Of Black Widows, palladium and redheads [Tony/Pepper, Tony/Natasha]
"Why don't you…" he starts and stops suddenly when Natalie sits down beside him. He stares at her, head cocked to his right side.
"It's kind of hard to get a read on you." He admits, barely more than a whisper. "Where are you from?"
"Legal." She answers back wittily and resumes on applying moisturizing cream to his wounded face.
"Can I ask you a question hypothetically?"
Natalie nods shortly and looks at him expectantly.
"If it was your last birthday, how would you celebrate it?" he rubs at his eyebrows tiredly and she smiles at him. She thinks about his question for a few moments then answers truthfully.
"I'd do whatever I wanted to do with whoever I wanted to do it."
With that said she stands up and leaves him thinking. At first, he thinks about Natalie and how much he wants to fuck her. After all, it has been more than a year since he's fucked anyone, and Natalie, he thinks is a big tease. But as he sips the last contents of his dirty martini his mind tells him it wouldn't be right to do that. He knows it wouldn't be right… wouldn't feel right, actually, because he's in love with Pepper, and everything he has tried up to this moment hasn't worked out. He's so in love with her and his last thought is about how much he would like to be with her tonight and how much he'd like to have a chance to hold her in his arms, or a small, insignificant chance at a worthless dance because he knows… god he really, truly knows. He's aware of his situation and he doesn't pretend otherwise. It still hurts because he knows it would be the last chance to hold her close, to feel her tremble softly in his grasp, he knows it would be the final chance to smell her scent and he's sure it would be the last chance to feel almost complete. Because if he wouldn't lie to himself he would be able to do something about the situation that Pepper and him are in.
He's going to die in less than a week - six days and six hours more precisely. He's 99% sure that miracles don't likely happen, but he's determined to make this one work. If he doesn't… well, he'd like to say it has been the most wonderful experience of his whole life - being in love, being where he was supposed to be since the beginning.