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Chapter Text

1.

Stark Tower, 2012

It was funny, actually being invited to something.

Usually, she would just con her way through, fake I.D. her way into  some party, and end up leaving with either money or some treasured object worth a lot of money. Get in, get the prize, and get out. That had always been her life.

Even after she'd managed to break away from the tangled web that was the organization she had once worked for. Even going solo she had still abided by the same rules: Get in, get the prize, and get out. Simple and effective - usually.

Most of the time.

Until that one time with Stark Industries. And now here she was, actually being invited to a party at the place she had broken into by the guy she had tried to rob.  Funny how life worked out.

"I'm glad you're here," Pepper said when Kass arrived, the elevator doors giving a ring and sliding open, announcing her arrival.

"Well, I chose this over sneaking my way into a gala in Budapest - I'm joking, Virginia. I do that sometimes."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Too much for my liking."

"Isn't joking good?"

"Not your kind of jokes."

"Let me guess, you sent my the invitation."

"Nope. Tony insisted."

"Did he now?"

  "Yes. And joke or not, he'll be glad that you chose being here over being somewhere else."

"We'll see."

The room was full of people, some who she recognized, and many who she didn't. 

"I heard a rumour you were going to be here tonight." A redhead approached her.

"Well if it isn't my favourite assassin. Congratulations Ms. Romanoff, you're a hero."

Natasha raised her eyebrows and sipped her drink.  "Not everyone shares your opinion."

"You saved a lot of lives."

"Well, I didn't do it alone. Come on, I'll introduce you to the team."

"I didn't think you were much of a team player."

"I wasn't."

Natasha introduced her to Steve Rogers, Captain America - "Not looking so shabby for such an old man" - and Dr. Bruce Banner - "Nice to meet you, Dr. Banner. Any chance  the other guy will be here tonight?" She also met Clint Barton, another Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nat's partner in crime - "I thought we were going to be partners in crime, Natasha. I am betrayed" - and, last but certainly not least, she met Thor, God of Thunder. Apparently he had just returned from his home realm of Asgard after delivering his brother Loki to captivity there. "Norse Mythology, huh? You ever heard Immigrant Song  by Led Zeppelin?"

"No, I haven't, what is that?" Thor looked intrigued. 

"Only a great song from the greatest band ever. Here I'll play it for you." She pulled out her phone. "Hey J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"Yes Ms. Konstantin?"

"Do me a favour and connect my phone to the Bluetooth."

"Connecting..."

"Um, the only music that will be played under this roof is AC/DC." She spun around to see the man himself standing there. "And J.A.R.V.I.S. answers only to me."

"Clearly not. And J.A.R.V.I.S. and I are friends, like best friends, isn't that right?" 

"Yes, Ms. Konstantin."

"Thanks." She smiled at Tony. "So, you going to throw a party like this every time you save the world?"

"Probably." 

"Well, you deserve it, you six."

"Yeah, did you hear how I flew a nuke through a wormhole into space-"

"Oh jeez." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Here we go again," agreed Pepper.

"Not again," chimed in J.A.R.V.I.S.

"I feel personally attacked. By my three favourite ladies and my A.I."

"Which one of us is your favourite favourite lady? Pepper I'm guessing."

"Oh I don't know," Pepper said, playing along.  "I'm CEO of his company and he only gave me twelve percent of the credit for Stark Tower."

"I believe we settled on fifteen percent," Tony said.

Kass shook her head. "Anthony Stark, you should be ashamed."

Tony looked to his CEO. "Pep, come on, I thought we were having a moment there."

"I was having twelve percent of a moment," Pepper said, making Kass and Natasha laugh.

"Good one, Ms. Potts," commented J.A.R.V.I.S.

Pepper grinned.  "Thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S. I'm glad someone appreciates the work I do around here." Eyeing Tony, she left.

"You definitely had that one coming," Natasha said.

"Yeah." Tony nodded.  "I'm gonna pay for that later."

After chatting for a while with Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Kass made her way out  onto the balcony. She was alone out there until Tony joined her.  "I'm trying to figure out the best way to sneak into the building from the outside."

"Impossible, security is impenetrable."

"Managed to get past it before," she reminded him. 

"You know, if you just want to stop in a say hello, you can always use the front door."

"But what's the fun in that?" She winked. 

"No, but seriously, I did fly a nuke through a wormhole and fell from space."

"Only you would get into such trouble. And quit boasting about it - you scared the devil out of me!" she scolded, punching his arm.   "I saw it all on the news. I thought for sure you weren't going to make it..."

"And yet here I am."

"But you might not always be..."

He looked confused at her words, and perhaps a little conflicted, just as she was. She shook her head and forced a smile.  "But no talking like that. The important thing is you're here, you're alive, and you succeeded.  So a toast to you and your team." She held up her glass.

"But mostly to me, right?"

"Sure." They touched glasses and both took a sip. 

In a last-minute decision, she kissed his cheek. "Thanks for inviting me to your lame party. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting with the King of Wakanda tomorrow."

"Liar."

She smiled, but didn't look back at him as she left.  She stepped into the elevator.   "J.A.R.V.I.S., hit play."

Robert Plant's musical screams filled the room, making for the perfect exit.

Chapter Text

Stark Expo, 2010

Get in, get the prize, and get out. 

Three simple steps. Three steps she lived by.

  Get in, get the prize, and get out. 

Kass was a thief in general, as well as a hacker, so her prizes usually involved technology, modern treasures, modern relics. Treasures of the future, not yet relics, though one day would be.  Or treasures that would fuel the future. 

Well, she had certainly come to the right place tonight if she was looking for tech treasures. 

There was so much going on at the Expo that it was easy for her to get in - all she had to do was appear like one of the crazy Stark fans. She had even worn a red dress with gold jewelry, just for an added touch. It was those little details that could change everything, for better or for worse. 

However, the last thing she wanted was to be mistaken for one of these wild fans screaming with excitement over everything the Expo had to offer. Sure, she was excited, but not that excited.  And besides, she had a mission to carry out, that was the only reason why she was here in the first place, so no time for ogling the new, latest and greatest Stark designs. 

Stark Industries was kind of the Holy Grail for a tech thief and hacker. She couldn't stand the man himself, Tony Stark, arrogant billionaire, who's ego had only seemed to have sky-rocketed after his 'I am Iron Man' reveal.   But she had to hand it to him that his designs were fantastic and his technology advanced. One could do great things with such power.  

She wasn't actually here to steal anything tonight - surprisingly. Rarely did she ever conduct or complete a mission where nothing was stolen. Well, first time for everything, right? Tonight, her prize was information.  Tonight, she wasn't just a thief, she was an observer.  Which was a large part of theft. 

The show itself was big, loud and flashy - just like Stark himself.  And the man really loved his AC/DC. She was more of a Led Zeppelin fan, herself. 

For her search for information, she needed to find a power source - and luckily for her this place was crawling with Stark tech, all stemming from the same power. She just needed to find that source.

Remarkably, the elevator was empty when she stepped on.  This didn't last for long, however, as could be expected at such a busy event.

What was unexpected, however, was who entered the elevator next. 

The elevator opened and on stepped-

Him.

The man himself.

Fantastic.

It was such a big event and she just had to run into him. 

She could think of a few people she would never in hell want to be trapped inside an elevator with, and he was definitely one of those few. But, just her luck, here he was.

 He looked her up and down, clearly checking her out. It was all she could do not to punch him right there and then and wipe the stupid, arrogant smirk right off his face, but she held back.  Knowing that she would soon rob this man - he had no idea what was coming - was satisfaction enough. 

But then he started talking.

Was she really surprised, though? It was clear the man loved to hear himself talk. She had seen many a TV interview with him and all she could think was just shut up!

"Enjoying yourself?" he asked.

"Yes, very much," she said, putting on an American accent, just to add to the fun. "It's all very exciting."

"It is, isn't it? The future, am I right?" He chuckled. "Speaking of the future, I'm actually building a building right here in New York." 

 "Really?" 'I'm building a building...' He was definitely a little tipsy, that much was obvious.  "You're building a building." She just couldn't help but tease him.

"Yeah, I'm calling it 'Stark Tower.'"

"Very appropriate."

"Right? It's genius really."

"Well, you're the genius, right?"

"Sure am! I mean, it just makes sense with work and everything to have an office building closer to where the Expo is, you know? I mean, Malibu is home and all, but..." He shrugged smiling contently. "My personal assistant isn't too thrilled about it, but then again, she never really is about my choices."

"Malibu, huh?"

"Yeah. Good place."

"Love it."

"Yeah, perfect place for a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist to hang out and play around with his tech toys."

She just gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded. 

"I keep all my best designs and stuff there, close by, too risky shipping them all over the world. Gotta have a base somewhere."

Hmm, now that actually proved very interesting... She might even have to thank him for that. 

"Oh here-" He took the expo brochure out of her hands and took a pen out of his suit pocket, scrawling his signature across the front of the glossy paper.   "A little souvenir." He handed it back to her.

"Thank you for that."

"Don't mention it."

I won't.

The elevator lurched to a stop. Kass hoped that this would be Stark's floor and that he would leave. But, lucky her, things only got worse, where she hadn't thought that possible before: 

The dancers from the show's opening earlier all stepped onto the elevator, drinks in hand, and still in their crop-tops and short-shorts with knee-high boots  in the signature red and gold Iron Man colours. 

Kass was suddenly pressed up against Stark as the ladies surrounded him.  

"Hi ladies, we meet again."

Kass  didn't even stop herself from rolling her eyes.

She didn't care if the elevator opened again not on her floor, she just pushed and shoved her way out of the now hot and crowded elevator.  

"Hey!" cried one of the dancers when she elbowed her in the ribs maybe a little too hard.

The elevator doors snapped shut behind her, carrying away Mr. Stark and his fan club. Hopefully far away.

Finally, she was free from that.  Now, back to business, time to find some info - or rework her plan.

"Hey, excuse me, Miss!" She turned to see none other than Tony Stark himself chasing after her, waving something over his head. "You dropped this in the elevator." He caught up with her and held out her brochure baring his signature.  

"Oh, um... Thank you..."

"Don't mention it."

"How much do you think this is worth?" she asked, only half-joking.

"A Stark Expo brochure signed by me myself and I? Oh, I bet people would pay one grand for that, maybe more."

"Maybe." One grand or more? That sounded pretty nice. "Well, thank you, again, and I guess I'll say goodnight."

"You're leaving already? But the party's only just started."

"I've seen all I wanted to see."

"Very well. Well, I hope you enjoyed the one, the only Stark Expo."

"Very much."

"Here, I'll walk you out to your car, or get you a cab."

"That's really not necessary."

"Sure, I want to."

She suppressed a sigh and rolled her eyes - she just couldn't get rid of him.

He led the way back to the elevator and down to the front entrance of the building.  

"Let's go out the side, I'm eager to evade security if possible. They can get rather clingy."

Me too, story of my life. 

He found a side door, leading her outside into the New York night. 

"So where's your car? Need a cab?"

"I walked, actually. And I'll be fine from here. Thank you, Mr. Stark."  She kissed him. 

Sure, it seemed sudden and out-of-place, and that was exactly the point. 

This shocked him for just long enough, providing enough of a distraction as she slipped away into the shadows and disappeared. 

Looked like her next stop was Malibu. 

(So, just to give you some notice, this story's timeline is going to jump around each chapter, but I'll mark what year it is at the beginning of each chapter so hopefully it won't get too confusing!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Stark Expo, 2013

Of course he would keep the Expo running. It was for the good of the future, wasn't it? And they sure needed it, after the Battle of New York and all.

The city had cleaned up pretty well, but scars from the battle were still present.  There they would always linger.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Pepper asked him countless times.  After New York, and, much more recently, all the business with the Mandarin, Tony had a lot of reasons to just cancel the Expo this year.  But it was an annual event and a lot of people were counting on it, and he wasn't about to let them down.

"I'll just keep things low-key this year," he assured her. "I'll just do my speech, nothing big, nothing fancy, and then leave them to it." 

"You don't have to do this, you know."

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, let me know if it all gets to be too much."

"Always looking out for me."

"Always."

The night was off to a pretty good start.  Tony gave his speech and, although a thrilling experience as always, he was glad to sneak off backstage with a glass of champagne afterwards.

He was just heading to the top floor of the venue to the special VIP gala,  when he got an alert from J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Hey J, what have you got for me? Something to make my night a little more exciting?"

"Perhaps.  Did you by chance send and invitation to Ms. Konstantin?"

"No, why?"

"Well it appears that she's here - she's currently being confronted by security on the floor below us."

"Kass is here?"

"Yes, Sir."

Tony sighed.  "When I said exciting, I didn't mean something like this. Fine, let's go see what's happening."

He stepped back onto the elevator and went down one floor, downing the rest of his champagne. Around the corner, he found them.

Kass had three security guards surrounding her. She was dressed in her usual stealth suit, kind of like Natasha's, but with more pieces and layers.  Paired with her raven hair, she could easily slip around unseen.

"Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen," Tony interjected.  "Is there a problem?"

"Tony!" Kass cried.  "See, I know him, we're on a first name basis!" she told the guards.  "Tell them!" she said, turning back to Tony.

"Sir, we caught her sneaking around. She doesn't have an entry ticket. We were just about to detain her in one of the boardrooms."

Tony was tempted to tell them he'd never seen this woman before. "That won't be necessary," he said instead.  "She's with me."

"Mr. Stark-"

"It's really no trouble.  Thank you for your services, but I'll handle things from here." He took Kass's arm and steered her away.

"I guess I owe you a 'thank you'," she admitted when they had left the guards.  "Where are we going?"

"I'm going to detain you in the boardroom myself."

"What?!" She wrenched her arm from his grasp and stopped walking.  

"You heard them, no ticket means no entry, which means you're breaking the rules." He collapsed into one of the leather chairs. "But you're good at that."

"Oh don't get smart with me-"

"In here."

"What?"

"In here-" He steered her into a large boardroom, not bothering to flick on the lights. "What are you doing here?"

"Investigating."

"Care to elaborate?"

"I think someone was trying to sabotage the show."

"Sabotage?"

"As in hack in and steal something, maybe cause some drama for the show."

"Why not just tell security?"

"Because your security doesn't like me. Happy doesn't trust me." 

"Maybe he's got a point."

"I think him and Rhodey still think I'm a gold-digger." Tony looked like he was considering this. "So you think so low of me too, now?"

"I'm beginning to wonder."

She sighed.  "How's he doing, Happy?"

"He's out of the hospital now."

"Oh, good."

"Yeah. But still, why did you have to show up?"

"Because I thought it might get personal."

"Meaning?"

"Another mercenary, someone I've crossed paths with before, done a job with. That would have been an awkward reunion."

"No more awkward than this." She rolled her eyes.  "And?"

She shrugged.  "Nothing.  I scanned the perimeter, nothing. They must have sensed I was there or something and took off."

"Huh."

"Huh?"

"Huh? Well, now what? Your job here is done, you're free to leave. You'd better get going before I hand you back to security."

"Hey, I was looking out for you."

"Oh yeah? Were you?"

"Yes-"

"Finally."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"You left!" He jumped to his feet suddenly, startling her.  "You vanished. You weren't there when I needed you."

Now she looked away. "No."

"When I needed you most."

"No..."

"You just took off."

"I know."

"And left me."

"I know.  And that's what I'm used to. I don't usually stick around. I'm a mercenary, I do a job and then I leave."

"So that's all we were then? Another one of your 'jobs'?"

"Oh don't do that. You know that's not what it was-"

"But you still left."

"I couldn't bear to see you so broken, okay. I didn't know what to do, or how to help.  You needed someone else, other than me.  You needed someone better..."

"Better?"

"I figured you'd forget me pretty fast. Everyone does. I just disappear."

He scoffed.  "Well, you're outta luck there. I can tell you, you left quite an impression."

"I'm flattered." She shook her head.  "I couldn't face it, face you in that state, and it hurt to see you so upset, and so hurt yourself.  So I left, instead of facing it. It was a cowardly move..." She sighed. "And I've had to suffer through the guilt of it all. And then I heard about the Mandarin, your house getting blown up, and you disappearing and I freaked out. I couldn't find you. But then I heard about the Expo and for once was so glad for this big flashy show cause I knew you were okay."

"Just okay, though. Better now than before."

"Good, I'm glad."

"Yeah." He sat back down.

There was a beat of silence.  "I'm sorry, Tony."  He said nothing. She sighed. "I guess I'll go then. And I won't come back again."

"Promise?"

This stung.  "Promise."

He said nothing else, and so she headed for the door.  

She had just stepped out of the room when he cried, "Wait!" She turned back around.  "D-don't go. I don't really want that."

"Neither do I."

He rubbed a hand over his face.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She sat down next to him. 

"Getting there, yeah. Just trying to figure out the best way to move forward, you know."

"And I'd like to help. I really like you, Tony.  I just don't know what to do with that. I'm not used to sticking around, let alone feeling this way for someone..."

"Stay, please."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright, I'll stay. For a while, at least. Until I get bored."

"It's impossible to get bored around me."

"This is true."

He took her hand, kissing her knuckles.  "Come on, there's something I want to show you."

"What?"

"The grand finale of the show."

"Okay..."

He led her up onto the rooftop patio of the building. "Hey J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"You know what to do."

"The Clean Slate Protocol?"

"That's the one. I want everyone to see this."

"You're certain, Sir?"

Tony hesitated. "You know what, screw it, it's New Years."

"Very well, Sir."

Tony put an arm around Kass's shoulders, pulling her close to him.  She watched as one of his suits flew into the air above the building, gasping and jumping a little when the suit burst into flames, clearly intentional, but still surprising.

Another suit shot into the air, only to be exploded too.  One by one, each suit burst apart in the night sky, like fireworks almost. 

"What do you think so far? You like it."

She turned to face them, jaw agape in utter shock. Then she promptly punched his arm.  "What the hell?! What are you doing?!"

"The Clean Slate Protocol-"

"What happened to 'I am Iron Man'?!"

"I am Iron Man!'

"Exactly!"

"Yeah, exactly! What-" She couldn't believe what he was doing.  "I don't understand-"

"We start with something pure, something exciting, then come the mistakes, the compromises. We create our own demons. I got the shrapnel out of my chest, got rid of the arc reactor-" He took her hand, lifting it to rest on his chest. Indeed, she felt no arc reactor beneath his shirt. Just the steady beat of his heart. "So, I guess if I wrap this up, tie it with a bow, whatever, my armour was never a distraction, never a hobby. It was a cocoon.  And now, I'm a changed man.  They can take away my house, all my tricks and toys, but one thing they can't take away: I am Iron Man. With or without the armour."

She stared up at him.  "W-wow. I wasn't expecting a full speech..."

"Yeah, guess that's what it's come to."

"Wow... This is big."

"Yeah."

"I'm really impressed, and proud of you."

"New beginning, clean slate. And New Year. Happy New Year, Ms. Konstantin."

"Happy New Year, Tony."

The last of the suits had burst apart, leaving the sky dark and still.

Kass leaned forward and captured his lips with her own, so utterly glad that he hadn't wanted her to leave and never come back. Tony eagerly returned her kiss.

"Tony!" Suddenly, the door burst open, and Pepper  raced onto the patio, Rhodey close behind.  "Tony - oh, excuse me..."

"What are you doing?" asked Rhodey.

"Uh, we're having a moment."

"No, with that!" Pepper gestured to the sky.

"Oh, you mean that. Well, I'm a changed man.  I don't need all that to still be Iron Man."

"Well you could have at least told us you were planning that!"

"Surprise?"

Pepper heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed her temples.  "Ugh, we'll discuss this further tomorrow. I'm too tired to deal with this tonight. Kass, keep and eye on him."

"Will do, Ms. Potts."

Pepper headed off. Rhodey continued to stare at the two.  "She invited?" he asked, pointing to Kass.

"Not technically no."

"She's my special guest of honour," said Tony.

"Alright. The VIP group are asking where you are."

"Tell them I'm busy."

"Alright. Stay out of trouble you two."

"We'll try. You never know with us two."

"Yeah, that's what I mean." With that, Rhodey left them. 

"He's right, we're a chaotic duo," Kass admitted.  "We're going to be okay though, right?" 

"No, you're in a relationship with me, nothing's going to be okay."

She laughed.  "We're going to be just fine."

(Whew, that was longer than I thought it would be! :) But I'm happy with the direction it went.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Malibu, California, 2010

She was looking for a power source. She wanted the power, and that power needed a source.

 Okay, this seemed pretty self-explanatory, and made sense, if she wanted to isolate it and use it to power multiple objects, which was the plan once she obtained it.   She needed a source, somewhere to concentrate the power.

And, thankfully for her, in his tipsy state at the Expo, Stark had blabbed to her some useful information: "I keep all my best designs and stuff there, close by, too risky shipping them all over the world. Gotta have a base somewhere."

And so Malibu it was. Thanks for the hint, Mr. Stark. 

Okay, so the A.I. had been a surprise.

This whole mission was turning out to be full of surprises - just like, as it would turn out, the man himself.

Stark's Malibu mansion was dark and quiet. Clearly, he wasn't yet back from New York. But he could be back soon, so she had to act fast.

Security at the house was extensive, as was expected, so it took her longer to get inside than it usually would. But once she was inside-

Well hot damn.

This was a tech-thief's paradise. Everything was sleek and new and modern, and all the appliances and technology were the latest and greatest. This was seriously someone's house? There was more space in here than she would know what to do with. I bet he doesn't even use half this space. 

Descending down the grand spiral staircase to the basement, she found the Holy Grail of it all:

Stark's home lab.

Hot damn indeed. 

Tools and notes baring equations and designs were spread across every inch of available counter space, and what must have been the latest Iron Man suit stood on a platform in the centre of the room.  Other versions of the Stark armour circled around the space on display in glass cases. 

She marveled at it all - she'd really hit the jackpot. 

Something on the messy desk caught her eye - it was a round arc reactor inside a glass cube.  Around the centre of the reactor read Proof Tony Stark Has a Heart.

"Cute." She reached out and took the cube. 

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you."

"AH!" The voice was so sudden she nearly dropped the thing. "Who's that? Who's there? I'm armed and I will shoot." Holding the cube in one hand, she withdrew her handgun with the other. "Where are you?"

"I am all around. I am J.A.R.V.I.S., Mr. Stark's personal A.I."

"Of course he's got one of those. And I just threatened it." 

"And may I ask who you are and what you're doing in Mr. Stark's house?"

"You're a pretty polite A.I."

"It would appear as though you are stealing."

"Well done, Mr. J.A.R.V.I.S. So I'll just take this and be on my way."

"Well, I'm afraid you've left me no choice, Ms. Konstantin."

"How do you know me?"

"Enabling Intruder Alert Protocol."

The glass cases slid away, opening up the compartments surrounding her.  With a hum and blue glow, all the suits in the room activated in unison, all turning towards her. It was honestly sort of creepy.

The hand repulsors glowed and hummed to life, pointed directly at her.  "Intruder alert. Intruder alert."

She fired at the closest suit's head, denting the helmet and cracking one of the eyes, but that was it. 

It fired a blast from one of it's hands in return. As she dove out of the way, she dropped the cube, the glass shattering. She grabbed the reactor as she fled.

The doors and walls around her were sealing themselves shut. She just managed to roll beneath the door before it sealed her inside the lab.

The doors and windows upstairs were sealing off too. She fired at one of the floor-to-ceiling windows a few times, before smashing through it with her prize. 

Well, that had been more messy than intended, but she had still gotten what she had come for. 

Hearing a whirring overhead, she saw the collection of suits fly through the ceiling skylight. They looked down on her from above. "Stand down. The authorities have been notified and are on their way."

"Exactly why I won't be sticking around-" But her path was blocked.

Another suit landed behind her, only when it spoke, it didn't use the same automated voice as the others. "Oh, I don't think you're going anywhere."

Stark himself.

The mask of the suit lifted to reveal his face.  "My house being broken into wasn't exactly the 'welcome home' I was expecting. Hello again, Kazimiera - we didn't officially meet at the Expo.  Thanks again for the notification, J.A.R.V.I.S." Then he nodded to the arc reactor in her gloved hands.  "You stole my heart."

"Okay, I'm flattered, truly, but, it was one kiss-"

"No seriously. 'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart'. You know Pepper got that for me. She's gonna be pissed when she finds out someone stole it."

"Who's that? Your girlfriend?"

"My personal assistant. Pretty much runs the company. She is also not going to be happy about all this damage, thanks to you. Oh, looks like the welcome party has arrived."

Black cars and SUVs were driving in a line down the road, about to turn onto the drive and up to the house.  Talk about a quick response. 

"Those don't look like the police," she observed.

"They're not," said Stark.  "This is something else entirely."

"Lucky me. Well, as much as I would love to continue this conversation, and find out who your guests are-" Kass turned and took off, the arc reactor heart in her hands.

"I figured as much." Tony nodded.  Then he spoke into his ear-radio.  "Agent Romanoff, she's all yours."

(Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Avengers Tower, New York, 2012

The party was over, everyone had gone home. It had all been a major success. 

"Well done, J.A.R.V.I.S. I'd say that was a success."

"Thank you, Sir. Will that be all?"

"Yeah.  I need a moment."

"Very well, Sir. Goodnight."

"Night, J.A.R.V.I.S."

Tony knew he lived a fairly lonely life - well, that had really changed in the last week, with the Avengers Initiative forming and all. Of course he had his friends and work pals, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy (and J.A.R.V.I.S., of course) - he loved and appreciated them more than he showed, he knew.  And, in their defence, he was a handful, he knew that much as well.  And now there were his other work teammates, the Avengers. But he had no family left, just the family company. He was the only remaining Stark. 

And for some reason, after this very social evening, this loneliness was hitting him hard.  And yet, as he had told J.A.R.V.I.S., he needed some time to himself.

So shedding his suit jacket and champagne bottle in hand, Tony headed out onto the balcony.  Being this high up over the city made his feet tingle with the thrill of it, and the bustling city at night was fairly calming, even if it seemed it would be the total opposite. 

Tony poured himself a glass, swirling the drink around in the glass thoughtfully as he leaned against the railing overlooking the city, all aglow. 

The movement at the side of his vision was so sudden and startled him so much he nearly dropped his glass, almost causing it to plunge about fifty floors downwards to the street below. 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she said. 

"It's okay, I've been a bit jumpy lately.  Flying a nuke through a wormhole into space will do that to you."

"I can't imagine." 

"Were you watching me?"

"Maybe."

"Checking me out from afar."

Kass smirked.  "Still the avid flirt." She came to stand beside him.  "You okay?"

"Yeah, just needed some time to myself."

"Ah, well then I'd better leave you-"

"No, no, I'm glad you're here. I've had my moment." Right now, the loneliness was rearing its head again.  "I thought the party was over and that everyone was gone, but clearly, I was wrong. When did you come back?"

"I never left."

"So you've just been lurking around this whole time?"

"I told you, I'm trying to figure out the best way to break in.  You're going to have to up your security, Stark."

"You've been out here alone?"

"No, I've had J.A.R.V.I.S. to talk to. Like I said, we're pals."

"Ah.  Well, luckily for you, there was some champagne left - I'm amazed though, I really thought Thor cleaned me out. Want me to go get another glass?"

"I'd like that very much."

Soon they stood, glasses of champagne in hand, leaning against the railing and overlooking the nighttime wonder that was New York City after dark. 

"I heard about Coulson," she said sadly, breaking the comfortable silence between them.  "I liked that guy."

"Yeah, he was good." Tony sighed. "I guess we can't save everyone, but..."

"You wish you could."

"Yeah."

"You did your best."

"Yeah, I think so. I'm not really used to all this teamwork stuff."

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," she chuckled.  

"You know, the Avengers Initiative is in full swing, and we are now recruiting..."

"Thanks for the tempting offer but I don't think so. Not now, anyways.  I'm not so good with  that teamwork stuff   either. Maybe we both need to work on that."

"Yeah."

"And Fury is still trying to recruit me for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"But with no success yet."

"Nope." She sipped her champagne. "So, what are your plans for tomorrow?"

"Not sure yet. Any business meetings I had scheduled have been postponed in the wake of the aliens attacking, I'll have to ask Pepper about that.  And the Stark Relief Foundation is still working hard to help clean up the city."

"Those aliens sure made a hell of a mess, huh."

"Sure did. I tried to call you," he said suddenly.  "When I had the nuke and was flying it up through the portal. I told J.A.R.V.I.S. to connect a call to you. I thought that was it. Where were you?"

"Madrid. I watched it all on TV. Nothing could have made me look away. Not even a phone call..." She looked up at him.  "You really did scare me with that."

"I know, I scared myself." 

Only the stars saw them both lean forward, lips meeting briefly and slightly awkwardly before both pulled away.

"Our first kiss," she remarked, slightly breathless. 

"Yeah we actually had our first kiss, remember?" Of course, when she kissed him as a distraction at the 2010 Expo.

"Yeah but this was more romantic."

"Yeah, it was." They kissed again. "It's kind of weird, actually..."

"I thought it was nice, personally," he said.

"Okay, yeah, weird-nice."

"It's okay, right? Run it by me again-" They tried again.

"I think it's weird."  The two broke apart and whirled around to see Rhodey standing there, hands jammed in his pockets and looking unimpressed.  "You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape."

"That's weirdly specific..."

"You're kinda ruining our moment, here," Tony told him. 

"Oh, I am, I'm sorry. To ruin the moment you're having with the thief who robbed you. Or did you forget about that already?"

"Forgave, didn't forget.  I think you should get lost."

Rhodey just shook his head and left them. 

"Maybe I should go-" She pulled away.

"Hey, hey, wait, I thought we were having a moment."

"Yeah but clearly your friends don't like me.  I'm not going to come between you."

"Well, I mean, to be honest, in their defence, the way we met was kind of sketchy. But that's all in the past now, no hard feelings, right?"

"Nope."

"So can we continue our moment?"

She chuckled and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into him. 

"Think you might stick around for a little while?" he asked. 

"Maybe. You might have succeeded in persuading me."

"Oh, I can be very persuasive."

She glanced upwards at him, raising her eyebrows. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, check this out-" He kissed her again.  "See?"

"Oh yes, very persuasive." She kissed him back.

"What about you, you got any exciting plans tomorrow?"

"Depends. I was supposed to meet with the Wakandan Royalty-"

"Still not believing that one."

"-But plans change."

"They sure do.  Hey J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark."

"Can we cancel all my meetings and scheduled appointments tomorrow, please and thank you."

"Yes, Sir. Although you know this will upset Ms. Potts, yes?"

"Yeah, most likely."

"What shall I tell her?"

"Tell her something came up."

"That's all?"

"Yeah, we'll spare her the rest of the details."

"You can spare me as well, Sir."

Kass couldn't help but throw back her head and laugh before kissing Tony again.

Yeah, maybe she'd be sticking around for a while this time. 

(But, unfortunately, she doesn't after Tony's PTSD starts flaring up, as we learned in chapter 3. I hope this timeline jumping isn't too confusing (I'm doing my best to follow it myself! ;)) Why do I constantly insist on making my stories so complicated?

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Malibu, California, 2010

Okay, so the security guard lady was also a surprise. 

The next thing Kass knew, she was getting knocked off her feet. The arc reactor fell from her grasp and rolled across the pavement, being promptly scooped up by one of the suits.

She shot at it, shooing the reactor right out of its hands, only for the gun to be kicked from her hands moments later, followed by her landing on her ass.

A red haired woman in a black stealth suit of her own was who had knocked her down.

"You Stark's girlfriend or something?"

The woman scoffed.  "Oh, please. We work together."

"How do you stand him?"

"Somehow." The woman cut off their conversation and wasted no time in kicking Kass in the gut  just as she was getting to her feet again - and she had a mean kick. 

Her breath was knocked from her for a moment, but she quickly recovered and lunged back at the woman. The woman was a very skilled combat fighter, her movements sharp and quick. 

Stark's mansion sat right on the edge of a cliff  overlooking the ocean, literally perched on the edge. The view was beautiful, and she could see why he had chosen this spot - the sunrises and sunsets must be spectacular. 

Soon they were fighting on that cliff's edge at the lookout - it was a significant drop down. She wasn't sure if the impact of hitting the water would kill you from this height, but she didn't want to find out. 

However, the woman had other plans. She backed Kass up along the cliff's edge and one strong kick knocked her right over the edge. 

To think of all the dangerous and crazy situations she'd been in over the years, and this was how she was going to die, how she was going to meet her end?

She got major whiplash when something broke her fall - a suit had flown in at the last moment and scooped her up before she hit the water. 

The suit flew up and tossed her back onto the ground. She was now sprawled out in front of armed agents. 

"Stand down," said the suit's automated voice.

"Yeah, yeah shut up." She raised her hands in surrender.

She was definitely not in a police station.

She was in an interrogation room in a swanky building full of people in dark, professional attire. 

The door buzzed when it opened, and a man in a suit and tie walked in.  She didn't move her legs from where they were kicked up on the desk she was handcuffed to.

"I'm Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement  Logistics Division."

Ah, the intelligence agency.  "Yeah, yeah, I've heard of you. Quite the title."

"And we've heard of you."

"Have you?"

"Yes-" Coulson opened his briefcase, withdrawing a file folder. "You, Ms. Konstantin, are in our records."

"Lucky me."

"And now you are also in our custody."

"Lucky me."

"Director Fury will see you now."

The Director? Lucky her indeed. 

Coulson left and the door buzzed a few moments later signalling someone else entering the room. 

"Well, I gotta hand it to you." A man in the long coat and eye-patch with a tablet tucked beneath his arm sat across from her.  "Not too many people could break into Stark Industries and get away with it, let alone Stark's own house. But you didn't get away with it."

 "Almost."

"But not quite. Hence why we're here." He opened and scanned her file.  "You've got quite the rep, Ms. Konstantin.  We've got a whole damn file on you, paper copy and digital. Tech seeking mercenaries, now that's something we should know about."

"Not all of us are threats."

"But I'm sure there are lots who would fall under that category.  Who's your boss?"

"Me."

"Who do you work for?"

"Myself."

"Who sent you?"

"Nobody. This was my job for myself. I'm not a merc for hire, I don't do that anymore."

"So what do you do now?"

"I'm a survivor. I've been invisible my whole life. Instead of letting it bother me, I used it to my advantage."

"And became a thief. But it still bothers you."

She shrugged.

"About a year ago, some of our cloaking tech was swiped from one of our bases in Europe - that was you, wasn't it?"

"Cloaking equals invisibility."

"And the Stark tech?"

"If I had access to this kind of tech, I could be invisible. Really slip into the shadows. Become a shadow, become a ghost. Unseen and armed with all the gadgets one can think of. I had to look to the high places to find such things, for they're not just floating around. Sometimes you'll find a few gems on the black market, but that's rare."

"And so what's it all for, all this stolen tech? You said you weren't a mercenary anymore."

"I'm not. Now I just work on my own projects."

"Like what?"

"Like finding ways to make thieving a little easier."

"Hmm.  But, say, if someone came to you offering you a job, what would you do?"

She eyed him.  "Depends what you mean by 'job'." 

"What about stealing back something that was stolen?" 

"Wait, you're telling me that you, Director of a fancy intelligence agency, is hiring a mercenary to do some dirty work?" She nearly laughed out loud. 

"We're not hiring to do our dirty work."

"But someone is."

"Yes."

"Who is then?"

Buzz! The door opened again.  "I am." 

"Tony Stark. We meet again."

"Just can't get rid of me."

"Guess not. Coming to a mercenary for help - won't this taint your precious reputation?"

"Not if we keep it quiet. And it's for a good cause. You're welcome for saving your ass, by the way. I didn't have to do that. Nat's got a really mean kick."

"My hero," she sneered back. 

Now both Stark and Director Fury sat on the other side of the desk facing her. Fury tapped the tablet, pulling up some footage. 

"That's you, isn't it?" He showed her the images and short video clips on the tablet. "Picked up by  security cameras. And oh, there you've gone and disappeared. They call you the Shadow, gone and disappeared before they could even trace you, or try to."

"All until she came to me," said Stark.

"Don't flatter yourself," she shot back.

Stark leaned back in his chair. "A gala is taking place in Rome in three day's time. There's going to be black market items up for bidding on, including some of my designs - some of my stolen designs. A while back some files were stolen with designs for new tech, stuff that could be weaponized. And there's a lot of buyers out there who are interest."

"I bet."

"We need to steal them back. Get them out of the wrong hands and back into the right ones. I would draw too much attention, but you, you're invisible."

"Thank you."

"You said it first."

"So, what d'ya say, Ms. Konstantin?" said Fury.  "Think it's doable?"

She  stared back at them.  "I'm sorry, I'm just so confused - I thought you were arresting me. But you're not, you're sending me on a mission?"

"Consider yourself lucky. We could very well detain you ourselves, or hand you over to other people who would love to detain you."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Cause if those weapons get into the wrong hands, it could get ugly. A lot of lives could be at risk," said Stark.  "I would love to swoop in and save the day, but that's our worst-case scenario, that is, if the weapons get passed on to whoever the buyer is.  Our best case scenario will be to intercept them before that happens, before they get a hold of them, and bring them back into the right hands."

"You're really sure yours are right hands?"

"Well, yeah, I designed and built them."

"Tell me, what do you think these buyers will do with your designs?"

"Keep them and use them for some not-so-good stuff, or sell them to others who will do the same."

"And what will you do with them?"

"Use them to save the world, if necessary."

She eyed him. "Why not just arrest me and be done with me?"

"Because I want - and need - some help here. Look, I've seen first-hand what those designs can do when they fall into the wrong hands. They're used for things they were never meant to be used for, and I'd like to prevent that. They're meant to help stop threats, not to be the threats themselves."

His cockiness had fallen away when he said this, and he looked - desperate? Maybe not quite, but he definitely wanted to stop this before it was too late, and he was nervous that they were rapidly nearing 'too late'. It was clearly important to him. Kass was just glad - and surprised - that they weren't arresting her, as they had more than enough reason to do so.

"If I do this, do I get to keep the  arc reactor?"

"You mean my heart one? No."

Not a big problem - she'd find a way to get it back. "So in return?"

"We don't arrest you. I'd say that's 'in return' enough."

 She leaned back in her chair and eyed them both.  "Yes, I think it's doable."

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Next chapter takes place during Age of Ultron! :))

Chapter Text

Avengers Tower, New York, 2015

"Sir, there's been a security breach..." J.A.R.V.I.S. alerted as the quinjet landed at the Tower. 

"What do you mean? By who?" cried Tony. J.A.R.V.I.S. didn't seem very concerned. 

The doors slid open. "Who do you think?" Kass grinned. Led Zeppelin could be heard blaring in the background. "This is your welcome party."

"Some party." They kissed. "Speaking of parties - you coming to the party on Saturday?"

"Yeah, why'd you think I was here? To see you all?"

"Apparently not."

"Lab's all set up, Boss," Maria alerted him.

"Oh, actually he's the boss," Tony said, pointing to Cap.  "I just pay for everything, and design everything, and make everyone look cooler."

"How were things in good old Sokovia?" Kass asked of her homeland. 

"Not so good.  Illegal experimentation, violent protesters - they certainly weren't happy to see us."

"Foreign intervention was never very welcome to Sokovians."

"I found a secret door, though."

"Oh, very nice."

"And Bruce and I get to play around with this alien scepter thing."

"Oooo, can I play along?"

"Sure thing."

She gave a fist-pump.  "Yes!"

 "And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday," he said, addressing Dr. Cho. 

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties," the Doctor said.  Then she added,  "Will Thor be there?"

"That was the deciding factor for me too," joked Kass.

"Who is  that?"

"I have no idea."

"I think she's dating Mr. Stark."

"How did that happen?"

Guests were muttering as Kass stepped off the elevator. 

"You're turning heads tonight, Ms. Konstantin," Tony said, sweeping in and offering his arm to her when she arrived at the party.

"You might say I stole the show." She winked. 

"I must say, you look positively killer in that dress."

"Why thank you. The new clothes were definitely a surprise, and not necessary."

"I wanted to do something nice for my girlfriend while she's staying here."

"Well, you have outdone yourself again, Mr. Stark. And I thought nothing could outdo the party you threw after New York."

"Well I'm just full of surprises."

"Yes, you are."

They wandered around, mingling with the other guests.  This party was even more well-attended than the one after the Battle of New York - the Avengers' support and fan base had only increased since then. Unfortunately, so had their enemies. 

"So the suit can take the weight, right. So I take the tank, fly it right up to the General's palace, drop it at his feet, and I'm like, 'Boom, you looking for this?'" Tony, Kass, Maria, and Thor all just stared back at Rhodey. "'Boom, you looking for-' Why do I even talk to you guys?"

"Oh, that's the whole story?" asked Thor.

"Yes. Everyone else that story kills."

"Oh, then it's very good. Very impressive."

Kass added some late laughter. 

"So where's Jane?" Maria asked Thor. "Where are the rest of the ladies, come on gentlemen."

"I'm not even sure what country Jane's in at the moment," said Thor, almost dreamily.  

"Well this lady right here was just in Moscow  - Moscow, right, Babe?" said Tony.

"That's right."

"Her work on the Convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer," Thor continued to boast. 

"Well Kass here has been on official Stark Intelligence business."

"You know I've heard talk that Jane could receive a Nobel Peace Prize."

"Well there's talk of Kass being promoted to Head of the Stark Relief Foundation."

"Okay, now it's getting weird,"  said Kass. "I'm right here."

"Testosterone!" Maria faked a cough. "Oh, excuse me!"

"Excuse us, boys." Kass led her away.

"But Jane is better," mumbled Thor. 

"I heard that!" she called back.  

"Were you chatting up Dr. Banner?" she asked Natasha when she and Maria strode up to the bar. 

Natasha only smirked. "Speaking of..."

"Uh oh..."

"I've seen Tony swoon more than once this evening."

"He's not the only one who can work charms."

"Clearly not."

Once the other guests had left, the Avengers were still up to party.

"So how did you two meet?" asked Helen.

"I'm glad you asked - buckle up for a story." 

"Oh boy."

"Here we go."

"You know, I actually haven't heard this from you," said Maria. 

"This thief ending up stealing not only my tech, but also my heart," Tony said.

There were 'awws!' and laughs. Kass rolled her eyes.

Next they turned to discussing how Thor's hammer worked. 

"I'll take a stab at it." Kass got to her feet.  "So wait, if I lift this, I rule Asgard?"

"Yes, of course. If you are worthy."

"You really think she's worthy?" said Rhodey.

"Come on, Rhodey," sighed Tony.

"Stand down, Colonel Rhodes. Just wait until I prove you wrong - in this dress and heeled boots no less. So, Thor, what kind of treasures do you have up there?"

"Oh my father's vault is full of ancient treasures. The Eternal Flame, the Casket of Ancient Winters..."

"Damn. Okay let's do this." Kass took hold of the hammer's handle.  "Prepare to bow before the next Queen of Asgard-" She gave a good pull. Nothing happened. It was like the hammer was sealed to the surface of the table. "Has no one  checked to see if there's something going on? Maybe we're all being tricked." She crouched down, sticking her head beneath the table and tapping beneath where the hammer was sitting.  When she decided there was nothing there, she stood and attempted to lift it again.

She was pulling so hard that when she slipped, she fell over. "I'm good!"

"Come on, it's just physics," said Tony.

"Oh, you think you're so smart? Then you come and lift it." 

Tony stood, undoing the button on his suit jacket while he strode over to the hammer. 

"Okay."

"Uh oh."

"Um hmm."

"Here we go."

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge."

"Ladies and gentlemen we have a genius here amongst us." Kass rolled her eyes. "How's your physics working out?" she said when Tony struggled to lift it as well. 

"It's rigged," decided Tony once everyone had tried with no success.

"You bet your ass," agreed Clint.

"Steve, he said a bad language word," said Maria.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" sighed Steve.

"I have a simpler explanation." Thor scooped up the hammer with ease. "You're all not worthy."

Suddenly, a shrill ringing carried across the room. 

"No - how could you be worthy?" A low, automated-sounding voice filled the dim room, followed by clunky footsteps.  Everyone turned to see one of Tony's damaged suits walking freely on it's own and speaking to them. "You're all killers."

"Stark?" said Cap.

"Kass, please tell me this is some prank you're pulling," said Tony.

"Not this time... Yikes, that's creepy..."

"J.A.R.V.I.S.? Hey J?" Tony tried, but there was no answer from the A.I.

"Sorry, I was asleep," said the voice. "Or it was a dream..."

"Reboot Legionnaire, we've got a buggy suit."

"There was this terrible noise," continued the suit.  "And I was tangled in strings... Had to kill the other guy... He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" demanded Cap.

"Wouldn't have been my first call.  But here in the real world we're faced with ugly choices. 

"Who sent you?" demanded Thor.

"I see a suit of armour around the world..." Came Tony's voice, replaying from the suit. 

"Oh shit," mumbled Kass.

"Ultron," cried Bruce.

"In the flesh - not yet..." The voice, Ultron, continued to ramble, while the group quietly armed and readied themselves for a confrontation. 

"I have a mission."

"What mission?" asked Natasha.

"Peace in our time." With that, a few other  suits smashed through from the lab in an attack.

Acting fast, Cap kicked up the table as a shield. Everyone dove for cover. Maria dropped behind the couch and began firing at the suits. Thor was beating them back with his hammer.

"Who stole my gun from under the bar?" called Natasha.

As though in response, Kass jumped out from beneath the pool table and started firing said gun. After firing a few shots, she set the gun on the floor and kicked it back to Natasha. 

Tony had jumped off the staircase, grabbing onto one of the hovering suits and trying to cut its power. 

Kass retrieved Cap's shield, using it for defense before tossing it to the man himself. "Cap!" He caught it mid-air, tossing it and slicing a suit clean in half. 

"That was dramatic," remarked Ultron. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve? There's only one path to peace: the Avengers' extinction."

Having heard enough, Thor launched his hammer forward, taking out the final Ultron suit. The blue glow from the eyes and mouth flickered and then slowly faded altogether. 

Most everyone had changed out of their party attire - Kass was now wearing one of Tony's old MIT hoodies, hood up and everything.

"All our work is gone," cried Bruce.  "Ultron cleared out and used the internet as an escape route."

"He's been in everything," updated Natasha.  "Files, surveillance - probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

"He's in files, in the internet - what if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" said Rhodey.

"Nuclear codes," added Maria. 

"He said he wanted us dead."

"Not dead, he said extinct," said Cap.

"He also said he killed somebody," reminded Clint.

"There wasn't anyone else in the building."

"Yes there was." Tony pulled up an image.

"Is that?" asked Kass.

"Yeah. J.A.R.V.I.S. was the first line of defense."

"This wasn't strategy, this was rage," said Bruce. 

At that moment, Thor stormed into the room, grabbing Tony by the neck.

"It seems to be going around."

"Hey, put him down!" cried Kass.  Thor was so strong he lifted Tony right off the ground. 

"Use your words, buddy,"Tony croaked. 

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."

"Thor! The Legionnaire?" intervened Cap.

"Trail went cold, but they have the sceptre. So now we have to retrieve it - again."

"I don't understand," said Helen.  "You built this program - why's it trying to kill us?"

Tony surprised everyone by starting to laugh.  Bruce and Kass shook their heads at him. 

"Uh uh."

"Bad time."

"You think this is funny?" scoffed Thor.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I do. I think it's a hoot that you don't see why we need this."

"Tony, now may not be the time..." cautioned Bruce.

"Really?" Tony whirled around to face him.  

"We created a murder bot!"

"But we didn't!"

"If we did or not, it still tried to kill us," reminded Kass.

"The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D.," Cap stated. 

"Anyone remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"

"Nope, never come up," Rhodey told him.

"Saved New York."

"Nope, never heard that."

"A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space and we're standing three-hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers - we can bust arms dealers all the livelong day but that up there-" He pointed above them.  "-That's the endgame.  How do you plan on beating that?"

"Together," stated Cap, as though it were obvious. 

"We'll lose."

Cap was firm. "Then we'll do that together too." Tony said nothing more.  "Ultron's calling us out - I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place, so let's start making it smaller."

The  group slowly dispersed.

"You okay?" Kass asked, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder.  He appeared deep in thought.

"No, not really. Not exactly what I was expecting."

"It's not your-"

"-My fault? Kinda is."

"It was a good idea - potentially dangerous, but with good intentions behind it. We'll fix this."

"I'm glad you're here," he said suddenly.

She gave him a smile.  "Me too."

(I'm having so much fun going back and watching previous MCU movies! :) They're so good!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Europe, 2010

"So what's your story?" Fury asked. They were currently on one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s jets heading for Rome. Kass was all suited up and was in the process of readying her various gadgets.

"Shouldn't you have interviewed me about this before you hired me?" 

He shrugged. "I'm curious."

She shrugged back.  "Not much to tell, really. I was born in Sokovia, in the Old City."

"Your parents?" asked Stark, suddenly interested.

"They died."

"So did mine. You got siblings?"

"No."

"Got a boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

"Neither. Just me." 

"How long have you been a thief?" asked Fury.

"Pretty much since my parents died.  I was twelve then. Been on the street since. Well, I've rented apartments here and there, but I don't spend much time there."

"Rented from the profits off of stolen goods I imagine," said Stark. 

She clipped the last of the gadgets to her utility belt. "Not all of us can be billionaires."

The gala turned out to be a total shit show.

Fury had advised a more behind-the-scenes approach, meaning don't infiltrate from within (a.k.a don't pose as a guest). Sneak in, cut the power, steal the weaponized designs. 

Get in. Get the prize. Get out.

She was good with that.  That was usually how she operated on her missions. Stark, however, as one may have guessed, preferred to make more of a scene, swoop in with one of his fancy suits and save the day.

Get in. Get the prize. Get out.

This time, however, it turned out to not be that simple, even though it should have been.

That was all because of someone who's name began with a T and ended in a K. 'Tony Snark' she was starting to refer to him as. 

All this had led to a shootout and messy flee from security, and, ultimately, on top of that, no retrieved weapons. 

"What the hell was that?!" cried Stark when she arrived back on the jet. 

"Don't, 'what the hell was that?!' me! You wouldn't shut up and stop telling me what to do!" she shot back. "This annoying voice in my ear the whole time. I couldn't concentrate!"

"I'm used to doing all the hands-on stuff. I'm not used to being off to the side on missions."

"Clearly."

"I needed to know what was going on!"

"Well sorry-not-sorry that you weren't the centre of attention for once."

"Well enjoy it while it lasts."

"You wanted my help-"

"I needed your skills."

"Well there's lots of people out there with my skills, and lucky for you, I'm the one you got so you're stuck with me!"

"Yeah, lucky me."

"Well let me tell you, being stuck with you is no better!"

"Hey, hey, stand down, both of you." Fury stepped between them. "If this is going to work you both need to let go of your egos and learn to work together. And stop arguing like a married couple."

"She started it!"

"Me?! He  started it!"

Fury sighed.  "Well Stark, I gotta tell you, I take Konstantin's side on this one. She's the thief."

"Nick, I feel betrayed."

"Thank you. Listen to the Director," Kass sneered.

"You're not off the hook, either. Like I said, you both  need to work together. Somehow, someway."

She turned to Stark, sighing heavily. "Look, they're your designs, so I  get that you want to be involved.  But you wanted my help, so you're going to have to hand over some of the control, and let me do my thing," she told him.  "I get it, I like to be in full control of situations too. Hence why I don't usually do teamwork."

"Ditto."

"So do we have a deal?"

"Fine, sure."

"Shake on it," Fury told them.

"Seriously?"

"You're kidding me."

"Do you want me to add, 'that's an order'?"

Both sighed and turned to face each other. Stark extended his hand first. She begrudgingly shook it. It was a quick shake before both dropped the others' hand. 

"Happy?" Stark asked Fury.

The Director nodded. "For now."

"So now what?" Kass asked.

"Now, we have to track down my tech, again."

They were able to track the designs to the Austrian countryside. Thankfully, Stark was diligent in putting tracking chips in all his designs.   

Kass was loading her handgun while he was tapping away on his laptop.  Suddenly, he groaned and stretched. 

"You good?" Kass asked to his look of discomfort. 

"Yeah, just tightness in my chest, that's all. It comes and goes. This helps, but sometimes it's still a bit painful." He tapped the arc reactor in his chest. 

"So the one I stole, what's it  for? Is it only for powering your suits?"

"Same as this." He tapped the one in his chest again.

"And that is?"

"Powering all my tech."

"Okay, yeah. And?"

"And it keeps the shrapnel away from my heart, which would kill me."

"I see. So you do have a heart."

"There's a rumour about that, yeah. Pepper started it." 

"Your personal assistant?"

"Yeah. I'd be totally lost without her." He turned the laptop screen to face her, and she saw that it wasn't displaying his designs' trackers. "I've done some digging, and you have a private bank account, but it's much lower than your second  account."

She narrowed her eyes. "So? "get your nosy nose out of my stuff."

He chuckled. "My 'nosy nose'?"

"Yes!"

"So, what I'm wondering, is why not settle down somewhere. You have the money - obtained rather sketchily, I will add - but I'm curious. Why continue to live on the streets?"

"Because there are others who need that money more than I do."

"Who?"

"Lots of people."

"Yeah but you must have someone specific in mind."

"Are you really that interested?"

"I'm curious, yeah."

"Fine then.  I was an orphan until I  was five. Lived in a sad orphanage. Until my parents adopted me. But, when they died, I was back to being an orphan, but I wasn't going back there. I'm trying to set up a child relief foundation in Sokovia. There's so many street kids and kids without families there. I want them to have access to what I needed but didn't have at the time. I know just as well as them what it's like."

"Well there it is, then." She couldn't really read his expression. 

"Yeah. Just because I'm a thief doesn't mean I'm selfish."

"Never said it did."

"It was sort of implied."

He flipped the laptop back to face himself, typing away again.  "I know what it's like to be an orphan, too."

"That's true, and yet we have very different stories, Mr. Stark."

(Back to 'Age of Ultron' in the next chapter - yay!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

2015

With Ultron having erased all the online files and data, the Avengers turned to the more old-fashioned method of research - paper files.

"Strucker had a lot of friends," remarked Cap. "If that's what you want to call them."

"Well, these people are all horrible," added Bruce.

"Yeah, they are," agreed Kass.

"You know them?"

"Crossed paths with some of them, yeah. Oh shit-" Kass held up a file. It was on her. There it was, all on paper.

Kazimiera Konstantin

Birthplace: Old City, Sokovia.

Languages: Russian, English, German, Italian

Threat Level: Medium to High

"Got my own paper copy. I suppose I should be flattered. Jesus..." She tossed the file aside. Tony gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Hey, wait, I know that guy." Kass stopped Bruce from setting aside another file.

"You do?"

"Yeah, from back in the day. Ulysses Klaue - He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Everyone stared at her. "Like Bruce said, these people aren't great..."

"What's this?" asked Thor, pointing to a mark on Klaue's neck in the photograph.

"A tattoo, it looks like. He didn't have it before."

"No, these are tattoos. This looks like a brand."

"Yup, it's word in an African dialect meaning 'thief' in a much less friendly way." Bruce did a quick internet search.

"What dialect?"

"Wakandan."

"Well then we know what he was after," said Cap.

"I don't follow,  what comes out of Wakanda?" asked Bruce.

Cap nodded to his shield.  "The strongest metal in the world." He turned to Kass,  "Do you know where this guy is now?"

"No, but I could probably find out."

The tracking down of Klaue led them all the way to the South African coast. However, Ultron and the twins had beat them there.

Tony, Thor, and Cap went for a full confrontation of Ultron and the twins. Natasha, Clint, and Kass all entered the ship from different points, ready to intervene if necessary - probably necessary. Bruce was waiting on the jet. Hopefully this confrontation didn't require the Hulk. But it just might.

Kass had tried talking down the twins in their native language, but that hadn't worked. It seemed that Ultron was doing most of the talking. 

Kass could hear Klaue's yelling echoing throughout the ship - his voice sent chills down her spine.

While the others fought, she used the cover of the chaos to confront him.  She found him at the base of a staircase, leaning against the wall.

Klaue chuckled. "Well, if it isn't my favourite little mercenary. A superhero now?" He laughed.

"You've definitely been better." She nodded to his loss of arm.

"It'll take more than this to stop me." He moved to stand.

She fired a warning shot - it struck the wall right beside his head. Just a few inches over and he would have a bullet in his brain.

The confrontation turned out to be a huge mess and the team took a really hard hit. The Maximoff girl had worked her 'magic' on them, leaving them beat up both physically and mentally.

"The internet is loving you guys - not many others are," updated Maria over a video call.  "It would be wise to keep a low profile for now."

"So run a hide," sighed Tony.

"Until we can get a sense of where Ultron is, I don't really have any other options, I'm afraid."

"Will do," said Clint who was flying the jet. He had managed to evade the Maximoff girl's mind control. 

"Where are we headed?" Tony asked him. 

"Safe house."

"Honey, I'm home."

Clint's safe house was a farmhouse, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

A pregnant woman stepped into the room, embracing Clint.

"This is an agent of some kind," decided Tony.

"Everyone, this is Laura," Clint introduced.  "My wife."

Laura smiled. "I know all your names."

"Agent Laura..." Tony waved.

Footsteps signaled more people arriving.  "Incoming-" Two kids ran into Clint's arms.

"Dad!"

"And those are smaller agents... Nice to meet you, we would have called ahead, but we were too busy having no idea you existed," Tony told them.

"Yeah, Fury helped me set this up when I joined," Clint explained. "Kept it off of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files and I'd like to keep it that way. Figured it's a good place for us to lay low for a little while."

"Make yourselves at home," said Laura. As the group dispersed, she turned to Clint. "If they're all going to be staying here, they'll have to double up - we don't have enough rooms."

"Oh, besides Tony and Kass, that's not going to go over well."

"What about Nat and Dr. Banner?"

"Huh?"

Kass found herself wandering around the house - everyone needed some time to themselves.

She was in the kitchen, admiring children's drawings on the fridge, when Laura came into the room, startling her. "Oh, sorry."

"No, that's alright. You have a beautiful home."

Laura smiled. "Thank you. I'm afraid I don't know your name, but I know the rest of the team's."

"Kass, and I'm not really one of the team.  I'm just along for the ride. Clint's a cool guy, by the way. It's nice to see an Avenger has a 'normal' side to their life."

"Yeah, he's great." Laura smiled warmly. "Mr. Stark seems like a cool guy too," she then added knowingly.

"Yeah, he is."

A little while later, Kass was out in the front yard with Tony and Cap chopping wood.

"You seemed to walk away okay," Tony remarked to Cap.

"Tony," hissed Kass.

"What?"

"Just cause he's not showing it doesn't mean he's not upset."

"Thank you. And that a problem?" asked Cap.

"I don't trust a man without a dark side."

"Well maybe you just haven't seen it yet."

"I'm pretty sure he's threatening you now, well done," said Kass. 

The two continued to argue.

"You know Ultron's trying to tear us apart, right?"

"I guess you'd know. But whether or not you tell us is a  bit of a question."

"We were doing research-"

"That would affect the team."

"That would end the team!"

"Every time someone tries to end a war before it starts innocent people die, every time."

 "Isn't that the 'why' we fight, so we can end the fight and go home!"

Cap's muscles rippled as he pulled a tree stump clean in half. Kass stared.

Laura walked up then. "Mr. Stark, sorry, our tractor doesn't seem to want to start. Clint said you might be able to help."

"Yup. Don't take from my pile."

When he returned, his pile was significantly smaller. Cap was gone, so he looked at Kass who only grinned innocently.

That night, Kass was watching TV in the Bartons' living room. Tony came to join her.

"Couldn't sleep?"

"No." Tony had been sleeping a lot better since all the business with the Mandarin and getting rid of the shrapnel in his chest. But now, Ultron and the Maximoffs had stirred up something in him again.  "What are you doing?"

"Watching American TV. It's funny.  Come join me." He came and sat next to her on the couch, she stretching her legs out into his lap.   "Here, eat-" She shoved the half-eaten bowl of popcorn into his hands.  "Makes me feel better." He appeared distant.  "There's something you're not saying. Tell me, please. I think you need to get it off your chest."

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.  "I haven't even told the team..."

"Well, luckily, I'm not technically one of the team."

He chuckled.  "Yet." Then he sighed again. "I'm the man who killed the Avengers. How could I tell the others? I saw them all dead, Kass, I felt it. Whole world too. Cause of me. " He sighed.  "Wasn't ready - didn't do all I could. And I wasn't just tricked, I was shown. It wasn't just a nightmare, it was my legacy. It was the end of the path I started us on.  I started it, I finished it. Darkly poetic, almost." He scoffed. "Watching all my friends die, you think that'd be as bad as it gets, but no. That wasn't even the worst part."

"The worst part was that you didn't," she finished.

"Yeah..."

"Just cause that's how it is now, doesn't mean it will turn out that way."

"Seemed pretty legit." He shook his head. "You okay?"

"Eh..." She shrugged. "I didn't even need the witch in my head. Being there on that ship, seeing Klaue again, those kids being Sokovians - it was all a little too close for comfort. It also made me wonder - are you embarrassed by me?"

"You do make fun of me, like, all the time."

She chuckled, then turned serious.  "I mean my past, who I am. I mean, it doesn't help with all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files on me now out in the open after Natasha exposed them. And you've been doing a good job covering them up but Tony Stark dating a ex-con is not going to make good press."

"I don't care about that. You're a good person who's gotten mixed up in some bad stuff in the past. Happens."

"Not only that - years ago, a rumour reached me that Klaue and I were possibly - related..."

"How so?"

"As in he could be my biological father. I did lots of jobs, many of which led back to him. It was like fate almost - if you believe in that."

"Do you think he knows?"

"I don't know. I don't want to be related to him."

"Who your parents are doesn't define who you are. And the past doesn't define you."

"Maybe. But it sure can creep up on you." 

"Yeah, it sure can." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.

They sat that way in silence for a little while - until the light flicked on in the kitchen, starling them.

It was Clint. "Hungry, midnight snack."

(Haha Kass loves checking out the other Avengers in front of Tony! ;) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Austria, 2010

"You know what to do," Fury told her.

"Yup. What I'm good at doing: sneaking in."

Stark was excited as, this time, he got to do his thing and suit up as Iron Man.  But he was going in after her. And only if needed.  She wasn't sorry to be stealing his spotlight. In fact, she was thoroughly enjoying it. 

They had the warehouse surrounded. Supposedly, it was filled with the stolen designs and weapons. 

It felt kind of cool leading a whole team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents onto the scene. Maybe I could get used to this.

Get in. Get the prize. Get out.

Let's do this.

They broke down the door, and were met with no resistance, but kept their weapons at the ready just in case. You never know.

 The warehouse appeared quiet and empty - empty of people that is.

It was full of crates, large and small, all with different numbers and codes printed on them.

"Got my eyes on the prize, Stark," she informed him. 

He gave a sigh of relief over the radio.  "You'd better open those crates up, just to make sure. But be careful - we can't be exactly sure what modifications have been made to them.  All we know is that they're dangerous."

"Copy that." She nodded to one of the agents to stepped in and pried one of the crates open.

"Uh, we may have an issue," Kass updated after they opened a few more of the crates up.  "These crates are empty."

"Get out of there," Fury suddenly ordered.

"Why?"

"It's a trap-"

He'd barely finished speaking when the whole warehouse shook when a sudden explosion from the far end of the building went off. The empty crates burst and splintered, sending sharp pieces of wood shooting everywhere.

Moments later, a second explosion erupted from the opposite corner. Standing in the centre of the warehouse, Kass and the agents were trapped in the middle of it. 

Kass couldn't hear Fury in her ear anymore over the sound of the destruction, but she was pretty sure that if she could hear him, he would be saying something like, 'get out of there - now!"

She was trying, but there was so much dust and debris and chaos she could hardly see.

She didn't even see the giant piece of broken ceiling until it was falling, about to crush her-

But it didn't.

She braced herself for the impact, but nothing happened. 

She was confused until she saw a blue glow through the cloud of dust.

Blue glowing eyes and arc reactor.

Looked like Stark was getting his hero moment after all. 

"I'll be honest, that's sort of creepy up close..." She wasn't sure if he could hear her. 

Stark zapped the piece of ceiling concrete so that it crumbled into a bunch of tiny pieces to the floor. Then he grabbed hold of her and another agent, carrying them out of the rapidly crumbling building through a hole he had blasted in the ceiling and out into the field surrounding the warehouse - or what was soon to once have been a warehouse.  He flew back to the wreckage, returning with only a few more agents. That wasn't a good sign. 

They all watched as the building collapsed, crumbling in on itself, burying what had been inside. 

"Thanks," she cried, fairly shaken up, eyes not leaving the scene.

He continued to stare as well.  "Yeah."

Turned out, the explosives had already been set before S.H.I.E.L.D. had arrived, so the enemy didn't even have to be there when they were set off.  Bottom line was, someone  knew S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to be there, and had left a surprise for them upon arrival.

"This has gotten too out of hand. We need to hand it over to the professionals."

Fury was furious, no pun intended. Kass would have made a joke about it, but felt that this wasn't the right time.

"I am very professional!" she said instead. 

"I mean professional agents, Ms. Konstantin. Not self-proclaimed professional thieves. I have personnel dead.  Now you two are going to stay out of this from now on and leave it to us to finish."

"Come on, Nick-" began Stark.

"That's an order. No arguing, Stark.  You will step back and stand down from now on." With that, Fury stormed away. 

Stark cursed under his breath. 

"Fury's furious," Kass finally said. 

Stark chuckled.  "I was just about to say that."

She was about to say 'great minds think alike', but guessed that he would just use it as an opportunity to boast about his own genius, so she decided against it. Now wasn't the time. 

"This isn't fair," she said instead. 

"Nope, but I don't think they much care."

"That's your tech that was stolen - if anyone should retrieve it, it should be you."

"Hear hear."

"I bet those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents don't even know half of what your tech does."

"Probably not. But boss's orders. Trust me, you don't want to cross Nick Fury."

"Well, good thing then that I don't like to play by the rules."

Now they were looking at each other, sharing a glance.  "Me neither."

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :))

Chapter Text

2015

"Shit," Kass cursed when Tony's dart struck closer to the target than hers. 

"Remember Babe, watch the language."

"Right, sorry."  They shared a chuckle while Cap acted like he hadn't heard their joking.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury explained while the group gathered in the Bartons' kitchen to discuss what their next move should be.  "My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with suggests it's not just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" asked Cap.

"Oh, he's easy to track, he's everywhere. The guy's multiplying faster than a rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though." 

"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, throwing a dart. 

"Yes he is. Though he's not making any headway so far."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."

"Okay, we get it," said Kass. "You're kind of a big deal."

"Kind of."

"I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."

"The Nexus, the world internet hub in Oslo. Makes sense, every byte of data flows through there," said Bruce. "Fastest access on earth."

"So what did they say?" asked Clint.  "Your 'friends' at the Nexus?"

"That he's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony jumped as a dart shot past him, hitting the direct centre of the target - Clint.

"Parties unknown."

"So does that mean we have an ally?" asked Kass.

"Ultron has an enemy, that's not the same thing. But I'd like to know who it is," said Fury.  

"I might need to go to Oslo," Tony announced. 

"Well, this is good times Boss," Nat sighed. "But when I saw you I was hoping you'd have more than that."

"I do, I have you." Fury gestured to them.  "Back in the day I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of."

"The good old days," chuckled Kass.

"Good old days indeed. Now, here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says that his mission is to end the Avengers, and whether or not he admits it that mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave.  So stand and fight. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Careful, Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," joked Nat.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve said back. 

"Tony, Bruce, you built Ultron. Any idea what his weaknesses are?" Kass asked.

"Yeah, us. A united us," Tony said. "Together," he added, nodding to Cap who just scoffed, tired of all the jokes aimed at him. 

"So if you're his weakness, then what does he want?" asked Fury, sitting down at the dining room table with the sandwich he had prepared for himself.

"To become better, better than us," said Cap.  "He keeps building bodies."

"Well, when you two built him to protect the human race you amazingly failed," Nat told Tony and Bruce.

"I have to agree," Kass said, retrieving the darts from the board.

"They don't need protecting, they need to evolve," said Bruce in sudden realization. "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?"

"Has anyone been in contact with Dr. Helen Cho?"

And so it was decided - they needed to find Helen, certain that Ultron would be paying her a visit. 

"I'll take Natasha and Clint," Cap, all suited up, announced.

"All right. Strictly recon.  I'll hit the Nexus," Tony replied.  He turned to his girlfriend.  "Where're you going?"

"I'll go with them.  If Ultron's building a body, we're going to need to steal it."    

"Okay, I'll join you as soon as I can."  

"If Ultron's really building a body," began Cap.

"Then he'll be more powerful than any of us," finished Tony.  "Maybe even all of us. An android designed by a robot."

Cap sighed.  "You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science created was me."

"I'll drop Banner off at the Tower," Fury announced.

"What will you do?" Cap asked him.

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope." 

Kass chuckled. "Gotta love him."

"Stay safe," Tony told her. "Look after her, Cap."

"Of course."

"And watch out for the old man," he told her.

"Will do." They kissed and parted ways. 

"Where's Kass?" Tony asked as the rest of the team returned to the Tower following the chase and confrontation with Ultron in Korea. 

Clint and Nat exchanged a glance. "We're sorry, Tony."

"What?"

"We managed to get the cradle, but Ultron took Kass."

Tony's jaw clenched.  "He's trying to draw us out -  trying to draw me out."

"She's not dead," said Clint. "Or Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it."

"She might not be dead - yet. But Ultron won't keep it that way forever."

As Kass stirred awake, the first thing she registered was the cold, dark dampness - she was underground somewhere. She wasn't aware yet that she was home in Sokovia. 

"I wasn't sure you'd wake up." Ultron's voice broke through the dark. Kass could just make out his glowing red eyes and tall metallic figure amongst the shadows.   He appeared to be working on something, but she couldn't quite make out what exactly. "I hoped you would, I wanted to show you... I don't have anyone else. But soon the whole world will see."

"Before you kill everyone."

"The Avengers made the first move, I'm merely responding.  You know, I've been thinking a lot about meteors, the purity in them. Boom, the end! Start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild. I was meant to be new, I was meant to be beautiful.  People would have looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. But instead they'll look up in horror because of them, the Avengers. They wounded me, and I give them full marks for that. But, as they say, 'what doesn't kill me, just makes me stronger.' But don't worry, Kazimiera, you'll be safe, I promise. I will protect you."

"Excuse me?"

"You're safe with me." Ultron's voice was low, and, she would almost say, kind. 

What the hell?

"You're protecting me?"

"Yes."

"From what? The Avengers?"

"Yes."

"Why? Why me?"

"Because, I'm compelled to.  You're special, unique. And because Stark likes you."

"So I'm your bait? That won't work."

"Oh I think it will."

"I really don't-"

"You're wrong."

"Prove it."

"Oh I don't need to. Stark will do that for me. I brought you home, Kazimiera. Welcome home."

Ultron was gone now, but a bunch of his bodies still bustled about. Damn it, Stark.  Kass felt for him, she really did. He was so well-intentioned - that was one of the many things she loved about him.  Under the arrogant exterior, he cared deeply about others, and yet his ideas seemed to always blow up in everyone's faces. No doubt he was feeling immense guilt over this Ultron thing.

 Kass waited a few minutes before tapping the button on her suit, going invisible. 

It didn't take them long to notice her sudden disappearance, but by that point, she, now invisible, had started beating them up. 

Pretty soon she was surrounded by metal men -  Ultron had hundreds of bodies - and was struggling to hold them back.

"Kass!"

"Oh, shit!" She'd been so wrapped up in blasting metal men, she didn't distinguish that one metal man looked different from the others. 

She helped him to his feet. "Tony, what the hell are you doing here? You idiot! You know this is a trap-"

"Yeah, but I don't care. You okay? You hurt?"

"No, but I think your robot was flirting with me - made me very uncomfortable. He kept going on and on about protecting me, from you."

"And here I thought metal men were your type."

"I prefer the man beneath the armour." She poked him in his metal chest. 

"So sweet. I'm glad you're okay. Now, come on, the rest of the team is up in the city.  Whether you like it or not, you're one of us now."

"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance." Tony shook his head, looking at the spot where Thor had just disappeared from by the Bifrost.  "I'm gonna miss him, though. And you're gonna miss me - there'll be a lot of manful tears." 

"I am going to miss you, Tony," Steve assured him.

"Yeah? You know, maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book, build a farm - hope nothing blows it up."

"The simple life."

"You'll get there one day."

"I don't know... Family, stability - the guy who wanted all that went into the ice seventy-five years ago. I think someone else came out."

"You alright?"

"I'm home."

Tony patted his pocket. "Where're my keys-"

Vrooooom!

His sleek black convertible zoomed down the drive, screeching to a stop before them, Led Zeppelin blasting from the speakers. Kass lowered her sunglasses. "Took you long enough to notice they were missing."

"Should have known."

"You coming to join the training?" Steve asked her.

"Naw, I'm not an Avenger."

"You could be."

"Maybe someday.  But tonight is date night. Hop in, Metal Man."

"Yes, Ma'am."

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as always! :))

Chapter Text

Malibu, California, 2010

"Come on Wilson, I could really use your help. Besides, you owe me one."

Kass was currently on the phone trying to persuade a certain fellow merc to help them out. However, he was being awfully stubborn. And people thought she  had an attitude...

"You get to meet Tony Stark." Still, he would not be persuaded.  "Oh come on, Wade, get up off your lazy ass and help out an old friend!" The other line went dead - he'd hung up on her. 

"Nice, Wade, real mature." She hung up her end of the line. 

"Okay, got some caffeine in me, we're ready to go." Stark emerged from the coffee shop - he hadn't disguised himself, as he said he was a regular at this specific shop, his favourite place to go in all of California, apparently.  He was craving some coffee and honestly, Kass was glad to have some as well.

"Thanks," she said, taking the cup he offered her.  "Okay, so now what?"

"Now, it's back to the house-"

"-Big-ass mansion, you mean."

"-To upgrade the suit and then fly into action. Did you make your call?"

"Yeah, tried to call in a favour, but he won't do it. Something about copyright and crossover universes, whatever that means." She shrugged. 

"Excuse me, Mr. Stark?" A little boy tugged at Tony's sleeve.

Tony knelt down.  "Yes, Sir?"

The boy seemed to like being addressed so formally. "My sister was wondering if you'd sign her Iron Man action figure - she's a big fan, but she's really shy, so she wanted me to ask for her."

"Sure thing. What're your names?"

"I'm Jacob, and she's Sarah."

"Nice to meet you, Jacob and Sarah, I'm Tony." He took the action figure of himself and a pen and signed his name along the back of it. 

Kass found herself smiling as she watched him interact with the kids. 

Sarah found the courage to speak a few words before her and her brother left.  "Thank you for being a hero, Mr. Stark."

"Thank you for being you, kid," Tony replied, handing her back her action figure.

"Wow! Jacob look!" the little girl squealed, showing her brother her newly-signed toy.

"Wow!" Jacob agreed.  "Thanks Mr. Stark."

"Thank you, Kiddo." The kids ran off excitedly. 

"That was sweet," Kass said. 

"It was." 

"You like kids?"

"Sure do."

Once again, he was just full of surprises.

"Wow, that shower can do more than most cellphones!" Kass declared, all dressed, running her hands through her still slightly-damp hair as she entered the sprawling living room back at Stark's mansion home. Honestly, why did he need all this space? 

He was seated at a desk in the living room. Framed photographs surrounded him on the desk and shelf.  She picked one up. It was a family photo.

"Whoa - this is you?" She stared at the photo in disbelief.

"No, it's some random teenage boy posing with my parents."

"Huh. No way." She held the framed photo next to his face.  "Oh, no, wait, I can see it. Your face is really smooth under that beard."

"Thank you, I think."

"Hey, nice piano." She set the frame down and ran her fingers along the smooth surface of the instrument.  

"Yeah, Mom played it. She taught me a little, but it mostly just sits there unused." He even had a framed photograph of his mother atop the instrument. 

She sat down at the bench, tapping the keys before launching into a song.  She stopped suddenly.  "Sorry, what am I doing?"

"No, no, go ahead, I'm glad someone can play it."

"Thanks. It's an old Sokovian folk song. It's about our national symbol, the Firebird." She stood. "Okay, so you need to upgrade your suit or something?"

"Yup. Down to the lab." He led the way. 

When they arrived she removed her jacket, tossing it onto a chair. He saw she was wearing just a tank top underneath. For the first time, he saw the various tattoos snaking up and down her arms. 

She noticed him staring.  "What? I'm a hot, tattooed badass. Thanks for noticing." He chuckled. She clapped her hands. "Now let's get to work."

And just like that, they were working together.

And it paid off.  Best of all, they both got their own moments to shine. 

Well, best of all was that they were able to retrieve Stark's designs and get them out of the wrong hands. S.H.I.E.L.D. took care of the weaponized designs from there. 

Kass declined payment from Stark for the job.  "Keep the money. Besides, I don't really do that anymore." She no longer wanted to be a mercenary for hire. No, she would work on her own terms. 

He accepted, but the money went towards a good cause.  Kass saw on the news that an 'anonymous donor' had donated a bunch of money to help children in need in Sokovia.  

"I guess I owe you a thank you for not arresting me. Because you had every right to," she told him. 

"Yes, I did. But sometimes, good people have rough beginnings."

"Maybe."

"And getting through those rough times  - some would even call it heroic."

She scoffed. "Me, a hero? You're hilarious."

"Just ask Agent Romanoff."

"Yeah, she seems to have it figured out."

"Not fully, trust me. She's still dealing with a lot of her own demons."

"Thank you," she told him. 

"For what?"

"An 'anonymous donor'."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"All right. Thanks anyways."

"I know what it's like to be an orphan, too."

"Yeah. Thanks, Stark."

"Yeah. And hey, listen, if you're ever in some trouble-"

"-You say that like you think I'm bound to get into trouble."

He chuckled.  "-Or you just need a place to stay, just let me know."

She crossed her arms and eyed him.  "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Cause you really helped me out.  I've seen what my tech can do, in the right hands and the wrong hands. So thank you. And hey, if you come to stay, you can play with all the tech you want."

"All right Stark, you just keep surprising me."

And, somewhere along the line, she started thinking of him as Tony and not just Stark.

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :))

Chapter Text

New York, 2016

"So why this fancy dinner?" Kass asked, facing Tony in an Italian restaurant.  "You know I'm totally good with just a hot dog from a stand, or a burger and fries."

"Me too, but I wanted it to be a special evening. Did you see what I did? Italian in New York? Combines the place we met and the place where we had our first mission together." He smiled proudly.

She smiled back.  "Look at you go."

"Now, see where the pattern's going?" He asked when they returned to the Tower, now standing on the balcony.

She leaned against the railing and grinned.  "Uh huh. Where we shared our first kiss."

"Which led to the first of other things."

"Oh, yes." Both chuckled and shared a kiss. "So what's this all about?" 

"Well, all those firsts were the start of great things. So I thought maybe we could add another..." He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a little box, and kneeling down before her. "Kazimiera Konstantin, will you  marry me?"

Her face fell. "Oh, Tony..."

One month later... 

Kass had just packed away her gadgets and gear after the mission. She was all cleaned and bandaged up, recovering. 

That had been one hell of a mission.

As she was heading down the hall, Tony was coming from the other way. 

"Hey."

"Hey."

Barely an  acknowledgement.  

"How was the mission?" he asked. Of course her bruises and bandages wouldn't go unnoticed by him. 

"Okay... We got hold of the package, but made a pretty big mess. How'd your presentation go?"

"Good."

"Then why do you seem upset?" Of course, him trying to hide how he felt wouldn't go unnoticed by her. 

He sighed. "Just a reminder that the work we do isn't heroic to everyone."

"We got that reminder too. I'm going to go see Wanda - she's  pretty upset."

"And where are you when I need you?" His words stopped her.

"For once, try not to make everything  about you."

"I think you just like running from problems."

"And I think you're selfish."

Glad to leave him behind, she headed through the facility and tapped softly on Wanda's bedroom door.

"You can come in, Kass."

Wanda's powers still continued to startle her. They were unsettling, how she could just know things. But that was her perspective as an outsider - she couldn't imagine what it was like for Wanda to actually have that ability.

"You okay?"

"Not really."

"I thought so. I also thought you might want to talk, Sokovian to Sokovian."

 "I don't really want to talk to anyone, but thanks. I appreciate it."

"Yeah, I get it."

"You're distressed as well," Wanda observed, reading Kass's state through her powers. "I've noticed for a while now." 

"Just some personal stuff."

"Stark?"

"How could you guess?"

"He's a troublemaker. What happened?"

"We just disagreed on something, and he's blowing it way  out of proportion."

Leaving Wanda in peace, she passed by Steve on her way.  Looked like he was going to visit the youngest member of the team as well.

"Tread carefully, Steve," she warned. "She's in pretty rough shape."

"I will."

When she arrived in the kitchen, she saw Tony speaking with a man in a suit in one of the boardrooms. 

"Who's that?" she asked Liv.

"Secretary Ross," the blonde answered. "Secretary of State."

The Sokovia Accords. The fate of the Avengers and those like them were outlined in this very document.

Rhodey and Sam were in the middle of a heated debate, while Steve was trying to actually read the Accords document. Everyone else was numb and silent, thinking about their fates.

"Tony," said Natasha. "You're being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal."

"That's one way to put it," mumbled Kass. 

"It's cause he's already decided," said Steve.

"Boy you know me so well." Tony got up from where he was lounging on the sofa and moved to the kitchen.  "I'm actually just nursing a bad headache. That's what going on, Cap. Just pain, and discomfort. Who keeps leaving coffee grounds in the sink? What, am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" Silence. "Oh don't bullshit me, Kass, I know it was you."

"We had a rough mission, sorry if coffee grounds were not my priority," she shot back.

Tony pulled up an image on his watch.  "Oh that's Charles Spencer, by the way. Great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Charlie wanted to travel before starting work after college. But he didn't go to Vegas, which is what I would have done, or Paris or Amsterdam which sounds fun. No, he decided to build sustainable housing for the poor, where? Sokovia." He let this sink in.  "He wanted to make a difference, I suppose, I mean now we'll never know cause we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." He popped an Advil in his mouth and gulped it down with some water, practically slamming down the mug onto the counter.  "There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes I'm game. If we can't accept limitations we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, if someone dies on your watch you don't give up," said Steve.

"Who says we're giving up?"

"We are if we don't take responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry, Steve, but that is dangerously arrogant," stepped-in Rhodey. "This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's not H.Y.D.R.A.-"

"No, but it's run by people with agendas and agendas change."

"That's good, that's why I'm here," said Tony. "When I found out what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands I shut it down, stopped manufacturing."

"Tony, you chose to do that," said Steve.  "If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there's somewhere we need to go but they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"If we don't do this now, by choice, it's going to be done to us later," countered Tony.

"You're saying they'll come for me," said Wanda.

"We would protect you," Vision assured her. 

"And they could come for any of us," added Liv, trying to reassure her.

"Tony's right," spoke-up Nat. "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-"

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a couple of years ago?" Sam reminded her.

"I'm just reading the terrain. We've made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"I'm sorry, did I mishear you, or did you just agree with me?" said Tony.

"Oh, I want to take it back-"

"Nope, can't retract it.  Case closed, I win."

"I thought we all had to be in agreement," spoke-up Kass. "Sounds like we're all still divided."

"Why are you even here?" Tony snapped. "As I recall, you're not even officially part of the team."

Silence hovered in the air.

"I say screw this, but clearly my opinion doesn't matter." With that, she got up and left without another word, sure to slam the door behind her.

"What is going on?" cried Nat, turning to Tony.

Tony's jaw clenched. "Nothing."

"Tony."

He didn't answer. "So, we're all decided then?"

"Kazimiera Konstantin, will you marry me?"

Time seemed to freeze around them. Kass said nothing. 

Now his face fell.  "Wow - I thought of a lot of reactions. Not sure what I was expecting, but not this..."

"Well, how do you expect me to respond to something like this? This is big-"

"Yes, it is."

"This isn't some joke, is it?"

"You think I'd joke about this?"

"No, not really, I-" She was at a complete loss - she had no idea what to say.

"I'm going to stand up, cause I'm just kneeling here like an idiot." Tony got to his feet, still holding the ring. "You were hoping it was a joke?"

"I can't marry you."

"Can't or don't want to? Cause I'm really getting the sense you don't want to."

"It's not that, it's just  - I just don't want to rush into something-"

"I'm not."

"Well it feels a little fast for me."

"It's been six years."

"Since we met, Tony. We've been on and off since then."

"Well I thought we'd both come to the conclusion that we liked the being 'on' better."

"Think  about it - we both found each other when we were lonely. What if we were clinging to each other out of that loneliness? " He scoffed.  "I just want to be sure-"

"I am sure. But you're not."

"I'm-"

"You're not."

"I had a nice time tonight."

"Till I ruined it."

"That's not what I said-"

He tucked the ring back into his pocket and turned away. "Well, goodnight, I guess." 

(Yay, into 'Civil War' now! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Vienna, Austria, 2016

"Where is he?!" A very angry Kass burst into the room.

"Security!" called Agent Ross.  

"It's okay, she's with us," Nat told him.

"Ms. Konstantin has arrived, Boss," alerted F.R.I.D.A.Y.

"Yeah, I got that," replied Tony.

"Where's Stark?!" Kass was practically shoving her way past agents and through the halls and rooms to get to him. 

"She's very upset, Boss. She only calls you by your last name when she's angry."

"Yeah, FR.I.D.A.Y., I got that too."

"Give it back!" she cried, finally finding him.  She had him cornered. "That's my suit!"

"Technically, it's mine, and now it belongs to the government." 

"No, it's my suit, you just added some upgrades to it."

"No, it's an upgraded version of your suit that I  made."

"That's not fair!"

"Well welcome to the real world, Kass. Life isn't always fair."

"I never signed the stupid document!"

"Well you should have! You just don't like playing by the rules."

"Oh, says the man who just loves to  play by his own rules."

"Not anymore."

"All right, Mr. Perfect."

"Don't start-"

"No, you've started this! And you're being real immature - and all because I wouldn't marry you!" With that she stormed from the room, letting out of string of what sounded like curses in Russian.  

"You want to talk about it?" Nat asked.

"Not really, but thanks. You know how he can be."

"Oh, yes."

A blonde woman came over to them.  "Kass, this is Agent Sharon Carter," Nat introduced.  "Formerly Agent 13 with S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Hi." The two women shook hands in greeting.  "Kazimiera Konstantin. Former thief and mercenary." 

"So we've got another one on our hands, huh?" Sharon said to Nat when Kass left them, lowering her voice, nodding towards both Kass and Liv, who bared a striking resemblance to each other.

"Don't look at me, I have no idea," agreed Nat.  "None of us do."

---------------------------------------

"Kass seemed pretty upset," Steve remarked, sitting in the glass-enclosed boardroom with Tony. 

"Yeah, well, we're - things are just complicated right now." Tony sighed.  "We're kind of-"

"Pregnant?" Steve tried.

"Uh, no. We're taking a break."

"Oh. I'm sorry, Tony."

Tony shrugged. "It is what it is."

"You want to talk about it?"

"Not really, no. In her defense, I'm a handful, as she's constantly reminding me."

"Wait it out, it'll all work out. There's been a lot of change recently - everyone's a little tense at the moment."

"You know, as I recall, you're not Mr. Romance yourself," Tony said, clearly irritated with the conversation.  "So can we wrap this up and can you just sign the damn papers?"

-------------------------------------

"Please tell me you brought a suit!" cried Nat as she and Tony rushed up the stairs, alarms blaring around them and throughout the building. 

"Sure did. It's a very nice Tom Ford, three piece, two button - I'm an active-duty non-combatant."

"Follow me!" cried Sharon, dashing ahead of them.

Tony went in to confront Barnes first. 

"We're in position," Nat told him over the radio. 

Tony jumped in, but even with his tech, Barnes was a determined and intense force.  

Suddenly, Barnes bent over as though he had been struck. Then he was shoved to the side, then struck again.  But no one was currently fighting him, or so it appeared.

"Hands off my man, Bro!" Kass suddenly appeared, deactivating her tech. 

"Where did you get that?!" Tony cried.

"Where do you think?! I stole it!" she yelled back. "Right out from under your nose!"

Berlin, Germany

Tony sighed. "All right, I've run out of patience-" He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, "Underoos!"

Cap's shield was swiped from his hands by some sort of - string? Webbing?  And someone in a red and blue suit - clearly Stark tech - landed nearby.  

"Nice job, Kid."

"Thanks! Could have stuck the landing better," said a young man's voice. "It's just, new suit and all - but it's nothing, it's perfect, Mr. Stark, thank you."

"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation."

"Okay. Cap, Captain-" The new guy saluted.  "Big fan. Spider-Man."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about it later-" Tony tried again. 

"Hey everyone." Spider-guy waved. 

"You've been busy," Steve remarked.

"And you've been a complete idiot! I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart."

"You did that when you signed. Kass-"

"Whoa!" Spider-guy was suddenly knocked off the  truck he was standing on, thrown to the pavement. Cap's shield lifted itself into the air, seemingly on its own.

Until the tech was de-activated, revealing Kass. 

"Wow." Tony scoffed.  "And I thought this day couldn't get any worse." But now he was staring at his girlfriend, standing on Cap's side. 

"Lang!" She threw the shield, someone else appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

"I believe this is yours, Captain America!" Scott proudly held out the shield to Cap. 

"You okay, Kid?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good!" Spider-guy jumped to his feet. 

"Wait, he's a kid? Did I just knock down a kid?" cried Kass. She looked to Tony. "That's not fair - he's not legally old enough to sign, so you're just using him!"

The two sides stood facing one another. Tension hung heavy in the air.

Tony had ordered that the whole airport be evacuated. So it was just them. 

"Hey, you and Barnes head for the  jet," Kass told Cap. "We'll do our best to clear a path for you."

"Copy that."

Both sides began charging towards each other.

"Shit," mumbled Kass. 

The confrontation turned out to be a total mess. Both sides were equally determined. Cap's side did out number Tony's, which worked out seeing as Cap and Barnes's main objective was to get to the jet. When it became clear that the whole team would not be making it to Siberia, the others fought to make sure Cap and Barnes could escape, even if it meant their own capture. 

A blast struck the walkway above Kass, which gave way directly over her, not leaving her a moment to react-

She could barely hear over the commotion, but she thought she may have heard Tony yell, "KASS!"

But there was only a clang!  and a groan, and she turned to see the Spider-kid had caught the walkway before it fell. He wasn't even straining under the weight of it. 

"Hey, thanks, Kid."

"Yeah, no problem.  You know, Mr. Stark told me all about you."

"Oh yeah? About how much of a bitch I am?"

"No, he wouldn't stop going on and on about you. Man, he really likes you-"

"Save it, Kid." She ran off to rejoin the fight, leaving him standing there holding up the walkway. 

"I don't suppose you know anything of Konstantin's current whereabouts," Secretary Ross demanded as Tony left the prison. 

"No, why would I?"

"You were romantically involved, I was told."

"Not anymore. Good luck tracking her down. Let me know if you do. Call me sometime - I love to watch the line blink." With that, Tony climbed onto the awaiting helicopter.  

"Incoming message, Boss," altered F.R.I.D.A.Y.

"Who from?"

"Ms. Konstantin. It says, 'Have urgent message. You know where to find me.'"

And he did. 

(Having so much fun adding Kass into the movie storylines! :)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

New York City, 2016

"Man, that invisi-tech always gets me," Tony said, jumping when Kass appeared on the balcony of Stark Tower, seemingly from nowhere. She had her gun pointed at him. He held up his hands in surrender and removed his mask.  "You can put that away."

"Can I?"

"Of course you can, Kass."

"Just wanted to be sure that your government friends wouldn't pop out and arrest me."

"It's just me."

"Good." Finally, she lowered and put away her gun. "That was a total shit show back there."

"Yeah, it was."

"How's Rhodey?"

Tony sighed.  "He's alive, that's what's important. But he won't walk again."

"I'm so sorry. I felt so bad ducking out of there, but-"

"Honestly, I'm glad you did. I wouldn't want to see you locked up in one of those cells."

"That bad huh?"

"Yeah. Can I hug you, would that be weird?" He extended his arms. 

"Just come here." She wrapped him up in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry."

"Me too." They pulled away but still stood close. "So what's this urgent message?"

"I'm sending it to you." Kass tapped the little screen on her gauntlet, and an image flashed up on his gauntlet. "This is a priority upload from Berlin Police. The task force called for a psychiatrist as soon as Barnes was captured. The UN dispatched Dr. Theo Broussard from Geneva within the hour. He was met by this man-" Kass pointed to the image. "-Turns out, the fake doctor is actually Colonel Helmut Zemo, Sokovian intelligence. He ran EKO Scorpion, a Sokovian covert kill squad."

Tony sighed. "So what happened to the real Broussard?"

"He was found dead in a Berlin hotel room. Where police also found a wig and facial prosthesis approximating the appearance of one James Buchanan Barnes."

"Son of a bitch."

"Yeah, Cap was right, Barnes was framed."

"Where were he and Barnes headed?"

"Siberia."

"Then we've got to get there too, and fast. F.R.I.D.A.Y., fire up the jet."

Siberia 

December 16th, 1991

The video clip was fuzzy security camera footage, but the picture was clear - clear enough anyways to do the damage. The intended damage.

Kass winced as the car slammed into the tree, one of the passengers dragged out.

"S-sergeant Barnes..." said the man. "It's me, Howard-"

But Barnes didn't answer.

"Howard!"

"Not my wife-"

"Howard!" came Maria's cries from the front seat. She wasn't able to see her husband's death, which was a good thing, as it was pretty brutal. "Howard!" But Barnes quickly silenced her as well by strangling her.

The video clip ended by Barnes shooting out the camera.

Kass placed a hand on Tony's arm. Even through the armour she could tell how tense he was.

He turned to Steve. "Did you know?"

"I didn't know it was him."

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers. Did you know?"

A pause before,  "Yes."

There was a tense silent moment before Tony backhanded Steve, setting off an intense confrontation.

Barnes held up his gun, but Tony blasted it out of his hands, charging towards him, his parents' murderer.

"NO!" Liv dove in, attacking Tony. Kass wasn't sure why her blonde American doppelganger  was so defensive, but would later learn that Liv Sword was a fake cover name being used by Karen Granger, Barnes's girlfriend from the war days, somehow alive and well, having not aged a day even all these years later.

"Stop it!" Kass practically tore Liv off of Tony. He broke free and took off after Steve and Barnes while the ladies fought each other.

Liv shocked Kass with one of her electric bracelets, stunning her just long enough to take off after the fighting trio.

As she was recovering from the shock, Kass noticed Zemo escaping down the tunnel. She was torn - she couldn't let the others kill each other, but she also couldn't let that bastard escape.

Taking her gun, she took off after Zemo, the mastermind behind all this.

As she was nearing the door of the facility, she heard a gunshot. Picking up her pace she ran out into the snow to find Zemo, restrained by Prince T'Challa.

"You can stand down," The prince told her. "I have apprehended the culprit."

She kept her hand on her gun at her belt as Prince T'Challa escorted Zemo to his jet to take him to the authorities.

As he was locking Zemo up in the jet, another jet zoomed over them.

The prince must have had enhanced eyesight. "Rogers, Barnes, and Sword."

Kass's heart leapt. "But then where's Tony?"

They wouldn't have left him for dead - would they have?

"Howard!"

"Not my wife-"

"Howard! Howard!"

Bang!

She shot the screen, destroying the machine and cutting off that awful video.

"Tony!" she yelled. "Tony!" But only her own voice echoed back to her.

The base was in rough shape following the confrontation, and it looked like the only way the fight could have gone was up.

So she climbed up the tower via the ladder, calling out Tony's name. Still, only her own voice responded.

Finally, she made it to the top of the tower, wandering around the platform. Something crunched beneath her foot - red metal.

Tony's suit. A piece of it. 

Chips of gold and red metal were scattered around the floor. It must have turned into one hell of a fight in order to do so much damage to the latest version of the Iron Man armour. 

Then she saw him. Finally, she had found him. 

His suit was torn and he was lying still in the middle of the stone floor, blood splattered on the ground around him, his helmet smashed off.

"Tony!" She rushed to his side, dropping to her knees beside him. "Tony, oh my God, TONY!" Blood trickled from his mouth, pouring down his chin. How could they, Cap, Barnes, and Liv? How could they have done this to him?

A sudden cough and shudder through him startled her, but then filled her with instant relief - he was alive.

He appeared startled to find her there next to him, but, like her, startled but also relieved. 

"K-Kass..." He heaved out.

"Shh, don't move, you're hurt."  He tried to say something else.  "Shh, yes, I'm here. I'm not leaving." Not again. 

She wiped the blood from his chin with her thumb.  "I'm so sorry."

"Ms. Konstantin." She turned to see Prince T'Challa standing there at the top of the ladder. 

She looked at him desperately.  "Will you help us?"

(Now we're moving into a more linear timeline, not jumping back and forth!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :))

Chapter Text

New York City, 2016

"Miss Konstantin has arrived, Boss."

"Thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y."

After putting Secretary Ross on an unlimited hold - he really did love to watch the light blink, imagining the frustration of the person on the other end of the line, especially if that person was Ross - Tony headed to the front doors of the facility. 

"I've never seen it so quiet around here," Kass remarked as she headed inside the building.

"Yeah, me neither." 

"I saw Rhodey.  That leg brace you designed for him is really amazing."

"He'd never walk again without it."

"Yeah.   I asked how he was, he told me to piss off. But he did tell me about 'Tony Stank'."

"Oh, wonderful. Glad to hear it."

"I love it." She chuckled, then turned more serious.  "He's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Yeah, maybe."

"He is."

"Yeah.  You know, Ross is still after you-"

"Ross the Secretary of State, or Ross the Agent?"

"Both, but confusing, I know."

"Yeah, confusing is right.  And actually, they're not. I turned myself in. I'm officially retired."

"From being a thief or being an Avenger?"

"Both.  Though I was never technically an official member of the team."

"Yeah, and now you won't have that chance, I'm afraid."

"That's okay. Teamwork stuff isn't really how I usually roll." She shrugged.  "But it was fun while it lasted."

"Yeah." He sighed.  "I just thought it would last at least a little longer. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes'," he scoffed.

"Hey, you did good. This isn't your fault - you were only doing what felt right. I'm sick and tired of people blaming you for everything that goes wrong."

"Thanks. So am I. But you can't deny it, it is kinda my fault."

"Like I said, you were just doing what you felt was right. And maybe it is right for this moment in time."

"Maybe. I'm starting to wonder now." 

"All this stuff that's been happening lately, really puts into perspective what we're dealing with, huh?"

He scoffed and shook his head, turning away - this was not the reaction she was expecting, or that she wanted.  

"Tony, I love you," she assured him. "Isn't that enough?" He said nothing. "I guess not." She sighed.

"I want to take this relationship further, but you don't."

"No, I don't. Not right now. At least not in that way. And why do we have to get married to do that? We can still take it further without getting married." 

"You always run when it gets hard. It's becoming predictable. If I'm starting to feel rough I just expect you to not be there. That's a pretty crappy thing to rely on. But, what can I expect? I guess that's what I get for falling in love with a criminal."

Her jaw tightened.  "Well that's on you. That is your fault."  With that, she stormed away.

She heard him call after her.  "Yeah, go join Cap and the other criminals!"

She just flipped him off, and that was where they left it. 

Three months later...

"Hey Karen."

"Good evening, Peter."

"Okay, so what have we got tonight?"

"Well, there's some activity inside Stark Tower."

"Huh, interesting... But hey, I thought Happy said they were clearing it out.  That means no one should be there...Let's go check it out."

So he swung his way through the streets and to the famous Stark Tower and found his way inside. 

"Wow, it's so empty in here..."

"I'm sensing movement in the next room," Karen alerted. 

Peter jumped onto the ceiling and crept over.

"Should I activate Instant Kill?"

"What, no Karen. We don't know who it is."

"Should I activate Interrogation Mode at least?"

"Uh, no thanks." From above, he watched as a dark figure rifled around in some of the packed up crates.  "Stop right there!" The hooded person jumped and spun around. Peter dropped down from the ceiling. 

He found that the person was a woman in dark clothes - who he recognized. 

"Hey, I know you - you were in Berlin, at the airport!" 

"You're the kid," she said with a slight Eastern European accent.

"Yeah - well, I'm Spider-Man.  And you're Kass right? Usually I'm pretty bad with names, but Mr. Stark talked about you so much your name stuck. So, Mr. Stark's girlfriend, huh? Hey, do you think you could send him a message from me?"

"We're not really speaking."

"Oh?"

"We broke up."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Maybe that was part of why Mr. Stark was being so distant. 

"Yeah." She shrugged.  

Awkward... "So what are you doing in Stark Tower then?"

"Robbing him. One last sting. I'm joking, Kid. No, I was living at the Avengers Base - we were living there. But now I'd rather have some space, so I've been hanging out here."

"But  they're clearing it out and moving everything to the base."

"Yeah, I don't have much time."

"Where will you go?"

She shrugged. "No idea." Then she sighed.  "We were looking into buying a place in New York in order to be closer to the Avengers Facility. But now we're broken up - again - and so are the Avengers so that's not happening anymore."

"But you need a place to stay."

"It's okay, Kid. I'll find something."

Peter wondered if there was anything he could do to help her. "Hey, are you hungry? I swung by a pretzel cart on my way here.  My treat."

"So yeah, every time I see her I just freeze, and can't say anything." Pretzels in hand, Peter was currently telling Kass about the crush he had on a girl at school, Liz.  "I don't mean to pry, but is that what it's like - uh, uh, was like - with Mr. Stark?"

Kass  chuckled. "Actually, we never seem to run out of things to say to each other." 

"You miss him, don't you."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"Thanks, but it's okay.  So what does your aunt think you do at Stark Internship?"

Peter shrugged.  "Honestly, I don't know, I'm pretty vague about it. Some tech-related stuff. But there's no way she can find out about this, cause she'd totally freak out." He sighed. "But, until I hear back from Happy, I guess I'm just your 'Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man'." He even showed her the sad, long one-sided text conversation he had going with Happy.

"Maybe that's not so bad. Thanks for the pretzels, Peter."  

"You're welcome. And hey, if you're still in the area, and you need anything, here's my address. If my Aunt answers the door, just tell her you're from the internship."

"Thanks Peter. I appreciate it." 

"Yeah, no problem.  Hey, listen, I know it's not my place, but I hope things work out or at least get settled between you and Mr. Stark."

She smiled.  "Thanks, Kid. You too." 

(Yay, more Peter! :) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :))

Chapter Text

New York City, 2016

"Hey forehead of security."

"Tony - someone's broken into the Tower!"

"What? What have you been doing, Mr. Head of Security?"

"Uh, moving all of your Avengers crap from there to the facility. Luckily most of it was already moved, so it was mostly vacant." 

"Yeah, good thing."

"By the looks of things, someone's been staying there."

Tony sighed. "I think I know who."

"I heard you broke into my tower."

Kass wasn't even startled when she heard the low hum of the suit of armour - she'd  grown to feel at ease when hearing that sound. Now, she didn't know what to make of it. 

She stood on the Brooklyn Bridge, overlooking the water, he hovering before her.  "Oh that big ugly building? I didn't think it was yours anymore. Thought you sold it."

"I did, but technically it's still mine until we move everything out of it."

"I don't see you helping with that."

"I've been busy."

"Always busy."

"Yeah, cause I'm Iron Man, if you hadn't noticed."

"Can you not let go of your goddamn ego for a goddamn second? And you're always busy, this time ignoring Peter."

"You've seen the kid?"

"Sure have. He's a good kid. I see why you recruited him, but  not why you abandoned him."

"Oh, you're really one to talk about abandonment. That's real rich coming from you."

"I didn't abandon-"

"You broke my heart! You always run, always. As soon as things get tough. And that hurts."

"Well if you cared, really cared, you'd come and face me! Not send one of your Iron Legion-"

The front part of his mask lifted, revealing an empty shell of a suit, being controlled from elsewhere. 

She scoffed. "See."

"Just giving you a taste of your own medicine."

"Screw you, Stark."

"Good work, Pete," Tony said, patting the super-teen on the shoulder. "Keep it up." They'd just had a very long-overdue meeting at  the Avengers Facility. The long-overdue part was Tony's fault. 

"Thanks, Mr. Stark."

"Hey Kid, what did you need so urgently?" Kass entered the room, stopping dead-still and staring. Tony stared back. 

Peter grinned guiltily.  "Hey Ms. Konstantin..."

Kass scoffed.  "I don't believe it - Peter, I thought we were friends."

"Well I-"

"I've been sabotaged!" Tony was clearly just as upset. "By my own intern!"

"Please don't hate me!" cried Peter, stepping between the two who were actively trying to avoid eye-contact.  "And I know it's not my place, and I'm certainly no expert in the field of relationships, but I've been talking to both of you and I think you really should talk it out. And I'm not the only one-"

Happy entered the room.

"You too, huh?" scoffed Tony.  "My very own forehead of security."

"Me too, Boss."

"And my A.I. I feel so betrayed." 

"And Karen too," added Peter.

"Who's Karen?"

"My suit's A.I."

"Yeah, and Rhodey too," added Happy.  "And Pepper, pretty much everyone.  Peter's right, Tony. You and Kass are a lot happier together. And you're good together." 

"Even you agree?" cried Kass.  "I thought you hated me."

"I disliked you, in the beginning. Now I think you're not so bad. Plus I see that you make Tony really happy."

"Okay, thanks..."

"And you're pretty cool."

"Thanks."

"He's right," Tony agreed, finally looking at her.  "You do make me very happy - except when you run off whenever things get hard. You take the easy way out, Kass. You always do."  She still wouldn't look at him.  He stepped forward.  "I love you-"

"Shut up!"

"No, I do. I have to protect the one thing I can't live without - and that's you."

"Stop it, just stop!"

"It's always you."

"Ugh, see, and that scares me!" She was speaking so loud her voice echoed through the halls back to them. "You deserve better than a thief who's never held a real job in her life, who's always on the run, and who can't even deal with connection-"

"And you deserve better than an arrogant playboy who messes everything up and can't even keep his family together."

"That's not true."

"Well I don't think what you said is true either."

"You could have any girl you wanted-"

"I don't want any other girl."

"You could have anyone-"

 "I want you."

They kept taking small steps towards each other. They were standing close together now. 

"You could do a lot better than me." Finally, she looked at him.    

"I could do a lot worse."

Now they were staring at each other, refusing to break the eye-contact that just minutes ago they sought to avoid at all costs. 

"I'm a criminal."

"No, you're not. Maybe you were but not anymore. Cap and the others are, though."

"I have no idea where they are. I've been keeping to myself, like I'm good at." 

"How do I know you won't run off again?"

"I don't know. I don't even know if I will.  I don't know how to be there, for you." She was in tears now and buried her face in her hands.  "God, I know it sounds pathetic, but I don't know how to be.   I haven't had a close relationship with anyone since I was twelve, let alone a romantic one. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to be there for you when you need me to be, especially when times get tough. That's why I run, cause I feel helpless and I get scared."

He reached out to her. "Be there.  Just be there."

She nodded.  "I think I can do that. If you still want me to be."

"I do."

"Good, cause so do I."

"You are still a thief though.  Cause you stole my heart."

She chuckled. "Well, you stole mine, so I think you've got a bit of thief in you too." 

 They kissed, a kiss that quickly became a smooch.

"Oh, wow! Hey, it worked! All right!" Peter was pulling his mask over his face.  "Glad it worked out - see ya later!" And he swung out the window and was gone. Happy gave them a  thumbs up and headed down the hall, leaving them there together. 

Tony turned to her, his girlfriend, once again.  And boy did he feel a lot better because of it. Just having her there made him feel a whole lot better.  Happy was right, they were a lot happier when they were together, and they were good together. 

"So," he said.  "Now what?"

"I'm going to go take a shower." She pulled away from their embrace and began heading  down the hall.  

"Oh, okay..."

She called back to him.  "And you're going to join me."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Ms. Potts, I really wouldn't disturb him right now-"

"Let me through, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," an equally frustrated and determined Pepper said.  "What the hell is he doing now?" the red-head muttered angrily as she stormed through the Avengers Facility to the living quarters. "He can't just disappear for days on end."  Upon reaching Tony's suite, she banged on the door with her fist. "Tony! I'm coming in!"

"Ms. Potts-"

"Oh come on, F.R.I.D.A.Y., what could he possibly be doing this time - oh my God!" Pepper immediately held up her tablet in front of her face. 

Tony yelped and pulled the quilt over his full body, head and all. 

"Why are you in bed in the middle of the day?!" the red head cried from behind the tablet. 

"Uhh..."

"I thought you were meeting with the kid."

"I was, I did. And-"

"And then decided to take a nap?"

"Well, no..." Tony said, still from underneath the quilt.

There was the sound of a door opening somewhere deeper within the suite and a voice called out, "Okay, I hope you're ready for round - oh, hi Pepper." Kass  appeared wearing one of Tony's T-Shirts. 

Pepper stared between the two.  "I thought these days were over for you!" she cried to Tony. 

"What do you mean?" Now only Tony's eyes peeked out from under the blankets.

"Your hookup days!"

"This isn't what it looks like-"

"Oh really, another one of your hookups?"

"No, actually not. We just spent the past few hours making sweet, passionate love."

Kass face-palmed. 

Pepper blinked back at him before turning to Kass. "That true?"

"Yup."

"Oh. Oh, well, I've gotta admit, I'm happy for you," Pepper said from behind her tablet, still blocking her from view of the two.  "I'll leave you to it - but seriously, Tony, I need you to read and sign some online files."

"Will do, thanks for everything, Pep."

Pepper exited the room.  She sighed. "Next time, I'm listening to you F.R.I.D.A.Y., no matter how frustrated I am. But now I've got to call Rhodey and tell him they worked it out."

Back inside the suite, Kass climbed back into bed.  "Oops, poor Pepper."

"She's caught me doing a lot of wild stuff, but this might just top the list..." Tony turned to Kass, pressing a kiss to her head then whispering huskily in her ear, "What was that you were saying about another round?"

She laughed and pulled him down onto the bed with her. 

(Haha, awkward! ;)  And wow, that chapter turned out to be longer than I thought!

The shower part was borrowed from 'Iron Man 3'!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

New York City, 2017

Date night. The jet zoomed low over the nighttime New York skyline. 

"All right, give us a smooch before we go." Tony, all suited up, said as the door of the jet lowered down.

Kass, also all suited up, in one of the fancy stealth and flight suits Tony had made for her, grabbed hold of his mask, taking it out of his hands, and kissed the front of it. Then she tossed it out of the jet.  "Go get 'em."

"You go get 'em."

"Oh I will." With a wink, she jumped out of the jet and into the night sky, soon soaring over the city below.

Tony had retrieved his mask and was now soaring beside her.  Rock music blared around them as they dipped and soared.  Kass cheered. 

They spun around facing each other. Kass was never going to get used to the thrill of flying like this!

Not only had Tony designed gauntlets, a utility belt, and gadgets for her to use, he had also designed her a suit of her own.  After jokingly sketching a design of the suit - if it could even be called that. It had literally consisted of  a crop top and short-shorts.

"I swear to God, Stark-"

"Kidding, babe! Just joking!"

"Good."

The suit was one of her black stealth suits, only it had armour woven into and beneath the fabric, providing added protection. It was also lined with invisi-tech fibres, so with a tap of her gauntlet or her visor, she could vanish instantly, become completely invisible. Now she could really slip into the shadows - literally - unseen. 

After a good soar around the city to some awesome music, they found themselves  sitting atop a building sharing a bucket of mini donuts between them while admiring the lights of NYC.

"This city is pretty spectacular at night," Kass remarked. Perhaps that was something else she would never fully get used to.

"Oh I don't know - it's nothing compared to the view I'm seeing," said Tony, looking right at her.

She rolled her eyes at his dramatics, but secretly loved it.  "Ha, ha. You're so sweet."

"I'm serious."

"Okay then, you're seriously sweet." She leaned in for a kiss, snatching the donut from his hands as she did so.

"Hey!"

"Haha!" But before she could pop the treat into her mouth, it slipped from her hand. "Uh oh-" But she was too late - the donut dropped down from their perch to the street below.  "I may have just knocked someone out with a donut. Oops. Sorry!" she called downwards, her voice echoing through the night. 

"There's one more, you want it?" Tony asked.  "It's extra sugary."

"Oh yeah. Gimme." She opened her mouth and he popped it onto her tongue.  "Oh jeez - you're right, super sweet! So much sugar!" She brushed said sugar off her lips. "You know, there's something I want to do."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Name it."

"Okay, but it's kind of far away."

"No problem."

"It would mean we'd have to travel."

"Absolutely. We could leave tomorrow if you want.   Where is it?"

"Would you come with me to see my parents?"

Visiting home was never easy. 

The gravestones were side by side and were written in Cyrillics, as was most common in Slavic-speaking Sokovia, and had a Star of David carved on the top above the names, displaying Jewish heritage. 

Мириам Константин

Дэвид Константин

Miriam and David Konstantin.

"Привет мама и папа," said Kass in her native tongue. Hello Mama and Papa. Tony stood beside her holding her hand. "I wish you could have met them."

"So do I."

"And I wish I could have met your mom and dad."

"Eh..." Tony didn't seem so sure.  "My mom maybe..."

"And your dad."

"Fine, and my dad." 

"I wanted to do this when we were here after we fought Ultron, but there wasn't any time to. But I'm glad we're here now." Kass handed him two small stones and they each placed one on top of each of the graves. 

Tony wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, she leaning against him and wrapping her arms around him as they stood quietly over the graves of her adoptive parents. 

Visiting home was never easy. Not anymore. 

"Thank you for doing that."

"Of course. Anytime."

"I'm glad we did that. I feel much more at peace now."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it."

They were in the jet on their way back to the States. 

"So, I was thinking: a pyjama day. We can stay in, watch as much TV as we want and eat as much junk food as we want. We can order in from anywhere. I was thinking Chinese food or pizza - or both."

She chuckled.  "Sounds perfect."

"Which part?"

"All of it." 

When the jet landed, the reception returned to their devices.  They were quickly greeted by multiple notification noises. 

"Uh oh, she's after us," Tony remarked once they got off the jet, checking his phone and finding many missed calls and messages from Pepper.

Ah yes, setting foot back in America and Pepper was already on their case about something. How classic. 

"Uh oh, what did you do this time?" Kass joked.

"I don't know - do I want to know?"

"I do." Checking her own phone, Kass found the same: multiple unread text messages, missed calls, and voicemails.  She didn't bother reading or checking any of them, instead calling Pepper back right away. "It's my fault, I'm sorry. I made Tony take a quick, last-minute trip to Sokovia with me," she said as soon as the red-head answered.

"Tell Tony to tell me next time he decides to take a last-minute trip. Maybe he'll listen to you."

"Maybe.  What's up? What's so urgent?"

Pepper sighed through the phone.  "Someone broke into the Avengers Facility."

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as always! :))

Chapter Text

Avengers Facility, Upstate New York, 2017

"Say what?"

"There was a break in at the facility,"  Pepper repeated. Kass had put her on speaker phone. 

"Uh, no."

"Tony-"

"That's impossible. Security is untouchable." Tony was in complete denial.  

"You two had better get over here."

Well, this wasn't exactly the welcome home they had been expecting - they had been feeling something more like pajama day and order in multiple kinds of take-out. Not investigating a break in. But fate, it seemed, had other plans in store for them.

"We were gone for like five minutes," Tony said as they greeted Pepper outside the front of the building. 

"Actually it's been over a week since we were last at the facility," Kass corrected.

Tony shrugged.  "Same thing."

"At least in your books." Pepper rolled her eyes. "This isn't in my job description - I'm head of Stark Industries, not the Avengers. That's your job."

"It was my job," Tony sighed. "We got any security camera footage? I mean, we should, unless whoever did this took out the cameras."

"Nope, we've got some." 

"Good. What sort of damage are we looking at?"

"That's the strange part - none."

"Huh? Then what was the point of breaking in in the first place?"

"To leave this, I guess."  Pepper held up her tablet on which there was a photo of a large envelope sitting innocently on the desk.  

"Huh. So they left something, didn't steal something?" Tony clarified.

"As far as we can tell, yeah.  It's funny, because it almost seems to me, when watching the security footage, that the person wanted  to be caught on camera."

"This is all backward." Tony turned to Kass. "You're an ex-thief-"

"Ex-merc, still a thief."

"Still a thief. Tell me this is all backwards."

"It's all backwards."

Tony turned back to Pepper while gesturing to Kass.  "See, take the word of a professional."

Kass squared her shoulders.  "I am very professional."

Pepper rolled her eyes at the couple.  "Yeah, you don't have to  convince me. Something weird is definitely going on here. Just wait until you see for yourself." Pepper pulled up the footage on her tablet and handed it over to them to watch. 

For the first few seconds, nothing. Then, a hooded, masked figured entered the main offices, looking around, before placing a large envelope on the desk. 

Then, before leaving, they turned and looked up at the camera, giving it a long, lingering glance before disappearing.  Almost as if they knew where the camera was...

"So, by the looks of things, they broke in, left something, and then left themselves, they didn't actually steal anything." Backwards indeed. 

"But left something instead." Tony pondered aloud.

"What's in the envelope?" Kass asked Pepper. 

"Not sure, haven't opened it yet."

"Why not?"

"Cause it's addressed to you."

Kass blinked back. "Me?"

Pepper nodded.  "Yeah."

So someone had broken into the facility just to leave something for her? What the hell? 

"Can I see it?" Kass asked after a long,  shocked moment.

"Yeah, we just left it sitting there, didn't want to tamper with any evidence, just in case. We've upped the security guard presence, just to be on the safe side." 

Pepper led the way into the facility and do the offices where, untouched, the envelope sat. 

ADDRESSED TO:

KAZIMIERA KONSTANTIN

AVENGERS FACILITY, UPSTATE NEW YORK

Well, it couldn't be too much clearer - it was definitely for her. 

This was all ringing a lot of bells. 

Get in.

Get the prize.

Get out.

This sounded exactly along the lines of her own missions, all with the same purpose:  

Get in.

Get the prize.

Get out.

Or in this case, get in, leave the prize,  and get out. 

But why? Why reverse it in the first place?

"This sounds a lot like something I would do, the kind of mission I would do. Only usually I would be taking something, not leaving something," she spoke her thoughts aloud.  

Someone obviously wanted her to receive something.

But what?

Whatever was inside the envelope, the envelope she now held in her hand.  

She guessed she would just have to open it and see...

Kass sat on the couch in the common area, the envelope clearly addressed to her and delivered via break-in sitting on the coffee table before her. 

Why go to such lengths to stage such a discrete break in and leave this for her? It was all so strange. 

Screw it. She had done enough pondering over it with no ideas as to why, so she decided just to open it and see if that held any answers. 

She was just reaching out to pick it up when-

"WAIT!"

"Jesus!" Kass jumped in her seat when Tony entered the room and yelled, stopping her from picking up the envelope. 

"It could be dangerous - you have no idea what could be in there."

This was true... In the confusion and strangeness of it all, she hadn't considered that it might be a potential threat. She had held it in her hands, which seemed safe enough so far,  but she hadn't opened it yet. 

"How should I open it?"

Tony held up a finger signaling for her to wait.  "Be right back."

He disappeared and then reappeared a few minutes later, as promised, his arm and hand covered by one of his suit gauntlet and gloves. 

"Okay, Let's open this baby up-"  He slit open the top of the envelope, tipped it upside down, and shook the contents out onto the table.

A single piece of paper was all that emerged. 

"Well, you can put away your suit now. Clearly you don't need it.  Clearly nothing harmful or shocking." Kass picked up the paper.

At least so she thought, until she read it.

Her shock must have clearly shown, for Tony asked, "What's it say?"

"Um, well... Apparently I have a sister..."

(Duh, duh, duh!!!! Haha, couldn't help it! ;)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

New York City, 2016

Tony blinked back. "A what now?"

"A sister. Well, a half-sister - or at least so she claims. She says that Klaue is her father too." But part of Kass was still in denial of that in the case of her own parentage.  "Regina. Her name's Regina."

"You okay?"

"Yeah - I think so... Just so shocked..." She scoffed. "She wants to meet." 

 "It could be a trap."

"Yeah... Or not... It could be anything, really... I mean, it could all be some joke for all I know. Someone wanting to pull a prank on me for some reason."

"Do you want to meet her?"

"I don't know... I think I need some time to absorb all this."

"Yeah, that's understandable." Tony took the piece of paper and read it himself. Well, it couldn't be much clearer than that.  "Do you think that was her in the security footage?"

"Well, this is pretty personal, and obviously whoever it was wanted to make sure I got it, so yeah, I think there's a good chance it was." She thought back to the security camera footage Pepper that shown them, with the person looking right at the camera - right at her. 

It all made sense now - well, sort of.  Actually, there was still a lot that made no sense. 

Later, Kass found Tony in the main office sitting before the computer. "I'm going through that security footage from the break-in again," he told her. 

"Oh yeah, find anything interesting? Good luck topping the big 'half sister' reveal though."

"Nothing too exciting yet on that so far.  I did find a few other gems as well, though..." 

He clicked on a video.  In the clip, Kass - wearing jeans, one of Tony's band T-shirts,  a pair of his high-top sneakers that were way too big for her, and a pair of ridiculously expensive sunglasses - stood in front of the camera. She had even sprayed shaving cream on her face in a sort-of goatee.  Speaking in an exaggerated low voice, she said to the camera, "Hey there, I'm Tony Stark. My ego is big, but not as big as my-" 

The clip ended there. Tony swiveled around in the chair to look at her.

"I was bored," she defended. "So I went through your closet." 

"And my shoe closet, and my sunglasses collection... And used like half a bottle of shaving cream." 

She shrugged.

He moved the clip over into another folder.  "I'm keeping this, to haunt you with it forever and ever."

"And ever. Be my guest. You have to admit though, it was actually a pretty stellar impression of you, if I do say so myself." 

"Eh, as your boyfriend, I was expecting a better impression of myself."

The clicking of high heeled shoes signaled Pepper's  arrival.  "Ross is here."

"Secretary or Agent?"

"Secretary."

"Clearly he didn't appreciate me putting him on hold."

"He's not here about you, actually.  He's here for Kass." Pepper looked deeply concerned.  "He says he's come to arrest you."

"Ross, this is ridiculous-"

"This is the law, Stark. Besides, knowing Ms. Konstantin's track record, she's used to it."

"Hey! I rarely ever get caught!" Kass, handcuffed, was being escorted out of the facility by agents.  Tony was running after them. 

"She retired!"

"Then why's she linked to illegal arms deals?"

"Excuse me? This is the first I've heard of this. The only shopping I've done lately was buying a vinyl copy of Led Zeppelin I online." She turned to Tony.  "Which I put on your credit card, by the way."

"Ross, come on," Tony pleaded.

"I'm just doing my job, Stark. You might want to stick to doing yours." He turned to Kass.  "And you, you need to find a real job."

"She has a job - with Stark Intelligence."

"We're done here, Stark."

"Where are you taking my girlfriend?"

"In for questioning. And then, most likely to jail."

"Well I'm going to get my lawyer on the phone right now-"

"Go ahead, but I'm one-hundred percent sure they'll tell you she's breaking the law."

"Just leave it Tony, I'll go with them.  This guy has been waiting for an excuse to arrest me for a long time."

"I'm not about to let this go," Tony was still protesting.

"I know," she said. 

They shared a brief kiss before the guards yanked her away. 

"Ross and Ross - well isn't it my lucky day."

Agent Ross stood at the entrance to the building, and she passed by him as the guards led her inside.

She was plunked in an interrogation room, hand-cuffed to the desk, and left for a few minutes. 

Quickly growing tired of the silence, she began tapping on the desk with her free hand, and stomping her feet under the desk.

"'Hey, hey mama said the way you move

Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove

Ah ah child way ya shake that thing

Gon' make you burn, gon' make you sting'-"

The door buzzed open.

"Ah, glad I could get your attention. I still have like the whole song to get through, though." 

Agent Ross sat down across from her.  "Kazimiera Konstantin, I take it you know why you're here."

"Agent Ross, I haven't got a clue. Care to tell me?"

"Gladly. What are you planning?"

"Other than what I'm going to have for dinner once I get out of here, nothing - well, Tony and I were planning on a weekend trip to the mountains..."

"Let me rephrase: What's Ulysses Klaue planning on doing?"

"I have no freaking clue! What's he got to do with anything?"

"In this case, everything. We received a tip on the arrangements you made with Klaue."

"Arrangements? What arrangements?"

"You know which arrangements."

"Do I sound like I know?"

"The transfer of Vibranium weaponry."

She scoffed.  "A tip from who?"

"It was anonymous."

"Oh yeah, yeah, that's totally legit."

"But it's not totally unreliable either."

"Depends on who it was. I've made a lot of enemies in my time."

"I'm not surprised."

"Come on Ross, I'm an Avenger - or, well, I was, kind of..."

"Well it seems like many of the Avengers are criminals nowadays. While we're on the subject, you don't happen to know the whereabouts of Captain Steve Rogers, Sergeant James Barnes, Agent Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Wanda Maximoff?"

"Even if I did I wouldn't tell you."

"Thought as much."

"And just because Klaue may or may not be my biological father, doesn't mean I'm working with him." 

"This tip says otherwise."

"Yeah, your sketchy tip!" It seemed that Klaue just kept sneaking up on her. 

Ross got to his feet.  

"Awesome, are we done?" She moved to stand as well, though awkwardly due to still being attached to the table. 

"I'll be right back - don't go anywhere."

"Hilarious."

The door slammed shut behind him.  She gave it a few minutes before jumping into action. 

She withdrew the piece of Invisi-tech Tony had slipped into her pocket during their rushed goodbye kiss.

"Oh Tones, you know me so well..."

"Any luck?" Secretary Ross asked when Agent Ross joined him in one of the main offices.

"Not yet. She's not talking - I mean, she's talking lots, just not any information that is of any use to us."

The Secretary of State sighed.  "Well, keep up the interrogation. I want to get to the bottom of this."

"Yes, Sir. Will do."

Another agent rushed into the room then.  "Uh, Sir, Konstantin just vanished."

"What? What do you mean, vanished?"

"As in she was there one second, and gone the next."

"Could it have been an issue with the security footage?"

"Nope. We checked."

"Well check again." Agent Ross followed the agent to the security control room.  It couldn't have been more clear though: the interrogation room was empty. The pair of handcuffs lay severed on the floor. 

They watched as the door was opened, seemingly by an invisible hand.

Ross cursed.  "Son of a-"

(I miss Tony so much! Rumour had it  that we might have a cameo from him in 'Black Widow' - sadly, it wasn't to be :(

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

New York City, 2016

She was never going to outrun the guards and agents on foot, even if she were invisible. 

The invisibility was certainly an advantage for her, but it wasn't like it helped her move faster or swifter or help her pass through walls or anything, any of those which would be very helpful right about now. She'd have to talk to Tony about those options later...

She very nearly took out many guards and agents a few too many times as she zig-zagged her way through the halls of the building - she did bump into one person, greatly startling them by the looks of it when they couldn't see the source of the collision. 

"Kass, can you hear me?"

"Tony, I'm here," she responded through the radio. 

"Good. I'm going to help you get out of here."

"Thanks, I appreciate it. But we'd better move fast."

"Agreed." 

He started giving her directions of the layout of the building, helping her head for the nearest exit while she continued to try and evade the agents and guards after her. 

"Okay turn left here."

"Okay - there is no left turn here."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a dead end."

"What? How?"

"There's a wall!"

"Where are you?"

"I don't know! Some hall!"

"Describe it."

"Uh, it's long, with doors and lights..."

"Thanks, that narrows it down."

"I thought you were tracking me through the Invisi-tech!"

"I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"That one doesn't have a tracker, it's too small, I haven't figured out how to add a tracker to something that small yet."

"Well you'd better get on it, Mr. Tech Genius!" 

"We've been busy!"

"Well you'd better figure it out right after this! If I make it out of here..."

"You will - but you'll have to deactivate the tech so I do an overall scan of the building and find exactly where you are."

Sighing, she deactivated the invisibility mode. "You'd better hurry, this place is crawling with people who want to arrest me."

"Okay...  Scan complete, I see you!"

"Good, so now what?"

"You're going to head back down the way you came and there should be a door at the end leading to a staircase."

"Got it."

She started heading down the hall according to his directions. She was stopped along the way, however - it was Agent Ross. He held a gun pointed at her. 

"I know you weren't bluffing back there."

"Huh?"

"Ulysses Klaue is dead."

His words hit her like a wave. "What?"

"I got back from Wakanda a couple of months ago - he was killed by a Wakandan exile, his body brought into the country."

"How do you know? Did you see the body?"

"No, but I know this guy would have made sure the job was done."

"So then what were all the theatrics for back there? Just for fun?"

"I needed to see if you knew. But you clearly don't."

"No, I don't! That's what I said!"

"And since he is, dead that is, that means someone is still doing his bidding, keeping his work alive."

"And you thought it was me."

He nodded. "But now I know it's not."

"Good."

"Any idea of who it could be?"

She shrugged.  "It could be anyone - he has contacts everywhere."

"Which is why you needed to know this, so you can be aware."

"Yeah, well, thanks, I guess."

If it were really true - and it sounded like it was - that meant that she was an orphan, with both her biological and adoptive parents gone. This realization hit her in a heavy wave. 

"You'd better go, get out of here and far away. Get to the bottom of this - or Secretary Ross will just arrest you again-" Footsteps and shouting signalling more approaching agents and guards got their attention nearby.  "Go!" Ross hissed, and she went invisible again. "Nothing over here!" he called to the other agents, luring them away. 

Kass continued to make her way through the building, her head spinning. Klaue is dead... He's dead... He's really gone...

"What was all that about?" Tony asked, his voice in the radio startling her. 

"How much of that did you hear?"

"Bits and pieces."

"I'll tell you once I'm out of here - it's a long and complicated story."

"Okay, on the note of getting out of here - head down to the basement to the garage."

"Roger that."

He continued to direct her until she was in the basement.

"Now get yourself a ride out of there."

"Cool, I have some selection..." She peered at the various cars and trucks - and motorcycles.

The door made a loud blaring sound as it opened.

"Did you do that?"

"I sure did." 

"Cool - and I am out of here." She put the bike in gear and sped towards the door.

There was another loud blaring, this time with a red light flashing, and the door began to close again. She was going to get cut off. 

"Tony!"

"Keep going!"

She wasn't going to make it - she wasn't going to make it-

She braced herself for the impact of the bike striking the huge metal door - an impact which never came. 

She dared crack her eyes open slightly to see free road ahead - she'd made it.  Looking in the side mirror on the bike, she saw the door had stopped mid-close.  Throwing a look over her shoulder, she saw the door had been stopped and held by a red and gold suit.

She threw back her head and laughed. "I love you, Stark."

"I love you too.  All right, Kassy, ditch the bike and get off the bridge."

"Uhhh..." She was in the middle, railing on either side, so there was no easy or quick way off the bridge and onto the main road.  

"Go off the side."

"Excuse me? It sounded like you told me to jump off a bridge."

"I did."

"And I was hoping I misheard you."

"Do it, I've thought this out, I promise."

"So what, I just plunge into the river below?"

"We'll catch you, you have my word."

"'We'll'?"

"Kass, now!"

"Okay, okay! Going!" Without giving herself any further time to think it through, with only her trust for her boyfriend, she threw down the bike and leapt over the railing off the side of the bridge.

The next thing she knew the wind was rushing past her and she plunged downwards, nearing the river-

But then, she suddenly stopped falling, just like that, as though she were suspended.

Looking up, she saw what Tony had meant by 'we'll'.

"Hey Ms. Konstantin!"

(This escape scene was inspired by Cap's escape in 'The Winter Soldier' :)

Sorry if there's some confusion with the timeline - I'm a little confused myself! If I remember correctly, 'Black Panther' takes place about a week after 'Civil War', and then Klaue is killed, so I guess he's not alive during this story, cause this takes place after 'Homecoming' which is several months after 'Civil War'... *Confused staring at computer screen*

Thanks so much! Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! :)) 

Chapter Text

New York City, 2016

"Pete! Hey! Thanks for the catch!"

"Hey, yeah, no problem! Mr. Stark contacted me and said you were in trouble."

"Yeah, that's one way to put it..."

 The Spider-teen was stuck to the underside of the bridge, hidden from sight, and now she was hidden as well, wrapped in some of his webbing, safely secure. 

"That was actually kind of fun," Kass admitted. "It reminded me of bungee jumping - only you weren't sure if you were going to be caught or not at first."

"Let's not make a habit out of it." Tony floated over, his mask falling away to reveal his face.  "Thanks for showing up on such short notice, Kid."

"Anytime, Mr. Stark! Happy to help!"

"Hey, it's a Wednesday, shouldn't you be in school?" Kass asked him. 

"Yeah, I faked having to go home sick."

"Classic."

"Hey, it worked."

"You okay?" Tony asked her.

"Yeah, that was interesting. Thanks for the help."

"Of course, anytime."

"So, now what?" asked Peter, eager as always when it came to hero work, especially with the Avengers. 

Kass sighed, decided. "I think I've got to go meet my sister."

"Wait, you have a sister?!" cried Peter. "That's cool! I didn't know you had a sibling."

"Yeah, neither did I. But I don't know how cool it is - I think she may have set me up with the authorities."

"What makes you think that?" Tony asked. 

"Ross said they got an 'anonymous tip' that I've been assisting Klaue."

"Agent Ross or Secretary Ross?"

"Agent."

"Huh. Do you really think it could be her?"

"I got arrested right after the break-in with the note from her - I don't think that's a coincidence."

"Who broke into where?" asked Peter, desperately trying to keep up with the rapid conversation.

"But then, when Ross cornered me - still Agent Ross - he told me Klaue's dead."

"Really? Like actually dead? For sure?" Tony confirmed. 

"Yes."

"So it was all just a ruse."

"Yeah, basically, to see if I knew anything or had anything to do with it. He was just trying to keep it all like a formal interrogation so Secretary Ross wouldn't know. So I've got to go."

"Where are you guys going? Can I come?"

"No." Tony shut that down right away. 

The teen's face fell. "What? Why not?"

"Because it's probably dangerous. And personal," Tony told him. 

"Family issues, apparently," Kass added. "Sorry, Pete, but it's probably best if you sit this one out."

Peter sighed. "Ah man, I was really hoping to get out of my English quiz..."

--------------------------------------------------

"Bye Pete, thanks again for your help," Kass called. "Say hi to May from me."

"Yeah. You sure I can't come?"

"Yes. I won't let you miss any more school on my account," Tony insisted.

"Fine... Well, just let me know if you need any help."

"Don't worry, we will." 

They waited until they saw him enter the apartment building before driving away. 

"So where do we have to go?" Tony asked. 

"Rome."

"Ah."

"Yeah, I know, we were just in Europe."

Rome, Italy

"You sure this is the right address?"

"Yeah."

"You sure? It's in Italian, maybe we should get F.R.I.D.A.Y. to translate-"

"I speak Italian, Tony!"

"Yeah I know, but - okay, fine, let's go."

Kass and Tony sat in a car outside the apartment building whose address had been given to Kass in the note from the break-in. 

"Wait, wait, I've got to go, myself," Kass told him. "All it said was an address, apartment number, and 'come clone'."

"Oh come on, that's the red flag of all red flags!"

"Tony, she's my sister. How bad can it be?"

"Well, speaking of siblings, you know Thor and Loki..."

"Okay yeah, but that's different. All I know is I've got to do this. Alone."

He sighed, not thrilled about it, but understanding.  "Then go. I'll be waiting here if you need me."

"Okay, thank you."

"But I'll be listening in - closely. So if I hear anything that sounds even the least bit sketchy, I'm coming up." 

"Okay. Good to know you'll be in my ear."

"You nervous?"

She heaved a sigh.  "Very. For the longest time I thought the only living blood family I had was a vicious black market arms dealer. I mean, I have no idea what this Regina is like, but she's family."

"Then you go give her a warm welcome.  Got your  gun, and your Invisi-tech?"

"Yup, got it all. Wish me luck."

"Good luck. And remember, I'm here if you need me."

"Thanks Tony." And with that, she disappeared inside the building.

The door to the noted apartment was slightly ajar when she stood before it - someone was clearly expecting someone. 

Well, here goes.

She gently pushed the door open, which creaked slightly, revealing a very sparse apartment. It looked as though someone was in the process of moving. 

Her footsteps tapped gently on the floor as she stepped inside. There was no sign of anyone here. 

"Oof!" Suddenly, something slammed into her from the side, knocking her off her feet. It quickly became apparent that the something was someone when Kass found herself pinned to the floor by a young woman.

She didn't get a good look at her, though saw a flash of raven hair, for her fight instincts kicked in and she activated the Invisi-tech. The look on the young woman's face was priceless when Kass literally vanished before her eyes.

This gave Kass the upper hand though, and she started to fight back. The young woman was a skilled fighter, but if she was being honest, Kass had seen more skilled.

Pretty soon it was Kass's turn to knock her opponent down and pin her to the floor. She de-activated the tech so they started at each other. 

Kass stared down at the young woman.  "Nice to meet you too - Sis."

(Yup, this was inspired by Yelena and Nat's reunion in the 'Black Widow' trailer because I love it so much! ;D

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :))

Chapter Text

Rome, Italy, 2016

Kass let go of Regina and the sisters stumbled to their feet, finally taking a good look at each other. Now they stood facing each other, Regina with her gun pointed at Kass and Kass with her gauntlets pointed at Regina. 

Regina responded by spitting back a phrase in Italian - to which Kass replied in flawless Italian.

Next Regina tried German, also to which Kass responded fluently. Finally, she tried Sokovian Russian.

"I learned Russian, just for you." Regina spoke in a British accent. 

"Aww, how sweet. I'll be honest and tell you it needs some work."

"Well, while we're on the topic of honesty: you're a lot shorter than I imagined."

"Uh, thanks... I think.  Though I fail to see why that's relevant."

"What're those?" Reginia nodded to the gauntlets covering Kass's arms. 

"Gauntlets. They'll blast you. My boyfriend's a bit of a tech genius - no, he is a tech genius."

"Ah, got a cute little boyfriend, have you?"

"More a 'handsome hunk' I'd say. And trust me, there's nothing little about him."

Regina cracked a smirk. "I like you." She lowered her gun.

While she lowered her weapon, Kass chose to keep her gauntlets raised. "So, care to tell me what the hell this is all about?"

"You came alone?"

Kass held a straight face. "It's just me."

"Good." She didn't elaborate.

"So, care to explain?"

"Our father is dead."

Kass's jaw tightened. "Don't call him that."

"Uh oh, is that some tension I sense?"

"Like you don't have any with a father like that. What am I doing here? Just get to the point. I'd like to make this as quick as possible, if you don't mind."

"Aw, and I thought my big sister would like to spend some time with me."

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On whether I like what you have to say, which I'm already not liking.  And  whether or not you try to kill me again."

Regina shrugged.  "Fair enough. And just for the record, I wasn't really trying to kill you, not really."

"Well it sure seemed like it. And, just to be on the safe side-"  Kass kicked the gun from Regina's hands, the weapon flying across the room.  "I'm going to ask the questions here since you quite literally dragged me into this. Also you should have seen that coming." She raised her gauntlets at her sister, the tech glowing and humming, telling Regina that they were at the ready in case she tried something.  "So what else?"

"In a hurry?"

"I'd rather get this over with."

"Well, I want to spend time with my sister."

"Yeah this has been fun so far, really great. Like I said, let's make this quick. I like to get to the point. Get in. Get the prize-"

"And get out." They spoke in perfect unison. Hmm, maybe they were more alike than Kass had thought - had been willing to let herself believe. 

Regina's grin stretched further.  "We think alike, Sister Dear. That's good, I like that." 

"Carry on - Sister Dear."

"Even though he's gone, he's still got people working for him, doing his bidding." Regina wandered over to the window, peering through the crack exposed between the closed curtains. 

Kass sighed knowingly.  "The minions doing the dirty work."

"Exactly.  He had a tight and extensive web of followers.  And it's pretty ugly out there."

"Oh, I imagine."

"So are you with me?"

"With you with what? You're leaving a lot of holes in this story."

"Will you help me take the rest of them down?"

"How many are we talking?"

Regina shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine." 

"Awesome.  Come on, I've got a car waiting downstairs.  We can talk more there. I don't trust us having this kind of conversation here, the room could be bugged."

"I already checked, it isn't."

"Well, great minds think alike, then." 

"They certainly do." Regina scooped up her gun off the floor and waved it in the air. "Just in case." 

Kass lifted her gauntlet-covered arm again.  "Me too."

"Who is this old man?" Regina wasted no time in pointing her gun at Tony when Kass led her out to the car. 

"'Old' man?" cried Tony.

"'Who is he?'" scoffed Kass.  "Do you live under a rock? That's Tony Stark."

"This is Tony Stark? The Iron Man?" Regina pointed to him in disbelief. 

"Yeah. And my boyfriend."

"Really? Damn girl."

"Yeah. Now let the old man go." 

Now Tony shot her a look of pure betrayal as Regina let him go  as requested.  "Thanks, Dear."

"Anytime, My Darling. Tony, this is my sister, Regina." Kass introduced. 

"A pleasure." 

"So much for coming alone." Regina tossed her bag into the backseat, climbing in after it. 

"He insisted."

"Cute."

Suddenly, a beeping came from Regina's bag.  She withdrew a little device and cursed in Italian.

"What?"

"They've found me."

"Who?"

"Some of Dad's old friends."

"Please stop calling him that. The ones you were talking about?" 

"Some of them, yeah.  I was tracking them, and they were likely tracking me."

"Awesome."

"They're after this-" Regina reached into her bag and held something up. "Special tech. Adamantium based and powered."

"Ada-what?"

"Adamantium." 

Kass and Tony only exchanged a glance.

"Don't look at me," said Tony.

"Well I am Mr. Self-proclaimed Genius."

"The strongest metal in the world." Regina stared at them like it was not only the strongest, but also the most obvious thing in the world. 

"No, that's vibranium. Comes out of Wakanda."

"Well this is stronger than even vibranium."

"Well damn. Where does it come from?"

Regina shrugged.  "This bit was found at the bottom of the ocean."

"And you stole it," Kass stated. 

"Yes."

"From them."

"Yes."

"Of course you did."

"Like sister like sister," said Tony. "I'm beginning to see how the two of you are related."

"Seriously you two, I'm adamant about the adamantium." 

"Hilarious." 

"I'm serious.  This shit is powerful. There's not much of it and it's in high demand." The device beeped some more, and Regina cursed again. "You're going to want to start driving, old man."

"I'm not that old!"

A car flew around the corner behind them, heading right for  them.

"Tony, step on it!"

"Right. Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y., you with us?"

"Right here as always, Boss."

Regina visibly jumped.  "Who else did you bring along? Against my good wishes."

"That's my A.I.," Tony stated proudly. 

"Yeah, brag about it later, right now drive!" cried Kass. 

With that, Tony stepped on it. 

(Yes, I did make an Atlantis/Namor reference there ;)  And yes, I'm still taking inspiration from the 'Black Widow' trailers. 

Also, I imagine Sofia Pernas as Regina :)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :))

Chapter Text

Rome, Italy, 2016

"Okay, what can you tell me about who's chasing us?" Tony said.

"I already told you-" Regina began. 

"Not talking to you. F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Scanning the vehicles now, Boss...  Three SUVs, four armed people in each."

 Regina ducked as the back window was shattered by bullets.  "Yeah, armed, definitely armed!"

"This is a rental!" cried Tony.

"I don't think they care!" Kass ducked as well, just for safety's sake.  Then she called back to Regina, "Can you take the adamant stuff-"

"Adamantium."

"Whatever! Can you take it out of the case it's in?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Put it in something else."

Regina did as requested, emptying the case of the special metal and sticking it in her bag, holding the now empty case out to Kass.

Kass took it and opened the window.  She waved the case out the window before hurling it back at the pursing truck. The case struck the windshield and bounced off, rolling onto the road.

"What was that supposed to do?" Regina asked.

"I'm making this up as I go! And they're chasing us thanks to you," Kass reminded her. "Tony, you concentrate on driving. I'll concentrate on distracting them."

"What about me?" asked Regina.

"Just stay down - you've done enough already." She turned back to Tony. "This is the part where you tell me you love me and no matter what happens out there you'll always love me."

"I love you and no matter what happens out there I'll always love you."

She snorted with laughter.  "Cheeky."

With that, she opened the window, leaned out of it and aimed her gauntlet at the SUV.  A laser shot from it, slicing the front of the SUV, causing it to spin out of control.  This took care of two of the pursuing cars, with the second one slamming into the first as it spun, but the third swerved around and continued the chase. 

Regina was firing her gun from the other window. "Thought you could use some help."

"I don't, but thanks anyways."

"Hey Iron Man, care to help?" Regina called over her shoulder.

"I'm driving! I'd say that's helping, thank you very much."

Kass aimed her gauntlet lower, and fired the laser again, which this time struck the front tires of the third SUV. This one spun out of control as well, off the road completely and into the side of a building. Regina cheered.

"I think we're good - for now." Kass fell back into her seat.  "We need to ditch this flashy car," she said with a pointed glance towards her boyfriend.

"Hey, I like my cars," he defended.  

"Well, this one's in quite a state."

"It's not that bad..." Tony assessed the damage - and there was lots of it thanks to the chase.  "Yeah, I'm going to buy it off the rental company," he decided. 

"Can you do that?"

"Well we can't return it like this."

"True." 

"I think we should get back to the States," he said. 

"Sounds like a plan," Kass agreed.  She turned to Regina.  "And you're coming with us."

"Can you say it? Come on, say it," Regina urged. 

"We know you love to say it, Boss."

"That A.I. is so badass. Come on, just say it."

Tony rolled his eyes.  "I am Iron Man."

"So cool." Regina leaned back in her seat.  They trio were currently in a jet on the way back to the U.S.  "I could get used to this private jet." She tucked her arms behind her head and kicked her feet up.

"Remember this isn't a holiday," Kass told her. "We're working to clean up the mess you started."

"So how did you two meet? I mean dirty thief and billionaire extraordinaire? Not really your every-day match."

"Thanks," said Kass.  Then she grinned.  "I robbed his billionaire ass."

"You attempted to," Tony corrected.

"More than once."

"Hmm.  Well, I'm team Captain America myself, no offence.  Speaking of which, do you think I could meet said gorgeous Captain?"

"I don't get everyone's obsession with him," said Tony bitterly. "Honestly, he's not all that great." 

"Are you kidding?" Regina scoffed. 

"The Avengers situation got pretty messy," Kass explained. "We were divided on a lot of issues."

Clearly Regina got the idea from the tone of her voice. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, that bad."

"Yeah, that's why I try to avoid teamwork at all costs. It's overrated to me."

"I used to be that way," Kass agreed. "But then, when I tried it, I found teamwork wasn't all that bad. Depends on  the team.  This team was a good one, we just couldn't agree on a lot of things, unfortunately. It is nice though, knowing someone always has your back.  Or at least that's how it should be." 

"Okay then... How about Thor?"

"Thor hasn't been sighted on Earth since last year," Tony informed her.

"Damn it. He's pretty gorgeous too."

"He is," Kass agreed.

"Hey, whose side are you on?" Tony cried. 

"Team Iron Man, always."

"I have to say I am a fan of Thor as well," piped-up F.R.I.D.A.Y.

"Of course you are."

"So if the Avengers are broken up, what have you been doing?" Regina asked them. 

Kass shrugged.  "Not much, honestly. Trying to clean up the mess we made.  And I don't know, maybe that's a good thing, if we don't have much to do. Means things are better out there. Somewhat."

"For now," added Tony. "Things never stay settled for long, as we've learned. We learned that the hard way.  We know it all too well." 

(As always, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)) 

Chapter Text

New York, 2016

"Welcome to the Avengers Facility," Kass told Regina when they entered the facility.  "Home sweet home." 

"I know, I've been here. When I broke in."

"Oh, yeah."

"So are you living here?"

"Yeah, for now. We were looking into getting our own place in the area but just haven't gotten around to it yet with the fallout of the team breaking up and all that drama." 

"So, how long have you and Iron Man been together?" Regina asked. 

"Good question.  No all that long actually. We've been really on and off until now.  That was my fault, I was scared of commitment."

After getting a change of clothes and finding something for Regina to wear, she headed down to the lab where Tony was closely examining the piece of adamantium with his tools. 'Cool Tools' as Kass like to call them.

Regina gave a low whistle of astonishment upon seeing the lab. 

"I know, that was my first reaction too," Kass agreed.  She turned to her boyfriend. "How's it going?"

"Interesting. I've been comparing this piece to a sample of vibranium I had, and there's some similarities between the two, but this stuff is definitely stronger."

"How much?"

"Significantly."

"Damn." Now it was Kass's turn to whistle in astonishment.  "I want to do some research on this, see what more we can find out, if anything. But I'm thinking, these are tech thieves we're dealing with, probably expert hackers, if I'm guessing from personal experience.  They could be tracking our computers and our activity."  

"What do we do then?" asked Regina.  

"You're not going to like this, oh tech genius," she told Tony.  "But we go old school."

"Okay I'm ready to go." Regina emerged from the closet in her new outfit, which consisted of a pair of jeans, sneakers, a beanie, and a Captain America hoodie. Kass had found everything for her except for the hoodie, that was Regina's own addition. 

"Oh that's really subtle," commented Kass.

"What? I'm not the only one who loves this guy."

"I guess it'll do. Come on."

Heavily disguised - well at least on Tony's part - the trio headed to the nearest mall and right to the bookstore. 

"Don't steal anything," Kass told her sister. 

"I'm not going to, don't worry - oh, those boots are cute." Regina stopped in front of a store window.  

"Keep moving please," Kass requested, tugging the other woman along. 

When they reached the bookstore, they got right down to work on research.  They split up and each took a separate section of the store to search through: Kass took history, Regina took world, and Tony took mechanics and metalwork.

It was certainly a lot less quick than using a computer - old school indeed. 

Pretty soon, an impressive stack of history books had accumulated next to Kass. "Nope." She tossed another one onto the pile. Nothing on adamantium or anything similar.

Just when she was starting to grow intensely frustrated did she finally have some luck.  She quickly regrouped with the others, who hadn't been having any luck either, book in hand.  "Listen to this: When the Nazis invaded Greece in 1941 during World War II, they sent H.Y.D.R.A. units across the coast searching for precious metals... They believed these metals were imbued with the power of the Gods, and could be found all throughout the Mediterranean. Allied forces shut down such searches in North Africa during the end of the campaign in that area in 1943...  Well, from what Cap's told us about H.Y.D.R.A., they believed in myths and magic and all that  and were pretty obsessed with it all."

"Do you think those 'precious metals' could be what we're dealing with?" Tony asked.

"Well according to the people after us, it's a metal, and it's pretty precious," put-in Regina.  

"So it's incredibly strong and supposedly imbued with the power of the gods - I can see the appeal," remarked Kass.

"So are we going to have to go to the Mediterranean?" asked Regina.

"We were just there," cried Tony. 

"I know. But we can take your swanky private jet again." 

"Well, at least that's a start." Kass closed the book and returned it to its place on the shelf. 

"Uh oh, we've got company," Regina said as they left the store. 

Kass followed her gaze to several people standing in a close circle, looking like undercover security guards.  "Those the same people chasing us?"

"Well not sure if it's the exact same people, but they're working with them along the same lines."

"How can you be sure?"

"Cause I recognize them from dealings in the past."

"And by 'past dealings' you mean stealing from them."

"Precisely."

"We've got more," Tony whispered, nodding to a similar group further down the hall. 

  Suddenly, Regina drew in a sharp breath.

"What is it?"

"Goliath." She nodded to one of the people, a tall, muscular man wearing dark glasses. 

"Huh?"

"He worked closely with our dad-"

"I thought I told you to stop calling him that."

"-He's another big arms dealer. Those guys who were chasing us work for him. He's who I stole the adamantium from."  

"Well it must be serious if the main guy is coming to do the dirty work himself." 

"Yeah."

"They're really hell-bent on getting this adamantium." 

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., any more that you can tell?"

"Yes Boss - they've got units on all mall floors and by all of the exits."

"They came prepared." Kass sighed.  "How are we going to get out of here if the place is crawling with them?"

"I have an idea," piped-up Regina.  "But you may not like it."

"What is it? We don't exactly have a lot of options here."

"Alright, well you asked for it." Suddenly, Regina jumped back and pointed at Tony, then yelled at the top of her lungs, "OH MY GOD! IT'S TONY STARK!"

(Haha, I felt that was a good place to end the chapter ;)

I absolutely love Steve and Nat's disguised trip to the mall in Winter Soldier so I had to recreate something similar here with these characters! 

I was researching characters connected to Klaue and  read about the Masters of Evil and Goliath cause I wanted to keep it tied to the universe! I'm learning lots of cool stuff about the comics and characters with the research I'm doing for these stories. 

By the looks of things, we'll be wrapping up this story soon - thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :)) 

Chapter Text

New York, 2016

This got everyone's attention, near and far.

A crowd of now wildly excited people swarmed and engulfed them, putting a lot of distance between them and the people chasing them - mission accomplished.

But now they had a mob of fans to try and avoid. Thinking quick, Kass removed her small Invisi-tech gauntlet and put it on Tony's wrist, pressing the button and activating it. Tony Stark disappeared instantly. 

No one was interested in her, and so with Tony invisible and the crowd now confused, this offered the perfect space for them to slip away through a break in the crowd, leaving the fans confused and disappointed. 

"Thanks, quick thinking,"  he told her once they were out of the mall and at least across the street. 

"Yeah, the invisibility comes in handy-" That was when she noticed something was off.  "Wait - where's Regina?" 

California, 2016

In and amongst all the chaos at the mall, they had lost her.  Though they had a pretty good idea of what had happened and where she had gone - or at least who was the source of her sudden disappearance and separation from them. 

 The hunt to track down those who had been tracking them - Goliath and his team, according to Regina -  led them to California. Back where it had pretty much all started for Tony and Kass all those years ago. 

Regina had been taken and was being held at a shipping yard, only to be released upon the return of the adamantium. 

"This area looks clear," Kass told Tony through the radio from where she was walking along the docks of the shipyard. "But just cause it appears that way doesn't mean it is..." 

Her suspicions were confirmed a few minutes later - hearing a low creaking sound, she turned.  A giant container ship must have had its motor on, for it was moving - and it was headed right for her.

"Oh fu-"

She turned and sprinted the other way, hearing the wood tear and splinter as the ship crashed into the docks, meaning it wasn't that far behind her. 

"Tony, I need evacuation RIGHT NOW!"

"Kassy - I see you, I'm coming! Stay where you are!"

"Not an option! Definitely not an option!"

"I mean don't stay where you are! Just stay where I can see you!"

Just at the last second he swooped in and scooped her up.

"You really need to make my suit flyable," she told him.

"Yeah, number one priority once we get home," he agreed. 

"Well, they got our attention, that's for sure." 

"Which means we probably got theirs as well." 

They weren't engaged in any combat until they found themselves high up on the cranes used to move the containers. 

Kass was facing off against Goliath himself. 

"Your father would have been proud of how far you had come in the thieving world," he told her.

"Don't call him that!" she snapped back. "And I don't give a damn what he thought about me."

"This is a lost cause for you."

"Not yet.  And besides, everyone knows anything is possible when your favourite music is playing in the background - hit it F.R.I.D.A.Y.!"

Robert Plant's musical screams filled the air as Led Zeppelin blasted through the night. 

"Damn it!" Kass's cry caught Tony's attention as he was taking care of some of the other guards. She was trapped, hanging off of one of the rails.   

Tony reached out to her.  "I've got you, okay. Relax, I've got you. Just look at me!"

"Shut up! You're making me nervous."

He was clearly struggling.  "Honey, I can't reach any further, and you can't stay there, you're just gonna have to let go, alright. You've got to let go - I'll catch you I promise."

They were just reaching for each other when a blast shook the section of metal - Kass lost her grip and plunged to the series of platforms far below. 

Tony stumbled back, in shock, barely registering what had happened. 

"Shame. I would have caught her," said Goliath. 

Tony charged. 

"You really didn't deserve her."

"Don't  tell me what I do and don't deserve. I know I didn't deserve her, she was too good for me. She was perfect."

"Hey-" Ding!  Goliath was suddenly knocked over by a swing of a metal bar. "Hands off my man." A voice said.

In a flash, Kass appeared, the Invisi-tech deactivating. She turned to Tony, wearing parts of one of his suits.  "Aw, Babe, you think I'm perfect?" Then she turned back to Goliath.  "Looks like you're alone, no backup. Even I have backup."

 One of Tony's suits came zooming in towards where he was waiting. 

Ding! The suit miscalculated its incoming and landing and hit the toe of its boot on the railing, sending it crashing to the ground.

Tony rolled his eyes.  'Whatever."

"That's my man," said Kass.  She turned back to Goliath.  "See ya."

Only then did Tony notice - when she had been invisible, she had clipped the bomb to the railing closest to him.

In a flash, Tony activated his own suit, Kass jumping into his arms and he zoomed away just as the explosion blasted behind them. 

They landed hard on the ground below, he landing on top of her. "Got you!

"Got you first."

"No I got you first."

"Well, I'm sure I've gotten you first before." 

His mask fell away.  "You scared the devil out of me. I thought you were-"

"Dead? Yeah, so did I. I thought that was it. Who's the hot mess now?"

"Eh, still debatable."

It was semi-romantic, laying there, her boyfriend hovering above her, blasts of fire and sparks going off behind his head. But that could also have just been her very fuzzy brain. 

"It's going to be okay," Tony assured her.

"As I recall, I'm in a relationship with you, so nothing's ever going to be okay," she recounted, making him laugh.

"I love you so much."

"I love you too." 

They stumbled to their feet.  "Where's Regina?"

"I don't know, she just kind of disappeared. That sis of yours sure is sneaky, she reminds me a lot of you." 

"Well, I guess the whole thieving thing really runs in the family - our family legacy. Though I'm not sure that's really something to be proud of. I don't know, I just have this gut feeling, deep down, that I can  trust her. I hope she's okay. I know all about that single thief life, and how lonely it can get after a while. You don't realize it, and then just one day, all of the sudden, you're hit with this heavy wave of realization that this is how it's always been, and you wonder if that's how it's always going to continue to be."

"And then you meet a dashing and handsome genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthrophist."

"Oh boy, don't remind me," she joked.  "Well, my suit is toast I'm afraid. All that hard work-"

"My hard work.

"That's what I meant."

"Don't worry, I can fix it. That's what I do, I fix things." 

"Ugh-" Suddenly, Kass's stomach and head both gave a violent spin at the same time - it felt like she was about to vomit and that the air had been knocked from her lungs all at once. She could vaguely hear Tony's voice calling out to her, but it sounded as though he were calling to her through water. His voice grew fainter and fainter until it stopped altogether and everything went black. 

When she came to - which must have only been a few minutes later cause everything looked the same - she found Tony looking down at her, speaking but she couldn't hear anything he was saying, she could only register his lips moving. She must have fallen to the ground.

Another face joined Tony's  - Regina.

Her sister smiled down at her.  This time she could hear what was being said, though it sounded distant. "Thank you. See you around, Sis."

She wasn't sure if that had really happened, or if she had imagined it, but the next thing she knew Tony was helping her to her feet.  

He put an arm around her as she leaned into him.  "Let's get out of here," he said.  "Let's go home."

(Yup, borrowed some stuff from the end battle of Iron Man 3. The Epilogue is next, and it takes place post my 'End of an Era' story, just so you're aware - it's all connected, just like in the movies! ;) But if you haven't read that story, no worries, just know that the Epilogue takes place following Endgame - see you there! 

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))

Chapter Text

Kass was in the kitchen when it happened - a pain deep within her stomach. She almost dropped the bowl she was drying. 

"Oh - F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Your water has broken, Ms. Konstantin. The baby is on it's way." 

"Yeah, that's what I thought  too - looks like it's showtime."

Oh, it was definitely showtime - if the growing pains deep within her stomach were anything to go by. 

F.R.I.D.A.Y. immediately called Pepper, Rhodey and Happy while Kass got an ambulance to the hospital. 

A special guest also made an appearance.

After some digging post-Thanos's snap, Kass had learned that Regina had been amongst those who had been snapped away. However, this meant that with the later snap she had returned. 

"You really thought I was going to miss the birth of my niece or nephew?" Regina cried when she surprised everyone by showing up in the delivery room.  "Come on, Kazimiera, push!"

"Just shut up, Regina!"

Minutes later, Morgan Stark was born.

A little girl, her daughter. Her and Tony's daughter. One of the first things her mother noticed was that Morgan had her father's eyes. 

"You see Morgan, this is your dad, Tony," she said, showing the baby the framed photo she had brought along with her.  "You'll hear a lot about him as 'Iron Man', but he was Tony Stark first. First and always. I'm sorry he can't be here, but I can't wait to tell you all about him." She withdrew another photo from her bag then and set it on the nightstand next to Tony's photo. "And this is the greatest rock band ever to rock and roll, Led Zeppelin. See we've got Robert Plant, Jimmy Page..."

A celebration was held at the Georgia house once Morgan and Kass were home from the hospital. 

All of the remaining Avengers attended, including Peter, of course.  "Hey, Ms. Konstantin."

"Hey Peter! So glad you're here," she said, giving him a hug. "You know we're really at the point now where you can call me 'Kass'."

"Okay, Kass," he tried out.

"Heard you had quite the trip to Europe this summer."

"Yeah, a school trip gone crazy."

"I would have come to help, but as you know, I was a little tied up." She gestured to her no longer pregnant belly. 

"No worries, totally understand. Happy was there, and we sorted it out - I think." He then turned to the girl who was with him.  "This is my girlfriend, MJ." 

"Hi MJ." Kass gave her a hug too. "So nice to meet you, thank you for coming. Peter,  do you know Harley? Come on, I'll introduce you. And I have to introduce you to my sister too, who's currently holding Morgan - hey, speaking of, where'd Regina go with the baby?"

Four years later...

"Madam Secretary - lunch is almost ready," Kass called out into the yard. Her daughter was oddly silent. 

"Maguna? Morguna? You want some lunch?" Kass received no response as she headed outside into the yard where Morgan had been playing. 

"Define lunch or be disintegrated." Morgan suddenly emerged from her tent - wearing a glove as well as her father's helmet, pretending to blast Kass. 

"Whoa - you should not be wearing that, okay. That's very special." She placed a kiss on the cheek of the helmet before removing it from her daughter's head, brushing her dark hair out of her eyes. "Helmet hair. How did you find this?"

"Garage."

"Ah. And were you looking for it?"

"No - I found it though."

"Hmm, yes you did."

"It's Daddy's."

Kass smiled warmly at her daughter.  "Yes, yes it is."

Eleven years later...

"Happy birthday, Kiddo."

"Thanks, Mom. I gotta say, I am feeling a bit uncertain - I mean Dad was graduating from MIT when he was my age."

"Hey, hey, don't compare yourself. He set the bar ridiculously high. He would be so proud of you. I know I am."

Morgan hugged her.  "Thanks, Mom."

"Of course.  Ready to record our message?"

"Sure am."

Heading down to the basement which Tony had fashioned into a lab after he and Kass had moved in, she and Morgan set up his suit's helmet, pressing the record button. 

Kass spoke first. "Hey Mr. Stark. I know it's been a really long time since your recorded message - years in fact - but now I think I'm finally ready to respond.  God, we were at a totally different point then.  Well, first thing's first, our little girl is fifteen today - fifteen. I told her to stop growing, cause she's making me feel old. She's taller than me now." This made them both chuckle.  "She's here with me now."

"Hey Dad," jumped-in Morgan.  "It's me, Maguna."

"We've been waiting for the perfect moment to do this, and I think now is the time, and Morgan's birthday makes it all the more special, of course." She sighed. Where to begin? "I want to let you know that we're okay - I know I told you that we were going to be, but I want you to know that we are, we really are. We miss you like crazy, and it still hurts like hell, and there is nothing I want more than you and Morgan to meet each other, to have some time together, but we're okay. And the world - well, it's not perfect, as you know, and it's still  not perfect, not even close,  but it's okay too. And the Avengers - well, there have definitely been some changes to the team over the years, but good changes, I think. And Miss Morgan here will be leading them in no time, won't you, Kiddo?"

"That's the plan."

Kass chuckled tearfully now.  "So yeah, we're doing okay. And we hope you are too, wherever you are. We love you so much, Tony. We love you-"

"Three-thousand," finished Morgan. 

"We love you three-thousand." 

(Got some inspiration from a Stark family deleted scene from Endgame :) and yup, Katherine Langford's Morgan makes an appearance here.

Also got some inspiration from Diana's birth in Grimm, with Adalind yelling at Meisner to shut up. 

And that is the end! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it :) It was lots of fun and I love Tony and RDJ so much!

Thank you so much and I hope you enjoyed overall! :))