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aa_natasha 8/31/2012
=NYC= Joe the Art of Coffee - Midtown - NYC
Though smaller than your average Starbucks, Joe the Art of Coffee in Chelsea manages to do good business for itself, likely in part because of the rare lack of the coffee giant chain in the immediate area. The coffee here is of a high quality, though it tends to attract a slightly more hipster (read: snobby) clientele because of it. However, their brownies are excessively delicious.
Natasha takes the liberty of ordering a steaming cup of Pepper's preferred beverage along with her own, making it difficult to argue with 'my treat'. She settles them in at a small table along the window front and wraps her hands around her own mug as she takes a moment to inhale caffeinated steam and a friendly, "How are things?"
A longing look is cast towards the brownies in the case as Pepper accepts her skim latte, but she has a svelte figure to maintain, and thus makes no motion to order one. This is why the well-tailored charcoal pencil skirt and its matching jacket fit so well on her frame, white Louboutins with their infamous red undersole showing in a flash as she crosses her ankles as she takes a seat. Pepper smiles, shaking her head, "The same as they ever are. The Board won't leave me alone, Mr. Stark needs this or that. Our stock fluctuates and everyone is surprised every time it goes up or down." She pauses. "Though, my job looks easy compared to some. How are you, Natasha?"
"Still in one piece," Natasha answers with an easy smile and a sip that makes the statement into a casual joke. She lowers her mug, though her fingers linger against its rim in an idle fidget. "They're busy, and then they aren't. Much of it is classified." Her gaze sharpens a touch on the other woman. "Though I suspect you know more details than you strictly /should/."
There is an easy innocence in Pepper's expression where she meets Natasha's gaze with a subtle, delicate roll of her shoulder. She answers, "I know a lot of details about many things, Ms. Romanoff. Certainly nothing I shouldn't know, of course."
"Mmmhm," Natasha answers with a gleam in her eye that suggests amusement. "You know, if you ever get tired of Stark Tower, I can think of a job or two in which I have no doubt you'd excel." Maybe not killing men with her thighs, but.
Pepper laughs lightly, lifting her latte to her lips and leaving the press of red lipstick on cardboard behind as a memento. "Director Fury said something along the same line. I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't ask about pay rates and compensation, if SHIELD is going to recruit me so actively," she says with a smile. "Though, I suspect some of it has to do with Tony Stark, at least."
"We aren't as rich as Tony Stark," Natasha says, all apology as she lifts her own drink. After a moment she adds consideringly, "But the job satisfaction is very high."
Leaning forward as if sharing a secret, Pepper replies, "Believe it or not, my job is very satisfying sometimes as well. Don't tell anyone I told you so." She casts a look curiously over the other woman, before she adds, "I would guess that you didn't find it as good of a job when you were only using it as a cover. Not your career field, hm?"
"Slightly different goals," Natasha answers with a smile that is both sudden and conspiratorial. After a moment she admits, "I don't have your patience for certain middle-aged adolescents, either." She only has that for the ones belonging to /her/. "I have to admit, I was hoping to ask you for a favor, in fact."
"Maternal instinct," Pepper says lightly, dismissive humor written as she speaks of her patience with Tony Stark. Her brows quirks slightly upwards, but she smiles at Natasha in any case. "Is that why you insisted on paying? So I would owe you?"
"Trust me, my favor is slightly more than the cost of even overpriced Manhattan coffee," Natasha answers with dry amusement. "But I think it's something you'll want to do." She tugs her phone free and flips through a few pages before turning it toward Pepper to inquire, "Have you seen her around the tower?" The image on the phone is perhaps a bit blurry, but there's no mistaking that sensuous blonde: Amora.
Pepper really does study the picture, but unfortunately for Natasha, it gets a slow shake of her head as she determines that she hasn't seen the woman. "If she'd been in the tower, she went home on her own instead of staying until the morning," she says, somewhat dry and already assuming.
*she's
"Fascinating," Natasha says, and the look in her eyes says that it's truth rather than sarcasm. She hesitates for a moment, attention turned to Pepper as she considers. Eventually she asks, "Has Tony told you much about what happened, before? About Thor's brother?"
"Loki," Pepper names him, her expression slowly melting into something more attentive and serious at the woman's question. "Only enough to identify him as necessary, and avoid him."
"Really?" Natasha is clearly surprised at this, and there's another considering pauses taken for the length of a careful sip before she nods and says, "Then what I'm doing is /really/ breaking the rules." She gives Pepper a smile, slight but sincere. "And will probably piss him off to no end if he finds out." She arches a brow in a silent query of Pepper. Is she going to tell?
"I won't tell if you won't," Pepper offers simply, lifting her coffee up as she levels an interested look on Natasha.
That, apparently, is quite good enough for Natasha. She gives Pepper a slight nod and says, "He's capable of mind control. He compromised one of our scientists and one of our agents. They did quite a lot of damage." Her gaze remains steady, and she pauses, giving time for that to sink in.
"Mind control." That is something that one has to repeat to digest, especially as Pepper is only a civilian for all that she lives closely in the Avengers' world. The time proves necessary, and she moves on to question, "Like, hypnosis? Bark like a dog whenever anyone says 'orange' kind of thing?"
"Shoot people you know and respect," Natasha says quietly. "Infiltrate their safehouse. Destroy their defenses. Open a portal to another universe and let my army in."
Pepper falls silent at Natasha's correction, her lips catching in a line as she takes a breath and nods slowly. "I knew he was a dangerous man," she replies after a moment.
"Tony's immune," Natasha says, a bit blunt and perhaps a tiny bit less reassuring than she could be. For no particular reason. "At least, he appears to be. So far, I think he's right."
"That seems like it would be a good thing, for the team," Pepper responds, her eyebrow curving a touch at the bluntness but she doesn't press at it.
"Would be," Natasha answers. Her smile is dry when it comes. "If he'd told us." That bit of frustration aside, Natasha taps her finger against her phone screen again. "Her name is Amora. She can do it, too. I'm not sure of the extent, the degree, but she can make-- suggestions. Tony's studying her."
Pepper's gaze drops in a flicker to that phone screen again, and she repeats with her own dry smile, "I am sure he is studying her." There she goes, slut-shaming again.
"That too," Natasha shares without dissembling. Her tone goes very, very dry when she says, "I spent the day watching every interaction they've had for signs of mind control."
"But, you said you thought he was right," Pepper says, concern a bare flicker under her expression, a subtle thing that a trained spy likely has no difficulty in catching.
"I do," Natasha says quietly. "I also think he's spending a lot of time with her, and he's letting her try again and again in the name of science. He may not be the first to figure it out." She lifts her brows slightly, watching Pepper as she gives her a moment for that to sink in.
Pepper meets Natasha's look steadily, her lips thinning still as it does. She answers carefully, "I can't bar her from coming to the tower if Mr. Stark wants her there. Even I don't have that power over my boss."
"I'm not asking you to," Natasha says, pulling her phone back and tucking it away. "In fact, I don't think it's a good idea. The name of science is pretty important when it comes to this." Her hands wrap around her cup again, absorbing warmth. "But you know how he is. He gets wrapped up in something and it's all he can see. He's not--" She pauses for a small, companionable smile. "--detail oriented. Or maybe too detail oriented." She shrugs with a graceful tip of her shoulders. "All I'm asking is that you keep an eye on him. You know him better than anyone. If he were to start acting unlike himself, you'd know first."
"I still don't see the favor I'd be doing you," Pepper replies with a tilt of her chin, taking a slow sip. She adds, "After everything you've told me, I would be doing that anyways."
"I told you it was a favor you'd like," Natasha points out. "I suppose the favor comes in calling me if something changes. With Tony, or with Bruce, or with anyone else frequenting the labs."
Pepper doesn't agree to this rashly, quiet as she allows a long moment to think on the favor before she finally answers, "I will let you know if something changes, Natasha. If it seems like this Amora has done anything to influence someone within Stark Industries."
Natasha gives Pepper the time without comment. She occupies herself with a sip, and then finally nods, her expression serious. "Thank you," she says. "And if you see her. Don't let her touch you. Ever. That's how she works."
"Thank you. I won't," Pepper assures Natasha with the return of her smile, if it is somewhat tighter than the smiles before. "And thank you for the coffee, but I really should be getting back now." She moves to rise, one graceful movement that isn't interrupted by the cut of her skirt or the height of her heels.
"Of course," Natasha says, following suit with an easier smile than Pepper manages. "Thanks for coming. Next time I'll try not to have such dire news."
Pepper shakes her head, a bare gesture and says mildly, "That just seems to be the world we are living in, now." She lifts a hand in a wave before turning to leave. "I will see you next time, Natasha."
"Til then," Natasha answers, and leaves Pepper to go.
Nat tells Pepper all the secrets.
=NYC= Joe the Art of Coffee - Midtown - NYC
Though smaller than your average Starbucks, Joe the Art of Coffee in Chelsea manages to do good business for itself, likely in part because of the rare lack of the coffee giant chain in the immediate area. The coffee here is of a high quality, though it tends to attract a slightly more hipster (read: snobby) clientele because of it. However, their brownies are excessively delicious.
Natasha takes the liberty of ordering a steaming cup of Pepper's preferred beverage along with her own, making it difficult to argue with 'my treat'. She settles them in at a small table along the window front and wraps her hands around her own mug as she takes a moment to inhale caffeinated steam and a friendly, "How are things?"
A longing look is cast towards the brownies in the case as Pepper accepts her skim latte, but she has a svelte figure to maintain, and thus makes no motion to order one. This is why the well-tailored charcoal pencil skirt and its matching jacket fit so well on her frame, white Louboutins with their infamous red undersole showing in a flash as she crosses her ankles as she takes a seat. Pepper smiles, shaking her head, "The same as they ever are. The Board won't leave me alone, Mr. Stark needs this or that. Our stock fluctuates and everyone is surprised every time it goes up or down." She pauses. "Though, my job looks easy compared to some. How are you, Natasha?"
"Still in one piece," Natasha answers with an easy smile and a sip that makes the statement into a casual joke. She lowers her mug, though her fingers linger against its rim in an idle fidget. "They're busy, and then they aren't. Much of it is classified." Her gaze sharpens a touch on the other woman. "Though I suspect you know more details than you strictly /should/."
There is an easy innocence in Pepper's expression where she meets Natasha's gaze with a subtle, delicate roll of her shoulder. She answers, "I know a lot of details about many things, Ms. Romanoff. Certainly nothing I shouldn't know, of course."
"Mmmhm," Natasha answers with a gleam in her eye that suggests amusement. "You know, if you ever get tired of Stark Tower, I can think of a job or two in which I have no doubt you'd excel." Maybe not killing men with her thighs, but.
Pepper laughs lightly, lifting her latte to her lips and leaving the press of red lipstick on cardboard behind as a memento. "Director Fury said something along the same line. I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't ask about pay rates and compensation, if SHIELD is going to recruit me so actively," she says with a smile. "Though, I suspect some of it has to do with Tony Stark, at least."
"We aren't as rich as Tony Stark," Natasha says, all apology as she lifts her own drink. After a moment she adds consideringly, "But the job satisfaction is very high."
Leaning forward as if sharing a secret, Pepper replies, "Believe it or not, my job is very satisfying sometimes as well. Don't tell anyone I told you so." She casts a look curiously over the other woman, before she adds, "I would guess that you didn't find it as good of a job when you were only using it as a cover. Not your career field, hm?"
"Slightly different goals," Natasha answers with a smile that is both sudden and conspiratorial. After a moment she admits, "I don't have your patience for certain middle-aged adolescents, either." She only has that for the ones belonging to /her/. "I have to admit, I was hoping to ask you for a favor, in fact."
"Maternal instinct," Pepper says lightly, dismissive humor written as she speaks of her patience with Tony Stark. Her brows quirks slightly upwards, but she smiles at Natasha in any case. "Is that why you insisted on paying? So I would owe you?"
"Trust me, my favor is slightly more than the cost of even overpriced Manhattan coffee," Natasha answers with dry amusement. "But I think it's something you'll want to do." She tugs her phone free and flips through a few pages before turning it toward Pepper to inquire, "Have you seen her around the tower?" The image on the phone is perhaps a bit blurry, but there's no mistaking that sensuous blonde: Amora.
Pepper really does study the picture, but unfortunately for Natasha, it gets a slow shake of her head as she determines that she hasn't seen the woman. "If she'd been in the tower, she went home on her own instead of staying until the morning," she says, somewhat dry and already assuming.
*she's
"Fascinating," Natasha says, and the look in her eyes says that it's truth rather than sarcasm. She hesitates for a moment, attention turned to Pepper as she considers. Eventually she asks, "Has Tony told you much about what happened, before? About Thor's brother?"
"Loki," Pepper names him, her expression slowly melting into something more attentive and serious at the woman's question. "Only enough to identify him as necessary, and avoid him."
"Really?" Natasha is clearly surprised at this, and there's another considering pauses taken for the length of a careful sip before she nods and says, "Then what I'm doing is /really/ breaking the rules." She gives Pepper a smile, slight but sincere. "And will probably piss him off to no end if he finds out." She arches a brow in a silent query of Pepper. Is she going to tell?
"I won't tell if you won't," Pepper offers simply, lifting her coffee up as she levels an interested look on Natasha.
That, apparently, is quite good enough for Natasha. She gives Pepper a slight nod and says, "He's capable of mind control. He compromised one of our scientists and one of our agents. They did quite a lot of damage." Her gaze remains steady, and she pauses, giving time for that to sink in.
"Mind control." That is something that one has to repeat to digest, especially as Pepper is only a civilian for all that she lives closely in the Avengers' world. The time proves necessary, and she moves on to question, "Like, hypnosis? Bark like a dog whenever anyone says 'orange' kind of thing?"
"Shoot people you know and respect," Natasha says quietly. "Infiltrate their safehouse. Destroy their defenses. Open a portal to another universe and let my army in."
Pepper falls silent at Natasha's correction, her lips catching in a line as she takes a breath and nods slowly. "I knew he was a dangerous man," she replies after a moment.
"Tony's immune," Natasha says, a bit blunt and perhaps a tiny bit less reassuring than she could be. For no particular reason. "At least, he appears to be. So far, I think he's right."
"That seems like it would be a good thing, for the team," Pepper responds, her eyebrow curving a touch at the bluntness but she doesn't press at it.
"Would be," Natasha answers. Her smile is dry when it comes. "If he'd told us." That bit of frustration aside, Natasha taps her finger against her phone screen again. "Her name is Amora. She can do it, too. I'm not sure of the extent, the degree, but she can make-- suggestions. Tony's studying her."
Pepper's gaze drops in a flicker to that phone screen again, and she repeats with her own dry smile, "I am sure he is studying her." There she goes, slut-shaming again.
"That too," Natasha shares without dissembling. Her tone goes very, very dry when she says, "I spent the day watching every interaction they've had for signs of mind control."
"But, you said you thought he was right," Pepper says, concern a bare flicker under her expression, a subtle thing that a trained spy likely has no difficulty in catching.
"I do," Natasha says quietly. "I also think he's spending a lot of time with her, and he's letting her try again and again in the name of science. He may not be the first to figure it out." She lifts her brows slightly, watching Pepper as she gives her a moment for that to sink in.
Pepper meets Natasha's look steadily, her lips thinning still as it does. She answers carefully, "I can't bar her from coming to the tower if Mr. Stark wants her there. Even I don't have that power over my boss."
"I'm not asking you to," Natasha says, pulling her phone back and tucking it away. "In fact, I don't think it's a good idea. The name of science is pretty important when it comes to this." Her hands wrap around her cup again, absorbing warmth. "But you know how he is. He gets wrapped up in something and it's all he can see. He's not--" She pauses for a small, companionable smile. "--detail oriented. Or maybe too detail oriented." She shrugs with a graceful tip of her shoulders. "All I'm asking is that you keep an eye on him. You know him better than anyone. If he were to start acting unlike himself, you'd know first."
"I still don't see the favor I'd be doing you," Pepper replies with a tilt of her chin, taking a slow sip. She adds, "After everything you've told me, I would be doing that anyways."
"I told you it was a favor you'd like," Natasha points out. "I suppose the favor comes in calling me if something changes. With Tony, or with Bruce, or with anyone else frequenting the labs."
Pepper doesn't agree to this rashly, quiet as she allows a long moment to think on the favor before she finally answers, "I will let you know if something changes, Natasha. If it seems like this Amora has done anything to influence someone within Stark Industries."
Natasha gives Pepper the time without comment. She occupies herself with a sip, and then finally nods, her expression serious. "Thank you," she says. "And if you see her. Don't let her touch you. Ever. That's how she works."
"Thank you. I won't," Pepper assures Natasha with the return of her smile, if it is somewhat tighter than the smiles before. "And thank you for the coffee, but I really should be getting back now." She moves to rise, one graceful movement that isn't interrupted by the cut of her skirt or the height of her heels.
"Of course," Natasha says, following suit with an easier smile than Pepper manages. "Thanks for coming. Next time I'll try not to have such dire news."
Pepper shakes her head, a bare gesture and says mildly, "That just seems to be the world we are living in, now." She lifts a hand in a wave before turning to leave. "I will see you next time, Natasha."
"Til then," Natasha answers, and leaves Pepper to go.
Nat tells Pepper all the secrets.