Venomous

13. Oops

I walked down the long hallway towards Tony's lab, looking into the rooms I passed curiously. This compound was massive, and there was still so much here that I hadn't seen. Before Hill brought me over to join the team, most of my working days were spent in a corner office, behind the desk, staring at paperwork until I thought my eyes were going to bleed. I glanced through one of the doors to see a white, expansive laboratory area. Stark did not skimp on...well...anything. Tony caught me staring through the glass wall rather than actually entering the lab, and his eye roll was so pronounced I could almost hear it.

"So, who's your friend, Parker?" I frowned. Tony was speaking to me before I was even fully inside the room, and on top of that, I had no idea what he was talking about.

"What's that?' Tony glanced up at me, his brown eyes twinkling with barely contained laughter. I looked down to make sure that I didn't have some kind of weird stain or something on my clothes, and hastily wiped my face. "What?" Tony huffed before pushing a button on his phone, which projected an image immediately onto the white wall to the left. I blinked, shocked, as I suddenly saw a larger-than-life (and believe me, it's difficult to do) image of Anti-Venom, bounding around Wanda in the training room. The image was grainy but there was absolutely no denying what it was I was looking at. Me. The question was, what did Tony think it was?

I folded my arms across my chest, leaning against the desk and waiting for Tony to speak. "In questions of the rhetorical variety, that's you, right?" I stared at the image that he'd now paused and enhanced and zoomed in on – right on Anti-Venom's large, white, toothy grin. "Honestly, I would expect that tongue to come in handy." I spun in a circle incredulously until I was facing Tony again.

"Tony, look...wait what?" I frowned as I began to process what he was saying, thankful that Wanda was not currently in the room to read my mind. That would be an awkward conversation – probably even more awkward than this one. Tony leaned back against his desk, his vintage rock t-shirt glowing slightly around the ever-present circular device in his chest.

"I'm as big a fan as secrets as the next guy, but..." I rolled my eyes. "This is something else. Why didn't you tell us you turned into....a slimy silly putty?" I scowled.

Can I eat him?

I chuckled, triggering a confused looking expression on Tony's face. "Look, Stark..." He held his hand up.

"Nope, I don't need to know. What I do need to know, however, is what's going on with you and Romanoff." I blinked. This man was impossible to keep up with – not only did his body move at a million miles a minute – he was tinkering with at least three things that were in pieces on his desk – he was also steering the conversation in so many different directions that I couldn't keep track.

"There's nothing going on with me and Romanoff." I mumbled. Tony rolled his eyes again.

"You almost broke her nose, and I've honestly never seen her lose her cool like that – not even when Bruce left." I frowned.

"Bruce? Who's Bruce?" Tony shrugged.

"Giant, green, rage monster? Ringing any bells?" What on earth was this playboy talking about?

"Banner? You mean the Hulk?" Tony pointed a pencil at me, his other fist pumping in the air.

"Bingo." Why would Natalie give a crap if Bruce left? For that matter, where did Bruce go? I can't imagine that it would be particularly easy for him to hide, and as I was quite aware, Natalie was excellent at finding people. Especially when they didn't want to be found.

"Natasha and Bruce were getting...close...lately." I scowled. Really. Tony read the expression on my face, the corners of his mouth turning upwards in a smile as if he had just solved a particularly difficult equation.

"But Natalie is..." Tony frowned, cutting me off mid-thought.

"Natalie? That's weird, because that's the name that..." Tony cut himself off this time, his brown eyes opening wide. "You!" He pointed at me, and once again, I began to feel extremely self-conscious.

"Me, what?"

"You were the woman that came to my party, years ago. You saw Natasha, and then you left." I sighed and stared down at the ground. "I've gotta say, now that I know what you can do, I'm a little disappointed that you didn't bring it out at my party. That would have been a great time." I shook my head.

"I didn't have it...then." Tony frowned. "Parker, you've got some explaining to do." I nodded. He caught me fair and square, and there was really not a lot of point in denying it to him. I felt myself telling Tony the entire story and, to his credit, he sat there quietly and listened. There was a quiet pause at the end of the story, and I gave myself some credit that I apparently had made the famous Tony Stark speechless. But then he started talking and ruined my little daydream.

"Are you into Maximoff?" I clenched my jaw and immediately pictured the brunette witch. Apparently, the look on my face gave it away, because Tony gave me a knowing smile. He walked up to me and clapped me on the shoulder. "I'm not usually great at advice – but if I were going to try some, I'd tell you to take things slow. Romanoff is a good egg." I scoffed at him, making him raise an eyebrow expectantly.

"Romanoff is a liar." He shrugged.

"Aren't we all, sometimes?" As much as I hated to admit it, the man may have a point.

...

Several hours later, I was once more roaming the halls after dark, looking for trouble, and I didn't really care what kind. I was bored, I was hungry...

Me too.

I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, bubs?"

Chocolate.

I smirked. Typical. After making my way to the kitchen and making myself a cup of hot cocoa, I looked up when the door swung open to find Maria standing there appraising me. "Cocoa?" I asked, smirking? Agent Hill glanced at me like I was crazy, but eventually shrugged her shoulders and nodded. I got up to make another cup, and as I did so, Tony walked in for another one of his – whatever the hell his smoothies were.

"Maria, always good to see you. How are you? How's life? How's Fury? Why didn't you want to tell us about the new, white rage-monster on the team now that Bruce is gone?" Maria's eyes snapped to mine just as I was putting the finishing touches on the whipped cream on top of her cocoa.

"What part of 'keep it secret' was unclear to you, Brock?" She snapped, but her voice didn't sound angry. It sounded more amused.

"To be fair, no one told me that Stark has cameras everywhere. I was training with Wanda." One of Hill's eyebrows raised a few inches.

"Maximoff knows too? Fantastic." I sighed. She wasn't wrong – I was apparently shit at keeping this secret.

"Oops?" I grinned up at her cheekily as I swiped my index finger through the perfectly placed whipped cream, shoving my finger – now covered in whipped cream – into my mouth, smirking. Maria just rolled her eyes, took the mug from my hands and began sipping on it quietly.

"No more, Parker. I mean it." I nodded.

"Understood, Maria, thank you." She looked me up and down, wrapping both hands around the mug for warmth.

"You are trouble." I grinned.

"I know."