Work Text:
It had been a year since the Avengers had settled in Tony's Tower.
One morning Tony disembarked in the common room, followed by one of his bots. This one tried in turn to hide behind his creator and to glance over his shoulder.
They stopped in front of Natasha. Tony gave her a puzzled look while muttering to himself:
"I can’t believe I'm going to see this."
Taking a resigned air, he held out his hand behind him and grabbed the robot, pushing him firmly forward:
"Okay. That's your idea, it's up to you now, You. "
You advanced timidly and presented Natasha a rectangular package wrapped in a silk cloth. The fabric was dyed with dozens of flame-like shades of red and surrounded by an emerald green ribbon.
Seeing Natasha hesitate, he issued a series of imploring beeps. Tony supported his request:
"For Tesla’s sake, accept his gift! I really don’t want to have to manage a sobbing crisis! "
Natasha raised an eyebrow questioningly at Tony, who precised:
"I supervised all the manufacturing and packaging. It's not dangerous ... well, except for the others ..."
After scrutinizing You for a long moment, Natasha finally grabs the gift and unpack it carefully. Under the cloth, she discovered a rectangular box made of dark red wood. On the cover was engraved his name in green forest Cyrillic letters. Slipping the lid, she revealed a case made of a strange black cloth with green and red reflections, on which rested a double-edged black metal dagger.
Seizing it, she confirmed what her eyes had suggested, the handle was perfectly proportioned for her hands and the blade well balanced. Orienting the dagger to the light, Natasha admired the thread of the blade that she knew, without needing to test it, would be extremely sharp.
Tony, who had never been able to endure silence more than a few minutes, exclaimed:
"The dagger is of the same alloy as my armor. It can sink into concrete without becoming dull. The casing is a polymer with shape memory that cannot be torn by the blade. The bottom of the case was cut in a single block of wood, as was the lid. Silk has been specially ordered from China ...”
Tony stopped, frozen by the Black Widow’s look. Without letting her gaze drop, Natasha carefully repacked the present. During those few seconds, Tony swung nervously, from one foot to the other. You adopted the same tic as his creator by balancing his head left then right then left...
Tony finally cracked and start blabbing again:
"You really wanted to give yourself this gift. He only accepted my help to order the materials. He even refused Butterfingers helping him despite Butterfingers being the family’s best craftsman. You can’t believe the drama it’s created! Jarvis had to ask me to intervene! For two weeks, I have to deal with the jealousy crises of Butterfingers and Dummy! Two weeks that I have to encourage You! ... Because between us, while he’s a great designer, he’s really not good at things like cutting, assembling... Ouch!"
You had pinched Tony firmly to stop him from continuing and now gave him a disapproving look. Tony justified himself:
"Listen, it's not worth lying. Considering that Black Widow is like the top spy in spyland, she would have discovered the truth anyway. It's no use lying when you know you're going to get caught. On the other hand, when your interlocutor is credulous, you really shouldn’t have any scruples. Hey, that's a good one! Jarvis, adds that to the Stark precepts."
"It's done, sir. If you could focus on the current situation, I would be most grateful.” Jarvis's voice was weary and vaguely desperate.
Natasha cut short at any retort by giving a sincere smile to the young robot: "Thank you very much for this gift, You.”
You remained frozen on the spot for a moment before emitting a series of incoherent beeps and going back to the lab, backwards so as not to lose a pixel of his crush’s striking figure.
Tony watched the merry-go-round with an air both incredulous and resigned before stepping firmly towards the bar. (Making a detour to avoid the spy, in case she would want to test her new weapon on him.)
End