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The first time he met Natasha, they were on the train as first years. When Tony tells the story, “met” is replaced with “scared the living shit out of me” (“same thing,” Natasha says). He managed to claim a compartment by himself for a little bit, but it only lasted until others started to trickle onboard. First, he met Happy and Pepper (“not their real names”) who were delighted (“weary”) to be his friends. He stepped out of the compartment, turned to find his way to the nearest bathroom, and there she was, peering up at him (“Investigating,” she says before pointing at him, “and you scream like a girl.” “Natasha! Who’s telling the story?” At this point, she’d just shrug her shoulders and give him that enigmatic smile of hers. “You tell it wrong.”)
They don’t tell that story too much, well Tony doesn’t like to as Natasha seems to enjoy needling him about that or maybe one of the other dozen times she scared him (“startled,” he’d say). He caught her whispering with Clint from time to time, at least until one of them turned to stare at him followed shortly by the other. Those movements were quickly followed by maniacal laughter or giggling. It was hard to tell the difference with them.
(Tony doesn’t know about the second time they met, and she would never tell him. He thinks their third meeting in the Ravenclaw/Slytherin Potions class was their second metting, but in reality, that was their third.
She continued her investigation of Tony, and saw him being bullied by several older students. Something about his father. The fight ended in two hits – one of the older boys hitting Stark, and Stark hitting the floor. She stayed in the shadows until they left, watching Stark as he got up, and tried (but failed) to control his emotions. She watched him walk away, and only then, when she was sure he was gone, did she step out of her hidden spot.
One week later, all three boys visited the hospital. Twice. It took her a little time to figure out Stark got his revenge in his own way. It intrigued her, not that she would ever admit that to him, but in his own way. Clint befriended her earlier, and despite wearing red and gold, he seemed to be okay. She decided then that Stark could be okay too.)
They met and kept meeting dozens of times until it going to the point that normal people wouldn’t keep track.
“It can’t be that high,” Tony said. He’d long finished the homework assignemtns and turned his attention to several projects he started – including one on clockwork mechanisms and magical intelligence – to keep his bordem from reaching critical levels. Typically that involved fire(s), an explosion (or four), and generally managing to make more of a nuisance of himself than normal.
Natasha shrugged her shoulders as she continued working on her History of Magic essasy. “Don’t you have some other co-ed to bother?”
“Nope,” Tony popped. “None have caught my eye. Besides, you’ve broken more hearts than I have.”
“We’ve had this discussion before,” she said without looking up from her essay.
“What discussion?” Bruce asked as he sat at their table. He was the only other Ravenclaw Tony tolerated and worth the time to deal with, let along talk science with him. Jane, since finding the joys of sex, rarely was found outside of the company of her boyfriend, Point Break or something like that.
Tony leaned back in his chair, taking both his legs and the first two of the chair up and off the ground. “Who broke more hearts.”
“You,” Bruce said. He removed his own books and a set of notebooks from his bag. “Natasha broke more bones.”
“Makes it hard for them to bounce back.” He was used to those comments slipping out of her lips. She glanced up at him, momentarily drawing him in with her gaze. “Less expensive too.”
“True, but nowhere near as fun,” Tony said. Her smirk let him know their definitions differed.
Bruce groaned, “for once, I would like to have a conversation with either of you or even work on something without having some innuendo thrown in there.”
“This is tame.” “Haven’t even started yet.”
“Some of us would like to work,” he said, ignoring him.
Ignoring them really was the only way to sometimes accomplish any task. Sometimes Clint mellowed Natasha a bit, but only because for the two of them to plan playback disguised as pranks. Other times, Pepper reined Tony in, but only enough to stop him from making a golem after three days without sleep. Again. Without either of them there, anyone would have to be foolish or incredible intelligent to try and get work done around them. Bruce fell in the latter category, those most of their friends fell into the former.
Tony let them get back to work, a silence slowly filled with annoying scraps of the quills Natasha insisted on using (instead of pens which were much cleaner and easier to manage – an lose, which was always her starting rebuttal). Instead, he doodled as he focused on her, the friend he never expected to have or want or even keep.
Along with being drop-dead gorgeous, with vibrant red hair and piercing blue eyes, Natasha possessed an air of refinement but exuded hostility for most people, including him at times. Other times that hostility hide the affection she didn’t know how else to present. They were a lot like – he hide his affection in annoyance and sarcasm. She tolerated more people now than she did in the past, but certainly still less than he did (though only by a thin margin). Whereas he ignored most people or annoyed them to get away from him, Natasha tended toward more aggressive (and hot) resting bitch face and non-subtle threats of violence if they could not figure it out. Threats meant actions with implications of something worse (his favorite was pushing a would-be rapist off a railing – the bastard landed on a moving staircase, instead of the floor).
“Why isn’t Pepper here?” Bruce’s question knocked him for his trail of pleasant thoughts to others he’d rather refrain from thinking about all together.
“They’re not speaking. Again,” Natasha answered for him.
“Since when?” Bruce finally looked up from his own work. Tony shrugged his shoulders but before he could respond, Natasha interrupted.
“A month.”
“A month? Tony, what did you do?” Bruce asked, leaving his essay alone. Now his scientist would abandon all reason to engage in his second favorite conversation topic: gossip, let alone gossip about Tony.
“Me? Why do you assume it was me?” Tony asked incredulously. He ran a hand over his face, trying to think of a way off this topic. It sucked, and it was only slightly more bearable than talking about his excellent family.
“Because it’s you,” Natasha said. She finally looked up at him, offering what had to be a gentle smile. Probably the gentlest facial expression he had ever seen on her face. Tony nearly did a double take: did she actually smile at him? Before he could examine it a little closer, it was gone, but lucky him, his eidetic memory still caught it.
Natasha turned back to Bruce with her usually stone-faced expression. “He wasn’t pleased with Pepper or Happy about spending time together without him. So he said some things that were incorrect, she said some that were. Happy punched him.”
“That’s your favorite part, isn’t it?” Tony glared at her, prompting a smirk this time.
“No. I like the part where you got detention and Happy didn’t.” This got a laugh out of Bruce, and should it have happened to anyone else, he would have laughed too. But it happened to him, and he was the one who ended up in detention. At least it wasn’t over a Hogsmeade weekend.
“Whatever.” He waved them off and went back to his sketches and equations, all the while ignoring the silently grinning redhead and not-so-silently laughing scientist.
“Really, Tony? You didn’t know they were together?” Somehow balancing being completely serious and happy all the time, Tony often resisted the urge to punch Rogers. Mostly because it was wrong but also cause the Headboy was like three times his size. And still managed to sneak up on him. How they were friends, he wasn’t sure, but they were, which meant moments like this where everyone picked on him, well, not exactly picking on him, but close enough.
Tony shot back. “And you did?”
“Yeah, well, I mena, she asked me to cover a few times with Head duties.” Rogers said as he sat down with them. “You really didn’t know?”
Tony groaned in response, and pushed his chair away from the table. The legs scrapped along the wooden floor. He sagged forward, resting his head on the table. He caught Natasha’s smirk, and silently thanked some deity that she couldn’t reach his chair with her short legs.
Except he forget about her wand.
A whoosh of magic pushed his chair further away, fast enough that he couldn’t prepare for, but slow enough to watch her eyes as he slammed his head into the table – “fuck” – and he knees on the floor.
Of course, Rogers was out of his chair to help him off the floor. Bruce remained seated, of course, but as crawled back up, he watched his fellow scientist switch between looking at him and Natasha, who remained as poised as ever, but now with that tiny quirk of lips of hers hidden behind a fall of red.
Tony waved off Rogers as he pulled the chair back to the table. “I’m fine.”
“Where’s Clint?” Rogers asked as he went back to his own work. Given the book he removed, he had to be working on the same essay as Natasha. Only the two f them were crazy enough to sign up for NEWTS History of Magic when there were better things, like Alchemy or Charms or … anything but History of Magic. It was taught by a frigging ghost.
“Either with Darcy, Jessica, or Bobbi,” Natasha said.
“Not Bobbi. She’s back with Lance,” Tony added, rubbing his head to try and get the throbbing to stop. He went back to his doodle, writing out another equation for a magical intelligence.
“Then Jessica, cause Darcy was with Fitzsimmons last I saw,” Bruce said.
“How do you guys know this stuff?” Rogers asked finally looking up from his essay.
“Pays to know where your exes are at any given time.” Natasha pushed forward one of the textbooks. “Here use this one for the third question.” Rogers nodded his thanks as he began to flip through the pages.
“Amen to that.” Tony shuddered at the thought of both Bobbi and Jessica in the same room as him. Luckily both of them were Gryffindors and he never would have to share a common room.
Natasha stood up from her seat. “Walk me back.”
“What” She started to pack up her other books and the scrolls she insisted on using in her enchanted bag. It was a gift he had made her a few years ago, right between they started their fifth year and OWLs preparation.
“You’re not doing anything right now. Walk me back.” She spun from her spot at the table and headed out the stacks. He gathered the pieces of paper and sheets and shoved them in his notebook.
“Guess I’m leaving,” he said as he shoved the mess of papers into his bag. “Have fun.”
“Try not to cause too much trouble.” Rogers gave him a wave goodbye as he glanced up. Tony tossed off a facetious salute in return before hurrying after Natasha.
“Bout time,” she said, giving him what had to be the gentlest form of her glare possible as he caught up with her.
“Thought walking someone back meant walking with them,” Tony shot back.
“Thought romance was dead.” They passed a group of second years who rightly moved out of the way. Scattered would probably be more appropriate, but Natasha seemed distracted by something.
“You told me,” Tony said, catching her smile. It was small, but it was there.
“And you obeyed.”
“Only you.” This got the smile to grow, just a bit, and he couldn’t help but return it. Except he nearly tripped over his feet at the sight of a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks. He wasn’t a complete dork, despite what his friends thought – ask any of the girls he went out with – but getting Natasha to blush was a close to a miracle as possible.
After the little exchange, they walked in silence. Close, but not touching. Tony thought back, recalling all their other times walking together. The memories went all the way back to their first year together. It started with a respectable distance between each other, but that was just how Natasha was. Slowly, maybe so slowly he wouldn’t have noticed it was happening until her hand started to bump his, she started to move a little closer to him as they walked.
Natasha was the first to break their comfortable silence. “Why did we never date?” She glanced up at him quickly before facing forward again.
“Guess we were too focused on other things.” Tony kept walking, letting her set the pace and guide their conversation. It really was the safest with her, but he liked it. Somehow they remained friends for so long then anyone outside of Happy, Pepper, and Rhody. Despite her sneaky methods and general demeanor, she was perfect. Thinking on it now, he was too damn impressed with her, at her ability to manipulate others to really care about any “negative” aspect she may or may not have. Hell, she ignored just as many of his or copied them. Or was that shared them with him.
“But that ends after this year and we head our separate ways.”
“Well, you’re going to work with Prefect, aren’t you?”
“His name is Phil, and yes he recruited me. And Clint.”
“Pretty sure it’s Prefect,” Tony said. He caught her glancing up at him again, and added a smile for her.
“Sure, Stark,” she said. But it got that smile to stick, and maybe, maybe it was worth it.
“You’re not really for romance,” Tony finally said as they walked into the last corridors.
“And you’re not really for commitment,” she said. “You’re too narcissistic to have any worthwhile relationship with someone that isn’t you.”
“You know, you’re like me with breasts.” It was a statement. He’d thought it a dozen times over the past year or longer. Really since he noticed girls, because, well, why the hell wouldn’t you notice when they started sprouting and growing, and damn…
“And more conniving and deviousness.” Natasha gave him a glimpse of her teeth as she smile up at him. She stopped and he really had to stop with her because there wasn’t anywhere else to go.
“I think it comes with the breasts,” Tony said. She laughed, a full heartfelt laugh, at that. It was short and sincere and wonderful. “And they are magnificent breasts, by the way. I haven’t told that you before, have I?”
“No, but you’ve got eyes,” Natasha said, “not that it gives you free rein to look.”
“Like I need permission,” Tony scoffed. They stood there, staring, and it should have been awkward. If he spent this much time silent with anyone else, he’d probably go crazy. Then maybe he was, since he liked the silence he was with her. “So…”
“So…” she glanced at his lips, but quickly made eye contact again.
“You know, if you go evil, you’ll have to take me with you,” Tony said. He wasn’t sure where the thought came from, but then again, most of his thoughts came out of nowhere.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re a Slytherin, I mean, you only play the cliché when its in your favor.”
“Of course. And why would I take you?”
“Because I could make all the good toys.” He really did, and she kept a few of them to use that weren’t even past the prototype stage. Mainly because they probably could be traced to him. “The sex would be fantastic too.”
“How would you know?”
“I’m me, and you’re you,” Tony said. Her eyes roamed his body, evaluating everything he was. “Could it be anything else?”
“So, it’s agreed then, we’re together?” She reached out with her free hand, taking his. It was a big moment for her, and for them.
“Partners?”
“Well see,” Natasha said, smiling a little bit wider than before. “Only if the sex is fantastic.”
“It will be,” Tony leaned forward and gave her their first kiss. He stopped just before, because he really needed to be sure if he went in on this. “This is okay right?”
“Stark, we’re going to have to start the sex somewhere,” Natasha whispered and leaned the last little bit up.
It was short, and sweet, and it was a start.
Natasha nipped his lips, before diving back in to kiss him harder. He fell against the wall, bumping his head hard against the stone. She tugged at his necktie, taking complete control of it. Eventually, control would be his, but this was a start. Kissing was a start. A great start.
Natasha pulled back enough to glare at him. “Stop thinking.”
Yeah, the sex was going to be fantastic.