Natasha.

[aa_pepper]

Lunch has been brought in rather than taken out, one of the board rooms that litter Stark Tower turned over to the purpose with a meal that comes from an upscale steakhouse down the street and likely billed to Stark Industries. Pepper has finished ensuring that the delivery person will also see that some food makes its way to Tony and Banner in the labs, and settled herself at the corner of the table with an almost habitual straightening of the heavy (read: real) silverware that accompanies their meal. "I saw you in the broadcasts, Natasha. I trust you have recovered well? You look well," she offer with a small smile, polite but interested.

If Natasha is still scraped and bruised (hint: she is), she gives little sign of it as she pauses in a hover behind her chair. She's dressed for Stark Industries in an impeccable pencil skirt and blouse, with only the shorter, redder hair to distinguish her from Natalie Rushman. She gives Pepper a smile and a tip of her head as she answers, "Thank you. I think we're all doing much better than ought to be expected, given the circumstances."

"Yes, you are. Don't let Mr. Stark convince you he's doing any differently," Pepper says with a brush of wry humor for the man they have both claimed as a boss, even if one of them were only playing at it. "Though, he does have quite a lot on his plate, now."

Natasha's smile spreads just slightly as she slides into her chair. "Mr. Stark is not as convincing as he occasionally thinks he is," she agrees, one wanna-be wrangler to another. Her brows rise slightly, all curiousity, before she pursues, "Playing with his new toy?"

"That, and the board of Stark Industries is rather concerned about the company. It is not easy, being a CEO, genius and Avenger," Pepper allows with a slight wrinkle of her nose, only a small hint of concern seeping through her words as she picks up her fork and watches Natasha.

"Ah," Natasha answers, understanding writ clear in the tilt of her head. She considers this for a moment while she directs her attention to the meal in front of her. She cuts neatly, with a precision that might give something away, were they anything to give away to Pepper. "Does he consider himself one, then? An Avenger?"

Pepper would make the worst spy, because there is no need to watch her silverware for her to give anything away. She merely says, "Iron Man is certainly one, yes. I know he considers his Iron Man self as part of the Avengers."

Natasha startles slightly with a bite halfway to her mouth. She chews politely before voicing, "Does he draw such a strict line between the two?"

"I would guess he does as much as the--rest of them do," Pepper hesitates over that phrasing, though she is likely very wrong about the conclusion. But she does wince at it, continuing with a smoother, "Iron Man is Tony Stark, but Tony Stark is not just Iron Man, Natali--Natasha."

Natasha waves her hand in allowance. "Natalie is just as easy as Natasha," she says with a slight smile. She considers this for a moment and then shakes her head, red tresses brushing against her shoulder with the movement. "It's different for every one of them. Of us. We're an... eclectic batch. A soldier out of time. A scientist with a beast lurking around the corner. A-- a bonified /Norse god/." Her cutlery clanks lightly as she speaks. "Tony's line is his own. Everyone's is. I'd just wondered if he'd figured out where it fell, yet."

There is a curve of a smile in return even as Pepper insists, "Whichever you would prefer. I need to train myself out of the habit, in any case." Her own gaze drops conideringly to her plate at Natasha's answer, studying her steak in the time it takes to process the other woman's words. "As careless as he appears, I think Mr. Stark has decided his line long ago. When the government began pushing for the Iron Man suit, maybe, or when he began refining it." She pauses, and then changes the subject to ask, "What is it like, working with them?"

"Natasha, then," she suggests, her responding smile just the slightest bit pleased. She falls silent, fork working through portioned bites as Pepper speaks, and with the silence comes another thoughtful glance. At the end she gives a rueful smile when she answers, "Complicated."

"Natasha," Pepper repeats easily, her smile a warm thing as she settles her fork against her plate and folds her hands under her chin. "I couldn't even imagine. I have a hard enough time with Tony, and you have him plus the rest. Even when Captain Rogers only stopped by for a moment, it felt like two cats in a bag."

Natasha's smile turns slightly amused. "Captain Rogers is very much a man of his century. And Tony Stark belongs quite firmly in this one." She pauses, chewing for a moment before she adds, "In far more ways than the flashy technological toys and fancy suits, I think."

"He seemed very much the gentleman," allows Pepper with a small smile for the absent Captain, humor brushing her own words briefly as well. "It can't be easy for him, settling into this one."

"I don't think he's had much time to settle," Natasha answers with a tip of her head in agreement. "It will be interesting to see what happens when he does. Have time."

Pepper nods slowly, thoughtfully, though the next moment lightens briefly to add, "Don't let Tony make it too hard on him. You have my permission to hit him, if you have to. Just not /too/ hard."

Natasha laughs suddenly at that, and her eyes glow pleased and surprised at Pepper across the table. "Do you think it would do any good?"

"It might surprise him into speechlessness. For a moment," Pepper says, though her brows twitch together in an obvious tell even as she jokes. No, she doesn't really think it will help.

"Maybe I'll start threatening to call you instead," Natasha suggests, brows arching with warm amusement. "I suspect that would quell him faster than anything I might be able to do."

"You have my permission to do that as well, Natasha," Pepper replies with an easy smile, continuing to correct, "Call me, not only threaten it."

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me all your secrets," Natasha pries good-naturedly. "Years worth of hard-won Tony Stark-wrangling advice in one fell swoop?"

Wincing at the request, there is still obvious affection to the subtle tone of Pepper's response as she answers, "I don't even know if I could condense it into a manual. Where do I start?" A pause, and she seems to find something as she adds softer, "Sometimes he really just needs someone to truly listen to him."

Natasha's cutlery stills for a moment as she studies Pepper. Her voice goes likewise soft as she says, "You really do care for him, don't you?"

Pepper's skin flushes, and once again there is the reminder that she is not in any way a trained spy. She says carefully, after too long a pause, "We have worked together for a long time, but I do."

"Well," Natasha says, tone lightening toward something teasing. "He does have his good moments. Now and again."

"Someone should start keeping track to remind him. 'Number one, saved Manhattan by diverting missile'," Pepper suggests with a quirk of her own brow, gratitude passing briefly in her expression as she eases back to the lightness of humor. "Actually, maybe you should not start with that. I do not want him encouraged into anything else like that."

Natasha exhales a soft breath of laughter and lifts a hand, tipped helplessly upward. "I think it may have to be you, Ms. Potts. He certainly doesn't trust me, or the people I work for, any further than he has to. Not even when he wants something from us."

Pepper nods, not entirely surprised by the other woman's words, though she offers a simple, "Give him time. He's never played well with others, but I am sure he can come around."

"I wish I felt as certain as you do," Natasha admits, gaze dipping downward. "We could use his expertese on any number of matters."

"Not building weapons, I am sure?" Pepper questions, a hint of humor masking the plain curiosity that shines in her gaze even as she takes a slow bite of her lunch.

"I thought Mr. Stark was particularly good at building weapons," Natasha answers, tone gone temporarily dry.

"Particularly, but." Pepper's palm turns out in a gesture as she returns dry tone with a dry smile, tipping her chin in a quiet acknowledgement of--something.

"I know, I know," Natasha answers, disappointment clear but lightly waved away. "I wouldn't ask it of him anyway. But he /is/ going to have to trust someone else someday. He and his suit aren't always going to be enough." Her gaze fixes firm on Pepper for a moment across the table. "I think you know that. He has to, too."

"Isn't that what your Avengers are for?" Pepper questions lightly, her smile lifting at the corners of her lips again. "I think he knows that, Natasha. It will take him some time to learn to work within a team, though."

"It's what we hope to be for," Natasha answers, serious rather than light. "Whether hope becomes reality--" She shakes her head, red curls dancing lightly with the movement as doubt skitters across her features. "We'll see, I suppose."

Genuine warmth plays over Pepper's words as she offers, "I wish you luck of it. We need the Avengers."

"Yes," Natasha answers, and for a moment she falls silent again.

It is a moment of awkward silence on Pepper's part, though she only takes another careful bite of her steak. And then she's back to questioning in a friendly manner, "Is the Norse god really the same one from our mythology? What is /he/ like?"

Natasha is startled into a glance upward, then a fast smile. "He appears to be. He's, ah--" She pauses, taking the excuse for a bite before finishing, "Dramatic."

"Dramatic," Pepper repeats, interest there. It is also an obvious invitation to continue as she sips her water and watches the other woman. Gossip time?

"Interesting," Natasha adds, and settles in for some light-hearted gossip about the man who calls himself Thor and walks around with a giant hammer. It's loads of un.

Natasha and Pepper gossip about the men of the Avengers.