Bucky was right. You did know there was a party going on.

You could hear numerous loud voices coming from the other side of the wall while you were trying to sketch something other than FroYo's idiotic face. You didn't even know why you kept drawing him, but everytime your pencil hit the paper, that's what came out. Maybe it was because you were always thinking about how annoying he was.

Once you heard voices that didn't sound like Tony's, you threw your notebook aside and pressed your ear against the door. After a little while, you could pick out Sam and Steve's voice, as well as his. Ugh, it was like he didn't go anywhere other than this lab.

You heard them asking Tony about you, and let out a few quiet laughs at Tony's responses. Can't remember your name? As if the guys would believe that.

It would make sense that there was a party tomorrow. It'd been a couple of months since the last one, and everyone knew that Tony couldn't go too long between festivities. Assuming it was like the other parties, it would be in the main common area, people would start arriving around 7pm, and Tony would get there for 10pm.

That meant that if you went at 8pm, you'd have a decent couple of hours to enjoy yourself. And the guys? Well, maybe you could have a little fun with them as well.

The next day, you knew that Tony would leave the lab at 6pm, because FRIDAY had reminded him that he had arranged a dinner with Pepper. You also knew that he would secure the lab, and double secure your room, which meant that using the window was out of the question. It'd have to be Plan B - rewiring FRIDAY's surveillance and using the air vent to slip into the next room where there was no alarm. Lovely.

You waved Tony off at five minutes to six. You waited another fifteen minutes (in case he decided to come back and check), before springing into action. You sang to yourself as you got changed into a nice little dress, then grabbed your tools and headed to the panel by the lab door to get to work.

It wasn't easy reprogramming the security system, seeing as apparently Tony had upgraded it when he connected your window. It was close to 7.30 before you were finished, and you still had to crawl through the vents. It'd been a while since you did this apparently, because it was a tight squeeze in the vents. But you eventually made it to the next room, which was just a materials storage room, and tested opening the door a fraction. If there was an alarm, you would see the lab go red, and the light would filter through the vent which you were currently staring at.

No light. No alarm. You brushed off some air duct dust off your dress, then slipped through the door.

When you got ready, you had put on some rather heavy eyeliner and decided to wear a dark red lipstick. You figured that, seeing as you never usually wore makeup, the people who saw you at the party would never recognise you in the lab. Not if you were only flitting past them, anyway.

Tony would never think it was you on the camera, wearing a dress, but you didn't want to risk it anyway. You moved fast, you walked with purpose, but you still stuck to the shadows and kept your head down. You headed to the main common area, hearing the music loud before you'd even approached it. The double doors were already open, making it easy for you to slip through them and into the crowd.

You scanned the room, noting only a couple of people that you knew of - Natasha Romanov and Bruce Banner. The rest were nobodies, but that was fine by you. You started by slinking from group to group, towards the bar, until you finally reached it, ordering a standard Gin and Tonic, and keeping yourself to yourself until it arrived. You took a big sip before looking around the room, seeing who you'd play with first.

Whenever you attended these things, you liked to pretend to be a different person with each different group you spoke to. That way, you got to pretend to be someone new, and also, if the other people ever described you to someone else, they'd all have different versions of your identity, with no one ever knowing the truth.

You spotted a group of what looked like admin staff, and headed over.

On the other side of the doors, Sam, Bucky and Steve were walking to the party. Bucky was fiddling with his shirt, to the point where Steve clapped a hand on his shoulder to make him stop.

"Your collar will fall off if you carry on like that Buck." Steve laughed, and Bucky just breathed, dropping his hands as they walked, dropping back from Sam a little. "What are you nervous about?"

"Nothing." Bucky said, which wasn't a complete lie. He wasn't nervous at all, but he was restless. Restless at the thought that you would be there, and that he might be able to talk to you again. He was also a bit restless at the fact that he was at a party in the first place, because crowds of people weren't really his thing.

Sam also hadn't shut up about this mystery girl since they left the lab yesterday, and Bucky felt as though Sam and Steve meeting her would just fuel the fire. He was also particularly concerned how Tony would take the news of them meeting her.

"Alright, let's just get this over with." Bucky straightened himself as they walked through the doors.

"After you." Steve gestured, letting Bucky walk into the crowd, the uncertainty radiating off him as they headed to catch up with Sam.

"Look who decided to join!" Sam bellowed, watching them weave through the people to meet him at the bar. He handed them a drink each, and Bucky was very thankful, choosing to empty the bottle in one."Another?" Sam quizzed, Bucky simply nodding at him.

Another beer appeared in front of Bucky as Steve spoke, and Bucky studied the label of it a bit too much.

"So what's our first plan of action?" Sam asked, making Bucky frown at him.

"There's no plan. Enjoy the party. Head back to my room." Bucky shrugged, trying to sound blase.

"You know I meant with your little lady friend." Sam retorted, rolling his eyes. "Should we be looking for her?"

"No." Bucky said, as a warning. "She's probably not even here, just let it go."

"How do you know unless we look?"

"I haven't spoken to her, dunno if she even knows there's a party."

"Well I say we start looking for her."

"And I say leave off." Bucky said, turning to Sam. "She's Stark's assistant, she has a lot else to do instead of coming to some idiotic party."

"I don't think we..." Steve started to say. Then Bucky felt a hand tapping his chest; Steve.

"What? I told you she's probably not even here." Bucky muttered, looking at his beer, but the tapping continued. "What?" He scoffed as he looked at his friend, who just stared forward. Bucky followed his gaze, to the figure in front of him, who was...

"Hi." You said. You were standing in front of the three men, smiling a little and looking between them. "Who's not even here?"

"No one." Bucky stammered, before taking a breath and plastering on a neutral expression. "Sam, Steve, this is Tony's assistant."

You turned to Bucky. "I'm sure Tony said you weren't meant to tell anyone."

"I'm Steve." Steve said, ignoring your comment to Bucky and introducing himself to you, not that he needed to. He held out his hand for you to shake, which you did, but you raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ya, I know who you are." You replied. "Even the rats in this place know who you are."

"Can I get you a drink?" Sam interrupted from the other side.

"No thanks, I don't take drinks from strange men." You said bluntly, squeezing yourself between Sam and Bucky and waving down the bartender.

"You just said you knew who we were?" Sam asked, confused by your response. Bucky just smiled.

"Yeah, I also know who Ted Bundy is, but I'm not about to accept a drink from him am I?"

Bucky watched Sam and Steve exchange a look, then turn to him. Bucky just shrugged.

"This is what she's like." He muttered, thinking you didn't hear him. But you did. You whirled round, drink in hand, to tell him you heard him exactly.

"Maybe I'm like this because everytime I'm trying to enjoy myself, supersoldiers keep appearing and chatting shit about me." You said, narrowing your eyes at him. "Ever think of that?" You took a sip of your drink, keeping his eye contact.

What Bucky didn't show, was that you looking at him directly was making him feel a bit strange.

The three men just looked at you with a mixture of emotions. Shock, confusion, panic.

You sighed.

"Well this is fantastic. I gotta be somewhere else, but I will for sure be back for another amazing conversation." You said, rolling your eyes and heading off, aiming to intercept another group of poor partygoers.

The guys were staring after you for a moment in complete silence.

Then Bucky breathed in, his inhale breaking the quiet.

"So yeah, that's her." He said. Sam blinked, and Steve shook his head.

"She seems..." Steve trailed off, looking at Bucky and not really knowing how to end that sentence.

"I can see why you like her." Sam said, making Bucky whip round to him. "She's sarcastic, blunt, and hates other people. Just like you." He grinned, making Bucky hit him in the shoulder. "Hey I was being honest!"

"Never said I liked her." Bucky growled back as Steve handed him another beer.

"Sam's right." Steve said. "You're both quite similar. I can see it."

Bucky chewed his bottom lip angrily as he looked across the room to where you walked off to. You'd disappeared into the crowd, and he couldn't help but feel disappointed. He wanted to talk to you.

Maybe he'd get another chance.