A/N: As of today, 7/2/2023, this is the final chapter currently posted publicly for this story. Because of how the schedule works, Chapter 10 came out this morning and it will be one chapter every two weeks going forward.

There will always be four advance chapters on my Patreon at all times for this and my other Patreon-Funded fics.

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As Thaddeus follows his RA down the hall, he finds himself contemplating women as a whole. Specifically, he’s run into girls like Natalie before, though she’s clearly older than both him and most of the young women he’s been with at this point. Still, the attitude is all the same. A haughty tight ass who was more than a little abrasive on the outside… but could sometimes turn out to have a gooey center on the inside.
 
Specifically, Thaddeus finds himself reminiscing about his high school’s Valedictorian. The smartest girl in school, she was also quite pretty. However, she’d never had time for social activity or the petty politics of the popular girls. That wasn’t to say she was a bullying target or anything like that though… much in the same way the Principal had propped him up as the pinnacle of athletic accomplishment at their school, he’d propped their future Valedictorian up as the pinnacle of scholastic achievement.
 
In the end, she was untouchable… and she knew it too. However, she was also focused in a way Thaddeus had to admit that he admired. Her great intellect meant she didn’t need to come to him for any ‘help’ either with her test-taking, so in the end, they’d been in two separate worlds. Even when he’d changed his ways and upped his grades, giving her a run for her money in a few different classes on a few different tests, she hadn’t given him the time of day.
 
To be fair, it wasn’t as though he had a chance to take Valedictorian off of her, even with his enhanced intellect. He might have brought his grades up in a spectacular fashion by the end of his senior year, but the first three years of High School still lowered his GPA enough that he wasn’t even in contention for Salutatorian in the end.
 
But Thaddeus hadn’t been too worried about that. Ultimately, he’d been honored by the school for his other achievements more than enough for his tastes as it was.
 
Regardless… the point was, when they were still in school, Miss Valedictorian never even so much as glanced in his direction. Or so Thaddeus assumed anyways. Because that summer, they’d run into each other at several of the parties that his friends set up and one thing had rapidly led to another. Before he knew it, he’d found out just how wild the smartest girl in his school could get once she was able to let her hair down properly and stop worrying so much about grades and homework and what not.
 
Yes, he’d fucked her hard and she’d given almost as good as she got despite her relative inexperience. This had happened across multiple parties too, with the novelty of getting to be with the ‘one who got away’ not really fading before the summer was over. Technically, they’d promised to stay in touch, but considering she was going to school all the way over in California and he’d been New York bound, Thaddeus ultimately never expected to hear from her again.
 
The point of this little reminiscing, however… was that he thought his new RA Natalie might just be a little bit like Miss Valedictorian. Thaddeus had gotten pretty good at picking out the little things ever since he awakened his mutation, especially when it comes to women. Sure, the bespectacled red head had glared at him… but he’d also noticed how she spared a quick glance up and down his body at the same time.
 
On top of that, there’s the way she’s walking down the hall in front of him right now. A truly frigid, uninterested girl who wanted nothing to do with him would be conscious of every movement she made; Thaddeus had quickly discovered. She would be stomping right now, keeping the movement of her hips completely rigid in order to avoid any… misunderstandings.
 
But Natalie the RA is not doing that. No, she’s walking with a decided sway in her step, something Thaddeus assumes is purely subconscious… but is still very prevalent. In the end, all of his instincts are telling him that Natalie is only acting irate with him because the RA believes that’s what’s expected of her. And to be fair, if his assumption of what Emma has done is correct, then Natalie’s attitude is perfectly fair.
 
That said… as they come to a stop outside of what he assumes is going to be his new dorm room and Natalie turns to face him, he makes sure to flash her a cheery smile. In response, she scowls… but her eyes DO linger on his pearly white teeth for a moment before she seems to catch herself and finally speaks. To cover up the slight lapse, she reaches up and pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she glares him down.
 
“This is your room. You’ll be rooming alone for obvious reasons. Don’t think of this as favoritism, however.”
 
Thaddeus can’t help but grin, thinking to himself that Natalie is quite cute when she’s scowling. At the same time, it’s rather obvious by now what Emma has done. He doesn’t even need to ask Natalie for clarification. His beautiful blonde benefactor has gone ahead and stuck him in an All-Female Dorm, hasn’t she? Talk about putting the fox in the henhouse…
 
Still, he’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Emma’s intentions are clear and have never changed, not in the several months he’s now known her. She wants him to get stronger… and to get stronger, Thaddeus needs to fuck more women. And to fuck more women, it stands to reason that Thaddeus will need ACCESS to as many women as possible.
 
Well, he’ll certainly have it here, he supposes. And with a dorm room all to himself, he’ll have a much easier time of performing his… extracurricular activities as assigned by Ms. Frost. Speaking of which…
 
“Thank you, Natalie. I appreciate your help. I assume there’s a key?”
 
Her eyes narrow infinitesimally at his cheery attitude. It’s clear she doesn’t quite know how to react to him matching her surly nature with bright, wide-eyed enthusiasm. Finally, she nods sharply and reaches into her pocket, pulling out a key that she hands to him. Thaddeus makes sure to brush his fingers against hers as the key is exchanged, feeling a small bit of electricity surge between them.
 
It’s nothing special… just one of the many little tricks he’s learned over the last several months of practicing with his abilities. Women are… passionate and emotional creatures. So are men to be fair, but men are usually forced to bottle up their emotions until they explode out of them in one great big burst. Women are taught to indulge more often than that, whether it’s a good cry… or maybe something more enjoyable.
 
Needless to say, Thaddeus has become a master at providing that ‘something more enjoyable’ wherever he can. And sure, he benefits from it even more than they do, but he’s never been an inattentive lover at least. No, it’s always just as much about their pleasure as it is his own as far as he’s concerned. If the RA gives him a chance, he’ll be oh so happy to show her that too.
 
Natalie’s breath hitches just ever so slightly as their fingers touch, but the contact is over before she can truly react. Then, Thaddeus turns away from her, not giving her a chance to chew him out as he focuses on unlocking and opening his dorm room door. Inside, the place is rather empty and spartan, but the bed is already furnished which is nice, and the desk is perfectly fine for his purposes. Setting his duffle down just inside the door, Thaddeus turns back to face the RA, pleased to see that she’s still there.
 
Leaning against the doorframe, Thaddeus’ eyes twinkle as he gives her a knowing smile. Best to shoot his shot now, really. One might think he should wait a little while longer… but in the end, Thaddeus had learned through significant trial and error that a little flirtation early on never really hurt your chances in the long run, even if the girl you were chatting up wasn’t initially interested. They’d either eventually give you a try or they wouldn’t, and that was life.
 
“Hey… so I know you said no funny business earlier, but I feel like I should warn you now, I can be a little bit of a comedian. Comes with the territory of having a name as ridiculous as mine, you know? I have to be able to laugh… or else I’d probably just cry.”
 
He gives her a wink at that, applying a bit of self-deprecating humor predicated on the fact that she probably has at least his first and last name if she called him ‘Chad’ before. Whether she knows about his unfortunate second middle name or not is neither here nor there… Chad Cummings is honestly just as ridiculous as Chad Thaddeus Thundercock Cummings when you really get down to it.
 
In response to his humor, Natalie doesn’t completely shut him down at least. Instead, she raises an eyebrow and pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose again… something Thaddeus is quickly recognizing as a nervous tick. Sensing weakness, he decides to pounce. The worst she can do is say no, right?
 
“I hope that with enough time… you’ll come to like me for my stunning personality and my sterling sense of humor. To that end… I’d love to invite you in so we could talk some more. If you liked.”
 
And just like that, the invitation is on the table. There’s no denying his flirtatious tone, and he can tell immediately from Natalie’s slightly flushed face that she understands what he’s offering. However, while she does look irate with him… she doesn’t immediately shoot him down. Her eyes narrow as her arms cross over her chest, and Thaddeus can do nothing but stand there with his easy grin all but plastered to his face. Right now, the ball was in her court and he was just waiting to see what her next move would be.
 
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Right now… Natasha Romanoff, aka Agent of SHIELD, aka the Black Widow… was trying to figure out if she’d been made or not. Surely it couldn’t be this easy, right?
 
She’d been briefed on the mark before infiltration, of course. Natasha hadn’t been sure what to think, initially. Or rather, her first thought had been that this was a waste of her time and talent. Normally, Fury would have had her hunting down Weapon Dealers, or getting in nice and close with the general of some dictatorship somewhere. Not… slumming it at a college for the sole purpose of getting nice and close to some kid so wet-behind-his-ears that it wasn’t even funny.
 
It was obvious that this brat, Thaddeus as he’d named himself, was more than a little cocky. He was so sure of himself that it was child’s play to get him right where she wanted him. Show all the right little signs and he had seemingly convinced himself that she was totally into him while secretly pretending not to be. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, the truth was that Natasha was only here for the mission, and she was actually secretly pretending to be totally into him while not-so-secretly pretending not to be.
 
And yet… she honestly wasn’t sure if he was seeing right through her or not. The organization that the mark had signed on with, this… Hellfire Club. It was a relative unknown to Director Fury and SHIELD, and THAT was an issue. Oh sure, there was the public-facing stuff. The fact that it was a long-standing gentleman’s club where movers and shakers from multiple First World Powers got their moving and shaking on was well-established.
 
But for them to be able to make the X-Men AND the Brotherhood back off immediately after staking their claim in young Thaddeus WAS telling of something more than that. Which was the only reason Natasha wasn’t more put out by the banality of this assignment. Sure, she didn’t really think her mark was worth her time… but if getting in close to him allowed her to then find out exactly what was going on with the Hellfire Club, that might just be worth it in the end.
 
First though, she had to figure out how to navigate this moment. Because if this was a test, then she would be stepping right into a trap. If Thaddeus had any inclination that she wasn’t who she said she was, then she might just blow her cover by accepting his offer and joining him in his dorm room to ‘talk’.
 
… But at the same time, the character profile they’d managed to assemble for him, while it was somewhat incomplete due to the yet-understood connection between Thaddeus and the Hellfire Club, certainly painted the picture of a man-whore. Which meant that this could very well just BE how he was in general. By all rights, his offer might be entirely genuine and by taking him up on it now and joining him in his dorm room, Natasha might be able to skip a dozen steps and get nice and close to him early on.
 
The problem was, she was having a difficult time reading him. It wasn’t impossible, but it was turning out to be harder than normal. Something to do with his mutation, maybe? By all rights, everything Natasha had seen from him so far had SCREAMED how green and innocent he still was. Not in matters of sex, but definitely in matters of espionage. And yet… he was clearly superhuman. Natasha had dealt with enough enhanced individuals over her lengthy career as a spy to be able to tell when someone had jacked up senses and what not.
 
What did Thaddeus really know? And what should Natalie the RA do in this moment? Leave him hanging but perhaps with something small to let him know she wasn’t COMPLETELY disinterested? Reject him out of hand to play into the abrasive personality she’s already developed for this persona? Or pretend to ‘give in’ and ultimately let him have her so that Natasha can get closer to accomplishing her mission?
 
Well, one thing is for sure. She’s stood there making him wait for her decision long enough. Thanks to training and certain… advantages forced upon her by the Red Room, she’s managed to contemplate all of this in the span of seconds rather than minutes. But even still, the moment of silence is getting just long enough to be awkward and maybe even a little suspicious.
 
And so ‘Natalie the RA’ makes her decision and opens her mouth to tell Chad ‘Thaddeus’ Cummings precisely what she thinks of him and his offer.

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The Patreon Vote:

[  ] Leave Thaddeus hanging, but give him a little something to keep him interested in her - 27%
 
[  ] Reject him entirely, play into her abrasive personality some more and spy from afar - 6%
 
[X] Pretend to 'give in' and let him have her so she can fast track the mission objectives - 67%