I'll Protect You

Being Tony Stark’s only niece definitely had its perks but it also had its downfalls. Sure you thought Tony was an amazing uncle but his lifestyle was always bigger than what you could handle. The constant presence of the media hounding you and his expensive taste made your head spin.

Since you were related to Tony it was to no one’s surprised that you followed in his footsteps. Graduated high school and college early at the top of your class no one was prouder than your uncle. Right out of college he offered you a position to work for him but not for his company for the Avengers. According to him, they needed a mind like yours and you couldn’t let this opportunity slip through your fingers.

At first, you were shy around the team and kept to yourself not wanting to have any embarrassing moments. (which you were known to have.) Eventually, you warmed up to the team and started to come out of your shell. Or at least you tried until you failed miserably when a certain super soldier came into the room. You were hopelessly crushing on none other than Captain America himself but could never find enough courage to tell him that. So that left you with many countless awkward conversations between the two of you. One of these encounters was tonight and to make matters worst it was a huge party that your uncle dragged you to.

“Having fun?” Steve asked.

“I-I guess,” You muttered wishing you could be upstairs monitoring the project your uncle, Bruce, and you were working on.

“Then that’s good to hear then. By the way, I think you look great in that dress.”

“So do you,” You said loudly before your eyes widen. “T-Thank you. I-I mean you look great too after fighting Hydra and everything. I-Is it just me or is it getting hot in here?”

Steve laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Laughing sheepishly, you felt your face flush as an arm wrapped around your shoulder. Turning to see who arm it was, you were met with a familiar red head.

“(Y/N) it looks like you need a drink. I’ll take her from your hands Steve,” She said as you sighed in relief.

Saying a quick goodbye, you followed Natasha over to the crowded bar. Grabbing a beer, you took a long sip before sighing once more.

“Thanks for the save Nat.”

“(Y/N) just ask him on a date. I can’t keep swooping in before you can attempt anything,” She said putting her hand on my shoulder. “Besides, I have a bet going with Clint that you’ll ask Steve out first.”

“Nat really? My uncle will kill him you know?” You said as she laughed.

“What can I say I like a good bet and Stark can mind his own damn business. Now lighten up would you?” Natasha smirked. “We’re celebrating and I didn’t lend you one of my dresses for you to stand around all night. Let’s go mingle!”

Before you could protest you were dragged into a crowd of people that were celebrating. Trying to mentally prepare yourself for a huge swarm of people, you saw from a distance Steve giving you a thumbs up.Blushing again, you followed Natasha into the crowd as the party carried on. When the party came to an end, many of the guests left. You would have joined them but you were roped in to watch whatever your friends were trying to get into.

This time they were trying to lift Thor’s hammer. You had no desire to see if you could lift the hammer and certainly didn’t want to deal with some otherworldly object. You saw what happened in New York and that was enough for your liking. You were sitting next to Steve when he got up and tried to lift the hammer. Sure he failed but you could only pay attention to the muscles in his arms flexing. He had you wrapped around his finger and he didn’t know it.

“You're all just not worthy,” Thor said snapping you back to reality.

More protests filled the room until a loud screech rang in the air. Covering your ears, you gave your uncle a confused look.

“Worthy,” A chilling voice said as one of your uncle’s suits walked into view.

Standing up from your seat, your uncle stepped in front of you before typing away on his tablet confused as everyone else.

“No. How could you be worthy? You're all killers. Or well, not (Y/N) for now at least. You're a very interesting human,” It said looking at you.

“Stark,” Steve said as he pulled you near him.

“U-Uncle Tony,” You said with fear lace in your voice.

“Jarvis,” Your uncle said tapping his tablet.

“I’m sorry I was asleep. Or I was a dream.”

“Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit,” You uncle still trying to reach Jarvis.

“There was this terrible noise. And I was tangled in-” It said stopping to lift some of the wires coming out of its body. “In strings. Had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.”

“You killed someone?” You asked.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices. Isn’t that right (Y/N)?”

“Who sent you?” Thor demanded everyone in the room began to become tense.

The suit turned its head to the side as a recording of a conversation between you and your uncle played.

“I see a suit of armor around the world,” Your uncle said.

“With the right calculations, we may just be able to do more than just that,” You added.

“Ultron,” Bruce said as the recording stopped.

Feeling your blood run cold, you watched as the suit follow your every movement. Grabbing Steve’s arm you hid behind him trying not panic.
“In the flesh. Or no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. That’s something (Y/N) can help me with. I’m very familiar with your work before you joined this team of killers,” Ultron said as you gripped Steve’s arm harder.

“She’s not helping you and you bet your ass she’s not going anywhere with you,” Your uncle stated.

“But I’m ready and I’m on a mission.”

“What mission?” Natasha asked in a cold tone.

“Peace in our time.”

Then out of nowhere, more of your uncle’s suits came flying into the room leaving glass everywhere. As the glass flew at you, Steve kicked the coffee table up to protect you two from the debris. Falling to the floor you watch Steve run off to attack a suit as you ran for cover.

“Uncle Tony!” You yelled.

“We are here to help,” The suits repeated.

“One sec. One sec, I got this,” You uncle responded trying to take down a suit.

Glass was shattering everywhere as you tried to find something to protect yourself with. Finding a gun in the debris, you aimed it at a suit with only half of its body but as you were about to fire the gun it jammed. Panicking you picked up some glass and threw it at the suit, cutting your hand in the process. Only knocking the suit back a bit, it raised its hand as its blaster charged up. Backing up through the glass your eyes widened in fear.

“Thor!” Steve yelled as he grabbed the suit and threw it at the god.

Before you could react, Steve grabbed you and pulled away to a better hiding spot as Clint threw him his shield. Throwing his shield he took out the last suit as everyone turned their attention to Ultron.

“That was dramatic,” He laughed. “I’m sorry I know you mean well. You just didn’t think it through. (Y/N) I have no idea how you ended up with these people. It’s a waste of your talents.”

“I-I,” You stuttered.

“You want to protect the world but you don’t want to see it change. How is humanity saved if it’s not allowed to evolve? And you evolve with what? These puppets.” Ultron said picking one of the heads of a destroyed suit. “There’s only one path to peace. The Avengers extinction and you understand that more than anyone (Y/N).”

Standing there in stock, you watched as Thor hammer destroyed Ultron in one blow to the head.

“I had strings, but now I’m free,” Ultron echoed through the room.

Trying to process everything, you began to feel yourself start to panic again as Thor flew out the window searching for something. Leaning against the wall you tried to calm yourself down as the room was filled with silence.

“(Y/N) you're bleeding let me patch you up. We’ll meet everyone in the lab when we're done,” Steve said realizing that you’re panicking.

Walking to the infirmary your whole body started to shake with fear. Inside Steve sat you on the counter before wrapping your hand up.

“S-Steve what I d-did do?” You asked in a small voice. “H-He kept looking at me a-and it was like he had this whole plan for me.”

“(Y/N),” Steve said.

“U-Ultron was never supposed to be evil.”

“(Y/N).”

“Oh my God, he’s going to come back for me. He’s going to take me and-’ You said before Steve's lips crashed onto yours.

You leaned back in surprise before you leaned into the kiss. Putting your shaking hands on his clean-shaven face you deepen the kiss with a small smile on your face. Never in a million years would you have ever thought you would be kissing Steve. Breaking the kiss, you stared at Steve as he laughed to himself.

“Wow, that was-”

“Late,” You blurted without thinking.

“I was going to say bad timing but yeah you can say that too. I’m assuming that helped you calm down?” He asked.

“I-It did but Steve he’s going to come back.”

“And I’ll protect you no matter what. Ultron is not going to lay one finger that pretty face of yours.”

You smiled. “We should go back to the others. I want to talk about us and everything but there is more pressing matters to attend to.”

“You're right we should head back,” Steve answered before helping you down from the counter.

Grabbing your injured hand, he kissed it before leading you to the lab where everyone was waiting. Giving his hand a squeeze you let go of his hand as you walked into the lab. Walking over to your worried uncle, he gave you a hug before Bruce spoke up.

“All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch.”

Looking around at everyone’s tired faces; you felt a pang of guilt wash over you. Making eye contact with Steve you knew only one thing. This was going to be a long battle and they’re going to be dire consequences.