There was a knock at my office door. I looked up from my computer as Tony entered the room.

"Guess what? You've been promoted," he said by way of greeting.

I blinked at him in surprise, and he sat on the corner of my desk.

"I – excuse me?" I asked.

A promotion? I'd only been working here for two months, and promotions tended to happen within twelve to eighteen months.

"You got a promotion," he said. "Wanda, Vision, and Pietro said they liked you, and the team really needs an assistant. I'm pretty sure I'm not too much for you to handle, so the whole team won't be bad, right?"

I blinked at him again, trying to wrap my head around it all.

"I... yeah..." I said. "I'm sorry, sir – I mean Tony – this is just a lot to take in. I mean, I've only been here for a couple of months!"

Tony just shrugged and picked up the stapler from my desk.

"Well, the team likes you. Cap thinks you're really polite, and Wanda and Pietro enjoy your company," he said.

I smiled. Pietro and Wanda really enjoyed my company? I had thought that they had hung out with me out of politeness, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"Really, the only change would be getting calls and such from Shield," Tony said. "None of the others really have a schedule, so you'd just be working on mine. Oh, and you will be legally required to attend my parties and hang out with us if we're lonely."

I laughed.

"Well, I can't say no to that," I said. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, you'll have self-defence training," Tony said. "You have your first session at three. I'll have someone drop off a Shield suit."

"Tony, I can pick up the suit myself-"

"Don't worry about it," Tony said, waving a hand. "You also have a meeting with Maria Hill and Phil Coulson at one. I told them to come here."

"I... oh," I said. "Okay."

"Toodles," Tony said, giving me a wave before leaving my office.

I waved back slowly, still slightly shocked. I did not see this coming. I looked to the time and saw that it was only eleven thirty, so I still had an hour and a half until the Shield agents arrived.

I quickly cleaned up my office a little bit, not that there was much to clean up. I kept my workplace tidy most days.

There was a knock at my door, and Pietro entered, a box in his hands.

"Hello," he said. "I have a delivery."

I chuckled and took the box from him.

"Are you a delivery boy now?" I asked.

Pietro laughed and shook his head.

"Just for you, Printsessa," he said.

I ignored the way that sentence made me feel and the weird feeling in my tummy I got at the nickname. I opened the box to see a black suit like the one Natasha Romanoff wore.

"Oh, wow!" I exclaimed, taking it out and admiring it. "This is so cool!"

Pietro chuckled and watched me fold up the suit and place it back in the box. I placed the box on my desk with a slight smile on my face. I looked back to Pietro, who was still standing in my office.

"So, you're my assistant too, now?" he asked.

I smiled and nodded. He grinned back and the office door opened, and Tony strode in.

"Stop keeping the assistant from her work," Tony said. "She has a meeting to attend in an hour."

I bit my lip in nervousness. Pietro waved goodbye before zooming off, and Tony gave me a Look before he left. I took deep breaths to calm myself and sat back at my computer, continuing to work.

At five to one, Jarvis spoke to me.

"Miss L/n, Maria Hill and Phil Coulson have arrived," he said.

"Thank you," I replied.

I stood up and then sat back down again. What was I supposed to do? This meeting was shaking me to my core. All I had to do was remain calm, and answer questions truthfully. Well, mostly.

There was a knock at my office door, and I walked over quickly and opened it. Instead of the two Shield agents I was expecting, I saw the entire team at my door.

"I... I don't think I have enough chairs for all of you," I said.

Pietro and Tony chuckled, while Steve just smiled.

"We can stand," Steve said.

I stepped aside and let the Avengers in. Wanda gave me a big smile on her way in, one that I returned. Natasha looked at me suspiciously, and Bruce smiled at me kindly.

"I thought this meeting was only going to be Maria, Phil, and myself," I said.

"Well, I decided to come because I wanted to make sure they didn't freak you out," Tony said, plopping down on one of the couches. "And then Nat wanted to come to make sure you weren't a spy, and then Steve wanted to come to make sure Natasha wasn't too scary, and then Bucky came to make sure Steve didn't do anything stupid, and then Sam came because he didn't want Bucky to know you better, and then Wanda and Pietro wanted to come because you're their friend, and then Vision came because Wanda did... and then we all decided to come."

I laughed and there was another knock at my door. Steve opened it because he was the closest, and Maria and Phil walked through the doors.

"Ms Hill, Mr Coulson," I said walking forward and holding out a hand.

Coulson shook my hand with a smile and Maria shook my hand with a straight face.

"Would you like to sit?" I asked, gesturing to the chairs opposite my desk.

Maria and Coulson looked to the chairs and nodded, sitting down. I walked around and sat at my desk, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"Y/n, why did you pursue this job?" Maria asked me.

It was straight to the questioning, I guess.

"Um... well, I was working somewhere I didn't want to be, and I looked at available jobs and the assistant for Tony Stark was one of the first available positions I found," I said.

Maria wrote something down on her tablet, and Coulson looked to me curiously.

Maria and Coulson told me some of my personal details, asking me to confirm or deny the statements.

"You can speak seven languages?" Maria asked.

"Well, I speak six, seeing as the seventh is ASL," I said.

Tony snorted and everyone turned to look at him. He looked away innocently, admiring my blank wall. Everyone looked back to me, except Maria, who looked to Natasha. Natasha nodded and then looked to me.

"When did you learn Russian?" Natasha asked in Russian.

"When I was young," I replied in the same dialect. "I lived in Russia with my parents for a while."

Natasha looked slightly surprised.

"And your parents?" Coulson asked. "Where are they?"

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"They passed away a couple of years ago," I said quietly.

Everyone mumbled their apologies.

"Can I ask how?" Maria asked.

I hesitated for a moment.

"Robbery gone wrong," I lied. "I – they got me out before I could... before they... um... yeah."

Half-lie. They did get me out, but it wasn't a robbery.

"Is there anything else?" I asked.

Maria and Coulson looked to each other before shaking their heads.

"You seem fine," Coulson said. "But you will be watched closely. Precautions, you know."

"I understand," I said quickly, nodding.

Maria nodded at me once more before standing up.

"Agent Romanoff, a word?" she asked.

Natasha nodded and they left the room together. I saw Clint grinning to himself but decided not to think anything of it. Coulson said his goodbyes, and the other Avengers did too. I even got a nod from Bucky.

Soon enough, three o'clock arrived. I got changed into the suit went down to the training rooms to see Natasha waiting for me. She stood beside Bucky, and I gulped.

"What do you know about combat?" Natasha asked in German.

"Still testing me?" I replied in the same language.

Bucky chuckled and shook his head. Natasha's gaze hardened and I sighed.

"I know not to punch with my thumb in my fist," I said in German. "That's it, though."

Natasha and Bucky both nodded.

"So we start with the basics," Bucky said in English.

I nodded slowly, and the two assassins began taking me through the basics, like foot placement and balance. It wasn't all that much, and after a quarter of an hour, I'd gotten it all down. They couldn't know that though. Normal people didn't learn that quickly.

"You'll have to work out as well," Natasha said. "To keep yourself strong."

I nodded once.

"You can do workouts with Wanda," she continued. "She relies mainly on her power, so she only does basic training at the moment."

After another hour, the training session ended. I went back to my office and changed into my work clothes. The lesson had been more basics and more theory than practical.

I sighed as I sat down at my computer and got back to work.