ＩＭＰＥＲＩＡＬ ◼TONY STARK◼

ｓｉｘｔｅｅｎ

"You do realize that you're basically standing in front of me and accusing me of blatantly lying to you, Nathan. Yes?"

Nathan Porter ran a hand down his face, looking down at his sock covered feet as he he shook his head. His back was leaning against the far wall of his fiance's lab.

Said woman, Audelia, was leaning against a lab table across the room, arms folded in front of her as her eyes trailed over to the clock on the wall...10:52PM, they had been at this for almost forty-five minutes now.

"Deli, just hear me out for a moment, please?" Deli stared at him, raising an eyebrow as she waited for him to speak. "I'm not saying you're lying, I just want you to confirm you're telling the truth-"

"Sounds like you think I'm guilt and are trying to prove me innocent-"

"Just...listen," Nathan let out a sigh as he shook his head. "Look, Tony being Iron Man doesn't surprise me, not one bit. But you have to realize how suspicious it looks, Audelia. There's a woman there, wearing a partial suit that looks exactly like Tony's, but you're saying it's not you? Tony Stark doesn't trust many people in his life, except you. You're the head of product design for his company. Don'y you realize how suspicious it sounds?"

"A superhero? Being in the spotlight with all that attention and responsibility?" Deli shook her head. "Come on, Nate, does that really sound like me? I like to work from the background."

Nathan let out another sigh, walking forward to stand in front of his fiance. He took her hands into his, looking down into her eyes.

"Can you just...give me a run down of what actually happened that night. Tell me exactly what happened,"

"I went to Tony's to help him with his project, like I said," Deli launched into the story with a shrug of her shoulders. "Pepper was there about to run an errand for Tony, and he asked me to tag along with her. He was throwing some party on his yacht and asked us to go and check it out, supervise. I asked if he would be joining us, and he said no. I found that suspicious, but it's Tony so I let it go. On that yacht was when we heard of what happened. We needed to give Tony an alibi, so we told the story of where we were that night and just worked him into it. He has no clue who the woman was that night, assumes it might be someone who was working for Stane but saw his faults, made her own suit to help Tony but it just wasn't finished in time."

Audelia kept her face emotionless, not batting an eyelash and threatening to show an ounce of emotion. She couldn't let Nathan see a single crack in her story. His grip tightened on her hands as he looked down at them, before looking back up at her.

"Just look me in the eyes and tell me it wasn't you, Deli,"

A lump formed in her throat as she held his gaze.

"I swear to you that I'm not the woman in the suit," Audelia lied.

Nathan let out a breath through his nose, leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead as he left his lips there.

"I just worry, Deli," his voice came out as a whisper. "What Tony and this woman are now...they're superheroes. It's dangerous. I just don't want to see you get hurt. Even if you aren't the woman in the suit, you're still close to Tony. You never know what might happen."

"Everything's going to be fine, just as it always is," Nate pulled back, looking down at Deli's little smile with one of his own.

Resting a sweet kiss on her lips, Nathan pulled away, letting his fiance's hands drop from his own as he walked toward the door to the house.

"I'm going to turn in, clear my head from all this stuff going on. Don't stay up too late, okay?"

"Not making any promises,"

Audelia kept up her smile under Nathan was finally gone. Her lips immediately dropped, her head hanging low as she cursed quietly under her breath. Here were the consequences of Tony's actions, the consequences of keeping her identity a secret: lying to the man who would one day become her husband.

"Gotta say, you lied about something very big with almost no issues,"

Deli's head snapped to the left, in the shadows of the garage near the back counter. Her hand reached behind her on the table, grabbing onto a wrench as she stared at the figured in the shadows.

The tall man walked out, the long black jacket moving around by his knees as Deli's interest was drawn to the black eye-patch that sat around his left eye.

"Guess I owe my lying skills to Tony," Deli gripped the wrench harder as she turned to fully face the man. "And who might you be, strange man in the shadows of my garage?"

"Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD,"

Deli's grip relaxed on the wrench at the acronym.

"The place Phil Coulson works for? The Strategic Homeland Interv-"

"We prefer to go by SHIELD, now," Fury let out a small shrug. "I just left Mr. Stark's residence, had an interesting chat with him that I need to have with you now."

Fury stepped further out of the shadows, looking around the room in interest. Deli leaned against the table beside her, folding her arms over her chest.

"And what might that be?"

Nick Fury smirked at the woman before him.

"I'm here to talk to you about The Avengers Initiative,"

◼ ◼ ◼

GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE JUST FINISHED PART ONE HOLY CRAP WOW!!!!!!

Also, yeah, Audelia did just lie to Nathan about probably the biggest thing on this earth right now. Wonder how that's gonna play out...