Ch71. Homecoming

Soon enough, a month passed since Natasha left on her little crusade and she was finally returning back home.

Home...

It was a strange notion for Natasha. Since she went through the Red Room, she never really thought of a place as her 'home' but now... now whenever she thought about her place with Tony, she couldn't help but subconsciously use the term 'home'.

In a way, it made her heart skip in elation at the thought.

As she was exiting the plane that brought her back to the USA, Natasha saw that Tony had actually taken a break from his research and elation filled her. It clearly showed her he valued her above his nerdy scientific hocus-pocus.

Tony invitingly spread his arms, silently asking for a hug, and Natasha happily obliged. She rushed straight into Tony's arms... well, it was rushing if her usual mannerism was considered but a casual observer would barely notice her slightly increasing her walking pace... and Tony engulfed her petite frame, tightly clutching her to his chest.

Natasha happily snuggled into the said chest, relishing how tightly she was held. Tony seldom said the 'correct' words a girl wanted to hear from her man. That's mostly the reason why Pepper decided a relationship with him was not worth it after he screwed up like... twenty or so times.

Inhumanly patient, that woman.

Especially so for a redhead. Natasha would know...

Fortunately for Tony, Natasha was masterful at reading body language and people. And her training made her always question the truthfulness of everybody's words. Body language could be muted but it never lied. That's why Natasha depended on it to get the true intentions of whoever she was interacting with.

As a man who seldom spoke how he truly felt and a woman who trusted only body language and personal tells of others, they found their own ways to convey their feelings.

And Tony's possessive embrace told Natasha tales of its own. He really missed her!

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" Tony whispered, causing Natasha to hum in satisfaction. But Tony was not done yet... "Finally, I won't have to do my paperwork myself!"

'Of course,' Natasha inwardly rolled her eyes and chuckled, not annoyed at all, 'it wouldn't have been Stark if he could be straightforward with his emotions.'

Nevertheless, she pinched Tony's side, letting him know he has just said something extremely dumb.

"Ouch! What's your deal?" Tony complained but didn't stop hugging her despite the slight sting.

"Ass." Natasha flippantly replied. "But I missed you too."

She didn't let Tony have a chance to ruin the moment again. She stood up onto her toes and shut Tony up the most effective way she knew. By sealing Tony's lips with hers.

They kissed while keeping their eye contact, both refusing to be the first who interrupted it, Natasha taking it as an amusing game and was inwardly giggling while enjoying the kisses whereas for Tony it was a matter of pride.

No way was he losing a staring conte-!

'Auch!' Tony suddenly separated his lips from Natasha's and blinked as he abruptly felt another sharp sting, if a bit weaker than the previous one, from his side.

It took a few seconds for his mind to comprehend what happened and when he finally did, his eyes slightly widened as he looked straight into Natasha's green eyes with accusation written in his gaze.

The only reaction the red-head gave him was just obvious amusement.

She was not repentant for pinching him at all!

Tony inwardly huffed and...

"Hey!" Natasha reproachfully exclaimed as she felt Tony tickle her sides, in exact places where she was most sensitive. "T-Tony! Not here!" She tried hard to keep her poise and stop the laughter that was demanding to come out.

"Paybacks a bitch, huh?" Tony smugly whispered in a victorious tone.

"Tony, people are watching and..." Natasha's eye twitched as she spotted a few bystanders with their phones out and not so subtly aimed at them, "filming us." She spoke in distaste before burrowing her face into Tony's chest. She could do without having her face plastered all over the front pages of the most read magazines in the world... again.

Tony just snorted, "Let them." He leaned closer to her ear and lowered his voice so only she could hear him, "You are no longer an agent, Red. Now you are my woman. Get used to being famous."

Natasha fought the small shiver of joy that sparked in her at those words, only allowing herself to give him a positive hum in answer. She didn't pull her face away from his chest for a few seconds more though.

But that was more because she enjoyed snuggling with Tony, rather than any other reason.

But ten seconds later, Tony had enough and pulled away from the embrace, much to Natasha's displeasure. Still, he saved the situation by quickly speaking, "Shall we go home?" He outstretched his arm, offering his hand to Natasha.

Natasha looked at the offered hand and pursed her lips as she knowingly narrowed her eyes at Tony.

"You are too good at this." She said as she took the offered hand and slightly smiled.

Tony smirked, "Tons of practice, my dear." And promptly turned around, pulling Natasha after him.

He didn't need to look at her face to know her eyebrow was twitching in annoyance.

'Ha! Winning a staring contest by cheating, will ya?' Tony inwardly scoffed, 'You are hundred years too soon to fight me in a verbal fight, Miss Romanoff!'

Not that he would say that to her face.

While he could dominate any verbal fight, he still occasionally participated in a physical spar, and not the funny kind, against Natasha. And his adorable redhead could hold her grudges.

There was a limit to how annoyed he could make her without having to fear any sort of retaliation and Tony made sure to keep within in.

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Author Note:

Yeah... short, I know. It is exactly 1k words. My shortest chapter yet.

To be honest, this chapter was kind of a breaking point for me. I almost dropped the fanfic here and needed quite a lot of time to get a 'second wind' to continue so I decided to keep this chapter on the 'lighter side' in both mood and length.