Chapter Text
Charlie was bored. It was Monday afternoon, all of her friends in town were working and Sam and Dean were on a hunt so she couldn’t even call them for a little entertainment.
She was scrolling through her phone when she saw the new post of Stark Industries pop up on her Instagram. That’s when she thought, how funny would it be to hack into their website and change one or two things. So that’s what she did. She grabbed her laptop, her headphones and started to work on it.
It took her about an hour to get through Stark’s security which isn’t that much but she thought that for her it would be a task of 30 minutes or so.
Once she was in, she started the changes. It wasn’t much but she was sure people would notice when the website would suddenly be all pink. Charlie hid her tracks well so she didn’t have any concerns of getting caught.
-
Tony had a pretty uneventful day. With both Peter and Harley at school and Pepper stuck in meetings all day he didn’t really have many people around. Sure the Avengers were living at the tower with him but it wasn’t like they could just go out together. They would get recognised in an instant. So, he was working on one of his cars that Harley really liked. He was going to give it to him when it was done but in order for that to be possible he would actually have to fix it up again. He was under said car when FRIDAY spoke up.
"Sir, I believe somebody has hacked into the SI website.“
Tony rolled out from under the car and took a moment to realise what FRIDAY had said. Why would anybody hack into the company’s website? A protected site with confidential information? That was realistic but the SI website?
"Why would they do that?“ He asked. Maybe his AI had a better idea than him.
"Well, they seem to have made the entire website pink.“
The man let out a small laugh. He definitely did not expect that. He stood up to take a look for himself.
"Fri be a dear and pull it up on the screen for me?“
He looked at the screen, still not actually in belief what he saw. Taking his hand up to his face he pinched his nose in a mixture between exhaustion and humor before he spoke. "Alright Friday would you find out who did this and where they are?“
"On it Sir, estimated time of results: 2 hours.“
Tony has to say, even tho he was kind of annoyed he was also impressed. Did they really hack into the website and managed to hide their tracks so well, it’ll take FRIDAY 2 hours to figure out who and where they are? He’ll definitely have to have a chat with them.
-
Charlie was just getting back from LARPing. They always had a few hours on Wednesday evening but didn’t want it to go too long so even the guys that had to work the next day could take part.
She hung up her jacket and threw off her shoes at the entrance of her apartment. Her plan was to make herself a cup of tea and go straight to bed.
"Hi there.“
Charlie froze. She grabbed the silver knife she carried in her jeans and spun around. On her couch sat a man. She couldn’t see his face in the dark but the blue glowing light in his chest made him recognisable.
"What are you doing in my apartment?“ She spoke trying to sound somewhat confident.
Stark flicked on the light next to him. "What were you doing on my website?“
Shit. She should’ve known it was about that but to be fair the fact that the man broke into her apartment kinda threw her off.
"Right. But still why are you here? Why not just send the police?“
Stark leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees, "Well Charlie or Char- Can I call you Char? I’m gonna call you Char… Well Char, I have to say I’m impressed. It took my AI a little over 2 hours to find you and let me tell you, she is usually fast.“
"So you came all the way from New York just to tell me you’re impressed?“
"Yes. Well not just that, I also happen to have a proposition for you.“
"What kind of proposition?“
"Okay first of all, why don’t you take down that knife, since you know, I’m not here to kill you.“
Charlie took a look at her still raised arm and quickly put her knife back. "Oh right, sorry.“
"I’m offering you a job.“
"I’m sorry what?!“
"I said I’m offering you a job. Not really a job more of an Internship. With me. And Natasha. I think she can teach you a bit more about hacking and other useful things than I can.“
It took a good minute for her to realise what he just said. "Why would you do that? I mean thank you but, Why?“
"Well you clearly have way too much time on your hands.“
Fair point. She did get to this point out of boredom after all but she couldn’t just leave. She had friends here. There were Sam and Dean and if she was busy all the time she wouldn’t be able to just leave if they needed her. Then there was the whole financial problem. Hacking didn’t pay much and neither did hunting for that matter. She could barely afford to keep food in her belly. How would she be able to afford a move? Not to mention to New York!
"I don’t even know where to start. I- I mean I would love to but what about my friends? I can’t just leave! I also don’t I have any money! I can’t afford to just move to New York!“
"Don’t worry about that. I’m a billionaire I’ll move you to NY and my tower is definetly big enough for one more resident. And you don’t have to work every day of the week. You can take some time off every now and again. Plus, I think you will get along great with my other two interns. They live at the tower so they’ll be around.“
Charlie couldn’t think straight anymore. This was like a dream come true but like a dream was also very surreal. "I couldn’t just accept that.. I-“
"I’ll take that as a yes then.“
"What- NO! I-“
"So, you don’t want the job?“
"No- I mean of course I do!“
"Okay, pack up we’re leaving tomorrow morning.“
And with that, Stark just left. Charlie didn’t even think about anything than packing right now. She did however, make sure that she could say goodbye to her friends in town before they had to go to work in the morning which meant she definitely had to pass on sleep for bit in order to sort everything out in time. She also figured she’ll have to call her brothers at some point, but she could do that once she arrived in New York.
-
Charlie was outside the next morning. It was 6 AM. She had no idea when Stark was going to pick her up. He didn’t exactly give her a time or even time frame. So, she just stood there. She waited for about an hour before he showed up. However, of course Tony Stark couldn’t pick her up in a normal car or even an SUV. No. He picked her up in a Bentley. She wasn’t even sure her suitcase would fit in that.
"Hey there Red.“
"Hey there Tin Man.“
Stark didn’t even bother getting out of the car. He just popped the trunk for her to put in her bag. Which she did and hopped into the car.
The man didn’t really say anything which was driving her nuts, but because he didn’t talk neither did she.
That was until they pulled up to the airport.
"Wait, we’re flying to New York?“
"Of course we are! Did you really expect me to drive all the way here and back?“
WNo, I’m just used to driving long distances with my brothers so I didn't even think about it.“
The jet didn’t look like a normal plane though. When they approached with the car the ramp opened for Stark to just drive right in. Inside the plane stood a beautiful red haired woman. It didn’t take long for Charlie to recognise her. Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow. She wasn’t wearing her suit but a dark brown, biker jacket and light blue skinny jeans with black heeled booties which pulled the outfit together.
The two of them stepped out of the car and Charlie shyly made her way over to Romanoff. The woman looked intimidating even more so than Castiel.
Charlie struck her hand out before she spoke, "Hi, I’m Charlie nice to meet you.“
The other woman didn’t take her hand. She just eyes her down, "Natasha. But you can call me Nat.“
"Woah, so she gets to call you ‚Nat‘ after meeting you like a second ago but I had to wait years for that privilege??“ Stark spoke with fake hurt from where he still stood next to the car.
Nat just smiled and looked over at him. "What can I say, we badass women have to stick together.“ With that, Natasha sat down on one of the seats and Charlie followed.
The jet took off and a female voice greeted her, "Welcome miss Bradbury. I’m FRIDAY, Mr. Starks personal AI assistent. We will be arriving in New York in one hour.“
-
Charlie was grateful that the hour went by fast. They landed on the tower and the ramp slowly opened. If Charlie wasn’t impressed before she definitely was now.
The three of them stepped into the huge penthouse where another two people waited for them. They were both in civilian clothes but Charlie recognised them as fast as she did Natasha. Before her stood Pepper Potts and Steve Rogers.
Tony stepped forward, "Pepper, Steve please meet Charlie Bradbury.“
Charlie gave a small and shy wave before Mrs. Potts stepped forward and engulfed her in a warm hug. "Hi, I’m Pepper it’s nice to meet you!“ She pulled away from the hug and whispered, only for Charlie (and Rogers) to hear, "The pink website looked great by the way.“
Rogers let out a snort which made Tony and Nat look at him in confusion. Ignoring them, he stepped forward as well and stretched out his hand which Charlie reluctantly took. "I’m Steve It’s good to meet you.“
They stood in silence for another minute before Tony broke it. "Okay, let me show you your room and everything else so you can get comfortable.“
Tony led her to the elevator and they went a floor down. They stepped into what looked like another apartment with a huge living room and the biggest kitchen she has ever seen. While she took in her surroundings, Tony was already a few steps ahead of her. They walked into a long hallway where they eventually stopped at the third or fourth door.
"Alright, this is you. I didn’t really know what kid of furniture you would like so I just gave you the basics and we can go shopping for that and decor on the weekends.“
Charlie opened the door and stepped into the biggest bedroom she has ever seen. The room was probably bigger than her apartment and that wasn’t all. On her right was a bathroom with both a bathtub and a shower inside.
"I.. wow Tony this is amazing thank you!“
"Yeah yeah wait until you have dinner with us, then we’ll see if you actually want to stay here. Speaking of, it's now lunchtime so how about you get yourself settled, we go get ourselves something to eat and after I can give you the full tour around the tower.“
"Uh yeah that sounds like a plan.“ With that Tony left.
Charlie took another look around the room and spotted her bag standing next to the bed. She had no idea how the hell it got there but she didn’t really care. All she did was throw herself on the bed and tell FRIDAY to set a timer for a quick nap so she could catch up on some sleep.
It has been a long 24 hours.