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The first time he meets her they're at a gala for a minor charity project that one of Tony's colleagues set up.
She's wearing this gorgeous, tight-fitting silver dress with a high slit that reveals just enough skin, and her hair is curly, swept over one shoulder. She has a pretty, angelic face, with big blue eyes that look so innocent that Tony faintly wonders if she is even his type.
He likes the outgoing ones, the ones who drop at his feet - or well, he used to, at least. Not after Pepper.
Well, she's still his friend and the CEO of his company, but no more than that. The room they used to share is now only his, and the bed still feels empty sometimes even though it’s been a year.
The Avengers are still there. They're in the Compound, still laughing in the morning, or pulling him out of the lab because he needs to eat on time.
She's laughing along to something that an older man says, and he notices the way she moves. Its graceful - like she knows what she's doing and why she's doing it.
She moves across the room after that, and he stays in his spot with his friends, and she talks to people, and she touches their arms and laughs with them. She's a bubble of energy, and he finds he quite likes it.
His eyes fall on Steve, who's seated next to him. The super soldier is looking into his drink, frowning. Tony almost sighs. Almost.
It’s been three years since Steve's girl died, crushed under two buildings, and he's still a bit depressed because of it. Sometimes he's more violent, sometimes he doesn't want to fight at all. Natasha has to fight to get him out of bed on his worst days. But she's there for him, through and through, and Tony knows Steve needs it, despite he's not saying so. He understands Steve misses her. After everything, she was one of the only things he had left from before the war.
He feels sorry for him. He doesn't really understand how hard it is to lose someone like that - he only understands what it feels like to lose someone you deeply care about. And he's sure that's not enough.
She glances over at him a few times, and she smiles politely, but there's this coldness in her eyes that makes him shiver and perch up on the couch.
"What's wrong?" Clint asks after a few minutes, and Tony grumbles and sinks back into the couch.
Clint smiles as he follows Tony's gaze. He whistles softly. "She's a pretty one," he says, and he flashes Tony a big grin. Tony nods and picks up his drink.
The girls aren't there to guide him through. It's a boy’s night out, and he knows most of them are too busy with their own stuff anyways.
Clint moves to the other side to chat with Sam, and leaves Tony alone.
He sighs wistfully and lets his eyes trail through the room until they land on her again.
Moments pass until there is faint sound of an explosion nearby, and then a rumble outside that everyone in the ballroom can hear. People scream, and start running to the exit, pushing others out of the way.
There are children there too, albeit not that young, and Tony hears them cry for their mothers and fathers, and his heart clenches.
The girl in the silver dress runs too, and she picks up a child that has to be around seven. She moves to the entrance, and then the entire room shakes. Everyone jumps up. Tony looks at the others, they're all alert and looking at him for commands. Tony nods. "Clint, Sam, you try to find out what the hell is going on. Steve, Pietro and Bucky, you get the civilians out of here." He taps on his watch, and the nano particles begin to wrap themselves around his body, creating his suit.
He shoots up in the air while underneath the building there is harder rumble, and there are more shrieks and screams.
He spots the girl in the silver dress somewhere close to the window, peering outside. She's already gotten the child to safety he presumes, and he curses out loud when he sees her almost tumble forward.
The window shatters, and she falls back on the ground, and start scrambling away as the room tilts. He flies over to her and scoops her up. Most of the civilians are already gone, and only the Avengers are left.
He puts the woman down as the ballroom falls apart and falls into the sea below them - they're left on the floor just before the entrance, and watch it break apart on the cliffs.
"Are you alright?" He asks, and she nods. She stares at him silently with an iciness in her stare, and then she turns around on her heel and walks away, the skirt of her dress fluttering behind her.
Steve sighs.
"What the hell happened?"
They find out its Hydra - when is it not Hydra? - and Natasha, Steve, Sam and Clint set out to make sure the message comes across that that is not something they need to try again.
Tony stays behind in the Compound, tinkering on his tech, and when he does, he almost forgets about the painful scar running down his leg where the rubble hit him as he tried to save Steve's girl.
His mind whirs and his thoughts whirl, and they eventually settle on the girl in the silver dress and her beautiful smile and is this what a crush feels like?
He calls Rhodey and tells him he met someone and Rhodey is happy for him until he hears what happened, and he promises to come as soon as he can.
Then he calls Pepper, who asks him to attend a meeting in two days, and he says yes because why not and he continues tinkering and scolding Dum-E, U and Butterfingers.
Two days later, he goes to the meeting with Pepper by his side, and his eyes go wide when he notices the girl in the silver dress sitting in the room, only this time she isn't wearing a dress but a fucking jumpsuit with a few buttons open that does things to his mind and shit --
Pepper calls him to the order and asks him what is wrong with him, and he only grimaces and focuses on the old men he needs to talk to.
The meeting goes exactly as planned, and Tony jokes and even makes fun of one of the men at the table because he doesn't particularly like the way they talk, and he notices the girl smile. When she sees him watching, she pretends nothing happened and he pretends he didn't see.
In the hopes of seeing her again and asking her out this time, he asks Pepper if he can accompany her to the next meeting too.
She is surprised, but since he behaved that well on the last one, she says yes, and he does.
He goes with her to the next one, but when he sees the girl he chickens out and why does he feel butterflies in his stomach when she smiles at him at passing him in the hallway?
He's never chased a girl before. Why is she so different?
He goes to the third one too, but she isn't there, and with hope blossoming in his heart, he goes to the next one and the next one and the next one until Pepper takes him apart to ask him what the hell is going on. She seems worried, but all he can do is smile and tell her I met this girl, Pep, and I need to have her.
And she pulls a disgusted face. "You're not going to return to your playboy antiques, Tony," she reprimands him, "this is not a game. This girl is valuable, her father is one of our most important contacts - you cannot toy with her, do you understand?"
And he nods and smiles like he's listening (he's honestly not) and afterwards he calls Rhodey.
By the time the Avengers get back from their mission, Tony is completely infatuated with her.
He sends flowers to her office, even though he knows its slightly inappropriate, but he stays away for the rest and lounges in his room to think about why he's doing this.
Pepper leaves him a few messages that he doesn't answer and Rhodey shows up and stays for a while.
And he can't stop thinking about her.
He just can't.
And it's not even about her body- it's about her smile and the way she laughs and the way her voice sounds and the excitement gleaming in her eyes and the coldness in her eyes that tells him that she knows exactly who he is and that she's not going to give in without a fight.
But he's not in it for the sex. He really isn't.
He sees her twice more, and twice he chickens out on asking for her phone number. Sure, he could hack his way into somewhere and retrieve it, but there are things that he doesn't do to get a girl. It's creepy.
One day, he's in the building where they normally have their meetings to congratulate Pepper on her birthday and give her tons of presents that she might or might not be happy with.
He walks down the stairs to the lobby, and then he hears her voice, and he turns around just in time to catch her being pressed against the wall by a tall, hulky guy who doesn't look too friendly.
He doesn't wait a second and marches up to them. He dives under the guys arm and puts his arm around her waist.
"Sweetheart!" He says, face bright and with a big smile. "I'm glad I found you so soon. I finished my meeting early."
She is smart and catches up on it fast - he sees it in her eyes - and she smiles at him and presses her lips to his cheek. "Sorry big guy," Tony says, patting the guy on the chest, who's already stepping back, "gotta take my girlfriend upstairs y'know? Whatever makes her happy."
He pulls her away and into an elevator.
She doesn't look behind her when she pulls him into a big, spacious office.
"Thank you," she says as she sits down and takes a few files.
He smiles and flops down on the couch. "It was my absolute pleasure," he drawls. "Can I know your name?"
"No," she answers coldly, and he gapes at her. She looks up and smirks.
"It's Y/N," she eventually says. "Y/N Y/L/N. And you are Anthony Stark."
He smiles and tries to ease his way into a conversation - which works, by the way, and he doesn't need Peppers help with this, thank you very much!
It's different for him this time.
It feels real. Down to earth. It feels like he has all the time in the world to make her fall for him - and instead, whenever he sees her laugh, he falls for her faster than ever before.
He confesses it. He confesses she drives him crazy, that he likes her so much and that he wants to do anything that makes her his - she scrunches her nose and gets up from the bench they're sitting on. He almost fears she's walking away, but she only tosses away the remains of her sandwich in a bin and stops before him.
Then she smiles.
She pulls him up by his tie and kisses him, and his sandwich lays forgotten on the bench and his arms wind around her waist to pull her closer.
He relishes in the kiss. She's sweet and soft, but her touch is confident, and she smiles when she draws back.
"You make me crazy too," she confesses, and then she kisses him again.
When they're five months into their relationship, he introduces her to the team.
He gives her a tour around the Compound, introduces her to the others, and she meets Steve.
She watches him sit on the couch, his expression lost, and something changes in her stance. When Tony looks at her, he sees in her eyes that she understands, in some way.
She doesn't say anything, though, and doesn't leave his side all day. He likes it.
It's fourteen months into their relationship and she's practically moved into the Compound. All her stuff is in his rooms, and the faint smell of her perfume is on her pillow.
There is a blouse she wore to his birthday on the ground, a reminder of the heated kisses they shared and her warm body against his in their bed that night.
She makes him breakfast, kisses him good morning and keeps his caffeine away from him when he overworks himself in his lab.
She makes him smile and laugh, and she fits into the team just right.
She has some fighting skills, and she trains with Natasha. The two form a bond.
He sees them sit out on the terrace one day, with steaming mugs in their hands, in big sweaters that he knows aren't theirs, and they're talking softly. He doesn't interrupt them.
Thor takes Loki with him for Easter, and they hold a small party in the Compound with only the Avengers and a few members of S.H.I.E.L.D. they trust.
Loki takes a liking to her, he notices immediately. She's loose with him in ways nobody else is, and she makes him laugh eventually, and he hears it when they're out in the garden one morning and Loki tells her that maybe mortals aren't as bad after all.
And she only laughs, and teases him, and they play chess together, and she beats him once.
Thor gapes, and runs around the Compound boasting that she's the only worthy one there because no one beats my brother at chess!
And Tony laughs and laughs until he can't breathe, and the tense air clears and it feels right.
He sees her on the couch with Steve one afternoon, after he comes back from the lab with Bruce, and he stops in the middle of his sentence to look at them.
She points at something in a book, and then Steve laughs. He laughs!
And Tony smiles, because that's my woman, right there Brucie.
She becomes friends with Pepper and Rhodey overnight, and they tell her everything about Tony they know, and she tells them almost everything she knows about him.
He visits her family's grave one day with her, and it’s the first time he sees her cry, and she clings to him and he can only hug her and show her just how much he loves her.
Her birthday comes and passes, but he's the only one who knows, and she doesn't want the others to know.
He gives her a bracelet with pendants, and he suspects Loki knows too, because he sees the god pass her a small wrapped box during lunch.
She tells him about the book she's starting to write, and about another meeting that went well and about the dress she just bought with Pepper and he smiles and god, he loves her.
He tells her that he likes what they're doing, on the balcony. Its midnight and the stars are shining above them, and they're both awake after a bad nightmare, and she made him tea.
He clamps his hands around the mug, and she smiles at him.
Its silent between them.
And suddenly, he blurts it out. And she giggles.
"I like it too," she says, "a lot."
They're alone in his Malibu mansion in the summer, almost three years after they got together, and he tells about how he met Rhodey, and she snorts.
He bakes her pancakes and puts them on her plate, and she bites into a carrot because she loves carrots and he knows it.
Then she puts her book down and traces the scars of where his arc reactor used to be through his shirt, and she smiles.
"I love you," she blurts out after a particularly bad night.
He looks at her, stunned, and he can't move, he can't breathe for a moment.
She looks so vulnerable then, in the soft light of the moon that's shining through the open windows.
And he smiles.
"I love you too," he whispers, and he embraces her and kisses her neck and she murmurs it again and again and again.
They get married during sunset in the garden of one of the other Avengers' buildings, similar to the Compound, in Los Angeles.
Everyone is there, and they cheer for them, and throw rose petals.
And if anyone notices the way Natasha curls up into Steve later that evening, when they're all on the couch, they don't mention it.
She looks beautiful as always, Tony thinks when he sees her dancing in the living room the morning after, dressed in a sheer white dress that reaches her knees.
There is a scar that runs down her leg, but he doesn't say anything about it, because she never wanted to tell and he respects it.
And she turns around, and he notices her tear-stained cheeks, and he takes her in his arms, and he tells her that he loves her, that he will never, ever stop.
She tells him about the scar one day.
They're in the kitchen together, and Steve and Natasha are there too, reading the newspaper.
"It was an accident," she says, and Tony looks up from his coffee to frown.
"The scar," she whispers, glancing down at her plate filled with food, "my leg got torn during an accident. Diving."
She doesn't tell him more, and he buries his head in her hair and then he nuzzles her neck, but he doesn't say a word because he loves the silence between them that tells everyone just how much they love each other.
Peter comes by too, with MJ and Ned, and she laughs and tells them that Tony is in his lab, but MJ chooses to stay with her.
When Tony returns from his trip with the boys, he sees Y/N on a chair in the garden, and MJ next to her in the grass, and they are laughing.
Y/N throws her head back, and he loves the way her short hair dances around her head, and how the sun radiates her skin and makes it glow.
"He's whipped man," he hears Ned sigh, and he frowns because he doesn't know what that mean.
And Peter laughs. "He is, he is."
She's great with kids. She loves the little ones, but she's good with the adolescents too.
He tells her that he loves how she is around kids in bed one night, two days after Steve's birthday.
She smiles and looks up from the book she's reading, and he put his tablet away to kiss her.
"You know," she starts, hesitantly, "I've always wanted kids."
He stops kissing her and lifts an eyebrow, wondering where she wants to go with this conversation.
"Do you want to have kids with me?"
And he grins and he says that of course I want kids with you baby, you're my favourite person in the world and I'd love to have a proper family with you.
But it means that he will have to stop being Iron Man.
Having a family and being a superhero is a life that cannot be balanced. It would be too hard on them.
She tells him that she can wait - that he doesn't have to stop yet because she knows how much he loves it.
Three months later she skips into the kitchen, where he is, reading the news on his tablet. Pepper and Rhodey are there too, and Peter is on the fridge, laughing.
She waves with a small stick in her hand and there is a smile on her face.
She hugs him tight and presses her face in his neck.
"We're starting a family," she whispers in his ear, and his eyes widen, and he turns around and he can't help the huge grin spreading across his face and then he lifts her in the air and yells I'm going to be a father!
Sam brings a girl to the Compound that everybody likes. They don't stay long, and from what Tony hears of it, she moves in with him. They are together, and they've been through a lot after Sam ended up in Brazil on a mission for a few months.
A mission goes wrong. Natasha ends up in the medical wing, wounded, on the brink of death, and Tony blames himself because if he had been there, he could have stopped it from happening.
From there, everything goes downhill.
He becomes more tense and spends the nights in his workshop because he keeps arguing with her.
She goes to the lab one day and tells him that she misses him and that she can't go on like this, I just can't.
And they fight. He's not even sure about what.
Before he knows it, she's gone, and he sighs and takes a deep breath and asks Friday her signal because he's not going to lose her.
Friday tells him its fine and Tony goes to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich, and there he sees Natasha, who reprimands him for staying in the lab for so long and thinking it’s his fault that her wound happened when it’s not.
And then there is an incoming call, and he can only hear her sobs as she talks into the phone.
"I love you," she says, "I love you Tony, I love you so much and I'm so sorry for everything-"
She doesn't get to finish her sentence and there is a crash on the other side of the phone and Tony begins to panic.
He ends up in the hospital, pacing back and forth while Natasha sits against the wall with a stoic look on her face.
The doctor tells them with a sorrowful look on his face that his wife survived the crash.
And Tony's world falls apart when he hears, "The baby didn't survive the crash. I'm sorry sir."
She's in bed and she doesn't want to get out.
She doesn't talk, doesn't eat and only gets up to shower and to go to the toilet.
It's like he's living with a ghost.
So Tony tells the team that he will be taking an indefinite time off, and he takes her with him, and they go to Malibu.
Her friends come by, and she talks to a therapist, and slowly she starts coming back to life.
She doesn't want to try to get pregnant again, she tells him during dinner one day. She doesn't want to experience that feeling of loss.
So they discuss adoption, and afterwards, he calls Pepper.
They still fight sometimes.
But they love so strongly that all else seems to disappear.
They adopt a girl, who they call Maria, and a boy, who they call Edward, after Y/N's deceased brother.
Tony doesn't give up avenging. He takes more time off, and he doesn't do secret missions anymore, but he can't say goodbye to it all.
She gives him the freedom he needs, and he gives her the life she needs.
They're still in love.
He doesn't think he'll ever fall out of it.
She publishes her book.
It becomes a rage, and Tony wonders how he could be married to this perfect human being.
He looks at the first page, where she wrote a small dedication.
For Anthony, the love of my life who makes me experience wonders that I never had.
For the others, who are my family through and through.
For love.
And he kisses her in the garden, and she murmurs for love and he smiles, and he looks into her eyes and he thinks, it can't get any better than this.
For love.