LIFE WAS BETTER OFF THE GRID || 1

Agent You Are So Dead

The gala wouldn't be held that far away from the tower, but Tony insisted on getting limos for each of us. Well not each of us each of us but seperate limos for the couples. I think it was so Tony could kiss Pepper without everyone looking. Bruce had ridden with Nat and Clint.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Steve sneaking a few glances at me. "Are you gonna talk to me?" I ask startling him. "Or keep looking at me? I know I'm pretty but I'm not that hard to talk to, you know."

He opened his mouth then shut it. He opened it again and said: "I didn't know that you had green eyes."

I smile at the comment. "Well, not a lot of people do. My green eyes tend to somewhat stand out, hence the hazel colored contacts."

There was a beat of silence. "You look like her you know. When she was younger."

"Like who?" I ask though I can only think of one person he could be thinking about. "Peggy." He says looking off into nothingness most likely thinking about the 40's. "You act like her too. Free spirited and quick to reply with a snarky comeback." I smile at the thought.

"I should take you to visit her sometime. She's been waiting for me to bring you even if she doesn't voice it. I can see it in her eyes."

"It's good to know that someone from my past is still alive. Even if nobody else is." I glance at him. "Not everyone." I say. He looks at me in surprise and I'm honestly surprised myself. "Fury had told me that Rebecca Barnes was still alive and in a nursing home in North Carolina." He only nods clearly thinking about something else.

Before I can stop the words coming from my mouth I say:

"You know, Steve, I've lost a lot of people. Friends, family. Hell I've lost myself more times than I can count. I've inflicted death and I've stared death in the face." He looks up at me. "But tonight I'm going to drink champagne and avoid questions like those."

~

The building the held the gala was one of the many few that wasn't demolished in the attack. The building was dome shaped a—

"We're here!" The diver says.

"Crap." I say looking out the window. "Stark, you are so dead." There was a crowd of photographers and reporters. Over the crowd I could see Nat and Clint walking down a, oh Stark is so dead, red carpet.

Steve gives me a panicky look.

"OK, OK. Um. We gotta get out there. Just don't make eye contact, don't answer any questions, and ignore them. If you get pestered by the same person, smile and walk away. Get it? Got it? Good." Without waiting for an answer I open the door.

I grab Steve's hand and get him out of the limo. In an instant, lights flashed and questions were hurtled, I could hear a few death threats as well. My gaze was staring intently at the back of Nat's dress.

'Avianne! Here Avianne!'

I kept walking.

'Captain Rogers!'

I glance at Steve who was doing just as I told him to. I followed his gaze to a light fixture in the building. We were almost there. Then an blond woman who looked quite annoying.

"Hi, Avianne. Christine Everhart from Vanity Fair, I would like to ask you a few questions."

Smile and walk away.

My words echoed in my ears. I do exactly that, my arm still linked around Steve's.

The atmosphere inside was must calmer than outside. There was the usual chatter and photographers snapping photos but it was much calmer. I caught Nat's eye and she waved us over to a table where the others were already seated.

"Авианне хочет в бесконечности войны." I tell Nat as I sit next to her. We were seated at a round table. Steve sat on my left, Nat on my right. In front of me was a man I hadn't met before but had recognized as James Rhodes. "Куинн живет." She replied.

"What did they say?" Rhodes asked. "Don't know." Clint says shrugging. "They spoke in native Russian. Which I am not very good at speaking nor translating."

"So you're Russian."

"No. I am Avianne. But I am from Russia." He rolls his eyes. "James Rhodes." His says extending his arm over the table. I shake it. "I know."

"Avianne, this is Maya," Pepper says gesturing to the blond that was on Bruce's left. "Maya, Avianne."

"Hi."

I opened my mouth to say something but I was cut off by Tony talking at the front of the room on a stage into a microphone.

"Hello, hello. Thank you everyone for coming today. A few months ago, the impossible happened. Aliens invaded Earth. But because of me— er— the Avengers, we stopped them. I'm not that good at speeches so I would like my friend and fellow Avenger, to come up here. Avianne?"

"Oh he is so dead."

I make my way through the round tables filled with people. I drown out the sound of clapping and think of all the was I'm going to kill Stark. I walk up on the stage. He opens his arms to hug me. I give him a pointed look. "For the people." I roll my eyes and hug him. "Anthony Edward Stark, you have dug your own grave."

He gives me a fake smile before handing me the microphone. I walk over to the podium in the middle of the stage. "Hi." I say and chuckles are heard around the large room. "Um you guys probably aren't as familiar with me as you are with Tony so I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm Avianne Romanova a S.H.I.E.L.D. shadow agent. You publicly know me as the Blue Renegade."

"I'm a person of logic, so when aliens come pouring out of the sky you kind of question everything you know or you think you know." I continue making stuff up. "The Avengers and I—" I start to say but I'm sure off by a loud sharp noise.

A gunshot.