Welcome to Alone Together!

This is the sequel to my Avengers fanfiction Heaven Knows, meaning if you haven't read that one yet you might get confused, so I strongly recommend going back and reading it first. I have another story started for this series, called Regular People. It will be posted later on. It will be a series of one-shots set in between the six month time period in between Avengers and Iron Man 3, and will focus mainly on the growing relationships between Charlie and the other Avengers- especially Tony.

But for now, here we are six months after we left Charlie.

Enjoy!

Prologue

Normal is boring. Every angst-riddled teenager has declared it, every responsibility-addled adult has denied it, but the simple truth is that normal is, in fact, boring.

This is what Charlie had always believed. She was glad that none of her friends considered her normal, because she didn't consider any of them normal either.

Sometimes, though. Sometimes, Charlie started to miss the friends she'd left behind in New York when she agreed to move in with Tony at his mansion in Malibu. Sometimes, Charlie regretted leaving her position at SHIELD. Sometimes, night would transition into the early hours of morning and Charlie found herself laying alone in the spacious room she shared with Tony that seemed all too big without him. Sometimes, Charlie would try to convince him to leave his suits and come to bed. Sometimes, Charlie tried to make Tony eat when she saw that he was dropping weight. Sometimes, Charlie didn't bother.

Yes, sometimes. Sometimes Charlie wondered what it was like to be normal. What it was like to be a normal girl. Normal job. Normal friends. Normal boyfriend. Normal life.

Other times, though. Other times, Charlie would get a phone call from her friends in New York to update her on how their lives were going, and ask her about how things had been going in Malibu. Other times, Charlie would convince Tony to come to bed and spend the night wrapped up in his warmth while he teasingly compared sleeping next to her with sleeping next to an icicle. Other times, Charlie and Tony would go out to dinner if they could slip away from the press. Other times, Charlie would help Tony with his calculations when he worked on his suits.

Yes, other times. Other times Charlie was glad she wasn't normal. Not a normal girl. Not normal friends. Not a normal boyfriend. Not a normal life.

Normal is boring. This very thought was on Charlie's mind as she crawled out of bed at 3:57 AM and made her way down two flights of stairs in her simple tee-shirt and sweats pajamas, down to where she knew Tony was still awake and working. She wasn't sure if tonight was sometimes, or other times. She would find out soon enough.