>Well, like I say, she's conflicted. By this point they've tangled
>(... in various senses of the word) several times, and on the overall
>scorecard there is no clear winner. He is, if nothing else, a worthy
>adversary, and however hard she has worked not to disclose it in any
>official debriefing, she finds herself harboring a strange sort of
>affection for him. He makes her smile. He also makes her want to
>kill him. She's not sure any longer which of those is her "real"
>response, although she's open to the possibility that they both are.

For some reason this puts me in mind of a bizarre reversal of Prince Ludwig's schtick from my favorite Blackadder episode ever. (The final episode of Blackadder II).

Natasha, operating under an ID that should not have had any prior contacts with Ben Hutchins/Stark, runs into him and gets an effusive greeting which she stolidly rebuts as "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, I've never met you before."

"Oh, to the contrary, Ms. {Insert false-identity name here}. We have met many times. Do you remember Vietnam, where you encountered a debonair and handsome American inventor?"
"..."
"Yes! I was his boring journalist associate!"
"But..."
"Yes, we did!"

At this point, Natasha's target - not sure what's going on but sure he wants no part of it - makes a polite exit and Natasha, fuming, smiles sweetly and starts concocting some horrible revenge against Ben.