After the awkward re-introduction to Nat, you advised Bucky to give her some time to process what had just happened, and offered to take her with you back to New York. After the Raft, the rest of the team had gone their own ways to families and into hiding, other than Sam, who insisted that he would stay at Steve's side as he had promised years before. That trio stayed behind in Wakanda, but you couldn't; you knew that Nat and Tony had to talk after the truth had come out, and that you would be there with them, likely at both of their insistence.

Beyond that reason alone, you just really wanted to see Tony again.

She didn't say much on the trip back to the States, much of her time spent reading or secluding herself away to think about how she would handle this new development. It took a lot to shake Natasha Romanoff, and this was definitely on that list. What you couldn't tell, however, was which was crumbling her stability more; that she was soulmates with Tony, or that Bucky remembered their tumultuous relationship now that his mind was his own again. The one thing that she felt stable in, if nothing else, was that she didn't want to pursue either of them, but she wouldn't hurt either man in the process.

When the jet landed in the compound hangar, the door had barely opened fully before you were on your feet and running to Tony's waiting arms. His grip felt like he was holding onto you for his life, and maybe he was; if not his life, then certainly his sanity. He breathed you in as he held you, every second passing by much too quickly before he had to let go, when the time came to greet his teammate.

"Hey, Nat," he offered quietly, but the shake in his voice was unmistakable.

"Hey, Tony," she answered, her nerves just barely better hidden. "Um...I'm just gonna go settle in. We can talk later-"

"Actually," he broke in, his words tumbling out, "about that. I think that we're just making way too much of this. The only thing that's really changed is now we know about this whole soulmate thing, but it hasn't changed how I feel at all. You've been one of my best friends for years, I trust you...again...for the most part, and you challenge me like no one else and that just pisses me off, but in a good way, if that makes sense. Does that make sense? Has that changed for you?"

"Definitely not. You piss me off all the time."

"Then there we have it," he nodded, fully satisfied, "friends?" He held out his hand for her to take, waiting as she studied it to consider the other options. When she agreed that there were no others, she stepped up and took it, only to pull him into a hug as she was awash in relief.

"I'm sorry for how things were left between us, Tony. That whole thing in Liepzig-"

"Is history, Nat. You did what you felt was right, and as it turned out, you were," Tony shrugged, pushing back from her hold. "Once again, I should learn to listen to you."

"Damn right," she agreed. "Okay, so...that went better than I thought it would. I'm still going to go settle in. I'm only staying for a few days so I'd like to take advantage of the rest."

You hadn't heard that her plans were going to be so short, and it took you by surprise just as it did for Tony. "Only a few days? Why?"

"I told Steve that I'd be back..." she paused, and you took notice of the nervous shift in her stature. It was so strange to see this woman unsettled, and it made your own nerves begin to respond. "I also think that I need to face the problem that's back there waiting for me. I feel like I owe him to at least talk about it."

"Whoa, wait, talk to who about what?" Tony jumped in. He was worried again, his momentary sense of comfort fading right before her eyes, and she had no interest in starting this conversation with him. Natasha looked at you, wide-eyed and hopeful that you would take the lead for her, which you did.

"Honey, why don't you ask FRIDAY to order dinner and I can tell you about it then? I just need to make a quick call and then we can get some time to catch up. Is that okay?"

"Yes, absolutely, sounds great," he readily agreed with an excited clap of his hands, "but shout it out now if you have any objections on what we have. Otherwise, you're at my mercy, sweetheart."

"I trust you, Tony."

He paused and reached out to you, taking your face gently in his hands, "that's all I wanted to hear." With a quick kiss and a wide smile, he grabbed your bags and turned to leave, waiting at the door for you and Nat to join him. "You know what? For the first time in a while, I'm actually in a pretty damn good mood. Things just might be looking up."

"Oh, honey, why?" you groaned. "Why haven't you learned by now to never say things like that?"

~~~

As with pretty much anything that Tony did, dinner was an example of both his penchant for excess, and for the state of his mind, with far more ordered than even the entire team would need, and from so many different restaurants that it looked like a culinary trip around the world on one table. You stood at the doorway of the lounge and watched as delivery after delivery appeared, your phone in hand and just waiting for you to take the leap and dial. When the deliveries appeared to slow down, you couldn't wait any longer, knowing that Tony would be ready for you and Nat to join him at any minute.

"Okay," you mumbled to yourself, dialing and bringing the phone to your ear, "no big deal, (Y/N). This is gonna be fine."

"(Y/N)."

"Hey, Steve," you answered quietly, "how's Bucky doing?"

"Great so far. He definitely has his appetite back," he laughed. "Ate everything in sight and now he's down for a nap."

"Didn't he just take a nice long nap? How much sleep does the man need?"

"Some things never change, what can I say?" A pause came in the conversation, with you continuing to watch your fiancé work, and with Steve waiting for you to come clean about why it was that you had called. He had agreed to let you know if anything with Bucky had changed, so your initiation of the contact was definitely a surprise given that you were back at Tony's side. "What's going on, (Y/N)?"

"Okay, so, I know that I might be asking too much, and this might just jinx everything that's gone right lately-"

"Just say it."

"Now that Bucky's mind is clearing up, and while Tony seems to be in a good mood, I'd like to bring us back together to talk about what happened."

Another long pause came, but you had expected this one. You almost expected the man to simply hang up on you and put a stop to the idea straight away, but that would be too far out of character, and against his promise to you to work on moving forward.

"Steve, just think about it. That's all I'm asking for."

"I'll talk to Buck. If you can get Tony to agree, then we'll consider it." And with that, the line closed and the conversation was over. For how long, you had no way to know.

~~~

You hadn't been separated for all that long; you had been on missions that pulled you away for longer, but being back next to Tony had made it feel as if your absence had been years. It was comforting to you to know that with everything that was going on between you, with Bucky and now Natasha, your connection to each other was still there and felt stable; it wouldn't be out of the question for all of this to break even the strongest relationship. Tony was a man with a longstanding history of self-doubt and demons that plagued him while both awake and asleep, and the look on his face when he realized that he wasn't your soulmate would be burned into your memory forever. But he stared down those demons for you, and he was still here, promising that this is where he would stay.

Now that you had opened up the possibility of putting him before Steve and Bucky, and opening up wounds that were barely losing their sting, you began to second-guess your resolve to bring the team back together.

"Oh, wow, I don't think that I've ever been so full," Tony groaned, leaning back into the couch, pressing his hand to his stomach. "You know what? I might have ordered too much."

"No!" you scoffed with a heavy sarcasm. "Tony Stark, go too far? Never!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay, it sounds stupid now that I've said it," he relented. "I can always count on you for keeping me honest." He sat up straighter and pushed you gently away so that he could stand, as if that would help to ease the ache in his stomach from his over-indulgence. "Ugh, this reminds me of that Thanksgiving when we nearly set the kitchen on fire and had to order out to keep from starving. Even with the whole team there, we went way too far."

"I remember," Nat joined in with a small grin, "I couldn't eat for two days after that. Rogers upped our workouts for the next week just to burn it all off."

"Yeah, like his metabolism didn't burn it off before he even ate," you agreed. "That's just Steve being an ass."

"Hmm, he wears it well," Tony also nodded in agreement. He looked again at the table in front of you and sized up what was left, finally reaching out to begin to clean up when he stopped and looked to Natasha as he took her plate. "Did you even actually eat?"

"What? I did."

"No, you put food on your plate, and it looks like all you did was push it around to seem like you ate. I used this trick on my mom for years. You can't fool the master."

"I ate a little bit, okay?" she huffed. "What about (Y/N)? She did the same thing, are you gonna yell at her too, DAD?"

Tony turned back to see that Nat was right, and your own plate looked the same, with barely anything on it. "What the hell, (Y/N)? Now I feel like a pig at the trough. I ate all of this by myself?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I wasn't that hungry either, but in my defense, I had no idea that you would buy enough to feed a small country."

Tony paused and stared down at his hands, his mind putting it together; instead of continuing his way into the kitchen to begin clean-up, he set the plates down on the table and sat by you again, only this time he was keeping his distance so that he could have a better view to take in your reaction. He was going to get an honest read on you no matter what words you chose to use. "Okay, what's going on? I know you two too well for this to get past me. Let's have it, I don't care who goes first."

You exchanged a nervous glance with Natasha, and opened your mouth to start, but she quickly took the lead instead with a voice that barely held. "Okay, that problem that I have to go back for...is Barnes. He and I...we have...um, we have a bit of a...history together."

"Such as?" Tony asked cautiously, sitting straighter and with a nervous clearing of his throat.

"Such as...Red Room history," she answered quietly. "Such as...I'm shocked that you're my soulmate and not him, kind of history."

"Oh...okay," he sighed, looking to you and turning away before you could respond, "I can see how that could be problematic now that he's back. I guess I had no idea that you were into cold-blooded murderers though."

"Tony," you tried, but his hand came up to stop you.

"Don't defend him, (Y/N)," he warned, "don't even try. I'm not there yet. I'm barely able to accept that you're connected, and that you ran across the world to be there for him, but don't ask me to just ignore the fact that he's still the guy who killed my parents."

"I wasn't going to."

"Good," he answered coldly, shutting any further discussion of it down. Or so he thought. When Tony turned to look at you to hear what was bothering you, his expression dropped to one of both disappointment and understanding. "Oh, shit. What? What bomb are you about to drop on me?"

It wasn't likely that you would find support from Natasha, but you looked to her anyway to chance it. She was looking at you much the same as Tony was; with fear overriding any curiosity. "Before dinner, I called Steve and asked him if he would meet with you-"

"Are you serious? How could you do that without asking me first?"

"Oh, it gets better," you muttered under your breath, "I also asked him to see if Bucky would come along."