Friday, let her in.

[ you could get up and open the door, boss. ]

wow, I am feeling scolded right now - hey.

[ he passes her a glass as she walks in. ]

Not late and guess what, my closet started giving out mimosas. You should try it, it's seriously the best thing that happened to me this week.

[She takes the glass, holding it under her nose briefly before taking a sip.]

Not the worst closet malfunction I've heard of. [Tipping her head.] Not bad.

Not what I'd normally have with burgers, but not bad.

What? We're in Wonderland, it's noon, it's a nice day. Besides, you're Russian. I doubt any of that will have any effect on you. How come I've never seen you partying besides that night when you were pretending to be the hot girl working for me?

[ just saying. ]

Thanks.

[ for the burgers, he sits down and opens the bag. ]

And you even brought me ketchup.

[Another drink of the mimosa, eyebrows rising at the question.]

Depending on how you define partying... Natalie was more of the part type than I am.

[An identity she hasn't had a reason to slip back on since then. She doesn't do much undercover work these days.]

As long as it means you're eating.

I remember. Vaguely. I was severely drunk at the time. I'm sure you remember.

[ he takes a bite of his burger and gives her a look ]

Hey I eat. Two thirds of the time I even eat stuff that has some nutritional value.

I remember very well, yes. [Including just how drunk Tony was at the time.] Did not get much sleep that night. But I imagine that makes two of us.

[Natasha doesn't lean into lecturing Tony about how he takes care of himself, though. She's said her part.]

So how's the burger. Everything you hoped?

I mean, it's no Five Guys but it's better than most. This world likes you more than it does me.

[ he takes another bite and leans back in his chair ]

What's the last memory you have from home?

[That's a fairly ominous question, Tony. Natasha crosses her arms, balancing her mimosa glass carefully in her outside hand.]

The last memory I have is a conversation with you. "They're coming for you?"

[And then she'd got herself out of there.]

That's it. I left, then I was here.

--- I had a week off. Got back to that weird space-prison.

[ would that he could sugarcoat it only tony knows romanoff well enough to understand it would only piss her off.

he doesn't have good news for her, none at all. ]

It's not peachy back home.

[Finishing the mimosa and setting the glass aside before crossing her arms. There's a lot to glean just from that much.

She knows there's more.]

So what are we looking at?

Do you want the horrible news or the really bad news or the pretty-weird-but-overall-okay news?

[ there's some of those, too ]

Sounds like an awful full plate. [That's not new. The fact Tony is reacting to this means this is more than a standard threat.] Let's start with the horrible news.

Earth is under attack. FRIDAY, give her clearance to the latest video files

[ he gestures towards his computer. It's only a few shots FRIDAY has recorded - New York in dust, in ruin, a spaceship in the sky. ]

He's called Thanos. He was the one behind the New York attack. He sent his minions over, it's been fun.

[Natasha Romanoff is, in most respects, not what one would consider flappable. Quite the opposite. But that particular image of New York laid waste by a space ship has a resonance for her.]

And the really bad news?

He has a serious amount of power. Remember Thor's little speech about the Infinity Stones? Turns out he has two of them. He can harness their power.

[ he puts down the cheeseburger and sighs ]

Word is he took the one that was in the Tesseract from Thor. There's a chance he didn't make it.

So we also have to assume Thor's down. [One way or another. That's one asset they wouldn't be able to count on. Other considerations can wait for later.]

The okay news?

[Might as well get all of the cards on the table before she started taking score.]

Banner's back. There are wizards in the world and they're on our side.

[ that has to count, surely? ]

Pepper and I are engaged. Pick and choose, all those things are pretty okay.

Congratulations.

[The engagement is the easiest thing to respond to, and the only part of it that isn't complicated. The rest, she chews over.]

So you and Bruce and wizards fought that thing?

And the kid. He popped out of nowhere. Something about a field trip.

[ he watches the video before turning it off. The scenes are bad enough when they play in his head. He doesn't say anything else for a while, simply takes the rest of her mimosa and drinks it. ]

That's about it.

[ that's as much as he's willing to say, anyway. ]

The wizard has a stone, by the way, so there's that.

Could be worse. [And it could be much better. The Hulk, Spider-man, and wizards along with Tony and whatever version of his suit he's currently on. But it could be worse.]

I notice you said has. He still has it? [So the fight isn't over.]

As far as I know, he still has it. It's called the time stone, they have some weird new-age thing with it, they're sworn to protect it. Seriously, the wizard is a douche.

[ but, and he'll only tell her that: ]

He has a few tricks up his sleeve that aren't painfully tacky.

Hopefully he's got enough of them to hold out a while.

[She considers, organizing her thoughts carefully. The fact there's nothing she can do about it here looms over the conversation.]

What's the outlook?

I don't know. We have two stones that we know of, the wizard has the Time Stone, Vision has the Mind Stone, there's that. I haven't met Thanos but fun fact: the big guy doesn't want to come out after that one encounter they had.

[ he holds her gaze ]

Not great. I may not be around to help much.

[Voice level and professional, but the concern isn't entirely hidden in her eyes.]

Just where do you expect to be, Tony?

Remember the flying donut?

[ he looks ahead for a moment more before he meets her eyes again. She may not be Pepper but he hates telling her all of this when they're here, when it's all so far away and out of their control. ]

I'm sorry. I'm hoping it's not a one-way trip.