Romanova

5

~~|2022|~~

"I have enough points to buy a request."

"Convenient. I don't have enough to deny."

Tony smiled at Natasha as they sat for dessert at Natasha's favourite café. "I plan it like that."

"Where did this points system even come from?"

"You," Tony said, "I tried to ask you to bring Morgan home one day and to let Lana stay, and you told me favours cost ten points. You said it was a system you had with Lana. Every time you're impressed, you hand out points so she can buy her way out of cleaning her room and things like that. You started this, deal with it. Anyway, I get a lot of points because you're always relieved enough to give them."

"That's because you keep jumping off rooftops only to show off some new kinds of tech. Tony, most people don't get caught by flying broomsticks or whatever when they jump off rooftops."

"That's fair."

Tony's phone dinged and lit up on the table.

"Work?"

"You think I'd bother with work on an anniversary d-- you think I'd bother with work on any kind of outing with you?"

Natasha smiled.

"No, it's Morgan. Look."

Natasha picked up Tony's phone and checked the image. "Oh my God. Maggie's going to kill us. You, me, Scott, the girls, even Happy."

"Nat, Happy's not even at your house."

"True, but he's supposed to call and check up on them every hour. You think we can find a dye that matches Cassie's original hair colour?"

Tony took his phone back and put it on the side of his plate. "She's seventeen. She can take responsibility for her own bad choices. Besides, I happen to think pink's a great choice!"

"Go pink and I'll dump you in half a second flat."

Tony smiled. "Wow, I was getting worried you'd gone too soft dating me for so long."

"Shut up. Didn't you order the ice cream?"

"I did. There's a special treat in the bottom of your sundae, so look out for that."

Natasha frowned. "Last time you said that, there were very realistic looking gummy worms in the bottom of my custard and jelly cup."

"You'll like this one, trust me."

Ten minutes of laughing at the multiple mishaps Lana and Morgan got up to ever since they'd teamed up with Cassie and Nicole later, the sundaes arrived.

A part of Natasha told her to dig through the bottom just to be sure Tony hadn't asked for real worms to be thrown in there, but she knew he wouldn't. Well, not if he wanted to live. Besides, what would people say if they saw Tony Stark's girlfriend mutilating a sundae at a small café in the middle of the night?

Tony's phone rang.

"Happy?" Natasha asked.

Tony sighed and answered. "I told you not to call me unless the house is burning down . . . well, if you know how important tonight--"

Natasha watched as Tony's expressions flew by. Then he dropped his phone into his pocket and grabbed her sundae. "We need to go."

~~||~~

The house wasn't burning down, but Natasha failed to notice that due to the sheer number of cars parked up on the street, several of them flashing blue and red lights.