The Name on the Bomb

My Backstory

It was my eighteenth birthday. I was having fun, with only Tony, Pepper and JARVIS to celebrate with... or so I thought.

Tony had bought me several, if not too many, expensive gifts, ranging from jewellery, to clothes, to a car. Pepper, on the other hand, had kept it simple yet sentimental, with a photo album full of our pictures since she began working for my brother. Even JARVIS got me a gift; through his security footage, he had managed to make a scrapbook of sorts of memories from within the facility; from Tony's failed attempts at making the Ironman prototype, to the points where I had come back at his sarcastic remarks with extreme sass, which made Pepper and I burst into giggles, while Tony frowned, speechless as he had been then.

I had begged the three of them for a small get together; them, Happy, Cap, Thor, Tasha, Clint, Bruce, Fury, Maria Hill, and Rhodes. But my brother's Tony...

At six o'clock that evening, I was dragged downstairs by my brother, himself, and upon the doors swinging open, I sighed inwardly as I saw what was going on inside. There were disco lights flashing, people dancing, music pumping, and many people drinking. Now I knew why I'd had to wear this sparkly cocktail dress...

Tony dragged me into the crowds full of people I was sure I didn't know wishing me a happy birthday before continuing having a good time. Tony dragged me over to the team, who were stood in a corner near the dance floor.

"Happy birthday, Breanna," Steve smiled genuinely, hugging me.

"Thanks," I breathed, still not completely comfortable with the massive party.

Pepper and Happy were smiling at me sympathetically, so I knew they had at least tried to persuade Tony against the party. I looked over at him, to find him grinning tremendously, and I couldn't help but smile. He thought he was doing something really nice for me for my special birthday, so I would at least try to enjoy it. After greeting the rest of our friendship group, we all dispersed.

Tony went to dance with some models, Pepper went to request some music, Happy went to stand by the door and act all tough, Rhodes went around telling random people War Machine stories, Clint, Tasha and Bruce headed over to the bar, while Thor and Steve stood awkwardly on the side of the dance floor, nodding along to the music. Normally, I would have teased them both, and dragged them onto the dance floor, but the party was already getting to my head, which had started banging, as I squinted my eyes at the flashing lights pulsing through the room. I needed some air.

I nudged through Steve and Thor, ignoring their questions of where I was going, and walked straight over to the door and to Happy.

"Hey, Breanna what's up?" he asked in concern, as he saw me headed in his direction.

"I can't deal with all this right now," I gestured to the party vaguely, with the hand that wasn't clutching my throbbing head; " need some air."

He only nodded sympathetically as he let me past.

I wandered out onto the large balcony, ignoring the already drunken stragglers on the lawns, and headed for my favourite bench, overlooking New York.

I raked my hands through my hair an sighed, taking relief in the cool night air washing over my skin which had been hot from the sheer amount of people in one room. When would he realise? I'm not a party person. I think the world would only be able to cope with one partying Stark anyway. I would have much rather my close friends gather in the tower and watch a movie or something, with lots of pizza.

I slowly stood up, deciding I should stop feeling sorry for myself, and turned towards the door. Immediately I noticed that all the drunken stragglers were gone, and had been replaced with one man. He was bald, dressed head to toe in black, and had some weird monocle thing over his right eye.