Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel. Just Anna.

Chapter 26

Tony's time

"Normal" was, of course, was a relative term, but for Anna, things started to settle down and become more normal not too long after the team moved into the compound and established a training routine. The team spent a lot of time together, which was a given seeing as they all lived and worked together, but there was still plenty of time for everyone to do their own thing. There was a chef that would come and prepare meals a few times a week, but sometimes Anna, or Wanda would make dinner for everyone and they'd eat together instead of just heating up what they wanted.

There were missions that broke routine, but as more and more Hydra bases were taken down, and fewer and fewer leads to Bucky panned out, Anna found herself primarily just training and researching in her private office. A few months went by just like that. Anna hadn't even realized that it was her birthday until Tony walked into her office uninvited holding a large pizza box and a pink bakery box balanced on time in one hand, while the other held a metal briefcase.

"Roses are red," Tony said, as if declaring something super important and romantic, "Pizza sauce is too. I ordered a large pizza, and none is for you!"

"How long did it take for you to come up with that?" Anna asked, turning in her swivel chair.

"Five seconds," he said.

"You're slipping."

Tony just rolled his eyes. "Come on. Take a break. Have dinner with me," he said.

"I don't know, Tony," Anna sighed. She rubbed the back of her neck and glanced back at the monitor. She'd been digging around CCTV footage after getting a tip that Bucky had been in South America. It was really starting to get to her just how irritating dealing with other countries to get the footage was. She used to have people that would get it for her to look through at least, but the authorities were making her job twelve times more difficult than it needed to be. "I've gotta get this finished, and I'm really tired."

"So you're Ticked off, Irritated, Ready to punch something, Extremely upset, and Done?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Anna admitted.

"You need a hug?" Tony asked.

"Maybe," Anna chuckled. "Why, you offering?"

"No, I was gonna tell you Steve is outside running the obstacle course so you'd have to go out there for one," Tony said. It at least got a laugh out of her. "Come on. Take a break. Come some food. See the toys I brought for you."

Decided she really should eat something, Anna got up and followed Tony out to the kitchen to sit at the bar counter. "So what's up with all the attention?" Anna asked as she pulled out a slice. "Is it my birthday or something?"

"Yeah, it is you workaholic," he said.

"That's like the pot calling the kettle black," Anna laughed. "Anyway, I find my birthday super weird since my brother died on it, and I've time traveled so I'm actually older than what my birth certificate says."

"Yeah, I don't know if I should tell the baker to put twenty-one on your cake or twenty-three," Tony said. "So I didn't tell them anything. I mean, how would you explain that to someone?"

"Aliens?" Anna said.

"Then it just makes it sound like I'm blaming Thor," Tony said.

"Since when do you have an issue blaming Thor?" Anna asked. "And it's not like he's here to be able to beg to differ."

"Hey, I was trying to have an intelligent, adult conversation with you, but then you go…" Tony started to say, but trailed off. "I forgot where I was going with that."

"Then just fake it til you make it," Anna told him. "If you can't blow me away with your brilliance, baffle me with your bullshit. You taught me that!"

"Right? I can be a good influence! Suck it, tabloids!"

"I don't know, sometimes I like reading the tabloids," Anna joked. "I always find out things I never knew about myself. Like how I'm married to Steve, but I'm cheating on him with Sam." Tony's eyes widened as he gaped at her. "Don't give me that look," Anna said. "I can feel you judging me and my non-existent actions."

"What can I say? It's what I do, like a hobby," Tony teased.

"Well, maybe we should get you a new one," Anna suggested.

"Already got it covered," Tony said, pulling up the briefcase and setting it on the counter. "Got that new uniform finished up, and some other new toys for you."

"You didn't have to do that, Tony," Anna insisted once again. "Though, I gotta admit, I really love the gloves you made. It's something I never knew I needed. Definitely don't want to go back to fighting without them."

"Well, if you liked those, you'll really like your uniform upgrade," Tony said. "Open it."

Before she could get to the uniform to examine it, on top of it she found a few small cases. The first was clearly a glasses case. She opened it to find a pair of sunglasses a lot like the ones Tony had, but far more feminine for herself. The other small box had a pair of earrings in it. They were small, silver with a blue stone the same color as the arc reactor looking ring Tony had given her back when she'd first moved in with him those years ago. They were simple, but beautiful, like Anna's taste.

"These are both very much my style," Anna said. "Thank you, but did you have Pepper pick them out?"

Tony feigned a gasp and put his hand over his heart. "How dare you question my sense of style," he scolded. "But yes. She picked out the look, and I used that for the design. They're more than just nice accessories. Put the glasses on."

Anna did as instructed. She nearly jumped out of her stool when a male voice said, "Stand by for retinol and biometric and biometric scan accepted. Hello Anna. My name is TADASHI."

"You made me my own personal JARVIS?" Anna gaped.

"Essentially," Tony said. "With those, you'll have full access to the Stark Global Security Network, so satellites, and access to pretty much any communication device around. Plus, they're transition lenses so you can have him set that automatically, or tell him to leave them one way or the other. And besides me, sending updates or giving you something new, he'll only answer to you. And those earrings pretty much do the same thing. They're just speakers so that you can hear what TADASHI says at any point you're wearing them. They're configured to operate at such a low volume that only you can hear him when you're wearing them. That way you don't always have to wear the glasses to have access to him."

Anna took them off. It wasn't that she didn't like them, but right now she was spending time with Tony. She'd go in more depth with TADASHI on what he could do later. "Thank you so much, Tony. That's incredible."

"Now keep going."

The new uniform came in three pieces, unlike her current SHIELD uniform she still wore. The corset-like black top was rather conservative except for the upside down triangle showing just the slightest amount of cleavage (which wasn't so bad really if anyone asked Anna).It would cling to her figure perfectly. The bottom tapered off at the bottom, paralleling the triangle at the chest. The inch of trim along the bottom of the top was a deep purple.

Overtop the corset was a long sleeved black jacket that went down to the middle of her calf. It wasn't large enough to wrap in front of her and close, but it was more just meant to have protection over her bare arms. The back of the jacket had a piece cut out of it from the tailbone down to the bottom to allow for moveability, and so it wouldn't get caught on anything as she moved. The trim along the bottom, and the front sides glowed a dark blue, almost like the schemes on Natasha's new suit she'd been wearing for the last six months. On the back of the jacket, at the nape of the neck was another triangle cutout, except this one was rightside up, and had the blue glowing trim as well. There was no lapel on the side of the jacket either. It was all simple and in one piece with nothing truly excess so not to cause any inconvenience during a fight.

The bottoms were even more simple. They were just black spandex-like material that clung to her skin, but was very flexible so she had full range of movement. Anna could already tell the material was extremely durable, but soft to the touch so that if she had to wear it for a long period of time she'd be comfortable.

"Okay, so maybe you do have some taste," Anna admitted.

"Of course I have taste. I love Pepper, don't I?"

After the two finished off the pizza and started to dig into the French vanilla cake, they moved to the couch to put Transformers on just as they'd watched several times back when she'd first moved in with him. It wasn't too long after their move that she nodded off to sleep on his shoulder due to lack of sleep, overworkings herself, and a full stomach.

The movie went completely forgotten as he looked down at the young woman next to him. They'd known each other for a few years, but so much had happened between them. Tony had never wanted her in his life from the start, but with each day that went by with her living in his house, intruding into his work space, she somehow grew on him like a fungus. It was true Pepper had been hoping that having her around would give him a sense of family that he hadn't in a long time, if not ever.

And she had. Anna wormed her way into his heart, and though when he found out she'd really been sent there to spy on him, he did finally come to realize that the only thing she'd ever lied to him about was the fact that she was a SHIELD agent. Her actions in looking out for him, and caring for him was all her. Anna genuinely cared about people. She didn't want to hurt them, she was about protecting.

As much as Tony didn't like to feel vulnerable and attached, this girl was a part of his heart, and those items he'd given her weren't just because she was an Avenger and had a job to do. He wanted her to be safe so that she could always be around to be a part of his family.

When she'd gone missing just after they'd reconnected had tore him up inside. He'd looked everywhere for her, clearly to no avail. He'd felt as if a piece of him had died, and the only reason it had been revived was because she'd come back. She'd come back from the past, no less. Married. To a thought-to-be dead man, really a Hydra assassin.

The thought of Anna getting married hurt a bit. Not because she was so young, or that it was like getting taken away from his own family to start a new one. Had he wanted her to want him to want to walk her down the aisle at her wedding? Yeah, but there was no way he was going to say anything like that. Tony had a reputation to keep, and she'd had a father, and another father figure before him. Coulson was dead, as was her father, and her brother, all peple she may have rather had walk her down that dumb runway instead of him. He didn't want to leave himself open to get hurt and rejected.

That was something he could get over. After all, sometimes people got divorced, or renewed their wedding vows. Her wedding had been small and in a courthouse, he believed. So maybe he could pay for and get her to plan another one if they ever got that man back. With her determination, aided by Steve, and all the technology he could give her, he had no doubt she'd find him. And Tony really did want her to find him. Bucky, for whatever reason, made her happy. And that was really all Tony ever wanted for her. To be happy.

Because Tony Stark loved Anna May Barnes like she was his own daughter.

ONE MORE CHAPTER TIL CIVIL WAR. That is a terrible thing to be happy about...Wanting a civil war. Damn, how far we've fallen. On another note, I've almost finished writing the movie, so we have through chapter 34 down and it doesn't look like I'm going to be slowing down anytime soon. Work can be busy for a short burst and then nothing, so I'm getting a whole lot of writing done during the day. It's great really. I'm getting paid while writing fanfiction (but not for the fanfiction. I don't own Marvel...)

Anyway, thanks to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

Thunderstrike16 - Oh, you'll just have to see. ;) I've been having so much fun writing Civil War. There's so much drama and so many feels. I love it. You'll just have to see which side she's one, but clearly she loves Bucky so...I do have pretty much everything planned through Endgame. Just a small section left open in case I decide to put Anna in Black Widow, but I need to see it first to decide that. SHIELD and stuff will be addressed soon when it comes time for the Accords Decision, so I won't give that away, but they are considering Anna to be up there on the dangerous level with Nat and Clint and anyone, so if she wants to do any sort of work that's dangerous she'd have to sign (much like Daisy in Agents of SHIELD).

Jedi Jesla777 - DUDE I JUST REALIZED YESTERDAY THAT FALCON AND WINTER SOLDIER COMES OUT NEXT MONTH. IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME SO I CAN START PLANNING AFTER CIVIL WAR. WHY AM I STILL IN CAPS? I wish I had more inspiration for scenes for Anna and Wanda and Vision together, but I also just really, really wanted to get to Bucky. Just so happened that they're getting neglected in the rush.