"I remember," Natasha said, because her own experience had been similar. She hadn't yet known it was rude to openly stare at someone after she'd won, a little girl with no family to drill real manners into her. At all the parties she'd been carted around to, she'd gawped at every Avox she'd seen, wondering what the inside of their mouths looked like in a kind of fascinated horror. It had been her escort who'd explained to her that she shouldn't speak to them unless it was to issue a request, and for all Natasha had always phrased things as requests instead of commands, it felt more ugly and surface, now, scraped over raw in a way that had worn off a long time ago. She'd gotten used to it, and tonight had been a reminder that it was a terrible thing that she'd gotten used to.
They all had, she supposed, because at least Bucky seemed to be making the same mistakes and hitches in adjustment that she was.
And she smiled, a little, just for a moment at the joke - "for the guy who mixes his drinks", it made her smile, it was lighthearted. It would have been nice to leave it at that, and comfortable to think that was the explanation. But it had been years - decades, really, of this enormous secret. Decades of protecting him, the device Tony had built for him to return his voice, and with the Quell encroaching on them, it had clicked into place for Natasha, why Tony, Tony who only rivaled herself in terms of how cautious and careful he always was, the last person she'd think would have spurred on a revolution, had gotten involved.
They didn't think he would be reaped, but there was no guarantee of that, and if Tony was frightened for himself (as they all were), he was clearly equally frightened for what would happen to Jarvis if he disappeared. There was something Tony Stark loved after all, someone he'd protect and pay the bill for that protection.
"I think we've all underestimated Tony," she said. "Which he might scoff at, but it doesn't make it less true. I suppose if you love someone that much, keeping a secret is easier than it seems."