The energy around the Stark mansion was contrastingly electric from the way it had felt only days before.

Steve could tell that Tony was far from over the death of his father, but the facade that the young inventor put on could have fooled anyone… well, almost anyone. Steve seemed to be the only person who could see through it, but maybe that's just because of what the two had… whatever he wanted to call it.

It was obvious that Tony wanted to put the needs of others before his own, especially since he jumped so high at the offer that Principal… Director… whatever title Nick Fury wanted from the group of teenagers.

"I don't get it, though," Tony sighed as they began to wander down to Bruce's new and improved Nirvana-hub.

"What is there to not get," Steve asked, raising one eyebrow in the quizzical fashion of his uncle.

"I get why Fury would want you…" Tony's cheeks turned a crimson red as he looked up at Steve through his eyelashes, "and why he'd want a hulking monster like Bruce, someone with a cyborg buddy like me, a god like Thor, a hotshot like Clint, but…"

"Lemme guess," Bruce pushed his way through new-and-improved silk hangings, "you don't get why Fury wants Natasha in the group?"

Tony looked at the mildly judging faces of Bruce and Steve. "Well, I mean… yeah?" He knew how it looked, not wanting the only girl in the team to be a part of the team, but… "Like, I get it, she's super athletic and was born in Russia, blah blah blah, but what really separates her from the rest of the kickass ladies our age?"

"Well, she's hotter than the rest of them, for one," Clint's voice piped up as he pushed through the silky curtains and entered into Bruce's sanctuary.

Tony sucked in air through his teeth. Even Steve was having a hard time figuring out if it was embarrassment at being caught or if it was dismay at giving Clint bad news about his girlfriend.

"I get it, dude," Clint said, reaching to pat Tony on his shoulder.

For some reason, Steve tensed up when Clint approached Tony. The two almost never had any physical contact whatsoever, so it seemed… out of place.

"Jealous, Rogers?" Clint asked, clicking his tongue and winking in Steve's direction.

The super soldier straightened up, brushing invisible dust off his brown leather jacket. "You wish, Barton," he chuckled. "I just thought of something completely out of the blue, and it stressed me out. I'm good," he cooly defended his jealousy in the thin veil of a lie, "I'm good."

"You know, Tony," Bruce mused, moving to his tea station and putting the electric kettle on, "maybe you should give Nat a chance before you judge her too hard."

Tony pulled out from Clint's hand and moved towards the back of the sanctuary, his palms open in honest desperation. "I'm sorry, guys, I just don't see what's so…"

This time, it was pure instinct that made Steve's shoulders go tense, and that made Tony freeze mid-sentence. Something had moved in the shadows.

"Stark…" Steve began, entering into full solier mode, "you upped security since the last…" he cleared his throat, "since the last incident?"

"Duh," Tony retorted, his head on a swivel. "If anyone entered the mansion without stating their name, JARVIS would be telling me."

"Then what did Steve just see?" Bruce asked, cautiously pouring water into his teapot. "I could have sworn I felt something brush the silk, and I don't have the super-senses that mister America does over here."

"Captain America," Steve corrected. He knew that he should have chucked or made some sort of jibe to let Bruce know that he was joking, but the seriousness of the situation and his soldier-like instincts prevented him from doing so.

"Jeeze, sorry," Bruce responded, rubbing his arm like someone had slapped him with a ruler.

The shadow moved again, but this time it seemed higher up, and further towards what used to be the control room of the lab. "Tony…" The concern in Steve's voice grew more severe. With the calm of the eye of a hurricane, Steve moved towards Tony and grabbed hand, but it was too late. The two of them froze at the click of the safety being turned off on a 9mm pistol.

"You don't see what's so... what? Go ahead, Stark," a smooth voice with a seductive Russian accent cooed, "finish your sentence."

Tony swallowed hard. The voice was coming from right behind him, accompanying the cold black metal of a pistol against the back of his neck. "How the hell did you…"

Clint was beaming from ear to ear as he watched the silks part to reveal insanely hot girlfriend hanging upside-down from the rafters of Bruce's lab-made-sanctuary.

The black leather of her catsuit clung to every curve of her well-trained body as Natasha lowered herself down from her inverted assassin's pose, clicking the safety of her pistol back on and returning it gingerly to her garter holster on her thigh.

Watching what was now obviously a set-up, Bruce almost sprayed the tea he was drinking through his nose. "Not sure about Natasha still, Tony?"

"Nat," Tony gasped, his breath coming in short bursts now, "What the fuck? Do you think it's such a good idea to play pretend assassin on a guy whose boyfriend is the world's most incredible super soldier?

Tony's sentence sent Steve on a high he had never experienced before. Boyfriend. Tony had actually given Steve a label, something that the young Stark had never been able to do to… well, to anything. Not even his experiments.

Everyone else who wasn't Tony's newly proclaimed boyfriend was still focusing on the issue at hand.

"Clint figured it out yesterday," Natasha smiled, cooing in her native accent, "so don't take any offense in being late to the party."

"You guys!" Clint exclaimed, like a kid on Christmas morning, "my girlfriend's a freaking international assassin!"

"That," Steve jibed smugly, reaching out to Tony and wrapping his toned arms around the shaken scientist, "Is why Fury wants her on our team."