The elevator doors slide open on the residential floor of the Tower, and for a second, it's almost like no time has passed at all. The same polished floors. The same floor-to-ceiling windows. The same faint hum of a building that never really sleeps.

Y/N's boxes are stacked by the door. Her suitcase is still zipped. The room at the end of the hall—her old room—is exactly where she left it.

She's only been back in New York for a day, and Tony had insisted she stay at the Tower while she "figured things out." Which, translated from Tony Stark, meant he wanted her where he could keep an eye on her.

Somewhere on the other side of the building, a door opens and closes.

The morning light is just starting to stretch through the windows, all gold and grey, the city waking up below.