Chapter 1

Tony Stark's love of throwing loud, extravagant parties was well known by the world and the media. Tony Stark's ability at throwing a loud, extravagant party that was not public knowledge was not known by the world and the media. However, secluded parties did happen. This didn't mean they were any less loud or extravagant, it just meant he paid more attention to the guest list than usual. Or, rather, Pepper looked over the guest list and scratched off at least half the names.

The party to mark the completion of the new Avenger's Tower was one such party, secluded to mostly the ex-shield agents that worked with the Avengers, and a few of Tony's closest business partners.

Tony wasn't quite sure if he'd actually invited Nick Fury or not, but that didn't seem to matter, as at some point during the night, Nick Fury appeared standing in front of the window, looking out over the city landscape, and stood there as if he were a piece of décor.

At least, he did until one Lydia Martinez approached him. Lydia Martinez, with brown skin and short dark hair, dressed in a tight black dress and holding a tall glass of champagne so delicately, it was almost as if, without it, her outfit would not be complete.

"Director," she addressed him, her words smooth as she looked out at the landscape.

"I'm not a director anymore, Agent," Fury replied, clasping his hands behind his back. Lydia smiled, and took a sip from her champagne, leaving a dark purple lipstick mark on the edge of the glass.

"Are there any more leads on the rest of the Last Resort?" she asked. Fury shook his head.

"No," he said, "We're searching as hard as we can, but our resources are… less than we had."

Lydia made a small noise of irritated understanding, and she turned her back on the city. "When you do," she said, looking up at him, "I want to know."

"Of course," Fury said, nodding at her as she walked away, her sleek black heels clicking on the floor.

She joined a small circle consisting of Maria Hill, Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, Tony Stark and Sam Wilson.

"-Finally a room full of more women," Maria was saying as Lydia approached. Lydia smirked as she slid easily into the circle, between Pepper and Sam.

"Tell me about it," she said, a salacious grin on her face "I was beginning to get bored of all the bulging biceps around here."

"Ah, you can't tell me we're that boring, can you?" Sam asked, a tone of mock-annoyance in his voice as he grinned. Lydia shrugged.

"Well, you are all lovely to look at, but life for someone like me can just get so dull when there aren't enough women around either," she winked at Jane who snorted into her glass, while Tony rose towards her.

"Girl sees sense," he said.

"I always see sense," Lydia replied.


As Lydia joined the socialisation, Fury was approached by Natasha Romanoff. Unlike Lydia, she didn't stare out at the skyline, but looked up at Fury directly. He responded by looking down at her.

"Any leads on Banner?" she asked.

"Nothing more than what we already had," Fury replied, and Natasha huffed, "We've got people looking for him in every country, but he's been running for years. He knows how to hide."

"The world's only so big," Natasha said, casually, "he can't hide forever."


Back on the other side of the room, Lydia looked around, and raised her eyebrows at the sight of a lone Pietro Maximoff, seeminly sulking in the corner of the room. Odd, she thought, he was seldom separate from his…

Ah, there she was. Wanda and the Vision were happily sitting on the sofa near the back of the room, talking animatedly. The two had grown close in the recent months, both navigating what was, for all intents and purposes, a new world to them. It seemed Pietro did not enjoy their kind of navigating. Sighing, Lydia slipped out of the circle, and walked across the room. Pietro looked up when he heard her heels clicking towards him. His face did not quite soften, but it did not get worse, as it had done whenever someone he didn't know had approached him that night.

"You can join the party, you know," Lydia said, as she stopped in front of him, the amused tone in her voice setting an easy, non-intrusive quality to the conversation.

"I don't like parties," Pietro replied simply, looking away. Lydia let out a small laugh.

"No one likes parties," she said, "Not until they've got three times their alcohol limit in their blood and have stopped caring about everything," she held up her champagne glass to solidify her point. She then rethought her statement. "Well, unless you Tony. He loves parties; why he throws them so much. Of course, he still ends the night with probably more than ten times his alcohol limit in his blood…"

"Why are you over here," Pietro asked, shuffling from foot to foot. Lydia couldn't tell if he was uncomfortable with her presence, or just confused by it. She shrugged,

"You looked lonely, I thought perhaps you might appreciate some company, but would also appreciate not being forced into a large crowd." When he didn't answer, she sighed, took a sip of her champagne, and said, "but if you would prefer to be left alone, I understand."

She turned to go, but Pietro swallowed and said, "No it…" he faltered and she turned back, raising one dark, thick eyebrow, "I would appreciate your company."

"Good," Lydia smiled at him.

"I am… not used to talking with people who are not Wanda," Pietro said, his accent curling around the words almost harshly. Lydia looked over to where Wanda was smiling with the Vision.

"She seems to have grown quite close with Vision," Lydia commented, eyeing Pietro for his reaction. A shadow flitted across his face and his shoulders hunched slighty.

"Yes."

"You don't like that?"

"… I don't know," Pietro answered, his shoulder loosening slightly, "I don't know much about him."

"None of us do," Lydia told him softly, "I doubt he even knows much about himself. I mean, he is only, what… four months old?" She quirked a smile. Pietro looked at her and snorted, and her smile grew at the reaction she'd gotten.

Later that night (or, perhaps, early the next morning is a better description), as Lydia curled up in bed, her feet aching from wearing heels all night and the champagne happily bubbling away in her blood, she heard her personal phone chime from her dresser. However, she had already drifted off into sleep before she could even think of looking at it.


So I haven't posted any fanfiction for years, and when I did it was on a completely different account, but I recently saw Age Of Ultron and figured... why not. Hopefully this fic will, uh, go where I want it to go.

I'm in exam season atm, so updates will be either really common, or really rare (depending on how much procrastination I'm doing) until the end of May.

But yeah, it'd be great to know your thoughts and stuff, so drop us a review or whatever :D