Chapter Text
There was woman in a t-shirt and underwear in Tony’s kitchen.
She was a pretty woman, with bright red hair and a cute button nose, but she was not a woman Tony recognized.
“Uh,” he said.
The woman looked up from the coffeemaker. “Hey,” she said, waving. “Coffee should be ready soon.”
“Good,” Tony said. “Who are you?”
The woman laughed. “Oh yeah, sorry.” She offered her hand. “Kate Kane. I’m with Natasha. Or I was last night.”
“Uh,” Tony said again.
Kate grinned. “I’m guessing she’s never brought a woman back here,” she said.
“No,” Tony said, sitting at the table. “I thought she was with Clint, to be honest.”
“Nah, they’re just really close,” Kate said, pulling out a frying pan from the cupboard. “I feel like I should offer you some breakfast.”
“No, that’s okay,” Tony said. “Technically, you’re my guest. In that this is my building, and you’re in it.”
Kate cracked open some eggs and started frying them. “I thought it was the Avengers building.”
“They don’t pay rent,” Tony said, and Kate laughed.
“Sorry, I just realized I’m not wearing pants,” Kate said, pulling down on the edge of her t-shirt. It didn’t help. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“No, it’s fine,” Tony said. “Thor sometimes walks around naked. You’re much more pleasing to the eye.”
“Morning,” Natasha said as she walked in. She went up behind Kate and kissed her. “You didn’t have to cook.”
“Breakfast is one of the few things I can cook,” Kate said, smiling at Natasha.
“So you’re a lesbian, huh?” Tony said.
Natasha looked back at him. “Bisexual,” she said. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“No, it’s cool,” Tony said.
“Don’t you have something to do?” Natasha said, coolly.
Tony could take a hint. “Yeah,” he said and got up, leaving Kate and Natasha to their lesbian shenanigans.
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So it turned out that Kate was not a one night stand, since she kept showing up in the Tower, usually fully clothed, but not always. She seemed like a nice person, but Tony still wanted to check out her past, make sure she wasn’t a villain in disguise.
Natasha had almost certainly done that already herself, but Tony was curious. Turned out Kate Kane had been discharged from the military under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and then she had done not much of anything at all in Gotham.
Except there were all these sightings of a mysterious Batwoman in Gotham, and she’d recently been spotted in New York, not too long after Kate Kane had moved to New York.
“So I think your girlfriend is Batwoman,” Tony said to Natasha one day, when they were alone together in the Tower.
Natasha arched her eyebrow. “Really.”
“But I guess you already knew that,” Tony said. “Of course.”
“Of course.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Tony said. “I thought SHIELD wasn’t okay with vigilantes who aren’t working for them.”
“I’m not SHIELD.” After a pause, she said, “They sent me to check Batwoman out, figure out her identity. I did, after I’d already met Kate.” Natasha looked down. “I told SHIELD that Batwoman had left New York. I asked Kate to stop, and for now she has. But I’m sure that won’t last. Masks can’t stay away from the streets.”
“And when she does?” Tony asked.
Natasha shrugged. “I can’t stop her, and I won’t turn her over to SHIELD.”
“You really like her, don’t you?” Tony said
“I love her,” Natasha said, easily. “I’ll do whatever I need to to keep her safe.”
“Doesn’t sound like that’s going to be easy,” Tony said.
“She can hold her own,” Natasha said. “That’s one advantage of dating a mask. I don’t have to worry about someone using her against me.”
Tony thought about Pepper. “Yeah,” he said. “And she doesn’t have to worry about you.”
“Tony…” Natasha looked up at him. “Don’t tell anyone about this. I don’t need SHIELD finding out who she really is.”
“I won’t,” he said. “What would they do?”
“I don’t know,” she said, but she was frowning, like she had an idea. “She won’t join up with them, probably. They wouldn’t like that.”
“Why wouldn’t she? Seems like you’d make a good team.”
“First rule of dating a mask,” Natasha said. “Don’t mix business with pleasure.”
“There are rules?” Tony asked.
“I’ve developed some.”
“Wait,” Tony said. “How many masks have you dated?”
Natasha just smiled and looked away.