Few hours after Agent Romanoff left, I checked the shield database for anything.

'Take that you logical side!' My brain screamed excitedly.

There was an investigation status put up for me to confirm if I was the taskmaster or related to him or not.

After all, learning so many martial arts while being young and running a restaurant was definitely sus. Especially when she must have felt something wrong with me due to my bored brain giving subtle clues that might have made her feel that I was dangerous.

'I really fucked myself up, didn't I?' I cried without tears along with the renewed pumping of my heart as I exited the Shield's page.

However, 2 days later I was cleared of my status as the potential of being Taskmaster.

"Nooo!" I screamed.

"How dumb can you people be?!" I cried while Bruce came into the room looking worried.

"Stupid idiots only scratching the surface and not digging into the cover I have laid for them. Bunch of potatoes." I mumbled as I closed my laptop.

"You really have gone mad haven't you." I ignored Bruce as I went downstairs to prepare for the day.

Natalie came in later that day to our store. First time seeing her since the investigation status on me was put up.

From that day forwards Natalie started talking to us whenever she came in. A few months later all 3 of us became friends, albeit Bruce and me being very wary about what we casually revealed to her.

Bruce especially warmed up to Natasha pretty quickly and considered her as his other best friend while for me I was partially wary of her without showing it.

I knew she wasn't befriending me for part of her mission or anything. If she was I would have known from my tracking software on everyone on Shield when Nick had contacted her about it.

I think she genuinely wants to consider me and Bruce as friends outside of her spy life. She wants to subconsciously experience being a normal human when she is not working.

Even if she was the best spy in the world she was still a human. She needed a social circle of friends. So far it was just Clint and his wife in her life. But being near both of them reminded her of who she was, unlike me and Bruce who were 'normal' people.

She is slowly making friends in me and Bruce due to having to visit us whenever she is back from her work due to our awesome food.

"Wait you have a Master's in Physics from Oxford?" Natasha asked me with a fake surprise as I told her about my background. After all, they did a deep background check on me to make sure I was not in any way related to the Taskmaster.

"What the hell are you doing working in a restaurant?" She asked me in genuine confusion.

"I was bored and found cooking interesting. It relaxes your mind. I found Jeff here to become my partner and we just started." I pointed at Bruce who just sat beside me.

"Then what's with the rule of 5 people here?" She asked us.

"Dave wanted to enjoy cooking rather than cook for money, so he only limited 5 people in order to not get worked to death with orders," Bruce answered as he yawned.

"Anyway, I am off to bed. Good night." Bruce just walked off and both me and Natasha nodded.

We talked for a few more minutes before she left.

2 month went by like this where Natasha and I would talk for a few minutes after Bruce had left.

I think befriending me and Bruce are part of her fantasy about living a normal life which she will never have, due to what has been done to her and who she is.

She found psychological comfort knowing that there were normal friends for her in this restaurant, with who she can roleplay her normal everyday life normally.

The minutes increased unknowingly for both of us as we kept on talking about topics that interested us.

One day after Bruce left Natasha unexpectedly asked me. "Hey Dave, can you teach me how to make pizza?"

I looked at her strangely. "I don't want to know your secret recipe or anything just something casual since you guys are the best at making them." She misunderstood my gaze for wanting to know how trade secret.

"Who is the lucky guy?" I asked her with a teasing smile.

"Hahaha! No, it's just for my best friends kid. I want to impress her." She chuckled before replying. I knew instantly that she was talking about Clint Barton and his family.

"You have friends other than us?" I acted with shock, which irked a response of fake annoyance on her face.

"I am just joking," I told her to which we both just chuckled.

"Sure. When do you want to learn it?" I asked her.

"Well, I am visiting them in 2 weeks so it would be good if I can learn before then." She answered.

"What time do you prefer?" I asked her.

"If possible, around this time. I know it's a bit late, but this is usually the time I am free." She said quickly.

"Ok. I might as well prepare some dough for tomorrow. Do you want to start now?" I asked her to which she agreed.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Sure."

I led her into the kitchen and passed her the spare apron I kept for Bruce in case he ever came into the kitchen. I passed her a hair net as well before I made her wear a hat to stop hair from falling into food.

"I don't want my customers complaining they found red hair in pizza and start doubting my food quality," I told seeing her hold out the net and hat.

"Oh. No problem." She nodded in understanding as she wore the net and hat.

I started teaching her how to prepare the dough to make pizza. She tried it as well just as I showed her. I helped her with the dough before she made a barely qualified dough for the pizza.

"I think we should call it a night. It is late. I will teach you the rest the next time." I told her to which she nodded.

"I won't be able to come in tomorrow. Is it alright if you can teach me whenever I am here?" She asked.

"Yeah sure. Is it related to your job?" I asked back.

"Yeah.

Having a boss who likes to get everything done perfectly even the tiniest of things in the fashion designing world is not helpful to leave early." She smiled.

The personal assistant of a famous fashion designer with OCD and superiority complex was the job role she laid out before Bruce and me. Needless to say, Bruce believed it like a sponge that soaks up water. Sometimes I want to smack him over his head seeing how honest and gullible he is.

She left as I locked the place shut.

I made some more dough before cleaning everything up and went to sleep.

She came 2 days later and after Bruce left, we carried on from last time.

"So now we need to flatten off the dough." I showed her how to do it using her hands.

She tried doing it but couldn't get it right. "Flatten it out like this." I showed her one more time on my dough.

"I can't get it right." She sighed in frustration.

This was getting annoying for me too. I sighed.

"Ok, let me help." I moved behind her and placed my hands on top of hers.

As I began guiding her hands, I could smell strawberries from her hair.

'It smells so good.'

I leaned closer to get a better waft of the smell.

'Why can't I ever make such nice smelling strawberry perfume with my knowledge?' I wondered as I guided her hands to flatten the dough.

This was the first time I ever came close to a girl that wasn't part of my family in both my lives.

If it were in my past life I would have panicked and would have got an erection being so close to a pretty girl.

But after gaining so much knowledge I saw the world for what it really is. All beings and objects were nothing other than atoms arranged in a certain way to my eyes.

I realised that no matter what we do we are all the same. One way or another all beings will end up going to the same place; a cycle of arrangement and rearrangement of atoms or better known as the cycle of life.

No one can escape that fate. If that was the case then why should I bother about other people?

Even if I created a perfect world without suffering and developed a cure to death and gave it to everyone, people will find reasons for trouble unless I took away their freedom. And freedom was the only thing that made all these being made of atoms unique.

This was what caused me to be indifferent to peoples plight when I could easily stop all suffering in the world with my knowledge so far. Because stop one problem a similar problem will soon crop up. Solve all the problems and people will create new ones to solve just like me, in order to relieve boredom.

It was an endless cycle and it was in the nature of people including mine.

Not to mention once all of them were immortal then comes the problem of resource depletion that needs to sustain such a large populace that will keep growing due to no one ever dying. And Thanos will be right at that point.

Then there is the end of the universe. Even if all of us were immortal the universe will one day end. So, what was the point in being immortal forever and letting everyone experience constant suffering?

It is better to live a short and happy life rather than a long and miserable life. Our lives are so short that we should only use it for ourselves and those that were most closest to us. Upon coming to this realisation, I closed off my heart to everyone except my family.

This thought process caused me to not fluster in front of girls and get a boner every time I was in the presence of a beautiful girl.

I don't care about the feeling of others other than my dad, mum, brother and grandparents. To me, everyone but they were inconsequential atoms even if they all had souls and emotions.

But if that is the case why did her hands feel so small and soft in my hands?

Why do I get the urge to protect these small soft hands?

Why did her hair smell so good to me?

Why was my heart beating so much being next to her?

Why was my heart that was closed to everyone's feelings slowly opening up for her?

My fingers spread over her hands on top of them.

I rested my arms on top of her.

I gently guided them into the dough. Natasha didn't say anything either and let me guide her hands quietly. I could feel the rhythm of her pulse through her hands.

It was becoming steady like mine as the serene music playing in the background.

At this point, the dough was way out of shape but we didn't stop, as stopping meant not feeling our hands on each other.

Both of us got lost in this trance.

However, after a while, she woke up from the trance and stopped her hands. This woke me up as well. "Sorry… I mean…" I became flustered and quickly let go of her hands and moved back.

"Sorry…" Natasha began as she moved back as well.

However, before she could say anything I spoke up as I walked towards the dough we were working on. "Umm if the dough messes up you can bring it back like this to try again." I started explaining as I quickly began retrieving the dough back.

I didn't know if she was still there or watching but I just explained as I demonstrated how to flatten the dough.

Very quickly the dough was finished as a base for pizza.

"We can do the rest next time." I turned around and told her seeing it was already 1 am. Time just flew by.

"Yeah." Natasha gave an awkward smile and walked in hurry.

'What the heck was that?' I screamed in my mind.

'Was that seduction? But why would she need to seduce me?' I didn't know if she was seducing me for Fury but at that moment where I was lost with her, that felt different to me coming from both life.

I looked at my hands which held her soft hands.

'Why was I feeling this way?

Is it wrong to feel this way? She is, after all, a 'friend' I have decided to act out for just like Bruce. Are friends allowed to do things like this?

She is also Shield's agent. She is the best tool used by Fury for espionage and information gathering.

She could also be here to guide me towards a trap.

Is this a trap?

But the shield database has nothing on me. I have seen no messages or heard anything passing between Fury and Natasha about anything related to me.'

I hated being in the unknown. All most all the knowledge in the world and it is so useless for me at this moment.

'Screw Fury! Screw Shield!' I cursed as I quickly wore a jacket and ran out.

'I need to understand what is going on here. Did she do it purposefully?

Or did that happen naturally? If so why was I feeling this way?'

I spotted the familiar red hair walking in the distance and quickly ran after her after locking the store quickly.

"David? What are you doing here?" She asked me as I caught up.

"There was news about gangs being active in this area at this time. It's not exactly safe at this time for you to walk alone." I gave a lame answer which both of us knew were a lie.

She seemed like she wanted to counter with what I told her but she did not say anything. 'Why? Why are you not pointing out my lie?' I became flustered and confused. "Thanks." She said.

We both walked in silence for a while.

I think we walked for 30 minutes before we arrived in front of her door.

Things got a bit awkward at this point. "Umm…"

"I will see you tomorrow?" I wanted to say next time but accidentally said tomorrow.

"I can't. I am working, sorry." She apologised.

"Haha, no worries. I guess I will see you next time." I said as I stared into her green eyes getting lost in it.

"Yeah…" I heard her speak then everything turned silent as she looked into my eyes.

We both stared at each other for a while before she came in close.