May 4, 2012
Ronnie was in her office going over quarterly reports while also reading through some contracts when JARVIS urgently notified her of intruder's in the building. He informed her that he had already started the evacuation protocol and that she needed to get to her panic room because he was unsure if she would make it safely out of the building in time. Seeing as her office was close to where the intruder's were, she listened to JARVIS immediately. Shutting down her computer she headed to the room connected to her office behind her bookcase. Tony had a panic room built into his, hers and Pepper's offices just in case. With them being rich and powerful public figures there was always a chance someone would try to sack up to kidnap them or try to hurt them.
Heart pounding in her chest Ronnie took a calming breath and asked JARVIS to pull up the security feeds to show her who exactly was in the building. Needless to say, Ronnie was surprised to see that it was the god her brother and his team had been hunting who was standing in Tony's penthouse with several armed men. Also seeing a man who JARVIS informed her was Dr Selvig directing some men with some kind of machine outside onto the terrace. The kidnapped and apparently brainwashed astrophysicist seemed to her to be an accomplice.
Deciding that she wasn't going to just sit around to be found, she over rode the lockdown to head up to Tony's lab. Ronnie actively ignored JARVIS' commands to head back to the panic room and wait for her brother to rescue her. He might sound like her Jarvis but she didn't feel the need to listen to him like he was. Besides, after what had happened to Tony she had been determined to never get put into that kind of situation. She would fight to the end rather than be a damsel in distress who relied on others for assistance. Unlike Tony back then, she had access to the best defense systems, so she was going to use them.
Ronnie was glad she decided on more casual attire today than she usually wore to the office. Wearing a dark green sleeveless silk shirt, black fitted slacks and a pair of classic flats. It would have been a bitch of a time doing this in heels she thinks to herself. Stepping into one of Tony's suits she made sure it was fully armed and operational before heading up for the floor Thor's brother was on.
After her brothers kidnapping she had thrown herself into intense self defense classes. As well as hiring an ex Marine to teach her how to handle guns and show her the basics on how to handle knives. He also taught her how to use her body and everyday objects as weapons. She knew that training was giving her an unhealthy amount of self confidence for this situation, but she was going to defend her family's company as best she could. Being a tattle tale the AI had informed her brother of what she was doing. JARVIS immediately patched Tony's frantic call through to the suit. The panic in her brother's voice when he found out his baby sister was still in the building was drowned out by his anger when she told him she was heading up to confront Loki. “Veronica Stark, you get your ass back into your panic room, right now!”
Ronnie rolled her eyes at his outburst. “Calm down, Bubba. I'll be fine. I'm in one of your space suits. I made sure it was fully armed and operational, so chillax.”
JARVIS informed them both that Loki was still up in Tony's penthouse. Her brother tried to tell JARVIS to lock her off his floor but Ronnie was already there. Hanging up on him, she cautiously stepped out to face Loki making sure the suit's repulsors were armed and aimed at him. “So you're the one causing all the ruckus.” Ronnie was glad her voice came out stronger than the squeak she expected.
The tall raven haired god whipped around at the sound of her voice. The surprise on his face turned to amusement when he realized she wasn't her brother. “And who are you, pet? Barton didn't tell me there was a woman of Iron.” He started to slowly pace towards her, stopping when Ronnie opened the suit's mini missiles compartment situated on her shoulders. “And I definitely would have remembered hearing that beautiful voice while I was locked away on their flying ship.” She opened the suit's faceplate to get a better look at the god. Able to now see her face as well, Loki smiled at her. "Well.. aren't you a beauty. Who exactly are you, my dear?"
Rolling her eyes at his attempt at charm she says unamused. “I'm not a part of my brother's merry band of super jerks if that's what you're wondering.”
He tilts his head to the side in confusion. “Brother?”
Closing the distance a little more between them, Ronnie smirked at him. “My name is Veronica Stark.”
She watched as his eyes roamed over her face noting the similarities in her and Tony's features. Hand tightening on his scepter he eyes her warily. “You are Stark's sister?”
Nodding as she relaxed her stance a bit Ronnie chuckles. “Yeah. But you’ll come to see that I'm not an asshat like my brother.” Loki chuckled at her insulting description of Tony. Taking in his appearance she couldn't help but quip. “So why exactly are you here, rock of ages?”
The god looked at her in annoyance, his jaw clenching as his mouth turned down in a frown. “Did your brother tell you to call me that?” He asked as he started stalking towards her again with purposeful strides.
Ronnie laughed loudly. It didn't surprise her that their humor was so similar that they had insulted him the same way. Her laughter caused Loki to halt a few steps away from her, his scowl deepening. She looked up at the taller man with a smirk. “Sorry, really. I just realized how similar Tones and I are to each other.” Flicking her hand at him to keep going. Crossing her arms as best she could in the suit, she waited for Loki to make a move as she stalled until Tony could get here. “Go ahead. Continue your attempt at being menacing."
Confounded Loki stared at her. This mortal woman wasn't intimidated by him in the least. In fact, she found him humorous and insulted him at every turn. If she hadn't been Stark's sister and he wasn't in the middle of trying to invade her planet, he would have been intrigued to see where this would go with her. He liked a challenging woman. Closing that last little gap between them he spoke to her with a honeyed voice. “My fair lady, Veronica—”
Ronnie held up her hand. “Sorry, I gotta stop you right there. Only acquaintances and business associates get to call me by my name. You? You may call me, Ms Stark. Since you're trying to take over my planet and even worse you're messing with my family's home and business and all, I don't really foresee us being close enough for you to call me by my name."
Grinning Loki found that he liked her indeed. She had a fire in her that he would have liked to explore. His grin turned into a full genuine smile. Though it was quickly wiped away by Tony's arrival. “Back off my sister, Reindeer Games.”
Ronnie and Loki's heads whipped around as one to see her brother as he walked over to the bar rolling up his long shirt’s sleeves. Annoyed by his need for a drink at a time like this, Ronnie rolled her eyes at him. “Really, Tony. Is now the best time to be drinking?”
As Tony took a sip of his drink she noticed he was now wearing the bracelets that called his newest suit. Now she understood what he was doing and relaxed a little more. Pointing at her, he said. “I thought I told you to stay locked down in your office.”
His brown eyes widened when Ronnie stepped over to Loki's side and hung her arm on the gods shoulder. “I was just getting to know and threaten our guest here. Although, you interrupted the last part." Loki smirked over at Tony.
Pushing his luck, Loki wrapped his arm around her metal clad back. He was amused by the banter between the siblings. It reminded him of his own brother and the back and forth they had engaged in before his fall. Which reminded him…He had things to do and Midgard to enslave at the behest of his master. “As entertaining as the two of you are,” Loki turned to Ronnie and caressed the side of her face with his free hand. “And as much as I've enjoyed your company, darling. I do have an army to join.”
Surprising both men, Ronnie leaned her face into Loki's hand and smiled up at him. When the god smiled down back at her and started to lean in, Ronnie blasted him with her left hands’ repulsor. Now it was Tony's turn to smirk at Loki as he was blasted back across the room. He stepped in front of his sister as Loki got up and stalked forward with his scepter.
Loki attempted to take over his mind but was stopped by the arc reactor in his chest. Amused and grateful for the damned thing for the first time Tony chuckled and gave him a small ‘eek’ face with a shrug. “Performance issues. Not uncommon. You know they say one in five—”
Not amused in the slightest, Loki picked Tony up by gripping his face, cutting off his words and threw him through the wall of windows across the room. Seconds later Tony's suit came bursting out of the fall wall behind them, knocking the god to the floor as it launched out after its creator.
Terrified, Ronnie cried out in fear for her brother's life. “Tony!” Pissed off, she turned around and attacked Loki. Blasting him with both hand repulsors across the room. Not giving him time to get away, she rushed over to him ready to blast him again. “That's my brother, asshole! No one gets to throw Tony out of a building except for me!”
Smirking as he got back up onto his feet Loki stepped closer to her and swatted her hands out of the way before she could blast him again. “I'm sorry, darling, but I really must dash.” He briefly kissed her stunned lips before launching himself out of the window at his own brother who was waiting for him out on the balcony.
Tony called out to her through the suits comm link to get out of there since Dr Selvig had managed to open the portal and Loki's alien army was swarming into the city. Relieved that he was alive Ronnie took a breath but refused, bringing up the suit's helmet. “I'm going to help. Tell me where you need me.”
Her brother started to protest when the commanding voice of a man she didn't recognize came through on the comm. “Stark, we could use every man and woman who's willing to fight.”
Ronnie instructed JARVIS to put her suit on autopilot so he could fly for her until she got the hang of it. With the AI's help she flew out of the window in time to see Loki throw himself off the balcony onto a passing flying alien jet ski looking thing while her brother yelled at the owner of the other voice. “Rogers, you stay out of this! My sister isn't going to potentially die trying to help us. She doesn't even have any training…”
As Tony was in the middle of telling this stranger that she was basically worthless, he saw Ronnie take out a group of aliens. Laughing Ronnie hovered near where her brother was. “You were saying, Bubba." Continuing to laugh Ronnie flew off and called out to the man who seemed to have a plan. “Where do you need me, Captain Rogers?”
Everyone could hear the excited smile in her voice. Surprised that yet another Stark was joining the fight, Steve directed her and Tony to fly around and try to contain the flow of Loki's army from getting too far out into the city. Brother and sister battled together until Tony had to intercept a missile that was headed straight for them sent by their own government. It wasn't until Tony actually went through the portal that she was really worried. When he didn't immediately come out and Steve had told Natasha to close the portal, that was when she became afraid. Ronnie had started to fly up after him, but before she could even get halfway up there, Tony came back out. She let out the shaky breath she had been holding.
“Tony, you scared the shit out of me! We're going to have a serious talk about this hobby of yours.” Tony didn't respond with one of his usual witty comebacks. He didn’t say anything. In fact, he wasn't doing anything to slow his descent. Gasping, Ronnie tried to get to him. But based on JARVIS' analysis she wouldn't get to him in time. Still trying, she watched helplessly as he plummet to the ground like a rocket.
Thankfully, Hulk had caught Tony before he could hit the ground and as safely as a giant dude like him could, set him down on the ground. Just as she reached where Tony was laying she could hear him telling Captain Rogers, Thor and Hulk they should get shawarma when they were done and that they should take a day off tomorrow.
Stepping out of her suit, Ronnie rushed over to her brother as Thor helped him up. “Tony!” Shaking like a leaf Ronnie threw her arms around his neck as she cried. Pulling back, she slapped his face before wrapping her arms back around him. “You could have died, you jerk!”
Shocked by her reaction Tony, still in his suit, wrapped his arms gently around her. Whispering into her neck, “I'm fine, Mini. It's over now.”
He tried to pull her off with a laugh, but Ronnie's grip tightened around his neck as she started to fully sob. She could hear Captain Rogers tell Thor and Hulk to give them some privacy as they walked a little bit away to do just that. Touched, Tony held his baby sister while she cried out her fear at almost permanently losing her big brother yet again. Between gasps she told him that he really needed to chill out on this whole risking his life stuff.
+++
Tony's POV forty minutes later
When Ronnie finally calmed down enough to stand they joined the others as they went to arrest Loki. Back at the tower she dealt with the agency Tony had told her was called SHIELD and introduced her to the team. He noted that she seemed to hit it off with Rogers much to his amusement and slight dismay. That’s just what he needed. His sister and the handsome blonde getting close. He had heard enough stories about this man to have idolized him when was growing up, but it had soon turned to resentment when his father had started to compare him to the upstanding Captain.
Joking around he watched while Ronnie was getting to know the others. Being the youngest in the room she gave them her best 'Ms Stark business face'. Although he had laughed when she had arched an eyebrow at Romanoff and had simply said, "Ms Rushman." The redhead had smiled and winked making Ronnie smile as she introduced her to Barton. Oh, Tony just knew that these two women would be trouble if they spent any length of time together.
Watching his sister he thought to himself, you'd have never guessed forty minutes ago she'd been sobbing her heart out by how calm she was. Based on how she ordered Fury's agents around it was like she was born to it. She might not have been a part of their agency or the team, but Tony couldn't help but be proud as he watched his baby sister take command of the room. Bossing around these big military like men as if they were noisy children.
With one guy, he heard him say his name was Rumlow, Ronnie had politely but firmly taken him to task about being careful of the artwork placed around the room. That if any of his men so much as nicked or scratched anything by being careless, she would be sending their boss a bill and she doubted they wanted to pay the quarter of a million dollars that that particular sculpture was worth that he had bumped into. Taking her at her word they did what they needed to do as quickly as they could and got out of there.
It was while SHIELD's men finished up with bagging evidence that Thor was cuffing Loki. He was quietly talking to his brother when Ronnie walked past them to get into the suit she had borrowed. Getting ready to take it back down to his lab with the helmet in her hands. Ignoring his brother, the Asgardian speaks to her retreating back. “You can't imagine my surprise and delight to see that you are wearing my colors, darling." Glancing down at her outfit they all noticed that she was indeed wearing Loki's colors. Right down to the gold necklace and bracelets. His slimy eyes raked over her body as he flirted. “It's too bad we won't get to know each other. I'm sure we would have become quiet..close.”
Loki says with a smirk that Tony was getting ready to smack off of his face when Ronnie turned on her heel with a sweet smile. Walking over to him she then punched the god of Mischief in the face with the full weight of the suit. Loki's head snapped back a little. He touched his face as his nose started to bleed a little with a pleased smirk. “C'est pour avoir presque tué mon frère!" (That's for almost killing my brother!)
Continuing to smirk at her as he wiped the blood away, keeping his eyes on her face Loki says, “If I'd known about you before all this I might have come to Midgard sooner, darling.”
Ronnie rolled her eyes and stormed off, calling out over her shoulder. “Casse-toi!” As she walked past Steve and Tony she added. “You wouldn't be able to handle me. God or no, I'd break you within a week.” Loki chuckled as she firmly pressed the elevator's call button to take her down to Tony's lab. (Piss off)
He called out to her, “Is that a challenge, pet? Because I'm more than up for it if you are.” Loki laughed at the expression on Tony's face when he gagged. He so did not want that image of his baby sister in his head.
Turning to face the room Ronnie smirked at Loki as she pressed the button for his workshop's floor. “It's really too bad you're going to prison back on Asgard because you won't ever get to find out.” She says, blowing him a mocking kiss as the doors closed.
Loki's laughter was quickly cut off by Thor as he fitted a muzzle over his brother's mouth. “Shut up!”
Tony came over and snapped a selfie. “Yup, that's gonna be this year's Christmas card. See ya later, Reindeer games.” Loki glared after Tony who just laughed at him as he followed after his sister.
Ronnie had left the suit in Tony's lab and made her way back up to her office to gather her things. Switching up which button he pressed Tony walked in as she was on the phone with Happy to ask him to bring a car around to take her home. “Thank you, Happy. I’ll be down in a minute.”
Arms folded across his chest he stared at her through narrowed eyes. "Really, Veronica? You had to flirt with the murderous god of Mischief!”
Ronnie chuckled at him as she gathered up some files to put into her briefcase. “I did it because it was funny and it got a rise out of you, Anthony.” Shrugging her shoulders as she slipped on her black suit jacket and picked up her purse. “I'm headed home. I need to get cleaned up after this busy day.”
When she went to walk past him Tony put a hand on Ronnie's arm to get her to stop. "Mini, you should stay here." Ronnie understood what he meant by it. He wanted her close by to be able to protect her, but she refused to live in fear.
Shaking her head no, she told him. “I'm going home. Give me an hour and I'll come meet you guys at that shawarma place.” Leaning up on her tiptoes she kissed his cheek before she quickly glided out the door of her office calling out over her shoulder. “Love ya, bubs. Send me the address.”
Shaking his head at her retreating back Tony stood there running a hand over his tired face. Thinking to himself, if being Iron man doesn’t send me into an early grave my sister will. Damn her he groans in frustration. She still had him wrapped around her little finger and she knew it. “JARVIS, send Mini the address.”
He responded immediately, sounding more amused than he had any right to. “Right away, Sir.”
Tony left his sister's office and headed down to the lobby to meet up with the others to deal with Loki until they were ready to send him and Thor home with the Tesseract.
+++
Ronnie's POV an hour and half later
While Tony's suit had protected her, she still had some bruises from getting knocked around by the chitauri. Ronnie had definitely enjoyed the hot shower she took as soon as she got home that helped eased some of the tension her body held. She wished she could take her time, but it had taken her longer to get home because of the chaos after the battle. Getting out, she quickly dried off her body and towel dried her hair. Deciding to wear something a little more comfortable she picked out a pair of black shorts and a fitted light pink tank top that had Frida Kahlo printed on it with the quote, 'At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.' Very fitting after today she thought to herself. Lacing up a pair of white Converse high tops she grabbed her purse as she headed out the door telling JARVIS to let Tony know she was on her way.
Making her way back to Midtown she had a heck of a time getting to the Shalom Grill. Ronnie had had to get out of the taxi and walk six blocks before she got there because of all of the rubble and chaos still going on in the streets. The restaurant was pretty torn apart, but still serviceable. Entering she saw that the team was sitting around a table tiredly stuffing their faces. “Quoi de neuf, salopes?” Ronnie greets them all as she walks in with a grin. Lightly smacking the back of Tony's head as she made her way over to the counter. Nat smirks at her while Thor gives her a look at her use of language. Tiredly waving, Clint and Bruce didn't understand her but understood it was more than a casual hello. (What's up, bitches)
It was Steve who lifted his head up from his fist that called her on her use of colorful language. "Vraiment, Veronica?" (Really)
She smirks at him thrilled that someone besides her brother would be able to converse with her in French. It was one thing that she missed the most being here in New York. "Veraiment, capitaine. Et c'est Ronnie, A moins que tu ne veuilles pas être mon ami." (Really, Captain. And it's Ronnie. Unless you don't want to be my friend)
“Ronnie, c'est alors.” Pleased by her offer of friendship Steve gives her a little salute with a grin. (Ronnie, it is then)
“English, please.” Tony groans at them both. Ronnie knew he hated it when he felt left out, even if he did speak French. The man spoke several of the same languages as she did, but he leaned more towards the middle eastern languages as well as Chinese and Japanese.
“Party pooper.” Ronnie calls over her shoulder. Turning back to the cashier she smiles at the older woman. "Hello. Can I get whatever you have that is edible, please." Ronnie handed over a hundred dollar bill and refused the change. It wasn't much but it would cover her lunch and their time hosting this bunch while the employees tried to clean up.
When she gets her plate Ronnie thanks her and takes her food over to the table. There wasn't an available seat for her so she plopped down on her new friend's lap. Steve looked up at her with surprise and his hands raised. Glancing over her shoulder she asked, "You don't mind, do you, Cap?" He blushed a little but shook his head no. Natasha grinned at them while Tony glared daggers at Steve even though it was his sister who instigated the situation.
Knowing where his mind was going Ronnie stuck her tongue out at him and picked up her wrap taking a large bite. “Mmm. This is so good.” She moans out as she finishes her bite and takes another larger one. Ronnie didn't realize how hungry she was until right this moment. In minutes she'd eaten it all and she was still hungry. “You gonna finish yours, Spangles?” She points to Steve's half eaten wrap. He pushes his plate over to her.
"Spangles?" He asks, incredulously. Ronnie pinches his suit and lets it snap back to his very muscular chest. Steve rolls his eyes. "Hey, I didn't pick the suit." He sobers for a moment and looks down at his uniform with a sad look on his handsome face.
"Hey, what's wrong?" She turns her upper body to look at him better.
"Agent Coulson.. He uh, he helped design it from my original suit. Loki killed him today." Ronnie lightly gasped. Pulling Steve into a hug, she tried to give him as much comfort as she could. Having only met Steve Rogers a couple hours ago she didn't know him well, but she could tell he was a sensitive soul. “I'm so sorry you guys lost a friend today. I never got to meet him, but I'm sure he was a nice man if you guys cared so much about him.” The mood had dipped a little after that. She did however get them all talking to get to know more about each other. Soon enough though it was time for everyone to go their separate ways. But first they had to see Loki and Thor off to make sure the god of Mischief was off their planet with their own eyes.
+++
The next couple of years were a little more than Ronnie had ever planned on when she moved back to the States. After helping out her brother and the rest of the team during the battle of New York, Nick Fury had tried to recruit her full time.
Ronnie had declined. Repeatedly for months.
She wasn't a hero. She was a business woman who just so happened to have Tony Stark as a brother. Slowly but surely though, Tony and Natasha had convinced her to join the team. She ended up helping Maria Hill with the running of the Avengers day to day business on top of everything else she did for Stark Industries and Jarvis International Finance. Occasionally she would suit up for missions, but only as a last resort when they needed an extra body. Sometimes she'd be in the armor Tony had made her or a suit similar to Nat's and Clint's. Both of her suits were green, gold and black though instead of their blue and black.
Personally, Ronnie liked the colors. They suited her skin tone best. But that's not the only reason why she chose those exact colors. She had done it to needle her brother about the comment Loki had made about them matching. It made her laugh every time anyone cracked the joke by calling her Lady Loki to get a rise out of her brother. Her official superhero name was the Emerald Vixen. She had scoffed and rolled her eyes at the unoriginality of it, but she was forced to go with it once it started trending on twitter. It wasn't until four months later that she found out Tony was behind it. Anthony Edward Stark. That little shit had publicly outed her as an unofficial Avenger forcing her hand at joining the team.
Besides all of the paper pushing she did Ronnie had taken up training with Natasha and Clint when she wasn't working up in her office. She wanted to enhance her fighting and weapon's skills. Also Nat had some pretty cool moves that Ronnie had been dying to learn. Much to their surprise Ronnie was a fast learner. It had definitely helped that she'd already had four years of krav maga, several other mixed martial arts under her belt by then.
Things had gotten so busy for her that in 2013 Tony and Ronnie had made Pepper the acting CEO of Stark Industries when Ronnie decided to take over most of the duties with Maria for the Avengers. She refused to give up her part at J.I.F. though. That was her baby and she wouldn't hand over the reins to anyone else. The one major change she implemented for the team was to make sure they were paid a salary. Up until then Natasha and Clint had been getting paid a pittance from SHIELD while Bruce had been living off of Tony’s generosity. Her brother had given him a credit card and told him to use it for whatever he needed. Ronnie had scolded him and Nick Fury telling them both that it wasn't right to just expect them to live off of what was essentially Tony’s charity and the crap pay from SHIELD when they were out risking their lives every time they went out to fight. Luckily enough for Steve he had been more than taken care of with his back pay owed to him by the government for the sixty-seven years he’d been on ice. Having more money than he knew what to do with it Ronnie had helped him create a financial portfolio to maintain his new found wealth.
So, she set up a bank account for each team member and paid them out a salary from The Avengers Fund she and Tony founded. As well as setting up retirement and severance packages in case they had to leave the team due to personal reasons, injury or they were let go. A special request that Ronnie had been more than happy to help Clint with, was to set up trust funds for his kids for college. As well as something for his wife in case anything happened to him on a mission. He had only told her about his family once he realized they didn't have enough money saved to cover much if he died. She had promised to keep that information to herself when he told her that only Natasha and Fury knew about them.
Everyone trusted Ronnie to invest their money to make sure that they were more than comfortable. As each new team member was added over the years she did the same for each of them. She also set up an emergency fund that acted as their health insurance since no company would take them on. Which had come into play when Rhodey was in an accident on a mission that broke his back a couple months ago. It had paid for his surgery, hospital stay and rehab while Tony had built him something to help him walk again. If it was one thing she would do it was to take care of her new friends who’d become like her extended family.
+++
This new style of life became routine for the Stark's. The siblings worked and went about their lives and when the time came, they suited up.
Clint took a step back for a little while to be with his family. Although he told the others that he was out on assignment.
Bruce traveled occasionally. But mostly he stayed at the Tower and worked with Tony and the R&D team knowing that he was no longer being hunted.
Steve and Nat had moved to D.C. for a little while. Then the whole events with SHIELD and the shocking truth about them being infiltrated by Hydra came out in 2014. He had a hard time after finding out his friend Bucky Barnes was still alive and had been brainwashed into being an assassin for them for almost seventy years. After Steve was almost killed he had done everything he could to find him. But so far he hasn't had any luck. Natasha and Steve's new friend Sam Wilson tried to search him out. Again, no good leads so far.
After all of that Natasha had officially moved into the Tower along with Bruce and occasionally Clint who split his time here in the city and back on his farm. Thor wasn't ever constant with his visits to earth, but he would stay at the Tower when he did. Steve had a room at the Tower if he got back late from a mission, but he had officially moved into the apartment downstairs in Ronnie's house in the spring of 2015. It made sense for them. They had become so close so quickly. Sharing everything about their lives during weekly dinners and hangout sessions or phone calls when he lived in D.C.. It was Ronnie who had helped Steve adjust to the twenty-first century the best. And it was Steve who had helped her to move past everything with Tony as much as she was able. Neither could see their lives without the other. There had even been a period of time when everyone thought that they were dating or secretly hooking up. But it wasn't like that for them. They really were just friends.
In the meantime the team all went on more missions than Ronnie did but she was fine with that. She was still trying to find a balance with her double work life and her personal life. It wasn't easy but with Steve, Tony and Pepper and Jackie from afar she was slowly finding it. On occasion she would go back to France, though that was happening less and less over the years. It made her sad, but she was in a good place for the first time in her life so she didn’t dwell on it much anymore. At the end of the day the Avengers had become a family and took care of each other. And for most of the team, they were all each other had. After everything she’d been through she fully trusted and fiercely protected her family at all costs.