Chapter 18: Realization

Chapter 18: Realization

Tom felt as if he just received a blow to the head with a blunt object.

He had enough on his plate worrying about the DxD plot and now Marvel or MCU was added into the mix?

Fuck that shit sideways with a golden crooked spoon!

His thoughts were a disorienting jumbled mess as he tried to figure out the heads and tails of this new discovery.

Why was Black Widow at this party? No, why did she approach him? No, no, no, was SHIELD onto him? How!? Or rather, why? This was like... the first time he left his lab in months and the only thing of any impact on the mundane world he did was creating better food!

They couldn't think he made it so tasty with the help of some unidentified drug, could they?

No way they were so damn stupid... right?

Or were the members of the World Security Council foodies?

The hell if Tom knew!

Wait! Is she even here because of the food? As far as Tom was aware, nobody except the Magician Families was supposed to know who was the inventor of their products. Did somebody betray him?

No. Not possible. The Magician Families were nasty pieces of shit but siccing SHIELD onto him would have been beneath them. Plus, they would have never risked revealing the magical world to mundane people, much less to an international secret organization.

Then...

But...

What if...

For a few seconds, Tom agonized over trying to find out a good explanation for the situation he found himself in, inwardly panicking.

'Wait. Calm down, Tommy.' Tom patronizingly thought to himself, 'Deep breaths. That's it. You don't have time for this right now.' He added, chiding himself.

The woman... Natasha was still in front of him and seemingly indecisive about what to do about his grip on her wrist.

Tom understood he had only seconds to...

'Oh...' Tom suddenly gained an obvious realization and got a massive urge to slap himself as he inwardly cracked a self-deprecating grin. 'The answers are in front of you, you idiot.'

He was still holding Natasha's wrist. That meant he could simply use his Sacred Gear to dig through her past and look for clues there!

Inwardly sighing in relief, Tom barely managed to hold onto his outward calm facade, 'Damn, I almost freaked out...'

Tom warred with himself. He knew he should not get involved.

Doing that would bring problems to him.

It would possibly mean making an enemy out of SHIELD.

It would also screw the MCU plot somewhat fiercely.

But...

As he gazed at her face, Tom got very conscious of the small finished chess piece in his pocket. A piece he was so giddy about that he refused to let it out of his reach like a kid who got a new toy. His very first success.

A piece that would be a massive shame and waste to use on someone mundane.

Yet...

The frantic redhead in front of him... Tom wanted her.

It was as simple as that and yeah, he was a bastard for thinking about it like that but if he denied the fact, he would have just been lying to himself. He'd rather be a bastard but true to his own feelings.

His decision was made before he even realized it. At this moment at the very least, he was set to follow his heart rather than logic.

He... was about to offer her a spot in his 'pseudo-peerage'.

In reality, only five seconds passed since he grabbed her wrist but Natasha finally recollected her bearings and calmed her emotions. She gave Tom a disapproving look and tried to weakly yank her wrist out of his hold to show him he was acting over the top.

"Look, I had an incredible evening but now I really have to g-" She spoke when...

Her body suddenly froze.

Not in the scared kind of way but in a literal way. She couldn't move. At all. Her eyes gained a scared glint as she realized the man in front of her was most likely a mutant. And she was at his mercy.

Tom gave her an apologetic smile, feeling a small sting in his chest at the frightened glint deep in her gaze, "I am sorry, Natalia."

If anything, saying her name just made Natasha freak out even more. She tried to desperately will herself to move. To surpass whatever was binding her. But it was in naught and with every second she failed to move, her inner despair rose.

"Don't be scared." Tom gently caressed her cheek, making her heart involuntarily skip a beat... and at that moment, Natasha both hated and loved that gesture.

"I am only going to give you an offer. You are free to refuse and nothing will happen to you even if you do that." Tom said. As much as his heart bled due to her feelings about her current situation in life, he wasn't some good samaritan. For him, there was a limit even to following his heart.

"But... I doubt you will get a better chance than this to improve your life."