Natasha tensed up as she felt a hand on the small strip of bare skin between her crop top and jeans.

"Hey hottie." Whoever it was was drunk. Already.

"Ward." She regarded him with a cold stare, having recognised him from one of her classes.

"C'mon, you know you can call me Grant. I'm not a formal person Nat."

That was a mistake. Natasha's jaw set. Only her friends called her Nat and Ward was most certainly not a friend. Angry, she delivered a strong kick to his shin and walked off, glad she had chosen to wear her boots.

Stupid party. She thought, I shouldn't have come. I'm going to kill Clint.

Clint was Natasha's best friend, she trusted him with her life. They had been friends since they were five years old and had stood by each other through thick and thin. Without Clint, Nat knew she would've never made it through the first year of college, he really had saved her, but that was behind her now.

Today was the first day of the second year of college and Maria Hill had decided to invite the entire year to her uncle Nick's house at the edge of the city for a huge (and in Natasha's opinion totally uncalled for) party.

Natasha searched the croud for a familiar face; Clint, Pepper, Maria, Melinda, Bobbbi or even that stupid Sharon girl. No luck.

"Oh honey, you didn't really think you could get away from me that easily, did you?"

Natasha could have taken him on, she was unusually strong for her size, but she really didn't want to make a scene. Instead Natasha flicked her eyes around the room before landing on two boys in the corner, a tall blonde muscular guy with his back to her and a shorter good-looking brunette guy. They looked nice from what she could see of them.

Natasha didn't have time to think it through, she just wanted to get away from Ward, so she ran up to the two guys kissing the blonde on the cheek mid sentence.

"It's so good to see you!" she said plastering on a fake smile, "I wasn't sure you were going to make it!" Natasha leaned forward for a hug and whispered in his ear.

"Ward has been following me, he's drunk, act like you know me." she pulled away, smile still in place but begging him with her eyes.

"Yeah I wasn't sure if I could make it." The guy sounded flustered and awkward but Ward seemed to buy it as he walked away.

"He's gone, thank you so much," Natasha smirked, "I'm Natasha by the way."

"Steve." The blonde replied, "and I'm glad I could help." He had a cute boyish smile, piercing blue eyes and held himself in a confident manner. Natasha suddenly felt flustered for kissing him and dropped her gaze to the floor.

"And I'm Tony Stark, seeing as you didn't ask." the brunette laughed from behind her.

"Sorry." Natasha laughed softly but she could feel her cheeks turning red.

"'S fine. You're the good sort, I can tell, I should introduce you to the crew."

"Who's 'the crew'?" Natasha asked, frowning.

"Our friends," Steve explained, "he likes to come up with stupid names."

"Oh, no it's fine. I'll just go and find Clint." Natasha said hastily but Tony already had his phone out and was texting quickly.

"They'll be here in a sec," Tony grinned, brown eyes shining.

Natasha thought about calling Clint, but figured he would want some alone time with his girlfriend of 2 years, Laura. Instead she struck up a conversation and soon the trio fell into an easy chat about all their different teachers. The conversation came easily, Natasha wondered how she hadn't met these two before.

"Tony! Steve!"

Natasha turned to see a girl with long brown hair and sparkling hazel-green eyes leading three other boys behind her.

"Hey guys! This is Natasha." Tony gestured at Natasha grinning widely.

"Hey." Natasha said, finding herself uncharacteristically nervous.

"This is Wanda," Tony pointed at the brunette, she was wearing a loose fitting black dress paired with a red leather jacket, she looked beautiful.

"This is Thor," Tony continued gesturing to a tall muscular guy wearing jeans and a simple white t. His hair was slightly darker than Steve's but he held himself with that similar look of authority. "This is bucky," bucky grinned at her, he was shorter than Thor but a little taller than Wanda and was wearing jeans and a slightly unbuttoned light blue shirt.

"And finally this is Bruce," Bruce was scuffing the floor with his shoes, he was the shortest out of them all and had black hair like bucky's however his was slightly curly. He was wearing jeans and a science t-shirt and looked totally out of place.

Once Natasha had greeted all of Tony's friends she started chatting to Wanda.

"So, being friends with this lot must be like babysitting constantly." She joked, still unsure of herself.

"You have no idea!" Wanda's melodic laugh relaxed Natasha "I don't think I would have survived without pepper. She's Tony's girlfriend if you didn't know."

"Really! I thought pep was single!"

The pair talked for ages, and Natasha found that she really liked Wanda, before they were abruptly interrupted by one Tony Stark.

"We're going to the diner down the street, you two coming?"

Natasha shot Wanda a look before agreeing, "sure, sounds fun."

"So Natasha where are you from?" Steve asked, pushing his empty plate away from him.

"Please, call me Nat."