A Stress Free Gig
“What are you doing?” Maria asked leaning over her kitchen counter as she chatted on the screen with Natasha. Maria was eating a bowl of cereal over the sink as she had just gotten home not that long ago.
“Coloring.” Natasha joked.
“Inside the lines?”
“Never.”
Maria made a face as she put the spoonful of cheerios in her mouth.
“You have to have fun with art. Doesn’t have to be pristine.” Natasha rattled off not looking up from what she was doing.
“Wait, are you really coloring?” Maria glared at the screen.
Natasha looked up at the screen to see Maria’s tired but bewildered face. Natasha laughed.
“What are you eating?” Natasha asked never answering what she had going on.
“Cheerios.”
“Honey nut at least?”
“Just plain… I put some apple slices in it.”
Natasha made a face at that.
“That’s so bland.”
“Much like me.” Maria smirked.
“Not when I’m around.” Natasha raised a brow.
“I know, having a personality is my best kept secret.” Maria smirked and Natasha laughed.
“How is your new job, are you fitting in with all the kids?” Natasha teased.
“It’s fine, you know, dodge some subpoenas, save the world, answer Tony’s relentless questions.”
“So, the same as before.” Natasha made a face
“Pretty much, except Fury’s absence is noticeable.” Maria nodded.
“Do you miss him?”
“I…” Maria paused. “I haven’t not worked with him in a long time. It feels strange.”
“Oh, c’mon, I know you two are still talking.” Natasha huffed. “Just admit it.”
“We aren’t.” Maria answered genuinely which surprised Natasha. “Stark did not go for my SHIELD style jumpsuit mandatory workwear idea.” Maria sighed. “So now I have to find something to wear for tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that! Do you know how much laundry that is? All this laundry it causes and I am never here to even do it. I don’t even have enough fancy corporate clothes to make it through the week. None of the women wear pants there Natasha. They do not wear pants!” Maria whined.
“Just go to the mall! And hire a housekeeper.” Natasha yelled bursting out laughing at Maria.
“It’s ridiculous, how am I supposed to hide a gun under all of these dresses?”
“It’s not that hard, trust me.” Natasha snickered. “Okay, but you don’t really miss the one piece right?”
“Well the one piece part of it was not practical.”
“Men got two pieces.” Natasha pointed out.
“I know, it is so sexist.” Maria agreed cheerfully with half a mouthful of cereal.
“You’re were the deputy you should have fixed it.” Natasha tried to rile Maria up.
“I was working on it Natasha, it was right up there with stopping the Chitauri and weeding out a massive nazi invasion.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“Really seems like you dropped the ball on that second one.” Natasha smirked.
“Tell me about it…” Maria groaned.
“Actually, let’s just blame Fury for it.” Natasha laughed.
“I have to go in and do like a closed door congressional meeting or something.” Maria sighed.
“You’ll be great.” Natasha confirmed. “I did mine live at least you get to do yours in secret.”
“Oh, I remember.” Maria leaned over her counter as she looked at Natasha on the screen, giving her a longing look that she missed her so much already.
“Well, let me know how it goes.” Natasha said sounding like she was getting ready to leave.
“Why did you leave me here with all these men?” Maria whined.
“So you could kill them.” Natasha smirked widely and Maria laughed at that.
“Alright, keep getting rid of those hydra cells, yeah?” Maria asked as it was clear they were saying goodbye.
“You know it.” Natasha winked at her.
“If you need any help…” Maria started
“Yeah yeah, I got your number.” Nat smirked before she hung up without even a goodbye.
“Wow. Not even a goodbye?” Maria gasped and then mumbled as she stirred her spoon and her few remaining soggy cheerios.
The screen illuminated again quickly and Maria answered it.
“Oh, hey, I forgot…” Natasha started and Maria looked a bit happier.
“Can you send me those GPS coordinates I asked for earlier?” Natasha asked not even looking up at Maria.
“I sent them to you when you asked for them, hours ago.” Maria made a face of concern and Natasha looked up at the screen tilting her head.
“No.” Natasha shook her head.
“Yes, I sent them to you hours ago.”
Natasha stared to scroll through her phone skeptically and then she made a surprised face.
“Oh. Whoops, yeah okay. You did. Sorry about that, great, thanks! Bye.” Natasha said as she hung up again and Maria sighed smirking to herself. At lest she got a bye that time.
Natasha called a third time.
“Oh my god, what?” Maria asked glaring at her, her voice annoyed now.
“Hey, do you like this hair cut?” Natasha asked taking her hair out of a low pony and showing off that she had chopped off her shoulder length red hair to her chin as she pulled it out from being tucked behind her.
“Uhhh…” Maria paused being caught off guard from that question.
“Wow, thanks. Byeeeee.” Natasha pretended to say goodbye like she was offended and then laughed.
“You are not funny.” Maria shook her head.
“Working at Stark has already impaired your judgement.”
“I like it. Goodbye.” Maria said giving Natasha a snarky wave and hanging up and she rolled her eyes to herself. Despite all the protection Maria got relocating to Stark Industries she actually felt pretty alone. SHIELD was like her family and now she learned her family was a bunch of Hydra nazis. Not everyone of course, but a lot of people she knew ended up being corrupted.
In the morning Maria returned to Stark Industries. She was still the new kid there but everyone treated her in a weird way like she had been there a long time but also didn’t belong. She got a lot of harsh looks from Stark lifers who were desperate for top floor office space, but it wasn’t any different than her treatment at SHIELD when she quickly ascended to the top despite her young age. As Maria met up with Tony she offered him a half smile a bit awkward.
“Are you wearing make up?” Tony asked with his mouth half full of bagel stunned at his observation.
Maria paused as she did not know how to respond to that.
“Uhm.” Maria gave hime a skeptical look.
“I’m just asking.”
Maria glared at Tony.
“Why? Are you about to dunk my head in water?” Maria turned her head at him.
“Will that get me out of this awkward conversation?” Tony pressed his lips together and he and Maria exchanged an awkward stare.
“It would… yeah… but it would also start a worse one, I guess…”
Both Maria and Tony were quiet for a moment.
“Okay, well, sorry. No need to be weird about that, don’t make it a thing.” Tony pointed at her.
“How am I supposed to take it?” Maria questioned.
“I just meant, you look so .. you look like you work here now.” He said surprised.
“I do work here.” Maria sighed.
“You’re doing fine you know, in case you are nervous.” Tony said in a surprisingly kindly.
“So the lawyers that work here…”
“Yeah, they make a lot of money.” Tony cut her off.
“If you want to save money maybe just be a little less inappropriate.” Maria shrugged and Tony’s eyes widened as Maria was very very blunt in a way that he did not yet appreciate but didn’t hate because she wasn’t wrong.
“You know, nobody ever told me that being the boss was so unfun and came with so many rules.” Tony sighed.
“Yeah, running a massive global conglomerate always seemed like a stress free gig to me.” Maria snarked. Tony let out a laugh under his breath an ran his hand through his hair.
“Fury really let you say things like that to him as his deputy? Really?”
“Yeah, it turned out to be ninety percent of the reason I was hired.”
“What was the other ten percent?”
“Diversity.” Maria smirked with a shrug at Tony and he really laughed.
“I’m actually the one who tells jokes around here.” Tony motioned to himself.
“Yeah, you can’t make that joke.” Maria glared at him.
“And you can?” Tony glared right back at her.
“As the only women in all male leadership group, I sure can. Does that really need to be explained to you?” Maria questioned a bit harshly.
“Wow, I really should have just ate my bagel and shut up instead of saying something ni…” he started to say nice but cut himself off because asking a woman if she was wearing make up really wasn’t that nice of a comment “to you.” He finished unsmoothly.
“… thanks…” Maria responded after a pause.
“I know you’re like here to work on the Avengers’ stuff but we have lots of cool projects and units and areas that might interest you if you want to take a dip into something new…” Tony offered. “Our office of budget management could use you if you have any other money saving tips.”
“Tips other than don’t get sued for sexual harassment?” Maria couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, other great tips like that.” Tony joked.
“Are you trying to get rid of me because I won’t let you rename the team Iron Man and the Avengers?”
“No question that I have plans to replace you with someone who was on my side about that.” Tony smirked.
“Weirdest thing about you so far though, everything I ask you to do you say ‘yes, sir, sure thing, okay, got it, yes, on it’ I make one joke about a name change and you’re like the line is drawn!” Tony mocked.
Maria tried but failed to suppress a smile.
“It’s a stupid name.” She shrugged and Tony let out a loud surprised laugh at her response.
“What about Iron Corps?” Tony asked smugly.
“Somehow worse.”
“Iron Man and friends?” He proposed.
“Oh, you guys are friends now?” She tilted her head.
“Iron Man and associates seems more on brand.” He corrected.
“What about Captain American and friends?” Maria suggested and Tony made an offended face.
“You know, just when I thought you might be cool you ruin it and say something dumb like that.” Tony shook his head.
“So in twenty years are you and Captain America going to be massive rivals splitting the world in two or something?” Maria teased.
“Yeah, so pick your side now. Remember who signs your paycheck.”
“You think I’ll still be working here in twenty years?” Maria asked.
“Why, do you have something else lined up?” Tony asked almost accusatorially but still joking a bit but it felt a bit tense for a moment.
“God, watch it be my job.” Tony added in breaking the slight tension he caused and Maria laughed.
“It would definitely save on the lawyers fees.” Maria smirked and two of them went on their own separate ways for the morning.