• Blinded or Silenced • {B. Barnes} •

• Phase 1 •

"You're very lucky to be alive. Luckier than your own mother. My condolences, by the way." Lydia just shrugged. Natasha paused, noting the nonchalant act.

"Do you know who would want to target your mother?"

"Who wouldn't? I find her to be quite repulsive myself." Natasha stared, trying not to reveal her shock. She realized it wasn't an act. Lydia truly was uneffected. Lydia was chuckling wholeheartedly at her own joke, but once it finally hit Lydia that her mother was currently not breathing anymore something sort of fell. Like the right to joke about her mother being a monster was ripped away when that bullet entered her skull. Now it felt plainly wrong. Lydia cleared her throat and wasn't in the mood to joke anymore.

"Regardless of how she may or may not have treated you, this is no laughing matter. A woman was killed. Do you have any idea who would target her?" Natasha had a way of speaking smoothly about death, it sent a tingle down Lydia's spine which increased her overwhelming sense of terror.

"Please! I have no clue! All I want to do is go..." Lydia was on brink of tears while begging for her own release. Lydia understood how pathetic she looked, only she didn't much care. Natasha was an expert at not showing her emotions or plays, but genuine curiosity had a way of taking over at times.

"What do you have to go home to?" It was completely unrelated to any of the questions she was sent in the cell with by her superiors, but it was the first question on Natasha's brain.

"A big empty house with no one in it. Nothing's changed." Lydia looked hopeless as she frowned at her hands sitting delicately together on the table. Natasha had a small, simple smile creeping on her face.

"Well, I'm here to tell you that something's changed." Natasha finally took a seat across from her and stared at Lydia. She had a look of wonder across her face at the tiniest sign of hope. Natasha was proud to finally be giving hope, instead of draining it from people deserving.

"There is someone that's willing to take you in."

July 31st, 2008

The calming sounds of the ocean were replaced with the sounds of a very annoying, very familiar voice Lydia had grown accustomed to waking up to.

"Ly. Up."

"It's my birthday, you asshole. Can't I have one day off?" Lydia has grown into a beautiful individual over the past four years.

"Up. We've got work to do." And over the course of those four years, she grey very much like the person who took her in.

"Go away, Nat. You know Tony likes to party. And drink. And you know I get caught up in both sometimes." Tony Stark took in a clueless Lydia Luna into his home and under his wing. With him, she learned about street smarts, grew her endless vault of knowledge, and was becoming more and more like him everyday.

"Pepper's always up his ass about it, but I know he's got something special planned for me today." But most importantly, there's nothing Tony cares more about in the world than his daughter.

A/N: Hi!!!! I'm so excited to be wrong this story guys you have no idea! The goal is to write a serious story that follows the MCU timeline and plot while also includes silly, domestic avengers with Thor loving his pop tarts, Bruce and Tony being science bros, and Steve telling them to watch their language.

Spoiler alert, this is a REALLY long love story between my oc and Bucky. It will also not be the only relationship explored in the book. Lydia will have a close relationship with all of the original avengers, and especially with Tony and Natasha. This book is about Lydia's development as a person, even more so than any relationship she has with anyone.