The garden was a beautiful thing; the graffiti designs flowed almost seamlessly into the overhanging ivy, but it wasn't the garden itself so much as the people wandering round it, the kids clambering over the low-slung branches, that made Eva proud of her work. She had already turned down two offers from private contractors; she wanted her gardens to be open to the world, not walled in.

Familiar arms wrapped around her waist and she smirked, leaning back.

"Have I ever mentioned you're incredibly talented as well as very hot?" asked Sam, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I'm neither of those things, but by no means let that stop you."

"Oh, it won't. So what happens to this place now?"

"It stays open to the public," she explained, "the idea of HOPE is that anybody's allowed to paint over the old designs. The plants are all pretty hardy so they shouldn't really need maintenance, just to get cut back every coupla years."

"People keep asking me about trees," said Sam. "They see I'm with you, they think I'm your assistant."

"Aw, do they not recognize you baby?" she asked, turning round to face him. "Has nobody asked for your autograph yet?"

"You can stop taking the mick outta me at any point," he grumbled.

"Where's the fun in that?" she asked.

"'Scuse me." A kid of about eight was stood in front of them, twisting the hem of his Iron Man t-shirt nervously. "'Scuse me, sir, are you Falcon?"

"Spoke too soon," Eva muttered, as Sam's face lit up.

"Fu- hell yeah, I'm the Falcon!"

"Can I have an autograph?" he asked, shyly.

"Sure!" Sam signed the notepad the boy offered him, who promptly ran off to show his parents.

"Have you been practising your signature?" Eva asked.

"You're just jealous."

"Okay," she laughed, "it was slightly adorable. Slightly. Don't let it go to your head."

"Too late. I gotta start making my own shirts, now. You think I can claim the cost as expenses? It is kinda to do with work."

"You're unbelievable," she told him.

"Yeah, you love it."

%

Sam had taken the day off, but her friend could only meet her at a time when most were asleep- he found her dozing under the canopy of a hawthorn tree.

"Evening," she yawned, rubbing her eyes.

"Morning, actually. It's a beautiful garden."

"Thanks, V." She rolled out from under the branches to sit with him on the low wall, both their legs resting against the freshly dried paint. "It's kind of a relief that it's over now, actually. One less thing to stress about." She looked up at him and nudged him with her shoulder. "How're you? Y'all seem busy."

"We are. Captain Rogers seems… distracted. He and Mr Stark had an argument yesterday."

"It'll be a lovers' tiff," she assured him, "nothing to worry about. Still, if it ends in a divorce you're welcome to stay with me until they decide who gets custody of the kids." He laughed. "Mi casa es su casa, and all that. What else is there? You seem distracted."

"There has been no sign of Doctor Banner, either," he admitted, "Agent Romanoff…"

"Black Widow and the Hulk?" she stared at him. "Nah, no way." Then she thought back to the conversation the Avenger had had with Hill in the coffee shop a few weeks ago. "Although… Wow. D'you think-?"

"I'm probably not the person to ask," said Vision quickly. If he had been able to, Eva suspected he would be blushing.

"Aw, my innocent little cinnamon roll." She took his hand in her own. "Don't worry about 'em, V."

"It's rather too late to say that," he said. "But thank you for your concern."

"This friendship is a two-way street, y'know. You stress out over me, I stress out over you. Although you tend to handle everything a lot better than I do," she added.

"I get much of my humanity from you," he said, and she blushed.

"If I've had that much of an effect on you, we should all be worried."

"I am inclined to disagree."

"You always do," she said softly, staring down at their intertwined fingers. "What a funny old pair we are."

He didn't reply.

"V," she said evenly, "are you still worrying about Stark?"

"I'm always worrying about Mr Stark," he sighed, "I suspect that it is part of my core programming."

"Well, he did make you." She curled up, resting her knees against his own legs. "Why did he, anyway? J.A.R.V.I.S was the world's only successful AI, and he made you to be his butler. I don't get it- why not hand you over to his company, and hire a human to run around after him?"

Vision circled the knuckle of her middle finger with his thumb. "I think he was lonely," he said, "and afraid of being judged."

She shook her head. "You are the only person capable of making me feel sorry for Tony Stark," she told him. "And you never did judge him? You must know him better even than Pepper Potts."

"Never," replied Vision. "Despite his outward appearance, I believe Mr Stark thinks he is a much worse person than he actually is- much in the same way as somebody else I know," he added, giving her a sidelong glance.

"Yeah, yeah. He's still got more of an ego than me, though."

"That is something I've noticed, yes."

A/N we're almost at another landmark, so I'll do something else to celebrate- when we reach 200 reviews (holy moly), I'll make Eva a twitter and post her username on here. Exclusive original content from your favourite gardener, expect tweets like "I watched Security Pete walk into a door today, it was awesome" and more. And if you PM me your own twitter, I'll follow you on there! 200 reviews, people. WE CAN DO THIS.