So, here's my two other Avengers ficlets from my continued shuffle challenge... First one was from my July set, and Tony's from the October set. Hopefully, I've done them justice.

And that I get time/inspiration to write more in 2013.

Title: Liberation

Fandom: Avengers Movie-verse
Characters: Natasha Romanoff, side serve of Clint Barton
Timeframe: Pre-Avengers
Theme:She Walked Away – Barlow Girl

Now she's driving too fast
She didn't care to glance behind
And through her tears she laughed
It's time to kiss the past goodbye
~*~

Natasha is used to being defined by her work, her reputation.

She's got many SHIELD agents convinced that she doesn't exist outside of missions and SHEILD headquarters. Clint may have helped her on occasion to perpetuate that, because, really, she does enjoy freaking out the junior agents. She also considers this her proof that Clint is somewhat of a bad influence on her.

But the rare occasions she gets an actual vacation, she makes sure to distance herself from everything entirely.

She leaves behind her name, her weaponry, and everything connected to SHIELD and her old life in Russia.

Under pain of torture, except maybe to Clint, she'll never admit that there are time when she grows weary of the look in people's eyes when they see her, the knowledge, the fear, and the judgement.

When Hawkeye first suggested distancing herself for a break, she'd scoffed, and haunted the training rooms while off-duty.

It was another two years before she actually ran with the idea.

It was surprisingly liberating. To be a person who wasn't given a second glance (with the exception of a few lustful eyes from passing men) without inhabiting a persona SHEILD had created. She'd watched cliché movies and threw popcorn at the screen, and read a surprising amount of comic books, a newly discovered weakness.

Clint had just smirked when she returned to SHEILD with a tan, and a collection of Catwoman comics now taking up residence in her quarters.

Title: Trust
Fandom: Avengers (movie-verse)
Characters: Tony Stark
Timeframe: Ironman through to Avengers
Theme: Cold War – X-Men First Class Soundtrack
~*~

Trust is not something that comes easily to Tony Stark.

Even as a child, there were few people he had trusted. His mother. His nanny. His friend at elementary school until he'd moved interstate.

He supposed he trusted his father at some level, despite the relationship that soured and never had the chance to be repaired.

But more than that, he'd come of age surrounded by people that all wanted something from him, rather than actually caring about him as a person. So the people he trusted were few: Obie. Pepper. Rhodey. Jarvis.

Ok, so, Jarvis didn't really count, seeing as he'd designed the AI, but Tony felt like including him anyway. He almost qualified as human in Tony's eyes anyway.

The events that went down in the aftermath of Afghanistan and the creation of the suit had left him more shell-shocked than most people realised.

One of the few he'd trusted had turned on him.

In those following weeks, he'd struggled. The public had still been given the story that Stane had died in an accident, and expected Tony to grieve for him. The grief that Tony showed was real. But it wasn't for the man. It was for the man Tony had thought he knew. Because in hindsight, Tony wonders just how long Stane had been waiting to seize his chance, and the implications made Tony feel sick.

It really was a no-brainer, in his mind at least, to keep the palladium toxicity to himself. No use setting himself up for more trouble. He trusted Pepper and Rhodey, yes, but there was an overlying caution that made him hold back.

(That, and the thought of Pepper's face crumbling at the news sent a thrill of fear down his spine.)

That SHIELD was asking him to trust them was laughable, but he'd had little choice in the matter in the end. Sure, he hadn't been burned by them this time, but that wasn't to say they wouldn't turn on him later.

It's his driving need to know everything about something that usually get him into trouble. It used to be about his projects, but now, it's anything he is involved in. That he hacked into SHEILD shouldn't have been a surprise, really. How did Fury expect him to blindly put his trust in SHEILD without a little digging, really?

But looking around at this dishevelled team, somehow, he trusts them. He isn't really sure why.

(Apart from apparently fighting aliens and capturing a crazy alien demi-god could really bring people together)

Thoughts? Concrit?

Happy New Year, people!