my calls, did you collapse in your lab?” Tony’s grin returned in a split second as Skye hung her coat, still not able to see Natasha from the entryway as she peeked into the living room.
“What the hell is up with that sly look? What did you do?”
“Oh nothing.” he waved her off, his grin widening as Natasha stared at her intently, looking like a deer in headlights before she was even noticed. “But your girlfriend did infiltrate Stark Industries, I’ll have to ask Fury about that.” Natasha’s gaze snapped to Tony in full shock, Skye’s gaze finally catching her as they widened.
“Okay, so um-” Skye stumbled over her words, Tony bursting out laughing finally as Natasha glared murderously at him, her cheeks burning slightly.
“You-” she looked between the two. “Tony- as in Tony Stark?” she squawked, looking at Skye this time as she smiled nervously.
“ Yeah but uh….I was gonna rip that bandaid off soon in my defense.” Natasha gave her an incredulous look, turning her gaze to Tony, met with a shit eating grin as he cackled. Skye turned a narrowed gaze to him.
“She’s been here four days.” Pepper sipped her coffee as Skye leaped over the couch. Tony yelped, scrambling off the couch only to be tackled to the ground mid-escape.
“You jackass!”
“In my defense, this is so fucking funny. Nice to meet you by the way Natasha. I've heard a lot of good things.” his grin was still wide tackled to the ground, giving her a wave as Natasha tried to process the situation.
“I’m so confused,” she muttered softly, sitting down next to Pepper at the counter as Skye and Tony continued to squabble. She’d never really found herself at a loss for words much. Falling in love with Skye was one of those times, really most of them had been because of her, but she usually knew how to recover quickly and roll with it. “Alcohol?” Pepper snorted softly, shaking her head.
“We don’t keep any in the house.” Natasha paused, briefly filtering through her memories to grab hold of an admission Skye had made.
Her brother was a recovering alcoholic, he’d been sober since she’d joined their house at six. “Makes sense,”
“How much did she share?” Pepper was talking quietly, though her tone had a curious tilt to it, smirking softly as Tony yelped, trying to escape as Skye captured him in a headlock. Tony was always outmatched, though usually Skye let him think he had a chance.
She tried not to laugh at the unintelligible noise of defeat that left Tony as he slumped.
“A lot.” Natasha was looking at her still and Pepper shrugged.
“I was the one who helped her pick out her outfit for your first date. We know a little bit about you, but only Tony knew what you looked like.” Tony finally rose, looking incredibly disheveled, Skye grinning widely from her perch on his back, folding her arms on top of his head as he grumbled softly.
“You’re a brat.”
“At least I’m not a geezer.” she poked his cheek, sticking her tongue out at him. He grinned lightly, unable to fight off the smile before setting her down, wheezing a little.
“I’m too old for this,” he whined, sitting down at the counter, Skye finally leaving him alone, giving Natasha a shy smile
“What made you want to keep me on staff knowing I was spying on you?” Tony grinned a little lopsidedly as Skye glared at him lightly.
“Curiosity.”
“Curiosity my ass, nosiness is what it is.” Tony grinned wider.
“What else am I supposed to do? You only confide in Pepper about these things and you expected me to not pry a bit when she walks right into Stark industries?” he prodded, grinning at her grumpy look. Skye sat down next to Natasha, a little winded but smiling.
“So uh…. Sorry?” she offered. Natasha couldn’t help the soft laugh that escaped her, smiling softly.
“I should start expecting surprises shouldn’t I?”
“This was the last one actually.” Skye grinned lightly.
“You told her about the whole inhuman thing?” Tony asked lazily.
“When we first met actually.” Natasha mussed.
“We were hiding in a ceiling for a week. Natasha you make it sound like I spilled everything day one.”
“You started your explanation with “I lead a group of secret powered people'' you spilled everything on day three.” Skye rolled her eyes lightly as Natasha smirked slightly, Pepper and Tony giving Skye scolding looks as Natasha quickly gave her an innocent one.
Skye deflated against the counter.
“You’re a bully.” she whined.
“Oh cheer up.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Let’s go to a race, Coulson and May are going to be there.” Skye perked up, Happy poking in through the door holding the keys.
“Skye’s girlfriend Natasha, since Tony didn’t bother to tell anyone he knew who she was.” Pepper gestured to Natasha loosely, Happy’s eyes widening drastically.
“ Wait why is a Shield-”
“Document theft,” Natasha answered loosely. “Which I didn’t get any of that done by the way. I’m sure the trial period was an excuse to stall for Skye coming back.” Tony clicked his tongue, still grinning as he pushed Skye forward.
“Come on, we’ll get burgers on the way.” Skye perked up a bit more, following after him without any protest. Natasha followed further behind with Pepper, still processing the entire situation.
“You get used to it. Apart, Skye's mostly responsible but they bring out a lot of recklessness in each other.” The words themselves were negative, but the way Pepper smiled reassured her somewhat.
“Worse than flooding the academy?”
“They blew up the workshop last time she was back.” Natasha just sighed softly, resigning herself to the madness and silently following along. She regained her composure by the time they got to the race track, Skye covertly sneaking glances at her as they greeted other guests, Coulson smiling brightly at her, approaching to give her a tight hug with May not far behind.
“I see that mission finally blew up.”
“You knew?!” Skye squawked, May smirking lightly.
“I have higher clearance than you Skye, I can see her missions.” Natasha smiled a little, Shifting a bit as Coulson sent her a very hesitant glance, looking unsure and a bit steeled.
“Tony!” Skye sighed, smoothly and slowly chasing after the sound of Pepper’s indignance, raising her brows a bit at the spectacle happening now as Tony replaced the F1 driver.
“Is he normally this reckless?” Skye didn’t answer this time, lips pursed softly, unsurely as she stared down at the track, watching from afar.
He was struggling. Tony used to be out of shape, but he’d been good about keeping active and building up strength. When they were wrestling he got winded way too easily, he gave in quickly, and he looked a little bit in pain. She’d tried to chalk it up to developing back issues, but Jarvis showed her a clean bill of health on the way there when she’d requested it.
“You’re worried.” she startled out of her trance, glancing away from the track, catching Natasha’s worried glance.
“He called me out of the blue last week, telling me he wants to hand over the company to me.” she admitted wearily.
“Is that such a bad thing?”
“It was his plan from the start.” she admitted “But he planned that much later down the line. Not this early. He’s weaker and he’s acting erratically.” she tapped the railing lightly, watching horror flash across Natasha’s face in a split second. Skye’s gaze snapped back to the tracks, and before she could think she was vaulting over the railing, pulling a heavy duty knife from her jacket pocket.
“Skye stop!” Natasha chased after her.
Her heart was racing, worriedly single minded. If Skye confronted the maniac with fire whips with a fucking knife and nothing else she’d have to use her powers eventually-
“Hey fuckface!” Vanko whipped around, a knife sinking right into his shoulder forcing him to stumble back, he lashed out with a whip towards her blindly as he winced, the knife shortly followed by-
A folding chair smashed against his skull, Tony spluttering as the man crumbled, the chair half melted from the defending whip as Skye blinked, staring at the melted path inches away from her head in the metal.
She could tell Tony wanted to yell at her, scold her at least a dozen times, but he kept quiet with all the eyes on them. Natasha held herself back with the crowd, panting softly, her panic slowly weaning.
When had she gotten so easily shaken? Skye was always capable of figuring out the solution, she was smart-
She froze as she saw Skye lower the chair, spying the scorched hole through it.
“Well? Are you two just watching the show or are you going to do your fucking jobs?” she barked out, the two scared policemen startling at the sudden attention. One of them scrambled forward, the other a few paces behind, still recovering from the shock as he chased after.
Skye stepped away, going back to Natasha as the two of them managed to start prying the suit off the man. She could see Coulson looking worriedly down at her, May giving her an even look she couldn’t quite decipher, probably seething rage.
She winced a little, trying to avoid their gazes as Natasha grasped her hand, leading her away quickly as the crowd began to settle down, Tony similarly moving off the track and to a more secluded area, sparing them a couple worried glances.
“Are you okay?” Natasha asked softly, moving her arm a bit, checking to see that the electric whip hadn’t hit her directly.
“I’m fine, I’m more worried about Tony, he’s the one that nearly crashed and got attacked.” she pointed out, using their joined hands to drag Natasha along the empty halls, her shoulders dropping in relief as she spotted Tony. He was running a hand through his hair in his usually stressed manner.
The stress in his frame dissipated as he spotted her, and Natasha let go of her hand hesitantly as she rushed forward, hugging him tightly.
“I should scold you but that was pretty badass.” Skye snorted softly, her smile watery as she clutched him tightly.
“You can’t die on me alright? I need you.” he stilled, stiffening slightly as she tightened her arms around him “I’m worried about you.” She whispered softly, burying her face in his shoulder. “Are you alright?” He swallowed thickly, tightening his hold on her as he stopped for a moment.
“We’ll talk about it later,” he replied meekly, feeling her stiffen against him, turning her head to look at him worriedly as he looked away from her. Pepper approached with Happy, Coulson and May not far behind as Skye reluctantly pulled away just in time for May to yank her back, checking her over quickly.
“You can’t scold her for being reckless, you taught her that.” Coulson reminded, May sending him a murderous glare. His mouth audibly clicked shut.
“Bring a gun next time.” she scolded, Tony giving her a flat look at the odd scolding as Pepper just let out a little huff.
“Watching you KO a dude with a folding chair was pretty amazing though.” Happy piped up, Skye smiling a bit sheepishly as May sighed.
“Let’s just head back to the house, I’m beat.” Tony sighed softly.
“You have a big day tomorrow.” Skye reminded. Tony half groaned, “What do you want to do?” He could feel the regret bubbling up in his chest as he looked at her, her smile bright and warm.
“There’s an indoor ice skating rink not far from the house, let’s go there in the morning.” Despite his terrible skills at it, he was getting marginally better over the years, and starting to enjoy the family time even if there were laughs at his expense. Truly he’d always valued the time, the way it got Skye out of her shell early on, how much she always begged to go every weekend.
It reminded him of where they started, and how far they’d come. They’d gone shortly after Bahrain, and even then she could crack a small smile at his expense.
He enjoyed it to some degree. He was sure he probably always had. After all, her smile meant the most to him.
Her smile brightened, even with the nervous undertone of it all she couldn’t help but be excited.
“And bring your girlfriend.” Natasha’s hand twitched as she was mentioned, her heart fluttering softly at being referred to as her girlfriend, glancing at Skye as her smile brightened even more.
“You need rest though, so let’s get back quickly. I’ll worry about our plans.” Tony smiled softly, not arguing with her as Skye pushed him along, very insistent on him getting some good rest as Happy trailed along with their car keys, leaving Pepper and Natasha to follow along again, this time with Coulson and May not a pace behind them. May gave her a dark look, patting her shoulder.
“Break her heart and we’ll kill you.” Natasha couldn’t help but feel happy, Skye seemed somewhat like her, finding family in those around her just as well.
“I’ll save you the trouble if it comes to that.” May looked satisfied with the answer, Coulson vaguely concerned but not refuting his allegiance to the threat.
“She loves you a lot.” May spoke instead, “Don’t let her down.”
“I can only offer my best,” she replied softly, honestly. She couldn’t promise she’d never let her down, she was already making mistakes and fumbling, especially while she was still processing all the madness that was Skye being a Stark of all things, and Tony Stark knowing an alarming amount about her, which she was far too comfortable with. Whatever he knew he’d known for a while, and he was Skye’s brother.
He was Tony, who sucked at ice skating but did it regardless of how much he sucked, and Tony who slept with Skye in the living room when she had nightmares, watching Scooby Doo and never turning it off for fear she’d wake up to darkness. He was Tony, Skye’s beloved big brother who she thought the world of.
The image she had of him and the image Skye painted of him didn’t match up in any regard, but why would she trust her own eyes over Skye’s? It was easy to trust her. A sentence she never thought would cross her mind not too long ago.
With Clint the trust was a slow build, having her back and reassuring her of his allegiance.
With Skye it was like a spark igniting a raging flame. She didn’t need to do too much for Natasha to trust her.
Simply the way she was made her want to be honest with her from the moment they had met.
She had nothing, and in an instant Skye was everything. Above the work and dedication to Shield that seemed to pave the path of the rest of her life; there was Skye. Standing on a dirt road, leading her down a path that felt unsteady and unknown, but not taking those steps felt impossible to her.
“Guest room.” Tony gave her a hard look, Skye squawking and moving to bully him for the firm comment as Natasha tried not to act flustered.
“Don’t mind him, he likes teasing Skye.” Tony stuck his tongue out at Pepper as she waved him off with a heavy sigh.
Skye stuck her tongue out at him in a reply, Tony grinning mischievously as she glared at him.
“Got to bed brat, both of you, in separate rooms.” he prefaced again, Pepper smacking the back of his head likely earning a yelp.
“Sleep in the living room with us, we’ll watch a movie.” she grinned as Tony scowled but didn’t protest. Natasha didn’t protest either, glancing over, finding an excited smile playing on Skye’s lips as she glanced at her.
“Is Uncle Rhodey coming?”
“In the morning, he had some things to finish up tonight.” Tony nodded, smiling softly as Skye’s smile widened.