Taste of Thai, Saturday Evening

[chernayavdova]

Fact: Natasha needed dinner. Other fact: Natasha couldn't cook. Well, she could microwave things and make eggs. That was about it. Cooking was simply not part of the standard assassin skill set, and she'd never been anything else, so there had never been opportunity for her to learn. And the SHIELD cafeteria was open twenty-four hours a day

Comments

[hoorayimrich]

Noodles were always good. Especially when you were a growing boy. A growing, healing from a big, gaping injury boy.

"Hey," Tony said, nodding at the redhead as he searched for what he wanted on the menu.

[chernayavdova]

"Hello," Natasha said back. She didn't have that much experience with teenagers, especially boys, so she had no idea what was usual for them. Did they often greet strangers? Was this his teenaged idea of hitting on her? Because she got that a lot.

[hoorayimrich]

Well, Natasha. Since you're not blond, you're safe from this version of Tony Stark.

For now.

"New in town?" Not that Tony was normal when it came to teenage behavior.

[chernayavdova]

"Pretty much," Natasha confirmed. "I guess this place is small enough new people stand out, huh?"

[hoorayimrich]

"Welcome to the magic of Fandom," Tony replied with a wry grin. "You'll get used to it eventually."

A beat.

"Or move away."

[chernayavdova]

"Well, then I hope I get used to it," Natasha said, smiling at the kid, "because I don't think I'll be moving away any time soon." Unless Fury gave her new orders, in which case she'd be gone in sixty seconds. "You must be a student at the school, right?"

[hoorayimrich]

As she should!

"Name's Tony," he said, offering a hand. "And I am indeed a student. Most people here are."

[chernayavdova]

"The ones under eighteen, anyway," Natasha observed. She took his hand, giving him far less handshake than she was capable of. "I'm Natasha. My friend and I took over the town gym recently."

[hoorayimrich]

"Clint," Tony said, eyes going wide for a moment. "Well. This is going to be awkward, isn't it?"

[chernayavdova]

"You know Clint?" Natasha asked. She was really going to have to start comparing notes with him more often. She made a mental note about it. Possibly it would involve yelling, depending on how the rest of this conversation went. "I don't think he mentioned a Tony..." But then he hadn't mentioned his mouthy doppelganger, either.

[hoorayimrich]

"Tony Stark," he said with an apologetic shrug. "Age seventeen and not fighting aliens."

A beat.

"As far as I know. Things are getting weird back home with mutants starting to show up..."

[chernayavdova]

"Tony Stark," she echoed. And then, "I am going to kill him."

[hoorayimrich]

"If it helps, I didn't tell him until he talked up the other me for a while." Which was nice.

[chernayavdova]

"It kind of doesn't," Natasha told him, not unkindly. "Friends tell friends about things like meeting teenaged versions of famous people." Not to mention she had no way of knowing exactly what Clint had told this kid, so she could stick to his story. Feeling the kid out: go. "So what did Clint say about Stark, anyway?"

[hoorayimrich]

"Fought aliens, not a terrible person to be. Freaked out a little when I mentioned SHIELD."

That worked, right?

"I guess I don't have anything to do with them for a while there, huh?"

[chernayavdova]

She was not going to actually kill Clint; that had been hyperbole. But now she was maybe going to smack him around a little for admitting to a civilian that SHIELD existed, even if that civilian was, apparently, a teenaged Tony Stark.

Although she didn't see how that guy had grown out of this guy. This guy seemed kinda dorky around the edges.

"Didn't have anything to do with aliens?" she asked, hoping to avoid the whole SHIELD thing, even though she obviously knew what he was talking about.