Colonel Nicholas “Nick” Joseph Fury was the spy to end all spies. It was said that his secrets had secrets. He stood staring out window of one of S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier’s pondering the past.

It wasn’t always this way, at the very start of his career he was an officer of the US Army and then later an espionage veteran of the CIA during the Cold War. During the war he caught the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., a covert international peacekeeping organization which operated as humanity’s first line of defence against Earth’s most dangerous enemies and was recruited by them. He quickly impressed S.H.I.E.L.D.’s higher-ups, and was promoted to the position of Director, becoming the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.

He soon earned the distinction of, the spy to end all spies.

And now at the height of his career he stood waiting for someone in particular, an agent he had requested - one of the best, though he only worked with the best, to meet with him for her briefing.

Natasha Romanoff.

The word ‘stunning’ didn’t even come into it.

She was drop dead gorgeous.

While he was tall, dark skinned, powerfully built and bald, an imposing figure for sure, with a forever damaged eye, scars all over it and an eye patch covering it - as testament to his misplaced trust in his friends, she, was the complete opposite.

Hearing the repetitive clatter of heeled boots on metal boards, Fury smirked: Waiting patiently for his agent to arrive, he only spoke when her reflection appeared in the glass before him.

The transparent woman looked to be in her twenties - standing at 5ft 3in tall and weighing in at 125 pounds with green eyes and long luscious curly red hair. The agent was gorgeous, truly stunning, a natural beauty that didn’t require make-up or perfume to make people fall for her. The way she moved was strong and confident, her every move, every gesture smooth and precise and her green eyes keenly intelligent.

Without turning to her, he said: “Agent Romanoff.”

“Director,” she stood to attention, her hands behind her back, tight blue uniform stretching while leaving little to the imagination; indeed she had seen a few junior agents doing double takes as she walked by.

“I need you to infiltrate Stark Industries.”

“Sir?” she asked curtly.

“Stark is ill,” Fury explained. “We need to find out what his condition is.”

She didn’t bother asking Fury how he knew this, Fury was the Spy, a shade of grey that wasn’t even in the spectrum.

“Do you need me to hack his system?”

“No, but find out everything you can about the Stark, his condition and anything relating to it, be discreet, subtle even.”

She inclined her head.

“What are my mission parameters?” Natasha asked intently.

“For the moment observation,” he responded. The Director still had not turned to her and Natasha didn’t expect him to: In their time working together the redhead had learnt what that meant before he implied further. “Get as close to the company as you can, without being too obvious.”

She nodded.

No more instructions came, Agent Romanoff would not need any. Instead he listened as the sound of footsteps faded away: The Black Widow had been activated.

As she left, Fury remembered a conversation he had had with Agent Hill.

...

“Why her sir?”

“She’s the best at what she does Maria, she can get in and that’s what we need.”

“But why her?”

“Maria, you look like an agent, she doesn’t and you’re not comfortable with some of the things I might need you to do...” the Director asserted patiently. Fury continued: “Romanoff is comfortable with everything. That in itself is useful in infiltration. Things are changing, the world is getting bigger; there are different shades of grey out there now and we need to catch up ASAP.”

“It may be too late for that,” the brunette responded coldly, before strutting away.

“I agree...” Nick murmured quietly.

‘ ... You’ve got to keep your eye on the game.’

He thought idly to himself as he watched the brunette leave.

...

Pepper Potts called down for the Notary and soon enough she came up, she smiled and shook hands with her. Natasha Romanoff was under the guise of Natalie Rushman, they had even created a fake online profile for her.

Pepper walked into the room to chaos, Tony Stark had created a boxing ring in the middle of his office, just one of the many different things he had done over the last couple of weeks.

“The notary’s here! Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?”

Tony sighed, wiping sweat off his forehead.

“I’m on happy time.” Tony hit happy in the face with his elbow and Happy staggered back. “Sorry.”

“What the hell was that?”

“It’s called mixed martial arts.” Tony shrugged, “It’s been around for three weeks.”

“It’s called dirty boxing, there’s nothing new about it”

Natasha had been called up to the main office to act as a notary; she did actually have the training for it, having studied for it in her down time. Nick had approved and now here she was, she walked over to the door and opened it and stepped through into what looked like chaos and frowned. She had heard of Tony Starks eccentricities, had even been warned about them by several sources but seeing it and hearing about it were two entirely different things.

She paused and stared.

Both men turned and stared at her, and she at them, she frowned and went over to Pepper, the soon to be CEO nodded at her and turned to Tony and sighed in exasperation. “I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company.”

Natasha held the clipboard to Pepper Potts: “I need you to initial each box.”

Happy tapped Tony on the shoulder with a light punch, “Lesson One, never take your eye off the...”

Tony growled and kicked him in the stomach and Happy fell backwards against the ring with an oomph a look of shock on his face.

“That’s it. I’m done.” Tony took off his helmet and gloves and went over to the ropes, “What’s your name lady?”

“Rushman. Natalie Rushman.”

He lifted up the ropes and pointed at her, “Front and centre. Come into the church.”

Pepper blanched, “No. You’re seriously not gonna ask...”

“If it pleases the court,” Tony said cutting her off, “which it does.”

Natasha nodded at Pepper, “it’s no problem.”

Pepper sighed and nodded, “I’m sorry, he’s very eccentric.”

Natasha entered ring and as she did the two paused while Tony swigged down some green liquid out of a bottle he turned to Happy as he got out, “Can you give her a lesson?

“No problem.”

He stepped out of the ring, “Pepper.”

“What?”

“Who is she?”

“She is from legal. And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that.”

He snorted, “I need a new assistant, boss.”

“Yes,” Pepper nodded, “and I’ve got three excellent potential candidates. They’re lined up and ready to meet you.”

“I don’t have time to meet. I need someone now. I feel like it’s her.”

“No it’s not.”

Happy smiled and nodded, “You ever boxed before?”

“I have, yes.

“What, like, the Tae Bo? Booty Boot Camp? Crunch? Something like that?” She scowled at him.

“How do I spell your name, Natalie?”

“R-U-S-H-M-A-N.”

Tony sat down and pressed a finger on his computer, it activated and he typed in her name with a grin, Pepper saw this and scowled.

“What, are you gonna google her now?”

“I thought I was ogling her.” He saw her profile online and found a modelling picture of her and zoomed in, yup her CV checked out, he snorted. “Wow. Very, very impressive individual.”

“You’re so predictable, you know that?”

“She’s fluent in French, Italian, Russian and Latin.” He turned to Pepper, “Who speaks Latin?”

“No one speaks Latin.”

“No one speaks Latin,” He echoed her.

Pepper shrugged, “It’s a dead language. You can read Latin or you can write Latin, but you can’t speak Latin.”

“Did you model in Tokyo? ‘Cause she modelled in Tokyo.”

“Well...”

“I need her. She’s got everything that I need.” Natasha didn’t pay Happy any mind, not worried in the slightest, she watched Tony, trying to figure out what he and the CEO were talking about.

“Rule number one, never take your eyes off your opponent.”

He went to tap her on the shoulder but her hand lashed out, she grabbed him and flipped over, her legs attaching to his head and bringing him down. She held him there.

Pepper saw this and shouted, “Oh, my God! Happy.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Tony grinned and walked over, Happy was released and he staggered to his feet and coughed, clearly embarrassed.

“I just slipped.”

“You did?” Tony smirked.

“Yeah.”

“Looks like a TKO to me,” Tony said and walked over and rang the bell.

Tony and Natasha met again and she sighed. “Just ... I need your impression.”

He fell quiet for a moment and studied her, “You have a quiet reserve. I don’t know - you have an old soul.”

“I meant your fingerprint.”

“Right.”

“So, how are we doing?”

“Great. Just wrapping up here. Hey. You’re the boss.”

“Will that be all, Mr Stark?”

“No,” Tony chuckled.

“Yes, that will be all, Ms Rushman.” Pepper said interrupting Tony. “Thank you very much.”

Tony watched Natasha leave and grinned, “I want one.”

“No.”

They went to Montego where they were introduced to Ivan Vanko, and all hell broke loose, Natasha couldn’t blow her cover just yet, so she stayed put and let Stark get on with it. They came back to Stark tower where Stark finished for the day. Natasha still had work to do so she sat down in her office and got on with it, she was off for a couple of days so she could relax the next day. It was later in the evening when her blue tooth went off, she tapped it and spoke.

“Go for Rushman.”

“Hi Natalie.”

She smiled.

“Mr Stark?” she said, answering politely, her tone intentionally simpering.

“I somehow knew you’d be up,” the Billionaire chuckled into the mic.

“I was looking through the daily finances sir.”

“Boring,” Tony quipped. “Look I need you to do me a favour. There’s a file on my desk, nothing interesting in it...”

Tony paused and Natasha sensed a lie:

“ ... but I need you to take it to Pepper. It’s just to do with my off-shore accounts.”

“Sir,” she replied.

“Hey Miss Pro-active,”

“Sir?”

“Call me Tony.”

She smirked, “Yes Sir.”

She did it, knowing it would wind him up.

“Ugh,” the line hung up and the agent chuckled.

Pulling out her PDA Natasha checked his GPS tracker to see where the Billionaire was and smiled, satisfied the man was where he was meant to be.

Signing off the redhead then got up and stretched; the walk would do her good, arching her back the agent let out a breathy sigh:

Ever since Tony Stark had starting calling himself ‘Iron Man’ matters in the Spying world had become increasingly complicated. Subtlety seemed less important when a flying metal robot went around blowing up terrorists.

On the other hand it was never easy when you didn’t know who your friends and enemies were, for Stark everything was black and white. But that was the world she lived in: where everything was a deeper shade of grey.

She made her way to Pepper’s office.

She opened the door and observed what she had suspected; Natasha wasn’t the only person in the building. Sitting behind a desk in the dark room, illuminated by the soft glow of her computer terminal was none other than CEO Pepper Potts. The woman was tall, standing at nearly six foot with long strawberry blond hair. Natasha noted that her cleavage wasn’t as ample as her own but rather small, perfect handfuls.

“Ms Potts.”

The woman sitting behind the desk in the darkness started and looked up before smiling tiredly:

“Ms Rushman, what are you doing here so late?”

“Mr Stark asked me to return a file to your office, something to do with his off-shore accounts?”

Natasha held up the file for Pepper to see.

“Ah thank you,” she nodded. “I can take that.”

Natasha stepped into the office, making sure to exaggerate the sway of her full hips.

Pepper Potts had just replaced Tony Stark as CEO of Stark Industries, it was a smart move by Stark, by putting Potts in charge, he already doubled the value of any stock he might have. Of course, the needs of the job as well as the antics of the Billionaire would stress anybody out.

Natasha put on a mock frown: “Ms Potts why are you here so late?”

“Paper work,” she waved her hand at the computer, Natasha’s green eyes flicked to it and nodded. Pepper went back to the computer, but already an idea formed in Natasha’s mind. She needed to get on the inside track. Nobody was more aware of the real operation than Pepper Potts. All she needed was an in and Stark Industries would be wide open. And so to achieve that she needed to test the older woman, to see if her hunch was anything but. The redhead discreetly pulled her light blue top down to reveal some more of her cleavage and walked over to the desk.

Natasha had a feeling about Pepper and while she was aware the new CEO was into Tony Stark ... No one was impervious to distraction.

Leaning across the desk, Natasha moved close to Pepper; confidently invading her personal space. The two made eye contact, the redhead’s calm green orbs meeting nervous blue ones. She stayed still, not moving before Pepper’s eyes fell away, Natasha’s perfume filling the older woman’s nostrils as Pepper backed down, her gaze descending into the deep crevasse between Natasha’s breasts.

“Ms Rushman...” Pepper exclaimed uncertainly.

“Ms Potts,” Natasha said with a firmer tongue.

“W-what are you doing?”

Natasha pressed further forward, a subtle movement that raised her full, round breasts closer still:

“Placing the file in your in-tray Ms Potts.”

“Oh,” the CEO uttered, although it sounded more like a moan, her eyes now fixed upon the redhead’s pale cleavage.

Natasha smiled coyly as she stood up, noting the flush in Pepper’s cheeks: hunch confirmed. The agent doubled down on her false concern:

“It is specified in my contract that my job is to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible, whilst doing whatever it takes to ensure you’re working to the best of your ability. So I cannot leave until you do.”

While technically that was a lie, there was no reason for Potts to check it out at the moment at the very least.

“Oh?” Pepper mumbled distractedly, as if entranced by the woman before her.

Shaking her head, the CEO momentarily broke free:

“Well I’m fine at the moment Miss Rushman, there is really no need for you to stay here all night.”

Not taking no for an answer, Natasha continued: “But Miss Potts, you look stressed! Every day this week you have worked over time. Maybe I should help you relax? Loosen you up after all that administration ... Let me help you find some release.”